Note 64 — INSURRECTIONS BY FILIPINOS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY (continued 2)

There was in the village of Balacbac an Indian chief named Dulinen, to whose following belonged a great part of the village; although he came down [from the hills] to live in a settlement, it was more from worldly considerations than from affection for a Christian mode of life, and he therefore left in the mountains all his valuables, and a nephew of his for a guard over them. This was learned by an Indian named Calignao, who went to the mountain and slew the nephew of Dulinen—who, incensed at this, urged his followers to go with him to the mountain to avenge the death of his nephew. When this came to the knowledge of the servant of God,64 he made every effort to prevent this flight, and although he restrained some of them he could not entirely prevent it; accordingly, that chief went back to the mountains, followed by seventeen families. The commandant of the fort at Paynaoven [sic], when he learned of this departure, attacked the chief and his followers, and burned down the village of Aglao, of which the murderer Calignao and the said chief were natives, and which was near that of Balacbac, where at that time all lived. The said Calignao had many kinsmen, and, in order that these might not go away and flee to the mountains, father Fray Domingo endeavored to gain their good-will; he asked the commandant for a commission as adjutant for Calignao, which the commandant immediately gave him—adding, to pacify the Indians, that the killing by Calignao had been done in compliance with a command by the government that all those should be killed who would not come down to the settlements, etc. With this the men of Balacbac were calmed, but their quiet did not last long; for a relative of Calignao named Dagdagan, who accompanied the commandant and his soldiers, promised to attack the chief who had fled. Entering the woods to carry out this plan, he went but a few paces when he was slain by a Negrillo of the mountains; and, through the mischief-making of a wicked Indian, his relatives believed that the religious had occasioned this death. They assembled to celebrate his funeral rites with much wine-drinking (a common usage among these infidels); and their carousal resulted in an agreement to cut off the head of the servant of God, for which exploit Calignao offered himself, in return for the kind acts which father Fray Domingo had done for him. And now that we have this evil man under consideration [entre manos] it will be well to point out something of his life, in order that what remains to be told of him may not afterward cause surprise. Thomas Calignao was a native of the village of Aglao, distant two leguas from Balacbac, and was a Christian from his childhood—although of Christian he had only the name; for his life and habits were worse than those of a heathen. He never heard mass, or made a confession; he observed neither human nor divine nor even natural law; for his only endeavor was to cut off heads—even if they were those of children or women—without further cause or motive than his craving to kill for the sake of killing. On account of these and many other sins, the commandant often intended to put him to death; but he did not carry out this purpose, through the intercession of father Fray Domingo, for the servant of God said (and not unjustly): “If you kill this man, who has so large a following, many will return to the mountains; but if he is reclaimed to an upright life he will bring in and convert many Cimarrons, and can be very helpful to us in our ministry.” For these and other reasons, and for the salvation of that soul, father Fray Domingo made every effort to convert Calignao to a good life—now with advice, now with kind acts, again with examples, flattering words, and promises, and sometimes with threats—[telling Calignao] that unless he mended his ways, he would leave the commandant to do his duty. None of these methods sufficed to reclaim him, for, even when it seemed as if he were somewhat softened, if they summoned him to hear mass he became indignant, and heard it while seated and smoking tobacco (an impropriety unheard-of in this country); and if the father commanded him to kneel he was inflamed with anger and excitement—most of all, when the father commanded him to come for instruction in the [Christian] doctrine, his ignorance of which made him so bad a Christian. Father Fray Domingo, seeing how little attention Calignao paid to his counsels, availed himself of his relatives and other influential persons, in order that they might bring him to reason and to decent living. But all this was lost time, for besides not hearing mass on the feast-days, or attending instruction (as all did), all that he cared or watched for was to kill others and become drunk; and although he did this, as he thought, in secret, other persons told it to father Fray Domingo, who rebuked him for his cruel acts and his persistence in his evil ways. From this arose the hatred and ill-will which Calignao entertained for the servant of God; and in order to remove him thus, and not have in future any one who would rebuke him, he now offered to cut off the father’s head.