Letters from Father Mateo Gisbert to the Reverend Fathers and Brothers of Veruela
Dávao, January 4, 1886.
Pax Christi.
My most beloved Fathers and Brothers in Christ:
Now I have to answer your fine letter, by telling you something of these missions, which I do not doubt will interest you greatly. In this and in the other letters which I plan to write you, I shall limit myself to mentioning things which I have either seen myself or have heard from eyewitnesses.
The matter of the Carolinas[1] has alarmed us a trifle hereabout; for as those islands are so near these coasts, and these peoples are so fearful, Christians and heathens have more than once believed themselves enslaved by the Germans. Even yet they do not have all the confidence that would be advisable to make them settle down and quietly build their villages; for any evil information although without foundation and improbable is enough to make them take to the mountains. The reverend father superior of the mission sent us some Spanish banners from Manila for the reductions of these coasts, and we told them all that if they flung the Spanish banners, although a foreign boat should approach, they ought not to fear anything.
Map of the Coraline Islands; photographic facsimile of map in Lettres édifantes (Paris, 1728)
[From copy in library of Harvard University]
You must already have had news of the numerous races of heathens that people the mission of Dávao. The heathens nearest to this capital are the Guiangas, who are scattered among the rivers and rancherías of Dulían; Guimálan, Tamúgan, Ceril, and Biao, and number in all six thousand four hundred souls. They talk a language difficult to understand, for it does not resemble the languages of other races. Those heathens sow rice, maize, sweet potatoes, bananas, and sugarcane. In addition they gather a considerable quantity of wax in their forests. There are some excellent smiths among them, and in general they reveal a sufficient amount of intelligence. But since they are still in a savage state, they commit many acts of barbarism, among which are human sacrifices. As yet they have not heard a father missionary who can talk to them in their language, and only a few of those who come to Dávao have been baptized. I have had something to do at times with the nearest who understand and talk the language of the Bagobos, their neighbors. This very week I am to visit those of the Malá River where there are some Christians and catechumens who are constructing a chapel for me when I go.
The Bagobos are another race of heathens, who, occupying the folds of the volcano of Apo,[2] extend along the southwest part of Dávao between the Taomo and Bolotúcan rivers. They number approximately ten or twelve thousand souls. About eight hundred have as yet been reduced, and only about four hundred have been baptized in the new reductions of Santa Cruz, Astorga, Daliao, Bagó, and Taomo. The Bagobos differ scarcely from the Guiangas, except in the language that is peculiar to the latter. They are reported, nevertheless, to be great sacrificers [of human flesh], and are very much set in the customs of their ancestors. They have two feasts annually: one before the sowing of the rice, and the other after its harvest. This last is of an innocent enough character and is called the feast of women. At that feast all the people gather at the house of their chief or the master of the feast, at the decline of the afternoon. That day they feast like nobles, and drink until it is finished the sugarcane wine which has been prepared for that purpose. There is music, singing, and dancing almost all the night, and the party breaks up at dawn of the following day. The feast which they hold before the sowing is a criminal and repugnant trago-comedy. The tragical part is the first thing that is done. When they have assembled in the middle of the woods, after taking all the precautions necessary, so that the matter may not reach the ears of the authority of the district or of the father missionary, they tightly bind the slave whom they are going to sacrifice. When once assured that they will not be discovered, all armed with sharp knives, they leap and jump about the victim striking him one after the other, or several at one time amid infernal cries and shouts, until the body of the victim sacrificed has been cut into bits. From the place of the sacrifice they then go to the house of their chief or the master of the feast, holding branches in their hands which they place in a large bamboo, which is not only the chief adornment but the altar of the house in which they meet. Here comes the comical part, for like one who has done nothing, they all eat and drink, and some of the most joyful play on musical instruments, and dance. The principal part is reserved for the old man or master of the feast. He standing near the bamboo which I have mentioned above, holding the vessel of wine in his hand, and talking with his comrades, addresses the great demon called Daragó, whose feast they are celebrating, in the following words: “Daragó, we are making you this feast, with great good will and gladness, offering you the blood of the sacrifice which we have made and this wine which we drink so that you may be our friend, accompany us, and be propitious in our wars.” Afterward and as a continuation of what I have said, he begins a kind of litany in which all the most celebrated Daragós whom they know or believe that they know, and whose names are repeated by all at the same time, enter.
