Pepper (25 page)

At two o'clock in the morning, 282 men armed with pistols, boarding pikes, and muskets were dispatched to their boats. A six-pound gun, which the men called Betsey Baker, was placed on a launch and towed astern. It was a still, moonless night and not a word was spoken as the boats made their way toward the shore. The men landed about a mile north of the settlement and separated into four divisions, reaching the village at daybreak. The first attack occurred at the northernmost fort. After breaking down a heavy gate, the Americans entered, killing the fort's chief and most of his men. The fighting was fierce. “… such was the desperation with which these fellows resisted us, that [in the northernmost fort] … 13 out of its 14 defenders were destroyed: 12 while defending themselves, the 13th in the act of escaping after the before mentioned were dead! The other got out of the fort safely, it is presumed,” wrote midshipman Levi Lincoln, who was the son of a Massachusetts governor.

The mother of one of the fort's chiefs and other fearless Sumatran women lost their lives in the assault. One woman delivered a “severe blow” with a saber, nearly severing the hand of one of the American men. A sailor near the wounded man shot the woman to death. Still another woman fought with the “spirit of a desperado,” according to Francis Warriner, the Potomac's chaplain.

After the first fort fell, a second was easily taken and its inhabitants put to death, allowing more men to join the assault on the largest fort, which stood directly in front of the town. From the launcher, the Betsey Baker pounded the fort as parts of two divisions began to force the gate open. Fire broke out along the outer walls and soon the inner compartments of the fort were engulfed by flames. The inhabitants were caught between the crossfire from the boats and the two divisions, and they didn't stop fighting until the fort was practically in ashes and nearly all had been killed. Yet another fort was taken before Shubrick decided it was time to call off his men.

The entire assault had lasted less than two and a half hours. Two American men had been killed and eleven wounded. The number of native men, women, and children killed ranged from about sixty, according to an account by the people of Qualah Battoo, to at least 150, according to Shubrick's estimate.

The next morning, American flags were flying over the forts. Most of the town had been reduced to ashes. Commodore Downes warned the people of Qualah Battoo how “reckless and inconsiderate they must be ever again to provoke” the naval power of his country, and pointed out that it was not a policy of his government “to make conquest and form establishments in foreign ports.” Accordingly, Downes immediately “restored” the town to its people.

After Downes left Qualah Battoo, he sailed east to Java, China, and South America, and didn't return to the United States until May 1834. Meanwhile, a long, bombastic poem called “The Battle of Qualah Battoo” was published as a broadside at the request of some of the crew members of the
Potomac
. A brief excerpt describes the shining heroism of Downes and the Americans in Sumatra.

“All around us in ambush these savages lay—

And the bullets like hail-stones were scattered abroad;

But still on their forts we continued to play,

To conquer our object—Potomac's the word.

Exposed to their fires, the Potomacs undaunted

Beneath their rude ramparts stood firmly and brave

Resolved that the stripes and the stars of
Columbia

Ere long on their ramparts in triumph should wave.”

Fortunately, the poem wasn't the last word on the battle. The
New York Evening Post
soon published a story by an anonymous crewman on the
Potomac
that conveyed an entirely different view of the attack. Rather than shining heroism, it described wanton killing and looting by undisciplined sailors. “The marines entered the second fort at bayonet charge, and put all to death except three women who supplicated for mercy,” the crewman wrote. “There were several women killed who had the hardihood to take up arms when they saw their husbands fall at their feet—indeed it was impossible to distinguish the sex, they dress so much alike. Having possession of the forts they [the Americans] proceeded to fire them and the town, and to destroy everything of value that was left (for I assure you that some of the boys brought plunder on board).”

This account was later confirmed by Francis Warriner, the
Potomac
's chaplain, who reported that the sailors broke ranks and were difficult to control. They killed indiscriminately, and “cared little about death.” When a sailor was questioned just as he was about to kill a woman, the man replied: “It matters not, for if there were no women, there would be no Malays.” Many of the sailors carried away gold scabbards, earrings and rings, anklets and bracelets, and small quantities of gold and silver coin. Other spoils included a Chinese gong, a Koran, and pieces of rich gold cloth. Ducks and other animals were also seized, but the men had to return to the ship before they could feast.

Although the
Evening Post
's report stirred the House of Representatives to ask President Jackson for copies of Downes's orders, lawmakers soon moved on to other matters. The nation's newspapers, however, didn't ignore the issues raised by Downes's actions, which are still as valid today as they were some 180 years ago. Historian David F. Long notes that the debate raged in the pages of the Washington–based
Globe
, which supported the Jackson administration, and its rival, the
National Intelligencer
. In an editorial in 1833, the
Globe
claimed that “The Malays have been regarded as pirates by all the European nations, and have constantly acted as such.… No regular government of either the East or West will take exception to the punishment inflicted by the frigate
Potomac
on this horde of barbarians.”

The
National Intelligencer
retorted: “If some of the Malays are pirates, we must be allowed to say … others of them are unoffending people. The institutions of government of that country are older than those in the United States by a thousand years. Some at least of those who live on the sea coast are represented as an enterprising and commercial people, who live under a fundamental government; and have made progress in arts and civilization.… There are pirates on the coast, it is true; for a piracy was committed on the
Friendship
. So there are pirates on the coast of China. But would any Power of Europe think of ravaging the village of that country with fire and sword because a piracy had been committed on one of its ships?”

Meanwhile, other newspapers criticized Downes's decision to attack Qualah Battoo before seeking information from its inhabitants about the capture of the
Friendship
. Some also questioned whether the president could go to war without the approval of Congress; a debate that occurred some 130 years before the Vietnam War. The
Salem Gazette
opined that “Neither the President of the United States nor the Captain of a Frigate has power to make or proclaim war.”

