gently sloping towards Rangoon. Here they commenced operations with their intrenching-tools, and with such activity and good will that in the course of a couple of hours their whole line was covered; their flags and banners, which had been flying in profusion, all disappeared; and nothing was seen but a parapet of fresh-turned earth, gradually increasing in height. In the afternoon this labour was interrupted by a visit from a detachment of the British army under Major Sale, consisting of H.M. 13th regiment and a regiment of Madras Native Infantry, which was so totally unexpected that the approach of the party was not perceived till it was too late to do anything effectual towards repelling them. Having burst through the intrenchments and slain great numbers, the detachment retired unmolested, loaded with the enemy's arms, standards, and intrenching-tools; and in the evening a mass of skirmishers who had been pushed forward by the enemy were driven back by two companies of the 38th regiment, under Captain Piper.
Repeated attacks had been made on Kemmendine during the day, and were all repulsed by our troops, or by the seamen of our flotilla; but it was not till night that the Burmese made their last desperate effort to open their way down the river, and so get possession of the port of Rangoon. Our wearied soldiers had lain down to rest, when suddenly the heavens and the whole surrounding country became brilliantly illuminated. The enemy had launched their fire-rafts into the stream with the first of the ebb-tide, and had now applied the match to those huge masses of combustible materials, in the hope of driving the Sophie and our other vessels from their stations off Kemmendine; and as these fire-rafts came down, it was seen by the light of their flames that they were followed by a vast fleet of war-boats, whose crews were ready to take advantage of the confusion which might ensue if any of our vessels should be set on fire; while, as the rafts floated rapidly down to Kemmendine with the ebbing tide, columns of attack moved once more
