Sam-tat-yon was always a loafer who obtained his food gratis from the traders at Malacca, and slept in any bazaar he could. At dawn one morning, Osman—an old man—a servant of Yusuf Hussain, got up from his bed and went to the beach, and while returning to his hut, saw Sam-tat-yon coming out of it with an axe in his hand.
Osman called out to Ali Hussain and Yusuf Hussain (both foreign traders) and told them what he had seen, and Sam-tat-yon, hearing this, dropped the axe, and with a small American knife, kept for husking coconuts, attempted to kill both Ali and Yusuf. They, however, got beneath the floor of the hut and made their escape, the former with a slight wound.
Sam-tat-yon then fell upon old Osman and slew him with the knife.
He next went up to some Burmans who were gambling, and dispersed them, after doing one of them some slight injury. Sam-tat-yon then ran off to the village of Perka.
At Perka, there were sleeping in a house his brother—a man named Kichyeti,—one Chestu Chulia, and some women and children.
Sam-tat-yon entered, closed the door, and stabbing his brother first in the chest and then in the abdomen, killed him. At the first cry of Kichyeti, Chestu Chulia and the others got up, and giving the alarm, tried to snatch away the knife. Some women from a neighbouring house then came and helped to arrest the murderer, whose own wife—one of those arriving to rescue Chestu Chulia—was wounded in the struggle.
The populace not unnaturally wanted to kill Sam-tat-yon on the spot, but they were prevailed upon to keep him for trial. Not being accustomed to guarding prisoners, and not liking to keep him in any of their houses, lest they should become polluted, they prepared a strong wooden cage, similar to those made for pigs that are to be slaughtered, and left the man in it with his hands tied.
(The Nicobarese fear the presence of a desperado, and are too ignorant to know how to guard him, and for these reasons they always kill the men of whom they entertain fear.)
After three or four days of the cage, Sam-tat-yon became quite subdued, and answered any inquiries about the occurrence. He fully admitted his behaviour, but attributed no cause to it. He simply said that he had been unwell for the last month, and could not take his meals properly, that he was unable to drink coconut milk, but lived upon warm water, and that he had not slept for several nights. In such a state of health he lost his senses, and therefore committed the crime. He stated that the Mussulman who was killed by him was not an enemy, but on the other hand, he and all the traders were his friends. Regarding his brother, he said that he had been kind to him.