Rangoon on the Irrawaddy with Esmok, a Chinese town in the extreme south of Yün-nan, by means of a tramway, which should be carried diagonally across Pegu and Burmah, passing by the town of Shwégyeen, on the river Salwen, and thence proceeding to its terminus, at what the projector believed to be an important entrepôt of Chinese trade. Subsequent investigations showed, indeed, that the Esmok* of Captain Sprye was in reality no centre of commerce, but a mere frontierpost on the verge of the Chinese dominions, and that the route by which it was proposed to reach this point abounded in well-nigh insuperable obstacles. It must be admitted at the same time, that, however greatly Captain Sprye may have been mistaken with regard to the commercial advantages and the practicability of a road to Esmok, he deserves the credit of having aroused, by his persistency in advocating the opening of trade with Western China, that pressure of public opinion in its favour which could alone secure the necessary official action in the matter. Numerous memorials were presented to the Foreign Office in 1860 by Chambers of Commerce throughout the country, in which the British Government was urged to take steps for giving effect to Captain Sprye's proposals; and in consequence of these and similar representations, orders were communicated in 1862 by the Government of India to Sir Arthur Phayre, when negotiating a treaty with the King of Burmah, to include in it provisions for facilitating the commerce of British merchants with Yün-nan, and for their residence at the emporium of Bhamô. Dr. Williams, whose work now before us embodies the information previously communicated in a Report to the Indian Government, had already called attention to the trade anciently subsisting at this point of contact between Burmah and Yün-nan.

Situated at the junction of the river Tapeng with the Irrawaddy, some 300 miles above the present capital of Burmah, and on the very verge of the frontier-zone in which Burmese and Chinese influences commingle, the town of Bhamô† has long

More correctly, Sze-mao, the name by which this town is known to the Chinese.

We follow the common method of spelling with regard to this name, although its correctness is open to question. The name of the town appears to be derived from that of the ancient Shan principality once occupying its site, and which was probably designated Man-mó or Ban-mó. By a process of elision, this sound becomes vocalised as Ba-mó, or Ba-maw, a mode of spelling which, according to Major Sladen, very nearly represents the exact local pronunciation. The Chinese still make use of the characters Man-mo to indicate the locality

been known as the established point of intercourse between the two adjacent countries. A community of Chinese traders occupy here, with reference to their own countrymen and the Burmese, a position somewhat similar to that of the factories' or 'settlements' of Europeans established at the Chinese seaports; and next to the Burmese governor or woon of Bhamô, the headman of the Chinese traders is the most important personage of the place. The silk, copper, gold, orpiment, drugs, paper, and textile fabrics of Western China found a market here in exchange for Burmese staples, whilst at Bhamô, also, the frontier-tribes were supplied with the principal article-salt-which makes them dependent upon extraneous trade. The traffic with Yün-nan was conducted by trains of baggage-animals, and from Bhamô to Mandalay and Rangoon the Irrawaddy affords an uninterrupted means of water carriage; but at the same time a purely overland trade may be carried on independently of this channel. It was proposed by the King of Burmah himself, says Dr. Williams, to start from the river at the capital and follow the ancient trading-highway across the frontier districts of Thong-ze and Thein-nee, an overland route by which caravans of merchandise have long been in the habit of travelling to Ava and Mandalay ; but for European purposes, the land-journey stood at a disadvantage beside the attractions of Bhamô, with its river-communications stretching on either hand, especially as the line of travel offered no facilities for improved means of transit. Dr. Williams investigated the passes by which the Thein-nee route is carried over the frontier range, and found them impracticable, in his judgment, for any kind of rail or tram-way. His conclusions, pronounced emphatically in favour of an attempt at opening trade with Bhamô, after a personal visit to that place, were approved by Colonel Fytche, while stationed as Resident at the Burmese Court, and at the suggestion of this authority an exploring expedition was at length commissioned by the Indian Government for the ascent of the Irrawaddy. The schemes for rendering the Salwen available for navigation had already been investigated, and reported as impracticable, and towards the close of 1867 the Bhamô expedition was organised under the command of Major Sladen, who was accompanied by Dr. John Anderson, in the capacity of medical officer and naturalist. To the careful and discriminating manner in

in general, but their name for the present town is simply Sin Kiai, or New Street, in contradistinction from Old Bhamô, which was destroyed a century or two ago.

which this gentleman recorded his observations during the journey, and to the research which he subsequently brought to bear in elucidating the geographical features, the history, and the ethnology of regions hitherto practically unknown, we are indebted for the extremely comprehensive and instructive report which has now issued from the Government press at Calcutta.

The objects Major Sladen had in view were the ascent of the Irrawaddy as far as Bhamô by steamer-an achievement as yet unperformed an investigation of the nature of the trade at this point, and a careful examination of the routes proceeding from this point into Western China. We are informed by Dr. Anderson, that

'The expedition left Mandalay on January 13, 1868, in the King of Burmah's steamer the "Yaynan-Sekia." It was composed of Major Sladen, Captain Williams, and myself, with Messrs. Bowers, Stewart, and Burn as the representatives of the commercial community of Rangoon. Our guard of police, fifty strong, was a mixed one of Burmese and Mahomedans. A Chinese, whom the King had made over to Sladen on account of his knowledge of the language, and of the localities we were to visit, also formed one of the party. This individual, Moung-shuay Yah by name, half Burmese and half Chinese by birth, proved eminently useful so long as he abstained from samshu. Our crew was entirely Burmese, from the captain to the firemen, and bearing in mind the brief experience the Burmese have had of steamers, it was surprising in how thoroughly workmanlike a way the management of the ship was conducted.'

