The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume 48, 1751-1765: Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century
History
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume 48, 1751-1765: Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century
Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources
[21] Alejandro Cacho was a native of León, and came from a noble
family; he arrived at Manila in the mission of 1690. He was a
missionary to various tribes in upper Pampanga (now Nueva Écija),
among whom he labored indefatigably for more than forty years. "He
formed villages, opened roads, established schools, built churches,
and felled groves; and what was but a little while before a gloomy
and impenetrable forest afterward burst upon the sight of the
astonished traveler as a broad plain, which the directing hand of the
indefatigable Augustinian converted into a fertile field and beautiful
province, the pride and hope of the new converts. And he accomplished
even more; assigned to the missions of Carranglán and Pantabangan
(1707) he eagerly devoted himself to the study of the flora in those
unknown regions, examining the medicinal virtues of each plant; and
as a fruit of his laborious task, besides practicing successfully the
art of the physician among his beloved parishioners he left us the
works which we mention below." "He is one of the figures which most
clearly illustrate what the religious in Filipinas was, in the double
conception of priest and maintainer of the Spanish sovereignty in
this archipelago." (Pérez.) He died in Carranglán in 1748. The works
alluded to are: "A treatise on the medicinal herbs of the mountains
of Buhay;" "Origin and customs of those barbarous peoples;" "History
of the Augustinian missions among the Italon Ilongots, the Isinais,
the Irulis, and the Igolots," during 1704-33; and three maps drawn
by Cacho, giving valuable information regarding the habitat of those
peoples in central Luzón. Besides these, he wrote catechisms in the
languages of those tribes, directions for their government, etc.
[22] Spanish, al testud; this word does not appear in the lexicons,
and it is impossible to determine its meaning accurately from the
text. Testud may be possibly a misprint for testuz, meaning "the
hind part of the head;" but it is more probably the mistake of an
amanuensis for testiculos, these glands being regarded as the source
of virile power.
[23] "Isinay is the language spoken by the Igorot of the hills
in western Nueva Vizcaya, and by a part of the population of the
towns of Aritao, Dupax, and Bambang, who are of Igorot origin, but
whose ancestors were converted in the latter half of the eighteenth
century." "The name Igorot (in Spanish form, Igorrote) means in several
Malayan languages, 'people of the mountains.'... I have adopted it as
a general designation for the whole body of primitive Malayan tribes
of northern Luzón who are of the same physical type, speak closely
allied languages, and present the same grade of culture." (Barrows,
in Census of Philippines, i, pp. 471, 472.) See also VOL. XX of this
series, pp. 269-279.
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