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BIBMAH. 47
territories. The truce with Siam lasted until 1810,
when another furious contest took place, which, after
much bloodshed, terminated as usual to the advantage
of the Birmans, by extending and consolidating all
their conquests, on the western coast from Mergui to
the island of Junkseylon.
No interruption of commercial intercourse between
British India and the Birmans took place during the
remainder of this reign ; but a deep-rooted jealousy
of the British appears to have taken possession of the
mind of the emperor. In 1818, the Marquess of
Hastings had certain information of his having joined
the formidable Mahratta confederacy, which had for
its object to subvert our Indian empire. By the well-
conceived device of transmitting the intercepted documents
to the Birman emperor as forgeries, accompanied
with an account of the triumphant ascendancy of our
arms in all quarters, the governor-general succeeded
in warding off at that time a tremendous inroad on
our eastern frontier. The Birman emperor wisely
availed himself of the hint, and the intercourse between
the two countries went on as before. In June
1819, Minderajee-praw terminated his long and prosperous
career, after a reign of thirty-seven years. The
state paper issued on the occasion announced, accord-
ing to the Chinese formula, that the immortal king
had gone up to amuse himself in the celestial regions.
He was succeeded without opposition by his grandson,
the Engy Tekien, or prince royal. The new emperor
was proclaimed in June 1819 ; and on the 2d of November
following, being his birth-day, he was solemnly
crowned at Ava. He must immediately after his
accession have entered on the reduction of the province
of Cassay, as in January 1820, he celebrated his
victory in presence of the American Baptist mission-