1844.] LEAVE SOOLOO. 209 



These pirates are a desperate race, and prefer self-destruc- 

 tion to submitting to capture. The honest party here 

 would aid by giving information, and if the assertion of 

 the Sultan and his party be sincere, that they have no 

 interest or participation with the pirates, their punish- 

 ment, or expulsion from the Island of Bang-ene, cannot 

 but be satisfactory to him. 



Mr. Wyndham had, in the most spirited manner, prof- 

 fered his services to accompany me to Borneo, and act as 

 interpreter but taking into consideration the importance 

 of his presence at this moment, at Sooloo, the unpro- 

 tected state of his own property, and the earnest solicita- 

 tion of the Sultan, as well as the better disposed Datoos, 

 that I would not leave them without a friend, who could 

 act between them and the French, as a confidential in- 

 terpreter, I preferred his remaining, and after much 

 delay for the prahu and party, quitted Sooloo on the 

 morning of the 21st, taking the prahu in tow. Our pace, 

 however, being too rapid for her to be towed, we passed 

 two heavy spars, one over each quarter, as davits, and 

 hoisted her up astern, her weight, although but little 

 longer than one of our cutters, being greater than that of 

 our barges. The crew, consisting of ten persons, were 

 taken on board. The Nakoda, and one of his officers, 

 proved intelligent pilots, and the Charge, or Hadgi, the 

 bearer of the letter for the Sultan of Curan, was a young 

 priest, who had performed his pilgrimage to Mecca, but 

 who, nevertheless, could not keep either the seventh or 

 tenth commandment ; and to avoid the necessity of pass- 

 ing a spear between his ribs, they essayed the salt water 

 cure, considered in some cases to have a very decided 



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