1837.] Some account of the Wars between Burmak and China. 435 



canopy (over the throne). When You'n-tsi'n (Yong-tching), my father, died, 

 the officers, agreeably to the document which he had written and left, raised me 

 to the throne. My grandfather Kan-shi (Cang-hi) reigned sixty-one years, 

 and my father You'n-tsi'n thirteen years. The Thagxja and all the other Nats 

 having, day and night assisted me, I have reigned sixty-one years, and am now 

 eighty-six years of age ; and although my sight and hearing are good, and my 

 physical strength is as complete as ever, I am become an old man. After search- 

 ing for a proper successor for a period of sixteen years agreeably to the custom 

 of the early kings, I found my eldest son Lu-ye', and intended him to be king, 

 but in consequence of his death, my second son, Shi-wu'-ye', will assume the 

 sovereignty with the title of Kya'-tin-iveng, on the 1st day of Tabaung in the 

 sixty-first year of (my) reign, and at a propitious moment calculated by the 

 astrologers. Shi-wu'-ye' is not an ordinary son ; he is a man qualified to 

 conduct all the affairs of the kingdom. (Our) two countries have established a 

 true friendship, to continue to our son's son, and are united like two pieces of 

 gold into one. Consider Shi-wu'-ye' as (your) own younger brother, and as 

 (your) own son, and assist and look (after him)." 



Meng-dara;gyih sent a suitable reply to the above letter. 



I cannot find in the Burmese Chronicles any further notice of Chi- 

 nese embassies in the reign of the late king, although one or two 

 more must have passed between 1 796 and the date of his death in 

 1819. During the reign of the present king of Ava two missions, one 

 in 1823, and the other in 1833, have been sent to Pekin via Ba-m6 

 and Yunan. I have procured copies of the routes and of most of the 

 reports submitted to the king by each. Both missions proceeded in 

 company with a Chinese embassy when it returned to Yunan from 

 Ava, and it will be seen that the route of both, with a very slight 

 deviation, was the same, — in as straight a line as possible from 

 Yunan province to Pekin. 



The chief of the Burmese mission in 1823 was, on its return, ap- 

 pointed governor of Ba-m6, which office he still holds. Two or three 

 years ago, at my request, the ministers of Ava kindly made the sub- 

 ordinate Burmese envoys draw up an abstract of the report they had 

 sent in, and I now give a translation of it, preceded by the letters 

 from the emperor of China and king of Ava. The original report, of 

 which I have since procured a copy, is too voluminous for me to 

 attempt to give a translation of it here, and, besides, it does not 

 possess any thing of interest to European readers beyond what this 

 abstract contains. 



Letter from the Emperor of China to the king of Ava in the year 1 822. 



Translation made in the Lhuot-to of the royal letter which was brought by 

 the emperor of China's ambassadors, Yan-ta'-l6-ye' and Yeng-tsheng-ye', 

 and a copy of which was taken in a (Burmese black) book in the presence of a 



