The Inhabitants of the PhilippinesSawyer, Frederic H.
History
The Inhabitants of the Philippines
Sawyer, Frederic H.
Ethnology -- Philippines; Philippines -- Social life and customs
When the provincial doctor saw him, he said, "Nothing can possibly
be done for him," and departed. So, abandoned to his own resources,
he replaced the bowels himself, and getting one of the villagers to
bind him up, he eventually recovered. He was seen by Mr. Brown a year
or two later, and is probably alive now. This seems extraordinary, but
a similar case occurred to a man who had worked under me. An English
bricklayer named John Heath had been employed building furnaces and
kilns in Manila, and having completed his work, took to farming and
rented some grass meadows (sacate lands) at Mandaloyan. One night he
and another Englishman staying with him were attacked in his house by a
party of Tagals with drawn bolos. The visitor, although wounded, leaped
from the window and escaped, but Heath was cut down, then lifted on to
the window sill, hacked about, and finally, according to Tagal custom,
ripped open and left for dead. Yet this man also entirely recovered,
and after a year seemed as strong as ever, although he was advised
not to exert his strength. This outrage was clearly agrarian, and was,
I feel sure, committed by those who had previously rented these lands
and had been turned out. No one was ever punished for it.
To return to the gang of pirates; two had been killed, the rest were
in prison. Year after year passed, still they remained in prison;
judges came, stayed their term, were promoted and went, but still
these men were never sentenced.
In 1889, I visited Laguimanóc to make a plan and valuation of the
property, as the business was about to be taken over by a Limited
Liability Company, established in Hong Kong. This was five years after
the date of the murders, some of the prisoners had died in prison, the
others were awaiting their sentence. But I found that the Government
had established a sergeant's post of the Guardia Civil in the village,
which effectually prevented a repetition of the outrage.
A year later I again visited Laguimanóc, but the trial of the prisoners
was no further advanced. No less than nine of them died in prison,
still no sentence was pronounced. Even for a Philippine Court this
was extraordinary, for the gang had committed the unpardonable crime
"Resistencia a fuerza armada" (Resistance to an armed force), and could
have been tried by Court-martial and summarily shot. They had also
dared to lay their profane hands on the sacred money-box containing
a portion of the "Real Haber" (Government money), so that it was not
only a question of murder and robbery of private people. But the Civil
Court, negligent, slothful, and corrupt, could not be got to convict,
and a few years ago, Mr. Brown having left the islands, the surviving
prisoners were pardoned by the Queen Regent on the occasion of the
young King's birthday.
The contrast between the military and civil elements in this case is
very strong.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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