Soon after dinner one of the Sultan’s “ministers” came on board to tell us that a grand pig-hunt was to be held on the morrow, at which the Sultan and suite were to be present, and as royal boar-hunts are not every-day affairs, we all made up our minds to get ponies and go to see the sport. These pig-hunting forays are as popular in Sulu as a royal stag-hunt at home, only that the Sulus have perhaps a better reason to hunt their wild pigs, since they do a deal of damage to the growing crops. About 9 o’clock in the morning we went down to the headman’s house at Meimbong and got our ponies saddled, and after a ride of about half-an-hour through long grass and bushes we came upon the beaters and dogs in a strip of low jungle at the foot of a little hill. The men were yelling and shouting so as to frighten the pigs from their covert out into the grassy plain, where horsemen, each armed with a long slender-shafted hunting-spear, were waiting in readiness to give chase and dispatch them. We, too, waited here a little while, but finding no signs of sport we rode on to a clump of low trees on the hill-side where we were told the Sultan and his people were waiting. We found His Highness had dismounted, and was sitting on the trunk of a fallen tree, smoking and watching for signs of sport. He looked pleased to see us, and after he had shaken hands with Mr. Cowie, whom he had long known, I was introduced to him. Mr. Cowie told him I had come to explore the island for natural history purposes, and that I particularly wished to ascend the two highest mountains. He seemed rather amused to hear of a traveller looking for flowers and birds, but graciously replied that I could go where I liked and he would tell his people to help me, adding, that the best way of reaching the highest mountain would be to come to his Istana and sleep there, after which the mountain could be ascended in a day from that place. I had previously been recommended to his good offices by the government at Labuan through their consular agent, Inche Mahomed, of Brunei, who had landed here in Sulu a day or two previously in H.M. gunboat “Fly,” Capt. McNeil. As I saw His Highness here seated on a fallen tree I could not help noticing how emblematical the position was, since at the best his position here as Sultan is but nominal, so fallen are the fortunes of his house. Only two months after my visit, i.e., in July, 1878, the Spaniards, after nibbling like timid mice at the Sulu cheese for centuries took formal possession of the whole island by hoisting their flag in the Sultan’s capital of Meimbong.

Behind him the Sultana and the ladies of her Court were mounted on ponies, one or two scarlet and gold coloured umbrellas being held over them. Altogether there were ten or twelve mounted ladies and several female attendants, betel-box carriers, &c., on foot. The Sultan himself had forty or fifty followers standing around in a broken circle. He is about thirty-five years of age, and has a bright and intelligent countenance. His dress consisted of an embroidered silk kerchief tied turban fashion on his head, a dark close-fitting jacket of semi-transparent material, embroidered with red and yellow flowers, and having tight sleeves. Under this he wore a white merino vest. Like most of his followers he wore breeches which fit very tight below the knee, and are wide and baggy in the seat. These were black and beautifully embroidered with flowers just below the knee. White socks and elastic-sided boots of European manufacture completed what my sailor friends called “his queer rig.” His eldest son, an “awful young sweep,” of about twenty years of age, was much more gaily attired in a white striped blue vest and trowsers, and a bright buff head-dress, while, like his father, he wore the short heavy Sulu sword or “barong.” The Sultana and her suite kept in the background, of course, but were evidently much interested at our visit. I noted that she wore full Turkish trowsers of blue silk richly embroidered, and a blue vest fitting very tight and ornamented with gold buttons, lace in front, using the universal sarong as a covering for her shoulders; around her head a clear buff kerchief was tied turban fashion; white cotton stockings and a pair of Chinese slippers completed her outward visibilities. Nearly all the Sulu women wear a deal of yellow, which contrasts vividly with their luxuriant black hair, and like the men they ride well and also in the same style,—exactly, fair reader,—À la fourchette!

