afforded, but readily lent their services in facilitating the equipment and movement of military detachments.[1]
During this season of inaction the King of Ava took vigorous measures for recruiting his armies; and, by the end of September, his whole disposable force was estimated at sixty or seventy thousand men. By the beginning of October, the head-quarters of the Burmese army were again at Meeaday, and ruined breastworks and stockades began to raise their heads again. To oppose these forces General Campbell had at Prome something less than 3,000 effective men; but he was to be joined by 2,000 more before the opening of the campaign. Immediate hostilities were, however, averted by a favourable answer to an overture for negotiation which had been made by the British general; and an armistice being agreed on till the 18th of October, meetings of Commissioners on both sides took place, midway between the positions of the two camps.
The first of these interviews was one of ceremony; at the second the negotiators entered on business. Sir Archibald Campbell having declared the terms on which he was ready to conclude a treaty of peace, and evacuate the country – viz., the cession of Assam and the payment of two crores of rupees, as an indemnification for the expenses of the war – the Burmese, on their side, modestly proposed that the English should quit the country without making any stipulations for their own benefit, and leave their claims to the generosity of the "King of the White Elephants." The Court of Ava would concede neither money nor territory, and at the expiration of the armistice hostilities were resumed.
The first movement of any importance was disastrous to the English. The Burmese having pushed forward a division to Watty-goon, a few miles from Prome, a body of native infantry, with the view of dislodging them, was despatched to act on the left, while another body was to attack them in front. Both parties were unsuccessful,
- ↑ Macfarlane, p. 486.
