Now Sawlapaw had a long-standing grievance with the adjoining Shan State of Mawkmai. The cause, or the alleged cause, was the seizure by the Sawbwa of Mawkmai, twenty-two years before, of a number of elephants and timber in Karenni forests. He had endeavoured to get redress from the Burmese Government twice, but without success. The Burmese Government had disappeared, and now he had seen a British force come and go, he was told for good and all. He thought his opportunity had come, and advanced on Mawkmai. The Sawbwa of that State, by name Hkun Hmon, had a bad conscience. His father, Ne Nwe, the man whom Sawlapaw accused of robbing him of his elephants, had died some time back. According to Shan custom Hkun Hmon ought to have buried his father and divided the personality amongst certain relations who were entitled to it. Shan custom demanded that the burial should precede the payment of the legacies. Hkun Hmon disliking the idea of parting with the property, put off the burial indefinitely, making, it may be hoped, some sort of decent, if temporary, shelter for his father's body, by placing it, for example, in a coffin of teak with a generous covering of honey. Now the principal legatees were in Möngnai, and were connections of the Möngnai Sawbwa. Hence the "Smock-faced" Hkun Hmon, as Mr. Scott dubs him, when he heard of the Karenni force advancing upon him, knowing that Möngnai and the Karenni chief were allies, became conscience-stricken; and, imagining that a combined attack would be made on him, fled without raising a finger to defend himself. The Karenni entered Mawkmai on the 2nd of March without let or hindrance. They proceeded to burn the town and ravage the country. They destroyed everything. Even the monasteries and bridges were burnt. The Mawkmai Valley, which up to that time had escaped devastation and was the only part of the Shan States that had been spared, was completely ruined. Sawlapaw then appointed a man of his own to be Sawbwa of Mawkmai, and declared the State to be annexed to Karenni. Hitherto Eastern Karenni had been treated with much forbearance by the Chief Commissioner--more, perhaps, because it was inconvenient to move against it just then than from a desire to spare Sawlapaw. Mr. Scott, after returning to Mandalay with the Southern Shan Column (see p. 180), had hurried back by the Natteik Pass to Fort Stedman. Late in April the Chief Commissioner sent him orders to clear the Karenni out of Mawkmai and restore the rightful Sawbwa, Hkun Hmon. He left Fort Stedman on the 2nd of May, with a party under Colonel Sartorius of the Beleuchi Regiment, to execute these orders.