h the exception of a short interval spent in enquiries as to our
respective ages, it carried us on until it was time for our visitors
to take their departure, which they did with many effusive
hand-shakings, and many no doubt charming little farewell speeches.

The way in which the connection between the Sultans of Brunei and
Johore came about is rather curious. The Sultan of Sulu had been
engaged in negotiations for the marriage of a princess of Johore (an
aunt of the present Sultan) to one of his sons. The Sultan of Brunei
had also set his mind on the same young lady. When the Sulu fleet of
prahus started to bring the fair--or dark--princess to her new home,
the Brunei fleet followed as far as the Straits of Johore, and
anchored outside, but in the night a swift Brunei prahu stole softly
along the shore, carried the young lady off, crept through the fleets
again, and was soon out at sea on its way back to Brunei. The next
morning, when the princess was not forthcoming and the true state of
affairs was discovered, the Sulu fleet was naturally anxious to start
in pursuit; but the Brunei prahus intercepted them, and before the
Sulus could fight their way through, the lady had been safely lodged
in the Sultan's harem at Brunei.

If the weather had not been so exhaustingly hot, and Tom had not been
so much afraid of our getting fever, I should have tried to persuade
him to take us to Sulu, which must be a most interesting country,
judging from the description of Burbridge, Wallace, and others. The
natives retain many traces of the old Spanish dominion in their style
of dress and ideas generally. They have excellent horses, or ponies,
and are adepts at pig-sticking. Occasionally boar-hunts are organised
on a large scale, which allow of a fine display of horsemanship, as
well as of gaudy costumes. At the feasts given by the Sultan, the
dishes, and even the plates, are all of mother-of-pearl shells, of the
finest golden-lipped variety, each with one or more large pearls
adhering to it. In some cases visitors have been tempted to pocket
their plates, and strict watch and ward has therefore to be kept over
them. There were some Sulus on the 'Lorna Doone' with us, wearing
horsey-looking trousers, short jackets with buttons on the sleeves,
bright sashes stuck full of knives and other arms, and jaunty little
turbans, something like a Maccaroni's cap with the traditional feather
stuck in it. They seemed altogether superior in poin