We also had dismounted, of course, and had stood talking and looking on the particoloured scene and swarthy faces around us, when suddenly a cry from the jungle below, a regular chorus of men and dogs, told us that the bristly boar had at last been driven into the open grass to run for his life. Everybody, Sultan and all, scrambled to their ponies and away we all went, a gay cavalcade truly, down the hill-side. Presently the pig came in sight, followed by one or two miserable-looking curs and half-a-dozen men and boys on horseback, each armed with the long light-shafted spear. We now saw of what sterling metal the Sulu ponies are made. On they came with dilated nostrils and widely-spread forefeet, scarcely requiring a touch of the reins to guide them as they avoided a jutting rock here or a half-hidden “snag” there, and all the time turned and wheeled as quickly as the hunted pig itself. No European horse would have kept its legs ten minutes on this uneven ground, paved as it was with immense blocks of volcanic scoriÆ. These intelligent little beasts seemed actually to understand and enjoy the sport. One young fellow, mounted on a shapely little grey, at length came up alongside the pig. Throwing his hempen bridle on the pony’s neck, and deftly handling his long spear, he wounded the boar in the side, at which it turned and rushed at the horse, its long white curved tusks gleaming beside its open jaws. Quick as thought the pony avoided him, and ere the pig could stay its impetuous rush the rider’s spear was struck right through its body at a thrust, the gleaming blade having entered the soil to a depth of several inches. It was killed on the spot. The rider unfastened a length of slender manilla rope from his saddle and threw it to a man on foot, who slipped a noose over the body of the pig and afterwards tied the other end of the rope to the horse’s tail, and thus it was dragged away to the heap of slain porkers some distance off. Seeing a couple of horsemen galloping in another direction we concluded they had a pig in chase, and so it proved. We headed the game and they soon came up to it, and a thrust or two with the deadly spear and all was over with poor piggie. This was a small black fellow about half the size of an English boar. Not entertaining the prejudices of our Mahomedan friends we begged the body of this last pig, and when the captors asked for what purpose we required it, we discreetly replied that we wanted it for our dogs. This was satisfactory, and one of the men volunteered to drag it down to the boat at his pony’s tail.

I shall not forget the Royal Pig Hunt in Sulu for some time. There we were among the tall grass and jungle, and the ever changing position of the numerous gaily attired horsemen was a beautiful sight to see. A group of fox-hunters at home by a covert side is a pleasing sight, but here in the region of perpetual sunshine and palm-leaves—in this “beautiful isle of the sea”—the sight was not only pleasing but quite a novelty to us—a thing seen for the first time, and perchance an experience never to be enjoyed again. Down below us we could see long files of horsemen wending their way to another piece of covert which the men on foot and dogs were now beating, while, on the little rounded hill above, the Sultana and her ladies formed a bright and picturesque group on horseback, their large vividly-coloured umbrellas standing out clear and sharp against the cloudless sky.

We saw the Sultan again towards the close of the day, and had a further chat with him, in which he much regretted that the English would not help him to resist the aggressions of his neighbours, the Spaniards, whom the Sultan detests, and perhaps not without reason. He sent a man to see how many pigs had been killed, and on being told seventeen, he observed, that they had sometimes killed as many as fifty in one day’s hunting.

Thanking him for his invitation to us to visit him at the Istana, which he had again repeated, we bade him adieu, and returned towards Meimbong, well pleased with our day’s adventures. The Sultan and his suite rode towards the Istana, but his son, before alluded to, accompanied us with a posse of his young followers. When we reached the arable plain near the market-place, we came upon another group of hunters, and nothing would please the young rascal but that I and Mr. Cowie should try some of his father’s horses. They are beautiful creatures of the Sulu breed, but with a little of the Arab blood added. They are never shod, and in picking their way among rocks or fallen trunks of trees they are as sure-footed as a goat. We had some capital racing. The Sulu saddles are of wood, very small, with high wooden pommels, resembling those of a cavalry saddle. The stirrups are represented by a woven hemp riband four feet long and about an inch wide, with a loop at each end, through which the big toe of the rider is inserted. This riband passes through an opening over the top of the saddle, and is not fixed, but slides backwards and forwards according to the pressure brought to bear on it by the rider. Of course, I could not ride on one of these little saddles with sliding stirrups, so I had them taken off and returned to my boyish practice of bare-backed riding. These ponies had been out hunting all day and yet showed no traces of fatigue, indeed they flew over the dry clods at full speed and evidently were quite used to racing—appearing to enjoy it as much as we did ourselves.

