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Q U E D A H
A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS
THE FIGHT ON THE PEIHO
BY
(JAPTAIN SHERAPvD OSBOEN, C.P..
n
R O Y A L X A V Y
.V /•: ir E D T T I O N S'
WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS
EDINBURGH AND LONDON
MDCCCLXY
PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AND SONS, EDINBURGH.
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CONTENTS.
PAGE
QUEDAH; OR, STRAY LEAVES FRO:^! A JOURNAL
IxV MALAYAN WATERS, ... .1
A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS, . . .285
THE FIGHT ON THE PEIHO IN 1859, . . .487
QUED AH
OR
STRAY LEAVES FROM A JOURNAL IN
MALAYAN WATERS
" Sweet Memory ! wafted by thy gentle gale,
Oft up the stream of Time I turn my sail,
To view the fairy haunts of long-lost hours,
Blest with far greener shades, far fresher flowers."
Rogers.
g^bitatib
TO
CAPTAIN AVILLIAM AVAEEEN,
ROYAL NA\T,
COMPANION OF THE MOST HONOURABLE ORDER OF THE BATH,
ETC. ETC.
AND FORMERLY COMMANDER OF H.M.S. HYACINTH,
WITH THE AVARMEST FEELINGS OF
LOYE AND RESPECT.
BY HIS NAVAL NOMINEE AND MIDSHIPMAN,
SHEEARD OSBOEN.
PREFACE,
The majority of naval officers are self-tauglit men : the
world their book — the midshipman's dingy berth their
"Alma Mater." The author is no exception to the rule ;
and as his confession may be profitable to others, he
makes the public sufficiently a confidant to say, that to
a steady habit of journalising, noting down all he saw,
read^ or felt, and, in spite of defective spelling and worse
grammar, still educating himself with his journal, he is
mainly indebted for being able to fight his way up an
arduous and emulative profession.
This fact he would fain impress upon the younger
branches of the Royal Navy : it will cheer and encour-
age the humble youth who dons the blue jacket, relying
on his head and hand to win those honours and advance-
ment which, in the natural course of things, appear only
to have been created for the influential ; and should the
author have thrown some bright lights on the character
of a people much maligned and misunderstood, he and
PEEFACE. ix
others will see that, in practising habits of observation,
not only does the officer discover a source of amusement
and instruction for himself, but that, at some time or
other, he may be able to serve his fellow-man, or add,
at any rate, in a humble way, to the fund of human
knowledge.
The general reader will be best able to judge whether
the author was justified in troubling them with this
series of "Stray Leaves" from his journals. In tran-
scribing them, the original character of the MS. has been
adhered to as much as possible ; and, as far as lay in
his power, the author has identified himself with that
sunny period of life in which the tale of the Blockade of
Quedah was originally written.
Some apology is perhaps due to those persons whose
names are introduced in the narrative ; but forgiveness
may be expected where no harm is said of them.
Aspiring to no lofty niche in the temple of literary
fame, the author launches the good ship " Quedah,"
confident that, while telling his sailor's yarn in a sailor's
way, he will be sure of sympathy and kindly criticism
from his countrymen and countrywomen.
London, January 1857.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
India twenty years ago — Singapore in the month of May —
Chinese junks ready for sea — Prahus — Singapore boats —
Miniature junks — Origin of the form of junks — Sovind reason
for junks having one eye on each side — Arab boats — Sampan-
puchats — Singapore of old— Commercial Singapore — A sepoy
martyr — Court-house — Churches with steeples — The Hyacinth
in port, 1
CHAPTER II.
Internal economy — Fishing-parties — Rumours of pirates — News
of an Ulanoon squadron — A floating menagerie— An encounter
with pirates —The Hyacinth searches for pirates — A war-fleet
heard of — Quedah politics — We are required to aid the Siamese
— Rapid equipment of pirate fleet — The Malays are warned of
the coming retribution — Captain Warren visits the pirate
fleet — Arrangements are made to equip a flotilla — The Hya-
cinth and gunboats ofi" Quedah — My gamboat and crew — The
coxswain's excitability — The interpreter's appearance, . . 12
CHAPTER III.
Commence to blockade Quedah fort — Jadee's imaginary fight
with a Tonkoo — My Malay coxswain's appearance — His attire
and character — Jadee's piratical jDropensities — Escapes impri-
sonment by hanging a man— Quedah fort and town — The ap-
pearance of the adjacent country — A wet night — My crew —
Jadee's want of bigotry — Primitive mode of eating, . . 28
CONTENTS. xi
CHAPTER IV.
The blockade rendered more stringent — The Bounting Islands —
My crew keeping holiday — "Hyacinths " poisoned with ground-
nuts — We discover wild-bees' nests — Arrangements made for
robbing the hives — The bees quit their hives and settle on me
— ^No honey — A Malay doctor — The Koran and Chunam remedy
for bee-stings, . 39
CHAPTER V.
The north-east monsoon — Unsatisfactory news of our Siamese
allies — The pelicans— Alligators abound — The cowardice of the
alligators — Encounter and capture an alligator — Extraordinary
strength and vitality of those reptiles — A strange antidote
against fever — -The Rahmadan and " Quedah opera" — The
Malays endeavour to evade the blockade — The watchfulness of
my native crew, - . 47
CHAPTER YI.
A night-chase after a prahu — The chase— The prahu manceuvres
admirably — Jadee volunteers to board her — The capture — A
piratical saint — The saint at prayers — The saint's deportment
— The saint's martyrdom — Defensive measures— Escape of Sia-
mese prisoners — Sufferings of the Siamese prisoners — A curious
mode of sketching, 55
CHAPTER VII.
The anxiety of the officer commanding the blockade — Intelligence
received of the pirate fleet — My good fortune in sailing with
so excellent a captain — A tropical thunder-storm — Jadee kills
the wind — How Jadee learned to kill the wind — The Dutch
generally disliked — Jadee"s piratical friends attack a junk—
The defeat and flight of Jadee's friends — They are saved by
the Rajah of Jehore — Killing the wind, 65
CHAPTER VIII.
Refreshing effects of a squall in the tropics — Scenery in the Malay
Archipelago — My gunboat the Emerald joins the Parlis block-
ading squadron— The Malays try to stockade us out of the
Xli CONTENTS.
river — Haggi Loung comes on an embassy — Malayan diplo-
macy — Jadee's disregard for a flag of truce— Jadee and the
one-eyed enemy — A spy— The chase by starlight— The sub-
merged jungle— An Indian night-scene— The chase lost— The
whip and mangrove snakes, 75
CHAPTER IX.
Mahomet Alee does not attack— Start crane-shooting— Daybreak
in Malayia— The adjutant— The ''old soldier ! "—The ''old
soldier" fishing — The "old soldier" weathers a young sailor
— No cranes— Plenty of monkeys — Monkeys in a passion— A
sudden chase of a prahu — Birds' nests and Pulo Bras Manna —
The edible-nest-building swallow, Hirundo escidenta ; food ;
habits — Decide upon seeing the nests collected — Difficulties in
the way of doing so — Jamboo enjoying Company's pay — Jam-
boo remonstrates — A scramble for birds' nests — The Malays
descend the face of the cliff— The home of the edible-nest-
building swallow — The birds'-nest trade — The nests composed
of gelatine, 86
CHAPTER X.
Eetm-n to Parlis — Datoo Mahomet Alee's sanguinary threat —
Jadee has, we find, sent an abusive message — Jadee reproved
— Jadee's feelings are hurt — Character of my native crew — A
page about native prejudices — One of the Malays mutinous —
Cure for native prejudices— Malayan jungle-scenery by day-
light — Black monkeys — A monkey parody upon human life —
English seamen and the monkeys — Scarcity of fresh water —
The village of Tamelan — A Malay chieftainess — Watering —
Snakes disagreeably numerous — Stories of large snakes, . 98
CHAPTER XI.
Jadee declines to clean the copper— A Malay prejudice — A Malay
mutiny— The lost sheep return — The difficulty surmounted' —
Malayan mechanical skill — An impromptu dock — An accident,
and quick repairs — Launch, and resume station — Loss of my
canoe — A sampan constructed — The Malayan axe or adze —
Ingenious mode of applying native materials in construction
of boats, 109
CONTENTS. XIU
CHAPTER XII.
Return to Quedah — Native defences — The ''Teda bagoose" —
Scaring an ally — Difficulties which accounted for the delay of
the Siamese — Inchi Laa acknowledges the eflfects of our block-
ade — Severity towards the Malays — A prahu full of fugitives
captured — Intelligence suddenly gained of Siamese army — De-
serters — The Malay forces out- manoeuvred — Serious losses of
the Malays — Inchi Laa — Shameful atrocities of the Malays —
Exchange of courtesies — Permission given for the women to
escape — Preparations for flight, . , . , . .119
CHAPTER XIII.
The lull before the storm — The exodus — A scene of confusion
and distress— The Malay chieftain's wife — Baju-Mira — The
convoy — An extraordinary appeal — Midwifery simplified — A
night-scene — A midshipman's emotions— A Malayan houri —
Resign my charge and retm-n — An attempt to enslave the
fugitives, 131
CHAPTER XIV.
Malay slave-trade fostered by the Dutch — Brutal system pursued
by the Portuguese — Slavery doubtless founded by the Ma-
hometans — Retribution has overtaken the Portuguese — An
enlightened policy most likely to eradicate slavery and piracy
— Close blockade — The call of the Siamese sentries — The call
of the Malay sentries — Deaths from want of water — Kling
cruelty^The trial and verdict, and punishment— Siamese tor-
tures — Novel mode of impaling a rebel — Extraordinary palm-
spears — Remarks upon native governments, .... 142
CHAPTER XV.
The massacre of the prisoners in Quedah fort — The alarmed bar-
ber — Inchi Laa repudiates the act — The vultures' feast — Cap-
tain Warren visits the Siamese camp — The Siamese army —
Renewed vigour in the operations — The capture of the battery
— The flight of the harem — Fugitives no longer able to escape
by sea —Narrow escape of my crew — Inchi Laa surrenders —
Struck by a whirlwind — The last broadside— The chiefs escape
— Quedah fort abandoned, 154
XIV CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XVI.
The Siamese in possessiou of the fort — Description of the fort —
A Siamese military swell — The divan — A naval ambassador —
The ambassador demands beef — Curiosity of the Siamese
officials— The appearance of the soldiery — Mobility of the
Siamese troops — Arms and equipments — The buffalo of Ma-
lay ia — Mr Airey, master of the Hyacinth — Siamese ingrati-
tude not singular — We proceed to Parlis, . . . .167
CHAPTER XVII.
Return to Parlis — A case of cholera-morbus — An Irish cure for
cholera — Pat Conroy's opinion of the Chinese — Tamelan —
Parlis— The flight from Tamelan — The legacy of Queen Devi
— The departure — The heart of a cocoa-nut tree — Proceed to
shoot a buffalo — Discover a herd — The shot and the chase —
Obtain plenty of buffalo meat, 177
CHAPTER XVIII.
Jamboo frightened by a river spirit — The aborigines of Malayia —
Malayan superstitions — An '' Untoo," or spirit, seen— My cre-
dulity taxed — The spirits of the jungle — On superstitions in
general — The charms of superstition— Musquitoes and sand-
flies — The village on fire — Flaming cocoa-nut trees — Inten-
tional destruction— Traces of man rapidly obliterated in the
East, 188
CHAPTER XIX.
A crew of wretched fugitives — " Orang-laut," or sea gypsies —
Low civilisation of the Orang-laut — Total absence of all re-
ligio\;s feeling — Their mode of living — The personal appear-
ance of Orang-laut — Dearth of fresh water — Ordered to pro-
cure water up the river— Parlis and pirate fleet— Interview
with Haggi Loung— Permission granted to procure water —
Tom West's address to the Malays — Paddle up the river —
Tropical Malayan scenery — Pass Kangah —Obtain freshwater, 199
CONTENTS. XV
CHAPTER XX.
The ladies of Kangah bathing— Halt to lunch at Kangah —
Kangah, its situation — Mode of constructing Malay houses—
The mosque — The bazaar and its occupants — Arrival of armed
men— Eetum to the boat — Praiseworthy fidelity of the Malays
— Malay independence of character — The pleasures of memory
— A Malay family scene — Return to Parlis — Pulo Quetam —
Trade during blockade, 212
CHAPTER XXI.
Social evenings — Quaintness of English seamen— The adventures
of Lucas— Runs away to Liverpool — Enters on board of an
African trader — The voyage to the Bights — Fever— Deaths-
Difficulty in leaving port — A new captain joins — Voj^age home
— Sufferings from want of water — Disorderly scenes — A fight
— Villanous beverage — A man flogged to death — A horrid
post-mortem examination — Temporary relief — Recklessness —
Suflferings — A second case of murder — Lucas a sailor nolens
volens, 224
CHAPTER XXII.
Jadee offers the loan of a love-letter — A midshipman's scruples
— The Emerald ordered to Pouchou — Enter the river during
the night — Jadee's suggestions for warding off musquitoes —
•Jadee foresees trouble — A nautical superstition of the olden
day — The flight — The sampan repulsed — The chase — A prahii
captured — Proceed to Tangong Gaboose — Starving piratical
fugitives — A threat of cannibalism — The horrors of Asiatic
warfare — Jamboo's view of the Malay's position — Reflections, 239
CHAPTER XXIII.
A surprise — The stratagem — Escape of Mahomet Alee— Jadee
indignant — Disappointment and consolation — We report the
escape — Raising of the blockade — The neglected warning —
The gig chases the canoe— The Laddas — A Malayan night-
xvi CONTENTS.
scene— Dream-land — Return to things earthly — Unsuccessful
search for prahus — The sea-breeze — The race — Short rations
— Eat birds' nests — A long and distressing pull — Zeal and
cheerful conduct of the crew — Reflections, .... 254
CHAPTER XXIV.
A tropical shower — Early breakfast — The Malay piratical soiree
— Jadee upbraids them for being surprised— Preparing for
action— Demeanour of English and Malay seamen — Malay
charm for shooting straight — My coxswain ; his piety — Burn-
ing, sinking, and destroying — The renegade turns traitor —
The large reptiles of Langkawi — The tale of the oular-besar,
or great snake — The snake choked by a holy man — A remark-
able fossil — A pirate's hiding-place — Lovely scenery — The
anger of the skies — Struck by lightning — Close of operations,
against Quedah — Conclusion, 268
Chakt, to face page 1
Q TJ E D A H.
CHAPTEE I.
INDIA TWENTY YEARS AGO— SINGAPORE IN THE MONTH OF MAY
— CHINESE JUNKS READY FOR SEA — PRAHUS — SINGAPORE
BOATS — MINIATURE JUNKS — ORIGIN OF THE FORM OF JUNKS —
SOUND REASON FOR JUNKS HAVING ONE EYE ON EACH SIDE —
ARAB BOATS — SAMPAN-PUCHATS — SINGAPORE OF OLD — COM-
MERCIAL SINGAPORE — A SEPOY MARTYR — COURT-HOUSE —
CHURCHES WITH STEEPLES — THE HYACINTH IN PORT.
On the 29th of May 1838, the Hyacinth, one of her
Majesty's 18-gun ship-rigged corvettes, made her number
to the signal-staff over the Governor's residence at Singa-
pore, and, aided by the light airs peculiar to that latitude,
flapped, rather than sailed, into the anchorage.
Twenty years have made vast improvements in that
great emporium of the Eastern Archipelago; but even
that most thoughtless of all human beings, a British
midshipman — for such I then was — could not but re-
mark the signs of vitality and active commercial enter-
1
Q TJ E D A H.
CHAPTEE I.
INDIA TWENTY YEARS AGO— SINGAPORE IN THE MONTH OF MAY
— CHINESE JUNKS READY FOR SEA — PRAHUS — SINGAPORE
BOATS — MINIATURE JUNKS — ORIGIN OF THE FORM OF JUNKS —
SOUND REASON FOR JUNKS HAVING ONE EYE ON EACH SIDE —
ARAB BOATS — SAMPAN-PUCHATS — SINGAPORE OF OLD — COM-
MERCIAL SINGAPORE — A SEPOY MARTYR — COURT-HOUSE —
CHURCHES WITH STEEPLES — THE HYACINTH IN PORT.
On the 29th of May 1838, the Hyacinth, one of her
Majesty's 18-gim ship-rigged corvettes, made her number
to the signal-staff over the Governor's residence at Singa-
pore, and, aided by the light airs peculiar to that latitude,
flapped, rather than sailed, into the anchorage.
Twenty years have made vast improvements in that
great emporium of the Eastern Archipelago; but even
that most thoughtless of all human beings, a British
midshipman — for such I then was — could not but re-
mark the signs of vitality and active commercial enter-
1
2 QUEDAH.
prise which, have since borne such good fruits. Perhaps
this struck one all the more when coming from Ceylon
and Hindostan, as we had done. There, it was true, the
stranger from Europe could not but observe the air of
English comfort and well-to-do which pervaded every-
thing; but, somehow or other, it struck one as being
wonderfully stagnated : the feeling that India was highly
respectable, highly conservative, but very much mildewed
and very much astern of the world, forced itself equally
on the mind. Steam was still an agent which Indian
quidnuncs questioned the success of in India, whatever
it might do elsewhere. A solitary steamer, the Diana,
was almost as much a curiosity to the European residents
of the Straits of Malacca as she was to the Malays or
Chinese ; and poor Lieut. Waghorn, of our navy, had not
yet enhghtened Leadenhall by showing them the ad-
vantages of the Overland Route; indeed, it was nothing
unusual even at that time, to receive letters five months
old, and to consider one's self remarkably lucky in getting
such late intelligence. Now, if a letter was as many
weeks old, the merchant of Singapore would complain
of the irregularities of the mail-boats.
However, it is with Singapore of the past I have to
deal. Before the town, and at the distance of a mile
from it, lay numerous huge junks, all glittering with
white and red and green and black ; their strange
eyes staring with all the vacuity of a Chinaman, and
apparently wondering how they would ever find their
way to China. Thither they were now bound, with
the strength of the south-west monsoon to blow them,
"viento a popa," into the ports of the provinces of
CHINESE JUNKS. 3
Quantiing and Fokien, -whence they had come with clan-
destine emigrants, teas and silks and sugars, aided by
the north-east monsoon of the previous winter. Many
a goodly yard of Manchester cottons, and manufactures
by the ton of English handicraft, now filled their capa-
cious holds. On their mainmast-heads — which mast
was, as usual, one long spar of stupendous girth — a most
original arrangement in the shape of a dog- vane had been
fixed, and from it long heavy silken streamers waved in
the hot sky. Around these vessels floated "full many
a rood " their long rattan cables, and I began almost to
believe in the sailor's story of a Chinaman's anchor float-
ing, when I saw their cables do so, and that the anchors
of their largest vessels were constructed of wood. Un-
earthly cries, resembling swine in distress, issued from
these ponderous arks, evidently meant for songs by their
sailors, as they hoisted in the long-boats preparatory to
going to sea.
Within these junks, in comparison with which we
looked uncommonly small, were thousands of prahus of
every size and form, stretching away into a narrow and
shoal harbour which lies to the right of the town. Thej
were traders from every port of the Archipelago ; they
had held a constant floating fair until very lately, and
had disposed of their wares, completed return cargoes,
and would likewise shortly depart for their different des-
tinations. A merchant assured us that as many as 4000
of these vessels had arrived during the past monsoon ;
and but for the Dutch interference and jealousy, many
more would visit Singapore yearly. Skimming about
amoncjst these vessels, of curious forms and still more
4 QUEDAH.
curious rigs, there were hundreds of boats, in whose shapes
the ingenuity of man seemed to be exhausted in invent-
ing bodies, intended for propulsion through the water,
which should differ as much as possible from each other.
The Singapore sampan decidedly carried off the palm for
beauty and fleetness, approaching, in sharpness of out-
line and the chances of drowning the sitters, to one of
our above-bridge racing wherries on the Thames : two
Malay rowers, each pulling a single broad-bladed oar,
could in these sampans beat our fleetest gig. Then, in
contradistinction to these, came the Chinese boat — from
which the name " sampan " had, I believe, been derived
— a j)erfect miniature junk, except that she had no deck ;
painted with ports along the side, and green, white, red,
and black eyes in the bow. In the large ones of this
description, which evidently belonged to the junks in
the offing, the crews sometimes amounted to twelve or
sixteen persons ; but in those which belonged to Singa-
pore, and merely served as a means of communication
between the vessels and the shore — or in some cases
were owned by fishermen of the place — the pigmy junk
was invariably rowed by one man. In all, however,
whether big Chinese sampans or small ones, the mode of
rowing was alike. The descendants of Confucius, differ-
ing from the Europeans in that as in every other respect,
instead of sitting down to their oars when rowing, al-
ways stand up ; instead of being before their oars, they
are always abaft them ; and instead of the rowers facing
aft, they always face forward. The form of the sampan
and junk is, of course, that of the model, a slipper ; and
that not a lady's one either, but a good broad-toed.
ORIGIN OF THE JUNK. 5
broad-lieeled, broad-soled one, — a good old-fasliioned list
slipper, in short. In case the reader should not have
heard the legend upon the authority of which rests the
fact that the slipper became the model for the Chinese
shipbuilders and waterman's companies, I may as well tell
him that, in the time of that wise monarch who walled
off China from the rest of the w^orld by land, — between
two and three hundred years before the birth of Christ,
and about the time Alexander the Great invaded Persia
— I like to be particular about dates I — the Chinese ship-
builders gave a great deal of anxiety to the heaven-
descended monarch by introducing clippers, copper-
bottomed ships, and other abominable innovations —
which quite threatened to subvert his wise intention of
keeping the Flowery Land free from the contamination
of strangers. One day the monarch, pressed down with
anxiety as to how his plans for the suppression of navi-
gation in general were to be carried out, sat in public
divan at Pekin to hear, as Avas the wont in those days,
the petitions of his people. There was a rush through
the crowd, and a subject with a wooden model under his
arm threw himself at the monarch's feet, rapping his
head most devotedly upon the steps of the imperial
throne ; he was told to rise, and present his claim to
heaven-born consideration.
The wretch was a shipbuilder of Southern China.
He held a perfect model of a sharp-keeled vessel in his
hands, such as barbarians two thousand years afterwards
are seen to sail in, and implored his Majesty to patronise
his improvement in the construction of imperial ships !
Sacrilege of the deepest dye ! Here, on the one hand.
6 QUEDAH.
sat Inexpressible Wisdom, wlio desired to make tlie
eartli stand still ; on the other, Science, who wished to
carry the people of the Flowery Land — their arts and
peaceful discoveries, the ]3rinting-press, the magnet, the
manufacture of silks and paper — to nations who employed
their leisure hours in butchering one another ; and
maybe bring back their bloodthirstiness as return cargoes.
It was horrible — most horrible ! — but the monarch,
though he sat cross-legged, was a merciful monarch :
he grasped his slipper — for it was ready to his hand.
" Avaunt, monster ! " he shouted ; and, with unerring
aim, he hove his sacred slipper at the miscreant's head.
" Avaunt ! — from henceforth build all thy vessels on the
model of that old shoe ; and, ministers," said he, ad-
dressing the Court, ' ' let an edict go forth that my slip-
per alone shall be the type of every floating thing in the
rioAvery Land ; and " — lowering his voice to his prime-
minister and favourite, the heaven-born deigned to close
one eye and leave the other open as he muttered — " and
it's devilish funny cruising at sea they will have, if they
adhere to that model, O Fan-tse ! " Since that day
China has adhered steadily to the imperial fancy ; and
the royal act of winking is immortalised by the solitary
eye which stares from the bow of their vessels ; the other
one is supposed to be shut ; and that solitary eye says,
as audibly as a wooden eye can say it, —
" It's devihsh funny cruising we have at sea,
Fan-tse !"
Whilst cogitating profoundly, as jolly-boat midship-
men invariably do, on the profound wisdom of Chinese
legislators, and wondering whether there are any more
STRANGE CRAFT. 7
like them in tlie world at present, two other queer craft
appear on the scene.
The one is a boat built on English lines, though rather
round and full in form ; she is painted with alternate
streaks of eyery colour upon this earth, and resembles,
as they are reflected on the polished surface of the calm
sea and again re-reflected upon her sides, a dying dol-
phin, though a very ugly one. In her the crew — dressed
in frocks of divers gay colours — are rowing in a peculiar
manner, by rising ofl" their seats as they dip their oars in
the water, and then, when they throw theii* weight on
the oars, coming down upon their seats with a " sough ! "
which must have loosened the teeth in their heads. Yet
they sang a wild and plaintive air, splashing the water
about with their oars, and rapping down with an energy
upon the thwarts which was charmingly original, and
excited all my mirth — a mirth which the sitters, very
obese-looking Parsees from Bombay, looked very indig-
nant at ; at least as much so as a ton of flesh can ever
look. These boats came from some Arab vessels which
adorned the anchorage — vessels called grabs, rigged some-
what like brigs, but having a length of bow which was
perfectly astounding ; indeed, in some of them the long
taper of the bow was one-third the length of the whole
vessel, and the bowsprit was entirely inboard.
The other strange boat which attracted my attention
was a craft, perhaps 120 feet long, with twelity feet beam,
looking like an overgrown Malay sampan, and pulling
fifty or eighty oars : she resembled nothing so much in
colour and appearance as some huge centipede scrambling
over the sea. These were the sampan -puchats — fast
8 QUEDAH.
vessels, owned by the mercliants of Singapore and
manned by stalwart Chinese crews ; they can outstrip
the fleetest prahus, and are able to sail or pull with equal
facility. By them an immense smuggling trade is done
with the Dutch monopolists, and many a rich cargo of
spices and gold-dust, antimony and pepper, repays the
merchant of Singapore for his speculation in Sheffield
and Birmingham goods.
We pull into the little creek or river of Singapore,
which splits the good town in two, and here the same
Babel-like character is equally thrust upon the observa-
tion.
I am, however, to tell of the sea, and shall leave to
others the details of Singapore on shore — premising that
a good description has yet to be written of that Queen
of the Malayan Archipelago. It will suffice for a sailor's
narrative to say that the whole town stands upon a level
of no very great extent, which stretches along the base
of gently -swelling hills, on the top of the highest of
which stands Government House, tenanted by the pre-
sent Sir Samuel Bonham — then governor of the Straits
of Malacca — a most able civil servant of the Hon. East
India Company, beloved by all classes, and always
spoken of by the Malays with a mixed feeling of awe
and affection, in consequence of the active part he took
as a commissioner in the suppression of piracy in the
Straits.
The creek separated Singapore into two distinct parts.
The one was purely commercial, with its bazaar and mar-
ketplaces, its native town, and overflowing stores ; a per-
fect commercial Babel, where, if a confusion of tongues
ASPECT OF SINGAPORE. 9
would induce men to cease building temples to the god-
dess of wealth, they would have taken ship and fled the
spot. There was an energy, a life, a go-aheadism about
everything that struck me much ; everybody was in a
hurry, everybody pushing with a will. The boatmen
condescended to tout for passengers, and were black-
guards enough, we heard, to occasionally rap the passen
gers over the head if they objected to pay them the fare —
a proceeding the passengers in other parts of India often
reverse by ill-treating the cowardly boatman : then came
along a crowd of half-naked Chinese, staggering under
some huge bale of goods, and working with a will which
would put London porters or Turkish hammels to the
blush ; a crowd of black and oily Hindostanees, screech-
ing like jackdaws over a stack of bags of sugar, and
Arabs, Englishmen, Jews, Parsees, Armenians, Cochin-
Chinese, Siamese, half - castes, and Dutchmen, each
struggling who should coin dollars fastest ; and as my
coxswain, a Gosport boy, expressed himself, on his re-
turn from making some humble purchases — "Well, I
thought they were a smart set on Common Hard, sir ;
but blest if they don't draw one's eye-teeth in Sincum-
po!"
It was pleasing to turn from all these loud noises and
strong smells of the commercial part of Singapore to
the opposite side of the river, where, nestling amongst
green trees, lay the residences of the wealthy European
merchants ; all was as dreamy, sleepy, quiet, and pictur-
esque as any one could desire, and, I am bound to add,
as hot ; for there the bright equatorial sun was pouring
down without shadow or breeze to take off its effects.
10 QUEDAH.
The sepoy sentry seemed to be frizzling in his leathern
shako and hideous regimentals, and the sensation I felt
on regarding his scarlet coat was that he might at any
moment burst into flames. He was a military martyr
lashed to a British musket instead of a stake. From that
painful sight the eye instinctively sought repose upon a
mass of cold dark-green foliage, against which the Court-
House rose — a long building, possibly commodious, but
decidedly of the Composite order of architecture. With-
in it, at stated periods, the British embodiment of the
Goddess of J ustice occasionally sat ; whether in the
classic pepper-and-salt coloured wig and black gown
which that deity disguises herself in on our own dear
island, I know not ; but as Mars adheres in the East to
leather stocks, pipeclay, and blackball, it is quite pos-
sible that Astraea does not abandon horsehair and black
silk.
A pretty esplanade, and bungalows standing in pleas-
ant detached patches of ground, stretched away until
lost in the jungle and haK-cleared country beyond; these,
with a very commodious church, constituted the west-
end of Singapore : those who built the church, built it
to give sitting-room to those who attended ; heathens
that they were, they forgot the steeple ! The good
Bishop of Calcutta could not — like the Chinese emperor
with his old shoe — throw a steeple at their heads ; but
he did more ; he preached a crusade against churches
without steeples, and laboured, preached, and subscribed
to have steeples put to all Protestant churches so suc-
cessfully, that steeples went up in the air wherever he
had trodden ; and I daresay by this time people in
THE HYACINTH. 11
Singapore, when they build churches, build steeples, as
they do in modern England, for birds to build in, instead
of aisles in which Christians may pray.
But what have I to do with the shore ? Let us return
to the Hyacinth, and busy ourselves, painting and polish-
ing, until every one belonging to her begins to believe
she is the most beautiful thing that ever floated. The
first - lieutenant has holystoned the decks and scraped
the masts, until both are as bright as a hound's tooth ;
the boatswain has been driven distracted by having to
square and resquare the yards in consequence of some
slight flaw being detected in their parallelism, and con-
fides to me, as I steer him on board for the sixth time,
that " He'll be d — d if he doesn't think them yards are
enchanted, for, somehow, he used to square the Wapse's
yards in five minutes ; " and the carpenter has been
" cutting out " the white streak here, and " cutting in "
the black paint of the hull there, until he fancies he has
brought the appearance of the old sloop to as near per-
fection as it is possible for mortal man to do.
CHAPTEE 11.
INTERNAL ECONOMY— FISHING-PAETIES — EUMOURS OF PIRATES-
NEWS OF AN ILLANOON SQUADRON — A FLOATING MENAGERIE —
AN ENCOUNTER WITH PIRATES — THE HYACINTH SEARCHES FOR
PIRATES — A WAR-FLEET HEARD OF — QUEDAH POLITICS — WE
ARE REQUIRED TO AID THE SIAMESE — RAPID EQUIPMENT OF
PIRATE FLEET — THE MALAYS ARE WARNED OF THE COMING
RETRIBUTION — CAPTAIN WARREN VISITS THE PIRATE FLEET
— ARRANGEMENTS ARE MADE TO EQUIP A FLOTILLA — THE
HYACINTH AND GUNBOATS OFF QUEDAH — MY GUNBOAT AND
CREW — THE coxswain's EXCITABILITY — THE INTERPRETER'S
APPEARANCE.
The Captain has gone ashore to take up his quarters
with the Governor ; the second-lieutenant says it is his
duty to be out of the ship as much as possible in har-
bour, and has gone to carry his theory into practice.
Those of the subordinate officers who are blest with
funds go on shore to hire horses, and try and ride their
tails ofi'; those that have not, calculate the number of
days that must intervene before they have a right to
inform their affectionate relatives, through the ]N'avy
Agents, that they are alive, and of course doing well,
and are heard to assert that they will commemorate the
cashing of that prospective bill by feats in horsemanship
and gastronomy which would make both steeds and
CRICKET AND FISHING PARTIES. 13
poultry tremble could they only hear them. Being of
those whose haiDpiness was involved in a cheque not yet
arrived at maturity, I stayed on board ; and, by way of
amusement, cricket and fishing parties were made up.
Of the former I shall not speak ; for any one can form
an idea of what cricketing must be at a distance of sixty
miles from the equator, the temperature at the time we
played, 3 p.m., being about 84° in the shadiest part of
Singapore. The seining-parties were decidedly the most
pleasant and healthy. The plan of proceedings usually
consisted in either of the two seniors of the midshipmen's
berth obtaining permission from the first-lieutenant to
make up a fishing-party ; that done, there was a selection
of volunteers from the seamen, marines, and boys, suffi-
cient to man the cutter and jolly-boat. Into the latter
boat the seine-poles and lines were carefully placed, and in
the cutter a goodly store of biscuit and pork, tea, coffee,
and a little private stock of spirits. A couple of good
frying-pans and some lard were of course a necessary
addition, in order that we might enjoy a supper upon
fish fresh from the water — a gastronomic treat in all
climates, but doubly so in the East Indies. After even-
ing quarters, the fishermen repaired to their boats, clad
in any old clothes they chose to put on ; and just as
evening closed in we would leave the ship, repair to some
beautiful sandy beaches among the neighbouring islands,
and there, through the early part of the night, fish away
to our hearts' content, then muster round a roaring fire,
enjoy a merry supper of fried fish, rashers of pork, and
biscuit, washed down with tea or coffee made in a tea-
kettle in gypsy fashion. The supper over, a glass of grog
14 QUEDAH.
per man would be produced from tlie officers' private
store, pipes would be lit, songs would be sung, and yarns
told, until the small hours warned us to return to our
floating home and the next day's routine. These night-
parties, in after days, led us into strange adventures and
funny scenes : but I will not forestall my narrative ;
suffice it that at that time we were novices in the East,
and all was charming, strange, and exciting.
Eagerly believing, eagerly listening to all that tran-
spired around us, it may be supposed that nothing was
more keenly sought for, by all on board the Hyacinth,
than news about Malay pirates, those ogres, those bogies
of the Archipelago ; and just then two events happened,
sufficient to satiate the appetite for the piratical for some
time to come. The one was of the past, but still not
long since. The Wolf, a sister-sloop that we had come
out to relieve and send home, had twice fallen in with
piratical squadrons.
On the first occasion, her boats, consisting of a pin-
nace and cutter, fell in with the pirates in a fine bay
near Cape Romania, the extreme southern point of the
Malayan peninsula. The prahus, some twelve or thir-
teen in number, fought the boats and escaped, the forces
being very disproportionate. This fact sharpened our
eagerness, and we naturally longed for an equally good
opportunity, — an anxiety which was soon hkely to be
gratified, as the traders from Cochin- China and Siam
had reported that an Illanoon squadron was cruising
amongst the islands which lie on the eastern side of
the peninsula, and intercepting prahus and junks bound
to Singapore. The Wolf had been despatched after
A FLOATING MENAGERIE. 15
these gentry, and the Diana steamer likewise, with
a gunboat in tow, when the fact became undoubted of
the existence of Illanoons. We awaited intelligence of
their movements, and shortly afterwards the Diana
arrived from a place called Tringanau, about sixty miles
to the northward, and reported that an action had taken
place, and the pirates, after fighting like heroes, had, it
was supposed, retreated to their own country across the
China Sea.
One fine morning our gallant captain sent off to ex-
press his astonishment that the arrival of H.M.S. Wolf
had not been reported to him. I hardly fancy his
astonishment was greater than our own, on the fact
being ascertained to be true ; for, although a vessel had
been seen to come in, no one supposed she was a man-
of-war. I fancy that it was the skill displayed in dis-
guising the Wolf that had made her so successful in
falling in with Malay pirates ; and I must say the effort
made to give her the appearance of a merchantman was
carried to a wonderful extent ; for even when on board
of her it was difficult to realise the fact that a pennant
flew overhead. She was a perfect floating menagerie.
Baboons flew playfully at your legs ; a loathsome orang-
outang, or *' man of the woods," crawled up to shake
hands, and made you thank Providence that man, in the
progressive theory, had at any rate advanced a stride or
two above the creature before you ; pigs and peccaries,
sheep, fowls, a honey bear, and a black panther, formed
a scene Wombwell would have gloated over ; whilst Mr
Gould, or any other ornithologist, might have found a
week's work in classifying all the parrots, louries, and
16 QUEDAH.
screecliing and whistling pets which added to the riot
below.
However, we went on board the Wolf to hear
about the pirates, and not to look at wild birds and
beasts.
They told us that, one day whilst cruising o& Trin-
ganau, reports arrived of pirates being among the neigh-
bouring islands. Two Com]3any's gunboats with the
pinnace and cutter were detached to seek them. The
morning after the boats left, at daylight, six large prahus
were seen attacking a junk about five miles to seaward
of the ship. It was then a stark calm, and the Wolf
was perfectly powerless to help the unfortunate junk,
the gunboats and large boats being nowhere in sight.
While in the greatest state of suspense, the steamer
Diana was seen approaching from the south with a
gunboat in tow. The Wolf immediately sent every
available man and ofi&cer into the Diana to fight her
guns, and she then steered for the junk, which was still
making a manful resistance.
Seeing her approach, the prahus formed in line abreast,
with their bows pointed towards her, — their guns, be it
remembered, being always mounted forward and directed
ahead. The prahus, six in number, were large-sized
Illanoons, pulling two tiers of oars, and full of slaves and
fighting-men. The action was a severe one, but the Diana
could not run the risk of attempting to board them, and
had to take care that they did not succeed in executing
that manoeuvre upon her, which they repeatedly attem^Dted
to effect. Many of their fighting men, creese in hand,
were seen to leap into the water, in the hope of boarding
ACTION WITH PIEATES. 17
the steamer ; one or two were cut down as they actually-
had hold of the boats towing astern of her ; and, in short,
though they suffered tremendously, none of the prahus
surrendered, though one sank, and from her some twenty
wretches were taken : the other five prahus escaped,
and had eluded all further search by the Wolf or her
boats.
Shortly after this event we sailed in the Hyacinth
to seek the remnant of this piratical squadron. Our
cruise was a delightfully interesting one in every respect,
and although we picked up the trail of the pirates
in the islands they had retreated to after the fight, we
soon learnt from different sources that they had there
destroyed three more of their prahus as being unfit for
the voyage across the China or Sooloo Sea, in conse-
quence of injuries received from the Diana's grape
and canister, and then, embarking all their crews in the
two sound vessels, they had borne up to return to their
own homes — a sea voyage of about twelve hundred
miles.
Returning empty-handed and somewhat disappointed
to Singapore about the end of July, we were still further
disgusted to learn that Malay war-prahus, to the number
of forty, had made their appearance at the opposite and
western end of the Straits.
They had, we learnt, fitted out on the Sumatran coast,
at a place called Battu-putih, or " White Rocks," and
carried two thousand fighting men : the pirates had
taken advantage of our absence from the Penang station
to capture from the Siamese Government the important
province of Quedah.
2
18 QUEDAH.
This fleet of prahus, styled by ns a piratical one, sailed
under the colours of the ex-rajah of Quedah ; and al-
though many of the leaders were known and avowed
pirates, still the strong European party at Penan g main-
tained that they were lawful belligerents battling to
regain their own.
The East India Company and Lord Auckland, then
Governor- General of India, took, however, an adverse
view of the Malay claim to Quedah, and declared them
pirates, though upon what grounds no one seemed very
well able to show.
Quedah had always, in olden time, been a Malay state,
though possibly tributary alternately to either the Em-
peror of Siam or the Emperor of Malacca, as the power
of either happened to be in the ascendant. After the
Portuguese crushed the Malay Empire by the capture of
Malacca in 1511, it is possible the Eajah of Quedah pre-
sented his " golden flower " to the Emperor of Siam, and
in a way swore fealty to that monarch. We, however,
seem to have heeded the suzerainty of the Siamese very
little, when it served the Honourable Company's interest;
for in 1786 we find them inducing the Eajah of Quedah,
on his own sole right and responsibility, to sell us the
island of Penang for the yearly sum of ten thousand
dollars, an annuity upon which the descendants of the
rulers of Quedah now exist in Malacca.
However, about the time we were engaged in the
first Burmese war, and when it became highly desirable
to keep the Siamese neutral in the fray, the Emperor of
Siam chose to invade Quedah, and after committing un-
heard-of atrocities upon the Malay inhabitants, he estab-
QUEDAH POLITICS. 19
lished his rule, and was confirmed in it by a treaty with
us ; with, I believe, an offensive and defensive alliance
clause, so far as the respective boundaries of British and
Siamese rule were concerned. The Malay chieftains
considered themselves aggrieved, and lost no opportunity
of harassing the Siamese, and the present attack had
been patiently conspired and prearranged at Malacca.
Money, arms, and prahus had been secretly collected at
Battu-putih ; and then the chiefs raised the old red flag
of Quedah, and there was no lack of enterprising and
disaffected spirits to join them.
A Prince Abdullah, a descendant of the ex-rajah, was
the nominal head of the insurrection ; he was a wild,
dissipated young man, but had around him a very able
body of chiefs or ministers, called " Tonkoos," men of
undoubted courage, and sons of that race which had so
manfully struggled against Alphonso Albuquerque and
his powerful fleets in the heyday of Portugal's glory.
Their plan of operations was ably laid down by a Tonkoo
Mahomet Said ; and owing to the absence of ourselves —
the Diana, Wolf, and gunboats — there was no one to
interfere with its successful execution.
The Siamese, however, knew perfectly well how to
appeal to a treaty when it involved their own interests ;
and a deputation from Bankok soon waited ui3on the
Governor of the Straits of Malacca, calling upon the
British to aid them in asserting their legal yet unjust
rights. British good faith to one party had to be sup-
ported at the sacrifice of British justice towards the
other ; and, as usual, the unfortunate Malays were
thrown overboard, their rights ignored, themselves de-
20 QUEDAH.
clared pirates, and their leader a rebel escaped from
British surveillance.
The Malays had, I have before said, calculated their
operations admirably. Their fleet was fitted out on the
Sumatran shore, near the province of Acheen ; arms,
powder, and other stores were liberally, but covertly,
supplied from European as well as native traders at
Penang, the payment to be hereafter made in rice and
other products of the rich lands of Queclah. In the
height of the south-west monsoon, when the bad-wea-
ther season prevails along the western seaboard of the
Malayan peninsula, and the inhabitants naturally fancied
themselves secure from such a visit, the Malay Tonkoos,
or chiefs, watched for a good opportunity, crossed the
Straits to a secure place, not many miles from Pulo
Penang, there concentrated their forces, and then like
hawks pounced upon their prey. Dashing at once into
the rivers with their light vessels, they stockaded the
mouths ; and knowing that at that season our men-of-
war could not approach close enough to injure them,
and that open ships' boats could not live off the coast,
the Malays felt that they had six months before them to
establish and fortify their positions before the "white
men " could commence operations, or the Siamese troops
advance from Bankok.
Knowing this, and feeling we had been perfectly check-
mated, the Hyacinth was sent to warn the Malays of the
coming retribution, and to make such observations as
might serve for the forthcoming season of operations.
Leaving Penang in September, we first proceeded to
the toAvn of Quedah, lying at the mouth of a river of the
EECONNOITRING. 21
same name. On an old Portuguese fort which, commands
the town and entrance to the river the Malayan colours
were flying, and Tonkoo Mahomet Said was found to be
in command. Captain Warren had a conference with
that chief and Prince Abdullah, in which they were duly
warned to abstain from a course which must bring down
upon them the wrath of the all-potent Company, and
pardon was promised in the event of their doing so im-
mediately. The chief made out a very good case, as
seen from a Malay point of view, and nothing but a
sense of duty could prevent one sympathising in the ef-
forts made by these gallant sea-rovers to regain their own.
"Tell the Company," said Prince Abdullah, with that
theatrical air and gesture so natural to the well-born
Asiatic, "that we shall brave all consequences : we have
reconquered Quedah, which was, and is, ours by a right
which no law can abrogate ; and so long as we can wield
a sword or hold a sj^ear, we will maintain the heritage
descended from our forefathers ! " ISTo prahus were in
sight at this place ; and it was not until after a long and
arduous search amongst dangerous and intricate channels,
at a tempestuous season of the year, that we discovered
the Malay fleet, they being then at a place called Trang,
on the northern boundary of the province of Quedah.
Here, as at the capital, the ship could not approach the
coast, and Captain Warren had to throw himself amongst
the Malays, in an open boat, with some eight or ten
English seamen. Passing a shallow entrance to a river,
which was carefully stockaded and flanked with gingal*
* A gingal is a long and heavy wall-piece, much used by Asiatics,
and very formidable in their hands.
22 QUEDAH.
batteries, Captain Warren, after a short pull, found him-
self amongst a formidable fleet of fifty prahus, carrying
guns and swivels or culverins, and with crews varying
from twenty to fifty men.
A guard of 100 armed men marched down to receive
the Eajah Lant, or sea-king, of the British Queen, and
with great ceremony and state conducted him to their
admiral or leader, a noted old pirate named Datoo
Mahomet Alee, Datoo being his title as chieftain or
lord.
Had treachery been so common as it is generally sup-
posed to be amongst the much-vilified Malays, assuredly
it would have been an easy task to put to death the
British captain and his boat's crew, for they were fairly
in the lion's den, and the bearers of a hostile message,
apart from Mahomet Alee knowing full well that a price
had been fixed for his capture as a felon by the Com-
pany. Yet, on the contrary, they behaved with the
utmost generosity and civility, listened respectfully to
the warning given of future punishment, and even here,
as at Quedah, allowed a proclamation to be posted up,
calling on all these pirates to disperse.
The conference over, Captain "Warren learnt that the
Malay attack had been successful on every point, and,
apart from organising the means of preserving their hold
of the province, they intended in the coming monsoon
to assail the Siamese in such strength as to prevent their
detaching a force to reconquer Quedah. To a wish ex-
pressed by Captain Warren that they would come out
and have a fair fight in open water, Mahomet Alee re-
plied, that although he had never fought a British man-
PREPARATIONS FOR THE CAMPAIGN. 23
of- war, he was one who could boast of having beaten
off a man-of-war's boats ; and nothing would give him
greater pleasure than trying to do so again, if Captain
"Warren would come to fight liim in the spot he then
was. AVith such mutual expressions of chivalrous desire
to meet again, the Hyacinth returned to report proceed-
ings to the Governor of the Straits of Malacca.
During the month of November we went to Singapore
to arrange a plan of operations in conjunction with the
Siamese, emissaries from his golden-tufted majesty hav-
ing been sent there for that purpose. Singapore was
chosen as the place of outfit for the flotilla, because the
Malays were less likely to glean information of our plans
there than they would undoubtedly have been from their
agents and sympathisers at Penang.
It was arranged that directly the north-east monsoon,
or fine-weather season, commenced, the British Govern-
ment were to closely blockade the coast of Quedah,
whilst a Siamese army of thirty thousand men marched
down to reconquer the province ; and we were to treat
as pirates all armed prahus fallen in with.
The Hyacinth, besides her own boats, had lent to
her for this service three lugger-rigged and decked gun-
boats, named respectively the Diamond, Pearl, and
Emerald, or ]N"os. 1, 2, and 3. They were all manned by
Malays, and the Diamond was commanded by a half-
caste native gentleman in the Company's service. A
small steamer, the only one that at that time had been
seen in those w^aters, was available in case of necessity ;
and the very terror inspired by the Diana — or "fire-
ship," as the Malays called her — was a host in itself.
24 QUEDAH.
When all was ready, we suddenly left Singapore ; and
giving Penang as a rendezvous, the corvette and gun-
boats made the best of their way there, completed water
and provisions, and gleaned all necessary information,
prior to starting for Quedah ; off which place the Hya-
cinth anchored on December 7th, with the gunboats
around her.
Great was the delight and excitement through the
ship when the fact of the boats being about to leave for
months, manned and armed, came to our knowledge.
The pinnace and cutter were got out and provisioned.
All our lieutenants having either gone home on promo-
tion or died, the command of the boats generally fell to
a mate, — Mr George Drake, in the pinnace ; the senior
midshipman, Mr Barclay, had the cutter; whilst the
two gunboats fell respectively to Mr Peter Halkett and
myself.
l!Tot a little proud of my command, at an early hour
on the 8th I found myself on board the Hon. Company's
gunboat Emerald. She was a fine wholesome boat,
about forty-eight feet long, carrying two large lugger-
sails, and with a crew of twenty-five stout Malays, be-
sides a serang,* or boatswain. Completely decked over,
she carried in her bow an 18-pounder carronade on a
traversing carriage, and a brass 6-pounder gun on a pivot
upon the quarterdeck ; and had, moreover, an ample
store of all arms on board.
My swarthy crew received their new commander in
the height of Malay teiiue. The gayest pocket-handker-
chiefs tied round their heads, and their bodies wrapped
* Serang is a native term for boatswain.
MY COMMAND AND HEE CEEW. 25
in the tasteful cotton plaid of the country, called a
sarong, and their bare legs and sinewy arms, with the
warlike creese, gave them the air of as many game-
cocks. ISTot a soul of them could speak a word of Eng-
lish; and until I could master enough Malay to be
understood, my sole means of communication lay through
an individual who introduced himself to me as " Jamboo,
sir ! — interpreter, sir !" " And a very dirty one too," I
mentally added.
The pantomime over of passing a small valise contain-
ing my kit into a little cabin, which I saw abaft the
mainmast, I desired Jamboo to direct the serang to get
under way and follow the pinnace, for she was already
pulling in for Quedah fort ; whilst the Hyacinth, spread-
ing her wings, was running northward for another river
called the Parlis. The crew in a trice ran the anchor to
the bows, and got out the sweeps, " as there was no wind,
and pulled so heartily as to show me that we had, at any
rate, the legs of all our consorts. Checking the zeal of
my serang, who, standing amongst the rowers, was ex-
citing them by word and ges.ture to outstrip the senior
officer, I dropped astern into my place, and proceeded to
make myself acquainted mth my strange shipmates and
vessel.
The interpreter Jamboo' s history was a short one.
He was one of that numerous class who do not know
their own fathers. His mother, who was a Burmese
woman of Mouhnein, averred that a British officer was
* Sweep is a uautical term applied to large oars used in heavy-
vessels ; for instance, those used in barges are " sweeps," properly
speaking.
26 QUEDAH.
entitled to tlie honour of the parentage, though Jamboo,
with a smile, said, "I don't know, sar ; she say so!"
an assertion I was quite ready to believe. A half-caste
he undoubtedly was, and, as such, passed for a Portu-
guese ! although his only reason for so saying was, that
the people of that country were about as dark as him-
self, and that Jamboo, finding himself without a religion
as well as a father, had, faute de mieux, become a Eoman
Catholic, his faith being strongly mixed up with his
poor mother's Buddhism and the wild superstitions of
his Malayan companions. His face, of a dark olive
colour, was perfectly beautiful ; his figure, although
effeminate, was graceful and lithe to a degree ; his hands
and feet might have served Phidias as a model ; and he
was not wanting in intelligence. Weak and nervous in
temperament, he was as obedient as a child, and it was
painful to witness his cringing, fawning manner.
Jamboo' s account of my worthy crew was somewhat
startling : the majority of them had, I learnt, at various
times been imprisoned in Singapore jail as pirates, the
most notorious scamp being my serang, Jadee. " Plea-
sant company !" I ejaculated as I scanned the rogues,
who, seated along the deck on either side, were throwing
themselves back with a shout at every stroke of their
" sweeps," and displaying twenty-five as reckless, devil-
may-care countenances as any equal number of seamen
ever exhibited. The serang, Jadee, was, to my astonish-
ment, standing on the main hatch, with a long Illanoon
creese in his hand, which he waved as he gave utterance
to a series of expressions, uttered with frantic energy
and rapid pantomime, stopping every now and then to
MY SERANGS ORATION. 27
allow his crew to express their approval of what he said
by a general chorus of Ugh ! which sounded like a groan,
or an exulting shout of Ya ! ya ! ya ! which was far
more musical. " He is only telling them what fighting
and plunder are in store for them," said Jamboo, " and
pointing out the certainty of victory while fighting with
white men on their side, mixing it up with descriptions
of reveUings they will have when this war is over."
CHAPTEE III.
COMMENCE TO BLOCKADE QTJEDAH FOllT — JADEE's IMAGINARY
FIGHT WITH A TONKOO — MY MALAY COXSWAIN'S APPEARANCE
— HIS ATTIRE AND CHARACTER — JADEE's PIRATICAL PROPEN-
SITIES — ESCAPES IMPRISONMENT BY HANGING A MAN — QUEDAH
FORT AND TOWN — THE APPEARANCE OF THE ADJACENT
COUNTRY — A WET NIGHT — MY CREW — JADEE's WANT OF
BIGOTRY — PRIMITIVE MODE OF EATING.
The pinnace, witli the Pearl and Emerald, soon reached
the shallow bar which lies across the Quedah river, a
feature common to every river on this side of the
Malayan peninsula, and doubtless occasioned by the
action of the south-west monsoon against the natural
course of the rivers, causing the sediment to be deposited
at their entrances, instead of being carried out into the
deeper parts of the sea. The fort of Quedah hoisted its
colours, and armed men showed themselves along the
battlements ; but we merely placed ourselves in line
across the entrance of the river, out of gunshot, and
anchored to commence the blockade. The north-east
monsoon, which is the fine-weather season of this coast,
had scarcely set in yet, and flying showers, wdth occa-
sional squalls, promised a wet and cheerless night.
Eain -awnings were spread at once, and after every pre-
paration had been made for a sudden action with war-
JADEE's PEEFOEMANCE. 29
prahus, I sat down with Jamboo, and my serang, Jadee,
to glean information and pick up Malay. To my in-
quiry, through, the interpreter, as to the opinion Jadee
held of the line of conduct likely to be pursued by the
occupants of Quedah, he assured me that the Malays
would never voluntarily fight the " white men, Orang-
putilis,'" as we, of all Europeans, are styled ^ar excellence.
It was quite possible, if we were very careless, that they
would try and capture Englishmen as hostages for their
own safety ; and that, by way of inspiriting his men, a
Malay chief might, if he found one of the gunboats
alone, which was manned by Malays, fight her, in the
hopes of an easier capture than they would find in the
pinnace. The very prospect of such a piece of good for-
tune seemed to arouse all Jadee's recollections of bygone
forays and skirmishes ; for no sooner had Jamboo told
him that I only hoped Tonkoo Mahomet Said might
take it into his head to try the experiment upon the
Emerald, or "J^Tumero Tega,"* as she was called by
Jadee, than my serang sprang to his legs, and shouted,
quivering with passion, for Campar ! Campar soon came :
Campar being a swarthy giant, who did the double duty
of armourer and carpenter.
In reply to some order he dived below, and brought
up a thick quilted red vest, without arms, which the
excited Jadee donned at once, girded up his loins, gave
his head-dress a still more ferocious cock, and then baring
his arms, with a long Illanoon creese in one hand and a
short " badi " or stabbing-knife in the other, he enacted
* "Tega" is Malay for "Three;" the Malays preferred calling
the vessel by her number, insteud of by her name of Emerald.
30 QUEDAH.
a savage pantomime of a supposed mortal fight between
himself and Mahomet Said, in which he evidently con-
quered the Tonkoo ; and finished off, after calling him,
his mother, sisters, and female relations, all sorts of un-
seemly names, by launching at him, in a voice of thun-
der, his whole stock of English : "Ah ! you d — d poul !
come alongside ! " poul, or fool, being supposed to be
something with which the white men emphatically
cursed their enemies.
Amused beyond measure, though somewhat differently
from my crew, who, holding Jadee in the greatest awe,
crowded aft and looked on, firmly believing that Tonkoo
Mahomet Said would be so treated should his enterprise
lead him to combat the noted Jadee, I quietly told him
that I only trusted he would do as well if the real fight
ever came off, and meantime would dispense with such
a performance, especially as the row he made had
caused "^N'umero Tega" to be hailed from the pinnace
to know if anything was amiss. This piece of advice
Jadee took in such good part, that he constantly re-
hearsed the pantomime for my amusement whenever he
saw me low-spirited or in want of occupation.
Jadee informed ns that his cognomen amongst the
people of Singapore, and white men generally, was Jack
Ketch, a nickname he pronounced so clippingly that it
sounded not unlike his real one : and from Jamboo I
heard the following history of my redoubted serang ;
but, previous to repeating it, let me introduce the hero.
Jadee stood about five feet seven inches in height;
his colour was of a light brown. His broad shoulders,
small waist, and fine hips, with well-formed arms and
POETRAIT OF MY SUBORDINATE. 31
legs, covered with muscles in strong relief, denoted
great strength and activity. His delicate yet far from
effeminate hands and feet were but little reconcilable, to
an Englishman's ideas, with a man who had lived from
the cradle by the sweat of his brow. A square, well-
formed head, well placed on a strong, nervous neck,
completed the man. The countenance, although that of
a pure Malay, had nothing so repulsive about it as
people generally suppose; the cheek-bones were high,
and the face somewhat square, but his eyes were good
and expressive, without being either deep-set or with
bloodshot eyeballs, as the regular "property Malays " of
novel-writers usually are represented. A good nose and
forehead, with a massive but beardless chin, gave much
character to the face of Jadee, and his short black hair,
brushed up on end, with a sort of rollicking, laughing
air about the man, required nothing to fill up the picture
of a Malayan buccaneer. Jadee was a beau withal.
Eound his waist, and falling to the knees like a High-
land kilt, he wore a circular piece of cotton plaid, of a
small blue-and-white pattern ; stiff with starch, it stuck
out, and half hid in its folds his handsome creese, a
weapon never from a Malay's side. Over one shoulder,
and across to the opposite hip, hung in an easy, jaunty
manner another sarong of brighter hues, generally red
and yellow tartan ; it served as a covering to the upper
part of the body when necessary, or, wrapped round the
arm, acted as a shield in a skirmish. An ordinary red
cotton handkerchief served as a head-dress, great coquetry
being shown in the mode of wearing it. It was in the
first place starched until almost as stiff as pasteboard.
32 QUEDAH.
then folded across ; two ends were tied on one side of
the head in a jaunty knot, whilst the others stuck up or
waved about in a very saucy manner. A mouthful of
cere leaf, Penang nut, and chunam, with a small quid of
tobacco stuck under the upper-lip, completed the aj)pear-
ance of Jadee. Poor fellow ! he was generous to a fault,
and thoughtless as a child j and when I afterwards came
to know him well, I often thought how strong the simi-
larity was between the disposition of him and his com-
panions and the majority of our untutored seamen.
He was by birth a " Batta," or else had been stolen,
at an early age, and carried off by that race from some
sea-coast village. These Battas inhabit the hill-country
of Sumatra, and are reputed cannibals — at least, such is
the charge brought against them by neighbours.
Jadee, whilst still a youth, happened to accompany a
party of Battas who visited the pepper plantation of a
sea-coast chieftain, for some hostile, and, I fear, no reput-
able purpose ; the result was, that in a skirmish which
took place Jadee was captured, and as a slave ^ entered
upon a different career to that of living amongst the
branches of trees and eating fellow-men.
Some Sooloo slave-dealers and pirates visited the dis-
trict in which Jadee was detained, and he was exchanged
for various commodities that they disposed of to his
master. Made at first to row and bale water out of
their prahus, he gave such proofs of courage and address
that in a short time they advanced him to the rank of a
fighting man. Jadee, however, did not like his masters,
although he had an uncommon degree of respect for their
enterprise and skill as sea-rovers ; and after some years
JADEE'S career. 33
of strange adventures against the Chinese, Spaniards,
and Dutch — the latter of .whom he never spoke of with-
out execrating the memory of their mothers — he escaped,
and took service under the Eajah of Jehore, or some
chief who sailed prahus from the neighbourhood of our
then youthful colony of Singapore.
After a little active service, our hero found himself in
possession of a perfect fortune in hard dollars and sycee
silver ; and to spend it in the most approved manner,
proceeded to Singapore. To take unto himself a fresh wife
was an easy task for such a gallant ; and Jadee kept
open house in the neighbourhood of Singapore, in one of
those neat native huts which may still be seen raised
upon piles, although far enough from the water.
The money flew fast, and, sailor-like, Jadee soon found
himself compelled to take to the sea for a subsistence.
For a few years he led a checkered career : plenty one
day — opium, curry, and rice, and wives galore ; then
pulling at an oar like a galley-slave to win more. At last
the white men spoilt his career. An expedition in which
Jadee was engaged was attacked by a British man-of-
war, and suffered a severe defeat. Jadee never bargained
for fighting them : anything with a dark skin — let him
be the Old Gentleman himself — he felt himself a match
for. A Dutchman he did not mind, and a Spaniard he
had often seen run ; but the Orang-putihs — there was
no charm, not even from the Koran, which had ever
been efficacious against pirates so mighty as they. Ja-
dee had sailed with distinguished Malay " Eajah Lauts,"
or Kings of the Sea, but their glory paled before the
" Eajah Lauts " of the white men ; they were indeed
3
34 QUEDAH.
rovers wliom Malay men miglit envy, but might not
imitate.
Driven witli many of his companions from following
up their profession in a wholesale way, Jadee and one
or two roving spirits struck up a new business. They
bought a fast-pulling sampan, lived at Singapore, and
apart from an occasional honest fare, used at nights to
waylay the market-boats and Chinese petty traders, and
frighten them into paying black-mail. Even this came
to an end; for one day, when asleep in his sampan,
Jadee was captured by a dozen Chinese, who carried him
before the authorities, and swore, by all they could swear
by, that he had been caught in an act of piracy. Jadee
was fairly frightened ; he knew the English had a rapid
way of hanging up his countrymen, and vowed to him-
self that he would adopt the white men's mode of living,
if he escaped this present peril.
The judge, although a severe man, was a just one, and
happily in this case suspected the veracity of the Chin-
ese. Jadee was sent to jail to ruminate over his evil
practices, and had remained there some time, when a
reward was offered to any one who would hang a Chinese
murderer, the executioner having absconded. Our friend
was glad to earn his liberty so easily, the more so that
a Chinaman was to be the unfortunate to be operated
upon.
The murderer was duly hung, and Jadee, or Jack
Ketch, was free. Einding " the Company " too strong
for him, Jadee wisely determined to enlist under their
colours. He turned from pirate to pirate-catcher, and a
more zealous, intelligent servant Governor Bonham, or
QUEDAH TOWN AND FORT. 35
the Toulian Besar,* did not possess. Jadee soon broiigTit
himself into notice, and with one exception, on an occa-
sion when a jealous husband thrust a spear fourteen times
into Jadee's body for certain attentions to his cara sjwsa,
he had maintained an unblemished character. Such was
his history.
Towards evening the rain ceased and the clouds cleared
away, enabling us to see the place we had to starve into
subjection.
Our gunboats lay at the distance of about twelve
hundred. yards from the mouth of the river, across which
a stout stockade had been formed, leaving only one nar-
row outlet, and there the Malays had stationed a look-
out-man to give an alarm in case of necessity. Within
the stockade, upon the north bank of the river, stood
the town and fort of Quedah. «
The latter was a rectangular work built of stone, and
said to have been constructed in the days when the
Portuguese were in the zenith of their glory. The para-
pet was now sadly dilapidated, and armed with a few
rusty guns j whilst on a bastion which, at one of the
angles, served to flank the sea face of the works and
command the river entrance, several long formidable-
looking pieces of cannon were pointed threateningly at
us. Beyond the fort, and on the same side of the river,
a long continuation of neat-looking thatch-built houses
constituted the town, and off it lay numerous trading
prahus and several toj^es, a Malay o- Chinese vessel pecu-
liar to the Straits of Malacca. A dense and waving
jungle of trees skirted round the town and fort of Que-
* " Touhan Besar," the great chief or oflScer.
36 QUEDAH.
dah, and spread away on either hand in a monotonous
line of green. The country, which was said to be par-
ticularly rich in the interior, was extremely flat towards
the sea-coast ; and the only thing that broke its same-
ness was the remarkable hill which, under the name of
Elephant Mount, rose above the jungle like an island
from the sea. Far-distant ranges of hills, the backbone
of the peninsula, stretched, however, as a background to
the scene. Slowly the setting sun tinged their peaks
with rosy and purple tints, and then they gradually sank
into darkness as the evening mists gathered strength
along the seaward edge of the jungle, and, acted upon
by light airs, sailed slowly along like phantoms : it was
then night, with a dew-laden atmosphere and a starlit
sky.
The English seamen in the pinnace loaded the air
with noise, if not with melody, by singing their sailor-
songs ; and the Malays, in their own peculiar way,
amused themselves by singing extempore love-songs, to
the melancholy accompaniment of a native drum played
upon by the hand. Gradually these sounds ceased, men
and officers sought the softest planks, and, clad in blan-
ket frocks and trousers, lay down to sleep ; and the first
day of the Quedah blockade was over. During the night
it rained hard, and the wet, in spite of our awnings
being sloped, began to encroach upon the dry portions
of the deck. I heard my men moving about ; but desir-
ous of setting an example of not being easily troubled
with such a discomfort as a wet bed, I kept my place,
and was not a little pleased to see Jadee bring a mat
called a kajang, and slope it carefully over me, evidently
MY CKEW. 37
tliinking I was asleep, and then tlie poor fellow went
away to rough it as he best could. And this man is a
merciless pirate ! I thought j and I felt a friendship for
my Malay coxswain from that moment which nothing
will ever obliterate. "With early dawn all were awake,
and shortly afterwards the usual man-of-war operations
of scrubbing and cleaning commenced, Jadee exhibiting
as much energy amongst buckets and brooms as if such
peaceful articles were the only things he knew how to
use. Leaving him to do first-lieutenant's duty, I perched
myself — I was but a lad of seventeen — upon the pivot-
gun, and, as the different men of my crew came in sight,
asked their names and characters of the interpreter.
Jamboo's account of them was, to say the least of it,
very unsatisfactory. One was a notorious pirate of Su-
matra, another of Tringanau ; those that were not pir-
ates, Jamboo vowed, had fled from Java, or Acheen, for
acts of violence of one sort or another. Their looks were
not in their favour ; and walking with the peculiar strut
of Malay seamen, I could not but repeat Falstaff's soli-
loquy : " ^ay, and the villains march wide betwixt the
legs, as if they had gyves ; for indeed I had most of
them out of prison ! "
The fears, however, of the redoubted Jamboo had
much to do with the characters he gave the poor fellows ;
and I afterwards discovered it was rather his opinion of
what they must have been, than what they really had
been. I was debating in my mind how my messing was
to be carried on, in a vessel manned with Mahometans,
where pork was an abomination and myself an unclean
animal and an infidel, when Jadee, with the most grace-
38 QUEDAH.
ful bow he could muster, came to announce that the
ship's company's rice and fish were cooked, and that
in a few minutes our curry and rice would be ready.
Through the interpreter, I expressed a hope that he
would not depart from any religious opinions as to feed-
ing with a Christian, because I was set in authority over
him. To which the good fellow made a very neat an-
swer, in a very modest way, that he was a servant of the
same Great Eajah as the loliHe office7% and if I did not
consider it beneath my dignity to eat out of the same
dish as an Orang Malayu, it was not for him to do so.
This difficulty over, we sat down cross-legged to our
breakfast — a mountain of snow-white rice with a curried
fowl. I was at first very awkward in the use of my
right hand as a substitute for spoon and fork, etiquette
not allowing the left hand to be used ; but I soon learnt
how to pick up the rice, press it gently together between
the extended fingers, and then, by means of the thumb,
to slip what was taken up into my mouth ; a drink of
pure water finished the repast, and then the ever-useful
Campar appeared, with water and towel for us to wash
our hands and mouth. We had only two meals a-day —
breakfast at about seven or eight o'clock, and dinner at
three p.m. — rice and salt fish, or rice and curry, being
the constant fare.
CHAPTEE IV.
THE BLOCKADE EEXDERED MORE STRIXGEXT — THE BOUNTING
ISLANDS — MY CREW KEEPING HOLIDAY — " HYACINTHS" POISON-
ED AVITH GROUND-NUTS — WE DISCOVER WILD-BEES' NESTS —
ARRANGEMENTS MADE FOR ROBBING THE HIVES — THE BEES
QUIT THEIR HIVES AND SETTLE ON ME — NO HONEY — A MALAY
DOCTOR — THE KORAN AND CHUNAM REMEDY FOR BEE- STINGS.
The first week or ten days was sadly monotonons : we
had to be very guarded in our movements, as the policy
intended to be pursued by the enemy bad not developed
itself, and Ave were yet ignorant of the force of armed
pralius which they might possess up the river ; but I
was not idle, and, under Jadee's tuition, was fast learn-
ing the simple and beautiful language of Malaya. The
interest taken by my serang in repeating over for my
information the Malay for every article or object upon
which he saw my attention fixed for a moment, was a
pretty convincing proof of the anxiety he entertained for
our being able to understand one another without Jam-
boo's assistance.
About the middle of December we had reason to be-
lieve that small prahus escaped out of the river or
entered it at top of high water, by keeping close in to
the jungle ; and as we had ascertained that there was
40 QUEDAH.
deep water inside tlie bar, it was determined to cross the
bar at night, directly the tide rose high enough to allow
us to do so, and to remain close off the stockade until the
tide again fell, so as to compel us to retreat rather than
risk an action with fort and war-prahus combined. This
measui'e gave great umbrage to " Tonkoo JMahomet Said,"
who sent to warn us that we might get fired into by ac-
cident during the night, if we persisted in such a man-
oeuvre. The rejDly to this threat was a promise of return-
ing the compliment if any such accident did occur ; and
after a while we found the people of Quedah submitted
quietly to this stricter blockade, and it was evident that
they were reserving their fighting qualities for the
Siamese army, of which we only knew that it was to
co-operate with us ; how, or when, none could guess. The
want of wood and fresh water in our little squadron
obliged the senior officer to detach me to a group of
islands, about twenty miles distant, in quest of some ;
and this job I had regularly to execute every tenth day
or so. The three islands are known under the names of
the Bounting Group ; the Malays, with a playful fancy,
having, in the outline of one of them, seen a resemblance
to a woman in that *' state in which ladies wish to be
who love their lords." That island is called " Bounting,"
and, in carrying out the idea, the next is named " Pan-
gail" or " Call !" and the other is "Bedan," the ''Ac-
coucheur ! " — a strange nomenclature, but the joke of
which was evidently a great source of fun to my scamps.
Having, then, no small boats, our mode of procuring
wood and water was primitive enough ; the gunboat
used to be anchored in a convenient position, and then
WOODING AND WATERING. 41
all hands, myself included, jumped overboard, swam
ashore with, casks and axes, and spent the day filling the
former, cutting wood, bathing, and washing our clothing.
It was a general holiday ; and, like seamen of our own
country, my Malays skylarked, joked, and played about
with all the zest of schoolboys ; and I observed with
no small pleasure, that in their practical jokes or witti-
cisms there was none of that grossness or unbecoming
language which Euroj)ean sailors, be their nation what it
may, would assuredly have indulged in — a state of things
which I imputed to the knowledge they each had of the
other's quickness of temper, and the moral certainty of
an appeal to the creese should an insult be intentionally
given. The Bountings, though clothed with trees and
the rankest vegetation of the East, were, like many other
islands of the Malayan Archipelago, unproductive of a
single wild fruit or vegetable capable of sustaining life.
If the wild cocoa-nut tree or plantain had ever grown
there, they had been eradicated to prevent pirates pro-
curing refreshment on the islands — a step often pursued
by the inhabitants of these buccaneer-haunted shores.
Beyond turtles and their eggs on the beaches, and wild
honey in the woods, nothing edible was there procurable.
Some short time afterwards, however, our gallant corvette
happened to be at anchor off the Bountings, and those of
the crew left in her asked permission to go on shore for
a run. Uninhabited as it was, there appeared to be no
reason why they should not go on shore ; and the com-
manding officer cheerfully assented, with a self-congra-
tulatory feeling that, at any rate, as there were there
neither ladies nor grog. Jack could not get himself into
42 . QUEDAH.
trouble. " Oh ! yes, "by all means ; you may all go,"
was the reply, and the jolly-boat and gig soon landed
every man but the sentry and quartermaster ; a parting
warning was given to the worthies not to be tempted to
touch any fruit, as they were poisonous. Having bathed,
and washed their clothes over once or twice, by way of a
jollification, and walked up and down the beaches until
tired, one of the old sailors expressed it as his opinion
that " it must be a d — d rum island, if there was nothing
eatable to be found on it," and ventured a surmise that
the woods must have heaps of nuts in them, if they
only knew where to find them. A young mizentopman
jumped at the idea, and started away in search of nuts,
rinding none on the trees, he next sought for ground-
nuts, and, as ill-luck would have it, soon found plenty,
in the form of something which resembled strongly the
common chestnut. Before lonsj all hands had had what
they graphically termed " a bowse- out," and soon after-
wards became generally ill, being sick and griped to a
ridiculous extent. The officers who went to bring off the
liberty-men could hardly believe their senses when they
found all those who recently landed hearty and well,
lying about like so many sick monkeys, and almost as
much frightened as hurt by their thoughtlessness. They
were taken off, and strong emetics given, which added
still more to the general sickness, and all night long
there were ejaculations heard of "Those infernal ground-
nuts ! " and the unfortunate boy who had first discovered
them was promised more thrashings than it is hoped he
ever received.
My Malays, being either more experienced or less
BEE-HUNTING. 43
enterprising than their English comrades, contented
themselves with the honey and turtle-eggs ; and as Jadee
reported to me that a man called Alee had discovered a
splendid wild-bees' nest on Pulo Bedan, I expressed a
strong desire to see the process by which the bees were
robbed of their store. "\Ve happened to be standing in
a w^ood on a part of that island, and the bees were flying
about us, when I expressed this wish in my usual tone
of voice. " Hush ! " said Jadee, putting his finger to
his lips — ''hush! speak low, or the bees will hear us !"
And then, in a whispering voice, he informed me that
the honey would not be fit for capture for some time ;
and that, at any rate, it was wrong to disturb the bees
except at the full of the moon. As he considered it
necessary to wait for that auspicious period, I assented,
and only took care at the next full moon to be there.
Alee and four other Malay seamen were told off to rob
the bees' nest, and they as well as myself were soon
stripped and swimming ashore. I observed that each
man carried with him a small bundle of the husk of
cocoa-nut shells, and directly they landed they proceeded
to cut branches of a species of palm, and in the leaves
enveloped the husks they had brought with them, form-
ing the whole into articles resembling torches : a fire was
then kindled upon the beach, fragments of the burning
embers introduced into the heart of each torch, and
then, by swinging them round so as to cause a draught,
the husk ignited, and, aided by the action of the green
leaves, poured out of one end of the torch a solid column
of smoke. The faithful Jamboo had been left on board ;
but I understood, from the little these Malays told me,
44 QUEDAH.
that the torches were intended for the purpose of driving
the bees away from the honey, but I did not understand
that they were essential to one's safety, and therefore
decUned to carry one when it was offered to me.
Holding the torches in their hands and standing up,
the ]\Ialays next enacted some mummery or incantation,
which concluded with the usual repetition of the Maho-
metan creed — one so beautiful and concise, that it ap-
pears a intj we cannot produce anything as graphic in
our own faith.
" God he is God ! and Mahomet is his Prophet ! " ex-
claimed we all ; and, the torchmen leading the way, we
left the pleasant shade of the jungle, and walked briskly
along the shore until abreast of the bees' nest, which lay
some three-quarters of a mile inland. Turning into the
jungle, waving their smoke-torches and keeping a sharp
look-out for snakes, which appeared to me all the more
dangerous from the novelty of my attire — for, like my
men, I had only one cloth round my hips and a handker-
chief over my head — we soon sighted, up a small vista
in the forest, the aged trunk of a blighted tree, which
was alive with bees. Three of the Malays now sat down,
waved their torches gently, throwing a halo of smoke
round their tawny persons, and commenced to recite, in
a slow solemn manner, some verses from the Koran,
whether to keep the bees away, or to insure there being
honey in the nest, I don't know ; for just as I, half-
laughing, was putting the question to them, the fourth
Malay, Mr Alee, walked deliberately up to the nest and
applied his torch.
Thunder and lightning ! a thousand lancets were sud-
A MALAY DOCTOE. 45
denly plunged into my body, and a black cloud of bees
were around me. I shouted for Alee ; " God lie is God!
and Mahomet is his Prophet ! " groaned out the Malays,
as they waved their torches, the bees threatening them
as well as myself. It was more than I could bear ; with
a yell of agony, I started off like a deer for the sea : it
seemed but a stride to the rocks, and at once I plunged
into the^water, taking down many a bee which adhered
tenaciously to my body and face. Keeping down as long
as possible, I rose in the hope of being clear from the
little brutes ; but, alas ! they were not so easily baffled,
and a cloud of them was ready to descend upon my de-
voted head. It might have ended seriously, had not Alee
found that there was no honey in the nest, and he and
his comrades then ran down to assist me, frightening
off the bees with their torches, and accompanying me to
the gunboat, which I reached nearly blind, and rather
disgusted with the result of my first Asiatic bee-hunt ;
the more so that, in addition to the lesson I had learnt
upon the advisability of using smoke preservers, we had
disproved the truth of the old axiom, that " where there
are bees, there must be honey."
Jadee was in great distress at seeing me return in such
sad plight, and vowed that Alee and his companions
must have been lubbers at their work ; however, he
promised me almost instantaneous relief; and as I was
willing to accept that on any terms, one of the men, a
leading hand, who, from his strict observance of his reli-
gious duties, was named the " Haggi," was sent for to
cure me.
The Haggi, proud of an opportunity of displaying his
46 QUEDAH.
medical skill upon a white man, who are all supposed to
be born doctors, proceeded immediately to roll up a quid
of cere leaf, betel- nut, gambler, and chunam, in the right
proportions for chewing — such a quid as a Malay so
much delights in. Whilst I masticated this in the most
approved manner, the Haggi opened a small box of fine
white chunam, made from the lime procured from burnt
sea-shells ; this chunam he carefully applied to my skin
wherever it had been stung, muttering all the while, in a
solemn strain, select sentences from the Koran, the re-
sponses or final portions of each chapter or sentence being
taken up and repeated by my faithful coxswain, who for
the time seemed desirous to entitle himself to a green
turban by the fervour of his prayers, varying them, how-
ever, by shaking his tawny fist in the direction of the
unconscious bees, and saying, with the utmost gravity,
" Ah ! you d — d pouls ! "
Whether it was the chunam or the Koran cured me,
it would be ingratitude to my holy friend the Haggi to
say, for he stoutly maintained one to be inefficacious
without the other ; but this I can aver, that in a very
short time all inflammation had subsided, and I was
able to laugh over my adventure, making, however, a
vow to bridle my curiosity for the future where bees
were in the question.
CHAPTER y.
THE NORTH-EAST MONSOON" — UNSATISFACTORY NEWS OF OUR
SIAMESE ALLIES — THE PELICANS — ALLIGATORS ABOUND —
THE COWARDICE OF THE ALLIGATORS — ENCOUNTER AND CAP-
TURE AN ALLIGATOR — EXTRAORDINARY STRENGTH AND VI-
TALITY OF THOSE REPTILES — A STRANGE ANTIDOTE AGAINST
FEVER — THE RAHMADAN AND " QUEDAH OPERA" — THE
MALAYS ENDEAVOUR TO EVADE THE BLOCKADE — THE WATCH-
FULNESS OF MY NATIVE CREW.
The nortli-east monsoon had fairly set in. All day long
we had a clelighfully pleasant breeze off the land, for
the Malayan peninsula has so small a breadth that the
winds which blow upon it from the China Sea reached
us before they were robbed of their moisture or heated
to an unpleasant degree by the action of the land ; occa-
sionally the monsoon would freshen, for a day or so, into
a double-reefed-topsail breeze, or at other times become
squally without rain, but our nights were invariably fine,
with only just wind enough to fill the mat sails of a
prahu. The sea was seldom ruffled, and more dehglit-
ful weather for boat-work cannot be conceived. All we
were required to do, was to guard against sleeping in the
night- dews, and by so doing we all enjoyed better health
than those cooped up in the ship.
48 QUEDAH.
Our new position inside Quedali bar became at last to
be acknowledged by the Malays as our rigbt, and from
that time we often had communications with the fisher-
men who came out to visit their fishing-weirs. Through
them we learnt that fighting was going on with the
Siamese, a long distance off" : according to their version,
the Malay rajahs were everywhere victorious ; several
large towns and many slaves had fallen into their hands,
and there was no probability of a Siamese army being
able to act upon the offensive during that monsoon.
This was decidedly very cheerless news, but the
authority was a questionable one ; and we could see
slight defensive preparations taking place in the fort,
which betokened something else than entire confidence
and security.
Meantime, each day brought ^vith it novelty and
amusement. Anchored as we now were, within the
river and close to the stockade, broad mud-banks ex-
tended themselves on either hand whenever the tide
was low. Asiatic birds and reptiles haunted these
banks ; some of the former, such as the snipe and cur-
lew, were well known to us, and, until scared away,
added to our daily fare. The pelicans, at first, were the
sole robbers of the fishing- weirs, but they soon found
themselves no match for the expert seamen of the pin-
nace and gunboats, and left us for some other spot. The
alligators, however, were not to be frightened, although
they took uncommonly good care not to enter into any
of the personal combats upon the mud which the Malays,
and after them the English sailors, were constantly trying
to entrap them into. The number of these loathsome
ABUNDANCE OF ALLIGATOES. 49
brutes to be seen at a time was extraordinary ; but what-
ever might be the danger of falling in with them if wading
or swimming alone through these waters, there was no
doubt of their being arrant cowards when fallen in with
on shore. With the rising tide the alligators generally
found their way up to the edge of the jungle, and there
lay among the roots of the trees (which they strongly
resembled), as if waiting for cattle or wild animals that
might come down to drink : we, however, never saw
them catch anything during a period of several months.
The ebbing tide would often thus leave the brutes several
hundred yards from the edge of the water, and very
much they appeared to enjoy themselves when so left,
with an Indian sun pouring down upon their tough
hides ; and as if in the very height of the dolce far
niente, they would open back their hideous jaws, and
remain in that position for more than an hour at a time.
As to trying to shoot them, we soon found it mere waste
of time, as well as of powder and ball ; for, mortally
wounded or not, they invariably carried themselves far
beyond our reach. The Malay sailors showed us how,
at any rate, we could frighten the alligators exceedingly,
even if we could not capture them — by landing, lightly
equipped with a sharp spear or boarding-pike, and thus
obliging the reptile to make a long detour to escape
being assailed. Occasionally I have seen the men, by
dint of great activity, get near enough to fling their
weapon and strike the alligators ; but as in such cases
they invariably struck the upper part of the back, they
might as well have tried to spear a rock. The natives
showed the utmost indifference to the presence of alliga-
4
50 QUEDAH.
tors in their neighbourhood, and, when questioned upon
the subject, asserted that in salt or brackish water, at the
mouths of rivers, the alligator was never dangerous to
man ; and that it was only up rivers, and in marshy
places, where they lived, as it were, amongst human
beings, that they screwed up their courage to indulge in
such a dangerous luxury as eating men or women.
Of the enormous strength and extraordinary vitality
of these reptiles we had a pretty good proof; for one
evening, when the pinnace, as usual, dropped alongside
the weir to take out fish for the evening meal, the men
who went into the ' ' pocket " to see what had been
caught, were obliged to move their legs nimbly to escape
the gin-like jaws of a good-sized alligator which had
gone into the weir after the fish, and, having devoured
them, could not escape. The pinnace-men cheered with
delight, and proceeded at once to capture the prisoner.
It was, however, a good tough job : the brute, some ten
or twelve feet long, lay in the bottom of an enclosed
space of about equal diameter ; the water was about
three feet deep, and extremely muddy, rendered more
so by the splashings and convulsions of the animal.
Attempts were at first made to thrust sharp boarding-
pikes down through his hide ; and from the height the
seaman stood over the creature, and the weight they
were able to bring to bear upon the pikes, it appeared
probable that some weak spot would be found. But,
no ; although sometimes eight or nine powerful men
pressed down with as many pikes, the brute did not
suffer a scratch ; and, incredible as it may appear, more
than one of our boarding-pikes, strong as they are, were
CAPTURE OF AN ALLIGATOR. 51
bent in the neck. It was evident that a soft spot must
be sought for under his " calipash," as, in imitation of
turtle, the men called his upper coat of armour. Every
man armed himself ■with some weapon or other, and
stirred up the alligator with a vengeance. He became
perfectly furious, and lashed about his tail and snapped
his jaws in a very sjDiteful manner. The fun waxed
warm j the " click " of the teeth as the mouth closed
sounded uncommonly unpleasant, apart from the crack-
ing of boat-hook staffs and other articles, as if they
were mere twigs. At last a good noose was slipped
over the creature's head and hauled tight round his
neck ; this enabled the seamen to administer a multitude
of wounds which would have let its life out had it not
had more than the usual number. But it was a long time
before it was deemed sufficiently safe to haul the brute
out of the weir, and tow it to one of the gunboats to be
dissected and skinned : and even then the muscular
action of portions of the body, the tail especially, whilst
being cut into pieces, was something extraordinary, and
denoted how strong is the vitality of all this reptile
tribe. I and others tasted a cutlet of alligator's flesh,
and although it was not particularly nice, still there was
nothing about it disagreeable. Some compared it to
very bad veal cutlets ; for my part, it tasted very much
as turtle coUops would, which is not saying much in its
favour.
Observing the " Haggi " in quest of something, I
watched my surgical friend, and found him carefully
cutting open the head, to extract the brain. Through
Jamboo I asked what purpose it was to be applied to,
52 QUEDAH.
and was informed, with a solemn shake of the head that
would have qualified the Haggi for the College of Phy-
sicians, that " it was an invaluable remedy for all fevers !"
I need not say that, great as my faith Avas in the Koran
and chunam-box of the holy mariner, I determined not
to go through a course of alligator brains, come what
might. Prior to our Christmas - Day, the Mahometan
fast,* or Lent, took place. Our Malays kept it in a par-
ticularly lax manner : but our opponents in Quedah
appeared to be far more orthodox, their devotions find-
ing vent in a magnificent chant by male voices, which,
heard in all the lonely stillness of a tropical night, was
deeply impressive. Jadee assured me that the perform-
ers were men of undoubted sanctity, having all made
the pilgi'image to Mecca, and kissed the tomb of their
Prophet, without which qualification they could not take
part in what the English seamen sacrilegiously stjded
the " Quedah Opera." The conclusion of the fast was
a general holiday in the town and fort ; a constant salut-
ing and cheering took place, and men, women, and chil-
dren were dressed in holiday attire, giving a great deal
more animation to the tumble-down fort and the devoted
town than we were wont to see them assume.
Then came our Christmas. The Hyacinth ran down
to the Eountings, and captured some very fine turtle.
Turtle-soup and plum-pudding galore were prepared ;
and, like a hen gathering her chicks, we all sailed off
from our blockading posts, and tumbled on board the
dear old craft in time for an early dinner.
* During the month of Eahmadan the Mussulman abstains from
eating or drinking, smoking or pleasure, from sunrise to sunset.
CHRISTMAS-DAY. 53
The Malay sailors got a holiday and a double allow-
ance of rice and fish, and paid all due respect to the
"white man's feast," whilst we talked over our adven-
tures with shipmates and messmates, and hoped and
prophesied for the future. As the evening closed in,
all boats' crews were again piped away, and we rowed
into Quedah, keeping time to the tune of some senti-
mental ditty, in which the lady of the sailor's love
'' Was a rich merchant's daughter,
From London she did come," &c. &c. ;
and winding up with a denouement far more comical
than moral.
Yet was our duty not all play or sight-seeing. The
Malays in Quedah had to dispose of their produce at
Penang, and procure, in return, arms, powder, and salt,
and our duty was to prevent them. Whenever the
night-tides were high, combined with a misty state of
the atmosphere likely to cover their escape through our
cordon, prahus would push out, and, by keeping close
under the shadow of the jungle, strive to escape our
vigilance. Their lofty mat- sails caught the faintest
breath of land-breeze, the beautifully sharp bow of the
phrahus made hardly a ripple as it cut through the
water, and it required the keenest eye to detect them
when stealing thus along in silence and shadow. The
quick sight and hearing of our Malays were in this respect
invaluable : they had themselves been engaged in similar
feats, and laiew all the tricks of their compatriots. On
more than one occasion did the lookout-man call me at
night, when, although a clear sky overhead, nothing but
54 QUEDAH.
the tops of the trees could be seen peering over a white
mist which poured like smoke out of the unhealthy-
mangrove swamps. " A prahu ! " the man would say,
pointing into the mist, making a sign at the same
time to listen. Holding my head low down and hori-
zontally, I could at last distinguish what had caught
the Malay's attention — a low creak occasionally, which I
most decidedly should have thought to be the swaying
of some branch in the forest, had he not assured me that
it was the action of a prahu's oar in a rattan grummet.'"'
At other times a rippling sound, such as water m411 make
when running past any fixed object, was wafted on the
night- wind. "It is merely the tide running past the
fishing-weirs, Jamboo," I might perhaps say. " Oh no,
sir ! " he would reply, " the lookout-man assures me the
sound is altering its position, and that it's the stem of
a prahu cutting through the water." Silently and
stealthily, but quickly, as men who had been all their
lives at such work, the crew would be on their legs.
" Baughan ! semoa-secalar, hancat sown ! " in a low and
distinct whisper, would run along the deck ; or, in other
words, "Arouse ! hands up anchor ! " The anchor would
be run up gently, and ]N^uniero Tega would be after her
prey like a night-hawk. We had to deal, however, with
keen hands and fast boats, and often have I chased to
early dawn before being sure of my prize.
* " Grummet," the piece of rope used for attaching an oar to the
rowing-pin.
CHAPTEE VI.
A NIGHT -CHASE AFTEE, A PEAHTJ — THE CHASE — THE PEAHU
MAN(EUVRES ADMIKABLY — JADEE VOLUNTEERS TO BOARD HER
— THE CAPTURE — A PIRATICAL SAINT — THE SAINT AT PRAYERS
— THE saint's DEPORTMENT — THE SAINT's MARTYRDOM — DE-
FENSIVE MEASURES — ESCAPE OF SIAMESE PRISONERS — SUF-
FERINGS OF THE SIAMESE PRISONERS— A CURIOUS MODE OF
SKETCHING.
The pluck and zeal of my crew often struck me, but
never perhaps more than on the occasion I am about to
relate.
We had had a long and unsuccessful chase one day
after a fast-pulling prahu, and the crew being much
exhausted, I anchored for the night at the mouth of a
small river called the Furlong, about two miles north of
Quedah Fort. Heartily tired with the past day's exer-
tion, all my crew soon dropped asleep, except the usual
lookout-man, and I donned my blanket frock and trou-
sers, and threw myself on the deck to rest. About ten
o'clock I was aroused by a fine old one-eyed fellow called
"Souboo." "Touhan!"* whispered he, "a large two-
masted prahu has just sailed past us !" "Where'? — in
* Touhan, in this sense, was equivalent to " Sir ; " it is generally-
used as Mr would be in English.
56 QUEDAH.
what direction V I asked. " To leeward, sir ! " said
Souboo, as lie dropped upon his knees and peered along
the water, over which the night-mists were moving ;
" there she is — a real ' capel prahu,' and sailing very
fast." To up anchor and make sail to the land-breeze
did not take many minutes ; the sweeps were manned,
and the guns cleared for action.
Whilst my little craft was flying through the water, I
questioned Souboo as to how it was he first got sight of
the prahu. " The wind was rather along the land than
off it," said he, " and I was watching the mouth of the
river, when, suddenly happening to turn my head to sea-
ward, I saw a prahu come out of the mist and almost
tumble on board of us, as she hauled in for the stream ;
but in a minute her course was changed, and she bore
up for the southward with flowing sheets."
" All right," exclaimed Jadee, " we will have her —
there is a twenty-mile run for her to the Bountings, and
before that ground is gone over the fog w^ill have cleared
off and the wind fail." " How if she hauls up, and goes
to the northward *?" I suggested. " No Malay man tries
to sail against the wind with a prahu, when the white
man is in chase of him, Touhan ! " said Jadee ; " and if
Souboo' s description of this vessel is correct, she is one
of the war-prahus of Mahomet Alee's fleet ! "
Under this pleasing anticipation Jadee got quite ex-
cited ; and I must say I joined in the feeling, as the
gunboat listed to the breeze, and her dashing crew bent
with a will to their oars. The zealous Campar handed
to Jadee the longest and ugliest creese in his stock, and
I observed all the men stick their short knives in their
THE PEAHU S MANCEUVEING. 57
girdles ready for a fray. " No praliu yet ! " I exclaimed,
after running two or three miles througli the mist. "We
will catch her ! " responded Jadee ; and almost as he said
the word, we seemed to be aboard of a large-sized pralm,
running the same way as ourselves. There was a yell of
delight from the Number Threes, as my crew styled
themselves, and one as of astonishment from the prahu ;
but in a moment she, what is termed, jibbed her sails,
and slipped out of sight again before we could dip our
heavy yards and lug-sails. Altering our course so as to
intercept her in her evident intention to seek a hiding-
place in the Bounting Islands, the bow-gun was cleared
away and loaded with grape, ready to knock away her
masts when another opportunity offered. Again we ran
almost upon her, our sails being at the time boomed out
"wing and wing." "Lower your sails and surrender ! "
Jadee shouted, as I fired, and brought down her main-
sail. For a minute her capture seemed certain ; but we
had to deal with no novice. As we shot past the prahu,
going nearly eight knots, she dropped her foresail, put
her helm hard down, and, long before our sails could be
furled and the gunboat's head got round, the villanous
prahu was out of sight astern. I fancy I swore ; for
Jadee called the lost prize a "d — d poul," which she
most decidedly was not, and added that he evidently
was "a pig ! and would not fight."
