( 2G ) 



CHAPTEE II. 



My stay at Mandalay from 4th to 18th December 1873. 



46. The capital Mandalay was reached on the evening of the 

 4th December, about sunset. The mails as usual were immediately 

 handed over to an escort party from the Residency, and by which 

 opportunity I reported my arrival ; later on in the evening an elderly 

 gentleman joined us, evidently a friend of many on board. I was 

 introduced, and had hoped to have gained some useful information 

 from my new acquaintance, who, I found, was in the King's employ, 

 and an old resident of Mandalay. His conversation, however, was 

 chiefly addressed to his friends, and related to the progress he had 

 made in the construction of certain vessels, and the terms under 

 which he had agreed to serve the Burmese Government ; which 

 were, to use his own words, pay first, and work follows ; no pay, no ivork. 

 These conditions, he told us, had been scrupulously acted up to on 

 both sides, and, in his opinion, were the only terms under which 

 Europeans should serve the King. Irregularities in payments 

 apparently are not the only cause for complaint on the part of the 

 king's employes. Men fresh from England and ready to do good 

 service, soon have their energies hampered by the dilatory and 

 obstructive tendencies of the Burmese Authorities hi power, 



47. As illustrative of the type of the official employes Euro- 

 T11 ,. ... . . . . peans have to deal with, I here give a 



Illustration of tlie unsatisfactory x • • , . , -, D . 



nature of dealings with Mandalay case in point. _ A gentleman carrying 

 officials and malpractices of Mint on some mining operations for the 

 ut on s. King, which were not progressing as 



rapidly as he wished, found occasion to represent the matter at the 

 palace ; a wrong motive was at once attributed to his complaint, 

 and he was informed that, so long as his pay reached him regularly, 

 complaints of the nature he now preferred would only arouse His 

 Majesty's suspicion and displeasure. This circumstance affords a 

 good illustration of the painfully indolent and apathetic disposition 

 of the Burmese, and explains their natural tendencies as a people. 

 A certain per-centage of the labour, I was informed, is forced, and the 

 rest paid either in grain, or gold coin. By the time the former 

 reaches the workmen, the original quantity has been considerably 

 reduced by the different hands it has had to pass through ; and the 

 gold coin, though supposed, when issued from the Mint, to represent 



