The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803; explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commericial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the beginning of the nineteenth century; [Vol. 1, no. 44]

1700-1736]

JESUIT MISSIONS

But the father, warned by another Malanao, who
was less impious, escaped death. The traitor did not
desist from his purpose, and, when Father Abarca
was in one of those villages toward Layavan, attacked
the village; but he was discovered by the blacks of
the lake - but the circuit of the lake is probably somewhat exaggerated. It is said that those people have many mosques. Maraui
is on the Agus River, quite near the lake; these men say that
there are many horses there. As to the exactness of these data,
it is evident that we cannot be altogether certain; but it is certain
that each of our informants has confirmed the other's statements."
In the same volume of Cartas is a valuable appendix by Father
Pablo Pastells, in which he sets forth the importance of the plan
formed by General Valeriano Weyler (governor of the islands
during 1889-9i) for completing the subjugation of Mindanao to
the Spanish crown, and presents a brief historical sketch of the
Spanish conquests in that island, and an account of conditions
therein and of the natural resources of the country. He argues
that the forcible expulsion of all its Mahometan tribes would be
impossible, and that the proper way to hispanicize Mindanao must
be the slow one-but sure, if the results of the labors of Jesuit
missionaries among the Moros be considered - of education, the
introduction of civilized modes of life (especially by the cultivation
of the soil), a political organization like that already in vogue
among the Tagalogs and other christianized peoples, the influence
of the Christian religion in displacing their superstitious and false
beliefs, governmental protection to the peaceable natives, and the
promotion of migration of Filipinos from the northern islands to
Mindanao, thus gradually colonizing the latter with industrious,
civilized, and Christian inhabitants. Statistics are added to Father
Pastells's memorial, showing that the (Jesuit) missions of
Mindanao contain (in i892) a total Christian population of
I91,493 souls; this number he compares with the list given by
Murillo Velarde (1748; including all the missions of the Jesuits
in Filipinas), which foots up to 209,527 souls. At the end of the
Cartas is a map(dated March I9, I892) of the "second and fifth
districts" -i.e., those of Cagayan de Misamis and Cottabato - on
a scale of ten kilometers to an inch; it contains the latest geographic data up to 1892, and is especially full in the Lanao region
and the course of the Pulangi River or Rio Grande, the headwaters
of that great river almost interlocking with those of the Cagayan
and another large stream which empties into Macajalar Bay. The
map also shows the native tribes that occupy the region which it
depicts.