A. D. 1819-23.

British, when aware of his flight, had guarded all the roads leading to that fort, he contrived to enter it; but the killidar would not admit Cheetoo and his followers. When, however, the British had driven them under the walls, a fire of matchlocks from the fort repelled their pursuers, and enabled them to escape.

Apa Sahib did not remain long at Aseer. In the disguise of a religious mendicant, he made his way first to Burhaupûr, and then to Malwa. He was proceeding to Gwalior; when, finding that Sindia would not receive him, he went on to the Punjâb, where Runjeet Sing gave him shelter. He then went, and stayed some years with a petty rajah, in the Himalaya; and, finally, he was allowed to return, and reside in Jodhpûr, the rajah being security for his good conduct. Cheetoo having lost all his followers, endeavoured to escape into Malwa; but finding a pass of the Vindhya mountains guarded against him, he took shelter in an adjacent thicket, and he there was devoured by a tiger.

In consequence of the conduct of the governor of Aseerghur, siege was laid to that strong fortress, and it soon was forced to capitulate. Abundant proofs were found in it of Sindia's secret dealings with Apa Sahib, and of its having been by his secret directions that he had been received in the fortress, which, to punish him, it was now determined to retain.

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tive order from the Court of Directors to withdraw the exemption given to the house of Palmer and Co.; and when Sir Charles Metcalfe, who now became resident, instituted an inquiry into the state of affairs, it appeared that no reduction of expenditure had been made by Chandu Lal; that the debt to the house of Palmer and Co.,-who it appeared had acted on the approved Madras principle in the days of Paul Benfield,—now amounted to nearly 1,000,000l. bearing interest at 25 per cent.; and that large pensions were settled on the members of the firm, their relations, and dependents. The countenance of the government was immediately withdrawn from the firm, and money was lent to Chandu Lal to enable him to close his account with it.

This affair gave afterwards occasion to bitter attacks on the Marquis' character in the Court of Proprietors; for it happened that a leading partner in the firm was Sir W. Rumbold, who had married a young lady for whom the Marquis avowed he had the feelings of a parent. This partiality blinded the eyes of him who was the most disinterested of men, and he defended the house of Palmer and Co. much longer than was consistent with a proper regard for his own high character; but his honour and his integrity came out scatheless from the ordeal.

Sadat Ally, the Vizîr of Oude, died in the first year of Lord Hastings' administration. His son and successor, with the approbation, and even by the advice of the Governor-general, assumed the title of king. This, though it appears, and probably is, a trifling circumstance, has made him to a certain extent independent; for he is no longer a mere Sûbahdâr who can be at any time deprived of his authority.

The consequence of the war, undertaken simply for the suppression of the Pindarries, had, through the madness of the Maratta princes, been to establish the British dominion directly, or indirectly, over the whole of India. The entire dominions of the Peishwa, with the exception of the small territory granted to the rajah of Sattara, and the large cessions from Berâr, came directly under the dominion of the Company. Ajmeer, in Rajputana, also became a British possession; and all the Rajpût rajahs, even including the rajah of Ûdypûr, who had never acknowledged the supremacy of Mogul, or Maratta, placed themselves cheerfully | under British protection. This system of dependence and protection also extended to Gûzerât and Cutch, and Sindia remained the only prince in India, with whom there was not a subsidiary alliance. Henceforth, war in India has been nearly unknown, and the allied states, though not free from the evils of misgovernment, have advanced steadily in prosperity and happiness.

Lord Hastings quitted India (Jan. 1, 1823), after an administration of upwards of nine years, the longest there has been except that of Warren Hastings. He carried with him the respect and esteem of all classes both European and native. His foible had been vanity; but with it were united, as is often the case, the high courtesy and urbanity, which win the heart and control the feelings. The thanks of the Court of Directors and Proprietors had already been voted to him, and a sum of 60,000l. to purchase him an estate, for his liberal disposition had greatly impaired his circumstances.

