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27() HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY. ;

' Aurora,' fourteen guus, Captain Mactlonald, then refitting at tlie
Calcutta dockyard, with which he started in a very crowded
state, towing the haunch, and accompanied by the 'Phoenix,'
' Thetis,' and ' Vestal,' with the rest of the regiment, amounting
in all to nine hundred men. On the sixth day he arrived at
Chittagong, when the troops were no sooner disembarked, than
the insolent Mughs retreated within their own boundary.
Our .political relations with the Burmese Empire had become
gradually more unsatisfactory in proportion to the aversion
evinced by the British authorities to engage in an expensive
war. This state of affairs dated from Colonel Syme's second
mission in 1803, when a plot, believed to have the concurrence
of the King of Burmah was concocted, for the forcible seizure
of the Envoy's person while en route to Amurapura, together
with the captain of the ' Mornington,' who had taken up his resi-
dence at Rangoon, and to whom in the dead of night the project
was disclosed by an American, in the service of that government,
who also furnished him with a canoe in time to effect his
escape to the ship. By this officer's prompt and decisive
measures on the following morning, in demanding hostages for
the Envoy's safety, and assuming a position to enforce these
demands in event of denial, this treacherous scheme was
effectually defeated ; though the Mission failed of producing any
cordial or permanent results.
The British territory, bordering on the kingdom of Arracan,
was frequently disturbed by predatory excursions, for which it
was impossible to obtain the slightest redress ; and, in 1811,
Captain Canning, aide-de-camp to the Governor-General, was
despatched in the 'Malabar,' Captain Maxfield, as diplomatic
agent to the Court of this capricious potentate. The Burmese
Government was ripe for aggression, and the Viceroy of
Rangoon received orders from Ava, which were published in
the streets, to send the Envoy, as well as the commander of the
cruiser, up to the capital in irons. An attempt, indeed, was
made to carr}' the order into effect, for when the Envoy was
returning with his escort and followers to the ' Malabar,' two
war boats, out of about twenty that were in motion round the
cruiser, tried to seize one of the ' Malabar's' cutters. But
Captain Maxfield was a man of prompt action, and he
ordered the guns to be pointed at the two war boats,
but not to fire, as the Envoy was still in the cutter and
might be sacrificed. Captain Canning reached the cruiser in
safety, when a message was immediately sent to the A'iceroy,
complaining of the outrage, and demanding instant reparation
by the delivery of the conmianders of the war-boats in irons, on
board the ' Malabar,' and the disavowal of the act of aggression
the Viceroy was allowed half-an-hour to decide, at the expira-
tion of which time, he was informed, the ' Malabar would, in