nd he was killed. There
were many like him. The whole war was little affairs of this kind--a
hundred, three hundred, of our men, and much the same, or a little more,
of theirs. They only once or twice raised a force of two thousand men.
Nothing can speak more forcibly of their want of organization than this.
The whole country was pervaded by bands of fifty or a hundred men, very
rarely amounting to more than two hundred, never, I think, to five
hundred, armed men, and no two bands ever acted in concert.

It is probable that most of the best men of the country were against
us. It is certain, I think, that of those who openly joined us and
accompanied us in our expedition, very, very few were other than men who
had some private grudge to avenge, or some purpose to gain, by opposing
their own people. Of such as these you cannot expect very much. And yet
there were exceptions--men who showed up all the more brilliantly
because they were exceptions--men whom I shall always honour. There were
two I remember best of all. They are both dead now.

One was the eldest son of the hereditary governor of a part of the
country called Kawlin. It is in the north-west of Upper Burma, and
bordered on a semi-independent state called Wuntho. In the troubles that
occurred after the deposition of King Thibaw, the Prince of Wuntho
thought that he would be able to make for himself an independent
kingdom, and he began by annexing Kawlin. So the governor had to flee,
and with him his sons, and naturally enough they joined our columns when
we advanced in that direction, hoping to be replaced. They were
replaced, the father as governor under the direction of an English
magistrate, and the son as his assistant. They were only kept there by
our troops, and upheld in authority by our power against Wuntho. But
they were desired by many of their own people, and so, perhaps, they
could hardly be called traitors, as many of those who joined us were.
The father was a useless old man, but his son, he of whom I speak, was
brave and honourable, good tempered and courteous, beyond most men whom
I have met. It was well known that he was the real power behind his
father. It was he who assisted us in an attempt to quell the
insurrections and catch the raiders that troubled our peace, and many a
time they tried to kill him, many a time to murder him as he slept.

There was a large gang of insurgents who came across the Mu River one
day, and robbed one of his vil