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EiRMAH. 55
to the actual state of their fortified towns, and the
extent of their regular forces, Lord Amherst might
fairly consider that neither the one nor the other
could long resist his well-disciplined sepoys, led on by
the gallantry of British officers. This, however, is
not a war against the regular army of Birmah ; it
appears pretty certain, that the Bengal government
either did not know, or left out of their calculation,
that the whole Birman population, capable of bearing
arms, would at once be brought against the invading
are held on a
army ; that all the lands in the empire
tenure resembling that of the feud ; that a levy of
100,000 men could, at the shortest notice, be brought
down to any specified point on the frontier, by means
of the numerous navigable rivers which intersect the
country ; and that, in addition to these levies, might
be brought into operation, along the whole course of
the Irrawaddy, from 500 to 1000 war-boats, carrying
each from forty to eighty rowers, with a piece of
ordnance, a nine or ten-pounder, in the prow, and
having on board, besides the rowers, twenty or thirty
men armed with muskets and pikes ; the towns on
the banks of the rivers being compelled to furnish
men for these boats. We had very soon proofs of the
efficacy of these war -boats, when we had taken Ran-
goon. Several hundred of them were brought down to
arrest our advance up the river, which, with the aid
of immense fire-rafts, completely succeeded, for the
first year of the campaign, in stopping our progress....
One thing seems also to have escaped the governorgeneral,
that, though sure to conquer the enemy, the
British troops were by no means so sure of conquering
the elements ; that the Birmans had only to retreat to
their strong holds in the mountains, and lay waste
their towns and villages, which they could rebuild in