1825	The Burmese War	445

the whole force when concentrated, would only amount to 4417, and that, taking in the rear-guard left at Rangoon, under Brigadier M'Creagh, consisting of 3781 men, the greatest number of troops under the command of Sir Archibald Campbell, consisted only of 8198. The enemy had more than 40,000 men under the command of a chief highly respected for his talents and his bravery, and who had risen in the estimation of his countrymen, from his numerous victories ; such was Bandoola. Against the man who had under his command ten times as many men as himself, in a difficult, nay, almost unknown country, every place being well stockaded, and every leisure moment having been turned to some account in strengthening the positions, Sir Archibald Campbell advanced ; not with the intention of merely marching a few miles to return again to Rangoon, but if it were requisite to dictate terms of submission to the King of Ava, in his own capital, and that capital 600 miles distant ! Such an undertaking might well have caused uneasiness ; but such was Sir Archibald's confidence in the officers and men of both navy and army who attended him in this dangerous and difficult expedition, that he never wavered as to his determination to advance, but merely hesitated by which of the roads he should approach the capital.

Major Snodgrass has given a beautiful description of the hardships endured by the division under Sir Archibald Campbell, after their arrival at their first day's encampment. " On reaching camp," he says, " the scene which presented itself was at once grotesque and novel ; no double-polled tent bespoke the army of Bengal, or rows of well-pitched rowties (sic) that of the sister presidency ; no oriental luxury was here displayed, or even any of the comforts of an European camp, to console the traveller after his hot and weary march ; but officers of all ranks couching under a blanket or Lilliputian tent, to shelter themselves from a meridian sun, with a miserable half-starved cow or pony, the sole beast of burden of the inmate, tied or picketed in rear, conveying to the mind, more the idea of a gipsy bivouac, than of a military encampment. Nothing of the pomp or circumstance of war was here apparent, nor would even the experienced eye have recognised in the little group, that appeared but as a speck on the surface of an extensive plain, a force about to undertake the subjugation of an empire, and to fight its way for six hundred miles against climate, privations, and a numerous enemy.

The naval department sailed on the 16th of February, three days after the departure of the commander-in-chief, and the day following, the detachment destined to operate against Bassein moved towards its destination.

The day after the division under Brigadier-general Cotten and Captain Alexander set forward, they destroyed an unoccupied stockade at Thesit, and as they advanced up the river, a firing

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