We still determined to adhere to our original course,
confident of the prahu having no shelter nearer than the
islands, and were rewarded as the mist cleared away by
again sighting her. I soon saw that we were by far the
faster sailer with the fresh breeze then blowing, and de-
58 QUEDAH.
termined not to let lier escape me this time. I proposed,
if three or four men Avould follow me, to jump on board
of her, and prevent her escape until the gunboat got
fairly alongside. Jadee at once seized the idea, and only
so far altered it as to persuade me, through the assistance
of the interpreter, that the Malays in the praliu would
be more likely to surrender quietly to a countryman who
could assure them of quarter, than they would be at
the sight of a naval officer, when fright alone might
make them run a-muck, and cause a needless loss of
life.
Accordingly, Jadee and his three boarders stood ready
at the bow, and looking at them as they stood on the
gunwale, eagerly eyeing the prahu as we rushed at her,
they would have made a fine study for a painter. They
were nearly naked, with the exception of a sarong wrapped
round the left arm, to ward off such blows as might be
aimed at them ; in the waist-belt, across the small of their
backs, each had stuck his creese, and a sharp short cut-
lass dangled from their wrists. Strange sights indeed do
travellers see ! but, for disinterested devotion and bravery,
I question Avhether a finer example could be shown than
that of these dark-skinned subjects of Queen Victoria.
As we closed the prahu, no answer was returned to
our hail to surrender. " All ready ! " said Jadee, swing-
ing himself almost out of the rigging with eagerness.
"Look out!" I shouted, and fired again at the sails.
The prahu repeated her old manoeuvre, but we check-
mated her this time, for as our side scraped her stern,
Jadee and his followers leapt into her with a shout.
Our sails were down in a trice, and we swept alongside
A PIRATICAL SAINT. 59
of the prize ; and, having heard so much as I had done
of the desperate character of Malays, I was not a little
delighted to find that they had in this case surrendered
without resistance directly Jadee made himself master
of their helm, and announced his intention, with a vicious
wave of his abominable creese, to maintain it against all
comers until the gunboat got alongside.
The vessel had been a war-prahu ; but her breastwork
for the guns had been removed, and, in the peaceful
character of a trader, she was, we afterwards found, em-
ployed to keep up the communication between the Malay
chieftains in Quedah province and theii' friends in
Penang, The emissary upon this occasion we made a
prisoner of j the vessel we respected as a trader, but
forced her to return into Quedah.
The prisoner was a Malay of good extraction, and,
having performed the pilgrimage to Mecca, wore the dis-
tinguished decoration of a considerable quantity of green
calico about his head. Apart from his sanctity, he was,
as his able efforts to escape had proved, an expert sailor,
and doubtless a most worthy member of his piratical
fraternity. There was something about the man particu-
larly commanding. He was tall and slight for a Malay,
and bore, as many of the higher caste in Malaya do,
marks of Arab blood in his veins. His face would have
been good-looking but for the high and square cheek-
bones and a fierce expression of the eye. A small Yan-
dyke-shaped beard, which was a mark of his holy rank,
and a certain dignity of manner, showed him one accus-
tomed to command ; and it amused me to see with what
self-possession he was prepared, although my prisoner.
60 QUEDAH.
to exercise his authority upon my men, who instinctively
obeyed him as they would do their master.
I did not, however, show any great awe for his
piratical saintship, much to Jadee's astonishment ; for
although my coxswain's knowledge of the creed of the
faithful was but a mere glimmering, still he had vague
superstitious fears about it, which would have made me
laugh had Jadee not been so much in earnest about them.
Out of consideration for Jadee's fears as to the evil con-
sequences likely to arise through the imprisoned Haggi's
influence with divers demons, spirits, et ceteixi, I con-
sented that, whenever the position of the gunboat
brought the direction of the Prophet's tomb over the
stern, the Haggi might, in pursuance of the established
form of Mahometanism, bring his carj)et on the quarter-
deck, and pray ; at other times he was to remain for-
ward. Accordingly, at the hour of prayer, the pirate-
saint would stalk along to the stern of the gunboat,
spread his little carj)et, turn towards ]\Iecca, or rather
the direction in which it lay, and then, indifferent to
who were looking at him, or whatever might be going
on, enter upon his devotions with a zeal and abstraction
from the little world around him which could not but
command admiration from men of any creed. His ori-
sons finished, he returned to his place with the dignity
of a rajah.
He never made the slightest effort to conciliate either
my goodwill or that of any of my crew. I was evidently
a Giaour, an infidel, and the Malays around me rene-
gades ; but I rather admired him for this independence,
and took good care nothing should occur to offend his
HIS AFTER FATE. 61
religions scruples, so far as he personally was concerned.
Perhaps in time we should have appreciated each other
better; for on my one day notifying to him that he
was to proceed to Penang, to stand upon his trial before
Governor Bonham, he relaxed for a few minutes, clasped
both hands together, made a low bow, and " hoped God
would be with me, and that I should walk in health ! "
expressions which I cordially returned ; and so we parted.
Prom what I afterwards heard, I had reason to believe
the " Company Sahib" had a long account with this holy
man, and that, with some others, he was to be seen in
after years innocently employed sweeping and keeping
in order the fortifications of Port- William at Calcutta.
A bevy of houris in the world to come will doubtless
reward him for the injury he has suffered from the
infidel in this.
Towards the commencement of the new year, our
attention was called to a strong working-party being
seen every day to leave the fort, and proceed to clear
away the jungle which had grown up close round the
works ; this done, they commenced the construction of
an admirable battery, which flanked our anchorage as
well as the landward side of Quedah Port. Observing
that this working-party was strongly guarded, we learnt,
on inquiry from the fishermen, that the labourers were
unfortunate Siamese — men, women, and children — who
had been captured when the province was conquered by
the Malays, and that the work they were now doing was
merely to keep them out of mischief We, however,
plainly saw that the chiefs had some cause for anxiety,
and anticipated an attack, though how or whence we had
62 QUEDAH.
as yet no certain intelligence. We took some pains to
get information carried to these poor creatures of our
readiness to give them shelter, and shortly afterwards
two Siamese effected their escape under difficult circum-
stances. The musquito squadron were just on the point
of separating to take up their stations for the night — a
step we always took care to carry out after dark, in order
that the enemy might not know our position — when a
voice was heard to hail us from a long tongue of mud
which ran out to seaward from the northern point of
the river. At first it was supposed to be the whoop of
a night-hawk, but it was repeated, and our men declared
it to be the voice of either Chinese or Siamese. Mr
Jamboo was called for, and, in a dialect w^hich was so
unmusical as to resemble the sounds emitted by knock-
ing two hard pieces of wood together, he soon ascertained
that they w^ere two Siamese men who had escaped from
the Malays, and in an attempt to cross the mucl-flat had
sunk into it exhausted, and, unless we could reach them,
would assuredly be drowned or devoured by the alliga-
tors upon the return of the tide. The pinnace was now
forced in as near as possible to the mud-bank, and three
or four of the English seamen having volunteered to
assist the unfortunates, they stripped themselves, and,
aided by oars and boards, slipped over the mud to where
the Siamese were fairly bogged, pulled them out by
sheer strength and activity, and brought them off amidst
the cheers of all our party. The blue-jackets washed
them, and clothed their shivering frames in sailors' frocks
and trousers, persuaded them to drink a glass of raw
Jamaica rum each, and then, with considerable truth,
ESCAPE OF SIAMESE PRISONERS. 63
said, balf-laugliing, "Why, Jack, your mother would
not know you ! " — a remark the Siamese would probably
have acquiesced in, had they understood the rough but
good-natured fellows.
The tale of the Siamese was soon told: they were
father and son, and had originally entered the province
of Quedah from the neighbourhood of Bankok. At the
time of the Malay inroad, the father was a petty mer-
chant, barber, and painter, at an island called Lancavi.
They Avere made prisoners, or rather slaves ; worked like
horses, starved, and constantly saw their countrymen
creesed before their eyes. They escaped, stole a boat,
and sailed with her across to the mainland, by following
the coast of which they knew they must reach English
territory. At last they observed our ship in the offing,
and rightly conjecturing that some of her boats would
be found off Quedah, had happily succeeded in reaching
us without being seen by the lynx-eyed look-outs of
Quedah.
They stayed some days with us, and appeared anxious
to evince their gratitude in every possible way. The old
man, as a Siamese artist, presented each officer with
specimens of his skill ; the most remarkable point in his
sketches being the fact of his wonderful departure from
all our preconceived notions of drawing.
For instance, in a pencil sketch of Buddha, drawn for
me, in which that divinity is represented reposing upon
one leg, and looking uncommonly like Canova's famed
figure of a dancing-girl reposing, and almost as unnatural,
the draughtsman commenced with the toes, and worked
gradually up to the gorgeous head-dress, yet preserving a
64 QUEDAH.
just proportion in all the parts of the figure ; as a whole,
the result may be said to have been more curious than
j)leasing. When the Siamese eventually proceeded to
Penang, they left us favourably impressed with their
disposition and ability, although they evidently lacked
the energy of character which marked the Malays about
us.
CHAPTEE YII.
THE ANXIETY OF THE OFFICEE COMMANDING THE BLOCKADE — IN-
TELLIGENCE RECEIVED OF THE PIRATE FLEET — MY GOOD FOR-
TUNE IN SAILING WITH SO EXCELLENT A CAPTAIN — A TROPICAL
THUNDER-STORM — JADEE KILLS THE WIND — HOW JADEE
LEARNED TO KILL THE WIND — THE DUTCH GENERALLY DIS-
LIKED — JADEe's piratical FRIENDS ATTACK A JUNK — THE
DEFEAT AND FLIGHT OF JADEE's FRIENDS — THEY ARE SAVED
BY THE RAJAH OF JEHORE — KILLING THE WIND.
Our enterprising captain in the Hyacinth had, as it may
be supposed, a very anxious time. The extent of coast
to be blockaded was not less than fifty or sixty miles in
extent — much of it but little known ; numerous islands,
rivers, and creeks existed of which charts and surveyors
had no cognisance. He knew well that a large force of
prahus and armed men was in the province ; their exact
whereabouts, however, was preserved a perfect secret,
and Captain Warren's fear was, lest they should fall
upon his boats or the gunboats with vastly superior
forces, and carry off an easy victory. The Hyacinth,
therefore, like a troubled spirit, was ever flitting up and
down between Quedah and a spot of equal importance
called the Parlis river, situated twenty miles farther
north, and in the entrance of which the ship's cutter
and ISTo. 1 gunboat, the Diamond, were stationed. In the
5
66 QUEDAH.
second week of January, information was received that
a considerable number of the war-pralius seen by us at
Trang during the previous autumn, bad succeeded, under
tbeir renowned leader, Datoo Maliomet Alee, in getting
into the Parlis river, and were employed in the defence
of that neighbourhood. It became therefore necessary
to reinforce the Parlis blockading force, and I was
ordered to proceed there for that purpose. Delighted at
the prospect of seeing more of this interesting country,
my craft was soon under way and spinning along the
coast, which, to the northward of Quedah river, rapidly
imjjroved in appearance ; the picturesque group of islands
known as the Lancavas, and beyond them the Laddas,
lying to seaward, and spurs of mountain land from the
central chain approaching close to the coast of the main-
land.
All, at any rate, was bright and beautiful to me.
Placed, young as I was, in a position of trust and re-
sponsibility — enjoying all the sweets of command, and
still too young to feel its anxieties — it was indeed the
sunny side of the world that I was then enjoying ; and
as, with a throbbing pulse and zealous heart, I walked
my own quarterdeck, how earnest, in all the honesty
of youth, were my resolutions to deserve well of
my profession, and those set in authority over me !
Fortunate are those boys who, like me, sail their
first trip as embryo admirals with such a captain
as mine was — a gentleman in all things; labouring
in his profession quietly and earnestly — not, upon the
one hand, scorning it as being beneath his birth or abili-
ties — or, upon the other, degrading himself into a mere
A SQUALL AT HAND. 67
menial, and working for the dirty pounds, sliillings, and
pence it would yield liim. The midshipman who sails
and learns his profession with such a man may perhaps,
in after life, suffer when he happens to be under the
tyrant, schemer, or bully — for, alas 1 such will be found
in every noble profession ; but those principles early
acquired will ever be a solace to him, and the love and
recollection of such a man console him and cheer him in
the hope of emulating his example.
As we approached a long low point named Tangong
Bouloo, or the Cape of Bamboos, from the numbers of
those canes which were waving gracefully over it, my
attention was called to the necessity of preparing for a
heavy squall which was rapidly sweeping down towards
us from the distant hills. As the wind freshened, we
reduced canvass until the Emerald was flying along under
a close-reefed foresail, everything cracking withal. The
squall swept on ; a dense black mass of clouds, charged
with electricity, a burst of thunder which seemed to
make the gunboat tremble to her very keel, and a vivid
flash of lightning which blinded one for a minute,
showed how close it was. The tall trees bent to the
gale, the bamboos were swept down like a long row of
feathers, and a white streak of foam rushed towards us
as we took in our sail, and prepared to receive it under
bare poles. AYith a shriek it struck us ; the little Emer-
ald lay down to it for a moment, the helm was put up,
and away she flew before the storm like a snow-flake.
Jadee stood by my side — "A bad wind, Touhan; we must
kill it ! " " Kill away ! Jadee," I replied, laughing at
the idea of so fickle a personage as the Clerk of the
68 QUEDAH.
Weather getting into a scrape with a Malay pirate, —
" kill away, by all means ! " " Campar !" shouted Jadee
— poor Campar ! he had to be everywhere — ' ' oh ! Cam-
par, thou son of a burnt mother, hand here the rice-
spoon ! " shouted Jadee, looking as solemn as a Quaker
or a haggi. This rice-spoon, by the way, was the only
one in the vessel ; it was made of wood, and used for
stirring the rice whilst cooking over the fire ; its value
to us probably invested it with a certain degree of sanc-
tity. The spoon was brought, and I tried to look as
solemn as Jadee, who, calling to his aid the sanctimoni-
ous Alee, placed the spoon upon the deck between him
and the wind, and the pair of true believers repeated
some verses over it — bound themselves, by a vow, to
sacrifice several game-cocks* upon a favourable occasion,
and then the precious spoon was stuck through the lan-
yards of the main-rigging, with the handle to leeward.
I think I should have died from the effects of suppressed
mirth, had not the fury of the squall and the quantity
of water thrown on board of us given me enough to do
to look after the safety of the craft. Jadee, however,
sat quietly watching and waiting for the effect of his in-
cantation : at last, down came the rain, not in drops, but
in bucketfuls, and, as usual, the wind fell entirely.
Hastening to get under the rain-awnings and mats until
the weather cleared up, I remarked to Jadee that " the
wind was fairly killed." " Yes ! " he replied, with a sly
expression of countenance, " I never saw that charm
fail ; I never saw the wind that could long stand its
* I fancy, from game-cocks being introduced into this superstitious
observance, that it is purely of Malay origin.
" KILLING THE WIND. 69
effect. The Eajah. of Jeliore was the first man who
taught it to me, and I have found it infallible. If Jam-
boo was here, Touhan, I'd tell you how it happened."
Jamboo was at once sent for ; and making a proviso
that my coxswain should speak slowly and distinctly, so
as to enable me to call in the interpreter's aid as little as
possible, he proceeded to tell his tale, somewhat as fol-
lows : —
" Long before, that action with the English man-of-
war which drove me to Singapore, I sailed in a fine fleet
of prahus belonging to the Eajah of Jehore.* We were
all then very rich — ah ! such numbers of beautiful wives,
and such feasting ! — but, above all, we had a great many
most holy men in our force ! When the proper mon-
soon came, we proceeded to sea to fight the Bugismen
and Chinamen bound from Borneo and the Celebes to
Java ; for you must remember our Rajah was at war
with them ( Jadee always maintained that the proceedings
in which he had been engaged partook of a purely war-
like, and not of a piratical character).
"Our thirteen prahus had all been fitted out in and
about Singapore. I wish you could have seen them,
Touhan ! These prahus we see here are nothing to
them ; such brass guns, such long pendants, such creeses !
Allah-il- Allah ! our Datoos were indeed great men !
" Sailing along the coast as high as Patani, we then
crossed over to Borneo, two Illanoon prahus acting as
* I have said the Rajah of Jehore ; but Jadee called the individual
by some peculiar term not easily spelt, and described his place of
abode and hiding-place as being near Cape Romania, in the Jehore
district.
70 QUEDAH.
pilots, and readied a place called Sambas : there we fought
the Chinese and Dutchmen, who ill-treat our country-
men, and are trying to drive the Malays out of that
country. Gold-dust and slaves in large quantities were
here taken ; most of the latter being our countrymen of
Sumatra and Java, who are captured and sold to the
planters and miners of the Dutch settlements."
" Do you mean to say," I asked, " that the Dutch
countenance such traffic ? "
i_ " The Hollanders," replied Jadee, " have been the
1 bane of the Malay race ; no one knows the amount of
1 villany, the bloody cruelty of their system towards us.
They drive us into our prahus to escape their taxes and
their laws, and then declare us pirates, and put us to
death. There are natives in our crew, Touhan, of Su-
I matra and Java, of Bianca and Borneo ; ask them why
they hate the Dutchmen ; why they would kill a Dutch-
man. It is because the Dutchman is a false man, not
like the white man (English). The Hollander stabs in
the dark ; he is a liar ! However, from Borneo we sailed
to Biliton and Bianca, and there waited for some large
junks that were expected. Our cruise had been so far
successful, and we feasted away — fighting cocks, smok-
ing 'opium, and eating Avhite rice. At last our scouts
told us that a junk was in sight. She came — a lofty-
sided one of Fokien. We knew those Amoy men
would fight like tiger-cats for their sugar and silks ;
and as the breeze was fresh, we only kept her in sight
by keeping close in-shore and following her. I^ot to
frighten the Chinamen, we did not hoist sail, but made
our slaves pull. Oh ! " said Jadee, warming up with
DEFEAT OF JADEE S FRIENDS. 71
the recollection of the event, — "oh ! it was fine to feel
what brave fellows we then were !
"Towards night we made sail and closed upon the
junk, and at daylight it fell a stark calm, and we went
at our prize like sharks. All our fighting men put on
their war-dresses ; the Illanoons danced their war-dance,
and all our gongs sounded, as we opened out to attack
her on different sides.
" But those Amoy men are pigs ! They burnt joss-
paper, sounded their gongs, and received us with such
showers of stones, hot water, long pikes, and one or two
well-directed shots, that we hauled off to try the effect
of our guns, sorry though we were to do it, for it was
sure to bring down the Dutchmen upon us. Bang !
bang ! we fired at them, and they at us ; three hours
did we persevere, and whenever we tried to board the
Chinese beat us back every time, for her side was as
high and smooth as a wall, with galleries overhanging.
We had several men killed and hurt ; a council was
called ; a certain charm was performed by one of our
holy men, a famous chief, and twenty of our best men
devoted themselves to effecting a landing on the junk's
deck, when our look-out prahus made the signal that
the Dutchmen were coming ; and sure enough some
Dutch gunboats came sweeping round a headland. In
a moment we were round and pulling like demons for
the shores of Biliton, the gunboats in chase of us, and
the Chinese howling with delight. The sea-breeze
freshened, and brought up a schooner-rigged boat very
fast. We had been at work twenty-four hours, and
were heartily tired ; our slaves could work no longer, so
72 QUEDAII.
we prepared for the Hollanders ; tliey were afraid to
close upon us, and commenced firing at a distance. This
was just what we wanted ; we had guns as well as they,
and, by keeping up the fight until dark, we felt sure of
escape. The Dutchmen, however, knew this too, and
kept closing gradually upon us ; and when they saw our
prahus baling out water and blood, they knew we were
suffering, and cheered like devils. We were desperate ;
surrender to Dutchmen we never would : we closed to-
gether for mutual support, and determined at last, if all
hope of escape ceased, to run our prahus ashore, burn
them, and lie hid in the jungle until a future day. But
a brave Datoo, with his shattered prahu, saved us ; he
proposed to let the Dutchmen board her, creese all that
did so, and then trust to Allah for his escape.
" It was done immediately ; we all pulled a short dis-
tance away, and left the brave Datoo's prahu like a
wreck abandoned. How the Dutchmen yelled, and fired
into her ! The slaves and cowards jumped out of the
prahu, but our braves kept quiet ; at last, as we ex-
pected, one gunboat dashed alongside of their prize,
and boarded her in a crowd. Then was the time to see
how the Malay man could fight ; the creese was worth
twenty swords, and the Dutchmen went down like
sheep. We fired to cover our countrymen, who, as soon
as their work was done, jumped overboard and swam to
us ; but the brave Datoo, with many more, died, as
brave Malays should do, running a-muck against a host
of enemies.
" The gunboats were quite scared by this punishment,
and we lost no time in getting as rapidly away as pos-
FLIGHT OF JADEES FKIENDS. 73
sible ; but the accursed schooner, by keeping more in
the offing, held the -wind, and preserved her position,
signalling all the while for the gunboats to follow her.
We did not want to fight any more ; it was evidently
an unlucky day. On the opposite side of the channel
to that we were on, the coral reefs and shoals would
prevent the Hollanders following us : it was determined
at all risks to get there in spite of the schooner. With
the first of the land-wind in the evening we set sail be-
fore it, and steered across for Bianca. The schooner
placed herself in our way like a clever sailor, so as to
turn us back ; but we Avere determined to 2)ush on,
take her fire, and run all risks.
" It was a sight to see us meeting one another ; but
we were desperate : we had killed plenty of Dutchmen ;
it was their turn now. I was in the second prahu, and
well it was so ; for when the headmost one got close to
the schooner, the Dutchman fired all his guns into her,
and knocked her at once into a wrecked condition. We
gave one cheer, fired our guns, and then pushed on for
our lives. Ah ! sir, it was a dark night indeed for us.
Three prahus in all were sunk, and the whole force
dispersed. To add to our misfortunes, a strong gale
sprang up. AVe were obliged to carry canvass ; our
prahu leaked from shot-holes ; the sea continually broke
into her ; we dared not run into the coral reefs on such
a night, and bore up for the Straits of Malacca. The
wounded writhed and shrieked in their agony, and we
had to pump, we fighting men, and bale like hlack fel-
lows ! By two in the morning we were all worn out.
I felt indifferent whether I was drowned or not, and
74 QUEDAH.
many threw down their buckets, and sat down to die.
The wind increased, and at last, as if to put us out of
our misery, just such a squall as this came down upon
us. I saw it was folly contending against our fate, and
followed the general example. ' God is great !' we ex-
claimed; but the Eajali of Jehore came and reproved
us. ' Work until daylight,' he said, ' and I will insure
your safety.' We pointed at the black storm which was
approaching. ' Is that what you fear ? ' he replied ; and
going below, he produced just such a wooden spoon, and
did what you have seen me do ; and I tell you, my cap-
tain, as I would if the ' Company Sahib ' stood before
me, that the storm was nothing, and that we had a dead
calm one hour afterwards, and were saved. God is
great, and Mahomet is his prophet ! — but there is no
charm like the Jehore one for killing the wind ! "
It did not take as long to tell as it does to write this
odd tale ; and it would be impossible to try to give an
idea of how my coxswain's feelings were carried away
with the recital of his narrative, or how genuine and
childlike the credulity of the old pirate. I Avrote it
down as a strange episode in Malay life, and possibly
the prescription may get me a medal from the College of
Physicians, even if it should be declared valueless by
European navigators in general.
CHAPTER VIII.
KEFRESHIXG EFFECTS OF A SQUALL IN THE TROPICS — SCENERY
IN THE MALAY ARCHIPELAGO — MY GUNBOAT, THE EMERALD,
JOINS THE PARLIS BLOCKADING SQUADRON — THE MALAYS TRY
TO STOCKADE US OUT OF THE RIVER — HAGGI LOUNG COMES ON
AN EMBASSY — MALAYAN DIPLOMACY — JADEE's DISREGARD
FOR A FLAG OF TRUCE — JADEE AND THE ONE-EYED ENEMY —
A SPY — THE CHASE BY STARLIGHT — THE SUBMERGED JUNGLE
— AN INDIAN NIGHT SCENE — THE CHASE LOST — THE AVHIP
AND MANGROVE SNAKES.
Again we made sail and sped on our way. How nature
revives in these equatorial climes after the effect of
such a squall as we had just experienced ! Animate
and inanimate objects gain fresh life, as it were, from
the action of the passing storm ; the very sea glit-
tered in the sunlight with a brighter and a deeper
blue, and the forest-clad sides of the surrounding moun-
tains looked even more gorgeous than was their wont,
as they shone in all the thousand shades of which
green and gold are susceptible. Away to the northward
stretched a labyrinth of islands of every size and shape
— some still wrapt in storm-clouds, others bathed in re-
fulgent light, or softened by distance into "summer isles
of Eden lying in dark purple spheres of sea." In short,
it realised at such a moment all one's brightest dreams
76 QUE DA II.
of the East ; and it required but little imagination to
people it with bloody pirates and fleet-footed prahus, in
warring with whom I amongst others was to win bright
honour.
At the base of a range of hills which bound the broad
valley of Quedah on the north, the river Parlis dis-
charges itself over a bar into the Indian Ocean. I hauled
in for it, and soon had the satisfaction of shaking the
gallant Barclay by the hand.
The river at its mouth was divided, by a small island
half a mile long, into two branches. This island, called
"Pulo Quetam," or Crab Island, by the natives, served
for a dockyard, drying-ground, and place of recreation to
our little force, and, together with the fact of a large
fleet of Avar-prahus being up the river, under the com-
mand of one of tlie most enterprising of pirates, gave to
the blockade here a degree of interest which Quedah did
not possess.
Our force consisted of two gunboats and a ship's
cutter, carrying altogether four guns and about seventy
men. The Malays far outnumbered us, and Datoo
Mahomet Alee had sent a derisive message, to say he
could and should go in or out of the river whenever it
suited his convenience. The consequence was, we lived
in momentary expectation of a tough action with a set
of heroes who had already fought the boats of H.M.S.
Zebra and Rose on former occasions, and allowed them
no decided advantage.
During the day we used to lie together in the northern
entrance of the river, but at night I was detached to
blockade the southern branch, and prevent all ingress
AN AMBASSADOR FROM THE ENEMY. 77
and egress by even the fishermen. Until the arrival of
the Emerald this measure had been impracticable, and it
gave great umbrage to the enemy. A pangleman, or
petty chief, was therefore sent down from the town of
Parlis, situated twelve miles up the stream, to try and
induce us to desist. The ambassador was not wanting
in skill. He said that Mahomet Alee sent all health to
the officer in command of the English gunboats, and
begged to assure him that the presence of a vessel in the
south branch of the river was an unnecessary measure,
and an act of discourtesy which he hoped would cease.
He knew from experience that lohite men (Orang-putihs)
never wantonly frightened women or children, but that
my vessel rowing round to her station every night had
only that effect. The pangleman alluded here to the
inhabitants of a small village situated in the fork of the
river, which I had to pass nightly.
Lastly, Mahomet Alee begged to remind us that such
a ridiculous force as we were was merely tolerated, and
that we should not do as we liked.
Mr Barclay, our senior officer, gave a concise answer :
that he should do his duty as he pleased, and that the
women and children would cease to fear when they
found we did them no harm ; and lastly, the sooner
Datoo Mahomet Alee put his threat into execution the
better pleased we should all be.
We never understood what Mahomet Alee's real motive
was ; but as if to show us that he did not care about the
south channel being open or not, he took advantage of
my absence one night, whilst chasing a prahu, to send a
strong party of men down, who actually stockaded that
78 QUEDAH.
branch entirely across, much to the astonishment of my
brother officer, who found it completed in the morning.
I was told of it on my return, and he gave me full per-
mission to do what I pleased, to show our indifference
to the authority or temper of " Mahomet Alee." I ac-
cordingly went round, and finding we could not easily
otherwise remove the stakes, I lashed the gunboat to
them at dead low water, and as the tide rose she lifted
them out as easily as feathers, and on the ebb-tide vre
sent them floating to sea. Again did the enemy watch
for an opportunity, and again did I uproot their stock-
ade ; the expenditure of labour being but slight on our
side, whilst with them the skill, energy, and labour
necessary to construct such a work, although merely
formed of the stems of young trees from the neighbour-
ing jungle, were very remarkable.
Several messages of a very uncivil nature came to
our commanding officer, to which equally uncourteous
answers were returned.
One day the other gunboat, the Diamond, and the
cutter had been obliged to weigh and proceed to sea in
chase of prahus, leaving my vessel alone in the river.
About noon two long row-boats, called sampans, with
ten or twelve persons in each, swept suddenly round the
point ahead, and made direct for us. Jadee saw them
immediately, and his eyes glistened at the prospect of
their intentions being warlike. AVhatever their original
purpose was, they were peaceable enough when they
saw us all under arms ; Jadee, however, as a precaution-
ary measure, putting on his fighting jacket, a long sleeve-
less one of red cloth, sufficiently quilted to turn the
MESSAGE FEOM DATOO MAHOMET. 79
edge of a "badi.""" The leading canoe was hailed at
pistol-shot distance, and called upon to state her mission.
We were informed that they came with a communication
from Datoo Mahomet Alee, the bearer being no less a
personage than his second in command, a man called
" Haggi Loung."
The canoe in which the Haggi was seated was per-
mitted to come alongside, and she had evidently a picked
crew armed to the teeth ; and I had no doubt that my
serang was right in saying that, had they found the gun-
boat with half a crew on shore, as was usually the case
about noon, the reverend Haggi and his comrades were
to have essayed her capture. However, I received the
gentleman with all the dignity a youth could muster,
although I was somewhat piqued at the supercilious
smile which played on the face of Haggi Loiing as
he eyed the pocket edition of the white man before
him.
Loiing was rather tall, with square shoulders and bony
limbs, evincing undoubted capability for enforcing those
maxims of the Koran which his high forehead and
intellectual countenance showed he possessed mental
capacity for acquiring and inculcating.
Seating ourselves in a circle, consisting of Haggi
Loiing and his secretary, with Jadee on one side of me
and the interpreter on the other, we proceeded to busi-
ness. The message — if ever one was sent, which I
strongly question — when divested of Eastern ornament
and circumlocution, amounted merely to an attempt to
"* A ''badi" is a small stabbing-knife, used in close fight, or to
administer a coup de grdce to an enemy.
80 QUEDAH.
persuade me to believe that the blockade of the southern
branch of the river was totally needless, and that the
best proof that it was so consisted in the fact of their
having stockaded it across themselves ; and they begged
I would not touch that stockade.
I told him, " he had already received an answer from
my superior officer upon these points ; I had nothing to
add ; and that Mahomet Alee must remember that, as
English officers merely acted from a sense of duty, and
in obedience to orders, I hoped the next time he asked
me a favour it would be one that I could grant."
The Haggi wanted to discuss the point ; but as the
arguments passed for the most part through the medium
of Jadee and the interpreter, I suppose they lost their
point, for I kept my ground.
Failing in this respect, he gradually turned the con-
versation to the prospect of the Siamese regaining the
province of Quedah, and with much finesse led me into
the error of believing that the Siamese army had been
repulsed at all points. I now sent for boiled rice and
fish, which I ordered to be set before the Haggi ; and
Jadee jDroceeded, by my desire, to see that the Malays
in the canoes had food supplied to them ; though, from
the expression of his face whilst so employed, I could
plainly observe that he would have far preferred blowing
them from the muzzle of the bow-gun. Watching his
opportunity, Jadee made a quiet sign that he wished to
speak to me, and when I went to him, hurriedly said,
" Now, sir, now is our opportunity ; capture this man ;
send his canoes away to say so, and tell Mahomet Alee
we are alone this afternoon, and that N'umero Tega will
JADEE EAGER FOR A EIGHT. 81
fight hiiii at once ! " I pointed out to Jadee tliat the
challenge might he very well, hut that the capture of
Loiing was out of the question, as he had come to us in
the sacred character of a messenger. Jadee could not
understand it at all, and walked away muttering some-
thing in which I heard "Mahomet Alee — pigs — and
poltroons " generally mixed up.
Haggi Loiing was all smiles and civility, little think-
ing how hostile a proposition had just heen made against
him, and shortly afterwards rose to depart — an event I
rather hastened, as it was impossible, with such inflam-
mable materials as his crews and mine were composed of,
to tell the moment a disturbance might take place. Ja-
dee was rustling about like a game-cock ready for a row ;
and I saw him and a wild-looking Malay who steered
one of the canoes, exchanging glances and curls of the
lip which betokened anything but amity. Desiring
Jadee to do something at the other side of the gunboat,
I wished Haggi Loiing " good-bye," and had just lost
sight of them round the point when my serang came aft
all smiles and sunshine. To my queries he only smiled
mysteriously, and replied I should soon know ; and as
this evidently referred to something connected Avith our
late visitors, I began to have my fears lest a pleasant
diveHissGment, in the shape of a creese fight, had been
arranged between him and the Orson from Parlis.
Directly it fell dark, our consorts rejoined us ; and
whilst all the vessels were lashed together, prior to tak-
ing up their night positions, one of the lookout-men
maintained that a long canoe had crossed the river above
us, his quick eye having sighted her as she darted over
6
82 QUEDAH.
the bright streak of light which gleamed between the
gloomy shadows of either side. From one of our prizes
we had captured a long fairy-like canoe, scooped out of
the trunk of a tree ; with six paddles she would fly
through the water. Barclay and I jumped into her at
once, and, with a mixed crew of Malays and Englishmen,
gave chase to the stranger. It was top of high water,
or nearly so ; the tide, as usual, had overflowed all the
neighbouring land (except the high patch of ground on
which stood the little village previously referred to), and
the dark stems of the mangroves and other trees, which
seemed to flourish in an amphibious life, stretched away
on either hand from the river in a black and endless
labyrinth.
A few deep and silent strokes brought us up almost
noiselessly to the spot where the stranger had been seen
to cross, although we were in the shadow on the oppo-
site side of the river ; the paddles were laid across our
boat, and the steersman alone kept her going gently up
the stream. We were all eyes — now looking in among
the dark waters, out of which rose the black and solemn
trunks of the trees — now eagerly gazing across to the
opposite side of the river. Almost instinctively, we all
pointed, without speaking a word, to a canoe twice as
long as our own, which had evidently seen us, and was
apparently waiting to see whether we were in search of
her, or for us to show our intentions. We did not keep
them long in suspense.
" Give way," exclaimed Barclay, " and get above
them ! " In a moment our paddles struck the water,
and our craft seemed to lift and jump at every stroke.
A CHASE BY STARLIGHT. 83
The other canoe was not idle ; for a few minutes it was
doubtful which would win, and we could hear the men
cheering one another on to exertion. "A scout! a
scout!" exclaimed our Malays; "the prahus will be
down when the ebb-tide makes ! " I told Barclay this.
"I hope to God they will !" he exclaimed; "we shall
be ready for them ! " We now began to head the canoe.
As soon as we saw we could do that, Barclay got his
musket ready, and gave orders, directly he fired, for the
helmsman to steer diagonally across the stream, so as to
get on the same side as the craft we were in chase of.
Taking a deliberate aim at the scout canoe he fired,
and we, with a shout, struck across for her, hoping either
to lay her alongside or drive her back upon the gun-
boats. But we had counted without our host ; and the
Malays of our party gave a yell of disgust as the enemy
disappeared as it were into the jungle. We were soon
on her heels, and, guided by the sound she made in forc-
ing through the mangrove swamp, held our course — now
aground upon the straddling legs of a mangrove tree —
then pushing through a thicket, out of which the af-
frighted birds flew shrieking — then listening to try and
distinguish the sound of the flying canoe from all the
shrill whistles, chirrips, and drumming noises which
render an Indian jungle far more lively by night than
by day. Once or twice we thought we were fast catch-
ing her, when suddenly our canoe passed from the man-
grove swamp into an open forest of trees, which rose in
all their solemn majesty from the dark waters. We saw
our chance of success was now hopeless, for the scout
canoe had fifty avenues by which to baffle us, and terra
84 QUE D AH.
' firma was, "we knew, not far distant. It was a strange
and beautiful scene. The water was as smooth as bur-
nished steel, and reflected, wherever the trees left an
opening, the thousand stars which strewed the sky. The
tall stems of the forest trees rose from this glittering
surface, and waved their sable plumes over our heads ;
! whilst the firefly, or some equally luminous insect, occa-
sionally lit up first one tree and then another, as if
sparks of liquid gold were being emitted from the rust-
ling leaves.
Silently we lay on our oars, or rather paddles : not a
sound of the flying canoe could be heard. It was evi-
dent that the scout had escaped j and it only remained
for us to make the best of our way back again — a task
which, in the absence of all excitement, we found an
extremely tough one ; indeed we grounded so often on
the roots of the mangrove trees, that I proposed to wade
through the mud and water, dragging the canoe after us.
To this, however, the Malays would in nowise listen ;
and spoke so earnestly of the danger arising from a par-
ticular kind of snake, that we thought it better to listen
to them — a piece of wisdom upon our part which gave
rise to some congratulations on the morrow, when, in
company with our advisers, we visited the mangrove
swamp, and found in the fork of many of the trees a
perfect nest of snakes. These, the Malays assured us,
were very venomous ; yet the reptiles were not above a
foot or eighteen inches long, and about the girth of a
man's little finger, the greatest peculiarity being strong
black markings about the body, which gave them an ap-
pearance somewhat in keeping with their bad reputation.
VENOMOUS SNAKES. 85
Having, like most youths, read every book "vvhich I could
get hold of descriptive of wild beast, bird, and reptile, from
my reading I had been led to believe that the whip-
snake was everywhere most dangerous ; and I must say,
when I observed a number of these long green-coloured
creatures hanging like tendrils from the trees we had in
the darkness of the previous night been pushing our way
through, I felt thankful for our escape. Touching one
of the Malays who were with me, I pointed at them and
said, " They are very bad." He smiled, and assured me
they were not by any means so dangerous as those in the
forks of the trees in the mangrove swamps.
CHAPTEE IX.
MAHOMET ALEE DOES NOT ATTACK — START CRANE-SHOOTING —
DAYBREAK IN MALAYIA — THE ADJUTANT — THE "OLD SOL-
DIER!" — THE "OLD soldier" FISHING — THE "OLD SOLDIER "
WEATHERS A YOUNG SAILOR — NO CRANES — PLENTY OF MON-
KEYS — MONKEYS IN A PASSION — A SUDDEN CHASE OF A PRAHU
— birds' nests and PULO bras manna — THE EDIBLE-NEST-
BUILDING SWALLOW, "hirundo esculenta;" food; habits —
DECIDE UPON SEEING THE NESTS COLLECTED — DIFFICULTIES
IN THE WAY OF DOING SO— JAMBOO ENJOYING COMPANY'S
PAY — JAMBOO REMONSTRATES — A SCRAMBLE FOR BIRDS' NESTS
— THE MALAYS DESCEND THE FACE OF THE CLIFF — THE
HOME OF THE EDIBLE-NEST-BUILDING SWALLOW — THE BIRDS'-
NEST TRADE — THE NESTS COMPOSED OF GELATINE.
The chase by night was followed by no general attack
from the piratical fleet, and we surmised that the scouts,
having found us on the qui vive, had reported unfavour-
ably of the probability of surprising the blockading
squadron — a surmise which the inhabitants of the neigh-
bouring village afterwards confirmed.
One middle watch in January, the lookout-man awoke
me, and told me my sampan and gun were ready as I had
desired,
I could hardly conceive it possible to feel so cold and
cheerless at the short distance of 200 miles from the
equator as I then did. The mist of the early night had
DAYBREAK IX MALAYIA. 87
fallen in the shape of dew, wetting the decks and awn-
ings as if it had been raining heavily ; and a light breeze
blowing down from the Patani Hills struck a chill into
my bones, already stiffened by sleeping ujjon a hard and
damp deck.
Day had as yet hardly dawned, but I was anxious to
try and get a shot at some flocks of elegant white cranes
of a small size, which nightly roosted on a clump of trees
about a mile distant from my anchorage ; and my only
chance of being able to get sufficiently near, was to be
there before they flew off" to their feeding-grounds. Half
lamenting I had troubled myself with any such sporting
mania, yet unwilling to let the Malay see what a lazy
individual his captain was, I threw myself into the canoe,
grasped the paddle, and by a stroke or two awoke to the
interest of the sport before me, and the beauties of a
morning in IMalayia.
The daydawn had already chased the stars away from
one half the bright heaven overhead ; the insect world,
so noisy from set of sun on the previous day, had ceased
their shrill note, whilst the gloomy forest shook ofi* its
sombre hue, and, dripping with dew, glistened in many
a varied tint, as the morning beams played upon it, or
streamed down through the mountain gorges beyond.
The Indian Sea laughed with a thousand rippling smiles,
and the distant isles seemed floating on clouds of purple
and gold as the night mists rose from their level sea-
boards, and encircled the base of their picturesque
peaks.
One could have cheered with joy and heartfelt healthful
appreciation of the glorious East ; but no ! not far beyond
88 QUEDAH.
me, on a projecting shoal, stands the tall adjutant, who had
as yet baffled all our attempts to shoot him — a very king
of fishing-birds. He formerly used to fish in the Parlis
river; but our seamen in the cutter, who would brook
no competitors in their poaching pursuits, fired and fired
at the poor adjutant without hitting it, until, by way of
revenge, they nicknamed it the " old soldier "• — a term
which, in their estimation, comprised all that was wary,
and difficult to catch at a disadvantage. The " old sol-
dier " loomed like a giant in the grey mist flowing from
the forest, and he evidently saw me as soon as I did him ;
but knowing from experience the distance to which his
enemies might be allowed to approach with safety, he
strutted out a pace or two into deeper mud or water and
pursued his fishing. I, however, did not intend to fire
until I reached the cranes, which I could see clustering
in some trees ahead ; and the adjutant, as if fathoming
my intentions, or, what is more Hkely, taking me for a
Malay (who never disturbed him), let me pass within
moderate shot distance.
I was interested in seeing how he captured his prey,
and watched him narrowly. The bird stood like a statue,
in a foot of water and mud, the long legs admirably sup-
porting the comparatively small body, a long neck, and
such a bill ! It looked as if it could cut a man in two,
and swallow him. Presently, from a perfect state of
quietude, the adjutant was all animation, the head mov-
ing rapidly about as if watching its unconscious prey ; a
rapid stride or two into a deep gully of water, a dive
with the prodigious beak, and then the adjutant held
in the air Avhat looked like a moderate-sized conger-eel.
THE "OLD SOLDIER. 89
Poor fisli ! it made a noble fight ; but what chance had
it against an "old soldier" who stood ten feet without
stockings, and rejoiced in a bill as big as one's thigh,
and some four feet long ? The last I saw of the poor
conger-eel was a lively kick in the air, as " the soldier "
lifted his beak and shook his breakfast down.
My resolution to shoot cranes alone was not proof
against the temptation. I saw before me not only a
thumping bird, but — alas ! for the frailty of a midshijD-
man's appetite ! — a jolly good breakfast in the contents
of his maw. A more convincing proof of my not being
a thoroughbred sportsman could not be adduced than my
allowing such base feelings to actuate me. I stealthily
laid my paddle into the boat, capped my fowling-piece
before lifting it from between my feet ; but the " old
soldier" had his eye upon me, and directly I stopped
paddling, commenced to walk away from his old position.
By the time I took aim, a long range intervened between
us, and, of course, all I did was to ruffle his feathers,
and send the "old soldier" off, as usual, at "the double,"
— thus losing adjutant and fish, as well as the cranes,
which took flight when the echoes of the forest carried
the report to them.
My tiring had, however, disturbed more than cranes ;
for a screeching and chattering noise in the jungle on my
right made me load again rapidly, and paddle with all
my strength for a nullah or watercourse from Avhich these
sounds were, I felt certain, coming. On obtaining a view
of it I saw at once what was the matter — a school of
black monkeys had been alarmed ; and when I turned
my canoe so as to go up the narrow creek of water which
90 QUEDAH.
led into the forest, the fighting monkeys of the little party-
seemed determined to frighten me out of it. I never
saw anything so comical : the ladies and babies retired,
whilst about a dozen large monkeys, perfectly black ex-
cept their faces — which were grey or white, giving them
the appearance of so many old men — sprang along the
branches that reached across over my head. They
worked themselves up into a perfect fury, shrieking,
leaping, and grinning with rage. Once or twice tliey
swung so close over my head, that I expected they were
going to touch me ; but, amused beyond measure, I was
determined not to fire at the poor creatures. Whether,
as in the case of the " old soldier," my resolution was
proof against all temptation, I had not time to prove ;
for the sullen boom of a gun from Parlis river rolled along
the forest ; and being the signal for an enemy in sight
to seaward, I left the monkeys for a future day, and
hurried back to my vessel, just reaching her in time to
start in chase of a prahu that had been seen running for
an island called Pulo Bras Manna. The breeze sprang
up fresh and fair, and my little vessel soon rattled over
the eight miles of distance which intervened, but not
before the prahu had disappeared behind the island.
Skirting the rocky shores of Pulo Bras Manna, we dis-
covered the prahu at anchor in a pretty little sandy bay,
the only one in the island. The nicodar, or master,
hailed to say he was a friend ; and, on my getting
alongside of him, showed proofs of her being a peace-
ful trader, employed in collecting the edible birds'-nests
constructed by the Hvrundo esculenta of naturalists,
with which all these islands abound. I was right glad
EDIBLE BIRDS -NESTS. Dl
to have an opportunity of gleaning any information al)out
an article of commerce so novel and strange to all Euro-
peans. The nicodar informed me that all the adjacent
islands yielded birds' nests for the Chinese market in a
greater or less degree, the more rocky and precipitous
islands yielding the larger quantity. The right of taking
them was for the time vested in Tonkoo Mahomet Said
of Quedah, on behalf of his sovereign ; but he had farmed
them out for a year to some Penang merchant, who paid
a certain rent, and screwed as much more as he could out
of the birds' nests. The nicodar of the prahu had en-
tered into a speculation by which he promised a certain
number of nests to the merchant, provided he might
have the surplus — an engagement which he assured me
would this year be a very losing one.
My attention had often been previously called to the
little birds which construct these curious nests. They
might be constantly seen skimming about the surface of
the sea in the neighbourhood of the Malayan Islands.
In form and feather they looked like a connecting link
between the common swallow and the smallest of the
petrel tribe — the Mother Carey's chicken — ever restless,
ever in motion. Sometimes they appeared to skim the
water as if taking up some substance with the bill from
the surface ; at other times darting, turning, and twist-
ing in the air, as if after fleet-winged insects. Yet neither
in the air nor on the water could the keenest eye amongst
us detect anything upon which they really fed. How-
ever, the Malays asserted that they fed upon insects and
upon minute creatures floating upon the surface of the
sea ; and that, by some arrangement of the digestive
92 QUEDAH.
organs, tlie bird, from its bill, produced the glutinous
and clear-looking substance of which its nest was con-
structed — an opinion in some manner substantiated by
the appearance of the nests, which in structure resembled
long filaments of very fine vermicelli, coiled one part over
the other, without much regularity, and glued together by
transverse rows of the same material.
In form, the edible nests resemble the bowl of a large
gravy-spoon split in half longitudinally, and are, in all
respects, much smaller than the common swallow's nest.
The bird fixes the straight edge against the rocks, gene-
rally preferring some dark and shady crevice in a cliff,
or a cave formed by the wash of the waves of the sea.
I am rather inclined to believe that the swallow which
constructs these edible nests is a night-bird, and that
the day is by no means its usual time for feeding ; in-
deed, I hardly ever remember observing them, exce23t
early in the morning, late in the evening, or in the deep
shadow afforded by some tall and overhanging cliffy and
they appeared to avoid sunlight or the broad glare of
day.
Although the nicodar of the prahu was necessarily
very civil, he did not willingly assent to my proposal to
accompany his men on their excursion to collect nests ;
but Jadee recommended me to wait quietly until we
saw his party starting, and then to proceed and join
them, nolens vulens ; though he warned me that curio-
sity would hardly induce me to undergo, a second time,
the risk the nest-gatherers went through for large profits.
In a couple of hours' time we saw a party land from
the prahu and join some half-dozen INfalays who lived
JAMBOO'S KEMONSTRANCES. 93
ill a hut on the beach. Awakening my interpreter,
Jamboo, who, being upon Company's pay, gave way to
sleeping and. rice-eating with a degree of perseverance
which astonished me, I hastened away with him, and.
before his eyes were well open, Ave were scrambling
through break and jungle, at a headlong pace, the Malays
having evidently determined to shake us off by hard,
walking. The consequence was that poor Jamboo, with
a howl, went rolling over the rocks, and tried hard to
detain me. I saw only one remedy, and started off to
catch the nearest party of nest-gatherers, and keep them
until my worthy interpreter was able to join. I soon
succeeded in showing them that a young sailor's legs
were as good as theirs ; and having a pistol with me,
there was no difficulty in making two Malays sit down
imtil Jamboo, in reply to my repeated hail, came up,
muttering at the hardships his duty as a midshipman's
interpreter was ever leading him into. Laughingly con-
soling him by the strong doubts I entertained of his
ever again seeing his dear Penang, I added, " ISTow then,
Jamboo, tell these fellows ice are going birds' -nesting
with them."
"By Gad, sar! you kill me, sar! Me poor man, sar!
What my mother do 1 " remonstrated poor Jamboo.
"Never mind about the old lady," I replied ; "do
what I tell you, and come along. — Why, Jamboo, you,
the son of an Englishman, and not ashamed to talk in
that strain? " I continued ; " fancy if your father could
only see you, and hear that his son was afraid of going
birds'-nesting!"
"Ah, sar!" replied Jamboo, "you only make play
94 QUEDAII.
now. My father very brave man — so my mother say ;
but I never see him ; and my mother never teach me to
go down dark holes with a little bit of rope, and swing
about in the air, all the same as one bird."
I had at last to promise Jamboo that he should not
have to " swing about in the air, all the same as one
bird," and thereupon he informed the two Malays tliey
were to go on in the execution of their vocation, but
that we would keep -svith them.
The Malays had on little if any clothing : each man
carried a sharp bill -hook, with which to cut his way
through the underwood, with an iron spike of consider-
able length ; and a torch made of bark and the resins
exuded from forest trees. A small bag for containing
the nests, and a coil of roughly-made rope, strong enough
to support their weight, together w4th a flint and steel,
completed the equipment.
We climbed a long though steep ascent, which led to
some precipitous cliffs on the opposite side of the little
island. Our way led through a pretty close jungle, with
much underwood overgrowing rocks, fissures, and boul-
ders, in all directions : a more break-neck walk I had
never before undertaken ; and as we w^ent straight across
country, over and through everything, Jamboo' s clothes,
as well as mine, were torn into shreds and decorated
every thorn or ragged stump. To add to the excitement,
the Malays kept a sharp eye about them in the hollows
or where the vegetation was very dank, and muttered
the ominous word " Oular !" snake, as a warning to us.
However, I felt that it was out of the question to depend
upon one's keenness of vision for security against such
DESCENT OF THE CLIFFS. 95
reptiles, when the creepers and grass Avere up to my
waist, and sought a little consolation in my friend the
Haggi's creed of predestination.
At last we reached the edge of the cliff, which stood
about 200 feet above the sea, having many deep fissures
in its face, and several caves at its base. After sitting down
to rest for a short time, the Malays went to work. Each
man drove his spike very carefully in the ground, secured
his rope to it, slung his bag and torch across his back, and,
after repeating a Mahometan paternoster, lowered him-
self down the cliff by means of his rope, and proceeded
to search the caves and crannies for birds' nests. Accus-
tomed though I was, as a sailor, to see great activity and
much risk run, still it fell far short, in my estimation, of
that undergone by these Malays : in some places they
had to vibrate in the air like a pendulum, to gather
sufficient momentum to swing in under some overhang-
ing portion of the cliff, the wretched rope by which the
man was suspended a hundred feet above the chafing sea
and rocks below, cutting against the sharp edge of the
cliff, to use a nautical simile, "like a rope-yarn over a
nail." Here and there the men picked up a nest or two,
but at last one of them who had lowered himself down
to within ten or twelve feet of the water, shouted out
that he had discovered a cave thickly tenanted with the
birds, of which we had ocular demonstration by the
numbers that flew out when they heard his voice.
Leaving Jamboo to help me, should I fail in climbing
up as the Malays did, I slid down to the newly-discovered
cave of nests. The nest-seekers smiled at my curiosity,
and pointed into a cave with a narrow entrance, out
96 QUEDAH.
of which a smell was issuing which partook neither of
frankincense nor myrrh, and of an inky darkness which
the keenest eye could not penetrate. There was a nar-
row ledge of rock which led into the cave, and on this we
advanced until out of the wind and daylight : the Malay
now struck a light and lit his torch, and his doing so was
the signal for the most infernal din mortal ears were ever
pained with ; the tiny chirp of the swallows being taken
up and multiplied a thousandfold by the beautiful
echoes of the cave, whilst huge bats flitted round us,
and threatened not only to put our light out, but to
knock us off the narrow ledge on which we stood, by a
rap on the head, into the black cleft below, which seemed
to descend to the very foundations of the cliffs. Hold-
ing both hands to my ears, I asked the Malay to show
me the nests : he waved his torch about, and pointed
some of them out in spots overhead, where it appeared
as if only a gnome could have gathered them ; the poor
Malay, however, explained to me that he must go up
and cut some saplings and branches to form a ladder by
which he could reach those aj)parently inaccessible nests,
though not, I could well see, without considerable risk.
Satisfied with what I had seen, I returned to the top of
the cliff aided materially by the Malay, who, like a goat,
found footing where gulls could only have roosted, and
joining Jamboo, we returned alone through the forest to
my little craft.
Then and afterwards I gleaned, from different sources,
that the trade in birds' nests employed a very large
amount of capital and men. The loss of life arising from
accidents and exposure was extraordinarily large ; but
DANGEES OF THE BIRD S-NEST TRADE. 97
the high prices obtained insured no lack of labour. One
person largely engaged in the trade assured me that, on
an average, two out of five men employed in birds'-
nesting met with a violent death ; and, under those cir-
cumstances, it is not to be wondered at that a catty (or
a pound and a quarter English) of the best nests costs
generally forty dollars, or about nine pounds sterling !
The value of the nests depends upon their translucent
whiteness and freedom from feathers or dirt ; the first
quality being those which evidently have not been lined,
or used, by the unfortunate little swallows. Such nests
are nothing but a morsel of pure gelatine ; and having
often eaten them in their native state, I can vouch for
their perfect tastelessness ; indeed, upon one occasion,
after being twenty-four hours without food, I enjoyed
birds' nests boiled down in cocoa-nut milk.
The Chinese employ them largely, as well as heclie de
mer, shark-fins, and other gelatinous substances, in thick-
ening their soups and rich ragouts.
CHAPTEE X.
RETURN TO PARLIS — DATOO MAHOMET ALEE's SANGUINARY
THREAT— JADEE HAS, WE FIND, SENT AN ABUSIVE MESSAGE —
JADEE REPROVED — JADEE's FEELINGS ARE HURT — CHARACTER
OF MY NATIVE CREW — A PAGE ABOUT NATIVE PREJUDICES —
ONE OF THE MALAYS MUTINOUS — CURE FOR NATIVE PREJU-
DICES — MALAYAN JUNGLE -SCENERY BY DAYLIGHT — BLACK
MONKEYS — A MONKEY PARODY UPON HUMAN LIFE — ENGLISH
SEAMEN AND THE MONKEYS — SCARCITY OF FRESH WATER —
THE VILLAGE OF TAMELAN — A MALAY CHIEFTAINESS— WATER-
ING— SNAKES DISAGREEABLY NUMEROUS— STORIES OF LARGE
SNAKES.
From Pulo Bras Manna and birds' nests we returned
again to Parlis, just saving daylight enough, to find our
way over the bar and its shallows. On reporting my-
self to the senior officer, I "was not a little astonished to
learn that, in consequence of the wanton insult received
from me and my gunboat, Datoo Mahomet Alee had
sent down an uncivil message, declaring the " ^S'umero
Tegas " hors de loi, and had sworn by his beard, that so
surely as he caught me, or any of my crew, from the
valiant Jadee to the toiling Campar, no mercy would be
shown. Quite at a loss to understand the origin of so
sanguinary a threat — for I and Haggi Loung had parted
the best of friends — I guessed that Jadee had been at
JADEE'S abusive message. 99
some nefarious tricks. At first lie pretended to suppose
that the wrath of the pirate arose from my destruction
of his stockades ; but this I felt sure was not the sole
offence, and at last he acknowledged that the Polyphe-
mus who steered the canoe had jeered at him, and in-
sinuated that it was unbecoming for Malay men to be
commanded by a white boy, alluding to myself. To
which Jadee had replied by stating, it was his opinion
that the mother of not only the one-eyed gentleman, but
those of the gentry up the river in general, were no
better than they should be — that their fathers were
dogs, and their chiefs pigs ! and the sooner they all
came down to try the strength of the Company's powder
the better pleased he should be. I saw at once what
had excited Datoo Mahomet Alee's ire, and that he no
doubt identified me with Jadee. All my efforts to point
out to my worthy coxswain the impropriety of his con-
duct failed : he was satisfied with having brought about
a state of feeling which added materially to the excite-
ment of himself and crew ; and although, whilst I was
speaking to him, he seemed as repentant as possible, I
saw in a minute afterwards he had forgotten my admoni-
tion, and would be a Malay in spite of me. With any
other than an Asiatic, such abuse and challenges would
have partaken of the character of mere bravado ; but it
was not so in Jadee's case ; and I had to be careful not
to let him think I fancied it was so : for on one occasion,
when he asked me what the Eajah Laut (Captain War-
ren) would think of it, I said I feared he would be very
angry, and would rather doubt his courage than other-
wise. Jadee, I saw, was sadly hurt at this, sulked for
100 QUEDAH.
a day or two, aud when I quietly got liiin into conversa-
tion, he said if Captain AYarren should really express
such an opinion, he had but one course, and that at any
rate Avould prove he did not fear Mahomet Alee and all
his crew put together. I knew what he meant — to run
a-muck amongst the pirates, a desperate resource of
every Malay when he fancies himself irredeemably in-
jured in character, or when rendered reckless by misery.
Armed with his creese, one man will, in such a mood,
throw himself upon any number of foes or friends, and
stab right and left until himself shot down or creesed as
a mad dog would be.
With a little kindness, and a gentle introduction to
my small store of grog, of which Jadee had not a Maho-
metan horror, I gradually brought him round to a better
frame of mind ; indeed, by the end of the second month,
I perfectly understood the character and disposition of
all my crew. Secure in the feeling of awe for a white
master which the native of India and Malayia cannot
shake off, I was enabled to treat them far more familiarly
than I could have done English seamen, without sub-
verting the discipline of a man-of-war. I found them
all obedient to a degree, so far as I was personally con-
cerned ; but there were sometimes irregularities arising
from Jadee's imperious treatment of them, or from the
feeling of utter contempt in which they (the seamen)
held my interpreter, the worthy Jamboo — a feeling aris-
ing purely, I fancy, from his being an unfortunate half-
caste, a man of no nation or blood.
Whenever these cases did occur, I punished the
Malays exactly as we were in the habit of doing English-
NATIVE PREJUDICES. 101
men ; and although they sometimes stared at the novelty,
the system answered admirably, notwithstanding that
the native gentleman in the Diamond gunboat assured
me it must end in mutiny and danger to my person.
Like all Asiatics, the Malay, if he finds you will listen
to what are termed national prejudices, will produce an
endless store of them, to avoid doing anything but what
happens to please him. He sees a Sepoy soldier en-
couraged in all sorts of prejudices ; he sees a fellow who
would quiver under your very look were you alone with
him in an open field, allowed to be grossly abusive and
insolent to an English officer if the latter should by
accident touch his water-jar, or cross the magic circle
drawn round his cooking-place, under the plea that his
Brahmin or Mahometan prejudices, forsooth, have been
infringed upon ; and the Malay, very naturally, would
like to have some recognised prejudices likewise.
The one they wished to establish in our little squad-
ron was the right of treating the wretched half-caste
interpreter with contumely. I determined to dispute
the prejudice ; and although the afi'air occurred later
in the blockade than the period I am now referring to,
still I shall relate it now, as illustrative of one of the
many misapprehensions people labour under with respect
to Malays. A prahu had escaped me one night, owing
to the want of vigilance in the lookout-men, and I, in
consequence, made arrangements for Jadee, the inter-
preter, and myself to take the watch in turn, besides
stationing a lookout-man as usual. One night, after
Jamboo had relieved me at twelve o'clock, I lay upon
deck, but could not sleep, fancying I heard some unusual
102 QUEDAH.
noises in our neighbourhood. Jamboo went forward in
a quarter of an hour's time, and found the lookout-man
sound asleep. On rousing him, the fellow — a young,
smart, but excessively saucy Malay — instead of thanking
him, called him an abusive name. I desired Jamboo to
give him an extra hour as sentry. Shortly afterwards,
the Malay was again off his post, and again abusive. I
got up and spoke to him, assured him of a severe punish-
ment if he persisted in such conduct and language ; but
it was of no avail; and about two o'clock a fracas took
place, in which I heard the Malay apply the foulest epi-
thet in his language to the interpreter, and he persisted
in repeating it when I ordered him to be silent ; in short,
he became so violent and threateniug, I had to iron and
lash him down.
I saw that there w^ould be an end to my authority, if
the fellow was not punished by a severe flogging ; and
I sought Mr B 's authority for carrying it into exe-
cution. He advised me to see the native officer, who
commanded the senior gunboat, in the first place, but
fully sanctioned a severe punishment. Mr S was
very averse to any such thing, and wanted to stop the
prisoner's rice or his pay. I was obstinate, however, and
carried my point, although he warned me of all sorts of
fatal consequences as likely to ensue.
Next day, with all due formalities, I carried the law
into execution, lashing the culprit to the bow-gun. He
could hardly believe his senses ; and when the first lash
was laid on, shouted for rescue, and appealed to his
countrymen not to look on and see him beaten like a
dog. He altered his tone, nevertheless, Avhen he found
MONKEY CREEK AND ITS DENIZENS. 103
no rescue likely to come, and vowed never to disobey
me again — a promise lie afterwards faithfully kept ; and
from that time I had no more trouble in No. 3 with that
national prejudice, at any rate, and slept just as soundly,
and placed just as much faith in my swarthy crew, as
ever I had done, without having any cause to rue it, the
culprit eventually becoming one of my right-hand men.
I had not forgotten the fact that monkeys abounded
in our neighbourhood ; and although both my brother-
midshipman and myself perpetrated all sorts of atrocities
at first in shooting the poor creatures, we soon desisted,
and satisfied ourselves with wasting powder and shot on
less interesting creatures. Monkey Creek, as we termed
the place which they most frequented, was our usual
afternoon lounge ; and after our light and necessarily
wholesome dinner (consisting of her Majesty's rations
adorned with a little rice, and occasionally a plate of
fish), Barclay and I did not, of course, feel a siesta by
any means necessary, but, jumping into the sampan, we
would paddle gently up Monkey Creek, to enjoy the
cool shade of the forest and amuse ourselves. Passing
clear of the belt of mangrove, we soon floated amongst
the luxuriant vegetation of an Indian jungle — the under-
wood here and there giving place to small patches of
grass or weed. Large alligators which had been ashore
on either bank launched themselves slowly into the
creek, or turned round and kept a steady watch with
their cruel-looking yellow eyes. Bright- coloured iguanas
and strange-shaped lizards shuffled along the banks, or
lay on the branches of trees, pufiing themselves up so as
to look like nothing earthly ; the shrill call of the pea-
104 QUEDAIL
lien and the eternal chattering of monkeys gave life and
animation to a scene which did not lack interest or
beauty. Pushing our cauoe in amongst the overhanging
wild vines and creepers so as to hide her, we sat quietly
smoking our cigars to await the curiosity of the mon-
keys. It was not long before they commenced their
gambols or attempts to frighten us. A string of black
ones, whose glossy coats would have vied in beauty with
that of a black bear, came breaking through the trees
with frantic cries, and threw themselves across the creek
and back again with amazing energy; then a hoarse
sound made us turn suddenly, with a flashing suspicion
of Malay treachery, to meet the gaze of a face almost
human, with a long grey beard, which was earnestly
watching us through the foliage of a withered tree ;
bring a gun to the shoulder, and the old man's head
would be seen to leap away upon the disproportionate
body of some ape. But nothing could equal in ludicrous
interest a family monkey-scene taking place in some
clear spot at the base of a tree. There a respectable
papa might be seen seated against the roots, stretching
out his legs, enjopng the luxury of a scratch, and over-
looking with patriarchal pride, and no small degree of
watchfulness, the gambols of his son or daughter ; while
with fond sohcitude his better half, a graceful female
monkey, was employed turning aside the tufts of grass,
as if seeking nuts or berries for the little one ; then she
would clutch the little rascal, and roll over with him, in
all the joyousness of a young mother, and he, the tiny
scamp, shrieked, pouted, and caressed her, as any
master Johnny or dear Billy would have done. The
A FAMILY SCENE. 105
Avhole scene was a burlesque upon human nature : unable
to contain ourselves any longer, we burst into roars of
laughter. The father leapt at once on a neighbouring
branch, and shaking it with rage, whoo-whoo'd ! at us
through a very spiteful set of teeth ; the lady screamed,
the baby squealed and jumped to her breast, clasped its
little arms round her neck, and its legs round her chest,
and then with a bound she was off and away with her
" tootsy pootsy ; " papa following, and covering her retreat
with venomous grins at us, whom he evidently considered
only a superior breed of apes.
Such scenes we often witnessed ; and, to the English-
men in the cutter, the monkeys afforded an endless
source of mirth ; and the quaint comparisons they drew
between some of these sylvans in the forests of Quedah,
and sundry Daddies Brown, or Mothers Jones, at Ports-
mouth or Plymouth, though extremely laughable and
witty, would, I fancy, have been thought far from flat-
tering, had they been heard by the old people in ques-
tion.
The main difficulty experienced in maintaining a close
blockade of a coast such as Quedah, arose from the want
of fresh water with which to supply the daily wants of
our men. On Crab Island, all the wells we dug yielded
only salt water ; the river was always brackish ; and as
the dry season advanced, the wells upon the islands to
which we usually resorted began to fail us. We were
despatched in quest of water, and, at the suggestion of
one of the men, who knew this neighbourhood, proceeded
to a place called Tamelan.
This village was about twenty miles distant, and situ-
lOG QUEDAH.
ated on a small river called the " Setoue," which, dis-
charges itself into a very picturresque but shallow bay.
After some difficulty, we discovered the Setoue, and
proceeded up it a few miles, and alarmed the inhabitants
of Tamelan not a little by our sudden arrival. The vil-
lage was prettily situated on a high bank, and consisted
of about a hundred neatly -built mat houses, scattered
through a grove of cocoa-nut trees, which extended for a
mile in a line along the Setoue river ; either end of the
cocoa-nut grove rested on a dense jungle, which swept
with a large semicircular curve behind the village, leav-
ing ample clearance for the rice-fields and wells of the
inhabitants. Tamelan, strangely enough for a country
where women are not held in high rejDute, was under
the rule of a petty chieftainess, called " Mcodar Devi ; "
her title of Nicodar arising from her possessing the pra-
hus which had carried these Malay settlers to the recon-
quered village.
We of course gave her brevet rank, and christened her
Queen Devi ; and a perfect little queen she was. A mes-
senger immediately waited upon me, offering all she had,
and trusting we would not molest her people. I imme-
diately visited the Malay queen, and soon set her mind
at rest by stating that we merely wanted water. She
sent men to deepen the wells ready for the morrow, and,
in short, did all that was possible to assist me. JS'othiug
could exceed the respect and deference paid to this lady
by her clan ; and we soon learnt to appreciate the kind
and hospitable chieftainess — the first Indian woman I
had as yet seen treated otherwise than as a drudge or
a toy.
QUEEN DEVI. 107
She was not more than five-and- thirty, and still very
good looking ; her manner was extremely ladylike and
authoritative, and I took good care she should be treated
with the utmost respect by all my people. The inhabi-
tants of Tamelan and ISTumero Tega soon became great
friends, and they willingly sold us all they could spare
of fruit or fowl.
While my crew filled the water-casks and embarked
them, I generally employed myself butchering doves,
wild pigeons, and orange-coloured orioles, which fed in
large numbers in the open grounds or amongst the
houses.
There was only one serious drawback to sporting such
as mine, and that consisted in the great number of
snakes which were to be found in the cleared grounds,
especially in the neighbourhood of the many holes dug
as wells by the Malays. I fancy the great heats and
long droughts had caused these reptiles to congregate
where water was to be found. The Malays killed them
in numbers. I counted on one occasion no less than
eight of these reptiles lying together, all crushed in the
head, and although not large in girth, they varied in
length from five to seven feet.
The natives of Tamelan declared most of them to be
of the boa-constrictor species, not dangerous in their
bite, but, when large, capable of killing a man or a
strong deer by enveloping him in their folds : they said
it was their poultry which principally suffered, but spoke
of monsters in the deep forests, which might, if they
came out, clear off the whole village — a pleasant feat for
which Jadee, with a wag of his sagacious head, assured
108 QUEDAH.
me tliat au " Oular Bessar," or big snake, was quite com-
petent.
It was strange but interesting to find amongst all
]Nralays a strong belief in the extraordinary size to
which the boa-constrictors or Pythons would grow ;
they all maintained, that in the secluded forests of
Sumatra or Borneo, as w^ell as on some of the smaller
islands which were not inhabited, these snakes w^ere
occasionally found of forty or fifty feet in length ; and
the vice of increduhty not being so strong in me then
as it is now, I gave full credence to their tales, and con-
soled myself by remembering, when my faith was taxed
by some tougher tale than usual, that my respected
schoolmaster in the village of Chudleigh had birched
into me the fact, attested by even a Pliny, that a snake
120 feet long had disputed the passage of a Eoman
army on the banks of the Bagrada, and killed numbers
of legionaries before its skin could be secured to adorn
the Capitol.
CHAPTEE XL
JADEE DECLINES TO CLEAN THE COPPER — A MALAY PREJUDICE
— A MALAY MUTINY — THE LOST SHEEP RETURN — THE DIFFI-
CULTY SURMOUNTED — MALAYAN MECHANICAL SKILL — AN IM-
PROMPTU DOCK — AN ACCIDENT, AND QUICK REPAIRS— LAUNCH,
AND RESUME STATION — LOSS OF MY CANOE — A SAMPAN CON-
STRUCTED — THE MALAYAN AXE OR ADZE — INGENIOUS MODE OF
APPLYING NATIVE MATERIALS IN CONSTRUCTION OF BOATS.
I HAD but one fracas in my gunboat with my Malays,
wMch, considering how young and inexperienced I was
as a commander, was less than might have been expected;
but as it assumed a rather serious character at one time,
and showed the disposition of my men, it may be worth
relating.
I had repeatedly pointed out to the coxswain, Jadee,
that it was highly necessary, with a view to jDreserving
the speed of the Emerald, that the copper with which
her bottom was covered should be kept as clean as pos-
sible, and where it was visible that it should shine like
that of the Hyacinth — a vessel I naturally looked upon
as my model in every nautical respect.
Jadee, however, shirked the question, and the copper
did not improve. I then ordered him to clean it on the
morrow, employing the whole crew for the purpose. He
110 QUEDAH.
began a long rigmarole story about Malaymen not liking
to clean copper.
I cut bim sbort by saying wbite men did not much
like doing it either ; but it was our princij^le to clean
every part of a vessel, and that at nine o'clock in the
forenoon on the morrow I expected to see that the
work had been done. I dined with Barclay on board
the cutter, and paddled myself back in the evening in
my canoe, and although Jadee received me respectfull}^,
I saw he was sulky : like more civilised first-lieutenants,
he wanted to have his own way ; but I took no notice
of that until next morning, when at the proper time I
looked over the side and found the copper still very
dirty. I need scarcely say I was very angry.
Jadee caught a thorough good wigging, and said some-
thing about being afraid of ordering the men to do it.
I immediately desired him to pipe " Hands clean cop-
per ! " He did so. " Every man in a bowling knot and
over the side ! " I next directed ; and then, seeing that
they knew what I wanted done, and were at work, I
said, in all the Malay I could muster, that the copper
was to be cleaned daily, and pointed out the necessity of
a clean bottom to catch fast prahus — a truism I could
see they were perfectly aware of. All hands were soon
splashing about cleaning the copper, and I fancied my
difficulties at an end ; addressing Jadee, I told him that
I had had to do at nine o'clock what he should have
commenced at five o'clock ; but that when the copper
was clean, he could call his people out of the water, and
meantime I was going to shoot in my canoe. He bowed
silently, as if accepting my reproof, and I left the Em-
A ]\IALAY MUTINY. Ill
erald. Firing at alligators and kingfisliers, cranes, lisb.-
liawks, and wild pigeons, I did not return for three or
four hours. As I was paddKng past the cutter, my
friend Barclay hailed me, to say I had better go and see
what had happened, as Mr Jadee and all the crew had
just passed him, swimming and wading towards the
senior gunboat, the Diamond, but he could not under-
stand what they said. On reaching the Emerald, I
found no one on board of her but the cook and Jamboo.
The latter was in a great fright, and vowed he did not
know what would next happen, as all the crew had
struck work after cleaning the copper, and, with Jadee
at their head, had gone to the half-caste officer on board
the Diamond to say so. Much amused at the novelty
of a man-of-war's crew swimming away from her, I dis-
guised my anger j and leaving word with Jamboo to say,
when they returned, that they should not have gone out
of the Emerald without my permission, I proceeded to
explain to Barclay all that had occurred.
He, of course, was very indignant at what with
Englishmen would have been accounted mutiny. I
begged him, however, not to be too severe, and to give
Jadee and his men an opportunity of coming round
quietly. Leaving me, therefore, on board the cutter, he
went to the Diamond, and there found Mr S in
a state of great excitement at what had taken place, and
vowing some direful accident would occur to me if I
did not study the native character a little more, instead
of carrying out my orders in so strict a manner. Barclay,
however, was an excellent clear-headed officer, and he
knew I was generally considerate to the men ; he there-
112 QUEDAH.
fore desired Mr S to point out to Jadee that he
had committed a sad breach of discipHne, and that so
surely as I reported him or others officially, for deserting
their colours in the face of an enemy, he would be put
in irons and sent off for Captain Warren to adjudicate
upon ; and, as an only alternative, the best thing they
could do was to hurry back before I discovered that they
were absent upon anything but amusement.
Finding his little scheme fail, Jadee, like a wise man,
yielded at once, swam ashore, crossed Pulo Quetam with
his men, and went off to the gunboat, resuming their
usual avocations as if nothing had happened.
About a couple of hours afterwards I returned on
board, reprimanded him for going to collect shell-fish
(a common employment during the day) without my
sanction, and then, raising my voice, said, " Clean the
copper again to-morrow morning, and give me the name
of the first man who hesitates to do it !"
Next morning Jadee reported all ready for quarters
at nine o'clock ; and, with a roguish twinkle in his eye,
asked if I was satisfied with the copper. I found it as
bright as a new penny. Through the interpreter, I then
quietly told the men that I had heard some of them did
not like cleaning the copper. I was sorry for it ; and,
in order that they might escape from it, I should, the
very first opportunity I had, take to Captain Warren all
those that objected. The copper soon became so bright
that I had to check their polishing ardour ; and some
days afterwards I intentionally ran upon a sandbank, and
was left high and dry by the ebbing tide, spending the
whole of a tide cleaning every part of my gunboat's
MECHANICAL SKILL OF THE MALAYS. 113
bottom ; and found tlie crew work as if there never had
been a difficulty upon the subject, Jadee setting the
most zealous example. Henceforth the swim of Master
Jadee became a joke ; and when I saw him looking
sulky, I used generally to put all smooth again by say-
ing, " Don't go swimming again, Jadee ; tell me what
your reasons are for not liking what I have said, and I
will give you a white man's reasons for desiring it should
be done."
The general skill of the Malays as handicraftsmen
often struck me ; and they were in nowise inferior to
our English seamen in that invaluable quality of finding
expedients in a time of need where none appeared to
exist — a quality known among sailors under the general
term nous. ISTo difficulty ever arose, in the shape of
carpentering, sail-making, or seamanship, that I did not
find among my thirty men some one capable of meeting
it, although none of them were professed artificers.
My gunboat's rudder had become slightly injured at
the lower part in crossing the bar during a squally dark
night, and I determined to construct a tidal dock on the
mud-bank which ran out from Pulo Quetam, and there
remedy the defect.
Directly I explained to Jadee what I wanted, he and
a quartermaster said it could easily be done, and offered
to construct it in such a way that, with a little trouble,
we could launch into the river off the bank at any time
of tide. I willingly assented, and next day all hands
went to work. A spot was chosen at low water, and an
excavation made, until good firm clay was reached ; the
shovels and pickaxes being for the most part impromptu
8
114 QUEDAH.
ones, made by the Malays out of the hard wood of the
neighbouring jungle. Small trees were then cut in
lengths the width of the dock, all the branches neatly
lopped off, and the trunks were laid across, to form
sleepers, secured firmly in their places by wooden pegs,
driven down through them at either end into the clay ;
these sleepers were carried down in a line reaching well
into the water when the tide was at its lowest ; and
then two stringers of squared-out timber were laid down
longitudinally on the aforesaid sleepers, so as to take the
gunboat's bilge, should she incline on one side or the
other ; and they likewise extended from the dock down
to dead low- water mark.
The object of these stringers was to form a way upon
which the gunboat might be launched at any time into
the river without waiting for the tide to rise and float
her. In six tides everything was as neatly and cleverly
finished as if I had had a body of English shipwrights.
At high water we placed the Emerald over our dock,
which was carefully marked out with poles ; and as the
water fell, although it was night-time, the vessel was
admirably squared and shored up : the whole strength of
a British dockyard could have done no better.
At low water we repaired the rudder ; and as every
movable article had been shifted out of the gunboat
to make her as light as possible, we adjourned under the
trees of Pulo Quetam to eat our breakfast, and listen to
the various tales of my men, of how the natives of the
different parts of the archipelago dock their prahus or
secrete them in their low and tide-flooded jungles.
Suddenly the Hyacinth hove in sight from Parlis,
AX ACCIDENT QUICKLY REPAIRED. 115
with tlie signal up, ' ' I wish to communicate ; " and ]Mr
Barclay sent me word that if I could get afloat at once
I was to do so, as he was going off" to the ship. I had
my doubts ; for the Emerald was built very solidly, and
of heavy teak ; but Jadee smiled at my doubts, and al-
though he acknowledged he had never played the prank
before, still he felt confident of being able to launch her
now.
The plan was to ease her bilge down upon the longi-
tudinal sleeper on one side, knock away the stern shores,
and then, aided by the natural inclination of the bank,
let her slip down to the water, so as to float with the
first of the flood-tide instead of at high water. We
secured the masts carefully, lashed the stoutest tackles
and hawsers half-way up them for easing the vessel
down, drove two stout Sampson-posts into the mud to
secure the easing- down tackles, and when all was done,
the shores on one side were cut away, and the strain
allowed to come on the posts and tackles ; unhappily,
one of the latter got foul, jerked, and carried away, and
in a moment my poor craft fell on her side with a heavy
surge, and, as ill luck would have it, a piece of one of
the shores, left accidentally, stove a plank very badly
between two of the floor-timbers.
There was no time to be lost ; the tide would soon
make, and if my gunboat filled, I knew I should, in
midshipman's phraseology, " catch it." My men set at
once to work. Jadee and two good hands started ofi" to
cut wood to repair the damage, whilst I superintended
the wedging-up of the gunboat, so as to take the strain
off" the injured part, and disengage the piece of wood on
116 QUEDAH.
which the vessel was impaled. Ey the time we were
ready Jadee returned with a piece of green but hard
wood cut out of a felled tree, and this formed an ad-
mirable patch. In a short time the Emerald was as
sound as ever ; and two hours after the accident had
happened we resumed our station off Parlis.
Another example of their skilful handling of the raw
materials the jungle afforded, was in the construction of
a sampan or native boat. I had lost my little canoe ;
but on one of the islands, called Pulo Pangang, or
Long Island, good fortune threw in our way two long
planks, of a wood named i^eon, about two inches thick,
and maybe each was thirty feet long. Jadee exclaimed
immediately, " Ah ! Sutoo (the quartermaster) will
build you a sampan now, Touhan." I gave him full
permission to do so, wondering withal how it was to be
done, for we had not, I knew, a handful of nails in the
gunboat, and our stock of carpenter's tools consisted of
two native axes and an old hammer, which latter arti-
cle, named a toukel-besee, was, by the by, always in
Jadee's hands, for he delighted in noise, and, when not
better employed, his pleasure consisted in hammering
home, for the hundred and fortieth time, all the unfor-
tunate nails in my argosy.
Next day, the quartermaster (Sutoo) and his two
assistants landed on Pulo Quetam, with the said tools
and the quantity of plank I have mentioned : three
weeks afterwards, a nice little boat, about twenty-two
feet long, capable of containing ten persons, and pulling
four oars, was launched ! The only expense or trouble
I was put to consisted in the purchase of a rupee's worth
THE MALAYAN AXE. 117
of damar, a resinous substance applied generally in Ma-
layia to the same purposes for which, we use pitch and tar.
The little Malay axe, in the hands of these ingenious
fellows, had done,^ all the work, and, as a tool, it is
unique. The handle is about two and a half feet long,
light and tough, and capable of being used in one hand ;
moreover, it has a curve in it like the handle of an Eng-
lish adze. Over the tool end of this handle, a neat rat-
tan grafting is worked in such a manner that the haft of
the tool may be held firmly in its place. This tool is
in form very like a broad ripping-chisel, except that the
blade is not more than three and a half inches long.
The workman uses it as an axe or an adze, as he may
wish, by simply turning the blade one way or the other
in the groove of the handle ; and, when necessary, he
can take it out of the long handle, fit it temporarily into
any rough piece of wood, and make a chisel.
Xo tree is too big, no wood too hard, for this little
tool in the hands of these dexterous fellows. With it
my men had cut out a keel, stern, and stern-post for my
sampan, dovetailed them together, and secured them
with strong pegs. The planks were then bevelled and
countersunk into the keel, secured there with more
wooden pegs, which seemed to do as well as nails in
their hands ; and, by means of dowell-pins, the two
planks were brought carver fashion on each side, one
edge on top of the other, the interstices filled up with
damar and a felt-like substance collected from palm-
trees.
The boat was still too low on each side to float, and
as cutting a plank of two inches thick out of a tree Avith
118 QUEDAH.
an adze would have been a tedious job, I was curious to
see how that difficulty was to be surmounted. They did
not keep me long in suspense. Long bamboo dowell-
pins were let into the edge of the upper plauk by means
of a red-hot ramrod which was used as an auger. The
stems (or, botanically speaking, the midribs) of the
leaves of a dwarf palm were next collected, and driven
down longitudinally one on top of another on these
dowell-pins, until the gunwale had been raised to the
necessary height, and then a neat rattan work secured
all down to the slight timbers. The thwarts were soon
put in, dependent solely upon the timbers and a light
sort of stringer of bamboo, which ran round the interior
of the sampan, and served to bind all firmly in a longi-
tudinal direction. A primitive species of tholepin was
next secured, and then the paddles cut out ; and thus
the Emerald junior was built. On an emergency,
such a simply constructed craft might have carried a
crew from Quedali to Singapore ; and, at any rate, I
hardly think we can say of a people capable of exhibit-
ing such skill in the adaptation of the crude materials at
hand to nautical purposes, that they are an unintelligent
race, or deficient in mechanical ingenuity ; and that we
should allow them a higher place amongst Eastern na-
tions than the earlier writers seem inclined to yield to
them. The Portuguese historian, De Barros, for ex-
ample, sums them up as " a vile people, whose dwelling
was more on the sea than the land." If this be a crime
in the Malay, I may say there are other nations of the
present day most certainly to be included in the same
category.
CHAPTER XIL
BETURN TO QUEDAH — NATIVE DEFENCES— THE *' TEDA BAGOOSE "
— SCARING AN ALLY— DIFFICULTIES WHICH ACCOUNTED FOR
THE DELAY OF THE SIAMESE — INCHI LAA ACKNOWLEDGES
THE EFFECTS OF OUR BLOCKADE — SEVERITY TOWARDS THE
MALAYS — A PRAHU FULL OF FUGITIVES CAPTURED — INTELLI-
GENCE SUDDENLY GAINED OF SIAMESE ARMY — DESERTERS —
THE MALAY FORCES OUT - MAN(EUVRED — SERIOUS LOSSES OF
THE MALAYS— INCHI LAA — SHAMEFUL ATROCITIES OF THE
MALAYS — EXCHANGE OF COURTESIES — PERMISSION GIVEN FOR
THE WOMEN TO ESCAPE — PREPARATIONS FOR FLIGHT.
About February the 20tli, I returned to my old station
ofif Quedah, the two blockading divisions of boats chang-
ing their posts. The only perceptible alteration was the
completion of a fascine battery we had remarked the
Siamese prisoners to be at work upon in December, and
that a few more guns had been placed in defensive posi-
tions around the old fort. A gingal battery, constructed
for overlooking the approaches of an enemy, was an
interesting specimen of Malayan w^oodcraft and inge-
nuity. When clearing away the jungle to construct the
fascine battery, Ave observed that they spared four or
five lofty trees which were growing near together ; these
trees now served as supports to a platform of bamboos,
which was hoisted up and lashed as high as possible in
120 QUEDAH.
a level position ; all superfluous brandies were lopped
off, and the whole well Trapped * together with cords, so
that the cutting away of one tree alone would not en-
danger the structure. A crosspiece, or breastwork, was
built upon the platform overlooking the landward side,
and then a long and ugly swivel-gun was mounted, such
as we, in the days of good Queen Bess, should have
styled a demiculverin ; and the whole was lightly
thatched over to shelter the wardours, a light ladder of
twisted withes enabling them to communicate w^ith the
battery below. A more formidable obstacle in the way
of scouting parties and skirmishers, or to prevent a
sudden assault, could not, in a closely wooded country,
have been extemporised.
Our rigid blockade had evidently pressed sadly upon
the Quedah folks : they looked big, but were low-
spirited ; the fishermen had ceased to visit their weirs ;
few canoes were to ^be seen pulling about off the town,
and when we inquired where they had all gone, we were
informed that the fighting men had marched to ravage
the Siamese territory. As yet no signs of our allies, and
in a few weeks' time the dry season would be drawing
to a close. To be sure, a queer- looking brig had joined
us, under Siamese colours, and commanded by two cap-
tains ! the fighting captain a Siamese, the sailing one a
Penang half-caste ; but the care they took to keep out
of gunshot of Quedah fort argued but little for the pluck
or enterprise of our allies. We gunboats, unknown to
* " Trapping " is a term used when two spars or stout ropes are
bound together by a cord which drags them out of their natural po-
sition or right lines.
A SIAMESE WAR-SHIP. 121
Captain AVarren, used often . to run alongside the brig,
which, rejoiced in at least a dozen guns of different size
and calibre, and try hard to get the skippers to move
sufficiently close in to draw the Malay fire ; but it was
no use : the worthy fighting captain would only shake
his head, and say, "Teda bagoose ! teda bagoose!" or
^o good ! no good ! We therefore named the brig the
" Teda bagoose," a sobriquet which, to say the least of
it, was not complimentary to his Majesty of Siam.
The skipper, however, was a man of a forgiving dis-
position, and evidently held me in great respect, after I
presented him with a gold cap-band in token of our
alliance ; and he often came to listen to Jadee's glow-
ing death's -head -and -marrow-bone stories of what a
thorough-bred Malay pirate would do with the brig and
her crew, if it should be her good fortune to fall into the
hands of such gentry. Jadee was sore that the Siamese
should appear in the character of conquerors over his
countrymen, and evidently took a malicious delight in
frightening them, when he found we could not hope to
draw them into a scrape — an amiable amusement, in
which I believe he perfectly succeeded. The brig, how-
ever, moved off to about half-way to where the Hyacinth
usually anchored, and remained there until one day, in
a fit of heroism, they attacked and captured a messenger,
called Inchi Laa, who used to pass, under a flag of truce,
from the Malayan authorities to Captain Warren ; and
as they got a severe snubbing for doing so, and Jadee
playfully informed them that our Rajah Laut was not
unlikely, if they committed similar breaches of etiquette
on the high seas (which, of course, all belonged to the
122 QUEDAH.
Company), to blow them and their brig out of water,
she weighed one fine morning, and .was not again seen
until the close of the blockade.
*' Hope deferred maketh the heart sick;" and when
March came in without any appearance of the army of
30,000 Siamese that were on the 1st of December to
have marched from Siam against Quedah province, we
began to hold our dark-skinned allies uncommonly cheap
as belligerents, whatever they might be in other respects.
Looking, however, at a map of the Malayan peninsula,
and taking into consideration the wild, and in many
places pathless, jungle which covers it, it did appear to
be an undertaking of some magnitude for any Asiatic
army, unsupported with all the European appurtenances
of war, to march from Bankok to Quedah, crossing num-
bers of deep and rapid though short streams which flow
from the central mountains to the sea on either side,
and by which the active and amphibious Malays could
always threaten their flanks or throw themselves on
their line of communication. To check this manoeuvre,
however, was our purpose in blockading the piratical
squadrons, and, as the result proved, we were perfectly
successful. On March 4, the secretary to Tonkoo
Mahomet Said, a Malay gentleman in every acceptance
of the word, named Inchi Laa, whom I have before
mentioned, came off" from Quedah to communicate with
Captain Warren. We all observed an expression of
anxiety in the generally calm and handsome face of the
Inchi ; and as he was detained some time on board the
blockading boats, we had an opportunity of asking him
a few questions. He owned that our rigid blockade of
INCHI LAA AND HIS IXTELLTGENCE. 123
the coast was a sad calamity to the Malays ; the more
so that it showed we were determined to support the
Siamese in their unjust sovereignty of Quedah. We
prevented the Malays, he said, availing themselves of
the sea and rivers for carrying out the tactics of a race
who had no equals upon the water except the " Orang-
putihs;" and that, apart from stopping reinforcements
and supplies of powder and arms, we distressed them
sorely from the stoppage of supplies of salt, without
which they could not live, and all of which had to be
imported.
To our queries about the present position of the
Siamese forces Inchi Laa was more reserved, except that
he said, with exultation, that the Siamese fled before
Tonkoo Mahomet Type-etam, and that the latter — a dis-
tinguished Malay warrior, whom we all knew by ill-
repute — had, after severe fighting, taken and destroyed
the town of Sangorah, on the shores of the opposite
sea.
Sangorah we knew to be an important town, the seat
of government in the Malayu-Siamese province of Ligor,
and the authorities charged with the administration of
the tributary Malay states — such as Patani, Calantan,
and Quedah — usually resided there. It did not deserve
the sounding term of " the great, the beautiful San-
gorah !" applied to it by an editor of a local journal in
the Straits of Malacca ; but it was, doubtless, a severe
loss to the Siamese, and likely to raise the whole of the
tributary states, in the hope of shaking off an allegiance
at all times irksome. We naturally were disappointed
at the news, in so far as our hopes of a brush with
124 QUEDAH.
Quedah fort were concerned ; but, somehow or other,
one could not help feeling admiration for the Malays — a
people without a nation or dwelling-place — driven out
of the peninsula by the Siamese and Portuguese in days
long, long gone by ; persecuted and harassed into piracy
by the practice and example of the Spaniard and Dutch-
man ; and then, in our day, hunted down, shot, and
hung as felons, unless they would, on the instant, eschew
evil practices which had been bred in their very nature
by the rapacity and injustice of European nations.
The Inclii, however, left us impressed with the belief
that there was a reservation in what he had told us —
but what that reservation was no one could guess until
the morrow, when the facts came to us by mere accident.
I had gone off with my gunboat to the Hyacinth, for
the purpose of obtaining permission to practise my crew
at firing at a target, when, from the ship, a prahu was
seen to come out of the jungle some three or four miles
south of Quedah. We were sent after it, and after a
long chase we caught and brought her to. She was
full of women and children, packed as close as they
could be stowed, to the fearful number of forty souls,
in a craft of about the capacity of an ordinary pinnace.
Unable to get any coherent account of who they were,
owing to their fright and their evident desire to mislead
us, I began to believe Jadee was right in asserting that
she was a native slaver, and consequently mads a pris-
oner of her nicodar, proceeding with him and my prize
to the Hyacinth.
