The glorious triumphs among the Isinay and adjoining tribes are related
In the wild and impenetrable mountain ranges which extend to the northeast and north, and separate the provinces of Pampanga and Nueva Segovia, there are various tribes who have almost the same customs as those of the Abaca and Ibilaos; one of these is the one called Isinay.[10] To them, and to the adjacent tribes, the fervent zeal of the fathers belonging to the illustrious Order of St. Dominic[11] had been directed, years before; but they found so much stubbornness, violence, and cruelty that—after immense labors, and having been in danger of losing their lives—they were not able to secure the conversion of one of those people to our holy faith. For this reason the fathers were obliged to withdraw from them, seeing that they were wasting time without having any result, or even the hope of it. [The Augustinian Cacho took up this task, and went on foot among those wild mountains and wilder savages; at first they repulsed him, and even tried to kill him, but finally his perseverance and patience softened their hard hearts, and they were willing to listen to him.] From the year 1715 until 1723, he was able to found four new villages of the Isinay people, not to mention many others besides, from other tribes, whom he baptized, and who united themselves with the other villages previously mentioned. Finally, continuing unweariedly in his holy task, and enduring the hardships which may be guessed, by the year 1738 he had come to the end of baptizing and converting the entire Isinay tribe, with a large part of other tribes, whom he settled in different villages. All these, thoroughly subdued and tamed, baptized, and established in a well civilized mode of life, the [Augustinian] province surrendered to the holy Order of St. Dominic, with churches, dwellings for the religious, the sacred vessels, and the other ornaments of the sacristy, because that of our father St. Augustine found that it had many missions for which to care, and not religious enough for all. This surrender was made in the year 1740[12] preceding the permission of the governor and examination by the judge whom he appointed for that task. The latter recorded a judicial inventory of everything that was surrendered, and even copied from the baptismal registers the numbers of the persons baptized, that these matters might be evident for all time; and at the same time he made a judicial investigation, showing who those were who began to evangelize the said tribes—from which it appeared that when our religious began their labors there, there was not any Christian in those places. This surrender being accomplished, then, our religious withdrew to their other missions, in which there are fifteen villages which have been formed since the year 1702, at which time that mission was commenced for the aforesaid places. In these glorious triumphs, those who attained greatest eminence and were most fortunate in winning souls, next to the three religious [already named], sons of this province of Castilla, were: our father Fray Vicente Ibarra,[13] who afterward was provincial; the father definitor Fray Juan Velloxin, a most guileless man, full of virtue, and unwearied in labors; the father Fray Diego Nogueròl, who is still living, and has been definitor—all these three from this province of Castilla—and the father commissary Fray Joseph Gonzalez, a son of the province of Philipinas; also others, whom, in order not to be tedious, I omit.
[News of this change reached Spain in 1742, and the general public impression was that the aforesaid conversions had been accomplished by the Dominican fathers. At the representations of the Augustinian procurator at Madrid, the king issued a decree (dated December 19, 1742), approving and confirming the transfer made to the Dominicans, setting forth the facts in the case and giving the credit for these labors to the Augustinians. In the rehearsal of their achievements various interesting facts are stated. The people of Ituy were formerly called Isinay, a name given to them by the Italons. The first three Augustinian missionaries baptized, from the year 1715 to 1723, six hundred and ninety-five persons of all ages among these Ituis, not counting many others who were being prepared for baptism. Of these converts they formed four villages with their churches: Bujay (the chief village), Pigpig, Marian, and Canan. In this and the Italon mission they baptized in that period three thousand, four hundred and thirteen persons. In 1723 the order applied to the governor for further aid; he sent Auditor Pabón to inspect the missions, whose report led to the appointment of three more missionaries there, their stipends paid from the royal treasury. The eighteen Isinay villages had been reduced to nine[14] by the missionaries; all of these contained church buildings, and most of them