and habits. He was but a short time afterwards murdered in his house on one of the Pellews, which he had leased from the king, and at the time was engaged in cultivating an experimental crop of cotton from Sea Island seed, which promised most satisfactory results. According to the report of Captain Torm, who visited the island subsequently, by order of the British Vice-Consul at Manila, and brought away the unfortunate Cheyne's vessel, the circumstances of his death would indicate the observance of the custom among his assassins. He was decapitated, and the head was found in the garden surrounding the house, with the back part of the skull punctured, probably abandoned in some sudden alarm. So, too, those every way kindred spirits, the terrible "Sea Gipsies,' --scarce twenty years since a name of fear through all the Sunda Isles, and circumjacent waters; even yet a scourge in the eastern portions of the Molucca and Banda Seas; sometimes now, but rarely, encountered in the Straits of Macassar; indomitable rovers that, like the old Buccaniers of the West Indies, took account of no disparity of circumstances, arms, numbers, or armament, of whom so little definite and certain is known, and so much of the horrible and mysterious is surmised, but at last, happily for the well-being of commerce, extinct hereabouts, at least as a naval organization, having disappeared since the day when Sir James Brooke crushed their allies, the Sarebas, and the sea Dyaks of Borneo. I have my suspicions that these were not merely kindred, but perhaps identical with the Moros. It has been surmised that they are the same as the "Bajows," but this lacks confirmation; and, on the other hand, Bajows are to-day found as peaceful fishermen along the Bornean side of the Straits of Carimata. But our knowledge of them is only sufficient for provoking instead of appeasing our curiosity. Beyond the fact that they were, as their sobriquet implies, wanderers, Bedouins of the sea, without any fixed home or property besides their prohus, nothing definite concerning them has been established. It is said that they were guided by no special plan of cruising, beyond that of scudding before each monsoon. But there is some reason to suppose that they came from and returned to some part of the Sooloo Archipelago; and that they were not infre quently found allied with the Illanosanother predatory race, issuing from Illana Bay in the south side of Mindanao—with whom the Moros at this day sometimes confederate, though generally making war on their own account. The Moros are of the Mahometan faith, and have stood the Spaniards a particularly tough tug of warfare, especially during the last half-century, and, for the most part, have succeeded in holding their own-two reasons amply sufficient in Spanish eyes for bestowing upon them the appellation proper to those fiery warriors of Africa, those valient true believers in the prophet, who conquered and held the fairest half of Old Spain for a period of almost eight centuaries. They also possess an aptitude for building fortifications, rather formidable works, too, comparatively; and many a sharp and wellcontested fight has of late years taken place between the Spanish gun-boats and Moro water-batteries, defended by their rude cannon. But the most remarkable feature of their savage strategy is what I may term their pontooning tactics. The limits of an article of this nature forbid descending to particulars, but I will endeavour to convey a correct general idea, premising that it is a subject worthy the closest attention of our military geniuses, who may draw from it lessons of much importance. Boats of a small size, constructed of strong, light, and elastic materials, which are fitted together without nail, treenail, spike, or screw, (being bound together instead in a very ingenious and effective manner by means of thongs, nipa leaf being inserted into the seams before they are brought to a state of tension, just as barrel staves are interleaved with flags to render them perfectly watertight) are combined to constitute their. pontoons." These, separated into their ultimate parts-"taken down," as our technical phrase would be-into planks, timbers, thwarts, paddles, etc., a man to each single portion, and each as light and convenient of portage as their swords or lances, are borne in sufficient numbers in every enterprise. Every warrior is a pontonier, to whom is assigned one particular part, and whose special responsibility for which ends only with life. In addition they are thoroughly drilled into a regular, systematic performance of the process of putting together and taking apart their well adapted craft, being taught to render confusion impossible by a strict adherence to the grand principle of all evolutions, that of being in the right place, at the right moment, with the right thing. With these boats, and the combinations they are accustomed to make with them, they bridge, raft, or ferry across stream, river, or