The Philippines: Past and Present Volume II Part 6

This subprovince has one Ilocano town, Cervantes, which was made the capital of the province of Lepanto-Bontoc. At the outset communication with the coast was maintained over a very bad horse-trail crossing the coast range at Tilad Pa.s.s. It zigzagged up one slope of the mountains and down the other on a grade such as to make travel over it very difficult. Furthermore, after reaching the lowlands on the west side of the range, it crossed a river some fourteen times. During the rainy season there were weeks at a time during which this stream could not be forded. In the early days of the American occupation a good wagon road was built from the coast to the point where the trail began, and the trail itself was put in the best possible condition. It was subsequently well maintained, but after the establishment of a Filipino provincial government in South Ilocos the wagon road was allowed to fall into such a state of neglect that travel over it, even for persons on horseback, became impossible during wet weather. Mr. Kane, the supervisor of the Mountain Province, was nearly drowned in mud when trying to ride over it, being thrown from his horse into soft ooze so deep that his hands did not reach bottom, and had it not been for a timely rescue by Filipinos who chanced to be pa.s.sing, he would certainly have lost his life.

Although forty or fifty thousand pesos' worth of supplies were annually sent into the mountain country by the people of South Ilocos over this trail, that province refused to spend a peso in keeping the connecting road up. The constantly growing trade of the mountain country made it, in my opinion, necessary that it should have a good outlet to the coast, and a route for a road was surveyed from Cervantes directly west over the Malaya range, traversing the subprovince of Amburayan from east to west and coming out at the munic.i.p.ality of Tagudin. In order to prevent the occurrence of a state of affairs such as had rendered the Tilad Pa.s.s trail practically useless during much of the rainy season, this Ilocano town was annexed to Lepanto-Bontoc, thus giving the province a route to the coast within the limits of its own territory.

The people of Tagudin were at first inclined to protest against annexation to the country of the non-Christians, but soon discovered that the change was greatly to their advantage. Their town had long been threatened with destruction by the encroachment of the Amburayan River, and they had appealed in vain to South Ilocos for help. The Mountain Province gave them a.s.sistance in the construction of a protecting wall which held the river within bounds and adequately safeguarded the town. Their business rapidly increased when Tagudin became the western terminus of an important trade route. They soon began to take an active interest in improving local conditions, and their munic.i.p.ality was gradually changed from a dirty, down-at-the-heel place to a neat, clean, sanitary town in which its people could take justifiable pride. An old feud which had long separated the leading men into two parties so bitterly hostile to each other that the mere fact of advocacy of a given measure by one of them was sufficient to cause determined opposition to it by the other, died out, and Tagudin is to-day quite a model place in comparison with the general run of Filipino towns.

The opening up of transportation lines has placed the people of Lepanto within much easier reach of a market for their rice, coffee and cattle. The successful combating of cattle disease by the Bureau of Agriculture has been a great boon to them, as has the suppression of the liquor traffic. Schools have been established in a number of their settlements. Last, but by no means least, their lives are no longer endangered by the head-hunting Bontoc Igorots. They are now a peaceful, prosperous people, and are progressing steadily in civilization.

In Spanish days there was a comandancia known as Amburayan wedged in between the provinces of La Union and Ilocos Sur. After the American occupation this territory was at first organized as a part of Ilocos Sur, but it soon became necessary to make of it a separate subprovince and add it to Lepanto-Bontoc, to the end that its people might be adequately protected. In contact on two sides with Christian Filipinos, they were shamefully maltreated and oppressed, and they appealed to me for help.

Filipinos were graciously permitting them to cut firewood and lumber in the public forests, and taking the lion's share of the products in return for their consent! They were debauching the Igorots with vino. I remember particularly the case of one unfortunate individual who owned five carabaos, two of which got to fighting. As usually happens with these animals, the one that was whipped ran away, and the victor blindly pursued it. Both charged over a precipice and broke their legs. The owner killed them, dressed them, and divided the meat among his family and friends. He was arrested, given a mock trial for killing carabaos without a license, and fined three carabaos--all he had left--which of course went to his persecutors!

