Note 8 — Letters from Father Mateo Gisbert to the Reverend Fathers and Brothers of Veruela

The village which your Reverence saw in the old Casalúcan has remained talis qualis.8 These people if they are not baptized, live in the manner of Baguísan. “A village—and on the beach—in order to live under guard and subject—bah!” they say. “We don’t want it! We don’t want it!” There is a race, however, or to speak more accurately, the remnant of what was the Moro race, which was formerly predominant on these coasts, whose datos and captains, for fear of being abandoned by the few sácopes whom they still have, are the first ones to present themselves and beg for a village. And since they know that that petition is generally heeded by all the governors who succeed to the district, they easily obtain the support that they ask, and form something that resembles a village, if it be looked at especially from the sea. Thus do they oblige the scattered sácopes to reunite under their datos and panditas, and that is the very thing that they desire, in order that they might maintain their customs and mode of living.