The mission to the Igolot tribe in especial
[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 barbecues [34] 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. [35] 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. Cordova
[36] 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.]