757 
THE ISLAND OP MINDORO. 
pavement, all of stone, is covered with luxuriant vegetation, and 
even its walls give birth to trees whose trunks are about a foot in 
diameter. The extraordinary position in which this chapel has 
been erected, proves how rich and populous the Island of Mindoro 
must have been in former times. From the Bay of Hog (Ahra 
de Hog) in the north to Paluan in the west, between which several 
ruins exist, the coast is so precipitous and the neighbouring terrain 
so mountainous and inaccessible, that some of the rivulets which 
descend from the heights fall vertically in picturesque cascades to 
the very edge of jthe sea. Now, nothing living is to be seen there 
but swarms of bees, and, once a year, a few savages, or inhabitants 
of the Bay of Ilog, who come to rob them of their nests. Where 
can the people who formed the congregation of this church have 
come from ? Their existence in this position must have been the 
result of artificial circumstances, and their roads of communication 
with other inhabited places must have employed great intelligence 
and immense labour. 
The invasion of the pirates must have been exceedingly bloody 
and destructive. Individuals are yet in existence whom we have 
heard refer to the smallness of the number of those who escaped 
the general destruction, and who yet tremble as they relate the 
circumstances, describing their invaders as having fearful coun¬ 
tenances, thus transmitting to their children the panic terror which 
the numbers of the Moors excited in them. Those few who 
escaped congregated in the neighbourhood of a small savage tribe, 
which, without doubt, inhabited the central mountains from time 
immemorial, and whose district, lying in the northern part of the 
island, is designated among the natives by the name of “ Banguu. 
The descendants of these fugitives are the people who now con¬ 
stitute the interior population of Mindoro, independent of the 
Spanish authority, and who are distinguished by the generic name 
of “ ManguianesThey differ from the primitive tribe alluded 
to above In not speaking their idiom, which is unknown to us 
unless it be pure Tagala;—and after the first moments of panic 
were over they separated from them. Indeed the Manguianes 
relate a thousand fantastic tales about the customs of this mountain 
tribe, and have left them alone and isolated in their lurking places. 
But it must not bo supposed that the fugitives returned to the 
beach. In the districts of the south, some descended to the sea 
shore, either forced by hunger, or invited by the abundance of the 
fishery; but these were perceived by the Moors who from time to 
time visited the coast, and were carried away as captives 5 thus con¬ 
firming the others in the fears which induced them to take up their 
residence far from the coasts. 
Since the abovementioned catastrophe several towns have been 
formed upon the coast by Christian emigrants from other provinces, 
but these do not contain altogether 2,000 inhabitants paying tribute. 
These emigrants were for the most part vagrants, or well-known 
