Having pulled and poled over a bar, and up a shallow salt-water creek, on the east side of the bay, a little to the northward of where we were anchored, we landed a small shooting party, and were shown some particularly likely-looking ground, covered with long grass and intersected in all directions by the fresh tracks of wild cattle. A hog was the result of our sport; but three large deer made their appearance on the edge of the jungle, just as the guns had been discharged at our less-dignified game. [Sidenote: Dec. 11.] With our tender, _Jolly Bachelor_, in company, we weighed and stood towards the Island of Mallewali and soon entered among the dangers of the Sulu Seas. As far as the eye could reach from the masthead, patches of sand and coral banks were visible, but the weather was fine, the water smooth and clear; time our own, and with our tender sounding ahead, we proceeded, nothing daunted by appearances. We could always pick our way by daylight and anchor at sunset. Mallewali is surrounded by coral reefs and sandbanks. There appears to be a fine harbour to the eastward, but certainly no safe entrance for a ship the size of _Mæander_. Exploring parties landed and the island was well traversed, but no traces of inhabitants were seen, and only rumours of tracks of game. [Sidenote: Mallewali, Dec. 13.] At 10 A.M. expired, in the prime of life, one of our finest young men, John Jago, another victim to Labuan fever; he had several times rallied, but two days previous to his death he sent to take leave of me, and I was some time endeavouring to cheer him up. The sick were suspended in cots on both sides of the main-deck; and when a death occurred it was difficult to hide from the others what had taken place. Jago was the last of the barge’s crew who was taken ill, and had attended most of his shipmates through their attacks of fever. There was a happy expression of countenance and a generosity about this poor fellow that had endeared him to officers and men. He left me the address of his mother, and of a young girl to whom he was betrothed. [Sidenote: Dec. 15.] [Sidenote: Sulu, Dec. 18.] We weighed as soon as the sun was high enough to show us the dangers, standing under easy sail to the eastward, with _Jolly Bachelor_ sounding ahead. After some little difficulty in winding the ship between the shoals, and an occasional scrape on some projecting point of coral that had outgrown the bed to which it belonged, we made Cagayan Sulu on the 18th, but before coming to an anchor on the eastern side, we buried George Martin, a young marine. Dollars not being a current medium of exchange among most of these islands, glass beads, looking-glasses, coloured cottons, etc., had been brought by us for purposes of barter.