WHAT THE MERCHANTS SAV. 



£33 



of what any one else would call tlic "mcrcantilo" body 

 of Sincapore ; but to this iLiy he continues so to style 

 them, and to boast of them as a conclusivo baud. Wg must 

 therefore bear wbat tbey have to say, so far as this docu- 

 ment advances anything winch is not already repbed to. 



Its tlistinguisliing feature is uuscriipulousncss. It ia 

 evidently Mr. Hume's great guu^ — kept for the last— "Up 

 merchants, and afc 'em/' And they do rush incontinently 

 both at the Ilajah and myself. Disagreeing on one point 

 with their employer, these gentlemen assign to ntc the 

 honour of having fii-st made known to tbu wurld these 

 Serobas and Sakarrau pii*atcH. They had heard of the 

 Lanuna, the Sooloo3» the BakuiniB ; but never of tho 

 *Serebas and Sakarrans, "until tiie invasion of tbeir 

 country by Captain the Hon. H. Kcppel, in II.M.S, Dtdo; 

 a measure commented on by many at the time aa 

 unj Listifiable." 



For myself— /of coui*se can only reply to this as Captain 

 Hastings presently does to Mr, Hume — " My conduct has 

 been brought under the notice of my superiors, and by 

 them approved of" Kor let it be thought that approval 

 extends only to the mu/mer of amy/ing out operations. 

 The Judge of the Court of Admiralty baa, np to this 

 time, had to investigate and pronomice upon all cases of 

 piracy ; and it was decreed by Sir Stephen Lnshington, 

 whoso rule, " to decide every such case on its par- 

 ticuhir merits," I have already cited — it was by him 

 decreed that the JSuixjbas and Halaui'ans, eliastised by the 



