Note 99 — PART I

An active coasting trade99 is carried on by the natives amongst the islands, though they suffer dreadfully from the pirates; but such is their enterprising turn, that with these in sight, they will often cross from one island to another, when they have a fair start; and frequently set out on a long trip in a small prow [i.e., prau], armed only with their spears and “campilans,”100 though knowing the pirates to be in the neighbourhood of their track. They are well known in the piratical states, where a Manila slave always commands a higher price than any other. They have been much stigmatized in British country-ships, as the leaders of mutinies, &c.; but though no doubt can exist that they have often assisted in cutting off vessels, yet I question much whether the fault was not in a great measure to be attributed to a want of discrimination between the high spirit of the Philippine islander, and the meek sufferance of the patient Lascar—a fatal mistake, when both are trampled on, as it is to be feared they but too often are.