capabilities. That religion may have a very serious
effect one way or the other, no one can doubt. I went through the war of
annexation, from 1885 to 1889, and from it I will draw my examples.

When we declared war in Upper Burma, and the column advanced up the
river in November, 1885, there was hardly any opposition. A little fight
there was at the frontier fort of Minhla, but beyond that nothing. The
river that might have been blocked was open; the earthworks had no
cannon, the men no guns. Such a collapse was never seen. There was no
organization, no material, no money. The men wanted officers to command
and teach them; the officers wanted authority and ability to command.
The people looked to their rulers to repel the invaders; the rulers
looked to the people. There was no common intelligence or will between
them. Everything was wanting; nothing was as it should be. And so
Mandalay fell without a shot, and King Thibaw, the young, incapable,
kind-hearted king, was taken into captivity.

That was the end of the first act, brief and bloodless. For a time the
people were stupefied. They could not understand what had happened;
they could not guess what was going to happen. They expected that the
English would soon retire, and that then their own government would
reorganize itself. Meanwhile they kept quiet.

It is curious to think how peaceful the country really was from
November, 1885, till June, 1886. Then the trouble came. The people had
by that time, even in the wild forest villages, begun to understand that
we wanted to stay, that we did not intend going away unless forced to.
They felt that it was of no further use looking to Mandalay for help. We
had begun, too, to consider about collecting taxes, to interfere with
the simple machinery of local affairs, to show that we meant to govern.
And as the people did not desire to be governed--certainly not by
foreigners, at least--they began to organize resistance. They looked to
their local leaders for help, and, as too often these local governors
were not very capable men, they sought, as all people have done, the
assistance of such men of war as they could find--brigands, and
freelances, and the like--and put themselves under their orders. The
whole country rose, from Bhamo to Minhla, from the Shan Plateau to the
Chin Mountains. All Upper Burma was in a passion of insurrection, a very
fury of rebellion against the usurping foreigners. Our authority was
confined to the