1832.] i ISLAND OF STJMATIIA. ' 229 
tiveness required. On descending to the gundeck, which was 
somewhat obscured by the closed ports, he started with surprise 
and alarm at the formidable appearance of what he at first mis- 
took for a range of wild buffaloes, lying on each side of the ship ; 
but he was soon given to understand, that these thirty-two- 
pounders were far more dangerous to pirates and murderers than 
all the buffaloes in the wilds of Sumatra. 
After feasting his eyes until he was satisfied, Mahommed took 
his leave, and soon filled with joy and admiration the bosoms of 
his mother and friends at Muckie, who had all given him up for 
lost. From that day forward this young man has been looked up 
to with more admiration and respect, on account of this perilous 
achievement, than Columbus was ever honoured with while living, 
for the discovery of a new world !* 
Nor was Mahommed Bundah alone in his feelings of increased 
admiration and respect for the American character, after the at- 
tack on Quallah-Battoo. The powerful rajah of Troumon, whose 
character we have already had occasion to mention in a favour- 
able hght, has often been heard to express his astonishment, that 
after he, with all his armed brigs, had vainly endeavoured for two 
years to reduce Quallah-Battoo, the Americans, with the crew of 
a single vessel, had destroyed it in two hours. 
The lust of cupidity and thirst for plunder, which, after the 
capture of the Friendship, spread like a contagion along the coast 
from one port to another, has measurably passed away ; and even 
the surviving rajahs of Quallah-Battoo now frequently express ' 
their wishes to be visited by our merchant vessels for the pur- 
poses of trade ; and profess that they intend hereafter so to de- 
mean themselves, as never again to provoke the visit of the big 
ships of war. 
In another point of view, they now behold our national char- 
acter in a new light. In the history of the past, the investment 
and capture of a native town was always followed, as a matter 
of course, by the possession and occupation on the part of the 
conquerors. When Quallah-Battoo was taken by the forces under 
* Such are the particulars, as often related by Bundah himself to Captain C. 
Williams, to whom we are indebted for many useful facts ; for he not only traded, 
but noted with an intelligent eye what he saw on the coast of Sumatra. 
