Zah, encouraged by all this, really began to take the side of God before his majesty, and said, ‘Nearly all the world, your majesty, believe in an eternal God, all, except Burmah and Siam, these little spots!’ His majesty remained silent, and after some other desultory inquiries, he abruptly arose, and retired. “_January 2, 1823._ To-day I informed the king that it was my intention to return to Rangoon. ‘Will you proceed thence to your own country?’ ‘Only to Rangoon.’ His majesty gave an acquiescing nod. The a-twen-woon Moung Zah inquired, ‘Will you both go, or will the doctor remain?’ I said that he would remain. Brother Price made some remark on the approaching hot season, and the inconvenience of our present situation; on which Moung Zah, inferring that it was on account of the climate that I was about leaving, turned to me, saying, ‘Then you will return here, after the hot season.’ I looked at the king, and said that if it was convenient, I would return; which his majesty again sanctioned by an acquiescing nod and smile, and in reply to brother Price, said, ‘Let a place be given him.’ Brother Price, however, thinks of retaining the small place on which we now live for medical purposes, and getting a place at Chagaing, on the opposite side of the river, for his permanent residence. “In the evening had a long conversation with Moung Zah on religion. He believes that there is an eternal God, and that Gaudama, and Christ, and Mahomet, and others are great teachers, who communicated as much truth respectively as they could, but that their communications are not the word of God. I pressed my arguments as far as I dared; but he seemed to have reflected much on the subject, and to have become quite settled and inflexible in his conclusions. He may be called a deistic Buddhist, the first that I have met in the country. On parting, however, he remarked, ‘This is a deep and difficult subject. Do you, teacher, consider further, and I also will consider.’