148 MODE OF APPLYING NATIVE MATERIALS. my sampan, dove-tailed 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 with 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 plank 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 MODE OF APPLYING NATIVE MATERIALS. 149 longitudinal 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 Quedah to Singapore ; and, at any rate, I hardly think we can say of a people capable of exhibiting 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 nations than the earlier writers seem inclined to yield to them. The Portuguese historian, De Barros, for example, 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. 150 RETURN TO QUEDAH. 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 Effects of our Blockade.-Severity towards the Malays.—A Prahu full of Fugitives captured.-Intelligence suddenly gained of Siamese Army.-Deserters. - The Malay Forces outmanœuvred.-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 demi-culverin: 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 extemporized. Our rigid blockade had evidently pressed sadly upon the Quedah folk: 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 * "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. 152 "" 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 captains! the fighting captain a Siamese, the sailing one a Penang halfcaste but the care they took to keep out of gun-shot 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 the brig and her crew, if it should be her good fortune |