MINDANAO
The old _Francesca_, directed by a nervous and none too competent
Tagalog captain, maneuvered in the six-mile tidal current which swept
west through the Straits making Zamboanga a nightmare to all the
native skippers who called at that port. Crab-like, she crawled
obliquely to within a few hundred feet of the low-lying town, then the
screw churned up a furious wake as the anxious Tagalog on the bridge
swung her back into the Straits to circle in a new attempt. Carried by
the tidal rush the old tub circled in a great ellipse.
Alone at the rail on the dingy promenade Terry stood enjoying his
first glimpse of Mindanao. Seven months in Luzon had brought him
countless tales of this uncertain southland--tales of pirates, of
insolent, murderous datos defiant behind their cotta fortresses, of
kris and barong wielded by fanatic Moros gone amok; of pearls as large
as robins' eggs, of nuggets tossed as playthings by naked children of
the forests, of mysterious tribes who inhabited the fastnesses of
inaccessible hills.
He wore the service uniform of the Constabulary, the field uniform of
khaki blouse and breeches, tan shoes and leggings, and stiff-brimmed
cavalry Stetson. The smart uniform set his erect figure off trimly
and added to the impression of alertness conveyed by his steady gray
eyes.
In the two wide swings back into midstream that ensued before the
steamer approached near enough land to get ropes to the little brown
stevedores who waited on the dock, Terry had ample opportunity for
study of the tropic panorama. The sea was dotted with Moro vintas,
swiftest of all Malayan sailing craft; tide and wind borne, some
scurried at tremendous pace toward the fishing grounds of the Sulu
Sea, others tacked painfully into the Celebes. A Government launch,
its starred and striped flag brilliant against the green sea in the
morning light, left its jetty and headed south toward the dim
coastline of Basilan. A score of gulls, that had followed the ship
down from Sorsogon, fattening on the waste thrown overboard after each
meal, circled around the ship aimlessly, uttering unpleasant cries.
The young sun mounted swiftly in a cloudless sky, hot on the trail of
the cool morning breezes, white in its threat of blistering punishment
of all who dared its shafts.
The hawser snubbed, the drum of the rusty winch rattled and banged on
worn bearings to a tune of escaping steam, laboriously warping the
smelly hull alongside the dock. Terry watched the sturdy little Moros
spring into agile life as the vessel slowly neared the pier, then he
turned to look over the town which was built flush with the edge of
the narrow beach, extending each way from the shore end of the pier.
The galvanized-iron roofs of the taller buildings--church, convent,
club, a few more pretentious dwellings,--were visible above the low
foliage and between the tall acacias and firetrees which jagged the
skyline. A heavily laden breeze identified unmistakably several long
buildings as copra warehouses.
It seemed a busy town, as towns near the equator go. In the street
into which the pier opened a thin stream of pedestrians passed by in
brief review before the watcher: Moros, a few Filipinos, a Chino
staggering under a heavy balanced pinga, two white-clad Americans,
while several rickshaws, Moro drawn, jogged by with patrons concealed
under raised tops. Then a big foreign touring car turned the corner
and drew up in front of the government building to deposit a middle
aged American, immaculate in fresh pongee.
Terry, observing him idly from where he stood at the rail, saw a
larger, uniformed American swing the corner with vigorous stride and
after saluting the older man accompany him respectfully to the
entrance to the big building, where they stood a moment in
conversation. Terry's interest quickened as he recognized the big
American as a member of his own service; he watched him approach the
ship through the crowd of half-nude sweating Moros who now swarmed the
dock.
Terry, hastening down the ship's ladder, met the tall officer as he
reached the end of the pier.
He was a loosely knit, raw-boned man of about thirty-five, of serious
but pleasant mien. As he stepped to meet Terry, Terry saw that he wore
the leaves of a Major.
"Lieutenant Terry?" he asked, responding with friendly informality to
Terry's stiff salute.
"Yes, sir."
