502 OUTRAGE OF THE MALAYS. 
a few yards off the ship, had at least double the number of 
men in her that she had when she left the scales ; he imme- 
diately returned and inquired into this circumstance ; the men 
who were sent down to watch the boat in the river, then in- 
formed that they had seen her take in several men out of a 
ferry-boat at the mouth of the river, but as they all appeared 
to be "youngsters," they did not think the circumstance of 
sufficient importance to report it. Our suspicions were imme- 
diately excited that all was not right ; yet trusting they would 
not be permitted to go on board, it being contrary to the esta- 
blished regulations of the ship, in the absence of the captain, 
to admit more than two Malays on board her at a time, and 
deeming it too late to render any assistance if they were, the 
second officer and two men were sent to the beach to observe 
the movements on board, who almost instantly returned with 
the information that there was trouble on board, and that men 
were seen jumping overboard from her. 
" Convinced from this circumstance that we on shore had 
no time to lose, we immediately sprang into the ship's boat, 
and pushed off. Almost instantaneously crowds of Malays 
began to assemble on the points of the river, which are about 
sixty yards asunder, brandishing their weapons, and in other 
ways menacing us ; at the same moment a ferry-boat with 
eight or ten men in her, armed with spears and krisses, pushed 
off to intercept our passage out of the river, but by pulling 
directly for her and presenting a Malay sword, our only wea- 
pon, we succeeded in keeping them off. When we had clear- 
ed the river and come in full sight of the ship, we found the 
Malays had full possession of her, some of them walking 
about the decks, while others were making signals of success 
to the people on shore ; none of the ship's crew, except one 
man aloft, was to be seen. At this moment three Malay boats, 
with forty or fifty men each, came out of the river and pulled 
toward the ship and us ; we then concluded our only chance 
to recover the ship was by obtaining assistance from some 
other vessels, and for this purpose we made the best of our 
way to Muckie, where we knew two or three American ves- 
sels were lying. At one A. M. Ave reached Muckie, which 
lies twenty-five miles distant from Gluala Batoo, and found 
there ship James Monroe, Porter, of New- York, brigs Gov. 
Endicott, N. H. Jenks, of Salem, and Palmer, Powers, of Bos- 
ton, who determined, on hearing of our misfortunes, to pro- 
ceed to Q,uala Batoo and endeavour to recover the ship. 
" They accordingly got under way, but owjng^ to the light- 
