Note 14 — Chapter II

[News of this change reached Spain in 1742, and the general public impression was that the aforesaid conversions had been accomplished by the Dominican fathers. At the representations of the Augustinian procurator at Madrid, the king issued a decree (dated December 19, 1742), approving and confirming the transfer made to the Dominicans, setting forth the facts in the case and giving the credit for these labors to the Augustinians. In the rehearsal of their achievements various interesting facts are stated. The people of Ituy were formerly called Isinay, a name given to them by the Italons. The first three Augustinian missionaries baptized, from the year 1715 to 1723, six hundred and ninety-five persons of all ages among these Ituis, not counting many others who were being prepared for baptism. Of these converts they formed four villages with their churches: Bujay (the chief village), Pigpig, Marian, and Canan. In this and the Italon mission they baptized in that period three thousand, four hundred and thirteen persons. In 1723 the order applied to the governor for further aid; he sent Auditor Pabón to inspect the missions, whose report led to the appointment of three more missionaries there, their stipends paid from the royal treasury. The eighteen Isinay villages had been reduced to nine14 by the missionaries; all of these contained church buildings, and most of them convents; and the people were considerably civilized. The missionaries had provided them with beasts of burden, and with “all the rest that was necessary for the cultivation of their grain-fields.” Through the efforts of these missionaries, in conjunction with the Dominicans, a road was constructed from Pampanga to Cagayan;15 and another, from Pangasinan to Paniqui, was opened by the Dominicans, in which they were aided greatly by the Augustinians. The eighteen Italon villages, with two others, were reduced to fifteen: within the mountains, Puncàn, Caranglan, San Miguèl, Santa Rita, Bolo, Pantabangan, San Juan, and Santo Thomàs; in the valleys, Tayog, Umingan, Lupào, San Joseph, Palosapes (or Urorin), San Agustin, and Santa Monica. Perhaps the greatest among the Augustinian missionaries was Alexandro Cacho, who died in 1745. After him came Fray Agustin Barriocanal,16 a man of great zeal, who formed a village called Ambayavan; in the flower of his youth he was drowned while trying to ford a swollen stream (June 5, 1747). Another noted missionary was Pedro Freyre; he converted eighty families in the Jumangi tribe, and gathered them into a village, with their own church; and he converted great numbers from the Italon, Abaca, Ibilao, Irapi, and Ilongot tribes, and even some of the blacks (Negritos). Mozo cites their labors in order to show that the missionary spirit was then even more active and aspiring than in the early days of the conquest; and confirms it by describing the mode of life of these mountain tribes, and the consequent difficulties in missionary labor among them, saying:]