Off the western coast is a large submarine bank, with many coral reefs and islets. The navigation on this coast is very dangerous, and can only be done in daylight.
The harbour of Puerto Princesa is an excellent one, and sufficiently large for all requirements.
Limestone and other sedimentary formations predominate. No volcanic rocks are known to exist. It is conjectured that the island has been formed by an upheaval, and it bears little resemblance geologically to any of the other Philippines. Plastic clays suitable for making bricks, tiles, and pottery, abound.
Nothing is known about the mineralogy, except that rock-crystal is found, a magnificent specimen of great purity and value was sent from the island to the Madrid Exhibition of 1887.
A chain of mountains, with peaks of varying elevation up to 6500 feet, runs lengthways of the island, much nearer to the western coast than to the eastern. The descent from the summits to the eastern coast is, therefore, gradual, and on the western coast it is abrupt. Mount Staveley, Mount Beaufort (3740 feet), Pico Pulgar (4330 feet), and the Peaks of Anepalian, are in the central part of the island.
The following record is taken from the observations made by Captain Canga-Arguelles, a former governor, during his residence of three years in Puerto Princesa.
Month. Mean Temp. Barometer.
Fahrenheit. Inches. Rainy Days.
January 85 30.34 4 February 81 30 3 March 85 30.07 4 April 87 29.92 5 May 84 29.80 4 June 82 29.90 12 July 80 .. 17 August 82 29.84 4 September 79 29.88 20 October 85 29.90 20 November 82 29.95 8 December 82 30 4 ----- Mean 82.83 105
It will be seen that the temperature is not excessive, and that the distribution of the rainfall is favourable to agriculture and planting. The force of the monsoon is much spent when it arrives on the coast of Paragua, and the typhoons only touch the northern extremity of the island.
Volcanic phenomena are unknown, and there is no record of earthquakes.
From the lay of the island there is always one coast with calm water, whichever way the monsoon is blowing.
The troops and civil population of Puerto Princesa suffer to some extent from intermittent fevers; but the reports of the military, naval, and civil infirmaries, state that the disease is not very severe, and that it yields to treatment, and this a.s.sertion is confirmed by the reports of the French travellers, Drs. Montano and Rey and M. Alfred Marche.
The northern part of the island has been colonised from the other Philippines, and the Christian inhabitants number about 10,000 distributed amongst several small villages. The southern coasts are occupied by Mahometan Malays, who number about 6000, and the rest of this large island, except Puerta Princesa, is only populated by savages, the princ.i.p.al tribes being the--
Tagbuanas, estimated to number 6,000 Tandulanos, estimated to number 1,500 Negritos, estimated to number 500 Manguianes, estimated to number 4,000 -------- 12,000
This gives a grand total of 28,000 inhabitants, or 5.6 to the square mile. In the island of Luzon, in which extensive districts are uncultivated and unexplored, the mean density of the population in 1875, was 76.5 per square mile, and in the provinces of Batangan and Pasgasinan, which are, perhaps, the best cultivated, the density was 272 inhabitants to the square mile.
The fauna has been studied to some extent, a French collector having resided for a considerable period on the island. It comprises monkeys, pigs, civets, porcupines, flying squirrels, pheasants, and a small leopard, this latter not found in any other of the Philippines, and showing a connection with Borneo.
The island is covered with dense forests, which have been little explored.
The Inspeccion de Montes (Department of Woods and Forests) gives a list of 104 different kinds of forest-trees known to be growing there, and states that ebony abounds there more than in any other province of the Philippines. According to Wallace, the camphor-tree is found in the island.
Amongst the timbers mentioned in the Woods and Forests lists are ebony, camagon, teak, cedar, dungon, banaba, guijo, molave, and many others of value. The forest or jungle-produce will comprise: charcoal, firewood, bamboos, rattans, nipa (attap), orchids, wax, gums, resins, and camphor. Edible birds"-nests are found in various localities. Fish is abundant in the waters, and balate (Beche de mer) is collected on the sh.o.r.es and reefs.
Puerto Princesa is visited by a mail steamer from Manila once in twenty-eight days. A garrison of two companies of infantry was kept there, and several small gun-boats were stationed there, which went periodically round the island. Piracy was completely suppressed, and the Mahometan Malays were kept in good order by the Spanish forces.
The dense primeval forests which have existed for ages, untouched by the hand of man, undevastated by typhoons, volcanic eruptions, or earthquakes, must necessarily have produced an enormous quant.i.ty of decayed vegetable matter, rich in humus, and such a soil on a limestone subsoil, mixed with the detritus washed down from the mountains, may reasonably be expected to be of the highest fertility, and, perhaps, to be equal to the richest lands of the earth, most specially for the cultivation of tobacco.
