210 QUEDAH FORT ABANDONED. as the Malays, they had been swept down by the tide upon the stockade, and the majority were drowned, or killed by alligators. We respected 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; and, having made them swear to escort the women with all speed to Province Wellesley, 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. SIAMESE IN POSSESSION OF THE FORT. 211 CHAP. XVI. The Siamese in Possession of the Fort. Description of the The Divan. A Fort. A Siamese Military Swell. AT daybreak on March 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 province. 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 212 DESCRIPTION OF THE FORT. with any of the Siamese irregulars. The gun-boat 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. Neglect and ruin were everywhere apparent; the moat was half filled with rubbish, and evidently was left dry at low water: across it, opposite the only gateway 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 Braganza were still comparatively fresh upon the metal: but how have they, the descendants of Alfonso 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 DESCRIPTION OF THE FORT. 213 of mat residences of the usual Malay order of archi tecture. 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 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 * Moor was the term applied to the Mahometan traders. 214 A SIAMESE MILITARY SWELL. "bang," ruffled up their feathers at my no less pugnacious 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 addressed, gave himself as many airs as the most thoroughbred 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 was, and by his gesticulation and apparent solemnity of bearing when addressing me, moved the 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 was presented to a tall intelligent person, the commandant. Jamboo made, in a disagreeably abject manner, a long speech on my behalf; in which |