Volume 40 — Chapter XXXIX

Of the origin of the Indians

[After a brief allusion to the creation of man at the beginning of the world, the writer continues:]

384. Now, then, I have said as much as there is to say of the origin of the Indians, if we speak of the first and most remote. For to endeavor to determine the first settlers of these lands, whence and how they came, whether they were Carthaginians, Jews, Spaniards, Phœnicians, Greeks, Chinese, Tartars, etc., is reserved for God, who knows everything; and this task exceeds all human endeavor. And if such study obtain anything, it will amount only to a few fallible conjectures—with danger of the judgment, and without any advance of the truth or of reputation. And such is the notion (omitting many other absurdities that have been written), that the Indians were produced ex putre like unclean animals, or like the wild plants of the field. Others showing them great favor, assign the sun as their father, which produced them from some noble material. Others say [that they were produced] by the ingenious art of chemists or magicians; others that there were two Adams in the world, one in Asia, and another in the Western Indias, and that our Indians proceeded from one of them; others, that there were already people in the world before the creation of Adam; and that from them came the heathen, and from Adam, the Hebrews. All of the above, being so erroneous nonsense, and blindness from the devil, is already refuted, and is well refuted with contempt.

385. The only conjecture that can be made with some more visible foundation is the origin of our Indians, considering those who were found in these islands at the time of the conquest by the Spanish arms. In accordance with this, I shall relate what written records I have found (which is very little), and what I have carefully investigated, which will not be much, for the natives are not very capable of forming adequate accounts of this subject, and what we Europeans are reducing to treatises.

386. Father Colin (both learned and curious in the investigation of the matter which we are treating) reduces the people found in this land by our first conquistadors into three different classes. The first class consisted of those who ruled and governed as absolute masters; and these were civilized after their own fashion. The second consisted of black and barbarous mountaineers who inhabited the tops of the mountains, like brutes. The third consisted of men neither so barbaric nor so civilized as the other two classes; for, although they lived in retirement, they did not hate civilization and human intercourse.

388. The origin of all these people (who are scattered throughout these islands) is inferred to be either the many civilized Indians who have retreated to the mountains in order not to pay tribute, or in order not to be chastised for any crime; or the many different nations immediate to this archipelago. For some bear traces of being Japanese mestizos, as do the Tagabaloòyes, as I am well informed by religious who have had intercourse with them. Some are known to proceed from the Chinese; some from pure Indians, and some from other nations, as is declared by the circumstances of face, body, color, hair, customs, manner, and behavior—according to the experience of various religious, who agree that they are not of the pure race of the Indians, but mestizos as above stated. And even in five clans of Mangyànes who are said to exist in the island of Mindòro, there is one which has a little tail, as do the monkeys; and many religious who have assured me of it, as witnesses. In Valèr, on the coast opposite us, a woman was found not long ago who had a long tail, as was told me by the present missionary; and he was unable to be sure of the origin of that race, unless it was a race of Jews.

389. I do not know whether those people who are found only in the environs of Manila, and are called Criollos Morenos [i.e., creole blacks], can be put in this mestizo class. The former are all oldtime Christians, docile, well inclined, and of sufficient understanding. They serve the king in personal duties, and always have their regiment of soldiers, with their master-of-camp, captains, and other leaders; and in this way they are outside the reckoning as Indians. It is difficult to assign their true origin to them. For some make them the descendants of those blacks, of whom we shall speak later, who were the primitive lords of these domains. But I do not see how this can be so, for they do not resemble those Negrillos either in their hair or in the members of their bodies, or in the qualities of their minds, in which these creoles have the complete advantage. And although it might be said that they have been bettered in all ways with the lapse of time, and the change of location to one more civilized and temperate, it is not credible that they would not retain some of their old vices, as is the case with various other races here, and as has been experienced in Nueva España. Some people make them the descendants of those slaves who were formerly held here by the petty rulers, brought by foreign traders in exchange for the drugs that formed their commerce and with whose price they made a good profit. Even yet they bring to our settlements a considerable number—so many, that it is necessary for one of the auditors to be judge of the slaves, and his duty costs him his time and patience. The creoles refuse to confess this origin, and it does not seem to me that they would be so well received and so well regarded if they had so vile an origin. Some believe that they descend from the free Malabars who come to these islands under pretext of trade. I incline more to this view, paying heed to the physiognomies and intellect of them all, for they are almost all alike in their clear dark color, aquiline noses, animated eyes, lank hair, docile disposition, and good manners, by which we may infer that those that there are now are Malabar and Indian mestizos.

