Cox's Burmhan Empire . 
591 
gretted that he could not take him into 
the yongdho as he had his boots on, 
and no one was permitted to enter any 
of his majesty* s courts with their feet 
covered. The yongdho, vulgarly cal¬ 
led rondye or rhon£, is a tribunal, and 
literally means, in the Burmhan lan¬ 
guage, the place of truth ; the one 
erected in camp is for the trial of mili¬ 
tary offences, to examine the musters 
of the levies, and receive petitions from 
those who wish to commute their per¬ 
sonal service by a fine. These fines 
are one of the sources of Burmhan 
revenue; and to afford a pretence for 
raising them, is in general one of the 
causes for the annual expeditions liis 
majesty sets on foot. Thus does the 
avarice and mistaken policy of the des¬ 
pot lead him to the most pernicious 
means of swelling his coffers. 
ILL SUCCESS OP THE MISSION. 
September 24. Several of the natives 
having lately thrown stones into my 
verandah at night, and at my people 
when at the front door, I sent to the 
maylieon, to request he would station 
two peons at my house to protect my 
people from insults ; he excused him¬ 
self by saying, his people were stran¬ 
gers, and had no regular authority 
here; he therefore recommended my 
applying to the enga’s whoon, who sent 
me two men at night. 
October 4. As I saw no probability 
of any change in the sentiments of go¬ 
vernment, as the English traders had 
been repeatedly insulted and robbed 
without the possibility of procuring 
redress, and I had no prospect of sell¬ 
ing their goods, I therefore judged it 
expedient that they should proceed 
down the river under my protection ; 
and having first consulted with them, 
and finding their wishes correspond 
With my opinion, I gave them written 
directions to apply to the mew whoon 
for apermit to leave Amarapoorah, and to 
hold themselves in readiness to proceed 
with me down the river the 7th instant. 
In consequence they waited on the mew 
whoon at five P.M., and requested the 
permit according to my directions. He 
appeared a good deal surprised, and 
paused for about ten minutes ; when 
he said, I wonder the Resident will 
not wait a few days for me, when we 
might all go down comfortably to¬ 
gether. 
VISIT TO THE MINISTER. 
October 11. About one o’clock the 
elephants with a nakan sandoghan and 
sheradoghee, came down to conduct me 
to the Enga Tekaing’s ; hut the har¬ 
nessing the horses, and taking a list of 
the presents, detained us till half-past 
two o’clock, when we set off. The pre¬ 
sents I had prepared for the prince,was 
a phaeton, Europe built, and harness, 
a one pole tent, a three-barrel hand 
organ, a fowling-piece in a mahogany 
ease, with tackle complete, a dress of 
superfine red and blue cloth, a ditto of 
superfine white ditto, a ditto of scarlet 
ditto, one piece of gold and silver 
wrought nainsook, one ditto fine mus¬ 
lin, one ditto middling, two ditto of 
cachedas, two canisters of glazed gun¬ 
powder, one decanter of coloured com¬ 
fits, one multiplying glass, three bot¬ 
tles of otta, and essences in a glass cup, 
and two goulaubashes of rose-water. 
About three, we got to the enga’s 
whoon’s bouse, which is close at the 
gate of she prince’s palace. He came 
to the door and requested me to alight 
to give time for preparation within ; at 
his earnest request and promise to re¬ 
turn my visit, 1 had previously con¬ 
sented to this, When l alighted from 
my elephant he received me at the 
head of liis stall's, conducted me to an 
inner apartment, and would hardly 
permit me to take off my shoes at the 
door, which however I persisted in 
doing, as I wished to convince them 
that I had no objection to comply with 
auy reasonable prejudice: he had a 
shabby couch with carpets spread on it 
for himself and me to sit on, and car¬ 
pets on the floor for the rest. He ap¬ 
peared to me, a hale man of about 
sixty, hut lam told he is seventy-two 
years of age: the cast of bis features 
is different from that of Burmhans, he 
being of Pegue extraction ; his coun¬ 
tenance is sedate, but not impressive, 
rather mean than otherwise; in sta¬ 
ture he is about five feet seven, and of 
a spare habit. After the usual compli¬ 
ments, we conversed of the different 
modes of warfare practised by our re¬ 
spective nations ; a subject, he shrewdly 
enough observed, he supposed I would 
best like to talk of, being, as well as 
himself, a soldier. 
The Burmhans pique themselves on 
stratagem, and he inquired whether we 
used stratagems in war? I mentioned 
two or three common ones, but added, 
that the art of war chiefly rested on 
stratagems in outwitting your enemy, 
or circumventing his designs; so that 
generals of abilities were continually 
inventing new ones, or practising old 
ones in a new manner: to which he 
assented, 
