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HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY. 249
and barge, and a guard of only seventeen picked grenadiers of
the 59th Regiment, in canoes, leaving directions that more
soldiers should follow. It was an adventurous undertaking,
but the British commander was a man utterly destitute of any
feeling of personal fear, and the cool hardihood displayed by
the small band of Britons in threading the streets of a large
city, amid crowds of murderous Malays armed with the deadly
creese, appeared to disarm the multitude, who were seen to
clutch their weapons, but offered no opposition as the party
pushed through the mob to the palace. The town was burning
in several places, and the streets and buildings, particularly the
palace, bore the appearance of a place that had just been carried
by assault. Colonel Gillespie, whose life was attempted by an
assassin as he passed through the streets by torchlight, closed
the palace gates, and placed all his available men on guard
until the arrival of a strong party of the advance relieved the
garrison from all danger. By this almost unexampled act of
daring, a formidable position, mounting in the forts and batteries
no less than two hundred and forty-two pieces of cannon,* was
seized, the author of a cruel massacre of British subjects was
driven from his throne and deposed, and the majesty of the
British name vindicated.
At noon of the 28th of April, the Union Jack was hoisted
under a Royal salute, and, on the following day, Colonel
Gillespie received a brother of the Sultan, whom he determined
to place on the throne. Visits were exchanged between the
British Commander and this prince, who was saluted by
nineteen guns from the ' Mercury,' and, on his entering the
public hall of audience, with a similar number from the shore
batteries. On the 5th of May a treaty was ratified with the
new Sultan, and he was installed on the musnnd on the
14th, with the title, Sultan Ratu Ahmed Nazir-oo-deen, under
circumstances of great pomp, Colonel Gillespie himself taking
him by the hand and seating him on the throne, in front of
which passed all the European officers and principal Natives,
the former saluting the new sovereign and the latter kissing his
hands, knees, or feet, according to their rank ; salutes were
fired by the ships-of-war in the river, which were also gaily
dressed in flags, to the delight and astonishment of the Natives.
On the IGth ('olonel Gillespie and a large party of oificers
supped with the Sultan, whom, as chief among the Malay
princes, he treated with especial consideration, and, on the
* Of the iron and brass guns found in !liese works, tho latter were chiefly
Dutch, though some of them appear, by the inscriptions on them, to have been
of native manufacture. One of the hirgcst of these, a 42-pouiidor, sent
to H.E.H. the Prince Kegent in the name of the captors, bore the following
—
inscription in Arabic: "Made by Sultan Katoo Ahmed NajMuddin, in the
city of Palimbang, the abode of Safety, in the year llbS." This date corre-
sponds to A.D. 1769.