fessing that we read with anxiety the vicissitudes and varieties of his fortunes. He retired, towards the close of his life, to France, and seems to have ended his days in poverty and repining. His book concludes with that observation of Artabanes to Xerxes, who wept on reflecting that in a hundred years not one of his immense army would be in existence, which suggests to him that death is comparatively an inconsiderable evil; that to man it was a desirable refuge from the ills of life; and that it may be said that the Deity, who is immortal, treats us with severity, who gives us life on such hard conditions.' If this was the philosophy of the Chevalier, imagination cannot conceive a creature more wretched and desolate; for the state of mind which led him to the adoption of so impious a sentiment was an affliction, compared to which the worst evils that he had yet encountered were light as air. We fear that his education in France, and the military life, which is too apt to estrange the best men from the Author of their being, had left in his heart that dismal void which religion, and religion only, can fill. Nothing else can reconcile us to God, to ourselves, and to the trials which are ordained for there is no other balm for the wounded mind,—no other antidote against the ills of penury and the fear of death: us; "For this is all that soothes the life of man, OU ART. V. Journal of a Residence in the Burmhan Empire, and more particularly at the Court of Amarapoorah. By Captain Hiram Cox, of the Honourable East India Company's Bengal Native Infantry. 8vo. pp. 430. 16s. Boards. Warren. 1821. UR readers may recollect that in our thirty-second volume, p. 113., we noticed Major Symes's Embassy to Ava, which was splendidly written and splendidly illustrated, but which, if we may trust the author of this Journal, painted in colours too flattering the manners, the civilization, the character, and the power of the Burmhan empire. It was on the return of Major Symes from his mission, that the GovernorGeneral of British Hindoostan resolved to depute one of the Company's servants to Rangoon, to fill the situation of Resident at that port; and Captain Hiram Cox was selected for this purpose by Sir John Shore. When he came back from this mission, Lord Mornington (now Marquis Wellesley) was invested with the supreme authority, and expressed himself REV. MAY, 1822. E satisfied satisfied with the Captain's conduct during the negotiation; and he was, in consequence, again employed in the public service at Chittagong, where he fell a victim to one of those liver-complaints which so frequently attack Europeans in the East Indies. His son, Mr. H. C.M. Cox, has selected from his father's journal those parts which appeared most likely to afford agreeable, new, or useful information, and now lays them before the public. Nothing has been added, but many of those minuter and personal matters have been omitted which naturally enter into a diary kept for the private gratification of the writer and his family. An absence of thirteen years in India, and some delicacies due to office, while any of the negotiations narrated were pending, have concurred thus long to postpone the publication of a narrative that was drawn up chiefly in 1797, to which period the contained observations apply. It was on Christmas-day, 1796, that the author reached Prone, a city laid down in Major Rennell's chart fifteen miles too far north, and nearly a degree too far east. Its precise latitude and longitude were verified by an observation of Jupiter's satellites. The first impression of the country is thus described: 'Dec. 26. At noon we were opposite to the town of Comma, situated on the west bank of the Erawuddie, famous for its timber. The numerous religious buildings in the town indicate its opulence. The fort lies three miles inland from the Erawuddie, on a rivulet that empties itself into that river, and is navigable in the rains, I was informed, for large boats, almost all the way to Arrakan. I suppose the province of Arrakan is meant, and not the capital of that name. Here also is the high road by which the merchants who trade to Dacca bring their goods, &c., on bullocks, and in covered carts, which are well made, and much in use throughout the country. Every step I advance, I meet with proofs of a better police and more thriving people than I had formed any conception of. All along the banks wherever I have landed, I have met with security and abundance; the houses and farm-yards of the peasantry put me much in mind of the habitations of our little farmers in England. The population much exceeds what I had been taught to believe; and, on inquiring of the villagers, they mention in every place, that there are larger towns inland. Game is scarce and shy, and tigers unthought of; a proof not only of considerable population, but also of cultivation. On the whole, the circumstances of the people secmed improved since we entered the hilly districts. • Dec. 27. We stopped for a little time at the town of Patro; it is populous, and the land round it well cultivated. Here for the first time I met with teak-trees on the hills near the bank; but they grow in abundance on all these hills inland. It is commonly sup posed posed in India that the Pegu teak is produced on low grounds, and hence a general prejudice against it; this may hold good as to some small part of the duggers or mast-pieces, but all the plank, and a great proportion of the other kinds, come from these hills. In the rains, innumerable mountain-streams facilitate the transportation, and what has been cut too late to be brought down by water the whole way, is dragged overland on truck-carriages by buffaloes. A little beyond Patoo, on the west bank, a lofty hill with a pagoda on it forms an abrupt point. In India, this would be fortified as a commanding post on the river; but fortification does not seem to be in estimation among the Burmhans.' A very large portion of the Journal is occupied in detailing the various petty ceremonies, with which all sorts of intercourse are embarrassed in this most eastern country, especially all intercourse with public men about public matters. We have been told, again and again, that the Orientals value highly the worship of etiquette; and that an European nation would sink in their esteem, if its agents did not stickle for all these miserable punctilios and formalities. Still we are of opinion, that to condescend to play the old woman can no where be the road to the confidence of men of sense; and on the concurrence of men of sense exclusively depends the success of all public negotiations, in which it is worth while to succeed. The highest dignity must always consist in the contempt of every thing that is not essential to the purpose of the interview. We English are a ceremonious nation, the French much less so; yet in all the European countries, as far as negotiation can ensure success, the French negotiate more efficaciously than ourselves. Ceremony is a step short of the highest refinement: it is adapted to conceal aukwardness, but does not operate as a substitute for ease; and it is more favorable to hypocrisy than to sincerity. A singular circumstance occurred at Meghoon: While