TO THE COURT OF AYA. 
78 
ades. They fired upon the assailants until the 
latter had reached the works, and then ran 
away. This was their constant practice, espe¬ 
cially in the last campaign. The Kyi Wungyi 
himself, as upon former occasions, was one of 
the first to quit the field. This indeed seems 
to be the established practice of the Burman 
leaders ; and even Bandula, as already stated, 
was no exception. Thaongba-wungyi, who com¬ 
manded at the seven stockades on the 8th of 
July 1824, behaved gallantly, and lost his life. 
When the King heard this, he is said to have 
exclaimed, “ Why did not the fool run away ?” 
If such be the precepts of the Monarch and the 
example of his generals, it is hardly reasonable 
to expect that the soldiers should stand and 
fight for them. On the 5th of December last, 
the position of the Sa-dau-wun was forced and 
abandoned with equal precipitation as the other. 
By an unexpected accident, a portion of the 
Burman troops was on this occasion surrounded, 
and three hundred of them lost their lives. 
The other portion of the Burman force had 
been routed at Simbike, on the 1st of Decem¬ 
ber, by General Cotton. Simbike was a stock¬ 
ade eleven miles distant from Prome, situated 
on the left bank of the Nawaine (Na-wen) river, 
a small stream which falls into the Irawadi, a 
