Page:The Marquess of Dalhousie.djvu/52

44 proceeding to the newly conquered provinces, he visited and examined the Burmese territories which had been under our rule during twenty-seven years. He sailed along the coast of Arakan, inspecting the ports and administrative centres, from Chittagong to Akyab and Kyuk-phyu. From that visit many local improvements, and indeed the great modern commerce of Arakan date. But it was not in the improvement of our older Burmese territories that Lord Dalhousie's visit proved most fruitful. He returned to Calcutta with the beginning of the scheme which, during the following summer, he worked up into a complete frame-work of government for British Burma. He united the isolated coast strip that had been conquered in 1826, with the valley of the Irawadi, henceforth the main sphere of British influence, by a military road hewn through the Yoma Mountains.

In December of the same year, 1853, he again sailed for Burma, but this time to the capital of his new southern conquests, with a carefully matured scheme for the administration, which he had elaborated during the interval. On the present occasion he made a thorough inspection of the Irawadi valley to the extreme boundary of our dominions, marched along their frontier, and then, sweeping down again to the coast, visited Bassein, and examined the possible new outlets of commerce.

This visit lasted to the beginning of 1854.