off the town of Luft on the 26th at noon. Twenty-four hours having been expended in fruitless negociation with the chief Moola Hussum, the Ternate. Nautilus, and Fury were anchored off the town, and the troops, preceded by the gun-boats, approached to the attack, which commenced at two o’clock in the afternoon of the 27th.
“The enemy made no resistance until the troops came close to the very strong fort, and attempted to force the gate; he then commenced a fire, I am sorry to say, most destructive, as your Excellency will see by the accompanying return, added to that of Lieutenant-Colonel Smith to the government[1]. The piratical vessels, eleven in number, 3 of them very large dows, were in the mean time burnt by the seamen; and the gunboats and the cruiser Fury, which being of light draught of water, had been towed within musket-shot of the fort, kept up a ruinous fire, which very much shattered it by sun-set: the Sheik then consented to yield up the place on the following day to the English, on the part of the Imaun of Muscat, together with all the property in it belonging to his Highness’s subjects; this was accordingly carried into effect, the Sheik departing after Lieutenant-Colonel Smith and myself had guaranteed his personal safety.
“The fort having been delivered in trust for the Imaun to Sheik Dewish, the head of the Benismain, a tribe of Arabs who have always been firmly attached to his Highness, I sailed next morning in la Chiffonne, leaving the Mornington to bring on the cruisers and the transport to Burka, off which place I anchored this day[2].
“The loss of the enemy has been very great; he acknowledged to upwards of 50, independent of those who were killed in the towers adjacent to the fort, and driven over precipices to the eastward thereof.”
The subject of this memoir was made a Commander in Mar. 1811, and posted from the Wilhelmina into the Sir Francis Drake frigate, July 31, 1812. His subsequent appointments were to the Malacca 36, Volage 22, and Theban 36. On the 28th June, 1813, he most gallantly headed a party of seamen in an attack upon the defences of Sambas, a piratical state on the western coast of Borneo[3]: the following is a copy of his official report on that occasion:–
“It affords me much satisfaction to communicate the good conduct and indefatigable exertions of the party of seamen belonging to H.M.S. Hussar, which you did me the honor to place under my orders, to co-operate with the detachment of troops commanded by Colonel Watson, of H.M. 14th regiment, for the reduction of the batteries at Sambas.
- ↑ La Chiffonne had 2 killed, 6 dangerously, 3 severely, and 8 slightly wounded, – the total loss we have not been able to ascertain.
- ↑ Dec. 7, 1810.
- ↑ See Vol. II. Part I. p. 357 et seq.
