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BIRMAH 49
that state had
by the British ; and by this revolution,
been for some months under the British protection.
These acts, therefore, of hostility against Cachar, to-
gether with the attempted occupation of Shapuree,
were the ostensible grounds of the war.
It has been usual, in former wars with the Asiatic
states, to experience a violence of onset, impetuous in
the extreme, but which has soon exhausted itself, so that
it has required only the perseverance and combination
requisite to surmount the first attack, and the storm has
subsided of itself. Not so in the recent contest with the
Birmans. On the northern or Sylhet frontier, in the
district of Chittagong, in the southern maritime districts
of Rangoon, Dalla, and Mergui, every where large
bodies of troops met the British detachments, fought
with a bravery the most determined, and evidenced a
decided superiority over most of the native armies.
The island of Shapuree, in the river Naaf, the boundary
of Chittagong, was soon retaken, and was never again
made the scene of action. In Cachar, the ground was
contested with vigour and skill, large bodies of Birmans
and Assamese presenting themselves at every
point. The latter forces, dragged into the war to
support the power of their oppressor, usually fled at
the first encounter ; but the former, entrenching themselves
in their peculiarly effective stockades, main-
tained a persevering resistance.*
After many severe conflicts, they were expelled
from Cachar ; but invading the Chittagong province.
* Col. Bowen, giving an account of an attack made upon the
stockade of Doodpattee, in Feb. 1824, : says " They fought with a
bravery and obstinacy which I had never experienced in any
troops." The Birmans amounted to 2000. After a most severe
action, which lasted from ten in the morning till the evening, the
British were obliged to retire to Juttrapore with a heavy loss.