lake, according to necessities and circumstances, with a celerity that is truly marvellous; then they again "take them down," "take them down," and push on their flying marches without involving any loss of time. I have elsewhere endeavoured to show that the theory herein involved, by which every soldier is a pontonier, is capable of most advantageous adaptation in our armies, by the simple means of utilizing the buoyancy of the common canteen. For example with the emptied and stoppered canteens of a corps of ten thousand men, if made something stouter, and fitted with proper clamps or other simple means of attaching one to another, can be constructed a pontoon of ten thousand watertight compartments, or cells, which almost no practicable amount of battering could sink, and which would carry three companies fully accoutred, with three boat howitzers and fifty rounds of shell and shrapnel for each, reckoning only five pounds avoirdupois as the power of flotation of each canteen. Other tribes, notably the Igorrotos of Luzon and the mountain Dyaks of Borneo, who are also adepts in the art, practise it with more or less skill and modification. Like them, too, they carefully foster the growth of their hair, not as a feature of personal ornamentation, but to constitute a. defence, for they twist and knot it upon the cranium in every conceivable and inconceivable manner; braiding it sometimes with bands of cotton cloth and tough grasses until it forms a helmet that requires a strong arm, keen blade, and well-judged distance, to cut it through, and even then the only result is to lodge the blade without inflicting, at best, immediately fatal injury upon the warrior. This fact is so well known to the experienced “biche-le-mer" and other traders in these regions, that whenever an encounter with any of these tribes takes place, the crew are invariably instructed not to strike at their heads. Besides this, they carry on the left arm large but exceedingly light shields, formed of interwoven rattan-confoundedly impenetrable things, too tough to be cut or pierced to any damaging extent, but admirably adapted to catch and jam the point of a pike or sword. They are also proof against light pistols, nothing less than the calibre of Colt's navy pattern, at close range, being effective against them. Undoubtedly they are the best shields ever invented. These people have an exceedingly awkward trick, too, of slashing at the sword-arm of an antagonist. In this way they meet and overcome, singlehanded, the gigantic club-wielding Sooloo ape, a more formidable creature, it is said, than the terrible African gorilla, concerning which we have been, for some years past, treated to such tremendously exaggerated accounts, wherein travelled credulity has adopted as fact, and in some cases embellished, the creations of native mendacity. Their fire-arms are used only as naval weapons, or in their fortifications, and though the metal of which they are made appears to be good, they are rude, clumsy, and inaccurate. Probably their iron is naturally of superior fineness. In closing this paper I venture to put forward an opinion concerning the ethnological position of these nations. Such of them as are tolerably known are classed, erroneously, I think, with the Malays. My observations lead me to suppose that they are scattered portions of a great race, perhaps once, if not now, equal to the Malays. The customs herein mentioned, notably, their pontooning and their head taking, with others too numerous to describe within these limits, the Malays know nothing of. The differences of physique from the latter are also telling. They are bearded, the Igorrotos of Luzon strongly so; while the Malays pure never show a trace; and their stature and bodily conformation differ broadly. Between Dyak, Igorroto, Moro, Sea Gipsy, and the rest, the differences are very slight, and not to be compared with those existing between them collectively, and the Malays. The extent over which they are scattered may be due to emigration, or may give support to the theory now received by most geologists, that the islands of Oceanica are the mountain-tops of a submerged continent. Either would account for their presence in the less remotely separated localities. The Philippine Isles have two easily practicable lines of communication for even the rudest canoes, one by the Soloo Archipelago on the east; while Palawan, at the south-western extremity of their group, has a steppingstone, so to speak, on the Island of Bassilan to the northern shores of Borneo. The reader will observe that these lines are occupied more or less fully by the tribes of head-takers, hence the connection between the Igorrotos of Luzon on the north, and the Dyaks of Borneo on the south of their range of habitat, is maintained. But their existence, or their traces, scattered through Melanesia and Polynesia, even to New Zealand, is more difficult to account for. The Maori of the latter country, be