25. Although these are islands it will not be necessary to fatigue the mind by discussing (as do San Agustin and other authors in respect to other islands and to America) whence and how people and [38]animals came to them. For if some of these islands have been, at any time since the flood, part of a continent, from that time men and animals could remain in them; while if they have always been islands, the nearness of some of them to others, and of some of them to the mainland of Asia, whence began the propagation of the human race and the settlements of the descendants of Noah, is sufficient reason why some of them could come to settle these regions. And that this was really so, and that the principal settler of these archipelagoes was Tharsis, son of Javan, together with his brothers, as were Ophir and Hevilath of India, we see in the tenth chapter of Genesis, which treats of the dispersion of peoples and the settlement of countries, as we establish in another place.

26. Now then, coming to our theme, when the conquistadors and settlers arrived at these islands and subdued that of Manila, they found three varieties or kinds of people in them. Those who held command of it [i.e., the island of Manila], and inhabited the seashore and river-banks and all the best parts round about, were Moro Malays of Borney (according to their own report). That is an island also, and is larger than any of these Filipinas and nearer the mainland of Malaca, where there is a district called Malayo.1 This place is the origin of all the Malays who are scattered throughout the most and best of all these archipelagoes. From that [41]nation of the Malays springs that of the Tagálogs, who are the natives of Manila and its neighborhood. That is proved by the Tagálog language, which resembles the Malay closely; by the color and lines of the whole body; by the clothing and habit that they wore at the arrival of the Spaniards here; and lastly by the customs and ceremonies, all of which were derived from the Malays and other nations of India. The occasion of their coming to these parts might have been either that they were driven by chance through these seas (as we have seen in our days, borne to these islands people from other unknown islands, who spoke a language that no one understood, and who had been driven by the sea); or they could have come hither purposely in the search for new lands on which to settle, because their own were too crowded, or some disaster had overtaken them which caused them to leave their home forever. But it is very likely that greed and commercial interests attracted them, as occurred in the parts of India with regard to the Moros, Persians, and Arabs. The Portuguese say in their histories that when they reached those kingdoms they found the Moros uppermost and masters of all, by reason of the commerce which they introduced among the heathen kings and rulers, the natives of the country, whose goodwill the Moros contrived to secure with rich and valuable presents. Little by little they continued to remain in the land and pay the royal duties, until they became so powerful that they revolted against the real rulers and deprived them of the best of their lands. Barros2 says that the first Portuguese found [42]that that had happened in those districts of India some hundred and fifty years before their arrival. In the same way one may imagine the passage of the Malays to Borney to have occurred, and of the Borneans to Manila; and that along with the arms and temporal commerce would come some caciques,3 or priests of the cursed Mahometan religion, who introduced that religion into the villages and maritime nations of these parts. As for me I can readily believe that that great island of Borney in past centuries was continued on the northeast by Paragua, and on the south4 by the lands near Mindanao, as is indicated by the shoals and islets of Paragua on the one side, and those called Santa Juana and other islets and shoals which extend toward Jolo and Taguima, opposite the point of La Caldera on the Mindanao shore. If this assumption be true, as is affirmed by aged Indians of those parts, the opportunity [43]for the Borneans to scatter through the Filipinas is very evident.

27. It is probable that the inhabitants would come to Borney immediately from Samatra, which is a very large land quite near the mainland of Malaca and Malayo. In the midst of that great island of Samatra there is a large and extensive lake5 whose marge is settled by many different nations, whence, according to tradition, the people went to settle various islands. A Pampango of sense (one of these nations) finding himself adrift and astray there through various accidents (and from whom I learned it), testified that those people [of Sumatra] spoke excellent Pampango, and wore the oldtime dress of the Pampangos. When he questioned one of their old men, the latter answered: “You [Pampangos] are descendants of the lost people who left here in past times to settle in other lands, and were never heard of again.” It can also be believed that the Tagálogs, Pampangos, and other civilized nations, analogous in language, color, clothing, and customs, came from parts of Borney and Samatra, some from certain provinces or neighborhoods and some from others. That is the reason for the difference of the languages, according to the custom of [44]these uncivilized lands, for every province or neighborhood has a different language.

28. The nations of the Bisayas and Pintados, who inhabit the provinces of Camarines in this island of Luzon, and those of Leyte, Samar, Panay, and other neighborhoods, came, I have heard, from the districts of Macasar, where it is said that Indians live who make designs on and tattoo the body, in the manner of our Pintados. Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, in the relation which he wrote of the discovery of the Salomon Islands in 1595, says that an island called Madalena was found in ten degrees north latitude, at a distance from Pirù of one thousand eight hundred leguas (which is nearly the same latitude and distance as the Filipinas) where Indians of good proportion, but taller than the Spaniards, and all naked and bearing designs on their bodies, legs, arms, and hands (and some on their faces), in the manner of our Visayans, were found. Consequently, it is apparent that there are other nations of Pintados to be discovered. We have as yet not enough data, nor even a well founded conjecture, to say whether ours originated from the latter, or on the contrary both from some mainland. We know well that people who tattoo the body have been seen in Brasil and Florida. Then, too, this custom was formerly seen in some nations of Scythians in Asia and of Britons in Europa. But we cannot yet determine the legitimate origin of our Visayan Pintados. If some of the natives of Mindanao, Jolo, Bool, and part of Cebu, who are lighter-complexioned, braver, and of better proportions than the pure Visayans, are not Borneans, they might be Ternatans—as may be inferred from the neighborhood of the lands and [45]the communication of one with another; and because in what concerns the worship and religion of the cursed Prophet, even today they are governed by Terrenate; and when they find themselves beset by the troops from Filipinas, they make an alliance and help one another.

29. All those whom the first Spaniards found in these islands with the command and lordship over the land are reduced to the first class, the civilized peoples. Another kind, totally opposed to the above, are the Negrillos, who live in the mountains and thick forests which abound in these islands. The latter are a barbarous race who live on the fruits and roots of the forests. They go naked, covering only the privies with some articles called bahaques, made from the bark of trees. They wear no other ornaments than armlets and anklets and bracelets, curiously wrought after their manner from small rattans of various colors, and garlands of branches and flowers on their heads and the fleshy parts of the arm; and at the most some cock or sparrow-hawk feather for a plume. They have no laws or letters, or other government or community than that of kinsfolk, all those of one line of family obeying their leader. In regard to religion and divine worship they have but little or none. The Spaniards call them Negrillos because many of them are as much negroes, as are the Ethiopians themselves, both in their black color and in their kinky hair. There are still a number of those people in the interior in the mountains. In one of the large islands there are so many of them, that it is for that reason called the island of Negros. Those blacks were apparently the first inhabitants of these islands, and they have [46]been deprived of them by the civilized nations who came later by way of Samatra, the Javas, Borney, Macaçar, and other islands lying toward the west. If one should ask whence could come the Negros to these islands so distant from Africa and Ethiopias, where negroes live, I answer that it was from nearer India, or citra Gangem, which was formerly settled by Ethiopic negroes and was called Etiopia.6 From there, it is more probable, went out the settlers of African Etiopia, as we prove in another place. Moreover, even today does India have nations of the negro race. Also they could easily pass from the districts of the mainland of India to the nearest islands, and could come from one to the other even as far as these Filipinas. In Nueva Guinea, which is quite near Terrenate, the natives are negroes like those of Guinea, and on that account the first explorers gave them that name; and they could also pass from those to these districts.

30. There is another kind of people, neither so civilized as the first, nor so barbarous as the second. They generally live about the sources of the rivers, and on that account are called in some districts, Ilayas. They are the Tingues, and are called Manguianes,7 [47]Zambals, or other names, for each island has a different name for them. They generally trade with the Tagálogs, Visayans, and other civilized nations who are commonly settled near the sea and river mouths. Although those Ilayas or Tingues are not Christians, they pay some sort of recognition or tribute, and have their system of policy or government. It is thought that they are a mixture of the other barbarous and civilized nations, and for that reason they are midway between the other two classes of peoples in color, clothing, and customs.

We do not pretend to deny by the above that some [48]people could have come from other parts and kingdoms of India extra Gangem (such as Sian, Camboja, Cochinchina), and from China itself, and even Japon, to conquer and settle in parts of these islands—especially the Chinese, from whose histories, and their remains found in various parts, it is learned that in former times they were masters of all these archipelagoes.8 If they were the first settlers of the Javas (as is told by Juan de Barros) they could still more easily have settled in some parts of these islands which are nearer to them.

Persons who know the provinces of Ilocos and Cagayan, in the north of this island of Luzon, assert that they have discovered there the graves of people larger than the Indians, and the arms and jewels of Chinese or Japanese, who, it is presumed, conquered and settled in those parts, led on by the desire for gold.9

In accordance with the origin which we ascribed to the civilized nations of these islands in chapter four, so also are their capacity, languages, and letters. They are descendants of the Malays of the [49]mainland of Malaca, whom they also resemble in their capacity, languages, and letters.

92. From the shape, number, and use of the characters and letters of this nation it is quite evident that they are all taken from the Moro Malays and originated from the Arabs. The vowel letters are only three in number, but they serve for five in their use; for the second and third are indifferently e, i, y, o, and u, according as is required by the meaning or sense of the word which is spoken or written.

The consonants are thirteen in number, and serve (except at the beginning of the phrase or initial letter) as consonant and vowel; for the letter alone, without a dot above or below, is pronounced with “A.”

If a dot be placed above, the consonant is pronounced with “e” or “i.”

If the dot be placed below, it is pronounced with “o” or “u.” Thus the “B” with the dot above is pronounced “bi” or “be,” and with the dot below, “bo” or “bu.”

For example, in order to say “cama” [i.e., bed] the two letters “C” and “M” are sufficient without a dot.

If a dot be placed above the “C”, it will be “quema” [i.e., “fire”].

If dots be placed below each, it will be “como” [i.e., “as”].

The final consonants are supplied in all expressions. Thus in order to say “cantar” [i.e., “to sing”], one writes “cata,” only a “C” and a “T.” To say “barba” [i.e., “beard”], two “B’s” are sufficient.

With all the supplements, he who reads in that language will, if he be skilful, have no trouble in [50]pronouncing the words or phrases correctly by substituting the letters that must be substituted according to the sense. But since that always occasions difficulty, those who know our characters are studying how to write their own language in these. All of them have now adopted our way of writing, with the lines from left to right; for formerly they only wrote vertically down and up, placing the first line to the left and running the others continuously to the right, just opposite to the Chinese and Japanese, who although they write in vertical up and down lines, continue the page from the right to the left. All that points to a great antiquity; for running the line from the right to the left is in accordance with the present and general style of the Hebrews; and the style of running the lines vertically from the top to the bottom, is that of the oldest nation of the Chinese—which doubtless greatly resembles the method of the Hebrews, whose characters have much resemblance to theirs. Those of the Moro Arabs resemble those of the Syrians. Diodorus Siculus,10 who wrote in the time of the emperor Cæsar Augustus, in making mention of an island which lay in our middle region, or torrid zone (whither Iamblicus11 [51]the Greek went in the course of his adventures), says that they do not write horizontally as we do, but from top to bottom in a straight line; and that they use characters which, although few in number, make up in their use for many, for each one has four different transformations. Consequently, one may see that that method of writing, and the characters of those nations, are very old.12

93. Before they knew anything about paper (and even yet they do in places where they cannot get it), those people wrote on bamboos or on palm-leaves, using as a pen the point of a knife or other bit of iron, with which they engraved the letters on the smooth side of the bamboo. If they write on palm-leaves they fold and then seal the letter when written, in our manner. They all cling fondly to their own method of writing and reading. There is scarcely a man, and still less a woman, who does not know and practice that method, even those who are already Christians in matters of devotion. For from the sermons which they hear, and the histories and lives of the saints, and the prayers and poems on divine matters, composed by themselves (they have also some perfect poets in their manner, who translate elegantly into their language any Spanish comedy), they use small books and prayerbooks in their language, and manuscripts which are in great number; as is affirmed in his manuscript history by Father Pedro Chirino,13 to whom the provisor and vicar-general [52]of this archbishopric entrusted the visit and examination of those books in the year one thousand six hundred and nine, for the purpose of preventing errors. That was a holy proceeding, and one that was very proper among so new Christians.

The Filipinos easily accustom themselves to the Spanish letters and method of writing. They are greatly benefited thereby, for many of them write now just like us, because of their cleverness and quickness in imitating any letter or design, and in the doing of anything with the hands. There are some of them who commonly serve as clerks in the public accountancies and secretaryships of the kingdom. We have known some so capable that they have deserved to become officials in those posts, and perhaps to supply those offices ad interim. They also are a great help to students in making clean copies of their rough drafts, not only in Romance but also in Latin, for there are already some of them who have learned that language. Finally, they are the printers in the two printing-houses in this city of Manila; and they are entirely competent in that work, in which their skill and ability are very evident.

94. Coming now to the other point, that of their languages, there are many of these. For in this island of Manila alone there are six of them, which correspond to the number of the provinces or civilized nations; the Tagálog, Pampanga, Camarines (or Visayan), Cagayan, and those of the Ilocans and Pangasinans. These are the civilized nations. We do not yet know the number of the nations of the [53]Negrillos, Zambals, and other mountain nations. Although the civilized languages are, strictly speaking, dissimilar, they resemble one another, so that in a short time those people can understand one another, and those of the one nation can converse with those of another—in the same way as the Tuscan, Lombard, and Sicilian in Italia; and the Castilian, Portuguese, and language of Valencia in España. The reason why these languages resemble one another so closely is the same as in Italia and España. For as the latter languages originated from the Roman, just so do these originate from the Malay. For proof of that it is necessary to do nothing else than to compare the words and idioms, or the modes of speech, of each one of these languages with the Malay, as will be seen in the following table, in which is made the comparison of the three most important languages, the Tagálog, Visayan, and Pampanga. Since for the sake of brevity the comparison is made in a few words, whoever is interested can with but slight labor extend the comparison through many words.

Of these languages the two most general are the Tagálog, which is used through the greater part of the coast and interior of the island of Manila, and the islands of Lubang and Mindoro; and the Visayan, which is spoken throughout all the islands of the Pintados. Of the two without doubt the most courteous, grave, artistic, and elegant is the Tagálog, for it shares in four qualities of the four greatest languages in the world, namely, Hebrew, Greek, [54]Latin, and Spanish: With the Hebrew, besides the resemblance already noted in the manner of its vowels and consonants, it has the roots of the vocables and their hidden and obscure meaning [sus preñezes, y misterios] and some gutturals; with the Greek, the articles in the declension of nouns, and in the conjugations the abundance of voices and moods; with the Latin, the abundance and elegance; with the Spanish, the fine structure, polish, and courtesy. As a proof of this, Father Pedro Chirino has inserted in his printed relation of these islands an example in the prayer of the Ave Maria,14 as a short and clear instance, with his explanation, with notes in the following manner. It should be noted that the father, belonging to a past age, wrote it in the old style, which has changed here somewhat since then, although not substantially.

[55]

The first word, “Aba” is a mysterious one in the Tagálog, and has the force of a salutation, as has “Ave” in Latin; and the same is true of “Bucor” which means “diversity,” “distinction,” and “singularity.” The article is [seen in] “si Jesus.” Its abundance lies in the fact that it has many synonyms and turns of thought. Consequently, the above prayer, over and above being elegant, could also be expressed in several other ways just as elegant, and the same sense and meaning would be kept. Its polish and courtesy consists in not saying “Ave Maria” as does the Latin—for that would be a lack of courtesy and a barbarism in the Tagálog—but by the interposition of that polite word “Guinoo.” The Visayan [version] does not contain that word, as being a less polished language. However, I am not trying to cast a slur on the latter for that reason, for each language has a beauty and elegance for its natives which does not strike the foreigner. [56]

95. Among the uncivilized nations, although the people are fewer, the languages are more; for almost every river has its own language. In Mindoro (and the same will be true of other districts more remote) we saw the barbarous Manguianes assembling from places but little distant from each other, who did not understand one another. They were so barbarous that they had never seen a Spanish face. The things sent them to attract them were hawk’s-bells, nails, needles, and other similar things. They thought that the sounds of the harp and guitar were human voices. When a mirror was held up before them, they exhibited singular effects, in one of fear and in another of joy. The lack of civilization and communication is the reason for the multiplicity of languages. For just as in the primitive multiplication of languages which took place in the tower of Babel, the doctors observe that the languages equaled the number of the families of the descendants of Noah, so among the barbarous nations each one lives to itself alone without any recognition of or subjection to public laws. They are always having petty wars and dissensions among themselves; and, since they lack communication, they forget the common language, and each one has so corrupted its own language that it cannot understand the others. We observed in some districts that one language was spoken at the mouth of a river and another one at its source. That is a great hindrance to the conversion and instruction of those peoples.

96. The polish and courtesy, especially of the Tagálogs and those near them, in speech and writing are the same as those of very civilized nations. They never say “tu” [i.e., “thou”] or speak in the [57]second person, singular or plural, but always in the third person: [thus], “The chief would like this or that.” Especially a woman when addressing a man, even though they be equal and of the middle class, never say less than “Sir” or “Master,” and that after every word: “When I was coming, sir, up the river, I saw, sir, etc.” In writing they make constant use of very fine and delicate expressions of regard, and beauties and courtesy. Their manner of salutation when they met one another was the removal of the potong, which is a cloth like a crown, worn as we wear the hat. When an inferior addressed one of higher rank, the courtesy used by him was to incline his body low, and then lift one or both hands to the face, touch the cheeks with it, and at the same time raise one of the feet in the air by doubling the knee, and then seating oneself. The method of doing it was to fix the sole of the feet firmly, and double both knees, without touching the ground, keeping the body upright and the face raised. They bent in this manner with the head uncovered and the potong thrown over the left shoulder like a towel; they had to wait until they were questioned, for it would be bad breeding to say anything until a question was asked.

97. The method of giving names was the following. As soon as a child was born, it was the mother’s business to name it. Generally the occasion or motive of the name was taken from some one of the circumstances which occurred at the time. For example, Maliuag, which means “difficult,” because of the difficulty of the birth; Malacas, which signifies “strong,” for it is thought that the infant will be strong. This is like the custom of the Hebrews, as [58]appears from Holy Writ. At other times the name was given without any hidden meaning, from the first thing that struck the fancy, as Daan, which signifies “road,” and Damo, signifying “grass.” They were called by those names, without the use of any surname, until they were married. Then the first son or daughter gave the surname to the parents, as Amani Maliuag, Ynani Malacas, “the father of Maliuag,” “the mother of Malacas.” The names of women are differentiated from those of men by adding the syllable “in,” as Ilog, “river;” Si Ilog, the name of a male; Si Iloguin, the name of a female. They used very tender diminutives for the children, in our manner. Among themselves they had certain domestic and delicate appellations of various sorts for the different degrees of relationship—as that of a child for his father and mother, and vice versa. In the same way [they have appellations] for their ancestors, descendants, and collaterals. This shows the abundance, elegance, and courtesy of this language. It is a general thing in all these nations not to have special family names which are perpetuated to their successors, but each individual has the simple name that is given him at birth. At present this name serves as surname, and the peculiar name is the Christian name of Juan or Pedro which is imposed at baptism. However, there are now mothers so Christian and civilized that they will not assign any secular name to their children until the Christian name has been given in baptism,16 and then the surname [59]is added, although it has already been chosen after consultation with the parents and relatives. In place of our “Don” (which indeed has been assigned to them with as much abuse as among ourselves), in some districts they formerly placed before their names, Lacan or Gat: as the Moluccans use Cachil, the Africans Muley, the Turks Sultan, etc. The “Don” of the women is not Lacan or Gat, but Dayang, Dayang Mati, Dayang Sanguy, i.e., “Doña Mati,” “Doña Sanguy.”

There is general distaste among our Tagálogs to mention one another among themselves by their own names alone, without adding something which smells of courtesy. When they are asked by the Spaniards “Who is So-and-so?” and they cannot avoid naming him by his own name, they do it with a certain shamefacedness and embarrassment. Inasmuch as the method of naming one is “the father of So-and-so,” as soon as he has children, for him who had no children (among persons of influence) his relatives and acquaintances assembled at a banquet, and gave him a new name there, which they designated as Pamagat. That was usually a name of excellence by some circumlocution or metaphor, based on their own old name. Thus if one was called by his own name, Bacal, which signifies “iron,” the new name given him would be Dimatanassan, signifying “not to spoil with time.” If it were Bayani, which signifies “valiant” and “spirited,” he was called Dimalapitan “he to whom no one is bold.” It is also the custom among these nations to call one another among themselves, by way of friendship, by certain correlative names based on some special circumstance. Thus if one had given a branch of sweet basil to another, the [60]two among themselves called each other Casolasi, the name of the thing given; or Caytlog, he who ate of an egg with another. This is in the manner of the names of fellow-students or chums as used by us. These are all arguments in favor of the civilization of these Indians.

