The Inhabitants of the Philippines Part 48

They use a most active poison on their harpoons and darts, so much so, that it is said to produce almost instantaneous death.

This poison is unknown to the other tribes. They refuse to sell their cerbatanas, or blow-pipes, from which they shoot their darts.

They are said to intermarry indiscriminately, without regard to kinship. Their number was computed at 1500 in the year 1888, and they are probably not much more numerous now.

These people are, like the Negritos, whom they resemble, a hopeless race, not capable of advancing in civilisation.

Manguianes and Negritos of Palawan.

These people have been described under the heading Aetas or Negritos, in Part I. The first-named inhabit the interior of that part of the island occupied by the Moros who jealously prevent them from holding any intercourse with strangers.

Moros of Southern Palawan.--These people do not differ in any essential particular from the Moros of Mindanao. They look back with regret on the good old days before the advent of the steam gun-boats, and the establishment of the fortified posts along their sh.o.r.es when they could make their annual raids and ma.s.sacre, plunder, and enslave, the wretched Tagbanuas without interference. They will doubtless take full advantage of any negligence of the United States authorities to keep up the gun-boat flotilla, and to maintain the military posts.

They now live by agriculture, all the labour being performed by slaves, and by trading with the savages of the mountains, vying with the Christians in usurious rapacity.

John Chinaman in Palawan is just the same as his brother in Mindanao--a remorseless usurer, and a skilful manipulator of false weights and measures, but no worse in the treatment of the unhappy aboriginal than the Christian native or half-caste.

Puerto Princesa, the capital, had a population at the time of my visit in 1890 of about 1500, of which number 1200 were males and 300 females. About half the males were soldiers and sailors, one-fourth convicts, and the remainder civilians. Most of the women had been deported from Manila as undesirable characters in that decorous city. Notwithstanding their unsavoury antecedents, they found new husbands or protectors in Puerto Princesa the moment they landed. Such was the compet.i.tion for these very soiled doves, that most of them had made their new arrangements before leaving the jetty alongside which the steamer they arrived in lay.

There was some little cultivation round about the capital, but as usual trading with the aborigines for gum, rattans, balate, green snail-sh.e.l.ls, and other jungle produce was the most entrancing pursuit.

At a short distance from the town was a Government Sugar Plantation, which I visited. If sugar planting could flourish anywhere, it surely should have done so here, for the land cost nothing, the convicts did all the unskilled labour and the machinery was paid for by the Government. Yet the blighting influence of the official mind succeeded even here in causing the place to be run at a loss. The sugar badly prepared was shipped to Manila to be sold at a reduced price, and sugar for the troops and general use was imported from other parts.

The governor of the island, during the later period of Spanish rule, has usually been a naval officer, and as the communications are princ.i.p.ally by sea, and any punitive operations have to be performed by the gun-boat flotilla, this would seem to be a precedent the United States might follow with advantage.

Tagbanua Alphabet.

Communicated to F. H. Sawyer by Fray Lorenzo Zapater, Missionary at Inagahuan, Palawan.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Tagbanua Alphabet.]

N.B.--The Roman letters are to be p.r.o.nounced as in Spanish and the Tagbanua correspondingly, Ah, bay, say, day, aye or ee, o or oo, pay, ku, etc.

Notes by the Padre Zapater.

(Translation.)

1. The consonants in the Tagbanua alphabet are eleven and sometimes twelve, but the vowels are three, since the ia and the oa which are vowels, are compound letters, although strictly they may be considered as vowels, but the ia and the ua are written the same, as has been said.

2. In reading the Tagbanua alphabet, you begin from the bottom upwards.

3. To write the consonants with their vowels, for example, ba, be, bi, bo, bu, you put a dash at the right or left. If on the right, it means be, bi, and if on the left of the consonant bo, bu.

N.B.--Father Zapater's note 3 is somewhat obscure, or rather badly expressed. It perhaps ought to have been said that a dash right and left means ba.

PART III

MINDANAO, INCLUDING BASILAN.

CHAPTER x.x.xV.

BRIEF GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION.

Configuration--Mountains--Rivers--Lakes--Division into districts--Administration--Productions--Basilan.

Mindanao is of a very irregular shape, which it is not easy to describe. It has some resemblance to a winged skate, with a long tail, one of the Raiidae, which is common in Manila Bay. The head of the skate is turned to the east; the peninsula of Surigao forms the northern wing, and Punta Panguian the tip of the southern wing, out of which, however, a great piece has been bitten, corresponding to the Gulf of Davao. The body is represented by the main part of the island, and the tail commences at the isthmus of Tucuran and stretches westward for a degree of longitude. This straight part is the old kingdom of Sibuguey. On the north of it, however, a huge excrescence appears; this is the peninsula of Dapitan, and on the south, opposite to it, there is a similar projection, which is cut in two by the Gulf of Dumanquilas.

