1832.] 
ISLAND OF SUMATRA. 
225 
pirates, an event which marked the commencement of eighteen 
hundred and thirty-two, our imports from the east were augmented 
more than .one third, while our exports of domestic produce were 
increased in the same ratio. The increase was still greater in the 
year eighteen hundred and thirty-three,- up to the month of 
September. To China, the exports of domestic produce were 
-$537,774 ; foreign produce, $895,774 ; and to Asia generally,- 
domestic produce, $60,152 ; foreign, $477,042. Imports from 
China, $7,541,570 ; Asia generally, $269,425. 
Along the whole pepper coast, since the visit of the Potomac, 
a remarkable change has taken place in the deportment of the 
natives. Ever since that (to them) mejnorable event, they have 
been far less presuming and insolent ; are guilty of fewer unjust 
exactions; acknowledge on all hands that they have received new 
lights on the subject of our national character, and confess that,- 
contrary to their former opinion of our being " merely a nation 
of traders," they now own the superiority of our power, and sen- 
sibly feel that we have both the will and the means to redress our 
grievances. - . 
The port of Muckie, as we have already stated, is a place of 
considerable trade, about twenty-five miles south of Quallah-Bat- 
too. Here resides a young native of some consequence and no- 
toriety, both as a pilot and pepper trader, by the name of Mahom- 
med Bundah. He is shrewd, intelligent, and enterprising, and is- 
respected by his countrymen as second only to the rajah. He is 
well acquainted on the coast, particularly at Laboan Hadjee, a, 
port but a few miles further north, occasionally visited by Amer- 
ican traders. 
Previous to the capture of the Friendship, a similar project was 
in agitation, by a gang of young desperadoes at Laboan Hadjee, for 
seizing an American vessel then lying at that port ; and as they 
wished for a bold and active leader, they sent a message to Ma-- 
hommed Bundah, at Muckie, stating that they wished to see him 
on business of importance. Ignorant of their intentions, the young 
man repaired to Laboan Hadjee, where they let him into the secret 
of their conspiracy, and solicited him to join the expedition, with 
a promise of one half the booty which might accrue from the ad- 
venture, in case of success. 
Young Bundah resisted the temptation, as he says, on the 
