J 831.] 
CHARACTER OP THE MALAYS. 
95 
Under such circumstances, were the inhabitants of Quallah-Bat- 
too to be considered and treated as a part of a body politic, when 
it is notorious that the inhabitants of Sumatra are divided into as 
many petty sovereignties as there are large rivers or ports in the 
island? Are they united together for the purpose of promoting 
each other's welfare, mutual safety, and advantage, by joint efforts 
of their own strength ? Have they a common government, com- 
mon rules, to which they hold themselves responsible, and whose 
authority they obey ? Have they been careful to avoid the vio- 
lation of their duties, in order that they may, consistently with 
moral justice, demand the observance of those rules at the hands 
of other nations and people visiting and trading on their coast ? 
It will be seen, in the following pages, that they have scarcely 
one of these essential requisites to constitute them a sovereignty, 
and entitle them to any of the formalities observed between na- 
tions. Indeed, at Soo-soo, but a few miles from Quallah-Battoo, 
there are other independent chiefs, who are often at war with their 
perfidious neighbours, in relation to whose character Horsburgh, 
in his valuable East India Directory, says, " Small ships frequent 
Quallah-Battoo; to procure pepper and other articles of trade ; but 
it is prudent to be always guarded against the perfidy of the na- 
tives, who have been several times successful in assaulting and 
taking possession of ships which came to trade with them." In 
one word, had the perpetrators of the outrage on the Friendship 
any plea to exempt them from the summary chastisement due to 
those whose crimes have placed them without the pale of the civil 
law 1 A milder method was, however, adopted, and would have 
been carried into effect, had their consciousness of guilt permitted 
them to listen to conditions, as will be seen in the sequel. 
To be fully prepared for either alternative. Commodore Downes, 
in compliance with his instructions, had been diligently assiduous 
to gain all the information it was possible to acquire,, both at Rio 
and Cape Town, respecting their national character, strength, and 
military resources. At the latter place in particular, he obtained 
such inteUigence as left no doubt on his mind of the piratical char- 
acter of the Quallah-Battooans, and the probable necessity of 
strong measures in procuring indemnification for the outrages com- 
mitted on the Friendship. He was also assured at the Cape, by 
British officers high in command, both in the army and navy ; 
