1864.] The Question of British Trade with Western China. 429 



our own hands and having under our control the greatest possible 

 length, at this end, of the line of communication ; 2nd. That the plan 

 be capable of being tested without a previous great expenditure ; 3rd. 

 That when permanently established, as little as possible of the capital 

 embarked in the means of transit be irretrievably sunk ; ith. That the 

 general route adopted be one already known and made use of by native 

 traders ; 5th. That it also be one that — failing the possibility of con- 

 structing either a tram or a railway, either at once or even ultimately 

 — may yet be worked with no great hindrance by the construction of 

 a cart-road ; 6th. That the changes of mode of transit be as few as 

 possible ; and 7th. That in short the greatest safety, cheapness and 

 rapidity of carriage be combined with the least sinking of capital in 

 the fixed plant intended to form the means of transit. 



3. If such are the desired conditions, is it not obvious that, provid- 

 ed the Irrawaddy be navigable, and it be feasible to make a road 

 from its highest easterly turn to Yunan, the best means to the object 

 sought, is steam communication between Rangoon and some point 

 near Bammo, and a land road thence to Yunan ? That the Irrawaddy 

 is navigable for steamers just up to the desired point and no farther, 

 I reported, a year ago. That the road across the 30 or 40 miles 

 of Kakhyen hills to the plains of Yunan, can be constructed 

 and ultimately replaced by a tram or railway, I have also recorded 

 my firm conviction. Granted these two provisions, this route, then, 

 sanctioned by ages of use between Burmah and China, shown above 

 to be politically and physically that most feasible to follow, and 

 commercially that most likely to give the highest returns for the 

 least expenditure, is surely worthy of more attention than has hitherto 

 been paid to it. Indeed the reasons for preference are so obvious and 

 so old, that there is no room for a " discoverer," and I long deemed 

 them too evident to need an advocate. It is true that, as long as the 

 Upper Sal ween remains a river, whose navigability is only " not proven " 

 we are none of us in a position to speak with absolute certainty. In 

 regard to the Lower Salween, and the overland routes to Esmok, we 

 have seen that material obstacles oppose themselves most strongly to 

 their adoption. That, in the advocacy of which Capt. Sprye has so 

 usefully and successfully roused the mercantile community at home 

 has the disadvantage of passing through hundreds of miles of unsettled 

 country, peopled in many parts by wild and savage tribes, of traversing 



