One Captain Barry, Who Is Said To Have Been A Very Ingenious Gentleman,
Had The Charge Of Establishing This New Factory, In Which He Is Reported
To Have Acted With Much Skill And Prudence.
But he died before the works
were completed; and the direction of the factory devolved upon Doctor
Cunningham, who came to this place after the ruin of the factory at Pulo
Condore.
He is said to have given himself so entirely up to his studies,
that he left the care of the Company's concerns too much to the people
who were under him, who were unequal to the trust, and proved the ruin
of the factory. Before the fort was half finished, these people began to
insult the natives of the country; and, among other wanton acts of
folly, they very imprudently chose to search one of the boats belonging
to the king, which was carrying a female of rank down the river. This so
provoked the Bornean sovereign that he determined upon the utter
destruction of the English; for which purpose he collected his forces
together, amounting to about three thousand resolute men, which he
embarked in above an hundred proas, and sent them down to attack the
factory and unfinished fort.
There happened at this time to be two ships belonging to the Company in
the river, besides two merchant vessels of inconsiderable force; and as
Cunningham and his people had received advice of the preparations making
against them, they left their factory, taking refuge aboard the ships,
thinking themselves in greater security there than ashore.
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