The settlers of these islands, and their origin
The owners of these islands are those who people the mountains. They,
enamored with their peaceful mode of living, and fed with the happy
returns of their cultivation, built their nests there and lost
their liking for the coast and love for its occupations. Thereupon,
as they were reared in so deep retirement, which is especially great
and unconquerable in these natives, because of their slothfulness and
because they are so dead to curiosity, by which they have grown old
in their gloomy retreats, they gradually became mountaineers; and,
their intercourse with other peoples ceasing, they became less alert
and more barbarous, allowing the foreign traders to seize the coasts,
harbor-bars, and rivers which they found deserted. Since by their
trade, and in every way, the latter were making themselves masters
of all things, the aborigines, being less valiant, yielded to the
foreigners, as these were more civilized. Consequently, on the south
coast the rulers of those peoples are the Lutaos, who bear themselves
among these nations as princes. In some parts those peoples are called
Subanos, as in the jurisdiction of Iligan and Samboangan; in Mindanao,
they are called Manobos [46] and Mananapes [47] which is equivalent
to "brutes." In Jolo, they are Guinuanos [i.e., Guimbanos], and in
Basilan they are called Sameacas, [48] and they are subject in all
places equally to the fortune of the Lutaos. No other origin to these
peoples can be conjectured than one general to these islands--whose
language, since its structure is founded on Malayan roots, shows by
its origin the origin of its natives. To this testimony corresponds
the arrangement of these islands, which are strung out in a series
from Burney and Macaçar, so that there is scarcely any considerable
break, and there is no such correspondence in any other part.
The Lutaya nation are new in these islands, and live more on the seas
than on their plains. They have no greater stability than is promised
by a log in the water where no firm foundation can be laid. They
scarcely take their feet from their boats. Their Moorish dress of
turban and marlota [i.e., a Moorish robe], their arms and worship,
clearly show their origin. With all this agrees their more polished
language, which they speak, emulating the grandeur of the princes of
these nations who have made an ostentation of speaking it--indeed,
because their own especial language approaches more nearly to it than
any other, for they owe to it a great number of their words. [49] As
the Moorish faith [i.e., Mahometanism] is recent in India, [50] and
thence has steadily spread through these kingdoms it can be understood
that this nation [i.e., the Lutaos] occupied these coasts but a short
time ago. The Lutaos of this island who are subject to Corralat and
the Buhayens (both through commerce and by the submission which they
observed toward the king of Ternate) show that they are branches
of that stock. They recognize even their protection, which in olden
times was the greatest obligation, and give them aid in their wars and
protect them from their enemies. By the prowess of the Lutaos those
rulers were encouraged to cause grievous depredations among these
islands, until the Spaniards established themselves so strongly in
Ternate that, checked by that, as a bulwark of the islands, the Moro
chiefs did not attempt to pass farther, being content with placing
their domestic affairs in safety without risking it for foreign
[gains].
There are black negroes in this island, who pay tribute to no one. They
resemble those of the island of Negros, and of the uplands about
Manila, called Aetas. They live more like brute beasts than like
men, and they flee from the sight of all, doing ill to whomever they
can. They recognize no village, nor in a land of so many inclemencies
do they have any other shelter than that of the trees. They can be
seen daily in the bay of Pangil. In the village of Layauan, where I
was making the visitation, there appeared to be many of them. They
have no other adornments than those which they inherited from nature;
and pay so scant respect to decency that they do not secure even what
is requisite. Their arms are the bow and arrows dipped in poisons,
which they know and with which they prepare the arrows. It appears
probable, from what we know of other islands, where these people are
found gathered in the most inaccessible mountains, that these are the
first ones that occupied all these islands; but, as they are more
ancient and are so shut in, nothing more is known of their origin
than what is evident from this land, connected by its islands in a
chain with those of Burney, Macaçar, and Great Maluco. This nation
maintains only one excellence--at the cost, [however,] of its brutal
condition and wretched mode of life--namely, its liberty. No power,
not even that of our Spaniards, has been able to subjugate them. They
are so free in their indomitable barbarism that they will not suffer
any subordination among them, not even that which fraternal feeling
for their own people might bring about if they recognized dignities
or any organized form of social life. [51]
The Lutaos of Jolo have all their communication with the Borneans,
raising the trident of their king [52] in the villages of that enormous
island. There they are judged to be one people [with the Borneans],
and are declared such by the fraternal intercourse that they maintain
among themselves--being related by marriage, and conspiring together
with their arms for the invasion of these islands, where their
squadrons are seen daily under one and the same banner.
