enemy falling back and firing before them. This was all right. I called out to the "lambs" (the soubriquet of the corps) to follow, and in I jumped, coming down on all fours, the men following as they best could; but, on occasions of this kind, officers have a manifest advantage over their men, unencumbered as they are with fire-arms and ammunition.

The stockade was now virtually won, and as our lads came dropping in, one by one, the enemy fell back, keeping up merely a desultory and ill-directed fire upon us from behind the buildings in the interior, without doing much damage. Had they stood firm, we never should have seen the inside of Sittang, for they mustered 1,500; but no sooner were the pale faces of the English visible above the works, than their resolution forsook them, and their courage, true up to this point, failed. It was my good fortune to be the first in of my column, and without waiting for a sufficient number of men, I moved on in the direction of the enemy, who were now crowding one of the principal gateways in the rear, to escape, closely followed by a part of one of the other columns. Here men, women, and children were huddled together, while the entrance was quite obstructed by the bodies of those who had fallen. A flag of truce had been sent to the enemy, if I am not mistaken, requesting them to send out their families; but it was unattended to, and the unavoidable consequence was, that very many of these poor creatures fell victims. Indeed, it was quite heart-rending to see so many women and children killed, or bleeding to death; some were dreadfully lacerated by the bursting of our shells. After the firing had ceased, I fell in with a very handsome young woman, who had been pierced in the breast by a musket-ball, and having with difficulty persuaded an artilleryman, who was busily engaged in plunder, to assist me, I carried her to the surgeon, and before I left Sittang, had the gratification of finding that there was every prospect of her recovery, though she was sinking fast from the loss of blood when I first saw her.

“Forward!" was now the word, and all hands pressed on towards the retreating foe, who made no further attempt at resistance, but either choked up the gateway, or vainly endeavoured to clamber over the stockade by desperate bounds. Some, with dishevelled hair and frantic gestures, bleeding pro. fusely, were seen dragging away their women. Quarter was neither asked nor offered; a barbarous mode of warfare, truly, and quite unjustifiable on our side; but, in this instance, some extenuation may be found in the exasperation produced amongst us by the savage enormities inflicted upon the bodies of our comrades on the previous attack.

Borne onwards by the excitement of the moment, I at one time found myself almost alone amidst a crowd of the enemy, as they were madly pressing through the main gateway. Here I cut away, right and left, and certainly gave more than one poor fellow a souvenir not easily got rid of. They might have made minced meat of me, had they chosen, but they were completely paralyzed.

Our troops now poured in, putting every man within their reach to death. The mass of the enemy, however, escaped, and we were far too weak in numbers, and too exhausted, to attempt to follow them, having made the assault with only 450 men against 1,500, of whom, we were well informed, 1,000 were armed with firelocks. The vicinity of the jungle, which to us was impervious, greatly facilitated their escape. Being now fairly in possession, we began to recognize each other again, and to inquire about casualties. Our loss, we soon ascertained, was unusually heavy for Indian warfare. During the quarter of an hour or twenty minutes we were engaged, eighty-six had fallen

out of 450, being one-fifth of the whole; fifty of these fell in the left column, which consisted of two hundred men; and again, in our Grenadiers, only fortyfive strong, we had six men killed and twelve wounded! This was sharper work than we had been accustomed to, and from a personal knowledge of the obstacles, we could now make great allowances for the original failure of the native infantry. Of twenty-one officers present, two were killed and five wounded, one dangerously. The two officers killed were Captains Cursham and Stedman, both commanding columns; Major Home, also, who commanded the right column, was severely wounded. The other wounded officers were Colonel Pepper, slightly; Lieut. Fullarton, who was shot through the body, but recovered; Lieut. Power, severely; and Lieut. Charlton, slightly. The enemy's loss was computed at five hundred men killed and wounded; of these not more than one hundred were found dead in and about the stockade : large numbers of wounded men must doubtless have perished in the neighbouring jungle.

In my narrative, I have only detailed the progress of the left column. I must not omit to mention that both the other columns did their work admirably throughout, especially the centre one, commanded by poor Stedman, and led by the light company of the 1st Madras European regiment, under Lieut. Howden. They were obstinately opposed, but being ably and closely sup ported by the 34th Light Infantry, bore down all before them. There was a very abrupt ascent to climb, and up which to drag the ladders. On reaching the summit, Stedman fell, pierced by a dozen balls, having received the contents of an over-loaded swivel in his breast. To this column, I believe, must be ceded the honour of first entering Sittang, Lieut. Chambers, of the 1st Madras European regiment, gallantly leading the way. At this distance of time, I have no clear recollection of the operations of the column on the right, but I do remember their having behaved admirably, and that Major Home shewed them a noble example, and was severely wounded at their head.

