Some years afterwards the island was gratuitously ceded to the Spaniards by the Sultan of Sulu, at their request. Captain Antonio Fabeau was sent there with troops to take formal possession, being awarded the handsome salary of ₱50 per month for this service. On the arrival of the ships, an officer was sent ashore; the people fled inland, and the formalities of annexation were proceeded with unwitnessed. The only signs of possession left there were the corpses of the troops and sailors who died from eating rotten food, or were murdered by Mahometans who attacked the expedition. Subsequently a fortress was established at Taytay, where a number of priests and laymen in a few years succeeded in forming a small colony, which at length shared the fate of Labo. The only Spanish settlement in the island at the date of the evacuation was the colony of Puerta Princesa, on the east coast.[13]
Before starting on my peregrination in Palaúan Island, I sought in vain for information respecting the habits and nature of the Tagbanúas, a half-caste Malay-Aeta tribe, disseminated over a little more than the southern half of the island.[14] It was only on my arrival at Puerta Princesa that I was able to procure a vague insight into the peculiarities of the people whom I intended to visit. The Governor, Don Felipe Canga-Argüelles, was highly pleased to find a traveller who could sympathize with his efforts, and help to make known, if only to the rest of the Archipelago, this island almost unexplored in the interior. He constantly wrote articles to one of the leading journals of Manila, under the title of “Echoes from Parágua” (Palaúan), partly with the view of attracting the attention of the Government to the requirements of the Colony, but also to stimulate a spirit of enterprise in favour of this island, rich in hardwoods, etc.
Puerta Princesa is a good harbour, situated on a gulf. The soil was levelled, trees were planted, and a slip for repairing vessels was constructed. There was a fixed white light visible eleven miles off. It was a naval station for two gunboats, the Commander of the station being ex-officio Governor of the Colony. It was also a Penal Settlement for convicts, and those suspected by the civil or religious authorities. To give employment to the convicts and suspects, a model sugar-estate was established by the Government. The locality supplied nearly all the raw material for working and preserving the establishment, such as lime, stone, bricks, timber, sand, firewood, straw for bags, rattans, etc.
The aspect of the town is agreeable, and the environs are pretty, but there is a great drawback in the want of drinking-water, which, in the dry season, has to be procured from a great distance.
The Governor showed me great attention, and personally took command of a gunboat, which conducted me to the mouth of the Iguajit River. This is the great river of the district, and is navigable for about three miles. I put off in a boat manned by marines, and was rowed about two miles up, as far as the mission station. The missionary received me well, and I stayed there that night, with five men, whom I had engaged to carry my luggage, for we had a journey before us of some days on foot to the opposite coast.
My luggage, besides the ordinary travelling requisites and provisions, included about 90 yards of printed stuffs of bright colours, six dozen common handkerchiefs, and some 12 poundsʼ weight of beads on strings, with a few odds and ends of trinkets; whilst my native bearers were provided with rice, dried fish, betel-nut, tobacco, etc., for a week or more. We set out on foot the next day, and in three days and a half we reached the western shore.
The greatest height above the sea-level on our route was about 900 metres, according to my aneroid reading, and the maximum heat at mid-day in the shade (month of January) was 82° Fahr. The nights were cold, comparatively speaking, and at midnight the thermometer once descended to 59° Fahr.
The natives proved to be a very pacific people. We found some engaged in collecting gum from the trees in the forest, and others cutting and making up bundles of rattans. They took these products down to the Iguajit River mission station, where Chinese traders bartered for them stuffs and other commodities. The value of coin was not altogether unknown in the mission village, although the difference in value between copper and silver coinage was not understood. In the interior they lived in great misery, their cabins being wretched hovels. They planted their rice without ploughing at all, and all their agricultural implements were made of wood or bamboo.
The native dress is made of the bark of trees, smashed with stones, to extract the ligneous parts. In the cool weather they make tunics of bark, and the women wear drawers of the same material. They adorn their waists with sea-shell and cocoanut shell ornaments, whilst the fibre of the palm serves for a waistband. The women pierce very large holes in their ears, in which they place shells, wood, etc. They never bathe intentionally. Their arms are bows and arrows, and darts blown through a kind of pea-shooter made of a reed resembling bojo (q.v). They are a very dirty people, and they eat their fish or flesh raw.
I had no difficulty whatever in procuring guides from one group of huts to the next on payment in goods, and my instructions were always to lead me towards the coast, the nearest point of which I knew was due west or a few points to the north.