But the rulers and nobility of all the islands of Jolo and Basilan
recognize as the place of their origin the village of Butuan (which,
although it is located in this island, is within the pale of the
Visayan nation) on the northern side, in sight of the island of Bool,
and but a few leguas away from Leyte and from Bool, islands which are
in the same stage of civilization. Therefore, that village can glory
at having given kings and nobility to these nations. It is not so long
ago since the branches which flourish so well today were lopped from
their trunk, that the memory charged with the event that divided them
can have forgotten it. The old king of Joló who is now living [i.e.,
Bongso], saw the one who was dismembered from his people, and whom
misfortunes exiled from his fatherland in order to make him venture on
another's land, thus giving him the foundation of so warlike a kingdom,
which is so feared in these regions. Inasmuch as the tender beginnings
of this new kingdom gathered encouragement from the protection of
our arms, which it enjoyed for some time as pacific and tributary,
it will be well to relate its beginnings before time obscures them.
The dissensions of two brothers obliged the less powerful to seek,
by way of exile, a path to liberty which oppression denied him. Those
affected to him accompanied him, and with them, seeking a land to
his liking, he hit upon the island of Basilan. The one who stirred up
that people was named Paguian Tindig, [53] then a title of nobility,
and today the legacy of kings and princes of the blood royal in the
island of Joló. In his company he took his cousin, one Adasaolan,
whom his fate gave to him in order to maintain its enmity to
him. Some of those in his company allowed themselves to be led away
by the fertility and abundance of this island and remained behind,
captivated by its advantages. With the rest Tindig went to Joló,
whither the report of its wealth, the advantages of its seas and
islands, and the fertility of its mountains carried him. They easily
conquered the natives, who were barbarians and unaccustomed to the
rigors and ambitions of war. They remained as rulers of the island,
and their prince was Paguian Tindig, who, as subject to the Spaniards
(who had already subdued the river of Butuan), continued in the same
allegiance and paid them tribute. His cousin Adasaolan he married to a
daughter of Dimasangcay, [54] the king of Mindanao named Paguian Goan
(a dangerous plan) in order to give himself power in the rivalry [with
his brother]. The mother of Corralat, by name Imbog, was a Joloan, and
with the communication indispensable to relationship easily infected
Adasaolan with the perfidy of Mahomet, and the tyranny and violence
of his law; and he, puffed up by the favor of the Mindanao king,
and confident of his help, which their relationship promised him,
planned to kill his cousin, in order that he might remain absolute
master of the island. He blockaded him, unprepared, in his house
with four hundred men who had gathered to his standards. But in
a happening not expected or feared, love acted, being forewarned,
and innocence, being offended. And since there is no confusion that
blinds the courage of foresight, he had taken the precaution to pour
down along the supports of the house (which are here called arigues,
and are of strong wood) a quantity of oil, which rendered the scaling
more difficult; and the besiegers, finding more resistance than their
presumption imagined, and yielding to so great force, retired. Tindig
recognized the difficulty in which he was, and considered war as
declared and broken out; and, in order not to stain it with blood
at the cost of his men, planned to absent himself and look for aid,
respect for which would ensure his condition. He went to Manila for
that purpose, having repressed the forefront of his danger, and,
as a tributary and subject prince, easily secured the pledge of our
arms for his help; and, because he alone could measure the force with
the necessity, the means was left to his choice. He thought that two
well-armed caracoas would be enough, and, although a powerful fleet
was offered him, he refused to accept it; for he considered himself
as invincible in his joanga, if reënforced by two Spanish caracoas.
His absence made his rival powerful, for the party without a leader
readily unites with that side that has one; and, the cause of the
rivalry being wanting, tyranny easily united the forces of the
island. Eight well-armed joangas were prepared by Adasaolan, which
were given to him by Buhisan, the father of Corralat; and Tindig,
having come within sight of Joló, went ahead with a lack of caution,
to prepare his people, as he did not believe that the party of his
cousin was so in the ascendancy. The enemy who were awaiting him,
all ready, as soon as they saw his joanga without the shelter of the
caracoas, all surrounded it and boarded it, with the determination to
finish the war at one stroke. Ours who were coming behind could not
aid him; for he had gone on ahead, as we have said, to advise his men,
and to notify his enemies of the war, so that fear could accomplish
what he desired without recourse to arms. Overcome by the multitude
rather than yielding to force, he was killed. He died unconquerable,
his death leaving the tyrant assured of power. The king of Joló,
Raya Bongso, who was punished by Governor Don Sebastian Hurtado
de Corcuera, in his conquest of Joló, is a good witness of this
contest. He, without much questioning, showed even the wounds that
he received on that occasion, fighting, although but a lad, at the
side of Paguian Tindig, who was his relative.
The Spaniards having arrived, and the cause of their fighting (the
protection of him who had fallen) being now removed, and not finding
anyone with whom to fight, returned to Manila. The tyrant, flushed
with his victory, and being greedy with the hopes that great captures
were assured to him in the islands with alliance with the Mindanaos
and Borneans, united himself to them; and following their fleets,
with so good masters of piracy his people became so great pirates,
that they surpassed all in deeds, and by themselves caused so great
havoc throughout the islands that they have proved the heaviest scourge
that these natives have suffered. And refusing obedience to his Majesty
and the tribute which they have always paid, that principality [of
Joló] was founded and has less antiquity in these islands than the
Spaniards. [55]