Cvx's Burmhan Empire . 59 5 
assented, and mentioned some of their 
stratagems, which chiefly consisted in 
well-laid ambuscades, &c. He then 
observed, that the English had a great 
many sepoys ; 1 tokl him we found that 
the cheapest and best mode of preserv¬ 
ing peace was, by convincing our neigh¬ 
bours that we were always prepared for 
war; but added, by way of softening 
the observation, that the Burmhans 
were a nation of warriors. In this he 
corrected me, saying, 44 That only par¬ 
ticular classes amongst them went to 
war, some by prescriptive occupation 
continued such from father to son, but, 
in general, only the poor; all those 
who paid a direct revenue to the king 
being exempted on certain conditions. 
But,” says lie, 44 our merchants like to 
go to war; our armies are half com¬ 
posed of men who join war and traffic 
together, carrying a pack of goods as 
well as their arms with them. 11 These 
must be staunch soldiers If pushed, 
thought I, but said nothing to diminish 
the good opinion he evidently enter¬ 
tained of the sagacity of their own 
arrangements. He now requested me 
to take a dish of tea; and when that 
was done, we proceeded together to the 
palace, he walking by my side, and the 
.presents preceding us. At the gate he 
requested that the majority of my re¬ 
tinue would stop, and that the mer¬ 
chants might take off their shoes ; to 
which I assented. We then walked 
across the palace-yard, (about 100 
yards,) to the steps leading to the hall 
of audience. About two yards from the 
steps he put off his sandals, and at the 
first step I and Mr. Keys took off our 
shoes, and followed him to the audience- 
hall. a room about fifty feet by fourteen, 
in the centre nave, with two aisles 
of the same length and breadth; and 
without them an open veranda or plat¬ 
form, guarded by a slight balustrade, 
the roof of the building supported by 
clumsy, naked, and unornamented pil¬ 
lars of wood, and at the upper, or 
closed end, which joined the body of 
the palace, was placed a couch-bedstead, 
with velvet-covered mattrass, and 
cushions, trimmed with gold-lace ; the 
floor covered about it with some mat 
Chinese carpets, and immediately over 
it, near the roof, a small canopy of 
white cotton’cloth, with a vallance of 
open work about one foot deep, and sus¬ 
pended by lines from the four corners, 
made fast to as many of the pillars. A 
clean mat, bordered with red cotton 
©loth, was placed for us in the right- 
hand aisle, but as the row of pillars in* 
tervening would have deprived us of 
a full view of his highness, I pointed 
out the inconvenience to the wlioon, who 
then had it placed in the centre room 
immediately fronting the throne, and 
about thirty feet distant from it. The 
other gentlemen, servants, &c. in our 
rear. Baba Shein, who had obtruded 
himself on the occasion, on our light, 
and Mr. Moncourtuse on our left; the 
presents were arranged in front. The 
enga’s whoon, sat between the left-hand 
row of pillars, and the officers, &c. of 
his highness’s court, dressed in white 
jammas, in the left and right hand 
aisles. We were seated about fifteen 
minutes before his highness appeared. 
He came from a door of communica¬ 
tion with his palace a little to the right, 
and in the rear of the audience-room. 
He was dressed in a jamma of gold- 
flowered muslin, a handkerchief or fil¬ 
let of the same round his head, a hand¬ 
some silk lunghee of the country manu¬ 
facture, wrought with gold, diamond 
ear-ornaments, and a Burmhan sword, 
hilt and scabbard, plated with gold, in 
his hand. He ascended his throne by 
steps placed towards the front of it, and 
seated himself in the Burmhan style. 
He appeared to me about five feet five 
inches in height, rather inclined to cor¬ 
pulence ; deep brown complexion, as 
the Burmhans in general are; of an 
animated cheerful countenance; and, 
as I should guess, about six or seven and 
thirty years of age. He fixed his eyes 
very steadfastly on us, without speak¬ 
ing. for a quarter of an hour. lie then 
asked which was the Resident ? After 
some further pause, he desired I might 
be asked to partake of some refresh¬ 
ments ; and tea, sweetmeats, and betel 
were immediately served. His high¬ 
ness spoke to us through the whoon, 
and while we were partaking of the tea, 
&c., he asked several questions respect¬ 
ing the relative force of the French and 
English nations; said, he had heard 
that the French were most powerful 
by laud, and the English by sea; asked 
whether five English ships could beat 
ten French? whether France contained 
more inhabitants than England ? all 
which I faithfully and impartially an¬ 
swered. He then observed, if the Eng¬ 
lish were more powerful by sea, why 
were their ships afraid to come to Ran¬ 
goon as formerly ? or why did we per¬ 
mit them to take the Burmhan ships ? 
I told him, it was as impossible for us 
to protect all our merchantmen from 
privateer* 
