1837.1 S° me account of the Wars between Burmah and China. 129 



to a refusal, was impertinent and disrespectful. The Ba-md officers 

 suspecting from Loli"s manner, language, and appearance, that he 

 was not a common merchant, but some Chinese officer of rank, seized 

 and sent him to Ava with a report of his conduct. He was confined 

 at Ava in the usual manner ; but after a full inquiry and examina- 

 tion, nothing of political importance transpiring, he was sent back to 

 Ba-mo, with orders that he should be allowed to trade as usual, and 

 that if he really wished to construct a bridge, which however appear- 

 ed to the ministers to be only an idle boast on his part, he should ba 

 permitted to do so wherever he pleased. On his return to Ba-mo, he 

 declared that some of his goods which had been detained there when 

 he was sent to Ava, were missing or destroyed, and insisted upon 

 compensation. The Ba-mo officers replied, that when he proceeded to 

 Ava he took only five or six of his men, leaving all the rest in charge 

 of his goods, and that if there really was any deficiency, he must look 

 for it among his own people, and not among the Burmese. Loli' 

 left Ba-m6 much dissatisfied, and on his arrival at Mo-myin, he corn- 

 plained to the Chinese governor there, that Chinese traders were ill 

 treated by the Ba-rn 6 officers, who had also sought pretences for accusing 

 him and destroying his merchandise. — He then went to K Mainy-Tsh\, 

 and preferred the same complaint to the Tsountu, or governor general, 

 there. The Tsountu observed, that he would wait a little and see if 

 any thing else occurred, to prove the truth of Loli's statement, that 

 Chinese were ill used in the Burmese dominions, and not permitted 

 to trade according to established custom. About the same time, an 

 affray took place between some Burmese and a Chinese caravan of 

 upwards of 2000 ponies with one Lota'ri' as their chief, which had 

 come to Kyaing-toun and put up to the north of that town at the great 

 bazar of Kat-thwdh. The Burmese had bought some goods on credit, 

 and refused payment when demanded by the Chinese. In this affray 

 a Chinese was killed, and the Tso:buah being absent at Ava at the 

 time, Lota'ri' applied to the subordinate Burmese officers for justice, 

 according to Chinese custom. These officers decided, that the man 

 who had committed the murder should, agreeably to Burmese custom, 

 pay the price of a life, — namely, 300 ticals. Lotari' refused money, 

 and insisted upon the man being delivered over to the Chinese ; but 

 the Burmese officers replied that such was not their law, and then 

 proposed that the man who had committed the murder should be 

 put to death. Lota'ri' declared that this would not satisfy them, and 

 returned to China with some of the principal traders, and complained 

 to the Tsountu of Yunan*. That officer being urged, at the same time, 

 * Within the last six years two cases of accidental homicide occurred at Ava, 

 s 



