The pirate captain at once sprang forward, and, with his kreese in his mouth, scrambled up our side, followed by a score of his men, and gained the poop deck of the ship!
Abandoning our battery, we gathered in the waist, and I called to the carpenter to pick off the Malay captain. He nodded, and, taking a careful sight, fired, and the Malayan fell dead among his men. Our other riflemen were meanwhile dropping those of the proa who had followed their captain.
Just then the wind freshened, and by great good fortune the proa’s grapnel disengaged itself and she dropped astern.
Calling upon my men, we made a dash upon the few remaining Malays and fairly drove them overboard. I then put the helm down, and as we came round on the other tack and gathered headway, I stood down on the proa, a good wrap full, and striking her fair and square amidships cut her to the water’s edge.
Our victory was now complete, and as the first proa, having disentangled herself from the wreck of her foremast, was coming down, with sweeps out, to rescue the survivors of her consort, I made all sail and kept on my course, leaving them to their own devices.
The next day we fell in with a Dutch man-of-war brig, lately out from Batavia. I reported the affair to her, and she made all sail for the straits in hopes of capturing the pirates, who, if they were caught, would have received a short shrift, for the Dutch were very active in the suppression of piracy in those waters.
The 15th of November we passed through the Straits of Sunda and laid our course to the westward. The wind continued generally from the southeast, but it was extremely variable, and on the 18th it increased to a brisk whole sail breeze, attended with showers and occasional squalls.
That night the barometer went down in a most astonishing manner and the sea rose without any seeming cause, for the wind was not heavy, while the air was close and the temperature unusually sultry.
“What do you think of it, Captain Archer?” said I, as we both looked at the barometer in the cabin.
“I think we are about to have some nasty weather. It would not surprise me if we caught the tail end of a typhoon.”