Lawrence Dundas

“ The last town to hold out against the Imperial forces, it succumbed finally to treachery, being betrayed by the chief Minister of the Mohammedan commander within its gates.
The so-called "Panthay" rebellion began in a riot at a copper mine, and ended in the devastation of a province. The hand of God, indeed, lay heavy upon this corner of the dominions of the "Son of Heaven," for as though seventeen years of relentless civil warfare were not enough, plague and pestilence lit upon the scene, and added remorselessly to the havoc already wrought by the hand of man. ”

“ The mandarins in charge of the work at the mines, absorbed after the manner of their kind in the fascinating pastime of lining their own pockets, took no thought for the men slaving under them, but rather assumed the attitude of Pharaoh towards the Israelites when he said unto them, "Ye are idle, ye are idle; go ye, get you straw where ye can find it; yet not ought of your work shall be diminished." The Chinese are the most easily governed people in the world, yet there comes a time when even a Chinaman rebels, and, goaded beyond endurance under the rod of the taskmaster, they rose. ”

“ It must be remembered that the buying capacity of the people depends upon the success or failure of the opium and rice crops. The export of opium across the Sino-Burmese frontier is disallowed by treaty, hence the tendency to import foreign goods from other directions—i.e., the direction in which they sell their opium. ”