III.] ARRIVAL AT JOLO. 



to our reception by the Spaniards, for we knew that the relations 

 between them and the natives, with whom we were on intimate 

 terms, were anything but cordial. But we were destined to be 

 most agreeably disappointed, and I may here say that it would be 

 impossible to meet with greater kindness than was shown us 

 during our \isit by the Governor — Don Julian Parrado — and his 

 officers. We anchored in ten fathoms not far from the shore. 

 There is no harbour, but gales are of great rarity in the archi- 

 pelago, and the anchorage is protected to the north by the Panga- 

 sinan group of islands. Our anchor was hardly down before a 

 pleasant - looking young Spanish officer boarded us, with the 

 compliments of the Governor and offers of ser\dce, and the 

 information that the band would play at five o'clock. We replied 

 with such suitable Spanish politenesses as our vocabulary 

 mustered, and rowed ashore at the hour appointed. 



I doubt whether any island in the world presents such curious 

 anomalies as Sulu. At the south a semi-barbarous court, with a 

 boy sultan of sensual habits, and an authority that is practically 

 nil. The rest of the island in a feudal condition, parcelled out 

 among half a dozen or more petty despots who are little better than 

 savages, and eternally at war with one another. On the north a 

 large prison, some acres in extent, outside of which no Spaniard 

 dare show his nose. Here are cafes, two or three billiard-tables, a 

 band that one would listen to in Vienna or London with pleasure, 

 fever and dysentery, and complete and hopeless ennui. And in the 

 middle of the island, somewhat mistrusted by the Spaniards, 

 although a friend of the present Governor, but admired and 

 respected by the Sulus in spite of sundry fights he has had with 

 them, lives the German sea-captain, Schiick, leading a planter's 

 existence among groves of cacao, coifee, and Manila hemp. 



We landed at an excellent wooden pier which runs out into 

 the sea for three or four hundred yards or more, and has a light- 

 house built at its extremity. The Governor, whom we found living 

 in a house constructed entirely of corrugated zinc — an arrangement 



