DESTRUCTION OF PIRATES BY A DUTCH WAR STEAMER. (From the Singapore Free Press.)

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 269, 26 February 1848, Page 4

DESTRUCTION OF PIRATES BY A DUTCH WAR STEAMER. (From the Singapore Free Press.)

The following account of a brilliant and successful attack by H. N. M. war steamer Vesuvius upon some pirates in the seas near Sumbawa, has been obligingly communicated to us : — " After a cruise in the seas of Celebes and Flores, in company with H. M. schooners Dolphin and Cameleon, and having destroyed four piratical prahus on the island of Kalao Tua, which had been left by their crews at the approach of the ships, H.N.M. steamer VesuviuSi commanded by Lieutenant Baron de Constant Rebecque, on her voyage to Java, made a careful but fruitless research for pirates among the Fostilon Islands. " Continuing her voyage she passed within a short distance of Pulo Selondo and Pulo Majo, and approached close to the west coast of the latter island to examine the bay where the year before some piratical prahus bad been destroyed by H. M. schooner Lander,

" At half past one p.m. of the 11th Octo- , her, a long one-masted p;ahu,*painted black, and shortly afterwards four others (among which one two-masted) were seen at anchor to the southward of a reef close in shore near a large fire, which afterwards proved to be a burning prahu. " The steamer ran along the outer edge of the reef, in search of a channel leading betwixt it, but the pirates immediately weighing and shaping their course inside of the reefs towards the straits of Sullee, the steamer ran with full speed (8| knots) for the S.W. point of Majo, and thus succeeded in cutting off their retreat. " Two of the prahus finding it impossible to escape by that way, pulled in shore to the N.E. and took shelter behind the reefs in the northern part of the bay on the west coast of Majo ; a short time afterwards the three others, fast losing ground, ran in shore for the southern part of the bay. "Although without a pilot on board, the steamer followed immediately in chase, and soon brought them within shot. At the second shot of the steamer the crews of two prahus> threw themselves into the sea and swam to the shore, hiding themselves in the forest. Some of the captives being seen bound in the prahus, and some others appearing near the beach who made signals to cease firing, the boats were manned, to take possession of the prahus or to burn them. The day being already far spent, they were set on fire, and the boats with the liberated prisoners, 6 guns, and some other weapons, returned to the steamer, which had kept her position by steaming forward and backward, the rocks being now and then visible below the ship in soundings 1 of 24 fathoms, suddenly deepening to 40 fathoms, no bottom. " At 3h. 3m, p.m. she made with full speed for the three prahus on the northern shore which had moored together along the shore, with their guns towards the seaside. *• Although the Djuru Bahussa of Sumba-vs-a, who was a passenger on board, and two of the liberated slaves, who were well acquainted with the coast, asserted that the steamer could not possibly pass betwixt the reefs-, the gallant comraauder, not wishing, without necessity, to attack three well armed and good manned prahus, with his boats and only thirty men, without being able to protect them by his guns, continued to steer amongst the reefs, avoiding them at eyesight, and brought the ship within 200 yards of the prahus, notwithstanding their well directed guns and musket fire, many balls coming upon and in the ship, and one of these passing between him and the purser, who were standing on the paddle box, was lodged in the funnel. " Then opening her fire, the steamer soon obliged the pirates to take shelter in the forest, from where they continued a heavy fire of musquetry on the boats, which had been sent to destroy the prahus, and executed it in a most gallant style under the command of the first officer, Mr. Nieuwenhuizen, the steamer continuing her fire on either side of the boat. We have to deplore the loss of one sailor who was deadly wounded in the boat: " At 5 p.m. the prahus being nearly burnt to the bottom, H.M. steamer Vesuvius left her most dangerous position, and extricated from among the reefs by her skilful commander, reached the same night the roads of Sumbawa. " The prisoners who have been liberated from the pirates to the number of eleven, state that their prahu, belonging to Macassar, had been taken the same morning, after a fight of two hours and a half, three of them having Leen killed and three badly wounded ; their prahu was still burning when the steamer came in sight. Two of the prahus which have been destroyed were manned by forty men or upwards, and the others by twentyfive to thirty men each, together carrying about forty guns and lellas, among which were several six pounders. Five of the poor fellows who have been liberated ace wounded, one of them very badly. " The next day, when the steamer left Sumbawa, the Sultan of that place was gathering his subjects to pursuo the pirates on the island of Majo."