Mr. Burnett was waiting, mangoes were presented to him, and he was shewn a book of Vertue's plates to Rapin's History of England, containing portraits of the kings and queens of England, with notes written in the Burmhan language, containing a brief sketch of their respective characters.' The critical disappointment of the author's negotiation is thus related: At noon my interpreter attended at the looto, when the woondock, according to his promise, brought forward the business of my memorials, &c. The whoonghees immediately declared that they were inadmissible, and without assigning any further reason, affirmed that they would not permit them to be laid before his Majesty ; that his Majesty, agreeably to Sir John Shore's letter, had appointed me resident at Rangoon, but would not at present receive any remonstrance or statement of grievances; that indeed I might return in three or four months, when, perhaps, he might deign to listen to me, at present I had no further claim on his royal favour; and that I must come to the looto to receive his commission. My interpreter, to whom they addressed themselves, then asked, if I came to the looto, what place would be assigned me? They replied below the nakhan, one of the inferior officers of the court, being the place where Captain Symes was seated. My interpreter told them they might rest assured I would not attend the looto on those terms. A desultory conversation then took place, in which the whoonghees, woondocks, and others, indifferently joined; every one suggesting something according to his caprice or pretensions to sagacity. One said, that when I came to the looto to receive my commission, I must take an oath of fidelity to his Burmhan Majesty according to their form, otherwise I might play tricks: another said, that I should not have permission to retire until the fugitives from Arrakan were delivered up, the Governor-General, in his letter, having referred them to me on that subject: another advanced, that Chittagong, Luckipore, Dacca, and the whole of the Cassembuzar island, formerly made part of the ancient dominions of Arrakan; that the remains of chokeys and pagodas were still to be seen near Dacca, and that they could further prove it from the Arrakan records, and hinted that his Majesty would claim the restitution of those countries. They repeatedly desired my interpreter to take back the memorials, and uttered a thousand other impertinencies; in short, their outrages against decency and common sense surpassed conception. The woondock, however, touched my interpreter as he was going away, and told him apart, that he would make another effort, and endeavour to gain over his Majesty; but I have little dependence on him. They would never have dared to have proceeded these lengths without the sanction of a high authority; for they are, in fact, but a set of automatons without either sense or motion, but what they derive from the master-hand. It is almost in vain to conjecture the cause of this sudden change; I can only ascribe it to the intrigues of the Assamese party who have pretensions to the throne of Lower Assam: and the young princess having pleased the doting monarch, they have availed themselves of her influence to induce him to espouse their cause, and break with the English; added to the incessant clamours and intrigues of the Mahomedan, Malabar, and other factions, who have been continually employed in inflaming their thirst for dominion, or exciting their prejudices against us; well aware, that the dawn of our influence must prove destructive to their own. How unlike is this picture to that drawn in the laboured periods of my predecessor? where is the polish, the intelligence, or faith, on which he delighted to amplify? But let me avoid the parallel, lest indignation should betray me into a warmth unworthy of the subject.' As it is more agreeable to dwell on the descriptions of scenery than on those of manners which prevail in this Journal, we select a voyage down the river Rangoon. The variations in the orthography of names are chargeable on the book. "At two P.M. we left our station opposite Amarapoorah; five boats of my party, and one boat with the English merchants, Mr. Reeves and Mr. Lane; also a small boat with a Mahomedan trader. At four P. M. we made fast at Cheghain. In the evening I walked through a part of the town to the south point of the ridge of hills which commence here, and extend along the western bank of the river, almost as far as Keoun Meoun, with very little interruption. The summits of all the peaks to the southward are crowned with Burmhan pagodas, and other religious buildings; most of them have flights of steps leading to them; the whole of bad burnt bricks plastered over. Upon near inspection they are rather paltry, and from the badness of the materials promising no long duration. We climbed up to one of them, and from it commanded a very extensive view of the adjoining country, which appeared pleasant and fertile, but mostly woody, and uncultivated: the banks of the river were higher than the plains adjoining, as is usual in countries subject to inundation. These latter were, in many parts, still under water, although the river does not appear to me more than five or six feet above its ordinary level in the dry months. Amarapoorah from hence makes but a mean appearance, its golden spires might be mistaken for chimney-tops, or glass-blowers' furnaces, and a nearer approach will not tend to raise in the minds of its beholders any ideas of magnificence, comfort, or industry; but Amarapoorah demands a particular description, and shall have one at a more convenient opportunity, when I can collect my materials. Ava seems buried in its ruins ; fifteen years ago the metropolis of the empire, it is now totally depopulated, and overgrown with weeds or mouldering in heaps of rubbish. Two or three pagodas alone point out to the inquirer's eye its site, which is surrounded by a small creek, and appears to me a better situation for a city than that now occupied by Amarapoorah. Chegain seems also to be going fast to decay; excepting the religious buildings, you see none but mean straggling houses, and but a very scanty population. It is principally supported by the cotton trade to China, of which it is one of the greatest shipping ports; also by making chunam, the south end of the ridge being very good lime-stone; the cheapness of this material seems to be one cause of the religious rage for building pagodas here, of which you see new ones rising in every direction. I know of no particular sanctity annexed to the place, except that on a rocky point projecting from the opposite shore, now covered with religious buildings, they say, that Godamah descended from heaven, when he transmigrated into the body of a cock, and picked golden grains from the sands. Oct. 18. At day-light I made a small excursion towards the hills, to observe the soil, &c.: the exterior masses of the southern clumps, as far as I saw, were a white lime-stone marble, but on some of the spars I found the stones variegated, black, blue, green, and red, mixed with siliceous and quartzose pebbles and fragments, also those calcareous stalactites in India called couker. The general E 3 |