TO THE COURT OF AYA. 
133 
which the negotiations were conducted. The 
place will be memorable in Burman annals. The 
Burmese Court changed its tone as our army 
advanced upon the capital. When our troops 
first landed at Rangoon, it spoke of the affair 
as a predatory excursion, and was in great haste 
lest the invaders might escape. Before reach¬ 
ing Prome, it refused to negotiate. At this 
place it entered into an armistice, to gain time. 
After its defeats in December last, it at length 
consented to negotiate; but the negotiators in¬ 
sisted that the conferences should be held in a 
Burman vessel lying in the river between the 
two armies. It was evident that they had not 
yet been sufficiently humiliated, and therefore 
fortunate that at this period they broke the 
treaty. At Yandabo, Sir A. Campbell dictated 
that the conferences should be held in his tent, 
and every point demanded was yielded without 
difficulty; the customary equivocations and pro¬ 
crastination of the Burman statesman yielding 
on every occasion to a threat to advance the 
army. At this period the Burman Court made 
a faint attempt to hide its humiliation from its 
own subjects. The instalment of the money 
paid at Yandabo was first brought down clan¬ 
destinely at night, and the inhabitants directed, 
at the peril of their lives, to keep within doors, 
