the _Malladu_, a river of the Eastern Archipelago, the
forts of Seriff Housman, a notorious and daring pirate, whose crimes had
paralysed the commerce of the seas of Borneo, and finally rendered
British interference absolutely necessary for the security of British
life and property. The action was one of the many that the suppression
of piracy in these regions has demanded--was gallantly fought, and full
reported in the journals of the time;--a narrow river, with two forts
mounting eleven or twelve heavy guns, (and defended by from five hundred
to one thousand fighting men,) protected by a strong and well-contrived
boom, was the position of the enemy. The English boats took the bull by
the horns--cut away part of the boom under a heavy fire; advanced and
carried the place in a fight protracted for fifty minutes. The enemy
fought well, and stood manfully to their guns. The mate of the
_Wolverine_ fell mortally wounded whilst working at the boom, axe in
hand; but his death was avenged by a wholesale slaughter of the pirates.
At two minutes to nine, those who had remained on board the _Vixen_
heard the report of the first heavy gun, and the first column of black
smoke proclaimed that the village was fired. On the evening of the 19th,
a detachment of ten boats, with fresh men and officers, quitted the
_Vixen_, and arrived at the forts shortly after daylight. The work of
destruction was complete. The boom, above spoken of, was ingeniously
fastened with the chain-cable of a vessel of three hundred or four
hundred tons; other chains, for darker purposes, were discovered in the
town; a ship's long-boat; two ship's bells, one ornamented with grapes
and vine leaves, and marked "_Wilhelm Ludwig, Bremen_," and every other
description of ship's furniture. Some piratical boats were burned,
twenty-four brass guns captured; the other guns spiked or otherwise
destroyed. Malladu ceased to exist; the power of Seriff Housman was
extinguished in a day.

Small wars, as well as great, have their episodes of touching
tenderness. Twenty-four hours after the action, a poor woman, with her
child of two years of age, was discovered in a small canoe; her arm was
shattered at the elbow by a grape-shot, and the poor creature lay dying
for want of water, in an agony of pain, with her child playing around
her, and endeavouring to derive the sustenance which the mother could no
longer give. The unfortunate woman was taken on board the _Vixen_, and
in th