Jadee entered into conversation with my prisoner, and
after a long harangue, in which I could perfectly under-
CAPTURE OF FUGITIVES. 125
stand that lie was calling upon the man to speak the
truth, and holding out, as an inducement to do so, the
possible contingency of being blown away from our bow-
gun or hung at a yard-arm, or, as the mildest of all
punishment, working in chains for the term of his
natural life. The unfortunate nicodar, aghast at such
threats, clasped him round the legs, and implored him
to do anything rather than send him back to Quedah.
He then briefly explained that all the poor creatures in
his boat were fugitives from the province, on their way
to Penang, or some other spot under the British flag ;
that a numerous Siamese army had crossed the frontier,
and was destroying every man, woman, and child ; and,
pointing to long columns of smoke which we had been
under the impression were distant jungle fires, the nico-
dar assured us they were caused by the ravages of our
faithful allies, as well as by the Malay chieftains, to place
a desert between the frontier and Quedah fort.
I hastened on board the Hyacinth with what I knew
would be grateful intelligence to my gallant captain, who
was labouring under a severe attack of fever and ague,
contracted in long and arduous service on the West
Indian station many years previously. The excitement
on board the ship was intense, for they had long been
heartily tired of lying off a coast at the distance of three
or four miles, seeing nothing and hearing little. The
mast-heads were soon covered with men, who however
could see nothing but a distant column of smoke rising
here and there in the calm and hot atmosphere. I was
desired to take the prahu close in off the fort, so as to
let the garrison and inhabitants know that we had at
126 QUEDAH.
last ascertained facts, and then to dismiss her on her way
to Penang, This was done : the poor creatures went on
their road rejoicing, whilst the English mnsquito squad-
ron cheered heartily on learning the intelligence I had
to communicate to them.
There was considerable excitement among the good
folks of Quedah, at such an unwonted degree of mer-
riment upon our part ; and Inchi Laa soon came off,
under some pretext, but evidently to ascertain "what
was up."
We soon told him ; and he calmly replied, as he left
us, that he thought it must be something far more im-
portant than the fact of a Siamese army approaching,
which would make us so joyful. But we saw, after he
landed, that there was a great commotion in the town ;
and towards dusk a small canoe sneaked out, under the
plea of fishing, but eventually ran alongside our boats.
The natives in her said that Mahomet Said had ill-
treated them, and that they wished to desert from Que-
dah, carrying off their women and children ; we did not
believe their excuse for " ratting," and therefore detained
them for the night, and next day sent them off to the
ship for a permit.
During the night we gleaned from them further par-
ticulars of the state of affairs in the interior ; and their
tale fully accounted for the sudden arrival of the Siam-
ese army. It appeared that, in execution of the plan
of operations which Haggi Loung, at Parlis, had told us
was going to be pursued, the Malays organised an army,
and sent it under their best soldier, Tonkoo Mahomet
Type-etam, to attack the province of Ligor, and so keep
SUCCESSES AND CEUELTIES OF OUR ALLIES. 127
the Siamese acting on the defensive. Great success for
a while attended the Malays : they swept through the
tributary state of Patani, gained numbers of adherents,
put all of the enemy to the sword, and eventually, as we
already knew, captured and sacked Sangorah.
Meanwhile, a division of the Siamese forces, ten thou-
sand strong, under the Rajah of Ligor, threw themselves
across the Quedah frontier, intercepted all Type-etam's
communications, cut him off from home, and, by forced
marches and admirable generalship, surprised an import-
ant military position called Allegagou; stormed two bat-
teries which commanded it, and jDut to death the entire
garrison of six hundred Malays. The unfortunate force
under Type-etam, in Sangorah, was thus cut off and
destroyed in detail; he and a few desperate men only
escaped by cutting their way through the Siamese army,
and rejoined their comj)atriots at Quedah.
Until the capture of xillegagou, the Siamese army
had been without cannon of any sort, either field or
siege pieces, but there they had succeeded in capturing
one of the former, besides several others fitted for posi-
tion-guns; and this, df course, rendered them all the
more formidable to the Malays. The atrocities the
Malays accused them of perpetrating were truly fearful,
and a war of extermination was evidently their policy.
A panic had consequently taken place in Quedah; and
not only were the women and children of the pirates
connected with the late inroad anxious to escape, but
we learned that the Malays who had formerly submitted
to the Siamese rule, and lived in the province until
Prince Abdullah made his rash attempt to repossess him-
128 QUEDAH.
self of it, were now flying before tlie irritated army of
liis Golden- tufted Majesty.*
Hardly had we despatched our communicative friends
to the Hyacinth, when the emissary, Inchi Laa, was again
seeu coming off. He had ceased to be as reserved as of
yore, returned very warmly our English salutation of
shaking hands, and smiled with good-natured increduhty
at our sanguine hopes of soon having possession of Que-
dah. He assured us that every mile the Siamese ad-
vanced into the disputed territory only rendered their
perfect defeat more 'certain; and he explained away the
loss of Allegagou, and the body of men under Tonkoo
Mahomet Type-etam, by saying that the enemy far out-
numbered the Malays, and that the wisdom of attacking
Sangorah, although it had cost many valuable men, was
proved by the long delay of the Siamese forces.
The Inchi was most indignant — and we all cordially
joined him in that feeling — at the fearful atrocities
which, he told us, had been perpetrated by our Siamese
allies; and he swore by Allah no Malay man had ever
been known to wantonly torture women and children as
those devils did. " If," said Inchi Laa, '' the woman
and the child, because they are our country people,
deserve death — let them die ! but, beyond death or
slavery, there should be no punishment for those who
cannot help themselves," — an opinion to which we all
uttered an " Amen." He then craved permission to
proceed to the Hyacinth, to make arrangements for
the departure of a number of defenceless creatures whom
* " Golden-tufted Majesty," one of the many titles of tlie Emperoi-
of Siam.
EXCHANGE OF COURTESIES. 129
Mahomet Said wished to send to Penaiig and Province
Wellesley, to save tliem from the wrath of the Siamese.
"We smiled at the cool confidence betokened by such
a request ; and on asking Inchi Laa, " Why he thought
it probable the English would allow the women and off-
spring of men declared to be pirates, to escape and seek
an asylum under the very flag they had abused 1 " his
reply was characteristic : " Every Malay- man knows,
Tuhan, that the white men (Orang-putihs) can fight;
but every Malay-man knows that they war with men,
and not against women and children ! "
We accepted his neatly-turned compliment, politic
though it might be at such a time, and determined not
to do aught unworthy of so high a reputation. Inchi
Laa returned a few hours afterwards, looking supremely
happy, and delivered to the senior officer of the boats,
Mr Barclay, an order to allow all unarmed vessels to pass
out, provided they only carried women and children;
but on no account to permit more than just men enough
to navigate the craft to Penang, and they also to be un-
armed.
In the evening a message came from Tonkoo Mahomet
Said, to express his grateful thanks for the humanity
extended to the defenceless portion of the population,
and to warn us that they would start at midnight.
It was too late to remonstrate at the choice of an hour
which looked very Hke an attempt to evade the neces-
sary search by our boats, so we merely gave notice, that
all vessels trying to pass would be sunk, and that they
were to come alongside, to enable us to assure ourselves
of no breach in the agreement.
130 QUEDAH.
For several days past we had observed tliat great
numbers of canoes, small prahus, and native craft bad
accumulated along the face of the unfortunate town.
These, doubtless, had been driven down from the upper
part of the river by the progress of the enemy. As the
day advanced, the signs of an approaching exodus gave
us some cause for anxiety lest, under the plea of a flight,
a large body of men should be brought down to board
the two gunboats and cutter — which was all the force
we had. We therefore took every precaution — cleared
for action ; loaded our guns ; placed one gun for sweep-
ing the deck with musket-balls, and the other to com-
mand the narrow gap through the stockade, by which,
whether as fugitives or foes, the pirates must come out.
Sunset and the brief twilight of an Asiatic evening soon
passed into a calm but very dark night, adding still more
to the difficulties of our position ; and the obscurity, for
a while, was so little broken by unusual appearances,
that we began to fancy the Malays had postponed their
flight.
CHAPTEE XIII.
THE LULL BEFORE THE STORM — THE EXODUS — A SCENE OF CON-
FUSION AND DISTRESS — THE MALAY CHIEFTAIN's WIFE — BAJU-
MIRA— THE CONVOY — AN EXTRAORDINARY APPEAL— MIDWIF-
ERY SIMPLIFIED — A NIGHT-SCENE — A MIDSHIPMAN'S EMOTIONS
— A MALAYAN HOURI — RESIGN MY CHARGE AND RETURN —
AN ATTEMPT TO ENSLAVE THE FUGITIVES.
The flood-tide continued to flow into the Quedali river
until about ten o'clock, and beyond tbe hum of voices
from the town, and the melancholy wailing noise made
by the sentries in " calling their posts," there was not
until top of high-water anything to denote the scene of
activity which so soon ensued. But just after the ebb-
tide had commenced to run out, at eleven o'clock, the
whole population of fort and town rose as if it were one
man. The hoarse shouts of men, the shrill cries of
womankind, and the bleating of goats, with many a shrill
crow from the everlasting game-cocks, betokened some
unusual commotion. Torches in great numbers soon
threw their glare of light over a perfect multitude on
the banks of the stream beyond the fort, and evidently
embarking for the projected flight.
The splash of oars and paddles was next heard, and
then a perfect dehdele took place, for out of the narrow
opening of the stockade, where the pent-up tide caused
132 QUEDAH.
the stream to shoot through like a rapid, flowed out upon
us prahus of all sizes, canoes, topes, and even rafts, laden
as heavily as they could be with human beings,
j It was indeed a wild and wretched scene, strange and
exciting though it might be to us. The torches carried
in some of the canoes threw a vivid light over the black
river and jungle, and brought out in strong relief the
groups of excited men and women. " Anchor ! anchor ! "
we shouted, "or we must fire." "Mercy! mercy!"
shrieked the women and old grey-bearded men. The
nicodars yelled out orders, invoking all the saints of
Islam. Babies struck in with their shrill piccolos, and
the wifeless, womanless garrison left in Quedah seemed
determined to show what good heart they were still in,
by the wild, yet not unmusical cry of " Jagga, jag-gaa ! "
or, "Watch there! watch!" We, the blockaders, got
under way, and slashed to and fro across the entrance
of the stream, firing an occasional blank cartridge at some
craft that tried to escape being searched, having perhaps
on board more than the proper complement of men, or,
as in one case, because some notorious pirate, who had
rendered himself amenable to our laws, was desirous of
escaping an interview with a petty jury and a British
recorder at Penang.
By four o'clock in the morning the exodus was over,
and we lay at anchor with a black mass of native vessels
of every size and shape around us : many of the canoes
threatening to sink alongside, we were forced to take the
unfortunates upon our decks, adding still more to the
scene of confusion. My boat's crew, bloodthirsty Malays
though they were, employed themselves from midnight
THE EXODUS. 133
to day-dawn boiling and serving out rice to the half-
starved women and children. .
The Sim rose upon the strange scene, just as all were
falling to rest from an anxious and sleepless night. On
counting the fugitive vessels, we found one junk, one
tope, five large prahus, and one hundred and fifteen
smaller craft, the whole of them containing probably
three thousand souls, of which two- thirds were women
and the remainder made up of children, old decrepit
men, and a few adult Malays, to convoy the whole and
navigate the different vessels to a place of safety. Two
births took place during this sad night of confusion.
During the day we were employed thinning out the
people embarked in some of the most unsafe canoes.
"We searched and discovered some secreted arms, and
forced several men (where we found their numbers more
than sufficient) to land and take their chance, instead of
endangering the lives of the women and children. In
the junk, independent of a mob of women and children
of every shade and class, we discovered the wife and
family of Tonkoo Mahomet Said. He had evidently
been afraid to avow his intention of sending them, and
merely trusted to the promise that had been given to
respect all women and children. The Tonkoo was not
disappointed ; and Captain Warren ordered me to em-
bark the chieftainess and family, and convoy them, as
well as the junk and larger prahus, to Penang, not only
to insure them against shipwreck, but to guard against
the dashing enterprise of His Siamese Majesty's brig,
the Teda Bagoose, which to our sorrow made her ap-
pearance off Quedah just at this juncture. She had
134 QUEDAH.
ascertained tliat the Malay boats only contained women
and children, and her captain was, to use our English
seamen's phrase, "full of light."
Towards evening a fine fair wind sprang up off the
land, and we prepared to start. I placed two trust-
worthy men on board each of the junks, and in two of
the largest prahus, and receiving on board Mahomet
Said^s family, we all weighed and made sail just at dark,
the canoes, rafts, and other frail craft proceeding close
along the jungle's edge.
The largest junk sailed so badly that I had to take
her in tow ; and the breeze freshened so much as to
make me feel very anxious for all my deeply-laden con-
voy, and so far as a youth of seventeen can feel the re-
sponsibility of his position, I think I did mine.
The chieftainess was a slight graceful-looking woman,
almost as fair as a Spaniard, with a very sweet expression
of countenance, though it was not youthful, and bore
deep traces of care stamped upon it. She was neatly
clad in shawl-pattern materials. Her family consisted
of a lovely girl, of perhaps twelve years old, and two
babies in arms, attended by a nurse. Midshipmen are a
susceptible race, and I was no exception to the rule. T
felt as an embryo Nelson should do — a perfect knight-
errant, and I, in quest of a lady-love, had, by a freak of
good fortune, lighted on a pirate's beautiful daughter :
the whole tiling was delightful, and I should like to
have seen "John Company" dare to touch a hair of the
head of Baju-Mira while I was by. Poor Baju-Mira — or
Eed-jacket, as I at once christened the object of my ad-
miration, in consequence of her wearing the prettiest
BAJU-MIRA. 135
Indian shawl-jacket that ever was seen — was perfectly
unconscious of the sudden attachment she had awakened
in one who, from her frightened fawn-like ways, she
evidently supposed was only one of the ruthless de-
stroyers of the amiable fraternity to which her parents
belonged. However, that was perfectly immaterial to
me. I had made up my mind to be her slave ; that was
enough for any one whose poetry had not been, so to
speak, knocked out of him by fair Dulcineas. We cleared
out my cabin, removed all the hatches, put a screen
across the deck, to give the party as much privacy as
possible, and indeed did all we could to make our pas-
sengers at their ease. The lady descended into the cabin
with her infants and nurse, and Baju-Mira had a couch
formed upon deck on one side of the hatchway, whilst
two of the chief tainess's retainers, most grim-looking
Malays, squatted themselves down near at hand, evidently
for the purpose of w^atching over the party — an arrange-
ment I willingly assented to, though. Heaven knows,
nothing could have been more kind or respectful to them
than all my crew were, from Jadee downwards.
The night was clear and starlit, but the north-east
monsoon blew fresh, as it often does towards its close ;
the prahus, which I had ordered to keep close to me,
laboured heavily in the sea, and leaked so as to require
constant baling, the women and children working for
their lives with a very primitive sort of bucket, made
from the bark of a species of palm-tree. In the middle
watch one of the prahus sailed close alongside of us, and
the men I had put in her hailed to say that one of the
women was about to bless her lord with an addition to
136 QUEDAH.
the family. I desired the fellows to hold their tongues
and proceed on their course ; the nicodar, or captain of
the prahu, ■would hear of no such thing, and begged to
be allowed to speak to me.
I lowered our sails, and consented that he should
jump on board the gunboat ; and in a trice I found a
Malay clutching me round the legs, and, with tears in
his eyes, imploring me to go on board the prahu to help
his wife. I assured the man I was no doctor, and could
do no good, and desired Jadee to tell hi7n as much, for
by ill-luck I had left Jamboo on board the cutter with
Mr Barclay. My assurances were thrown away upon the
husband ; I was a white man, and must be a doctor.
Even Jadee seemed to think it purely false modesty upon
my part, and argued, from my skill in curing slight de-
rangements in the health of my crew (thanks to a few
pills and some salts in the medicine-chest), that a know-
ledge of surgery in all its branches was the natural in-
heritance of his commander. I never was so puzzled in
all my life ; and finding escape from their importunities
impossible, I consented to give the only assistance in my
power. The husband, delighted, shouted for the prahu
to come alongside, and I heard him jump on board of her,
shouting that the w^hite doctor was coming, while I went
below for my prayer-book. Jadee and I then went on
board, and after much squeezing reached a miserable
little cabin, inside which, behind a screen, and surrounded
by a crowd of women, the poor sufferer lay. Jadee, fully
impressed with the idea that I was about to jDerform
some incantation only second to his recipe for " killing
the wind," looked as solemn and nervous as if he ex-
MIDWIFEEY SIMPLIFIED. 137
pected a demon to be instantly raised. My medicine
was, however, a very simple one : I made Jadee hold a
lantern, and, desiring all around me to be silent, I pro-
ceeded to read a few prayers from my prayer-book, ad-
dressed to Him who is the mercifid God alike of Malay
and white man ; and then ordering the woman a good
cup of tea from my little stock, I told the husband that
God was great, and that, if He pleased, all would be well,
and returned to my own vessel, leaving those in the
prahu evidently much impressed with my value as a
Bedan. In due time, about daybreak, one of my scampish
crew held up on board the prahu a diminutive reddish-
looking morsel of humanity, and assured me the lady
was " as well as could be expected," the wag informing
me that he recommended the baby to be called after our
gunboat, "JSTumero Tega !" a name almost as characteristic
as that of the sailor's child, who, to insure having a long
one — none of your Jems and Bills — was christened "Ten
Thousand Topsail-sheetblocks ! "
It was about three in the morning, just after my j&rst
essay in the surgical way, and as dawn was breaking,
that I seated myself on the deck, close aft against the
taffrail on the lee quarter of my vessel, and, heartily tired
with six-and-thirty hours' work, dropped into a sort of
dog-sleep, my head resting on the sheet of the mainsail,
which was set. My thoughts, however, would not sleep,
but continued to skip in all the odd jumble of a dream
over the scenes which had been thrust upon me within
so short a space of time. Inchi Laa came chasing the
Teda Bagoose with thousands of torches ! Baju-Mira
creesed me in the most approved style of Malay romance !
138 QUEDAH.
old Tonkoo Said made me read prayers to a whole liarem-
ful of women in an interesting condition ! and the Lords
of the Admiralty were busy trying me by a court-martial,
for having women on board a vessel flying her Majesty's
pendant ! when a cry on the quarterdeck suddenly awoke
me to the realities of what my good-hearted first-lieute-
nant used to call this " sublunary vale of tears." I saw
poor little Baju-Mira standing up and rubbing her eyes,
uttering that plaintive, subdued cry which children make
when awakened suddenly from a sound sleep. I fancied
she had awakened in alarm, and so did the helmsman,
who was close by me : but in another moment, as the
gunboat bent over to the breeze, she gave another sharp
sob, and then, to my horror, walked or rather sprang
overboard ; but happily the mainsail stopped her, and as
it touched her breast she started on one side with a
shriek, and awoke as I caught hold of her.
]N'ow would be the moment for a romantic climax, but,
alas ! there was only a general hubbub. The two sleeping
Malays on guard, and the mother, nurse, and poor weeping
Baju-Mii^a, had to be soothed, and to have explained to them
that the latter had in her sleep nearly walked overboard ;
and to complete the riot, Jadee, who had been sleeping
forward, rushed aft waving his abominable creese, fol-
lowed by a dozen of his men. "V^Hien Baju-Mira had had
a good cry — don't laugh, reader, I kept the pocket-hand-
kerchief in which the little Hebe wept for a long, long
time, and only sent it to the wash when I was equally
bad about an ox-eyed peri of Ceylon — the good chief-
tainess said, " Ah ! Touhan, my poor child has seen and
suff'ered enough these last few days to make her mad,
A MALAYAN BEAUTY. 139
much more to cause lier to walk in her sleep ; " and I
have no doubt she had. "Badinage apart, Baju-Mira was
lovely enough to have touched a tougher heart than
mine : at her age, an Indian girl is just blooming into
womanhood, and as lovely and as fresh as a flower can be,
whose beauty in that fiery clime is but of a day. The
child, the woman, mother, and old age tread on one
another's heels, under an equatorial sun, with painful
rapidity ; perhaps it is on that account that the short
heyday of an Indian or IMalay girl is all the more
romantic and lovable. Baju-Mira w^as not tall, but beau-
tifully projDortioned, and her slight waist seemed too
small to support her exquisitely rounded bust ; the neck
and head were perfectly classical, and betokened Arab
rather than Malay blood — an intermixture which was all
the more evident in her oval face and beautiful features.
Besides the usual quantity of petticoats, made in her case
of very fine Indian shawls or Cashmeres, she had an
under vest of red silk, fitting tightly to her figure, and
over this another loose one of the same bright and be-
coming hue, not unlike an Albanian jacket. Her
" Ebon locks,
As glossy as a heron's wmg
Upon the turban of a king/'
were gathered off her face by the edge of a silk tartan
scarf of native manufacture, which she wrapped round
her head or person as was necessary; perfect feet and
hands, strongly stained with henna, completed the picture
of the little belle of Quedah : though I feel my attempt
to delineate her falls short, far short, of the pretty trem-
bling dream-like creature.
140 QUEDAH.
At sunrise, Jadee reported to me that one of the prahus
"was missing, and, strangely enough, one of those in which,
for better security, I had stationed two of my own Malays.
Desiring all the convoy to proceed to a spot called Quala
Morbu, or Dove Eiver, we altered course for the Bount-
ing Islands, thinking the missing vessel might have
parted company by accident, and gone tl\ere in the hope
of meeting me. After four hours' search I discovered
the truant quietly at anchor in a secluded cove. The
men I had put into her did not give a very intelligible
reason for having parted company, and I therefore re-
moved them, and warned the master that martial law
would be summarily api^lied if I saw any further attempt
to evade my surveillance. Hardly had I again got my
convoy together, and before a fine breeze all of us were
rapidly nearing Penang, when I met the Diamond gun-
boat, and in obedience to the orders I had received,
handed over my charge to her, parting from the chief-
tainess and my angelic Baju-Mira with mutual expres-
sions of kindness and goodwill.
The Emerald, taut on a wind, began to make the best
of her way back again ; and after I had had a good rest,
Jadee came to tell me that my two men (in the prahu
which had parted company during the night, and given
me so much trouble) had come aft to make a confession
and beg forgiveness. It appeared that the nicodar, and
three natives left in the prahu to navigate her, had dur-
ing the night j)ointed out to my men an easy mode of
realising a large sum of money, and escaping the drudgery
of their present life : it was simply to give me the slip,
and carry the prahu, with its freight of women and chil-
MALAYAN TREACHERY. 141
dren, to the coast of Sumatra, where they might be sold
at highly remunerative prices ! My men, it appears,
were afraid to accede at once to the proposal, but I fear
they expressed a willingness to share in the profits and
risk if the nicodar could succeed in shaking off the society
of the gunboat. I had, however, stopped their cruise by
seeking them amongst the " Bountings." I must say I
was very angry at my Malays for not giving me informa-
tion of the treachery of the nicodar in time to have
handed over that worthy to the mercy of the Siamese
brig Teda Bagoose, whose gallant captains were like rag-
ing lions at the escape of all the fugitives : but for the
men themselves, I merely tried to point out the villany
of selling poor creatures into slavery who were going
under their escort to what they supposed a place of
safety. They, however, were rather obtuse upon this
point, and' evidently looked upon the women and chil-
dren as merely amounting to a certain total, at from
forty to fifty dollars a-head, and only sent into the world
to minister to man's pleasures, or to be sold for his
especial benefit.
CHAPTEE XIV.
MALAY SLAVE-TRADE FOSTERED BY THE DUTCH — BRUTAL SYSTEM
PURSUED BY THE PORTUGUESE — SLAVERY DOUBTLESS FOUNDED
BY THE MAHOMETANS — RETRIBUTION HAS OVERTAKEN THE
PORTUGUESE — AN ENLIGHTENED POLICY MOST LIKELY TO ERA-
DICATE SLAVERY AND PIRACY — CLOSE BLOCKADE — THE CALL
OF THE SIAMESE SENTRIES — THE CALL OF THE MALAY SEN-
TRIES—DEATHS FROM WANT OF WATER— KLING CRUELTY — THE
TRIAL AND VERDICT, AND PUNISHMENT — SIAMESE TORTURES —
NOVEL MODE OF IMPALING A REBEL— EXTRAORDINARY PALM-
SPEARS — REMARKS UPON NATIVE GOVERNMENTS.
There can "be no doubt that slavery and the slave-trade
exist to a very serious extent throughout the jNIalayan
Archipelago ; it is carried on in a petty way, but still
with all the miseries of the middle passage. The great
mart for the disposal of the slaves is the pepper planta-
tions of Sumatra, which are in the hands of the natives,
although the Dutch claim a sovereignty over them ; and
the native and Dutch planters on the coast of Borneo
readily take the slaves off the hands of the Malay slave-
catcher, and work them to death in the plantations and
gold or antimony mines of those countries. The Dutch
say they discountenance the slave-trade ; they do so,
however, merely in outward show. The first law they
lay down for their Eastern subjects is, implicit submis-
DUTCH AND PORTUGUESE CRUELTIES. 143
sion to their cold-blooded system of political and com-
mercial monopoly ; the next thing is, the Lowland
motto of " Mak' money ; honestly if you can, but mak'
money;" and I was told both by English and French
captains of merchantmen employed collecting cargoes of
pepper, that boats full of slaves used to arrive as con-
stantly for sale at the different places they had visited
on the Sumatran coast, as they formerly did in Eio de
Janeiro harbour or the Havannah. We can understand,
under such circumstances, what a harvest the slave-
trader would reap in a province like Quedah, where the
unhappy inhabitants were placed with the alternative of
being impaled as rebels by Siamese, on the one hand, or
hanged as pirates by Europeans, upon the other. To
sell themselves, or fly for life and limb to the nicodar of
a prahu, who would carry them elsewhere, and dispose
of them for so much a-head, was merely, in such a case,
a happy alternative ; and in this, as in much else con-
nected with the habits of the unfortunate Malay, we
have incurred no small amount of responsibility.
Much, however, as the Dutch are to blame for their
present spirit of aggression and selfish monopoly, in
awakening the reckless spirit of retaliation, turmoil, and
disorganisation of the Malays in the Eastern Archipe-
lago, it falls far short of their former policy ; and it is
a question whether they or the Portuguese did most for
two centuries, by a cold-blooded system of cruelty, to-
wards demoralising the unhappy Malays ; and assuredly,
but for their warlike and nautical habits, the race would
have been exterminated.
A history of the system they pursued, I am not now
144 QUEDAH.
purposing to write : but inasmucli as it bears upon the
Malays' present character of pirates and slave-dealers, I
may point out that, before European ships had as yet
entered the Indian Ocean, fleets of Chinese junks, as well
as the unwarlike traders of Indostan, used to carry on a
brisk commercial traffic with, and through, the Malayan
Archipelago, Avhich, had piracy been as rife in the thir-
teenth century as it was in the early part of the present
one, would have been utterly impossible ; and slavery
was, we know, unknown in Java at that time — and that
is the only Malayan state of which authentic historical
records have been preserved.
Doubtless with the introduction of the Mahometan
creed into the Archipelago, slavery became a fundamental
institution of the Malays ; but the slavery allowed by
Mahomet is of the mildest form, and the Koran especi-
ally enjoins kindness to the slave.
But the Pope and Mahomet had a hard race to win
the souls of the Malays ; indeed, many native states
only embraced Islamism after the conquest of Malacca by
the Christians ! God save the mark ! The houris car-
ried the point, maybe, against Purgatory. Indeed, the
important group of islands known in the present day as
the Celebes only accepted Mahomet in 1495, and that
was nine years after Bartolomeo Diaz rounded the Cape of
Tempests, as he honestly styled the southern j)romontory
of Africa. The Portuguese treated the ]\[alays as infi-
dels ; and, as one writer, De Conto, observes of them,
" they are well-made and handsome, but foul in their
lives, and much addicted to heinous sin ; " ergo, the
Portuguese robbed, shot down, and conquered them, just
KETRIBUTION TO THE PORTUGUESE. 145
as the Spaniards, more successfully, did the Mexican
and Peruvian.
Eesistance to this iniquity has, I believe, made the
Malay what he now is ; and one can only rejoice in the
decay, and pray for the total annihilation of a ]3eople
who, like the Portuguese, so sadly abused the glorious
mission the Almighty called upon them to fulfil, v^hen
to them were first given the keys of the golden East —
its docile millions and untold riches.
When an Englishman, in the Straits of Malacca, sees
a man with European features but dark-skinned as the
natives, wanting in courage, energy, or character — a
pariah whom the very Indostanee contemns — and hears
that that man is a Portuguese, he recognises the just
retribution of an avenging God ; and on reading such a
paragraph as the following — " All these people (Malays)
that have fallen into the hands of the Portuguese have
been made prisoners of war. Every year there is taken
of them for sale a great number to Malacca " * — he
naturally exclaims. The Malays have had their revenge !
One example of the Dutch policy may be quoted, and
it is no singular instance of their phlegmatic cruelty : —
John Peterson Koen, their most illustrious Governor-
General of the Indies, exterminated the original inhabi-
tants of the Banda, or Spice Islands, and replaced them
by slaves. AVith such examples before them, can it be
felony in the Malay to imitate the boasted civilisation
of the white man ? The piratical acts now committed
in the Malayan Archipelago are, I firmly believe, the re-
sult of the iniquities practised upon the inhabitants in
* The Decade, v. book vii.
10
146 QUEDAH.
the olden day; and the Dutch, Spaniards, and English,
even at the present time, are too prone to shoot down
indiscriminately any poor devils who for the first time
in their lives are told, with powder and shot arguments,
that war as carried on by them is piracy by our laws.
We shall never eradicate by the sword an evil which
has become the second nature of every Malay who is, or
who aspires to be, a free man. For three centuries the
Dutch and Spaniards have been fighting with the Hydra,
which their tyrannical despotism and commercial policy
are ever fostering ; and our extension of a free and en-
lightened system of government through the Straits of
Malacca has done more to quell piracy and slavery there
— ^by leading the naturally mercantile Malay to legiti-
mate sources of emolument and occupation — than all
the ball-cartridge and grape-shot which have been so
ruthlessly lavished upon them.
Of slavery as it exists or existed amongst the Malays
themselves, though it does not apply, I fear, to the poor
creatures under Chinese, Dutch, or Spanish masters, we
have the testimony of Mr Craufurd, one of our best
authorities. He says : " The distinction between the
slave and freeman, though it exists amongst the Malays,
is not offensively drawn : the slave is not a mere chat-
tel ; he may possess or inherit property, purchase his
freedom, and has in other respects his prescribed rights."
Many of my crew in the gunboat had in their youth
been bought or sold as slaves ; Jadee himself had been
one, and none of them appeared to think much of their
sufi'erings whilst in that condition. But I have dwelt
long enough upon this subject, and will pass on to my tale.
CALL OF THE SENTEIES. 147
After reporting to Captain Warren the fulfilment of
my task, I again returned to Quedah river, and anchored
alongside my old friend the cutter. The Siamese ad-
vanced parties had already closed down upon the un-
lucky fortress, and throughout the night a constant fire
between the respective outposts was kept up. Our
friend the Dove-cot (described at page 120) was rattling
away at everything which moved along the edge of the
jungle, and now and then the heavy boom of a gun, and
the crashing sound of the grape-shot through the trees,
gave testimony to the fact that the Siamese had indeed
arrived. The night- calls of the opposing forces were
peculiar, and seemed to be used as much for the purpose
of cheering on their respective parties, as for the pur-
pose of showing where they were.
The Siamese used an instrument like a pair of casta-
nets, made, I fancy, of two pieces of bamboo ; and ad-
mirably it answered its purpose. At certain intervals it
would be sounded so faintly as to imitate some of the
thousand insects of the jungle, then a long repetition of
the same note would die faintly away in the distance ;
after that came a sharp short note, taken up in the same
way, followed by a general rattle, as if all the gamins
of London were playing upon pieces of slate. Hardly
had the line of Siamese outposts ceased to shoAv they
were wide awake, when the Malay sentries would begin.
Their cry consisted of the word " Jagga," each man tak-
ing up the cry before his comrade to the right or left
had finished, and then with one long-drawn cry the
whole of the sentries cried Jag-ga-a-a together in a very
musical manner ; a moment's silence, and again a pop-
148 QUEDAH.
ping commenced at one another, with an ocasional melee
in which the sharp rattle of the Siamese castanets would
be heard from right to left/ showing how perfectly their
skirmishers were beleaguering the poor fort. Towards
daybreak all the fighting would cease ; and we learnt
that the Siamese light troops always then fell back upon
the main body, still fifteen miles distant, near Elephant
Mount.
Every night fresh parties of Malays passed out of the
river in prahus, and canoes, and topes, which had been
carefully hidden away in the tide-flooded jungle ready
for such an occasion, and to avoid destruction should we
have been called upon to make an attack by sea. The
sufferings of these fugitives were truly harrowing; many
of them had come down from distant parts of the penin-
sula, flying before the wrath of the Siamese, and finding
but little sympathy from the Quedah Malays. Starved
and wayworn, having lived for sad periods in constant
dread of death and slavery, their appearance, and the
stories they told, realised a picture of such utter misery,
that one almost wondered how life could be sweet enough
to them to make it worth their while to flee onwards.
Penang and Province Wellesley were, however, their
Goshen, and all we could do for the poor creatures was
to wish them God-speed. One day, amongst the fugitive
vessels, a large tope came out densely crowded with men,
women, and children of difl'erent nations : there were
Chinese, Indostanees, and Malays; and the men were
mostly shopkeepers and vagrants who followed on the
heels of the Malayan pirates to buy and sell. Some de-
lay naturally arose in ascertaining that there were no
KLING BAEBAKITY. 149
known pirates amongst them ; and next morning we were
shocked to learn, on inquiring how all were on board of
her, that several children and two women had died dur-
ing the night from want of water ! — a want not only we
in the boats suifered from to some extent, but which we
found to be very general with the people of Quedahj
for the long-continued droughts had dried up all the
wells, and obliged them to depend alone upon the river
— a precarious means of supply, now that the Siamese
were at hand, and fired on all the watering parties. ,
Going on board to relieve the sufferings of the unfor-
tunate women, so far as our small stock of water would
admit, we were informed by a Malay that there were
two private jars of water in the tope, and after some
search we discovered two fat Bengalee merchants, or
rather Klings'"' — a race who live on the seaboard of the
Madras Presidency, and form a large portion of the
Straits population — actually seated upon water-jars, and
refusing to share it amongst the dying creatures at their
feet. They had been long enough among Englishmen to
know that we should not approve of their conduct, and
had artfully arranged their robes and personal property
so as to aid in concealing the water.
* Mr Craufurd, in his valuable work upon the Archipelago, says
Kling is a Malay term given to the natives of the Telinga nation, in
Southern India. The trade and intercourse of the Telingas with the
Archipelago is of great but unascertained antiquity, and still goes on.
Many have settled in Malayia, and their mixed descendants are toler-
ably numerous. In the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Por-
tuguese speak of them as carrying on trade at Malacca ; and Bar-
bosa describes them as ''wealthy merchants of Coromandel, who
traded in large ships."
150 QUEDAH.
I hardly know who was most indignant amongst ns
at this discovery; but Barclay and I held a drum-head
court-martial upon the two brutes, and decided, coiite
qidcoute, to give the black villains a lesson in humanity.
We declared them guilty, and passed sentence of death,
to be commuted for personal correction. The two cul-
prits turned perfectly livid with fear ; for Jadee, as usual,
had his creese at hand, and a great big-boned coxswain
of the cutter tucked up his sleeves, and requested per-
mission to, what he called, " polish them off."
Barclay and I, however, did not want to figure in the
Penang courts of law, and decided therefore on applying
a correction to the Indian merchants where no bones
would be broken, and where they would be very unwill-
ing to produce proofs in open court of our illegal pro-
ceedings. Keeping our countenances hke a pair of Solons,
we had administered to them four dozen strokes with a
piece of flat wood like a sleeve-board, to the extreme
delight of all our seamen, and the astonishment of the
fugitives, who had resigned themselves to the idea that
the Klings were merely men of strong religious prin-
ciples, who would not share their water with heretics.
Inchi Laa paid us a long visit one evening, and, un-
sought by us, proceeded to detail fearful stories of the
cruelties exercised by the Siamese. At the time I gave
him credit for magnifying facts ; but from other sources,
such as Jamboo, who knew a good deal of the Siamese
habits, and a Malay man in my crew, who had served in
a Siamese naval force equipped at Bankok, I heard suffi-
cient to verify some of the horrid atrocities committed.
Many of their cruelties will not bear repetition ; but two
SIAMESE ATEOCITIES. 151
refined modes of torture I will venture to describe ; and
the Inchi assured me that some of their unhappy country-
men and women had been subjected to them.
One was cooking a human being alive : a hollow tree,
either naturally so or scooped out by manual labour, was
left with merely its bare stem standing ; into it a pris-
oner was put naked, his hands tied behind his back, and
a large piece of fat lashed on his head. The tree was then
carefully coated with an unctuous mud to prevent its
ignition, or, if it did ignite, that it might merely smoul-
der, and then a slow steady fire was maintained round it,
the unfortunate victim's sufferings being by these means
terribly prolonged, his shrieks and exclamations being re-
sponded to by the exultant shouts of his executioners.
Another torture was that of carrying the pirate or rebel
down to the banks of a river where a peculiar species of
palm-tree grows, and, choosing a spot in the mud where
the sprout of a young plant w^as just found shooting up-
wards, which it does at the rate of several inches in
twenty -four hours, they would construct a platform
around it, and lash their miserable victim in a sitting
posture over the young tree, so that its lance-like point
should enter his body, and bring on mortification and
death by piercing the intestines — in short, a slow mode
of impaling.
Of the possibility of this last torture being performed,
I can almost vouch ; for although not botanist enough
to name the peculiar species of palm-tree which is used,
I have often seen it growing both on the banks of the
Setoue and Parlis rivers. I believe it to be the Nipa
palm, but I am by no means certain. It grows to no
152 QUEDAH.
great height, and when full-grown has little if any stem,
the large and handsome leaves waving over the banks of
the Malayan stream like a bunch of green feathers spring-
ing from the mud. The young plant springs up from
the earth in a peculiar manner; the embryo leaves are
wrapped in solid mass together, round tlieir oiV7i stems,
forming one solid green triangular-shaped stick, ranging
in length from four to six feet, and having a point as
hard and sharp as a bayonet.
These palm-spears, if I may use the term, the Malays
pluck before the leaves attempt to expand, and in such
a state they make a formidable lance — Jadee assured
me, sufficiently so to enable a man to pierce the tough
under cuticle of an alligator. I have often amused myselt
throwing them like a dart. The rapidity with which
these young plants shoot up in the rich vegetation and
sweltering heats of an equatorial jungle is almost incon-
ceivable : the Malays declared that they might be seen
growing, but Jamboo told me that he had often known
a sprout to shoot an inch and a half in a night, from
which we may picture to ourselves the sufferings of the
unfortunate Malay impaled on one of them.
The well-known torture of rubbing people over with
wild honey, and lashing them to trees near the large
venomous ants' nests of the country, until bitten to
death by them and other insects, was, we were told,
commonly practised ; but the climax to the tale of horror
w^as the gambling which took place upon the capture
of an unfortunate Malay woman who happened to be
enciente, the stakes depending upon whether the infant
was a boy or a girl, the diabolical game concluding
CRUELTIES OF NATIVE GOVERNMENTS. 153
with the death of the mother, to decide who were win-
ners.
Such are the cruelties perpetrated by these wretched
native monarchies ; such have been the miseries which
throughout Pegu, Birmah, Siam, and Malayia, first one
master and then another has practised upon their un-
hajjpy subjects ; and yet philanthropists and politicians
at home maunder about the unjust invasion of native
rights, and preach against the extension of our rule, as
if our Government, in its most corrupt form, would not
be a blessing in such a region, and as if it were not as
much, if not more, our duty to extend as a Christian
peoj^le, than to allow them to remain under native
rulers, and then to shoot them for following native
habits. In later years it has been my sorrow to observe
among another branch of this ill-starred Malayan race —
the poor Otaheitans — the evil effects of winning them
from warlike habits without giving them British protec-
tion, for in that case our zeal in teaching them to turn
their swords into pruning-hooks has caused them to fall
an easy prey to piratical Frenchmen.
It is possible that Inchi Laa's sad tale of Malay suffer-
ing was purposely told us to prepare our minds for the
bloody scene enacted upon the morrow, and to justify
the horrid retaliation.
CHAPTEE XV.
THE MASSACRE OF THE PRISONERS IN QUEDAH FORT — THE
ALARMED BARBER — INCHI LAA REPITDIATES THE ACT — THE
vultures' feast — CAPTAIN WARREN VISITS THE SIAMESE
CAMP — THE SIAMESE ARMY — RENEWED VIGOUR IN THE OPE-
RATIONS — THE CAPTURE OF THE BATTERY — THE FLIGHT OF
THE HAREM — FUGITIVES NO LONGER ABLE TO ESCAPE BY
SEA — NARROW ESCAPE OF MY CREW— INCHI LAA SURRENDERS
— STRUCK BY A WHIRLWIND — THE LAST BROADSIDE — THE
CHIEFS ESCAPE — QUEDAH FORT ABANDONED.
The Siamese prisoners in tTie hands of the Malay chief-
tains had, after the completion of the defences of Que-
dah fortj been employed digging a reservoir, called in
India a tank, for the purpose of collecting rain. Every
day these wretches were marched out to their tasks and
brought back again ; but on the day after the visit of
the Inchi, we observed that a more than usual number
of Malays accompanied them, and that several chiefs of
importance were among the escort.
The spot was too distant for us to see all that took
place, but our attention was attracted by piteous cries
and loud shouts, and the rush and confusion of an evi-
dent rneUe : the Malays in the garrison crowded upon
the parapet, and appeared very excited in voice and
MASSACRE OF PRISONERS. 155
gesture. Suddenly a Chinaman from the town was seen
running towards our anchorage, followed, directly his
object was observed, by a couple of Malays ; several
shots were fired at the fugitive, but when under cover
of our vessel, we discharged a musket over his head, to
show we claimed him, and his pursuers resigned him to
our custody. I never before or since saw a man so
horror-stricken as this poor Chinese barber was — for he
had all the instruments of his trade about him, and had
apparently dropped his razor and fled, stricken by some
sudden fear. With much ado the man was soothed into
telling us, crying all the while with nervous excitement,
that the noise which was just subsiding on shore had
been the death-shrieks of all the ill-fated Siamese pris-
oners ; that Tonkoo Mahomet Type-etam had been
burning for revenge ever since his late discomfiture at
Allegagou, and the Malays generally were frantic at the
horrors perpetrated on their countrymen : in retaliation,
therefore, they had that morning marched out three
hundred Siamese (all they had in their hands) to the
margin of the tank, and there drawing his creese, Type-
etam had given the signal to fall on, by plunging it into
the body of a prisoner ; and the bodies were thrown into
the tank which lay in the road over which the Siamese
troops must advance to the capture of Quedah. The
Chinaman happened to be a witness of the massacre, and
not knowing whether Type-etam might not take it into
his head to clear off the Chinese likewise, he, like a pru-
dent barber, decamped at once.
The murderers marched back soon afterwards, and,
lying as we now did close to the stockade, we did not
156 QUEDAH.
think from their appearance they looked very elated
with their bloody achievement ; still one or two ruffians
were very excited, and waved their spears and muskets,
as if promising us a similar fate should we fall into their
hands. I need hardly say we were most indignant at
such a cold-blooded act of cruelty, and it would have
been an evil hour for Type-etam had he fallen into the
hands of our people : even Jadee declared it unmanly,
and, as usual, took great care to explain to me, that the
gentlemanly dogs by whom he had been brought up
would have acted very differently.
I upbraided Inchi Laa the next time he visited us for
such an inhuman return to our captain's generous treat-
ment of their defenceless women and children, and re-
minded him that, as pirates, there was an English law
which entitled us to twenty pounds a-head for every one
of his countrymen we sent out of the world/'" The Inchi,
I was glad to see, blushed, and vowed that Mahomet
Said protested against the act, while Type-etam tried to
justify it on the ground of the dearth of provisions and
water, the cruelty of the Siamese, and the bad policy of
liberating such a body of enemies.
The keen sight of the vulture, or possibly its power
of scent, was wonderfully exemplified on the day of the
massacre ; for although none of us had ever seen a vulture
here before, within a few hours after it had taken place
a number of those repulsive creatures were wheehng
round and round over the bodies, and soon settled down
to their filthy repast, only to rise for a short and lazy flight
* The head-money for pirates has been most wisely done away
with very lately, after having been sadly abused.
VISIT TO THE SIAMESE CAMP. 157
when startled by some exchange of shots between the
besiegers and besieged.
Habit reconciles many a disgusting sight to our ideas
of what is natural ; but I know nothing that, to a Euro-
pean as yet unhardened to it, seems so repulsive as that
of a large bird feeding upon the corpse of a human
being. Yet this soon became a common sight, for many
a body floated down the stream, and directly it grounded
on the mud-flats, vultures would be seen flapping their
wings over their loathsome food.
A week passed away : the Malays still spoke confi-
dently of being able to hold out in the fort until the
bad weather should force the Siamese to retreat, and
ourselves to abandon the blockade ; and, moreover, they
allowed it to leak out, that Datoo Mahomet Alee, from
Parlis, was operating against the flank of the Siamese
army, and prevented them making an assault upon
Quedah.
On March 16, a Siamese flag was seen waving on a
tree at the mouth of the Jurlong river, north of Quedah
river ; and with a view to hastening the Siamese opera-
tions, Captain AVarren decided upon visiting their head-
quarters, and a message was soon sent to the Siamese
general, informing him of his wish to do so.
JN^ext day, elephants and a guard of honour were in
waiting at the Jurlong. Captain Warren ascended it as
far as possible, and then, accompanied by his gig's crew
and an interpreter, mounted the elephants and pro-
ceeded to Allegagou, where the general still was, al-
though a division of his army was closely blockading
Quedah fort by land. Captain Warren was received
158 QUEDAH.
with, the greatest honour, and had a house placed at
his disposal, as well as necessary food. The general in-
formed him that the diversion attempted by Datoo
Mahomet Alee had been a perfect failure ; the Datoo
experiencing a total defeat, and losing a field-piece and
abundance of powder and shot, which were now in the
hands of the Siamese, to be used against the Quedah
garrison.
The forces seen by Captain "Warren, forming the main
division of the army, Avere at least 15,000 strong, and
consisted almost entirely of infantry and some elephants.
]N^early 10,000 men were armed with good Tower flint-
muskets, which the General informed him had all been
purchased from the Honourable Company, when they
adopted the percussion - lock throughout the Indian
army.
On the whole. Captain Warren was favourably im-
pressed with the materiel and personnel of the native
army co-operating with us, though very different from
what a European one would have been. With a promise
from the General to push on operations with all possible
energy. Captain Warren embarked with his gig's crew in
one of the native canoes, descended Quedah river, and,
mucb to all our astonishments, passed the town and fort
of Quedah without having his right to do so even chal-
lenged by the Malays ; proving, at any rate, the respect
they entertained for the officer who had behaved so
generously towards their wives and families.
The day after Captain Warren's return, the Siamese
appeared to be about to carry their promise into execu-
tion with a hearty will ; a heavy and continuous fire was
PKOGKESS OF THE SIEGE. 159
kept up by the outposts, and the Malays were evidently
falling back : the scrub and jungle prevented us seeing
much, except the wounded as they were carried to the
rear. The Siamese light guns commenced to range over
the fort, and were fiercely replied to by the heavy eighteen-
pounders on the bastions. ITews was obtained by Ma-
homet Said at the same time, from a prisoner, that the
Siamese had beaten back Mahomet Alee ; and the de-
fence was thus rendered almost hopeless.
The Malays in the fascine battery were suffering very
much, and the Siamese, with their field-pieces and mus-
ketry, were punishing the defenders terribly. AA'^e had
to move a little out of range, so as to let these gentry
fight out the duel. It soon became evident that the
Siamese, sheltered by the jungle, had a great advantage
over the Malays, who were in open ground ; the three
or four guns in the battery soon became silent, but the
gingal battery fired away manfully, under a perfect storm
of musket-balls — fresh Malays ascending to take the
place of those who were lowered down wounded. The
Siamese dared not storm the battery, for it was com-
manded by the fort ; but, at last, a lucky shot from our
allies struck the "Dove-cot," and, I fancy, dismounted
the culverin, for, in a minute or two afterwards, we saw
the Malays roll it off the platform, and let it fall into
the battery below ; and then the whole garrison of the
battery retreated into Quedah fort, carrying off their
wounded and a couple of light guns.
The Siamese shouted with delight, and rattled their
castanets : we cheered them on ; and the Malays slashed
away grape and canister into the jungle, sweeping down
160 QUEDAH.
all that dared to step on the open ground, which formed
a glacis round the old fort.
A cessation of firing took place in the afternoon, and
that evening the last instalment of women and children,
and the last canoes in the river, escaped from Quedah.
Amongst these fugitives were some fifteen damsels, the
harem of Prince Abdullah ; and they showed, by their
. good looks, that His Eoyal Highness was not deficient in
taste. We declared all veils contrary to " our national
jprejudices^' and the ladies, with a little giggling, resigned
themselves very good-naturedly to our white men's ideas,
and repaid us for a liberal repast of curry and rice, to
which they were immediately invited, by the kindest of
smiles and the warmest thanks. Poor souls ! the vil-
lanous Teda Bagoose had, in the name of his Siamese
Majesty, protested against rebels being allowed to escape
so easily, and had been placed in a commanding position,
between Quedah and Penang, to intercept all the canoes
and prahus. We, in consequence, had to refuse this
last party a guarantee against capture, and recommended
them to land, and walk down the coast into Province
Wellesley — a journey of some forty or fifty miles. They
willingly adopted our suggestion, but besought permis-
sion to encamp under shelter of our guns, until suffi-
cient men could be got together to secure them an escort.
The younger ladies, I may, without scandal, say, ap-
peared far from unwiUing to take advantage of the holi-
day they were now enjoying from the strict seclusion of
the harem ; and, in spite of the prudish reprovals of
some of the older ladies of the party, became upon such
good terms with some of the Malays who volunteered to
OUR NARROW ESCAPE. 161
protect them, that I fancy it was very doubtful whether
Prmce Abdullah would ever again recover the whole of
the ladies of his household. An impromptu camp was
rapidly formed on the southern point of the river, and
we furnished them with sufficient food for present con-
sumption.
These last fugitives assured us, that the fort now only-
contained about two hundred fighting men, under the
two chiefs, Mahomet Said and Type-etam, and that they
had sworn not to surrender.
All next day the firing was incessant on the land side
of the works, and the Siamese were evidently taking
advantage of the cover offered by the town, to make
their approaches sufficiently close to try an escalade or
assault. The excitement of being even spectators of the
fight was naturally very great, and, as either party gained
or lost an advantage, we cheered and shouted from the
gunboat and cutter. Occasionally, a round-shot or two,
and then a shower of musket-balls, would oblige us to
move out of immediate range ; but only one attempt was
fairly made to sink us, and this was the act of a desperate
cut-throat in Quedah fort, called "Jaffa." He pointed a
heavy twenty-four-pounder at my craft, only eight hun-
dred yards distant, and, having loaded it with grape and
canister, discharged it at us whilst we were seated at our
afternoon meal of rice and fish. How all hands escaped
seemed a miracle : the awnings were cut through in
several places, the hull struck and grazed a good deal,
but not one man was wounded. We cleared away our
guns, and keenly watched all pieces pointed in our
direction. The attempt was not, however, repeated ;
11
162 QUEDAH.
and as from the angle of tlie fort whicli fired at us, we
saw three or four men lower themselves down, jump into
the river, and swim across so as to escape by land to the
southward, we were led to anticipate, what we afterwards
heard, that Jaffa and his friends, who had fired upon us,
had been reproved by the chiefs, and made to fly the
fort.
Just as the night was closing in, the Malays fired
several smart salvoes of artillery, and with loud cheers
sallied out upon the Siamese, who had already com-
menced to occupy the town. Volumes of fire and smoke
soon rolled over the unfortunate habitations, and the
fight waxed hot and furious ; reinforcements, however,
soon arrived to our allies, and the Malays were beaten
back with loss. To our astonishment, our old friend
Inchi Laa, or " Gentleman Laa," as the sailors nick-
named him, came alongside, in a wretched canoe, and
surrendered his sword. It bore marks of having been
used to some purpose ; but out of respect for the man's
misfortunes, we did not ask many questions. He merely
said, that they had made a sally from the fort, and
been beaten back with loss ; he had found himself cut
off from the gate, and happily discovered a decayed canoe
before the enemy had observed him. He did not wish
to return to Quedah. Poor Inchi ! he seemed so alive
to the kindness shown him ; his mild and gentlemanly
countenance spoke volumes in its sadness ; and as he
pressed us by the hand, bowing his head to touch it in
token of gratitude, and in the same garb, and with his
own sword in hand, swore to escort his countrywomen
safely into Province Wellesley, and then surrender to
A WHITE SQUALL. 163
our authorities if called upon, — there was not a single
soul of our party who did not sincerely regret that poli-
tical expediency should have set us against a race which
can produce such men.
That night and next day the firing of the fort and
Siamese was constant. The Siamese were evidently
puzzled; their six-pounders were not likely to breach
the walls, and scaling a fort full of Malays was a dis-
agreeable contingency which they required time to think
about.
The north-east wind had now almost ceased to blow
during the day-time, and the heat of the calm days was
most oppressive ; its disagreeables considerably increased
by the smoke of fires, and the foul smell arising from the
tank full of slaughtered prisoners, and many bodies of
Malays and Siamese which had floated down the stream,
and become either fixed in the interstices of the stockade,
or grounded upon the mud-banks.
In the afternoon, I experienced in the Emerald the
first and only " white squall" which it has been my good
fortune to fall in with — but " whirlwind " would be the
more proper term. It was calm, and sultry to a degree,
and we were listlessly lying about the decks, watching
the desultory fight, when the town was suddenly en-
veloped in a storm of dust, straw, sticks, rags, and flags,
flying up almost vertically in the air, as if enchanted ;
and before we could take a single precaution, such as
battening clown, we were struck by a squall. With one
furious gust it threw us over on our beam- ends — for we
lay across its path — tore away awnings and awning- stan-
chions, and whisked them out of the gunboat, carried
164 QUEDAH.
away the weather shrouds, blew the sails out of the
gaskets, and half swamped us wath water. Happily, it
went as quickly as it came, and made one rub one's head,
and wonder whether the Avhole affair had really taken
place. Having to send men away to fetch the awning
back was, however, a pretty good proof of the extra-
ordinary violence of such a whirlwind ; and the Malays
assured me, that through the jungle such a violent squall
will cut a lane, felUng trees, as if so many woodmen had
been at work. The best term for it, though somewhat
more French than English in character, was that used to
me some years afterwards by a French naval officer, who,
describing the horrors and dangers of a campaign dans
les iles de I'Archipel, said, " Ah ! mais nous avons eu
des vents la ! par example ! des coups de vent effrayants
— des vents du diable, mon ami ! "
"We sat over our cup of tea discussing whether we
should not, after all, take an active part in the fall of
Quedah, when the black outline of the fort was illumined
by flashes of artillery ; they lasted some few minutes,
and were followed by a dead silence. That volley was
the knell of Quedah ; for, in a short time, we heard
cries, as of men drowning, near the stockade, and a
number of my Malays, as well as some of Mr Barclay's
seamen, jumped into the water and swam to the rescue.
They happily succeeded in saving six out of the dozen
or fourteen men who had tried to swim across the river,
but had failed. 'Those men that we had saved were all
natives of Upper India ; and a fine six-foot fellow, directly
he was able to speak, said, " We are the last of the gar-
rison ! "
ESCAPE OF THE CHIEFS. 1G5
Their tale was this : — Two nights ago, Tonkoo Maho-
met Said, Prince Abdullah, and Type-etam, with a select
body of men, marched along the low- water mark of the
sea, as far as the mouth of the Jurlong river, unseen
by us or the Siamese ; there they were met by Datoo
Mahomet Alee and Haggi Loung, who had marched from
Parlis with some elephants to meet them ; and the
united chiefs had thus escaped, to renew their resistance
in another quarter.
In order that the Siamese might still be detained off
Quedah, a petty chieftain, whose name did not transpire,
promised, with two hundred chosen men, to hold out
for forty-eight hours : this he faithfully performed ; and
he directed the desperate sally in which Inchi Laa had
been cut off from re-entering the fort.
Shortly afterwards, that chief, afraid to surrender to
us after the treacherous attempt of Jaffa to sink the
gunboat (an act all had disapproved of), swam across to
the south side with the remaining men of his part}',
leaving fifteen Rajpoots, who were in the fort, to cover
his escape by holding out, as they promised, for the
space of two hours.
They it was who had fired the last broadsides, and
then endeavoured to make good their retreat as the
others had done ; but not being as amphibious as the
Malays, they had been swept down by the tide upon the
stockade, and the majority were drowned, or killed by
alligators.
We res]3ected these brave fellows ; and although there
was some suspicion of their being deserters from the
Company's army, we gave them the benefit of the doubt;
166 QUEDAH.
and, liaving made them swear to escort the women with
all speed to Province AVellesley, we put them all under
charge of Inchi Laa, and hastened their departure before
the Siamese entered Quedah fort and observed their
movements.
Barclay and I crawled through the mud, aroused all
the fair ladies from their al fresco slumbers, told Inchi
Laa he must be off — a piece of advice which needed no
repetition — and in a few minutes we were left alone,
the stars and a young moon shining on the grey walls of
the deserted stronghold.
CHAPTER XVI.
THE SIAMESE IN" POSSESSION OF THE FORT — DESCRIPTION OF THE
FORT — A SIAMESE MILITARY SWELL— THE DIVAN — A NAVAL
' AMBASSADOR — THE AMBASSADOR DEMANDS BEEF — CURIOSITY
OF THE SIAMESE OFFICIALS — THE APPEARANCE OF THE SOL-
DIERY — MOBILITY OF THE SIAMESE TROOPS — ARMS AND EQUIP-
MENTS—THE BUFFALO OF MALAYIA — MR AIREY, MASTER OF
THE HYACINTH— SIAMESE INGRATITUDE NOT SINGULAR — WE
PROCEED TO PARLIS.
At daybreak on Marcli 20th, we observed the Siamese
to be in possession of the fort, and shortly afterwards
our Captain visited, and congratulated the authorities,
who, however, did not appear to understand the immense
moral aid we had afforded to his Golden- tufted Majesty
of Siam, as well as the fatal hindrance we had been to
fresh supplies being thrown into the unfortunate pro-
vince.
In the course of the day I visited Quedah, accompanied
by Jadee, Jamboo, and a guard of honour of four of my
own Malays, who my worthy coxswain insisted should be
armed to the teeth, lest a fray should arise with any of
the Siamese irregulars. The gunboat passed through
the stockade, and from her I landed at the river end of
a moat, which we found flanked the fort on its landward
side. ]S"eglect and ruin were everywhere apparent ; the
168 QUEDAH.
moat was half filled with ruhhish, and evidently was
left dry at low water : across it, opposite the only gate-
way not built up with stones, a temporary bridge had
been thrown by the Siamese ; this gateway faced the
one long row of mat-built houses which constituted the
once important town of Quedah ; and as we passed
through it, we could not help stopping to admire two
magnificent brass guns, of Portuguese manufacture, which
pointed down the road. The arms of the House of Bra-
ganza were still comparatively fresh upon the metal : but
how have they, the descendants of Alfonzo Albuquerque,
degenerated !
The fort itself was of a rectangular form, and partook
more of the character of a factory such as the Portuguese
and Dutch, as well as ourselves, used to construct in the
early days of Eastern discovery, than that of a place
intended purely as a fortification. On the parapet
there were many handsome and heavy guns, mounted on
very barbaric carriages ; and within the walls, besides an
old mosque or temple, and one or two stone-built houses,
there was no lack of mat residences of the usual Malay
order of architecture.
It was a sad and ruinous scene : the robber and robbed
had each been there in their turn ; their handiwork lay
before me, and standing upon the battlements looking
over the rich land and luxuriant forest on the one side,
and the fine river with the blue Indian Ocean upon the
other, I could not help feeling that man had sadly abused
God's bounty.
Yet Quedah had not always been what it then was.
When the first European visitor wrote of it, in 1516, he
FOEMEE STATE OF QUEDAH. 169
had occasion to say, that it was " a seaport to which an
infinite number of ships resorted, trading in all kinds of
merchandise; here come," he adds, "many Moorish"^"
ships from all quarters ; here, too, grows much pepper,
very good and fine, which is conveyed to Malacca, and
thence to China/' And the province adjacent is still
noted for the immense productiveness of its rice-fields,
and the mountains are still rich in gold and tin. I was
not left long to cogitate upon what Quedah had been,
and what it could now be, if in better hands ; for the
Siamese soldiery were still ransacking every hole and
corner for plunder, and failing in discovering much, some
of them, who looked a little excited with "fighting water,"
or " hang" ruffled up their feathers at my no less pug-
nacious Malays.
I therefore proceeded at once to pay my respects to
the Siamese commandant, my interpreter addressing
himself to a Siamese officer, or petty chief, who seemed
to have charge of a guard at the gate. The worthy was
leaning listlessly on some planks, and, when first ad-
dressed, gave himself as many airs as the most thorough-
bred British subaltern in charge of three rank and file
could have done. It made me smile to see how small
the stride between the extremes of civilised and savage
life : the listless apathy of fashion and the stoicism of
the Indian are very, very close akin, Jamboo, however,
understood the art of being a dragoman ; and I fancy
stirred up the subaltern by a glowing description of who
and what I w^as, and, by his gesticulation and apparent
solemnity of bearing when addressing me, moved the
* Moor was the terra applied to the Mahometan traders.
170 QUEDAH.
spirit of the soldier, and he got up, and conducted me to
the presence of the Siamese chief.
Passing through a crowd of very uncivil officers, who
could only be distinguished from the men by wearing
silk tartans of a blue and white pattern, I w^as presented
to a tall and intelligent person, the commandant. Jam-
boo made, in a disagreeably abject manner, a long speech
on my behalf; in which the Siamese tongue grated
harshly on the ear after the soft and harmonious lan-
guage of Malayia. The hall of audience was in one of
the bastions, and was evidently the proper Divan. The
courtier-like superciliousness of all the officers in the
chief's retinue was deliciously amusing ; and the great
man was evidently wroth at something : maybe he was
not struck with the importance of a British midshipman
in his ambassadorial character ; but I enjoyed the joke
amazingly; for I had been ordered to give a message,
and I determined to give it to no one but the chief, were
he the Rajah of Ligor himself. I got it from my chief; I
intended it should go to theirs. Jamboo passed several
compliments between us, almost going through the form
of paying idolatrous worship to a Siamese general and a
midshipman of H.M.S. Hyacinth. I then said, in the
most serious and formal manner, " Tell the general that
I have a message from my rajah ! " and, added Jadee,
" Eemember, oh Jamboo ! that these men are swine,
and would never have been here but for us ; explain
that to these sons of burnt mothers ! " Requesting
Jamboo to do no such thing, and desiring Jadee to hold
his tongue, my message was duly delivered.
" He says," said Jamboo, " that he is ready to hear.
A MIDDIE AS AMBASSADOR. 171
But, dear me, sir, this not Siamese fasMon ; nobody can
send a message to a great chief like this without a pre-
sent; suppose no got present, can do no good!" " Never
mind, Jamboo," I replied ; " you fire away as I tell you.
Tell this old gentleman that my captain wishes him to
put the two bullocks he promised for the ship, on board
my boat."
Jamboo collapsed ; and I saw he was going to remon-
strate at having to give such an unimportant message to
so big a man ; therefore checked this at once, by order-
ing him to do as he was told.
The message was delivered, and its effect was richly
comical on the audience around us : they stared open-
mouthed at the impertinence of the whole affair, though
I knew perfectly well I had done right ; for the devil a
bullock should I have got from any one but the chief,
and to go off without two of them was not my intention.
The chief seemed to divine my motive ; for though he
stared at first, he soon smiled, and with becoming dignity
replied that he did not look after bullocks, but that we
should have two.
" Will his Excellency be good enough to order one of
these officers to go with me, and point them out? " I asked
through Jamboo. And, wonderful to relate ! his Excel-
lency did please to do so, and I put the gentleman under
Jadee's especial care, and told him not to part from him
until he had the two animals safe in his own custody.
Jadee went away with him, looking as if any breach of
contract would cause the Siamese officer to join the heca-
tomb in the tank.
I was now retiring, when the small spyglass in my
172 QUEDAH.
hand attracted the Siamese chief's attention ; and on
inquiring if it was a pistol, its proper use was explained
to him ; and very much delighted his Excellency was
with a sight through the little Dollond ; and children
at a peep-show were never more excited than were his
attendants in their desire to be allowed to look through
it. I need hardly say that I was not over liberal in
that respect to those who had given themselves airs, and
I soon beat a retreat. The crowd and the heat made
the Divan disagreeable amongst people with whom fresh
water had become a scarce commodity.
The excessive self-conceit I observed amongst these
officers is a national characteristic of the Siamese people :
they style themselves, ^9ar excellence, " Thai," or free-
men ; the Franks, in short, of the great peninsula em-
braced by the Indian Ocean and China Sea — a title they
most decidedly do not deserve as a body ; for the stick
is in more common use amongst them than the bamboo
is with the Chinese, as an arbitrator between master
and man.
Great numbers of their soldiery were in both fort and
town, and struck me as being a fine soldierlike body of
men, if measured by an Asiatic standard, and minus
pipeclay, blackball, and leather stocks — I might also add,
regimental clothing. A cloth round their hips, falling
to the knee, and another fashioned like a Malay sarang,
hanging across the shoulders, formed their sole attire.
In appearance, they struck me as a composite race, and
betrayed strong signs of a mixed origin. They were
taller than the Malays, long- backed, and better developed
about the legs and hips, as a race should be who live
THE SIAMESE AS SOLDIERS. 173
more ashore than afloat. The features partook of the
Burmese cast of countenance, with the eye just enough
Chinese in outline to show that the sons of Ham were
numerous on the banks of the deep Menam. In colour,
they were a shade or two darker than the Malay and
Chinese, exhibiting in that respect an affinity to the
races of the peninsula of Indostan, and substantiating
their sacred traditions, that their religion was derived,
as well as their earliest civilisation, from the banks of
the Ganges. The power of endurance of these soldiery
I had often heard my Malays extol j and looking at
the spare athletic limbs, in which there was more bone
than flesh, I could easily understand that they were
capable of making long marches ; indeed, whilst I stood
at the gate, two men, clothed as I have before described,
marched in with a spring in their gait which betokened
that they had still plenty of work left in them ; and on
inquiring where they had come from, I w\as informed that
they had marched from a place thirty miles distant.
Beside their arms, these men each carried a slip of
bamboo on his shoulder, at either extremity of which
was suspended all their baggage, cooking -gear, and
several days' rice tied up in a bag with a little salt.
The celerity with which an army that thus carried its
equipage and commissariat upon the men's shoulders,
could move from point to point of an extensive empire
like Siam, must be very remarkable, and fully support-
ed the Malay acknowledgment of their being excellent
soldiers.
All those I saw had firearms of some description or
other : the majority had flint-muskets, with the Tower
174 QUEDAH.
mark. Eound the wai.st of the soldiery was secured a
primitive cartouche-box, containing, in little movable
reeds, the charges of powder, and in the same belt a bag
was suspended filled with musket-balls and pieces of a
felt-like vegetable substance for wads.
The martial appearance of these Siamese was heightened
by a very peculiar mode of wearing the hair. JS^aturally
jet black, and somewhat harsh in texture, the hair was
cut to an equal length all over the head, leaving it about
three and a half inches long, the object being to make
each particular hair to stand on end, "like quills upon
the fi^etful porcupine," and to insure this, a fillet, of an
inch and a half wide, of rattan, or some stiff substance,
carefully covered with white linen, encircled the head,
passing across the forehead close to the roots of the hair,
and served to force it all into an erect position.
It decidedly gave them a singularly fearless air, but
whether a national custom, or merely adopted by the
Siamese general to make a marked distinction between
his followers and the long-haired Malays, I am unable
to say.
I passed Jadee and his crew of twenty men, engaged
in getting the two bullocks on board the Emerald, and
they had had a pretty tough hour's work in doing so :
for the animals, like most of the native cattle in Malayia,
were only half- tamed buffaloes — a set of savage long-
horned brutes, that will not turn from the tiger so
common in those jungles. Indeed, in many of the
native states, the favourite sjDort of the chiefs is to cap-
ture a tiger alive, and turn him loose into an enclosed
arena with a bufi'alo-bull, and in nine cases out of ten
TIGER AND BUFFALO FIGHTS. 175
the latter will, in spite of the fearful wounds it receives,
kill the tiger with a blow or two of its horns, and then
toss it about as an English bull would a dog.
We had some difficulty in lashing down our freight of
fresh beef, and taking it safely off to the Hyacinth j and
the commanding officer, the kind and gallant Airey,
laughed immoderately when I told him of my mode of
carrying out his injunction, " not to return without the
bullocks." "A midshipman's impertinence must," as he
observed, "have astonished the Rajah of Ligor !" for he
it was, and no one else, that I had thus played the am-
bassador with !
Airey was the master of the Hyacinth ; but owing to
the death of the second-lieutenant, and the promotion
of the first-lieutenant,* he was now doing commanding
officer's duty. He was a charming specimen of a gene-
rous, gallant sailor. Poor fellow ! he now lies in a
humble grave on the pestilential shores of Labuan, hav-
ing fallen a victim to fever and dysentery, so rife at the
commencement of our settlement on that island. Hea-
ven rest his soul ! a better, kinder man, or more zealous
officer, never adorned our profession, although it never
was his luck, in piping days of peace, to have sufficient
opportunity for a display of his abilities, and the canker
of disappointment and a worn-out constitution laid him
under the turf.
Arrangements were now made to proceed northward,
so as to promote the rapid reduction of the rest of the
* The late Captain Giffard, who was mortally wounded, and his
vessel, H.M.S. Tiger, captured by the Russians off Odessa, in the
commencement of the late war.
176 QUEDAH.
province, a great portion of which was still in the hands
of the Tonkoos and their adherents. The Siamese, as I
have said, did not appear to understand the value of our
passive form of co-operation, though it Avas undoubtedly
very efficacious ; and Jamboo assured me he had, whilst
in Quedah fort, heard many insulting inuendoes cast
upon the British mode of blockading. " Oh ! you have
been eating white rice while we have starved upon
black," was one of their expressions equivalent to " lying
in clover," whilst they worked hard. Others wanted to
know, " Why we allowed a set of Malay vermin to
escape, that they might return, to harass the Siamese at
a future day *? " In short, had Captain Warren expected
much gratitude for all his hard work and anxious days
and nights, he would have been bitterly disappointed ;
and we may say that our unhandsome treatment by the
Siamese was only of a piece with the conduct of some
other countries which we could mention in more civilised
parts of the world, where policy, or generosity, or Quixo-
tism has caused old England to lavish her treasure and
her still more precious blood.
It was with no small satisfaction that we saw the
Hyacinth weigh on the 22d of March, and proceed to-
w^ards Parlis, leaving the Siamese and the Teda Bagoose
to fulfil their mission, whatever that might be. By the
by, the fighting captain of the Teda Bagoose had vowed
to report me officially for giving such a name to his
Imperial Majesty's brig, and that added to my desire to
see her a long way astern.
CHAPTER XVII.
RETURN TO PARLIS — A CASE OF CHOLERA-MORBUS — AN IRISH
CURE FOR CHOLERA — PAT CONROY's OPINION OF THE CHINESE —
TAMELAN — PARLIS — THE FLIGHT FROM TAMELAN— THE LEGACY
OF QUEEN DEVI — THE DEPARTURE — THE HEART OF A COCOA-
NUT TREE — PROCEED TO SHOOT A BUFFALO — DISCOVER A HERD
— THE SHOT AND THE CHASE— OBTAIN PLENTY OF BUFFALO
MEAT.
The cutter and gunboat proceeded along the shore, whilst
the Hyacinth made a straight course ; and the lack of
wind in both cases caused the passage to Parlis to be
longer than usual. Unable to continue at the oars and
sweeps during the heat of the day, we anchored off
Bamboo Point, whilst the Hyacinth, in the distance,
flapped lazily along with light airs and cats'-paws which
never reached us. Towards sunset we weighed, and had
not gone far before a small prahu was detected endea-
vouring to hide herseK in the jungle : we of course made
her come alongside ; and a wretched sight she was 1 The
crew on board consisted for the most part of Chinese
settlers who were flying the province : they came from
Trang, and gave us the first intimation that that place
was already in Siamese possession ; but on the way
down, cholera and fever had broken out in the prahu,
and many had died.
12
178 QUEDAH.
Whilst with us, one poor creature was seized with
Asiatic cholera. It was a sad sight, to see one in a
sound healthy state suddenly seized with a mortal
malady. After one or two rapidly successive cramps
the very appearance of the man seemed to alter; he
became livid and looked collapsed. We had no medi-
cine, and beyond rubbing his cramped muscles, could
do nothing, until Barclay's stroke oarsman, a fine speci-
men of "a boy" from Kinsale, called Paddy Conroy,
said it was " a pithy to say a hathen dhoi in such a
manner," and volunteered to cure him, if the officers
would only give him five minutes' run of their spirits.
Pat Conroy, we knew, looked on spirits — in a nate state,
as he called it — as a sovereign remedy for every trouble
flesh is heir to ; and it was necessary to keep an eye to
his physicking, as in his zeal he might have administered
counteractives to himself, whilst doing the good Sama-
ritan to the cholera-stricken Chinaman. We opened our
private store of spirits, which was kept in a box con-
taining our stock of cayenne pepper, salt, chilies, pickles,
and chutney. "Bedad ! sir,'^ said Conroy, as his Milesian
nose disappeared in the smiles which wreathed his honest
countenance, " here is the rale physic here ; the devil a
sowl dies of cholera while there is all this whisky to be
had," — and as he said so, he started a wine-glass of it
into a tumbler. "And then there's the beauthiful
Jamaicy rhum too, — by the mother of Moses ! what is
better than that too for cramps 1 " So saying, he added
some of it. " Ah, now, sir, if you plaise, the smallest
taste of gin ; oh ! it's wonderful what a power there is
in that same, if so be there is plenty of it ; not that
AN irishman's cure FOR CHOLERA. 179
Paddy Conroy would exchange Kinsale harbour full of
it for a bucketful of the rale crathur — but what can
these hathens know about it ? ^Now for a spoonful of
chili vinegar and a pinch of cayenne." So suiting the
action to the word, he mixed up a diabolical potion,
which would have horrified a horse-doctor.
I remonstrated, but Barclay truly enough said, it gave
the Chinaman one chance more of surviving, and accord-
ingly a seaman forced the poor creature's mouth open
with an iron spoon-handle, — for the teeth were set close
together with spasms, — and Dr Conroy poured his cure
for cholera down the man's throat.
*' You have killed that man !" I said.
" The divil a fear, sir," replied Conroy ; "good whisky
never killed any man j " a rash assertion of his faith in
his national liquor, which seemed somewhat supported
by the rapid improvement which took place in the
patient, who had perfectly shaken off his malady before
we reached Parlis.
Chinaman-like, the wretch seemed incapable of grati-
tude, and neither he nor his friend said, thank you ! to
Pat Conroy, who, when I remarked to him that I thought
they might have done so, replied that "Nothing good
ever came of men who wore tails, the dirty hathens !
and it was almost a pithy to have wasted good liquor on
such bastes."
Conroy was one of those light-hearted, devil-may-care
Irishmen, one or two of whom are so invaluable on a
man-of-war, just to keep up fun and light-heartedness ;
more than that is always a source of trouble, for they
are seldom good sailors, and often troublesome and
180 QUEDAH.
drunken. But wherever a good joke would lighten
heavy work, or dispel monotony or care, such a diverting
vagabond as Paddy Conroy was invaluable ; and though
Paddy was bad at steering or seamanship, he could
handle a musket with all the innate love of soldiering
of an Irishman, and where dash or pluck was required,
" Paddy Conroy," to use his own expression, " would
be all there, your honour!" His love for being "all
there" eventually led him into a powder-magazine in
China, where, firing a pistol at a retreating Tartar, he
blew up the whole edifice, and himself with it. Paddy
escaped with serious injury to his hands and ears, and a
general shake of the constitution, from which he has not
yet recovered. I am, however, going ahead too fast, and
must return to Parlis, where we made all our sister gun-
boats extremely happy by the information we had to
communicate of the fall of Quedah fort.
Little change had taken place in the state of affairs in
the river since my last visit ; but the difficulty of main-
taining the blockade was not small, in consequence of
the extraordinary distance we had to send for fresh
water. In proof of this, I was next day despatched to
Tamelan, to fill all the water-casks of the flotilla from
the water-holes of that village.
The good little Queen Devi was most anxious to assist
me, and gave every gallon of water she could spare ; but
her villagers were themselves somewhat straitened for
supplies, there having only been a couple of showers of
rain during the last two months ; and the parched earth
gaped everywhere in wide fissures, and looked as if long-
ing for that rainy season which was not then far distant.
PKEPARATIONS FOR FLIGHT. 181
Already had parties of her people been obliged to forage
up the stream for fresh water, and been fired at by what
they described as ^^ orcuig-jaliat,'^ or bad people — evi-
dently a sort of banditti, which, called into existence by
the hostilities in the province, waged war alike on either
side. The news we brought the good folks of Tamelan
of the fall of Quedah and Trang, decided the chieftainess
upon taking a step for which it was evident she had
some time made preparations. She therefore waited
upon me next morning, and informed me that her people
intended embarking all their movable property in their
prahus, and to proceed to a more secure spot within the
jurisdiction of the English Government. I tried hard
to persuade her to remain, and that I was sure Captain
Warren would explain to the Siamese how neutral her
conduct had been, and would secure good terms for
herself and followers, provided they submitted willingly
to the new order of things.
She assured me, however, that it was hopeless to
expect that the Siamese soldiery would obey their chiefs
in showing any forbearance to the Malay inhabitants,
and that if I refused her leave to depart, or she attempted
to prevent her people doing so, they would assuredly
disperse into the neighbouring jungle, and escape as they
best could from the sea-shore. Under these circum-
stances I v>^ished them God-speed, and promised her a
safe conduct to the ship, whence I knew she would be
allowed to proceed to Penang.
All the day was spent in hasty preparation ; the more
so, that two or three fugitives from the upper part of the
Setoue arrived with some horrid tale of atrocities com-
182 QUEDAH.
mitted by the invaders. Children and women were
staggering under loads of household goods ; weeping and
squalling going on on all sides ; and many of the prahus
in which they were embarking were so leaky that the
people were already baling. One could only think with
a shudder, as visions of blue sharks and alligators floated
before the imagination, what it would be when on the
high seas. Queen Devi, poor soul ! cried bitterly all
day, and told me of some old hereditary right she had
to the land hereabouts ; that some eighteen or twenty
years before, the wrath of the Emperor of Siam had
fallen with a fifty -fold greater force ujDon the Quedah
Malays, because it was less expected than at present ;
and that her family had been fugitives from that time
until she had returned in the previous autumn, hoping
to live quietly in the land of her birth — a hope which,
of course, had now proved to be fallacious.
As nearly all her best men had gone with their coun-
trymen into the interior to fight in defence of their
rights, there was a sad want of hands to perform the
necessary manual labour for the equipment of their
prahus. I therefore ordered my crew to lend a hand in
getting the sails, oars, and rudders of their vessels into
order for their voyage. The gratitude of the poor souls
for this piece of assistance knew no bounds ; and the
chieftainess, in return, told me that she gave me a legacy
of all the cocoa-nut trees and mangoes in the yiWage,
and informed me that there were a number of half-wild
buflaloes in the clearance, which we might shoot and
eat if we liked to do so.
In consequence of this information, I determined to
QUEEN DEVI'S LEGACY. 183
wait and secure such a treat for my poor crew, who had
not tasted a morsel of animal food during the four
months I had been with them ; and for how much
longer previously they alone knew. During the night
and morning the chieftainess and her followers left, in
ten prahus, laden as deep as they would swim, and
crammed like slavers with human beings. We gave
them a parting cheer, and soon afterwards landed, to see
what was to be picked up in the shape of food. Our
search was not successful, and even fruit was scarce upon
the cocoa-nut trees. My crew, however, soon struck
upon a method of obtaining something to eat, in the
shape of the heart of a cocoa-nut tree. This luxury
could only have been enjoyed under the peculiar circum-
stances through which the trees had become our pro-
perty ; for they had to be cut down, and then, on split-
ting open the gorgeous crown of leaves which forms the
capital of that useful species of palm, a white vegetable
substance was obtained, about three feet long, and as
thick as a woman's arm. Eaten raw, it tasted like a
dehcious nut, and when boiled it formed an excellent
vegetable.
The vandalism of destroying a noble tree for the sake
of one dish of fruit or vegetable was, however, too great
to be carried to any extent. I only allowed three or
four to be cut down, and consoled the men by assuring
them of beef ad lib. in the evening.
Jadee reconnoitred the rice-fields for the bullocks or
buffaloes, and reported to me that during the heat of the
day they had naturally retreated into the shady depths
of the jungle, and would only come out to feed in the
184 QUEDAH.
clearings -when the sun declined from the zenith. We
therefore went on board to burnish up our arms, and
get some salt ready for curing our anticipated surplus of
beef. I found Jamboo anxious to proceed up the river,
to procure from a certain bank a peculiar species of very
delicious shellfish, which I never have tasted anywhere
but in the Setoue, although it is, I believe, common to
the Straits of Malacca. I gave him permission, warning
him to retreat immediately should war parties of Siamese
or the orang-jahat fire upon him — an injunction which I
believe I might have well spared myself the trouble of
giving to the unAvarlike descendant of the British Mars.
About three o'clock Jadee and I started for our foray
against the buffaloes, with a single barrel each, and two
active men as beaters. As we went along, Jadee ex-
plained to me that the animals were perfectly wild, and
all that the Malays knew of them in Tamelan was, that
their young rice-fields had been sadly ravaged by them,
and that we should have to be, in the first place, very
'cute to get Avithin shot of them ; and in the next, it
would require some generalship, if we hit them in the
open ground, to escape their wrath ; for, as he sagely
observed, " They don't care about tigers or snakes ; and
a very wise man whom I once knew, who understood all
the buffaloes say to one another, told me that they don't
care for a man either."
"All right!" I said to Jadee ; "but don't you know
of any charm for getting near them, or, if we get near
them, for being sure of killing them?" — Nothing, I
knew, pleased Jadee so much as appealing to his powers
of necromancy.
BUFFALO-SHOOTING. 185
" Well, Tuhan," lie replied, "I do know an infallible
cliarni for bringing down man or animal ; and that is,
putting a small piece of pork-flesh (here he spat, and
cursed the unclean animal) down a gun-barrel. I intend
to practise it on Mahomet Alee ; but, Inshallah ! we will
get these buffaloes without."
"God is great!" I reverentially replied; "and it is
lucky we are able to do without the flesh of swine on
this occasion ; but if it is a charm, may it be plentiful,
Jadee ! when you meet the pirate Mahomet Alee ! "
Thus chatting, we strolled rapidly along, skirting the
western edge of the jungle, so that the strong shadow
might in some measure serve to conceal us, and keeping
to leeward of every animal in the cleared ground, the
wind being from the eastward. At last the quick eyes
of the Malays detected four or five animals feeding in a
hollow : and we commenced to stalk them up as if they
had been red deer. Aided by the wind and shadow, we
at last reached a small knoll unobserved ; and there,
through a mass of brushwood, had a good view of the
brutes, and were well within range of them. Jadee
peered over, and whispered that we were in a bad place,
but no better could be had. There was a fine tree lying
on its broadside not far ofl" ; its branches would have
given a cover against any charge, for it formed a natural
" abattis ; " but it was impossible to get there without
being seen by the cattle, who would either charge us, or
bolt immediately. I therefore arranged that our two
beaters should at once fall back again into the jungle,
out of which we had advanced some four hundred yards.
When they were safe, Jadee and I were to single out a
186 QUEDAH.
bull, and fire, then run for the fallen tree, to obtain
shelter before the rest of the herd were upon us. We
accordmgly carried this into execution, levelling our
muskets at a great black bull buffalo, who was on the
lookout whilst the rest fed. Something alarmed the
brute : he evidently caught sight of the beaters retiring
to the jungle, and, as if by magic, seemed to communi-
cate an alarm to the herd, which contained not more
than four or five cows with calves and another bull.
Seeing by his vicious look that he was going to charge
my men, I sang out, " Fire ! " Both our barrels went
off together, and down droj^jDed the lookout-bull. I was
so enchanted that I looked only at him. " Lari-lacasse ! "
screamed Jadee, suiting the action to the word, by start-
ing on his legs and running as fast as he could for the
fallen tree. It required no repetition of the admonition
for me to follow suit, and the. more so as one glance
showed me the other bull was in chase. The fifty yards
I had to go over were done like lightning, and I leapt the
stem and dashed after Jadee amongst the branches as the
brute crashed against them. After trotting briskly
round to see if there was an opening, it pawed the
earth fiercely ] and taking another volley from us, of
which one ball alone wounded it, the bull beat a retreat,
at which I was not sorry ; for a more spiteful-looking
beast than an enraged buffalo, I do not sujDpose the
whole range of the animal kingdom can produce.
It has none of that beauty of form which strikes one
in looking at a European bull. Its black smooth skin
is thinly covered with hair, not unlike that of an Eng-
lish pig ; its frame is long, bony, and rather angular ;
THE MALAYAN BUFFALO. 187
the feet or hoofs clumsy and massive ; the head long,
with an appearance of cunning ferocity about the eye,
very unlike the fearless look of our British bull. The
horns are long and sharp, thick as a man's arm close to
the head, and forming so open a curve that they can be
laid almost close back in the hollow of the shoulder ;
and their efficiency I was very ready to believe in,
without further proof than Jadee's assurance. We now
left our fortress and joined the beaters, who told us that
the wounded bull had retreated into the jungle, but was
bleeding too profusely to go far; we followed up his
trail, and soon found him in the centre of a thicket.
After some trouble we dislodged him and administered
the coup de grace, much to our delight, for neither
Jadee nor I were sportsmen in the proper acceptance of
the word ; and as we cheered over our trophy, I own to
the soft impeachment of allowing my mind to recur to
beefsteaks and marrow-bones, to which my rice-famished
palate had been long a stranger. Eipping open the
bull, we cut off as much meat as we could shoulder, and
proceeded to the Emerald, to send all hands up for the
rest of the carcass.
CHAPTEE XVIIL
JAMBOO FRIGHTENED BY A BIVER SPIRIT— THE ABORIGINES OF
MALAYIA — MALAYAN SUPERSTITIONS — AN "UNTOO," OR SPIRIT,
SEEN— MY CREDULITY TAXED — THE SPIRITS OF THE JUNGLE —
ON SUPERSTITIONS IN GENERAL — THE CHARMS OF SUPERSTITION
— MUSQUITOES AND SAND-FLIES — THE VILLAGE ON FIRE— FLAM-
ING COCOA-NUT TREES — INTENTIONAL DESTRUCTION — TRACES
OF MAN RAPIDLY OBLITERATED IN THE EAST.
The men soon brought off all the meat from the dead
buffalo, and as there was much more than we could eat
at once, the surplus was cut into thin shreds, and hung
up about the vessel, so that on the morrow the action
of the sun should convert it into what, in South America,
is styled " charqui," or dried beef.
Towards sunset, the sampan returned down the river
with only half a load of shellfish, Jamboo and his crew
having been frightened off the fishing-ground by what
Sutoo, the quartermaster, assured me was an Untoo, or
evil spirit. He explained to me, that while busy up to
their knees in water, an odd noise had been heard under
the overhanging trees on the opposite bank : looking in
that direction, they saw a man's head come up out of the
water ; the face was covered with hair, and it eyed them
in a fierce, threatening manner ; they shouted, jumped
THE ABORIGINES OF MALAYIA. 189
into the sampan, and fired at the creature ; it dived for
a minute, and then appeared again, grinning horribly.
Jamboo and his men decided that it was a demon, and
thought it better to decamp whilst their skins were
whole. I laughed heartily at their fears, and tried to
explain to them that it might be a seal. Jamboo, how-
ever, stoutly insisted that no seals were ever seen in
Malay ia ; and as I found myself in the minority, I quietly
acquiesced in the supposition that it was an unclean
spirit. Jadee said, if not the Old Gentleman, that it
must be one of the wild men who could imitate the
appearance of monkeys or apes, the cry of birds, or the
bowlings of wild beasts, so as even to deceive animals.
These wild men are the sad remnants of an aboriginal
race of diminutive negroes, who, at one time, were more
numerous, but are now only found in small isolated par-
ties, in the most inaccessible fastnesses of Malayia, living
amongst the branches of trees, to avoid the snakes and
beasts of prey. They are human beings in their most
degraded form — without religion, without any acknow-
ledged form of government, and only gifted with animal
instincts and passions. When found or caught by the
Malays, they are tied up or caged just as we should
treat chimpanzees.
I argued that it was very unlikely such creatures
should be down so close to the sea, and, least of all,
would they voluntarily show themselves to our men.
Jadee, however, suggested that the movements of large
bodies of armed men had disturbed them in their
haunts ; besides, that at one season of the year they
were known to wander towards the sea-shore, either for
190 QUEDAH.
tlie sake of procuring salt, or because shellfish were easily
obtainable. Under these circumstances, I was not sorry
Janiboo had returned ; for these wild men use the sum-
pit, or blow-pipe, with fearful skill, and blow small
poisoned arrows, a few inches long, with sufficient force
to destroy even birds upon the wing.
Sailors of every part of the world have a strong spice
of the romantic and superstitious in their composition,
and the Malays are decidedly no exception to the rule.
Indeed, the wild and enterprising life the majority of
them lead, and the many curious phenomena peculiar to
the seas and islands of their beautiful archipelago, could
never be accounted for by an uneducated but observant
and highly imaginative race, by any other than super-
natural agency. Often, during the evenings of the
blockade, had Jamboo recounted to me strange tales of
Malayian history : in all of them fiction and myth were
deliciously blended with truth, and facts could be easily
appealed to in corroboration of all he recounted. The
natural and supernatural, the miracles of the Romish
Church, Hindoo mythology, and Mahometan fables,
were rolled one into the other, making tales of thrilling
interest, which I cared not to unravel even had I been
able to do so.
There were proofs by the thousand amongst these
poor fellows of that connection with the world of spirits
which it seems to be the desire of man in every stage of
civilisation to assure himself of ; and I must say, I half
began to believe in their assertions upon that head ;
their faith was so earnest and childlike, that it worked
strongly upon even my own tutored convictions to the
MALAY SUPERSTITIONS. 191
contrary. Children never clustered round a winter fire
at home with more intense credulity and anxious sym-
pathy, than did my poor Malays to listen to some woeful
legend, derived from the blood-stained annals of the
Portuguese or Dutch rule in Malay ia and its islands.
As an instance of their childlike belief in spirits, and of
the strange way in which such an idea is supported by
optical delusions common to these latitudes, I may here
recount an event which no more than amused me at the
time, although the strange way in which Jamboo and
his men swore to having this day seen an " Untoo"
brought it back forcibly to my mind.
Just after the blockade commenced, in December of
the previous year, my gunboat was lying one night close
to the southern point of Quedah river. The mist fell
for a while like small rain upon us, but afterwards, at
about ten o'clock, changed into fine weather, with heavy
murky clouds overhead, through the intervals of which
we had momentary gleams of light from a young moon.
The air was cold and damp, and I naturally sought
shelter under my tent-shaped mat, although until mid-
night I considered myself responsible for a vigilant
lookout being kept. About eleven o'clock my attention
was called to the lookout-man, who, seated upon the
bow-gun, was spitting violently, and uttering some ex-
pressions as if in rejoroof or defiance, and continued to
do so very frequently. Ignorant at that time of the
character of my crew, such a peculiar proceeding made
me restless. Presently I saw another man go up to
him ; he pointed in the direction of the jungle, and
both repeated the conduct which had attracted my at-
192 QUEDAH.
tention : the second man then walked below, as if glad
to get off deck. Fairly puzzled, I walked forward. The
lookout-man had got his back turned to the jungle, but
was every now and then casting glances over his shoul-
der in a very furtive manner, and muttering sentences in
which Allah was invoked very earnestly. He seemed
glad to see me, and jumped up to salute me.
'' Anything new ? " I asked. " Prahus 1 "
" Teda, Touhan ; ]^o, sir !" was the answer ; and then
seeing me looking towards the jungle, he made signs
with his head that it was better to look elsewhere.
I immediately called Jamboo, the interpreter, and
desired him to ask what the Malay saw in the jungle.
Jamboo, as usual, sat down, black-fellow fashion, on
his hams, and, half asleep, drawled out my question,
and then coolly said —
"He says he saAV a spirit, sir."
