PIRACY AND SLAVE TRADE. 
630 
bow, and opened a fire. The brig could not bring her guns to 
bear, it being quite calm and having no steerage way, but she fired 
as opportunities offered until all her ammunition was expended. 
The pirates kept up a constant fire, and so soon as the brig ceased 
firing they pulled up and boarded her, upwards of five hundred 
men jumping at once on deck. The Captain and Mate jumped 
into the sea, and clinging to fishing stakes were rescued after being 
in the water upwards of twenty hours. The pirates seized the 
owner, Mr Thornton, whom they immediately put to death. For a 
long time nothing was heard of the vessel, which the pirates took 
with them, but a brig answering to the description of the General de 
Koch was afterwards reported to have been wrecked or run aground 
on the island called Pulo Bauwal, a little to the north of Cape, 
Sambar on Borneo, a noted piratical haunt, and having been' 
cleared of the goods in her was sfet on fire. The pirates were 
thought to belong to Reti or Linga, and part of the cargo found its 
way to tlje latter place. The native part of the crew of the General 
de Koch who survived the fight, were put on board one of the 
pirate prahus, which separated from the rest and sailed to a place 
in Borneo called Tanjong Kalowang a little to the west of Banjer- 
massin where they were sold to the iihabitants at sums of from 7 
to 14 Spanish dollars each. Four of them afterwards seized a boat 
and made their escape and suceeded in reaching Java. 
The pirates ot the Moluccas at this time had attained considerable 
strength, principally under the command of a renowned chief 
named Rajah Jilolo, a descendant of a Tidore prince of the same 
name, who about thirty years previously, on the sultan and his son 
being deported to Ceylon, had set at defiance the power of the Dutch 
Company, and taken possession of the Alfurian districts under the 
jurisdiction of Ternate. He was afterwards obliged to take refuge 
in the island of Ceram, from whence he more than once sent out 
expeditions against the Dutch settlements. Towards the close of 
the year 1823, Mr Merkus, the Governor of the Moluccas, 
despatched a corvette to obtain information of Rajah Jilolo'’s 
proceedings. The corvette soon returned and reported that Rajah 
Jilolo had built a fort at Hatiling on the north coast of Ceram, 
and that a number of native vessels were found there. Rajah 
Jilolo refused an interview to the commander of the corvette, and 
at last opened a fire from the fort upon her. After an unsuccessful 
attempt to cut off the prahus lying in the river Hatiling, the 
corvette returned to Amboyna. Mr Merkus immediately sent 
two corvettes and a detachment of 60 soldiers against these pirates. 
The two vessels came to anchor before Hatiling on the 5th October, 
and a boat was sent on shore with a letter from the Governor 
in which the Rajah was invited to proceed on board these vessels 
to Amboyna with his first secretary, and a person called Kaptain 
Laut, and there make the arrangements with the Netherlands 
government which lie had hitherto neglected. An hour was 
