The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 - Volume 40 of 55, 1690-1691: Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century
History
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 - Volume 40 of 55, 1690-1691: Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century
Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources
387. This third class still remains in the same ancient condition. They
live, as a rule, on the plateaus of the mountains, and at the
mouths of rivers, and maintain themselves by hunting and fishing,
and some agriculture. Most of them trade, and barter wax with the
villages. These people are called Zimarrònes, Zambals, Ylàgas, Tìngues,
Tagabaloòyes, [339] Manòbos, Mangyànes, and various other names,
according to the difference of the sites where they live. Some or
others of these have become Christians, through the efforts of the
near-by evangelical ministers. The rest are heathen, but they have
no determined rites, and are governed only by the customs of their
ancestors, and those customs are mostly barbaric. Some of these
people are accustomed to pay some sort of recognition or feudal due
to our Catholic monarch, who is thereby bound to defend them from
the invasions of their neighboring enemies. Such is done by the
Tagabaloòyes in the province of Caràga, who pay their annual feudal
due in guinàras and medriñaques (textiles of abacá), [340] in order to
be defended from the Moros their neighbors. Likewise the Mangyànes of
Mindôro (who number about seven thousand), who pay fifty-two arrobas
and a half of wax annually, or 105 tributes; and some of the Manòbos in
the mountains of Caràga (who are heathen and without number, although
some are Christians--a people civilized and well inclined to work,
who have [fixed] habitation and excellent houses)--pay tribute.
388. The origin of all these people (who are scattered throughout these
islands) is inferred to be either the many civilized Indians who have
retreated to the mountains in order not to pay tribute, or in order not
to be chastised for any crime; or the many different nations immediate
to this archipelago. For some bear traces of being Japanese mestizos,
as do the Tagabaloòyes, as I am well informed by religious who have
had intercourse with them. Some are known to proceed from the Chinese;
some from pure Indians, and some from other nations, as is declared
by the circumstances of face, body, color, hair, customs, manner,
and behavior--according to the experience of various religious, who
agree that they are not of the pure race of the Indians, but mestizos
as above stated. And even in five clans of Mangyànes who are said
to exist in the island of Mindòro, there is one which has a little
tail, as do the monkeys; and many religious who have assured me of
it, as witnesses. In Valèr, on the coast opposite us, a woman was
found not long ago who had a long tail, as was told me by the present
missionary; and he was unable to be sure of the origin of that race,
unless it was a race of Jews.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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