SAILING FROM MONTEVIDEO--DESCRIPTION OF THE ISLAND OF TRISTAN
D’ACUNHA--ST. PAULS--ENGANO--ARRIVAL AT BENCOOLEN AND DESCRIPTION.
Agreeably to orders from the navy department, the commander of the
Peacock was required to proceed to the west coast of Sumatra, to
ascertain whether Commodore Downes had obtained redress for the murders
and robbery committed on board the ship Friendship, of Salem, by the
natives of Qualah Battu; and if it should appear that from any cause
such redress had not been effected, then the Peacock, in conjunction
with the United States’ schooner Boxer, was to proceed to Qualah Battu,
and, if possible, to obtain possession of the murderers, and transport
them to the United States for trial; and also to demand indemnification
for the heavy losses sustained by the owner. If these demands were not
complied with, the town was to be destroyed.
The Boxer not having yet joined us, orders were left for her commander
to proceed to Bencoolen, in the island of Sumatra. On the evening of
the twenty-fifth of June, the ship got under way, from the bay of
Montevideo. As we slowly receded from the port, the feeble light on the
mount shone like a distant star through the hazy atmosphere; and the
thousand lights in the unfortunate town of San Felipé appeared like
the glimmerings of the firefly in a midsummer’s night, revelling amid
the light vapours arising from marshy ground; the brilliant light on
the Flores also was in full view, throwing its extended beams far and
wide over the tremulous sea. Our progress during the night was very
slow--Flores and Lobos, and the serrated mountains of Maldonado, found
us at the dawn of day, fanning along slowly, with an air which scarcely
ruffled the ocean’s surface. Nothing occurred to us beyond what
generally befalls the sons of the ocean, in running down ten thousand
miles of coasting. Scarcely were we clear from the muddy waters of La
Plata, and had launched amid the waves of the great Southern ocean,
when squally weather assailed us, and close-reefed topsails were
resorted to rather more frequently than is pleasant even to those who
live upon the mountain-wave. The ship was at one time rolling her
channels in before a strong westerly wind; at another, lying with her
broadside deeply submerged by severe squalls from the northwestern
quarter, the gun-deck being ankle-deep in water, and washing from side
to side. _Life-lines_ were secured from gun to gun to support the
constant passing of men fore and aft the deck. On the fifteenth of
July, the snow-clad mountains of Tristan d’Acunha appeared, lighted by
a brilliant morning-sun, and towering to a height estimated at between
nine and ten thousand feet.
This island is occasionally resorted to for water, live stock, fruit,
vegetables, butter, &c.; the former may be had in abundance on the
northeast side, where, in a clear day, it may be seen rushing from
above, white as the snow on the mountain-top, and dashing on the beach,
from a cataract of fifty feet in height. Owing to the steepness of
the anchorage-ground and the frequency of sudden squalls, it is most
safe “to lay off and on,” and send a boat on shore. Vessels which
prefer anchoring, run in until the watering-place bears southwest by
south, about one mile distant, where they find seventeen fathoms, in a
gravelly bottom, mixed with broken shells.
This place was originally settled in 1811, by the unfortunate Jonathan
Lambert, of Salem, who was drowned in going to Inaccessible island. It
has ever since been occupied by an English sergeant and family, from
the Cape of Good Hope, by order of the British government, who took
possession of it, as was said, with the ostensible motive of keeping it
as an outpost to St. Helena, at the time of Bonaparte’s imprisonment
there.
It may be doubted whether a desire to prevent the Americans from
resorting to the island, as a place of rendezvous in the event of
another war, was not the real motive which actuated the British to take
it within their protection.
On the nineteenth, having then been out twenty-three days, we
obtained soundings in sixty fathoms water, on bank Lagullus, off
the Cape of Good Hope. Dashing onward through storm and tempest,
endeavouring to keep about latitude 38° or 39°, on the sixth of
August, forty-one days from our departure from the bay of Montevideo,
we descried on the northeast the uninhabited island of St. Pauls.
As we approached from the southward and westward, it bore the exact
resemblance of a long-nosed porpoise; but when passing its eastern
extremity, and bearing off about four miles north, it appeared like a
spermaceti whale, the head being to the eastward: fronting it was a
moderately-high conical peak: its highest point would scarcely exceed
five hundred feet. Three or four days subsequently, we encountered a
very heavy gale from northnortheast, accompanied by a tremendous swell
of the ocean; during its violence, a sea of uncommon height and volume
struck the ship, and threw her nearly on her beam ends, completely
overwhelmed the gig in the starboard-quarter, crushed it into atoms
in a moment, and buried the first three ratlines of the mizen-shrouds
under water.
