gheoun (or the “fetid oil brooks”), where Sir Archibald Campbell had already established his head-quarters, in the immediate vicinity of the celebrated Petroleum wells. The light division of boats, under Lieutenant Smith, was then about ten miles in advance, employed in liberating numerous canoes, and in throwing his shot and shells amongst the enemy[1].
In the mean time, advices of the capture of Melloone reached the capital, and created the utmost consternation. In the uncertainty of the ultimate result of negociations for peace, the military operations were suffered to proceed; but the Court of Ava determined to renew communications of a pacific tendency with the British commissioners. It was, however, no easy matter to find negociators in whom Sir Archibald Campbell and Mr. Robertson could now confide; and the Burman officers of state were very reluctant to be sent upon what they considered a hopeless, if not a dangerous errand. In this dilemma, the Court applied to Doctor Pricey one of the American missionaries then in confinement at Ava, and obtained his consent to be employed as an envoy to the British camp. In order, also, to amend the chance of success, Dr. R. Sandford, surgeon of the royals (who had been taken prisoner on his way down to Rangoon), was associated in the negociation, upon his parole of honor to return again to Ava. The commander of the Hon. Company’s gun-vessel Phaeton[2] and three British soldiers were, at the same time, restored to their liberty, as a compliment from the Court. The deputies reached head-quarters on the 31st of January, and, after conferring with the commissioners, returned to Ava on the following day. The astonishment excited in the capital by the re-appearance of Dr. Sandford is inconceivable The ministers themselves declared that they never expected to