" Nonsense !" I replied. " Ask him how 1 or where 1
It may be some Malay scouts."
Again Jamboo made an effort, and the oracle informed
me, that the man had distinctly seen an Untoo, or spirit,
moving about among the trees close to the water's edge:
he assured me he had seen it ever since the mist cleared
off, and that he had been praying and expectorating, to
prevent it approaching the gunboat, as it was a very
bad sort of spirit, very dangerous, and robed in a long
dress.
I expostulated with Jamboo for repeating such a non-
sensical tale, and said, " Explain to the man it is impos-
sible ; and that, if anything, it must be an animal, or a
man."
VISIT OF AN "UNTOO. 193
Jamboo, however, assured me, very earnestly, that
Malays often saw " Untoos ; '' that some of them were
dangerous, some harmless ; and that if I looked, the
Malay said, I could see it as well as himself.
I accordingly sat down by the man, and looked in-
tently in the same direction. We were about one hun-
dred and fifty yards off the jungle ; the water was just
up to its edge ; among the roots of trees, and for a few
yards in, there were small ridges of white shingle and
broken shells, which receded into darkness, or shone
out in distinct relief as the moonlight struck upon them.
When these patches of white shone out, I pointed
immediately, and asked if that was what he saw.
''JSTo, no!" said the Malay; and Jamboo added, " He
says he will tell you when he sees it."
Suddenly he touched me, and, pointing earnestly, ex-
claimed, " Look ! look ! "
I did so, and an odd tremor, I am not ashamed to
say, ran through my frame, as I caught sight of what
looked like the figure of a female with drapery thrown
around her, as worn by Hindoo women : it moved out
from the shade of the forest, and halted at one of the
hillocks of white sand, not more than 300 yards distant.
I rubbed my eyes ; whilst the interpreter called on a
Eomish saint, and the Malay spat vigorously, as if an
unclean animal had crossed his path. Again I looked,
and again I saw the same form : it had passed a dark
patch, and was slowly crossing another opening in the
forest.
Feeling the folly of yielding to the impression of
reality which the illusion was certainly creating on my
13
194 QUEDAH.
mind, I walked away, and kept the Malay employed in
different ways until midnight : he, however, every now
and then spat vehemently, and cursed all evil spirits
with true Mahometan fervour.
In the middle watch the Untoo was again seen, but
as it did not board us — as Jadee assured me Untoos of
a wicked description had been known to do — I conjec-
tured it was some good fairy, and at any rate we were
not again troubled with an Untoo until it appeared to
the fishing-party in the Setoue river.
These spectral illusions are not peculiar to the jungles
of Malayia ; there is no part of the world where they
do not exist in some form or other ; and I, for my part,
am not desirous of robbing them of their mystery : there
is a poetry, a romance, about them which invests with
awe or interest some wild spot or lonely scene that
otherwise would be unheeded.
The phantom-ship which will not furl her royals to
the storms of the Cape of Good Hope, and astonishes
the tempest-tossed seaman as she glimmers amidst the
clouds, sea, and mist of the great Southern Ocean, is too
charming a spirit for us to be easily robbed of; nay,
where is the sailor who has long sailed in those seas,
and not seen her 1 The spirit of the old pirate is still
observed, in stormy nights when the sea-bird cannot
even keep the sea, to row his tiny skiff through the
combing waves, visiting his hidden treasures in Nan-
tucket Bay. Among the sun-burnt reefs and on the
lonely mangrove-covered isles of the West Indies and
GuK of Mexico, the restless bodies of the buccaneers of
old are still seen to haunt the scenes of their former
PREVALENCE OF SUCH SUPERSTITIONS. 195
crimes. The broken-spirited Peruvian and tlie degen-
erate Spaniard attest that on the lofty table-lands of
the Bolivian Andes, east of Lake Titicaca, the phantom
forms of her departed kings still march by night, and
watch over the vast treasures that they there concealed
from the avarice of their conquerors. These are a few
of the many examples which might be adduced of a
general belief in the supernatural, of a belief in the con-
nection between this gross earth and the world of spirits,
whether bad or blessed. I care not to explain them
away ; for there is far more pleasure than fear in the
very possibility that such things may be.
Cold philosophy and the sceptic's science may build
up walls of impossibilities, and steel our hearts to the
belief that those who have laboured for good or evil
upon earth shall return no more to encourage or to warn
us in our wayfaring here. Who will believe them, but
those that are of them ? Eather let us rejoice that, even
if it be an infirmity of imaginative minds, we are blest
in believing that ' ' the beloved and true-hearted come to
visit us once more."
" Mortal," they softly say,
" Peace to thy heart !
We, too, yes, Mortal,
Have been as thou art ;
Hope-lifted, doubt-depressed,
Seeing in part ;
Tried, troubled, tempted.
Sustained, as thou art."
The closing shades of night brought off from the ad-
jacent jungle such clouds of musquitoes and sand-flies,
196 QUEDAH.
that we, at any rate, were soon recalled from dreams
of spirits and Untoos to tlie vile realities of mother
earth. The crew lighted pans of cocoa-nut husks, and
set them along the windward side of the vessel, so that
we were enveloped in a pungent smoke which threatened
to bring on ophthalmia ; but still I was a thin-skinned
treat the wretches had not perhaps ever before partaken
of ; they pierced through my light cotton garments, and I
felt morally certain Jadee would only discover the husk of
a midshipman by the morning, as all that was succulent
was fast being abstracted. I had promised to wait until
the morrow, for the purpose of shooting some peacocks
which had been seen ; but my resolution failed me, and
I determined to start at once if the night-breeze, which
was fast freshening, did not mend matters. My atten-
tion was, however, soon attracted to a more important
object. The land-breeze, as usual, came with a smart
gust, and almost simultaneously the deserted village
burst into flames in two or three places. We went
immediately to quarters, and prepared for an attack,
fancying, from the sudden way in which the fire com-
menced, that it was the act of some of the banditti of
whom the chieftainess had warned me.
The flames spread with awful rapidity; everything
was well calculated to promote ignition — houses, grass,
leaves were as dry as three months of a broiling sun
could make them : in fifteen minutes, one broad wave of
fire had enveloped the whole village ; and being to wind-
ward of the gunboat, we had to get the night-awnings
down, and drop the vessel very expeditiously out of the
way. This done, I landed two parties of men, ten in
THE VILLAGE IN FLAMES. 197
number each ; one party to try and stay the fire, the
other, armed, to resist any of the " orang-jahat," if they
were about.
Sad as the scene was at first, it became truly terrible
when the flames extended themselves to the tops of the
cocoa-nut trees ! — the felt-like substance between the
roots of the leaves, as well as the leaves themselves,
catching fire, and communicating from one to the other,
until the whole plantation resembled a row of gigantic
torches flaming and waving in the air. We were of
course unable to make any further attempt to stay the
conflagration, and some had narrow escapes of their lives
from the fierce rapidity with which the fire leaped from
one object to the other, and licked up with its fiery
tongue everything as it went.
'No natives nor Siamese were to be seen in any direc-
tion ; and I afterwards pretty correctly ascertained the
origin of the fire. Under every one of the houses, which,
as usual, were raised some three feet from the earth, the
natives of Tamelan had been in the habit of throwing
the husks of the rice used daily in their families, form-
ing, on the day they left, very moderate-sized heaps;
and when they departed, the embers from their hearths
had been thrown on those heaps of husks. So long as it
was calm, the ignited husks of rice had merely smouldered,
but directly the breeze sprang up, they were fanned into
flames, and in a few minutes, as I have described, wrapt
the whole village in a sheet of fire.
The people of Tamelan had evidently determined that
their conquerors should not dwell in the houses their
industry had constructed; and my Malays seconded
198 QUEDAH.
them, by not pointing out to me the consequence hkely
to arise from leaving the smouldering fires in the deserted
village. ]^ext day the sun rose on a row of calcined
trees and a patch of burnt fragments. Tamelan no
longer existed, and the next monsoon, with its rains,
would hand over to the dominion of the jungle the very
spot on which it stood. The footsteps of man are readily
obliterated by the rapid growth of Eastern vegetation :
its action is to be compared to nothing but that of the
ocean, which bears but the impress of the stamp of the
steamship for a minute, and then laughs and rolls on,
scorning the pigmy that has crossed its surface. So the
green forests of these lands of rank vegetation close in,
and wave over race after race of men, who battle with
it for a while, and pass away, leaving no more traces of
their existence in the perishable records of this earth,
than does the keel of the ship over the surface of the
waters.
In the forests of Malayia the traveller already finds
remains of temples and inscriptions, hidden in creepers,
vines, and jungle-grass ; they have not even a tradition
attached to them, and the best-read Eastern historian
cannot decide whether the once great kingdom of Pegu
extended its boundaries thus far, or whether these ruins
are those of some ancient INIalay nation, which held a
sway in this peninsula before a pressure from the north
forced them to push throughout the archipelago, nay,
even Polynesia, for a resting-place, extinguishing, in
their character of conquerors, the negro race which un-
doubtedly was the aboriginal one of those islands.
CHAPTEE XIX.
A CREW OF WRETCHED FUGITIVES — " ORANG-LAUT," OR SEA
GYPSIES — LOW CIVILISATION OF THE ORANG-LAUT — TOTAL
ABSENCE OF ALL RELIGIOUS FEELING THEIR MODE OF LIVING
— THE PERSONAL APPEARANCE OF ORANG-LAUT — DEARTH OF
FRESH WATER — ORDERED TO PROCURE AVATER UP THE RIVER
— PARLIS AND PIRATE FLEET — INTERVIEW WITH HAGGI LOUNG
— PERMISSION GRANTED TO PROCURE WATER — TOM WEST's AD-
DRESS TO THE MALAYS — PADDLE UP THE RIVER — TROPICAL
MALAYAN SCENERY — PASS KANAH — OBTAIN FRESH WATER.
Let us return, liowever, to Tamelan. I filled my water-
casks with all tlie water that was procurable, and started
out of the river. When crossing Setoue Bay, a prahu
was seen coasting along the edge of the jungle, and after
a short chase we caught her. The people in her were
devoid of the usual Malay clothing, and in a most abject
condition; they described themselves as Orang-Patani,
or people of Patani (a Malayu-Siamese province on the
opposite coast), and said they were flying before the
Siamese army.
My Malays owned they were countrymen, but spoke
of them as barbarians of the lowest caste, pariahs of
Malayia, and summed them up by the title of Bad People,
or Gypsies, who make war by petty theft alike upon
Malays or Siamese.
200 QUEDAH.
The specimens before us were decidedly very objec-
tionable in every way : they were dirty to a degree, with
a most villanous expression of countenance. After their
first fear wore off, the women exhibited a most shame-
less want of modesty, and the men evinced a total ab-
sence of all jealous feeling for their wives or regard for
their children; and yet, when one poor wretch offered
me his two children for a half-bushel measure of rice, I
could not help thinking their vices were the result of
their sad, sad load of want and misery ; and, giving them
rice without taking their unfortunate offspring, we sent
them on their way rejoicing.
These fugitives I believe to be identical with the
Orang-laut, or Men of the Sea, spoken of by the earliest
as well as modern writers when describing the different
Malay races. Their proper home is in prahus, or canoes,
although some of them occasionally settle upon the bor-
ders of the sea. Like the sons of Ishmael, their hand is
against every man, and every man's hand against them.
The Malay of more civilised communities holds them in
contempt ; and he is the only man who can be expected
to have any sympathies with them. They are found
haunting in small groups — for their numbers do not
entitle them to the appellation of tribes — the neighbour-
hood of our flourishing colonies, as well as the most se-
cluded and barren places in Malayia. They are usually
found east of the Straits of Malacca, although, as I have
just shown, they reach the western side sometimes.
Under fifty different names, they are known to the in-
habitants of Siam, Java, Sumatra, Eorneo, and the Mo-
luccas, and in all cases bear a bad reputation.
ORANG-LAUT, OR SEA GYPSIES. 201
The best description of tliem is given by a Mr Thom-
son, a gentleman 'who has written on the Archipelago. I
■take the liberty of transcribing it entire, and can testify
to the truth of the account, in so far as they came under
my own observation : —
"This tribe takes its name, Salatar, from a creek in
the island of Singapore, on the narrow strait which
divides it from the mainland, not above eight miles dis-
tant from that flourishing and civilised British emporium.
Its numbers are about 200, living in forty boats or
canoes ; and their range in quest of subsistence does not
exceed thirty square miles. Their language is the Ma-
layan, and considerable pains were taken to elicit any
words foreign to that language, but without success. As
a proof of their possessing the same language as the
Malays, I may mention that the children were heard,
when playing, to converse in this language, and were
perfectly understood by the Malays amongst our crew.
" They are possessed of no weapons, either offensive
or defensive. Their minds do not find a higher range
than necessity compels : the satisfying of hunger is their
only pursuit. Of water they have abundance without
search. With the sarkab, or fish-spear, and the parang
or chopper, as their only implements, they eke out a
miserable subsistence from the stores of the rivers and
forests. They neither dig nor plant, and yet live nearly
independent of their fellow-men ; for to them the staple
of life in the East, rice, is a luxury. Tobacco they pro-
cure by the barter of fish, and a few marketables collected
from the forests and coral reefs. Of esculent roots they
have the prioh and kalana, both bulbous, and not unlike
202 QUEDAH.
coarse yams. Of fruits, they eat the tampii, kledang,
and buroh, when they come in season ; and of animals,
they hunt the wild hog, but refrain from snakes, iguanas,
and monkeys.
" On their manners and customs I must need be short,
as only long acquaintance with their prejudices and do-
mestic feelings could afford a clue to the impulse of their
actions. Of a Creator they have not the slightest com-
prehension, a fact so difficult to believe, when we find
that the most degraded of the human race, in other quar-
ters of the globe, have an intuitive idea of this unerring
and primary truth imprinted on their minds, that I took
the greatest care to find a slight image of the Deity
within the chaos of their thoughts, however degraded
such might be, but was disappointed. They knew nei-
ther the God nor the devil of the Christians or Maho-
metans, althougli they confessed they had been told of
such; nor any of the demigods of Hindoo mythology,
many of whom were recounted to them.
"In the three great epochs of their individual life,
we consequently found no rites nor ceremonies enacted.
At birth the child is only welcomed to the world by
the mother's joy ; at marriage, a mouthful of tobacco
and one chupah (gallon) handed to one another confirm
the hymeneal tie : at death, the deceased are wrapped
in their garments, and committed to the parent earth.
' The women weep a httle, and then leave the spot,'
were the words of our simple narrator. Of paris, dewas,
mambangs, and other light spirits that haunt each moun-
tain, rock, and tree, in the INIalayan imagination, they
did not know the names, nor had they anything more to
THEIE MODE OF LIVIXG. 203
be afraid of, as they themselves said, than * the pirates of
Galang, who are men like themselves.' With this I was
forced to be contented, and teased them no more on the
subject.
*' They do not practise circumcision, nor any other
Mahometan rite. Their women intermarry with the
Malays not unfrequently : they also give their women
to the Chinese ; and an old woman told ns of her having
been united to individuals of both nations at an early
period of her life. Their tribe, though confining its range
within the limits of thirty square miles, may still be con-
sidered of a very wandering kind. In their sampans
(canoes), barely sufficient to float their loads, they skirt
the mangroves, collecting their food from the shores and
forests as they proceed, exhausting one spot and then
searching for another. To one accustomed to the com-
forts and artificial wants of civilised life, theirs, as a con-
trast, appears to be extreme. Huddled up in a small
boat hardly measuring twenty feet in length, they find all
the domestic comforts they are in want of. At one end
is seen the fireplace, in the middle are the few utensils
they may be in possession of, and at the other end,
beneath a mat not exceeding six feet in length, is found
the sleeping apartment of a family, often counting five
or six, together with a cat and a dog. Under this they
find shelter from the dews and rains of the night and
heat of the day. Even the Malays, in pointing out these
stinted quarters, cried out, ' How miserable ! ' But of
this the objects of their commiseration were not aware.
In these canoes they have enough for all their wants.
" Their children sport on the shore in search of shell-
204 QUEDAH.
fish, at low water, and during high water they may be
seen climbing the mangrove branches, and dashing from
thence into the water with all the life and energy of
children of a colder clime, at once affording ns proof
that even they have their joys.
" The personal appearance of these people is unpre-
possessing, and their deportment lazy and slovenly,
united to much filthiness of person. The middle portion
of the body of men and women is generally covered by
a coarse wrajDper made from the bark of the trap tree
(a species of Atrocarpus), which extends from the navel
to the knee. The women affected a slight degree of
modesty at first approach, which soon gave way. The
locks of the men are bound up with a tie of cloth, and
sometimes by the Malay sapu-tangan (kerchief) ; those
of the women fall in wild luxuriance over their face and
shoulders. Their children go entirely naked until the
age of puberty."
That I should return empty-handed to Parlis, in so
far as a large supply of water was concerned, gave great
cause of uneasiness to the officer in charge of the block-
ading flotilla ; for it was self-evident that without water
it would be utterly impossible for us to maintain a rigid
blockade, and just now it became highly important to
the safety and success of our allies that we should do so.
Mr Drake,* the senior mate, sent me ofi" immediately to
tell Captain Warren, who was then in the Hyacinth,
watching the channel which exists between the Lancavas
islands and Parlis, and to beg a little water from him.
The ship was, however, running short, and Captain
* The present Commander Thomas G. Drake, R.N.
OKDEEED IN SEARCH OF WATER. 205
Warren was determined not to be foiled, by having to
quit his post at such an important moment for water.
He therefore desired me to tell Mr Drake that we must
not come again to the ship for water ; that it must be
foraged for, and must be taken, if it could not be ob-
tained in any other manner.
One of the other gunboats was despatched to seek
water elsewhere, and I was ordered to start next morn-
ing in a large sampan, with a couple of empty casks, to
procure fresh water above the reach of the tide in ParKs
river. My perfect confidence in the Malays, in spite of
Mahomet Alee's threats, enabled me to look forward to
my cruise into the very heart of their territory without
any feeling but that of great curiosity, and a pardonable
degree of pride at being the first to see all the war-
prahus.
Early in the forenoon I started in a good sampan, with
one English sailor, an interpreter, and six picked Malays,
all well armed ; but their muskets and pistols were
placed where they would be ready for use without
attracting attention. The flood-tide ran strong, and we
swept with it rapidly up the stream. The first mile or
two was very monotonous, the banks being for the most
part of mangrove, and another tree which seems to delight
in an equally amphibious life. At a curve in the river
we came suddenly on a stockade, and, being hailed im-
mediately by some men on guard, I felt to what a
thorough test we were going to put Malay chivalry.
The stockade across the stream was well and neatly
constructed, having a couple of tidal booms fitted in such
a way that the guard could at any moment, during either
206 QUEDAH.
flood or ebb tide, stop up the only passage ; and on
either band, some bundred yards back from tbe river,
rose conical-sbaped bills, on whose summits formidable
batteries, constructed of heavy timber, commanded the
stream in every direction.
The pangleman or officer at the guard-house smiled
when I told him I was going up the river for water, and
said he had no objection to my proceeding to Parlis to
ask for permission ; but as to obtaining it, he laughed,
and said all would depend upon the humour I should
find Datoo Mahomet Alee in. Another three miles of
fine open forest replete with Oriental interest now
occurred, and the country improved in appearance after
we had passed a spur of picturesque hills, through which
the river had forced its way. Our approach to Parlis
town was proclaimed by a line of war-pralms moored to
either bank. The rapidity of the current, as well as my
anxiety to reach the fresh-water point of the river, gave
us but a flying glance at this much-talked-of and long-
wished-for pirate fleet ; and besides which, I felt it
desirable not to appear as if on a reconnoitring ex-
pedition.
They were handsome-looking craft, not very numerous,
but with fine long guns mounted in their bows : they
had but few men in each of them, though otherwise
ready for sea.
Of Parlis we could not see much beyond that it was
situated upon a plain on the south side of the river, and
appeared capable of containing four or five thousand
inhabitants. We pulled in for a light wharf constructed
of bamboos, whereon an armed Malay had hailed to
INTERVIEW WITH HAGGI LOUNG. 207
know what we wanted : and he, in reply to my answer
that we wished to see the Datoo, said that was his house.
I landed with two or three men, and, surrounded by a
crowd of armed Malays, who hastened from all sides,
was escorted to Haggi Loung.
That worthy received me, and said that Datoo Ma-
homet Alee was absent with his men fighting the
Siamese : but what might be my errand 1
I told him I was sent by my senior officer for water.
The Haggi laughed heartily for so holy a man, and
having, much to my disgust, recalled to my unwilhng
recollection the visit he made me on a former occasion,
asked how Mr Barclay and Mr Stewart were 1
Bother the fellow's memory ! I thought ; he will
next remember Jadee, and then, maybe, his abusive
opinion of Mahomet Alee's mother. The Haggi was
inclined to be satirical, and asked if it was the custom
of " white men" to cut off salt and powder from their
enemies, and then to go to them for water 1
I said I did not know ; but that I supposed my senior
officer had been given to believe no difficulty would be
made, or otherwise I should not assuredly have been
sent. And then I pointed to the tide, and asked him
not to detain me, for I wanted to return with my load
of water upon the ebb.
The Haggi with good -humour told me' to go : he
would not stop me, but warned me to be careful, as all
the country was in arms, and neither he nor Datoo
Mahomet Alee could be responsible for our safety.
That was all I wanted : so I bowed, and started back
to the boat. Numbers of armed Malays — some of them.
208 QUEDAH.
from their beautiful creeses and spears, doubtless men of
importance — thronged the Haggi's anteroom and the
pier j a few of them scowled in an unfriendly manner,
and some of the younger game-cocks ruffled up, as if
anxious to throw a feather with my men. I kept an
eye upon them, however, and got all safe down without
any farther interchange of civilities than a short address
which my English body-guard made them off the end of
the pier.
Turning round upon the crowd, and eyeing them with
a look which made those nearest to him back a little, as
if wishing to increase the intervening distance, he said —
"Hah! you're mighty sarcy, you yellow-faced beggars;
but just you come down. Jack, with your prahus to the
mouth of this here river of your'n" (here my body-guard
performed a pantomine, pointing at their vessels), •' and
then, as sure as my name's Tom West, if we do not give
you plenty to eat " (here he added the Malay for eating),
" darn me, say I'm a Dutchman."
" Get in the boat, sir, immediately ! " I shouted.
" Hi, hi ! " said Tom West, as he jumped into the
boat ; " but I likes to give a set of sarcy beggars a bit of
my mind, sir. — Lor' bless you ! " continued he, smiling
derisively at the young Malays who were crowing on the
pier ; " Lor' bless you ! you are nice young men indeed.
Please God and Lord Mount Edgecumbe, one of these
days I'll have some of you by the scruff of the neck ;
and if I don't give you a hug, say I never hailed from
the west country ! "
Tom West, like all sailors, evidently took it for
granted they must understand English, or, if they did
PADDLE UP THE EIVER. 209
not, that they ought to do so ; and when I explained
to him that it was folly speaking to people who could
not comprehend a word he said, he replied, " Ah ! sir,
they are hke their country monkeys ; they never under-
stands you until you thrashes them : give me a dozen
shipmates with our pinnace's stretchers* in Parlis, and
I'm blest if we would not soon make them understand
English, and talk it too ! "
Unprepared to dispute this theory, I allowed the sub-
ject to drop, and we soon swept out of sight of Parlis,
the Malays in my crew striking up their usual paddle-
song, each in turn repeating a short verse in a high key,
sentimental or witty, and the whole breaking into a
chorus which ran somewhat thus —
" Ah ! ya-n5 — nasi, na no
Ah ! ya no ! "
and sounded very prettily, while the movements of their
bodies and stroke of their paddles kept time to the tune.
The scenery improved rapidly. We appeared to be
approaching a range of hills which would bar our farther
ascent, and I expected every moment to come to a fall
or a rapid ; instead of which we swept through another
gap way in the hills, similar to the one where the stockade
had been erected, and then we entered into the broad
valley of Quedah ; for in the far distance the lofty and
picturesque peaks of the Malayan Ghauts stretched in a
north and south direction, with nothing intervening.
The forest was open, and although the long drought had
* A boat's stretcher is a piece of wood which goes across the bottom
of a boat, to enable the rowers to throw a greater weight on their
oars. It is a favourite weapon of offence with English boats' crew.
14
210 QUEDAH.
told somewhat on the leaves of the trees as well as the
grass and underwood, the varied and mellowed tint of
withered vegetation softened and added to the beautiful
variety of the scene.
Birds were in places very numerous, and a species of
pheasant ran along the banks of the river as if it was
never fired at. Schools of monkeys and numerous alli-
gators, with the glimpse of a couple of deer, showed
what abundance of sport there was to be had. I had,
however, too anxious a duty to perform to wait for
shooting bird or beast, except in one instance, when I
observed a large female alligator, with two young ones
not two feet long lying by her, close to the bank. De-
sirous of shooting the dam, so as to capture the babies
alive, I fired, and struck her, as I fancied, mortally, for
she sprang half round, and there lay champing her teeth
together in a savage manner, as if in agony. There
were several other alligators about, and I proposed to
the men in my boat to get out and chase them away, as
I had often seen them do at the mouth of the river.
But they would not hear of it, and assured me it was a
very different thing to attack alligators that were accus-
tomed to men, as these brutes were ; besides which,
fresh water always made them more savage and danger-
ous. Unwilling to be detained, I pushed on as hur-
riedly as possible ; and when we had gone, by my calcu-
lation, a distance of sixteen miles from the entrance of
the river, another town, called Kangah, hove in sight.
Desirous of making the most of the favourable tide,
I determined, at all risks, to visit Kangah on my way
down ', and except that a few children ran out and gazed
WATER PEOCUEED. 211
upon us, our appearance attracted little curiosity. A
mile or so above the town we arrived opposite some
powder-mills, where a Malay sentry hailed us, and hav-
ing told him we had Haggi Loung's permission to go for
water, he did not detain us.
This fellow's confidence in his chief amused me. I
asked him if Datoo Mahomet Alee was at Kangah.
"JSTo," he replied, "he is on his march to Quedah ! "
" How about the Siamese ? " my interpreter asked.
" Pish ! " said the sentinel ; " the Siamese ! they will
all be destroyed ! "
We did not wait for further information, and, shortly
afterwards, finding the water perfectly fresh, we being
then about eighteen miles from the sea, we laid on our
paddles and filled our casks, bathed, washed, and drank
water, with all the abandon of men who had long been
strangers to the luxury of fresh water in large quantities.
CHAPTEE XX.
THE LADIES OF KANGAH BATHING — HALT TO LUNCH AT KANGAH
— KANGAH, ITS SITUATION — MODE OF CONSTRUCTING MALAY
HOUSES — THE MOSQUE — THE BAZAAR AND ITS OCCUPANTS —
ARRIVAL OF ARMED MEN — RETURN TO THE BOAT — PRAISE-
WORTHY FIDELITY OF THE MALAYS — MALAY INDEPENDENCE OF
CHARACTER — THE PLEASURES OF MEMORY— A MALAY FAMILY-
SCENE— RETURN TO PARLIS — PULO QUETAM — TRADE DURING
BLOCKADE.
Our casks filled, we turned our head down the stream
and dropped down to Kangah, where I purposed having
our noonday meal, and waiting for the tide to have
ebbed sufficiently to insure us a rapid passage down to
the gunboats. At a point just above the town, where
some lofty trees threw a pleasant shade haK across the
stream, all the female population of Kangah, as well as
the children, were enjoying a bath. We passed through
the scene of their enjoyment; and, to say the least of it,
it was amazingly novel, and carried one back to the days
of Captain Cook in a very abrupt manner. The married
women had on dark-blue cotton dresses, but the rest
were in that cool attire in which artists usually repre-
sent our first parents to have indulged in Paradise. Gal-
lantry compels me to allow that conscious innocence
formed a very charming mantle to the young ladies. A
THE LADIES OF KANGAH BATHING. 213
contrary and depraved state was fully exemplified in Tom
West, who actually blushed through his bronzed cheeks,
and expressed his opinion with "Dang ye ! you're a rum
lot. I wonder what my old mother would say, if she
could only see ye. I wish Parson Hawker* was here ! "
My Malays, however, paddled through these water-
nymphs without uttering a word or making a gesture
which could be construed into anything like disrespect.
Whether this propriety arose from a proper and gener-
ous feehng at intruding upon the privacy of the women,
or from a knowledge that any insult, real or imaginary,
would be quickly resented by the ready creeses of the
kinsmen of these ladies, I know not ; but whatever the
motive, it was equally a source of gratification to myself;
and the comparison I drew in my own mind as to what
would have been the conduct, under similar circum-
stances, of six of our own English seamen, was not in
favour of the latter. Choosing a convenient part of
the river bank opposite Kangah, we made our sampan
fast, and proceeded to cook rice for lunch. A moderate
crowd collected to look at the white men, who were Tom
West and myself ; but they were civil, and behaved very
differently from those of Parlis.
Some person in the town sent me down a basket of
delicious mangoes, and others lent us some mats to shield
ourselves from the rays of the sun, which poured down
with equatorial fierceness upon our exposed boat. All
* Parson Hawker is an imaginary clergyman, who, the west-country
sailors assert, used to marry them per force to the Devonport lasses,
and exact his fee in savings out of their naval rations — such as flour,
pork, &c.
214 QUEDAH.
the inhabitants were most anxious to know how they
would be treated by our blockading force, if obliged to
fly before the Siamese ; and it was very evident, the
description my Malays gave them of our kindness to
those who fled from Quedah and Tamelan made a
favourable impression.
Kangah stands on the north bank of the Parlis river,
and, like other towns in this country, has only just
enough clear ground round it to afibrd room for the
growth of such rice, fruit, and vegetables as were re-
quired for the consumption of the inhabitants — the un-
reclaimed jungle sweeping round the cultivated land and
orchards in a great curve, whose radius might possibly
be a mile and a half.
The houses were for the most part detached, standing
in little gardens, or amongst pretty clusters of cocoa-nut
and Penang (or betel-nut) palms, as well as many other
trees peculiar to this country : not the least pleasing of
these was the graceful banana, which overshadowed
almost every abode, and its deliciously cold-looking dark-
green leaf was very grateful to the sight.
It is almost impossible to convey a good idea of the
beauty and neatness of abodes entirely constructed of
wood, bamboo, and matting or leaves. ' Those of Kangah,
although far above the river, were, according to the con-
stant rule, built upon piles three to four feet high ; pos-
sibly this might be a necessary measure for the rainy
season, but at that time, when the earth was baked as
hard as rock, it seemed an act of supererogation. They,
however, were generally oblong in the ground-j)lan, hav-
ing a gallery extending along each of the long sides, to
MALAY HOUSES. 215
which a primitive ladder gave access from the ground.
The floor (for each house was only one storey high) con-
sisted of strips of bamboo, sufficiently strong to bear the
weight, but giving a pleasant spring to the tread ; over
these bamboos, which were perhaps an inch apart, and
kept so by a transverse " snaking " of strips of ratan,
neat mats were spread, their number, fineness, and
beauty depending uj^on the wealth of the owner and
the skill of his women. The walls were constructed of
cocoa-nut and other palm leaves, secured with such cun-
ning and neatness as to be perfectly wind and water
tight, and at the same time j)leasing to the eye. The
roofs were somewhat high and peaked, betokening heavy
rains, and with broad overhanging eaves, which added
to the picturesque appearance of the buildings, and re-
minded me strongly of the chalets in Switzerland. In
some cases the houses were divided into two or more
apartments, and the balcony then served as a means of
communication between one room and the other, besides
being at all times the favourite lounge of the inhabitants.
In the centre of the town a mosque-like building rose
amongst the trees, and proved that, although the many
pretty houses scattered about might be as evanescent as
their fragile construction indicated, nevertheless the site
of Kangah had, in Siamese as well as in Malay annals,
been always considered that of a town.
Whilst the rice was cooking, I thought I might as well
run up and see the town : a boy volunteered to show
Jamboo and me the bazaar and Datoo Mahomet Alee's
elephants, and we accordingly started with a couple of
followers.
216 QUEDAH.
The bazaar consisted of one narrow street, running at
right angles to the river. Each shop had a sloping and
open front, well shielded from the heat of the sun, on
which was displayed the thousand strong- smelling fruits
and vegetables, the gaudy Manchester prints, glaring red
and yellow handkerchiefs, pretty mats and neat kagangs,
piles of rice and tubs of ghee, handsome creeses, and for-
midable swords or choppers, which may be seen in all
bazaars of Singapore, Malacca, or Penang. There were
Mahometan natives of the Madras Presidency, swathed
in turbans and robes of calico — the embodied forms of
the Great Moguls which figure on our playing-cards ;
greasy, black, and very strong-smelling KHngs chattered,
lied, and cheated as Klings only can do ; Malays swag-
gered about, decked out in gay attire, and sporting beau-
tiful arms and silver-mounted spears, looking so saucy
and bold that one felt half inclined to pat them on the
back, and say, "Well done!" for they knew as well as
we did that their hour had struck, and all the scene
would soon be dissipated like a dream, and they be pirat-
ing elsewhere. A few Chinese, the Jews of the Eastern
Archipelago,* were there also. They were so obsequious,
so anxious to attract the attention of a British midship-
man, that he, with all the dignity of that proud caste,
allowed them to change a dollar for him. The Chinese
were mostly money-changers. The insolent contumely
they endured at the hands of the Malays struck me
* It is but justice to these industrious emigrants to say that they
have been invaluable as labourers, agriculturists, artisans, and mer-
chants, throughout our colonies ; and better-conducted subjects her
Majesty Queen Victoria nowhere possesses.
A VISIT TO THE TOWN. 217
much. The natives of India, when ill-treated, chattered
like a nest of rooks. Not so the Chinese : they bore it
with cringing and shrinking; but one could see, by the
twinkle of their little glittering eyes, that they only
abided their time to bite the heel that bruised them.
JSTo one could have supposed, from the scene in the
bazaar, that fifteen thousand Siamese were close at hand,
ready to impale, disembowel, or play any of the many
pranks I have elsewhere related, upon each or all of
those before me.
People, however, in the East, live with their lives in ;
their hands ; and, most of all, such a floating population
as that of Kangah, consisting of pirates and those blood-
suckers who lived upon them, wretches who fattened
alike upon them and their prey.
I now proposed to go to the elephants, which, from
our guide's description, were at the other end of the town.
We had just disengaged ourselves from the crowd, heat,
and strong smells of the bazaar, when a general commo-
tion occurred in the town, which had hitherto exhibited
no signs of life except in the bazaar. Boys ran along
screaming, women ran out in the balconies, and appeared
very excited ; and soon afterwards a large body of Malays,
armed to the teeth, covered with dust, and looking much
wayworn, passed rapidly along, marching, however, with-
out order or military array.
I was informed through Jamboo that it was impos-
sible for me to visit the royal stables to-day, as some
important event had evidently just taken place, and a
great chief — possibly the redoubted Datoo himself — had
arrived. I did not much care about pushing the point,
218 QUEDAH.
as I was on sliore on my own responsibility; and Haggi
Loiing's warning left me no excuse but that of curiosity,
if we got into a scrape. One of my men now sidled up
to me, and said that some of the natives were getting up
a report that I was a spy, and that one of them had
threatened him. I decided to return to my boat ; and,
from expressions which were uttered by those around,
found it was high time I did so. Indeed, I am not sure
we should have escaped without a scuffle, had not a
venerable-looking man joined us, and by his authority
enforced a little more respect from the rabble. He,
however, though extremely civil to me, told a deliberate
falsehood, and said that the excitement arose from " the
Malays under Datoo Mahomet Alee having retaken
Quedah ! " whereas the truth was, that the Siamese
were again victorious, and marching down on the good
town of Kangah.
The fidelity of the Malays generally to their chiefs
was, in my opinion, most praiseworthy : they never be-
trayed any secrets, and never were otherwise than san-
guine of eventual success. The most unfortunate, and
even those apparently discontented, never proffered in-
telligence ; and if cross-examined, invariably told us
tales which we afterwards would discover had been in-
vented to satisfy our inquisitiveness without betraying
their countrymen or chiefs. Men who had escaped from
the surprise and massacre of Allegagou, or the horrors
of the march upon Sangorah, never upbraided their
general, Mahomet Type-etam, but spoke of him as a very
brave although harsh man ; and one could not help
recognising this valuable trait of fidelity in the Malays,
FIDELITY OF THE MALAYS. 219
and expressing a hope that in time we should find a way
of enlisting that feeling generally on the side of their
British rulers.'" That they were hot-blooded and im-
petuous, there is no need to deny ; but that fiery inde-
dependence of character could have been favourably
moulded to their own advantage, had Europeans tried
to conciliate the Malays instead of crushing them.
Like spaniels, the natives of the whole seaboard of
the Indian peninsula lick the hand that chastises them :
not so the Orang-Malayau ; and we Englishmen should
be the first to honour a race who will not basely submit
to abuse or tyranny.
The ebb tide was running strong as I jumped into
my boat, and, casting off from the shore, we were soon
"spinning" — to use a seaman's phrase — down the
stream ; and Kangah, like a bright and sunny picture
which one has seen but once in a hfetime, left a pleasant
impression on my youthful mind not easily efifaceable :
one of those bright spots in the expanse of memory,
which carry one back from manhood, worldly struggles,
and withered aspirations, to that blest time
''When the breeze of a joyful dawn blew free
In the silken sail of infancy."
It is, I think, still a question which is the happier
man of the two ; he who, loving the beautiful in all its
varied forms, finds it in some narrow spot where his
* The Ceylon rifle regiments are a most valuable corps, composed
of Malays famous for their fidelity to their British officers, and have,
during the war in Kandy, done right good service. Their present
boast is, that if a pin is lost in the forests of Ceylon, they can find
it.
220 QUEDAH.
lot in life may have fixed him — some petty area in which
he is born, exists, and dies ; or the wanderer who for
a while is being pushed on from one gorgeous scene to
the other, his recollection glowing with the memory of
the exceeding beautiful — of the golden East, its flood of
glowing light and depth of purple shade, the waving
palms, and gloomy forests peopled by races who have
borrowed their passions and feelings from the burning
sun ; and then returns to some quiet nook in the gloomy
I^orth, to await the " canker and the worm," cheering
his latter days by the reminiscences of the bright and
beautiful he has elsewhere enjoyed.
Some miles below Kangah the ebbing tide had ren-
dered a spot in the river fordable, and we had some
difficulty in passing it : whilst detained for this purpose,
a Malay and his family crossed it. He, from his dress,
was evidently of the better class, and armed like a very
Rustan. The Asiatic indifference of this hero to the
safety of his wives and family amused me : on reaching
the water, he stalked across the ford, without even deign-
ing to look behind to see how his three or four children
fared. The two women were very modestly clad in
blue sarangs, one of which crossed the chest close under
the arms, and the other hung like a petticoat from the
hips to the ankles. They, poor souls ! were loaded with
all the household goods of their lord as well as those of
their children, who, following at their heels, had few
garments to boast of : indeed, the two youngest were
perfectly naked, with the exception of a silver fig-leaf,
or heart, which hung in front, and an amulet tied round
the neck by a bit of string. These imps were not tall
DESPERATE POSITION OF THE MALAYS. 221
enough to ford the river, but took the water, to my aston-
ishment, like fish, and gambolled across the stream.
]S'o interruption took place at Parlis, and, aided by a
rapid tide, we reached the boats in good time, no one
being more cordial in his reception of me than my cox-
swain, the worthy Jadee. I slept soundly tha't night,
and my lullaby was the voice of Jadee, holding forth to
Jamboo on my good fortune in having found Mahomet
Alee absent, for he could not be brought to believe that
he would have allowed me to procure water. In this
idea, however, Jadee was mistaken ; for we afterwards
knew that the Datoo had been perfectly aware of my
visit to Kangah, but his policy was now to try and estab-
lish amicable relations with the white men in his rear,
as the ten thousand muskets of His Eankokian Majesty
pressed him sadly in his front.
Indeed, affairs were now in a desperate position with
the Malay chieftains; yet they determined to play the
game out to the last card, in the hope of some lucky
turn of chances in their favour. Eastern armies, they
knew, were readily assembled and as quickly dispersed :
famine or pestilence had, on a former occasion, swept
away in a few days a Siamese host : it might do so again ;
and, worse come to the worst, they had always their
home — the sea — open to them, provided they could give
us the slip.
Intelligence now reached us that prahus had assembled
in some part of the Lancavas, or Laddas, preparatory to
covering the flight of the chiefs, and this redoubled the
anxieties of our captain's position. He despatched the
Siamese brig, which had joined from Quedah, with two
222 QUEDAH.
armed pralius under Siamese colours, to cruise about and
endeavour to discover the position of the secreted prahus,
and enjoined the utmost vigilance on all our parts.
Anxiety for the denouement to take place lengthened out
the last few days of March to an intolerable extent, and
perhaps the torment we endured from the incessant on-
slaught of musquitoes and sand-flies added to our im-
patience. At night, all sleep was out of the question,
until, worn with watchfulness and the painful irritation
of thousands of bites, we dropped into a short and fever-
ish slumber. I^othing served to keep the sand-flies ofi":
they were smoke-proof and fire-proof; they bled you
just as freely if the skin was rubbed over with oil or
vinegar, lime or treacle : nothing seemed to check their
abominable thirst for blood. Happily, this fearful pest
had only lately commenced, and we could look forward
to a speedy termination of it, not only from the end of
the blockade being at hand, but because in April the
heavy squalls of wind and rain which mark the close of
the north-east monsoon would destroy them, by blowing
their hosts to sea.
Pulo Quetam, or Crab Island, was now becoming quite
a gay scene ; fugitives from the province commenced to
pass down, and many found their canoes so unsafe as to
be obliged to stay there for repairs — forming little en-
campments, under temporary huts of boughs and branches,
in which the curious might study the manners and cus-
toms of the Malays with the greatest facility. The in-
habitants of the neighbouring village drove a roaring
trade with the blockading force in the sale of anything
that was eatable — whether flesh, fish, or fowl. The
CEAB ISLAND. 223
variety, however, was not great ; poultry being the prin-
cipal article they had for sale, and rice, which was of a
very excellent quality, and still so cheap as to prove that
the assertion was not without some foundation, that
Quedah province is capable of growing rice enough to
support all the population of the Straits of Malacca.
There were no less than four different species of common
rice, all excellent in quality; but there was a naturally
sweet description which could be converted into sweet-
meats without the aid of sugar, and, if imported into
England, would be invaluable for household purposes to
pastrycooks.
CHAPTER XXL
SOCIAL EVENINGS — QUAINTNESS OF ENGLISH SEAMEN— THE AD-
VENTUEES OF LUCAS — EUNS AWAY TO LIVEEPOOL — ENTEES
ON BOAED OF AN AFEICAN TEADEE — THE VOYAGE TO THE
BIGHTS — FEVEE — DEATHS — DIFFICULTY IN LEAVING POET —
A NEW CAPTAIN JOINS — VOYAGE HOME — SUFFEEINGS FEOM
WANT OF WATEE — DISOEDEELY SCENES — A FIGHT — VILLAN-
OUS BEVEEAGE — A MAN FLOGGED TO DEATH — A HOEEID
POST-MOETEM EXAMINATION — TEMPOEAEY EELIEF — EECKLESS-
NESS — SUFFEEINGS — A SECOND CASE OF MUEDEE — LUCAS A
SAILOE "nolens VOLENS,"
As the majority of the boats were now together, there
was more sociability among the crews than we had ever
before had; and the dear old Hyacinth being notoriously
one of the most united and smartest crews on the East
India station, everything that could relieve monotony
was done by both seamen and officers in the best spirit
of unselfishness. The crews of the pinnace and cutter
had been remarkably healthy, although living in open
boats for four months, and their spirits were propor-
tionately light. For several hours in the evening, songs
would be sung and yarns would be told over the supper-
pipe or grog, and the loud chorus to the deliciously
quaint melodies of
ENGLISH SEAMEN. 225
On Gospoi-t beach I landed, that place of noted fame,
And I called for a bottle of good brandy,
To treat my lovely, lovely dame ! " &;c.,
or.
'' She gave unto me a gay gold ring.
And a locket filled with hair," &c. &c.,
would roll through the jungles of Parlis, and put to
flight all things earthly and unearthly ; but if the honest
fellows' melodies partook of the rudely harmonious, their
yarns were decidedly well worth hearing. In all cases,
they merely related their own adventures; and it re-
quired no fiction to make them deeply interesting. The
hand is now cold which could truly give a sailor's narra-
tive, in all its original phraseology and strong character-
istics — the naval Fielding, Captain Marryat ; and it is
only in having sailors' histories told in their own way,
that the general reader can ever form a correct idea of
all their peculiarities of character. They have changed
somewhat from Marryat' s day, but still preserve all the
originality of character for which their forefathers were
famous : they do not drink quite so hard, nor swear so
much, but they are just as overflowing with wit and
humour ; and the smattering of education which enables
the majority to read and the few to write, has in no way
injured — on the contrary, improved — the original view
they always take of what passes under their notice. I
shall not attempt to repeat any one of their yarns in its
original clothing; but perhaps, whilst we are waiting
for the closing scene in the blockade of Quedah, I may
be pardoned for relating a strange tale, which I wrote
down as it was told to me by a young seamen ; and, as
15
226 QIJEDAH.
it is somewhat startling, I may assure the reader that I
have reason to believe every word to be true.
We had lately entered a young sailor, called Lucas,
from a merchantman : he evidently was educated far
beyond his station in life, and I heard some of the men
remark that he had boasted of being the son of a gentle-
man. Watching for a good opportunity, I persuaded
him to tell me who he was, and how he came to be in
such a situation.
" My father," he said, " was a respectable tenant-
farmer living near one of the seaports in the north of
Ireland. His family consisted of several daughters, and
myself, his only son. He spent a good deal of money
upon my education, and tried hard to stifle in me a
strong and early inclination for the sea — a taste I had
acquired by my visits to the shipping in the harbour.
" I was sent to an inland school, to more effectually
wean me from salt-water. I was in one continual row
with my Dominie, and finding me very unruly, he re-
ported me to my father, who caused me to be more
severely punished and lectured. I determined to escape
from what I regarded as cruelty and oppression, and, in
spite of father and schoolmaster, to go to sea. Watch-
ing a good opportunity, I left school, reached Belfast,
got on board a billyboy* bound for Liverpool, and landed
there with a few shillings in my pocket. The master of
the lodging-house that I put up at introduced me to the
engineer of a steamer running between Glasgow and
Liverpool, and I shipped with him as engine-room boy.
* A small description of coasting vessel, common to the British
Isles.
ADVENTURES OF LUCAS. 227
This life I soon became tired of : the engineer seemed
to consider it his privilege to thrash me whenever any-
thing went wrong in the engine-room. All day — and
all night too, if we were under way — there was one
incessant call for Boy Lucas ! ' Boy, oil that bearing ! '
' Boy, wipe down this ! ' and, ' Clean up that ! ' In
short, I became a perfect white slave : there was but
one way of escape — I again ran away.
"The abominable Scotch engineer and the steamer
had not, however, sickened me of the sea ; I was deter-
mined to get out to foreign countries, and to avoid the
coasting trade, which is all very well for grown-up
sailors, but bitter work for boys or novices. I was
afraid to go back to my old lodgings, for the master of
the house would have handed me over to the engineer
again, so I lived about as I best could : some of my
poor Irish countrymen and women often gave me a bit
of food, when I had starved through a long day, going
from ship to ship, asking captains to take me to the
East Indies.
''I was almost despairing of success, and just on the
point of returning to my father, when the master of an
African trader offered to ship me as a boy. I jumped at
the chance, and joined immediately. She was a large
heavy-looking brig, bound to the Bonny * for palm-oil. I
afterwards had good cause to know that she was a crazy
old craft that had been condemned as being even unfit
for the Quebec timber trade. I and one or two ship-
keepers were the only persons at first on board of the brig
* The Bonny, a nautical phrase for the Bight of Benin, into
which the river Bonny flows.
228 QUEDAH.
in the river : we had to pump her out every two hours,
which I thought rather strange ; the more so that the
chief mate warned me that he would break my neck if
he heard me say it was necessary to do so to any of the
seamen who came on board to enter. Starvation had
humbled me, and I held my tongue, although I saw
that during the day the mate kept the working pump-
bolt,* which was as bright as silver, in his pocket, and
substituted for it a rusty stiff bolt, which gave the pump
the appearance of never being worked. This w^as done
to prevent the men being afraid of entering on board a
vessel in which the extra work of pumping would neces-
sarily be very harassing.
" The day came for the crew to sign the articles of
agreement upon which they were to sail in the brig.
Besides the captain and mate, there were a cooper and
thirteen hands ; each of the latter, before signing the
articles, examined the pump-bolt to see if it was bright,
and expressed gratification at finding it as rusty as a
tight ship's ought to be : they little thought how my
arms were aching from labouring at the handle, or what
rogues the ship-keepers and mate were ! A few days
afterwards we dropped to the fair- way buoy ; and one
fine day all our men were brought off, the majority so
dead drunk as to suffer afterwards from delirium tremens;
and a steam-tug took us outside the river, and let us go
to find our way as best we could. The captain, mate,
cooper, and I set all the sails, and lived on deck for
* The pump-bolt is the pin or fulcrum upon which the handle of
a ship's pump works. Of course, the more the pump is worked, the
brighter the pump-bolt becomes.
VOYAGE TO THE BONNY. 229
about six-and-tliirty hours, until some of the sailors came
to their senses, which they did not do until they had
fought and wallowed like wild beasts in a miserable
hole called the ' fore-peak/ where the seamen had to eat
and sleep. We had a pretty good passage, although the
men soon found out that the brig w^ould neither sail
nor steer very well, and was uncommonly leaky : they
seemed, however, accustomed to being so entrapped into
bad vessels, and only abused the captain, who enjoyed
the whole affair as a capital joke. The mate fell dan-
gerously ill with some loathsome disease ; there was no
doctor, and he soon became such a nuisance that no one
would help him. The captain let him take anything he
liked out of the small medicine-chest, and at last death
released the poor fellow from his miseries, though not
before he had begged and prayed that he might die.
His coffin was an original one : it consisted of his chest,
into which they put him in a doubled-up posture, and
launched him into the sea without so much as a prayer.
Indeed, the crew were as bad a collection of men as
could well be brought together. Although a ship's boy,
I did not like them ; their language was at all times
gross, and they appeared for the most part to be — what
they occasionally boasted they were — the scrapings of
hell, Bedlam, and Newgate !
" We got directions at the Bonny from a ship's agent
to go to a river, of w^hich I forget the name : we went
there, and laid the ship up, collecting palm-oil by drib-
lets. The fever soon broke out among the crew, which
was not to be wondered at, considering the dirt and the
want of air in the horrid hole they lived in. Some of
230 QUEDAH.
the men would go to bed in the standing bunks, of
Avhich each man had one, and remain there for a couple
of days at a time without getting up : they died like
sheep, and were pitched overboard to the sharks. The
captain likewise was attacked by fever ; and although a
drunken wretch of a doctor, who was kicked out of
another vessel, joined us, he could not save the poor
skipper, who followed the major part of his crew.
" Kroomen were entered to get on loading the ship,
and, in time, we were ready for sea, with a full cargo of
heavy wood and oil. But how to get the ship home
would have puzzled anybody but the rascally agent who
was employed by our owners ; for, in addition to the
want of captain and mate, the former had, in his deli-
rium, thrown overboard all our nautical instruments and
charts.
" Not far from us there was another vessel, belonging
to different owners : her mate was a notorious ruffian
in the African trade, and our agent promised him, if he
would, on his own responsibility and risk, get our brig
home to Liverpool, he should, over and above his just
recompense, receive a bonus of £100 sterling. Mean-
time, one or two seamen of bad character, and seven
Kroomen, were shijDped for the passage home. One
evening, late, the new captain joined : he had stolen
some instruments from his former ship, and, at day-
dawn, we weighed and put to sea, having actually at
that time only six casks of provisions ; and the greedi-
ness of the agent to fill us with oil, had barely left in
the brig twelve days' water. Some of the crew growled
about it, and the new captain was evidently frightened.
^yANT OF WATER. 231
when he learnt how little there was in the vessel ; but
the agent knew he dared not now stay, and said, ' Never
mind ; heg your way home ! you w411 soon be on the
track of the homeward-bound ships.' Hardly were we
clear of the mouth of the river, when the skipper who
had been robbed came oif in a boat to recover his pro-
perty ; our hero swore he would knock the first man's
brains out who tried to board us, and, with an axe in
his hand, seemed likely to do it. The boat satisfied
herself with firing musketry at us ; we merely kept
under cover, and escaped without injury, through the
breeze freshening. So far as I was concerned, my joy
was too great at the prospect of returning home, to care
a fig who was injured by our doing so.
" Next day we were put upon an allowance of water,
and we all soon discovered that we had a perfect fiend
to deal with in the skipper. Three weeks of foul wind
now occurred, at the end of which time only a few
gallons of water remained, and a horrible death threat-
ened us.
'' The captain now kept the ship away for some island;
but he ought to have done so sooner ; and on the second
day, he came on deck with a small pot of water, called
all hands aft, and served out the last drop of water by
spoonfuls at a time. A dreadful week now followed :
the wind was scant, and our deep-laden leaky craft did.
not move through the water ; we ceased to speak to
each other ; we seemed like so many dumb creatures ;
and sometimes rufiians who had long been strangers to
tears would be seen weeping like so many children, and
praying to God for mercy. It became dead calm, with
232 QUEDAH.
a scorching sun, and the clouds, which sometimes mus-
tered on the horizon, brought neither rain nor "wind ! ''
Lucas's description of the horrors they then endured,
brought vividly to my mind the lines of Coleridge : —
" Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down, —
'Twas sad as sad could be ;
And we did sj^eak only to break
The silence of the sea !
" All in a hot and copper sky
The bloody sun at noon
Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the moon,
" Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath, nor motion ;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
" Water, water, everywhere.
And all the boards did shrink ;
Water, water, everywhere.
Nor any drop to drink."
"How," said he, "we used to sit and watch the set-
ting sun, and darkness closing in upon us ; for then the
dew would fall, and all night long the unfortunate crew
crawled about, licking the moisture from the spars,
decks, and paintwork of the ship's side ! We all be-
came hideously selfish. I remember that I had, by
good chance, a strong iron kettle. I set to work to boil
sea- water, and condense the vapour ; but I hardly made
a pint of fresh water in twenty- four hours. However,
I succeeded in supporting myself, without having re-
course, as the majority of the crew had, to drinking salt
SUFFERINGS FROM THIRST. 233
water, and thus avoided being attacked with dysentery,
as thdse poor creatures were.
" A Frenchman whom he had shipped in Africa dis-
covered that the captain had secreted several bottles of
vinegar for his own consumption ; and, as discipline was
now totally at an end, he purloined some of the bottles,
and ran forward with them, chased by the captain, who
fired several shots at him with his pistols, but was afraid
to descend into the 'fore-peak' after the culprit, or to
otherwise call him to account. This prize was, of
course, a great boon to us all, and had it been diamond-
dust we could not have husbanded it more carefully than
we did.
" The skipper, at all times of a most unreasonable
temperament, seemed now to have lost all restraint over
his passions, and seldom did a day pass without an act
of wanton cruelty. One first watch, the Frenchman
happened to be licking the dew off the capstan on the
quarterdeck ; this the skipper usually appropriated as
his perquisite, and, in a fury at what he considered the
Frenchman's insolence, he took up a heavy piece of wood
which happened to be at hand, and as the sailor leaned
over the capstan, struck him with full force on the back
of the head. The Frenchman's cap saved his life, but
his lips were cut through and his front teeth loosened j
he gave a yell of rage, and rushed into the cook's caboose
for a knife. The captain, at the same time, got a pistol
out of the cabin -, a scuffle ensued, in which the pistol
was fired without effect, but the Frenchman gave the
captain an ugly cut across the ear with his knife. The
men then interfered, and they were separated.
234 QUEDAH.
" The cabin-boy having been attacked with dysentery,
I was ordered to take his place. It struck me that if all
the empty wine and beer bottles in the store-room were
drained out, a little liquid might be procured for us all.
I mentioned this to the crew, and they adopted my sug-
gestion, obtaining, in all, about two quarts of what,
under other circumstances, would have been considered
a villanous compound. The captain took charge of it,
and gave us a spoonful apiece ; the remainder he placed
below, on the cabin table, ready for a similar issue on
the morrow.
" Unhappily, a young man who was at the helm, half-
delirious with fever and thirst, observed it, and fancying
no one would detect him, he watched an opportunity,
left the helm, ran down below, and drank every drop
of what was left. He was not quick enough to escape
our lynx-eyed captain, who knocked him down, and,
calling for his Kroomen, they lashed the poor WTetch up
to the rigging, stripped for a flogging. The captain first
beat him unmercifully with a rope's end, and then made
the Kroomen, in turn, do the same : the rest of the
crew, myself included, were too broken down to inter-
fere ; indeed, some of them never came on deck at all.
I went to the man after he was cut down : he was almost
flayed on the back, and insensible. I threw sea-water
over him, and, after a while, he came-to, but he was
evidently dying, and begged me, when I got to England,
to remember how he had been murdered : that night he
died. The captain seemed a little frightened ; the more
so, that the crew became rather excited, and the
Frenchman, as a ringleader, called him murderer, and
TEMPOKAEY KELIEF. 235
vowed he should be hung if God spared them to reach
home.
" His fears, however, seemed to render him the more
insensible to humanity; for, on the morrow, he insisted
upon the drunken creature who called himself a doctor
dissecting the corpse, and holding a ^wst-mortem exami-
nation. Anything more horribly revolting than the
whole scene, I defy the world to produce : the instru-
ments used were the knives and saws in daily use on
board the ship, for, I need hardly say, such a doctor had
none of his own. All hands were sent for, much non-
sense was spoken by the captain and doctor, to prove
the man died from natural causes j and the poor dead
man's entrails and brains were handled as if they were
those of an animal : and then they were hove overboard,
after which the body was thrown, just as it was, into the
sea, for the sharks that were cruising about to fight over
and gorge upon. It was enough to make one go mad to
see such horrors perpetrated, and the feeling of utter
misery was something I cannot describe.
" Several men died : the poor Frenchman was of the
number, and we were in the last stage of exhaustion
when God sent us assistance, in the shape of a foreign
vessel that very humanely gave us a quantity of water
and a little biscuit. Had she been a countryman, we
should one and all have abandoned the brig ; but we
could not explain to them what we wanted : indeed,
they did not appear to wish to have us as shipmates,
which was not to be wondered at, considering what a cut-
throat set of diseased villains all the crew looked. After
utter want, we had now, with care, sufficient water and
236 QUEDAH.
food to reach, the Chops of the Channel, where a man-of-
war would be found, to help us if the winds were foul;
and I must do our rascally skipper the justice to say,
that he pointed this out to the crew, and begged them
to refrain from taking more than a certain small allow-
ance.
" But no ! they had been starved. We had a fair
breeze, and provisions, and they determined to feast ;
the consequence was, as had been foretold, we met foul
winds after passing the Western Islands, which, through
bad navigation, could not be sighted, and again did we
run short of water ; and although in a higher latitude
and cooler climate, still we suffered terribly. The cabin-
boy died, and nearly all the English seamen and the
cooper became dangerously ill, and I was so weak as to
be hardly able to walk; while the captain, though look-
ing rather distressed at times, was, if possible, more
brutal than ever. A fresh west wind sprang up : we
squared yards to it; but could not make much sail, for
who was to reduce it if a gale came on ? Ships seemed
to avoid us, for we wore all the signs of a ship with the
plague — our yards and sails looking what sailors call
' nohow,' and the vessel wallowed in, rather than sailed
over the sea.
" We had even ceased to go aloft to look for vessels
in sight, and our crew, now reduced to six men, were
just keeping body and soul together by means of con-
densed steam caught in a swab that we sucked in turn.
Scurvy, fever, and thirst had reduced us to perfect
scarecrows ; we no longer heeded the cruelties or curses
of our skipper, and had only sense enough left to go
A SECOND MUKDEK. 237
to the helm in turn, and keep the brig's head upon
her course. ]N^o help came until we were in soundings,
and then merely through getting so close to a ship in
the night that she could not in common humanity run
away from us, when at daylight we hoisted the colours
union downwards.
" She bore down ; and when we saw her do so, I ran
to the fore-peak, and said, ' We are saved ! here comes a
ship ! ' Only four men appeared upon our deck ! A
cask was necessary, and as we were not strong enough to
unstow and get up one from the hold, the cooper, who
was very ill, was brought on deck to tighten up the
hoops of the two scuttle-butts which were on the upper-
deck. The poor wretch had to sit down, and hammer
home the hoops whilst we turned the casks round. The
work naturally did not proceed as fast as the rapid ap-
proach of the ship required. This so infuriated our
insane skipper (for I believe he was mad at times), that
he commenced abusing the unfortunate man, who in
reply telling him to go to the devil — whither he was
most undoubtedly bound — worked him into a fury. He
struck the cooper several violent blows, and at his last
one the man rolled over into the lee-scuppers, and in a
few minutes was a corpse — the captain, a murderer
twice !
" The strange ship was an American one : the master
came on board, supplied us with water and some pro-
visions, sent a mate and one or two men to help the
brig into port, we being then only 150 miles oif Cape
Clear, and then the American bore up on her course to
New York.
238 QUEDAH.
" We arrived at Liverpool Avithout farther accident,
and the authorities there took charge of the case against
the captain. There were sufficient witnesses without
me ; and beyond having my deposition taken in writing,
I was not troubled by the lawyers. The captain, I be-
lieve, was transported for life, or confined in a mad-
house.
" This cruise had thoroughly sickened me of the
African trade, and I might add of the sea likewise. I
started off to Belfast : my father had died, and my sisters.
having raised all the ready cash they could upon his
property, had with an uncle of mine started for Australia,
and were supposed to have settled in Port Adelaide.
The sea was now my only resource. I shipped in a
vessel bound to India, and you know the rest, sir. I
fancy I shall end, if I am lucky, in being a warrant-
officer one of these days."
Such was the tale of the sailor Lucas : the reader will
allow it to be a strange one. It happened twenty years
ago: yet strange things are still done where the blue
sea and silent stars are the sole witnesses ; and the
skippers of palm-oil traders are not the only ones who
act upon the Muscovite principle, that " the Heavens
are high, and the Czar afar off."
CHAPTEE XXII.
JADEE OFFEKS THE LOAN OF A LOVE-LETTER — A MIDSHIPMAN'S
SCRUPLES — THE EMERALD ORDERED TO POUCHOU — ENTER THE
RIVER DURING THE NIGHT — JADEE's SUGGESTIONS FOR WARD-
ING OFF MUSQUITOES — JADEE FORESEES TROUBLE — A NAUTICAL
SUPERSTITION OF THE OLDEN DAY — THE FLIGHT — THE SAMPAN
REPULSED — THE CHASE — A PRAHU CAPTURED — PROCEED TO
TANGONG CABOOSE — STARVING PIRATICAL FUGITIVES — A
THREAT OF CANNIBALISM — THE HORRORS OF ASIATIC WARFARE
— JAMBOO'S VIEW OF THE MALAy's POSITION — REFLECTIONS.
About this time, Ave received from Tonkoo Mahomet
Said formal expressions of his gratitude for the kindness
shown to his wife and family. From them he had
somehow received intelligence direct from Penang. Of
the lovely little Baju-Mira I did not again hear; and
Jadee proposed that I should send her a letter written
by my interpreter. Amused at the idea, I suggested
that he should compose one for me, as, by his own
acknowledgment, he had been a perfect lady-killer at
Singapore. Jadee was not easily abashed where his
vanity was involved, and very handsomely placed at my
disposal a love-letter which he was about to address to
his Dulcinea at Penang. Before accepting it, however,
I thought it as well to make Jamboo translate the docu-
ment word for word to me — a measure which soon
240 QUEDAH.
showed me the improimety of sending any such hillet
doux ; although it indulged in the usual amount of
poetical allusions to the beauty of the fair one's eyes,
nose, lips, teeth, and hair, with graceful compliments
about her figure, her walk, and her voice, it wound up
with an abrupt proposal of marriage, entering rather
freely into the charms of that blessed state of bondage ',
and as a further inducement to overcome any scruples
the young lady might entertain on the score of Jadee's
matrimonial inexperience, he assured her that seven
wives were already placed on his list, though she should
alone be his Penang sultaness.
These were lengths to which I, as a midshipman in the
receipt of ten sovereigns a- quarter, did not feel justified
in going ; " alas for the social wants that sin against the
strength of youth ! " But Jadee, like an evil spirit,
whispered that an anna a-day (three halfpence) would
equip and support even such a Peri as Baju-Mira, in a
style of princely magnificence, only to be read of in the
' Arabian Nights Entertainments.' Possibly, recollec-
tions of a stern-faced captain, and the " I'll stop your
leave, sir," of a ruthless first-lieutenant, kej^t me from
disturbing the peace of mind of the fair Malay, and then
other affairs distracted my attention.
April the 2d found us surrounded by a flying mul-
titude, and a re23etition of the wretched scenes enacted
at Quedah. The Siamese were finally victorious, and
Sauve qui pent I was the cry. Rumours were flying
about that the war prahus were going to make a dash
out ; one or two threatening messages were sent, and it
became every moment more certain that the Tonkoos
THE EMERALD ORDERED AWAY. 241
must fly, or fall into Siamese hands. The excitement
was intense, and no one knew the minute that the pirates
might swoop down upon the little blockading squadron,
and make us fight for our very lives.
In the middle of all this, while, youngster-like, I was
longing to " flesh my maiden sword," some instructions
arrived from Captain "VYarren to the officer commanding
the boats (the present Captain G. Drake), ordering a
gunboat to be detached to watch another river called the
Pouchou, about four miles to the northward. As the
junior officer, it fell to my lot to go ; and I own I left
with the moral conviction that there would be a bloody
fray, and the little Emerald would be left out of it; a
feeling not assuaged by my waggish brother officer Hal-
kett, who made a pen-and-ink caricature of a sulky mid-
shipman tied by the leg at a distance, while he and
others were slaying whole hecatombs of enemies.
My gunboat was soon off the mouth of the Pouchou :
like all the western Malayan rivers, it had a tidal bar
across its mouth, though abundance of water within.
The tide being then on the ebb, we hauled to seaward
for an island called Pulo Pangang, or Long Island. We
found it full of Malay fugitives — men, women, and chil-
dren ; their sufferings from want of water were some-
thing hideous to contemplate. Some had already died,
others were perishing ; yet, what could we do 1 The
Hyacinth and her boats had long been on a rigid allow-
ance j every drop of water we could spare I ordered to
be given away ; and a few days afterwards, as will be
seen, we were reduced in consequence to great straits.
How all these people had reached the island, we could
16
242 QUEDAH.
not learn ; but tliey owned that they came from the
neighbourhood of Parlis ; and some of the families re-
membered seeing me on the occasion of my visit to
Kangah. From them we learnt that the Pouchou ran
parallel to the Parlis river, and close past the town of
that name. These fugitives had, I suspect, availed
themselves of the former stream as a means of escape.
All expressed sorrow and anxiety when they heard I was
going to blockade it ; indeed, one man of superior aspect
was evidently distressed when he learnt that it was to
be so, and tried hard to persuade me not to go there
until the morrow ; " for," said he, " there will be a
number of women and children down to-night, and if
frightened back by you, they w^ill fall into the hands of
the cruel Siamese."
A beautiful night with a bright moon lighted up the
sea and forest- clad shores, as wath the first of the land-
wind I sought my way into the Pouchou river. The
rippling music of my gunboat's stem, as she cut through
the phosphorescent sea, the whirling eddies of molten
silver, which in a long line astern showed our trail, and
the low call of the leadsman, were the only signs of life.
As we approached the bar in the shoal water, the fish,
affrighted at our intrusion, darted singly away, leaving
a long fiery streak behind them in the sea, such as a
rocket leaves in its path through the air, and the night-
hawk and other nocturnal birds swept round us, and
uttered their characteristic cries.
With some difficulty — for the tide only just afforded
water enough for us to float over the shoals of the bar —
we got into the river, which I was sorry to find was very
IN THE POUCHOU EIVEE. 243
deep towards either bank, as this would entail a loss of
time in getting under way to chase. However, there
was nothing for it but to anchor ; for when I suggested
the propriety of merely fastening to the trunks of some
tall peon* trees, Jadee protested earnestly, assuring me
that such a proceeding was contrary to all Malayan
tactics; "If," said he, pointing to the black water which
flowed in amongst the jungle, enveloped in a darkness
that the keenest eye could not penetrate — " if you would
desire to see the sun rise, Tuhan, never secure the
craft so close to a place where all the fighting men of
Parlis might lie hid in canoes, and see us without our
seeing them. Besides, did you not hear the cry of that
night-bird ? — may it be cursed ! and assuredly it is so,
being but the restless soul of an unbeliever ! — that cry,
my officer, denotes trouble ! "
Knowing that there was always some sound sense
mixed up with my Avorthy subordinate's superstitions, I
at once proceeded to the south side of the river, and
anchored the vessel in the deep shadow thrown over the
stream by the lofty jungle trees. "We were close to a
point, beyond which there was a pretty bend in the
river now strongly lit up by the moon, so that we should
have a few minutes' Avarning in the event of the pirates
coming down. The guns were cleared away, the powder-
magazine opened, the sweeps placed ready, and then each
man at his post lay down to rest as best he might. For
my part, had I been inclined, it would have been impos-
sible to close an eye. Ye gods ! how the musquitoes
■^ Peon, a tree common to the Malayan forests, and much used for
masts and spars.
244 QUEDAH.
and sand-flies fed upon me ! Surrounded with burning
cocoa-nut husks, the pungent smoke threatening oph-
thalmia, I underwent a torture only to he compared to
the Mexican Avarrior's bed of burning coals.
My tender-hearted coxswain felt for me, and suggested
many modes of relief. " Could I read Arabic? " " No."
" It was a pity, for some refreshing chapter of the
Koran (which he named) would prevent anything harm-
ing me."
" How, if I am not a believer, Jadeel" I inquired.
" God is merciful ! " he exclaimed, devoutly and
cleverly. "Would I allow him to tie an amulet on my
arm 1 " " For what purpose 1 " " To keep off all evil,
and assuredly the musquitoes come under that denomi-
nation."
Accordingly, an amulet was tied on. Like most
others, it consisted, I fancy, of some extract from the
Koran, stitched up in linen ; at any rate, as I antici-
pated, the musquitoes did not respect it. *' Jadee," I
said, " I see that cry of the night-hawk was indeed a
forewarning of my fate : you will only find in the morn-
ing the skin and bones of what was a tolerably fat mid-
shipman ; take them to the big ship, and you shall be
rewarded."
For a moment the scamp laughed. ''Hush! my
officer," he said ; " you white men laugh at what the
poor Malay man says ; but if you lived like us in these
great forests, and for years had no other home than a
sampan, and no associates but the birds and beasts, you
would know, as we do, what they wish to say to us."
Honest old Jadee ! why should I ridicule thee ? How
OLDEN SUPERSTITIONS. 245
long is it since we could afford to laugli at others' super-
stition 1 Here, before me, lies the history of a voyage
made by English sailors, and not very long ago either :
let me transcribe a paragraph of it.
A Captain Cowley is going a voyage round the world.
It is the 29th June 1686, and his ship is in 19° 45^
south latitude, longitude 21° 26' west. These facts
assure us of the worthy sailor's exactness. " We had,"
he says, " this day great feasting on board us, and the
commanders of the other two ships returning on board
their vessels, we gave them some guns (that is, fired)^
which they returned again. But it is strangely observ-
able, that whilst they were loading their guns, they
heard a voice in the sea, crying out, ' Come, help ! come,
help ! a man overboard ! come, help ! ' This made them
forthwith bring their ship to the wind, thinking to take
the man up, but heard no more of him. Then they
came on board of us, to see if we had lost a man : but
we, nor the other ship, had not a man wanting ; for,
upon strict examination, we found that in all three ships
we had our complement of men, which made them all to
conclude that it was the spirit of some man that had
been drowned in that latitude by accident." *
Hour after hour passed ; the dew fell cold, and the
chilled crew sat drawn up in their sarongs, with their
chins resting on their knees, sleeping a dog's sleep. The
moon had sloped towards her setting, the flood-tide was
done, and my gunboat had just canted to the ebb, when,
the lookout-man and Jadee pointed towards a mere shell
* Captain William Hacke's ' Collection of Original Voyages/ 1699.
Dedicated to John, Lord Somers, Lord High Chancellor of England.
246 QUEDAH.
of a canoe with two men in it, wliicli was already on our
beam, but on the opposite side of the river, " Stop that
canoe ! " I said, impatiently.
" Hark ! " said Jadee. " Prahus ! In the name of
Allah ! don't make a noise : that is only a spy, to see
the coast is all clear."
The blood leapt through my veins, as I now distinctly
heard, borne on the faint land-wind, the creaking noise
made by the ratan fastenings used for a Malay prahu's
oars. Before the men could be roused, and our cable
shortened-in, the strangers swept round the point ahead ;
and as the light struck on them, I saw distinctly two fine
large prahus, pulling eight or ten oars of a side, and a
very long low canoe full of men.
My plucky little quartermaster, Sutoo, asked permis-
sion to take two hands in the sampan, and to liead them
at once, whilst we got under way. The tide soon
brought them close to.
" Stop, prahus, to be searched ! " shouted Jamboo.
They were evidently taken by surprise, and for a minute
every oar and paddle ceased to ply ; but it was only for
a minute : they saw us, and, determined to push by,
gave way w^ith vigour ; whilst female voices cried out,
" Do not fire ; we are women — only women ! "
" Anchor, or we fire ! " Jamboo and I shouted ; whilst
Jadee and his crew rattled in the cable like seamen.
At that moment Sutoo wdth our sampan grappled one
of the prahus, and gallantly tried to stop one of them at
least j there was a gleam of steel, and then a shout from
Sutoo to fire away, for that they were armed.
As the gunboat swung round upon her heel, Sutoo
THE SAMPAN REPULSED. 247
came alongside with a spear sticking in liis boat that had
been aimed at him, A small ratan shield, which the
man fortunately had on his arm when he grasped the
prahu's gunwale, showed a deej) mark where a parang,
the Malay sword, had come down on it.
Directly the bow-gun would bear on the nearest prahu,
I fired at her with grape, and a shriek rang in our ears
which convinced me that there were women on board,
for the purpose, as it was immediately suggested, of pre-
venting us firing at them. I felt that to tow a boat-
load of wounded Malay women alongside the Hyacinth
was not likely to conduce to my professional reputation,
and I therefore ceased firing. There was nothing for it
now but to chase and catch them ; no easy job, I knew
well, for the channels were intricate, and the night mist
hung heavy to seaward.
" Give way, my Malay men; we must catch and board
them." " Ya ! ya ! ya !" shouted the crew, as they bent
to their sweeps. The excitement was gloriously intense :
we could just see the prahus; but the canoe, which
Sutoo assured me was a very fine one, pulling at least
twenty paddles, was gone. I naturally looked to the
prahus alone. At first they made sail as if for the Lan-
cavas Islands, keeping the wind abeam ; but we soon
began to close with them : they then altered their
course, and bore up among some small islands and shal-
lows in Setoue Bay. At last, by a lucky accident, we
cut off one prahu, and got her in a bight out of which
she could not escape : an effort to push past we checked
with a round of grape, which she replied to with some
blunderbusses without doing any harm ; and then her
248 QUEDAH.
crew put the helm up, and ran her over the shoals to-
wards the jungle until she fairly stuck in the mud.
Daylight was now breaking, and we could see the
Malays of the prahu decamp with their arms to the shore.
Leaving Jadee to cover me with the Emerald's guns,
and to keep her in deep water, I took six hands and
boarded the prahu. She was a fine vessel, with no guns
mounted ; but doubtless had had them at one time.
Half-a-dozen old women, and two men wounded by our
fire, were all we found in her. Everything that would
lighten the prahu was now thrown overboard, mainly
bags of rice and salt, and we soon had the satisfaction of
getting her afloat. We did all we could for the wounded
men : they were neither of them seriously hurt, and I
left two men in charge of the prize, whilst we made sail
in search of the other craft. After cruising for three
hours without sighting her, I returned to my prize, and
took her to the island which I had, on the previous day,
found peopled with starving refugees. I told the poor
creatures, that as many as liked might go on board of
her, and proceed to the British settlements for shelter.
The wounded men requested to be landed at the north-
ern part of the Pouchou river, called Tangong Gaboose,
where, they assured us, the woods were full of unfortu-
nate Malays like themselves — pirates by our laws.
Having seen the prahu off, we went over to Tangong
Gaboose, to wait for the tide rising sufficiently to enable
me to get back into my station in the river.
All I could glean from the wounded men was, that
they and the other vessel, as well as a canoe pulling many
paddles, had left the neighbourhood of Parlis together.
STARVING FUGITIVES. 249
They owned to having fought with Siamese more than
once, and that they hoped to do so again : but more than
that we could not learn ; for of the movements of their
chiefs, or Tonkoos, they knew nothing, or would tell
nothing.
On landing at the spot indicated by these men, I was
utterly astonished, after walking a few hundred yards
into the jungle, to find myself amongst a perfect crowd
of fugitives. At first they showed signs of distrust ; but
Jadee soon soothed them with the assurance, that pro-
vided Tonkoo Mahomet Alee was not there, he and I
did not wish to maltreat the unfortunates. The major-
ity of the men w^ere armed, carrying handsome spears,
creeses, and parangs, or long chopper-shaped swords.
There could not have been less than 700 souls in these
woods, including women and children ; an estimate
verified by the assertion of a venerable Moolah or Islam
divine.
They gathered round and besought aid. I never was
very hard-hearted, thank God ! but the scene was sufii-
cient to have brought tears into the eyes of even the
stern legislators who had declared every pirate, dead or
alive, worth <£20 to the captor ; for here they were,
young and old, born and suckled in piracy ; knowing no
better, and wishing for nothing better, than to be al-
lowed to fight it out fairly with their present foes.
Poor creatures ! starvation and thirst were pinching
them fearfully, yet there was no escape : the sea behind
them, and a ruthless enemy in front. The jungle yielded
no fruit ; the earth, parched by the long drought, no
water. T advised them to send and make terms of sur-
250 QUEDAH.
render to tlie Siamese. An old man said, " It was cer-
tain they must do it, or starve to death ; " another, who
was by, said "He would as soon eat his own children, as
run the risk of handing them over to the enemy's soldiery,
who," he said, " were composed of all the outcasts of the
peninsula, and cared no more for the Siamese authorities
— except in so far as they legitimised their villanies —
than they did for the Governor of the Straits, Touhan
Bonham." I took leave of these poor creatures with a
heavy heart, and, struck by the threat of cannibalism,
asked both Jadee and my interpreter whether such a
crime was ever committed amongst the Malays or Siam-
ese. Jadee fought shy of the question, and merely said
that there was one tribe in Sumatra who indulged in
man-eating ; but that if ever an Orang Malayu did it,
it must be out of sheer necessity.
My interpreter informed me, that it was a usual term
of reproach between one tribe of wild Malays and an-
other to say they were cannibals ; and that if it was
remembered what devastating wars were carried on, and
had been for centuries, by the Birmese, Siamese, and
Malays, and the fearful sufferings entailed upon the
conquered, in a country where the jungles yielded little
fitted to support life, it would seem more than likely that
cannibalism was often committed.
On this subject, quaint, earnest old Purchas tells us
of a sad tale in the unparalleled extermination of the
old Peguan race and kingdom by the Birmese, about
1598. I will give his words : " But of all this wealth,
then wanting no store, and of so many millions people,
were scarcely left seven thousand persons. Men, women,
HORRORS OF ASIATIC WARFARE. 251
and children had to participate in the king's siege, and
those feeding on man's fiesli ; the parents requiring of
the children the life which before they had given to
sustain their own, and now laid them not in their
bosoms but in their bowels ; the children oftentimes
becoming living sepulchres of their scarce-dead parents !
The stronger preyed upon the weaker ; and if their flesh
was eaten up by their own hunger, leaving nothing but
skin and bones to the hungry assaults of these ravenous
creatures, they ripped the belly and devoured their in-
ward parts, and breaking the skull sucked out the brains.
Yea, the weaker sex was, by the strength, of famine,
armed with no less butcherly despight against whomso-
ever they could meet in the streets of the city, with their
knives which they carried about them as harbingers to
tlieir teeth in these inhuman human banquets.
" Pardon me, reader," adds the good parson of St
Martin's, by Ludgate Hill, " if upon this spectacle I
cause thee, with myself, to stay awhile and wonder. The
sun, in his daily journey round about this vast globe,
saw then few equal to this Pagan greatnesse, and yet in
how short a space He that is higher than the highest
hath abated and abashed this magnificence lower than
the lowest of his princes ! "
A veritable dish of horrors ending with a fine moral,
the reader will say ; but I fear the horrors are still not
of uncommon occurrence in those parts of Asia, as well
as Polynesia, where Mahometanism or Christianity have
not yet spread their civilising influence. The former,
with all its faults and impurities, was a vast stride in
the right direction for the Malayan races of the Archi-
252 QUEDAH.
pekgo and Polynesia, as any one who lias wandered in
those localities can attest.
" I wonder," I said to Janiboo, "what will become of
these poor wretches 1 "
" Perhaps all be dead in a few days' time, sar ! This
very new to yon ; but Malay man always go on this way :
no got no friends. Dutchmen hunt them and kill, be-
cause he don't want them to carry trade to Singapore.
Englishman don't like him, because he say, he d — d
lazy rascal, always ready for a fight, but will not dig in
the fields ; too much of a gentleman, sir, for the Com-
pany ; the Company want fellows, all the same Hindoo,
he can kick when he got bad temper. And now come
the Siamese. He not bad man, the Siamese, suppose
true Siamese ; but when he go to war, he get hundred
other sort of fellows, who say, ' Come along, let us go rob
these Malay pirates ! ' And so you see all the same
you see to-day."
I have no doubt Jamboo was right to a certain extent,
though, living as he had done in our Anglo-Malayan
settlements, there might be a certain degree of partiality
in his heart for the Malayan people.
We soon afterwards re-entered the Pouchou river, and
I lent the perisliing multitude my sampan to go up the
river, and try and procure some water, and we gave
them every grain of rice we could spare, poor unfortu-
nates ! And I could not help thinking how sad it was,
though, maybe, they had inflicted equal if not greater
sufferings upon those they had forced to fly from the
province of Quedah into the forest of Patani during the
previous year. One could sympathise with the sufferings
FATE OF THE VANQUISHED. 253
of the conquerors as well as the conquered in these
wretched native wars, and commiserate the thousands
who had been victims to the wickedness of the few, re-
peating the words of an English poetess —
** Yet not less terrible because unknown
Is the last hour of thousands : they retire
From life's thronged path unnoticed to expire, —
As the light leaf, whose fall to ruin bears
Some trembling insect's little world of cares,
Descends in silence, while around waves on
The mighty forest, reckless what is gone ! "
CHAPTEE XXIII.
A SURPRISE — THE STRATAGEM — ESCAPE OF MAHOMET ALEE —
JADEE INDIGNANT — DISAPPOINTMENT AND CONSOLATION— WE
REPORT THE ESCAPE — RAISING OF THE BLOCKADE — THE
NEGLECTED WARNING — THE GIG CHASES THE CANOE — THE
"LADDAS" — A MALAYAN NIGHT-SCENE — DREAM-LAND — RE-
TURN TO THINGS EARTHLY — UNSUCCESSFUL SEARCH FOR
PRAHUS— THE SEA-BREEZE — THE RACE— SHORT RATIONS — EAT
birds' NESTS — A LONG AND DISTRESSING PULL — ZEAL AND
CHEERFUL CONDUCT OF THE CREW — REFLECTIONS.
Hardly had the anchor reached the holtom, hefore we
sought the rest which it had been impossible hitherto to
get ; and it is needless to say, that after such a night
and morning of excitement, I, and I believe all my
people except the lookout-men, slept soundly for some
hours.
The sun had passed the zenith, and all lay hushed in
that deathlike day-sleep, in which nature, as well as
man, seems to seek repose during the fervid heat of an
equatorial afternoon, when I was roused and told that a
boat full of men and women was coming down the river.
On being hailed, they came alongside, gave up their
arms, w^hich we broke and tossed overboard, and then
to their joy we told them to go in health,—" Salamat
gelan!"
ESCAPE OF MAHOMET ALEE. 255
As they j^ushed off, I said in joke, " You may go, for
we have caught the Tonkoos ! "
" What ! " exclaimed an old Malay who was steering
the boat, " have you caught Datoo Mahomet Alee 1 Did
he not then escape last night? God is merciful and
great," continued he, throwing up his hands, and look-
ing the picture of sorrow.
A feather might have knocked me down, and the old
man's astonishment, at being abruptly called back and
pulled by the neck and heels out of his canoe by the
excited Jadee, was not small.
We told him that he evidently knew all about Ma-
homet Alee's movements, and unless he wished to be
blown away from the bow-gun, hung at the ensign-staff,
boiled in the coppers — Heaven only knows what Jadee
did not vow would be done to him ! — he must tell all.
He soon enlightened us : it was simply, that on the
previous night, Datoo Mahomet Alee, finding all further
resistance against the Siamese unavailing, had embarked
in a long low canoe, j^ulling a number of paddles, and,
accompanied by two jDrahus filled with women and armed
men, to screen his movements, had with the first ebb of
the tide pushed down. My guns had been heard, and it
was supposed we had captured the prahus ; but all felt
confident that the Datoo would escape from us, though
he might be drowned, if the breeze freshened whilst he
was crossing over to the Lancavas Islands, amongst
which group a fleet of prahus was secreted.
My disappointment and chagrin were beyond the
power of language to express. I had been fairly out-
witted ; my only consolation was in the fact that I was
256 QUEDAH.
yet a novice in the art of war, and could not be expected
to be a match for all the stratagems of so accomplished
an adept as Mahomet Alee ; and in the next place, I felt
that in chasing the prahus instead of the sampan, I had
done my duty, for they would naturally be the war-
boats.
There was nothing for it now, but to go and tell my
gallant cajDtain. "Up anchor!" I said. " Jadee, I
must go and tell the Eajah Laut, that '^N'umero Tega'
has had dirt thrown on her by Mahomet Alee."
Jadee had been in a perfect state of frenzy since the
intelligence was verified by some other men in the boat :
he stamped, he swore, called every Mahometan and
pagan saint to witness, that such an act as the Datoo
had committed was contrary to all ideas of Malay chi-
valry. He appealed to tlie crew, asked them, in all
their cruises — I ought perhaps to say villanies — had ever
they heard of a Datoo who escaped a fight under the
petticoats of a woman? If there was, Jadee with his
creese was ready to send that man to Jehanum, or some
other pleasant spot rejoicing in intense heat or cold :
consequently, all swore they had never heard of such a
thing.
However, when the poor fellow saw how cut up I was
at my misfortune, he calmed down, and tried hard to
afford consolation.
" Steer for the ship's usual position between Lancava
and Parlis," I said. " Jadee, I am disgraced," and,
youngster-like, I really felt as if I was ; and a vision
that it would be necessary for me to run away and join
an opium-clipper as soon as possible already haunted me.
JADEE'S generosity. 257
" How could you be so ignorant of a Malay strata-
gem]" I said petulantly to Jadee.
His unaffected efforts to take all the blame on his own
shoulders, and to cheer me, were quite delightful.
"Tell the Eajah Laut" (Captain Warren) *'it was my
fault, my officer !" said the honest fellow. " I ought to
have guessed the manoeuvre when the women screamed
out ; of a surety, they are the source of all mischief, and
limbs of the evil one !" Then he proceeded to ana-
thematise his bronze-cheeked countrywomen in rather
strong terms, but wound up with saying — what was
true enough, — " The Eajah Laut will not be angry,
Tuhan ! He would have done the same, had he been
there. "Who would chase a canoe when a prahu — a
capel praham* — was in sight ]" " Give way ! !N"umero
Tegas " (No. 3's) — he shouted — " Mahomet Alee may
be caught yet : he shall not escape us in a canoe next
time !" " Hurrah !" shouted the poor fellows, and away
Hew the little "Number Three" under sails and sweeps
towards the Hyacinth ; and by the time we reached
her, I had begun to fancy that the chances were yet in
favour of catching not only Mahomet Alee, but his re-
ported fleet likewise.
The ship soon hove in sight, and we altered course for
her. Jadee, seeing me somewhat consoled, edged to me,
sat down at a respectful distance, and, catching my eye,
quietly remarked, " It was a pity we joked about the
warning that bird gave us last night, Tuhan ! Allah be
praised worse has not befallen us. One should never
* " Capel jyraham " is a fighting' prahu ; they generally have a
breastwork in the bows for the guns.
17
258 QUEDAH.
laugh at the warnings he sends by the mouths of unclean
creatures ;" here he expectorated, to purify himself, " I
ought to have known better," said he, with a self-up-
braiding air : " after the number of times that accursed
bird has warned me of evil, to think of my not heeding
it!" He continued, "Allah be praised it was no
worse !" It was evident that I might have had a tale
of unlimited length, had I sought it ; but such was not
then my humour, so I left Jadee to sohloquise away,
until we anchored close to the Hyacinth.
My worthy captain heard my tale, and then very
kindly said that it was unfortunate, but could not be
helped, and that the escape had been cleverly effected by
a simple but well-laid manoeuvre ; it would be a wrinkle
to me for the future ; and I amused my dear friend the
first-lieutenant extremely by vowing that in future all
the ladies in Quedah screaming should not stop my
18-pounder, if I had another chance at the rascally
Datoo.
The description we gave of the canoe excited no small
interest on board the Hyacinth ; for it appeared that
that same morning, directly it was daylight, the signal-
man had descried from the masthead a boat paddling
towards the Lancavas, answering exactly to the descrip-
tion of the one in which the pirate chieftain had escaped
from the Pouchou. The captain's five- oared gig had
been at once despatched in chase of her, in charge of Mr
Major, the gunner, a very gallant and determined officer.
The canoe and gig had both run out of sight, and there
being no wind, the Hyacinth could not weigh to go in
chase and support her gig, against which the canoe had
CHASE OF THE CANOE. 259
long odds in her twenty men. Just at this juncture the
Diana steamer had arrived from Penang with despatches
from Governor Bonham, and she was immediately sent
after the mn: ; and we all now were most anxious to see
the upshot of the chase.
Only one good had resulted from my pursuit and dis-
persion of the Datoo's attendant prahus on the previous
night ; it was that of compelling the canoe to make the
traverse of the Strait so far to the southward as to bring
her in sight of the Hyacinth, which she otherwise would
most decidedly not have done.
There was just light enough left to make the " general
recall " for all the blockading force off Parlis. It was
certain from the intelligence I brought, as well as from
what had reached the captain from other quarters, that
the chiefs had all escaped over to the Lancavas, and that
a persistence in the blockade would do no earthly good,
but might cause a host of unfortunates to fall into the
hands of the Siamese, who were now completely masters
of the province.
During the night the steamer Diana returned with the
gig in tow. The gunner had had a severe chase, and at
one time had considerably gained upon the canoe, her
crew being apparently much exhausted. The intense
heat and several hours' pulling had, however, distressed
the gig's crew likewise : the canoe was not caught ; and
perhaps it was as well that the odds of a personal con-
flict of four to one had not to be risked, although the
gallant gunner spoke of it as a fair fight, when English-
men and black fellows were concerned.
Directly the canoe reached the w^onderful labyrinth
260 QUEDAH.
of islands of whicli the Lancavas and Laddas are com-
posed, she was safe, for it would have been difficult there
to have kept in sight of a friend even. At a sudden turn
amongst the tortuous channels, through which the gig
still dogged the heels of the canoe, the latter suddenly-
disappeared "like magic," to use the gunner's phrase,
and neither she nor her crew could asjain be seen. She
was doubtless whipped out of sight into the jungle, and
the Malays hid her and themselves where all the eyes of
an Argus would not have discovered tbem.
No one could help admiring the skill and pluck exhi-
bited in this escape of the redoubted Datoo, and he had
fully supported his high reputation in the cleverness
with which he and his pious confrere the Haggi Loiing
had evaded us all. Of the Tonkoos we could learn
nothing.
By dark the Hyacinth had all her Musquito squadron
around her, three gunboats and a pinnace and cutter.
A rumour was afloat that Captain Warren had informa-
tion of the position of the piratical nest on the Lancavas,
and that the morrow would be a great day. All was
curiosity and excitement, mixed with that pleasant
dream-like feeling that the coming day would bring
something striking and novel : with the consciousness,
come what might, that it would be acceptable, for one
had health and strength to make it welcome and enjoy
it — without one corroding thought, one anxiety to
mar it.
