Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 8.djvu/242

BURMAN.—GROUP OF BURMESE. the head being Daya Polynesian, or Turanian oval. The head varies greatly, and the coarser forms show a tendency to the Binas contraction of the forehead, rendering the lateral expansion of the forehead very marked. The normal or now Indianized Burman head appears in many respects to resemble the coarse Surnatran, Javan, Borneon, and Polynesian. The softened Turanian type is decidedly allied to the oblong, square, and oval Chinese type, and not to the ovoid and orbicular type of the Tibetian, some of the Himalayan, Gangetic, the Assam, and the Celebesian tribe. The Burmans on the west often resemble the handsome Asianesian tribes found in Borneo, some parts of East Indonesia, and Polynesia. Burmans and Malays are somewhat stouter than the Siamese, the average height being probably about five feet two inches.

"As in all Buddhist countries, women are more nearly the companions, and not the slaves of the men; but the Tibets Burmans, and the cognate Indonesian tribes permit great license to both sexes prior to marriage, when chastity is not required."—Balfour.

The Burmans, relying on their local power and ability to bring large numbers of men into the field, commenced in the year 1822–23 a series of raids and forage into Arracan, threatening Chittagong, and even attempting to cross the frontier, with a view to attacking Calcutta; and as remonstrance proved of no avail, war was formally declared against the Burmese kingdom on February 24, 1824. Rangoon, at the mouth of the Irawady, was the first point of attack, and was occupied; but advance was for some time delayed, from ignorance of the country, and the monsoon, which lasted for months, rendering such roads as there were impassable. When, however, the rainy season passed, the English troops advanced with success, defeating the Burmese army, and ascending the river as far as Yanaaboo, about sixty miles from the capital. Here articles of peace were concluded, and the king ceded to the British the whole of his possessions in Assam, Arracan, with the province of Tennaserim, the capital of which, Martaban, had been previously occupied by a detached force from Rangoon. One million sterling was also to be paid for the expenses of the war, and an English envoy, to be attached to the Burmese court at Ava.

This peace, however, had little effect on the haughty character of the Burmese, and its commercial provisions were so frequently infringed, that remonstrances were made by Lord Dalhousie, then Governor-General of India, which, having no effect, a second war was declared; and on April 2nd, 1852, a fleet of nineteen steamers, carrying 2,270 seamen and marines, arrived at Rangoon, the land force consisting of 6,000 men under Colonel Godwin. The force was subsequently increased to 20,000 men, after the Governor-General's visit to the scene of operations; and the army advanced to Prome, which was found undefended. The steam flotillas, of which the Burmese were in great terror, had