"I'm Bronner. Mighty glad to know you. We've been looking for you ever
since receiving a copy of the Headquarters Bulletin ordering you down
here. Have a good trip?"
"Well, Major, the _Francesca_ is no Empress liner but we got along all
right. I am very glad to know you, Major. Your brother and I were
roommates at college--he used to tell me of your experiences with the
head hunters--"
"Huh!" the Major interrupted. "Guess he stretched things some. Fine
boy. Wants to come over when he graduates this June, but his mother
says one son over here is enough. And she's right."
Terry liked the big irregular features. In the steady eyes he saw
something that forced instant credence to the stories told of the
Major's resourceful bravery under difficult situations, a bravery
which had made the name of Bronner famous in a service made up of
intrepid men.
"Welcome to Moroland," the Major continued. "I hope you like it down
here--I think you will. If I didn't I wouldn't have requested your
transfer. You are assigned to the most interesting of the Moro
provinces,--Davao. You go there to command a Macabebe company. Your
baggage still aboard?"
"Yes, sir."
"Forget the 'sir'! Leave your stuff on board--the _Francesca_ sails at
daylight to-morrow, and you go on to Davao with her. Had breakfast? I
thought not. Pack a bag with what you will need for a day ashore--put
on a white uniform for to-night. My orderly will take you to my
quarters where you can get a shower and some breakfast. Join me at the
Service Club for lunch."
Throughout the abrupt discourse Terry had endured the frank appraisal
of the shrewd black eyes. He experienced a pleasant reaction when the
Major again extended his broad hand.
"Lieutenant, I said a minute ago that I was glad to know you. Let me
repeat it--I mean it. Adios, till lunch time."
He pushed his way good-naturedly through the throng of Moros who were
handling the bales and boxes unloaded from the roach-ridden hull and
walked off the pier, disappearing into the government building. Terry
boarded the vessel, warmed by the friendliness of his new chief, and
by the time the orderly arrived had thrown a few things into his bag
and was ready to go ashore.
He followed the soldier down the main street, a dusty thoroughfare
lined with the usual assortment of structures which adorn Philippine
provincial towns: adobe, tile-roofed business houses honeycombed with
little box-like shops in which the Chinese merchants displayed their
wares: square wooden houses set high on stone understructures: scores
of bamboo shacks stilted on crooked timbers, unkempt, wry, powdered
with the dust risen since the last rains.
Though it was not yet nine o'clock, they sought the shaded side of the
street with the habit which becomes instinctive near the equator, and
welcomed the coolness of Bronner's low house.
The cook and the houseboy looked after him with the unobtrusive
perfection of service found only in the East. A good breakfast cheered
a stomach outraged by the greasy mess perpetrated upon native boats in
the name of Spanish cookery, and a cool shower bath eliminated the
stench of stale copra which had clung to his nostrils if not to his
clothing. An hour before noon he left the house and strolled about the
scorching town, regardless of where he went so long as he found shaded
walks on which to tread.
* * * * *
Most Philippine towns are coast towns, and most coast towns are flat
and uninteresting unless you are interested in their peoples--and you
are not interested in them unless they are of a different tribe than
you have known previously.
Take a couple of dusty--or muddy--streets, unroll them along some
freshwater stream just above a line of palmed beach: place an immense,
deserted-looking softstone church in an unkept square flanked with a
few straggled acacias and a big convent in which a native priest lives
in weary and squalid detachment from a world he knows nothing about:
line the two streets with an assortment of rusty bamboo and
mixed-material houses which impress one as never having been built but
as always having stood there: sprinkle a few naked, pot-bellied, brown
children staring at each other in pathetic, Malay ignorance of the
manner and spirit of play: set a few brown manikins in the open
windows--women who let life fly by in dull wonder of what it is all
about: add a few carabaos lying in neck-deep content in mudwallows,
and a score of emaciated curs which snarl at each other in habitual,
gnawing hunger and which greet their masters with terrified whines:
spread over it all a pall of still moist heat and a sky arched by a
molten sun. Contrive all this, then imbue every object--human and
creature, animate and inanimate,--with an air of hopelessness, of the
futility of effort, and you will have a typical Malay town as the
Americans found them.
