150 RETURN TO QUEDAH. CHAP. 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 Effects of our Blockade.-Severity towards the Malays. - A Prahu full of Fugitives captured. Intelligence suddenly gained of Siamese Army. - Deserters.-The Malay Forces outmanoeuvred. 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 20th, I returned to my old station off Quedah, the two blockading divisions of boats changing 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 positions around the old fort. A gingal battery, constructed for overlooking the approaches of an enemy, was an interesting specimen of Malayan woodcraft and ingenuity. When clearing away the jungle to construct the fascine battery, we observed that they spared four or five lofty trees NATIVE DEFENCES. 151 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 a level position; all superfluous branches were lopped off, and the whole well frapped* together with cords, so that the cutting away of one tree alone would not endanger 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 withies enabling them to communicate with 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 * 66 Frapping" is a term used when two spars, or stout ropes, are bound together by a cord which drags them out of their natural position or right lines. 1 152 66 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 y season would be drawing to a close. To be sure, a queer-looking brig had joined us, under Siamese colours, and commanded by two captains! 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 gun-boats, unknown to Captain Warren, 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, No 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 disposition, 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 glowing death's-head and marrow-bone stories of what a thorough-bred Malay pirate would do with SCARING AN ALLY. 153 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, however, 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 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. 66 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 154 DIFFICULTIES OF THE SIAMESE ARMY. 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 numbers 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 manœuvre, however, was our purpose in blockading the piratical squadrons, and, as the result proved, we were perfectly successful. On March 4th, 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 the coast was a sad calamity to the Malays; the more so that it |