98. The ordinary stature of these Indians is medium, but they are well built and good-looking, both men and women. Their complexion is yellowish brown, like a boiled quince, and the beard is slight. The Tagálogs wear the hair hanging to the shoulders; the Cagayans longer and hanging over the shoulders; the Ilocans shorter, and the Visayans still shorter, for they cut it round in the manner of the oldtime cues of España. The nation called Zambals wear it shaved from the front half of the head, while on the skull they have a great shock of loose hair. The complexion of the women in all the islands differs little from that of the men, except among the Visayans where some of the women are light-complexioned. All of the women wear the hair tied up in a knot on top of the head with a tasteful ribbon. Both men and women, universally, consider it essential that the hair should be very black and well cared for. For that purpose they use lotions made of certain tree-barks and oils, prepared with musk and other perfumes. Their greatest anxiety and care was the mouth, and from infancy they polished and filed the teeth so that they might [61]be even and pretty. They covered them with a coating of black ink or varnish which aided in preserving them. Among the influential people, especially the women, it was the custom to set some of the teeth most skilfully with gold which could not fall out, and gave a beautiful appearance. The men did not glory in their mustaches or beards, but quite the contrary; and consequently they pulled them out on purpose. And just as it is an amusement or custom of some of us to gnaw our finger-nails, they get amusement in pulling out the hairs of the beard with certain little bits of cleft bamboo [cañuelas hendidas] or with little shells in the form of pincers. All the women, and in some places the men, adorn the ears with large rings or circlets of gold, for that purpose piercing them at an early age. Among the women the more the ears were stretched and opened, so much greater was the beauty. Some had two holes in each ear for two kinds of earrings, some being larger than others.

99. The men adorned the head with only cendal17 or long and narrow thin cloth, with which they bound the forehead and temples, and which they call potong. It was put on in different modes, now in the Moorish manner like a turban without a bonnet, and now twisted and wrapped about the head like the crown of a hat. Those who were esteemed as valiant let the elaborately worked ends of the cloth fall down upon their shoulders, and these were so long that they reached the legs. By the color of the cloth they displayed their rank, and it was the badge of their deeds and exploits; and it was not allowed to anyone [62]to use the red potong until he had at least killed one person. In order to wear it embroidered with certain borders, which were like a crown, they must have killed seven. The personal clothing of those men was a small garment or short loose jacket [chamarreta] of fine linen which barely reached the waist. It had no collar and was fitted formerly with short sleeves. Among the chiefs those jackets were of a scarlet color, and were made of fine Indian muslin. For breeches they wore a richly colored cloth, which was generally edged with gold, about the waist and brought up between the legs, so that the legs were decently covered to the middle of the thigh; from there down feet and legs were bare. The chief adornments consisted of ornaments and jewels of gold and precious stones. They had various kinds of necklaces, and chains; bracelets or wristlets, also of gold and ivory, on the arms as high as the elbow; while some had strings of cornelians, agates, and other stones which are highly esteemed among them. On the legs, instead of garters, they wear some strings of the same stones, and certain cords of many strands, dyed black. The fingers of the hand are covered with many rings of gold and precious stones. The final complement of the gala attire was like our sash, a fine bit of colored cloth crossed over the shoulder, the ends joined under the arm, which they affected greatly. Instead of that the Visayans wore a robe [marlota] or jacket [baquero] made without a collar and reaching quite down to the feet, and embroidered in colors. The entire dress, in fine, was in the Moorish style, and was truly rich and gay; and even today they affect it.

The dress of the women, besides the small shirt [63]with sleeves already mentioned, which was shorter for them, for their gala dress had little modesty, was a skirt as wide at top as at bottom, which they gathered into folds at the waist, allowing the folds all to drop to one side. This was long enough to cover them even to their feet, and was generally white. When they went outside the house they wore for a cloak certain colored short cloaks, those of the principal women being of crimson silk or other cloths, embroidered with gold and adorned with rich fringe. But their principal gala attire consisted in jewels and ornaments of gold and stones which they wore in their ears, and on the neck, the fingers of the hand and the wrists of the arms. But now they have begun to wear the Spanish clothes and ornaments, namely, chains, necklaces, skirts, shoes, and mantillas, or black veils. The men wear hats, short jackets [ropillas], breeches, and shoes. Consequently, the present dress of the Indians in these regions is now almost Spanish.

110 [i.e., 100]. Besides the exterior clothing and dress, some of these nations wore another inside dress, which could not be removed after it was once put on. These are the tattooings of the body so greatly practiced among the Visayans, whom we call Pintados for that reason. For it was a custom among them, and was a mark of nobility and bravery, to tattoo the whole body from top to toe when they were of an age and strength sufficient to endure the tortures of the tattooing, which was done (after being carefully designed by the artists, and in accordance with the proportion of the parts of the body and the sex) with instruments like brushes or small twigs, with very fine points of bamboo. The body was pricked [64]and marked with them until blood was drawn. Upon that a black powder or soot made from pitch, which never faded, was put on. The whole body was not tattooed at one time, but it was done gradually. In olden times no tattooing was begun until some brave deed had been performed; and after that, for each one of the parts of the body which was tattooed some new deed had to be performed. The men tattooed even their chins and about the eyes so that they appeared to be masked. Children were not tattooed, and the women only on one hand and part of the other. The Ilocans in this island of Manila also tattooed themselves but not to the same extent as the Visayans. The dress of both men and women among the Ilocans is almost alike in that province. Thus far the dress. We shall now say somewhat of the food and their customs in eating.

101. Their usual sustenance is as stated above, rice, well hulled and cleaned, and boiled only with water, which is called morisqueta by the Spaniards, as if to call it “food of the Moors.” The meat is that of a small fish which is lacking in no part. That is also boiled in water, and with the broth from it, they give a flavor to the morisqueta. For lack of rice and fish they use the herbs and many kinds of native potatoes, and fruits, by which they are sustained well enough. At their banquets they add venison, pork, or beef, which they like best when it has begun to spoil, and to smell bad. Their manner of eating is, to be seated on the ground. Their tables are small and low, round or square, and they have no tablecloths or napkins; but the plates with the food are placed on the same tables. They eat in companies of four which is as many as can get around a small table. [65]On the occasion of a wedding or a funeral, or similar feasts, the whole house will be filled with tables and guests. The food is placed all together on various plates. The people do not shun all reaching out to the same plate, or drinking from the same cup. They relish salt, and salty and acid foods. They have no better dainty for the sick than vinegar and green or pickled fruits. They eat sparingly but drink often; and when they are invited to a banquet, they are asked not to eat but to drink. They waste much time in both eating and drinking. When they have enough and are drunk, the tables are taken away and the house is cleared. If the banquet is the occasion of a feast, they sing, play, and dance. They spend a day and a night in this, amid great racket and cries, until they fall with weariness and sleep. But rarely do they become furious or even foolish; on the contrary, after they have taken wine they preserve due respect and discreet behavior. They only wax more cheerful, and converse better and say some witty things; and it is well known that no one of them when he leaves a banquet, although it be at any hour of the night, fails to go straight to his own house. And if he has occasion to buy or sell, and to examine and weigh gold or silver he does it with so great steadiness that the hand does not tremble, nor does he make any error in the weight.

102. The wine commonly used among them is either that made from palms, as it is throughout India, or from sugar-cane, which they call quilang. The latter is made by extracting the sap from the canes, and then bringing it to a boil over the fire, so that it becomes like red wine, although it does not taste so good. The palm wine is made by extracting [66]the sap or liquor from which the fruit was to be formed. For as soon as the palm begins to send out the shoot from the end of the twig, and before the flower is unfolded, that flower-stock is cut, and a bit of bamboo is fastened to it and is tied to the stalk or shoot. Since the sap naturally flows to that part, as in the pruned vine, all the sap that was to be converted into fruit, flows into that bamboo, and passes through it to vessels, where, somewhat sour and steeped with the bark of certain trees which give it color, heat, and bite, they use it as a common drink and call it tuba. But the real and proper palm-wine is made from the same liquor before it turns sour, by distilling it in an alembic in ovens that they have prepared for it. They give it a greater or less strength, as they please; and they get a brandy as clear as water, although it is not so hot [as our brandy].18 It is of a dry quality, and, when used with moderation, it is considered even outside Filipinas as healthful and medicinal for the stomach and a preventive of watery humors and colds.

The Visayans also make a wine, called pañgasi, from rice. The method of making it is to place in the bottom of a jar of ordinary size (which is generally of two or three arrobas, with them) a quantity of yeast made from rice flour and a certain plant. Atop of that they put clean rice until the jar is half full. Then water is added to it, and, after it has stood for a few days, it is fermented by the force of the yeast, [67]and is converted into the strongest kind of wine, which is not liquid, but thick like gachas.19 In order to drink it they pour water into the jar. It is a cause for surprise that even though water be poured in again and again, the liquor is pure and liquid wine, until the strength vanishes and is lost, and then they leave it for the children. The method of drinking it is with a tube, which they insert clear to the bottom where the yeast is. They use three or four of those tubes, according to the number of the persons who can find room around the vessel. They suck up as much as they wish, and then give place to others.

103. The banquets are interspersed with singing, in which one or two sing and the others respond. The songs20 are usually their old songs and fables, as is usual with other nations. The dances of men and women are generally performed to the sound of bells which are made in their style like basins, large or small, of metal, and the sounds are brought out quickly and uninterruptedly. For the dance is warlike and passionate, but it has steps and measured changes, and interposed are some elevations that really enrapture and surprise. They generally hold in the hands a towel, or a spear and shield, and with one and the other they make their gestures in time, which are full of meaning. At other times with the hands empty they make movements which correspond to the movements of the feet, now slow, now [68]rapid. Now they attack and retire; now they incite; now they pacify; now they come close; now they go away: all the grace and elegance, so much, in fact, that at times they have not been judged unworthy to accompany and solemnize our Christian feasts.21 However, the children and youths now dance, play, and sing in our manner and so well that we cannot do it better.

They had a kind of guitar which was called coryapi, which had two or more copper strings. Although its music is not very artistic or fine, it does not fail to be agreeable, especially to them. They play it with a quill, with great liveliness and skill. It is a fact that, by playing it alone, they carry on a conversation and make understood whatever they wish to say.

104. All of these islanders are extremely fond of the water for bathing purposes, and as a consequence they try to settle on the shores of rivers or creeks, for the more they are in the water the better they like it. They bathe at all times, for pleasure and cleanliness. When an infant is born, it is put into the river and bathed in cold water; and the mother, after having given birth, does not keep away from the water. The manner of bathing is, to stand with the body contracted and almost seated, with the water up to the throat. The most usual and general hour is at sunset, when the people leave work or return from the field, and bathe for rest and coolness. Men and women all swim like fish, and as if born and reared in the water. Each house has a vessel of water at the door. [69]Whenever any one goes up to the house, whether an inmate of it or not, he takes water from that vessel to wash his feet, especially when it is muddy. That is done very easily; one foot is dried with the other, and the water falls down below, for the floor there is like a close grating.

105. It is not found that these nations had anything written about their religion or about their government, or of their old-time history. All that we have been able to learn has been handed down from father to son in tradition, and is preserved in their customs; and in some songs that they retain in their memory and repeat when they go on the sea, sung to the time of their rowing, and in their merrymakings, feasts, and funerals, and even in their work, when many of them work together. In those songs are recounted the fabulous genealogies and vain deeds of their gods. Among their gods is one who is the chief and superior to all the others, whom the Tagálogs call Bathala Meycapal,22 which signifies [70]“God” the “Creator” or “Maker.” The Visayans call him Laon, which denotes “antiquity.”

They adored (as did the Egyptians) animals and birds; and the sun and moon, as did the Assyrians. They also attributed to the rainbow its kind of divinity. The Tagálogs worshiped a blue bird as large as a turtle-dove, which they called tigmamanuquin, to which they attributed the name of Bathala, which, as above stated, was among them a name for divinity. They worshiped the crow, as the ancients did the god Pan or the goddess Ceres, and called it Meylupa, signifying “master of the earth.” They held the crocodile in the greatest veneration, and when they saw it in the water cried out, in all subjection, ”Nono,” signifying “Grandfather.” They asked it pleasantly and tenderly not to harm them, and for that purpose offered it a portion of what they carried in their boat, by throwing it into the water. There was no old tree to which they did not attribute divine honors, and it was a sacrilege to think of cutting it under any consideration. Even the very rocks, crags, reefs, and points along the seashore and rivers were adored, and an offering made to them on passing, by stopping there and placing the offering upon the rock or reef. The river of Manila had a rock that served as an idol of that wretched people for many years, and [71]its scandal lasted and it gave rise to many evils, until the fathers of St. Augustine, who were near there, broke it, through their holy zeal, into small bits and set up a cross in its place. Today there is an image of St. Nicholas of Tolentino in that place, in a small shrine or chapel. When sailing to the island of Panay, one saw on the point called Nasso, near Potol, a rock upon which were dishes and other pieces of crockery-ware, which were offered to it by those who went on the sea. In the island of Mindanao, between La Caldera and the river, there is a great point of land, on a rough and very high coast. The sea is forever dashing against these headlands, and it is difficult and dangerous to double them. When the people passed by that one, as it was so high, they offered it arrows, which they shot at the cliff itself with so great force that they stuck there, offering them as if in sacrifice so that it would allow them to pass. There were so many of those arrows that, although the Spaniards set fire to them and burned a countless number of them in hatred of so cursed a superstition, many remained there, and the number increased in less than one year to more than four thousand.

106. They also adored private idols, which each one inherited from his ancestors. The Visayans called them divata, and the Tagálogs anito. Of those idols some had jurisdiction over the mountains and open country, and permission was asked from them to go thither. Others had jurisdiction over the sowed fields, and the fields were commended to them so that they might prove fruitful; and besides the sacrifices they placed articles of food in the fields for the anitos to eat, in order to place them under greater obligations. [72]There was an anito of the sea, to whom they commended their fisheries and navigations; an anito of the house, whose favor they implored whenever an infant was born, and when it was suckled and the breast offered to it. They placed their ancestors, the invocation of whom was the first thing in all their work and dangers, among these anitos. In memory of their ancestors they kept certain very small and very badly made idols of stone, wood, gold, or ivory, called licha or laravan. Among their gods they reckoned also all those who perished by the sword, or who were devoured by crocodiles, as well as those killed by lightning. They thought that the souls of such immediately ascended to the blest abode by means of the rainbow, called by them balañgao. Generally, whoever could succeed in it attributed divinity to his aged father at his death. The aged themselves died in that presumptuous delusion, and during their sickness and at their death guided all their actions with what they imagined a divine gravity and manner. Consequently, they chose as the place for their grave some assigned spot,23 like one old man who lived on the seacoast between Dulac and Abuyog, which is in the island of Leyte. He ordered himself placed there in his coffin (as was done) in a house standing alone and distant from the settlement, in order that he might be recognized as a god of navigators, who were to commend themselves to him. Another had himself buried in certain lands in the mountains of Antipolo, and through reverence to [73]him no one dared to cultivate those lands (for they feared that he who should do so would die), until an evangelical minister removed that fear from them, and now they cultivate them without harm or fear.

107. They mentioned the creation of the world, the beginning of the human race, the flood, glory, punishment, and other invisible things, such as evil spirits and devils. They recognized the latter to be man’s enemy, and hence feared them. By the beginning which they assigned to the world and the human race, will be seen the vanity of their belief, and that it is all lies and fables. They say that the world began with only the sky and water, between which was a kite. Tired of flying and not having any place where it could alight, the kite stirred up the water against the sky. The sky, in order to restrain the water and prevent it from mounting to it, burdened it with islands; and also ordered the kite to light and build its nest on them, and leave them in peace. They said that men had come from the stem of a large bamboo (such as one sees in this Orient), which had only two nodules. That bamboo, floating on the water, was carried by the waves to the feet of the kite, which was on the seacoast. The kite, in anger at what had struck its feet, opened the bamboo by picking it with its beak. When it was opened, out of one nodule came man and from the other woman. After various difficulties because of the obstacle of consanguinity in the first degree, one of the gods namely, the earthquake, after consulting with the fish and birds, absolved them, and they married and had many children. From those children came the various kinds and classes of people. For it happened [74]that the parents, angered at having so many children idle and useless in the house, took counsel together; afterward the father one day gave way to his anger, and was desirous of punishing them with a stick which he had in his hand (a thing which they can never do). The children fled, so that some of them took refuge in the chambers and innermost parts of the house, from whom they say came the chiefs; others escaped outside, and from them came the freemen, whom they call timauas; others fled to the kitchen and lower parts, and they are the slaves; others fled to various distant places, and they are the other nations.

108. It is not known whether there was any temple24 in all these islands, or any place assigned in common for worship; or that the people ever assembled for public functions. In private they were wont to have in their own houses (and not outside them in any cave or like place) some kind of altars, on which they placed their idols, and before them a small brasier with burning aromatics. But although they had no temples, they did not lack priests or priestesses for the sacrifices, which each one offered for his own purpose or necessity. The Tagálogs called those cursed ministers catalonan, and the Visayans babaylan. Some were priests by inheritance and relationship; others by the dexterity with which they caused themselves to be instructed and substituted in the office of famous priests by gaining their good-will. Others were deceived by the devil with his wonted wiles, and made a pact with him to [75]assist them, and to hold converse with him through their idols or anitos; and he appeared to them in various forms. The method of making the sacrifices hinged on the different purposes for which they were intended. If it were for a feast of ostentation and vanity that was being made to some chief, they called it “the feast of the great god.” The method of celebrating it was near the house of the chief, in a leafy bower which they erected especially for that purpose, hung round about with hangings in their fashion, namely, the Moorish, which were made from odds and ends of pieces, of various colors. The guests assembled there, and the sacrifice having been prepared (on those occasions of a feast usually some good fat pig), the catalona ordered the girl of the best appearance and who was best adorned, to give the spear-thrust to the animal, amid the ceremony of certain dances of theirs. When the animal was dead it was cut into bits and divided among all the people, as is the blessed bread. Although other animals were killed and eaten, and other viands and refreshments peculiar to those people were used, that animal was the one esteemed and was reverently consumed. The chief part of the feast was the drinking, accompanied, as ever, with much music and dancing.

109. If the sacrifice was because of the danger of death in the house of sickness, the minister ordered that a new, large, and capacious house be built at the expense of the sick person, in which to celebrate the feast. That work was performed in a trice, as the materials were at hand and all the neighbors took part in it. When it was finished, the sick person was taken to the new lodging. Then preparing the intended sacrifice—a slave (which [76]was their custom at times), a turtle, a large shellfish, or a hog—without an altar or anything resembling one, they placed it near the sick person, who was stretched out on the floor of the house on a palm mat (which they use as a mattress). They also set many small tables there, laden with various viands. The catalona stepped out, and, dancing to the sound of gongs, wounded the animal, and anointed with the blood the sick person, as well as some of the bystanders. The animal was then drawn slightly to one side and skinned and cleaned. After that it was taken back to its first location, and the catalona there before them all, spoke some words between her teeth while she opened it, and took out and examined the entrails, in the manner of the ancient soothsayers. Besides that the devil became incarnate in her, or the catalona feigned to be him by grimaces, and shaking of the feet and hands, and foamings at the mouth, acting as if out of her senses. After she had returned to her senses, she prophesied to the sick person what would happen to him. If the prophecy was one of life, the people ate and drank, chanted the histories of the ancestors of the sick person and of the anito to which the sacrifice was being made, and danced until they fell through sheer exhaustion. If the prophecy was one of death, the prophetess bolstered up her bad news with praises of the sick person, for whose virtues and prowess she said the anitos had chosen him to become one of them. From that time she commended herself to him and all his family, begging him to remember her in the other life. She added other flatteries and lies, with which she made the poor sick person swallow his death; and obliged his relatives and friends to treat him [77]from that time as an anito, and make feasts to him. The end was eating and drinking, for that marked the termination of their sacrifices. Each person who attended the sacrifice was obliged to offer something—gold, cotton, birds, or other things—according to his capacity and wish. The offering was given to the priest or priestess who had performed the sacrifice. Consequently, the latter were generally quite rich and well dressed, and had plenty of ornaments made of various kinds of jewels. On that account, however, they were not honored or esteemed; for they were considered as an idle lot, who lived by the sweat of others. After their duty was once performed no further attention was paid to them, unless they united with their office nobility or power.

110. To give a list of the omens and auguries would consume much time and be useless. If the owl lit on the roof at night it was a sign of death. Consequently, when a house was built some sort of scarecrow was set up to keep that bird away, so that the house might not be lost; for a house would under no circumstances be lived in if that happened. The same was true if any serpent was seen in it after it had been newly built. If they came across a serpent in any road they would not proceed farther, even if their business was very pressing. The same was true if they heard any one sneeze, a rat squeal, a dog howl, or a lizard25 sing. Fishermen would not make [78]use of the first cast of the net or a new fish-corral, for they thought that they would get no more fish if they did the opposite. Neither must one talk in the fisherman’s house of his new nets, or in that of the hunter of dogs recently purchased, until they had made a capture or had some good luck; for if they did not observe that, the virtue was taken from the nets and the cunning from the dogs. A pregnant woman could not cut off her hair, under penalty of bearing an infant without hair. Those who journeyed ashore could not mention anything of the sea; and those who voyaged on the sea could not take any land animal with them, or even name it. When a voyage was begun they rocked the boat to and fro, and let it vibrate, and if the vibrations of the right side were more pronounced the voyage would be good, but if bad they were less. They cast lots with some strands of cord, with the tusks of swine, the teeth of crocodiles, and other filthy things, at the ends; and their good or evil fortune would depend on whether or not those ends became tangled.

