aries, in their rage for nominal conversion, appear to have neglected entirely the history or origin of their neophytes; and, as in America, where the monuments of ages were crumbled to the dust to plant the cross, all that related to the history of their converts was considered as unprofitable, if not as impious, the devil[1] being compendiously supposed to preside over their political as well as religious institutions in all cases. In this belief, and in its consequent effects, the modern missionaries, who are mostly Indian priests, are worthy successors of their Spanish predecessors.
The government have many missions established for the purpose of converting them, but with little success. Like most savages, their mode of life has to them charms superior to civilization, or rather to Christianity (for here the terms are not synonimous); and they rarely remain, should they even consent to be baptized, but on the first caprice, or exaction of tribute, which immediately takes place, and sometimes even precedes this ceremony, return again to their mountains.
Exposed to all inclemencies of the weather, and with an unwholesome and precarious diet, they perhaps rarely attain more than forty years of age. Their numbers are supposed rather to diminish than increase; and in a few years this race of men, with their language, will probably be extinct. It is indeed a curious subject of enquiry, whether the language of those of the eastern islands has any, and what resemblance to those of Africa, or the southern parts of New Holland and Van Dieman's Land?[2]
- ↑ See Herrera and Ant. de Solis, Hist. of Mexico.
- ↑ The negro of the east appears to have amalgamated with some other family. On the south coasts of Australasia, they resemble in many points the people just described. This continues to be the case as far as Cape Capricorn. To the northward of this, as far as Murray's Islands in Torres Straits, they are a stout, tall, athletic race of men,[3] and as hairy on the face and body as Europeans, with long hair, and without the negro cast of countenance. This race may be traced by intervals to Ternate, Gilolo, &c, where they are called Harraforas;[4] but none are found in the Phillippines (unless the Ylocos have some relationship to them). Is not the native of New Ireland and Queen Charlotte's Islands too of this race?[5]
The difference between them is most striking. The one are dwarfish negroes, the others almost black Europeans. Both are essentially different from the Malay family, and not only so, but from each other (the native of Amboyna, I think, forms the link between them) and this difference is apparently anatomical, in the shape of the skull, facial angles, &c.
We are as yet in the infancy of our knowledge of the origin of these various families of the human race: like that of languages, it will in all probability remain one more of conjecture than of fact; but it is still a subject of deep interest. I have heard from respectable authority, that the language of Cagayan, the most northern province but one of the island of Luzon, the men of which are tall, stout, olive-coloured, almost beardless, and proverbial for their mildness, peaceable behaviour, and fidelity, so much resembles that of the Sandwich islanders, that some of these at Manila found no difficulty in making the Cagayan servants understand them! The province of Ylocos is the next to this to the north, and forms the north coast of the island. The Ylocos are black, short-bearded men, and noted for their insubordination and dissipated character.
- ↑ The writer of this memoir has, on the coast of New Holland, between Cape Capricorn and Endeavour Straits, had occasion to know this fact. A party of these savages attacked the captain and supercargo of a vessel in which he was an officer, and they were repulsed only by firearms. The account of them given by the supercargo, and indeed by all the party attacked, uniformly agreed in describing them as the finest made and strongest looking men possible. Their bodies were also very hairy.
- ↑ The term "Haraforas" is applied to the Subanos of Mindanao by Captain Forrest; from his Voyage, pp. 266, 268, 271, 273, 278-282, we obtain the following interesting and first-hand information about that people:
"The vassals of the Sultan, and of others, who possess great estates, are called Kanakan. Those vassals are sometimes Mahometans, though mostly Haraforas ["who are also called Subanos, or Oran Manubo," p. 186]. The latter only may be sold with the lands, but cannot be sold off the lands. The Haraforas are more opprest than the former. The Mahometan vassals are bound to accompany their lords, on any sudden expedition; but the Haraforas being in a great measure excused from such attendance, pay yearly certain taxes, which are not expected from the Mahometan vassals. They pay a boiss, or land tax. A Harafora family pays ten battels of paly (rough rice) forty lb. each; three of rice, about sixty lb.; one fowl, one bunch of plantains, thirty roots, called clody, or St. Helena yam, and fifty heads of Indian corn. I give this as one instance of the utmost that is ever paid. Then they must sell fifty battels of paly, equal to two thousand pound weight, for one kangan. So at Dory, or New Guinea, one prong, value half a dollar, or one kangan, given to a Harafora, lays a perpetual tax on him. Those vassals at Magindano have what land theyplease; and the Mahometans on the sea coast, whether free or kanakan, live mostly by trading with the Haraforas, while their own gardens produce them betel nuts, coco nuts, and greens. They seldom grow any rice, and they discourage as far as they can, the Haraforas from going to Mindano, to sell the produce of their plantations. On the banks of the Pelangy and Tamantakka, the Mahometans grow much rice. The boiss is not always collected in fruits of the earth only. A tax-gatherer, who arrived at Coto Intang, when I was there, gave me the following list of what he had brought from some of Rajah Moodo's crown lands, being levied on perhaps five hundred families. 