Before the force left a reconnoitring party had been sent up to Kamaing, and had reported the road to be very difficult. The report was not found to be exaggerated. Marching through elephant-grass and thick forest, which hid everything except the immediate neighbourhood, a hardly visible path, obstructed often by huge fallen trees; camping-grounds which had to be laboriously cleared of elephant-grass[46] and undergrowth, before standing-room could be found for the animals or resting-place for the men, with sometimes heavy rain which drenched every one, made the march anything but pleasant. All hardships, however, were born with cheerfulness; and as the country was new and unexplored, and there was a chance of a fight at any time, the men were full of spirit. They and their officers were true soldiers. On the 30th the stream on the opposite bank of which lay Kamaing was reached. It ran deep, and the banks were precipitous. Fortunately, it was only about the width of a cricket pitch. Trees were felled and elephant-grass cut, and with the aid of a big trunk found sticking up in the bed of the river, a bridge was made, over which the whole force, laden animals and all, safely crossed. "Kamaing," writes Major Adamson, "is splendidly situated on a small hill, close to the river, at the point where its two main branches unite, the larger branch, the Nampoung, coming from the Indawgyi Lake in the south-west" (ibid., p. 40). It had been a flourishing town, as the still remaining monasteries and pagodas proved. These religious buildings were, however, deserted, the last monk having died a year before. Of the whole town only a few houses remained. The place had shared the fate of all this country in the Kachin rebellion of 1883. There were still a few shops, however, where Manchester goods could be bought, and articles of food for daily use were to be had. Country spirits and opium were also on sale. Here letters came in from the two brothers who ruled the hills in which the jade-mines are situated. They were called Kansi Naung and Kansi Hla. Their tone was friendly, though they wrote with the hope of preventing the advance of our people from Mogaung. Answers were sent by mounted messengers, saying that the force was already at Kamaing and would continue its march next day, and assuring the Sawbwas of our peaceable intentions.