Moros

“ The Moros hereabout are a race of thieves, the most shameful that are known. They do not work and live ordinarily on the slave trade which they are always able to procure. I know some Moros in this mission who pass themselves off as friends, but are very evil. There is a pandita named Gúbat, who asserts that he likes me and respects me more than he does his own father, and comes into my presence as if he were the most friendly and obedient person in all the reductions of the coast, telling me always that he is going to collect what they owe him. ”

“ The Moros became excited by those captures, and through the exercise of war they became more skilful and daring. To such a height has their boldness reached, through the carelessness and neglect of the governors, that all those islands have been destroyed and ruined. ”

“ Since the Moros were so numerous that they could renew their forces, they fought so continuously that they gave us no opportunity to rest night or day, so that some of our dead could not be buried until after several days. ”

“ During the harvest time there is a truce in these turbulent islands, but when the crops have been gathered, the natives become restless and long to sally forth to conquer. The myth that victory comes only to the tribe whose fire-tree has bloomed is implicitly believed, and impatiently the Moros await this announcement of the combat season. Paying no heed to their capital city, Manila, these merry little isles revel in intrigue, and there is no sport in Moroland that can compare with the combat. Tribes go forth to conquer and enslave others ”

“ Flickering moonlight and fireflies added their bit. At one end of the park a platform had been erected for the officers and their families. The savages crowded around as the Americans swayed to the waltz, and their surprise [247] was no less than that of the Americans, when the tom-toms stirred the Moros to the dance and they whirled and crouched in native fashion.
Governor Findy was surrounded by his personal guard; burly Irishmen shared this honor with stalwart Moros, thus proving the governor’s trust in the wild people. ”

“ The extermination of the Moros [162] was undertaken with so much ardor that pardon [indulto] for their crimes was granted to those who should present themselves to serve against the enemy. The armada which the master-of-camp had at Zamboanga was reënforced,27 and a second expedition was made to Joló, more unfortunate than the first—for the Spaniards attempted to land in that island, and the Moros received them with such valor that they compelled our people to retreat, with heavy loss and great disgrace to the Spanish arms, to the fort of Zamboanga. ”

“ The Moros themselves are sturdy beggars, though most picturesque ones, and the tame specimens that came into Iligan were curious in the extreme. Dressed in native-made cloths of all colors, their heads were ornamented with turbans of red and white and blue, while gaudy sashes gave them an air of aristocratic distinction which few of their northern brothers possessed. ”

“ Their heavy campalans are fastened to their hands by thongs, so that, in case the hand should slip, the warrior would not fall without his knife. The Moros in a hand-to-hand fight are extremely agile. ”

“ Some of them have six men, others four, and those which have least three men, as a guard. The enclosure is one league long and surrounds the hill. I do not know which causes the more wonder, the fort of the Moros or the enclosure of the Spaniards which restrains the Moros, so that they issue but seldom, and then at their peril. We are day by day making gradual advances. Today a rampart was completed which is just even with their stockades, so that we shall command the hill equally [with the enemy] . ”

“ Men endowed with such magnificent courage as the Moro warriors often display certainly have their redeeming qualities. The same old policy that has won with the Ifugaos, Bontoc Igorots and Kalingas, and is winning with the wild Tingians and Ilongots, has been tried in dealing with the renegade Moros of Palawan with a considerable degree of success. It is my firm belief that it will work with the Moros of Mindanao, Basilan, Joló and Tawi Tawi, but substantial and permanent progress cannot now be anticipated for many years. ”

“ The Moros attacked the island of Camiguin, which was so bravely defended by its natives that the pirates were repulsed—especially by “one of the villages, which consisted of people of Moro origin from the Lake of Malanao, from which they had withdrawn on account of domestic dissensions, and settled in this island. They are of excellent disposition, very good Christians, courageous, and have an irreconcilable hatred for those enemies.” ”

