ost isolated
and rugged parts of the islands, where they now are. They are still
so brutal and so averse to civilization that they scarcely deserve
more than the name of men; for they often cut off the heads of their
own fathers and brothers as a pastime, for no other reason than
their natural cruelty and brutality. Very few of them have fixed
settlements, nor do they plant crops; but they live upon camotes
(a kind of potato), other herbs and roots, and the game which they
hunt. They hardly ever come to the plains or coasts except to make
assaults and to cut off heads. The one who has cut off the greatest
number of these is most feared and respected among them. The skulls
they keep in their huts as trophies, or to serve as jugs and cups
in their drinking-bouts. There is such abundance of wild game in
the province of Pangasinan that within a space of only twenty leguas
over sixty thousand, and sometimes as many as eighty thousand, deer
are killed every year. The Indians pay these deerskins as tributes;
while trade in them is a source of great profit for Japon, because
the Japonese make of them good leather for various purposes.

_Ten thousand tributes_. There must be in Pangasinan between ten
thousand and twelve thousand half-pacified tributes, two thousand
belonging to his Majesty, and the rest to private individuals. The
capital of this province is a place called Binabatonga. It
formerly contained about three thousand houses, or, according to
other estimates, a greater number; but it now has only about two
thousand. The province has some good ports. One is that of Agoo,
commonly called "the port of Japon," because it was the first port
which the Japonese occupied in these islands [when our people first saw
them here]. Another port is Bolinao, which is better than any other.

_Judicial offices in Pangasinan_. There is only one judicial office
in this province, namely, the alcaldia-mayor of Pangasinan.

_The province of Ilocos_

Next after Pangasinan, toward the north, on the same coast, comes
the province of the llocos, a people on the whole more settled and
tractable; and although there have been some disturbances among them,
they are now very peaceable. They are well supplied with provisions,
especially with rice--a great quantity of which comes to Manila every
year during February and a part of March, for at this time the winds
are favorable for going from Ilocos to Manila and back again. The
capital of this pro