111. The oaths of these nations were all execrations in the form of awful curses. Matay, “may I die!” Cagtin nang Buaya, “may I be eaten by the crocodile!” Maguin Amo, “may I turn into a monkey!” The one generally used is Matay. When the chiefs of Manila and Tondo swore allegiance to our Catholic sovereigns, in the year one thousand [79]five hundred and seventy-one, they confirmed the peace agreements and the subjection with an oath, asking “the sun to pierce them through the middle, the crocodiles to eat them, and the women not to show them any favor or wish them well, if they broke their word.” Sometimes they performed the pasambahan for greater solemnity and confirmation of the oath. That consisted in bringing forward the figure of some monstrous beast asking that they might be broken into pieces by it if they failed in their promise. Others, having placed a lighted candle in front of them, said that as that candle melted and was consumed, so might he who failed in his promise be consumed and destroyed. Such as these were their oaths.

112. It remains for us to speak of their mortuary customs. As soon as the sick person dies, they begin to bewail him with sobs and cries—not only the relatives and friends, but also those who have that as a trade and hire themselves out for that purpose. They put into their song innumerable bits of nonsense in praise of the deceased. To the sound of that sad music, they washed the body. They perfumed it with storax, or benzoin, and other perfumes, obtained from tree-resins which are found throughout these forests. Having done that they shrouded the corpse, wrapping it in a greater or less number of cloths, according to the rank of the deceased. The most powerful were anointed and embalmed according to the manner of the Hebrews, with aromatic liquors which preserve the body from corruption, especially that made from the aloes wood, or as it is called, eagle-wood. That wood is much esteemed and greatly used throughout this India extra Gangem. [80]The sap from the plant called buyo (which is the famous betel of all India) was also used for that purpose. A quantity of that sap was placed in the mouth so that it would reach the interior. The grave of poor people was a hole in the ground under their own houses. After the rich and powerful were bewailed for three days, they were placed in a box or coffin of incorruptible wood, the body adorned with rich jewels, and with sheets of gold over the mouth and eyes. The box of the coffin was all of one piece, and was generally dug out of the trunk of a large tree, and the lid was so adjusted that no air could enter. By such means some bodies have been found uncorrupted after the lapse of many years. Those coffins were placed in one of three places, according to the inclination and command of the deceased. That place was either in the upper part of the house with the jewels, which are generally kept there; or in the lower part of it, raised up from the ground; or in the ground itself, in an open hole which is surrounded with a small railing, without covering the coffin over with earth. Near it they generally placed another box filled with the best clothing of the deceased, and at suitable times various kinds of food were placed on dishes for them. Beside the men were placed the weapons, and beside the women their looms or other instruments of labor. If they were much beloved by those who bewailed them, they were not permitted to go alone. A good meal was given to some slave, male or female, and one of those most liked by the deceased; and then he was killed, in order that he might accompany the deceased. Shortly before the entrance of the faith into the island of Bool, one of the chiefs [81]of that island had himself buried in a kind of boat, which the natives call barangay, surrounded by seventy slaves with arms, ammunition, and food—just as he was wont to go out upon his raids and robberies when in life; and as if he were to be as great a pirate in the other life as in this. Others buried their dead in the open country, and made fires for many days under the house, and set guards so that the deceased should not return to carry away those who had remained.

113. After the funeral the lamentations ceased, although the eating and drunkenness did not. On the contrary, the latter continued for a greater or less time, according to the rank of the deceased. The widow or widower and the orphans, and other relatives, who were most affected by grief, fasted as a sign of mourning, and abstained from flesh, fish, and other food, eating during those days naught but vegetables, and those only sparingly. That manner of fasting or penitence for the dead is called sipà by the Tagálogs. Mourning among the Tagálogs is black, and among the Visayans white, and in addition the Visayans shave the head and eyebrows. At the death of a chief silence must reign in the village until the interdict was raised; and that lasted a greater or less number of days, according to his rank. During that time no sound or noise was to be heard anywhere, under penalty of infamy. In regard to this even the villages along the river-bank placed a certain signal aloft, so that no one might sail by that side, or enter or leave the village, under penalty of death. They deprived anyone who broke that silence of his life, with the greatest cruelty and violence. Those who were killed in war were celebrated [82]in their lamentations and in their funeral rites, and much time was spent in offering sacrifices to or for them, accompanied with many banquets and drunken revels. If the death had happened through violence—in war or peace, by treason, or any other manner—the mourning was not laid aside nor the interdict raised until the children, brothers, or relatives, killed an equal number not only of their enemies and the murderers, but also of any strange persons who were not their friends. Like highwaymen and robbers they prowled on land and sea, and went on the hunt for men, killing as many as they could until their fury was appeased. That barbarous kind of vengeance is called balàta and in token of it the neck was girt with a strap which was worn until the number of persons prescribed had been killed. Then a great feast and banquet was made, the interdict was raised, and at its proper time the mourning was removed. In all the above are clearly seen the traces of heathendom and of those ancient rites and customs so celebrated and noised about by good authors, by which many other nations, more civilized, were considered as famous and worthy of history.

114. There were no kings or rulers worthy of mention, throughout this archipelago; but there were many chiefs who dominated others less powerful. As there were many without much power, there was no security from the continual wars that were waged between them. Manila had two chiefs, uncle and [83]nephew, who had equal power and authority. They were at war with another chief, who was chief alone; and he was so near that they were separated from one another by nothing more than a not very wide river. The same conditions ruled in all the rest of the island, and of even the whole archipelago, until the entrance of the faith, when they were given peace—which they now esteem much more than all that they then obtained from those petty wars and their depredations. They were divided into barangays, as Roma into districts, and our cities into parishes or collations. They are called barangays, which is the name of a boat, preserving the name from the boat in which they came to settle these islands. Since they came subject to one leader in their barangay, who acted as their captain or pilot—who was accompanied by his children, relatives, friends, and comrades—after landing, they kept in company under that leader, who is the dato. Seizing the lands, they began to cultivate them and to make use of them. They seized as much of the sea and near-by rivers as they could preserve and defend from any other barangay, or from many barangays, according as they had settled near or far from others. Although on all occasions some barangays aided and protected others, yet the slave or even the timaua or freemen could not pass from one barangay to another, especially a married man or a married woman, without paying a certain quantity of gold, and giving a public feast to his whole barangay; where this was not done, it was an occasion for war between the two barangays. If a man of one barangay happened to marry a woman of another, the children [84]had to be divided between the barangays, in the same manner as the slaves.

115. Their laws and policy, which were not very barbarous for barbarians, consisted wholly of traditions and customs, observed with so great exactness that it was not considered possible to break them in any circumstance. One was the respect of parents and elders, carried to so great a degree that not even the name of one’s father could pass the lips, in the same way as the Hebrews [regarded] the name of God. The individuals, even the children, must follow the general [custom]. There were other laws also. For the determination of their suits, both civil and criminal, there was no other judge than the said chief, with the assistance of some old men of the same barangay. With them the suit was determined in the following form. They had the opponents summoned, and endeavored to have them come to an agreement. But if they would not agree, then an oath was administered to each one, to the effect that he would abide by what was determined and done. Then they called for witnesses, and examined summarily. If the proof was equal [on both sides], the difference was split; but, if it were unequal, the sentence was given in favor of the one who conquered. If the one who was defeated resisted, the judge made himself a party to the cause, and all of them at once attacked with the armed hand the one defeated, and execution to the required amount was levied upon him. The judge received the larger share of this amount, and some was paid to the witnesses of the one who won the suit, while the poor litigant received the least.

In criminal causes there were wide distinctions [85]made because of the rank of the murderer and the slain; and if the latter were a chief all his kinsmen went to hunt for the murderer and his relatives, and both sides engaged in war, until mediators undertook to declare the quantity of gold due for that murder, in accordance with the appraisals which the old men said ought to be paid according to their custom. One half of that amount belonged to the chiefs, and the other half was divided among the wife, children, and relatives of the deceased. The penalty of death was never imposed by process of law, except when the murderer and his victim were common men and had no gold to satisfy the murder. In such a case, if the man’s dato or maginoo (for these are one and the same) did not kill him, the other chiefs did, spearing him after lashing him to a stake.

117. In a matter of theft, if the crime were proved, but not the criminal, and more than one person was suspected, a canonical clearance from guilt had to be made in the following form. First they obliged each person to put in a heap a bundle of cloth, leaves, or anything else that they wished, in which they might discover the article stolen. If the article stolen was found in the heap, at the end of this effort, then the suit ceased; if not, one of three methods was tried. First, they were placed in the part of the river where it is deepest, each one with his wooden spear in his hand. Then at the same time they were all to be plunged under the water, for all are equal in this, and he who came out first was regarded as the criminal. Consequently, many let themselves drown for fear of punishment. The second was to place a stone in a vessel of boiling water, and to order them to take it out. He who [86]refused to put his hand into the water paid the penalty for the theft. Thirdly, each one was given a wax candle of the same wick, and of equal size and weight. The candles were lighted at the same time, and he whose candle first went out was the culprit.

118. There are three kinds and classes of people: the chiefs, whom the Visayans call dato and the Tagálogs maginoo; the timauas, who are the ordinary common people, called maharlicà among the Tagálogs; and the slaves, called oripuen by the Visayans and alipin by the Tagálogs. The last are divided into several kinds, as we shall relate soon. The chiefs attain that position generally through their blood; or, if not that, because of their energy and strength. For even though one may be of low extraction, if he is seen to be careful, and if he gains some wealth by his industry and schemes—whether by farming and stock-raising, or by trading; or by any of the trades among them, such as smith, jeweler, or carpenter; or by robbery and tyranny, which was the most usual method—in that way he gains authority and reputation, and increases it the more he practices tyranny and violence. With these beginnings, he takes the name of dato; and others, whether his relatives or not, come to him, and add credit and esteem to him, and make him a leader. Thus there is no superior who gives him authority or title, beyond his own efforts and power. Consequently, might was proclaimed as right, and he who robbed most and tyrannized most was the most powerful. If his children continued those tyrannies, they conserved that grandeur. If on the contrary, they were men of little ability, who allowed themselves to be subjugated, or were reduced either by misfortunes and [87]disastrous happenings, or by sicknesses and losses, they lost their grandeur with their possessions, as is customary throughout the world; and the fact that they had honored parents or relatives was of no avail to them, or is of no avail to them now. In this way it has happened that the father might be a chief, and the son or brother a slave—and worse, even a slave to his own brother.

119. Their manner of life and ordinary conduct from the days of old is trade, in all sorts of things by wholesale, and more by retail in the products of the earth, in accordance with what is produced in each district. The maritime peoples are great fishers with net, line, and corral. The people who live inland are excellent farmers and hunters. They are always cultivating rice, besides other vegetables and garden products, quite different from those of Europa. The women also are shrewd in trading, especially of their weaving, needlework, and embroideries, which they make very neatly; and there is scarcely one who cannot read and write. Sometimes the husband and wife go together on their trading, and, whether for this or for any other thing, she must always go ahead; for it is not their custom to go together. Even if it be a band wholly made up of men or of women, or of men and women mixed, and even if the road be very wide, they go in single file one after the other.

120. The maritime peoples were accustomed to make many raids, and those of the interior to set ambushes for such depredations, wasting life in this. Their weapons consisted of bow and arrow; a spear with a short handle, and a head shaped in innumerable ways, most often with harpoon points; other [88]spears without any head, with the point made on the shaft itself (which is now of bamboo and now of wood), a vara long, hardened in fire. They had swords; large, sharp daggers, made very beautifully; and slender, long blowpipes [ceruatanas], through which they shot most dangerous poisoned arrows, in the manner of the inhabitants of Samatra. Such are their offensive weapons. Their defensive weapons are wooden shields and rattan or corded breastplates, and other armor helmets of the same material.

121. What justice, what fidelity, what honesty should there be amid so great cruelty and tyranny? Virginity and purity were ignominious, which is the general vice of idolaters. Whether married or single, the woman who had no lover could not be safe; and by regarding that as an honor, they considered it a dishonor to give their persons free. When men children were born in certain provinces, the mothers themselves performed on them a certain form of circumcision, quite different from that of the Jews and Moros, and only in order to render them more skilful in their lewdness. Yet with all this, they abhorred, and chastised, and rigorously punished incest.

122. In the celebration of their marriages, espousals, and divorces, and in the giving and receiving of dowries, they also proceeded according to reason. In the first place, they agreed as to the dowry, which is promised and given even now by the man, in the sum named by the parents. When it is determined the betrothal takes place, generally with a conventional penalty which is rigorously executed. However, neither men nor women take [89]it for an insult or grieve greatly if the betrothal be refused, because then they benefit by the fine. The truth is, that if those who are bound by the fine were the parents, after their deaths the children are free to break the contract without incurring the penalty, by only the restitution of the amount received as dowry.

Matrimony at present includes, besides the above, the delivery of the person and the dowry. The latter is not received by the woman but by her parents or relatives, as it were selling their girls, in the manner of the Mesopotamians and other nations. The parents convert the dowry into their own estate, and it is distributed with the other property, at their deaths, among all the children equally. But if the son-in-law has been very obedient to his parents-in-law; then the latter generally return the dowry to their children. The other relatives are only depositaries of what they must again deliver to the children. Besides the dowry, the chiefs formerly gave some presents to the parents and relatives, and even to the slaves, to a greater or less amount according to the rank of the bridegroom.

The pagan ceremony and form of marriage had to be authorized by a sacrifice; for after the marriage had been agreed upon and the dowry paid over, the catalona came, and a hog was brought to her. The ceremonies were performed as in other sacrifices. The lovers having seated themselves in their bridal chamber, each in the lap of an old woman who acted as godmother, the latter gave them to eat from one plate and to drink from one cup. The bridegroom said that he took the woman to wife, and, accepting her, the catalona or babaylana immediately [90]gave them a thousand benedictions, saying to them: “May you be well mated. May you beget many children and grandchildren, all rich and brave,” and other things of this sort. Thereupon the hog was slain, and the lovers were married; and when the others became tired of dancing and singing, all became intoxicated and went to sleep. If the recently-married couple did not suit each other, another sacrifice was ordered, in which the bridegroom himself danced and slew the victim—the while talking to his anito, and offering himself to it for the sake of peace and harmony with his wife. That having been done, he calmed himself, confident that then and thenceforth the two would live in harmony, and enjoy their married life in peace.

These nations consider it important to take a wife only from their own family, and the nearer the better. Only they except the first grade [of kinship], for they always considered that as a dissolving impediment. But what marriages were those in which the contract was not indissoluble, and could be dissolved by the woman, if she were to blame, merely returning the dowry! If the husband were to blame, it was not returned; and the marriage could be repudiated by themselves, without any solemnity of law. That was done daily for very slight causes, and new marriages were formed with others. Polygamy was not the fashion among the Tagálogs. However, if the wife bore no children, the husband could with his wife’s permission have them by his slave women, in accordance with the example of the ancient patriarchs. Among the principal Visayans, the ministers of the gospel found established the custom of having two or more legitimate wives, and [91]large dowries, which was a great obstacle to Christianity.

123. Thus far in regard to marriage. As to the children and their succession and inheritance, if they were legitimate they inherited equally in the property of their parents. For lack of legitimate children the nearest relatives inherited. If there were illegitimate children, who had for example been had by a free woman, they had their share in the inheritance, but not equally with the legitimate children, for the latter received two-thirds, and the illegitimate one-third. But if there were no legitimate children then the illegitimate received all the inheritance. The children of a slave woman who belonged to the man were given some part of the household effects, according to the will of the legitimate children. In addition the mother became free for the very reason that her master had had a child by her.

There were also adopted children, and the practice was that the one adopted bought his adoption. For the natural parent gave a certain sum to the adopted parent in order to have his son or daughter adopted, and thereupon the latter was adopted without any other subtlety of law or of paternal power. It was done only to the end that the adopted child, if he should outlive the one adopting him, should inherit double the sum that had been given for his adoption. Thus, if ten were given, he must inherit twenty. But if the adopted parent outlived the adopted child, the adoption expired as well as the right of inheritance, which was not given to the heirs of the adopted one, either in whole or in part. But if, on the contrary, the parent died while his own [92]child was living, he left him by way of addition to the sum for adoption doubled, some jewel or slave woman, as a reward for his good services. But, on the other hand, if the child was ungrateful and acted badly, the adoptive parent gave him up, by restoring the sum that had been given for his adoption.

Adultery was not punished corporally, but by a pecuniary fine. Therefore the adulterer, by paying to the aggrieved party the sum of gold agreed upon between them, or given by the sentence and judgment of the old men, was pardoned for the injury that he had committed; and the aggrieved party was satisfied, and his honor was not besmirched. Also he continued to live with his wife without anything more being said on the subject. But those children had by a married woman did not succeed to the nobility of the parents or to their privileges; but were always reckoned plebeians, whom those people call timauas. Likewise those children had by a slave woman, although they were free, as was the mother, were always regarded as of low birth. These who succeeded to the nobility were the legitimate children. In the barangay, when the father was lord of it his eldest son inherited that office; but, if he died, then he who came next in order. If there were no male children, then the daughters succeeded in the same order; and for want of either males or females, the succession went to the nearest relative of the last possessor. Thus no will was necessary for all those successions; for wills were never in vogue among these nations in the form and solemnity of such. As for legacies it was sufficient to leave them openly, in writing or entrusted by word of mouth, in the presence of known persons. [93]

125. A great part of the wealth of these Indians consisted in slaves. For, after gold, no property was held in greater esteem, because of the many comforts that were enjoyed for their mode of living through a multitude of slaves. Thus our Spaniards when they entered the islands found so many slaves that there were chiefs who had one, two, and three hundred slaves, and those generally of their own color and nation, and not of other foreign nations. The most general origin of those slaveries were interest and usury. That was so much practiced among them, that no father would aid his son, no son his father, no brother his brother, and much less any relative his relative, even though he were suffering extreme necessity, without an agreement to restore double. If payment was not made when promised, the debtor remained a slave until he paid. That happened often, for the interest or increase continued to accumulate just so long as the payment was deferred. Consequently, the interest exceeded the wealth of the debtor, and therefore the debt was loaded upon his shoulders, and the poor creature became a slave; and from that time his children and descendants were slaves. Other slaveries were due to tyranny and cruelty. For slaves were made either in vengeance on enemies, in the engagements and petty wars that they waged against one another, in which the prisoners made remained slaves, even though they were of the same village and race; or as a punishment which the more powerful inflicted on the weaker ones, even for a matter of little importance, of which they made a matter of insult. For instance if the lesser did not observe the interdict on talking and noise, usual in the time of the burial [94]of the chiefs; if he passed near where the chief’s wife was bathing; or if any dust or any other dirt fell from the house of the timaua upon the chief or his wife when passing through the street: then in these and numberless other similar cases the powerful ones deprived the poor wretches of liberty, and tyrannically made them slaves—and not only them but their children, and perhaps the wife and near relatives. The worst thing is that all those who had been made slaves by war, or for punishment of debts, were rigorously regarded as such, as slaves for any kind of service or slavery, and served inside the house. The same was true of their children, in the manner of our slaveries, and they could be sold at will. However, the masters were not accustomed to sell those born under their roof, for they regarded them in the light of relatives. Those slaves were allowed to keep for themselves a portion of any profit which they made. The Tagálogs called such true slaves sanguiguilir, and the Visayans halon.

Other slaves were called namamahay, for they did not serve their master in all capacities, nor inside his house; but in their own houses, and outside that of their masters. They were bound, however, to obey their master’s summons either to serve in his house when he had honored guests, or for the erection of his house and its repair, and in the seasons of sowing and harvest. They [had also to respond] to act as his rowers when he went out in his boat, and on other like occasions, in which they were obliged to serve their master without any pay.

