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FOUR YEARS* IN BURMAH.

W. H. MARSHALL, Esq.,
IATB BDITOE OF THE "BANGOON CHBONIOLB."

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.

LONDON:
CHARLES J. SKEET, PUjBLISHER,
10, KINO WILLIAM STREET,
CHARING CB083.
1860.

CONTENTS OF VOL. II.

CHAPTER I.
Ceremonies relating to deceased Priests — Their
Bodies embalmed and afterwards burned page 1
CHAPTER II.
The Band Stand — Carriages and other vehicles —
Soldiers' barracks — Public ball — Burmese notions
Propagation of slander . . . .14
CHAPTER III.
Natural Productions of Burmah — Beasts — Birds —
Insects — Flowers . . . .28
¦
CHAPTER IV.
Literary Reminiscences — My Newspaper — Printer's
Devils and Devils of Printers — My Troubles —
General D'Orgoni — Pinal Secession and Return
to Maulmain . . . . .78
CHAPTER V.
Petroleum — The Wells at Rama gong — Mode of
procuring the Oil, its "Uses, &c. . . 123

iv CONTENTS OF VOL. II.
CHAPTER VI.
Execution of two Burmans — Their Story — A Bur-
man Village — English Jurisprudence — The stolen
Elephant— The Thief executed— Capital Punish
ment — Revolting Scene — Reflections . page 137
CHAPTER VII.
Visit to the Jail — Description of it — Conversation
with a Convict — Weaving and Carpet making
— Surprising Agility of a Female — Inspection of
the Convicts — Divided into Classes — A noisy Pri
soner — Crowded state of the Jail — Its offensive
State— The different Wards — Cooking-houses —
Granaries, &c. — Anecdote of a French Prince —
A Funeral. . ... 161
CHAPTER VIII.
Village of Nyoungbienziek — Visit to the Distillery
at the Place — The Goung Gyoup — The Timber
Station at Kadoe — Tricks of the Trade — Visit to
Martaban . . . . .199
CHAPTER IX.
Determination to quit Burmah — The Law's Delay
— Past Government and future Prospects of
Burmah — News of the- Revolt in Bengal — Sugar
Factory at Amherst — Productions and Capabili
ties of this part of India — Its favourable Climate 226
'.CHAPTER X.
My Voyage Home in the " Avondhu " — Incident
at Amherst — The Andamans and Nicobars —
Hurricanes — The Cape of Good Hope — Ascen
sion — The Azores — Whalers — Home . . 263

FOUR YEAES IN BURMAH.

CHAPTER I.
Ceremonies relating to deceased Priests. — Their bodies
embalmed and afterwards burned.
I have already endeavoured to give some notion
of the kind of personage a Burmese priest is in
his canonicals. I will now endeavour to describe
a scene of which they are unconsciously made
the subject, after their sacerdotal functions have
ceased, and their eyes are closed for ever.
The obsequies of deceased poonghees are
celebrated with a great deal of " pomp and cir
cumstance," extensive arrangements beingusually
made on such occasions to render the spectacle,
VOL. II. B

2 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
got up apparently regardless of expense, as
effective as possible. The festival on which
these funeral rites are performed is called the
Doon Pooay, or Poonghee Pyan, and it occurs
annually, I believe, sometime in the month of
October or thereabouts. The bodies of the
priests who die in the course of the year are
embalmed and preserved in honey until the day
selected for their material annihilation. I was pre
sent, some two or three years after my arrival in
the country, at one of these exhibitions, and was
much amused, and not a little delighted at the
general picturesqueness of the affair. It was a
scorching hot day, and the red dust flew about
with suffocating perseverance, nevertheless the
sight was one I should have been sorry to have
missed ; and as some few of us had clubbed to
gether to enable us to render the day enjoyable,
we had the wherewith to quench our thirst when
our throats became parched from the combined
influences of heat and dust, and to shelter our
selves from the scorching rays of the sun.

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 3
The Doon Pooay usually takes place on a
plain at the back of one of the last of the range
of the Pagoda hills to the eastward of the town,
and the spectators crowd the side overlooking
the scene of its celebration, from summit to
base. I think there were six or seven corpses
to be consumed when I saw the tumasha, and
several districts or villages contributed to the
entertainment, the inhabitants of each village
doing honour to the remains of the particular
priest or priests who had departed this life within
its limits. For some time previously, the dancers,
male and female, belonging to the several villages
which furnished the deceased poonghees, had
probably practised pantomime, and studied grace
in their attitudes, in order to be quite aufait
for the occasion. A day or so before the final
coup, these parties go in procession to the houses
of the Commissioner, and of such of those
Europeans in authority who may be disposed to
afford them encouragement, headed by a number
of women, richly attired and bejewelled, singing
b 2

4 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
and dancing, their vocal efforts being seconded
by the men who follow, all wearing some badge
or dress to distinguish the band of one village
from that of another ; their songs and choruses
generally being eulogistic of the virtues of their
defunct priest, and laudatory of the superiority
of their respective villages over the others. The
representatives of each village are accompanied
by a number of stuffed figures, intended to re
present animals of some description or other ; —
white elephants, giants, horses, goats, tigers,
buffaloes, dragons, or whatever else an ingenious
fancy may conjecture them to be ; secured on
platforms or trucks with four wheels, which are
drawn along with the procession. These are
destined to play an important part in the con
cluding scene of the pooay.
The tent, borrowed of a friend by myself and
companions, was pitched upon an eligible site on
the slope of the hill, by our Madras servants,
before our arrival ; together with such indispen-
sables as camp table and chairs, and the hamper

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 5
containing our commissariat. As it was im
possible to drive through the immense concourse
of people who were crowding towards the scene
of action, we were necessitated to alight from
our respective conveyances, walk up the hill on
the west side, and half way down again on the
east, before we arrived at our tent, where we
found all the arrangements for our comfort and
refection as complete as could be expected. A
glass of brandy and soda water refreshed us after
our pedestrian exercise, and prepared us to enjoy
and appreciate the singular spectacle we were
about to witness.
Prior to the commencement of the day's per
formances, we had time to survey the numerous
objects of attraction which surrounded us, and
perhaps a more interesting scene can hardly be
conceived. Irrespective of the heat, the day
was fine and clear, and the lovely prospect un
folded before us was of itself sufficient to delight
the spectator ; but it was not the beauties of
still nature alone which excited our admiration ;

6 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
— the usually quiet locality, on this day, ex
hibited a scene of animation such as I have
seldom beheld. Scores of stalls were set up
along the sides of the various pathways about
the hill side, whereat Burmese and Coringa
women vended ginger beer, fruits, sweetmeats,
&c, at which traffic they doubtless made a pro
fitable harvest. Some of these stalls were placed
beneath the shelter of marquees, constructed
with handkerchiefs of gaudy colours, fastened
together and held up by bamboo sticks, and the
proprietors of these appeared to be pretty ex
tensively patronised. People of all castes and
creeds were there, dressed in every variety of
costume. There congregated the turbaned
Mahomedan, the Jew dressed in the peculiar
attire adopted by all of his persuasion who
sojourn in the East, the Hindoo, the Mogul, the
Parsee with his high and ugly head-dress, the
Chinese, the Indo-Portuguese with his sable
complexion, displaying absurd attempts to imitate
European manner and appearance, the Eurasian

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 7
and the European, and last, though not least,
hundreds of Burmese women in holiday dress,
glorying in the gorgeousness of glittering jewel
lery, and the spendour of brilliant silk tameings
of many colours. The umbrellas carried by the
majority of the assembled spectators formed not
the least curious amongst the many objects for
remark. White umbrellas, red, green, blue, and
yellow umbrellas, above the heads of the con
stantly moving mass of people, added to the
strange picturesqueness of the general effect.
Although the occasion of the gathering was
the performance of the obsequies of defunct
clergymen, the proceedings wore anything but a
funereal or sombre aspect. Indeed a stranger
unacquainted with the idiosyncracies of the Bur
mese character, would be likely to imagine this
a fete got up for the purpose of exhibiting extra
ordinary demonstrations of rejoicing. So indeed
it appeared to me to be. The Budhists of
Burmah adopt a curious method in the final dis
posal of the bodies of their deceased spiritual

8 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
pastors and masters. A day or two previous to
that appointed for the celebration of the last rites
ordained by religion or recognized by ancient
custom, the remains of the defunct poonghee
are covered with gold leaf, and stretched within
a kind of case which has been carved and gilded
in the most magnificent style of Burmese art.
The corpse and the case are deposited upon the
car of state, and are then conveyed to, and
placed under a shed decorated with spires, gilt
and gaily painted, and trimmed with flags and
ribbons, which is situated some four or five hun
dred feet from the base of the hill. On the
occasion to which I am referring, as I have be
fore said, there were six or seven dead poonghees
whose remains were brought to be reduced (by
a certain pyrotechnical process) into dust and
ashes ; consequently there were a proportionate
number of decorated sheds, under each of which
one car, and its burthen of coffin and corpse,
was placed. As several villages furnished the
poonghees for this occasion, each brought a band

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 9
of music, — (Orpheus forgive me !) — a party of
male and female choristers, and one buffoon,
whose province it was to say funny things to
make the audience laugh a la the clown at Ast-
ley's. Beneath the several state coffins or cases
containing the remains of the deceased, was de
posited a quantity of combustibles ready for
ignition, and, as soon as the preliminary prepara
tions were completed, the entertainment com
menced. Some of the musicians who profession
ally assisted at the ceremonies, looked intensely
ridiculous. They were swathed up in old regi
mentals, and tried to appear military ; but pro
bably being unaccustomed to regulation trowsers,
braces, bluchers, and stiff-collared coats, they
looked decidedly wretched, as if all their limbs
ached under their unnatural confinement, as
indeed it is more than likely they did. Never
theless they went to work at their respective
instruments with a will, and endeavoured to dis
course what they doubtless conceived to be " most
eloquent music." The worst of it was, there

10 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
was no regular programme, and the arrangements
made by the denizens of one village frequently
clashed with those adopted by the representatives
of another ; so that perhaps when one set of
musicians struck up a particular national air,
the band of a rival village would start up ano
ther in opposition ; and when the Myangoon
women attuned their voices, and arranged their
attitudes, to give effect to some popular piece of
lyrical composition, the females of Nyoungbein-
ziek, with a laudable spirit of competition, would
exert their vocal powers to the utmost to gain
applause for the rendering of a totally different
air. The instruments themselves too were not
particularly soft and melodious in their intonation,
so that perhaps it would be difficult to imagine
a din more discordant, a row more hideous than
that produced by the efforts of those several
choruses and their respective orchestral accom
paniments on that interesting occasion.
The nondescript figures on trucks were intro
duced in due course, and the purposes for which

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 11
they were intended soon became apparent. To
the axles of the wheels of the platforms on
which they were placed were fastened wooden
tubes of different lengths, from about six to ten
feet, strongly bound with rattans, which were
filled with common ingredients used by the na
tives themselves in the manufacture of gun
powder. Some of the figures were of large
size. Besides these, each village furnished a
wooden gun or rocket about fifteen feet long,
and about nine inches diameter of bore, stuffed
to the muzzle with pyrotechnical materials, also
placed on a platform with four wheels. Astride
on the guns were figures intended to represent
men, holding in their hands spears or other wea
pons, according to the fancies of the devisers.
These were fired in rotation, from positions di
rectly opposite' to the car in which the body of
a particular poonghee lately belonging to the vil
lage claiming the rocket, lay in state. The
object was to direct these rockets with sufficient
accuracy so as to hit the car intended by the

12 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
projectors to be struck, and set the combustibles
containing it on fire. The district owning the
Ayook, or effigy, on the rocket which happens
to be successful in hitting its mark, reaps the
rewards and honours of the day, and great is
the triumph and rejoicing manifested on such
an occasion. I was told, however, that so proud
a distinction is very seldom attained at all, the
.projectiles not being in any way controlled in their
motion ; the slightest obstacle in their way, the
least unevenness of ground, turning them from
their course and- sending them hissing in a totally
•different direction from the one intended. I saw
one warlike-looking Ayook, pointing a spear in
a very threatening attitude, rush like fury into
the jungle, where he was lost to view, and I sup
pose was never heard of afterwards. As none
of these larger missiles were successful on this
occasion, the smaller rockets were employed in
setting fire to the materials in the cars, which
were soon in flames, and then the gaily decorated
canopies, the tinselled cars and coffins, and the

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 13
embalmed and scented vestiges of mortality
which they contained, were in a few minutes
consumed to ashes.
Accidents, I believe, are of frequent occur
rence at these pooays, and death has even en
sued in consequence of the eccentric behaviour
of unruly rockets. Whichever way they may
accidentally be turned by impediments in their
path, they rush with unrestrained impetuosity,
with a speed swift as the locomotive of an express
train ; and as it is impossible to tell in what di
rection they may deviate duringtheir brief career,
the safest plan is to give them a particularly
wide berth, or to keep on the hill, which- they
will not ascend. Of course, so soon a§, the
powder is consumed they stop, so that a few
seconds is all the time allowed them to do mis
chief in.

14 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.

CHAPTER II.
The Band Stand. — Carriages and other vehicles. —
Soldiers' barracks. — Public ball. — Burmese notions. —
Propagation of slander.
During the dry and comparatively cool season,
from November to the commencement of April,
Maulmain is generally by no means backward
in promoting festivities and amusements. The
gaieties incidental to Christmas, the New
Year, and Easter, are very readily promoted
and engaged in by all classes, and the weather
is usually fine and mild.
After the business of the day is concluded,
we dress and go to the Band Stand, then we go
to dinner, either at home or out to a pleasant
party, and then perhaps we prepare for a ball or
a rout.

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 15
In all Indian military stations, the bands of
regiments having their head quarters there, play on
certain evenings of the week, upon the parade
ground, during the fine seasons, and the Band
Stand on such occasions forms the usual
fashionable resort. If anybody has ever given
in print an account of any of these eastern pro
menade concerts, it would, I have no doubt,
answer the purpose very well were I to plagiarise
from it, and apply the same language to a de
scription of those which delight the residents of
Maulmain three times a week, from September
to May ; for exactly the same general features
that are noticeable at such gatherings at one
Indian station, are observable in all the others.
If there would be any difference in the details,
it would be in respect of the numbers assem
bled, and the quantity and style of the equip
ages — in all other points there is an identical
similarity. There is, more or less, a resemblance to each
other in all Indian parade grounds. A large

16 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
open plain, generally situated on an elevated
spot, bounded on one or two sides by barracks,
on another side by officers' bungalows, a mes
house, &c. A church in position, and occasional
"clumps of trees, fill in the prominent portion of
the picture, the back- ground varying in aspect
according to the locality in which the scene is
laid. There is Colonel Nokes, of H.M. 145th,
whom you saw last year at Bangalore, and pretty
Mrs. Nokes, who are in the middle of an ani
mated conversation with Lieutenant Thomas
Styles, whom perhaps you shook hands with at
Trichinopoly the year before that. There are
the little Nokeses running about, playing some
juvenile game of romps on the grass, under charge
of the samemiddle-aged respectable-looking Ayahs
who took care of them at the band stand you
saw them at a twelvemonth ago. Just the same
sort of people are about you that you met at
Bangalore and Trichinopoly, or, for the matter
of that, at Belgaum, or Bellary, at Secundera-

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 17
bad, or Kamptee, or Meerut, on some previous
occasion within your recollection, if you happen
ever to have visited those places. Most of the
officers who are not on the staff are in uniform
— shell jackets and white pantaloons — either
walking up and down in twos or threes, or on
horseback, conversing with groups of gentlemen,
civil and military. Female equestrians canter
about, accompanied by their attendant knights.
Soldiers' wives of all ages are out, and their
daughters, many of whom are perhaps employed
in the capacity of nursery maids in officers'
families, are walking about with their infant
charges, taking sundry favourable opportunities
of encouraging occasional flirtations on the part
of some Eurasian Lothario or other, whom their
charms have attracted.
There is not much variety of costume ob
servable at Mofussil (or East Indian provincial)
band stands on a playing evening, as regards
nationality of detail. All East Indians having
the slightest pretension to European descent,
VOL. II. C

18 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
however remotely they may be connected with
Europeans — French, German, Portuguese, Dutch,
or English, if only " one anna to the rupee" (to
adopt a common phrase), be their complexions
dark as Erebus, assume European attire, and
endeavour to imitate European manners. Of
course the style and quality of the raiment
differ according to the taste and circumstances
of the wearer, but all go in their choicest habi
liments to the band stand ; the young of both
sexes to display their fascinations, the elderly
and the middle-aged to recreate and enjoy an
hour's chat with their acquaintances. The only
people there in Oriental costume are the coach
men, horsekeepers, and Ayahs ; the former
keep aloof and converse among themselves in
groups near the several carriages in their charge ;
the latter, perhaps, would like to be of their
company, but cannot, because of the plagues of
children under their care.
Natives of India or Burmah have no appre
ciation of the beauties of Beethoven, of Rossini,

FOUR* YEARS IN BURMAH. 19
Meyerbeer, Auber, Bellini, or Donizetti, and I
do not suppose they understand Verdi. The
Highlander prefers the bagpipe to any other
description of musical instrument, and I have
no doubt the hurdy-gurdy hath charms for the
ears of some connoisseurs. The Indian affects
the tom-tom and the squeaking Indian fife, a
predilection which may possibly account for the
origin of Asiatic cholera. Such being the case,
it is not to be wondered at that the better class
of natives do not assemble upon band nights
on the parade ground, to hear strains which, to
their appreciation, bring no utterance of harmony
or sweetness. These remarks, however, are not
applicable to the band stands of the presidencies.
The wealthy natives of all denominations, who
reside in or near Calcutta, Madras, or Bombay,
will congregate wherever it is the fashion,
upon certain seasons and occasions, to be
seen. Glittering in jewellery, robed in
silk and velvet, and perfumed with pachouli or
lavender, they come rolling up in their luxurious
c 2

20 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
carriages, and ostentatiously hold converse with
the Sahib log and English ladies of rank and
beauty, who may condescend to honour them
with their countenance. For the most part the
natives of India resident in Maulmain do not
keep carriages, and have no encouragement to
display their finery in cantonments on evenings
when the band plays ; they are men of business,
intent on money-getting, and scorn such
frivolity. Maulmain is not remarkable for the variety
and general elegance of the equipages which
traverse its roads and are drawn up in its public
places. There'are two or three phaetons, about
half-a dozen buggies, and no end of palanquin.
gharries. Most of the latter class of vehicles
are hack carriages, and, as such, they are very
convenient concerns. They are like oblong
boxes upon four wheels, with a door and vene-
tianed windows on each side, and a seat fore and
aft, and are generally constructed to accommo
date four persons. The carriages collect on the
Maulmain parade ground on band evenings

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 21
pretty numerously. Almost everybody goes
there in a vehicle of some sort, or on horse
back. Those who do not keep conveyances of
their own, hire hack gharries ; " conveniences"
which cost them the sum of half a rupee for
their evening's drive. The number of really
handsome carriages to be seen is few. If Maul
main people are desirous of appearing in a dash
ing " turn out," they are necessitated to import
the article from Calcutta. Most of those who
care about appearances in such matters are not
permanent residents, and, therefore, it is hardly
worth their while to incur any heavy outlay for
such luxuries. If any do, they sell them at
their departure by public auction ; the purchasers,
at the termination of their sojourn, do like
wise, and so on ; so that many of the better-built
carriages seen at Maulmain in the present day
are old-fashioned, considerably the worse for
wear, and bear indications of having undergone
frequent repairs. The commissioner, one or two
of the higher officials and most consequential

22 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
merchants boast the possession of rather elegant
equipages ; the rest of the community are con
tent with less pretentious conveyances.
In a place like Maulmain, the majority of the
visitors to places of public resort are known to
each other by sight and repute, if not by reason
of familiar acquaintanceship. Those who are
at all versed in the abstract knowledge of human
nature will just conceive, therefore, the amount
of scandal that is likely to be discussed at these
periodical gatherings. I am sorry to say Maul
main is subject to the same charge to which all
communities similarly constituted are more or
less liable. It is a veritable Little Pedlington,
and every one appears to understand his neigh
bour's business even better than he does his own'
and to consider himself justified in expressing
his sentiments concerning it. Amongst those
who assemble here ostensibly to enjoy the har
mony elicited by the skill of the musicians, the
notes of whose instruments fill the air with
melody, how much of discord in the human

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 23
breast is caused by the influence of evil
tongues ?
During the season of fine weather imme
diately succeeding the rains, the country is
clothed with bright verdure, and Nature wears
her loveliest aspect. The parade ground,
the cantonments, generally present an exceed
ingly pretty landscape. On the southern ex
tremity of the plain is St. Matthias' Church ; at
the back of the officers' lines, and the Native
Infantry barracks (the latter facing the Church),
rise the Pagoda hills to the eastward, crowned
by the Budhist temples. The European Infan
try and Artillery Barracks are situated at the
northern side of the parade ground. The former
are divided into eleven separate buildings, each
to contain a company, connected by a covered
way in front, giving the whole the uniform ap
pearance of one building. They are constructed
entirely of wood, and the walls are whitewashed.
These barracks are spacious, airy, and comfort
able, and their situation salubrious.

24 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
" God save the Queen !" the finale, is played
when the sun goes down and the musicians can
no longer see their written notes without the aid
of waxen tapers. Then the congregation dis
perse to their respective carriages and depart to
their homes — the elite to their dinners, the rest
to their suppers. We dine late in India, partly
from necessity. Our avocations usually require
our undivided attention during the business
hours of the day, leaving us no time to enjoy
anything like a comfortable meal till our labours
are concluded. Then we can enjoy our dejeuner
and our otium cum. After that, perhaps we go
to a ball, if there is one, or a party, as the case
may be, as I have said before. The Burmese
do not at all know what to make of our balls.
To their ideas it is exceedingly strange to see
Mr. A. dancing with Mr. B.'s wife, or Mr. C.
gallopading with Mr. D.'s unmarried daughter.
In their opinions such proceedings are highly
immodest, and they compute our moral character
according to their own notions of propriety.

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 25
I went to a public ball on one occasion which
was held at the Exchange Hall — a very large and
handsome room, including the whole upper story
of a large brick, stuccoed building, situated in the
Main Street. It was numerously attended, but
the assemblage was not over-select. At least
the admission was not confined to the aristocracy
of the station, any respectable person being pri
vileged, on payment of the amount of subscrip
tion demanded by the projectors. The worst of
these re-unions is, that they are open to the same
remark as applies to meetings at the Band
Stand. Few amongst those congregated there
escape calumny, whether they deserve to be
aspersed or not. The lives of men and women
generally are seldom so pure and spotless that
evil report cannot reach them, and Envy and
Jealousy have their agents always eager and
watchful to obtain pretexts for slander. Give
but a colour to justify a harsh impression, and
condemnation follows. In proportion as con
viction of transgression is difficult, so is* the

26 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
hatred of the envious more intense. There is
no proof of your delinquency, and society can
not scout you ; or, if there be proof, should
determined investigation arise, few have the
temerity to accuse, lest they should fail to sub
stantiate. Who will be the first to forbid Mrs.
A. their houses, and denounce her to society ,;when
her husband, ignorant of her proceedings in his
absence, believes her innocent, loves her, and
would resent a whisper to her prejudice ? Who
would proclaim Mrs. B. a wanton, so long as her
husband is willing to defend her reputation?
Who dare publish that there is corruption in
C.'s appointment ? Might there not, in each of
such cases, be nothing more than suspicion,
derived from exceedingly remote circumstances,
whereon to found a belief in crime and occasion
these inuendoes (worse than direct accusations),
that wrong has been committed ? Astonishing
how trifles in behaviour are magnified to disad
vantage, never scarcely quoted in favour of good
ness. Oh ! all ye who profess to regard Vice

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 27
with such pious horror, and are so forward to
condemn even its semblance, apply yourselves
speedily to emulate the Virtues, and remember
that " the greatest of these is Charity."

28 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.

CHAPTER III.
Natural Productions of Burmah — Beasts — Birds — In
sects — Flowers.
It can hardly be expected that a country which
has been in our possession for more than thirty
years, should not have been explored by a few
men of scientific acquirements, anxious to ascer
tain the nature of the various resources and
productions of the land — animal, vegetable, and
mineral, and to enlighten the uninformed upon
such details as might be gathered by them in
their investigations. In the almost desert tracts
of the interior of the country, travelling, even at
the present day, would be difficult and dangerous,
if not impracticable for Europeans, owing to the

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 29
presence of miasmatic and other influences de
structive to human health, and the undisputed
right of possession to the swamps and jungles
long maintained by royal tigers, leopards, wild
elephants, and rhinoceroses, who are farther
supported in their tenancy by poisonous snakes»
and other dangerous auxiliaries and allies.
In the beaten tracks of human visitation,
where places have been cleared along continuous
districts, such men as Drs. Heifer, Buchanan,
Hamilton, Wallich, and other savans have jour
neyed, and taken copious notes ; and it is to the
researches of such pioneers that we are indebted to
much of our information upon the natural history
of Burmah. The man whose avocations confine
his residence chiefly to populous towns (as was
the case with the writer), can have no oppor
tunities of making new discoveries in the animal
or vegetable kingdoms; and therefore, in fur
nishing matter for a chapter on the natural
history of a country in which his experience has
been limited mainly to such localities, he is

30 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
obliged to rely upon such information as he may
have obtained from acknowledged and trust
worthy sources, backed, of course, by such
observations as may have presented themselves
to his personal intelligence.
I have no personal field or jungle adventures
to record, in which (armed with knife, revolver,
and rifle) I have ventured forth, mounted on an
elephant, on a hunting expedition against the
ferocious tiger, and my experiences of elephants
have been generally limited to daily observation
of those useful pachydermatous quadrupeds
which labour in the timber-yards of Tavoyzoo
and Mopoon. But of the carnivorous mammalia
which abound in the country, I am cognizant of
the fact, that the royal tiger (tigris royalis) does
inhabit the jungles all over Burmah, and
that the tribe is very numerous. It is well
known that these animals seldom visit the
haunts of men — never unless impelled into their
midst by hunger ; but they will prowl about the
outskirts of towns and villages, and reports of

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 31
the proximity of one or more of these beasts,
stated to have selected a location at the back of
the Commissioner's park, at Maulmain, have, to
my knowledge, struck terror into the minds of
many timid people, andinduced adventurousbraves
to arm themselves in search and pursuit of the ob
noxious neighbour or neighbours. I did once see
a tiger at Maulmain, but it was evidently a very
young one, and was following (along with several
of his dogs) an officer quartered at the station,
who was bringing it up with his family, for the
purpose of exporting it to England — a very
dangerous experiment, for I believe it to be
impossible to wean this animal from its terrible
voracity for blood, and numerous instances are re
corded illustrative of this fact. I remember one
story going the round of the Indian papers, which
demonstrates the nature of the beast rather
forcibly : —
An officer of the Bengal establishment had
obtained a tiger cub, almost immediately after its

32 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
birth, and by dint of considerable care and atten
tion, succeeded in nursing it satisfactorily until it
attained the size of a tolerable large dog. It was
very docile, tractable, and seemingly affectionate,
and would follow its master about, evidencing
every appearance of attachment. One day,
when seated in his apartment reading, his left
hand hanging by his side, he became sensible of
some slight uneasiness, occasioned by the rough
tongue of his household pet filing against the
back of his hand, which he slightly moved, in
order to withdraw it, when a low growl arrested
the motion. Looking down, he observed that
the tiger had slightly drawn blood, and was
licking away ravenously at the ensanguined hand ;
its eyes glaring fiercely, watching his movements
with feline intensity. He then knew that any
attempt to withdraw his hand would be succeeded
by an instant attack, for which he was unpre
pared. He also knew, that to remain for any
great length of time in his present position would

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 33
be highly dangerous. With his other hand,
however, he touched a hand-bell, that was for
tunately on the table near him, upon which one
of his bearers made his appearance. Cautioning
the man to be prudent, he ordered him to bring
his pistols, which were generally kept loaded,
and to cock them and lay them on the table
near him, without interfering in any way with
the tiger, which by this time was evidencing
the most ferocious greediness. The pistols were
brought, as directed, and a bullet was lodged in
the brain of the tiger ; but not until its master's
hand had been very considerably injured.
Leopards are said to be numerous, but their
attacks are principally directed against the smaller
animals, as hares, deer, and fowl. The black
leopard (felis melas) is frequently met with,
and, I believe, the chetah tiger ; and leopard-cats
abound. The pig-bear (arctonis collaris) and
the monkey- tiger, a small species of the genus
felis, about the size of a small monkey, the ex-
VOL. II. D

34 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
istence of which, in the animal kingdom, has
but recently been discovered, are occasionally
encountered. The otter is said to be numerous
in the small streams throughout the Tavoy and
Mergui provinces. There is, also, an animal
described as the Tenasserim ichneumon (arva
tancrivora)* and there are two species of the
civet-cat, one of the wild dog, the three-striped
paguma, and three species of paradoxure.
Of the ruminantia, there are said to be eleven
species in the country, principally represented by
the deer tribes, which abound in all parts of
Burmah, from the chevrotain (a beautiful little
deer, much the size of a Scotch terrier) to the
larger specimens, the rusa deer, the brow-antlered
rusa, and the goat- antelope. The barking-deer
and the hog-deer (curvus porcinus) are frequent
about the provinces of Amherst and Tavoy, the
former being thus described in Mason's work : —
" It uses its horns with great effect when brought
• " Mason's Natural Productions of Burmah."

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 35
to bay, and, according to a Karen fable, the»
tiger will not attack it. In ancient times, the
story goes, when all animals had the power of
speech, the tiger said to the barking- deer, ' Oh !
barking-deer, what is the use of thy horns ? It
seems to me they would be in my way.' The
barking-deer answered, ' A single push of my
horns would make the eye of my antagonist
start out of its socket.' On hearing this, the
tiger was afraid, and never after attempted to
devour the barking-deer."
It has been said, by a recent writer, that a
bison -like animal, called the gaur, is seen in
large droves, and that a wild ox or cow (bos
sondaicus) abounds in the uninhabited parts of
the country. The only species of the tribe that
I have seen, are the neat cattle commonly used
for draught and domestic purposes, and the
buffalo. The zebu, or Indian ox, is a much
smaller animal than ours, and has a hump rising
on the back, from the neck between the shoul-
D 2

36 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
fjers. Although used as a beast of burthen all
over India, it is much venerated by the Hindoos.
The smaller bulls selected and reared by the
Brahmins are esteemed sacred, and it is always
considered sacrilegious to eat beef. Fortunately,
however, for those who do not subscribe to the
Brahminical faith, much of this description
of cattle falls into the possession of Mahome-
dans, and others who are exempt from such
prejudices, and the flesh of the Indian ox makes
capital eating, and the salted hump is an epicu
rean luxury. " The buffalo is also domesticated,
and employed by the Burmans in the tillage of
the paddy fields, where it may be seen dragging
the plough through the oozy soil, or wallowing
in the soft mud, in which it delights. It is a
huge unwieldy animal, of a dark slate colour,
and almost hairless skin. Its enormous head,
and huge retreating horns, give it a ferocious
appearance, — indeed, many of them are very
fierce, and their temper, at the best of times,

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 37
uncertain." * It is very seldom, however, that
one hears of their committing any mischief. At
Tavoy, and other places in the southern pro
vinces, these animals are trained for contests with
each other in certain national sports, which are
celebrated annually, and which are as much
relished and esteemed by the natives as are the
bull fights at Madrid and Saragossa.
The Indian goat has been introduced into
Burmah, and is found to thrive very well wher
ever it has been reared. But in the interior,
amongst the Burmans themselves, it is compa.
ratively unknown, and little valued. There are
no sheep, and such as have been from time to
time imported, have soon fallen off, so that sheep
mutton is now only meat for rich men's
tables. Of the pachydermata, the elephant (elepAans
indicus) holds the most prominent place, and,
tamed and trained for burthen and labour, is a
* " Winter's Six Months in Burmah."

