hnson, at Ramgur, for the next herd that is to
come down here; and have orders from my agent on their agents, at
Dalla, for those that I am going to buy for the Manipur column. So
I don't want the money now and, suppose the dhow were to be lost
going up, the cash might go with it. So, do you get the order. You
had better send it straight to Bothron; and tell him to collect it,
and credit it to my account.

"How long do you think that this business is going to last?"

"It depends how far we have to go before the Burmese decide that
they have had enough of it. At present, the general hope is that,
as soon as we arrive at Prome, they will give in. If they don't we
may have to go up to Ava and, in that case, we may not finish it
until this time next year; for I suppose operations will have to
come to a stop, when the wet season begins again, and we could
hardly reach Ava before that."

"I expect, some day, we shall have to take the whole country,
Stanley. You may frighten the court into submission, when you
approach the capital; but I fancy they will never keep to the terms
that we shall insist upon, and that there will have to be another
expedition. That is generally our way--it was so at Mysore, it has
been so in a dozen other places. When we have done all the work,
and have got them at our mercy, we give them comparatively easy
terms. As soon as they recover from the effects of their defeat,
they set to work again to prepare for another tussle; and then we
have all the expense and loss of life to incur, again, and then end
by annexing their territory, which we might just as well have done
in the first place. It may be all very well to be lenient, when one
is dealing with a European enemy; but magnanimity does not pay when
you have to do with Orientals, who don't care a rap for treaty
engagements, and who always regard concessions as being simply a
proof of weakness.

"There would not be half the difficulty in annexing Burma that
there would be, in the case of a large province in India; for all
the towns, and most even of their villages, lie on rivers, and a
couple of dozen gunboats would suffice to keep the whole country in
order. You will see that that is what we shall have to do, some
day; but it will cost us two or three expeditions to do what might
just as well be done, now."

"Well, uncle, it is nearly twelve o'clock and, as I shall be on
duty at six, I think I had better be going. I wish that you could
have