PALAWAN. 
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kindness, fearing we should get into trouble with the Dusuns. We marched, each carrying 
a few provisions, direct for the mountains. Oil passing through a Dusun village the 
women and children ran away screaming and the men would not direct us to the right 
paths; they requested us to return by a different path, as they objected to us traversing 
their campongs. At night we camped in the forest, at about 1000 feet: here I remained 
three nights under a small shelter; we saw no aborigines but the two wild men already 
mentioned. The hills were very steep and composed of disintegrated rock, but from want 
of camping necessaries I was unable to do much, and owing to the hostility of the Dusuns 
it was not safe to venture too far in small parties. I ascended the mountain to the top of 
the ridge, and saw another high peak opposite us apparently covered with casuarinas, these 
trees producing, I expect, most of the damar brought into Taguso. I saw very few birds, 
and those all belonging to species collected on the coast. So on the afternoon of the third 
day we walked back to Taguso, avoiding when possible the Dusun villages. In a few days 
a party of fifty Dusuns came down to the store and threatened to attack us if we went 
inland again in their direction: having a very small party and no carriers it was useless 
to further incur their hostility, so we left their mountains alone after this. 
There is a good deal of property belonging to the steamer wrecked on Balabac 
amongst the Sulus here, who successfully looted her before being driven away. I see fish 
and other knives and forks, chairs, candlesticks, and other articles. The candlesticks have 
had both ends knocked off, and are now used as ferrules for spears. One morning I 
noticed one of the Chinamen mixing gunpowder with his dog’s food; on asking the reason 
of administering such powerful doses to the animal, he told me “ that gunpowder would 
make the dog wow-wow ” if any thieves came, evidently imagining that it will be as useful 
in the dog’s stomach as in a gun-barrel. 
A Sulu trader brought two slaves to the store for sale; they were Dusun children and 
had been seized for debt. The Sultan’s mother bought them for goods valued at ten 
pounds sterling, but in reality worth about a third of that price. The first night the boy 
ran away, but no doubt they would be able to find him again at his home; the girl, 
however, remained with the old lady and looked very content, and doubtless was better 
clothed and fed than she had ever been before. Slavery in this part of the world is only 
of a very mild form—a slave, being on almost equal terms with his master, is free to 
o-o where he likes. Masters never ill-treat their slaves—barbarians seldom ill-treating 
anything; the slaves generally perform the hard work, such as carrying jungle-produce. 
The Sulus have many blood-feuds amongst each other. One good-looking young Sulu 
I remember, named Twossong, who was always most polite and friendly with me, lived 
about a mile from Taguso in a house away from the village. One morning, as I was seated 
busily sketching on the sandspit opposite the store, Tw'ossong came towards me looking 
extra pleased with himself; the first words he said to me were—“ Tuhan, I shot a man 
last night! ” He then told me, in a few words, how his wife’s brother had been murdered 
a few months ago by a Sulu from a village about ten miles distant, and that last night he 
received intimation that this man was spending the evening in a house a few miles off. So 
about eight o’clock in the evening he got under this house, and saw his brother-in-law’s 
murderer sitting there; in a few seconds a bullet from Twossong’s Snider had ended this 
