Show RANGOON burnish Bur niah sept 10 53 ADDRESS to the governor general of india written by sau qua la production of a karen 1 the goodness of god my nation sons of the forest and children of poverty ought to praise thy nation the white foreigners exceeds exceedingly ing and we ought to obey your orders for the karens the sons of the eastern forest have neither head bead nor oar ear they are poor and scattered everywhere a I 1 are divided in ever every y direction at the sources of the waters and in the glens above them when they fall among the siamese the siamese make them slaves when they the fall among the bur mans the bermana make them slaves so they live on one stream beyond another and cannot see each other they have had other things to do rather than visit vigil the barbane make them drag boats cut rattans rattana rat tans collect darner damer seek beeswax gather car strip bark for cordage clear way away cities pull logs and weave large mats besides this they demanded of them presents of yams bams the bulbous tubers of arum amm ginger capsicum flesh of elep elephant ha nt tusks rhinoceros horns and all th the various ari kinds of vegetables that are eaten by the bur mans the men being employed thus the women had to mar labor at home sometimes the men were not at home but four or five days daya in two or three months further farther the young females had to secrete thea themselves selves and affect rudeness mw and blacken their faces for if they did not the barman officers would drag them away and make them prostitutes tit utes if any one was reputed handsome liand some and it cane came to the ears of the burman barman rulers she was i taken away immediately so that the young females dared not appear openly sometimes when a burnia asked to Is she a maiden toe the karens would reply falsely no she has a husi hasi band the married women also that were handsome had to conceal themselves j the men were compelled by the burman rulers to guard forts and act as guides to kidnap stem slam ese and to go from one place to another till many I 1 dropped down dead in the midst of the jungle I notwithstanding they dball this they had their arms amis twisted behind them were beaten with j stripes boxed with the fist and pounded with the elbow days without end in the midst of these sufferings they remembered the ancient sayings I 1 of the elders and prayed beneath the bushes bashes though the rains poured upon them or the mus qui toes the gnats the leeches or the hore flies I 1 bit them the elders said children and grand i children as to the karen nation their god shall j yet save them hence in their deep afflictions they prayed if god will save us let him save I 1 speedily we can endure these sufferings no BO longer alas where is god sometimes the burgans would kidnap the karens in slam siam and carry them up to ava to the I 1 presence of the kins kings and t thus sep separated abated from I 1 father or mother husband or of wife child or grand 1 child they yearned for each other and many j sickened and died on the way before reaching the monarchs feet sometimes the siamese kidnapped the karens in burmah and subjected them to like treatment the karens in slam siam knew tint that those whom the siamese brought from burmah were their relatives and their tears team flowed when they saw them I 1 yet they dared not tell the siamese or supplicate for them so those in burmah leading away the karens they had kidnapped in slam siam knew that they were their cousins yet they dared not speak or entreat for them for if they said mid they were their relations or begged for them death was the immediate consequence moreover the karens dare not dwer dwell near the cities for fo the burmese took away all their rice and paddy and everything they had bad and carried off their women by force hence they went far off and dwelt on the streamlets stream lets and in the gorges of the mountains after all the rulers sometimes took their paddy and in a state of starvation they would eat at random the roots and leaves of the jungle thus great numbers died sometimes the rulers assembled them together near the city where having nothing to eat great numbers died of sickness and starvation sometimes they would have to carry rice for soldiers under march and unable to cultivate their fields great numbers died of hunger from this cause then those whom the rulers called if unable to go either from sickness in their families or in their own persons had to give money to the officers that came and money for the rulers that sent thorn them and if they had bad no money they were compelled to borrow of the bunnens Bun Buri nans and thus become their slaves to those who watch the great tide of events connected with the more important interests of man the very remarkable traditions of scripture facts and doctrines existing amongst the karens and those anticipatory of the coming of the europeans to emancipate them from bondage and ignorance m nee the three of the above lines are the remarks of a baptist missionary I 1 here remark that it has fallen to our lot to he be thrown among a Is large r ge portion of this unfortunate and distressed people 0 lord what shall we do I 1 here pause fora for a reply but to continue the extract from the letter of san qua la as interpreted and commented on by they the people eople themselves Ka karens reas great ruler the ancestors of the karens charged their posterity this children and grandchildren if the thing come by laud land weep if by water laugh it will not come in our oar days but it will in yours if it first come by water you iu will be able to take breath but if first by land nd you will not find a spot to dwell in hence when the katens karens were in the midst of these intense sufferings they longed for those that were to come by water to come first again the elders said when the karens have cleared the hornbill city the cite of an old city near davoy which the karens were called in to clear occasionally where the trees tram grow grew up over ever it three times happiness will arise so when the burman rulers made them clear it the die last time th they said id among themselves now we may suppose suppo happiness ai is coming for this completes the third time of clearing the he hornbill Horn hill city and true enough for before they had finished we heard that the white foreigners had bad taken rangoon then the burmese rulers made the karens carry stones and throw them into davoy river that the foreign ships might not be able to come up they compelled them also to become soldiers and to march each one with a bow and quiver and as they had no guns gans every one had to arm himself also with a cudgel for the burman said that when the foreigners lot got on land they would be unable to