The entire valley of the Cagayan had been divided among the soldiers of the command which had effected the conquest. In the list of encomiendas a few can be recognized, such as Yguig and Tuguegarao, but most of the names are not to be found on maps of to-day. Most of the inhabitants were reported to be “rebellious” (alçados), and some were apparently the same wild tribes which still occupy all of this water-shed, except the very banks of the river; but none the less had the Spaniards divided them off into “repartimientos.” One soldier had even taken as an encomienda the inhabitants of the upper waters of the river, a region which is called in the Relacion “Pugao,” with little doubt the habitat of the same Igorrote tribe as the Ipugao, who still dwell in these mountains. The upper valley of the Magat, or Nueva Vizcaya, does not appear to have been occupied and probably was not until the missions of the eighteenth century.
The population among the Bisayan islands was quite surprisingly small, considering its present proportions. Masbate, for example, had but 1,600 souls; Burias, a like number; the whole central group, leaving out Panay, only 15,833 tributes, or about 35,000 souls. There was a single encomienda in Butúan, Mindanao, and another on the Caraga coast. There were a thousand tributes collected in the encomienda of Cuyo, and fifteen hundred in Calamianes, which, says the Relacion, included “los negrillos,” probably the mixed Negrito population of northern Palawan.
The entire population under encomiendas is set down as 166,903 tributes, or 667,612 souls. This is, so far as known, the earliest enumeration of the population of the Philippines. Barring the Igorrotes of northern Luzon and the Moros and other tribes of Mindanao, it is a fair estimate of the number of the Filipino people three hundred years ago.
It will be noticed that the numbers assigned to single encomenderos in the Philippines were large. In America the number was limited. As early as 1512, King Ferdinand had forbidden any single person, of whatever rank or grade, to hold more than three hundred Indians on one island.[3] But in the Philippines, a thousand or twelve hundred “tributantes” were frequently held by a single Spaniard.
Condition of the Filipinos under the Encomiendas.—Frequent Revolts.—That the Filipinos on many of these islands bitterly resented their condition is evidenced by the frequent uprisings and rebellions. The encomenderos were often extortionate and cruel, and absolutely heedless of the restrictions and obligations imposed upon them by the Laws of the Indies. Occasionally a new governor, under the first impulse of instructions from Mexico or Spain, did something to correct abuses. Revolts were almost continuous during the year 1583, and the condition of the natives very bad, many encomenderos regarding them and treating them almost as slaves, and keeping them at labor to the destruction of their own crops and the misery of their families. Gov. Santiago de Vera reached the Islands the following year and made a characteristic attempt to improve the system, which is thus related by Zuñiga:—
“As soon as he had taken possession of the government, he studied to put into effect the orders which he brought from the king, to punish certain encomenderos, who had abused the favor they had received in being given encomiendas, whereby he deposed Bartolomé de Ledesma, encomendero of Abuyo (Leyte), and others of those most culpable, and punished the others in proportion to the offenses which they had committed, and which had been proven.
“In the following year of 1585, he sent Juan de Morones and Pablo de Lima, with a well equipped squadron, to the Moluccas, which adventure was as unfortunate as those that had preceded it, and they returned to Manila without having been able to take the fortress of Ternate. The governor felt it very deeply that the expedition had failed, and wished to send another armada in accordance with the orders which the king had given him; but he could not execute this because the troops from New Spain did not arrive, and because of the Indians, who lost no occasion which presented itself to shake off the yoke of the Spaniards.
“The Pampangos and many inhabitants of Manila confederated with the Moros of Borneo, who had come for trade, and plotted to enter the city by night, set it on fire, and, in the confusion of the conflagration, slay all the Spaniards. This conspiracy was discovered through an Indian woman, who was married to a Spanish soldier, and measures to meet the conspiracy were taken, before the mine exploded, many being seized and suffering exemplary punishment.
“The islands of Samar, Ybabao, and Leyte were also in disturbance, and the encomendero of Dagami, pueblo of Leyte, was in peril of losing his life, because the Indians were incensed by his thievings in the collection of tribute, which was paid in wax, and which he compelled them to have weighed with a steelyard which he had made double the legal amount, and wanted to kill him. They would have done so if he had not escaped into the mountains and afterwards passed by a banca to the island of Cebu. The governor sent Captain Lorenzo de la Mota to pacify these disturbances; he made some punishments, and with these everything quieted down.”[4]
Three years later, however, the natives of Leyte were again in revolt. In 1589 Cagayan rose and killed many Spaniards. The revolt seems to have spread from here to the town of Dingras, Ilocos, where the natives rose against the collectors of tribute, and slew six Spaniards of the pueblo of Fernandina. (Zuñiga, Historia de Filipinas, p. 165.)[5]