360 Mr Crawford*s Account of the Mission to Ava. 



treaty, which was never ratified, or even transmitted for ratification, a breach 

 of engagement for which the Burmese received signal castigation on the spot. 



" On the 21st we left those places, and on the 22d reached Renangyoung, 

 or the ' Fetid Oil-brooks,* — in other words, the Petroleum Wells. In the af. 

 ternoon we visited the wells, and the remarkable and sterile country which 

 surrounds them, abounding every where with fossil remains of one of the last 

 great changes which the globe has undergone. 



" On the 23d we left Renangyoung, and tn the course of the forenoon 

 passed Senbegyoung, from which leads the best road from Aracan, and by 

 which Major Ross and a battalion of sepoys proceeded in the month of March 

 last*. 



" On the morning of the 24th we reached Pugan, and staid there for that 

 day, and part of the following, examining the curious antiquities of this place, 

 the most remarkable in the Burman dominions, and the extensive ruins of 

 which, if such evidence were not too well known to be delusory, might lead 

 to the supposition, that in former ages the Burmese were a people more power- 

 ful and civilized than we now find them. 



" On the 27th we passed the confluence of the Kyendween and the Irawadi. 

 The prospect afforded by their junction is Jar from imposing. Both rivers are 

 here confined to a narrow bed, and the tongue of land which divides them is 

 so low, and covered with reeds, that it may easily be mistaken for an island, 

 and consequently the smaller river to be only a branch of the larger. 



" The prospect hitherto presented, in a route little less than 400 miles, 

 was that of a country imperfectly cultivated and inhabited, and by far the 

 greatest part of which was covered with a deep forest, or with tall reeds and 

 grass, among which there was scarcely any evidence of culture or occupation. 

 We were now, however, within 50 miles of the capital, and the scene began 

 greatly to improve : the country became level, the nearest ranges of hills to 

 the east being at least 30 miles distant, and the Aracan mountains, to the 

 west, not less than 50 in the nearest part, and 60 or 70 in the distant. The 

 villages and cultivation had increased considerably ; but neither here nor any 

 where else did we see evidence of a dense population or active industry. 



" At two o'clock in the afternoon we passed Yandabu, where the treaty was 

 dictated to the Burmans, and sailed within a stone's throw of the great tree 

 where Sir A. Campbell's tent was pitched, and the conferences were held. 



" On the afternoon of the 28th we reached Rapatong, a village on the east 

 bank of the river: this was the spot at which the Burmese contemplated 

 making their last effort, had the British army not been arrested in its pro- 

 gress by the treaty of Yandabu. Here they were encamped, under the old 

 chief Kaulen Mengyi, the whole disposable force not exceeding 1000 men, 

 and the greater number of these consisting, not of soldiers, but of the personal 

 retainers and menial servants of the chiefs. Two forced marches would have 

 carried Sir A. Campbell to Ava, on a good high road, with nothing to resist 

 him but the dispirited fugitives just mentioned. In the evening we reached 

 Kyaktalon, twelve miles from Ava. A short way before coming to that place, 

 a deputation, headed by a secretary of the Lotoo, met us, to compliment us 

 on our arrival, and usher us into the capital. 



*' On the morning of the 29th we left Kyaktalon. After we had proceeded 

 ♦ Sec an account of this journey Atiat, Journ. vol. xxiii. p. U. 