Instances of this sort of thing could be indefinitely multiplied.

Amburayan was freed from the vino traffic soon after it became a subprovince of Lepanto-Bontoc. This alone was a great boon to its Igorot inhabitants, who little by little were helped to a.s.sert their rights as they gained greater confidence in their American lieutenant-governor and learned to go to him freely with their troubles. They had so long been helpless and hopeless that it was some time before they could be convinced that a new day had dawned for them.

And now let us betake ourselves to the country of the real wild man, and consider briefly past and present conditions in the subprovince of Ifugao.

The people of the tribe known as Ifugaos are a remarkable lot. Their country is almost entirely made up of exceptionally steep mountain sides with hardly a naturally level piece of ground in it. On almost precipitous slopes they have built wonderful series of irrigated rice terraces held in position by stone retaining walls which have been laid without mortar or cementing material of any kind, and are so skilfully constructed that they withstand even the terrific rains which sometimes occur during typhoons. Accurate rainfall statistics for Ifugao are not obtainable, but, as we have seen, in the neighbouring subprovince of Benguet, there is of record a period of twenty-four hours during which forty-nine and nine tenths inches of rain fell! Under such conditions as this, exceptionally good work is necessary to prevent structures of any sort built on mountain sides from sliding into the valleys below.

Up to the time of the American occupation the Ifugaos had always been inveterate head-hunters. Unlike the Bontoc Igorots, who depend on large numbers of fighting men for protection, they live in small villages usually placed in inaccessible spots which can be reached only by ascending the almost perpendicular rice-terrace walls.

Not only were the people of this tribe then constantly fighting among themselves, but they from time to time raided the Bontoc country or that of the Kalingas, and they persistently victimized the people of Nueva Vizcaya, making travel so unsafe on the main road between Nueva Vizcaya and Isabela that the Spaniards found it necessary to maintain several garrisons along it, and forbade private persons to pa.s.s over it without a military escort. Even so, parties of travellers were cut down from time to time, the savages making their attacks at the noon hour when Spanish soldiers had a way of going to sleep beside the road.

I have already narrated my earliest experiences in this subprovince, which occurred in 1903, and have called attention to the fact that when I returned in 1905 I was able to traverse it from east to west without the slightest danger. This condition of affairs was due to the efforts of Governor Louis G. Knight, supplemented by those of Captain L. E. Case of the Philippine constabulary, who had established his headquarters at Banaue and had exercised a strong influence over his unruly const.i.tuents.

Perhaps I ought to change my statement and say that order was established by Captain Case, a.s.sisted by Governor Knight. Captain Case was very fortunate in his dealings with the Ifugaos. He was a kindly man, who won their friendship at the outset. He resorted to stern measures only when such measures were so imperatively necessary that the Ifugaos themselves fully recognized the justice of employing them.

On my trip through the Ifugao country in 1906 I was accompanied from Mayoyao to Banaue by Lieutenant Jeff D. Gallman, who had come to the former place to meet me. This young man had been especially selected by Colonel Rivers, of the Philippine constabulary, to be trained for work among the Ifugaos. Never was a selection more fortunate. When Captain Case injured himself by over-exertion in climbing a steep, terraced mountain side in the hot sun, and had to return to the United States for recuperation, Gallman took up his work and devoted himself most effectively to the task of bringing the Ifugaos under control, protecting them, and improving their conditions. He was a dead shot with revolver and carbine; was absolutely fearless; was of a kindly, cheerful disposition, and soon not only won their respect but gained their love.

