1832.] Memoir of Giuseppe d' 'Am ato. 351 



village in which he resided was repeatedly plundered, he was himself 

 never infested but on one occasion, by a robber who did not know 

 him, but who was soon checked by the rest of the gang. When Dr. 

 Richardson went from hence to the frontiers of Manipur last year, 

 he heard every where on his route the most pleasing accounts of the 

 charity and active benevolence of old D'Amato. The Burmese of 

 all classes respected him greatly, and when he was seized and put in 

 irons by an officious officer, at the time the English army was advan- 

 cing from Pagan, the moment the king heard of the circumstance, he 

 ordered D'Amato to be released, observing, (i He is like a god ; why 

 should we molest him ?" 



He was intimately acquainted with both the Pali and Burmese 

 languages, and was allowed to be deeply read in Burmese scriptures, 

 knowing more about them, a Woongyee once told me, than some of 

 the best informed among themselves. He gave me some curious 

 drawings and explanations in Burmese of the Budhist cosmogony, 

 geography, &c. I hope to send them to you some day with my 

 translations. 



D'Amato was a respectable painter, and as he knew something of 

 natural history, he had made a collection of drawings of about 300 

 non-descript plants and flowers, and about 200 animals, writing down 

 at the same time all he could learn as to the habitat^ properties, ,&c. of 

 each. He had bound the whole in four folio volumes, two containing 

 the drawings and two the explanations. These volumes had occupied 

 his leisure hours for nearly forty years ; but when the late war broke 

 out in 1824, he was apprehensive of some accident to himself, and he 

 delivered these books to the charge of one of his flock residing at the 

 village of Men-ge-la-goun. After the last Burmese army was 

 defeated at Pagan, the king ordered some additional defences to be 

 constructed around this city, and all the approaches to it were clear- 

 ed ; Men-ge-la-goun was burnt and plundered : a private soldier, it was 

 said, got possession of D'Amato's books, and the prettily coloured 

 drawings in them induced him to carry them to the Queen's brother, 

 Mengagyee, who gave the soldier a patsho or cloth, and kept the 

 books. Report added, the Mengagyee had cut out most of the pictures, 

 and stuck them up in different parts of his house. , 



The moment I learnt all this from D'Amato, I applied to the king 

 himself, and to all the ministers, urging them, in the strongest terms, 

 to have these books restored to their poor owner. I told them plainly, 

 that as these books contained no political information, but related 

 entirely to objects of general science, the king and the whole of hia 



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