Dapitan

“ Another village called Lavayan, which is located on the other side of Iligan and the bay of Panguil, has 50 tributes, although there are [actually] twice as many more. Then comes Dapitan, which is our center for residence and instruction, as it is one of the most ancient Christian villages in these islands. Its inhabitants went of their own accord to meet the first Spaniards who went out for the conquest, and guided and served them in that conquest; and they have always remained faithful in their friendship, for which reason they have been exempted from paying tribute. ”

“ This girl had known Rizal, “the Spanish doctor,” as he was called there, in Hongkong, and persuaded her adopted father that possibly the Dapitan exile might restore his lost eyesight. So with the two girls and his wife, Mr. Taufer set out for Mindanao. At Manila his own daughter fell in love with a Filipino engineer, a Mr. Sunico, now owner of a foundry in Manila, and, marrying, remained there. But the party reached Dapitan with its original number, for they were joined by a good-looking mestiza from the South who was unofficially connected with one of the canons of the Manila cathedral. ”

“ These new and triumphant Boholans left that island of Bohòl (the country having already been abandoned by the old Boholàns) , and went to live in Dapitàn, located on the Mindanào coast, almost opposite Bohòl and Pánglao, whence they took the name Dapitàn. That name has been extended and preserved even to the present, because of their fortunate progress, and the friendly reception that our first conquistadors experienced from their noble loyalty and honorable valor. No other more remote origin is known of them, but it is conjectured to be like the others. ”

“ The Spaniards have explored only about one hundred and fifty leagues of this island, namely, from the river of Catel to the principal river, which is called Mindanao. From the city of Çubu one has to sail southeast to reach the nearest point of Mindanao, which is called Dapitan. Dapitan has a port, and lies in the middle of the discovered section of the island. Once this section was thickly populated, but now there are only a few inhabitants left. It produces rice and gold, for there are gold-placers and mines all over the island ”

“ Moreover, it having come [103] to the ears of the authorities that certain people of Pampanga and Bulacan were preparing a reception for the agitator, the Governor ordered that he should not be allowed to leave Dapitan, and that should he have left there, he should not be allowed to land in Manila on his arrival, but be transferred to another ship which should carry him back to Mindanao. ”

“ The venerable Father Pedro Gutierrez went through those coasts, carrying the gospel of Christ to the rivers of Quipit, Mucas, Telinga, and others; and in the year 1631 a permanent residence was formed, its rector being Father Pedro Gutierrez. The village of Dapitan is at the foot of a beautiful bay with a good harbor (in which the first conquistadors anchored) , on the northern coast of Mindanao; it is south from the island of Zebu, and to the northeast of Samboangan, which is on the opposite coast [of Mindanao] . ”

“ This is proved, because in the encomienda of Dapitan, a district of Mindanao, although tribute was paid to Diego de Ledesma, son of one of the conquistadors, it amounted to nothing, all told being no more than the value of forty pesos. But at the end of one year after it was given to the fathers of the Society, tribute was collected from more than one thousand Indians. For, as we have, during the course of the year, made them resort [to church] , the chief cannot afterward conceal any of them. ”

“ In the year 1607 Father Pasqual de Acuña, going thither with an armada of the Spaniards, began to preach with great results to the heathens of the hill of Dapitan, where he baptized more than two hundred. He also administered the sacraments to some Christians who were there, who with Pagbuaya, a chief of Bohol, had taken refuge in that place. ”

“ For three days the victim of the aroused wrath of the governing class lay in prison, being still denied any communication with friend or relative. Then at night he was hustled aboard a steamer and started for Dapitan.
So far as we can determine now, even in these conditions he lost nothing of that serenity that has made him so admirable to some investigators and so inexplicable to others. “Sustained and soothed by an unfaltering trust” seems to have been literally the state of this brown man from the ends of the earth. Many a white man far less tried might have envied his self-possession. ”

“ What men call the joy of living had since his youth meant to him the joy of serving Filipinas. He seems to have had since the day of his exile to Dapitan a feeling that in other ways his service6 was at an end, but there remained the service of his death. All the hard tests of life had left him unshaken and uncorrupted, a man truly without fear and without reproach. ”

“ The women in the islands of the Pintados are called binocot, or “woman who is in the room;” for bocot signifies [291] “a room,” and the women go outside but rarely, and even are carried then on the shoulders of their slaves. I have seen one woman of Dapitan, a settlement of the island of Mindanao, so delicate and so fine, that she always had herself carried to church on the shoulders of her slaves whom she best liked. ”

“ The said chief came to where the witness was, and told him that he had told the Indians of Dapitan—those who took fowls to the Jolo army for the commander—that they should warn the Spaniards that in the river of Mindanao a great fleet was being prepared, with many men, which they said was to go to Jolo and Pintados; and the aforesaid Indian likewise told the witness that he would be on the watch, and that he would warn the Dapitans if the fleet should set out, and where it was going ”

“ The people are courageous and warlike. For our fleet were collected 1 galley, 3 brigantines, 12 freight champanes (which are like small pataches) 26 and about 50 caracoas. The last named are the usual craft of these islands, and generally have thirty or forty oars on a side. All these vessels together carried about 400 Spaniards and 2,500 Indians, and they had considerable apparatus and war supplies. It was quite sufficient for another conquest of greater importance than the one on which they were going.
All that fleet departed, then, from the port of Dapitan on March 17. ”

“ It was November 3, 1896, when Rizal, heavily guarded, passed again through the dark gateway of Fort Santiago, whence he had issued four years before to go to Dapitan. Now his enemies had him wholly in their power; he was dragged to earth at last. Yet for a time they were puzzled how to proceed with him. Dull as they were and remote from the highways of European thought, they were not unaware that the eyes of a scornful world were upon them. Therefore they could not, as in the cases of so many “unvalued men,” shoot him at sunrise on a dunghill. Some pretense of legality must be followed ”

