Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v3p1.djvu/456

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DURING THE BURMESE WAR.
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bour and art, and was such as to afford the enemy a presumptive assurance of security in their possession of it. When Brigadier-General Cotton saw that the enemy’s work was carried by the 13th and 38th regiments, he very judiciously ordered a brigade, under Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas Hunter Blair, of the 87th foot, to cut in upon their line of retreat, which was done accordingly, and with much effect.

Thus was accomplished, in the course of a few hours from the renewal of hostilities, forced upon the British by perfidy and duplicity, a chastisement as exemplary as it was merited. Specie to the amount of 30,000 rupees was found in Prince Memia-boo’s house; and a very ample magazine of grain, 76 guns, 90 jingals, 1700 muskets, 2000 spears, 18,000 round shot, a quantity of quilted and loose grape, 100,000 musket-balls, more than twenty tons of gunpowder, an immense quantity of refined salt-petre and sulphur, upwards of a ton of unwrought iron, three gilt and fifteen common war-boats (all in good condition), eight large accommodation boats, forty-nine store-boats, from 200 to 300 canoes, and small boats of various descriptions, with about seventy horses, fell into the hands of the victors; whose total loss did not exceed nine, including four Lascars, killed, and thirty-four, among whom were Major Frith, Lieutenant William Dickson, of the Bengal engineers, five men belonging to the Alligator, and nine Lascars, wounded. “To Captain Chads, of the royal navy, and every officer and seaman of H.M. ships” Sir Archibald Campbell again publicly acknowledged himself “deeply indebted for the able and judicious manner in which the troops were transported to the points of attack;” and they were once more requested by him “to accept the unfeigned impression of his thankfulness.

The men-of-war boats employed in the above attack were, the Boadicea’s launch, commanded by Lieutenant William Smith; her pinnace, by Lieutenant Joseph Grote; her barge, by Mr. Clarke, gunner; and her cutter, by Mr. Sydenham Wilde, midshipman: the Alligator’s pinnace, by acting Lieutenant Valentine Pickey ; barge, by Mr. William