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201 C H A P T E R 1 2 Cagayan I n Spanish colonial times the Cagayan Valley formed the backbone of the Dominican province of Cagayan. It encompassed the present-day provinces of Cagayan and Isabela, as well as the northern cordilleran provinces of Apayao and Kalinga. When the Spanish arrived, the region was ridden by internal conflict and soon the “Cagayan nation” came to be regarded as the most warlike in the Philippines and as being “of much cost and no profit.”1 Nevertheless, the Spanish thought it essential to maintain a permanent presence there, and they considered developing a port because of the advantages of an open sea and the absence of navigational hazards such as islands or strong winds and currents. More important, it was seen as a steppingstone to China and of strategic importance in countering a possible invasion by the Japanese.2 Hence, in 1581 the city of Nueva Segovia was founded and in 1595 it became the seat of the bishopric of Nueva Segovia. In the seventeenth century, however , Spanish interest in Cagayan waned as commercial activities focused on Manila and as hopes of gaining entry to China and fear of Japanese attacks faded. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, many groups in the Cagayan Valley remained resistant to colonial rule and their pacification by the Dominicans was protracted. Juan de Salcedo first made contact with the inhabitants of Cagayan during his circumnavigation of the island of Luzon in 1572,3 but he received a hostile reception and continued on his journey without establishing a settlement. He subsequently offered to undertake another expedition to Ilocos and Cagayan, but Governor Guido de Lavezaris entrusted the task to Field Marshal Martín de Goiti. However, this expedition only extended as far as Ilocos. Two later expeditions also failed to establish a Spanish presence in Cagayan. In 1574 a ship sent to the region by Governor Sande under Luis de Sahajosa was destroyed by the Chinese corsair Limahon,4 and in 1580 another expedition dispatched to found the town of Valladolid was forced to return because its members fell ill.5 It was not until 1581 that Captain Juan Pablos de Carrión succeeded in establishing a permanent Spanish settlement in Cagayan. Carrión’s expedition encountered a Japanese fleet at the mouth of the Cagayan River but managed to establish a fort and withstand attacks from both the Japanese and hostile natives. Due to the region’s proximity to Japan and China, Carrión was instructed not to return to Manila until he had pacified the region. He therefore established the town of Nueva Segovia at Lal-loc on the banks of the Cagayan River.6 202 Part IV Northern Luzon Even though no permanent Spanish settlement was established in Cagayan until 1581, by then much of the region had already been allocated in encomiendas. When encomiendas were assigned in Ilocos in 1574, the region was still relatively unexplored, so it was stipulated that if there proved to be insufficient people to allocate , others would be assigned in Cagayan. In addition, between 1574 and 1575, in anticipation of the pacification of Cagayan, 9,500 “indios” in unspecified villages were allocated in seven fairly large encomiendas to captains who had been involved in the Ilocos expeditions.7 The numbers allocated were clearly guesses because at that time Cagayan had not been explored. Unfortunately, it is not clear when the majority of encomiendas in the Cagayan Valley were distributed, but in 1588 Nueva Segovia had forty vecinos encomenderos.8 The 1591 list of encomiendas indicates that many recipients were soldiers who had been involved in expeditions, including Carri ón himself, who possessed one of the largest encomiendas, that of Sinavanga, with 1,000 tributos.9 Although encomiendas were allocated, it is clear that the population had not been pacified. Initially Carrión was ordered not to exact tribute for a year, but as late as 1588 Bishop Salazar reported that tribute was being collected from only 7,000 of the 26,000 men who had been pacified.10 This suggests that only about a quarter of the population had been subjugated and was paying tribute. However, official exchequer accounts for the same year recorded that the inhabitants had not been assessed for tribute because they had not been fully pacified.11 There seems little doubt that tribute was being exacted from at least some communities and that it contributed to the continuing unrest. In 1589 it...

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