Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v3p1.djvu/465

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118
NAVAL OPERATIONS IN AVA,

the grateful recollection of the Government, by whom they were duly appreciated and acknowledged at the time of their occurrence. His Lordship in Council requests that those officers will, collectively and individually, accept this renewed assurance, that their meritorious exertions will ever be cordially remembered. * * * * *

“The conduct of that portion of the naval branch of the expedition which belong to the East India Company has been exemplary, and conspicuous for gallantry and indefatigable exertion; and it has fully shared in all the honorable toils and well-earned triumphs of the land force. * * *

The Governor-General in Council has not overlooked the spirit and bravery, characteristic of British seamen, manifested by several of the masters and officers of transports and armed vessels, in various actions with the Burmese in the vicinity of Rangoon.

“It belongs to a higher authority than the Government of India to notice, in adequate and appropriate terms, the services of His Majesty’s squadron, which has co-operated with His Majesty’s and the Honorable East India Company’s land forces, in the late hostilities with the government of Ava. The Governor-General in (council, however, gladly seizes this opportunity of expressing the deep sense of obligation with which the Supreme Government acknowledges the important and essential aid afforded by his Excellency Commodore Sir James Brisbane, in person, as well as by the officers, non-commissioned officers, seamen, and marines of H.M. ships, who have been employed in the Irrawaddy. Inspired by the most ardent zeal for the honor and interest of the nation and the East India Company, his Excellency, the naval commander-in-chief, lost no time in proceeding, with the boats of the Boadicea, to the head-quarters of the British army at Prome, and directing, in person, the operations of the river force, rendered the most essential service in the various decisive and memorable actions which, in the month of December last, compelled the Burmese to sue for peace.

On the 12th April, 1826, the following letter was addressed to Captain Chads, then in Diamond harbour:

“Sir,– The Commissioners in Ava having reported the considerations which induced them to propose to you to be associated with them in settling with the Burmese Commissioners the treaty of peace, I am directed by the Right Honorable the Governor-General in Council to express to you the acknowledgments of Government for the readiness with which you complied with their wishes.

“The Governor-General in Council proposes to take an early opportunity of conveying to his Excellency the naval commander-in-chief the sense of obligation entertained by the Supreme Government for the essential aid rendered to the Honorable East India Company by the ships of His Majesty’s navy serving in Ava; but, on the occasion of your arrival at this presidency, his Lordship in Council cannot deny himself the grati-