It differed in other respects from Sagaing. In that district the Bos formed a confederation. Each had his own village or district, from which he drew his supplies, and his exclusive rights which the others recognized. They communicated with each other and were ready to join forces when it was necessary. In Minbu the government was more autocratic, and centralized in the hands of ?ktama, who had seven or eight lieutenants3 under his orders. There was also another point of difference. The leaders in Sagaing and generally elsewhere, were local men, and for the most part professional robbers. ?ktama had been a Pongyi some years before, in a monastery5 a few miles north-west of Minbu. He professed6 to have a commission from some obscure prince, but laid no claim to royal blood.
He made his first appearance in Minbu in February, 1886, and induced the headmen of many villages to join him.
The people at this time were like sheep without a shepherd. They had heard of the destruction of the wolf they knew, and to whose ways they had become accustomed. Of the new-comers, the Kalas, or barbarians7, they had had no experience, and they had as yet no reason to believe in their power to protect them. Naturally, therefore, they looked about for some one to help them to work together in their own defence.
?ktama no doubt had a capacity for organization and command, and the people recognized him as a leader of men; otherwise it is difficult to conceive how in so short[108] a time he secured their allegiance. His attack on Sagu, a town on the right bank of the Irrawaddy nearly opposite Magwè, has been mentioned before. He burnt the town, which was held by a handful of troops, and then laid siege to Salin with a force said to have numbered five thousand men. The deaths of the two British officers in action against him increased his prestige, and from that time until a few weeks before his capture on the 20th of July, 1889, he was at the head of a large confederacy which had more power in Minbu than the British.
?ktama assumed the title of Commissioner8 (Mingyi), and created a regular system of government. He had five lieutenants under him, to whom defined portions of the country were entrusted9. His intelligence department was perfect. If the British troops showed a sign of movement, warning was sent from village to village and reached ?ktama in time for him to shift his camp. The organization was very strong. It could not have lived and grown as it did if my officers in Minbu had not been weak, and their rule "placidius quam feroci provincia dignum." They were not of the stuff that can bring a turbulent people to submission10.
When I was at Minbu, in the early part of the year, I wished to march through the district and speak to the people. Both the Commissioner and the Brigadier-General, Sir Robert Low, strongly opposed my wish, as they thought it likely that my party would be fired on, the effect of which would be bad. However, I gave my instructions regarding the measures to be taken.
In the June following I rode through the valley of the M?n. The country seemed to me prosperous and well cultivated; betel-vine gardens and plantations11 of bananas were frequent near the villages, and I saw no sign of distress12 or armed disorder.
Nevertheless the people were even then under the feet of the dacoits. I changed the district officials as soon as possible.
The improvement of the district dated from the appointment as Deputy Commissioner of Mr. H. S. Hartnoll, who brought to the work the necessary energy, activity, and judgment13. He was assisted by Mr. G. G. Collins and[109] Mr. W. A. Hertz, who were as zealous14 and active as their chief. In May, 1888, being assured that the people were getting weary of the brigands15, I issued a proclamation offering a free pardon to all the rank and file on condition that they surrendered and engaged to live peaceably in their villages. The leaders, eight in number, were excepted by name. They were to be pursued until they were captured or killed.
As two years and a half had elapsed since the annexation16, the fact that Burma was part of the British Empire must have penetrated17 to the most remote village. Warning, therefore, was given that the full rigour of the law would be enforced against all who were taken fighting against the Government, or who aided or abetted18 the leaders excepted from pardon. The terms of this proclamation were explained to the headmen and villagers assembled at suitable places, and the severe penalties that would follow disobedience were explained to them. A period of one month was allowed for surrenders, and the pursuit of the gangs was pressed unceasingly all through the rains and open season of 1888-9.
The sequel I will give in Mr. Hartnoll's words:—
"His [?ktama's] power had gradually grown less and less from time to time, but the difficulty has always been to get information of him and his leaders. The villagers would give no aid or information. They began to turn at the beginning of this year (1889) when certain fines were imposed on the worst of the villages, yet they did not give us all the help they could. In April, though his power was much broken and many of his lieutenants killed and captured, yet he had a fairly strong gathering19; and Maung Ya Baw, Maung Kan Thi, ?ktaya, Nga Kin20, and Byaing Gyi were still to the fore4.
