Note 10 — Chapter II

In the wild and impenetrable mountain ranges which extend to the northeast and north, and separate the provinces of Pampanga and Nueva Segovia, there are various tribes who have almost the same customs as those of the Abaca and Ibilaos; one of these is the one called Isinay.10 To them, and to the adjacent tribes, the fervent zeal of the fathers belonging to the illustrious Order of St. Dominic11 had been directed, years before; but they found so much stubbornness, violence, and cruelty that—after immense labors, and having been in danger of losing their lives—they were not able to secure the conversion of one of those people to our holy faith. For this reason the fathers were obliged to withdraw from them, seeing that they were wasting time without having any result, or even the hope of it. [The Augustinian Cacho took up this task, and went on foot among those wild mountains and wilder savages; at first they repulsed him, and even tried to kill him, but finally his perseverance and patience softened their hard hearts, and they were willing to listen to him.] From the year 1715 until 1723, he was able to found four new villages of the Isinay people, not to mention many others besides, from other tribes, whom he baptized, and who united themselves with the other villages previously mentioned. Finally, continuing unweariedly in his holy task, and enduring the hardships which may be guessed, by the year 1738 he had come to the end of baptizing and converting the entire Isinay tribe, with a large part of other tribes, whom he settled in different villages. All these, thoroughly subdued and tamed, baptized, and established in a well civilized mode of life, the [Augustinian] province surrendered to the holy Order of St. Dominic, with churches, dwellings for the religious, the sacred vessels, and the other ornaments of the sacristy, because that of our father St. Augustine found that it had many missions for which to care, and not religious enough for all. This surrender was made in the year 174012 preceding the permission of the governor and examination by the judge whom he appointed for that task. The latter recorded a judicial inventory of everything that was surrendered, and even copied from the baptismal registers the numbers of the persons baptized, that these matters might be evident for all time; and at the same time he made a judicial investigation, showing who those were who began to evangelize the said tribes—from which it appeared that when our religious began their labors there, there was not any Christian in those places. This surrender being accomplished, then, our religious withdrew to their other missions, in which there are fifteen villages which have been formed since the year 1702, at which time that mission was commenced for the aforesaid places. In these glorious triumphs, those who attained greatest eminence and were most fortunate in winning souls, next to the three religious [already named], sons of this province of Castilla, were: our father Fray Vicente Ibarra,13 who afterward was provincial; the father definitor Fray Juan Velloxin, a most guileless man, full of virtue, and unwearied in labors; the father Fray Diego Nogueròl, who is still living, and has been definitor—all these three from this province of Castilla—and the father commissary Fray Joseph Gonzalez, a son of the province of Philipinas; also others, whom, in order not to be tedious, I omit.