Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-08-12
PIRATE CHIEF,

New York Tribune: Professor B. ].
Skertchly, who is staying for a week or
so at the Murray Hill hotel, is a widely
travelled man, and has many interesting
experiences to relate. He is an English
MAJ by birth, but at present he consid-
ers himself a resident of Australia. He
has lived in almost every quarter of the
globe. For many years he made his home
in North Borneo, and While sojourning
there he made the acquaintance of Pangli-
ma Laut, said to be the last of the pirate
chiefs. In a conversation the professor
said:
Until within the last 20 years piracy
was the only liberal profession worthy of
the Malay gentleman who infested the
East Indian archipelago, say. from Sing
apore to Timor Laut. Like some other
eminently respectable professions, it has
fallen INTO ~decadence, owing chiefly to the
close patrolling of the seas by British and
other war vessels. The most dreaded of
these pirates were two tribes, called the
Illanus and the Baglinini, whose legends
say that they were driven from Johar
about the time of King Solomon, in con-
sequence of being mixed up with the alb
duction of the Princess Ayesha, daughter
of the sultan of Sulu, over which island
the United States recently hoisted Old
Glory. These people were compelled to
take to the seas, and until 20 years ago
they terrorized the islands from Borneo
to the Moluccas. In the new British ter
ritory of North Borneo the last of their
strongholds exists. and here lives Pang-
lima Launt. q six foot, slender. Wiry.
fierce-eyed warrior, who made periodical
raids along the BorneO shores generally
for plumber and slaves, but often for pure
devilment, and just to keep his hand in
He had praus. some of which a so pad
4 11rc n ,nI III 1f ~. cni1,I 1ilyn Nritnhng
Most Of them We're outraged, and were as
safe as lifeboats.
"When the Panglima felt weary it was
his custom to don his brightest silk gar
ments, tie his small turban with a know
ing little cocktail over his right ear. shave
the right side Of his mustache and swear
never to slleathe his kris or short
sword, until his mustache had grown
again. He was 'kabal.' that is, invinci-
Bile. for he had gone through some
strange ceremony which convinced him
that no steel On lead could ever kill him
unless in the hands Of English or Ameri-
cans. The Malay places the Anglo
Saxona in a very exalted place by them
salvcs, but he looks on the Portuguese,
Dutch and Spaniards as having no great
er power than himself. Starting on a
pirate raid the Panglima would give bat
tie to any praus encountered on the high
seas unless the crews were his brother
3 = iIAu to iocAt 49, wa =
asked nor given, the fights always re-
suited in a decisive victory for one party
or the other. The Panglima himself was
never defeated at sea or on shore. His
fleet Of war praus would hover in the
offing until sunset, and then suddenly
IWoop down on a coast village and plum
der it.
con one occasion not long ago II men
fell by the Panglima's kris in fair, open,
hand to hand combat. The poor fellow is
now simply a native chief under British
rule, living in his old pirate haunt on
Darnel bay, North Borneo. Trade has
been bad with him., and he complained to
me that, although he was growing
wealthy, all the fun had gone out Of his
life. He had been reduced to what we
might almost term a domestic and friend
ly piracy among his own people for some
years, maintaining his family by levying
'tithes,' amounting, however, almost to
100 per cent upon boats engaged in fish
ing. His occupation ceased and his great
heart broke when, after having deied the
English and most pluckily stood up
against an armed force, he was asked in
a friendly way to come and watch the
effect of a Maxim gun before that instru-
ment was allowed to play it's war tune to
his people. He saw the rain of bullets
playing with precision upon distant OBJ
jects. and then, thrusting his kris home
into his %scabbard, he covered the handle
with his coat, in token of friendliness,
and pathetically exclaimed:
"'This is not fair. 1t doesn't give a
poor pirate a chance
Finally he succumbed to civilization at
Mrs. Skertchly's hands by submitting to
be photographed. But it took half a day
of moral suasion to get him to stand up
before something which. after his Maxim
gun experience. he believed might be
some other kind of Internal machine. and
as his wife and family were also likely to
be victims. he first made a careful in
v~estigation, putting his head under the
black cloth and keeping his hand on his
half drawn kris all the time. He was
scarcely satisfied. apparently, but deter
mined to risk it, and stood like adamant
while the exposure was being made The
pictures of his wife and children were not
good because they were shaking with
fright, but Panglima's was excellent"
ODD CLIENT.