Note 6 — Chapter I · Geographical Description of the Sulu Archipelago1

There are few landscapes in the world that exhibit a more delightful appearance than the seacoasts of Sulu; the luxuriant variety of the enchanting hills exhibits a scenery hardly ever equaled and certainly never surpassed by the pencil of the artist. Some with majestic woods that wave their lofty heads to the very summits; others with rich pasturage delightfully verdant, with here and there patches burnt for cultivation, which form an agreeable contrast with enameled meads; others, again, exhibit cultivation to the mountain top, checkered with groves affording a grateful variety to the eye—in a word, it only requires the decorations of art and civilized life to form a terrestrial paradise.6