The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-07-14


OF fathers entail the slavery of the
children, who agree to work for their
creditors until the debt is paid.
Dean Worcester, one of the commits
sioners sent by the president to ex-
anime into the Philippines, quotes the
prices of Moro slaves in the island of
Tawi Tawi at fifteen bushels of rice.
and states that he was offered a girl
of 10 for So. My Investigations are. that
these prices are too low. Some of the
slaves l see here are estimated as high
as $40 in gold and $40 is thought to be
very little for grown up woman.
A GALLANT DEED.
Captain Hagadorn told me that he
bought slave girl for twenty Mexican
dollars and gave her her freedom 1t
was case of sentiment on the part of
the captain. 1t is said that "all the
world loves lover" and this is espe-
cially so when the lover is of the fem
mime gender. This slave girl was in
love with young man of the village,
but the man was poor and as her mas
ter was needing money he was about
to sell the girl to a hated rival, an
old Moro, and the girl said she would
rather die than serve him. Captain
Hagadorn's heart was touched. He
bought her and made her free. and she
has since married the lover of her
choice.
DIED FOR LOVE.
The idea that love does not exist
among the slaves of the Moros Is
mistake Cupid does not restrict his
darts to any race, color or condition of
servitude, and even the sultan of Sulu
| is powerless to restrain him. The sui
tan has, you know, the right of life and
death over all his subjects. They are
really his slaves. He commands them
and they obey. He has the right to
seize any of the women, and he has a
goodly number of slave girls in his
harem. Not long ago a female slave
connected with his household fell in
| love with one of the warriors. She
was neither wife nor concubine, but
merely a servant of the harem, and the
warrior asked his majesty that she be
given him as a wife. The sultan re-
fused, and the two ran away and got
married. They were captured and
brought back and the sultan then said
that the man must die. The girl there
upon threw herself at the feet of the
sultan and begged that she be allowed
to die with her lover. The sultan con-
sented and the same campilan sliced
off the two heads.
LAWS REGULATING SLAVERY.
According to our treaty, as 1 UNDER
stand it, any slave in the islands ruled
by the sultan of Sulu can be freed up
on payment of $50 by him to his master.
l doubt if this covers the island of
Mindanao, which is now a part of our
country, and, therefore, subject to the
thirteenth amendment of the consti-
tuition, which provides that slavery
shall not exist in any place subject to
the Jurisdiction of the United States.
At present the Spanish laws are in
force, and they will continue SO until
congress adopts others. 1t was more
than 300 years ago that Spain decreed
that slavery should be abolished In the
Philippines. King Philip ii then made
a decree that all slaves over 20 years OF
age were to be freed after five years
more service and that child slaves
were to be freed upon becoming of age
Notwithstanding this, the Spaniards
held slaves themselves, and about ion
and odd years ago some of them hac
as many as 300 apiece.
According to our present policy, We
: cannot restrain the Moros as to theil
, treatment of their slaves. The juris
diction of our officers extends only t.
cases of dispute and trouble betwee1
: Moros and Christians, and the datto
|. and the sultans are to settle all cases
between the Moros themselves.
. Take, for instance, case which re
Gently came up before Captain Dapray
: then in command at the island of Bon
gao. A very pretty girl rushed int
his quarters one day, threw herself a
his feet and begged him to protect he
from death. She was an escaped siaV
> of the Datto Tantong, one OF the tw
most powerful dattos of that region
u She had angered the datto, and, fear
u ing he would kill her. had run away
In short time the datto appeared an
demanded she be given to him, and, &C
. cording to the law, Captain Dapra
= had to consent, although he made tn
q datto promise her life would be spare
: If he did so. He made the datto agre
- to bring the girl once a week to nj
quarters to show him that she was sti
= alive After the second visit the DAFT
!. offered the girl to Captain Dapray a
u q present. The captain might have &C
cepted the gift and freed the girl, bu
;. he realized that this would not be &C
n ceptable to the datto and refused. Sh
y was taken back to the datto establish
n ment where she was evidently MAJ
o treated, for she ran away a secon
l. time. She was again captured an
e shortly after this disappeared, the dat
@ to saying he had exiled her. Whethe
e he killed her or merely sent her ava
l. is not known.
i SLAVES NOT BADLY TREATED.
l. AS a rule, however, the slaves ar
n well treated. They are not slaves c
the Uncle Toms Cabin" kind, wit
% taskmasters over them whipping ther
r. to work. There is no such thing a
n tracking men with bloodhounds an
q very little forced labor. They are NOR
If like the feudal servants of the middl
a ages than like our former slaves. Th
slave child is brought up much tn
same as the son of the family. tn
slaves eat with their masters, and
e most cases they do not work w1thor
% their masters work with them. 1t
"a considered disgraceful for man to Sc
y a slave whom he has raised in the fan
. L.. a., ri