These Mohammedan wards of America have had a glorious history. As is so often the case with a free, wild people, they have degenerated under the stultifying inhibitions of civilization, but they still remain a mighty, militant minority in the Philippines.

In the proud bearing of the Moros is reflected the confidence gained by centuries of warfare. With the Moro, courage is a fetish and when pitched to the heights of religious fanaticism by his Imams and Panditas, there exists no more dangerous fighter on the face of the globe.

The Moro loves the cold steel, and with his kris, barong and campilane he carved an empire in the Philippines which lasted for years. His capacity to carry lead in the heat of battle, stamps him as a truly great fighting man. In his military history are found many references to this almost unbelievable ability to remain on his feet, even when riddled with bullets.

The Moro was responsible for the change in regulations of the United States army, providing for the substitution of a .45 caliber pistol for the .38 caliber weapon formerly carried as a sidearm. Experience in action against the Moro proved that the .38 caliber bullet was incapable of stopping the fanatic in time to save the soldier who had fired the shot. There were many cases in the stirring era of kris versus Krag when American soldiers were cut down by barongs in the hands of literally dead Moros.

In 1893 the army decided in favor of a small bore side arm and an ordnance board called for revolvers of .38 caliber to be tested for service use. The Smith and Wesson Company entered a hammerless revolver and Colt offered a side-swing Model .38. The Colt was accepted by the government in 1894.

Smith and Wesson then developed a .38 Smith and Wesson Special which was also adopted by the United States government.

These two guns were sent to the Philippines and to Cuba. In Cuba they proved effective, but for Moro use they proved absolutely ineffectual. The War Department therefore recalled the .38 caliber weapons and resumed the Colt .45.

The Moros were never a potent force numerically in the Philippines. They are represented at present by some 500,000 people widely scattered throughout the southern islands, and they make a negligible part of the 12,000,000 inhabitants of the Philippines.

The governing of the Mohammedans of Mindanao and Sulu has presented many puzzling problems to the American administration. The customs of the Moros are in direct contradiction to all of the ideals of the American form of democratic government. Certain institutions of the Moros have been jealously guarded, notwithstanding the thirty years of American occupation of the Philippines.

Among these cherished customs of the Moros is the Oriental practice of polygamy. Datu Utto had sixty wives. The Sultan of Sulu has thirteen members in his harem, while the Sultan of Mindanao is content with but twelve wives.

The Mohammedans are permitted by the Koran to possess four official wives and any number of concubines. The size of the Moro harem is dictated by the income of the man. Marriages are not made for love in Sulu and Mindanao. To the Moros, a wife is a bearer of children and a servant.

Official wives are ordinarily secured by purchase from their parents, and the usual marriageable age for a girl is about fifteen. Husbands are allowed the privilege of beating unruly wives, but they must use a rod not thicker than the forefinger and not longer than the forearm.

Women are still bought and sold in Mindanao and Sulu, regardless of the protests of politicians to the contrary. The owners of female slaves have the right of cohabitation with them. The offspring are bom into slavery as the property of the man. who owns the woman, regardless of who the father may be.

This question of slavery was one of the most perplexing problems encountered by the American authorities. Slave prices ranged from $3 to $500, but the government fixed a treaty price of $20. We thus had the unique experience of establishing the price of slaves within the territorial limits of the United States.

The treaty signed with the Sultan provided:

"Every person held in bondage or ownership under grant of the Sultan, or by individual purchase, shall be .entitled to his liberty upon payment of $20 to the crown."

As the "crown" became our own government when the Sultan acknowledged sovereignty of the United States, strict interpretation of the treaty would have implied the payment by staves of $20 to the United States government as the price of their freedom.

Slave trading in the Philippines has not been stamped out of existence. The writer has seen instances of abject slavery within ninety miles of the city of Zamboanga as late as 1934, and in Cotobato Province has personally witnessed the placing of women on the block for sale to the highest bidder.

In the interior of Mindanao, the abduction of women while at work in the fields is sufficiently common to attract little attention, Moro Datus openly display choice acquisitions to their harems, recruited from among the hill people by means of force.

Slavery, concubinage and the purchase of wives are all prerogatives the Moros stand firmly upon, and the best efforts of the American government have been insufficient to prevent this relegation of women to a chattel state.

Women are not necessarily treated with cruelty; rather, they are looked down upon as inferiors. The religion of Islam delegates women to a position of minor importance. Notwithstanding this, there are many instances in the history of the Moros of women rising to positions of respect and power.

The Moro woman has one advantage over all of her Eastern sisters. She is not immured to the extent that other Mohammedan and Eastern women find themselves.

The Moro maid is confined closely to her father's house, under the watchful eye of the family. But after marriage, she acquires a great deal of freedom. The Moros do not veil their women nor do they cloister them after marriage.

When Dampier visited Mindanao in 1680, he related that "from the highest to the lowest, the women are allowed liberty to converse with strangers." Dampier added that upon the occasion of a visit to the house of a high native dignitary, he and his party were received by the women of the household and that the ladies danced for the entertainment of the party.

When Admiral Wilkes of the United States navy visited Sulu in 1838, he noted in his commentaries:

"The females of Sooloo are as capable of government as their husbands, and in many cases more so, as they associate with the slaves, from whom they obtain some knowledge of Christendom, and of the habits and customs of other nations, which they study and imitate in every way."

As a warrior, the Moro woman was no mean antagonist. There are many records of women warriors in action against the Spaniards and the Americans. One instance of this sort occurred in April, 1877, during the course of a Moro attack upon thie city of Jolo. Among the 104 dead Moros found at the door of a Spanish blockhouse, were the bodies of five women, who, armed with axes and hammers, had attempted to force the door of the fortification.

Senor Don Infante, a Spanish resident of the Philippines for more than thirty years, makes the following statement in regard to the Moro amazons:

"Joloano women prepare for combat in the same manner as their husbands and brothers and are more desperate and determined than the men. With her child suspended to her breast or slung across her back, the Moro woman enters the fight with the ferocity of a panther."

Under American rule, the Moro has been given a great of freedom. His tribal customs have been respected and there has been no interference with his religion. The winning of the confidence of the Mohammedans has been a difficult matter and it has been accomplished with great credit to the government of the United States.

Original publication © 1936 E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc.

Filipiniana Reprint Series © 1985 Cacho Hermanos, Inc.

This page (HTML format)© 2001 Bakbakan International. Transcription courtesy of Ashley Bass.