"My first interview with the king was a more ceremonious affair than subsequent ones, and there were many novel features connected with it. The audience was appointed for ten o'clock in the forenoon, and I was there promptly with my introducer; when we got to the palace we were told that we must wait till eleven o'clock, as his majesty was just then occupied with the royal astrologer, who had made some important discoveries in the positions of the stars. There was no help for it, and we waited; but in the mean time we had interviews with some of the ministers, and other persons attached to the court, so that the period of waiting was not altogether lost. "Most of the ministers do not receive any salaries, but are supported by bribes and extortions. They try all cases that are appealed to them, and take ten per cent. of the amount involved as their compensation; it often happens that they take the whole money, and the winner of the case is told that he must be satisfied with the honor of defeating his adversary. The king pays his troops and officers in goods that he buys of the merchants, and if they wish to convert them into cash, they must sell at half price, or even less. In fact, the whole government is a system of bribery and corruption, and the wonder is that it has kept up so long. [Illustration: THE ROYAL PALACE AT MANDALAY.] "The king rarely goes out of his palace, as he is constantly fearful that some ambitious relative will endeavor to supplant him if he leaves home even for a single hour. The royal palace covers about seventy acres of ground, and is surrounded by two walls, the inner wall being thirty feet from the outer one. The palace is a gaudy sort of building, with a great deal of carved woodwork around the eaves of its many roofs and stories, and having poles for bells and flags at every corner and angle. It looks better at a little distance than when close at hand, as it is not always kept in good repair; and since the king stays inside the most of the time, he can hardly be expected to know enough about the roofs and outer walls to give the proper orders concerning them. The gates of the palace are very strong, and made of beams of teak fastened together with iron bolts. They could not offer much resistance to artillery, or even to a keg of powder exploded against them, but could hold out for some time against anything that an ordinary force of Burmese could bring forward.