SLAVERY IN THE PHILIPPINES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16486, 27 February 1914, Page 10

SLAVERY IN THE PHILIPPINES.

MOROS FIGHTING FOR MAINTENANCE OF ANCIENT PRACTICE. (By FRANK G. CARPENTER in the “Chicago Tribune.”) Thu' Government is again having troublo with our Mohammedans. The Moroe in places are up in arms against tho new laws, and are openly and secretly fighting the regulations as to slavery. There is no doubt that slavery exists not only m the Moro country, but also hero and there in other parts of the islands 1 do not mean peonage or debt bondage. That is common in ali tho farming localities. I mean actual slaver), sucli as existed when we tooK hold of the islands. . I travelled through Mindanao and tho Siilu archipelago when we were just beginning to pacify that part of the Philippines. 1 then found slaves everywhere, and once had a chance to buy fou; likely Mohammedan children for £lO. .... The owner was a Filipino woman who lived several hundred miles west of Zamboanga at Davao, under tho shadow oi Mount Apo. She had the little ones brought for me out into the sunlight, and I made a photograpli of them. There were three boys ami a girl, ranging in ages from nine 0 twelve years. The girl was tho oldest, and, as is common in tropical countries, at that age she was almost ready for marriage. As I looked at her her fat old mistress aaid: “MuCha busna,' - or very good. She told mo such a girl ought to be worth £5 of. any man s money, and seemed surprised that 1 did not jump at the bargain. GIRLS FOR SALE.

Dean Worcester says that be was offered slave girls on the island of law i Tawi lor fifteen bushels of rice, ami that on many of the islands he could buy girls, for 12s apiece. A captain of the army told me How ho had recently bought a slave girl for £2 and. given her her freedom. This sale was made out of pity. The captain, who was engaged to a prettv girl in the United States, sympathised with the female slave, who, although in love with a young man of her village, was about to be sold into the harem of an old Moro chieftain. ‘.The girl said she would rather die than Submit, and the captain bought he® and gave her to the man of her choice. Another man whom I know, an orncer of our army, saved a slave girl from death.' She had angered her master, who was one of the dattos, and had run off from the harem and tnrown herself at the foot of the officer, saying the datto had threatened to kill her.. The officer made the datto promise to spare her life, to agree to bring her onoe a week to his quarters to show that she was still living. This was done for several weeks, and then the girl disappeared. Whether the dntto killed her or sold her to one of his friends was never known. SULTAN FRAMES A NEW CODE. A faw years ago the Sultan of Sulu got up a new code of laws, which he sent to Manila for approval. Many of them related to slavery and to the treatmsnt of women in the harem. Our Government does not like to be mixed up in religious matters, and according to the treaties we allow the Moros to worship practically, as they please. By the Mohammedan religion every follower of the prophet has the right to four wives, and all he has to do if he wishes to change is to say to such of his wives as ho does not like: . . “I .divorce youl I divorce you! I divorce you!” This means that they must go and not return, and he can then fill up the quota with a fresh assortment. A .cording to this code the relations between the Moros and the slaves were plainly laid down. It was provided that if a slave laid his hand, upon a free married woman with an improper intention he should be the property of the woman’s husband, and. also that if a free man • laid his hand upon a married slave woman he should be fined lOOdol. If the slave woman informed as to the outrage the fine was to be divided between her and the State, but if it was detected by others the whole fine went to the State. Another clause in tile code provides as to the sale of slaves and others as to debt slavery. Among the latter regulations was one that if a man could not pay his debts his family should belong to the creditor until paid, but that this slavery could not last more than three years. A third law related to runaway slaves, and others to stolen slaves and .crimes committed by slaves. This code was vetoed by our Government, but it shows that the Moros still

regard slavery as a divine right, not- j withstanding their American rulers. ) DATTOS AND THEIR SLAVES. j I met many of the dattos during my 1 stny in the Philippines and I 6aw something of their wives and slaves. The women are not veiled, as in other Mo- • hammedan countries, and both wives 1 and slaves go about bare-faced. I was told that a dntto was considered rich according to the number of slaves he owned, and that children were stolen from other tribes to bo kept as slaves.

Somo of the dattos w®-® notorious for their cruelty in regard to their slaves. I mot an old villain named Utto, who gave unheard of punishments for minor offences. Slaves who ran away from him were often punished by cutting the tendons below tho knee., so that they could only walk with difficulty and could be easily caught if they tried again to escape. This man had a slave girl whom he disliked. He bound her over a place swarming with red ants and she was bitten to death. Utto had also stocks in which he left people to die. Ono of our officers found a Moro dead in the stocks. He was lying there, no ono having dared to remove the corpse. It is strange that slavery cannot be put down in the Philippines. The Spaniards attempted it 300 years ago and there have always been laws against it. Ono reason for the trouble with the Moros is that it is hard to distinguish between the wife and the slave. The Moros believe that they havo the right to as many wives as they can support,. and, as I have said, the Koran gives, them four. Frequently the chiefs have but one real wife and tlic rest are slaves whose’ children do not inherit rank or titles.