126. Among both kinds of slaves, sanguiguilir and namamahay, it happens that there are some who are whole slaves, some who are half slaves, and some [95]one-fourth part slave. For if the father or the mother were free, and had an only son he was half free and half slave. If they had more than one child, these were so divided that the first followed the condition of the father, whether free or slave, and the second that of the mother. So did it happen with successive pairs. But if there were an odd number of children, the last was half free and half slave. Those who descended from them, if they were children of a free father or mother, were slaves only in the fourth part, as they were the children of a free father or mother, and of one half slave. Sometimes, because it happened that two people had agreed to marry and the man had no wealth for the dowry—or rather, nothing with which to buy his wife—he became her slave. In such case the children were divided in the said manner, and the first, third, and fifth, and the remaining ones in the same way were slaves, inasmuch as they belonged to the father, who was also a slave of the mother—and not only slaves to her, but also to her brothers and sisters and relatives, in case of her death and the division of her property. On the contrary the second, fourth, and others in the same way, were according to their custom free, inasmuch as they belonged to their mother who was free; and they were masters and rulers over their own father and brothers and sisters. The same thing happened in the case of interest, a thing of so great importance among them that, as already remarked, the father would not pardon the debt and interest even to the son, nor the son the father, even in case of necessity, until the one had made a slave of the other for it. Consequently, if one brother ransomed another brother, or a son his [96]father, the latter remained a slave, as did his descendants, until the value of the ransom was paid with interest. Consequently, the captive was gainer only by the change of master. Such as the above are the monstrous things that are seen where the law of God and Christian charity are lacking. In the division made between heirs, when a slave belonged to many, the time of his service was divided and each of the masters had the share that belonged to him and was his in such slave; and the division was made by months, or as was convenient among the masters. When a slave is not a whole slave but only a half or fourth part, he has the right to compel his master to give him his freedom for the just price at which he is appraised, according to the rank of the slavery, sanguiguilir or namamahay. But if he be a whole slave, the master cannot be compelled to ransom him at any price, even though he should have become a slave for debt, if already the day set for the payment of the debt has passed.

127. There was another kind of service which was not of a truth servitude, although it appeared to be such. It was generally seen among certain persons called cabalangay. Whenever such persons wanted any small trifle, they begged the head chief of their barangay for it, and he gave it to them. In return, whenever he summoned them they were obliged to go to him to work in his fields or to row in his boats. Whenever a feast or banquet was given, then they all came together and helped furnish the tuba, wine, or quilan, such being their method of service.

128. The ancient custom in manumission was for the whole sanguiguilir slave to pay ten taes of gold, and the namamahay the half; and, in addition to that, [97]he had to give the half of whatever things he owned. For instance, if he owned two large jars he had to give one. In order to make that conveyance, the slave must make a banquet, at which were present masters, relatives, and friends. At the height of the banquet the delivery of the gold and household articles was made, those present being witnesses that the master had received them. The latter was thereupon satisfied, and the slave was set free.

Even today the Tagálogs are wont, at death, to grant freedom to the children of their slaves who are born in their house, no matter how young they be. However, they do not free the parents of those children no matter how old they be, and even if they have been served throughout life by them. That seems absolutely illogical.

129. To what has been said of dowries and marriages, it must be added that in some districts, besides the bigaycaya and those presents made to the relatives, there was panhimuyat. This was a kind of present that was given to the mother of the bride, merely in return for the bad and watchful nights that she had passed in rearing her. That panhimuyat signifies “watchfulness and care.” If the dowry was equal to five taes of gold, the panhimuyat was equal to one tinga, which was equivalent to one tae, or five pesos. That was a custom which well shows the harshness and greed of these nations, since the mothers wished to be paid even for the rearing of their daughters.

Also, whenever a chief married any daughter of his and asked a large dowry of his son-in-law, as, for instance, eighteen or twenty taes of gold, the father was obliged to give his daughter certain gifts called pasonor, such as a gold chain, or a couple of [98]slaves, or something proportional to the dowry. It was very shameful to ask a large dowry without giving a pasonor. This is still done, resembling the gifts which among us the father presents to his daughter præter dotem,26 which the civil law calls bona paraphernalia.27 [99]

Four nations have renown in this island, the Caragas,2 Mindanaos,3 Lutaos,4 and Subanos.5 That [103]of most renown is the nation of Caraga, which, although it is the smallest numerically, has been the greatest in deeds. In times past that nation was the scourge of the islands, as is today proclaimed by the depredations that still are fresh in memory in the islands of Pintados—especially so in that of Leyte, where there is scarce a village which has not bewailed its ruin. A good part of this ruin extended to Ours, the pirates having pillaged our town of Palo and destroyed all the villages of the coast, taking prisoner the father ransomer,6 who exercised that office for all the jurisdiction, and obliging those who lived in the villages to retire into the mountains. Those nations maintained themselves by their own valor, without protection of the pagan kings; they were bold against all, and no one dared to do anything to them. They are a brave nation on sea and land, and on land they are the first nation of the islands; and by their aid great exploits have been accomplished, as was seen in the conquest of the lake of Malanao, and in all others that have occurred since they were subdued by the gospel and the Catholic arms.

The second nation in estimation is the Mindanao, which includes the kingdoms of Buhayen; for in olden times they were all one nation, and today, although various petty rulers govern them, they are one in customs and language. They are a nation of [104]some valor, and with their policy of being subject to kings they have acquired esteem among the other nations, whom they have united under one political government for achievements that are too great for their own courage. They are treacherous and of little faith, as they are now swayed by the impious worship of Mahomet.

The third nation is the Lutaya. It is a nation common to these islands of Mindanao, Jolo, and Basilan. In all these islands it preserves the name of Lutao, for since that is their vocation it well explains their nature. For Lutao means, in those languages, “he who swims and goes floating over the water.” Such is the nature of these people that they know no other house than the ship. In the villages which they have formed they well show the inclination with which they were born; for they are so fond of living on the sea that their houses are built in it, in places which the low tide leaves exposed. In that way they can set upright the trunks of the trees with which they must form their houses, driving them down according to the load which they have to sustain. When it is high tide the houses are very far from the shore, and the water in between is so deep that brigs and craft of heavier tonnage can sail there. These people hate the land so thoroughly that they do not trouble themselves at all about its cultivation, nor get any benefit from it. All their labor lies in fishing, and they get from that the means of barter for whatever they need, even for the wood that they burn and the logs from which they build their houses and craft. Since they are so slightly attached to the land, they easily move to other parts, and know no fixed abode except the sea; for although [105]they recognize villages, in which they assemble, they seldom live in these, for they are scattered through the bays and beaches suitable for their fishing. They live under the kings of Mindanao and Jolo, and the chiefs of the same, and those of the island of Basilan; today with some, tomorrow with others, according to the district in which they are. Those of this island are scattered along all the coast which extends from Samboangan to the river of Mindanao, and have no fixed dwelling in any other part—except some of them who have settled in the city of Cebú and a few others in the village of Dapitan. They are equally esteemed in all parts as being the sinews for the wars of these regions (their campaign field being the sea), and also for their skill in constructing vessels fit for the wars of these regions, and their skill in managing them.

By their constant communication with,all the nations (as they go to all parts for their advantage), and because of their method of living—which is so in the manner of traders, enjoying the fruits of the land—and by the alertness of their intelligence, they are the most capable, the most clear-sighted, and the most crafty people of these islands. Therefore, they maintain the supremacy in everything, and, although they are the smallest in number, and everywhere the most foreign [of all these peoples], they are today the kings, and hold the rulers as their slaves; for now by loans, now by violence, and now by private vengeance, they have established the entire slavery of these islands.

As their work causes but little exertion, naturally they grow up lazy, and only shake off their laziness for the gains and advantages of an industry like trading [106]and sea piracy. And since the gains derived from that source are sure, both because the cunning employed by them is that of finished robbers, and because their wings are those of royal falcons, they are most eager for that exercise, as they are assured by these advantages from all danger; for, whether it be because of the swiftness of their ships or because of their skill in rowing them, no ship of ours has ever been able to overtake them. Assured on that point, they have pillaged whatever their greed has dictated to them. Their method of attack is for all of them to land at once with a terrifying and barbaric cry, the awfulness of which strikes terror to the people as they are caught defenseless and separated and thus incapable of resistance.

They are more circumspect on the sea, when danger does not oblige them to make resistance. For since these natives do not fight for reputation, but only for gain, they seek to assure that, and not to buy it too dear with their blood. Therefore, when they meet a ship which they think cannot make any resistance they go to it in certainty of making it a prize, and that they will catch it a half-legua from shore. However small it be, they do not care to seize it if there is any danger. They continue to row about it, until they cause it to waste its powder in spectacular warfare, and then, when they see it weakening, they attack it with great valor throwing by hand so many missile weapons that no man can [safely] show his face; and when they get within range there is rarely a man who is not wounded, for they hurl these missiles in showers. No matter how well equipped a boat may be, if once it gets within their range it has to surrender; for then their men, both sailors and soldiers [107]hurl their arrows with both hands, so that they confuse those who uncover themselves for the fight. But by startling them from a distance, that danger is not imminent, and less resistance suffices. In order that this may be better understood, I shall relate some attested incidents of such encounters. One happened to an inhabitant of Dapitan, with whom I sailed for many days. He, when going toward his village in a small boat, met the fleet of the Joloans. A ship with one piece immediately left the fleet to pursue him. The Indian carried a musket, and after he had discharged it the enemy, recognizing it, moderated their zeal, and coming within range discharged their own piece. Then they backed water in order to load again and repeated the attack, always keeping a close watch on the musket. In this way they made three attacks, until at the third their piece became enraged, and breaking its carriage, fell into the sea. Thereupon the enemy dared attempt nothing more, and retired. The same fortune happened to Father Antonio Abarca,7 of our Society, of whom we shall make honorable mention later. He, having left me in Dapitan in order to go over to Bohol, on that same day while sailing toward that island, and while still one legua away from it, found three hostile joangas of Joloans at another island, small and uninhabited, called Illaticasa, which attacked him at the same time. There was but one firearm in the ship, and the father was [108]the only one who knew how to manage it. He seeing himself so far from land, and pursued by an enemy so keen and so swift on the sea, availed himself of his courage, which was great, and of his skill, which was remarkable; and, adroitly fighting, he kept firing at the enemy, until he gained shore, being almost all the time in range of them, and so near that they talked to one another. By that means he saved himself and his people—a thing that would have been impossible in any other manner; but his defense was so fiery that in less than half an hour he fired the gun more than thirty times.

These people are the instruments of all the exploits by sea, for of all the other nations no one will embark unless he is forced; and on account of the little effectiveness that is found by experience in all the others, our enemies, who are watchful for their own safety and for fortunate results, are not hindered by those other peoples. Consequently, he who has most men from this nation is considered the most powerful and is the most feared, as they have power to infest the seas and coasts, making captives and pillaging, and making themselves masters of the crossings and passages necessary for communication with the other islands.

For that same reason the Mindanao has become so feared in these latter years that although he of Buhayen is the true and legitimate king, he is coming to be less esteemed; for since the Mindanao king has many Lutaos, he has also power to make war. And although the king of Buhayen has twenty-fold more vassals, he can make no one uneasy because he has no subjects of this nation; consequently, he has no weight in these islands. For the wars of these [109]nations, now because of their little permanence, now because of the natural ruggedness of their settled parts, are but seldom offensive by land; for the enemy are immediately perceived, and the less powerful avail themselves of the shelter of the mountains. Since the people are of little endurance and less subordination they cannot sustain long campaigns. Therefore, at most the valiant ones set an ambush, and according to the way it falls out the campaign is finished without the spoils being surrendered; for their articles of value, as there is so little good faith among them, are always kept buried, or are so light that they are carried along with them. On that account he alone is judged powerful who has people to make war by sea. In ancient times this power caused all this island to pay tribute to the king of Mindanao in order to be free from his attacks. In the time of Buisan, the father of Corralat, they had hopes of rendering all the islands of Pintados tributary; and, though the island of Burney is so out of the way, more than twenty thousand vassals pay tribute to him in the villages called Suaco. For the same reason, although the Joloan nation is so small, it has become the most distinguished in these islands; for on sea it equals the strength of the Mindanaos, as they have as many or more vassals of the Lutao nation.

The fourth nation is the Subano. They are the settlers along the rivers. To them is due the name suba, which is the equivalent of “river” in the general language of these nations. It is the nation of least esteem, both because of their natural barbarousness, for they live in the plains with as little association with one another as have brutes (one [110]house being located a legua’s distance from another, according to where each one wishes to build his hut); and because of their poverty, which is dire. For since they have no other intelligence than [what is required for] their work, their slothfulness reduces their efforts to what necessity [only] requires, so that what is abundant for a laborious life is always lacking with them. They are deficient in civilized ways, along with human intercourse, as they are born so hostile and so averse to communication [with others] that they grow old in their rude settlements without curiosity drawing them from their place of residence, or without their seeing the sea, although some of them live where they hear news of the horror of its tumults and movements. If either necessity or gain has made them give a glance at their rivers, they are satisfied with that, and do not seek a better fortune with its dangers. This inertia forbids them, incapable of giving force to their ambition, from following its impulses with [favoring] winds.

They are as cowardly as treacherous, the one being the consequence of the other. He who better plans a bit of treachery and comes out most safely is considered the most valiant. As they all know one another, they look out for one another, and build their houses so high up that a pike cannot reach and wound them. Their usual practice is to seek a very high tree, where they can build their nests safely; and, their houses being so unostentatious in size and furnishing, a tree holds them easily. The ladder by which they ascend is a log, some grooves that they cut in it serving as steps. On the coming of night they draw this ladder up and thus [111]sleep secure. They teach us the little with which life is satisfied, and the fatigues which our ambition and pride give us; for in order to satisfy our ambition and pride we take upon us so many cares, which, so far as life is concerned, are superfluous, and are not the least of the accidents which our life suffers. This nation is almost wholly in vassalage to the Lutaos, and every village recognizes some chief8 of the latter nation to whom they pay tribute; and that chief bears himself as a king among them, and makes and unmakes at his will. In the beginning, this authority entered under color of protection and support against the king of Mindanao, and remained in enthroned tyranny, so that today most of this nation are slaves of the Lutaos—their want of intellect subjecting them to a thousand cheats, and their want of protection to a thousand outrages. For since the Lutaos are so alert a nation, and so sharp in their affairs, they have gradually bought the Subanos by trading with them, becoming masters of their entire freedom.

Of this island, which has given empires to so many kings, without doubt the crown is the village of Dapitan; and, although it is so small at present, it has been one of the most densely populated in the past, the one most respected for its power, and in our times the whole, both of these conquests and of [112]their Christian churches. In a small number, reduced to one single village, there is inclosed a nation9 apart from all the others, and superior to all those discovered in nobility, valor, fidelity, and Catholicism. They are descended from the island of Bool, where they anciently occupied the strait made by that island and the island of Panglao, which remains dry at low tide, but at high tide allows a galliot to pass. Therefore many brazas in the sea stand, even today, certain columns of upright wood, as honorable witnesses of the location so gloriously occupied by this nation, and today the venerable ruins of poor although adequate buildings which they sustained. They occupied both shores and the entire island of Panglao. There they conquered the famous people of Bohol; for as their nation was the less numerous in that island, they were obliged to sustain their name by their deeds. The Boholans, conquered and put to flight, abandoned the site which they occupied from the shore of the strait to the coast of Baclayon and took refuge on the river of Loboc, where their name is still preserved in a few families descended from that stock which conquered that island, and only the valor of the Dapitans subdued.10 According to the ancient law of the land the Dapitans can call the Boholans their slaves since less title was sufficient for that in [113]the days of their antiquity, and the most authoritative reason was always that of war.

War exiled the Dapitans from their country, a proof of their valor and the unforeseen accidents of their misfortunes; for they were the only people of all the archipelago who were renowned among foreign princes for their exploits, and to them alone were embassies made. It happened then that in an embassy sent by the king of Terrenate, the most warlike and powerful king known, his ambassador lost [due] respect for the house of the Dapitan princes—then represented by Dailisan and Pagbuaya, who were brothers—by making advances to a concubine. They punished the crime more by the laws of offended and irritated fury than by those of reason, with hideous and indeed cruel demonstrations of contempt, by cutting off the noses and ears of the ambassador and his men. When they had returned to Terrenate, the horrid aspect of his subjects aroused the wrath of the king. He armed all his power in twenty joangas to oppose the Dapitans. His general, doubtful of the outcome, as he knew the valor of those with whom he had to do, made use of a trick by which he assured a deceitful victory. He sent his joangas in, one by one, giving out that they were traders, and under the security of friendship—excusing the above occurrence, in order to divert the attention [of the Dapitans], with the laws of punishment, deserved because of the boldness of their men. The Dapitans, seeing that the Ternatans were attending only to the sale of their goods, lost their caution, and came up with the same confidence as ever. When the Ternatans had all their fleet together, and saw that of the Dapitans, [114]they closed with them. Although the latter placed themselves in a position of defense, they retreated before that multitude, and the terror of arms to which they were unaccustomed; for the Ternatans already had muskets and arquebuses, the use of which they had before other nations, because of their trade with the Portuguese.11 The frightful effects of these, as terrible by their ruin as by their novelty, worked on the minds of the Dapitans. Dailisan was killed in that fray, and his brother Pagbuaya was left the reigning prince. He, seeing how he was involved with the Ternatans, and how much at the mercy of their new [arms]12 was the place occupied by the Dapitans—where the Ternatan ships could succeed in anchoring under the houses of the Dapitans, and using their arms, fight them in safety—resolved to seek another place, better defended. He also thus resolved because these nations regard as unlucky the place where fortune has once shown itself hostile to them, and immediately abandon it as accursed. Even today, in these islands, it is a fact that the house where a chief dies is abandoned by his people and it remains alone, waiting its ruin.13 He sought then a place [115]where, their valor and its ruggedness joining hands, they could make up, aided by the strength of the site, for the small number of their nation. As there were no hills on their coasts, and they were unable to restrain their noble and warlike nature to the confinement and gloomy prison of the retired mountains, where they would be deprived of the trade and benefits of the sea, they crossed to the island of Mindanao, a crossing of fifteen leguas, and twenty from their village, and seized a small rugged hill, which would allow itself to be monopolized by their valor.

The people who elected to follow Pagbuaya numbered one thousand families of freemen, his subjects, without taking into account the unmarried men. In these nations, where there is a law of dowry—or rather a law for the purchase of wives—there are many men who are denied the bonds of matrimony because of their poverty. Neither do we reckon the slaves of the prince, who exceeded five hundred, and many other families of the Lutao nation, who as they now live under the protection of the kings of Mindanao and Jolo, lived then also under the protection of the Dapitan princes.

They had occupied the new site but a short time when their renown caused anxiety to the most remote princes, who were fearful of their power. Consequently, the king of the great island of Burney was the first to send his ambassador with two joangas, soliciting their friendship. While they [116]were yet awaiting the resolution of the Dapitans, the brave Magallanes sighted their coasts with his squadron, as we shall relate in the second book. They immediately made peace with him, being pleased, as brave men, with the valor which they recognized in the unknown people.14 The Borneans were sent away with the message that the Dapitans wished no other friendship than that of their new guests. They have preserved that friendship to this day, as noble people, without any complaint [arising] of their loyalty, even to the lowest slave; and their exploits in favor of our arms have deserved much praise. For the son of that Pagbuaya, called Manooc, following the fidelity of his father, and surpassing it with the good fortune of being a Christian, aided the Spaniards in their first conquests of these islands—especially in the conquest of Manila, the capital of all these islands; and later in the conquest of Camarines, taking at their own expense, in all these feats of arms, their men and the nations subject to them.

That prince, who, as he was the first to become acquainted with the Spaniards (having shared the knowledge of them which his father acquired with the first sight of the squadron of Magallanes), was the first to receive the blessing of acquaintance with [117]our holy faith, giving renown equally to his own banners and to those of our king and sovereign, and receiving the name Don Pedro Manuel Manooc—continued the greatness of his deeds. For besides the services rendered in Manila and the province of Camarines, he sustained war against Mindanao and Jolo, and attacked them with his fleets in their very houses. On one occasion, when among others he went to attack Jolo, he met the king himself, who was also going out with his fleet of twelve joangas. Manooc defeated him and captured his flagship, and, at the cost of many killed, the king escaped as a fugitive, by hastening to the land. He made war on the Caragas, who were the terror of the islands at that time. He subdued the village of Bayug of the Malanao15 nation, who were subject to the Mindanaos, without our arms having any other protection amid so many enemies than that of his valor which made easy so many undertakings. That prince was the father of Doña Maria Uray, who is today living as an example and ornament of these nations because of the perfection of her virtues—which she prefers to a better fortune, for she has spurned marriage with the kings of Jolo in order that she might not subject her faith to the outrages of barbarous and faithless princes. Don Pedro Manuel Manooc left orders that he was to be buried in the city of Cebú, as he had ordered in his will that his bones be taken to that cathedral. His children carried out his orders, thereby showing both their affection to us and their devotion to him. [118]

The women were not inferior in merit. For Doña Madalena Baloyog, the sister of Don Pedro Manuel Manooc, had so great authority among the barbarous Subanos that she alone by her discretion reduced more of them than did the arms of her people by their valor and courage. She obtained the name of pacifier, mistress, and sovereign of the hard hearts of the chiefs of the Subanos. Her authority was so manifest to our men that, the natives of the river of Butuan having rebelled, and killed their alcalde-mayor and their minister, a secular priest, who was then in charge of it,16 it was sufficient for her to assure them of pardon for the deed, and to secure to us their pacification and due obedience forever.

The cousin of Don Pedro Manuel Manooc was Laria, who competed in all things for the greatness of his cousin. He served in the conquest of Maluco with the same nobility and valor, and would receive no pay or rations for his men. In the seven times when the island of Jolo was attacked in war, he took part in all of those conflicts, always showing himself remarkable for his princely actions and soldierly valor.

