The desertion of all the towns on the lower Agúsan meant the return of some 5,000 conquistas to their original manner of life, for at this period the total number of converts in the valley was 11,000.34 The upper Agúsan had 1,500, La Paz, 1,000, and the Simúlao district, 2,000.
34Ibid., 5: 71.
On the upper Agúsan affairs followed the same trend. The Mandáyas of the Kati'il River killed 180 on the Húlip River. Jativa and Búal were attacked by Mandáyas, the latter place being abandoned immediately. Baóbo, "the river of bagáni,"35 continued to keep Patrocinio, Búai, and Gracia on the alert.
35A bagáni is a Mandáya, Mañgguáñgan, Debabáon, or Manóbo warrior who has a certain number of deaths to his account and who gives evidence of being under the influence of war deities.
Notwithstanding these vicissitudes, the missionaries succeeded in establishing Pilar, a Mañgguáñgan town, on the Mánat. It is described as being made up of the most ignorant and depraved people on the upper Agúsan. In the same year (1883) Gracia was founded between Patrocinio and Jativa. This town is not now in existence, and I am unable to state just where its location was, unless it may have been near the present site of Langkiláan. On the lower Agúsan, Gángub, or Nuevo Guadalupe, and Tortosa on the Kabarbarán River were formed. Neither of them is in existence at the present day.
The missionaries, not yet being able to reunite the Manóbos, directed their activities to the conversion of Mamánuas. Hence in 1883 we read that the Mamánua settlements of Santa Ana, San Roque, San Pablo, Santiago, and Tortosa were formed, the total number of converts being about 800. Most of these settlements are still in existence, though there are times when not a soul may be found in any of them.
1884
In 1884 little is recorded. It was calculated that at this time there were still 6,000 unconverted pagans in the upper Agúsan district. Jativa, which was the headquarters of the mission, and which had a population of 156 families, was attacked by Mandáyas. On the lower Agúsan matters were at a standstill, the conversion of 134 Mamánuas being the only important item that is recorded in the letters.
1885
On the Pacific coast the labors of the missionaries had been confined to the Bisáyas up to 1885, in which year Peruga converted the pagan Mandáyas of Marihátag and Kagwáit. He also ascended the Tágo River converted the pagan Mandáyas of Alba, establishing at the same time a town of that name.