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and on his return down the coast, to gain all the 1811. information possible as to the enemy's movements in July. that part of Java. On the 27th lieutenant Lyons of Minlanded his prisoners at Batavia; and, from a conver- den to sation which he held with an intelligent resident, prisonwas fully persuaded that the Dutch had no intimation ers to of the expedition being near Java, and did not via. expect to be attacked during the present monsoon. Lieut. Conceiving that an attack at the north-western extre- Lyons mity of Java would draw the dutch troops in that solves direction, and thereby operate a favourable diversion, tempt lieutenant Lyons, on the morning of the 29th, deter- a surmined to make a midnight attack upon Fort-Marrack. upon This would appear, indeed, a rash undertaking for Fort two boats' crews of 35 officers and men, especially rack. when a force of 450 men had been thought inadequate to the service; but lieutenant Lyons was one of the officers who, about a twelvemonth before, had accompanied captain Cole in the storming of Belgica :* he therefore made light of difficulties, which to many, and those brave men too, would have seemed insurmountable.

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Having made, during the day, every necessary Lands, arrangement, lieutenant Lyons, at sunset, placed his and two boats behind a point, which sheltered them from carries the view of the enemy's sentinels. At half past fort. midnight, the moon sinking in the horizon, the boats proceeded to the attack, and, on opening the point, were challenged by the sentinels, who almost at the same instant fired their pieces; a proof that all hopes of a surprise had vanished. Still resolved, lieutenant Lyons ran the boats aground, in a heavy surf, under the embrasures of the lower tier of guns; and he and his gallant fellows, placing the ladders, sprang up them in an instant. Some of the first that gained the walls killed three soldiers, who were in the act of putting matches to the guns; and in a few minutes the British found themselves in complete possession of the lower battery. Lieutenant Lyons

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now formed his men, his 34 men; and, leading them July. on, stormed and carried the upper battery. On reaching the summit of the hill, the little band of British perceived the dutch garrison drawn up to receive them. The sailors fired, then rushed to the charge; lieutenant Lyons calling out, that he had 400 men, and would give no quarter. On hearing this, the Dutchmen fled in a panic through the postern gateway at the rear of the fort.

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At 1 A. M. on the 30th the Dutch opened a fire fire at on the fort from a small battery in the rear, also fort from two gun-boats at anchor in the harbour. from a This fire was returned by a few guns; and, in in the the mean while, the remainder of the small party of British were employed in disabling the other guns, and in destroying as much as practicable of the battery. The first shot, fired at Fort Marrack from the battery in the rear, had struck the top of the postern or gateway through which the garrison had retreated; the second shot went through the gate; and the third shot, taking the same direction, conTroops vinced lieutenant Lyons that the Dutch had previously ascertained the range. The situation of the British to re- was now critical and alarming, as the barracks in

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which was a whole battalion of dutch troops was battery only half a mile distant, and the drums were heard beating to arms. At this moment midshipman William Langton, the second british officer in command, and who had greatly distinguished himself in the assault, suggested to lieutenant Lyons to open the gate, and allow the shot to pass harmlessly through. This was done, and in the course of half an hour the enemy directed his shot considerably to the right of the gate; which left no doubt that the troops were advancing to the attack. Two 24-pounders, loaded almost to the muzzles with musket-balls, were now Are re- placed near the entrance of the gateway. This was when hardly done, when the enemy's column was seen close to advancing; and, lest the guns should be fired too soon, gate. lieutenant Lyons held one match and Mr. Langton

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the other. The head of the enemy's column, on 1811. arriving within about 10 yards of the gate, perceived July that it was open. The dutch troops immediately shouted, cheered, and rushed on. At that instant the

two guns went off, and the gate was shut. The foremost of the assailants were mowed down by the murderous discharge; and those behind, seeing the gate shut, fled pêle-mêle down the hill, leaving the handful of British withinside to destroy the fort at their leisure.

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This service was completed by dawn of day, and British the last shot fired from the last gun that was spiked had sunk one of the two gun-boats. Lieutenant Lyons the now deemed it prudent to retire. He did not do so, boats, however, without leaving the british flag flying on destroy the fort; and which flag had been hoisted under a battery heavy fire, in the most gallant manner, by midship-retire. man Charles Henry Franks, a lad only 15 years of age. On coming to their boats, the British found the barge bilged, and beat up so high in the surf as to leave no prospect of getting her afloat. The whole 35, including Mr. Langton, slightly wounded with a bayonet, and three seamen also slightly wounded, embarked in the cutter, carrying with them the dutch colours. Thus to see them carried off as a trophy by a single boat's crew, an undeniable proof of the few men by whom the fort had been carried, must have been to the Dutch a truly mortifying sight.