A son worthy the nobility of such a father was [119]Don Gonçalo Maglenti, the husband of Doña Maria Uray, whom we mentioned above, and the father of Don Pedro Cabelin. The latter is still living and is nowise inferior in his deeds and fidelity to his forbears, as he was reared from childhood with so good merits of nobility and Christian warfare—accompanying his father from the age of seven years, on all occasions of danger; thus he came to despise danger so thoroughly that at the age of thirty (his present age) the enemies of God and of our king whom he has killed in hand-to-hand combats, in various frays, surpass two hundred. Don Gonçalo, then, the father of so illustrious a son, left him enough examples to emulate his valor, for in accordance with his surname (which means “he who hurls down thunderbolts”), his valor hurled them in a constant shower. He opposed the might of the Mindanaos at the time of their greatest arrogance, when they threatened all these islands with their arms. He always went in pursuit of their fleets and of those of the Malanaos which were sent by way of the bay of Pangil17 to aid the Mindanaos, for he was an ally for the defeat of their plans. He subdued from the bay of Pangil to the village of Sidabay, ten leguas from Samboangan, all of the villages scattered through sixty leguas along the coast (formerly many more and superior in number). His care watched perpetually over the islands, and of his own accord he despatched advices to Cebú and Oton at the first rumor of hostile fleets, by means of which the evil designs of the enemies [120]might be frustrated. That care merited for his nation exemption from the tribute and from all personal service, which its natives enjoy today by concession from his Majesty.

In this site the Dapitans—now reduced to the enterprises of his valor to so small a number that they scarce exceed one hundred families—alone and strangers, have defended themselves from the power of all the pirates of these islands, all of whom, pursuing them with their vengeance and injuries, have attempted to extirpate them entirely. And as they have the land so at their mercy, with nations who have inherited so much internal hatred [to the Dapitans] at being subdued by this noble nation, the former have been unable to get one single captive out of their hands, and their sieges are always left crowned with triumphs. For Buhisán, the father of Corralat, and the most warlike of the kings of Mindanao, with one hundred joangas and the incentive of his own person and presence, returned within fifteen months, his haughtiness undeceived. The Joloans, notwithstanding their power, had no better fortune, and left behind seven joangas in the enterprise that they attempted—although the opportunity was so in their favor, when there were scarcely ten men in the stronghold, as the majority had gone to various places for their trade.

Among the Subanos—the ports of their conquest, which surround them on all sides—their valor is so accredited, that a Dapitan has nothing to fear among a hundred of them. For if they see him ready for them, they do not dare to attack him, however thirsty for his blood their hatred makes them; [121]for the Subanos are all the triumphs of the arms of the Dapitans, of which the sound and rigorous execution has drawn the former from their mountains, and made settlements of men from savages scattered among the thickets, who are reduced to more civilized life. Thus has been established a province which, in our time, has been given separate an alcalde-mayor, namely, that of Iligan; and by that province is secured to our arms an opening for the conquest of Mindanao and Jolo, as we have thereby had soldiers, pilots, and most skilful sailors, who are better than all those who sail in these islands. Their village remains as a stronghold opposed to the petty rulers of those peoples.

They are a very prudent race, and are quite Hispanicized in their customs, and by the modesty of their bearing naturally deserved respectable. Thus they do not endure the outrages that the other subdued nations endure, now from the boldness of the soldiers, now from the exigencies of our necessities; for they attend to all things willingly, considering it an honor to satisfy our desires. Consequently, in respect and esteem they are the princes of these islands.

In matters of the Christian faith they yield in no wise to the most pious European nation or to the loyalty of the most distinguished. They are the ones who guard religion. The minister who visits the ports of their coast, with four Dapitans whom he takes as a guard goes as safely as if he were taking an infantry regiment; and no misfortune has ever happened to such an arrangement. For although misfortunes have been experienced in the infidelity [122]of the native Subanos, yet they have been invited by the confidence of the father missionaries, who have gone among them without that valiant guard, as will be seen in the course of this history. Finally, the faith of this island and those near by is owing to the Dapitans; and, to their fidelity and valor, the glorious confidence of our arms.

The owners of these islands are those who people the mountains. They, enamored with their peaceful mode of living, and fed with the happy returns of their cultivation, built their nests there and lost their liking for the coast and love for its occupations. Thereupon, as they were reared in so deep retirement, which is especially great and unconquerable in these natives, because of their slothfulness and because they are so dead to curiosity, by which they have grown old in their gloomy retreats, they gradually became mountaineers; and, their intercourse with other peoples ceasing, they became less alert and more barbarous, allowing the foreign traders to seize the coasts, harbor-bars, and rivers which they found deserted. Since by their trade, and in every way, the latter were making themselves masters of all things, the aborigines, being less valiant, yielded to the foreigners, as these were more civilized. Consequently, on the south coast the rulers of those peoples are the Lutaos, who bear themselves among these nations as princes. In some parts those peoples are called Subanos, as in the jurisdiction of Iligan and Samboangan; in Mindanao, they are called [123]Manobos18 and Mananapes19 which is equivalent to “brutes.” In Jolo, they are Guinuanos [i.e., Guimbanos], and in Basilan they are called Sameacas,20 and they are subject in all places equally to the fortune of the Lutaos. No other origin to these peoples can be conjectured than one general to these islands—whose language, since its structure is founded on Malayan roots, shows by its origin the origin of its natives. To this testimony corresponds the arrangement of these islands, which are strung out in a series from Burney and Macaçar, so that there is scarcely any considerable break, and there is no such correspondence in any other part.

The Lutaya nation are new in these islands, and live more on the seas than on their plains. They have no greater stability than is promised by a log [124]in the water where no firm foundation can be laid. They scarcely take their feet from their boats. Their Moorish dress of turban and marlota [i.e., a Moorish robe], their arms and worship, clearly show their origin. With all this agrees their more polished language, which they speak, emulating the grandeur of the princes of these nations who have made an ostentation of speaking it—indeed, because their own especial language approaches more nearly to it than any other, for they owe to it a great number of their words.21 As the Moorish faith [i.e., Mahometanism] is recent in India,22 and thence has steadily spread through these kingdoms it can be understood that this nation [i.e., the Lutaos] occupied these coasts but a short time ago. The Lutaos of this island who are subject to Corralat and the Buhayens (both through commerce and by the submission which they observed toward the king of Ternate) show that they are branches of that stock. They recognize even their protection, which in olden times was the greatest obligation, and give them aid in their wars and protect them from their enemies. By the prowess of the Lutaos those rulers were encouraged to cause grievous depredations among these islands, until the Spaniards established themselves so strongly in Ternate that, checked by that, as a bulwark of the islands, the Moro chiefs did not attempt to pass farther, being content with [125]placing their domestic affairs in safety without risking it for foreign [gains].

There are black negroes in this island, who pay tribute to no one. They resemble those of the island of Negros, and of the uplands about Manila, called Aetas. They live more like brute beasts than like men, and they flee from the sight of all, doing ill to whomever they can. They recognize no village, nor in a land of so many inclemencies do they have any other shelter than that of the trees. They can be seen daily in the bay of Pangil. In the village of Layauan, where I was making the visitation, there appeared to be many of them. They have no other adornments than those which they inherited from nature; and pay so scant respect to decency that they do not secure even what is requisite. Their arms are the bow and arrows dipped in poisons, which they know and with which they prepare the arrows. It appears probable, from what we know of other islands, where these people are found gathered in the most inaccessible mountains, that these are the first ones that occupied all these islands; but, as they are more ancient and are so shut in, nothing more is known of their origin than what is evident from this land, connected by its islands in a chain with those of Burney, Macaçar, and Great Maluco. This nation maintains only one excellence—at the cost, [however,] of its brutal condition and wretched mode of life—namely, its liberty. No power, not even that of our Spaniards, has been able to subjugate them. They are so free in their indomitable barbarism that they will not suffer any subordination among them, not even that which fraternal feeling for their own people might bring [126]about if they recognized dignities or any organized form of social life.23

The Lutaos of Jolo have all their communication with the Borneans, raising the trident of their king24 in the villages of that enormous island. There they are judged to be one people [with the Borneans], and are declared such by the fraternal intercourse that they maintain among themselves—being related by marriage, and conspiring together with their arms for the invasion of these islands, where their squadrons are seen daily under one and the same banner.

But the rulers and nobility of all the islands of Jolo and Basilan recognize as the place of their origin the village of Butuan (which, although it is located in this island, is within the pale of the Visayan nation) on the northern side, in sight of the island of Bool, and but a few leguas away from Leyte and from Bool, islands which are in the same stage of civilization. Therefore, that village can glory at having given kings and nobility to these nations. It is not so long ago since the branches which flourish so well today were lopped from their trunk, that the memory charged with the event that divided them can have forgotten it. The old king of Joló who is now living [i.e., Bongso], saw the one who was dismembered from his people, and whom misfortunes exiled from his fatherland in order to make him venture on another’s land, thus giving him the foundation of so warlike a kingdom, which is so feared in these regions. Inasmuch as the tender beginnings of this new kingdom gathered [127]encouragement from the protection of our arms, which it enjoyed for some time as pacific and tributary, it will be well to relate its beginnings before time obscures them.

The dissensions of two brothers obliged the less powerful to seek, by way of exile, a path to liberty which oppression denied him. Those affected to him accompanied him, and with them, seeking a land to his liking, he hit upon the island of Basilan. The one who stirred up that people was named Paguian Tindig,25 then a title of nobility, and today the legacy of kings and princes of the blood royal in the island of Joló. In his company he took his cousin, one Adasaolan, whom his fate gave to him in order to maintain its enmity to him. Some of those in his company allowed themselves to be led away by the fertility and abundance of this island and remained behind, captivated by its advantages. With the rest Tindig went to Joló, whither the report of its wealth, the advantages of its seas and islands, and the fertility of its mountains carried him. They easily conquered the natives, who were barbarians and unaccustomed to the rigors and ambitions of war. They remained as rulers of the island, and their prince was Paguian Tindig, who, as subject to the Spaniards (who had already subdued the river of Butuan), continued in the same allegiance and paid them tribute. His cousin Adasaolan he married to a daughter of Dimasangcay,26 the king of Mindanao named Paguian Goan [128](a dangerous plan) in order to give himself power in the rivalry [with his brother]. The mother of Corralat, by name Imbog, was a Joloan, and with the communication indispensable to relationship easily infected Adasaolan with the perfidy of Mahomet, and the tyranny and violence of his law; and he, puffed up by the favor of the Mindanao king, and confident of his help, which their relationship promised him, planned to kill his cousin, in order that he might remain absolute master of the island. He blockaded him, unprepared, in his house with four hundred men who had gathered to his standards. But in a happening not expected or feared, love acted, being forewarned, and innocence, being offended. And since there is no confusion that blinds the courage of foresight, he had taken the precaution to pour down along the supports of the house (which are here called arigues, and are of strong wood) a quantity of oil, which rendered the scaling more difficult; and the besiegers, finding more resistance than their presumption imagined, and yielding to so great force, retired. Tindig recognized the difficulty in which he was, and considered war as declared and broken out; and, in order not to stain it with blood at the cost of his men, planned to absent himself and look for aid, respect for which would ensure his condition. He went to Manila for that purpose, having repressed the forefront of his danger, and, as a tributary and subject prince, easily secured the pledge of our arms for his help; and, because he alone could measure the force with the necessity, the means was left to [129]his choice. He thought that two well-armed caracoas would be enough, and, although a powerful fleet was offered him, he refused to accept it; for he considered himself as invincible in his joanga, if reënforced by two Spanish caracoas.

His absence made his rival powerful, for the party without a leader readily unites with that side that has one; and, the cause of the rivalry being wanting, tyranny easily united the forces of the island. Eight well-armed joangas were prepared by Adasaolan, which were given to him by Buhisan, the father of Corralat; and Tindig, having come within sight of Joló, went ahead with a lack of caution, to prepare his people, as he did not believe that the party of his cousin was so in the ascendancy. The enemy who were awaiting him, all ready, as soon as they saw his joanga without the shelter of the caracoas, all surrounded it and boarded it, with the determination to finish the war at one stroke. Ours who were coming behind could not aid him; for he had gone on ahead, as we have said, to advise his men, and to notify his enemies of the war, so that fear could accomplish what he desired without recourse to arms. Overcome by the multitude rather than yielding to force, he was killed. He died unconquerable, his death leaving the tyrant assured of power. The king of Joló, Raya Bongso, who was punished by Governor Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera, in his conquest of Joló, is a good witness of this contest. He, without much questioning, showed even the wounds that he received on that occasion, fighting, although but a lad, at the side of Paguian Tindig, who was his relative.

The Spaniards having arrived, and the cause of [130]their fighting (the protection of him who had fallen) being now removed, and not finding anyone with whom to fight, returned to Manila. The tyrant, flushed with his victory, and being greedy with the hopes that great captures were assured to him in the islands with alliance with the Mindanaos and Borneans, united himself to them; and following their fleets, with so good masters of piracy his people became so great pirates, that they surpassed all in deeds, and by themselves caused so great havoc throughout the islands that they have proved the heaviest scourge that these natives have suffered. And refusing obedience to his Majesty and the tribute which they have always paid, that principality [of Joló] was founded and has less antiquity in these islands than the Spaniards.27

The general condition of these islands is paganism. From Sangil to Samboangan, the dwellers along the beach follow the law of Mahomet, as well as those of the islands of Basilan and Joló. This last is the metropolis of the false religion, and the Mecca of this archipelago; for there is the tomb of their first master, concerning whom the caciques [i.e., Kasis], for the credit of his deceits, have been establishing innumerable fables, which have already become a lying tradition in this century. One is that [131]he came from Paradise with three others, of whom one went to Java, and another to Burney, and the other two landed at Joló, and thence one went to Mindanao. He of Mindanao was ill received; and because of that, and of having been shipwrecked in the sea by driving on a reef, he went in anger to an island to become a hermit, walking upon the water. But he who was wrecked in a ship could ill keep his footing in the water. Such is the character of lies, that some are quite contrary to others. The outfit that he carried consisted of a net, and it is said that he caught fish on the mountain with it, by dragging it over the ground. But if he found fish on the mountain then the fish surely could not escape him, unless indeed it were a flying-fish. When his followers went to seek him, Satan had already carried him away, and they found only the net—and that stretched out, for it had been placed to dry. From that point they took occasion to discuss so disconnected bits of nonsense as we have mentioned. Thereupon he who remained in Joló obtained the chair of the evil [doctrine], and, as he is accredited with not fewer deceits, he was able to authorize his person and his doctrine with the barbarians; for he also gave them to understand that he could get fresh water from the sea, that he could sail on land, and could establish fisheries on the mountain, as did the other. The use of these errors gave authority for the common people to invent others. They believe that the enchanted boat which they never saw, and whose anchorage they never knew, still exists. The respect that his deceits gained him in life became ignorant and infamous adoration at his death. A sepulcher was erected for him, which became the [132]mausoleum of his memory, and the Mecca of his deceits. They erected it on the famous hill [of Joló], and it was very elegant.28 At its foot they planted the singular fruit which they call the king’s fruit,29 which is unique in this archipelago, and of which no one ate except himself, although for devotion the shells were given to the others. As we said, they planted many jasmines, and made their defenses there, so that animals might not defile the mausoleum. As an entrance to it, there was arranged in front of it a little house which was placed at the beginning of the stockade, as if it were an entrance into the well of St. Patrick. There they made their offerings, all of which went to the benefit of the prebendaries of the house, who were generally of the blood of the hypocrite. Thence they took their auguries for the war, for, putting water in a vase, together with some earth from the sepulcher, if it became bitter to the taste the outcome would be bad; but if sweet, it would be happy. It is said that this test was made for the war waged on them by Don Sebastian, in consequence of which the king was always inclined to treat for peace.

By the entrance of our forces upon the hill, that place lost its worship and esteem; for the soldiers turned it all upside down, and dug it up in the hope of finding some treasure, and found no trace of a human body. The Indians were terrified at their boldness, and asked whether those who dared to do so much would not die. Thereupon, those people [133]were left with only the staff [of that teacher], which the Kasis [caciques] keep; for that is the staff of all virtues, and in going out with it (which is at the time of any necessity), all make it great reverence, and attend to all that is asked of them. For if they do not do so, he excommunicates them, with two blows with it which he gives on the house or the boat, and there can be neither health in the one or good luck in the other. All these are the artifices of cupidity, which holds them fast in a deceitful fear by vain terrors.

The other relic is the cap,30 which is the hereditary possession of the kings, and to swear by it is to use the sanction of a great sacrament.

Notwithstanding so many lies that are made up to sustain this deceit, there are but few who esteem it; and in general they are all atheists, and those who have any religion are sorcerers. For as Moros, beyond not eating pork, and practicing circumcision, and [having] a multiplicity of women, they know not anything. They drink wine more than we do, and all their happiness consists in drunken revels—[to them] a positive act of greatness; and thus all their knightly deeds consist in emptying more or fewer jars [of wine], and there is a wedding in which they empty two hundred. All their festivals consist in this. They live in all respects like men without any law who do not know God, and without any mode of worship, and unmindful that there is such [134]in the world. All regard the law as little more or less, and, according to the land they inhabit, follow its customs and laws. Accordingly they are neither Moors, heathen, nor Christians, but barbarous atheists. Corralat, who has civilized his country somewhat, has his mosque, and makes his people attend it. But when they leave their village, each one does as he pleases—except some of the chiefs, who, following the example of the king, have made it a point of honor to appear to be Moors. But the common people, assuredly, lay no stress on that point.

What they believe in thoroughly are omens, which are almost general in all the islands. There are many of them: of birds, like the limocon;31 of insects, like the lizard; of accidental occurrences, like sneezing; of happenings, like deaths or earthquakes; of observances at time of sowing, and of reaping, and of the hunt—all of these have their observances, which they fulfil in order to have luck in the work; for they believe that without these it will be unlucky, and without any profit. Therefore, they do not undertake those things, since in many districts it is considered an omen when anyone asks for a portion of what may be caught (as for instance, of the hunter or fisher), if we say to him when he goes to try his luck: “Divide with me what you shall catch.” They consider that as a bad omen, and return to their house, for they believe that they will catch nothing.

Those who are atheists knowingly are the dwellers in mountains; for they have no mosques, or [135]shrines, or any method of praying to God. Those upon whom they call in their illnesses are their ancestors, saying “Alas, my mother!” or “my grandfather.” That is rather the natural expression of pain than a prayer in which they experience any efficacy. Where there are some to whom the devil talks (which was more usual in their antiquity), such people offer him their sacrifices,32 and the Indians [136]have recourse to them in their illnesses, so that they could make the same efforts for them. Today the Christian truth has obscured the falsity of hell. At most, the descendants of those ministers of the devil, who were generally women, do what they saw them do without the devil taking any notice of them or talking to them. Others, who lay but small stress on all that, do what they heard said was the custom in the days of their antiquity, let happen what would. But they do it with so little earnestness that it appears to be levity rather than religion. With the same fervor they follow any other rule, so that they always remain without any law, unless it be where the energy and incessant constancy of the missionaries has made them forget their ancient customs, and with continual instruction has made it easy for them to accept the new things of our holy faith.

In Caraga there was a barbarous custom to make their ships lucky, namely, to vow to them the first [137]time upon some name, which was generally the name of one of their captives.

