Embassy to the Eastern Courts of Cochin-China, Siam, and Muscat. Edmund Roberts
and stormy ocean, than to remain in a city whose former inhabitants were spread in dust amid its ruins.
CHAPTER II.
SAILING FROM MONTEVIDEO—DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLAND OF TRISTAN D’ACUNHA—ST. PAULS—ENGANO—ARRIVAL AT BENCOOLEN AND DESCRIPTION.
Agreeably to orders from the navy department, the commander of the Peacock was required to proceed to the west coast of Sumatra, to ascertain whether Commodore Downes had obtained redress for the murders and robbery committed on board the ship Friendship, of Salem, by the natives of Qualah Battu; and if it should appear that from any cause such redress had not been effected, then the Peacock, in conjunction with the United States’ schooner Boxer, was to proceed to Qualah Battu, and, if possible, to obtain possession of the murderers, and transport them to the United States for trial; and also to demand indemnification for the heavy losses sustained by the owner. If these demands were not complied with, the town was to be destroyed.
The Boxer not having yet joined us, orders were left for her commander to proceed to Bencoolen, in the island of Sumatra. On the evening of the twenty-fifth of June, the ship got under way, from the bay of Montevideo. As we slowly receded from the port, the feeble light on the mount shone like a distant star through the hazy atmosphere; and the thousand lights in the unfortunate town of San Felipé appeared like the glimmerings of the firefly in a midsummer’s night, revelling amid the light vapours arising from marshy ground; the brilliant light on the Flores also was in full view, throwing its extended beams far and wide over the tremulous sea. Our progress during the night was very slow—Flores and Lobos, and the serrated mountains of Maldonado, found us at the dawn of day, fanning along slowly, with an air which scarcely ruffled the ocean’s surface. Nothing occurred to us beyond what generally befalls the sons of the ocean, in running down ten thousand miles of coasting. Scarcely were we clear from the muddy waters of La Plata, and had launched amid the waves of the great Southern ocean, when squally weather assailed us, and close-reefed topsails were resorted to rather more frequently than is pleasant even to those who live upon the mountain-wave. The ship was at one time rolling her channels in before a strong westerly wind; at another, lying with her broadside deeply submerged by severe squalls from the northwestern quarter, the gun-deck being ankle-deep in water, and washing from side to side. Life-lines were secured from gun to gun to support the constant passing of men fore and aft the deck. On the fifteenth of July, the snow-clad mountains of Tristan d’Acunha appeared, lighted by a brilliant morning-sun, and towering to a height estimated at between nine and ten thousand feet.
This island is occasionally resorted to for water, live stock, fruit, vegetables, butter, &c.; the former may be had in abundance on the northeast side, where, in a clear day, it may be seen rushing from above, white as the snow on the mountain-top, and dashing on the beach, from a cataract of fifty feet in height. Owing to the steepness of the anchorage-ground and the frequency of sudden squalls, it is most safe “to lay off and on,” and send a boat on shore. Vessels which prefer anchoring, run in until the watering-place bears southwest by south, about one mile distant, where they find seventeen fathoms, in a gravelly bottom, mixed with broken shells.
This place was originally settled in 1811, by the unfortunate Jonathan Lambert, of Salem, who was drowned in going to Inaccessible island. It has ever since been occupied by an English sergeant and family, from the Cape of Good Hope, by order of the British government, who took possession of it, as was said, with the ostensible motive of keeping it as an outpost to St. Helena, at the time of Bonaparte’s imprisonment there.
It may be doubted whether a desire to prevent the Americans from resorting to the island, as a place of rendezvous in the event of another war, was not the real motive which actuated the British to take it within their protection.
On the nineteenth, having then been out twenty-three days, we obtained soundings in sixty fathoms water, on bank Lagullus, off the Cape of Good Hope. Dashing onward through storm and tempest, endeavouring to keep about latitude 38° or 39°, on the sixth of August, forty-one days from our departure from the bay of Montevideo, we descried on the northeast the uninhabited island of St. Pauls. As we approached from the southward and westward, it bore the exact resemblance of a long-nosed porpoise; but when passing its eastern extremity, and bearing off about four miles north, it appeared like a spermaceti whale, the head being to the eastward: fronting it was a moderately-high conical peak: its highest point would scarcely exceed five hundred feet. Three or four days subsequently, we encountered a very heavy gale from northnortheast, accompanied by a tremendous swell of the ocean; during its violence, a sea of uncommon height and volume struck the ship, and threw her nearly on her beam ends, completely overwhelmed the gig in the starboard-quarter, crushed it into atoms in a moment, and buried the first three ratlines of the mizen-shrouds under water.
It was fortunate that we escaped without further danger, as it came thundering onward “mountains high.” A universal silence prevailed during its threatening approach: after it had passed, great apprehensions were expressed that it would “break on board,” and completely sweep the deck.
As we proceeded along and gradually made northings from longitude about 90° east, the winds began to be variable and the weather warm; greatcoats and peajackets disappeared from among the crew, and finally white duck trousers and shirts were alone seen. The southeast tradewind did not unequivocally set in until we had arrived in the latitude of 16°, and longitude 102°.
ENGANO—BENCOOLEN.
On the twenty-third of August we made the island of Engano, the southernmost of the chain of islands which runs parallel with the west coast of Sumatra, and which is inhabited by a vile race. From Engano, the winds were very light and variable from the southeast, accompanied with lightning, thunder, and rain, till the twenty-eighth, when we anchored in the bay of Bencoolen; about midway between the Ratones or Rat island and the point on which the Doosoon, or village of Bencoolen or Marlborough is situated, and about three and a half miles from either place.
This settlement was ceded by the English to the Dutch government, with all the British possessions in Sumatra, by the treaty of the Netherlands in 1824, in exchange for Malacca and the claims of the Dutch to the island of Singapore. Rat island basin is resorted to by vessels intending to remain some time, more particularly during the prevalence of the northwest gales from October to March; but coasting craft always resort there during the southeast winds, which last through the other half of the year.
A boat, with acting Lieutenant Sinclair, was despatched to the town, and in a short time a very polite invitation was received from J. H. Knoerle, Esq., the Dutch resident, to breakfast with him the next morning, and to Captain G. and myself to reside with him during the ship’s stay. By this boat we heard of the entire destruction of Qualah Battu, by the Potomac, which happily precluded the necessity of an unpleasant visit, and saved the officers and crew the painful duty which would otherwise have devolved on the Peacock. The demolition of this place struck terror into the inhabitants of all the native ports on the coast, and will doubtless produce a salutary effect.
RAT ISLAND.
In the afternoon, we took a boat, and landed at Rat island. Two acres of dry land would cover it; the coral reefs, which extend northward and southward, are very extensive and dangerous. The island contains four or five wretched huts, including a stone building now in a state of much dilapidation, and a godown or magazine at the building, which is open at the sides. In heavy westerly gales, the spray of the sea breaks over this speck in the ocean. Fish is the chief food of the inhabitants. The teeth of these islanders (possessed by few of them) are of a deep black colour, and show that they are frequently employed in chewing areca, &c. The chief man, called Rajah Mundo, is a Malay, about seventy years of age, but still active and healthy, with features so brown and deeply furrowed as to resemble a piece of soleleather. When we entered his abode, a stone building, it reminded me of Hogarth’s picture of the last day, when every thing has fallen into decay. The steps were nearly all broken down; one of the two wooden pillars which supported the portico was decayed, and had fallen; the roof was gone, and the walls were falling;