WD540(103)

‘Father Abbona.’

PIEDMONTESE priest of the Roman Catholic chapel at Umeerapoora, where he has also established a school in which he proposes teaching English. He appears to be in the confidence of the King; and was frequently a medium of communication with His Majesty on matters connected with the mission. In illustration of the King’s liberality of mind, father Abbona stated that, though a teacher of another faith, he occasionally received royal pecuniary aid in his labours, and that he was convinced that if the King were once brought to believe in the truths of Christianity, he would not hesitate to become a Christian.

To the royal liberality of mind and disposition generally, the Secretary’s Report, and the experience of the whole Mission will bear ample testimony. There was the utmost desire to meet, and indeed to anticipate every requirement of comfort, and to gratify every wish in matters of research or curiosity. Instructions were early sent that there was to be ‘no restraint;’ that the ‘Rock Teacher’ (Professor Oldham) was to explore, and the Artist to sketch, wherever they desired, without waiting to ask permission; and where any disposition to infringe the spirit of this license was manifested, it was equally manifest that it arose not on the part of the King, but in the narrow mind of some timid official who could not span his royal master’s more enlightened views and feelings.

Of His Majesty’s good taste, also, it must be remarked that if no professed admirer of Music, he at least had no such indifference for the sister Art of Painting, for which there appears in the Burman much of that disposition and aptitude which exist in the Chinese. That the King’s permission to delineate the country was not confined to a mere passive desire to gratify the wishes of others, without a feeling of interest in the result, may be inferred from the fact, at a later period, of his sending a very clear intimation through Mr. Camaretta, of, not merely a wish, but, a confident expectation that in return for the opportunity of obtaining these drawings he should be furnished with copies of them. His refusal to sit for his Portrait did not appear to originate in any repugnance to the thing itself on his own part, but partly in deference to the prejudices of others — (‘It is not the custom’ was an early expression of feeling in the matter, ‘to carry away the King’s face,’) — and, in the opinion of the Envoy, principally to the fear that some disrespect might be shewn to, or accidentally befal the picture, which would by reflection, or inference, cast a corresponding dishonour upon the original. This feeling, combined with another singular prejudice, would operate against the establishment of any coinage containing the Royal Portrait; astonishment being entertained and expressed at our want of respect for the Sovereign in cutting off the head from the body, and subjecting the portrait to all the indignities to which a coin must be liable.

The prejudice against any apparent mutilation of the person was amusingly exemplified in the burly Chief Justice, who, on seeing his portrait, which had, in unconscious innocence, been made of three-quarter length, was horror-stricken to find he had no legs! ‘Why, (he remonstratingly pleaded) I am a perfect man; wherefore should I be without feet?’ In vain was all conciliatory explanation by the Envoy, Major Phayre; for, as a final illustration of what was possibly conceived to be an absurdity which our western imaginations were incapable of feeling, the good humoured justice, laughing, urged, — ‘Then I am standing in water!’ It was unnecessary thus to damp the good understanding which existed, and in the copy, therefore, furnished to himself, the Chief Justice’s legs were added and restored to him.