254 COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 



hoisted in 1763, and a post established on the island by 

 the East India Company about the year 1770, which 

 acted in some degree as a check upon the pirates with 

 which these seas at that time swarmed. The garrison at 

 first numbered nearly four hundred men, but the climate 

 had told so severely upon them that only 7 5 infantry and 

 28 gunners were fit for duty on the occasion of which 

 we are now speaking. The Spanish were at this time 

 intriguing in Sulu, where opinion was divided among the 

 Datus, some being in favour of the English, while others 

 wished to expel them. Eventually the counsel of the 

 latter prevailed, and on the 5th March, 1775, the place 

 was surprised and taken by a force of 300 Sulu and 

 Illanun pirates under the Datu Tenteng ; the whole 

 garrison, with the exception of the Governor and two or 

 three men, slaughtered ; and booty to the value of one 

 million Spanish dollars seized. The Sultan of Sulu, 

 although nominally repudiating this act, received a great 

 part of the spoil, and no reparation appears to have been 

 exacted by the English. Some little tune later the 

 settlement was re-established, but it was again abandoned 

 in 1803. A few overgrown ruins and traces of old 

 clearings are all that now remain to mark the spot. 



Labuan. 



The island of Labuan is situated on the north-west 

 coast of Borneo, opposite the mouth of Brunei Bay. It is 

 12 miles in length, and has an area of 32 square miles 

 only. It was occupied in 1846 by the British, after 

 difficulties with the Sultan of Brunei, and Sir James 

 Brooke was appointed the first Governor. The import- 

 ance of having some station, especially where coal was 

 obtainable, midway loetweeu China and Singapore was 