In all public affairs the Marquis Hastings had displayed a high and noble spirit; it is therefore to be regretted that in a matter of a somewhat private nature his domestic feelings should have led him to act with imprudence. A Mr. W. Palmer, who had been in the military service of the Nizâm, had become a banker and merchant at Hyderabâd. He was joined by some of the officers of the residency; and in 1814 the house of Palmer and Co. obtained the sanction of the Bengal government. In 1816, they applied for and obtained exemption from the law interdicting loans to native princes by British subjects; and they immediately engaged in extensive pecuniary transactions with Chandu Lal, the Nizâm's minister. In 1820, they made, with the sanction of the resident, a loan of sixty lacs of rupees to the minister to enable him to pay off arrears and other incumbrances. Just at this time there came out a posi

In

It was in the time of Lord Hastings that the Church establishment of India was formed. Nov. 1814, Dr. Middleton, the newly-appointed Bishop of Calcutta, reached his see, But he was

a bishop without a clergy, for in the whole of British India at that time there were little more than thirty chaplains. He was a man of learning and piety, and good intentions; but he was deficient in knowledge of the world and human nature, and too full of the idea of the dignity of the episcopal office. He attached perhaps too much importance to things of inferior consequence in the eyes of people of more enlarged views; and he evinced a somewhat too captious disposition which impaired his influence. But he effected much good notwithstanding. He organized the clerical body, increased the number of chaplains, caused churches to be erected in various parts of India, and founded an extensive missionary college named Bishop's College at Calcutta, which, however, he did not live to see completed, and which has as

Bishop Middleton breathed his last on the 8th July, 1822. His successor was the pious and amiable Reginald Heber.

CHAPTER XI.

the British. The Burmans, insolent with success, committed sundry acts of aggression; and they even had the audacity to claim of Lord Hastings the surrender of Chittagong, Dacca, and Moorshedabad, in Bengal, as having been originally dependencies of Aracan, with a menace of hostilities in case of a refusal. Lord Hastings treated the demand with cool contempt, and there the matter rested when he left India. Soon, however, after the arrival of Lord Amherst, the Burmans made preparations for the conquest of Cachar, whose

of the War-March for Prome-Reduction of DonabewOccupation of Prome-Reduction of Aracan-Successive Defeats of the Burmese-Conclusion of Peace-Mutiny at Barrakpore-Affairs of Bhurtpore-Capture and Demolition of the Fortress.

THE person appointed to succeed Lord Hastings had been that brilliant orator and statesman, George Canning; but the sudden death of his rival, Lord Londonderry, just at this conjuncture, had opened to his view a career much more suited to his taste, and he declined the pomp of Indian sovereignty. The high office was then conferred on Lord Amherst, and he reached Calcutta on the 1st August, 1823, eight months after the departure of his predecessor.

Though the whole of India was under British sway, and no internal commotions were to be apprehended, there was a power on the confines which had not yet experienced the British prowess, and with which causes of quarrel had been for some time accumulating. This was the Burman empire in the eastern peninsula, which, being of recent formation, still retained the vigour to which it owed its origin.

The peninsula, named by the ancients the Golden Chersonese, by the moderns India beyond the Ganges, is watered by three great rivers, running nearly parallel from north to south. They are named the Irrawaddy, the Menam, and the Cambodia. The first runs through the kingdoms of Ava and Pegu ; the second, through that of Siam; and the last through Cochin China. From between the mouths of the Irrawaddy and the Menam, stretches the long narrow peninsula of Malacca; on the western coast of the great peninsula, and joining India, lies the country named Aracan. Further north is a state named Cachar, and above it the valley of Assam, through which flows the upper course of the Brahmaputra.

Ava, the people of which are named the Burmans, seems to have depended on the kingdom of Pegu. In the first half of the last century, the Burmans revolted and reduced Pegu; but they were soon after brought back to their former state of subjection. This, however, did not long continue; a Burman, named Alompra, who commenced operations with only a couple of hundred followers, and augmented his forces as he prospered, eventually succeeded in erecting the Burman dominion on the ruins of that of Pegu, the whole of which he conquered. He also subjugated Aracan and Manipur, in the eastern part of Cachar; and Assam fell under the power of the Burmans, in consequence of their being called in by rival claimants of the throne.

