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
28. The nations of the Bisayas and Pintados, who inhabit the
provinces of Camarines in this island of Luzon, and those of Leyte,
Samar, Panay, and other neighborhoods, came, I have heard, from the
districts of Macasar, where it is said that Indians live who make
designs on and tattoo the body, in the manner of our Pintados. Pedro
Fernandez de Quiros, in the relation which he wrote of the discovery
of the Salomon Islands in 1595, says that an island called Madalena
was found in ten degrees north latitude, at a distance from Pirù of
one thousand eight hundred leguas (which is nearly the same latitude
and distance as the Filipinas) where Indians of good proportion,
but taller than the Spaniards, and all naked and bearing designs on
their bodies, legs, arms, and hands (and some on their faces), in
the manner of our Visayans, were found. Consequently, it is apparent
that there are other nations of Pintados to be discovered. We have
as yet not enough data, nor even a well founded conjecture, to say
whether ours originated from the latter, or on the contrary both
from some mainland. We know well that people who tattoo the body
have been seen in Brasil and Florida. Then, too, this custom was
formerly seen in some nations of Scythians in Asia and of Britons
in Europa. But we cannot yet determine the legitimate origin of our
Visayan Pintados. If some of the natives of Mindanao, Jolo, Bool,
and part of Cebu, who are lighter-complexioned, braver, and of better
proportions than the pure Visayans, are not Borneans, they might be
Ternatans--as may be inferred from the neighborhood of the lands and
the communication of one with another; and because in what concerns
the worship and religion of the cursed Prophet, even today they are
governed by Terrenate; and when they find themselves beset by the
troops from Filipinas, they make an alliance and help one another.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account