ld do. They treat them as an inferior order of beings. They
often sell them.

A very singular custom prevails in that country. It consists in paying a
kind of homage to a white elephant. This elephant is sumptuously dressed
and fed. It is provided with officers, like a second sovereign, and is
made to receive presents from foreign ambassadors. It is next in rank to
the king, and _superior_ to the queen.

Burmah is the country in which Drs. Judson and Price, and Messrs. Hough
and Wade suffered so much, during the war with England several years
ago. Messrs. Hough and Wade were the first to suffer. As the ships which
were to make the attack upon Rangoon approached the city, they were
seized and cast into prison. Their legs were bound together with ropes,
and eight or ten Burmans, armed with spears and battle-axes, were
placed over them, as a guard. They were afterwards put in irons. The
next morning, as the fleet approached still nearer the city, orders were
sent to the guard, through the grates of their prison, that the instant
the shipping should fire upon the town, they were to kill them, together
with the other prisoners confined with them. The guard, on receiving
these orders, began to sharpen the instruments with which they intended
to kill them, and moved them about their heads to show with how much
skill and pleasure they would attend to their orders. Upon the floor
where they intended to butcher them, a large quantity of sand was spread
to receive the blood. The gloom and silence of death reigned among the
prisoners; the vast ocean of eternity seemed but a step before them. At
length the fleet arrived, and the firing commenced The first ball which
was thrown into the town passed, with a tremendous noise, directly over
their heads. This so frightened the guard, that they seemed unable to
execute their murderous orders. They shrunk away into one corner of the
prison, where they remained quiet, until a broadside from one of the
ships made the prison shake and tremble to its very foundation. This so
alarmed them, that they burst open the doors of the prison and fled. The
missionaries, with the other prisoners, were then left alone. Their
danger, however, was not at an end; but as God had protected them thus
far, he continued to protect them until they were set at liberty, and
allowed to preach the Gospel again to those perishing heathen. Drs.
Judson and Price were also imprisoned, and suffered much; but they, too,
we