Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 182?-183?, 1832-06-01

long tallS upon their aSSaIlantS, and to Scut-
tie off as fast as they could towards the mid
die part of the canal. But every now and
then one of the terrified monsters, either
confused by the sound or provoked by the
prick ola pike, or mystified by the turbid
nature of the stream, floundered backwards,
and by retreating in the wrong direction,
broke through the first, second, and even
third line of pixies This, which would
have been any thing but amusement 10 I'M
practised hands, was the perfection of sport
10 the delighted Malays. A double circle
OF soldiers was speedily formed round the
wretched aquatic who had presumed to pass
| The barrier BY means of we'll directed
thrusts with numberless bayonets, and the
pressure of some dozens of feet, the poor
brute was often driven beneath his native mud
hen once there, his enemies half choaked
and half spitted him, till at last they put an
end 10 his miserable days in regions quite
out OF sight, and in manner as ingloriouS as
can well be imagined. For the poor deni-
gems Of the pool, indeed, it was the choice
between Scylla and Charybdis with ven
geance and am half ashamed to acknowl-
edge that savage kind of delight with which
we stood on the banks, and saw the distract
ed creatures rushing from one attack right
into another. The Malays, in their estacy,
declared that the small fry from one side
rushed down the Threats of the big ones
whom they met flying in the opposite di-
| rection. But this seems very questionable,
though positively asserted by the enraptur-
ed natives, who redoubled their shouts as the
plot thickened, and the two bodies of troops
marched from opposite quarters down with
in hundred yards ofeach other. The in
termediate space was now pretty well crowd
ed with alligators, swimming about in the
utmost terror; at times diving below, and
anon showing theirnoses, well pIastered with
mud, high above the surface of the dirty
stream professionally making furious bolt
in sheer despair right at the phalanX of Ma
lays. On these occasions half dozen of the
soldiers were often upset, and their pixies Ell
| Their broken or twisted out of their hand, to
| the infinite amusement of their companions
who speedily closed up the broken ranks, as
| If their comrades had been shot down in bat
tie. The killed were none, but the wound
ed many-yet no man fiinched in the least
The perfection of the sport appeared TO
consist in detaching single alligator from
the rest, surrounding and attacking him sep
arately, and spearing him till he was almost
dead. The Malays then, by main strength
forked him aloft over their heads, on the end
OF a dozen pixies, and by sudden jerk pitch
| ed the conquered monster far on the shore.
AS the alligators are amphibious, they kept
| TO the water no longer than they found they
had an advantage in that element but as the
period OF the final melee approached, on the
two columns of their enemy closing up, the
monster lost all discipline, foundered, and
| plou!ered up the weedy banks, scuttling a.
way 10 the right and left, heller skelter.-
"Sauve qui peut!" seemed to be the fatal
watch-word for their total route That pru-
dent cry would no doubt have saved many oil
them, as it has saved many other vanquished
| forces, had not the Malays judiciously placed
| beforehand their reserve on each side of the
river to receive the distracted fugitives, who
bathed in mud, and half dead with terror
but still in prodigious fury, dashed off at
right angles from the canal, in hopes oil
gaining the shelter Of a swampy pool, over
| grown with reeds and bulrushes, but which
alas for most of the poor beasts, they were
never doomed TO reach.
The concluding battle between these re-
treating and desperate alligators and the Ma
| lays, of the reserve, was formidable enough
Indeed, had not the one party been fresh
the nthor exhausted, one confident, the 9th
er broken in spirit, it is quite possible that
the croCodiles might have wOrsted the pirates
as the Malays were called in every other
part Of the world but the East, where they
are generally admitted TO be as good set Of
people as any OF their neighbors.
II is needless 10 say that while all this was
going on, our gallant Admiral, Sir Samuel
Hood, was pretty busy spectator. His
eagle eye glanced along the canal, and at a
moment took in the whole purpose of the
campaign. As the war advanced, and sun
dry affairs of out-poSts took place, we could
see his face flushing with delight. But
when the first alligator was cast headlong
and gasping at his feet, pierced with al
least twenty pike wounds, and bristled with
| dozen fragments ofthese weapons frac-
tured in the onslaught, the whole plain rung
with his exclamation of boyish delight
When the detachments closed in upon theiI
prey, and every moment gave birth to some
new prodigy Of yalour, or laid a whole line
Of Malay soldiers PROSTATE on the muddy
stream, like so many nine-pins, verify be-
lieve, that if none ofhis own people had been
present, the admiral would have seized q
pike himself, and jumped into the thickes
of the fight, boots, sword, cooked bat, anC
all! Asst was, he kept himself close TO the
banks, and riyalled the best Malay amongs
them in yelling and cheering on the forces
to their duty.
This intensity of eagerness had well Nigh
proved rather awkward for his excellency'
dignity, lnot his safety for, in spite fin,
repeated warnings Of the English officers 0
the regiment, who knew from former hunt
what was sure to happen eventually, the adj
miral persisted in approaching the edge o
the canal as the final act of the allipators
tragedy commenced. And as we, his boo
officers, were, of course, obliged to follow