502 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
ing passage for the use of the Atwenwuns. 44 1 
shall be happy to hear that the King has given 
you a good reception, and that he is as anxious 
as we are to be on good terms. The golden 
road must now be open for ever.” Having thus 
done as much as possible to satisfy them, I in¬ 
formed them that their desire to be informed 
of what passed between a Government and its 
public agent was contrary to the custom of all 
civilized nations ; but that as the Burmans were 
not aware of this, I had complied with their 
wishes in order that their Government might 
be assured that every thing on our part was 
done openly and in good faith. They pleaded 
the orders of the King—his belief that there 
were letters for himself, and the great anxiety 
he had expressed on the subject of this dispatch. 
Fortified with this authority, the first At wen - 
wun proceeded to demand a specification of the 
contents of each letter, public and private, in¬ 
cluding the duplicate dispatches. I replied that 
they had already been furnished with the con¬ 
tents of all the letters which had arrived, with 
the exception of those torn up in their presence, 
the contents of which they had nothing to do 
with, as I was aware of them through another 
channel. Five natives of Aracan were described 
as the messengers who had brought the dispatch. 
