26 JOURNAL OR AN EMBASSY 
active share in the conversation. The first mat¬ 
ter brought forward was the character of the 
Talains, or Peguans. Many of these people, 
who were compromised on account of the as¬ 
sistance rendered to us during the war, had 
emigrated, or were preparing to emigrate, to 
our newly acquired provinces to the South ; 
and the matter, not only on account of the 
loss of subjects, but probably of the opportu¬ 
nity of revenge or extortion, was a subject of 
great uneasiness to the Burman Government. 
His Excellency maligned the character of the 
Talains in no measured language. He charged 
them with propagating false reports, tending to 
interrupt the friendship existing between the 
English and Burmans; and denounced them 
generally, as being by nature, and from the 
earliest times, a disloyal, deceitful and perfidi¬ 
ous people. He condescended to narrate, in 
illustration, two well-known legends, which did 
not appear to us very apposite, or judiciously 
chosen; although it w^as evident that the 
Wungyi had deliberately selected them for his 
' present purpose. One of these stories related, 
that in ancient times a Western stranger (Kula), 
seven feet high, had visited Pegu, and challeng¬ 
ed the bra vest of the kingdom to meet him in 
single combat. A Talain champion presented 