Mt. Silingan represents the spike or hook usually found on the tails of these fish, and from here the tail bends southward and westward through an arc of 60. This part represents the peninsula of Zamboanga, and the town of that name is situated at the tip of the tail. A continuous chain of mountains down the centre of the tail represents the vertebrae.

Beginning on the east, we find a long stretch of coast from Surigao to Cape San Agustin with only one or two anchorages for small vessels. The rest of the coast is exposed to the full force of the Pacific Ocean, and from November to April is quite open to the N.E. monsoon. It is also subject to tidal waves or rollers just as are the coasts of Peru and Chili. A destructive bore enters the river mouths and inlets, and heavy seas get up off all the headlands. In the channels between Surigao and the islands off the northern coasts, rapid currents are formed and overfalls render navigation dangerous for country vessels. In fact, during the strength of the N.E. monsoon the east coast, from Placer to the Bay of Mayo, is hemmed in with surf, and without a single port. Behind point Taucanan, however, is found Port Balete and Port Pujada. This latter is the best port in the island, being well sheltered from the N. and N.E. The country about it is well watered, and produces timber trees of great size and fine quality. The waters contain plenty of fish, and turtle, also some mother-of-pearl sh.e.l.ls. The forests give the best kinds of almaciga, and wax.

The hill-men are partly independent but pacific, and the Visaya population is considerable in the district of Mati.

In general, the east coast is rocky, and very foul in many places. The land is fertile and well-wooded. Gold is found in the Cordillera, and on its eastern slopes all the way from Surigao to Punta Tagobong. One of the northern towns is called Placer on this account. The inaccessibility of the east coast during the strength of the N.E. monsoon has r.e.t.a.r.ded the civilisation of Surigao which was settled in the early years of the conquest. The Caraga-Visaya, who inhabit a considerable district on this coast, are old Christians and have always been ready to fight for their faith.

Practically parallel to this coast is a chain of mountains which begins at Surigao and extends down to Punta San Agustin with hardly a break. I shall call this the eastern Cordillera. In this chain, near the northern end, lies Lake Mainit (Hot Lake), having steep sides with twenty fathoms close to the edge, and two hundred fathoms in the middle. This cavity has, no doubt, been formed by volcanic action, like the lake of Taal. On the slopes of the mountains around it are many thermal springs which run into the lake, and in rainy weather the summits are always shrouded in vapour by the evaporation of the rain.

The lake is subject to tremendous floods. Dr. Montano, who visited it in December, 1880, speaks of a rise of twelve fathoms. He also says that a ground-swell gets up in this sheltered lake; this must be from some modified volcanic action still going on. As usual in Philippine crater-lakes, this is a great breeding-place for alligators.

The Eastern Cordillera being so near the coast, there are of course no navigable rivers running into the Pacific, but the streams become impa.s.sable torrents during the heavy rains which begin in June, and prevent communication by land for many days or even weeks at a stretch.

Approximately parallel to the Eastern Cordillera, and at about fifty geographical miles distance, there stands another range which I shall call the Central Cordillera. A line drawn from Punta Diuata to the middle of the Gulf of Sarangani, nearly due north and south, intersects Mt. Sinalagao, Mt. Panamoyan, the active volcano, Mt. Apo and Mt. Matutuan, which appear to be the loftiest peaks of the range.

From Mt. Panamoyan in about 7 50' N. Lat. a spur strikes eastwards at right angles to the range, reaching half-way across the valley. This spur then turns to the south parallel to the range for some twenty miles, and from the middle of the east and west part, another spur turns south for about 20 miles, thus forming a letter E with the points looking south.

In the wide valley between the Eastern and Central Cordilleras, and taking the drainage of the whole watershed is the River Agusan. Rising about the 7th parallel on the slopes of Mt. Tagoppo, this river runs a very sinuous course in a general northerly direction, but inclining slightly to the west, receiving innumerable tributaries on either side. At about 8 15' N. Lat. the Agusan expands or overflows, forming a series of shallow lakes, choked up with driftwood and vegetation, and varying in extent with the rainfall.

Continually gathering volume, it runs into the Bay of Butuan about 9 N. Lat.

At Moncayo, in 7 45' N. Lat., the Agusan is one hundred yards wide, and is navigable for canoes even much higher up.