Page 294 - Malay sketches

MALAY SKETCHES

place, the enemy did not like that style of attack
and retired, only we did not know it then. We were
engaged in counting the cost, picking up the wounded
and an
organising orderly retreat, for it was late, we
had some miles to and we the
go, expected Malays
would leave their shelter and come after us. Per-
I did not know Innes had been
sonally Captain
I was in the centre and he was on the extreme
killed,
right. My party was hampered by having to carry
a wounded man, and when we got back to the
middle of the field where Abbott and Plunket were
waiting, Innes and the others had already been
taken away. We had no surgeon, no stretchers,
and the return journey was one that is not pleasant
to recall.
We reached our boats at 3 P.M., and the Residency
a quarter of an hour later.
For some time I was very busy trying to attend
to the wounded, but then my Malay friends asked
me for a boat, as they said they must go and fetch
Nakodah Orlong's body, and see what had become
of Alang. A British soldier was also missing. I
gave the boat and they started.
About 8 P.M. they returned with Alang and the
body of his chief ; they had met the lad swimming
down the river with his master's body.
278