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2()G HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.
strength. These three ships performed some gallant service at
Macassar during the year 181 G.
On the 5th of April the boats of the ' Ternate,' Captain
Davidson, attacked and drove ashore off the Tenette River, two
large war proas, each mounting four guns and full of men ; in this
affair Lieutenant John Charlton Kinchant, a very promising
young officer, was killed. In June the crews of the ' Teign-
mouth ' and ' Benares ' had an opportunity of earning distinction
of which they did not fail to avail themselves. Our old enemy,
the Rajah of Boni, had become aggressive and had taken up a
post about eight miles from Macassar, at the entrance of Balian-
gan Pass, which led to a hill, where they had entrenched them-
selves in fifteen strong redoubts—called " bentengs"* in this
part of the world— flanked on both sides by nearly precipitous
rocks, containing caverns which were used as magazines or for
shelter from artillery fire. As it could not be borne that a
native chief should thus, as it were, blockade a British port and
the capital of the island of Celebes, Major D. H. Dalton, the
Political Resident and Connnandant, resolved to dislodge him.
At his request, on the 7th of June, Captain W. Eat well, of the
'Benares,' senior naval officer, landed a body of seventy seamen
and forty-five marines from the ' Teignmouth ' and ' Benares,'
to co-operate with the military force. The • Benares ' was left
as guard ship at Macassar, all the disposable troops having been
withdrawn from the fort, the ' Teignmouth ' was stationed off
Maros River, and the ' Ternate ' off Tinoritty to deter the chief
from reinforcing the enemy near Maros. Major Dalton's force
consisted, in addition to the Naval Brigade, of a small detach-
ment of Bengal Artillery, three hundred and forty men of the
Hon. Company's European Regiment and the 4th Bengal
Volunteer Battalion. A portion of the seamen were attached
to the guns, which consisted of two 18-pounders, two
howitzers, and one H-pounder, and the marines were incor-
porated with the troops. The attack commenced at daylight
on the 8th of June, and continued, under the heat of a tropical
sun, until four in the afternoon. "At that hour," says the
writer of a published account in the " Asiatic Journal," " the
enemy, after a most desperate resistance, was driven with great
loss from the whole of his entrenchments. Our loss on this
occasion is very considerable, being seventy-four killed and
* Bentengs are breastworks of turf, about fire feet in height, and tunnelled
with numerous bamboo pipes, through wliinh the defenders shoot, the bamboos
being so arranged tliat the fire shall take effect upon tlie legs and lower part of
the body of the enemy, and so efTectually place liim hors de combat. Tlie
approaches to the"beuteng" are further strewn with bambu doeri, a thorny
species of bamboo, as the name implies, tlie stems of which are so tortuous and
thickly interlaced as to defy even large shot and shell. These earthworks are
placed in a series, one behind the other, so that if the most advanced one is in
danger of capture, the defenders leave it, and take shelter behind the succeeding
one, and so on.