it remarked, is a head-taker, and his resemblance to them in general physique is much closer than that of the Malay; while his traditions tell how his ancestors came to the country after long wandering in their canoes, at a period which seems to correspond with that at which the Malays sallied forth from their cradle home in Sumatra on their career of conquest throughout the vast archipelago, and drove forth on the waters the thousands from many a peaceful island coast, who preferred to seek new homes in the unknown ocean to remaining in subjugation to the ferocious invader. Did the Moro and his congeners in turn possess the art of tatooing, the proof of sameness of origin would be established. Manila, 1866. BRITISH CONNECTION-IDEAL AND REAL. IT BY A. M. B., OTTAWA. be very well doubted, our present circumstances which he did not indicate any desire to alter-considered, were the theory reduced to practice, and a railway built and owned by the British Government were stretched across the whole Dominion, whether it would not involve a renewal to a great extent of that odious interference in the local affairs of this country by the authorities of Downing Street which gave such unqualified dissatisfaction in the past, and from which we are now never tired of congratulating ourselves we are free. But in asserting that commercially and militarily the Pacific Railway is of Imperial concern, most people will think Mr. Wark was right. Except, however, by guaranteeing the bonds of the road, it is difficult to see how the Home Government could render us any assistance in that gigantic undertaking just T was, if we remember correctly, Mr. Wark who last session, in the course of the protracted debate which took place in the Senate on the Pacific Railway policy of the present Administration, enunciated the novel and somewhat startling proposition that the construction of that road ought to be undertaken by the Imperial Government.* Unfortunately, the debates of the Upper Chamber, even when they are important, are practically neglected by the press, and it is very doubtful if the arguments advanced by Mr. Wark in support of his views, or even the views themselves unsupported by argument, were ever given the publicity they deserved. Briefly stated, his contention was that the Pacific Railway, desirable from a Canadian point of view, but practically unattainable by Canadian means on account of the condition of our financial resources, is an actual Imperial necessity, whether considered as an accessory to the maintenance of British commercial and mili--the sovereign people, by whom and for tary ascendancy, or as an instrument of securing still more firmly the integrity and unity of the Empire. The hon. gentleman's theory may not be quite consistent with the principle of self-government which has been. so amply conceded in the constitution of our Canadian Confederacy; and it might * Although the first to propose that the Imperial authorities ought themselves to build the road, Mr. Wark is by no means alone in pointing out its Imperial importance. The idea of Imperial assistance, too, had been suggested in Parliament before. We find Mr. Joly, during the debate on the Terms of Union, in 1871, stating that "he could not consider the railway a Canadian but an Imperial policy. Of course it was natural that England should desire to see British North America confederated and independent of the United States; and if that were her desire, the best thing she could do would be to aid in constructing this line of communication." The present Minister of Marine and Fisheries, during the same debate, combatting the argument that, if the terms were not agreed to then, British Columbia would join the United States, declared if such were the case, "the matter belonged to the Imperial Government alone." Mr. Francis Jones, then member for Leeds and Grenville, considered the " Imperial now. It is very different with the British public whom the Government and Parliament act. The most enthusiastic and sincere advocates of British connection practically admit that the tie which binds Canada to the mother country is a tie more of affection than of advantage-more of patriotism and sentimental loyalty than of self-interest. Surely then, we Mr. Government ought to share in the expenses of any scheme for opening up the North-West." Huntington thought "if it had been the duty and policy of the Imperial Government to aid in the construction of the Intercolonial Railway, it was a hundred-fold more their duty and policy to aid in the construction of the Pacific," and he asked the Administration "for what reason they had absolved the Imperial Government from all duties in the work of consolidating British power on this continent." Senator Millar believed a railway across the continent, on British soil, to be as much an Imperial as a Dominion necessity, and entered into an elaborate argument to show that "when the time came, England would do her duty and do