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"The small narrow guts," says Dalrymple in his account of the Sulo seas, "about Tawi Tawi, are the most rich and valuable fishery in the world."
The towns within it are Towsam, Duyom, Lu, Bokean, Dom or Doung, Seagally-hood and Tong luly luku; all these are governed by Datus from Sulo, who have expressly settled here to collect the prodigious quantities of birds'-nests abounding in this district. They are procured here at ten dollars the catty; and sent to Sulo, with tripan, wax, &c.
Kimanis lies in latitude 5° 8' north; this is the first port on this coast ceded to the English by the Sultan of Sulo. The town lies ten miles up the river, at the foot of some of the most beautiful hills I ever saw, and is inhabited by thirty-five thousand Orang Idan. The river is small, and almost choked up at the mouth.
The whole of these rivers are deep and navigable for seventy or eighty miles; but have all of them mud flats at their mouths, which would not admit of the entry of vessels exceeding fourteen feet at high water springs. The third most considerable river on Borneo is the Kinabatangan, lying in the north of the island, and emptying itself into the Sulo seas.
There is likewise an extensive bed of the Ceylon oyster, called by the Malays kapis; the principal banks of the latter are found in Maludu Bay. The Sulo pearls have, from time immemorial, been the most celebrated, and praised as the most valuable of any in the known world.
Under the British flag, he thinks thousands of new settlers will find their way in the annual junks. All that extensive range, from Cape Unsing, passing by the Tawi Tawi islands and Sulo, as far as Baselan, is one vast continued bed of pearl-oysters, principally of the Behoren or mother-of-pearl-shell species; these are called by the natives tipi.
There are several fine specimens of crystal found at Kimanis and Sulo; they call them water diamonds. To give full effect to the mines in the kingdom of Sukadana, says the Sultan of Pontiana, and to raise the excess of food required for the additional hands, would together give employment to at least a million of Chinese.
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