Thus the duties to be discharged were multifarious, pertaining to diplomacy, engineering, natural science, and commerce. These accordingly were all represented among the members of the mission, which consisted of Captain Williams, as engineer; Dr. Anderson, as medical officer and naturalist; with Captain Bowers and Messrs. Stewart and Burn as delegates from the commercial community of Rangoon.[4] A guard of fifty armed police, with their inspector and native doctor, formed an escort, while the command of the whole was entrusted to Major Sladen, Political Resident at Mandalay. It is saying scarcely enough to add that to the foresight, tact, and resolute patience displayed by him as leader was due whatever measure of success was obtained. He had already secured not only the consent but the co-operation of the king. Written orders had been despatched to the woon, or governor, of Bhamô, and to other places, to render all assistance. Besides these verbal aids, the king placed at his disposal a royal steamer, named the Yaynan-Sekia, better known as “The Honesty,” to convey the party to Bhamô. On no former occasion had it been deemed prudent for steamers to ascend save for a few miles above Mandalay; and great difference of opinion existed as to the navigability of the upper Irawady in the dry season by a steamer, though only drawing three feet of water.
In the morning of January 6, 1868, the steamer Nerbudda, which had conveyed the party from Rangoon, made fast alongside the landing-place of the present capital of Burma, three miles from the city, of which only the golden spires could be seen above the trees. As our stay was not to exceed three or four days, all the party remained on board until it should be time to embark on the Yaynan-Sekia. Beyond a jetty used by the Burmese in the floods, lay the royal steamer undergoing thorough painting and cleaning for our reception. She was moored in a creek, the royal naval depot, where numerous war-boats of the past and the present fleet of royal steamers are laid up in ordinary. For nearly three miles the river banks presented a busy scene. Native boats were loading or discharging cargo; houses extended the whole distance, those nearer the river being tenanted by fishermen. A large suburb stretched inland from the shore; each house was surrounded by a vegetable garden enclosed in a bamboo fence eight to ten feet high, while all were embosomed in magnificent tamarind, plantain, and palm trees. The women were busily engaged weaving silk putzos and tameins in various patterns.[5] Beyond this suburb lay a large flat of alluvial land, devoted to rice fields, some in stubble, from which the grain had just been reaped; in others men and women were irrigating the young crop, now about six inches high, three crops yearly being raised from these lands, which formed, as it were, an island of cultivation, surrounded by houses.
The leader of the expedition, Major Sladen, came down to welcome us, and we rode with him to the Residency, situated on the banks of a canal, which runs parallel with the river, and halfway between it and the city. The bank of the canal is lined with houses, and broad streets lead to the city, over numerous strongly built timber bridges, the only defect in which is that the alluvial banks of the canal frequently give way, to the destruction of the bridges and interruption of the traffic. Our road lay through a populous suburb of houses built of teak and supported on piles. To the right lay a quarter occupied by the demi-monde; to the left numerous khyoungs, or monasteries, reared their graceful triple concave roofs. Phoongyees, or Buddhist monks, abounded; so did pigs and dogs, both of which are fed daily by a dole from the king, who, as a pious Buddhist, lays up a store of good works by thus preserving animal life. These ubiquitous pigs have given rise to a well-known saying, which tersely expresses the first impression made on the European visitor by the precincts of the capital. Our stay was too short to admit of more than a flying visit to Mandalay, its palace and countless pagodas.
The city properly so-called lies about three miles from the Irawady, on a rising ground below the hill Mandalé. It was founded, on his accession in 1853, by the present king; and one of his motives for quitting Ava, and selecting the new site, was to remove his palace from the sight and sound of British steamers. The city is built on the same plan as the old capital, described by Yule, and consists of two concentric fortified squares. The outer is defended by lofty massive brick walls, with earthworks thrown up on the inside. There are four gates, over each of which rises a tower with seven gilded roofs. Similar smaller towers adorn the wall at intervals. A deep moat fifty yards broad has been completed since the date of our visit, and now surrounds the walls. During the night, guard-boats, with gongs beating, patrol its waters. When the king, in compliance with a prophecy, was crowned a second time in 1874, he made the circuit of the city in a magnificent war-boat, the splendour of which eclipses the traditionary glory of the Lord Mayor’s barge. The actual ceremony of the re-coronation took place on the 4th of June, at 8 P.M., the hour pronounced propitious by the court of Brahmins.[6] Captain Strover describes the ceremony as being to a great extent private, only the various ministers of state and about eighty Brahmins being present. Incantations and sprinkling of holy water brought from the Ganges formed the chief part of the ceremony, after which his majesty was supposed to have become a new king, barring the difficulty of years. Seven days afterwards, the king went through the ceremony of taking charge of the royal city. At nine in the morning a gun announced that he had left the palace, and at half past another was fired, intimating that he had entered the royal barge. The procession round the city moat commenced from the east gate, and was led by the two principal magistrates of Mandalay in gilded war-boats; then followed all the princes in line, a short way in front of the state barge, and behind the king came the ministers and officials. Troops lined the walls all round the city, and cannon were placed every here and there at the corners of the streets. Bands of music played as the procession passed, and, altogether; the sight was most effective and unique. Having gone right round the city, he left the royal barge at the east gate, and a salute announced that he had re-entered the palace, and the ceremony was finished. According to his majesty’s own statement, the ceremony was a purely religious act.
