OPERATIONS OP THE IRRAWADY COLUMN, UPPER BURMAH. 
383 
as we got near tlie stockade the Kachins got nervous and fired at ns, 
by mistake we emerged just in front instead of just behind the stockade, 
but jumped on the top and found about 15 of them inside. They fired 
in the air up at us, and I got off the six barrels of my revolver, 
hitting two of them, as they scuttled off. I then bound up the Jem¬ 
adar and put him on a pony, and, having destroyed the stockade 
sufficiently to allow the convoy to pass, we hurried on. 600 yards 
ahead a large stone stockade with a ditch appeared, and the Kachins 
fired at us. We rushed it in front while they fired two ineffective 
volleys, and as we got to the stockade they bolted out; after this we 
hurried on towards Sadon, the friendly Kachins firing at us the whole 
way. On arriving at the river some 1200 yards below the Fort of 
Sadon we found that the bridge, the pride of Lieutenant Harrison’s 
heart, had been destroyed and the ford blocked with boughs and 
spikes, while a hot fire was opened upon us. We struggled across a 
ford below the bridge, which was very deep and rocky, while the 
enemy amused themselves by firing at us from the jungles round, 
luckily, owing probably to the darkness, hitting no one. I hurried 
my weary men up the hill path, which was blocked with boughs and 
pangies (spikes made of bamboo), and arrived in the village of Sadon, 
some 1400 feet above the river. Here we all took courage, knowing 
that the fort was only 600 feet higher up, but hardly had we got fairly 
into the village when from every house the Kachin muskets flashed in 
the darkness ; the mounted infantry ponies broke loose from the files 
leading them and the mule drivers left their mules, who promptly 
scattered in every direction. A mule driver was shot through the leg, 
and my Arab was also wounded. Mounting the wounded man on a 
pony, I hastened my party on through the village but could not collect 
more than three mules, and as our ammunition had come to an end it 
was useless trying to recover the others. The Kachins followed us up 
to within some 600 yards of the fort; here I halted, and we gave a 
cheer, which, to our intense relief, was answered by bugles sounding 
the “ Advance ” and “ Assembly 99 inside the fort, and in another five 
minutes we were inside, no men being lost, though all my own and my 
men’s kits were on the lost mules, as well as eight kegs of rum. We 
were enthusiastically received by the garrison, who never expected us 
to get through. Lieutenant Harrison, whom I knew well the other 
side of India, had no idea I was in Burmah at all, and was tremen¬ 
dously surprised to see me come in. My loss was—self and two men 
slightly wounded, native officer severely, one horse killed, my own 
wounded. 
Now to resume the diary of the siege. 
February 10th .—The enemy fired incessantly all the night, occasion¬ 
ally replied to by the sentries in the fort. My party and I were 
quite fit after our long march of 23 miles from H. Pong, of which 18 
had been on foot and 17 under constant fire. The jemadar’s wound 
was a severe one, the bullet having broken a rib and penetrated the 
right lung, the rest of our wounds were not serious. The enemy kept 
up a fire all day from the Scintong and Sadon sides ; the garrison 
stayed inside and improved their defences with logs and stones, etc. 
