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 MIS>SIO> TO THE 
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CONGREGATIONALISTS and the PHILIPPINES 
 
 I N spite of differences of opinion at 
 home as to the Philippines and 
 their relations to us, it is beyond 
 doubt true that the men who know the 
 situation best would agree that the 
 floating of our flag there was ordered 
 of God, was one of his acts in the prog- 
 ress of his plan. 
 
 The presence of the Stars and Stripes 
 there sounded the death knell to igno- 
 rance and superstition, and ushered 
 in the dawn of education and liberty. 
 It did not mean the holding in slavery 
 a weak and subject people. The inhab- 
 itants of the Philippines under the 
 American flag have had greater possi- 
 bilities for advancement along every 
 line than any subject people under any 
 great nation in thehistory of the world. 
 The flag has meant peace, prosperity, 
 protection, and liberty. It will float 
 there till its mission is fully accom- 
 plished and His plan carried out. 
 
 The Protestant Church of America 
 early saw its opportunities, privileges, 
 and duty to the islands, and promptly 
 undertook to put into the hands of the 
 people the open Bible, the groundwork 
 
 and foundation of truth and greatness. 
 The evangelical forces going there to 
 operate wisely conferred and divided 
 the field to economize time, effort, and 
 funds, and to prevent overworking 
 some sections and neglecting others. 
 This division of the field resulted 
 in the Congregational Church becom- 
 ing responsible for the evangelization 
 of Mindanao, the other evangelical 
 churches assuming the task in the 
 northern islands. While greatly inter- 
 ested in the work of the Kingdom there, 
 we are especially interested in Minda- 
 nao, our own charge by agreement. 
 
 Mindanao is the great island in the 
 south. It has a coast line of 1,500 
 miles, and with the small islands im- 
 mediately south comprises about one- 
 third the entire land area of the archi- 
 pelago, or about 35,000 square miles. 
 This land is richest in valuable timber 
 and for agricultural purposes of all the 
 islands, and is bound in the future to 
 be the home of great enterprises and 
 centers of civilization. With rare ex- 
 ceptions the thermometer stands be- 
 tween 75 and 95 the year round, though 
 
 ONE OF THE MUNICIPAL BUILDINGS, MINDANAO 
 
 It contains the offices of the Governor, the Treasurer, and the Presidente. In the rear 
 
 is the post office 
 
A GROUP OF MANSACAS FROM CROWHURST PLANTATION 
 
 the heat is oppressive because of the 
 great humidity. The rainfall is abun- 
 dant, averaging about 70 inches per 
 annum. 
 
 The people of our field, however, 
 interest us much more than soil, 
 climate, rainfall, etc. They may be 
 divided into three great divisions, 
 namely. Civilized Filipinos, Moro Mo- 
 hammedans, and Pagans. The civilized 
 Filipinos occupy the northern and 
 northeastern shores from Dapitan on 
 the north to Mati on the east, and 
 number probably over 100,000 souls. 
 They have established themselves on 
 Mindanao, but are people from the 
 northern islands, such as Leyte, Bohol, 
 Cebu, and Negros. As a rule they are 
 not found far from the shore, say from 
 five to ten miles. They present a great, 
 ready harvest field, tired of the shams 
 and forms of Romanism, waiting for 
 the Congregational Church of America 
 to send pastors and teachers of the 
 Word of Life. 
 
 The great Moro field embodies the 
 Cotobato and Llanao districts and the 
 Zamboanga peninsula, with the adja- 
 cent small islands southward, namely, 
 Basilian and the Sulu Archipelago. It 
 is doubtless the largest and hardest 
 
 field in the islands. The population 
 runs to between 300,000 and 400,000. 
 The Moro is the known fighter. His 
 hand is against every man. He re- 
 spects only the arm of Mohammed and 
 the arm of force. 
 
