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COMPENDIUM OF GEOGPAPHY AND TRAVEL 
subduing them. In Sarawak, also, they rose in revolt in 
1857, obtained temporary possession of the capital, and 
nearly succeeded in killing Rajah Brooke, who only 
saved his life by swimming the river. His Malay 
subjects, however, inflicted a severe but well-deserved 
punishment upon the insurgents, and it is not likely that 
any similar incident will again happen. 
The Bajaus, who in Blitong and some parts of Borneo 
are known by the name of Sikas, are a wandering race of 
Malays, who pass their lives in boats from the cradle to 
the grave. In some places they have changed their 
mode of life, have built houses, and cultivated the 
ground; but this is seldom the case, and the majority act 
as cattle-stealers, petty pilferers, and kidnappers, and are 
not averse from more serious crimes if the occasion 
should offer. They have given a good deal of trouble to 
the North Borneo Company’s Government, some of 
whose officers they have murdered, while boats’ crews 
have more than once been cut off by them. These 
occurrences are nevertheless rare, and are becoming still 
rarer as European influence extends. The days of 
piracy are practically over, thanks to the establishment 
of the Spanish in Sulu and the British in North Borneo, 
but hardly more than a decade ago these seas were 
scoured by the Illanuns and Balagnini, the most danger¬ 
ous and blood-thirsty pirates of the Malay Archipelago. 
The former are a race who had their original home in the 
island of Mindanao in the Philippines. They have of 
late been compelled to lead a less lawless life, and some 
have formed settlements in Borneo. The Balagnini, or 
Balangnini, inhabited an island of that name in the Sulu 
group, which is memorable as the scene of the most 
signal punishment ever inflicted on Malay pirates by a 
European power. “ In 1848,” says Mr. Crawfurd, “ it was 
