t likely to be deterred
by difficulties. A small native force of about forty men accompanied
them, making, with our own, between eighty and ninety people. The
forts having been destroyed, no further obstacles were expected
to our advance beyond the felling of trees and the vast odds as to
numbers in case of attack, the pirates being reckoned to be about
six thousand Dyaks and five hundred Malays.

The evening set in with rain and hazy weather. Our native skirmishing
parties were returning to their boats and evening meals; our
advancing party had been absent about an hour and a half, and I had
just commenced a supper in the Jolly Bachelor on ham and poached eggs,
when the sound of the pinnace's twelve-pounder carronade broke through
the stillness of the night. This was responded to by one of those
simultaneous war-yells apparently from every part of the country. My
immediate idea was that our friends had been surrounded. It was
impossible to move so large a boat as the Jolly Bachelor up to their
assistance; nor would it be right to leave our wounded without a
sufficient force for their protection. I immediately jumped into my
gig, taking with me a bugler, whom I placed in the bow, and seeing
our arms in as perfect readiness as the rain would allow us to keep
them in, I proceeded to join the combatants.

Daylight had disappeared, as it does in tropical climates, immediately
after the setting of the sun. The tide had just turned against me;
and as I advanced up the river, the trees hung over many parts,
nearly meeting across; at the same time the occasional firing that
was kept up assured me that the enemy were on the alert, and with all
the advantages of local knowledge and darkness on their side. From
the winding of the stream, too, the yells appeared to come from every
direction, sometimes ahead and sometimes astern. I had pulled, feeling
my way, for nearly two hours, when a sudden and quick discharge of
musketry, well on my left hand, intimated to me that I was approaching
the scene of action; and, at the same time, passing several large
canoes hauled up on the bank, I felt convinced that my anticipation
was right, that our party were surrounded, and that we should have to
fight our way to each other. My plan was to make it appear as if I was
bringing up a strong re-enforcement; and the moment the firing ceased,
I made the bugler strike up "Rory O'More," which was immediately
responded to by three British cheers, and