GOUGER ' S " PERSONAL NARRATTPE. "
Mn. HENRY GOUGER has written with vigorous and appropriate diction an account of his adventures and misadventures in Bur- mall in 1824-26. Connecting with the primary object of recruit- ing his health, the subsidiary one of exploring the commercial capabilities of Amerapoorah and the regions beyond, he sailed for Rangoon in the Alfred, at the end of June 1822; and, after a short stay at that city, proceeded up the Irrawaddi, to his original des- tination. At Araerapoorah, he found the population in a state of transition, in consequence of the king's resolution to remove the royal residence to the site of the ancient city of Ave. Admitted to an audience, Mr. Gouger discovered his small "Mogul" seated cross-legged in a gilded arm-chatr, in a temporary palace of bam- boo and thatch, surmounted with a gilt umbrella. After certain preliminaries, he succeeded in acquiring the favour of the Court ; and entering into Native society, had a magnificent visiting list, kings, princes, and nobles being glad when he called on them.
With these "West End" advantages, Mr. Gouger had abun- dant opportunities for prosecuting the proper study of mankind in Burmah. He became conversant with the state of society and its secret workings. He attended the great Council of State. He ascertained that bribery is the mainspring by which all manner of business is moved throughout the country ; that the best cause is lost unless the Judge is primed, and that no power of any sort can be obtained without it. Adopting the national custom with reservations, Mr. Gouger became in time as expert a briber as the rest.
The restrictive principle was then in full force in Burmah. Silk was not to be exported ; rice was not to be exported ; the precious metals were guarded jealously ; rabies and sapphires were under embargo ; ponies were reserved for the Burmese alone ; and marble was sacredly set apart for the manufacture of idols. Opening his batteries against the strongholds of prohibi- tion by sending balls of gold and silver into the bribable " Men- thagees and Woongeee," our courageous adventurer soon de- molished the outworks. The success, however, which he antici- pated, was not destined to reward his enterprising spirit.
Mr. Gouger had now resided two or three months at Ave, and the year 1823 had nearly closed, when symptoms of an unfriendly feeling towards the British Government became apparent. "The immediate subject of dispute was the alleged protection afforded by the British to four or five men who had incurred the displea- sure of the king, and who had sought an asylum on British ground." Another cause of dispute was a boundary question. A claim had been made to territory in Bengal as a dependency of Arraean, as far back as 1818. It had been suffered to lie dor- mant by the Burmese, during their aggressive war with neauer neighbours ; but, finding their attempts on Siam unavailing, they now began to turn their attention to the Honourable East India Company. Early in the year 1824, the Bundoolas' army advanced to the frontier, to support this arrogant claim to a portion of Ben- gal. In May, a British fleet arrived at Rangoon ; the town was bombarded and taken, and thus a sanguinary war broke out. Shortly after this, Mr. Gouger's sufferings began. Accused of being a spy, he was carried to the death-prison, stripped, and loaded with three pairs of fetters. We cannot give the details of the punishments, the tortures, and the privations of the den of cruelty in which he and his companions in tribulation were de- tained. The narrative which Mr. Gouger gives us of all that he underwent and witnessed is worth the time that it will take to read it. On the 16th of February, 1826, our merchant adven- turer escaped from his prison, and in due time arrived at the British camp. Not long afterwards, a treaty of peace was signed, on which occasion Mr. Gouger, by his well-timed monetary ex- planation, saved the Government 70,000/. For the property of which he had been himself despoiled, or which had been de- stroyed, he received little or no indemnification. At the sugges- tion of Sir Archibald Campbell, Mr. Gouger next offered his ser- vices to the Government, and was appointed police magistrate for the Pegn district during the stipulated period of the British re- tention of Rangoon and the eireumjacent territory. On the 9th of December, 1826, "the sovereignty of Henzawudda reverted to its Burmese rulers." Mr. Gouger then proceeded to Amherst, where he remained for more than a year, leading the monotonous life of a Government functionary. On the failure of that settle- ment, he resigned his appointment, and returned to the busy mer- cantile world.
The volume which records his fortunes is really meritorious in its way. There are many graphic descriptions in it ; and the anecdotes scattered through it are amusing. The story of the interpreter at the court of the Burmese king, a kind of English outlaw, whose name, .Rodgers, was pronounced Yadza, as the near- est practicable approach to the original, is in itself an adventure ; and Mr. Gouger's own haps and mishaps are a romance in real life such as we do not meet with every day.
We conclude this notice with an anecdote related by the un- fortunate Mr. Rodgers to his countryman, while at Ave, which illustrates the character of the old king, a man who was by turns a ingot and a heretic ; "at one time time slaying his subjects be- cause they were not orthodox Buddhists ; at another, unfrocking
• A Personal Narrative of Tiro Years' Imprisonment in Burma, 1824-6. By limy Gouger. With Illustrations. Published by John Murray. their priests and confiscating their monasteries with as little re- morse as our own Bluff King "Atone period when the heretical mood was in the ascendant, his Ma- jesty was troubled in mind while in search of the true religion, which he had the sagacity to see that Buddhism was sot. "Once launched on the ocean of speculation, the currents drifted the un- easy monarch hither and thither, until at last they set him on the shoal of Mahomedanism. His Majesty bit upon a very cunous method of taking the soundings of this faith, in order to ascertain whether there was good hold- ing ground at the bottom. He was told that they abhorred pork, and would not eat it. Very right, too,' said his Majesty, your Sheen Gautama tried to eat it, and you know it killed him,' 'True, your Majesty, was the re- ply,' but our religion does not prevent our following his example if we like ; whereas with them it is a matter of their faith; they would rather die than pollute themselves with it. The cunning thought now palmed through the monarch's mind, that if they would rather die than taste a bit of pork, there must be some virtue at the root of their faith. We will try.' "Now, there many Ilahomedans residing in Ara, some of them foreign- ers, others native-born subjects of the king. Of these he commanded several of the most considerable to assemble at his palace, where, to their consternation, the flesh of the bated animal was placed ready-cooked before them, and they were commanded without further ceremony to fall to at once Who does not picture to himself the countenance of a solemn Moslem with his hand on his flowing beard, cursing the savoury spare rib as . . . . he gapes to receive the unholy morsel ? The look of despair—the ill-concealed rage—the mutual recognizing glances of the chief actors, as much as to say, We are all in the same boat—don't tell of me, and I won't tell of you.' The scene must have been unique of its kind."
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