Globalization of the United States, 1789-1861

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Taylor, Fitch W. A Voyage Round the World, and Visits to Various Foreign Countries, in the United States Frigate Columbia. New Haven: H. Mansfield ; New York: D. Appleton, 1859.

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Fitch W. Taylor. A Voyage Round the World, and Visits to Various Foreign Countries, in the United States Frigate Columbia. New Haven: H. Mansfield; New York: D. Appleton, 1859. p. 1:17.

Taylor’s rich descriptions along the route of his circumnavigation included breathless accounts of punitive United States Navy bombardments of indigenous villages.

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Cannonading of Kwala Batu.

All expectation of gaining any satisfactory action from the Rajah of Kwala Batu being given up, the Columbia weighed anchors to take a nearer position to the town, that her guns might be brought to bear upon the forts and houses with the greatest effect. Having reached the desired position, a spring hawser brought our broadside to bear, at discretion, upon the forts and town.

The John Adams was now seen standing in to take her place yet nearer to the shore and a little on our larboard quarter.

All things were now ready for cannonading the forts and town. We had been moored in this threatening position for two or three hours. But no boat was seen putting off from the shore, or any sign made by the Rajah that he intended to offer any satisfaction for the injuries he had sanctioned, or further explanation for his delay. It was a moment of intensest interest on board. I am sure there was no one who did not wish that the Rajah should pursue the course of justice, and yield the murderer and the property, which was deemed to be altogether within his power to do, and thus save himself from the demonstration of our just displeasure, which could not long be delayed, to the expected demolishing of his forts and town.

And I am sure that no one more intensely desired this course to be pursued than our Commodore, who had now used every means to induce the Rajah to act the part of a just chief, and what was believed to be the wishes of many of his men. The moment, however, had arrived when further delay on our part would have been treachery to the lives of our own countrymen, and a conniving at the crimes of robbery and murder.

Three taps upon the drum started every man in the ship, as if the wing of some unseen spirit had suddenly swept over each one’s face; and the music, the next instant, beat the thrilling summons to quarters. Each man, before a minute was passed, was in his place, ready to do his superior’s bidding, to throw destruction and devastation into the forts and town, which lay but a few cables’ length in the distance from us. The thrilling excitement now felt was not from fear, for there was nothing to be apprehended, though it was expected that the Rajah’s forts might open upon us. But it was the idea, that our own shot would be sending these miserable people into another world, and crumbling upon their heads the dwellings they inhabited.

The guns in a moment were cleared for action — th[e] tompions out, the shot, grape, canister, and wadding arranged, the matches in readiness — and now, the men, in profoundest silence, stood waiting the order to fire! But a few rolls of the music now beat the retreat; and all, save the excited hearts of the crew, and the guns in readiness for an engagement, were again as if we had never dreamed of treacherous falsehood, infamous robbery, and murderous Malays.

An hour or more had passed. The officers were nearly finishing their dessert when the beat to quarters again rolled through the ship. It was known that now there would be no longer delay. The different forts had been pointed out, as objects towards which the guns were to be directed. The firing commenced. It was an interesting sight. The first shot from the Columbia boomed over the water, and shivered to pieces one of the trees which embowered the fortification, and in their thick and distinct cluster, entirely concealed the fort. A second shot, directed from another division towards another fortification, scattered every Malay who had come to the beach, and beneath a number of bamboo houses, had trusted to the display of a white handkerchief, waving low in the gentle breeze, for their protection. The Rajah’s most western fort instantly opened upon the Columbia — the shot striking a few fathoms from the ship. The divisions continued their fire from the frigate, riddling the thick foliage in which the fortifications were concealed, and silencing the Rajah’s fort after it had sent three shots, one of which fell just beneath our dolphin-striker.

