All The Clothes And
Boxes Of The Men, And The Sails And Cordage Of The Prau, Were
Cleared Off.
They had four large war boats, and fired a volley of
musketry as they came up, and sent off their small boats to the
attack.
After they had left, our men observed from their
concealment that three had stayed behind with a small boat; and
being driven to desperation by the sight of the plundering, one
brave fellow swam off armed only with his parang, or chopping-
knife, and coming on them unawares made a desperate attack,
killing one and wounding the other two, receiving himself numbers
of slight wounds, and then swimming off again when almost
exhausted. Two other prams were also plundered, and the crew of
one of them murdered to a man. They are said to be Sooloo
pirates, but have Bugis among them. On their way here they have
devastated one of the small islands east of Ceram. It is now
eleven years since they have visited Aru, and by thus making
their attacks at long and uncertain intervals the alarm dies
away, and they find a population for the most part unarmed and
unsuspicious of danger. None of the small trading vessels now
carry arms, though they did so for a year or two after the last
attack, which was just the time when there was the least occasion
for it. A week later one of the smaller pirate boats was captured
in the "blakang tana." Seven men were killed and three taken
prisoners.
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