nd, it would be of
assistance.

The rest of the force reached Tharawa on the following evening,
with the exception of a party left to protect the slow-moving
waggons. They found that nine canoes had been obtained, and that a
considerable portion of the scanty population had been, all day,
employed in cutting bamboos and timber for rafts.

The next morning the troops were all engaged on the same work, and
in the construction of rafts; and at nightfall three hundred men of
the 49th were taken across the river to the town of Henzada, in
case Bandoola, on hearing of the preparations for crossing, should
send a force to oppose the passage. It took four days' continuous
labour to get the little army across, as it was necessary to make
large timber rafts to carry the carts, horses and bullocks, guns
and stores.

Hearing that a force was posted, some fifteen miles away, to
intercept the detachment that was marching from Bassein; Colonel
Godwin, with a party, was sent off that night to endeavour to
surprise it. The Burmese, however, took the alarm before they were
attacked; and scattered in all directions, without firing a shot.
The army marched along the right bank, and arrived before Donabew
on the 25th of March. Communications were opened with General
Cotton's force, below the town; and both divisions set to work to
erect batteries.

The Burmese made several sorties to interrupt the work, and one of
these was accompanied by Bandoola's seventeen elephants. The troop
of cavalry, horse artillery, and the rocket company charged close
up to the elephants; and opened fire upon the howdahs, filled with
troops, that they carried. In a short time most of these and the
drivers were killed; and the elephants--many of which also had
received wounds--dashed off into the jungle, while the infantry
fled back into the stockade, into which a discharge of shells and
rockets was maintained, all day.

The next morning--the 1st of April--the mortar batteries were
completed; and these, and others armed with light guns, kept up a
continuous fire into the enemy's camp. At daybreak on the 2nd, the
heavy guns of the breaching batteries also opened fire and, in a
very short time, the enemy were seen pouring out in the rear of
their works, and making their way into the jungle. As there had
been no idea that they would so speedily evacuate the stockade, no
preparations had been made for cutting them off; and the garrison,
therefore, effected the