convents; and the people were considerably civilized. The missionaries had provided them with beasts of burden, and with “all the rest that was necessary for the cultivation of their grain-fields.” Through the efforts of these missionaries, in conjunction with the Dominicans, a road was constructed from Pampanga to Cagayan;[15] and another, from Pangasinan to Paniqui, was opened by the Dominicans, in which they were aided greatly by the Augustinians. The eighteen Italon villages, with two others, were reduced to fifteen: within the mountains, Puncàn, Caranglan, San Miguèl, Santa Rita, Bolo, Pantabangan, San Juan, and Santo Thomàs; in the valleys, Tayog, Umingan, Lupào, San Joseph, Palosapes (or Urorin), San Agustin, and Santa Monica. Perhaps the greatest among the Augustinian missionaries was Alexandro Cacho, who died in 1745. After him came Fray Agustin Barriocanal,[16] a man of great zeal, who formed a village called Ambayavan; in the flower of his youth he was drowned while trying to ford a swollen stream (June 5, 1747). Another noted missionary was Pedro Freyre; he converted eighty families in the Jumangi tribe, and gathered them into a village, with their own church; and he converted great numbers from the Italon, Abaca, Ibilao, Irapi, and Ilongot tribes, and even some of the blacks (Negritos). Mozo cites their labors in order to show that the missionary spirit was then even more active and aspiring than in the early days of the conquest; and confirms it by describing the mode of life of these mountain tribes, and the consequent difficulties in missionary labor among them, saying:]
The tribes converted by the early missionaries were more civilized, dwelt on the plains, and had a more orderly mode of life, sowing grain and gathering enough for their support; but these of whom we speak, besides being rough in their behavior, hardly know any tillage of the soil, living generally by hunting. Their mode of cultivating what little they plant is as follows: They first clear some little piece of ground from the brush and weeds on it, with their knives (which resemble those which the butchers use); then with the point of the knife they make holes in the ground, in rows, and throw into each a few grains of seed; they know no other plow, or any other thing which might serve as one, for which reason the harvest that they gather is always very small. They do the same for any planting of sugarcane which they make—from which, when the cane is mature, they press out the juice and make wine for drinking at their feasts; after cutting out of the soil the grass to the roots, they make little holes in it, and then thrust into these the shoots from the mature canes which they had cut. For this reason, and because it is necessary to provide means by which those who are converted may obtain a suitable support, so that for lack of this they may not go wandering about, as soon as we begin to confer baptism we endeavor to find animals and other necessaries for the cultivation of the land—the religious being often the first one who begins to plow and sow, directing them in this way, so that they may learn how to do it. The same thing occurs with reaping. They do not use sickles, but go on picking the grain spike by spike; and, as there is so little of it, they soon end their task. But, now that they are taught to plow, it is also necessary to teach them to cut and winnow the grain; and this is done, the religious being the ones who commence it, in order that the people may imitate them—in which the work alone is for them, as they give up all the fruit of it for the benefit of the said barbarians. [The missionaries also had to contend with the attachment of the savages to their mountains, for they abhorred the life on the plains. One reason was, their dread of the smallpox, which never entered the mountains, because these savage dwellers there instituted a strict quarantine—closing up the roads and paths with logs and brushwood, and sending out the declaration that they would immediately kill any one who dared to enter their territory. Another reason was, that the hotter climate of the plains did not agree with them. Accordingly, in order not to exasperate them, no further effort was made to change their dwellings, and the religious continued to labor among them in the midst of a thousand trials and hardships.]
CHAPTER III
Missions of the provinces of Ilocos and Pangasinan in general
[Mozo states that the two provinces of Pampanga and Pangasinan were so populous that, “of those whom our forefathers converted in these two provinces alone are counted more than one hundred and fifty thousand souls—who, settled in villages, and maintained in a very civilized and Christian society, hold their own on the frontier of the infidels; for their territory allows them no alternative, shut in on one side by the sea, and on the other by very rugged mountains.”]
