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JOURNAL OF AN EMBASSY 
manufacture, and, like all that is prepared by the 
nations of the East, without European direction, 
a very wretched compound. The only thing like 
military activity and skill displayed by the Bur¬ 
mese in their contest with us was in the construc¬ 
tion of field-works. For these they generally 
made the best selection of ground, and they raised 
them with surprising celerity; but, after all, when 
finished, they were contemptible in execution; 
and never being defended with the resolution 
which other barbarous nations have displayed un¬ 
der the same circumstances, they opposed no se¬ 
rious obstacle to our troops. The Burmese, as far 
as I can understand, never have recourse to ar¬ 
mour; on the contrary, they fight with their 
bodies nearly naked, and with dishevelled hair. 
Cavalry does not appear, in former times, to 
have composed any portion of a genuine Bur¬ 
mese army. Since the conquest of Cassay, or 
Munnipore, however, the Burmese appear to have 
employed in their military expeditions a body of 
horse, composed of the inhabitants of that coun¬ 
try. The horses employed in this service are small 
spirited ponies, wholly unfit, however, for the pur¬ 
poses of an useful cavalry, even of the lowest 
description, if compared with that of any other 
country. A troop or two of the Governor-Gene¬ 
ral’s native body guard, the only description of 
horse with the British army, was always more 
than sufficient to drive the largest body of them 
