pparently the limit of his knowledge of
Spanish. I did not clearly understand more than the fact that the man
was a nuisance, and I regretted there was no door with which to shut
him out. The next morning we paid our respects to His Highness, who
furnished us with an escort--more as a compliment than a necessity--and
we reached Jolo Town again, after a very enjoyable ride through a
superb country.

The Sultan's subjects are spread so far from the centre of
government--Maybun--that in some places their allegiance is but
nominal. Many of them residing near the Spanish settlements are quick
at learning Castilian sufficiently well to be understood, but the
Spaniards tried in vain to subject them to a European order of things.

About 20 miles up the coast, going north from Zamboanga, the Jesuits
sent a missionary in 1885 to convert the _Subuanos_. He endeavoured
to persuade the people to form a village. They cleared a way through
the forest from the beach, and at the end of this opening, about
three-quarters of a mile long, I found a church half built of wood,
bamboo, and palm-leaves. I had ridden to the place on horseback along
the beach, and my food and baggage followed in a canoe. The opening
was so roughly cleared that I thought it better to dismount when
I got half way. As the church was only in course of construction,
and not consecrated, I took up my quarters there. I was followed
by a _Subuano_, who was curious to know the object of my visit. I
told him I wished to see the headman, so this personage arrived
with one of his wives and a young girl. They sat on the floor with
me, and as the cacique could make himself understood in Spanish,
we chatted about the affairs of the town _in posse_. The visiting
priest had gone to the useless trouble of baptizing a few of these
people. They appeared to be as much Christian as I was Mahometan. The
cacique had more than one wife--the word of the _Pandita_ of the
settlement was the local law, and the _Pandita_ himself of course had
his seraglio. I got the first man, who had followed me, to direct me
to the _Pandita's_ house. My guide was gaily attired in bright red
tight acrobat breeches, with buttons up the side, and a jacket like
a waistcoat, with sleeves so close-fitting that I suppose he seldom
took the trouble to undress himself. I left the cacique, promising to
visit his bungalow that day, and then my guide led me through winding
paths, in a wood, to the hut of the _Pa