hope that the first day of their acquaintance might he given tip to private friendship, and the consideration of public business deferred until the next meeting. This was assented to, and a desultory conversation then ensued; in the course of which, the Burmese conducted themselves in the most polite and conciliatory manner, enquiring after the latest news from England, the state of the King’s health, and similar topics, and offering to accompany Sir Archibald Campbell to Rangoon, or wherever he might propose.
On the ensuing day, another meeting took place, at which Sir Archibald Campbell, Sir James Brisbane, Brigadier-General Cotton, Captain Alexander, R.N., Brigadier M‘Creagh, Lieutenant-Colonel Tidy, and Captain John James Snodgrass (military secretary and aid-de-camp to Sir Archibald), were the only British officers present; the Kee-Wongee having requested that no more than six chiefs on each side should take part in the discussions.
The principal conditions of peace proposed by Sir Archibald Campbell, were the non-interference of the Court of Ava with the territories of Cachar, Munnipoore, and Assam; the cession of the four provinces of Arracan, and the payment of a certain sum, as an indemnification for the expences of the war; one moiety to be paid immediately, and the Tenasserim provinces to be retained until the liquidation of the other. The Court of Ava was also expected to receive a British resident at the capital, and consent to a commercial treaty, upon principles of liberal intercourse and mutual advantages. In the discussion of these stipulations, it was evident, notwithstanding the moderate tones of the Burman deputies, and their evident desire for the termination of the war, that the Court was not yet reduced to a full sense of its inferiority, nor prepared to make any sacrifice, either territorial or pecuniary, for the restoration of tranquillity. The protection given to fugitives from the Burman territories was urged in excuse for the conduct of the Court, although the actual occurrences of the war was attributed to the malignant designs of evil counsellors, who had misrepresented the real state of things, and suppressed the remonstrances addressed
