TO THE COURT OF AY A. 
515 
pledge ourselves that justice shall be done to 
Mohammed Ally.” The three papers delivered 
in at this meeting were left, by the Burman 
commissioners, on the table. They were evi¬ 
dently anxious to evade the subjects of them, or 
at least wished to reserve to themselves the 
power of putting their own construction upon 
the subject of them. I had not signed or sealed 
them ; for these formalities, on a former occasion, 
had excited so much apprehension, that I forbore 
from doing so, in the hope of inducing the Bur- 
man officers to take them in any shape. Notes 
were taken by the Burmese negotiators on the 
subject of the claims of Mr. Stockdale and the 
Mohammedan merchant, but no memoranda 
whatever respecting the prisoners. 
Dec. 6. — Our promised presentation to the 
King took place this forenoon. A suitable 
number of boats were sent to receive us, and 
at twelve o’clock we crossed the river, and ar¬ 
rived at the Elephant Palace, which is about 
a mile below the town, and close to the banks 
of the Irawadi. The Elephant Palace and its 
appurtenances is a place appropriated for exhi¬ 
biting, for the King’s diversion, the taming of 
the wild male elephant. This place is a square 
enclosure, surrounded every where by a double 
palisade, composed of immense beams of teak 
2 l 2 
