Native Justice System

When some natives had suits or disputes with others over matters of property and interest, or over personal injuries and wrongs received, they appointed old men of the same district, to try them, the parties being present.

If they had to present proofs, they brought their witnesses there, and the case was immediately judged according to what was found, according to the usages of their ancestors on like occasions; and that sentence was observed and executed without any further objection or delay. [313]

The natives’ laws throughout the islands were made in the same manner. They followed the traditions and customs of their ancestors, without anything being written.

Some provinces had different customs than others in some respects. However, they agreed in most, and in all the islands generally the same usages were followed. [314]

There are 3 conditions of persons among the natives of these islands, and into which their government is divided: the chiefs, of whom we have already treated; the timaguas, who are equivalent to plebeians; and slaves, those of both chiefs and timaguas.

The slaves were of several classes.

Some were for all kinds of work and slavery, like those which we ourselves hold. Such are called saguiguilires; [315] they served inside the house, as did likewise the children born of them.

There are others who live in their own houses with their families, outside the house of their lord; and come, at the season, to aid him in his sowings and harvests, among his rowers when he embarks, in the construction of his house when it is being built, and to serve in his house when there are guests of distinction.

These are bound to come to their lord’s house whenever he summons them, and to serve in these offices without any pay or stipend. These slaves are called namamahays, [316] and their children and descendants are slaves of the same class.

From these slaves—saguiguilirs and namamahays—are issue, some of whom are whole slaves, some of whom are half slaves, and still others one-fourth slaves. It happens thus: if either the father or the mother was free, and they had an only child, he was half free and half slave.

If they had more than one child, they were divided as follows: the first follows the condition of the father, free or slave; the second that of the mother.

If there were an odd number of children, the last was half free and half slave.

Those who descended from these, if children of a free mother or father, were only 1/4 slaves, because of being children of a free father or mother and of a half-slave.

These half slaves or one-fourth slaves, whether saguiguilirs or namamahays, served their masters during every other moon; and in this respect so is such condition slavery.

In the same way, it may happen in divisions between heirs that a slave will fall to several, and serves each one for the time that is due him.

When the slave is not wholly slave, but half or fourth, he has the right, because of that part that is free, to compel his master to emancipate him for a just price.

This price is appraised and regulated for persons according to the quality of their slavery, whether it be saguiguilir or namamahay, half slave or quarter slave. But, if he is wholly slave, the master cannot be compelled to ransom or emancipate him for any price.

The usual price of a sanguiguilir slave among the natives is, at most, generally ten taes of good gold, or eighty pesos; if he is namamahay, half of that sum. The others are in the same proportion, taking into consideration the person and his age.

No fixed beginning can be assigned as the origin of these kinds of slavery among these natives, because all the slaves are natives of the islands, and not strangers.

It is thought that they were made in their wars and quarrels. The most certain knowledge is that the most powerful made the others slaves, and seized them for slight cause or occasion, and many times for loans and usurious contracts which were current among them.

The interest, capital, and debt, increased so much with delay that the borrowers became slaves.

Consequently all these slaveries have violent and unjust beginnings; and most of the suits among the natives are over these, and they occupy the judges in the exterior court with them, and their confessors in that of conscience. [317]

These slaves comprise the greatest wealth and capital of the natives of these islands, for they are very useful to them and necessary for the cultivation of their property.

They are sold, traded, and exchanged among them, just as any other mercantile article, from one village to another, from one province to another, and likewise from one island to another.

Therefore, and to avoid so many suits as would occur if these slaveries were examined, and their origin and source ascertained, they are preserved and held as they were formerly.

The marriages of these natives, commonly and generally were, and are: Chiefs with women chiefs; timaguas with those of that rank; and slaves with those of their own class.

But sometimes these classes intermarry with one another. They considered one woman, whom they married, as the legitimate wife and the mistress of the house; and she was styled ynasaba. [318] Those whom they kept besides her they considered as friends.