After this sport was concluded we returned on board to dinner, after having stopped for a few minutes at the ford near the market to get a bath in the stream, which is here as clear and sparkling as a Derbyshire brook. This day’s public amusement taking place as it did so soon after my arrival was a most fortunate thing for me, since I thus obtained an introduction to the Sultan and most of his people, and wherever I wandered in the island afterwards I was always well received, which was lucky, since the Sulus are not noted for their civility to strangers. Even the small cotters who cultivate their little farms and fruit groves up on the hills had heard of me, and were very hospitable when, as happened soon afterwards, I found my way up amongst them. The Sulu hills are especially beautiful.

Nearly every day, morning and evening, we used to go down to the little Meimbong river near the Orang Kayu’s house to bathe; and in the evening especially the tops of the highest hills were lovely, glowing with warmth in the golden light; now clear, now hazy, the last tremulous kisses of the lingering sun. I used to walk a mile or two up the left bank of the winding river nearly every evening before I had my bath, and I nearly always took my gun, as the birds here were tolerably plentiful, and in some cases very beautiful or interesting. There are at least a dozen kinds of pigeons and doves; and three of the species I shot, I had never seen before. Paroquets are common, and fly shrieking overhead morning and evening. I shot four kinds in all, two large green ones, a white one, and a small green one having a blue head, and a pair of long-shafted, racquet-shaped feathers in its tail.

One of the most conspicuous of the birds here is the gold and black oriole before mentioned, and a blackbird having a grey back and immense flesh-coloured orbits is not uncommon on trees beside the river. Two species of kingfisher were seen; one the common blue kind, with a white ring around its neck, and a discordant, laughing note: white padi birds, curlew, sandpipers, and a crow, are also quite common; eagles, ospreys, and hawks also abound; and I especially noticed an eagle or harrier circling over the grassy plains, regularly hunting the ground, and occasionally stooping as if to secure its prey. This bird is pure white, with black wing tips and tail. A water-rail was seen beside the river near the town, and night-flying birds of the owl tribe were also observed; but the familiar “chuck-chuck” note of the “night-jar,” so common on moonlight nights in Labuan, we never once heard here. I saw one large owl dead, and much regret that I did not skin and preserve it, badly as the thing was mutilated. It resembled our native “barn owl” in general appearance and colour, but was much larger, the spread of its soft fledged wings being over four feet. I saw one species of hornbill on the hills and a pheasant, which, from the momentary glimpse I caught of it, I took to belong to the “fireback” species, so common in some parts of Borneo.

Deer are said to be plentiful; but we did not catch a glimpse of them, although when riding in the interior I have often disturbed the wild pigs among the long-matted grass near the river. An enormous species of day-flying bat was quite common here near the Sultan’s palace, and most weird and supernatural did they appear on dull days, solemnly flying from one tree to another, their great wings distended against the leaden sky overhead. As far as I could see they were feeding on the durian trees which surround the Istana, and probably sipping the nectar from the large white flowers. I shot one which measured four feet six inches across its outspread wings, and its head was as large as that of a little terrier dog, and of a similar shape, being of a dark foxey brown colour. Its eyes were of a sickly pale brown tint, with a small black pupil, and its entire body in the warm limpness of death exhaled such a repulsive musky odour, far worse than any downright stink I ever experienced, and so penetrating and adhesive, that my hands smelt of it for days, in spite of carbolic soap and repeated washings. I had no means of ascertaining whether this is really a distinct species, or whether it is conspecific with the large nocturnal fruit-bat of Borneo, immense flocks of which may be seen passing overhead at dusk to their feeding-grounds, the fruit orchards.