The varied climates to be found from the sea-level to the tops of the mountains should allow the cultivation of maize, rice, sugar-cane, cotton, cacao, coffee, and hemp, each in the zone most favourable to its growth and fruitfulness. The exemption from typhoons enjoyed by this region is most important as regards the cultivation of the aborescent species, and the cocoa-nut palm would prove highly remunerative on land not suited for other crops.
Tagbanuas.
The Tagbanuas are said to be the most numerous of the inhabitants of Palawan. I understand that this word comes from Taga, an inhabitant, and banua, country, and therefore means an original inhabitant of the country, as opposed to later arrivals.
They inhabit the district between Inagahuan, on the east coast, and Ulugan and Apurahuan, on the west coast. Their numbers in 1888 were estimated at 6000. In 1890 I spent ten days amongst these people, and employed a number of them as porters to carry my tent, provisions, and equipment, when travelling on foot through the forests to report on the value of a concession in the neighbourhood of Yuahit and Inagahuan. I therefore describe them from personal knowledge. They are of a yellowish colour, and generally similar to the Mahometan Malays of Mindanao. Those who have settled down and cultivated land have a robust and healthy appearance; but those who are nomadic, mostly suffered from skin diseases, and some were quite emaciated. Their Maestro de Campo, the recognised head of their tribe, lived near Inagahuan, and I visited him at his house, and found him quite communicative through an interpreter.
Maestro de Campo is an obsolete military rank in Spain, and a commission granting this t.i.tle and an official staff, is sometimes conferred by the Governor-General of the Philippines, or even by the King of Spain, upon the chiefs of heathen tribes, who have supported the Spanish forces against the pirates of Sulu, Mindanao, or Palawan. Sometimes a small pension accompanies the t.i.tle.
I also learnt much about the Tagbanuas from a solitary missionary, a member of the Order of Recollets, Fray Lorenzo Zapater, who had resided more than two years amongst them, and had built a primitive sort of church at Inagahuan.
They are sociable and pacific; their only weapons are the cerbatana, or blow-pipe, with poisoned darts, and bows and arrows, for the knives they carry are tools and not weapons. They do not make war amongst themselves, but formerly fought sometimes to defend their possessions against the piratical Mahometans, who inhabit the southern part of the island. These heartless robbers, for centuries made annual raids upon them, carrying off the paddy they had stored for their subsistence, and everything portable worth taking. They seized the boys for slaves, to cultivate their lands, and the girls for concubines, killing the adults who dared to resist them. However, since the establishment of a naval station and the penal colony at Puerto Princesa in 1872, the coast has been patrolled by the Spanish gun-boats and the piratical incursions have come to an end. The nomadic Tagbanuas, both men and women, were quite naked, except for a cloth (tapa-rabo) which the men wore, whilst the women wore a girdle, from which hung strips of bark or skin reaching nearly to the knees. Round their necks they wore strings of coloured beads, a turquoise blue seemed to be the favourite kind, and on their arms and ankles, bangles made of bra.s.s wire. Coming out of the forest into a clearing where there were two small huts built in the usual manner, and another constructed in the fork of a large tree, I found a group of these people threshing paddy. Amongst them were two young women with figures of striking symmetry, who, on being called by the interpreter, approached my party without the slightest timidity or embarra.s.sment, although wearing only the fringed girdle. I learnt that they had both been baptized but on asking the taller girl her name, instead of answering me, she turned to her companion and said to her, "What is my name?" to which the other answered, "Ursula." I then asked the shorter girl her name, and she also, instead of answering me, asked the other girl, "What is my name?" to which the taller one answered, "Margarita." These names had recently been given them instead of their heathen names, and I could not be sure whether they had forgotten their new names or whether, as is the case in several tribes, they must never p.r.o.nounce their own names nor the names of their ancestors. They thankfully accepted a cigarette each, which they immediately lighted.
On the following Sunday, these girls came to Ma.s.s at the Inagahuan Church, completely dressed like Tagal women, and although they pa.s.sed in front of me, I did not recognize them until I was told, for they looked much shorter.
When the missionary accompanied me to visit any of these people, I observed that as we approached a house the people were hurriedly putting on their clothes to receive us, but they were evidently more at ease in the garb of Adam before the fall.