I see it now, that calm and beautiful Malayan night,
robed in silence and Godlike majesty — the vast heaven
overhead, resplendent with glittering suns of other
A NIGHT SCENE. 261
systems ; that stream of glorious stars, the Milky Way,
which renders the blue vault about it of so intense and
immeasurably deep a hue — an eternity of blue ; the
young moon the while faintly sprinkling land and sea
with a silvery light, tenfold more refreshing from the
recollection of the past day of fervid, blazing sunlight j
the calm unruffled ocean, like a highly-polished blade,
reflecting stars and planets, ship and boats, in perfect
but trembling outline — if touched by oar, or disturbed
by the splash of lish feeding on the night-moths, it
gleamed in many a whirl of lovely phosphorescent light,
as if it were the surface of some huge crater of molten
lava, iridescent where exposed to the air, but liquid fire
beneath.
The low long hull of the rakish corvette ; her lofty
tapering spars ; the apertures in her sides, through
which glistened the reflected light from her polished
guns, and the long pendant which quivered as the night
air touched it, — told of my country's naval power ;
while around her lay, in the little gunboats of the East
India Company and their swarthy but loyal crews, evi-
dences of that commercial greatness which had acquired
for us the empire of the East, and made its many nations
seek protection under the shadow of our old red ensigns.
The Saxon cry of "All's well !" and the Malay sentry's
" Jagga jagga !" struck strangely on the ear; and then
all the crowd of hopes for the "great to-morrow" of
sweet seventeen made the pulse throb wildly : you felt,
indeed, it was a bright and glorious world we live in — a
fig for those who say otherwise !
It was a scene well calculated to impress any one —
262 QUEDAH.
even a thoughtless young seaman could appreciate all its
poetry and loveliness ; and it gratified all those strange
longings for the wonderful which God implants, for His
own good reasons, in the bosom of restless youth.
Amid such scenes the mind realises all those strange
aspirations and mysterious cravings which perhaps in
earlier years may have crowded into the mind when
musing, as I am not ashamed to own I have done, over
such lines as these : —
'' There is a magnet-like attraction
That links the viewless with the visible,
And pictures things vmseen. To realms beyond
Yon highway of the world my fancy flies.
When by her tall and triple masts we know
Some noble voyager that has to woo
The trade-winds, and to stem th' ecliptic surge,
The coral groves, the shores of conch and pearl.
Where she will cast her anchor, and reflect
Her cabin-window lights on warmer waves ;
The nights of palmy isles that she will see
Lit boundless by the fire-fly — all
The pomp of nature, and the inspiriting
Varieties of life she lias to greet.
Come swarming o'er the meditative mind."*
Yet, reader ! by my beard I swear, that if thou hast
not felt this, poetry and prose are alike lost upon thee ;
and all I can say is, Heaven help thee ! Thou hadst
need be sad if thou canst not quit this dull earth a while
and revel in the ideal, even as a light-hearted midship-
man may.
How much longer I should have given way to this
vein, deponent knoweth not ; but, to my discomfiture —
* Campbell, ' Lines from St Leonard's.'
PROSPECT OF A PAST-DAY. 263
though possibly to the joy of those who may peruse
these pages — the interpreter and Jadee interrupted me.
They said I had given away all the rice and water, and
that there was hardly enough left to give the people
their breakfasts next morning. It was sad information
to receive at such a juncture. I knew all the boats, as
well as the ship, were at the end of their provisions and
stores, consequently unable to replenish our wants ; and
that if I made any application upon that head, we should
be assuredly sent down to Penang, and lose our share in
the closing scenes.
I explained all this to Jadee : he fully entered into
my feelings, begged me to say nothing about it ; assured
me, if I did not mind it, that a few days of nothing to
eat and nothing to drink were of very common occur-
rence for himself and his countrymen ; and that although
it was his full intention to marry a certain lovely
" Tedia" on his arrival at Penang, and she was im-
patient for his return, he could not think of doing so
before the operations against Quedah were finally and
perfectly finished; "and as," said Jadee, "we have
some cocoa-nuts and birds' nests on board, we shall
not, at any rate, starve, Tuhan."
Accordingly, it was decided that I should say nothing
about the want of provisions, and that we were to trust
in Providence for a windfall of rice and water, which,
together with an occasional bite of salt fish, had long
been mine as well as the crew's victualling.
At cockcrow next morning — and in Malayia he must
be a clever man who can escape the melody of chanti-
cleer — the steamer Diana took all the gunboats in tow,
264 QUEDAH.
and we proceeded towards a small river called the Lungo,
north of Setoue Bay. Casting off from her when she
could not approach nearer from want of water, we pulled
in for the place, expecting to find a squadron of seven
war prahus : but here again the birds had flown ; we
only found the nests. The Lancavas were still reported
to hide the prahus of Mahomet Alee, and the Siamese
brig had been beaten off from a place called Malacca, on
those islands. Towards Malacca, therefore — or rather
for the Lancavas Islands — we now rowed all that long
scorching-hot afternoon, and anchored in the evening at
seven o'clock, after a heavy but unsuccessful day's search,
our position then being on the eastern shores of the Lan-
cavas Islands.
The steamer and Hyacinth parted company, going to
the southward, and we were next day to proceed north-
ward, examining alongshore for prahus, and to join the
ship off the town of Malacca. We had only had this
day one meal of rice and a couple of drinks of water
each man on board the Emerald ; fatigue, however, en-
abled us to sleep soundly until about one o'clock on the
following morning, when I was ordered to weigh, in
chase of a vessel that was seen to the southward. By
daylight I had got sufficiently close to ascertain that it
was No. 1 gunboat, and then turned back, catching the
Musquito squadron just as it had finished sweeping along
the eastern shores of the Islands, and had made sail to a
fine rattling sea-breeze which was rushing in between
the Islands of Lancavas — or Langkawi, as the Malays
called them — and Pulo Trotto.
"With the tacks of our sails well down and sheets flat
A EACE — SHORT RATIONS. 265
aft, we slashed our boats up against the fiery breeze
(fiery only in the sailor's acceptation of that term),
hatches on, and green seas flying four reefs high ! it was
glorious excitement to feel every plank quivering with
the momentum given by the sails. " One reef, and no
more, Jadee, as you love me ! There's Halket in the
Ruby carrying canvass as if he had the ' little cherub '
stowed away in his fore-peak, and knew no harm could
come to masts or hull. Barclay in the cutter and Drake
in the pinnace are just as bad as we, boys ! they are
fairly smothering themselves in spray.
" Whew ! the gusts freshen, let fly the sheets for a
minute, and then haul aft again. Talk of the excitement of
Newmarket ! it's nothing to a chase to windward when
the breeze is fresh and the sails are large ! "
As my little craft passed the pinnace, Mr Drake hailed,
and desired me to proceed, make the best of my way to
Malacca, prevent all egress until his arrival, and to look
out for his signals during the night. We weathered the
Islands in the afternoon, and then proceeded to see what
could be scraped together in the shape of food. Not a
drop of water or grain of rice was left, and first the night-
chase and then the breeze had prevented us procuring
any from the other gunboats. It was now that I saw the
edible birds' nests first eaten, — Jadee had got a bag of
them out of some prahu; and there were, moreover, some
green cocoa-nuts : each man was given one of the latter,
and any that liked might help themselves to the nests !
I partook of both, the nests tasting very like isinglass,
but serving to stay the cravings of a very keen appetite.
The wind now fell, which distressed me much, for my
266 QUEDAH.
men, though not complaining, were very exhausted :
however, lest we should be thrown upon an iron-bound
coast, the oars had again to be manned, and with diffi-
culty we made our way along, for the sea on the beam
caused the vessel to roll so much that the men could
hardly keep their seats.
Night came on, and the coast was still a sheer cliff :
however, my Malays behaved admirably, and pulled
cheerily, encouraging one another with the prospect of
plenty of rice and fish on the morrow. At last, after
three long and anxious hours, a bay showed itself on
our left hand : fancying it was that in which the hostile
prahus and battery were situated, we loaded the guns
afresh, and pulled carefully in, but made the circuit of it
without finding anything. I almost had decided on
awaiting daylight, when a dip in the land gave jDromise
of another bay, and as we swept round a rocky point,
numerous lights afloat and on shore showed we had
reached our destination. The oars were now rapidly
muffled, my crew zealously wrapping part of their wear-
ing apparel round the looms of their oars ; and thus we
swept in, pulling a quiet minute-stroke.
Directly we could distinctly make out the hulls of the
prahus, the oars were laid in, and when the gunboat had
lost her way through the water, an anchor was bent to
a hawser, and lowered cleverly down to the bottom, so as
to make no noise in anchoring ; all lights were carefully
hidden, the decks cleared for action, and thus we lay,
watching the enemy's two outer vessels, a large schooner
and a prahu, without their being aware of our presence in
the bay, a light mist serving still further to conceal us.
ZEAL OF MY MALAYS. 267
I have been thus minute in the last two days' opera-
tions, to show the reader how zealous, docile, and cheer-
ful the Malays could be when the occasion required it.
They had had no rations since the previous day at about
eight A.M., and no water since the previous night ; they
had been twenty-four hours upon their oars during the
last forty hours, yet not a murmur escaped them ; and I
would defy seamen of any nation to have excelled them
in any quality which renders a sailor valuable. I cannot
but feel that, in a nation like ours, possessing a vast
colonial empire, which, in the event of a war, either for
our commercial supremacy with America, or for our
civil and religious liberties with despotic Europe, we
might be sorely pressed to defend, it behoves every
loyal man to cherish and uphold a race of sailors who
combine, with all their faults and all their vices, many
of the finest attributes of a seafaring people.
They may be pirates, they may be buccaneers — so
were we ; and we still pride ourselves upon the naval
glories of men who founded our reputation as a naval
nation upon what was nothing less than robbery upon
the high seas. Restrain and bring the Malays under
our rule gently, and they will serve us heartily and
zealously in the hour of England's need ; they are the
best race of colonial sailors we possess : grind them
down, shoot them down, paddle over them, and they
will join the first enemy, and be their own avengers.
CHAPTEE XXIV.
A TROPICAL SHOWER — EARLY BREAKFAST — THE MALAY PIRATICAL
SOIREE— JADEE UPBRAIDS THEM FOR BEING SURPRISED — PRE-
PARING FOR ACTION — DEMEANOUR OF ENGLISH AND MALAY
SEAMEN — MALAY CHARM FOR SHOOTING STRAIGHT— MY COX-
SWAIN ; HIS PIETY — BURNING, SINKING, AND DESTROYING —
THE RENEGADE TURNS TRAITOR — THE LARGE REPTILES OF
LANGKAWI — THE TALE OF THE OULAR-BESAR, OR GREAT
SNAKE — THE SNAKE CHOKED BY A HOLY MAN — A REMARK-
ABLE FOSSIL — A pirate's HIDING-PLACE — LOVELY SCENERY —
THE ANGER OF THE SKIES — STRUCK BY LIGHTNING — CLOSE
OF OPERATIONS AGAINST QUEDAH — CONCLUSION.
About midnight down came the rain — vertically, merci-
lessly, as it only can and does in the tropics. We got
up, for sleep was impossible, and drank and washed,
washed and drank, of the w^ater like veritable ducks.
Flashes of vivid lightning lighted up the bay occasionally,
and showed us, not only that a considerable force of
Malay vessels had at last been caught, but that our own
flotilla was pulling in from to seaward.
That they too saw us was very evident from the
occasional noise which was heard, and the number of
lights dancing about on shore. At about three o'clock
in the morning we sent away to the Diamond gunboat,
THE PIKATE POSITION AND FORCE. 269
and got a bag of rice and some fish, as well as a cask of
water : the fire was lighted at once, and I gave an order
for carte hlanche in the gastronomic way. It was
indeed a delightful breakfast, though an early one, for
the dawn was only just breaking. Let any one fast
eight-and-forty hours, and he will think the same, even
supposing that he should have had, like ourselves, one
green cocoa-nut and an unlimited quantity of birds'
nests to refresh himself with meanwhile.
When the sun rose, and the night-mists rolled back
from the lands around us, our little flotilla lay at anchor
in the northern part of a beautiful bay, which revelled
in all the loveliness of Malayan scenery. The Hyacinth
was just appearing at the opposite extreme of the bay,
having passed round the south end of the Lancavas as
we had done by the north.
The pirates were fairly caught. Their vessels con-
sisted of two queer-looking schooners, mounting ten
small guns each; one of them had 12-pounder carron-
ades, the other 3-pounder and 6-pounder guns. Three
large and handsome prahus and a tope constituted the
rest of their force, the prahus showing three or four
guns, and the toj)e a 32-pounder carronade. These ves-
sels were all covered by an eight-gun battery, situated
on a small conical hill in the elbow of the bay ; this
battery it was that had so roughly handled the Teda
Bagoose, or Good-for-i!^othing, the slashing brig of our
imperial allies. There was much excitement on shore ;
armed men were passing and repassing rapidly amongst
the cocoa-nut trees that lined the beach, boats were
paddling to and fro, but there was no village to be seen.
270 QUEDAH.
The pirates were evidently surprised. They had doubt-
less counted upon the grace of another day or two, when
this rear-guard would have escaped, as most of the forty
prahus did that we had seen at Trang in the previous
year.
It was necessary to await Captain "Warren's arrival in
the gig of the Hyacinth before we could do anything
against the enemy ; and I had plenty of time to hear
Jadee descant in flowery terms upon the beauty and ad-
vantages of the Lancavas Islands over Quedah proper, of
which, however, in the good old days, it formed a part.
One of its chief merits in my sea-king of a coxswain's
eyes, was the wonderful facilities its labyrinth of islands
and channels offered for the safe hiding of a fleet of a
thousand prahus.
" D pouls ! " said Jadee, Anglicising his opinion of
the enemy's prahus now cut off. "Ah ! you d pouls !
Had I been their captain, Tuhan, do you think I would
have anchored in such a place as this, whilst Orang-putihs
were cruising about 1 Ah ! you d pouls ! The
Datoo cannot be here," added Jadee — for my coxswain
did him the justice to believe that so experienced a tac-
tician would not be caught in an open bay. Then my
worthy Jadee proceeded to point out some localities
famous in his recollection for Love and War, the only
two deities he believed in, and of sundry foiled chases he
had had of prahus in and amongst these Lancavas since
he took Company's pay.
Captain Warren was seen to be approaching, and the
word was now passed to clear for action ! Jadee and
his crew did so with extreme alacrity. He adorned
PEEPARING FOR ACTION. 271
himself according to tlie most aj)proved rules of Malay
military etiquette. His sarong was wrapped tighter
round the waist, and brought round the thighs so as to
leave his nervous little legs more than usually free ; a
red sleeveless waistcoat, quilted so as to resist a knife-cut,
hung slack round his person, leaving his muscular chest
and arms ready for any exertion ; whilst a stiff and
cocksy-looking handkerchief fluttered around his glossy
and erect hair, and in combination with his square chin,
high cheek-bones, and an enormous quid of tobacco
stuck under his upper lip, made him look as ferocious an
individual as ever figured in the character of a blood-
thirsty Malay in a three-volume romance, even supposing
that he had not bristled, as he did, with no less than
three creeses. He had, first, his badi, or small knife,
answering to the Highland skene-dhu ; then the regular
waving-bladed creese of about a foot or fourteen inches
long ; and, lastly, a heavy straight double-edged Illanoon
creese, resembling somewhat an old Roman sword.
The rest of the crew were got up in a very similar
manner, and strutted about with a martial ardour quite
comical, in so far as it was a demonstrative mode of ex-
hibiting the same feelings which fluttered in the breasts
of our more stoical English seamen and marines. These
were quietly examining percussion caps, or seeing the
nipples of their muskets all clear, and indulging in some
rough jest ; such as that of Joe Hutchinson, the marine,
who, taking an imaginary aim at some object on shore,
apostrophises his musket thus : — " Well, this old gal "
(his musket) " never misses fire at practice ; and if she
only shoots straight to-day, and pitches my sixty rounds
272 QUEDAH.
into them precious Malays, I'll cut a notch in the stock,
and give her my grog, if she likes ; " or the light-hearted
foretopmen, or skylarking flaxen-headed Lambies,* who,
polishing their cutlasses, wonder if they will be able to
play the fifth-stick practice on the head of some unfor-
tunate pirate with " this here cutlash," or suggest inno-
cently to some old petty-officer that they felt jolly well
sure there were both grog-shops and women ashore, and
hanged, if they had a chance, if they wouldn't look for
them !
A playful tendency, or moral weakness, which of
course the petty- officer mentally resolves they shall not
indulge in, if a sharp pair of eyes can prevent these
frolicsome individuals carrying out their intentions.
" Tuhan ! " said Jadee, looking the picture of mystery,
" have you got a piece of pork that you could spare 1 "
"No; but I can get a bit in a minute," I replied.
" What are you going to do with the unclean animal 1 "
*' It's a great charm," said Jadee. " I forgot it until
the captain of the bow-gun reminded me ; but it's in-
valuable against an enemy."
" What 1 How ? In what way, Jadee?"
" Simply by cutting it up into small pieces, and put-
ting it into a gun upon the first round it fires."
"Botheration!" I said; "why, you are like an old
Malay lady, Jadee 1 firing fids of pork at a man won't
hurt him."
He coloured up, and walked away ; but Jamboo came
and said, " Do get a bit of pork, sir ; these Malay men
* Lambies, or lambs, a nickname for the youngest seamen in a
man-of-war, generally the mizentopmen.
A MALAY CHARM. 273
think it a charm, to make a gun shoot straight ; they
have some tradition about it, and it will not do any
harm, at any rate." Accordingly, I got them a bit of
pork, and Jamboo cut it up, and Jadee loaded the bow-
gun with grape, canister, and chopped pork — a villanous
compound, to say the least about it — and then resumed
his station, perfectly ready for what Allah might in his
wisdom send him.
Captain Warren now joined us, inspected the boats to
see that all were ready, of which he would have enter-
tained no doubt could he have only known the charge
in my 18-pounder, — and then a message was sent in to
the pirates, giving them five minutes for an unconditional
surrender of their vessels.
It is a great five minutes in a man's lifetime, that five
minutes before an action is commenced ; especially when,
as was the case with us, there happens to be a disparity
of forces on his side.
"Jadee," I said, "Datoo Mahomet Alee will send you
to join the houris to-night."
He was not in a jocular mood : he drew his hand
across his throat, and pointed his fingers upward, as if
he felt perfectly certain his virtues would lead him that
way, and said "his life was in the hand of Allah,"
adding that beautiful verse from the Koran, which is so
often used as the war-chant of the true believer : " Exult
not, and despond not, so shall ye j^revail.""^
Jadee's chances of a heavenward flight were, however,
dashed to the ground, for the Malays showed evident
intentions of surrendering their vessels ; indeed, they
* The Koran, 3d chapter.
18
274 QUEDAH.
decamped as fast as possible from them and the battery
before the expiration of the five minutes. The nicodar
of one of the vessels, a tope, came to Captain Warren
and prayed for mercy, with the excuse that he was only
an armed trader ; and rather than be unjust, his very
doubtful assertions were allowed to have weight, and he
was ordered to be off as fast as the wind would let him.
This hero was the renegade son of an old English soldier,
who lived at Penang ; he had adopted Mahometanism
as his creed, and could not have been distinguished from
a Malay in any respect.
Orders were now given to pull in, and burn, sink, and
destroy : this was done with no small goodwill. The
prahus and schooners were soon wrapt in flames, their
guns being first thrown overboard ; then the battery was
dismantled, and the guns disabled most effectually. In
a small creek we discovered two more very handsome
prahus, just off the stocks, and a couple of long brass
9-pounders ; furthermore, we found abundant proofs
that the Malay chieftains had been winding up their
affairs, and that, had we been a few days later, they
would have flitted back to their native haunts in
Sumatra.
As it was, there was still a possibility that their escape
from the island would be now prevented, and that they
might eventually fall into Siamese hands.
As every fresh explosion took place, or a fresh out-
break of fire and smoke betokened the success of our
work of destruction, loud cheers and shouts rose from
the English and Malay seamen, and one could hardly
recognise, in the excited actors of this scene, the men
THE RENEGADE TURXS TRATTOK. 275
wlio a short week previously had been ministering to
the wants of the fugitive pirates of Quedah fort and
Parlis town, or dry-nursing their infants. Tunny fel-
lows are sailors, whether English or Malay — a strange
mixture of the tiger and the lamb.
When everything was wrapt in flames beyond all pos-
sibility of the conflagration being quenched, we had a
hasty noonday meal, and were then ordered to " make
sail and man the oars," the renegade having offered to
conduct us to a spot where he said there were fifteen
prahus concealed.
Yah ! yah ! yah ! responded the gunboat's crew, to
the Englishmen's hurrah at the joyful news ; and aAvay
we dashed for a place amongst the Laddas, called Bass
Harbour, and, turning into lovely and tortuous channels,
rushed on like bloodhounds after our prey. " Now,"
said my coxswain, " you will see Malay scenery and
Malay men's haunts ! "
The island of Lancavas — or islands, for there may be
more than one — is surrounded by a host of islets, called
the Grains of Pepper (from their number), like an
emerald set in seed-pearls. Lancavas island is moun-
tainous, but has broad valleys in its interior, and a con-
siderable quantity of flat land bordering the eastern and
southern shores. AVhile the plains and rice-fields of
Quedah are parched by a drought of many months'
duration, the hills of Lancavi collect around their sum-
mits the vapours of the sea, which, as they condense,
fall in refreshing showers upon the thirsty vegetation at
the base.
It is not therefore to be wondered at that, even
276 QUEDAH.
amongst the naturally dense jungles of Malayia, those
of the valleys of the Lancavas are pre-eminent, and that
in those dank and hot forests reptiles abound of enor-
mous size. The great boa-constrictor here grows to a
size which it will not do to talk of without being able
to produce the original, though I am morally convinced
that the skin of one which I saw, without its head,
must have been from 25 to 30 feet long, when complete.
However, if I wanted to get a true and faithful account
of a very father of snakes, I had only to refer to Jadee :
he had a stock on hand which would have satisfied the
most credulous glutton.
Whilst crossing Malacca Bay, I suggested that he had
spoken of a famous snake, which was only got rid of by
a very devout Haggi — perhaps Jadee would favour me
with the history? but mind, I wanted it unadorned— a
really faithful tale which I could swear to.
Jadee looked serious, put his hand upon his breast,
and trusted his veracity was beyond all suspicion, and
that, at any rate, I might swear to receiving all informa-
tion just as unadulterated as it came to him : what more
could I expect 1
Crossing his legs, renewing his quid, and shouting to
his men to " give way ! " and beat ISTumber Two gunboat,
he then proceeded to relate how, in former days, the
Kajahs of Quedah were bound by a law, whenever a new
king ascended the throne, or when war was declared
with another state, to sacrifice a virgin daughter of the
royal family to an enormous boa-constrictor, or Oular-
besar, that dwelt on the Lancavas, though it would oc-
casionally visit the JNIalay continent. In return for this
TALE OF THE OULAR-BESAR. 277
delicate tribute, tlie Oular-besar abstained from feeding
largely on the Quedah folk, confining its attention to
Siamese, or people of Mergui, and suchlike canaille; and
it even extended its good offices to watching over the
homes and wives of its Malay friends who were absent
upon little innocent cruises at sea. Indeed, so far had
they succeeded in propitiating its goodwill, that on a
hostile fleet of prahus appearing suddenly off this very
bay, the generous boa-constrictor stretched itself across
from one point of it to the other as a boom, and defied
all the efibrts of the enemy to enter. Jadee pointed
first to one horn of Malacca Bay and then the other,
and though they were a couple of miles apart, I'm bound
to say Jadee did not blush, as he added, " and that will
give you, my officer! some idea of its length !"
I coughed, and said I should like to have seen that
snake's mother ! My coxswain's feelings were hurt ; he
was silent, until I gently smoothed down his feathers
by asking what might have been the end of this very
amiable monster. He continued, " When Mahomet, —
may his tomb exhale unceasingly the odour of holiness !
— sent holy men to show the poor Malays the road to
Paradise, the Haggis said it was wrong to sacrifice, even
to such a big snake, and the kings' daughters were not
sent to feed the Oular-besar.
*' The creature became very annoyed, and the conse-
quence was, he almost cleared the island of Lancavas of
its population and cattle. All schemes failed to check
its wrath, prayers were offered up in all the mosques,
but for our previous sins the Oular-besar still lived, and
stiU kept swallowing up Malays, until the fields were left
278 QUEDAH.
untilled, and the country was fast becoming one great
forest. At last Allah, sent relief, as he always does to
the faithful.
" One day, a most holy man, an Arab Sheik, famous
for his piety and knowledge of the word of God, arrived
at Quedah ; he exhorted all the people to remain firm
in their new faith, for some of them were backsliders,
and thought of the good old times. He pointed out to
them, that the wrath of the Oular-besar was only a
means to test their faith ; but that now Allah was satis-
fied, and had sent him to put a stop to their sorrows.
The holy man now prayed, and all the people with him,
and then he took ship, and j^roceeded to the Lancavas, —
anchoring near the place where w^e destroyed the prahus.
The holy man performed his ablutions, said his prayers,
put on his green turban, and, balancing the Koran on
his head, landed at once either to drive the Oular-besar
away or to die.
"Down came the snake from those distant valleys,
and looked wistfully at the high-dried, tough old Arab ;
and the poor boa-constrictor no doubt sighed at the
remembrance of bygone titbits. The holy man spread
his carpet and began to pray ; the Oular-besar wrapt
him in one fold of its deadly grasp, and a shriek of
' God is great ! ' rang in the ears of his shipmates as he
disappeared down the throat of the monster — turban,
Koran, and all !
" Instead of the Oular-besar reposing, as was to be
expected, while it digested the venerable Haggi, a violent
fury seemed to seize it ; its whole body writhed in a
perfect frenzy, it raised its head high above the loftiest
THE OULAR-BESAR S PATE. 279
trees, its eyes' fiaslied lightning, and for a few minutes
the creature seemed upon the point of dashing into the
sea ; then, with a hiss that made the beholders' blood
curdle in their veins, it shot swiftly away in the direc-
tion of the mountains, and since that day the Oular-
besar has never been seen, and its brethren generally
prefer pigs, poultry, and game to true believers ! "
" Wonderful ! " I exclaimed ; " and so no one has ever
seen the big snake since? "
" jN'o one, Tuhan ! The words of the holy man came
true ; for when did a Haggi tell a lie 1 — but some of the
gold-seekers who scale those mountains you see in the
direction of Patani, report that in a deep and narrow
valley there is to be seen the vast bones of a big snake
around a long green stone, which doubtless, as Allah is
great, are the remains of the Oular-besar and that most
virtuous priest."
"Ah! I see, Jadee," added I, "the priest, in English
sailors' phrase, ' choked the luff' * of that snake."
" Very probably," said Jadee, to whom I had not
interpreted the expression. " Very probably, Tuhan ;
but it was a happy day for Quedah when that holy man
came to it."
Meantime the boats had entered a wonderful laby-
rinth of islands and deep-water channels : not only, as
Jadee had said, might a thousand prahus have been
hidden away, but a fleet of line-of-battle ships might
* " Choking the luflf " is done by placing a piece of wood or rope
in a block or pulley, in such a way that the rope which is rove
through the block will not run. The term is often applied to a tough
story not easily swallowed.
r
280 QUEDAH.
easily have been secreted in the tortuous channels and
hundred creeks around us. It was a sight to make the
heart leap, and the hlood to flow -fast, to be thus sur-
rounded by such gorgeous Eastern scenery ; it was exactly
the haunt one had imagined ought to exist for dashing
pirates and fleet-footed prahus.
'Now we are passing through that heavenly blue water
— bright and clear as woman's eye — which shows, over
a coral bed, a diminutive and wonderful submarine forest
of every fantastic form and colour, over which we are
swiftly passing. On the one hand lies a long and pic-
turesque mountain, clothed with luxuriant vegetation,
aslant which the western sun is casting a million tints
of warm and luscious colouring ; on the other, some fan-
tastic islet throws its sharp outline up against the sky,
whilst the graceful palm, the plantain, and pandanus
hang round it, here clinging to some grey rock, like old
age in the arms of beauty, or feathering over the edge
of a beetling cliff, as if they were ostrich plumes round
some grim warrior's head.
A little farther, the trail wings through a maze of
islets and " lustrous woodlands," each unlike its neigh-
bour, and strangely beautiful ; and just when all farther
progress seems hopeless in such a tangled web, there
bursts upon us a broad expanse of water, laughing in
sunlight and breeze. It might be a lake, except that
between the islets on the seaward side the light of a
declining sun streams in, in a flood of gold which con-
trasts richly with the deep purple of their shaded sides.
On, on we went, now sailing, now rowing — narrow
channels, over which the trees appeared to arch, led
A TROPICAL SQUALL. 281
away as if to the base of the tall peaks of the interior,
around whose crests were fast mustering heavy clouds,
which portended one of those fierce squalls for which
the Straits of Malacca are famous, and generally kno^vn
under the name of Sumatrans ; and then we swept
along a beach so white, so glittering — flowers and coral,
vegetation and sea — it seemed as if Neptune and Flora
were striving for mastery.
At nine o'clock that evening the squall which threat-
ened at sunset swept over the beautiful scene I have
made a feeble effort to portray. As the thunder pealed
over our heads, and the forked lightning crackled through
the refreshing gale, we came to anchor, and rested after
another long day's labour. I was surprised to observe
the superstitious horror betrayed by my crew at the
thunder and lightning, for I thought these would have
been to them very ordinary phenomena.
During the storm, some portion of the electric fluid,
on its passage to the water, took a fancy to make a con-
ductor of a chain-cable and an anchor that were hanging
to the bows ; there was immediately a general appeal to
Mahomet and the Koran ; and one man, more devout
or more wealthy than the rest, made a vow to sacrifice
sundry game-cocks and certain rice : be it said to the
Malay's honour, that a few days after, when, as he be-
lieved, his prayers had been granted, and all danger
was over, his promise was faithfully performed.
Jadee remarked in a serious tone to me during the
squall, and referring to the thunder, " that the skies
were angry." I ventured jestingly to reply, that per-
haps it was the Oular-besar suffering from indigestion,
282 QUEDAH.
brought on by the Ilaggi ! Jadee was horrified, and
said that Malay men knew too well what thunder and
lightning were, to joke at them. I believe he began
now to think me a scoffer ; for, like all Malays, he held
local legends and superstitions in equal reverence with
Mahomet's doctrines. Perhaps, too, it occurred to him
that though he was no Haggi, yet his chances of enter-
tainment amongst the houris would be smaller still if he
was not more guarded in communications upon religious
subjects with an infidel like myself.
The next morning, at early break of day, we were
again pulling and sailing under the guidance of our
renegade guide ; but after searching every spot he sug-
gested, and chasing sundry imaginary prahus which, on
close approach, resolved themselves into the stems of old
trees, or rocks, it became certain that the birds, if there
ever had been any, had flown, and our captain decided
on returning to the ship.
In obedience to our orders, and with a fair wind, we
commenced to thread our way back again through the
Laddas, reaching the Hyacinth late the same afternoon.
The next day saw the close of our operations against
the Malays of Quedah : it was very evident that all
those that could fly had done so ; those who remained
had no resource but to give in their allegiance to the Siam-
ese Government or stand the consequences. Numero
Tega and the other gunboats were ordered to proceed to
Penang, whilst their quondam commanders returned to
the Hyacinth, after an absence of one hundred and four-
teen days.
It was not without regret I bid my crew good-bye ;
CONCLUSION. 283
for my first essay as a captain had been a very, very
happy one ; and if ever a set of poor fellows tried to
show that the feeUng was mutual, it was exhibited in
the warm good-bye of Jadee and his swarthy crew.
My tale is told ; the Hyacinth remained on the coast
only a few days longer, and Captain Warren communicated
with the new Siamese authorities of Parlis and Quedah.
He damped their military ardour at Quedah fort by
obliging them to liberate very expeditiously a British
subject whom they had captured, and upon whom they
were about to practise some original cruelties. The
Rajah of Ligor, commander-in-chief of the Siamese forces,
sent to express his gratitude for all the able assistance
that had been received from us, accompanying it by a
token of his Imperial master's favour, in the shape of a
valuable gold teapot for our gallant Captain, which he
received official permission to retain, together with a
most cordial letter of thanks for his able services from
the Governor-General of British India, the Earl of Auck-
land.
Dear reader, farewell ! If, in my attempt to give you
a fair impression of the much-abused Malay, I have suc-
ceeded in removing from your mind one prejudice against
that people, I shall not have written in vain, and I shall
have done my part towards making you think, as I would
fain do, that
" God framed mankind to be one mighty family,
Himself our Father, and the world oiir home."
A CEUISE
IN
JAPANESE WATERS
A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS
IN
H.M.S. FUEIOUS.
CHAPTEE I.
In the month of August 1858, we left the north of China,
and sailed from the important city of Tientsin, bearing
the cheering intelligence to Shanghai of a treaty of peace
having been concluded between the Empires of Great
Britain and China, and of the advent of a great era in
the history of the latter nation. Henceforth, thanks to
allied arms and allied diplomacy, China was ojjen to the
enterprise of the missionary, traveller, or merchant ;
and the ships of England might not only visit her sea-
board and enter her harbours, but were at liberty to
penetrate to her farthest borders, by means of that noble
stream, the Yang-tse-Kiang, which flows by and through
her richest, and hitherto most secluded, provinces.
Many other valuable concessions were made ; but the
above-mentioned were those most fraught with change
288 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
to the " Central Land," and with promise to British
interests, commerce, and poHcy.
A thorough appreciation of the unhealthy condition
of the European mercantile intellect located at the " Five
Ports" in China, carried us through the anticipated
ordeal of being told by the majority of our belligerent
merchants, that we had not slaughtered half enough
Chinamen, and enabled us to smile at captiousness, that
seemed to think nothing was gained so long as they had
to pay taxes or dues to contemptible mandarins ! Hap-
pily, people at home would think more wisely and more
disinterestedly upon the subject, and England would
rejoice that so much good had been wrought with so
little violence, and that our arms, though they had
punished severely, were free from the charge of injustice
and robber3^ All in Europe who had ever known or
read of China, would appreciate the humiliation that the
proud and exclusive Court of Pekin must have endured,
when it yielded the points which have already been made
public through the medium of the press. Therefore
Anglo-Chinese opinions did not press heavily upon our
spirits — but the heat did. "What a constant exercise of
ingenuity it is to procure a draught of fresh air — or,
more correctly speaking, a draught of air only — during
the July heat of a Shanghai summer ! There is nothing
fresh or pure at that unhappy period ; all ISTature stinks
aloud ; and any one gifted with acute olfactory nerves
in Shanghai, must necessarily suffer from nose-ache,
until all sense of smell is lost, or thoroughly blunted.
Unsavouriness and close-steaming heat apart, Shanghai
is replete with interest. Situated in a rich and highly-
IMPORTANCE OF SHANGHAI. 289
cultivated plain, near the niouth. of the " Son of the
Ocean," as the Chinese figuratively style the Yang-tse-
Kiang, and on the eastern sea-board of the great valley
which stretches north to Pekin, and west to the moun-
tains of Stychuen, closely connected with most of the
important cities of this empire by means of a wonderful
ramification of canals, Shanghai is, in fact, the Liverpool
of China, and likely still more to rise in commercial im-
portance as the results of the Treaty of Tientsin develop
themselves.
It was on Saturday the 18th June 1842 that the boats
of the British fleet opened the port of Shanghai to the
ken of the world ; and sixteen short years afterwards,
the value of the European and American exports and
imports amounts to no less than twenty-six millions of
dollars per annum, or, at the present rate of exchange,
six millions stevlinfj, of which the lion's share goes to
or comes from Great Britain and her colonies. These
figures give some idea of the progress of commerce in a
city, even in this slow-moving country; but the scene
of bustle Shanghai offers is still more striking. Eighty
odd sail of splendid clippers, fleet-footed racers of the
deep sea, from London, Liverpool, Aberdeen, and ISTew
York, are riding at anchor off the c^uays ; flags and pen-
nons, as varied in colour as their owners and consignees
are numerous, flaunt gaily in the fervid zephyrs that waft
anything but ambrosial smells from the fields and gar-
dens of a people who are far too practical to care for the
filthy means whereby their vegetables are brought to
market in such marvellous perfection. We know that
directly the monetary crisis in Europe has ceased to re-
19
290 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
act Tipon the firms established here, and that the new
crop of teas shall have arrived from the tea-growing dis-
tricts, every wharf which projects into the river will be
inaccessible for the throng of lighters pressing around
them, and that crowds of sweltering coolies or porters
will wail over their burdens, ever repeating their melan-
choly cry of "Ah-ho! ah-ho-ho !" Allah be praised
that that busy scene has not yet commenced, for then
our only hours of rest, from four o'clock until seven
o'clock in the morning, would be broken, and heat,
stench, musquitoes, combined with coolies, might drive
us to desperation, and to take a passage home in the first
Peninsular and Oriental mail-boat, and thus mar our
anticipated visit to Japan.
The lull in European commerce does not appear to
have checked Chinese activity wherever money-making
is to be done ; and although, in their jargon, Messrs
Smith, Brown, and Eobinson "have makee broke !" or
" that new chop tea no catchee yet, by-and-by can do,"
yet that in no way afi'ected the Chinaman's line of busi-
ness. In the city, about the river-side, and in narrow
pestiferous streets, there is a clang and din of commerce.
Oily, strong-smelling men rush past you, carrying loads
of sugar or fusty bags of rice ; here piles of rattans im-
pede the way, or bundles of dye-woods rattle about your
shins ; and then all the conglomeration of foul smells is
suddenly mastered by tubs of some abomination brought
from the Eastern isles to tickle the palates of the sons of
the Flowery Land !
Put on a pith hat, spread a thick cotton umbrella, take
advantage of every streak of shade thrown by tree or
THE SOO-CHOW-FOO CANAL. 291
wall, and let us watch, the entrance of the Soo-chow-foo
Canal. N'umbers of boats are passing and repassing ;
some carry native merchants or brokers, who have been
doing, or are going to do, business in Shanghai. In spite
of the unpretending appearance of their comfortable
boats, tens of thousands, in dollars, are the figures in
which their inmates carry on their mercantile transac-
tions. Smooth, silver-tongued Asiatics as they are —
adepts at lying, chicanery, and duplicity — they are com-
mercially honest nevertheless. Good faith in mercan-
tile transactions they have found to be advantageous ;
and, being an eminently practical race, they adopt the
advantageous virtue, and as a rule (not without excep-
tion) they practise it. But the same man who will, to
the uttermost farthing, account to his brother-merchant
for thousands, or assist him in a commercial crisis, will
unblushingly defraud his Government by the grossest
perjury, and subscribe remorselessly to a fund for procur-
ing the heads of foreigners, or for destroying a European
community with arsenic — Howqua and Canton to wit.
Besides these boats full of passengers, there are barges
carrying the greatest amount of goods, and drawing the
smallest conceivable amount of water, and some months
hence they will reach the remotest points of the empire
with, their precious freight of tropical or European pro-
duce. Such is the scene on the Soochow Canal. Xow
look up the river, above the fleet of clippers, steam-
boats, and men-of-war, at that forest of masts like a
mass of pine-trees stripped of branch and leaf; they
are the native vessels of Shanghai. Only the pool
below London Bridge can offer a similar sight. This
292 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
season, certainly, these vessels were unusually numerous.
Fear of the allies, and the exaggerated reports of the
" fierceness of the uncontrollable barbarians " command-
ing her Britannic Majesty's gunboats, have induced their
owners to remain in port until peace was declared. Our
news has evidently reached them, and the clang of gongs,
much discordant music, and the noise of crackers, during
the early watches of the past night, are demonstrations
of John Chinaman's delight. He has the prospect of
again being able to push into the outer waters, under
the slender protection of the smooth-faced Queen of
Heaven, who in her smoky little shrine under the junk's
poop smiles approvingly on the poor junk-seaman's offer-
ing of a cup of weak tea, and a candle of pork fat
painted bright vermilion.
All day, and all night long, according as the tide
serves, these industrious fellows are moving up or down
the stream, ever heaving in cables, or hoisting or lower-
ing their quaint- cut sails. Hardy must they be, as well
as industrious ; they seem to have but one suit of
clothes, and only a mat to sleep upon ; their food is
simply rice, and salt-fish enough to swear by, and their
pay is very small ; yet they face the tempests of a sea
which is full of danejer to our well-found barks and
expert seamen. And then, after a long and toilsome
voyage, the junk-sailor often endures sad cruelties from
pirates, whose ships are ever prowling about in the
neighbourhood of the centres of commerce. Still, in
spite of typhoons and pirates, and the competition of
European vessels that already have entered the field
against them in the coasting trade, the native craft have
WEALTH OF THE CITY. 293
apparently in nowise diminislied in number ; and it
is probable, indeed, that more junks sail to and from
Shanghai at the present day than prior to the opening
of the port to European commerce.
To complete the picture of Shanghai, I may add that
the "bund" or quay which forms the river-face of the
European quarter, together with the magnificent abodes
of the merchants, and the no less imposing consulates,
convey an idea of the wealth and prosperity of the com-
munity which is fully supported by their establishments,
yachts, horses, and mode of living. Even the ministers
of the Protestant churches, judging by their dwellings,
partake of the general wellbeing of Shanghai. Rectors
at home on £600 per annum live not in such houses ;
and poor curates in England, desirous of enjoying con-
jugal life, and bearing light to the benighted heathen,
may, by enduring a considerable amount of heat and
many smells, do far better in China (in a temporal point
of view at least) than by slaving in the fever-haunted
homes of the poor of an English city. The missionary
in China may not expect, like the merchant, to make a
rapid fortune and retire, but nevertheless it is a fine field
for active sons of the Church. There is for them the
prospect of promotion to vacant Eastern bishoprics ; or,
if gifted with more questionable zeal for the interests of
their country and their religion, they may become poli-
tical agents or Government interpreters.
He who at the latter part of July, at Shanghai, found
anything to admire or write of, might boast of some
energy and good health. Personal comfort was out of
the question. The temperature for a week ranged from
294 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
86° to 98° Fahrenheit, and on deck, in the shade of our
a^\iiings, often stood at 104°. Sunstroke was frequent.
Even the Chinese labourers employed in coaling the
ship were more than once struck down ; the men-of-war
lost one or more men by this awful and sudden death ;
and as late in the afternoon as four p.m. a European
policeman was killed by coup-cle-soleil, through incau-
tiously exposing himself on the bund. Every one on
shore or on board found a perfect state of mental and
bodily quietude actually necessary for the preservation
of health ; and we thought with a sigh of our brethren
and kindred who, in as high a temperature, and almost
as insupportable a climate — that of Oude or Eohilcund
— were labouring for their country's honour in spite of
sunstroke and disease.
At this season all the residents of Shanghai look
painfully unhealthy, sallow, and listless. Those afloat,
and not acclimatised, suffer much from boils, rush, whit-
lows, and similar ailments, by which strong constitutions
seek relief when tried by great heats and pestiferous ex-
halations.
It is true that the mercantile community, feeding and
living in an artificial state, cooled by punkahs, and sup-
ported by the consolation that in three or four years'
time they would return to Europe or America with for-
tunes, may be able, with Spartan fortitude, to smile at
such sufferings ; we were otherwise situated, and can
safely aver, after more than twenty years' wandering
through one portion of the tropics or another, varying
their heat occasionally with extremes of cold equally
objectionable, that a hot calm off the Bonny Eiver in
SUFFERING FROM HEAT. 295
Africa, or the most sultry day Port-Eoyal or Saugor
Island can produce, is Eden itself when compared with
the foul stew called a hot day in Shanghai.
We acknowledge that, for seven months — ay, and if
you please, eight months — the climate of Shanghai is
delicious ; the ice, the mutton, and the game, all are
unexceptionable ; but heaven preserve us from a third
time visiting it in the dog-days of a Chinese summer !
Even the arrival of the English mail hardly served to
rouse us from our lethargic discontent. Canton had be-
come a horrid nightmare, and we were supremely in-
different as to the squabbles of Governor Bo wring of
Hong-Kong, and Mr Commissioner Hwang, Governor-
General of the Quang-tung and Quang-si jDrovinces. We
could only listlessly glance over the terrible edicts they
had each fulminated against the other. It was too
much that hot day to attempt to read the tremendous
despatches of a General in India, who, with five hundred
sailors, soldiers, sepoys, and irregulars, had fought some
twenty pitched battles with a numerous and desperate foe,
whose flanks he enveloped, whose rear he threatened,
whose columns he crushed, whose centre he pierced,
whose line he enfiladed, rolled up, and came down u23on
perpendicularly ! But we could read and re-read Sir
Colin Campbell's clear and soldier -like reports, and
hoped that, after all, the real fight was where the gallant
Highlander led.
Shortly after the mail arrived, certain intelligence
reached Shanghai from the north of China, that the
Court of Pekin, acting in fulfilment of its contract, had
already despatched two high ofiicers to Shanghai to
296 A CKUISE IN JAPANESE WATEES.
arrange the terms of the future transit duties, and to
revise the present tariff of taxes on foreign imports and
exports. These functionaries could not arrive for some
weeks; and, in the mean time, a good opportunity
offered for the British Ambassador to proceed to Japan,
and there secure to Great Britain the same privileges
the Americans and Eussians had of late been so active
in compelling the Japanese Government to grant them.
Then, amid clouds of coal-dust and a tumult of baggage
and live-stock, we prepare to bid Shanghai good-bye — not
with a sigh, for who ever sighed or said they were sorry
to quit any port in China ? We can sympathise with
the poor Highflyer's officers and men, who will, like
those of the frigate Pique, swing daily round over one
spot, until beef-bones, old boots, and broken bottles,
form a dangerous shoal under their keel. The great to-
morrow, on which we sail for Ja^Dan, will next dawn
upon us. We go to bed, and dream, not " o' green
fields," but of blue water and rattling sea-breezes, bear-
ing us fresh health and strength.
The sun's rays were making a gallant fight with the
malaria-laden yellow mists of the Yang-tse-Kiang Valley
as we weighed for the once-fabled shores of Cipango. A
sleepy display of ensigns from the men-of-war of differ-
ent nations showed that their officers of the watch recog-
nised the departure of the British Ambassador, the Earl
of Elgin and Kincardine, with an escort of two steam-
frigates, a corvette, and a gunboat,* Down a winding
* The squadron of his Excellency consisted of the steam-frigate
Retribution, 28 guns, Captain C. Barker ; the steam-frigate Furious,
16 guns, Captain Sherard Osborn, C.B., on board of which ship his
TO SEA AT LAST. 297
reach, through miles of turbid water, and past fleets of
junks and boats, we sped, until the flat shore dropped
abruptly out of sight astern. Then a solitary rock or
storm-swept islet appeared in sight, and as quickly dis-
appeared, as we rattled on to the east at a pace which
made the fisherman, in his rickety craft, drop his line,
and watch us with face indicative of wild astonishment.
The reader knows assuredly what it is to suddenly
come on sweet grass, and under cool trees, after a weary
walk over a dusty highway. The same sensation of
relief and pleasure was generally felt and expressed as
we gradually left the muddy waters of a great river,
which carries suspended in its stream, they say, earth
enough, were it suddenly deposited, to form another
England. The emerald green of the deeper portions of
the China Sea steadily darkened in tint, until we again,
on the morrow of our leaving Shanghai, saw dear mother
Ocean clad in her glorious robes of blue !
" Once more upon the waters ! yet once more !
And the waves bound beneath us, as a steed
That knows his rider."
After months — nay, more than a year — pothering
about in the narrow rivers, creeks, bays, and dirty water
of China, it was pleasant again to see blue, bright-blue
water, sparkling, laughing, and showing its white teeth
under a rattling breeze ; and oh ! how cheering to look
again upon a clear sky, and loose, fleecy, trade-wind
clouds sailing athwart it ! The charm of novelty, too,
enhanced the feelings we experienced. Our cruise to
Excellency and suite were embarked ; the gunboat Lee, Lieutenant
Graham ; and the yacht Emperor, Lieutenant Ward.
298 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
Japan was not avowedly one of discovery, but, after
all, it was very like one. We were going upon a coast
imperfectly surveyed. The only chart was by a German,
Dr Siebold, avIio, whilst forming part of the Dutch com-
mercial establishment closely imprisoned at Nangasaki,
had compiled, from Japanese authorities, a very fair
map and chart of the empire, though but poorly adapted
for purposes of navigation. We were going to Yedo,
the capital of Japan ; though it was said we should not
approach it, because one clause of the treaty of 1854
stipulated that British ships should only go to JSTanga-
saki, at the one extreme of the empire, and Hakodadi
at the other. Our Ambassador was to present a yacht
from our Queen to an Emperor who we heard was, by
the rules of his empire, never allowed to go beyond the
walls of his palace ; and then he was, by moral force,
to be induced to make a fresh treaty, in the face of a
clause in that same treaty which runs as follows : 7th
Art. — When this convention shall have been ratified,
no high office?' coining to Japan shall alter it^ So that
we might say there Avere as many unknown rocks and
quicksands ahead of the dij^lomatic portion of the expe-
dition as there were in the track of the executive.
Information of the hydrography of Japan was most
scant. Kcempfer and Siebold, though trustworthy in all
respects, were ignorant upon the point on which we as
seamen most sought for information. The ponderous
volumes of the American expedition to Japan had little
new in them beyond information about the gulf of
Yedo. Had Marco Polo, in August 1858, sprung from
his grave, it is true that he might have been pleased to
MARCO POLO S ZIPANGU. 299
find that we did not, like his foolish countrymen, smile
with incredulity at his wondrous tale of Zipangu or
Cipango, but he would have been much astonished to
find that, after a lapse of five centuries and a half,
Europe knew very little more about Japan than he did
when, in the year 1295, he pointed to the eastern mar-
gin of the Yellow Sea, and said, "There was a great
island there named Zipangu," peopled by a highly civi-
lised and wealthy race, who had bravely rolled back the
tide of Tartar conquest in the days of Kublai Khan.
An eminent American, who goes off occasionally on
the wings of that dreadful eagle with its claws armed
with the lightning, and which is ever soaring over the
Eocky Mountains, or sweeping across the western waters,
&c. &c., seems to insist that it is the high mission of the
United States to do chaperon to Japan, and introduce
her to the ken of the western world, all because Chris-
topher Columbus — who, we maintain, was not the first
American citizen, and cared no more for the Declaration
of Independence than he did for General Washington —
discovered the American continent in endeavouring to
reach that Cathay and Zipangu of which Marco Polo
had written, but in which Columbus had alone the wit in
after years to believe. However that may be, it is sin-
cerely to be desired that, if she believes in her mission,
the United States may go earnestly about it, and send
her commodores, flag-officers, consuls, missionaries, and
envoys to do the work steadily and well ; and when
Congress, revelling in surplus revenue, liberally pays
the expense of pubKshing their servants' journals, they
had best be tied down to write of Japan only, and not
300 -A CRUISE IX JAPANESE WATERS.
wander loosely to Singapore, Hong-Kong, the Cape of
Good Hope, and St Helena, for the sole purpose of
abusing a colonial system which still keeps Great Britain
a neck and shoulders ahead of the whole world, and
enables us to care but little what the opinion of the
United States may be as to how we treated N^apoleon
Buonaparte.
CHAPTEE 11.
The valley of deep water, four hundred and fifty miles
in a direct line from the shores of China to those of
Japan, delightful though it was to us river-sick seamen,
is at present a very lonely sea. The interdiction of
foreign trade by the Emperors of Japan included China
as well as Europe, and during the centuries in which the
flag of Holland alone crossed the sea we were traversing,
China was only allowed to send thirteen junks annually to
and from Nangasaki. We therefore saw no vessel in our
track; and it was generally remarked that, excepting
great numbers of flying-fish, there was a dearth of animal
life, whether fish or bird, where, from our proximity to
land, it would have been natural it should be the reverse.
On the afternoon of the 2d August 1858 we reached
a group of rocky but picturesque islets, the outposts in
this direction of the Japanese empire — Miaco-Sima, or
the " Asses' Ears," so named because their peaks run up
in a manner not unlike the ears of that animal. Their
coasts are bold and ^raggy, lashed by the rollers of a wild
though narrow sea, whose spray has left a mark far up
the polished wave-worn sides ; yet there was green grass
and stout pine-tree immediately above the wash of the
sea, and vegetation made a bold fight to reach the sum-
302 A CEUISE IN JAPANESE ^YATERS.
niits of the craggy peaks. " How different from CMnese
scenery ! " we naturally exclaimed, as our good ship sped
past Miaco-Sima, and all declared themselves perfectly
satisfied with this first instalment of Japan : it was evi-
dent we were determined to be pleased.
The mountains of Kiu-Siu Island, on which the city
of l!^angasaki is situated, were next to rise upon the
eastern horizon. The night proved dark and gloomy,
and as in the middle watch the bold coasts of Gotto
Island were seen to the northward, warning ns that we
were approaching Japan faster than was prudent, in
spite of our anxiety to be quickly into port the speed
had to be very much reduced. Daj^-dawn showed this
to have been prudent, for the land about Cape ]S"omo,
the southern entrance of the bay leading to JSTangasaki,
was on our starboard bow ; and thence, stretching far
away to our left, rose peak, mountain, and table-land,
until lost in the distance. Away to the north, a channel
dotted with islets was seen between Gotto and Kiu-Siu.
It led to Hirando, or Firando, that port so well known
to European mariners of centuries now long gone by,
when Spaniards and Portuguese, Dutchmen and Eng-
lish, were struggling for a footing in Japan, and each
doing his best to have his brother Christian exter-
minated — how they eventually succeeded, and the
Dutchman turned up the trump-card, we will here-
after relate. For the present, we must go at full speed
for a mark in the land ahead, which, the charts tell us,
leads us to our haven.
For a while heavy mists swept over land and sea, and
we could only see a mile or so ahead. It was very tan-
FIRST SIGHT OF JAPAN. 303
talising. Those wlio had not witnessed day-dawn would
not believe we had seen Japan, and growled out com-
plaints of the nuisance, to use a seaman's phrase, of
" being jammed in a fog off our port." The consolation
was, that possibly the sun would master the fog ; and
presently there was a play of light along the surface of
the sea ; the hulls of our vessels came out sharp and
clear. Then the forms of Japanese junks were seen ;
presently their sails and masts showed ; — the fog was
lifting, breaking, and dispersing. Down the mountains
of Kiu-Siu rolled masses of cloud ; out of every vale
and valley came sweeping down dense mists, wrathful at
the enemy that was expelling them. Poor cloudland
fought at a disadvantage with the lusty youth of a
morning sun ; — his fierce glance pierced her densest
array, and, in sullen showers and flying squalls of wind,
night and darkness passed away ; whilst day, bright and
beaming, burst fairly upon us with a shout of welcome.
It was a glorious sight — mountain and plain, valley and
islet, clothed with vegetation, or waving with trees and
studded with villages — blue sea for a foreground, crisped
with the breeze, and calm spots with sandy bays, in
amongst islands dotted with fishing-boats and native
junks. We must not attempt it, for pen or pencil could
never reproduce such a picture.
Early in the forenoon, H.M.S. Furious was entering
the charming series of channels leading through islands
to IsTangasaki. Cape l^omo was now hidden from view,
whilst on either hand lay the lovely spots known by
the native names of Iwosima and Kamino-sima, " Sima"
being Japanese for island. They looked like pieces of
304 A CEUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
land detaclied from the best parts of the south coast of
England, and it is impossible, we believe, to pay them
a greater compliment. Their outline was marked and
picturesque, clothed, wherever a tree could hang or find
holding-ground, with the handsome pine peculiar to
Japan. Villages and richly cultivated gardens nestled
in every nook, and flowers, as well as fruit-trees, were
plentiful.
To our eyes, the multitude of guns and extraordinary
number of batteries which covered every landing-place,
or surmounted every height, on these islands, did not
enhance their beauty ; and we regretted to see the men
entering the batteries as w^e approached. We suspected
then, what afterwards proved to be the case, that our
Transatlantic friends had taken great care to work upon
the fears of the Japanese, by spreading some marvellous
tales of what we Britishers had done in China, and in-
tended to do to them. The garrisons of the batteries,
however, appeared desirous only of showing how pre-
pared they were ; and having gone to their guns, quietly
sat down to smoke their pipes, while the officers, seated
on the parapets, gracefully fanned themselves. Yet it
will be well for all the world that the Japanese are
jealous of their liberty ; and that its people will, if need
should arise, gallantly defend the beautiful land God
has given them.
It would be hazardous to say how many guns are
mounted on the islands and points commanding the ap-
proach to Nangasaki : some of them may be of wood —
merely quahers ; but we saw hundreds that decidedly
were not. The majority were of brass, some of iron, all
THE DEFENCE OF NANGASAKL 305
mounted on wheeled carriages; and they seemed, from the
gun-gear about them, well found in stores, and efficient.
The batteries were very solid, and there was a queer
mixture of European and Japanese ideas in their con-
struction — for although the lower portions would have
stood a great deal of hammering from an enemy, the un-
fortunate gunners would have been too much exposed to
have stood long to their guns.
Our attention was now called from the land to a num-
ber of government boats, which were dotted about the
water ahead of us : they were always in pairs, one,
doubtless, selon les regies, watching the other. It was
desirable to have no communication with these guard-
boats — for such we easily recognised them to be — lest
they should hand us the copy of some British Treaty or
Convention, by which some one had pledged Her Most
Gracious Majesty's subjects not to do this, or not to
do that. We happened to have found in an old book —
the only old thing, except old port, that we ever liked —
a Treaty of Peace and Amity between the Emperor of
Japan and James the Eirst of Great Britain, dated as
far back as the year of grace 1613. By it, right of
intercourse, commerce, and suchlike, was secured to us
for ever ; and as only two centuries and a half had
elapsed — a mere flea-bite in the records of such coun-
tries as Japan and China — it seemed natural we should
still adhere to the privileges secured by bold Captain
Saris, of the good ship Clove of London, belonging unto
the Honourable and Worshipful Company of Merchants
trading to the East Indies — and ignore the folly of those
who, in later years, had lost the birthright their ancestors
20
306 A CEUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
had won for them. In happy assumed ignorance of any
treaties made to the contrary, we steamed on, pretending
to be perfectly unconscious of the existence of guard-
boats and officials. However, it Avas soon very evident
that if they could not stop us, it was quite as much as
their lives were worth not to be able to report correctly
upon who or what we were. Just as we had put the
helm hard down to escape one pair of boats, two others
skilfully tumbled into the wash of our paddle-wheels,
and the most expeditious short-hand writers at home
could not have made their quills fly faster than did these
Japanese in noting down facts that one of their party,
who stood on tiptoe to peer into the ports, shouted out
for their information. Xext day we learned that the
spies had given a very excellent account of H.M.S.
Furious, and had only missed one gun in the list of her
armament.
Past these impediments, and avoiding some sunken
rocks which lie in the channel, the ship appeared to be
running up against the shores of Kiu-Siu, which rose
boldly ahead until they terminated in the cloud-capped
Peaks of Hi-kosan and Tarutagama. Was it that the
Furious was tired of buff'eting the wide sea, and had de-
termined, like the Bounty of Otaheitian fame, to place
herself in one of the lovely nooks ahead '? ISTo : the
channel will show out presently ; the beautiful but sadly
notorious island of Takaboko bars the view of the
entrance to the inner harbour.
Lovely, yet wicked Takaboko — better known as the
Papenberg — how calm and smiling it looked down upon
our wooden home as we swept past, almost touching it !
THE PAPENBERCt — ITS HISTORY. 307
It so peaceful, so full of repose — we all throb and noise,
routine and formality ! There, in that pretty nook, we
should, we felt assuredly, find that rest, that peace which
all men crave for, but so seldom find ! "A battery in
amongst those trees ! sir," said the shrill voice of the
signal midshipman, and "four brass guns in it." Brass
guns and batteries in such an Eden ! what barbarism !
We thought with a sigh of an equally barbarous act per-
petrated by those gallant Frenchmen, who had planted
Yauban batteries among the bread-fruit and palm-trees
of sweet Otaheite — the only spot that excelled the scene
of beauty which now surrounded us.
Beautiful Papenberg ! Yet, if history spoke true,
deeds horrid enough for it to have been for ever blighted
by God's Avrath had been perpetrated there during the
persecutions of the Christians in the seventeenth cen-
tury. It was the Golgotha of the many martyrs to the
Eoman Catholic faith. There by day and by night its
steep clifts had rung with the agonised shriek of strong
men, or the wail of women and children, launched to
rest, after torture, in the deep waters around the island.
If Jesuit records are to be believed, the fortitude and
virtue exhibited by their Japanese converts in those sad
hours of affliction have not been excelled in any part of
the world since religion gave another plea to man to de-
stroy his fellow-creature ; and may it not be that the
beauty with which nature now adorns that rock of sor-
rows is her halo of glory around a spot rendered holy by
the sufferings, doubtless, of many that were brave and
good 1 Yes ! let us think so, and forget the envy,
hatred, and malice which once raged rampant there.
308 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
Let us forget its past history, and look at tliat Japanese
Hebe who stands on the pathway up the face of the
Papenberg, and stares at the frigate sweeping past under
her feet. Unconscious of the admiration and the tele-
scopes which are directed at her, gentle heathen ! of
course she is perfectly ignorant of all the compliments
her grace and neatness are calling forth ; but she puts
up her hand and rearranges the brilliant red flowers in
her jetty hair. Now she laughs, and, throwing her head
aside archly, displays such a glittering set of white teeth !
That angel of the Papenberg redeems all the blemishes
we might have seen in it ; and, like the lovely daughter
in the legend of an Ogre's castle, shall she not perfectly
reconcile all true knights to the crimes of the remorse-
less giants who of old held their sway there ?
" Hard a-starboard, sir ! " exclaims our Palinurus ;
and as the spokes of the wheel fly round, the ship turns
sharply into the fine channel of water leading up to
Kangasaki. That city faced us, spread round the base of
a hill at the further end of the harbour, and having
immediately in front of it a rude collection of hybrid
European houses, with a flagstaff on the artificial island
of Decima, whereon the Japanese had held the Dutch-
men voluntary prisoners ever since the expulsion of the
Portuguese in 1613. There for centuries had the poor
Dutchmen endured insult, restraint, and contumely,
rather than forego certain advantages in carrying out
Japanese copper and retailing it to Europeans at an
enormous profit. Long-suff'ering and enduring vendors
of strong Dutch cheese, Zealand butter, and pleasant
schnapps, relief came at last !
NANGASAKI. 309
The Dame Partingtons at home trundled their mops
in the face of Holy Mother " Russia," because she felt
her mission called her to trounce the Turk and take Con-
stantinople in 1854. The Japanese Emperor was aston-
ished to find the belligerents playing a game of hide-
and-seek in the many bays and harbours of his empire,
and wisely concluded that the orthodox old lady of
Moscow, whose dominions approached suspiciously close
to Japan, might one day think it as Christian-like to
rob a Buddhist as a Mohammedan neighbour. Partly
through fear, partly through pressure cleverly applied by
Yankees and Dutchmen, he wisely departed from the
ancient laws of his realm, and sought for aid and protec-
tion where, strangely enough, he can only find them, in
the friendship of four or five nations who cordially
dislike and are jealous of each other. But a truce to
politics for a time — the ambition of men or nations, the
follies of the Christian and the Heathen, may be studied
elsewhere. Let us satisfy ourselves with simply inhal-
ing healthful pleasure from the contemplation of the
loveliness nature has spread over the harbour of Nan-
gasaki.
A long fiord of blue water stretches two miles inland
between sloping hills which spring from the sea with a
bold, rocky escarpment, and then roll gently back, rising
to an altitude of a thousand feet or so ; and these are
overlooked by still more lofty giants — every mountain-
side covered with all that can gladden a landscape, and
down every ravine gladsome streams rushing on to the
sea. Here a village, there a quaint bark anchored in a
sandy cove ; now an official abode with square-cut ter-
310 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATEES.
race and upright fence, so properly stiff, starched, and
queer, you felt sure you had only to knock and that one
of the Barnacles of a public office would appear ; then,
nestling in the midst of green trees and flowery gardens,
were the prettiest chalets seen out of Switzerland ;
children, with no clothes at all, rolling on the grass, or
tumbling in and out of the water; whilst their respected
parents, with but few habiliments to incommode them,
gravely waved their fans, or sat gazing upon the newly-
arrived vessels. Oh ! it was a goodly sight; but we
were all in the mood to be pleased; and had the sky
been less clear, the air less bracing, and the climate as
bad as that of China, we should assuredly still have
admired it.
In former days, a chain of guard-boats used to extend
across the gate of this Japanese paradise. One of our
men-of-war, during the Eussian war, nearly paddled over
them ; and we too, it had been determined, were not to
be stopped by them. The Japanese officers of the present
day are far wiser in their generation than those who,
when the frigate of Captain Sir Israel Pellew forced her
way into the harbour during the French war, disem-
bowelled themselves rather than survive the disgrace.
"We found all the boats removed and made fast in by the
shore. One officer more anxious than the rest to do his
duty, or, Asiatic like, desirous of ascertaining to what
lengths he might go, stood up in his boat as we came
abreast of him, and mildly gesticulated with his fan (the
everlasting emblem of office in Japan) for us to go back
again ! We would fain not have seen it ; but of course
the officious signalman immediately reported that there
SCENE OFF NANGASAKI. 311
was a Japanese officer waving. A spy-glass was brought
steadily to bear on him ; the Avretch was about fifty
yards off; the action of the fan became at once less
violent, then irregular, as if the waver of the fan was in
a dilemma ; then a spasmodic jerk ; the glass was kept
steadily on the wretch (we feared lest the Ambassador
should see him and cry halt !) — there was a pause, an-
other flutter — hurrah ! he shut up his fan, and retired
under his awning, beaten. He had only to perform
Haki-kari, or disembowelment ; and we proceeded, giving
the officious signalman orders not to make nonsensical
reports of every Japanese who chose to fan himself !
We soon anchored off JN^angasaki, close to a gallant
bark from Holland — ^just such a ship as should always
sail from stout Amsterdam ; none of your fly-away new-
fangled vessels, lean as greyhounds and quite as fast,
but full, round, and frau-like — exactly the craft, in
short, that a vessel rejoicing in the name of the Zeevaart
ought to be. Beside her rode gaily, at her anchors
— Avhich, with every disposition to be gallant to ships
and ladies, we cannot say the Zeevaart did — a Japanese
screw schooner, under the simple imperial flag, a red ball
on a white ground. She had been purchased from the
Dutch, for some fabulous sum in copper bars, unless
rumour belied the honest burghers of Decima; but all
her officers and men were now natives, from the engineer
to the captain ; and from what we saw of their exercise
aloft, and what we heard from their Dutch naval instruc-
tors, our impression was very favourable to the prospect
of the Japanese shortly being again the able and skilful
seamen they were three centuries ago, when they used
312 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
to navigate their frail native craft as far as the ports of
Indostan.
An hour passed — no officials came near us. The native
boats, before alluded to, had followed the ship, and now
hung listlessly about her. The officers in them were
evidently very inquisitive ; but as we did not invite
their approach, they still kept aloof. The Dutchmen on
shore seemed equally shy. Some half-dozen sailors, in
red shirts, lolled about the landing-place of Decima; still
Decima showed no other sign of vitality, and smoke rose
as steadily from the Dutch skipper's pipe as he leant
over the rail of his argosy and peered at us, as it would
have done in the sleepiest landscape in watery Holland.
It suddenly struck us that Decima had gone to bed, and
that here, as in Eatavia, the community dine about noon,
and after dinner all the Mynheers, Fraus, and Frauleins
retire to rest, rising from their second sleep about four or
five o'clock in the afternoon. We were, we soon ascer-
tained, right in our suspicions ; so an officer was sent on
shore, remorselessly to stir up the sleeping burghers of
Decima with the information of the arrival of his Excel-
lency the British Ambassador.
There was soon a general flurry, for the Japanese ap-
peared to have been waiting for their Dutch friends to
awake, to inquire if we might be visited. Japanese
officials, with pockets full of paper, pens, and ink, hur-
ried off — jolly good-natured-looking fellows, always ready
to laugh, and in appearance resembling more the Kanaka
races of the South Sea Islands than the Chinese we had
left behind us. Their dress, in some respects, w^as
Chinese, and their language sounded very like a mixture
VISITS OF REPORTEES. 313
of the discordancy of that most discordant of languages,
and the soft liquid sounds of the Kanaka tongue. And
how they interrogated us ! — what was the ship's name,
our name, the Ambassador's titles — everybody's name
and age — everybody's rank and business — what did we
want — whither were we going — whence did we come —
how many ships were coming — where Avas our Admiral 1
Indeed, a Eussian customhouse agent, or a British census
paper, could not have put more astounding questions,
whether in number or nature, than did these i^angasaki
reporters. We were as patient as naval officers, or angels,
may usually be supposed to be under such circumstances ;
— answered all their questions — allowed them to see,
touch, smell, and hear everything, except the British
Ambassador, who was in his cabin — and then dismissed
them with a glass of sherry and a biscuit. I and the
first-lieutenant had hardly congratulated ourselves that,
at any rate, that portion of the pleasure of visiting Japan
was over, when another boatful of reporters arrived,
tumbled up the ladder, were very well-behaved, but
asked exactly the same questions, and went exactly
through the same farce as the first party had done. They
were, we learnt, duplicate reporters, whose statements
served to check and correct those of the first set of
inquirers.
Directly they left us, a two-s worded official arrived —
two swords in Japan, like two epaulettes in Europe,
indicate an officer of some standing. He introduced
himself through a Japanese interpreter, who spoke Eng-
lish remarkably well, as " a chief officer," who had an
official communication to make. "Would he sit down —
314 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
would he be pleased to unbosom himself ] Could he not
see the Ambassador 1 Impossible ! What ! " a chief
officer" communicate with an ambassador ! We were
truly horrified. The chief officer must be simply insane :
did he couple the representative of the majesty of Great
Britain with a mere Superintendent of trade 1 The chief
officer apologised; he was very properly shocked at the
proposition that he had made ; he saw his error, and,
what was more to our purpose, the Ambassador assumed
a size and importance in his eyes which it would have
been difficult to have realised. The " chief officer" then
put his questions — Did Lord Elgin intend to call upon
the Governor of Nangasaki ? JN^o ; he had not time
to do so. Did he expect the Governor to wait upon
him 1 The Governor could please himself — the Ambas-
sador would receive him if he came. If the Lieutenant-
Governor called on Lord Elgin, would his Excellency
receive him 1 Yes. — This was all the chief officer had
to say; his mission was a special one. He begged to wish
us good-morning, merely adding that the Governor of
Naugasaki hoped the Ambassador would kindly accept
a small present which would shortly be sent.
The present arrived shortly afterwards — a stout cob-
built pig of three hundredweight j and such a quantity
of pumpkins ! It looked at first very like a joke; indeed,
the infernal music of an animal never seen alive on board
a man-of-war, added to the comicality of the affair ; but
the fact is, that the Japanese are a sober-minded, thrifty
people, and nothing evinces it better than the following
interesting custom, followed in this as in all other cases :
— Whenever a Japanese makes a present, whatever the
THE GOVERNOR S PRESENT. 315
rank of tlie parties or the value of the gift may be, the
donor encloses in an envelope, bearing his name and
comj)liments, a small piece of dried salt-fish, emblemati-
cal of the poverty of their ancestors, and of the thrift
whereby their present affluence has been attained ; and
this is often wrapped in a piece of paper, on which is
written the following favourite sentence, " Happy those
who never depart from the wisdom of their ancestors,"
— a Confucian as well as Protectionist doctrine, the
widespread faith in which, in this remote part of the
world, may be possibly confirmatory and consolatory to
some at home who will not believe that free trade and
repeal of corn-laws can be beneficial to their country.
After this little episode of pig, pumpkin, and salt-fish,
the Dutch gentlemen belonging to the factory turned up.
The secretary of the Dutch superintendent of trade came,
accompanied by two naval officers, instructors lent by the
Government of Holland to teach the Japanese the arts
of navigation, gunnery, and nautical science generally.
The former had to explain that the superintendent, Mr
Donker Curtius, was absent on public business, and the
latter told us that their senior officer or commandant was
sick; but they had a good deal of interesting information
to give, which was to the following effect : —
The superintendent of the factory, Mr Donker Cur-
tius, had been in Yedo during the past six months, as
well as Mr Harris, the American Consul-General; they
had both been especially ordered to the capital. Alarmed
by the rumours of the Allied operations against China,
the Japanese Government was at first very fair s|)oken
upon the subjects of granting a treaty to Holland and
31G A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
America, opening her commerce and ports to them, ad-
mitting free intercourse with the people, and practising
religious toleration. At one time the 14th April had
been agreed upon as the day for the final signature of a
treaty ; then it was postponed ; then rumours were
spread of the priesthood, the Spiritual Emperor, and cer-
tain independent nobles, having opposed insurmountable
obstacles to any concession. The Tai-koon, or Temporal
Emperor, as well as the Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs, the Prince of Bitsu, appeared well aware of the
necessity for some arrangement being made to pacify the
European desire for trade with Japan ; but they doubt-
less delayed as long as they could, to see the issue of our
efforts to open up China before they yielded themselves ;
and at last, although always most kindly treated and
generously lodged, Mr Curtius and Mr Harris were sent
back to their respective posts, as empty-handed as they
went to Yedo. Mr Harris, having a shorter distance to
go, was doubtless by this time in Simoda, but ]\Ir Don-
ker Curtius, when last heard of, was still on the road,
and could not arrive for a week or so.
This news, at the first glance, looked unpromising :
but there was this one point very certain, that if the
Japanese intended to be guided as to their future policy
by the concessions England and France should wring
from China, Lord Elgin could show that the Court of
Pekin had yielded all, and more than was expected ;
and Japan, at any rate, was saved the humiliation of
being the first to concede the point of the admission of
strangers to her capital, and intercourse with European
nations on terms of perfect equality.
YANKEE SHARP PRACTICE. 317
It seemed likely that the Americans would turn our
operations to account by working on the fears of the
Japanese ; for the United States steamer Powhattan,
hearing the flag of Flag-officer Tattnal,* had gone direct
from the Gulf of Pecheli to Nangasaki, bearing the news
of our success, and spreading tales of our numbers and
intentions, which caused no small alarm amongst a people
who for twelve months had been kept in a state of
excitement by rumours of our doings in their neigh-
bourhood.
* Flag-officer was then the official designation of the American
naval Commander-in-Chief. They found Commodore an inconven-
ient title, and have not as yet brought themselves to use the term
Admiral.
CHAPTEE III.
Passing showers of rain, whicli set in towards evening,
did not deter our officers and many of the Earl of Elgin's
staff from visiting Decima and Nangasaki."^ They re-
turned delighted with the cleanliness and order of the
towns, the civility of the people, and, better still, the
absence of all those unmentionable smells which haunt
the visitor on the shores of the neighbouring continent
of China. About sundown the boom of three heavy
guns twice repeated rolled from seaward over the hills
around our anchorage ; presently the same sounds came
apparently from some nearer point ; the battery above
the town next took up the tune, and then the reports
were heard again and again until lost in the distance.
When w^e inquired what all this noise 'was about, a
Japanese interpreter informed us that two European sail
had appeared in sight of the lookouts, and that these
guns were signalising the fact throughout the interior
up to Miaco, where the spiritual Emperor resides. Such
a method, in the absence of electricity, is a rapid mode
of signalising ; but the expense must be enormous, and
can only be endured by a naturally thrifty government,
* We have preferred to spell Nangasaki thus, because the g in
Japan is usually pronounced like ng.
DECIMA AND ITS INHABITANTS. 319
through excessive jealousy and anxiety to know of the
movements of Europeans. ISText day the arrival of the
naval Commander-in-chief, Admiral Sir Michael Sey-
mour, in the Calcutta, towed by the Inflexible, Captain
Erooker, proved that the Japanese lookout-men's eyes
were as correct as they were keen.
It was early morning when we landed at Decima ;
and in justice to the Dutch residents, whose postj)randial
somnolence we have already mentioned, it must be
owned that they had risen with the lark, as men should
who dine when the sun is in the zenith. Decima, the
foreign quarter of j!*Tangasaki, is an island, and dear old
Kaempfer, the most charming of Dutch writers upon
Japan, compares it in form to an outspread fan without
a handle. Its length cannot be much more than five or
six hundred yards, and the settlement consists of one
street of that extent, intersected at its centre by a short
one leading to the only bridge which spans the canal
that separates the once hated Christians from the good
folks of jSTangasaki. Along this street are the houses of
the Dutch residents, and their Japanese agents and re-
tainers, besides a number of native stores filled with
articles of Japanese manufacture, and called by the name
of the Dutch Bazaar. Decima and the residents were
all awake and stirring ; a few porters were carrying bales
of imported produce ; a store here and there was open,
and boxes or packages were being tumbled about as if
some commercial movement was taking place ; but De-
cima, wide-awake and stirring, had none of the rush and
throb of buyers and sellers, such as we had seen at the
ports of China frequented by European merchants. How
320 A CEUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
changed the scene will be, one voluntarily exclaimed, a
few years hence, when Cockney, Scot, and New-Yorker
shall be competing who can make money fastest, or be
the quickest to improve the Japanese off the face of the
earth ! Whatever the future Decima may be, Decima as
we found it was a solemn-looking, weird-like place, as if
bearing the impress of its past strange history, and as if
haunted by the memory of the ' Portuguese and Dutch-
men, whose jail it had been. It seemed to say to you,
*' Yes ! here the contemned Pagan crushed and exter-
minated the professors and believers in your faith, oh
Christian, and tempted with gold these poor Dutchmen
to commit apostasy, and for its sake they did it!^' Even
the ver}'' pavement bears witness to what depths of de-
gradation nations will stoop to preserve a base commer-
cial or political advantage; and without any wish to
throw stones at our Protestant neighbours, it would be
well if all the reclamations against the Dutch in Japan,
by the Eoman Catholic writers, could be gainsaid. Could
one forget, standing on Decima, that they tortured the
Christians instead of merely expelling them the country,
one's sympathies would all be with the Japanese.
What could be more noble, more self-denying and
energetic, than the course these Asiatics pursued, when
they found their independence as a free state was im-
periled by the adoption of the Eomish faith of those
days'? The European discoverers of this Japan found
its merchants trading to every part of the East Indies,
and they had from the earliest times been in intimate
commercial relation with China, sometimes dependent
upon her, at other times fiercely assailing her. Their
EXCLUSION OF FOREIGNERS. 321
country could not produce many of the luxuries, hardly
the necessaries of life, and necessity as well as interest
urged the Japanese trader, in his frail bark, to very dis-
tant ports. Yet when it was deemed requisite by their
Emperor, the sacrifice was made — all foreign trade ceased
— Japan recoiled from connection with every nation, and
by dint of great exertions not only vigorously carried
out this system, but, judging by the present happy and
contented condition of her people, has had no reason to
regret it. "Not a Christian shall remain in Japan,"
said the edict ; and it was a sort of compromise when
the Emperor Yeye Mitsu, after driving European priests
from his dominions, putting their converts to death, and
expelling the Spaniards, caused a heap of rubbish to be
piled up in shoal- water off the tovrn of ISTangasaki, and
in 1635 ordered the Portuguese to confine themselves to
that, the present Decima.
Before this time these foreigners had been at liberty
to wander about and establish themselves where they
pleased on the shores of Kiu-Siu. On Decima the Por-
tuguese remained a short time, subjected to every degra-
dation, instigated, they declared, in a great measure by
the Dutch, who then were located at Firando. Eirst
their wives and children were banished to Macao ; then
they were compelled to abstain from the public services
of their Church ; and, lastly, they were ordered to tread
upon the emblem of their faith. Instead of flying the
country, they raised a rebellion ; and under the bloody
ruins of Simbarra, a city a short distance to the south-
ward, the Portuguese, their converts, and priests, found
a common grave ; the Dutch assisting in what the
21
322 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
Church of Eome dignifies "vvith the title of martyrdom,
but which was nothing more than the bloody penalty of
a religious insurrection.
This happened in 1640. Two short years afterwards,
the Dutch, at Firando (for we English had voluntarily
withdrawn, in consequence of difficulties arising from
our Great Rebellion and other causes), were peremptorily
ordered to quit their factory, to erase the date of its
erection from the portals, and proceed to Decima. *' You
will cease to observe the Sabbath," said the Japanese
mandate ; " and on all other points be guided by the in-
structions you will receive from the Lords of Firando ! "
The poor Dutchmen went tamely to their jail ; and
though the most enterprising seamen of that day —
though their stout burghers had shaken off the strong
grip of Spain — still Japanese gold kobangs, and Japanese
copper bars, reconciled them to the contumely they must
endure, if they desired to share in those good things j
and they bore it for two centuries with all the phlegm
and patience of their race. And now, when Americans,
Russians, and British came to awaken them and their
jailers to the necessities and obligations of 1858, they
have roused up, looking rather cross, as if we had much
better have let things be.
The sun, however, was rising too fast over the Peak
of Hi-kosan, giving already an earnest of a considerably
hot day, for us to stand longer ruminating on the past
or present of Decima.
Wood enters largely into the construction of all
Japanese dwellings : those in Decima are no exception
NATIVE HOUSES IN NANGASAKI. 323
to the rule ; but the European houses, though probably
very comfortable, are, without exception, formed on
the ugliest models Holland ever produced. I need not
describe them. The cottages in a box of Nuremberg
wooden toys represent them exactly ; small black cubes
of wood, four white windows in front, as many behind,
and a red door. It is, therefore, to the credit of the taste
of the natives resident in Decima, that they appear in
no way to have copied the Dutch mode of house-building,
but have adhered faithfully to their own ideas of the com-
fortable — which seemed to be comprised under the two
sound conditions of good ventilation and plenty of light.
A Japanese house consists of a ground-floor and top-
storey. The front and back of the basement can be re-
moved at pleasure, leaving it quite open, through the
premises, for air and light, except where the posts sup-
porting the first floor intervene. Usually the front
panels only are removed during the daytime, and the
back panels, formed of a light, graceful, wood frame-
work covered with translucent paper, are left to screen
the cooking departments and back premises. The floor
of the basement is raised about three feet above the
level of the ground, and is neatly boarded, and then laid
over with a series of stuffed grass mats, on which the
inmates walk, sit, feed, and sleep. If it is a shop, the
arrangements are still the same, except that the boxes or
drawers containing the goods are arranged on shelves on
either side, and the merchant and purchasers in their
tiocks — for all shoes and boots are carefully put off on
these mats — sit on the floor to discuss prices and quali-
ties. The storey overhead serves as a place of abode for
324 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
their wives and families, and those we visited are, in
height and ventilation and cleanliness, vastly superior
to the majority of up-stairs rooms in the East.
There was hardly a house in Nangasaki that had not
some sort of garden attached to it, and all were well and
tastefully kept; but the most striking thing in this city
(and it was generally observed by all of us in Japan) was
that every man, woman, and child looked happy and
contented ! There was an excejDtion to the rule — a num-
ber of unfortunate solemnities who were in charge of the
gateway leading from Decima to Nangasaki ; and they
were evidently bored to death. Poor scribes ! they had
to keep notes of everything, animate and inanimate, that
went in or out of that solitary outlet to Japan ! Every
one else met us with a friendly smile, or a good-natured
look of amazement at either our brilliant buttons, our
shining boots, or some other phenomenon exhibited in
the gorgeous attire of a British naval officer. The labour-
ing portion of the male population decidedly took little
anxious care for their raiment, a piece of cotton cloth,
a yard long and six inches wide, constituting their gene-
ral attire ; and many of the children might have just
escaped from Eden, so innocent were they of any cloth-
ing. Laughing and coaxing, they came unhesitatingly
up to us, begging, in their naturally pretty way, for
buttons, "Cassi button r' " Cassi button T' It was
irresistible, and we gave all we could spare ; but what
those little urchins were going to do with buttons,
seeing they had neither rag nor ornament upon them,
was a puzzle to us. The grown-up women were modestly
attired in dark-coloured garments, their beautiful hair
NATIVE COSTUMES. 325
neatly dressed, and, but that their nails were dyed, there
was a general appearance of beauty about them, com-
bined with much grace in the figures of the younger
ones. The Japanese officials and gentry were very well
dressed, and in their attire displayed considerable dan-
dyism, according to their own fashion, But in their
dress, as well as in their houses, in Japan, we noticed
the prevalence of sombre colours, and the absence of
that vulgar colouring and tinsel-work so common in
China. Here the out-door dress of the ladies, and that
of the poor girls at the tea-gardens, and the wives of the
tradespeople, was quiet in colour, however fine the tex-
ture might be j and amongst the official dresses of the
officers, black, dark blue, and black and white patterns,
were the most general. Their houses and temples are
likewise painted less gaudily than elsewhere in the East,
and there was far less gilding about them. This peculi-
arity in Japanese taste was one of the first impressions
received on our visiting Japan, and, like many first im-
pressions, proved to be correct.
We found the Dutch bazaar at Decima filled with por-
celain and lacker-ware in a thousand tasteful forms ; we
had fancied ourselves perfectly hlase about all " curiosi-
ties," but such impenetrability gave way rapidly with the
temptation before us. The first feeling was a desire to
buy up everything, where all was so pretty. Tables,
curiously inlaid with mother-of-pearl — representations of
birds and animals, which our papier-mache manufacturers,
or those of France, would give anything to be able to imi-
tate — cabinets, on which golden fish or tortoise stood out
in most truthful relief — wonderful little gems in ivory,
326 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
bone, or wood, fifty times more replete with originality,
skill, and wit tlian anything China ever produced — por-
celain so delicate, that you were almost afraid to touch
it — in short, a child in a pastrycook's shop never ran
from sweet to sweet more perplexed to know which to
invest in, than we that morning in Decima bazaar !
We were fast approaching the bottom of a very modest
purse, and, in exultation at our purchases, remarked to
a Dutch understrapper, who happened to be near, that
the articles were most beautiful. " Most beautifuls," he
repeated ; " the Dotch bazaar has all the beautifuls
things — you will find noting in the Eoshian bazaar."
Here he smiled with supreme contempt — did this in-
habitant of Decima, adding scornfully, " Eoshian bazaar !
there is notings beautifuls in that bazaar."
We instantly resolved to go there (so naturally per-
verse is man), but inquired of our friend whether the
bazaar to which he alluded was for the sale of Eussian
produce or manufacture ?
" Nay, nay," said my scornful Hollander; "they have
notings Eoshian in it — only they frightened the Japan-
ese, to make them open another place in which tings
might be bought, and had it called a Eoshian bazaar."
" They have been much about Japan of late V 1
remarked.
" Yah ! very moch, and more by-and-by." Then he
wagged his head and sighed, evidently seeing sad days
in store for Japan and Dutch merchants at Decima.
Why is it, we thought, as we hurried off into Nan-
gasaki, that Eussia is always thus the hete 7ioir of every
man, except Monsieur le Comte de Morny 1
THE RUSSIAN BAZAAR. 327
Througli a gateway we entered the Eussian bazaar ; it
was situated close to the water-side, and consisted of an
enclosed quadrangle, about an acre in extent, having on
three sides booths, in which a profusion of articles were
exhibited for sale — much of the same sort we had seen
in Decima, but perhaps not quite so good, though in
greater variety. A rush of officers from the men-of-war
in port now took place — each stall was speedily besieged
with eager faces ; and eager voices, in good round Saxon,
were clamouring to know the price of everything, and to
be served immediately. The Japanese tradesmen showed
wonderful self-possession and commercial acumen under
this sudden onslaught of purchasers. A Chinaman would
have sat down sulkily, smoked his pipe, and given short
answers to be rid of such a crowd of purchasers. The
Japanese called for more aid, and then briskly rushed
about the booth, giving information, praised his wares,
packed up and despatched his goods expeditiously, and
laughed and smiled all the while, as if the whole thing
was an admirable joke. They were quite as ready to
sell as we were to buy, and showed a degree of handiness,
intelligence, and good arrangement, which augured well
for their management of commercial transactions upon a
more extensive scale.
By the old laws of the Japanese Empire, the exporta-
tion of their currency, whether gold, silver, or copper,
is strictly prohibited, and to insure it, no European is
allowed to possess native coin. The difficulty, therefore,
of purchasing, would be great upon that ground alone ,
but in addition to this rule, another exists, by which the
natives are forbidden to receive our coins either. For a
328 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
while, it seemed there must be a dead-lock in the mar-
ket ; but it was explained to us that a government bank
existed in the bazaar, where we could obtain paper cur-
rency (available only in Nangasaki) in exchange for our
dollars. From that bank we came out with bundles of
very simple-looking strips of card-board covered with
cabalistic signs, indicative of their value, in lieu of the
silver we had given — a favour for which the Government
charged us six per cent ! With these Japanese bank-
notes we paid the tradesmen, whom no amount of per-
suasion could induce to receive silver ; and they again,
poor fellows, had to present them at the bank, and
receive the amount in the metallic currency of the coun-
try, paying of course a handsome tax for the honour of
selling to the foreigners. The purpose of this round-
about mode of trading was, we were told, to prevent any
foreign coin being found in the possession of a native.
Apart from this little restriction upon the exchange,
there was no difficulty in making purchases ; and it was
very remarkable that in this country, which for two
centuries had declared that it required no foreign com-
merce, and was totally indifferent either to the pro-
ducts or money of other nations, nearly every article
exposed in this Eussian bazaar was the manufacture of
the dependants of the prince upon whose territory JS'an-
gasaki was situated, and proved how great was the
natural commercial and money-making genius of the
people. We were then assured, and subsequent infor-
mation confirmed the statement, that nearly all the
independent princes emulate each other in manufactur-
ing, or rather imitating, every European article that can
JAPANESE MANUFACTURES. 329
be copied, and then send their surplus specimens to be
sold throughout the empire.
At one stall we found microscopes, telescopes, sun-
dials, rules, scales, clocks, knives, spoons, glass, beads,
trinkets, and mirrors — all of native make upon European
models — and the prices were so ridiculously small, that
even at the lowest estimate of the value of labour it was
a puzzle how any profit could be realised upon the
articles. The microscopes were very neat, and intended
to be carried in the pocket ; an imitation morocco case
opened, and contained within it a small and not power-
ful lens, fixed in a metal frame at a short distance from
an upright pin, on which the object for examination was
to be stuck, and the entire workmanship was highly cre-
ditable. The telescopes were framed in stiff paper-cases,
sufiiciently thick and ingeniously lackered to resemble
leather over wood. The glasses, though small, were
clear : the magnifying power was not great, but it was a
marvel to see such an instrument sold for a shilling!
We saw another superior description of Japanese tele-
scope, six feet long when pulled out ; it was quite as
powerful and as genuine as those real Dollcmds which
our naval outfitters are in the habit of procuring for
credulous parents when equipping their sailor children
at seaports. The price at l!^angasaki is a dollar or five
shillings, but at Portsmouth it is five pounds sterling !
The Japanese clocks exhibited for sale were beautiful
specimens of mechanism, and proved that the people of
this country are most cunning in the fashioning of metals.
One was like those table-clocks we see at home under
square glass-covers, all the works being open to scrutiny;
330 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
it was six or eight inches high, and about as broad, and
it would have been difficult to know it from one of Mr
Dent's best of a like description. The Japanese day
being divided into twelve hours of unequal duration —
dependent, so far as we could understand, upon the
amount of daylight or darkness in each day — the dial of
their clocks was therefore different from ours ; in some
it was changed every month, and in others the motion of
the hands was regulated by an ingenious adaptation of
weights and increased or decreased length of pendulum.
A good clock of this description, which, from its ele-
gance, and the beautiful workmanship and chasing of
the exterior, would have been an ornament anywhere,
was only priced at about £8.
When Japan was first visited by Europeans, silk in
the raw state was largely imported from Tonquin and
China : it appears likely that, when ISTangasaki is opened
again to foreign commerce, silk, both raw and manufac-
tured, will be exported to an equal extent.'^ Manufac-
tured silks and crapes were both plentiful and cheap,
and some of the heavier descriptions, such as are not
made in China. The gentry and higher orders of trades-
people wore silk, and it appears that, during the period
Japan has shut herself out from the world, she has suc-
ceeded in naturalising the silk-worm.
Every dollar spent, and nearly denuded of uniform
buttons, which had been presented as gages d'amitie to
the delighted children in the streets, we strolled back to
the landing-place, and pulled to the ship, raced off for
* Without claiming to be a prophet, the writer may mention that
the export of silk from Japan now amounts to 10,000 bales.
CHARACTER OF THE JAPANESE. 331
the greater part of the distance by a gig's crew of
Japanese men-of-Avar's men — stout-built, brawny-chested
fellows, with shaved polls and beardless faces. Of course
it was highly unbecoming that such exalted foreigners
as ourselves should race against a boat-load of black
fellows, and our men looked as if they thought their
chief must have taken leave of his senses when they
were ordered to "give way;" but it was something to
find a boat full of dark skins, who, from pure spirit of
emulation, desired to match their bone and muscle
against white men. So we indulged them. Right
well the Johnnies — for who is not a " bono " or
"no bono Johnny" to our men? — put their wills to
their oars, and good-naturedly they laughed as we shot
by them, and told them in words and by signs that
they were stout good fellows. Then they tossed their
oars, and sheered off to his Imperial Japanese Majesty's
schooner, a craft which looked in fair order, and on board
of which the men exercised aloft daily in a highly
creditable manner.