That which has great value in all parts is sorcery; and they hold it in such high esteem that the father hides it from the son, and unless they receive a great profit they refuse to communicate any secret of it. The famous sorcerers are feared, although there is no one who is not ashamed of being called thus, and the word “sorcerer” is one of the insulting words of these natives. My judgment from seeing these [sorceries], so alike, is that they are implicit compacts made with their ancestors. For it also seems impossible that there are herbs of so powerful poison that they can kill so instantly that some persons kill, with only the breath alone by chewing those herbs; and others, by burying those herbs where one has to pass. They also use figures, which they dedicate to him whom they wish to harm, and these accordingly torment him; the figure continues to aggravate the evil upon the sorcerer’s enemy. Others work by letters, and that is peculiar to the Moro Kasis [caciques], although the most of all this is fabulous; but as they imagine that it is true, for any accident for which they find no remedy, and of whose cause they are ignorant, they throw the blame on the sorcerer. It is recounted of the king of Burney that, on learning the name of one, he can kill him if he chooses. Sargento-mayor Pedro Duran Monforte having made war in his land, the king was informed of his name, and said that since he knew his name, therefore Monforte could not live much longer, and with that he consoled his people. But thanks to God, the sargento-mayor has been living for three years since that threat. Thus are all their affairs. [138]

He who unites the excellency of a powerful sorcerer to Mahometan ardor is King Corralat. He causes the fish to enter his boat. While one of our fathers was in his boat, a fish leaped in; the king picked it up and, giving it to the father, said: “This is for the father.” It is also related that he makes a piece of artillery float on the surface of the water by placing an oar in its mouth. He has a saker, which according to report, when fired, serves him as a good or evil augury. The fact is, that he talks very familiarly with the devil. According to the tale of a Spaniard (and one for which he vouched to me), when he was going from Samboangan on a certain embassy, just as he entered the river the favorite of Corralat told him that, the night previous, his king had asked him whether any ship were to be seen. To his negative answer the king said to him: “Then take note that three ships will arrive tomorrow, and one of them will be Spanish.” That was a fact, for two ships from Java entered, and that of the said Spaniard. Thereupon the favorite exclaimed: “Great Saint Corralat, there is no other truth.” With such things he has established so much credit that if God do not bury his body in the depths [of the sea], the Mindanaos will worship him and will found another house of Mecca, such as they had in Joló. With that he has become a greater king than any of his forbears; for their fear of him is incredible, as they recognize in him one who has superior power to avenge himself. Consequently, they do not dare undertake anything against his will; for they regard it as certain that they will be unlucky. Since the devil has been so advantaged by that way, he manages to make their fears come out true at times, by which credit for the others is assured. [139]

Among all the Indians it is a general fact that in what relates to their own persons natural law is more conspicuous, and has a more firmly established empire, than have the nations. Part of that is founded on the slothfulness of their natures, and part on the rudeness of their civilization; the former makes them content with little, and the latter causes them to ignore the niceties of art. Their food proves the first well; and the havoc that they cause, the second. The food is very poor among the wealthy, and requires little labor; for they neither know condiments nor for that purpose are drugs valued among them, of the use of all which they are ignorant. Both slave and ruler, plebeian and prince, eat bread; for, since that consists of a little boiled rice, one cannot eat it more adorned than the other. Since all of them are bakers of this bread, he who wishes to clean it better eats it whiter. He who has no slaves to relieve him from that eats it as he chooses; and, consequently, there is no one who does not know how to cook his food. For they are under the daily necessity, even the richest, of making it; and, as ostentation in ordinary life is so little, it is unavoidable that service is lacking to them on their voyages and navigations, so that they are forced to use their own hands. Those who do not obtain rice—either because the land does not bear it, or because it is limited in any year—eat of many roots, which supply the lack fully, and which require no other preparation than boiling. He who is so well served that he obtains a little fish, venison, or pork, with water and salt alone makes his stew, [140]without the knowledge of other kinds of pottages. In order to give their food a sharp flavor, they are wont to cook it with some herbs of a sour taste. Consequently, in the seasoning of their food they consume nothing, so that they save the cost of butter, oil, vinegar, and all spices. They are accustomed to make their puches [i.e., a sort of pap] and poleadas [i.e., a sort of fritter] from cocoanut milk and the honey made from sugarcane, which are their preserves and royal cakes. But such is at a great wedding or at a feast, where their desire for ostentation arouses their endeavors. Such were presented to me by the king of Joló, Panguian Bachal, while I was visiting at his court. They consisted of a half-dozen small cakes made of rice flour and kneaded with cocoanut-milk, and baked until they turned dark, so that they appeared to be cinnamon to the sight. In fact the color was due to the toasting and to a preserve, like turpentine, made from the fruit of the durion with honey made from sugarcane. This is enough to turn the strongest stomachs—as it were, the chief dainty for the stomach of a bull—oppressive, as it was all night to the Queen mother;33 and we satisfied ourselves with looking at it.

Their clothing is very simple, without stiffening or linings. All are dressed after the same style, and innovations due to curiosity are not allowed. As the country is so hot, they dress very loosely, a fact which makes the cutting out very easy. Each one is the tailor of his own garments. This is the reason why the Indians are so lacking in the communal idea, and are so hostile to assembling and uniting in villages; [141]for since their misery and laziness make them content with the easiest and most natural, which all obtain, they do not need one another. For in each house are found all the trades, and no one makes use of them unless his own necessity compels him. If one goes to fish, he is content with what will satisfy either his appetite or his necessity; and the desire of acquiring does not make him break with his laziness in order to work.

Returning to their clothes, the stuffs worn are generally common to nobles, and plebeians, kings and slaves, and there is no difference between them—except it be in something extraordinary, in which the obligation and ostentation of their chief persons induces them to depart from their accustomed use. At such times they are wont to wear silks and very beautiful stuffs, with buttons and gold lace. Their krises (which are their inseparable weapons) have gilded scabbards and hilts of massy gold. I have seen some of them which were valued at nine slaves each, all covered with precious stones and perhaps encrusted with pearls. But in daily appearance all resemble one another, both in the garments in which they dress and in the fashions that they employ. These clothes consist of breeches and short jacket [ropilla]—or skirt, to be more accurate. That is not worn over a shirt, for with them the first garment is not the shirt, but the skirt, for it is all one. Sometimes they wear a jacket with long skirts cut in the French style; which, although it can be buttoned, is generally worn open, with the breast exposed. In this particular this nation is quite different from the others of this region. They use another style of cut; the skirts and sleeves each ending in a point, and [142]the ends which ought to close over the bosom are brought together in double points, fastened either with a button or with a knot, so that almost all the breast is left open. The breeches are full and white, resembling those which the Spaniards wear for the sake of cleanliness under their black ones. They are girt with a bit of native linen, so long that after having been knotted it hangs from the waist to the knees; and it serves to make their garb more decent than it would be because of the meagerness and thinness of the breeches. Or if they do not have that, then they use two brazas’ length of the same cloth or silk, which at its full width they wind about the body, joined in front with one end crossed below the other. In that manner they cover the breeches entirely, and the clothing is much more decent. In this usage, the gala costumes have special elaboration, and it displays their ostentation; for they are wont to wear cloth that is valued at thirty or forty reals of eight. They also wear breeches of the Malay fashion, which are closed like ours, although they are not so tight. It is the rule that they must be of silk with a gold fringe below, or with border and buttons of the same which among these people is always of filigree or of solid gold. In that they consider only ostentation, without any risk of waste.

On the head, in the Moorish style, is worn a turban. Its use throughout the Indias is general, but among these people inviolable. I do not know whether it is because even their hearts are tinged with their cursed worship, or because of hatred to our nation and to our customs, or because of flattery to their natural arrogance—through which they will never, of themselves, come to depreciate their own [143]things. Even yet throughout the islands, those who are esteemed as chiefs are ashamed of appearing without hats.

The clothing of the women is plainer, and such that it becomes indecent; for from the small mantas or textiles of these regions, which are all very thin, they make a sack nine palmos long and open at both ends. They gird this in at the waist as much as may be necessary, so that it falls to the feet; what is left they allow to fall over the legs, and it does not even reach to the knees, or necessarily serve for the decency which modesty requires. They adjust it by drawing it close to one side of the body, and by making folds on the other side of all the extra width in proportion to their body. This sack, which by day is a garment—so shameful to decency, because it so ill satisfies it—serves at night for mattress, sheets, and curtain. For on retiring they ungird the sack, and the part which they doubled about the knees they put up to the head. That is all the opulence and comfort that their beds can boast of, which are made of a thin mat. These are their Holland and Rouen linens, which serve for their opulence and their fastidious cleanliness. That is their whole wealth of quilts and covers, which protect them from the cold and from the mosquitoes. All is so exactly adapted to necessity, that there is no difference between the chief women and the slaves—as I saw in Joló in the queen herself, and in Samboangan in many other women, not inferior to her in vanity. However, the women of highest rank, on retiring let fall a curtain without a covering. And that is all their ostentation and the necessary obligation of modesty for the protection from sight of those who are [144]careless concerning their manner of sleeping, in houses where there is no division of apartments, and where there can be no rooms for the multitude that inhabit them, and where the others throw themselves down pellmell on the floor. At most, the master is protected by that little grandeur. This is in regard to the bed, for in dress no difference is known.

The gala dress of the women of this nation consists wholly of the shirt [sayuelo] which is made in the style usual to the Indians. It is however, drawn close about the breasts, and the sleeves are very long, at times each sleeve taking three or four varas of cloth. The sleeve is gathered at the wrist in a very fine and graceful plait, as the goods that they wear are so delicate. They heighten that gala dress with the wealth of gold, the use of which among these Indias extends to the wrists, which they cover with bracelets, either solid or hollow, and a finger in width. On days of great display they generally wear three or four pairs. The work is beautiful, and these add much to their gay and festive appearance; and they show off the arm loaded with such rich bracelets. For cloaks or mantles they wear textiles of fine silk, and at times of gold [tissue], which they call patolas34 which is a very beautiful and rich kind of goods. Generally, when they leave the house they all wear very long black cloaks; that partly moderates the ugliness and utter indecency of their dress—which of itself is, I know not whether more ugly or more immodest, with its sack above mentioned, which serves them as shirt and petticoat, without its having any distinction either for station, rank, or display. [145]

The houses in which they reside have what is sufficient for their shelter and poor lodging. They have no salons where they can walk, or higher stories where they can amuse themselves, than that which separates them from the ground. This is made with logs, upon which as columns they build their sills, to which they fasten the ends of the beams with their keys. The roof is thatch, which nature furnished, a provision very suitable to the needs of the country—which, as it is so subject to earthquakes, does not allow a greater weight without danger to the buildings. The floor is of bamboos, split or otherwise prepared; for, as these are hollow, they can be split with the same ease, thus avoiding the trouble and niceties of carpentry. Thus the floor is like a grating, and is a necessary precaution of their natural laziness and dirtiness; for by this way of making their floors they avoid having to sweep them, since the houses can so easily be washed and rid of all dirt. They have no benches or chairs, and thus they get rid of the encumbrance of much furniture. They consider a seat on the floor as more secure. They use tables somewhat; these are round and hollowed out in the middle, in the manner of an ordinary brasier, and are built wholly for use rather than for display. In that hollow they put all their dishes, which consist of boiled rice, and fish of the same stew, without there being any danger of the food being spilled out. They use no tablecloths or napkins; and, although they use dishes somewhat, they do not usually feel the lack of these, as the trees with their wide leaves furnish them a cleaner table-service, and the bamboos make them very tasteful jugs and bowls which are formed from their lengths between knots. These also form their jars; for there [146]is a kind of bamboo from which they make jars containing three or four azumbres.35 By cutting four joint-lengths and boring holes in them, they fill a good jar. The cocoanuts yield them cups, for here these are very common.

Following are the laws pertaining to them privately as persons. They are as much adapted to the nature of the world (although more clothed with innocence), as they are to their laziness and cupidity which prohibits them from all expense which is not necessary for life, as superfluous. For that I have always said of these natives that they are fine philosophers, adapted to nature. The laws which touch on other matters and have to do with their neighbors are quite at variance with the laws of nature; and these extend to a tyranny so manifestly cruel that at times and in some things it comes to be brutality. I have seen a son who held his father as slave, and, vice versa, a father who held his son as slave; for if one make an outlay for another, they take account of it, as would be done in the case of a stranger. Inasmuch as this son had freed his father by buying him from his master, that man was reckoned as his son’s slave, and the same would be true of the son. It may happen that a chief lowers himself [by having intercourse] with his slave-woman, and the son whom she bears may be so cruel that at the death of [147]his father he makes his own mother his slave. Even if, while they are at peace, these points are not cleared up, and the inner tyranny employs external civility, yet, if dissensions alter these relations, and they are divided, the men avail themselves of those rights, and subject their mothers to whatever they choose, and do not allow them to leave their houses. Thus do they come to be served by their mothers at all times. In regard to those who descend from them, there is even less shame; and among another kind of relations is an utter disregard of nature in this respect, for their own nephews are the slaves of their uncles, and, vice versa, uncles are slaves of their nephews.

They do not know what charity is. Consequently, whatever benefits they confer are all placed on account as debts, which their tyranny estimates wholly to their own satisfaction. Unfortunate he whom abandonment or orphanage has flung into the house of another, for now for his sustenance, and again for his rearing, he must become a slave. Kindness is shown at the cost of liberty. Although that was general throughout the islands, in this island it is excessive, as it is a tenet of the perfidious sect of Mahomet; and its cruelty has left no liberty that it has not opposed. Therefore, there is not in this nation the middle class that is found in the others which forms the common people out of the freemen; for there are no freemen, nor any mean between chiefs and slaves. Their community is composed of but two extremes, so far separated. It is a fact that there are many ways by which to reduce men to such a condition, and there is no escape from the injury. For, since self-interest is the advantage of those who [148]are powerful, it unites them against the unfortunate one who dares to proclaim the offense that has been done to him, while his punishment conciliates so many other offenders who might perplex justice; and fear shuts the mouths of those whom the same fortune might gain to his favor in the support of his testimonies. Therefore, when it comes to proof there is always a lack of witnesses for innocence; while on the contrary there is for tyranny an oversupply of ocular witnesses of things that they have never seen or heard. When some stranger goes to a village to trade where he does not have the guaranteed patronage of many powerful relations, in the case of any neglect that is shown him in courtesy or in the laws, they bring such a case against him that to get out of it well he abandons his business and perhaps with his business his freedom. The worst of it is that the punishment is always more than the offense, for the just pay as if they were sinners. Their avarice or tyranny not satisfied with the vengeance taken on the criminal makes the offense related to the very blood, in order to extend their cupidity farther. Hence it is that on account of the crime committed by a single one, they make all the relations slaves. I saw four brothers who were all deprived of their inherited freedom because of the incivility and weakness of one. Finding myself in Iligan—a nation which, as it is so new, is even yet throwing out the sparks of this tyrannical fury it happened that a common woman spoke some insulting words to another woman who had rank; and the latter’s husband, coming to me to make a complaint, said to me, exaggerating the offense: “Father, if the Spaniards were not here, and we could rule ourselves by our own laws, we [149]would have made mincemeat [gigote] of that woman with a campilan, and slaves of her brothers and sisters and relatives.” Finally, he whom avarice rules with a tyrannical power (for all their laws end in self-interest) gets usury from his offense and employment from his crime.

Avarice rules in all their judgments; and the purse becomes the gallows of all crimes. Money is the vengeance of the aggrieved parties, and the sponge for injuries. When they are paid for, no spot or sign of the offense is left. Although there are crimes which bear especially a capital penalty, yet there is no penalty that cannot be redeemed by money or goods. He who has no possessions at all has still liberty, and can surrender that also. That is the road most traveled by which some come to be the slaves of others; and perhaps the chief, if he be poor, may be the slave of another who is a plebeian. When anyone is caught in adultery, if sudden wrath does not execute him, which is but seldom, the wounds are passed on to his purse, in the endeavor to destroy him, and the husband subjects his own wife to the same harshness and penalty. For here all persons have a separate purse, and the husband is not master of what his wife possesses but only of what pertains to him. Nor, under pretext of managing her possessions, does he have more to do with it than the extent of her permission; and she is always mistress of her own possessions. Thus she pays a fine to her own husband, as if she were a stranger to him. Having received this, the aggrieved party remains as satisfied as when, among the Spaniards, one sword has pinned both guilty ones together. The offender retains a privilege truly insulting and barbarous—that [150]for one year he may have intercourse with the woman without her husband complaining. Then the husband and wife return in all peace to cohabit as before, the offense being again at risk, for another atonement.

They especially abhor theft, and they have assigned an ignominious penalty for the thief, as a warning. This is to cut off the joints of his fingers, more or fewer according to the crime. That perhaps obliges them to pass from the hands to the toes, the penalty being proportioned to the misdeeds of greater atrocity. But that penalty can also be redeemed, as can the others, by money.

Notwithstanding that, some crimes they regard as so capital that they do not respect petitions or allow bribes, and death is the necessary punishment for them. The unnatural crime is one of them, and the severity of the execution well shows their natural horror, for such people are burned, and their houses; and nothing that they possessed is allowed to escape from this rigor, as being contaminated. Or, having caged the offenders, they throw them into the sea, and destroy their houses and fields, by such punishment to make demonstration of their abhorrence.

The most feared crime is that which they call sumban, which is incest in the first degree; for they regard it as assured by long experience and knowledge inherited in tradition from their ancestors, that the land which allows that crime is bound down by wretchedness and misfortunes until its infamy is purged by the rigorous chastisement of the offender. There is no other means which can placate the wrath of heaven. Consequently, when they suffer long droughts, or other general plagues from heaven, [151]they immediately attribute them to this. A case of that nature came to my notice in the year fifty-one, when the drought was general, and so great that even the water of the rivers failed, and that river which had any water that found its way to the sea was rare. The Indians of the village which was in my care on the coast of Siocon came to tell me that it was a punishment from the sky, and that it had been demanded by the awfulness of such crime on the coast of Mindanao, where they said that a mother was living in marriage with her son. They petitioned me to have the offenders punished, and warned me that the punishment should be death without remission, such being their custom, without admitting satisfaction by any other penalty, however excessive it be. The same report was current in the island of Basilan. However, it was without other foundation than that the Indians are gossipy and suspicious, ignorant of the secrets of the sky and ruled by the traditions of the past. They are ruled in that island by greater fear, as they retained more accurately in their memory certain cases that served them as examples and warnings. For, at a certain time, the sky was so leaden that for two years not a drop of rain fell. There was an Indian who violated the respect that he owed to his blood and to nature, with regard to a daughter of his. Although he tried to bury the crime in the depths of his silence, it cried out to the sky as an offense, and was heard distinctly as a sin; for the effect, as ungrateful as evil, always turns against its cause. He was a person of influence, and respect for him did not allow any investigation to be made; but, the villages grieving over the public calamity, and unable to endure [152]their forced famine, men trampled under foot respect and laws, in their judgment that tolerance in so execrable an evil had also vexed and hardened the sky. By common consent they seized father and daughter, and, shutting them up in a cage well weighted with stones, threw them into the sea. In return they experienced from the sky approbation for their avenging zeal, in the heavy rain with which it received them. For at all times God preserves the credit to virtue, and even among barbarians imposed penance on vice, so that those who became familiars of vice could have no excuse.36

The Joloans executed the same punishment with equal severity, but through malicious information. God, who is always the protector of innocence, shielded the wretched; for when they cast two other fathers in the same manner [into the water], he took away the weight of the stones, and gave the men strength to keep afloat, without abandoning them for a whole day, so that, the report of the matter having reached the king, the wonder forced him to seek new information, by which he discovered falsity and recognized innocence. In all the nations innocence considers God as its advocate, and in desperate cases rests secure on His protection.

Judges in suits or causes follow the simple laws of nature, and have no embarrassment of laws and doubts and contrary interpretations. They have no delays by reports or prolixity of writs, for they do [153]not waste a single dedo37 of paper in that. The accusation, the plea, and the evidence are quickly heard—all in the manner of the time of Noah. If there is no testimony, they admit the parties to the oath, which contains terrifying imprecations. With that plea the party is usually content; for the obligation and risk, to which he is exposed by results which are reckoned as punishments of heaven against perjured ones if the rigor of their imprecations is executed, are greatly feared. If perchance the party is satisfied that he has truth on his side, at his petition they do not rest content with that trial, but judgment of red-hot coals or hot iron,38 such as was resorted to in España and other countries, in centuries ruder and more immune from laws by the privilege of their innocence and goodness. If the persons are burned, then their punishment is proceeded with; and if not, the accuser is obliged to make requital. That custom seems to have been communicated by the Moros by way of Terrenate, where it is still observed. However, no one is burned, for since the Ternatans are so skilled in sorcery, they know herbs of such efficacy and bewitchments of such power, that they communicate it to the hands so that they can handle the iron with impunity, as if it were a nosegay of flowers. Also many of those whom they bury alive, that being the punishment of adultery and rape, escape. I say [154]this, for it often occurred that persons escaped from the execution of this test, in the sight of the Spaniards at Ternate, women whose guilt was notorious, but who cleared themselves of suspicion among their people by this proof. I was told many happenings of this sort, during the time that I spent in those islands [i.e., the Moluccas]; and I was assured that it was done by means of an herb, and I was shown some that were famous in its knowledge. These were the ones to whom the accused had recourse in all their exigencies, suborning their expertness with a quantity of money.

The kings, although so tyrannical in government, and in power so beyond the affliction and trouble which authority and ostentation incur, yet according to the condition of their poverty maintain the form and authority of a court. Peace affairs are in charge of a chief justice or counselor, called zarabandal. That is the greatest court title and he decides the causes and suits, and advises concerning the sentence. In the outside villages where the king does not reside, the chiefs meddle wherever they wish, without other law than their power and will, and their unbridled greed; and the one injured has no recourse, for, in quarrels between the plebeians and chiefs, the king always takes the part of the latter—who are more powerful, and are those who can make trouble for him, and even deprive him of his kingdom. For his principate is founded more on the recognition that they make of his nobility than on any absolute power which secures to him their vassalage; since a slave [155]will say “no” to the king in what does not suit him. That happened in Joló, in the presence of Father Alexandro Lopez. When the father was negotiating through the medium of the king to have the ransom for a Christian put at a humane figure, the other, a Joloan slave by condition, who had the Christian in his power, said to the very face of the king, when the latter asked him to conform to the prices settled upon in the treaty of peace,39 that he would not do it; and that was the end of the matter. That signified that the king’s power in execution extended just so far as his vassals wished, and that they would obey him just so far as it pleased them.

