The glorious triumphs among the Isinay and adjoining tribes are related
In the wild and impenetrable mountain ranges which extend to the
northeast and north, and separate the provinces of Pampanga and Nueva
Segovia, there are various tribes who have almost the same customs
as those of the Abaca and Ibilaos; one of these is the one called
Isinay. [23] To them, and to the adjacent tribes, the fervent zeal
of the fathers belonging to the illustrious Order of St. Dominic [24]
had been directed, years before; but they found so much stubbornness,
violence, and cruelty that--after immense labors, and having been
in danger of losing their lives--they were not able to secure the
conversion of one of those people to our holy faith. For this reason
the fathers were obliged to withdraw from them, seeing that they were
wasting time without having any result, or even the hope of it. [The
Augustinian Cacho took up this task, and went on foot among those wild
mountains and wilder savages; at first they repulsed him, and even
tried to kill him, but finally his perseverance and patience softened
their hard hearts, and they were willing to listen to him.] From the
year 1715 until 1723, he was able to found four new villages of the
Isinay people, not to mention many others besides, from other tribes,
whom he baptized, and who united themselves with the other villages
previously mentioned. Finally, continuing unweariedly in his holy
task, and enduring the hardships which may be guessed, by the year
1738 he had come to the end of baptizing and converting the entire
Isinay tribe, with a large part of other tribes, whom he settled
in different villages. All these, thoroughly subdued and tamed,
baptized, and established in a well civilized mode of life, the
[Augustinian] province surrendered to the holy Order of St. Dominic,
with churches, dwellings for the religious, the sacred vessels,
and the other ornaments of the sacristy, because that of our father
St. Augustine found that it had many missions for which to care, and
not religious enough for all. This surrender was made in the year 1740
[25] 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,
[26] who afterward was provincial; the father definitor Fray Juan
Velloxin, a most guileless man, full of virtue, and unwearied in
labors; the father Fray Diego Nogueròl, who is still living, and has
been definitor--all these three from this province of Castilla--and
the father commissary Fray Joseph Gonzalez, a son of the province of
Philipinas; also others, whom, in order not to be tedious, I omit.
[News of this change reached Spain in 1742, and the general public
impression was that the aforesaid conversions had been accomplished
by the Dominican fathers. At the representations of the Augustinian
procurator at Madrid, the king issued a decree (dated December 19,
1742), approving and confirming the transfer made to the Dominicans,
setting forth the facts in the case and giving the credit for these
labors to the Augustinians. In the rehearsal of their achievements
various interesting facts are stated. The people of Ituy were formerly
called Isinay, a name given to them by the Italons. The first three
Augustinian missionaries baptized, from the year 1715 to 1723, six
hundred and ninety-five persons of all ages among these Ituis, not
counting many others who were being prepared for baptism. Of these
converts they formed four villages with their churches: Bujay (the
chief village), Pigpig, Marian, and Canan. In this and the Italon
mission they baptized in that period three thousand, four hundred
and thirteen persons. In 1723 the order applied to the governor
for further aid; he sent Auditor Pabón to inspect the missions,
whose report led to the appointment of three more missionaries
there, their stipends paid from the royal treasury. The eighteen
Isinay villages had been reduced to nine [27] 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; [28] 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, [29]
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.]