About eight p.m., Mr. Wyndham came, and we had a long discussion. He is well acquainted with these seas, and could give much information on eastern politics. He told us that before the attack of the Spaniards on the Balignini, the pirates could muster above a hundred and fifty boats of a large size, containing from thirty to fifty men each; that, taking the average at forty, they numbered altogether about 6,000 men. But besides their large war-boats, they had innumerable smaller ones, used for the capture of trading and fishing-boats. He had seen many of the pirate prahus of considerable size enter Sugh harbour. As an instance of the damage they did to commerce, he mentioned the following. Six years previously, the _Sarah and Elizabeth_, brig, anchored off Timor; and requiring wood, the captain sent three boats on shore to cut it, giving the men only their axes, and refusing fire-arms. They had not been there long, when three Balignini prahus passing that way, saw the ship’s boats drawn up on the beach, and immediately landed their crews to capture the men, in order to put them to ransom, as they are not like the Lanuns, who nearly always put their European prisoners to death. They first met the chief mate, who defended himself with his axe, until knocked down with a billet and bound. The other mate and a boy were also taken, but the men escaped into the jungle. Whilst this was going on, it was observed that two boats were let down from the ship, which pulled immediately out to sea. The pirates, concluding that there could not be many men on board, determined to take her. On arriving alongside, they found only a dog on board: the timid captain having run away in so great a hurry as to leave both it and his watch behind. The latter was in datu Daniel’s possession at the period of our visit. The Balignini plundered and then burnt the vessel. One of the mates escaped; the other whites were brought to Sulu, ransomed, and sent home by Mr. Wyndham. This account was given both by the mate and the chief of the pirates. Another story showed that the Sulu Government was in regular communication with the pirates; for when the miserable remains of the squadron, attacked by the _Nemesis_ off the Brunei river in 1847, returned to Balignini, the families who had lost their husbands in the action, came in their grief to request leave of the sultan to raise men or collect a force to revenge the death of their relations. The sultan, of course, refused their request, and laughed at the absurdity of the idea. We heard at Samboañgan that the Spaniards had taken the whole of the pirates, but it was a very great mistake, for hundreds escaped, and were now distributed over the Sulu Archipelago, particularly at Tawee Tawee and the little islands which are situated in the neighbourhood, as Binadan, the usual residence of Pañglima Taupan.