DOMINICAN MISSIONS IN PANIQUI AND ITUY
[In a rare pamphlet printed at Manila and dated 1745—of which the Library of Congress possesses a copy—Bernardo Ustáriz,[45] then provincial of the Dominican order in Filipinas, wrote a sketch of the above missions, from which we make the following summary:]
[The missions of the order had reaped a rich harvest in central Luzón, but the fathers were not satisfied because the gospel had secured no stable footing “in Paniqui,[46] which was hiding among the provinces of Cagayan, Pangasinan, and Pampanga.” They succeeded in making an entrance therein in 1739, at the cost of the lives of four of their missionaries; but six years later they were maintaining four laborers in that region and making encouraging progress. In this enterprise they were liberally aided by Governor Gaspar de la Torre. In those remote and wild regions the missionaries suffered greatly from lack of suitable shelter and food, the inclemencies of the weather, and the hardships of traveling. As an illustration: “On one occasion, a missionary having set out from the village of Appiàt for the place called Cauayan, night came upon him when he reached a village named Làcab; he expected that he could find a lodging there, and thus pass the night less uncomfortably, under some roof. He uttered loud cries, calling to its inhabitants, but his only reply was a confused yelling from the women, who in anger cried out that the religious should not enter the village. At the time they were offering a public supplication, in order to obtain from their idols rain for making their fields fruitful; and, as they formed the opinion that the devil would not speak to them through fear of the religious, they would not consent that the father should lodge in any of their houses. Accordingly, he found himself obliged to sleep on the ground that night, exposed to any disagreeable change of weather that might arise.” For some time the missionaries were derided, repelled, and threatened, and the natives endeavored to prevent them from entering the houses; but they persevered undauntedly, and the devil was often thwarted by their courageous resistance. Many persons desired baptism, but some were lured away by the devil, speaking through the priestesses (or aniteras), and others were intimidated by the opposition of their friends and relatives, who would even threaten a convert with death. Some fancied that to become a Christian would render one “a perpetual slave to the Spaniards.” In 1743, a chief at Appiat came with his family to the missionaries to be baptized. In the aforesaid space of six years, they had “succeeded in erecting six churches, in the villages of Cauayàn, Appiàt, Bagabag, Lappàu, Darùyag, and Carìg. To these should be added that of Bayombong; for, although some Christians were there when it was received from the reverend Augustinian fathers, there were still many infidels, of whom some lived with the said Christians, and others had fled to a forest called Vàcal—from which they have gradually come out by dint of the visits which the missionaries have frequently made them, and with the baptisms among them an increase has been made in the number of the Christians who were in Bayombong when the Order of St. Dominic began its ministrations there. Thus, in the said seven churches there is the number of nine hundred and seventy souls, baptized in the said time—besides ten apostates, who after many years have returned to the Christian faith. The number of Christians would be greater, if the missionaries did not use especial care in administering baptism, and if they were willing to comply with the desires of many persons.” Many of the requests for baptism were caused by the desire to escape from tyrannical lords, or from creditors, or from the penalty due to their crimes; and not a few imagined that they could thus gain some more influential position among their people. In those seven churches there were eight hundred and fifty-eight catechumens; and these would have been more numerous if there were missionaries. At the time of Ustáriz’s writing, there has been a gratifying change in the feelings of those people, even among the infidels; they are more docile, and more friendly to the missionaries, and they even live more peaceably among themselves, committing fewer murders. Governor Torre granted to these fathers “extraordinary Indian guards, who even yet have not been able to complete the works in all the villages. In Cauayàn and Lappàu, they have built substantial houses and churches of planks; in Bagabag and Daruyag they have constructed houses of the same sort, and although [in those places] there are pavilions suitable for saying mass, they will proceed to build there substantial churches when they finish the wooden house and church in Appiàt (or Gàpat); they will also build a house in Carig, where a large church of planks has already been completed. In the village of Bayombong it has likewise been necessary to build a new house and church of planks, because the buildings which were there for both these were little more than hovels.” These same Indian guards had been obliged to spend much time in opening and repairing roads, which had delayed their work on the church buildings; but those new roads had enabled the missionaries to secure an easy communication with the surrounding provinces, and to discover the lurking-places of the heathen natives. The work and maintenance of these Indian laborers are paid for by the government; but the fathers had to spend no small sum in other ways, to secure the spiritual conquest of the heathen about them. “It is necessary to influence them not only by fear but by love,” and thus the missionary must give them gratuities and presents; he must also support some of them, even for several months, who came from a great distance to receive instruction and, being in a strange land, had no means of support. The fathers had furnished plows to all who asked for them, that the natives might better cultivate their lands.]
