the vicinity of Keykloo; but was repulsed in an attempt to escalade the entrenchments surrounding the pagoda, and obliged to retreat with the loss of 21 officers and men killed, and 74 wounded. The bodies of 28 sepoys and pioneers were afterwards discovered by Brigadier M‘Creagh, “fastened to the trunks of trees on the road side, mangled and mutilated in every manner that savage cruelty could devise.”
Sir Archibald Campbell now determined to reduce and occupy the city of Martaban, situated at the bottom of the gulf of that name, and about 100 miles to the eastward of Rangoon. The naval part of this expedition was commanded by Lieutenant Charles Keele, whose force consisted of six gun-vessels, one mortar-boat, seven gun-boats, thirty men from the Arachne and Sophie, and an armed transport, having on board 450 troops, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Godwin.
On the 27th October, the above armament entered Martaban river, and the flotilla, led on in most gallant style by the Arachne’s jolly-boat, under the command of Mr. George Bourchier Dewes, a youngster only fourteen years of age, succeeded in destroying about thirty of the enemy’s war-boats, two of them pulling 50 oars each, and the whole armed with muskets, spears, and swivels. “This service,” says Captain Chads, “was performed in a manner to reflect great credit on Lieutenant Keele, and Lieutenant-Colonel Godwin mentions in high terms his gallantry and zeal.”
On the 29th, when closing the town, the transport grounded too far off to make use of her carronades with good effect. The enemy then opened their fire from a stockade, which was returned by all the row-boats, forming a line close alongshore, until after sunset; the mortar-vessel likewise took her position, under Captain Thomas Ynyr B. Kennan, of the Madras artillery, and kept up a well-directed fire the whole night, killing, from report, great numbers of the enemy. The appearance of Martaban is thus described by LieutenantColonel Godwin:
