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MANDALAY TO MOMIEN:
MANDALAY TO MOMIEN:
A NARRATIVE OF THE TWO EXPEDITIONS TO WESTERN CHINA OF 1868 AND 1875 UNDER COLONEL EDWARD B. SLADEN AND COLONEL HORACE BROWNE. BY JOHN ANDERSON, M.D.Edin. , F.R.S.E., F.L.S., F.Z.S. FELLOW OF CALCUTTA UNIVERSITY; CURATOR OF IMPERIAL MUSEUM AND PROFESSOR OF COMPARATIVE ANATOMY, MEDICAL COLLEGE, CALCUTTA; MEDICAL AND SCIENTIFIC OFFICER TO BOTH EXPEDITIONS. WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. London: MACMILLAN AND CO. 1876. JOHN ANDERSON, M.D.Edin. , F.R.S.E., F.L.S., F.Z.S. FELLOW OF CALCUTTA UNIVERSITY;
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PREFACE.
PREFACE.
Seven years have elapsed since the date of the expedition which furnishes the subject of the larger portion of this work. Its results have been recorded, but can hardly be said to have been published, in the official reports of the several members, printed in India, and not accessible to the general reader. The public interest in the subject of the overland route from Burma to China, called forth by the repulse of the recent mission and the tragedy which attended it, has suggested the present pu
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CHAPTER I. MANDALAY TO BHAMÔ.
CHAPTER I. MANDALAY TO BHAMÔ.
For some years previous to the date of the expedition of which the progress is narrated in these pages, the attention of British merchants at home and in India had been directed to the prospect of an overland trade with Western China. Most especially did this interest the commercial community of Rangoon, the capital of British Burma, and the port of the great water highway of the Irawady, boasting a trade the annual value of which had increased in fifteen years to £2,500,000. The avoidance of th
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CHAPTER II. BHAMÔ.
CHAPTER II. BHAMÔ.
We found some difficulty in steering the long steamer through the channels, but anchored about 5 P.M. on the 22nd of January off the river front of Bhamô, in a very deep and broad channel. Our arrival attracted crowds, but the whistle and rush of steam drove many into a precipitate retreat. We had now reached our true point of departure. Whatever had been the uncertainties of the untried navigation of the river, the real dangers and difficulties of the attempt to penetrate Western China were now
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CHAPTER III. KAKHYEN HILLS.
CHAPTER III. KAKHYEN HILLS.
Almost at the last moment before setting out, while lists of the muleteers were being taken, in order to ascertain their respective chiefs, so as to know who should be held responsible, in case of default or robbery, the tsawbwas of Ponsee and Talone discovered that Sala, when at Bhamô, had received a musket as a present. Their informant was the treacherous Moung Shuay Yah, who instigated them to stand on their dignity and demand a similar gift. Compliance was impossible, so they refused their s
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CHAPTER IV. PONSEE CAMP.
CHAPTER IV. PONSEE CAMP.
On the first night of our sojourn at Ponsee, we were roused from our beds in the open air by a violent thunderstorm, which threatened a drenching, but fortunately let us off with only a few heavy drops. One of the party drew his bed under a small thatched shed close by, and slept soundly, to awake in the morning and find that he had shared his shelter with a deceased Kakhyen, on whose grave he had been reposing. At an early hour, Sala came to inform Sladen that a small army of Shans and Kakhyens
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CHAPTER V. THE KAKHYENS.
CHAPTER V. THE KAKHYENS.
From the summit of the lofty hill, fully two thousand feet above our camp, called Shitee-doung, which it became possible to ascend during the latter part of our stay, an extensive view was obtained. From it to the north a sea of hills extended as far as the eye could reach; to the south stretched ranges of hills covered with forest, save where little clearings showed the presence of villages; to the north-east lofty parallel ranges closed in a narrow valley with a river winding down it. These hi
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CHAPTER VI. MANWYNE TO MOMIEN.
CHAPTER VI. MANWYNE TO MOMIEN.
After various reports and interchange of letters between ourselves and the Panthays, tending to the removal of any doubts in the minds of the latter, we learned that the representatives of the Shan states had come to Manwyne. A slight hint of the unchanged ill-feeling of the Bhamô people was given in the imprisonment of Moung Mo, who had acted as guide to Williams and Stewart; a vigorous remonstrance, however, forwarded to the Woon, was followed by his liberation and return to the camp. On the 8
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CHAPTER VII. MOMIEN.
CHAPTER VII. MOMIEN.
A retrospect of the journey thus far showed that since our departure from the Burmese plain we had been steadily ascending. Although the altitudes could not be taken with accuracy, owing to the inefficiency of the instruments which had been supplied at Rangoon, such observations as it was in our power to make were made; they were subsequently reduced by the surveyor’s department at Calcutta, and the results are approximately correct. Where it was necessary to depend on speculation, care was take
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CHAPTER VIII. THE MAHOMMEDANS OF YUNNAN.
CHAPTER VIII. THE MAHOMMEDANS OF YUNNAN.
The Mahommedans of Yunnan have a tradition of their origin, which is curious, but mythical. The governor and the hadji at Momien stated, in substance, that their forefathers came from Arabia to China one thousand years ago, in the reign of the emperor Tung-huon-tsong, who had sent his chief minister, Khazee, to Tseeyoog(?) to implore help against the rebel Oung-loshan. Three thousand men were accordingly sent, and the rebellion was crushed by their assistance. Their former compatriots refused to
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CHAPTER IX. THE SANDA VALLEY.
CHAPTER IX. THE SANDA VALLEY.