[In the villages of Bujay and Dupag, and still more in the district of Ytuy, they met many obstacles and afflictions, as those natives were not so docile as those of Paniqui. “Nevertheless, much fruit has been gathered, in baptizing many infidels of the neighboring tribes, Ygolot, Ylong̃ot, and others; and in reclaiming some apostates who were hiding in the mountains.” The missionaries were troubled not only with the obstinacy of those in Ytuy (or Ysinay), and the persistent efforts of the devil to render their labors vain, but with the hostilities committed on their converts by a tribe close by Ytuy, called Panoypuyes, who made head-hunting raids on their Christian neighbors. The Ysinays were a timid people, and these fierce marauders kept them in abject submission to their tyranny—killing them when found alone or unprotected on the road, killing or snaring their cattle, demanding from them contributions of produce, and even human beings whom the tyrants slew and then “offered in sacrifice to their false gods.” The missionaries feared that they must abandon this mission; but, hearing that Auditor Arzadun was then making his official visitation in the province of Pangasinan, they appealed to him for aid. He sent a body of armed men from that province against the Panoypuyes, but they could not administer sufficient punishment; he then ordered troops from Cagayan, two hundred and eighty-two in number. To these were added fifty of the Indian guards from the mission of Santa Cruz of Paniqui, and some of the native converts there; and this expedition was able to check the insolence of those dreaded marauders. Ustáriz presents an extract from the report of this enterprise which was furnished to him by Fray Antonio del Campo, the vicar-provincial of the said missions. The expedition captured and burned the villages of Ajanàs (the principal village of the Panoypuyes), Masi, Taveng, Bang̃ao, and others; and slew Sapàc—the chief who ruled that tribe, and had been most tyrannical toward “the poor Ysinay Christians”—with many of his followers. In Ajanàs was a large building, on higher ground than the rest, and surrounded by a wall of stones, which was their sole fortress; “it was destined only for the residence of the unmarried men, who, according to the custom of that tribe, are not allowed to cover the more shameful part of their bodies, nor sleep where the married people live; the said pavilion also served as a watch-tower the duty of sentinel service belonging to the unmarried men.” Since this castigation, the missions and Christian Indians had enjoyed peace; and the natives, relieved from their terror of the enemy, had flocked to the missionaries for baptism. In Bujày there were baptized about two hundred persons of the Ygolots alone, and at this writing there were “more than seven hundred souls newly added to this mission; for, the report of the valor of the Cagayan Christians in this undertaking having spread abroad, it has penetrated into even the most remote part of the mountains, attracting even the most secluded of the Ylong̃ots, a tribe who rival the Panoypuyes in valor and fierceness. The mission of Paniqui likewise felt these benign effects; for at the report of such an achievement more than six hundred persons came to enroll themselves for the [instruction in] catechism, from the Yogad and Gaddàng tribes—besides forty souls from the village of Ybana in the Ygolot tribe, who united themselves to the village of Bayombong. Nor was this blessing monopolized by these two missions, but, crossing the mountains, it went on to Pung̃can—to which place many families, influenced by the rumor of this influx of people [to the missions], have come down from the Gumang̃i tribe, in whose instruction the reverend Augustinian fathers are occupied.”]
[A pamphlet (Mexico? ca. 1740) by Fray Manuel del Rio, then provincial of the Dominicans in Filipinas, relates the “events in the mission of Santa Cruz in Ituy, in the province of Paniqui: in the year 1739;” it is reprinted by Retana in his Archivo, ii, pp. 175–205. The following information is gleaned therefrom, space not permitting us to present more than the leading facts contained therein.][47]
[The Dominican province of Filipinas had within the islands the following active missions: San Miguel de Oriong, in the mountains of Batan; Pantol and Asingan, in those of Pangasinan; in the islands[48] which extend toward Hermosa Island, those of the Batanes and Calayàn; and in the mountains and hills of Cagayan, the missions of Santa Rosa of Cifun, Tumavini, Orag, Mavanan, Santa Cruz, Vangan, and Capitanan. The missionaries in the provinces of Pangasinan and Cagayan had long desired to extend their work into the inland region lying between those provinces; and this was begun in the year 1632, in the district of Ituy, or Isinay. This mission was founded by Fray Thomàs Gutierrez, who afterward died therein. The district of Paniqui was afterward chosen for missionary labors, but up to 1736 with only indifferent and occasional success; it “was founded in Zifun by Fray Pedro Ximenez, and afterward was transferred to the location which it now has, with the title of Santa Rosa.” In 1735, the Augustinian fathers (who at the time of Río’s writing were administering the Ituy mission) observed some indications that those hearts were becoming softened; of this they informed the Dominicans, who in the following year made the eighth attempt to establish a mission in that heathen district. On May 25, 1736, Fray Diego de la Torre went from his village of Ilagan (in Cagayan) to make a reconnaissance among the heathen people of Cagayan; at first they rebuffed him, but by dint of kind treatment and presents he won the confidence of some among them. These told him that the only obstacle in the way of his efforts was, the impassableness of the high-road from Cagayan to Pangasinan; if this were made passable, they would have no longer a barrier between themselves and Spanish influence. Fray Torre’s report of his dealings with these heathen induced the Dominican provincial, Fray Geronymo Sanz Ortiz, to ask Valdés Tamón for government aid to their new enterprise; the governor granted the establishment of a mission in Paniqui, composed of four religious and the guard necessary for their protection, at the expense of the king; and the following religious were sent thither: Fray Manuel Molinér, Fray Joseph Thomás Marin, Fray Romualdo Molina, and Fray Pedro de Sierra. They began their labors in July, 1737, and encountered determined opposition from the natives, who, advised by the demon, would not admit them into the villages. The chiefs