Our day's observations led us to a conclusion which
every hour in Japan confirmed — that the people inhabit-
ing it are a very remarkable race, and destined, by God's
help, to play an important role in the future history of
this remote quarter of the globe. It was impossible not
to recognise in their colour, features, dress, and customs,
the Semitic stock whence they must have sprung ; but
they differed much, physically and mentally, from that
cold-blooded race. Full of fresh life and energy, anxious
to share and compete with European civilisation, ready
to acknowledge its superiority, and desirous of adapting
332 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
it to their social and public wants, how charming a con-
trast to the stolid Chinaman, who smiles blandly at some
marvel of Western skill or science, and calmly assures
you that their countrymen " hab got all the same that
Pekinside!"
The Dutch naval and military instructors bore the
highest testimony to the intelligence and mental capacity
of their pupils ; that their aptitude for every branch of
knowledge, and their avidity for acquiring information,
were equally remarkable. Mathematics, algebra, and
geography they acquired con amove, and the facility of
computation by means of the European system of ar-
ithmetic, astonished and delighted them exceedingly.
There was not a trade, or manufacture, or invention
common to Europe or the United States that they did
not expect to have explained to them, in order that they
might immediately proceed to imitate it ; and inquiries
upon these subjects would come from the Government,
the nobles, and the people generally. Like very inqui-
sitive children, they often nearly posed their instructors.
One day some great personage desired to have the
construction of Colt's pistols and Sharp's rifles explained
to him, in order that he might undertake their manufac-
ture."^ Another insisted upon making aneroids at Yedo.
Glass-making in all its branches became a great rage,
and some of the specimens of ornamental bottles were
very original and tasteful in pattern. Iron and brass
guns were cast of every calibre up to those of ten
* We heard that the Prince of Saxuma had armed his retainers
with both of the above weapons, made by native workmen after
models obtained from Europeans.
INGENUITY OF THE NATIVES. 333
inches diameter. Shells, with the latest improvements in
fuzes, one prince could produce ; and another hecame so
enraptured with steam machinery, and I daresay so
shocked at the enormous price the Dutch charged them
for the steamers, that a factory for their construction
was estahlished, and one complete engine had already
been turned out of hand, put up in a vessel built at
Nangasaki, and actually worked about the harbour.
On all the thousand and one difficulties that occurred
to the Japanese in carrying out their system of imitating
in Japan all we could produce in Europe, the Dutch in-
structors were expected to throw a light, and perhaps they
sometimes suffer in reputation as oracles. They put me
much in mind of the unenviable position some of our
sailors are often placed in when they desert to an island
in the South Seas. " Can you preach, mend a musket,
and fight *?" is the general question put by the assembled
natives. " Of course I can," is the reply of the poor
fellow, who is installed immediately in the triple office
of high -priest, oracle, and monarch : and amidst the un-
ceasing calls upon his theology, his oratory, his inventive
powers, and his pugnacity, often wishes himself safely
back in the fore-top of her Majesty's brig Diver.
These Dutch gentlemen were not, however, daunted
by the difficulties they had to surmount, and strove hard
to impart all the knowledge that was sought. As an
instance of the abrupt and unexpected queries put to
them, one of these persons told me that a Japanese came
all the way from the capital, an overland journey of forty
odd days' duration, to inquire about one particular sub-
ject. What was it 1 — " Explain the means by which
334 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
tlie hourly variations of the barometer may be registered
by means of a photographic apparatus ! "
My informant was for a time fairly puzzled, but at
last, in some recent work on photography, he found
what had been done, and told the messenger how it was
possible to do so. " But surely you want some other
information?" he asked. "]N"o, that was what he was
sent to know, and he had no other business ! "
The latest improvement adopted was to teach the
young men to ride in European fashion for military pur-
poses ; and whilst we were in ISTangasaki, a Dutch non-
commissioned officer was busy teaching a number of
Japanese gentlemen to ride in a riding-school constructed
for the purpose. When they were perfect, they" would be
sent into different provinces to instruct their country-
men ; for although there are abundance of horses in
Japan, and rather good ones too, still, what Avith straw-
shoes for their hoofs, and stirrups weighing fifty pounds
a-piece, and lackered saddles, it must be acknowledged
that their cavalry is as yet far from formidable. In in-
fantry movements I was told that they had for some
time received instruction, and that, as a militia, their
force was very respectable ; indeed, a Eussian officer
who was staying at Nangasaki, and who had seen much
of Japan, spoke of the perfect military organisation of
the empire in warm terms. From his description, the
entire population formed one complete army, of which
every town, village, and hamlet might be said to be com-
panies or sections. The power, however, of directing
these forces upon any point, either for offence or defence,
is vastly curbed bv the independent tenure of the three
PKOSPECTS OF THE MISSION. 335
hundred and sixty princes. Eacli of these is the chief
authority in his own state, and, hke our barons of old,
claims a power of life and death over his subjects, though
at the same time acknowledging as their sovereign and
chief the Tai-koon, and the council resident in Yedo.
Owing to the absence of the Dutch superintendent of
trade, Donker Curtius, upon the diplomatic service
spoken of in the last chapter, there was a considerable
amount of restraint in the bearing of the Dutch resi-
dents. They appeared in doubt what part it was pru-
dent to play, and what amount of information to give
in the present uncertain state of the foreign relations
between Japan and Europe. Perhaps it was natural
enough that they should not at once feel at ease, when
the restrictions and contumely they have endured so
long were suddenly removed. From what they said, it
was utterly out of the question for the British Ambassa-
dor to attempt to open negotiations with the Imperial
Government through the very inferior officers known to
Europeans as the governor and lieutenant-governor of
Nangasaki : indeed, had they even been men of rank,
there were obvious reasons why those who had been the
instruments of an insulting policy towards Europeans
should, if possible, have nothing to do with the arrange-
ments upon which our future intercourse was to be car-
ried on. The presentation of the yacht sent by her
most gracious Majesty to the Emperor of Japan would
have been equally improperat this spot ; and as, in the
orders given to her commander, some one in England
had by accident directed her to be presented at Yedo,
Lord Elgin availed himself of that excuse for proceeding
336 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
thither immediately. This arrangement became all the
more feasible, as our Naval Commander-in-chief, who
had been the person instructed to deliver the yacht to
the Japanese Government, found hiniseK unable to go as
far as Yedo at this moment, and deputed the senior
officer of our little squadron, Captain Charles Barker, to
do so, in such a manner, time, or place, as the Ambas-
sador might desire ; and to Yedo, or as near it as pos-
sible, we were now to proceed.
CHAPTEE IV.
The promised visit of the Lieutenant-governor of Nan-
gasaki to his Excellency the British Ambassador took
place in the afternoon. The Lieutenant-governor was
anxious not only to see the Ambassador, of whom they
had heard much in Japan, and whose advent in a pacific
character they little expected, but he wished to examine
and report upon the yacht Emperor. It was arranged
that, after the visit to Lord Elgin, the Lieutenant-
governor should proceed to inspect her, escorted by
Lieutenant-commander Ward. On all previous occasions
that British men-of-war had visited Japan, or that high
officers of the two nations had exchanged civilities, our
usual custom of saluting with guns in honour of their
rank had been avoided, in obedience to Japanese port-
orders. Even on this occasion Lord Elgin had requested
the senior officer. Captain Barker, not to pay him the
usual token of respect, in deference, as we concluded, to
the wishes of the Jaj)anese authorities. Suspecting,
however, that the Japanese officials might after all be
inclined to stretch the point when compliments to them-
selves were in question, it was arranged by our Ambas-
sador that the Lieutenant-governor should be asked if
he would like a salute, and if so, it was immediately to
22
338 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
be fired. He not only wished to be saluted, but knew
the number of charges he was entitled to by our Euro-
pean code. I need not say that the Eetribution was
firing away almost as soon as the wish was expressed ;
and for the future, at any rate, British ships need not
hesitate to pay to their own or foreign officers the proper
marks of respect. We afterwards learnt that the Ame-
rican and Eussian flag-ofiicers had very recently, in the
same port, been firing salutes in honour of the anniver-
sary of American independence, and of each other.
Lord Elgin suggested that it would give him great
pleasure to salute the Japanese flag with twenty-one
guns, as men-of-war usually do on visiting the port of a
friendly power. Our visitors approved of the idea amaz-
ingly ; but on making an inquiry as to whether the
forts or ships would return the salute with an equal
number of guns (a sine qua non in all international
salutes), they replied — "Eeturn salute — how? — whyl"
It was explained that if England saluted Japan, Japan
must return the compliment. "Ah!" said the inter-
preter, " Japan cannot do that. Japan cannot salute :
the Governor has given no authority to do so." " Then
please to tell the Governor that England cannot salute
until Japan does."
The Lieutenant-governor then proceeded to lunch
with his Lordship. After lunch the yacht was visited,
and the authorities expressed themselves delighted with
the completeness and beauty of every part of the vessel,
and promised to send up to Yedo most favourable reports
of the gift to his imperial majesty the Tai-koon of Japan.
Every one in the squadron asked why, of all things to
A EUSSIAN ON THE JAPANESE. 339
be found in Great Britain, the Government should have
selected a yacht — about the only object that it was
utterly impossible the Tai-koon should ever use 1 Any
one who had taken the trouble to read the briefest
account of Japan could have known that. Yedo was
said to be unapproachable for vessels ; and even if the
yacht, drawing twelve feet water, could touch the quay,
the Tai-koon at Yedo, as well as the Spiritual Emperor
at Miaco, were forbidden to quit their palaces, and the
former could never see her except with a spy-glass from
his terraces, two miles off! So far as an excuse for
going to Yedo was concerned, any other present, with
instructions to deliver it at that place, would certainly
have better answered the purpose. When one saw how
full of intelligence all the other classes in Japan were
— how capable of appreciating the skill and mechanism
employed in any of the marvels of scientific labour
Great Britain contains — it was a subject of regret that a
screw-schooner, with bird's-eye maple panels and velvet
cushions — very handsome, no doubt, but quite matched
by most river-boats in England or America — should have
been the only specimen sent of our mechanical or manu-
facturing skill that suggested itself to our Government.
A lieutenant of the Eussian navy, who had been left
behind in charge of a party of scorbutic sailors landed
from the frigate Eskold, visited us, and had much to say
of the untiring kindness of the authorities, and of the
Japanese in general. Lieutenant L declared them
to be the finest race on the earth; and as he lived
amongst them, and saw but little of the Dutch, he was
in a good position to form an opinion on the subject.
340 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
There is, I think, far more of the South-Sea islander
than of the Chinaman in these inhabitants of Southern
Japan. Love, who never assuredly had so little nose as
to enter China,* has made Japan his abiding-place, and
lurks in the bright eyes of all her bronze-cheeked daugh-
ters — the " ower gude" may think too much so ; but,
poor souls! let us be charitable. We are but sailors
and travellers ; by-and-by our saints will reach Japan,
and, clasping their hands, will reprove her, and, sighing,
thank Providence they are not so naughty as to let the
sun shine on their follies.
Woman holds in Japan a good social position. She
is not cooped up in pestiferous apartment to delight
some fattened-up Chinese mandarin or greasy Brahmin,
but contributes not a little to the charms of man's life ;
she has succeeded in asserting her right to be treated
like a rational being, quite as well able to take care of
herself as the sterner sex. Their freedom granted, it is
true, the fair damsels — nay, and the matrons — have in
some respects jumj)ed over the traces. For example,
with a highly commendable liking to cleanliness, they
somewhat depart from Western notions of propriety as
to the time and place for their ablutions. Yet, after all,
that is a mere matter of taste. A tub of water in the
open air, in a balmy climate, is, all will allow, very deli-
cious, and the ladies of Nangasaki saw no good reason to
forego their pleasurable bath because there happened to
be an unsolicited influx of hairy-faced strangers, at a
* And ray countrywomen will say so too, when I tell them that a
Chinese lover does not even know how to kiss, and that the act of
kissing is unknown there. A mother does not kiss her own child.
A NIGHT-SCENE AT NANGASAKI. 341
season of the year when bathing was more than ever
necessary. Their own countrymen did not stop and
gaze, but went and did likewise. If future European
residents resist the temptation to adopt the al-fresco
habits of the people, let them bear in mind our good old
motto, Honi soit qui mal y pense, and not stare rudely
at the ladies.
We had been two days and one night in Nangasaki ;
the second evening was closing in, and though we could
not already be tired of it, yet oh ! we longed so to be off
to Yedo ! — Yedo, the mysterious city of such enormous
extent, famous for the beauty of its site, with a popula-
tion next in numbers to London, and Yedo, this great
wonder, it was just possible (thought and said some san-
guine individuals) that we might see. The idea was scoffed
at by our Dutch friends : it was true that the Gulf of
Yedo washed the beach close up to the capital; but then
there were banks and shallows and dangers which render-
ed it impossible for great ships to approach the unvisited
city. Yet the sea was there, and where there was salt
water there was hope for our handy ships. To wish to
be off again from so sweet a place as Xangasaki was un-
reasonable and restless, was it not 1 And looking as we
did that last beautiful evening on all the loveliness
around us, the rebuke at first seemed well merited. The
bay by day is beautiful, but give me Nangasaki by
moonlight, when the heat is passing away, and the cool
breezes of night invigorate the frame and stipple the
polished surface of the water, which reflects the starry
beauty of the blue vault overhead, except where the
dark shadows of native and foreign craft are thrown
342 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
athwart it. The delicate play of the moonlight upon
town, village, and upland ; the phosphorescent wake of
the numerous boats passing and repassing ; the twink-
ling lights and the drowsy hum of a large city during
the early hours of night — all formed a picture which
might tempt the mind to rest here content.
And as we sat in that calm moonlight we talked of
wild scenes that had been enacted here. Some told of
a goodly Spanish ship that sailed in long ago through
that seaward portal, now shrouded by the dark gloom of
the overhanging cliff — a tall ship of three decks, a
yearly trader from the Philippines — a royal vessel, com-
bining the war-ship and merchantman. Her swelling
canvass furled, she swings to her anchors, and flaunts
from many a mast quaint colours and pennons. Cul-
verins and brass pieces peer out of her ports ; and the
golden ensign, with its broad bloody stripes, waves proud-
ly over her stern. On shore there is much excitement.
Twelve months previously, the Japanese had learnt that
a vessel of their country had been basely set upon off the
Philippines by Spaniards, and the vessel and the crew
sunk in the depths of the sea : for this the imperial
government had forbidden Spaniards under pain of death
to visit Japan. This galleon had come in contempt of the
mandate, and, though warned of the horrors that would
ensue if he remained in the port, the Spaniard would
not or could not sail. The Court issued a mandate, and
the Spaniard was to suffer at any cost the penalty of his
insolence. "We may imagine the muster of row-boats, —
the Prince of Arima arranging his devoted retainers,
promising high reward to the valiant, short shrift to the
THE SPANIARD AND HIS FATE. 343
craven. We can fancy the scorn of tlie higli-couraged
Don in his lofty bark for the yelping savages around him,
naked half-armed infidels, who come against the steel-
clad conquerors of half the world ! Then the shout of
defiance, and the wild music of the war-shell, as each
party rushed on. Wolves never went better at a sure
quarry than the Japanese at the huge ship. In spite of
resistance, they cling to her tall sides, scale them, reach
the upper deck, and throw themselves, regardless of life,
upon the astonished Spaniards. When too late, the
Don sees he has underrated his foe. He determines to
resort to a desperate expedient of those times.'"' The
retreat sounds, all the Spaniards rush below to the lower
deck, and the upper deck is blown up, and with the yell
of victory on their lips the Japanese are hurled into the
water scorched and burnt.
Alas for the Spaniard ! the wind is right adverse to
his escape, and every minute adds hundreds to the host
pouring down to the attack. There is nothing for it but
a death worthy of his race. Again the assault, again
numbers carry the day, and the resolute Spaniards retire
to the third deck, and again blow up the victors above
them. Thrice, says the Japanese chronicle quoted by
worthy Master Kgempfer, was this desperate mode of
resistance resorted to, until defenders, assailants, and
galleon sank in the bloody waters. Although the un-
fortunate infringers of the imperial edict had perished
to a man, the native historian acknowledges that the
* In olden times, blowing up the deck with small quantities of
powder was resorted to in cases of a desperate resistance to board-
ing-parties.
344 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
triumph of Japanese justice had been won only by the
sacrifice of three thousand of her sons ! Such was one
episode in the history of jSTangasaki. Under the seduc-
tive appearances of this Japanese Capua are there still
such fierce and bloody feelings, which a single spark
may rouse into action 1
In naval life, they who would be doing must neces-
sarily be restless, and too true is it that
'' To have done,
Is to hang, like rusty armour, in monumental mockery."
No sooner does a sailor anchor in quiet haven than he
would fain be pushing to sea; no sooner there, than,
buffeted by wind and sea, he desires another port. Some
call this restlessness, discontent, and it has been declared
to be
''A fever at the core,
Fatal to him who bears, to all that ever bore."
We do not agree with this, but maintain that if we
sailors do not always know what is best for us, we do
not differ in this respect from the rest of mankind — the
tale of the three wishes and the famous black-pudding
having been invented long since for the reproof, upon
that point, of landsmen, no doubt. And as the night is
fine, and we do not sail before noon to-morrow, let me tell
you, as a j^eiidwit to that same story, the nautical legend
on the subject of constantly wishing for what we have
not got, and not knowing what we want.
Down amongst those South-Sea isles which fairies de-
light to visit, and sailors love to cruise in, H.M. frigate
had just sailed from some pleasant spot, where the
TOM HAKDY S THREE WISHES. 345
songs were as sweet as those of Toobonai. There had
been weeping ISTeuhas on the shore, and there was many
a sad Torquil on board that day. No one, except the
restless captain, rejoiced in the sparkling blue Pacific
and rattling trade-wind which filled the frigate's can-
yass and sped her dancing over the sea.
Tom Hardy sat on the fore-bitts and said, " There was
no peace whatsomedever aboard a ship ; and it was pre-
cious hard, just as a poor fellow had got exactly what he
wanted, that the adjective ship got under way, to pitch
her adjective forecastle into a chopping head-sea."
" Ah ! you never knows what you really want," said
his sage shipmate ; " and if so be you could get what
you wants just for the asking, you would not know what
to ask for."
Tom used most emphatic language, and wished himself
in very uncomfortable places if ever he should growl
again, provided he could have three or four wishes ful-
filled. Hardly had the words passed Tom's lips, when a
beautiful fairy stood before him.
" Speak up, Tom Hardy," said she j " say what you
want to make you a contented captain of the fo' castle.
I'll give you four wishes, provided they are for as many
different things."
You might think Tom would be for a moment startled ;
but a beautiful lady, with a profusion of hair and very
little clothing, was not quite the thing to frighten him.
" Thank ye, marm," said Tom, touching his cap ; " I'm
all ready, and much obleeged to yer."
" Then fire away ! " said the fairy. "First and fore-
most," said Tom, " I wants plenty of grog." " That you
346 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
shall have," replied the fairy, smiling ; " real Jamaica
pine-apple flavour — as much as you can swim in." You
see the fairy was accustomed to sailors.
" Then," proceeded Tom, rubbing his hands, " let us
have heaps of 'baccy — bird's-eye and cavendish mixed."
"All right, Tom!" said the lady; "heaps of 'baccy,
bird's-eye and cavendish mixed, you shall have."
"By Jove, you are a brick!" says Tom; "you are
about the best friend I ever had. Lookye here, my
beauty !" says he, getting up as if he was going to shake
hands with the fairy. " Hands off, Mr Tom ! " exclaimed
she ; " go on wishing. You are only half-way through
your bargain." " Well," says Tom, " what I next wants
— begging your parding, seeing you're a lady — is plenty
of pretty girls when I goes ashore." " Yery well!" re-
plied the fairy, laughing like anything, " you shall have
them too ; and I'll throw some fiddlers into the bar-
gain."
Tom was delighted. " By the Lord Harry ! " he said,
" I'm happy now. I say, chum ! how about not know-
ing what was good for me 1 Here's grog galore, heaps
of 'baccy, and lots of sweethearts. I'm content." " But
come, come, Tom," urged the fairy; "fulfil your part of
the contract. You must wish once more : be quick!"
" Oh, bother it ! " growled out Tom Hardy; " must I
really 1 " " Yes; come, be quick !" she replied. " Well,
then," said he, " give us more grog."
"Your chum was in the right," said the fairy; "you
don't know what you want. You ask for more grog,
when I have already promised you enough to swim in ;
and you have forgotten to ask to be put ashore from the
DEPARTURE FROM NANGASAKI. 347
frigate. You are a good-for-nothing old growl, and so
you will remain to the end of your days." With that
she disappeared ; and it is true enough Tom Hardy
is now as big an old growl as ever chewed quid on a
forecastle, though he firmly believes, if that fairy would
only give him another chance, he would know what to
ask for.
The afternoon of August 5th, 1858, saw the good
ship steaming past the different headlands, islands, and
batteries as we quitted l!^angasaki : the sea was smooth,
and played upon by just enough wind to give animation
to great numbers of native craft. Every creek, channel,
and bay was studded with vessels of all sizes — from
those of a hundred and fifty tons burthen to petty fish-
ing-boats — so that though the Government has inter-
dicted foreign commercial intercourse, there must be a
vast coasting trade and a large seafaring population.
Brighter afternoon never shone, and the scene was one
of unsurpassed beauty and interest as we bowled away
southward to round the extreme point of the Japanese
group, and so enter the sea which washes its eastern
seaboard. Between the deeply-indented coasts of the
Morea of Greece and its off-lying islands and this portion
of Japan there is much resemblance ; but on close ap-
proach Japan shows signs of much civilisation, energy,
industry, and wealth, which modern Greece decidedly
does not exhibit, whatever it did in olden days.
Singular as is the construction of a Chinese junk, and
original as are the various appliances to meet the re-
quirements of her occupation as a traverser of stormy
seas, the Japanese vessels of large size are still more
348 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
curious. We saw many fully one hundred and twenty
tons burthen. Their length was about a hundred feet,
the extreme beam fully a fourth of the length, and far
aft as in the American yacht ; the depth of the hold
was not great, and the form of that portion of the vessel
that was immersed was very fine, and calculated for
great speed. The bow was long, and the gunwale was
not high, but it curved gently up into a lofty stem very
like that of the Roman galley, and finished, like it, with
an ornamental beak-head, serving to secure the forestay
of the solitary mast. The mast was a ponderous mass
of pieces of fir, glued, pegged, and hooped together in
the same way as those for our large ships are built ; the
height from deck to truck was full fifty feet, and the
head of the mast had a curve in it, to serve better as a
derrick in supporting the heavy yard : the halliards
going in one direction aft, and the stay in the other
forward, seemed the principal supports of this ponderous
spar, but there were backstays and shrouds in some
cases. The yard was a rough clumsy spar, slung amid-
ship, the sail an oblong mass of cotton cloths, which are
not sewn, but laced vertically to each other in such a
manner that daylight may be seen between the cloths of
which the sail is composed ; and when it is desirable to
reef, a cloth is unlaced, and the sail reduced in a vertical
direction — not horizontally, as seamen of every other part
of the world do, including even those of China. This sail
and mast are placed well abaft the centre of the vessel,
and to tack or veer, the sheet and tack have merely to
be reversed. When on a wind, the vessel's long bow
and nose serve like a head-sail to keep her from coming
COASTING TEADE AND COASTERS. 349
up into the wind's eye ; and it is truly strange to see a
sail hanging in a perfect bag, and each cloth in it what
seamen call hellying, like a yacht's balloon-jig, yet at the
same time the vessel keeps a good wind, and makes
great progress in smooth water. In the arrangement of
the stern and rudder they differ little from the Chinese,
but the tiller is marvellously long, doubtless to save labour
by increased leverage.
The shores of the Japanese group afford great facilities
for a coasting trade, from the abundance of harbours,
and the shelter for vessels of small size which can cling
to the shore. This is one reason that every Japanese
vessel is so profusely furnished with anchors and cables.
The former are of iron, and of grapnel shape, right ser-
viceable-looking, and all the large vessels had from six
to eight arranged on the fore-end. This circumstance
gave us the first hint that Japan was anything but a
smooth-water coast. These traders navigate the great
inland sea known as the Suwo-nada, between the three
great islands of jSTipon, Sikok, and Kiu-siu ; and they
likewise run up and down the west coast of Kiu-siu,
and from Miaco to Yedo by way of the Strait of Kino.
We saw none of them in the offing of the stormy east
coast of Kiu-siu ; indeed, in the weather we experienced
there on two occasions no native vessels could have
lived.
Towards sunset we saw on our larboard beam the en-
trance to the great bay in Kiu-siu, on which the ill-fated
city of Simbarra once stood. The place still exists — at
least it is marked in the latest chart — and history will
preserve the name of a spot which was the last strong-
350 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
hold of native Christianity in Japan, and which saw, as
Eoman Catholic writers assert, the destruction of thirty
thousand converts to their faith. It was at Simbarra,
too, over the common grave of its inhabitants, that the
famous inscription was erected, warning the natives,
that to prefer to their ancient faith that of the Christians,
would be to draw down upon themselves the punishment
due to traitors to their emperor and their country. One
sentence ran thus : " So long as the sun shall warm the
earth, let no Christian be so bold as to come to Japan ;
and let all know that the King of Spain himself, or the
Christian's God (the Pope?), if he violate this command,
shall pay for it with his head."
Before night closed in, the lofty inland heights in the
centre of southern Kiu-siu rose sharp and clear against
the sky, and throughout the first watch we saw the
loom of these mountains, known to ancient mariners
under the not euphonious title of the highlands of
Bungo ! A freshening breeze sped us on, and islands
and rocks were rapidly passed as we hurried to reach the
channel, called after the navigator Yan Diemen, which
separates Kiu-siu from the long string of dependent
isles known as the Linschoten and Loo-choo groups.
There was a threatening twinkle about the stars, which
would have betokened a hard north-easter upon our own
shores ; ' and as, in spite of a difference of twenty degrees
of latitude between England and Japan, there was reason
to believe the climates were much alike, we made pre-
parations to face the heavy gale and sea which would
already be lashing the coast to the eastward of Cape
Satanomisaki. The squadron had parted company, but
JAPANESE HISTORY. 351
we expected we should all meet again at the port of
Simoda, our next rendezvous. "Waiting for one another
was not to be thought of where expedition was so neces-
sary, for Lord Elgin intended to finish off his work in
Japan, and return to Shanghai in time to meet the
Imperial Commissioners from Pekin. As we are round-
ing the coast to enter the Strait of Van Diemen — from
right before the breeze to a taut bowline, then, furhng
sails, sending down topgallant yards and masts, and by
the aid of steam power facing the gale — we may, the
better to understand the country we are writing of, tell
in a condensed form some of the most striking passages
of the history of its intercourse with foreign nations.
The basis of the narrative is taken from Purchas, Marco
Polo, Ksempfer, Siebold, and portions of a Chinese work
entitled, ' An Illustrated Notice of Countries beyond
the Sea,' '"" translated by Thomas Wade, Esq., Chinese
Secretary to the British Embassy, to whom I am indebted
not only for its perusal, but also for some most able
papers published some years since.
* This work was compiled by Commissioner Lin, of opium noto-
riety, (luring his disgrace in the last war with England. It first
appeared in 1842, and has now gone through four editions, with con-
siderable corrections. It is rather remarkable that the wealthy
family of Commissioner Yeh likewise contributed largely to the ex-
penses of its publication.
CHAPTEE V.
Japan — or, as the natives pronounce it, Mpon — consists of
four large islands, Kiu-siu, Mpon, Sikok, and Jesso, and
a host of smaller ones, extending from latitude 29° north
to latitude 45° north. ISTipon, which gives its name to
the empire, and is the abode of the Court, was doubtless
the centre from which its present civilisation emanated.
It appears that the whole group was inhabited long
prior to the commencement of its authentic records.
Whether first colonised by refugees from the mainlands
of China and the Corea, or by a people who came direct
from Babel by a north-about route, as old Kaempfer
maintains, can be of little importance. Travellers, like
ourselves, may rejoice that, if it was the confusion of
tongues which led to the peopling of Japan, the wander-
ers thither carried with them a full, rich, and pleasant-
sounding language, superior to the wretched discordance
of their neighbours in China.
It will be going back far enough into the ancient his-
tory of JSTipon to say, that 650 years B.C., when Eome was
still in its long-clothes, a hero, known as the Divine
Warrior, invaded and conquered it from the West.
Simmoo, for so he is named, firmly established a dynasty
which has flourished to the present day, in a line of 120
MARCO POLO S ACCOUNT. 353
successive male and female monarclis. Of their reigns,
far better records exist than the oldest European empire
can boast. The early monarchs combined in their per-
son the double offices of high-priest and generalissimo.
Chinese historians, with their usual modesty, assert that
Jih-pun, as they call Japan, was voluntarily tributary to
the Celestial emperor ; but it is doubtful whether the
Imperial air of " Subjugation perfected" ever sounded
in the ears of Japanese tribute-bearers, unless in the
same surreptitious manner as it was once played over a
British ambassador in modern days.
Marco Polo was the first who brought Japan to Euro-
pean ken under the name of Zipangu, and he was at the
Chinese capital in 1278, just after Kublai-Khan with
his Mongol hordes had overrun China. Envoys had
been sent, we are told, to speak plainly to the Emperor
of Japan. " Lest," says Kublai-Khan, " that the true
state of things be not as yet known and understood in
your land, therefore I send to acquaint you with my
views. Already philosophers desire to see all mankind
one family : I am determined to carry out this principle,
even though I should be obliged to do so by force of
arms : it is now the business of the King of Nipon to
decide what course is most agreeable to him." The
Mikado, or Nipon king, did not enter at all into the
philosophical views of his powerful neighbour, and be-
haved very unlike a tributary monarch. He was then
assisted in the management of secular affairs by a Zio-
goon, whose office had become hereditary, as a sort of
assistant-emperor ; and while the Mikado zealously per-
formed his priestly part of praying for the success of his
23
354 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
armies, the Zio-goon set a valiant example to the people,
who victoriously repelled Kublai- Khan's invading forces.
But henceforth the Zio-goon retained the increased
powers with which he had been intrusted, and the
spiritual and temporal emperors became joint authorities.
'No sooner were the Chinese and Mongols driven off,
than the Japanese retaliated by ranging in their barks
as pirates or buccaneers up the coast of China from Swa-
tow to the Shan-tung promontory.
In 1350 we find Chinese records of extraordinary
levies and defences to meet the marauders and expel
them from different points in their possession. A cen-
tury later the Chinese, with their usual patient endurance
of misery, were still suffering from these freebooters.
They are described by writers of 1459"^ as a fierce people,
naturally cunning : they would always put on board their
ships some of the produce or merchandise of their own
country, and also weapons of war ; with these they would
stand off and on, and so they could parade their goods,
and call them " tribute to the crown of China," until a
favourable opportunity offered, when they would take
arms and make a wild inroad on the coast. In 1540,
these Japanese pirates had become so formidable that
the Chinese historian says their extermination was im-
possible.
The Portuguese adventurers had then arrived at Ning-
po, and doubtless met Japanese; and there could not
have been much difficulty in the way of an enterprising
marauder like Fernando Mendez Pinto doing what he
* See ' Illustrated Notice of Countries beyond the Sea,' a Chinese
work translated by T. F. Wade, Esq., Chinese Secretary.
THE PORTUGUESE IN JAPAN. 355
says he did — accompanying one of their homew'^ard-bound
junks, and reaching an island off the south extreme of
Kiu-siu, named Kanega-Sima — and then carrying back
to his countrymen the first news of the re-discovery of
Marco Polo's Zipangu. It is strange that both their
reports were hardly believed. Marco Polo has long since
had justice done to him, but poor Pinto still labours
under the charge of having told sad travellers' tales.
Writers generally assert that Japan was accidentally
fallen upon by shipwrecked Portuguese j but we are in-
clined to think that the meeting of the two peoples upon
the coasts of China would naturally lead the Portuguese
to visit Japan. It is quite possible that, until formal
permission to trade was obtained from the Mikado and
the Zio-goon, it was necessary to represent the visits as
purely accidental.
It is very remarkable that, from 1542, when the Por-
tuguese were first received in Japan, and their friendship,
faith, and commerce warmly espoused, until a reaction
took place, Japanese hostility to China became still more
virulent. Did they teach Christianity and encourage
piracy 1 Whilst the sainted Xavier and his zealous suc-
cessors were winning in Nipon more than a million souls
to the fold of their heavenly Master, the race they found
so tractable was carrying fire and sword into the opposite
provinces of China. It was only when the active perse-
cution of the Christians and Portuguese commenced that
China found peace.
The records of the courage and daring of these Japanese
Vikings read like those of the Danish invaders of Britain.
"In 1552, the Japanese vessels," says the 'Chronicle,'
356 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
" hundreds in number, covered the seas, and spread
terror along the coasts of China for many thousands of
Z^"."* Shanghai, Keang-yin, on the great river, and
Shapoo, were sacked. In 1553 they pillaged Soo-chow-
foo, Ching-keang-foo, and the island of Tsung-ming in
the entrance of the Yang-tse. In 1554 they waxed still
more bold ; their vessels arrived in great numbers ; and
the leaders of each division (like Cortes in Mexico) fired
their barks as they landed in a country they intended to
conquer. Hang-chow-foo soon fell, and they appear to
have sacked the entire country situated between the
Yang-tse and JN'ing-po rivers, and as far back as Hang-
chow, Soo-chow, and ]N"ankin ! At Nankin they were
defeated ; but it is surprising to learn from the accounts
given of this aifair, that these bodies of buccaneers sel-
dom exceeded sixty or seventy in number. Yet these
small bands often defeated forces ten times more numer-
ous, and carried fortified or walled cities by stratagem or
escalade. One body of 200 Japanese actually, during a
period of fifty days, ravaged three prefectures, any of
them as large as an English county, " killing and cap-
turing an incalculable number of people," says the
* Chronicle.' These war-parties were detachments from
the main body of buccaneers, who to the number of
20,000 occcupied places of security from Woosung to
Shapoo, and thence round by Mng-po to Tski-ke, places
all easily recognised on a map by those who are cognis-
ant of the British operations in China. As late as 1575,
Chusan was in the hands of the Japanese; in 1579 the
Pescadores, in Formosa Channel, Tien-pak in Quang-
* A li is about the third of a mile.
JAPANESE PIRACIES IN CHINA. 357
tung, and some places in Fuh-kien, fell to them, and
great was the misery of tlie seaboard dwellers of the
Flowery Land.
''It was the custom of the barbarians of Japan to
divide their force into three divisions. The van, com-
posed of their stontest men, and their rear-guard of the
like, in the centre the brave and cowardly were ranged
alternately. They rose at cock-crow, and fed on the
ground — this over, the chief, from a position above them,
read the orders for the day, detailing their duties, telling
off the different companies, and pointing out the place
for their foray that day. The companies did not consist
of more than thirty men each, and moved at a distance
of two- thirds of a mile from each other. At a blast
from a conch-shell, the nearest company closed to give
support to the one that had given the signal. Skirmish-
ers in twos or threes moved about armed only with
swords. Towards evening the force reassembled, and
every one gave up his spoil, none daring to retain it.
The chief then made a partition in just proportion to
those that had contributed to the day's success. They
were addicted to drunkenness and debauchery, and
usually set fire to places they had sacked, and escaped
in the alarm thereby awakened. Every precaution against
treachery or surprise was closely observed. They marched
in single file, some distance apart, but in slow pace, and
in such good order that the imperial troops could seldom
take them at a disadvantage. Their powers of endurance
were very great, and they marched vast distances without
apparent fatigue. In action against artillery or archers,
they received the first fire, and then rushed in to close
358 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
quarters. They were adepts in all the stratagems of
war, and, though brave, used strange means to deceive
the Chinese, and effect their end at as slight a loss to
themselves as possible. Severe to prisoners made in
battle, they were nevertheless so kind to the people in
the vicinity of their resorts, that they were kept fully
informed of all hostile movements against them. Fight-
ing upon the water was not their forte," naively
adds the Chinese annalist. "The bulwarks of their
ships were all covered with cushions, which they
damped to render them proof against fire. In some
actions, as soon as they came to close quarters, they
boarded with rapidity ; their onset was terrible as the
thunder, and those on board were scattered like the
wind." *
In spite, however, of the state of constant hostility
between the two races, there was a nominal peace be-
tween the two governments directly the Ming dynasty
was re-established, and a legalised commerce upon a
stipulated scale was allowed. A work entitled * Eecords
of Things seen and heard,' published in China, gives
much accurate information about the habits and customs
of the Japanese, besides some rather involved geographi-
cal information. We gather, however, what is tolerably
correct, that a voyage of forty watches' duration (eighty
hours) will carry a ship from the island of Pootoo in the
Chusan group to the heights of Changki (I^angasaki) in
Japan, provided she steer an east course ; and the author
adds, that where the winds and currents are so perverse,
* * Annals of the Art of War ; ' an historical work in 300 volumes,
extracts of which have been translated by T. F. Wade, Esq.
PORTUGUESE CONVERTS. 359
and there are so many dangers from storms and sea, it
is very difficult to maintain one course, and that the
voyage is altogether extremely hazardous. Whereupon
he incontinently goes off into the poetic vein, and gives
utterance to the following rhyme —
'^ Jeh-pun h^u ho
Wu-tau n^n kwo !"
which being interpreted by our friend Mr Wade, means,
" Goodly are the wares of Nipon,
But the isles of Gotto are hard to pass ! " *
It is possible some of our skippers, in dull-sailing
merchant-ships, may have reason to think so too in the
good time coming.
In the year 1579 terrible times dawned on Japan.
The Portuguese had apparently worked marvels in
Christianising the people. The great Xavier, having
built fifty churches, and baptised as his own share
30,000 natives, became so satisfied with the spiritual
safety of his Japanese, that he had quitted the country,
despairing of winning there the crown of martyrdom,
which he soon found upon the inhospitable coast of
Southern China.
About this time the Zio-goon, having quelled some
intestine troubles, caused by various ambitious nobles,
secured to himself greater power than he had hitherto
enjoyed as the secular monarch. He adopted as his
* The Gotto isles lie a short distance N.W. of Nangasaki ; they
•would be a lee-shore to a junk in the S.E. monsoon, if to leeward of
her port.
360 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
successor Taiko-sama, who, on the death of his benefac-
tor, gave short shrift to all the disaffected princes and
nobles in the land; and, aided by a powerful army,
would have won a name as the conqueror of the Corea,
had he not rendered himself still more remarkable by
his edicts agaimst Christianity. At first Taiko promised
fair ; but the Jesuits' refusal to baptise him because he
would not give up his harem — a Portuguese captain's
disregard of the order to take his ship to Taiko's resi-
dence for examination — the answer of the Spaniard,
who, when asked by the Prince, " How is it that your
king has managed to possess himself of half the world?"
replied, " He sends priests to win the people ; his troops
then are sent to join the native Christians, and the con-
quest is easy" — naturally excited alarm for his own
authority and independence, and make him swear, as
tradition has it, " that not a priest should be left alive
in his dominions !"
On 25th June 1587, the first edict for the banishment
of the Catholic missionaries was issued. Taiko, by way,
it is said, of getting rid of his disobedient subjects, sent
large armies of Christians to the Corea, where they were
victorious, though their losses were very great. In 1596
the edict was renewed against Christians ; again all mis-
sionaries were ordered to quit the country. They dis-
obeyed for the most part ; and on the 5th February
1597, twenty-three rebellious priests suffered death in
Nangasaki, and were duly canonised by Pope Urban
VIII. in 1627. Taiko-sama's warrant has been pre-
served, and says, " I have condemned these prisoners to
PERSECUTIONS. 361
death for having come from the Philippines to Japan
under the pretended title of ambassadors, and for hav-
ing persisted in my lands without my permission, and
preached the Christian religion against my decree. I
order and wish that they be crucified in my city of
^ano-asaki !"
CHAPTER VI.
In the following year, 1598, Taiko-sama died, and a
usurper seized his throne. The Christians fancied all
danger to be past, and the enormous profits of trade
compensated for the loss of certain religious privileges.
K?empfer, who is a very sober-minded writer, assures us
that the Portuguese exported from Japan three hundred
tons of gold per annum for a considerable period ; and
that when, through the hostility of the Japanese and
the pertinacious competition of the Dutch, their pros-
perity was on the decline, their export of silver alone in
the three last years amounted to the enormous sum of
5,637,000 taels, representing nearly two millions sterling
in the present day, but twice as much at that time.
The tolerant conduct at first of the successor of Taiko-
sama might have been dictated by necessity or policy ;
but his suspicions of the Portuguese and Spanish mis-
sionaries were either fomented or aroused into activity by
support from the subjects of Protestant powers of Europe.
Their arrival in Japan happened in so strange a man-
ner, that the hand of Providence seems apparent in a
course of events which prevented Eoman Catholicism
from taking firm root, where its influence might have
entirely altered the present condition of Eastern Asia.
ARRIVAL OF THE DUTCH. 363
" In tlie year of our Lord God 1598," says the origi-
nal account in dear delicious old Purchas, " Peter Yan-
derbaeg and Hans Yanderguck, chiefs of the Dutch
Indian Company, made ready a fleet of five Hollanders
to traffic unto the Indies. Tempted by the success of
the Portuguese, the Dutch desired to enter upon the
trade of those regions in spite of the hostility of the
Dons, the bulls of the Pope, or the fires of the Inquisi-
tion. The admiral was stout Master Jacque Mahay, in
the good ship Erasmus." From the pilot of this proud
argosy, we have, in his letters to his wife, a faithful and
touching record of the voyage, of which we will give a
brief sketch.
William Adams was born " in Gillingham, two miles
from Rochester and one mile from Chatham, where the
Queen's ships do lie ;" and he calls upon us to remember
that he is thereby " a Kentish-man." " I was," he says,
'' from the age of twelve brought up in Limehouse, near
London, being 'prentice twelve years to one master,
Nicolas Diggins, and have served in the place of mas-
ter and pilot in her majesty's ships, and about eleven or
twelve years served the Worshipful Company of Barbary
Merchants, until the Indian traffic from Holland began,
in which Indian traffic I was desirous to make a little
experience of the small knowledge which God hath
given me."
The fleet in which Will Adams was embarked, sailed
from the Texel on the 24th June 1598. P)efore they
reached the equator sickness broke out, and they touched
for refreshment on the coast of Guinea — a strong argu-
ment in favour of the Premier's assertion as to the won-
3C4 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
derful salubrity of that delightful naval station, and one
which we freely place at his Lordship's disposal for the
next annual motion of Mr Hutt, against the immolation
of a certain number of Christian oflBcers and men to save
about an equal number of negroes. In spite of the salu-
brity of the coast of Guinea, Admiral Jacque Mahay and
many more died there before the fleet again sailed. In
April 1599 they reached the Straits of Magellan, having
decided that they should go to the Indies by way of the
South Seas, to make, no doubt, those "experiences" for
which bold Will Adams had such a craving. Cold,
hunger, and sickness pressed heavily upon the poor
Dutchmen ; and when, by dint of perseverance and
skill, the solitary ship Erasmus reached Moka on the
coast of Chili, the Spaniards were ready to slay and en-
trap them on every opportunity. After waiting until
2^ovember 1599 for her consorts, only one vessel joined
at the rendezvous, and she was piloted by Will Adams's
very good friend and countryman, " one Timothy Shot-
ten, who had been with Master Thomas Cavendish in
his voyage round the world." Two of the fleet, it was
conjectured, had sunk at sea, and another was known to
have fallen into the hands of the Spaniards. These same
gentry suddenly one day set upon the captain of the
Erasmus, who was on shore purchasing supplies for his
famishing crew, and besides slaying him and " my poor
brother Thomas Adams," says Will in his letter, " they
left scarce so many men whole as could weigh our
anchor." The consort likewise lost her captain and
twenty-seven men killed in another affair. Yet the re-
solute survivors, having appointed captains to their
VOYAGE OF THE DUTCH. 365
vessels, " held a council as to what they should do to
make their voyage most profitable. It was resolved to
go for Japan ; for, by the report of Derrick Gerritson,
who had been there with the Portugals, woollen cloth
was in great estimation in that island ; and we gathered,
by reason that the Malaccas and the most part of the
East Indies were hot countries, woollen cloth would not
be much accepted. Therefore it was we all agreed to go
to Japan."
Gallant fellows, decimated by disease and an active
enemy ; there is something very fine in their resolve to
push across that great, and then but little known sea —
not in flight, not in abandonment of their enterprise, but
to find a market for their woollens, which undoubtedly,
as they appear to have somewhat tardily discovered,
would have been a drug in the Indian market. On
29th November 1599, these two stout Hollanders, piloted
by Will Adams and Timothy Shotten, bore up before
the south-east trade- wind on their long and lonely
voyage. Nothing can give a clearer idea of their weary
journey than the following entry in the narrative : — "The
wind continued good for divers months !" They cross
the equator ; we follow them through island channels,
where eight men are killed and eaten by the natives ;
we see them as at last they approach the western limit
of the great South Sea. Storm and angry seas await
them as they come nigh Japan ; and on the 24th Feb-
ruary the Erasmus parts from her consort. Poor Timothy
Shotten ! he and his charge succumbed at last. Never-
theless the Erasmus still did her best — still directed her
course for Japan. '' The four-and-twentieth day of
366 A CKUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
Marcli we saw an island called ' Una Colonna,' at which,
time many of our men were sick again, and divers dead.
Great was the misery we were in, having no more than
nine or ten men able to go or creep upon their knees ;
our captain and all the rest looking every hour to die.
But on the 11th April 1600 we saw the high land of
Japan near unto Bungo, at which time there were no
more than live men of us able to go. The 12th April
we came hard to Bungo, where many country barks came
aboard us, the people whereof we wilhngiy let come,
having no force to resist them ; and at this place we
came to an anchor."
The Japanese Tai-koon, or executive emperor, hap-
pened at the time to be at Osaaca, the seaport of Miaco
the spiritual capital ; and when the circumstance of the
arrival of other than a Portuguese or Spanish vessel was
reported to him, he ordered the pilot. Master Adams,
and one of the mariners, to be brought before him ; the
more so, doubtless, as the Portuguese represented the
character of these new arrivals in anything but an ami-
able light ; " for," says the EngHshman's letter, "after
we had been there (in Bungo) from five to six days, a
Portugal Jesuit, with other Portugals, and some Japanese
that were Christians, came from a place called I^anga-
saki ; which was ill for us, the Portugals being our
mortal enemies, who reported that we were pirates, and
were not in the w^ay of merchandising." As crucifixion
was the penalty of this crime, and poor Adams and his
companion were not aware that the other charge which
was made against them, of being heretics, was rather a
merit than otherwise with the rulers of Japan, it was
WILL ADAMS AND THE EMPEROK. 367
natural that they took a tender leave of their sick cap-
tain and shipmates ; and then, adds the stanch old sailor,
" I commended myself into His hands that had preserved
me from so many perils on the sea."
In the presence of the emperor he spoke up manfully.
" I showed him/' says Will Adams, " the name of our
country, and that our land had long sought out the East
Indies ;" and after explaining the purely mercantile
purpose of their voyage, the king asked whether our
country had wars ? I answered him, " Yea ; with the
Spaniards and Portuguese, being at peace with all other
nations." Well spoken, Will Adams ! that was thy best
and surest defence.
From what we have seen of Taiko-sama's dealings with
the Christians, we may conclude that his successor would
see without regret the arrival of strangers of a different
religion, who, though worn out with suffering, and with
the prospect of immediate death before them, openly
avowed their hostility to the subjects of those powerful
monarchs of Spain and Portugal, of Avhose vast resources,
wealth, and ambition he had heard so much. It was,
however, some time before the resolute Englishman was
relieved from suspense as to his own fate. Mne-and-
thirty long days of anxiety were passed in prison, the
emperor having in the mean time ordered the ship to be
brought up to Osaaca ; and during all that time the Jesuits
and Portugals used their utmost endeavours to have the
crew of the poor Erasmus treated as thieves and robbers,
and saying, "that if justice was executed upon us, it
would terrify the rest of our nation from coming there
any more ; and," continues Adams, " to this intent they
368 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
daily sued to his majesty to cut us off." But the Pagan
was more humane than the Christian ; for, " praised be
God for ever and ever ! " ejaculated the saved sailor,
"the emperor answered them, that because their
two countries were at war, was no reason why, to
please Portugals, he should slay Dutch and English-
men !" and forthwith Will Adams and his companion
were liberated, and sent to their ship and shipmates.
They saluted each other with much shedding of tears,
for all on board had been informed that Adams and his
comrade had long since been executed.
Bright days now smiled upon the sorely-tried Dutch-
men and their honest pilot ; they were given everything
they needed, treated most kindly, but they and their
stout bark were never again to leave Japan. The Eras-
mus was ordered to the city of Yedo, then, as now, the
capital of the Tai-koon, as Miaco was that of the Mikado.
Will Adams's merits were so appreciated at court that he
eventually obtained great inJluence. When, in 1609,
the next Dutch ships arrived in Japan to act hostilely
against the Portuguese, they found the Japanese govern-
ment very well disposed towards them, and considerable
privileges, as well as the port of Eirando, were conceded
to them, through the good offices of William Adams.
Though he individually behaved with forbearance to the
Portuguese, and, as he assures us, returned good for their
evil, the Dutch had no such intention ; and it is certain
that, in introducing the Hollander to the commerce of
Japan, our Englishman struck the deathblow to Portu-
guese interests there. By the Dutch ships Will Adams
sent the interesting letters we have quoted, and at last,
TKEATY WITH ENGLAND. 369
as he desired, stimulated his countrymen to enter upon
the same remunerative trade. He had already been
thirteen years in Japan, when at last he learnt that a
ship bearing the red cross of England had reached
Firando.
She was the Clove of London, belonging to the East
India Company (then in its infancy), and commanded
by Captain John Saris, furnished with a letter from
King James I., and suitable presents to the emperor.
The good ship Clove had pushed to sea from the Thames
on April 18th, 1611, and reached Eirando on the 11th
of June 1613, two years having been profitably spent in
trading on the way, as ships were wont to do in those
days. Adams was then at Yedo, and was immediately
sent for by the Prince of Eirando, who, in the mean
time, treated the newly-arrived Englishmen with marked
attention. On the 29th July 1613, poor Will Adams
arrived, and greeted his long-expected countrymen ; thir-
teen weary years he had looked forward hopefully, and at
last the old man's prayer was granted. Early in August,
Captain Saris, William Adams, and ten Englishmen,
started for Yedo, bearing the royal letter and presents.
The dignified bearing of Saris and the influence of Adams
soon obtained from the emperor, or Tai-koon, a favour-
able treaty,* granting to England the most important
* Treaty concluded between the Emperor of Japan and
King James op Great Britain. — August 1613.
" Art. 1. — We give free licence to the subjects of the King- of Great
Britain — viz. Sir Thomas Smith, Governor, and the Company of the
East India merchants and adventurers — for ever safely to come into
any of our ports of our empire of Japan, with their ships and mer-
chandise, without any hindrance to them or their goods; and to
24
370 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATEES.
privileges that had ever heen conceded hy Japan to a
foreign power. Saris carried hack a letter likewise from
the Tai-koon lyeyas, in which he says he especially de
sires the friendship of James I., promises that his sub-
abide, buy, sell, and barter, according to their own manner with all .
nations ; to tarry here as long as they think good, and to depart at
their pleasure.
"Art. 2. — We grant unto them freedom of custom for all such
merchandises as either now they have brought, or hereafter shall
bring into our kingdoms, or shall from hence transport to any foreign
part ; and do authorise those ships that hereafter shall arrive and
come from England to proceed to present sale of their commodities,
without further coming or sending up to our court.
"Art. 3.^If any of their ships shall happen to be in danger of
shipwreck, we will that our subjects not only assist them, but that
such part of ship or goods as shall be saved be returned to their
captain or merchant or their assigns. And that they shall or may
build one house or more for themselves in any part of our empire
where they shall think fittest, and at their pleasure.
"Art. 4.— If any of the English merchants or others shall depart
this life within our dominions, the goods of the deceased shall remain
at the disposal of the cape merchant, and that all offences committed
by them shall be punished by the said cape merchant according to
his discretion ; and our laws to take no hold of their persons or
goods.
" Art. 5. — We will that ye our subjects trading with them for any
of their commodities, pay them for the same, according to agreement,
without delay, or return their wages again unto them.
" Art. 6. — For such commodities as they have now brought or shall
hereafter bring, fitting for service and proper use, we will that no
arrest be made thereof ; but that the price be made with the cape
merchant, according as they may sell to others, and present payment
upon the delivery of the goods.
" Art. 7. — If in discovery of other countries for tirade, and return
of their ships, they shall need men or victuals, we will that ye our
subjects furnish them for their money as their need shall require.
" Art. 8. — And that without other passport, they shall and may
set out upon the discovery of Jesso, or any other part in or about our
empire."
THE DECREE OF EXCLUSION. 371
jects shall be " heartily welcome," applauds much their
worthiness and skill as navigators, and promises that in
their "honourable enterprises of discoveries and mer-
chandising, they shall find the said Tai-koon further
them according to their desires."
The year 1613 saw the English factory established (as
was the Dutch) at Firando. The English, from political
reasons, very soon withdrew, and so avoided the troubles
that overtook the other European residents in Japan.
It is worthy of note that in the following year the per-
secution of the priests and their converts recommenced
with renewed vigour, and ended, as I said before, in the
expulsion of the Portuguese, and then the close imprison-
ment of the Dutch to the island of Decima.
In 1637 the great interdict was published, of which
one paragraph runs thus : — " No Japanese ship or boat
whatever, nor any native of Japan, shall presume to go
out of the country; and who acts contrary to this shall
be put to death, and the ship and goods shall be for-
feited ; and all Japanese who return from abroad shall
be put to death."
Erom that time their vessels have never voluntarily
left the coasts of Japan, though many a shipload of
poor wretches has drifted away in storms, and reached
some foreign land. But when, as once or twice was
done, Christian ships carried back these men to Japan,
they have been sternly refused admittance.
"VYhen, in 1673, the East India Company attempted
to reoccupy their former factory, there was no Will
Adams to be their advocate with the emperor. The
selfish Dutchmen did not choose to remember that they
372 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
owed their own introduction to Japan to the influence
of the English sailor. Although the English were
civilly treated, yet, at the instigation of the Dutch,
our trade was refused, because our then reigning king
(Charles II.) was married to a daughter of the King of
Portugal ! The Dutch remained undisputed masters of
the field until Sir Stamford Eaffles made two attempts
to break down their monopoly, but failed. After that
no nation except Eussia, whose ends are purely political,
gave Japan further trouble until 1831. In that year,
American attention was directed to the islands, and it
was thought that a good plea for introducing America to
their notice in a kindly way might be found in sending
back some shijDwrecked Japanese sailors. They received
a very uncivil welcome, and the ship Morrison was re-
pelled with violence. But not so the persevering nation
that had sent her forth ! If smaller ships did not
succeed, bigger ships might ; so the huge two-decker
Columbus, of 90 guns, and the corvette Vincennes,
were sent. This time she spake the truth honestly —
America wanted intercourse for commercial and poli-
tical purposes with Japan, as well as credit for philan-
thropy in returning unlucky Japanese sailors to their
home. The United States intended then shortly to
extend their frontier to the shores of the Pacific, and
this great force ought to have shown the Japanese that
Brother Jonathan was in earnest in being on visiting
terms with his next-door neighbour. But the Tai-koon
still held out. I^o trade except with Holland was still
his motto ; and America, being in no immediate hurry,
was patient but watchful. In 1849 the Japanese were
THE AMERICAN TEEATY. 373
foolish euough. to retain some American seamen ship-
wrecked upon the coast. The U.S. ship Preble, Captain
Glynn, forthwith dropped in and gave the Japanese
authorities such a shaking that they gladly liberated the
citizens of the United States. Then a very efficient
officer and admirable squadron were sent from America
in 1853, to bring about, by what is called moral force,
some specific terms regulating the intercourse of the two
countries. Commodore Perry, in his voluminous work,
has so recently told us what means he employed to this
end, that we need say no more than that he fully suc-
ceeded. The treaty he obtained in itself is no great
thing ; but it was the small end of the wedge ; and,
after all, sailors cannot be expected to finesse in diplo-
macy. Hardly was the ink dry with which this treaty
was signed, when our much-to-be-lamented war with
Eussia broke out, and the Japanese found their islands,
creeks, and inland seas used for a game of hide-and-seek
played by the Eussian and Allied squadrons. Every-
body wanted treaties with the Japanese ; and, in ap-
parently a waggish humour, they gave us one in 1854,
which must ever stand unique among such documents.
It was, in vulgar parlance, a perfect " sell."
CHAPTEE VII.
A STORM is at all times a scene replete with the sublime
and beautiful, heightened in interest, to the sailor who
is upon the sea at such a time, by the anxiety incident
to the charge of his frail home, and the many lives de-
pendent on his judgment and energy. Eut off an almost
unknown coast, whose lofty and rugged line promised
no lack of off-lying rocks, with the want of sea-room
from the many islands and reefs surrounding us, it was
the last thing we could have desired ; but having come,
we had only to do our best to meet the difficulties of our
position. The Furious evidently thought so too, as she
struggled against the wind, sea, and current that rushed
down upon us as we neared the narrows of Van Die-
men Strait. There was a glorious " abandon" about
the tight frigate as she flung herself into the sea, and
cut her way through the angry barrier which the storm
made in her path, and rose with a spring, throwing off
the foam and spray from her bows, which perhaps was
more appreciated by the crew of the Furious than by
her distinguished passengers, who, though capital sailors,
would in these frolicsome moments occasionally express
a preference for the shore, which was not to be won-
dered at.
A STORM. 375
There were certain symptoms about the gale now set-
ting in, which betokened it was not a fair hard north-
east breeze, nor one against which even a powerful vessel
might struggle. There was far too much moisture, mist,
and cloud, with a falling barometer, for that.
As we approached Cape Satanomi-saki, the sky and
sea looked so wild that it was evident the sooner we
reached a sheltered anchorage the better. The first im-
pulse was to run up the gulf of Kago-Sima, then well
open to the north of us ; but it was totally unsurveyed,
and if this gale veered into a tyjjhoon or circular storm,
we should find ourselves in an awkward predicament :
the other resource was to find an anchorage close to and
under the lee of the extreme end of the Japan group,
and remain there while the storm raged from the
direction of the Pacific, and, directly it veered so as
to blow from the Chinese Sea, to dash out and do our
best.
The long projecting tongue of high land forming
the south extreme of Kiu-siu was steadily approached.
"Within a mile of the rocks there were no ordinary
soundings to be obtained — closer still we went, keeping
a sharp look-out for sunken rocks, many of which would
peep out of the smooth-heaving sea, rear their weed-
crowned heads as if to warn us off, and then sink again
with a gurgle and whirl of foam. Down through valley
and glen rushed fierce squalls of winds (or "willy-
whaws," as sailors call them), which whisked the water
into a sheet of foam, and made the tall ship reel like a
cockle-boat. At last, close to the rocks, we obtained
bottom in thirty fathom ; but before the anchor could
376 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
be let go, it diminished to fifteen ; we had then barely
room to swing clear of the breakers.
Thankful to have found a good anchorage within
three-quarters of a mile of the cape, we lost no time in
making preparation for the gale which was so likely to
veer to the south-west, and then what was now a friendly
shelter would be a deadly lee-shore. Towards evening
the Retribution and yacht Emperor were to be seen to
the westward, looking for an anchorage likewise. When
they sighted us their course was altered, and they even-
tually anchored near. Throughout the night the weather
continued to look still more ugly and threatening, and
the quicksilver in the barometer was what we call
" pumping," rising and falling with an irregular un-
decided action. In all the squadron the sharpest look-
out was kept, and, with the steam up, we were ready to
start at a moment's warning ; for if surprised by a
typhoon in our position, its resistless rush and power
would, we knew, throw us on the rocks in spite of our
engines and anchors.
The coast upon the western side of Cape Satanomi-
saki or TchichakofF, though bold, is not precipitous above
the water-line ; it consists of hills varying from one to
two thousand feet in altitude, with rounded outHnes
covered to their summits with verdure. In all the val-
leys, and upon the sheltered hill-sides, many trees were
seen, mostly pines ; and there was a considerable amount
of terrace cultivation. In every cove there nestled a
hamlet, and out of almost every copse of wood peeped the
thatch of a Japanese cottage. Not a mile from our ship
there was a village of some size, situated in a little bay,
ASPECT OF THE LAND. 377
across the entrance of which the breakers now formed a
barrier ; and on its shingly beach we observed many
boats hauled up, either on account of the w^eather, or for
fear of the European ships that had so strangely visited
their secluded haunts. The night came on dark and
rainy, with no lack of wind ; but through the storm we
were amused to see numerous watch-fires lighted up
along the coast, showing that the inhabitants were on
the look-out. The effect of the flames against the wild
sky heightened materially the strangeness of the scenery.
The 7th August brought no decided change of wind,
and one might have been tempted to push out and fight
the gale, but our limited quantity of coal rendered it
necessary to husband the store, in order that our return
to Shanghai might be insured ; for owing to some vague
idea that coal was procurable in Japanese ports, because
coal- veins abound in Japan, no depot had been formed
at ]Srangasaki for the service of the squadron.
In the afternoon a heavy ground-swell, rolling in from
the south-east, indicated that the gale in the offing was
veering, and soon afterwards the vessels were canted
across the wind by a strong current setting into the
Pacific Ocean from the Sea of China. This current,
running counter to the gale still blowing, occasioned a
frightful sea in the narrows between the Cape and Take-
sima Island. It was remarkable that few, if any, sea-
birds were seen in our sheltered position, whither, in
such weather, birds, if numerous, would naturally fly ;
but this had been noticed by early navigators, and has
not been accounted for. Stormy -petrels, and others of
that strong- winged class, we occasionally saw. Can it
378 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
be that the exceedingly stormy nature of the seas around
Japan force the common gull, and other such birds, to
seek calmer spots to feed and breed in *?
A story is told by either Siebold or Kaempfer, that on
one occasion the Governor-general of Batavia sent a cas-
sowary to the Emperor through the factory of ISTangasaki.
It was returned, after some months' trial, with a message
that it Avas "a big ugly bird, that ate a great deal and
did no work, and that nothing so useless could be tole-
rated in Japan." Perhaps the sea-birds are excluded on
the same utilitarian principle. A huge whale enlivened
the scene by joining the squadron ; and although it did
not precisely anchor, it did the next wisest thing — it
dodged about under the lee of the cape, blowing away,
and waiting for better weather. Whales seem to suffer
much in bad weather, as they must rise to the surface to
breathe, and are consequently buffeted by the waves as
if they were so many rocks ; but Providence, in its
wisdom, has endowed these creatures with wonderful
sagacity, shown in running for shelter during storms.
Throughout the Pacific Ocean, its thousand isles and
reefs afford them havens ; and in the polar seas the great
belts of pack-ice enclose calm spaces wherein the whale
finds shelter.
Occasionally through the wild-drifting clouds we
caught glimpses of the remarkable volcanic cone of
Horner Peak, and of many picturesque points in Kago-
sima Gulf : then, far in the interior, lofty mountains
would stalk like ghosts out of their shrouds of storm-
cloud, look upon us for a moment, and disappear, as
with a roar the hurricane would burst out afresh,
THE ABBE SIDOTTI. 379
enveloping everything again in mist, rain, and sea-
drift.
Wilder night we have seldom seen than that of this
Saturday. The black inhospitable coast, visible through
all the storm in consequence of its close proximity, the
angry sky, the roar of the gale, the lash of the breakers,
which with phosphoric light brought out into startling
relief every hidden danger and rocky buttress then close
to us ; and the sweep of the strait, where sea and wind
were doing their worst, and that worst fast approaching
us, — all formed a scene of wildest grandeur. One could
not help thinking how feebly pen and pencil would con-
vey, to those who have never witnessed them, an idea of
such sights as these.
There is a sad tale of heroism told of some who landed
on the adjacent shore which deserves to be repeated. In
the year 1767, the zeal of a Roman Catholic missionary
in the Philippines was roused by the sufferings of the
martyrs who had perished in Japan and China. The
Abbe Sidotti longed to win for himself a like crown of
immortality, and, brave as he was good and enthusiastic,
he determined upon throwing himself alone into Japan,
with the hope of affording comfort to the persecuted
remnant of Christians then said still to exist in Kiu-siu.
For two years he studied Japanese at Manilla, where, as
well as at Macao and Formosa, Jaj)anese were to be
found hopelessly cut off from their mother country. All
the brave Sidotti asked was to be carried in a vessel to
Japan, and secretly landed ; for the rest he put his trust
in God's mercy. The governor of the Philippines yielded
to his prayer.
380 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
One evening in October 1769, a foreign bark ap-
proaches the coast near where the British squadron is now
anchored. We see her in the dim light heave to, and at
midnight a boat is stealthily rowed to the beach ; in it
Ave see the abbe, a veritable missionary indeed. He and
a dozen companions disembark ; they kneel in prayer
before they part from the good priest ; their hearts are
touched — they will not leave him alone to meet the
dangers and certain death which await the Christian in-
truder in Japan. No ! by Santiago, no ! Spain had not
then sunk so low ; and it is said that many of those who
accompanied the abbe to the shore forsook all and fol-
lowed this worthy successor of the Apostles. They ex-
changed their last farewells, and the devoted party watch
the boat regain the ship which speeds on her homeward
course, then calmly and resolutely they turn on their
chosen Avay. They pass into the shade of the adjoining
valley, but never more are heard of ! They doubtless
soon fell victims to their zeal for their faith, and the
sword of the would-be exterminator of their creed was
their sharp and short bridge to another and a better
world ; but assuredly, so long as men shall hold dear
human courage and devotion in what they believe to be
a righteous cause, will the memory of the Abbe Sidotti
and his companions be cherished.
Soon after midnight an unnatural lull in the gale
warned us to be off. The shrill pipe of the boatswain
went instantly, the cable was rattled in as fast as pos-
sible, the steam got up, anchors stowed, and we started
to fight our way into the Pacific. Down came the gale
from the south. Whew ! the good ship reels again to
TO SEA ONCE MORE. 381
it, then dashes on, as the engines begin to give her mo-
mentum. The centre of the storm was to the west of ns,
and it was certain we could not now get too soon to sea ;
so, at every risk, we shaved round the breakers of Cape
Satanomi, and after two hours' hard tussle, felt we could
again laugh at the storm. The ship's head was put to
the east, and away like a sea-gull we flew. Those who
had had the anxiety and watching of the previous
twenty-four hours, felt now that it might blow as hard
as it pleased, and could throw themselves down to rest.
JSToon of the 8th August found the Furious alone, kick-
ing up her heels in a most unladylike manner, going
eleven knots under treble-reefed topsails, the sky clear
and bright, with a heavy following sea.
The Eetribution and Furious were of that marvellous
class called paddle-wheel steam-frigate — vessels so crank
that neither could have fought a main-deck gun in a
breeze — and the only objects attained by our main-deck
ports was first to admit an immense quantity of water, in
which the Ambassador's luggage was playfully washing
about ; and next, to compel the officers to live below in
places which, for heat and smell, were little short of the
Black Hole of Calcutta. However, it is folly to growl
when growling is of no avail, and one may always go on
half-pay if one does not like to go to sea ; so we will
leave the main-deck and enjoy the rush through the
dancing blue seas of the great Pacific.
We were now ofl" the Straits of Bungo, which divide
Kiu-siu from Sikok Island ; and here the lofty coast
sheltered us, in a measure, from the full weight of the
gale. On we went past both the Bungo and Kino
382 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
channels, that on either hand bound the island of Sikok,
and communicate with that little-known yet extensive
sea which is enclosed by that island and those of Kiu-
siu and Nipon. In our charts it is called the Suwo-nada
Sea. Perfectly land-locked, possessing three routes of
communication with the external seas, it affords a ready
means for the traffic from one part of the Japanese em-
pire to the other : and we learn from the itineraries of
the Dutch envoys and others who have passed from
Nangasaki to Yedo by the native routes, that this sea is
traversed by thousands of barks that could never expose
themselves to the gales and heavy seas of the outer
ocean. This Suwo-nada sea is nearly two hundred and
forty miles long in an east and west direction, and varies
from fifteen to sixty geographical miles in width ; it
abounds in islands, and affords anchorage throughout.
Many great and important cities are situated upon its
shores. The principal one, the spiritual capital "Miaco,"
is easy of access from it, and, with some dozen others
that lie around the rich bay of Osaaca, forms the real
heart of the Japanese empire.
"We naturally longed to enter and open up this region,
and trusted that, when Lord Elgin had visited Yedo,
time might be found to allow of our returning to China
through the Straits of Kino, and traversing the whole of
the Suwo-nada.
Hope, however, is not prophecy, and we were doomed
to be disappointed, as will hereafter be seen.
Noon of August 9th found us a long, long way from
Cape Tchichakoff, a current of nearly two miles and a
half per hour having set us away to the eastward, and
THE PACIFIC GULF-STREAM. 383
rather off shore. This was considerably more than we
had been prepared for, although we knew that a regular
current, exactly like the Atlantic Gulf-stream in charac-
ter, would be found to be sweeping along the Pacific
shores of the Japanese group : its increased velocity, as
we experienced it, we fancy arose from the force of the
gale from north-east having retarded its action somewhat,
and that when the gale ceased, the pent-up waters natu-
rally rushed for some hours with increased velocity in
their old direction.
The Pacific Gulf-stream originates, like the one so
well known in our hemisphere, in the warm and shallow
enclosed seas about the equator. The China Sea may
be said to be its birthplace, at least that southern por-
tion of it enclosed between Malayia, Borneo, and Cochin-
China ; its course to the northward and eastward may
be easily traced by the existence of coral and Sargasso
weed ; the former especially only exists off the coast of
China, within the boundaries of the Gulf-stream's warm
current. For instance, on the coast of China no coral
is found from Hainan in latitude 20° IST. to the north-
ward, except at certain distances varying from fifty to a
hundred miles off the coast, and by this we ascertain
that the stream of warm water flows out between For-
mosa and the island of Luzon, sweeps the eastern coast
of the former, embraces the Loo-choo and Linchousen
groups, curves along the outer shores of Japan, and
thence makes its way to the north, ameliorating the
climate of Behring Straits, and especially that of north-
western America.
This Asiatic Gulf-stream, however, has its attendant
384 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
evils, for it is the source of those fearful storms which do
such an immensity of damage on the coasts of China, and
give to Japan so bad a character amongst seamen : the
hurricanes of the West Indies and rotatory storms of
the I^orth Atlantic, arising from similar causes, are alone
to be compared to them in character and violence.
The weather rapidly cleared off during the afternoon
of the 9th, which was the more welcome as we were fast
nearing a chain of broken and dangerous islands of vol-
canic origin, named the Briceis or Broken Islands, across
and through which the Gulf-stream sets with much vio-
lence. Our course was shaped for Cape Idsu, the ex-
treme of a rocky promontory of Nipon, a little beyond
which the volcanic chain extends due south for a hun-
dred and twenty miles. The stars came out bright, and
the wind subsided in the early part of the evening, so
that there would have been no necessity for more than
ordinary watchfulness, had not the barometer, which
stood at noon at 29.72, fallen steadily until by midnight
it was only 29.25, or a tenth lower than during the
worst weather we had yet experienced. There were
causes for the condition of the atmosphere, and for this
fall in the barometer, we have little doubt, for of all
the middle watches we have kept we never saw one in
which the heavens were so little at rest. It seemed as
if the stars were changing their positions for pleasanter
places in the heavens. From eleven that night until
one in the morning hundreds of them shot overhead from
the north-east to the west, their flight being plainly per-
ceptible in an arc of sixty degrees, or thirty degrees on
either side of the zenith. A magnificent meteor fell and
EXTRAORDINARY NIGHT-SCENE. 385
burst to the I^.X.W., exhibiting for a minute the most
brilliant blue and orange light. Then mysterious belts
of cloud would unexpectedly rise in the north, and pass
rapidly over us, to be succeeded as strangely by others
from points of the compass ninety degrees apart. The
heavens were fairly bewitched, for all this time there
was little or no wind, and the sea was smooth except
in the course of the current. Our engines were mean-
time rattling along, and we were so fast nearing our
port of Simoda, that it mattered little what all these
mysterious signs might mean. My own conviction is,
that at the time we were remarking these strange sights,
the storm we had escaped from was sweeping along the
northern and western sides of Mpon, and that the high
land of the interior sheltered us from its effects.
As daylight broke on the 10th August, a vigilant
look-out was kept for Volcano Island, one of the Broken
group, in case the current should have continued to run
at its former rate, and carried us in sight of it. Just
when a grey mare might have been discernible at half
a mile's distance, a peak or conical island was seen rising
sharp and clear out of the current-agitated sea — exactly
on the bearing Volcano Island might have possibly been
seen, though, by our observation, forty miles distant.
Thinking at first that it must be the Volcano, and, if
so, we were fast nearing the Eedfield Rocks — a dan-
gerous reef in this neighbourhood — the course was
altered, as a precautionary measure, until sunrise. Pre-
sently the peak came out more and more defined, but
looked every minute still more distant, until the rising
sun revealed to us the fact that it was no island, but
25
386 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
the great Peak of Nipon ; and a glorious panorama of
mountain, valley, and headland gradually unrolled itself
at its feet.
The Peak of Pusi-hania — the Matcliless Mountain, as
the Japanese with just pride and affection love to style
it — was at this time, as we afterwards discovered by
close observation, no less than one hundred and ten
miles off, and yet its summit is said to be only twelve
thousand feet above the sea.
We neared Cape Idsu, a mountainous promontory, at
the extreme end of which the port of Simoda stands ;
and if the Japanese had expected an invasion of their
country by the countrymen of Commodore Perry, they
could not have better foiled it than by inducing him to
go to such a spot. It was decidedly picturesque, how-
ever, and under the effect of a fine unclouded day, with
a blue sea sparkling and lashing itself up under the
effect of a rattling west wind, the whole scene was one
worthy of a painter's skill.
The Retribution and Emperor hove in sight, and we
pushed on under a heavy press of sail and steam for
Simoda. Early in the afternoon we reached it ; and
after going right round the bay, and poking into every
corner to look for shelter from the ground- swell, we
plumped the anchor down, having satisfied ourselves
that, however pretty the bay might be, it was no fit
harbour for a ship, and that the Japanese had decidedly
weathered the Transatlantic Commodore when they
palmed off such a spot upon him as one.
CHAPTEE VIII.
The last person to find fault witli a port without good
cause should be the seaman who has just reached one,
however insecure, after having been tossed and shaken
into a jelly by gales of wind in the open sea. On the
shortcomings, therefore, of Simoda in all the require-
ments of a harbour for men-of-war, and much more for
mercantile purposes, we shall abstain from dwelling.
Its deficiencies were so apparent to Mr Harris, the
American Consul- General, that, by treaty with the
Japanese, he has resigned it for some safer and more
convenient spot. Situated as it is on the extreme of
a mountainous promontory which projects into the full
sweep of the Pacific Gulf-stream, it is most difficult of
access to sailing vessels, and lies in the most active
volcanic region in Japan, if not in the world. Within
sight of Simoda, the smoking crater of " Vries Volcano"
serves as a beacon to remind the inhabitants by how
precarious a tenure they exist upon the seaboard of the
Idsu promontory. Only four years before our arrival,
an earthquake, aided by terrible rollers from the sea,
destroyed the town of Simoda and the greater part of its
inhabitants. The Eussian frigate Diana, commanded by
the present Admiral Count Pontiatine, was at anchor in
388 A CRUISE IX JAPANESE WATERS.
the harbour at the time. She was wrecked ; but her
gallant captain and crew were saved to give us this
account in graphic language of the horrors of that
terrible December morning, and the heroic manner in
which they stood to their shattered ship : —
" H.I. M.S. Diana, in Simoda Harbour, December
23, 1854.— Mne o'clock a.m.; light W.S.W. wind;
bar. 29.27; ther. 7 deg. E. (47.75 deg. F.) ; weather
clear and agreeable.
" At a quarter past nine, without any previous indi-
cation, the shock of an earthquake, which lasted two or
three minutes, causing the vessel to shake very much,
was felt both on deck and in the cabin. At ten o'clock
a large wave was observed entering the bay, and in a
few minutes Simoda was inundated, houses and temples
swept away, while the junks before the town, forced
from their anchorage, were seen floating in every direc-
tion, one knocking against another, cracking and sinking.
In less than five minutes after this, the water was seen
rising and bubbling, as if agitated by a thousand springs,
carrying with it loam, straw, and other materials, reced-
ing and then returning with tremendous force, and com-
pleting the destruction of the town, boats, and junks.
Our men were ordered to secure the guns and boats, and
to shut the ports. During this short time the bay was
covered with thatches and ruins, which had been carried
away by the receding waters.
" At a quarter past ten the frigate w^as observed to
drift, when the second anchor was immediately dropped.
Notwithstanding this, however, the water, returning
with greater velocity than before, forced her a second
THE EAETHQUAKE OF SIMODA. 389
time from her position. The whole town was now one
vast scene of desolation ; and out of about one thousand
houses, only sixteen were standing. At this time a cloud
of vapour was observed over the ruins, and the air was
strongly impregnated with sulphurous acid.
" The sudden rising and falling of the water in so
narrow a bay gave rise to numerous whirlpools, which
caused the frigate to swing round with such rapidity
that all on board became giddy. At half-past ten a
junk was thrown against her with so much violence that
it was smashed to pieces and sunk immediately. Eopes
were thrown to the men to save them from drowning ;
but only two seized them, the rest, rushing into the
cabin, chose rather to die than to violate the law of
their country, which forbids them Avithout permission to
go on board a foreign vessel.
" An old woman also, in a small boat, was drifted
alongside. She was quite insensible, and her rescue
was not effected without several men being exposed to
considerable hazard. But their exertions were success-
ful: she soon recovered, and is still living.
^' After the frigate had turned once more round, and
approached within fifty fathoms of a rock, the whirling
of the water became so violent that she was flung from
one place to another, and in about thirty minutes turned
no less than forty -three times round her anchor. During
this time she was nearly smashed against a rocky island,
but fortunately she just cleared it. At a quarter to
eleven the third anchor was dropped, but it had not the
effect of keeping her stationary ; and when the sea reced-
ed, it left her on her side in eight feet of water. While
390 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
in this position it was impossible to stand, and all en-
deavoured to crawl to the upper side, fearing the effect
of the next rise of the water. This speedily took place,
and with great rapidity and violence, forcing the ship
into the midst of the bay, and causing one of the guns
to break loose, when it instantly killed one and wounded
several others of the men. Another effect of this rush
was manifest in the frigate's keel and rudder, which
Avere now to be seen floating near her. The rising and
falling of the water were very great, the depth varying
from less than eight to more than forty feet ; and these
changes, at intervals of about five minutes, continued till
noon, when it was discovered that there were thirty
inches of water in the hold.
" At this time a perceptible diminution in the fre-
quency and violence of the changes took place, and this
opportunity was embraced, and every available effort
made, to lessen the influx of water. But scarcely had
half an hour elapsed, when, before these operations
could have been completed, the rising and falling of the
water became more violent than before.
"Between this time and a quarter past two, when
the agitation again became much less, the frigate was
left four times on her side ; and once, while thus laid in
only four feet of water, the upheaving of the ground
was so violent as to force her past her anchors (the
upper parts of which were visible) and back again to her
former position.
" Continuing to decrease in violence and frequency,
by three p.m. the agitation of the water, and the motion
of the vessel consequent thereon, were very slow. She
WRECK OF THE DIANA. 391
now floated in twenty-five feet of water, but within her
hold it was observed to be rising at the rate of thirty
inches per hour. At this time a fresh west wind was
blowing; the bar. stood at 29.87, and the ther. was
10°.50 R. (about 55°.63 F.) The bay was covered with
ruins, on which men were seen walking; and at four
P.M. we began to disentangle the anchors, the chains of
which were so twisted that four hours were required to
clear one of them.
" During the ensuing night a fresh S. W. wind blew,
and the pumps were working twice an hour.
" We had now to obtain the consent of the authorities
to our seeking a bay in which to repair the frigate,
Simoda not being well adapted for this purpose. After
some delay this was granted, and a suitable place was
soon selected. Some necessary repairs having previously
been made, we weighed anchor on the 13th January,
and with a light wind left for the appointed place. The
wind soon failed us, we were left drifting towards the
breakers, and our position became one of imminent dan-
ger. But ere long a gale arose, and after approaching
nearer and nearer the shore, all hope being abandoned,
twenty fathoms were called out, and the anchor dropped.
"On the 15th and 16th there was less wind, but the
water in the frigate rose to such a height that grave fears
were entertained as to the possibility of saving her. The
Japanese authorities sent a hundred junks to tow her to
the bay, and on the 1 7th aU hands were landed. This
was not done without great difficulty (on account of the
dangerous surf), which was particularly the case with
the sick, who, wrapped in sails, had to be dragged
392 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATEES.
tlirough it. ISText day (18th) the junks took her in tow ;
not a, single man was on board, and the water already
half filled the gun-deck. After proceeding a few miles,
a small white cloud appeared ; on perceiving which, the
Japanese, panic-stricken, cut their ropes and fled. This
appeared strange to us, but a storm speedily justified the
fears they had manifested. Had they delayed much
longer, they would have been in great danger, and not
improbably might have shared the fate of the frigate,
which forthwith sank."
Such was the fate of the gallant frigate. Her crew
and officers, I regret to say, were subsequently caj^tured
by the Allies, and treated as prisoners of war.
The new town of Simoda was being rebuilt when we
were there. The ruins of a Japanese city are by no
means imposing ; wood, thatch, and a small modicum of
bricks, constitute the materials generally employed in a
country where a man may naturally expect to rebuild his
house more than once in a lifetime. The spick-and-span
new appearance of whole streets told its own tale ; and
the appearance of a formidable stone-faced breakwater,
erected some feet above high- water mark, and fully thirty
feet high, cutting off" the pretty vale in which the town
was situated from the waters of Simoda Bay, showed in
what direction the greatest danger was anticipated, and
whence they had sufi'ered most during the late dreadful
visitation.
Yet there was nothing in the appearance of the good
folk of Simoda to lead one to suppose they fretted much
about earthquakes, rollers from the sea, or the Yries Vol-
cano. Every one looked as happy and free from care as
APPEARANCE OF THE POPULATIOX. 393
any people could do. The men welcomed us with a good-
natured smile, and the women, young or old, seemed as
curious to look at us as we were to look at them.
Everybody appeared well to do — not a beggar was
visible ; possibly the earthquake had swept them off.
Having described jSTangasaki and its bazaar so fully, it
would be mere repetition to dwell upon the bazaar of
Simoda, further than to say that the articles here pro-
duced for sale were superior, and decidedly much cheaper.
The restrictions upon direct buying and selling were
attended with more inconvenience than at Nangasaki ;
for, having selected the articles to be purchased, they
were carried to a government office, where their value in
silver itzibus (a coin of the country, the value of the
third of a dollar) was placed in a scale, whilst we had to
pour into the opposite side of the balance an equal weight
in Mexican dollars, plus a certain percentage to meet
the expense of re-coining the foreign money. The
government officers handed over to us our purchases, and
gave the merchant credit for the number of itzibus due
to him. All this machinery is set to work merely
to prevent Europeans receiving Japanese money, and
to guard against foreign coin being circulated in the
country.
Provision has been made in the new treaty that will
rid trade of all these nonsensical restrictions. It would
be impossible for foreign merchants to trade under
such a system, by which it is more than probable that
the Japanese merchant is cheated, while he cannot
know whether it is by the European or the native
officials.
394 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
At Simodi, as at Nangasaki, every one seemed eter-
nally to be taking notes of what everybody else was
doing. Each Japanese had his breast-pockets full of
note-paper, and a convenient writing apparatus stuck in
his belt, and everything that was said, done, and even
thought, was no doubt faithfully recorded. In Japan,
men do not seem to converse with one another, except
in formal set speeches ; there is no interchange of
thought by means of the tongue, but the pen is ever
at work noting down their observations of one another.
Sometimes we saw men comparing their notes, and
grunting assent or dissent from opinions or facts re-
corded. At first we rather felt this as a system of
espionage, but we soon became accustomed to it ; and
provided every man wrote down what he really saw and
heard, it may be more satisfactory in the long-run to
have to do with a nation of Captain Cuttles, who have
" made a note " of everything, and so have more than
their memories to trust to.
The Japanese plan of putting one man in a post of
trust, and placing another as a check on him, is, after
all, only our red-tape system in a less disguised form.
The governor of Simoda has a duplicate in Yedo, who
has to take turn and turn about with him in office, so
that the acts of each whilst in authority serve as a check
on the other. Then he is accompanied, wherever he
goes, by one private and two public reporters, and the
latter forward direct to Yedo particulars of all his acts.
Their reports are in their turn checked by the counter-
statements of the governor and his private secretary.
l!»J^ow compare this with the case of the captain of
SCENEKY OF SIMODA. 395
H.M.S. , who requires a ton of coal, or a coil of
rope, of the value of perhaps twenty shillings. The
captain gives a written order for the purchase to be
made, and two merchants must certify that the price
asked is a just one, and what is the rate of exchange —
to this the governor or a consul must bear witness. The
captain next attests that the goods have been received
and carried to pubHc account, and this is countersigned
by a lieutenant, the master, and another officer, who
declare them to be fit for her Majesty's service. The
vendor appends his signature as a receipt, and this has
to be witnessed. Then a statement of what quantity of
the same stores remained in the ship when the purchase
was made, and why more were required, has to be signed
by the captain and the officer in charge of them. Lastly,
these documents are forwarded to the Commander-in-
Chief, who signs and forwards them to the Accountant-
General of the JSTavy. So to guarantee the honest ex-
penditure, on behalf of the British public, of twenty
shillings, the names of twelve witnesses are requisite,
and the papers being in triplicate, six-and-thirty signa-
tures require to be attached, and lodged in office !
Whatever may be the demerits of Simoda as a port
for shipping, no one can deny it is an exceedingly pic-
turesque spot, replete with glorious combinations of
turf-clad valley and wooded crag, sharp-cut cliff and
rocky cove, mountain and richly-cultivated plain. One
most romantic-looking corner in this picture was some-
what marred by a stiff" white flag-staff" and the American
ensign. Forgive me, oh my American cousins ! for say-
ing, that Nature is not improved by stripes of red-and-
396 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
wliite bunting sprinkled with stars. From this corner
of Simoda Bay the Consul- General of the United States
made his appearance, and most warmly we welcomed a
gentleman whose earnest endeavours and great personal
sacrifices are likely to bring about such vast changes in
the futui^e history of Japan. Mr Harris seemed a man
well fitted to be the pioneer of the energetic Eepublic of
North America. Earnest, enthusiastic, and clever, he is
gifted with that self-reliance which carries his country-
men over difficulties, whilst we more methodical slow-
coaches sit down and reason upon them until the time
for action is past. He has had great success in acquiring
for himself the friendship and confidence of the people
and officials of this jealous and exclusive empire. He
had visited, with both eyes open and a liberal spirit,
most parts of the world — and, happy man, the world had
neither hardened his heart nor blunted his power of
appreciating the good and beautiful wherever it might
exist.
It was refreshing to hear his Avarm and sincere eulo-
giums of the Japanese people, though he did not go the
length of attributing to them every transcendent virtue.
He expressed a kindly and natural anxiety for the long
course of misery and revolution that will most probably
ensue, when the introduction of European civilisation
and a different creed shall break down, and will not, at
any rate at first, supply the place of, an existing system,
w4iich, so far as the material w^ants of the people are
concerned, looks so perfect. The Consul had been
much in our colonies and dependencies, and understood
the Asiatic character well : he had been in Lucknow
THE AMEEICAN CONSUL. 397
when still independent, and had feasted with its sensual
monarch and princes ; he had shared in Otaheitian liolu-
liolus or native dances, and knew the missionaries and
missionary-e«fer5 of jSTew Zealand. His admission to
Japan with his secretary and interpreter, Mr Hewskin,
was the result of the treaty obtained by Commodore
Perry, which I have already mentioned. Having pro-
mised that an American consul should be permitted to
reside at Simoda, the Japanese did not object when a
man-of-war landed them, and sailed away ; but they
placed the Consulate on the opposite side of the bay to
that on which the town was situated, and then watched
the Americans closely.
Mr Hewskin, who was by birth a native of Holland,
had acquired a knowledge of the Japanese language; and
as many of the natives speak Dutch, good feeling was
promoted by an interchange of little acts of kindness and
consideration. Time wore at first very heavily with the
two residents, and many long months passed before the
face of a European gladdened their sight. Meantime
the Dutch duly reported at Nangasaki, and, for purposes
of their own, exaggerated the force and misrepresented
the objects of the Allies in China. The Dutch superin-
tendent, Mr Donker Curtius, thought to make great
capital out of the alarm thus created in Japan, and
obtain fresh concessions for Holland by a new treaty of
commerce, and so maintain for her that priority of posi-
tion which her exclusive monopoly for two centuries
perhaps persuaded him she had a right to. Mr Harris,
at the same time, was desirous to obtain like advantages
for America; and in the autumn of 1857, by way of
398 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
playing off one against the other, the two diplomatists
were directed to proceed to Yedo, there to make their
respective representations.
It was during this journey to Yedo that Mr Harris
saw through the motive of the Japanese in placing his
countrymen at Simoda; for such was the truly Alpine
nature of the country traversed before he reached the
Gulf of Yedo, that any attempt of the Americans to
penetrate by force into the interior must have resulted
in the destruction of those who engaged in such a pro-
ject. During the six months the American was in Yedo,
nothing could exceed the kindness and care he expe-
rienced. He lived at the Imperial charge, special dishes
were often sent him from the palace, and when from
some cause there was an alarm in the city, a strong
guard was sent to patrol the neighbourhood of his abode.
It will be remembered that we learnt at Nangasaki that
both Dutch and American commissioners had eventually
left Yedo without obtaining any formally-signed treaty.
Disappointed and worn out by his long and anxious
labours, the energetic American fell seriously ill on his
return to Simoda. This gave the Japanese an opportu-
nity of showing how desirous they were to be kind, and
to protect the stranger whom they personally liked so
much. The Emperor deputed two court physicians to
attend him, and gave them to understand that any mis-
chance that might befaU their patient would be attended
with serious consequences to themselves — an authorita-
tive hint to the faculty which was attended with the
happiest results. Had Mr Harris been an only son, and
had the two Japanese doctors stood in the relation of
EFFORTS OF THE AMERICANS. 399
papa and mamma to him, their solicitude for his recovery
could not have been greater, nor the cure more rapid,
owing to their unremitting attention and admirable
nursing.
He had quite recovered when the steam-frigate Pow-
hattan, with Flag-officer Tatnall on board, dashed into
the quiet bay, and gave the startling intelligence of the
occupation of Tientsin, and that on June 26th the proud
Court of Pekin had submitted to the allied forces of
France and England. It required no great prescience
to see that the Allies would next visit Japan, and that if
the Emperor did not with discretion and common-sense
yield to circumstances, the visit would assuredly end
in an imbroglio. The Consul, on board the Powhat-
tan, proceeded immediately to Kanagawa, the seaport of
Yedo. There he sought an interview with the Minister
of Foreign Affairs, and was invited again to the capital ;
and the information he gave must have startled the
Japanese Court.
He urged that as America had taken the initiative in
bringing Japan to enter again into communication with
other nations than Holland, and as the general terms
of a treaty had been agreed to, though not signed as yet,
it was but fair that it should be fully concluded before
the arrival of the English and French. The Japanese
allowed the justice of the claim, closed with the Ameri-
cans, and, on or about July 28, formally signed their
treaty. Mr Harris was granted an interview with the
Tai-koon, an amiable but sickly creature in the last
stage of epileptic decay. Thus was won for the United
States the honour of being the first nation to reopen
400 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
free commercial relations with Japan, after a lapse of
two centuries of Dutch monopoly.
The American Consul was most willing to afford the
British Ambassador every information and assistance,
and allowed Mr Hewskin to accompany Lord Elgin to
Yedo. Without this gentleman's services as interpreter,
his Excellency would have had to compile his treaty
in English, leaving him at the entire mercy of the
native linguists, and would have felt a want M'hich such
Chinese scholars as Mr T. Wade and Mr H. N. Lay had
ably supplied for him in China. Mr Hewskin* em-
barked in the Eurious, and so excited all on board with
his glowing accounts of Yedo, that late in the night found
us still listening, and discussing its wonders.
The Governor of Simoda tried hard to persuade the
Ambassador to embark a native officer as a cicerone.
Both parties were, however, equally determined upon
this point. Lord Elgin declined the honour of a visitor
whose presence might be inconvenient; but at day-dawn,
as we weighed anchor, it required sundry revolutions of
the steamer's paddles to prevent our being boarded by
an individual who had evidently made up his mind to
go with us, though, in making his calculations upon that
head, he had not taken into consideration the force of
the water thrown off by the wheels of the Eurious acting
upon his boat. The next man-of-war steamer he tries to
board he w^ill better understand what he is about.
' This able linguist, we regret to say, subsequently perished by
the hands of a Japanese retainer — one of the many victims to the
ill feeling engendered of late by the cupidity of European traders, and
our insolent contempt for the etiquette and prejudices of Eastern
races.
