backs, the poorly armed Burmese peasant feared not to encounter the well-equipped Asiatic troops, commanded by trained European officers. He was overcome only by the European soldiers. The climate was a far more formidable opponent of the invaders than were the Burmese soldiery; an English officer remarked of this campaign, that if the climate of Burmah had been thoroughly loyal to the king and performed its duty, the British would have been compelled to turn back from Rangoon.
The engagement at Prome may be regarded as the decisive battle of the first Burmese war. True, it was not a brilliant affair, and in European warfare would rank as little more than a skirmish, but a contrary result would have placed the British in a position of great danger. The European troops were greatly reduced both in numbers and efficiency by the effects of the climate, and the native troops could not be relied on for good work unless with European support. A signal defeat at Prome would have resulted in a retreat on Rangoon, and it has been shown elsewhere how precarious was the hold on that city in the early days of the invasion.
The first Burmese war was the beginning of the destruction of the kingdom which was once a power among Asiatic nations and a terror to its neighbors. In 1852 the imprisonment of the master of a ship and other British subjects led to the second Burmese war, which resulted in the annexation of a considerable part of Burmese territory to the British Indian possessions. The war began with the bombardment of Rangoon, April 11, 1852, and its capture three days later. Prome, Bassein, Martaban, and other cities one after another fell into British hands; the British forces were almost invariably successful, and in a few months peace was declared and the whole of the coast provinces of Burmah passed under British sway.
The third Burmese war (1885) grew out of the interference of the king with the rights of British subjects in
