8a?3’ Proceeding in a northerly direction towards China, there occurs
another island most abundant in the necessaries of life, called Solor, inhabited by a
civilised people of fair complexions and good dispositions. They have a king, and a
liuiguage of their own. In this island much gold is found by washing the earth,
and in the sands of rivers. Opposite to it small pearls are fished, and even large ones
occasionally found, fine as to colour and roundness.” Rumusio, vol. i. p. 320. It
is evident from this description that the island alluded to, notwithstanding the ortho-
giapny, is boolo, or Suluk, and not Solor between Floris and Timur, and to which
me description in no respect applies. Barbosa’s account was written at Lisbon in
“nd evidently refers to a time four or five years at least earlier. In 1521, the
surviving companions of Magellan passed the Soolo Archipelago, in their route from
f o f t “ ' 3 to the Moluccas, and Pigafetta names Soolo, writing it Solo, the Jolo
ot the Philippine Islanders and Spaniards. “We turned back,” says he, “ after leaving
Borneo proper, between the island of Cagayan (Cagayan-Soolo), and the port of
tcpit (m Mmdano), pursuing a course a quarter east of south in order to discover
Maiucco (the Moluccas). We passed through certain islets, around which we found
many plants (marine), although there was a great depth of water. Having passed
through these islets, it seemed to us as we were in a different sea. Leaving Cipit to
the east, we saw to the west two islands, called Zolo and Taghima (Suluk and Basilan)
Hear these islands grow pearls. The two pearls of the king of Borneo, of which I have
spoken, were found here.” (Primo Yiaggio, p. 125.)
Owing to some cause or other, there has sprung up in Soolo, a civilisation and
power tar exceeding those of the surrounding islanders. A superior fertility of the
soil and better means of maintaining a numerous and concentrated population, has probably
been the mam cause of this superiority, but whatever be the cause, it has enabled
this people not only to maintain a paramount authority over the whole Archipelago
but to extend it to Palawan and to the northern coasts of Borneo and islands adjacent
to it. I t was from them that we ourselves obtained a cession of one of the islands off
the coast of Borneo, Balambangan, twice taken possession of,—once driven out of it by
the very parties who had made the grant, and once finally abandoned by us. The only
reputation that the people of Soolo have ever obtained, is not an enviable one, that of
being with the Lanuns of Mmdano, the most daring habitual pirates of the Malayan seas.
Both these nations are now, indeed, the only freebooters that are seriously troublesome.
1 heir predatory fleets extend their cruizes from one end of the Malay Archipelago to
T>-u^r°^.er’ ^ Ui bhief theatres of their depredations are, and have always been, the
Philippines. These they have continued to infest nearly from the first establishment
of the Spanish dominion down to our own times. The first expedition against them
by the Spaniards took place in 1629, only 58 years after the foundation of
and it has been followed by many others even to the present time. Their strongholds
have been captured and their villages burnt, but they have proved mere
razzias which left the robbers irritated but not suppressed, and the Spanish government
of the Philippines has never found it prudent to take possession of and occupv
them.
Our accounts of the principal island of the Soolo Archipelago is extremely imperfect,
for the islands comprising it have been rarely visited by intelligent Europeans with
opportunity of collecting information. The best account of them is that of Mr.
Alexander Dalrymple, afterwards hydrographer to our Admiralty; but this is near
a hundred years old, the author having visited Soolo in 1759 and 1761, although
publishing his account of it in his Oriental Repertory as late as 1792. The chief value of
this work rests on its hydrographical information. In other matters, the author’s statements
are trivial, for he possessed neither the means nor accomplishments necessary to
accurate inquiry, trusting much to native information. He gives himself with much
frankness an example of the manner in which this led him into error. He was anxious
to obtain accurate information respecting the history of the country, and at length
obtained a manuscript which purported to be history, but when he displayed his treasure
to competent judges in England, the pretended history turned out to be a collection
of Arabian fables, and not in the Soolo or Malay languages, but in Arabic. At
an interval of half a century, Mr. Dalrymple was- followed by Mr. Hunt already
noticed, and he either copied his predecessor, or added only loose gratuitous assertions
of his own.
