e Burmese are a great and
increasing power, and have so easily conquered all their neighbours
that they regard themselves as invincible. Until the beginning of
the eighteenth century, the Burmese were masters of Pegu; then the
people of that country, with the help of the Dutch and Portuguese,
threw off their yoke. But the Burmese were not long kept down for,
in 1753, Alompra--a hunter--gathered a force round him and, after
keeping up an irregular warfare for some time, was joined by so
many of his countrymen that he attacked and captured Ava, conquered
the whole of Pegu and, in 1759, the English trading colony at
Negrais were massacred.

"This, however, was not the act of Alompra, but of the treachery of
a Frenchman named Levine, and of an Armenian; who incited the
Burmese of the district to exterminate the English--hoping, no
doubt, thus to retrieve, in a new quarter, the fortunes of France,
which in India were being extinguished by the genius of Clive. The
English were, at the time, far too occupied with the desperate
struggle they were having, in India, to attempt to revenge the
massacre of their countrymen at Negrais.

"Very rapidly the Burman power spread. They captured the valuable
Tenasserim coast, from Siam; repulsed a formidable invasion from
China; annexed Aracan, and dominated Manipur, and thus became
masters of the whole tract of country lying between China and
Hindustan. As they now bordered upon our territory, a mission was
sent in 1794 to them from India, with a proposal for the settlement
of boundaries, and for the arrangement of trade between the two
countries. Nothing came of it, for the Burmese had already
proposed, to themselves, the conquest of India; and considered the
mission as a proof of the terror that their advance had inspired
among us.

"After the conquest by them of Aracan, in 1784, there had been a
constant irritation felt against us by the Burmese; owing to the
fact that a great number of fugitives from that country had taken
refuge in the swamps and islands of Chittagong; from which they,
from time to time, issued and made raids against the Burmese. In
1811 these fugitives, in alliance with some predatory chiefs,
invaded Aracan in force and, being joined by the subject population
there, expelled the Burmese. These, however, soon reconquered the
province. The affair was, nevertheless, unfortunate, since the
Burmese naturally considered that, as the insurrection had begun
with an inv