38 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
most valuable animal. They are numerous in
some parts of Burmah, the nature of the country
being peculiarly favourable to their habits. In
their wild state, they are generally harmless, and
live together in families or communities, presided
over by a particular elephant, who receives the
confidence and obedience of those by whom he
is surrounded. Woe to the unlucky beast who,
by his waywardness or misconduct, receives the
condemnation of his trihe ! He is driven forth,
expelled from his kindred, beyond the hope of
recal, to wander at will over the face of the earth.
In such cases he becomes perfectly furious, and
will sacrifice any living thing he meets in his
headlong, mad career. There is no escape for
the man or beast who encounters a rogue ele
phant. Generally speaking, however, they are
inoffensive animals, docile, tractable, and exceed
ingly sagacious. The male attaches himself to
a single female, and instances of incontinence
are, I believe, never known amongst them.

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 39
Amongst the several titles of the Burman
monarch is that of " king of the white ele
phants," which animals, Hakluyt tells us, " are
very strange and rare, for there is none other
king that hath them but he ; if any other king
hath one, he will send unto him for it."*
Sangemano gives the following account of the
treatment and transportation to Amerapoora of
a white elephant caught in the early part of the
reign of King Minderagee (in 1805) at Lain
in the forests of Pegu, previous to which the
royal stables had been for some time destitute
of such a necessary appendage to the imperial
state. " Immediately upon its being captured, it was
bound with cords covered with scarlet, and the
most considerable of the mandarins were deputed
to attend it. A house such as is occupied by the
greatest ministers, was built for its reception ;
and numerous servants were appointed to watch
* Ralph Fitch, in Hakluyt's Nauigations, Traffiques^
and Discoueries, vol. ii. p. 259. London, 1599.

40 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
over its cleanliness, to carry to it every day the
freshest herbs which had first been washed with
water, and to provide it with everything else
that could contribute to its comfort. As the
place where it was taken was infested with
mosquitos, a beautiful net of silk was made to
protect it from them ; and to preserve it from
all harm, mandarins and guards watched by it
day and night. No sooner was the news spread
abroad that a white elephant had been taken,
than immense multitudes of every age, size,
and condition, flocked to behold it, not only from
the neighbouring parts, but even from the most
remote provinces. At length the King gave
orders for its transportation to Amurapur, and
immediately two boats of teak wood were fas
tened together, and upon them was erected a
superb pavilion, with a roof similar to that which
covers the royal palaces. It was made perfectly
impervious to the sun or rain, and draperies of
silk embroidered in gold adorned it on every
side. This splendid pavilion was towed up the

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 41
river by three large and beautiful gilded vessels
full of rowers. The King and royal family fre
quently sent messengers to bring tidings of its
health, and make it rich presents in their name.
To honour its arrival in the city, a most splen
did festival was ordered, which continued for
three days, and was celebrated with music, danc
ing, and fireworks. The most costly presents
continued daily to be brought to it by all the
mandarins of the kingdom, and one is said to
have offered a vase of gold weighing four hun
dred and eighty ounces. But it is well known
that these presents, and the eagerness shown in
bestowing them, were owing more to the ava
ricious policy of the king than to the veneration
of his subjects towards the elephant, for all these
golden utensils found their way at last into the
royal treasury.
" At the death of the elephant, as at that of
an emperor, it is publicly forbidden, under heavy
penalties, to assert that he is dead ; it must only
be said that he has departed, or has disappeared.

42 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
As the one of which we have spoken was a fe
male, its funeral was conducted in the form
practised on the demise of a principal queen*
The body was accordingly placed upon a funeral
pile of sassafras, sandal, and other aromatic
woods, then covered over with similar materials ;
and the pyre was set on fire with the aid of four
immense gilt bellows placed at its angles. After
three days the principal mandarins came to
gather the ashes and remnants of the bones,
which they enshrined in "a gilt 'and well-closed
urn, and buried in the royal cemetery. Over
the tomb was subsequently raised a superb mau
soleum [of a pyramidal shape, built of brick,
but richly painted and gilt. Had the elephant
been a male, it would have been interred with
the ceremonial used for the sovereign."
Oh, vanity of superstition ! Oh, cruelty of
state ! that poor elephant had been happy
wandering amongst the jungle trees, roaming at
large, and feeding at will in the primeval forests,
having its body in the cool waters of the streams

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 43
which meander amongst its native plains ; but
fettered with artificial pomp and golden chains,
confined to a regal stable, and encumbered with
draperies and tinsels, what an unhappy, miser
able beast that poor white elephant must have
been! Another white elephant was caught in the fol
lowing year, in Pegu, and was alive twenty
years later, when Crawford was ambassador to
Ava. Elephants live to a very great age, and there
was recently one at Kandy in Ceylon, that was
known to be upwards of one hundred and fifty
years old.
There are three species of the rhinoceros
known in the country. The single-horned
rhinoceros, the double-horned and smooth-
skinned rhinoceros, and a third named by the
Karens " the fire-eating rhinoceros,'' so called
from its propensity to rush into the midst of
flames, which are often kindled in localities which
they haunt, in order to entrap and destroy them.

44 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
Mason says— "The common, single-horned
rhinoceros is very abundant. Though often
seen on the uninhabited banks of large rivers,
as the Tenasserim, they are fond of ranging the
mountains, and I have frequently met with their
wallowing places on the banks of mountain
streams, two or three thousand feet above the
plains. They are as fond of rolling themselves
in mud as a hog or a buffalo. The Karens,
when travelling, have quite as much fear of a
rhinoceros as they have of a tiger. When pro
voked, the rhinoceros, they say, pursues his
enemy most unrelentingly, and with indomitable
perseverance. If, to escape his rage, the hunts
man retreats to a tree, the beast, it is said, will
take his stand beneath the tree for three or four
days in succession, without once leaving his
antagonist." A harmless description of tapir (tapirus
Malayanus), the Malay tapir, is found occa
sionally, and a small black species of wild hog
(sus Indicus) is very frequently met with. Pigs

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 4fJ
are very plentiful, and are fed up for butchering
in large quantities in towns and villages, where
there are Christian and Chinese residents. To
Jews and to Mahomedans, it is needless to tell
the reader, they are an abomination-
Of the quadrumana, or Monkey tribe, there
are said to be five species, but, from inquiries I
have made, I am induced to believe that there
are more, as the small ape, common in the
Madras presidency, has been found to abound in
Burmah, and I do not think it has been included
in the classification of animals indigenous to the
country supplied by naturalists who have visited
the interior. One of the most remarkable of
this genus found in Burmah is the fisher mon
key (inicus ceropithecus), which, dodging about
on the branches overhanging the river banks,
snatches at stray fish with unerring aim, and
triumphantly consigns them to its maws.
I have the authority of the Rev. Mr. Mason
for saying that the lemur, or Bengal sloth, is
not uncommon in the Tenasserim provinces.

46 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
Of the bat family, there are numbers of flying
foxes — animals which have bodies closely resem
bling the fox, though somewhat smaller in
regard to size, with wings much like those of
the common, but comparable with the size of
the animal. I have shot a good many of them
during my residence in India. They are very
ferocious after capture, and their teeth are
frightfully formidable. I have made many a
hearty meal, too, out my victims ; for, although
their bodies bear close resemblance to the
amimal from which they derive their name, they
possess none of his disagreeable properties.
They are to be seen at dusk in quantities, cling
ing to the branches of the large trees.
Of insectivora there are three genera — the
Javanese sapaia, the musk-shrew, and the
gymnura. Of the rodentia, or gnawing animals,
there are the two-coloured or giant squirrel
(sciurrus bicolor), the golden-backed squirrel
(sciurrus chrysonotus), the large and small
flying squirrel, and several other species. Hares

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 47
and rabbits are plentiful. Rats of all kinds are
abundant, and, as in all Oriental countries, a
terrible domestic nuisance. The common brown
rat is the most destructive, perhaps, in houses,
but the bandicoot (a larger species of rat, bristly-
haired, which grows to the size of a hedgehog)
makes sad havoc in the fields and in granaries.
The ornithologist will find in Burmah a wide
field for pleasurable contemplation.
Of the dentirostres, or notched-billed birds,
there are several varieties, which include shrikes,
thrushes, bubblers, stonechats, warblers, wagtails,
fruit-eaters, fly-catchers, and broad-bills. Besides
these, there is the bulbuhl (a singing bird often
praised in Oriental poetry), and there is a yel
low-bodied black-headed oriole, the mango-bird,
whose note is often heard in the gardens. But
sweeter than the notes of any other of the fea
thered warblers of the Oriental groves are those
of the edolius, the nightingale of the east, a bird
of sable plumage, whose songs delight the
listener at the close of day.

48 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
Of the conirostres, or conic-billed birds, there
are numerous descriptions. There is the Indian
black crow (corvus culminatus), which is very
abundant, and sometimes exceedingly annoying.
They are the most daring, impudent, and saga
cious thieves in all creation. They will watch
you at your meals, and the moment your atten
tion is called from the viands before you, they
will dart in and fly off with the wing of a fowl
or the tail of a fish, or some other bon bouche.
The moment one catches sight of a gun he gives
a signal to the birds around him, and the neigh
bourhood is immediately cleared of every crow.
The habits of this bird are altogether different
to those of the same name known in Europe.
The corvus cornis (the rook) and the corvus
cor one (the carrion crow), both so much per
secuted by our farmers, have very little in com
mon with their Indian brethren in regard to
tastes and propensities. Our English crows are
harmless insectivorous birds, exceedingly useful
in exterminating the insects which destroy the

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 49
grain, but the Indian bird has an ambition above
insects. He is nevertheless a very useful crea
ture, and as a scavenger, invaluable. With all
his eccentricities, Indian residents would find it
a calamity were the race to become extinct.
The black mynah (gracula religiosa), a bird
about the size of and much resembling the
magpie, distinguished by a yellow band on the
head, is also a native of the country. They are
clever mocking birds, and when properly taught
are considered valuable. They are common all
over India, south of the Punjaub. They may be
taught to pipe tunes as well as utter sentences,
and the sounds they produce are clear and melo
dious. A friend of mine had one who could
give the air, " There's nae Luck about the
House," quite correctly and very sweetly.
Pies, starlings, finches, buntings, the concave
hornbill (buceros cavatus), larks, parakeets,
lorikeets, woodpeckers, barbets, creepers, coo-
koos, inhabit the forests in several varieties.
The smallest of the parrot tribe is said to be the
VOL. II. E

50 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
red-rumped lorikeet, which, from its habit of
suspending itself from branches of trees with
the head downwards, is called "headlong" by
the Burmese.
Of the raptor es there are eagles, vultures, buz-
zards,kites,falcons,hawks,gos-hawks, fish-hawks,
harriers, owls. The commonest are vultures,
buzzards, and kites: Honeysuckers, sun-birds,
and hoopoes represent the tenuirostres or suc
torial birds known in Burmah. The fissirostres,
or wide-mouthed birds, consist of bee-eaters,
rollers, kingfishers, trogons, nightjars, swifts,
and swiftlets. The swallows that build the
edible birds-nests are said to be numerous on
the coasts of Tavoy and Mergui, frequenting the
limestone caves and islands of the Archi
pelago. The Chinese contracted with the Bri
tish Government for the privilege of collect
ing this article, and enjoyed a monopoly of the
trade. The rasores, or gallinaceous birds, consist of
peacocks, pheasants, wild fowl, partridges, three-

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 51
toed quails, green pigeons, rock pigeons, and
turtle doves.
Of the natatores, or swimming birds, there
are wild duck, teal, pelicans, snake-birds, sea-
swallows, gulls, scissor-bills, and cormorants.
The latter bird might easily be trained to catch
fish, if any sportsman felt disposed to make the
experiment. Advantage has been taken of the
keenness of the cormorant's appetite for fish to
train it in the same manner hawks are trained
for fowling, a tight collar being put round the
throat to prevent the swallowing of the prey.
One Colonel Montagu, who has kept a bird of
this species, thus describes it : " The dexterity,"
writes the Colonel, " with which this bird seizes
its prey is incredible. Knowing its own powers,
if a fish is thrown into the water at a distance,
it will dive immediately, pursuing its course
under water in a direct line towards the spot,
never failing to take the fish, and that frequently
before it falls to the bottom. The quantity it
will swallow at a meal is astonishing ; three or
E 2

52 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
four pounds twice a day are readily devoured,
the digestion being excessively rapid. If by
accident a large fish sticks in the gullet, it has
the power of inflating that part to its utmost,
and while in that state the head and neck are
violently shaken in order to promote its passage.
This is a property we never observed in any
other bird, but it is probably common to the
rest of the tribe, or such as are destitute of nasal
apertures. That all birds have a communication
between their lungs and the cavity of their body
surrounding the viscera, more or less, is well
known ; but as there is no passage into the
gullet but by the mouth, a violent compression
of the body becomes necessary, at the same time
the bill is closed, and the air is forced back into
the mouth and pressed into the gullet. It is
observable, that in the act of fishing this bird
always carries its head under water, in order that
it may discover its prey at a greater distance and
with more certainty than could be effected by
keeping its eyes above the surface, which is

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 53
agitated by the air, and rendered unfit for visi
onal purposes. If the fish is of the flat kind
it will turn it in the bill, so as to reverse its
natural position, and by this means only could
such be got within the bill. If it succeeds in
capturing an eel, which is its favourite food, in
an unfavourable position for gorging, it will
throw the fish up to a distance, dexterously
catching it in a more favourable one as it
descends. In thus turning the fish, the dilutable
skin under the bill is of great use, but is by
no means deserving of the appellation of a pouch,
not being capable of more distension than any
other part of the gullet ; nor can it be used as a
reservoir for provisions, either for its own use
or for the use of its young, as asserted by some.
authors. It lives in perfect harmony with the
wild swan, goose, various sorts of ducks, and
other birds, but to a gull with a piece of fish it
will instantly give chase ; in this it seemed
actuated by a desire to possess the fish, for if
the gull had time to swallow it, no resentment

54 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
was offered. Apparently the sight of the fish
created a desire of possession, which ceased when
it had disappeared."
The Dutch naturalist, Johnston, gives the
following from Odoric : — " In a certain city
situate by the great river in the East, we went
to see our host fish. 1 saw in his little ships
cormorants tied upon a perch, and he had tied
their throat with a string that they should not
swallow the first thing they took. In every
bark they set three panniers, one in the middle,
and at each end one ; then they let loose their
cormorants, who presently caught abundance of
fish, which they put into the panniers, so that in
a short time they filled them all. Then mine
host took off the straps from their necks, and
let them fish for themselves ; when they were
full they came back to their perches and were
tied up again." *
The grallatores or wading birds, include bit
terns, demi-egrets, cranes, ibises, open beaks, rails
* Rennie's Bird Miscellanies.

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 0
or coots, water hens, snipes (scolapax Zieteruna),
sand pipers, oyster catchers, snippets, turnstones,
and plovers. Of the heron species, I believe
almost the only member is the white paddy bird
(ardea alba), and these are very beautiful little
creatures, very numerous in paddy fields and
low marshy places.
The crane adjutant (ciconia argala) is
spoken of as being common in Burmah, but the
only specimens I have seen were two or three
that frequented the compound of the residence
of Captain Tickell, the Deputy Commissioner at
Maulmain, and these seemed attracted to the
locality by some peculiar attachment very un
usual in birds of their habits. Cranes are mi
gratory birds. " The stork in heaven," says
Jeremiah, " knoweth her appointed times ; and
the turtle and the crane and the swallow ob
serve the time of their coming." They are
certainly not nearly so numerous in their seasons
in Burmah as they are in lower Bengal. In
Calcutta during the warm rainy months I have

56 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
seen the roof of Government House literally
thronged with them, but they disappear in the
cold season. The adjutant is one of the most
voracious of carnivorous birds, though not
ranking in systematic arrangements as a bird of
prey, although living chiefly on animal food.
The structure of the stomach is peculiar, the
solvent glands being differently formed from
those of any other bird. " These glands are not
placed round the upper portion of the stomach,
but form two circular figures, about one inch
and a half in diameter on the fore and back part
of it, each gland being composed of five or six
cells, and these opening into one common pipe.
The gizzard and digastric muscle are nearly of
the same strength with that of the crow,
and the former is lined with a similar horny
cuticle." " These birds are not only capable of digesting
bones, as Spallanzani proved eagles and owls to
be, but they seem to be fond of them, swallowing
every bone which they can get down their

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 57
gullet, whence they are denominated bone eaters.
' It has been stated by Sir Everard Home that
there were found in the craw and stomach of
one of these birds a land tortise, ten inches
long, and a large black cat, entire." 
" The adjutants," says Mr. Smeathman, " are
met with in companies ; and when seen at a
distance, near the mouths of rivers, coming
towards an observer, which they often do with
their wings extended, may well be taken for
canoes upon the surface of a smooth sea ; when
on the sand banks, for men and women picking
up shells, fish, or other things on the beach.
One of these, a young bird about five feet high,
was brought up tame, and presented to the
chief of the Bananas, where Mr. Smeathman
lived ; and being accustomed to be fed in the
great hall, soon became familiar, duly attending
that place at dinner time, placing itself behind
its master's chair frequently before the guests
entered. The servants were obliged to watch
narrowly, and to defend the provisions with

58 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
switches, but notwithstanding it would frequently
seize something or other, and once purloined a
whole boiled fowl, which it swallowed in an
instant. Its courage is not equal to its voracity,
for a child of eight or ten years old soon puts it
to flight with a switch, though at first it seems
to stand on its defence, by threatening, with its
enormous bill widely distended, and roaring with
a loud voice like a bear or tiger. It is an enemy
to small quadrupeds, as well as birds and rep
tiles, and slyly destroys fowls or chickens, though
it dares not attack a hen openly with her young.
Every thing is swallowed whole ; and so accom
modating is its throat, that not only an animal
as big as a cat is gulped down, but a shin of
beef broken asunder serves it but for two
morsels. It is known to swallow a leg of
mutton of five or six pounds, a hare, a small
fox, &c. After a time the bones are rejected
from the stomach, which seems to be voluntary,
for it has been known that an ounce or two of

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 59
emetic tartar given to one of these birds pro
duced no effect." *
In appearance these birds are extremely un
gainly — long legs and neck, large body and
enormous bill or beak. In Calcutta a local
municipal enactment forbids the citizens to mo
lest or destroy any of these birds, which are
exceedingly useful as scavengers, ahd the same
regulation applies to vultures and other carni
vorous birds. Notwithstanding the existence of
this order, great liberties were taken with ad
jutants even within the precincts of Fort William
occasionally by young gentlemen, to whom their
quaint appearance and decorous behaviour
afforded considerable amusement. From the
upper verandah of the officers' barracks, a large
beef bone would be cast attached to a long
string, one end of which would be fastened to
one of the pillars ; a yard or so from the piece.
of beef a fusee was lighted connected with a
cracker, two or three minutes being allowed for
* Renuie's Bird Miscellanies.

60 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
the ignition of the latter. The beef was picked
up immediately by the first adjutant that saw it
(and there are plenty on the watch), and away
flew the bird to enjoy its morsel on the top of
some neighbouring church tower or Chowringhee
terrace. Of course it would not be far away
before the cracker would explode with many
successive bangs, occasioning the bird consider
able consternation, which would accelerate his
flight till he would be brought short up by the
string, when the fun would become immense.
The adjutant would be apparently bewildered
from terror and astonishment, but he would not
disgorge. He would scream and try to make
circuits in the air till checked again by the
string — sometimes this would break by the
force of his struggles, in which case he would
depart swiftly with his booty, but in most in
stances he would despairingly alight on terra
firma exhausted and nearly dead with fright
and pain, when his tormentors would mercifully
set him at liberty.

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 61
The rivers of Burmah abound in fish in great
variety, and generally of large size and fine
quality for the table. The angler would, in the
many streams, experience much delight, and
derive infinite stores of piscatorial intelligence.
Of the larger scaled fish, there are perch, some
measuring as much as two feet in length. The
macroleptes include besides cockup, bandfish,
umber, Indian whiting, mullet, mango-fish,
(which are delicately flavoured, and accounted
an epicurean luxury,) kingfish, climbing-perch,
and snake-heads. The climbing-perch is a cu
rious fish. It climbs up out of the water on
the river banks, making its way along over the
roots of trees by the banksides, and will travel
that way for some distance. The Burmese say
they will climb along out of the water as far as
a quarter of a mile ; but this statement I believe
to be an exaggeration.
Of the microloptes, or small scaled fish, there
are Indian mackarel, or tunny, ophidians, long-
snouts, dories, pomphrets, ribbon-fish, flat-heads,

62 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
gobies, ambly opus-suckers, and periopthalmi.
Of the carp family there are many varieties —
cirrius, labeo, barbels, breams, sustomus, peri-
lamps, opsarions, bacailas, gudgeons, white-fish,
and loaches. There are said to be more than
thirty different species of cat-fish. Shell fish
are very numerous, but there are no lobsters.
Crabs, crayfish, and oysters, are obtained in large
quantities, and prawns are very plentiful, and
arrive at an immense size, and there are besides
fishing-frogs, and, along the coast, sea porcupines.
As in all tropical countries, reptiles here are
very abundant. Of the tortoise tribes, there are
the land tortoise, marsh tortoise, river tortoise,
and sea tortoise or turtle, and the rivers are
infested with alligators or crocodiles, or whatever
the learned may choose to call them. Mr.
Mason says the alligator is peculiar to America,
and others have said that the crocodile is peculiar
to the African rivers ; the animal of the same
genus found in Burmah is, however, generally
termed the alligator, and possesses all the cha-

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 63
racteristics of its American namesake. Some of
them attain an extraordinary size, and I have
elsewhere made allusion to one seen by me in
the Irrawaddy of enormous length. Of serpents,
the largest is the python, or boa-constrictor
(python riticulatus), which is sometimes found
of the length of eighteen feet. The gall bladder
of the python is said to be valuable on account
of certain medicinal virtues which it is supposed
to possess, and is much sought after. The
smallest is the elaps. There are said to be two
species of rat snake — the striped rat snake
(coluber radiatus) and the brown- green rat snake
(coluber corros), and there is a very fierce ser
pent called the dusky hamadryad. There are
ribbon snakes, variegated tree snakes, and seve
ral species of water snake. The most deadly of
the venomous snakes is the cobra di capello,
of which, however, I have seen but very few,
although I have heard it stated that, in some
districts, they are very numerous.
Of the lizard tribes, there are the common

64 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
lizard, the gecko (hemidactylus coctai), and the
Touktai, so called from the sound it makes
resembling the pronunciation of that word.
Pretty little lizards are seen everywhere about
the walls of the houses, watching for their insect
prey. The touktay, however, is a nuisance,
especially to strangers in the country, for he
awakes the echoes of the night when man seeks
repose and slumber, and you cannot tell where
to find the nocturnal demon who lodges some
where in the eaves of your house, where — you
are unable to ascertain. I have caught one, and
seen several others. The one I caught was about
ten inches in length, and its scales were very
beautifully marked. The Burmese say that
their bite is poisonous, but I fancy it would not
be found more so than the bite of most other
lizards, whose saliva possesses a certain poison
ing or blistering property.
Several descriptions of frogs are common in
the country. There are two species of tree frog,
the tiger frog and the bull frog.

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 65
It would be almost impossible to enumerate
the various insects which abound all over the
country. Of beetles, there are many varieties —
tiger beetles, stag beetles, bombadier beetles,
cockroaches, whirling water beetles, mimic bee
tles, ground beetles, schareb beetles, atlas beetles,
chameleon green beetles, click beetles, glow
worms, fire-flies, floral beetles, blister flies, scale
like beetles, capricorn beetles, tortoise beetles,
lady-bird beetles, &c, &c. There is an insect
called the walking-leaf insect (phyllium), which
is very destructive to plants, and, from its re
semblance to the leaf in colour, is difficult of
detection. The walking lichen insect is likewise
a formidable foe to the gardener. The walking-
stick insect is a curious object growing to a con
siderable length, and much resembling a stick
newly cut. Several species of grasshoppers are
found, and the visitations of locusts are not
infrequent. There are butterflies of almost every hue,
brilliant ephemera, whose beauty delights us,
VOL. II. F

66 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
silk-moths, and other moths of almost every
variety. The gauze-winged insects are gall
insects, ichneumon flies, wasps, stinging ants,
common ants, hornets, bees, &c. There is a
small fly which hives like the bee, and produces
the finest honey — the ordinary honey bee is very
common, and honey is collected in large quan
tities by the poonghees.
Of mosquitoes, it is unnecessary to say any
thing further than that, of all enemies to man,
they are the most tormenting, and, in Burmah,
I think, generally more abundant than anywhere
else ; but there is an insect called the winged
bug, which is, at certain seasons, a particularly
unpleasant visitor. These insects do not attack
your person, but, if you are not very careful,
they get into your cup of tea, or glass of brandy
and water, or get mixed up with your harrieot,
or curry, and impart a flavour thereto which
effectually destroys your taste for anything in
the way of victuals or drink for that day, at all
events. The odour they emit on being touched

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 67
is the same as that of the common bug, such as
you would encounter at Woolwich or Poplar,
only twice as strong and offensive. They come
in during the rainy season, and then, if you are
at table eating or drinking, it is necessary to be
extremely cautious. The punkah over head and
the switches of your servants have to be con
stantly in motion, and, if you are at whist with
a glass of wine or brandy panee on a tepoy by
your side, you must keep your glass covered till
you want to drink, and even then you are ap
prehensive that an intruder will come, and not
only deprive.you of the enjoyment of your liquor,
but make it necessary for you to leave the
room. Next amongst the scourges of the land may
be placed the termites, or white ants : but ex
perience has suggested so many precautions
against the encroachments of these depredators,
that, if due care is taken, you may manage to
protect your hou e and property from their
insidious attacks. If proper precautions art
F 2

68 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
neglected, they are exceedingly destructive, and
sometimes they effect an infinite amount of
mischief in an incredibly short space of time.
I knew a gentleman in Calcutta who had a row
of books, placed upon a shelf, destroyed in one
day and night. They consisted of a small uni
form set of Paul de Kock's works, a French
edition, and he had a shelf made exactly to fit
them, and placed it in the centre of a vacant
wall of his library. When he went to get down
a volume of Andrew le Savoyard, or some other
novel, he found the binding intact, but the body
of the book had " resolved itself into a dust," and
a further inspection of the contents of the shelf
convinced him that the reading matter of every
volume had been consumed by innovators who
certainly could not have properly appreciated
their contents.
Rather a good story is told of a gentleman,
an official in a Mofussil out-station, who was
collector, magistrate, treasurer, in effect, to a
certain extent, governor of the district in which

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 69
he was located. The Government 'money was
kept in a strong wooden-box in the cutchery,
iron chests not being then in general use in the
East. The cutchery had an earthen floor
covered with a composition of chunam and
earth, which, when hardened, much resembles
smooth marble in appearance. In this chest was
deposited the money accruing from the revenues
of the district under his jurisdiction, and peons
and chuprassees armed with swords and match
locks guarded the house containing the treasure
night and day.
The magnates at Calcutta were one day ex
ceedingly astonished on receiving a communica-.
tion from Mr.  , collector of  , to the
effect that it was with extreme regret that he
had the honour to inform the Governor-General
in Council that the amount (some two and a half
lacs of rupees) contained in the treasure chest of
which he had charge, had been devoured by
white ants ! "
Strict inquiry was made into the matter.

70 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
Nothing material, however, was elicited beyond
the fact that all the money was certainly gone.
The official was suspended, shelved, for a good
deal of suspicion not unnaturally fell upon the
circumstance. Some time after, however, the
truth was disclosed. The smooth flooring of the
cutchery had been a good deal worn, and it was
necessary to have it repaired ; a puckha flooring
was to be substituted for the cutcha one, and,
to effect this, the pickaxes and shovels of excava
tors had to be employed. A rotten old chest
(long since abandoned as a receptacle for coin)
was removed, and, lo ! beneath the place where
it had stood some two feet or so beneath the
surface of the flooring, the pick of the workman
jingled upon some metal which, upon being
turned up, proved to be silver in the shape of"
goodly sicca and Company's rupees.
The fact turned out to be that Mr.  , on
opening the chest, found unmistakeable evidence
of the recent visit of swarms of white ants ; the
bottom of the box was entirely gone, as well as

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 71
a great portion of the sides and even the lid,
and not a single rupee appeared to his astonished
vision, not a solitary coin. The ground beneath
presented the ordinary appearance, uniform
with the rest of the flooring. What was he to
infer — what to do? The insects had under
mined the place about the chest, until they had
reached the wood for a considerable distance
down, and as they destroyed the bottom, the
weight of the silver forced it down into the cavities
created by the insects, and before their labours
ceased, every vestige of a rupee was entirely
hidden. Scorpions and centipedes are common, and
there are several species of both. The black
scorpion is extremely venomous in its sting, and
a few cases have even resulted fatally.
I shall now cease my observations upon the
animal productions of the country, to offer some
brief remarks upon the flowers, fruits, and plants,
that flourish here. In Maulmain, if the uotanist
would desire to judge of the capacities of the

72 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
land, in regard to its vegetable productions, a
visit to the grounds belonging to Sir Archibald
Bogle, the late Commissioner, would afford him
much of valuable information. The park and
gardens are very extensive ; much care has been
expended in the arrangement of them, and
no little taste and skill exercised in the intro
duction and rearing of many choice plants and
flowers. I believe Sir Archibald will not be
offended, if I express my belief that the greater
portion of the merit due in effecting so much
that is instructive and pleasing to the botanist,
is to be attributed to his amiable daughter, now
Mrs. Carthew, whose excellent taste has been
manifested in all the arrangements". Roses of
several descriptions bloom in the gardens, and a
recent traveller has enumerated the following as
indigenous flowers — " the large pink flowered
knotty-cassia, the splendid orange-flowered
buteas, the white-flowered drooping Barring-
tonia, the fragant tabernce montana, the curious
gloriosa, the large blue-flowered thumbergia, and

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 73
a hundred others, too numerous to mention,
grow here, in wild luxuriance. A very common
weed in waste ground, and also in gardens,
is the mimosa sensitiva, which shrinks from
the slightest touch, bending to the ground, and
closing its leaves with singular rapidity."*
Orchids are abundant, and in great variety,
more than fifty different species having been
enumerated, and the nodding clerodendron
(clerodendron nutans) is found extensively in
Tavoy. Of the flowers, Mason says, that they
are " tinged with rose, but nearly white, grow
ing in long panicles, at the extremities of the
branches from which they make a graceful curve,
and hang down perpendicularly, from ten to
fifteen inches, like an inverted cone ; so that the
soft green foliage seems canopied with rosy
white veils."
A favourite flower of the Burmese and Indian
women is the champac (michalia champaca),
the blossoms of which are orange-coloured, and
* Winter's Six Months in Burmah.

