1845.] . PIRATICAL INCURSIONS. 267 



sions occasionally unite for special purposes, amounting at 

 times to as many as four hundred sail. 



The limit of their cruizes are not confined to the neigh- 

 bourhood of the Sooloo or Mindoro Archipelago, they 

 have been traced entirely round the islands of New 

 Guinea, on the east ; throughout the straits, and con- 

 tinuous to Java and its southern side ; along the coast of 

 Sumatra, and as far up the Bay of Bengal as Rangoon ; 

 throughout the Malay Peninsula and islands adjacent, 

 and along the entire range of the Philippines. Their 

 attacks are not confined to small vessels, for we have in- 

 stances as late as 1843, of their molesting the Dutch 

 cruizers, off Java. They, however, generally act with great 

 caution in their approach to square-rigged vessels, and 

 can readily distinguish the difference between merchant- 

 men and vessels of war, by the colour of their canvas. 

 Along the entire coasts of the Philippines, they attack 

 villages, and carry off boys and girls for slaves, and in 

 some instances do not hesitate in kidnapping a Padre, 

 for whom they demand heavy ransom, (as upon a late 

 affair then obtained upwards of one thousand dollars.) 

 Upon one occasion, they ventured as far into the Bay 

 of Manila as Cavite, and captured two boys who were 

 in a fishing boat. They had also, in this bay, within 

 the Corregidor, where there is a Gun-boat establishment, 

 a very severe action with this force, commanded, I be- 

 lieve, by a Lieutenant Elliot, an Englishman in the 

 service of Spain. The result of this encounter was the 

 crippling of the Spanish force, so severely, that only 

 the Commander himself, although wounded, remained to 

 serve his gun, and was not displeased to notice the 



