r fired a broadside, and hauled down her
colours. They were all got off safely the same night, and Captain
Pellew, after arranging with the Governor of Samarang for sending on
shore the prisoners, who far outnumbered his own crew, returned to port
with his prizes.

On the arrival of the _Psyche_, Sir Edward sailed from Madras, with the
_Culloden_ and _Powerful_, seventy-fours; _Caroline_ and _Fox_,
frigates; _Victor_, _Samarang_, _Seaflower_, and _Jaseur_, sloops of
war; and _Wexford_, a large Indiaman, fitted as a troop-ship: with five
companies of the 34th regiment, and a company of artillery, under
Lieutenant-Colonel Lockhart. The squadron proceeded first to Prince of
Wales' Island, where it embarked the Royals, and the 34th; and on the
20th of November sailed finally for its destination. On the morning of
the 5th of December it arrived off Point Panka, the eastern extremity of
Java; and Sir Edward sent a summons to M. Cowell, commander of the
Gallo-Batavian force, to surrender the ships of war under his orders.
"The British," he wrote, "are the natural friends of the Dutch. We are
impressed with correspondent sentiments. It is become our duty to
prevent the Dutch ships of war from acting under the control of France
in hostility to the British." He then proposed that the ships of war,
and all vessels under French colours, be given up, promising in that
case security for the inhabitants and garrison; and threatening, in the
event of a refusal, those hostile operations which the naval and
military forces were jointly prepared to accomplish. Captain Fleetwood
Pellew, with a military officer, and the Admiral's secretary, delivered
this proposal to the French commodore; but that officer, in violation of
the flag of truce, detained them all as prisoners, and returned an
answer of defiance.

The force assembled for the attack was such as might deter the enemy
from attempting resistance, with a sufficient force of small vessels to
be equal to the service, if the line-of-battle ships should be unable to
get up. At the entrance of the river, about ten miles up the harbour,
the _Culloden_ and _Powerful_, though they had been previously
lightened, and trimmed to an even keel, to equalize their draught of
water fore-and-aft, grounded on what was called the bar, and which
proved to be a flat, several miles in extent. Part of their water was
started, and their guns, shot, provisions, and whatever would materially
lighten them, we