The John Adams, at the same time, opened her guns upon a fort on the east of the town, and beyond the little river which separates it from the principal bazaars. The clouds of smoke curled from her side, as the thunder of her cannonades, in the repeated concussions on the vibrating air, roared loud and long; while the shots now buried themselves in the fort, or occasionally, by a ricochet upon the water, struck again upon the beach, and threw up, in mid-air, their clouds of sand, and uprooted shrubs and trees.

The cannonading continued from both ships for nearly a half hour, when the order was given to cease firing.

* * *

Destruction of Muckie.

New-year day, January 1st, 1838. The first morn of the new year has dawned upon us with a clear and pure sky. The sea this morning is sleeping around us, with a bosom bright as a silver mirror, and the roll of the sea-surge has lulled, as if, like the calm before the tremblings of the earthquake, it would smile on the purposes of destruction, which our ships this day seem designing to bear into the town, which now lies almost within gun-shot of our thirty-two and forty-two pounders. Both ships have been kedged into their near positions this morning, it being the purpose of the Commodore to cannonade the town, as the only alternative of showing our displeasure, and to inflict due punishment upon a people whose Rajah refuses to make any overtures, and against whom the evidence is deemed to be conclusive, of his being culpable in the murderous affair and robbery of the barque Eclipse.

The John Adams had early placed herself far into the little bay, near the beach, and taken her position, with her broadside sprung to bear upon the town. The Columbia soon reached her place opposite the principal fort of the town, from which it was expected that there would be some guns fired, but which the Columbia would soon silence. The ships were so placed that their guns would rake at pleasure the whole town, in its length and breadth.

No boat having reached the ship with any overture during the morning, and the ships being in readiness to execute their purposes of destruction, the order was passed to fire. Our first shot was a signal for the John Adams to open upon the town; and the smoke and the flames issued from her side the instant the report of our own long thirty-two pounder broke the quiet still-calm of the surrounding scene.

Every gun from the beautiful corvette seemed to know its errand, as it sent its report distinctly back to the ear when the bolt had struck, with its tremendous concussion, and sent up its cloud of dust as it riddled the bamboo-houses, or evolved a column of smoke, as if a hundred hot irons had been applied to the external surface of the trees, as the cannon ball rived their trunks, or, like a pruning-hook, lopped their branches to the ground.

The Columbia continued her fire in an almost unbroken succession of shots, directed particularly at the fort, which was embowered in a grove of cocoa-nut and oilier trees; and the long thirty-two and forty-two pound cannonades spoke loud and long, and rebukingly, as their thunder rolled over the bay, and the echoes repeated their voice from the mountain-side, and died away in deeper and later tones, far back in the defile of mountains, which raise their double tier inwalling an almost concealed ravine, as their ranges stretch south and west. The quick reports of the raking shot came back distinct and clear, as they drove their way into the fort, or sent up the clouds of dust as they riddled the bamboo-houses, and scattered the splinters of buildings of firmer materials, or, pointblank, drove against the cocoa-nut tree, riving it in pieces, and sending up a spiral column of smoke, as if it were curling in a pure blue cloud above the green foliage from a newly lighted fire of some mountain-side cabin.

The cannonading from both ships now continued, by successions of round, and canister, and grape-shot — the heavy balls at times striking the water near the shore, and by ricochet, apparently doing the greater destruction, as crash succeeded crash, while the missile, in its lower passage, felt its way across the little peninsula through the town, and finally went on its course of dalliance over the sheet of water which washes the opposite of the point. Again, some of the shot passing higher than the rest, reached quite beyond the peninsula, to the mountain-side; and their concussion with the hills sent back a reverberating crash, which told the desperate rencounter; and throughout the embowered town, as I gazed from the mizzen-top, the falling bough and felled tree, and cracking and smoking roof, were seen, now together and now separately, tumbling in their destruction, while, at other times, a straggling shot sent up its cloud of sand, as it bored its way into the beach, which throws its lip of gold around the edge of the little bay, dividing the rim of the light-blue of the sea-water from the deep-green of the ever-verdant and luxuriant foliage of the trees that embower the whole line of the beautiful shore. And the rolling volumes of smoke, driving from the heated mouths of the cannon, were borne away by the sea-breeze, which was now beginning to set gently in, and curled the piles of smoke against the mountain-side, which stood in all its beauty, untarnished and lovely, and smiling while ill was devastation and anger, and frowning displeasure, on the level below.

