EAST INDIA AFFAIRS.
During this year a serious war broke out between the East India Company and the Burmese sovereign. For some years a misunderstanding had existed between the two powers, arising from a mutual claim to the countries of Chittagong and Dacca, Moorshedabad and Cassimbazar. These, the Burmese monarch said, did not belong to India; and on several occasions he had demanded them of the company, threatening to destroy their country if the revenues were not given up. It was the Rajah of Ramere who actually laid claim to them; but he could do nothing without the aid of the Burmese king; and the latter took up his quarrel. Under the administration of Lord Teignmouth and Lord Hastings various petty encounters with the Burmese troops had been sustained, as well as with other predatory hordes of India. The contest between the British government and the Burmese empire did not actually commence till the present year. The Burmese forces had advanced for the purpose of restoring the deposed Rajah of Cachar, who had sought refuge in the Burmese dominions, and whose successor was supported by the British. For this and other acts committed by the Burmese sovereign, it was resolved to chastise him. Early in this year orders were given for equipping a force of about six thousand men at the presidencies of Forts William and St. George; and the two divisions were directed to assemble at Port Cornwallis, in the Great Andaman island, whence the combined forces were to proceed to attack Rangoon, the principal seaport in the Burmese territories. The command was given to Major-general Sir Archibald Campbell; and the total number of troops under him was 8,071, about half being British. The expedition put to sea on the 5th of May, at Calcutta; and a part of the force was detached, under General McCreagh, against the island of Cheduba, and another, under Major Wahab, against Negrais. The rest of the fleet sailed up the Rangoon river on the 11th of May, and anchored off the town. As the place was not prepared for resistance, the governor, after a few shots had been fired from the principal battery, which was quickly silenced by one of the ships, directed the inhabitants to retire into the recesses of the jungle. The city, with its mud houses, was abandoned to the invaders, and everything that could serve for provision was removed far beyond their reach. It had been imagined that the capture of Rangoon, or any part of the enemy’s maritime possessions, would induce the king to accept the terms of government. It was soon found, however, that not only the Burmese monarch, but the people of Pegu, whose co-operation had been reckoned upon, were preparing for decided hostilities. Distress soon prevailed among the British troops, for there were no provisions near, and the boatmen of the Rangoon had removed every serviceable vessel out of their reach. To add to the distress of the army, the rainy season set in; and it was also kept in continual alarm by the nightly irruption of the enemy into its lines. The chief command, however, had been given to an officer of ability and zeal; and every obstacle was finally surmounted. On hearing of our offensive operations, the court of Ava lost no time in making preparations for our expulsion. Every town and village within three hundred miles of Bangoon was obliged to send its complement of armed men, under their respective chiefs; and the Irrawaddy was covered with fleets of warriors from all the towns on its banks, proceeding to the general rendezvous of the army. The Burmese monarch had said that the English should not disturb the women cooking their rice at Rangoon; and now that they had not only been disturbed, but driven from their homes, he resolved to be revenged on them. The first conflict took place on the 16th of May, when Captain Birch dislodged the enemy from the village of Kemmendine, a war-boat station three miles above Rangoon. Nothing daunted, however, the enemy, as their numbers increased, gradually approached the British position, and threw up stockades in the jungle within hearing of our advanced posts. Of this work the British commander took no notice, as it was his wish to come into close contact with his antagonists, he being unable to attempt any distant operation. On the 28th of May an advanced corps was stockaded within little more than musket-shot distance from our piquets; and Sir Archibald Campbell, with four companies of Europeans and four hundred native infantry, with two field-pieces, moved out to reconnoitre. His advanced guard soon came on the first stockade thrown across the path; but the work being incomplete its defenders retired after exchanging a few shots. Continuing its march, after a progress of about five miles, the column came to a narrow wooden bridge over a morass, where the enemy was beginning to form. This bridge had just been forced by the fire of the artillery, when one of those tempests which usher in the south-west monsoon came on; and as the field-pieces could be dragged no further, the general left them in charge of the native infantry, and advanced with his European troops. They moved on by échellon of companies; and the left flank, which passed close to the jungle, found some villages defended in front by two stockades, whence proceeded shouts of defiance from the enemy. These stockades were attacked at the point of the bayonet; and a fierce and sanguinary conflict took place, in which great numbers of the enemy were slain. During this attack on the stockades the Burmese general in the plain made no movement for their defence; but as soon as the British were seen in possession of the works, a horrid yell was heard, and the whole line of Burmese troops was seen to advance towards them. They were checked by a company which had not yet been engaged, and by the appearance of those troops which had carried the works, who moved forward to receive these new opponents. An attempt at negociation was now tried by the enemy; but it was rather to gain time than to seek peace. They were, in fact, still occupied in erecting fortifications; and our troops were obliged again to attack the war-boat station of Kemmendine, as well as other stockades in different parts. Before the end of June, however, the enemy recovered from their panic; and, having received large re-enforcements, advanced again, under Sykia Wongee, third minister of state. The jungles were animated with living masses, and their tumultuous preparations for battle contrasted strangely with the stillness and quiet of the British lines. Our troops at this time had been much diminished by sickness and death; but they were recruited by the eighty-ninth British regiment from Madras, and the detachments that had been sent to the capture of Cheduba and Nagrais, places which soon fell into their hands. Early in July a battle took place round the great pagoda, in which the Burmese were signally defeated. Sykia Wongee was recalled in disgrace; but his successor, Soombe Wongee, was not more successful. This latter general lost his life, with eight hundred men, in the fortification; and