was placed a two-gun battery, with a deep nullah under it. This battery communicates with the usual stockade of timber, and behind this a work of masonry, varying from twelve to twenty feet thick, with small embrasures for either cannon or musketry. The stockade runs along the margin of the water for more than three-quarters of a mile, where it joins a large pagoda, which projects into the water in the form of a bastion. The defences then continue a short distance, and end at a nullah, on the other side of which all is thick jungle. The town continues to run in an angle way from the pagoda for at least a mile, and terminates in the house of the Mayoon, close to a stockade up the hill. The whole defence is the water line, with its flanks protected. The rear of the town and work is composed of thick jungle and large trees, and open to the summit.”
Lieutenant-Colonel Godwin was prepared for a determined resistance on the part of the enemy, by seeing a number of armed men crossing, as he went up the river to reconnoitre. “At 5 o’clock in the morning of the 30th,” says he, “the men composing the first division were in their boats – 98 of H.M. 41st regiment, 75 of the 3rd native light infantry, 8 of the Bengal artillery, and 38 seamen of the royal navy; and I was fully aware that these men would have the business to themselves, as I had no where to wait for the remainder of the force, and every boat was already occupied. The advance sounded a little after five, and the boats rowed off, and soon came under a very heavy fire of all arms. On approaching the shore, I perceived there had been a misunderstanding with respect to the spot at which I wished to land, and that we had got on the wrong side of the nullah. As we could not carry the ladders through the mud, I ordered the boats to push off and put in at the place I appointed; at this time, a heavy fire of artillery and musketry was on us, and the Lascars would not face it[1]. Lieutenant Keele, of the Arachne, commanding the naval force with me, pushed on shore, and gallantly went to see if the nullah could be passed: he came back almost directly, and informed me there was a boat in the nullah, over which the men could go, and that the side
- ↑ At Than-ta-bain their conduct was equally bad. Although cheered on by the European troops in their vessels and boats, not one of them could be got to assist in rendering the fire-rafts harmless.
