SOOLOO. 
357 
and from the opposite quarter, the dry, following closely the order of 
the monsoons in the China seas. As to the temperature, the climate 
is very equable, the thermometer seldom rising above 90° or falling 
below 70°. 
Diseases are few, and those that prevail arise from the manner in 
which the natives live. They are from that cause an unhealthy-looking 
race. The small-pox has at various times raged with great violence 
throughout the group, and they speak of it with great dread. Few 
of the natives appeared to be marked with it, which may have been 
owing, perhaps, to their escaping this disorder for some years. Vacci¬ 
nation has not yet been introduced among them, nor have they practised 
inoculation. 
Notwithstanding Soung was once the Mecca of the East, its people 
have but little zeal for the Mahomedan faith. It was thought at one 
time that they had almost forgotten its tenets, in consequence of the 
neglect of all their religious observances. The precepts which they 
seem to regard most are that of abstaining from swine’s flesh, and 
that of being circumcised. Although polygamy is not interdicted, few 
even of the datus have more than one wife. 
Soung Road offers good anchorage; and supplies of all kinds may 
be had in abundance. Beef is cheap, and vegetables and fruits at all 
seasons plenty. 
Our observations placed the town in latitude 6° OF N., longitude 
120° 55' 51" E. 
On the 6th, having concluded the treaty (a copy of which will be 
found in Appendix XIII.) and the other business that had taken me 
to Sooloo, we took our departure for the Straits of Balabac, the 
western entrance into this sea, with a fine breeze to the eastward. 
By noon we had reached the group of Pangootaaraang, consisting of 
five small islands. All of these are low, covered with trees, and 
without lagoons. They presented a great contrast to Sooloo, which 
was seen behind us in the distance. The absence of the sw r ell of the 
ocean in sailing through this sea is striking, and gives the idea of 
navigating an extensive bay, on whose luxuriant islands no surf breaks. 
There are, however, sources of danger that incite the navigator to 
watchfulness and constant anxiety; the hidden shoals and reefs, and 
the sweep of the tide, which leave him no control over his vessel. 
Through the night, which was exceedingly dark, we sounded every 
twenty minutes, but found no bottom; and at daylight on the 7th, 
we made the islands of Cagayan Sooloo, in latitude 7° 03' 30" N., 
longitude 118° 37' E. The tide or current was passing the islands 
to the west-southwest, three quarters of a mile per hour; we had 
