Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-05-05

| OF the Inhabitants of the islands.
Below Luzon and north OF Mindanao is
| collection of good-szed islands which may
| be called the middle zone This includes
| Panay. Negros, Cebu. Leyte. Samar. etc.
| These Islands are inhabited chiefly by Visa
! vans. who are much like the Tagals al
! though they a little more quiet and not
| so courageous. They are civilized having
! their plantations and rice fields, and, nomi-
nally al least, working for a living.
Below the NiSayan zone lies the third and
| last zone. which may be called the zone of
| the Mohanmedans. or Moros. This includes
the great Island Of Mndanao. the pearl
Island of Basiian and the hundreds of is
| lands of The Sulu group. which may be seen
| popping up out of the water on the map
| looking like a series of stepping stones. all
the way from Zanhoanga to Bornen. which
strange to say. is our neNt-fopr reighbor
out here in the southern Pacific
These zones. it must he remembered. are
not inhabited entirely by the abpve-men-
| toned races. Each island has its savages
OF various tribes, who live in the mountains
ana there are many divisions of the pre-
dominant race, the Tagals in some prov
hces speaking di1lect which could not be
understood in the Tagal provinces of a DIFF
ferent part of the same island There are
Iagals living among the Visayans and a
LarS" number Of Nisayans among the Moros
me Iagals and the Vfsayans are Chris
liailS. Inc Moros of whom there are also
many divisions are universally Mohamme-
| dams.
The Savages of Mindanno.
Leaving the Moros for the time I will
write first about the savages of Mindanao.
IEey are SO little known that the ethuolo-
sistS OF our Smithsonian Institution and
geological survey will have years of work
lr bringing forth to the world their neon,
Hdrlles OF life, customs and language The
most of them go about in breech ciofbs
Many of them live in the tons Of treas
and some make their homes in hol16w
!1sS, among them are the Negritos. or lit
ne Negros, similar to the little blacks found
III LuZon There are tribes of these scat
tered over Mndanao, one containing ahont
2,H", called Manuas living in the nenin
sula OF Surigao. These people use poisoned
arc W ana are extremely savage. They
are OF a low stat of Intelligence and it
Is extremely doubtful if they could ever
be civilized. e-
Not far from the Rio Grande river there
Is d race or saVases called the Torurayes
VINO live in the mountains Their howsas
are bulit on bamboo poles the first floor
being ABOUT twelve feet above the ground
Inc nina bitantS get into their houses b1,
craving up notched stick which they
pun up at night. The houses are made of
match and bamboo poles and are usuaIIy
very small In some cases they consist of
only a roof and floor, being without walls
OF any kind, sand having only posts at the
corners to support the roof These peopIe
go almost naked. A man who has lust re-
III n rs'a,. from trip among them says that
the men ne saw wore squares of cloth sus-
pended from string around their waists
and women wore skirts which were not
more than a foot long. The women had
brass rings on their ankles and wrists
ne men were armed with bows and ar
rows and spears. The weapons We're moi
soned, the poison coming from tree which
grows in the mountains.
Various Tribes.
The Mindayas are a strange people who
live in the eastern part of this island not
far from Matt. We have recently estab-
iished garrison at that point and we
shortly hope to get something concerning
1hem- Ihey have fair skins and look not
unlike Europeans.
In addition to these there are MANY other
tribes, some of whom. such as the Bagobos
Atlas, Guyangas and Tagacolos are notorf-
Gus for having human sacrifices. Many of
the Savages are head hunters and all are
supposed to be unfriendly to the whites
AS to this, however nothing certain can
De known until explorations can be made
Such of the soldiers as have gone into the
mountains have not been molested. and the
probability is that If the people are kindly
treated there will be little trouble with
them.
The problem of handling them and tba
M"ros is most serious one. especially the
Moros. This, SO far, has been most adj
nirably done by Gen. Bates but whether
the policy will hold good is vet To be seen
hnd the Moros most interesting pcorle
There are in the neighborhood Of TWO HIM
dIed thousand of them on this island They
nave villages everywhere along the coast
and about the lakes of the interior There
are large numbers of them about Fam
boanga, and L see them everywhere They
are semi-savaSes. but their civilization
history and character is such that l will
have to devote one or more special letters
to describing them. They have caused The
Spanfards trouble for centuries, and until
now have steadily resisted any union Of
ei.her religion or government with the
whites. nv
Royal PrincipaIity.
In this letter I should like to give some
idea Of the resources of Mindanao. for as
I have said consider it one of the most i'm
portant parts of our possessions. Ihave spoken
of the timber. The best of the hardWoods of
the archipelago to be found here, The
mountains are covered with trees. In travel
ing along the east and south coast Won see
wooded hills rising one above the other ex-
tending on and on until they lose them
selves in the clouds, which in this latitude
always hang low. The woods are manog-
any, rosewood, ebony and many other
varieties Here at Zamboanga the build
fngs occupied by our troops are floored with
mahogany. The soldiers stamp with their
heavy boots over boards which would make
piano tops, and l rode my horse TODAY
across the canal over a wooden bridge
which, with the proper machinery. might
have been turned into $50 dinner table
At the Headquarters yesterday 1 put my
feet on rosewood floor under the rnahog-
any table of Col. Petit, and this morning
took ride in a dugout fifty feet long,
gouged out of a log which. in the United
States, would have been turned into walk
ing sticks worth dollar apiece. Rosewood
is in fact the oak of Mindanao, and ma
hcgany Is as common as pine is in Wiscon-
sin.
The Spanfards Saved the Timber.
The question as to why the Spaniards did
not develop the timber resources of the
islands is often asked. The reason proba-
bly, is that they thought that they could
make more by taxing foreigners who at
tempted to do so. They put the taxes too
high, however. and in this way pre-
vented development. They had rigid
forestry laws. The lumber had to be
handled in a certain way. The logs
must be cut just so, and there were
SO many fees and restrictions that
every big lumber company which attempt
ed to operate failed. Today there are many
men looking into the lumber interests and
eventually saw mills will be established
There are a few mills here now, but most
of the saving and planning is done by hand.
Those who bring the mills should remem-
Der that the wood is very hard and that the
circular saws which we commonly use will
not cut 1t. The saws which are found to
work best are those which go up and down.
and band saws, or gang saws, would prob
ably work.