At the last our departure from Momien seemed doubtful, owing to the difficulty of finding porters, and men were forcibly impressed into the service. Any demur as to a particular box or complaint of the weight of their loads was silenced by a torrent of abuse from the Panthays, who, to these persuasives, sometimes added severe blows. About 8 A.M. on July 13th we started, waving our adieus to the governor, who had come out on the town wall to bid us farewell. The guard gave him a feeble cheer in H
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CHAPTER X. THE HOTHA VALLEY.
CHAPTER X. THE HOTHA VALLEY.
At 2 P.M. we commenced to ascend the hills, which from Manwyne had not appeared to be more than one thousand feet high, but proved to be three times that altitude above the river. The rough bridle-path led straight up the steep declivity, and in the blazing heat of an unclouded sun the ascent was most trying to man and beast, already wearied by their exertions in the quagmire. The mules were ahead, but our men soon began to lag, although we went as slowly as was compatible with the prospect of r
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CHAPTER XI. FROM HOTHA TO BHAMÔ.
CHAPTER XI. FROM HOTHA TO BHAMÔ.
On the 27th of August we bade adieu to our friends at Hotha, the wife and daughters of the chief coming out to “see us off”; while their tears, and reiterated requests that we would soon come again, might have been called forth by the departure of some near relatives or very dear friends. We offered to shake hands, “English fashion,” which the eldest daughter declined, as it was contrary to Shan etiquette, but the young wife of the chief mustered up courage to defy public opinion. The saluting g
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CHAPTER XII. INTERMEDIATE EVENTS.
CHAPTER XII. INTERMEDIATE EVENTS.
The first active step taken by the Chief Commissioner of British Burma, as a result of the expedition of 1868, was to recommend the appointment of a British Resident at Bhamô. The various Shan and Kakhyen chiefs, as well as the governor of Momien, had concurred in the opinion that such an appointment would be beneficial to the future trade. By the 6th article of the treaty of 1867 it had been provided that British steamers should be allowed to navigate the Burmese waters, that British merchants
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CHAPTER XIII. SECOND EXPEDITION.
CHAPTER XIII. SECOND EXPEDITION.
In November 1874, Colonel Browne and myself arrived at Calcutta, having left England on receipt of telegraphic instructions in the preceding month. A short time was devoted to the purchase and preparation of the various articles intended as presents; while the necessary equipment of scientific instruments was completed under the personal supervision of Colonel Gastrell, of the Surveyor-General’s office, and nothing was spared by this well-known officer to make the fullest provision for all scien
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CHAPTER XIV. SAWADY.
CHAPTER XIV. SAWADY.
On the following day the greater part of the baggage was stowed in boats ready for departure to Sawady, which was fixed for the 23rd. The Woon made his appearance at an early hour, bent on inviting Margary and his writer, and all of us, to spend this the last day with him. In the forenoon the usual ying pooay , or dance, went on, but in the evening a hun pooay , or pooay acted by marionettes, was given. This was a much more artistic affair than that of the Chinese puppets, the marionettes being
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CHAPTER XV. THE ADVANCE.
CHAPTER XV. THE ADVANCE.
The village of Tsitkaw, which seemed little changed as to its dirty poverty since my recollections of 1868, consists of about eighty huts, built on piles, enclosed within a bamboo stockade, which was being repaired. The western half of the village is occupied by Chinese, and for the first time the Chinese women are seen, for there are none in Bhamô. At this time the Celestials were busy erecting a wooden temple outside the stockade. Their principal men came to our khyoung to greet Li-kan-shin, o
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CHAPTER XVI. REPULSE OF MISSION.
CHAPTER XVI. REPULSE OF MISSION.
We were all astir with early daylight on February 22nd, and prepared our baggage for the advance to Manwyne; but about seven o’clock large bodies of armed men were observed on the heights above us hurrying downwards in the direction of Shitee, as if to cut off our retreat. There was no mistaking their hostile purpose, and the Burmese immediately detached parties to occupy the positions which they had fortified, one being above the camp, and another thrown forward to a point of the road leading t
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APPENDIX I.
APPENDIX I.
A Note by Bishop Bigandet on Burmese Bells. [42] Bells are common in Burma, and the people of that country are well acquainted with the art of casting them. Most of the bells to be seen in the pagodas are of small dimensions, and in shape differ from those used in Europe. The inferior part is less widened, and there is a large hole in the centre of the upper part. No tongue is hung in the interior, but the sound is produced by striking with a horn of deer or elk the outward surface of the lower
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APPENDIX II.
APPENDIX II.
Translation of a Chinese Document, which purports to account for the Origin and Establishment of Mahommedanism in China. By Colonel Sladen. The chief queen of the emperor Tanwan adopted a child and called him Anlaushan. In time the child developed into a man of extraordinary comeliness and wonderful intellect. The queen was enamoured; and the adopted son became her paramour. Anlaushan soon rose to distinction. His abilities were of the highest order, and raised him at once to fame and influence.
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APPENDIX III.
APPENDIX III.
List of Nats, or Deities, worshipped by the Kakhyens; obtained from Native Sources by Colonel Sladen....
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APPENDIX IV.
APPENDIX IV.
Note by Professor Douglas on the Deities in the Shan Temple at Tsaycow, in the Hotha Valley. The objects of worship contained within the walls of this temple are well worthy of note, more especially as they illustrate the curious manner in which the deities representing the various faiths of Chinamen—Buddhist, Taouist, and Confucianist—are often intermingled. As the subjoined list shows, Buddhas, Buddhisatwas, Devas, Arhans, and Buddhist patriarchs, stand side by side with “True Men,” “Masters o
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