The Tagbanuas have no strong religious convictions, and can be easily persuaded to allow their children to be baptised. The population of Inagahuan and Abortan at the time of my visit was, according to the missionary, 1080, of whom 616 were baptised. But from this number many had been taken away by their half-caste or Chinese creditors to Lanugan, a visita of Trinitian, to collect wax and almaciga--the forests near Inagahuan and Yuahit being entirely exhausted. The heathen Tagbanuas believe in future rewards and punishment, and call the infernal regions basaud. They believe in a Great Spirit, the creator and preserver, who presides over all the important acts of life. They call him Maguindose, and make offerings to him of rice and fish. Polygamy is allowed amongst them, but from what I saw is not much practised. When a Tagbanua proposes marriage to the object of his affections, he leaves at the door of her hut the fresh trunk of a banana plant. If she delays answering till the trunk has withered, he understands this as a negative, and the damsel is spared the pain of verbally refusing; but if she approves of his suit, she sends him her answer in good time.
The lover then conveys to the house of the bride"s parents, where all her relations are a.s.sembled, large baskets of boiled rice. He takes a morsel of this and places it in the mouth of the girl, she then does the same to him, and by this symbolic act they a.s.sume the responsibilities of matrimony. This particular ceremony is common to many Philippine tribes. The remainder of the cooked rice furnishes the basis of the marriage feast.
They are said to cruelly punish adultery; on the other hand, divorce is easily obtained.
When one of their number is very ill, they get up a concert (?) of gongs and drums with the hope of curing him, and during the performance n.o.body must approach the patient"s couch. I could not learn whether the music was intended to cheer up the sick person, or to frighten away the evil spirit, which they look upon as the cause of his malady; but I incline to the latter belief, because the so-called music is calculated to frighten away any living thing.
If, however, the patient does not improve, he is then consulted as to where he would like to be buried, and about other details of the ceremony and funeral feast. This reminds me that I have read of a Scotchwoman consulting her dying husband as to whether the scones to be made for his funeral should be square or round. Such, however, is the custom of the Tagbanuas.
Immediately after death the relatives place by the corpse the weapons and effects belonging to the deceased and sprinkle ashes on the floor all around--then they retire and leave the dead alone for a time. Later on, they return and carefully examine the ashes to see whether the soul of the defunct, when abandoning the body, left any foot-marks.
Then, forming a circle round the dead, they chant a dirge in honour of the departed, after which they commit his body to the earth in the midst of his cleared land, unless he has selected some other spot, burying with him his arms and utensils, not forgetting the wood-knife and a liberal ration of cooked rice and condiments for his journey to the other world. They then abandon both hut and land and never return to it. They bury small children in jars called basinganis.
I was much interested in these people, and felt a great pity for them. All energy and determination seemed to have been crushed out of them by centuries of oppression from their predatory neighbours, and when at last the Spanish gun-boats delivered them from these periodical attacks, they were held in what was practically slavery by their half-caste or Chinese creditors. The respectability of a Tagbanua is measured by the weight of gongs he possesses, just as the importance of a Malay pirate-chief depends on the weight of bra.s.s-guns he owns.
The half-castes, or Chinese, will supply them with a bra.s.s-gong worth, say $5, for which they charge them thirty dollars to account. This must be paid in almaciga (gum-dammar) at $5 per picul. Consequently the poor savage has to supply six piculs of almaciga. Now this gum was worth $12 per picul in Singapore, and the freight was trifling. Consequently the savage pays the greedy half-caste, or avaricious Chinaman, $72 worth of gum (less expenses) for a $5 gong, and these rascally usurers take care that the savage never gets out of their debt as long as he lives, and makes his sons take over his debt when he dies. These terms are considered very moderate indeed; when I come to speak of Mindanao I shall quote some much more striking trade figures. Many of the traders there would think it very bad business to get only $72 for goods costing $5.
Instead, therefore, of being allowed to till their land, these people are hurried off to the most distant and least accessible forests to dig for almaciga. This gum is found in crevices in the earth amongst the roots of secular trees. I was a.s.sured that deposits had been found of 25 piculs in one place--more than a ton and a half, but such finds are rare, as the gum is now scarce. The savage has to hide or guard his treasure when found, and he or his family must transport it on their backs for twenty, thirty, or forty miles, as the case may be, making repeated journeys to deliver it to their creditor. I think this hard work, and want of good food, explains the emaciation I noticed amongst these people. Some few of them were not in debt. Near Inagahuan, I found a man named Amasa who had a small cane-field, and was at work squeezing the cane with a great lever-press, which reminded me of the wine-presses in Teneriffe. The lever was made of the trunk of a tree; the fulcrum was a growing tree, whilst the pressing block was a tree-stump hollowed at the top. The juice was boiled to a thick syrup, and found a ready sale in the neighbourhood. Amasa was the biggest and strongest man I saw amongst the Tagbanuas, and stood five feet nine inches high. He possessed a comfortable house and clothes, yet he accompanied me on one of my journeys as a porter, but the exposure at night was too much for him, and he had an attack of fever when he returned. Near Amasa lived a Christian woman named Ignacia, a widow. She had lived ten years in one place, and had an abundant supply of paddy stored in huge baskets in her house. She also had a plantation of cacao trees, many of them in full bearing. They were rather neglected, but had grown remarkably. I bought some of her produce for my own use.
