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. 51]

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THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

[Vol. 5I

coast, whose people, particularly the Europeans,
have been treated by them in the kindest manner, and
carefully conducted to the nearest settlement.
them). Is not the native of New Ireland and Queen Charlotte's
Islands too of this race?:
worth so many slaves; the old valuation being one slave for
thirty kangans. They also specify in their bargains, whether is
meant matto (eye) kangan, real kangan, or nominal kangan.
The dealing in the nominal, or imaginary kangan, is an ideal
barter. When one deals for the real kangans, they must be
examined; and the gandangs, or bundles of twenty-five pieces,
are not to be trusted, as the dealers will often forge a seal,
having first packed up damaged kangans. In this the Chinese
here, and at Sooloo, are very expert. The China cash at Magindano, named pousin, have holes as in China. I found them
scarce; their price is from one hundred and sixty to one hundred and eighty for a kangan. At Sooloo is coined a cash of
base copper, called petis, of which two hundred, down to one
hundred and seventy, go for a kangan."
"On Sooloo are no Haraforas. The Haraforas on Magindano make a strong cloth, not of cotton, but of a kind of flax,
very like what the Batta people wear on the coast of Sumatra."
" One day near Tubuan, a Harafora brought down some paddy
from the country: I wanted to purchase it; but the head man
of the village, a Magindanoer, would not permit him to sell it
me. I did not dispute the point; but found afterwards, the
poor Harafora had sold about three hundred pounds of paly for
a prong, or chopping knife." " They all seem to be slaves to
the Magindano people: for these take what they please, fowls
or anything in the house they like best; and if the owners seem
angry, threaten to tie them up, and flog them." "The inhabitants of this country [of the Illanos] have generally their name
from the lake [i.e., Lake Lanao] on which they reside. The
inlanders dwell chiefly towards the East, where are said to be
thirty thousand men, intermixed in many places with the Haraforas, who seem to be the primitives of the island. On the
north coast of Magindano, the Spaniards have had great success, in converting to Christianity those Haraforas. Their
agreeing in one essential point, the eating of hog's flesh, may,
in a great measure, have paved the way."
"The Magindano people sell to the Haraforas iron chopping
knives, called prongs, cloth, salt, &c., for their rice and other
fruits of the earth. For the Haraforas dread going to sea,
else they could carry the produce of their lands to a better
market. They are much imposed on, and kept under by their