422 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
fNov. 19, 1904. 
The Moros of J Mindanao. 
Away down in the very southernmost part of the 
Philippine archipelago lies the Island of Mindanao, 
smiling in the sunshine or scowling under the clouds 
which sweep over its mountains. • 
As one skirts along its shores the island seems al- 
most like a bit of stage setting, with its cool, green 
groves of cocoanut palms, its graceful bamboos, and 
its towering mountain peaks shimmering in the lazy dis- 
tance or raising abruptly from the ocean. 
The water is blue and covered with little whitecaps; 
flying fish skim from wave to wave; here and there a 
school of. mackerel breaks from the water, only to go 
plunging back again with a splash, or a porpoise rolls 
lazily along his way. The air is cool, and the sun 
bright and usually not too warm, for, although this fairy 
island is only little more than five degrees north of 
the equator, it is never uncomfortably hot, and that 
moist, sticky heat, so common to the tropics, is al- 
most unknown. 
As you loll back in your long bamboo chair, and 
MORO GIRLS. 
watch the shifting scene and drink in the spicy odors 
of the land breeze, while the steamer plows her way 
through the blue waters, life does indeed seem well 
worth the living; you watch the groves of trees gradu- 
ally grow larger and larger and then pass astern and 
speculate as to the inmates of the picturesque little 
houses nestled so snugly among them; or idly follow 
a vinta as it goes skimming along, its rag of a sail 
bellied out by the wind and its outrigger cutting off 
the tops of the waves and dashing the spray all over 
its occupants. 
Between you and the shore there will probably be 
thousands of gulls wheeling and circling, their white 
wings flashing in the sun, and lending to the picture 
just that touch of life necessary to complete it. 
It is indeed a charmingly peaceful scene you gaze 
upon, and as you turn with a sigh of content and call 
a passing steward to bring you something cool to 
drink, you can hardly realize, that beneath and beyond 
those mountains on the horizon, which glimmer and 
glisten so in the sun, there are people who have never 
heard of the United States, and whose whole idea of 
the universe is limited to the country side in which they 
dwell. People who do not know that there is any other 
place in the world besides Mindanao and the islands 
adjacent to it; and who believe that the reason that 
it* does not sink into the ocean, is because a big fish 
carries it on his back, and that the earthquakes, which 
so frequently visit the island, are caused by this fish 
wriggling to get away from something which is at- 
tacking it. People who worship all sorts of strange 
gods, devils and evil spirits; who make human sacri- 
fices to their deities; who wear little or no clothing, 
live in trees and subsist on fruits, nuts, and the game 
they can kill with their primitive bows and arrows, 
spears or snares. That in some places the old feudal 
system, like that which our forefathers lived under in 
England hundreds of years ago, flourishes. 
It is estimated that there are about twenty-five tribes 
Jiving on the island, and of them little or nothing is 
known of twenty, beyond the mere fact that they exist. 
Mindanao was occupied by the Spaniards for nearly 
four centuries, and only in the past year did a traveler, 
Mr. A. H. Savage Landor, discover a race of white 
people living there, of whose existence not the slight- 
est inkling had ever reached the ears of the Spaniards 
or of the civilized world. Once penetrate five miles 
beyond that silvery beach on which the little waves 
lap and play, and you will find yourself in a strange 
land — a land as uncivilized and savage, as wild and un- 
tamed, as any to be found in the whole world. Huge 
snakes will glide stealthily away at your approach; 
monkeys of a dozen different varieties, from the old 
gray ape three feet and a half tall, to the little, long- 
tailed fellows scarce six inches high, will chatter and 
scold at you as you pass - here a deer will jump from 
his bed almost under your feet and go crashing away 
through the dense jungle with its network of vines 
and creepers, and there a wild boar will grunt defiance 
at you from behind a bush. Bright-plumaged birds 
flit from tree to tree, parrots and toucans, pigeons and 
doves, and a hundred others. Gorgeous blossoms and 
dainty orchids make the air heavy with their perfume, 
and over all broods that warm silence, alive with a 
thousand voices of the various wild creatures so dear 
to the lover of the woods. 
It is indeed hard to believe as you glide along and 
gaze upon the peaceful^ beauty of the scene which un- 
folds itself before you that this gem of an island 
should so belie its looks, and that its crystal brooks, 
rolling and tumbling down to the sea, are full of the 
deadly emoeba, that germ which has killed more of our 
soldiers than all the bullets and knives 1 of Spaniard, 
insurgent and savage; that many of those beautiful 
trees are poisonous; that the forest is full of venomous 
snakes and reptiles; that a night spent in the jungle is 
almost sure to be followed by an attack of fever, and 
that each rock may conceal a lurking savage waiting 
to plunge his spear into you as you pass — but still, such 
is the case. 
The little town of Malabang lies on the shores of 
Illana Bay fifteen miles from Parang Parang, twenty-five 
from Cottabatto and 150 miles straight across the bay from 
Zamboanga, the capital and metropolis of the island. 
Directly back of Malabang, to the north, there rises 
from the surrounding hills a triple-headed mountain, 
known as the Genassi Peaks, and just behind these 
peaks lies Lake Lanao, the sacred lake of the Moros;. 
on a bluff overlooking which is Camp Vicars in the 
very heart of the Moro stronghold; and those living 
there are the first white men who have ever been in 
that country, although there is a legend to> the effect 
that about 1587 a force of Spaniards entered it and 
succeeded in maintaining themselves there for two years 
or more, but were finally all killed or captured by the 
natives, and nothing ever heard of them again. This 
legend seems to be borne out by the fact that there are 
found among the Moros of the lake, or Malanaos, as 
they are called, Spanish helmets, swords and shirts of 
chain mail, which the Moros say were brought into 
the country by this expedition, from which their an- 
cestors took them. 
