[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. [↑]