CHAPTER II. 



THE SULU ISLANDS. 



"We embark a Rajah — A perfect calm — Arrive at Meimbun — Scenes on the 

 ileimbun River — The Sultan's Istana — The Sultan of Sulu — Unsettled state of 

 the island — Visit of the Sultan to the MarcJiesa — Parangs and spears — Xatural 

 history rambles on the island — Beauty of the scenery — Sun-birds and other 

 birds — C'innyris jiclicc — The Rajah's village — A Sulu cemetery — Second visit of 

 the Sultan with his wives — Domestic broils — The ladies of the harem — Cockatoo 

 shooting. 



"We Ijade adieu to our Mend Hadji Usman, the Pangerang, and 

 left Cagavan Sulu on the 3rd of April. Our destination was 

 Sandakan Bay, about fifty or sixty miles due south, where there is 

 a settlement of the Xorth Borneo Company. Here and in the 

 neighbourhood we spent about a fortnight, luit as we afterwards 

 returned for a more lengthened visit, I will leave my account of 

 the new territory and the doings of the somewhat anomalous form 

 of government which administers it for the present, and proceed 

 to the more attractive islands of the Sulu Archipelago. 



Our ship's company had increased in numbers since our 

 northern cruise. Before lea\dng Hongkong we had been fortunate 

 enough to obtain the ser\dces of Mr. Griffith, the well-known 

 photographer in that city, and it is chiefly from the beautiful 

 negatives obtained by him on our cruise in these waters that my 

 illustrations of tropical types and scenery are engTaved. At 

 Sandakan we made friends with a little so-called Piajah, to whom, 

 with his suite of three Sulu attendants, we gave a passage to 



