1879.] over Pathai vid Nongyang. 71 
*« Griffith’s route” has come to be taken as a type of the difficulties on this 
question, and has undoubtedly led many into error. 
Tracing the subject back, we find that in 1816 some 6,000 Burmese 
troops and 8,000 auxiliaries crossed Patkai into Assam, at the invitation 
of the Raja (Chandrakant). 
Soon after, it is said, 30,000 followed under Keo Minghi, who re- 
turned to Ava in 1818, leaving about 2,000 men behind him in Assam. 
About 1821 Maha Thilawa, the Burmese general in Assam, was involved 
in disputes with us, anl in 1822 Menghi Maha Bandula led 18,000 men 
over Patkai and made Assam virtually a Burmese province. 
In 1824, war was declared by us, and the question of routes into 
Burma was eagerly discussed. Four were declared practicable, two by sea, 
and two by land, 7. e., 
Land route, Calcutta to Ava vid Assam, 1,433 milesand 170 days. 
” ”) 99 Manipur, 1,052 ” 9 107 ” 
Sea route, 55 » vid Aracan, 835) ;, itt OO as 
fa 
Led ” ”» Rangtn, 1,446 ” ”? 82 ” 
Of the land routes, it was settled that the line o7@ Assam, and over 
Patkai was by far the best, but that v7d Rangin offering better transport 
for stores was ultimately adopted. 
In 1828, Lieut. Burnett reported on the route by which the Burmese 
had entered Assam, and it was no doubt on this that Pemberton relied in 
his “‘ Report on the N. H. frontier” in 1835. 
“The passage of the Patkai,” he remarks, “is represented as easy 
‘when compared to the seven or eight equally lofty ranges that must be 
“crossed between Cachar and the Munipuri valley.” 
On all occasions Pemberton wrote in high terms of this pass, and, 
after his surveys on the Munipuri side, we may consider him one of the 
best authorities on the matter. 
Sir Ashley Eden has truly said that no man before, or since, has ever 
had such opportunities of collecting reliable information on the subject, 
and very few would, or could, make such good use of them. 
It was in 1837 that Dr. Griffiths, who was one of the Tea Commis- 
sioners, crossed from Assam to Ava. Yet though he started from Bisa, and 
passed Mainkwan, his route over that portion nowhere coincided with 
Pemberton’s account of the old Burmese one. 
After leaving Bisa, in Assam, he took a considerable detour to the west, 
the reason for which is not I think to be found in his journal, but is 
attributable to the fact that along the old route villages were maintained, 
so that not only was the route itself always kept more open and in repair, 
but provisions obtainable all along. 
