Five married couples and their children occupied this apartment, each having its own part of the floor, its own store of rice, its own pigs and poultry. Each family cooked and ate independently, but all showed the greatest respect to the aged grandparents, and consulted them about their affairs. Father Vilaclara appears to have ultimately converted the whole family, beginning with the boys, whom he took under his charge, dressed and fed them, and taught them to speak Visaya. Gold-washing and gold-mining is practised by the Subanos between Dapitan and Misamis, where there is a vast extension of gold-bearing sand and earth. Near Pigtao auriferous iron pyrites occurs. The native name for this ore is Inga. Horses are very abundant in the district of Misamis, and in common use for riding and as pack carriers. The Subanos have the reputation of being war-like, yet until lately they were entirely dominated by the Moros wherever they came in contact. Since 1893 the Spaniards have isolated them from the Ilanao Moros by establishing a chain of forts, and making a Trocha, or military road, across the narrow neck of land from Tucuran on the Bahia Illana to Balatacan on Bahia Panquil. The width of the isthmus here is about sixteen miles, and the forts are called Alfonso XIII, Infanta Isabel, Sta. Paz, and Sta. Eulalia, and Maria Cristina. The Subanos appear to be much more refractory to civilisation and Christianity than the Montéses, the Manobos or the Mandayas. This no doubt comes from the strong influence that vile nests of pirates and slave-traders around Lake Lanao has for centuries exercised over them, but in time the Trocha, if kept as it should be, in the interests of civilisation, will destroy that. The Jesuit missionaries were actively at work round about the Bay of Dapitan in the extreme north of the Subano territory, and to some extent round about Zamboanga in the extreme south, until the war between Spain and America broke out. In the Dapitan district there were at the end of 1896 nearly 15,000 Christians residing in the towns and villages under the spiritual, and temporal guidance of the Jesuits. During that year 208 heathen were baptized in the Dapitan district, but only 21 in the Zamboanga district. It is safe to assume that in the Dapitan district alone there are 10,000 Christian Subanos. The number of heathen Subanos, amongst whom there are a few semi-Mahometans, may be about 90,000. From these figures it is quite evident that the missionary enterprise should be extended, but in order to do this the insolence of the Moros must be chastised. CHAPTER XXXVIII The Moros, or Mahometan Malays (18 to 23).