Four very noted tribes, three of them very extensive and populous, the fourth of more restricted territory and containing fewer souls—in which last the enemy [of souls], strongly fortified, has resisted for long ages—have been the aim to which the zeal and fervor of the evangelical ministers have been directed. The said tribes dwell among mountain ranges that are very extensive, lofty, and rugged—which, stretching from the province of Pampanga and bordering that of Pangasinan, run throughout Ilocos, through a space, with bends and turns, of about a hundred leguas.[17] The first of these tribes is called Igolot, and, corrupting the letters, they are wont to call it Igorrot; their territory occupies about thirty leguas, from the confines of Pampanga to those of the province of Ilocos. Contiguous to this tribe is another which is called Tinggian, not less numerous; and it extends for a distance of about forty leguas along the same mountains, even trenching upon the province of Ilocos. Then comes another, called Apayao,[18] extending about thirty leguas, which consists of many thousands of souls; and at one side dwell another tribe, called Adang, which has fewer people, but, for the very reason that they find themselves less powerful, they have their dwellings in places almost inaccessible—maintaining (as do the three others) their own different dialect. Of the said four tribes, the first and third are to a great degree cruel and barbarous; but the second and third, although sufficiently obstinate, are more tractable. It is said that the Igolot tribe are a caste of those Chinese who had come over with the pirate Limahon to conquer those islands; and, being conquered, he escaped with those whom he could gather, those who could taking refuge in these mountains, in which they have multiplied exceedingly. Besides the reasons which favor this opinion, it is apparently confirmed by their appearance; for, although they go about naked, and are subjected to every inclemency of the weather, they nevertheless greatly resemble the Chinese in the light color and gracefulness of their bodies, especially in the eyes, in which there is a close likeness between them. Their fierceness and cruelty is unequaled; their only desire is to take captives, in order to have slaves for their service, and, when they have enough of these, to kill whomever they encounter. For this reason, without a strong escort one cannot pass, except with great danger, through the upper part of those mountains; and even the villages are so infested with them that as a precaution they always keep some men armed to resist these marauders—at night stationing a sentinel with his drum, who is changed during the daytime—throughout that mountain range. And because in every place our natives (especially if they are away from the village) are so harassed by the Igolots, therefore when they go to sow their grain or gather their crops they erect high sentry-posts, from which they can see if the enemy are coming; and those who work keep the sickle in one hand and a weapon in the other—as we are told of the Israelites when in the time of Esdras they were building the walls of Jerusalem …. And even when they do this, they are not safe from the fury of these savages. Such was the ferocity of this tribe, in which they continued until the past year of 1755, and in such manner did they try the patience of all those villages.
The tribe adjoining this one, called Tingguian, are more gentle and more industrious, and maintain a much more civilized condition, because they have much intercourse with the Christians in whose vicinity they live; and for the same reason they are more open to the teachings of the religious. And although so far as concerns the acceptance of baptism they have continued very obstinate, for many years refusing to allow a religious to live among them, yet always it has been a very satisfactory harvest [of souls] which annually has been gathered and united with the Christians, as may be seen by the certificate of the reverend father provincial which is presented above; speaking of the Tingguians, he states that in only two years one hundred and fifty-six infidels had been converted to our holy faith by the religious of the villages near by—which has always been the fact, sometimes more and sometimes fewer. With such a drop of comfort as this, the ministers were consoled—who, not finding any hindrance in going from time to time to visit those savages, went in and out, carried away by their holy zeal. And although, when the fathers talked to them about our holy law, they would reply that the time for it had not yet come for them, nor was it possible to overcome their caprices by any arguments, nevertheless there was always one person here, or another there, who was made ready to receive the heavenly influences.
The third tribe, which is the one called Apayao, not only does not remain behind the Igolot in cruelty, bloodthirstiness, and barbarism, but in a great degree surpasses it. For not only are its men continually going about, placing a thousand ambushes in the roads, in order to exercise their rage on the wretches who have the misfortune to fall into their hands, without sparing any person, no matter of what rank or condition he may be; but they have, besides, a specially barbaric custom and cruel superstition at the funerals and obsequies of their chiefs and other persons whom they respect, in every way very similar to that which for many centuries the Greeks practiced at the death of their heroes, and other persons of rank, before and after the so celebrated destruction of Troya. [Here Mozo makes a long digression regarding the customs of the ancient Greeks and Romans in killing slaves or other people at the death of a prominent person.] These [Apayao] barbarians, then, are wont to celebrate the funerals and obsequies of their dead, although not promiscuously of all, but only those of their chiefs and other persons to whom they pay respect; and because they believe that the shades [manes] of the deceased take delight in human blood, they endeavor to give them this pleasure by killing people—a greater or less number, according to the station of the dead man. To do so, they avail themselves only of those whom they capture for this purpose, and these they go out to seek with great diligence, as soon as the dying man has ceased to breathe. In order that they may not lack these captives, they assemble a considerable number of men, and, some taking one road and some another, they go down from the mountains well armed, and, hiding in the brushwood near the roads, they wait very silently for some passers-by; and, as soon as they discover such persons, they attack them with great fury, and kill them with their javelins on the very spot. This done, the assailants cut off their heads, and laden with these (leaving the bodies there) they carry them to their own dead, and place the heads about him. After this they celebrate their sort of banquet, at which they eat and drink like beasts; and when this is finished they complete the burial. Placing in the tomb some portion of food and drink, they bury the corpse with those heads, being greatly pleased and satisfied at having pleased the shades of their dead, and believing that through this whatever they may undertake will have a prosperous issue.