The first square is inhabited by the officials, civil and military, and the soldiers of the royal army. All the houses are in separate enclosures, bordering broad, well kept streets; along the fronts is carried the king’s fence, a latticed palisade, behind which the subjects hide themselves when his majesty passes. During the day, stalls are set up in the streets, and the various Burmese necessaries, even to cloth, are sold, but at night all are cleared away and the gates closed. The central or royal square is surrounded by an outer stockade of teak timber twelve feet in height, and an inner wall. Entrance is given by two gates opposite each other, opening into a wide place, containing the government offices and the royal mint, on one side; on the other, a wall runs across, and a large gateway, opened only for the king, and a small postern give access to the palace enclosure. All Burmese entering this take off their shoes. Within is a wide open area, as large as a London square. On the opposite side rises a building crowned by nine roofs richly gilded, and surmounted by a golden htee, or umbrella, with its tinkling coronal of bells. This marks the audience hall. All entering this are required to take off their shoes, for the royal abode is sacred. The same rule applies to all temples, and this unbooting is really a mark of religious respect, due as much to the meanest khyoung as to the residence of the king. This fact perhaps, if borne in mind, might soothe the ruffled feelings of those who see in this unbooting a mark of degrading homage. To the left is the abode of the white elephant, which, it may be said, is scarcely distinguishable from any other elephant save by the paler hue of the skin of the head. To the right is the royal arsenal, outside of which the visitor would be now surprised by the sight of a completely armed and equipped deck of a vessel, which serves as a school for naval gunnery.
We were not admitted to an audience, nor did we see the royal gardens, which, with the other palace buildings, lie to the rear of the central hall. Dr. Dawson, as quoted in Mason’s ‘Burmah,’ describes the gardens in glowing language, as “truly beautiful, and as picturesque as they are grand.” Outside the walls of the city the suburbs, or unwalled town, stretch away southward in broad streets, which converge towards the Arracan pagoda; and in the distance the spires of pagodas mark the site of Amarapura.
It is impossible to estimate the population, but it must exceed one hundred thousand, to judge by the extent of ground covered by houses. Between the city and Mandalay hill numerous khyoungs have been erected by the queens and other members of the royal family, the teak pillars and roof timbers of which are magnificently carved and richly gilt.
In passing through the enclosures of these monasteries, it is necessary for equestrians to dismount and walk slowly through the sacred precincts. On this side also there is a large stockaded enclosure, to which the Shan caravans always resort. Here their wares, principally hlepét, a sort of salted tea—not, however, made from the true tea plant[7]—are disposed of by means of brokers. At the foot of Mandalay hill is a temple with a large seated statue of Buddha, carved from the white marble of the Tsagain hills. The hill itself is crowned by a gilded pagoda, and a statue of Buddha. The Golden King stands with outstretched finger pointing down to the golden htee that marks the royal abode, the centre of the city and of the Burman kingdom.
On the hill is a vast colony of fowls, numbers of which are purchased by the royal piety every morning, and maintained at the king’s expense. The eastern side of the city is skirted by a long swamp, which forms a lagoon in the rains. The Myit-ngé river, six miles to the south, may be said to complete the insulation of the environs of the capital. Not far from the Residency, but on the other side of the canal, there is a large bazaar, enclosed with brick walls, which presents a most busy scene. This may be said to be the principal enclosed market-place; but there are other smaller cloth bazaars; and several quarters or streets are occupied by special trades, a very noisy quarter being that of the gold-beaters. The fondness for gilding which characterises the Burmese causes an immense demand for gold-leaf, the gold used being principally brought by the caravans from Yunnan. Another quarter is tenanted by Chinese. By a curious coincidence, on the day of our arrival, a Chinese caravan of two hundred mules arrived from Tali-fu. They had come by the long overland Theinnee route, bringing hams, walnuts, pistachio-nuts, honey, opium, iron pots, yellow orpiment, &c. We noticed many Suratees among the inhabitants of the city. These acute and enterprising traders come to Burma in great numbers, and are found everywhere busily engaged in money-making. European adventurers of various nationalities form an element in the population, small, but mischievous; it is hardly to be wondered at if an ill impression of kalas[8] is formed by the Burmese nobility and gentry, judging from the conduct of some of these foreigners; while again they spread monstrous reports about the king, his social and political habits and ideas, which find their way into the Indian and English press.
The transshipment of ourselves and followers and baggage was duly effected, and in the afternoon of the 18th of January the Yaynan-Sekia left her moorings. We only proceeded as far as Mengoon, on the right bank, a few miles from the capital. Thus far we had the company of Mr. Manouk, an Armenian gentleman, who held the office of kala woon, or foreign minister. We duly visited the huge ruin of solid brickwork, which, as Colonel Yule says, represents the extraordinary folly of King Mentaragyi, the founder of Amarapura in 1787.