CHAPTER X

Of the noble and brave nation of the Dapitans

Of this island, which has given empires to so many kings, without doubt the crown is the village of Dapitan; and, although it is so small at present, it has been one of the most densely populated in the past, the one most respected for its power, and in our times the whole, both of these conquests and of their Christian churches. In a small number, reduced to one single village, there is inclosed a nation [37] apart from all the others, and superior to all those discovered in nobility, valor, fidelity, and Catholicism. They are descended from the island of Bool, where they anciently occupied the strait made by that island and the island of Panglao, which remains dry at low tide, but at high tide allows a galliot to pass. Therefore many brazas in the sea stand, even today, certain columns of upright wood, as honorable witnesses of the location so gloriously occupied by this nation, and today the venerable ruins of poor although adequate buildings which they sustained. They occupied both shores and the entire island of Panglao. There they conquered the famous people of Bohol; for as their nation was the less numerous in that island, they were obliged to sustain their name by their deeds. The Boholans, conquered and put to flight, abandoned the site which they occupied from the shore of the strait to the coast of Baclayon and took refuge on the river of Loboc, where their name is still preserved in a few families descended from that stock which conquered that island, and only the valor of the Dapitans subdued. [38] According to the ancient law of the land the Dapitans can call the Boholans their slaves since less title was sufficient for that in the days of their antiquity, and the most authoritative reason was always that of war.

War exiled the Dapitans from their country, a proof of their valor and the unforeseen accidents of their misfortunes; for they were the only people of all the archipelago who were renowned among foreign princes for their exploits, and to them alone were embassies made. It happened then that in an embassy sent by the king of Terrenate, the most warlike and powerful king known, his ambassador lost [due] respect for the house of the Dapitan princes--then represented by Dailisan and Pagbuaya, who were brothers--by making advances to a concubine. They punished the crime more by the laws of offended and irritated fury than by those of reason, with hideous and indeed cruel demonstrations of contempt, by cutting off the noses and ears of the ambassador and his men. When they had returned to Terrenate, the horrid aspect of his subjects aroused the wrath of the king. He armed all his power in twenty joangas to oppose the Dapitans. His general, doubtful of the outcome, as he knew the valor of those with whom he had to do, made use of a trick by which he assured a deceitful victory. He sent his joangas in, one by one, giving out that they were traders, and under the security of friendship--excusing the above occurrence, in order to divert the attention [of the Dapitans], with the laws of punishment, deserved because of the boldness of their men. The Dapitans, seeing that the Ternatans were attending only to the sale of their goods, lost their caution, and came up with the same confidence as ever. When the Ternatans had all their fleet together, and saw that of the Dapitans, they closed with them. Although the latter placed themselves in a position of defense, they retreated before that multitude, and the terror of arms to which they were unaccustomed; for the Ternatans already had muskets and arquebuses, the use of which they had before other nations, because of their trade with the Portuguese. [39] The frightful effects of these, as terrible by their ruin as by their novelty, worked on the minds of the Dapitans. Dailisan was killed in that fray, and his brother Pagbuaya was left the reigning prince. He, seeing how he was involved with the Ternatans, and how much at the mercy of their new [arms] [40] was the place occupied by the Dapitans--where the Ternatan ships could succeed in anchoring under the houses of the Dapitans, and using their arms, fight them in safety--resolved to seek another place, better defended. He also thus resolved because these nations regard as unlucky the place where fortune has once shown itself hostile to them, and immediately abandon it as accursed. Even today, in these islands, it is a fact that the house where a chief dies is abandoned by his people and it remains alone, waiting its ruin. [41] He sought then a place where, their valor and its ruggedness joining hands, they could make up, aided by the strength of the site, for the small number of their nation. As there were no hills on their coasts, and they were unable to restrain their noble and warlike nature to the confinement and gloomy prison of the retired mountains, where they would be deprived of the trade and benefits of the sea, they crossed to the island of Mindanao, a crossing of fifteen leguas, and twenty from their village, and seized a small rugged hill, which would allow itself to be monopolized by their valor.

