Note 42 — Chapter XXXII

I am astonished that we should have left the beaten track of the conquest or pacification of the Indians, and taken up another which is more dangerous and more costly, only because it makes more noise and a more showy appearance, that is, [the conquest] by arms, which always has produced bad effects—as occurred at this time, in the hill-country of the Igorrots. In the year of 1740, the Augustinian fathers handed over to the Dominicans the missions of Ytuy, or Ysinay, in order that, these being joined to the missions of Panique which they had established in the preceding year, the provinces of Pangasinan and Cagayan might be united on their southern borders.42 The Indians, both Christians and unbelievers, resented this change of missionaries, from which resulted a species of civil wars among them; and it was necessary for the auditor Don Ygnacio Arzadun y Rebolledo, who was then making official visitation of the province of Pangasinan, to send troops [to Ytuy] to silence the malcontents. Our men fought a battle with them, in which the natives were defeated and pacified; but a few years later they again became restless, and finally, in the year 1756, many Christians apostatized; and these, united with the unbelievers, raised a furious tempest. They burned some churches, slew many of the people who remained faithful, and, losing reverence for the missionary fathers, searched for them to take their lives. On account of this, Señor Arandia despatched an expedition to this mission and to the hill-country of the Ygorrots, which had very little effect; for it accomplished nothing save to frighten the Indians and make them flee to the hills, to come down again as soon as the soldiers should go away.