hristened
Fernandino. From this center they carried on an energetic campaign
of reduction and Christianization. As fast as the natives accepted
the rule of Spain, they were baptized and taken into the church, and
so rapid was the process that by 1587 the Ilocano were reported to be
Christianized. [12] In fact, force played such a part that Fray Martin
de Herrada, who wrote from Ilocos in June, 1574, protested that the
reduction was accomplished through fear, for if the people remained
in their villages and received the rule of Spain and the Church, they
were accepted as friends and forthwith compelled to pay tribute; but
if they resisted and fled to other settlements, the troops followed
and pillaged and laid waste their new dwellings. [13]

Paralleling the coast, a few miles inland, is a range of mountains on
the far side of which lie the broad valleys of the Abra river and its
tributaries. The more conservative elements of the population retreated
to the mountain valleys, and from these secure retreats bade defiance
to the newcomers and their religion. To these mountaineers was applied
the name Tinguianes--a term at first used to designate the mountain
dwellers throughout the Islands, but later usually restricted to his
tribe. [14] The Tinguian themselves do not use or know the appellation,
but call themselves Itneg, a name which should be used for them but
for the fact that they are already established in literature under
the former term.

Although they were in constant feuds among themselves, the mountain
people do not appear to have given the newcomers much trouble until
toward the end of the sixteenth century, when hostile raids against the
coast settlements became rather frequent. To protect the Christianized
natives, as well as to aid in the conversion of these heathens, the
Spanish, in 1598, entered the valley of the Abra and established a
garrison at the village of Bangued. [15]

As before, the natives abandoned their homes and retreated several
miles farther up the river, where they established the settlement
of Lagangilang.

From Bangued as a center, the Augustinian friars worked tirelessly to
convert the pagans, but with so little success that _San Antonio_,
[16] writing in 1738, says of the Tinguian, that little fruit was
obtained, despite extensive missions, and that although he had made
extraordinary efforts, he had even failed to learn their number.

In the mountains of Ilocos Sur, the missionarie