In this, the seventh installment in "History of Mindanao, Part IV" I conclude my excerpting from William Dampier's "A New Voyage Around the World." Dampier was an upper class Englishman who while in Jamaica joined the crew of a privateer, liscenced pirates who attacked Spanish ships and split the profits with the English Monarchy. This excerpt addresses the crew's last two months on Mindanao during the reign of the ninth Sultan, Sultan Barahaman, and shows how they began to fight amongst themselves before finally culminating in a mutiny as the ship departs heading north with a quick stop in what is now Zamboanga City. The excerpt opens as the crewmen discover Captain Swan's journal in which he remarked quite negatively about most any crew member.
Chapter 13
"His Men Mutiny"
Therefore looking on what was written in the journal to be matter sufficient for them to accomplish their ends. Captain Teat, who as I said before, had been abused by Captain Swan, laid hold on this opportunity to be revenged for his injuries and aggravated the matter to the height, persuading the men to turn out Captain Swan from being commander in hopes to command the ship himself. As for the seamen they were easily persuaded to anything; for they were quite tired with this long and tedious voyage, and most of them despaired of ever getting home and therefore did not care what they did or wither they went. It was only want of being busied in some action that made them so uneasy; therefore they consented to what Teat proposed, and immediately all the ship bound themselves by oath to; therefore they concealed this design from those that were ashore until the ship was under sail which would have been presently if the surgeon or his mate had been aboard; but they were both ashore, and they thought it be prudence to go to sea without a surgeon; therefore the next morning they sent ashore one John Cookworthy to hasten off either the surgeon or his mate by pretending that one of the men in the night had broken a leg by falling into the hold. The surgeon told him that he intended to come aboard the next day with the Captain and would not come before; but sent his mate Herman Coppinger. The next day being the time appointed for Captain Swan and all his men to meet aboard, I went aboard with him neither of us distrusted what was designing by those aboard till' we came tither. Then we found it was only a trick to get the surgeon off, for now having obtained their desires, the canoe was sent ashore again to desire as many as they could meet to come aboard; but not to tell the reason lest Captain Swan should come to hear of it.
The 13th day in the morning they weighed and fired a gun; Captain Swan immediately sent aboard Mr.Nelly who was now his Chief Mate, to see what the matter was; to him they told all their grievances and showed him the journal. He persuaded them to stay till' the next day for an answer from Captain Swan and the merchants. So they came to an anchor again and the next morning. Mr.Harthop came aboard, he persuaded them to be reconciled again; or at least to stay and get more rice; but they were deaf to it and weighed again while he was aboard. Yet at Mr.Harthop's persuasion they promised to stay till' 2 o'clock in the afternoon for Captain Swan and the rest of the men, if they came aboard; but they suffered no man to go ashore except one Mr.William Williams that had a wooden leg and another that was a sawyer.
"The main part of the crew Go Away with the Ship, Leaving Captain Swan and Some of his Men; Several Others Poisoned There"
If Captain Swan had yet come aboard he might have dashed all their designs; but he neither came himself, as a Captain of any prudence and courage would have done, nor sent till' the time was expired. So we left Captain Swan and about thirty-six men ashore in the city and six or eight that ran away; and about sixteen we had buried there, the most of which died by poison. The natives are very expert at poisoning and do it upon small occasion; nor did our men want for giving offence through their general rogueries, and sometimes by dallying too familiarly with their women, even before their faces. Some of their poisons are slow and lingering for we had some now aboard who were poisoned there but died not till' some months later.
Chapter 14
"The Depart From the River of Mindanao"
The 14th day of January 1687 at 3 o'clock in the afternoon we sailed from the river of Mindanao, designing to cruise before Manila.
"Chambongo Town and Harbour with its Neighbouring Keys"
We coasted to the westward on the south side of the island of Mindanao, keeping within four or five leagues of the shore. The next day we were abreast of Chambongo, a town in this island; about thirty leagues from the river of Mindanao; Here is said to be a good harbour and a great settlment with plenty of beef and buffalo. It is reported that the Spaniards were formerly fortified here also; we sent our canoe ashore, thinking to find inhabitants but found no sign of any; but great tracts of hogs and great cattle; and close by the sea there are ruins of an old fort; the walls thereof were of a great height, built with stone and lime; and by the workmanship seemed to be Spanish. We weighed again on the 14th day and by the 22nd day we got about the western most point of Mindanao and stood to the northward.
"Two Proas of the Sologues Laden from Manila"
Here we met with two proas belonging to the Sologues, one of the Mindanayan nations before mentioned, they came from Manila laden with silks and calicoes.
********************************************************************************************************
That concludes the excerpts but I will post a Part 9 as well in which I offer a full synopsis of these 8 parts.
Showing posts with label William Dampier. Show all posts
Showing posts with label William Dampier. Show all posts
Thursday, September 22, 2011
History of Mindanao, Part IV: The Maguindanao Sultanate in the Late 17th Century, Part 8, a Synopsis of Dampier's Experience on Mindanao
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.
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.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
History of Mindanao, Part IV: The Sultanate of Maguindanao in the Late 17th Century, Part 6
Like the previous five installments of "The History of Central and Western Mindanao" Part 6 will excerpt from William Dampier's "A New Voyage Around the World." Dampier was an upper class Englishman who by a twist of fate became a privateer while on the island of Jamaica, then a British colony in the Caribbean Sea off of the Americas. "Privateers" were essentially liscenced pirates who gave a large percentage of their conquests to the government that liscenced them, in this case England. After cruising the eastern coasts of Central and South America, and one overland excursion in what is now Panama, Dampier's ship rounds the bottom tip of South America and enters the Pacific Ocean.
While taking on provisions at the Spanish colony of Guam the crew learns that the "King of Mindanao" is "at war" with Spain. Knowing that, it being summer, the Monsoon was approaching and that they had to find a safe harbour and decides to sail for Mindanao in hopes of wrangling a liscence to plunder Spanish shipping in and around the Philippines. Arriving from the east they skirt what Dampier believes to be "Saint John's Island," but what in all liklihood was probably Siargao Island off of today's Surigao del Norte Province in Northeast Mindanao. Sailing south along Mindanao's east coast they reach the island's southern coast and Saragani Bay. After a short stop to take on fresh meat from what Dampier describes as the largest population of deer he has ever seen, they finally arrive off of what is today North Cotabato Province and the mouth of the Pulangi River, what the Spanish called, "El Rio Grande de Mindanao."
Rajah Laut, or "Prince of the Seas," Sultan Barahaman's younger brother and the commander of the Sultan's navy approaches the ship in a small craft along with a son of the Sultan. The ship's commander, Captain Swan converses with Rajah Laut but the latter refuses to board, citing a lack of permission from the Sultan but in all liklihood merely being cagey. That evening the crew's Mr.More is dispatched ashore with gifts for both the Sultan and Rajah Laut. More is chosen because he had been imprisoned by the Spanish in Mexico and so had managed to become fluent in Spanish, one of two languages of commerce in the region, the other being Bahasa Malay.
The second day Captain Swan and a landing party go on shore and visit with Rajah Laut before being summoned for an audience with Sultan Barahaman. During the audience Captain Swan is shown two letters written in English. One, posted from England, is from the East India Company, a quasi governmental commercial syndicate controlling all English commerce in East Asia. The letter says that the Company intends to build a "factory" in Maguindanao. Factories were a hybrid of a military fort and trading post for all English trade. The second letter is from a Captain Goodlud who had made a port call in the Sultanate not long before Dampier's arrival. It is meant to acquaint any English trader coming after with the value of local goods, local currency and so forth. At the end of the letter though Goodlud warns any Englishmen coming after him not to trust the Maguindanowans, labeling them "all thieves."
Dampier later learns that one of Rajah Laut's officers had robbed Captain Goodlud's ship and absconded. Co-incidentally Rajah Laut then produces a prisoner who he claims was the thief who had stolen from Goodlud. He presents him to Captain Swan and informs Swan that he is free to mete out justice as he sees fit. Swan refuses to involve himself and so Rajah Laut, trying to save face, has the man tied to a pole in the sub for 12 hours.
Dampier concludes that the Sultan's purpose in showing the letters to Captain Swan was to have him drop his guard. After all, if the East India Company saw fit to build a factory in the Sultanate it had ro have carefully appraised both the land and its people and found neither wanting.
After the audience Captain Swan and his men go to back to Rajah Laut's home where they are given a hearty meal of chicken and rice. After eating Rajah Laut continues a conversation he had held with Captain Swan earlier, warning him of the impending Monsoon and advising him to bring his ship well inside the Pulangi River for a safer mooring. Lulled into a false sense of security by the letter from the East India Company Captain Swan agrees and the next morning the ship is lightened and then towed a quarter of a mile upriver. This lapse in judgement by Captain Swan will come back to haunt him in this latest excerpt, Part 6.
Chapter 13
"The Mindanayans Carresses"
After this the citizens of Mindanao came frequently aboard to invite our men to their houses and to offer us pagallies. It was a long time since any of us had received such friendship, and therefore we were the more easily drawn to accept of their kindnesses; and in very short time most of our men got a comrade or two and as many pagallies; especially such of us had good clothes and store of gold and as many had who were of the number of those who accompanied Captain Harris over the Isthmus of Darien, the rest of us being poor enough. Nay, the very poorest and meanest of us could hardly pass the streets but we were even hauled by force inside their houses to be treated by them, although their treats were mean, namely, tobacco, or betel-nut, or a little sweet, spiced water. Yet their seeming sincerity, simplicity, and the manner of bestowing those gifts made them very acceptable. When we came to their houses they would always be praising the English as declaring that the English and the Mindanayans were "samo, samo," that is, all one. Then they would draw their forefingers half a foot asunder and say the Dutch and they were, "Bugeto," which signifies so, that they were at such distance in front of friendship; and for the Spaniards they would make a greater representation of distance than for the Dutch: fearing these, but having felt and smarted from the Spaniards who had almost brought them under.
Captain Swan did seldom go into any house at first but into Raja Laut's. There he dined commonly every day; and as many of his men were ashore and had no money to entertain themselves reverted thither about 12 o'clock, where they had rice enough boiled, well dressed, and some scraps of fowls or bits of buffalo dressed very nastily. Captain Swan was served a little better, and his two trumpeters sounded all the time that he was at dinner. After dinner Raja Laut would sit and discourse with him most part of the afternoon. It was now Ramdam time, therefore the General excused himself that he could not entertain our Captain with dances and other past times, as he intended to do when the solemn time was past; besides, it was the very height of the wet season, and therefore not so proper for pastimes.
"The Great Rains and Floods of the City"
The city is about a mile long (of no great breadth) winding with the banks of the river on the right hand going up, though it has many houses on the other side too.
"The Mindanayans Have Chinese Accountants"
The Mindanayans are no good accountants; therefore the Chinese that live here do cast up their accounts for them.
"The Bark Eaten Up and Their Ship Endangered by the Worm"
About the middle of November we began to work on our ship's bottom, which we found to be very much eaten with the worm: for this is a horrid place for the worms. We did not know this till' after we had been in the river a month and then we found our canoes' bottoms eaten like honeycombs; our bark, which has a single bottom, was eaten through; so that she could not swim. But our ship was sheathed, and the worm came no further than the hair between the sheathing plank and the main plank.
"Raja Laut, the General's Deceitfulness"
We did not mistrust the General's knavery till now, for when he came down to our ship and found us ripping off the sheathing plank and saw the firm bottom underneath, he shook his head and seemed to be discontented; saying he did never see a ship with two bottoms before. We were told that in this place where we now lay a Dutch ship was eaten up in two months time, and the General had all her guns; it is probable that he did expect to have had ours: which I do believe was the main reason that made him so forward in assisting us to get our ship into the river, for when we came out again we had no assistance from him.
"A Hunting Voyage with the General"
The next day after Christmas, the General went away again and five or six Englishmen with him, of whom I was one, under pretence of going a-hunting; and we all went together by water in his proa together with his women and servants, to the hunting place. The General always carried his wives and children, his servants, his money, and goods with him; so we all e$barked in the morning and arrived there before night. I have already described the fashion of the proas and the rooms made in them. We were entertained in the General's room or cabin, our voyage was not so far but that we reached before night.
"His Punishing a Servant of His"
At this time one of the General's servants had offended and was punished in this manner: he was bound fast flat on his belly on a bamboo belonging to the prow, which was so near the water that by the vessel's motion it frequently delved under water, and the man along with it, sometimes when hoisted up he had scarce time to blow before he would be carried under water again.
When we had rowed about two leagues we entered a pretty large deep river and rowed up a league further, the water stilt all the way. There was a pretty large vilage. The houses were built after the country fashion. We landed at this place, where there was a house made ready immediately for us. The General and his women lay at one end of the house and we at the other end, and in the evening all the women in the village danced before the General.
"Of his Wives and Women"
While we stayed here the General with his men went out every morning and did not return until four or five o'clock in the afternoon and would often compliment us by telling us what good trust and confidence he had in us saying that he left his women and goods under our protection and that he thought them as secure with us (for we all had our arms with us) as if had left one hundred and nine of his own men to guard them. Yet for all this great confidence he always left one of his principal men for fear some of us should be too familiar with his women.
They did never stir out of their room when the General was at home, but as soon as he was gone out they would presently come into our room and sit with us all day, and ask a thousand questions of us concerning our English women and our customs. You may imagine that before this time that some of us had attained so much of their language as to understand them and to give them answers to their demands. I remember that one day they asked how many wives the King of England had. We told them but one and that our English Law did not allow of any more. They said it was a strange custom that a man should be confined to one woman; some of them said it was a very bad law, but others said it was a good law; so there was a great dispute among them about it. But one of the General's women said positively that our law was better than theirs and made them all silent by the reason that she gave for it. This was the "War Queen" as we called her, for she did always accompany the General whenever he was called out to engage his enemies, but the rest did not. By this familiarity among the women and by often discoursing them, we came to be acquainted with their customs and privileges. The General lies with his women by turns, but she by whom he had the first son has a double portion of his company; for when it comes time to her turn she has him two nights, whereas the rest have him but one. She with whom he is to lie at night seems to have a particular respect shown her by the rest all the preceding day and for a mark of distinction wears a striped silk handkerchief about her neck, by which we knew who was Queen that day.
"A Sort of Strong Rice Drink"
This rice drink is made of rice boiled and put into a jar where it remains for a long time seeping in water. I know not the manner of making it but it is a very strong, pleasant drink. The evening when the General desired to be merry he caused a jar of this drink to be brought into our room and he began to drink firdt himself then afterwards his men, so they took turns till' they were drunk as swine before they offered us to drink. After they had enough, then we drank and they drank no more, for they will not drink after us. The General leapt about our room a little while, but having his load soon went to sleep.
