“[They are] the worst weapons in the whole world, because there is nothing that can be done against their poison.”
By George Yagi Jr.
IN THE CENTURIES leading up to the arrival of the Spanish, warfare among the indigenous inhabitants of the Mariana Islands was limited to local skirmishes.
But following Ferdinand Magellan’s arrival in 1521, hostilities soon broke out between the Chamorro warriors and the European men-at-arms who were charged with bringing the region under the control of Spain.
While many might consider the locals’ weapons as primitive, the Spanish soon learned to fear the Chamorros’ deadly human bone tipped spear or fisga.
Constructed primarily from wood, the shaft normally measured eight feet in length and had a two-inch diameter. Some simpler versions might be fire-hardened and their ends pounded into sharp points. However, others were more elaborate with the fatal instrument fastened to it.
A versatile weapon, the spear could be used in hand-to-hand combat or thrown in the manner of a javelin towards distant enemies. Regardless of the way in which it was employed, the use of spearheads made from human bone offered Chamorro warriors an edge — the weapons could inflict devastating and often lethal wounds on opponents.
Bones for the spearheads were procured through the looting of an enemy’s burial grounds. Leg bones in particular were a prime target for grave robbers. For this reason, Chamorros buried their loved ones near their homes, in order to prevent remains from being snatched by rivals for spear-tip production. Bodies of fallen opponents were also buried close by, so that the useful bones might be easily retrieved.
While taking part in missionary activity on the islands during the latter end of the 1600s, a missionary, Father Peter Coomans, observed this practice.
“Should they want to get their hands on longer leg bones, they bury the corpses of the dead at a site, so that the earth would hardly cover the legs from the hips down to the heels, to which they tie small cords, so that, when the ligaments have already putrefied, they pull them [i.e. the leg bones] out intact from the rest of the body.”
When another missionary, Father Luis de Medina, was killed during an encounter on Saipan in 1670, it was reported, “The Father, because his body was longer, was laid on his back, bent at the knees, and buried with the legs upward, because they meant to use the leg bones for their spears.”
Once the appropriate bones had been secured, great effort was made into turning the human remains into weapons capable of inflicting horrific wounds on enemy fighters. Depending on the material available, some larger spear points measured as much as 16 inches in length. Spear tips also featured numerous rows of barbs. Father Coomans recorded the ferocity of the design: “They make the tip of these very sharp, then they had a double or triple row of [teeth], like fishhooks, transversally, so that they enter the wound easily, but remain very difficult to extract; or, if they are to be extracted, on account of the sharpness of the point, and the fragility of the material, they leave a barb inside the wound; makes one think of the [forked] tongue of a serpent, or even that of a fish.”
In the aftermath of an attack against a Spanish sailor on Rota in 1602, such a spearhead was lodged between the vertebrae of its victim and had also passed through his stomach. As a result, it was impossible to remove, and the sailor experienced tremendous suffering before dying 10 days later.
Father Juan Pobre de Zamora summarized injured man’s demise:
“The pain was so great that he could only utter a continual agonizing cry. Because the lance was embedded in his spine and had passed into his bowels and intestines, the consequent inner decay caused him to suffer as though he were in purgatory.”
In some cases, a human bone spearhead might be removed, but the wound could still prove fatal. This led many to believe that the deadly tips might be laced with poison. On this theory, Father Coomans remarked: “As experience has proven, a mortal poison exists in these bones, especially if the smallest piece of them remains in the wound. No medicine has been found to overcome it.”
In reality, the spears were not poisoned, but the tips easily broke off inside when embedded in the flesh causing infections. Consequently, even non-lethal injuries could ultimately lead to death. To avoid this fate, aggressive measures were necessary.
Following an attack against Father Luis de Morales in 1668, Coomans recalled, “One of his companions, who happened to be there, took a knife, and insisted upon opening the wound all over, and extracted the tip of the spear itself. Using a small amount of wine that had been brought to say mass, he washed it and quickly dressed it tightly with a piece of linen.”
Due to successfully removing the spearhead and all its fragments, Morales was one of the few who lived.
Given the ferocious reputation of the human bone-tipped spear, the Spanish undertook measures to remove the danger presented by the deadly weapon. Soon after the first mission was established in 1669, the Spanish began gathering and destroying any spears that they discovered which were tipped with human remains. Consigned to the flames, it was hoped that by destroying them in this manner it would put an end to their construction, as well as what the Spanish viewed as a grisly desecration of graves.
Governor José de Quiroga y Losada passed this practice into law in 1680.
“In no circumstances [shall the Spanish] allow the use of spears made in part with human bone, or ever to permit the disinterment of bodies for that object,” he ordered, adding that those caught inflicting wounds with such weapons would be “severely punished.”
Further commenting on why the spears were to be banned, Quiroga added: “[They are] the worst weapons in the whole world, because there is nothing that can be done against their poison.” Although the Spanish possessed superior weaponry, the deadly fisga had succeeded in terrifying its opponents.
Dr. George Yagi Jr. is an award winning author and historian at California State University, East Bay. Follow him on Twitter @gyagi_jr