, I throw two or three
on board when they get within ten yards; and that has always
finished the matter. They don't understand the things bursting in
the middle of them. I don't mean to say that my armament would be
of much use, if we were trading along the coast of the Malay
Peninsula or among the Islands, but it is quite enough to deal with
the petty robbers of these rivers."

"But I thought that you had a boat that you went up the rivers in,
uncle?"

"Yes; we tow a rowboat and a store boat up, behind this craft, as
far as she can go; that is, as long as she has wind enough to make
against the sluggish stream. When she can go no further, I take to
the rowboat. It has eight rowers, carries a gun--it is a
twelve-pounder howitzer--that I have had cut short, so that it is
only about a foot long. Of course it won't carry far, but that is
not necessary. Its charge is a pound of powder and a ten-pound bag
of bullets and, at a couple of hundred yards, the balls scatter
enough to sweep two or three canoes coming abreast and, as we can
charge and fire the little thing three times in a minute, it is all
that we require, for practical purposes.

"It is only on a few of the rivers we go up that there is any fear
of trouble. On the river from Sylhet to the east and its branches
in Kathee or, as it is sometimes called, Kasi, the country is
comparatively settled. The Goomtee beyond Oudypore is well enough,
until it gets into Kaayn, which is what they call independent. That
is to say, it owns no authority; and some villages are peaceable
and well disposed, while others are savage. The same may be said of
the Munnoo and Fenny rivers.

"For the last two years I have done a good deal of trade in Assam,
up the Brahmaputra river. As far as Rungpoor there are a great many
villages on the banks, and the people are quiet and peaceable."

"Then you don't go further south than Chittagong, uncle?"

"No. The Burmese hold Aracan on the south and, indeed, for some
distance north of it there is no very clearly-defined border. You
see, the great river runs from Rangoon very nearly due north,
though with a little east in it; and extends along at the back of
the districts I trade with; so that the Burmese are not very far
from Manipur which, indeed, stands on a branch of the Irrawaddy, of
which another branch runs nearly up to Rungpoor.

"We shall have big trouble with them, one of these days; indeed, we
have had troubles already. You see, th