ces. The influence of the individual
chiefs depends chiefly upon the number of their retainers or slaves,
and the force they can bring into their service when they require
it. These are purchased from the pirates, who bring them to Sulu and
its dependencies for sale. The slaves are employed in a variety of
ways, as in trading prahus, in the pearl and beche de met fisheries,
and in the search after the edible birds' nests.

A few are engaged in agriculture, and those who are at all educated
are employed as clerks. These slaves are not denied the right of
holding property, which they enjoy during their lives, but at their
death it reverts to the master. Some of them are quite rich, and
what may appear strange, the slaves of Sulu are invariably better
off than the untitled freemen, who are at all times the prey of the
hereditary datus, even of those who hold no official stations. By
all accounts these constitute a large proportion of the population,
and it being treason for any low-born freeman to injure or maltreat
a datu, the latter, who are of a haughty, overbearing, and tyrannical
disposition, seldom keep themselves within bounds in their treatment
of their inferiors. The consequence is, the lower class of freemen
are obliged to put themselves under the protection of some particular
datu, which guards them from the encroachment of others. The chief
to whom they thus attach themselves, is induced to treat them well,
in order to retain their services, and attach them to his person,
that he may, in case of need, be enabled to defend himself from
depredations, and the violence of his neighbors.

Such is the absence of legal restraint, that all find it necessary
to go abroad armed, and accompanied by a trusty set of followers,
who are also armed. This is the case both by day and night, and,
according to the Datu's account, frequent affrays take place in the
open streets, which not unfrequently end in bloodshed.

Caution is never laid aside, the only law that exists being that of
force; but the weak contrive to balance the power of the strong by
uniting. They have not only contentions and strife among themselves,
but it was stated at Manila that the mountaineers of Sulu, who are
said to be Christians, occasionally make inroads upon them. At Sulu,
however, it did not appear that they were under much apprehension of
these attacks. The only fear I heard expressed was by the Sultan,
in my interview with him; and the cause of