Chapter XXX
How our religious continued to soften those Zambal Indians and reduce them to civilization
[Notwithstanding that the Recollects had preached in the province of Zambales for seventy years and many of the Zambals were baptized, many of them were still wild, and refused the gospel message held out to them. This is because of their great love of liberty and hatred of restraint, and not because of lack of zeal on the part of the Recollects. Besides the Zambals lived scattered in many rancherías so that it was difficult for the fathers to visit them more than once or twice a year, and consequently, the little instruction that could be given them was insufficient to leaven them with the gospel spirit throughout the year. They had been unable to reduce them to fewer settlements because the various bands were often at war with one another and could not reconcile their difficulties. Then, too, the magistrates, sunk in their self interest, did not furnish the aid that should come from them. “This is the reason, and there is no other, why there is so much infidelity in these islands; for it is clearly seen by experience that when the secular government has been in earnest, and encouraged a mission, very abundant fruits have followed therefrom.” The narrative continues:]
And this is what our religious had in their favor when they entered that province of Zambales, for the governor of these islands, Don Juan de Vargas y Hurtado, was very desirous of that reduction, and made exact measures for it. In imitation of him the chief commandant of the fort of Paynaoven, namely, Adjutant Alonso Martin Franco, tried to coöperate in this design by his continual vigilance and efforts and at the evident risk of his life, and without heeding his own interest in the many offers of gold which the Indians made him so that he might desist from his purpose and not oblige them to leave their retreats. Our religious protected by that aid, proposed to the Indians of those rancherías as soon as they reached Playahonda, to collect into one settlement in the site that they thought best, in order that they might be more easily taught and administered by the religious. Since they had promised to reduce themselves if Dominican ministers were given them, and since the governor had given them those ministers, they ought also to fulfil their word. The Indians of Playahonda replied that they were not the ones who had gone to Manila with that request, but it was those of Buquil. Consequently, the latter ought to be confronted with that promise, and not they. Thereupon, the religious summoned those of Buquil and making them the proposal abovesaid, the Indians began to offer various excuses. By that our religious recognized that all their promises were feigned, and that they were very far from any intention to become reduced. Consequently, that reply having been heard by the religious, which was so contrary to what they had expected, and seeing that stronger measures were needed, the father vicar provincial returned to Manila to represent to the governor the rebellion of the Zambal Indians. The said father was welcomed by his Lordship, from whom he obtained what he wished, namely, the prohibition of trade between the Zambals and the Indians of Pampanga and other provinces, in order that, being deprived of that recourse, hunger and necessity might compel them to descend from the mountain and live in a settlement in order to exist.
But that provision proving insufficient to make the Zambals live in definite villages, the governor ordered the proclamation of an edict ordering all the Zambals to descend the mountains under penalty of being severely punished. The edict was proclaimed in Paynaoven and in other places of that province, whence the notice of it could be carried to those who were living in the mountains. More than five hundred Zambals of Buquil descended on the day and to the site assigned. There the commandant of the fort again imparted to them the edict and order of the governor. Their reply to the proposal was to submit the whole matter in common to an Indian called Quiravat, who had been the chief agent in begging our ministers for religious. He said “Let him who wishes to descend to settle, do it and welcome, but as for me, I am going to live with my people where I choose.” The commandant angered at his boldness, manacled and bound the said Quiravat, and the Indians his associates seeing that, began to discharge a cloud of arrows at the commandant and his soldiers, in number twenty-two men. Thereupon, the said commandant ordered Quiravat to be beheaded, and the other Indians retired with the death of twelve of their companions, but without their having done any harm to the Spaniards. That fray and encounter inspired the Indians with fear, and some, although they were few, descended. But in the following year of 1680, three hundred soldiers having entered by way of Pampanga, and the commandant of Paynaoven and his men having made a raid in that other part, the Zambals were inspired with so great fear, that many of them descended from the mountains. Consequently, it was possible to form or increase three villages: one near the fort called Alalan; another in Balacbac, called Nuevo Toledo; and the third south of the two, called Baubuen. The Indians who descended from the mountain were gathered into those three villages, whether from fear of the Spaniards, or through the persuasions of the fathers. The latter, by the aid of the soldiers, caused the Indians to show them more respect; and with the affability and benignity of their treatment, softened the hardness of their hearts. The same effort was made in other places of the said province, where there were already some villages, although they were very small and distant, and could not be administered by the religious without evident risk and danger. Consequently, they soon asked that they be placed in such condition and distance that there might be easy communication from one village to the other. All that was done at the cost of the order, which paid those who built the houses. Those houses were built by people of other villages and provinces, and they were given already built to the Zambals; for to compel them to make them was morally impossible.