The occupation of Aracan and Assam brought

must either be given, or the Burmans be allowed to extend their frontier along the whole east of Bengal, the government saw it was no time for hesitation. Accordingly, troops were marched from Dacca to Sylhet, on the frontiers of Cachar; and when the Burmans invaded that country from Assam and Manipûr, the British acted against them. The immediate cause of war, however, between the two powers was the invasion by the Burmans of the little island of Shahpoorea, off the coast of Chittagong, on which the British had placed a guard of thirteen Sepoys, three of whom were killed, and the rest driven off. As the Burman court would give no satisfaction for that outrage, and still advanced its claim to Chittagong, and the other districts, no alternative remained but war; and on the 5th March, 1824, war was declared.

The plan adopted for the ensuing campaign was, that while a force, under Gen. McMorine, should move along the banks of the Brahmaputra, and enter Assam, where the people were known to be ill-disposed toward their Burman masters, a much larger force, under Sir Archibald Campbell, should attack Rangoon, on the southern coast of Pegu. The former moved from Goolpoor on the 13th, and after encountering much difficulty from the state of the country over which they had to march, entered Assam ; but the Burmese retired as they advanced, and the gradual reduction of the whole country was effected without much difficulty.

The great expedition was to be composed of troops from Bengal and Madras; and Port Cornwallis, the Great Andaman Isle, was the place of rendezvous. The whole number of troops to be employed, European and native, exceeded 11,000 men, all of which, but about 2000, were to come from Madras. In the beginning of May, all the troops, except the second division of the Madras forces, having arrived, the expedition sailed, accompanied by the Liffey, Commodore Grant, and three other small king's ships, some of the Company's cruisers, and the Diana steamer, the first of these vessels ever employed in war. On the 9th, they were off the mouth of the Rangoon river, and at noon, on the 11th, the fleet reached the town itself. The Liffey quickly silenced the fire of the enemy, the authorities and the inhabitants fled from the town, and at four o'clock the British flag was waving over it. As the Burmans, like the Nepâlese, made great use of stockades in war, and were very expert in the construction, and courageous in the defence of them, the attacks on these defences gave employment to the British troops for the remainder of the month, and many brilliant actions, though of course on a small

A. D. 1824-25.

scale, were performed. Ill-health at this time having obliged Commodore Grant to retire, the chief naval command remained with Capt. Marryat, of the Larne sloop of war.

During the month of June, some more stockades were attacked and carried, at one of which Major R. H. Sale of the 13th regiment distinguished himself by being the first man to mount the enemy's works. But now the effects of the usual error in our Asiatic wars, the not gaining the requisite previous knowledge of the country, began to be felt. The country was all jungle and swamp, and the provisions had all been removed by the Burmese. Dysentery and fever soon, therefore, began to thin the British ranks; to advance was impossible, and even to remain seemed hazardous. The king of Ava had now sent one of his highest ministers to take the chief command, with orders to drive the British out of the country. The latter had fortunately been reinforced by the second division from Madras, when (July 1) the Burmese general made his attack; but his troops were speedily driven into the jungle, their usual place of retreat, with the loss of 100 men, while the British had not even a single man killed or wounded. The Burmese general was immediately superseded; and his successor prudently resolved to confine his operation to the defence of stockades.

The principal stockade of the enemy was on a point of land where the river divides into two branches; and to defend it there were other stockades on the banks of the river. Two columns of attack were formed by the British, one under Gen. Macbean to go by land, the other under Sir A. Campbell to proceed in boats. Capt. Marryat having silenced the firing of the Burmese artillery, the men of this last column pushed off in boats, landed, scaled, and carried the first and second stockades; and the enemy then evacuated the only one remaining in that place. The other column meanwhile had reached the stockades against which it was directed. In ten minutes they had scaled and carried the first stockade they came to, at a second they met a more obstinate resistance, but they carried it also, and then proceeded to attack a third. The Burmese general, who had just been sitting down to dinner when the British first arrived, and who had gone on with his meal, merely ordering his chiefs to go and drive them away, now found it necessary to come to the place of action. The struggle was now hand to hand, and either himself or another chief of high rank was slain in single combat by Major Sale. This third stockade was carried, and then four others in succession, the whole affair having lasted only half an hour, in which time the British had not fired a single shot. The loss of the Burmese was from 800 to 1000 men, their general, and three other chiefs of rank, and thirty pieces of artillery.

