Edward Gaylord Bourne

[The following account of Augustinian missions in the first half of the eighteenth century is translated from Antonio Mozo’s Noticia histÓrico natural (Madrid, 1763).1 It is presented partly in full, and partly in synopsis, preferring for the former such parts as are of ethnological interest.]

After we had been able to reduce to our holy faith two tribes who dwelt at the summits of the most rugged mountains in the province of Pampanga, the Caraclans and Buquids, and from them had been formed three villages—Santor and Bongabon, quite populous; and Pantabangan, of smaller numbers, and lying more within the mountains2—this gate being now opened so that we could proceed further, it only needed that we should have the courage to do so. For at the first step were encountered two contiguous tribes: the Italons, a people fierce, brave, and bold; and the Abacas, who are somewhat less so. The religious therefore feared that those people, to judge from their ferocious natures, would without doubt tear them to pieces at the very outset, without even listening to them; and for this very reason they greatly dreaded to set foot within the territory of those tribes. While we were in these straits, our provincial then being our father reader Fray Francisco Zamora, about the year 1702 he selected for this purpose father Fray Antolin de Arzaga,3 whose virtue and ardor he knew well from experience, and entrusted to him this enterprise, as dangerous as difficult. [This gospel pioneer went out, equipped with what was necessary for administering the sacraments and with some trinkets to give the natives, “and with no other arms than his confidence in God.”]

[On August 16, 1702, a letter from Father Arzaga to his superior gave account of his progress thus far; it was written from Pantabangan, which is “distant from Santor eight leguas by a very difficult road.” From the latter village he sent a message, by the hands of four chiefs, to the chief of Lublub, who came out to meet him with forty infidels; but the father finally persuaded them to let him enter their village, where he exhorted and instructed them, receiving an attentive hearing. “This village [i.e., Lublub] has about one hundred and fifty persons; it is distant from this one [of Pantabangan] four leguas to the east, by an uneven road. This Italon tribe consists of fifty-six villages (so far as I have yet ascertained), which lie on the shores of two deep rivers, toward the north. They have a general language which is entirely separate from those of Tagalos and Pampanga; they have well-kept villages, with high houses. They take great care of their fields, and keep their grain in tambobos, or granaries, thus anticipating times of sterility and sickness. The fishing, as also the hunting, is abundant and good; the climate is temperate; and there are many open plains, beautiful to see. The people are kindly, but very warlike and of courageous dispositions; they are quite ingenious, and are hospitable. They understand that there is a God, and that He is in heaven, caring for all whom He creates—to whom they offer sacrifices, only when they make agreements of peace—and that there is no other God than He. They say that He rewards the good and punishes the bad, but they do not know in what manner; and they admit that they have immortal souls. They make a contract of marriage with one wife only, which lasts until death; they do not allow concubinage; and they do not marry their relatives. They observe the truth well; and, what is more, they desire to be Christians.”4 Certain “bad Christians” have told these Italons that the Spaniards are trying to load them with tributes and take away their liberty; therefore they are waiting to make their decision, and fifteen of them, accompanied by an Augustinian religious, are carrying Arzaga’s letter to Manila. He continues:]

“The Abaca tribe consists of ten villages, divided into two jurisdictions, one of which belongs to this village and contains six villages toward the north, extending, as they have told me, to the boundaries of the Igorrots. Twenty-two persons in the first village, called Diama, came to visit me as soon as I arrived here; having explained to them some mysteries of our holy faith, they returned to their own village. I visited them there, and they received me thus: They had placed a tall cross at the entrance of their jurisdiction, and from that place to the village they had cleared the roads, which are very bad, adorning them with arches up to the front of the house in which they lodged me; and there they had built another cross, even taller. This village is distant a legua and a half [from Pantabangan], and from it the gate is open for the entire Italon and Abaca tribes; it has wars with the Italons in regard to certain murders. I conferred with them about their making peace [with those villages], and their learning the truth which our holy faith teaches. They listened attentively to what I said to them; and, in conclusion, we made an agreement that they will at once become Christians and make peace. They ask that I catechize them, build a church, and baptize them. They are almost of the same type as the Italons; but some of them have several wives, and this is not so liberal a people as the former one. This village [of Diama] contains over a hundred persons; they speak a different language, for which reason it is necessary that there be a minister who can learn it, and devote himself to their instruction, for I am studying the Italon tongue. What I state to your Reverence is, that a minister is needed whom we can consult about some cases which are presenting themselves here; for it is very discouraging to act in the midst of scruples, in matters of conscience. What your Reverence shall ordain will be in every way most just.

“The second jurisdiction of this people pertains to Caranglan, to which I went with the determination to visit the four remaining villages; for father Fray Francisco de la Maza wrote to me from Itui that two of those villages desired to be converted, and were asking for a minister of our order, on account of being in our jurisdiction. I asked about this in Caranglan, and they said that it was true as regards one of them, which is an important village and is already Christian; and in the other village there are many persons who are Christians, although for lack of a minister they are going without administration. These two villages are a half-day’s journey from Caranglan, by a bad road, and one is contiguous to Itui, on the western side. There are many rivers to be crossed; and, as these were filled by a storm which caught me at Caranglan, I could not cross them, although I waited a week. One Abaca has continued forty years in apostasy; he asks that I will reconcile him with the church, and baptize his wife and three children, and I am instructing them in order to do this. I am sending away the Italons [with this letter], and tomorrow the Indian who went to Manila will come, to go with me to the Abaca villages; we will do what is possible there, until the coming of another minister. When he shall come, I will go on to the Italons who are further up [the river]; they tell me that it will require two months, only to go to the villages. I have information that they desire to see a father, and to be Christians; this was furnished to me by NicolÀs de los Santos, who has been among these people; and he has done and is doing much good to their souls. He is my constant companion in my journeys, and serves me in everything; I earnestly commend him to your Reverence.”

[The Italons who carried this letter to Manila were received with great kindness by Governor Zabalburu; and on their return they were accompanied by the minister for whom Arzaga had asked, for which post was selected his uncle, Fray Balthasar de Santa Maria Isisigana,5 who went as superior of that mission. The two entered upon its labors with indefatigable zeal and energy, and on December 28, 1702, Isisigana sent in an encouraging report of what they had accomplished. Arzaga had already built a church at a place four leguas from Pantabangan, which he dedicated to St. Thomas de Villanueva; and Isisigana writes that they have just erected another at San Agustin, and built a house for the minister, while at Santo Christo de Burgos, about six leguas distant from this, the timber is already being cut for another church and convent. Most of the people, whether adults or children, desire to embrace the Catholic faith; and the missionaries go about, surrounded by the children, who sing and dance with joy. In building the church of San Agustin, the fathers were aided by thirty infidels from another village, one and one-half leguas distant, who came of their own accord, simply because they had heard that a church was being erected there. Fray Arzaga went to the upper Italons, by wretched roads; he went on foot from Pantabangan to TablayÀn, the first Italon village, about eighteen leguas. Many natives visited him there; he desired to go farther, but was attacked with an illness which almost proved mortal, and was obliged to return to Pantabangan. The chief of Tablayan, with his family, accompanied him thither; and they were ready to build him a church and house at once, if he could have remained with them. The missionaries asked for cattle from Manila, and the provincial sent them two hundred and twenty. As they grew skilled in the native dialects, they were able to extend their labors further, and they baptized many people from the tribes in that region, Abaca, Italon, and Irapi; and by 1704 they had formed several villages and erected five churches. The fruits of their zeal, and those gathered by other Augustinian missionaries in the islands, are shown by a certificate given to the governor in that year by the provincial of the order, which reads as follows:]

“I, Fray Juan Bautista de Olarte, pensioned lecturer in sacred theology, provincial of the province of Santissimo Nombre de Jesus of the hermits of our father St. Augustine, do certify that, from the eighth day of October, 1702, until the twentieth of May in this present year, the two missionary religious of the said my order who were employed in the conversion of the natives in the Italon and Abaca tribes, who dwell in the mountains of PantabangÀn and CaranglÀn,6 have founded five villages, to wit: Santo TomÀs de Villanueva, which is composed of eighty families; Santo Christo de Burgos, one hundred families; San Agustin, one hundred and sixty; San Pablo, one hundred and forty; San Joseph, seventy families. They all have accepted the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the holy sacrament of baptism has been administered to four hundred and seventy-nine persons, all adults, who are instructed and taught in the Christian doctrine and the mysteries of our holy faith; and those who at present are being catechized and instructed for baptism number more than eight hundred persons.

“I also certify that in the said mountains of PantabangÀn and CaranglÀn dwell the tribes called Igorrots, Irapis, and Sinay, and others, which contain a great number of natives who live in their pagan state; and that the Italon tribe alone contains fifty-six villages, all infidels, who have offered to become Christians when they shall have ministers who can teach them and preach the religion of our Lord Jesus Christ; and that the said missionaries of my order are employed in this ministry.

“I also certify that the minister of my order who serves in the villages of Tarlac, Magalan, and Bucsi, Zambal villages in the province of Pampanga, has catechized and baptized, from the year 1702 up to May 20 of this present year, fifty-eight adults, all of whom have come down from the mountains of the said villages.

“I also certify that the minister who serves in the village of PÓrac in the said province of Pampanga has catechized, instructed, and baptized, in the missions which he has carried on in the mountains of the said village during the said two years, twenty-six natives among the blacks who dwell in that neighborhood.

“I also certify that the religious of the said my order who serve in the villages of AgoÒ, Bavang, and Bacnotan in the province of Pangasinan have converted to our holy faith, and instructed and baptized, in the period of two years twenty-six natives from the tribe called Igorrots, who dwell in the said mountains.

“I also certify that the ministers who serve in the province of Ilocos have in the period of two years converted to our holy faith and baptized one hundred and fifty-six natives from the infidel Tinguians who are in and belong to the said province, and live in its mountains and hills.

“I also certify that the minister for the village of Antique in the province of Octong has in his charge and care the islets which are called CagayÀn, and has labored for seven years to convert the natives inhabiting them to our holy faith. Having gone thither to visit the Christians, in the past year of 1703, he gave instruction in the Christian doctrine and the mysteries of our holy faith to forty-four adults, and baptized them, with others, who were the children of Christian parents; and he heard the confessions of all the old Christians, for he remained in that mission four months. In the said province of OgtÒn, the religious who are ministers at Guimbal, Tigbavan, and Xaro have converted to our holy faith and baptized thirty-six adults, on various occasions when they have gone into the mountains in their respective jurisdictions. That there has not been a greater increase [in the number of conversions] not only in this province, but in those of Pampanga, Pangasinan, and Ilocos, is [due to] the lack of religious ministers; for those in my province are not enough for even the maintenance of the villages and Christians who are in their charge. And in order that these things may be evident in the proper place, I give the present at the demand and order of the captain-general of these islands, and president of the royal Audiencia, Don Domingo Zabalburu; it is dated at this royal convent of San Pablo at Manila, on the twenty-sixth day of May, in the year one thousand seven hundred and four.

Fray Juan Bautista Olarte, provincial.”