The Bagobos recognize two beginnings: and say that they have each two souls. God, or Tiquiama is very good they say and has created all things, although he has been aided by other small gods who are under his orders: such as Mamale, who made the earth; Macacóret, the air; Domacólen, the mountains; and Macaponguis, the water. Of the two souls, one goes to heaven and the other to hell. For they believe that both in this life and in the other, they belong to the devil, to whom they concede the same rights and almost the same power as to God, only with the difference that the devil is very bad, and fond of blood, and the beginning of all evil and confusion. On that account, quite neglectful of God, the being whom they serve and adore in all things is the devil. When they marry, if the lovers think that it will be of any use, they make a human sacrifice so that they may have a good marriage, so that the weather may be good, so that they may have no storm, sickness, etc.: all, things which they attribute to the devil. In the same way also when they learn that there is any contagious disease, or fear death, several of them assemble and make a human sacrifice, asking the devil to let them live, since they generously offer him that victim. They also believe that the disease can be conjured. But the time that it appears that it is necessary to make a sacrifice according to the law of the Bagobos is at the death of any one of the family, before they can remove the laláoan or mourning. In that case the sacrifice announced among them as a feria or a pilgrimage is usually announced among the Christians. At the point and on the day assigned, all the sacrificers assemble, or possibly one member of each of the families who are in mourning, at times fifty or more. The value of the slave sacrificed is paid among them all, and he who pays most has the right to sacrifice first. The victims cry out at such times as long as they can and ask pity of all; but instead of pitying them, they drown the pitiful cries with the most horrible and terrifying shouts that can be imagined. If they perform the sacrifice near the Christians, then they strike without any shouts, and even gag the mouth of the victim.
But let us leave for another letter the relation of not less horrible barbarities. O Fathers and Brothers of my soul, pray for the conversion of these wretched beings, and do not be forgetful of me in your holy sacrifices and prayers.
The servant in Christ of you all,
Mateo Gisbert, S. J.
Dávao, February 8, 1886.
My dearly beloved Fathers and Brothers in Christ:
On reading the horrible sacrifices that I described in my last letter, you will have asked: “How has the father been able to learn so minutely the inhuman customs which the savages conceal so carefully in the midst of their forests?” Your Reverences will understand indeed that I have not been able to be present at those sacrifices, but they have been explained to me by the Bagobos, who, having been baptized, recount those and other barbarities of heathenism. I have learned it also from the mouth of some victims who, being at the very point of being sacrificed, managed to escape by the aid and management of the father missionary.
I am going to mention some of the customs of the Bagobos to you which must, I believe, arrest the attention because of their ridiculousness and superstition. When the Bagobos have an evil presentiment, for which it is enough for them to see a snake in the house, or that the jar breaks in the fire, etc., they hasten to their matánom, in order to have him conjure the misfortune by means of his great wisdom. The matánom, who preserves the customs and religions of their ancestors, makes a doll with his knife, giving it the face of a man, and then addressing God, says the following words: “O God, Thou Who hast created men and trees, and all things, do not deprive us of life, and receive in exchange this bit of wood, which has our face.” After that ceremony with or without the doll, they set in the water a small bag containing a little morisqueta or rice, to which they at times add a cock. By this means they think that they have rid themselves of the disease. When they are sick, they perform the diuata in their tambaro. That consists in a dish on top of a bamboo which is fixed in the ground, on which they place buyo, bonga, lime, and tobacco, while they say to their god: “We offer thee this. Give us health.” When they visit a sick person, they have the custom of placing copper rings on their wrists or on their legs, in order that the soul which they call limócod may not leave. When anyone dies, they never bury him without placing for him his share of rice to be eaten on the journey. When they harvest their rice or maize, they give the first fruits to the diuata, and do not eat them, or sell a grain without first having made their hatchets, bolos, and other tools which they use in clearing their fields eat first. The song of the limócon is for them the message from God. It is of good or evil augury according to circumstances. Accordingly, when the limócon sings, every Bagobo stops and looks about him. If he sees for instance, a fallen tree, the limócon advises him not to advance farther for the fate of that tree awaits him, and he turns back. If he sees no particular thing which indicates or prognosticates any ill, he continues, for then the song of the limócon is good. Sneezing is always a bad omen for them, and accordingly if anyone sneezes by chance when they are about to set out on a journey, the departure is deferred until next day.
There are not as a rule many thefts among the Bagobos, for they believe that the thief can be discovered easily by means of their famous bongat. That consists of two small joints of bamboo, which contain certain mysterious powders. He who has been robbed and wishes to determine the robber, takes a hen’s egg, makes a hole in it, puts a pinch of the abovesaid powder in it, and leaves it in the fire. If he wish the robber to die he has nothing else to do than to break the egg; but since the thief may sometimes be a relative or a beloved person the egg is not usually broken, so that there may be or may be able to be a remedy. For under all circumstances, when this operation is performed, if the robber lives, wherever he may be, he himself must inform on himself by crying out, “I am the thief; I am the thief;” as he is compelled to do (they say) by the sharp pain which he feels all through his body. When he is discovered, he may be cured by putting powder from the other joint into the water and bathing his body with it. This practice is very common here among heathens and Moros. A Bagobo, named Anas, who was converted, gave me the bongat, with which he had frightened many people when a heathen.