SORSOGON is the name of a bay, a harbour, and a town on the western side
of the island of Luzon in the peninsula of Camarines and province of Abbay. The
bay is both spacious and secure as a harbour. I t is 14 leagues in circumference
and 44 in breadth, having at its entrance the islets of Poro and Malacimbo. Next to
Cavité in the great Bay of Manilla, it is the best port in the Philippines. The town
of Sorsogon is situated at the head of the bay and on its shore between two rivulets
at their debouchement, in north latitude 12° 30' 30", and east longitude 123° 41'. It
contains a population of 7315 inhabitants. Behind it is a high peak, but of which
the height has not been ascertained.
SPEAR, LANCE, JAYELIN. Weapons of this class from their simplicity and
the abundance of materials for them, must in the Indian Islands, have been, after
clubs, the earliest weapons used, and notwithstanding the introduction of fire-arms,
they still continue in present use, even among the most civilised tribes. The half
savage inhabitants of the little island of Maktan in the Philippines encountered,
defeated and slew Magellan and several of his companions, with no other weapon
than bamboo spears, sharpened at the end and hardened in the fire, and long spears
were the chief weapons of the Javanese when they made a show of encountering the
British troops in 1811, near three centuries later. The Javanese spear or lance is
about twelve feet long, and is armed with a simple iron pike. In the hands of
resolute men, disciplined, and acting in unison, this would have been a formidable
weapon ; but it is probable that the effectual discipline never existed. A phalanx
of men thus armed resists the spring of the tiger, as I have frequently witnessed
with great ease and without any risk. The most general name for the spear in all
the languages of the Malay Archipelago, but not extending to the Philippines is
tumbak, which I take to have been originally Javanese, the people of Java having
been, as we find from Barbosa, the great manufacturers of warlike weapons, even for
the Malays, before the arrival of Europeans. In describing the trade of Malacca,
after enumerating other commodities imported by the Javanese vessels, he says,
“ They also bring many kinds of arms for sale, such as spears, shields, and swords
with handles worked in marquetrie (krisl).” In the polite language of Java, the name
for the spear is the same which expresses ‘ steel,’ and in the languages of Celebes, it is
the same which in Malay and Javanese expresses 'iron,’ the reference, in both cases,
being to the principal part of the weapon, the pike. For the javelin or half-pike, the
Javanese and Malays have the same name, which is lâmbing.
STEEL. The art of converting iron into steel has been immemorially known to
the more civilised nations of the Malay Archipelago, and they have native names for
it. These are, in Javanese, waja and mâlela, abbreviated lela, and in Malay baja,
the same word as the first Javanese, with the exchange,—a frequent one between
those languages,—of one labial for another,, and kâluli, a synonyme taken from the
Tâlugu or Telinga, but not of frequent use. These names do not extend to the
Philippines nor to Madagascar, for in the languages of the first, the Spanish word
acero has been introduced, and into the last the French acier, corrupted isi. It may
6e inferred from this, that steel was not known to the rude people of the countries in
question until made acquainted with it by Europeans. The probability is that, with
the more civilised nations, steel was a native invention, and that it originated with the
Javanese, the principal manufacturers in iron for the other nations of the Archipelago.
There is, at all events, no evidence of its having been made known by strangers.
SUBIG. The name of a bay and of a township situated on its shore, on the
western side of Luzon. The bay, which is one of no great extent, is a safe harbour
for vessels of small draught, and the town, in north latitude 14° 32' 58“, and east
longitude 122° 8' 30", has a population of 3836 inhabitants. A high peak of the
Cordillera of Zambales lies inland from the town at the distance of six leagues.
SUGAR-CANE and SU GAR. —(Saccharum officinalis). The cane is called in
Malay and Javanese tâbu, with the accent., as usual, on the penultimate. This name
is universal, and there is no other popular one throughout the Malay and Philippine
Archipelagos. Indeed, there is no synonym at all, except in the polite dialect of
the Javanese, where it has the factitious one of rosan, which signifies literally “ the
jointed object,” that is, “ the cane.” But the word tâbu has a still wider extension,
for we find it in the languages of all the islands of the Pacific in which the sugar-cane
was grown when they were discovered by Europeans. No doubt the word has been,
more or less, corrupted in all the ruder languages, but still there can be no doubt of
its identity. Thus, in the language of the Philippines, it is tubu ; in the Kayan of
Borneo, tuvo; in the languages of Floris, tau ; in the Polynesian Tonga also, tau;
in the Tahiti and Marquesa, to ; and in the Sandwich Islands, ko. This essential
conformity of name, and that name too a native one, and not as is the case with* its