The conduct of the flank companies of the European regiment, upon this occasion, was generally admitted to be beyond all praise, and I do not scruple to affirm, that the success of the assault must be mainly attributed to their determined bravery, and the brilliant example they shewed the sepoys. Their gallantry was at the time highly spoken of by all, and most gratifying were these encomiums to their officers. But that heart which, above all others, would have prized these good opinions, had now ceased to beat! Our gallant leader, Cursham, fell outside the stockade, shot through the heart by a musket ball. The last time I saw him alive he was nearly enveloped in smoke, and cheering on his men in the most heroic manner. His military qualifications were of no common order, and long and severely was his loss felt in the corps. I was sadly cut up when I heard he had fallen, for we had long been in the same company, and he had ever been a kind friend to me. After the place was in our possession, a sergeant of the Grenadiers came and told me that the captain was badly wounded outside the works, on which I immediately retraced my steps, and accompanied him to the spot. We soon reached it, and on looking about discovered our dear comrade, alas! not wounded, but quite dead; and many were the tears I shed over him! He was lying on his back, but his features, though calm, had already the leaden hue produced by a wound in the heart. At first it was no easy matter to detect the course of the ball, no blood being visible; but on closer inspection, we discovered a small rent through the jacket and shirt, as if made with a penknife, through which a few drops of blood only had oozed; it was through this trivial aperture that the

gallant spirit had escaped! His death must have been instantaneous, and much as we deplored him, his best friends could not have wished him a nobler exit from this troublesome world, for he fell in the very arms of victory.

When the action was over, we were not altogether free from anxiety, for our little force was sadly crippled, and but ill adapted to the efficient defence of such an extensive stockade, had the enemy been disposed to attack us during the night with a fresh force. We made, however, the best arrangements we could, and all passed off quietly; and never do I remember to have slept more sweetly than on the night of the 11th January, 1826. A party of us took up our quarters in a sort of temple, the roof of which had been riddled by our artillery, and amongst the broken tiles that strewed the floor, our rugs were laid, forming a hard, but by no means despicable pallet. In the morning I was awoke by a comrade proposing to me to walk round the works, and count the dead bodies: a strange mode of passing the time, it will be thought, but somewhat in character with the sort of life we then led. Our doctor had no sinecure of it, for, shameful to say, he was the only one attached to the force; and so overcome with fatigue was he, after attending to all the wounded, that he fainted away. Dr. Richardson was an active and intelligent officer, and a favourite with all. Many of our wounded men died during the night, for, owing to the very short distance at which we engaged the enemy, a large proportion of the wounds proved fatal.

On the 12th, we occupied ourselves in burning the stockade, and burying the dead. We gave the Europeans Christian burial, and the bodies of Cursham and Stedman were consigned to the earth in the clothes in which they fell, and literally "with their martial cloaks around them." The spot selected for their interment was a small enclosed space round a pagoda, and after the ceremony, the ground was carefully levelled, to ensure the bodies not being disturbed. We heard, afterwards, that the spot was discovered by our vindictive foe, and that the honoured remains of our friends were barbarously mutilated. I hope it was not true. Neither did we omit to bury the mangled relics of our unfortunate comrades that had been exposed on gibbets, though the matter was one of some difficulty, owing to their decomposed state.

The interior of Sittang much disappointed our expectations. The village occupied but a small portion of the stockade, whilst the greatest part bore evidences of having been only lately enclosed from the jungle, in the clumps of brushwood, tufts of grass, and stumps of trees, which were everywhere discernible. There was a decent house or two belonging to the priests, and some few religious edifices; the remainder were native huts, constructed of the ordinary materials of mud and bamboo. I have often remarked that the prizemoney yielded by a campaign, or the plunder produced by the sacking of a stockade, is pretty much in an inverse ratio to the difficulties encountered; and so it was with the Burmese war in general, and Sittang in particular; for, in the present instance, little of value was found excepting a few ruby rings, which our soldiery obtained by methods any thing but gentle, it is to be feared. A small bar of gold fell to the lot of one man, who immediately disposed of it to an officer for Rs. 40 and a bottle of brandy. The speculation was not a bad one, for, if I remember rightly, it proved to be worth Rs. 600, or £60. When first sold, the purity of the metal was a matter of doubt.

I cannot refrain here from adverting to the great neglect shewn by our Government to the spiritual wants of the British troops, while on service in the field, where of course such wants are most felt. During the Burmese war, which occupied nearly two years and a half, there was no such person as a

chaplain attached to the troops, nor do I remember there being any provision for the performance of divine service, though at Rangoon alone there were no fewer than nine English regiments, besides artillery! In my own corps, the Sabbath was observed by officers commanding companies reading the " Articles of War" to their men. By the performance of this duty, and hoisting the British colours on the flag-staff, we thought we sufficiently honoured our Maker!

