536 
JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
courage. The finest are obtained in the district 
of Ramathen, on the Kyendwen river, and in 
that of Sandapuri in Lao, which is no doubt 
the Chantanaburi or Lan-chang of the Sia¬ 
mese,—a country celebrated amongst these 
latter people also for its fine elephants. The 
elephants of Pegu, a low country, are not 
esteemed, their tusks being considered small, 
their limbs feeble, and their carcases large. 
The elephant is said to be found in perfection, 
only within, and about the Tropics; but if the 
statement now made be accurate, their charac¬ 
ter also seems considerably influenced by the 
local and physical circumstances of the diffe¬ 
rent countries of which they are natives. 
Yesterday Mr. Lanciego informed me, at our 
audience of the King, that although the At- 
wenwuns had declined to submit the represen¬ 
tation respecting the Bengal prisoners to the 
King, he himself had done so. His Majesty, 
he said, had received his statement favourably 
—thought the request a just and reasonable 
one, and demanded that their names should be 
given in—their native country particulariz¬ 
ed, and the time and manner of their being 
made prisoners stated. To-day it was hinted 
to me, that there was some intention of send¬ 
ing the captives thus claimed back to Bengal, 
