seed, or gather harvests;
but with their women and children wander, half naked, over the
mountains like beasts. They capture on foot the deer and the javali,
[60] and on the spot where they capture an animal they stop, and feed
upon it as long as it lasts. Their only natural property is the bow
and arrow. The Bissayas through natural compassion have not destroyed
these blacks, who are not hostile to them, although they have little
dealing with the Bissayas. While I was in Tigbauan, however, a petty
war occurred between them which is worth relating for what it shows
of such wars among these nations, and their triumphs and trophies. A
Bissayan chief, who lived in his solitary house among the mountains,
distant from the villages, had a friendship--or, for all I know,
a relationship--with a leading Negrillo, who was also headman among
his people. Under the cover of this friendship, the Negrillo took his
opportunity, as I shall relate, to do a treacherous act. He came one
day, as he had often done before, to pay a visit to his friend, who
received him as such and gave him food and drink--an act which should
soften the most bloodthirsty heart, even if he had been offended. But
the Negrillo, without heeding the obligation imposed by kind deeds
or by the good-will with which they had been conferred upon him,
seized his host unawares, and took his life, also slaying all the
other members of his family--men, women, and children. His crime,
however, did not go unpunished. A spirited young man, son of the
dead man--not daring alone to avenge himself upon the black, who had
been reenforced by others of his own color--assembled his kinsmen and
friends; besides these [so many joined him that] all the villages of
the island were depopulated, in order to fall upon the Negrillos--all
eager to enslave the women and children, this being a great source of
wealth among those people; they accomplished their purpose, killing
many men. This lasted until the matter became known to the royal
officials in that region, who pacified them. At the entrance of some
of the villages, I saw the trophies of this victory and some of the
slaves. The trophies were thus made: one of the large canes, already
described, very tall, was driven into the ground. At its point were
two, or three, or more pendent bannerets like streamers or pennants,
and on them the hair of the dead foes. These blacks have had very
little to do with the Spaniards, not so much through ha