But not so where the American has set his impious foot--impious of the
dogma that you can not change the East, nor hurry it. He enjoyed the
finesse of the phrase, quoted it, then jumped in to hustle the East.
The old timers,--Spaniards and Britishers for the greater
part--shrugged at each other over their heavy tiffins and nine o'clock
dinners; these crazy Americans would soon learn! But the crazy,
enthusiastic Americans, engineers, health officers, executives, school
teachers, Constabulary, labored on in the glory of service: eradicated
cholera, built roads and bridges, brought six hundred thousand
children into school that two score tribes might find a common tongue,
fought the devastating cattle plagues, wiped out brigandage and
piracy, brought order and first semblance of prosperity to eight
millions of people.
Young men did it all. The old-timers suddenly found that they were
living in new times, in clean, healthful towns: found that business
was increasing by leaps and bounds as the natives fell in behind the
young Americans with a quicker stride than Orientals had ever known.
And they are the reasons--those few thousands of smooth-faced
Americans who laughingly threw themselves at the wall of immemorial
sloth and apathy--why Kipling's phrase is seldom quoted east of India,
and now not often there. And they are the reasons, those carefully
chosen, confident young men of whom too many are buried over there,
that we have so much of which to be proud in what has been done in our
name for a backward, unfortunate people.
But we, you and I, do not know very much about it all: it is so far
away and we are so busy with our affairs, our politics, our--
... You know ... we are just too busy to bother about those Tagalogs
and headhunters who live over there where Dewey licked Cervera, and
Aguinaldo was king of the Igorotes or something, and Pershing rose
from a captain to a general: why, I heard one of those Filipinos make
a speech about independence and he was so smart and bright--he had
been sent to our congress or something and was handsome and polished
and....
Yes, he doubtless was. That is why he was sent: but he bore about the
same mental relation to the race he is supposed to represent as a
Supreme Court Justice bears to a Georgia cracker!
* * * * *
Terry had thoroughly assimilated the atmosphere of the Luzon provinces
in his seven months in the Islands, so he found a real pleasure in
studying a Moro town which had been under the energizing influence of
the Army for nearly two decades. He wandered slowly through the native
quarter, cutting down clean cross streets lined with neat nipa huts
inclosed behind latticed bamboo fences, enjoying the novelty of a
community different from any he had known. Every detail of the well
kept streets testified to the strictness of the standards set by the
white men who governed the town. The few Moros whom he encountered on
the noon-deserted streets passed him silently and with averted eyes,
wary, secretive, entirely alien. One looked him square in the eye,
leaving him uncomfortable with the antipathy unveiled, the cold,
everlasting contempt of the Mohammedan for the unbeliever whom he does
not know.
He walked with lids half-closed against the white glare and the heat
waves which danced above the tortured roads and roofs: by the hour set
for his luncheon engagement he had covered the town thoroughly,
including the beautiful post which had been turned over to Scouts when
the Army at last finished its tedious Moro project.
He found the Major waiting him at the Club, a large, single-story
building set in a grove of tall palms at the edge of the beach and
cooled by the breezes from the Straits. He followed him out on the
wide veranda built over the water's edge, passing through a friendly,
incurious group of young Americans who sat at little round tables in
groups of three and four. Major Bronner responded to a dozen greetings
as they crossed to a table set for two at the edge of the veranda. In
a moment the deft tableboy had their service under way.
"Well," began the Major, "you will have a busy time of it during the
rest of your stay--I wish it were to be longer. This afternoon I want
you to come to the office with me--there are lots of things to talk
over about your work down there. The Governor will see you about five
o'clock. How do you like Zamboanga?"