As the years went by, the Ifugaos came to regard him as but little less than a G.o.d. He had extraordinary success in training them for service as constabulary soldiers. On the occasion of the first general rifle compet.i.tion between all the constabulary organizations in northern Luzon ten Ifugao soldiers were sent to the lowlands to partic.i.p.ate. Gallman, who had trained them, was travelling with me at the time, so they were taken down by a comparatively inexperienced officer who, instead of selecting the best ten men from among the ninety possible candidates, took ten from the twenty who happened to be stationed at Mayoyao.

The hot climate of the lowlands troubled them. The Filipino constabulary soldiers made fun of them because they wore no trousers, and bedevilled them in various ways. The best shot among them lost his nerve in consequence. Nevertheless, when the compet.i.tion was over they ranked Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, respectively, an Ilocano soldier from the lowlands being tied with the last man for tenth place!

Ifugao soldiers are submissive to discipline, obey orders implicitly, and are loyal and brave to a fault. When on duty they attend strictly to business. No prisoner ever yet escaped from one of them. This is more than can be said of the Bontoc Igorots. It is of record that on one occasion when a prisoner guarded by a raw recruit of the latter tribe made a break for liberty, the recruit followed him, firing as he ran. After missing the fleeing man five times, he threw his carbine at him, lance-fashion, and speared him with the bayonet! So long as an Ifugao has a cartridge in his magazine he does not indulge in bayonet practice.

The same general policy was pursued in Ifugao which had been found so effective elsewhere. Lines of communication were opened up; after a short time criminals were for the most part apprehended and turned in by the head-men themselves; whenever possible, hostile towns were left to sulk until they had learned from the experience of their neighbours that there was nothing to be afraid of or to complain about, and voluntarily came into the fold; head-hunting was suppressed with a heavy hand, but only after due warning as to what the fate of transgressors would be. It is now some six years since a head has been taken in this region. Travel not only in Nueva Vizcaya but in Ifugao itself is at present absolutely safe, and general conditions as to law and order are better than those which prevail in many American communities. The people have been a.s.sisted in the construction of irrigation ditches, and little by little are being persuaded to come down from their steep and overpopulated mountain sides to the neighbouring fertile, level vacant plains. They are loyal and friendly to a marked degree, and I experience no greater pleasure than that which I derive from travelling through their country.

Credit for this happy result is chiefly due to the efforts of Jeff D. Gallman, who speedily rose to be a captain in the constabulary and at an early date was made lieutenant-governor of Ifugao. He has done a monumental work for civilization in the Philippines.

The Kalinga country was at the outset administered as a part of Bontoc. This made that subprovince so large that one lieutenant-governor could not hope satisfactorily to cover it, especially as there were no good lines of communication. Although a constabulary garrison was early stationed at the town of Lubuagan, comparatively little progress was made in bringing the Kalingas under effective control until their territory was made a separate subprovince of the Mountain Province and Lieutenant-Governor Walter F. Hale, of Amburayan, was transferred to it as its lieutenant-governor.

Lieutenant-Governor Hale has now been in the special government service longer than any other man who remains in it, and has an admirable record for quiet efficiency. Like Gallman, he is a man with chilled-steel nerve, and he needed it in the early days in Kalinga where the people, who had been allowed to run wild too long, did not take as kindly to the establishment of governmental control as had the Bontoc Igorots and the Ifugaos. The Kalingas are a fine lot of head-hunting savages, physically magnificently developed, mentally acute, but naturally very wild. Hale soon made friends with many of the local chiefs, and thereafter when he received invitations from outlying rancherias to come over and have his head taken would quietly accept to the extent of setting out accompanied by a few soldiers, or none at all, and talking the matter over with the people who had made the threat! In the end they always decided that he was too good a man to kill.

Here, as in Ifugao, we felt our way, avoiding trouble with hostile settlements as long as it was possible to do so. And here, as in Bontoc and Ifugao, head-hunting was abolished and law and order were established practically without killing. In a few instances settlements which absolutely refused to come into the fold, and persisted in raiding and killing in the territory of people who had already become friendly, were given severe lessons, which they invariably took in good part.

