It is impossible to avoid the reflection that, if the murder of Margary and the attack on our camp had been directed by Li-sieh-tai, he could easily, by direct or indirect means, have disposed of his visitor; and his civility and consideration for his safety by not allowing him to advance are surely to be esteemed a strong argument in his favour. Among the Lenna Kakhyens the opinion was freely expressed that the opposition was due to secret tactics on the part of the Burmese. That this idea prevailed among the hill tribes to the south of the Tapeng was further confirmed by Father Lecomte, who returned from a visit to Mattin at the time of our arrival at Bhamô. When he and his companion reached the first Kakhyen village, there was an incessant discharge of fire-arms, and the villagers appeared unwilling to receive them, until they assured them that they were not Englishmen. Their sacerdotal garb assisted to make the Kakhyens believe that they belonged to a different race, and they were then entertained, but informed that at first the people had said, “If these are kalas, let us kill them, because the king of Burma does not wish them to enter our hills.” The tsawbwa of Mattin, whose intelligence and general knowledge impressed them strongly, told them that there was no chance of the mission reaching Yunnan. He further remarked that the Kakhyens were glad to see the Englishmen at Bhamô; but “what will become of the trade and occupation of our people if they make a railway from Bhamô to Momien?” This feeling, both among the Chinese merchants and the Kakhyens, especially those under Burmese and Chinese influence, that our gain in the way of open trade would prove their loss, must be largely taken into account in estimating the difficulties of progress.
The opinion that the king of Burma was hostile to the mission owed its origin to a forged royal letter, directing the Kakhyens to oppose us. A copy of this letter was obtained by the Resident, and there was no doubt that it had been widely circulated. The forgery was brought home to no less a personage than the chief phoongyee, or saya, of Kaungtoung. The Woon of Shuaygoo, whose district includes both Kaungtoung and Sawady, it will be recollected, refused any co-operation with his colleague at Bhamô. I personally experienced his hostility to foreigners during a boat voyage through the second defile on the return from Bhamô, when he not only refused a guide, but sent instructions to the headmen of his villages to forbid my landing. He has been since deprived of office, and the actual perpetrator of the forgery has been tried by the ecclesiastical court of Mandalay, degraded from the priesthood, and sentenced to carry one hundred loads of water into the khyoung of the court. The sentence ran as follows:—“In the case of rahans, if in a matter not ordered by our most excellent Lord Buddha, one represents it to be a sacred order, he is guilty of dakka-apat. In the case of laymen, if a person represents that which is not a royal order as a royal order, the customary punishment is to widen his mouth (by slitting the cheeks) or to cut off his hand. In the present instance, Shin Thula Tsara, the Saya of Kaungtoung, without orders from an ecclesiastical court, by making that which was not a royal order into a royal order, was the one who ordered the obstruction of the British mission proceeding to China. He accordingly has been deprived of his office of bishop; but as a rahan and a soldier of the Buddhist religion is not punishable according to the civil law, the decision, in accordance with the rule given in the Wini, made by the assembled members of the ecclesiastical court, is—Let him be punished by carrying one hundred loads of water,” &c. This isolated case of hostility on the part of Burmese officials in nowise detracts from the good opinion which the zeal and energy displayed in our service by the Bhamô authorities earned from all who witnessed and profited by them.
Upon our safe arrival, the Woon sent letters to the governor of Momien to inquire into the causes of the opposition offered to the progress of the mission and the murder of one of its officers. The report that Chinese troops were still marching in great numbers from Momien to Manwyne was also the subject of inquiry. He did not disguise his fear that the Chinese would attack Bhamô; and the preparation of bricks for the construction of a wall around the town, which had already begun, was actively pressed forward.
During our stay, all opportunities for ascertaining, if possible, the exact details of the murder of Mr. Margary and his followers were eagerly availed of by us; but beyond the melancholy fact, though various reports were current, it was impossible to collect evidence either as to the perpetrators or the circumstances of this atrocious crime. It seemed, however, agreed that there were Chinese officials and troops at Manwyne. The muleteers and others who accompanied Margary had fled for their lives into the jungle. One reported that he had been examined as a friend of the foreigners, and had escaped by asserting that he was a resident of the district, and not connected with us. The most trustworthy account was furnished by two of the six Burmese who were at Manwyne, and whom the Chinese officials threatened to kill. The most intelligent one stated that he saw Margary walking about the town, sometimes with Chinese and at other times alone. On the morning of the 21st, the very day of his murder, some men invited him to go and see a hot spring, and when he was outside the town, they knocked him off his pony and speared him. His writer and messenger and two servants were killed in the khyoung. This was only hearsay, and no one had seen the heads of the victims, which were reported to have been affixed to the town wall, or, according to another account, to have been sent to Momien. Our informants had not seen any troops, though one had heard them marching at night while he was concealed in the jungle.
