English: The Burmah Expedition, Flotilla, with Troops on Board, going up the Irrawaddy to Bhamo. Illustration for The Illustrated London News, 27 February 1886.

Shows ships Pulu (steamer), Bulldog, PFQU. Volume: 88 , Issue: 2445
Read the ILN

THE BURMAH EXPEDITION. The advance of General Prendergast's force up the Irrawaddy from Mandalay to Bhamo. with a view to secure the possession of the .Burmese frontier towards China. was related in a former account. Our Special Artist, Mr. Melton Prior, who accompanied the expedition in one of the leading vessels manned by the Naval Brigade, contributes several additional Sketches those of the steam-boat flotilla, with the " flats " containing troops. going up the river : the flats, roofed over for shelter, are lashed alongside of the steamers; also, the view of Tsengoo, above Mandalay; and the approach view of Bhamo. which is a poor town, but situated in an important commercial position. Its geographical site is about one degree within the north temperate zone, and is about 900 miles from the sea. It stands high, on the left bank of the Irrawaddy, which here is about three-quarters of a mile wide. General Prendergast's steamers have been unable to get within two miles of the town. No doubt the channels have changed, as they do throughout the whole course of the Irrawaddy. Formerly, there was a broad and very deep channel, just under the town, and the steamers were able to fasten up under the bank. Between the town and the high range of the Kachin hills extends a plain, about twelve miles wide, all cultivable land, but at present covered with bamboo jungle, varied by large clumps of the broad-leaved eng-tree and the tall, mast-like wood-oil-tree. Only here and there are a few scattered huts, hedged in by a tangle of cactuses and bamboos, live and dead. The inhabitants are a mixed race, between the Burmese and the Shans of Momeit, over whom the King of Burmah in vain attempted to exert his authority. They are mostly woodcutters, and lead a miserable life, though, under different conditions, they might have wide fields of rice, or cotton. or wheat, or mulberries. As it is. they act as go-betweens in the few negotiations the Kachins and the Burmese have with one another: but are occasionally treated as hostile. "'For centuries," says an old resident in Bhamo. who wrote lately in the Pall Mall Gazette, " the main caravan route. ' the gold and silver road,' as it has been called, between Burmah and Western China, has been that over the hills from Bhamo along the valley of the Tapeng river. Theebaw's casual way of collecting revenue, the main feature of which was the levying of the poll tax two or three times in the twelvemonth, whenever the Royal lotteries showed a falling off in receipts. and his utter inability to keep the hill tribes in order, have woefully reduced the commercial importance of the last place which the Irrawaddy flotilla steamers call at. Things came to such a pass that, just a year ago. Bhamo was actually seized by a combined band of Kachins, or Kakyens, and brigand Chinamen, supposed to be acting under the orders of Li-si-tai, the murderer of Mr. Margary. They held the place for many weeks, and would have held it altogether had it not been that they fell to quarrelling among themselves. Both sides entered into negotiations with the King's troops, both agreed to hand over the leaders of the other party, both got the bodies of some men who had died from natural causes, and delivered them to the Burmese commander to be crucified. Then the Kachins marched off to their hills, and 'the Chinamen made their way back to Manwyne. But Bhamo did not regain its trade. Now it will; but the question, rather needlessly raised, as we think, is, who is to hold the town ? It is a place with European associations almost from the first moment we hear of it. We had a factory there in the beginning of the seventeenth century. Unfortunately, so also had the Dutch. The Burmese King demanded tribute of the merchants, and the Dutch not only refused to pay it, but were ill-advised enough to threaten to call in the Chinese to protect them. So little did the King of Burmah-then not much larger than it was under King Theebaw-acknowledge the Chinese suzerainty, that he promptly expelled the Hollanders, and the English traders along with them. The Dutchmen never returned. We have; and it may be hoped it is to stay." - The Earl of Dufferin, Viceroy of India, with Lady Dufferin, after staying some days at Mandalay, left that place this week, as we learn by telegraph, going down the river to Prome and Rangoon. It is stated that both Upper and Lower Burmah will be united into one province, under the government of Mr. Bernard. The administration will be carried on by English officials, but all minor posts will be filled by Burmese. The Political Resident at Manipur, Colonel Johnstone, C.S.I., who has been very successful against the insurgents on the Burmese and Manipur frontier, was severely wounded on the 1st inst. By the latest advices, he was going on favourably. His force consists of Manipur and Naga irregulars, who find their own clothes, but are lightly taxed, on condition that they serve when required. Colonel Johnstone was made a C.S.I. for his relief of the head-quarters station in the Naga hills, when it was besieged in 1879 by several thousand insurgents, and the garrison, containing 500 British subjects, including English ladies and children, were at the last gasp for want of water.