[103] Published in the Mindanao Herald.

When the first white men visited the tribe they found that the
neighboring Moro were making frequent raids on their villages and were
carrying away women and children whom they sold to the Bagobo and other
tribes of the Gulf.[104] At the same time it was learned that they, in
turn, were slave holders and were eager to purchase captives from the
Mohammedan raiders. The great distances traveled by the Moro in their
raids make it possible that slaves from distant islands may thus have
been introduced into the tribe. Later we shall see that it was difficult
for a slave or a descendant of a slave to become a freeman, yet it was
by no means impossible, and it is likely that a considerable part of the
tribe are descendants of people brought to the district through purchase
and capture. Another possible source of outside blood is suggested by
well verified stories of castaways on the east coast of Mindanao and
adjacent islands.[105] While working with the Mandaya in the region of
Mayo bay the writer was frequently told that three times, in the memory
of the present inhabitants, strange boats filled with strange people had
been driven to their coasts by storms. The informants insisted that
these newcomers were not put to death but that such of them as survived
were taken into the tribe. These stories are given strong substantiation
by the fact that only a few months prior to my visit a boat load of
people from the Carolines was driven to the shores of Mayo bay and that
their boat, as well as one survivor, was then at the village of Mali.
(Plate LXXII). I am indebted to Mr. Henry Hubbel for the following
explicit account of these castaways: "One native banca of castaways
arrived at Lucatan, N. E. corner of Mayo Bay, Mindanao, on January 2nd,
1909. The banca left the Island of Uluthi for the Island of Yap, two
days' journey, on December 10th, 1908. They were blown out of their
course and never sighted land until January 2nd, twenty-two days after