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The Bay of Maludu, on the north of Borneo, is thirty miles in length, and from four to six in breadth, with numberless rivers flowing into it. There is no danger on the right-hand shore going up, but what is seen; on the larboard shore considerable coral-reefs are met with. Laurie and Whittle's chart of it is tolerably correct.
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.
They had also plenty of fire-arms, but were afraid of them, preferring their own weapons. It was here that we heard the news of the murder of our old friends Rajah Muda and Bud-ruddeen. It appeared that they had been accused of being privy to the attack of the English on Maludu, and supporting our claims to the island of Labuan.
The Portuguese missionaries found these people very tractable converts, and very large bodies of them are very easily governed by a single Malay chief, as at Landa, Songo, and Matan. I have seen very large bodies of them at Kimanis and Maludu, but none of them possessing the ferocity of a Malay. Poivre, "Malacca was a country well peopled, and was consequently well cultivated.
It was the madness of retaliation an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. September 14th. Arrived at Hong Kong, where we found the Castor, Vixen, and Espiègle. The next day the Agincourt, Dædalus, Vestal, and Wolverine, arrived from Borneo, having been engaged with the pirates of Maludu Bay.
On our arrival, we found no ship there but the Castor, the admiral and fleet being employed on the coast of Borneo, subduing the pirates in Maludu Bay. The ship being again about to start for the northward, I was considered too unwell to remain in her, and was sent on board the Minden hospital ship, to live or to die, as it might please God.
Sulu now wished to throw off the yoke of Borneo, and through the intrigues of the regent succeeded in doing so, as well as in retaining possession of the eastern side of Borneo, from Maludu Bay on the north, to Tulusyan on the south, which has ever since been a part of the Sulu territory.
The principal towns are Pitan, Kinarubatan, Kulepan, and the famous town of Sugut. The coast is so full of coral-reefs, and has been so very indifferently surveyed, that it is only frequented by prows; there is a road from Sugut to Bankaka in Maludu Bay. Much wax, tripan, sago, &c., is produced here.
Circumstances, however, occurred to prevent an undertaking which I think must have turned out highly lucrative. They dredge the banks all the year round. The water on the Tahow, Maludu, and Tawi Tawi banks, is from seven to ten fathoms deep; in other places they fish in fifteen fathoms water. The Malays of Borneo understand the art of cutting, polishing, and setting their diamonds.
In no part of the world does the camphor-tree flourish in equal perfection as in the districts of Maludu and Payton, in the north of Borneo. The ebony, the dammar, the tree that yields the finest dragon's blood in the world, all abound here. The cotton and coffee trees are found in all parts of Borneo, though not much attended to.
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