74 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
of fragrant smell. The women entwine the blos
soms with their hair.
Three species of bamboos grow in the jungle,
the thorny bamboo (bambusa spinosa), the bam-
busa gigantia, and the bambusa nana. The
growth of this plant is very rapid, and either
species is used much for hedges and fences, for
which they are well adapted, the plant extending
so rapidly and closely, that the lower stems
form an almost impenetrable hedge.
Of palm-trees there are likewise several varie
ties. Foremost may be placed the cocoa-nut palm
(cocus nucifera), which is especially abundant
in the valleys of the rivers, and by the shores
of the sea. Then there is the betel palm
(areca catechu), which is chiefly valuable for
the nut which it produces, which is used by
the natives with the green leaf of the piper
betel, or betel vine (one of the pepperworts), for
chewing. In India, where its use for this pur
pose, by the natives, is universal, the areca nut
is an important article of commerce. I have

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 75
alluded to this custom elsewhere. A graceful
handsome tree, the Palmyra palm (borassus
fldbelliformis), is fou d generally planted in the
vicinity of the Kyoungs, and holy places. Lastly,
we have the Nipa, or water-palm, which some
what resembles the cocoa-nut palm in appear
ance, differing, however, in the stems. This
plant grows very abundantly in the Tavoy pro
vince, and the leaves are used extensively for
thatching the roofs of houses. From this tree
also is extracted (as well as from the cocoa-nut-
tree) the juice called toddy, a very refreshing
beverage, if taken very early in the morning,
before the sun has any material influence;.
but exceedingly intoxicating if drank after the
process of fermentation has commenced. It is-
generally used in making bread, as a substitute
for yeast. A duty used to be (and probably the
impost still continues) levied upon the sale of
this liquor to any others than bakers for the
legitimate purposes of their trade.
Amongst the fruits may be enumerated plan-

76 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
tains, or bananas, of several kinds, pineapples,
oranges, and limes ; besides guavas and lichis,
and two species of mango. The jack fruit
(artocarpus integrifolius) is very common, and
is much esteemed by the natives. The mango-
steen (garcinia mangostana) is cultivated in the
province of Mergui, but it will not flourish fur
ther north. It is a delicious fruit, bearing a
thick outer rind, which, when removed, discloses
a soft pulp in several sections, possessing the
most delightful flavour. But the fruit of all
fruits, in the estimation of the Burman, is the
dorian (durio zibethunis), which comes in at the
early part of the south-west monsoon. When
the shell, or rind, of this fruit, which grows in
a somewhat oval form, considerably larger than
the egg of an ostrich, is removed, the peculiar
smell would be calculated to deter persons of re
fined tastes from approaching it, although I have
heard it pronounced that, if that prejudice can
be overcome, the fruit is delicious. My impulse,
however, always was in favour of getting far

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 77
enough away from it, in order to avoid an odour
more unpleasant than that which arises from the
Thames at Blackfriars during the dog days.
Potatoes will it at thrive in the low lands, and
it is doubtful whether they could be successfully
cultivated in the hilly regions ; a species of yam
called the sweet potato, and the dark purple
yam, are abundant. Of the cereal grasses, rice
is produced in several varieties.
It would be impossible, within the limits of
this work, to enumerate and describe half the
vegetable productions which flourish in the
country. Dr. Griffith collected no less than one
thousand seven hundred different species of
plants, and, doubtless, fresh researches would
result in fresh discoveries. It was proposed to
establish horticultural gardens at Rangoon and
Maulmain, and it is more than probable the in
tention will be carried out, in which case we may
look for much interesting and important infor
mation in addition to that which we already
possess, regarding the vegetable capabilities of
the land.

78 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.

CHAPTER IV.
Literary reminiscences. — My newspaper. — Printer's
devils and devils of printers. — My troubles.— -
General D'Orgoni. — Final secession and return to
Maulmain.
On the occasion of my first visit to Rangoon,
some account of which I have already given,
Mr. Lewis, the then proprietor of the Rangoon
Chronicle newspaper, intimated to me his ex
pectations of an appointment in the Pegu Com
mission, and expressed a desire to find a pur
chaser of that property, as, in the event of his
nomination to office, he would not be able to
conduct the business appertaining to it. The
figure he named for the whole of the types,
cases, presses, and other furniture, was moderate,
and he waived any demand for the copyright of

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 79
the newspaper. The idea of becoming the pur
chaser myself occurred to me at the time, but
various considerations deterred me from imme
diately embarking in the speculation, especially
as Rangoon was then in a very unsettled state,
and consisted only of temporary tenements, so
that the proprietor might be obliged to move
his establishment, perhaps three or four times,
before he would be settled in a suitable location.
Some time afterwards, overtures were made
to me by a wealthy merchant, who had com
menced business in the place immediately after
its occupation by the British, to join him in the
proprietorship of the Chronicle, and to under
take the editorship myself. Some correspondence
ensued upon the subject, and, eventually, I
visited Rangoon, for the purpose of concluding
negociations one way or the other.
The Rangoon Chronicle had been started
under peculiar circumstances, and its existence
was an illustration of energy and perseverance of
no ordinary character. Mr. Lewis was proprie-

80 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
prietor of a press and printing materials at
Maulmain when hostilities with the Burmese
commenced in Pegu ; no sooner, however, did
intelligence of the occupation of Rangoon reach
him than it occurred to him that it would be a
good speculation to remove his establishment to-
that place, rightly conceiving that a printing
office and an advertising sheet in a place which
was sure to be soon occupied by traders and ad
venturers of all sorts, would be desiderata of
considerable importance. He accordingly shipped*
his presses, type, and household goods on board
a vessel bound for the Irrawadi, and accompanied-
them thither himself. Having personally seen,
the condition of Rangoon eighteen [months after
its occupation, I can form, perhaps, a tolerable
notion of the difficulties Mr. Lewis must have
had to contend against on his arrival there. T he-
plain upon which the city now stands was one
vast heap of ruins, and people crowded together
in wretched sheds of bamboo matting, or under
shelter of canvas tents. Private individuals had.

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 81
the greatest difficulty in hiring labourers, for
nearly all the coolies on the spot were employed
in the Government service, and such labour as
could by any possibility be obtained, was paid for
at enormous rates. Before removing his effects
from the vessel it was necessary to procure
something like a habitation — no easy matter in
a place where pretty nearly every man was his
own builder. Cabins that were at all compara
tively habitable, fetched almost fabulous rents,
and to erect one for himself would involve much
time and no end of expense. These prelimi
nary difficulties being overcome, many others
ensued no less discouraging. Mr. Lewis had
brought compositors with him, but East Indian
compositors are not always the most trustworthy
class of men, as a body, that one could desire to
be associated with, especially those who consider
it desirable to emigrate ; for a good steady com
positor can always obtain lucrative employment
in the presidencies. These men sometimes occa
sioned him much annoyance and loss. However,
VOL. II. G

82 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
notwithstanding all obstacles, disappointments,
and vexations, Mr. Lewis commenced business
in Rangoon as a printer, agent, auctioneer, and
established the Rangoon Chronicle newspaper,
published bi-weekly.
This gazette at first was but a single sheet,
but it nevertheless assumed a character of
some importance. The authorities patronized
it as a vehicle for the publication of the Govern
ment proclamations, notifications, and advertise
ments. Merchants and shopkeepers advertised
their commodities in its columns, and the public
generally read extracts of Indian news and small
paragraphs relating to matters of local interest.
The speculation prospered, and when the affairs
of the new settlement had assumed something
like an appearance of order, the newspaper was
enlarged " to meet the growing requirements of
the community."
Perhaps it would have been better for the
prosperity of the paper if its conductors had
adhered to what appeared to have been the ori-

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 83
ginal intention, namely, the publication of adver
tisements, extracts from other papers, and the
mention of occurrences without additional com
ment. The concern was as yet too young to
justify the engagement of an experienced editor,
and, unfortunately, a good deal of matter found
admission in its columns which certainly ought
not to have been seen there. Mr. Lewis was
unable to attend to the literary department him
self, from the multiplicity of his other engage
ments, and he was obliged to depend a very
great deal upon the contributions of friends and
the favours of correspondents for a proper quan
tity of original matter. Under these circum
stances many of the leading articles which ap
peared in the Chronicle were carelessly written,
and often ungrammatical in their composition,
and obscure in their drift. Its columns, too,
were sometimes disfigured by personalities and
little bits of local gossip of the most frivolous
character, which detracted greatly from its
respectability, and, to a certain extent, affected
g 2

84 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
its circulation. Subscriptions fell off rather
than increased, so that at the time when I found
myself in treaty for its purchase, it could not be
said to be a very flourishing concern. It was
paying its expenses, which is pretty nearly all
that can be said in its favour, and a certain
monthly sum accrued from contracts for adver
tisements. Taking into account these circumstances, it
will be seen that considerations of some import
ance to me bade me pause before embarking on
the proposed enterprise. I had a lucrative prac
tice in Maulmain, which was, indeed, increasing,
and on retiring from that practice I should
necessarily be obliged to refund various sums of
money paid to me for assistance as yet unren-
dered. On the other hand, Rangoon was
rapidly growing in importance, and its popu
lation was daily increasing. The Rangoon
Chronicle was the only newspaper in the new
colony, and although it did not at present rank
high in the estimation of cotemporary journals,

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 85
or in the opinion of the public, I believed I had
it in my power to raise its tone and to render it
of some commercial and political importance.
I could not have reasonably anticipated any
immediate aggrandizement from my connec
tion with the Chronicle ; as to the ultimate
results, my views, I confess, were ambitious.
Holding, as I then did, a tolerably good opinion
of my own abilities, and conscious of the very
best intentions with regard to the conduct of
the paper, I built innumerable castles upon the
foundation of the influence which I calculated
I should establish in a short time through my
position as editor and proprietor of the only legi
timate newspaper in Burmah. So I determined
to be a party to the undertaking. The purchase
was effected, the transfer duly made, and press,
types, cases, ink, paper, &c. &c. &c, accordingly
became the property of self and partner.
If I could have foreseen all the difficulties
which presented themselves before me almost
immediately after assuming charge of the busi-

86 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
ness, I certainly should never have ventured
upon an undertaking so serious. I had of
course ascertained to a rupee what the monthly
expenses of the establishment had been, and
knew exactly what had been the average in
comings for the past twelvemonth. Neither
myself nor partner expected to derive any mate
rial profit from our operations for the first six
months, but we fully calculated upon an in
creasing subscription-list, and as the settlement
grew in importance, some additions to our num
ber of advertisers. But no sooner had I en
tered upon my new duties than compositors and
pressmen all demanded an increase in their
wages. They were the men who had been in
the service of Mr. Lewis, but their service with
him, they said, having expired, they wanted
more money. I consulted Mr. Lewis upon the
subject, and that gentleman kindly remonstrated
with the men, but they were obstinate. They
must have higher wages or they would leave,
and they were the only men in the trade avail-

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 87
able in Rangoon. I exerted all my powers of per
suasion in the endeavour to induce them to waive
their demand for a month, at all events, when
perhaps I would be enabled to judge how far the
position of affairs would justify such an increase
in my office expenses. I prevailed with them
at length to wait a month, fully determining, in
my own mind, to import a number of pressmen
and compositors from Calcutta upon binding
contracts of service, rather than be at the mercy
of such a set of extortioners as those I then had
about me. My partner accordingly forwarded
the necessary instructions for that purpose to an
agent in Calcutta, and I made up my mind in
the meantime to do the best I could under then
existing circumstances.
My printing and newspaper establishment
consisted altogether of ten people, namely, five
compositors, two pressmen, a duffadar, a dur-
wan, and a clerk. The compositors were all
Madras East Indians, as they called themselves.
The term " East Indians," according to the most

88 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
approved definition, comprises all those persons
born in India who adopt the English costume.
The propriety of the term has long been a sub
ject of controversy amongst the more influential
of the half-caste portions of the populations of
the three presidencies, opinion being divided
between the merits of no less than three different
designations — East Indians, Eurasians, and
Indo-Britons. The majority of them speak the
English language, but are far more eloquent
and grammatical in the several vernaculars. A
good many of the class, however, in the presi
dencies and elsewhere, can boast of superior
education, and not a few have displayed talent
of very high order. There are, of course, vari
ous grades of East Indians ; there are the direct
children of European parents born in the coun
try, who of course hold a similar position to
Europeans ; those who are once removed, being
children of European fathers and half-caste
mothers, and so on, down to those who are so
very far removed that all trace of their European
descent is lost in the dim distance. Most of

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 89
these pretend to be descendants of the old Por
tuguese settlers, and assume the names of their
alleged ancestors, as De Vaz, D'Sena, De Pinto,
De Souza, Rozario, De Monte, and other similar
appellations. Of this latter class were my com
positors ; — a sort of hybrid set, neither fish, flesh,
fowl, nor good red herring ; or, if they were
anything, approximating (if I may be excused
the pun) decidedly to the foul. Travel had
certainly not improved their habits, as a body.
They were dirty and dissipated, and the con
sciousness that I was wholly dependent upon
them for the regular issue of the paper twice a
week, doubtless, in their opinion, justified the
assumption of an air of insolence and swagger
which would have amused me under less trying
circumstances. I found it impossible to prevent
them from getting drunk at Easter. They
were all Catholics, and I believe esteemed it a
sort of religious obligation to celebrate the Sun
day and Monday of that season in bacchanalian
orgies. On the Tuesday they were of course
suffering from the effects of the previous two

90 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
days' libations, so that the getting out of the
Wednesday's issue of the Chronicle was no easy
matter. By dint of cajolery, bribery, and pro
mises of brandy when the work should be
finished, and other devices, I contrived to get
two or three of them to the office, and was
obliged to take a composing stick in hand my
self and set up my own leaders.
At first I was obliged to sleep in my printing-
office, being unable to procure a house in the
town at the time for love or money. The print
ing-office was on the lower floor of a brick
dwelling-house, the upper story being occupied
by a timber merchant and his family. It con
sisted of two apartments, tolerably large, one
being assigned to the compositors, the other
being occupied by the printing presses. I had
the place where the presses stood railed off;
partitioned off a space about twelve feet square
for my sanctum, and furnished this space with
a sofa, a table, and two chairs. I wrote at the
table during the day, and at night slept on the

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 91
sofa. The rent charged for these lower premises
was a hundred rupees a month, or one hundred
and twenty pounds per annum, the extent of
room being somewhere about thirty feet square.
I did succeed, eventually, in obtaining a dwell
ing house. It was one of the domiciles in God
free's range. I have once before described the
locality, which, when I took up my residence there,
presented exactly the same aspect as it did in
October, 1854. My compartment of the centre
range of barracks consisted of three chambers,
and a narrow verandah fronting the street. The
next compartment to mine, on one side, was
occupied by an East Indian clerk, who main
tained a harem of Burmese women. The next,
on the other side, was tenanted by a man and
his wife, both of intemperate habits, with a
family of noisy children. Through the divisions
of the boarding which constituted the party
wall between each dwelling, could be seen all
that transpired in the apartments of the neigh
bours. They could, of course, in like manner,

92 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
make themselves cognizant of my domestic ar
rangements. Not liking such easy publicity
myself, I caused canvas to be nailed all over the
walls, which I had whitewashed, an arrangement
which, in addition to securing comparative pri
vacy in regard to my household concerns, served
to make my rooms much lighter, and to invest
them with a more elegant appearance than was
presented by the domiciles of my neighbours. I
had my floors, which otherwise would not have
been over safe to walk about upon, covered with
thick bamboo matting, with an upper cover of
fine China matting, so that, at last, the interior
of the place really looked habitable.
I was recommended by my partner to apply
to the Deputy Commissioner for a license to
practise in the local courts as a pleader, the sug
gestion probably arising from the circumstance
that he, himself, had a good deal of law busi
ness pending, which he was desirous I should
undertake. My application was granted with
out examination, on account of the position I had

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 93
held in Maulmain, and I was duly gazetted as an
admitted vakeel. As there were only three licensed
pleaders beside myself, at the timeof my'admission,
no sooner had I been announced as a member of
the Rangoon bar, than my office was beset with
natives, who came to me to advise them upon
their affairs, with reference to transactions in
which the law might help them by any possi
bility, either as complainers or defenders. This
would not have mattered had my business been
solely that of a pleader, but as my newspaper
required very much of my attention, not merely as
an editor, but as conductor of the arrangements
of the concern generally, I had little to bestow
upon the vile multitude. To obviate the incon
venience, I insisted upon a fee of five rupees
before I would grant an interview. Such of the
applicants for my services, as really had any locus
standi in reference to a suit contemplated or
impending, paid the fee. Those whose cases
were hopeless went their ways.
However, I soon found it impracticable to

94 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
pursue my calling as an advocate, and my voca
tion as newspaper editor and proprietor, without
some assistance in my labours, and I accordingly
made an engagement with a young man to keep
the books of the Chronicle office, to take orders
for job work and advertisements, and officiate, in
fact, as general manager of the business details
of the establishment — my partner coinciding
in the arrangement. This young man was an
European, and had been an officer in her Majesty's
service. His age was scarcely more than two-
and-twenty. He had served in Australia with
his regiment, and had been cashiered for drunk
enness. I had known him in Madras, where
a friend of mine procured him a situation in a
Government office. He conducted himself so
well in this appointment, that when an estab
lishment was being organized for Burmah, he
was ordered thither on increased pay, and so
won upon the goodwill of his superiors that he
was soon promoted to the situation of purser in
the Company's Marine, and was made store-

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 95
keeper at one of the stations on the Irrawadi.
Here, unhappily for him, the old propensity re^
turned to him. He fell into temptation, and
after various instances of intoxication, was dis
missed the service. Knowing his antecedents^
perhaps I might have expected a recurrence to
former habits on his part, but he made such
faithful promises to me, that I determined upon
giving him a trial. I always kept a bottle, con
taining more or less brandy, in the cupboard of my
bookcase. One day, when I left office to go
to dinner, it was nearly full ; when I returned,'
I saw the bottle on my writing table, emptied;
and my clerk helplessly drunk in his chair. I
had him conveyed to my palanquin and sent
liim home. Two days afterwards, he came pro
fessedly repentant, and begged to be reinstated.
My partner was absent from Rangoon, and so,
compassionating his apparent distress, I took
him back again and removed from his reach the
means of temptation. A week, afterwards >he
received his month's salary. Next day he did

96 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
not appear, nor the day after. As his work
was considerably in arrear, and as I could not
find the requisite documents to enable me to go
on with it, I went to his quarters myself to as
certain the cause of his non-appearance, which
however I pretty well guessed. On arriving at;
a filthy little mat bungalow near the stockade,.
which was pointed out to me by my bearers as.
his abode, I entered, and there I saw my clerk
and another young man. The former was-
stretched on the floor, having evidently fallen
from his cot, fast asleep, breathing stertorously
and half naked. The other was lying on his-
cot, and when I made my appearance tried to-
ask me who I wanted? An empty brandy
bottle stood upon a ricketty table, and two more
were visible in a corner of the room. I quitted*
the place much disgusted, and exceedingly angry
with my employee*. He was a young man of good
natural abilities, and when sober, was of very pre
possessing manners, but none of the hard lessons
which he had received were sufficient to induce-

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 97
him to withstand the allurements of the Demon
Drink, under whose auspices he seemed com
pelled to continue his career.
I then resolved to join my legal practice with
that of another licenced pleader, who had ob
tained his certificate only a few days before my
admission ; a very worthy, clever, and industrious
young man, and a first-rate linguist in the native
tongues. The arrangement was, that he was to
transact the chamber business, and that my
labour was to be confined solely to conducting
in court the more intricate and important cases ;
thus leaving me at liberty to devote much of
my time to my newspaper and printing office, in
which I then had occasion only to employ one
clerk to make out bills, copy letters, keep the
day and petty cash books, &c.
About this time the compositors engaged by
our Calcutta agent arrived at Rangoon. About
an hour after the arrival of the steamer, they
came in a body to the office, eight of them
altogether. Their appearance was something
VOL. II. H

98 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
similar to the other lot, and most of them
rejoiced in Portuguese surnames. The com
plexion of the majority was sable, in mourning
perhaps for the peccadilloes of their illustrious an
cestors who came over with Albuquerque, Vasco
di Gama and Tristan Vaz, centuries ago, and con
tracted liasons with the dusky beauties of Hin
dostan. Somehow or other, by the way, the breed
must have suffered degeneration, for these people
generally are considerably darker skinned than
the aborigines themselves. I received them
graciously, but was somewhat staggered when
the foreman enquired of me where they were to
find lodgings? I had not the remotest idea,
and knew not how to answer them. I suggested
that they should go to Mr. Peter Hopkins, the
head constable of police, and solicit his assistance
in the matter, as he was probably the most
likely person to be of service to them in their
dilemma, and I gave them a note to deliver to
that functionary. They went away on their
errand, but returned an hour or two after-

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 99
wards, with the information that Mr. Hopkins
knew of no place in the town where they could
be accommodated. At length it was arranged
that for that night they should spread their
bedding on the floor of the printing office and
sleep there, and seek other quarters on the fol
lowing day. At night I paid off most of the
old hands, and dismissed them without a bene
diction. But the old compositors had already had
communication with the new, and sown in their
bosoms the seeds of discontent. My partner
had been guilty of a grievous error in the in
structions forwarded to his agent relative to the
engagement of these men, of which we very
shortly reaped the bitter fruits. A North Briton,
he professed to act, in business matters, upon
those principles of economy which are said to be
generally characteristic of Scotchmen; and ac
cordingly, in order to keep the expenses of the
establishment at as low a figure as possible,
these people had been hired at the average rate
H 2

100 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
of wages paid to men of their trade in Calcutta,
where provisions, rent, and all the necessaries of
life were obtainable at about a third of the price
paid for them at Rangoon. I had remonstrated
against this proceeding when it was suggested
to me, as I knew it would be impossible for men
to live and provide for their families upon the
wages agreed upon, and I predicted all the
annoyance and trouble to which we should be
subjected in consequence of such mistaken par
simony. Disgusted at our non-compliance with
their demand for higher pay, and the consequent
engagement of fresh hands, the discharged
workmen did not fail to represent to the new
comers all the disadvantages which they would
have to suffer from the insufficiency of the re
muneration for their labour for which they had
contracted, and painted, with much exaggeration
in the details, the gloomiest picture of their
situation which it was possible to render.
On my arrival at the office on the following
morning, the new foreman (who appeared to be

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 101
a respectable man) came to me, and fairly re
presented to me all that he had heard upon the
matter, and solicited my advice under the cir
cumstances. Each man had signed an engage
ment for twelve months, at certain stipulated
wages, under penalty for any default. A
month's wages had been advanced to each before
leaving Calcutta, and their passage money had
been paid by our agent. I promised to inter
fere in the matter, and do all in my power to
assist them directly on my partner's return,
which I expected in a few days. With this
assurance all appeared satisfied ; but shortly aftei-
wards three* of the number were missed, and
after the gun from the dockyard had announced
the departure of the steamer, I was informed
that the absent trio had deserted, and had em
barked for Calcutta.
Then the foreman objected to proceed with
the office work, unless some definite understand
ing were come to, when I fairly lost my temper,
and gave him to understand unmistakeably, that if

102 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
he and the men did not immediately set to work,
I would forthwith seek the assistance of the
magistrate and have every soul of them
punished. At first he doubted my competency
to do this ; but I soon convinced him, by shewing
to him the local regulation, relating to workmen
and servants, which provided for such contin
gencies as the one to which he and his confreres
were subjecting me. They then went to their
cases, but with a very bad grace ; and had I not
remained on the spot all day (eating my meals
at the office), and until daylight on the following
morning, the usual issue of the newspaper would
certainly not have made its appearance for the
behoof and edification of the Rangoon public.
There were about the Rangoon Courts, Indo-
Portuguese and Eurasian petition-writers, seedy
pettifoggers, who professed to be jurisconsults,
and to one of these my foreman went to obtain
legal advice. Acting upon the suggestion of
this quasi lawyer, he came to me and informed
me that as the letter of engagement had been

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 103
broken by three of the parties to it, it was void
as to the rest, and he should not consider him
self any longer bound by it. I could not help
laughing at his simplicity in spite of my chagrin,
but I thought it better to call all my men before
me, and offer a kind and temperate remon
strance upon their conduct.
I told them that as regarded their salaries
there was possibly some little mistake which
might be susceptible of rectification so soon as
my partner returned, but that any alteration in
the terms of their engagement, in respect to
bettering their condition, would entirely depend
upon their good behaviour, pending the final
adjustment of the matter. I gave them dis
tinctly to understand that their supposition, that
their contract was nil, because of the laches of
the three deserters, was a fallacy, and that the
sooner they abandoned such an absurd notion the
better it would be for the peace of their respective
minds. I urged that I had from the first coincided
in the reasonableness of their complaints, but was

104 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
powerless to act alone in affording them satis
faction ; but that, so far from endeavouring to
gain their ends by a few days' patience, and a
manifestation of willingness to serve with zeal
and fidelity, they had offered every kind of op
position to my views, and had subjected me to
all the annoyance of threats, which, if carried
out, would have subjected them to imprison
ment and labour in irons, and myself to serious
inconvenience and loss. I concluded by begging
of them, for their own sakes, as well as for the
sake of their employers, to apply themselves to
their duties with industry, until some compro
mise could be come to with regard to future
arrangements. The foreman then begged that
the wages of the three deserters might be
equitably divided between the remainder, on
account of the extra work entailed on them.
I replied that I could not promise that, but that
all extra work should be paid for, according to
the rates received by the compositors formerly
belonging to the establishment. They then

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 105
betook themselves to their work with apparent
good will, and continued to behave decently
until I was enabled, after consulting my partner,
to offer them more liberal and fairer terms,
when all further misunderstanding with them
ceased. My reporter rejoiced in the name of De
Sylva. He was short, and rather thickly set, but
knock-kneed, and one of the ugliest men I ever
saw. His age might, perhaps, have been five-
and-forty, his colour was jet black, and his hair
was partially grey. I gave him sixteen rupees
per month, to bring me accounts of cases at
the police court, and reports of any accidents, or
facts, of local interest that might come under
his cognizance.
Unfortunately, the cacoethes scribendi was
with him, apparently, an infirmity. He would
bring me reports of petty larcenies, or common
assaults, so plastered with words, that their
intention would be wholly undiscoverable. The
following is a specimen which I have kept by

106 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
me, which I believe was to be intended to be a
humorous, jocose, and witty account of a
police case : —
" Police Court, l(esterday. — Our super
abundantly esteemed and eulogistically estimated
chief magistrate of police, the worthy Dr.
Morton, was engaged deliberately all day in
intrinsically investigating an excessive variety
of elucidations of cases an East-Indian sailor,
called a seacunny, named, Antonio Gomez,
being charged before the worthy Dr. Morton,
with being of intoxicated state and making
great commotions before the godowns of Messrs.
Gladstone, Wyllie, and Co., in Hundred-feet-
road, Strand, which was inordinately filled to
overflowing with immense concourse of natives
and other individuals witnessing the assault, and
the abusive language which the defendant made
use of most abominable being deprived of his
hat, and his garments suffering disfigurement
whereby his intuitive respectability of appear
ance suffered considerable deterioration and

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 107
greatly impaired. Our worthy and esteemed
chief magistrate, Dr. Morton, in the exercise
and demonstration of his judicial functions and
usual prolific sympathy and benevolent princi
ples — fined five rupees for being drunk, and
assaults upon the Jamadar-Moung-Tung whose
upper lip excruciatingly lacerated by the de
fendant, or a month's imprisonment in the
' House-that-Jack-built,' when defendant was
locked up for want of payment."
Soon after I assumed charge of the Chronicle,
some little commotion was occasioned in certain
circles, by the return from Europe, to Burmah,
of General D'Orgoni, a French military ad
venturer, who, it was understood had, previously
to the recent hostilities, enjoyed the confidence of
the King of Ava and instructed the imperial
troops in the stratagems of war. Some portion
of the Indian press hazarded a variety of sur
mises respecting the motives which induced his
return ; but I think it was pretty generally believed
that he came accredited to the Court of Ava, as
the emissary of France.

