even for the
ordinary fields. Its lack of water they supplied with wells which
they opened. There they obtained some water, but it was thick, and in
the time of the dry season it entirely disappeared. The Indians who
were harmed by this measure were so angry at that moving, that many
families retired to Ylocos. In truth, that site is despicable. An
eminence which looks upon and almost dominates the port would have
been much more suitable, and they would have obtained better air
there; while their boats, which cannot navigate by the channel
to the village during the blowing of the north wind, so that the
cargo has to be carried for a long distance on the shoulders, would
have obtained shelter. There are many other inconveniences but one
cannot think of a single advantage. They moved the village of Agno
[66] from the coast into the interior, to a site which is a swampy
mudhole when there is the least rain. The village of Sigayan was
moved to another site, where the only advantage was a near-by river
of fresh water which was unnavigable. They left Masinloc [67] on its
pleasant site, while the village of Paynaven was moved inland to
a site called Iba, [68] from which the new village took its name,
moving that village in order to get it away from the commandant of
the fort, whose proximity was annoying to them. They did not regard
it as a recompensable hardship for the minister of that village to
go on feast-days in order to say mass in the presidio, and to repeat
it afterwards in his own church. In order to increase that place
and give it the name of capital, they brought families from Bolinao,
who formed a large barangay. It has already been seen that they made
use of the fort in this, and that those who were moved were not very
well pleased. The Dominicans also founded, or better, made from
other villages, the village of Cabangaan [69] in an obscure site,
which was rough and surrounded by dense mountains, and suitable only
for a hermit and solitary life, but so far as others were concerned,
a place of profound melancholy. They also formed the village of Subic
[70] from other villages, which had only the advantages of its port
to recommend it, while in other respects it was most unpleasant. They
also filled the vacant places left by the many families who retired
to the mountains as a result of the violence exercised, with others
whom they brought from Pangasinan, a province abounding with people,
who because they are so n