"The General's Foul Dealings and Exactions, 1687"
Captain Swan was much vexed at the General's actions for he promised to supply is with as much beef as we should want, but now either could not or would not make good his promise. Besides he failed to perform his promise in a bargain of rice that we were to have for the iron which we sold him, but he put us off still from time, we could not come to any account. Neither were these all his tricks; for a little before his son was to be circumcised he pretended a great strait for money to defray the charges of that day and therefore desired Captain Swan to lend him about twenty ounces of gold, for he knew that Captain Swan had a considerable quantity of gold in his possesion, which the General thought was his own, but indeed he had none but what belonged to the merchants. However he lent it to the General; but when he came to an account with Captain Swan he told him that it is usual at such solemn times to make presents, and that he received it as a gift. He also demanded payment for the victuals that our Captain and his men did eat at his house.
While taking on provisions at the Spanish colony of Guam the crew learns that the "King of Mindanao" is "at war" with Spain. Knowing that, it being summer, the Monsoon was approaching and that they had to find a safe harbour and decides to sail for Mindanao in hopes of wrangling a liscence to plunder Spanish shipping in and around the Philippines. Arriving from the east they skirt what Dampier believes to be "Saint John's Island," but what in all liklihood was probably Siargao Island off of today's Surigao del Norte Province in Northeast Mindanao. Sailing south along Mindanao's east coast they reach the island's southern coast and Saragani Bay. After a short stop to take on fresh meat from what Dampier describes as the largest population of deer he has ever seen, they finally arrive off of what is today North Cotabato Province and the mouth of the Pulangi River, what the Spanish called, "El Rio Grande de Mindanao."
Rajah Laut, or "Prince of the Seas," Sultan Barahaman's younger brother and the commander of the Sultan's navy approaches the ship in a small craft along with a son of the Sultan. The ship's commander, Captain Swan converses with Rajah Laut but the latter refuses to board, citing a lack of permission from the Sultan but in all liklihood merely being cagey. That evening the crew's Mr.More is dispatched ashore with gifts for both the Sultan and Rajah Laut. More is chosen because he had been imprisoned by the Spanish in Mexico and so had managed to become fluent in Spanish, one of two languages of commerce in the region, the other being Bahasa Malay.
The second day Captain Swan and a landing party go on shore and visit with Rajah Laut before being summoned for an audience with Sultan Barahaman. During the audience Captain Swan is shown two letters written in English. One, posted from England, is from the East India Company, a quasi governmental commercial syndicate controlling all English commerce in East Asia. The letter says that the Company intends to build a "factory" in Maguindanao. Factories were a hybrid of a military fort and trading post for all English trade. The second letter is from a Captain Goodlud who had made a port call in the Sultanate not long before Dampier's arrival. It is meant to acquaint any English trader coming after with the value of local goods, local currency and so forth. At the end of the letter though Goodlud warns any Englishmen coming after him not to trust the Maguindanowans, labeling them "all thieves."
Dampier later learns that one of Rajah Laut's officers had robbed Captain Goodlud's ship and absconded. Co-incidentally Rajah Laut then produces a prisoner who he claims was the thief who had stolen from Goodlud. He presents him to Captain Swan and informs Swan that he is free to mete out justice as he sees fit. Swan refuses to involve himself and so Rajah Laut, trying to save face, has the man tied to a pole in the sub for 12 hours.
Dampier concludes that the Sultan's purpose in showing the letters to Captain Swan was to have him drop his guard. After all, if the East India Company saw fit to build a factory in the Sultanate it had ro have carefully appraised both the land and its people and found neither wanting.
After the audience Captain Swan and his men go to back to Rajah Laut's home where they are given a hearty meal of chicken and rice. After eating Rajah Laut continues a conversation he had held with Captain Swan earlier, warning him of the impending Monsoon and advising him to bring his ship well inside the Pulangi River for a safer mooring. Lulled into a false sense of security by the letter from the East India Company Captain Swan agrees and the next morning the ship is lightened and then towed a quarter of a mile upriver. This lapse in judgement by Captain Swan will come back to haunt him in this latest excerpt, Part 6.
Chapter 13
"The Mindanayans Carresses"
After this the citizens of Mindanao came frequently aboard to invite our men to their houses and to offer us pagallies. It was a long time since any of us had received such friendship, and therefore we were the more easily drawn to accept of their kindnesses; and in very short time most of our men got a comrade or two and as many pagallies; especially such of us had good clothes and store of gold and as many had who were of the number of those who accompanied Captain Harris over the Isthmus of Darien, the rest of us being poor enough. Nay, the very poorest and meanest of us could hardly pass the streets but we were even hauled by force inside their houses to be treated by them, although their treats were mean, namely, tobacco, or betel-nut, or a little sweet, spiced water. Yet their seeming sincerity, simplicity, and the manner of bestowing those gifts made them very acceptable. When we came to their houses they would always be praising the English as declaring that the English and the Mindanayans were "samo, samo," that is, all one. Then they would draw their forefingers half a foot asunder and say the Dutch and they were, "Bugeto," which signifies so, that they were at such distance in front of friendship; and for the Spaniards they would make a greater representation of distance than for the Dutch: fearing these, but having felt and smarted from the Spaniards who had almost brought them under.
Captain Swan did seldom go into any house at first but into Raja Laut's. There he dined commonly every day; and as many of his men were ashore and had no money to entertain themselves reverted thither about 12 o'clock, where they had rice enough boiled, well dressed, and some scraps of fowls or bits of buffalo dressed very nastily. Captain Swan was served a little better, and his two trumpeters sounded all the time that he was at dinner. After dinner Raja Laut would sit and discourse with him most part of the afternoon. It was now Ramdam time, therefore the General excused himself that he could not entertain our Captain with dances and other past times, as he intended to do when the solemn time was past; besides, it was the very height of the wet season, and therefore not so proper for pastimes.
"The Great Rains and Floods of the City"
The city is about a mile long (of no great breadth) winding with the banks of the river on the right hand going up, though it has many houses on the other side too.
"The Mindanayans Have Chinese Accountants"
The Mindanayans are no good accountants; therefore the Chinese that live here do cast up their accounts for them.
"The Bark Eaten Up and Their Ship Endangered by the Worm"
About the middle of November we began to work on our ship's bottom, which we found to be very much eaten with the worm: for this is a horrid place for the worms. We did not know this till' after we had been in the river a month and then we found our canoes' bottoms eaten like honeycombs; our bark, which has a single bottom, was eaten through; so that she could not swim. But our ship was sheathed, and the worm came no further than the hair between the sheathing plank and the main plank.
"Raja Laut, the General's Deceitfulness"
We did not mistrust the General's knavery till now, for when he came down to our ship and found us ripping off the sheathing plank and saw the firm bottom underneath, he shook his head and seemed to be discontented; saying he did never see a ship with two bottoms before. We were told that in this place where we now lay a Dutch ship was eaten up in two months time, and the General had all her guns; it is probable that he did expect to have had ours: which I do believe was the main reason that made him so forward in assisting us to get our ship into the river, for when we came out again we had no assistance from him.
"A Hunting Voyage with the General"
The next day after Christmas, the General went away again and five or six Englishmen with him, of whom I was one, under pretence of going a-hunting; and we all went together by water in his proa together with his women and servants, to the hunting place. The General always carried his wives and children, his servants, his money, and goods with him; so we all e$barked in the morning and arrived there before night. I have already described the fashion of the proas and the rooms made in them. We were entertained in the General's room or cabin, our voyage was not so far but that we reached before night.
"His Punishing a Servant of His"
At this time one of the General's servants had offended and was punished in this manner: he was bound fast flat on his belly on a bamboo belonging to the prow, which was so near the water that by the vessel's motion it frequently delved under water, and the man along with it, sometimes when hoisted up he had scarce time to blow before he would be carried under water again.
When we had rowed about two leagues we entered a pretty large deep river and rowed up a league further, the water stilt all the way. There was a pretty large vilage. The houses were built after the country fashion. We landed at this place, where there was a house made ready immediately for us. The General and his women lay at one end of the house and we at the other end, and in the evening all the women in the village danced before the General.
"Of his Wives and Women"
While we stayed here the General with his men went out every morning and did not return until four or five o'clock in the afternoon and would often compliment us by telling us what good trust and confidence he had in us saying that he left his women and goods under our protection and that he thought them as secure with us (for we all had our arms with us) as if had left one hundred and nine of his own men to guard them. Yet for all this great confidence he always left one of his principal men for fear some of us should be too familiar with his women.
They did never stir out of their room when the General was at home, but as soon as he was gone out they would presently come into our room and sit with us all day, and ask a thousand questions of us concerning our English women and our customs. You may imagine that before this time that some of us had attained so much of their language as to understand them and to give them answers to their demands. I remember that one day they asked how many wives the King of England had. We told them but one and that our English Law did not allow of any more. They said it was a strange custom that a man should be confined to one woman; some of them said it was a very bad law, but others said it was a good law; so there was a great dispute among them about it. But one of the General's women said positively that our law was better than theirs and made them all silent by the reason that she gave for it. This was the "War Queen" as we called her, for she did always accompany the General whenever he was called out to engage his enemies, but the rest did not. By this familiarity among the women and by often discoursing them, we came to be acquainted with their customs and privileges. The General lies with his women by turns, but she by whom he had the first son has a double portion of his company; for when it comes time to her turn she has him two nights, whereas the rest have him but one. She with whom he is to lie at night seems to have a particular respect shown her by the rest all the preceding day and for a mark of distinction wears a striped silk handkerchief about her neck, by which we knew who was Queen that day.
"A Sort of Strong Rice Drink"
This rice drink is made of rice boiled and put into a jar where it remains for a long time seeping in water. I know not the manner of making it but it is a very strong, pleasant drink. The evening when the General desired to be merry he caused a jar of this drink to be brought into our room and he began to drink firdt himself then afterwards his men, so they took turns till' they were drunk as swine before they offered us to drink. After they had enough, then we drank and they drank no more, for they will not drink after us. The General leapt about our room a little while, but having his load soon went to sleep.
"The General's Foul Dealings and Exactions, 1687"
Captain Swan was much vexed at the General's actions for he promised to supply is with as much beef as we should want, but now either could not or would not make good his promise. Besides he failed to perform his promise in a bargain of rice that we were to have for the iron which we sold him, but he put us off still from time, we could not come to any account. Neither were these all his tricks; for a little before his son was to be circumcised he pretended a great strait for money to defray the charges of that day and therefore desired Captain Swan to lend him about twenty ounces of gold, for he knew that Captain Swan had a considerable quantity of gold in his possesion, which the General thought was his own, but indeed he had none but what belonged to the merchants. However he lent it to the General; but when he came to an account with Captain Swan he told him that it is usual at such solemn times to make presents, and that he received it as a gift. He also demanded payment for the victuals that our Captain and his men did eat at his house.
History of Mindanao, Part IV: The Sultanate of Maguindanao in the late 17th Century, Part 5
As in the previous four installments of "History of Mindanao, Part IV," this entry excerpts from "A New Voyage Around the World" by William Dampier. Dampier was an upper class Englishman who became a privateer, a liscenced pirate, in this case liscenced by the British Crown. He began his adventure in Jamaica in the Carribean Sea when that island was rampant with both privateers AND pirates. Preying on Spanish shipping in Central and South America his travels took him around the Tierra del Fuego at the very bottom of the Americas, through the Strait of Magellan, and into the Pacific. While stopped in Guam the crew decided on heading eastward to Mindanao. Having heard from a monk and various sailors that Mindanao was "at war" with Spain the crew thought that as they sat out the impending Monsoon that the "King" of Mindanao might liscence them to prey once again upon Spanish shipping.
The "King" in this case being Sultan Barahaman Mohammed, the 9th Sultan of Maguindanao (ruled 1678 to 1699). Most of Dampier's writings on the Sultanate focus on the Raja Laut, or the "General" as Dampier refers to him time and again. The term "Rajah Laut" literally means, "Prince of the Seas," and as one might suspect refers to the man who led the Sultanate's forces at sea. This Rajah Laut was a younger brother of the Sultan and though they often were at odds with one another, as is so often the case with brothers, they closed ranks in the face of any external threat.
This excerpt covers the crew's initial reception. When Captain Swan, the commanding officer of Dampier's ship is summoned for an audience with the Sultan on the second day in port, he is presented with two letters written in English. One was posted from England by the East India Company, and told how the Company aimed to build a "factory" in Maguindanao. Factories at that time were a hybrid of military fort and commercial trading post. The second letter was from a Captain Goodlud, commanding officer of a merchant ship that had made a port call in Maguindanao. The Sultan's purpose in showing these letters was to put Captain Swan more at ease and indeed, it did just that with serious ramifications as one shall see in my next Dampier entry, Part 6.
Captain Goodlud's letter informed any Englishman who might read it that the Maguindanowans were "all thieves." Dampier remarks that they later discovered that Goodlud had been robed by one of Rajah Laut's "officers" who then fled into the bush and was never brought to justice. Rajah Laut then produces a man who he claims was the man who had robbed Captain Goodlud and offers him up to Captain Swan to do as he pleased. Swan graciously demurres and so to save face Rajah Laut has the man tied to a pole in the sun for 12 hours.
After reading the letters the audience was concluded and Captain Swan and his party made their way to the home of Rajah Laut who because of differences with the Sultan, had not been present at the audience. After serving a large meal of chicken and rice Rajah Laut reintroduces a subject he had begun after their first meeting, the day before. Because the Monsoon was fast approaching he recommended that Captain Swan moor inside the river to better protect his vessel. Having been put more at ease with the letter posted from England by the East India Company, Captain Swan finally agrees.
The very next morning with "fifty or sixty" Maguindanowans assisting the ship is partially unloaded and then towed a quarter of a mile upriver on the ebb tide. When I post Part 6 we will see just why the "letters" were shown and just why Rajah Laut had been so insistent about mooring upriver.
Chapter 13 "Our First Reception at Mindanao"
Raja Laut and his nephew sat still in their canoe and would not come aboard us; because as they said they had no orders for it from the Sultan. After about a half hour's discourse they took their leaves, first inviting Captain Swan ashore and promising to assist him in getting provisions, which they said at present was scarce, but in three or four months time the rice would be gathered in and then he might have as much as he pleased: that in the meantime he might secure his ship in some convenient place for fear of the westerly winds which they said would be very violent at the latter end of this month and all the next as we found then.
"The Mindanayans Measure their Ship"
We did not know the quality of these two persons till' after they were gone; else we should have fired some guns at their departure: when they were gone a certain officer under the Sultan came aboard and measured our ship. A custom derived from the Chinese who always measure the length and breadth and the depth of the hold of all ships that come to load here: by which means they know how much each ship will carry. But what reason this custom is used either by the Chinese or Mindanao men I never could learn: unless the Mindanayans design by this means to improve their skill in shipping against they have a trade.