108 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
D'Orgoni stayed but a few days at Rangoon,
taking up his quarters at the house of a gentle
man with whom I was acquainted, and who
invited me one evening to meet his guest. I
gladly accepted the invitation, and was duly
introduced to the General, and his suite, which
consisted of two young French gentlemen, one
of whom he styled his secretary, the other being
his aid-de-camp.
The general was of a middle height, between
forty and fifty years of age, but looked consider
ably older. His face was broad and bluff, his
hair thin and grizzled, and he wore a'moustache.
His air and appearance were decidedly of the
French military order. His face appeared bronzed
with travel, and he had an ugly scar on the chin.
He was not altogether a prepossessing-looking
man, and his conversation generally struck me
as being bombastic and egotistical. Pehaps the
following, extracted from the United Service
Gazette, may not be out of place ; and as the
article is interesting, and rather amusing, I

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 109
need not apologize for giving it prominence
here : —
" The name of this French adventurer has
appeared occasionally in the public papers of
India and England, first in connection with the
Burmese war of 1852-53, and afterwards with
the Mutiny in India. His movements, his pre
sumed talents, and his alleged influence, excited
no kind of emotion among Englishmen, and we
should have forgotten that such a person had
ever existed, but for a long article recently
published in the Moniteur de V Armee, which
enters very fully into the career of the itinerant
general, and endeavours to raise the merest free
lance to the dignity of a leader, a minister, and
a prince !
" Voyons. This d'Orgoni, to begin with, is
not a d'Orgoni at all. His real name is Gi-
rodon — of which d'Orgoni is an elegant ana
gram. When people adopt aliases in this country
a vulgar suspicion is cast around their proceed
ings, but in France such transformations are

110 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
made, as a matter of course, to suit the peculiar
circumstances of individuals. Thus, says the
Moniteur de V Armee, ' un nom etrange sort a
merveille a une etrange existence' and M. Gi-
rodon 'a conquis le nom (d'Orgoni) parade
rudes travaux et de romanesques pelerinages.'
Whether they were travaux forces, or volun
tary, which led the ' general ' to renounce
his baptismal appellation for a time does not
appear. " Louis Charles Girodon was born in 'the
environs of Blois in 1811 — the year of the great
comet — a year portentous of mighty events, and
fruitful of mighty men. Nothing much is known
of Louis until 1830. Up to that time he had
only read of war, and filled his imagination with
the stirring events of Beaupreau, de Chalet, and
les Aubiers. But in 1830 he followed the for
tunes of Charles Dix, and lived in England
and Scotland. In 1832 he returned to France
as Captain Charles — ' Girodon disparait pour
toujours.' Proudly mounting a horse, and head-

four years in burmah. ,™ 1 i i
ng a small band of deluded peasants, he went
forth to aid the cause of the Duchess De
Berri, in Vendee. A brigade of regular infantry
met the insurgents, and our poor Captain
' Charles ' got a ball in his chin, a broken leg,
and a horse killed under him. Judged and con
demned as a rebel, the myrmidons of the law
pursued him ; but he fled to England, the com
mon asylum of refugee Frenchmen, from Louis
XVIII. to Napoleon III., and was safe.
" English life was lourde — unsuited to the
ardent temperament of Charles. The fra
grance of the gunpowder he used in fowling-
pieces was nothing to the perfume of the poudre
de guerre. He cast aside the slothful existence
of a gentleman in Leicester-square, and girded
on a sword for the sake of Don Miguel. At
Oporto he was struck down by a musket shot.
Don Miguel decorated him. He again honored
England with his presence, in the suite of some
Spanish exiled Princes. In 1836, Charles,
now called d'Orgoni, married the eldest daughter

112 four years in burmah.
of General Bouvet de Lozier. Family affairs
now took our friend to the China Seas, but at
Bourbon he lost his wife — then married her
sister — and four years afterwards lost his second
wife. Overwhelmed by an immense and pro
found grief, he quitted the isle for ' fresh oceans-
and worlds new.' He wandered about South
America, sometimes in the Pampas, occasionally
on the banks of the river Amazon — which
received his tears and was swollen accordingly.
Thence he crossed the Atlantic, and gave South
Africa the benefit of his presence. From the-
Cape he went to Madagascar, seeking the hospi
tality of the Malgaches, and Studying the.
laws of Radama as a preparation for a flight
to the States of Monomotapa ! He proceeded
to the continent of Africa, and traversed the
vast countries unknown, according to the Moni
teur, to Europeans. When at the mouth of the
river Zambeza — ' up which he travelled for
1,500 miles, hunting, dreaming, admiring,'
d'Orgoni formed an audacious project which he

four years in burmah. 113
at once proceeded to realise. He was vis-a-vis
to India. One evening, when the sun had dis
appeared behind the horizon, his spirit invoked
the glorious souvenirs of his country. From
amidst the mists which covered the sea that
separated him from the poetic land of India, the
ghosts of Dupleix and Labourdonnais arose.
They marshalled him the way he was to go.
He resolved to embark for India. Here the
Moniteur sublimely observes —
" ' Que sont, aupres de ces grandes pensees
d'un pauvre pelerin, les mesquines ambitions
de la cite !'
" Pursuing the course prescribed by the spirits
of the waters, d'Orgoni reached the Malabar
coast, and sitting amidst the ruins of the palaces
of Goa, where .everything spoke of Albuquerque,
he began to devote himself to political and
military studies, with a view to the interests of
the people of India — ' that people whose future
is as mysterious as their past.' The Anglo-
Indian Government, and the state of Hindostan,
vol. II. i

1,14 four years in burmah.
particularly engaged his attention. For some
years he remained at Bombay, but the Moniteur
knows nothing of his romantic adventures in
that dull Presidency. Here, however, he seems
to have learned that Dupleix was baffled by
the English, and the Portuguese power founded
by Gama and Albuquercue in like manner
upset by the same bold people. So he dropped
the Hindoos, like a hot potato, and went off to
Calcutta, en route to Ava, having had some
new dream of white elephants, Boondela and
Buddhj all doubtless crying out to France to
aid them against oppressive England. His
departure from Calcutta excited, of course, the
most lively apprehensions in the bosom of Lord
Dalhousie. On dit—a saving clause that —
(that a vessel was sent in pursuit of the future
Dupleix ! Lord Dalhousie tore all his hair
off his head — knocked down Mr. HaLLI-
¦day, and strangled a Khetmutghar, in his
rage at the escape of the brave pelerin. All
¦ Calcutta began to arm — on dit. In the' mean
time, d'Orgoni reached the Court of Ava, and

four years in burmah. 115
' stood between India and China ! ' — Magnifi
cent attitude ! — impenetrable barrier ! The
King of Ava — a person of marvellous percep
tion — at once discovered d'Orgoni's great
merit. The King of Lilliput was not quicker
to discern the worth of Captain Lemuel Gul
liver as an ally in the Blefuscan war. In
defiance of the jealousies, of his courtiers, the
Lord of the White Elephant created d'Orgoni,
General above all his Generals, and Prime
Minister. The Moniteur unhappily cannot
report the speeches that were made in the long
interviews of d'Orgoni with the King of Ava.
The world will mourn the irreparable privation.
"Invested with power, d'Orgoni proceeded
to organise the Burmese Army. Sixty thousand
men were equipped, and we are now told that
d'Orgoni's wars were successful; the tide of
Anglo-Indian invasion was checked, and rolled
hack by the invincible hand of the Frenchman ;
not, however — truth might have added —
until our troops had heartily thrashed the
I 2

116 four years in burmah.
Burmese and their leader, and wrested from
them Pegu, Prome, &c !
" D'Orgoni's triumph (the little addition we
have supplied being overlooked) furnishes the
Moniteur with a splendid apostrophe —
" c How great is this French people, whose
isolated sons are, even in the most distant
countries, the arbiters of the destinies of na
tions ! '
" Well ; such mighty services were not to go
without their reward, so the Ava monarch
created our pilgrim a Prince of the Empire, and
the herald cried to the assembled people —
" ' D'Orgoni, neh-myo-ti-hi-zeh-ah !' which,
in the classic or Pali language, means ' d'Or
goni, cousin of the Emperor, the man of beau
tiful appearance — the General of victory ! '
" Wonderfully expressive are these Oriental
languages — ' Voil une langue admirable que
ce ture ! ' Nevertheless, like M. Jourdain,
who never could have supposed that Marababa
Sahem meant ' Ah ! que je suis amoureux

four years in burmah. 117
d'elle,' we have our doubts of the version to
which we are treated by the Moniteur.
" Having conquered the English in Burmah,
Louis Charles Girodon — alias Charles —
alias d'Orgoni — returned to France, honoured
England — the humbled land, on whose prostrate
sons he had planted his iron heel — with a third
visit, and then went to Rome, to kiss the sacred
toe of the venerable Pontiff, He obtained the
blessing of His Holiness, and a third wife, and
embarked recently for India, via the Red Sea,
en route to his palace at Ava. A special
steamer is to be in waiting at Rangoon, to
convey the General and Mrs. d'Orgoni —
Heaven forgive us ! — the ' Prince and Princess,'
to Ava, if the waters of the Irrawaddy should
be deep enough for so precious a freight ; and,
when there, the brave d'Orgoni, whose head
is full of gigantic projects, is to divdide his
attention between Burmese matters, the spread
of Christianity in China, and the other little
affairs, which loom in the distance. Hear the
Moniteur : —

118 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
" LTnde elle m£me touche a l'heure d'une
transformation et la Cochin Chine voit luire nos
baionettes. Autour d'Orgoni, autour de ce
hardi compagnon, L'Humanite va faire un
grand pas ! ! ! "
*****
I had been, as I have before intimated, a
writer for the Indian press for some years, but
my connection with newspapers had been con
fined to those published in the three presidencies,.
and I had never before been associated with any
provincial Indian journal. The literary labour
involved in my present undertaking was trifling,.
but the worry concomitant upon it was excessive.
The editor of a provincial Indian newspaper,
besides being the exponent of the political ques
tions of the day, so far as they affect local inte
rests or the welfare of the state, is expected to
be the arbiter of private differences and the
medium for the redress or publication of indivi
dual grievances. If there is a mess-table dispute,
he is supposed to chronicle it; and if Mrs. Major
P. slights Mrs. Captain Q., he receives letters

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 119
from the friends of both parties setting forth the
merits relating to the misunderstanding. If he
declines to interfere, he gives mortal offence and
loses a subscriber; if he does publish corre
spondence upon such subjects, he offends others
and loses two. If a Mofussil journalist criti
cises the conduct of a public officer in any way
which may be considered detrimental to the in
dividual whose official conduct may deserve con
demnation, he arouses a nest of hornets, who
forthwith mark him for their victim. There is
some semblance of independence in the Presi
dency newspapers — none in the provincial prints.
The consequence is, that scarcely one Mofussil
paper is free from scurrilities and trivialities
which would shame Little Pedlington, whilst the
more important concerns of the public are left
comparatively unnoticed. To steer clear of all
this contemptible folly is a matter of trial and
difficulty, and requires the exercise of tact and
determination. But mine was a peculiarly deli
cate position. My paper was the only Govern
ment Gazette, and if I wrote strongly in oppo-

120 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
sition to any obnoxious Government measure, I
ran great risk of losing a most desirable source
of profit. My office was beset with grievance-,
mongers who claimed my editorial advocacy, and
when I sought refuge in my house, they followed
me even there. From morning till dark night
I could obtain no moment's peace. What with
compositors, visitors, petitioners, clients, corre
spondence, accounts, leaders, bills to pay and
receipts to grant, I only wonder I was not driven
out of my wits. At last I was forced to retire
from the struggle, for my health began to give
way under the trial. I edited the paper for
about six months, and during that time made
more enemies than I believe I ever could reckon
during the other portions of my life, before or
since, and I felt that nothing ever so well became
me as the leaving it.
As an illustration of the style in which In
dian provincial newspapers are sometimes con
ducted, I may mention a circumstance which
occurred in connection with one of the most
popular of the Mofussil prints issued in the

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 121
North West Provinces. The editor and pro
prietor of the paper was a gentleman of parts,
a graduate of a university, and a barrister-at-
law. At the time when the Rt. Rev. the Bishop
of Exeter and the Rev. Mr. Gorham were en
gaged in their rather unseemly dispute, the home
papers were filled with the particulars of the
controversy, to the exclusion of matter that would
have been of far greater interest to the Indian
reader. Mail after mail brought us newspapers,
whole columns of which were occupied with facts
and comments connected with this, to us, most
uninteresting topic. I can imagine this gentle
man seated in his editorial chair, after dinner,
surrounded by English newspapers, on the day
of the arrival of the overland mail, and nothing
but large ^.headings pointing to " The Gorham
Case" meeting his eye. I can imagine a printer's
devil entering his sanctum, and asking for
" copy." " Copy ! — what shall I write about ? —
the Gorham Case— aye, that will do " — (writes)
" The Gorham Case — Damn the Gorham
case." This strip of paper certainly found its

122 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
way into the printing-room, and next day the
newspaper was circulated all over India, with
that brief heading and sentence by way of leader.
In all these cases the editor is more or less
identified with the journal he conducts, and
every line of original matter which appears is
attributed to him. He is hated and feared,
though perhaps feted ahd lionised, and his'
position is generally unenviable in the extreme.
One motive for my resigning my editorial
responsibilities (and perhaps not the least
potent one) was, that I saw plainly that the
pecuniary returns of the Chronicle would
never compensate me for the time and labour
expended upon it, and that I must either aban
don my legal avocations, or give up my paper.
I chose the latter alternative. I did not, how
ever, long continue my practice in Rangoon. I
was not fond of the place, and I did not enjoy
the best of health there ; so I took an early
opportunity of settling my affairs in the settle
ment, and returned to Maulmain and my old
friends and clients.

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 123<

CHAPTER V.
Petroleum — The wells at Ramangong — Mode of pro
curing the oil, its uses, &c.
Amongst the natural productions of Burmah
which have assumed considerable commercial
importance, is the mineral oil called Petroleum,
very large quantities of which are at present
imported into England, chiefly by one firm, for
the manufacture of a certain description of can
dle, for which a patent has, I believe, been.
obtained. The trade in this article at present may be
considered a monopoly so far as regards its ex
portation to this country, but as it is likely, I

124 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
should imagine, at some future day, to become
of more general application, a brief description
of the commodity, the locality from which it is
procured, and the mode of obtaining it, may,
perhaps, be interesting to the reader.
The Petroleum wells are situated in the
vicinity of a village called Renau-Khaung, which
signifies, the town through which flows a river
of earth oil. A small creek runs up to the
village from the river, which is about three miles
distant, and which is during the rainy season
crowded with boats which convey the oil in
earthen chatties to the Katoos that await their
reception in the Irrawadi. A writer in the Penny
Cyclopcedia* thus describes the country in the
neighbourhood of these wells : —
" The vallev of the Irrawadi, south of its con-
fiuence with the Kyan Duayu, to the town of
Melloon (south of 20deg. N. lat.), is,in itsgeneral
aspect, hilly, and very uneven ; but the hills rise
to no great height, at least, not near the river,
* Vol. IV. page 437.

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 125
and are in many places separated by tracts of
flat country, which in some places are extensive
and well cultivated. South of Melloon the hills
approach nearer the river, and often form its
banks. They are in most places covered with
forest trees of considerable size ; among which
teak trees are frequent. Cultivation is confined
to the narrow flat tracts, which here and there
separate the hills from the river."
In the country adjacent, nitre is procured in
large quantity, the ground being much impreg
nated with that and muriate of soda, but the
aspect is cheerless and sterile, the surface being
broken into small separate hills entirely barren
and destitute of vegetation, except some stunted
bushes growing on the declivities and in the dells,
and a few unhealthy trees immediately in the
neighbourhood of the villages, the clay being
discoloured, and wearing the appearance of red
ochre.* Colonel Symes describes the soil as of
a petrifying nature, and relates that he picked
* Col. Symes' Embassy to Ava. Vol. ii. p. 227, et. seq.

126 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
up several lumps of stone, " in which the grain
of the wood was plainly discernible ; it was hard,
-siliceous, and seemed composed of different
lamina. The Burmans said it was the nature
of the soil that caused this transmutation ;" and
added, " that leaves of trees shaken off by the
wind were not unfrequently changed into stone,
before they could be decayed by. time." The
same authority goes on to say : —
" The banks of the river were totally barren,
the ground was superficially covered with quartz
gravel, and concreted masses of the same mate
rial were thickly scattered. The mouth of the
creek was crowded with large boats waiting to
• receive a lading of oil ; and immense pyramids
of earthen jars were raised within and around
the village, disposed in the same manner as shot
and shells are piled in an arsenal. This place
is inhabited only by potters, who carry on an
extensive manufactory, and find full employment.
The smell of the oil was extremely offensive ;
we saw several thousand jars filled with it ranged

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 127
along the bank. Some of these were continually
breaking, and the contents mingling with the
sand, formed a very filthy consistence." De
scribing his visit to the wells, the Colonel goes
on to say — "The road, which wound among
rocky eminences, was barely wide enough to
admit the passage of a single cart, and, in many
places, the track in which the wheels must run
was a foot and a half lower on one side than the
other : there were several of these lanes, some
more circuitous than others, according to the
situation of the small hills among which they
led. Vehicles, going and returning, were thus
enabled to pursue different routes, except at
particular places, where the nature of the ground
would only admit of one road. When a cart
came to the entrance of such a defile, the driver
hallooed out, to stop any that might interfere
with him from the opposite side, no part being
sufficiently wide for two carts to pass. The hills,
or rather hillocks, were covered with gravel, and
yielded no other vegetation than a few stunted

128 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
bushes. The wheels had worn ruts , deep into-
the rock, which seemed to be rather a mass of
concreted gravel than hard stone, and many
pieces of petrified wood lay strewed about. It
is remarkable that wherever these petrifactions.
were found, the soil was unproductive, and the
ground destitute of verdure.
" The evening being far advanced, we met
but few carts ; those which we did observe were
drawn each by a pair of oxen, of a length dis
proportionate to the breadth, to allow space for
the earthen pots that contained the oil. It was
a matter of surprise to us how they could convey
such brittle ware with any degree of safety over
so rugged a road ; and each pot was packed ia.
a separate basket, and laid on straw ; notwith
standing which precaution, the ground all the
way was strewed with the fragments of the
vessels, and wet with oil ; for no care can pre
vent the fracture of some in every journey. As
we approached the pits, which were more distant
than we had imagined, the country became less

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 129
uneven, and the soil produced herbage ; it was
nearly dark when we reached them, and the
labourers had retired from work. There seemed
to be a great many pits within a small compass ;
walking to the nearest, we found the aperture
about four feet square, and the sides, as far as
we could see down, were lined with timber ; the
oil is drawn up in an iron pot, fastened to a rope,
passed over a wooden cylinder, which revolves
on an axis supported by two upright posts.
When the pot is filled, two men take the rope
by the end, and run down a declivity, which is
cut in the ground, to a distance equivalent to the
depth of the well ; thus, when they reach the
end of the track, the pot is raised to its proper
elevation. The contents, water and oil together,
are then discharged into a cistern, and the water
is afterwards drawn off through a hole in the
bottom. " Our guide, an active intelligent man, went
to a neighbouring house and procured a well
rope, by means of which we were enabled to
VOL. II. K

130 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
measure the depth, and ascertained it to be
thirty-seven fathoms ; but of the quantity of oil
at the bottom we could not judge. The owner
of the rope, who followed our guide, affirmed
that when a pit yielded as much as came up to
the waist of a man, it was deemed tolerably pro
ductive ; if it reached to his neck, it was abun
dant ; but that which rose no higher than the
knee was accounted indifferent. When a well
is exhausted, they restore the spring by cutting
deeper into the rock, which is extremely hard in
those places where the oil is produced. Govern
ment farms out the ground that supplies this
useful commodity ; and it is again let to the
adventurers who dig wells at their own hazard,
by which they sometimes gain, and often lose,
as the labour and expense of digging are consi
derable. The oil is sold on the spot for a mere
trifle ; I think, two or three hundred pots for a
tackal, or half-a-crown. The principal charge
is incurred by the transportation and purchase
of vessels. We had but half gratified our

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 131
•curiosity when it grew dark, and our guide
urged us not to remain any longer, as the road
was said to be infested by tigers that prowled at
night among the rocky uninhabited ways through
which we had to pass. We followed his advice,
and returned with greater risk, as I thought, of
breaking our necks by the badness of the roads
than of being devoured by wild beasts."
Mr. Crawford, who subsequently visited the
locality, writes of them as follows : —
" The country here is a series of sand hills
and ravines, the latter torrents after a fall of
rain, as we now experienced, and the former,
either covered with a very thin soil, or altogether
bare. The trees, which were rather more
numerous than we looked for, did not rise
beyond twenty feet in height. The surface gave
no indication that we could detect of the
existence of the petroleum. On the spot which
we reached, there were eight or ten wells, and
we examined one of the best. The shaft was
of a square form, and its dimensions about four
K 2

132 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
feet to a side. It was formed by sinking a
frame of wood, composed of beams of the
mimosa catechu, which affords a durable timber.
Our conductor, the son of the Myosugi of the
village, informed us that the wells were com
monly from one hundred and forty to one
hundred and sixty cubits deep, and that their
greatest depth in any case was two hundred.
He informed us that the one we were examining
was the private property of his father ; that it
was considered very productive, and that its
exact depth was one hundred and forty cubits.
We measured it with a good lead line, and
ascertained its depth to be two hundred and ten
feet, thus corresponding exactly with the report
of our conductor — a matter which we did not
look for, considering the extraordinary careless
ness of the Burmans in all matters of this
description. A pot of this oil was taken up,
and a good thermometer being immediately
plunged into it, indicated a temperature of
ninety degrees. That of the air, when we left

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 133
the ship an hour before, was eighty-two degrees.
To make the experiment perfectly accurate, we
•ought to have brought a second thermometer
along with us, but this was neglected. We
looked into one or two of the wells, and could
discern the bottom. The liquid seemed as if
boiling, but whether from the emission of
gaseous fluids, or simply from the escape of the
oil itself from the ground, we had no means of
determining. The formation where the wells
are sunk, consisted of sand, loose sandstone, and
blue clay. When a well is dug to a considerable
extent, the labourers informed us that brown
^earth was occasionally found. . . . The
petroleum itself, when first taken out of the well,
is of a thin, watery consistence, but thickens by
keeping, and in the cold weather it coagulates.
Its colour at all times is a dirty green, not much
unlike stagnant water. It has a pungent
aromatic smell, offensive to most people."
Mr. Crawford then describes the process of
transportation of the oil to the port, and the

134 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
shipment on board of the katoos waiting to
receive their lading. " The contents of the
pot," he says, meaning that drawn up from the-
well — " are deposited for a time in a cistern.
Two persons are employed in raising this oil,.
making the whole number of persons engaged
on each well, only four. The oil is carried to
the village or port, in carts, drawn by a pair of"
bullocks, each cart conveying from ten to four
teen pots of ten viss each, or from two hundred
and sixty-five to three hundred and seventy-one
pounds avoirdupois, of the commodity."
Upwards of a quarter of a century has passed
since the visits of those gentlemen, from whose
descriptions I have quoted, were made, and,
therefore, the estimates of the extent of traffic
in this commodity, made by them on those oc
casions, would give very little idea of the present
trade. Mr. Kenneth Mackenzie, from whose
work I have borrowed the above extracts, in
alluding to the statement that this oil, " in
burning, emits an immense quantity of black

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 135
smoke, which soils every object near it" — says,
"the oil is much used, notwithstanding this
last inconvenience, by the Burmans in their
lamps." This, I should think, is an error, for
it is very inflammable in its raw state ; and its
use as a lamp oil would probably be, dangerous,
as well as unpleasant. I have never seen it
used for such a purpose myself, either at Maul
main or Rangoon ; but I have seen a quantity
of it blaze up rather alarmingly when subjected
to ignition.The general details as given above, the
aspect of the place, and the modus operandi of
procuring and shipping the oil, may be regarded
as well describing the scene at the present day ;
with the exception, perhaps, that with the in
creased demand for the oil, there is a considerable
increase in the numbers of people employed to
raise it and convey it to the village, which now
contains a larger population, and is a place of
greater importance. Dr. Good, of Maulmain,
who was formerly attached to the embassy at

136 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
Ava, and who visited the spot comparatively
recently, gave me a description of the place, that
accorded very nearly with the accounts which I
have submitted. To look at the thick, green,
filthy substance shipped at Renau-Khaung (or
Ramangong, as the place is generally called), one
would hardly conceive it possible that it could be
so refined and manufactured as to produce the
clear white candles and fine odourless oil now so
much prized in this country.
In Burmah it is found useful for various
purposes, but principally as a preservative of
timber. The lower posts of houses well covered
with this oil, are safe against the encroachments
of rats, white ants, and every description of ob
noxious insects and vermin.

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 137

CHAPTER VI.
Execution. of two Burmans. — Their story. — A Burman
village. — English jurisprudence. — The stolen ele
phant. — The thief executed. — Capital punishment.—
Revolting scene. — Reflections.
Shortly after my return from Rangoon, I was
witness to a scene, which occurred in the vicinity
of the great gaol, which made a deep impression
upon me. The spectacle was one, which per
sons of keen susceptibilities would not generally
care to witness, and I must confess, as far I am
concerned, that the emotions evoked by the
occasion, were such as I should not desire to
experience again. For the first time in my life,
I was induced to become the spectator of a
public execution. On the occasion referred to,
two Burmans suffered the last penalty of the law,

138 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
at the usual place of expiation, at the foot of
the pagoda-hill. I suppose there was nothing
more shocking in the circumstances attending
their taking off than is usual in similar cases,
but as the facts relating to the crime for which
they suffered, are somewhat peculiar, inasmuch
as they, to my thinking, lessen the enormity of
their guilt, I regarded the matter with a stronger
feeling of commiseration for the condemned men,
than, perhaps, I am wont to exhibit,, in reference
to the fate of most malefactors, whose trans
gressions may happen to bring them to the
gallows. The place of execution is at the extremity of
a broad roadway, which turns from the Nyabus-
thee Street, a short distance from the jail, to the
northward, towards the cantonment. There is
a range of wooden buildings on one side, which are
used as barracks for men, of the Talien corps,
or local militia. The roadway terminates at the
farther end of this line of barracks at the rise
of the hill. Opposite to the buildings, and all

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 139
around, are thick, low, jungle trees. In the
centre of the roadway, the scaffold was erected ;
and on the scaffold, the gallows.
Six in the morning is the hour usually ap
pointed for executions in British India and the
dependencies ; and, accordingly, shortly before
that time I arrived on the spot selected for such
exhibitions here. It was a cool and very plea
sant morning ; the sun had just risen, and the
sky was bright and clear. Some Talien horse
men were patrolling the ground, and occasionally-
taking short excursions amongst the jungle for
the exercise of their sturdy Shan steeds. But a
very few persons were congregated there to
witness the scene, not above a couple of hun
dred, if so many, and scarcely more than
a dozen females were present amongst the
assembly. As the gaol clock was heard to strike the
hour, the Talien horseguard, numbering about
a score, ranged themselves in position in front
and along the sides of the scaffold, and presently

140 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
the procession turned the corner of the roadway,
and slowly moved onwards towards the fatal
spot. In front marched in order six Talien
footguards with shouldered muskets, then fol
lowed the condemned men flanked by two of
the gaol peons, the rear was brought up by
another file of militiamen ; the magistrate,
station civil surgeon, and chief constable ac
companying the party, but not joining in the
procession. The men who were to suffer were attired in
white shirts tied round the waist with a cotton
sash, and they had white caps upon their heads.
One was a tall, finely-proportioned man, of about
thirty years of age, with rather a sullen and
somewhat unpleasant expression of countenance ;
the other perhaps might have been ten years
older, was short and thickset in figure, with
good features for a Burman, and full, expressive
eyes. Neither exhibited the smallest sign of
fear, but both walked with a firm, unfaltering
step towards their doom. There was nothing

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 141
whatever in the countenance of either to indicate
the slightest agitation at their impending fate,
not a quiver in the lip, nor a blanch in the cheek,
nor any look of troubled meaning in the eye.
As the guard gave way and formed when they
reached the scaffold and were surrendered to
their executioners their glances met, and once
again when they were placed under the beam, a
brief farewell look of intelligence was exchanged.
As the circumstances under which these men
suffered are illustrative of certain characteristics
of a large class of Burmans, I will communicate
their story, so far as it relates to the offence for
which their lives have made atonement.
Beyond the frontier of the British possessions,
to the north and north-eastward, is a tract of
country which is divided into certain independent
principalities ruled by sovereign chieftains. Each
prince would seem to possess absolute dominion
over his own domain, without reference to the
views or opinions of his neighbour princes or of
the British Government. The revenues of these

142 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
princes are derived from the produce of their
respective lands, and they deal extensively with
foreign merchants in timber, caoutchouc, ivory,
¦oil, and ponies. As to whether the Shan chief
tains, like the Scottish borderers of old, themselves
organize raids upon the territories of the Burman
king and those of the East India Company, no
•evidence has, I believe, been taken ; but it is
certain that some of their subjects or vassals,
resident on the frontier, do make predatory in
cursions upon British ground for the purpose of
plundering the inhabitants of the border dis
tricts of their cattle and their goods.
In the border districts of our territories the
local administration of affairs is confided pretty
extensively to the Goung Gyoups and Thoogyees
appointed by the Commissioner, and these officers
are generally selected from amongst men who
have enjoyed some consideration and influence
in the localities to which they are nominated.
A Goung Gyoup is a sort of magistrate, judge,
and revenue collector of a district ; a Thoogyee

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 143
is a headman of a village, and his functions are
subordinate to those of the Goung Gyoup. The
Deputy Commissioner visits the interior districts
periodically, and makes a report regarding re
venue and judicial transactions, principally from
the accounts and data furnished him by these
functionaries, but owing to the onerous and
multifarious duties which devolve upon him,
and the limited time allowed him for investi
gating the affairs of the interior of the province
over which his jurisdiction extends, the informa
tion gathered by the Deputy Commissioner in
these periodical tours is necessarily, to some
extent, defective and uncertain. And however
influential, and honourable, and respected may
be the Goung Gyoups and Thoogyees appointed,
in their own country, in districts and villages
far distant from the seat of the Government, it
can hardly be supposed that their knowledge
and appreciation of our laws can even as yet,
have attained any very high standard of intelli
gence. They doubtless still retain some vene-

144 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
ration for their national traditionary laws,.
sanctioned, as they conceive them to be, by
divine authority ; and in many cases they pro
bably adhere tenaciously to the ancient principle
under which their fathers, not yet a genera
tion gone by, were wont to preserve the lives of
their dependants from the violence of enemies,
and their property from the hands of the
spoiler. Near to the frontier of the Shan States in
the Gyne district, some fifty miles or so from
Maulmain, stands a small village inhabited by
foresters and cultivators of the soil. The popu
lation of the village is small, and its inhabitants
are simple and ignorant. It boasts its temples,.
its zayats, and its priests, and the priests offi
ciate as schoolmasters to the rising generation,.
but their routine of instruction comprises only
reading and writing, and the simplest rules of
arithmetic; and it is a question whether the-
world, to the restricted ideas of most of these
villagers, extends far beyond the waters of the^

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 145
Gyne and the mountain ranges, whose heights
they may discern from the mound whereon
their school and the pagoda and the contiguous
temples and zayats stand. Some of them have
travelled to Maulmain, and have returned and
related wondrous tales concerning that far-off
land, and a few haply have heard tell of the
great ocean which bounds the earth whereon
they dwell.
There was a Thoogyee of this village, a man
whose experiences were almost limited to those
obtained in his native place, although he had
been to Maulmain upon some business con
nected with his office. He had perhaps, too,
been invested with some crude knowledge re
specting the laws as they are administered by
the English authorities, and had received some
instructions (but imperfectly understood) regard
ing certain essential forms of practice in seeking
the interposition of the laws and in the dispensa
tion of justice.
Some of the wealthier inhabitants of this
VOL. II. L

146 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
village had on various occasions suffered heavily
from the incursions of their neighbours over the
border. From time to time buffaloes, ponies,
and elephants had been driven into the Shan
country by freebooters from that side, whose
exploits in that way were frequent and daring.
On one or two occasions the thieves had been
detected, and the Thoogyee and his friends had
succeeded in capturing them, whereupon they
were taken to Maulmain to undergo their trial
for the offence.
Unhappily, legal proceedings, civil and crimi
nal, in Maulmain, generally drag a very slow
length along. In cases such as this, it is neces
sary that the accused should undergo a pre
liminary examination before the Deputy Com
missioner, who is the District Magistrate, and if
the evidence happens to be strong enough to
warrant it, they are by him committed to take
their trial before the Commissioner. It may
so happen that the primary investigation is
succeeded in a very few days by the final trial,

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 147
but generally months elapse before a case so
preferred is terminated. In such cases the
parties concerned, prosecutors and witnesses,
who may be compelled to come from a distance,
are subjected to a good deal of expense and
inconvenience in journeying to, and remaining
in, Maulmain, during the progress of the pro
ceedings, and possibly the injured parties may,
after all, fail in obtaining the redress they seek.
In this predicament had the inhabitants of this
little village twice stood, until at last, their
confidence in the English method of jurispru
dence began very sensibly to dwindle away.
Next to the Thoogyee, the man of greatest
consideration in the village, was a timber con
tractor, who was reputed wealthy, and who
owned several valuable elephants. One day an
elephant belonging to him was missed, and
information was given to the owner, and to the
Thoogyee, that some Shans were driving the
animal away from the district. Once across
the frontier with their booty, the thieves would
L 2

148 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
have been safe, as they would then have been
beyond the jurisdiction of the British Govern
ment; so immediate pursuit was requisite, in
order to effect the capture of the robbers and
recover the stolen elephant. A party accord
ingly started out on the instant, and the
elephant and the miserable thieves were brought
back to the village.
Then the Thoogyee, the contractor, and the
other principal personages of the village held
council together. They had before caught
other Shan robbers in flagrante delicto, they
argued, and had taken them to Maulmain and
duly charged them before the British autho
rities; they had spent weeks and months in
useless prosecutions ; they had made several long
journeys, to the neglect of their homes and fa
milies; had expended much money in such affairs,
and after all the criminals had escaped, and now
the Shans laughed in their faces and triumphed
in their impunity. It was necessary that an ex
ample should be made of one at least of these

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 149
offenders ; the question was — How was it to be
done? The Thoogyee, the contractor, and the vil
lagers, at length, after long debating, unani
mously determined that they would be their own
judges, and their own executioners. They
summarily put their prisoners upon their trial, at
which the Thoogyee was elected president.
The matter was conducted after the formula
of a judicial investigation. Witnesses were
heard, and the accused were put upon their
defence, but the facts were conclusive against
them, and they were condemned: — the ringleader
was adjudged to be forthwith decapitated; the
others were sentenced to undergo some minor
corporal punishment, and were then to be sent
back to their own country to tell others of the
retribution which had been visited on their
companion. No sooner was the judgment pronounced than
measures were taken to carry the sentence into
execution. Both the Thoogyee and the con-