“ The father rector of Dapitan, and the Augustinian friar who had come as confessor for the Pampangos, were chaplains for this fleet.
On the same day Father Gregory Belin with Captain Sisneros departed from Samboanga for the island of Basilan, for a reason which I will explain to your Reverence. This island—lying in front of our fort, and two leguas away from it—has three or four thousand tributarios who pay to the king of Jolo, although they have always desired to be tributary to his Majesty. The chiefs of the islands came lately to render their obedience to the governor ”

“ Possession of it was taken by Father Juan del Campo, who, going as chaplain of the army, accompanied the adelantado, Estevan Rodriguez de Figueroa, when he set out for the conquest of that kingdom.
The first who began to minister to the Subanos in [54] the coasts of Dapitan was Father Juan Lopez; afterward Father Fabricio Sarsali, and then Father Francisco de Otazo, and various other fathers followed, who made their incursions sometimes from Zebu, sometimes from Bohol. In the year 1629 this ministry was entrusted to the Society by the bishop of Zebu, Don Fray Pedro de Arze. ”

“ On the sea, off the mainland of Dapitan, on the thirtieth day of the month of May in the year one thousand six hundred and two. The purveyor-general, Juan Juarez Gallinato. Whereas Ensign Pedro de Carrion, while scouting among the little islands opposite the kingdom of Xolo in the last few days, captured a Lutao in a [MS. defective] and was fleeing; it is proper, in order to know the design of the inhabitants of the aforesaid kingdom, that his deposition be taken ”

“ Tree-dwellings of the mountaineers of Mindanao. The mountaineers of this island build their houses in certain trees, so large that in each one a house is built which can contain forty or fifty married men and their families; the tree serves as a fortress against the enemy. As far as seen this region abounds in wax. The land is very rough and mountainous, and the inhabitants dress in medriñaque cloth.
Forty leagues from Dapitan, on the side facing Maluco, is Cavite Point, where there is abundance of cinnamon; this is the district which extends toward Maluco. ”

“ A boat despatched to the port of Butuan returned in a fortnight with the news that there was much gold, wax, and cinnamon in that district. A small vessel was also sent to Cebú, and on its return reported that the natives showed hostility, having decapitated one of the crew whilst he was bathing.
Nevertheless, General Legaspi resolved to put in at Cebú, which was a safe harbour; and on the way there the ships anchored off Limasana Island (to the south of Leyte) . Thence, running south-west, the port of Dapítan (Mindanao Is.) was reached. ”

“ Consequently, in respect and esteem they are the princes of these islands.
In matters of the Christian faith they yield in no wise to the most pious European nation or to the loyalty of the most distinguished. They are the ones who guard religion. The minister who visits the ports of their coast, with four Dapitans whom he takes as a guard goes as safely as if he were taking an infantry regiment ”

“ Combés next praises “the noble and brave nation of the Dapitans,” a small tribe who migrated from Bohol to Mindanao; he relates their history as a people, and why they changed their abode, and how they have always been the loyal friends and followers [12] of the Spaniards. The virtue and ability of their women receives much praise. Combés discusses the origin of the Mindanao peoples, and sketches the general characteristics of each, and their mutual relations. According to our author, the Joloans and Basilans came from Butuan, in northeastern Mindanao ”

“ At Cottabato, a long day’s sailing from Zamboanga across Illana Bay, we met the Moros who inhabit the valley of the Rio Grande del Mindanao, a large and sinister looking river. We communicated with these people through their dattos, Piang and Ali. Piang is the most powerful datto in the province. He is the son of a Chinese carpenter and a common Moro woman, and he won his position through shrewdness, generosity to his people and native ability. ”

“ DAGUPAN, a town and the most important commercial centre of the province of Pangasinán, Luzon, Philippine Islands, on a branch of the Agno river near its entrance into the Gulf of Lingayen, 120 m. by rail N.N.W. of Manila. Pop. (1903) , 20,357. It is served by the Manila & Dagupan railway. Dagupan has a healthy climate. It is the chief point of exportation for a very rich province, which produces sugar, indigo, Indian corn, copra, and especially rice. ”

“ He is the most striking figure in the Philippines even to-day, though one only hears of him as a peaceful and unambitious farmer in his native province of Cavite whence he emerges only on rare occasions to be present at some important social event in Manila where, among Americans in particular, he is most highly regarded. But, it must be remembered that at the time of his capture the Islands were still in a state far from satisfactory ”

“ Then great fear came into the hearts of the people, for the fierce Datto was the terror of the eastern seas, and all the southern islands were reported captured. Nevertheless, they resolved to defend their homes and save their people from shame and slavery.
The news proved true, for the Moro chief landed a great army on the shore of the Bay of Batangas, and his fierce followers, with fire and sword, started north to lay waste the country.
For a time they drove all before them, but soon Luzon was up in arms against them and great numbers of warriors hurried southward to battle with the Moros. ”

“ Davao is on the island of Mindanao, the largest in the Philippines. It is peaceful, for the most part, even though we have a mixture of Moros, Christians, and pagans there."
Rick knew about the Moros, Filipinos of the Moslem faith. They were known as valiant and deadly fighting men. The pagans were primitive people, like the Bagobos.
"Davao is a large, fairly modern city. But once outside of the city itself, the country becomes wild. Some of the Bagobo villages are quite close to Davao. They are peaceful folk, and quite harmless, but there are savages in the back country who may not be." ”