A silence for a moment succeeded. The divisions for landing were now called away. A few blasts upon the clear bugle summoned the boats to be manned. A like order was conveyed to the Adams; while the large guns of both ships were continuing their fire, as often as the remaining men could load and discharge their pieces. The starboard sides of the ships had been sprung to bear upon the shore, and the boats were soon manned, as they lay along the opposite side of the ships, unseen by any enemy that might be awaiting the landing of any force from the two vessels. The single guns continued to open their fire upon the forts and town during the manning of the boats. The launch and four cutters, crowded with two hundred and fifty men, were now ready to shove off from the frigate. They lingered a moment, with their oars pointed ready to fall, while silence once more, and profound, prevailed. The Commodore, from the sidesteps contemplated the heroic little force, ready and eager to peril life if dangers were to be encountered by the expedition.

“You have been desirous,” he said, “to have an opportunity to land, on an expedition like the one which is now offered you. I have the fullest confidence in your success. Burn and destroy the town, and put to death all men whom you may find bearing arms, and by no means injure the unarmed and the yielding.” “Gentlemen,” he added to the officers, “I wish you success, and shall expect your return to the ship in one hour and a half.”

The boats now pulled for the Adams, whose five boats were as instantly directing their way to the beach, the moment they saw our own put off from the side of the Columbia.

It was a beautiful sight, those ten boats, crowded by armed sailors and marines, their guns pointed with bayonets, or their hands bristling with pikes, with pistols in their belts and cutlasses at their sides. It would have been no small force which could have successfully met that gallant little band, flushed as they now were on their virgin adventure in arms. Not one of those officers now in those boats had engaged in the discharge of hostile guns with destructive intent till within these few days, at Kwala Batu, and now at Muckie. And the young pulse of every officer was beating for the occasion, (however much and deeply they regretted the necessity of the present action,) to show their daring on an expedition, which none could divine should not prove destructive to many of their number. Yet, the silence of death which had prevailed throughout the doomed town — no gun having been fired from the fort, nor man nor living soul been seen during the bombardment, save one solitary being, venturing beyond his fellows to gaze from his nook — gave encouragement that the thousand and probably more inhabitants of the town had retired to the mountain; and the devastating shot — the round, and canister, and grape, which whistled in vengeance through the groves and dwellings throughout the town, would have made it madness for one to have remained. And yet there might be an ambush, although the ground was unfavorable, and every thing contributing to favor the operation of our forces. The guns of the two ships continued to throw their shot to the left of the boats while pulling to the shore, rendering it destructive for any foe to attempt to oppose their landing. It was a wide strand on which the divisions immediately formed, and without delay advanced, in order, to the nearest point, to fire the buildings of the town.

I had watched with excited interest the cannonading, from the mizzen-top, looking far into the town, and over it, to the adjacent bay, marking the falling of the boughs, the dust rising in clouds as the shot riddled the roofs and sides of the buildings, or chafing the trunks of the cocoanut and other trees, or riving them from their stems. But the interest had now deepened in increased intensity The divisions were on their advance; and if resistance were to be made, the moment had arrived. All was distinctly seen from the ship, left like a deserted hall, where no step nor voice was longer heard, but where half a thousand a moment before were moving. I could distinguish the officers of the different divisions on the beach; and the well-known voices of the First and Third Lieutenants occasionally came over the little sheet of water and their orders distinctly understood.

