"Rangoon, Feb. 28th, 1886. "What with dacoits and the Viceroy, we are having lively times. While we are greatly pleased with the Viceroy's visit, we are heartily glad viceroys don't grow on every bush, or come once a week, for we are all tired out. Of course we had our Karen arch, etc., etc., when the Viceroy came. I proposed to have a gathering of all the Karen clans so the Viceroy should see them. This met Mr. Bernard's views, and a special durbar for Karens was promised. I sent out printed notices all over Burma, and had the dacoits not increased in their depredations, I should have filled the grounds of Government House. The time of the durbar was changed several times, and that, of course, prevented the coming of a great many. At last the clans began to come in. The Burmans were surprised to find such crowds of Karens, all in national dress. On the 22nd I had over fifteen hundred camped all over my compound, and nearly all my own fellows.

"Unfortunately, I had to send back three hundred men to villages threatened by the dacoits.

"The 23rd we got telegrams from Bassein that their delegations thought they could 'honour the Viceroy best by avenging the death of poor St.

Barbe.' Maulmain, too, failed me, as they, too, had to meet the dacoits rushing down from their defeat at Papoon. Still, I had twelve hundred in all, with school-children packed solid.

"I had to laugh when I found they had prepared twenty-five cups of tea for my brigade! I gave the tea to the school-girls who sang, and after translating the Viceroy's speech, sent them home highly pleased at their gracious reception. The vanguard, with their flags, was filing into the compound here as I left with the rear the eastern gate of Government House. The reception will do good. The Karens now know the Viceroy recognizes the service they have done in quelling the insurrection, and they will be ready for better service.

"You will have read in the Gazette of the new insurrection and poor St. Barbe's death. This started in the Ma-oo-bin district. They dacoited the police station at Bo-galay, first killing the sergeant and head constable; then pushed for Pyin-da-yay, on the seashore, looting the village and killing the myo-oke's clerk. They then went over to Bassein, and are now roaring in full cry up the hills ending in Cape Negrais. St. Barbe was shot dead without a chance for a fight. He foolishly left the sepoys on board the tug, and went with

but one policeman and a guide. All three were shot.

"I don't repeat newspaper news, but come to the discussion of the signs of the times. So far from being done with the dacoits, or rebels, the real harvest is scarcely begun. There are several fresh insurrections just ready to break out, and one false step will put the torch to all Burma.

"I don't believe myself a coward or an alarmist, but I am warning Karens everywhere that the fight has not yet begun. Mr. Bernard told me he would arm the Karens in any threatened district if they would volunteer. I can put any number of Karens in the field.

'Every mission has promised me a levy en masse of all the able-bodied men. They all agree to refuse all pay and to fight from pure loyalty to the Queen.

"My fellows don't want to join the police—that is social degradation in Burma - but they are ready to fight for nothing till the ploughing begins. They say they want no man worth less than a thousand rupees in immovable property in the fighting line. They want men with somethng to lose and something to fight for.

"The utter collapse of the police (Burman) is

indescribable. They are afraid for their lives, and dare not arrest bad characters or answer the openly treasonable talk of the blackguards.

"Now there is no Upper Burma to retreat to, these fellows are in a tight fix. It seems hard, but the truth is they must simply be shot down and hunted to the death. The strangest of all is the presence of the poongyees on the battle-field. This is unheard of in history.

"My Karens universally interpret this as God's sign that Buddhism is to be destroyed for ever. They say the challenge of Theebaw could be answered by the English Government, but the challenge of the fighting poongyees can only be taken up fitly by Karens under their own missionaries. Every village now is full of bows and arrows to keep off the dacoits between volleys of the fire-arms. It is really curious to see how the dacoits avoid our Karen Christian villages. They have not tried it on us. The fighting my men have had has been at a distance. The dacoits have several times passed among my villages, but with scarcely any damage, while the Karens have turned out and hunted them well. The eastern insurrection has had all the fight taken out of it. My

* Buddhist priests.

fellows complain that they have to fight with their legs and not their stalwart right arms. The very day of the reception, eight of my fellows came on forty dacoits, and hunted them many a mile, capturing four. They laughingly complained that they had twice too many men, quoting an old warsong, 'Ten to one is only fair play where the one is a Karen.'

"Though this is so still, no one can safely go to the outlying fields or orchards except with armed

men.

"So far from being daunted, I never saw the Karen so anxious for a fight.

"This is just welding the Karens into a nation, not an aggregation of clans. The heathen Karens

to a man are brigading themselves under the Christians. This whole thing is doing good for the Karen. This will put virility into our Christianity."

"Rangoon, May 15, 1886.

"I have been driven to my wits' end to protect my villages. I have been dacoit-hunting literally all the time, and paying my own expenses. Discouragement and officialism have just worn my patience thin. The only comfort I have is that I have succeeded in protecting my villages. You