Chapter XVIII: Part II (3)

3. God has placed an isthmus midway between the two Americas, with the port and bay of Panama on the coast of the Southern Sea, and that of Portovelo on the opposite coast; although the former is of use only for vessels of medium size, there is another, called Perico, which admits ships of the line, their lading being conveyed in small vessels to Panama, which is two leguas distant. The second, which is that of Portovelo, is one of the most beautiful and well-defended ports in America; there are disembarked the goods of the ships from España, and they are conveyed to Panama; and the gold and silver and some products of Peru, which arrive at the latter port at the time of the [Spanish] trading-fleets, are transported to that of Portovelo by land, and by the Chagre River, for the return of the ships to España.

4. The Spanish company, when established in these islands, can have its storehouses and factors at the said ports; the ships which sail from here for Panama will leave there their cargoes, and bring back the goods which the ships of Cadiz will have carried to Portovelo; and these latter will in their turn do the same, leaving their cargoes at the said port, and, for their return voyage, taking aboard whatever might be sent to them from Panama.

5. This route would, without doubt, occasion greater expenses to the Spanish company than would the navigation via Cape Good Hope, but always many advantages to its commerce would result. If war should break out, the said route will be more secure from enemies, and our coasts will be better defended by the frequent visits of our ships to the said ports on the Southern coast; in that spacious sea they are not in danger of encountering enemies, as in the straits of Sunda, Malaca, and others of the Malayan Islands, through which it is necessary to pass in order to navigate through the seas of India and of the African coast, with risk from the nations of Europa who are established in both regions.

6. If the prosperity of the said company will be as great as the circumstances here set forth promise, we ought to expect that, in order to facilitate its commerce and save transportation, some part of its gains will be employed in the improvement of the Panama route--in making the Chagre River more navigable, and perhaps in seeking the easiest mode of joining the two seas, or in finding other means for conveying the goods by water from one port to the other. [169]

7. The idea of facilitating the commerce of España with these islands by the said route is not a new one, nor do I claim that it should be attributed to me; for it was brought forward in the year 1621, after the dangers of the navigation via Cape Horn [Cabo de Hornos] had been recognized, and it was realized what difficulties there were in conducting the commerce through those stormy seas. Information regarding it having been asked from the president and ministers of [the Audiencia of] Panama, "they brought forward so effectual arguments why it should not be permitted" (so Don Joseph de Veytia says, in his Norte de la contratacion) "that navigation by this route ceased."

8. Before undertaking any enterprise people's minds are usually dismayed at the multitude of hindrances which present themselves to the imagination; but all these are overcome, as a rule, by assiduous application, for the success of the enterprises which always are as difficult in their first stages as they are easy and simple in the middle and end of their course. The subject of commerce has encountered in our España apparently insuperable difficulties, which have intimidated the leading ministers in its promotion; and, while it cannot be denied that our nation has devoted very little attention to that most useful study, the science of commerce, our people ought to distrust the reality of the disadvantages which have been exaggerated in other times, and investigate them in these happier days. Therein the same difficulties will not be found, or it will be possible to obviate the injury which may be feared, by effectual measures for the greater stability of the commerce, the security of our dominions, and the welfare of all the vassals.

9. In Francia there was so much distrust on the subject of commerce that, its promotion and extension being deemed impossible, every project of this kind was rejected. Cardinal Richelieu, in his political testament, regards the French as incapable of commerce, as I have said; and, before this famous minister, his predecessors discussed the matter in no other fashion. But the great Louis Fourteenth and his most zealous and able [minister], Monsieur Colvert, overcoming dangers, scorning inconveniences, and trampling on difficulties, resolutely undertook, with magnanimous souls, to render that easy which for so many centuries had been deemed difficult, and finally they succeeded. Then why will it not be possible also to render the transaction of our commerce successful and easy by way of Panama, conquering the difficulties which will be alleged against it?

10. I am not ignorant of these hindrances; but I believe that, however strong they may be, they will not prevail over the welfare of the monarchy, and that the elevated and magnanimous royal soul of our beloved king and sovereign Don Carlos Third (whom may God preserve) and his zealous ministers will overcome the difficulties which have been hitherto considered insurmountable, and will hasten with suitable remedies to check the ruin of our dominions, which had its origin in the great amount of illicit commerce of the foreign nations. Perhaps they will form an entirely opposite idea from that of other times, regarding the conduct of our commerce by way of Panama, in order to provide from these islands the commodities which are needed for España and the Americas, to assure the royal duties, and to overthrow the foreigners--who, as I have said, will not be able to sell their merchandise at so moderate prices as the Spanish company can; and it will be the only effectual means of preventing the aforesaid illicit commerce.

