Excavated relics in the pacific town of Cabalian for instance showed that it had existed at least a hundred years before the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan. Indeed, during the period of discovery (1521), it was already ruled by Malitik, a tributary of King Siagu.

Ormoc was a well established Malayan village at the beginning of the 16th century. Ancient gold ornaments and ceramic pieces were dug there. Three of these were identified by Prof. Otley Bayer as not unlike Javanese gold work of the pre-Majapahit period. A heavy gold chain was declared by Dr. Bayer to resemble certain ancient jewelry of the pre-Spanish inhabitants of the Batanes Islands and Central Luzon.

Carigara was another ancient village where enterprising traders from the present land of Bohol found a thriving community showing a workable, though crude, irrigation system in their fields. (source: V. Braganza, Story of Leyte, unpublished manuscript, DWU Museum)

But a more recent archeological survey conducted in the island of Limasawa, found sherds of tradeware ceramics attributed to the Ming Dynasty period (13th to 17th centuries) pasted on a cemented structure above an old Spanish deep well. Other materials consisted of sherds of Vietnamese and Thai which were possibly contemporaries of Ming Dynasty period.

An interview conducted with local residents in area near the shrine showed a burial site as indicated by the presence of skeletal remains unearthed during the pothunting activities.

In another site located near the shoreline north of Brgy. Magallanes, the survey also yielded numerous sherds of earthenware consisting of Celadon and porcelains attributed to Ming dynasty period. Considered

significant is the presence of iron slags in association with these sherds. This is proof of a metal smelting activity, suggesting an organized community already thriving in the area.

Large fragments of earthenware jars that were found in association with human skeletal remains were indications that the jar-burial traditions were not only being practiced on the mainlands such as in Samar, Bohol, Sorsogon and other parts of the country but at small islands as Limasawa.

According to the archeologists, the presence of sherds of ceramics in Magallanes is an indication of a thriving ancient trade networks of the Limasawa Island to the "outside world". Our ancestors were trading with the Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese during the Ming Dynasty period (13th to 17th centuries A.D.). [ Melchor L. Aguillera Jr., "Result of the Initial Archaeological Field Survey in Limasawa Island, Southern Leyte," Souvenir Programme, March 31, 1996, 475th Year Commemoration]

Indeed, Leyte had a thriving economy that already bordered on the fringes of agriculture, using hand tools to cultivate rice fields and workable irrigation systems in some places. When the Spaniards came, trading settlements were already flourishing in the coastal areas of Carigara, Ogmuc, Dulaque and Hilongos. From China, Siam, Cambodia, Sumatra and other places, the natives bought porcelain, iron vases, silk, fabrics, fish nets, tine, silk umbrellas and various animals. In return, they bartered cotton, sinamay, coconuts, wax, camotes, mats (petates), pearls, rare shells, betel nuts (which they chewed endlessly), cattle, fowl and hogs.

They knew ship-building, mining of iron, manufacture of war implements, gold trinkets, jewelry, native wine and cotton textiles. They fished with nets and corrals. Hog and poultry raising were common as also noted by Legaspi in Cabalian in 1565.

Women on the other hand engaged themselves in needlework and weaving of cotton fabrics. (Braganza, Vicente, Unpublished Manuscript)

Settlements were small barangays not very far from each other. But there were no pueblos or town centers as the natives tended to live close to their sources of food: their fields, palm groves, river. Whoever was powerful enough became their ruler,"and not one man alone but almost everyone could come to exercise such power and authority", said Chirino.

"Each of these (groups) kept his own armed camp in constant preparedness, for among them, even among those occupying the same vicinity or district, there was constant hostility, with ceaseless ambushes, raids, robberies, slayings and captures", he continued.(Chirino)

The typical barangay was a settlement of 30 to 100 families, virtually independent of each other, with a datu acting as head. Some brangays formed a bigger unit or a village. In pre-Spanish times, a village formed by Datu Amahawin today comprises the five municipalities of Inopacan, Hindang, Hilongos, Bato and Matalom.

Another settlement in Cabalian, fell under Rajah Siagu, whose domain extended as far as Cagayan of Mindanao. A subordinate datu ruled in his stead in Cabalian.

Due to the fierce independent stance of each barangay settlement, large groups rarely came together in friendship, for mutual assistance and alliance against others, although there were a few of such large settlements developing towards the end of the 16th century in the island of Leyte. There were blood compacts (casi- casi), of course, but these did not have the force of a law.

Rather, it was not tribal agreements that brought settlements together. It was trade. (Braganza)