DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.25989#0130
H4 NARRATIVE DURING A TOUR
the result; tor about a year after, a second let-
ter was received from the Raja of Ram t ee, mak-
ing a demand, on the part of the King of Ava,
for the cession of Ramoo, Chittagong, Moor-
shedabad, and Dacca, on the ground of their
being ancient dependencies of Arakan, and
tilled with extravagant and absurd menaces in
the event of a refusal. A letter in reply was
written to the Viceroy of Pegu, treating this
demand as the unauthorized act of the Raja of
Ramree, and stating that " if the Governor Ge-
neral could suppose it to have been dictated
by the King of Ava, the British Government
would be justified in considering it as a decla-
ration of war." The letter from the Raja was
never disavowed, and the demands it conveyed,
as well as the tone in which they w ere express-
ed, could not have emanated from a subordi-
nate Odicer, if it had not previously been armed
with full authority, from the Court; nor in fact
was the demand altogether new. The claim was
repeatedly advanced both in public and pri-
vate as tar back as the year 1797, when Captain
Cox was at Amurapoora. A desultory con\er-
sation then took place, in which it w as advanc-
ed that Chittagong, Luchipore, Dacca, ant! the
whole of the Cossirn Bazar Island formerly made
part of the ancient dominions of Arakan, that
the remains of the chokees and pagodas w ere
the result; tor about a year after, a second let-
ter was received from the Raja of Ram t ee, mak-
ing a demand, on the part of the King of Ava,
for the cession of Ramoo, Chittagong, Moor-
shedabad, and Dacca, on the ground of their
being ancient dependencies of Arakan, and
tilled with extravagant and absurd menaces in
the event of a refusal. A letter in reply was
written to the Viceroy of Pegu, treating this
demand as the unauthorized act of the Raja of
Ramree, and stating that " if the Governor Ge-
neral could suppose it to have been dictated
by the King of Ava, the British Government
would be justified in considering it as a decla-
ration of war." The letter from the Raja was
never disavowed, and the demands it conveyed,
as well as the tone in which they w ere express-
ed, could not have emanated from a subordi-
nate Odicer, if it had not previously been armed
with full authority, from the Court; nor in fact
was the demand altogether new. The claim was
repeatedly advanced both in public and pri-
vate as tar back as the year 1797, when Captain
Cox was at Amurapoora. A desultory con\er-
sation then took place, in which it w as advanc-
ed that Chittagong, Luchipore, Dacca, ant! the
whole of the Cossirn Bazar Island formerly made
part of the ancient dominions of Arakan, that
the remains of the chokees and pagodas w ere