512 
ESSAY TOWARDS AN ACCOUNT OF SULU.* 
Chap. I. 
Climate. 
The tropical regions, in general, have no other distinction of 
seasons, than rainy and fair weather. But there arises some 
variety from the situation of places, and from the soil: The 
ocean, which Solomon calls the fountain of rain, regulates in great 
measure their seasons; more perhaps even than the sun, which is 
commonly reckoned the cause of this vicissitude. 
Sulu is variable in its climate, two years differing very much, 
though a dry season is generally succeeded by a wet one, and this 
again followed by its opposite: If, from the experience of two 
seasons, I may be allowed to judge, it seems the dry is the least 
warm: perhaps from the influence the saltpetre, which is abundant 
on the island, has in cooling the atmosphere in the dry season, 
when the exhalations are the strongest, and it is possible the saline 
particles, being diluted by the rains, have a less sensible effect; 
however, this conjecture is only proposed for future observation. 
As the different parts of this empire are very different in point of 
situation, they of consequence vary in climate and seasons: When I 
mention Sulu, I mean the island only ; and here I may repeat, 
that the seasons being variable, some can scarce obtain an adequate 
encomium, whilst others are not superior to what is common in the 
same latitude : however, their rains are not, as the monsoon weather 
in India , incessant for days, but are hard showers, generally attend¬ 
ed with violent blasts of wind of short continuance. The air is, in 
general, at other times clear, the tops of the hills being remarkably 
free from vapours,f and the nights commonly cool. The rains are 
chiefly from June to the end of October, though in the two first 
months the showers are less frequent, and in the last most common, 
the latter part of August, and beginning of September seem to be 
most liable to squalls. The north winds bring fair weather and 
sunshine. At the termination of them are frequent calms, which is 
the season for fishing pearls. 
The seasons, along the West Coasts of Kini-J3allu } and 
Palawan , are consonant to Sulu; rains attending the westerly 
winds, and fair weather the N. E. But the East Coasts of Borneo, 
from Paitan to Tirun are directly the reverse, the N. E.bring 
ing rainy, and the S. W. fair weather. These circumstances, 
so contradictory to the solar system of seasons, are entirely con- 
* This essay is extracted from Dalrymple’s Oriental Repertory, a work which 
has long been out of print, and, from the limited number of copies that were print¬ 
ed, must be rarely met with. This, with the interest which at present attaches to 
Sulu, has induced us to reprint the whole of Dalrymple’s account which contains 
much that is curious as well as much that has a practical value.— Ed. 
t I have distinctly seen, by moonlight, the mountains of Sulu when above 10 
leagues distant. 
