But the flame of rebellion and revolution was kindled. It wanted but little to fan it into a formidable sheet of fire. During the absence of Zempiuscien at Moutzoboo, the general Meinla Nuttoon, marching through the lower country, raised the standard of revolt, and seizing upon Tongho, marched upon Ava, which, intimidated by the force attached to his interests, immediately surrendered. It were foreign to my purpose to give a detailed account of this insurrection. I will only say, that it required all the strength of the king to quell it. The siege of Ava was protracted for seven months, as Nuttoon expected assistance from Siam.
“These expectations were not realized. Supplies from the country failed, and want began to make ravages within the walls, although the magazines, which at the commencement of the siege were full, had been husbanded with the utmost economy. Discontent is ever the concomitant of distress. The governor of Mayah Oun, who had embraced Nuttoon’s fortune, deserted from the fort. Flying to Mayah Oun, he collected his adherents; but not being able to resist the royal forces, they set fire to the town, and betook themselves to the woods and jungles, whence they afterwards withdrew to the eastern provinces, where the authority of the Birman monarch was yet scarcely recognised. The rebels had likewise evacuated the fort of Tongho. Towards the end of the year, the garrison in Ava was reduced to the greatest extremity, and their numbers diminished above one-half by sickness, famine, and desertion. In this helpless state, without any chance of relief, Nuttoon made his escape from the fort in disguise; but had proceeded only the distance of two days’ journey, when he was discovered by some peasants, and brought back in fetters. The fort of Ava fell shortly afterwards by the flight of its commandant. Such of their unfortunate adherents as could not effect their escape, were without mercy put to death. Nuttoon, likewise, suffered the doom of a traitor.”[235]
This was, however, not all. Another revolt was raised by the viceroy of Tongho, an uncle of the king’s. However, Anaundopra marched to Tongho, and took the place after a siege of three months, and, according to Sangermano,[236] put him to death. Symes, however, informs us, that he was kept a close prisoner in the fort of Ava till his death.[237]
Talabaan, too, raised a rebellion, which was, however, very soon ended by the seizure and execution of that general. “So long as that monarch [Alompra] lived, he conducted himself like a dutiful servant: the death of his sovereign, however, cancelled in Talabaan’s breast the bonds of duty and gratitude, and, though faithful to the father, he took the earliest opportunity to revolt against the son.”[238] In March, 1764, the king breathed his last, of the same scrofulous complaint that killed his father, leaving behind an infant son named Momien. The numerous rebellions against his government would lead us to expect immense strictness in his character; but he is represented as only severe in matters of religion; except in this particular, his administration was forbearing and moderate. The insurrections were more probably induced by the double reason of ambition on the part of the revolution, and by the necessary restraint which follows the unlicensed liberties of war. The people were accustomed to feel themselves masters of all, and now, the turbulent and unsettled reign of Alompra having closed, they chafed and bit at the cord like irascible dogs.
Zempiuscien, as the nearest relation to the infant monarch, became regent of Burmah, though the authority of the child was probably never recognised, either by regent or people. After some time, indeed, he openly assumed the crown, and, at the petition of a sister of Alompra, sent Momien to the priests, instead of murdering him, as he intended. His reign was warlike, and marked with many rebellions and revolutions, which, though raging for the moment, had no effect beyond the fury of the moment. The principal event and shame of his life, cannot be better told than in the words of Symes.[239]
“Whatever respect the glory of conquest, and the wisdom of a well-regulated government, might attach to the reign of Shembuan, it must be wholly obscured by the cruelty exercised on the present occasion [the taking of Rangoon from the Peguers, who had again rebelled] towards his royal prisoner, the unhappy king of Pegue; and this, too, like a more recent and equally inhuman regicide,[240] in a nation professing Christianity and enlightened by science, was perpetrated under the mockery of justice. Shembuan, not content with exhibiting to the humbled Peguers their venerable, and yet venerated monarch, bound in fetters, and bowed down with years and anguish, resolved to take away his life, and render the disgrace still deeper, by exposing him as a public malefactor, to suffer under the stroke of the public executioner.... The process of law in Birman courts of justice, is conducted with as much formality as in any country on earth. Beinga Della was brought before the judges of the Rhoom, among whom the Maywoon of Pegue presided. The late king of Pegue was there accused of having been privy to, and instrumental in exciting the late rebellion. Depositions of several witnesses, supposed to be suborned, were taken; the prisoner denied the charge; but his fate being determined on, his plea availed him nothing. He was found guilty; and the proceedings, according to custom, were laid before the king, who passed sentence of death, and accompanied it by an order for speedy execution. In conformity with this cruel mandate, on the 7th of the increasing moon, in the month of Taboung,[241] the aged victim was led in public procession through an insulting population, to a place called Awabock, three miles without the city, where he met his doom with fortitude, and had no distinction paid him above the meanest criminal, except that all the municipal officers attended in their robes of ceremony to witness his last moments.”
The death of Beinga Della preceded his own by but a short space of time, for Zempiuscien, or Shembuan, died in the spring of 1776.
His son and successor, Zinguza or Chenguza, presented very different traits of character to those of any of Alompra’s dynasty. He plunged into the wildest excesses of debauchery, and left the government to the maladministration of a corrupt court. This proved fatal to him. The excesses of king and ministers did not pass by unheeded. Momien, his cousin, had not forgotten that he had an equal right to the throne, and the disgusting murder committed on the queen, afforded a pretext for revolt. A conspiracy had been formed by one of Alompra’s brothers, Men-ta-ra-gyee, the queen’s father, and one of the ministers whom Chenguza had insulted; Momien was used as a tool to elevate Men-ta-ra-gyee to the throne. This young man,[242] “taking advantage of his [Chenguza’s] absence, advanced by night to Ava, in company with about forty inhabitants of a village called Pongà, and without experiencing any resistance, made himself master of the palace. Upon which the youth of Ava, and the neighbouring places, came eagerly to be enrolled, and take up arms in favour of the new king; who, in the space of five days, was in possession of the person and kingdom of Zinguzà. But the usurper, whose name was Paongozà, from the long abode he had made in Paongà, by these rapid and successful advances, only served as a means to Badonsachen [the former name of Men-ta-ra-gyee], the reigning sovereign, to mount upon the throne. For scarcely had he taken possession of the palace, than he called together all his uncles and made them an offer of the kingdom; saying, that according to the dispositions of Alompra, to them it belonged. But they suspected this ingenuous declaration of Paongozà to be nothing more than a malicious contrivance to pry into their secret thoughts, and upon their accepting his offers, to give him a pretence for their destruction; and therefore not only declined to receive it, but declared themselves, by drinking the water of the oath, his subjects and vassals.... Paongozà then raised them to their former state, and restored all the honours whereof they had been deprived by Zinguzà. But they, a few days later, took that by force, which, when peacefully offered, they had not dared to accept. For on the 10th of February, 1782, they suddenly entered the palace, seized Paongozà, and placed on the throne Badonsachen, third[243] son of Alompra. He, according to custom, caused the deposed monarch to be thrown into the river, calling him in scorn the king of seven days.[244] Paongozà at the time of his death, had only reached his twentieth year. On the following day the unfortunate Zinguzà underwent the same fate, in his twenty-sixth year; and all his queens and concubines, holding their babes in their arms, were burnt alive.”
The particulars of the taking of Zinguzà by Momien, or Moung-Moung, are as follows:[245]—