This would be the place to write you some very interesting Bagobo stories and legends; but in order to be understood, I should have to precede it by a long preamble, for which I have no time at present; and hence I shall leave it for another time. I should like to tell you something about the other races of heathens whom we have in this mission. The Bilanes,[3] are beyond doubt, the most industrious of all the heathens that inhabit these mountains. This race numbers approximately about twenty thousand souls, who are divided among a considerable number of rancherías between the Bulatúcan River and the bay of Sarangáni, and occupying the beautiful plains of the interior where they grow considerable rice. They have some of the customs of the Bagobos their neighbors, but their language which is very different separates them as does also the natural hostility that always arms the heathen savage against the savage, and one race against the other. The Bilanes are very intelligent, and some who have been baptized, give good proof of themselves. But although it causes me the greatest pain to say it, as they are a race which deserves that we all interest ourselves in them, as they are very numerous, and capable of receiving the evangelical light and civilization, I must tell you that there is no reduction as yet among that race of heathens.
Enough for today. Another time I shall speak of the Tagacaolos, Manobos, and Atás. Meanwhile, will you pray the sacred heart of Jesus for them all and for your most affectionate brother and servant in Christ.
Mateo Gisbert, S. J.
Dávao, February 20, 1886.
My dearly beloved Fathers and Brothers in Christ:
In order that you may all be encouraged more and more to aid us with your prayers in the great undertaking that we are engaged upon, I am going to mention, as I promised, a few of the customs of several races of this mission. The Tagacaolos belong to a numerous race of heathens, who inhabit the mountains of Culáman from Sarangani to Malálag. The whole mission contains approximately about twelve or fourteen thousand. Their language is easy to understand to him who knows Visayan. They are much divided among themselves and are continually at war, the weak being the slave of the stronger, and being frequently sold to the Moros. The Bagobos almost always supply themselves from this race for their human sacrifices. Do not believe, however, that they are a people inferior to those of other races. The Tagacaolos are lighter complexioned and more docile than the other known heathens. They also have human sacrifices at times, but they easily abandon their barbarous customs.
The Manobos[4] are another numerous and savage race of heathens, who live along various points of the coast, from Malálag to Sarangani. These Manobos have little liking for work, and are warlike and valiant, being usually on the hunt for slaves. They possess firearms, which the Moros sell them in exchange for slaves. This is a misfortune which we regret, but which has no remedy, until with the progress of the reduction the action of authority may be more effectual. The Moros hereabout are a race of thieves, the most shameful that are known. They do not work and live ordinarily on the slave trade which they are always able to procure. I know some Moros in this mission who pass themselves off as friends, but are very evil. There is a pandita named Gúbat, who asserts that he likes me and respects me more than he does his own father, and comes into my presence as if he were the most friendly and obedient person in all the reductions of the coast, telling me always that he is going to collect what they owe him. As it will not take long, I shall recount one of his evil deeds. Two years ago he went to Tubálan, where, uniting with Basíno, Alivao, Mínquil, Batuga, Joac, and Agbay, he went to a ranchería of Tagacaolos and enslaved them to the number of seven, namely, Bayó, Eloy, Salió, Arac, Agueda, Cáoy, and Dila, and brought them to the coast. There they were apportioned as slaves, after the one called Eloy had been knifed, because they feared that they would be exposed by him if opportunity offered. Along the Culáman coast, when they knife one or many, they generally set the head on a pole and keep them for days and months. With that object in view they cut off the head of Eloy, which Batuga carried, while the pandita Gúbat, my friend, carried an arm. But a short time ago, I have been able to rescue and baptize Bayó and Dila, and the latter’s wife and two daughters. From the last named, I learned the history which I have briefly recounted. It is a sample of many others which I could relate to you. Consequently, they are wont to make slaves here treacherously and by violence. Although these Manobos, as I have said, are savage and warlike, there are some rancherías of them, which, having been reduced by the father missionary, have abandoned their evil customs. In Piapi we have already one hundred and ninety baptized persons, almost all Manobos. Their language is somewhat difficult to understand, but one can conquer that difficulty by living among them for a short time. The number of Manobos in this mission is not less than one thousand two hundred.
