516 
essay towards an account OF SULtr. 
There are, perhaps, few places in the world more agreeable than 
Sulu, particularly in the arrangement and figure of the hills, some 
whereof are covered with stately woods, others with clear grass 
land, delightfully verdant, except in spots, where it has been burnt 
for cultivation, and which, from the variety it affords, conveys 
more the idea of pleasure than of barrenness : Many of the hills 
are cultivated almost to their summits, and these fields, surrounded 
with clumps of wood-land, afford a delightful prospect to the eye, 
which only wants country-seats, churches, and such decorations of 
a civilized people, to form a complete landscape, as the huts which 
appear scattered over the country, are but a poor substitute for the 
want of better habitations : The coast is generally woody, so that 
it is no small pleasure to the eye, as it were, to steal through this 
barrier into the cultivated scenes. 
Temontangis , the most remarkable of the hills, is a single moun¬ 
tain, peaked at top, it is situated to the S. W. of the fort, and is 
detached from all the other hills : To the southward of it is the 
mountain Tuky, less in altitude, but more beautiful in appearance, 
being chiefly cleared and extremely verdant, it has a remarkable 
peak near the summit, detached and apparently steep on every 
side, intended, as it were, by nature for an observatory ; it is said 
the top of the mountain forms itself into a hollow plain, with a 
gentle declivity inwards to a pit, which has lately fallen in, and is 
without bottom ; here the natives have built a town, and, indeed, 
it appears, few more agreeable situations are to be found. 
To. the westward, between Tuky and Temontangis , there is a 
peaked hummock named Heegang-an , not high though woody. 
To the eastward of Tuky there are several hills; the most re¬ 
markable is Taleepow, which in beauty of appearance surpasses all 
the others; it is of a good height, though not equal to many others 
on the island, but the southern side of it is half wood land, with 
savannahs, and the other half cleared, with a streak of wood, run¬ 
ning down in a serpentine line, from top to bottom : This is now 
almost the only place on the island where there are elephants, the 
destruction they make in the plantations, having induced the na¬ 
tives to kill all they can meet with, and for this purpose they have 
instituted a grand-hunting-match, when their harvest is over. 
Dahow, is a pretty high round hill, almost in the center of the 
Western Peninsula; on the top of it is a large plain, where a 
town is built, and the mountain being steep, there are steps cut for 
the facility of ascending it: this situation very naturally influences 
the inhabitants to theft, as they have a secure retreat, in their 
mountain, for the cattle they plunder from their more open, not 
more honest, neighbours. 
Between Dahow and Temontangis , though near the fort, are 
several hills, very remarkable in the prospect they form, as ex¬ 
pressed in the view from the bay j one of the two flat ones, named 
Dato, was the retreat of the chief Sulus during the Spanish inva- 