Ten miles from the coast as the crow flies, and 
twenty-three miles from Malabang by trail, one might 
as well be in the heart of Africa for all the evidences 
of our twentieth century civilization he Would meet, 
and it was like living three or four hundred years ago 
to be with the people who call the country theirs. 
The Moros are Malays, and originally came to 
MOROS OF THE LAKE. 
Mindanao from Borneo. Arriving at Mindanao they 
settled along the coast at different points, and fol- 
lowing up the rivers gradually drifted inland. At the 
present time most of them live in the valley of the Rio 
Grande de Mindanao, the largest river on the island, 
which flows into the sea near Cottabatto; there are 
other communities of Moros near Zamboanga, on the 
south, and Iligan on the north coast, a large number 
of them are settled in the valley of Lake Lanao, and 
they are found scattered along the entire coast of the 
island and here and there through the mountains. The 
whole of the Sulu archipelago is also populated by 
them, although the Moros of that section differ slightly 
in language and customs from those of Mindanao. 
In religion the Moros are ostensibly Mohammedans, 
but that faith is really only a veneer, concealing ber 
neath it a mass of superstition and belief in all kinds 
of evil spirits. 
They are a very war-like people, constantly fighting 
among themselves, and forcing the native tribes in their 
vicinity to pay them tribute and were for years the 
terror of the entire Philippine group. They are armed, 
as a rule, with ancient guns of every conceivable size, 
make and date, from the old flint-lock bell-muzzled 
blunderbuss up, although not a few Remingtons are 
found among them, and now and then a Mauser or some 
other higher-power rifle. They invariably file or knock 
off the rear sight of a gun as soon as they get it 
into their possession, and frequently cover the front 
sight with a piece of cloth or nipa to protect the bar- 
rel from the weather. When thus armed they are little 
to be feared, except at close quarters. They also use 
knives of various kinds, and spears which they throw 
very skillfully, and sometimes carry shields. In their 
forts, they have many peculiar brass or bronze can- 
non, which they got from India after the mutiny, and 
which they call "lantakas." These cannon are of little 
account, except to make a noise, and while I have seen 
a number of them used in the various fights we had, I 
never heard of their doing any damage. 
The Mindanao Moros are not pure Malays, their 
blood being considerably mixed with that of the 
Chinese, Arabs and native tribes inhabiting the island, 
with whom they have intermarried. They are fairly 
good looking, generally short in stature, but beautifully 
formed, very muscular, and have small well-shaped 
ON THE TRAIL IN MORO LAND. 
hands and feet. Their hair, which is long, black and 
straight, is worn twisted into a knot on the top of the 
head arid is frequently covered by a gay-colored hand- 
kerchief, t.ied into a fantastically-shaped turban. 
Their vitality is simply wonderful, and they will re- 
cover readily frOrrl a wound which would kill one of 
us altnost instantly. I know of a case of a man who 
had fourteen frightful cuts, one of them through the 
brain, who lived for eight hours after having been 
wounded, notwithstanding the fact that during this 
time he had been carried over two miles slung to a 
pole as one would sling a deer to pack it out of the 
woods. 
They are, as a rule, cheerful, fond of all kinds of 
games, especially those of chance, wrestling, dancing 
and athletic sports, and have a keen and well-defined 
sense of humor and of the ridiculous. Unlike the 
Filipino, they are for the most part honest, and while! 
they went in and out of my tent at will for nearly a 
year, I never had the smallest article of any kind 
stolen by them. Personally they have a fanatic' sore 
of courage, that impels them at times to go bravdy to 
certain death, but they are utterly unable to face whh«J 
troops in an open fight, unless they are strongly in* 
trenched or in vastly superior numbers. I once saw 
one of them, absolutely alone and armed only with? 
his kris, charge two companies of American regulars- 
It afterward developed that he had taken an oath to* 
sell_ himself into slavery if the Americans were vie-' 
torious, and rather than keep it had decided to die, 
killing as many Americans as possible while 1 they were; 
killing him. This they called "going jura fflefltado," 
which is really nothing more than taking an oath be- 
fore a priest, to run amuck. There is quite a cere- 
mony connected with this act, the one taking the oStrJ 
clothing himself in white, fasting and praying for z. 
certain length of time, and dividing his property among 
his relatives and friends before starting out. This act, 
it is said, was in former years very common, but in 
recent times it has been stamped out, and while we 
were being constantly warned by our allies that this 
or that Moro had gone "jura mentado" and was coming 
into our camp to get killed, I personally never knew 
of but this and one other case. 
The Mindanao Moros, unlike those of Jolo or Sulu, 
have no one head, the country being divided among 
numerous Sultans, who have their Dattos under them, 
and who in turn have their followers, and so on. When 
a Sultan declares war on another tribe, he sends word, 
to his Dattos to join him, bringing with them their, 
men; this t-hey do if they feel like it, or the Sultan is 
strong enough to compel obedience. It not infre- 
quently happens that a Datto will become more power- 
ful than the Sultan to whom he owes allegiance, in 
which case he does pretty much as he pleases. 
The coast and river Moros, since their old favorite 
method^ qJ gajmn^ their Jiving by piracy has been pu{; 
