72
M. DE GUIGNES’ OBSERVATIONS ON,
The inhabitants differ as well in their origin as their language.
The Tagales are the progeny of Moors and Malays j on the arrival of the Spaniardsthey occupied the coafts of Manila . The Bifayas , or Pintados (painted men), comefrom Macaffar, and are found on many of the iflands. Thefe two races are partlytributary, and apply themfelves to commerce, the arts, navigation, and agriculture.
The indigenous inhabitants, or Negrillos, in no refpect referable the Tagales orBifayas ; they are much like the blacks of Guinea , are of lower ftature, have haircurly and crifp, and go almoft entirely naked ; the women wear a piece of cloth roundthe body woven from the fibres of trees, and called tapifs. Thefe people, chiefly, livewild among the mountains, and are not tributary.
Some Chinefe yet remain at Manila , but the number of them is greatly diminilhedfince the year 1603.
The tribute paid by the Indians is fixed at ten reals for married couples, and five foreach male unmarried, from the age of eighteen to fixty; females unmarried, twenty-four years old and under fixty, pay a like film. The Indians who are tributary, andwho, according to the enumeration made through the different provinces, form thetwelfth part of the whole population, are reckoned to number three hundred thoufand.The King receives but the third of the contribution of the Indians, the remainder beingthe property of certain lords poffefling fiefs, or encomiendas, and thence denominatedencomiendadores. Proprietors moreover pay additionally two reals per head for themaintenance of the troops, and two more for the redlor of the parifh,
4
The fite of this ifland is between fix degrees thirty minutes and nine degrees forty-five minutes of northern latitude, and one hundred and twenty and one hundred andtwenty-five degrees eaft of Paris . From eaft to weft it meafures ninety leagues, and isupwards of fixty from north to fouth *; it has a number of bays and capes, the chiefof the latter Sant Aguftino, Suliago, and Sambooangue ; it is watered by confiderablerivers, among which are moft diftinguifhed the Buhayen, in the province of the famename ; the Betuan, in the fouth $ and the Sibuguey, in the province of Dapitan. Itmoreover contains two lakes; one of them of large dimenfions in the fouth-eaftgives its name of Mindanao to the whole ifland ; the other in the north-weft is calledMelanao.
The capital of Mindanao is fituate in feven degrees twenty minutes north, yet not-withftanding its proximity to the line the heat is moderate, as it is tempered by thefea and land breezes. The atmofphere, during the prevalence of the eaftern mon-foons, is pure and ferene ; but when the weftern monfoon blows,' tempefts prevailwith rain.
The foil is remarkably fertile, and produces in abundance rice, fago, tobacco, andwild cinnamon gathered in the provinces of Sambooangue, Dapetan, and Cagayan.In its rivers gold is found ; andTulphur about its volcanoes, of which in the ifland arefeveral. Off the coafts pearls are obtained, and a multitude of fifh. The interior isfull of mountains. The zoological inhabitants are horfes, hogs, buffaloes, goats, wild-boars, flags, rabbits, monkies, and abundance of fowls and pigeons; of reptiles andinfedls, vipers, fcorpions, fcolopendne or millipeds, a fpecies of venomous infeft, and
* According to the accompanying map, from eaft to weft it meafures two hundred and ninety-fiveEnglifh ftatute miles, one hundred and ninety-five at its greateft breadth in the eaft from north to fouth,and fixty in the weft ; its figure, allowing for indentations, would be that of an ifofceles triangle, but forits being truncated at the weftern extremity.-—T ranslator.
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