"It's clean, and interesting, Major."
"'Clean and interesting!' That is a boost! Though we can't take much
credit for the 'interesting'--the Moros furnish that!"
The white-smocked servants moved noiselessly about the cool veranda,
serving the score of Americans with that perfect impersonal care found
nowhere except among Oriental servitors: the subdued clatter of silver
against dish and the tinkle of iced drinks was often drowned in
outbursts of merriment from one or other of the little tables. Most of
the Americans were mere youths, though two were evidently in their
forties. Bronner noted Terry's study of a group of three who sat
nearby, heavily tanned men evidently not quite at home in the club.
"Davao planters," he explained. "Hemp planters: you will know them.
Three good men: they're going down on your boat."
Lunch finished, coffee and cigars furnished excuse for the white-clad
crowd to linger on the darkened porch: scraps of shop talk reached
Terry's ears, a jargon of strangely twisted English and Spanish words.
Bridges, appropriations, rinderpest, lack of labor, artesian wells,
cholera--such was their table talk, as such was their life.
The breeze freshened, gently stirring the potted plants which flanked
each row of tables; the hot stillness of the noon gave way to the
sibilant murmur of the cocoanut palms whose bases were lapped by the
quickening ripples. The breaking of the withering calm was the signal
for departure to office and field. The veranda cleared rapidly.
Bronner, watching the three planters, interrupted their departure.
"Lindsey--just a minute."
He took Terry to their table and introduced him.
"Lieutenant Terry, gentlemen: Mr. Lindsey, Mr. Cochran, Mr. Casey.
Lieutenant Terry goes to Davao to-morrow as Senior Inspector. You will
be able to help him, till he learns his way down there--and later he
may be able to help you."
Terry shook hands with the three in turn. All were out-doors men,
bronzed, diffident with the social shyness of men who live their lives
alone or among none but alien people. Lindsey and Cochran were
square-set, serious young men: Casey, older, but of eager,
enthusiastic mien.
The Major discussed them as he and Terry left the club.
"They're three of the best planters in the Gulf. You'll have no
trouble with them. But you may with some others, those who have a
fancied grievance against the government just now. I had better start
at the beginning.
"You know the best hemp in the world grows down there--soil, climate,
rainfall all combine wonderfully to make it the one ideal spot for
hemp production. In another twenty years it will probably rate as the
richest single agricultural area on the globe--that's why those little
fellows over there"--he indicated a pair of Japanese passing on the
opposite side of the street--"are piling into Davao so fast these
days.
"The world needs hemp--and areas where it can be cultivated are rare.
Three years ago a little stampede occurred into Davao; the pioneers
are a mixed lot--about sixty Americans, a few Britishers, a scattering
of Moros and Filipinos and nearly two hundred Japs. The Japs are
quiet--you will seldom see them: they stay on their places and 'saw
wood'; they're backed by some syndicate--probably their government.
But the others are lone handers, working on their own 'shoe-strings'
or financed by the contributions of optimistic shareholders in Manila.
"They are good men, these planters. You will like them. They went into
the fastnesses of Mindanao, braved the wild tribes, cleared their
land, planted hemp, working largely with their own hands--and in a
climate where they say the white man shall labor only with his head.
You will hear all about their troubles and difficulties--you won't
hear much else down there but hemp--hemp and wild tribes! Hemp and
wildmen--that's Davao!
"About their grievance. They cleared and planted rapidly and have
raised fabulous crops, but when it came time to strip the hemp for
market they found that the wildmen upon whom they had banked as
potential labor would not work. A few came and stayed, but most of
them quit after earning a few pesos. So the hemp rotted in the field.
Desperate, facing ruin, some of the planters went after labor too
strongly, frightened and browbeat the Bogobos into working. The scheme
worked, so a condition approximating peonage was developed upon
several of the plantations.