Despite public pronouncements that Downes had done his job, President Jackson and Navy Secretary Woodbury were not happy. A confidential letter Woodbury wrote to Downes during the height of the controversy in July 1833 questioned Downes's actions. “The President regrets that you were not able [,] before attacking the Malays at Qualah Battoo, to obtain … fuller information of the particulars of their outrage on the
Friendship
, and of the character and political relations of the aggressors.…” Downes was asked to provide a full accounting of the incident to President Jackson “since it may hereafter become material.”

Downes defended his actions, but his reply must not have been satisfactory. When he returned to the United States, he wasn't treated like a conquering hero and was not given another overseas appointment. He never again commanded a U.S. warship and ended his career as a lighthouse inspector.

*   *   *

Downes's admonition to the people of Sumatra didn't mean very much; the senseless destruction of Qualah Battoo did not prevent piracy along the Sumatran pepper coast. A little more than a year after the
Potomac
left Indonesia, attempts were made to overtake two American ships along the pepper coast, although the pirates were unsuccessful. And in 1838, an incident occurred in another port along the northwest coast, prompting the American government to intervene again in Southeast Asia. That year pirates captured the
Eclipse
, a Salem ship owned by Joseph Peabody. Captain Charles F. Wilkins and a young man named William F. Babbage of Salem lost their lives in a plot involving local chiefs at Muckie and nearby Soo-soo and Qualah Battoo.

The first mate and four crewmen were weighing pepper on shore when the pirates attacked the ship. They stole some $26,000 in silver and two chests of opium, along with two trunks of the captain's best apparel, some gold watches, spyglasses, muskets, and other items. The remainder of the crew escaped aboard a French barque. Later a local chief helped the first mate recover the
Eclipse
, which had already been abandoned by the pirates. The incident triggered the usual calls for revenge. “If our Government does not send a frigate next season and destroy Soo-soo, Tangan Tangan, Muckie and South Tallapow, we must bid adieu to the pepper trade,” wrote a captain who had helped recover the
Eclipse
. “If we do not have a frigate out next year, the Malays are growing so insolent that they will be for taking all the vessels where there is the least chance of success,” he added.

Once again an American warship was dispatched to the shores of northwest Sumatra. This time Commodore George C. Read was sent to negotiate, and he must have known about the controversy enveloping Downes because he didn't bombard the coast until he had spoken to the chiefs of all three settlements and sent ultimatums demanding restitution. He commanded the U.S. frigate
Columbia
, which was accompanied by a corvette, a smaller warship, called the
John Adams
. Although there was little or no resistance, the Americans went ashore and set fire to Qualah Battoo and Muckie. Captain Wyman of the
John Adams
, who led the expedition against Muckie, reported to Read on Jan. 1, 1839:

“In execution of your order to me for the entire destruction of the town of Muckie, I this day landed on the beach at the head of the harbor, and about one hundred and fifty yards from the town, with six divisions of small arms, men, and marines, consisting of three hundred and twenty men, detailed for the service from the squadron under your command.

“Upon getting on shore, the different divisions were, together with the marines, immediately formed by their respective commanding officers, when all moved forward for Muckie, which was entered about half-past twelve, in the afternoon; and by two o'clock the town was in our possession. Five forts were taken without opposition, and the guns found therein, to the number of twenty-one, spiked and thrown over the parapet into the ditch—the forts set fire to and entirely demolished. The town, at the same time, was set on fire in numerous places, which was entirely consumed, together with all the property in and near the place—consisting of proas, coasting craft, and boats of various sizes and descriptions, and the rigging, yards. &c., &.c., found on shore, belonging thereto, were destroyed in the general conflagration; and upon embarking, nothing remained visible to the eye but the ashes covering the smoking ruins, upon the site on which the town of Muckie and the forts once stood.”

From the mizzen top of the
Columbia
, Fitch W. Taylor, a chaplain to the squadron, viewed the devastation. “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.… 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.”

Only one American was killed or wounded. Unlike Downes, Read was treated well on his return and was rewarded with the command of the African Squadron.

Although there were other piracies in the following years, no other American pepper ship was ever again seized by Malaysians along the pepper coast of northwest Sumatra and no U.S. warship ever again destroyed villages there. Fast American clipper ships began stopping in Padang along Sumatra's west coast (to the south of the pepper coast) when the coffee trade took off in the 1850s.

Around this time the pepper trade had begun to wane in Salem, caused in part by another downturn in prices for the spice. Consequently, by the middle of the nineteenth century, Salem lost its leading position in the pepper trade to its greatest rival, Boston, which boasted a much larger port and had far better access to the burgeoning trade in the interior of the country after the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825. The last bulk cargo of pepper entered Salem in November 1846. By that time, many of Salem's leading pepper merchants had moved to Boston; the last to relocate was Silsbee, Pickman & Stone in 1865, which had made some 105 voyages to the pepper coast.

A change in business practices, along with the advent of the clipper trade in 1850s, helped end the U.S. pepper trade to Sumatra. “Clipper competition was facilitated by the new type of business in the Far East,” wrote James W. Gould, whose treatise on the U.S. pepper trade in Sumatra is still one of the best sources available. “The establishment of American business houses there eliminated the previous advantages of the private contacts and knowledge which had sustained so much of the old trades. The pepper trade was probably the most specialized and technical of the old India trades. After 1853, any American merchant could buy pepper from the American firms like Paine, Strickler & Co. in Batavia or Revely & Co. in Penang.”