They have established orders of nobility, with a distinction of titles which aggrandize it. Some are called Tuam, which is the same as “Señor” or the title applied to men in España. Others are given the title of Orancaya, which signifies “rich man;” it is the greatest title, and equivalent to grandee of their kingdom. It is equivalent to the same title that España gave to its grandees when his Majesty used more simplicity, and called them Ricos-Homes [i.e., “rich men”]. The rest are called chiefs, and correspond to what we call caballeros and Hijos-dalgo [i.e., “knights and nobles”]. They have no greater dignity than the honor. Those of the blood royal are called cachiles following the custom and style of the kings of Maluco, Terrenate, Tidores, and Xilolos. The same in the peculiar style of Joló are called Paguian.

The Orangcayas or Ricos-Homes become the rulers of vassals, and have some villages in their charge. In those villages, although the king is recognized, [156]and tribute sent to him, in all else those rulers are absolute; and especially in government affairs are they independent. They are the ones who tyrannize most ungovernably over the people; for whatever fine the king imposes upon them, or whatever gift he requests from them, they lay hands upon their subjects, and, as if they were slaves they take away the son from the father in order to sell him. That has been the case so often that, even since they have been made subject to our government, it has been necessary to examine with close attention, whenever they bring any slave to sell, the reason for his slavery; for it has been found that they sell us many slaves without any other right than that of their tyranny, relieving their necessities and making their payments with the first person whom they meet—bringing him, beguiled by some other pretext, to the Spaniards; and the injury was suffered without any complaint, because of the incapacity and dullness of the poor Subanos. The latter, as they are so unused to intercourse with us, and so shut up in their own lives, had no arguments to oppose to what they did not understand; and showed their wonder, surprise, and bashfulness in brute silence. For that reason, where the Orangcayas govern (which are almost all villages of the Subanos or Indians of the mountain), there is scarce one who enjoys liberty. Those chiefs hold them so under their power, that they regard the very leaders and chiefs of the Subano nation as their slaves. That I experienced on a visit which I made on a dangerous occasion, when in order to assure the minds of the people I took with me a Lutao chief who was the absolute master before the Spaniards entered, and to whom they still paid hereditary respect [157]along all the coast of Siocon. Being, then, with all the people and chiefs of the nation assembled together in a village, and I endeavoring to honor them with signs of the greatest affection, the Lutao said: “Do not pay any attention to these people, Father, for they are all my slaves.” This he said in a place where we two and the chiefs of the village were alone. I thought that that contempt and arrogance would arouse them; but on the contrary, it softened them, as the affection and presents of a loving prince would his humble vassal. And, although they were not slaves, the respect in which they were born gives the chiefs so much authority, that although we [Spaniards] possess the rule, they, as chiefs, command the people. And, as the latter were reared in that tyranny, their natural disposition made them show respect and natural submission; for, notwithstanding the immunity that our arms give them, they obey those chiefs better than they do us. May that be tempered in part by the Christian government, and the vigilance of our father ministers, and the recourse which they find in the royal officials. For a chief of those natives who was governor of the village of Baluasan, near to Samboangan, when speaking of the wretched subjection in which the Lutaos held them, and the good fortune that had come to them with the entrance of our government, by restraining the Lutao tyranny, and giving arms to persecuted liberty, spoke to me these words: “If you [Spaniards] had not arrived when you did, there would now not be any of us left; for we would already have been finished, and bartered for goods with the people of Macasar.” These words consoled me, on account of the fidelity which the interest [158]and recognized advantages of that barbarian guaranteed.40

Such was the government maintained by Corralat. And since he made all of them so powerful, giving them special power by laws, he was very acceptable to the princes of his nation and therefore most secure. These men, then, are the ones who grieve over the losses sustained by the change, who see themselves put under holy laws and just—they who before had no other laws than those of their own will, and their unbridled ambition, laws from which the others suffered as a servile, cowardly, and rude nation.

The customs of the Subanos or Indians of the mountains there is no reason for relating; for with more hideous extremes they maintain the evils of the Lutaos, while those peculiar to them are, as it were, the brutal creatures among other citizens. But that even will add praises to the changes that have resulted from the skill of the Omnipotent, and to the zeal of the missionaries, by whose means virtue produced the civilized and Christian conduct which now is theirs. Their dress approaches that of the inhabitants of the beach with whom they have communication. Accordingly, those who traffic with Lutaos or Moros dress in their style; while those familiar with the Visayan nations (such as the peoples of Caraga [159]and the coast of Dapitan), through commerce with them, follow their custom. All their government is confusion, and they wage war, not some nations with others, nor one village with another, but all are, as it were, enemies of the human race. Armed against one another, without subordination or greater subjection than what the might and act of violence of the boldest obtained, they had no other laws in their causes that the might of the one provoked to avenge himself; and his rigor, even in the worst cases, was appeased by gifts. Thus when a Subano came to acquire a poor capital that would enable him to pay for a murder, he committed the murder with the greatest safety, in order that he might be enrolled in the number of valiant and to have authority as such to wear a red turban. Because of that barbaric vanity they would kill their best friend, if they caught him asleep or off his guard; for the barbaric courage of these nations does not consider posts of reputation, but those of security. In Caraga there was a more atrocious custom; for, in order to be able to clothe oneself in the dress of the valiant—namely, a striped turban, and breeches of their peculiar style (which they call baxaque) with similar stripes—one must have killed seven men.41

The peculiarity of this nation, and the thing that gives them some excellence and esteem, is that their women are more chaste and modest. They esteem virginity, and keep it inviolate, even to advanced age, [160]for the vocation of matrimony. It is true that this virtue is aided by their natural disposition, which furnishes for the defense of chastity their native stupidity and shyness; but therewith they succeed in an undertaking which among Lutaos and the other nations of these islands is rare and difficult indeed. This has secured them so much esteem and confidence in this region that the chiefs of high standing among the Lutaos, in order to guard their daughters more safely, have them reared among Subanos; and they do not take them into the dangerous camp of their own nation unless it is to establish them in marriage, and with that station, in safety, as they think. Among this nation there is a class of men who profess celibacy42 and govern themselves by natural law, [161]and they are very punctual and perfect in their observance of it; and such is the feeling of security in regard to them, that they are allowed to go about among the women without any fear or suspicion. Their dress is throughout like that of the women, with skirts of the same fashion. They do not use weapons, or engage in anything else that is peculiar to men, or communicate with them. They weave the mantas that are used here, which is the proper employment of women, and all their conversation is with women. Therefore, the purpose of life which they follow comes to be more extraordinary by its peculiarity and by its perils, considering both the nature of that country, and the little regard that they give to their dangers. So satisfied do they live, either from their own purpose or from their natural disposition, that they have never discredited their position with weaknesses. They were, so to speak, hermits of their religion, and were held in high esteem. And in fact the constancy of their life and modesty of their customs, obliged one to have respect for them. In a nation so barbarous and who knew not God, it appears a prodigy worthy of wonder that one of the special providences of His Divine Majesty, to place such examples of virtue in a country where vice had absolute control, so that the experience of the eyes causes them to esteem what God’s love did not obtain. I have known two of these men, and one of them I baptized, to my especial consolation, while visiting the coast of Siocon, which extends for twenty leguas from Samboangan toward Dapitan. His reputation reached me in a different village, for in his own they kept him closely concealed, whether it were for [162]the sake of their ancient observances I do not know. Like a holy man of his law, or because of some fear, he also kept himself hidden; for, as he afterward told me, they had terrified him by telling him that if the Spaniards caught him they would put him in the galleys. By that means, to him whom the pathway of salvation was most easy, they filled it with such difficulties that they made it impossible for him. I knew that they would refuse to let me see him for those same reasons, and therefore made use of a trick and of a dangerous resolution, to catch him. For near the village, which was located on the beach in the shade of trees (the poverty of these barbarians not suffering more shelter), and where in a few hours they would suffer from hunger, having them all before me I told them that if the lavia43 whom they had hidden did not come, then the mass would not begin. Labia is the name they give to those of this profession. The name of this one was Tuto. I added that no one must return to his house until he arrived, and that if he delayed too long, I would go to Samboangan with the chief of the village and the Subanos of importance. That was the same to them as if I were taking them to the galleys; so much does their wretchedness grieve to leave the wretchedness in which they were born, and their lack of intelligence to appear before reasonable people and Spaniards. Without allowing them to talk, or to question whether he was there or not, or where, but assuming that it was a well-known thing, I turned to a relative of the governor, and said to him: “Go for him quickly, for I shall not move from this spot until [163]he comes.” He departed without a word, and all of the people remained motionless, staring with fright. When they recovered their equanimity, their whole attempt was to excuse their negligence by empty excuses, which I accepted in order to calm their minds. Inside of an hour I found in my presence him whom I desired so much. He, seeing the love with which I received him, and how differently my purpose was declared from that which his fears gave him to understand, recovered his courage in full, and immediately offered himself for baptism—a matter which I was unwilling to defer, in order that I might leave him with his salvation assured. Consequently, after instructing him briefly, I baptized him, and called him Martin, as that happy lot came to him on that saint’s day.44 He satisfied my hopes and hastened to me every time when I afterward visited his village of Malande, very punctually, and always with some special refreshment both for me and for him who in my company had acted as his sponsor.

The other lavia whom I saw was in one of the Joloan islands, called Pangutara.45 Him I found to be already a Christian, whom Father Alexandro Lopez, a great apostle of the Joloans, had reduced and baptized in Samboangan, and called Santiago. This man is naturally very well dispositioned and has no moral defects, and he is a man of a celestial peace and serenity. He is always bubbling with laughter, which is the effect of the security of his soul; for, [164]when the conscience has nothing to fear, the heart has gladness to scatter abroad.

I must not neglect to tell one thing that I noticed in regard to the nature of the people of this profession, from what I could gather from the exterior of those two, which seems to me to be the reason that takes them along the pathway so unusual and difficult in a climate so hot, and lands so dangerous (as he who has had experience in these islands, and who knows the wretchedness of their natives in this region, will know). For the physiognomy of those men is that of eunuchs, and their natural disposition and condition are so cold, that it made me think that they must be so naturally, and that nature kept her virtue under control in this region. But since they behave in all other things with so blameless a life, I shall always consider them as prodigies of the divine Providence in favor of virtue. For no one despises virtue as a thing unknown, since even to barbarians virtue is painted in so natural colors that they respect it naturally, without more external credit than their native security.

This sole spark of good morals have I found among the so great darkness in which the Subanos live. However, they have another custom belonging to the same aspect of their lives, so vile that it is sufficient to obscure greater lights than those of that small spark; for among them is more acceptable the exchange that they make of their women with one another—the husbands mutually agreeing upon this exchange, and celebrating the hideous loan and the vile restitution with dances and drunken revels, according to their custom. Their feasts are like their customs, and one is the manifestation of the other. [165]

I have kept these two acts, so contrary in their effects, in order to present them in one place in this chapter, inasmuch as they are of greater display and magnificence, and in them, in spite of the simplicity of those natives, the serious predominates. In the first, which is practiced with their dead, I know not whether to praise more their piety or their generosity and grandeur, or to which of the two virtues recognition is due; for both are carried to the greatest extreme. For their liberality, the obligations of their piety (which declares itself in those attentions a debtor to nature), passes by and tramples under foot the laws of their poverty and the natural simplicity of these Indians, and makes demonstrations superior to their fortune, clothing their dead with the magnificence of princes. In the shroud alone, they clothe the dead person in a hundred brazas of fine muslin, which serves him as a shirt. Over that they place rich patolas, which are pieces of cloth of gold, or of silk alone, worked very beautifully, and of great value, pious generosity endeavoring to give him the best and to clothe him in the finest and most precious garments. It is a law, established by immemorial custom, that the children and near relatives each clothe the deceased in a piece of gauze or of sinampuli (another fabric of equal estimation) arranging it with such loops and knots that they find space for it all. In regard to the dress, this custom is in force even to this day, and no man who respects himself has ever failed in this law. There is no one so poor and so wretched that he does not own a piece [of cloth] eight brazas long, [166]which is reserved for his burial. They have abandoned other demonstrations, or rather, exchanged them for Christian ones, of which we shall speak at the proper place. In that regard they give oldtime Christians much to emulate. For formerly they buried with their dead most of their treasures—gold, bells, and other things, which are highly esteemed among them. Those things were so sacred to reverence that no one, however abandoned and audacious he might be, had the courage to stretch forth his hand to take them—although he could have done so with great safety to himself, as their dead are buried in caves, islets, or solitary mountains, without other guard than their imaginary religion. On the day on which they buried the deceased, about his sepulcher they planted palms, jasmines, and other flowers peculiar to this region. If the deceased was a king, or a prince of equal nobility, they placed a tent above the grave with four white banners at its sides, while inside it they burned perfumes as long as the time of lamentation or memorial lasted, perhaps setting aside some slaves for that employ, in order to make it more lasting.

This heathen display has given way to Christian demonstrations of sumptuous honors and abundant alms which they give for their deceased, as we shall relate in the proper place. But I shall not defer the telling of one which may prove a matter of reprehension to our neglect and forgetfulness, in what is more important to us, namely, that they are wont to have the coffin prepared during the lifetime for their burial. They make those coffins out of one single piece, and from incorruptible woods. They keep them under their houses where they can see [167]them whenever they descend from or ascend to their houses; and they are open to the gaze of all who pass along the street. That is a care that it would be right for them to have learned from the oldtime Christians, whom the faith of what they hope for, ought to arouse with greater demonstrations....

The Subanos follow the Lutaos in some things, their poverty and misery exerting efforts in the worship of their dead, and their barbarism showing itself at the side of their piety, when they throw into the sea, out of grief, the gold of their ornaments, decorations, and their most precious jewels—a custom wellnigh universal in all these islands.46 But in one island their cruelty is shown especially in their alleviation of their grief and their barbaric pity for their calamity, by giving associates to the deceased, and making them companions of their grief, causing the same havoc and loss in others. Because their father, son, near relative, or anyone whom they had loved had died, they would seize their arms in order to kill the first person whom they met, and without other cause for offense than that of their natural disposition and their barbaric ferocity. Thus with the blood of the unfortunate one did they dry the tears of their own ill fortune, finding consolation in the misfortune of others.

The celebration at their marriages is such that in all that has been discovered nothing else can compare with it; and the Spaniards who daily wonder at [168]it as witnesses always do so with new wonder. For if the marriage is of a chief, the celebration begins a week beforehand, and is concluded a week after with dancing to the sound of their bells and drums. There is open table for all who care to go up into the house. The viands consist of wine, for that is the thing in which they are especially solicitous to show display, while they take no account of the food, although it is not lacking. But the deceiving heat of the wine takes away their taste so strongly that they are mindful of nothing. Its heat serves to give spirit and animation to their songs (which are in honor of him who makes the feast), and sprightliness to their dances. The day of the celebration [of the wedding] when the betrothed couple have to appear for the nuptial blessings, the bride, breaking the strict confinement which she keeps all that time, issues forth with a display and gravity superior to her condition; for her relatives and the other Indians of their partisanship are clad in their gala costume, and armed with lance and shield, and escort the bride. The march is to the accompaniment of bells and Moorish dulzainas [i.e., a sort of wind instrument]. The ladies of honor follow in double file, and they generally consist of all the women of the village, who are invited for the sake of greater display of grandeur. Then the girls follow in the same order, while those of greater social standing and higher rank are borne in chairs richly adorned, and carried on the shoulders of four slaves. At the end comes the bride in a certain very spacious chair which allows room for a lady who supports and assists her, and to two or three girls, who serve her with so singular modesty and gravity that it would [169]cause wonder even if she did not affect so great elaborateness; for she scarcely moves an eyelash or must move her hand, those who accompany her substituting themselves for everything. One dries the sweat from her, another fans her, and a third looks after her clothing. Down a different street comes the bridegroom to meet the bride, with a like or even greater retinue in competition with that of the relatives of the bride. The men are in gala costume, and armed; the women are in festal array; and the chief women in chairs. The dress of the bridal pair must be white, until, the [bride’s] consent having been given, the bridegroom retires, and exchanges it for a red dress. In this ceremony coquetry displays greater affectations: for the bride takes a half-hour to give her answer, and, after it is given she wastes another long half-hour to reach the lattice of the chapel. And it is necessary to sit down to await the bride for that time, amid the laughter of those who a few days before saw her running and leaping about like a mad she-goat, while on this day she deports herself with so great a demonstration of sedateness and virginal modesty. The precision of her steps, they say, is a necessity, because she is coming bound even to the feet. That is the ceremony that they practice for the reception of the husband who is the one who must come to take those bonds and shackles from her.

On that day the house is all hung with a canopy that covers everything, so that neither walls nor ceiling are seen. The bridal-chamber is open to the sight and richly adorned, for on that day everything gleams with splendor and adornment. The bride is seated on a cushion, near a seat made for the groom [170]from cushions in the Moorish style, with embroidery and strips of silk with a quantity of lace. She is served with the same ostentation as in the street, and displays no more animation than a statue. I was present at one of so great display that, besides the display which the Lutaos showed in their weddings, there came at two o’clock of the same day, marching in a company formed of their men, lancers and arquebusiers, an assembly of men who taking position in the plaza de armas, invited the governor and all the Spanish artillery for that afternoon; and for the following day all the paid soldiers—Pampangos and Cagayanes—giving food to all and serving the Spaniards quite in the Spanish fashion, both in the cuisine and in the courtesies. It is an event of so great preëminence that the governor and all his captains and best soldiers go to it, in order to honor and conciliate those people. And any prince can well go to see those ceremonies, for neither actions nor words show that they are barbarians; but [they appear as] the most modest nation in the world, which is celebrating its marriage without any idea of the [carnal] delights of it. They are so moderate in showing their affection that during three days they do not avail themselves of the license of their estate. Such is the way in which they act that the fathers worthily honor it with their presence, and on that day go to their houses, for they are unaccustomed to the modesty and caution unless it is when they confess and anoint them. Everything is dispensed with on that day because of its gravity. We all, then, went on that day with the superior, and the governor and captains. I was very glad to be a witness of so great splendor, modesty, and gravity in [171]natives who are in other things so simple and unceremonious; and to see a sacrament so hazardous treated with so much devotion, in the respect shown to the ministers of it. That chief spent at that feast more than four hundred arrobas of wine, and more than one thousand birds. Although they are poor, in order to meet the obligations of that day satisfactorily they strip themselves, showing an equally generous spirit in such action with the living as is displayed in the fatherland with the dead; for the greatest displays of their grandeur are the funerals and weddings.

The craft used by the Lutaos for war are, like those of terrible pirates, built with particular attention to speed—both for pursuit, and to seek shelter whenever affairs go wrong with them, or when their undertaking is dangerous to them. For since their wars are always waged for greed, and reputation never induces them, they try to advantage themselves quite at their safety; and they readily abandon any undertaking if they see that it will be costly to them. That care and attention, which govern their boat-building, cause their ships to sail like birds, while ours are like lead in this regard. The planking that they use is very thin, and has no other nails, crotches, or knees than a little rattan. Rattan is the substance which here takes the place of hemp, in tying things together, some planks [in the craft] being tied together with it. For that purpose projecting parts are left at intervals on the inside [of the planks] in which holes are made; and through these the ligament [172]passes, without any harm being done to the plank. Upon so light a foundation they build upper works, as high as they wish, of bamboo upon the cates. The cates are buoys which run on both sides from bow to stern, and they act as outriggers for the ship, which is sustained by these two floats. The ship carries more outside than in. The outside scaffolds allow room for two rows of oars, beside that of the hull. Thus small craft of from seven to twelve brazas (which is the largest size) have a crew of sixty men and upwards. I have seen one that was manned with three hundred hands; for, in order to have the rowing more compressed together they use loose oars, each one handling his own. Those oars are certain round blades, which an Indian manages easily. Therefore, when it is necessary they row exactly to the time of their breathing, by inserting more or less of the oar, according to the force they wish to give. For the rowing is excellent and the oar is put directly into the water, because it is trusted solely to the hands, without being fastened to anything. That is a custom that obliges them to have their craft very flat, and to elevate the sides but little, and they are content to leave but one plank out of the water.