Of all the smaller forms of animal life in temperate countries the butterflies are the most absolutely beautiful. In the tropics they are especially so, being there found of the largest size and most lovely hues. In the rice fields and by the open pathways, lively little golden-winged kinds flutter in the sunshine. Some are quite wholly golden, others amber, with black fringes to their wings; many varieties enliven the river margins, and others sail aloft around the tops of the great forest trees. The nearly dry bed of a forest stream is an attractive spot to many of the finest tropical butterflies, especially if it be chequered with shade and sunshine. In such a place they may be seen by the hundred, flitting, fluttering, skimming or wobbling to and fro, enlivening the cool greenery with their colour, beauty, and variety of motion. Here you see them at home and happy. Their colours defy description, so variable do they appear as seen in the sunlight; sulphur and black, amber and blue, velvety bands, purple shot with bronze, wings of blue, inclining to green, and of green inclining to blue, and of velvety blackness banded with pea or apple-green, are only a few of their combinations. Their beauty of presence is so satisfying, that we almost forget their life history, the egg so dainty in form, and often so beautiful in sculpture, the caterpillar, attractive in its way, and chiefly remarkable for its leaf-eating powers; then the long sleep in a silken hammock, and finally a sunny awakening into life and beauty as a daintily painted butterfly. There must be something in the climate or vegetation of the Sulu islands especially favourable to insect life, and nowhere else did I see butterflies so plentiful as here, not only in the forest and by the river, but around the houses of Meimbong itself.

The site of the market being littered with fragments of fruit and other dÉbris, was especially attractive to them; on being disturbed they fluttered away in crowds, only to return almost immediately to feast on the wasted sweets, and to open and close their gorgeous wings in the sunshine.

We were fortunate in obtaining plenty of fresh fish while lying in harbour here, and there were many kinds, some being strikingly beautiful in colour. Herrings and mackerel—or fish which so closely resemble them in size, colour, and flavour, that we did not distinguish the difference, were often brought on board. A singular white “ink fish,” having large dark eyes and long tentacles, is eaten both by natives and Chinese. A large fish of a vermilion colour, in shape like a large carp, is plentiful and nice eating, as also is a similarly shaped species of an ashy grey colour, its sides delicately banded with blue and yellow. In the river are freshwater fish a couple of pounds or more in weight, and good angling is obtainable. Captain McNeil caught a nice basketful or two with rod and line by whipping down stream in the true Devonshire style. One of the fish he captured would weigh nearly two pounds, and had a sharp spined dorsal fin like an English perch. Mr. Cowie maintains that he has seen real spotted trout taken out of this water; but I think some other kind must be meant, although the water is quite pure enough for that gentlemanly little fish.

From what I have written it will be seen that although Sulu cannot now afford elephant or tiger hunting like Malacca, India, or Ceylon, there is plenty of sport obtainable here nevertheless; indeed there are few countries eastward where better hunting, shooting, and rod-fishing can be obtained. Sulu as seen from a distance on board a ship out at sea, appears to be nearly all under cultivation; but on riding into the interior a good deal of uncultivated land and jungle is seen. The jungle portion has mostly been under cultivation in former years, and is now lying fallow previous to its vegetation being again cleared off by fire ready for the rude plough-culture here adopted. As approached from the westward the island is really very picturesque, two or three of its peaks rising from two to three thousand feet above sea level; these are separated from the coast by gentle undulating hills or flattish plains. One or two of the high hills are quite denuded of the old forest, and cultivation extends to their summits. The two highest peaks, however, are still clothed with the forest primÆval, and it was these two that I so much wished to explore. The highest is Bu’at Timantangis, or “Hill of Tears.”

