. Three Malay
boats, with about fifty men, now issued from the river in the direction
of the ship, while the captain and his men, concluding that their only
hope of recovering their vessel was to obtain assistance from some other
ships, directed their course towards Muchie, where they knew that
several American vessels were lying at anchor. Three American captains,
upon hearing the misfortunes of their countrymen, weighed anchor
immediately for Quallah Battoo, determined, if possible, to recover the
ship. By four o'clock on the same day they gained an anchorage off that
place; the Malays, in the meantime, had removed on shore every moveable
article belonging to the ship, including specie, besides several cases
of opium, amounting in all to upwards of thirty thousand dollars. This
was done on the night of the 9th, and on the morning of the 10th, they
contrived to heave in the chain cable, and get the anchor up to the
bows; and the ship was drifting finely towards the beach, when the
cable, not being stopped abaft the bitts, began suddenly to run out with
great velocity; but a bight having by accident been thrown forward of
the windlass, a riding turn was the consequence, and the anchor, in its
descent, was suddenly checked about fifteen fathoms from the hawse. A
squall soon after coming on, the vessel drifted obliquely towards the
shore, and grounded upon a coral reef near half a mile to the southward
of the town. The next day, having obtained a convenient anchorage, a
message was sent by a friendly Malay who came on board at Soo Soo,
demanding the restoration of the ship. The rajah replied that he would
not give her up, but that they were welcome to take her if they could; a
fire was now opened upon the Friendship by the vessels, her decks were
crowded with Malays, who promptly returned the fire, as did also the
forts on shore. This mode of warfare appeared undecisive, and it was
determined to decide the contest by a close action. A number of boats
being manned and armed with about thirty officers and men, a movement
was made to carry the ship by boarding. The Malays did not wait the
approach of this determined attack, but all deserted the vessel to her
lawful owners, when she was taken possession of and warped out into deep
water. The appearance of the ship, at the time she was boarded, beggars
all description; every part of her bore ample testimony of the scene of
violence and destruction with which she had been visited