391. There is also another kind of mestizo—the Japanese—who result from the Japanese who were shipwrecked on these islands in former years. They are of better conduct than the others, since they have a better origin. They are more esteemed here and have more privileges, for they only pay half as much tribute as do the others.

392. It is tradition that the Negrillos, who belong to the second class of people whom our first conquistadors found, were the first owners of the islands of this archipelago; and that, the civilized nations of other kingdoms having conquered them, they fled to the mountains and settled there, and from there it has never been possible to exterminate them, because their sites are impenetrable. There they have lived and brought forth children until the present. In former times they were so elated with their primitive power that, although their forces were not able to cope with those of foreigners in the open, they were very powerful in the thickets, mountains, and mouths of the rivers; and were accustomed to burst like an avalanche upon the villages, and compel their inhabitants to pay them tribute, as if they were the lords of the land, who were inhabiting it. And if the people refused to give it willingly, they killed right and left, collecting the tribute in the heads of those who were decapitated; as was written by one of our oldtime religious in the following words: “Even in my time, it happens,” he says, “that they descended to the settlements and sought tribute from the Tagálogs, and at times took some heads for this purpose. Thus did it happen in Sinilòan, which refused tribute at the approach of the Spaniards. The mountain Indians, having revolted, attacked the village; and they took three heads, and badly wounded a Spaniard who was defending them.” Thus far the religious. At other times those people did not allow the Indians to make use of the wood and game of the mountains, and the fish of the rivers. For being very skilful in the use of the bow and arrow, and very swift and experienced in the fastnesses of the mountains and thickets, they inhumanly shot with arrows as many as approached their territories, without anyone catching sight or sound of them. For that reason, the inhabitants of the villages consider it wise to make an agreement with the Negrillos to pay them a certain tribute, provided that the latter leave the rivers and fields free. And although this pact is not so apparent at present, I believe that it is practiced secretly because of the fear that the Indians have of them, and because of their dependence on them; since the Negrillos are the lords of the mountains which contain the most virgin forests, with woods of the greatest value. It is a fact, too, that those of the present day are as barbarous as their ancestors.

393. All of these people are black negroes, most of whom have kinky hair, and very few have lank. They are flat-nosed, and almost all of them have thick, projecting lips. They go totally naked, and only have their privies covered with some coverings resembling linen cloths, which they draw on from the back forward, and which are called bahaques. They make those bahaques from the bark of trees, pounded with heavy blows, so that there are some that look like fine linen. Wrapping a rattan around the waist, they fasten the bahaque to it by the two ends. As ornaments they wear certain bracelets of rattan of various colors, curiously wrought; and garlands on their heads and on the fleshy parts of their arms, composed of various flowers and branches; and as a means of greater distinction for some one person, a cock’s feather or the feather of some other bird, as a plume. Their food consists of fruits, and roots of the mountain; and if they find, perchance, some deer, they eat it in that place where they kill it. That night they make their abode there, and after they grow tired of dancing, they sleep there—all helter-skelter, like brutes. Next day the same thing happens, and they sleep in another stopping-place. All their customs are the savage and brutish ones characteristic of barbarians; and they recognize no other laws, letters, or government than those of the heads of their families, at the most. They only care about defending their own territories, upon which they have lively wars, some Negrillos against others, with great mortality on both sides. At such times no natives dare enter the mountains, for the Negrillos kill them all, whether friend or enemy. Their most common arms are shield, bow, and arrow. If by a miracle any Christian is found among these people, and if perhaps the religious have reared some of them in Christianity from childhood, it very rarely occurs that he does not flee to the mountains whence he originated, when he becomes grown.

