cut off? Such were the exclamations
constantly heard in the streets of Ava. The common people were speaking
_low_ of a rebellion, in case more troops should be levied. For as yet
the common people had borne the weight of the war, not a tickal had been
taken from the royal treasury. At length the Pakan Woon, who a few
months before had been so far disgraced by the king as to be thrown into
prison and irons, now offered himself to head a new army that should be
raised on a different plan from those which had been hitherto raised;
and assured the king in the most confident manner, that he would conquer
the English, and restore those places that had been taken, in a very
short time. He proposed that every soldier should receive a hundred
tickals in advance, and he would obtain security for each man, as the
money was to pass through his hands. It was afterwards found that he had
taken, for his own use, ten tickals from every hundred. He was a man of
enterprise and talents, though a violent enemy to all foreigners. His
offers were accepted by the king and government, and all power
immediately committed to him. One of the first exercises of his power
was, to arrest Lansago and the Portuguese priest, who had hitherto
remained unmolested, and cast them into prison, and to subject the
native Portuguese and Bengalees to the most menial occupations. The
whole town was in alarm, lest they should feel the effects of his power;
and it was owing to the malignant representations of this man, that the
white prisoners suffered such a change in their circumstances, as I
shall soon relate.

"After continuing in the inner prison for more than a month, your
brother was taken with a fever. I felt assured he would not live long,
unless removed from that noisome place. To effect this, and in order to
be near the prison, I removed from our house and put up a small bamboo
room in the governor's enclosure, which was nearly opposite the prison
gate. Here I incessantly begged the governor to give me an order to take
Mr. J. out of the large prison, and place him in a more comfortable
situation; and the old man, being worn out with my entreaties, at length
gave me the order in an official form; and also gave orders to the head
jailer, to allow me to go in and out, all times of the day, to
administer medicines, &c. I now felt happy indeed, and had Mr. J.
instantly removed into a little bamboo hovel, so low, that neither of us
could stand upright--but a