It is pleasing to be able again to state that the bravery, the wisdom, and the faith and charity of the Jesuits exercised amongst this race has had a rich reward. During the four years which concluded in 1889, no less than 6600 heathen Montéses renounced their superstitions, their polygamy, and their slave-hunting murdering raids, and, accepting the doctrines of our Saviour, were baptized into the Christian faith. Besides the older coast towns, mostly occupied by Visayas, twenty-four Christian villages extend from the Bay of Macajalar far into the Montése country, now giving the hand to the military garrisons on the Rio Grande amongst those irreclaimable pirates the Moros. The Cross was triumphing over the Crescent in Mindanao quite as much, nay, much more, by the voices of the missionaries as by the Spanish bayonets. It will be an outrage on Christianity, a blot on their renown, if through ignorance or folly, the United States should so act as to put a stop to this holy and civilising work, and so give occasion for some future author to write another "Century of Dishonour." Atás or Ata-as (7). These people occupy a considerable territory from the River Libaganon, which falls into the Gulf of Davao round the northern slopes of Mount Apo, about the head-waters of the rivers running into Lakes Liguan and Buluan. To the north they have the Tagavauas and the Manobos; to the south the Vilanes, and on the east the Guiangas, Bagobos and Calaganes. The swampy country on the west separates them from the Moros of Lake Liguan. From the extent of their territory the Atás are probably very numerous. They appear to be a hybrid Malayo-Negrito race, but have advanced considerably in social organisation. They go decently dressed, the men wearing short drawers and a shirt of Chinese pattern, and the women a patadion and an embroidered bodice--with strings of beads round the neck for ornament. They weave stuffs similar to those made by the neighbouring tribes. They are said to be of a determined character, and to stand up to the Moros in defence of their families and property. They also attack other tribes and commit atrocious murders, not sparing women and children. A missionary passing near their territory on the River Libaganon in November 1892, found several households in great grief on account of unprovoked murders committed by the Atás. As the Atás live remote from the sea-coast and have no navigable rivers running through their territory, the missionaries have not yet been able to make much impression on them, but they are working their way up the Davao River, and the reduction of Belen established in 1891 is quite on the borders of the Atás territory. Murders, slave-raids, and human sacrifices, are still the ordinary events of Atás life. The illustration shows two determined-looking Atás warriors with spear and shield, two women and two young girls, all carefully dressed and wearing their ornaments. Guiangas (8).