At seven on the morning of the 13th, we re-embarked, and taking the same route by which we came, reached Shoeghein once more on the morning of the 15th, after an absence of only a week! On the homeward march, our spirits were somewhat damped by the breaking out of the cholera, which carried off a few of our best men. The reception we met from our friends at headquarters was most gratifying; all hands, with the band at their head, came out to greet us, and we marched into our old quarters to the tune of "The British Grenadiers." It was a proud moment for us all to be thus received on our return from a dangerous but successful enterprise.

Thus fell Sittang; not, however, without a severe struggle on both sides, British as well as Burman. Smile not, ye Waterloo men and Peninsula heroes, at the pigmy exploits I have been narrating, for such they doubtless are after your gigantic achievements. I am but a prosy chronicler of very humble events, but whilst fully alive to the vast difference between a French and a Burmese foe, I must claim an impartial perusal of my record, and a fair meed of praise for the actors in my little drama. It is true, fewer lives are lost through the sword in Eastern warfare, speaking generally; but a far larger proportion of gallant spirits fall victims to the hardships, privations, and diseases incidental to Indian service. There may be less of glory, but there is much more of danger-less of the laurel, but infinitely more of the mournful cypress! For instance; the 1st Madras European regiment lost, in the course of the Burmese war, six hundred men out of nine hundred, landed a little more than two years before. Disease was by far our greatest destroyer; nevertheless, a Burmese bullet did sometimes hit hard, and in the case before us, the proportion of killed and wounded to the numbers engaged and space of time occupied may bear comparison with the palmy and bloody days of Talavera and Waterloo !

THE PURANAS.

TO THE EDITOR.

SIR :-The letter of Professor Wilson, inserted in the number of your Journal for May last (received here on the 7th instant), has much surprised me, as I do not understand why he accuses me of "love of disputation and pertinacity of opinion;" for the opinions, expressed in the letters which I some time ago transmitted to you, are contained in my work on Ancient and Hindu Mythology, published in 1831; and to prepare materials for that work, I actually read and carefully examined all the eighteen Purans, except the Bhavishya. When, therefore, Professor Wilson, in the preface to his translation of the Vishnu Puran, took so very different a view of the genuineness and antiquity of the Purans as now extant, nothing could be more unobjectionable than my examining critically the remarks contained in that preface, and making public the result of that examination. Nor could it be reasonably expected that I should admit the correctness of that view, when it appeared to me to have been formed on insufficient and erroneous grounds.

In his letter, Professor Wilson very politely observes :-" Conscious, no doubt, that his arguments will not bear the test of comparison with the original works, he has attempted, at the close of his last letter, to insinuate a suspicion that the translation is not to be trusted." I have, however, neither insinuated nor stated any objections to the accuracy of that translation, except in one instance, in p. 340, in which Professor Wilson has thus translated a passage of the Vishnu Puran :—“The delusions of the false teacher paused not with the conversion of the Daityas to the Jaina and Bauddha heresies." Of this passage, I transcribed the original Sanscrit in my last letter, in order to shew that the terms Jaina and Bauddha were not contained in it; but I farther observed :-" Professor Wilson may have supposed that the term Arhata denoted the Jains, and may have understood from the words budhyadwam and budhyate that they applied to the Buddhists; and to this there could be no objection, had he expressed his opinion in a note, and not introduced into the text, the title of the chapter, and the index, the terms Jaina and Bauddha." I thus anticipated all that Professor Wilson has said on this point in his letter, and, as he admits in it that these terms are not to be found in the original, the question is simply—is a translator at liberty to insert in the original text of the work which he translates, a name which is not contained in it, and then to argue that the work must be of modern date, because that particular name occurs in it? Such is the case in the present instance, for Professor Wilson affirms that the Jains are mentioned in the Vishnu Puran, and adopts this circumstance as a criterion for fixing the dates when the Purans were composed; but this name is not to be found in that Puran, and I therefore justly objected to its being introduced into the translation.

Professor Wilson, however, in his letter, remarks:-"I will not think so meanly of Colonel Vans Kennedy's criticism as to suppose it possible that it would cavil at words, or that it would attach any importance to the insertion of the terms 'Jainas' and 'Bauddhas' in the place where they occur, if it could be substantiated that, in all the preceding parts of the chapter, the text had them in contemplation." But it is precisely to this that I object; for I contend that, in judging of the genuineness and antiquity of the Purans, their text ⚫ On the contrary, I have in my former letters transcribed the original Sanscrit, in the few instances in which I have specifically contradicted the statements of Professor Wilson, 2 A

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