“ Many American customs that do not entrench on the Holy Law have been adopted with no little avidity by the Moros, and the Stars and Stripes float over the home of every native fortunate enough to possess a flag. This is particularly noticeable in and around Zamboanga, but an officer belonging to the regiment stationed there told us a tale illustrating the Moro’s love for things American, that reads like a romance. ”

“ It is literally this which is occurring in these islands. The Moros deride us, and display their superiority compared to our weakness, which certainly is ignominious to the Catholic arms, and to the reputation of the [Spanish] nation. When we had [199] forces for punishing them, they were curbed and humiliated; since they have seen us poor and weak they have displayed their perfidy and boldness, and are treating us with the greatest insolence ever seen—for they invade even the villages along this bay, without there being, on our side, any means to prevent this. ”

“ The Moros who live on that side of the island which is washed by the Sulu Sea, and who ostensibly depend upon pearl fishing for a living, and really lived by their high-handed deeds of piracy against their neighbors and mankind in general, inhabit odd houses which are built on stout posts driven into the sand at the edge of the sea. The walls of the houses are woven of bamboo, and the roofs are thatched, like those of nearly all the native habitations, but the location is unique. ”

“ At the present time that petty trader has moved his residence to Núin opposite the islands of Sarangani, and it appears that those Moros have followed him. But wherever they have fixed their residence, left to themselves, they are threatened with destruction. For that swarm of Bilanes, Manobos, and Tagacaolos61 which surrounds them, warlike races who have never been subdued by the Moros, will always consider them as enemies, and will always reckon them in the first line to give an end to their personal and racial vengeance. ”

“ Moros Sanguiles means those Moros who dwell in the part of the south coast of Mindanao (district of Davao) lying between the Punto de Craan and the Punta Panguitan or Tinaka. They also appear to have received their name from the volcano of Sanguil.
Silipanes.—A heathen head-hunting people having its abode in the province of Nueva Vizcaya (and comandancia Quiangan) . It belongs to the Ifugao linguistic family. (Consult A. B. Meyer, with A. Schadenberg, in Vol. VIII, folio series, Royal Ethnographic Museum in Dresden, 1890.)
Subanos.— (Properly Subanon, “river people.”) ”

“ Originally immigrants from Borneo, from Celehes or Ternate, with some Arab admixture, the Moros have for centuries filled their harems with the women of the hill-tribes, and with Tagal and Visayas and even Spanish women, taken in their piratical excursions. They are now a very mixed race, but retain all their war-like characteristics.
Cut off from the sea by the Spanish Naval forces, they turned with greater energy than ever to the plundering and enslaving of their neighbours, the hill-men. These poor creatures, living in small groups, could offer but little resistance, and fell an easy prey. ”

“ Even assuming [172] that all the petty kings of the Moros may desire to observe the peace with the Spaniards, they will never succeed in it, because they possess so little authority over their vassals that they have never been able to restrain them,39 and they never will prevent them from going out to plunder and to seize captives throughout our islands, for they have given themselves up to this kind of life; and only the spiritual conquest of their provinces is adequate to deliver us from these troublesome enemies. ”

“ Rich mines were there—gold, silver, and “diamont,” iron, tin, and antimony, with manganese and copper; the people were the most honest, wildest, wisest, and most ferocious in the world; great ruined castles, known to the natives as “Kasbah el Rumi,” were dotted here and there, though who the “Romans” were no one could tell, but probably they filled the place of the “Moros,” who, as is well known, built all houses, towers, and buildings, of whatever nature, which exceed a hundred years in age throughout all Spain. ”

“ In 1895 trouble broke out among the Moros in the south, and in that year the Spanish began what is known as the Marauit (mär ä wēt ́) campaign in Mindanao. This was an expedition against the Moros, under 181the command of Governor-General Blanco himself. This campaign proved a great surprise to the Moros, who were finally overpowered by a division of the Spanish troops commanded by Brigadier-General Gonzales Parrado (pä rä ́dō) . ”

