"You must know, to begin with, that the Kingdom of Ava, or Burmah, changes its capital very often. Five hundred years ago the city of Ava was made the capital, and it remained so for nearly three centuries. Monchobo was the capital from 1740 to 1782, and then the seat of government was taken to Amarapoora, where it remained till 1819, when it went back to Ava. Twenty years later Ava was destroyed by an earthquake, when the court moved to Monchobo, later to Amarapoora, again to Ava, and last (in 1857) to Mandalay. These cities are only a few miles from each other, and whenever the capital is changed the inhabitants of the old city are mostly taken along to start the new one. In 1855 the site where Mandalay stands was a series of rice-fields; now a city of 100,000 inhabitants covers the ground, and is enclosed by substantial walls of brick and mud. [Illustration: BOAT DRAWN BY A BULLOCK.] "You can't see much of Mandalay as you approach it by steamer, as it lies on a level plain, and the houses near the river are not the best that the city contains. You will be reminded of Rangoon, or Bangkok, as the spires of the temples and pagodas are thickly surrounded by foliage, and it is only when you have climbed to the top of a temple, and looked down from that elevation, that you begin to have an idea of the extent of the city. In the rainy season a great part of the plain around Mandalay is flooded, and then the natives go about in canoes and on rafts. Sometimes you see them in boats drawn by bullocks or buffaloes; the unhappy animals are forced to wade where the water is a foot or two in depth, and where there is a scarcity of harness they drag the craft behind them by means of ropes tied to their tails. "In the city itself most of the houses are on posts or piles, to avoid the effects of the inundations; the best of them are two stories high and of brick or framed timber; but there is a large number of only one story, and this is invariably the case with the smaller dwellings of the natives, which are constructed of bamboo. These houses burn easily, and sometimes they have fires that cause immense destruction, and devastate acres and acres of ground. The only consolation after such a fire is that the houses are not costly, and the sufferers can easily be lodged again. "The population of Mandalay is principally Burmese, as might be expected; but there are great numbers of Chinese living there, and most of the commerce of the place is in their hands. Then there are many Malays, and people from other parts of Asia; as for the Europeans, there are not more than twenty or thirty, and they include a few men engaged in trade, two or three missionaries, and the English resident and his official assistants. At present there is not a single European in Mandalay, as you are already aware, on account of the danger of war with King Theebaw.