Pagan-galay and Sinbyu-gyun (White Elephant
Island) face each other across the water. I have left
my little launch, with all her struggles to breast the
tide, and am embarked upon one of the great ships
of the Flotilla with two flats in tow. One hundred and
fifty feet of pathway is the right we claim, and the roar
of our thundering paddles, the deep throbbing of the
hidden engines, mark the unequal conflict between the
immemorial river and this new factor driving ruthlessly
ahead, and caring
n o t h i n g for its
pr ot e s t . Brute
f o r c e driven by
pitiless mind is the
burden of the iron
paddles as t he y
tear through the
heart of the water ;
of the engines, as
A STEAMER OF THE FLOTILLA ^ S W ' n g t 0 t H e
wrath of the driven
flame. The waters plunge in great billows between the
flats and the steamer’s side, and the rudder cleaves a line
between. Long after the ship has passed, her course
is marked upon the river’s surface, and every inch of
the shore and every boat drawn up along it, or abroad
upon the waters, knows, by the strange paroxysm, of
the portent that has passed.
Sale, at which we anchor for the night, is a place
of ancient ruined pagodas, giant gryphons, and carved
M ON A STERY AN D PAQODA
monasteries. There are two new white and op-old
pagodas here in the Pagan style. The Phaya-taga, the
builder of one of these, a fine old man who has made
his money in trade, is--cheerily; superintending the completion
of the details: the painting of the four tagdn-
daings of vermilion and gold with the galon-bird at
their summits, and the gilding of the Recording Angels
over the great bell. There is a very beautiful view,
from where he stands, of the wide river; so still that it
would look asleep, but for the long canoes almost racing
down its tide? This old man has amassed a fortune and
has lived the strenuous life. Now that the evening of
his days has come upon him, he turns with the fine
3 4 ?