Many years ago I landed at Cagayan Sulu, with a large party to buy cattle. A few of the people were most insolent in their manner, and they were all fully armed; after strolling about a little in the blazing sun, we felt very thirsty, and asked the owner of the house near which we were bartering, to let us have a cocoa-nut. He pointed to them, and with an insolent laugh said, “You may have one if you can get it.” I did not wait for a second permission, but without a moment’s thought let fly at the stalk and brought a nut down. I never saw astonishment so visible on men’s countenances; we had no more insolence after that. It was a shot that one might attempt a hundred times without succeeding. I mention this circumstance as it produced a proposal that gave me some information of which I might otherwise not have heard. I noticed in the evening that the chiefs were more quiet than usual, and that they were talking together in whispers and constantly looking my way. One of them brought me a basin of their native spirit, which is not strong, so I drank it off. Then Orang Kaya Upit unfolded their scheme: he said that formerly all their tribes were very rich in slaves, captives made in their different expeditions, before the time they were so broken up; suddenly, for some reason they did not understand, all the slaves from the neighbouring villages fled in a body and built a strong house a few miles away, from whence they constantly harassed their neighbours, their former masters. They were a bad people, thieves, and murderers, the only disturbers of their peace: it was they who came at night and shot poisoned arrows at the women and children, killing many. After minutely recounting the evil deeds of this people, he said that the assembled chiefs had often attacked the robbers’ village, but had never succeeded in taking it. They had seen to-day the wonderful effect of fire-arms, and they were quite convinced that if I would join them with my seventeen Malays armed with muskets, we could easily capture the place; that there were not less than sixty families, so that there would be at least a couple of hundred slaves to divide, and that they were willing I should take as many as I liked for myself and men.