Herald of the times, and Rhode Islander. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1846-1849, 1847-07-15
From Burmah,
Letter from " Fanny Forester, Mr.
VIZ yudsOn.
To the Editors ofMe Christian Reflector :.
RANGooN, March 3, 1917.

10 The Editors Of the Christian Reflector
MEssRs. EDIToRs-Our first package of A.
nerican papers has just been received, and
have taken a trip up the nky columns, at
more than railroad speed, back to the busy
world that have left behind. / zee fair, beau
tiful Boston, as when ! strained my eyes TO
catch last glimpse while it faded in the haze
of distance, on that memorable parting day
60 little farther, and there are kind hands
and dear faces, and fearful eyes, and
What if my own tears do fall and blot the pa
per ? You will not think, trust, that love
my new home any the less for remembering
the old.
We had long but most beautiful voyage in
the pleasant 'Faneuil Hail. with its fine ac.
commodations, kind officers, and quiet, orderly
crew and between our internal resources,
and the constantly varying character of sea.
scenery, we could find no time for enam.-
Twenty weeks from The day on which we went
aboard, we anchored off Amherst !; and the
next Monday morning, we lowered into a
Burmese boat to proceed up to Maulmain.
was most agrceably disappointed by my first
view of the land Of palms and mosquitoes.
Our boat was very much like a long watering
trough, whitfield TO a point at each end, and
we were all nestled like a parcel of Gagged
fowls, under low bamboo cover; from which
it was not easy to look out But the shore,
alongside which We were pushed up stream
by the might of muscle, was brilliant with it's
unpruned luxurance of verdure, and birds and
| flowers.
Here some strange tree dropped its long
traiers to the water, there the white rice bird,
or gayer stranger, with chameleon neck and
crimson wing coquetted with its neighbor and
the wealth of green bending below and, then
followed rich blossoms ofncw shapes and hues,
and bearing new names, some in clusters, and
some in long amber wreaths, stained here and
there with lemon and vermillion, and all bear
ing that air of slumbrous richness which be-
lieve is characteristic of the Indian climate -
Our oarslnen were Amherst Christians, who
seemed as wild with joy as the birds them
selves, (not that they were particularly bird
like in any other respect,) and there was laugh.
ing and chattcrng enough to make any heart
merry. The first being a universal language,
| had no difficulty in understanding, hut the
latter sounded to me even more outlandish
than their gaudy patsoes, bare, brawny shoul-
ders, and tnrband head appeared to the eve.
To my taste NaulmaiD is a beautiful place,
with its curious, weather-stained house, set
down in spacious compounds, which are hedged
round by the bamboo, and filled with tropic
fruit.trees. To my taste, say, because tastes
differ widely, and mine, having been formed
on the simple model Of American country life,
would not be difficult to please. have been
told, however, by English ladies' that there
were few towns in the East so entirely un
exceptionable as residence in every respect.
For Rangoon, whittier we came a little more
than week since, ! cannot say so much. In.
deed, the two places are so utterly unlike as
to preclude any attempt at comparison. Maui
main has sprung mp within the last fifteen
years, and has all the sweet freshness of its
youth about it; but Rangoon is an old, dilapi-
dated town, with no specimens Of arc hitectural
splendor for romance to spread single feather
by, crumbling in its narrow streets, but still,
more than half in ruins.
The government buildings are deserted.
some of the fine tanks that it used to boast
of filed with rubbish, the meat dry, the gates
taken away, and the stockade in most
parts laid fiat for street pavements. And
such pavements Corduroy roads are moth
ing to them. This desolation is occasoned
by the last kings having made an attempt TO
remove the town from the rivers edge, and
leave the ground to money making foreigners,
Greeks and Arminians, Mussulmen, Jews.
and few English and Chinese There are
two Englishmen, ship captains, residing here
now. Our house (' Green Turband's Den, 1"
as we have named it, since it is nearer that
than lodge, or hall, or cottage,) is on
Norman street-an upper story, with Jew s
shop beneath it, il looks little like civiliza-
ton to see the children in their wide trowsers,
usually of crimson cotton, and their white,
close fitting robes above, trudging off to school,
with their satchels on their shoulders, even
though we know that the extent of their learn.
ing is probably only to jabber the Koran but
il mars the picture some to watch from day to
day and find no girls among them.
The Burmese women 90 into the streets as
openly as the men, but the wife of the true
Mussulman never feels the fresh air upon her
cheek. Hereupon, should like to PROFOUND
a question to physicians, but forbear. Money
is the Moorman's god as the Jews and trade,
think must be the burden of his prayers to
Allah. II is very certain that not a miser of
them in this neghborhood neglects his PRAYERS;
for such din as they make about our ears of
an evening would get them hearth for
the night in Boston watch house. The old
Abrahamte below is far the quietest, but even
his hu rried voice, laden with Hebrew accents,
sometimes makes its way up through the floor
As | write, ! glance down into the street, and
see Burman priest distingushabe by the
shaven head and dirty yellow paste, huggin O
the vessel in which he receives aims TO his
breast, and glancing first at one side of the
street, and then the other, it appears to me, a
little anxiously. No one seems inclined TO
pay him any attention, and am afrai the
poor fellow will get no breakfast, unless he
turns some corner where he will find more
Boodhism.
From my window ! can see the tips of sew.
eral pagodas and through the openings Of a
a bamboo roof opposite, ! catch glimpses of a
cross crowning Romish church The Cath.
olics can do Protestant missionaries but little
mischief here now, as the alarm Of poor 'fa,her
Bruno at an invasion which he appears "a
consider rising up Of the Arch:fend himse IT.
clearly evinces. The new king is rigid
Boodhist, and all foreign religions are on par
in his eyes. Boodhism never was more popu-
lar throughout the empire than now. The
kings brother, who is prime mini s,er and heir
apparent, pound DIS and cooks the rice for the
priests with his own hands and when he has
occasion to impose a fine upon Mussulman
or any other foreigner, instead Of receiving
the money himself, he kindly advises the poor
wretch to present il 10 the priests, and so buy
merit for both--one profting by the gift and
the other by the suggestion All Mussulman-
dom has been thrown into CONSERVATION Of
late, by the report that his most Boodhistical
majesty, in an extreme ri Of pieiy, had obliged
three Of their brethren to soi pork.
In the midst Of all these things, the mission
ary Of Christ would have cause for little en-.
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