The Manóbos of Mindanáo / Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume XXIII, First Memoir

by John M. Garvan

FROM 1875 TO 1910

1800-1877

For the nineteenth century we have few historical records of the Manóbos until the Jesuits who had been expelled from the Philippines in 1768 and returned in 1859, resumed their work in eastern Mindanáo in 1875. The material concerning the Manóbos is contained in a series of selected letters²⁹ from the missionaries in the field to their provincial and higher superiors. Though containing little ethnological data of a detailed character, they afford in their ensemble, a vivid picture of the work of the missionaries in reducing the pagan tribes of Mindanáo to civilization and outward Christianity. Dates of the formation of the various town and rancherias³⁰ are furnished; with the names of the chiefs, friendly and in many cases unfriendly, the opposition on the part of the mountain people to the adoption of Christianity, and the armed resistance on their part to its implantation, as well as the interclan feuds, frequently with details as to the number of slain and of captives, and the number of converts in each district are stated. In a word, these letters form a most valuable and accurate account of the Christian subjugation of a large portion of the pagan peoples of Mindanáo.

²⁹These letters are called Cartas de los PP. de la Compañía de Jesús de la mision de Filipinas, and were printed consecutively in Manila from 1876 to 1902 and probably later.

³⁰A rancheria is a small dependent settlement of Christianized people.

1877

In the Agúsan Valley the first efforts of the missionaries were directed to the Bisáyas or old Christians, as they are called, of Butuán, Talakógon, Veruéla, and Bunáwan. Father Bove³¹ in 1877 writes that he reunited many Bisáyas of Híbung and Bunáwan in Talakógon, which is at present one of the few municipalities in the sub-Province of Butuán. He notes the extent of the slave trade between Manóbos and Bisáyas, and that he made a preliminary trip to the upper Agúsan and to the upper Sálug. In the same year Peruga visited Bunáwan and organized the church among the Bisáyas of Bunáwan who had not been annexed to Talakógon. In the meantime Urios and others rounded up the stragglers of Butuán, Tolosa (now Kabarbarán), and Maínit.

³¹Cartas de los PP. de la Compañía de Jesús, 3.

1879

In 1879 Urios reports the establishment of Las Nieves, Remedies, Esperanza, Guadalupe, Maásam (now Santa Ines), and San Luis, all of which rancherias of conquistas³² or Christianized Manóbos are still in existence.