256 FINAL ARRANGEMENTS. [1845. 



footing, as his fear of the French had induced him to 

 look more narrowly into his relations with Great Britain, 

 in order to discover some pretext by which he might claim 

 his right to refer the discussion, relative to Basilan, to his 

 Old Ally, as he was pleased to acknowledge us. His ob- 

 servation to me was, " We owe all to Great Britain, the 

 cession of Balambangan, part of Borneo, and Toolyan, on 

 this Island, are not to be taken as precedents by any other 

 nation ; the British are our natural allies ; they brought 

 our ancestor, the Sultan Alimudin, from Manila, where he 

 was a prisoner, and replaced him on his throne and pos- 

 sessions, and no concession, even to ourselves and all 

 we have, can be too great for such obligations." A 

 special meeting of all the Chiefs was summoned to decide 

 upon the letter sent by the Sultan of Gunung Taboor, 

 which I delivered under the customary ceremonies. The 

 letter was prefaced by certain religious perorations, invok- 

 ing punishment if he stated anything untrue, and then 

 proceeded to declare, the denial on the part of the Sultan 

 of Gunung Taboor, to any permission, directly or indi- 

 rectly, given to Si-Dawut, the Nakoda of the prahu, to 

 demand any ransom for the six Lascars. That they were 

 sent by him to the Sultan, in order to find their passage 

 to their proper country, through Mr. Wyndham ; that he 

 was still a debtor to Si-Dawut to the amount of one hundred 

 and eighty dollars, for certain goods left behind, which 

 were to be paid for in fish and shell on the return of the 

 Nakoda, the following season. At any other period, 

 vengeance would probably have fallen upon the head of 

 Si-Dawut, and have compromised some of the Datoos, 

 his supporters ; the Nakoda, too, evidently felt himself in 



