The small boats in which were the Malay garrison were being swamped by the heavy bangkongs or war prahus of the Sekrangs filled with armed men. Brereton's boat upset, and with difficulty he reached the bank. Lee refused to retreat, and calling out, "Save yourselves, I must stand," dashed on. His boat was boarded by the enemy; he fought with desperation, but was overpowered and fell into the water with his head nearly severed from his shoulders. Meanwhile the force of the current had carried the fleet under the guns of the stockade, and these opened fire upon it, and compelled Rentap reluctantly to withdraw and abandon his undertaking.[191] He was followed up and attacked by the Sekrang Dayak chief Gasing, who, acting on his own initiative, burnt twenty villages belonging to Rentap's followers. When the news of this disaster reached Kuching, the Tuan Muda was recalled from Lundu and ordered to replace Lee at Lingga, and he arrived there in June, 1853. A stronger fort was now built there, and the Malays living at Banting were ordered to move down. He was succeeded at Lundu by Mr. Charles Grant.[192] Lingga, which is just at the mouth of the river of that name that flows into the Batang Lupar about sixteen miles above its mouth, is seated on a mud bank; the land for miles around is a dismal swamp, and is the most dreary station in the State. It is, however, a healthy place, and another redeeming point is the fine expanse of water which forms the estuary of the Bantag Lupar, stretching from Lingga, where it is three miles broad, straight to the mouth. The Dayak population of the Lingga river was then about 5000, all Balaus, whom the Tuan Muda found to be "braver than most Dayaks, and true-hearted." From the first, they and the Seboyaus, a relative tribe, residing some at Seboyau, below Lingga, but most at Lundu, had sided with the Rajah against their direst foes, the Saribas; and these pages record many great services rendered by them. Besides these Dayaks there was a considerable number of Malays, and the latter increased, for Lingga became to them a place of refuge.