I believe that the dates in the 1880s that Q cites are for Kipling's first collection, "Departmental Ditties."

"Mandalay" first appeared on page 124 of The Scots Observer (June 21, 1890), as No. 10 of Kipling's series of "Barrack-Room Ballads." The first line reads,

"By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' eastward to the sea."

Details for pedants only:

The same reading appears in the first book publication, p. 92 of "Departmental Ditties, Barrack-Room ballads, and Other Poems" (N.Y.: United States Book Company, Successors to John W. Lovell Company, 1890). The final stanza, like that of the Observer version, has "lookin' lazy."

Acc. to K's recent editor, Andrew Lycett, the book was first pub'd in N.Y.C. because K's "best friend in London was the American publisher Wolcott Balestier." Balestier was London agent for the United States Book Co.