WD540(33)

‘Umeerapoora, from the long wooden Bridge, crossing the Lake Toung-ummah.’

THIS distant, flat, and very meagre view of the capital, or of its margin, is obtained from the long wooden bridge which crosses the lake ‘Toung-ah-mah’, lying eastward, or in rear of the city. The rustic but strongly built bridge, here referred to, which is full three-quarters of a mile in length, was the freewill work of a Mohummudan native of Umeerapoora, by name Moung Byee Sahib, — one of the Myowoons, or Governors, of the royal city, who by reason of his extreme villainies and brutality, was, during the last reign, put to a cruel death. It is said that he had the full countenance of the late King in his guilt, but that his enormities at length exceeding bounds, it became necessary to remove him. ‘(See Report, page 192).’

The spire of the King’s palace is seen in the centre distance, and that of the great temple ‘Patway-dau-gee’ towers on the left.

The Residency erected for the Mission was situated on the margin of the lake, a little beyond and in rear of the trees on the right. The road to and from the city, during the rainy season, or time of the inundations, lays exclusively over this bridge, making the journey into the town between three and four miles. On the innudations subsiding, an old dilapidated, and hitherto submerged bridge of bricks, at the northern end of the lake, began to make its appearance, and in a short time afforded a rough and very muddy passage over to the north-east corner of the City. It was over the former, the wooden bridge, that, on the morning of the deputation, the Irregular Cavalry escort, and the horses intended as presents for the King, passed; when two of the latter taking fright, or a freak, fell or leaped into the lake, and had to swim to the opposite side; and it was on this occasion that a second specimen of Burman judicial promptitude was presented to the Mission. The Officer, whose duty it had been to see to the state of the bridge and its fences, being instantly seized by the knot of his hair, was dragged, running, along the bridge to the shore, and there flogged with rattans!

The figures represented on the bridge, drawn from life, of people about the Residency, may perhaps serve, in some degree, to illustrate the greater freedom of figure, of manner, gait, or carriage, which is observable in these light-hearted, active, frolic-loving people, than in the generality of the natives of Bengal, or southern India.