been necessary to
examine with close attention, whenever they bring any slave to sell,
the reason for his slavery; for it has been found that they sell
us many slaves without any other right than that of their tyranny,
relieving their necessities and making their payments with the first
person whom they meet--bringing him, beguiled by some other pretext,
to the Spaniards; and the injury was suffered without any complaint,
because of the incapacity and dullness of the poor Subanos. The
latter, as they are so unused to intercourse with us, and so shut up
in their own lives, had no arguments to oppose to what they did not
understand; and showed their wonder, surprise, and bashfulness in
brute silence. For that reason, where the Orangcayas govern (which
are almost all villages of the Subanos or Indians of the mountain),
there is scarce one who enjoys liberty. Those chiefs hold them so
under their power, that they regard the very leaders and chiefs of
the Subano nation as their slaves. That I experienced on a visit which
I made on a dangerous occasion, when in order to assure the minds of
the people I took with me a Lutao chief who was the absolute master
before the Spaniards entered, and to whom they still paid hereditary
respect along all the coast of Siocon. Being, then, with all the
people and chiefs of the nation assembled together in a village, and
I endeavoring to honor them with signs of the greatest affection,
the Lutao said: "Do not pay any attention to these people, Father,
for they are all my slaves." This he said in a place where we two and
the chiefs of the village were alone. I thought that that contempt
and arrogance would arouse them; but on the contrary, it softened
them, as the affection and presents of a loving prince would his
humble vassal. And, although they were not slaves, the respect
in which they were born gives the chiefs so much authority, that
although we [Spaniards] possess the rule, they, as chiefs, command
the people. And, as the latter were reared in that tyranny, their
natural disposition made them show respect and natural submission;
for, notwithstanding the immunity that our arms give them, they obey
those chiefs better than they do us. May that be tempered in part by
the Christian government, and the vigilance of our father ministers,
and the recourse which they find in the royal officials. For a chief
of those natives who was governor of the village of Baluasan, near
to Samboangan, when