"From May 1st the relations of dacoits were removed from their villages and a fortnightly fine imposed on all harbouring villages. On this the villagers gave him up. He and all his principal men except Maung Kin are dead or captured. He had at the end only one boy with him....
"Our success has been entirely21 achieved by bringing the villagers to our side by imposing22 a periodical general fine on them until they helped us, by removing the[110] relations and sympathizers of the dacoits, by holding certain points fairly close together throughout the district till the leader troubling the point held was caught, and by having constant parties of troops and police always on the move."
The capture of ?ktama was effected in this wise. Maung An Taw Ni, an Upper Burman, the township officer of Legaing, a little town with a population of about three thousand people, some fifteen miles north-west of Minbu, received information that the dacoit chief was near the Chaungdawya Pagoda23, a short way from Legaing. Maung An Taw Ni, who had borne a very active part in all the measures taken against the dacoits, started at once with some military police. They came upon ?ktama sitting despairingly by the pagoda with only one follower24. It was a tragic25 picture. When Burmans shall paint historical scenes for the galleries at Rangoon or Mandalay, or write on the events following the fall of their king, "?ktama at the Golden Pagoda" will be a favourite theme for ballad26 or drama (pyazat).
Another example of dacoity in Upper Burma may be taken from the Myingyan district. I will give the case of Ya Nyun, which gained some notoriety at the time. It is remarkable27 also for the fact that Ya Nyun is probably the last great leader who is still alive. And that he owes his life to the extraordinary conduct of some very subordinate officials, who, in the loyal desire, it may be supposed, to secure his apprehension28, took upon themselves to induce him by vague words to hope for his life if he surrendered. It is certain that no man in Burma ever deserved to be hung more than Ya Nyun. If the voice of the blood of the murdered cries from the ground, the cries for vengeance29 must still be echoing through the villages and woods round Popa.
Burmese Dacoits before trial—worst characters and native police guard.
[111]
Ya Nyun was the Myingaung (literally Captain of the Horse) of the Welaung sub-district of Myingyan, bound at call to furnish one hundred mounted men to the king's army. He had thirty headmen of villages under him. His father, who had been Myingaung before him, was a murderer and a scoundrel. He had been dismissed by King Mindon's Government and tattooed30 as a bad character with the Burmese words meaning: "Beware, cease to do evil," on his forearm.[27] The son, however, was at Court a hanger-on of the Yaw Mingyi, one of the big ministers. He obtained his father's post. He returned to Welaung and kept a large following of thieves and robbers, and lived on the people.
His oppression became intolerable, and two years before the war a deputation of the Thugyis (village headmen) went up to Mandalay to beg protection, but as the Taingda Mingyi, the most powerful and the worst man about the Court, took Ya Nyun's part, they could get no redress31. Two years afterwards a second deputation was sent, and Ya Nyun was summoned to Mandalay. The matter was under inquiry32 when the British advance became known. Thereupon Ya Nyun was decorated with a gold umbrella (equivalent to a K.C.B.) and sent back to Welaung to fight against the British. So far his case resembles, to some extent, that of Bo Swè, who was, however, a gallant33 gentleman and an honest citizen beside Ya Nyun.
His first step was to gather around him his former followers34, and he started with about fifty ruffians as the leaders and stiffening35 of his gang. They had to live, and his methods were the same as those of other dacoit leaders. Money and food and women were demanded from the villages, and those who refused supplies were unmercifully punished, their property seized, their villages burnt, their women dishonoured36, and their cattle driven off by hundreds. Those who in any way assisted the troops were the objects of special barbarities. If they could not be caught, their fathers or brothers were taken. One of his followers deposed37 that he was with Ya Nyun when three men who were related to a man who had assisted the British were ordered to be crucified in front of the camp. He says: "I saw the bodies after they were crucified.[28] They were crucified alive and then shot, their hearts cut open," &c. In another case "five men were caught. Nga Kè [one of Ya Nyun's men] rode over them as they lay bound, and then shot them."
