THE INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO. 
587 
✓ 
summoned the commander to surrender but lie continued on his 
course under the fire of the pirates, and at last hit one of the boats 
which threw them into confusion, and they ceased the pursuit for 
a time. They however silently followed the brig during the night 
time, and in the morning gaining upon her they asked if it was 
the same which they had engaged the previous day. On the 
commander answering that it was, they again summoned him to 
surrender. As he did not seem inclined to comply they again 
opened their fire but without any other result than making holes 
in the sails and damaging the rigging a little. The brig would 
undoubtedly however have fallen into the hands of the pirates had 
she not managed to keep them oil by a well directed fire until a 
breeze sprung up which carried her beyond their reach, and it 
was only on her coming to anchor in the roads of dagal that they 
abandoned the pursuit. In the same month the cruize boats had 
an engagement with pirates near Samarang in which Capt. Stout 
lost his life by the bursting of a gun. 
The island of Banka appears to have been peculiarly exposed 
at all times to the ravages of pirates. In the report on this island 
by Dr Horsfield* will "be found a full account of the successive 
attacks made upon it and which a gradually effected almost the 
complete ruin of the island.” They are said to have arisen from 
the war in which the Dutch had been engaged with the princes 
of Rhio and Linga. The first attack was in the year 1789 by the 
Malays from Siak, formerly a dependency of Johore, on the settle¬ 
ment of Klabbet-lawa, which they surprised, and from which they 
carried away a large quantity of tin, and the most valuable effects 
of the inhabitants. A second visit was paid to it a few year later 
by the Lanuns who had been called in to the assistance of the 
Linga chiefs. After that period the Lanuns made regular descents 
upon the coasts of this unfortunate island, ascending the rivers, 
plundering and destroying the settlements and carrying away hund¬ 
reds of the inhabitants into slavery, the chiefs being murdered. 
Those of the inhabitants who escaped falling into the hands of 
the pirates, fled into the woods, where the greater number perished 
from fatigue and want. The Lanuns were afterwards joined by 
the Rayats or sea-gypsies who made a large portion of the 
population of the Johore kingdom, and who lived entirely in their 
boats. These piratical tribes formed at last settlements on various 
points of the island, from which they incessantly harassed the 
natives of the island, carrying desolation in all quarters, and 
intercepting the supplies which the Sultan of Palembang sometimes 
sent to his unfortunate subjects in Banka. Many of the inhabitants 
emigrated from the island, and numbers gave themselves up to 
voluntary slavery to slave-dealers from Macassar, who visited 
the coast with small vessels for the purpose of receiving those 
* Journal I. Archipelago vol. II. p. 299 . 
