the Arab to wander with his steed on the sands of the desert." No person
who has not investigated the subject can appreciate how wide-spread and
deep-seated this plague of piracy is. The mere statistics are appalling.
It was estimated, in 1840, that one hundred thousand men made
freebooting their trade. One single chief had under control seven
hundred prahus. Whole tribes, whole groups of islands, almost whole
races, despising even the semblance of honest industry, depended upon
rapine for a livelihood. "It is difficult to catch fish, but it is easy
to catch Borneans," said the Soloo pirates scornfully; and, acting upon
that principle, they fitted out their fleets and planned their voyages
with all the method of honest tradesmen.

This piracy was divided into two branches,--coastwise piracy and piracy
on the broad seas. The Sea Dyaks built boats called bangkongs, sixty to
a hundred feet long, narrow and sharp, propelled by thirty to fifty
oars, and so swift that nothing but a steamer could overtake them. These
freebooters were the terror of all honest laborers and tradesmen.
Skulking along the coast, pushing up rivers and creeks, landing anywhere
and every where without warning, they mercilessly destroyed the native
villages and swept the inhabitants into captivity. Or else, impelling
with the force of fifty men their snaky craft, which were swift as
race-boats and noiseless as beasts of prey, they would surprise at dead
of night some defenceless merchantman, overwhelm their victims with
showers of spears, and with morning light a plundered boat, a few dead
bodies, were the silent witnesses of their ferocity. On the other hand,
the Illanum and Balanini tribes, infesting the islands to the northeast
of Borneo, undertook far grander enterprises. Putting to sea, prepared
for a long voyage, in fleets of two or three hundred prahus, propelled
by wind and oars, armed with brass cannon, and manned by ten thousand
bold buccaneers, they swept through the whole length of the Chinese Sea,