[112]
An Indian washerman, belonging, if I remember right, to the Rifle Brigade, straggled from a column on the march. This same witness, who acted as a clerk or secretary on Ya Nyun's staff, kept a diary and wrote letters and orders, goes on: "Ya Nyun ordered Aung Bet to cut a piece out of the Indian's thigh38, morning and evening, and give it to him to eat. The flesh was fried. This was done three days. Six pieces were cut out, then Ya Nyun ordered him to be killed. He was killed. I saw all this with my own eyes."
The ill-treatment of women by these gangs was not unknown. Sometimes they were taken and ill-treated as a punishment to the village which had set at naught39 the Bo's order. Sometimes they were taken as concubines for Ya Nyun and his comrades. There is one case on record where seven young girls were selected from a village "on account of their youth," and after the dacoits had ill-used them, five were deliberately40 slaughtered41 for fear of their giving information. Two escaped. This occurred in January, 1890. The remains42 of the five girls were found in the jungle afterwards by our men.
The Deputy Commissioner, who examined 136 witnesses as to the doings of Ya Nyun's gang, concluded his inquiry in these words:—
"A perusal43 of the evidence shows that the organization, which had, perhaps, its first origin in a desire to resist the British Government, degenerated44 rapidly, as might have been expected from the disreputable persons who played the part of leaders, into a band of marauders who subsisted45 by terrorism, rapine, murder, dacoity, and other outrages46. While remaining in open defiance47 of Government, they soon ceased to be political rebels, in any respectable sense, though they occasionally gathered in sufficient numbers to resist the troops or police, even so late as February, 1889. They showed no more mercy to their own countrymen than to foreigners. They can have no claim to the title of patriots48, but merely to that of damya, dacoit, the title invariably applied49 to them by their own countrymen."
So wrote the Deputy Commissioner who made the inquiry in 1890. Ya Nyun has been in the Andamans[113] ever since. I have been told that he has shown there a capacity for command, and is in charge of a gang of convicts. Then by all means let him stay where he is useful and harmless.
I have given the history of Ya Nyun's rise to power and some indications of the nature of his gang. In 1887 to 1888 it was frequently encountered by troops and police, and was more than once roughly treated, but the wilderness50 around Popa afforded a shelter from which the small and scattered51 parties of dacoits could not be driven.
In March and April, 1888, a series of combined operations was organized. Four columns of military police acted under Captain Hastings, Commandant of the Myingyan battalion52. Several of Ya Nyun's men[29] were killed and many captured.
In the autumn murders, accompanied in some cases with atrocious cruelties, began again. Early in 1889 Ya Nyun, collecting several other leaders, mustered53 a strong force, and occupied a position near his own village of Welaung. A body of military police failed to dislodge him, and although the gang was met soon after by a party of the Rifle Brigade, and dispersed54 with heavy loss, the power of the organization was not destroyed.
After these events an experienced officer, with powers extending to all the country in which Ya Nyun and his accomplices55 acted, was given control of the operations against the brigands. At his suggestion a pardon was offered to Ya Nyun if he would surrender. I consented with much reluctance56, but it seemed better to free the country from misery57 at any price. The man would not avail himself of it. Throughout the rains he and his men were more active than usual, and their raids were marked by more wanton cruelty and bloodshed than before; a symptom, as I have said before, that the people were becoming less submissive to the dacoits, who on their part were striving to retain their hold on them.
[114]
As little substantial progress was being made, I went to the Popa subdivision in January, 1890. I called up an additional police force and saw that the utmost pressure was put, under the Village Regulation, upon the villages which harboured and assisted the dacoits. Some success against the smaller leaders followed, but at the end of April all the greater men, ten in number, for whose capture rewards had been offered, were still at large.
In the middle of April the Commissioner, Mr Symes (the late Sir E. Symes), advised that the time had come for adopting the procedure followed so successfully in Sagaing, Minbu, and elsewhere. This was done. Proclamations were issued much in the same terms as those used in other districts, offering pardon to the rank and file, and warning all concerned that villages assisting the gangs would be severely58 fined, and that sympathizers and relatives would be deported59 to a distance. The rewards offered for the capture of the leaders were doubled.
