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HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY. 221

'Morning-ton,' twenty-two guns, ' Teignmonth,' sixteen guns,
and other vessels, to the eastward, to protect the trade in the
Bay of Bengal, and in adjacent waters, one vessel being also
stationed, under the orders of Mr. R. T. Farquhar, Lieutenant-
Governor of Penang, or Prince of Wales' Island, which the
Company had acquired by purchase from the King of Queda in
1785.
During the period Commodore Hayes held the chief naval
command in these seas, he asserted the right of his Honourable
masters on the coast of Sumatra, by recapturing the fort of
Muckee, and recovering the remaining part of the ordnance and
stores taken from the Company's agents by the treachery of the
Malay inhabitants. After cannonading, for three days, the
three batteries the enemy opposed to him, he landed at the head
of two divisions of seamen, selected by him from the crews of
the Honourable Company's ships ' Bombay' and ' Castlereagh,'
and, after a sharp conflict, took possession of the works, which,
together with other batteries in the interior, he caused to
be dismantled and destroyed. On these occasions, sixty- seven
pieces of ordnance and other valuable stores fell into his hands,
and were, together with the property that he recovered, sent to
Mr. Ewer, the Government Commissioner at Bencoolen, in
Sumatra, then in the possession of the British, but exclianged
with the Dutch Government for Malacca, in the year 1824.
During the period Commodore Hayes commanded the
Bengal squadron, it is a fact that has been recorded as
an evidence of his energy and public spirit, that no British
merchant ships suffered l)y capture within the limits of his
cruise or authority ; and yet his striking qualifications as an
able naval commander, greatly militated against his acquiring
the pecuniary emoluments which, in those days, were regarded
as one of the great incentives to exertion in the East. As we
have mentioned, it was the custom for the senior officers of the
Bombay J\Iarine to receive the advantages accruing from
convoying for a certain number of voyages the merchant shij)s
that traded to Mocha and Bussorah, and also to hold in annual
rotation the lucrative post of Commodore at Surat, a situation
receive from time to time from us, our Governor-General in Council for the time
being, in pursuance of tlie trust hereby i-eposed in you ; and we do by these pre-
sents authorize and empower you, Jolni Hayes, Esq., by force of arms or other-
wise, to apprehend, seize, and take tlie sliips and goods belonging to the said
French and Batavian Rcpubhcs, and all and every their subjerls and people, being
enemies of our said Lord the King, and of ourselves, purs\iant to the powers and
witliin the limits in the said Charter for that purpose mentioned and prescribed,
and to bring the same to sucli port as sliall be most convenient, in order to have
the same legally adjudged and condemned as prizes.
" In witness whereof our Governor-General in Council has hereunto set our
Common Seal.
(Signed) " "Welleslky,
" Bahlow,
" Ubnky."