On board the Balignini prahus was a respectable native named Inchi Ngah, from one of the Dutch settlements on the west coast of Borneo, who had been captured off Pontianak: he immediately recognized some fellow-countrymen on board the Sulu prahus, who had been missing from their homes above a year. He now learnt that they had been captured by the Balignini during the year 1860, and had been taken to Sulu; that there the sultan, finding they were of high rank, had interested himself in their case, and taken care of them, and had now sent them back to Borneo as passengers, on board a Sulu trader on his way to Labuan. Inchi Ngah begged they would ransom him, but they had no property. At last they persuaded the Sulu trader to do it for them, and Inchi Ngah was once more a free man. They arrived in Labuan the latter end of August, just as the _Rainbow_ steamer was about to start for Sarawak, and hearing that the great friend of the Malay race was on board, they came and laid their case before him. As he never refused his assistance where it was possible, he not only gave them all passages to Sarawak, but refunded to the Sulu trader the money he had advanced to ransom Inchi Ngah. Having been a fellow-passenger with these men, I had many opportunities of conversing with them, and they told me that when they were taken there were already a hundred and fifty captives on board the boats, and that the Balignini who captured them came from two places on the chief island of the Archipelago--Sulu itself--and that the names of their settlements were Dundong, and the little river of Kabungkul. They added, that the Balignini, in order to preserve themselves from attack, now always chose spots which were too shallow for steamers or men-of-war to approach, that these two settlements had to be reached through intricate channels leading through a mangrove swamp, and that the houses were completely hidden by the trees. A mangrove swamp is one of the most unpleasant things to cross, and, therefore, affords great protection to settlements built within its mazes. The mangrove tree always grows in salt or very brackish water, and its roots lift it several feet above the soil, allowing the tides to flow freely between them: at high water canoes can be pulled among the trees, but at low tide it presents a tangled but open bunch of roots to each separate tree, and it can only be passed by springing from one slippery root to another, and by the assistance of the branches. The mangrove trees at a distance look to an unpractised eye much like other jungle, only they are of a more uniform height and appearance; yet the colour of their leaves can never be mistaken.