1841.] Account of Arakan. 699 



which formerly were repaired by the government ; they declare there 

 is a general decay oi dhamma-wat^ or virtue, among all classes ; less at- 

 tention to religious duties and ceremonies, which they attribute to the 

 governing power not setting the example ; to this neglect also is attri- 

 buted cholera and sickness among cattle, which of late, have fre- 

 quently visited the country. The phoongyees, or priests, complain, 

 that people are no longer constrained to respect in their presence 

 the law, " thou shalt not kill," but catch fish in tanks near the monas- 

 teries with impunity. 



When Khyeng-hyan raised a revolt against the Burmese, (he 

 was the son of the man who first invited them across,) all the most 

 respectable families joined his standard, and finally they fled to the 

 Chittagong district. These men on the breaking out of war between 

 the Burmese and the British, offered their services, through Mr. 

 T. C. Robertson, then Magistrate of Chittagong, to assist in con- 

 quering Arakan. Some of them were connections oi Khyeng-hyan^ and 

 relations of those chiefs who, in the latter times of the kingdom when 

 the regular monarchs were deposed, had one after another seized 

 the throne. Among these men, two of the most distinguished were 

 Oung-gyau-ri and Oung-gyau-stan, the former a brother-in-law of 

 Khyeng-byan's, rendered important services to the army of invasion ; 

 the latter was a nephew of Khyeng-byan's, and a man of influence and 

 ability. After the occupation of the country, these men were amply 

 provided for, but appear to have cherished hopes that when the Bri- 

 tish army was withdrawn, the country would be made over to them, or 

 at least to a native dynasty. Both were impatient of controul, and 

 were convicted of exercising their authority with cruelty. One was 

 removed from his office of myo-thoo-gyee on a charge of bribery and 

 corruption, and the other being convicted of severely wounding a po- 

 lice darogah with a dha, was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment. 



In less than two years after the occupation of Arakan^ the establish- 

 ment of a native dynasty was canvassed and plotted for, and these two 

 men, together with nearly all the influential persons in the country, 

 were privy to intrigues to compass that object. In December 1826, or 

 January 1827, a grandson of A-bha-ya, a chief who had seized the 

 throne and reigned for nine years before the Burman conquest, returned 

 to Arakan. His father, named Pa-tang-tsa, had been carried to Ava 



