"If we could be as well treated as the dacoits we could fight; but, while disloyal men get their arms and ammunition good and cheap, we are harassed beyond measure.

"The oppression of the punitive tax on Karens seems to be confined at present to the Tharawaddy district.

'I dare not tell the Karens of the Government letter. They are far too indignant as it is.

"To boil down my huge Karen correspondence, the Karens all over Burma that have heard of the action in Tharawaddy all resent it, and many speak of it as base ingratitude, after all they have done and suffered. All express the gravest apprehensions of Karen defeat from the sore want of ammunition, now scarcer than gold. I shall not blame my people if they supply themselves from the dacoit source of smuggled ammunition. I have fought this source of supply for twenty-five years. I regard the present policy of practically disarming the Karens as far more dangerous than any prince pretender to the throne, and its authors are far more dangerous to the peace of the country than any body of dacoit troops now threatening us. "The minute the troops attack the Bhoda rajah, he will bolt away to the Toungoo hills among

our Karen Christians, like the Mayankhyoung

poongyee.

"He has no other course open to him, for he has eaten all clean before him elsewhere. Then we shall be asked to act as we did with the Mayankhyoung. We can't do it, for we are not a hundredth part as well prepared for it now as we were then.

"Bunker has written to the authorities that the Bghais alone are four hundred guns short of being safe, let alone giving efficient help, as they would gladly do. Worse than all, the few guns they have only invite attack, because of the want of ammunition! Every one of our American missionaries is in the same box. Our Karens say it is an organized attempt to tarnish and snatch away the laurels we earned by last season's brave resistance all over Burma.

"It is a serious question, gravely raised by old and cool-headed Karens, whether it is not really. best to submit to being disarmed in toto, stockading and fighting with our bows alone. Some argue it were better to do even this than to pretend to fight and be forced to give up your guns for want of powder."

The following brief but stirring testimony to the fidelity and valour of the Karens, given in an official report by the Inspector-General of Police in Burma, will prove how well-founded is the faith in his people, which Dr. Vinton so often reiterates in his letters, and how natural and how just is his indignation at the treatment which they seem to have received at the hands of the Government :

"I would also desire to bring to the favourable consideration of Government the splendid work done by the Rev. Mr. Nichols and his Karens. Mr. Nichols himself, at the expense of great personal discomfort, joined one of the pursuing parties, while his Karens acted as scouts and advance

guards to them all. They on more than one occasion attacked the rebels unaided, killing some of them; but I regret having to record that a small party, in their zeal to overtake the rebels in a country unknown to them, were surprised and slaughtered. Out of fifty-five Government arms, which were made over to the Karens who volunteered to assist Government, they returned fifty at the end of their campaign, the remaining five being taken from five of them at the expense of their lives."

These letters from Dr. Vinton need no comment.

They tell a tale which, to say the least of it, does not bode well for the future. Let those who are charged with the government of the country take them to heart. Dr. Vinton's feelings may possibly have been a little embittered by the coldness of the authorities towards his people, and hence, perhaps, the severity of some of his remarks.

But

his facts are clear and plain. It is high time that the British people lent their ear to the plaint of the Karens and redressed the wrong done them by the listlessness and neglect of our own Government. Notwithstanding their noble services in 1852-53, when the British troops were hard pressed, they were left altogether out in the cold, the good work they did was never acknowledged, nothing was done for them. The missionaries alone stood by them, kept them loyal, and have been fighting their battles ever since. The fears which Dr. Vinton expresses in one of the letters which I have quoted above-that what occurred after the war of 1852-53 will occur again now; that, after profiting by the loyalty, devotion, and bravery of the Karens, the British Government will again forget them are likely to be realized unless the English people come to their rescue.

It struck me that I might render the Karens a humble service by describing their origin, customs, and singular character, and by endeavouring to interest my fellow-countrymen in their behalf. Burma is popularly supposed to be peopled by Burmese only. Few, save British officers who have been brought into contact with them, know much about the sturdy little Karen nation, which lies wedged in between the masses of Burmese peopling the mountains and forests. The striking contrast between their high courage and the cowardice of the Burmese in the recent disturbances, their loyalty and devotion to the Queen whom they have been taught to revere, would of themselves have been sufficient reasons for letting their interesting story be widely known. But there is more than this. The Karens are a peculiar people. They cling to their national traditions tenaciously. They remember the long and grievous oppression of their former Burmese rulers. The natural antipathy to the Burmese has been handed down from father to son; and to this day, despite the solvent tendency of British rule, the Karen holds himself entirely aloof from his Burmese fellow-subjects.

But it is in the remarkable religious character

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