394. One of the islands of this archipelago which has a name, is the one called the island of Negros, because of the abundance of those people. It is located between the two islands of Zebú and Panày, and in it is established a Christian and civilized government. But at one point of this island, which lies toward the west, and is called the point of Sojotòn, there is a great number of the said blacks, and not one Christian. In the center of the island is a much greater number; therefore, it is along the beach where the Jesuit fathers and the seculars administer, and where the Visayans or Pintados are settled.

395. The origin of these Negrillos is thought to have been interior India, or citra Gangen, which was called Etyopia; for it was settled by Ethiopian negroes, whence went out the settlers to African Etyopia, as Father Colin proves in detail. Consequently, there being on the mainland of India nations of negroes, and even in Nueva Guinea so many that their first discoverers gave the island that name because of the multitude of these people; and since the distance from those places to these islands and the Philippine archipelago is not great; nor was the land [of Nueva Guinea] which was five hundred leguas in length, entirely settled with blacks—whom the ships of Viceroy Don Antonio de Mendoza found in one of the capes of the strait of Magallanes: those blacks could very easily pass from one island to another, and their chief abode with their own name might be the island of Negros, as we have remarked. Thence they could extend afterward to dominate and settle the rest of the islands, without any opposition from other people, until the opposition came through other men more rational and civilized than they, who dispossessed them.

396. The third kind of people whom our Spaniards found in this archipelago were the civilized nations, who maintained their government or seigniory on the river banks, on the seashores, and in the other sites with the best locations in these regions, and in the locations most fit for healthful and safe dwelling-places. Among them there was another remarkable class of people, and their domination, scattered throughout the many islands of this archipelago, the chief of whom are the Tagálogs, Pampangos, Visayans, and Mindanaos. Other peoples are reduced to these, although they have various distinguishing marks. The Tagálogs, who are the natives of Manila and its archbishopric, with but little distance between their villages, were Malays, who came from a district called Malàyo; that is the origin of all the Malays, who are scattered throughout the most and the better parts of all these archipelagoes. They are located on the mainland of Malâca, and as that district is not far distant from the great island of Bornèy, it is inferred (and this tradition has been handed down from father to son), that the Malays went to Bornèy, and from Bornèy to settle Manila and its district; taking the name of Tagàlog—which is the same as Taga Ylog, which signifies, in their own language, “those who live on the rivers;” for the Tagálogs have always lived on the shores of the rivers.

397. That the Tagálogs originated directly from the Malays, is proved (in the opinion of all) by their language, which differs but little from that of the real Malays; by their color, and the shape of their faces and their bodies; by the clothes and vesture in which the Spanish conquistadors found them; by their customs and ceremonies, all of which resemble those of the Malays—of whom the Tagálogs themselves said, and say always, that they are the true descendants. The coming of the Malays to this archipelago is not incredible, as we have so many examples of various accidents in these seas which have originated from the weather, by which we have seen brought to these islands unknown peoples, who spoke languages which no one could understand. For instance, a boat driven from its course, landed in the year 1725 on the opposite coast of Valèr and Casigùran, where our religious were in charge; it contained more than twenty men, whose language or garb had not been known until that time. But it is much more easily credible that the Malays came to these islands led by greed for their commercial profits—as, one reads in the histories of the Portuguese, happened in the regions of India with the Persians and Arab Moros, who, having entered under the pretext of trade, afterwards became masters of everything. The same thing is said here of the entrance of the Moro Malays.

