Picturesque Islands--Balambañgan--An old English Settlement--Large Monkeys--Optical Illusions--Flights of Birds--The Curlew--The way we shot them in Sarawak--Game--Banguey--Mali Wali--Cleared Hills--Fine Water--Sweet-smelling Jasmine--Cagayan Sulu--Intercourse with the Inhabitants--Appearance of the Country--Lovely Scenery--Market--Inhabitants--Insolent Traders--The Crater Harbour--Wall of Evergreen--Inner Lake--Climb the Cliff--Scenery--Alligators numerous--Sulu--Appearance from the Ship--Sugh, the Capital--Mr. Wyndham--The Watering-place--Suspicious Natives--Fugitives from Balignini--Reports--A Market--The Mountaineers civil--Walk to the Palace--The Stockades--Armed Crowd--Audience Hall--Absurd Reports--The Sultan and his Nobles--Dress--Politeness of the Sultan--Return to the Ship--Datu Daniel--The Racecourse--Effect of Dutch Shot--Tulyan Bay--Alarm of Villagers--Sulu Government--Laws--Feuds--The Mahomedan and the Pork--Population--Fighting-men--Slave Market--Dignified carriage of the Nobles--Dress--The Balignini--Dutch Attack--Appearance of the Country--Good Position of Island--Tulyan--Basilan--Numerous Islets--Samboañgan--Spanish Convict Settlement--Description of Country--Fort--Town--Shops--The Church--The Men--The Women--The Corner Shop--A Ball--Dancing difficult--Waltzes--Supplies at Samboañgan--A lonely Grave. During all the voyages I have made, I have never beheld islands so picturesque as those scattered over the surface of the Sulu Seas, or whose inhabitants more merited notice. I will therefore give a short account of the visits I made thither, before the attacks of the Spanish forces had altered the ancient state of affairs. I have already delineated the north-west coast, and will therefore commence my description from the island of Balambañgan, to the north of Maludu Bay, which must always be of some interest to Englishmen from our two unsuccessful attempts to form a settlement there. We dropped anchor off Balambañgan, which at night appears a low wooded island. I visited it in the morning in a cutter, and vainly sought any fresh traces of human beings, though we found some old deserted huts of the fishermen who frequent this shore for tripang. Continuing our explorations, we noticed something moving along the beach, and there were various conjectures among our party, some affirming it to be a buffalo, others a man; I never was more deceived in my own estimate of the size of an animal, as it proved to be a large monkey, which with its companions was seeking shell-fish on the sands; it was certainly very large, but not of such dimensions as to warrant its being compared to a bull, but there appeared to be some optical illusion caused by its looming over the water.