demanded, as the price of even allowing the missionaries to remain near the villages, gifts of beads, cattle and horses, and gold; and, finally, two men to slay as offerings to their demons. Fray Molinér died suddenly, it was suspected from poison given to him by some heathen; and in his stead Fray Torre was sent. About this time (1738) the fathers received protection and hospitality from an Indian woman of rank in that tribe; and this aid, with the presents given by the fathers and their persistent charity and gentleness, softened the hearts of the unbelievers until they consented to make a treaty of peace, some of the chiefs even going to Nueva Segovia to ratify it. Nevertheless, the fathers still experienced much opposition, especially from the people of Bayongbong, the most southern and the chief village of that heathen district; and often their lives were in danger, especially when their Indian guards became frightened and began to retreat to their homes. Indeed, Fathers Torre and Molina died suddenly, probably from poison, like Molinér. The Dominican provincial again appealed to the government for aid, asking that more guards be assigned to the missionaries, and that one or two military posts be established in that province—partly for the protection of the missionaries, partly to ensure the safety of the road which was to be built from Pangasinan to Cagayan;[49] this was granted by the governor, and the necessary provisions made therefor. By the time when news of this came to Cagayan, Marin had so far advanced matters that “almost nothing remained to overcome;” he had secured the support of a powerful chief named Danao, and toleration from another named Ansimo; and Marin went to Pangasinan, taking with him Pyrán, Danao’s grandson—who was so caressed and honored by the Spaniards that he returned home a firm friend to the missionaries, and did much to open his countrymen’s hearts toward them. The Dominican father provincial determined to open a direct road from Paniqui to Pangasinan, at the expense of the province—a most arduous and difficult undertaking, on account of the rugged surface of the country and the hostility of the Igorrots, “a bloodthirsty and very treacherous people.” Father Manuel del Río was sent out to make the necessary explorations for this road, in which he suffered great hardship. The Igorrots were greatly opposed to the intended road-making; but they were finally induced, by the father’s arguments, but still more by his liberal distribution of presents, to give their consent. The treaty made with them was thus solemnized: “In the presence of all, a hog was killed, and, as soon as the knife was thrust into it, profound silence reigned—all watching the dying struggles of the animal, and the flowing of its blood, which seemed like a fountain gushing upward. After a long time, a Christian Indian who was experienced in their ceremonies came forward, and, collecting in his hand some of the animal’s blood, went, with loud cries and a swaggering step, and smeared with the blood the feet of the Igorrot chiefs; at this they were well pleased, and began to talk vigorously in their own language, and with bold gestures, as a sign that they would fulfil their agreement. This done, they were given something to drink, and the cattle, carajays,[50] salt, and other things at which the bargain had been settled were placed before them; and they returned to their villages contented, having remained from that time friends with the Christians. This road is two days’ journey in length, from the most eastern village of Pangasinan, called Asingan, to the village of Buxay among the Isinay people, which is a mission of the Augustinian fathers. For the greater comfort of travelers, road-houses were built at regular distances, in the places called Colong, Malalapang, and Malionlion; and in the last-named, which is the last town on the border of Pangasinan, a religious was stationed—on account of some Igorrot Christians being there, with some others who, it was hoped, would become Christians—with the title of missionary to the infidels there; he was separate from the other four who were in the province of Paniqui, who were destined to the reduction and conversion of the infidels in that province. This was a great achievement to open this road for communication between the provinces; for this has been an undertaking often attempted but never carried out, and often the royal exchequer has incurred great costs in it, and always without any benefit—especially twenty years ago, when the unfortunate mariscal Don Fernando Bustillo, governor and captain-general of these islands, attempted to open this road. Many thousands of pesos were spent, many unlucky events occurred, and no result was attained; and now, without any expense to the royal exchequer, at the cost of the religious order, it was readily cut through and opened. It is hoped that this road will be of great utility, not only for the said communication and trade between the provinces, but also for the easier conversion of the infidels—who, through trade and communication with the Christians, will learn their civilization and excellent customs, and will after a time abandon the barbarous condition in which they lived before.” In April of 1739, Father Río was accompanied to Manila by Danao and the other chiefs already mentioned; they were feasted and laden with presents, and the governor “granted freely whatever they asked.” In this road-building and other matters pertaining to this mission, the Dominican province spent “almost three thousand eight-real pieces; although it is the poorest province in the Indias, it can liberally spend its treasure, as now it has done, in the service of God and for the good of souls, for which chiefly it was founded.”][51]
[1] The title-page of this work reads thus in English: “A plain historical account of the glorious triumphs and fortunate progress gained during the present century by the religious of the order of our father St. Augustine, in the missions which are in their charge in the Philipinas Islands, and in the great empire of China. Information is given regarding each of those peoples, their usages, customs, superstitions, mode of life, and medicines which they use in their diseases, with other curious information. Composed by the reverend father Fray Antonio Mozo, of the same order, formerly secretary and definitor of the province of Philipinas, and now commissary and general definitor for the same, who dedicates it to this province of Castilla of the same order. With the necessary licenses. At Madrid, by Andrès Ortega, Las Infantas Street. The year 1763.”
