They say that in 1891 Comandante Alfaro took 40 soldiers and 1,000
warriors from the vicinity of Bontoc to Ankiling; sixty heads adorned
the triumphant return of the warriors.

In 1893 Nevas is said to have taken 100 soldiers and 500 warriors to
Sadanga; they brought back one head.

A few years later Saldero went to "clear up" rebellious Sagada with
soldiers and Igorot warriors; Bontoc reports that the warriors returned
with 100 heads.

The insurrectos appeared before Cervantes two or three months after
Saldero's bloody work in Sagada. The Spanish garrison fled before
the insurrectos; the Spanish civilians went with them, taking their
flocks and herds to Bontoc. A thousand pesos was the price offered
by the Igorot of Sagada to the insurrectos for Saldero's head when
the Philippine soldiers passed through the pueblo; but Saldero made
good his escape from Bontoc, and left the country by boat from Vigan.

The Bontoc Igorot assisted the insurrectos in many ways when they
first came. About 2 miles west of Bontoc is a Spanish rifle pit,
and there the Spanish soldiers, now swelled to about 600 men, lay
in wait for the insurrectos. There on two hilltops an historic sham
battle occurred. The two forces were nearly a mile apart, and at that
distance they exchanged rifle bullets three days. The Spaniards finally
surrendered, on condition of safe escort to the coast. For fifty years
they had conquered their enemy who were armed only with spear and ax;
but the insurrectos were armed with guns. However, the really hard
pressing came from the rear -- there were still the ax and spear --
and few soldiers from cuartel or trench who tried to bring food or
water for the fighting men ever reported why they were delayed.

The feeling of friendship between the Igorot and insurrectos was so
strong that when the insurrectos asked the Igorot to go to Manila
to fight the new enemy (the Americans), 400 warriors, armed only
with spear, battle-ax, and shield, went a three weeks' journey to
get American heads. At Caloocan, just outside Manila, they met the
American Army early in February, 1899. They threw their spears, the
Americans fired their guns -- "which must be brothers to the thunder,"
the Igorot said -- and they let fall their remaining weapons, and,
panic stricken, started home. All but thirteen arrived in safety. They
are not ashamed of their defeat and retreat; they made a mistake when
they went to fight the Americans, and they were quick to see it. They
are largely blessed with the saving sense of humor, and some of the
warriors who were at Caloocan have been known to say that they never
stopped running until they arrived home.

When these men told their people in Bontoc what part they and
the insurrectos played in the fight against the Americans, the
tension between the Igorot and insurrectos was at its greatest. The
insurrectos were evidently worse than the Spaniards. They did all
the things the Spaniards had done, and more -- they robbed through
falsehood. Consequently, insurrectos frequently lost their heads.

Major Marsh went through Bontoc close after Aguinaldo in December,
1899. The Igorot befriended the Americans; they brought them food
and guided them faithfully along the bewildering mountain trails
when the insurrectos split and scattered -- anywhere, everywhere,
fleeing eastward, northward, southward, in the mountains.

When Major Marsh returned through Bontoc, after following Aguinaldo
into the heart of the Quiangan area, he left in the pueblo some sixty
shoeless men under a volunteer lieutenant. The lieutenant promptly
appointed an Ilokano presidente, vice-presidente, secretary, and
police force in Bontoc and also in Sagada, and when the soldiers left
in a few weeks he gave seven guns to the "officials" in Bontoc and
two to those in Sagada. A short time proved that those "officials"
were untrustworthy men; many were insurrectos who had dropped
behind Aguinaldo. They persecuted the Igorot even worse than had the
insurrectos. They seemed to have the American Army behind them --
and the Igorot stood in awe of American arms.

The crisis came. An Igorot obtained possession of one of the guns,
and the Ilokano chief of police was killed and his corporal wounded.

This shooting, at the time apparently unpremeditated, but, in reality,
carefully planned and successfully executed, was the cause of the
arrival in Bontoc pueblo of the first American civilians. At that time
a party of twenty Americans was at Fidelisan, a long day northwest
of Bontoc; they were prospecting and sightseeing. The Ilokano sent
these men a letter, and the Igorot sent a messenger, begging them to
come to the help of the pueblo. Three men went on August 27, 1900;
they were Truman K. Hunt, M.D., Mr. Frank Finley, and Mr. Riley. The
disagreement was settled, and several Ilokano families left Bontoc
under the protection of Mr. Riley.

August 9, 1901, when the Board of Health for the Philippine Islands
was organized, Dr. Hunt, who had remained in Bontoc most of the
preceding year, was appointed "superintendent of public vaccination
and inspection of infectious diseases for the Provinces of Bontoc
and Lepanto." He was stationed at Bontoc. About that time another
American civilian came to the province -- Mr. Reuben H. Morley, now
secretary-treasurer of the Province of Nueva Vizcaya, who lived nearly
a year in Tulubin, two hours from Bontoc. December 14 Mr. William
F. Smith, an American teacher, was sent to Bontoc to open a school.

Early in 1902 Constabulary inspectors, Lieutenants Louis A. Powless and
Ernest A. Eckman, also came. May 28, 1902, the Philippine Commission
organized the Province of Lepanto-Bontoc; on June 9 Dr. Hunt was