The Women are very desirous of the Company of Strangers, especially White Men; and doubtless would be very familiar, if the Custom of the Country did not debar them from that freedom, which seems coveted by them. Yet from the highest to the lowest they are allowed liberty to converse with, or treat strangers in the sight of their Husbands.
There is a kind of begging Custom at Mindanao, that I have not met elsewhere with in all my Travels; and which I believe is owing to the little Trade they have; which is thus: When Strangers arrive here, the Mindanao Men will come aboard, and invite them to their Houses, and inquire who has a Comrade, (which word I believe they have from the Spaniards) or a Pagally, and who has not. A Comrade is a familiar Male-friend; a Pagally[4] is an innocent Platonick Friend of the other Sex. All Strangers are in a manner oblig’d to accept of this Acquaintance and Familiarity, which must be first purchased with a small Present, and afterwards confirmed with some Gift or other to continue the Acquaintance: and as often as the Stranger goes ashore, he is welcome to his Comrade or Pagally’s House, where he may be entertained for his Money, to Eat, Drink, or Sleep, and complimented, as often as he comes ashore, with Tobacco and Betel-Nut, which is all the Entertainment he must expect gratis. The richest Mens Wives are allow’d the freedom to converse with her Pagally in publick, and may give or receive Presents from him. Even the Sultans and the Generals Wives, who are always coopt up, will yet look out of their Cages when a Stranger passeth by, and demand of him if he wants a Pagally: and to invite him to their Friendship, will send a Present of Tobacco and Betel-nut to him by their Servants.
The chiefest City on this Island is called by the same Name of Mindanao. It is seated on the South side of the Island, in lat. 7 d. 20 m. N. on the banks of a small River, about two Mile from the Sea. The manner of building is somewhat strange: yet generally used in this Part of the East-Indies. Their House are all built on Posts, about 14, 16, 18, or 20 Foot high. These Posts are bigger or less, according to the intended magnificence of the Superstructure. They have but one Floor, but many Partitions or Rooms, and a Ladder or Stairs to go up out of the Streets. The Roof is large, and covered with Palmeto or Palm-leaves. So there is a clear passage like a Piazza (but a filthy one) under the House. Some of the poorer People that keep Ducks or Hens, have a fence made round the Posts of their Houses, with a Door to go in and out; and this Under-room serves for no other use. Some use this place for the common draught of their Houses, but building mostly close by the River in all parts of the Indies, they make the River receive all the filth of their House; and at the time of the Land-floods, all is washed very clean.
The Sultan’s House is much bigger than any of the rest. It stands on about 180 great Posts or Trees, a great deal higher than the common Building, with great broad Stairs made to go up. In the first Room he hath about 20 Iron Guns, all Saker and Minion, placed on Field-Carriages. The General, and other great Men have some Guns also in their Houses. About 20 paces from the Sultan’s House there is a small low House, built purposely for the Reception of Ambassadors or Merchant Strangers. This also stands on Posts, but the Floor is not raised above three or four Foot above the Ground, and is neatly Matted purposely for the Sultan and his Council to sit on; for they use no Chairs, but sit cross-legg’d like Taylors on the Floor.
The common Food at Mindanao is Rice, or Sago, and a small Fish or two. The better sort eat Buffalo, or Fowls ill drest, and abundance of Rice with it. They use no Spoons to eat their Rice, but every Man takes a handful out of the Platter, and by wetting his Hand in Water, that it may not stick to his Hand, squeezes it into a lump, as hard as possibly he can make it, and then crams it into his Mouth. They all strive to make these lumps as big as their Mouths can receive them; and seem to vie with each other, and glory in taking in the biggest lump; so that sometimes they almost choke themselves. They always wash after Meals, or if they touch any thing that is unclean; for which reason they spend abundance of Water in their Houses. This Water, with the washing of their Dishes, and what other filth they make, they pour down near their Fire-place: for their Chambers are not boarded, but floored with split Bamboes, like Lathe, so that the Water presently falls underneath their dwelling Rooms, where it breeds Maggots, and makes a prodigious stink. Besides this filthiness, the sick People ease themselves, and make Water in their Chambers; there being a small hole made purposely in the Floor, to let it drop through. But healthy sound People commonly ease themselves, and make Water in the River. For that reason you shall always see abundance of People, of both Sexes in the River, from Morning till Night; some easing themselves, others washing their bodies or Cloaths. If they come into the River purposely to wash their Cloaths, they strip and stand naked till they have done; then put them on, and march out again: both Men and Women take great delight in swimming, and washing themselves, being bred to it from their Infancy. I do believe it is very wholsom to wash Mornings and Evenings in these hot Countries, at least three or four Days in the Week: For I did use my self to it when I lived afterwards at Ben-cooly, and found it very refreshing and comfortable. It is very good for those that have Fluxes to wash and stand in the Rivers Mornings and Evenings. I speak it experimentally; for I was brought very low with that distemper at Achin; but by washing constantly Mornings and Evenings I found great benefit, and was quickly cured by it.
