SHIPWRECK. 
273 
of ammunition, and returned with them early the next morning. 
The carronade being immediately mounted in the launch and loaded 
with cannister shot, its range and effect were tried and found so 
satisfactory, that the return of the Malays was heartily desired : 
they did not revisit the island till after the departure of the Ternate. 
Two boats were sent off to the ship during the day with some sick 
and lame men and a quantity of provisions and baggage, and a large 
raft was formed to assist in the conveyance of the persons and 
things that remained. 
On the 6th, all but the Captain and eighty men had left the 
island and were safe on board the Ternate, with the greater part of 
the removable packages. Early on the following morning, Captain 
Maxwell and the last of the party, after burning the fence and every 
article that could not be carried off, took their farewell of Pulo 
Leat. By ten o’clock, all the party being safely on board the Ter- 
nate, she got under weigh for Batavia Roads, and anchored in them 
on the afternoon of the 10th of March. 
The Princess Charlotte did not arrive off the island till several 
days after the Ternate had left it, and was then obliged by adverse 
currents to anchor twenty miles from the shore. One of her boats, 
having on board Mr. Mayne and Mr. Marrige, immediately at- 
tempted to reach it ; and on approaching the old landing-place, 
found a fleet of Malay prows at anchor. She immediately put about, 
but not before she was seen by the pirates, and chased by two 
heavy prows full of men. The pirates gained rapidly upon her, and 
but for one of those providential circumstances which had more 
than once saved the shipwrecked band, would have overtaken and 
overwhelmed her feeble crew. The winds had been so light, that 
the boat had been obliged to depend chiefly on her oars for making 
any way, whilst the large spread of canvass used by the prows, 
enabled them, even in a very light breeze, to go fast through the 
water. At the moment that escape seemed most doubtful, a heavy 
squall filled the sails of the boat, and frightened the Malays back to 
the island. 
N N 
