_. _Anarchy_ practically
prevails throughout the region. To take power and control away from
the Sultans and _Dattos_ until we can inaugurate and put in force a
better government would add to the confusion already existing." [251]

The instructions of the President of the United States to the
Philippine Commission, dated April 7, 1900, direct as follows,
viz.:--"In dealing with the uncivilized tribes of the Islands the
Commission shall adopt the same course followed by Congress in
permitting the tribes of our North American Indians to maintain
their tribal organizations and government, and under which many of
those tribes are now living in peace and contentment, surrounded by
a civilization to which they are unable or unwilling to conform."

From the American point of view, but not from the Moro way of looking
at things, an apparent state of anarchy prevailed everywhere; but the
Sultans and the _Dattos_ took very good care not to tolerate what,
in Europe, one would term anarchy, tending to subvert the local
rule. There is no written code of Moro justice. If a Moro stole a
buffalo from another, and the case were brought before the judge,
this functionary and the local chief would, by custom, expect to make
some profit for themselves out of the dispute. The thief would have
to pay a fine to the headman or go into slavery, but having no money
he would have to steal it to purchase his freedom. The buffalo being
the object of dispute would be confiscated, and to be even with the
defendant for the loss of the buffalo, the plantiff would lop off
the defendant's head if he were a man of means and could afford to
pay 105 pesos fine for his revenge.

The real difficulty was, and still is, that there is no Sultan,
or _Datto_, of very extended authority to lay hold of and subdue,
and whose defeat or surrender would entail the submission of a whole
district or tribe. The work of subjection has to be performed piecemeal
among the hundreds of _Dattos_, each of whom, by established custom,
can only act for himself and his own retainers, for every _Datto_ would
resent, at the risk of his life, any dictation from another. All this
is extremely irritating to the white commander, who would prefer to
bring matters to a definite crisis by one or more decisive contests,
impossible of realization, however, in Mindanao or Sulu Islands.

Such was the condition of affairs in the southern extremity of
the Archipelago when it was decided to app