The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 Part 14

Dvao, July 26, 1886.

Pax Christi.

My dearly beloved Father Superior in Christ: [109]

I have just received your favor of the fourteenth inst. I am very glad that you have returned from your long journey without having experienced any misfortune. Welcome to the Fathers and Brothers of the new mission! A fraternal embrace to them all!

I desired to write your Reverence a long letter, but since the post has found me alone, in Dvao, for Fathers Perell and Mor have not returned from their excursion to Libuac, I shall not be able to write at great length, as I must attend to the other duties necessary here during the days for the steamboat. May G.o.d repay your Reverence for the charity which you extend me in the good news that you give me. What shall I tell you on this occasion? The circ.u.mstances of this mission offer me some material, especially the consideration of the condition of the various races of heathens who inhabit it, and especially the race of the Bagobos. To what extremities do their ignorance and the malice of the common enemy reduce them! This latter, being the prince of darkness, rules them thoroughly, no longer by insinuating himself and presenting himself under the forms of apparent goodness, in order to take possession of their hearts and souls without intimidating them, acting as a seductive deceiver, but in the midst of the shadows of this heathenism, he does not fear to appear so frightfully horrible and cruel as he is in reality.

I have considered, at times, as did our holy Father, Ignacio, Satan on his throne of smoke and fire, with horrible and frightful face, in the great field of Babilonia, and this formula, which is feigned by means of the imagination to aid the understanding in consideration of the truth that it claims, is here a reality. What is it but that large field inhabited by so many heathen races, whose confusion of tongues forms the labyrinth of the mission in which we work! What signifies this volcanic mountain Apo, in which the great Mandarngan lives as in his throne of smoke and fire, as is believed and related by the Bagobos, who bathe themselves in the blood of thousands upon thousands of human victims! Is not this truly the field of Babilonia, where the prince of darkness reigns? And who can tell the years of his dominion here? The Bagobos of Siblan usually show their antiquity by the following genealogies. Mnip, the present dato, had for father Pangulan; Pangulan was the son of Tapan; Tapan, son of Maliad; Maliad, son of Banga; Banga, son of Lmbay; Lmbay, son of Basian; Basian, son of Bas; Bas, son of Bat; Bat, son of Salinglop. They say that of all their ancestors, Salinglop was the most powerful, and his name was always preserved among all his descendants. Before him there were already Bagobos with the same customs as those of today, that is, they were heathens and slaves of the great Mandarngan or Satan, to whom it appears that they always sacrificed human victims. The father of Mnip was the dato of Siblan, who died a few months ago at a very old age (perhaps he was as much as a hundred), and whom they say had already attained to the condition of immortality, which was due to the matuga guinaua, or good heart of Mandarngan, because of the many victims that he had offered that being. It is said that when he was yet a youth, he sought a wife, but did not obtain her until he had cut off fifty human heads, as was attested by the hundred ears which he carried in a sack from the river Libagnon to Siblan. How many victims must that single Bagobo have offered up! Even after his death it was necessary to seal his sepulcher with the blood of human victims. For his son Mnip and his other relatives did not remove the mourning or lalaoan, as they call it, until after they had barbarously sacrificed seven slaves, according to the relation of Itang. That man fearing to be one of the victims, presented himself to the father missionary in order to place his temporal and eternal life in safety, and that was quickly done for he was baptized a while ago under the name of Juan.

Quite patent is the barbarity of these people and the complete dominion of the prince of darkness in the field of the Bagobo heathenism. But perhaps one will ask: "How can so paradoxical a barbarity exist, since by sacrificing their slaves, [110] those people lose slave and money? Leaving to one side even the inhumanity revealed by so barbarous a custom, only by not attacking so directly their own interests by depriving themselves of arms for their work, etc., it appears that they would have to refrain from sacrificing their slaves; but necessarily they are very much given to human sacrifices, not only in order to preserve a custom of their ancestors, but also in order not to lose a kind of trade that is sufficiently lucrative, and of which I made mention in one of my former letters.

Nevertheless, it will not be too much to relate the following case in support of my a.s.sertion. Maglndao, a good lad, and yet single, was the name of the victim. His master was not a Bagobo, but he was married to a Bagobo woman, and far from following the customs of his country which are more humane and civilized, he immediately committed so evil a deed that he could well have been graduated as master from the Bagobo school. Maglndao was the son of Apat, a Bagobo, and from childhood had never been the slave of any person. But in order to obtain some pamran or pendents of ivory which were worth eight or ten pesos, he gave his word to work for a certain length of time for the owner of the pamran. The latter, considering him as his slave, or rather, as if he were a wild boar of the woods, having grown angry at him one day because he did not do as he was ordered, fired his gun point blank at him so that the ball entered his back and came out in front just below the right breast, also going through his arm. The wound was mortal, especially as he was left, just as his master left him, totally abandoned. But, since in spite of all, two days had pa.s.sed, and Maglndao had not died, his master bethought him that he could make use of him for the sacrifice which the Bagobos of Cuit were about to make on the occasion of the death of the old Balolo. The sacrificers, in number about twenty heathens, agreed to kill or sacrifice the wounded youth, giving his master seventy paves, [111] or about fourteen cavans of palay. That was a stroke of business that was considered as profitable by both parties to the contract. The sacrifices believed that they were the gainers in it, for since the victim was nearly dead when he came into their hands, they obtained him ipso facto at a lower price, and thus saved money and stabbing. He who sold the victim also thought himself the gainer, because by handing him over for the sacrifice, he saved the labor and expenses of burial, and had enough palay to eat throughout the year.

