In consequence of the absence of all local government, robbers sprang up in every direction, and, being allowed to organise themselves, devastated and almost ruined the country. Among the most noted of these robber chieftains was Mya Toon. He burned down Donabew, Zaloon, and many other villages. His stronghold was about twenty-five miles inland from Rangoon. In consequence of the depredations he was committing, Brigadier Dickenson, the commandant at Rangoon, and Commodore Lambert resolved to send a combined naval and military force to dislodge him. The military force consisted of 300 men of the 67th Regiment Bengal Native Infantry, who, together with a body of marines and bluejackets from HM ships _Fox_, _Winchester_, and _Sphinx_, were placed under the command of Captain Granville Loch. There were 185 seamen, 62 marines, and 25 officers; but of these, 42 seamen and 5 officers were left in charge of the boats. This force was conveyed from Rangoon to Donabew on the 2nd July, in the _Phlegethon_ and ships' boats. They landed at Donabew without opposition, and, having procured some natives to act as guides and to aid in drawing the two three-pound field-guns belonging to the _Phlegethon_, they proceeded to march on the following day towards the position the enemy was supposed to occupy. The whole of the 3rd of February they marched along a pathway which lay through a jungle of forest trees and brushwood. Encamping in a deserted valley, about fifteen miles from Donabew, they were disturbed occasionally by the distant shots and noises of the marauders. Early on the following morning, the column moved on about five miles farther along the same path, until it abruptly terminated on the side of a broad nullah or creek, the opposite side of which was high enough to command the approach, and the whole well entrenched and armed, after the manner of the native fortifications of Burmah. The road at this point had been narrowed by an abattis of sharp-pointed bamboos, which rendered it impossible to deploy the whole strength of the column; indeed, the advance-guard, consisting of seamen and marines, marched with difficulty two or three abreast, and the field-guns were in the rear. At this moment a heavy and murderous fire was opened by the enemy upon the British troops, the Burmese being wholly concealed by the breastworks, and the British, on the contrary, entirely exposed.