lavish dependents, and
fearless of any higher power, whose authority might act as a check
on his temper, or force him to control his passions--finds that the
activity of his mind and body demand more scope for excitement than
exists at home; and having a bias for the sea, he becomes a pirate
chief, and scours the neighbouring waters in search of honour as well
as gain. Under proper influences these men might be taught to divert
their roving propensities into more peaceful channels. Fitting out
large and fast-sailing proas, manned by their slaves, and officered
by kinsmen, their warlike excursions take a wide range, and on some
occasions their audacity has led them up even to the Bay of Manilla,
landing on the shores of which, they have plundered the people,
and carried off some of them to increase the number of their slaves,
who constitute their principal wealth and power--daring to do this
when so near as to be almost under the very walls of the capital,
on which waves the banner of Castile.

On the coasts of the provinces these predatory inroads were not
uncommon, till General Claveria, in the beginning of 1848, determined
to punish them severely, and to intimidate them so signally, as to
prevent any repetition of these offences. Accordingly, having secretly
fitted out an expedition from Manilla on the 13th February, 1848, the
steamer on board of which the Governor himself was, anchored between
the islands of Parol and Balanguinguy. Next day the transports arrived,
and on that and the following day they reconnoitred the islands,
and did all the damage they could, by way of reprisal, demolishing
several piers, and destroying a large quantity of paddy which they
discovered concealed in a cave in a retired place.

At daybreak, on the 16th February, the troops were disembarked before
Balanguinguy under cover of a fire from the ships, and after a little
resistance from the Sooloo men--who were excessively frightened by
the appearance of the steamers, whose facility of movement they were
quite unprepared for--the fort, consisting of bamboo, was taken by
escalade after a brave resistance. The attacking force, consisting
of about 4000 men, behaved with great coolness and decision, when
exposed to the enemy's fire and missiles of all sorts, such as arrows,
javelins, &c. About eighty of the defenders of the place were slain,
many of them with the desperate bravery--or ferocity if you will--of
men who neither would give or acc