Note 6 — Letters from Father Mateo Gisbert to the Reverend Fathers and Brothers of Veruela

Quite patent is the barbarity of these people and the complete dominion of the prince of darkness in the field of the Bagobo heathenism. But perhaps one will ask: “How can so paradoxical a barbarity exist, since by sacrificing their slaves,6 those people lose slave and money? Leaving to one side even the inhumanity revealed by so barbarous a custom, only by not attacking so directly their own interests by depriving themselves of arms for their work, etc., it appears that they would have to refrain from sacrificing their slaves; but necessarily they are very much given to human sacrifices, not only in order to preserve a custom of their ancestors, but also in order not to lose a kind of trade that is sufficiently lucrative, and of which I made mention in one of my former letters.