DEPARTURE FROM PULO LEAT. 
257 
the bottom of the ship, and were immediately hoisted on deck. So 
invaluable a prize in our circumstances must have ensured, it will 
be imagined, all possible care; yet such was the inconsiderateness of 
the sailors, that they staved one of them in getting it over the side 
of the ship, through mere heedlessness. 
The Ambassador, during our absence from the island, had re- 
solved to embark with his suite in the barge, and with the cutter 
in company, to sail for Batavia that evening, for the purpose of 
obtaining as early relief as possible for his fellow-sufferers. Being 
informed of this arrangement by a message from Captain Maxwell, 
we hastened on shore. The barge had put off before we arrived, 
but waited for the cutter outside a reef about a mile and a half from 
shore. 
After taking a hasty farewell of my friends, I went on board the 
cutter, and reached the barge about half-past six. She contained 
the Ambassador, the Hon. Mr. Amherst, Mr. Somerset, the gen- 
tlemen of the suite, Mr. Cook, captain of the guard, and Lieutenant 
Hoppner commanding the boat, fifteen seamen, four marines, and 
two servants ; in all thirty-three. In the cutter were Mr. Mayne, 
master of the Alceste, Mr. Blair, midshipman, ten seamen, and three 
marines. Having been detained some time alongside each other in 
distributing arms and provisions, and in determining on signals and 
their mode of sailing, the boats got under weigh at seven o’clock, 
the cutter taking the lead. 
The objects immediately to be attended to were the sunken 
rocks which stretched out a considerable distance from the shores, 
and the pirates who infested the seas and inhabited the islands 
in our neighbourhood. To avoid the first, we stood directly out to 
sea for more than an hour, and then having sounded in nineteen 
fathoms, steered a southerly course : to avoid the pirates, we endea- 
voured to clear land during the night. 
At day-light the next morning no other land than the extreme 
point of Banca was visible. Our stock of provisions and water 
having been examined, a small allowance of each, with a proportion 
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