146 Autobiography of Tsura Moung-Bo, [April 



To the Editor of the Madras Journal of Lit, and Science, 

 Sir, 



It having occured to me once on a time that a collec- 

 tion of the lives of several of our Burmese and Talain sub- 

 jects in the Tenasserim provinces taken down from vira, 

 voce relation might be one means of making us better 

 acquainted with their manners and habits, as well as the 

 peculiarities of the Government under which they formerly 

 served, I amused myself in noting down that of my 

 Burmese teacher, a man truly characteristic of his nation, 

 and whose name may be found quoted in the reports of the 

 American Baptist Mission in Ava. 



As our present subject, who merely speaks for himself 

 through the medium of the English language, is well known 

 to many who have served at Rangoon, and in our newly 

 acquired province in Tenasserim, an account of the acci- 

 dents which befel him by field and flood during the course 

 of a long life, may not be uninteresting, and may perhaps 

 induce others to pursue the idea which first gave rise to 

 this production. In this spirit it is off'ered as a contribu- 

 tion to your Journal to occupy its pages in the absence of 

 more valuable matter. 



I have the honor to be, Sir, 



Your most obedient servant, 



A. M'Cally, Capt, 



Madras, Is^ Nov. 1834. 



III. — Autobiography of Tsura Moung- Bo.— By Captain 

 Arthur M'Cally, A^th Regiment M. JV, L 

 I was born at Prome in the month of Gnayon, the fifth 

 day of the waxing of the moon, on Saturday about sunrise, 

 in the year *li34. My mother, whose name was Maihla, 

 was a Talain from the Pegue country. My father, 

 Moung-Biau, w^hose ancestors lived in Motzobo, the birth 

 place of Alompra was a Burman. He was in the service of 

 jNoung-daughee the eldest son of Alompra, and eventually 

 received the office of fToit-thooghee or Myothooghee of 

 Prome from him after he became king, on which occasion 



* A. D. 1 773 



t Chici" civil officer of a district. 



