1845.] RECEPTION BY THE SULTAN. 227 



thus giving cause for further discussion, perhaps at the 

 twentieth discharge. 



We now witnessed the absurdity of all this parade of 

 their guns, not one of them was loaded ! and it was 

 some time before they could collect their amunition, part 

 of which was obtained from the Bugis merchants, residing 

 at the extreme end of the town ; one reason, perhaps, for 

 their wishing us to anchor off that position. They had, 

 moreover, but one rammer, and having no cartridges 

 made, were compelled to raise the guns in their arms at 

 an elevation of thirty or forty degrees, to put the powder 

 in. Of shot they had none; musketry none, but of 

 sumpitans with poisoned arrows, with Sagais expert in 

 their use, an abundance. It occupied exactly twenty-five 

 minutes to fire twenty-one guns ; it was returned by one 

 of our barges, without a failure of a tube, in two and a 

 half minutes, followed by a congreve rocket, which lost 

 itself at full range in the mountain opposite to the town ; 

 very much to the astonishment of the Sagais, who natu- 

 rally enough termed the rocket a fire sumpitan, or as 

 named by our Malay friends at Sarawak and Borneo, a 

 sumpitan api. 



These ceremonies completed, we landed, and proceeded 

 to the palace, but not attended with any of the state ob- 

 served at Gunung Taboor. The reception room here, which 

 was in the palace of the Sultan, was, although large, and 

 exhibiting more state in its trappings, dismal and dark ; 

 it was furnished with an imposing throne, surrounded by 

 steps, and hung with heavy crimson curtains, behind 

 which we frequently detected the bright inquisitive eyes 

 and white foreheads of the ladies of the court. Seats 



Q2 



