414 The Question of British Trade with Western China. [No 4 



the masters of the passes into China, but unless these passes are made 

 use of, they can reap no advantage from them. The language of one 

 of them serves as a sign of the feelings of all : " I will make a road 

 across my district and will conduct any number of merchants safelv 

 into China ; no other route shall be like it ; and I don't care whether 

 they be English, Burmese or Chinese. I want them through my 

 district; and will guarantee that nothing shall happen to them." 

 They, in fact, look on the routes as sources of income, and would be 

 yery glad to assist in making them safe and easy, provided they saw 

 it to their advantage to do so ; if, in short, tolls were secured to them. 

 They care for no one party or nation more than another : the best 

 payers will have their best good will. 



It may be worth while remarking here that the general population 

 of Northern Burmah, above Miadoung, is Shan. There are also along 

 the Upper Defile Pwons, and to the' west of Katha, Kadoos. Both 

 these races, as well as the Shans, are Buddhists, and bear a good charac- 

 ter for quiet, agricultural and trading industry. Their languages have 

 a great many words identical with the j£akhy ens, Burmans and Shans. 



II. — Physical. 



1. The Salween, splendid as the channel is near its mouth, unfor- 

 tunately refuses to permit of navigation beyond a few miles above 

 Maulmain, where commences a series of rapids and rocky passages 

 that it is scarcely to be hoped, can be overcome or avoided by 

 any engineering operations for which either Government or private 

 capitalists could prudently provide the outlay. 



2. The route via Shoaygyeen to the Salween and along its valley 

 to near Kiangtungye, is so filled with well known obstacles, in the 

 way of mountain ranges, made worse by the character of the Karen 

 tribes inhabiting many of them, that it is unnecessary to speak of it, 



North of our Pegu frontier is a great plateau, having a few isolated 

 mountains and some ridges of hills, neither high, continuous nor preci- 

 pitous. No physical difficulty, in fact, opposes the formation of any 

 description of road across this plain from the Irrawaddy to the Shan 

 mountains. This fact has invited much attention to this route, and 

 up to that point, it is certainly most attractive. But what lies 

 beyond ? The very next step is an ascent of, at least 3500 feet above 

 the plain. As far as I am aware, nature has provided no pass or 



