TO THE COURT OF AYA. 
11 
from the water. Near Donabew was to be 
seen an extent of rice culture much beyond 
what I had observed in any other part of Pegu. 
Below the village, there was one field extend¬ 
ing along the river-side for at least two miles, 
which was in some places a mile in depth. 
We observed that the practice of transplanting 
was followed. 
At Donabew the British force received the 
only serious check which it met with during 
the war. Bandula, the Bur man commander, 
after being repeatedly foiled or beaten before 
Rangoon, retired to this place in December 
1824, and, in the interval between that and the 
beginning of March following, had erected 
field-works more formidable and extensive than 
we had at that time encountered, or indeed did 
encounter at any future period of the war ; 
and in these he had collected a numerous force. 
We examined the remains of these works, 
which were already, in the short space of eigh¬ 
teen months, as much overgrown and obscured 
by rank weeds, as half a century would have 
made them in Europe. The principal work 
was a square fort of earth, supported by pali¬ 
sades ; its river face, and that corresponding 
to it, being scarcely less than a mile in length. 
The flanks were probably not above half this 
