In this, the eighth and final installment of "The History of Central Mindanao, Part IV" I thought it best to offer a relatively simple synopsis of all the installments after having concluded excerpting the book in the previous installment, Part 7, where I concluded William Dampier's "A New Voyage Around the World." Dampier and his crewmates sat out the Western Monsoon in the Sultanate of Maguindanao, then under its ninth Sultan, Barahaman, and offers us his perceptions about the six months he spent on the island. He shows us a people that have very little familiarity with the religion they had joined roughly 100 years before, Islam. Aside from the Sultan no other person utilised the sole mosque on Mainland Mindanao. Even the Sultan's family gets drunk and gambles, major sacroreligious actions within Islam.
The Sultanate, then at its apex, merely consisted of less than a kilometer long line of bamboo framed nipa palm leaf thatched huts, commonly known today as "nipas." Even the "palace" was merely a larger nipa. The Sultanate did trade and had received at least two British ships before Dampier's as Dampier found out during the audience given to the ship's commander, Captain Swan. At this audience before the Sultan the evening after their arrival, Captain Swan was formally presented with two letters. The first, posted from London on ornate stationary that contained gold patina was sent by a representative of the East India Company, a quasi-governmental mercantile corporation that combined trade with military and political expansionism. The author was responding to conversations that had been held between the Sultan and company representatives during a port call in recent years. It spoke of intentions to open an East India Company factory within the Sultanate of Maguindanao, or as it was known then, the Sultanate of Mindanao ("Maguindanao," or "People of the Flood Plain" is related etymologically to "Mindanao" which simply means "The Innundated Land," or "The Flooded Land" referring to the Pulangi River which lies at the centre of the Sultanate's existence and its annual flooding of the lands around it).
Far from its modern definition a "factory" was a small fort that served as a centre of commercial trade. The British, latecomers to the region were as keen as any other Europeans to cash in on the Spice Trade. In the days before electricity made refrigeration possible spices offered a way in which to preserve food as well as a way in which to season its taste. The trade had fueled European expansionism over the previous three centuries as European nations desperately sought faster routes to what Europeans generally referred to as the "East Indies" which were basically the lands that are today encompassed within Indonesia, Malaysia, East Timor, Singapore, and the Philippines though the latter served more as a logistical hub than a cog in the actual trade since the limited commodities it did offer, cinammon for example, was considered inferior in quality.
The second letter came from the commander of a merchant vessel, Captain Goodlud. Aside from commercial information such as weights and measures and agreed upon prices for staple commodities, the letter closed with a warning that the Maguindanowan Tribe were degenerate thieves. While in port Captain Goodlud's ship had been robbed by a Maguindanowan warrior who then escaped into the mountainous back country. As Dampier himself would soon find out there were indeed things afoot about which to be cautious. The man with whom the crew dealt the most was a younger brother of the Sultan, the Rajah Laut, or "Prince of the Seas," owing to his command of the Sultanate's naval forces as well as his oversight of its waterways for fishing and trading. Although inititaly this interaction went wonderfully well it soon soured.
From the moment they met the Rajah Laut had advised Captain Swan to leave his mooring in the bay and drive his ship up the river so as to protect it from the imminent monsoon. When, on the second day Captain Swan read the two English letters that of the East India Company in which it professed its intention to open a factory in the Sultanate completely overshadowed the warnings of Captain Goodlud. If the lauded East India Company had faith in the Sultanate than that was all Captain Swan needed to hear. On the third day, with Rajah Laut aboard and at least fifty Maguindanowans labouring the crew dragged the ship a half a kilometer upriver by block and tackle, an arduous task with such a large vessel in only three meters of water riddled with sand bars.
Arriving at an indentation that allowed proper mooring while always leaving the ship afloat the crew set about acclimaring itself to life on Mindanao. Dampier tells how the tribe had acquired a formal system of begging in which newly arriving foreigners were accosted and solicited to become good friends much like people might date in our age. The tribesman, asking if the sailor had a "comrade" (male friend) or "pagallie" (female platonic friend). If receptive the foreigner would be led to his "comrade" or "pagallie's" home where he would be offered food, a place to nap or even a bit of diversion via intoxicants like locally grown tobacco or betel nut. In exchange the foreigner was expected to regularly bestow gifts of considerably steeper value. Dampier mentions sailors, who had been considerably enriched by the crews depradations against Spanish shipping and at least one overland aTtack in Panama as bestowing gold rings weighing 14 grammes for the simple pleasure of spending a day or two with a local family and enjoying what little food and enjoyment they had to offer.
Something that any visitor to the Philippines today would easily recognise, the traders and craftsmen in the Sultanate vastly overcharged their foreign customers, a practice Dampier found repugnant almost as much as dud about his crewmates willingness to endure it. Dampier warns that his crewmates will cause any Englishmen that might follow them to pay dearly for even the most basic of commodities (now I know who to blame!).
As the crew set about scrubbing their ship's keel they noticed that there was a huge problem with marine worm infestation that had eaten nearly through their outer hull. Luckily the ship was double hulled and so the vessel was salvagable. Dampier later learned that a Dutch vessel had been convinced by the Rajah Laut to moor at that same spot; within two months the hull had been destroyed and the Rajah Laut was able to theb very cheaply acquire the ship's artillery. He later noted that when the Rajah Laut visited the ship and found it to be double hulled he became visibly distressed and that when, towards the new year the ship drove out again to the bay the Rajah Laut was nowhere to be found unlike when he had eagerly directed them to that site.
As New Year approached the Rajah Laut not only failed to keep his word about provisioning the ship (for a fee) but then connived with several of the young crew members to deceive Captain Swan in the matter. Likewise he assisted several crew members in absconding from the Sultanate so as to avoid having to sail.
Finally, the crew was getting ready to leave when a crewman inadvertently discovered Captain Swan's journal and found that the Captain had badly disparaged just about everybody in the crew. Already the crew had separated into cliques where those with means stayed ashore, several going so far as to have their own nipas built and lease a concubine from tribesmen so as to lead the semblabce of a stable life. The others without means were left aboard with little provisions and so they had begun stealing iron ingots stored aboard by two merchants who had taken passage. With the proceeds the crewmen purchased honey and other commodities and manufactured their own liquor. Already resentful the alcohol was like a spark to tinder so that when the journal was read it gave birth to a mutinous plot that left Captain Swan and 36 other crewmen at the Sultanate as the ship departed in mid-January of 1687. In addition, 16 had died during their six month sojourn and eight had run away before as re-provisioning began. Dampier attributes some of the deaths to deliberate posoining by tribesmen amd adds that some died long after they left from slower acting posions.
Traveling north they skirted the Zamboanga Peninsula, or as Dampier refers to it, "Chambonga." Landing where Zamboanga City sits today they inspected the ruined foundation of the Spanish fort which had been abandoned decades before. From there, intending to attack Spanish shipping in the sea lanes around Manila they land at Palawan and then a Visayan island near Cebu, and finally, Batanes which although unrelated to Mindanao of course still makes for a fascinating read.
No comments:
Post a Comment