e troops made
a stout fight of it; and that they fought steadily, until the Mugs
ran away. After that, from what I hear, I admit that they fled
shamefully. But the troops that come to Rangoon will be better than
those were, for there will be white regiments among them; and
though these may, as you say, be overpowered with numbers and
destroyed, I do not think that you will see them running away."

"And you think that they will really venture to withstand us?

"I think that they will endeavour to do so."

"Why, there will scarce be an occasion for fighting," the officer
said, disdainfully. "They were mad to come; they are madder, still,
to come now. The rainy season is just at hand. In another week it
will be upon us. The rivers will spread, the flat country will be a
marsh. Even we, who are accustomed to it, suffer. In places like
Rangoon fever and disease will sweep them away and, when the dry
season comes and our troops assemble to fight them, there will be
none left. They will die off like flies. We shall scarce capture
enough to send as prisoners to the emperor."

Stanley felt that, in this respect, the Burman's prophecies were
but too likely to be fulfilled. He knew how deadly were the swamp
fevers to white men; and that in spite of his comfortable home on
board the dhow and boat, he had himself suffered although, during
the wet season, his uncle made a point of sailing along the coast,
and of ascending only rivers that flowed between high banks and
through a country free from swamps. He remembered that his uncle
had spoken, very strongly, of the folly of the expedition being
timed to arrive on the coast of Burma at the beginning of the wet
season; and had said that they would suffer terribly from fever
before they could advance up the country, unless it was intended to
confine the operations to the coast towns, until the dry season set
in.

It would indeed have been impossible to have chosen a worse time
for the expedition but, doubtless, the government of India thought
chiefly of the necessity for forcing the Burmese to stand on the
defensive, and of so preventing the invasion of India by a vast
army. Unquestionably, too, they believed that the occupation of
Rangoon, and the stoppage of all trade, would show the court of Ava
that they had embarked in a struggle with no contemptible foe; and
would be glad to abate their pretensions, and to agree to fair
terms of peace.

The Bengal force that had been emba