ILLANUN PIRATES. I have described in a former chapter the habits of the Dyak pirates of Sakarran and Sarebas, and how, after being punished by Sir James Brooke when they were caught at the entrance of their river, with captives and plunder in their boats, they were required to live at one with their neighbours, and to study the arts of peace. Happily for them, they had a wise and paternal Government to repress their vices, and, after a time, Christian missionaries to teach them the fear and love of God. But the Malay pirates who lived on the islands and coasts of North Borneo were governed by sultans who encouraged piracy, and insisted on sharing their spoils; moreover, they are Mahometans by religion, and that is not a faith which teaches mercy or respects life. To this day, therefore, these Illanuns remain pirates. They have larger prahus and carry heavier guns than the Dyaks, and nothing can exceed their cruelty. When we lived at Kuching there was scarcely a Malay family there who had not suffered from them, either by the loss of relations or property; for they are naturally a trading people. It is a common practice for a party of men to join together in hiring a boat in which to venture goods or gold-dust by trading on the coast, or even to Singapore three hundred and sixty miles away, These small and comparatively unarmed boats fell an easy prey to the pirate prahus, who went out in fleets. The Spaniards and the Dutch were every now and then roused to search the seas for these pests of the human race, but they were so cunning they generally evaded them. At last they had a signal lesson. In the year 1862, Captain Brooke, then governing Sarawak in his uncle's absence, decided to go to Bintulu on the north-west coast of Borneo, a territory which had lately been ceded to the Rajah by the Sultan, and build a fort on the river, to check piracy and protect the peaceable inhabitants who were settling there on the promise of such protection. For this purpose he took the _Rainbow_, a small screw steamer of eighty-nine tons and thirty-five horse power; and the _Jolly Bachelor_, a Government gun-boat. The Bishop accompanied him, to see what missionary prospects there were in that distant spot, also because he was at that time anxious about Captain Brooke's health. Mr. Helms, the manager of the Borneo mercantile company, accompanied them as far as Muka, where was an establishment to collect sago for exportation. On the second day after his arrival, a piratical fleet of Ilanuns, consisting of six large, and as many smaller vessels, appeared on the coast, and blockaded the town. For two days they remained off Muka, capturing there, and on the coast southwards, thirty-two persons.