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The route was a mere track over unusually mountainous and difficult country with a very sparse population: only ten families of Lisu, in a very poor condition, were found (in the villages mentioned). For many years past they have neither paid tribute nor made presents.
On leaving Ma Li Pa we proceeded on the 31st March to Ta Chai, in the Ming Kwang Valley, to the east of Tien Tan. This valley is in the Tengyueh Sub-Prefecture and under the jurisdiction of the two Fu Yi, Tso and Yang. For a distance of nearly 100 from Ku Tung bazaar northwards to the head of the Ming Kwang River the valley is inhabited by a mixed population of Chinese and Lisu, but most of the latter can speak Chinese and in every way resemble Chinamen. The Ming Kwang River rises to the north of Ta Chu Pa and flows down to Ku Tung bazaar, being the true source of the Shweli; along the north-west of the Upper Ming Kwang Valley there is a lofty range of mountains connecting with the Sisters Hill and the Pan Wa Pass, and forming the divide between the N Maikha and Shweli Rivers. All the streams on the east side of this ridge belong to the Ming Kwang-Shweli system; all the streams to the west of it flow into the N'Maikha and Irrawaddy.
To take this range as the frontier would be to adopt the true natural line. But your Government stated that Hparè, Tzu Chu, Pien Ma, and other places situated to the west of the watershed belonged by rights to the Fu Yi Yang and Tso of Ming Kwang; these Fu Yi also presented two certificates and a copy of a Memorial bearing on this question to your Honour for my inspection.
Under these circumstances the Deputy Commissioner of Bhamo, together with your Deputy, Mr. Tai, proceeded from Ming Kwang to Hparè in order to make a careful investigation on the spot.
The distance proved to be nearly 80 l, and the track was through mountainous and uninhabited country for the whole way. In the two villages of Upper and Lower Hparè there are only some thirty odd households, all of them Lashi Kachius; just below the village the FIpare and Tzu Chu Streams join to form the Kun Ma (Khansheng) River, which flows into the Ngaw Chang, and so into the Irrawaddy.
The village of Tzu Chu also contains some thirty families of Lashi and is only separated from Hparè by a minor ridge of hills.
Mr. Leveson, in concert with Mr. Tai, examined the Headmen of these villages. Their statement was in effect as follows :→→→
"We are not subject to the Fu Yi, nor do we pay taxes to him; but formerly when festivities took place at the Fu Yi's we offered presents, and when we had any festivities the Fu Yi made return presents to us. Since the Fu Yi raided our village and robbed us of our ploughing oven we have had a feud with the Fu Yi and hold no communication with him. Formerly the Fu Yi engaged us to protect the road (along the Kun Ma) and gave us 25 rupees and some gunpowder for doing so, but of recent years this payment has not been made.
"We are in the habit of going backwards and forwards over the frontier for the purpose of trading with the Chinese, and they do the like, but we never go over the frontier to cultivate. We know nothing about the certificate investing Yang Fu Yi with the title of Hereditary Sergeant of Hpare or how he came by it, but we do know that we have never been subject to him.”
These statements agree with my own observations. Not only does not the Fu Yi control this district, but he does not even dare to go there; so it is perfectly clear that he cannot control it; nor can I understand how the certificates come to speak of the "Fu Yi Yang of Hparè in Ming Kwang" and the "Fu Yi Tso of Tzu Chu in Ming Kwang," seeing that Ming Kwang is distant from Hparè and Tzu Chu “ nearly 100 A." To insist that they are in the same district is as though we were to talk of Mandalay in the district of Yung Chang, or Yung Chang in the district of Mandalay.
Under these circumstances, I would invite your Honour to point out in what possible sense these Fu Yi can be said to govern these villages.
Mr. Leveson and myself further inquired into the conditions and history of Pien Ma, the Kun Ma River, and the Hsiao Chiang or Ngaw Chang. The Headmen stated that some generations ago the Chinese and the Kachins had fallen out, the Chinese Chiefs of Ming Kwang, Ta Tang, and Teng Keng had united their forces and made an incursion beyond the watershed and beyond the Ngaw Chang, raiding the village of Lan Pang and killing many persons, whereby the Kachins suffered heavy damage. The Lashi Headmen then collected their people and made a counter-raid over the divide.
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They burnt Teng Keng and killed two of the Chinese Fu Yi's family; they then looted the Ming Kwang Valley as far as Ku Tung bazaar.
