90 PIRATE ISLAND. [1846. 



From Semirara we revisited and connected the Pana- 

 gatan group, on the eastern islet of which we found the 

 remains of a temporary Malay village, and one of their 

 party dead. He appeared to have been left there, as he was 

 not buried but remained in the position in which he had 

 died, to all appearance, in agony. His clothes were loosely 

 drawn round him, and it occurred to me that he might have 

 met with foul play, but I was unable to trace any symp- 

 toms of violence ; it is possible that he might have been 

 wrecked in his canoe, and died from starvation. From 

 this island we proceeded to one directly east, being that to 

 which the name of Semirara is generally applied. As it 

 had no name, and had been designated by our Ylin 

 authority as inhabited by Orang jakat (bad people), it 

 received the temporary name of Pirate Island. It is 

 apparently capable of cultivation, the principal part pre- 

 senting a smooth gently undulating surface, terminating 

 at the western extremity by lofty abrupt cliffs. No conve- 

 nient anchorage was obtained, although necessity induced 

 me to moor the ship on the edge of the coral bank in 

 twenty-five fathoms, with the kedge little beyond her 

 own length in three fathoms, and at sixty yards seaward 

 no bottom with 100 fathoms. A lake of fresh water was 

 found, and symptoms of inhabitants were noticed at the 

 eastern extreme, where they had, after the fashion of the 

 Bajow tribes of Borneo, been making salt, by boiling 

 sea- weed in earthen vessels. Another island, not examined 

 by us, was situated to the E.N.E. 



Quitting Pirate Island, our attention was directed to a 

 small islet observed from the highest peak of Pirate 

 Island, which proved entirely new ; it was well inhabited, 