"We ordered it stopped. Those planters are very sore, looking for
trouble. That's the story--and the condition you must face, and
overcome. You've got to hold down that class of planter, but at the
same time encourage the Bogobos to work for them. It means prosperity
for the planters, and money and comfort for the Bogobos--and it will
keep them out of the hills: we want the Bogobos near the coast, under
civilizing influences. They are newly won to us and apt to fade away
into the foothills on the least provocation."
* * * * *
Crossing the acacia-shaded lawns of the beautiful plaza he stopped in
front of the artistic concrete bandstand, jerking a big thumb at the
dedication inscribed upon the ivy-covered façade.
"Pershing Plaza," he read aloud. "He was the last military Governor,
you remember. I knew him: a good man. No genius--just a good man, hard
worker: has two traits that will carry him a long way if he gets the
chance--common sense and industry. Wants to know everything about
everything, and never quits working. Surrounds himself with workers:
gives his men their jobs and doesn't bother them while they do
them--just wants results.
"'Make good or make way!' Some slogan! Pershing, Wood, Scott,
Carpenter,--America has sent some of her best into Mindanao. I'm glad
to be here--aren't you?"
At the sudden question Terry turned to him.
"Yes," he said. "I hope to be--useful."
They had reached the entrance to the government building: the Major
paused at the foot of the mahogany staircase to conclude earnestly:
"It is fashionable just now in Manila to decry this effort to
institute civil government among the Moros--but I know you are not of
the type to be influenced. Governor Mason is making good: you will
see that after you have been here a month. He is a wonder,
Terry,--probably the only man who could handle this situation with a
few Constabulary. Study, patience, and square-dealing, backed by
occasional use of troops, prepared the Moros for this experiment, and
Governor Mason is carrying it forward almost alone--opposing the
backward tendencies of Sululand with little else save personality,
inspiration and a wonderful knowledge of Malay character.
"You're going to like it down here," he wound up suddenly, confused by
his own unaccustomed oratory.
Mounting the polished stairway, they passed down the tall concrete
corridors and into the Major's office. He drew up a chair for Terry
and seated himself behind a desk whose orderly array of accessories
bespoke his methodical bachelor habits. The walls were covered with
large-scale maps of Moroland showing location of various tribes,
scattered settlements and district boundaries, with great blank areas
eloquent of the unknown character of unexplored fastnesses. The
crosses which indicated the distribution of Constabulary forces
controlled from his office dotted every sizable island: pins bearing
the names of government agents showed into what remote regions our
trail-breakers had penetrated. One purple-flagged pin showed a
veterinarian warring against a cattle plague in Jolo: a blue flag
thrust into one of the blank spaces of Mindanao indicated the
whereabouts of a fearless ethnologist from the Field Museum: a red
sticker bore the name of an engineer who had been out of touch for six
weeks, running the line of a new trail across the great bulk of
Mindanao. The map was symbolic of the Constabulary, whose duty it is
to know all, to protect all.
Leaving Terry to his study of the maps the Major spent an unapologetic
fifteen minutes clearing the mass of papers that had accumulated
during the lunch hour, then turned to him. For an hour he outlined the
salient problems which would confront the young officer in his new
assignment. He was all business, curt, concise, definite. He touched
upon the ordinary service activities of drill, patrol, secret service,
supply and report, then took up those phases which required delicate
and original handling.
"Now, Lieutenant, we did not pull you down here to handle an ordinary
job--you know it means something these days to get a Mindanao
assignment."
Terry did know it. Only men who had demonstrated unusual ability in
their line had been sent to Moroland under Governor Mason. As the
months went by the northern provinces were being stripped of their
crack men for assignment to the southern experiment, so that detail
there had become a mark of distinction. He had been as surprised as
pleased at his summons from Sorsogon, a poor, colorless province
where he had spent seven months in uneventful, and as he thought,
inconspicuous service.