the jungles and villages around were filled with unhappy creatures who were left to perish. Soon afterward the rains were at their height, and operations ceased in this quarter; but an expedition was sent eastward, under Colonel Miles, who reduced the whole coast of Tenasserim. During the season of tranquility the princes of Tonghoo and Irmwaddy joined the Burmese army, in order to inspire them with confidence, and to keep the officers to their duty. They were accompanied by numerous astrologers, as well as by a corps called “Invulnerables:” men curiously tattooed, and accustomed to exhibit the war-dance of defiance, and to expose themselves to the hottest fire of an enemy, that they might inspire the rest with courage and confidence. The astrologers were some time before they could mark out a propitious day for attacking the British position. At length, however, they fixed on the night of the 30th of August. The invulnerables promised to assault and carry the great pagoda, that the princes and grandees might celebrate the grand annual festival in that sacred place. On the night in question, therefore, this body advanced with swords and muskets, uttering clamorous imprecations against the invaders. They advanced toward the northern gateway; but they were greeted with showers of grape-shot and successive volleys of musketry, which made such havoc in their masses, that they were compelled to seek shelter in an adjacent jungle. At length the Burmese monarch determined to repair the loss of honour which his troops had sustained. He had sent his most celebrated general, Maha Bandoola, to take the command of the Arracan army, destined for the invasion of Bengal. Maha Bandoola had routed a detachment of native infantry at Ramoo, and was busied in erecting stockades as the basis of future operations, when an order arrived for him to return to the defence of the golden empire. His return to Ava not only restored confidence to the Burmese troops opposed to the British, but acted as a spell to draw the reluctant people round his banners. In the meantime, whilst a large fleet of war-boats, with a train of artillery was preparing to fall down the river, and orders were issued for the various detachments to join Bandoola on his progress, the British ranks were thinned by the endemic fever of the rainy season, and a severe dysentery. It was determined to remove the sufferers to Mergui and Tavoy, two towns on the coast of Tenasserim, where they rapidly recovered, and were soon restored to their comrades. In the early part of November, the rains having ceased, and the men again become fit for action, they anticipated with joy a forward movement. At this time re-enforcements were received from Calcutta; and a regiment of cavalry, a troop of horse-artillery, and a rocket corps were ordered to join. Before, however, the British could advance, they had to dispose of the whole military force of Ava, This force now consisted of 35,000 musketeers, 700 Cassay cavalry, and other troops, amounting in the whole to 60,000 men. On the 30th of November this great force assembled in the forest of Rangoon, fronting the great Shoedagon pagoda. On the following night the low hum of voices proceeding from the encampment suddenly ceased, and it was succeeded by the distant but gradually increasing sounds of a multitude moving stealthily through the woods. The British commander soon became aware that the enemy’s masses had approached to the edge of the jungle, ready to rush from their cover at break of day. A great number of war-boats had been seen in the morning, by the “Teignmouth,” coming down the river; and in the evening they came forward with fire-rafts. The post was left open to a furious attack by land and water; but it was courageously defended by the garrison under Major Yates, supported on the river by a small naval force. Hostilities commenced on the morning of the 1st of December with a heavy fire of musketry and cannon at Kemmendine, where the “Teignmouth” was again driven from her station by fire-rafts. The yells of the assailants were distinctly heard by our troops at the great pagoda; but when the firing ceased, and the smoke dispersed, the masts of our ships were still seen at their old station off the fort. In the course of the morning, Burmese columns appeared on the west side of the river, marching in five or six divisions; and when they reached the bank of the river opposite Rangoon, they commenced stockades and batteries for the destruction of our shipping. Later in the day columns were seen issuing ont of the forest, with flags and banners, about a mile in front of the eastern face of the pagoda; and the different corps, successively taking up their positions along a sloping woody ridge, formed the left of the line, the centre of which extended from the pagoda to Kemmendine. When this position was taken, the troops began to apply their intrenching tools with such activity and skill, that, in about two hours their moving masses were concealed behind a mound of earth. A detachment of the British army, however, soon forced these intrenchments, and drove the whole line from their cover. The intrenchments were discovered to be a succession of holes, capable of receiving two men each, and so excavated as to shelter their occupants from the weather as well as from the enemy. Every hole contained a supply of water, rice, and fuel, and a bed of brushwood, on which one man could sleep while the other kept watch. The Burmese re-occupied these trenches in the evening, which they protected by a strong corps; and on the next day they intrenched themselves within musket-shot of the northern face of the great pagoda. As their fire could now be brought to bear on the barracks of the soldiers, it became necessary to dislodge them from various points; and a series of attacks and combats commenced which lasted seven clays. Great spirit was manifested by the Burmese troops; for when their left wing was defeated, it merely retreated on the right, and the struggle was renewed until that division also was routed, with the loss of 5,000 men. Still undismayed, the Burmese general intrenched himself within four miles of the great pagoda, at the village of Kokeen, but he was driven from his post after several brilliant exploits, in which the operations of the army were powerfully seconded by the flotilla. This was the last conflict during this year: after it had taken place the Burmese general retired to Donoobew, about fifty miles up the river. After their defeat the Burmese had recourse to negociations; but they were found to be not sincere, and therefore were unheeded. As a great number of inhabitants had returned to Bangoon, they introduced incendiaries into that town, who lighted up a conflagration which was not extinguished until more than a fourth part of the place was destroyed. During the whole of this campaign the British vessels and their boats were occupied in destroying fire-rafts, most of which were about one hundred feet square, and composed of dry wood piled up, with oil, turpentine, gunpowder, and other combustibles.
