HISTORICAL FIDELITY.
The court historiographer of the Burmese, has recorded in the national chronicle his account of the war with the English to the following purport: —"In the years 1186 and 87, the Kula-pyu, or white strangers of the west, fastened a quarrel upon the Lord of the Golden Palace. They landed at Rangoon, took that place and Prome, and were permitted to advance as far as Yandabo; for the king, from motives of piety and regard to life, made no effort whatever to oppose them. The strangers had spent vast sums of money in their enterprise; and by the time they reached Yandabo, their resources were exhausted, and they were in great distress. They petitioned the king, who, in his clemency and generosity, sent them large sums of money to pay their expenses back, and ordered them out of the country."— Crawfurd's Embassy to Ava.
To quote a vulgar proverb, this is making the best of a bad job.