An attack on a place named Kyloo proved a failure; but the town of Marteban, on the east side of a bay of that name, was captured, and a great quantity of guns and ammunition was found in its arsenal. But at Ramoo in Chittagong, misfortune befel the British: a party of 350 Sepoys under Capt. Noton, being cut to pieces by the Burmese. The chief, named Mengee Maha Bundoola, who commanded on this occasion, was immediately summoned to court, and the chief command of the

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army that was to act against the invaders was confided to him. He set out at the head of a large force, and on coming in front of the British position (Dec. 1) he commenced, and with singular rapidity, threw up a line of circumvallation around it, so that with the exception of the channel of the Rangoon in their rear, the British were surrounded. At the same time attempts were made to destroy the shipping, by sending fire-rafts down the stream. The Burmese were suffered to go on with their works for two or three days, the only interruption being a dash among them on the afternoon of the first day, by the gallant Sale, and a small detachment, in which he killed a good number of them and carried off arms and tools. At length (5th) Sir A. Campbell resolved to be the assailant. The point of attack was the enemy's left wing, against which two columns under Majors Sale and Walker were directed, while the flotilla under Capt. Chads, was to move up a creek in their rear, and thence to cannonade them. The undertaking was eminently successful; the enemy fled with great loss, that of the assailants was trifling; but Major Walker was among the slain. Two days after (7th), a general attack was made in four columns on the enemy's right, centre, and left. The Burmese, though at first somewhat daunted, made a gallant defence, but they were soon routed and driven into the jungle.

The Burmese army having reassembled and being reinforced, moved down to the vicinity of Rangoon. Their plan was to set fire to that town, which was built of very inflammable materials, and thus destroy the British stores and magazines. The town accordingly was fired (14th) in several places, and simultaneously; but the garrison succeeded in extinguishing the flames, though not till half the place had been consumed. Next day an attack was made on the Burmese army, one of the boldest deeds that have been achieved in our wars in the East. They were at least 20,000 men occupying a position of great strength, and all the forces that could be spared for the attack did not exceed 1500 men! 1500 men! Sir A. Campbell divided his small force into two columns, with one of which he proposed himself to attack the enemy in front, while the other under Gen. Willoughby Cotton, should make a détour, and on a given signal fall on the Burmese rear. When all was ready, and Gen. Cotton had answered the signal, the artillery opened, and the troops advanced with their scalingladders. The Burmese deemed them mad; but they saw them still advance and fix their ladders, and in fifteen minutes the British were masters of the whole of these formidable works, and the Burmese flying on all sides.

The military events of the year 1824 thus closed. Early in the following year, Sir A. Campbell, in order to hasten the termination of the war, having received reinforcements, resolved to advance to Prome, on the Irawaddy, the second city of the kingdom of Ava. Leaving 4000 men with Gen. McCreagh at Rangoon, he marched (Feb. 13) at

the head of a column of about 2500 men for the banks of the Irawaddy, along which a watercolumn of about 1000 men with a large train of artillery under Gen. Cotton was to proceed in a flotilla of sixty boats, escorted by those of the ships of war at Rangoon. Major Sale was meantime with a corps of 750 men to occupy Bassein, on a