"Captain Swan's Present to the Sultan: His Reception of it, Audience Given to Captain Swan with Raja Laut, the Sultan's Brother's Entertainment of Him"
Captain Swan considering that the season of the year would oblige us to spend some time at this island, thought it correct to make what interest he could with the Sultan who might afterwards either obstruct or advance his designs. He therefore immediately provided a present to send ashore to the Sultan, namely, three yards of scarlet cloth, three yards of broad gold lace, a Turkish scimtar, and a pair of pistols: to Raja Laut he sent three yards of scarlet cloth and three yards of silver lace. This present was carried by Mr.Henry More in the evening. He was first conducted to Raja Laut's house: where he remained till' report thereof was made to the Sultan, who immediately gave order to all things to be made ready to receive him.
At about 9 at night a messenger came from the Sultan to bring the present away. Then Mr.More was conducted all the way with torches and armed men till' he came to the house where the Sultan was. The Sultan with eight or ten men of his council were seated on carpets, waiting his coming. The present that Mr.More brought was laid down before them, and was very kindly accepted by the Sultan, who caused Mr.More to sit down by then and asked a great many questions of him. The discourse was in Spanish by an interpreter. This conference lasted about an hour and then he was dismissed and returned again to Raja Laut's house. There was a supper provided for him and the boat's crew after which he returned aboard.
The next day the Sultan sent for Captain Swan: he immediately went ashore with a flag flying in the boat's head and two trumpets sounding all the way. When he came ashore he was met at his landing by two principal officers, guarded along with soldiers and abundance of people gazing to see him. The Sultan waited for him in his chamber of audience where Captain Swan was treated with tobacco and betel, which was all his entertainment.
"The Contents of Two English Letters Shown Them by the Sultan of Mindanao"
The Sultan sent for two English letters for Captain Swan to read, purposely to let him know that our East Indian merchants did design to settle here, and that they already sent a ship hither. One of these was sent to the Sultan from England by the East India merchants. The chiefist thing contained in it, as I remember, for I saw it afterwards in the Secretary's hand, who was very proud to show it to us was to desire some privleges in order to the building a fort there. The letter was written in a very fair hand; and between each line there was a gold line drawn. The other was left by Captain Goodlud, directed to any Englishman who should happen to come thither. This related wholly to trade, giving an account at what rate he had agreed with them for goods on the island and how European goods should be sold to them with an account of their weights and measures, and their difference from ours.
"Of the Commodities and the Punishments There"
The rate agreed on for Mindanao gold was 14 Spanish Dollars (which is current coin all over India), the English ounce, and 18 Dollars the Mindanao ounce. But for beeswax and clove bark I do not remember the rates, neither do I well remember the rates of European commodities; but I think the rate of iron was not above 4 Dollars a hundred. Captain Goodlud's letter concludes thus, "Trust none of them for they are all thieves but tace is Latin for candle." We understood afterwards that Captain Goodlud was robbed of some goods by one of the General's men and that he that robbed him was fled into the mountains and could not be found while Captain Goodlud was there. But the fellow returning back to the city sometime after our arrival there, Raja Laut brought him bound to Captain Swan and told him what he had done, desiring him to punish him for it as he pleased; but Captain Swan excused himself and said it did not belong to him, therefore he would have nothing to do with it. However the General Raja Laut would not pardon him, according to their own custom, which I did never see but at this time.
He was stripped stark naked in the morning at sun rising and bound to a post so he could not stir hand nor foot but as he moved, and was placed with his face eastward against the sun. In the afternoon they moved his face towards the west that the sun might still be in his face; and thus he stood all day, parched in the sun (which shines here exceedingly hot) and tormented with the mosquitoes or gnats; after this the General would have killed him if Captain Swan had consented to it. I never did see any put to death; but I believe they are barbarous in it. The General told us himself that he put two men to death in a town where some of us were with him; but I heard not the manner of it. Their common way of punishing is to strip them in this manner and place them in the sun; but sometimes they lay them flat on their backs in the sand, where they remain all day in the scorching sun with the mosquitoes biting them all the time.
The action of the General in offering Captain Swan the punishment of the thief caused Captain Swan afterwards to make him the same offer of his men when any bad offended the Mindanao men; but the General left such offenders be punished by Captain Swan as he thought convenient. So for the least offence Captain Swan punished his men and that in the sight of the Mindanayans; and I think sometimes only for revenge; as he did once punish his Chief Mate Mr.Teat, he that came Captain of the bark to Mindanao. Indeed at the time Captain Swan had his men as much under command as if he had been in a King's ship; and had he known how to use his authority he might have led them to any settlement, and have brought them to assist him in any design he had planned.
"The General's Caution How to Demean Themselves; at His Persuasion They Lay Up Their Ships in the River"
Captain Swan being dismissed from the Sultan, with abundance of civility, after about two hours discourse with him went there to Raja Laut's house: Raja Laut had then some difference with the Sultan and therefore he was not present at the Sultan's reception of our Captain, but awaited his return and treated him and all his men with boiled rice and fowls. He then told Captain Swan again and urged it to him that it would be best to get his ship into the river as soon as he could because of the usual tempestuous weather at this time of the year; and that he should want no assistance to further him in anything. He told them also that, as we must of necessity stay there some time, so our men would often come ashore; and he therefore desired him to warn his men to be careful to give no affront to the natives; who he said, were very vengeful. That their customs being different than ours, he feared that Captain Swan's men might sometime or other offend them, though ignorantly; that therefore he gave him his friendly warning to prevent it; that his home should always be open to receive him or any of his men, and that he, knowing our customs, would never be offended at anything. After a great deal of such discourse he dismissed the Captain and his company, who took their leave and came aboard.
Captain Swan having seen the two letters, did not doubt but the English did design to settle a factory here, therefore he did not much scruple the honesty of these people, but immediately ordered us to get the ship into the river. The river upon which the city of Mindanao stands is but small and has not above 10 or 11 feet of water on the bar at a spring-tide: therefore we lightened our ship. And the spring coming on, we with much ado got her into the river, being assisted by fifty or sixty Mindanayan fishermen who lived at the mouth of the river; Raja Laut himself being aboard our ship to direct them. We carried her about a quarter of a mile up, within the mouth of the river and there we moored her head and stern in a hole where we always rode afloat.
The "King" in this case being Sultan Barahaman Mohammed, the 9th Sultan of Maguindanao (ruled 1678 to 1699). Most of Dampier's writings on the Sultanate focus on the Raja Laut, or the "General" as Dampier refers to him time and again. The term "Rajah Laut" literally means, "Prince of the Seas," and as one might suspect refers to the man who led the Sultanate's forces at sea. This Rajah Laut was a younger brother of the Sultan and though they often were at odds with one another, as is so often the case with brothers, they closed ranks in the face of any external threat.
This excerpt covers the crew's initial reception. When Captain Swan, the commanding officer of Dampier's ship is summoned for an audience with the Sultan on the second day in port, he is presented with two letters written in English. One was posted from England by the East India Company, and told how the Company aimed to build a "factory" in Maguindanao. Factories at that time were a hybrid of military fort and commercial trading post. The second letter was from a Captain Goodlud, commanding officer of a merchant ship that had made a port call in Maguindanao. The Sultan's purpose in showing these letters was to put Captain Swan more at ease and indeed, it did just that with serious ramifications as one shall see in my next Dampier entry, Part 6.
Captain Goodlud's letter informed any Englishman who might read it that the Maguindanowans were "all thieves." Dampier remarks that they later discovered that Goodlud had been robed by one of Rajah Laut's "officers" who then fled into the bush and was never brought to justice. Rajah Laut then produces a man who he claims was the man who had robbed Captain Goodlud and offers him up to Captain Swan to do as he pleased. Swan graciously demurres and so to save face Rajah Laut has the man tied to a pole in the sun for 12 hours.
After reading the letters the audience was concluded and Captain Swan and his party made their way to the home of Rajah Laut who because of differences with the Sultan, had not been present at the audience. After serving a large meal of chicken and rice Rajah Laut reintroduces a subject he had begun after their first meeting, the day before. Because the Monsoon was fast approaching he recommended that Captain Swan moor inside the river to better protect his vessel. Having been put more at ease with the letter posted from England by the East India Company, Captain Swan finally agrees.
The very next morning with "fifty or sixty" Maguindanowans assisting the ship is partially unloaded and then towed a quarter of a mile upriver on the ebb tide. When I post Part 6 we will see just why the "letters" were shown and just why Rajah Laut had been so insistent about mooring upriver.
Chapter 13 "Our First Reception at Mindanao"
Raja Laut and his nephew sat still in their canoe and would not come aboard us; because as they said they had no orders for it from the Sultan. After about a half hour's discourse they took their leaves, first inviting Captain Swan ashore and promising to assist him in getting provisions, which they said at present was scarce, but in three or four months time the rice would be gathered in and then he might have as much as he pleased: that in the meantime he might secure his ship in some convenient place for fear of the westerly winds which they said would be very violent at the latter end of this month and all the next as we found then.
"The Mindanayans Measure their Ship"
We did not know the quality of these two persons till' after they were gone; else we should have fired some guns at their departure: when they were gone a certain officer under the Sultan came aboard and measured our ship. A custom derived from the Chinese who always measure the length and breadth and the depth of the hold of all ships that come to load here: by which means they know how much each ship will carry. But what reason this custom is used either by the Chinese or Mindanao men I never could learn: unless the Mindanayans design by this means to improve their skill in shipping against they have a trade.
"Captain Swan's Present to the Sultan: His Reception of it, Audience Given to Captain Swan with Raja Laut, the Sultan's Brother's Entertainment of Him"
Captain Swan considering that the season of the year would oblige us to spend some time at this island, thought it correct to make what interest he could with the Sultan who might afterwards either obstruct or advance his designs. He therefore immediately provided a present to send ashore to the Sultan, namely, three yards of scarlet cloth, three yards of broad gold lace, a Turkish scimtar, and a pair of pistols: to Raja Laut he sent three yards of scarlet cloth and three yards of silver lace. This present was carried by Mr.Henry More in the evening. He was first conducted to Raja Laut's house: where he remained till' report thereof was made to the Sultan, who immediately gave order to all things to be made ready to receive him.
At about 9 at night a messenger came from the Sultan to bring the present away. Then Mr.More was conducted all the way with torches and armed men till' he came to the house where the Sultan was. The Sultan with eight or ten men of his council were seated on carpets, waiting his coming. The present that Mr.More brought was laid down before them, and was very kindly accepted by the Sultan, who caused Mr.More to sit down by then and asked a great many questions of him. The discourse was in Spanish by an interpreter. This conference lasted about an hour and then he was dismissed and returned again to Raja Laut's house. There was a supper provided for him and the boat's crew after which he returned aboard.
The next day the Sultan sent for Captain Swan: he immediately went ashore with a flag flying in the boat's head and two trumpets sounding all the way. When he came ashore he was met at his landing by two principal officers, guarded along with soldiers and abundance of people gazing to see him. The Sultan waited for him in his chamber of audience where Captain Swan was treated with tobacco and betel, which was all his entertainment.
"The Contents of Two English Letters Shown Them by the Sultan of Mindanao"
The Sultan sent for two English letters for Captain Swan to read, purposely to let him know that our East Indian merchants did design to settle here, and that they already sent a ship hither. One of these was sent to the Sultan from England by the East India merchants. The chiefist thing contained in it, as I remember, for I saw it afterwards in the Secretary's hand, who was very proud to show it to us was to desire some privleges in order to the building a fort there. The letter was written in a very fair hand; and between each line there was a gold line drawn. The other was left by Captain Goodlud, directed to any Englishman who should happen to come thither. This related wholly to trade, giving an account at what rate he had agreed with them for goods on the island and how European goods should be sold to them with an account of their weights and measures, and their difference from ours.
"Of the Commodities and the Punishments There"
The rate agreed on for Mindanao gold was 14 Spanish Dollars (which is current coin all over India), the English ounce, and 18 Dollars the Mindanao ounce. But for beeswax and clove bark I do not remember the rates, neither do I well remember the rates of European commodities; but I think the rate of iron was not above 4 Dollars a hundred. Captain Goodlud's letter concludes thus, "Trust none of them for they are all thieves but tace is Latin for candle." We understood afterwards that Captain Goodlud was robbed of some goods by one of the General's men and that he that robbed him was fled into the mountains and could not be found while Captain Goodlud was there. But the fellow returning back to the city sometime after our arrival there, Raja Laut brought him bound to Captain Swan and told him what he had done, desiring him to punish him for it as he pleased; but Captain Swan excused himself and said it did not belong to him, therefore he would have nothing to do with it. However the General Raja Laut would not pardon him, according to their own custom, which I did never see but at this time.
He was stripped stark naked in the morning at sun rising and bound to a post so he could not stir hand nor foot but as he moved, and was placed with his face eastward against the sun. In the afternoon they moved his face towards the west that the sun might still be in his face; and thus he stood all day, parched in the sun (which shines here exceedingly hot) and tormented with the mosquitoes or gnats; after this the General would have killed him if Captain Swan had consented to it. I never did see any put to death; but I believe they are barbarous in it. The General told us himself that he put two men to death in a town where some of us were with him; but I heard not the manner of it. Their common way of punishing is to strip them in this manner and place them in the sun; but sometimes they lay them flat on their backs in the sand, where they remain all day in the scorching sun with the mosquitoes biting them all the time.
The action of the General in offering Captain Swan the punishment of the thief caused Captain Swan afterwards to make him the same offer of his men when any bad offended the Mindanao men; but the General left such offenders be punished by Captain Swan as he thought convenient. So for the least offence Captain Swan punished his men and that in the sight of the Mindanayans; and I think sometimes only for revenge; as he did once punish his Chief Mate Mr.Teat, he that came Captain of the bark to Mindanao. Indeed at the time Captain Swan had his men as much under command as if he had been in a King's ship; and had he known how to use his authority he might have led them to any settlement, and have brought them to assist him in any design he had planned.
"The General's Caution How to Demean Themselves; at His Persuasion They Lay Up Their Ships in the River"
Captain Swan being dismissed from the Sultan, with abundance of civility, after about two hours discourse with him went there to Raja Laut's house: Raja Laut had then some difference with the Sultan and therefore he was not present at the Sultan's reception of our Captain, but awaited his return and treated him and all his men with boiled rice and fowls. He then told Captain Swan again and urged it to him that it would be best to get his ship into the river as soon as he could because of the usual tempestuous weather at this time of the year; and that he should want no assistance to further him in anything. He told them also that, as we must of necessity stay there some time, so our men would often come ashore; and he therefore desired him to warn his men to be careful to give no affront to the natives; who he said, were very vengeful. That their customs being different than ours, he feared that Captain Swan's men might sometime or other offend them, though ignorantly; that therefore he gave him his friendly warning to prevent it; that his home should always be open to receive him or any of his men, and that he, knowing our customs, would never be offended at anything. After a great deal of such discourse he dismissed the Captain and his company, who took their leave and came aboard.