This book contains much information regarding the customs and superstitions of the natives, especially of the Negritos, which is valuable not only as being furnished by an educated man who lived among them, but on account of his kindly nature, comparative freedom from bigotry and prejudice, and his inclination to take an impartial and philosophical view of his subject. For this reason, a very full synopsis has been made of his work, and his observations on the natives have been mostly translated in full. He left the islands in 1759, as he states on p. 76 of his book. [↑]
[2] This mission field was located in the eastern part of what is now the province of Nueva Ecija (formed at the beginning of the nineteenth century), on the Rio Grande of Pampanga and its tributary the Santor, nearly half-way from the source of the former to its mouth; the peoples here mentioned evidently dwelt at first on the heights of the Caraballo de Baler—part of the Caraballo Sur range, from which flow northward the waters of the Magat and the Rio Grande of Cagayan; and southward the Rio Grande and the Rio Chico (respectively “great river” and “little river” of Pampanga). The name “Buquid” apparently simply designates them as dwellers in the mountain forests. The Italons—a name of the same signification, applied by the Gaddans to the Ilongots dwelling in the Caraballo mountains of Nueva Ecija and Príncipe (who are called Ibilao by their Isinay neighbors north of that range)—and Abacas lived on the headwaters of the Rio Grande and Rio Chico. Barrows says (Census of Philippines, i, p. 437): “The Ibilao who inhabit the mountains of Nueva Ecija are among the most persistent head hunters of northern Luzón. Their raids upon the Christian settlements of Nueva Ecija are incessant, and they have repeatedly taken lives in the vicinity of Carranglán and Pantabangán within the last two or three years.” (See also ut supra, pp. 470, 471.) [↑]
[3] In another place this name appears as Alzaga; but Pérez (Catálogo, p. 179) spells it Arziaga. This missionary was a native of Valladolid, and came to the islands in 1699; he died in 1707. [↑]
[4] For a modern description of the Ilongots (or Italons), see that given in Census of the Philippines, i, pp. 545–547; the writer (L. E. Bennett, governor of Nueva Vizcaya) says: “The chiefs of all these settlements stated to me positively that adultery was unknown among these people, and that their family relations were very closely drawn. They further stated that they never knew of a case of a young woman giving birth before she had been married.” “Fighting is never carried on in the open, but they depend entirely upon assassination and ambush. They set pointed bamboos and spring guns for each other in places known to be traveled, and use spears and bows and arrows with poisoned tips when they fight.” [↑]
[5] This name is spelled Isasigana by Pérez. He was born in Durango, Vizcaya, in 1665, and came to the islands in 1699. Three years later he was sent to Carranglán, where he remained until he was worn out with missionary labors. Recalled to Manila for his health’s sake, he afterward held various offices in his order (1706–10), and was minister at Guagua and Apalit (1712, 1713). He died at Guagua (Vava, in Mozo), in 1717. [↑]
[6] “The missions of Pantabangan were administered by the Augustinians until they surrendered them to the Franciscans in order that the latter might unite these to their missions of Baler, which lies on the further coast that is called by that name. They maintain in these missions two or three religious, who minister to Pantabangan, where there are 60 houses; Puncán, which has 56 houses; and Carranglán, 82. Very little progress is made in these missions, on account of the misgovernment among the Indians and the lack of policy on the part of the Spaniards.” (Zúñiga’s Estadismo, Retana’s ed., i, p. 473.)
Vindel describes in his Catálogo, t. ii, no. 328, a rare pamphlet (apparently not mentioned elsewhere): Relación del descubrimiento y entrada de los religiosos de N. S. P. S. Francisco … en los pueblos ó rancherías de los montes altos de Baler; it is undated, but was probably published at Manila, about 1755. In it, “Fathers Manuel de San Agustín and Manuel de Jesús María Fermoselle report to their provincial, Fray Alejandro Ferrer [who held that office during 1753–56], the condition in which they found those villages.” San Agustín labored in Baler and neighboring villages during 1747–60. The mission of Baler was founded in 1609 by Franciscan missionaries, but half a century later was ceded, through scarcity of laborers, to the Recollects; the latter order abandoned that district in 1703, for the same reason, and the Franciscans resumed the charge of it. Baler was formerly situated on the right bank of the San José River, near the sea; but on December 27, 1735, it was utterly destroyed by a tidal wave, and the surviving inhabitants removed the village farther inland, to higher ground. (Huerta, Estado, pp. 280, 477.) [↑]
[7] Pérez states that he died at Guagua, a town in southern Pampanga; for this name Vava is apparently a phonetic Spanish corruption. [↑]
[8] Alejandro Cacho was a native of León, and came from a noble family; he arrived at Manila in the mission of 1690. He was a missionary to various tribes in upper Pampanga (now Nueva Écija), among whom he labored indefatigably for more than forty years. “He formed villages, opened roads, established schools, built churches, and felled groves; and what was but a little while before a gloomy and impenetrable forest afterward burst upon the sight of the astonished traveler as a broad plain, which the directing hand of the indefatigable Augustinian converted into a fertile field and beautiful province, the pride and hope of the new converts. And he accomplished even more; assigned to the missions of Carranglán and Pantabangan (1707) he eagerly devoted himself to the study of the flora in those unknown regions, examining the medicinal virtues of each plant; and as a fruit of his laborious task, besides practicing successfully the art of the physician among his beloved parishioners he left us the works which we mention below.” “He is one of the figures which most clearly illustrate what the religious in Filipinas was, in the double conception of priest and maintainer of the Spanish sovereignty in this archipelago.” (Pérez.) He died in Carranglán in 1748. The works alluded to are: “A treatise on the medicinal herbs of the mountains of Buhay;” “Origin and customs of those barbarous peoples;” “History of the Augustinian missions among the Italon Ilongots, the Isinais, the Irulis, and the Igolots,” during 1704–33; and three maps drawn by Cacho, giving valuable information regarding the habitat of those peoples in central Luzón. Besides these, he wrote catechisms in the languages of those tribes, directions for their government, etc. [↑]
