The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-11-05
A BLooDTHIRsTY MONARCH.
King Thebaw's Cruel Rei.n-His Quarrel
with England.


with England.
New York Mercury.
King Thebaw succeeded his father. Mendone
Meng, in 1873, at the age of about twenty one
He was neither the eldest nor the favorite child
of family of forty eight sons and sixty-two
daughters, bat ne had married the daughter of
the chief queen, who brought over to his inter
est the principal dgnitaries. At first Thebaw
gave promise of a peaceful and useful reign But
his brothers, the Nyoung Jan and the Nyoung
Oke, who had claims TO the throne more valid
than his had escaped in safety to British protec-
tion The knowledge that they lived and might
plot against him unsettled his feeble mind, and
this. with drink, opium and the perncious coun-
sells of those about him, caused him to develop
into the sanguinary monster that he has since
been.
In February, 1879 encouraged by reports of
British reverses in Zululand Thebaw massacred
his relatives and their adherents, whom he had
kept confined for months in oathsome dungeons.
Men, women and children were knocked on the
head and flung, alive or dead, into yawning
trenches. The mouth of high official was filed
with gunpowder which was then exploded.
Women We're ripped up, after being submitted
to every conceivable indicnity, and infants
brains were dashed out against stone walls. The
exact number of unfortunates who perished
since in Burmah, will never be known. 1t is
certain, however, that it must be reckoned in
hundreds. One of the two pits within the pal
ace inclosure, into which living and dead
cast together during the three initial nights of
crime, soon bulged and cracked at its mouti from
the exhalations arising. An elephant had to be
fetched to trample down the earth.
Burmah was shorn of its seacoaSt ana some of
its most profitable provinces by the wars with
the English, which ended in 1924 and 1852. Dis
putes with the Indian government led to the
withdrawal of the British Charge d'Affaires from
Mandalay, in October, 1879 Frontier raids, re-
bellions and attempts at assassination followed
Since 1880 however, until the present difficulty
arose, the exterior relations of Burmah have
been fairly quiet, although the British authori-
ties at Rangoon have had constant occasion 70
watch against the intrigues which King Thebaw
has sought to conduct against England with
! other Powers.
| This last dispute arose from the caprice and
attempted eXtortion Of King Thebaw in interfer-
| ing with British trade the Irrawaddy river
and in his suspected plotting with France to the
disadvantage of English interests. Responsible
| lty for this plotting has been disclaimed by
| President Grevys government. The quarrel,
| therefore. rests now upon Thebaw's arrogant
and insulting refusal to attend to the communi-
cation of the Viceroy of India, proposing arbi
tration with reference to the preposterous fine
OF t230 GEO recently imposed for alleged otfenSes
upon the Bombay and Burmah Trading Corpor-
| alton. This company has immense body of
servants and hundreds of elephants employed in
timber cutting in Burmese territory Lord
Dufferin has lost no time in sending vigorous
utlmatum to the sanguinary tyrant at Manda-
lay, and In preparing an expedition to enforce
1T; and it is announced that if complete sub
mission has not boen received by Nov 10. a
sharp and speedy campaign against Burmah will
open on Nov. IL.