“ With the utmost courage, he went along as if nothing had happened, brandishing his naked sword—encouraging all; holding back the soldiers, so that they [282] should retreat gradually; with his face always to the enemy, sending the men down; and having our drums and trumpets sounded, until we reached the house which Adjutant Don Martin had fortified. When all were there, we saw on one side a great number of Moros coming down a defile to prevent our retreat to the camp. A few cannon-shots were fired at them, and they quickly hurried back to the hill. ”

“ It is that, and not knowing what the morrow may bring, that has brought me to the writing of this last love letter should either of us pass into the shadow of things.
On the nearby Island of Mindanao live the savage fanatics, the Moros. These people have been a terror to the Spaniards and are the nightmare of our own men. They are Mohammedans, and the fiercest, most treacherous fighters of all the Philippine Islands. They cannot be civilized, they cannot be conquered, they can only be killed. There is a bloody tradition about them and the Spaniards ”

“ When I was sent with a squad of brave men from my company to reconnoitre from Mt. Halcon, in the Island of Mindoro, and the force was ambushed, the way I saw the men meet death will always make me hate a Moro. Why I was spared, then, and bound, instead of being killed like the men, I could not imagine. Later I knew.
The Moros had no business to be on Mindoro, anyway. Their home was in Mindanao, far to the south, but three hundred years of Spanish attempt to rule them had left them still an untamed people, and the war between the two races had been endless. ”

“ We beseech his majesty, and your highness in his royal name, that, inasmuch as the said Moros and others take all the gold, pearls, jewels, precious stones and other things of which we have no information,—thus injuring the natives, both by giving us no opportunity to plant our holy faith among them, and by taking the said gold, they should, if they continue the said trade, lose their property and be made slaves, for they preach the doctrine of Mahomet. ”

“ In many cases they hold the important municipal positions such as tax-collectors and teachers. The Moros who inhabit the interior valleys have acknowledged the authority of their Christian brothers from the north and are living peacefully with them. ”

“ Of the natives of this island, some are Moros and Mahometans, especially those living near the coast. Those in the interior are pagans. Their arms are numerous and good, namely: culverins, large and small; lances, daggers, and arrows poisoned with herbs. They wear corselets of buffalo-hide and of twisted and knotted rope, and carry shields or bucklers. They are accustomed to fortify themselves in strong positions, where they mount their artillery and archery, surrounding them outside with ditches full of water, so that they seem very strong. ”

“ As an instance of the savagery of the Mindanayas, for the most part fanatical Moros or Mohammedans, it may be mentioned that head-hunting seemed till lately to be the great object of their existence. The man who had chopped off sixty heads was entitled to wear a scarlet turban for the rest of his mortal life, and scarlet turbans are still far from uncommon among them. As there was an inordinate desire among the doughty and dusky warriors to wear these [35] turbans, it follows that the population was being gradually but surely thinned out. ”

“ The captives are generally made slaves by unjust wars, for all these people are pirates who go annually by sea to pillage those who live in careless ease, or to any village which may not be bound to them by ties of blood or alliance. At times when they see their own people, they do not even keep peace with them. I speak of the Visayans or Pintados, who are more quarrelsome than the Lussones or Moros. However, some villages have just wars against others because the others have shown them some act of treachery under guise of friendship ”

“ A writer on the East has said of the Moors that they are the Puritans of Islam, and the first glimpse of Morocco will attest the truth of this. Not a Moor has laid aside the jeleba and the corresponding headgear, turban or fez. In the streets of Tangier—of all Moorish towns the most ‘contaminated’ with Christians—there is not a tramway or a hackney cab. Not a railway penetrates the country anywhere, not a telegraph, nor is there a postal service. Except for the discredited Sultan (whose ways have precipitated the disruption of the Empire) not a Moor has tried the improvements of Europe. ”