451

212 U. B. Argument for Plaintiff in Error.
The land belonged to Carifio under the Igorot law. He had

inherited it from his ancestors in accordance with the na-
tive customs and his title had never been questioned. The

Spanish law explicitly recognized and scrupulously protected
the Indian titles. Possession of land under such circumstances
confers a property right jure gentium independently of any rule
of prescription.
Spanish law recognized and protected rights of the native

occupants of its Indian possessions even more fully and scrupu-
lously than our Government has done in the case of its Indian

wards. See. Arthur Helps, Spanish Conquest in America.
Claimant having actually possessed the land in question for
more than thirty years had acquired, under the Spanish Civil
Code, good prescriptive title. The provisions of this Code as to

prescription apply to all lands in the Philippine Islands regard-
less of whether owned by the Government or not, just as they

admittedly do in the Spanish Peninsula itself.

The provisions of the Civil Code applied to public agri-
cultural lands as well as to other lands, and a detailed examin-
ation of the provisions relating to public lands shows no in-
tention on the part of the Government to except them from

the purview of the Code enactments as to prescription, but on
the contrary recognize the applicability of -the common or

general law. Valenton v. Murciano, 3 Philippine, 537, to the ef-
fect. that public agricultural landg were not within the purview

of the Code provisions, is unsound, inconsistent with other deci-
sions of that court, and can be distinguished. Phil. Com. Rep.

1902, Part I, 183; Census of Philippine Islands, 1903, Vol. 1,
533; Phil. Com. Rep. 1904, Pt. I, 574; 1905, Pt. I, 176; "1
Bontoc Igorot," by Albert Ernest Jenks, Ethnological Survey
Publication, Interior Dept., Manila, P. I., 1905; United States
v. Paine Lumber Co., 206 U. S. 467; Lone Wolf v.JHitchcock,
187 U. S. 564; Doe v. Wilson, 23 How. 463; "Laws of the
Indies," Book 6, Title 1,, Law 1; and see in Book 6, Title 1,
Laws 15, 23, 27, 30, 32,; 'Book 6, Title 3, Laws 9, 26; 'Book 2,
Title 1, Laws 4, 5; Book 4, Title 1, Laws 6, 8, 10; Book. 4,