I was curious to know why such a poetic title had been applied to the highest of the Sulu peaks, and so I made inquiries. In all cases the natives agreed as to the “reason why,” which is this. When the Sulu boats sail away towards the horizon on their trading excursions, this peak is the last bit of their native land which is visible; it is the “white cliffs of old England” to them; and the wanderers being accustomed to remember their peaceful sunlit homes and their friends, drop a tear as the last glimpse of their native earth fades from sight, perhaps for months, or even years; hence the name Bu’at Timantangis, or the “Hill of Tears.” Bu’at Dahau is, however, but little less in altitude; and it is doubtless at its apex that the last crater in the island existed, although of course it has long been extinct; yet the course of the dÉbris thrown out can be seen down its sides, which are scarred or furrowed by volcanic action in a very marked manner. Sugh, the ancient capital,—or Banawa as the place is now called—is in the hands of the Spaniards, and pretty regular communication is kept up from thence to Manilla and the Philippine group. One of the Chinese traders who came with us visited the place and brought back several jars of excellent biscuits and a few boxes of fine Manilla cigars. There are two market-places in Meimbong, and there are three markets during the week; and as very few places afford a better epitome of the thrift of a people or the produce of a country than a market, I will briefly allude to what I saw of these held here.

We went to bathe early one morning, and saw the market-people coming in from all directions and bringing produce of the most varied character. Most of them—both men and women—were mounted on ponies or buffaloes; some indeed ride their cows to market as being preferable to walking, their produce being slung across the saddle before or behind. Every man carried a spear, and a couple of hours later the space beneath the clumps of bamboo just to the left of the market gate, was crowded with people, the women trading, and the men standing talking in groups, all the business of the day being done amid a forest of spears. The country people from the hills were very much interested in us as we moved about amongst them and their goods. Sweet potatoes, mangoes, bananas, yams and corn cobs, were offered for sale in neatly woven baskets made of cocoa-nut leaves. The leaves of piper betel made up into little packets, and lime beautifully fine and white (made by burning coral limestone and shells) were offered to betel-chewers; nor was a good supply of the betel-nuts themselves wanting. We especially noticed a very large fruited variety of Areca catechu here, which I had never before seen, the individual fruits being as large as a hen’s egg, and of a clear bright yellow colour. The typical form so common in Singapore and Labuan, has fruits the size of a pigeon’s egg only, and of a clear orange-red colour.

Tobacco leaves of native growth and manufacture were exposed for sale in bundles, and some of it is made up into balls as large as a man’s head, and several pounds in weight. Although tobacco can be easily grown here, it is but little valued, owing to faulty preparation; and the inferior Chinese tobacco is preferred by the Sulus to their own produce, and is a regular kind of currency in which almost all small payments may be made. Thus, the hire of a pony for a day is about two bundles; a day’s wage for a man about the same. The wholesale price in Singapore is about sixpence a bundle, or even less. At the time of our visit rice was very scarce and dear in Sulu; indeed as much as ten dollars per picul was paid, while horses and cattle were relatively very cheap. Thus good buffaloes could be bought for eight or ten dollars each; cattle at six to fifteen dollars a head, and ponies at ten to twenty dollars; indeed many of the people were well nigh starving owing to the last war and the dry season combined; and in many cases they were glad to sell their cattle for rice, or the means of obtaining it. Among the few articles of native manufacture offered for sale, I noticed embroidered kerchiefs and sarongs, also rope of good quality. Fish, eggs, cocoa-nuts, jack-fruit, and cucumbers, were exceedingly plentiful.

It is not uncommon to see some few of the Sulus from the hills wearing tunics of chain armour, having brass plates on the breast and down the back, all the rest being fine chain-work. At the time of our visit Mr. Cowie bought one of these tunics for about two pounds, which he paid in rice. The Sulus themselves say that these were formerly made in the island, but I think this is extremely doubtful; and it is far more probable that this armour formerly belonged to their old enemies the Spaniards, from whom they have obtained it during the numerous wars between them. The most singular thing is that the comparatively few Sulus who possess these tunics should continue to wear them, as they most assuredly do.

There are a good few Chinese settlers here in Meimbong who have stalls on which to expose their goods in the markets. They supply needles, thread, betel-nut knives, cheap calico and print goods, handkerchiefs, and occasionally blades of the choppers generally used in Sulu, and other common cutlery, looking-glasses, boxes, &c. The currency here is now the Chinese brass “cash,” the rate of exchange at the time of my visit being 900 to the dollar. Payments of small amounts however, say up to twenty dollars, can always be made in white or “grey shirting.” The packets of Chinese tobacco before alluded to, serve for small change.