183 



nant Milnes in commaDcl, as next senior officer, 

 he accordingly stoned for the town early in the 

 morning of the 16ih, accompanied by Mr, Lewift, 

 whose presence was no ftirther required, as the 

 pro^^pect of an advance was impn^bable. An escort^ 

 of course, accompanied the party, which experi- 

 enced no oppositioiu 



Captain Wyllie had no sooner arrived at Ma- 

 lacca than he despatched a re- in force m en t to the 

 stockade, and, a day or two subsequently, a su- 

 hahdar's party with three barrels of ammunition. 

 This was to have been relieved by one of equal 

 strength, as it wast conjectured that the constant 

 passing and repassing of military would prevent 

 the enemy makini^ much pwgte&s in blockading 

 the road, until the subsidence of the panic in Ma- 

 lacca would admit of coolies being procured to 

 cut a passage for the guns through the obstruc- 

 tions. Both of these parties suffered so severely 

 from iheenemy*.^ fire, and the ranjows that Lieu- 

 tenant Milnes was unable to fulfil the instructi- 

 ons, and the forest re*eciioed with the fall of gi- 

 gantic trees. The force in advance now muster- 

 ed one hundred rank and file, inclusive of wound- 

 ed. 



On the night of the eighteenth, or, more strictly 

 speaking, one in the morning of the nineteenth, 

 just as the moon dipped the upper edge of her 

 disc behind the wood,* a sudden assault, for 

 Vhich the troops were prepared, was made on 

 the stockade, but the assailants had hardly emerg- 



* The Malavs aiwayiielect the lecrirtf (I^jhtd, or stiddcn ohsru rattan, of 

 the mum *j a fir tlwe tar a. ni IIju eye nat being fully accuj- 

 tonied to iho altered hi : a • 



1 

 1 



,; or one tif thr-?e crnshiu^ ininij- 