[So great was the zeal of Arzaga and Isisigana that they devoted themselves to seeking out the heathen among those wild mountains, enduring privations, exposure, and sufferings, until the health of both was broken down. Arzaga was again attacked by a sickness which prostrated him, and died in 1707; his uncle held out three years longer, and was then called in from the field, in order to recruit his strength, but he was never able to return to his labors, and died in 1716, in the convent of Vava.7 In their place was sent to this mission field Fray Alexandro Cacho,8 in zeal and courage a worthy successor to them. He succeeded in converting a chief named Dinalavang, dreaded as well as renowned for his fierce and warlike disposition and for his skill in all military exercises; also a sister of this man, as valiant and dextrous as he, baptized as DoÑa Maria. Mozo gives an interesting account of the fierce and cruel practices of these savage tribes (whom he compares to the Huns), “which more than once I have rebuked, when I have been among those people.” “If they succeed in killing a person they try to drink his blood; and, cutting off pieces of his lungs, together with the testicles9 and other parts, they also draw out the entrails, and then divide these among themselves and eat them raw—not only to make themselves terrible, but also because they say it is a powerful medicine for exciting courage, fierceness, and fortitude in their battles. They also cut off the head, and carry it away in order to celebrate their festivals, with great gluttony and carousing, [filling the skull] with a sort of wine which they make from sugarcane and call ilang. Afterward, they take the grinders and teeth and set these in the hilts of their cutlasses; and, as a consequence, there is hardly any one in this tribe or in the Ibilaos whose cutlass is not adorned with many teeth of those whom he has killed, or who has not in his hut a collection of the skulls from human heads—this very thing inspiring them with greater courage when they fight, in the same way as it happened, as Virgil sings, to Æneas when he saw on his antagonist Turnus the scarf of his beloved Pallas. So these people, when they see the teeth of their own tribesmen on the sword-hilts of their opponents, fling themselves upon the latter like mad dogs; and from this may be readily inferred what degree of ferocity and barbarism theirs must be, and what sort of hardships and labors it will cost to free them from the power of the demon …. They greatly dislike arrogance in their neighbors; and they likewise abhor every sorcerer and wizard, a motive which makes them treat without mercy any one of these whom they seize, cutting him to pieces with their knives; and even at their feasts, and in the superstitious rites which they practice, they utter a thousand execrations against such persons, hurling at them a thousand curses, and swearing that they will not spare any one of them who may fall into their hands, [an oath] which they fulfil exactly.” Mozo describes the secret raids made by these people against their enemies, marching at night and attacking a defenseless village at daybreak; and he accuses them of aiding their ordinary weapons with a diabolical practice—“they throw into a hole in some creek a root and herbs which they carry, provided [for this purpose], and, by their using various magic spells which the demon has taught to them, so violent a wind is raised, and a tempest of rain, that with the noise thus caused they are not observed, and likewise are better protected from the villages against which they march.” He adds, “I do not relate fables;” and states that he has several times endeavored to restrain them from this devilish proceeding. Sometimes, he says, the proceedings are reversed, and the aggressors are, in their turn, surprised by those whom they have attacked, who then take revenge upon them. Mozo relates how, on one occasion, a hostile band of heathen attacked some Christians, and captured a loaded musket, its match still lighted; they examined it carefully, and, while handling it, incautiously let the match fall on the priming. The gun was discharged, killing some and crippling others of the group crowded around it; the survivors fled in terror, but afterward returned to the spot, and with a cord dragged the gun to their village and buried it in the ground. Learning that its owner lived in Bongabon, they immediately rated the people of that village as sorcerers, who had placed a powerful magic in the gun; and for more than fifty years they taught their children, as soon as the latter could speak, to avoid the dwellers in Bongabon as dangerous sorcerers.]

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. Dominic11 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 174012 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 nine14 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.]

[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.

[Mozo recalls the scanty results of missionary work among these savage tribes in the early days. “In the year 1660, when Don Diego de Salcedo was governor of these islands, two religious escorted by some soldiers entered the territory of the Igorrots, and in a place called Cayam19 they established a small military post with a church, which they dedicated to the archangel St. Michael; and from this place they began with apostolic zeal to preach to those tribes the holy name of God, but the harvest of souls which they could obtain was exceedingly small ….” A little while after the said religious had made this entrance, the soldiers became sick through the insalubrity of the region, and the barbarians threatened to cut them into pieces if they did not immediately go away from that place. Accordingly, not having sufficient force to resist, the fathers were obliged to yield to this opposition, and retired with much sadness, taking with them such persons as they had baptized. From that time until recent years, none of the various attempts to found a mission there had been successful, although occasional converts were made among those tribes. Among the Apayaos and Tingguians also this experience was repeated; only within recent years had they allowed the religious to labor among them, a few, however, being converted by missionaries in villages near them.]

[The missionaries who most zealously and successfully labored in this field were: Fray Joseph Herice, Fray Jacinto Rivera, Fray NicolÀs Fabro, and Fray Manuel Madariaga.20 The first-named established this mission in 1720; he formed a village of his converts, the first thus established among the Adang tribe, another having been made among the Apayaos, which was called Vera [i.e., Vira?]. The infidels named Father Herice “the hunter of souls.” He labored among them twenty-two years, dying in 1742; and three years later Father Rivera followed him, after gaining considerable extension for this mission.]

[Father Fabro labored in this mission also, and formed a village of converts which he called San Juan; by the year 1750, it contained more than a thousand souls. This missionary labored indefatigably, and much exposure and hardship finally crippled him; Fray Madariaga came to his aid, and, although his health was not good, he accomplished wonders. In 1736 he formed a village at Dingras, naming it Santiago; his death occurred in 1744. In 1753 two other Tingguian villages were newly formed—one three leguas from Santiago, further within the mountains; and another, four leguas from this. In that same year, Father Juan Solorzano was sent to this mission; he was most zealous and useful, and forgetful of self, so much so that within the first year he contracted a fever, as the result of exposure, which ended his life in four days.]

[Mozo refers to what he has already mentioned, that these barbarians would not allow the missionaries to settle in their country, but that some of them became converted through the labors of outside missionaries. They were not disturbed by this, however, but rather were pleased, because their relatives or friends who had removed to Christian villages were thus able to supply them with articles of comfort or luxury which they themselves had not—“blankets, which they wrap around them when there is some cold weather, in the time of north winds; wine; hogs and cattle, of whose flesh they are very fond, and use it continually in their feasts and banquets.” Through this commerce, also, the missionaries find opportunity to reach some of the heathen, and thus secure occasional conversions. Mozo describes a barbarous custom of theirs: “It is a usage among these people not to give burial to any of their dead, especially if he was a chief, until whatever he may have left has been consumed in gluttony and carousing among his relatives and others belonging to him; with some chiefs this is commonly no small amount, because in the rivers there some gold is found, and all the people endeavor to obtain it for their chiefs. For, expending for cattle, hogs, rice, and wine whatever the dead man possessed of this sort, they make enormous bonfires about the corpse, which they lay in the ground; and having killed the animals, they thrust them just as they are—with hair, hides, and entrails—into the said bonfires, and thus prepare barbecues21 which are savory to their taste. Afterward, beginning to dance around the corpse, they keep this up night and day, one set giving place to another.22 They eat and drink frequently; and if any one is inclined to sleep he squats on his haunches, with his head resting on his knees, and needs no other bed. Thus they remain, ten, fifteen, or twenty days with the corpse, without interring it; and, even when it emits a stench and swarms with maggots, it does not drive them away. They reserve some gold and some food, which afterward they inter with the deceased, so that he may have it, as they say, for his journey.” In 1747 the Augustinian Fray Francisco Cordova (who had been the associate of Cacho) was sent to Agoo, on the frontier of the Igolots, and soon secured their good-will, although they long refused to allow him to live among them. Finally, after seven years of this apparently unfruitful labor, a miraculous change occurred. During the visitation of the provincial—then Fray Manuel Carrillo, accompanied by Mozo as his secretary—while he was conferring with Cordova at Aringay, five chiefs came down from the mountains, and asked Carrillo to send missionaries among them. He sent a deputation of them to Manila to ask this favor from the governor; who received them most graciously, and granted whatever they asked; they were instructed in the faith and baptized while in Manila, and returned to their tribe, who eagerly sought baptism also. Cordova23 was made superior of the new mission, with Fray Francisco Romero and Fray Pedro Vivar as his assistants; they built two churches, and baptized many hundreds of the people. In other Igolot villages, missions were also conducted by Fray Carlos de Horta, Fray Joseph Torres, and Fray Juan Sanchez.]

Along the provinces of Pangasinan and Pampanga, fronting their western side, there dwells another tribe, which they call Zambal, no less fierce than those already mentioned, and exceeding them in boldness. They are continually assaulting travelers, and they take their greatest pleasure in killing. So continual are their descents from the mountains to infest the said roads that it is only with great peril that one can cross from one province to the other without an escort; and even then many mishaps occur frequently; for these bandits lie hidden in the thickets and ravines at the sides of the road, and, when one of them gives a yell, all discharge their arrows, in the management of which they are very skilful; and, felling to the ground those whom they can reach, they cut off the heads of these, and carry them away in order to celebrate their feasts. They are also wont to approach the villages by night, and in hiding to wait for any person who strays from the rest and leaves the village early; then they do the same with him, be his rank what it may; afterward they take the skull of the slain man’s head and use it for a drinking-vessel, in the same manner as did the Scythians, as Ravisius Textor and Plinius relate.

This tribe obtain their living generally from the hunting of deer, wild swine and buffaloes, and from the honey produced by the innumerable bees which are in those extensive forests and shut-in mountains. They are accustomed also to plant certain potatoes, which here we call Malagan potatoes, and there are named camote, the seed of which, with the name, was carried [thither] from Nueva EspaÑa; but they care little for the said planting, because without any work of their own the Author of Nature provides them with a kind of wild palm, so useful and profitable that this tree alone admirably displays the wisdom of its Creator—for what it spontaneously yields is a thing to cause astonishment, and would even be incredible to one who did not see it. [Mozo here cites several authors regarding the uses of the palm in other countries, but says, “all this is nothing compared to the palms which we are going to describe; accordingly, for the praise of the Creator, I am going to give a full account of the said tree,” which he accordingly does. The palm referred to is the buri,24 or sago-palm; its farinaceous product is called yoro in Pampangan, and in TagÁlog sagu. He describes the native method of fire-making among these people, as follows: “They take two splinters of a kind of bamboo, very thick and tall, which grows in abundance throughout the forests there, and along the creeks; and, scraping the outer surface of one of these a little with a knife, they make tinder of the shavings. Then they make a notch in the splinter with which they must rub the other one; and, placing on its outside that which serves for tinder, they make the other splinter firm, placing it on edge against some tree, first paring its upper edge thin, like a knife-blade. This done, with the other and notched splinter (and the tinder filling the notch) they begin, holding it flat, to rub the lower one very hard. In less than two minutes it begins to smoke, and is fully kindled; they breathe upon it to raise a flame, and, feeding this with dry leaves, grass, and little sticks, in a very short time they make a fierce blaze.”25 Mozo also describes some vegetable medicines used by the natives. Among these wild people were sent missionaries, Fray Gonzalo de Salazar and others; these form villages with their converts—“Magalang, Tarlac, Bucsic, and Panlinlan, in which there are more than seven hundred families, as appears from the original register, made in the past year of 1759, of which I have a legal copy.” In 1728, Fray Juan Velloxin formed the village of TunÀs; and in 1755 Fray Sebastian Morono established those of Pandolan, Garlit, San MiguÈl, and another one. Besides these, many converts removed their residence to other Christian villages. Mozo notices, as a curious phenomenon, that among these Zambals are certain persons who are immune to the bites of poisonous animals and insects—as he thinks, because of some quality of their “humors,” or of their physical conditions; he cites therefor Pliny and other writers, and various instances of which he has known personally. He also describes the cure of these poisonous bites by sucking out the poison, which act (as also the person who does it) is called, in Pampangan, tavac; but the ability to accomplish this he ascribes to some peculiarity of temperament or physique on the part of the healer.]

