Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-04-17
Maintains an Army of Fifteen Thou
sand Fighting Men.
WARM FRIEND OF THE UNITED STATES
Visit Paid His Rancheria by Two
American Officers.
HOU SEHOLD OF FIFTY

W. H. Monroe of the 31st United States Vol
unteer Infantry, while he was at Cottaba-
| to, P. l., and experimenting one which re-
Gently appeared in The Star, he continues
| his description OF the Journey which he
| made in company with Major Mcmahon of
| the same regiment to the rancheria owned
| by Datto Piang. native of prominence. In
the course of his letter Captain Monroe
says:
Embracing on the launch, we proceeded
rapidly up the river toward Reina Regente
some thirty miles away. The Spaniards
formerly occupied the Rio Grande clear to
Katituan, 100 miles up the river They
had strong defensive works on both
branches of the delta and also on the up
per river. In addition they maintained
few small gunboats on the river. Upon
evacuating the island the Spaniards sunk
these in one of the lakes of the interior
AS soon as the strong places were aban-
dOned by the Spaniards the most powerful
dattos seized them. We passed many pros
porous Moro rancherias, where troops of
naked children and almost naked men and
women crowded every doorway to catch a
glimpse of our boat.
We passed immense reaches of marshy
ground and as We proceeded many signs
of wild animal life were detected along
shore. Occasionally wild hog was seen
making the roots fly with his long curved
tusks. but quickly disappeared at our ap-
proach. Monkeys by the score chartered
at us from the low-lying bushes and sand
splits A few alligators were seen, and one
especially large specimen arose right ahead
| of the launch, looked at us a moment in
surprise, and then disappeared with a swirl
| that made the water fairly boil.
Flying the Stars and Stripes.
The scenery was fine. Pictures of broad
| fields and green hillsides, wastes of wild
| land, peeps up side streams, islands of
4 A
foliage enchanted the vision. Now and
then strange boat would dart out from
behind some island, propelled perhaps by
a dozen stalwart Moros, a sight that in
the pirate days not so long ago would
have sent terror to the heart of the I'M
wary traveller. But this was a friendly
dattO with his followers, and the flag fly
ing above the boat was no less than the
stars and stripes.
In the rice fields were seen scarecrows,
| not unlike anchored kites. to brighten away
the birds. The birds are a great nuisance
| in the fields. but the monkeys have them
beaten on that score. These mischievous lit
tie animals descend upon the fields and
pull up the tufts of rice fast the
planter sets them out Rice is first sown
and then transplanted. and when the mon
keys take it into their cunning little heads
to raid rice field the result is something
disastrous. By the time reached Tum-
bao, at the vortex of the delta, we had
passed the rancherias of several powerful
cruel Guimbangan, who lives in a block
house at Libungan, at the mouth of the
''Estero de los Caimanes.'' or place of the
alligatorS. Here and there we passed
strange fish corrals in the river, and at one
of the rancherias we saw a homemade
sugar mill, with a carabao, or water buff
| falo, going round and round, grinding cane
At some points spurs of rich timber lands
! came down almost to the river
| Powerful Moro.
DattO Piang is at present the most now
erful Moro in all Mindanao. He is not a
| datto by inheritance. He is Chinese mes
| tiZo. He was once slave and belonged
| to Datto Tito. Today, however, he is every
| inch a datto by right of might. He hates
| shams and Idle display and usually appears
| unattended by any one except his inter-
| prefer. He is remarkably simple and child
| like for great chief. No doubt he has
been guilty of great crimes, but fancy he
| gets the credit for much eVildoing that
| he never heard Of Some of the neighbor-
| ing dattos are also mighty men among the
| MorOs. Datto Ali. brave fighter and
| chief, is a side partner of Piang. He is
not disposed to be friendly toward the
| Americans, and from time to time wild
! rumors are afloat concerning his move
ments. 1t is said that DattO Piang holds
him in check. He owns a splendid terri
tory up the river above Reina Regente.
| Datto Guimbangan is also doubtful fac
| tor but he is reputed 10 be a great cow
ard, in spite of the cruelty that has marked
his career. He is a monster in appear
| ance, with an enormous body, so fat that
| he can hardly walk
| Displays Generosity.
Datto Piang now commands upward of
1900 fighting men He takes excellent care
of his people feeds them we'll and encour-
ages them to work for themselves. Some
how one cannot help liking the old chap.
He Is humorous, keen and witty. He is
generous to a fault, and Is constantly MAX
ing handsome presents. He has always
been warm friend of the Americans After
he overthrow the Filipino government at
Cottabato he voluntarily raised the Ameri-
can flag and co-operated in every way with
the Americans to establish peace and tran
quillity in the province. An amusing Incl
dent happened about that time. 1t is said
that the general wished to show In some
fitting manner his appreciation of Piang S
services, and authorized the governor of
Cottabato to make Piang present of $1jO
in gold. Pfang gravely accepted the gift.
together with the letter of thanks, and went
away. Afterward, hearing that our troops
had not been paid for two months, and that
we were badly in need of money Datto
Piang went to the governor and offered to
| advance the government $1,000 with which
to pay the troops.
| Upon our arrival at Reina Regeute we
landed at the ''tiangui,' or market place
and We're warmly welcomed by Datto Pians
himself The little datto," his ten-year-old
son. was also there. So was handsome Datto
Enoc, and there was great crowd of peo-
pie curious to see the visitors We were con-
Quoted to the house, formerly the comman-
dancia of the Spaniards, inside the fort In
the outer courtyard were number of fine
old bronze cannon. One piece bore the date
of 1892 There were also curious specimens
or the Moro cannon. called 'lantacas -
made OF brass and varying in size from
small toy-like affairs to good-sized how
tier Some of them were double barreIed
Our visit was unexpected, and the datto
apologized for not firing a lantaca salute in
honor OF the governor, according to Moro
custom. The datto lives upstairs as does
everybody else in the tropics AS we pass
ed in at the doorway ] noticed several
stands of Remington and Mauser rifles q n
| parently In good condition. The room we
We're in was a sort of reception hall of ir-
| regular and rambling appearance. The roof
| timbers sprang sharply from the walls
| forming an acute angle at the ridge pole
| high above US. Splendid timbers, that look
| ed like mahogany. formed the framework
| OF the house, and rough slabs of precious
| wood nearly three feet in width were used
| for flooring.
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