stic. The ignorant people of the
interior have always been oppressed by their supposedly more highly
civilized brethren living on or near the coast.

The killing of Otoy by the constabulary in 1911 marked
the passing of the last of a series of mountain chiefs who
had exercised a very powerful influence over the hill people
and had claimed for themselves supernatural powers.

Manila hemp is the principal product upon which these mountaineers
depend in bartering for cloth and other supplies. The cleaning of
hemp involves very severe exertion, and when it is cleaned it must
usually, in Samar, be carried to the seashore on the backs of the
men who raise it. Under the most favourable circumstances, it may be
transported thither in small _bancas_ [494] down the streams.

The lowland people of Samar and Leyte had long been holding up the
hill people when they brought in their hemp for sale in precisely the
way that Filipinos in other islands are accustomed to hold up members
of the non-Christian tribes. They played the part of middlemen,
purchasing the hemp of the ignorant hill people at low prices and
often reselling it, without giving it even a day's storage, at a very
much higher figure. This system was carried so far that conditions
became unbearable and finally resulted in so-called _pulajanism_
which began in the year 1904.

The term _pulajan_ is derived from a native word meaning "red" and
was given to the mountain people because in their attacks upon the
lowlanders they wore, as a distinguishing mark, red trousers or a
dash of red colour elsewhere about their sparse clothing. They raided
coast towns and did immense damage before they were finally brought
under control. It should be remembered that these conditions were
allowed to arise by a Filipino provincial governor, and by Filipino
municipal officials. It is altogether probable that a good American
governor would have prevented them, but as it was, neither their cause
nor their importance were understood at the outset. The _pulajan_
movement was directed primarily against Filipinos.

The first outbreak occurred on July 10, 1904, in the Gandara River
valley where a settlement of the lowlanders was burned and some of its
inhabitants were killed. Eventually disorder spread to many places on
the coast, and one scout garrison of a single company was surprised
and overwhelmed by superior numbers. Officers and men were massacred
and their rifles taken.

In point o