receipt of these tidings, Sir Archibald Campbell gave orders for the immediate occupation of the works, and prepared to recommence, as speedily as possible, his march towards Prome.

When tidings reached the Burmese Court that the Bandoolah having fallen, the English army was advancing into the interior, terror and anxiety succeeded the arrogance and temerity of former days. The golden-footed monarch heard the intelligence with silent amazement; while the Queen smote upon her breast, exclaiming, 'Ama, ama!" (alas! alas!) The common people, who had hitherto borne the chief burden of the war, murmured against the government, and threatened an insurrection in the event of fresh levies being raised. Everywhere the greatest despondency prevailed, as to the probable fate of the capital: Bandoolah, the best general of the empire, had failed, and who could now hope for success. The English troops, formerly considered luxurious and effeminate, were now likened to the Balú, a peculiar species of demons, who, according to the Burmese superstition, feed upon human flesh. The discipline of the foreigners, their able management of artillery and rockets, together with the almost supernatural rapidity of their movements, excited alternately the admiration and dread of the Burmese. Their lively imaginations' invested the invading host with powers more than human. Some reported that they were invulnerable; others declared that the arms and legs chopped off in action had been almost instantly replaced by the English surgeons; whose wisdom and skill equalled, it was said, the courage and hardihood of the warriors. All expected the arrival of the fierce strangers at Ava, in a few hours, and anticipated the entire ruin of their capital and empire. Yet even during this period of universal panic, the national pride, so characteristic of a semi-civilized people, withheld the Burman authorities from making any attempts to avert the threatened blow

1825.]

ARRIVAL AT PROME.

299

by means of negotiations. They, indeed, seemed to consider all pacific overtures as artifices useful only in gaining time, or as affording a pretext for discovering the intentions of an enemy.

The Pakan-woon, who had been disgraced at the commencement of hostilities, was once more taken into favour, being considered the sole person capable of saving the empire. He was a man of considerable talent, though generally inimical to foreigners, and full of the confident arrogance that had hitherto distinguished the Burmese. He told the king that in a short time the foreigners should be defeated, and all the captured towns restored to his majesty's governors, an assurance which, for the present, restored the confidence of the Court, and rendered them desirous of trying once more the fortune of war.

In the meantime, Sir Archibald Campbell had reached Prome, which the enemy evacuated at his approach, after making an attempt to set fire to the place. Here the English fixed their winter quarters during the wet season; small parties being sent out from time to time for the purpose of collecting provisions and examining into the nature of the surrounding country. The officers commanding these detachments found the inland regions for the most part covered with thick jungles, and exhibiting scarcely any signs of cultivation. Scattered hither and thither, appeared a few collections of miserable huts, the inhabitants of which regarded the white strangers with wonder and timid surprise. They seemed perfectly ignorant of recent events, and had not apparently been visited by the Burmese troops. The route of the latter towards the north-east lay principally along the bank of the Irrawaddi, where heaps of ashes, ruined villages, and groups of hungry, masterless dogs, bore a painful testimony to the desolating effects of warfare.

The kindness manifested by the British army towards the inhabitants, induced numbers to return and establish

themselves at Prome, bringing with them all kinds of provisions and merchandise. The plains between that city and Rangoon, also, once more assumed a flourishing appearance, being covered with droves of oxen and sheep, who fed in safety upon their rich pastures under the mild rule of the European invaders. The majority, indeed, of the Burmese seemed to feel their presence as an agreeable change from the rapacity and tyranny of the native government, while not a few wishes were breathed that the victors would not speedily abandon a soil, which, after having been heroically subdued by their valour, was magnanimously protected by their clemency and justice.

During the sojourn of the English at Prome the Pakan-woon used every exertion to raise a fresh body of troops. He persuaded the king to offer the payment in advance of a hundred ticals to each recruit; and this unwonted liberality soon furnished the Burmese ranks with many volunteers, who, not having seen the glitter of the British bayonets, were scarcely aware of the danger to which they exposed themselves. The sum total of these forces amounted, by the end of September, to nearly 70,000 men, their head-quarters being fixed at Meaday, a town situated on the banks of the Irrawaddi, sixty miles beyond Prome. Of these, 15,000 were Shans, from the borders of China, whose natural daring had been materially augmented by the presence of three young women, supposed to be possessed of miraculous powers, who promised to render the balls of the English perfectly harmless by the exercise of their magic art.

The forces at Prome under the command of General Campbell did not exceed in number 3,000 men, but he expected daily a reinforcement of 2,000 more. As his instructions from the Indian government specially inculcated the necessity of endeavouring to secure peace, whenever there seemed the slightest probability that it

1825.]

NEGOTIATIONS.

301

could be obtained, Sir Archibald despatched a letter to the chiefs assembled at Meaday. This overture, emanating from a victorious enemy, occasioned no small surprise to the Court of Ava. Some thought that the king of England discountenanced the war, while others imagined that India had risen against the English; but the opinion most commonly prevalent was, that the king of Cochin China had sent fifty ships of war to assist the Burmese, thereby occasioning in the minds of the white strangers the most anxious fear and alarm as to the future practicability of their return to India. It was

deemed advisable, however, that some notice should be taken of General Campbell's missive, but a little experience soon showed that, like all Burmese negotiations, the chief object was to gain time. Sir Archibald and his staff met the Burmese commissioners at a village about twenty miles from Prome; but while professedly desirous of peace, these envoys refused every proposition that seemed likely to terminate the war. They obtained finally an armistice of twenty days, and diligently employed that period in making preparations for an attack upon the British position. Towards the close of the truce the English general received the following laconic communication:-"If you desire peace, you may go away; but if you ask either money or territory, no friendship can exist between us. This is Burman custom."

Such an ultimatum left only one course to be pursued; and Sir Archibald commenced at once his arrangements for the renewal of hostilities. The enemy, on the other hand, rendered confident by their numbers, and by the various superstitious arts practised for the purpose of inflaming their valour, advanced in three columns from Meaday, vowing that they would speedily annihilate the presumptuous foreigners. One division followed the course of the Irrawaddi, while the other two threatened the front and rear of the English.

On the 15th of November, tidings reached the com

mander-in-chief that the Burmese had approached within sixteen miles of Prome, and were erecting stockades at a piace called Wattygoon. He instantly sent off a corps of sepoys, under Colonel McDowall, to dislodge them; but that officer, being slain at the commencement of the attack, his men grew timid, and finally retreated, though in excellent order.

This slight success so much encouraged the Burmese that they resolved to attack Prome itself without delay. Maha Nemeow, their best and most experienced general, was in command of the centre division, occupying that side of the river on which the city stands, while the Sudda-woon prepared to cooperate with him from the opposite bank. The commander-in-chief, however, took little notice of these movements, but suffered the enemy to erect and occupy their stockades unmolested until the 1st of December, 1825. He then sallied forth to attack them both by land and water, the gun-boats pouring in their fire upon the enemy's flank, while the troops assailed them vigorously in front.

The Shans, who had never before encountered the English, behaved, on this occasion, with desperate though unavailing valour. The three sorceresses rode up and down among their ranks, exhorting and encouraging the men; but the futility of their vain pretensions to supernatural skill now became, evident, even to their own votaries. One of these Amazons, being pierced by a bullet, was borne to a neighbouring cottage by the English soldiers, where she expired shortly afterwards; while another fell from her horse into a small river, which she was crossing with a host of fugitives. The ablest of the Burmese chiefs died on the field of battle; while the mass of the army, having lost their general in the action, retreated, on all sides, towards the heights of Napadee.

The new position had been carefully fortified, by means of stockades and other defences, behind which