One of the pleasant things about dealing with people like the Kalingas and the Ifugaos is their manliness when they fight. They let one know, so plainly that there can be no mistake about it, whether they are friendly or hostile, and even if thoroughly whipped they bear no ill will provided they know that they deserve a whipping, but come calmly walking into camp to tell you that they have had enough and are going to be good. And they keep their promises.

In Kalinga, as elsewhere throughout the Mountain Province outside of Apayao, an admirable trail system has now been opened up and travel is not only safe but comfortable. The people are most friendly and loyal, and while head-hunting has not completely disappeared, cases of it are extremely rare and occur only in the most remote parts of the subprovince.

Apayao has proved a hard nut to crack. As previously stated, I made a trip across this subprovince from west to east in 1906, without encountering any hostility whatsoever. Unfortunately, the officer who commanded my escort saw fit to go blundering back there with a constabulary command a few weeks later. He managed to get into a fight and was whipped and chased out of the country. A so-called punitive expedition was then sent in, which came near meeting a similar fate, but finally withdrew in fairly good order after having inflicted slight damage on the town of Guenned, the people of which made the original attack.

Apayao was at first organized as a subprovince of Cagayan, and Colonel Blas Villamor, who had accompanied me on my two longest exploration trips through northern Luzon, was appointed its lieutenant-governor. The att.i.tude of the provincial officials of Cagayan toward the difficult task which confronted them in Apayao was most unsatisfactory. Indeed, the governor of that province informed me that in his opinion the best way to settle the Apayao problem was to kill all of the inhabitants. As Colonel Villamor reported that there were some fifty-three thousand of them [24] this procedure would have presented practical, as well as moral, difficulties! I myself was of the opinion that the Apayao people, who proved to be wild Tingians, were altogether too good to kill.

Colonel Villamor was a native of Abra, where approximately half the population is made up of Tingians who have attained to a high degree of civilization. He was already quite familiar with the dialect spoken by these people, and speedily learned the language of their wild brethren in Apayao, many of whom understood Ilocano, which was his native tongue.

At the outset he made excellent progress in bringing his people under control. The task was undoubtedly more difficult than that in any other subprovince of the Mountain Province, both because the Spaniards had failed to penetrate into this region, leaving the people untouched by civilization up to the time of the American occupation, and for the further reason that their head-hunting is connected with religious beliefs. They think that when a man dies his prospect for a good time in the future world is bad unless the members of his family take a head within six months, and this idea has a tendency to keep society in a somewhat disturbed condition.

For reasons which I have never been able fully to fathom, Villamor's progress in establishing governmental control grew steadily slower as time went by, and ultimately came to a standstill. During my absence from the islands it was deemed best to accept his resignation, for reasons not immediately connected with his administration of the affairs of his subprovince. Before surrendering his post he caused word to be spread among the Tingians that the kindly policy which had thus far been pursued in dealing with them was to be superseded by one of severity, greatly alarming them, and seriously r.e.t.a.r.ding work which he had quite auspiciously begun. There was absolutely no justification for his statements, as no one thought for a moment of dealing with the Apayao Tingians in a fashion differing at all from that invariably followed in our relations with non-Christians in the special government provinces.

Mr. Norman G. Connor was appointed to succeed Senor Villamor. Mr. Connor had been acting governor of Nueva Vizcaya and had rendered very satisfactory service. He has made material progress in establishing control over the people of Apayao, where the work of trail construction has now begun. At the outset communication was maintained by boats on the Abulug River and its branches, near which most of the wild Tingian villages are situated, but it is a dangerous stream to navigate, especially when in flood, and lines of land communication must therefore be opened up.

We found the subprovince of Bontoc peopled by a tribe of wild, warlike, head-hunting Igorots over whom the Spaniards had never been able to establish effective control. At the time of the American occupation their numerous settlements were constantly at war with each other, and with the Kalingas and the Ifugaos as well.