[9] Spanish, al testud; this word does not appear in the lexicons, and it is impossible to determine its meaning accurately from the text. Testud may be possibly a misprint for testuz, meaning “the hind part of the head;” but it is more probably the mistake of an amanuensis for testiculos, these glands being regarded as the source of virile power. [↑]
[10] “Isinay is the language spoken by the Igorot of the hills in western Nueva Vizcaya, and by a part of the population of the towns of Aritao, Dupax, and Bambang, who are of Igorot origin, but whose ancestors were converted in the latter half of the eighteenth century.” “The name Igorot (in Spanish form, Igorrote) means in several Malayan languages, ‘people of the mountains.’… I have adopted it as a general designation for the whole body of primitive Malayan tribes of northern Luzón who are of the same physical type, speak closely allied languages, and present the same grade of culture.” (Barrows, in Census of Philippines, i, pp. 471, 472.) See also VOL. XX of this series, pp. 269–279. [↑]
[11] See account of Dominican missions, following this of Mozo’s. Interesting accounts of the Dominican missions in Luzón and its dependent islands, in recent times, may be found in the Correo Sino-Annamita (a missionary publication issued from the college of Santo Tomás, Manila, during the period 1866–97), vols. i, iv, xiii-xv, xx, xxi, xxiii–xxx. [↑]
[12] A royal decree (given in full by Mozo, pp. 48–51) states that the Augustinians informed the Dominicans, by a letter of September 8, 1739, of their decision to surrender the Ituy missions, contingent on the permission of the governor; and the actual formal surrender took place on April 8, 1740. This transfer was liberal and disinterested, the Augustinians asking no compensation for their property, which was of considerable value. The number of baptized persons included in these missions was 2,755; and the Augustinians had taught them to irrigate their lands, and had furnished them with animals and plows. [↑]
[13] Fray Vicente Ibarra was born in Durango in 1694, and made his religious profession at the age of sixteen; he came to the islands in 1712. He was minister at Santor and other places (1720–28), and afterward held several offices in his order. In 1737 he was prior provincial, and made a visitation of all the Augustinian religious ministers there. The latter part of his life was spent mainly at Manila, where he died on December 24, 1760. He left various writings in the Pampanga dialect. (Pérez’s Catálogo.)
Juan Belloxin was born in the province of Logroño in 1695, and made his profession at Salamanca when seventeen years old. He came to the islands in 1718, and spent ten years as missionary to the heathen Isinays, on whose dialect he left some MS. volumes. He was minister in various villages in other districts, and died at Manila in 1742.
Diego Noguerol was a native of the province of Coruña (1699), and professed at Compostela in 1716. Two years later he arrived at Manila, and went to the upper Pampanga mission; he was the first minister at Buhay (1728), where he remained seven years. He labored in other ministries and held offices in the order, dying at Manila in 1785. [↑]
[14] These were Bujay (the mission center), Dupag, Meuba, Mayon, Diangan, Limanab, Batù, Paitan, and Bayongbong (this last located in Paniqui). [↑]
[15] See description of trails in Igorot country, in Census of Philippines, i, p. 542. [↑]
[16] Agustín Barrio Canal was born in the province of Burgos, and made profession in the Augustinian convent of Salamanca in 1733, at the age of nineteen. He came to the islands in 1737, and became a missionary in western and central Luzón, where he died as related in Mozo’s text.
Pedro Freyre was born in the province of Lugo, and entered the Augustinian order at Burgos. He came to the Philippines in 1737, and labored among the tribes of central Luzón until 1753; he then became a minister in Pampanga, where he spent nearly twenty years. In 1771 he was removed by force from his post there, for refusing to accept the diocesan visit; the rest of his life was spent at Manila, where he died in 1790. (Pérez’s Catálogo.) [↑]
[17] Reference is here made to the great western mountain range of Luzón, the Caraballos Occidentales; it is nearly 200 miles long, and, including its subordinate ranges, one-third as broad. It is really a system of mountains, its central range forming the divide between the waters flowing to Cagayán River on the east and those flowing to the China Sea on the west. Its southern portion is called Cordillera Sur, which, bending eastward, under the name of Caraballos Sur joins the Sierra Madre or eastern coast range. This last range stretches along the eastern side of Luzón, from the northeastern point of the island to Laguna de Bay, a distance of 350 miles, and divides the waters of the Cagayán valley (which is about 50 miles wide, and 160 in length) from those of the Pacific slope. See Census of Philippines, i, pp. 60, 61. [↑]