In the City of Mindanao they speak two Languages indifferently: their own Mindanao Language, and the Malaya; but in other parts or the Island they speak only their proper Language, having little Commerce abroad. They have Schools, and instruct the Children to Read and Write, and bring them up in the Mahometan Religion. Therefore many of the words, especially their Prayers, are in Arabick; and many of the words of civility the same as in Turkey; and especially when they meet in the Morning, or take leave of each other, they express themselves in that Language.
Many of the old People, both Men and Women, can speak Spanish, for the Spaniards were formerly settled among them, and had several Forts on this Island; and then they sent two Friers to the City, to convert the Sultan of Mindanao and his People. At that time these People began to learn Spanish, and the Spaniards incroached on them and endeavoured to bring them into subjection; and probably before this time had brought them all under their yoak, if they themselves had not been drawn off from this Island to Manila, to resist the Chinese, who threatened to invade them there. When the Spaniards were gone, the old Sultan of Mindanao, Father to the present, in whose time it was, razed and demolished their Forts, brought away their Guns, and sent away the Friers; and since that time will not suffer the Spaniards to settle on the Islands.
They are now most afraid of the Dutch, being sensible how they have inslaved many of the Neighboring Islands. For that Reason they have a long time desired the English to settle among them, and have offered them any convenient Place to build a Fort in, as the General himself told us; giving this Reason, that they do not find the English so incroaching as the Dutch or Spanish. The Dutch are no less jealous of their admitting the English, for they are sensible what detriment it would be to them if the English should settle here.
There are but few Tradesmen at the City of Mindanao. The chiefest Trades are Goldsmiths, Blacksmiths, and Carpenters. There are but two or three Goldsmiths; these will work in Gold or Silver, and make any thing that you desire: but they have no Shop furnished with Ware ready made for Sale. Here are several Blacksmiths who work very well, considering the Tools that they work with. Their Bellows are much different from ours. They are made of a wooden Cylinder, the Trunk of a Tree, about three Foot long, bored hollow like a Pump, and set upright on the ground, on which the Fire it self is made. Near the lower end there is a small hole, in the side of the Trunk next the Fire, made to receive a Pipe, through which the Wind is driven to the Fire by a great bunch of fine Feathers fastened to one end of the Stick, which closing up the inside of the Cylinder, drives the Air out of the Cylinder through the Pipe: Two of these Trunks or Cylinders are placed so nigh together, that a Man standing between them may work them both at once alternately, one with each Hand. They have neither Vice nor Anvil, but a great hard Stone or a piece of an old Gun, to hammer upon: yet they will perform their work making both common Utensils and Iron-works about Ships to admiration. They work altogether with Charcoal. Every Man almost is a Carpenter, for they can work with the Ax and Adds. Their Ax is but small, and so made that they can take it out of the Helve, and by turning it make an Adds of it. They have no Saws; but when they make Plank, they split the Tree in two, and make a Plank of each part, plaining it with the Ax and Adds. This requires much pains, and takes up a great deal of time; but they work cheap, and the goodness of the Plank thus hewed, which hath its grain preserv’d entire, makes amends for their cost and pains.
They build good and serviceable Ships or Barks for the Sea, some for Trade, others for Pleasure; and some Ships of War. Their trading Vessels they send chiefly to Manila. Thither they transport Bees-wax, which, I think, is the only Commodity, besides Gold that they vend there. The Inhabitants of the City of Mindanao get a great deal of Bees-wax themselves: but the greatest quantity they purchase is of the Mountaneers, from whom they also get the Gold which they send to Manila; and with these they buy their Calicoes, Muslins, and China Silk. They send sometimes their Barks to Borneo and other Islands; but what they transport thither, or import from thence, I know not. The Dutch come hither in Sloops from Ternate and Tidore, and buy Rice, Bees-wax, and Tobacco: for there is a great deal of Tobacco grown on this Island, more than in any Island or Country in the East-Indies, that I know of, Manila only excepted. It is an excellent sort of Tobacco; but these People have not the Art of managing this Trade to their best advantage, as the Spaniards have at Manila. I do believe the Seeds were first brought hither from Manila by the Spaniards, and even thither, in all probability, from America: the difference between the Mindanao and Manila Tobacco is, that the Mindanao Tobacco is of a darker colour; and the Leaf larger and grosser than the Manila Tobacco, being propagated or planted in a fatter Soil. The Manila Tobacco is of a bright yellow colour, of an indifferent size, not strong, but Pleasant to Smoak. The Spaniards at Manila are very curious about this Tobacco, having a peculiar way of making it up neatly in the Leaf. For they take two little Sticks, each about a Foot long, and flat, and placing the Stalks of the Tobacco Leaves in a row, 40 or 50 of them between the two Sticks, they bind them hard together, so that the Leaves hang dangling down. One of these bundles is sold for a Rial at Fort St. George: but you may have 10 or 12 pound of Tobacco at Mindanao for a Rial: and the Tobacco is as good, or rather better than the Manila Tobacco, but they have not that vent for it as the Spaniards have.