sides.

But those Amoy men are pigs! They burnt joss-paper; sounded their gongs,
and received us with such showers of stones, hot-water, long pikes, and
one or two well-directed shots that we hauled off to try the effect of
our guns, sorry though we were to do it, for it was sure to bring the
Dutchmen upon us. Bang! bang! we fired at them, and they at us; three
hours did we persevere, and whenever we tried to board, the Chinese beat
us back every time, for her side was as smooth and as high as a wall,
with galleries overhanging.

We had several men killed and hurt; a council was called; a certain
charm was performed by one of our holy men, a famous chief, and twenty
of our best men devoted themselves to effecting a landing on the junk's
deck, when our look-out prahus made the signal that the Dutchmen were
coming; and sure enough some Dutch gun-boats came sweeping round a
headland. In a moment we were round and pulling like demons for the
shores of Biliton, the gun-boats in chase of us, and the Chinese howling
with delight. The sea-breeze freshened and brought up a schooner-rigged
boat very fast. We had been at work twenty-four hours and were heartily
tired; our slaves could work no longer, so we prepared for the
Hollanders; they were afraid to close upon us and commenced firing at a
distance. This was just what we wanted; we had guns as well as they, and
by keeping up the fight until dark, we felt sure of escape. The
Dutchmen, however, knew this too, and kept closing gradually upon us;
and when they saw our prahus bailing out water and blood, they knew we
were suffering and cheered like devils. We were desperate; surrender to
Dutchmen we never would; we closed together for mutual support, and
determined at last, if all hope of escape ceased, to run our prahus
ashore, burn them, and lie hid in the jungle until a future day. But a
brave Datoo with his shattered prahus saved us; he proposed to let the
Dutchmen board her, creese [stab with a _kris_] all that did so, and
then trust to Allah for his escape.

It was done immediately; we all pulled a short distance away and left
the brave Datoo's prahu like a wreck abandoned. How the Dutchmen yelled
and fired into her! The slaves and cowards jumped out of the prahu, but
our braves kept quiet; at last, as we expected, one gun-boat dashed
alongside of their prize and boarded her in a crowd. Then was the time
to see how the Malay man could fight; the creese was worth twenty
sw