speaking of the wretched subjection in which the
Lutaos held them, and the good fortune that had come to them with
the entrance of our government, by restraining the Lutao tyranny,
and giving arms to persecuted liberty, spoke to me these words:
"If you [Spaniards] had not arrived when you did, there would now
not be any of us left; for we would already have been finished, and
bartered for goods with the people of Macasar." These words consoled
me, on account of the fidelity which the interest and recognized
advantages of that barbarian guaranteed. [68]

Such was the government maintained by Corralat. And since he made
all of them so powerful, giving them special power by laws, he was
very acceptable to the princes of his nation and therefore most
secure. These men, then, are the ones who grieve over the losses
sustained by the change, who see themselves put under holy laws and
just--they who before had no other laws than those of their own will,
and their unbridled ambition, laws from which the others suffered as
a servile, cowardly, and rude nation.

CHAPTER XVI

Some peculiarities of the customs of the Subanos

The customs of the Subanos or Indians of the mountains there is no
reason for relating; for with more hideous extremes they maintain the
evils of the Lutaos, while those peculiar to them are, as it were, the
brutal creatures among other citizens. But that even will add praises
to the changes that have resulted from the skill of the Omnipotent,
and to the zeal of the missionaries, by whose means virtue produced
the civilized and Christian conduct which now is theirs. Their dress
approaches that of the inhabitants of the beach with whom they have
communication. Accordingly, those who traffic with Lutaos or Moros
dress in their style; while those familiar with the Visayan nations
(such as the peoples of Caraga and the coast of Dapitan), through
commerce with them, follow their custom. All their government is
confusion, and they wage war, not some nations with others, nor one
village with another, but all are, as it were, enemies of the human
race. Armed against one another, without subordination or greater
subjection than what the might and act of violence of the boldest
obtained, they had no other laws in their causes that the might of
the one provoked to avenge himself; and his rigor, even in the worst
cases, was appeased by gifts. Thus when a Subano came to acquire a poor
capital that would en