[18] Barrows classes the Apayaos as an Igorot division, located in the district of Ayangan; (cf. VOL. XLIII, p. 72, note 11). The Tinguians also are Igorot, and are the pagan people of Abra; “they have developed toward civilized life, being about on the same plane of culture as the Ilocano.” “This word is derived from tingues, meaning ‘mountain,’ a Malayan word, archaic, and almost unused now in Tagálog, and the suffix an.” Adang evidently means the Gaddans, or Gaddang, another Igorot branch in western Isabela; some of them, christianized in early days, occupy the northern towns of Nueva Vizcaya. (Census of Philippines, i, pp. 469, 471, 477.) [↑]
[19] Cayán was formerly the capital of Lepanto; and is three miles from the present capital, Cervantes. [↑]
[20] José Herice was born in 1691, in a town in Navarra, and made his religious profession at Pamplona at the age of twenty. He came to the islands in 1718, and was sent to the Ilocos missions. He was the pioneer evangelist among the Adang (or Gaddans), and consumed so much of his strength in that field that he was transferred to easier charges in Ilocos, from 1725 on. He died at Batác in 1742. (Pérez’s Catálogo.) Rivera came to the islands in 1713, and was sent to the Tinguians, but for like cause was also transferred to the plains villages in 1719. Madariaga came over with Herice, whose associate he was among the Gaddans and Apayaos, until 1729, when he too went down to the plains; he died in 1744. [↑]
[21] Spanish, barbacoas: a word adopted from the Indians of Guiana, their name for the frames on which they roasted or smoke-dried any kind of meat or fish; it is also applied (in English, corrupted to “barbecue”) to a hog or other large animal roasted whole, and to the open-air entertainment at which such roasts (now usually made in a pit dug in the earth) form part of the food. [↑]
[22] See account of Igorot canaos (or feasts), and their dances at these, in Census of Philippines, i, pp. 535–537. [↑]
[23] Francisco Javier Córdoba was born in Mexico in 1712, and entered the Augustinian order at the age of seventeen. He came to the islands in 1732, and spent the rest of his life in the missions of Pampanga and Ilocos; his death occurred there, about 1764.
Romero was a native of Cadiz, born in 1729, and entered the order in Mechoacán, Nueva España, in 1750. Two years later he came to the islands, and joined the Igorot mission, afterward being cura in Indian villages; finally he returned to America (soon after 1774).
Pedro Vivar was born at Logroño in 1737, and made his profession at Valladolid, at the age of fourteen; he came to Manila with the mission of 1752, and two years later was sent to the Igorot mission. After three years labor there, he took charge of the ministries in various native villages of Ilocos, where he died in 1771. In the revolt which occurred in that province during the British occupation, he and other missionaries were imprisoned by the insurgents, and narrowly escaped being slain by them. Vivar left several MSS., among them a history of the above rebellion, which was recently published (Manila, 1893), in vol. iv of Biblioteca historica Filipina. (Pérez’s Catálogo.) [↑]
[24] The Tagálog name of the sago-palm (in Pampanga called ebos, according to Mozo), or Corypha umbraculifera. C. minor is commonly called palma brava (Tagálog, anáhao or anáo); see VOL. XLVII, p. 181, note 27. [↑]
[25] This is the fire-saw, a variant on the fire-drill so generally used by the North American Indians and other savage peoples. See description and illustration of the fire-saw used in Borneo, (similar to that of the Zambals), in Ling Roth’s Natives of Sarawak, i, pp. 377, 378. [↑]
[26] “ ‘Baluga,’ in the Pampango language, means half-breed or mixed blood. It has quite a wide use to indicate Negrito-Malayan roving savages.” (Barrows, in Census of Philippines, i, p. 469.) [↑]
[27] Ilib: a Pampango name of the cogon grass (Imperata arundinacea); see VOL. XXIX, p. 233, note 74. [↑]
[28] Spanish, lumbre, meaning “fire,” thence “light;” and by extension “tinder,” used to produce fire. Evidently the allusion in the text is to material used for tinder—in such a region and for use as a bed, obviously meaning dry grass. [↑]
[29] See Delgado’s description of the bees in Filipinas (Historia, pp. 848, 849). He states that there are several different kinds of bees, which produce great quantities of wax and honey—especially in the Visayas, where two crops are gathered in the year. [↑]
[30] See note on sago-palm, p. 91, ante. [↑]
[31] Evidently the same as súcao, an Ilocan name for a kind of pond-lily, Nelumbium speciosum; its tubers (and Blanco says, its flowers) are edible—as is the case with those of other species of the same genus, in America and other regions, which are used for food to some extent by the savages. [↑]
[32] That is, “Natural necessities are satisfied with almost nothing.” The other saying is: “If you wish to make a man rich do not add to his wealth, but take away his desires.” [↑]
[33] The Visayan name for the shrub (Croton tiglium) which yields the croton oil of commerce; it belongs to the order Euphorbiaceæ. [↑]
[34] “Termes monocerus (Koen), the common name for which is anay. The anay, or white ant, is a very remarkable insect, with a large head, on the upper part of which it has three small eyes; and it is armed with two hard teeth, shaped like a forceps, with which this creature destroys in a very short time the woodwork of a house, the best depository of papers, the largest library, or the finest wardrobe of clothing. The only wood that it does not attack is the molave, on account of its bitter taste and excessive hardness. The anay lives in families; it is found in all wet localities, and erects dwellings of clay which are two or three meters in height, and so solid that the passage of buffaloes over them is not sufficient to destroy them. The interior of these ant-hills contains a multitude of little cells, divided by thin partitions; and in these they deposit thousands of eggs (some 80,000 to each female) that are infinitely small. One [in each hill?] of these terrible insects is distinguished by its enormous proportions, and this one the Indian calls ‘queen of the ants.’ In the rainy season, wings grow on them, and they fly in fabulous numbers at sunset. The damage which these insects cause is incalculable.” (Montero y Vidal, Archipiélago Filipino, p. 114.)
