ing to Mergy and Tavoy,
two coast towns of which we had taken possession, and both of which
were healthily situated.

The change had a marvellous effect, and men who would have speedily
succumbed to the poisonous exhalations of the swamps round Rangoon
rapidly regained their strength, in their new quarters.

Chapter 9: Victories.

In the meantime, negotiations had been going on with Siam, between
which state and Burma there was the bitterest enmity. It had been
thought that Siam would have willingly grasped the opportunity to
revenge itself for the many losses of territory that it had
suffered at the hands of Burma. This there was no doubt that it
would have been glad to do, but our occupation of several points on
the coast of Tenasserim roused the fears of Siam, and inclined it
to the belief that we might prove an even more dangerous neighbour
than Burma.

The court of Ava had, on its part, also sent urgent messages to the
King of Siam--when misfortunes had, to some extent, lowered its
pride--calling upon him to make common cause with Burma, and to
join it in repelling an enemy who would doubtless be as dangerous
to him as to Burma.

Siam, however, determined to steer a middle course. An army was
assembled, in readiness for any contingency; but Siam believed as
little as Burma, itself, that the British could possibly be
victorious over that power; and feared its vengeance, if she were
to ally herself with us while, upon the other hand, Siam had a long
sea coast, and feared the injury our fleet might inflict upon it,
were it to join Burma. The king, therefore, gave both powers an
assurance of his friendship; and marched his army down to the
frontier of the province of Martaban, which bordered on the great
Salween river on the Tenasserim coast, and lay some two hundred
miles from Rangoon, across the gulf of Martaban.

The intentions of the king being so doubtful, the advance of the
Siamese army in this direction could not be regarded with
indifference by the British. The town of Martaban was the centre of
the Burmese military power in Tenasserim, and the advance towards
it of the Siamese army would place it in direct communication with
that of Burma. On the 13th of October, therefore, a force,
consisting of a wing of the 41st Regiment and the 3rd Madras
Infantry, sailed from Rangoon against the town. The expedition was
delayed by light winds and, when it arrived at the mouth of the
river, found that every