n. Bundoola was in the strong
fortress of Donabue, on the Bassein side of the river, about half way
between where the Rangoon river joined it on the left, and the Bassein
river communicated with it a long way farther up on the right. Sir A
Campbell's land forces were on the left of the river, so that Bundoola's
communication with the Bassein territory was quite open; and as the
river forces had to attack Donabue on their way up, the force sent to
Bassein, was to take him in the rear and cut off his supplies. This was
a most judicious plan of the General's, as will be proved in the sequel.
Major S--, with four or five hundred men in three transports, the
Larne, and the Mercury, Hon. Company's brig, were ordered upon this
expedition, which sailed at the same time that the army began to march
and the boats to ascend the river.

On the arrival at the mouth of the river we found the entrance most
formidable in appearance, there being a dozen or more stockades of great
extent; but there were but two manned, the guns of the others, as well
as the men, having been forwarded to Donabue, the Burmahs not imagining,
as we had so long left that part of their territory unmolested, that we
should have attempted it. Our passage was therefore easy; after a few
broadsides, we landed and spiked the guns, and then, with a fair wind,
ran about seventy miles up one of the most picturesque and finest rivers
I was ever in. Occasionally the right lines of stockades presented
themselves, but we found nobody in them, and passed by them in peace.
But the river now became more intricate, and the pilots, as usual, knew
nothing about it. It was, however, of little consequence; the river was
deep even at its banks, over which the forest trees threw their boughs
in wild luxuriance. The wind was now down the river, and we were two or
three days before we arrived at Bassein, during which we tided and
warped how we could, while Major S-- grumbled. If the reader wishes to
know why Major S-- grumbled, I will tell him--because there was no
fighting. He grumbled when we passed the stockades at the entrance of
the river because they were not manned; and he grumbled at every
dismantled stockade that we passed. But there was no pleasing S--; if
he was in hard action and not wounded, he grumbled; if he received a
slight wound, he grumbled because it was not a severe one; if a severe
one, he grumbled because he was not able to fight the next day. He had