1832.] 
OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS. 
119 
the necessary precaution to prevent surprise ; and the conse- 
quence was, that the Malays salhed' from their secret places, and 
cut off and destroyed the English divisions to a man. 
" In addition to this, I learned that the natives had made several 
recent attempts to cut off vessels, and that the Quallah-Battooans, 
in particular, were notoriously the greatest pirates on the coast of 
Sumatra ; that they even extended their depredations to the coast 
of Java, where they were never known to spare man, woman, or 
child, which.had unfortunately fallen into their hands. 
" Such was the character of these people, as derived from sources 
entitled to my highest confidence ; such it was represented to me, 
at a subsequent period, while in Batavia ; and such the whole of 
my own personal observations have confirmed it to be. 
" In addition to niy instructions, these were the hghts I had to 
guide me in my operations, on the still imperfectly known coast 
of Sumatra, and its still less perfectly known inhabitants. I felt 
the full weight of my responsibility, and even a painful anxiety to 
merit the approbation and meet the reasonable expectations of 
my country. I could not beheve, for a moment, that my govern- 
ment despatched a vessel of such dimensions, to a point so dis- 
tant, and through seas so dangerous, without attaching to her 
movements expectations of national importance. 
" The knowledge I had acquired of the character of the people 
against whom I had to operate, left me no room to doubt, that a 
movement prompt -and efficient in its character could alone carry 
with it the least possible hopes of success; to approach that 
coast, and to make that movement, was a task neither hght-nor 
easy of execution ; what I had to do I knew must be done quickly. 
The coast was to be made, the town approadhed, and the charac- 
ter of the vessel concealed ; a landing effected through a danger- 
ous surf, and the place surrounded, before the Malays could pene- 
trate our true character, or know the object of our visit. 
" The intelligence brought by the party sent to reconnoitre, 
showed but too clearly what must have been the resuh of a dis- 
. embarcation in the day. It must have ended in one of two ways ; 
either the natives would have fled, leaving their empty huts, 
which, if destroyed, could have been in short time rebuilt ; or 
they would from forts, and from their jungles, have severely an- 
noyed, if not totally defeated, our light divisions. In either case 