The Bontoc Igorots build large towns and depend on the numbers of their hardy fighting men for protection. Each town formerly kept a profit and loss account of heads with every town of its enemies. Physically these people are splendid men, and we soon found that they were usually both brave and fair in their fighting, formally making and breaking peace, and serving due notice on their enemies before attacking.

If a small town felt itself aggrieved by a big one, it would send a messenger to say, "You have more fighting men than we have, but they are no good! Pick fifteen of the best from your thousand and send them to a certain place at a certain time to meet fifteen real fighting men selected from among our five hundred." At the appointed time the thirty warriors would meet in deadly combat, while their fellow-townsmen looked on.

The Bontoc Igorots are naturally truthful and honest, and they soon became most friendly, gladly bringing many of their troubles to their lieutenant-governor for settlement. Fortunately, head-accounts between different towns can be adjusted by proper payments made by those who hold the highest scores. We took advantage of this fact to establish peace between the towns, and when once established it was, as a rule, religiously kept.

Trail construction was promptly inaugurated and has been steadily pushed. Most of the towns have thus been made readily accessible.

When friendly relations had been established, and we were in a position to back orders with force if necessary, settlement after settlement was warned that head-hunting must cease and was further informed as to what would happen if the mandate was disobeyed. Certain dare-devils promptly broke over, partly, I fancy, to see what would happen, and partly, no doubt, because they found the influence of tribal customs too strong to resist. We made our warnings come true. One settlement required three bitter lessons. For others a single mild one sufficed. The majority of the towns were content to get their experience vicariously. We were amazed at our own success in stopping this horrible practice. At the outset we burned towns if their people engaged in head-hunting. [25] The Igorots recognized the justice of this action because the whole town was invariably cognizant of, and party to, every head-hunting raid made by any of its people. Later, when head-hunting became comparatively rare, we began to deal with the individuals concerned. They were arrested, brought before the courts, and tried like any other criminals. To-day head-hunting in Bontoc is almost unknown. When it does occur the people themselves usually capture and turn over the culprits.

The respect of the Bontoc Igorots for the law is extraordinary. In 1910 a Constabulary soldier shot the presidente of Tinglayan without just cause. The people of the place rushed to arms, meaning to kill the soldier. Chief Agpad, a.s.sisted by the son of the murdered man, took station before the door of the house in which the a.s.sailant had sought refuge, and the two stood off their fellow-townsmen, saying that the government had promised to kill evil-doers and that this man must be turned over to the government to be killed! When I pa.s.sed through their town a few weeks later, with Governor-General Forbes, they begged to have him killed promptly.

In the early days I myself had a rather stormy clash with some of the Bontoc Igorots. During Aguinaldo's long flight he had pa.s.sed through half a dozen of their towns, as had the American soldiers who pursued him. The Igorots did not like this, so tore out the trail to Ifugao, between Bontoc and Samoqui, and built high-walled rice paddies where it had been, with the result that persons making the journey had to use the river bed for several miles. This was all very well if the river was low, but was no joke if it chanced to be in flood.

I ordered that the trail be rebuilt, the Igorots to be paid for their work, and for the resulting damage to their rice fields, and this was done.

The lieutenant-governor was a weak man, and the Igorots, after getting their money, tore the trail out again and rebuilt their stone terrace walls across the place where it had been, just to see what he would do about it. He did nothing. I found things in this condition when I arrived, and was obliged to come down the river bed at dusk, with the result that my horse and I took several impromptu baths.

The Samoqui warriors came dancing out to meet me, playing their gansas [26] and making a grand hullabaloo. Summoning my sternest expression, I refused to shake hands with them, telling them to go home and to report at Bontoc at nine the following morning.

