6 THE SUBANU. 
and the military trocha was maintained in fairly good condition until 
the latter part of 1902, when regular troops were removed and the 
whole trocha left to the control of the Masibai Moros, under the leader- 
ship of Datu Maminton. The Moros took advantage of this absence 
of troops to resume their raids upon the Subanu and made it necessary 
to reestablish the garrison at Tukuran in January, 1903, and to cause 
the trocha to be patrolled from Tukuran to Misamis. 
When the regular troops were again withdrawn they were replaced 
by native troops, constabulary at first, succeeded in 1908 by Philippine 
scouts, which continue to garrison the trocha. 
When the Spanish military occupation of the Tukuran-Lintogud- 
Misamis trocha ceased, in 1899, by the withdrawal of the troops of 
Spain, in accordance with the terms of the treaty of Paris, the Masibai 
Moros fell again into control and resumed their depredations against 
the Subanu in the Zamboanga district and against the Filipinos and 
Subanu in the Misamis district. These raids involved the destruction 
of life and property and the carrying of many people into bondage. 
A Moro village was reopened at Tukuran on each side of the river; 
and the military buildings, together with a Moro kota (fort) on the 
west side of the river, were occupied by Moros until they were forced 
to abandon the situation by the appearance of American troops on 
October 15, 1900. ‘Telegraphic communication was then established 
with the north coast at Misamis in time to connect with the Manila 
cable on January 1, 1901. 
Father Pablo Pastell, writing of the native people of Mindanao, 
under date of April 20, 1887, says of the Subanu: 
The Subanuns are a tribe that has become degenerate because of the per- 
secutions which they have had to endure from the Moros, who collect large 
tributes from them. They are husbandmen, but the Moros gain the benefit of 
their sweat. ‘They are long-suffering and pacific, for they are not accustomed 
to the handling of arms. ‘They are also superstitious and ignorant. ‘Their 
docility would render their complete reduction very easy. They occupy 
almost all the peninsula of Sibuguey and are contiguous to the Moros of Lanao 
and of the bay of Ilana. ‘The latter make use of them, for they enslave them 
in order to make them work their fields. The military road from Tucuran to 
Maranding, on the way to Misamis, will destroy the dominion exercised by the 
Ilanos Moros and those of Lanao over the Subanos, for it will destroy the 
piracy and captivity, because of the impossibility of communication acrossthe 
trocha. At the same time it will facilitate the action of the missionaries in the 
reduction of the said heathens. 
As one of the primitive tribes of Mindanao, the Subanu quite 
naturally covered that portion (panhandle) of the great island lying 
west of the isthmus of Tukuran, this territory being of uniform topog- 
raphy, the interior capable of intercommunication by trails, the streams 
small and at frequent intervals, and the soil and timber well adapted 
to rude methods of cultivation. Father Combes says that he found 
a few Negritos (Aetas) in the Misamis strip, but Barrows, in his chart 
