g
more about the chief place in Banda, called Banda-Neira, he kept to the
resolution he had all along in his mind, to try and get possession of
it. In spite of the south-east monsoon, away we sailed, therefore, for
the Java Sea. As it would not have done to let the Dutchmen in other
places guess what we were about to do, he determined to take the ship
through the passage between the big island of Borneo and Malwalli. It
was a touch-and-go matter to get through, for in every direction there
were coral-reefs, which would pretty soon have brought us up if we had
run on them; but we had look-outs at the jib-boom-end and the
topsail-yard-arms, and as the water was clear, and the weather fine, we
escaped all danger.

"Early in the morning, on the 8th of July, we made the Banda Islands,
and by night were up with the place called Banda-Neira. As we stood in,
the guns from the fort opened on us; but seeing they did us no harm,
they soon left off throwing away their powder. That very evening there
was a sudden change in the weather, and it came on to blow and rain very
hard.

"`Too good a chance to be thrown away,' thought the captain. `We shall
never be able to take this place in common ship-shape fashion; but as
the Mynheers won't be expecting us on such a bad night as this, and
what's more, won't hear us coming, I'll just see if we can't get on
shore in the boats and give them a surprise.'

"Now, anyone looking at Banda-Neira would have thought that it would be
quite impossible to take it with the small force we had got with us;
but, as I said, our captain wasn't a man to trouble his head about
impossibilities.

"The place was two miles long and half a mile wide, and protected by no
less than ten sea-batteries and two strong forts--one called Belgica,
and the other Nassau. They commanded each other, as they did the ten
sea-batteries. The first alone mounted fifty-two heavy guns; and
altogether there were no less than one hundred and thirty-eight guns in
the place. Having run in within two cables' length of the shore, we
dropped our anchors, and at 11 p.m. the boats under the command of
Captain Cole shoved off with three hundred and ninety men, including
officers. The place we were to pull for was the east point of Banda.
What a night it was--blowing and raining like fury and dark as pitch!
but that, in many respects, was all the better for us. Captains Cole
and Kenah arrived first at the appointed spot in their