ABSTRACT
Bodopra was far from realising what the conquest of Arakan involved, and, no sooner was the completed than he started ambitious projects in other directions. In 1785 he sent a land force and eleven ships under officers of Portuguese descent to take the island of Junkseylon, then in the possession of Siam. One unfortunate Burmese commander, who had been defeated by the Siamese, was sent back in chains and publicly executed by order of Bodopra. A Burmese general, with five thousand men crossed the Naf and demanded their surrender. Sir John Shore, then Governor-General of India, sent a force, under General Erskine to compel the Burmese to withdraw. Meantime the Arakanese were emigrating in thousands into British territory, to escape from Burmese rule. The Burmese governor of Arakan was convinced that Khyinbran had been encouraged by the British officials in Chittagong.
