SHORT RATIONS.

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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 Halkett 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 gun-boats. 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

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A LONG AND DISTRESSING PULL.

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 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 difficulty 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 promise 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,

ZEAL OF MY MALAYS.

339

my crew zealously wrapping part of their wearing 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.

I have been thus minute in the last two days' operations, to show the reader how zealous, docile, and cheerful the Malays could be when the occasion required it. They had had no rations since the previous day at about 8 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.