374 PIRATES IN NEIGHBOURHOOD. 



by a small court -yard or garden, in which grew 

 plantain and cocoa-nut trees. The inhabitants were 

 now said to be suffering greatly from small-pox, and 

 also from fever and ague, this being the unhealthy 

 season of the year in Timor. 



On going on board in the evening, we found a 

 small schooner had come in under Danish colours, 

 that had been trading among the neighbouring 

 islands. Her master said she had been nearly 

 taken on the north side of the island by six or seven 

 prahus that had pulled off to her during a calm, 

 and that she escaped only by a lucky breeze springing 

 up. It was reported, also, that two months ago an 

 English whaler had been taken on the north coast, 

 within thirty miles of Coupang. She had sent a 

 boat ashore with a party to get wood, where they 

 were cut off by the natives ; a squadron of prahus 

 then put off for the ship, on seeing which, the 

 master abandoned his vessel, and went off in his 

 boats to two other whalers that were in sight in the 

 offing. His ship was boarded by the prahus, plun- 

 dered, and burnt before the other vessels could 

 come up to her assistance. The Malays, and other 

 maritime inhabitants, that are settled on the coasts 

 of these islands, are just in that state of quasi civi- 

 lization in which piracy is most rife. Like the 

 Greeks of old, before the time of Herodotus, or the 

 Northmen among the European nations some hun- 

 dreds of years ago, piracy is considered honourable 

 among them, rather than otherwise. If a Malay 



