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Tapaw tracked us up, the former begging me return to their village, 

 which I positively declined to do. The guard explained their 

 absence during the night by saying they had missed us ; and the vil- 

 lagers accounted for their strange behaviour under the plea that 

 they had received no intimation from the Amat that we were com- 

 ing, and that our unexpected arrival led them to believe we had come 

 to plunder the village ; they further added tkat they were not of the 

 Kantee clan, nor did they acknowledge the Tswabwa of that tribe : 

 from further enquiry I also found that, throughout my journey to 

 Mogoung, I should nowhere meet with Kantees, so that it is evident 

 the charge of twenty rupees made by the Amat was a gross imposi- 

 tion. Continued our march westward, following the top of a 

 range of hills, which course we preserved, and descended in an east- 

 south-easterly direction until reaching the foot, when our route 

 passed through an undulating country, up to the Shan-Burman vil- 

 lage of Tahpoon, situated on the banks of the Mogoung river, 

 The physical features of the country remained unaltered ; neither 

 was there a perceptible change in the nature of the vegetation ; 

 teak, however, became more common, though it is not the mag- 

 nificent tree met with further south, and I noticed some of 

 the finest specimens of Bombax malabaricum I have ever seen : one 

 tree measured 33.5 feet in circumference, and was a hundred 

 and twenty feet high. The population seemed exceedingly scant, 

 yet the deserted toungyas in the hills and plains leaves the 

 impression that this part of the country must once have been 

 more densely peopled than it is at present. During the whole 

 day's journey we did not come across a single hamlet of any sort, 

 though parties of Kakhyens were often met. The fresh prints 

 and dung of elephants were also of common occurrence. By 9 

 p.m., we encamped for the night on the banks of the Mo- 

 goung river, opposite the village of Tahpoon, as there was no one to 

 ferry us across. 



300. Wednesday, 11th February 1874. — Thermometer, 55° at 6 

 a.m. Crossed over to Tahpoon in small canoes : this is a Shan-Bur- 

 man village, numbering thirty-five houses and three monasteries 

 built of teak, situated in a grove of jack-fruit and mango trees, with a 

 bamboo stockade on all sides but that fronting the river : without 

 and to the south of the palisade is a settlement of Kakhyens. We 

 were allowed to occupy a deserted shed, without any walls, on the 

 sloping bank of the river. I called on the head hpoongyee, who 

 mentioned having once visited Moulmein and intimated his inten- 

 tion of shortly returning to British territory, as he was dissatisfied 

 with the insecurity of life and property here. Within the last two 

 years it appeared this village had been burnt and plundered, and 



