“I must now close up my journal, to be sent on board ship to-morrow morning. We expect to leave Rangoon in about a week. My next will probably contain some account of our journey up the river, and our reception at court. O Lord, send _now_ prosperity; yet not my will, but Thine, be done.” _Journal._ “_December 21._ After having made arrangements for our wives’ residence in town during our absence, brother Colman and myself embarked. Our boat is six feet wide in the middle, and forty feet long. A temporary deck of bamboos is laid throughout, and on the hinder part of the boat the sides are raised with thin boards, and a covering of thatch, and mats tied on, so as to form two low rooms, in which we can just sit and lie down. Our company consists of sixteen besides ourselves: ten rowmen, a steersman, a head man—whose name is inserted in our passport, and who, therefore, derives a little authority from Government—a steward or cook for the company—which place is filled by our trusty Moung Nau—our own cook, a Hindoo washerman, and an Englishman, who, having been unfortunate all his life, wishes to try the service of his Burman majesty; and this last personage may be called our gunner, he having charge of several guns and blunderbusses, which are indispensable on account of the robbers that infest the river. “We have been much perplexed in fixing on a present for the emperor, without which no person unauthorized can appear in his presence. Our funds were evidently inadequate to the purchase of articles which would be valuable to him in a pecuniary point of view; when we considered, also, that there ought to be a congruity between the present and our character, we selected that book which we hope to be allowed to translate under his patronage, the BIBLE, in six volumes, covered with gold leaf, in Burman style, and each volume enclosed in a rich wrapper. For presents to other members of Government, we have taken several pieces of fine cloth and other articles.