22

A WAR-FLEET HEARD OF.

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 carrying 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.

This fleet of prahus, styled by us a piratical one, sailed under the colours of the ex-rajah of Quedah; and although many of the leaders were known and avowed pirates, still the strong European party at Penang maintained 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 Emperor of Siam or the Emperor of Malacca, as

QUEDAH POLITICS.

23

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 Rajah of Quedah presented 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 Rajah 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 unheard-of atrocities upon the Malay inhabitants, he established 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.

24

THE SIAMESE REQUIRE OUR AID.

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 gun-boats- 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 upon 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 supported at the sacrifice of British justice towards the other; and, as usual, the unfortunate Malays were thrown overboard; their rights ignored,

RAPID EQUIPMENT OF PIRATE FLEETS. 25

themselves declared 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 Quedah. In the height of the south-west monsoon, when the bad weather 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.

26

THE MALAYS ARE WARNED

Knowing this, and feeling we had been perfectly checkmated, 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 town of Quedah, lying at the mouth of a river of the 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 immediately. 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 efforts 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 wellborn 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 spear, we