In 1826, after the First Anglo-Burmese War, the British transferred the seat of government to Sittwe on the coast. During the first 40 years of British rule it expanded from a village to a town of 15,536 inhabitants, and by 1901 it was the third port of Burma with a population of 31,687. In the 1860s, the Consulate General of the United States (Kolkata) had a consular agency in Sittwe. During colonial times, Site-tway had a bad reputation for malaria and cholera, although historical records indicate that it was no better or worse than many other locations along the India coast.