 Next to the absolute pagan he stands 
 in need of the gospel. There is no 
 hope for him except through the cross 
 — a change from carnal to spiritual; 
 through that change the Moro would 
 doubtless be one of the greatest fac- 
 tors for good in the islands. The peo- 
 ple who can fight well can love much, 
 both their neighbors and their Master. 
 Cowards are of little use in temporal 
 or spiritual affairs. This great field of 
 Mohammedan Moros has waited in mute 
 silence for the Congregational Church 
 of America to give it the “Bread of 
 Life,” yet fifteen years have swept by 
 and not a single school, dispensary, 
 chapel, or worker has been placed 
 among them by the Congregational 
 Church. 
 
 The great pagan field is in the Davao 
 district. It is composed of the shores 
 of the Gulf of Davao and the interior 
 east, north, and west of that gulf. It 
 is the home of the following wild 
 tribes: Atas Bagobo, Bilan Bukiduon, 
 
Calagan, Calaman, Mandayan, Manobo, 
 Mansaca, Samal, and Lagacolo. Be- 
 sides these tribes living in the district 
 of Davao there is another wild tribe, 
 the Subano, whose home is on the Zam- 
 boanga peninsula, which is said to be 
 about 10,000 strong. 
 
 Some of the tribes mentioned are 
 again divided, but this is a working 
 classification. All these tribes are 
 purely pagan, many of them head 
 hunters, slaveholders, human sacrific- 
 ers, and some said to be semi-cannibals. 
 The total number of these tribes put 
 together probably reaches in the neigh- 
 borhood of 200,000. Among them our 
 church has established a small mission, 
 but it is not reaching yet one per cent 
 of the people. The small mission has 
 done and is doing a good and important 
 work, but aside from this little mission 
 to the pagans our church has failed 
 utterly in doing its part of the work 
 in the Philippines. 
 
 Fifteen years ago there was, by 
 mutual agreement of the evangelical 
 forces operating in the islands, com- 
 mitted to our care the largest, hardest, 
 truest, and best mission field in the 
 archipelago. Today that field is the 
 most grossly neglected of all. Should 
 
 the Stars and Stripes soon be removed 
 and American protection withdrawn 
 from the islands, the saddest bit of 
 history connected with our flag and 
 missions in the islands would be the 
 neglected field of the American Board. 
 Of the thousands of civilized Filipinos 
 intrusted to you, next to nothing has 
 been done; for the 400,000 Moham- 
 medan Moros absolutely nothing done, 
 and less than one per cent of the pos- 
 sible 200,000 pagans even seen. 
 
 Tn spite of all our wonderful ma- 
 chinery, our records and history in 
 other parts of the world, we cannot but 
 be ashamed of the neglect of our own. 
 A half a million Mohammedan and 
 pagan people under our own flag, put 
 directly under the care of the Congre- 
 gational Church of America, have 
 never heard a Christian prayer, seen 
 a Christian church or a Christian 
 missionary. 
 
 Enough of the past. But what of 
 the future? We trust this year of 1914 
 will see our church come forward to 
 the call of duty and come into its own, 
 and no Moro, Filipino, or pagan wait 
 in darkness and the shadow of death, 
 worshiping idols, birds, noises, or un- 
 known gods under our starry flag. 
 
 Boston, 191Jf. Charles T. Sibley. 
 
 CARABAOS AND 
 The familiar beasts of 
 elephants, yet 
 
 THEIR BAGOBO DRIVERS 
 
 burden in the Philippines: almost as big as 
 
 as docile as cows 
 
THE MISSION SITUATION it is TODAY 
 
 THE HOSPITAL AT DAVAO 
 
 But some one will ask: What is the 
 actual situation today? What has 
 been accomplished in the twelve years 
 since the American Board’s Mission 
 to the Philippines was begun? How 
 much of an impression has been made? 
 What is there to show for the outlay? 
 
 There is a station established at 
 Davao, where the present missionaries 
 reside, Rev. and Mrs. Robert F. Black, 
 who founded the mission in 1902, and 
 Dr. and Mrs. Charles T. Sibley, who 
 joined them in 1908; there also is 
 Miss Mary R. Mathewson, serving as 
 foreign nurse in the hospital and 
 really directing it during Dr. Sibley’s 
 absence on furlough the past year. 
 
