272 YULE ON THE GEOGRAPHY OF BURMA. [Jan. 26, 1857. 



that we should restore all the territories we had taken from them in our suc- 

 cessful war of 1826. He did not yield them a single foot : he did not give 

 way in one point of ceremony ; nor in any one essential point whatever. 

 Captain Yule had not stated what these deplorable concessions were ; therefore 

 he was at a loss to understand what they meant. There was also a foot-note 

 in which a strange sort of charge was made against him : — " When the king 

 on one occasion of Bunaey's residence, had two of his confidential ministers 

 dragged out and flogged with a rattan for some trifling fault, Mr. Lanciego, an 

 old Spaniard who had been long in the Burmese service, told the resident that 

 the Atwen-woons had only got now what they were once very near getting 

 from Mr. Crawfurd, who in the heat of one of the conferences, started up and 

 threatened in English to give the Burman negotiators a round dozen a-piece." * 

 He did not mean to say that the Burmese negotiators did not deserve a round 

 dozen a-piece, but he certainly was not the person who proposed to inflict it. 

 He did not threaten the king's ministers with a flagellation, but they inter- 

 cepted his despatches, and they brought the very individual who opened them 

 into his presence, in the pavilion in which the negotiation was going on. He 

 got up and told them, they ought to be ashamed of themselves, to bring that 

 man into his presence, and he ordered him out of the pavilion, and told them 

 that instead of exhibiting him in that shameless way, they ought to give him 

 a round dozen. Perhaps Captain Yule would omit these passages when he 

 published his important work. There was one point that Captain Yule did 

 admit, that he (Mr. Crawfurd) paid some attention to the main chance. He 

 did ; he would not remit one farthing of the tribute. It was a large sum, a 

 million sterling, a sum not to be trifled with. There were many matters con- 

 tained in the volume, upon which he could make some observations. The 

 Burmese country very much resembled a great section of America when first 

 discovered — a very remarkable circumstance. There were numerous tribes 

 that had come imder the notice of Captain Yule, who were in various social 

 conditions, and speaking distinct languages. All these languages were mono- 

 syllabic ; every one of them consisted of a single syllable : the people had never 

 been able to put two syllables together, exce})t some foreign words which they 

 had acquired. Our own "fee, faw, fum," was a joke to what they put forth 

 as speech. With respect to the Mission having a permanent location at the 

 Burmese court, Lord Dalhousie had the good sense not to send one. He had 

 been appointed to reside there, and he had seen the impolicy of it. The Indian 

 government persevered for ten long years, and Captain Yule knew what had 

 been the result. Colonel Burney went, but he was absolutely driven out. A 

 successor, Colonel Benson, followed. The Burmese kept him on a sand-bank 

 four months. The Indian government then gave it up, and no embassy was 

 sent afterwards. He would make the same representation to her Majesty's 

 government, and also to the government of the French emperor, who he was 

 told was about to send an embassy to Pekin. It would never be established 

 except by the force of cannon ; and when established it would be found useless, 

 and the envoy would be made as miserable as possible. 



Captain Sherard Osborn, f.r.g.s. — He observed there was a river eastward 

 of the Irawady, which appeared in the charts to be connected with the frontiers 

 of China. AVas Captain Yule in any way acquainted with the source of that 

 river ? 



Captain Yule. — That river is the Sal ween. No one knew the source of it. 

 As shown in d'Anville's maps, it came from the north of Thibet. He did not 

 believe that it came from that extreme distance. No one, however, had 

 ascended above the British frontier, and no one knew anything about it, except 

 that it was rocky, and navigable only for small canoes. 



* See Yule's Narrative of Major Phayre's Mission to Ava, p. 233. 



