The Pacification of BurmaCrosthwaite, C. H. T. (Charles Haukes Todd)
History
The Pacification of Burma
Crosthwaite, C. H. T. (Charles Haukes Todd)
Burma -- History -- 1824-1948
The next month showed constant activity on the part of Po Saw and Bo Ti
and their Kachin allies. Frequent attacks were made on boats going down
or up the Mogaung River. It became necessary to send them in convoys
with police guards. Villages near Mogaung were raided, and early in May
Nanpapa, near Sinbo, was attacked, many villagers killed or carried
away, and the village destroyed. Po Saw himself took up a position
at Kamaing, where he could harass the traders on the route to the
jade-mines and Indawgyi, and from which he could also threaten Mogaung.
It was not possible for Captain O'Donnell to drive him away or to act
on the offensive at any distance from the fort. Hence the enemy became
more daring.
On the 21st of May, under cover of night, a large body of Shans,
under Bo Ti, got into the town and took up positions within the low
brick-wall enclosures of the pagodas, which, as has been described,
were scattered about in and outside the town. The garrison, under
Captain O'Donnell and Lieutenant Eliott, turned out against them. A
really good fight followed, in which the enemy lost forty-nine men
killed and many wounded, and were driven in confusion out of the town.
They were nearly all Shans, some of whom had come from the Uyu country
beyond the jade-mines. The garrison lost twenty-three men killed and
wounded. The Gurkhas were gallantly led, and behaved grandly, and on
that day the Mogaung Levy won a name for itself.
The situation at Mogaung caused some anxiety. The garrison was too
weak. Its strength was now only two hundred and ninety-two men, many
of whom were sick, not enough to allow a force to leave the post for
a day. Two hundred men were ordered up from Bhamo, and with that
addition the garrison would be able to hold their own, but it would not
suffice to enable them to punish the Kachins. Bo Ti was occupying a
place called Nyaungbintha, in the midst of the Ithi tribe of Kachins,
by whom he was strongly backed. At Kamaing on the north was Po Saw,
supported by the Thama Sawbwa of the Lepei tribe, who appeared to be
most hostile. There could be no permanent peace until the strength of
these tribes should be broken.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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