and
discovered later that this is one of their customs, and is exercised
with all strangers from the outside. The very first thing they do is
to provide them with women, and these sell themselves for any gain,
however slight" The natives are described as covetous and selfish,
without neatness and not cleanly. "It has not been ascertained whether
they have any idols. They revere their ancestors as gods, [71] and
when they are ill or have any other necessity, they go to their graves
with great lamentation and commendation, to beg their ancestors for
health, protection, and aid; They make certain alms and invocations
here. And in the same manner they invoke and call upon the Devil, and
they declare that they cause him to appear in a hollow reed, and that
there he talks with their priestesses. Their priests are, as a general
rule, women, who thus make this invocation and talk with the Devil,
and then give the latter's answer to the people--telling them what
offerings of birds and other things they must make, according to the
request and wish of the Devil. They sacrifice usually a hog and offer
it to him, holding many other like superstitions in these invocations,
in order that the Devil may come and talk to them in the reed: When
any chief dies, they kill some of his slaves, a greater or less number
according to his quality and his wealth. They are all buried in coffins
made out of two boards, and they bury with them their finest clothes,
porcelain ware, and gold jewels. Some are buried in the ground, and
others of the chief men are placed in certain lofty houses." [72]
Legazpi ordered that in future no slaves be killed at the death
of their chiefs, an order which they promised to obey. The natives
desired to procure iron in their trading, but Legazpi ordered that none
be given them by anyone. However, the trade was continued secretly,
the iron being concealed in clothing, even after some of the men had
been punished. By various dealings with the natives Legazpi discovered
that they were deceiving him in regard to other natives of Cebu and
the island of Matan; they had said that these men would make peace
and friendship, but they never appeared. The inhabitants of Matan
had always been hostile to the Spaniards, "saying that they would
kill us, or at least would drive us away by hunger." One day Tupas
told the governor that "his wife and daughters would like to come
to see him, because they had a great desire to know him. He