from the
private log of one of the officers who was present in the barge
during the whole time. I was not there myself. In his narrative
it will be observed that he makes no mention of the natives who
came down upon them having _thrown spears_ at them, although in
the extract from the "Times" it is so stated. It would appear
also that there was some mistake as to the number of men on
board of the prahus and the number killed. A war prahu generally
contains from fifty to eighty men. Some are smaller, and
occasionally they are larger, but not often. Capt. Keppell
states fifty men to be the usual number in his work; and, in his
conflict with the pirates, estimates the force accordingly. Now
the first day there was one war prahu, which ran up a creek;
and, on being fired at, the crew deserted her. On the second day
there were five prahus, all captured. On the third day the five
prahus engaged were not captured, the boat returning to the ship
after the captain was wounded; so that in all it appears that
there were nine prahus; and, allowing eighty men to each, the
force would only amount to 720 men, or about one half of the
number stated, viz. 1330. How the killed, amounting to 350, or
about half the number, were arrived at and estimated, it is
impossible to say; but in the narrative of the officer, which I
have given, the major portion of the crews deserted the prahus
and got on shore.]

Our captain having now nearly recovered from the wound which he had
received, we found that our destination was Borneo; but previous to the
ship getting under weigh, the boats were ordered to be manned and armed,
to proceed on an excursion to Romania Point, distant about thirty miles
from Sincapore. It was expected that we might there fall in with some of
the piratical vessels which so completely infest the Indian Archipelago;
and if so, we trusted to give them a lesson which might for a time put a
check to their nefarious and cruel system of plunder and rapine. I found
that my name was down in the list of the party selected for the
expedition. Bidding, therefore, a temporary adieu to Sincapore, on the
2d of August we set off on the expedition, with a force consisting of
two barges, one cutter, and a gun-boat belonging to the merchants of
Sincapore, which had been expressly built to resist any attacks of these
bold assailants.

Although the real o