150 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
tractor took a prominent part in the Lynching,
and were busy in directing the too-ready
villagers in their work of vengeance. The
man doomed to suffer death was commanded to
lie down and place his head upon a log of wood,
which command was duly obeyed ; and then a
mere boy, a youth of fifteen, was ordered to
sever the head from the body. All Burmese are
skilful in the use of the axe and the dah. The
boy raised his weapon ; it fell, and the deed
was done.
The rest of the sentence, regarding the other
thieves, was carried out upon them, and they
were sent away with a cautionary message to
their countrymen.
But the miscreant Shans, it seemed, knew
more respecting British jurisprudence than did
the Thoogyee and his village compatriots who
lived under British rule. They were no strangers
to Maulmain and its ways, and had had some
experience in the law courts of that capital.
These men did not return to their country to
relate the story of their comrade's death, and

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAn. 151
of their own chastisement, probably not ex
pecting to obtain any sympathy there ; but they
proceeded at once to Maulmain, and stated the
whole case before the Deputy Commissioner.
In their depositions they gave a very graphic
description of their capture, their trial, and of
the bloody scene that ensued, of the violence to
which they had been subjected, and of their
subsequent escape, omitting, however, all cir
cumstances implicating themselves in regard to
the stolen elephant. Instructions were then
immediately forwarded to the Goung Gyoup of
the district, who was ordered to make strict
enquiry into the truth of the matter, and to
arrest and bring down to Maulmain, for exami
nation, every individual implicated in the trans
action. The result was, that the Thoogyee, the
contractor, the boy, and a number of other
persons were formally charged with the murder
of the elephant stealer.
This trial may justly be regarded as one of
the causes celebres of Maulmain, exhibiting as

152 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
it did, many extraordinary features. The pri
soners seemed to be wholly unable to compre
hend that they had committed an act subjecting
them to criminal punishment, although the
Thoogyee certainly ought to have known that
the deed on which they were arraigned was
opposed to the spirit of the British institutions.
The sang froid with which they treated the
matter, too, was remarkable, although charac
teristic, and not the least curious feature of the
whole affair was, the perfect equanimity with
which the deceased Shan had submitted to his
fate. It appeared that when he found that his
judges were determined upon carrying out their
designs, seeing the futility of resistance, he
quietly walked to the log of wood, which served
for the block, and laid his head down to be
struck off by the boy-executioner, quite under
the conviction that he fully deserved his doom, that
' it was one of the risks incidental to the perpe
tration of such acts as that of which he had
been convicted, and that, having incurred it,

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 153
it was better to abide by all the consequences,
as a matter of course, instead of wastinp- time
and putting himself to bodily inconvenience by
any impotent opposition. Had the tribunal
which judged him been legally constituted,
judge, jury, and witnesses been duly sworn to
administer the recognised laws of the land, and
had his sentence been sanctioned by the highest
authority, he could not have surrendered to the
sacrifice more resignedly than he did on this
occasion. The boy said he struck off the Shan's
head by order of the Thoogyee, because he stole
the elephant. " If," said the boy, " he had not
taken away the elephant, the Thoogyee Thakien
would not have told me to cut off his head."
Powerful reasoning this, according to the boy's
notions of abstract justice, and unanswerable.
Nearly all the prisoners brought down were
committed either as principals or accessories.
Several were found guilty of the capital offence,
though only two were condemned to die — those
two were the Thoogyee and the proprietor of

154 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
the elephant. The executioner, on account of
his tender age, and the circumstances under
which he acted, escaped with a milder sentence,
and the others were condemned to various terms
of penal servitude. But the Thoogyee and the
contractor were destined to be hanged, for the
Nizamut Adawlut saw fit to confirm the Com
missioner's decree.
Capital sentences are invariably carried into
execution here within a day or two after the
receipt of the necessary warrant from the
Nizamut Adawlut, and I cannot help thinking
that in many cases the sufferings of the con
demned, from the period of their conviction to
the time of expiation, must be very terrible. I
do not suppose the Burmese endure the same
amount of mental misery under such circum
stances that would be sure to torture the Ma-
homedan or Hindoo ; for their minds are gene
rally very differently constituted, and they are
taught to regard death with comparatively little
fear ; but it is easy to conceive the pangs of

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 155
suspense, the agonies of apprehension attend
ing the uncertain hope of a commutation of
the dreadful edict, which would be likely to visit
even the bravest. The most ignorant convict,
when placed in such a position, is soon made
aware that, before he is to suffer, his sentence
requires confirmation from a higher authority,
and who can imagine how many may be the-
delusi.ve hopes awakened by this knowledge ? If
we can suppose a Christian placed in this
predicament, can we believe that during the-
frightful weeks of suspense that must ensue
pending the arrival of the fatal writ, he can
devote his mind calmly and patiently and peni
tently, to a retrospection of his past career, to
humble communing with a merciful God im
earnest prayer for pardon and for peace here
after ?
As the procession approached the place of
execution, the number of spectators considerably
increased, a great many people having followed
the party from the jail ; still there were not cer
tainly five hundred altogether present to witness-

156 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
the catastrophe. There were two executioners
(Madras men of the toty or scavenger caste),
and these mounted the scaffold first and pro
ceeded to arrange the ropes, which preparations
the two convicts contemplated very complacently
from below. These preliminaries being com
pleted, they were directed to ascend the steps
themselves, which command they promptly
obeyed. The executioners then pinioned them,
placed them under the beam and adjusted the
fatal cords. Then it was that the pair ex
changed glances, and never shall I forget their
parting expression. The caps drawn over their
faces closed from them all farther contemplation
of each other, of their executioners, of the silent
crowd beneath them, of the bright sun and the
blue sky, and the fair green hills, and the glis
tening pagodas, and all belonging to the beau
tiful world they were leaving eternally for the
unknown country beyond.
The executioners then left the scaffold, and
perhaps half a minute intervened between their

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 157
departure from the platform and the falling of
the drop. None can tell the nature of the reflec
tions crowded within those few brief moments,
though one may perhaps conjecture them. A
hasty remembrance of beloved faces, parents,
wife, children, brothers, companions — of youthful
pleasures gone, never to be recalled, of the great
teak, forests, of the rice fields on the plain, of the
flowing river and the floating rafts upon it, of
the pagoda, the Thiens and the sacred places of
their native village, of their village homes and
household gods, of the capture of the elephant
stealers and their summary trial and condemna
tion, and the deed of vengeance, and finally of
their own trial and conviction and sentence, of
the dreary jail, and the many weary days of
suspense and anxiety, and then the jailor's
report that their doom is irrevocably fixed and —
Crash! — the bolt is withdrawn, and all their
earthly reflections are over !
Both were powerfully framed men, but the
struggles of the Thoogyee (the younger and

158 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
taller man of the two) appeared to be pro
tracted and painful, and I should think lasted
for nearly twenty minutes. " Take 'em down !"
said the magistrate to the constable, when the
•convulsions of both bodies had entirely ceased,
and that functionary then passed the word on to
the executioners, who proceeded to obey the
order. The bodies were lifted from the scaffold
and placed upon the ground at its foot, when
the Station Civil Surgeon placed his hand over
the heart of each man respectively, and then
pronounced them to be dead. Some convicts
then came with some coarse cloth and some
bamboos fastened together, and made into
stretchers. They wrapped the bodies in the
cloths, placed them on the stretchers, and
carried them away, in charge of some peons, for
interment. Then the magistrate and the doctor,
both of whom appeared to regard the affair quite
as an ordinary matter of business, walked away
together, and I went home, having been
•effectually deprived of all appetite for breakfast ;

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 159
feeling something like self-reproach at having
been present at so revolting a scene.
No one could deny that the execution of these
men was perfectly justified by the circumstances,
if only on the score of expediency. It is to be
feared that there are many places in the interior
of our Burmese possessions, where our insti
tutions are but very imperfectly understood,
and are altogether unappreciated. It would be
far more convenient for the inhabitants of the
country districts, and far more in accordance
with Burmese notions of right and justice, if they
might be permitted to inflict summary venge
ance on those detected in the commission of
crimes, without going through apparently need
less formalities, and incurring unnecessary ex
pense. These poor men, doubtless, must have
known that in instigating the death of the Shan
freebooter, they were themselves transgressing
the laws to which they were subject, but it is by
no means evident that they believed themselves
morally culpable in assisting to carry out a principle

160 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
which is certainly based upon natural justice,
neither do I suppose they conceived that the
matter would result in any signal punishment to
themselves. The probability is, that they did
not contemplate the likelihood of the transaction
reaching the cognizance of the Deputy Commis
sioner, that they imagined it would pass over
with impunity, and that their cattle and property
would henceforward be safer from the depre
dations of the Shans than it had been since the
several ineffectual endeavours previously made to
obtain the punishment of their plunderers. But.
to have suffered these men to escape the penalty
they had incurred by their unlawful act, would.
have been to establish a dangerous precedent ; .
so they were hanged as a warning to all those
who might perchance otherwise have sometimes.
deemed it expedient to imitate their example.

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 161

CHAPTER VII.
Visit to the jail. — Description of it. — Conversation
with a convict. — Weaving and carpet making. —
Surprising agility of a female. — Inspection of the
convicts. — Divided into classes. — A noisy prisoner. —
Crowded state of the jail. — Its offensive state. — The
different wards. — Cooking houses. — Granaries, &c.
— Anecdote of a French prince. — A funeral.
Maulmain is the depot for the reception of
native convicts from all parts of India, so that
its jail contains as pretty a congregation of
scoundrelism and depravity as the world can pro
duce in any given locality upon its surface. The
establishment receives also local offenders and
lunatics. It is situated on the rise of the Great
Pagoda hill. The buildings, which are enclosed
within a high brick wall, are comprised within
VOL. n. M

162 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
an area of about seven hundred feet from east
to west, and from north to south about four
hundred feet.
For a long time after my arrival I entertained
a very strong desire to make an inspection of
this establishment, to visit the whole of its wards,
its workshops, its storehouses, its hospitals, its
kitchens, and the other buildings assigned for
the various departments connected with the
general organization. I was curious to ascer
tain how the system of prison discipline pur
sued here, worked, and to gather as much infor
mation upon the subject in all its details as I
could, not in furtherance of any immediate
purpose of my own that I am aware of, but
simply for the gratification of a not unpardonable
inquisitiveness. To accomplish the end desired was, however,
no easy matter. Beyond a visit to the debtor's
ward and the office of the jailer, I could not for
some time penetrate, even by dint of consider
able ingenuity, and the aid of all the local influ-

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 163
ence I could muster in support of my object.
The internal economy of the jail was a sealed
book, which appeared to be closed determinedly
to the prying eyes of strangers. There was no
admittance except on particular business, and
nobody had any business on the criminal side,
except the criminals themselves, the jailers, the
commissioner and the magistrate, who, until
lately, also held office as jail superintendent.
One day, however, by one of those accidents
of fortune which is almost sure at some time or
other to turn up for the behoof of those who are
perpetually on the look-out for such accidents, I
obtained permission to be present at an inspec
tion of prisoners, and to take a complete survey
of every department of the jail. I was at
liberty, in fact, to spend a whole day there, if I
felt so disposed, and I availed myself of the
privilege. There is nothing remarkable about the
exterior of the jail, which is next door to the.
Roman Catholic Church of St. Patrick, and the
M 2

164 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
religious houses, schools and grounds belonging
to it in the suburb of Nyabusthee, it consisting
of nothing more than a dead wall relieved on
the west side by the principal entrance gateway,
over which is the jailer's residence, a plain,
square, brick building, and on the east side by
another gateway, having above it the domicile
of the deputy jailer. On entering the principal
gateway from the street, the visitor sees before
him a large upper-storied white building, form
ing three sides of a square, with a courtyard in
the centre space, which extends considerably in
front of the whole edifice, giving to it an open,
airy, and rather elegant appearance. This
building, indeed, is quite palatial in its aspect.
It is built of brick, stuccoed and white-washed.
ft is raised upon a broad terrace, which is
ascended by means of stone steps at the ex
tremity of either wing. Below is a handsome
colonnade, which extends along every side of the
edifice, and surrounding the upper storey are
spacious verandahs. The courtyard is divided

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 165
from the compound of the jailor's residence by
a slab fence about seven feet high, in the centre
of which is a gate for the passage of carts, &c,
and the egress and ingress of convicts going to,
or returning from, their labour on the roads, or
other public works, and from the female depart
ment by another slab fence about sixteen feet
high. The building and grounds appropriated
to the women are situated immediately to the
right as you enter. Debtors are accommodated
in a comfortable building to the left of the
jailer's house.
Awaiting the arrival of the superintendent, I
took a seat in the office, a room to the right of
the gateway, and occupied the time at intervals
in conversation with persons who came in now
and then from some of the interior buildings on
business with the clerks. One of these visitors
was a Bengalee of about six-and-twenty years of
age, well dressed, but with both legs ironed, his
fetters consisting of a chain fastened to a ring at
each angle, meeting at the waist, where it was

166 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
secured. He came to make some reference to
one of the office books, in charge of one of the
convict clerks. As he appeared to be commu
nicative, I encouraged him to converse. His
name, he told me, was Baboo Rajkissen Dutt,
and I learned that he was connected with one of
the most opulent and influential Calcutta
Hindoo families. He was under sentence of
transportation for seven years, for riot and affray,
and his time would be out, he said, in about ten
months. He complained bitterly of being put
in irons, which not only subjected him to physi
cal uneasiness and inconvenience, but hurt his
dignity extremely, he holding a very responsible
office in the establishment as superintendent of
the jail workshops. It appeared there was a
rule in operation, granting indulgence to those
convicts who had served five years with good
behaviour to go out for an hour or two on Sun
days in charge of a free peon. A good deal of
latitude was, however, it seemed, allowed in
some instances at the discretion of the jail

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 167
authorities, as some who had only served three
years were allowed the privilege. Mr. Rajkissen
Dutt had, on the previous Sunday, sallied forth
to see the town in company with a peon who
was not proof against Mr. Rajkissen's rhetoric.
The result was that the peon and his charge got
gloriously drunk, in which state the Baboo was
again consigned to the jailer's custody. For
this offence, he was deprived of the aforesaid
privilege for one month, and was condemned to
wear irons for that period likewise. This he
deemed a great hardship, and a very reprehen
sible piece of injustice ; because, as he remarked,
under the former regime, when the town
magistrate was superintendent of the jail, he
was regularly permitted to get drunk once a
week, and, on one occasion, he informed me,
himself and the peon who had accompanied him
were both picked up, lying in a happy state of
obliviousness on the Commissariat Wharf,
" and," he added with naive simplicity, "no
thing was said to me then." He appeared to

168 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
be rather an intelligent young man, and spoke
English fluently and correctly, barring a slight
Bengalee accent. I was informed that he had
done much to forward the jail manufactures,
having introduced several improvements in the
art of weaving and making carpets, for which a
great demand prevailed. The money realized
by these manufactures is considerable, and goes
a great way towards defraying the jail expenses ;
for none of the convicts, let them earn ever so
much for their masters, get a fraction more than
their government allowance, which, in the case
of a native, is half an anna (or three farthings)
per diem besides rations, Europeans and East
Indians receiving four annas per diem, out of
which they have to provide themselves with food,
although, perhaps, some extra indulgences might
be granted to the willing, diligent, and perse
vering artizan.
Whilst I was waiting in the office, an incident
occurred which amused me considerably. I have
already said that the women's department is to

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 169
the right of the jailer's quarters as you enter the .
gateway. It is separated from the first court
yard by a slab fence about seven feet high, and
from the inner courtyard by another fence about
sixteen feet high. In continuation of the high
fence, or wall, is the fence, also seven feet high,
which separates the first courtyard, or compound,
immediately before the gateway, jailer's quarters
and debtor's prison from the second or inner
courtyard fronting the principal building, and
in the corner of the two lower fences was a
thatched shed, underneath which a fire engine
and a lot of buckets were kept. A Burmese
woman contrived to climb over that corner
without being detected, although it was but
little past mid-day. The shed probably screened
her from the observation of the peons. What
her object could have been it is difficult to con
jecture. It could hardly have been escape, for
she must have been aware of the impracticabi
lity of effecting that. Perhaps she desired some
conversation with some male friends on the other

170 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
side, or it might be that she was actuated solely
by a spirit of mischief, though her subsequent
behaviour would seem to overthrow that hypo
thesis. Be that as it may, she exhibited a good
deal of activity and swiftness of foot. By all
accounts (for I did not witness the whole of the
fun) there was for some time a very pretty game
at hide and seek. Possibly, one or two of the
convict peons might have had an interest in
temporarily losing sight of the fugitive. Cer
tain it is she dodged about the cook-houses,
granary, behind the solitary cells, picking out all
sorts of corners in which she might elude the
efforts of her pursuers. They did not succeed in
catching her at last even. When she found her
self getting out of breath, and saw that she would
be obliged eventually to surrender at discretion,
she made for the fence over which she had pre
viously accomplished her exit from the society
of her female fellow prisoners, cleared it before
any one could catch hold of her, and was again
in the territory ceded to her sex. I rather

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 171
admired the woman's pluck myself, and could
not but applaud her agility. If the Burmese
were to get up pantomimes, it is my idea that
intrepid female would make her fortune as a
Columbine. If Mr. Barnum had witnessed her
performances on this occasion, I have no doubt
he would immediately have stipulated for an en
gagement with her, so soon as her terms with
the Government might be fulfilled, in the full
confidence of the speculation proving attractive
to his numerous patrons, either in Europe or
America. No sooner had the lady recovered breath and
braced herself up for the occasion, than she
commenced a torrent of Burmese Billingsgate
perfectly overwhelming. I know of no nation
so thoroughly au fait at the art of abusing as
the Burmese. The females are especially adepts
at it, and place themselves in various attitudes,
and make certain expositions which are singu
larly expressive and interesting, particularly when
they have attained the climax of their fury and

172 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
indignation. There is a certain limit beyond
which they are never known to transgress; I
suppose for the reason that having attained to
the highest pitch of gross indecency in language
and gestures, they cannot possibly get on any
further. Columbine, then, having exhausted
her rhetoric and displayed her pantomimic ac
complishments, doubtless to the edification of a
numerous if not fashionable assemblage, sub
sided into silence, and temporarily retired into
private life.
Shortly after this occurrence, all the male
convicts (with the exception of those in hospital,
of whom there were then about ninety) were
mustered, and were ranged in order along the
front colonnades of the large building, and at
about two o'clock the superintendant arrived
and commenced the inspection.
The men of each class (except the first) were
paraded separately, the classification of the con
victs being as follows : —
The first class consists of prisoners released

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 173
on security. Life convicts alone are admitted
into this class, and they must have undergone
sixteen years penal servitude with good conduct,
before they become entitled to the privilege.
Each must furnish two sureties, not in Govern
ment employ, in the sum of two hundred and
fifty rupees, and every person becoming such
surety must be possessed of property to the
value of five hundred rupees at least, in houses
or land. The security so entered into is for
feited in the event of the convict so released
committing any fresh felony, or leaving the
province. The second class consists of the convict police
and the cart-drivers. These are men who,
though still in gaol, yet having served at least
eight years with good behaviour, have been
promoted to situations of some trust. The
former are selected to aid the free police, them
selves a very small body ; the latter drive the
gaol carts. In other respects they are exempt
from labour. The men of this class receive pay

174 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
varying from one to seven rupees per month,
but out of this allowance they have to pay for
their rations. A few are employed as attend
ants on the gaol and general hospitals. Besides
exemption from hard labour and receipt of pay,
they are entitled to leave the gaol (in charge of
a free peon) on Sundays for a couple of hours
or so. The gaol clerks belong to this class, hut
in their case a slight deviation from the rule is
permitted. They are East Indian young men
with some education, and in their case the pro
bationary servitude of eight years on the roads,
or in the workshops with the gangs, is dispensed
with, and they are made useful in the office,
besides being allowed to walk abroad with a
peon on Sundays also.
The third class consists of convicts who have
been transported for five years, and have not
misconducted themselves during that time. They,
like the convicts of the first and second class,
are not in irons, wearing, like the latter, merely
the distinguishing iron ring round the ancle.

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 175
These^, convicts receive, in addition to full rations,
a money allowance for condiments of two pice
per day.
The whole of the convicts transported and all
local heinous offenders are placed in the fourth
class on arrival. This class is worked in irons
till, in the case of life convicts, they have served
five years with good conduct. As a general
rule, term convicts are not promoted, but excep
tions are made in certain cases, as, for instance,
in that of the gaol clerks, who, although trans
ported for terms varying from ten to twenty-
one years, are placed upon a similar footing to
the men of the second class, except that they
receive no wages. The fourth class receive an
allowance of rice. Two pice are also allowed
daily for the provision of all other articles of
diet. The fifth class are defaulters and desperadoes
doubly ironed and more closely watched.
The sixth class are convicts too aged and
infirm to work, or only partially able. The

176 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
whole of the females are included in this class.
They receive slightly reduced rations. In some
cases they are released on furnishing reliable
security in the sum of a hundred rupees for
their good behaviour and residence in the pro
vince. At the time of my visit there were in the Maul
main Gaol 1464 convicts, and at Amherst Gaol
314. The latter establishment is a receptacle for
out and superannuated convicts of Maulmain,
the worn and is also used as a sanatarium for
convicts from Maulmain, Tavoy, and Mergui, re
quiring change of air for the preservation of life.
The following tabular statement will show how
they are divided and from whence they have
been transported : —

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.

177

mm
O

o

545

M
CSS
Oso
146

a .
3*

©a

TO
si
••3-.B

'es O
H

Bengal Convicts

317

471

4

0

1

1484

Madras ditto .

1

19

20

25

4

0

2

71

Straits Settle

ments ditto ;
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
1
Pegu and local
ditto . .
0
318
5
496
186
751
8
179
14
8
1
222
22
8
4
1778
From this it will be seen there is a distinction
made between East Indian, Chinese, and native
Christian convicts, and the Hindoos, Mahomme-
dans, and Burmans. It will also be perceived that
by far the larger proportion of convicts were from
Bengal. Most of them were under sentence of
transportation for life. They consisted of Thugs,
murderers, dacoits, and other heinous crimi
nals. Convicts of the first class are not included in
the above statement, they not being prisoners
VOL. II. N
178 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
in the gaol. They numbered then 340, of
which there were 308 about Maulmain, and
32 at Amherst.
The inspection lasted altogether perhaps an
hour and a half. On these occasions if any of
the prisoners have any complaints to make, of
bad food, bad treatment, or any other grievance,
the Superintendent investigates the matter, and
affords reasonable redress if the petitioners have
any real cause for remonstrance or complaint.
The opportunities thus afforded are too good for
discontented spirits to let slip, and at every in
spection numerous petitions from dissatisfied
prisoners are submitted to the Superintendent.
It generally happens, however, that there are no
grounds whatever for a large majority of the
representations contained in such documents, or
else they are of so trivial a character as to be
unworthy of notice.
During the inspection my attention was at
tracted towards a prisoner who, throughout the
whole proceedings, kept uttering the most un-

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 179
earthly cries at intervals of about every five
seconds. The man appeared to be about two
and twenty years of age, was powerfully built,
and not bad looking. He was evidently a
native of Madras. His head was close shaven,
and he was quite naked, with the exception of a
piece of cloth which was fastened round the
middle to a piece of string tied over his loins.
I enquired of the gentleman who had medical
charge of the gaol, who happened to be near me
at the time, whether the man was not insane ?
He replied that he believed he was not, although
his conduct was certainly very extraordinary.
He then explained to me that the fellow was a life
convict, transported from Madras ; that from the
moment of his arrival (about nine months pre
viously), he adopted that singular course of be
haviour, and had obstinately persisted in it ever
since, he supposed in pursuance of some vow he
had probably made. His cry was " Oh, Rama !
oh, Rama ! Rama ! " and this invocation he kept
constantly shouting during the whole of the
N 2

180 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
time he was awake, in the midst of his work,
and even at meal times. All sorts of expedients
had been resorted to, in order to break him of
this objectionable practice, but without avail.
In every other respect he was docile and obedient,
but nothing could induce him to refrain from
calling upon Rama with uplifted voice. He had
been flogged for it ; confined in the solitary
cells with a short allowance of food, subjected to
additional tasks, and otherwise punished, but in
vain. They could not compel him to hold his
noise, or to wear clothes, so at last, the prison
authorities, seeing there was no help for it,
suffered him to have his way, in the hope that
eventually his perseverance would give in, or else
that he would lose his voice. In the mean-.
time the poor devil's call to Rama continued to
be heard in every corner of the gaol, and all over
the district within which the gang, to which he
belonged, might be working. Alas ! Rama
answered not his cry, nor pointed out to him
the road to liberty.

FOUR YEARS I\ BURMAH. 181
An East Indian convict clerk, an intelligent
young man of about five and twenty years of
age, was directed to shew me over the gaol, and
to afford me such information as I might be
desirous of obtaining, and we accordingly pro
ceeded to view the premises. This was the
most favourable occasion that could have been
selected for my visit, as in consequence of the
inspection having taken place that day, all the
prisoners were within the walls.
I certainly was surprised at the extent of the
place, and the magnitude of the arrangements,
but could not help thinking that the system of
management pursued was, in many respects,
defective. Large as is the principal building,
(the central one with the colonnades) it appeared
to me not nearly large enough for the require
ments of government, and that even the space
that is available is not made anything like the
most of. I am obliged to disagree with the
policy which dictates the stifling of some hun
dreds of men, even although they are convicts.

182 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
In the first room I visited, I saw crowded
together like sheep in a pen, three or four hundred
people of all castes and creeds, most of them
heavily ironed, with certainly not space sufficient for
the free exercise of their limbs. The apartment,
or ward, was, of course, a large one and lofty
enough, but it was infinitely too small in extent
for the healthy accommodation of the number of
people confined in it. On enquiring I was in
formed that each man is allowed a space of ten
feet by three, and in this space he is obliged to
keep his bed and necessaries, as clothing, &c, eat
his meals within this boundary, and so forth.
There are narrow passages between each row of
beds, to be sure, as a necessary precaution
against the danger of some of the poor wretches
being trampled to pieces, and there they He,
literally and characteristically exemplifying the
old simile " as thick as thieves." There are no
cloacae in the gaol compound, because it is con
sidered unsafe to allow egress from their wards
at night of desperadoes such as are sent to this

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 183
depot ; but I thought that surely some arrange
ment might be effected 'for separating the vic
tualling and sleeping apartment from that in
which the whole body of that miscellaneous
collection of degraded humanity perform the
lower offices of nature. I have no intention of
finding fault with the system of drainage adopted
in this prison ; it is I have no doubt upon the
most approved plan ; but the most ingenious
man that ever gained praise for abstruse che
mical inventions, might rack his brain for an
age in vain, in any endeavour he might make to
discover a specific to purify the atmosphere of
that apartment and its vicinity, upstairs and
down stairs, in the verandah, nay, even in the
open air outside the building. The other wards
which were occupied at all, seemed to be nearly
as crowded and almost as offensive to the
olfactories, with the exception of those assigned
to the European offenders (who are chiefly
sailors incarcerated for insubordination) and the
gaol peons and cartmen, which are comparatively

184 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
airy, sweet and comfortable. This crowding of the
prisoners in the manner I have described, seemed
to me not only impolitic but unnecessary, inas
much as nearly the whole of the opposite wing of
the buildingwas then untenanted. A certain value,
I presume, attaches to the labour of the healthy
convict. Indeed, if an inhabitant obtains the
assistance of a gang from the gaol in any private
operation, he has to pay the authorities an equi
valent to coolies' wages, about eight annas a
day for each man, a rate government would be
obliged to disburse for labourers on any of
their public works about Maulmain, if convicts
were not available ; so that, on the whole, one
would think it rather desirable than otherwise to
keep the men in good working condition, which
is hardly likely to result from this kind of
treatment. As we were wending our way towards the
Europeans' quarter, my attention was directed
to a large-made powerful-looking fellow heavily
fettered. My conductor informed me that he

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 185
had been placed in double irons, and had been
degraded from the fourth to the fifth class, for a
violent assault upon one of the convict jemadars
of the prison. This malefactor was exceedingly
repulsive in appearance, and wore an expression
of the most diabolical malignity. He appeared
to be a native of Patna or its vicinity, and was
transported for murder. What there might have
been in his case to recommend a commutation
of the capital punishment, I am, of course,
ignorant, but I am sure his looks could not have
operated in his favour. It appeared that the
jemadar who was assaulted by this worthy was an
aged man, in feeble health, and that his assailant
had long been remarked as refractory and dis
posed upon occasions to be insolent and muti
nous. It has occasionally happened that a
number of prisoners have combined together to
break out in open mutiny ; and though in every
instance of the kind they have encountered
defeat, much mischief has sometimes resulted
from such movements. In some cases, life had

186 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
been sacrificed in the conflicts consequent upon
such demonstrations. Sometimes the convicts
seize the opportunity when they are out working
on the roads to attack their guard, and endeavour
to effect an escape, and a few of these experi
ments, I believe, have turned out completely
successful. We now proceeded to the sailors' or Euro
peans' ward. It is a good-sized, comfortable
enough room, furnished with a table and
benches, lofty, well ventilated, and in every
respect adapted for the purpose for which it is
appropriated. Its inmates have plenty of room
for exercise during their leisure in two roomy
verandahs, and the work of stone breaking is not
so very fatiguing to strong, healthy men, accus
tomed to hard work. At present there are in
the gaol about twenty-five or thirty seamen, and,
in the same ward, two or three other delinquents.
The sailors located in the prison seemed to be
very happy and comfortable, and were prome-

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 187
nading the verandahs whistling and singing
quite cheerfully.
After visiting all the wards in the large
building, we descended, and proceeded to view
the various out-houses at the back. It would
seem that the Government testify their libe
rality in regard to' the religious prejudices of
natives of India even to the convicts, who (one
would suppose) have forfeited all title to consi
deration in every other respect. Caste distinc
tions appear here to be scrupulously respected.
Thus, there is a distinct range of cooking-houses
for the Hindoos, another for the Mahomedans,
a third for the Chinese and Burmans, and
separate conveniences besides for the Pariahs
and Christians. There is a well, too, from
which none but the twice born are permitted to
draw water. No inferior mortal may pollute
its spring.
The cooking-houses or sheds extend in several
long rows parallel with each other for some
distance in the rear of the large prison.