After this the various parties negotiated a peace, and it was agreed that they should mutually exchange presents of local produce, as a pledge of amity, Ming Kwang every three years exchanged presents with the villages of Hpare, Lung Pung, and those along the Kun Ma and Ngaw Chang Rivers; Teng Keng exchanged them with Pien Ma and U Tung; Ta Tang with Shang Lon and Chih Ka.
Subsequently the Pien Ma people looted some cattle belonging to Lung Pang and Chih Ka, whereupon these villages looted and burnt Pien Ma. The Pien Ma people, being few and weak, then voluntarily invited the Chinese of Teng Keng to come to their assistance in order to have their revenge. The Teng Keng people consented and burnt the two villages of Lung Pang and Chih Ka. This is the reason why to this day Pien Ma makes a small annual payment of tribute to Teng Keng. In the case of Ta Tang, the villages of Shang Lou and Chih Ka commonly present "huang lien" and receive in exchange a plough ox.
But these various Headmen are not under any administrative control by the Chinese officials.
Now these statements agree in the main with what your Honour told me, namely, that in the reign of Chia Ching (early nineteenth century) the Chinese Fu Yi had made a warlike expedition to the Ngaw Chang. No doubt we must not believe all that we are told by the Kachin Headmen, but neither can I believe the statement of the Chinese Fu Yi to the effect that they subjected this country to regular control.
The questions concerning Pien Ma and the Hsiao Chiang (Ngaw Chang) being of much importance in regard to the frontier, we determined personally to proceed from Ming Kwang to Pien Ma to make inquiries. The way leads over the Fen Shui Ling Pass, and so to the head of the Pien Ma River, a distance of over 80 li, all of which is uninhabited, while progress is exceedingly difficult on account of the mountainous character of the country. This pass, the Fen Shui Ling, is close to the head of the Ming Kwang River, which is the true source of the Shweli. The hills at the back of this river-source form the water-divide between the Hsiao Chiang or Little River and the Ming Kwang, and this water-divide is connected with the main water-divide between the Salween and the Irrawaddy; this main divide stretches northwards as far as the confines of Thibet, and is a snow-blocked range almost impossible to cross, and is locally known by the Teng Keng and Ming Kwang people as the Kao Li Kung snow
mountains.
On account of the difficulty of travelling, Mr. Leveson und myself only reached Pien Ma and met your Honour on the 16th April, when we proceeded to our investi- gations. It appears that there are only some 200 odd families of Kachins and Lisu at Pien Ma, who pay a house tax amounting to about 50 taels a-year to Teng Keng, who also levies a toll on coffin wood to the amount of some 100 taels a-year, or, in all, 150 taels (about) per year; but Pien Ma has a feud with Shang Lon, and Lung Pang has a feud with Teng Keng, and there is no communication between these villages. Chinese traders proceeding to these places suffer loss, but the Chinese Fu Yi do nothing whatever to administer the country beyond levying their revenue.
As to the villages beyond the Ngaw Chang, their condition has been truly described And it may in Honour's letter to me: they are beyond the pale of government.
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be said of the whole of this country that it is clear that neither the Chinese officials nor the Fu Yi can control it. It is to be feared that the Kachius in Barmah territory may subsequently suffer from the raids of these people.
After your Honour and myself had crossed the mountains to Lu Chang by the Salween, Mr. Leveson proceeded to both banks of the Ngaw Chang to make inquiries, and the local Headmen all came to sec him; the surveyor also proceeded some distance beyond Lung Pang. Nowhere did the Kachins cause any trouble, and it appears from this that they are not naturally savage, but have simply never been subject to Chinese jurisdiction.
On the banks of the Salween we found that the three Chiefs of Teng Keng, Lu Chang, and Mao Chao are all subject to Yung Chang's jurisdiction. North of Mao Chao the country is entirely populated by Lisu, nominally subject to La Wo. North of the Lisu country are the Nu Tzu, and north of the Nu Tzu (or Lu Tzu) is Thibetan territory. This is a general survey of the condition of the banks of the Salween.
The west bank of the Salween is entirely populated by Lisu; the country west, again, of the great Salween-Irrawaddy divide is entirely populated by Marus (Lang Su), who are under no Government, and have little or no communication with the Lisu.
[2167 -1]
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