I have been able to ascertain the facts about this and other horrible sacrifices through the sacrificers themselves who have been converted to the Catholic faith, who have not hesitated to relate them to me with the above details and others which I omit. The above will suffice for your Reverence to understand that human sacrifices are a real business here, and are maintained not only by Bagobos, but also by Moros and other heathen races. It is an infamous traffic which can only be wiped out by means of the civilizing action which Espaa is exercising over Mindanao. Some heathens having been reprimanded on a certain occasion by the governor of this district in regard to so barbarous a custom, had the audacity to reply to him in the following manner: "Sir, is not every one allowed to spend his money as he pleases? Slaves answer the purposes of money among us, and we spend that money according to our pleasure and custom."

Much more barbarous are they than the Ammonites, who sacrificed their sons to Moloch, and those other idolaters who sacrificed to Saturn, for both of them did it only several times a year, for the Bagobos sacrifice very frequently. There is no ranchera in which they do not annually make their feasts to the demon--Bsao, Mandarngan, or Darag, for they are wont to give him these and many other names. On the day of the great a.s.sembly at the house of the dato or chief of the ranchera, they only eat and drink, sing and dance with joy, and there is no appearance of anything evil, except the scandals which reveling and the worship of Darag generally occasion. There with cup of wine in hand, they mutually pledge one another, and yielding the word to the old man or chief of the feast, they drink toasts with him in honor of the great Darag, whom they promise to follow and honor forever, offering to him, as did their ancestors, the blood of many human victims, so that he may be their friend and aid them in their wars. Curious persons who are present at those feasts, do not understand the language of the old men nor see anything that hints of a human sacrifice, but those who are fully initiated in the Bagabo customs, will note immediately the token of the human sacrifice which was made in the woods on the preceding day among the branches placed in the bamboo or drum, before which the old men above mentioned make their invocation to Darag.

When any contagious disease appears, or whenever any of their relatives die, the Bagobos believe that the demon is asking them for victims, and they immediately hasten to offer them to him so that he may not kill them. They are accustomed generally to show their goodwill in the act of sacrifice in the following words: Aoaton no ian dipnoc ini man.o.bo, tmbac dipnoc co, so canac man sapi, [that is] "Receive the blood of this slave, as if it were my blood, for I have paid for it to offer it to thee." These words which they address to Bsao, when they wound and slash the victim, show clearly that they believe in and expect to have the demon as their friend by killing people for him. For they hope to a.s.sure their life in proportion to the number of their neighbors they deliver to death, which they believe is always inflicted by Bsao or the demon who is devoured continually by hunger for human victims.

Now it is seen, your Reverence, my Father, whether I said with reason that this place appears the kingdom of the prince of darkness as horrible and cruel as it is in reality. His subjects, or better, his slaves, although they easily comprehend the existence of a G.o.d, creator and omnipotent, since they believe as they do, that sickness and death come from Bsao, and that the latter is only fond of blood and revolution, dedicate their altars and sacrifices to him, consenting to the impious and iniquitous pact of eternal servitude, which their ancestors, deceived and reduced by the great Mandarngan, made at the foot of the Apo Volcano. Let us beseech the intercession of the angels and the saints, and especially that of the Queen and Lady, our Mother, the most holy Virgin, before G.o.d our Lord, so that by His grace, He may unite the hearts of all those who can aid us in the material and spiritual conquest of these peoples.

Here I take leave of your Reverence, saluting all the Fathers and Brothers of those colleges, to whose holy prayers and sacrifices I commend myself.

Your Reverence's servant in Christ,

Mateo Gisbert, S. J.

Dvao, December 24, 1886.

Pax Christi.

