“Having left Macao towards the end of the month of July, 1849,” observed the admiral in the opening lines of his journal, “I established my station during the following six months—that is to say, till the month of January, 1850—at times among the Luzon islands and at others among the group of Philippines, taking care, however, not to neglect some precautionary visits to the archipelago of Sooloo, that seemingly imperishable nest of pirates.
“The purely nautical events which have taken place during these six months of my cruise among the different islets having been noted day by day and nearly hour by hour in the ship’s log-book, I propose to insert in this private journal a few notes which it is my intention to transmit to the Admiralty on the first opportunity that offers.
“The notes to which I refer are as follows,” was the next line in the journal which I had under my eyes.
My attention increased—I continued to read without missing a single letter.
“It is demonstrated to me as clear as a geometrical theorem that at this moment the naval forces of England, Holland, and Spain assembled in Oceania are insufficient, each for a different reason, to resist the ever-increasing audacity of the pirates spread over the seas of this part of the world.
“The Spanish forces are a derision, and they would really be exterminated in a few months by the pirates but for the assistance which they never cease to ask from those of England.
“The naval forces of Holland, which are in truth much more considerable, scarcely ever leave the shores of Sumatra, Java, and some points of Borneo, under the pretext, plausible enough but not on that account the less selfish, that their duty above all things is to watch the safety of their own colonies.
“There remain our English naval forces.
“As we also are under the necessity of displaying great vigilance with respect to our own colonies, and as we have, moreover, as I have already mentioned, to render constant assistance to the secondary maritime powers, such as Holland, Spain, and Portugal, it becomes more and more evident that we contend but indifferently at present against the depredations, pillagings, and descents, incendiary fires and barbarous murders, of which the incorrigible Malay pirates are constantly guilty.
“On the other hand, the power of these unconquerable corsairs increasing from year to year, their flotillas have become fleets; their barques, prahs, and junks are now almost frigates; their sailors have never ceased to be the most energetic on the face of the earth.