The Cambridge History of India, Vol. IV: The Mughul Period v4.c23.s4.18

v4.c23.s4.18

Alaungpaya burnt Syriam to the ground and henceforward its importance ceases. He made Rangoon the port of Burma, enlarging the stockade and appointing a senior governor. In 1756–57 he advanced on Pegū by land and water while a second army, mainly of Shan levies, moved towards it from Toungoo. His advance was slow, with grim losses, for the Talaings were now fighting literally with their backs to the wall and they were still superior in firearms, mainly jingals, a rough iron tube mounted on a bamboo tripod and throwing a one-pound ball. He left pots of poisoned intoxicants where the Talaings would find them, and so killed many.² They made desperate stands in forty stockades south of the city, especially near Mokkainggyi, at Kyaikpadaing and Zenyaungbin (Nyaungbin). At Zenyaungbin they captured many of Alaungpaya’s jingals and turned them against him; it was a hornet’s nest which he captured only by flinging in the Golden Company of Syriam, increased to three hundred; these pressed on through a hail of lead shouting “*Shwebotha!*”, forced an entrance, and flung open the gate to their comrades. Finally the Burmese, devastating the country and deporting the population, closed around. A monastery at Sidi still shows a bell cast by Alaungpaya; he resided there, at the little fort of Zetuwadi, and was nearly driven out one night by some picked Talaings under the famous Talaban. But such efforts were vain. The Burmese, aided by their French artillery, and by war-boats which flung off the Talaings’ fire-rafts, completed their lines round the doomed city.