Tounghoo Women by Ellen B. Mason

TOUNGHOO is the capital of an ancient kingdom, a principality of Ava. It is about eighty miles in extent, from East to West, and one hundred from North to South, covering an area of some 8000 square miles. It is about sixty miles East of Prome, and 100 West of Siam. It lies in the valley of the Sittang river, a rich level rice country, with a range of mountains looming up on the East, in some parts said to be seven and eight thousand feet, and another lower range on the West. Beyond these mountains on the right flows the Salwen, and on the left the Irriwaddy.

The Burmese of this old Principality, in many respects differ from those of Martaban or Tenasserion. They are a taller more athletic race, more haughty and independent. There were a great number of Chiefs or Khans in Tounghoo, when the English took possession, but only a few submitted to the foreign government. About sixty, it was said, fled away to the North, and stockaded about sixty miles north of the city. Here they continued for a long time, carrying on their guerilla warfare and plundering the disarmed inhabitants of the land. A few weeks after I entered the city, their banditti gang came right under the English guns, robbed one man, shot another in the bazaar, and led off a poor woman at the end of a long noose. Hearing the noise about midnight, I rushed on to the verandah, enquiring the cause, when the marauders instantly fired and hurried on.