Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/281

 Among the shipping which we saw lying in the roads were two American vessels, loading with hemp.

On the morning of the 21st of January we got under way and made sail for the Straits of Mindoro.

On the 6th of February we made and surveyed the Pangootaaraang group, consisting of five small islands.

Early in the morning of the 8th we made the Mangsee Islands. Here, as on many of the islands of the Sooloo Seas, lived crews of freebooters and blood-thirsty  Malay pirates, more ready and willing to cut our throats  and pick our pockets than to trade. Though not cannibals, they delighted in shedding blood, and were fully as barbarous and treacherous as the Fiji cannibals. Our Sooloo pilot advised us when we landed not to penetrate  into the woods.

Here, as on all the islands, we saw many beautiful birds. We found one kind we had not seen on any other island. It was about half as large as a peacock, but clothed in richer colored feathers.

Monkeys could be seen in great numbers. Here we found what was called the "sad-faced" monkey. It was very quiet and slow-motioned, and had a very broad and melancholy face.

While pulling along these shores, we looked over the gunwales of our boats into some of the most beautiful  coral flower gardens that are to be found in the world.

The food of the natives was hogs, ground-rats, snails, monkeys, snakes, etc.

While surveying in the boats we fired muskets, in order to measure base. The Malays mistook us for some shipwrecked crew, and thought our guns were signals of