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444 HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.
debouching, they clieered lustily, and u gun opened fire from
a lofty conical hill, on the extreme right of their defences,
which stretched in an undulating line for a great distance ; it
was replied to by the British guns, and soon the firing became
general on both sides. Brigadier-General McBean, who com-
manded the advance, halted on reaching a bank fringed with
wood, near the further end of the valley, and close to a pass
leading into a basin in which the town is situated ; from this
pomt, which lay within gunshot, and was cannonaded by the
Burmese, but with little effect, he detached a party, composed
of European and Native troops, to storm a low hill flanking the
mouth of the pass. This small force, which consisted of men
of the 54th Foot and 1st Bengal Fusiliers, the whole led by
Major Kemm, moved off to the point of attack, plunged into
the woods at the base of the hill, and were soon seen emerging
on the steep, scarped portion which rose above them ; but they
were nnable to make any way, owing to the heavy fire of the
enemy, and were forced to retire. Something like a check was
also received in the pass, where Captain French, commanding
the 10th Madras Regiment, was killed, and Captain Fitton, of
the Pioneers, lost a leg. General Morrison, also, had a narrow
escape, a ball having struck the scabbard of his sword, causing
his horse to rear and throw him. After these mishaps a good
deal of firing from the artillery and mortars was maintained on
the Burmese lines, which caused several conflagrations and
explosions of gunpowder; but it ceased after a few hours'
duration, leaving the enemy still masters of their long line of
scarped eminences. The force now encamped as far out of
gunshot as possible, and further plans had to be considered for
the reduction of the place.
It was at length decided that Brigadier Richards, with a
force of about one thousand men, including Lieutenant Arm-
strong's party, from the ' Vestal,' should make a night attack
on the conical fortified hill* on the extreme right, which formed
the key to the enemy's position. At the same time, in order to
divert the attention of the enemy from this point, a battery was
constructed for four mortars, two 24-pounders, which the sea-
men of the flotilla had landed and dragged with infinite labour
to the front, and six smaller guns. "At half-past seven that
evening," says the General, " ground was broke, by three
o'clock the battery was finished, and before daylight completely
armed, when the guns opened and continued during the day a
heavy cannonade, which had the eS"ect of checking the enemy's
fire, though it was not entirely silenced."
At the hour fixed for the assault, all being hushed, the party
* Tliis eminence was afterwards called Richards' Hill, from the Brigadier, who
became General Sir William Richards, K.C.B., and died on the 1st of November,
1861, when he was the Senior Officer of the Bengal Aj-my.