DEPARTUEE FOR YEDO. 401
It was in the early grey of the morning, on the 12 th
August 1858, that we weighed from Simoda, and steamed
out into the tide-ripples, currents, and cross sea off its
entrance. Daylight saw us going as hard as steam and
sail would carry us to the northward. Vries Volcano,
smoking and smouldering, rose out of the sea upon our
right, and away to the left stretched Mpon, high, hold,
and mountainous, with a coast-line very unlike what
was laid down in our charts. Ahead in the far distance
gleamed through the mist the headlands and points of
the beautiful gulf to which we were bound. The breeze
was fresh and fair, the sky bright, the sea blue and
beautiful. All IsTature seemed to rejoice, and to bid us
rejoice with her ; but as in the brightest day some cloud
will yet be seen, so was it with us now. The bell tolled,
the ensign drooped half-mast high, and we stood for a
few minutes uncovered whilst the funeral rite was per-
formed over the body of a young sailor before we com-
mitted it to the deep. He was our first death during an
eighteen months' cruise in India and China; and it was
strange that a funeral should occur at the moment of all
others when hope and excitement were at their highest
amongst us.
26
CHAPTEK IX.
The Japanese authorities were evidently determined, if
official obstructiveness could stop us, to leave no effort
untried to do so. Even in the open sea between Yries
Volcano and the entrance of Yedo Gulf, two guard-
boats succeeded in throwing themselves in our track. At
tirst the officer of the watch innocently believed them to
be fishermen, and, dreaming of turbot and mackerel,
edged towards the boats, favouring the Japanese man-
oeuvre. When almost under the ship's bows, up went
the little square flags, and out popped upon the deck of
each boat a two-sworded official, who, steadying himself
against the excessive motion by placing his legs wide
apart, waved frantically for the Eurious to stop. The
officer of the watch had directions to be perfectly deaf
and blind for the next five minutes. The ship gave a
sheer, and went clear of the boats by a few yards; they
might as well have requested the Volcano behind them
to cease smoking, as to yell for us to stop. Stop indeed !
— why, the old ship knew as well as we did that the
wind was fair and Yedo right ahead, and this accounts
for her incivility to Japanese guard-boats, and her
playful kick-up of the heels as she went through the
water at a nine-knot speed. The last we saw of the two
THE GULF OF YEDO. 403
officers was that one poor man performed a somersault, as
his boat dived into a sea ; and a somersault with two
swords by his side, a queer- cut hat tied on literally to
his nose, a shirt as stiff as if cut out of paper, and very
bagging trousers, must be a feat not voluntarily gone
through; while the other officer, who wisely had him-
self supported by two boatmen, continued to wave his
arms, like an insane semaphore, so long as we looked at
him. Poor fellows ! we too knew what it was to suffer
in performance of orders, and, giving them our hearty
sympathy, we left these worthies to find their way back
to their shores.
By nine o'clock we were fairly entering the limits of
the Gulf of Yedo, and the freshening gale rendered our
speed little short of ten miles an hour. It was a glorious
panorama past which we were rapidly sailing, and the
exhilarating effect of its influence upon all of us, com-
bined with a delicious climate and invigorating breeze,
was visible in the glistening eyes and cheerful looks of
the officers and men, who crowded to gaze upon the
picture that unrolled itself before us. The scenery was
neither Indian nor Chinese, and presented more of the
features of a land within the temperate, than of one
touching the torrid zone. The lower and nearer por-
tions of the shores of the Gulf resembled strongly some
of the most picturesque spots in our own dear islands ;
yet we have no gulf in Britain upon such a scale as that
of Yedo. Take the fairest j)ortion of the coast of
Devonshire, and all the shores of the Isle of Wight ;
form with their combined beauty a gulf forty-five miles
long, and varying in width from ten to thirty. In every
404 A CliUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
nook and valley, as well as along every sandy bay, place
pretty towns and villages, cut out all brick-and-plaster
villas with Corinthian porticoes, and introduce the neat-
est chalets Switzerland ever produced — strew the bright
sea with quaint vessels and picturesque boats ; and you
will have the foreground of the picture. For background,
scatter to the eastward the finest scenery our Highlands
of Scotland can afford — leave the blue and purple tints
untouched, as well as the pine-tree and mountain-ash.
Far back, fifty miles off, on the western side of the Gulf,
amidst masses of snowy clouds and streams of golden
mist, let a lofty mountain-range be seen, and at its
centre rear a magnificent cone, the beautiful Fusi-hama,
the "Matchless Mountain" of Japan; — and then, per-
haps, the reader can in some way picture to his mind's
eye the beauties of the Gulf of Yeclo, in the loveliness of
that bright day when it first gladdened our sight.
The freshening gale drove the ships, like sea-gulls,
past the noble bluffs between Capes Sagami and Kami-
saki. The latter, to which we approached within a
thousand yards, was bristling with batteries and swarm-
ing with guard-boats, of which several, with officers and
linguists on board, pushed off, and tried their best, by
signals, to induce us to stop. AYe only gave ourselves
time to note that the promising little port of Uragua
was full of native vessels, and that here shelter might
be very likely found, if the anchorage in the Gulf proved
insecure. Guided by the excellent map and chart of
Commodore Perry, we hauled in for the western shore
to avoid a dangerous shoal called by the Americans Sara-
toga Spit, and then bore away north. We sighted rapidly.
APPEOACH TO THE CAPITAL. 405
one after the other, the various points and headlands
mentioned by Perry, and recognised Treaty Point, near
which the American treaty of March 31, 185i, was
negotiated.
In the Bay of Kanagawa, an extremely pretty inden-
tation upon the west coast, just beyond Treaty Bluff, we
saw at anchor the Kussian frigate Esvold, and a despatch
gunboat. The former we knew had on board his Excel-
lency Count Pontiatine, the Eussian plenipotentiary ;
and he was doubtless busily labouring, on behalf of his
imperial master, amongst the treaty-bewildered Japanese.
The Furious was in ten fathoms water, and it seemed
quite unreasonable to haul out of the highroad to the capi-
tal and anchor at Kanagawa, because other people had
done so. With the sanction of Lord Elgin, the Eurious
and Retribution bore away for Yedo. Mr Hewskin, the
interpreter, had, whilst accompanying Mr Harris in his
last visit to Yedo, been carried on one occasion in a
small Japanese steamer from Kanagawa to the capital;
but from his observations upon that occasion, he was
led to believe that extensive mud-banks barred the
approach to the city. Yet he suggested, what we found
to have been the case, that the Japanese officers had
taken the vessel by a very shallow route expressly to
mislead the new-comers.
Rattling along amongst fleets of native boats of all
sizes round the shallows of Beacon Point, we went off
the American chart on to really unknown waters, for
the maps of Siebold and Keempfer give a very incorrect
coast-line, and merely guided us to the north-west corner
of the Gulf, as the site of Yedo. On a very clear day
406 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
from Beacon Point tlie southern suburb of Yedo, named
Sinagawa, may doubtless be visible, as well as the hills
situated within the limits of the city itself; but the
stronfj fjale before which we were blown, had caused a
haze that hid all from us, except the outline of some low
hills to the north-west. Directly we were clear of the
shoals, and that the land appeared to recede from us, we
hauled in for it, and presently we saw four square-rigged
vessels riding at anchor under the land. When they
bore X. W. by compass, we steered for them. The sound-
ings commenced to diminish steadily, but it mattered
not, for where there was water for those vessels there
must be very nearly enough for us, and at any rate the
bottom was a nice soft unctuous mud if we did happen
to stick our keel in it. Our hopes were not doomed to
be disappointed, for up out of the sea, and out of the
mist, rose one startling novelty after another. Huge
batteries, big enough to delight the Czar Nicholas —
temples — the Imperial palace — Yedo itself curving round
the Bay — all for the first time looked upon from the
decks of a foreign man-of-war ! The four square-rigged
vessels proved to be Japanese men-of-war, and when we
had brought them, as well as the batteries, thoroughly
under command of our guns, the Furious and the Retri-
bution anchored in twenty-four feet water, as well as the
little yacht Emperor, that under a press of sail and
steam had been fruitlessly trying to overtake the larger
vessels, since we entered the Gulf.
Shade of Will Adams ! at last the prayer of the ear-
nest old sailor, that his countrymen might reap wealth
and advantage from commercial relations with Japan,
JAPANESE MEN-OF-WAR. 407
was about to be fulfilled ! Two hundred and fifty-eight
years had elapsed since he and his half-wrecked ship
had lain near the very spot in which we were ; and now
his countrymen had come in earnest. They held the
empire of the East, and had won the wealth of all the
Indies ; and the arms of England, and the skill of her
Ambassador, had thrown down all the barriers set up by
China against foreign trade or intercourse. Great Britain,
in those two hundred and twenty-five years which had
intervened since her cessation of commerce with Japan,
had carefully paved the way to the point at which it was
no longer possible to tolerate the exclusiveness of an
important and wealthy empire ; and an English squad-
ron and an English Ambassador were now off the capital
of Japan, the bearers, it is true, of a message of good-
will, but yet to show, in a way not to be mistaken, that
the hour had arrived for Japan to yield to reason, or to
be prepared to suffer, as the Court of Pekin had done,
for its obstinacy. What Japan had of her own will
conceded to America, England merely demanded for her
subjects.
A strong gale blowing direct upon the shore prevented
all communication during the afternoon, and gave us
ample time to consider the four Japanese vessels which
rode at anchor close to us. Could one of them be the
Erasmus, the " talle shippe" of stout Admiral Jacques
May hay % Impossible ! but then this ship must have
been built on the model of that, or possibly on that of
the craft of eighty tons which Will Adams tells us he
had to construct during his detention in Yedo : he, poor
fellow, being neither shipbuilder nor carpenter ! To
408 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
add to tlie grotesqiieness of this ghost of a ship of
ancient days, it was painted of a lively red throughout.
"We afterwards learnt that this quaint argosy, as well
as another one painted black, which seemed to have a
strong tendency to float on her broadside, were objects
of great pride and self-complacency with some very high
Japanese authorities, as proofs to what perfection native
shii^building had arrived, though there were some who
thought that the sum of money thus wasted would have
paid for two line-of-battle ships in Europe. The other
two vessels under Japanese colours had been purchased
from the Dutch: one was a paddle-wheel steamer, the
other a screw ; both tolerably armed, and looking efficient,
and entirely manned and officered by natives.
Towards evening the breeze was still so fresh that
only one Japanese boat had left us for the shore, with a
communication from Lord Elgin to the authorities. A
cloud of government boats were seen coming up the bay,
and we learnt, as they each boarded and worried us to
death with questions, that they were the guard-boats
that ought to have boarded and reported upon us at the
many stations in the Gulf. They had had a long sail,
and had a long way to go back ; yet they were rather
inclined to laugh than to be cross at the wicked trick
we had practised upon them. Among the first to board
us was Yenoske, a linguist of inferior rank, who had some
knowledge of the English language, and had been sta-
tioned a long way down the Gulf to intercept us. He
had had nearly a thirty miles' chase after us, yet laughed
heartily after he got on board at the joke, and spoke of
our proceedings as in the highest degree original, suggest-
NATIVE REPOllTEKS. 409
ing at the same time that, in our haste, we had made a
mistake, which would of course be rectified on the mor-
row by our going back to Kanagawa ! It was our turn
to laugh now, but Yenoske still smiled, no doubt deter-
mined to think it very improbable we should remain
where we were; and so we left him to collect answers to
all the questions his report upon our ship required.
Mr Hewskin came on deck, and Yenoske's bright
eyes glittered with . delight as he recognised an old
acquaintance. The puzzled physiognomies of many
guard-boat officials brightened up as they hailed the
well-known figure of the only European that had been
seen in the city of Yedo who could speak Japanese ; and
with all of them it seemed to unravel the perplexity they
were in, as to why we came beyond Kanagawa. It was
clearly Hewskin who had brought on them this visita-
tion ! One of these mare's-nest-seekers lighted upon the
strange-shaped palanquin in which Mr Harris had been
seen in Yedo. A posse of them walked round it, measured
it, examined it, peered into it, assured themselves by argu-
ment that it was the same ; and then one old gentleman,
who must have been a fac-simile of the one who un-
ravelled the Gunpowder Plot, called Yenoske aside, and,
pointing at the mysterious chair, looked most ominous
things. Yenoske returned to us, surrounded by the re-
porters, and suggested in blandest tones that no doubt
Mr Harris was below. No ! Well, then, he was some-
where on board 1 'No, was still the reply ; but we
laughed so immoderately, and Yenoske joined so heartily,
that we feel sure every one entered in their note-books
that Mr Harris was secreted somewhere on board the
410 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
Furious ; and possibly they found some comfort in the
supposition. Yenoske left us soon after, with some
missive for the city authorities. He proved to be an
excellent little man, very civil and obliging, and, as the
medium of intercourse between the Embassy and the
English officers and the natives, showed wonderful tact
and zeal, as well as great aptitude in improving his know-
ledge of our language.
Long after it was dark, and just as all were retiring
to rest, a large boat, carrying handsome lanterns, was
reported to be approaching. To the hail of our sentry
came the ready response, " A government boat !" She
came alongside, and when the occupants were invited on
board, a person walked up, bowed and introduced him-
self in very correct English as '' Mori-hama ;" then turn-
ing to Hewskin, shook him warmly by the hand. We
remembered the name as that of the able interpreter
spoken of by Perry. On accosting him, a fear was slyly
expressed that our arrival must have put them to much
inconvenience to occasion him to be about at so late an
hour. Mori-hama acknowledged that it was so, for that
we had rushed up the bay " like the wind." He had
been despatched to Kanagawa to meet us when our entry
in the bay was signaled ; but before he got there we had
passed, and he had but just returned to be sent off upon
his present mission. Mori-hama then tlirew in some
alarming hints as to the insecurity of our present anchor-
age — the shallowness of the water — the want of supplies
— in fact, many things that should start us back again.
After this he began talking Dutch to Mr Hewskin in
a very abrupt manner. We ventured to remark, that
AN INTERPRETER. 411
now that he was dealing with Englishmen, it w^ould be
better to adhere to their language, w^hich he spoke so
fluently. "Ah! of course," said he, laughing, "and I
always desire to converse in English, but Hewskin will
speak Dutch;" — a quick reply, but more quick than
veracious. After pretending to be utterly surprised at
this sudden arrival of the Ambassador, he betrayed inci-
dentally that a much-exaggerated report of the size of
the British squadron likely to visit Japan had come up
from Nangasaki ; and he left the ship, leaving behind
him a very favourable impression of his address and
ability. We have been thus prolix in describing our
first interview with these two Japanese interpreters, in
order to show how well, in Mori-hama and Yenoske, the
Japanese Government was prepared to hold intercourse
with England, and with what advantage to themselves.
Early next day, August the 13th, we weighed and
moved to an anchorage between the Japanese men-of-
war and their own batteries, where we had just water
enough to float at low tide. This operation over, we
were able, now that the weather had moderated, to
scrutinise the town, situated at the head of a bay in
the north-west angle of the Gulf of Yedo. The bay is
formed by two low projections of land, named respec-
tively Beacon Point by the Americans, and Court Point
by ourselves, after Mr Stephen Court, my gallant and
energetic master of the Furious. It is seven miles wide,
and about as many deep, the water shoaling gradually
up to the front of the city, where a bank of sand and
shells, having only seven feet water ujDon it at high
water, extends off shore to the distance of a mile, though
412 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
there is a channel with deej)er water, fit for native
vessels, leading through this bank, and communicating
with the river Toda-gawa. Along the seaward edge of
this bank a series of formidable batteries has been con-
structed, starting from the point where the city of Yedo
proper joins the suburb of Sinagawa, upon the west side
of the bay. The original idea was a most ambitious one,
to front the entire city at the distance of a mile with a
double row of these detached fortresses, the inner line
covering Avith their fire the interstices left in the front.
Either the cash failed, or more sense came to their aid ;
at any rate, only about one-half of Yedo is thus screened
with forts. Nearly the entire circumference of the beach
in this bay is artificially embanked, as if to guard against
the action of volcanic rollers. In other places imme-
diately ujDon the sea-face of the city, these embankments,
which must have been constructed many years ago, for
they are covered with a fine green turf, and have many
noble trees growing upon them, served the double pur-
pose of a screen from the sea, and a fortification against
any enemy who might arrive by way of the ocean.
Queer enough in all conscience were some of these bat-
teries, and the most formidable thing about them was
the number of guns. Here, as we had remarked at
Nangasaki, there was, on the part of the Government,
the most wanton expenditure of cash in cannon any
Eastern people were guilty of.
The city of Yedo, and its two southern suburbs, Sina-
gawa and Omagawa, curve round the bay for nearly ten
miles ; and subsequent comparison of our remarks upon
its extent landward, with a native plan, now in the pos-
ASPECT OF THE CITY. 413
session of Mr Laurence Oliphant, Lord Elgin's private
secretary, confirmed the belief that the area of Yedo
might be considered as a square, every side of which was
seven miles long. Of course the whole of this area is
not closely built over ; indeed, in no capital that we
know of has more care been taken to preserve fine open
spaces, especially round the palaces of their emperor and
princes, and the neighbourhood of their temples and tea-
houses, both of which are the constant resort of all
classes in Yedo. Within the limits of the city are several
hills of moderate elevation, as well as gentle slopes ; in
all cases they were but thinly built upon, and extensive
gardens, with many magnificent trees, principally adorned
their sides. On a hill which rises from the heart of the
city and from a mass of densely-crowded buildings, the
imperial palace is built, surrounded with a crenellated
wall, half hidden by green banks and shady trees,
within whose limits the ruler of this kingdom is im-
mersed for life, as the sad penalty of his high position.
The houses look very neat and comfortable, and are
principally of wood, stone and brick being avoided as
much as possible, in consequence of the frequency of
earthquakes. No walls enclose the city, whose site is
admirably adapted to admit of almost unlimited increase
in extent, without interfering with drainage, supplies,
intercommunication, or ready access to the waters of the
bay, which insures to those living upon its shores clean-
liness, sea air, and an easy highway. A river, the Toda-
gawa, flows through the heart of Yedo ; we could see
one fine bridge spanning it near its mouth, and there are
two others farther up. Besides the Toda-gawa, some
414 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
smaller streams intersect tlie town and suburlDS. The
absence of all imposing edifices, and the general want of
elevation in the ground upon which the city stands,
render the view from the sea by no means imposing ;
but its extensive sea-front, the throb of life evident in
the fleets of boats and vessels passing and repassing, the
batteries and guns which frowned upon us, the hum as
of a multitude at hand that was borne to our ears when
the breeze came off the land, all impressed us w^ith the
fact that we were at anchor off one of the largest capitals
of the world.
In the afternoon four officers, deputed by the Japan-
ese Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, waited upon
Lord Elgin. Mori-hama was their master of the cere-
monies, aided by Mr Hewskin. They were received by
the officers and a guard of honour, and Mori-hama was
asked if they would object to the salute, and replied
that the Commissioners would like it very much, men-
tioning the number of guns to which they were entitled.
Our visitors would furthermore have liked us, they said,
to salute the national flag of Japan with twenty-one
guns ; but as our salute could not be returned, the sub-
ject was dropped.
The Commissioners then had their interview with
Lord Elgin, and being one in which no state secrets
were to be discussed, they were allowed to take into the
cabin their usual retinue of reporters. Each Commis-
sioner had a scribe, who upon his behalf wrote down
most minutely all that was said and done during the
interview ; then there was a government reporter, who
wrote his version of the same story; and besides this,
INTEEVIEW WITH THE COMMISSIONERS. 415
there was an individual who was all eyes and ears, to
report verbally upon both scribes and Commissioners.
After a few complimentary and commonplace prelimi-
naries, the business they had come about began. They
first wished for some particulars as to Lord Elgin, his
rank, titles, and office. They seemed to understand that
he could be the Earl of Elgin, but where v/as his Lord-
ship of Kincardine? And when their error was ex-
plained, they enjoyed the joke as much as any one.
Then they wanted to induce Lord Elgin to go back to
Kanagawa, and land there, as all the other ambassadors
had done. To this they got a firm refusal, yet each
Commissioner in succession offered some childish argu-
ments upon that head. It appeared to me that they
talked as much for the reporters as with any hope of
attaining their object. After discussing some other
minor points, the party adjourned to lunch, where, in
conversation and in manners, the Commissioners showed
themselves gentlemanly well-bred men. Mori-hama,
whose rank obliged him to be on his knees before his
superiors during the transaction of business, was now
allowed to take his place as the guest of the Ambas-
sador ; and from his experience in lunches and dinners
with Americans and Eussians, he was a very useful
fugleman to his less expert masters in handling knife,
fork, and spoon. In answer to some remark that Yedo
Bay was a remarkably fine one, one of the Commis-
sioners asserted that it was very insecure as an anchor-
age, yet could not explain under such circumstances
why the Japanese men-of-war and so many native
vessels rode at anchor in it. They bemoaned the im-
416 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
possibility, in consequence of our distance from the
shore, of getting off the supplies we so much needed,
and urged that at Kanagawa* bazaars and stores had
been established for the express purpose of supplying
the Americans and Eussians. The consolation offered
in reply was, that if the supplies reached the beach, we
could embark them ourselves ; and if they did not come
to the beach, we could always send ashore to purchase
them — ergo, Yedo suited us just as well as any other
place in Japan. They neither wished our boats to land
on the beach, nor that we should go on shore and run
about to make purchases, consequently the difficulty
about our supplies was overcome.
The Lee gunboat came in next morning, August 14th,
having escaped destruction by a perfect miracle in the
heavy gale of August 6th. Lieutenant - Commander
Graham had, like ourselves, sought shelter from the
weather by anchoring off the coast of Kiu-siu Island,
but was less fortunate in finding a spot from whence to
escape when necessary. The wind, when it veered upon
the night of the 7th, found his little craft deeply em-
bayed, and for many hours during the 8th August she
was in imminent peril. Her arrival caused some sensa-
tion, and Yenoske asked whether the number eighty-
two painted upon her bow in figures two feet long,t had
* Kanagawa, fifteen miles southward, a spot often before men-
tioned. The Americans having accepted it as the seaport of Yedo,
our constant difficulty in this land of precedents was to avoid being
thrust into it likewise.
+ It is usual in the navy to distinguish gunboats by some peculiar
colour of funnels or bulwarks, and in China ours had a distinguishing
number painted upon them.
SHOCK OF AN EARTHQUAKE. 417
anything to do with the great fleet of eighty-four British
and French vessels that a N^angasaki report (to which
we have before alluded) had led the Japanese to suppose
was likely to visit Yedo 1 The number eighty-two upon
the bows of the Lee seemed like a confirmation of the
rumour.
At ten o'clock that night the ships were rocked for a
minute or two in a very strange manner, and trembled
as if with some sudden shock. The sea was smooth at
the time, and there was nothing in the weather to ac-
count for the motion. We therefore supposed it was
occasioned by some volcanic action, as the keel of the
Furious at the time happened to be touching the mud.
Those who had experienced earthquakes on board a ship
in South America, fancied they recognised the motion.
August 15th brought off the Japanese Commissioners
to make final arrangements as to Lord Elgin's mission ;
and, after a long conference, they left, having yielded
the point that his Excellency might land in Yedo and
remain there whilst negotiations were pending ; indeed,
it appeared that they had prepared a house, and at 10
A.M. on the morrow, the Ambassador would be escorted
to the proper landing-place by persons deputed for the
purpose. It became likewise generally public that Count
Pontiatine, the Eussian Ambassador, was in Yedo, hav-
ing arrived in a native palanquin from Kanagawa, in a
very quiet manner, upon the self-same day that our
squadron anchored off the city.
The anticipated disembarkation of the Ambassador,
upon the 1 6th August, was postponed by heavy rain ;
but some of the gentlemen attached to the Embassy,
27
418 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
who, like landsmen, would fain get ashore at any price,
went boldly in spite of wind and wet. They returned
in the evening wiser and sadder men. The Japanese
boat which conveyed them from the ship took them to
the beach of the suburb of Sinagawa, where they had
to get ashore in small punts, and march up to a tea-
house kept by a lady, more fair than saintlike, and then
they were shown the proposed residence of our Ambas-
sador, which was not in the city of Yedo, and was in
every way unfitting. Mr Hewskin, who had landed
with the members of the suite, saw what an escape Lord
Elgin had had from one of those petty affronts by which
the Japanese, like the Chinese, seek to compensate them-
selves for concessions wrung from them by force or
argument. He caused the whole of the programme, so
far as the Japanese part of the landing was concerned,
to be entirely changed. A series of buildings, within
the enclosure of an imperial temple, situated in the city,
were selected for the residence of the British Embassy;
and this, though far from a very gorgeous turn-out, had
the merit of being situated in Yedo, and near a reputable
part of it. To prevent all cavil as to where his Excel-
lency was to land, a wharf, from whence the high officers
of state embarked, was selected as our point of commu-
nication likewise.
Tuesday, the 17th August, came in a glorious day to
pay honour to the entry of the first British Ambassador
to Japan since the year 1613, when the envoy of James
I. was favourably received by the then reigning emperor.
Captain Barker had arranged that, without letting the
Japanese into the secret of our proceedings, the landing
LANDING OF THE AMBASSADOR. 419
should be effected in the most solemn and imposing
manner befitting the representative of our beloved sove-
reign, and so thoroughly to foil the plan, accidentally
discovered on the previous day, of making Lord Elgin's
entry into Yedo a hole-and-corner affair, unaccompanied
by pomp and ceremony. The boats of the squadron
were prepared, manned, and armed ; the Eetribution
contributed her band ; the ships were dressed with flags,
and when all was ready, the Ambassador on board the
Lee, accompanied by a perfect flotilla of our boats, pro-
ceeded towards the batteries. The Japanese officer and
Yenoske, who had been sent off to escort his Excellency
to the shore, were much struck by all these preparations ;
they even ceased to take notes, which was a serious
sign.
The Lee threaded her way carefully towards an an-
chorage used by the native craft. Yenoske pointed out
to Commander Graham a different route between two
of the outer batteries, where the Lee would have cer-
tainly run aground, but his friendly suggestion was not
adopted. Within the line of batteries the Lee was
obliged to anchor ; the procession of boats .now formed,
the galleys of the squadron with their commanders led
in double column all the pinnaces and cutters, with the
officers of the respective ships dressed in full uniform.
Astern of these, followed one of the launches carrying
the band ; then came the barge in which was embarked
the Ambassador. Another large launch followed in the
rear of the barge, and the launches of the Furious kept
at a convenient distance upon either side, to prevent his
Excellency being crowded upon by native boats. As we
420 A CRUISE m JAPANESE WATERS.
have before said, there was real '-'Queen's weather" to
set off to the best advantage the show. The ships
dressed with bright-coloured flags, the boats with their
gay pendants and ensigns, and laden with men and
officers in gayest attire, and the boom of our ships' guns,
had attracted a vast throng of human beings, who clus-
tered in every open space whence a view of the proces-
sion was to be obtained. The boats crossed the shallow
bank, and approached the official landing-place, where
the Earl of Elgin disembarked, while the band played
" God save the Queen." As for the Japanese officials,
they looked as if lost in wonder and astonishment that
such things should be in the capital of Tai-Mpon. The
officers of the squadron remained on shore to escort the
Ambassador to his palanquin, and that done, all returned
to the ships.
We shall now give our desultory notes upon Yedo,
without reference to dates. It was essential, in the first
place, that the ships should establish, as early as pos-
sible, entire freedom of communication with the shore.
This, so far as we were concerned, was easily carried out,
but we observed that boat-loads of people, who had put
off from the shore to visit the squadron, were intercepted
and sent away by the Japanese guard-boats, which
haunted the vicinity of the ships. It was a delicate
point to interfere with the Japanese police-laws in their
own port, but we longed for an opportunity of reading
them a lesson. After dark, a small boat was seen hover-
ing round the ship; the sentry, tired of getting no
answer to his challenge, ceased to notice her, and she
gradually crept up until the officer of the watch observed
OFFICIAL IMPERTINENCES. 421
the crew hook her on to the rudder-chains of the Furi-
ous. Anxious to see to what lengths their impertinence
would carry them, they were left unmolested. Every
now and then, if a fisherman's boat approached the ship,
they stealthily went towards him, and sent the poor
fellow away from us.
At last a small boat, pulled by one man, came to the
Furious from the Lee, and the guard-boat, mistaking her
for a countryman, almost ran her down before the error
was discovered. The English sailor expressed himself
in rather strong vernacular, and the guard-boat again
coolly returned to her station under our stern, where her
capture was easily effected. There were eight persons in
her. The crew and one officer were in uniform, and
armed with swords, and there was a spy, and also a
priest. The latter was evidently there as an amateur,
and seemed more distressed than the others at the scrape
they were in. They were unceremoniously bundled out
of their boat, and had it lucidly explained to them that
shooting was the fate that they at least merited. The
spy commenced to speak a few words of Dutch, which
none of us understood : and he, with equal ill success,
wrote them down upon paper. In order that they might
repent at leisure of their misdeed, they were sent into a
corner of the quarterdeck behind the pivot-gun, to await
judgment in the morning ; and by the length of their
faces, they evidently fancied that there was little hope
left in what the morrow would bring.
The priest especially deprecated our wrath, and, pro-
ducing some cakes out of one pocket, and a sakee or
wine-cup out of the other, showed by unmistakable pan-
422 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
tomime that lie had joined the spy and officer in their
cruise afloat, for the purpose of having a jolly picnic in
their boat. The whole party were, however, with the
usual summary justice of the quarterdeck, classed to-
gether, and a grim marine mounted sentry over them;
the quantity of beard, mustache, and whisker in which
the British soldier revelled, adding still more to the
alarm of the prisoners — who, except in their most terrible
legends, had never heard of such hairy men. After
a while, just as a Japanese vessel happened to be passing
close to the ship, the spy jumped up, and with wonder-
ful volubility bawled out to his countrymen his tale of
alarm and probable suffering. Before the last words
had passed his lips came the heavy tread of the royal
marine, and as he gave him a shake, said — " Come, darn
ye ! come, none o' that ! — can't ye go to sleep instead of
bawling that fashion 1 " and then followed a mimic re-
hearsal of sudden death by bayonet.
In the morning, we were satisfied that the warning
had not been thrown away upon our Japanese friends,
who made signs that, after sundown, they would never
again attempt the vagaries of last night : they were
allowed to return to their boat. After that we were not
again troubled with guard-boats after dark, and those
that haunted the vessels during the day did it most
covertly. There was only one form of this nuisance
which it was impossible to shake off — that of a man-of-
war's boat pulling about the bay after any of ours which
were employed surveying. They in no way interfered,
except to request we would not land in that part of the
city immediately about the mouth of the river Toda-
THE " SCOUISDEEL. 423
gawa; and as we really could not insist upon our right
to sound or to take angles in their port, their wish was
not opposed.
Such a system of supervision went, however, sadly
against the grain with us, and the seamen seemed to
take a savage delight in giving the Japanese boats mer-
cilessly long pulls ; — but go from one side of the bay to
the other, leave them miles behind, dodge them round
points or batteries — and yet it was a fallacy to suppose
we had shaken off that eternal Japanese guard-boat, with
the officer of two swords, whose hat was tied on under
his chin with a bow of ribbon such as ladies might have
envied, and whose temper seemed as imperturbable as
his notes upon us and our doings seemed voluminous.
One explanation of this system of espionage we re-
ceived from an extraordinary fellow whom we knew by
the name of the " Scoundrel." He held some office in
the native dockyard, and hailed for a Japanese, and
dressed as one, but he spoke English exactly as Ameri-
can negroes do, combined with the strongest nasal twang
of the low-born Yankee. This person, the first day we
saw him, in reply to a question as to the motive the
Japanese had in thus chasing our boats about, declared
that their sole object was to prevent any rupture between
ourselves and the people living near the sea-shore.
"JS'onsense ! " we replied ; "why, the j)eople are civility
itself; and if they do crowd upon us, it is from harmless
curiosity, which we should never resent." He declared
that the people were unaccustomed to see strangers, and
had great contempt for every one but their own country-
men, and that we were not aware how savage and brutal
424 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATEES.
(such were his expressions) many of the people were.
In spite of this, the impression upon our own mind still
is, that the police-officers simply followed our boats to
prevent any communication between us and the people.
The Japanese officers having acquired their profes-
sional knowledge under Dutch instructors, whose lan-
guage was as unintelligible to us as that of Japan itself,
there was an insurmountable barrier between them and
ourselves. We consequently saw but little of each other,
yet that little raised them very much in our estimation,
and their acquaintance with the theory of their profes-
sion was highly creditable. The officer who appeared to
be at the head of their scj[uadron, and who figures now
as one of the Commissioners who concluded the treaty
of Yedo with Lord Elgin, under the title of Nunghi-
gunbarno-Kami,^' showed great knowledge of the parts
and uses of the marine steam-engine. If it was true, as
we heard, that this same " proud admiral" had actually
conducted that remarkable native-built frigate, the
Ghost, to sea, he deserved well of his country, and
merited, possibly, the title some Americans had given
him, of Lord High Admiral, a title which Mori-hama
also informed us was really his due.
* We may be wrong in the orthography, but we spell his name just
as it was pronounced, i^remising that "Kami " is a title of courtesy.
CHAPTEE X.
At the Embassy, where we hear affairs are progressing
rapidly, it is arranged that the yacht is to be delivered
over to the Japanese on the day of the signature of the
Treaty. The Lieutenant-Governor of Yedo has all the
Embassy under his especial care, and either in person, or
by deputy, never loses sight of a single Englishman in
Yedo. This pleasant office is compulsory, and he is held
responsible for the good conduct and moral behaviour of
every one of us ; if we behave well, and do not sin against
the laws of Japan, he will be rewarded on our departure
— if otherwise, on him, not on us, will fall the reprimand
and disgrace. Poor Lieutenant-Governor, we wish him
well through his trials. A horse is to be in attendance
to-morrow forenoon at the landing-place, and an officer
to conduct us to the Embassy ; we pack our portman-
teaus, and do not omit to take with us every available
dollar to invest in lacker-ware and in little dogs, which
are reported to be perfectly beautiful. The morning
proves as fine as we could desire ; we rise at daj^-dawn to
see the bay before the glare and haze of sunlight mar it.
As the silver dawn spreads over the land and water, we
see that lovely mountain, Fusi-hama, the type of the
beautiful to the whole Japanese nation. She steps like
426 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
a coy maiden from lier veil and her robes of cloud, to
gaze upon all tlie loveliness spread at her feet ; the
scene lasts but a few minutes — we would it could have
been for ever — but the bold sun leaps upon the crests
of the eastern hills, and Fusi-hama retires blushing
from his fierce gaze. The bay and beach are quickly
alive with moving beings, hundreds of fishing-boats skim
the water, pressing in with the last of the night-breeze
to secure an early market. The number of full-grown
men in each boat attests the redundancy of the popula-
tion : stout, athletic fellows they are, smooth-skinned,
bronze-coloured, and beardless, but their large muscles
and deep chests attest the perfection of their physique.
They look at us without fear or distrust, and as they
bend to their oars shout out some joke or salutation.
The morning breeze is cold and damp, the sun has not
dispelled the low thin mist creeping along the surface of
the bay from the lowlands to the north, and we are
wearing blue clothing with comfort ; yet all the boatmen
are naked, with the exception of a small blue waist-
cloth, and another strip of material tied tight over the
nose !
Why do the Japanese tie up their noses 1 we have
often asked, for one cannot but believe that there is
some good reason why a naked man should voluntarily
lash up his nose. Can a Japanese nose be a fractious
feature] or is it that noses require to be much taken
care of in Japan 1 or may it not be that there is some
security in this precaution against inhaling malaria ? We
leave the question to be decided by future visitors, and
content ourselves with the entry in our journal : Mem.
SCENES AFLOAT. 427
In Yedo it is the custom afloat to tie up the nose, and
wear but few garments.
Now, having breakfasted, we proceed to the landing-
place. It is low water, shoals of boats and great num-
bers of men are at work in the shallows. Many are
lading their boats with cockle-shells, scraped up from
the bank, to burn into excellent lime ; others are dredg-
ing for shell- fish ; some are hauling the seine. Here
our observations are interrupted by a spy-boat pulling
alongside my galley, and the officer coolly requesting by
signs a seat in our boat. We are frank with him, and
recommend him to go to the . He smiles, shoves
off, and makes a note of our brief interchange of civility.
Parties of respectable citizens, oily sleek men, of a well-
to-do appearance, are embarked for a day's pleasure on
the water ; their children are with them, and every
urchin has a fishing-line overboard. We thought of Mr
Briggs — Punch's Mr Briggs — at Eamsgate. In another
boat a lady is seated with her children ; her dress be-
tokens that she is of the better order ; her family are
laughing, and trying to cook at a brazier which stands in
the centre of the boat, whilst she sits abaft in the most
matronly manner, and points out to one of her daughters
what she deems most worthy of notice in our unworthy
selves, our boat, and boat's crew. The young lady, we
are glad to observe, without being unladylike, showed
none of that suspicious fear of the genus Man so general
in the excessively modest East ; which betokens even a
better state of social civilisation than we had been led to
expect by what we witnessed at Nangasaki. So we let
the boat drift to enjoy all this, and, as a natural conse-
428 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
quence, drift on shore close to the town. The police or
spy-boat immediately works itself into a fever, and the
officer is most anxious we should know w^here the deep
water leading to our landing-place is to be found. To
add to the fun, all the httle boys and girls of the adjoin-
ing houses turn out, and come scampering down. The
poHce-officer is in an awful state ; he urges them back,
waves his fan, expostulates with them ; but it is all
equally useless : so long as our boat remains on the mud,
so long does young Japan remain staring into her and at
us. The crowd did not, as an English mob of boys would
have done, pelt and chaff the officer, and we therefore
had reason to praise their civility. After a while we
float the boat, and proceed. The entrances to several
canals are passed ; they serve, at high tide, to facilitate
the communication between remote parts of the city and
the sea. Now, they are nothing but huge sewers.
The landing-place reached, we see the officer who is
charged with our convoy to the Embassy ; he looks hke
a man ^vho has much responsibility, and gives a great
number of orders to the crowd of barges, so that we may
land with facility. Our horses are wondrously got-up
creatures; there is something truly medieval in their
trappings, barring the straw shoes wrapped round the
hoofs, which spoils the poetry of our steeds ; otherwise
the head-stalls, bits, saddle-cloths, martingales, cruppers,
and stirrups might have been used by the Disinherited
Knight in the tilt-yard of Eront-de-Boeuf's castle. Eor
the horses we cannot say as much ; but they are good-
tempered, sturdy little steeds. And so — to horse !
The street leading from the landing-place is as Avide as
STREET SCENES IN JEDO. 429
Regent Street, and terminates about tliree- quarters of a
mile off, at the entrance of a handsome temple, whose
green terraces, dotted with seats, and cool alcoves, look
most refreshing. We turn, however, abruptly up a street
parallel to the water. It is broad and clean ; on either
hand are continuous rows of shops ; and at short inter-
vals of three hundred yards a wooden barrier runs athwart
the street, apparently constructed for purposes of police.
Shops of a trade seem to run together : here we have
eatables in any quantity ; then basket and wicker work
for all Japan ; now, earthen-ware — then, iron- ware. And
then, we exclaim, what a crowd ! They have only run
together as we pass, yet you might walk on their heads.
We used to think the Chinese stowed closely in their
houses, but these Japanese assuredly beat them in that ;
and what is far better, they do it with cleanliness, which
the former certainly do not. Everybody looks well
washed, contented, and merry — you do not meet a single
cross or sullen look. In the doorways of the houses
women abound. They have succeeded — God forgive
them ! — in making themselves as ugly as sin ; yet they
have good eyes, glossy hair, and a merry look. Generous
creatures : we find they are mostly married women, who
have sacrificed their teeth and eyebrows to insure their
poor husbands against the pangs of jealousy. The
women have evidently abundant liberty here, but it is
strange how indelicate the mass of the people are. Our
police-officer is looking out most keenly for any pictures
that might be exposed in the shops offensive to our
sense of propriety, and they disappear like magic at his
approach; still he sees not all, and we are startled by
430 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
figures and models of the vilest description, swinging
about unnoticed amongst men, women, and children,
who seemed unconscious of, or indifferent to, the shame-
less exhibition.
We do not see a beggar, and the street is admirably
clean. Some respectably-dressed Buddhist priests are
chanting a hymn, in not unmusical cadence, at the closed
door of a house — they will continue to do so until the
heart of the proprietor is softened, or his patience gone ;
then the door will open, and he will fee them civilly.
Our conductor now turns sharp down a street, at the
end of which is a sturdy-looking gate ; we are at the
portal of the enclosure within which the British Embassy
dwells. It opens, and as we proceed, a grand procession
is approaching us from the temple at the end of the
road, and we find Lord Elgin and suite are just starting
for their first visit to the Prince, who is said to direct
the foreign affairs of Japan. His Lordship having
brought with him a very gorgeous chair, which those
learned in Chinese etiquette had declared to be of the
proper dimensions and colour for a statesman of his rank,
was able to go and visit the Prince in comparative com-
fort ; but all the rest of the party, naval and diplomatic,
were packed in small wicker-work palanquins used in the
country. To people accustomed to sit on their hams
instead of chairs, travelling in such conveyances might
be simple enough ; but with our big-boned, big-jointed
countrymen, done up in cocked hats, gilded coats, and
long swords, the feat was a wonderful one, and a sight
not easily to be forgotten.
The residence of the Ambassador was a small dwelling
QUARTERS OF THE EMBASSY. 431
upon one side of the temple, with the back of the pre-
mises opening upon a pretty little garden. One large
room occupying the ground-floor, was obtained by the
simple process of removing all the screens which had
originally cut it up into any number of apartments, and
a large table brought from the ship quickly turned this
into a dining as well as general drawing-room. Imme-
diately over this apartment, another one equally large
was fitted up with beds for the Ambassador's suite. His
Lordship occupied a couple of rooms on the basement,
which formed a wing running from the dining-room into
the garden. The farther apartment served the double
purpose of a sitting-room and a hall of conference for the
Commissioners — the other was his Lordshij)'s bed and
dressing room. A verandah ran along the back of the
premises, and served as a means of communication be-
tween the different apartments.
The garden, though very circumscribed in area, and so
situated as to bound by its wall the horizon on every
side, contained within its limits two ponds, stocked with
fish and ornamented with the lotus in full flower; a
bridge, a lawn, shrubbery, kitchen, and flower-garden ;
and a mountain-side, up which a tortuous path led to
two or three fine cedars on the summit, from whence an
enterprising traveller might contemplate the roofs of two
adjoining houses, and the cupola of a Buddhist temple,
— each, to use a nautical metaphor, about a biscuit's
throw distant ! J^o one but a Japanese gardener could
have crammed all these objects together into so small
space, and still preserved anything like order and good
taste, on neither of which heads could much complaint
432 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
be made. Many of the trees were of course dwarfed,
but the skill exhibited in having everything in just pro-
portion, so as to make size and colour assist in the
deception practised upon the eye, was, it appeared to us,
most remarkable ; jet, after all, the Embassy garden
was but a very inferior specimen of the art of the Japan-
ese gardener.
The entrance-hall of the Embassy was screened off
here and there into small apartments for the domestics,
and the two extremes of the hall (for it ran along the
whole face of the house) terminated in the English
kitchen at the one end, and the Japanese police estab-
lishment at the other. To us the latter was an endless
source of interest, as much as were the wonders of the
ambassadorial cuisine to all the Japanese priests, women,
porters, and loungers with whom the courtyard in front
was generally filled during the daytime. There were
cracks in the wooden walls of the kitchen, which ren-
dered it a perfect peep-show, and there, with eyes fixed
firmly to the chinks, a curious individual, after a tough
battle for the position, would remain until, in the height
of his astonishment, he inadvertently turned round to
utter some exclamation, or communicate his information
to the bystanders ; in a moment he was borne away, and
another successful sightseer won his envied peep-hole.
The quantity of animal food consumed in the Embassy
was a great source of wonderment. Eish, rice, and vege-
tables, cooked in a thousand different ways, form the
food of the many millions inhabiting the Japanese group.
They would as soon think of eating animals so valuable
as their oxen are, as we should of consuming the flesh of
POLICE ARRANGEMENTS. 433
our carriage-horses or hunters ; a sheep was a beast un-
known to them ; pigs are a luxury, reserved for the rich
and noble j yet all these, and much more, they saw
cooked in marvellous ways, and consumed in fabulous
quantities for so thrifty a people.
The police-court established in the Embassy was to us
equally novel : through it all intercourse between the
subjects of Queen Victoria and those of the Tai-koon
was carried on, and through it the native authorities
learnt everything that was done within the ambassadorial
residence, at least all that they could understand or put
an interpretation upon. The leading functionary was a
deputy of the Lieutenant-Governor of Yedo, and he sat
in the farthest part of the apartment, from the hour of
six in the morning until all had gone to rest, receiving
reports, ordering supplies, directing the shopkeepers of
the city to bring the divers manufactures we strangers
wished to purchase — running to the entrance to receive
his superiors, and they were many, that came to look,
hear, or see ; and lastly, supervising the close inspection
by his subordinates of every article brought into the
Embassy for sale, turning everything upside down, to
see that nothing contraband got into our hands — record-
ing its nature, quality, and price in a book, and then
taking good care, that, although we paid for such pur-
chases in Mexican dollars, only their equivalent value in
Japanese itzihus reached the hands of the vendor ! That
deputy of the Lieutenant-Governor, as Yenoske would
call him (though we believe his proper title and that of
his chief should have been Police Magistrate and Super-
intendent), was a wonderful man, and still more wonder-
28
434 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATEES.
ful when we found that, besides performing his multi-
farious duties, he found time to discuss, with three or
four other persons sufficiently exalted in rank to feed at
the same table, a long series of meals, and to smoke an
unlimited number of pinches of tobacco in exceedingly
pretty metal pipes.
The examination of every article before it was exhibit-
ed to us, and the record of each purchase, was done with
a celerity and precision which spoke well for the business
habits of the clerks employed ; yet we felt for the poor
tradesmen, whose time was thus wasted, and were not
astonished to find that it almost required compulsion to
get them to the Embassy, and that they seldom brought
their best wares with them. The object of the Japauese
government in recording all our purchases, however
trifling, was rather difficult to understand — perhaps it
was the mere habit of '' wanting to know, you know !"
Yenoske the linguist's duty consisted in being the
medium of communication between the Europeans in the
Embassy and the Japanese, and it required all the tem-
per and patience which we ascribe to an angel to be able
to do this. His labours were incessant. Now there
was a message or letter for the Commissioners one
"minute, and the next a requisition for fish and vege-
tables. Now, some one wanted musquito -curtains for
his bed ; then another required four of the most valuable
dogs in Yedo, at the smallest possible price. An irri-
table Briton wished to know why they insisted upon
unpacking, examining, and recording every separate cup
and saucer of a set he had purchased, and vowed he
w^ould not submit to it ; and next, the little man, armed
THE SECRETAEY FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS. 435
with his two swords, and en grande tenue, had to escort
a party from the Embassy to visit the sights in and
around the city of Yedo. He was everywhere, and,
next to Mr Hewskin, whose duties were equally multi-
farious, though of a higher order, all who visited Yedo
are deeply indebted to Yenoske for his zeal and civility.
The Ambassador and the party that went to visit the
Secretary for Foreign Affairs returned in due time ; and
though no very ilattering impression was made by the
appearance and intelligence of that prince on those who
went in his Excellency's suite, the interview was said
to have been, on the whole, satisfactory. At any rate a
box of sweetmeats which followed each of the visitors
as a present, was unexceptionable — especially what was
called ribbon sweetmeat ; and we can assure the rising
generation of Great Britain that Bonaparte's ribs, toffey,
barley- sugar, and suchlike delicacies, fall far short of it.
We heard that Lord Elgin had been told that the
Tai-koon was very ill — indeed, too ill to grant an inter-
view ; but that his Excellency might, if he pleased, have
an audience of the heir-apparent. The serious sickness of
the Tai-koon we had heard of from INIr Harris at Simoda,
who informed us that the unfortunate Emperor was in
the last stage of epileptic disease, and in July, when he
saw him, looked far more dead than alive.* Poor Tai-
koon, few would willingly change places with him,
immured from birth until death within the limited area
* Subsequent to our visit a report reached us vid Nangasaki, that
the Tai-koon died the day we reached Yedo ; this we now know to
be a fact, but, for state reasons, it was considered advisable to conceal
the circumstance from general knowledge until a considerable period
had elapsed.
43G A CRUISE IX JAPANESE WATEKS.
of his palace garden, seeing nothing even of his own do-
minions but what his eye could range over from the
terraces of his prison ; learning nothing but through the
verbal reports of his almost equally imprisoned high
officers, or the written accounts sent in by the heads of
the various departments — one can hardly conceive a
situation more sad, or more likely to lead to those habits
of intemperance or sensuality which end in epilepsy,
idiocy, and an early grave. The high officers about
court, we were told, were likewise confined to the palace
during their tenure of office. They are able to find relief
from such imprisonment by a system of incognito trav-
elling, which, under the term niehon, is the privilege of
the upper classes in Japan. In this manner grandees,
whom strict etiquette would not have permitted to re-
ceive foreigners such as ourselves, or officially to visit
the squadron, would very likely niehon have scrutinised
ns, and walked over the difi'erent ships; but we never
heard that the Tai-koons had been known to avail them-
selves of this licence.
The reception of an ambassador, envoy, or deputation
from a foreign state, under these circumstances, must be
a great treat to any Tai-koon in possession of his facul-
ties; and we were impressed with this idea from the
account given hj a gentleman who was present at the
reception of a Dutch envoy and his suite at Yedo, and
that not very many years since. The Tai-koon desired
the strangers to take ofi" their garments of ceremony, to
stand upright, to walk about, to compliment each other,
then to dance, to jump, and to play the drunkard ! The
complaisant suite were desired to speak broken Japanese,
A RIDING-PARTY. 437
to read their own language aloud, to sketch, and, lastly,
to sing ; and a Dutch love-song seems finally to have
stayed the Tai-koon's inordinate curiosity, and saved the
Dutchmen further exertion.
Two excursion-parties were arranged for the 24th
August — one to some nursery and tea-gardens on the
eastern outskirts of Yedo, involving a very long ride ;
the other, which we were strongly recommended to join
(advice which we had reason afterwards to congratulate
ourselves on having taken), was to the south-west, to
the Temple of Tetstze, which stands about half-way
between Kanagawa and Yedo, though not, we think, on
the main road. The cortege of Europeans, on horseback,
formed within the temple enclosure, two officers of the
police establishment leading, and one bringing up the
rear. The array of both man and horse in the case of
these functionaries was the acme of Japanese dandyism
— the switch tails of the steeds they bestrode had been
even tied up in long blue bags, and produced a killing
effect ! The gates w^ere opened at the mandate of the
senior functionary, and we sallied forth.
Happy those w^ho had provided themselves with Eng-
lish saddles and bridles — we, the unwise ones, shall
assuredly bear the memory of those brass-bound demi-
peak saddles to our graves. There must be a marvellous
supply of copper and zinc in Yedo, for everything is be-
dizened with these metals in some shape or other, and
our spirited little ponies carried almost as much of it on
their backs as of English liesh and bone. The stirrups
alone must have weighed from thirty to forty pounds
the pair : they were solid masses of bronze, with a place
438 A CEUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
for the foot, formed in the shape of the wooden shoes
sometimes seen in use amongst the foreign peasantry,
and covered with most beautiful inlaid work, in white
copper or silver. The saddle, shaped like a letter Y,
was handsomely and tastefully bound with bronze along
the entire edge. Its original model may undoubtedly
have been European, but (hke that vermilion frigate) of
those days long gone by, when an ambassador's suite
would all have been cased in steel, and rendered thus
invulnerable. Mr Hewskin, more wise than the rest,
had brought his pillow out to ride upon — a precaution
we would recommend to all future tourists using Japan-
ese saddles. Our horse's head was rendered perfectly
sword and bullet proof, from the quantity of brass and
bronze about it; and, apart from the weight of these
things, there was no questioning their beauty, and the
wonderful skill and taste of the ornamental labour.
The sun was high, and the day as warm a one, we
fancy, as is usually experienced at Yedo in the summer;
yet, thanks to the bracing effects of the climate and to
the refreshing sea-breeze, we were all able to bear expo-
sure to the heat, when at Shanghai, coup-de-soleil,
cholera, or some other unpleasant concomitant, would
assuredly have overtaken most of the party. The streets
were somewhat bare, for it was the usual hour for the
afternoon siesta, and the appearance of the foreigners in
this direction had been unlooked for : there were, how-
ever, people enough moving about to prove what a line
of human beings we were passing through; and on our
return in the evening, the throng was very great. The
shops we saw were none of them of the first class — these
AN EXCURSION-PAETY. 439
are only to be found in the heart of the city, and our
road led to the suburbs. It appeared as if there were
only two classes of dwellings — those of the shop-
keeper, and the enclosures, rather than palaces, of the
nobles.
We had been told that there was an especial quarter
set apart for the dwellings of the nobles ; but their num-
bers or property exceeded the prescribed limits, for in
our ride we constantly went past a long extent of shops,
and then came suddenly upon an interval of paling or
wall which enclosed the establishment of some Japanese
baron and his many retainers or serfs. Herds of these
fellows would collect, and stare at us, and pass their
remarks, all of which we were told were made on the
erroneous supposition that we were Chinese traders,
people whom the Japanese hold in utter contempt.
These serfs or slaves are the property of the noble, much
in the same manner as in Russia, and are turned to
similar profit. It was strange to find a nobleman living
in the heart of a great city, surrounded by these retainers,
and it recalled to mind the feudal days of our own coun-
try, to which age, indeed, much that we saw in Japan
carried back our thoughts.
At a small bridge thrown over a canal or creek, which
we crossed, the suburbs commenced, the boundary being
merely conventional, for there was no change in the
number of the houses and streets. Instead of shops,
every house — and they were quite of the better order —
was a place of entertainment; tea-house and restaurant
succeeded one another in endless numbers ; and up the
streets which branched off, all seemed of this same cha-
440 A CKUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
racter. We were not long in discovering that this was
the particular quarter in which all the courtesans of
Yedo are by law obliged to reside, — not as a mark of
disgrace, or because they are considered outcasts; for,
far otherwise, the law acknowledges this course of life
as the legitimate resource of the penniless. They are
said to be the best educated and most polished women
in Japan, and some of them have obtained historical
eminence for their beauty and talents. Marriages are
constantly made from amongst them, and it is the gene-
rally received opinion amongst the Japanese men that
they make the best housekeepers, and their society is
not shunned by any one, whether ladies or gentlemen.
The social errors of Japan, and elsewhere in the South
Seas, it is, however, unadvisable to dilate upon in Eng-
lish pubhcations ; but it is unjust to measure their mor-
ality by the codes of Christian nations. Suffice it that
infidelity on the part of married women in Japan is
almost unknown ; but that polygamy, concubinage, and
prostitution are the custom of the people. Those who
have any curiosity on such a subject will find, in the
works of Kasmpfer and Siebold, much that is strange ;
but I would remark that both these writers relate de-
tails of customs which are startling to Europeans, with-
out giving the causes which have brought about such a
system : and that, deplorable as the morality of Japan
may be, they have travelled to little purpose in the far
East who know not of social conditions worse than this.
We now reached that portion of the suburb of Sina-
gawa where a ridge of hills, enclosed within a noble-
man's grounds, pressed so close to the sea that only a
ASPECT OF THE SUBUEBS. 441
single street was left -winding by the shore, and at inter-
vals upon the seaward side beautiful views of Yedo Bay
and the distant shores of the eastern side of the gulf
might be obtained. The tea-houses had turned to ac-
count the appearance of foreign ships in the bay, and
verandahs commanding views of them had been throAvn
out, in which the Japanese gentlemen, travellers, or
labourers, might rest, drink tea or sakee, and look
through huge telescopes of native manufacture fixed
upon stands. They were waited upon, not by nasty
fusty waiters, redolent of bad cigars and bear's grease,
but by brisk damsels, as modestly and quietly dressed
and as neat-handed as any Enghsh Susan I^ipper. The
road was quite as broad as any highroad at home, in
capital preservation, with on each side a pathway, sepa-
rated from it by a drain. Here and there we came upon
places where the sea at high tide touched one side of the
road ; wherever this was the case a stone wall had been
built towards the sea so as to keep the road level and
prevent inundation. We passed a nobleman's grounds
which would have done credit for their neatness and
good keeping to any park in Britain ; it was just at the
junction of the detached suburbs with those directly
connected with the city. Here was the position for a
European colony ; and all we can hope is, that when the
time comes, in January 1862, that according to treaty
the four Powers will be entitled to residence in Yedo,
this nobleman may be induced to let or sell sites for the
houses of the mercantile community.*
* I believe the site of the European settlement is as nearly as
possible in the position here indicated.
442 A CEUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
"We met travellers in uncomfortable sedan-chairs, and
they nearly all halted and sat staring at us, their knees
doubled up to the chin, and looking disagreeably hot
and dusty; and among the many pedestrians thronging
the road-side, peasants were to be seen hastening back to
their homes from market, carrying some purchase from the
great city, and it was generally remarked that few of
these good fellows were without some child's toy in
their hands. We had noticed the number of children's
toyshops, and these seemed proofs of how much love is
expended upon the younger members of the community
by these kind-hearted people. The girls as well as the
boys appear to enjoy an equal share of regard. Groups
of both sexes ran along the road-side enjoying the rare
sight of such wonderful men as we were, while their
grown-up countrymen laughed and cheered them on.
We did not begrudge them the treat, nor that of shout-
ing out that we were Chinamen ; but our gallant police
functionaries hurled words of thunder at them now and
then, and looked terrible things, which would only for
a minute awe the little monkeys into silence.
Tlie day was fine, and naturally we broke into a
canter as we came upon the first open piece of road at
the southern limit of Yedo. The senior police function-
ary was got up for a wall?:, not for galloping ! He
tried all sorts of means to stop us, but failing, dropped
astern in a dignified manner, in the society of our horse-
boys, who also duly expostulated with us upon our un-
seemly conduct, and then burst out laughing at our
ridiculous behaviour, and fell behind. For a mile, the
immediate road-side was clear of houses ; but small
A PEACH-GAEDEN. 443
farms, and here and tliere a little hamlet, were seen.
The ground was low on either side, but rose at no great
distance on the landward side into hills. The lowland
was all under rice cultivation ; and much as we had seen of
the profusion of labour, the neatness of the fields, hedges,
ditches, fences, and palings in China, it bore no compari-
son with what was now before us ; and we all hailed
with delight the pleasing fact that the process of fertilis-
ing the soil here did not poison the air, as it does every-
where there ! The road carried us to another villaQfe of
considerable extent, where functionary "'No. 2" managed
to persuade Lord Elgin that his horse required baiting,
and that we, although only an hour and a half from
lunch, required refreshment in a peach-garden. To the
peach-garden we went, though that fruit was no longer
procurable ; but the place was prettily laid out with trees,
grass, artificial lakes, bridges, and pleasant summer-houses
and verandahs. The establishment was under the man-
agement of or belonged to a lady, and as soon as " No. 2 "
functionary had swaggered about, and enlightened the
inmates as to the important positions that he and Lord
Elgin held, arrangements were made for refreshment.
There being no chairs in Japan, we threw ourselves
at full length upon the nice clean mats. Several low
tables, just high enough for people seated cross-legged on
the ground, were placed near, and then the hostess upon
her knees, commencing with the Ambassador, presented
each person with a cup of tea. She was a remarkably
good-looking ladylike woman — nothing could have been
more graceful than her manner ; and the posture of
kneeling, accompanied by a low bow to signify prostra-
444 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
tion at one's feet, is the custom of the country, where
every subordinate prostrates himself in the presence of
his superior. This loving cup having been presented,
she stood aside and directed her servants to place fruits
and other refreshments before us ; her teeth were black-
ened, and consequently she must have been a married
woman, though no husband appeared. Possibly she was
a widow ; but if so, she had decidedly reached that stage
of widowhood known as that of mitigated woe in the
mourning warehouses at home. We were undecided up
to this moment whether to ascribe our being attended
upon by the ugly handmaidens of the establishment to
the matronly prudence of our good hostess alone, or to
some villanous reasons of functionary " No. 2 : " but
there, away in the distance, we saw such pretty girls !
The poor ugly ones ! one should always feel for ugly
women, dear reader, for Heaven no doubt intended all
women, like the flowers, to be pretty or beautiful ; an
ugly woman is a mistake — but at any rate, there were
two of those unfortunates sent to attend upon the Am-
bassador and his party. In justice it must be said that
their cleanliness, neatness, and the quick wit with which
the poor girls saw exactly what each guest wanted, re-
conciled us to them amazingly ; and none enjoyed the
joke more heartily than they did, when some of the
party beseeched the prudent matron to allow the hand-
somer young ladies to wait on us ; a request she met
with a shake of the head, and a glance at that abomina-
ble fellow, " IN'o. 2" functionary, who doubtless thus
revenged himseK upon us for the gallop we had inflicted
upon him on his brass-bound demi-peak saddle.
THE DRESS OF THE WOMEN. 445
The dress of the Japanese women is simple, but grace-
ful. The robe which crosses the breast, close up to the
neck, or a little lower according to the taste of the
wearer, reaches nearly down to the ground, and has
loose sleeves, leaving the wrist free. This robe is con-
fined round the body by a shawl, which is tied behind
in a bow, the ends flowing. Everything in Japan, even
to dress, is regulated by law, and the sumptuary laws
have been very strict until lately, when contact with
Europeans appears to be bringing about a slight relaxa-
tion. The colour worn by all classes of men in their
usual dress is black, or dark blue, of varied patterns ;
but the women very properly are allowed to wear brighter
dresses, and of course avail themselves of the privilege.
Yet their taste was so good that noisy colours were
generally eschewed. Their robes were generally striped
silks of grey, blue, or black ; the shawl some beautiful
bright colour — crimson, for instance ; and their fine jet-
black hair was tastefully set off by having crimson crape,
of a very beautiful texture, thrown in among it. Of
course we speak of the outdoor dress of the women —
their full dress within doors is, we believe, far more gay.
We had just made up our minds that life in a Japan-
ese peach-garden was the thing of all others most to be
desired, and that the Eurious, Retribution, and Lee
might go back to foul and fusty China as soon as they
pleased, and that anybody might fight for tea, and do
policemen amongst the piratical Cantonese, provided we
were troubled no farther upon such points, when func-
tionary "iJ^o. 1" ambled up, and functionary "No. 2"
suggested to his Excellency that we might, if he pleased,
446 A CKUISE IN JAPANESE WATEKS.
proceed, and we had to resign ourselves to fate, and
again mount our ponies.
The law prohibited the distribution of any British
coins, and how to fee the good people around us was a
difficulty, until it was happily discovered that uniform
buttons did not come within the enactment, and that
they were much prized by the Japanese ladies. That
day the naval members of our party returned to the
Embassy wonderfully shorn of crown-and-anchor but-
tons ; and some of us hoped we had succeeded in ingra-
tiating ourselves by our presents almost as much as our
friends in the Embassy had done with their magnificent
beards and mustaches, for the effect these produced upon
the spinsters of Yedo must have been highly satisfactory
to our diplomatists.
Erom the peach-garden we rode for a mile or two
through a long village, which was a model of neatness,
with flowers and pretty plants round even the poorest
cottage. No pigs were seen feeding on the road-side, or
poultry running into the houses — both were in their
places, the former in their sties, the latter in the yards.
A ride of seven miles brought us to the borders of a
fine rapid stream, which discharges itself into Yedo Bay,
not far from Beacon Point. Our steeds were placed in
admirable ferry-boats, and ourselves accommodated in
others, and the ferrymen poled us across with long bam-
boos to a landing-place upon the opposite side. This
stream marks the boundary to which European residents
at Kanagawa may only for the present proceed in the
direction of Yedo, and a very good ride it is of more
than ten miles, through a most beautiful and rich country.
APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY. 447
It was to this river that an enterprising chaplain,
belonging to one of the ships of Commodore Perry's
American Expedition, found his way, during that gal-
lant officer's negotiations at Kanagawa. It was at that
time so contrary to all Japanese rules that a stranger
should thus enter their exclusive country, and dare to
walk where he pleased, that a special report was made
to the Commodore of the circumstance. That officer
immediately despatched a written order by a Japanese
official, for the gentleman to retrace his steps ; and as a
proof of how closely every act is reported upon in Japan,
we repeat from memory the Government record, as it
was told us : that the despatch was delivered to the
chaplain on the banks of the river, near the ferry, where
he was endeavouring to compel the natives to ferry him
over to the Yedo side of the water ; that on receiving
the letter he stopped, read it, went on a short distance,
stopped again, opened the letter, and then returned !
Beyond the landing-place referred to, we passed through
another pretty little town, and at " The Hotel of Ten
Thousand Centuries" another meal was ordered to be
ready for us on our way back from the temple. "VVe are
afraid to trust ourselves to a minute description of the
country scene through which we now rode. It was
neither monotonous nor stiff; yet the road, fields,
ditches, drains, and cottages, all looked as if they had
just been constructed, tiled, clipped, planted, or clean
swept, ready for special inspection ; — industry combined
with the greatest economy of space and material, blended
with taste and beauty.
Our precious saddle — we won't use violent language —
448 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
was enongh. to knock all appreciation of the picturesque
out of any one, and it is the best guarantee for our not
exaggerating what we saw. There were orchards of
pears and peaches, where the trees were trained over
neat trellises of bamboo, as if they had been vines —
bright patches of the taro plant spread their dark-green
broad leaves on the one hand ; and on the drier soil the
millet plant of Northern China flourished, as well as
the rich golden ears of the Indian-corn. ISTow a gentle-
man's house appeared within a neat enclosure of hedge,
as well clipped as that of a London suburban villa ; but
its stiffness of outline w^as broken by a Japanese convol-
vulus having been allowed to run over it, loaded with
many-coloured flowers. Yery fine groves of trees were
seen, and we noticed among them two sorts of pine-tree,
one which throws out its sprays like the ^Norfolk Island
pine, and the other the ordinary one peculiar to Japan.
The maple, chestnut, walnut, and oak, we likewise recog-
nised, or trees very like them, and the orange was not
rare. Bamboo was plentiful ; and finding it in a climate
which in the winter is undoubtedly severe, we could not
help hoping that it, as well as the banana tree of China,
may be naturalised on the south coast of England.
We were anything but tired of the scenes through
which we were riding, when the Temple of Tetstze came
in sight ; and we rattled through a street, followed by
a vast throng of wonder-stricken Japanese, and turned
into the portals of the Temple. A broad well-paved
court led to a building that stood upon a lofty basement.
A fine flight of granite steps led to the porch, round
which, as well as up the steps, there was a balustrade in
A BUDDHIST TEMPLE. 449
stone and bronze. The interior of this Buddhist temple
consisted mainly of a very elaborate altar, having a raised
dais in front, carefully railed round, upon which there
was the most extraordinary collection of metal castings,
mostly of white copper, we ever saw. They were no
doubt offerings to the placid stucco deity, who was
ensconced behind candlesticks, lights, and silken banners.
Everything was clean, neat, and in working order, evinc-
ing that the religion, such as it is, is active in Japan
not dormant, worn-out, effete, as in China. The priests
were well to do, decently clad, and reverent in their ap-
pearance, and were treated with respect.
The Principal saluted Lord Elgin, and paid him every
attention, offering to conduct him over the grounds and
cloisters. Time, however, pressed for the ride back to
the Embassy, and the civility was declined. On reach-
ing the porch, the scene round the grand flight of steps,
and across the court, was such a sight as only Japan
could produce upon so short a notice. Every space was
literally crammed with human beings. The corridors of
the temple, the galleries in the cloisters, the walls and
roofs which overlook the yard, were black or brown with
men, women, and children. It was a wonderful sight.
They shouted, not violently, but shouted with astonish-
ment and delight at the spectacle the half-dozen Euro-
peans afforded them. The prospect of having to fight a
way through such a sea of human beings was not cheer-
ing, but three or four policemen quietly cleared the way,
and a path opened before us to the gate. There the
policemen checkmated the crowd, who were on the point
of rushing after us into the street, by securing the gates
29
450 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
instantaneously amidst a roar of indignation from tlie
thousands who found themselves thus shut up within
the limits of the temple. Then came cries, and laughter,
and a rush ; and as we rounded another portion of the
temple enclosure, the prodigious crowd had collected for
a last gaze at us, where a broad intervening ditch, how-
ever, prevented them from incommoding the strangers.
Eeturning by the way we had come, we halted for
refreshment at " The Hotel of Ten Thousand Centuries,"
which was as decent a house as many European countries
could produce, and a vast deal cleaner and more moderate
than some we could mention in Great Britain. Func-
tionary "1^0. 2" here ate and drank himself into such a
state of supreme contempt for foreigners that he left us,
and we only caught sight of him again for a moment in
what might have been the window of his club, where,
surrounded by swells as great as himself, to whom he
was pointing out the various members of our party, he
had a bevy of Japanese houris dancing attendance upon
him.
As our cavalcade neared Yedo, it was certain that it
had been expected to return by this route, and all Kana-
gawa, Omagawa, and the inhabitants of that part of
Yedo, were there to stare. The crowd at a Lord Mayor's
show, in the old days when such glories were, can alone
brinsr before the reader the idea of such a vast mass of
o
human beings thus brought together. The pavement,
side-streets, and houses were full ; yet no insult and no
hindrance were suffered. In places where the crowd in
a side-street threatened to block the thoroughfare by
pouring into the main street, a small piece of rope or
RETURN TO YEDO. 451
string was stretched across from corner to corner, and no
one dared to break the fragile barrier. In the suburbs,
at 5 P.M., every one was bathing, and " cleanliness first,
modesty afterwards!" seemed to be their motto. In
some cases, the tubs were outside the doorways, and
the family enjoyed themselves in the open air, rubbing
themselves down in the steaming hot water, with cloths ;
others had their tubs in the room on their ground-floors,
but the front of the house was perfectly open, and the
manner in which the fair Eves stepped out of their baths,
and ran to stare at us, holding perhaps a steaming and
squalling babe before them, as a fig leaf, was a little
startling.
Night was closing in as we reached the Embassy, in
the vicinity of which the inhabitants, more accustomed
to the sight of strangers than those in the distant quar-
ters, had left the streets comparatively clear. It ap-
peared to us as if there was little traffic carried on during
the night in Yedo, and in some cases the barriers at the
ends of the streets were closed.
It was generally agreed that during the ride to the
temple of Tetstze we must have seen at least 80,000
Japanese, the majority of them men — yet no one had
noticed a crippled, deformed, or leprous person. The
writer was careful to count all those Japanese whom he
saw during that day suffering from infirmities arising
from disease — such, for instance, as loss of eyesight from
small-pox. The entire number, incredible as it may
appear, amongst so many thousands of human beings,
fell considerably short of a hundred. Pock-marks were
common, but by no means general.
452 A CRUISE IX JAPANESE WATERS.
Only two beggars were seen in this ride of full twenty-
two miles : one was a mendicant priest, too aged to
wander about, and he was seated under a tree by the
wayside, beating the discordant wooden drum used in
Buddhist temples, and mumbling over endless prayers ;
and the other beggar was a very venerable and decrepid
old woman. This was all the really do^vnright poverty
we heard of or saw in Yedo ; and we can hardly beheve
that the paupers were put out of sight during the stay of
the English.
If squalor and poverty were not to be found in Yedo,
neither was there ostentatious magnificence or extrava-
gance amongst the higher and wealthier classes. In
the audience-chamber of the Prince of Bitsu, or in the
official procession of an imperial commissioner going to
an interview with Lord Elgin, there was no gaudy dis-
play of bright- coloured silks or satins, no glitter of gold
and silver, yet there was abundance of ceremony, and
invariably a large well-dressed retinue. The Japanese
men may be said to be the Quakers of the East, so far as
the sombre colour and style of their dress went ; and the
contrast between the tawdry magnificence of Chinese
mandarins, and the simple yet orderly array of a high
Japanese functionary, was very striking.
We have already spoken of the curiosity of the people,
and of the struggle which daily took place to inspect the
mysteries of the Ambassador's kitchen. There were
many other instances of the wonder excited by the no-
velty, and (as they owned) by the superiority of the
strangers. Yenoske, the interpreter, had often to blush
at what he called the ill-manners of liis countrymen, but
CUKIOSITY OF THE NATIVES. 453
lie assured us that in three or four years' time they
would behave much better ! Poor souls ! it would in-
deed have been unreasonable to have resented their in-
quisitiveness ; and if we ever did so, they immediately
recalled us to our senses by a good-humoured laugh.
The visitors to the Embassy, being quartered at a
temple a short distance from the abode of that Argus-
eyed individual, the Deputy Lieutenant-Governor, were
especially favoured with the attentions of those ladies
and gentlemen of Yedo who wished to judge for them-
selves of English manners and customs. No doubt, the
priests, who, with their families (for priests in Japan are
allowed to marry), were living in the enclosure of the
same temple, turned to profitable account the spectacle
we afforded to their friends and neighbours. There was
no objection to gratify all reasonable curiosity, and
arrangements were made that our only apartment should
be thrown open for an audience directly after the morn-
ing ablutions were completed. An express stipulation
that a Briton taking his bath was to form no part of the
morning's entertainment, was made, in consequence of
one of our party having unconsciously, for several morn-
ings, been shown to various parties of Japanese ladies,
in -such light costume as might enable them to assure
themselves of the fact that his skin was quite as fair as
his face and hands promised.
All the wonders of our dressing-table, from stropping
a razor to putting eau-de-cologne upon a pocket-hand-
kerchief, were freely exhibited. A jolly old priest
laughed immoderately at our applying such a spirit to so
ignoble a purpose, and tried to enlighten the foreigners
454 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
as to its proper use, by tossing off any quantity that
might be poured into the palm of his hand. The ladies
were especially delighted with scented soaps and hair-
brushes, and the gentlemen looked upon boots and gilt
buttons as marvels which it was highly desirable the
Japanese nation should know how to manufacture as
soon as possible.
Our sleeping apartment was one of two which, formed
the wing of a small temple, the main body of which
rightfully belonged to some half-dozen Japanese deities,
who had retired from business, behind screens, during
our stay. In front, and behind this wing of the build-
ing, there were gardens, each about a hundred feet
square — in them the priests had spent long lives of
industry in cramping the growth of unhappy firs, and
divers other trees and plants. Directly we became the
inmates of the rooms referred to, a little shed was con-
structed in the corner of the back-garden, and here a
priest was permanently posted to watch our doings,
while at night a policeman with a bamboo rattle joined
him, and disturbed our rest with hourly tunes upon his
instrument.
We had, like the eels, just become accustomed to this
infliction, when, one night, the bleating of a goat awoke
us so often, that we sprang out of bed, wishing the
policeman's rattle down its throat, and vowing vengeance
on the beast. Stepping out into the balcony which ran
round the apartment, we saw a wdiite goat trotting over
the grass and flower-beds, bleating incessantly, whilst
the priest and policeman were addressing it in Japanese,
and the former occasionally threw up his arms, and
AN INCARNATION OF BUDDHA. 455
made reverent obeisances to the brute. We had ready
a pair of stout boots to pelt the goat with, but they fell
harmless from our hands, for we at once jumped to the
conclusion that the goat was an incarnation of Buddha,
and that to touch it would be sacrilege. Mentally
anathematising all such noisy objects of idolatrous wor-
ship, we besought the priest and policeman to persuade
their four-legged deity to remove its sacred presence to
another part of the premises. They understood us, and
with awe-struck faces, which the bright starhght enabled
us to see, proceeded to carry out our wishes. They
approached most cautiously, making all sorts of coaxing
and wheedling noises ; but directly the goat show^ed the
slightest inclination to resist, or drooped its head as if to
butt, away scuttled priest and policeman, and hid them-
selves until we cheered them on again to the fray. At
last the animal was expelled, and the priest held up his
hands, shook his head, and sighed as he returned to his
hut, as if w^hat he had done was "no canny;" and all
this so confirmed us in our supposition, that when the
brute again returned at dawn and bleated, we only
pulled the bedclothes over our head, and hoped for the
speedy religious enlightenment of the idolatrous wor-
shippers of ]^anny-goats.
All that we saw during the day still confirmed us in
our original idea, for there was the goat browsing upon
dwarfed plants w^hich were worth their weight in gold,
and the priests did not attempt to stop it, but offered it
hot boiled rice in a plate, a devout offering which the
beast indignantly rejected. A second night of the ^ame
bleatings was, however, too much for the patience of a
456 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATEES.
naval officer; and, taking the greatest care not to touch
or hurt the goat (a forbearance which cost an hour's hard
work, where five minutes would otherwise have sufficed),
we expelled it from our gardens, and sent it forth into
the general court of the temple. Had a certain old gen-
tleman in black made his appearance in that courtyard,
the astonishment and horror of the horse-boys, porters,
and policemen could not have been greater, and they
seemed quite ready to follow the example of the chil-
dren, who ran off yelling with alarm. Then, and not
until then, the truth flashed across us, that the goat was
one that had been brought from the ship, and what
appeared at first to be reverential awe, was merely ex-
treme fear and wonder at the sight of so marvellous a
quadruped !
Besides the temple of Tetstze, there were many others
equally important, and perhaps more resorted to, within
and around the city of Yedo. One very fine one stood
between the Embassy and Palace Hill, which we were
requested not to enter, for fear of exciting the intoler-
ance of its priests and frequenters. Judging by the
exterior of the buildings and the beauty of the grounds
around it, it would have well repaid a visit. We fancied
that it was from this temple that the time of all Yedo
was regulated, by the sounds of a richly-toned bell,
whose sonorous notes struck the Japanese hours so as to
be heard even as far as the anchorage of the shipping.
The temples in Japan, as in China, are used as hotels
for travellers, and also as places of refreshment for plea-
sure-seekers ; indeed, judging by the number of places
adapted for public amusement in Yedo, we should write
PLEASUEE-GAEDENS AND NUESEEIES. 457
the people down as a most holiday-making set. The
whole city was surrounded with gardens, tea-houses, and
temples, which were all resorted to by the old and young
of both sexes for recreation.
We could not afford time to visit all, but there was
the Odyee Garden — the Eichmond of Yedo — with its
" Star and Garter," where, in shady apartments near
cool streams and picturesque waterfalls, the holiday-
seeker might enjoy delicious tea or generous sakee, and
be tended by the prettiest of pretty Japanese damsels.
There were tempting walks through groves of dark-
green trees, opening upon terraces which commanded
fine views of the huge city, or of the country to the
north, rich with cultivation, and dotted with houses ; or
of the rich plain and its woods, winding amongst which
might be traced for many a mile the silvery thread of
the river Toda-gawa.
The nursery-gardens were both numerous and well
kept j they were not the result of imperial or princely
whim, but of individual enterprise ; and as such, it is
questionable whether many European countries could
produce anything equal to them. The season for flowers
was unfortunately past, and that for the seeds had not
yet arrived, so that our botanists were, we believe, not
generally fortunate ; but they all reported highly of the
care, neatness, and skill of the Yedo gardeners. All
these gardens were fitted up as places of public amuse-
ment ; and our countrymen spoke quite as much, we
must in candour admit, of the beauty of the fair daugh-
ters of Yedo, as they did of the loveliness of the camel-
lias which abound here. Some of the older and wiser
458 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
heads declared that the good looks of the Japanese
young ladies partook rather of the character which the
French denominate la heaide du diable ; yet there was
a grace, kindliness, and gentle frankness about the fair
Omitzas, Oniatzas, and Oyakoos of Yedo, which were
most winning j so much so, indeed, that more than one
was heard to declare his intention of returning to Japan
at some future day.
JSTo one of the English succeeded in visiting the inte-
rior of the grounds enclosed within what is called the
Imperial Palace, but nothing else was left unvisited that
was worth seeing. Apart from the advantage it gave
Lord Elgin to judge of everything by personal inspection,
such a practice did much good in accustoming the natives
to the appearance of strangers, and letting them form for
themselves an opinion of their English visitors.
Upon this principle two or more parties daily sallied
forth before breakfast to make purchases in the town,
and w^e procured on such occasions more interesting
specimens of Japanese industry than were ever brought
to the Embassy by the people themselves. The shops
contained all the various articles we have already de-
scribed as being so plentiful in the bazaars of I^angasaki,
with the addition of beautiful embroidery upon silk and
crape, and most tasteful ornaments in glass, such as
toilet-table bottles, and tumblers.
It was wonderful to see the thousand useful as well as
ornamental purposes to which paper was applicable in
the hands of these industrious and tasteful people ; our
papier-mache manufacturers, as well as the Continental
ones, should go to Yedo to learn what can be done with
USES OF PAPER. 459
paper. We saw it made into material so closely resem-
bling russian and morocco leather and pig-skin, that it
was very difficult to detect the difference. With the aid of
lacker- varnish and skilful painting, paper made excellent
trunks, tobacco-bags, cigar-cases, saddles, telescoj)e-cases,
the frames of microscopes; and we even saw and used
excellent waterproof coats made of simple paper, which
did keep out the rain, and were as supple as the best
Mackintosh.*
The Japanese use neither silk nor cotton handker-
chiefs, towels, or dusters ; paper in their hands serves as
an excellent substitute. It is soft, thin, tough, of a pale
yellow colour, very plentiful and very cheap. The inner
walls of many a Japanese apartment are formed of pa]3er,
being nothing more than painted screens : their windows
are covered with a fine translucent description of the
same material ; it enters largely into the manufacture of
nearly everything in a Japanese household ; and we saw
what seemed balls of twine, which were nothing but
long shreds of tough paper rolled up. If a shopkeeper
had a parcel to tie up, he would take a strip of paper,
roll it quickly between his hands, and use it for the pur-
pose, and it was quite as strong as the ordinary string
used at home. In short, without paper all Japan would
come to a dead-lock ; and, indeed, lest by the arbitrary
exercise of his authority a tyrannical husband should
stop his wife's paper, the sage Japanese mothers-in-law
invariably stipulate, in the marriage-settlement, that the
* The application of paper to all these useful purposes has received
a considerable stimulus in England within the last few years, but we
are still far behind the Japanese.
460 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
bride is to have allowed to her a certain quantity of
paper !
The shops and streets of Yedo were the scene of much
traffic, but there were here no great staples that we saw
likely to yield anything like commercial exports to
foreigners. Beyond the manufacturing industry of Yedo,
the whole population seemed to us consumers rather
than producers, and this is proved by the fact, that the
freight of goods from Nangasaki to Yedo in native craft
was eighty per cent greater than that of goods from
Yedo to Nangasaki ; showing that it is entirely an im-
port trade that Yedo holds with the rest of Japan. Coal
and copper were the only articles which gave any pro-
mise of export — the latter was especially abundant in
every form but that of coin; and although there is a
current belief amongst the Dutch that the copper-mines
of Japan are only allowed to be worked to a certain
extent, far short of what they would otherwise yield, the
abundance of the metal, in all its varied forms of pure
copper, brass, and bronze, was very striking. We saw
it as a protection upon the piles of their bridges, on the
bottoms of the native vessels, and the stems and gun-
wales of very ordinary boats ; and the number of their
brass guns was extraordinary. We saw brass or copper
coverings to the roofs of their temples and shrines : their
altars were loaded with copper, brass, and bronze cast-
ings ; and the skill with Avhich the Japanese work this
metal, so as to imitate gold in all the many articles of
taste and luxury exhibited in Yedo, called for our con-
stant admiration.
ISTecessity, no doubt, had compelled the artisan to dis-
COPPER AND ITS USES. 4G1
cover some mode of adorning lacker and porcelain with
what looked and wore quite as well as gold or silver ; for
we were told that the laws were most strictly enforced
against the use of any precious metals for any such
frivolous purposes. Still the art was a special one, and
there is much to learn, we think, on this head, from
Yedo, or rather from Miako, from which all the best
articles of taste were reputed to come. Meantime, whilst
our curiosity was not half satiated, and our love for
Japan was hourly increasing, the British Ambassador
and the Imperial Commissioners were making rapid
work with the Treaty. We sighed when told there was
no hitch which might delay our return to strong-smelling
China and its unpoetical inhabitants, and hastened off to
the ships our purchases of porcelain, embroidery, carved
work, lacker-ware, and little dogs.
Among all the excitement and hurry (for our visit to
Yedo only extended over fourteen days) we did not for-
get our ancient friend Will Adams. Through Mori-hama
we tried to ascertain if anything was recorded of the old
man amongst the Japanese. Mori-hama had been before
interrogated upon the same point, and knew nothing of
his history beyond what he had learned from us. It
had been suggested to us that there was considerable
alarm in Japan, lest, in resuming intercourse with Euro-
peans, claims should be put in by Jesuits or other reli-
gious communities for any of their ancient possessions in
the country; and that such fears, although it is to be
hoped they are perfectly without foundation, would best
explain why, for the present at least, no assistance would
be given in the direction our inquiries tended. Unsuc-
462 A CEUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
cessful, therefore, as we were then, there can be but little
doubt that in a country where the arts of writing, read-
ing, and drawing have been so long perfected, we shall,
at some future day, find some information to add to the
scanty but interesting particulars we now possess of the
English sailor who lived so long about the Court of
Yedo, and who founded the commerce of Holland and
that of Great Britain with Japan.
It may perhaps interest the reader to epitomise his
history from the point at which we left it : —
The Erasmus was laid up, probably sunk, near Yedo,
and the crew, as well as the Englishman, were, at the
end of two years (1602 or 1603), positively told that
they must be content to remain in Japan for life. The
Dutch sailors dispersed themselves over the island, and
except that they continued to receive a royal allowance
of two pounds of rice per diem, and twelve gold kobangs
a-year, equal to about c£10, we hear no more of them.
But the captain, in 1605 or 1606, received permission
to go in a native vessel to the Straits of Malacca, and he
was killed in the following year on board the Dutch
fleet, in an action with the Portuguese, before he could,
as Adams hoped, convey information to England of his
existence in Cipango,
Will Adams was refused leave to quit Yedo, but
treated with great consideration. He built ships for the
emperor. The first was of eighty tons, and pleased the
Japanese ruler so much that he was advanced to the
rank of an imperial tutor, " being,'' says "Will Adams,
" in such grace and favour, by reason I taught him some
points of geometry and the mathematics, with other
CAREER OF WILL ADAMS. 463
things, that what I said could not be contradicted. At
the which, my former enemies — the Jesuits and Portu-
gals — did greatly wonder, and entreated me to befriend
them to the emperor in their business ; and so by my
means both Spaniards and Portugals have received friend-
ship from the emperor, I recompensing their evil unto
me with good." Adams, however, did not altogether
become shipbuilder or tutor ; for after having built a
second vessel of one hundred and twenty tons burthen,
he made a cruise to sea in her prior to 1609, going as
far as Miako Bay with a Japanese crew.
In that year two circumstances occurred which held
out a prospect of release to the poor fellow from his im-
prisonment, for such it appears to have been to him,
wrapt up as he was in love for his wife and children in
England. A Spanish galleon, the San Francisco, return-
ing from Manilla to Acapulco in Mexico, and having on
board the governor of the Philippines, was cast away
upon the coast of Japan ; and of the crew, one hundred
and sixty souls perished. The remainder, including the
governor, were very kindly treated. The larger of the
two vessels built by Adams was given to them by the
Japanese emperor, with every means for proceeding upon
their voyage ; and at a favourable season, in 1610, they
did so, returning, it appears, to Manilla.
Poor Will Adams ! we can see him standing on the
shore watching the lessening sail that was carrying these
strangers back to their home — a home he was forbidden
to return to.
In that same year which saw the San Francisco
wrecked upon the one shore of Japan, there arrived
464 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
upon the opposite side two privateers from Holland in
quest of the Carrack of Portugal, which yearly ran from
Macao to Japan. They missed their prize ; so they con-
soled themselves by making arrangements for a future
trade at Firando. The Dutch commanders travelled to
the court, and there, thanks to the aid and influence of
Will Adams, permission was accorded them to come
yearly with certain commodities for trade. The disap-
pointment felt by Adams at not being allowed to return
with his friends the Dutchmen, must have been softened
by the belief that if they returned safely to Holland, his
countrymen would surely follow their footsteps, before
long, to Japan. The year 1610 came and passed, and
his heart must have been heavy, for hope of getting in-
formation to England through the Portugals he seems
justly to have had none.
In 1611 he sits down to write that remarkable letter
given by Master Purchas, bearing date 2 2d October
1611. In this letter he speaks of the kindness and
generosity of the emperor, who had given him a living
" like unto a lordship in England, with eighty or ninety
husbandmen who are as my servants and slaves;" he
describes the people his fortune had thrown him amongst
" as good of nature, courteous above measure, and vahant
in war," and adds, "I think no land better governed in
the world by civil policy." He urges his countrymen to
trade thither, and ends with the plaint nearest his poor
lone heart, that he hopes by some means or other he
shall hear of his wife and dear children. " Patiently,"
he says, " I wait the good- will and pleasure of God
Almighty, desiring all those to whom this letter may
CAREEE OF WILL ADAMS. 465
come, to use means to acquaint my good friends with it,
and so my wife and children may hear of me ; by which
means there may he hope that I may see them before
my death — the which the Lord grant, to His glory and
my great comfort. Amen."
God, it is to be hoped, gave the poor fellow some
solace and consolation ; for in the month of April of
this very year, 1611, his countrymen sailed from Eng-
land for Japan. We know nothing of how 1612 passed
with Adams, but on June 11, 1613, the good ship Clove
anchored in Firando, and Captain Saris then learned
that Adams, or Auge, as he was called, was living at
Yedo. He was immediately sent for, and on the 29th
July 1613 arrived in Firando. He had suffered long,
and we will hope that Saris and his countrymen gave
him all the comfort and the information of his home
that he so earnestly longed for. At any rate, from this
time forth he seems to have resigned himself to live and
die in Japan; for after returning to Yedo with Saris,
and assisting to secure the most liberal terms of trade
and intercourse, he appears to have entered the employ
of the Honourable East India Company as an interpreter
in the factory at Eirando, under charge of a Mr Eichard
Cookes. In the receipt of a good salary, the old sailor
served his countrymen until his death, which probably
happened in or about 1619. After his death, and after
sustaining a loss in trade for some years, the English
factory at Eirando was voluntarily abandoned.
By the 24th August all Lord Elgin's difhculties con-
nected with the final signature of the Treaty were
removed, and, as if more firmly to cement the renewal
30
466 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATEES.
of tlie old alliance between these two powerful island
empires of the East and West, the Japanese Govern-
ment consented, for the first time in the history of Japan,
to fire on that occasion a royal salute of twenty-one
guns, which we, of course, undertook to return.
The daily conferences which had taken place between
the high contracting parties had been always held in
the British Embassy, when an immense deal of bowing,
prostration, and suchlike acts of Japanese politeness,
were undergone by our indefatigable friend the Lieute-
nant-Governor and his myrmidons. The Japanese Com-
missioners usually arrived about one o'clock in the
afternoon, lunched with the Embassy, and then pro-
ceeded to business. At first they desired to introduce
to the conferences the usual following of reporters and
spies ; but a polite firmness on the part of Lord Elgin
brought them to reduce it to one secretary and their
loyal interpreter, Mori-hama. Lord Elgin, we heard,
pointed out to them, that even when thus diminished
in numbers, they were in the proportion of five to one,
and that, under such circumstances, Japanese interests
need not sufi^er — to which the Commissioners replied,
cleverly, that the appointment of so many Commis-
sioners was the highest compliment that could be paid
to the well-known ability of his Lordship, and that they
desired to w^eigh justly and fairly all his proj^ositions, so
far as their humble abilities would enable them. It is
but just to add that Lord Elgin made no secret of the
reasonable and impartial spirit with vrhich all the negoti-
ations were carried on by them ; and that he never had
a more agreeable task than that of conferring with these
THE JAPANESE COMMISSIONERS. 467
Japanese gentlemen upon measures which would be
mutually beneficial to both countries. All they sought
for was a sound reason for any privilege, and proof that
it was not likely to be injurious to Japan : in some cases
they acknowledged that such and such a demand ought
to be conceded — that there was no reason against doing
so but ancient prejudice ; and then they asked for time
to enable their rulers and people to accommodate them-
selves to the new order of things. " Give us three or
four years," they said ; " by that time we shall be ready."
This will explain those clauses in the Treaty, in which
specific periods are given for certain concessions.
The Japanese admiral, the ex or duplicate Governor
of Nangasaki, and the third senior Commissioner, Ighono-
Kami, were men of very superior ability and attainment.
The latter especially was most industrious and curious
as to all that related to England or America ; his note-
book was always in hand, recording the name of every-
thing he saw or heard of j occasionally he would sketch
articles, ascertaining their dimensions or the mode of
their manufacture j and his observations upon their de-
fects or merits were always intelhgent. He was a wit
likewise ; and when any hitch occurred, whether in the
conferences or elsewhere, he would rescue all parties
from the dilemma by saying something which resulted
in a hearty laugh. Mori-hama the linguist was a host
in himself; and from the specimen the Commissioners
afforded of the diplomatic skill of the servants of the
Tai-koon, there was no doubt that many would be found
qualified to represent Japan at our own court, or else-
where in Europe. Indeed we heard the wish expressed.