The voyage was commenced with promises of active co-operation on the part of all Burmese officials, under the direct commands of the King, and an officer of the court accompanied Major Sladen as far as Bhamô, with the nominal duty of rendering all necessary assistance; but later experience showed plainly enough that beneath a mask of cordiality there lurked a profound dislike to the expedition, and that its success in achieving its objects would receive no efficient support from Burmese quarters. Himself a keen trader, and looking upon foreign commerce as his private monopoly, the King, it is easy to believe, was by no means anxious to witness the establishment of Europeans, with their treaty privileges and their demands for exactitude in such matters as customs' duties, at an advanced post like Bhamô; and from this feeling arose, very probably, the suggestions made to Dr. Williams concerning the superior advantages of the overland caravan route via Theinnee. A traffic carried on without permanent settlements at interior marts, and by its very nature confined almost necessarily to Burmese or Chinese hands, would doubtless prove less recalci

trant than a community of European traders to the exactions which an arbitrary will might seek to impose. But motives of this nature, if they existed, were at least courteously veiled (although, perhaps, allowed to peep forth in the sullen, unfriendly demeanour of the Burmese captain of the YaynanSekia,' which Dr. Anderson pointedly records); and despite all undercurrents of opposition, the ascent of the Irrawaddy was safely and satisfactorily accomplished in a voyage of nine days' duration. In his interesting summary of the results of this journey, read before the Royal Geographical Society on the 26th June, 1871, Major Sladen states that

The Burmese Government had publicly declared that no steamer could possibly ascend the Irrawaddy so far north as Bhamô at that time, or during certain seasons of the year, when the river was said to be at its lowest depth. Our steamer, however, the draught of which did not exceed three feet, reached Bhamô without difficulty of any kind in river navigation; and the result of our trip proves generally that the Irrawaddy is navigable for steamers of moderate draught at all seasons of the year as far north as Bhamô, a distance of 900 miles from our starting-point at Rangoon, and 300 miles above the royal capital of Mandalay.'

On the evening of January 22, after bidding farewell to the varied but ever beautiful scenery of the defiles through which the Irrawaddy threads its course, the party found themselves in sight of the town of Bhamô,

'situated on an elevated bank overlooking the river, the tees of its few pagodas glittering brightly in the setting sun. About fifteen miles to the right of the town, looking up the river, the high range of the Kakhyen hills is seen stretching away in an unbroken line; and to the west a low range of undulating hills, thickly clad with trees, bends round to the south to join those which form the western side of the defile.'

The tract of country of which the first view was thus obtained, is part of the outer fringe of that debatable frontier which in its long and sinuous sweep divides Burmah, Siam, Cambodia, and Annam from the Chinese Empire. Curving downwards from the eastern foot of the Himalayas, this line of country is inhabited throughout the greater portion of its area by a race known to the Burmese as Shans-styled by themselves, it is said, Taï or 'free-men'-and by the Chinese called Lao-chwa, the Lawa or Laos of European writers. At present split up into a multitude of petty states or tribes, some enjoying an entire independence under their hereditary chiefs, and others owning allegiance to Burmah, China, or Siam, according to their situation in proximity to one or other of these coun

tries, the Shans of the present day are the scattered remnants of a people, which, as Dr. Anderson has been the first to make clear, was for many centuries constituted as a powerful state on the frontiers of Burmah and China. The Kingdom of Pong,' originally traced by Captain Pemberton, by means of a MS. chronicle which he discovered in 1835 at Munipore, appears to have existed as long ago as the commencement of the Christian era, with a capital near the southern limits of the present province of Yün-nan. In this kingdom of Pong, which is reported to have flourished in its greatest vigour from the eighth to the fourteenth century, there is little difficulty in recognising the Mung or Nan-Chao, described in Chinese history as occupying the area of modern Yün-nan during the seventh and eighth centuries, and maintaining a not unequal struggle against the power of the Chinese Empire. According to Chinese writers, the tribes of Mung were in full possession of southwestern Yün-nan at the time of the Mongol conquest, and it is probably to this period that we must refer the great disruption which has befallen them. Traces of their former ascendency in Yün-nan are forthcoming, as Dr. Anderson observes, in the frequent occurrence of names pertaining to the language of the modern Shans in connexion with districts and cities in various parts of the province; and to this region we may perhaps refer the seat of the kingdom of Tay-yay (Taï) which Siamese traditions indicate as the origin of their own race. Dr. Anderson quotes the remarks made by Du Halde, a century and a half ago upon this point, and suggests that the kingdom of the 'great Siams,' or Shans, probably comprised that extensive tract of country to the north-west and north of Maing-lenggyee, on the right and left banks of the Irrawaddy, between the twenty-first and twenty-sixth parallels of latitude, and stretching from the ninety-fifth to the one hundredth degree of east longitude. The whole of this region supports at present a Shan population, and the same race is found extending over the entire tract of country between the Salwen and the Mekong, as low certainly as the sixteenth degree of latitude. By intermarriage with the races into whose territories they have penetrated, and through the influence also of climatic conditions, a great diversity has been wrought in the physical appearance and in the national usages of this widely scattered people; and there is little outward appearance of kinship between the hardy, intelligent, and fairskinned mountaineers on the borders of northern Burmah and the dusky, indolent Laotians who are found organised in a multitude of petty states throughout the basins of the Mekong and the