Besides the aforesaid missions, the province maintains another, scattered through all the islands, to a class of people who, it is believed (and with no small reason), were in olden times the masters of the entire land. One of the grounds for this belief is, that in all the islands (which are very many) these people maintain an identical language, and different from those of all the other peoples among whom they live; while the other natives of each island have a language different [from those spoken in other islands], and even in some places (as is evident throughout all this treatise) are encountered at every turn different dialects in the same island. Another argument is drawn from the similarity which there is between the peoples of those islands and the Malayos, and even in their respective languages—these Malayos are natives of Maluco, and are quite energetic and warlike—excepting the people of whom we now speak. From this it has been inferred that these blacks ruled that country; and that the said Malayos, coming to it and subduing its former masters, compelled them to retire to the bush and the mountain heights, abandoning the rest of the country to the conquerors.

These people of whom we speak are very dark in color, not black like those of Angola; neither have they thick lips, or curly and short hair, like them. But their color is a brownish or pallid [descolorido] black, their hair like that of a mulatto; their lips are not thick; many of them are very corpulent, and all have large abdomens, and generally both men and women appear feeble. All go naked, with no other covering than a long strip like a narrow sash, with which, tied round the waist and drawn between the legs, the men cover their private parts; while the women wear a sort of apron, which covers them behind and before as far as the knees. Both sexes make these coverings from the bark of a tree which they call balete; stripping off its bark, which is very smooth and flexible, they place it in water, afterward beating it in order to loosen the outer layer; then washing and drying it, it remains of the color and softness of a chamois-skin, although it is thin. They keep this on until it wears out, and when they can no longer use it they repair to the shop in the grove, to look for another in their storehouse.

The nature and peculiarities of these Balugas are described by the reverend father, former provincial of the Philipinas, our father Fray Vicente Ibarra, in the report of the missions which he made to the governor of those islands, Don Fernando ValdÉs Tamon, in the year 1738. He says, then, speaking of these people: “The third mission which is in these mountains is very arduous, not so much on account of the toilsome roads as because the people have less intellect than [any other that] is known in these islands; for this reason it has not been possible to introduce them into any civilization, although those who are baptized are numerous. Their maintenance in the faith is so difficult that it cannot easily be explained after the no small expenses that are incurred; for all the time while the ministers are devoting themselves to their instruction it is necessary to support the fathers, furnishing to them rice, meat, wine, and tobacco, along with some trinkets for the women and children. For those people have neither house nor fields, nor any furniture save the bow and arrow and some heavy knives [machetes], with which they are continually seeking their food, without reserving anything for another day.”

[Mozo adds other information, acquired during his residence of three years among the Negritos; but precedes it by various citations from learned authors. Returning to his subject, he says:]

They have their own territory, within which they go about in bands and from which they never go out; but they do not have any fixed dwelling-place in it, for they remain a short time in one place hunting, and afterward they remove therefrom four or five leguas away. In whatever place they arrive, they make their hut in an instant with four rough sticks, and with a sort of grass, very long and flexible, with which the country abounds, which they call ilib,27 or with the leaves of palms—with which and with the stakes they form their huts (which resemble those of the vineyard-keepers), in which with a piece of wood and some dry grass,28 which they are sure to find about the entrance, they forthwith have bed and pillows, and all that they need for sleep. They live entirely in common, and therefore when they capture any deer or wild swine (by hunting which they live) they immediately share it equally—except the head and neck, which parts they set aside for the dogs that they have, who start the said game.

Each band, usually containing twenty-five to thirty persons, goes by itself, with one man to whom the rest pay respect, generally the one who is most daring and valiant. In the summer they go down to live on the banks of the streams, seeking the fresh air; but in times of rain, or when the north winds blow hard, they huddle together in the thickets, so dense that the wind hardly enters them. If one of them dies, as soon as he expires they bury him in a very shallow grave; and then they take to flight, in order that death may not seize another person and carry him away, as they say. When the time for [gathering] honeycombs arrives—and the stores of honey which the bees29 gather in those dense forests are without limit—they are busy in searching for these; and if they come across a honey-tree the person who finds it immediately makes a mark on the trunk of the tree, and possesses it as securely as if he had it in his own house. For, even if another person goes there and finds it, when he sees the mark he says: “This tree already has an owner,” and therefore he goes on. Afterward, they go at a convenient time, and, waiting until there is no wind, so that the smoke may not be prevented from rising perpendicularly, they make a fire [under the tree]; and, the bees being scared away, men climb the tree, carrying a sort of sling, strongly made from a palm-leaf, very broad, [from the tree] which they call anao.30 They take out the comb entire, with wax and all, placing it in this receptacle; and then tie it together and carry it down. They eat the honey, and sell the wax in order to buy tobacco for smoking, without which they cannot pass the time. So long as such people have their tobacco, their bows and arrows, their half-cutlass, and their outfit for striking fire, they do not desire anything else—money, or clothing, or lands—neither do they envy any person for anything. They shoot arrows with the greatest dexterity, and will pierce a deer with one from side to side in his most rapid flight. When they have food they eat it in a barbarous manner; but if on account of bad weather they have not been able to obtain any game, they boil water and drink it, and compress their bellies with cords. They are also accustomed to dig in the ground and search for a root called sucbao,31 with which, when it is roasted, they can subsist, although in summer they never lack fruits in the woods. They are always happy, and keep themselves plump and contented; and among them are persons who are quite old.

I frankly confess that, in the midst of the sorrow that was occasioned in me by the extreme barbarism and mental stupidity of this people when I knew by experience their mode of life, at the same time not only were presented before me those golden ages, so celebrated, of which Ovid treats at length in his Metamorphoses, Cicero in his Aratus, Lactantius Firmianus in his Institutiones, and Seneca in his EpistolÆ, but I also saw how true is that Epicurean maxim, which, distinguishing human necessities, says, Naturales necessitates satiari pene nihilo. To which Pythocles adds, Si vis hominem divitem facere, non pecuniÆ adjice, sed cupiditatibus detrahe.32 It is worth while to see the said people going about naked, without house or shelter, without land, and even without desire for it, yet living contented, happy, plump, and satisfied; without having any anxieties beyond that of searching for enough to get through the day with—which, as it is but little, they soon provide from what is yielded by nature in those mountains …. Again I say that their mode of life arouses my admiration, and that if they were enlightened by our holy faith, and were enduring for God’s sake the sufferings that they experience, I believe that not even the most austere monk of the Thebaid could equal them. It is, however, true that they avail themselves of the “bill of divorce,” although before marriage a false step is hardly heard of among them; and that in some districts they are cruel and murderous.

[Mozo here makes observations on various medicinal plants, which he found by actual experience or observation to be highly efficacious. Among these are two roots which these natives used in cases of parturition—one to facilitate the birth, the other to cleanse and strengthen the mother’s system; the woman was able to go out from her hut, carrying her infant, within one day, or even a few hours. Seeing the great virtue of this treatment, Mozo obtained a quantity of these remedies and prescribed them successfully in many similar cases, after he left the Negritos. They poisoned their arrows with a decoction of the bark of the camandag,33 and of some other plants, in order to kill large game—so powerful a poison that even a buffalo would die within two minutes if one of these arrows hit even its hoof.]

It is a fact, however, that they do not use the said poisoned arrows against any save animals, considering it an inexpiable crime to shoot rational beings with them; but for hunting those animals—“the great game,” as they call them—they use these arrows continually, and with them kill innumerable beasts. When one of these falls to the ground, they immediately cut off its head; and, having thoroughly washed the flesh, they eat it without any misgivings. I baptized the man who chiefly made this poison, who was already past the age of ninety years, who never was willing to leave me until he died; and on various occasions he explained to me the method of making the said poison, naming to me the separate ingredients, although I never was acquainted with them. These same people have other plants, the use of which I tried, in my religious instructions, to banish among them—not only because some persons make use of them for evil purposes, but also because they lead one to suspect some diabolical aid, for those people accomplish with them things which are truly amazing. But since information of this may be of great assistance in explaining some things which, written by the ancients, give the moderns material for many and various curious inquiries, I will briefly describe what those barbarians are accustomed to do with the said plants. They use, then, I was told, certain herbs that are amatory, or adapted for philters, if thus they should be called (which I do not dispute), in order to captivate the love of those whom they desire to win. For instance, do they desire to marry some woman who does not love them? Then, obtaining their herbs (which they know very well), they carry these with them, endeavoring at the same time to carry them in the mouth when they talk with the woman; and the attraction is usually such that in a short time they succeed in gaining the affection of women who before were very averse to loving them. They do the same when they enter the presence of some person whom they have offended and whom they fear. They take the said herbs in their mouths, and, armed with this antidote, they are not afraid to be seen by him and to talk with him; and such are the results that they experience that, even when that person is greatly offended, he feels for that time so changed that, far from showing his anger, he receives them with great kindness, and with indications of special affection. They are also wont to use the aforesaid herbs in order to succeed in committing their lewd acts with women; and the women do the same in order to make themselves beloved by the men, very often, but not always, succeeding in this. [Mozo relates an instance of this: a convert of his own, a most virtuous, modest, and exemplary widow, at first refused to marry another man, an infidel; but with the odor of these plants he overcame her opposition and carried her away with him. “Never since then have I been able to see them again, although I tried to do so that I might convert that barbarian, and marry them afterward.” He also relates how sometimes the natives would try this spell on him, if they feared that he was offended with them; after careful examination, he was satisfied that it caused not the slightest change in his feelings. He argues that any effect produced by the use of these herbs must, after all, be a natural one, and not caused by diabolical influences—a conclusion which he enforces by quoting various learned doctors. He and other missionaries made vigorous efforts to prevent the natives from such use of these herbs, on account of their bad results—as also in another custom, thus described:]

In order to enable them to kill some deer quickly, they take some herbs which they call in their own language panarongusa, which signifies the same as to say in Spanish, aliciente para venados [i.e., “a lure for deer”]. They distinguish the said herb into male and female, and therefore they make two small bundles of them, the male plants in one and the female in another. This done, they stick an arrow into the ground, and, placing at the top of it the herbs tied together, they begin to call the deer, imitating its voice, which they do to perfection. If in that vicinity there is any deer that hears the said sound, it infallibly sets out at once, and, beginning to scent, steadily approaches the fixed arrow, without taking fright at the men who are stationed near it. They allow the deer to approach, and, when it is in the place which suits them, they shoot an arrow at whichever part of its body they wish, and bring it down without difficulty. When I heard these things, I endeavored with those very persons, after they were baptized, to make a more than minute investigation, to ascertain whether the devil was giving them any instruction in it, whether they used any superstitious words, or performed [like] acts, so that I could form some opinion regarding these; but the unanimous reply of all was, that there was nothing of this sort, but that their ancestors had known that the said herbs possessed this virtue, and that they simply made use of them. There was, consequently, nothing more for me to do, except to declare that these were among the frauds of which the enemy [of souls] avails himself, in order by these baits to ruin their souls, and so much the more as he more secretly endeavored to introduce such things [as these among them]; and that on this account they ought to abstain from this mode of hunting, using only the common one, and trusting in the Lord who gives food to all living creatures, without despising the raven’s nestlings who cry unto Him, that He would furnish what they might need for their support. I think that I succeeded, and that other religious will succeed in gradually banishing much of this abuse.

