30 The Remains at Pay An. [No. 1. 



battlements to be but the settings of embossed and glazed, and 

 sometimes also richly coloured, tiles, which in fact must have 



In 1757, Alompra addressed a letter to the king of England, written on gold 

 adorned with rubies, which he delivered to a Mr. Dyer and others who visited 

 him at Rangoon. 



In June of the same year Lieut. Newton, who was in charge of Negrais, deputed 

 Ensign Lister to go to the king with the pompous title of ambassador extraordi- 

 nary. He overtook Alompra on the river going up from Rangoon, and by dint 

 of some considerable bribery obtained the king's signature to a treaty conceding 

 in perpetuity Negrais, and ground for a factory at Bassein, with freedom of trade, 

 in return for a pledge of military assistance fom the Company against the king's 

 enemies. This treaty had never any practical effect. 



1759. The greater part of the establishment at Negrais was withdrawn. And 

 on the 6th October in that year the whole of the remaining Europeans, with many 

 natives, were treacherously massacred by the Burmese. The king was said to 

 have suspected that the factory had been in communication with his enemies the 

 Peguans.* 



In 1760, Captain Alves was sentf with letters and presents from Holwell, 

 Governor of Fort William, and Pigot, Governor of Madras, to demand satisfac- 

 tion for the massacre, and liberty for the prisoners. Alompra had died on his 

 Siamese expedition a few months before Captain Alves' s arrival at Ava. He found 

 the city in rebellion, and the new king besieging it. He was plundered and other- 

 wise shamelessly treated. The prisoners were released, but the idea of satisfaction 

 was scouted, and Ensign Lister's treaty was ignored. 



The factory at Bassein was never re-established, but one appears to have been 

 kept up at Rangoon at least till 1782. 



In 1769, the French East India Company sent an envoy to the court of Alom- 

 pra's son Senphyoo-yen,f with the view of re-establishing their trade. They 

 obtained from the king the grant of a factory and other privileges, but these con- 

 cessions were never acted on. X 



1794. The Burmese, who had conquered Aracan in 1783 began to make inso- 



* On the shore of the mainland, close to the north of Negrais is now being 

 laid out the new Port of Dalhousie. " The whirligig of Time has brought about 

 its revenges. The kingdom of Pegu, which the rough hunter conquered, has 

 past from his house to the hands of that power whose servants he treacherously 

 slew ; and the city that will rise on the site of his crime will borrow a name 

 from the woody dells of Esk." B lack wood's Magazine, May 1856. 



f Called by Sonnerat " Zekm-medou," the Shembuan of Symes. 



X Sonnerat, as above, p. 8. This author, whose voyages took place between 

 1774 and 1781, has a dissertation on the advantages of taking possession of Pegu, 

 for which he calculates that 1000 or 1200 Europeans would suffice, as the 

 Peguans would join them. He commences, prophetically ; " II est certain que 

 les Anglais chercheront un jour a s'emparer du Pegu." 111. p. 60. 



