Magindanao or Mindanao, the most southerly island, is partly under Spain, and in part under feudatory chiefs, with Muhammadan subjects of Malay race, whose women at the age of 13 (pro bably on marriage) have their teeth filed thin, stripped of the enamel, and blackened. The Negrito sparselyoccupythe interior. Mindanao people were addicted to piracy, using prahus 96 feet in length, 26 in breadth, and 8A feet of hold, with 40 oars, 2 rudders, and a crew of 90 men. Some of their prahus are long and narrow, 50 feet long, and only 3 in breadth, but with outriggers to enable them to carry sail. They use the tripod mast, and sail With great speed.
In Mindoro Island, the Negrito occupy the 13engan, a mountainous district, living on friendly terms with the Manguianes, wild tribes of the brown race, by whom they are surrounded.
The principal tongues of Luton are the Tagala, the Pampanga, the Pangasinan, and the Iloco.
The islands produce gold, sulphur, amber, pearls, tortoise-shell, mother-of-pearl, sappan wood, and ebony ; and rice, cocoa, coffee, indigo, and pina fibre are grown.
Negros.—The woolly-haired tribes are more numerous in the Philippines than in any other group of the Indian Archipelago, with the excep tion of New Guinea. The Negrito population m 1842 was 25,000. The island on which they were first seen was named by Magellan ' Isla dos Negros,' to distinguish it from the adjacent island of Zebu, where his ships remained for some months. Negros still contains a large population of Papuans, while Zebu is altogether free from them, and no record exists of their having ever been found there. Samar and Leyte are similarly situated with Zebu, but Mindanao and Mindoro contain several tribes of Negritos, and they fOrm the chief population of the less accessible parts in the mountain ranges of Lueon, the largest island of the Philippine group. The accounts of the Negritos given by the early Spanish navi gators perfectly apply to their present condition. They are described as being smaller, more slightly built, and less dark in colour than the Negroes of Africa, and as having features less marked with the Negro characteristics, but as having woolly hair. The Indian races are in general superstitious, credulous, fond of gaming, and particularly addicted to cock-fighting. The Negrito are said to be the original inhabitants of the islands, who retired before the invading Indians. The extent of this Archipelago is 300 leagues from north to south, and 180 leagues from east to west. Its islands are traversed by a mountain range, and partially fertilized by the overflow of spacious lakes. This Archipelago received its name after Philip m r. of Spain, in whose name they were finally conquered, pacified, and peopled. The Negrito of the Philip pines are polytheists, but without temple or ritual. They believe in omens, invoke Camburan (God), ' the moon and stars, and adore the rainbow after a storm. They have also a worship of ancestors, a god of the harvest, of the fisherman and hunter, and a remnant of fetishism in a grotesque native devil. (loco is one of the languages spoken in the island of ',neon. In the Philippines are many separate nations or tribes, speaking distinct lan guages unintelligible to each other. The principal tongues of Luton are the Tagala, the Pampanga, the Pangasinan, and the Iloco, spoken at present by a population of 2,250,000 people, while the Bisaya has a wide currency among the southern islands of the group, Leyte, Zebu, Negros, and Panay, containing 1,200,000 people.
Negros or Buglas Island extends from lat. 9° 4' to lat. 50' N. Of the central group of the Philippines, consisting of Panay, Negros, Samar, Leyte, Masbate, Bohol, and Zebu, the two former are the only islands in which Negrito tribes exist to the present day, and even as regards Panay, the fact must be considered doubtful. Negros, however, contains a considerable Negrito popula tion, the crest of the mountain range, which extends throughout the length of the island, a distance of 120 miles, being almost exclusively occupied by scattered tribes.
The SULU ARCHIPELAGO is that chain of islands, about 60 in number, which stretches across from the N.E. point of Borneo to the island of Mindanao. Sulu Island, from which the Archipelago is named, is high and of con siderable extent, being 35 miles long and from 5 to 10 broad ; it lies in long.121° E., near the centre of the Archipelago. Sulu was called Felicia by the Spaniards. It was also called Banjar Kulan, Little 'Banjar, to distinguish it from Banjar Massing in Borneo ; and the word Sulu has been surmised to be from the Chinese Su and Lao, the island of the Laos. The ruling race are Malays. The occupants were Papuans, who have been driven to the mountains by subsequent races. A people called Orang Dampuwau, or by the Chinese Sonpotualan, held Sulu and all the sea-coasts for a short time. Chinese and Spaniards have several times taken and lost ground. A race is named who are called Orang Duson, and another as the Orang Sulok or Bisayan. The religion of the ruling race 'is Muhammadanism, but part of the Papuans are pagans and part Muhammadan, and there are remains of Buddhism and Hinduism. There are Christian freemen in the interior. The Bisayan language of Luconia is in general use, but many of the people speak Malay, others Chinese, and others Spanish. Marsden mentions the existence of dictionaries of the Bisayan, Tagala, and Pompanga tongues. In the middle of the 18th century the British sent to Silly Mr. A. Dalrymple and others on commercial missions, which led to no permanent results. The houses are, like those of the Malays, raised 4 or 5 feet from the ground, the ascent being by a ladder, which is pulled up at night. The Macassar men of Celebes determine many disputes by single combat, but never avenge themselves by personal assassination. On the contrary, the Sulu race have no idea of putting themselves on a footing with their antagonist, but always attack him in the dark, or off guard. It would scarcely be possible to scrape up a more infamous race than the Sulu. The only virtue they boast is courage, which. unaccompanied with principle. is at begt but negative, and in this instance doubtful. Iknesty, industry, or hospitality are unknown to the mass of them, at least in practice, but they arc distinguished by civil dissensions, treacherous assassinations, vain-boasting, theft, laziness, dirt, envy, and dissimulation, or rather unconnected falsehood.