STORY OF VANDA SANDERIANA 73 



belin was lucky. A small trader who had debts to collect 

 among the Subanos offered his sampan, with its crew, on 

 reasonable terms, and proposed to go himself. He was the 

 son of a Chinaman from Singapore, by a native wife, and 

 spoke intelligible English. The crew also had mostly some 

 Chinese blood, and Roebelin gathered that they were partners 

 of Sam Choon, his dragoman, in a very small way. The 

 number of Celestials and half-breeds of that stock in Mind- 

 anao had already struck him, in comparison with Manila. 

 Presently he learned the reason. The energetic and tenacious 

 Chinaman is hated by all classes of Spaniards — by the clergy 

 because he will not be converted, by the merchants because 

 he intercepts their trade, by the military because he will not 

 endure unlimited oppression, and by the public at large 

 because he is hard-working, thrifty, and successful. He is 

 dangerous, too, when roused by ill-treatment beyond the 

 common, and his secret societies provide machinery for insur- 

 rection at a day's notice. But in Mindanao the Chinaman is 

 indispensable. White traders could not live without his 

 assistance. They do not love him the better, but they 

 protect him so far as they may from the priests and the 

 military. 



I have no adventures to tell on the journey upwards. It 

 lasted a good many days. Roebelin secured few plants, for 

 this part is inhabited by Bagabos, or some race of their 

 kidney, and Sam Choon would not land in the forest. 



At length they reached Lake Magindanao ; the day was 

 fine, and they pushed across. But presently small round 

 clouds began to mount over the blue hills. Thicker and 

 thicker they rose. A pleasant wind swelled the surface of 

 the lake, but those clouds far above moved continually faster. 

 Roebelin called attention to them. But the Chinaman is the 

 least weatherwise of mortals. Always intent on his own 

 business or pleasure — the constitution of mind which gives 



