'Travels from India to England : comprehending a visit to the Burman Empire, and a journey through Persia, Asia Minor, European Turkey, &c., in the years 1825-26, by James Edward Alexander' [‎26] (71/412)

26 BURMAN EMPIRE.
the boats being made fast with wooden anchors having a single
fluke, or with poles stuck in the mud. It was in the stockade of
Kemmendine that the twenty-sixth regiment of Madras Native
Infantry, under Major Yates, withstood for seven days forty suc
cessive attacks of a large portion of the Burmese army, and
repulsed them; for which they now bear " Kemmendine " on their
colours.
Being anxious to push on, and not knowing it to be the com
mandant's intention to halt at Kemmendine, I proceeded up the
Lyne branch of the river, and after being fired at by the gun-brig, I
discovered that we had made a wrong turn, instead of holding to
the left or entrance of the Panlaug creek, and dropped down. Next
day we ran up in one tide to Panlang, forty miles. This was
formerly an extensive town ; it is now a straggling village of
bamboo huts. Indigo, cotton, tobacco, and rice, are cultivated in
the vicinity.
The narrow and despicable policy of the government, by permit-
ting the highest classes only to construct durable habitations, opposes
itself to the improvement and civilization of the country, which
would be greatly forwarded if the common people were allowed to
imbibe local attachments, which are destroyed by the present system,
whereby they are continually moving from place to place.
The musquitoes here occasioned me the greatest torment I ever
experienced: whole squadrons of these insects issuing from the high
reeds which line the banks of the creek, bit us in a few seconds
through sheets and long drawers, and we could get no sleep. A
cavalry officer affirmed that he found no protection against them in
a pair of leather-breeches; an infantry soldier declared they had bit
him