The Magindano Pirates. 347 



Ternate market. About a lumdred yards back rises a rather 

 steep hill, and a short walk liaving shown me that there was 

 a tolerable path up it, I determined to stay here for a few 

 days. Opposite us, and all along this coast of Batchian, stretch- 

 es a row of fine islands completely uninhabited. Whenever 

 I asked the reason why no one goes to live in them, the answer 

 always was, " For fear of the Magindano pirates." Every 

 year these scourges of the Archipelago wander in one direction 

 or another, making their rendezvous on some uninhabited isl- 

 and, and carrying devastation to all the small settlements 

 around ; robbing, destroying, killing, or taking captive all they 

 meet with. Their long well-manned praus escape from the pur- 

 suit of any sailing-vessel by pulling away right in the wind's 

 eye, and the warning smoke of a steamer generally enables 

 them to hide in some shallow bay, or narrow river, or forest- 

 covered inlet, till the danger is passed. The only effectual way 

 to put a stop to their depredations would be to attack them 

 in their strongholds and villages, and compel them to give 

 up piracy, and submit to strict surveillance. Sir James Bi'ooke 

 did this with the pirates of the north-west coast of Borneo, 

 and deserves the thanks of the whole population of the Archi- 

 pelago for having rid them of half their enemies. 



All along the beach here, and in the adjacent strip of sandy 

 lowland, is a remarkable display of Pandanaceje, or screw- 

 pines. Some are like huge branching candelabra, forty or fifty 

 feet high, and bearing at the end of each branch a tuft of im- 

 mense sword-shaped leaves six or eight inches wide and as 

 many feet long. Others have a single unbranched stem six or 

 seven feet high, the upper part clothed with the spirally ar- 

 ranged leaves, and bearing a single terminal fruit as large as 

 a swan's egg. Others of intermediate size have irregular 

 clusters of rough red fruits, and all have more or less spiny- 

 edged leaves and ringed stems. The young plants of the 

 larger species have smooth glossy thick leaves, sometimes ten 

 feet long and eight inches wide, Avhich are used all over the 

 Moluccas and New Guinea to make " cocoyas," or sleeping- 

 mats, which are often very prettily ornamented Avith colored 

 patterns. Higher up on the hill is a forest of immense trees, 

 among which those producing the resin called dammar (Dam- 

 mara sp.) are abundant. The inhabitants of several small vil- 



