Cart roads are now being constructed on both routes, and that south of the Taiping river could easily be continued through Manyiin to Momein if the Chinese should be induced to co-operate.
The whole of the country along the banks of the Irrawaddy, the Mole, Taiping and Kaukkwe, is generally in a water-logged condition during the rains.
He remained with the British force of occupation in northern China until April 1862, when the British troops, under the command of General Staveley, proceeded to Shanghai, in order to protect the European settlement at that place from the Taiping rebels.
The Taiping revolt, which had some remarkable points of similarity with the Mandist rebellion in the Sudan, had commenced in 1850 in the province of Kwangsi.
In June the Tien Wang, seeing his cause was hopeless, committed suicide, and the capture of Nanking by the imperialist troops shortly afterwards brought the Taiping revolt to a conclusion.