Captain Swan having seen the two letters, did not doubt but the English did design to settle a factory here, therefore he did not much scruple the honesty of these people, but immediately ordered us to get the ship into the river. The river upon which the city of Mindanao stands is but small and has not above 10 or 11 feet of water on the bar at a spring-tide: therefore we lightened our ship. And the spring coming on, we with much ado got her into the river, being assisted by fifty or sixty Mindanayan fishermen who lived at the mouth of the river; Raja Laut himself being aboard our ship to direct them. We carried her about a quarter of a mile up, within the mouth of the river and there we moored her head and stern in a hole where we always rode afloat.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
History of Mindanao, Part IV: Maguindanao Sultanate in the Late 17th Century, Part 4
This is a continuation of William Dampier's "A New Voyage Around the World," continuing to excerpt from Chapter 12.
"A Sort of Leprosy There, and other Distempers"
The Mindanao people are much troubled with a sort of leprosy, the same as we observed at Guam. This distemper runs with a dry scurf all over their bodies and causes great itching in those that have it, making them frequently scratch and scrub themselves, which raises the outer skin in small whitish flakes like the scales of a fish when they are raised on end with a knife. This makes their skin extraordinarily rough, and in some you shall see broad white spots in several parts of the body. I judge such have had it but were cured, for their skins were smooth and I did not perceive them to scrub themselves. Yet I have learnt from their mouths that these spots were from this distemper. Whether they use any means to cure themselves or whether it goes away of itself, I know not: but I did not perceive that they made any great matter of it, for they did never refrain any company for it; none of our people caught it of them for we were afraid of it and kept off. They are sometimes troubled with the Smallpox but their ordinary distempers are fevers, agues, fluxes with great pains and gripings in their guts. The country affords a great many drugs and medicines and herbs whose virtues are not unknown to some of them that pretend to cure the sick.
"Their Marriages"
The Minadanao men have many wives: but what ceremonies are used when they marry I know not. There is commonly a great feast made by the bridegroom to entertain his friends and the most part of the night is spent in mirth.
"The Sultan of Mindanao, His Poverty, Power, Family, etc."
The Sultan is absolute in his power over all of his subjects. He is but a poor prince; for, as I mentioned before they have but little trade and therefore cannot be rich. If the Sultan understands that any man has money, if it be but 20 Dollars, which is a great matter among them, he will send to borrow so much money, pretending urgent occasions for it; and they dare not deny him. Sometimes he will send to sell one thing or answer that he has to dispose of to whom he knows to give him his price; and if afterwards he has occasion for the same thing he must have it, he sends for it. He is but a little man, between 50 and 60 years old, and by relation very good natured but overruled by those about him. He has a queen and keeps about 29 women, or wives, more in whose company he spends most of his time. He has one daughter by his Sultaness, or queen, and a great many sons and daughters by the rest. They walk about the streets and would always be begging things of us, but it is reported that the young princess is kept in a room and never stirs out; and that she never did see any man but her father and Raja Laut her uncle, being then about 14 years old.
When the Sultan visits his friends he is carried in a small couch on four men's shoulders with eight to ten armed men to guard him; but he never goes far this way for the country is very woody and they have but little paths, which renders it the less commodius.
"The Proas or Boats Here"
When he takes his pleasure by water he carries some of his wives along with him. The proas that are built for this purpose are large enough to entertain fifty or sixty persons or more. The hull is neatly built, with a round head and stern and over the hull is a small slight house built with bamboos; the sides are made up with split bamboos about four feet high, with little windows in them of the same to open and shut at their pleasure. The roof is almost flat, neatly thatched with palmetto leaves. This house is divided into two or three small partitions or chambers, one particularly for himself. This is neatly matted underneath and round the sides and there is a carpet and pillows for him to sleep on. The second room is for his women; much like the former. The third is for the servants, who tend them with tobacco and betel nut; for they are always chewing or smoking. The fore and after parts of the vessel are for the mariners to sit and row. Besides this they have outlayers, such as those I described at Guam; only the boats are more round like a half moon almost; and the bamboos or outlayers that reach from the boat are also crooked. Besides, the boat is not flat on one side here, as at Guam; but has a belly and outlayers on each side: and whereas at Guam there is a little boat fastened to the outlayers that lies in the water like boats, but one, three, or four feet above the water and serve for the bargemen to sit and row and paddle on; the inside of the vessel and except only just afore and abaft, being taken up by the apartments for the passengers. There run across the outlayers two tier beams for the paddlers to sit on, on each side of the vessel. The lower tier of these beams is not above a foot from the water: so that upon any the least reeling of the vessel, the beams are dipped in the water, and the men that sit are wet up to their waist, their feet seldom escaping the water. And thus, as all our vessels are rowed from within, these are paddled from without.
"Raja Laut the General, Brother to the Sultan, His Family"
The Sultan has a brother called Raja Laut, a brave man. He is second in the kingdom. All the strangers that come hither to trade must make their address to him, for all sea-affairs belong to him. He liscences strangers to import or export any commodity and it is by his permission that the natives themselves are suffered to trade: nay, the very fisherman must take a permit from him, so that there is no man can come in the river or go out but by his leave. He is two or three years younger than the Sultan and a little man like him. He has eight women by some of whom he has issue. He has only one son, about 12 to 14 years old, who was circumcised while we were there. His eldest son died a little before we came hither, for whom he was still in great heaviness. If he had lived a little longer he should have married the young princess; but whether this second son must have her I know not, for I never did hear any discourse about it. Raja Laut is a very dharp man; he speaks and writes Spanish, which he learned in his youth. He has by conversing with strangers got a great sight into the customs of other nations, and by Spanish books has some knowledge of Europe. He is General of the Mindanayans, and is accounted an expert soldier, and a very stout man; and the women in their dances sing many songs in his praise.
"Their Way of Fighting"
The Sultan of Mindanao sometimes makes war with his neighbours, the Mountaineers or Alfoores. Their weapons are swords, lances, and some hand cressets. The cresset is a small thing like a baggonet, which they always wear in war or peace, at work or play, from the greatest of them to the poorest, or the meanest persons. They do never meet each other so as to have a pitched battle but they build small works or forts of timber where they plant little guns and lie in sight of each other for two or three months, skirmishing every day in small parties and sometimes suprising a breastwork; and what ever side is to be worsted, if they have no probability to escape by flight, they sell their lives as dear as they can; for there is seldom any quarter given, but the conqueror cuts and hacks his enemies to pieces.
"Their Religion"
The religion of these people is Mohammedanism; Friday is their sabbath; but I did never see any difference that they make between this day and any other day; only the Sultan himself goes then to the mosque twice.
"Raja Laut's Devotion"
Raja Laut never goes to the mosque but prays at certain hours, eight or ten times in a day wherever he is, he is very punctual to his canonical hours, and if he be aboard will go ashore on purpose to pray. For no business nor company hinders him from this duty. Whether he is home or abroad, in a house or in a field, he leaves all his companny and goes about 100 yards off, there kneels down to his devotion. He first kisses the ground and does the same when he leaves off. His servants and wives and children talk and sing, or play how they please all the time, but himself is very serious. The meaner sort of people have little devotion; I did never see any of them at their prayers or go into a mosque.
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"A Sort of Leprosy There, and other Distempers"
The Mindanao people are much troubled with a sort of leprosy, the same as we observed at Guam. This distemper runs with a dry scurf all over their bodies and causes great itching in those that have it, making them frequently scratch and scrub themselves, which raises the outer skin in small whitish flakes like the scales of a fish when they are raised on end with a knife. This makes their skin extraordinarily rough, and in some you shall see broad white spots in several parts of the body. I judge such have had it but were cured, for their skins were smooth and I did not perceive them to scrub themselves. Yet I have learnt from their mouths that these spots were from this distemper. Whether they use any means to cure themselves or whether it goes away of itself, I know not: but I did not perceive that they made any great matter of it, for they did never refrain any company for it; none of our people caught it of them for we were afraid of it and kept off. They are sometimes troubled with the Smallpox but their ordinary distempers are fevers, agues, fluxes with great pains and gripings in their guts. The country affords a great many drugs and medicines and herbs whose virtues are not unknown to some of them that pretend to cure the sick.
"Their Marriages"
The Minadanao men have many wives: but what ceremonies are used when they marry I know not. There is commonly a great feast made by the bridegroom to entertain his friends and the most part of the night is spent in mirth.
"The Sultan of Mindanao, His Poverty, Power, Family, etc."
The Sultan is absolute in his power over all of his subjects. He is but a poor prince; for, as I mentioned before they have but little trade and therefore cannot be rich. If the Sultan understands that any man has money, if it be but 20 Dollars, which is a great matter among them, he will send to borrow so much money, pretending urgent occasions for it; and they dare not deny him. Sometimes he will send to sell one thing or answer that he has to dispose of to whom he knows to give him his price; and if afterwards he has occasion for the same thing he must have it, he sends for it. He is but a little man, between 50 and 60 years old, and by relation very good natured but overruled by those about him. He has a queen and keeps about 29 women, or wives, more in whose company he spends most of his time. He has one daughter by his Sultaness, or queen, and a great many sons and daughters by the rest. They walk about the streets and would always be begging things of us, but it is reported that the young princess is kept in a room and never stirs out; and that she never did see any man but her father and Raja Laut her uncle, being then about 14 years old.
When the Sultan visits his friends he is carried in a small couch on four men's shoulders with eight to ten armed men to guard him; but he never goes far this way for the country is very woody and they have but little paths, which renders it the less commodius.
"The Proas or Boats Here"
When he takes his pleasure by water he carries some of his wives along with him. The proas that are built for this purpose are large enough to entertain fifty or sixty persons or more. The hull is neatly built, with a round head and stern and over the hull is a small slight house built with bamboos; the sides are made up with split bamboos about four feet high, with little windows in them of the same to open and shut at their pleasure. The roof is almost flat, neatly thatched with palmetto leaves. This house is divided into two or three small partitions or chambers, one particularly for himself. This is neatly matted underneath and round the sides and there is a carpet and pillows for him to sleep on. The second room is for his women; much like the former. The third is for the servants, who tend them with tobacco and betel nut; for they are always chewing or smoking. The fore and after parts of the vessel are for the mariners to sit and row. Besides this they have outlayers, such as those I described at Guam; only the boats are more round like a half moon almost; and the bamboos or outlayers that reach from the boat are also crooked. Besides, the boat is not flat on one side here, as at Guam; but has a belly and outlayers on each side: and whereas at Guam there is a little boat fastened to the outlayers that lies in the water like boats, but one, three, or four feet above the water and serve for the bargemen to sit and row and paddle on; the inside of the vessel and except only just afore and abaft, being taken up by the apartments for the passengers. There run across the outlayers two tier beams for the paddlers to sit on, on each side of the vessel. The lower tier of these beams is not above a foot from the water: so that upon any the least reeling of the vessel, the beams are dipped in the water, and the men that sit are wet up to their waist, their feet seldom escaping the water. And thus, as all our vessels are rowed from within, these are paddled from without.
"Raja Laut the General, Brother to the Sultan, His Family"
The Sultan has a brother called Raja Laut, a brave man. He is second in the kingdom. All the strangers that come hither to trade must make their address to him, for all sea-affairs belong to him. He liscences strangers to import or export any commodity and it is by his permission that the natives themselves are suffered to trade: nay, the very fisherman must take a permit from him, so that there is no man can come in the river or go out but by his leave. He is two or three years younger than the Sultan and a little man like him. He has eight women by some of whom he has issue. He has only one son, about 12 to 14 years old, who was circumcised while we were there. His eldest son died a little before we came hither, for whom he was still in great heaviness. If he had lived a little longer he should have married the young princess; but whether this second son must have her I know not, for I never did hear any discourse about it. Raja Laut is a very dharp man; he speaks and writes Spanish, which he learned in his youth. He has by conversing with strangers got a great sight into the customs of other nations, and by Spanish books has some knowledge of Europe. He is General of the Mindanayans, and is accounted an expert soldier, and a very stout man; and the women in their dances sing many songs in his praise.
"Their Way of Fighting"
The Sultan of Mindanao sometimes makes war with his neighbours, the Mountaineers or Alfoores. Their weapons are swords, lances, and some hand cressets. The cresset is a small thing like a baggonet, which they always wear in war or peace, at work or play, from the greatest of them to the poorest, or the meanest persons. They do never meet each other so as to have a pitched battle but they build small works or forts of timber where they plant little guns and lie in sight of each other for two or three months, skirmishing every day in small parties and sometimes suprising a breastwork; and what ever side is to be worsted, if they have no probability to escape by flight, they sell their lives as dear as they can; for there is seldom any quarter given, but the conqueror cuts and hacks his enemies to pieces.
"Their Religion"
The religion of these people is Mohammedanism; Friday is their sabbath; but I did never see any difference that they make between this day and any other day; only the Sultan himself goes then to the mosque twice.
"Raja Laut's Devotion"
Raja Laut never goes to the mosque but prays at certain hours, eight or ten times in a day wherever he is, he is very punctual to his canonical hours, and if he be aboard will go ashore on purpose to pray. For no business nor company hinders him from this duty. Whether he is home or abroad, in a house or in a field, he leaves all his companny and goes about 100 yards off, there kneels down to his devotion. He first kisses the ground and does the same when he leaves off. His servants and wives and children talk and sing, or play how they please all the time, but himself is very serious. The meaner sort of people have little devotion; I did never see any of them at their prayers or go into a mosque.
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History of Mindanao Part IV: The Maguindanao Sultanate in the Late 17th Century, Part 3
Before I begin on my third excerpt from William Dampier's "A New Voyage Around the World" in a following entry, I thought it only prudent to offer a bit of commentary. After all, 17th Century Maguindanao through the eyes of an Englishman shouldn't be misconstrued as a picture perfect encapsulation, culturally NOR historically. Dampier was an upper-class British gentleman of the late 17th Century. Like many young men he sought to make his mark on the world. While some in his position may have opted to read Law at Oxford Dampier decided to travel to the New World and become a Privateer, or liscenced pirate. In the course of this adventure Dampier circumnavigated the globe. One of several Europeans who visited Australia long before it was "discovered" by James Cook, one of the first Europeans to explore New Guinea, Dampier certainly led a fascinating life.
After leaving the Americas Dampier's ship stopped in Guam to take on provisions and to contemplate its next destination. While in port the crew met a Catholic monk who recommended Mindanao. The island was a good choice for a number of reasons. First and foremost it is a very large island and the Western Monsoon was about to arrive. Nobody in their right mind stayed out at sea during the Monsoon. Then, though it had been in close relations with Spain who in fact claimed the island by virtue of the colonial government in Manila, the friar maintained that the island was now at war with Spain. This was corroborated by other sailors who had recently sailed from or transited the Philippines. Spain was Britain's foremost enemy at the moment (a long moment indeed) and was the richest nation in Europe, if not the world. To a privateer that combination is irresistible.