[In Ilocos Fray Alexandra Cacho formed a village of converts, under the name of San Juan de Sahagun; and Fray Velloxin greatly enlarged the village of Santa Monica, “although in past years there came a pest of smallpox, which in a short time swept away a great number of the inhabitants.” Fray Francisco Alvarez, a son of the province of Philipinas, in 1740 formed two other small villages in the mountains of Santor; this was removed to another site by Mozo himself in 1747, and in the period of three years he secured more than a hundred and fifty conversions, and even the attendance of their children at school. The harvest among those people, Mozo says, is great, and many more might be saved if there were more missionaries; those who are among them are overworked, and in a few years are worn out or killed by their labors.]

Another mission, in my judgment more arduous than any of those I have mentioned, according to what I myself have experienced—and this is the general opinion of all those who are engaged in its cultivation—is the mission which the province maintains in a place which is called the Marangley. This is composed of some very extensive and close forests, with various mountains, so covered with thickets and lofty trees that the sunlight can hardly enter there—although at intervals the natives have their clearings, of land which is so fertile that it seems incredible; and for this very reason, thinking that it would be considered fabulous, I omit an account of the abundance with which the land responds to whatever handful of seed they are accustomed to cast into it.

In the said forests and hills dwell many people of various tribes, mingled together, Christians and infidels. Some are there, attracted by the hills from which they went out [in former times]; others, in flight from the officers of justice, who are seeking them. Many also go there in order to live in idleness, and to free themselves from the payment of tribute and the fulfilment of other obligations; and many, because it is the region in which they were born, and where they have lived as infidels. There they dwell intermingled, infidels and Christians being married together, and mingling a thousand superstitions with the law of Jesus Christ. From this results a hydra more fierce and more difficult to conquer than the celebrated one with which Hercules fought; for the apostates, as being entirely corrupt, are most difficult to reclaim, and they with their corruption, persuasions, and evil customs, to a great degree pervert the simple nature of the infidels, just as St. Paul tells us. Their sustenance is like that which I related of the Zambals, that is, [obtained] from the chase and from the innumerable wild palms which I have already mentioned; but they also sow their scanty bit of rice, the land responding to them with an incredible harvest, although they cultivate it wretchedly and take very little care of their fields. As many of them are Christians and had learned the mysteries of our holy faith, while the infidels among whom they live have a thousand superstitions, omens, and foolish observances, they make a medley of Jesus Christ and Baal, which is not even that of those Samaritans of whom it is related that they desired at the same time to serve the God of Israel and not to cast out their [false] gods. And because among these peoples are generally encountered not only the superstitions which those infidel communities maintain, but also the frivolous beliefs in which the peoples of Philipinas were living before they could receive our holy faith, I have thought it well to reserve this information for this place—observing, moreover, that among the Christian communities hardly a trace of these things is now encountered. This is the result of the labors, past and present, of the religious in extirpating them, and even in so short a time they have been able to banish them; while in our Europa, and even in our EspaÑa, after so many centuries remnants of the ancient paganism are still frequently encountered …. Those of whom we are speaking believe that every forest, every mountain, every river, and every grove has a powerful spirit who rules in those places; they call him Nono, which signifies “grandfather”—by which name I understand they call him, partly because they think that the said spirit is that of some one of the powerful ones who once lived there, and also partly on account of the extreme veneration which those people have for their old men. It is also very credible that this foolish belief among them comes from their neighbors the Chinese, who likewise attribute to every river, forest, field, and grove these Penates and fauns, giving them a name which signifies the ruler and master of those places. They believe, then, that this spirit which they say rules there has his dwelling in some one of those trees which are most distinguished for size and for abundance of leaves, as likewise in some great heaps of earth, shaped like a sugar-loaf, which are made by a kind of ants, very destructive, which they call anay,34 of which many are found in the open country there. Accordingly, not only do they regard it as a religious duty not to pick fruit or take anything from the said hills without first asking permission from the nono, with words of great reverence, but likewise, whenever they pass before the said tree or hillock, they pay their respects, saying in their language, Tabipo, which means, “By your permission,” and then they go on their way. They are so fearful that, if they fail in doing this, they imagine that the said spirit will send upon them some sickness which will deprive them of life; this notion they confirm with some irrelevant casualties—some persons having failed to perform this ceremony, and afterward by accident having fallen ill—from which they conclude that this was a punishment from the nono; and therefore they try afterward to appease his anger by various gifts, which they offer to him after their fashion. Moreover, in the said trees there is often heard some loud noise, which, although it is frequently made by some great serpent which has its abode in some hole that may be in the tree, they attribute to its nono—although it is true that the demon, in order to blind them more and thus to inspire them with greater terror, is wont to appear to them often in the said trees. The sacrifices which they are wont to offer to him in case of sickness, as likewise several times in the year, are reduced to burning certain herbs in front of the said tree, and placing there some little portion of food, drink, leaf tobacco, and an herb which they are accustomed to chew when combined with the small fruit of a palm, which they call luyos in the Pampanga tongue, and bonga in the Tagal (and that fruit and the herb all together they call in the former language mama, and in the latter buyo), all which things, after having thus offered them, they themselves eat, having made their prayers, such as they are. [Mozo here stops to recall how like superstitions and heathen sacrifices lingered for a long time in Africa and even in Europe, and the efforts made by the Christian fathers to extirpate them. He says that in Filipinas the heathen do not “adore the trees as gods; but the aforesaid tree they regard as the dwelling in which the spirit who rules that grove or forest has his abode, and therefore they offer before it what we have described, and perform the said acts of prayer and veneration; but these are not directed to the tree, but to the spirit or nono who resides in it.”]

Besides this, they have another and exceedingly foolish superstition and belief, which is also found among the Chinese (and the Romans had it, as we read in our father St. Augustine and others); this is the belief that there is an evil spirit who is hostile to the birth of children, and who, they say, in the form of a bird approaches the house where the woman lies in childbirth, and kills the child by tearing out its bowels. This spirit they call in their language usuang (and it is the same that the Romans call Silvanus), which, they say, shines by night. In order to free themselves from this spirit, they do a ridiculous thing. As soon as the woman begins her travail, the husband, attended by other persons, strips off his clothes, and, taking his naked cutlass, climbs to the ridge-pole of the house, his companions remaining below with their lances; and he does not cease making cuts at the air until the infant is born. They believe that the said usuang is frightened away by this, and dares not return. At other times they do the same thing, [except that] they are stationed below the house. They also fear greatly two other genii or spirits, of whom they tell a thousand stories. One they call tigbalang, which they say has the body of a giant and the legs of a horse; and the other, which they say resembles a pigmy they call patianac.35 It is certain that the demon thus appears to them, to terrify them with threats if they fail to serve him.

They also use auguries, which they obtain from a bird that they call batala, in the manner of which Virgilius sings, and which his commentator Servius explains; upon this Gellius, Pompeius, Cicero, Tiraquellus, and other humanists expatiate at length. And it is not surprising that they should be prepossessed by this error; for, if we believe Luis Vives, it passed from Assia to Grecia, and thence to Italia and Roma. Their belief is of that sort in this particular, that, if they set out on any expedition against another people, and on encountering them this bird should appear, singing in what they think is a melancholy tone, they immediately turn back and abandon their purpose, fearing to be entirely destroyed. On the other hand, if the bird sings to them agreeably, they at once regard their success as certain.

When they make peace with their opponents, they use a thousand execrations and imprecations with which they sign their treaties; and in order to divine whether there is any insecurity in the decision they catch a hog, and having stretched it on the ground, with its feet fastened thereto, they thrust into the midst of its body a knife, very broad and sharply pointed, and, quickly drawing this out, they carefully look for the blood on both sides. If on the side which faces either of the two parties there is no blood, or if it is there but not running, they conclude that the people on that side are deceiving them; but if the blood runs on both sides they shake hands, together they feast on the hog, and they swallow powerful draughts [of palm-wine?]—forming the same opinion from the blood as did the ancients from the entrails of the animals which they sacrificed, Cicero’s statement being verified that there is hardly a nation which does not find auguries in these things.

In the eclipses they display great sadness, believing that some dragon will carry away the sun or the moon, and therefore they call upon it in terms which express that idea. Accordingly, in order to succor those heavenly bodies they raise loud yells, and shooting arrows upward, they make a thousand demonstrations of grief, as did the Romans, according to Tacitus and Livius …. To this the Chinese add still more; for, besides the said shouting, they bring out some copper instruments, a sort of timbrel, having a very loud and disagreeable sound; and striking these all at the same time, they make a frightful and horrible sound. This, they say, is to aid the sun not to be carried away by the dragon, which they think is frightened by this noise, and thus lets the sun go free.

These and other superstitions and idle beliefs are generally held by the infidels of these islands, and among the peoples of whom we are speaking not only are these ideas found complete, but also, since among those people dwell apostates, who have some knowledge of the mysteries of our holy faith and of Christian observances, they introduce among the multitude of such notions others from Christianity—with the mixture which they make of these, bending one knee to Christ and the other to the demon, and believing all these things equally. But it is not surprising that they do this, when even over here after six hundred years there still were left relics of the ancient heathenism, like to these, as appears from the Councils, and from the saints above cited, who rebuke in terminis these very things—to which may be added the Council of Agde,36 and other writings of the saints. [Mozo here relates some incidents to show how the devil holds these poor people in bondage, and terrifies them with threats and horrible sights.]

[In these missions, from the year 1718, multitudes of infidels were baptized and hundreds of apostates reclaimed. Prominent among the laborers therein were Fray Juan Velloxin, Fray Antonio Leon and a brother of his (who died worn out by the fatigues of his work), Fray Manuel Calvo, and Fray Francisco Alvarez.37 During that time four villages of converts were formed—Ururin, Lupao, Umingan, and Tayog, in which the natives lived in very Christian fashion, their numbers increasing with new conversions. Mozo relates several instances of the opposition made by the devil to this work.]

Having now made known the triumphs secured in this present century in the great island of Luzon, it is right that we say something of the missions which the province maintains in the various islands which are called Visayas; and, in order that the reader may better understand the pious labors which are being endured in the conversion of the infidels therein to our holy faith, it will be very proper to say something about the customs of the said peoples, and of the places where they dwell, even though it be without enlarging much thereon. Commencing with the latter point, I relate how in two islands, called Zebu and Panay, there are some exceedingly dense woodlands, and mountain districts more rugged than can be described; for they are so impenetrable, and so thick with undergrowth, that it is impossible to make a step forward without the utmost toil, and even danger, especially for those who are ignorant of the path, such as it is—which the natives know, and by which they go down, when it suits them, to look for some things which they need. In the said mountains dwell a people who are called Mundos;38 they have the same characteristics of fierceness and barbarism as those of whom we have spoken in preceding missions, but they have besides this a peculiarity which renders them intractable, for they have among them some fearful wizards, who by conversing with the demon do things which cause terror, and who are able to render credible much of what is regarded as fabulous. [Here our author cites various writers to show how prevalent was witchcraft in the ancient times.]

In this manner, then, instructed and misled by the demon, those barbarians do fearful things, especially to revenge themselves, to the continual terror of those about them. The natives say that these wizards, changed into crocodiles, follow them when in their canoes, and do not stop until they seize some person whom they hate; also that they change themselves into other animals, in order to commit other wicked acts—as likewise that, availing themselves of various enchantments, they commit horrible murders, with a thousand other diabolical acts which are attributed to them. For this reason, if any one having this reputation enters any village to settle there, or, when already resident there, some rumor arises that he may be such a person, they immediately summon him peremptorily to depart from the village within three days; and if he does not obey they burn his house, and even himself and his family, nor is it once only that they have killed such persons with their lances. I do not doubt that the vulgar herd invent much, but as little is it doubtful that there are many wizards, who do a thousand evil things.

