The Capital Is Named Mindanao, Like The Island, Being On The South-West
Side, Two Miles From The Sea, On The Bank Of A Small River, In Lat.
7 deg.
N. The houses are built on posts, fourteen to twenty feet high,
consisting only of one floor,
But divided in many rooms by partitions.
The house or palace of the sultan rests on 150 great posts, being much
higher than any of the others, and had great broad stairs leading up to
it from the ground. In the hall there were twenty pieces of iron cannon
upon field carriages, and the general and other great men have also some
cannon in their houses. The floors are generally well covered with mats,
and they have no chairs, but usually sit cross-legged. Their ordinary
food is rice, sago, and some small fish; but the better people use
buffaloe beef, and fowl, with a great deal of rice, every one using
their fingers, as they have no spoons. The inhabitants of the city of
Mindanao speak both the Mindanayan and Malay languages, and their
prayers are in Arabic, in which also they retain some Turkish words.
Some of the old people of both sexes can speak Spanish, as the Spaniards
had formerly several forts in the island, and had assuredly reduced the
whole if they had not been afraid of an attack from the Chinese at
Manilla, on which account they withdrew their troops from Mindanao, when
the father of the present sultan laid hold of the opportunity to gain
possession of their forts, and to expel them from the island. At present
they are most in fear of the Dutch, for which reason they have often
invited the English to make a settlement among them, believing them not
so ready to encroach as either of the other nations.
The chief trades in this city are goldsmiths, blacksmiths, carpenters,
and shipwrights, for they build good ships both for war and trade. Their
chief commodities for export are gold, bees-wax, and tobacco; the two
first being purchased from the mountaineers, and the last grows in all
parts of the island in great plenty. They exchange these commodities for
calicoes, muslins, and China silks. The Mindanao tobacco is reckoned as
good as that of Manilla, and yet ten or twelve pounds of it may be
bought for a rial, or the eighth part of a dollar. The natives are
generally afflicted with a dry itchy scurf all over their bodies, and by
scratching, the skin peels off in small white flakes, like the scales of
small fish, leaving broad white spots all over their bodies; but they
did not seem to make any great account of this disease, which is not
infectious. They are also troubled with small-pox; but their most common
diseases are fevers, agues, fluxes, and violent griping pains in their
bowels. They have many wives, but I could not learn their marriage
ceremonies.
They are governed by a sultan, who has no great revenue, yet is so
absolute that he even commands the private purse of every one at his
pleasure. The reigning sultan was between fifty and sixty years old, and
had twenty-nine concubines besides his wife or sultana. When he goes
abroad he is carried in a couch on the shoulders of four men, and is
attended by a guard of eight or ten men. His brother, named Rajah Laut,
a shrewd person of good conversation, is both chief minister and
general, and both speaks and writes Spanish very readily. In war they
use swords and lances, and every one, from the highest to the lowest,
constantly wears a criss or dagger, much like a bayonet. They never
fight any pitched battles, but construct small wooden forts defended by
guns, whence the adverse parties endeavour to surprise each other in
small parties, and never give or take quarter.
We came first to anchor on the N.E. side of the island, but learning
from the natives that the city of Mindanao was on the W. side, we again
set sail and anchored on the 4th July on the S.W. side of a very deep
bay in fifteen fathoms, the land within the bay on the E. side being
very high and woody, but watered by several rivers. On its W. side,
bordering on the sea, there were large plains covered with long grass,
on which were vast herds of deer, of which we killed as many as we
thought fit. We remained here till the 12th, when we again set sail, and
arrived on the 18th at the entrance of the river of Mindanao, in lat. 7 deg.
N. and long. 124 deg. 35' E. from Greenwich.[192] We here anchored in
fifteen fathoms on clean hard sand, two miles from the shore. Soon
afterwards Rajah Laut came on board, accompanied by one of the sultan's
sons, and asked in Spanish, Who we were? Being told we were English, he
asked if we came to settle among them, of which they had formerly some
promise, and were now in hopes of its being effected, to serve to
protect them against the Dutch, whom they greatly dreaded. Had we
properly considered the matter, it might have been much for our
advantage, Mindanao being conveniently situated between the Spice
islands and the Philippines, and besides the three islands of
Meangis,[193] only about twenty leagues from hence, abound with spice
and cloves. We were also well filled for such a settlement, having among
our company all manner of artificers, as carpenters, bricklayers,
shoemakers, tailors, and the like, as also abundance of tools, arms,
cannon, and sufficient ammunition to begin with; and, notwithstanding
the great distance from England, we might easily have had supplies from
thence, providing ships set out the latter end of August, proceeding
round Cape Horn, and so directly across the Pacific for Mindanao, or
else coasting along the western shore of America as far as was
necessary, and then stretching across to have the advantage of the
trade-wind.
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