The people who elected to follow Pagbuaya numbered one thousand families of freemen, his subjects, without taking into account the unmarried men. In these nations, where there is a law of dowry--or rather a law for the purchase of wives--there are many men who are denied the bonds of matrimony because of their poverty. Neither do we reckon the slaves of the prince, who exceeded five hundred, and many other families of the Lutao nation, who as they now live under the protection of the kings of Mindanao and Jolo, lived then also under the protection of the Dapitan princes.

They had occupied the new site but a short time when their renown caused anxiety to the most remote princes, who were fearful of their power. Consequently, the king of the great island of Burney was the first to send his ambassador with two joangas, soliciting their friendship. While they were yet awaiting the resolution of the Dapitans, the brave Magallanes sighted their coasts with his squadron, as we shall relate in the second book. They immediately made peace with him, being pleased, as brave men, with the valor which they recognized in the unknown people. [42] The Borneans were sent away with the message that the Dapitans wished no other friendship than that of their new guests. They have preserved that friendship to this day, as noble people, without any complaint [arising] of their loyalty, even to the lowest slave; and their exploits in favor of our arms have deserved much praise. For the son of that Pagbuaya, called Manooc, following the fidelity of his father, and surpassing it with the good fortune of being a Christian, aided the Spaniards in their first conquests of these islands--especially in the conquest of Manila, the capital of all these islands; and later in the conquest of Camarines, taking at their own expense, in all these feats of arms, their men and the nations subject to them.

That prince, who, as he was the first to become acquainted with the Spaniards (having shared the knowledge of them which his father acquired with the first sight of the squadron of Magallanes), was the first to receive the blessing of acquaintance with our holy faith, giving renown equally to his own banners and to those of our king and sovereign, and receiving the name Don Pedro Manuel Manooc--continued the greatness of his deeds. For besides the services rendered in Manila and the province of Camarines, he sustained war against Mindanao and Jolo, and attacked them with his fleets in their very houses. On one occasion, when among others he went to attack Jolo, he met the king himself, who was also going out with his fleet of twelve joangas. Manooc defeated him and captured his flagship, and, at the cost of many killed, the king escaped as a fugitive, by hastening to the land. He made war on the Caragas, who were the terror of the islands at that time. He subdued the village of Bayug of the Malanao [43] nation, who were subject to the Mindanaos, without our arms having any other protection amid so many enemies than that of his valor which made easy so many undertakings. That prince was the father of Doña Maria Uray, who is today living as an example and ornament of these nations because of the perfection of her virtues--which she prefers to a better fortune, for she has spurned marriage with the kings of Jolo in order that she might not subject her faith to the outrages of barbarous and faithless princes. Don Pedro Manuel Manooc left orders that he was to be buried in the city of Cebú, as he had ordered in his will that his bones be taken to that cathedral. His children carried out his orders, thereby showing both their affection to us and their devotion to him.

The women were not inferior in merit. For Doña Madalena Baloyog, the sister of Don Pedro Manuel Manooc, had so great authority among the barbarous Subanos that she alone by her discretion reduced more of them than did the arms of her people by their valor and courage. She obtained the name of pacifier, mistress, and sovereign of the hard hearts of the chiefs of the Subanos. Her authority was so manifest to our men that, the natives of the river of Butuan having rebelled, and killed their alcalde-mayor and their minister, a secular priest, who was then in charge of it, [44] it was sufficient for her to assure them of pardon for the deed, and to secure to us their pacification and due obedience forever.

The cousin of Don Pedro Manuel Manooc was Laria, who competed in all things for the greatness of his cousin. He served in the conquest of Maluco with the same nobility and valor, and would receive no pay or rations for his men. In the seven times when the island of Jolo was attacked in war, he took part in all of those conflicts, always showing himself remarkable for his princely actions and soldierly valor.

