272 SOOLOO GROUP. [1845. 



" It is composed of an Archipelago, of which the three 

 most considerable islands are Sooloo, Baseelan, and Ta- 

 wee-tawee ; of many districts on the east, north, and 

 north-west coasts of Borneo, and of the better half of 

 Palawan, or Parayoa, and of Dumaran. 



" Sooloo. 



" Sooloo comprehends the Sooloo Islands, Tapool Isles, 

 Paleeangan Isles, and Pangootaran Islands. 



" Under the denomination of the Sooloo Islands, I 

 consider Sooloo, Nosa Sale, Tulean, Bankoongan, Panga- 

 nak, Koohangan, Toolyan, Boole Kootin, Kapooal, Bee- 

 teenan, Saang, Dong-Dong, Tamboolean, Pata, Dammo- 

 kan, Loombeean, Patean and Teoombal. 



"There are, perhaps, few places in the world more 

 agreeable than Sooloo, particularly in the arrangement 

 and figure of the hills, some whereof are covered with 

 stately woods, others with clear grass land, delightfully 

 verdant, except in spots, where it had been burnt for cul- 

 tivation, and which, from the variety it affords, conveys 

 more the idea of pleasure than of barrenness. Many of 

 the hills are cultivated almost to their summits, and these 

 fields, surrounded with clumps of woodland, afford a 

 delightful prospect to the eye, which only wants country 

 seats, churches, and such decorations of a civilized people, 

 to form a complete landscape, as the huts, which appear 

 scattered over the country, are but a poor substitute for 

 the want of better habitations. The coast is generally 

 woody, so that it is no small pleasure to the eye, as it 

 were, to steal through this barrier into the cultivated 

 scenes. 



