506 
CAUTIONS RESPECTING THE BATAMMAKAS. 
3 Aug. 
considered as part of the plunder of those travellers, a man after- 
wards brought me, and it was the only article which could be found, 
a piece, of about two feet long, of a red sash, such as is usually 
worn by military officers ; asserting, at the same time, that it had 
been procured from the people of Melitta. But as I had already 
been assured, on the authority of a person who was present on the 
occasion, that this sash was given to Mulihaban by Captain Donnovan, 
the bringing of it forward now, as a proof of the alleged murder, 
served only to confirm my suspicions that the whole tale was a base 
fabrication, and a proof of nothing more than the falsehood and dis- 
honorable motives of those who invented it. 
As soon as this examination was finished, I informed Mattivi, 
that, as all our provisions were now exhausted and we found great 
difficulty in procuring game in the vicinity of the town, I intended 
to make a hunting excursion at a distance in the country, and expected 
to be absent from Litakun about a fortnight or three weeks. 
I therefore requested him to make known to all his people, that, 
as the Batdmmakas were now in the land with hostile views, and as 
we, not being able at a distance to distinguish this tribe from the 
Bachapins, should consider any party of men approaching us under sus- 
picious appearances, to be a detachment from the enemy, and should 
fire upon them accordingly, the Bachapins, whom we regarded as our 
friends and whom we should always be glad to see at any station 
where we might happen to be, must be careful not to visit us in large 
bodies, lest we should unfortunately mistake them for the enemy. 
To this request he replied, that he would give his people the 
necessary caution. 
It being now publicly known that I was on the point of quitting 
Litakun, the inhabitants, and more especially the chieftains, were 
most importunate for tobacco. They pressed around me and climbed 
into the waggon in so intruding a manner, that I was obliged to defer 
my meal till I should have left the town ; as they were determined, 
for the last day, to push their beggings to that extremity at which 
they began to assume almost the appearance of demands, in order to 