Mindanao it was and in the early days of June, 168 Dampier et al departed Guam bound for the promising island of Mindanao. Sailing in from the east the first Philippine island they encountered was Siargo Island, a small island off of Mindanao's northeast coast and in today's world, attached to the province of Surigao del Norte. Due to a cartographic era however Dampier mis-identified the landmass as "Saint John's Island." In fact the location of THAT island remains a mystery until the present with some reckoning it as far afield as the Northern Marianas and therefore not in the Philippines at all. It was at Siargo that Dampier would first interact with Filipinos when he and his crewmates sighted a canoe off its northern side. Lowering a skiff Dampier's crewmates meant to parlez with the canoe's inhabitants but instead merely served to terrify them. The canoe made a beeline for Siargao, beached upon it with its occupants running hysterical into the jungle.
At the time the richest tribe on the island was the Maguindanowans. Islamicised for less than a hundred years they were still developing their own unique identity. Inhabiting the Cotabato Basin, they were known as "The People of the Flood," or in their language, "Mindanowans," or in Dampier's corruption of the word, "Mindanayans." Later this would become, "Maguindanaowans," (Maguindanaon), or "People of the Flood Plain," a more specific label given the tribe's location in the Cotabato Basin. The Islamisation of the tribe nearly a century before had brought with it a more sophisticated form of governance, the "Sultanate." This form of governmnt wasn't alien to Europeans who by then had more than a thousand year acquaintance with it and so of all the tribes on the island, the Mindanowans were the most attractive. It was this fact that allowed the Spanish, the Dutch and now the English to christen the entire island, "Mindanao."
Dampier spent nearly 6 months with the tribe and had very little interaction with any other group. He describes only three tribes besides the Maguindanowans:
1) Hilanoones
2) Alfoores
3) Sologues
The three labels remain a subject of debate. Hilanoones, from his own words are synonymous with "Mountaineers." Who could they be then but the "Higaon-on," whose very name means, "People of the Mountains." Still, I haven't found anyone making that same conclusion though most who debate Dampier have never been within a hemisphere of Mindanao.
The Alfoores? Dampier describes them as an Ilamicsised Tribe that had been a vassal to the Maguindanowan before gaining independence. During Dampier's stay the Maguindanowans were attempting once again to bring them to heel. The natural bet would be the Maranaw (Maranaon), or "People of the Lake." The label "Maranaw" is of recent vintage with the tribe only settling around Lake Lanao, in todays Lanao del Sur Province in the 17th Century (the lake was only created shortly before that by volcanic eruption) so that what they were called before that point is anybody's guess. A note worthy alternative might be Buayan, as they were periodically at war with them and did intermarry as Dampier's clues specify but their adoption of Islam came more than 100 years in the future.
I have seen people theorise that "Alfoores" is corrupted Portugese used to label any "wild" tribe. However, would the Maguindanowans view another Islamicised Tribe in such a fashion? More than 95% of Mainland Mindanao was animist at that point. A tribe of Muslims living in very close proximity would tend to be viewed a bit more sympathetically irregardless of the political relationship between them. A possibility that had occurred to me is that as Muslims, the label had a more direct lineage to Arabic. I say "more direct" because the Portugese label is rooted in Arabic as well with Iberia having been under Arab domination for almost 800 years. The Arabic words "al Fajuah," or "The Honeycomb" could conceivably be applied to a tribe whose main line of export is beeswax. We know from Dampier and others that inland tribes, including the Higaon-on primarily traded beeswax and honey on the coast. Worth consideration anyway.
The third tribe? Sologues? That is a bit more difficult to pin down. Dampier gives their territory as Northwest Mindanao. In an earlier Dampier entry I reckoned that would be where Misamis Oriental and Occidental Provinces are today. Others have placed it on the Zamboanga Peninsula and more than one has gone so far as to place it squarely in Dapitan City. From Dampier's location, where Cotabato City sits today, Zamboanga could certainly fit the bill. However the predominant tribe there, then as now was the Subanen. Even in a corrupted English rendition it just doesn't feel like a good fit. Of course, often times such labels are applied by outsiders. "Subanen" is the label used by the tribe itself. Who can say what other tribes might have called them? Though I have a working knowledge of Maguindanowan I don't recognise any word coming close to "Sologue," or "Sologues."
Dampier's 6 months with the Maguindanowans during the reign of their ninth Sultan, Barahaman, however did allow great insight into that small corner of the island. He describes a proud but impovershed tribe whose royal house, more often than not, begged even on its own streets. Closed off from most outside influences, a stunted economy, the Sultanate of Maguindanao seemed to be in a very precarious position. The standard Bangsamoro narrative today tells us that the Sultanate of Maguindanao was at its apex during this period. If so, there isn't very much to be proud of. Enslaving even fellow Muslims, failing to capitalise on trading and political opportunities, they were content to go hungry rather than working to build a stronger territory.
I thought it also prudent to properly define some terms that might be confusing to modern readers; What follows is a short glossary:
Bark: A small ship, equivalent to a "skiff" or "proa'l
Factory: A hybrid of military fort and trading post
East India Company: A quasi-governmental consortium of British businessmen concentrating on trade with what was then referred to as the "East Indies," which of course included the Philippines
Libby Tree: Sago Palm, which provided the basic food for most natives of Mindanao at that time
Ramdam: The Islamic Holiday of Ramadan, a month of fasting and contemplation during daylight hours
Pagallie: Platonic female friend in a systematic form of begging where in exchange for a meal and a place to sometimes nap sailors were compelled to offer extravagant gifts of gold and silver
Comrade: The male equivalent of a "Pagallie."
Delilah: A romantic or sexual partner from the native population
Whither: Where
Thither: There
After leaving the Americas Dampier's ship stopped in Guam to take on provisions and to contemplate its next destination. While in port the crew met a Catholic monk who recommended Mindanao. The island was a good choice for a number of reasons. First and foremost it is a very large island and the Western Monsoon was about to arrive. Nobody in their right mind stayed out at sea during the Monsoon. Then, though it had been in close relations with Spain who in fact claimed the island by virtue of the colonial government in Manila, the friar maintained that the island was now at war with Spain. This was corroborated by other sailors who had recently sailed from or transited the Philippines. Spain was Britain's foremost enemy at the moment (a long moment indeed) and was the richest nation in Europe, if not the world. To a privateer that combination is irresistible.
Mindanao it was and in the early days of June, 168 Dampier et al departed Guam bound for the promising island of Mindanao. Sailing in from the east the first Philippine island they encountered was Siargo Island, a small island off of Mindanao's northeast coast and in today's world, attached to the province of Surigao del Norte. Due to a cartographic era however Dampier mis-identified the landmass as "Saint John's Island." In fact the location of THAT island remains a mystery until the present with some reckoning it as far afield as the Northern Marianas and therefore not in the Philippines at all. It was at Siargo that Dampier would first interact with Filipinos when he and his crewmates sighted a canoe off its northern side. Lowering a skiff Dampier's crewmates meant to parlez with the canoe's inhabitants but instead merely served to terrify them. The canoe made a beeline for Siargao, beached upon it with its occupants running hysterical into the jungle.
At the time the richest tribe on the island was the Maguindanowans. Islamicised for less than a hundred years they were still developing their own unique identity. Inhabiting the Cotabato Basin, they were known as "The People of the Flood," or in their language, "Mindanowans," or in Dampier's corruption of the word, "Mindanayans." Later this would become, "Maguindanaowans," (Maguindanaon), or "People of the Flood Plain," a more specific label given the tribe's location in the Cotabato Basin. The Islamisation of the tribe nearly a century before had brought with it a more sophisticated form of governance, the "Sultanate." This form of governmnt wasn't alien to Europeans who by then had more than a thousand year acquaintance with it and so of all the tribes on the island, the Mindanowans were the most attractive. It was this fact that allowed the Spanish, the Dutch and now the English to christen the entire island, "Mindanao."
Dampier spent nearly 6 months with the tribe and had very little interaction with any other group. He describes only three tribes besides the Maguindanowans:
1) Hilanoones
2) Alfoores
3) Sologues
The three labels remain a subject of debate. Hilanoones, from his own words are synonymous with "Mountaineers." Who could they be then but the "Higaon-on," whose very name means, "People of the Mountains." Still, I haven't found anyone making that same conclusion though most who debate Dampier have never been within a hemisphere of Mindanao.
The Alfoores? Dampier describes them as an Ilamicsised Tribe that had been a vassal to the Maguindanowan before gaining independence. During Dampier's stay the Maguindanowans were attempting once again to bring them to heel. The natural bet would be the Maranaw (Maranaon), or "People of the Lake." The label "Maranaw" is of recent vintage with the tribe only settling around Lake Lanao, in todays Lanao del Sur Province in the 17th Century (the lake was only created shortly before that by volcanic eruption) so that what they were called before that point is anybody's guess. A note worthy alternative might be Buayan, as they were periodically at war with them and did intermarry as Dampier's clues specify but their adoption of Islam came more than 100 years in the future.
I have seen people theorise that "Alfoores" is corrupted Portugese used to label any "wild" tribe. However, would the Maguindanowans view another Islamicised Tribe in such a fashion? More than 95% of Mainland Mindanao was animist at that point. A tribe of Muslims living in very close proximity would tend to be viewed a bit more sympathetically irregardless of the political relationship between them. A possibility that had occurred to me is that as Muslims, the label had a more direct lineage to Arabic. I say "more direct" because the Portugese label is rooted in Arabic as well with Iberia having been under Arab domination for almost 800 years. The Arabic words "al Fajuah," or "The Honeycomb" could conceivably be applied to a tribe whose main line of export is beeswax. We know from Dampier and others that inland tribes, including the Higaon-on primarily traded beeswax and honey on the coast. Worth consideration anyway.
The third tribe? Sologues? That is a bit more difficult to pin down. Dampier gives their territory as Northwest Mindanao. In an earlier Dampier entry I reckoned that would be where Misamis Oriental and Occidental Provinces are today. Others have placed it on the Zamboanga Peninsula and more than one has gone so far as to place it squarely in Dapitan City. From Dampier's location, where Cotabato City sits today, Zamboanga could certainly fit the bill. However the predominant tribe there, then as now was the Subanen. Even in a corrupted English rendition it just doesn't feel like a good fit. Of course, often times such labels are applied by outsiders. "Subanen" is the label used by the tribe itself. Who can say what other tribes might have called them? Though I have a working knowledge of Maguindanowan I don't recognise any word coming close to "Sologue," or "Sologues."
Dampier's 6 months with the Maguindanowans during the reign of their ninth Sultan, Barahaman, however did allow great insight into that small corner of the island. He describes a proud but impovershed tribe whose royal house, more often than not, begged even on its own streets. Closed off from most outside influences, a stunted economy, the Sultanate of Maguindanao seemed to be in a very precarious position. The standard Bangsamoro narrative today tells us that the Sultanate of Maguindanao was at its apex during this period. If so, there isn't very much to be proud of. Enslaving even fellow Muslims, failing to capitalise on trading and political opportunities, they were content to go hungry rather than working to build a stronger territory.
I thought it also prudent to properly define some terms that might be confusing to modern readers; What follows is a short glossary:
Bark: A small ship, equivalent to a "skiff" or "proa'l
Factory: A hybrid of military fort and trading post
East India Company: A quasi-governmental consortium of British businessmen concentrating on trade with what was then referred to as the "East Indies," which of course included the Philippines
Libby Tree: Sago Palm, which provided the basic food for most natives of Mindanao at that time
Ramdam: The Islamic Holiday of Ramadan, a month of fasting and contemplation during daylight hours
Pagallie: Platonic female friend in a systematic form of begging where in exchange for a meal and a place to sometimes nap sailors were compelled to offer extravagant gifts of gold and silver
Comrade: The male equivalent of a "Pagallie."
Delilah: A romantic or sexual partner from the native population
Whither: Where
Thither: There
Monday, June 20, 2011
History of Mindanao, Part IV: The Maguindanao Sultanate in the Late 17th Century, Part 2
In my previous "History" entry, "History of Mindanao, Part IV: Central and Western Mindanao in the 17th Century" I excerpted from Chapter 11 of William Dampier's travelogue, "A New Voyage Around the Worlrd" (London:James Knapton)(1697). Granted, it wasn't the most interesting portion of Dampier's time on Mindanao. Chapter 11 merely focuses on his trip from Guam to the Philippines, which took about 3 weeks, and a sighting of some Filipinos on the island to the east of Mindanao known to the English as "Saint John's Island," due to a cartographic error by the Portugese nearly a century before.In reality the island more than likely is today's Siargao, which belongs to Surigao del Norte Province. After lowering a skiff and mindlessly chasing after the terrified Filipinos who ran their canoe up onto the beach and then ran madly into the jungle screaming, Dampier et al returned disappointed to their ship. Though it isn't discussed at that point they eventually approach Mindanao and then circumnavigate the island without interacting with a single Filipino...until landfall in the Sultunate of Maguindanao, in what is today North Cotabato Province.
He continues Chapter 11 discussing the flora and fauna of the land, albeit briefly as he readies the reader for a more interesting Chapter 12. In Dampier's mind the Sultan of Maguindanao is the most powerful ruler on the island though even with his limited knowledge Dampier realises that the Sultan does not rule the entire island. In present terms the Sultanate mastered a mere single province,combining the Cotabato basin and the Maguindanao lowlands. Living nearly as a hostage of the Sultan Dampier's hugely erroneous assumption in imagining that most Mindanowans were Muslims is not only understandable, it is to be expected. Indeed it is a mistake Filipinos themselves make even today; Islam has only ever existed, on Mainland Mindanao, within a relatively tiny portion of the island. The area corresponding today with the following provinces:
1) Lanao del Sur
2) Maguindanao (most of)
3) North Cotabato (most of)
that is it. Through migration and attrition portions of the Zamboanga Peninsula and coastal portions of the Davao Region have also become Islamicised over the last 150 years but Mindanao is a huge island; to view it as "Islamic" is to engage either in deliberate deceit or sheer ignorance, sometimes a combination of both.
Chapter 12: "Of the Inhabitants, and Civil State of the Isle of Mindanao":
The island is not subject to one prince, neither is the language one and the same; but the people are much alike in colour, strength,and stature. They are all or most of them of one religion, which is Mohammedanism [SIC], and their customs and manner of living are all alike. The Mindanao people more particularly so called, are the greatest nation in the island and, trading by sea with other nations, they are therefore the more civil. I shall say but little of the rest, being less known to me but, so much as has come to my knowledge, take as follows.
