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.