Amongst the timbers mentioned in the Woods and Forests lists are ebony, camagon, teak, cedar, dungon, banaba, guíjo, molave, and many others of value. The forest or jungle-produce will comprise: charcoal, firewood, bamboos, rattans, nipa (attap), orchids, wax, gums, resins, and camphor. Edible birds’-nests are found in various localities. Fish is abundant in the waters, and balate (Bèche de mer) is collected on the shores and reefs.
Puerto Princesa is visited by a mail steamer from Manila once in twenty-eight days. A garrison of two companies of infantry was kept there, and several small gun-boats were stationed there, which went periodically round the island. Piracy was completely suppressed, and the Mahometan Malays were kept in good order by the Spanish forces.
The dense primeval forests which have existed for ages, untouched by the hand of man, undevastated by typhoons, volcanic eruptions, or earthquakes, must necessarily have produced an enormous quantity of decayed vegetable matter, rich in humus, and such a soil on a limestone subsoil, mixed with the detritus washed down from the mountains, may reasonably be expected to be of the highest fertility, and, perhaps, to be equal to the richest lands of the earth, most specially for the cultivation of tobacco.
The varied climates to be found from the sea-level to the tops of the mountains should allow the cultivation of maize, rice, sugar-cane, cotton, cacao, coffee, and hemp, each in the zone most favourable to its growth and fruitfulness. The exemption from typhoons enjoyed by this region is most important as regards the cultivation of the aborescent species, and the cocoa-nut palm would prove highly remunerative on land not suited for other crops. Tagbanúas.
The Tagbanúas are said to be the most numerous of the inhabitants of Palawan. I understand that this word comes from Taga, an inhabitant, and banua, country, and therefore means an original inhabitant of the country, as opposed to later arrivals.
They inhabit the district between Inagáhuan, on the east coast, and Ulugan and Apurahuan, on the west coast. Their numbers in 1888 were estimated at 6000. In 1890 I spent ten days amongst these people, and employed a number of them as porters to carry my tent, provisions, and equipment, when travelling on foot through the forests to report on the value of a concession in the neighbourhood of Yuahit and Inagáhuan. I therefore describe them from personal knowledge. They are of a yellowish colour, and generally similar to the Mahometan Malays of Mindanao. Those who have settled down and cultivated land have a robust and healthy appearance; but those who are nomadic, mostly suffered from skin diseases, and some were quite emaciated. Their Maestro de Campo, the recognised head of their tribe, lived near Inagáhuan, and I visited him at his house, and found him quite communicative through an interpreter.
Maestro de Campo is an obsolete military rank in Spain, and a commission granting this title and an official staff, is sometimes conferred by the Governor-General of the Philippines, or even by the King of Spain, upon the chiefs of heathen tribes, who have supported the Spanish forces against the pirates of Sulú, Mindanao, or Palawan. Sometimes a small pension accompanies the title.
I also learnt much about the Tagbanúas from a solitary missionary, a member of the Order of Recollets, Fray Lorenzo Zapater, who had resided more than two years amongst them, and had built a primitive sort of church at Inagáhuan.
They are sociable and pacific; their only weapons are the cerbatana, or blow-pipe, with poisoned darts, and bows and arrows, for the knives they carry are tools and not weapons. They do not make war amongst themselves, but formerly fought sometimes to defend their possessions against the piratical Mahometans, who inhabit the southern part of the island. These heartless robbers, for centuries made annual raids upon them, carrying off the paddy they had stored for their subsistence, and everything portable worth taking. They seized the boys for slaves, to cultivate their lands, and the girls for concubines, killing the adults who dared to resist them. However, since the establishment of a naval station and the penal colony at Puerto Princesa in 1872, the coast has been patrolled by the Spanish gun-boats and the piratical incursions have come to an end. The nomadic Tagbanúas, both men and women, were quite naked, except for a cloth (tapa-rabo) which the men wore, whilst the women wore a girdle, from which hung strips of bark or skin reaching nearly to the knees. Round their necks they wore strings of coloured beads, a turquoise blue seemed to be the favourite kind, and on their arms and ankles, bangles made of brass wire. Coming out of the forest into a clearing where there were two small huts built in the usual manner, and another constructed in the fork of a large tree, I found a group of these people threshing paddy. Amongst them were two young women with figures of striking symmetry, who, on being called by the interpreter, approached my party without the slightest timidity or embarrassment, although wearing only the fringed girdle. I learnt that they had both been baptized but on asking the taller girl her name, instead of answering me, she turned to her companion and said to her, “What is my name?” to which the other answered, “Ursula.” I then asked the shorter girl her name, and she also, instead of answering me, asked the other girl, “What is my name?” to which the taller one answered, “Margarita.” These names had recently been given them instead of their heathen names, and I could not be sure whether they had forgotten their new names or whether, as is the case in several tribes, they must never pronounce their own names nor the names of their ancestors. They thankfully accepted a cigarette each, which they immediately lighted.
On the following Sunday, these girls came to Mass at the Inagáhuan Church, completely dressed like Tagal women, and although they passed in front of me, I did not recognize them until I was told, for they looked much shorter.