188 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
They are tiled, but open at the sides and at
either end, the roofs being supported by stout
pillars of masonry, and strong teak beams and
rafters. Inside are the raised fireplaces, built of
brick, for cooking ; primitive arrangements, in
which respect Orientals of the present day, I
suspect, have ventured upon no improvement
since the days of Father Abraham. These
cooking-sheds are separated from each other by
wide drains which carry off all the dirty water
and offal. They were thronged with men when
I passed through, — some were busy after their
culinary operations, others were waiting to re
ceive the supplies destined for the particular
messes of which they might be respectively
members. There seemed to be a great deal of
argument and some quarrelling amongst them,
and the whole grouping was bustling and ani
mated : — somewhat picturesque, too, on the
whole, — but rather bewildering in the general
effect, owing to the Babel of tongues which kept
up a perpetual discord in various utterances of

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 189
abuse, expostulation and conference in about a
score of different languages and dialects.
Farther on, situated at some distance from the
cooking-houses, is a brick building, about twelve
yards by nine in extent, and about ten feet high,
standing quite alone. There are two entrances
to this edifice, one at each end, and four iron
gratings about a foot square on each side to
serve for the purposes of ventilation. This is
called the " conjee house," within which are
eight solitary cells, four on each side of the
building, and a passage in the middle. I could
see into the cells through the gratings in the
doors. Each room is about eight feet and a
half square, with a wooden bench at the further
end to serve as a bed for the inmate, and another
necessary fixture. There were only two refractory
prisoners confined here on the occasion of my
visit. One was a Burmese woman (the Colum
bine to whom I have already made allusion), who
had just been conducted hither by the superin
tendent's order. She was singing a national

190 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
refrain with all her might and main, as if in
sheer defiance of the solitude to which she was
consigned, and a Madras man, in a cell directly
opposite the one in which she was located, was
lustily endeavouring to give musical expression
to the words of " Mootamah " — a popular Tamul
song. The effect of the vocal performances of
the two solitaries, you may believe, was by no
means harmonious, but the exercise appeared to
amuse them exceedingly, and the peons who
were set as a guard at the conjee-house evidently
thought the fancy amazingly droll.
The granaries and storehouses next occupied
my attention — very extensive wooden edifices,
with tiled roofs capable of containing immense
stores of grain and other necessaries. Then the
hospital, a low-roofed brick building, about
sixty feet square, to which entrance was obtained
after ascending about half-a-dozen steps to the
doorway. I scarcely did more than look into
this place. It seemed full of patients (there
were ninety in all), and did not smell at all

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 191
wholesome. I thought that if I were ailing, I
should be particularly averse to lodging in that
infirmary. Having seen all that was to be seen in this
part of the gaol premises, we returned towards
the office. To the left of the gateway is the
jail dispensary, which is under the charge of an
old man, named Pereira, a life-convict from
Madras, transported for forgery. This prisoner
is a stout, grey-headed, very respectable looking
old man, and seems very contented, and quiet,
and humble in his demeanour. They have
made of him a compounder and dispenser of
medicines ; a comfortable enough situation in
its way, he being allowed several extra indul
gences, and a separate apartment from the other
prisoners. He told me he had been there nearly
eight years, and that when that term should
expire, he hoped to be released, on furnishing
security not to quit the province, nor infringe
the laws. This man, and my guide, both pro
tested to me their entire innocence of the crimes

192 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
for which they were deprived of liberty ; and I
have no doubt, but that every prisoner in the
gaol would with equal sincerity have made the
like averment, if it could have availed them
anything. It is related of a certain French prince that,
on one occasion, a freak got into his head, that
he would release from each gang at the galleys
at Toulon one criminal, who should seem to
him most deserving of emancipation. For this
purpose he proceeded in person to make an
examination. All the galley-slaves at Toulon
were in anticipation of his arrival, and almost
every man concocted some plausible story to im
pose upon the credulity of his highness. On pre
senting himself at the first galley, the ragamuffin
crew, on bended knee, did worship to him who,
each man thought, was to be his especial de
liverer from chains, and vile slavery. He con
versed with one and all, and each favoured him
with the history of the charge on which he was
convicted, his arrest, trial, sentence, and punish-

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 193
ment. And heavens ! if each man's tale were
sooth, what terrible injustice had been perpe
trated in the king's dominions ! Scarcely one
of the miserable wretches there, branded with
the mark of infamy and condemned to severest
labour in chains attached to another of the felon
gang, but was as innocent in thought or deed
of crime, or evil, as the babe unborn. Through
out that kingdom of France what frightful con
spiracies existed, not only in every department
of the state, but in private and secret societies, to
bring down ruin upon innocent heads, and hurl
desolation upon the homes of distracted wives,
and large families of small children !
There was one man, however, amongst the
crew, (and he was the last with whom his high
ness conversed), who spoke out plainly, and
defied the worst. Whether he was disgusted
at the sycophancy, and hypocrisy, and lying of
his companions, it has not been recorded. Pro
bably he saw little or no chance of manumis
sion for himself, and so resolved to brave it out.
VOL, II. o

194 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
Be that as it may, in reply to the prince's
queries, he stated unreservedly what he was
undergoing punishment for, and very frankly
owned it served him right. And, not only that ;
he volunteered, besides, a confession of delin
quencies of which he had been guilty for which
he had never been brought to justice. " I know
very well, I shall have to work my sentence
out," said the criminal, — " but I'd scorn to tell
a lie." "I see you are an incorrigible rascal," quoth
the prince. " These honest fellows here must be
much scandalized by your company. So get
you gone from hence ! you are too bad even for
the galleys — and harkye ! don't come in the
way of contaminating these good men with
your presence any more."
So his highness ordered the man's chains co
be knocked off, and presenting him with a
purse to save him the necessity of having
recourse to further crime, sent him on his way.
The gaol workshops are built in a large com-

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 195
pound adjoining the prison, outside the north
wall. The deputy gaoler accompanied me to this
department. There were carpenters, weavers
gold and silversmiths, tailors, and other artizans,
all busy at work. The convicts who are set to
labour in the manufactory, are made to repair
their own tools, clean their own rice, and per
form a variety of duties in connection with the
gaol. The average number of men employed in
the manufacturing department daily is about
two hundred and sixty, and the annual value of
their labour, perhaps, will be about twenty-one
thousand rupees. The inhabitants of Maulmain
purchase articles manufactured at the gaol to
some considerable extent, for what reason I am
unable to say. Generally speaking, the work
manship exhibited in the manufactures is de
cidedly inferior to that performed by mechanies
outside, and the prices charged are equally high,
to prevent convict labour from prejudicing the
honest and industrious artizan.
Beyond the compound in which the work-
o 2

196 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
shops are situated, is another one, where Euro
pean prisoners are put to the work of stone-
breaking. The men were at this employment
when I went round, and they evidently did not
regard the punishment as anything very serious.
They were singing at their labour, and cracking
jokes as well as stones with great jollity. They
were all sailors, with one exception. They wore
the prison uniform for European offenders, which
consists of a blue jumper, with the word " gaol "
conspicuous in black characters on a square
yellow patch at the breast — and coarse blue drill
trowsers. As we were returning to the gaol office, a
funeral party was issuing from the principal
entrance. It consisted of four Burmans, who
bore the stretcher on which the corpse was laid
covered up with a coarse cloth, preceded and
followed by several free peons. Its destination
was the burial ground at Obo. The body was
that of a Karen prisoner, sentenced shortly before
to a brief term of imprisonment, who had died
on the previous evening. The Karens are

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 197
habitants of the mountains of the interior, and
they suffer severely from confinement in gaol.
It was stated to me as a fact, that no Karen
prisoner survives his sentence of imprisonment
longer than a very few months from the time of
his admission. They pine for the free air, and
the healthful exercise of their sturdy pursuits on
their native hill sides. The heavy fetters crush
their spirits, the high prison walls exclude
hope, and they droop and die.
The great accession to the number of convicts
from Bengal and the Upper provinces of Hin-
doostan, occasioned by the recent disastrous
occurrences in India, renders it imperative that
other and more extensive arrangements than
those which at present exist for their proper
disposal, should be speedily completed, and
perhaps no more suitable locality than the
Andaman island could have been suggested for
the destination of Indian felons. Many con
siderations, besides the necessity of providing for
criminals, have arisen to demonstrate the de-

198 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH,
sirability of turning the Andaman to some
advantage,' and doubtless the employment of
convicts upon the island, will very shortly prove
to the British Government, that it has been too
long neglectful of its interests, in a quarter
where they might, years ago, have been very
materially promoted, Much profit cannot ac
crue, of course, by means of the operation of the
convict system alone, but if encouragement were
given to emigration and enterprise, there is little
doubt that the Andaman would, in a few years,
become of great importance to the commerce of
the world, not simply on account of the internal
resources of the country, but from the peculiar
situation which it occupies in the Indian seas.

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 199

CHAPTER VIII.
Village of Nyoungbienziek. — Visit to the distillery at
the place. — The Goung Gyoup. — The timber station
at Kadoe. — Tricks of the trade. — Visit to Martaban.
In my capacity as a pleader I was not infre
quently engaged by Chinamen as a sort of arbi
trator in disputes that would very often occur
between them, and would sometimes be re
quested by them to visit certain places, in order,
by a personal "inspection of particular localities,
to satisfy myself of the existence of alleged
grievances. On one occasion I was solicited to proceed
with some Chinchew men to a village cah^l
Nyoungbienziek, which is situated on the river
side, about five miles from Maulmain. My Ce-

200 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
lestial friends, who owned a large distillery in
that village, complained to me that another
Chinaman, in breach of the Abkaree rules, was
working another still in the vicinity. They re
quested me to act as their agent in represent
ing the matter to the authorities on their behalf,
and invited me to visit the place to ascertain in
person the truth of their statements. As the
journey promised some little amusement, I
yielded to their solicitations, and procured the
society of an European friend, who consented to
accompany me on the expedition.
We accordingly chartered a dinghy, into which
our servants conveyed some articles of refresh
ment, and taking our guns along with us, we
started on our voyage. The scenery on either
side of the stream which runs on past Nyoung
bienziek, presents no features of interest. It is
thick jungle on either side, unrelieved by any
l^ct of landscape. The landing-place for which
our boat steered was at a narrow opening in the
jungle, and there was a hut or two discernible a

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 201
little way inland. When we debarked, about
half a dozen naked Burmese children came to
look at us, and then ran away as if they were
frightened. A Chinaman was in waiting to
conduct us to the distillery.
There is only one distillery for Maulmain,
licensed by the Deputy Commissioner, and that
is situated at this place ; and there is no other
licensed within a circuit of three miles. The one
we visited was one in which rather extensive
operations are conducted, and contained about a
dozen stills. The spirit manufactured here is
arrack and samshoo, upon both of which there
is a government duty levied. The distillery is
situated in the midst of the jungle, and is entirely
hidden by the surrounding trees. It is a most
romantic spot, and one could fancy it the scene
of all sorts of startling occurrences and melo
dramatic situations.
Myself and the Chinamen then debated as to
what plan should be pursued in reference to the
owner of a neighbouring distillery, who, it was

202 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
alleged, was manufacturing spirits illicitly, and sell
ing his produce to parties in town. It was sug
gested that we should all go to the place and ascer
tain the fact at once. My friend objected, and ad
vised a preliminary reference to the Goung Gyoup
at Nyoung-bien-ziek, with a view to obtain
ing the assistance of one of his constables,
and we accordingly proceeded to the Goung's
residence. The house in which this functionary resided
was framed of teak-wood, the walls being con
structed of matting, which material formed the
flooring also. The tenement was raised some
six feet or so from the ground, and the front
verandah was reached by means of a wooden
ladder. A Burmese female received us when
we had ascended and disappeared behind a cur
tain to inform the Goung of our visit. The
furniture of the chief apartment, which was used
as the Goung's cutcherry or office, as well as his
ordinary sitting room, consisted of a writing
table, which certainly did look like an official

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 203
article, two cane-bottomed common chairs, a
small bench or stool, a chest about two feet
high, three in length, and two in breadth, a bed
stead, and a swing which hung suspended from
one of the cross beams of the roof.
One or two children were playing about the
premises when we entered. They ceased their
games when we made our appearance, however,
and stood quite quietly in a row, staring at us
during the whole of the time we remained there,
without so much as winking.
Presently the Goung Gyoup himself came
from an inner apartment, made his obeisance,
and took a seat while I stated the nature
of the business which had brought us there.
He listened very attentively, and then said he
would send two or three men with us if we
wished it ; that is, if we would wait until he
could do so conveniently, as they were engaged
he said, just then.
The Goung Gyoup of Nyoungbienziek was a
man of about forty years of age, stout in person,

202 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
about five feet five in height. He was attired
in a white surtout, and a silk putso, and wore a
white Burmese head-dress or turban. He was
not by any means a bad-looking fellow, for his
expression was one of good-nature and jollity,
but his face looked, I thought, somewhat bloated ;
as if the vicinity of the distilleries had imparted
a certain character to his countenance.
After waiting patiently for about half an hour,
during which time our Chinese friends mani
fested various symptoms of impatience, whilst
myself and companion chatted upon indifferent
subjects and smoked our cheroots, the Goung
announced that his men were ready, and would
accompany us to the other distillery. Upon this,
we took our leave of him and his court. When
we were away from the house, the Chinamen
informed us that they knew the Goung had been
bribed by the other Chinaman ; that we were
kept waiting so long in order that all traces of
illicit traffic might be removed before our arrival,

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 205
and that the Goung was a drunkard, and any
thing but an honest man.
The other distillery was close to the village,
and was not nearly so much as the one we first
visited obscured from observation. It was hardly
so large as the other. There were a number of
jars of jaggery, and several large stills. There
was enough to justify a presumption that there
had been some distillation of spirits going on
there very recently ; but not a drop was found
upon the premises, and nothing could be got at
that was at all sufficient to convict the proprietor
of any breach of the Abkaree regulations.
The Chinamen expressed their rage and dis-
appointment in good set terms, and abused the
Goung behind his back fearfully. We returned
to their establishment, and partook of some pale
ale and biscuits, then we went a short walk
along a very uneven pathway, and shot a few
jungle birds ; after which we proceeded to our
boat, and, the tide serving, returned to Maul
main.

206 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
On another occasion, my professional duties
necessitated a visit to Kadoe, situated some sixteen
miles from Maulmain, that place being the Go
vernment dep6t for the reception of all the timber
that is floated down the streams from the forests
of the interior. A number of revenue officers
are here stationed to watch the rafts which come
down the river, and detain them until the duty
is duly paid, and a permit received from the
office of the Deputy Commissioner at Maul
main. The timber traffic, as conducted in these pro
vinces, affords scope for the exercise of an
amount of cheating and rascality exceeding any-
*
thing that is proverbially attributed to horse-
dealing, or any other description of commerce
that has acquired a bad name. The case which
gave occasion for the visit I am about to describe
is an illustration in point.
One Moung Shoay Gnu, resident of Maul
main, a man of bland manners, but of mean
apparel, went one day to the house of Narcissus

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 204
D'Cruz,* an East Indian, who had been a clerk
in Government employ, but who had turned
merchant and speculator — and methodically en
tered into the discussion of a little matter of
business which he was desirous of arranging.
According to Shoay Gnu's statement he was,
what is vulgarly termed, "hard up." All his
fortunes were being rafted down the river, much
thereof being detained at Kadoe because Shoay
Gnu had not the wherewith to satisfy the de
mands of Government. There were 80 logs
of teak timber at Kadoe belonging to Shoay
Gnu, of various lengths and degrees of thickness.
Would D'Cruz take in advance five hundred
rupees, on the mortgage of the timber, so that
he might clear the duty on the rafts which were
expected to arrive daily, the sale of which would
nable him to repay D'Cruz the money so ad
vanced, and liberal interest ?
D'Cruz would look at the timber and think
the matter over. Accordingly the parties pro-
* These names are fictitious.

208 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
ceeded to Kadoe, and several rafts were pointed
out as being the property of Shoay Gnu and
bearing, besides the forest mark, the stamp of
his own name. There were a number of Bur
mans on the rafts watching the timber. These
men were interrogated, but seemed to know
nothing further than that Moung Galay, a
forester, had hired them at the village of Mabu,
to accompany the rafts, which were at some
little distance up a creek, as far as Kadoe, telling
them that Moung Shoay Gnu would pay them
their wages, which he had done, and they had
accordingly suffered him to measure and mark
the timber.
D'Cruz then proceeded to take the dimensions
of the logs, which corresponded entirely with the
measurement shewn to him by Shoay Gnu, and
returned to Maulmain to prepare the mortgage
bond, the money being advanced for two months,
at the expiration of which period it would be
competent for him to foreclose. Five hundred
rupees (minus the amount of interest charged for

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 209
the loan) were duly paid to Shoay Gnu on the
execution of the bond before witnesses, and
away went D'Cruz to impress his mark on
the logs.
Business frequently took Mr. D'Cruz to the
timber station, and a government auction being
held there about three weeks after the date of
the above transaction, he went to see if he could
effect any advantageous purchases. When there
he naturally went to inspect the eighty logs in
which he was so much interested, but imagine his
horror when he discovered attachments under
the seal of the Assistant Commissioner's Court,
placed on each raft, and peons to guard the
same !
One was a writ issued in a regular suit in
which Messrs. G. and Co. were plaintiffs and
Moung Shoay Gnu defendant, directing the at
tachment of the defendant's right, title, and
interest in the timber described, in execution
of a decree of the Court. The other was an at
tachment granted in a miscellaneous proceeding
VOL. II. P

210 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
at the instance of Moung Galay, who claimed
the timber. My services were immediately
retained by D'Cruz, and from the proceedings
already taken in court I gathered the following
facts. Shoay Gnu had contracted with Moung Galay
for a quantity of teak timber of a certain des
cription for a stipulated sum of money ; a small
portion being paid down on the signing of the
contract, the remainder being payable on delivery
of the timber at Kadoe. Shoay Gnu applies to
Messrs. G. and Co. to purchase the timber on
the faith of the receipt for the advance paid to
Moung Galay and his (Shoay Gnu's) consequent
right. They advance money to enable Shoay
Gnu to complete his part of the contract with
the forester, and take his bond for the amount,
after sending an agent to the forest to in
vestigate particulars. The timber arrives and is
marked by Shoay Gnu, after settling with the
watchmen, and G. and Co. insist on the settle
ment of the business. Shoay Gnu is in no hurry,

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 211
and an action is accordingly instituted for the
recovery of the monies advanced and damages
accruing, in which G. and Co. obtain a verdict.
On this Shoay Gnu enters into the transaction
with D'Cruz, who is ignorant of the law pro-
ceeedings in the matter and regards the trans
action as bond fide. Judgment being obtained,
the plaintiffs issue execution, whereupon Moung
Galay steps in and petitions the Court to stay
the sale, on the ground that he has not received
full consideration for the timber, and that, until
completion of the purchase, he is the owner.
So the matter stood when I was applied to.
It turned out that Shoay Gnu had received
from G. and Co., and from D'Cruz, con
siderably above the value of the eighty logs. The
monies advanced by him to Moung Galay in
ratification of the purchase, and the sums paid
to Cooly watchmen were comparatively trifling,
not amounting in all to two hundred and fifty
rupees. There could be little doubt but that
his game was to pocket the balance, and there
p 2

212 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
was room for shrewd suspicion that Moung
Galay was his accomplice in these transactions.
The only thing that occurred to me to do was
to adopt a course similar to that pursued by
Moung Galay, and apply to have the timber
attached on behalf of D'Cruz. This, however,
would be insufficient to stay the sale under a
decree. We could bring no suit at present
against Shoay Gnu, for his bond had not yet
become payable. I explained to my client that
it was only the defendant's right, title, and
interest in the timber that was attached, and
intimated that on the day of sale, it would be as
well to give notice of his claim under the bond,
to all assembled in the market for the purpose
of purchasing.
The day of sale was fixed, and in pursuance
of the course advised by me, Mr. D'Cruz pro
ceeded to Kadoe, accompanied by myself. Other
sales of timber were to take place on the same
day, and a very large number of people were
expected to assemble. It was a dull, rainy

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 213
morning, when we started. The tide served us
at about five a.m., and the sale was advertised to
take place at eleven. It was nearly nine when
we got there.
The river at Kadoe is about the breadth of
the Thames at Woolwich ; but the numerous
rafts of timber that are here collected, would en
able an expert leaper to cross the stream at
almost any part within a limit of a couple of
miles. The rafts are of different sizes, according
to the quality of the timber, and the number of
logs contained in a batch. The logs are fastened
together with strong coir rope, holes being bored
through the ends of each, through which the
ropes are passed from one log to another. The
Burmans, who come down in charge of these
rafts, build houses upon them — they construct a
sort of deck of bamboo and a tenement above,
generally about five feet in height, which they
hatch with palm leaves, and in this sort of
habitation they live, sometimes with their fami
lies. The floating population at Kadoe appeared

214 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
to me to be considerably greater than that
inhabiting the village, if village it can be
called. The country on both sides of the river is flat
and swampy just about here. Kadoe is situated
on the eastern bank, and the country on that
side is, for some distance inland, comparatively
free from jungle which, however, grows thickly
on the opposite shore. With the exception of
the Government buildings at the place, there
were only a few native huts in the vicinity, which
appeared to be occupied by the very poorest
description of Burmese peasantry. Away from
the river on either side, the locality appeared to
me to be excessively dreary, and its dismal
character was by no means improved by the
aspect of the weather on the occasion of my
visit. The navigation of our dinghy, as we ap
proached our destination, became somewhat
difficult, owing to the obstacles presented by the

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 215
rafts and loose logs of timber, in the midst of
which we were obliged to glide as carefully and
as ingeniously as we could. When we arrived
nearly opposite the Government bungalow, we
got out of the boat and made for the shore,
which we reached by stepping, or jumping, from
raft to raft, at the risk of our necks ; at least I
may say so as far as my own individual neck
was concerned. The wood of course was slip
pery from the water, and in my efforts, I not
only endangered my equilibrium, but stood a
good chance of slipping into the river. There
were numbers of Europeans, East Indians, and
natives, 'crowding to the spot, the majority of
whom appeared to be accustomed to the practice,
and who took it as a matter of course. I saw
one or two tumbles, and came down once myself
just before I reached terra firma, to the intense
amusement of four Burmans, who were seated
on a log of wood on the bank just opposite to
where I fell. I suffered no other damage than

216 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
a bruised back, and immediately on landing we
proceeded to the bungalow, where Mr. Phillips,
the Government auctioneer, was arranging pre
liminaries for the sale.
I suppose, altogether, there were not fewer
than a couple of thousand persons at Kadoe on
that particular morning, all intent upon business.
Mr. Phillips had provided a quantity of coffee
for the refection of his Christian friends, but a
good many people had brought provisions of some
sort with them in their boats. This precaution
had been neglected by D'Cruz, so I was com
pelled to trespass upon the good nature of the
x auctioneer, or I should have suffered from the
loss of my breakfast.
I must admit that curiosity to see the place
and to witness one of these timber sales
prompted my visit quite as much as any per
sonal concern for my client's interests. It would
have taken a very heavy fee to have induced me
to go thither upon a similar errand on any sub-

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 21 7
sequent occasion. There was no place for a
visitor to go to, to sit down under shelter, and no
refreshments of any kind were purchaseable at
the place, except perhaps a few plantains, which
might be procured from some of the villagers.
Mr. Phillips was a Cingalhese, and probably
one of the principal recommendations he pos
sessed for the office he filled, was his persevering
garrulity. If the amount of business transacted
by him was at all to be estimated by the number
of words he uttered, he must have got through
an enormous quantity. As far as I could judge,
however, he did not seem to give himself time
for anything. He did not at all like the affair
upon which my client had come; as the an
nouncement which the latter had had printed in
the vernacular, in Hindustani, in Tamil and in
English, and posted on the spot, was likely to
affect the bids, and deprive him of the com
mission he would be entitled to in the event of
the lots realizing fair average prices.

218 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
I could not help thinking how different would
have been the scene had the country been
governed according to the principles generally
obtaining in Crown colonies. Here, for instance,
is the grand mart for the sale of timber (the
staple mercantile commodity of Burmah), the
whole of the produce of the forests of the Sal ween,
Yd, Gyne and Attaran rivers; where extensive
sales, involving millions of rupees, are constantly
taking place, sometimes twice or thrice a week,
and which sales are invariably attended by im
mense numbers of traders and other persons,
and yet the locality, except on those occasions,
presents not a single feature indicative of the
slightest commercial importance, beyond the
floating stores of wood which crowd the stream.
The East India Company offered no encourage
ment for European enterprize. Had there been
any inducement for Englishmen to emigrate to
Burmah, we should have had hotels at Kadoe,
facilities for transit to and from Maulmain, by

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 219
means of steam, and other advantages equally
desirable. The scene was not a little curious, as well as
animated and exciting. People of all colours
and costumes crowding on the rafts to inspect
the lots, and Mr. Phillips with his Keranee, fol
lowing, and expatiating. D'Cruz wanted me
to make an excursion to look at his logs, but I
peremptorily declined. At length the sale com
menced, and the general excitement was intense ;
above all which, the auctioneer's voice was heard
repeating the bids, and urging advances. The
auction took place in the open air; the cus
tomary pulpit was dispensed with, and the ham
mer was not considered worth a rap.
When Shoay Gnu's eighty logs were put up,
I thought D'Cruz would have gone frantic.
He loudly protested against the legality of
the sale.
" Contempt of court!" cried the auctioneer.
'* This is a sale under a decree of the Assistant

220 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
Commissioner's Court, and here's a man says
it's illegal." This address the speaker likewise
rendered in the vernacular and, to the Maho-
medans about, in Hindustani ; and hundreds of
sable countenances grinned derisively at D'Cruz,
which made him more furious than ever.
Shortly after the bidding commenced, my
client recognized Shoay Gnu, who bore his
reproaches with meek composure. " What
could he do?" he urged — "if the Court un
justly took away his timber and sold it to other
people, was he to blame?"
Eventually, the disputed batches of timber
were knocked down to a Burman, named Moung
Shoay Byan, and we returned to Maulmain.
Forthwith, D'Cruz, Moung Galay, G. and Co.,
Moung Shoay Byan, and Shoay Gnu, went at it
hammer and tongs in the arena of the Assistant
Commissioner's Court. Suits, cross suits, inter
locutory proceedings, summary appeals, and
complications of all sorts, kept all the parties

FOUR YEARS IN , BURMAH. 221
concerned, and their lawyers, in perpetual em
broilment for many months, and the claims of
the several contending parties were not adjusted
when I left Maulmain, and very probably are in
litigation still.
The native towns throughout Burmah, with
the exception, perhaps, of Amerapura and
Toungnoo, which were places of some considera
tion, do not appear to have possessed any great
importance in respect to extent or amount of
population. Although Tavoy and Mergui are
seaport towns, and the capitals of provinces, and
might be rendered commercially valuable, they
are little better than villages, containing com
paratively few inhabitants, the principal of
which are generally foreigners — Mahomedans,
Chuliahs and Chinese. Martaban, the capital
of the province of that name, does not, I should
imagine, contain a population of more than five
hundred souls, and' there did not appear to me
to be fifty houses or huts in the place.
A few of us having formed a party to cross

222 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
the river on a shooting excursion, we proposed
making Martaban our head-quarters during the
few days we intended to devote to the prosecu
tion of our sports. We had tolerably fine
weather in our favour, and started on our expe
dition at daybreak one October morning.
There were nine of us altogether, exclusive of
servants, and five dinghys were put into requisi
tion to convey us, our retinue, stores of proven
der, &c, from Maulmain to the opposite shore.
On arriving we had to be carried some distance
to dry land, on the shoulders of our boatmen,
as there was no proper landing place constructed.
An important-looking Burman, attended by
several of his countrymen, who were scantily
clad, came to receive us ; he told us he was
the Goung Gyoup, and asked us up to the
cutchery, a good-sized brick building, situated
on an elevated spot near the river, vis-a-vis
the Maulmain Burra Bazar. The cutchery
consisted of two good-sized apartments and
front and back verandahs. The only furniture

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 223
in the building appeared to be an almirah, a
table and a couple of chairs. The walls were
plain, chunamed all over, but much discoloured ;
evidences of the betel-chewing propensities of
the visitors frequenting the edifice being appa
rent in the dirty red splashes with which the floor
and lower portion of the walls were covered.
At a short distance from the cutchery, a hand
some teak house was in course of erection,
which was intended for the residence of Lieut.
Burn, the Assistant Commissioner.
The Goung accompanied us to the village,
and exerted his influence to get us a house con
taining a few necessary articles of furniture for
our use during our stay. We were obliged to
borrow a table of an East Indian clerk belonging
to the cutchery, and were unable to get stools to
sit upon without a good deal of difficulty. The
village seemed to consist of one street, the houses
of which were mostly mean looking, all built of
wood, and low-roofed, the roofs being thatched
with palmyrah leaves. There was a shed which

224 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
they called a bazaar, redolent of ngapee, in
which that commodity and fish, vegetables and
condiments were vended. The inhabitants
appeared generally poor, and we saw no indica
tions of traffic or labour.
The scenery in the vicinity of Martaban is
picturesque, bounded on the west by lofty wood
ed hills crowned with Buddhist pagodas. On
the hill sides, as at Maulmain, there are Kyoungs,
Zayats, and gardens, belonging to the poonghees,
of whom there are here a good number.
We bagged a tolerable quantity of game the
first day, consisting principally of teal and a
species of partridge. We made a hearty dinner
at seven o'clock in the evening, and afterwards
spread our mattrasses on the floor of the hut we
had hired, and being somewhat fatigued, were
soon sound asleep. I was awoke on the follow
ing morning by a chorus of female voices. The
air, I thought, seemed more melodious than is
ordinarily the case as regards native pieces of
music, although it was somewhat monotonous.

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 225
One of our party, a gentlem an born in the coun
try, translated the words, which he rendered in
to English verse as follows: —
" Hail the Sun's bright rays
Chasing the night !
Our voices applaud
The great Giver of Light !
Hail to the Flowers
Fresh from their beds
Rich with the fragrance
The night-dew sheds !
Hail to the bird who
With musical voice
Bids the sleeper awake
And come forth and rejoice !
Lo ! the broad river,
The source of our food !
Hail to the Giver —
Munificent Buddh!"

VOL. TT

226 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.

