PIRACY. 129 



tured in the neighbourhood were handcuffed and 

 bound until their captors were ready, on the approach 

 of the boisterous monsoon, to return to their island 

 homes. Thus the whole trade of the coast was destroyed, 

 and it was for protection against these people that the 

 government of Borneo stipulated with Mr. Jesse, when 

 it granted to the settlement of Balambangan the mo- 

 nopoly of the pepper of Borneo. 



Piracy does not therefore appear to have been proper 

 to the native inhabitants of the west coast of Borneo, 

 though frequently carried on from its ports ; at present 

 the coast is annually infested by the fleets from the Soolu 

 Archipelago, which, leaving their own islands, situated 

 on the N.E. of Borneo, about the middle of the N.E. 

 monsoon, sail round the island with a fair wind, 

 stretching across to the coasts of Java, Banca, Singa- 

 pore, and the peninsula, and visiting all the islands in 

 the way, attacking all the trading boats they meet, and 

 carrying their crews into slavery, frequently landing and 

 capturing the whole of the inhabitants of small villages. 



They generally pass the western coast of Borneo 

 about June or July, arriving in August at the 

 Soolu islands laden with plunder. The number of 

 boats which sail from this Archipelago cannot be ac- 

 curately ascertained, but they must be very numerous, 

 as not less than six squadrons of from five to eleven 

 boats each, were seen to pass the Sarawak river during 

 the past season. A large trading boat belonging to a 

 native merchant of Sarawak was captured a little to 

 the eastward of the river; her valuable cargo being 



K 



