of one instance, where an outrage, accompanied by murder, was committed on a vessel of the United States while engaged in a lawful commerce.” He was drawing attention to a recent and brutal attack on American trade, specifically the August 1838 massacre aboard the American merchant ship Eclipse, where attackers, initially welcomed aboard under the guise of peaceful trade, suddenly turned on the crew, killing the captain and others and plundering valuable cargo. The ship had been engaged in the ordinary pepper trade, underscoring Van Buren’s point that this violence occurred during legitimate commercial activity.
In response, Commodore George C. Reed was dispatched to the region and proceeded immediately to the scene. After seeking redress and receiving no meaningful cooperation from local authorities, who neither surrendered the perpetrators nor restored the stolen property, he carried out a punitive expedition along the Sumatran coast. American naval forces bombarded fortified positions at Quallah Battoo and ultimately attacked and destroyed the village of Muckie, actions intended as what Van Buren described as “severe and merited chastisement” for the murder and piracy committed against American citizens.
A contemporary account of these events can be found in Cruise of the Frigate Columbia Around the World, published in 1840 by William Meacham Murrell, a member of Commodore Reed’s crew. In this publications, is a contemporary letter detailing the attack on the Eclipse written by A. Van Iseghem, a merchant in the region who recorded the testimony of surviving crew members and relayed it to U.S. consular authorities. In his letter, he recounts how the Eclipse, engaged in legitimate pepper trade, was attacked through deception when trusted local traders were allowed aboard and later regained their weapons. In a sudden assault, the captain, an apprentice, and others were killed, while surviving crew members fled or hid as the attackers seized control of the vessel. The assailants looted valuable cargo, including opium and $18,000 in specie, and efforts to recover the stolen property failed when the local rajah refused to return it.
To the Consular Agent for the United States of America, Prince of Wales Island:
Sir,—Agreeable to your request, with the greatest pleasure I send you an official narration of the murder of Capt. Wilkins, of the American ship Eclipse. From the 24th of June, the day of my arrival at Tullah Pow and Muckie, and also the day I spoke with the Eclipse, I knew very little about her operations. I was informed that Capt. W. was many days trading at a village called Trabanjan, a distance of about twelve miles from Muckie. On the night of the 26th of August, at about 2 o'clock, a man from a jolly-boat hailed the ship in French, claiming hospitality, saying that they were from the bark Eclipse, that the captain had been murdered by the Malays, and the second mate, who was then in the boat, severely wounded in the loins.
After dressing their wounds, they communicated to me the following narrative:
On the evening of the 26th of August, 1838, two samprams, with twelve men in each, having a small quantity of pepper, came alongside the ship, and offered it for sale, as it frequently happens. The second mate, whose watch it was on deck, being particularly acquainted with Labbey Ousso Juritoolis, of Muckie, and knowing that he had assisted Capt. W. in his former voyages, thought it was no harm to allow him and his people to come on board, as they were very good friends, notwithstanding it was then night time. When they came up, he told them the captain was then asleep, and had been indisposed for several days, and that they would be obliged to wait until he awoke to weigh the pepper and settle the price. He also told them the custom of the ship was, by way of precaution, to ask them for their weapons, which they without any objection immediately gave up, and he got them secured under lock and key. After this, they feigned to sleep on various parts of the deck, awaiting the approach of the captain, who came up about 10 o'clock, when they asked him to weigh the pepper. Labbey Ousso, feigning friendship with the captain, complained of the distrust of the second mate, and requested to have his own and his friends' daggers given back to them, which was done. From his long acquaintance with the man, the captain did not think he was doing an act of imprudence in giving them their daggers.