The same writer mentions, in the preface to the same work, as an instance of the prevalent ignorance in Spain of the nature and needs of that country’s colonies in the East, that some member of the royal Council undertook to despatch a decree that the army in Filipinas should go in pursuit of the anay, believing it to be some terrible criminal.
Salazar makes an interesting reference (Hist. Sant. Rosario, p. 567) to some unnamed species of ant: “In that country [of the Mandayas] are certain ants which are called ‘Dutchmen,’ whose sting is so sharp that it becomes unendurable;” and he relates that this creature was used by a Dominican missionary as a new penance. [↑]
[35] Cf. account of these superstitions as still believed in Batangas, in Census of Philippines, i, pp. 520, 521. [↑]
[36] Agde (Latin, “Agatha”) a city in southeastern France, was anciently the seat of a bishopric suffragan to Narbonne; it was suppressed in 1790. The council here referred to was held in the year 506, “in the time and with the authorization of Alaric, king of the Visigoths in Spain, although he was an Arian.” (Chevin’s Dictionnaire de noms de lieux, p. 5.) [↑]
[37] Antonio Léon was born in 1702, in the province of Alicante, and made profession in the Augustinian convent at Salamanca at the age of sixteen. He came in the mission of 1724, and spent the rest of his life mainly in the missions of Pampanga, in which he died (1766). His younger brother Pablo came (being then a novice) to the islands at the same time; he was missionary in Puncán (1731) and Santor (1732) and died in 1733.
Manuel Calvo was born in Almagro in 1704, and when sixteen years old entered the Augustinian order at Toledo. He came to Manila with the foregoing brothers, and labored in Pampanga missions; he died at Ayárat in 1758.
Francisco Alvárez was a native of Oviedo province in Spain, and made profession at Madrid in 1727, at the age of twenty-two; he came to the islands in the mission of 1732. He also labored in the Pampanga missions, and died at Manila in 1769. (Pérez’s Catálogo.) [↑]
[38] “In the mountains [of Iloilo] there are many Indians whom they call Mundos; they should be called vagamundos [English, “vagabonds”], but the Indians bite off half from Castilian words when they are somewhat long. These Mundos are descendants of the Christians who, not being able to remain in the villages on account of their delinquencies, have fled to the mountains. They are not unwilling to become Christians, provided the fathers will go to their hamlets to live; but as this is impossible, on account of those places being inaccessible to civilized people, they continue in their infidelity. Some come down to the villages, and in their places others escape [to them] who commit new crimes; and [thus] this caste of people is continually maintained, notwithstanding the efforts that have been made to reduce them. The Indians trade with them, and give them rice and cloth in exchange for the wax and pitch which they bring down from the hills; and, in order not to lose this advantage, the Indians have been opposed to the reduction of the Mundos to a civilized and Christian mode of life.” (Zuñiga, Estadismo, ii, pp. 93–94.) [↑]
[39] Loberos (from lobo, “wolf”): Dominguez calls it a synonym of espantanublados (“scare clouds”), an epithet of “the vagabond who, wearing long garments, goes through the hamlets begging from door to door; and the country folk believe that he has power over the clouds” (Diccionario of the Academy). [↑]
[40] Félix de Rioja y Zúñiga was born at Cadiz in 1691, of a noble family, and made his profession there at the age of seventeen, renouncing an inherited title. He came to the islands in 1712, and seven years later was sent to the Bataan mission. He was sent to Guimbal (1722) and Bugason in 1728; in the latter place he was murdered in June, 1734. [↑]
[41] Carib: the name of the Indian race who inhabited the Antilles and adjacent coasts when the New World was discovered; also applied in general to fierce (and especially to cannibal) savages. [↑]
[42] Cf. Matilda C. Stevenson’s account of a ceremony employed at childbirth by the Sia Indians of New Mexico, in which an ear of corn (which among them is the emblem of life) is passed up and down the body of the mother, accompanied with prayers to one of their divinities, to secure a safe and easy delivery. (Report of U. S. Bureau of Ethnology, 1889–90, pp. 134–141.) [↑]
[43] This plant is evidently Datura alba (or perhaps in some places D. fastuosa, which has the same properties), commonly called “jimson weed” in the United States; it is called catchúbong or tachibong by the Visayans, and in Tagálog talamponay. (See Official Handbook of the Philippines, part i, pp. 377, 401; also Merrill’s Dictionary of Plant Names, p. 142.) [↑]
[44] It is possible that this plant is Euphorbia pilufera, a soporific; it is used, as are many other plants found in the islands, for poisoning fish. [↑]
[45] Fray Bernardo Ustáriz was born in the archbishopric of Zaragoza, and entered the Dominican order at Calatayud; he came to the Philippines with the mission of 1730. In the following year he was minister at Binondo, and in 1739 at Abucay; with these exceptions he was engaged in high offices of his order—being the head, at various times, of the college of Letran and of the university of Santo Tomás; and twice (1743 and 1755) the provincial of the order. He was afterward appointed bishop of Nueva Segovia, taking possession of that see in 1761. In the following year the capture of Manila by the English occasioned a revolt in Ilocos; the efforts of Ustáriz to oppose the insurgents were unsuccessful, and drew upon him their resentment. They kept him a prisoner for six months, and were on the point of killing him; but his life was saved by the opportune arrival of a Spanish force. He then accompanied the troops through their campaign for the pacification of Pangasinan, and the hardships which he underwent therein and in his previous captivity shortened his life; he died at the hospital of San Gabriel, near Manila, August 2, 1764. (Ferrando’s Hist. PP. dominicos, v, pp. 6–9.) [↑]