CHAPTER IX.
Determination to quit Burmah. — The law's delay —
Past government and future prospects of Burmah.
— News of the revolt in Bengal. — Sugar factory
at Amherst. — Productions and capabilities of this
part of India. — Its favourable climate.
A very harassing law-suit in which I had
been concerned for upwards of eighteen months
having finally terminated in my favour, I deter
mined upon quitting Burmah and revisiting
England, being urged thereto by failing health,
occasioned by much anxiety and harass of mind
and body. By the way, as the aforesaid law
suit illustrates the way in which the Company's
judicial system sometimes worked, I shall not

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 227
perhaps be considered out of order if I briefly
state the circumstances here.
I was the holder of a promissory note payable
to the drawer or order on demand, with interest
from date of the note, until payment. The ac
ceptors were the representatives of the principal
mercantile firm in Maulmain, and the amount
of the consideration was considerable in a place
where money is valuable and realizes heavy in
terest. On presenting the note payment was
refused, on the ground that it had been liqui
dated to the original holder. Remonstrances
were unavailing, and I was compelled to bring
my action for the recovery of the money in the
Assistant Commissioner's Court. It is needless
to say that the plea of liquidation, besides being
wholly untenable in law, turned out to be a sub
terfuge, having no foundation at all in fact.
Judgment was accordingly given in my favour,
but the defendant expressed himself dissatisfied
with the Court's decision, and immediately gave
notice of appeal, upon grounds as vexatious

228 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
and frivolous as could possibly have been in
vented. I applied, however, that the amount
should be deposited in Court pending the appeal,
and my application was ai once granted, but
while there, of course, it was of no use to me.
Months rolled on, and although many appeal
cases were heard, the one in which I was in
terested was shelved. I preferred several peti
tions, for the detention of my money occasioned
me very serious inconvenience, and subjected me
to very much distress. A year passed away and
nothing was heard of it. At length, a new
Commissioner came to preside over the pro
vince; him I petitioned, and the cause was
heard. The appellants had the best legal as
sistance obtainable in support of their position,
but the result was inevitable, and the decree of
the lower court was, of course, confirmed. But
the decrees of the Commissioner are not final in
appeals fron the highest court of First Instance,
the court of the Assistant Commissioner. The
dissatisfied litigant has the privilege of appealing

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 229
specially to the SudrDawaniAdaulut of Bengal.
Notice was given by the defendants of their in
tention to adopt this course, and, in the mean
time, I was prevented from drawing the money
out of court. Fortunately for me the appeal
was not sent up. The representative of the
firm sued, to whose obstinacy and ill feeling I
was indebted for all the inconvenience and wrong
which I suffered in this matter, having gone to
Rangoon, had omitted to pay the necessary
transcription fees within the time prescribed by
the rules of the court, and so eventually (eigl>
teen months from the time of the commencement
of the suit) I was enabled to draw my own money
out of court Had the case gone to Calcutta I
should probably have lost it altogether, for some
times seven years have elapsed before the Sudr
Dawani has passed its final decrees on appeals
sent up for their consideration. I mention
this circumstance in order to demonstrate how
easy it was, under the Company's system, for
unprincipled men, through the inefficiency of

230 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
the courts, to harass and oppress their creditors,
who had no redress against such grievous
wrongs. One of the first acts of the new go
vernment should be to reform the system of
jurisprudence adopted in the Mofussil altogether,
and assimilate it with that obtaining in the pre
sidencies. We should not then hear of instances
of such shameful injustice.
Having come to the determination aforesaid,
and being now enabled to carry it into effect, I
settled my affairs and commenced making pre
parations for my voyage, in pursuit of which
object I had to indent pretty extensively upon
the stores of my friend Mr. Abraham Cohen,
who had but recently been installed in all the
glories of his new establishment ; an extensive
brick building of considerable architectural pre
tensions, situated in the main street, some dis
tance to the southward of his old house of
business, and on the opposite side of the way ;
at the inauguration of which I had been present
a few days previously, on which occasion the

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 231
enterprising and liberal proprietor entertained
his friends and customers with a feast consisting
of cold viands and choice beverages, to the
latter of which many did not fail to do ample
justice. Before quitting the country, however, I pur
pose jotting down a few remarks and reflections
as they occur to me relative to its past govern
ment and future prospects in connection with its
many splendid resources.
The tide of events has swept away the go
vernment under which British India has for
upwards of a century been ruled, and the admi
nistration of our mighty Eastern Empire has
reverted to our gracious Sovereign. It is to be
hoped that, under a different system, more will
be done to develope the internal resources of the
country, and to encourage mercantile enterprise,
than has been done during the thirty years that
the Tenasserim provinces have formed a portion
of the British dominions. Much as the East
India Company have done, splendid as have

232 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
been their achievements, and magnificent their
designs, it cannot be denied that in many re
spects they have retarded the progress of those
influences which so largely conduce to the pros
perity and civilization of nations.
It is now little more than two years since
the news first reached Burmah of the mutinies of
the native troops in Bengal and the north-west.
Amongst the Christian population of this part
of the country the intelligence produced some
consternation, and many feared the possibility of
the Burmese themselves rising in arms against
us, in conjunction with the revolters, and again
contesting for the King of Ava. The inhabit
ants of the Tenasserim provinces were believed
to be loyal, and little apprehension, perhaps,
arose on their account, but it was by no means
certain that the recently-conquered people of
Martaban and Pegu would rest when so good
an opportunity presented itself for again taking
arms against us. Fortunately, however, they made
no sign of hostility. Many of them, — indeed

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 233
by far the major portion of them, — had already
learned to appreciate the blessings of peace and
the mildness and benignancy of the English Go
vernment, and I have no doubt but that, if they
had been put to the test, a very large Burmese
force would have willingly borne arms in our
cause. During the whole of the disturbances in India,
the country remained tranquil, and many pro
jects of improvement have been commenced
upon. As yet, however, much cannot perhaps
be done to repair past neglect on the part of
former rulers, but doubtless when the new legis
lature shall have become thoroughly acquainted
with the state of affairs throughout the country
which they are appointed to govern, measures
will be devised for a gradual but certain and
thorough reform of many old abuses, and the
opening out, improvement, and extension of the
manifold advantages which the late government,
with culpable indifference or unwillingness, re
fused or neglected to avail themselves of.

234 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
Perhaps in no part of their late possessions is
the supineness of the East India Company's
government more apparent than in the Tenas-
serim provinces. The red line in the map of
Asia which marks the territories lately belong
ing to that corporation, has only recently in
cluded within its scope the fertile provinces of
Pegu and Martaban, and any vast extension of
advantages can hardly yet be expected to have
accrued from their occupation. But the pro
vinces of Amherst, Tavoy, and Mergui, on the
Tenasserim coast, have long been British pro
perty, have been explored by men of science
and intelligence who have reported important
discoveries, and no step has been attempted to
be taken to turn to good account the valuable
information which has from time to time been
elicited relative to their resources, and to render
available for commercial and other useful pur
poses, the various indigenous productions of the
mineral and vegetable kingdoms which are here
to be found in such rich abundance.

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 235
Besides the staple articles of export (viz. teak
timber and rice) it has been demonstrated that
sugar can be cultivated and manufactured with
great advantage, and there are thousands of
acres of waste land between the three large
rivers which water Amherst province, especially
adapted for the growth of the cane. Unfor
tunately the late government had succeeded in
establishing a precedent by way of warning to
speculators who might perchance have been
desirous of embarking their capital in the en
deavour to make the cultivation of the cane and
the manufacture of sugar in Burmah anything
like a lucrative experiment, and any who might
otherwise have been bold enough to venture
into the market, were, under such auspices,
hardly likely to embark their fortunes in a
scheme, however feasible it might appear, where
others had been hopelessly wrecked, leaving a
beacon behind them. Messrs. O'Reilly and
Bell, two enterprising European gentlemen, in
1840, established a factory at Amherst, in which

236 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
they invested a considerable amount of capital.
The Government pretended to patronize the
undertaking, and ostensibly with the view to
encourage and increase the manufacture of sugar,
the administration under Lord Auckland prohi
bited the import of it, and permitted its export
to Great Britain upon terms which Messrs.
O'Reilly and Bell considered at the time to be
tolerably favourable. The quality of the sugar
produced on the Amherst plantation was found
to be excellent, and the demand was extensive.
The expensive machinery was in constant ope
ration, cargo after cargo of the produce left the
port, and enough then remained to satisfy de
mands for local consumption. With an increase
in the trade came an extension of appliances to
meet possible contingencies. The proprietors of
the apparently flourishing concern congratulated
themselves upon their evident success, and
seemed in a fair way to realize handsome for
tunes, when, suddenly and unexpectedly, there
came a check upon their operations. Lord Ellen-

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 237
borough became Governor- General of India, and
during the early part of his administration, the
indulgences hitherto enjoyed by Messrs. O'Reilly
and Bell were rescinded, upon some frivolous
pretence manufactured for the occasion.
It was pretended that the supply from the
Amherst estate was insufficient for the public
purposes. The local consumption amounted to
thirty-six tons per annum or thereabouts, and it
was alleged that the greater portion of this
quantity was absorbed by the commissariat, the
military establishment, and foreigners ; this how
ever was, if true, an accidental consumption,
liable to diminution in proportion to the reduc
tion of the military force. In the years 1843,
'44 and '45, one hundred and seventy-five tons of
sugar were manufactured on this plantation,
and in 1846 the quantity had increased to three
hundred tons, and the local consumption did not
exceed one hundred and forty-four tons in all
those four years ; yet with these facts before
them, the Government made lawful the importa-

238 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
tion of foreign sugar to Maulmain, and it was soon
found impracticable to continue operations which
had commenced under such apparently pro
mising auspices. It is true the Government
offered a balsam to apply to the injury they had
inflicted, but it was impotent to heal. Messrs.
O'Reilly and Bell were graciously allowed the
privilege of exporting their sugar to England at
a lower rate of duty. This concession was,
however, altogether inadequate to compensate
them for the loss they necessarily suffered from
the introduction into the market of cheaper and
inferior sugars, and the consequent diminution
of the demand for their own produce. Sub
sequently the original protection was restored.
The importation of foreign sugars into Burmah
was again prohibited. But this concession came
too late. The enterprising proprietors of the
Amherst estate were already ruined ; their plan
tations, their factories, and their engines were
put to the hammer, and, as a matter of course,
no other capitalist could be found willing to

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 239
trust to the caprices of Government with so
instructive an example immediately before their
eyes. All governments find apologists for whatever
errors they may commit, and there were not
wanting those in the present case (for instance
parties in Calcutta, themselves in the sugar
trade, and therefore interested in the removal of
the restriction on the export to Burmah) who
denounced the Amherst concern, and the pri
vileges accorded the proprietors — as a monopoly.
But there are certain interests which may be
properly protected by the State without such
protection investing them with the character of
monopolies, and I think few will deny that to
establish a great trade in any particular article of
national produce, protection is necessary at the
outset. The plains of the Salween and the
Gyne were open to cultivation by others besides
Messrs. O'Reilly and Bell, and had it not been
for the measures of the Ellenborough adminis
tration, no doubt sugar plantations would now

240 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
be flourishing all over the low country, fur
nishing another important ingredient of com
merce as the produce of British Burmah, Then
it would be safe to accord free permission to other
countries to compete with the Burman markets in
the sugar trade, for then the universal privilege
would not be availed of, upon a principle similar
to that which prevents speculators at home from
sending coals to Newcastle. However, Messrs.
O'Reilly and Bell lost about fifteen lakhs of rupees
(through the misbehaviour of the Government),
by their mills and plantations, a large portion of
the population was thrown out of employment,
and not a single blessing to the state, or to
individuals, accrued in consequence of a measure
as obnoxious as it was unnecessary, cruel, and
mischievous. Coal is obtainable in great abundance in the
rovince of Mergui, and such as has already
been procured has been found to be of good
quality. Some of it has been made use of for
the purpose of supplying the Government steam

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 241
vessels, but operations in the coal districts have
been hitherto carried on to an extent too trifling
to furnish the article in sufficient quantities to
serve even the limited requirements of the
marine department at Maulmain, and the con
sequence has been that coal, an indigenous pro
duction, has had to be imported to meet the
requisite demands. It has been represented
that Mergui is capable of supplying the steam
navy of the whole of India, and the railways
likewise, with excellent coal, and of course, if
reasonable facilities for land carriage existed, it
would be obviously cheaper for Government, as
well as for private steam and gas companies, to
procure their supplies from Mergui, than to
import them from Newcastle ; but, barring the
few carriage ways which have been constructed
about the towns of Maulmain, Tavoy and
Mergui, there is nothing that can be called a
road in the country, and hardly a decent path
way ; goods of all descriptions being conveyed
from place to place by means of boats, which
VOL. II. R

242 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
ply upon the creeks and rivers. Mergui is
otherwise rich in mineral productions, which
are perhaps far more valuable than even its
exhaustless vegetable resources. Iron has been
announced by the late Dr. Heifer (who some
years since explored the interior of the province
and the isles of the Mergui archipelago, and
made various valuable discoveries), to be plen
tiful in many parts of the country, though
chiefly abundant in the islands, but scarcely an
effort has been made to obtain any results from
this important discovery, and the natives alone
avail themselves of the existence in the land of
this useful metal for the very few simple pur
poses for which they care, or know how, to turn
it to account.
If the knowledge that gold is to be found in
Burmah will serve to attract public attention,
and to direct the tide of emigration from the
Australian colonies, it may be useful to intimate
that it has been confidently asserted that it is
" plentiful in Pegu, and is indeed distributed all

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 243
over the provinces watered by the streams which
bring down from the lofty granite mountains
their tribute of the precious metal." The Rev.
Mr. Mason says the ancient name of Maubee,
in the delta of the Irrawadi, was Suvanna-nadee
or, river of gold ; indicating that Pegu was fa
mous in antiquity for its gold ; and doubtless
the application of modern inventions in procuring
the metal would be successful in developing the
wealth of the country in auriferous earth.
The same authority announces that the range
. f mountains which form the eastern boundary
of the British territory is rich in tin ores and
other minerals. Near the town of Tenasserim
are tin mines which were farmed by the late
government and worked by Chinese. In the
vicinity of Laos, a Burmese town close to the
border ef the Chinese province of Yunan, this
ire is very plentiful and silver is also said to be
abundant. Cotton might be cultivated with great advan
tage, the soil in many parts of Amherst province,

244 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
being admirably adapted for its growth. The
low plains on the Salween near the limestone
ranges, would, it is conjectured, best answer the
purpose, especially those which are so far elevated
as not to be entirely inundated during the mon
soon. I have seen some excellent specimens of
the plant flourishing in gentlemen's gardens in
Maulmain, especially in the Commissioner's
Park, and so far as I am capable of judging, I
should pronounce that which I have seen to be
of very superior quality. No attempt has been
made to cultivate it to any extent, either as an
article of commerce or of local utility.
Those competent to give an opinion upon the
matter have contended that coffee, equal to the
best Ceylon, might be produced all over the
Tenasserim provinces, the climate being well
suited to its cultivation. The plant would
thrive on all the hills from Amherst to Maul
main, the country in the neighbourhood of
Kokareet, the ranges running through the island

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 245
of Belew-gyoon and the lower ranges on the
Yeng-byne. The beautiful plains on the banks of the
river Dagyne, would, probably, grow rich in the
production of indigo and opium, both requiring
a rich light soil, such as is here found, well
manured. Tiger grass, a jungle , weed which
forms so great an obstacle in effectually clearing
lands for cultivation, does not exist here, and
even the powerful creepers so plentiful in the
uncleared jungles, and the luxuriantly growing
bush and underwood, are here comparatively
scarce. The cultivation and preparation of
indigo, it is true, requires a large outlay of
capital to compete with the produce of Hindos
tan, but still, it is confidently believed, the
experiment might be essayed with advantage.
As regards opium, some skill is requisite in
cutting the poppy and collecting the juice, but
this is easily acquired, and competent hands
would soon be found available directly a demand
for their labour might arise. The drug would

246 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
find a ready market throughout Burmah, it
might be exported, with immense pecuniary
advantage, to the Shan states, and it would,
doubtless, be the means of opening an overland
trade with China, especially with the province of
Yunan. Hemp springs up everywhere spontaneously,
and might be collected in enormous quantities, at
little or no expence, during the south-west
monsoon. The ricinus or castor oil-plant,
yielding abundance of oil, flourishes in the lands
at the foot of the primitive mountain ranges ;
and, indeed, it grows extensively, as a weed, all
over the country. So common is it indeed, and
so inexpensive is the process of preparing the
oil, that the latter is commonly used for con
sumption as a lamp-oil, from motives of eco
nomy, it being much cheaper than the coaconut
oil, though affording, perhaps, an inferior light.
A permanent vegetable dye is extracted from a
large perennial creeper called Yukebo, which
grows in the high lands between the Salween

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 247
and the Zimmay country, which yields a beauti
ful yellow and is used by the Karens, in con
junction with indigo, in the production of a
very fine dark green. The time of its collec
tion is after the monsoon, when it is cut, and
simply boiled in jars. Another dye of value is
procured from a shrub called Nibezee, which
occurs either wild in the plains between the
Salween and the Gyne, or is cultivated in the
garden grounds which surround the Poonghee
kyoungs and pagodas. Teak leaves also exhibit
a very promising dye of a dark purple colour
with nuances into brown. The subalpine part
of the northern or Siamese boundary range
produces stick lac, which the Karens say should
be collected during the rainy season. This
commodity is said to be very plentiful in some
parts ; but the plant from which it is gathered
is shortlived, lasting only a fortnight, and dis
appearing suddenly. A Burmese varnish called
Tsee-Tsee, is very cheaply procurable in any
quantity, and can be easily refined, so as to

248 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
render it of value in the market, and no doubt
it would be highly appreciated in Europe.
Another article of commerce might be procured
in vast abundance in the forests of the northern
boundary range. It is the bark of an indigenous
oak tree which, according to analysis, would
yield as much, if not more, of astringent matter
than the European oaks, and would be invaluable
for tanning. The substance could be extracted
and prepared for exportation.
Wood oil trees are very frequent on the
banks of the higher Salween, and from them a
valuable oil, adapted for polishing, is extracted.
The wood gives very fine charcoal, well suited,
it is believed, to the manufacture of gunpowder.
Honey and wax are abundant, and are pro
duced from three different kinds of bees. The
nests are very large, some of them yielding as
much as four quarts of honey, and two pounds
of wax. There are three species of cinna
mon trees growing wild in the northern part of
Amherst province : — the bark is said to be mild

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 249
and aromatic, but the plant has never been sub
ject to cultivation for the purposes of trade.
Large forests of pine exist to the eastward of
the Thoungyeen river on the Siamese side of the
boundary, and also in Amherst province, beyond
the Elephant-tail Mountains. It is a heavy red
wood, having much the appearance of the Riga
pine, highly saturated with resinous matter, from
which, it is supposed, large quantities of tar
might be extracted. The natives make a kind
of pitch out of it, but its coarseness may be
attributable, perhaps, to the clumsy method
adopted by them in its manufacture, they allow
ing the volatile parts to escape. The wood is
not applicable to spars of ships, owing to its
great specific gravity, but it has been found to
be considerably stronger than Riga pine, and I
believe, as elastic.
Thengan, Pemah, and a species of Saul tree,
well known superb trees, are considered by the
natives nearly equal to teak, and, indeed, Then
gan, for many purposes, is deemed preferable.

250 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
It is abundant all over the country, as are the
meranen, the cedar, the oak, the bastard elm,
blackwood, or ebony, bastard rosewood. The
latter is a lighter description of timber but ex
ceedingly valuable for general purposes. When
full grown and well seasoned it is indestructible
from the effects of the sun, wind, and rain ; it is
well calculated to resist friction, and is, therefore,
admirably adapted for the purposes of machinery.
The posts of the old palace of Pegu are of this
timber, and when they were examined in 1856,
by an officer of the Bengal army, they were
found to be perfectly sound, a certain proof of
the durability of the wood, as the palace is a
very ancient building.
Many valuable productions of a similar cha
racter are also abundant in the Pegu province ;
but as yet, there has scarcely been time sufficient
to render them extensively available, and the
territories of the King of Ava also abound in
natural treasures. Petrolium or earth-oil, a very

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 251
valuable article of commerce, I have already
alluded to in a former chapter.
Other natural products besides those already
enumerated are obtainable in abundance
throughout the provinces, but hitherto no
encouragement has been manifested to forward
their employment in any way calculated to
render them of importance as elements of com
mercial advancement. Many of the resources
of the country, indeed, cannot be rendered
available for any useful purpose at present,
owing to the non-existence of any means of land
conveyance. Roads traversing extensive tracts
of country cannot be constructed out of any
private capital. The execution of such works
ought to be undertaken for the public weal, by
the government itself. Tolls might be levied as
a means of repayment for the outlay incurred or
such other measures, as might be deemed ad
visable, adopted to secure a reimbursement, and
it it is to be hoped that, ere long, we shall hear
of the progress of various public works of utility

252 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
and importance calculated to extend the com
merce and promote the welfare of the country.
Not a very long while since a road, which it
was proposed to construct from Maulmain to
Amherst and from thence to Mergui, was com
menced, and this undertaking, which was sug
gested, I believe, by the late commissioner, Sir
A. Bogle, was sanctioned by the supreme govern
ment and confided to the management of the
department of public works. The vast expences
consequent upon the Indian rebellion, however,
prevented the immediate continuance of the
operations, so that nothing has been done much
beyond a survey and tracing of the line of road,
which, when completed, will be a most important
highway. As, prior to my final departure, it became
necessary that I should pay another visit to
Rangoon, to arrange the settlement of some
few matters that concerned me, I embarked on
board the H. C. Steamer Fire Queen, for the
purpose ; and it may not, perhaps, be amiss in

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 253
this chapter to record not only the changes for
the better which struck me on my last visit to
that city ; but likewise those which have occurred
in Maulmain, since I first arrived in the
settlement. When the mail steamer in which, on this
last occasion, I voyaged up the Irrawaddy,
arrived in sight of the town, I was considerably
surprised at the prospect which unfolded itself
to my delighted vision. Where, on my first
visit, extended a dreary, boggy, uneven waste
of ground, disfigured by heaps of rubbish, and;
abounding with filthy ponds, and perilous pits,
bounded by a jumbled collection of mat and
wooden tenements, there now appeared a hand
some row of palatial edifices on the strand,
fronted by a broad and well constructed roadway,
which extended to the water side. Along this
roadway were moving carriages and palanquins,
and well dressed pedestrians were going about
their business with unsoiled trowsers and boots.
Besides the elegant buildings which were com-

254 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
pleted and in occupation, there were several
which promised to be equally elegant in course
of erection, and this strandway extended right
away from the government dockyard to God
win's wharf, a distance of at least a mile. I
could scarcely believe that the Rangoon of 1857,
was the Rangoon of 1854 ; and really if I had
not beheld the glittering spire of the great
Shoay-da-goung pagoda, towering over the new
city, I think I should have doubted whether the
Fire Queen had brought me to the place I had
booked myself for. On the Dalla side of the
river too, there were other docks, and there were
a large number of ships moored in the stream
abreast of the town, and everything bespoke the
existence of quite a different state of things to
that which formerly characterised the metropolis
of British Burmah.
I went on shore, and the changes I observed
there appeared to me infinitely more perplexing,
more wonderful. The plan upon which the city
had been laid out, had evidently been carefully

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 255
designed so as to prevent those inconveniences
which frequently occur in towns in tropical coun
tries, to the detriment of health, and the dis
figurement of the scenery. The situation had
been properly levelled away from the river-
board to the stockade, and the numerous roads
which had been designed for streets were of
various widths,none being narrower than fifty
feet, while all the principal thoroughfares were a
hundred feet wide. Godfree's range, in which
I had been domiciled during my previous
visits, had been destroyed, and on the site of
those unsightly barracks, neat rows of houses
were being built. A canal had been commenced,
which was intended to enclose the town, and
afford facilities for drainage. An Anglican
church of magnificent architectural pretensions
was in course of erection, and a Roman Catholic
Cathedral had been built, and consecrated for
Divine worship.
There was no difficulty about procuring a
lodging now. The railway hotel had disap-

256 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
peared from the scene, and there would now be
a difficulty in pointing out the spot on which it
formerly stood. There were, however, several
new hotels established and flourishing ; and to
one of these, situated in a capital position near
the strand and in the vicinity of all the principal
mercantile offices and warehouses, I betook
myself, on the invitation of a canvasser belonging
to the establishment, who brought one of the
proprietor's cards to me on board the steamer.
It was a large commodious brick house, with
spacious verandahs, and comfortable rooms, and
the terms appeared to be tolerably reasonable.
Judging from the numbers of persons who
appeared to patronise this hotel, playing at
billiards, boarding and drinking, I should ima
gine the proprietor is accumulating a pretty
snug fortune. It seemed to be frequented a
great deal by captains of vessels and seafaring
people generally, and many of the residents of
the town paid occasional visits.
The law courts at present were held in some

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 257
old Kyoungs and Poonghee houses in the stock
ade, large rambling wooden edifices which,
however, seemed to answer the purposes to
which they were temporarily devoted, most
admirably. Young as is the settlement, there
appeared to be a vast amount of litigation a-foot,
and I was informed that since my sojourning
there, more than a dozen pleaders had been
licensed to practise before the several tribunals,
which are similarly constituted to those at
Maulmain, being presided over by Commissioner,
Deputy Commissioner, Assistant Commissioner,
and Tseetkay, respectively, and governed by
pretty nearly the same forms of practice. The new
court houses were being built on the strand. 1
believe all the public offices, in fact, are to be
contained in one building, which is intended to
be one of the most splendid structures in the
east. The gaol, which is situated on the Kemen-
dine road, was not yet completed. It covers a
large extent of ground, and is surrounded by a
VOL. II. s

258 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
high wall, or rampart of considerable width, or
thickness. Since my lesidence at Rangoon several de
structive fires had occurred, which had con
sumed many wooden houses, built by owners
of plots of ground which had been purchased
at government sales. The consequence was
that the authorities prohibited the re-erection of
wooden-houses, within certain limits, and al
together disallowed the use of leaves for the
purpose of roofing. As a sanatory measure, it
had also been dictated that town residences should
be detached from each other. Much dissatis
faction had been manifested at the determination
with which these measures were enforced ; but
people were becoming reconciled to the hard
ship of the obligations, on the ground of their
expediency. Rangoon is very gay, and the community
appear sociable. There are frequent balls and
parties. There is a large public assembly room
:n the stockade, at the end of which is a stage

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 259
fitted up for theatrical performances. I went
there and saw a dramatic representation by
gentlemen amateurs one night. They played
" Katherine and Petruchio " and a farce, very
creditably, considering that " Katherine" was
played by a man whose figure was none of the
genteelest, and whose voice, use it how he
would, was decidedly not of feminine softness.
My last stay here did not extend over a few
days, so I have no incidents of any interest respect
ing my visit to communicate. Maulmain has not
quite been standing still in respect to municipal
improvements. There was when I left, a new
main wharf building, which bade fair to be a very
creditable specimen of engineering, in place of the
old rotten wooden shed which formerly stood out
on the river, supported by half-decayed stakes,
and which was really a disgrace to the town.
Then there were the bricks (or a good many of
them) deposited on the Esplanade, on which stand
the old wooden court houses, designed for the
erection of the new judicial chambers, and
s 2

260 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
offices, which were to be quite models of archi
tectural beauty. I was shown the drawing of
the proposed building, and can testify to the
excellence of the design.
The climate of the country has been frequently
referred to as being inimical to the European
constitution ; but how many examples could be
adduced to prove the contrary ? There are now
living in the country men who were the pioneers
of European enterprise in the teak forests of the
interior, and who still, notwithstanding forty
years of hardships, perils and privations, are hale
and hearty men. Probably this notion originated
in consequence of the great mortality which,
during the two campaigns in Burmah, of which
the British have had any experience, thinned the
ranks of our armies ; but there are many ways
of accounting for that mortality, without at
tributing it to the pestilential nature of the
climate. I fancy it has been perfectly well de
monstrated that the equipments of the British
soldier are wholly unsuited to tropical climates,

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 261
and the cumbersome head-dress, and the heavy
uniforms, and personal " properties," borne by
them on marches and in action, have occasioned
the death of many a brave fellow who, but for
them, might now be relating the 'story of his
exploits. It has been abundantly proved that
wherever the jungle has been cleared and the
ground properly drained, the climate is ex
ceedingly salubrious, and there appears to be
no reason why European agriculturists, crafts
men and labourers should not be encouraged to
emigrate thither to the same extent as to Aus
tralia. Speculators have made immense fortunes by
embarking capital in coffee plantations in Ceylon;
and I make no doubt but that similar experi
ments essayed in Burmah would turn out equally
prosperous, whilst at the same time they would re
quire less original outlay. I trust that ere long men
will not be wanting who will take the initiative in
turning to account some of the many resources
available in those regions ; and, doubtless, the

262 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
present government would be willing to
countenance and assist any undertaking which
might be calculated to develope and improve
them.

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 263

CHAPTER X.
My voyage home in the „" Avondhu." — Incident at
Amherst. — The Andamans and Nicobars. — Hurri
canes. — The Cape of Good Hope. — Ascension. — The
Azores. — "Whalers. — Home. ,
The A 1 tclipper barque Avondhu, John Cun
ningham, master, sailed from Maulmain, on
Christmas Eve, in the year 1857. I hadjsecured
my berth in her about a fortnight previously,
and took up my quarters on board the evening
before she sailed. She was a Scotch vessel, and
her captain and officers were Scotchmen, as were
most of the crew. There seemed to be a very
good feeling existing between them, and as I
had met Captain Cunningham frequently on
shore, and found him a very worthy, good sort

264 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
of man, I looked forward to the enjoyment of
as pleasant a voyage as could be desired under
the circumstances. I was to be the only pas
senger ; a circumstance which rather pleased me
than otherwise. Long sea voyages are monoto
nous affairs at the best, and when several people
who have nothing to do are shut up in each
other's society for a protracted period without
the means of communication with others, little
variations are apt to occur to interrupt the har
mony of the circle, and make things generally
unpleasant. Various are the emotions which arise on
quitting, perhaps for ever, a locality in which
you have been a resident for even a few years.' I
had lived but four years in Burmah, but I left
behind me many familiar associations, some of
them connected with very important incidents of
a somewhat eventful life. Few men live even
for so long in a place, without forming many
personal acquaintanceships, and amongst those
with whom you have been in frequent inter-

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 265
course it would be strange if there were not
some who had won your regard and esteem, and
perhaps affection. When, however, he who has
been a wanderer for many years, quits the scenes
and the society to which he has lately been ac
customed, to revisit his native land, and again to
hold communion with his surviving relatives
and early friends, present regrets are softened
considerably by pleasing anticipations and en
couraging hopes. A few sad reflections, never
theless, occur even under the happiest circum
stances, and mine were not the most inspirit
ing. The cold grave had closed over many who
were known and loved in youth, and time had
changed the aspect of all material things. It was,
however, to be hoped, that the experience of
years had been attended with some few beneficial
results ; and I would fain believe, so far as I was
concerned, that I had grown somewhat wiser,
if not better, as time had advanced. Many still
lived to whom memory clung with affection as
warm and heartfelt as in youth, and the mind

266 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
in its maturer development becomes perhaps
more susceptible to reverent admiration of
Nature's works, as mine assuredly was, to the
better appreciation of the many wonderful im
provements in science and art (undreamt of in
my younger days) which had, during my exile,
been accomplished by the genius and skill of
my countrymen.
As we passed down the river, and I looked
for the last time upon the many familiar objects
that presented themselves to my view, I could
not restrain that choking sensation which is
frequently consequent upon intense mental ex
citement. I had so identified myself with the
place and the people, that the separation was
distressing to me, although pain and suffering I
knew would be the penalties of my stay ; health
and enjoyment the prospects of the voyage, and
the land to which our good ship was bound. .
The depression under which I laboured was,
however, considerably relieved by the conversa
tion and attention of Mr. Mason, the chief mate,

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 267
in whom I found a very entertaining companion
during the whole of the voyage. He had been
a sailor from infancy (he was then about fifty-
five years of age), and had served in every
capacity on board ship. In his younger days
he had been a man-of-war's man, and his con
versation was replete with nautical anecdotes,
which he used to relate with infinite gusto.
The only drawback to the full enjoyment of his
best stories was the difficulty which an English
man (like nryself) would experience in exactly
understanding the broad Caledonian dialect with
which he garnished his recitals, whereby the zest
of the matter, no doubt, frequently passed un
appreciated to the extent intended by the nar
rator. However, the keen relish which the
relation of his many tales evidently afforded him,
always compensated in a very great degree for
any lack of comprehension on the part of the
auditor, for it was irresistibly amusing to ob
serve the gleeful effect upon himself, elicited
by some of his personal reminiscences. He

268 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
was a weather-beaten old man, and exposure
had furrowed his cheeks and thinned his
hair. He had had all his upper front teeth
knocked out by the swinging of a stunsail-boom,
and had met with various other accidents inci
dental to his calling, in the course of his career.
He had a wife and family in Scotland depending
upon his exertions for their support. Poor fellow !
yet his heart was as light, his spirits as buoyant,
and his limbs as active as if he were only twenty
years old. The j oiliest old sea-dog I ever met
in my life was Mason, and he carries with him,
wherever he goes, my grateful remembrances.
We had got considerably past Natmoo Point,
and were speeding away under a good weight of
canvas, aided by a strong tide, when we descried
a boat making towards us. Our telescopes
enabled us to discern Mr. Ralph, a Maulmain
purveyor, who was bringing a supply of beef
and vegetables. The dinghies used on the
Salween are very swift when aided by the ex
ertions of the boatmen, and consequently Mr.

