Impress upon them that it is better to fire too far than to risk hurting our own men." The order was obeyed; soon flames were seen to rise beyond the spot where the fighting was going on, the resistance to the advance speedily ceased, and a dropping fire took the place of the sustained roll of musketry which, five minutes later, broke out again at the edge of the town facing the wood, and the fire of the guns was now directed against the edge of the forest, to which the Malays had evidently fled.

In a few minutes smoke began to rise all round the place, showing that the men with port fires were at work, and in a quarter of an hour the bluejackets and marines were seen issuing from the houses and coming down to the shore.

The place was by this time a sheet of fire, the lightly built huts, dried in the heat of the sun, catching like tinder, and blazing up in a fierce flame, that in a few minutes left no vestige behind it.
The ship's fire had by this time ceased, and the sailors, as they looked out of the portholes, cheered as the boats came up.

Their appearance was far less orderly than it had been when they put off from the ship, every man having carted off some sort of loot--sarongs, spears, krises, and other articles, some obtained from the huts, others thrown away by the Malays in their flight.

There were, too, some articles of European manufacture, which had been carried off from the palace before the flames had obtained entire possession.