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may judge of the encouragement our Karens have received by the fact that three Karens have been arrested for murder, and two actually tried. Their only crime was that they had bravely defended themselves and villages when attacked. The cowardly and disloyal Burmese police have not pulled a trigger, but they do their best to discourage the only loyal and brave men in the province.

"Two separate insurrections burst on us at once. The one at Shway Gyin was purely Shan. It was headed by the Mayankhyoung and Kyouk-kalat poongyees. The Buddhist priests have headed everywhere, and actually fought themselves—a thing unprecedented in history.

They cut the locks in the Shway Gyin canal, and attacked Shway Gyin in force. After their defeat they took up a strong position in the hills, and easily defeated Major Robinson's detachment.

They were at first far too strong to be attacked by the Karens in their head-quarters. The Karens, therefore, confined themselves to cutting off their foraging-parties. They had, of course, few guns, and the Government would give them none, and so they set to dacoiting the rebels, and arming themselves with captured guns. At last, the position of

the dacoits became untenable, and they were forced by hunger and the cutting off of their foragers to move on Papoon. Here they were met by the splendid Karen police of the Salween hill tracts, and the whole Karen population of the district. They were soundly beaten everywhere. Quarter was neither given, received, nor expected, for the Karens were furious, and fought like Malays running amuck. The rebels were evidently trying to get across into Mineloongyee. The Karen foresters represented to the chiefs in Siam that the timber revenue must at once cease if the rebels got across, and so the despairing Mayankhyoung poongyee found the river Salween lined with fighting men wherever he tried to cross a party. Then he tried to cross to the northward into Karennee, but was cut up by the Karens on his flanks. Hunger forced foraging-parties, and the foraging-parties were invariably attacked.

"Several poongyees' heads were brought in, and all of course claimed as that of the five-thousandrupee Mayankhyoung poongyee.

"I got news, however, that he had been seen crossing the hills to Toungoo. I, of course, warned our missionaries there, and advised that the poongyee be captured alive, for I knew that unless.

we had positive convincing proof the Government would never give the reward to the Karens.

"The rebels burst like a torrent on our poor Christian villages. The fighting was hard everywhere. I can note but one case. The village of Tha-ay-kee was attacked on Sunday, while the people were all assembled at the service in the chapel.

"The Karens had no arms, but still the dacoits dare not attack them in the chapel, but merely surrounded them, while a few looted the village.

"The moment the dacoits left, the whole village rushed out and picked up the few guns they had hidden in the bushes while they went to church, and pushed off in pursuit, picking up recruits from the neighbouring villages.

"They fell into an ambush, and their pastor and several of their party were shot dead. Though outnumbered three to one, the Karens rallied, and, infuriated by the death of their pastor, they flew at the dacoits and dispersed them with great slaughter. Finally, the whole rebellion was surrounded in the Kaw-me-kho valley, near the foot of the great range east of Toungoo.

"The Karens had few guns in their hands, but mostly used spears, shields, and bows. The next

day was Sunday. After a lot of trouble I got fifty smooth-bores from Mr. Bernard. These were sent up Monday, and Monday night the guns were handed over to the Karens. In thirty-six hours. they were on the field, and on Friday the Mayankhyoung poongyee was taken.

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'The fighting was heavy and bloody on the side of the dacoits. Hunger had made them desperate, and so they fought for their lives. The Mayankhyoung was captured by a woman, who clutched him till the nearest picket could come in.

"The fight there was specially noticeable, because every Karen clan, except the Pghos, were in arms that day. The Pghos are not found on the Toungoo hills. Even the Brecs, our most physically insignificant tribe, sent a detachment from three days' march away, though they lived out of British territory. The tribes that once were constantly fighting each other, now stood side by side. From a loose aggregation of clans we shall weld them into a nation yet.

"There was the greatest reluctance to admit our claim to the five thousand rupees reward for the Mayankhyoung poongyee. Our proofs were, however, so overwhelming, that reluctantly the five thousand were awarded to the despised Karens.

"In no district have the rebels made head among the Karen Christians. The Burman insurrection that killed St. Barbe started right by my villages. I could have stamped the whole thing out with fifty Karens, but I had to watch it all come to a head and burst. All I could do was to pour in guns into my villages in the vicinity, while the dacoits were being tattooed and enrolled. The rebels tried every Christian Karen village in the vicinity, but, finding the Karens armed and alert, marched on. Our fellows dare not attack, for they would have been tried for murder, and so the rebels swept on, and armed themselves with police muskets and ammunition, and poor St. Barbe was sacrificed.

"When they got among the Bassein Karens, they were promptly hunted out. With the exception of the Shway Gyin insurrection, the rebels seem to be mostly up-country Burmans, who have been down here (in Lower Burma) for several years. Of course, they are joined by all the professional bad characters.

"The dacoits have succeeded in burning but one small outlying village of mine, but they met with such a fierce attack that that band has not been heard of since.

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