11. I have set forth, sincerely and candidly, what my limited ability comprehends, and the knowledge that I have acquired of these islands; I have touched on these subjects as concisely as possible, in order not to render this document diffuse and too wearisome. I doubt not that in it will be found many defects, since the practical knowledge of commerce is remote from my profession; on these points, others who are more intelligent will be able to bring forward their arguments. I will be content if all will be convinced of my love for the nation, of my desire for its greater prosperity, of my ardent zeal, and of my loyalty to my king and sovereign; these are the only motives which have constrained me to offer the reflections which I have here stated--availing myself, for this little work, of the small amount of leisure which the arduous occupations of my office leave free for me.

May God grant that the effects and results correspond to my good intentions; and for the sake of their best success, the preservation of these islands, the extension of Spanish commerce, and the happy advancement of the monarchy, may He render prosperous for many years the life of our beloved king and sovereign Don Carlos Third (whom may God preserve) Manila, February 10, 1765.

Francisco Leandro de Viana

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DATA

The documents in the present volume are obtained from the following sources:

1. Usurpation of Indian lands.--From La Democracia (Manila), November 25, 1901; from a copy in the possession of James A. LeRoy, Durango, Mexico.

2. Moro raids.--From a rare pamphlet published at Manila (1755), from a copy in the possession of Edward E. Ayer, Chicago.

3. Augustinian parishes, 1760.--From an original MS. in possession of Edward E. Ayer.

4. Later missions.--From Mozo's Noticia histórico natural (Madrid, 1763), and a rare pamphlet by Ustáriz (1745), both from copies in the Library of Congress.

5. Events in Filipinas, 1739-62.--This is compiled from Zúñiga's Historia (Sampaloc, 1803), pp. 546-601, and Concepcion's Hist. de Philipinas, xi, pp. 89-237; and fully annotated from other writers.

6. Viana's Memorial of 1765.--From a MS.--apparently a duplicate copy of the first original, and bearing Viana's autograph signature--in the possession of Edward E. Ayer.

NOTES

[1] This document was printed in the Manila newspaper La Democracia (the organ of the Federal party), on November 25, 1901; it was furnished to that paper by Hugo Salazar, a young Filipino--a native of Luzón, educated as a pharmacist, prominent in the Federal party during 1901-04, and in 1903-04 governor of Surigao province, Mindanao--under the pen-name of "Ambut." It was printed with accompanying comments written by him, which here appear as foot-notes, signed "Ambut." We are indebted to the courtesy of James A. LeRoy (now [1906] U. S. consul at Durango, Mexico) for a copy of the above issue of La Democracia, and for the above information.

[2] Cf. pp. 141-143, post, note 63.

[3] In view of these abuses which occurred in the middle of the eighteenth century, which have been repeated in our own time (up to the year '97) with an outcome favorable to the friars because the latter found support in the venality or the pliancy of the authorities, will it be possible still to deny the justice and good reason with which the Filipinos reject the friars, demanding the suppression of the religious corporations, which always and everywhere have had pernicious consequences? Libertas, in its No. 686, shows bad faith and shamelessness in addressing to a co-religionist of ours these questions in its editorial columns: "Can Don Leocadio inform us whether these popular tumults which keep him so preoccupied were known in Filipinas before the year '96? Is it not public and notorious that certain conspicuous attorneys, resident in Manila, are the ones who are deceiving the people, promising them impossible things, and obtaining from them beforehand enormous sums of money?" Don Leocadio does not answer, in order not to waste his time; but he recommends the reading of this royal decree, in which all the friar-lovers will find a complete answer if they will reason with their brains. As the organ of the friars, it is natural that Libertas should speak thus, displaying the blessing of his Holiness Leo XIII as a banner for concealing error and falsehood; it is likewise natural that those who reason with the stomach should form a chorus for that sort of scribbling; but it is truly regrettable that our women and other persons should aid, through their lack of instruction, through the influence of the confessional, and through religious fanaticism, in falsifying historical truth.--"Ambut."

[4] It results, then, that the friars usurped not only the lands of individuals, but those of the State; this is called "filling both sides of the mouth with food" [comer á dos carrillos]--which they were doing, receiving salaries from the State and collecting dues from their parishioners.--"Ambut."

[5] This work was composed by Joseph González Cabrera Bueno, a native of Teneriffe, and at the time of its publication (Manila, 1734) the chief pilot for the Manila-Acapulco line of galleons. He was a sailor of great ability and long experience, which, with this book, gave him a very high rank among the mariners of his day. He dedicated the book to Governor Valdés y Tamón; its censura (or examination by the censor) was made by Murillo Velarde; and its illustrations were engraved by the native Filipino artist Nicolás de la Cruz Bagay. (Vindel, Catálogo biblioteca filipina, no. 819.)