The Atás are another race of wild and savage heathens who live in the interior. Only the ranchería of Dato Lasiá, which is the nearest, has been visited as yet. It is the least known race, but it is believed with foundation, to be the most numerous, aggregating not less than twenty-five thousand souls. They speak their own tongue. I have baptized a few Atás, by making myself understood in Visayan or Bagobo. On that day that the Atás hear a father missionary speak their language, I have no doubt of their conversion. The difficulty, even supposing that there were father missionaries who could give their work to the mission, will always be very great, because it is in the interior, through mountains, rivers, and woods remote from the coast, where there are no roads or any human aid. Nevertheless, one must pray for them, confident that God will open the way through His infinite mercy.
In the island of Sámal I have also a Christian village, where the heathen Sámals are gradually becoming reduced and baptized. There are now some hundred and thirty-seven baptized.
The other reductions in my care are all on the southern part of this coast, extending from Dávao to Malálag, inclusive. They are Malálag, Piapi, Dígos, Santa Cruz, Astorga, Daliao, Bagó, and Taumo. Among them all there are nine hundred who have been baptized. In general they follow the instructions of the father missionary docilely. Almost all of them possess their little homes on the suitable street, and many of them are beginning to cultivate cacao and other plants which are given to them here, and are highly esteemed. The majority of those baptized as yet in these reductions belong to the Tagacaolo and Bagobo races. Then follow successively the Manobos, Sámals, and Calágars. I shall also endeavor to open the door quite soon to the Guiangas, Bilanes, and Atás. In order to begin, nevertheless, as is fitting, and to carry on this work, some father missionaries are needed, not only because of the great number of the heathens to be administered, but also because they talk several languages, and have habits and customs that differ considerably among themselves.
I conclude this letter by commending myself to the holy prayers and sacrifices of all the Fathers and Brothers of that holy house. From your most affectionate servant in Christ,
Mateo Gisbert, S. J.
Dávao, July 26, 1886.
Pax Christi.
My dearly beloved Father Superior in Christ:[5]
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 Dávao, for Fathers Perelló and Moré 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 God 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 circumstances 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 Mandarángan 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 Sibúlan usually show their antiquity by the following genealogies. Mánip, the present dato, had for father Panguílan; Panguílan was the son of Taópan; Taópan, son of Maliadí; Maliadí, son of Banga; Banga, son of Lúmbay; Lúmbay, son of Basian; Basian, son of Bóas; Bóas, son of Bató; Bató, son of Salingólop. They say that of all their ancestors, Salingólop 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 Mandarángan or Satan, to whom it appears that they always sacrificed human victims. The father of Mánip was the dato of Sibúlan, 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 Mandarángan, 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 Libagánon to Sibúlan. 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 Mánip 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,[6] 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 assertion. Maglándao, 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. Maglándao was the son of Apat, a Bagobo, and from childhood had never been the slave of any person. But in order to obtain some pamáran 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 pamáran. 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 passed, and Maglándao had not died, his master bethought him that he could make use of him for the sacrifice which the Bagobos of Cáuit 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,[7] 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 España 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 ranchería in which they do not annually make their feasts to the demon—Búsao, Mandarángan, or Daragó, for they are wont to give him these and many other names. On the day of the great assembly at the house of the dato or chief of the ranchería, 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 Daragó 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 Daragó, 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 Daragó.
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 dipánoc ini manobo, tímbac dipánoc 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 Búsao, 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 assure their life in proportion to the number of their neighbors they deliver to death, which they believe is always inflicted by Búsao 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 god, creator and omnipotent, since they believe as they do, that sickness and death come from Búsao, 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 Mandarángan, 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 God 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.
Dávao, 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 José of Sámal, I went there lately to say mass and preach to those poor people, at that time solemnizing eight baptisms and one marriage. It is fitting for the Sámals who were always visited and cared for by the father missionaries of Dávao, 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-lúyan, the headman, a son-in-law of Captain Baguísan. The latter has become a fury, and refuses to allow any of those whom he calls his sácopes 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 Búsao himself. For if the demon looses the chains of heathenism on anyone and that person becomes baptized through the mercy of God, Baguísan hastens to fasten them on again. That happened lately to Cabáis, who, one day going to get his wife in order that they two might be baptized and live in San José 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 Baguísan, which is both obligatory and of long standing in Sámal, 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 José 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 Casalúcan has remained talis qualis.[8] These people if they are not baptized, live in the manner of Baguísan. “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 sácopes whom they still have, are the first ones to present themselves and beg for a village. And since they know that that petition 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 sácopes 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 assemble 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 assemble them in one village, at a point where they can be better watched and governed. But if they were ordered to assemble 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 sácopes, 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 God in your holy prayers and sacrifices.