Page 260 - Malay sketches

MALAY SKETCHES

and said, " Go and tell the Laksamana that I have
killed Mr. Birch." The message was delivered the
same day, and the Laksamana said, " Very well, I
will tell the Sultan."
That evening the Maharaja Lela sent a letter to
ex-Sultan Ismail describing what he had done, and,.
to remove any doubt on the subject, he sent with it
the Resident's own boat.
These are the facts about Mr. Birch's assassina-
tion, and it may be of some interest to add that the
Resident's two boats were immediately rifled and
all their contents carried up to the Maharaja Lela's
house.
An attack upon the Residency was planned,,
and a number
ordered to be carried out that night,
of men started on the expedition, and even got
within a few hundred yards of Bandar Bharu ; but
it began to rain, and a man at whose house the
called told them would a warm
party they get
and it would be a different
reception, quite thing to
murdering the Resident, so they elected to return
with their object unattained.
By the help of a friendly Malay, a foreigner,
Mr. Birch's body was recovered, brought to Bandar
Bharu, and there buried on the night of the 6th
November.
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