those who run a muck, and with which, therefore,
the officers of police are always furnished. One
of the most singular circumstances attending these
acts of criminal desperation, is the apparently un~
premeditated, and always the sudden and unexpected
manner in which they are undertaken.
The desperado discovers his intention neither by
his gestures, his speech, nor his features, and the
first warning is the drawing of the kris, the wild
shout which accompanies it, and the commencement
of the work of death. In 1814, a chief of
Celebes surrendered himself to the British and a
party of their allies headed by a chief. He was disarmed
and placed under a guard, in a comfortable
habitation, and the hostile chief kept him company
during the night. His kris was lying on a table at a
little distance from him. About 12 o’clock at night,
while engaged in conversation, he suddenly started
from his seat, ran to his kris, and having possessed
himself of it, attempted to assassinate his companion,
who, having superior strength, returned a mortal
stab. The retainers of the prisoner, who were
without, hearing what was going on within, attacked
those of the friendly chief and the European
centinels with great ’courage, and would have
mastered them, had not the officer of the guard *
* My friend, Captain Alexander Macleod of the Bengal
military service.
rushed out with his drawn sword, and overpowered
those who were engaged with them. When he
entered the apartment where the chiefs were, he
found the Captive chief expiring, leaning on the
arm and supported by the knee of his opponent,
who, with his drawn dagger over him, waited to
give him, if necessary, an additional stab.
In the year 1812, the very day on which the
fortified palace of the sultan of Java was stormed,
a Certain petty chief, a favourite of the dethroned
sultan, Was one of the first to come over to the
conquerors, and was active, in the course of the
day, in carrying into effect the successful measures
pursued for the pacification of the country. At
night he was, with many other Javanese, hospitably
received into the spacious house of the chief of
the Chinese, and appeared to be perfectly satisfied
With the new order of things. The house
Was protected by a strong guard of Sepoys. At
night, without any warning, but, starting from
his sleep, he commenced havock, and, before
he had lost his own life, killed and wounded a
great number of persons, chiefly his countrymen,
who were sleeping in the same apartment with
him. I arrived at the spot a few seconds after
this tragical affair, and found it, as is usual on
such occasions, a very difficult matter to obtain a
true account of an affair in its own nature sufficiently
strange and unaccountable. It was only after a