448 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1817. 



unsavoury mess. All the bread, 

 except a few pounds, was lost. 

 The men had half allowance of rum 

 divided between dinner and supper, 

 (sometimes more on hard fags,) 

 and the officers two glasses of 

 wine at dinner, and a quarter al- 

 lowance of rum (a small dram- 

 glass) at supper. It is astonishing 

 how soon order sprung out of 

 confusion, and the general cheer- 

 fulness and content which pre- 

 vailed, for Saturday night was 

 drank in defiance of the Malays. 



A small bag of oatmeal was 

 fomid one morning, which some 

 of the young Scotch midshipmen 

 considered as their own, and sat 

 down, with great glee and smiling 

 countenances, round a washhand 

 basin full of burgoo, made from 

 it J but they reckoned too securely 

 on the antipathies of their English 

 friends, (for not thinking this, 

 perhaps, a proper time for indul- 

 ging national prejudices) they 

 claimed their share, and managed 

 to get through it without a wry 

 face. A few weeks schooling on a 

 desert isle would also be a great 

 blessing to many thousands who 

 are capriciously unhappy in the 

 midst of superfluity, and wretched 

 only because they have never 

 known distress. 



ITie guards at the posts, cover- 

 ing the boats, were generally un- 

 der charge, alternately, of Lieut. 

 Hay, Messrs. Casey, Johnstone, 

 Sykes, .\bbot, Brownrigg, and 

 Hoi)e. The garrison duty, at 

 night, was conducted, in turns, 

 by the surgeon, chaplain, Messrs. 

 Eden, Raper, Mostyn, Stopford, 

 and Gore ; thus making it light, 

 and enabling them to keep tlieir 

 eyes open, and walk vigilantly 

 round to oberve that all the sen- 



tries were on the alert, and called 

 out every quarter of an hour j 

 the younger midshipmen, Messrs. 

 Maxwell, Martin, Hawthorn, Gor- 

 don, and Browne, being perched, 

 in rotation, on the look-out rock 

 during the day, to watch the mo- 

 tions of the pirates, and give no- 

 tice of any ship or vessel which 

 might appear in the offing. 



As there is no evil from which 

 some good may not be derived, so 

 the young officers had, on the pre- 

 sent occasion, an opportunity of 

 marking the resources which spring 

 from self-possession and cool ex- 

 ertion, even under the most ap- 

 palling difficulties ; and thereby of 

 imbibing a character of prompti- 

 tude, with a contempt of helpless 

 indecision — a failing of all others, 

 in cases of danger or emergency, 

 not only the most injurious to 

 private fame, but to the public 

 service. 



It is somewhat remarkable, 

 that, during our stay here of nine- 

 teen days, exposed alternately to 

 heavy rain, and the fierce heat of 

 a vertical sun, none were taken 

 sick, and those who landed £0 

 (some very ill) all recovered, ex- 

 cept a marine, who was in the last 

 stage of a liver complaint, con- 

 tracted whilst in China, as one of 

 guard to the Embassador. Ano- 

 ther man, of very troublesom* 

 character, thought proper to leave 

 his companions on the third day 

 after landing. He may have been 

 bitten by a serpent in the woods, 

 and died there, or have fallen into 

 the hands of the savages ; but he 

 was never afterwards heard of. 

 We marked with oil and blacking, 

 in large characters, on the rocks, 

 the date of our departure, to be a 

 guide to any that might come 



there 



