THE SOOLUS. 99 



celebrated Magellan, about the year 1521, contained 

 25,000 families. He says of it, that " La ville est 

 batie dans la mer meme, excepte la maisou du roi et 

 de quelques principaux chefs. Elle contient vingt-cinq 

 milles feux ou families. Les maisons sont construites 

 de bois, et portees sur de grosses poutres pour les ga- 

 rantir de 1'eau ; lorsque la maree monte, les femmes qui 

 vendent les denrees necessaires traversent la ville dans 

 des barques." (Pigafetta, extracted from Mr. Crawfurd, 

 vol. i. p. 172.) Excepting in size, and the wooden 

 structure of the houses, the description is suitable to 

 the present town. 



In 1645 the Malays of Borneo, in conjunction with 

 their allies, the people of Soolu, attacked the Spanish 

 settlements in the Philippines, doing much damage. 

 This was in revenge for the repeated but unsuccessful 

 attacks of the Spaniards on the Soolu islands. Soon 

 after, the Spaniards burnt the city of Borneo, and took 

 many of the inhabitants prisoners, but were disgrace- 

 fully beaten by the Soolus in 1751, in their last great 

 attempt upon that island. Since that time the 

 kingdom has gradually lost its importance. 



In 1776 we find, by Forrest's account, that the 

 Soolus were the deadly enemies of the Borneans, 

 these latter alleging that the former had encroached 

 upon their territories which was doubtless the case, 

 as the people of Soolu had ceded to the English 

 the whole of the northern part of the island, from 

 the Kimanis river on the west, to the great bay on 

 the east, to which territory they had no other right 



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