BENEDICT, BAGOBO CEREMONIAL, MAGIC AND MYTH 251 



dated 1654; of Archivo general de India, 300 1683; by Murillo Ve- 

 larde, 391 1749; by Nicol, 392 1757, and that from the "Complete 

 East India pilot" 393 of 1794, indicate nothing in this region except 

 the situation of Mount Apo. It was not until 1847 — 1848 that the 

 conquest of Davao gulf was accomplished by the Spaniard Oyang- 

 uren, who by 1849 had the Moros of the entire coast of the gulf 

 subdued, and was turning his attention to the interior. 394 



Our first descriptions, from Spanish sources, of the religious 

 customs of the pagan tribes of the east and west sides of Davao 

 gulf appear in that invaluable series of letters published under the 

 title of "Cartas de los PP. de la Compahia de la Mision de Fili- 

 pinas," in 9 volumes, Manila, 1877 — 1891. We do not know the 

 precise date when the Jesuits began to work in the pueblos along 

 the gulf, but it was some time during the third quarter of the last 

 century. An undated letter from Padre Heras, Superior of the 

 Mission, that precedes a letter of 1876 in the first volume of the 

 Cartas, 395 mentions the little village of Davao as having a good 

 church and a school, and names several of the wild tribes, including 

 the Bagobo, which would come within the jurisdiction of the mission. 

 In 1877, Padre More and Padre Puntas were working in Davao 

 and were making visitations at neighboring Bagobo rancherias. 39 ° 

 Padre Mateo Gisbert was there as early as 1880 and remained until 

 his death in 1905, while Padre Juan Doyle came several years later 

 than (iisbert. 397 It is the letters of these four last-named missionaries, 

 therefore, that are of particular ethnological interest in relation to 

 the Bagobo and their neighbors. 



When found by the Spanish fathers, the Bagobo were practising 

 a religion, the essential elements of which had been well-developed 

 for a considerable period. The genealogy of one of the head datu, 

 Manip of Sibulan, had been carefully preserved by means of oral 

 recitation, and it ran back for eleven generations to his famous 



390 See ibid., vol. 54, p. 51. 1909. 



391 See ibid., vol. 48, frontispiece. 1907. 

 391 See ibid., vol. 48, p. 281. 1907. 



393 See ibid., vol. 41, frontispiece. 1907. 



394 Cf. Quirico More: "Letter ... Jan. 20, 1885." Blaie and Robertson: op. cit., 

 vol. 43, p. 194. 1906. Quotes Montero y Vidal : "Historia pirateria," vol. 1, pp. 382— 403. 



395 Cf. Cartas, vol. 1, pp. 18—19. 1877, 



396 Cf. Cartas, vol. 1, pp. 65, 81. 1877. Ibid., vol. 2, pp. 47—50. 1879. 



397 Cf. ibid., vol. 3, p. 104. 1880. 



