The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-09-17
The White Race Of Mindanao.

The alleged, discovery of 1.-The White
Race of Mindanao" by an army officer
has attracted the interest of .ethnolo-
gists although the tales are not only
doubted but in fact denied. In any event
: the difficulty of getting over the mount.
aims into. their country, if they have a
country. and their alleged hostility to
communica ton with the outside world,
will make accurate knowledge of the race
difficult to obtain. Natives who live on
the coast and in the river valley have but
scanty traditions of a white race in the
interior and evidently fear them greatly,
so much so that It is not unlikely that the
whites have worked on the superstitions
Of the ssbrnwrlsInen to keep them on their
ETown side of the mountains. -
naLieutsz acupinz of the Eighth infantry,
who has been interested, in botany and
mountain climbing, tells a strange story
Of how he managed to get through the
line of sentries which the White Race
keeps stationed perpetually> on the crest
of the range, to warn away all intruders.
He says that as he was descending into
a. fertile. and beautiful valley on the south
side of the range, he heard strange and
perturted* voices in the air and "a few
moments later was seized by a band OF
small sized, but muscular white men clad
in, a strange garb analogous to that worn:
by the Romans at the opening of the
Christian, era. Lieut.. 2Macupin made no
attempt. at defense as he saw at once
that it was useless. His captors APP
peared Immensely astonished at the color
of his4skin andsadiscussed it long and
earnestly afnong.eA themselves: ...,, There
seeTned9to be mo very young men among:
them and in fact all of them bore the
signs Of great age in well preserved
bodies. Lieut.. Macupin says that he
could not resist the conviction that he
was in the presence of men who had dis
covered the secret Of eternal youth and
had been living for hundreds of years
upon the earth. .
1.-THE little men seemed anxious to ask
the lieutenant questions about hlmself
and about his nationality. They pointed
frequently to his face and then to theirs
and used a word that sounded like alb.
This the lieutenant took to mean white y
They kept him with them for several
weeks and he learned enough of their
language'eto tell. them something of mis-
history and that Of the White Race Be
Npn1d sttl1e@fG Great Waters as they spoke
of the Americans. ''' y:
had a, belief that they had solved the
mooted question. What is truth?'' and that
their: answer to it was what had given
them an eternal youth, though they fought
shy Of answering many questions on this
point. In fact their philosophy was SO
ridiculous that the OFFICER dlQ not pursue
it very far. - Truth they said, was that
which was so, in contradistinction to that
which was not so. That is, it was, they
explained reality" And as reality is
of. course interchangeable, that is, because
that which; was so could not become that
which was not so; this knowledge in some
way they could not or did not explain:
gave them the, power of an Interchangeable
life. At any rate the lieutenant said they
looked the part. ,'- il
When tt1ey*yescorted him over the
mountains they warned him not to come
back on pain Of serious trouble both to
himself and to his companions in arms:
TIE difficulty Of the way rather than the
threat however, prevented further att
tempt at scaling the mountains. 4
Lieutenant Macupin's report to his
superior officer, which was forwarded to
Washington. has been issued as Docu-
ment No is by the Bureau of Ethnology
and is regarded with mild curiosity by
savants.1 .s. t
A board of review was appointed at
Manila later to pass on the question Of
Lieutenant Macupin's sanity, but they
reported him compos mentis. -
When the Moros are beaten it is pos
sible that some exploration of the interior
will. be attempted to put to rest foolish
stories of unknown races. -