[40] Loi in Shan means "mountain."
CHAPTER XIX
BHAMO AND MOGAUNG
When Upper Burma was annexed the first step towards the constitution of a well-ordered province was to parcel out the country into districts of such a size and with such boundaries that they could be conveniently administered. The wise course was followed of preserving the old native divisions, which had probably resulted from the teaching of experience and the nature of the country and differences of race. For few innovations vex a people more than changes in the boundaries of the units of jurisdiction which touch their daily life. Hence it came to pass that all the country between 23° 37' N. and the undefined line dividing Upper Burma from China and Thibet, somewhere about 28° N., was constituted the charge of a single Deputy Commissioner, with the China frontier as its eastern boundary, and as its western limit the Hukawng Valley, the Upper Chindwin district, and further south the Katha district. The headquarters of the Deputy Commissioner and of the military garrison were placed at the town of Bhamo, from which the district took its name.
The Irrawaddy cuts the district in two from north to south. The town of Bhamo lies in a plain along the left bank of the river, midway between two defiles, usually spoken of as the first and second defile, through which the waters rushing down from the region of mountains in the north have cut their way. The river is open all the year round, as far as Bhamo to large river-steamers. But the first or northern defile is always difficult, and when the river is in flood, impassable. Hence Bhamo is the gate of Upper Burma, and the port for the trade which has existed for centuries with Western Yunnan. In a very small way it is the Peshawur of Burma, and for the purpose of raids and such like the Kachin tribes play the part of the Pathans on the north-west frontier of India. The greater part of the district is hilly and covered with forest; and the Kachins, who form quite a third of the population, live in the hills.
It is said that trade follows the Flag. In this case the reverse is true. The Irrawaddy Flotilla Company had prepared the way for us here. Bhamo had been the northern terminus of their steamers since 1869, and for some time the Government of India had kept a Resident there to protect the trade. But no attempt had been made to navigate beyond Bhamo.
In December, 1885, a force was sent up by river to occupy the town, and an officer of the Burma Commission, Captain Cooke, accompanied it, and began to establish a civil administration. No opposition was met with. The population of the town was not in a position to resist us. Mixed with the indigenous Burmans and Shans was a considerable colony of Chinese traders—some of them Cantonese who had filtered up from the coast, others hardy and adventurous men from Yunnan, engaged in the jade and amber and rubber trades in the northern part of the district. These foreigners, although they disliked exceedingly our interference with the opium and liquor traffic, and even more our attempts in the interests of the troops to improve their methods of sanitation, were not actively hostile. The peasantry of a mixed Shan-Burman race, who cultivated the level country round and below the town, were peacefully inclined, though shy and timorous. But the Kachin tribes soon began to show their teeth and to do their best to make things unpleasant. The policy laid down from the first for the guidance of the local officers in their dealings with the Kachins was one of patience and conciliation. Perhaps too much stress was laid on this. In one case, certainly, the Deputy Commissioner's anxiety to adhere to this policy was carried to an extreme, and caused mischief.