Among them a malady is apt to prevail which they call bungsol (which signifies “a sudden swoon”), which is apt to attack them as a result of swellings, as hard as a stone, which originate in their stomachs; this trouble is often caused by chills, which they experience from going barefoot in the water and in wet places, and is wont to cause them such pains that on occasion they will suddenly appear as if dead. At other times, this sickness is also caused by some magic of a sorcerer, which they call gavay, by which word they are accustomed to denote the witchcraft and the act of practicing it—in which they do not often make a mistake; for through their mouths, as well as through other conduits of the body, these sorcerers on occasion eject rice in the hull, and other things, which could not be done if they were not aided by something of the said magic. In order to cure the person bewitched in this manner, they endeavor to summon some other person who has the reputation of a sorcerer; and this person, performing various exercises of his powers, calls to the one who caused that sickness. If the sufferer does not improve, the sorcerer at once pretends that the first one must be very far away, and for this reason cannot hear him, but will return the next day; and by this means he keeps the people deceived, and eats and drinks at the cost of the poor sick man. It also sometimes happens that they are quickly cured, and therefore when they see these things they feel such fear that, when the sorcerer goes so far as to ask for anything, they immediately give it to him, fearing lest he may bewitch them—in the same way as occurs over here [in EspaÑa] in some little villages, when those persons go through them whom they call loberos,39 and others of that stripe.

If on a journey they lose their way in some desert plain, they attribute this to the patianac of whom we spoke before; and in order that they may be able to find the road they strip off their clothing, and with this they say that they succeed in doing so because this proceeding frightens the patianac, and he takes flight and does not mislead them. In order to discover and know who it is that has taken from them any missing article, they employ a diabolical device, which they practice with a sort of sieve, which they call bilao—an act in which one plainly recognizes that it proceeds from the demon; for by simply shaking the said sieve while they name various persons the [name of the] thief comes into their minds. They also summon their manes, or [spirits of the] dead, when they are assembled in the house where some person has died; and in order to see whether or not those spirits come they lay down a sort of fine mat, and, scattering over it ashes in order that the marks of feet may be printed thereon, often there may be seen the traces of footsteps, and with this they remain well content. It is true, however, that even over here [in Europa] such things were wont to be seen in olden times, as we read in various writings which describe the sacrifices which were offered to such departed spirits; and our father St. Augustine points out this, citing Marcus Varro, while it is individually explained by Tiraquellus and others ….

As for the missions which the [Augustinian] province has in the Visayas Islands, the toil with which they have been and are being cultivated is inexpressible, and very little, if anything, has been published or known about them—partly because, as this work is carried on more remote from sight, it has been less likely to attract applause; and likewise because the religious, content that God, for love of whom they are employed therein, should be cognizant of their labors, care little for the rest, thus avoiding the subtle vainglory which, under pretext of the glory of God and the honor of the religious order, often deceitfully seeks praise for oneself ….

Let the first mission, then, to become known to the public be that of Bugasson, in the mountains of the province of Panay, in order that it may be known how great has been the labor in the conversion of those infidels. In the year 1704, father Fray ThomÁs Sanchez, a son of this province of Castilla, when he had finished baptizing the Indians who lived on the plains in that region, was assigned by his obedience to the said mountains, with two other fathers, as his associates. They obeyed the orders of their superior, and, after having conquered various difficulties, with a thousand risks of their lives, and having endured a thousand hardships of hunger, want, the fatigues of the wretched roads, and other inclemencies of the weather, amid the terrors of death they were able to secure the baptism of a number of barbarians, enough to establish a foothold in that region and erect a church. They continued in their task, reaping considerable fruit, although in a short time, worn out by fatigues, the said father and one of his companions died. Others were sent in their places by the province, who were able to imitate the zeal of the first missionaries so closely that in the year 1733 they were able to form a village of the recent converts alone, on a most favorable site, of more than two thousand five hundred souls; and, our Lord continuing His favors, so great a number have been added to the flock of Christ, by means of the continual preaching and industry of the missionary religious, that in the original chart of the said village which was sent to his Majesty in the past year of 1760, it is shown to have, counting women, men, and children, six thousand and eighty-nine souls, who are now baptized and reclaimed to civilization.

At the western side of the province of Panay, about twenty-five or thirty leguas out at sea, there are some little islets called the Cagayans; they are so low that they can hardly be seen, except when one is very near, and therefore when the Indians sailed thither they followed a star, by which they had marked the location of these islets. In them were many infidels, and even therein took refuge all the outlaws, and men who committed murders. There is no water in the said islands, but they contain so great an abundance of the palms called “cocoa” that, with the water of the said fruit, they do not feel the need of any other. [To go among these people was exceedingly dangerous, on account of their fierce natures; but it was accomplished (in 1703) by Fray Hypolito Casiano, who succeeded in winning their friendship and converting them to the Christian faith, so that in two years (as stated by the provincial Olarte, ante) he had “baptized all the infidels there, and induced all the criminals who had resorted thither to repent of their deeds and reform their lives.” He continued these labors and these triumphs until his death, in 1726.]

The third mission of the Visayas Islands is that of which the reverend father provincial Fray Vicente Ibarra gave a particular and exact account to the governor of the islands in the year 1738, when he had finished his visitation of the missions, having received an urgent request that he should make report of their condition and progress (for with all this strictness are affairs examined in Philipinas, since such is the command of his Majesty, whom may God preserve); and because the said father provincial, as being an eyewitness and well acquainted with the religious who began that mission, can speak with more accuracy, I will set down his very words, as follows: “The third mission which my province maintains is in the mountains of Bosoc in the province of Ogtong, on the further coast of the province of Panay. This mission was established in the year 1728, an entrance being made in the rugged region of those mountains by father Fray Felix de ZuÑiga40—a religious of the most religious habits and the gentlest demeanor; and so zealous for souls that, without heeding the inclemencies of those wild mountains, he went about on foot, unshod, in sun and in rain, crossing almost by a miracle swollen and rapid rivers, and, despising danger, made his way into the most secluded places, in which there are many apostates and Carib41 blacks, of which sort are all those who are in the mountains of these islands. Such power had his zeal and constancy that he gained no small number of souls, since from those who were converted he was able to form three small villages; but, while he was praying one day in the little house which he had made for his dwelling, some apostates killed him with their lances. At present the said mission is cared for, on account of the great deficiency of men that we experience, by two religious who are in the village of Bugasson.”

[All these missions were still conducted, when Mozo wrote, and were saving many souls; but their work was greatly limited and hindered by the scarcity of workers. These missionaries displayed the same spirit of devotion, zeal for souls, and self-sacrifice as did the earlier ones, but “with this difference [in results], that our predecessors dealt with peoples who were gentler and more civilized, while those of the present time are handling people who are more fierce and barbarous; and for this reason their triumphs must be the more glorious, and their virtue and constancy most firmly grounded. Many other souls are caught for Heaven in these islands by those religious who serve in villages near the districts where there are infidels, of which there are many in the said islands. They penetrate further into the country when they are permitted to do so, and they lose no opportunity when those [infidels] go down to their villages to procure articles that they need, which occurs often; those [thus converted] amount to several hundred persons annually.”]

[Mozo here describes certain remedies for sickness which are used by the natives. Among these are the gall and fat of the python (called saua and biting, in various dialects) and another similar species of serpent, which reach an enormous size in the forests of the interior. The gall is used both internally and externally by the natives, to cure chills and pains in the stomach—to which they are especially liable from going barefooted, and more or less naked, through mud and rain at all times; also for malignant fevers and any inflammation which causes them. Mozo relates how he had cured himself of a high fever, when the physicians had “sentenced him to death,” by the use of this remedy, and had on other occasions been relieved or cured by it; “consequently, I guard what I have of it like a precious jewel.” The fat of these serpents is equally efficient for swellings or pains in the muscles and sinews, especially those caused by chills and exposure to weather; also it relieves the pains of gout.]

[Those Indians used a small stone, resembling a nut, in order to facilitate childbirth; they said that it was found, although only in small quantities, in a mine somewhere; this stone, applied to the left thigh, would quickly relieve the most difficult case of parturition,42 and afterward, applied again, would bring away the placenta; but in both cases it must be removed as soon as the desired effect was accomplished, or else it would “cause even the bowels to be drawn out.” They also made use of a certain root, called in the Pampanga tongue sugapa,43 to inflame their courage in battle; “he who eats it is made beside himself, and rendered so furious that while its effect lasts he cares not for dangers, nor even hesitates to rush into the midst of pikes and swords. On many occasions, therefore, when they go out to fight with any who are hostile to them they are wont to carry this root with them, and, by eating it at the time of the attack, they enter the battle like furious wild beasts, without turning back even when their force is cut to pieces; on the other hand, even when one of them is pierced from side to side with a lance, he will raise himself by that very lance in order to strike at him who had pierced him. Sometimes, also, when they wish to revenge themselves on some more powerful man, it occurs to them to eat the said root; and, with the fury which it arouses in them, they fling themselves upon him like rabid wolves, being carried away by that rage in the presence of the person whom they meet, whoever he may be. Therefore, on account of the pernicious effects which the said root causes, the Dutch have given peremptory orders in Batavia that any person who sees another, whoever he may be, in the said fury shall without fail shoot him or [otherwise] put him to death, in order that an end may be put to the fatal accidents which are daily seen in that city, on account of the natives there being very prone to this barbarous proceeding. The Malanao and Joloan Moros are accustomed to use this plant much. They are also acquainted with other herbs the use of which is no less pernicious, although in another way than is the root above referred to. I have forgotten their names, but in those regions there are many who know them, and are even acquainted with those plants (would that it were not so!). It is true, indeed, that among those who are now living in a civilized manner and are grounded in the faith, hardly any abuse is found in this respect; and even, except very seldom, any one who is acquainted with those plants; but among some infidel tribes there is often much of this, as I could confirm by cases which occurred to me while I was among those people.” [Mozo here mentions certain herbs (unnamed) which produce a complete physical torpor in the person to whom they are administered, so that he can use neither voice nor limbs;44 the natives are apt to avail themselves of this for purposes of robbery, but “they do not use it in order to abuse women, which is an especial providence of our Lord.” He relates an “amusing trick” played by the natives on another religious: this father had baptized some infants, on condition that they be surrendered to his care to be brought up as Christians; after a time, the parents came one night, and burned the above-mentioned herb under the house, thus producing its effect upon the inmates; “and in the sight of all, without any one having the power to move, they seized the infants and went away with them,” nor was the father ever able to find either the children or their parents.]

[The rest of Mozo’s work (pp. 152–234) is occupied with the relation of the Augustinian missions in China; at the end is a list of the baptisms solemnized by one missionary during the year 1760–61, giving the name, age, and residence of each; most of these persons are children, and one had been a priest of an idol.]

