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presents with Hparè and Tzu Chu. This would be quite enough; to the arrogant mind of the official Chinaman it would be "receiving tribute from the submissive barbarians" and "conferring favours" in return, and so it would be reported to the Yunnan authorities, who would certainly not make the inquiries sufficient to discover the fact that the barbarians were far from being submissive and regarded the matter in quite another light. Thus the Peking Government would issue its certificate to the effect that Hpare belonged to Ming Kwang Headmen and so forth. This having been done, from the Mandarins' point of view Hparè henceforth does belong to Ming Kwang, and there is no more to be said about it; if the Board of War issued a rescript to the effect that the ocean sea was made of treacle, it would be quite contrary to etiquette, and even dangerous, for the Tastai to officially assert that it consisted of salt water.
As regards geography the Ming Kwang map is an advance on the Chinese production at Tien Tan, which may be due to the circumstances that in the interval the Taotai, who is au intelligent man, had been enlightened by us as to the geography of the country.
The Chinese claims to Hparè and Tzu Chu being of such a flimsy character, it is obvious that the claims to villages lower down the country, i.e., nearer to the N'Maikha, are even more unsubstantiated.
I may here add that later on, when we reached Pien Ma, the Taotai withdrew the claims, which he had put forward on behalf of the Tso family in his map of Ming Kwang, to various Lashi villages along the further or right bank of the Ngaw Chang or Hsiao Chiang. The most important of these villages is Lung Pang, and I propose in this Report to refer to them as the Lung Pang group. They number some six villages with 120 families of Lashi Kachins.
The Taotai verbally informed me that these villages were wholly beyond control and that for many years there had been no control and no intercourse between them and the Chinese, and that therefore he considered them as "hua wai or beyond the pale of civilization, and that no objections would be raised by him to Burmah taking them Meanwhile any of our party who went across the Ngaw Chang would go at their own risk so far as he, Taotai, was concerned.
over,
I asked him, in writing, to put this in writing, and he replied in a note which, though not quite satisfactory, amounts, I think, to a formal withdrawal of claims, which in any case were quite untenable, to the Lung Pang group. The Taotai explained to me that formerly, in Chia Ching's reign (early nineteenth century), all the Chinese Fu Yi had combined in a joint expedition against the Lashi or Châ Shan ("Tea-hill ") Kachins, as they are known to the Chinese. They had crossed the Ngaw Chang and, with the help of a Chinese General, had established a camp beyond that river, and had subdued the whole country, which had then been divided up among the various Sawbwas or Fa Yi with the consent of the Yunnan Government.
The Lung Pang group, together with Taw Gaw and other villages on the left bank of the Ngaw Chang, had been assigned to the Ming Kwang Fu Yi, who had already, according to the Taotai, owned Hparè and Tzu Chu, which were not concerned in the campaign, since the Ming Kwang dynasty.
Under the above arrangement Chi Kaw and Shang Lou, on the Ngaw Chang near Lung Pang, had been assigned to the Chinese Fu Yi or leadman of Ta Tang, while Pien Ma and some villages near the left bank of the headwaters of the Ngaw Chang had been given to the Teng Keng Headmau on the Salween. This was the history of the Ming Kwang claims.
The story told by the Kachins themselves is somewhat different. They state that several generations ago (their ideas of time are vague) the Chinese came and raided the Ngaw Chang country, burning many villages and killing many persons. They then retired back to China, and the Lung Pang Dawa, who was considered to be the Chief of all the Lashi, gathered his forces and made a counter-raid, in the course of which he ravaged the Ming Kwang Valley down to Ku Tung Bazaar, burned the village of Teng Keng, and killed two members of the family of the Chinese Fu Yi (surname Tuan).
After this there were negotiations and peace was concluded, the various Kachin villages agreeing to exchange presents with the various Chinese Fu Yi, Hparê, Tzu Chu, Taw Gaw, the Kan Sheng Valley villages, and Hsieh Chiang, with Ming Kwang; Shang Lou with Ta Tang; Pien Ma with Teng Keng; and so forth. But neither the Lung L'ang group nor any other of these villages were ever in any sense politically subject to China or took any cognizance of the action of the Chinese Government in assigning these districts to the various Chinese Fu Yi, and these villages have never been, and are not now, subject to any administrative control from the Chinese side.