A. D. 1826.

lera. By the end of the month they were at Patanago, on the left bank of the Irawaddy; while Melloon, on the opposite bank, was occupied by the Burmese army. Negotiations for peace had been going on, and in the first week in January (1826) a treaty was signed. An armistice till the 18th was concluded, to obtain the ratification of the king. This, however, did not arrive at the appointed time; and next day (19th) the British batteries were opened on Melloon, and after a cannonade of two hours, the troops destined for the attack pushed off across the river. The brigade, under Col. Sale, arriving first, without waiting for the others, landed, and forming, under Major Frith (for Col. Sale had been wounded in the boat), rushed on, and scaled the works, from which the enemy fled, and the other brigades soon completed the rout. The army now continued its forward march, till one day (Feb. 8) intelligence came that a Burmese army was lying about five miles ahead, on the road along which they were proceeding. This was a force of about 18,000 men, commanded by a general, whose title was Nawung Thuring, or Prince of the Setting Sun, and who, having represented to the king that the preceding defeats had been entirely owing to the incompetence of the generals, pledged himself to drive the invaders out of the country. He had disposed his troops in the form of a crescent, the main road running through the centre; and as his flanks were covered by jungle, he expected, that as the British could only attack in front, he would be able to envelope them. The British were not able to bring more than 2000 men into action, yet they hesitated not to attack (19th); but, instead of making the attack in front, as was expected, they managed to make it on the flanks. It was the first time the Burmese had ventured to meet the invaders in the field, and they stood the charge at first with firmness, but they were soon obliged to give way, and they fled as usual to the jungle; and the victors entered the town of Pugan, where they found abundance of guns, stores, and ammunition. The march was then resumed for Ava, and the army had reached Yandabo, within four days' march of that city, when the ratification of the treaty of peace was brought by Mr. Price, an American missionary, and Mr. Sanford, an English surgeon, who was a prisoner to the Burmese, both of whom had been for some time past employed by the king, in his negotiations with Sir A. Campbell.

By this treaty the Burmese ceded Assam, Aracan, and the country south of Marteban, along the coast of the peninsula. They also resigned all claim to Cachar and the adjoining provinces. They further agreed to pay a crore of rupees, one-fourth down, another at the end of one hundred days (on payment of which the British were to quit the Berman territories), a third at the end of a year, and the fourth at the end of two years. A minister from each state was to reside at the court of the other, and a commercial treaty was to be framed.

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as it is generally supposed to have been, in the matter of information and supplies.

In the commencement of the Burmese war occurred the mutiny at Barrakpore. The 47th, and two other native regiments, were stationed at that place, and under orders for Rangoon. The Hindoos have in general a dislike to proceeding by sea; they were terrified by the accounts of the swamps and jungles of the Burmese country, and the fate of the detachment at Ramoo had greatly alarmed them. The 47th, when ordered to appear on parade in marching order one day (Oct. 30) came without their knapsacks. On the reason being required, they said they were too old; they were told that new ones were on the way. They then declared that they would not move unless they got double batta, as increased pay had been given to bullock-drivers and others; and they heard that everything was very dear in the Burmese country. Communication being had with Sir E. Paget, the commanderin-chief, the regiment was again paraded, but it now broke out into open mutiny. Sir E. Paget then came, and as it was thought that the other two regiments could not be relied on, two king's regiments and some artillery were brought from Calcutta. The 47th was drawn up, and the command given to order arms; it was obeyed: that to ground arms followed, and but one man obeyed. Some guns in the rear then opened a fire on them, and the whole regiment broke and fled. Some were killed, many were made prisoners, of whom a few were executed, and others sentenced to hard labour, and the number of the regiment was struck out of the army-list. This mutiny, however, was not of a dangerous character like that of Vellore ; it was, in the language of the Court of Inquiry held on it, "an ebullition of despair at being compelled to march without the means of doing so." As a proof, hardly one of their muskets was found to be loaded, though every man had forty rounds of ball-cartridge.

During the Burmese war also, the affairs of Bhurtpore occupied the attention of the British government. The rajah having died in 1823 without issue, his brother Buldeo Sing assumed the government, and was acknowledged by the British authorities, it having appeared that the claim of Doorjun Sâl, the son of a younger brother, who pretended to have been adopted by the late rajah, was quite unfounded. Buldeo Sing, aware that he could not live very long, was anxious to get his young son and heir acknowledged as his successor by the British government, and Sir D. Ochterlony, the resident in Malwa and Rajputana, was very desirous of having this reasonable wish gratified. The government hesitated lest there might be some one with a better title; but the resident, who knew the truth, and assumed the consent of the government, performed the ceremony of the investiture of the young rajah (Feb. 1825), and a few days after Buldeo Sing breathed his last.

Doorjun Sâl immediately began to act. Having gained over some of the troops, he attacked and took the fort, seized the young rajah, and murdered that youth's maternal uncle. Sir D. Ochterlony instantly summoned troops from all parts, collected a large battering-train, and prepared to lay siege to Bhurtpore, and issued a proclamation to the