2870 battels of paly, of forty lb. each; 490 Spanish dollars; 160 kangans; 6 tayls of gold, equal to 30 l [sterling]; 160 Malons: a cloth made of the plantain tree, three yards long, and one broad. This last mentioned cloth is the usual wear of the country women, made in the form of a Bengal lungy, or Buggess [i.e., Bugis] cloth, being a wide sack without a bottom; and is often used as a currency in the market. The currency in most parts of the country, is the Chinese kangan, coarse cloth, thinly woven, nineteen inches broad, and six yards long; the value at Sooloo is ten dollars for a bundle of twenty-five sealed up; and at Magindano much the same; but at Magindano dollars are scarce. These bundles are called gandangs, rolled up in a cylindrical form. They have also, as a currency, kousongs, a kind of nankeen, dyed black; and kompow, a strong white Chinese linen, made of flax; of which more particularly hereafter. The kangans generally come from Sooloo; so they are got at second hand: for the Spaniards have long hindered Chinese junks, bound from Amoy to Magindano, to pass Samboangan. This is the cause of so little trade at Magindano, no vessels sailing from Indostan thither; and the little trade is confined to a few country Chinese, called Oran Sangly, and a few Soolooans who come hither to buy rice and paly, bringing with them Chinese articles: for the crop of rice at Sooloo can never be depended on. In the bazar, or market, the immediate currency is paly. Ten gantangs of about four pounds each, make a battel; and three battels (a cylindrical measure, thirteen inches and five-tenths high; the same in diameter) about one hundred and twenty pounds of paly, are commonly sold for a kangan. Talking of the value of things here, and at Sooloo, they say, such a house or prow, &c., is worth so many slaves; the old valuation being one slave for thirty kangans. They also specify in their bargains, whether is meant matto (eye) kangan, real kangan, or nominal kangan. The dealing in the nominal, or imaginary kangan, is an ideal barter. When one deals for the real kangans, they must be examined; and the gandangs, or bundles of twenty-five pieces, are not to be trusted, as the dealers will often forge a seal, having first packed up damaged kangans. In this the Chinese here, and at Sooloo, are very expert. The China cash at Magindano, named pousin, have holes as in China. I found them scarce; their price is from one hundred and sixty to one hundred and eighty for a kangan. At Sooloo is coined a cash of base copper, called petis, of which two hundred, down to one hundred and seventy, go for a kangan."
"On Sooloo are no Haraforas. The Haraforas on Magindano make a strong cloth, not of cotton, but of a kind of flax, very like what the Batta people wear on the coast of Sumatra." "One day near Tubuan, a Harafora brought down some paddy from the country: I wanted to purchase it; but the head man of the village, a Magindanoer, would not permit him to sell it me. I did not dispute the point; but found afterwards, the poor Harafora had sold about three hundred pounds of paly for a prong, or chopping knife." "They all seem to be slaves to the Magindano people: for these take what they please, fowls or anything in the house they like best; and if the owners seem angry, threaten to tie them up, and flog them." "The inhabitants of this country [of the Illanos] have generally their name from the lake [i.e., Lake Lanao] on which they reside. The inlanders dwell chiefly towards the East, where are said to be thirty thousand men, intermixed in many places with the Haraforas, who seem to be the primitives of the island. On the north coast of Magindano, the Spaniards have had great success, in converting to Christianity those Haraforas. Their agreeing in one essential point, the eating of hog's flesh, may, in a great measure, have paved the way."
"The Magindano people sell to the Haraforas iron chopping knives, called prongs, cloth, salt, &c., for their rice and other fruits of the earth. For the Haraforas dread going to sea, else they could carry the produce of their lands to a better market. They are much imposed on, and kept under by their Mahometan lords; and are all tributary to the Sultan, or to some Rajah Rajah (noblemen) under him. Their system proves thus the feudal." "The Haraforas are thinly scattered; and, being all tributary, many together seldom stay long at one place. This cannot be for want of water, pasture, or fertile ground; as with the Tartars on the continent of Asia. On this island, almost every spot is covered either with timber, brushwood, reeds, or grass; and streams are found every where in abundance. Nor can it be to avoid wild beasts; there are none on the island: a good cause why deer, wild horses and other wild cattle are found in so many parts of it. I suspect that the Haraforas are often so opprest that some have wisely got inland, beyond the tax-gatherer's ken."
Evidently Forrest and the writer of the Remarks had in mind two different peoples, to whom they applied the term Haraforas. Crawfurd explains this name (Dictionary Ind. Islands, p 10) as a corruption of Alforas; it is "not a native word at all, nor is it the generic name of any people whatsoever. It is a word of the Portuguese language, apparently derived from the Arabic article al, and the preposition fora, 'without.' The Indian Portuguese applied it to all people beyond their own authority, or who were not subdued by them, and consequently to the wild races of the interior. It would seem to be equivalent to the 'Indios bravos' of the Spaniards, as applied to the wild and unconquered tribes of America and the Philippines."—Eds.
- ↑ And that groupe to which Quiros, Mendana, or Torres gave the name of "Yslas de Gente Hermosa"? [Still thus named on modern charts; see Voyages of Quiros (Hakluyt Society's publications, London, 1904), pp, xxiv, 217, 424, 431.—Eds.]
