Several other dattos and chiefs have submitted to the Spaniards; for instance, the Sultan of Bolinson, who has settled at Lintago, near the barracks of Maria Christina. In the district of Davao more than five thousand Moros are living peacefully under Spanish rule.
The famous Datto Utto, who gave so much trouble, lost followers and prestige, and now where the Moro King of Tamontaca held his court and reigned in power and splendour on the Rio Grande, a Jesuit Orphan Asylum, and Industrial School flourished [till the war caused it to be abandoned], bringing up hundreds of children of both sexes, mostly liberated slaves of the Moros, to honest handicrafts or agricultural labour.
Amongst the Moros, the administration of justice is in the hands of the dattos or of their nominees. Offences are punished by death, corporal chastisement, or by fines.
However, the customs of the country admit of an offended person taking the law into his own hand. Thus he who surprises his wife in the act of adultery may cut off one of her ears, shave her head, and degrade her to be the slave of his concubines.
If he catches the co-respondent he may kill him (if he can).
A calumny not justified, is fined 15 dollars; a slight wound costs the aggressor 5 dollars; a serious wound, 15 dollars, and the weapon that did the mischief; a murder can be atoned by giving three to six slaves.
Adultery incurs a fine of 60 dollars, and two slaves; or death, if the fine is not paid.
He who insults a datto is condemned to death, unless he can pay 15 taels of gold, but he becomes a slave for life. The datto acting as judge takes as his fee one-eighth of the fine he imposes.
A slave is considered to be worth from 15 to 30 dollars according to his or her capabilities or appearance.
The dattos impose an annual tax on all their subjects whether Moros or heathen. It is called the Pagdatto, and consists of a piece of cloth called a Jabol, a bolo, and twenty gantas of paddy (equal to 10 gantas of rice) from each married couple. A ganta equals two-thirds of a gallon, so that the tax in rice would only be 6.6 gallons, a little over ¾ bushel.