The form of government of these natives
The kings, although so tyrannical in government, and in power so
beyond the affliction and trouble which authority and ostentation
incur, yet according to the condition of their poverty maintain the
form and authority of a court. Peace affairs are in charge of a chief
justice or counselor, called zarabandal. That is the greatest court
title and he decides the causes and suits, and advises concerning the
sentence. In the outside villages where the king does not reside,
the chiefs meddle wherever they wish, without other law than their
power and will, and their unbridled greed; and the one injured has
no recourse, for, in quarrels between the plebeians and chiefs, the
king always takes the part of the latter--who are more powerful, and
are those who can make trouble for him, and even deprive him of his
kingdom. For his principate is founded more on the recognition that
they make of his nobility than on any absolute power which secures to
him their vassalage; since a slave will say "no" to the king in what
does not suit him. That happened in Joló, in the presence of Father
Alexandro Lopez. When the father was negotiating through the medium of
the king to have the ransom for a Christian put at a humane figure,
the other, a Joloan slave by condition, who had the Christian in his
power, said to the very face of the king, when the latter asked him to
conform to the prices settled upon in the treaty of peace, [67] that
he would not do it; and that was the end of the matter. That signified
that the king's power in execution extended just so far as his vassals
wished, and that they would obey him just so far as it pleased them.
They have established orders of nobility, with a distinction of titles
which aggrandize it. Some are called Tuam, which is the same as "Señor"
or the title applied to men in España. Others are given the title
of Orancaya, which signifies "rich man;" it is the greatest title,
and equivalent to grandee of their kingdom. It is equivalent to the
same title that España gave to its grandees when his Majesty used
more simplicity, and called them Ricos-Homes [i.e., "rich men"]. The
rest are called chiefs, and correspond to what we call caballeros and
Hijos-dalgo [i.e., "knights and nobles"]. They have no greater dignity
than the honor. Those of the blood royal are called cachiles following
the custom and style of the kings of Maluco, Terrenate, Tidores,
and Xilolos. The same in the peculiar style of Joló are called Paguian.
The Orangcayas or Ricos-Homes become the rulers of vassals, and
have some villages in their charge. In those villages, although
the king is recognized, and tribute sent to him, in all else those
rulers are absolute; and especially in government affairs are they
independent. They are the ones who tyrannize most ungovernably over
the people; for whatever fine the king imposes upon them, or whatever
gift he requests from them, they lay hands upon their subjects, and,
as if they were slaves they take away the son from the father in order
to sell him. That has been the case so often that, even since they
have been made subject to our government, it has been necessary to
examine with close attention, whenever they bring any slave to sell,
the reason for his slavery; for it has been found that they sell
us many slaves without any other right than that of their tyranny,
relieving their necessities and making their payments with the first
person whom they meet--bringing him, beguiled by some other pretext,
to the Spaniards; and the injury was suffered without any complaint,
because of the incapacity and dullness of the poor Subanos. The
latter, as they are so unused to intercourse with us, and so shut up
in their own lives, had no arguments to oppose to what they did not
understand; and showed their wonder, surprise, and bashfulness in
brute silence. For that reason, where the Orangcayas govern (which
are almost all villages of the Subanos or Indians of the mountain),
there is scarce one who enjoys liberty. Those chiefs hold them so
under their power, that they regard the very leaders and chiefs of
the Subano nation as their slaves. That I experienced on a visit which
I made on a dangerous occasion, when in order to assure the minds of
the people I took with me a Lutao chief who was the absolute master
before the Spaniards entered, and to whom they still paid hereditary
respect along all the coast of Siocon. Being, then, with all the
people and chiefs of the nation assembled together in a village, and
I endeavoring to honor them with signs of the greatest affection,
the Lutao said: "Do not pay any attention to these people, Father,
for they are all my slaves." This he said in a place where we two and
the chiefs of the village were alone. I thought that that contempt
and arrogance would arouse them; but on the contrary, it softened
them, as the affection and presents of a loving prince would his
humble vassal. And, although they were not slaves, the respect
in which they were born gives the chiefs so much authority, that
although we [Spaniards] possess the rule, they, as chiefs, command
the people. And, as the latter were reared in that tyranny, their
natural disposition made them show respect and natural submission;
for, notwithstanding the immunity that our arms give them, they obey
those chiefs better than they do us. May that be tempered in part by
the Christian government, and the vigilance of our father ministers,
and the recourse which they find in the royal officials. For a chief
of those natives who was governor of the village of Baluasan, near
to Samboangan, when speaking of the wretched subjection in which the
Lutaos held them, and the good fortune that had come to them with
the entrance of our government, by restraining the Lutao tyranny,
and giving arms to persecuted liberty, spoke to me these words:
"If you [Spaniards] had not arrived when you did, there would now
not be any of us left; for we would already have been finished, and
bartered for goods with the people of Macasar." These words consoled
me, on account of the fidelity which the interest and recognized
advantages of that barbarian guaranteed. [68]
Such was the government maintained by Corralat. And since he made
all of them so powerful, giving them special power by laws, he was
very acceptable to the princes of his nation and therefore most
secure. These men, then, are the ones who grieve over the losses
sustained by the change, who see themselves put under holy laws and
just--they who before had no other laws than those of their own will,
and their unbridled ambition, laws from which the others suffered as
a servile, cowardly, and rude nation.