AFTER THE REVOLUTION OF 1767.
After the departure of the Burmese army from the kingdom they had just
conquered, the Siamese who had been scattered and had been wandering
in the forests returned to their capital.
Stirred by thoughts of revenge for what they had suffered, they made
ravages every where. Every Burman that they could discover was slain.
But the blood of their oppressors was of no avail as a remedy against
the famine with which the country was smitten.
The price of rice had risen to such an extent that it had ceased to
become a marketable commodity. Wild roots and bamboo shoots were the
staple articles of diet, and many were attacked by a peculiar disease.
The sufferers lost their memory and power of speech, and became mad
with lucid intervals, which augmented the horror of their condition.
Necessity that knows no law obliged them to violate all conventions.
They took up arms against their gods whom they accused of having
betrayed them. The pagodas were plundered and the images destroyed in
order to get at the silver inside them. These acts of sacrilege gave
them command of that was useless wealth as they could not purchase
anything with it. Five earthenware jars full of gold and silver were
taken from one temple alone. The roof of one of the most temples
supplied gold, sufficient to fill three boats.
The superstitious Siamese made loud outcries at the scandal of the
theft which brought into circulation all the gold and silver that the
Burmese their conquerors had taken away. It is not astonishing that so
much wealth was forthcoming; since devout persons, in consequence of
their belief in transmigration, had buried their treasures in the
images of their gods, trusting to discover it in a future state of
existence.
The Siamese, although united by desire of revenge, were split into
factions for the leadership.
The eyes of the nation were fixed upon Phya Tak, a Siamese officer,
born of a Chinese mother. A politician and a warrior, he paved his way
to power by affecting its disdain. He was elected to the leadership by
the unanimous voice of the whole nation. At first he took the
unpretentious title of "Defender of the Nation," and, disguising his
ambitions under the cloak of moderation, he wished to appear merely as
a citizen in order to be King in reality.
Having attained to the supreme power, it was his policy to contract
alliances, as he was sure that the hearts of the nation were apt to
pass rapidly from love to hatred. He had learned by experience that
the priests, in the abuse of their power over the unlettered mob, were
wont to foment sedition and to influence popular feeling. He conceived
a violent dislike to them which he took no pains to conceal, and
considered that the respect they enjoyed was a slight on his
authority. He therefore wished for the extermination of these
individuals who, poor by profession, enjoyed the fruits of the labour
of others without doing anything in return.
A high-priest who was greatly revered, was accused of incontinence.
Phya Tak summoned him before his tribunal and condemned him to trial
by fire. The soles of his feet were burned by the glowing charcoal,
and that was sufficient proof of his guilt. He would have been
sentenced to death had not powerful friends obtained his pardon on the
grounds that his death would cause a scandal, and that if their
servants were done away with the gods would lose their prestige.
Phya Tak raised all those who had been his partisans to the highest
positions in the State.
A foe to the Burmese, he inflicted severe punishment on those who
favoured them and who stirred up rebellions in the kingdom.
In 1769 he showed his generous spirit towards his countrymen. The
drought had caused a great famine, one of the usual events a war
brings in its train. Work was suspended and the farmers could do but
little.
Destructive rodents had devoured the rice as soon as it had reached
maturity, seeds had been destroyed in the earth. They were unable to
procure the "ignam" a species of truffle or potatoe of such size that
a single one is sufficient for one man. Swarms of insects, attracted
by the corpses, darkened the air and waged a ceaseless war against the
living.
Under these unhappy conditions Phya Tak showed his generous spirit.
The needy were destitute no longer. The public treasury was opened for
the relief. In return for cash, foreigners supplied them with the
products that the soil of the country had refused. The Usurper
justified his claims by his benevolence. Abuses were reformed, the
safety of property and persons was restored, but the greatest severity
was shown to malefactors. Legal enactments at which no one complained
were substituted for the arbitrary power that sooner or later is the
cause of rebellions. By the assurance of public peace he was able to
consolidate his position and no one who shared in the general
prosperity could lay claim to the throne.
At the end of 1768 a bastard Prince who had been exiled to Ceylon,
reassembled his supporters and set up his authority in various parts
of the country. Phya Tak led an expedition against him and gained a
brilliant victory. The Prince fell into the hands of the conqueror who
ordered his execution as, a punishment for having proved the weaker
party.
In the same year he led an army against Porcelon and Ligor, two towns
which had not fallen under the Burmese rule. The governors of these
towns, taking advantage of the troubled state of the country, had set
themselves up as independent rulers. Thus it was that the Empire,
delivered from a foreign yoke was harassed by domestic tyrants who
attempted to destroy all that the enemy had spared; in fact the whole
kingdom was in a state of turmoil.
It is not known whether the expedition was successful. It was reported
but not confirmed that the two towns were captured.
At the first news of the Siamese revolt the King of Burma sent orders
to the governor of Tavoy to overrun the country again, and to press
the inhabitants of the town into his army to effect the entire ruin of
the country.
These people, outwardly subservient, had disguised their hatred
against their recent oppressors. The general took only a few Burmese
with him as he had put his trust in the Siamese whom he imagined were
reliable. He soon found out his mistake, for, on sending them against
the town of Beancham which they captured, they closed the gates
against him and swore they had taken up arms only to use them against
their oppressors. They opened fire upon those who had regarded them as
comrades in arms.