[6] This direction to the alcaldes-mayor naturally suggests the query, "How many of the provinces were supplied with printing-offices in 1753?" and reminds one of Dickens's "Circumlocution Office," and its efforts "how not to do it."

[7] The pernicious character of the religious corporations, as an evil to society, is sufficiently proved; for even Catholic France is expelling them from her bosom. It only remains, then, to decide whether the prohibition of their existence is opposed to the principle of the separation of Church and State. To conform to the principle that the welfare of the people is a supreme law, and in virtue of that to deny legal existence to such associations as are hostile to the said principle, is not to fail in [loyalty to] the separation of the Church and the State, inasmuch as the prohibition has nothing to do with religious dogmas or ecclesiastical discipline; and, in order to be just and thoroughly impartial, it does not oppose itself to any specified community or sect, for it entirely sets aside the religious character of the corporations, considering them simply as groups of human beings in their relation to the general good. The State, in this case, legislates without passing beyond the bounds of its proper and exclusive jurisdiction, and does not invade the attributes of the ecclesiastical power.

Some will say that by prohibiting the existence of religious corporations liberties are restricted. To this I answer, that that liberty which causes harm to society ought not to be understood as liberty; and, [using the term] in this sense, the United States would not be disloyal to their Constitution in adopting restrictive measures in regard to the "trust," Chinese immigration, and the association of persons dangerous to peace, order, and the sanctity of the home.

As for the estates of the friars, Señor Sumulong was quite right, to judge from the facts in this royal decree, in asking for an ample and complete investigation of the legality of the titles to property which the friars could bring forward. It is to be observed that there was no opportunity here for [ascertaining] the real right of prescription, for it was impossible to protest against usurpations if one did not wish to be deported or shot as an anti-Spaniard or a filibuster.--"Ambut."

An interesting commentary on the above opinions is found in the recent action (December, 1906) of the French government in regard to the Roman Catholic church in France, the separation of Church and State there, and foreign interference with the proceedings of that government.--Eds.

[8] Bolot (borot): an arrow with a hook or barb (Noceda and Sanlucar's Vocab. Tagal).

[9] The year 1754 was especially disastrous to the Philippines on account of the Moro raids; thousands of people were slain, and other thousands carried away captive; even the coasts of Luzón were ravaged, and the population of the Visayas suffered a notable diminution. See account of these losses in Concepción's Hist. de Philipinas, xiii, pp. 190-250; and Montero y Vidal's Hist. de pirateria, i, pp. 309-317. In July of that year, Ovando was succeeded in the government of the islands by Arandía, who at once instituted reforms in the military service, and did what he could to defend the islands from their enemies; he died on May 31, 1759, worn out with the cares and fatigues of government.

[10] Forrest says (Voyage to New Guinea, p. 302) in describing the pirate raids by the Moros: "The Spaniards not allowing the Bisayans fire-arms, the latter prove less able to defend themselves." Also (p. 303): "On Celebes, they take, if in Dutch territory, even those of their own religion: a decent musselman, with his wife and four children were brought to Mindanao, by this very prow." "The Sooloos have in their families many Bisayan, some Spanish slaves, whom they purchase from the Illanon and Magindano cruisers. Sometimes they purchase whole cargoes, which they carry to Passir, on Borneo; where, if the females are handsome, they are bought up for the Batavia market. The masters sometimes use their slaves cruelly, assuming the power of life and death over them. Many are put to death for trifling offences, and their bodies left above ground." (Ut supra, p. 330.)

[11] The archbishop of Manila, Don Miguel Garcia Serrano, wrote to his Majesty that in the period of thirty years during which there was no fortified post in Mindanao, twenty thousand Christians had been made captive by the Moros. (Torrubia, Dissertacion, p. 49.)

This relation was evidently written by some one of the Jesuit missionaries in Leyte, and perhaps even an eyewitness to the events related. The villages which he names as having repulsed the enemy seem to have been largely those in charge of the Jesuits. Some mention of the raids made in 1752-53 against the Recollect missions may be found on pp. 163, 164, post, note 88.

[12] Escolapios: regular clergy of the Order of Escuelas Pías (or "religious schools"), founded early in the seventeenth century by St. Joseph of Calasanz (1556-1648), an Aragonese priest. (See VOL. XLVI, pp. 114, 115, note 49.) Besides the usual three vows, they took another one, to consecrate themselves to the instruction of children. They soon attained great reputation, and their order extended to many countries. So highly were their educational services appreciated in Spain that when the religious orders there were secularized (1835) that of Escuelas Pías was exempted therefrom by special grant, which was extended also to the Philippines. "Nevertheless, it is argued that they do not accept any salutary innovation or judicious reform, even when it is guaranteed by the experience of accredited instructors; and it is said that they walk on leaden feet, as if tied down to a stale routine." (Dominguez.)

