[5] The Igorrotes first appear under the name Ygolot, which was applied to the inhabitants of Benguet; and those people probably represent the original tribe. The name was later applied to all the head-hunters of northern Luzon, then collectively to all in the Philippine Islands, and is now almost synonymous with “wild.” The district assigned to the real Igorrotes is a matter of controversy among various authors, as are also their various characteristics, and their origin. Certain characteristics point to infusions of Chinese and Japanese blood. Comparatively few of them have embraced Christianity. They live in villages of three or four hundred, with a chief in each, who is usually the richest man, and whose lands the common people cultivate. They are generally monogamous, and respect the marriage tie highly. They believe in a supreme being whom they call Apo or Lu-ma-oig; his wife Bangan; his daughter Bugan; and his son Ubban. There are two inferior gods Cabigat and Suyan. Their priests are called Maubunung and they heal sickness with charms and incantations. They believe in two places of abode after death: one pleasant and cheerful, for those who die a natural death; the other a real heaven, for warriors killed in battle and women who die in childbirth. They bury their dead in coffins in a sitting position, in clefts or caves, and often dry the corpse over a fire. Ancestor-worship is prevalent. They are an agricultural people, but do not breed cattle. They have worked the copper mines of their districts and extracted gold from the earliest times. As yet, however, exact and scientific knowledge regarding them is slight, as is true of many other Filipino tribes, owing to the confused state of Philippine ethnology. See Smithsonian Report, 1899, p. 538, “List of native tribes of Philippines” by Ferdinand Blumentritt (translated by Dr. O.T. Malon); Blumentritt’s “Über den Namen der Igorroten” in Ausland, no. 1, p. 17 (Stuttgart, 1882); Sawyer’s Inhabitants of the Philippines (New York, 1900); pp. 254–267; and Foreman’s Philippine Islands (London, 1890), pp. 212–215.
[6] The city of Potosi in Bolivia is situated on the slope of the Cerro Gordo de Potosi, a mountain 16,152 feet high, which contains silver mines of a richness that has become proverbial; they were discovered in 1545, by an Indian. It is estimated that the silver obtained from this mountain, up to the middle of the nineteenth century, amounted to $1,600,000,000. Humboldt gives the figures for its yield, from 1566 to 1789, amounting to 60,864,359 pounds troy; see his New Spain (Black’s trans., London, 1811), iii, pp. 171, 172. He also endeavors to estimate (pp. 353–379) the value of the total yield from its discovery to 1789, which he places at 5,750,000,000 of livres tournois (£234,693,840 sterling). The mines now are almost abandoned, and the annual yield is about $800,000.
[7] Referring to the allotment of space for freight in the regular trading fleet sent yearly to Mexico. As has been shown in preceding documents, this privilege, as the source of much profit, was restricted by the government to the citizens of the islands, among certain of whom the space was duly allotted by toneladas, each shipping goods to that extent—although many frauds were practiced, often by royal officials themselves. The stipulation in our text secured, to persons having the right to a share in this trade, the exercise of that right while absent on the Tuy expedition, the same as if they were present in Manila when the ships were laden. The pieza mentioned in this paragraph was the bale used as the unit of capacity in lading the vessel (see Bourne’s introduction to this series, Vol. I, p. 63). A letter from Andres de Alcaraz to the king (August 10, 1617), which will be presented in Vol. XVII, gives further information regarding the pieza. From this document it appears that the tonelada was reckoned at eight piezas; the pieza would then be estimated at ten arrobas, or two hundred and fifty libras.
[8] Evidently a reference to a compilation of Spanish laws. There is nothing in the Recopilacion de las leyes de Indias answering to this.
[9] The district of the governor formerly called adelantado.
Petition of a Filipino Chief for Redress
Sire:
In former years the archbishop of these Philipinas Islands, on petition of the natives of the village of Quiapo, which is near this city of Manila, wrote to your Majesty, informing you that the fathers of the Society of Jesus—under pretext that the former dean of this holy church of Manila, whom your Majesty has lately appointed archbishop,[1] had sold them a garden lying back of our village—have been insinuating themselves more and more into our lands and taking more than what was assigned them by the dean; and that we had scarcely any land remaining in the village for our fields, and even for our houses. The petition begged your royal Majesty to remedy this and protect us under your royal clemency, since we are Indians, who cannot defend ourselves by suits, as we are a poor people, and it would be a matter with a religious order. Your royal Majesty, as so Catholic and most Christian, sent a command to the royal Audiencia resident in these islands to gather information of the details of this matter, and to redress it, and not allow injuries to be inflicted on us. We have heard that the royal Audiencia has advised your Majesty; but we do not know what they have advised, for nothing was told us. Now this present year, I, who am the chief, and claim that the lands which are in dispute with the fathers are of greater extent, built a house in my fields. One of the fathers [i.e., Jesuits], named Brother Nieto, came with a numerous following of negroes and Indians, armed with halberds and catans; and of his own accord, and with absolute authority, razed my house to the ground. This caused great scandal to those who saw a religious armed for the purpose of destroying the house of a poor Indian—although, after seeing his intention to seize all my property and bind me, I did not raise my eyes to behold him angered, because of the respect that I know is due the ministers who teach us the law of God. Although the alcalde-mayor of our village (namely, the master-of-camp, Pedro de Chaves) was angry, as was proper, at the little attention they paid to the royal justice of your Majesty and of your servants; and went immediately on that same day to the destroyed house, and did not leave the village until he knew that another small house had been rebuilt for me in place of the one destroyed—yet, as all the fathers had threatened me that, as often as I should build a house there, they would return to raze or burn it (and this they have declared before the alcalde-mayor himself and the canon Talavera, our minister), and as I am a poor Indian, I fear the power of the said fathers. For I fear that I can find no one to aid me in the suits that the fathers are about to begin against me, or who will appear for my justice, since I have even been unable to find anyone who dared to write this letter for me. This letter is therefore written by my own hand and in my own composition, and in the style of an Indian not well versed in the Spanish language. But I confide my cause to your royal Majesty’s great kindness, and, prostrate at your Majesty’s royal feet, implore you to protect me with your royal protection, by ordering the royal Audiencia and the archbishop to inform your royal Majesty anew, and to summon me in order that I may inform them of my claims to justice. Also in the meanwhile will you order the fathers not to molest me in the ancient possession that I have inherited from my fathers and grandfathers, who were chiefs of the said village. I trust in the royal clemency and exceedingly great Christian spirit of your Majesty that I shall be protected and defended in what should have justice. This I petition from your royal person, whom may our Lord preserve during many happy years, for the protection of these poor Indians, your Majesty’s loyal vassals, and for the increase of this new Christian community. From Quiapo; July 25, 1609.
The useless slave of your royal Majesty,