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Updated: September 16, 2025
I accompanied my uncle back to the beach, as we agreed we would not tell the Frau or her charges what we had seen. My uncle had a spy-glass with him. After examining the vessels, which were still at a considerable distance, he shut it up with a slam. "There is no doubt about it," he exclaimed. "Those, if I mistake not, are Sooloo pirates, and bloodthirsty villains they are.
"Beside the Illanuns, there are two other descriptions of pirates infesting these seas: one, the Dyaks of Sakarran and Sarebus, two predatory tribes already mentioned; the other called Balagnini, a wild people represented to come from the northward of Sooloo.
There being little or no money in Sooloo, the trade carried on by the Chinese supercargos of the ships frequenting the port is principally transacted by barter, they giving their manufactures for the produce of their fishery, &c., and for edible birds'-nests, tortoise-shell, beche de mer, mother-of-pearl shell, wax, gold-dust, pearls, &c.
"At first I thought they were approaching their homes, and they might be Bornean pirates from the west coast; but I have now no doubt that they are Illanons from Sooloo. They more nearly answer the descriptions I have had of the latter; but, as you know, my cruising has been more to the south and to the eastward, so that I have not fallen in with them." All night long we lay in perfect silence.
Sibnowans, or Sibnyons, Mr. Brooke's favorite tribe of Dyaks, of superior character. Singè, Dyak tribes. Songi Besar, large river. Sooloo, on the northeast of Borneo, a powerful piratical nest, the natives of which massacred the garrison of Balambangan in 1775. Sudahs, defences to wound the feet of attacking enemies.
Everything capable of holding water was made use of, and the calabashes, kettles, buckets, and pans were passed along from hand to hand from the hold to the side of the vessel and back again with the greatest rapidity. We kept the water under, but that was all; and it seemed most questionable whether we should be able in this condition to get back to Sooloo.
The people quarrelled with me about the division. I was also anxious to cruise among the Sooloo Islands, and to visit other places to which I thought little Eva might have been carried. To this they were opposed, instigated by the new hands. I grew furious, and blew out the brains of one of the ringleaders.
A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." But to return. We remained eight days at Sooloo, during which time there was much altercation and excitement. At last the sultan of Sooloo agreed to send a prahu with us to pilot us up the river, to the town where the crew of the Premier were in durance.
He says, "I have heard this morning that one of our schooners has been captured by the Sooloo pirates, and the crew murdered." The last twenty years have not therefore altered the character of these people, and their extermination seems the only remedy for the misery they inflict on their fellow creatures.
On the 18th of April we sailed from Sooloo, and visited several islands in the Archipelago, on one of which we grounded, but escaped without sustaining any damage. On the 23rd we anchored off Unsang, the eastern province of Borneo, where we remained four days surveying the coast.
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