rafts, and with orders to remain in advance of the shipping during the ebb tide. On the three succeeding days, the boats, with some soldiers of H.M. 41st regiment, were again despatched on the same service; and in executing the duty assigned to them, they had five men wounded by the fire of musketry from villages and fortified breastworks. In the mean time the troops at Rangoon were put under cover ; one brigade in the town, and the others in the vicinity of the Shwe-da-gon pagoda (about two miles and a half distant), which is the largest and most ancient in the Burman empire.
Although so little resistance had been offered by the Burmese at Rangoon, the following general order was issued by the Supreme Government, June 2d, 1824:
“A royal salute and three vollies of musketry to be fired at all the stations of the land forces serving in the East Indies, in honor of the capture of Rangoon, by the combined naval and military forces under the command of his Excellency Commodore Grant, C.B. and Brigadier-General Sir Archibald Campbell, K.C.B.”
The first hand-to-hand conflict with the enemy took place on the 16th May, and is thus described by Captain Richard Birch of H.M. 38th regiment, in a letter of that date, addressed to Sir Archibald Campbell:
“I have the honor to inform you, that in obedience to your orders, I this morning embarked with the grenadier company of H.M. 38th regiment, under my command, on board the boats of H.M.S. Liffey, commanded by Lieutenant James Wilkinson, R.N. for the purpose of dislodging the enemy from the village of Kemmendine[1] and the adjacent villages.
“Agreeable to my instructions, I landed the troops at a small village about a mile from Kemmendine, where I observed a party of the enemy had stockaded themselves, and immediately attacked their position, which I carried, after exchanging a few rounds and killing 10 or 12 of the enemy. I then endeavoured to penetrate the jungle towards the village of Kemmendine, for the purpose of assailing it by the rear, while the boats attacked it in front; but I regret to say, that I found the jungles so impervious, as to prevent me from executing this part of my instructions. I therefore re-embarked my detachment, and proceeded in the boats.
“On approaching a point higher up, intending to land, we found ourselves suddenly exposed to a heavy fire from a stockade, till then unob-- ↑ A war-boat station, three miles above Rangoon.