The children of the first were regarded as legitimate and whole heirs of their parents; the children of the others were not so regarded, and were left something by assignment, but they did not inherit.

The dowry was furnished by the man, being given by his parents. The wife furnished nothing for the marriage, until she had inherited it from her parents.

The solemnity of the marriage consisted in nothing more than the agreement between the parents and relatives of the contracting parties, the payment of the dowry agreed upon to the father of the bride, [319] and the assembling at the wife’s parents’ house of all the relatives to eat and drink until they would fall down.

At night the man took the woman to his house and into his power, and there she remained. These marriages were annulled and dissolved for slight cause, with the examination and judgment of the relatives of both parties, and of the old men, who acted as mediators in the affairs.

At such a time the man took the dowry (which they call vigadicaya), [320] unless it happened that they separated through the husband’s fault; for then it was not returned to him, and the wife’s parents kept it.

The property that they had acquired together was divided into halves, and each one disposed of his own.

If one made any profits in which the other did not have a share or participate, he acquired it for himself alone.

The Indians were adopted one by another, in presence of the relatives.

The adopted person gave and delivered all his actual possessions to the one who adopted him. Thereupon he remained in his house and care, and had a right to inherit with the other children. [321]

Adulteries were not punishable corporally.

If the adulterer paid the aggrieved party the amount adjudged by the old men and agreed upon by them, then the injury was pardoned, and the husband was appeased and retained his honor.

He would still live with his wife and there would be no further talk about the matter.

In inheritances all the legitimate children inherited equally from their parents whatever property they had acquired.

If there were any movable or landed property which they had received from their parents, such went to the nearest relatives and the collateral side of that stock, if there were no legitimate children by an ynasaba.

This was the case either with or without a will. In the act of drawing a will, there was no further ceremony than to have written it or to have stated it orally before acquaintances.

If any chief was lord of a barangai, then in that case, the eldest son of an ynasaba succeeded him.

If he died, the second son succeeded. If there were no sons, then the daughters succeeded in the same order. If there were no legitimate successors, the succession went to the nearest relative belonging to the lineage and relationship of the chief who had been the last possessor of it.

If any native who had slave women made concubines of any of them, and such slave woman had children, those children were free, as was the slave. But if she had no children, she remained a slave. [322]

These children by a slave woman, and those borne by a married woman, were regarded as illegitimate, and did not succeed to the inheritance with the other children, neither were the parents obliged to leave them anything.

Even if they were the sons of chiefs, they did not succeed to the nobility or chieftainship of the parents, nor to their privileges, but they remained and were reckoned as plebeians and in the number and rank of the other timaguas.

The contracts and negotiations of these natives were generally illegal, each one paying attention to how he might better his own business and interest.

Loans with interest were very common and much practiced, and the interest incurred was excessive.

The debt doubled and increased all the time while payment was delayed, until it stripped the debtor of all his possessions, and he and his children, when all their property was gone, became slaves. [323]

Their customary method of trading was by bartering one thing for another, such as food, cloth, cattle, fowls, lands, houses, fields, slaves, fishing-grounds, and palm-trees (both nipa and wild). Sometimes a price intervened, which was paid in gold, as agreed upon, or in metal bells brought from China. These bells they regard as precious jewels; they resemble large pans and are very sonorous. [324]

They play upon these at their feasts, and carry them to the war in their boats instead of drums and other instruments.

There are often delays and terms for certain payments, and bondsmen who intervene and bind themselves, but always with very usurious and excessive profits and interests.

Crimes were punished by request of the aggrieved parties.

Especially were thefts punished with greater severity, the robbers being enslaved or sometimes put to death. [325]

The same was true of insulting words, especially when spoken to chiefs.

They had among themselves many expressions and words which they regarded as the highest insult, when said to men and women.

These were pardoned less willingly and with greater difficulty than was personal violence, such as wounding and assaulting. [326]