The fighting men of the town of Bontoc met me on the other side of the river, and I served them the same way. The official under whose nose they had destroyed the trail was greatly alarmed, and a.s.sured me that if I ordered it rebuilt, as I told him I would do, there would be a fight, and the Igorots would cut the heads off all the Americans in town, including the ladies. He added, "Think how the ladies would look without any heads!" While this was a disquieting reflection, I remained obdurate.

At the appointed hour the Samoqui and Bontoc men appeared, armed with head-axes and lances. I asked them if they would rebuild that trail, and they said no! I told them that if they did not I would cut their main irrigating ditch and put a constabulary guard on it to see that it was not repaired until they changed their minds. This might have meant the loss of their rice crop. They knew me quite as well as they did their lieutenant-governor, and promptly rebuilt the trail for nothing, as I told them they must.

When the Mountain Province was established, the town of Bontoc was made the capital, as Cervantes, which had been the capital of Lepanto-Bontoc, was hot, had proved unhealthful, and was not centrally situated. Bontoc has a cool, delightful climate, is near the geographic center of the province, and from it radiates a road and trail system of constantly increasing importance. Things have moved rapidly there since the status of the place was changed.

To-day the town has modern public buildings of brick and stone. The bricks have been made, burned and laid by Igorots. Much of the stone has been cut and laid by Igorots. The mortar used has been mixed by Igorots with lime burned by Igorots. Some of the carpenter work has been done by Igorots. There is a modern hospital to which the Igorots flock. There are schools in which Igorot boys and girls learn the English language, and become adept in the practice of useful industries.

Perhaps the most unique of the Bontoc inst.i.tutions is the provincial jail. Years ago I discovered to my horror that a two-year sentence to Bilibid, the insular penitentiary, was a death sentence for a hill-man! Not all who were sent there died, but the average term of life of men from the hills was two years only, while those who served out their sentences and returned to their mountain homes had invariably become adepts in crime as the result of prolonged contact with vicious Filipinos. I promptly drafted an act providing for the establishment at Bontoc of a penitentiary where all prisoners from the highlands should be confined, and the commission pa.s.sed it. The prison has been made a real educational inst.i.tution. Most of its inmates have been guilty of crimes of violence, committed in accordance with tribal customs, and are not vicious at heart. The jail building is perfectly sanitary. Its occupants are required to keep their persons clean and their quarters both clean and in perfect order. They live amid healthful surroundings and receive abundant and nourishing food. They are taught useful trades and are compelled to work hard, which they do not in the least mind, as industry is the rule in the mountain country. They usually leave the jail better men than when they entered it, and thereafter, instead of being a menace to law and order, a.s.sist in their enforcement and maintenance.

We do odd things with some of these prisoners. Last year we paroled a man from Ifugao who had a score of heads to his credit. Learning that his people believed him to be dead and were greatly troubled, we told him to go home, show himself to them, tell them how he was treated in jail, and come back. He did it!

Proof of the kindliness of the relations which have existed with the Bontoc Igorots is found in the fact that no member of this tribe has ever yet turned his hand against an American. On the contrary, there are not a few Americans who owe their lives to Igorots. Agpad, of Tinglayan, has twice dived into rivers swollen by typhoons and rescued Americans who had sunk for the last time beneath the rushing, muddy waters, while their fellow-countrymen stood by paralyzed with fear.

Last year there occurred an event of profound significance. In the past, American officials have often worked hard for days to get representatives of two hostile towns to dance together, for this would make friends of them. On the occasion in question there had gathered at Bontoc to meet me representatives from every settlement in the subprovince. Each town had brought its gansas and its dancers. On the second day of my visit the people of one of the towns started a dance on the plaza. They were promptly joined by representatives from another town which had long been hostile to them. People from yet other towns followed suit, until finally the plaza swarmed with a great crowd of dancers in which every settlement in the subprovince was represented. Even at that late day I should not have dared to attempt to bring about such a thing. It happened of itself, and to the initiated told an eloquent tale of the results of our years of patient work!