Burmah and the Burmese

by Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie

Beinga Della, in the beginning of 1755, marched from Pegu upon the city of Prome, then occupied by a garrison of Burmans. Here, however, he met with no degree of success, and when Meinlaw Tzezo, the commander sent by Alompra to relieve the town, approached, they had not the sense to engage him in open fight. After a little skirmishing, therefore, he eluded them, and threw himself into the place.

Forty days passed without the Peguers gaining any advantage, yet they prolonged the siege of Prome with no little obstinacy. But Alompra, with one of those tremendous marches for which he was so celebrated, soon came rushing down upon them, sweeping away men, stockades, war-boats, and everything else. Yet considerable bravery was exhibited in the naval portion of the battle. “Instead of his ineffectual fire from ill-directed musketry,” says Symes,[214] “the boats closed, and the highest personal prowess was evinced on both sides; knives, spears, and swords, were their weapons; after a long and bloody contest, victory declared for the Burmans, whilst the vanquished Peguers sought safety in a precipitate flight.”

This defeat spread consternation and horror throughout the Peguese part of the population, and while the Burmans hailed the approaching change, the others fled in all directions. It was not any transitory panic, like many of those which had taken place before, but an enduring terror, which relaxed both their mental and bodily strength, and drove them from their homes, and they wandered, Orestes-like, through the land, not daring to lay their heads anywhere, for they knew not when the enemy would be upon them.

No wonder, then, if a reconnoitring party of the Burmese discovered, on the 17th of February, 1756, that Bassein was utterly deserted by the Peguese population. The Burmese that were in the place joined Alompra’s standard, and the populous emporium of Bassein was left to the English, who still remained under Captain Baker in their factory. On the 23rd, the Burman force returned, and marched up to the British post. Captain Baker received them peacefully, and claimed protection for the servants and property of the India Company, which was granted him. After remaining a short while, and burning the remainder of the town, they retired to Kioukioungee, a town on the opposite side of the river Bassein.

From this time to the 13th March, nothing of much consequence occurred; but on that day Alompra, seeing the advantages likely to result from an alliance with England, sent a deputation to Captain Baker with a letter for Mr. Brooke, the head of the factories, then resident at Negrais. On the return of the captain with an order from Mr. Brooke that the deputies should accompany him to Negrais, the Burmans went to that place to transact the business. The objects of the embassy were not settled until the 26th, when the deputies and Captain Baker went back to Bassein. But what was their astonishment to find it in the hands of the Peguers, who had occupied the place three thousand strong. The captain was therefore obliged to send back the deputies to Negrais. By the 23rd of April, however, the district was again in the hands of the Burmans, as Alompra had again engaged and defeated Apporaza, at Synyangong.

The deputies now returned to Bassein, at which place they arrived on the 3rd of June, leaving it again on the 5th for Dagon, as Rangoon was then called, where Alompra was then staying.

“The French and English factories at Syriam were at this time in a state of rivalry, such as might be expected from the spirit of national emulation, and the avidity of traders on a narrow scale; the situation of both became at this juncture highly critical; danger approached, from which they could not hope to be entirely exempt. It was not to be expected that they would be suffered to remain in neutral tranquillity, indifferent spectators of so serious a contest: it therefore became necessary to adopt some decided line of conduct, in order to avoid being considered as a common enemy, whilst the contending powers seemed equally anxious to attack them. In this difficult situation, neither the French nor the English seem to have acted with policy or candour; and the imprudence of certain individuals finally involved others, as well as themselves, in fatal consequences.

“Monsieur Bourno, the chief of the French factory, in the interest of the Peguers, but apprehensive of the power, and dreading the success of the Birmans,[215] had recourse to dissimulation, and endeavoured to steer a middle course. Under pretence of occupying a station where he could more effectually aid the Peguers, he embarked on board a French ship, and with two other vessels belonging to his nation, dropped down from Syriam, and moored in the stream of the Rangoon river. Finding, soon after, that Alompra was likely to be victorious, he determined, if possible, to secure an interest in that quarter. With this intent he quitted his ship, accompanied by two of his countrymen, and proceeded in a boat to Dagon, where Alompra received him with marks of distinction and kindness; but on the second day after the departure of M. Bourno, the officer whom he left in charge of the ship during his absence, in concert with a missionary who had long resided at the factory, either impelled by fear, or prevailed upon by some secret influence, weighed anchor suddenly, and returned to the Peguers at Syriam, without permission from his commander, or even advising him of his intention.

“So extraordinary a step surprised Alompra exceedingly; he taxed Bourno with deceit; the Frenchman protested his own innocence, and argued the improbability of his assenting to any such measure whilst he remained in the Birman camp. He sent an order to his officers to return immediately; an injunction that was disregarded by them, under plea of their commander being a prisoner. He then requested leave from Alompra to go in person, and bring back the ship; to this the king consented, on condition of leaving one of his attendants (Savine, a youth) as a hostage for his certain return.

“From the procedure of Mr. Brooke, resident at Negrais, in his reception of the Birman deputies, and the aid of military stores sent by him to the Birmans, the English, when it became necessary to avow the side they meant to espouse, seem to have declared explicitly for the Birmans; and this principle was adopted not only by the resident at Negrais, but also by the factory at Syriam. The Hunter schooner, belonging to the India Company; the Elizabeth, a country ship, commanded by Captain Swain; and two other vessels, left Syriam in the month of May, and joined the Birmans at Dagon. In the beginning of June the Company’s snow Arcot, bound to Negrais, commanded by a Captain Jackson, and having on board Mr. Whitehill, a gentleman in the service of the East-India Company, proceeding to Negrais in an official capacity, put into the Rangoon river through stress of weather. A boat that had been sent in to fetch a pilot returned with an account of the state of affairs; and brought a letter and an invitation from Alompra to Captain Jackson, to carry his vessel up to Dagon, promising him every aid that the place afforded. On the 6th of June the Arcot reached Dagon, and Mr. Whitehill went on shore to pay his respects to the Birman king, by whom he was received in a manner that gave no apparent cause for complaint.... Until the arrival of the Arcot, with Mr. Jackson and Mr. Whitehill, no subject of offence seems to have been given to the English by the Birmans.”[216]