244 THE MANOBOS OF MINDANAO— GARVAN fMM,0 ^>?xxn£ 



villages in human society in a very well ordered civilization — and the other, an inferior people 

 leading a brutish life. It is reasonable to suppose that the people whom San Antonio refers to as 

 Man6bos are the ancestors of the present Bisayas of Veruela, Bunawan, and Talak6gon, who 

 have traditions as to the pagan condition of their ancestors. 



Concepcion 28 gives a detailed record of the Moro raids in Mindanao. "Butuan was laid 

 waste and some 200 captives seized; the little military post at Linao, up the river, alone escaped.' 

 The tradition of the fight between the Moros and the people of Linao still exists among the Bisayas 

 of the Agiisan Valley. A statue of the Virgin is still preserved in Veruela that is said to have 

 been struck by a ball from a Moro lantaka (small cannon). It is believed that this unseemly 

 accident aroused the anger of the Virgin herself, who promptly turned the tide of battle against 

 the Moros. The only tradition regarding this invasion that I found extant among the Man6bos 

 is the legend of the tailed men, and of their own flight. 



FROM 1875 TO 1910 



1800-1877 



For the nineteenth century we have few historical records of the Man6bos until the Jesuits 

 who had been expelled from the Philippines in 1768 and returned in 1859, resumed their work 

 in eastern Mindanao in 1875. The material concerning the Man6bos is contained in a series 

 of selected letters 29 from the missionaries in the field to their provincial and higher superiors. 

 Though containing little ethnological data of a detailed character, they afford in their ensemble, a 

 vivid picture of the work of the missionaries in reducing the pagan tribes of Mindanao to civiliza- 

 tion and outward Christianity. Dates of the formation of the various town and rancherias 30 

 are furnished ; with the names of the chiefs, friendly and in many cases unfriendly, the opposition 

 on the part of the mountain people to the adoption of Christianity, and the armed resistance on 

 their part to its implantation, as well as the interclan feuds, frequently with details as to the 

 number of slain and of captives, and the number of converts in each district are stated. In a 

 word, these letters form a most valuable and accurate account of the Christian subjugation of a 

 large portion of the pagan peoples of Mindanao. 



1877 



In the Agiisan Valley the first efforts of the missionaries were directed to the Bisayas or old 

 Christians, as they are called, of Butuan, Talakogon, Veruela, and Bunawan. Father Bove 31 

 in 1877 writes that he reunited many Bisayas of Hibung and Bunawan in Talakogon, which is 

 at present one of the few municipalities in the sub-Province of Butuan. He notes the extent of 

 the slave trade between Manobos and Bisayas, and that he made a preliminary trip to the upper 

 Agiisan and to the upper Salug. In the same year Peruga visited Bunawan and organized the 

 church among the Bisayas of Bunawan who had not been annexed to Talakogon. In the mean- 

 time Urios and others rounded up the stragglers of Butuan, Tolosa (now Kabarbaran), and Maiuit. 



1879 



In 1879 Urios reports the establishment of Las Nieves, Remedios, Esperanza, Guadalupe, 

 Maasam (now Santa Ines), and San Luis, all of which rancherias of conquistas 32 or Christianized 

 Man6bos are still in existence. 



In the same year Luengo, who was in charge of the Bisaya settlement of Talakogon, succeeded 

 in settling the Manobos to the south of Talakogon in the town of Martines. These Man6bos 

 were for the most part from the Rivers Pudlusan, Labnig, and Anilawan. He comments on the 

 ignorance of the Talak6gon Bisayas who came, he asserts, from the Rivers Sulibao and Hibung, 

 and from the district west of Mount Magdiuata. 



"Ibid., 48: 163. 



» These letters are called Cartas de los PP. de la Compafiia de Jesus de la mislon de Fllipinas, and were printed consecutively in Manila from 

 1876 to 1902 and probably later. 



"> A rancheria is a small dependent settlement of Christianized people. 



» Cartas de los PP. de la Compafiia de Jesus, 3. 



" Conquista is a Spanish word meaning conquest. It is of universal use in the Agusan Valley to denote a recently Christianized member of a 

 non-Christian tribe. 





