92 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 



and flora are distinctly Philippine, and widely different 

 from Borneo. The inhabitants, as has been already 

 stated, are Mohammedan Malays, speaking a peculiar 

 language allied to Bisayan and written in the Arabic 

 character. They are considerably advanced in civilisa- 

 tion, making beautiful parangs, as the Sulu krisses are 

 termed, and breeding horses with a special eye to racing 

 them. Since 1885 the German Borneo Company has 

 established tobacco plantations upon the island, the 

 labourers being Chinese coolies from Singapore. The 

 ylang-ylang plant is also cultivated. Liberian and 

 Arabian coffee has been proved to do well, but there 

 are as yet no white planters. Many valuable articles of 

 commerce are produced, such as tortoise-shell, tripang, 

 edible birds' nests, pearls, and pearl-shells. The islands 

 are also a great mart for slaves, the piratical expeditions 

 having for centuries brought captives from every part of 

 the archipelago, so that here are to be found pure Malays 

 from Sumatra, Papuans from New Guinea, and even 

 natives from Siam in the north, and of Java and Timor 

 in the south. These slaves are bartered with traders, 

 and thus find their way to remote islands, and must have 

 helped to produce those mixtures of various races which 

 often render it difficult for the anthropologist to deter- 

 mine the affinities of many of the so-called Malay 

 peoples. Although the check upon piracy has also had 

 considerable effect upon this trade, there is no douljt that 

 it is still largely carried on, and the Spaniards are power- 

 less to stop it. The chief market and port of export is 

 Maimbun. Official returns give the population of the 

 Sulu Archipelago at 100,000, which is probably too high 

 an estimate. 



Between Tawi-tawi and Sibutu intervenes the deep 

 channel known as the Sibutu Passage, which zoologically 