it generously"that is to say, she would assist, "by guarantee or otherwise," in building the Pacific Railway. Senator Sanborn was opposed to the terms, and argued that the work was more an Imperial than a Colonial one. are justified in expecting that these feelings will be more or less heartily reciprocated; for it is obvious, if the affection, and selfdenial, and patriotism be all upon one side, even if the advantage on the other side be small, the bond of union must gradually grow weaker. No affection as between nationalities, especially when divided by distance and rival interests, can be so abiding that neglect on the part of the stronger will not alienate it—no tie so elastic, but it may not be tested to the sundering. It is sometimes rather hard to believe that our loyalty to Great Britain is not poorly requited, and the reception we invariably meet when we appear in the British money market, as borrowers for purposes of national development, certainly does not much assist to relieve us of our doubts upon the subject. What a contrast it presents to the reception accorded foreign nations when they present themselves in the same quarter with the same end in view! Russia, as every intelligent Briton is well aware, has her designs upon our Indian Empire-is, in fact, a standing menace to British rule and influence in the East; nevertheless, when Russia wants to organize an expedition having for its chief purpose the extension of her frontier in the direction of ours, the intelligent Englishman furnishes the money, and never, we are justified in believing, feels a qualm of conscience on account of it. Russia wants to construct a railway-a military railwaywith a view solely and entirely to strengthen her position in case she should, in furtherance of her recognised eastern policy, find it necessary or convenient to go to war with Great Britain. Of course, nobody expects the Czar to do this with Russian money; but it makes little difference; he can borrow on very good terms. Accordingly, the task of finding the funds is entrusted to one or other of the cosmopolitan foreigners of the money-lending fraternity who have been in vested with British citizenship-in some cases raised to the dignity of members of the Legislature; a Russian loan is placed upon the London money market; and patriotic Englishmen trample upon each other in their eagerness to subscribe to it-in their eagerness, must we say, to bolster up their country's most deadly enemy with their country's own gold. But let Her Majesty's subjects in Canada propose to borrow from their richer fellow-subjects in London, the wherewithal to build railways which would. open up to settlement a vast area of productive land, increase immensely the British population and British influence upon this Continent, give an impetus to both Imperial and Colonial commerce, of which at present they stand greatly in need, and in thousands of ways tend to consolidate the Empire, they are met upon the very threshold of their negociations by obstacles which are all but insurmountable. Not even the Government of the Province of Quebec could appear in the London money market as a borrower for colonization railway purposes, without provoking the violent opposition of the great financial magnates and their organs. Of course, the unproductive nature of Canadian railway investments, taken as a whole, furnishes to the mind of the capitalist what might and does appear a very powerful argument against indiscriminate speculation in that sort of property; but if Englishmen only paid half as much attention to the condition and prospects of Canada as they do to Russian, Turkish, Egyptian, Brazilian, and other favourite foreign securities, they would be able to see that in the extension of our railway system lies the prosperity of the country, and the enhancement of the value of the roads which now exist. But the readiness with which British gold is lent for the purpose of building up and developing the resources of a greedy, barbarous, and aggressive Foreign Power, while the black frown of disfavour is turned upon the attempts of an enlightened and friendly dependency to secure the same objects, is not the only anomaly which presents itself to the student of the policy, not alone of British capitalists, but of British statesmen as well. England has constituted herself, and has long been recognised as the friend and liberator of the slave and the champion of liberty, and has paid dearly, in both money and blood, to secure the absolute freedom of every human creature on British soil. But has she not been eqally lavish of both blood and money in her efforts to befriend and preserve Turkey-that plaguespot amongst the nations of Europe, that reproach to the civilization of the century, that sworn and uncompromising foe of liberty and the Christian religion? And does not every Englishman who contributes a shilling to a Turkish loan assist, and does he not know that he assists in perpetuating 1 |