Later accounts stated that the Chinese officers had been ordered back in disgrace to Momien, because they had allowed our party to escape, and that the Shans were at feud with the Chinese, as the phoongyee complained that the khyoung had been desecrated by blood-shedding.
It is to be hoped that the commission of inquiry now traversing China from the east will be able to elicit the facts, and to determine to whom the guilt of the barbarous murder of a British officer attaches. It is in no wise fitting to prejudge the case. Whether local marauders or the Momien officials, actuated either by prejudice against foreigners or commercial jealousy, or, it may be, a groundless fear of encouragement to be derived by the Mahommedans from the presence of the English, violated the rights guaranteed by treaty and the express commands of an imperial passport, remains to be seen. It is possible that the authority of the viceroy of Yunnan was prostituted to oppose the entrance of the hated foreigners; and the recent reports seem to indicate a determination in the Yunnan yamens at least to screen the offenders.
For my own part, I desire to record the deep sympathy entertained for those who mourn for the loss of one so beloved. Our brief intercourse lasted long enough to win for him the esteem and cordial friendship of us all; and while we deplored the early loss to his country of the services of one whose past career and talents promised to raise him to high distinction, we lamented his untimely death as that of an old and dear friend. To his family and those who looked forward to share his future, the loss is irreparable; and the punishment of the guilty will bring but little consolation. But he may be said to have bequeathed it as a public duty—made more imperative by its being the most fitting tribute to his worth—to establish in those border lands the right of Englishmen to travel unmolested.
The death of this young officer and the repulse of the British mission from the frontiers of China have left a marked impression on the minds of the various populations. The question of opening trade routes may be left to the future. Overland commerce cannot be forced, or even stimulated, by extraordinary efforts. The existence of a channel of trade between Burma and China has been demonstrated; and when the restored prosperity of Yunnan shall create a demand, the steamers of the Burmese rivers and the entrepot of Bhamô, where the British flag assures protection to British interests, are ready to furnish the supply. For the present, above and beyond the task of avenging his murder on the guilty, of whatever rank they may be, the name of Augustus Raymond Margary will be most fitly honoured by a party of his countrymen formally asserting the right to traverse, in honour and safety, the route between Burma and China, which he was the first Englishman to explore, and which should be maintained as his most durable monument.
By the arrival of Mr. Ney Elias, our chief cause of anxiety was removed, and when on March 3rd the boats arrived from Tsitkaw freighted with the baggage and stores which successive officials had been despatched to expedite, there was no farther necessity for delay at Bhamô. Everything, with very trivial exceptions, was delivered safely according to the inventory which had been taken at Woonkah, and the tsawbwa of that place received his promised reward of £1000, which undoubtedly made him the richest chief among the northern Kakhyens.
As the steamer from Mandalay had not arrived, I hired a native boat, in order to make a leisurely inspection of the second defile, and dropped down to Sawady. The Woon of Bhamô had informed me that there was danger to be apprehended from the Kakhyens on the hills of the defile, and advised an application to the Shuaygoo Woon, who was at Sawady, for a guide. After some delay, the Woon received me, but most ungraciously, and declined the request, as the Bhamô Woon had sent no official letter on the subject. Not content with this refusal, he sent a boat with soldiers to convey orders to the villages not to allow me to remain for the night, the result of which we experienced at a place called Thembaw-eng, where the headman came down and compelled us to leave our moorings. We were not assailed by Kakhyens, but had a nocturnal alarm of a tiger, which the boatmen declared to be not a real tiger, but the nat of the locality, who was enraged at their having cut down some branches which interfered with my camera, when photographing the great cliff. A more disagreeable incident was a violent storm, almost amounting to a tornado, which overtook us in the river. The hurricane was presaged by a most brilliant light seen, in the west, from which quarter the wind soon after burst upon the river with tremendous fury, lashing its surface into great waves, while incessant flashes of lightning lit up the scene, which was one of terrific grandeur. A pleasing incident of the trip was the arrival of a boat containing our old friend and patient, the old tsare-daw-gyee, who had escorted us from Mandalay, and who had arrived at Bhamô in chains on his way to Mogoung a few days before. He expressed great pleasure at seeing me safe, and I congratulated him on having regained his liberty. This was due to royal orders brought by an express boat from Mandalay two days previously. As he intended to halt at Shuaygoo-myo, he promised to neutralise the malice of the Woon, by personal instructions to the headman, which proved most useful.