This effort of causing the Indians to form their villages would have been of slight use, if at the same time they had not been obliged to work in making their fields in order that they might have the wherewithal to sustain life, so that they might not be under the necessity of abandoning their villages and returning to the mountains, where with the hunt and with various roots, the Indians are wont to sustain life at small cost, without the care and trouble of cultivation. And as they were unaccustomed to the cultivation of the soil, and did not know how to plow, or dig, and had no instruments for that, nor even seed for planting: they were provided with all this by our religious. More than fifty buffaloes or carabaos (which are their oxen), by which the plowing is done in this country, were taken there at the cost of the order. Also many plows were bought for them, and they were also given the seed so that they could allege no reasonable excuse. Inasmuch as they did not know how to plow or to plant, salaried Indians were taken from other provinces, so that they might cultivate the land, and so that the Zambals might learn of them. After the land that first year had been cultivated, and the rice had headed, it was given to them at the time of harvest, so that they might reap and gather it. But so great was the laziness of those Zambals that many of them refused to accept the land because it was not reaped. But others, having the profit so plainly in sight, set to work to reap it and gather it; and since by that means they made sure of their food, they were inclined to work and the cultivation of their fields. Our religious encouraged them in this by thus forcibly setting before their eyes the profit of the harvest, that they would have afterward. The religious accompanied them to the fields to work, heartily praised those who applied themselves, and perhaps, in order to inspire them by their example, put their hands to the plow. For the religious very well understood that if the Indians did not turn husbandmen, they would not be secure in the level land, and they would easily return to the mountains under the obligation of necessity. And thus that necessary diligence was compulsory in order to reduce them to a civilized life and to a good government.
All the time the fathers continued to soften their hardness by their kindness and mildness, which they showed them not only in the gentleness of their intercourse and conversation, but also much more in the generosity and liberality which they used toward them, providing them with all that was necessary, both for the building of their houses and for the cultivation of their fields. They gave the Indians a quantity of clothing to wear, besides the other acts of kindness and the presents which they made them. In that our province spent much money, a sum which, according to the accounts, exceeded ten thousand pesos. The thing that robbed still more their affection was on seeing that the fathers defended them when the soldiers wished to employ violence with them, for they took the part of the Indians, and softened the fury of the soldiers. By that means the Indians came to perceive two things: one that the fathers considered their good; and the other that they were higher than the soldiers, since the latter obeyed the religious and desisted from the attempted severity when the fathers ordered or petitioned them. Hence they came to infer that to stand well with the fathers and to obey them was of great profit to them, for so they were assured by the Spaniards, and among the religious they experienced no evil treatment, but everything was mild, gentle, and peaceful. Consequently, they moderated themselves and became so mild, within a year, that it caused great surprise to see those who had formerly been so wild and unmanageable become so conformable and domestic.
When our religious entered at the beginning, the children ran away from them when they saw them, and the women also hid; but the former later became so familiar with the religious that they would scarcely let them alone. When the religious entered any village, the children all descended from their houses and went behind him, and walked with him, and followed wherever he went. Scarcely would they let him walk, for some of the children seized him by the habit, and others placed their scapularies under his eyes [for him to bless?].
While the father was in the convent, it was not empty of Indians, who were going and coming, some to beg for relief in their necessities, while others begged consolation for their troubles, some medicine for their pains, and some relief in their afflictions. All found there whatever they needed, for charity serves for everything. And since the Indians beheld that of the fathers toward them, they loved them, esteemed them, and favored, and were so well inclined to their intercourse, that, on a certain occasion, when they thought that the fathers were going to leave them, and return to Manila, the sorrow manifested by all was great until the fathers undeceived them, and released them by various means of their vain fear. Those who had previously fled from the fathers, and those with whom the above-mentioned violence had to be used in order to gain admittance in the beginning, reached this condition of sociability and mildness in little more than one year....