road, deep river,
easy of navigation, before us. We all hoped that the commodore would
push on and capture the capital. As far as we saw, there was nothing to
prevent him, but the orders he had received were simply to survey the
river as high as Prome, and then to return; so of course he had to obey
them. Why he had not been given discretionary powers to proceed
farther, I don't know. A golden opportunity was lost of catching the
King of Ava by the nose, for we had so nimbly doubled on old Bundoolah
that the chances were we should not have met with the slightest
opposition. You may fancy, therefore, our disappointment when the order
was received to `'bout ship,' and run down the stream again. But it
couldn't be helped--orders are orders--it wasn't the fault of our
gallant commodore.

"After holding Prome four-and-twenty hours, we evacuated the town, and
soon got back into the shallow channel up which we had come. On getting
into the main stream, we caught sight of General Bundoolah's army, some
of the troops on shore, some in boats crossing the river, evidently with
the intention of following us along the banks. I don't suppose they
much liked our looks, for they evidently didn't expect to see us so
soon. Steaming on, we quickly got up to them, and opened with shot and
shell, both on the boats and on the dark-skinned troops which, crowded
together, covered the shore. You may fancy what fearful havoc and
confusion our shells created among the masses of human beings. Many of
the boats were sunk, and the people in the others, finding escape
impossible, hauled down their flags, and made signs that they
surrendered. It was calculated that we captured or sunk forty or fifty
boats. Among them was the old general's state barge and several large
war canoes. On board them were found loot of all sorts, with two gold
umbrellas and a standard. It was some consolation to have these
trophies to exhibit; and as soon as we got back, the commander-in-chief,
who, I daresay, was somewhat vexed at not having beforehand told our
commodore that he was to do as he thought best, ordered us to go back
again with a large body of troops and to take possession of Prome.

"As soon as we got ready, away we steamed, and, the river being still
full, quickly reached our destination. There was not much fight in old
General Bundoolah, after all; one reason was that we had carried off all
his heavy guns. After battering the city, the troo