[In a rare pamphlet printed at Manila and dated 1745—of which the Library of Congress possesses a copy—Bernardo UstÁriz,45 then provincial of the Dominican order in Filipinas, wrote a sketch of the above missions, from which we make the following summary:]

[The missions of the order had reaped a rich harvest in central LuzÓn, but the fathers were not satisfied because the gospel had secured no stable footing “in Paniqui,46 which was hiding among the provinces of Cagayan, Pangasinan, and Pampanga.” They succeeded in making an entrance therein in 1739, at the cost of the lives of four of their missionaries; but six years later they were maintaining four laborers in that region and making encouraging progress. In this enterprise they were liberally aided by Governor Gaspar de la Torre. In those remote and wild regions the missionaries suffered greatly from lack of suitable shelter and food, the inclemencies of the weather, and the hardships of traveling. As an illustration: “On one occasion, a missionary having set out from the village of AppiÀt for the place called Cauayan, night came upon him when he reached a village named LÀcab; he expected that he could find a lodging there, and thus pass the night less uncomfortably, under some roof. He uttered loud cries, calling to its inhabitants, but his only reply was a confused yelling from the women, who in anger cried out that the religious should not enter the village. At the time they were offering a public supplication, in order to obtain from their idols rain for making their fields fruitful; and, as they formed the opinion that the devil would not speak to them through fear of the religious, they would not consent that the father should lodge in any of their houses. Accordingly, he found himself obliged to sleep on the ground that night, exposed to any disagreeable change of weather that might arise.” For some time the missionaries were derided, repelled, and threatened, and the natives endeavored to prevent them from entering the houses; but they persevered undauntedly, and the devil was often thwarted by their courageous resistance. Many persons desired baptism, but some were lured away by the devil, speaking through the priestesses (or aniteras), and others were intimidated by the opposition of their friends and relatives, who would even threaten a convert with death. Some fancied that to become a Christian would render one “a perpetual slave to the Spaniards.” In 1743, a chief at Appiat came with his family to the missionaries to be baptized. In the aforesaid space of six years, they had “succeeded in erecting six churches, in the villages of CauayÀn, AppiÀt, Bagabag, LappÀu, DarÙyag, and CarÌg. To these should be added that of Bayombong; for, although some Christians were there when it was received from the reverend Augustinian fathers, there were still many infidels, of whom some lived with the said Christians, and others had fled to a forest called VÀcal—from which they have gradually come out by dint of the visits which the missionaries have frequently made them, and with the baptisms among them an increase has been made in the number of the Christians who were in Bayombong when the Order of St. Dominic began its ministrations there. Thus, in the said seven churches there is the number of nine hundred and seventy souls, baptized in the said time—besides ten apostates, who after many years have returned to the Christian faith. The number of Christians would be greater, if the missionaries did not use especial care in administering baptism, and if they were willing to comply with the desires of many persons.” Many of the requests for baptism were caused by the desire to escape from tyrannical lords, or from creditors, or from the penalty due to their crimes; and not a few imagined that they could thus gain some more influential position among their people. In those seven churches there were eight hundred and fifty-eight catechumens; and these would have been more numerous if there were missionaries. At the time of UstÁriz’s writing, there has been a gratifying change in the feelings of those people, even among the infidels; they are more docile, and more friendly to the missionaries, and they even live more peaceably among themselves, committing fewer murders. Governor Torre granted to these fathers “extraordinary Indian guards, who even yet have not been able to complete the works in all the villages. In CauayÀn and LappÀu, they have built substantial houses and churches of planks; in Bagabag and Daruyag they have constructed houses of the same sort, and although [in those places] there are pavilions suitable for saying mass, they will proceed to build there substantial churches when they finish the wooden house and church in AppiÀt (or GÀpat); they will also build a house in Carig, where a large church of planks has already been completed. In the village of Bayombong it has likewise been necessary to build a new house and church of planks, because the buildings which were there for both these were little more than hovels.” These same Indian guards had been obliged to spend much time in opening and repairing roads, which had delayed their work on the church buildings; but those new roads had enabled the missionaries to secure an easy communication with the surrounding provinces, and to discover the lurking-places of the heathen natives. The work and maintenance of these Indian laborers are paid for by the government; but the fathers had to spend no small sum in other ways, to secure the spiritual conquest of the heathen about them. “It is necessary to influence them not only by fear but by love,” and thus the missionary must give them gratuities and presents; he must also support some of them, even for several months, who came from a great distance to receive instruction and, being in a strange land, had no means of support. The fathers had furnished plows to all who asked for them, that the natives might better cultivate their lands.]

[In the villages of Bujay and Dupag, and still more in the district of Ytuy, they met many obstacles and afflictions, as those natives were not so docile as those of Paniqui. “Nevertheless, much fruit has been gathered, in baptizing many infidels of the neighboring tribes, Ygolot, Ylong~ot, and others; and in reclaiming some apostates who were hiding in the mountains.” The missionaries were troubled not only with the obstinacy of those in Ytuy (or Ysinay), and the persistent efforts of the devil to render their labors vain, but with the hostilities committed on their converts by a tribe close by Ytuy, called Panoypuyes, who made head-hunting raids on their Christian neighbors. The Ysinays were a timid people, and these fierce marauders kept them in abject submission to their tyranny—killing them when found alone or unprotected on the road, killing or snaring their cattle, demanding from them contributions of produce, and even human beings whom the tyrants slew and then “offered in sacrifice to their false gods.” The missionaries feared that they must abandon this mission; but, hearing that Auditor Arzadun was then making his official visitation in the province of Pangasinan, they appealed to him for aid. He sent a body of armed men from that province against the Panoypuyes, but they could not administer sufficient punishment; he then ordered troops from Cagayan, two hundred and eighty-two in number. To these were added fifty of the Indian guards from the mission of Santa Cruz of Paniqui, and some of the native converts there; and this expedition was able to check the insolence of those dreaded marauders. UstÁriz presents an extract from the report of this enterprise which was furnished to him by Fray Antonio del Campo, the vicar-provincial of the said missions. The expedition captured and burned the villages of AjanÀs (the principal village of the Panoypuyes), Masi, Taveng, Bang~ao, and others; and slew SapÀc—the chief who ruled that tribe, and had been most tyrannical toward “the poor Ysinay Christians”—with many of his followers. In AjanÀs was a large building, on higher ground than the rest, and surrounded by a wall of stones, which was their sole fortress; “it was destined only for the residence of the unmarried men, who, according to the custom of that tribe, are not allowed to cover the more shameful part of their bodies, nor sleep where the married people live; the said pavilion also served as a watch-tower the duty of sentinel service belonging to the unmarried men.” Since this castigation, the missions and Christian Indians had enjoyed peace; and the natives, relieved from their terror of the enemy, had flocked to the missionaries for baptism. In BujÀy there were baptized about two hundred persons of the Ygolots alone, and at this writing there were “more than seven hundred souls newly added to this mission; for, the report of the valor of the Cagayan Christians in this undertaking having spread abroad, it has penetrated into even the most remote part of the mountains, attracting even the most secluded of the Ylong~ots, a tribe who rival the Panoypuyes in valor and fierceness. The mission of Paniqui likewise felt these benign effects; for at the report of such an achievement more than six hundred persons came to enroll themselves for the [instruction in] catechism, from the Yogad and GaddÀng tribes—besides forty souls from the village of Ybana in the Ygolot tribe, who united themselves to the village of Bayombong. Nor was this blessing monopolized by these two missions, but, crossing the mountains, it went on to Pung~can—to which place many families, influenced by the rumor of this influx of people [to the missions], have come down from the Gumang~i tribe, in whose instruction the reverend Augustinian fathers are occupied.”]

[A pamphlet (Mexico? ca. 1740) by Fray Manuel del Rio, then provincial of the Dominicans in Filipinas, relates the “events in the mission of Santa Cruz in Ituy, in the province of Paniqui: in the year 1739;” it is reprinted by Retana in his Archivo, ii, pp. 175–205. The following information is gleaned therefrom, space not permitting us to present more than the leading facts contained therein.]47

[The Dominican province of Filipinas had within the islands the following active missions: San Miguel de Oriong, in the mountains of Batan; Pantol and Asingan, in those of Pangasinan; in the islands48 which extend toward Hermosa Island, those of the Batanes and CalayÀn; and in the mountains and hills of Cagayan, the missions of Santa Rosa of Cifun, Tumavini, Orag, Mavanan, Santa Cruz, Vangan, and Capitanan. The missionaries in the provinces of Pangasinan and Cagayan had long desired to extend their work into the inland region lying between those provinces; and this was begun in the year 1632, in the district of Ituy, or Isinay. This mission was founded by Fray ThomÀs Gutierrez, who afterward died therein. The district of Paniqui was afterward chosen for missionary labors, but up to 1736 with only indifferent and occasional success; it “was founded in Zifun by Fray Pedro Ximenez, and afterward was transferred to the location which it now has, with the title of Santa Rosa.” In 1735, the Augustinian fathers (who at the time of RÍo’s writing were administering the Ituy mission) observed some indications that those hearts were becoming softened; of this they informed the Dominicans, who in the following year made the eighth attempt to establish a mission in that heathen district. On May 25, 1736, Fray Diego de la Torre went from his village of Ilagan (in Cagayan) to make a reconnaissance among the heathen people of Cagayan; at first they rebuffed him, but by dint of kind treatment and presents he won the confidence of some among them. These told him that the only obstacle in the way of his efforts was, the impassableness of the high-road from Cagayan to Pangasinan; if this were made passable, they would have no longer a barrier between themselves and Spanish influence. Fray Torre’s report of his dealings with these heathen induced the Dominican provincial, Fray Geronymo Sanz Ortiz, to ask ValdÉs TamÓn for government aid to their new enterprise; the governor granted the establishment of a mission in Paniqui, composed of four religious and the guard necessary for their protection, at the expense of the king; and the following religious were sent thither: Fray Manuel MolinÉr, Fray Joseph ThomÁs Marin, Fray Romualdo Molina, and Fray Pedro de Sierra. They began their labors in July, 1737, and encountered determined opposition from the natives, who, advised by the demon, would not admit them into the villages. The chiefs demanded, as the price of even allowing the missionaries to remain near the villages, gifts of beads, cattle and horses, and gold; and, finally, two men to slay as offerings to their demons. Fray MolinÉr died suddenly, it was suspected from poison given to him by some heathen; and in his stead Fray Torre was sent. About this time (1738) the fathers received protection and hospitality from an Indian woman of rank in that tribe; and this aid, with the presents given by the fathers and their persistent charity and gentleness, softened the hearts of the unbelievers until they consented to make a treaty of peace, some of the chiefs even going to Nueva Segovia to ratify it. Nevertheless, the fathers still experienced much opposition, especially from the people of Bayongbong, the most southern and the chief village of that heathen district; and often their lives were in danger, especially when their Indian guards became frightened and began to retreat to their homes. Indeed, Fathers Torre and Molina died suddenly, probably from poison, like MolinÉr. The Dominican provincial again appealed to the government for aid, asking that more guards be assigned to the missionaries, and that one or two military posts be established in that province—partly for the protection of the missionaries, partly to ensure the safety of the road which was to be built from Pangasinan to Cagayan;49 this was granted by the governor, and the necessary provisions made therefor. By the time when news of this came to Cagayan, Marin had so far advanced matters that “almost nothing remained to overcome;” he had secured the support of a powerful chief named Danao, and toleration from another named Ansimo; and Marin went to Pangasinan, taking with him PyrÁn, Danao’s grandson—who was so caressed and honored by the Spaniards that he returned home a firm friend to the missionaries, and did much to open his countrymen’s hearts toward them. The Dominican father provincial determined to open a direct road from Paniqui to Pangasinan, at the expense of the province—a most arduous and difficult undertaking, on account of the rugged surface of the country and the hostility of the Igorrots, “a bloodthirsty and very treacherous people.” Father Manuel del RÍo was sent out to make the necessary explorations for this road, in which he suffered great hardship. The Igorrots were greatly opposed to the intended road-making; but they were finally induced, by the father’s arguments, but still more by his liberal distribution of presents, to give their consent. The treaty made with them was thus solemnized: “In the presence of all, a hog was killed, and, as soon as the knife was thrust into it, profound silence reigned—all watching the dying struggles of the animal, and the flowing of its blood, which seemed like a fountain gushing upward. After a long time, a Christian Indian who was experienced in their ceremonies came forward, and, collecting in his hand some of the animal’s blood, went, with loud cries and a swaggering step, and smeared with the blood the feet of the Igorrot chiefs; at this they were well pleased, and began to talk vigorously in their own language, and with bold gestures, as a sign that they would fulfil their agreement. This done, they were given something to drink, and the cattle, carajays,50 salt, and other things at which the bargain had been settled were placed before them; and they returned to their villages contented, having remained from that time friends with the Christians. This road is two days’ journey in length, from the most eastern village of Pangasinan, called Asingan, to the village of Buxay among the Isinay people, which is a mission of the Augustinian fathers. For the greater comfort of travelers, road-houses were built at regular distances, in the places called Colong, Malalapang, and Malionlion; and in the last-named, which is the last town on the border of Pangasinan, a religious was stationed—on account of some Igorrot Christians being there, with some others who, it was hoped, would become Christians—with the title of missionary to the infidels there; he was separate from the other four who were in the province of Paniqui, who were destined to the reduction and conversion of the infidels in that province. This was a great achievement to open this road for communication between the provinces; for this has been an undertaking often attempted but never carried out, and often the royal exchequer has incurred great costs in it, and always without any benefit—especially twenty years ago, when the unfortunate mariscal Don Fernando Bustillo, governor and captain-general of these islands, attempted to open this road. Many thousands of pesos were spent, many unlucky events occurred, and no result was attained; and now, without any expense to the royal exchequer, at the cost of the religious order, it was readily cut through and opened. It is hoped that this road will be of great utility, not only for the said communication and trade between the provinces, but also for the easier conversion of the infidels—who, through trade and communication with the Christians, will learn their civilization and excellent customs, and will after a time abandon the barbarous condition in which they lived before.” In April of 1739, Father RÍo was accompanied to Manila by Danao and the other chiefs already mentioned; they were feasted and laden with presents, and the governor “granted freely whatever they asked.” In this road-building and other matters pertaining to this mission, the Dominican province spent “almost three thousand eight-real pieces; although it is the poorest province in the Indias, it can liberally spend its treasure, as now it has done, in the service of God and for the good of souls, for which chiefly it was founded.”]51

