Marryat to the Dalla creek, for the purpose of dislodging the Burmese from the stockades which they had re-occupied. Two mortar vessels and one gun-boat having been anchored within six hundred yards of the enemy’s works, and the other gun-boats having taken up a more advanced position, in a battering line, the whole opened their fire at 6 a.m., which was smartly returned by the enemy, both with guns and musketry. At 9 o’clock, a detachment of row-boats, with troops under the command of Major R. L. Evans, pulled up the creek. By this time, the enemy’s great guns were silenced, and their magazine blown up; they still, however, held possession of the stockades, and maintained a constant fire of small arms.
The ditches of these works had been so widened as not to allow the scaling ladders to be planted, and a strong chevaux-de-frise was found placed across the creek to impede the advance of the flotilla. The original intention of storming the stockades from the river side was therefore abandoned, and Major Evans determined to attack the smallest in the rear. At half-past 9, he landed with 150 men, forced his way through the jungle by single files, and succeeded in dislodging the Burmese. Possession having been gained, the advance was sounded, and the boats pulled up to the main stockade, which was stormed without loss, the enemy retreating into the jungle. From the precision of the mortar practice, and the excellent fire of the gun-boats, which had completely riddled the stockades, the enemy’s loss must have been considerable. Leaving a sufficient force to defend the stockades, Captain Marryat and Major Evans then pushed higher up the creek, where they discovered between twenty five and thirty boats and canoes, laden with arms and ammunition, the whole of which were either destroyed or brought away. In his official letter on this occasion. Captain Marryat says, “the zeal and activity of Lieutenant Fraser was as highly satisfactory to me as creditable to himself[1].”