It was fortunate that we escaped without further danger, as it came
thundering onward “mountains high.” A universal silence prevailed
during its threatening approach: after it had passed, great
apprehensions were expressed that it would “break on board,” and
completely sweep the deck.
As we proceeded along and gradually made northings from longitude
about 90° east, the winds began to be variable and the weather warm;
greatcoats and peajackets disappeared from among the crew, and finally
white duck trousers and shirts were alone seen. The southeast tradewind
did not unequivocally set in until we had arrived in the latitude of
16°, and longitude 102°.
[Sidenote: ENGANO--BENCOOLEN.]
On the twenty-third of August we made the island of Engano, the
southernmost of the chain of islands which runs parallel with the west
coast of Sumatra, and which is inhabited by a vile race. From Engano,
the winds were very light and variable from the southeast, accompanied
with lightning, thunder, and rain, till the twenty-eighth, when we
anchored in the bay of Bencoolen; about midway between the Ratones or
Rat island and the point on which the Doosoon, or village of Bencoolen
or Marlborough is situated, and about three and a half miles from
either place.
This settlement was ceded by the English to the Dutch government,
with all the British possessions in Sumatra, by the treaty of the
Netherlands in 1824, in exchange for Malacca and the claims of the
Dutch to the island of Singapore. Rat island basin is resorted to by
vessels intending to remain some time, more particularly during the
prevalence of the northwest gales from October to March; but coasting
craft always resort there during the southeast winds, which last
through the other half of the year.
A boat, with acting Lieutenant Sinclair, was despatched to the town,
and in a short time a very polite invitation was received from J. H.
Knoerle, Esq., the Dutch resident, to breakfast with him the next
morning, and to Captain G. and myself to reside with him during the
ship’s stay. By this boat we heard of the entire destruction of Qualah
Battu, by the Potomac, which happily precluded the necessity of an
unpleasant visit, and saved the officers and crew the painful duty
which would otherwise have devolved on the Peacock. The demolition of
this place struck terror into the inhabitants of all the native ports
on the coast, and will doubtless produce a salutary effect.
[Sidenote: RAT ISLAND.]
In the afternoon, we took a boat, and landed at Rat island. Two acres
of dry land would cover it; the coral reefs, which extend northward
and southward, are very extensive and dangerous. The island contains
four or five wretched huts, including a stone building now in a state
of much dilapidation, and a godown or magazine at the building, which
is open at the sides. In heavy westerly gales, the spray of the sea
breaks over this speck in the ocean. Fish is the chief food of the
inhabitants. The teeth of these islanders (possessed by few of them)
are of a deep black colour, and show that they are frequently employed
in chewing areca, &c. The chief man, called Rajah Mundo, is a Malay,
about seventy years of age, but still active and healthy, with features
so brown and deeply furrowed as to resemble a piece of soleleather.
When we entered his abode, a stone building, it reminded me of
Hogarth’s picture of the last day, when every thing has fallen into
decay. The steps were nearly all broken down; one of the two wooden
pillars which supported the portico was decayed, and had fallen; the
roof was gone, and the walls were falling; two half-starved monkeys
stood as sentries, at the door, having something which was intended as
an apology for a tail. The other articles of furniture in this abode
consisted of two Chama gigas, or the great giant clams, the root of a
tree for seats, two broken earthen pots for cooking, and a joint of
bamboo instead of a water-bucket, which latter served likewise the
purpose of a drinking-vessel, as we found in asking for some water.
The floor, apparently, had never been washed; the ceiling was of
coal-black; and centipedes, lizards, and snails, were crawling in every
direction over the walls. In the only dry corner, lay a sick daughter,
between two mats; but the mother of the rajah formed the consummation
of this dreadful picture: at the back door stood what I suppose must
be called a human being. We started back in amazement on seeing this
frightful object, thinking her to be deranged; the horror of Macbeth,
on seeing his chair occupied in the banquet-scene, by the ghost of
the murdered Banquo, could not have been surpassed by our own on this
occasion. The words of the royal thane rushed upon my memory, and I
instinctively uttered--
“Avaunt and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee:
Thy bones are marrowless!
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes.
Which thou dost glare with.”
“Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves shall never tremble.”
The only article of dress on this singular being was a filthy, ragged
waist-cloth, apparently covered with vermin, from the belt of which was
suspended a long knife; her gray elf-locks scattered by the wind--her
eyes running with rheum--her face and hands covered with dirt--her body
loathsome with leprous spots; contrasted with her dark Malay skin, gave
her a truly hideous appearance; added to this, a solitary long black
tooth projected over her under lip, and her trembling and attenuated
frame displayed the influence of that baneful narcotic, opium, to
which she was addicted. Wretchedness could not portray a more faithful
picture: imagination had nothing to conceive. We gladly left this
loathsome habitation, upon a ramble about the coral reefs for shells,
and shortly embarked for the ship, rejoiced at being removed from a
horrid object, which long after haunted my imagination by night and
day. I have since learned that she is a fiend in human shape, living by
means the most diabolical.
