128 PIRACY. 



sidered in Europe to be proper to the nature of 

 every Malay, has never been carried on by the na- 

 tives of the western coast of Borneo. It is true that 

 formidable fleets were sent from Sambas, and that 

 many ships were taken at Bruni, but the chiefs of 

 both these towns, the inhabitants of which are by far 

 the most dissolute on the island, were Illanons, or at 

 least intimately connected with them. The son of one 

 of the most formidable of the chiefs who defended 

 Sambas against the English in 1812, is now living a 

 peaceable inhabitant of Sarawak : his father came with 

 his followers from Magindanau and settled at Sambas, 

 as did those to the northward which have been more 

 recently destroyed by Sir Thomas Cochrane. 



Though the pirates were encouraged by the rulers 

 of the west coast, it does not appear that they have 

 succeeded in inducing the natives of it themselves 

 to go on piratical cruises. Teluk Serban, a bay inside 

 of Tanjong Dattu, and opposite to the islands Telang 

 Telang, was a station occupied during the S.W. 

 monsoon by the pirates of Soolu and Migandanau. 

 Here their principal fleet lay anchored, while small 

 and fast cruisers in the offing constantly communi- 

 cated to them the appearance of a sail : a force 

 deemed sufficient was immediately sent out to cap- 

 ture it, when, if it proved to be from a distance, 

 the slaves or goods were sent into the Sarawak or 

 Sadong rivers to the sereibs, who then governed 

 this part of the coast, in exchange for provisions and 

 other necessaries, of which their long absence from 

 home had exhausted their stock ; the prisoners cap- 