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But for one circumstance, we should probably have had to state that, for having thus accomplished, with 35 men, that which had been deemed too hazardous Disapto undertake with 450, lieutenant Lyons was imme- of the diately promoted to the rank of commander. The bar attack was, that hehad acted without orders. Captain Hoare Marcalled upon lieutenant Lyons to state his reason by for making an attack, "the success of which," says comthe former in his letter to commodore Broughton, mo "so very far surpasses all my idea of possibility Broughwith so small a force, that comment from me would ton. be superfluous." "I have only to add, that his con

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1811. duct on every former occasion, since he has been July. under my command, has merited my warmest approbation and esteem." Commodore Broughton, we believe, considered the undertaking as a rash one, and would not forward the account to the admiralty; but the commodore's successor on the station, rearCon- admiral Stopford, was of a very different opinion, as opinion is evident from his reply to a letter of captain of rear-Sayer's, requesting that lieutenant Lyons, in the ral expedition of which we shall presently give an ford. account, might act as his aide-de-camp at the batteries of Batavia. "I beg," says the rear-admiral,

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you will tell Mr. Lyons from me, that I consider myself fortunate and happy in procuring the services of an officer who so eminently distinguished himself by his gallant and successful attack on Fort Marrack, and I fully approve of his remaining with

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Procris During the night of the 30th the 18-gun brigattacks sloop Procris, captain Robert Maunsell, in obegun- dience to orders from captain Sayer, stood in and anchored near the mouth of Indramayo river, and at Indra- daylight on the 31st discovered lying there six gunriver. boats, each armed with two guns, a brass 32-pounder carronade forward, and a long 18-pounder aft, and a crew of 60 men, protecting a convoy of 40 or 50 prows. The brig immediately weighed, and ran into a quarter less than three fathoms' water, but was then scarcely within gun-shot. Finding that the fire of the Procris made very little impression upon the gun-boats, and considering it an object of importance to attempt their destruction, captain Maunsell proceeded to the attack in his boats; embarking in them, in addition to their respective crews, lieutenants Henry J. Heyland and Oliver Brush, and 40 privates of the 14th and 89th regiments, detachments from which happened to be on board his vessel.

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Although opposed by a heavy fire of grape and sell in musketry, the british boats succeeded in boarding and

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carrying five of the dutch gun-boats; the crews of 1811. which, after throwing their spears at the assailants, July. leaped overboard. The sixth gun-boat would have shared the same fate, but caught fire and blew up boats before the British could get alongside of her. This tures exploit was performed without any loss of life on the five british side, and with no greater loss in wounded, blows than one master's mate, (William Randall,) seven up the seamen, one boy, and two soldiers. Captain Maunsell speaks in the highest terms, as well of the troops and their officers, as of his first lieutenant George Majoribanks, and the three master's mates George Cunningham, William Randall, and Charles Davies.

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Having waited until the 2d of August without being Expejoined by the expected ships, the expedition set sail, dition] but had not proceeded far before the frigates hove chors in sight; and colonel Mackenzie, the officer who had before been deputed to reconnoitre the Java coast, reported, lingas the most eligible spot for the disembarkation of ching. the army, the village of Chillingching, about 12 miles to the eastward of Batavia. The commander in chief concurring, the fleet proceeded in that direction; on the 3d, in the evening, made Cape Carawang; and on the 4th, early in the morning, ran in for the mouth of Marandi river. Here the ships anchored during the interval between the land and sea breezes ; aud, weighing on the return of the latter, again stood in, and, before 2 P. M., were at anchor abreast of Chillingching.

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So complete had been the arrangements, and so Troops well chosen was the spot, that before dark the whole landed of the effective portion of the british infantry, amount-withing to upwards of 8000 men, of whom, as already posistated, about half were Europeans, landed, without tion. loss or opposition, covered on the left by the 36-gun frigate Leda, captain Sayer, who, being well acquainted with the coast, ran close in, and on the right by the frigates Caroline, Modeste, and Bucephalus, also the ship and brig sloops and honourable company's cruisers attached to the expedition. "The

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