THE SAVAGE WORLD. 
170 
turbed, was a shade between ink and coffee; but no sooner had the triple line 
of Malays set themselves in motion, than the consistence and color became like 
that of pea-soup. 
“ On everything being reported ready, the soldiers planted their pikes be¬ 
fore them in the mud, each man crossing his neighbor’s weapon, and at the 
word ‘ March,’ away they all started in full cry, sending forth a shout, or war- 
whoop, sufficient to curdle the blood of those on land, whatever effect it may 
have had on the inhabitants of the deep. As the two divisions of the invading 
army gradually approached each other in pretty close column, screaming, and 
yelling, and striking their pikes deep in the slime before them, the startled 
animals naturally retired towards the unoccupied centre. Generally speaking, 
the alligators, or crocodiles, had sense enough to turn their long tails upon 
their assailants, and to scuttle off, as fast as they could, towards the middle 
part of the canal. But every now and then, one of the terrified monsters 
floundered backwards, and, by retreating in the wrong direction, broke through 
the first, second, and even third line of pikes. This was the perfection of sport 
to the delighted Malays. A double circle of soldiers was speedily formed round 
the wretched aquatic who had presumed to pass the barrier. By means of well- 
directed thrusts with numberless bayonets, and the pressure of some dozens of 
feet, the poor brute was often fairly driven beneath his native mud. When 
once there, his enemies half-choked and half-spitted him, till at last they put 
an end to his miserable days, in regions quite out of sight, and in a manner 
as inglorious as can well be conceived. 
“The intermediate space was now pretty well crowded with crocodiles swim¬ 
ming about in the utmost terror, at times diving below, and anon showing their 
noses above the surface of the dirty stream; or occasionally making a furious 
bolt, in sheer despair, right at the phalanx of Malays. On these occasions, half- 
a-dozen of the soldiers were often upset, and their pikes either broken or twisted 
out of their hands, to the infinite amusement of their companions, who speedily 
closed up the broken ranks. There were none killed, but many wounded ; yet 
no man flinched in the least. 
“The perfection of the sport appeared to consist in detaching a single croco¬ 
dile from the rest, surrounding and attacking him separately, and spearing him 
until he was almost dead. The Malays then, by main strength, forked him 
aloft over their heads on the end of a dozen pikes, and by a sudden jerk, 
pitched the conquered monster far on the shore. As the crocodiles are amphibi¬ 
ous, they kept to the water no longer than they found they had an advantage 
in that element; but on the two columns of their enemy closing up, the mon¬ 
sters lost all discipline, floundered up the weedy banks, scuttling away to the 
right and left, helter-skelter. ‘ Sauve qui peut! ’ seemed to be the fatal watch¬ 
word for their total rout. That prudent cry, would no doubt, have saved many 
of them, had not the Malays judiciously placed beforehand their reserve on each 
side of the river, to receive the distracted fugitives, who, bathed in mud, and half 
dead with terror, but still in a prodigious fury, dashed off at right angles from 
the canal, in hopes of gaining the shelter of a swampy pool, overgrown with reeds 
and bulrushes, but which most of the poor beasts were doomed never to reach. 
The concluding battle between these retreating and desperate crocodiles and the 
Malays of the reserve, was formidable enough. Indeed, had not the one party 
been fresh, the other exhausted, one confident, the other broken in spirit, it is 
