Note 39 — Chapter IX

Few if any of the Sooloos39 can write or read, though many speak Spanish. Their accounts are all kept by the slaves. Those who can read and write are, in consequence, highly prized. All the accounts of the Datu of Soung are kept in Dutch, by a young Malay from Ternate, who writes a good hand, and speaks English, and whom we found exceedingly useful to us. He is the slave of the Datu, who employs him for this purpose only. He told us he was captured in a brig by the pirates of Basillan, and sold here as a slave, where he is likely to remain for life, although he says the Datu has promised to give him his freedom after ten years.