399. It is argued that the Visayans and Pintados—who are the ones found in the Camàrines, Lèyte, Samàr, Panày, Zebù, and other neighboring territories—came from the large island of Macasàr, which is very powerful and densely populated. It has its emperor, who is called Sumbanco, and many petty rulers. The basis of this argument lies, not only in the short distance from that island to this archipelago, for it is only distant about sixty leguas from the point of Samboànga; but also because in Macasàr, as is reported, there are Indians who adorn and tattoo the body as do the Visayans (who are called Pintados on that account). But it is not known with certainty where one and the other originated. We only know of a relation written by the chief pilot, Pedro Fernandez de Quiròs, of his voyage to the Salomon Islands and their discovery by Albaro de Mendaña de Neyra in the year 1595. That relation is addressed to Doctor Antonio de Morga, lieutenant-general for his Majesty of the Philipinas. The said Quiròs says in it that, finding themselves in ten long degrees south latitude, they sighted an island to which General Don Albaro gave the name of La Magdalena; and that from its port there came to receive them, he says, “with seventy ships, more than four hundred white Indians, of a very fine symmetry, tall, lusty, and robust, and so well built that they far surpassed us. They had fine teeth, eyes, mouth, the most beautiful hands and feet, and long hair. Many of them were very fair; and among them were the must handsome youths, all naked, and without covering over any part; and all their bodies, legs, arms, hands, and in some the faces, were adorned as among these Visayans.” From this it is evident that they are Pintados Indians; and that they were not conquered, like those whom we call here Pintados Visayans. They live in south latitude, in the same parallel as that of the north, from ten to twelve degrees. But it is not easy to determine what might be the origin of the others; since, although it is known that this custom of tattooing and making figures on the body is found in Brasil, in Florida, among the Scythians of Asia, and the Britons of Europa, and even among the Moros of Africa, those nations are very remote from our Pintados; and so remote an origin cannot be conceded to the latter.

400. The large island of Mindanao took its name from a large lake (which is called Danào in the general language of these islands) which is found in that island, and into which many rivers flow. The same thing has happened in that island as I have said of the others, namely, that its first owners and settlers must have been the ones who are now found on the uplands and in the fastnesses of the mountains and the crags. Since they are inclined to the mountains, they allowed the foreign traders to settle their seacoasts and rivers, as they were found uninhabited and defenseless; and when the latter had taken possession of the best of the territories and districts, the true owners were unable to expel the foreigners, since the latter were the more powerful and civilized.

401. From this fact comes the variety of tribes that have been found in that island of Mindanào: such as the Caragas, the Butuans, the Cagayans, the Dapitans, the Mindanaos, the Malanaos, besides the Tagabaloòyes, Manòbos, and Lutàos, and a great number of blacks, like those of whom we have already written. Of all of them, when we consider their first origin, there is no other inference than that it was in the neighboring islands of Bornèy, Macasàr, or the Malùcas, considering not only the Mahometan rites and their manner of dressing, but also the bonds of sympathy existing among them. For to this day they maintain their friendship and trade, and unite for the protection of one another, although they are not all Mahometans, and most of them are infidels, atheists, and total barbarians.

402. If we consider their more immediate origin, the Caragueños have the first place. They are so called from Caraga or Caràghas, which was formerly the name of all that coast which extended north and south from the point of Surigao to that of San Agustin, and then, turning toward the west, extended from Surigao and ran through Iligàn and as far as Dapitan, until in later times a division of districts was made. The Caragas are the oldest people in that island, and without the protection of any foreigners have maintained their location and their valorous courage—which was well known in former times, by the Visayans and even by all the islands of this archipelago. They have rendered greater their valor by the character of Christians (a fact which they owe to the burning zeal of the discalced Augustinian fathers, their first conquistadors), since their aid has been the most efficient and most formidable in the invasions of the Moros, in favor of the Church and its evangelical ministers. These people, if they are not Butuans, differ but little from them, and now they are united; by which we believe the origin of both to have been common.

