A brief survey of Iloko literature from the beginnings to its present development, with a bibliography of works pertaining to the Iloko people and their language, by Leopoldo Y. Yabes.

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

Isabelo de los Reyes' Historia de Ilocos (1890) is an attempt to give an account of the Ilokos from the pre-Spanish
times to the nineteenth century. As originally planned, it was
to be a three-volume work. The first volume was to deal with
the pre-Spanish period; the second with the period from 1572
to 1818, when the Ilokos was divided into two provinces; and
the third with that from 1818 to the end of the century. But,
for unknown reasons, the third volume did not appear at all;
the work actually, therefore, ends with the year 1818.17 The
first volume is an anthropological rather than a historical
study.
A very prolific writer, de los Reyes wrote several other
works of an anthropological and historical nature, among
which may be mentioned Expedicion de Limahong contra Filipinas en 1574 (1888); Historia de Filipinas... (1889); Triunfos del Rosario... (1888); Las Visayas en la epoca de conquista
(1887); El folklore filipino (1889); Articulos varios (1887);
Ilocanadas (1887); and La religion antigua de los Filipinos
(1900).
Isabelo de los Reyes belongs to the small group of Filipino
writers who have a European reputation.'s He was a member
of some learned European societies like the Sociedad de geografia comercial de Madrid, the Imperial y real geografica de Viena,
and the Academia Indo-China de Francia. He was born in Vigan, Ilokos Sur, on July 7, 1864, the son of Leona Florentino.
He was educated at the Seminary college at Vigan, the College
of San Juan de Letran, and the University of Sto. Tomas. He
began writing for periodicals at an early age, and in 1889
established a periodical of his own named El Ilocano. Besides
writing for his paper, he wrote for other local papers like the
Diario de Manila and ILa EspanZa Oriental, to mention two. He
was, and is even now, an intense nationalist. The publication
of his Memorias de la Revolucion de 1896 sent him as a prisoner
to the Castle of Montjuich, Spain; but he was not cowed. As
soon as he was set free, he continued his nationalistic activities
and encountered further trouble with some of the ecclesiastical
authorities there. When he returned to the Philippines, he
helped organize the Philippine Independent church, but his activities from then on do not properly belong to the present
chapter.
17-See the last page of the second volume of the work.
18 —Some of the biographical data have been taken from Justo E.
Avila's "Isabelo de los Reyes y Florentino", in College Folio, v. 2, no. 4,
Feb. 1912.