There are besides the Mindanayans,the Hilanoones (as they call them) or the Mountaineers, the Sologues and Alfoores.
The Hilanoones live in the heart of the country: they have little or no commerce by sea, yet they have proas with 12 or 14 oars a piece. They enjoy the benefit of the gold-mines and with their gold buy foreign commodities of the Mindanao people. They have also plenty of beeswax which they exchange for other commodities.
The Sologues inhabit the north-west end of the island. They are the least nation of all; they trade to Manila in proas and to some of the neighbouring islands but have no commerce with the Mindanao people.
The Alfoores are the same with the Mindanayan and were formerly under the subjection of the Sultan of Mindanao, but were divided between the Sultan's children,and have of late had a Sultan of their own; but having by marriage contracted an alliance with the Sultan of Mindanao this has occasioned that prince to claim them again as his subjects; and he made war with them a little after we went away, a s I afterwards understood.
The Mindanayans properly so-called are men of mean statures; small limbs, straight bodies, and little heads. Their faces are oval, their foreheads flat, with small black eyes, short low noses, pretty large mouths; their lips thin and red, their teeth black, yet very sound, their hair black and straight, the colour of their skin tawny but inclining to a brighter yellow than some other Indians, especially the women. They have a custom to wear their thumb nails very long, especially that on their left thumb, for they do never cut it but scrape it often. They are endued with good natural wits, are ingenious, nimble, and active, when they are minded but generally very lazy and thievish, and will not work except forced by hunger. This laziness is natural to most Indians; but these people's laziness seems rather to proceed and so much from their natural inclinations, as from the severity of their prince of whom they stand in awe; for he, dealing with them very arbitrarily, and taking from them what they get, this damps their industry, so they never have to strive to have anything but from hand to mouth. They are generally proud and walk very stately. They are civil enough to strangers and will easily be acquainted with them and entertain them with great freedom; but they are implacable to their enemies and very vengeful if the are injured, frequently poisoning secretly those that have affronted them.
They wear but few clothes; their heads are circled with a short turban, fringed or laced at both ends; it goes once about the head, and is tied in a knot, the laced ends hanging down.They wear frocks and breeches,but no stockings ir shoes.
The women are fairer than the men; and their hair is black and long; which they tie in a knot that hangs back in their poles. They are more round-visaged than the men and generally well featured; only their noses are very small and so low between their eyes that in some of the female children the rising that should be between the eyes is scarce discernible; neither is there any sensible rising in their foreheads. At a distance they appear very well; but being near these impediments are very obvious. They have very small limbs. They wear but two garments; a frock and a sort of petticoat; the petticoat is only a piece of cloth, sewed both ends together: but it is made two foot too big for their waists, so that they may wear either end uppermost: that part that comes up to the waist, because it is so much too big, they gather it in their hands and twist it till it fits close to their waists, tucking in the twisted part between their waist and the edge of the petticoat, which keeps it close. The frock fits loose about them and reaches down a little below the waist. The sleeves are a great deal longer than their arms and so small at the end that their hands will scarce go through.Being on,the sleeve fits in folds about the wrist, wherein they take great pride.
The better sort of people have their garments made of long cloth; but the ordinary sort wear cloth made of plaintain-tree which they call saggen, by which name they call the plantain (SEE CHAPTER 11, PREVIOUS "HISTORY" ENTRY). They have neither stocking nor shoe, and the women have very small feet.
The women are very desirous of the company of strangers, especially of white men; and doubtless would be very familiar if the custom of the country did not debar them from that freedom, which seems coveted by them. Yet from the highest to the lowest they are allowed liberty to converse with or treat strangers in the sight of their husbands.
There is a kind of begging custom at Mindanao that I have not met elsewhere in all my travels; and which I believe is owing to the little trade they have; which is thus: when strangers arrive here the Mindanao men will come aboard and invite them to their houses and inquire who has a comrade (which word I believe they have from the Spaniards) or a pagally, and who has not. A comrade is a familiar male friend; a pagally is an innocent platonic friend of the opposite sex. All strangers are in a manner obliged to accept of this acquaintance and familiarity, which must first be purchased with a small present and afterwards confirmed with some gift or other to continue the acquaintance: and as often as the stranger goes ashore he is welcome to his comrade or pagally's house where he may be entertained for his money,to eat, drink, or sleep; and complimented as often as he comes ashore with tobacco and betel-nut which is all the entertainment he must expect gratis. The richest men's wives are allowed the freedom to converse with her pagally in public, and may give or receive presents from him. Even the Sultan's and the General's wives, who are always cooped up, will yet look out of their cages when a stranger passes by and demand of him if he wants a pagally: and,to invite him to their friendship, will send a present of tobacco and betel-nut to him by their servants.
The chiefest city on this island is called by the same name of Mindanao. It is seated by the south side of the island, in latitude 7 Degrees 20 minutes north on the banks of a small river, about 2 miles from the sea. The manner of building is somewhat strange yet generally used in this part of the East Indies. Their houses are all built on posts about 14, 16, 18, or 20 foot high. These posts are bigger or less according to the intended superstructure. They have but one floor but many partitions or rooms, and a ladder or stairs to go up out of the sreets. The roof is large and covered with palmetto or palm-leaves. So there is a clear passage like a piazza (but a filthy one) under the house. Some of the poorer people that keep ducks or hens have a fence made round the posts of their houses with a door to go in or out; and this under-room serves for no other use. Some use this place for the common draught of their houses but, building mostly close by the river in all parts of the Indies, they make the river receive all the filth oof their house; and at the time the land-floods all is washed very clean.
The Sultan's house is much bigger than any of the rest. It stands on about 180 great posts or trees a great deal higher than the common building, with great broad stairs made to go up. In the first room he has about 20 iron guns, all Saker and Minion, placed on field carriages. The General and other great men have some guns also in their houses.About 20 paces from the Sultan's house there is a small low house built purposely for the reception of ambassadors or merchant strangers. This also stands on posts but the floor is not raised above three or four foot above the ground,and is neatly matted purposely for the Sultan and his council to sit on; for they use no chairs but sit cross-legged like tailors on the floor.
The common food at Mindanao is rice or sago,and a small fish or two. The better sort eat buffalo (CARABOA) or fowls ill dressed, and abundance or rice with it. They use no spoons to eat their rice but every man takes a handful out of the platter and, by wetting his hand in water, that it may not stick to his hand, squeezes it into a lump as hard as he possibly can make it, and then crams it into his mouth. They all strive to make these lumps as big as their mouth can receive them and seem to vie with each other and glory in taking in the biggest lump; so that sometimes they almost choke themselves.They always wash after meals or if they touch anything that is unclean; for which reasion they spend abundance of water in their houses. This water, with the washing of their dishes and what other filth they make, they pour down near their fireplace; for their chambers are not boarded but floored with split bamboo like lath, so that the water presently is underneath their dwelling rooms where it breeds maggots and makes a prodigious stink. Besides this filthiness the sick people case themselves in their chambers, there being a small hole made purposely in the floor to let it drop through. But healthy sound people commonly ease themselves and make water in the river. For that reason you shall always see abundance of people of both sexes in the river from morning till night; some easing themselves,others washing their bodies or clothes.If they come into the river purposely to wash their clothes they strip and stand naked till they have done then put them on and march out again; both men and women take great delight in swimming and washing themselves, being bred to it from their infancy. I do believe it is very wholesome to wash mornings and evenings in these hot countries at least three or four days in the week; for I did use myself to it when I lived afterwards at Bencoolen, and found it very refreshing and comfortable. It is very good for those that have fluxes to wash and stand in the river mornings and evenings. I speak it experimentally for I was brought very low with distemper at Achin; but by washing constantly mornings and evenings I found great benefit and was quickly cured of it.
In the city of Mindanao they speak 2 languages indifferently, their own Mindanao language and the Malaya but in other parts of the island they speak only their proper language, having little commerce abroad. They have schools and instruct their children to read and write and bring them up in the Mohammedan religion. Therefore many of the words,especially their prayers, are in Arabic; and many of the words of civility the same as in Turkey; and especially when they meet in the morning or take leave of each other they express themselves in that language.
Many of the old people both men and women can speak Spanish for the Spaniards were formerly settled among them and had several forts on this island; and then they sent two friars to the city to convert the Sultan of Mindanao and his people.At that time these people began to learn Spanish,and the Spaniards encroached on them and endeavoured to bring them into subjection; and probably before this time had brought them all under their yoke if they themselves had not been drawn off from this island to Manila to resist the Chinese, who threatened to invade them there. When the Spaniards were gone the old Sultan, father to the present, in whose time it was, razed and demolished their forts, brought away their guns, and sent away the friars; and since that time will not suffer the Spaniards to settle on the islands.
They are now most afraid of the Dutch, being sensible how they have enslaved many of the neighboring islands. For that reason they have a long time desired the English to settle among them and have offered them any convenient place to build a fort in, as the General himself told us; giving this reason, that they do not find the English so encroaching as the Dutch or Spanish. The Dutch are no less jealous of their admitting the English for they are sensible what detriment it would be to them if the English should settle here.
There are but few tradesmen at the city of Mindanao. The chiefest trades are goldsmiths, blacksmiths,and carpenters. There are but two or three goldsmiths; these will work in gold or silver and make anything that you desire; but they have no shoppe furnished with ware ready-made for sale. Here are several blacksmiths who work very well, considring the tools that they worked with. Their bellows are much different from ours. They are made of a wooden cylinder, the trunk of a tree,about 3 feet long,bored hollow like a pump and set upright on the ground,on which the fire itself is made.Near the lower end there is a small hole,in the side of the trunk next to the fire,made to receive a pipe through which the wind is driven to the fire by a great bunch of fine feathers, fastened to one end of the stick which, closing up the inside of the cylinder, drives the air out of the cylinder through the pipe; two of these trunks or cylinders are placed so near together that a man standing between them may work them both at once or alternately, one with each hand.They have neither vice nor anvil but a great hard stone or a piece of an old gun to hammer upon; yet they will perform their work, making both common utensils and iron-works about ships to admiration. They work together with charcoal. Every man is almost a carpenter for they can work with the axe and the adze. Their axe is but small and so made that they can take it out of the helve, and by turning it make an adze of it. They have no saws but when they make a plank of each part, planing it with the axe and the adze. This requires much pains and takes up a great deal of time;but they work cheap, and the goodness of the plank thus hewed,which has its grain preserved entire,makes amends for their cost and pains.
They build good and serviceable ships or barks for the sea, some for trade, others for pleasure; and some ships of war. Their trading vessels they send chiefly to Manila. There they transport beeswax, which I think, is the only commodity besides gold that they vend there. The inhabitants of the city of Mindanao get a great deal of beeswax themselves; but the greatest quantity they purchase is of the Mountaineers (HIGAON-ON TRIBE), from whom they also get the gold which they send to Manila; and with these they buy their calicoes, muslins and China silk. They send sometimes their barks to Borneo and other islands; but what they transport there, or import from there, I know not.
The Dutch come here in sloops from Ternate and Tidore and buy rice, beeswax,and tobacco; for here is a great deal of tabacco grows on this island, more than any other island or country in the East Indies that I know of,Manila only excepted.It is an excellent sort of tobacco;but these people have not the art of managing this trade to their best advantage as the Spaniards have at Manila. I do believe the seeds were first brought here from Manila by the Spaniards,and even there, in all probability, from America; the difference between the Mindanao and Manila tobacco is that the Mindanao tobacco is of a darker colour and the leaf larger and grosser than the Manila tobacco, being propagated or planted in a fatter soil.The Manila tobacco is of a bright yellow colour, of an indifferent size, not strong, but pleasant to smoke.The Spaniards at Manila are very curious about this tobacco, having a peculiar way of making it up neatly in the leaf. For they take two little sticks, each about a foot long and flat and, placing the stalks of the tobacco leaves in a row,40 or 50 of them between the two sticks, they bind them hard together so that the leaves hang dangling down. One of these bundles is sold for a rial at Fort St.George; but you may have 10 or 12 pounds of tobacco at Mindanao for a rial; and the tobacco is as good or rather better than the Manila tobacco, but they have not the outlet for it as the Spaniards have.
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I will conclude Chapter 12 in an upcoming entry entitled,"History of Mindanao,Part IV: Central and Western Mindanao in the Late 17th Century, Part 3".
He continues Chapter 11 discussing the flora and fauna of the land, albeit briefly as he readies the reader for a more interesting Chapter 12. In Dampier's mind the Sultan of Maguindanao is the most powerful ruler on the island though even with his limited knowledge Dampier realises that the Sultan does not rule the entire island. In present terms the Sultanate mastered a mere single province,combining the Cotabato basin and the Maguindanao lowlands. Living nearly as a hostage of the Sultan Dampier's hugely erroneous assumption in imagining that most Mindanowans were Muslims is not only understandable, it is to be expected. Indeed it is a mistake Filipinos themselves make even today; Islam has only ever existed, on Mainland Mindanao, within a relatively tiny portion of the island. The area corresponding today with the following provinces:
1) Lanao del Sur
2) Maguindanao (most of)
3) North Cotabato (most of)
that is it. Through migration and attrition portions of the Zamboanga Peninsula and coastal portions of the Davao Region have also become Islamicised over the last 150 years but Mindanao is a huge island; to view it as "Islamic" is to engage either in deliberate deceit or sheer ignorance, sometimes a combination of both.
Chapter 12: "Of the Inhabitants, and Civil State of the Isle of Mindanao":
The island is not subject to one prince, neither is the language one and the same; but the people are much alike in colour, strength,and stature. They are all or most of them of one religion, which is Mohammedanism [SIC], and their customs and manner of living are all alike. The Mindanao people more particularly so called, are the greatest nation in the island and, trading by sea with other nations, they are therefore the more civil. I shall say but little of the rest, being less known to me but, so much as has come to my knowledge, take as follows.
There are besides the Mindanayans,the Hilanoones (as they call them) or the Mountaineers, the Sologues and Alfoores.
The Hilanoones live in the heart of the country: they have little or no commerce by sea, yet they have proas with 12 or 14 oars a piece. They enjoy the benefit of the gold-mines and with their gold buy foreign commodities of the Mindanao people. They have also plenty of beeswax which they exchange for other commodities.
The Sologues inhabit the north-west end of the island. They are the least nation of all; they trade to Manila in proas and to some of the neighbouring islands but have no commerce with the Mindanao people.
The Alfoores are the same with the Mindanayan and were formerly under the subjection of the Sultan of Mindanao, but were divided between the Sultan's children,and have of late had a Sultan of their own; but having by marriage contracted an alliance with the Sultan of Mindanao this has occasioned that prince to claim them again as his subjects; and he made war with them a little after we went away, a s I afterwards understood.