A son worthy the nobility of such a father was Don Gonçalo Maglenti, the husband of Doña Maria Uray, whom we mentioned above, and the father of Don Pedro Cabelin. The latter is still living and is nowise inferior in his deeds and fidelity to his forbears, as he was reared from childhood with so good merits of nobility and Christian warfare--accompanying his father from the age of seven years, on all occasions of danger; thus he came to despise danger so thoroughly that at the age of thirty (his present age) the enemies of God and of our king whom he has killed in hand-to-hand combats, in various frays, surpass two hundred. Don Gonçalo, then, the father of so illustrious a son, left him enough examples to emulate his valor, for in accordance with his surname (which means "he who hurls down thunderbolts"), his valor hurled them in a constant shower. He opposed the might of the Mindanaos at the time of their greatest arrogance, when they threatened all these islands with their arms. He always went in pursuit of their fleets and of those of the Malanaos which were sent by way of the bay of Pangil [45] to aid the Mindanaos, for he was an ally for the defeat of their plans. He subdued from the bay of Pangil to the village of Sidabay, ten leguas from Samboangan, all of the villages scattered through sixty leguas along the coast (formerly many more and superior in number). His care watched perpetually over the islands, and of his own accord he despatched advices to Cebú and Oton at the first rumor of hostile fleets, by means of which the evil designs of the enemies might be frustrated. That care merited for his nation exemption from the tribute and from all personal service, which its natives enjoy today by concession from his Majesty.

In this site the Dapitans--now reduced to the enterprises of his valor to so small a number that they scarce exceed one hundred families--alone and strangers, have defended themselves from the power of all the pirates of these islands, all of whom, pursuing them with their vengeance and injuries, have attempted to extirpate them entirely. And as they have the land so at their mercy, with nations who have inherited so much internal hatred [to the Dapitans] at being subdued by this noble nation, the former have been unable to get one single captive out of their hands, and their sieges are always left crowned with triumphs. For Buhisán, the father of Corralat, and the most warlike of the kings of Mindanao, with one hundred joangas and the incentive of his own person and presence, returned within fifteen months, his haughtiness undeceived. The Joloans, notwithstanding their power, had no better fortune, and left behind seven joangas in the enterprise that they attempted--although the opportunity was so in their favor, when there were scarcely ten men in the stronghold, as the majority had gone to various places for their trade.

Among the Subanos--the ports of their conquest, which surround them on all sides--their valor is so accredited, that a Dapitan has nothing to fear among a hundred of them. For if they see him ready for them, they do not dare to attack him, however thirsty for his blood their hatred makes them; for the Subanos are all the triumphs of the arms of the Dapitans, of which the sound and rigorous execution has drawn the former from their mountains, and made settlements of men from savages scattered among the thickets, who are reduced to more civilized life. Thus has been established a province which, in our time, has been given separate an alcalde-mayor, namely, that of Iligan; and by that province is secured to our arms an opening for the conquest of Mindanao and Jolo, as we have thereby had soldiers, pilots, and most skilful sailors, who are better than all those who sail in these islands. Their village remains as a stronghold opposed to the petty rulers of those peoples.

They are a very prudent race, and are quite Hispanicized in their customs, and by the modesty of their bearing naturally deserved respectable. Thus they do not endure the outrages that the other subdued nations endure, now from the boldness of the soldiers, now from the exigencies of our necessities; for they attend to all things willingly, considering it an honor to satisfy our desires. 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; and no misfortune has ever happened to such an arrangement. For although misfortunes have been experienced in the infidelity of the native Subanos, yet they have been invited by the confidence of the father missionaries, who have gone among them without that valiant guard, as will be seen in the course of this history. Finally, the faith of this island and those near by is owing to the Dapitans; and, to their fidelity and valor, the glorious confidence of our arms.

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