 A church of 104 members; a mis- 
 sion hospital caring for some 700 in- 
 patients and whose five dispensaries 
 treated 13,000 cases last year; a kin- 
 dergarten ; six schools with 239 pupils 
 — these are the bare facts and figures 
 on the institutional side. A good deal 
 needs to be read into them before their 
 significance is appreciated. For ex- 
 ample, among the hospital patients 
 were sixty leper suspects gathered at 
 
 Davao, who were found to be suffer- 
 ing really from malignant tropical 
 ulcers. They were nearly all from wild 
 tribes and were cared for in a separate 
 location; six were in so frightful con- 
 dition as to be beyond help, the others 
 were all sent home cured. 
 
 The hospital building is small; its 
 structure is crude ; it was quickly built 
 of unseasoned wood and is fit only for 
 temporary use; a fine modern building 
 is already planned in its place. But in 
 this small building what miracles of 
 healing have been wrought; what re- 
 lief and comfort and new hope have 
 been dispensed ! And here the word of 
 the gospel has been distributed in Eng- 
 lish, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Visa- 
 yan, and Tagalog, to patients of all 
 these nationalities, besides great num- 
 bers of the semi-savage and really 
 wild tribes. 
 
 Of the schools, also, two have been 
 established among the wild Bagobo 
 people; another is among the Man- 
 dayans, mostly Mohammedans, in a 
 village near the Davao gulf. In all, 
 five private schools have been main- 
 
tained among the wild tribes in places 
 where the government could not place 
 them. In this way entrance has been 
 effected into the interior parts of the 
 island and acquaintance made and 
 confidence won with several of its sus- 
 picious and warring peoples. 
 
 The church, though small and simple 
 in construction, is yet one of the finest 
 Protestant churches in all the islands 
 — the mother church of Congregation- 
 alism in the Philippines, in a field 
 which no other religious worker than 
 Jesuit priest or Mohammedan pundit 
 has ever touched. A native evangelist 
 and his wife are laboring here with 
 beautiful devotion; and they are win- 
 ning results, both from their words 
 and their example. Already the work 
 in Davao has outgrown its quarters. 
 A fine new mission site has been se- 
 cured on the hill 100 feet above the hot 
 and swampy town. One residence has 
 been completed, where the Blacks arc 
 now living; “where peace and quiet 
 reign; where the wild deer come up 
 and challenge us less than 100 yards 
 away at night ; where the wild hog and 
 jungle fowl creep up and investigate; 
 where our boy has room to romp and 
 yell; where the horses and chickens 
 find sweet and abundant pasture; 
 where — best of all — the people of the 
 town like to come for a bit of fresh- 
 
 ness and a broad view.” A second 
 residence is soon to be begun for the 
 Sibleys, and the hospital also will be 
 moved to this healthful location. The 
 new site will also provide room later 
 on for a school for the wild tribes. 
 The present hospital building may be 
 used as a town dispensary. 
 
 So far the American Board mission 
 is chiefly an institution of Davao and 
 vicinity; the great bulk of Mindanao 
 is still untouched. Yet not altogether 
 so. As has been indicated, tours of 
 investigation and approach have been 
 made into the interior at various 
 points, and through schools some last- 
 ing contacts have been established. 
 Particular attention has been given to 
 the northern end of the island, where 
 by the cordial cooperation of the Pres- 
 byterian mission on the neighboring 
 island of Cebu, and through the labors 
 of one of its evangelists, a very strik- 
 ing and successful work has been be- 
 gun ; several hundred have been bap- 
 tized and organized into churches and 
 Sunday schools. The Board still hopes 
 to occupy this northern country, with 
 stations at the important centers of 
 Surigao and Cagayan. Rev. and Mrs. 
 Frank C. Laubach have been appointed 
 as new missionaries for this purpose; 
 they plan to leave at once for their 
 field. w. E. s. 
 
 THE CHURCH AT DAVAO