r heads,
for, instead of bringing them up alongside, they simply came up bows on.
As they struck the side the Malays tried to climb up, but, attacking as
they did only at three points, our men had little difficulty in keeping
them off, thrusting through the nettings with their boarding-pikes, and
giving the Malays no time to attempt to chop down the nettings with their
creases.

"'Are you all loaded?' the captain shouted.

"'Ay, ay, sir,' came from the guns.

"'Train them so as to take the proas between wind and water,' the captain
said; 'then run the port guns back to their places; we shall be attacked
on that side directly.'

"The sea indeed was sparkling with phosphoric fire, as a crowd of canoes
from the shore paddled out towards us. The steward now lit and ran up half
a dozen lanterns. We got the guns over in time, but before we could load
them the Malays were swarming up the side.

"'Take three men, Pinder, and load the guns,' cried the captain; 'we will
keep these fellows off.'

"The same order was given to the boatswain with regard to the guns on the
starboard side. It was exciting work, for spears were flying in showers,
stink-pots were hurled over the nettings, and the yelling and shouting
were deafening. Our men were sticking to their pikes, for they had been
ordered to keep their pistols in reserve in case the pirates obtained a
footing on deck. There were two little guns on the poop, and when I had
loaded the guns on the port side the captain sent me up to load these. I
crammed them with bullets up to the muzzle, and then ran them to the poop
railing, and placed one of the hands there with a lighted match. We had a
tough ten minutes of it, and if the canoes had come up at the same time as
the proas it would have gone hard with us; but the last broadside that had
been poured in had sunk two of the big craft, and the other had drifted
away, so that, in fact, we had only the shore canoes to cope with. We had
hard work to keep them back, but none of the natives managed to cross the
netting along the waist of the ship, though a few shoved themselves
through holes that they hacked with their creases.

"Some managed to swarm up by the cable on to the bows, but three men who
were stationed there disposed of them before enough could gain a footing
to be dangerous. The captain had been keeping the guns in reserve in case
the proa that had dropped behind at first should come on, but he now saw
that she was low