The Mindanayans properly so-called are men of mean statures; small limbs, straight bodies, and little heads. Their faces are oval, their foreheads flat, with small black eyes, short low noses, pretty large mouths; their lips thin and red, their teeth black, yet very sound, their hair black and straight, the colour of their skin tawny but inclining to a brighter yellow than some other Indians, especially the women. They have a custom to wear their thumb nails very long, especially that on their left thumb, for they do never cut it but scrape it often. They are endued with good natural wits, are ingenious, nimble, and active, when they are minded but generally very lazy and thievish, and will not work except forced by hunger. This laziness is natural to most Indians; but these people's laziness seems rather to proceed and so much from their natural inclinations, as from the severity of their prince of whom they stand in awe; for he, dealing with them very arbitrarily, and taking from them what they get, this damps their industry, so they never have to strive to have anything but from hand to mouth. They are generally proud and walk very stately. They are civil enough to strangers and will easily be acquainted with them and entertain them with great freedom; but they are implacable to their enemies and very vengeful if the are injured, frequently poisoning secretly those that have affronted them.
They wear but few clothes; their heads are circled with a short turban, fringed or laced at both ends; it goes once about the head, and is tied in a knot, the laced ends hanging down.They wear frocks and breeches,but no stockings ir shoes.
The women are fairer than the men; and their hair is black and long; which they tie in a knot that hangs back in their poles. They are more round-visaged than the men and generally well featured; only their noses are very small and so low between their eyes that in some of the female children the rising that should be between the eyes is scarce discernible; neither is there any sensible rising in their foreheads. At a distance they appear very well; but being near these impediments are very obvious. They have very small limbs. They wear but two garments; a frock and a sort of petticoat; the petticoat is only a piece of cloth, sewed both ends together: but it is made two foot too big for their waists, so that they may wear either end uppermost: that part that comes up to the waist, because it is so much too big, they gather it in their hands and twist it till it fits close to their waists, tucking in the twisted part between their waist and the edge of the petticoat, which keeps it close. The frock fits loose about them and reaches down a little below the waist. The sleeves are a great deal longer than their arms and so small at the end that their hands will scarce go through.Being on,the sleeve fits in folds about the wrist, wherein they take great pride.
The better sort of people have their garments made of long cloth; but the ordinary sort wear cloth made of plaintain-tree which they call saggen, by which name they call the plantain (SEE CHAPTER 11, PREVIOUS "HISTORY" ENTRY). They have neither stocking nor shoe, and the women have very small feet.
The women are very desirous of the company of strangers, especially of white men; and doubtless would be very familiar if the custom of the country did not debar them from that freedom, which seems coveted by them. Yet from the highest to the lowest they are allowed liberty to converse with or treat strangers in the sight of their husbands.
There is a kind of begging custom at Mindanao that I have not met elsewhere in all my travels; and which I believe is owing to the little trade they have; which is thus: when strangers arrive here the Mindanao men will come aboard and invite them to their houses and inquire who has a comrade (which word I believe they have from the Spaniards) or a pagally, and who has not. A comrade is a familiar male friend; a pagally is an innocent platonic friend of the opposite sex. All strangers are in a manner obliged to accept of this acquaintance and familiarity, which must first be purchased with a small present and afterwards confirmed with some gift or other to continue the acquaintance: and as often as the stranger goes ashore he is welcome to his comrade or pagally's house where he may be entertained for his money,to eat, drink, or sleep; and complimented as often as he comes ashore with tobacco and betel-nut which is all the entertainment he must expect gratis. The richest men's wives are allowed the freedom to converse with her pagally in public, and may give or receive presents from him. Even the Sultan's and the General's wives, who are always cooped up, will yet look out of their cages when a stranger passes by and demand of him if he wants a pagally: and,to invite him to their friendship, will send a present of tobacco and betel-nut to him by their servants.
The chiefest city on this island is called by the same name of Mindanao. It is seated by the south side of the island, in latitude 7 Degrees 20 minutes north on the banks of a small river, about 2 miles from the sea. The manner of building is somewhat strange yet generally used in this part of the East Indies. Their houses are all built on posts about 14, 16, 18, or 20 foot high. These posts are bigger or less according to the intended superstructure. They have but one floor but many partitions or rooms, and a ladder or stairs to go up out of the sreets. The roof is large and covered with palmetto or palm-leaves. So there is a clear passage like a piazza (but a filthy one) under the house. Some of the poorer people that keep ducks or hens have a fence made round the posts of their houses with a door to go in or out; and this under-room serves for no other use. Some use this place for the common draught of their houses but, building mostly close by the river in all parts of the Indies, they make the river receive all the filth oof their house; and at the time the land-floods all is washed very clean.
The Sultan's house is much bigger than any of the rest. It stands on about 180 great posts or trees a great deal higher than the common building, with great broad stairs made to go up. In the first room he has about 20 iron guns, all Saker and Minion, placed on field carriages. The General and other great men have some guns also in their houses.About 20 paces from the Sultan's house there is a small low house built purposely for the reception of ambassadors or merchant strangers. This also stands on posts but the floor is not raised above three or four foot above the ground,and is neatly matted purposely for the Sultan and his council to sit on; for they use no chairs but sit cross-legged like tailors on the floor.
The common food at Mindanao is rice or sago,and a small fish or two. The better sort eat buffalo (CARABOA) or fowls ill dressed, and abundance or rice with it. They use no spoons to eat their rice but every man takes a handful out of the platter and, by wetting his hand in water, that it may not stick to his hand, squeezes it into a lump as hard as he possibly can make it, and then crams it into his mouth. They all strive to make these lumps as big as their mouth can receive them and seem to vie with each other and glory in taking in the biggest lump; so that sometimes they almost choke themselves.They always wash after meals or if they touch anything that is unclean; for which reasion they spend abundance of water in their houses. This water, with the washing of their dishes and what other filth they make, they pour down near their fireplace; for their chambers are not boarded but floored with split bamboo like lath, so that the water presently is underneath their dwelling rooms where it breeds maggots and makes a prodigious stink. Besides this filthiness the sick people case themselves in their chambers, there being a small hole made purposely in the floor to let it drop through. But healthy sound people commonly ease themselves and make water in the river. For that reason you shall always see abundance of people of both sexes in the river from morning till night; some easing themselves,others washing their bodies or clothes.If they come into the river purposely to wash their clothes they strip and stand naked till they have done then put them on and march out again; both men and women take great delight in swimming and washing themselves, being bred to it from their infancy. I do believe it is very wholesome to wash mornings and evenings in these hot countries at least three or four days in the week; for I did use myself to it when I lived afterwards at Bencoolen, and found it very refreshing and comfortable. It is very good for those that have fluxes to wash and stand in the river mornings and evenings. I speak it experimentally for I was brought very low with distemper at Achin; but by washing constantly mornings and evenings I found great benefit and was quickly cured of it.
In the city of Mindanao they speak 2 languages indifferently, their own Mindanao language and the Malaya but in other parts of the island they speak only their proper language, having little commerce abroad. They have schools and instruct their children to read and write and bring them up in the Mohammedan religion. Therefore many of the words,especially their prayers, are in Arabic; and many of the words of civility the same as in Turkey; and especially when they meet in the morning or take leave of each other they express themselves in that language.
Many of the old people both men and women can speak Spanish for the Spaniards were formerly settled among them and had several forts on this island; and then they sent two friars to the city to convert the Sultan of Mindanao and his people.At that time these people began to learn Spanish,and the Spaniards encroached on them and endeavoured to bring them into subjection; and probably before this time had brought them all under their yoke if they themselves had not been drawn off from this island to Manila to resist the Chinese, who threatened to invade them there. When the Spaniards were gone the old Sultan, father to the present, in whose time it was, razed and demolished their forts, brought away their guns, and sent away the friars; and since that time will not suffer the Spaniards to settle on the islands.
They are now most afraid of the Dutch, being sensible how they have enslaved many of the neighboring islands. For that reason they have a long time desired the English to settle among them and have offered them any convenient place to build a fort in, as the General himself told us; giving this reason, that they do not find the English so encroaching as the Dutch or Spanish. The Dutch are no less jealous of their admitting the English for they are sensible what detriment it would be to them if the English should settle here.
There are but few tradesmen at the city of Mindanao. The chiefest trades are goldsmiths, blacksmiths,and carpenters. There are but two or three goldsmiths; these will work in gold or silver and make anything that you desire; but they have no shoppe furnished with ware ready-made for sale. Here are several blacksmiths who work very well, considring the tools that they worked with. Their bellows are much different from ours. They are made of a wooden cylinder, the trunk of a tree,about 3 feet long,bored hollow like a pump and set upright on the ground,on which the fire itself is made.Near the lower end there is a small hole,in the side of the trunk next to the fire,made to receive a pipe through which the wind is driven to the fire by a great bunch of fine feathers, fastened to one end of the stick which, closing up the inside of the cylinder, drives the air out of the cylinder through the pipe; two of these trunks or cylinders are placed so near together that a man standing between them may work them both at once or alternately, one with each hand.They have neither vice nor anvil but a great hard stone or a piece of an old gun to hammer upon; yet they will perform their work, making both common utensils and iron-works about ships to admiration. They work together with charcoal. Every man is almost a carpenter for they can work with the axe and the adze. Their axe is but small and so made that they can take it out of the helve, and by turning it make an adze of it. They have no saws but when they make a plank of each part, planing it with the axe and the adze. This requires much pains and takes up a great deal of time;but they work cheap, and the goodness of the plank thus hewed,which has its grain preserved entire,makes amends for their cost and pains.
They build good and serviceable ships or barks for the sea, some for trade, others for pleasure; and some ships of war. Their trading vessels they send chiefly to Manila. There they transport beeswax, which I think, is the only commodity besides gold that they vend there. The inhabitants of the city of Mindanao get a great deal of beeswax themselves; but the greatest quantity they purchase is of the Mountaineers (HIGAON-ON TRIBE), from whom they also get the gold which they send to Manila; and with these they buy their calicoes, muslins and China silk. They send sometimes their barks to Borneo and other islands; but what they transport there, or import from there, I know not.
The Dutch come here in sloops from Ternate and Tidore and buy rice, beeswax,and tobacco; for here is a great deal of tabacco grows on this island, more than any other island or country in the East Indies that I know of,Manila only excepted.It is an excellent sort of tobacco;but these people have not the art of managing this trade to their best advantage as the Spaniards have at Manila. I do believe the seeds were first brought here from Manila by the Spaniards,and even there, in all probability, from America; the difference between the Mindanao and Manila tobacco is that the Mindanao tobacco is of a darker colour and the leaf larger and grosser than the Manila tobacco, being propagated or planted in a fatter soil.The Manila tobacco is of a bright yellow colour, of an indifferent size, not strong, but pleasant to smoke.The Spaniards at Manila are very curious about this tobacco, having a peculiar way of making it up neatly in the leaf. For they take two little sticks, each about a foot long and flat and, placing the stalks of the tobacco leaves in a row,40 or 50 of them between the two sticks, they bind them hard together so that the leaves hang dangling down. One of these bundles is sold for a rial at Fort St.George; but you may have 10 or 12 pounds of tobacco at Mindanao for a rial; and the tobacco is as good or rather better than the Manila tobacco, but they have not the outlet for it as the Spaniards have.
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I will conclude Chapter 12 in an upcoming entry entitled,"History of Mindanao,Part IV: Central and Western Mindanao in the Late 17th Century, Part 3".
History of Mindanao,Part IV: The Maguindanao Sultanate in the Late 17th Century, Part 1
The following excerpt is from a wonderful 17th Century travelogue,"A New Voyage Around the World" (London:James Knapton)(1697) by the Englishman William Dampier. Dampier was an English Privateer, a pirate operating under liscence to his sovereign, the King of England. Though attacks on English shipping were verboten everything else was fair game though the Crown much preferred that he concentrate on England's enemies, the Spanish and the Dutch with emphasis on the former. During Dampier's long voyage the ship skirts the coasts of the Americas, preying upon Spanish shipping in Central and South America. Then it is onto the Pacific and eventually, after a stop over in Guam, to Mindanao.
Dampier thought like a businessman and so his writings tend to focus on commercial opportunities for fellow Englishmen. I have omitted long rambling portions about the weather, the moorings at sea, and about flora and fauna the modern reader is more than familiar with. While one understands a 17th Century Englishman's fascination with the banana not many modern readers will need to hear his very in depth discussion about it. Basically I have retained those portions I imagine to be somewhat unusual to the modern reader, Filipino or otherwise. For example, most Mindanowans are unaware but rice wasn't common in the Southern Philippines until the middle of the 19th Century. On Mindanao and points south the staple was Sago, which Dampier discusses at length. Likewise the incredibly deeply entrenched custom of Betel Chewing has all but disappeared. Strangely one can find it much more easily in Metro Manila (though only amongst the elderly) than they can anywhere in the Southern Philippines.
Arriving in the Philippines six days put of Guam Dampier mistakenly labels Siargao Island, today part od Mindanao's Surigao del Norte Province, as "Saint John's Island." The mistake was no fault of his own since a Portugese cartographer nearly a hundred years before had applied the label which heretofore had belonged to an islet in the Caroline Islands. Sighting a canoe off of Siargao Dampier's crewmates went out in a skiff to meet it but instead terrified the natives manning it. Giving chase they followed the canoe onto shore but were unable to coax the terrified natives who had escaped into the jungle.
Closing in on Mainland Mindanao at the northeast tip, today's Surigao del Norte, they began skirting the coast as the moved south. Rounding the southeastern tip they continued following the southern coast until thet found Saragani Bay where thet found a decent mooring and spent some time hunting deer in the cogon grasslands surrounding parts of the bay. Thry then continued on until rounding the southwest tip. Following the western coast the finally arrived at the mouth of the Pulangi River, or as the Spanish called it, "El Rio Grande de Mindanao."
There they found a settlement on the southern shore of the river, extending 1.3 kilometer or so upriver, though the settlement wasn't particularly wide. This was the Sultanate of Maguindanao though at the time the Maguindanawons referred to themselves as "Mindanawons," a name which was later applied to the whole island by the Spanish. The two word's meanings are closely related and in a later installment of "History of Central and Western Mindanao Part IV: The Maguindanao Sultanate in the late 17th Century" I delve into the etymology of both words. Ruling the town, and in the eyes of Dampier, the island, was the 9th Sultan of Maguindanap, Barahaman Mohammedwho ruled the Sultanate from 1678 to 1697, when he died.
The people had adopted Islam in the previous century but were far from religious. In fact, aside from an abhorrence of swine nothing else remotely connects them to the faith. There is one mosque but only the Sultan attended it, semingly out of protocol since his own brother, commander of the Sultanate's naval forces never went near it. In Part 6 we even see the brother get racously drunk on rice liquor.
