ABSTRACT
Almost immediately after David Hunter’s expedition left Madras concrete evidence of a favourable turn to English fortunes in Pegu was forthcoming. After the founding of the Negrais settlement Hunter deputed Henry Brooke to Syriam with the royal present and the official letters from the Madras Council to the King of Pegu. In December 1753 the Burmese patriot-hero, Alaungpaya, had recaptured the ancient capital city of Ava, and early in the following month the Pegu forces had been cleared headlong out of Upper Burma. What the Court of Pegu offered in the hour of crisis, it would, he well knew, retract in the moment of victory. Thomas Taylor’s visit to Pegu therefore achieved nothing. Pegu, the capital of the Talaing country, and its busy port Syriam, held out, and their reduction would involve siege operations for which the Burmese army was ill-equipped.
