170 MR. JESSIE'S CORRESPONDENCE. [1846. 



" The Chief and Council of Balambangan, in the be- 

 ginning of the last year, addressed a letter to the State of 

 Borneo, informing them of their arrival at Balambangan, 

 and wishes of entering into alliance with them. In con- 

 sequence of this invitation an ambassador arrived from 

 thence in June ; and I had the honour of being appointed 

 to return with him, to open an intercourse there, and to 

 enter into such engagements as might appear most to the 

 Company's advantage. 



I arrived there in the month of August, and found them 

 unanimous in their inclination to cultivate the friendship 

 and alliance of the Honourable Company : in conse- 

 quence thereof, I made it my first care to discover the 

 motives which principally induced them thereto, that 1 

 might be the better enabled so to frame my Treaty, as to 

 keep them dependent in such particulars they most 

 essentially stood in need of; which I then found to be, 

 and have since been confirmed therein, was protection 

 from their Piratical neighbours, the Sooloos and Minda- 

 naos, and others, who make continual depredations on 

 their coast, by taking advantage of their natural timidity. 

 To relieve them, therefore, in this particular, and to in- 

 duce them the more readily to consent to my subsequent 

 proposals, I stipulated by one of the articles, that (if 

 attacked) the Company should protect them ; and having 

 thus gratified them in their principal want, in return, I 

 demanded for the Company, agreeably to the tenour of 

 my instructions, the exclusive trade of the Pepper : as I 

 well knew it was the grand object they wished to attain, 

 and I therefore made it my study to be thoroughly ac- 

 quainted with every particular relative thereto. I was 



