372 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
with the Burmans for employing it. We ob¬ 
served that a small temple close at hand, and 
containing a large image of Gautama, had been 
recently undermined by thieves in search of the 
small silver images and other relics and repre¬ 
sentations of that divinity, which are always 
deposited in Budd’hist temples. There is no 
crime more frequent amongst the Burmans, 
notwithstanding their piety, than sacrilege, al¬ 
though it is punishable with death, and gene¬ 
rally a cruel one. Robbery, indeed, in every 
form, is a frequent crime in the Bur man as in 
all other ill-governed countries. A few nights 
ago, the widow of an ex-governor of Sagaing 
had her house, within the walls of the town, 
broke into, and property carried off to the value 
of twenty thousand ticals, by a gang of fifty 
persons. Some of the robbers were apprehended, 
and the affair was in course of investigation. 
The conferences were renewed about one 
o’clock, and began as follows 
j B. We have come here to negotiate on the 
part of our King, and you on the part of the 
Governor-General. It is not the private busi¬ 
ness of either party that we are engaged in ; 
it is proper, therefore, that nothing superfluous 
should be advanced. We will deliver to you 