At first Dampier showers the Sultanate and its people with accolades but within two months he is accusing the Sultan's brother of thievery and lying but alas, I don't want to spoil it for you:
Chapter 11 "They Resolve to go to Mindanao":
While we lay at Guam we took up a resolution of going to Mindanao, one of the Philippine Islands, being told by the friar and others that it was exceedingly well stored with provisions; that the natives were Mohammedans, and that they had formerly at commerce with the Spaniards, but that now they were at war with them. This island was therefore thought to be a convenient place for us to go; for besides that it was in our way to the East Indies, which we had resolved to visit;and that the westerly monsoon was at hand, which would oblige us to shelter somewhere in a short time, and that we could not expect good harbors in a better place than in so large an island as Mindanao; besides all this, I say, the inhabitants of Mindanao being then, as we were told (though falsely) at war with the Spaniards, our men, who it should seem were very squeamish of plundering without liscence, derived hopes from thence of getting a commission there from the prince of the island to plunder the Spanish ships about Manila, and so to make Mindanao their common rendevouz. And if Captain Swan was minded to go to an English port yet his men, who thought he intended to leave them, hoped to get vessels and pilots at Mindanao fit for their turn, to cruise on the coast of Manila. As for Captain Swan he was willing enough to go there as best suiting his own design; and therefore this voyage was concluded on by general consent.
Accordingly June 2nd, 1686 we left Guam bound for Mindanao. The 21st day of June we arrived at the island of St.John, which is one of the Philippine Islands. As we were passing by the south-east end we saw a canoe of the natives under the shore; therefore one of our canoes went after to have spoken with her; but she ran away from us, seeing themselves chased, put their canoe ashore, leaving her, fled into the woods; nor would be allured to come to us, although we did what we could to entice them; besides these men we saw no more here nor sign of any inhabitants at this end.
When we came aboard our ship again we steered away for the island of Mindanao, which was now fair in sight of us; it being about 10 leagues distant from this part of St.John's. The 22nd day we came within a league of the east side of the island of Mindanao. We steered toward the north end, keeping on the east side and there we anchored in a small bay, about a mile from the shore.
Of the trees, there is one sort which deserves particular notice; called by the natives libby trees. These grow wild in great groves of 5 to 6 miles long by the sides of the rivers. Of these trees sago is made,which the poor country people eat instead of bread 3 or 4 months in the year. This tree for its body and shape is much like the palmetto-tree or the cabbage-tree, but not so tall as the latter. The bark and wood is hard and thin like a shell,and full of white pith like the pith of an elder. This tree they cut down and split in the middle and scrape out all the pith; which they beat lustily with a wooden pestle in a great mortar or trough, and then put into a cloth or strainer held over a trough; and, pouring water in among the pith, they stir it about in the cloth; so the water carries all the substance of the pith through the cloth down into the trough, leaving nothing in the cloth but a light sort of husk which they throw away; but that which falls into the trough settles in a short time to the bottom like mud; and then they draw off the water, and take up the muddy substance, with which they make cakes; which being baked proves very good bread.
The native Indians of Ternate and Tidore and all the Spice Islands have plenty of these trees, and use them for food in the same manner; as I have been informed by Mr.Caril Rofy who is now commander of one of the king's ships. He was one of our company at this time; and being left with Captain Swan at Mindanao, went afterwards to Ternate and lived there among the Dutch a year or two. The sago which is transported into other parts of the East Indies is dried in small pieces like little seeds or comfits and commonly eaten with milk of almonds by those that are troubled with the flux; for it is a great binder and very good in that distemper.
In some places of Mindanao there is plenty of rice; but in the hilly land they plant yams, potatoes, and pumpkins; all of which thrive very well. The other fruits of this island are watermelons, musk melons, plantains, bananas, guavas, nutmegs, cloves, betel-nuts, durians, jacks or jacas, coconuts, oranges, etc.
On the plantain,the fruit of this tree is of great use for food so is the body no less serviceable to make clothes; but this I never knew till' I came to this island. The ordinary people of Mindanao do wear no other cloth. The tree never bearing but once, and so, being felled when the fruit is ripe, they cut it down close by the ground if they intend to make cloth with it. One blow with a hatchet or long knife will strike it asunder; then they cut off the top, leaving the trunk 8 to 10 feet long, stripping off the outer rind, which is thickest towards the lower end, having stripped 2 or 3 of these rinds, the trunk becomes in a manner all of one bigness, and of a whitish colour; then they split the trunk in the middle; which being done they split the 2 halves again as near the middle as they can. This they leave in the sun 2 or 3 days, in which time part of the juicy substance of the tree dries away, and then the ends will appear full of small threads. The women, whose employment it is to make the cloth, take hold of those threads one by one, which rend away easily from one end of the trunk to the other, in bigness like whited-brown thread; for the threads are naturally of a determinate bigness, as I observed their cloth to be all of one substance and equal fineness; but it is stubborn when new, wears out too soon, and when wet feels a little slimy. They make their pieces 7 or 8 yards long,all one thickness.
The betel-nut is much esteemed here, as it is in most places of the East Indies. This fruit is bigger than a nutmeg and is much like it but rounder. It is much used all over the East Indies. Their way is to cut it into four pieces, and wrap one of them up in an arek-leaf which they spread with a soft paste made of lime or plaster,and then chew it together. Every man in these parts carries his lime-box by his side and,dipping his finger into it, spreads his betel and arek-leaf with it. The arek is a small tree or shrub, of a green bark, and the leaf is long and broader than a willow. They are packed up to sell in parts that have them not, to chew with the betel. The betel-nut is most esteemed when it is young and before it has grown hard, and then cut it only in two pieces with the green husk or shell on it. It is then exceedingly juicy and therefore makes them spit much. It tastes rough in the mouth and dyes the lips red, and makes the teeth black,but it preserves them, and cleanses the gums. It is also accounted very wholesome for the stomach; but sometimes it will cause giddiness in the head of those that are not used to chew it. But this is the effect only of the old nut for the young nuts will not do it. I speak of my own experience.
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I will begin Chapter 12 in my next "History" entry,"History of Mindanao, Part IV: Central and Western Mindanao in Late 17th Century, Part 2"
Dampier thought like a businessman and so his writings tend to focus on commercial opportunities for fellow Englishmen. I have omitted long rambling portions about the weather, the moorings at sea, and about flora and fauna the modern reader is more than familiar with. While one understands a 17th Century Englishman's fascination with the banana not many modern readers will need to hear his very in depth discussion about it. Basically I have retained those portions I imagine to be somewhat unusual to the modern reader, Filipino or otherwise. For example, most Mindanowans are unaware but rice wasn't common in the Southern Philippines until the middle of the 19th Century. On Mindanao and points south the staple was Sago, which Dampier discusses at length. Likewise the incredibly deeply entrenched custom of Betel Chewing has all but disappeared. Strangely one can find it much more easily in Metro Manila (though only amongst the elderly) than they can anywhere in the Southern Philippines.
Arriving in the Philippines six days put of Guam Dampier mistakenly labels Siargao Island, today part od Mindanao's Surigao del Norte Province, as "Saint John's Island." The mistake was no fault of his own since a Portugese cartographer nearly a hundred years before had applied the label which heretofore had belonged to an islet in the Caroline Islands. Sighting a canoe off of Siargao Dampier's crewmates went out in a skiff to meet it but instead terrified the natives manning it. Giving chase they followed the canoe onto shore but were unable to coax the terrified natives who had escaped into the jungle.
Closing in on Mainland Mindanao at the northeast tip, today's Surigao del Norte, they began skirting the coast as the moved south. Rounding the southeastern tip they continued following the southern coast until thet found Saragani Bay where thet found a decent mooring and spent some time hunting deer in the cogon grasslands surrounding parts of the bay. Thry then continued on until rounding the southwest tip. Following the western coast the finally arrived at the mouth of the Pulangi River, or as the Spanish called it, "El Rio Grande de Mindanao."
There they found a settlement on the southern shore of the river, extending 1.3 kilometer or so upriver, though the settlement wasn't particularly wide. This was the Sultanate of Maguindanao though at the time the Maguindanawons referred to themselves as "Mindanawons," a name which was later applied to the whole island by the Spanish. The two word's meanings are closely related and in a later installment of "History of Central and Western Mindanao Part IV: The Maguindanao Sultanate in the late 17th Century" I delve into the etymology of both words. Ruling the town, and in the eyes of Dampier, the island, was the 9th Sultan of Maguindanap, Barahaman Mohammedwho ruled the Sultanate from 1678 to 1697, when he died.
The people had adopted Islam in the previous century but were far from religious. In fact, aside from an abhorrence of swine nothing else remotely connects them to the faith. There is one mosque but only the Sultan attended it, semingly out of protocol since his own brother, commander of the Sultanate's naval forces never went near it. In Part 6 we even see the brother get racously drunk on rice liquor.
At first Dampier showers the Sultanate and its people with accolades but within two months he is accusing the Sultan's brother of thievery and lying but alas, I don't want to spoil it for you:
Chapter 11 "They Resolve to go to Mindanao":
While we lay at Guam we took up a resolution of going to Mindanao, one of the Philippine Islands, being told by the friar and others that it was exceedingly well stored with provisions; that the natives were Mohammedans, and that they had formerly at commerce with the Spaniards, but that now they were at war with them. This island was therefore thought to be a convenient place for us to go; for besides that it was in our way to the East Indies, which we had resolved to visit;and that the westerly monsoon was at hand, which would oblige us to shelter somewhere in a short time, and that we could not expect good harbors in a better place than in so large an island as Mindanao; besides all this, I say, the inhabitants of Mindanao being then, as we were told (though falsely) at war with the Spaniards, our men, who it should seem were very squeamish of plundering without liscence, derived hopes from thence of getting a commission there from the prince of the island to plunder the Spanish ships about Manila, and so to make Mindanao their common rendevouz. And if Captain Swan was minded to go to an English port yet his men, who thought he intended to leave them, hoped to get vessels and pilots at Mindanao fit for their turn, to cruise on the coast of Manila. As for Captain Swan he was willing enough to go there as best suiting his own design; and therefore this voyage was concluded on by general consent.
Accordingly June 2nd, 1686 we left Guam bound for Mindanao. The 21st day of June we arrived at the island of St.John, which is one of the Philippine Islands. As we were passing by the south-east end we saw a canoe of the natives under the shore; therefore one of our canoes went after to have spoken with her; but she ran away from us, seeing themselves chased, put their canoe ashore, leaving her, fled into the woods; nor would be allured to come to us, although we did what we could to entice them; besides these men we saw no more here nor sign of any inhabitants at this end.
When we came aboard our ship again we steered away for the island of Mindanao, which was now fair in sight of us; it being about 10 leagues distant from this part of St.John's. The 22nd day we came within a league of the east side of the island of Mindanao. We steered toward the north end, keeping on the east side and there we anchored in a small bay, about a mile from the shore.
Of the trees, there is one sort which deserves particular notice; called by the natives libby trees. These grow wild in great groves of 5 to 6 miles long by the sides of the rivers. Of these trees sago is made,which the poor country people eat instead of bread 3 or 4 months in the year. This tree for its body and shape is much like the palmetto-tree or the cabbage-tree, but not so tall as the latter. The bark and wood is hard and thin like a shell,and full of white pith like the pith of an elder. This tree they cut down and split in the middle and scrape out all the pith; which they beat lustily with a wooden pestle in a great mortar or trough, and then put into a cloth or strainer held over a trough; and, pouring water in among the pith, they stir it about in the cloth; so the water carries all the substance of the pith through the cloth down into the trough, leaving nothing in the cloth but a light sort of husk which they throw away; but that which falls into the trough settles in a short time to the bottom like mud; and then they draw off the water, and take up the muddy substance, with which they make cakes; which being baked proves very good bread.
The native Indians of Ternate and Tidore and all the Spice Islands have plenty of these trees, and use them for food in the same manner; as I have been informed by Mr.Caril Rofy who is now commander of one of the king's ships. He was one of our company at this time; and being left with Captain Swan at Mindanao, went afterwards to Ternate and lived there among the Dutch a year or two. The sago which is transported into other parts of the East Indies is dried in small pieces like little seeds or comfits and commonly eaten with milk of almonds by those that are troubled with the flux; for it is a great binder and very good in that distemper.
In some places of Mindanao there is plenty of rice; but in the hilly land they plant yams, potatoes, and pumpkins; all of which thrive very well. The other fruits of this island are watermelons, musk melons, plantains, bananas, guavas, nutmegs, cloves, betel-nuts, durians, jacks or jacas, coconuts, oranges, etc.
On the plantain,the fruit of this tree is of great use for food so is the body no less serviceable to make clothes; but this I never knew till' I came to this island. The ordinary people of Mindanao do wear no other cloth. The tree never bearing but once, and so, being felled when the fruit is ripe, they cut it down close by the ground if they intend to make cloth with it. One blow with a hatchet or long knife will strike it asunder; then they cut off the top, leaving the trunk 8 to 10 feet long, stripping off the outer rind, which is thickest towards the lower end, having stripped 2 or 3 of these rinds, the trunk becomes in a manner all of one bigness, and of a whitish colour; then they split the trunk in the middle; which being done they split the 2 halves again as near the middle as they can. This they leave in the sun 2 or 3 days, in which time part of the juicy substance of the tree dries away, and then the ends will appear full of small threads. The women, whose employment it is to make the cloth, take hold of those threads one by one, which rend away easily from one end of the trunk to the other, in bigness like whited-brown thread; for the threads are naturally of a determinate bigness, as I observed their cloth to be all of one substance and equal fineness; but it is stubborn when new, wears out too soon, and when wet feels a little slimy. They make their pieces 7 or 8 yards long,all one thickness.
The betel-nut is much esteemed here, as it is in most places of the East Indies. This fruit is bigger than a nutmeg and is much like it but rounder. It is much used all over the East Indies. Their way is to cut it into four pieces, and wrap one of them up in an arek-leaf which they spread with a soft paste made of lime or plaster,and then chew it together. Every man in these parts carries his lime-box by his side and,dipping his finger into it, spreads his betel and arek-leaf with it. The arek is a small tree or shrub, of a green bark, and the leaf is long and broader than a willow. They are packed up to sell in parts that have them not, to chew with the betel. The betel-nut is most esteemed when it is young and before it has grown hard, and then cut it only in two pieces with the green husk or shell on it. It is then exceedingly juicy and therefore makes them spit much. It tastes rough in the mouth and dyes the lips red, and makes the teeth black,but it preserves them, and cleanses the gums. It is also accounted very wholesome for the stomach; but sometimes it will cause giddiness in the head of those that are not used to chew it. But this is the effect only of the old nut for the young nuts will not do it. I speak of my own experience.
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I will begin Chapter 12 in my next "History" entry,"History of Mindanao, Part IV: Central and Western Mindanao in Late 17th Century, Part 2"
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