lands she has no first-hand knowledge. The people to the north are
"Am-yan'-an," and the northern country is "La'-god." The "Day'-ya"
are the eastern people, while "Bar'-lig" is the name of the eastern
and southeastern land. "Ab-a-ga'-tan" are the people of the south, and
"Fi'-lig ab-a-ga'-tan," is the south land. The people of the west are
"Loa'-od," and "Fi'-lig lao'-od," or "Lo'-ko" (the Provinces of Ilokos
Norte and Ilokos Sur) is the country lying to the west and southwest.

Some of the old men of Bontoc say that in the past the Igorot people
once extended to the seacoast in the Provinces of Ilokos Norte
and Ilokos Sur. This, of course, is a tradition of the prehistoric
time before the Ilokano invaded northern Luzon; but, as has been
stated, the Bontoc people claim never to have been driven by that
invasion, neither have they any knowledge of such a movement. It is
not improbable, however, that traditions of the invasion may linger
with the people nearer the coast and farther north.


Historical sketch

It is regretted that the once voluminous historical records and data
which the Spaniards prepared and kept at Bontoc were burned -- tons of
paper, they say -- probably late in 1898 or early in 1899 by Captain
Angels, an insurrecto. However, from scanty printed historical data,
but mostly from information gathered in Bontoc from Igorot and resident
Ilokano, the following brief sketch is presented, with the hope that it
will show the nature of the outside influences which have been about
Bontoc for the past half century prior to American occupation. It is
believed that the data are sufficiently truthful for this purpose,
but no claim is made for historical accuracy.

It seems that in 1665 the Spanish governor of the Philippines,
Governor-General D. Diego de Salcedo, sent an expedition from Manila
into northern Luzon. Some time during the three years the expedition
was out its influence was felt in Fidelisan and Tanolang, two pueblos
in the western part of the Bontoc culture area, for history says they
paid tribute.[9] It is not probable that any considerable party from
the expedition penetrated the Igorot mountain country as far as the
above pueblos.

After the year 1700 expeditions occasionally reached Cayan, which,
until about twenty-five years ago, as has been stated, was a Spanish
capital. In 1852 the entire territory of present Lepanto-Bontoc and a
large part of northern Nueva Vizcaya were organized as an independent
"distrito," under the name of "Valle de Cayan;"[10] and a few years
later, though the author does not give the date, Bontoc was established
as an independent "distrito."

The Spaniards and Ilokano in and about Bontoc Province say that it
was about fifty years ago that the Spaniards first came to Bontoc. The
time agrees very accurately with the time of the establishment of the
district. From then until 1899 there was a Spanish garrison of 200
or 300 men stationed in Bontoc pueblo. Christian Ilokano from the
west coast of northern Luzon and the Christian Tagalog from Manila
and vicinity were the soldiers.

The Spanish comandante of the "distrito," the head of the
political-military government, resided there, and there were also
a few Spanish army officers and an army chaplain. A large garrison
was quartered in Cervantes; there was a church in both Bontoc and
Cervantes. In the district of Bontoc there was a Spanish post at
Sagada, between the two capitals, Bontoc and Cervantes. Farther to the
east was a post at Tukukan and Sakasakan, and farther east, at Basao,
there was a post, a church, and a priest.

Most of the pueblos had Ilokano presidentes. The Igorot say that the
Spaniards did little for them except to shoot them. There is yet a
long, heavy wooden stock in Bontoc pueblo in which the Igorot were
imprisoned. Igorot women were made the mistresses of both officers and
soldiers. Work, food, fuel, and lumber were not always paid for. All
persons 18 or more years old were required to pay an annual tax of 50
cents or an equivalent value in rice. A day's wage was only 5 cents,
so each family was required to pay an equivalent of twenty days' labor
annually. In wild towns the principal men were told to bring in so
many thousand bunches of palay -- the unthreshed rice. If it was not
all brought in, the soldiers frequently went for it, accompanied by
Igorot warriors; they gathered up the rice, and sometimes burned the
entire pueblo. Apad, the principal man of Tinglayan, was confined six
years in Spanish jails at Bontoc and Vigan because he repeatedly failed
to compel his people to bring in the amount of palay assessed them.

They say there were three small guardhouses on the outskirts of Bontoc
pueblo, and armed Igorot from an outside town were not allowed to
enter. They were disarmed, and came and went under guard.

The Spanish comandantes in charge of the province seem to have remained
only about two years each. Saldero was the last one. Early in the
eighties of the nineteenth century the comandante took his command
to Barlig, a day east of Bontoc, to punish that town because it had
killed people in Tulubin and Samoki; Barlig all but exterminated
the command -- only three men escaped to tell the tale. Mandicota, a
Spanish officer, went from Manila with a battalion of 1,000 soldiers
to erase Barlig from the map; he was also accompanied from Bontoc
by 800 warriors from that vicinity. The Barlig people fled to the
mountains, losing only seven men, whose heads the Bontoc Igorot cut
off and brought home.

Comandante Villameres is reported to have taken twenty soldiers and
about 520 warriors of Bontoc and Samoki to punish Tukukan for killing
a Samoki woman; the warriors returned with three heads.