walk and might be beaten to death with sticks when however the news came that the foreigners had entered the mouth of davoy ri river the karens let themselves down over the wall of the city by night and fled into the jungles then the karens all ran and secreted themselves both men and women and children cooking food only when the he smoke could be concealed by the clouds and vapors for they were apprehensive that if the bermans were overcome they would fly also and trace them by the smoke some of the men in the city were unable to get away and remained till it was taken and some that fled were unable to find ther their families they having previously secreted the themselves selves in a little more than ton ten days however we heard that the foreigners fore i had bad taken possession and those who wison wished t to oro go to the city had liberty then the karens rejoiced and said odd now happiness has arrived the thing has come by water now we may take breath and those guise that were concealed returned to their homes with their wives and little ones at AI that time I 1 was a youth not yet married and I 1 went to the city with my father and moth mother and brother there a black servant that spoke burman barman saw us and said the ruler rider has sent me to call you he wishes to look at you we feared but followed and thought to ourselves will he kill kig us or bid us live and we were exceedingly sorrowful oo on going in we saw three of them and when we were about to prostrate ourselves at their feet the man called us and said stand up said and 59 we stood after they had looked at us ww and felt aar our clothes and our heads they gave each of us a red turban and to my father and mother they gave four rupees and to my brother and myself a rupee each making three saying servant fear not take it take it and go buy food so we returned re rejoicing joicin the tack mack soldiers too that guarded the gates of the city did nothing to us when we come and returned but merely looked at us it was not so when tho tha burman soldiers guarded the gates the karens soon learned that the foreigners were not vile like the bermans Bur mans and they came to the city frequently and the women with them formerly the women were afraid of the bur mans and dared not come to the city so they had bad never seen it besides it was very pleasant to look at tile the foreign soldiers standing in a straight b t chev rows and as they were quiet and civil the karens a brought their wives and little ones to look at them then we remembered the words of the prophet who said see the white foreigners the white foreigners th they stand gracefully eat gracefully drink y sleep gracefully dwell gracefully go gracefully retain gracefully Vs speak gracefully talk gracefully and he sung the sons of god the white foreigners drew dress in ahod shining blacks black and shining white the white foreign foreigners ersle the children of god dress in shining black and shining red and so we saw them they came with black soldiers and white soldiers and the rulers were dressed just as the pro prophet het said we had never seen on w emte bi to foreia foreigners a el ff before re but but we had heard the elders say As to the white foreigners they are righteous they were the guides of god anciently ad so god blessed them and they sailed in in ships and nd cutters and can crow cross oceans and jeveli lands the emers said further that the be karew karens were originally naDy seven evea brethren of whom the white foreigners wee bep tho the you youngest SUU sta the goner generation atlon before us that told us these things thing had never keen awn them and knew not how they looked they I 1 merely related what the elders said anciently 1 though the goodness of god my generation is permitted to a see them the elders further sung in relation to the white foreigners who were I 1 coming they prayed diligently for their arrival the prophet too sung at worship the city of of ava says she is in great she is not equal to gods foot the city of ava va says say she is in exceedingly I 1 great t I 1 she is not equal to the sole of gods foot fo t 11 thus I 1 they sung and prayed that the white foreigners foreigner might come when they arrived the karens in burmah and siam heard of each other and saw each other their origin appears involved in mystery some think they sprang apran g M from K kh en emigrants from the borders of ch china ih thabet ib t wo who are spread over various parts of ava rev mr mason of davoy w writing rid n x in in 1836 says that the alphabet powers 0 of f the karen language are of arabic amble or he brew origin col symes who visited the barman empire in 1795 on an embassy to the court of ava heard of these people from a station missionary then resident of rangoon he called them caray camy ners or Care annas inhabiting different parts of the country particularly the western provinces of dalla and bassoon Basse eu several societies dwell near rangoon they are represented as a simple in race speaking a distinct language from the bunnens Bun Bar nans mans the most industrious subjects of the state excluding all other sects never interning ling or ng jig with strangers not engaging eng lp g in war nor taking any part agriculture toe care of cattle raising poultry are t their heir chief employ empl ments the largest portion have gone into the e mountains of african I 1 feel like paul on his return back to jerusalem in a vision or trance in te temple when the lord told him to return or leave the city for they would not receive his te testimony stimon y and go hence paul reasoned with the lord but he t told alfo him the second time to depart though the lord has not as yet told us to depart they will not or have not as yet received our testimony tho I 1 re baptized ww wm adams in this city I 1 tell them if they will not receive us we will go far hence to skim siam or the mountains of african or where the lord says the spirit says go among the karens and be blest it if they will not receive your testimony here what say y my brethren in the valley I 1 am as clay in rangoon I 1 hope ready to be fashioned into whatever vessel the lord says I 1 will go at your cau call or come at your bidding the way has not opened as yet to siam tho almost in a sight thol lit the decolto or robbers are in a our way abo I 1 do not fear deaths death if god says go I 1 have covenanted to obey I 1 a am in in his hands and have no fear I 1 know our fare will be hard sometimes a little curry and rice no bread and few roots and yams bams no valley dainties 0 could coald I 1 see a dog from the valley I 1 would kiss him but I 1 must not hardly think of hope dear br grant remember me to all the saints and my dear family comfort them ELAM LUDINGTON to JEDEDIAH M GRANT |