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 269
Ralph was enabled to reach the vessel and get
his supplies on board. It was fortunate for the
crew that he overtook us, or they would have
been disappointed in regard to their Christmas
fare. Ralph is a West Indian negro, a very
respectable man in his way, and the least ex
tortionate of his calling in the port. "You
goos too fass for me," he said ; " I tought I
sood ha caught you at Keowtan, but you sail
bery fass." We were very glad to see him, and
after the captain had paid his bill for the provi
sions, captain, officers, passengers, and crew
bade him farewell with every expression of good
will. Owing to the tides we were obliged to re
main at anchor off Amherst during the whole
of Christmas Day, which was tantalizing, as there
was a beautiful fair wind for us if we could have
gone out to sea.
Amongst the effects which I had brought on
board with me was a monkey — gender, male — by
name " Jacko;" rather an odd sort of pet, you

270 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
will say, but the poor fellow was diverting in his
way, and sometimes, during a long voyage, the
most trivial matters serve to dissipate tempo
rarily the ennui consequent upon protracted
monotony. Fortunately for the animal, the car
penter was the proprietor of a female of the
same species, and at the outset there appeared
to be every probability of their becoming very
good friends. Their introduction on board,
however, was very nearly productive of dis
astrous consequences. An apprentice, named
George M'Queen, a nice-looking lad, about four
teen years of age, when playing with Jacko,
overbalanced himself and fell over the taffrail,
on which he had been sitting, into the water, a
rapid current at the same time running to sea
ward. Luckily the little fellow could swim, but
the current was fast carrying him away from
the ship. The cutter was immediately lowered,
and the pilot, the two mates, and three or four
hands made all speed after him, in the endeavour
to pick him up. Moments are very precious in

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 271
cases like these, and, in spite of his exertions, he
was borne by the stream some distance away,
during the short time occupied in launching the
boat. It was some time before they neared
him, notwithstanding the vigour with which
every one in the cutter exerted himself, and the
master manifested the most painful anxiety.
The boy, it seemed, belonged to the same town
as Captain Cunningham, who was personally
acquainted with his relatives. " Eh !" he said
to me as we both stood by the rail anxiously
watching the scene, " what will I tell his puir
mither when I get hame without him ?" Pre
sently we saw only his cap above the surface of
the water, and for the first time his hands raised
above his head. I felt then exceedingly un
comfortable, and both of us, I think, made sure
that he was lost, although the boat had ap
proached him pretty closely. A strong, hearty,
vigorous pull was, however, successful, and the
child was rescued ; another second, and he must
have perished.

272 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
We were able to breathe a little freely when
we saw the little fellow hauled into the cutter,
and appetites to enjoy our Christmas cheer re
turned to us. When the party again came on
board, as they rowed rather leisurely back to
the ship, the boy had had time to recover from
the confusion of his faculties, consequent upon
his recent desperate exertions. The pilot told
us that at first he appeared flurried, and seemed
unable to comprehend his situation, but he soon
recovered himself, recognised his shipmates,
and in a short time the agitation induced by
the peril he had undergone had entirely sub
sided. A vessel called the Robert Morrison, bound
to Maulmain, being in the roads waiting for the
tide, the master, Captain Cumming, came on
board to pay the compliments of the season, and
to obtain from Captain Cunningham some in
formation relative to the best course to be pur
sued in facilitating his business in port. Such
particulars as might prove serviceable were fur-

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 273
nished him, and he then left us, after partaking
of some slight refreshment.
The pilot, after the rescue of the apprentice,
went on shore to a party. Though personally
intimate with several residents at Amherst, the
state of my health rendered it undesirable that I
should venture to join in any of the festivities
on shore. I consequently spent my Christmas-
day on board the Avondhu, and in company
with the captain and his mates, enjoyed my
roast beef and plum pudding. We had, how
ever, the satisfaction of knowing that the good
folks on shore were enjoying the festivities of
the season in true Indian fashion, for the sounds
of music were borne faintly past us as we sate
upon the poop, fanned by the mild evening
breezes, and presently the darkness of night was
dissipated by the reflection of a magnificent
light which was exhibited from a house situated
on an elevated spot on the sea shore. When
its brilliancy faded, we returned to the cabin —
VOL. II. T

274 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
drank to many happy returns of the season, and
to a brief, safe, and pleasant passage Home.
Early next morning the pilot returned on
board, when we weighed, and again set sail. In
an hour or so afterwards the pilot received our
letters and bade us adieu. We were at sea, and
a strong north easterly breeze was blowing us
on our course. Before many hours had passed,
the highest peak of the Tenasserim mountains
had sunk below the horizon, and at night we
saw the sun go down upon the broad ocean.
Next morning I beheld him rise, for awaking at
dawn of day, I quitted my close cabin and went
on deck to inhale the early sea air. I know of
no sight more glorious than the ascent of the
sun above the horizon at sea. Perhaps I was
never struck with the majestic grandeur of the
spectacle so much as on that beautiful morning.
One beholds all sorts of varying landscapes in
the contemplation of the magnificent panorama
of many tinted clouds, relieving by their seem
ingly bold and craggy outlines the red beams of

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 275
the rising sun. Rivers, mountains, lakes, forests
and waterfalls, there they are defined graphically
in the sky by the magic skill of the Great
Painter : —
" Sometime we see a cloud that's dragonish ;
A vapour, sometime, like a bear, or lion,
A tower'd citadel, a pendant rock,
A forked mountain, or blue promontory
With trees upon't, that nod unto the world,
And mock our eyes with air."
When we were fairly out to sea, I ascertained
that Captain Cunningham presided over a schoo
held in the cabin every afternoon, when the
weather permitted, the pupils being the four
apprentices and the carpenter and boatswain ;
the two latter receiving their lessons in the
evening. The ordinary studies consisted of the
principles of navigation and the method of
working the ship's reckoning, arithmetic, scrip
ture reading, spelling, &c. The master likewise
read prayers to his scholars, and an exposition
of the chapter in the Bible, selected for the day.
I believe there are not many masters of vessels
T 2

276 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
who take so much interest in the future welfare
of their apprentices as was evidenced by Captain
Cunningham. As it is the bounden duty of
every man, however, to do as much good ac
cording to his lights, as may lie within the
compass of his means and power, it is to be
hoped so salutary an example may be emulated
by others who " go down to the sea in ships."
The time and the pains taken in such endea
vours, are as nothing in comparison with the
incalculable advantages accruing from them to
those for whose behoof they are intended. Boys
devoted to a seafaring life, generally enter upon
their arduous careers when very young, before
many of them have had time to profit by
efficient schooling, and unless some care is
bestowed upon their moral training after they
have entered upon their nautical avocations, it
rarely happens that ships' apprentices when out
of their time, are qualified for any higher position
in their profession than that of a common sea
man before the mast. Masters of ships should

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 277
consider that they are invested with almost
paternal authority over their apprentices, and
that the future of a boy's life is materially
influenced by the impressions derived from
examples set before him in his youth and the
timely inculcation of wholesome precepts. Under
such circumstances the trust and responsibility
of the master are as great as, and indeed greater
than, those involved in the management of the
ship and the care of the cargo. For the latter
duties and responsibilities he is accountable to
man ; as regards the former, he holds his steward
ship of One who, when life's long voyage is
ended, will not fail to reward those who have
fulfilled their great trust faithfully, and punish
those who may be found wanting.
Two or three days after our departure from
Amherst, we found a very strong current setting
towards the Andaman Islands, about which
there are several dangerous reefs, which were to
be shunned. The inhabitants of those islands
are understood to be cannibals — " men that do

278 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
each other eat," but I believe the fact has never
been ascertained with any certainty, and Horsburgh
thinks that if ever they deserved the charge of
cannibalism " it arose probably from excessive
hunger, and not from choice." However, on the
fifth day of our voyage we passed safely through
the channel between the Andaman and the
Nicobars, and made a splendid run of it.
It seems to me a very great pity that the
British Government do not adopt some measures
to redeem these islands, and render them useful
and important colonies. Their utility in a com
mercial point of view would be immense. Nearly
every year we hear of vessels being wrecked on
some one island of the group ; and whenever
such an event happens on any of the Andamans,
there is, I believe, too much reason to fear that
the shipwrecked crews have been murdered, if
not devoured, by the savages who inhabit them.
Very little indeed is known relative to these
islands. I believe they have never been pro
perly surveyed. They are generally believed to

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 279
be but thinly inhabited, and such facts as are
known of the people, lead to the conclusion that
they are, at all events, a savage and bloodthirsty
race. Horsburg conjectures that they depend
chiefly on what fish they can procure for sub
sistence ; and though he has doubts regarding
their alleged partiality for human flesh, he
nevertheless considers it necessary to caution
crews of vessels against venturing on shore for
water without adequate means of protection
against assaults, and speedy retreat in the event
of an attack.
The interior of the Great Andaman is evidently
mountainous, and those who have ventured near
and upon any part of the islands, report that
vegetation appears abundant. We have, how
ever no account whatever regarding the nature
of their vegetable productions, but from Hors-
burgh's allusion to the miserable condition of
the natives, we are led to suppose that the fruits
of the earth are not plentiful in those regions. It
s impossible to say anything regarding the sus-

280 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
ceptibilities of the soil ; but the climate is cer
tainly favourable to the growth of many valuable
tropical fruits and vegetables which in the
neighbouring Nicobars flourish in profusion.
The situation of the Andaman and Nicobar
groups is most favourable as regards our con
nection with Eastern commerce. As sanataria
they would be invaluable if the country were
properly conserved under the direction of com
petent rulers ; and I have no doubt but that if
the jungle were cleared, and the soil properly
tilled, under the auspices of European agricul
turists, these islands would become most valuable
and important acquisitions.
A proposition was recently mooted relative to
the expediency of establishing a penal settlement
on the Great Andaman, and I believe the late
Indian Government were induced to take the
matter into some consideration, as just before we
left Maulmain the Company's steamer Pluto
and the Henzai Queen schooner had been des
patched (as I understood) for the purpose of

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 281
surveying the group. Better thus devote them,
perhaps, than let so desirable a country lie waste
and unoccupied altogether by civilized man in
the very highway of our commerce.
With reference to the Nicobars, little difficulty
would arise, I imagine, in respect to them.
They, as well as the Andamans, were formerly
nominally claimed as British property ; but about
fourteen years ago, the Car Nicobar was virtually
handed over to the Danish Government, in ex
change for their settlement of Serampore on the
Hooghly. The Nicobar islands appear to be
peopled, by a race altogether different to that
inhabiting the Andamans ; and although they
are naked savages, they are described as being
peaceable and honest, living under a patriarchal
form of government, subsisting upon the abun
dant produce of the islands, and bartering with
the Burmese their cocoa and areka nuts for
some of the simplest articles of Asiatic manufac
ture which can be turned by them to advantage
for the purposes of husbandry, or as weapons

282 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
wherewith to kill beasts for food. The Danes
have done nothing with their colony, and indeed
I believe seem to have altogether abandoned
it. The exchange, I fancy, was a compromise
between national dignity and prudent economy.
Serampore was a possession quite useless to the
Danes. It yielded no revenue, but it had to be
maintained, and that at a cost to the State.
To have parted with it without some nominal
territorial equivalent would have been to have
betrayed a certain degree of poverty of purse
and spirit. To have sold it for money would
have looked excessively shabby; so they bar
gained for the exchange of a small island in the
Indian Ocean which they could gracefully leave
to take care of itself without any sacrifice of
appearances, and without incurring any cost
to the State Exchequer. As neighbours, the
Danes will not be likely to trouble us in our
occupation of the other islands, in respect of
which, I think we shall sadly fail in our duty if
we long suffer them to remain in their present
condition, not only useless as regards the com-

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 283
merce of the world, but dangerous earth-spots
in the navigation of these seas.
Our voyage proceeded very pleasantly. When
I had been three weeks at sea, I found my
health considerably improved, and my strength
gradually returning. With the restoration of
health and strength came a proportionate ex-
hiliration of animal spirits, and during the fine,
clear, tropical evenings, we found various ways of
amusing ourselves. Sometimes the sea about
us would be literally alive with porpoises, which
would roll and tumble about the ship in every
quarter, some of them occasionally making most
wonderful leaps out of the water. Two or three
of us would then get forward to the end of the
jib-boom, provided with harpoons, and if the
ship were not going too fast through the water,
a fine fish would probably reward our en
deavours. The mate harpooned one that mea
sured nearly five feet in length, and yielded a
gallon and a half of oil. The men cooked the
flesh, and enjoyed a very hearty meal. The mate

284 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
inquired if I would like a steak of it ; but I
very rarely make epicurean experiments upon
dishes that are not orthodox. I inquired the
character of the flavour ? " Equal to the best
pork-chop you ever tasted," was the mate's
reply. The gambols of these fish appeared to astonish
the monkeys amazingly, for they would manifest
the greatest excitement at their rolling and
leaping about the ship, and would chatter and
scream most energetically in the exuberance of
their admiration. These animals are objects of
considerable interest on board ship. The sailors
recognize them as shipmates, and always pay
them great attention. My monkey, Jacko,
appeared to be the favourite of the crew, and com
pletely enlisted the affectionate regard of Mr.
Mason. Occasionally, however, some misunder
standing would arise between them, owing to
the necessity the mate was frequently under, of
administering a castigation to Jenny, who had
evidently been brought up badly. This would

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 285
hurt the feelings of the mate, who would express
his firm conviction that Jenny influenced Jacko
against him by misrepresentations communicated
in some manner peculiar to animals of this
description in their intercourse with each other ;
but these breaches were always made up after
brief intervals of sulkiness, and the mate and the
monkey became better friends than ever. One
evening whilst we were at supper, the steward
announced to us that Jacko had got loose and
had tumbled overboard. The agitation of the
mate was excessive. We all thought that the
poor animal was for ever lost. Not long after
wards, however, we were cheered by the infor
mation that he was still on board, he having hid
himself in some obscure corner, in order to avoid
punishment for the felonious appropriation of a
yam from the long boat.
We left the islands of Mauritius, Reunion,
and Bourbon, considerably to the westward, as
the captain was desirous of avoiding the regions
of hurricanes peculiar to the neighbourhood of

286 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
these and the West India islands. Terrible
tempests, the approach of which is indicated by
a very sudden fall of the barometer, an oppressive
atmosphere, and a dull, unnatural calm upon the
sea. They rage with great fury, the sea rising
in pyramids, the wind veering rapidly from one
point to another, and blowing with frightful
violence. The hurricane season was near when
we passed the latitude of these islands, and the
Captain watched his barometer with no little
anxiety. We now looked forward to doubling the Cape
of Good Hope, when the head of the good ship
would be turned towards old England. Hitherto
the voyage had been prosperous and pleasant.
We had been occasionally delayed by light and
baffling winds, but on the average we had
nothing to complain of. The crew applied
themselves to the performance of their respective
duties with good will, and the very best under
standing appeared to exist amongst every body

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 287
on board, when a discovery was made which
caused the captain considerable annoyance.
A negro named Thomas Moses, a native of
Sierra Leone, shipped on board the Avondhu at
Melbourne, at a monthly wage of four pounds
ten, as an able seaman, but he had been put to
officiate in the capacity of assistant cook shortly
after he had joined the vessel, in consequence of
his inability to perform the duties required of
him as a mariner. In consequence of something
that was communicated to him, the captain con
sidered it necessary to remove him from the
galley, and put him to some easy duty in other
departments of the ship. The cause of his
removal was one which would render him liable
to forfeiture of all wages for the time he might
be disabled from performing his ordinary work,
and that circumstance grieved him exceedingly,
as the natives of Sierra Leone are extremely
avaricious and greedy, and dread of such a
penalty had doubtless impelled him to conceal
certain facts from the officers, which would pro-

288 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
bably have escaped observation entirely, had it
not been for the vigilance and promptitude of
the captain and mate, whose suspicions had,
from various circumstances, become excited.
It was to be regretted that Captain Cunning
ham did not disrate this man formally by an
entry in the official log on first ascertaining his
incompetency to fulfil the duties required of him
as an able seaman, as his omission to do so ren
dered him liable to pay him the full wages for
which he shipped, so long as he was put to any
work at all, which were very high even for a
competent able seaman ; and the fellow had
never been worth half as much as either of the
youngest apprentices, who had not been yet a
year at sea.
As the maritime laws are very properly ex
ceedingly strict in requiring certificates of quali
fications in regard to masters and mates, which
can only be obtained after a careful and rigid
examination before competent officers duly ap
pointed by the Board of Trade, it might be as

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 289
well if seamen were to be compelled to produce
to Registrars some sort, of testimonial acquired
by similar means, before being permitted to sign
articles. Such a regulation would obviate many
of the annoyances and inconveniences to which
shipmasters are now so constantly subjected by
reason of the occurrence of such impositions as
that under notice, by preventing, in a great
measure, the frauds which are so frequently
practised upon them by ignorant and unprin
cipled pretenders. It is not surprising that
men of quick tempers occasionally lose their self
control when they find themselves so impudently
cheated, as the people who so deceive masters
invariably take care to receive an advance before
joining, and a master has no means open to him
of adequately punishing such impostors. Captain
Cunningham told me that there was not a man
amongst the crew forward whom he would feel
justified in sending to the helm if a heavy gale
of wind were to overtake the ship, and said that
when they were outward bound and encountered
VOL. II. u

290 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
a violent tempest in the Southern Ocean ; him
self and the mates were obliged to steer the ship,
fearing to trust so important a charge to any
one of the crew.
We were not long voyaging from Amherst to
the Cape Coast. In something less than six
weeks from the time we left the Salween river
we were in green water, floating under a stiff
breeze over the Agulhas bank. We found our
selves in the company of albatrosses, sea-geese,
Mother Carey's chickens and other marine
birds peculiar to the locality, in a delightful
climate, in latitude 35 deg. S. or thereabouts.
Awaking one Sunday morning, I was in
formed that we were near the land, upon re
ceipt of which intelligence, I hastily dressed and
went upon deck. Outward-bound vessels, I be
lieve, seldom approach this coast so nearly, but
the navigation is perfectly safe for hdmeward-
bound ships during the summer months, which
may be calculated from November to March.
We kept close in, during the whole of the day,

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 291
and I had therefore a good opportunity of con
templating the wild scenery, which this rock-
bound coast presents. Nothing that I had
ever seen had appeared to me so desolate. For
leagues, we observed no sign of life along the
shore, which even the gulls and sea-birds seemed
to have deserted. The rugged mountains were
evidently destitute of vegetation, and between
the deep chasms and through the hollow gorges,
we could hear the howling; of the winds which
rushed tumultuously along, sweeping through
every fissure and crevice.
Once on the shore we saw some smoke
arising from behind a small sandy hillock, too
low to have hidden from our view anything
larger than a boy of five years of age. We
saw nothing near it, however, to indicate the
vicinity of a human being, but of course, con
cluded that somebody must have lit a fire there,
and wondered what kind of man it could have
been whose footsteps had wandered to that wild,
inhospitable region.

292 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
Two vessels kept company with us during
our voyage along the coast ; the one a Dutch
barque, the other a British merchantman. Both
were very fine vessels, and kept pace with us
very perseveringly. The mate was very anxious
lest the Dutchman should beat us, and when
the wind lightened he did succeed in getting a
trifle ahead. Mr. Morris exhibited considerable
excitement at this. He had every confidence in
the sailing qualifications of the Avondhu, and
did not at all relish the idea of seeing her out
run. " Oh, for jist a slant o' wind," he said,
" and mon, — ye'll see how we'll walk past her."
In a short time his wish was accomplished, a
" slant " did come, and just such a slant as was
desired, the wind being on our starboard quarter.
All the sail we could prudently carry was im
mediately set, and we scudded along famously.
The Britisher seemed a pretty equal match, but
the mate said that although we should outrun
him likewise, if we had fair play ; still there

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 293
would be less discredit in being overmatched by
a countryman. Urged onward by the fortunate slant so wel
comed by the mate, we soon overtook the
Dutchman, and to the mate's joy, we tri
umphantly passed her. " Faith," said the
elated mariner with a grin ; " he'll be walking
about and biting his nails, the skipper wull, the
noo. I never ken'd a Dutch skipper yet, that
didn't bite his nails when he was vext."
Towards evening we came in sight of a pro
montory called Cape Hanglip, which, viewed
from a certain position from on board our
vessel, looked like a mighty castle overhanging
the sea, looking grimly and defiantly at the fu
rious waves which dashed violently against its
base. By this time we had distanced the two vessels
considerably, and when the sun set we could
just see the topsails of Mynheer above the
darkening horizon. When the next morning
broke we could see no sign of land; though our

294 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
companions of the previous day were faintly
observable in the misty distance. We had
rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and the
ship's head was turned towards the north ; the
wind was dead aft, and the- motion of the vessel
by no means pleasant ; we were literally, as the
captain informed me, " rolling on to St. He
lena." It was the intention of Captain Cunningham
to have sighted St. Helena, but it appeared that
his chronometer had varied somewhat during
the voyage, a circumstance which he suspected
during the passage along the Cape coast. How
ever he determined upon making direct for As
cension, and regulating that instrument in ac
cordance with observations taken in the vicinity
of that island.
One night, not very long after passing the
latitude of St. Helena, I was much struck with the
appearance of the sea, which was illumined with
numerous brilliant scintillations, which appeared
all over its surface, as far as the eye could reach.

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 295
There was a tolerably fresh wind blowing, and
as the bows of the vessel encountered the waves,
the flashes of light produced were exceedingly
brilliant, and the effect was most beautiful. Had
it not been for these appearances, the night
would have been dark, as there was no moon,
and very few stars were visible. I sat on the
forecastle for some time with the captain, en
joying the spectacle which, although not uncom
mon in these latitudes, I had never seen ex
hibited so wonderfully before.
" The surface of the sea," says Horsburgh,
" is usually more subject to be luminous after
long calms and sultry weather, than at any other
time, for then it abounds with minute medusae,
and small marine animals, generated in calm
weather, which render it foetid, both to the
smell and taste. At such times, the sea be
comes easily illuminated by the least disturbance
of a squall, or anything that produces agitation
or friction on its surface. The porpoise,
dolphin, dorado, and other fishes therefore, often

296 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
reflect a vivid light when swimming near the
surface, which has induced some persons to as
cribe the property of emitting light to several
fishes ; but upon close examination, the bodies
of those fishes were found to be covered with
minute spherical particles, which adhere to their
surface, apparently the same that illuminated the
whole of the sea at the time, and in all proba
bility, were a minute kind of medusa?." The
same authority also remarks, that "although
the luminous appearance of the sea is generally
produced by living animals, nevertheless, some
kinds of dead matter seem to give it a similar
aspect at times ; such as the exuviae of fishes,
or putrefactions ;" — this opinion being derived
from an examination of the water of the sea
when it was luminous, when no animation could
be discerned, the contents appearing to be only
" small particles of a dusky brown colour, which
dissolved with the slightest touch of the finger ;
at other times it was evidently illuminated by
small sparkling animals." However, Horsburgh

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 297
imagines that those straw-coloured particles,
which he did not examine with a microscope,
might nevertheless have been the Medusa scin
tillations which Mr. Macartney thinks to be the
most frequent cause of the luminous appearance
of the sea.*
From whatever cause produced, however,
whether from living meduste, or from putrid
matter, the spectacle was sublime in the ex
treme ; the light emitted from the ocean about
the ship being sufficiently brilliant to enable any
one to read a book while stationed upon the
deck. A few days brought us in sight of, and abreast
the island of Ascension, which we passed early
in the morning. This island is " about eight
miles in length from east to west, and six miles
broad from north to south." Viewed from the
westward, it appears to be a barren mountain,
* Luminous marine animals — Part II. Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society of London, 1S10.
By I. Macartney.

298 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
although there are several peaked hills on it;
the highest, called Green Mountain, being two
thousand eight hundred feet high. " Most of
the hills are covered with red earth, like brick
dust, being a decomposition of the volcanic rock
which forms the island."
Ascension is, or was, a British naval station ;
although I should think it must be a very
dreary spot to be located on or about, and by
no means agreeable in regard to temperature,
the island being situated within only eight de
grees of the equator. " Some garden grounds
have been formed, wherein vegetables of various
kinds have been cultivated. It has been found
a healthy island, and a valuable depot for pro
visions, which this dry atmosphere preserves ;
whereas on the coast of Guinea, all kinds of pro
visions soon become corrupted. Some small
springs have been found, and the water is now
conducted from them in iron pipes to the
garrison," at Fort Thornton, which is situ
ated on a prominent point on the west side of

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 299
Clarence bay, a small sandy bay on the north
east side of the island. " The wild goats are
lean, rats and mice abound, and there are a few
insects. The summit of the mountain is fre
quently enveloped in clouds or vapour, but
rain seldom falls." Turtle are plentiful in the
sandy bays and coves.*
The weather now became exceedingly sultry,
and continued so for some time. We were
kept dodging about the equator for several
days owing to light and variable winds and
calms, and when we did get a wind we were
driven away into the " Horse latitudes," as a
certain region is called, where we were detained
by a calm which lasted several days. Never
shall I forget that time. Not a breath of wind
appeared to disturb the surface of the water,
which, however, appeared to be troubled with
a heavy rolling motion. The Avondhu would
not answer her helm, but kept rolling about

* Horsburgh.]

300 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
on the silent waters, her sails flapping lazily
about her masts at every motion, occasioning a
continuous dismal monotonous sound, which
exerted a most depressing influence upon the
spirits. During the day the heat was terrific,
and at night the sultriness was exceedingly
oppressive. There were some stars, but even
the celestial bodies seemed to be motionless, and
nature herself appeared to be dying, or dead.
From the heavy rolling of the sea, the cap
tain conjectured that there had recently been a
heavy storm in the vicinity, which he trusted
had expended itself, expressing a fervent hope
meanwhile that we might not encounter the
" tail end." This region the Captain informed
me was called the " horse latitudes," from the
circumstance of some vessels with a large
number of horses on board having been be
calmed here for a great number of days, and
provisions for their living cargo failing them, it
eventually became necessary to drive the whole
of the poor animals overboard.

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 301
A breeze did at last spring up, and took us
out of the neighbourhood for some distance,
when we were again becalmed for some hours,
the wind failing at midday, and the calm lasting
until midnight. On this evening I was a good
deal startled at a peculiar rushing noise, which I
heard when I was down in the cabin reading.
I went upon deck, and found that the disturbance
was occasioned by four tremendous fish, which
ever and anon would appear above the surface
of the sea and emit the most extraordinary
sound, resembling that produced by the sudden
escape of steam from a locomotive. These I
learned were a peculiar species of whale called
" bottle noses," which yield a very fine quality
of oil, but which are very difficult to capture,
owing to their constantly being in pairs; the
extreme ferocity of the unharmed fish when its
mate is attacked, rendering it dangerous to pro
ceed in any boating expedition against them.
From hence the weather gradually got to be
considerably cooler. Towards the latter end of

302 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
the month of March we approached the Wes
tern Islands, and on a fine Sunday morning, the
last, I think, in the month, we sighted the island
of Fayal.
The Azores, or Western Islands, discovered
about 1460, nine in number, were named Ilhas
dos Azores, or the Isles of the Hawks, by the
Portuguese, from the great number of those
birds seen there. " They are mostly formed of
high mountainous land, with steep, rocky, iron-
bound coasts, affording no safe harbours for
large ships." Storms are frequent in the neigh
bourhood, and earthquakes are at times expe
rienced, producing great devastation.
Flores and Corvo, the two westernmost of
these islands, are separated from the central
group by a channel thirty-five leagues in breadth.
The former extends about three leagues north
and south, the latter is about four miles in extent
north and south.
The names of the other islands are Fayal,
Pico, St. George, Graciosa, Terceira, St. Michael,

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 303
and St. Mary. The largest are St. Michael and
Terceira. We began to look out for the Peak of Pico
early in the morning, but did not get a certain
view of its summit until about eight o'clock.
Then we had breakfast, after which I went upon
deck. We soon neared Fayal, and after so long
a voyage upon the wide seas, it was quite re
freshing to obtain a near view of land, and dis
tinguish upon the shores the habitations of men
and the signs of human industry. Fayal ap
peared to me a very pretty island, viewed from
the south and westward, and we could see the
fields divided by hedges, and white cottages
near the beach at the foot of the hill, on the
brow of whieh we discerned a church and a
number of houses ranged together, forming, I
imagined, a very delightful village. Passing
that island, we came abreast of St. George, and
finally of Graciosa, off which island we saw an
American whaler, the crew of which were busy
in " flinching" a sperm whale which lay along-

304 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
side the vessel attached by strong cables to some
contrivance which was rigged on board. • We
were not close enough to see the process.
It was a very delightful day, and the passage
past the islands exceedingly pleasant. They
appear extremely picturesque when they are
viewed from the sea, and I believe in many
places they are considered very fertile. I gazed
at the shores as long as I could after we had
passed them ; but the sun was setting, and very
soon darkness excluded from my view the last
faint outline of the hills of Graciosa.
These islands are the property of the Portu
guese, and I believe some of the Grandees of
that nation have villas on the islands of Terceira
and St. Michaels, whither they occasionally re
sort to enjoy the dolce far niente.
From hence the voyage presented nothing
deserving of particular notice, if we except the
demise of my poor monkey Jacko, which melan
choly event took place on the evening of the
day after we passed the Azores. It was cold

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 305
weather. He had got loose, and was scamper
ing all over the rigging. In order to escape
from one of his pursuers', he climbed along the
main brace and attempted to reach the yard,
but his fingers caught the brace pinnet or
iron cable which connects the rope with the
yard, and, unable to endure the cold, he lost
his grip and fell into the sea. The mate
was inconsolable. Poor fellow ! He had amused
us vastly during our voyage, but he had suffered
many torments. Requiescat in pace.
Eight days afterwards we anchored in Fal
mouth harbour. After thirteen years' absence
my feet touched English ground, and I walked
through streets crowded with English men and
women. I slept upon a feather bed in an En
glish bed-room, with white curtains about the
window and surrounding my bed, and as I
went to sleep I really felt as if I had never
travelled a mile beyond my native shores.
Arrived in England, I found Indian affairs
engrossing public attention. The newspapers
VOL. II. X

306 FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH.
teemed with discussions concerning the past and
future government of our Eastern dependencies.
A gigantic and formidable rebellion had been
virtually quelled, and severe retribution for
Asiatic treachery and cruelty was in full course
of exaction. The voice of this country was in
favour of the abolition of the East India Com
pany's rule, and various were the suggestions
urged for the guidance of Her Majesty's minis
ters as to the form of administration it was
desirable to initiate after formal possession
should be taken in the name of Queen Vic
toria. Since then, the magnificent territories, lately
under the dominion of the merchants of Leaden-
hall, have been announced by proclamation to
be the exclusive property of Great Britain vested
under the Crown, and a provisional government
has been appointed. As yet, however, the
attention of the Indian legislature has been
chiefly devoted to territorial arrangements in
reference to those provinces which were disturbed

FOUR YEARS IN BURMAH. 307
by the late eruptions, to the consideration of
financial difficulties, and to the settlement of
definite regulations for the administration of the
various departments of the State. It is to be
hoped that the system of government in course,
of organisation, will speedily assume a settled
and permanent character, and that then the
legislature will bestow some attention to the
interests of a country, which, in consequence of
our relations with China, has become invested
with a significant importance.

THE END.

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