468 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
in more than one quarter, to visit Europe and tlie United
States.
On the 25th August, Lord Elgin invited all the Com-
missioners to dinner, and they came an hour before time,
bringing a Japanese conjuror to enable his Excellency to
judge of their skill in tricks of legerdemain. An im-
promptu theatre was soon formed of an apartment, one
side of which opened out upon the temple garden ;
chairs and benches were ranged on the well-kept lawn,
and the Ambassador, Commissioners, the suite, and a
large body of officers, formed the audience. The con-
juror was a gentlemanly -looking venerable man, clad in
ample silk robes. He had as an assistant a wretch who
tapped incessantly upon a small drum, and by his re-
marks, unintelligible of course to ourselves, he served to
amuse the Japanese who crowded behind us. The old
man performed many tricks of legerdemain, in a manner
that equalled anything we had ever before seen ; but
when he proceeded to show the far-famed butterfly trick,
all were fairly wonder-stricken.
Our Japanese Merlin was seated cross-legged about ten
yards from us, upon the raised platform of the floor of
the apartment ; behind him was a gold-coloured screen,
with a painting of the peak of Eusi-hama, in blue and
white upon its glittering ground. He threw up the
sleeves of his dress, and showed a piece of tissue-paper
which he held in his hand. It was about six inches
square, and by dexterous and delicate manipulation, he
formed it into a very good imitation of a butterfly, the
wings being extended, and at the most each was one
inch across. Holding the butterfly out in the palm of
THE BUTTERFLY TEICK. 469
his hand, to show what it was, he placed two candles,
which were beside him, in such a position as to allow
him to wave a fan rapidly without affecting the flame,
and then, by a gentle motion of this fan over the paper
insect, he proceeded to set it in motion. A counter-
draught of air from some quarter interfered with his
efforts, and made the butterfly truant to his will, and the
screen had to be moved a little to remedy this. He then
threw the paper butterfly up in the air, and gradually it
seemed to acquire life from the action of his fan — now
wheeling and dipping towards it, now trippiug along its
edge, then hovering over it, as we may see a butterfly do
over a flower on a fine summer's day, then in wanton-
ness wheeling away, and again returning to alight, the
wings quivering with nervous restlessness ! One could
have sworn it was a live creature. I^ow it flew off to
the light, and then the conjuror recalled it, and pre-
sently supplied a mate in the shape of another butterfly,
and together they rose and played about the old man's
fan, varying their attentions between flirting with one
another and fluttering along the edge of the fan. "We
repeatedly saw one on each side of it as he held it nearly
vertically, and gave the fan a short quick motion ; then
one butterfly would pass over to the other, both would
wheel away as if in play, and again return. A plant
with some flowers stood in a pot near at hand ; by gentle
movements of the fan the pretty little creatures were led
up to it, and then, their delight ! how they played about
the leaves, sipped the flowers, kissed each other, and
whisked off again with all the airs and graces of real
butterflies ! The audience was in ecstasies, and young
470 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
and old clapped their hands with delight. The exhibi-
tion ended, when tJie old man advanced to the front of
his stage, within arm's-length of us all, accompanied by
his magic butterflies, that even in the open air continued
to play round the magician and his fan ! As a feat of
legerdemain, it was by far the most beautiful trick we
had ever heard of, and one that must require an im-
mense amount of practice.
The Commissioners declined to send for any gladiators
to exhibit the brutal prowess which so astonished and
shocked our Transatlantic cousins ; and it appeared from
what Mori-hama let fall, that the severe strictures in the
American history of Perry's Expedition had made the
government of Yedo decide that Europeans should wit-
ness no more of them. The two facts, that the Japanese
know what foreigners have said about them, and that
they are very sensitive under criticism, are well worthy
of note, and should be kindly remembered through the
length and breadth of Christendom.
From the conjuror's theatre we went to dinner, and
the Commissioners seemed heartily to enjoy it ; using
their knives, forks, and spoons with a skill that showed
they were ready mimics. They seemed to give the pre-
ference to ham amongst the eatables, and champagne
amongst the wines, and all the pastry, sweets, and dried
fruits were heartily approved of They laughed, until
they almost cried, at the wild custom of drinking toasts
and hurraing for the benefit of the pledged person's
health. The junior Commissioners came out very strong
at this stage of the proceedings. " Her Majesty the Queen,
Avith three times three," was much to the taste of worthy
PRESENTS TO THE EMBASSY. 471
Suda-hanzabro ; and wlien, after an appropriate speech,
from his Excellency, as much was done for " His Im-
perial Majesty the Tai-koon," he was perfectly electrified,
and joined in the Hip ! hip ! hurrah ! as loudly as any
of the deep-chested Britons. When the party broke up,
the Ambassador appointed an early hour on the follow-
ing forenoon for the final transaction of business, after
which the embarkation of the Embassy was to take
place, the Commissioners accompanying Lord Elgin
afloat to receive from Captain Barker the yacht in-
tended for the Emperor.
"We must not omit to mention that, according to
Japanese custom, presents had been made to the mem-
bers of the Embassy, and the senior officers of the
squadron. Lord Elgin received a very handsome orna-
ment for a table in the shape of a brace of birds beauti-
fully cast in white metal, and divers pieces of silk. The
other members of the suite had five, and the naval com-
manders had each three, pieces of a peculiar silk made
at an imperial factory. The officers and men who had
been sent out in charge of the yacht were especially
honoured, and Lieutenant Ward received as imperial
gifts a cabinet of lacker-ware, and a porcelain dish orna-
mented with paintings in lacker which were unique.
The Commissioners were most careful to point out that
nothing we received was to be considered as intended in
any way as a return for the " magnificent present" of the
yacht — such was their expression ; that would be, they
said, duly acknowledged by his Imperial Majesty; but we
were requested to accept these trifles as proofs of esteem
for men who had come so far upon a friendly mission.
472 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
Lord Elgin wished, before leaving, to make in his
turn some presents to the many officials, who had been
so attentive, and as British diplomatists and men-of-war
are not supplied with many articles very suitable for
such a purpose, it was difficult to supply the need.
Happily our paymaster had plenty of naval blue cloth,
flannel, and blankets in store, and these articles, if not
very ornamental, were useful, and might serve to give
some idea of our common manufactures. To these were
added soap and chocolate, and some new Enfield muskets
and carbines, — the whole forming a medley which, judg-
ing by the delight of the recipients, was much approved.
The pride of those presented with arms was beyond all
bounds ; and even Mori-hama, whose mission one would
have supposed to be a peaceful one, grasped the artillery-
man's carbine and its long sword-bayonet as if military
honours were the especial object of his existence.
One could not help smiling at this childish love for
arms — and with all disposition to approve of everything
Japanese, certainly a man with his dress straw sandals
and clean shaved poll, with a long ugly musket in his
hand and a British grenadier's belt and pouch over his
shoulders, did not cut a martial or imposing figure.
This love of guns and swords is extraordinary, for, with
the exception of petty rebellion, it is now some centuries
since there was any demand upon the military spirit of
Japan ; and the people and chiefs appeared anything but
a fierce or bloodthirsty race ; yet to carry arms is the
ambition of every Japanese, and the right to wear two
swords is a stamp of gentility indicating that the person
so distinguished is above the trading class. Each of the
GENERAL PASSION FOR ARMS. 473
sixty great princes, the barons of the Japanese empire,
spends the major portion of his revenue in guns, powder,
and arms, and each of them has an enormous body of
idle serfs, who at his bidding become soldiers. Sharp
swords, and bows and arrows, constitute as yet the prin-
cipal armament of these hosts ; but every elt'ort is being
made to make and obtain muskets or rifles, and to drill
the natives in the European style. Throughout the
period of our stay in Yedo, drilling of men was con-
stantly going on under the direction of Japanese officers,
instructed by the Dutch at IN'angasaki, and we heard an
eternal target-practice with muskets in more than one of
the enclosed batteries.
We awoke early, and sighed heavily, upon the morn-
ing of the 26th August, for the day of our departure
from Japan had arrived. We have often vowed never
again to like one particular spot upon this bright earth
of ours more than another — never again to form a friend-
ship upon the shore, but to confine all our likes and
dislikes to salt water and sailors. Yet, somehow or
other, we are ever departing from such resolutions, and
what we felt at leaving Japan, it has been our lot to
experience on saying good-bye (often for ever) to many
pleasant places, and many kind friends, in regions some-
times as remote, and almost as little visited, as Japan.
Our parting tenderness extended even to the gold-fish,
that last morning as we plunged in amongst them, in the
mimic pond close to our sleeping apartments ; and we
could not find in our heart to growl at the poor priest
who came down to take notes of the English method of
using soap and towel.
474 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
Our seamen had come up to the Emhassy to assist in
forwarding down the luggage to the boats. Jack was
mightily amused with Johnny, as he called the Japanese,
and the feeling was mutual, judging from the hearty
laughter of the porters, priests, and policemen at the pan-
tomime by which our men strove to make their wants
understood. On one occasion, turning a corner rather
abruptly, we found a jolly foretopman explaining by
signs that he wanted something to pour down his throat
that would make him dance, whereupon he cut a double
shuffle, and reeled about the yard. Johnny perfectly
understood, and repeated the performance. Jack's broad
face beamed with delight. " Yes, that's it, grog ! Come,
bear a hand, my fine fellow," he exclaimed ; and in anti-
cipation of his want being quickly supplied, he expressed
in strongest vernacular his high approval of the Johnnies
in general. Happily for the Johnnies, we arrived in
time to stay further proceedings ; and sending for
Yenoske the interpreter, we made him explain that Jack
upon water, or Jack upon tea, was as harmless as a
baby ; but that Jack in a state of grog was simply an
infuriated Briton — an animal likely to mar the domestic
happiness of all within the temple enclosure, and very
certain to break the peace. "Ah," said Yenoske — "ah!
all the same as drunken Dutch sailor." Worse, we
asserted, than fifty Dutchmen. " All the same one
tiger !" suggested Yenoske, looking very serious. We
told him that tigers the worse for Hquor could not be
more troublesome. Whereupon Yenoske explained to
his countrymen the effects of grog upon our men in such
strong terms, that neither for love nor money could they
PREPAEATIONS FOK DEPARTURE. 475
get anything stronger than tea, and we were happy, if
Jack was not.
From daybreak, stout-limbed porters, with a mere
modicum of clothing, and a few of them very handsomely
tattooed, were employed staggering along under cases of
curiosities and manufactures, which had left many a
purse perfectly empty ; and neat-looking cages, contain-
ing each one or more little dogs, might be seen going
seaward under especial convoy. Of these, the sweetest
pets — though the first -lieutenant did not think so —
that ever graced a drawing-room or played at a lady's
feet, no less than thirteen eventually mustered on board
the Furious, the property of the " Ambassadors," as our
men would insist upon styling the whole of Lord Elgin's
suite. These small Japanese spaniels are said to be of
the King Charles breed, now so rare in England, and the
fresh importation of stock ought to be a source of no
small delight to those fair spinsters w^ho delight in pretty
pets and little dogs. Then of course some of us had to
hurry away down an adjoining street to make a pur-
chase, forgotten until the last moment, when the guide
was detected instructing the shopman to ask thrice the
proper price.
Our last dollar spent, we felt we could then do no
more to prove our regard for Japan, and said a kind
good-bye to all our acquaintances in the tem23le, present-
ing the w^orthy dignitary who was at its head with our
last drop of eau-de-cologne, which he drank to our happy
meeting at some future day. The native police attached
to the Embassy looked triste at our departure ; doubtless
they had good cause, for we opine that they had enjoyed
476 A CKUISE IN J^^JPANESE WATERS.
many an extra feed of fish and rice, many a grateful
pipe of fragrant tobacco, pleasant snoozes in shady
corners, and many jolly evenings over bottles of good
sakee, since they assumed the high office of watching
the strangers who had so unceremoniously thrust them-
selves into the good city of Yedo. To be sure, their
responsibility was great ; for had the Ambassador and
his followers insisted upon latch-keys, and taken to
wringing off knockers, larking about the streets, or dis-
turbing the peace in any way, these unfortunates, in-
cluding even the Lieutenant-Governor and Yenoske,
would have been soundly bambooed until we behaved
better. Fortunately for our guardians, who were to be
rewarded in proportion to our virtues, we were flatter-
ingly assured through Yenoske that the British Embassy
far surpassed Russians, Dutch, and Americans. We fear
that in Japan they have learned to flatter !
After breakfast, horses were brought for those who
wished to be early on board, and as we passed through
the temple gate, an imperial procession, bearing a royal
feast to Lord Elgin, was met. Never was a more solemn
affair ; every man in it looked as if the business of carry-
ing royal dishes was a serious matter. Officers and men
were clad much alike, in light silks or cottons, of a
black-and-white striped pattern, and the royal servants
all had a particular crest upon each arm, and on the front
and back of their dress. It was almost a fac-simile of
the Irish shamrock or trefoil. We had before remarked
that the retainers of the different princes or chiefs bore
the particular crest or arms of their master, so that
heraldry is evidently a Japanese institution. All the
AN IMPERIAL FEAST. 477
viands were carefully boxed up in large black lacker -
ware cases, and were sent cooked from the royal kitchen.
Those that partook of the feast described the dishes as
being very palatable. As in China, nearly everything
was stewed, and served up in small fragments, requiring
only chop-stick and spoon, and very little exercise of the
teeth. Fish and vegetables formed the basis of all the
numerous entrees, and it would be quite worth Miss
Acton's while to visit Yedo to learn how many changes
may be rung with a stew-pan upon those two articles
alone. Instead of sitting at the table to feed, the royal
attendants made our stiff-jointed countrymen squat upon
mats according to the custom of the country, an excep-
tion being made in favour of the Ambassador. Japanned
tables, each about the size of our ordinary tea-trays,
standing on legs nine inches high, were placed between
every two Englishmen, these tables being loaded with
smoking-hot dishes, one of which was always delicious
rice. Everything was served upon lacker-ware, — dishes,
plates, tumblers, and spoons, being all of that material,
either red or black, with a slight ornamental work in
imitation gold or silver. The attendance was perfect,
and so was the extreme cleanliness with which every-
thing was served.
Meantime we went to the imperial dockyard to em-
bark, under the imposing escort of a couj^le of mounted
othcers, and preceded by two policemen dressed in their
official costume, with quite as many colours in it as
Joseph's could have had. The official in charge of the
yard was the Japanese whom we have before mentioned
as speaking English with a strong American negro accent.
478 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATEES.
The scoundrel asserted that he learnt English in a college
in Yedo, from native instructors educated at Nangasaki.
We asked Mori-hama about him one day when the Im-
perial Commissioners were present, and he repeated to
them what we had been told. They laughed, and con-
tradicted the statement, adding that our friend had learnt
English in California ! He had doubtless been one of
those many Japanese seamen who have in former days
been blown to sea in a native coaster, picked up by some
American whaler, carried to California, and there had
dwelt until the opening of his country to European in-
tercourse enabled him to return, through American inter-
cession, without forfeiting his life, according to the old
laws of Japan. When we therefore met the worthy, we
hinted that his fiction of an American or English college
in Yedo would not do, for that we knew, from pretty
good authority, that he had acquired his knowledge of
English in the United States. Totally unabashed, how-
ever, he vowed he had never been out of Japan ; and it
was evident that, as yet, it was not fashionable, or comms
il faut, in Japanese societ}'', to own that one had been
beyond its limits, vagabondising about the great world.
He had learnt a very great deal, with a large propor-
tion of evil, and truth was not in the unfortunate man.
He had a knowledge of sailoring and carpentering, but
boasted that he was well versed in navigation and astro-
nomy. A sextant happened to be at hand, and he was
asked if he could observe the altitude of the heavenly
bodies with it. "Oh, yes ! he could even take a lunar !"
He was asked to measure a very simple angle. It must
be ow^ned that his assurance was wonderful, for he took
A TEAVELLED JAPANESE. 479
up the instrument and proceeded to work -witli it upside
down ! " You are out of practice, my friend," said we.
" Yes/' was the rejoinder ; "I hab'n done him for so
long, that I forget how to^^; him." Although he could
not " fix" a sextant, he was up in some ordinary practi-
cal seamanship, and could build a boat upon European
principles. He pointed to several very nice decked
boats, schooner-rigged, which were in the bay, and said
they had been constructed under his supervision, and
that he had taught the crews to work them ; and that,
it was evident, they did very cleverly. To us it seemed
melancholy that the only Japanese we had met whom it
was impossible to like, should have been one who, more
than any of his countrymen, had lived amongst Chris-
tians. Intercourse with foreigners, as in the case of
many Asiatics it has been our fortune to meet, seemed
to have destroyed the national characteristics, without
substituting anything good in their place. The influence
such men must have in prejudicing an inquisitive gov-
ernment like that of Yedo for or against European or
American intercourse, must naturally be very great ; and
it was unfortunate that they should have so indifferent
a specimen of the results of allowing Japanese to leave
their own country.
The 26th August being the birthday of his Eoyal
Highness the Prince-Consort, we, as loyal subjects, had
not omitted to dress our ships with flags to do honour to
the occasion ; and the roar of our salutes at noon pealed
through Yedo just as the Commissioners and Ambassa-
dor were afiixing their signatures to the Treaty. Great
was the excitement occasioned amongst the population
480 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
by the ships being so figged out, the salutes, and the
fact that the Ambassador was going to embark officially,
accompanied by the Commissioners, to hand over to
them the beautiful yacht Emperor ; and the city and
bay became alive with Japanese, anxious to view and
share in the gaiety. The day was bright and beautiful
— Queen's weather again — and it was indeed a general
holiday. IS'ative craft, filled with pleasure-seekers, dotted
the sparkling waters of the beautiful bay ; all the govern-
ment boats were out, their stern-sheets loaded with well-
dressed personages, who, we had been told, were pro-
bably high officers, enjoying the privilege of seeing us
" niehon,^^ or incognito.
The officers belonging to one of the Japanese men-of-
war visited us in a body, and soon spread themselves
over the entire ship, inspecting and making notes of
everything with praiseworthy industry. One was soon
aloft on the yards and masts, examining the fittings,
measuring the size of ropes and blocks. Going into a
cabin in which hung the portraits of those two naval
worthies. Admiral Sir John Franklin and vSir John Bar-
row, we found a group of Japanese formed round them.
No sooner was it explained through Yenoske who they
were, than a native officer made careful notes of their
names, and then cleverly sketched in his book an outline
of their features. "Winterhalter's large portrait of her
Majesty they were in ecstasies with; and seeing us take
off our caps on turning towards it, the good fellows
immediately made likewise their respectful obeisance to
the likeness of our sovereign. They asked a host of
intelligent questions about her dominions, fleets, and
INTELLIGENCE OF OFFICIALS. 481
armies. It was evident that tlie higher officials were
pretty well posted up in the general state of Europe.
For instance, to one group w^e showed a portrait of that
much-loved admiral, Lord Lyons, and spoke of Sebasto-
pol. The Japanese immediately said, "That was a great
city you took from Russia;" and subsequently they
asked if we had been at the taking of Canton. But
invariably, when speaking of affairs out of Japan, they
looked nervous, and, beyond a j)assing remark, flew off
from the subject as if it were interdicted. Even Mr
Hewskin, who spoke Dutch, a language very generally
known amongst the officials, could never get them to
converse at their ease upon such topics.
There was in the numerous boats around the ships a
fair sprinkling of women or ladies, as well as many child-
ren. They all seemed of a highly respectable class, and
none of the graceful nymphs of the tea or peach gardens
came afloat to increase the damage they had already done
to the hearts of our susceptible blue-jackets. We believe
this was in consequence of an injunction of the police,
under orders from some higher quarter: possibly the
Commissioners thought that, amongst other foreign fan-
cies, it might enter the heads of tlie English to carry
off specimens of the pretty little pets in the tea-gardens,
insisting upon our right to purchase them under the
head of " unenumerated articles" in the new tariff. Any-
how, black teeth prevailed upon this occasion amongst
the ladies, who in other respects were a charming addi-
tion to the scene of animation and pleasure.
About three o'clock the barge of H.M.S. Eurious,
bearing the British Ambassador and suite, was seen
31
482 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
leaving the shore, and at the same time a native boat
with the Commissioners, in full costume, proceeded to-
wards the yacht. The dress of these latter gentlemen
was more than ordinarily handsome, especially that of
the Lord High Admiral. Captain Barker, the senior
naval officer, as the deputy of the naval Commander-in-
Chief, received the Commissioners and the Earl of Elgin
on board the yacht, and in a short speech expressed his
sense of the honour conferred upon himself in being
deputed to hand over to the Commissioners this token
of goodwill and friendship : the Commissioners replied
in equally warm terms, and then the English ensigns
were hauled down from the Emperor's mastheads and
ensign staff, and the Japanese colours were substituted.
This act being formally carried out, the Japanese forts
fronting the city saluted with a royal salute of twenty-
one guns ; and uncommonly well they did it too. We
returned it, and assuredly all will join in the prayer that
the friendship thus saluted may be lasting between us,
and beneficial to the good people of Japan. 'Not the
least interesting part of this day's doings was the mov-
ing and working of the Emperor yacht, directly she
became Japanese, under the management of a native
captain, engineer, and crew. Her machinery was of the
most recent construction — horizontal cylinders, trunk
engines, and other peculiarities ; yet they mastered all
these, under the English officers, after a week's instruc-
tion; having, of course, previously understood an ordin-
ary old-fashioned engine. Passing round the squadron
under steam, she disembarked all her English visitors,
and we had the pleasure of seeing the yacht proceed
FINAL PRESENTS. ■ 483
towards the city, to land the Imperial Commis-
sioners.
At first the Japanese suggested that they should call
the yacht the London, out of compliment to our capital,
which alone they believed, could compare with their
own ; but for some reason or other they eventually
named her the Dragon, and, as such, H.I.M.Y. Dragon
will doubtless be of great use as a pleasure-boat to all
but the imprisoned monarch for whom it was intended.
A few weeks after our visit, when the ambassador of
France, Baron Gros, made his appearance in the Bay of
Yedo, he found the Dragon steaming about, and we
heard that his excellency made more than one trip in
her, under the safe charge of a Japanese captain and
engineers.
It was late before all our farewells to our Yedo friends
were over ; their final act was to bring off" some five-and-
twenty robes of honour as presents from the Emperor to
Lord Elgin. They were wonderful articles, of the rich-
est silk, stamped or dyed with the loudest patterns —
sunflowers and pumpkins prevailing. In cut and shape
the robes resembled dressing-gowns, though much larger,
and they were quilted with raw silk to a thickness of at
least four inches! The Councillors of State, seated
round the Tai-koon in such robes at an official levee,
must be as gorgeous a sight as a tulip-bed. As the
officers deputed to present these dresses on board the
Eurious begged to be allowed to arrange the royal pre-
sents according to their custom, the quarterdeck soon
presented an appearance which would have tried the
nerves of the oldest and most experienced officer in the
484 A CRUISE IN JAPANESE WATERS.
British navy, so much more did it resemble Swan and
Edgar's than any place under a pendant.
Two hours before daybreak on the 27th August we
weighed and proceeded to sea, not without a hope and
prayer that in our wanderings we might yet one day re-
visit Yedo. Our stay there had been a bright oasis in
the sameness of our existence in China, and we hailed
with joy, on behalf of our professional brethren employed
in protecting commerce in the far East, the prospect of
an occasional visit to the interesting and healthy islands
of Japan. The Peak of Eusi-hama shone far above the
ranges of mountains in the interior a short half-hour,
and we bid "the peerless one" a long farewell.
Calm and majestic as Eusi-hama looks from the sea,
the "matchless one" was born of volcanic action. If
Japanese history tells true, the birth of the young lady
— for she is a mere infant in age amongst mountains —
was attended with a fearful convulsion of the whole
island of Nipon; and in the self-same night, in the 285
B.C., that the great cone of Eusi-hami rose from the
plain, not far from it was formed the great lake of Mitsu
— as if the crust of the earth had sunk down in one
spot, and bubbled up in another. Eusi-hama was an
active volcano for many centuries. The last great erup-
tion occurred on the 23d day of the 11th moon, 1707,
when, with two violent shocks of earthquake, the crest
of the mountain opened, vomited flames, and hurled
cinders for many leagues ; and on the 25th and 26th,
huge masses of rock and hot sand were projected over
the adjoining country ; and even in Yedo, fifty miles
distant, ashes fell to a thickness of several inches.
FAKEWELL TO JAPAN. 485
Fusi-hama has, it is to be hoped, grown less dangerous
as she has grown older, for we were told that no volcanic
fire existed now in the crater. But hot springs are nu-
merous, and earthquakes, alas ! sadly destructive in the
island of Mpon, and there seems reason to fear that the
volcanic fires merely slumber, and are by no means
extinct.
Our pleasant task draws to a close ; we will not take
our reader out into another gale of wind, in a paddle-wheel
frigate ; one such trial ought to be quite enough for any
one. It blew so hard, and the wind was so villanously
fair, that we could not even muster the shadow of an
excuse for not pushing ahead for China, and, 77ial grSj
don gre, were forced down the east coast of the Japanese
group at the exciting rate of eleven miles an hour, leav-
ing all the wonders of the Suwonada Sea, its labyrinth
of islands and commerce-laden waters, for some future
day. We grieved to think of leaving Hiogo, the new
port within Kino Straits, unvisited, as well as Ozaka
and Miako, of which huge cities it is the seaport and
outlet. We feel sure the reader will sympathise with
us as, turning from Japan, we looked forward to the
precious tossing about that was in store for us at sea,
with high-flavoured Shanghai at the end of our voyage !
THE FIGHT ON THE PEIHO
IN 1859
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN BLACKWOOD S MAGAZINE
THE FIGHT ON THE PEIHO
IX 1859
The satisfactory intelligence which the British pubHc
had for a long time been receiving from China sustained
a sudden and alarming check in the autumn of 1859.
From the hard-fout^ht action of Fatshan and assault of
Canton in 1857 to the first capture of the Taku forts,
and subsequent dictation of a treaty in 1858 at Tient-
sin, all had gone in favour of the arms of England ; and
the skill of her Ambassador, Lord Elgin, had again placed
our interests in the farther East upon a promising basis
for the future. There was some hope at least, men said,
of a cessation of those expensive Chinese wars which
once threatened to become chronic. Her Majesty's
Ministers hailed the Treaty of Tientsin as a godsend,
proclaimed it by sound of trump, dashed it scornfully in
the teeth of troublesome members of Parliament who
complained of the cost of Chinese triumphs, and crowned
their triumph by pointing to the treaty with the Tycoon
of Japan as a work of pure supererogation which must
cover all future shortcomings.
490 THE FIGHT ON THE PEIHO.
Downing Street triumpTiant, and "with, its tail up, is
by no means rational. Downing Street forgot to read
all Lord Elgin's despatches, or to study the difficulties
already surrounding his brother at Shanghai. Downing
Street did not remember that their treaty was a mere "I
promise to pay" of an Eastern potentate, who would
surely evade his engagements directly the sword which
had made him sign that treaty was withdrawn ; and as
Downing Street did not appreciate this fact, our Ad-
miralty and Horse- Guards were instructed to largely
reduce the forces in China, and to consider our pacific
relations with Pekin as an affair fini. The ratification
of the treaty in 1859, as stipulated in 1858, was con-
sidered a mere bagatelle.
Self-congratulation was at its height in England when
a crushing telegram arrived with the news of the hostile
reception of our Envoy, and that our naval forces in
China had experienced a bloody and disastrous repulse
at Taku !
When, through the negligence or want of forethought of
a public department, some sad disaster falls upon us, there
is no safer canon to avert censure than to adroitly and
quietly impute the blame to others — if soldiers or sailors,
so much the better — and thus forestall public indigna-
tion. This course was at once cleverly adopted, and
for a while men were led to suppose that the fight on the
Peiho had been brought about by some blunder of our
naval officers. Prigs in office, who knew neither of the
locality nor the circumstances under which the action
had been fought, talked of some mistake that would not
have happened had they been present, and wagged their
OFFICIAL INJUSTICE. 491
heads as they muttered, in vague terms, their objection
to attacks in front, as if a flank attack had been pos-
sible.
All this irritation at defeat was but natural and Eng-
lish ; its practical application by Downing Street to
screen it from just censure was according to rule ; but
what really touched the heart of a profession whose re-
presentatives had fallen nobly, and been ably led by a
gallant Admiral in a severe sea-fight, was the silence of
the Admiralty as represented in either House of Parlia-
ment. It might have been politic, but it was very
scurvy treatment, to let the blame rest even for a day
on innocent men, in order that ministerial delinquents
might not be taken to task ; and it is such a policy,
such a wretched system, in which justice to a profession
is ever being sacrificed to first one party and then an-
other, that we feel convinced has rendered the Admiralty
of Great Britain the most unpopular department of the
State.
In the case before us a tardy amende was conceded to
the survivors of the fight ; but that appreciation of the
noble bearing, under terrible circumstances, of our sailors,
came, in the first place, we are proud to say, from the
columns of ' Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine ; ' and
when the tale of so much heroism, though unsuccessfully
displayed, came to be repeated with pride throughout
this earnest land, then it was, and not till then, that
lame justice was done by poor narrow-minded official-
dom.
We shall now proceed to narrate the circumstances
of this desperate action, one which we hold the Brit-
492 THE FIGHT ON THE PEIHO.
isli navy has more reason to be proud of than many a
victory.
On September 15th, 1858, our Foreign Office re-
ceived a despatch from Lord Elgin dated July 12th,
1858, enclosing the Treaty of Tientsin, not only signed
by the Imperial Commissioners, but every stipulation
therein contained assented to by an Imperial decree.*
The Ambassador of England, in placing this valuable
Treaty before the Minister of his august Sovereign,
was singularly frank in explaining to him the humilia-
tion to which he had subjected the Court of Pekin,
and that fear rather than reason had brought about
the submission of the Emperor Hien-fung. In Lord
Elgin's own words, the concessions amounted "to a
revolution, and involve the surrender of some of the
most cherished principles of the traditional policy of the
Empire. They have been extorted, therefore, from its
fears^
Thus, in September 1858, the Ministry and Admiralty
knew, if no one else did, that this Treaty was wrung
from the Chinese, and that on or before June 26th, 1859,
the copy of that Treaty, ratified by the Sovereign of
Britain, was to be exchanged at Pekin.
Both these departments must have known that, as
the English Treaty contained two important clauses,t
which all the other Powers represented at Tientsin had
* See Blue-Book, papers on China in 1859, p. 360, Despatch No.
186.
\ ''Art. III. The permanent residence of a British Ambassador,
with family and suite, at Pekin."
" Art. IX. British subjects to travel to all parts of the interior of
China, for purposes of trade or pleasure."
WARNINGS TO GOVERNMENT. 493
despicably waved at a critical moment, if the Court of
Pekin demurred to the final ratification of any of those
treaties, that demurrer would first fall upon the English
one, as the chief offender.
Supposing that Lord Elgin's despatches, which accom-
panied the Treaty, failed to enlighten the Ministry upon
the extremely delicate nature of the final negotiations at
Tientsin, and supposing even that neither in Downing
Street nor Whitehall was the 'Times' ever read, and that
the Hon. Mr Bruce, Secretary of Embassy, failed to en-
lighten our Foreign Ofiice of the difficulties w^hich sur-
rounded his brother on the 26th June 1858 ; still we
say, allowing all this, there is in the end of the Blue-
Book another despatch from Lord Elgin,'^ which reached
Downing Street on December 29th, 1858, the perusal of
which ought to have warned any one of the critical
nature of the task which awaited the diplomatist and
the naval Commander-in-Chief in the summer of 1859.
In that despatch (No. 216) the strong representations
of the Chinese Ministers against the permanent residence
of the Ambassador in Pekin were clearly put forward —
the Imperial order to reconstruct the Taku forts, as well
as to fortify the approaches to Pekin, was distinctly
mentioned — the attention of our Ministry was recalled
to some despatch (which, we own, does not exist in the
Blue-Book) in which the critical state of the negotiations,
on the very eve of the signature of the Treaty, was
explained to them — and finally, her Majesty's Ministers
are warned that an enforcement of that clause in its full
* See Blue-Book, p. 486, Despatch No. 216, bearing date Shanghai,
Nov. 5, 1858.
494 THE FIGHT ON THE PEIHO.
integrity would probably corapel the Emperor to choose
" between a desperate attempt at resistance, and j>cissive
acquiescence in what he and his advisers believe to be
the greatest calamity tchich eoidd befall the Empire.'^
According to rule, Admiral James Hope received his
commission as Commander-in-Chief in the East Indies
and China, when his predecessor had completed his
period of service. Nothing could have been more de-
corous. He left England by the overland mail in March
1859, and, on arriving at Singapore, found Admiral Sir
Michael Seymour awaiting his arrival there, in order that
he might take his passage home in the next mail-boat.
Here those two officers met, the one with the acquired
knowledge of three years' command in those remote seas,
and thoroughly conversant with Chinese tactics, military,
naval, or diplomatic ; the other, though well known as
an officer of great ability and unflinching firmness, still
perfectly ignorant of the nature of the country and
people with whom he had to deal, the constituent parts
of his force, its adequacy or otherwise for the task as-
signed it, and the amount of moral or physical support
he was likely to get from our allies, the French. Ad-
miral Hope, upon all these points, must have looked to
Admiral Seymour for information.
Yet, strange to say, within a few hours — it appears to
us, only forty-eight hours — after Admiral Hope arrives
in Singapore, Admiral Seymour is steaming home in a
Peninsular and Oriental boat. This was in accordance
with old-fashioned naval etiquette, by which it was cus-
tomary for admirals whose term of service had expired
to hasten off their late station directly they were relieved.
DIFFICULTIES OF THE ADMIRAL. 495
Questions of shares in prize-money, freight, and war-
batta had much to do with a system which was calculated
far more for private convenience than public interest.
In this case, we believe, the sudden way in which one
flag-officer was launched into a strange command, at a
critical moment, without the aid he might have received
by a month's intercourse with his predecessor, was a fatal
mistake ; and it is to be hoped that for the future the
Admiralty will insist that one commander-in-chief shall
not rush off a station directly his successor arrives, but
remain until the new admiral has been put in full pos-
session of all information acquired during the tenure of
office of the departing officer.
On the 16th April 1859, Eear- Admiral James Hope
assumed command ; he was then at Singapore. On
that very day he ought to have been w^ith a force to
support our Ambassador off the mouth of the Peiho
river! It was not his fault that he was not there ;
and he appears to have lost no time in providing for
the wants of his extensive command — organising his
forces, despatching stores and coals northward, securing
the safety of the enormous mercantile interests in China
should a rupture arise, and meeting the deficiency oc-
casioned by our Government having counted upon the
aid of French sailors and soldiers to some considerable ex-
tent, whereas those gentry were busy conquering Cochin-
China.
A despatch from the new Minister, Mr Bruce, dated
May 21st, 1859, tells us that another difficulty had to
be met by the Admiral at this juncture — namely, that
the Admiralty had ordered a further reduction of the
49G THE FIGHT ON THE PEIHO.
squadron in China, whilst he (Mr Bruce) had become so
alarmed by the proceedings of the Court of Pekin, that
it was imperatively necessary he should be escorted to
Taku or Tientsin by as strong a force as that which had
supported Lord Elgin in 1 858. Of course the Admiralty,
in giving such an order, fancied that Admiral Hope
would be joined in China by the French squadron un-
der Admiral Rigault de Genouille ; but, as usual, they
counted without their host, and out of all that French
squadron, no vessel capable of crossing the bar of the
Peiho river could be spared.
There was another difficulty — if possible a still more
serious one than the absence of French support, when
it was counted upon, — and this was the occupation of
Canton b}'- the British forces. It deprived Admiral
Hope of the services of a battalion of her Majesty's
Eoyal Regiment, and a number of marines and marine
artillery ; it rendered the presence of a considerable
naval force necessary in its vicinity ; and instead of the
Major-General and staff being able to go where service
in the field was almost imminent, they were shut up in
that wretched collection of fusty houses dignified with
the title of the City of Canton.
Instead of sitting down, and writing home for rein-
forcements and instructions. Admiral Hope did what an
energetic admiral should do : he hastened to the north-
ward with every available man and vessel, ready to sup-
port the Minister, Mr Bruce, in all such measures as he
might deem necessary. We have yet to learn on what
day ^Ir Bruce was able to leave Hong-Kong for Shang-
hai ; but he distinctly says he proceeded to the latter
DEPAKTURE FOR THE PEIHO. 497
port, where the Chinese Commissioners were waiting for
him, as soon as his French colleague was ready ; and
hearing in mind that by the Treaty of Tientsin we were
pledged to exchange ratifications in Pekin by June 26th,
and that the presence of the Imperial Commissioners at
Shanghai was very suspicious, we can sympathise with
Mr Bruce' s feelings in being thus delayed by his ally at
such a crisis.
On or about the 11th June 1859, the Admiral and
his squadron sailed from Shanghai for the Gulf of
Pechili; and the Sha-liu-tien, or Wide-spreading Sand
Islands, fifteen miles off the entrance of the Peiho river,
was given as the general rendezvous.
Mr Bruce and Monsieur BourboUon sailed four days
afterwards for the same destination; they had found the
Commissioners Kweiliang and Hwashana merely " armed
with pretexts to detain them, and prevent their visit to
the Peiho ; " and from all they had learned at Shanghai,
there could be no doubt that every obstacle awaited the
diplomatists as well as executives of Europe in their
forthcoming visit to Pekin.
Yet we cannot see that either Mr Bruce or Admiral
Hope would have been justified in any misgivings as to
the issue of measures that might be deemed necessary to
enforce their Treaty rights ; and had it been possible for
them at this juncture to have telegraphed the state of
affairs to either Downing Street or Whitehall, we believe
that the Ministry would have said, — Proceed to Tien-
tsin — these impediments have been anticipated ; a Treaty
wrung by force of arms from an Eavstern despot cannot
be expected to be ratified without some demur: — and as
32
498 THE FIGHT ON THE PEIHO.
no one, we believe, had taken the trouble to ascertain
the nature of the new fortifications of Taku, it was a
very natural inference that they would not differ, to any
great extent, from all the many fortifications which the
British had fought and taken elsewhere in China.
On June 17th, H.M.S. Chesapeake, bearing the flag of
Eear- Admiral Hope, arrived at the anchorage under the
Sha-liu-tien Islands, and on that day and the next his
squadron assembled round him ; but without waiting for
all to arrive, the Admiral embarked on the 17th on
board a gunboat, the Plover, and, escorted by the Star-
ling, proceeded over the bar of the Peiho river, to inform
the authorities of the anticipated arrival of the Pleni-
potentiaries, and to ascertain what obstructions, if any,
existed at Taku. Admiral Hope found a number of
earthworks standing upon the site of the old forts de-
stroyed in 1858, and the river was rendered quite im-
passable by a triple series of booms and stakes. The
fortifications seemed well constructed, singularly neat
and finished in outline for Chinese earthworks; there
were but few guns seen ; most of the embrasures looked
as if filled up with matting ; and for the first time at a
military post in China there was a total absence of all
display, and no tents or flags denoted a strong gar-
rison being stationed within the works.
The officer who was sent on shore with the Admiral's
communication was refused permission to go farther than
the beach, and the Chinese who met him said that they
were militiamen in charge of the earthworks ; that the
booms and stakes were placed as a precaution against
rebels or pirates ; that the Ambassadors ought to go to
FIRST RECONNAISSANCE. 499
another river ten miles farther north, which was the
true Peiho river ; and conchided by assuring the Eng-
lish officer that they acted upon their own responsibility
in all they said and did, as no high officers were at hand.
Some expostulations which were offered against the ex-
istence of the barriers in the river, as obstacles to the
Ambassador's friendly visit to Tientsin, were received in
good part, and they promised within forty-eight hours
to set about removing them.
Such was the result of the Admiral's first reconnais-
sance of the Taku earthworks, and decidedly there was
nothing seen to excite alarm, or awaken suspicion as to
the admirable ambuscade which he was being drawn into.
In fact, an examination of one face of well -masked
earthworks must always lead to a very erroneous esti-
mate of their strength — Sebastopol, to wit. The only
way in which true information could have been gleaned
was by keeping an intelligent officer in the Gulf of Pe-
chili, and making him watch the Peiho river from the
cessation of hostilities in 1858 up to the date of the
intended ratification ; but that was a duty for which
Admiral Hope can in no way be held responsible.
We will now proceed to describe the scene of the
coming battle, and give that information of which Ad-
miral Hope ought to have been put in possession.
The Peiho, or iNTorth river, has its source in the high-
lands of Mantchouria, at no very great distance from
Pekin, and passes within twelve miles of that capital.
The velocity of the stream, arising more from the alti-
tude of its source than from its volume, has scoured out
a narrow and very tortuous channel to the south-east,
500 THE FIGHT ON THE PEIHO.
through the deep alluvial plain of Pechili, and cut into
the stratum of stiff clay beneath it. As the stream
approaches the sea, it flows for the last five miles through
a plain, which is little, if at all, above the level of high
water during spring-tides ; the consequence is, that in-
stead of cutting a channel for itself fairly out into the
Gulf of Pechili, the force of the current in the stream
becomes very much weakened by being able to inundate
the adjoining banks whenever there is a freshet in the
river, and the waters discharge themselves over a great
bank, known as " the bar." This bar, of hard tenacious
clay, extends out to seaward in a great curve, of which
the arc is fully six miles, and its width at low water,
from a dej)th of ten feet water without the bar to ten
feet water within it, is nearly four geographical miles.
Over this bar, at high tide, a channel exists, in wdiich
there is eleven feet of water ; but at low water there is
only twenty -four inches in most places, with extensive
dry mud banks on either hand.
Immediately within the bar of the Peiho there is an
anchorage for small vessels and gunboats, where they can
float at low water.; but they are then only two thousand
yards from the fortifications, and necessarily under fire
from heavy guns and mortars ; whilst vessels outside the
bar could neither support them, nor touch the fortifica-
tions by anything like an effective fire from guns or
mortars.
Within the bar, the channel of the Peiho winds up-
ward for a mile between precipitous banks of mud, which
are treacherously covered at high tide, and render the
navigation at that time very hazardous. Beyond this,
THE SCENE OF CONFLICT. 501
the seaman finds himself between two reed- covered
banks which constitute the real sides of the Peiho river,
and at the same time he is surrounded on every side by
earthworks, which, from the peculiar configuration of
this last reach of the stream, face and flank him on
every side. These fortifications stand either upon
natural or artificial elevations of some ten or twelve
feet general altitude, and even at high water look down
upon a vessel in the channel — an advantage which be-
comes all the more serious when the tide has fallen, as
it does fall, some ten to twelve feet. The actual channel
of the river is never more than three hundred feet wide
until the forts are entirely passed, and the current runs
past the face of the works at the rate of three miles per
hour.
The left-hand bank, looking up the stream, projects
more to seaward than the right-hand one, and on it
stood in 1858 three mounds of earth thirty feet high,
well faced with solid masonry ; a double flight of stone
steps in the rear led to their summits, and within them
was a hollow chamber admirably adapted for magazines
of powder. The summit was a level space two hundred
yards square, capable of fighting three guns on each face,
except in the rear, which was perfectly open. Upon
these cavaliers men and guns looked down at all times
of tide upon the channel of the river, and fought in
comparative security from anything like horizontal fire.
Hound these cavaliers heavy mud-batteries were now
constructed, of twenty-two feet vertical height, so as to
screen their basements from anything like a breaching
fire. These batteries had guns perfectly casemated, and
502 THE FIGHT ON THE PEIHO.
were connected into one great work by a series of cur-
tains, pierced, like the bastions, for casemated guns, and
covered by flanking fire, and by wet as well as dry ditches.
The Grand Battery was pierced for fifty guns, and with
the exception of those on the cavaliers, every embrasure
was fitted with an excellent mantlet. Above and below
the grand work, though probably connected with it by a
covered-way, were two waspish-looking flanking forts.
Each had a cavalier ; and the one to seaward was excel-
lently constructed, and looked like a three-tier earthen
battery. On the right-hand bank stood another series of
works, only inferior in importance to those on the oppo-
site side, and finished with equal care. The right-hand
works raked any vessels advancing beyond the seaward
angle of the grand fort.
Apart from these fortifications, three barriers had
been constructed in the river where the channel was
narrowest, and admirably calculated to detain vessels
immediately under the fire of the works. Hitherto,
however, in Chinese warfare, it had invariably been ob-
served that, although they constructed massive fortifica-
tions, and placed ingenious impediments in their rivers,
the guns' crews would not stand to their guns at close
action, and that they did not understand the art of con-
centrating their guns upon vessels when checked by
booms or rafts, and, consequently, it was always easy to
outflank or turn their works in any way we thought
proper.
It is hardly necessary to remind the reader that the
major part of the above information was acquired subse-
quent to the action we are relating. The topography and
AEEIVAL OF THE SQUADEON. 503
geographical features of the country were, however, well
known to the officers who had served in the river during
the year 1858, although we have reason to believe that
Admiral Hope had neither a chart nor plan of the Taku
forts supplied to him.
During the 18th and 19th June, the squadron moved
from the Sha-liu-tien islands to the anchorage imme-
diately off the bar of the Peiho river, the smaller vessels
passing within it for security against the seas and winds
of the Gulf of Pechili ; and on the latter day the English
and French Ministers arrived in H.M.S. Magicienne, and
H.I.M. corvette Duchayla. The appearance of all these
vessels, and the passage of the bar by a portion of them,
did not excite the slightest notice, or appear to give any
alarm to the Chinese. All was as quiet and sleepy as
the most fastidious admirer of Chinese scenery could
desire. The great broad plains of Pechili spread away
to the north and south ; the upward portion of the river
could be traced, until lost in mirage, by the masts of the
countless trading-junks which annually arrive at Tientsin
from all parts of China. The long and stragghng village
of Taku was hid by the mound-like outline of the
southern forts, except the Temple, from which, in 1858,
the Governor-General of Pechili, one Tan, had made an
ignominious flight before our dashing little gunboats
Banterer, Leven, and Opossum. Its quaint turned-up
roof, with its cockey little air, was the only thing, inani-
mate or animate, that gave the slightest sign of defiance
to the "red-haired barbarians."
Mr Bruce arrived at the entrance of the Peiho river
exactly six days before the expiration of the period for
504 THE FIGHT ON THE PEIHO.
the ratification of the Treaty at Pekin ; and in that land
of ceremony and etiquette Mr Bruce well knew that, if
our Envoy did not make a strenuous effort to fulfil his
engagement, and appear at Tientsin or Pekin within
the stipulated date, the reactionary party, which was
doing all in its power to subvert the treaties of 1858,
would immediately magnify that breach of contract into
a premeditated slight to the Emperor, and an indignity
to the Court of one whom fi.ve hundred millions of souls
actually worship. When Mr Bruce, therefore, hastened
to announce his arrival, and requested to be allowed to
pass through the barriers at Taku to Tientsin, he was
simply told to go elsewhere ; and the barriers were ob-
stinately kept closed, whilst the apparently stolid militia-
men declared they did so on their own responsibility.*
What was Mr Bruce to do under such circumstances ?
There were but two measures open to him — the one was
to request the Admiral to remove the barriers placed,
as they declared, by local authorities, without the cog-
nisance of the Imperial Government, and proceed to
Tientsin, where he was pledged to appear on a certain
date j the other course was to go to some place men-
tioned by these pretended militiamen, as one likely to
lead the Minister to Pekin.
Mr Bruce very naturally and very wisely, as the issue
in the case of the American Envoy showed,t determined
* See three final paragraphs of Mr Bruce' s Despatch, July 13,
1859, in the 'Times/ Oct. 6, 1859.
+ The American Minister, after the repulse of Taku, adopted the
second course : his triumphal entry into Pekin in a cart, his close
confinement whilst there, the attempt to make him worship the
Emperor, the insult of ordering him back to the sea-shore for a
FORCES OF THE ENGLISH. 505
to go to Tientsin ; and as he could not reacli it except
through the barriers, and past the forts which watched
them, he and M. BourboUon, on the 21st June, after
recapitulating their reasons, told Admiral Hope that they
^'have therefore resolved to ]pJace the matter in your
hands, and to request you to take any measures you may
deem exjpedient for clearing away the obstructions in the
river, so as to allow us to proceed at once to Tientsin.^'
This is plain and straightforward language — a simple
request ; and with its policy the Admiral very likely
must have felt he had nothing to do. He was called
upon to open the road to Tientsin ; he had around him
such a force as his masters considered ample for an
emergency, of which they were forewarned ; it was his
duty to endeavour to carry out the task assigned him.
Admiral Hope at once wrote a formal note to the
authorities, informing them that, should the obstructions
in the river not be removed by the evening of the 24th
June, so as to allow the Allied Ministers to proceed to
Tientsin, as they indubitably had a right to do under
the sign -manual of the Emperor, he, Admiral Hope,
should proceed to clear the road. It was concise and to
the purpose.
On that day the force at Admiral Hope's disposal was
as foUows : — Outside the bar, and incapable of crossing
it, Chesapeake, Captain C Willes ; Magicienne, Captain
X. Yansittart ; Highflyer, Captain G. F. Shad well ;
Cruiser, Commander J. Bythesea; Tury, Commander
worthless ratification, and the entire question of the readjustment
of the tariff being referred back to a subordinate at Shanghai,
is conclusive proof of what we should have gained by adopting such
a course.
506
THE FIGHT ON THE PEIHO.
Jolin Commerell, Y.C. ; Assistance, Commander "W. A.
Heath. ; and Hesper (store-ship), Master-commander
Jabez Loane ; the French corvette Duchayla, Comman-
der Tricault ; and tender Nosogary.
The vessels capable of crossing the bar and engaging
the forts were the
Guns.
Howitzers.
Commanders.
1. Nimrod,
6
R. S. Wynniatt.
2. Cormorant, ..
6
A. Wodehouse.
3. Lee.
2
2
Lieut. W. H. Jones
4. Opossum,
2
2
C. J. Balfour.
5. Haughty,
2
2
G. D. Broad.
6. Forester,
2
2
A. F. Junes.
7. Banterer,
2
2
J. Jenkins.
8. Starling,
2
2
J. Whitshed.
9. Plover,
2
2
Hector Rason.
10. Janus,
2
2
H. P. Knevit.
11. Kestrel,
2
2
J. D. Bevan.
30 guns 18 howitzers,
and a combined rocket-battery of twenty- two 12 and 24-pounders.
The total crews of these gun-vessels amounted to about five hundred
officers and men.
A gale of wind and heavy rain prevented much being
done on the 2 2d, but by the night of the 23d all the
vessels capable of crossing the bar were assembled
within it ; and early on the 24th June, the marines from
Canton, under Colonel Lemon, as well as those of the
larger vessels, and the armed boats and small-arm-men,
were assembled on board certain junks placed on the bar
to receive them. This force, seven hundred strong, was
intended as an assaulting party and reserve, under
Colonel Lemon, and Commanders Commerell and Heath.
The Admiral, moreover, placed the Coromandel and
PREPAEATIONS FOR ATTACK. 507
Il^osogary as hospitals, as far out of range as it was pos-
sible to anclior them.
The delight of the gallant little force under Admiral
Hope was very great when the sun set on the 24th
June, and no letter in reply to his communication of the
22d had been received. It augured well that the stupid
mandarins at the Peiho would refuse to abandon their
works until they were forced, and then all felt assured
of a light and victory. There was not a single misgiving
as to the result of a combat ; and if any was expressed,
it was a fear that all they would have to do would be to
pull up the stakes, instead of the Chinamen doing it
themselves. As yet, nothing had occurred to excite the
Admiral's suspicions of the nature of the opposition to
be encountered, although he had, ever since the day of
his arrival off the river, especially deputed Commander
John Bythesea* and Lieutenant W. H. Jones in the
Lee, to narrowly watch the forts and river, to see if any-
thing like an increase of garrison, or the nature of the
armament, could be detected. But in order that a charge
of want of preparation for battle might not hereafter be
imputed to him, the gallant chief made every arrange-
ment for taking up positions exactly as he would have
done had he been at war instead of at peace with China.
The first thing done was to see whether the stakes or
rafts could be destroyed in the night by boats. Accord-
ingly, when it was quite dark, three boats' crews, under
* This gallant officer, who carried off one of the Victoria crosses
won in the Baltic fleet of 1855, was stricken down with Peiho fever,
brought on by exposure while employed on this duty, and was conse-
quently unable to share directly in the bloody laurels of the 25th
June.
508 THE FIGHT ON THE PEIHO.
Lieutenant Wilson, Mr Egerton (mate), and Mr Hart-
land (boatswain), commanded by Captain Willes, the
flag-captain, started to make the attempt. Anxiously
were they watched for. At last two loud explosions,
the flash and report of a gun or two from the forts,
the return of the boats, and the cheers of the excited
crews of the gunboats, told the joy with which was
hailed the double act of hostility — a pledge for the
morrow's fight. Captain Willes brought back full in-
formation of the stubborn nature of the obstacles opposed
to the flotilla, and that it was impossible to make a
dash up the stream to take the works in reverse.
The barriers were three in number. The first extended
across the channel, at an elbow where the curvature of
the mud-banks placed vessels ascending the stream stem
on, or in a raking position to the face of the Grand Bat-
tery. It consisted of a single row of iron stakes, nine
inches in girth, and with a tripod base, so as to preserve
an upright position in spite of the velocity of the stream.
The top of each stake was pointed, as well as a sharp
spur which stuck out from its side, and at high water
these dangerous piles were hidden beneath the surface of
the river. This barrier was 550 yards distant from the
centre of the Grand Battery on the left, and 900 yards
from the forts on the right hand.
The second barrier was placed 450 yards above the
iron piles, and immediately abreast the centre of the
fortifications. It consisted of one eight-inch hemp and
two heavy chain -cables placed across the stream at
a distance of twelve feet from each other : they were
hove as taut as possible, and supported by large spars
THE BARRIERS IN THE RIVER. 509
placed transversely at every thirty feet : each spar was
carefully moored both up and down stream.
The third barrier consisted of two massive rafts of
rough timber, lashed and cross-lashed in all directions
with rope and chain, and admirably moored a few feet
above one another, so as to leave a letter S opening,
above which were more iron stakes, so placed as to im-
pede any gunboats dashing through the opening, suppos-
ing all other obstacles overcome. The ingenuity of the
arrangement here was most perfect. The force of the
current would only allow the passage at this point to be
effected at top of high water : at that time the iron piles
were covered with water, and their position being un-
known, the chances were all in favour of a vessel be-
coming impaled upon them.
Captain Willes had passed through the interstices
between the iron stakes of the first barrier, and leaving
two boats to secure the explosion cylinders under the
cables of the second barrier, he and Lieutenant Wilson
pushed on to the third barrier or raft. They crawled
over it, and although they could see the sentries walking
up and down at either end, and they must have been
seen by the garrison of the forts, which towered above
them at the short distance of 150 yards upon the right
and left, neither party molested the other. Satisfied of
the solid nature of the obstacle, and that a mere gun-
boat pressing against it would never force away all the
anchors or cables with which it was secured, Captain
Willes returned to the second barrier, and exploded his
charges, occasioning a breach apparently wide enough
for a vessel to pass ; but a carefully-directed fire from a
510 THE FIGHT ON THE PEIHO.
gun or two in the forts warned him to desist. There
was, however, no general alarm on shore, and the works
did not, as might have been expected, open a general
fire, or develop their formidable character.
It was evident that Admiral Hope had now but one
resource left, namely, an attack upon the enemy's front :
a flank attack was impossible, for it would have been
simple folly to have landed seven hundred marines and
sailors outside the bar, either to the northward or south-
ward of Taku ; the force was far too small to risk such a
manoeuvre. The Commander-in-Chiefs plan was simple
and judicious. He had eleven gun-vessels ; nine of
them were to anchor close to the first barrier, as nearly
abreast as possible without masking each other's guns.
Captain Willes in the Opossum was to secure tackles to
one of the iron piles, ready to pull it up when ordered,
and then, under cover of the anchored gun-vessels, the
Admiral and Flag-Captain in the Plover and Opossum
were to pass on to the destruction of the second and
third barriers. Whilst the Admiral thus carefully made
his plans to meet a strong resistance, few in the squadron
thought of anything but the fun and excitement of the
coming day : many a witty anticipation was expressed as
to promotion for another bloodless Chinese victory, min-
gled with jokes at the foolish obstinacy of John Chinaman.
Daylight came; the forts were deceitfully calm j some
thought an embrasure or two had been added during
the night, but it was only certain that the second bar-
rier, where it had been broken during the night by Cap-
tain Willes, was again thoroughly repaired. Everything
had the appearance of simple obstinacy. With cock-crow
THE MORNING OF THE FIGHT. 51]
all was activity in the squadron ; at half-past three in
the morning, a chorus of boatswains'-mates' whistles had
sent all hands to their breakfasts, and by four o'clock
the vessels commenced to drop up into their assigned
positions. The flood-tide was running strong, a muddy
turbid stream flowing up a tortuous gutter; gradually
that gutter filled, and the waters, ruffled by a fresh
breeze, spread on either hand over the mud-banks, and
eventually washed the border of the reed-covered plain,
and touched the basements of the huge masses of earth
which constituted the forts of Taku. These lay silent and
lifeless, except where at the flag-staff of one waved two
black banners, ominously emblematic of the bloody day
they were about to witness.
The Admiral commenced to move his squadron into
action thus early, anticipating that by the time the flood-
tide had ceased running, every vessel would have reached
her position, the distance in no case being more than a
mile; but the narrowness of the channel, the strength
of the breeze, and force of current, occasioned great de-
lay by forcing first one gunboat and then another ashore
on the mud banks ; added to which, the great length
of the despatch-vessels, Nimrod and Cormorant, caused
them, when canting or swinging across the channel, to
almost block it up. The consequence was, that the squad-
ron was not ready for action at 11.30 a.m., or high w\ater.
Prior to high water it would have been folly to have
commenced action. ]^o judicious naval officer would
engage an enemy's works at close quarters whilst a flood-
tide was sweeping in towards them. Had Admiral Hope
done so, every one of his disabled vessels and boats, as
512 THE FIGHT ON THE PEIHO.
well as every wounded man, would have fallen into the
hands of the Chinese ; and, moreover, the difficulty of
anchoring by the stern in gunboats, in so strong a tide-
way, can only be appreciated by seamen, and would have
probably resulted in the whole force falling aboard of
one another, and being swept by the flood-tide, in one
mass, under the concentrated fire of all the batteries.
By one o'clock the ebb-tide was running strong; all
the vessels were by that time in position assigned, ex-
cept the Banterer and Starling, and they were hopelessly
aground, though in positions which enabled them to co-
operate to some extent. The Admiral prepared to remove
the barriers, and issued his final instructions. To those
who say that Admiral Hope ought to have acted earlier
in the day, during the Hood-tide, we have merely to
point to the issue of the combat into which he was in-
veigled, and reply, that had there been two more hours
daylight, we hardly think a ship or man would have
been saved.
At two P.M. the Admiral, whose flag was flying on
board the Plover, signalised to the Opossum to remove
the iron pile to which she was secured, and thus to make
a passage through the first barrier. This the Opossum's
officers and men, by means of tackles and steam-power,
succeeded in accomplishing in thirty minutes. The Com-
mander-in-Chief now led up to the second barrier, fol-
lowed closely by the Flag-Captain in the Opossum. These
were moments of intense excitement for those in the cover-
ing flotilla, as well as for the impatient assaulting -party
anchored on the bar of the river. Every eye was directed
upon the batteries under Avhich the gallant Eason was
HOSTILITIES BEGUN. 513
bearing the flag of his chief. The oft-repeated question
of "I wonder whether the rascals will fight '?" was about
to be answered ; and that moment of eager expectation,
which all men feel before they join in combat, made
every heart beat quick, and silenced every tongue. As
the stem of the Plover touched the barrier, a single gun
served as a signal to all the works, and in a minute a
concentrated lire of forty heavy pieces opened upon the
little craft. In the words of the seamen, " it seemed as
if the vessels had struck an infernal machine." The
Plover and Opossum were wreathed in fire and smoke,
above which the flag of the gallant Admiral waved
defiantly.
A rush and stamp of men to their quarters sounded
through the flotilla, and as the Admiral threw out the sig-
nal, ^^ Engage the enemy,'' with the red pendant under,
indicating " as close as j^ossible," the cheers of the de-
lighted ships' companies mingled with the roar of that
first hearty broadside. All day long, through that stern
fight, that signal, simple yet significant, flew from the
masthead of the heroic leader. jSTever was the need
greater that every man should do his duty, and nobly
they responded to the appeal.
So well concentrated was the enemy's fire upon the
space between the first and second barriers, that the
Plover and Opossum appeared to be struck by every
shot directed at them. The flag- ship was especially aimed
at. Within twenty minutes both these vessels had so
many men killed and wounded, and were so shattered,
as to be almost silenced. Lieutenant-Commander Eason,
of the Plover, was cut in two by a round-shot. Captain
33
514 THE FIGHT ON THE PEIHO.
M'Kenna, of the 1st Royals, on the Admiral's staff, was
killed early, and the Admiral himself was grievously in-
jured by a gun-shot in the thigh. The Lee and Haughty,
under Lieutenant -Commanders W. H. Jones and G.
Broad, now weighed, by signal, and advanced to the
support of the Admiral.
The shattered Plover almost drifted out of her hon-
ourable position, having only nine men left efficient out
of her original crew of forty. The Admiral, in spite of
wounds and loss of blood, transferred his flag to the
Opossum, and the battle raged furiously on either hand.
A little after three o'clock, the Admiral received a second
wound, a round-shot knocking away some chainwork
by which he was supporting himself in a conspicuous
position, and the fall breaking several of his ribs. The
Opossum had by this time become so disabled, that it
was necessary to drop her outside the iron piles of the
first barrier, where both she and the Plover received
fresh crews from the reserve force, and again advanced
to take their share in the fight.
No false impression now existed in the mind of any
one as to the work they had in hand, or the amount of
resistance they had to overcome. Eetreat was disgrace,
and in all probability total destruction ; for the bar
would be impassable long before the vessels could reach
it — and who was going to think of retreat thus early 1
who wanted to be hooted at by all the world as men
who fled before a Chinaman 1 l^o, strip and fight
it out, was the general feeling from captain to bo}^,
and, in a frenzy of delight with their chief, they went
into their work like men, who, if they could not com-
DESPEEATE CONTEST. 515
mand success, would at any rate show tliat they de-
served it.
A pall of smoke hung over the British flotilla and the
forts of Taku ; under it flashed sliarp and vividly the
red fire of the combatants ; the roar of great guns, the
shriek of rockets, and rattle of rifles, was constant. No
missile could fail to reach its mark ; the dull tliung of
the enemy's shot as it passed through a gunboat's side,
the crash of woodwork, the whistle of heavy splinters
of wood or iron, the screams of the wounded, and the
moans of the dying, mingled with the shouts of the com-
batants and the sharp decisive orders of the officers —
all were " fighting their best ! " And it was a close hug
indeed, for the advanced vessels were firing at 150 yards'
range, and the maximum distance was only 800 yards.
Every officer and man rejoiced in this fact; for, forgetful
of the enormous thickness of the parapets opposed to
them, our gallant sailors fancied that it all was in favour
of a race who had never been excelled in a stanch fight
at close quarters. The Lee and Haughty were now suf-
fering much ; the fire of the forts had been most deadly,
and was in every respect as accurate as ours. The Ad-
miral, in his barge, although fainting from loss of blood,
pulled to these vessels, to show the crews how cheerfully
he shared the full dangers of their position ; and they
who advocate a British commander-in-chief being in the
rear, instead of, as Kelson and Collingwood ever placed
themselves, in the van of battle, ought to have witnessed
the effect of Hope's heroic example upon the men under
him that day; even the wounded were more patient and
enduring owing to such an example.
516 THE FIGHT ON THE PETHO.
By four o'clock the Lee had a hole knocked into her
side below the bow-gun, out of which a man could have
crawled : both she and the Haughty had all their boats
and topworks knocked to pieces, and many shot had
passed through below the water-line, owing to the plung-
ing fire of the forts : their crews were going down fast ;
and the space between the first and second barriers was
little better than a slaughter-house from the storm of the
enemy's missiles, which in front and on both flanks swept
over it. The Admiral had fainted, and was being taken
to the rear for medical aid by his gallant secretary, Mr
Ashby, when he recovered sufficiently to order the barge
to conduct him to the most advanced vessel in the line.
That post was now held by the Cormorant, Commander
Wodehouse ; for the Lee and Haughty had been obliged
to retire for reinforcement and support. On board the
Cormorant the flag of the Commander-in-Chief was
hoisted ; and he, though constantly fainting from loss of
blood, was laid in his cot upon the deck to witness the
battle, which still raged with unremitting ardour upon
both sides, fresh guns' crews being brought up from the
rear to replace the killed and wounded on board the
gunboats.
First excitement had been succeeded by cool deter-
mination, and the men fought deliberately, with set
teeth and compressed lips : there was no flinching the
fight, there were no skulkers ; and had there been any,
there was no safety anywhere inside the bar of the
Peiho : blood was up, and all fought to win or fall :
even the poor little powder-boys did not drop their
powder-boxes and try to seek shelter, but wept as they
HEROISM OF ALL. 517
thoiiglit of their mothers, or of their playmates Dick or
Bob who had just been killed beside them, and, with
tears pouring down their powder-begrimed countenances,
rushed to and from the magazines with nervous energy.
" You never see'd any fighting like this at Greenwich
School, eh, Bobby'?" remarked a kind-hearted marine to
a boy who was crying, and still exerting himself to the
utmost. " No ! Bombardier," said the lad, " but don't
let them Chinamen thrash us !" Schoolboy pluck shone
through the novel horrors of a sea-fight.
The enemy, whoever they were, Mantchous, Mongols,
or men from the Amour, fought admirably and cleverly.
"VVe have every goodwill towards the Mongolian Prince
Sungolosin : we are quite ready to allow that, though
at the head of the ultra-conservatism of China, and re-
presentative of that formidable section who prefer fight-
ing Europeans to submitting to their demands, he yet
may be a progressionist in the art of attack and defence.
Nevertheless it does startle us to find that, between
July 1858 and June 1859, Prince Sungolosin should
have learnt to construct forts and block up a river upon
the most approved principles of European art ; that, for
the first time, the embrasures were so arranged as to con-
centrate a fire of guns upon particular points ; that
mantlets, hereafter to be described, improvements upon
those used at the great siege of Sebastopol, were fitted to
every casemated gun ; that guns in the bastions swept
the face of the curtains ', that the ^^ cheeks'^ and ^^ soles"
of the embrasures were most scientifically constructed
with a view to direction of fire ; that reserve supplies of
guns and carriages had been provided to replace those
518 THE FIGHT ON THE PEIHO.
dismounted or disabled bj our fire ; and lastl}^, that tlie
reinforcements were so cleverly masked, that our gun-
boats could only see that, as fast as they swept away a
gun and crew in the fort with a well-directed shell, a
fresh gun and fresh men were soon found to have re-
placed them ; and we must distinctly express our firm
belief, that upon all these points the Chinese received
counsel and instruction subsequent to the signing of the
Treaty of Tientsin, from Europeans, whether priests or
officers matters little ; and that, during that fight of the
25th June, it was evident to all who had ever fought
Asiatics, that no ordinary tactician was behind those
earthworks.
As the tide fell, so the fire of the forts became more
plunging and destructive, whilst our gunners, though
quite close, had to aim ujyward at the enemy. The
experience of Sebastopol has shown that a horizontal
fire will not dislodge a brave opponent from behind
earthworks ; of course it would be much less likely to
do so when the assailants were so low as to have to fire
in an oblique direction upward ; and such was the rela-
tive position of the two antagonists at Taku. The body
of the forts was soon found to be invulnerable, and the
embrasures alone were left as targets to our gunboats.
Those on the cavaliers were subjected to a terribly accu-
rate fire, yet, strange to say, the guns at these points
were seldom silenced for any length of time. The Cor-
morant's bow-gun, on one occasion, in four successive
shots, fairly knocked over the three guns in the face of
the cavalier of the centre bastion ; the whole scj[uadron
witnessed the fact, and saw the guns and crews shattered
"CORPORAL GILES. 519
by tlie terrific effect of her solid 68-pounders — yet in a
quarter of an hour other guns were there, and stinging
away as waspishly as ever.
At 4.20 P.M. the Admiral was obliged to yield to the
entreaties of the medical men, and to the faintness
arising from loss of blood : he handed over the imme-
diate command of the squadron to the second in seni-
ority, Captain Shadwell, who, supported by Captain
Willes and Captain Mcholas Yansittart, carried on the
battle.
Of the individual acts of valour and devotion with
which such a combat is replete, how many escape obser-
vation ! — whilst the mention of others often gives pain
to the modest men, to whom we would fain do honour.
At any risk, however, we must narrate an anecdote or
two, illustrative of the zeal and devotion displayed in
this glorious fight.
AVhen the Cormorant's bow-gun did the good service
of silencing, in four shots, the centre cavalier, the Ad-
miral, lying on his cot, was so struck with the accuracy
of the aim that he immediately sent an aide-de-camp for-
ward to obtain the name of the captain of the gun. The
messenger found worthy Corporal Giles '^^ at the full ex-
tent of his trigger-line, the gun loaded and run out ; his
whole mind was intent upon one object — hitting his
enemy. "Muzzle right!" said the honest marine.
" Who fired those shots'?" interposed the messenger;
" the Admiral wants to know." "Well !" shouted the
man to his crew, adding, " I did, sir " (to the officer).
* We regret that we do not know the proper name of this gallant
marine.
520 THE FIGHT ON THE PEIHO.
"Elevate!" "What's your name?" rejoined the mes-
senger. " John Giles," said the marine, leaning back,
shutting one eye, and looking along the sights of the
gun, his left hand going up mechanically to the salute —
" John Giles, corporal." " Well !" (this to the crew) —
"Second company" (to the officer) — "Eeady! — Wool-
wich division ! — Fire ! Sponge and load ! — I beg your
pardon, sir — No. 1275." We need not add that the
worthy corporal was far more intent upon his work than
mindful of the kind compliment his Admiral was paying
him, and his best reward was the hurrah of his gun-
mates as they watched the shot plunge into the enem/s
embrasure.
"Opossum ahoy!" hails a brother gunboat captain;
**do you know your stern-frame is all on fire?" — for
smoke and flame were playing round one end of the
little craft, whilst from the other she was spitefully
firing upon the foe. " Bother the fire ! " was the re-
joinder ; " I am not going to knock off pitching into
these blackguards for any burning stern-posts. No men
to spare, old boy!"
" Werry hard hit, sir ! " remarks the boatswain of the
Lee to her gallant commander ; " the ship is making a
deal of water, and won't float much longer ; the donkey-
engines and pumps don't deliver one bucket of water for
ten as comes into her ! " " Cannot do more than we are
doing," replies the commander — " it is impossible to get
at the shot-holes from inside, and I will not order' men
to dive outside with shot-plugs, in this strong tide- way,
and whilst I am compelled to keep the propeller re-
volvinf?."
BOATSWAIN WOODS. 521
" There's no other way to keep the ship afloat, sir,"
urged Mr Woods ; " and if you please, sir, I'd like to go
about that ere job myself."
"As you volunteer, I'll not object, Woods," said
Lieutenant Jones,* "but remember it is almost desperate
work ; you see how the tide is running, and that I must
keep screwing ahead to maintain station. You have the
chance of being drowned, and if caught by the screw,
you are a dead man."
" Well, sir," said Woods, looking as bashful as if
sueing for some great favour, " I knows all that ; and as
far as chances of death go, why, it is ' much of a much-
ness' everywhere just now; and if you will keep an eye
upon me, I'll try what can be done."
Woods accordingly brought up a bag of seaman's
clothes, tore it open, wrapped frocks and trousers round
wooden shot-plugs, tied a rope's-end round his waist, and
dived under the bottom of the Lee to stop up the shot-
holes.- Again and again the gallant fellow went down,
escaping from the stroke of the screw as if by a miracle ;
for he often came up astern at the full length of his line,
having been swept there by the tide. His exertions,
however, were not successful, although he stopj)ed as
many as twenty-eight shot-holes ; and the noble little
Lee was soon found to be in a sinking condition.
The Kestrel, with colours flying, and still fighting
under the gallant Lieut. -Commander Be van, went down
in her station at 5.40 p.m., and affairs began to look very
serious ; yet the last thing thought of was defeat.
One gunboat swings end on to a raking battery, and a
* The present Coramancler Jones-Birom.
522 THE FIGHT ON THE PEIHO.
shot immediately sweeps away all the men from one side
of her bow-gun, as if a scythe had passed through them.
'' This is what they call a ratification, Billy ! ain't it 1 "
remarks the captain of the gun to one of the survivors ;
and raising his right arm, red with the blood of his
slaughtered comrades, he cursed in coarse but honest
phrase the folly and false humanity which in the pre-
vious year had allowed these mandarins to march off
almost unscathed, '• whilst we was a-looting brass-guns
for the Tooleries" (Tuileries).
Phirr ! came along a bar-shot, and a mass of woodwork
and splinters knocked over and almost buried a com-
mander and master of one of the gunboats. The remain-
ing officer, a warrant-officer, rushes up and pulls them
out from under the wreck. Though severely bruised,
neither was, happily, killed. " All right, I hopes, sir !"
rubbing them down — ' ' legs all sound, sir ! — ah ! you
will get your wind directly — but you 9}mst keep moving,
sir ; if you don't, they're sure to hit you. I was just
teUing the chaps forward the same thing — shot never
hits a lively man, sir — and, dear me, don't they work our
bow-gun beautifully — that's right, lads! that's right!"
urged the enthusiastic gunner — " keep her going ! Lor !
if old Hastings * could have seen that shot, Jim, he'd
have given you nothing to do at the Admi7'ality for all
the rest of your born days."
Thus manfully went the fight ; explosions occurred
now and then in the works, but nothing to indicate a
destruction of any of the garrisons — the two black flags
* A very irreverent allusion to Admiral Sir Thomas Hastings, who
inaugurated the present excellent system of naval gunnery.
LOSSES OF THE FLOTILLA. 523
in the upper battery still waved gently in the light air,
and no sign of surrender or distress appeared on the
Chinese side, except that all the embrasures showed
what a severe punishment must have been inflicted upon
the men working the guns within them ; and there seemed
to be an inclination to cease firing upon the part of the
enemy, or only to fire in a deliberate and desultory man-
ner. Exhaustion was beginning to tell upon our men,
just at the time that the shattered condition of the ves-
sels called for most exertion.
By six o'clock all probability of forcing the barriers
with the flotilla was at an end. The Kestrel was sunk,
and the Lee obliged to run on the mud to prevent her
going down in deep water; many other vessels were
filling owing to shot-holes — the Starling and Banterer
aground — Plover disabled; and if the Nimrod or Cor-
morant, by any accident to their anchors or cables, fell
across the stream, the channel would be blocked up, and
all the squadron be lost. The senior officers saw that
nothing now remained but to withdraw, if it were
possible, the squadron from the fight ; the difficulties,
however, in the way of such a manoeuvre were almost
insuperable. It wanted yet nearly two hours before
darkness would set in — the passage over the bar could
not be effected before dark, on account of high water not
occurring until midnight — the night was moonless — the
probabilities great against the vessels being able to find
their v/ay in the dark, down so narrow and tortuous a
channel — and so long as the vessels remained within the
bar, so long also must they be within range of those
hard-hitting long guns, of the effects of which they had
524 THE FIGHT ON THE PEIHO.
had that day such bitter experience. The reserve force
of 600 fresh men had not yet been brought into action —
they begged to be allowed to retrieve the trembling for-
tunes of the day ; even the crews of the sinking gunboats
only asked to be allowed to land and grapple Avith the
foe, who skulked behind his earthworks, whilst they
(stripped to their trousers) had fought upon their ex-
posed and open decks. There was yet another reason,
which doubtless had its weight: out of the 1100 men
and officers selected by the Admiral from his fleet to
carry out the service which the representative of his So-
vereign had called upon him to execute, only twenty-five
were killed and ninety-three wounded at 6.20 p.m., after
four hours' close hard fighting. That loss was simply in-
sufficient to justify any officer in acknowledging himself
thoroughly beaten, or in abandoning an enterprise.
Spectators upon the bar may say, after the result, that
they saw within ten minutes of the action being com-
menced that the British would not succeed. It would
have been an evil day for Admiral James Hope and his
captains, had such an idea entered their heads at so early
an hour. It is true, they felt that they had been inveigled
into an ambush, but inasmuch as they went into it hav-
ing taken every precaution against surprise, and prepared
for battle, it remained alone for them to fight it out, and
trust to their God for victory in a good cause.
The gallant-hearted Vansittart urged one last bold
stroke to retrieve the honours of the day, and at any
rate to save, if possible, the entire squadron from destruc-
tion. Captains Shad well and AYilles concurred in this
view, though they knew well it was a neck-or-nothing
PREPAEATIONS FOR ASSAULT. 525
attempt — in short, a forlorn hope, which might succeed,
if once fairly hand to hand with the enemy ; but at any
rate, the least sanguine argued, the attempt would divert
the fire from the shattered flotilla, and allow night to
close in, and afford an opportunity of saving all the ves-
sels from destruction.
And let any one weigh well what would have been
the effect, throughout the seaports of China, to our coun-
trymen and commerce, had those gallant officers lost all
that squadron, as we believe they would have done in
attempting a retreat at that juncture. The ingenious
tactics of the enemy afforded just then an illusory ground
for hope of a successful issue to an assault : they assumed
the apjDcarance of being silenced in many quarters, and
only worked a gun here and there. An assault and esca-
lade were at once ordered ; the Opossum went to the
rear, and, aided by the generous sympathy of the Ame-
rican riag-Officer Tatnall — who, in his steamer the Toey-
wan, assisted very materially — the boats filled with the
marines and small-arm men were brought up to the
front.
At about seven o'clock, Captains Shadwell and Van-
sittart, Major Fisher, R.E., Colonel Lemon, R.M., Com-
manders John Commerell and W. A. J. Heath, and
Commandant Tricault of the Imperial navy, headed this
forlorn hope of seamen, sappers, and marines, their march
across the mud being directed upon the outer bastion of
the Grand Fort, as it appeared to have suffered most
from the fire of our vessels. The cheers of the excited
crews of the gunboats, the revived fire of the flotilla, and
the dash of the boats to the point of disembarkation,
526 THE FIGHT ON THE PEIHO.
warned the enemy but too well of the intended assault ;
and, to the astonishment of the assailants, from every
work, every gun, and every loophole, a terribly destruc-
tive fire opened upon our devoted men as they waded
through the deep and tenacious mud. In spite of shot,
grape, rifle-balls, gingalls, and arrows, the party, six hun-
dred strong, formed a solid mass, and pressed forward,
whilst close over their heads flew the covering-shots of
their brethren in our vessels. It was a terribly magnifi-
cent sight to see that dark mass of gallant men reeling
under the storm of missiles, yet, like a noble bark,
against adverse wind and sea, still advancing towards its
destination. Officers and men fell rapidly — Shadwell,
Yansittart, and Lemon were soon badly wounded, and
many a man fell grievously injured in the deep mud, to
be quickly covered by the flowing tide ; yet there was
no lack of leaders — no hesitation in the dauntless sur-
vivors. It must be acknowledged that the garrison
showed no want of skill or bravery ; for in spite of the
fire of the gunboats, they crowded upon the parapets
and embrasures, and opened a withering fire of musketry
upon our men. At last a bank covered with rushes was
reached — Commerell, Heath, Fisher, and Parke still
headed the devoted band, and they dashed into the first
ditch, leaving, however, a very large proportion of killed
and wounded strewn along their path. The flotilla had
now to cease firing upon the point of assault, lest it should
injure friends instead of foes; and the excitement of
the gun- crews may be imagined, as they saw the night
closing round their comrades wrapt in the blaze of
the enemy's fire, and heard the exultant yells of the
AMERICAN SYMPATHY. 527
garrison, and marked the faint and desultory cheers
and ill-sustained reply of the assailants. It was with
difficulty that they could in some cases be restrained
from rushing to join the good or evil fortune of the
fray ; five hours' fighting had made all indifferent to
life.
As one gunboat went down, the crew modestly sug-
gested to the commander, that as they could do no more
good in her, it would be as well "to go over the mud
and join our chaps on shore!" It is not fair to say such
men can be beaten ; all had become imbued with the
heroic spirit of their chief — the infection had even spread
to the American boats' crews. The calculating: loner-
backed diplomatists of the United States, who had sent
their Admiral and Envoy to reap the advantages for
which Englishmen were fighting and dying, forgot that
there were certain promptings of the heart which over-
ride all selfish considerations ; and that, in short, as Elag-
Officer Tatnall observed, "blood is thicker than water,"
ay, than ink either. An American boat visited one of
our vessels, and on wishing to leave her, the officer
found all his men had got out of the boat. After some
delay they were found looking very hot, smoke-begrimed,
and figlitish. " Halloa, sirs," said the officer, with as-
sumed severity, "don't you know we are neutrals?
What have you been doing?" "Begs j^ardon," said
the gallant fellows, looking very bashful ; " they were
very short-handed at the bow-gun, sir, and so we give'd
them a help for fellowship sake ; " they had been hard
at it for an hour. Gallant Americans! you and your
admiral did more that day to bind England and the
528 THE FIGHT ON THE PEIHO.
United States togetlier, than all your lawyers and petti-
fogging politicians have ever done to part us.
The issue of the assault was not long doubtful after
crossing the first or tidal ditch, and wading through
some yards of perfect quagmire ; beyond it, another deep
wet ditch was found, into which about two hundred
men and officers recklessly dashed, wetting ammunition
and muskets ; only fifty of them, however, headed by
Commanders Commerell, Heath, Captain Fisher, R.E.,
and Commander Tricault, of the Imperial navy, reached
the base of the works ; the rest, 150 in number, of the
survivors in the advanced party, lined the edge of the
wet ditch. Every attempt to bring up scaling-ladders
resulted in the destruction of the party, and the garrison
threw out light-balls, by which they could see to slay
the unfortunate men outside the forts. The English
were diminishing rapidly ; there was no reserve or sup-
ports available ; and at last, with deep reluctance, the
leaders of this gallant band sent word to the senior
officer afloat " that they could, if he pleased, hold their
position in the ditches until daylight ; but that it was
impossible to storm without reinforcements."
The order was therefore given for a retreat ; and in
the words of Admiral Hope, this difficult operation, in
the face of a triumphant enemy, was carried out with a
deliberation and coolness equal to the gallantry with
which the advance had been accomplished. The last
men to leave the blood-stained banks of the Peiho, after
having saved every wounded man that could be recovered,
were the two gallant commanders, Commerell and Heath ;
and the severity of the enemy's fire upon this assaulting-
THE RETREAT AND ITS DANGERS. 529
party is best shown by the fact, that out of about six
hundred men and officers, sixty-four were killed, and
two hundred and fifty-two were wounded.
The management of the retreat devolved upon the able
flag-captain, J. 0. Willes — a most trying and anxious
duty ; for the enemy opened a perfect feu de-joie from
all sides, upon vessels and boats, and for a while threat-
ened total destruction to the force. By 1.30 a.m. on the
26th the survivors of the forlorn-hope were embarked,
and the process of dropping out the gunboats commenced,
with, however, but very partial success. The scene was
terribly grand ; the night was dark, the sea and land
veiled in gloom, except where the fire-balls of the enemy
and the flash of his guns brought out the forts and shat-
tered flotilla in strikiug relief j the turbid stream, pent
up in its channel by the wreck of sunken vessels and the
Chinese barriers, chafed and whirled angrily past the
repulsed ships, bearing on its bosom the wreck of the
combat and the corpses of the dead. The moans of the
wounded, the shouts of officers, the frequent strokes of
boats' oars, alternated with the roar of cannon and the
exultant yells of the victorious garrison. But there was
a still more thrilling sight — that on the decks of the
Coromandel, where the gallant Admiral, and Captains
Shadwell, Yansittart,* and Colonel Lemon, lay surrounded
by their dying and wounded followers. Nothing that
medical foresight could provide to alleviate mortal suffer-
ing was wanting ; yet their agonies were terrible to con-
* The gallant Vausittart died subsequently ; and we have to
lament the loss of another ofiBcer, Commander Arinne Wodehouse,
H.M.S. Cormorant, who recently succumbed to a fever, brought on
by the exposure and anxiety on that day.
34
530 THE FIGHT ON THE PEIHO,
template. The deck was lighted up with every available
candle and lantern, aided by which the surgical opera-
tions were being carried on as rapidly as possible. A
pile of dead, covered with the flag for which they had
fought so well, awaited decent interment on the mor-
row. The medical officers, after sharing in all the dan-
gers and labours of the day, now called to renewed
exertion on behalf of suffering humanity, were to be
seen exerting themselves with a zeal and solicitude as
remarkable as the magnificent bearing of the poor fellows
who, with shattered limbs, awaited their turn for ampu-
tation : it was, indeed, a scene of epic grandeur and
solemnity.
We could fill a volume with anecdotes of calm endur-
ance and heroism, which were almost childlike in their
simplicity — of the poor foretopman who, mortally wound-
ed, was laid by his kind commander upon the sofa in his
cabin, and as his life-blood oozed away, modestly ex-
pressed his regret at " doing so much injury to such
pretty cushions !" — of the old quartermaster, whose whole
shoulder and ribs had been swept away by a round-shot,
and during the few hours prior to death expressed it as
his opinion, that "them Chinamen hit hardish," and
had only one anxiety — ''whether the Admiralty would
pay his wife for the loss of his kif?" But we need not,
we feel assured, dwell upon such traits to enlist the
sympathy of our countrymen on behalf of the men who
fought so well, yet lost the day, at Taku.
One fact struck every one — and it is a fact of which
Admiral Hope may well be proud — that from the lips
of those shattered men and officers there arose no com-
HEROISM OF THE MEN. 531
plaint of having been wantonly sacrificed or misled ; and
had it been otherwise, the anguish of the moment would
assuredly have wrung it from their lips, and yet have
met with kindly pardon. All acknowledged themselves
thoroughly beaten in the fight, yet every mouth rang
with praises of the leader who had set them such an
example ; and had Admiral Hope next day called for
volunteers to renew the fight, desperate as such a meas-
ure might have been deemed, there was not one of the
remnant of his force that would not again have cheerfully
followed him. A repulse arising from the blunders of a
leader never meets such sympathy. Officers and men
knew all had been done as they themselves would have
suggested, had they been consulted. The Admiral had
exhibited foresight, audacity, and gallant perseverance.
They were ready to follow such a man to the death.
Had he turned back without testing the foe, and endea-
vouring to take the forts, every man's tongue would have
railed at him, and all England would have stamped him
an incompetent leader.
The survivors knew that they had been partially en-
trapped, and had had to fight far more than mere China-
men ; and if defeated, they could point to their sinking
vessels, to a loss in killed and wounded of 434 officers
and men out of 1100 combatants, and ask their country-
men if they had not done their duty. Assuredly they
had : no men could have done more. Nelson's repulse
at Teneriffe was not more glorious or less bloody. Yet
be it remembered, and our cheeks ought to burn with
shame at the recital, that for this most gallant deed of
arms, so replete with chivalrous bravery and devotion to
532 THE FIGHT ON THE PEIHO.
Great Britain, not a single honour or promotion has been
publicly awarded. At Sebastopol it was far otherwise.
Honours were showered there on a repulsed fleet and
army on more than one occasion.
There was no rest for any during that sad night of
the 25th June ; and daylight still found the exhausted
officers and men endeavouring to save the flotilla, and
place the wounded out of reach of the deadly fire of
the forts. That we were thoroughly beaten back, there
could be no question ; even the sturdy seamen and
marines, begrimed with powder, blood, and mud, rubbed
their heads, and owned it had been '^a mortal thrash-
ing;" yet shook their horny fists, and looked defiance
at the rascals, be they whoever they were, behind those
invulnerable parapets of mud. The sun rose on a shat-
tered squadron. The mastheads of the Lee and Kestrel
were alone visible j they had been fought until they
sank beneath their gallant crews. The Cormorant, in an
attempt to drop out, fell across channel, got aground,
and had to be temporarily abandoned to save unneces-
sary loss of life ; the Haughty was sinking — the Plover
and Starling ashore under the batteries, and abandoned
by the small surviving portion of their crews ; in short,
the only vessels in safety at daylight were the Mmrod,
Banterer, Forester, Opossum, and Janus — six out of
the eleven vessels which went into action were thus
sunk or disabled. The condition of the personnel in the
squadron equally well proved the stubbornness of the
fight. Lieut. -Commanders Eason and Clutterbuck ; Cap-
tain M'Kenna, 1st Royals ; Lieuts. Graves, Wolridge,
and Inglis ; Mr Herbert, midshipman — were killed in
LOSSES OF THE BRITISH, 533
action. The Admiral, Captains Shad well and Yansit-
tart, Colonel Lemon, R.M., and the Eev. H. Huleatt,
chaplain, as well as a sad list of subordinates,* were of
the severely wounded : in short, of the heads of the
executive, Captain "Willes (Flag-Captain), and Major
Fisher, E.E., were the only two not wounded ; and of
the entire force, which never had more than eleven hun-
dred men in action, the killed amounted to eighty-nine,
and the wounded to three hundred and forty-five in
number, or a total loss of four hundred and thirty-four.
The French, out of their petty contingent, consisting of
the officers and crew of the Duchayla, had four killed
and ten wounded, amongst the latter the gallant Com-
mandant Tricault, who had stood throughout the day in
the foremost of the fight.
British Forces actually Engaged.
11 Vessels— 1100 Men.
Losses — of Vessels.
Sunk.
3
Disabled. Much Damaged.
4 3
Losses of Men and Officers.
KUled.
89
Wounded. Surviving.
345 660
Directly it was light enough to work, CajDtain Willes
proceeded to save as many of the abandoned vessels as
possible, and to blow up or destroy those that could not
be saved. Although the enemy made deliberate and
telling practice at the men so employed, the surviving
* Lieutenant Buckle, R.N. ; Lieutenant G. Longley, R.E.; Captain
Masters, R.M. ; Lieutenant Crawford, R.M.A. ; Mr Burniston, mas-
ter, R.N. ; Messrs Smith, Powlett, and Armytage, midshipmen ; Mr
Ryan, gunner — were returned amongst the dangerously wounded.
634 THE FIGHT ON THE PEIHO.
officers and men succeeded in recovering three of the
sunk and abandoned vessels, and those that could not be
carried off — the Cormorant, Lee, and Plover — were de-
stroyed and rendered worthless to the enemy as trophies
of their victory.
Apart from the forts keeping up an excellent fire upon
our men, large working parties covered the face of their
works, and rapidly repaired the damage done to the
parapets, embrasures, and mantlets, by our fire on the
25th ; and during the next two or three successive
nights, the enemy kept a most vigilant look-out, and
often lighted up the front of the batteries with fire-balls,
in anticipation of another night-assault.
The mantlets alluded to were so striking an innova-
tion in Chinese warfare, and reminded many so painfully
of the bitter siege of Sebastopol, that we must describe
them, leaving others to conjecture how the slow-march-
ing Chinamen should have suddenly learnt to apply
them so ingeniously and successfully to the forts of
Taku. They were quite worthy of imitation in our own
fortifications, and the cleverness with which they were
worked deserved much praise.
They were of stout wood, covered externally with a
wattling of rattans, so as to be rifle-proof. The mantlet
worked on hinejes or rollers fitted to the outer and lower
edge of the embrasures, and was triced up or lowered
down by means of lines leading upward through the
parapet on each side of the gun. When closed up, the
casemated embrasures were not easily detected in the
smoke of action, and the gun was loaded and laid point-
blank before being run out. Directly all was ready.
THE MANTLETS OF THE GUNS. 535
down went the mantlet, out ran the gun ; a shot was
fired into the mass of vessels, and as the gun recoiled the
mantlet went up again with such expedition that our
men required sharp eyes to detect which of the enemy's
embrasures was firing, and ought next to be silenced.
Had they been fitted to the upper port or embrasure
sill, any accident to the lanyard would have caused them
to fall down and block up the gun-port, so that they
would have to be blown away to enable the gun to
work ; but placed as they were, by attaching the
lanyards to the gun-carriage, as the piece recoiled it
closed its own mantlet, and if the lines were shot away,
the mantlet merely fell down, and left the gun to fight
in an ordinary embrasure.
Such were some of the obstacles — such was the fight
and repulse, of the Peiho ! It needs no comment, and
tells its own tale of foresight in attack, perseverance
when engaged, and heroic efforts to win that victory
wdiich England justly claims, aud for which these men
nobly laid down their lives.
Never did our navy adventure more to merit success,
and assuredly it will be an evil hour for our country if
her admirals, alarmed by the censure which falls upon
defeat, hesitate to risk an action until a victory is
assured. There has been too much of that feeling in
the present day, and it is the nation's interest to purge
an evil that
" doth affect
The very life-blood of naval enterprise."
THE END.
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