78

ESCAPE OF SIAMESE PRISONERS.

our readiness to give them shelter, and shortly afterwards two Siamese effected their escape under difficult circumstances. The musquito squadron were just on the point of separating to take up their stations for the night-a step we always took care to carry out after dark, in order that the enemy might not know our position-when a voice was heard to hail us from a long tongue of mud which ran out to seaward from the northern point of the river. At first it was supposed to be the whoop of a night-hawk, but it was repeated, and our men declared it to be the voice of either Chinese or Siamese. Mr. Jamboo was called for, and, in a dialect which was so unmusical as to resemble the sounds emitted by knocking two hard pieces of wood together, he soon ascertained that they were two Siamese men who had escaped from the Malays, and in an attempt to cross the mud-flat had sunk into it exhausted, and unless we could reach them would assuredly be drowned or devoured by the alligators upon the return of the tide. The pinnace was now forced in as near as possible to the mud-bank, and three or four of the English seamen having volunteered to assist the unfortunates, they stripped themselves, and aided by oars and boards slipped over the mud to where the Siamese were fairly bogged, pulled

THEIR SUFFERINGS.

79

them out by sheer strength and activity, and brought them off amidst the cheers of all our party. The blue-jackets washed them, and clothed their shivering frames in sailors' frocks and trousers, persuaded them to drink a glass of raw Jamaica rum each, and then, with considerable truth, said, half-laughing, "Why, Jack, your mother would not know you!" -a remark the Siamese would probably have acquiesced in, had they understood the rough but good-natured fellows.

The tale of the Siamese was soon told: they were father and son, and had originally entered the province of Quedah from the neighbourhood of Bankok. At the time of the Malay inroad, the father was a petty merchant, barber, and painter, at an island called Lancávi. They were made prisoners, or rather slaves; worked like horses, starved, and constantly saw their countrymen ereesed before their eyes. They escaped, stole a boat, and sailed with her across to the mainland, by following the coast of which they knew they must reach English territory. At last they observed our ship in the offing, and rightly conjecturing that some of her boats would be found off Quedah, had happily succeeded in reaching us without being seen by the lynx-eyed look-outs of Quedah.

80

CURIOUS MODE OF SKETCHING.

They stayed some days with us, and appeared anxious to evince their gratitude in every possible way. The old man, as a Siamese artist, presented each officer with specimens of his skill; the most remarkable point in his sketches being the fact of his wonderful departure from all our preconceived notions of drawing.

For instance, in a pencil sketch of Buddha, drawn for me, in which that divinity is represented reposing upon one leg, and looking uncommonly like Canova's famed figure of a dancing-girl reposing, and almost as unnatural, the draughtsman commenced with the toes and worked gradually up to the gorgeous headdress, yet preserving a just proportion in all the parts of the figure; as a whole, the result may be said to have been more curious than pleasing. When the Siamese eventually proceeded to Penang, they left us favourably impressed with their disposition and ability, although they evidently lacked the energy of character which marked the Malays about

us.

ANXIETY OF COMMANDING OFFICER.

81

CHAPTER VII.

The Anxiety of the Officer commanding the Blockade. Intelligence received of the Pirate Fleet.-My good Fortune in sailing with so excellent a Captain.-A Tropical Thunderstorm.-Jadee kills the Wind.-How Jadee learnt to kill the Wind.-The Dutch generally disliked.-Jadee's Piratical Friends attack a Junk.-The Defeat and Flight of Jadee's Friends.-They are saved by the Rajah of Jehore. —Killing the Wind.

it

OUR enterprising captain in the "Hyacinth" had, as may be supposed, a very anxious time. The extent of coast to be blockaded was not less than fifty or sixty miles in extent, much of it but little known; numerous islands, rivers, and creeks existed, of which charts and surveyors had no cognizance. He knew

well that a large force of prahus and armed men were in the province; their exact whereabouts, however, was preserved a perfect secret, and Captain Warren's fear was, lest they should fall upon his boats or the gun-boats with vastly superior forces, and carry off an easy victory. The "Hyacinth" therefore, like a troubled spirit, was ever flitting up and down

G

82

INTELLIGENCE OF PIRATE FLEET.

between Quedah and a spot of equal importance called the Parlis River, situated twenty miles further north, and in the entrance of which the ship's cutter and No. 1 gun-boat, the "Diamond," were stationed. In the second week of January, information was received that a considerable number of the war-prahus seen by us at Trang during the previous autumn, had succeeded, under their renowned leader, Datoo Mahomed Alee, in getting into the Parlis River, and were employed in the defence of that neighbourhood. It became therefore necessary to reinforce the Parlis blockading force, and I was ordered to proceed there for that purpose. Delighted at the prospect of seeing more of this interesting country, my craft was soon under weigh, and spinning along the coast, which, to the northward of Quedah River, rapidly improved in appearance ; the picturesque group of islands known as the Lancavas, and beyond them the Laddas, lying to seaward, and spurs of mountain land from the central chain approaching close to the coast of the mainland.

All, at any rate, was bright and beautiful to me: placed, young as I was, in a position of trust and responsibility; enjoying all the sweets of command, and still too young to feel its anxieties, it was indeed the sunny side of the world that I was then enjoying;