Note 7 — Letters from Father Mateo Gisbert to the Reverend Fathers and Brothers of Veruela

Nevertheless, it will not be too much to relate the following case in support of my assertion. Maglándao, a good lad, and yet single, was the name of the victim. His master was not a Bagobo, but he was married to a Bagobo woman, and far from following the customs of his country which are more humane and civilized, he immediately committed so evil a deed that he could well have been graduated as master from the Bagobo school. Maglándao was the son of Apat, a Bagobo, and from childhood had never been the slave of any person. But in order to obtain some pamáran or pendents of ivory which were worth eight or ten pesos, he gave his word to work for a certain length of time for the owner of the pamáran. The latter, considering him as his slave, or rather, as if he were a wild boar of the woods, having grown angry at him one day because he did not do as he was ordered, fired his gun point blank at him so that the ball entered his back and came out in front just below the right breast, also going through his arm. The wound was mortal, especially as he was left, just as his master left him, totally abandoned. But, since in spite of all, two days had passed, and Maglándao had not died, his master bethought him that he could make use of him for the sacrifice which the Bagobos of Cáuit were about to make on the occasion of the death of the old Balolo. The sacrificers, in number about twenty heathens, agreed to kill or sacrifice the wounded youth, giving his master seventy paves,7 or about fourteen cavans of palay. That was a stroke of business that was considered as profitable by both parties to the contract. The sacrifices believed that they were the gainers in it, for since the victim was nearly dead when he came into their hands, they obtained him ipso facto at a lower price, and thus saved money and stabbing. He who sold the victim also thought himself the gainer, because by handing him over for the sacrifice, he saved the labor and expenses of burial, and had enough palay to eat throughout the year.