22 BULLETIN 137, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



system introduced by Americans and all that pertains to their oc- 

 cuf)ancy, the influence of the Spanish is almost everywhere ap- 

 parent. The Spanish were in possession of the most populous and 

 the richest territory for more than 300 years, and through their 

 efforts probably nine-tenths of the population was Christianized 

 and probably one-half of the population was educated to the extent 

 that in most respects the Christian Filipino equaled the native 

 Spaniard in accomplishments. Spanish influence constituted the 

 veneer of the Filipino civilization, while the older Indonesian and 

 Malay culture strata lay clearly indicated underneath several other 

 layers of culture accomplishments. 



In the southern islands of the Philippine Archipelago the Moham- 

 medans had but recently established themselves tv/o centuries before 

 the arrival of the Spanish. Christianity had never been able to 

 penetrate the Arabian Peninsula, and it required but the peculiar 

 fanatical genius of Mohammed to send the armies of Arab horse- 

 men, full of fanatical enthusiasm, to convert to their faith the vast 

 population of the East at the point of the sword. 



Animation of faith served to make of the Arabs the missionaries of 

 western civilization. They became not only the greatest fighters 

 of their time but the greatest sailors, geographers, and traders. 

 Arab missionaries reached Malaj^sia by way of India, where they 

 had settlements on the Malabar and the Coromandel coasts. The 

 Malays at the time of their conversion to Mohammedanism were an 

 insignificant people living on the island of Sumatra. Under the 

 influence of the teachings of Mohammedan missionaries and their 

 new faith they began as early as 1250 a conquest of their own which 

 has made the Malay the most powerful people of the East Indies. 

 These Mohammedanized Malays defeated the Dyaks, an Indonesian 

 tribe, of western Borneo, and established themselves on the west 

 coast of Borneo, from whence they carried on expeditions against 

 the more primitive Malay and Indonesian tribes in the Philippines 

 and elsewhere in the East Indies. At the time of the coming of the 

 Spanish to the Philippines it was estimated that the total native 

 population was one-half million inhabitants, not all of whom, how- 

 ever, were Mohammedanized. Outposts of the Mohammedan INIa- 

 lays were found established at Manila, in Luzon, and in the Visayan 

 Islands of Mindoro, Lubang, and others. 



The Mohammedan population of Mindanao and Jolo owes something cer- 

 tainly to this same Malay migration which founded the colony at Borneo. 

 But the Magindanao and Illanon Moro seem to be largely descendants of primi- 

 tive tribes, such as the Manobo and Tiruray, who were converted to Moham- 

 medanism by Malay and Arab proselyters. The traditions of the Magindanao 

 Moros ascribe their conversion to Kabunsuan, a native of Johore, the son of 

 an Arab father and Malay mother. He came to Magindanai with a band of 



