At the same time he wrote to the governor of the French stations in the East Indies to whom he sent valuable gifts in the hope of obtaining guns and military stores. The ship was unable to reach the Coromandel coast; contrary winds rendered it necessary to anchor at Mergui a seaport of Siam. The Burmese army returned to Siriam three days after the departure of the ship. The King, who was in command wished to give an example of severity to the people. The town was utterly sacked and at the mere sound of their approach the Peguans and their leader fled to the forests. The Governor of Tavoy, a Peguan city close at hand had established himself as an independent ruler. The Burmese King advanced to Martaban, a town close to Tavoy, and demanded the governor to surrender. The governor was too weak to offer any resistance and therefore complied. But his submission availed him nothing, for as soon as the King arrived, his head was cut off. It was here, that the King hearing about the richness of Siam conceived the idea of attempting its conquest, but wishing to have a valid excuse for his greed, he demanded that they should restore the ship that had been seized at Siriam from whence it had been brought to Mergui. The Siamese court having been informed that the ship was bound for Pondicherry ordered that the ship should continue the voyage in order to maintain the friendly relations existing between the Siamese court and the French stations. This refusal was the cause of a war in which many lives were lost. The Burmese King, having seized all the shipping and wealth of the country, made Tavoy his headquarters. He sent out an expedition of 30 vessels to reduce and burn the town of Mergui and to take similar action against Tenasserim, the chief town of a province of the same name. At the approach of the fleet, the inhabitants of Mergui fled and the town, previously so full of inhabitants, was left deserted. M. M. Andrien and Lefebvre, French missionaries, seeing before them a prospect of danger and useless suffering, embarked with their converts in two ships of which one was a French vessel and the other was the very ship to which the King of Ava laid claim. The fugitive inhabitants, after aimless wanderings sought refuge in the forests and in desert islands.