240 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TKAVEL 



subduing them. In Sarawak, also, they rose in revolt in 

 1857, obtained temporary possession of the capital, and 

 nearly succeeded in killing Eajah Brooke, who only 

 saved his life by swimming the river. His Malay 

 subjects, however, inflicted a severe but well-deserved 

 punishment upon the insurgents, and it is not likely that 

 any similar incident will again happen. 



The Bajaus, who in Blitong and some parts of Borneo 

 are known by the name of Sikas, are a wandering race of 

 ^Malays, who pass their lives in boats from the cradle to 

 the grave. In some places they have changed their 

 mode of life, have built houses, and cultivated the 

 ground ; but this is seldom the case, and the majority act 

 as cattle-stealers, petty pilferers, and kidnappers, and are 

 not averse from more serious .crimes if the occasion 

 should ofter. They have given a good deal of trouble to 

 the North Borneo Company's Government, some of 

 whose officers they have murdered, while boats' crews 

 have more than once been cut off by them. These 

 occurrences are nevertheless rare, and are becoming still 

 rarer as European influence extends. The days of 

 piracy are practically over, thanks to the establishment 

 of the Spanish in Sulu and the British in North Borneo, 

 but hardly more than a decade ago these seas were 

 scoured by the Illanuns and Balagnini, the most danger- 

 ous and blood-thirsty pirates of the Malay Archipelago. 

 The former are a race who had their original home in the 

 island of Mindanao in the Philippines. They have of 

 late been compelled to lead a less lawless life, and some 

 have formed settlements in Borneo. The Balagnini, or 

 Balangnini, inhabited an island of that name in the Sulu 

 group, which is memorable as the scene of the most 

 signal punishment ever inflicted on Malay pirates by a 

 European power. " In 1848," says Mr. Crawfurd, " it was 



