uffle, and bound, surrounded by enemies flourishing their
krisses, remarked, 'You have taken me by treachery; openly you could
not have seized me.' He spoke no more. They triumphed over and insulted
him, as though some great feat had been achieved, and every kris
was plunged into his body, which was afterward cast, without burial,
into the river. Si Tundo's relation was spared on pleading for mercy;
and after his whole property, even to his clothes, was confiscated,
he was allowed to retire to Sadung. Thus perished poor Si Tundo,
a Magindano pirate, with many, if not all, the vices of the native
character, but with boldness, courage, and constancy, which retrieved
his faults, and raised him in the estimation of brave men. In person
he was tall, elegantly made, with small and handsome features, and
quiet and graceful manners; but toward the Malays, even of rank, there
was in his bearing a suppressed contempt, which they often felt, but
could not well resent. Alas! my gallant comrade, I mourn your death,
and could have better spared a better man; for as long as you lived,
I had one faithful follower of tried courage among the natives. Peace
be with you in the world to come, and may the great God pardon your
sins and judge you mercifully!
"The case of poor Si Tundo proves that the feeling of love is not
quite dead among Asiatics, though its power is obscured by their
education and habits of polygamy; and that friendship and relationship
may induce a man here, as elsewhere, to risk his life and sacrifice
his property without any prospect of personal advantage. An old
Magindano man, a sort of foster-father of Si Tundo's, when he saw
me for the first time, clasped my arm, and repeatedly exclaimed,
'Si Tundo is dead; they have killed him;' adding, 'had you been here,
he would not have been killed.' I was touched by the old man's sorrow,
and his expression of feeling."
Datu Jembrong was likewise an Illanum, and retired to Sadung when the
rebel war had closed, and died after a few days' illness. Mr. Brooke
writes: "Thus I have lost the two bravest men--men whom I would rather
trust for fair dealing than any score of Borneons; for the Magindanos,
though pirates by descent and education, are a far superior people to
any in the Archipelago, with the exception of the Bugis. Whatever may
be their vices, they are retrieved by courage to a certain degree;
and where we find a manly character, we may presume that the meaner
arts of _
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