Captain Wyman, of the Adams, commanded the expedition. The divisions had advanced to the range of buildings stretching along the beach, with a diverging angle from the water-side; and the “pioneers,” under Acting-Master Jenkins, attached to the first division, were seen making a wider breach in the nearest range of the bazaar-houses; while the marines, under Lieutenant Baker, advanced to the neighboring fort, to examine and carry it. It had already been deserted. The guns were spiked, and Lieutenant Pennock ordered temporarily to hold it. In a moment more a smoke was seen curling up from the adjacent building on the right of the effected passageway, now in its thin blue layers, than yet more dense, and now the flame streamed high above the thatched roof, declaring that the town was fired. Three or four more buildings of the same line of houses, ranged with interlocking roofs, and forming a regular street in front in a moment more sent up their separate sheets of flame; and the resistless element, kindled by port-fires and torches, under the direction of Lieutenant Magruder, gave forth the glare of lurid volumes, rising high and spreading wide, and blending together their expanding sheet, which now extended in rapid and destructive volumes down the line of the bazaars.

Each division had been amply supplied with torches and port-fires. From this point they took their different courses to carry the remaining forts, and to fire the remaining sections of the town. Lieutenant Turk led on his division through the northwestern range of houses, applying the torch and the port-fire as he advanced, till he reached a considerable stream of water, where a number of valuable proas, of larger and smaller dimensions, were found moored and grounded. These and lesser craft, in considerable numbers, and with their contents, were soon sending up their complement of flames to mingle in the general conflagration. The division was in time, on its return, to assist in case of necessity in carrying the fort on the point, to which the second division, under Lieutenant Turner, after effecting the firing of its portion of the town, with the other forces, had collected. The fort, like the rest, had been deserted; its guns were soon spiked, thrown from their position, and the flames were soon enveloping it.

The town now exhibited one scene of extended and extending ruins. The light and dry bamboo buildings burned like stubble; and the better houses added intensity and continuance to the devouring element. Flame mingled with flame, as the opposite currents converged. The dark columns of smoke rolled high in the rarefied air, and the long and seared leaf of the cocoa-nut, and the crimped foliage of other thickly embowering trees, added to the general mass of fuel; while the spiral sheet of fire wound up the stem and shot through the branches and overtopped the highest trees. The very heat seemed to reach me in the mizzen-top, while the loud cracking of the green foliage, and the splitting of the tall and thick bamboo, in the general roar and loud cracking of a vast and extending conflagration, came distinctly and clear to the ear. The forked and ambient and towering flames mingling with the dark and floating columns of smoke, now possessed the entire town, and all was within the full view of our ships. It was a scene of grandeur in destruction to be looked at with profound interest, while pity, blended with a sense of just displeasure, rose in the bosom, as the eye contemplated the extended devastation. It was a spectacle of grandeur as beheld in the day-time — its magnificence and sublimity could not be described as it would have gleamed, in its terror and illumination, in the night.

Such was the scene of the burning town, when the different divisions had all gathered upon the point, in open view of our frigate. The destruction was complete. The bamboo-bazaars were melting fast to the ground — the better houses crumbling slower but surely, and with intenser heat The five forts were in flames. Their guns, twenty-one in number, had been spiked, and thrown from their positions. The flames were yet in the tops of the tall cocoa-nut, the towering and thick bamboo, and other trees. It was a moment of triumph to this little host, having completed their work without the firing of a gun. And it showed the daring and the determination of a gallant band of American sailors on a foreign strand, ten thousand miles from their home. And well they might exult, at the moment, in view of the horrors which might have awaited them. But hark! the report of a cannon now boomed loud on the air. It was one of the guns of the forts, which had been spiked, and was discharged by the burning element which was now raging over it. Again, three cheers came over the water, clear and distinct, as their huzza and the swinging of their hats declared their complete success. The bugle now sounded the retreat in the tune of “Yankee Doodle,” of olden and revolutionary associations; and “Hail Columbia” attended their disembarkation.