The general, betrayed by his untrustworthy allies, if it is possible
to apply this appellation to the avengers of their country's wrongs,
found himself surrounded by enemies.
The very countryside turned against him and refused to supply his
wants as the Burmese had destroyed all the fruit trees. The beasts of
burden, finding no fodder in the plains, had strayed to find pasturage
elsewhere.
At length the army was reduced to rations sufficient for three days
only. It would have been folly rather than heroism to advance further.
The general considered that his duty lay in the preservation of the
lives of those committed to his care. A retreat was made, which was by
no means a disgrace, as it was caused by dire necessity.
On his arrival at Tavoy he informed his master that his expedition had
been a failure owing to the defection of his troops.
The King of Ava, smarting under the humiliation of defeat in a land
that had been the scene of his triumphs, determined on taking
vengeance with the utmost severity. But while preparations were being
made for another expedition that he had intended to lead in person,
his plans were altered owing to complications with China which had
arisen as follows.
After the Burmese had laid waste the kingdoms of Pegu, Siam and
Aracan, they had invaded Laos and Cassaye, (the latter being part of
Bengal), rather as dacoits than as conquerors. They changed these
happy and populous lands into arid deserts and gloried in the
spoliation of what might have been preserved. The ease with which
their early conquests had been effected had caused them to turn their
arms against China, which offered a richer prey to their greed. They
had no grounds for hostilities whatever, but those whose creed is
'Might makes Right,' are always ready to transgress all laws to obtain
their desires. The Burmese declared war on the Chinese on the pretext
of taking vengeance on a small nation whom they called barbarians and
who were less powerful than they. This obscure race was perfectly
contented to live as best it might in the forests that lay between Ava
and China. This savage tribe whose sole asset was its independence,
seemed never, owing to the fact of its poverty, to have been a prize
for the ambition of a conqueror.
The Kings of Ava had always stood as its protectors and in return
exacted a small tribute. But the Cassians, poor and proud, seeing all
the neighbouring kingdoms agitated by home and foreign wars, wished to
dispense with having to pay a tribute which was more humiliating than
burdensome as it was an indication of their dependent position. In
1749 they had declared that they no longer needed protection, that
their forest, were their ramparts and that their courage had taught
them daring to fear nothing. For some time they enjoyed their
independence, but when the Kingdom of Ava regained its pristine
glories, they found that the Burmese harassed them without
intermission, and their lands, that hardly gave them a bare means of
livelihood, were laid waste by repeated frays. To escape the
domination of Burma, they besought help from their neighbour, the
Emperor of China, who alone could protect them, and to whom their
defence was a matter of importance as they formed the only barrier
between his territories and the barbarians.
While the hosts of the Burmese were overrunning the Kingdom of Siam,
another swarm of these savages was let loose in the Chinese provinces.
They captured several important positions without meeting any serious
opposition and the inhabitants were put to the sword. It is not a
matter for surprise that their conquests were so readily accomplished.
The Chinese are wont to conquer their neighbours by diplomacy rather
than by the force of arms. They make use of their superior skill to
subdue them by artful promises. The art of war is yet in its infancy
among the Chinese who are cunning diplomats, but cowardly soldiers.
They are skilful in the art of smelting metals and have plenty of
artillery, but they are hopelessly ignorant of its proper use in
warfare. Their chief weapons are but swords, lances and arrows, and
their knowledge of military tactics is lamentably weak.
The Burmese captured a vast booty. They disposed of the wealth of a
country whose inhabitants are renowned for their ability in
agriculture and commerce.
Their manufactures and products have attracted the trade of all
nations. The natural fertility of the soil of the country has been
greatly increased by the toil of the cultivators.
The mountains, which in most countries of the world appear to be
barren, produce abundant harvests in this favoured land. The Burmese
invasion was a cause of other troubles to the country. Many of the
Chinese adopted the customs of the barbarians and became brigands. The
roads were infested with thieves and murderers both of home and
foreign origin who fearlessly plundered unwary travellers.
At the reports of these disasters, the governor of Canton raised a
force for the deliverance of the country from so terrible a scourge.
But on receipt of the news of his march, the Burmese returned home to
dispose of their plunder and to seek for reinforcements.
Shortly after this, the Chinese gained a slight success near the
river, but the victory was followed by a crushing defeat, their land
force was cut to pieces and 100,000 men were taken prisoners to Ava
whence they were apportioned to hard labour in the various provinces.
The Chinese force must have been very considerable, as the bulk of the
men fled. It is surprising that the Viceroy of a single province could
have raised so large a host, but it is no longer a matter of wonder
when we remember that the country has a higher birthrate than any
other, and that perhaps the Chinese are the only nation where a system
of absolute government is not an obstacle to the increase of the
population.
The defeat of the Chinese was easy to repair; the Emperor assembled an
army of 500,000 men who were to overrun the country of their foes. The
King of Ava, too weak to oppose any resistance, mustered all the
available troops from every province to the capital.
The inhabitants of the lands bordering on Chinese territory abandoned
their possessions and the country became a desert, laid waste by its
inhabitants who wished to deprive the enemy of all means of
sustenance. In the beginning of 1769 we had no reliable information of
the movements of the enemy who were unable to march on Ava owing to
fatigue and scarcity, and we have only had news up to October of this
year 1771.