During this time, the second mate and two of the sailors were busily occupied in getting ready the scales, etc., for weighing the pepper that was on deck. As the second draft was weighing, the captain, who was seated by a light near the binnacle, cried out, “I am stabbed!” The second mate, who was then stooping to take up the bags, was stabbed in the loins; at the same time, the apprentice boy, who was standing near the captain, was killed by the same hand which had slain his commander. The second mate jumped overboard notwithstanding his wound, and part of the crew followed his example; the remainder ran aloft. The second mate and those who followed afterwards returned to the ship, by means of some ropes which were hanging from the quarter-deck, and went up aloft to join the others, several of whom were wounded. The murderers, in the meantime, were looking out for other victims, and found the cook below in irons for insubordination. He begged for his life, promising to show them the place where the money and opium was deposited. They immediately broke his fetters and set him free, and took four cases of opium and $18,000 in specie, the contents of eighteen casks. The second mate and four sailors, who were on board, armed a boat and came to us, leaving the ship without any guardian to take care of her. The carpenter and two sailors went on shore to join the chief mate and four sailors, who were on shore for the purpose of procuring pepper.
On the morning of the 27th instant, we unanimously agreed that the sailors should return to their ship and hoist the signal of distress, to call the chief mate, and if he did not come, to accompany it with firing, which was done on their arrival on board. I was afterwards informed that the ship Eclipse, under the command of the chief mate, sailed for Muckie to take one of the chiefs of that place to Soosoo, to recover his losses and part of the opium which the rajah of that place got from the robbers; these he refused to give up.
This statement is all that I know, and which I give as authentic.
(Signed,)
A. Van Iseghem
"The deed of atrocity just related could not be heard in silence" (Murrell 91).
The U.S. response began with a sustained naval bombardment, as American ships opened a heavy and continuous fire on the town and its defensive forts. This was followed by a coordinated landing of roughly 350 sailors and marines, who advanced inland with little resistance as the inhabitants fled. Once ashore, the force systematically destroyed the settlement, setting it ablaze, leveling the forts, spiking the guns, and eliminating anything deemed of value. The operation was carried out deliberately, leaving the town in ruins and demonstrating that attacks on American commerce would not go unanswered. In Cruise of the Frigate Columbia Around the World, Murrell captured details of the operation.
At 10, A.M. on the first of January, 1839, we commenced the new year, and hostilities on the desperate inhabitants of this place. The starboard broadside of the ship was sprung upon the town… The men instinctively rushed to their guns… We began to fire upon the town and forts, and kept up a continual, brisk, and well-directed fire…
At meridian came the tug of war: our men, to the number of 350, including the marines… left the ship for the shore… On landing… we marched into the town, and commenced setting fire to the same, which was speedily in one general conflagration.
The forts were leveled with the ground, the guns spiked, and every thing destroyed… the work of destruction… carried on to its fullest extent; the town being burnt to the ground, leaving nought but a mass of ruins… we had taken some satisfaction… letting the Malays know that a civilized nation was not to be insulted with impunity.
In his State of the Union address, Van Buren emphasized that the murder “was committed on a vessel of the United States while engaged in a lawful commerce” and described Commodore Read’s actions as severe but justified, calling them “merited chastisement.” The sequence of events, from the massacre aboard the Eclipse, to the refusal of restitution, to the destruction of the Sumatran settlements closely mirrors the structure of Van Buren’s account and confirms that his statement was grounded in a specific and well-documented incident. Here is the full excerpt from Van Buren's 1839 State of the Union address.
"The Navy has been usefully and honorably employed in protecting the rights and property of our citizens wherever the condition of affairs seemed to require its presence. With the exception of one instance, where an outrage, accompanied by murder, was committed on a vessel of the United States while engaged in a lawful commerce, nothing is known to have occurred to impede or molest the enterprise of our citizens on that element, where it is so signally displayed. On learning this daring act of piracy, Commodore Reed proceeded immediately to the spot, and receiving no satisfaction, either in the surrender of the murderers or the restoration of the plundered property, inflicted severe and merited chastisement on the barbarians."
Reference
Van Buren, Martin. “Third Annual Message.” The American Presidency Project, 2 Dec. 1839, https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/third-annual-message-4.
Cruise of the Frigate Columbia Around the World. Cruise of the Frigate Columbia Around the World, under the Command of Commodore George C. Read, in 1838, 1839, and 1840. By William Meacham Murrell, Benjamin B. Mussey, 1840.
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