Page 288 - Malay sketches

MALAY SKETCHES
should pole up stream two miles and walk the rest,
the guns being served by the bluejackets from two
boats that would be kept in line with the shore
party.
All that was wanted was a body of scouts to feel
the way, and I undertook to find these. There
were Raja Mahmud, his two followers, and the
Manila boy already spoken of, but it was hard to
say where any other trustworthy Malays could be
got at such short notice. Late that evening,
however, Nakodah Orlong, whom I knew well, came
in, and when I asked him if he would join us he at
once consented, and said he could bring fourteen of
his own men with him. That made us twenty, and
was enough for the purpose.
We were up at 4.30 A.M. on the 7th, got all the
men into boats, and made a start by 7.30 A.M., not
without difficulty, however, for we were hard
pressed for hands to do the poling. It was only
after we had started that I learnt the intention of
taking guns had been abandoned, a very unfor-
tunate change of plan as it turned out. To attack,
without guns, any work defended by Malays means
a certain sacrifice of as we found to our
life, cost,
and took care that the mistake was never repeated.
The carriage of guns and rockets through the jungle
272