The Major detected something of what was passing in his mind: "You
were selected because of your understanding of native character, your
sympathy with them: that, and your faculty for learning dialects. By
the way, what is your method of studying these languages--your record
of three dialects in half a year is remarkable."
"There was little else to do--and I like to study them."
The Major noted the slight flush of embarrassment. He reached into a
drawer and pulled out a card, scanning it carefully before continuing:
"Your qualification card indicates that you are an unusual pistol
shot: it reads 'Pistol rating--two-handed expert, extraordinary in
accuracy and rapidity.'"
Disregarding Terry's increased embarrassment he pushed the question:
"How did you acquire such skill?"
"Well, as I had to carry a sidearm, I thought to make it useful--it is
not much of an ornament. After I became really interested it cost me
about fifty dollars a month for ammunition."
"Well, things happen down here! Some day you may be glad you spent the
money--your skill may come in handy!"
"On--men?" It was the one aspect of the service from which Terry
shrank.
"Well, I hope not. It seldom comes to that. But a number of hard
characters have been concentrating recently in the Davao Gulf, a batch
of discharged convicts who served long terms for brigandage and
murder. We have been watching them, but nothing significant transpired
till last month."
The muscles of his heavy jaw tightened as he went on: "You have heard
of Malabanan, haven't you?"
"The ladrone leader?"
"Yes, he. He was released from Bilibid prison last summer and came
through here last month. One of our operatives uncovered him on the
boat--traveling as an ordinary steerage passenger. He went to Davao,
and I fear it means trouble. I think he gathered that tough crew
together to operate in Davao, thinking to test us out now that the
Army is gone."
His face was grim as he snapped: "Terry, watch him! And if he makes a
single move--smash him! Make no false starts, do not arrest him unless
you are sure that your evidence will convict in the courts. Give him
plenty of rope--but if he breaks loose ... smash him hard!
Understand?"
Terry nodded quietly, but something in his competent face contented
his chief. He repeated his warning against premature action:
"Be sure you can get him before you move--he is slippery and has
friends in high native circles. We do not want to be turned down in
the courts at this stage of the game, and it may be he intends to play
the game square--plant hemp, for instance. But if he wants a
showdown--smash him good and plenty!"
He briefly reviewed the substance of his instructions: "You can see
that your work is going to call for a good deal of tact and patience:
patience with the angry planters, with the wild people. Everybody is
scared and jumpy down there just now, and we want to restore their
confidence."
Terry had listened attentively throughout the interview, speaking only
to answer questions. He broke the silence which followed:
"Major, I have heard a great deal about the Hill People of Davao: will
I be near them?"
The Major eyed him queerly for a moment before answering: "About
thirty miles as the bird flies," he said, "but about a million to all
intents and purposes! No living man has been among them--those who
have tried have left their bones rotting in the dark forest. They kill
all who attempt to reach them, expeditions in force find nothing as
the Hillmen simply fade away before their approach.
"I don't want you to attempt to go among them--in fact I expressly
forbid it, as it means certain death. But some day we hope to open the
Hills up, to win among them: it is one of the Governor's cherished
ambitions. So learn what you can about them from the old Bogobos who
live in the foothills, and report any interesting traditions you may
hear. Pieced together, the tales may make a helpful contribution--may
help solve the riddle of how to get to them peaceably. Not that you or
I are likely to live long enough to see it done--they are too
confounded wild, too inaccessible behind their jungled hills."
He shrugged his broad shoulders in eloquent dismissal of a vain hope,
and rose: "I want you to meet the Governor. I'll see if we can get to
him yet."
He strode out of the office, returning immediately to inform Terry
that the Governor was closeted with the two Moro datos whom he had
fetched to the capitol by launch.
"They haven't promised to be good boys yet," he chuckled, "but they
will before he finishes with them! His Secretary says that he expects
you and me to go down to San Ramon with him to-night at seven sharp,
to dine with Wade, the prison superintendent. You're in luck,
Lieutenant. It will be an evening you won't soon forget."
So it proved to be.