After a reasonable time passed by each party in admiration of the other, the conversation was opened by Sir James Brooke, who, as Her Majesty’s commissioner in these regions, submitted to the Sultan certain propositions on matters of business.
To these His Majesty expressed his willingness to accede; and he graciously reminded Sir James that the royal family of Sulu were under considerable obligations to the English; inasmuch as his great-grandfather, Sultan Amir,[79] having been once upon a time imprisoned by the Spaniards in the fortress of Manila, was delivered from durance vile and reinstated on the throne of his ancestors by Alexander Dalrymple——A. D. 1763. This was now the more liberal on the part of His Majesty, because his royal ancestor had not at the time allowed the service to be altogether unrequited; for he ceded to the English Government a fine island adjoining Sulu (of which, by the bye, no use appears to have been made), together with the north end of Borneo and the south end of Palawan, with the intervening islands.
At length we took leave of his Majesty, retiring in much the same order as that in which we had entered. Although no actual treaty was concluded with the Sultan, Sir James paved the way for opening up commerce and for cultivating a better understanding with the natives.
In the afternoon we visited one Datu Daniel, a powerful chief, very friendly, and well disposed toward the English. His stronghold was at a short distance in the country, at the foot of one of the mountain slopes, fortified in much the same way as the Sultan’s, but on a smaller scale; his stockades were, however, quite as strong, and his guns in better order. His inclosed court, being likewise a farmyard with a good supply of live stock, looked as if he was better prepared than his royal master to stand a long siege; his wives looked happy, his children merry, and, on the whole, his domestic life appeared tolerably comfortable. * * *
Considering that Sulu was the great commercial center of these seas, we were surprised at not seeing more large praus; there were none afloat, and very few hauled up; the number, however, of building sheds and blacksmith’s forges showed that they have the means of starting into activity at short notice.
Who could have thought that, after such devastation and havoc as the Spaniards wrought on Balangingi, another chief would have the courage to settle on such a hateful spot again! Yet we learn that in spite of the contrary advice of the Sultan and his council, Datu Tampang, as early as December, 1848, stationed himself at Pa’at, Balangingi Island, and constructed a fort with the intention of defying the Spanish forces and fighting them again. An isolated case like this can not be explained except on the ground of foolhardiness, for Tampang was soon after that dislodged by the governor of Zamboanga. But it appears that it was necessary again for the Spaniards to send another squadron under Manuel Quesada, consisting of two steam gunboats and other sloops and vessels, to clean up Balangingi once more and to strike at the Moros of Basilan and Pilas. Nor was this sufficient, for we learn that before the end of the same month of December, 3,000 Sulus and Samals attacked the Spanish forces on Basilan, probably at Isabela, and were repulsed. In 1849 the Spaniards retaliated and reduced to ashes the settlements of Bwal, Samalang, and Gumbalang. Undaunted, the Moros of Tonkil, together with others, in 1850 raided the Islands of Samar and Kamigin and carried away more than 75 natives.
[1] See p. 152.
[2] Genealogies; see Vol. IV, pt. 1, p. 11, Ethnological Survey Publications.
[3] Sanskrit; sunshine.