86 
COMPENDIUM OF GEOGRAPHY AND TRAVEL 
chief are the Mindanao, or Bio Grande, on the western 
side, and the Agusan river, which debouches into Butuan 
Bay in the Surigao district. The lakes are scarcely less 
numerous, but many are pinags , and disappear in the 
dry season. So little is the interior known that the 
position of Lake Mindanao, a large sheet of water re¬ 
ported to exist near the centre of the island, has never 
been determined. M. Montano, whose bold journey from 
the Davao Gulf to Butuan Bay in 1880 added consider¬ 
ably to our knowledge of the country, crossed the Linao 
Lake in lat. 8° 12' N., and found it to be of small size, 
and Mainit is only a crater lake. In the Cottabato or 
Cota Batu district Lakes Liguasan and Buluan feed the 
Eio Grande, and are said to unite in the rainy season. 
The whole island, being within ten degrees of the 
equator, avoids the terrible typhoons which so frequently 
devastate the islands to the north, but is by no means 
stormless. From November to April a heavy sea and 
strong currents render the navigation of the east coast 
very dangerous, the more so as it is almost without 
harbours. The climate is more equable than that of 
Luzon, and the rainfall still heavier. 
The inhabitants of Mindanao are of three, if not 
more, distinct peoples. A line drawn from Iligan Bay 
on the north coast to Davao roughly divides the island 
into halves, the west of which is inhabited by the Moros 
or Mohammedan Malays, who have gradually extended 
eastward from Borneo, while the eastern half is occupied 
by savage tribes of sub-Malayan stock, who appear to be 
allied to the Bisayans. A Negrito race is found in the 
mountains to the north-east. There are also the Man- 
dayas, a people of doubtful origin, whose height and 
fairness of skin have led some writers to suggest that 
they are partly European ! Of all the Moros , the Illanuns 