I was surprised to find that the Tagbanuas could read and write; one day I observed a messenger hand to one of them a strip of bark with some figures scratched on it, which the latter proceeded to read, and on inquiring from the missionary, I learnt that they had an alphabet of sixteen or seventeen letters. I obtained a copy of this from the Padre Zapater, and it will be found on page 319. They do not use a pen, but scratch the letters with the point of a knife, or with a nail, or thorn.
The Tagbanuas are very fond of music and dancing. On the evening of my arrival at Yuahit, a collection of about a dozen huts with forty inhabitants, they gave an open-air performance in my honour. My party consisted of a boat"s-crew of eight Tagal sailors of the Navy, two servants, an interpreter, and two companions. The orchestra consisted of four bra.s.s gongs of varying sizes, and a tom-tom. Torches were stuck in the ground to illuminate the scene, and the whole of the inhabitants of the hamlet turned out and watched the proceedings with greatest interest. The dances were performed by men, women, and children, one at a time, and were perfectly modest and graceful. The women were dressed in shirts and bright-coloured patadions, and were adorned with silver rings, bra.s.s bangles, and armlets, some had strings of beads round their necks. The best dance was performed by a young woman, holding in each hand a piece of a branch of the bread-fruit tree, which they call Rima, with two of the large handsome leaves. These she waved about very gracefully in harmony with her movements. The spectators behaved very well, and were careful not to crowd round me. I rewarded the dancers with beads and handkerchiefs, and the musicians with cigars. This dancing seemed to me a very innocent amus.e.m.e.nt, but I was sorry to find that the missionary took a different view. He a.s.sociated the dances with heathen rites and forbade them, confiscating the dearly-bought gongs of his converts, as he said they were used to call up evil spirits. However, I observed that he had hung up the largest gong to serve as a church-bell, after having sprinkled it with holy water. I remembered having read how the Moravian missionaries in Greenland put a stop to the dancing which formerly enlivened the long dark winter of that desolate region, and I asked myself why the Christian missionary, whether teaching in the icy gloom of the Arctic circle, or in brilliant sunshine on a palm-fringed strand, must forbid his converts to indulge in such a healthful and harmless recreation, in both cases almost the sole possible amus.e.m.e.nt. I could see no reason why the heathen should have all the fun. The labours of the missionary were, however, very much to the benefit of the Tagbanuas, as inducing them to settle down, build houses, and raise crops for their support.
The Spanish gun-boats had stopped the inroads of Moros by sea, and detachments of native troops along the coast stopped the raiding by land. For twenty years the Tagbanuas had suffered little, and for several years absolutely nothing from the Moros, yet they apparently could not realise their security, and were afraid to acc.u.mulate anything lest it should be taken from them. To the ravages of the pirate, there has succeeded the extortion of the usurer, and John Chinaman waxes fat whilst the wretched Tagbanua starves.
Whilst travelling through the jungle I found some natives cutting canes, and my interpreter pointed out to me an emaciated couple, and a.s.sured me that during the famine of the previous season, these poor wretches had killed and eaten their own child to save their lives. What a state of things in a country where maize will grow up and give edible grain in forty-two days from the date of planting it! I trust that the change of government may result in some benefit to these poor people, and that a Governor or Protector of Aborigines may be appointed with absolute power who will check the abuses of the half-caste and Chinese usurers, and give the poor down-trodden Tagbanuas, at one time I firmly believe a comparatively civilised people, a chance to live and thrive.
Tandulanos.
The Tandulanos are physically similar to the Negritos, but less robust. They inhabit the sh.o.r.es of Palawan, being scattered along the western coast between the Bay of Malampaya and Caruray. They are more savage than the other races of the island, but they fulfil their engagements with rigorous exactness. They make rough canoes, and subsist princ.i.p.ally on fish and sh.e.l.l-fish, and they do no cultivation. They are very skilful in the use of the harpoon which they employ for fishing. If they can obtain iron, they use it for their harpoon-points, otherwise they point them with the spike from the tail of a skate.