(574 Account of the Moa Morak sect. [Aug. 



and the Bor Phokan, who went to Burmoh, vi& Calcutta, on the part 

 of Chundkrcanth returned to Assam with the Khyee Woongye, and 

 8 or 10 thousand Burmans, and the latter being always ready for con- 

 quest, were by no means loath to make their way into a country, which 

 had been represented to them, as overflowing with riches ; but the 

 Bor Gohain only lived to hear of their arrival across the frontier. 



What followed in this country is already well known, and there are 

 few, who are not aware, that the oppressive rule of the Burmans brought 

 Assam into a more degraded state than it had ever been. 



The Senaputtee taking advantage of the confusion of those times, 

 established himself, in his father's position at Bengmorah, and secured 

 himself from the immediate control of the Burman government by 

 keeping at his residence, and in his pay, a vakeel, who was a native 

 Burman* and remained with the Senaputtee, on the part of tho 

 Burmans. 



The Bor Senaputtee having established himself as the head of the 

 Moa Mureeahs on the line of the Debroo, he soon set himself up, on a 

 firmer footing, than any of the former chiefs of the sect, and as he 

 pleaded poverty, besides, the outskirts of his country, being so jungly as 

 to present a forbidding aspect to the Burmans, they allowed him to 

 remain comparatively unmolested. 



At the time of the arrival of the first Burmese army in Assam, the 

 Morans occupied, as they now do, their proper localities on the upper 

 portion of the Debroo ; and lower down that river, and scattered over 

 different parts of the surrounding country, there was a tolerable popu- 

 lation of Moa Mureeah's and other Assamese, but not near so extensive, 

 as was found, on the British taking possession of this country. 



Upper Assam had been long subject to the inroads of the Singphos ; 

 and their slave-taking excursions were carried on with renewed success, 

 during the Burman rule in Assam. The Bor Senaputtee seems how- 

 ever to have prevented any successful attack on his portion of the coun- 

 try. And it is reported that the present Beesa Gam, made, at one time, 

 an attempt on a large scale, to carry off some of the people, but was 

 driven back with great loss. The inhabitants of the surrounding coun- 

 try therefore, feeling that they would be more secure from Singphos, 

 and Burman oppression, naturally chose to put themselves under the 

 protection of a man like the Senaputtee. And thus on the arrival of 

 the British in Assam,, he was found with all the semblance of an inde- 

 pendent prince, and the head of a country containing upwards of 50,000 

 inhabitants. 



* The Kaminee Phokan before mentioned. 



