1857.] The Bemains at Pog/m. 37 



formed a briliant " polychromatic" (to use the slang of the day) 

 coronet to each successive terrace of the temple. 



lent and threatening demonstrations on the Chittagong frontier ; and it was 

 known that the French were directing their attention to Burma as a good fulcrum 

 for attack or intrigue against British India. For these and other reasons, the 

 Governor General (Sir J. Shore) deputed an embassy to Ava under Captain 

 Michael Symes of His Majesty's 74th Regiment. 



It cannot be said that this mission was treated with much respect, or advanced 

 the estimation of the British power among the Burmans. Captain Symes was 

 treated as the envoy of an inferior power, and was undoubtedly himself imposed 

 on by Burmese pretensions. The whole colouring of his narrative tends to leave 

 a very exaggerated impression of the civilisation and magnificence of the Burmese 

 empire. 



In 1796, in accordance with the permission conceded in the document given to 

 Captain Symes, Captain Hiram Cox was sent to act as resident at Rangoon on the 

 part of the Government of India. He had charge of some articles which the king 

 had commissioned through Symes. But he was not to proceed to court, unless 

 summoned. 



He was summoned, and reached Amarapoora in January 1797. There, or in 

 its neighbourhood, he remained during nine weary months, bearing with singular 

 patience every kind of slight, indignity, and imposition, the history of winch it is 

 quite painful to read. In October he returned to Rangoon, and in February he 

 was recalled by the Grovernment, who (misled perhaps by the impression that 

 Symes had given) intimated their opinion that the conduct of the court must have 

 indicated personal dissatisfaction with Captain Cox. And the king and his min- 

 isters were addressed, notifying Cox's recall and offering to appoint another gentle- 

 man in whom the Vice-president had the greatest confidence, should His Majesty 

 desire it. 



Captain Cox's private journal was published in 1821, some years after his death. 



Several insolent communications were in the following years received from the 

 Viceroy of Rangoon, and the Governor of Aracan, and in 



1802, Captain, now Colonel, Symes was sent again by Lord Wellesley. His 

 mission was attended by an escort of 100 sepoys, and equipped in a style charac- 

 teristic of the Governor General. He was to seek a treaty of alliance, the cessation 

 of extortionate exactions on trade, the establishment of a resident at court and of 

 a consul at Rangoon, and to claim Negrais or compensating commercial advan- 

 tages. 



The mission was a total failure. The envoy was treated for three months with 

 the most mortifying neglect and deliberate insult, and at last quitted without 

 an audience of leave. It is not to be wondered at, that the Colonel published no 

 narrative of his second mission. 



