INDO-CHIXA. 



7-A 



to the Irawaddy basin, the whole region stretching tfeause between 

 Sinm and Yunnan eastwards to about 103° E. longitude being 

 ind icatcd as the " Independent Shan Country." But tbhi appears to 

 be going back to the thirteenth century, when the extensive Shan 

 empire embraced all the Kamboza Statu-' on the plateau between the 

 Irawaddy and Salwin rivers, bejudes many other parts of Jndo*China, 

 And although th«' i-tiin-Hii-ni (p. 321 J that li die Burmese Shan Slavs, 

 which are now independent, contain about &0,000 square mile*," 

 may be tin exaggeration, it seems certain that Kiang-hung and one 

 or two other Shan States have been independent both of China and 

 Burundi at least since the Mohammedan rebellion, in Yunnan. 



To these must be ndded the sumi -independent territory of the 

 A'ltrt'ti-iti, «>r 1,1 Red Kurnis" which ft trim* an em-lave 1>ctweeti 1 lie 

 S ittang and Salwin on I lie north -east frontier of Pegu. Lite- their 

 kindred in Tenosserni^ many the Karens have acrvpled the teach- 

 ings of the Christian missionaries, and will probably prefer the 

 British administration tu She capricious government of their Burmese 

 ruler* But many of the wilder tribes between Lower Burmali and 

 Sinm still h'fid iif'Hitii] lives ami are di'scriU-il a* " a lVe<[HfHS- unlive, 

 of tremble, committing highway robberies on British aa well as 

 Siamese subject*" (C. Bock). Hence I he Katvn-tii territory, some 

 50 miles by SO broad, has hitherto obstructed the regular trade 

 between Pegu and the Shun country west uf the Srdwiu. Mutters 

 were made worse by a treaty,, in whirh both the Burmese and (lie 

 Kn^lish ii.jvi-.il not i<> annex the clt-trn't, lite tic-duel ion uf which 

 will certainly remove a great obstacle to the development of com- 

 mercial intercourse between Bununh and the neighbouring Shnn 

 Stale* 



Topography. — Both in Upper and Lower Burnmh nearly all 

 the large tuwns lie in the Irawaddy basin, and generally an the left 

 lsmk of that river. In the extreme north the only place of any 

 importance in Mamfi, just bclnw the Tapdig confluence, a group of 

 600 or 1 00 houses protected by a stout bamboo palisade Inn a the 

 raid* of the surrounding Kachyen In 11 men. One quarter is occupied 

 exclusively by Chinese artisan^ and nearly all the overland trade 

 willi Yunnan is in the hamls <d th« local Ohinoitc dealers. 



Bhatuo i* distant some fifty miles to the north of the point, aliout 

 22° JJ. lat,, where the Tniwaddy bend* smlih-nly wt\-t wards, and 

 where is situated the cluster of royal towns, Satjain, Am y Antih'a- 

 jtih-M, and Sfittuittl'tfj, which have beni the successive capitals of Ihe 

 empire during the last 000 year*. Nothing is m puzzling in the 

 history and geography of Bunnah as this shifting of the imperial 