[Sidenote: BENCOOLEN--NUTMEGS.]
The next morning we landed at Bencoolen, and found in waiting a
neat carriage, in which we were conveyed into a handsome park, and
subsequently to the government-house. Here we were received, at the
lower end of a long staircase, by the resident, and ushered up stairs
into the great hall, through two lines of soldiers, as fierce in
appearance as were ever exhibited on a stage: they consisted of Malays,
Sumatrans, and Javanese, from Neas and Borneo, and from the bay of
Bengal, turbaned, whiskered and mustachoed, and in some cases furnished
with long beards, armed with swords, the cris or crooked dagger,
pistols and muskets.
A most substantial breakfast was quickly served in great variety, and
placed in the verandah, for the benefit of the air. With a cloudless
sky above, the most beautiful scenery surrounding us, and a hospitable
reception, we had nothing more to desire. The government house is
situated in a park, embosomed in flowers, fruit, and forest-trees,
guarded by line hedges and a neat bamboo fence. The road around
the grounds was lined with the male and female nutmeg-trees, the
clove-tree, and the graceful areca-palm, laden with its yellow fruit,
hanging in large clusters under the branches. Here and there were
interspersed beautiful flowering trees in great variety, and creeping
plants intertwined among the branches. The female nutmeg was loaded
with fruit resembling, in colour, a straw-coloured peach, but pointed
slightly towards the stalk, like a pear. The fruit which had become
ripe, had burst about half an inch of its outer-covering, and displayed
a beautiful network of scarlet mace, covering a black shining hard
thick shell, in which lay concealed the nutmeg itself. The bark of the
nutmeg-tree is smooth, and of a brownish-gray colour; the branches are
handsome and spreading; the leaves, elliptical and pointed, afford a
very grateful aromatic odour: on the same tree may be seen the fruit in
its progressive stages to maturity, and the white blossoms hanging in
clusters, encircled by the yellow leaves from which they have burst.
From the centre of the flower proceeds an oblong reddish knob, which is
the fruit. I was told that a tree which produces, daily, throughout the
year, one nutmeg, is considered very productive and profitable, even at
the present low prices. At the Dutch company’s late sales, they brought
from fifty-two to fifty-six dollars the pecul, equal to one hundred
and thirty-three and one third pounds avoirdupois; and the mace,
from ninety-two to ninety-five dollars. The male nutmeg-tree, being
necessary to the propagation of the fruit, cannot be dispensed with;
it is generally filled with white blossoms, and interspersed among its
female companions. The operation of loosening the inner shell of the
nutmeg is a tedious process, and is performed over a slow fire; when
the shells are sufficiently loose to rattle they are broken, assorted,
soaked several times in water and lime--then placed in dry boxes or
small rooms to sweat; and finally, are packed in dry chunana or lime
made from seashells. The small and oblong fruit is not merchantable;
the best kind is large, round, heavy and firm, of a lightish-gray
colour on the outside; a strong fragrant smell; and when pricked, the
oil should readily ooze out.
Very extensive plantations of this great article in commerce, are in
the vicinity of Bencoolen. Those which belong to the Dutch government
are twelve miles distant, on a fine road extending towards the
mountains, about one hundred miles long. I visited some Parsees, who
were busily employed in curing nutmegs and mace. Large quantities of
the latter were spread on mats, exposed to the sun, where they remain
to dry, from six to ten, and from four to six o’clock. The extreme heat
of the day dries them too much and renders them brittle and deficient
in fragrance; if placed in too moist an air they are subject to decay
and will breed worms; they should be chosen fresh, tough, oleaginous,
of an extremely fragrant smell and of a bright reddish-yellow. The
rind of the nutmeg when not too dry, is preserved in sirup and the
entire fruit, when nearly ripe, made into a delicious and ornamental
sweetmeat; it is cut part of the way down, at regular intervals and
fancifully ornamented by neat scollops, peaks, and leaves, showing at
one view the straw-coloured outer-covering, the scarlet mace, and the
inner black shell, covering the nucleus of the whole, the nutmeg.
Pepper, another article of export to a great extent, is cultivated
throughout the island. It is propagated by cuttings or layers, as we
raise grape-vines: if suffered to trail on the ground, it produces no
fruit, and support is consequently necessary: it climbs from twelve to
twenty feet high: the blossom is white; the berries, when at maturity,
are red and much resemble branches of red currants. In a favourable
season it produces two crops.
