(e) VILANES, BILANES.

(f) BALUD or TUMANAO--name sometimes applied by early writers to the
Bila-an who live on the Sarangani Islands.

This tribe is found in the mountains on the west side of Davao Gulf
beginning at an east and west line drawn through Bulatakay and extending
south to Sarangani Point, and they also appear in small numbers in the
Sarangani Islands which lie just south of the mainland. At Bulatakay
they are a day's march back from the coast and to reach them it is
necessary to pass for several hours through a rolling belt of forest
land, then as the mountains are approached, gently sloping cogon plains
about ten miles in width are crossed. West of Malalag they are still far
from the sea with a belt of hill Tagakaolo between them and the coast
people. In this region they have spread out in considerable numbers on
to the grass plains, and for this reason are locally known as Tagkogon
"dwellers in the cogon." On the gulf side of the divide, south of
Malalag, they are found in small groups far back in the mountains, while
between them and the sea are Tagakaolo, Kulaman and Moro. Along the
watershed between the districts of Davao and Cotabato they possess all
the territory and even extend in some numbers into the lowlands toward
Lake Buluan. They are distinctly a mountain people, having never reached
the sea, except near Sarangani Point, until after the advent of the
American. Since then a few hundred have been induced to move to the
coast plantations, and the town of Labau has been established on the
Padada river about six miles back of the coast. According to Mr. H. S.
Wilson, tribal ward headman for the Bila-an, this tribe numbers about
ten thousand persons, of which number fifteen hundred reside on the
Sarangani Islands.