Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v3p1.djvu/365

 disease. Since we have been on this expedition, we have had 170 cases of cholera and dysentery. We have had thirteen deaths – we have now thirty patients at the hospital on shore, and twenty in the sick list on board; our convalescents are as ineffective as if they were in their hammocks; they relapse daily, and the surgeon reports, that, unless the vessel can be sent to cruise for a month, there is little chance of their ultimate recovery. When I sent away the expedition, under Lieutenant Fraser, on the 7th instant, I could only muster three officers and twelve men fit for duty.

“The conduct of Lieutenant Fraser, on the several expeditions which he has commanded, has been that of a gallant and steady officer; and I am under the greatest obligations to Mr. Atherton, not only for his active services in the boats, but for carrying on he whole duty of the ship, during the absence and sickness of the other officers. The behaviour of Mr. John Duffill, master’s-mate of this ship, and of Messrs. Winsor and Maw, midshipmen, lent from the Sophie and Liffey, has been very satisfactory, and I trust, that when future opportunities may occur, they will so distinguish themselves as to have a fair claim for promotion.”

On the 13th July, Captain Marryat dropped the Larne down as far as the Dalla creek, on her way to the mouth of the river, from whence she returned, with the sickness much decreased, on the 27th of the same month. During the absence of that ship, her first lieutenant, William Burdett Dobson, who had long been confined by severe illness, conducted a reconnoitring party up the Puzendown creek, where Sir A. Campbell succeeded in releasing a few Burmese families, who were desirous of returning to their houses at Rangoon. “To the influence of their report of the kind treatment they experienced,” the British “were subsequently indebted for the return of the great body of the people, to whose services and exertions the army was so much indebted in the ensuing campaign .” Being again despatched with a considerable force, after Captain Marryat’s return. Lieutenant Dobson captured thirty-five large cargo-boats, deeply laden with rice and saltfish.

On the 4th August, Sir Archibald Campbell proceeded up the Syriam river, with a detachment of 600 men and some