A CHALLENGE FROM THE PlRATEa 321 



tlie Diiteli Government, aud their request was imme- 

 diately granted. A few years ago these pirates sent 

 a challenge to the Dutch fleet at Batavia to come and 

 meet them in the Strait of Macassar, and several 

 officers assured me that five ships were sent. When 

 they arrived there no pirates were to he seen, but to 

 this day all believe the challenge was a hm^Jkle one, 

 and that the only reason that the pirates were not 

 ready to carry out their pai-t was because more men- 

 of-war appeared than they bad anticipated. A short 

 time after I an'ived l>ack at Batavia, a fleet of these 

 plunderers was destroyed in that very strait. One 

 chief, who was taken on the opposite coast of Borneo 

 a few years ago, acknowledged that he had previously 

 commanded two expeditions to the Macassar Strait, 

 and that, though the Dutch wardships had destroyed 

 his fleet both tiineSj he had been able to escape by 

 swimming to the shore. At Kema I saw one of the 

 five praus that were taken in that vicinity last year. 

 It was an open boat about fifty feet long, twelve 

 widcj and four deep. Tliere were places for five 

 oars on each side. At the bow and stem was a 

 kind of deck or platform, and in the middle of each 

 a small vertical post, on which was placed a long 

 swivel, throvTing a pound-ball. They do not, how- 

 ever, depend on these small cannon, but always ge^ 

 alongside a vessel as soon as possible, and then board 

 her at the same moment on all sides in overpowering 

 numbers. It is almost impossible to catch them un- 

 less it is done by surprise, and this they carefully 

 guard against by means of spies on the shore. Our 

 captain informed me that several times when he has 



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