Page:Lord Amherst and the British Advance Eastwards to Burma.djvu/78

 troubles arose. The Burmese monarch of the day had sent an army through a defile of the mountain barrier, had conquered Arakan and extinguished the glories of that ancient kingdom. To make intelligible what would otherwise appear to be the preposterous claims advanced a quarter of a century later, it is necessary to remember that the authority of the Arakanese monarchy, while it flourished, had extended as far as Dacca, so that a precedent could be cited for the pretensions of the Burmese sovereign to exercise lordship in Bengal. But Arakan did not accept the rule of the stranger with docility. A sentiment that deserves to be called national animated the bulk of the people, and the oppression of the Governor to whom the management of the province was entrusted converted ill-will into active disaffection. The Náf estuary was the boundary between Arakan and the British district of Chittagong, and over it passed band after band of emigrants from the south. Some of these established themselves in the wild tracts near the frontier and thence made incursions into the land that had been their home. It may be assumed that the Burmese had a perfectly genuine contempt for the resources of the East India Company, but when the leader of a Burmese force came into British territory in pursuit of a band of these marauders he preferred a comparatively modest claim for the surrender of the fugitives. Still to leave no doubt of the firmness of his determination he established himself in a stockaded camp. Sir John Shore was not easily moved to