404. The Cagayans take their name from Cagayàn el Chico [i.e., the little], which is [found by] following the coast from Butuan to the west and southwest. It is a bay with this name, which is not of ancient usage, but was given from the other Cagayàn, today a province in the upper part of the island of Luzòn, between Cape Bojeadòr and that of Engaño. These islanders are reduced and civilized, and differ but little from the previous ones [i.e., the Caragas] from which it is argued that they are not very different from them in their origin.

405. The Dapitans were a people who inhabited a closely hemmed-in strait between the island of Bohòl and that of Pànglao, and possessed the two shores of that strait. They conquered the Boholàns in a war, and assumed their name and territory. 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.

406. The Mindanàos and Malanàos are Moros, but they seem formerly to have been heathen (from which today they are considered as newcomers), and took their names from the celebrated lakes in their territories. Father Combès says that the Malanàos resemble the Visayans in their government, and the same is inferred of the Mindanàos; and, of both, that one must seek there their true origin. The Mindanàos have always remained Mahometans, and have not allowed the light of the gospel to enter. The Malanàos, with the district of Bayùg, were reduced to the yoke of Christ at another time, and were for some years constant to their baptisms by the discalced Augustinian fathers; but later they grew weary of it. At the present time some of those Moros have come to the governor of Manila with the title of ambassadors, from Bayùg and Malanào, in order to petition for the discalced Augustinian fathers as ministers of the gospel. This is not the first time when they have requested them, as well as the Franciscan religious, as I have seen in an original document. Since the fathers of the Society are those to whom those places are adjudged for the preaching of the holy gospel, and since the disposition of that race is so faithless in their dealings, some suspicions have been aroused by those embassies, and we are endeavoring to probe their designs in coming.

407. The Tagabaloòyes take their name from some mountains which they call Baloòy, which are located in the interior of the jurisdiction of Caràga. They are not very far remote from and trade with the villages [of Caraga], and some indeed live in them who have become Christians. Others are being converted through the zeal and care of the discalced Augustinian fathers, who regard them as inhabitants of Baslig, which is their headquarters and priorate. Those people, as has been stated above, are the descendants of lately-arrived Japanese. This is the opinion of all the religious who have lived there and had intercourse with them, and the same is a tradition among themselves, and they desire to be so considered. And it would seem that one is convinced of it on seeing them; for they are light-complexioned, well built, lusty, very reliable in their dealings, respectful, and very valiant, but not restless. So I am informed by one who has had much to do with them; and all the above are qualities which we find in the Japanese.

410. In the upper and northern part of the great island of Luzòn are the two provinces of Cagayàn and Ylòcos. Those people, as is inferred by Father Colin, are descended from Chinese or Japanese, because the graves of men of larger stature than the Indians have been found there, as well as some Chinese and Japanese jewels which have been preserved among them. If these should be slight indications—for they can proceed from various other circumstances, on account of the great nearness of China and Japan—they may aid in the foundation of that inference. But we cannot get any farther than conjectures, as in everything else, after so much toil. It serves only as a light, so that others may infer a truer origin. And the same is true of Pangasinàn, which lies next.

411. On this account, and without all the above serving as an obstacle, one can also conjecture the origin of other nations who are scattered through the innumerable islets of these archipelagoes; for they may proceed from all India extra Gangen and from its most renowned kingdoms, such as Siàn, Cambòja, China, Cochinchina, Tunquin, Japon, the Lequios, etc.—especially when not few affirm that the Chinese dominated all this archipelago, and that they were the first settlers of the Javas, as is mentioned by Barros. In fine, these are the conjectures that I have found. Other conjectures may be made from their customs and ceremonies, in the comparison of which the curious will find not a few strong arguments, if they read thoughtfully. But, at the last, God is the only one who knows the truth, to which our limited judgments cannot penetrate.