My dearly beloved Father Superior in Christ:

[Once] since the seven months in which I have been able to visit San Jos of Smal, I went there lately to say ma.s.s and preach to those poor people, at that time solemnizing eight baptisms and one marriage. It is fitting for the Smals who were always visited and cared for by the father missionaries of Dvao, to be specially visited and cared for now when some of those who formerly showed most opposition, offer themselves for baptism. During this last visit I baptized Mal-lyan, the headman, a son-in-law of Captain Bagusan. The latter has become a fury, and refuses to allow any of those whom he calls his scopes to be baptized, and he threatens with his gun the one who does not conform to him, and commits real outrages. He is a madman of a bad kind, worse than Bsao himself. For if the demon looses the chains of heathenism on anyone and that person becomes baptized through the mercy of G.o.d, Bagusan hastens to fasten them on again. That happened lately to Cabis, who, one day going to get his wife in order that they two might be baptized and live in San Jos with two daughters already Christians, has been detained and rigorously forbidden to present himself before the father.

On account of this war against baptism by Bagusan, which is both obligatory and of long standing in Smal, it is advisable to pay heed to that field of Christendom, so that it may increase, although that increase be but gradual, and so that the entire island may finally be converted. The appointment, by the governor, of the Christians of San Jos as captain, lieutenant, etc., has produced an excellent result. It might be said that those Christians are the real datos of the island, and the only ones who obey the orders that they receive, who cultivate cacao, and form a true village.

The village which your Reverence saw in the old Casalcan has remained talis qualis. [112] These people if they are not baptized, live in the manner of Bagusan. "A village--and on the beach--in order to live under guard and subject--bah!" they say. "We don't want it! We don't want it!" There is a race, however, or to speak more accurately, the remnant of what was the Moro race, which was formerly predominant on these coasts, whose datos and captains, for fear of being abandoned by the few scopes whom they still have, are the first ones to present themselves and beg for a village. And since they know that that pet.i.tion is generally heeded by all the governors who succeed to the district, they easily obtain the support that they ask, and form something that resembles a village, if it be looked at especially from the sea. Thus do they oblige the scattered scopes to reunite under their datos and panditas, and that is the very thing that they desire, in order that they might maintain their customs and mode of living.

Since the Moros do not agree in any part, and much less here, where we have so many other good and numerous races, it would be very politic, in my opinion, to encourage the spirit of the Moros who are attempting to separate from their datos and panditas, so that the latter may become isolated and without any authority. If it is thought advisable to a.s.semble them into a settlement, since, counting all the Moros of the gulf, their number does not reach five thousand, it would be an excellent thing to a.s.semble them in one village, at a point where they can be better watched and governed. But if they were ordered to a.s.semble in one single village, it would always be necessary to permit those Moros who wished, to separate from their datos and panditas in order that they might take root in the villages and reductions as do the other heathens. Being baptized like them, if they wish, they may do it freely without the obstacle of datos and panditas. As they are now, although there are but few here, they fill and dirty the whole thing; for scarcely is there a river or a valley whose mouth has not its dato and pandita, who, together with their scopes, the latter of whom do not number ten at times, say that they are making a village by order of the governor. But what they are really doing is to prevent other heathens from being reduced and making a village, which would actually be of real advantage for the future.

I will close by asking your Reverence to commend me to G.o.d in your holy prayers and sacrifices.

Mateo Gisbert, S. J.

LETTER FROM FATHER PABLO CAVALLERIA TO FATHER FRANCISCO SANCHEZ

Isabela de Baslan, December 31, 1886.

Pax Christi.

My very dearly beloved in Christ, Father Snchez:

Replying to your favor, in which your Reverence asks for information concerning the inhabitants of this island of Baslan, I have deemed it best to write the following.

Races

The races of this island are the indigenous race and the Moros. The indigenous is Christian and there is little or nothing to say of them, since they are well known to your Reverence.

The Moro [113] race is infidel, and lives on the coast and in the interior.

The indigenous race forms the settlement of Isabela de Baslan, consisting of some eight hundred souls.

Further sixteen families of Christian Indians reside in the visita called San Pedro de Guibuan distant six leguas from Isabela. Their absolute lieutenant in chief is Pedro Cuvas.

The Moro race is now greatly degenerated, for many are coming down from the Bisayas who were formerly captives.

The Moros of the interior of the island are called Ycanes, [114]

and are employed, although but little, in the cultivation of palay, sweet-potatoes, cacao, etc.

The Moros of the coast are called Smales Lat. They are employed, although little, in fishing. They are pirates, and whenever they can do so with impunity, they capture the Christians, or the Moros of the interior themselves, or those of distant Smal rancheras, or those of other islands. On that account there is a certain hostility between the Smales and the Ycanes. At present, Pedro Cuvas, so far as he is able, executes justice upon those who exercise such boldness, and applies the law to them.

Among the Smales Lat, there are Joloan Moros, and Malays.

The total number of the Moros of this island is ten or twelve thousand. [115] Their skin is of a deep bronze color, and they have black eyes, rather meager eyebrows, thin beard and their cranium is flattened on the occipital part.

Religion

They are not very observant in their ceremonies.