These vessels are crescent-shaped. Consequently, there is but a small keel, or little of it in the water, and that part which they rob from stern and bow is left out of the water—three or four brazas of keel or stem, all of which serves for its speed, and there is little to hold the boat back because of its narrowness. Therefore the helm is not managed like the Spanish helm, by the sweep from the end; accordingly, they use two rudders, one at one side and one [173]at the other, where the flat part of the keel begins. One is usually employed for managing the boat, and both of them when it is stormy. With the second they keep the boat from getting unsteady, which would follow from its lightness, that rudder giving the boat more stiffness and serving as ballast. That is a precaution rendered necessary by its very lightness, the vessels that are lightest being those that require most care by being unsteady. In the middle they have a scaffold, four or six brazas long, which they call burulan or baileo. This consists of a floor raised above the rowers, and has its awning, which is called cayanes. Those awnings are made from the leaves of a small palm which grows in the water. That is the quarters for the fighters and the chiefs, for those vessels do not have any stern-cabin; it is, at the same time, the little castle from which they fight. All that structure finds its support and staunchness in what they call the cates, which are the buoys of which we have spoken. They are made of three or four bamboos as thick as the arm, and even larger, and reach from stem to stern. They are so adjusted that they drag through the water about one and one-half brazas away from the vessel. Consequently, they do not allow it to toss about, however violent the waves, but are the arms that keep the boat safe. They are used in general by all the craft of these islands, and by those of Burney and Maluco; for, since their ships are of no account without this security, they have no safety in the sea nor do the Indians dare to embark. From this circumstance Molina, who represented to the Council that buoys ought to be fastened to the ships so that they could sail or float with a support made of certain [174]bags blown up and thrown alongside, derived his argument. He thought that that would assure the fleets, as they could not then sink, as he had experienced, even if they filled with water. It might have proved successful indeed, and in favor of his discourse, if some heavy sea raised by the hurricanes would not prove sufficient to burst the bags and drag them away from the sides; for hurricanes have more than sufficient violence to break up the stern and destroy the ship. That has been well known by actual experience here; for a few hours of a severe storm are sufficient to destroy the fastenings; and those ships would be wrecked daily if the voyages were not so short, and the vessels of so small burden that they can find shelter in any port. When necessity arises, the men in them beach the vessels themselves, and do so more easily when they go in a fleet, as then they unite their forces. The crossings are so short, because of the multiplicity of islands, that the weather never catches them in such a way that they can not soon escape by drawing near to one land or another. For fair weather this appliance is very useful, so that they take comfort in them freely.

In regard to their weapons, the Lutao nation is the most curious in these islands; for all glory in having the most precious and the finest arms possible. All of them from their earliest age wear their weapons, with so careful a regard to this matter that no one dares to leave his house without his weapons. The wearing of weapons is so much a matter of reputation with them, that they consider it an insult to be obliged to appear without them, regulating their punctiliousness in this region very much according to the laws of España. It casts much shame [175]upon the negligence into which our military force has fallen, by the poor reputation of those here who profess arms, who in the sight of these nations are not ashamed to be seen without swords or daggers; and those which they carry well demonstrate the care with which they serve in their posts, since they necessarily satisfy outward appearance, although they would be useless on occasion. I speak of the simple and common soldiers; and, since this care is lacking in most of them, it ought to be felt more, and with effect, by those who can remedy it. The weapon worn by the natives of the cities is a wavy dagger, which they call a kris. Its blade is engraved with channels and water-lines, which make it very beautiful. The hilt is a small idol, made of ivory for the common man, and of gold for the chiefs, studded with gems which are highly esteemed among them. I saw one worn by the commander Socsocan47—who was the lord of Samboangan when our men conquered it—which was valued at ten slaves. The scabbard was gilded with the same neatness, and at some time had been covered with sheets of gold. I saw a scabbard in Joló, which had a pearl as large as a musket-ball at the end of the chape. The blades are very fine, and, although so small (being scarcely two palmos in length), they are valued at twelve, twenty, or thirty reals of eight.

Such are their arms in peace; those of war, for fighting on the land, are lances and shields. The [176]shield is round among the coast-dwellers of the south, and in the islands of Basilan and Joló. In the rest of this island, the general custom of the long and narrow shield which is used in all the other islands is followed; with these, they shield and protect all the body. From these weapons the kris is inseparable, and they use it at close quarters, and after they have used the lance, which they throw in the usual manner. Their lances show the same care as their krises, and are very much ornamented and engraved, and have their covers gilded. The shaft is of the finest ebony, or of some other beautiful wood; and at intervals they put rings of silver or tin on it. The head is of brass, which is used here, and so highly polished that it vies with gold. It is chased so elaborately that there are lances that are valued at one slave each. At the end they fasten a large hawk’s-bell, which they fix upon the shaft in such a manner that it surrounds it; and when they shake the lance it sounds in time with the fierce threats and bravadoes. The valiant use them and as man-slayers, give warning to those who do not know them and those of less valor, so that they may avoid them as they would vipers.

The arms used on sea and land—besides those of the plain, in places where the people fortify themselves with the resolve to defend themselves—in addition to the one mentioned (which are the most deadly), are the bagacayes, which are certain small bamboos as thick as the finger, hardened in the fire and with points sharpened. They throw these with such skill that they never miss when the object is within range; and some men throw them five at a time. Although it is so weak a weapon, it has such [177]violence that it has gone through a boat and has pierced and killed the rower. Brother Diego de Santiago told me, as an eyewitness, that he being seated saw that thing (which appears a prodigy) happen in the same vessel in which he had embarked with a garrison. To me that seemed so incredible that I wished immediately to see it myself; and, cutting a bagacay, I had it thrown at a shield. In Samboanga I saw a bull which was killed immediately by a bagacay which a lad threw at it, which struck it clear to the heart. It is a thing that would cause laughter in Europa, and there would be little esteem for the valor which does not despise such weapons, and they would jest at so frail violence. But it is certain that, at close range, there is no crueler weapon; and it is also certain that, the day on which these Moros have bravery enough to get within range, on that day any ship must yield. For they send in such a shower of these bagacayes that scarce a man is unwounded; while many are stuck like bulls, so that they cannot move for being laden with so many weapons. Then the rowing ceases, and they discharge the missiles with both hands and some from each finger, both rowers and fighters. That throws their opponents into disorder, and they are unable to manage their weapons. There must be many in España who were in the dangerous sieges which Governor Don Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera undertook against the kings of both Mindanao and Joló—where, in the so great mortality which the glorious boldness and military honor of our men incurred, the most of those who fell, to exalt their fame forever, were slain by arms so weak and apparently contemptible. In the same way they use [178]stakes hardened in the fire which they hurl with accuracy, and which inflict even more damage. The lance is used in the same way, and they hurl it with so extraordinary violence that they pierce a steel-covered shield and transfix the soldier with it, as has been seen often. In an engagement that Captain Gaspar de Morales48 fought in Joló, his steel-covered shield did not avail him; but the lance passed through it and his arm, and did not fall short of giving him a mortal wound in the breast.

The Negrillos of this island use the bow and arrow, as these are the weapons least difficult to obtain, and more natural [to them], as requiring less skill. They poison arrows, and the wound is consequently always dangerous. The wooden points of the arrows are so hard that those people have no occasion to regret the lack of iron.49

The use of the blowpipe [zarbatana], which is one braza long, has extended from the Borneans to the Joloans, and even to the Lutaos of this island. By blowing through it they discharge certain small [179]darts smeared with so deadly a poison that if one single drop of blood is drawn, death is certain to result, if the antidote is not quickly applied. When our soldiers have to make an expedition to Burney, where other weapons are rarely used, they go prepared with the most efficacious antidotes—namely, human excrement, as has always been happily experienced. These blowpipes are sometimes used also as lances, having the iron fastened at one side, so that, if the shot is not accurate, they use it alternately as a lance. Then when the opportunity is offered they make use of their darts. They are so good shots that they can bring down the smallest bird at twenty or thirty paces.

The Joloans who are called Ximbanaos,50 and are more ferocious and of greater determination, are armed from top to toe with helmet, bracelets, coat-of-mail, greaves, with linings of elephant-hide—armor so proof that nothing can make a dint on it except firearms, for the best sword or cutlass is turned. That was an experience acquired by many in the conquest of the Joloans by General Don Pedro [180]de Almonte Verastigui,51 who had brought from Ternate braggarts of that nation, who wielded the campilan or cutlass—a weapon made for cutting off heads, and for splitting the body from top to toe. But they could effect nothing, notwithstanding the heavy blows of those cutlasses; and retired like cowards, giving as an excuse that their weapons would not cut, and that they were only succeeding in ruining them, for they were all nicked by the strong resistance. From the shoulders rise two irons to the height of the helmet and morion by which they protect the head from being cut off. They knot the flaps of their skirts on the breast or coat-of-mail, so that they can bend the knee to the ground, according to their method of fighting, when the case demands it. They wear a plume of feathers above the forehead, such as is seen on mules. They leave nothing unarmed, even to the eyes, which are armed by fierceness—both because of the terrific appearance of their arms, and by the fierceness which they affect. It is the fitting dress, among them, for princes and braggarts. When they put it on they generally take some opium,52 and, rendered furious and insensible [to danger] by it, they enter amid the [181]vessels of a squadron madly, and destroy it with great slaughter. For their arms are lance, kris, or dagger; and with their bounds and leaps, in which they indulge according to their barbarous method of fighting, they appear in many places, always endeavoring to bring down many [of their foes]. Hence, in order that any ball may strike them, it is necessary that it cause disaster in the troop—besides the injuries that their fury has executed in safety, armed so proof against those who dress as lightly as the heat and roughness of the country compel.

The Mindanaos use a weapon quite distinct from that of the Ternatans. It is a campilan or cutlass of one edge, and heavier than the pointless Turkish weapon. It is a very bloody weapon, but, being so heavy, it is a danger for him who handles it, if he is not adroit with it. It has only two forms of use, namely, to wield it by one edge, and to raise it by the other, in order to deal another stroke, its weight allowing time for the spears of the opponents to enter. They do not gird it on, as that would be too much trouble, but carry it on the shoulders, in the fashion of the camarlengos53 who carry the rapiers on their shoulders in public ceremonies in front of their princes. Besides that weapon the Mindanao uses lance, kris, and shield, as do the other nations. Both these and those have begun to use firearms too much, having acquired that from intercourse with our enemies. They manage all sorts of artillery excellently, and in their fleets all their craft carry their [182]own pieces, with ladle, culverins, esmerils, and other small weapons.54 [183]

I confess that I read this letter, in which the reverend author criticises the customs and dispositions of the natives of Filipinas, some years ago. But I read it as I am wont to read other letters, for diversion and amusement, without thinking much about its artfulness, and I was delighted with its erudition. However, when I afterward considered its contents with some degree of thought, I saw that it brought forward, in its whole length, no solid proof of what it tries to make one believe; and it appeared to me a hyperbolical criticism from the very beginning. On that account I resolved to make a few brief commentaries on the matter in the letter, both for the consolation of those whom our Lord may call to these missions, and so that it may be understood that at times sadness and melancholy are accustomed to heighten things, making giants out of pygmies—all the more, if a relish for revery and grumbling be joined with a tendency to exaggeration and with [284]figures of speech corresponding thereto. Consequently, I am surprised that the reverend annalist or chronicler [i.e., San Antonio] of the seraphic province of San Gregorio praises this letter, saying that it is worth printing, since its author has penetrated as far as one may penetrate into the characters of the natives of these islands. And yet the author confesses that it is as difficult to define their nature as are the eight impossible things which are recounted there. That seems to me a fine hyperbole.

From the above one can see that, as he commenced this letter by affirming a hyperbole with eight hyperboles, it is not surprising that I called it hyperbolical; and especially if all the hyperboles that it contains from its beginning to its end be enumerated. But ere I begin to express my opinion I would like to sum up two contradictory and opposite expressions that I find in these authors. The reverend father Fray Gaspar says of the Indians, in his letter, that the difficulty of knowing the Indians lies not in the individual but in the race, for, if one be known, all are known.

Father Pedro Murillo says, in his approbation of the Cronicas,249 that “there is no fixed rule by which [285]to construe the Indians; for each one needs a new syntax, all being anomalous. With the Indians the argument does not conclude by induction, since no one [286]is like to himself; for, in the short circuit of a day, he changes into more colors than a chameleon, takes more shapes than a Proteus, and has more movements [287]than a Euripus.250 He who has most to do with them, knows them least. In short, they are an aggregate of contrarieties, and the best logician cannot reconcile them. They are an obscure and confused chaos, in which no species can be perceived and no points of exactness distinguished.” All these terms considered one by one, compose a very exaggerated hyperbole, in which this author showed his great erudition and little experience, for he only ministered in a few missions, and for a short time. For during most of the time while he lived in these islands he did not leave the professor’s chair, except for a short time; and all that he tells of his journey to and travels among the Visayas was learned in passing and hastily, in company with the provincial who visited those missions. There he obtained very little light on the character and temperament of the Indians, as he had no dealings with them as one settled among them. And, just as in this expression he opposes himself without much reason to the reverend father Fray Gaspar, who after forty years of ministry, affirms that the Indians are well designated by the Greek word monopantas—a term which was given to a certain people by a critic, as they were all similar and homogeneous—so also when he affirms that all are anomalous and heterogeneous because they cannot all be constructed in one and the same syntax, does he go beyond the credence that can be given to his ingenious hyperboles. The experience that the said Father Murillo could have is of the Indians [288]who go about in Manila and its environs, who are interpreters, servants in accounting-rooms and secretarial offices, who are accustomed to deal with Spaniards of all kinds, with creoles, mestizos, Sangleys, and other kinds of people who assemble there for trade. They have learned fraud and deceit, as well as the bad morals and propensities of all and every one of them. As is seen, one cannot judge of a whole nation—and much less of all the nations of the islands, who are diverse and distinct in genius and customs by the cases of these Indians who speak Spanish. And taking into account so great diversity, I affirm that it is impossible to find a definition that admits and includes all of them. For these persons whom I have mentioned, reared among so many classes, and among people so heterogeneous, and who are imbued with customs so diverse, cannot form rules by which to explain their own nation, much less by which to define the other nations.

Now if the statements of authors in regard to physical or moral matters are so at variance that we can say that each author has a different opinion—as says the proverb, Quot capita, tot sententiæ—and if thus far no ground and certain point has been found at which the understanding may stop, how is it strange that they do not find, in order to describe Indians with customs so unusual and artificial as have those of Manila, a compound idea made up of all that they have learned from the Spaniard, both good and evil; all that they have learned from the Guachinango;251 and what they have learned from the mestizo, [289]the Sangley, the Moro, the Malabar, the Cafre, and all the other people with whom they have intercourse and with whom they trade? Granting this to be true, it appears that the definition of Father Murillo fits these Spanish-speaking Indians, but not the others, who have not had any intercourse with diverse classes of people. On this account it seems to me that father Fray Gaspar hit the definition exactly, when he said in his letter that the Asiatic Indians of Filipinas are almost the same as all the people of the nations of Eastern India, in what concerns their genius, disposition, and inclination; and are not distinguished one from another except in their rites, clothing, and languages. I add, in what regards their abilities and capacities—which are so good, and in general so well inclined—that I believe that if children, either boys or girls, were taken from Filipinas to Viscaya or to Castilla, the natives [of those countries] would not distinguish them from the Vizcainos, Castilians, or mountaineers. For their vices are not due so much to their nature, as to their bad rearing and education; and they are easily instructed both in the evil and in the good. And notwithstanding what father Fray Gaspar, Father Murillo, and Fray Juan [Francisco] de San Antonio have said, they would have been more successful had they not said, with exaggeration, that it would be impossible to write everything that they have observed of the Indians, on all the paper that is found in China. That is a hyperbole that transcends all faith. Thus does he continue in all that he says; and he affirms, further, that it surpasses all that we can touch with the hands or see with the eyes. Hence from the beginning we can state those two rules of law: semel [290]malus, semper præsumitur malus; and the other, malum ex quocumque defectu.252...

What mystery is there in the customs and genius of the Indians that should make them so deep and inscrutable that we cannot reach them, sound them, and explain them? since they are Indians like all the rest of the people of Asia, without there being more or less in them. Therefore, “these profundities, this intricate, confused chaos, this aggregate of contrarieties, this maze of contradictions, are a collection of rhetorical locutions or tropes invented in order to exaggerate and to use hyperboles in what of itself has no mystery—these definitions remaining purely in the manner of speech, or of the conception, of their authors; or perhaps in a mere misapprehension formed by a critical, melancholy, or affected genius.

But since in this letter, the evil propensities of the Indians, both men and lads, who act as servants, are set down in detail, let us see on the other hand, somewhat of the good that the Indians possess. For one should not write and consider only the evil, and omit as fitting all the good, in order thereby to make the object more detestable. For, as says a mystical writer, we must not possess the nature of the dung-beetle, which goes always to the dungheap, but that of the bee, which always seeks out the sweet and pleasant. Let us see what Father Murillo says of the good: “They are most clever in any handiwork, not in inventing but in imitating what they see. They are most beautiful writers; and there are many tailors and barbers among them. They are excellent embroiderers, painters, goldsmiths, and engravers, [291]whose burin has not the like in all the Indias (and I was even about to pass farther if shame did not restrain me), as is seen clearly in the many good engravings that they make daily. They are good sculptors, gilders, and carpenters. They make the water craft of these islands, the galleys, pataches, and ships of the Acapulco line. They act as sailors, artillery-men, and divers; for there is scarce an Indian who cannot swim excellently. They are the under-pilots of these seas. They are very expert in making bejuquillos,253 which are gold chains of a very delicate and exquisite workmanship. They make hats, petates or rugs, and mats, from palm-leaves, rattan, and nito,254 which are very beautiful, and embroidered with various kinds of flowers and figures. They are remarkable mechanics and puppet-showmen, and they make complicated mechanisms which, by means of figures, go through various motions with propriety and accuracy. There are some jewelers. They make powder, and cast swivel-guns, cannon, and bells. I have seen them make guns as fine as those of Europa. There are three printing houses in Manila, and all have Indian workmen. They have great ability in music. There is no village however small, that has not its suitable band of musicians for the services of the Church. They have excellent voices—sopranos, contraltos, tenors, and basses. Almost all of them can play the harp, and there are many [292]violinists, rebeck, oboe, and flute players. The most remarkable thing is, that not only do those whose trade it is make those instruments; but various Indians make guitars, flutes, harps, and violins, for pleasure, with their bolos and machetes. And by the mere seeing those instruments played, they learn them almost without any teaching; and the same thing occurs in other things. On this account it is said that the Indians have their understanding in their eyes, since they imitate whatever they see, by another like it.” This is what Father Murillo says; but he left the most important things in the inkhorn. I will add them here, as I have heard them affirmed many times by the Spaniards in Cavite, namely: Who are the men who convey and conduct the ships and galleons from Acapulco and other kingdoms? Is it the Spaniards? Ask that of the pilots, masters, and boatswains, and they will all affirm that this great and inestimable good is due to the Indian alone. (Here is indeed where a hyperbole will fit exactly.) Besides this, who are the people who support us in these lands and those who furnish us food? Perhaps the Spaniards dig, harvest, and plant throughout the islands? Of a surety, no; for when they arrive at Manila, they are all gentlemen. The Indians are the ones who plow the lands, who sow the rice, who keep it clear [of weeds], who tend it, who harvest it, who thrash it out with their feet—and not only the rice which is consumed in Manila, but that throughout the Filipinas—and there is no one in all the islands who can deny me that. Besides this, who cares for the cattle-ranches? The Spaniards? Certainly not. The Indians are the ones who care for, and manage and tend the sheep and cattle by which [293]the Spaniards are supported. Who rears the swine? Is it not the same Indians? Who cultivates the fruits—the bananas, cacao, and all the other fruits of the earth? of which there is always abundance in the islands, unless unfavorable weather, locusts, or some other accident cause their loss? Who provide Manila and the Spaniards with oil? Is it not the poor Visayan Indians, who bring it in their vessels annually? Who furnishes so great profit to the Spaniards in Manila with the balate255 and sigay; and who buys these products very cheaply from the wretched Indians, and resell them for double the sum to the pataches of the coast and to the Sangleys? Who guide and convey us to the villages and missions, and serve us as guides, sailors, and pilots? Perhaps it is the Spaniards? No, it is the Indians themselves, with their so exaggerated, magnified, and heightened laziness. Is this the thanks that we give them, when we are conquering them in their own lands, and have made ourselves masters in them, and are served by them almost as by slaves? We ought to give God our Lord many thanks, because He maintains us only through the affection and by the useful labors of the Indians in this land; and He would perhaps have already driven us hence if it were not for this usefulness of theirs, and for the salvation of the Indians. [294]We also owe many thanks to the Indians, since God our Lord sustains us in their lands by their means; and because we would die of starvation if they did not sustain us, provide us with food, serve us, and conduct us through the islands with so much love and security that they would all first perish before the father in whatever perils arise.

These and many other like things were overlooked by Father Murillo, who was enraptured by their music, engraving, and rugs. By the aforesaid, one will see with how little truth the statement is printed that the Indians are the greatest enemies that the father ministers have; for certainly all the above could not be reconciled with such a proposition. On the contrary, it must be said that the Indians are those who defend us from our enemies; for, in the presidios, who are the soldiers, who sail in the war fleets, who are in the vanguard in war? Could the Spaniards, perchance, maintain themselves alone in this country, if the Indians did not aid in everything? Little experience and less reflection would he have who should propose such a thing. Therefore, these two things do not harmonize well, that those who hate us should defend us, and that those who are our greatest enemies should be the ones to maintain and support us. Nor is it to be wondered at that there have been insurrections on several occasions; these, perhaps, have not arisen because the Indians were ill-disposed to the Spaniards; but, on the contrary, we know that many of them have been caused by the cruelty, wickedness, and tyranny of some alcalde-mayor and other Spaniards who, having been elevated from low beginnings, try to become gods and kings in the provinces, tyrannizing over the Indians [295]and their possessions. This is often the cause of the insurrections. Would that I could mention some especial cases in this matter. However, I do not care to dip my pen in blood, and write tragedies instead of history. For, although I could say more, the authority and arrogance that every Spaniard assumes upon his arrival in this country is incredible. [296]