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There is a very valuable gold mine in the north of Borneo, at a place called Tampasuk, situated in the district ceded to the English by the Sultan of Sulo; but having become the principal pirate port on the coast, the working of the mines has been discontinued.
The gentleman I refer to runs as a rule to stark melodramas with a volcano or the ghost of John Paul Jones in the role of Nemesis, melodramas carefully disguised by early paragraphs in Jamesian manner which hint dark and subtle complexities to follow. On this order: "The case of Shaw McPhee, curiously enough, had no hearing on the almost incredible attitude of Martin Sulo.
But it is necessary to observe, the Sulo people do not practice diving at all, as is the case at Beharen and Ceylon, but only comprehend the slow method of dredging for the tipy with a thing like the fluke of a wooden anchor.
Pigofetta, the companion of Magalhaens, mentions having seen in 1520 two Sulo pearls in the possession of the Rajah of Borneo as large as pullet eggs. Very large ones, from one to two hundred chaw weight, are at all times to be purchased at Sulo; and there are altogether sold here to the China junks, the Spaniards, &c. more than two laks of dollars worth annually.
The principal piratical ports that still exist, beside those of Lingin, Rhio, and Billiton, are 1st, Pangeran Annam, at Sambas; 2d, Port Borneo Proper, and four hundred prows at Tampasuk, both under the Rajah of Borneo Proper; 3d, the Pasir pirates; 4th, the Sulo pirates; 5th, the Illano, or pirates on the Isle of Magindano.
In 1800, Captain Pavin and a boat's crew were cruelly murdered in the palace of the Sultan of Sulo while the commander was drinking a cup of chocolate: they fired upon the ship Ruby, but did not succeed in capturing her. In 1810, they plundered the wreck of the ship Harrier of a valuable cargo: several of her crew are still in slavery at Bagayan Sulo.
The Sultan of Sulo, in 1810, proposed to me to bring over one hundred Chulia divers from Negapatam on our joint expense and profit: and the divers agreed to go over on receiving each twenty-five rupees advance, their victuals being found, and one-fourth of the produce of oysters allowed them, as at Ceylon.
I have had an opportunity of inspecting the banks about Manar and Tutacoryn, as well as all the banks in the Sulo seas; but the former have not banks near as extensive, equaling in the quantity of oysters, in productiveness, size, or richness, the Sulo pearl, nor are they to be compared in any way to the Sulo beds.
The chocolate nut of Sulo is preferred at Manilla to that from South America. The tree that yields the clove-bark, and the nutmeg, and clove, thrive luxuriantly, though never tried to any extent. The woods about Pontiana for carpentry and joinery, are kayu bulean, chena, mintangore, laban, ebony, iron-wood, dammar, and dammar laut, &c. &c. The pine abounds in the bay of Maludu, teak at Sulo.
The principal towns are, Sungy Bassar, nearly at the head of the bay, and Bankaka, on the left; the former, under Sheriff Mahomed, sends its produce to Sulo; the latter, under Orang Kayas, trades with Borneo Proper.
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