Hayhurst Hall; and her two cutters, by Messrs. George Sumner Hand and George Wyke, midshipmen: lastly, the Arachne’s pinnace, under Mr. Stephen Joshua Lett, with whom was associated Mr. William Coyde, midshipman.
In a letter to Sir James Brisbane, dated Jan. 20, 1826, Captain Chads says:–
“I have the pleasure of assuring you, that the gallant good conduct of every individual, both of H.M. navy and the H.C. service, fully equalled that which you have yourself so lately witnessed and highly commended.”
On the 23rd January, a combined force, under Brigadier Armstrong and Captain Chads, destroyed an evacuated stockade several miles above Melloone; and next morning, these officers were joined by nearly 300 family canoes with merchandize, which, taking advantage of a fog, had escaped from the Burmese warriors, in the general confusion occasioned by their late defeat. In less than three weeks after the capture of Melloone, the operations of the British, by land and water, had released from the tyranny of the enemy above 25,000 wretched inhabitants of the lower provinces, and not less than 4000 canoes, &c. which had been detained, and driven before the retiring army and flotilla, many of them ever since the commencement of the war. On the morning of the 24th, Captain Chads saw the remains of six poor creatures who had been crucified on the banks of the river, for attempting to escape from their oppressors.
The laborious duty of collecting and destroying the captured stores and iron artillery, together with a heavy fall of rain, prevented Sir Archibald Campbell leaving Melloone before the 25th January; at which period the navy had lost seven men, and forty-four were sick in the boats. On the 29th, Mr. William M‘Auley, the only remaining medical gentleman attached to this arm of the service, was reported ill and delirious. On the 30th, one of the largest gun-boats struck upon a sand and bilged; the remainder passed over a bar with only five feet water. On the 2nd February, Captain Chads anchored the Diana about two miles below Zaynan-