Of these two stories, which clearly refer to the same events, the Kachin version
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is probably nearer to the truth. The case for Chinese control in the N'Maikha basin rests mainly on mythical campaigns and imaginary victories. The doughty deeds which the Taotai related to me concerning the former Ming Kwang and other Chinese Headmen would do credit to Amadis de Gaul and the other famous knights, the recital of whose res geste put Don Quixote ont of his wits; and the stories of the Chinese heroes are probably just about as true as those of the Castilian. At any rate, the slipshod, incom- petent, opium-smoking Chinamen who now represent these families have lamentably degenerated from the glory of their ancestors.
Mr. Leveson returned from Tzu Chu into the Ming Kwang Valley on the 10th April by a pass 9,000 feet high, some 6 miles above our former camp at Cha Shan Ho. The surveyors having completed their work of mapping the watershed up to its junction with the Salween divide, we then moved up to the head of the wild and beautiful Ming Kwang Valley, where the whole party, including the Tactai, was reunited on the 12th April, near the hamlet of Ta Chu Pa, some 12 miles from Ming Kwang Fu Yi's residence.
I had visited this place last year, and we found no difficulty in engaging Lisu coolies to help us over the pass to Pien Ma. The representative of a Tengyuch firm, which is engaged in the carriage of coffin wood from the Ngaw Chang, also found us some twenty porters who had been bringing out wood.
V. Pien Ma and the Upper Ngaw Chang.
From Ta Chu Pa over into the N'Maikha basin and so to Pien Ma is only 28 miles, and the pass is only 9,000 feet; but owing to the weather and the state of roads, or rather tracks, we divided into three parties. The Taotai went first and was caught, in the dense sunless forest which covers the N'Maikha side of the pass, by a downpour of rain which continued twelve hours. All the streams, and there were some two dozen of them to cross, were so flooded that it was impossible to get forward, and the Taotai had to spend the night crouched under a fallen tree without his rice or his opium.
Thanks to my friends the Ta Chu Pa Lisu, I was more fortunate and succeeded in getting out of the forest to the first village and a fair camp on the N'Maikha side (Tsui Ho, ten Lisu huts) just before dark, after a tramp of 9 miles literally through a continuous quagmire varied in places by watercourses. The surveyors spent a damp night in the forest under canvas, but minus their beddings. Mr. Leveson came through the next day, but much of the transport was bogged, and several mules half killed in the mud. We were not all reassembled at the village of Pien Ma, 9 miles north of Tsui Ho, till the 17th April.
The Taotai took up his quarters at the Headman's house, while we camped outside the village.
Pien Ma (in Lashi "Hpi Maw") consists of forty houses of Lashi Kachins, picturesquely scattered about along steep hill-sides, above a rushing torrent, and entirely surrounded by lofty mountains. The elevation is 6,500 feet. There is a strip of wet cultivation along the brook, which leads by a defile beyond the village straight down to the Ngaw Chang, which it joins 6 miles from Pien Ma.
I may here notice the marked difference between the country on the Chinese and on the N'Maikha side of the watershed. In China the broad upland plains of Tien Tan, Ming Kwang, Ta Tang, divided from each other by regular ranges, ascend gradually to the divide; but on the N'Maikha side the country rapidly falls down from the divide (average elevation 10,000 feet) to the Ngaw Chang (average elevation 3,000 feet). This space is intersected in every direction by elaborate and steep ridges and spurs, with a complication of lateral valleys and innumerable mountain torrents. It is very dificult to find a piece of level ground anywhere in this country; the villages are all narrow, broken, and inclosed by towering cliffs. By far the largest area is occupied by dense forest or steep rocky hill-sides, where habitations, or even the possibility of habitations, are very limited and far between. I dwell on this in order to demonstrate how difficult it would be to make a frontier criss-cross through such a country.
Last year I expressed a fear that Chinese cultivators might soon extend over into the N'Maikha side, which would render the settlement of the frontier far more difficult; but after examination on the spot I am of opinion that my fears were unfounded. There are now five Chinese near Pien Ma, and they reside there in consequence of trade relations. The upper slopes on the N'Maikha side are not susceptible of cultivation, while the paddy-fields lower down are strongly held by Lashis, who are in sufficient force to resist Chinese intrusion.
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