Arachne and Sophie, the acknowledgments of the Governor-General in Council for the zealous and gallant exertions of themselves and the British seamen under their command.”
After arranging matters at Martaban, Lieutenant-Colonel Godwin despatched a party against Yeh, situated to the eastward, which fell without resistance. By the capture of these places, the British obtained the command of all the Barman sea-coast to the eastward of Rangoon.
In Jan. 1825, shortly after his return from Martaban, Lieutenant Keele, with forty-eight officers and men under his command, accompanied Lieutenant-Colonel Elrington to the attack of a strong hill fort, situated on the left bank of the Pegu river, about eight miles from Rangoon, and the pagoda of Syriam, five miles in the interior. The troops employed on this occasion landed on the 11th about three quarters of a mile from the fort, and the advanced party moved on until stopped by a deep, unfordable nullah, the bridge over which had been removed, purposely to check their progress: to make another, with planks brought for the occasion, gave the blue jackets an opportunity of displaying their usual activity, skill, and steady courage. On this point the enemy kept up a very galling fire, by which nearly thirty men were killed and wounded, including six belonging to the navy. In a few minutes, however, the bridge was laid, by the sailors swimming across with planks; two gun-boats were also brought up the creek. On the soldiers gaining the opposite bank, and rushing upon the works, the enemy instantly fled, although the place was capable of making a formidable resistance. Four guns were found in the fort, and upwards of twenty swivels. At the attack of the Syriam pagoda, next morning, the sailors assisted in manning the scaling ladders, and “Lieutenant Keele was the first over” the outer stockade. “Here ended the military operations, for the enemy made no further resistance, and parties were immediately formed to burn and destroy the works.” Lieutenant-Colonel Elrington, in his official letter on this occasion says, “the naval part of the expedition, under the orders of Lieutenant Keele, was most nobly conducted.” In a letter from Commodore
