1837.] Some account of the Wars between Burmah and China. 433 



suitable boats from the capital, to go and bring down the ladies and 

 ambassadors, who, on the 15th October, reached some buildings con- 

 Si rutted for their accomodation, outside of the city of Amarapura. 

 Three days after, tbe Chinese ladies were taken into the palace and 

 received by the king, and placed in some apartments specially con- 

 structed for them ; and on the 20th October, the Chinese envoys 

 received a grand public audience, at which they delivered the presents 

 sent by the emperor, and were asked by the king the customary two 

 or three questions. At this audience the king placed the Chinese 

 ludies near himself within the elevated stage which forms the throne. 

 The three Chinese ladies, who appear to have been sisters, and are 

 called in the Burmese history Td-kd-ngyen, E-ku-ngyen, and Thdn-kd- 

 ngyen, received honorary titles, and the province of Taung-bain was 

 confered on them in jaghire. The envoys left Amarapura again for 

 China on the 1st November, 1790. 



These Chinese ladies are called princesses, and a letter, of which I 

 possess a copy, was written for them in the Burmese language ad- 

 dressed to the emperor of China, styling him their grandfather, and 

 expressing great anxiety that he should become a true Buddhist. But 

 they were natives of Malong, a town in Yunan province, and their feet 

 were in a natural state. There is no doubt that they were women 

 of low rank, and that the whole was an imposition practised upon the 

 king of Ava's amorous propensities by the Chinese viceroy of Yunan. 

 This was not the only occasion on which that king was imposed upon, 

 for women were also presented to him as daughters of a king of 

 Ceylon and a king of Benares. 



In the year 1792, Meng-dara:gyih prepared some valuable pre- 

 sents for the emperor of China and the Tsoun-tu of Yunan, and confer- 

 ring an honorary title on each : on the former that of Thiri tari pawara 

 mahd ndga thu-dhamma rajd-di-rdjd*, despatched an embassy to China 

 with the presents, and the plates of gold set with rubies on which the 

 titles were engraved. The embassy, consisting of Ne-myo-men-tha- 

 nora-tha, the Tso:buah of Ba-mu ; Ne-myo-nanda-gyo-thu', the 

 Ken-wun or superintendant of chokeys ; Ne-my6-nanda-gy6-den, 

 the Pada-wun, royal store-keeper or officer of the king's treasury ; Thi- 

 ha-gyo-zua', the Than-do-yan and Yaza-nanda, the Tara-na-khan, left 

 Amarapura for China on the 23rd of October, 1792. This is the 



* The meaning of these Pali words is thus given by the Burmese : — " The 

 illustrious and excellent among the three orders of beings, of the great dragon 

 or snake-god race, the king of kings, who practises good works." 