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.?

9 Spanish, al testud; this word does not appear in the lexicons, and it is impossible to determine its meaning accurately from the text. Testud may be possibly a misprint for testuz, meaning “the hind part of the head;” but it is more probably the mistake of an amanuensis for testiculos, these glands being regarded as the source of virile power.?

10 “Isinay is the language spoken by the Igorot of the hills in western Nueva Vizcaya, and by a part of the population of the towns of Aritao, Dupax, and Bambang, who are of Igorot origin, but whose ancestors were converted in the latter half of the eighteenth century.” “The name Igorot (in Spanish form, Igorrote) means in several Malayan languages, ‘people of the mountains.’… I have adopted it as a general designation for the whole body of primitive Malayan tribes of northern LuzÓn who are of the same physical type, speak closely allied languages, and present the same grade of culture.” (Barrows, in Census of Philippines, i, pp. 471, 472.) See also VOL. XX of this series, pp. 269–279.?

11 See account of Dominican missions, following this of Mozo’s. Interesting accounts of the Dominican missions in LuzÓn and its dependent islands, in recent times, may be found in the Correo Sino-Annamita (a missionary publication issued from the college of Santo TomÁs, Manila, during the period 1866–97), vols. i, iv, xiii-xv, xx, xxi, xxiii–xxx.?

12 A royal decree (given in full by Mozo, pp. 48–51) states that the Augustinians informed the Dominicans, by a letter of September 8, 1739, of their decision to surrender the Ituy missions, contingent on the permission of the governor; and the actual formal surrender took place on April 8, 1740. This transfer was liberal and disinterested, the Augustinians asking no compensation for their property, which was of considerable value. The number of baptized persons included in these missions was 2,755; and the Augustinians had taught them to irrigate their lands, and had furnished them with animals and plows.?

13 Fray Vicente Ibarra was born in Durango in 1694, and made his religious profession at the age of sixteen; he came to the islands in 1712. He was minister at Santor and other places (1720–28), and afterward held several offices in his order. In 1737 he was prior provincial, and made a visitation of all the Augustinian religious ministers there. The latter part of his life was spent mainly at Manila, where he died on December 24, 1760. He left various writings in the Pampanga dialect. (PÉrez’s CatÁlogo.)

Juan Belloxin was born in the province of LogroÑo in 1695, and made his profession at Salamanca when seventeen years old. He came to the islands in 1718, and spent ten years as missionary to the heathen Isinays, on whose dialect he left some MS. volumes. He was minister in various villages in other districts, and died at Manila in 1742.

Diego Noguerol was a native of the province of CoruÑa (1699), and professed at Compostela in 1716. Two years later he arrived at Manila, and went to the upper Pampanga mission; he was the first minister at Buhay (1728), where he remained seven years. He labored in other ministries and held offices in the order, dying at Manila in 1785.?

14 These were Bujay (the mission center), Dupag, Meuba, Mayon, Diangan, Limanab, BatÙ, Paitan, and Bayongbong (this last located in Paniqui).?

15 See description of trails in Igorot country, in Census of Philippines, i, p. 542.?

16 AgustÍn Barrio Canal was born in the province of Burgos, and made profession in the Augustinian convent of Salamanca in 1733, at the age of nineteen. He came to the islands in 1737, and became a missionary in western and central LuzÓn, where he died as related in Mozo’s text.

Pedro Freyre was born in the province of Lugo, and entered the Augustinian order at Burgos. He came to the Philippines in 1737, and labored among the tribes of central LuzÓn until 1753; he then became a minister in Pampanga, where he spent nearly twenty years. In 1771 he was removed by force from his post there, for refusing to accept the diocesan visit; the rest of his life was spent at Manila, where he died in 1790. (PÉrez’s CatÁlogo.)?

17 Reference is here made to the great western mountain range of LuzÓn, the Caraballos Occidentales; it is nearly 200 miles long, and, including its subordinate ranges, one-third as broad. It is really a system of mountains, its central range forming the divide between the waters flowing to CagayÁn River on the east and those flowing to the China Sea on the west. Its southern portion is called Cordillera Sur, which, bending eastward, under the name of Caraballos Sur joins the Sierra Madre or eastern coast range. This last range stretches along the eastern side of LuzÓn, from the northeastern point of the island to Laguna de Bay, a distance of 350 miles, and divides the waters of the CagayÁn valley (which is about 50 miles wide, and 160 in length) from those of the Pacific slope. See Census of Philippines, i, pp. 60, 61.?

18 Barrows classes the Apayaos as an Igorot division, located in the district of Ayangan; (cf. VOL. XLIII, p. 72, note 11). The Tinguians also are Igorot, and are the pagan people of Abra; “they have developed toward civilized life, being about on the same plane of culture as the Ilocano.” “This word is derived from tingues, meaning ‘mountain,’ a Malayan word, archaic, and almost unused now in TagÁlog, and the suffix an.” Adang evidently means the Gaddans, or Gaddang, another Igorot branch in western Isabela; some of them, christianized in early days, occupy the northern towns of Nueva Vizcaya. (Census of Philippines, i, pp. 469, 471, 477.)?

19 CayÁn was formerly the capital of Lepanto; and is three miles from the present capital, Cervantes.?

20 JosÉ Herice was born in 1691, in a town in Navarra, and made his religious profession at Pamplona at the age of twenty. He came to the islands in 1718, and was sent to the Ilocos missions. He was the pioneer evangelist among the Adang (or Gaddans), and consumed so much of his strength in that field that he was transferred to easier charges in Ilocos, from 1725 on. He died at BatÁc in 1742. (PÉrez’s CatÁlogo.) Rivera came to the islands in 1713, and was sent to the Tinguians, but for like cause was also transferred to the plains villages in 1719. Madariaga came over with Herice, whose associate he was among the Gaddans and Apayaos, until 1729, when he too went down to the plains; he died in 1744.?

21 Spanish, barbacoas: a word adopted from the Indians of Guiana, their name for the frames on which they roasted or smoke-dried any kind of meat or fish; it is also applied (in English, corrupted to “barbecue”) to a hog or other large animal roasted whole, and to the open-air entertainment at which such roasts (now usually made in a pit dug in the earth) form part of the food.?

22 See account of Igorot canaos (or feasts), and their dances at these, in Census of Philippines, i, pp. 535–537.?

23 Francisco Javier CÓrdoba was born in Mexico in 1712, and entered the Augustinian order at the age of seventeen. He came to the islands in 1732, and spent the rest of his life in the missions of Pampanga and Ilocos; his death occurred there, about 1764.

Romero was a native of Cadiz, born in 1729, and entered the order in MechoacÁn, Nueva EspaÑa, in 1750. Two years later he came to the islands, and joined the Igorot mission, afterward being cura in Indian villages; finally he returned to America (soon after 1774).

Pedro Vivar was born at LogroÑo in 1737, and made his profession at Valladolid, at the age of fourteen; he came to Manila with the mission of 1752, and two years later was sent to the Igorot mission. After three years labor there, he took charge of the ministries in various native villages of Ilocos, where he died in 1771. In the revolt which occurred in that province during the British occupation, he and other missionaries were imprisoned by the insurgents, and narrowly escaped being slain by them. Vivar left several MSS., among them a history of the above rebellion, which was recently published (Manila, 1893), in vol. iv of Biblioteca historica Filipina. (PÉrez’s CatÁlogo.)?

24 The TagÁlog name of the sago-palm (in Pampanga called ebos, according to Mozo), or Corypha umbraculifera. C. minor is commonly called palma brava (TagÁlog, anÁhao or anÁo); see VOL. XLVII, p. 181, note 27.?

25 This is the fire-saw, a variant on the fire-drill so generally used by the North American Indians and other savage peoples. See description and illustration of the fire-saw used in Borneo, (similar to that of the Zambals), in Ling Roth’s Natives of Sarawak, i, pp. 377, 378.?

26 “ ‘Baluga,’ in the Pampango language, means half-breed or mixed blood. It has quite a wide use to indicate Negrito-Malayan roving savages.” (Barrows, in Census of Philippines, i, p. 469.)?

27 Ilib: a Pampango name of the cogon grass (Imperata arundinacea); see VOL. XXIX, p. 233, note 74.?

28 Spanish, lumbre, meaning “fire,” thence “light;” and by extension “tinder,” used to produce fire. Evidently the allusion in the text is to material used for tinder—in such a region and for use as a bed, obviously meaning dry grass.?

29 See Delgado’s description of the bees in Filipinas (Historia, pp. 848, 849). He states that there are several different kinds of bees, which produce great quantities of wax and honey—especially in the Visayas, where two crops are gathered in the year.?

30 See note on sago-palm, p. 91, ante.?

31 Evidently the same as sÚcao, an Ilocan name for a kind of pond-lily, Nelumbium speciosum; its tubers (and Blanco says, its flowers) are edible—as is the case with those of other species of the same genus, in America and other regions, which are used for food to some extent by the savages.?

