The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 43, 1670-1700: 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 43, 1670-1700: 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
It is difficult to fix exactly the number of the Moros who live on
this gulf at present. Their nomadic customs and the ease with which
they change their habitation, sometimes moving to a great distance,
make a little less than impossible an exact list of them. However,
I believe that their approximate number is 4,000. If they exceed that
number, I do not believe that they reach 5,000, and as well I do not
believe that they are less than 3,000. The place that they generally
choose for their home, as I have before suggested, is the coast or
the mouth of rivers navigable for their small boats.
When any governor of this district urges them with instance to
make a village, they make, as it were, an excuse for a settlement,
carrying out the plan which the governor himself, or some Spaniard
in the name of the governor, or some other intelligent person, gives
them. They will construct, if it is desired, their so-called houses
at the distances which are marked out for them, but they will never
reconcile themselves with any kind of cultivation, or with cleanliness,
or the repair of what gets out of order. In reality, in the short
time that their villages have form, the filth, the nakedness, and the
general wretchedness, cause them to present so repugnant an aspect,
that no one can show a desire for their preservation; and as soon
as the governor ceases to investigate them, those villages melt away
like salt in water.
To the right of Dávao, several attempts have been made to form the
Moro village of Daron by bringing together the small Moro rancherías
of Taúmo, Baludo, and Obango, which are the only rancherías between
Dávao and the point of Culáman in sight of Sarangani. That village,
in the days of its greatest apogee, would lodge at most one hundred
Moro families, who always tend to be split up into small rancherías.
On the other side of Point Bánus, from which one can begin to descry
the islands of Sarangani there was another ranchería of Sanguil. [85]
Moros of about one hundred families. That ranchería was settled
there under the protection of an Indian, who had served his time
in the navy, who fixed his residence there in the quality of agent
or abonado [i.e., representative] of the traders of Dávao. At the
present time that petty trader has moved his residence to Núin
opposite the islands of Sarangani, and it appears that those Moros
have followed him. But wherever they have fixed their residence,
left to themselves, they are threatened with destruction. For that
swarm of Bilanes, Manobos, and Tagacaolos [86] which surrounds them,
warlike races who have never been subdued by the Moros, will always
consider them as enemies, and will always reckon them in the first
line to give an end to their personal and racial vengeance.
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.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account