Echegaray also gives to the word Escolapios the meaning of "students attending the Escuelas Pías," in which sense the word is evidently used here--except that the schools are simply the parish schools conducted by the friars among the Filipino natives.

[13] totals given in these tables are in some cases incorrect, but have been left as in original.

[14] 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.

[15] 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.)

[16] 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.

[17] 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."

[18] 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.

[19] "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.)

[20] Pérez states that he died at Guagua, a town in southern Pampanga; for this name Vava is apparently a phonetic Spanish corruption.

[21] 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.

[22] 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.

[23] "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.

[24] 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.

[25] 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.

[26] 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.

[27] These were Bujay (the mission center), Dupag, Meuba, Mayon, Diangan, Limanab, Batù, Paitan, and Bayongbong (this last located in Paniqui).

[28] See description of trails in Igorot country, in Census of Philippines, i, p. 542.

[29] 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.)

[30] 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.

[31] 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.)

[32] Cayán was formerly the capital of Lepanto; and is three miles from the present capital, Cervantes.

[33] 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.

[34] 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.

[35] See account of Igorot canaos (or feasts), and their dances at these, in Census of Philippines, i, pp. 535-537.

[36] 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.)

[37] 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.

[38] 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.

[39] "'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.)

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

[41] 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.

[42] 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.

[43] See note on sago-palm, p. 91, ante.

[44] 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.

[45] 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."

[46] The Visayan name for the shrub (Croton tiglium) which yields the croton oil of commerce; it belongs to the order Euphorbiaceæ.

[47] "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.

[48] Cf. account of these superstitions as still believed in Batangas, in Census of Philippines, i, pp. 520, 521.

[49] 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.)

[50] 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.)

[51] "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.)

[52] 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).

[53] 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.

[54] 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.

[55] 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.)

[56] 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.)

[57] 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.

[58] 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.)

[59] 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."

[60] 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.

[61] In Retana's printed text this word appears, by some error, as montes, when the context plainly indicates islas.

[62] See account of this project, the explorations made for it, and its successful accomplishment, in Ferrando's Hist. PP. dominicos, iv, pp. 367-382.

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

[64] 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.)

[65] The fiscal Arroyo declared that he had been imprisoned in order that he might not prosecute claims against the following persons in their approaching residencias: Governor Valdés Tamón, for the enormous sums which the royal treasury had lost during his government, which amounted to a million and a half pesos; the Marqués de las Salinas and the Marqués de Monte-Castro, confederates of the same Señor Valdés, for having appropriated from the royal treasury and from the public two and one-half million pesos; and Don Domingo de Otero Vermudez, [who had taken] more than two hundred thousand. (Concepción, Hist. de Philipinas, xi, p. 95.)

[66] See enumeration of these funds in the historical sketch of the Misericordia, in VOL. XLVII.

[67] It is thus stated by Concepción (Hist. de Philipinas, xi, p. 280): "With the pretext that the fathers of the Society [of Jesus] had usurped from them cultivated lands, and the untilled lands on the hills, on which they kept enormous herds of horned cattle--for which reason, and because the Jesuits said that these were their own property, they would not allow the natives to supply themselves with wood, rattans, and bamboos, unless they paid fixed prices--the Indians committed shocking acts of hostility on the ranches of Lian and Nasugbu, killing and plundering the tenants of those lands, with many other ravages. Nor did they respect the houses of the [Jesuit] fathers, but attacked and plundered them, and partly burned them, as well as many other buildings independent of these." All was plundering, rapine, destruction, and debauchery; the natives also rebelled against the exactions from them of tribute and personal services. "The contagion spread to the village of Taal, and more than sparks were discovered in other places, although efforts were made to conceal the fire." The alcalde-mayor and the Jesuits tried at first to pacify the Indians, urging them to wait for the official visit of Auditor Calderon; but they could do nothing, the natives being rendered only more daring by this attempt. Troops were then sent from Manila against them; in the battle mentioned in our text several were wounded, among them the commanding officer, Sargento-mayor Juan Gonzalez de el Pulgar; but he succeeded in routing the enemy. The chief of the insurgents, one Matienza, took refuge in a church, but was captured and disarmed therein. Reënforcements were sent from Manila, and the rebellion was soon quelled. The leaders of the rebellion were punished in various ways, according to their prominence or influence; some were shot, others sent into exile or to the galleys; and amnesty was granted to the insurgents who would lay down their arms and renew their acknowledgment of vassalage.