700 An account of some of the Petty States [Nov. 



" 3rd March. Visited several of the chiefs to-day. They all expressed them- 

 selves most friendly to us, and spoke openly of a different feeling existing at 

 Zimmay. As my visit was entirely conciliatory, I avoided the subject, merely 

 saying, that we were grateful to our friends, and that I believed the general feel- 

 ing of the people of Zimmay was friendly towards us, in which they agreed, and 

 said they saw I was aware where the bad feeling lay. I spent several hours 

 with the several chiefs, and altogether passed a very pleasant day, owing to their 

 kind reception and the absence of all ceremony. 



" 4th. Went over to one of the towns on the north side of the river to visit 

 a chief residing there. The whole of the town is enclosed within old walls, 

 the river face of which is mud, the remainder brick, but in a very ricketty con- 

 dition. The paths from one house to another, which are all far apart, are 

 more like the paths in a common village than the streets of the town. 



" 8th. There are fewer elephants here than at Zimmay. The king of Siam 

 called for a return of these animals last year, when three hundred were found 

 here and near one thousand at Zimmay, large and small. I learn that there are 

 no taxes on specific articles here. Every cultivator, without exception, at the 

 close of the harvest, pays into the Government granary a quantity of grain equal 

 to what he may have sown, and each house pays half a tical of coarse silver on 

 account of sacrifices to the Nats, or protecting spirits of the country. These 

 sacrifices are another name for public feasts as the buffaloes, pigs &c, toge- 

 ther with the spirits that are provided, are consumed by the people. The land 

 is the property of him who clears it, and any one may cultivate unoccupied 

 land, provided he pays the accustomed contribution to the public granary. The 

 person so clearing and cultivating land may dispose of it in any way he likes, 

 and cannot be arbitrarily dispossessed of it by the chiefs, as in Burmah the peo- 

 ple are glad to place themselves under the protection of some chief and become 

 followers of his family. They work for him, and are often sent by him on trad- 

 ing excursions, receiving occasionally a portion of the profits. 



" \Wi. Received a visit from No. 1 wife of the Chow-Houa, accompanied 

 by her two daughters and several female attendants. She says she will be 

 obliged to leave her daughters behind when she accompanies her husband to 

 Bankok, (whither all the chiefs are bound, on the occasion of Chow-tchi-Weet's 

 death,) as the king might take a fancy for one of them. This, she said, would 

 be all very well for a year or two, after which she would be discarded and neg- 

 lected, and then her life would be one of misery." 



Dr. R. left Lagon on the 10th March, and arrived at Laboung on 

 the 13th, a distance of 44 miles ; direction N. 70 W. 



" Here I found the chiefs of all the associated States, assembled to perform 

 the funeral rites over the body of Chow-tche-Weet, the acknowledged head of 

 their family. I had to enter into long and disagreeable discussions relative to 

 the three elephants which had been stolen at Maulamyne on several occasions, 

 and which had been traced to Laboung and the thieves discovered. The diffi- 

 culty arose from the thieves being proteges or dependents of Chow-Houa of 

 Laboung, who alone opposed restitution of the property, or the punishment of 

 the thieves. I at last threatened, that unless I could report that this business 

 was satisfactorily settled, it would be referred to Bankok. This alarmed them 



