500 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
24th ult. came in forty-three days, or in seven¬ 
teen days less than the Aracan dispatch, al¬ 
though they had not the advantage of being 
conveyed to Rangoon in the steam-vessel. 
The two Atwenwuns came over with breath¬ 
less haste with the dispatch, as if it had been a 
matter of the first moment to them. Along 
with it was an open passport in the Persian and 
Barman languages, the last of which stated, as 
a very proper precaution to prevent the impu¬ 
tation of a clandestine transaction, that it should 
first be brought into the King’s presence. The 
Atwenwuns put their own construction upon 
this : they said that the passport implied that 
there were letters for the King of Ava, and 
therefore that it would be suitable that they 
should be present when the dispatch was open¬ 
ed. I proceeded to inform them what the 
nature of the dispatch was; that it contained 
no secrets whatever; and I explained to them 
the desire of the Governor-General, to open, 
with the consent of the Burman Government, 
a communication between Calcutta and Ava, 
by the route of Aracan. I stated that I was 
already in possession of duplicates of the letters 
which the dispatch contained ; and that it was 
my intention, without any requisition on their 
part, to have opened the packet in their pre- 
