MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE TAGBANUAS AND 
OTHER sTRIBES “OF .THE TSLANDVOE 
PALAWAN, PHILIPPINES 
By MANUEL HUGO VENTURELLO 
Member of the Council of Puerto Princesa 
TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL SPANISH MANUSCRIPT BY 
Mrs. Epw. Y. MILLER 
The island of Palawan (native and present name) or Paragua 
(Spanish) is the western and southwesternmost and one of the 
largest of the Philippine archipelago, extending northeast and south- 
west between lat. 8° 22’ N. and 11° 25’ N. and east and west between 
lon. 117° 9’ E. and 119° 43’ E. The island is 278 miles long and 
from 44 to 17 miles in width, with an area of 4,726 square miles, 
lacking 200 square miles of the area of the State of Connecticut. 
A system of mountains begins at Caluit with a summit 2,230 ft. 
high in the extreme north and follows the trend of the coast, reach- 
ing an elevation of 6,843 ft. at Mantalingahan peak in the south, 
and maintaining an average from 2,500 to 3,000 ft. throughout. 
The rivers of the island are fed by the mountains and turned by 
their respective slopes east and west, being only eight or ten miles 
in length. Though unimportant from a hydrographical point of 
view, they are of great value as a means of communication between. 
the two coasts. Should advantage not be taken of the river 
courses as a natural route of travel, a long and hazardous voyage 
would be necessary in frail boats in constant danger from heavy 
gales during the two monsoons. The fertile soil gives little evi- 
dence of the great riches of the island both agricultural and forestal, 
for its resources have not been developed. The slight amount of 
wood cut, notwithstanding the various concessions granted in this 
locality, and the annual harvests of rice are but slight indications 
of the undeveloped riches of the land. The harvests of rice, though 
of a most excellent quality, are scarcely sufficient to satisfy the most 
urgent necessities of the poor and miserable inhabitants, who in the 
majority of cases nourish themselves with various tubers found in 
the woods, or planted by the natives. 
