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HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY. 251
From Palimbang the troops of the Expedition, with the
exception of the necessary garrison for Fort Nugent, in Banca,
predicament in which he stood, and earnestly praying for protection and snpport
on the grounds that to the British authority lie was indebted for his elevation,
which had been for years acquiesced in by the people of Palimbang, that he con-
sidered the treaty still binding, and that he was willing to make such further
arrangements with us as would secure him a positive right to our exclusive pro-
tection under the impending danger. In reply to this appeal. Captain Salmoud,
of the Bombay Marine, Master-Attendant at Bencoolen, was sent overland to
Palimbang. On his arrival, he went immediately to the Sultan, and, having
effected the object of his mission, had retired to rest when, in the darkness of
night, a force from the Dutch garrison surrounded the palace, and, having seized
him, sent him a prisoner to Batavia. The next act of the Dutch Commissioner
was to send Sultan Nazir-oo-deen as a close prisoner to Batavia ; his property was
also seized and publicly sold in order that, accoi'ding to the expression of the
Dutch Commissioner, •' not a trace sliould be left of his former existence." A
treaty was concluded with Sultan Bedr-oo-deen, who found himself once more at
the head of affau'S in Palimbang, stripped, however, of his treasure, and
burthened with a heavy debt. The conduct of the Dutch authorities was marked
with various instances of oppressive violence ; and tlie Commissioner accused the
Sultan of participating in the alleged hostility of the people. He was,
accordingly, peremptorily ordered to pay tlie residue of his debt to the Dutch
Government, and to surrender his sons, as hostages for his good behaviour. In
spite of his protestations of innocence, tlie Dutch Commissioner ordered a party
of soldiers to proceed into the palace, and secure the person of the Sultan and
his family. The attempt roused the opposition of the populace, and after three
days' hard fighting, the remnant of the Dutch force, wJiich originally consisted of
five hundred well-appointed soldiers, was obliged to fly to their ships leaving
behind their followers, wlio were indiscriminately murdered. Tlie Sultan now
set seriously about providing for the defence of the place. He caused the guns
of H.M.'s ship ' Alceste,' wrecked in 1817, to be weighed from the wreck, and
planted in favom'able and commauding situations ; the navigation of the river
was intercepted, and the whole resources of the country were put in requisition
to meet the impending danger. On the arrival of the Commissioner at Batavia,
with the account of the disaster at Palimbang, orders were immediately issued
for the equipment of a military force, which consisted of one thousand five hundred
men from Batavia, and the same number from tlie Samarang division, under
the command of Colonel Bischoff, whose brotiier had fallen in the late conflict.
The uufortimate Sultan-Nazir-oo-deen was dragged from his coufhicmcnt for the
purpose of proceeding with the Expedition, in the hope tliat his presence might
distract the measures or weaken the efforts of tlie Pahmbang people. The Expe-
dition, which included a seventy-four-gun ship, and a frigate, cast anclior at the
mouth of the Pahmbang river on the 9th of October, 1820, and proceeded up the
river on the following day ; but on the 2lBt of October, tlie Dutch were beaten
back with severe loss, stated by advices from Batavia to have amounted to two
hundred and fifty men and six officers killed and wounded. This loss was ex-
perienced at an island, tlie batteries of which i-iddled tlie ' Willielmina' frigate,
which received one hundred and eiglity shot. The Expetlition returned to Batavia,
and Adniial Wolterbeck, Commanding-in-Chief, compared the defences of tlie
island to a second Gibraltar.
A second and more powerful expedition, including five thousand Em'opeans,
was sent against Palimbang, and, having succeeded in forcing the works on the
river, the Sultan Bedr-oo-deen, on the 26th of June, 1821, surrendered himself,
and was succeeded by his brother ; the Dutch losses were seventy-three killed
and two hundred and thirty-seven wounded.
Owing to their want of energy, the Dutch had suffered the pirates in these
waters to make so much head tjiat they attacked their ships and settlements, and
the Malays landed at Banca, and ch-ove the troops tlicre into the fort. On the
8th of June, 1821, the Dutch armed ship ' Samarang,' mounting six guns, and
amply supplied witli swivels and muskets, was attacked by a proa on the north
coast of Java, and lost thirteen killed and wounded in defending licrsclf.