The only fortification which Bencoolen possesses, is at Fort
Marlborough--it is in excellent order, and situated but a short
distance from the landing-place. There are not more than fifty or
sixty Dutch soldiers in the place. The town is built on a point of
land named Onjong Carang: it is of moderate elevation--falls back
into low swampy ground, and is at times severely visited by that
fatal disease, the jungle fever: the liver complaint is also very
general. Bencoolen and the ten doosoons or villages, contain about
eighteen thousand inhabitants, consisting of a few Dutch, some of the
descendants of Englishmen, who speak the English language--Chinese,
Javanese, Bengalees, Parsees, Sumatrans, Malays, &c. The Chinese occupy
an enclosure in the centre of the town, and have a Budhist or temple:
they bear the same characteristic marks here as elsewhere, being
industrious, frugal, and thrifty. Each doosoon is governed by a rajah,
who is chosen from among themselves, and if approved by the residents,
he cannot lose his office during life, unless for the commission of
some flagrant crime. The residents and a certain number of Rajahs form
a court for the trial of all cases requiring legal investigation. If
a criminal is condemned to suffer death, a copy of the trial is sent
to the governor-general of Java, and if approved by him, the sentence
is carried into execution. It is degrading to humanity to see the
abject air with which the resident is addressed by the lower order of
Sumatrans. They stand, when they enter his presence, with an aspect
of humble submission: their bodies are bent--the palms of their hands
are seen resting on their knees, and fear is strangely marked on their
countenances.
The Dutch Government has two schools here--they are conducted upon
the Lancasterian plan; the first, which is kept in an outer room of
the government-house, contains about twenty-five scholars. The pupils
were learning arithmetic, to write on sand, and to read from certain
portions of the New Testament printed in the Malayan language. The
translation was made and published, many years since, at the expense of
the pious and well-known philanthropist, Robert Boyle, when the place
was under the jurisdiction of the British Government, and was sent
forth into various parts of the island. The second school is in the
orphan-house, about a mile from the resident, on a piece of high ground
sloping towards the bay, of which it has a fine view: in front of this
building are several acres of land, substantially walled in with brick,
and covered with fruit-trees and vegetables. The boys are educated in
this school for agents, writers, &c. The principal articles of export
from Bencoolen, to which may be added Trippany or Bichos do Mar, and
some edible bird’s-nests, have already been named. Coffee and rice are
raised here only in small quantities; they are imported from Padang for
home-consumption, and consequently are not articles for export.
All the fruits common to tropical climates, and many which I am assured
are not known in any other part of India, flourish here in great
abundance. The animal used for domestic labour is the carbou, called
here carboo: he resembles the buffalo without any hump between the
fore-shoulders: although naturally of a dull, obstinate and capricious
nature, he acquires a habit of surprising docility; at the command of
his master, he lifts the shafts of the cart with his horns, places
the half yoke (which is secured at the end) across his neck, and then
stands quietly until he is secured.
I have several times been amused to see three or four children climbing
on his neck, and seating themselves on his back, to take a ride. He was
easily governed, after they were seated, by a rope which passed through
the cartilage of the nose. He is a stout-built and strong animal, but
cannot endure much fatigue, and has shorter legs and larger hoofs than
the ox, with a thick sinewy neck. The horns of this animal are very
large and generally turn backward, being nearly square at the base.
Like the hog, he is fond of wallowing in the mire, and embraces every
opportunity to cover himself with it--being thus cooled and protected
from the heat of the sun, and from troublesome insects.
The bay of Bencoolen is extensive, and so much exposed that, when
the sea-breeze commences, it throws in a heavy sea, and renders
it impossible to carry off sufficient water for a large number of
hands without causing a long delay. Owing to this cause, we were
unable readily to obtain the required supply of water; and yams and
bread-fruit being scarce, both of which we much needed, we took our
departure, leaving instructions for the “Boxer” to follow us to Manila.
[Sidenote: DEATH OF THE RESIDENT.]
Having taken leave of the very kind and hospitable Mr. Knoerle, the
resident, and of his companion, the Rev. W. C. Slingerland Conradi,
pastor of the Dutch Church, I shortly found myself once more on board.
I have lately received the afflicting intelligence that Mr. Knoerle,
while on a journey to Palembang, was murdered at the instigation of
some of the principal rajahs of Bencoolen. His body was literally cut
in pieces, and then burnt with great exultation, by the perpetrators
and their friends. The question naturally occurs, what could have
incited the rajahs to commit so atrocious and fiend-like an act? The
answer is--_revenge_, which is always deeply seated in the heart of a
Malay.
Mr. Knoerle, imprudently, injured the happiness of many families by his
unrestrained passions, and thereby sealed his horrid fate. He should
ever have borne in mind that he lived among
“Souls made of fire, and children of the sun,
With whom revenge is virtue.”