[46] Father Manuel del Río thus describes the district of Paniqui and its people (Retana’s Archivo, ii, pp. 185–187): “This province of Paniqui extends from north to south; and its length, from the last Christian village of Cagayan, which is Itugug, to the last infidel village (but close to the mission of Isinay), called Bayongbong, is probably two and one-half or three days’ journey. Its breadth thus far has not been ascertained; but I think that it includes more than fifteen leguas of plains, or level ground, from the mountains of the Igorrots to those of the Ilongots. These are two ranges of lofty peaks, which intersect this province in the middle, and likewise others in the center of this island; and in these mountains dwell these two and other barbarous tribes, whom hitherto it has been impossible to conquer, on account of the inaccessible character of the mountains. The land of this province of Paniqui is quite level, and good for cultivation. The villages are numerous, although not very large; for on the shores of the Maga River alone, which flows through the length of that province from south to north, are counted eighteen villages, including both large and small ones. The people of that tribe are distinct from those adjacent to them, and have a different language from the others. The men are accustomed from childhood to file their upper teeth into points, which often causes them to decay; and the teeth, after being dyed a sort of dark blue, are adorned (when the person is a chief) with small golden pegs. For persons of rank, it is considered very unsightly to have white teeth. They also pierce their ears, as women do; and some cleave them through. These people are barbarians in their customs, without any kind of civilization or government; and they pay respect only to some chiefs, who have acquired a reputation as such by their valorous deeds. They are not idolaters, nor are they given to religion or to worship; they have only some superstitions regarding the songs of birds, and similar things, founded on oracles which are given to them by the demon, through the agency of their aniteras, or priestesses. These women, through a compact which they have with the demon, after taking a certain potion are possessed by that same demon; and through their mouths this enemy is able to declare his will to those wretched people. At other times, the demon speaks to them in his own person, in an aerial body; but never, or very seldom, does he allow himself to be seen by those who hear him. Through the counsel of this chief enemy of the human race, those heathen are wont to buy Indians from other provinces, in order to offer them in sacrifice, by killing them, to the demon. Of this class must have been a little boy four years old, apparently an Igorrot, who was seen by the said father commissary, Fray Diego de la Torre. Those infidels were buying the child, to kill him; and the father, not having with him any forces for preventing this, could only obtain from them that they should bring the child to him for baptism before the sacrifice. God chose that the bargain should not be settled, and that the father should buy the child for some trinkets and beads, which those people value; and accordingly he brought the lad to Cagayan, snatching him from the teeth and claws of the infernal wolf. The said father encountered among those infidels, another boy, about seven years old, who was white and ruddy, like a European—a very singular thing among people so swarthy as they. His mother had had other children, but dark, like herself; and she says that when she was pregnant with this boy she dreamed that they commanded her to give him the name of Adàn [i.e., Adam], and therefore did so, calling the boy Adàn. They regarded him as a little idol; and therefore, although the father urged them several times to give him the child, he was unable to obtain it.” [↑]
[47] See earlier accounts of these Dominican missions in Central Luzón, in VOL. XXXVII, pp. 98–101; and in VOL. XLIII, Salazar’s history, book i, chap. xxxiii, and book ii, chaps. ii, xi, xxii, xxxv, xlix. Cf. Ferrando’s Hist. PP. dominicos, passim, for detailed accounts from the beginnings of those missions down to 1830. [↑]
[48] In Retana’s printed text this word appears, by some error, as montes, when the context plainly indicates islas. [↑]
[49] See account of this project, the explorations made for it, and its successful accomplishment, in Ferrando’s Hist. PP. dominicos, iv, pp. 367–382. [↑]
[50] Carajay is, according to Vidal y Soler (Viajes de Jagor, p. 138), an earthenware jar, used for cooking by the Bicol natives in Camarines. [↑]
[51] According to an official report sent to the king in July, 1752, the Dominican province of Santisimo Rosario had then only 83 religious, who were in charge of 219,459 souls. Besides the missions of China and Tun-kin, the province conducted in the Filipinas Islands seven missions in Cagayan, two in Pangasinan, six in Ituy, one in Cauayan, and eight in Paniqui; and one in the mountains of Oriong, in Bataan. “In all these missions, or villages of new converts, there were reckoned 8,917 Christians, with many catechumens who were being prepared to receive the holy sacrament of baptism. This number is not included in the general administration of the province previously mentioned. Some of these villages or missions were committed to religious appointed as vicars in other and older villages, to which the former were added, and considered as visitas or annexes—especially in Cagayan, where there has not been any religious with only the title of missionary. The number of souls who are today in charge of the province in the islands of Luzon and Batanes, according to the general report of 1870, is 560,911.” (Ferrando, Hist. PP. dominicos, iv, pp. 560, 561.) [↑]