The success was extraordinary. The whole dacoit organization fell to pieces. It collapsed60 as a tiger shot in the head falls in his tracks. On the 30th of May, 1890, Ya Nyun surrendered. Eleven of his lieutenants or comrades had fallen in action, and forty-two men of note surrendered with him.
One very influential61 leader of the bands in the Myingyan district, whose name was well known in the years preceding, was not caught. Bo Cho had not shown himself since 1888, and was reported to have disappeared. He lay low until 1896, when he managed to get together some men and began his old game. But in 1896 the Government knew what to do and did it. An officer with sufficient military police was at once appointed and empowered to take action against him, the provisions of the Village Regulation were put into effect, and in a few days he was a prisoner. He was not given an opportunity for further mischief62.
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1
disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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2
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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3
lieutenants
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| n.陆军中尉( lieutenant的名词复数 )；副职官员；空军；仅低于…官阶的官员 | |
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4
fore
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| adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部 | |
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5
monastery
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| n.修道院，僧院，寺院 | |
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6
professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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7
barbarians
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| n.野蛮人( barbarian的名词复数 )；外国人；粗野的人；无教养的人 | |
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8
commissioner
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| n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员 | |
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9
entrusted
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| v.委托，托付( entrust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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10
submission
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| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
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11
plantations
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| n.种植园，大农场( plantation的名词复数 ) | |
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12
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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13
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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14
zealous
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| adj.狂热的，热心的 | |
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15
brigands
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| n.土匪，强盗( brigand的名词复数 ) | |
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16
annexation
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| n.吞并，合并 | |
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17
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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18
abetted
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| v.教唆（犯罪）( abet的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；怂恿；支持 | |
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19
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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20
kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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21
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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22
imposing
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| adj.使人难忘的，壮丽的，堂皇的，雄伟的 | |
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23
pagoda
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| n.宝塔（尤指印度和远东的多层宝塔），（印度教或佛教的）塔式庙宇 | |
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24
follower
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| n.跟随者；随员；门徒；信徒 | |
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25
tragic
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| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
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26
ballad
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| n.歌谣，民谣，流行爱情歌曲 | |
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27
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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28
apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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29
vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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30
tattooed
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| v.刺青，文身( tattoo的过去式和过去分词 )；连续有节奏地敲击；作连续有节奏的敲击 | |
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31
redress
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| n.赔偿，救济，矫正；v.纠正，匡正，革除 | |
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32
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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33
gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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34
followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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35
stiffening
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| n. (使衣服等)变硬的材料, 硬化 动词stiffen的现在分词形式 | |
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36
dishonoured
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| a.不光彩的，不名誉的 | |
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37
deposed
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| v.罢免( depose的过去式和过去分词 )；（在法庭上）宣誓作证 | |
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38
thigh
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| n.大腿；股骨 | |
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39
naught
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| n.无，零 [=nought] | |
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40
deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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41
slaughtered
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| v.屠杀，杀戮，屠宰( slaughter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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42
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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43
perusal
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| n.细读，熟读；目测 | |
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44
degenerated
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| 衰退，堕落，退化( degenerate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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45
subsisted
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| v.（靠很少的钱或食物）维持生活，生存下去( subsist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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46
outrages
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| 引起…的义愤，激怒( outrage的第三人称单数 ) | |
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47
defiance
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| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
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48
patriots
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| 爱国者，爱国主义者( patriot的名词复数 ) | |
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49
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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50
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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51
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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52
battalion
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| n.营；部队；大队(的人) | |
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53
mustered
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| v.集合，召集，集结（尤指部队）( muster的过去式和过去分词 )；（自他人处）搜集某事物；聚集；激发 | |
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54
dispersed
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| adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的 | |
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55
accomplices
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| 从犯，帮凶，同谋( accomplice的名词复数 ) | |
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56
reluctance
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| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
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57
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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58
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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59
deported
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| v.将…驱逐出境( deport的过去式和过去分词 )；举止 | |
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60
collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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61
influential
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| adj.有影响的，有权势的 | |
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62
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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