32 That is, “Natural necessities are satisfied with almost nothing.” The other saying is: “If you wish to make a man rich do not add to his wealth, but take away his desires.”?

33 The Visayan name for the shrub (Croton tiglium) which yields the croton oil of commerce; it belongs to the order EuphorbiaceÆ.?

34 “Termes monocerus (Koen), the common name for which is anay. The anay, or white ant, is a very remarkable insect, with a large head, on the upper part of which it has three small eyes; and it is armed with two hard teeth, shaped like a forceps, with which this creature destroys in a very short time the woodwork of a house, the best depository of papers, the largest library, or the finest wardrobe of clothing. The only wood that it does not attack is the molave, on account of its bitter taste and excessive hardness. The anay lives in families; it is found in all wet localities, and erects dwellings of clay which are two or three meters in height, and so solid that the passage of buffaloes over them is not sufficient to destroy them. The interior of these ant-hills contains a multitude of little cells, divided by thin partitions; and in these they deposit thousands of eggs (some 80,000 to each female) that are infinitely small. One [in each hill?] of these terrible insects is distinguished by its enormous proportions, and this one the Indian calls ‘queen of the ants.’ In the rainy season, wings grow on them, and they fly in fabulous numbers at sunset. The damage which these insects cause is incalculable.” (Montero y Vidal, ArchipiÉlago Filipino, p. 114.)

The same writer mentions, in the preface to the same work, as an instance of the prevalent ignorance in Spain of the nature and needs of that country’s colonies in the East, that some member of the royal Council undertook to despatch a decree that the army in Filipinas should go in pursuit of the anay, believing it to be some terrible criminal.

Salazar makes an interesting reference (Hist. Sant. Rosario, p. 567) to some unnamed species of ant: “In that country [of the Mandayas] are certain ants which are called ‘Dutchmen,’ whose sting is so sharp that it becomes unendurable;” and he relates that this creature was used by a Dominican missionary as a new penance.?

35 Cf. account of these superstitions as still believed in Batangas, in Census of Philippines, i, pp. 520, 521.?

36 Agde (Latin, “Agatha”) a city in southeastern France, was anciently the seat of a bishopric suffragan to Narbonne; it was suppressed in 1790. The council here referred to was held in the year 506, “in the time and with the authorization of Alaric, king of the Visigoths in Spain, although he was an Arian.” (Chevin’s Dictionnaire de noms de lieux, p. 5.)?

37 Antonio LÉon was born in 1702, in the province of Alicante, and made profession in the Augustinian convent at Salamanca at the age of sixteen. He came in the mission of 1724, and spent the rest of his life mainly in the missions of Pampanga, in which he died (1766). His younger brother Pablo came (being then a novice) to the islands at the same time; he was missionary in PuncÁn (1731) and Santor (1732) and died in 1733.

Manuel Calvo was born in Almagro in 1704, and when sixteen years old entered the Augustinian order at Toledo. He came to Manila with the foregoing brothers, and labored in Pampanga missions; he died at AyÁrat in 1758.

Francisco AlvÁrez was a native of Oviedo province in Spain, and made profession at Madrid in 1727, at the age of twenty-two; he came to the islands in the mission of 1732. He also labored in the Pampanga missions, and died at Manila in 1769. (PÉrez’s CatÁlogo.)?

38 “In the mountains [of Iloilo] there are many Indians whom they call Mundos; they should be called vagamundos [English, “vagabonds”], but the Indians bite off half from Castilian words when they are somewhat long. These Mundos are descendants of the Christians who, not being able to remain in the villages on account of their delinquencies, have fled to the mountains. They are not unwilling to become Christians, provided the fathers will go to their hamlets to live; but as this is impossible, on account of those places being inaccessible to civilized people, they continue in their infidelity. Some come down to the villages, and in their places others escape [to them] who commit new crimes; and [thus] this caste of people is continually maintained, notwithstanding the efforts that have been made to reduce them. The Indians trade with them, and give them rice and cloth in exchange for the wax and pitch which they bring down from the hills; and, in order not to lose this advantage, the Indians have been opposed to the reduction of the Mundos to a civilized and Christian mode of life.” (ZuÑiga, Estadismo, ii, pp. 93–94.)?

39 Loberos (from lobo, “wolf”): Dominguez calls it a synonym of espantanublados (“scare clouds”), an epithet of “the vagabond who, wearing long garments, goes through the hamlets begging from door to door; and the country folk believe that he has power over the clouds” (Diccionario of the Academy).?

40 FÉlix de Rioja y ZÚÑiga was born at Cadiz in 1691, of a noble family, and made his profession there at the age of seventeen, renouncing an inherited title. He came to the islands in 1712, and seven years later was sent to the Bataan mission. He was sent to Guimbal (1722) and Bugason in 1728; in the latter place he was murdered in June, 1734.?

41 Carib: the name of the Indian race who inhabited the Antilles and adjacent coasts when the New World was discovered; also applied in general to fierce (and especially to cannibal) savages.?

42 Cf. Matilda C. Stevenson’s account of a ceremony employed at childbirth by the Sia Indians of New Mexico, in which an ear of corn (which among them is the emblem of life) is passed up and down the body of the mother, accompanied with prayers to one of their divinities, to secure a safe and easy delivery. (Report of U. S. Bureau of Ethnology, 1889–90, pp. 134–141.)?

43 This plant is evidently Datura alba (or perhaps in some places D. fastuosa, which has the same properties), commonly called “jimson weed” in the United States; it is called catchÚbong or tachibong by the Visayans, and in TagÁlog talamponay. (See Official Handbook of the Philippines, part i, pp. 377, 401; also Merrill’s Dictionary of Plant Names, p. 142.)?

44 It is possible that this plant is Euphorbia pilufera, a soporific; it is used, as are many other plants found in the islands, for poisoning fish.?

45 Fray Bernardo UstÁriz was born in the archbishopric of Zaragoza, and entered the Dominican order at Calatayud; he came to the Philippines with the mission of 1730. In the following year he was minister at Binondo, and in 1739 at Abucay; with these exceptions he was engaged in high offices of his order—being the head, at various times, of the college of Letran and of the university of Santo TomÁs; and twice (1743 and 1755) the provincial of the order. He was afterward appointed bishop of Nueva Segovia, taking possession of that see in 1761. In the following year the capture of Manila by the English occasioned a revolt in Ilocos; the efforts of UstÁriz to oppose the insurgents were unsuccessful, and drew upon him their resentment. They kept him a prisoner for six months, and were on the point of killing him; but his life was saved by the opportune arrival of a Spanish force. He then accompanied the troops through their campaign for the pacification of Pangasinan, and the hardships which he underwent therein and in his previous captivity shortened his life; he died at the hospital of San Gabriel, near Manila, August 2, 1764. (Ferrando’s Hist. PP. dominicos, v, pp. 6–9.)?

46 Father Manuel del RÍo thus describes the district of Paniqui and its people (Retana’s Archivo, ii, pp. 185–187): “This province of Paniqui extends from north to south; and its length, from the last Christian village of Cagayan, which is Itugug, to the last infidel village (but close to the mission of Isinay), called Bayongbong, is probably two and one-half or three days’ journey. Its breadth thus far has not been ascertained; but I think that it includes more than fifteen leguas of plains, or level ground, from the mountains of the Igorrots to those of the Ilongots. These are two ranges of lofty peaks, which intersect this province in the middle, and likewise others in the center of this island; and in these mountains dwell these two and other barbarous tribes, whom hitherto it has been impossible to conquer, on account of the inaccessible character of the mountains. The land of this province of Paniqui is quite level, and good for cultivation. The villages are numerous, although not very large; for on the shores of the Maga River alone, which flows through the length of that province from south to north, are counted eighteen villages, including both large and small ones. The people of that tribe are distinct from those adjacent to them, and have a different language from the others. The men are accustomed from childhood to file their upper teeth into points, which often causes them to decay; and the teeth, after being dyed a sort of dark blue, are adorned (when the person is a chief) with small golden pegs. For persons of rank, it is considered very unsightly to have white teeth. They also pierce their ears, as women do; and some cleave them through. These people are barbarians in their customs, without any kind of civilization or government; and they pay respect only to some chiefs, who have acquired a reputation as such by their valorous deeds. They are not idolaters, nor are they given to religion or to worship; they have only some superstitions regarding the songs of birds, and similar things, founded on oracles which are given to them by the demon, through the agency of their aniteras, or priestesses. These women, through a compact which they have with the demon, after taking a certain potion are possessed by that same demon; and through their mouths this enemy is able to declare his will to those wretched people. At other times, the demon speaks to them in his own person, in an aerial body; but never, or very seldom, does he allow himself to be seen by those who hear him. Through the counsel of this chief enemy of the human race, those heathen are wont to buy Indians from other provinces, in order to offer them in sacrifice, by killing them, to the demon. Of this class must have been a little boy four years old, apparently an Igorrot, who was seen by the said father commissary, Fray Diego de la Torre. Those infidels were buying the child, to kill him; and the father, not having with him any forces for preventing this, could only obtain from them that they should bring the child to him for baptism before the sacrifice. God chose that the bargain should not be settled, and that the father should buy the child for some trinkets and beads, which those people value; and accordingly he brought the lad to Cagayan, snatching him from the teeth and claws of the infernal wolf. The said father encountered among those infidels, another boy, about seven years old, who was white and ruddy, like a European—a very singular thing among people so swarthy as they. His mother had had other children, but dark, like herself; and she says that when she was pregnant with this boy she dreamed that they commanded her to give him the name of AdÀn [i.e., Adam], and therefore did so, calling the boy AdÀn. They regarded him as a little idol; and therefore, although the father urged them several times to give him the child, he was unable to obtain it.”?

47 See earlier accounts of these Dominican missions in Central LuzÓn, in VOL. XXXVII, pp. 98–101; and in VOL. XLIII, Salazar’s history, book i, chap. xxxiii, and book ii, chaps. ii, xi, xxii, xxxv, xlix. Cf. Ferrando’s Hist. PP. dominicos, passim, for detailed accounts from the beginnings of those missions down to 1830.?

48 In Retana’s printed text this word appears, by some error, as montes, when the context plainly indicates islas.?

49 See account of this project, the explorations made for it, and its successful accomplishment, in Ferrando’s Hist. PP. dominicos, iv, pp. 367–382.?

50 Carajay is, according to Vidal y Soler (Viajes de Jagor, p. 138), an earthenware jar, used for cooking by the Bicol natives in Camarines.?

51 According to an official report sent to the king in July, 1752, the Dominican province of Santisimo Rosario had then only 83 religious, who were in charge of 219,459 souls. Besides the missions of China and Tun-kin, the province conducted in the Filipinas Islands seven missions in Cagayan, two in Pangasinan, six in Ituy, one in Cauayan, and eight in Paniqui; and one in the mountains of Oriong, in Bataan. “In all these missions, or villages of new converts, there were reckoned 8,917 Christians, with many catechumens who were being prepared to receive the holy sacrament of baptism. This number is not included in the general administration of the province previously mentioned. Some of these villages or missions were committed to religious appointed as vicars in other and older villages, to which the former were added, and considered as visitas or annexes—especially in Cagayan, where there has not been any religious with only the title of missionary. The number of souls who are today in charge of the province in the islands of Luzon and Batanes, according to the general report of 1870, is 560,911.” (Ferrando, Hist. PP. dominicos, iv, pp. 560, 561.)?