The Igorot struggle for independence: William Henry Scott.

than they did later. The 1620 expedition to Baguio found
fortifications so solid they used them to build their own fort. A
1740 account says Igorot houses were so spacious three families
could live in one of them. The 1759 expedition found a settlement
with 35 large houses all made of boards, arranged along a regular
street, with a plaza, and a kind of church for their pagan ceremonies.
When Galvey entered the Trinidad Valley in 1829, he found 500
houses there, and started burning them. In 1883 there were only
fifty left. And a German traveler in 1861 found the Agno valley full
of old stone walls in the fields, all grown over with underbrush, and
he reported, "Today most villages bear the stamp of misery and
deprivation: the fields are badly maintained, the stone walls around
the houses are falling down, and the big villages of Galvey's time
have been deserted."
When the Igorots were not literally overwhelmed by sheer
numbers and firepower, however, they proved formidable opponents. No Spanish force ever maintained a garrison permanently
on the Cordillera before the Remington repeating rifle replaced the
old muskets that were almost useless in' wet weather. The goldmining Igorots drove off two Spanish expeditions before they
could sample their ores. When Martin Quirante was finally successful in carrying away gold samples in 1625, he brought along 85
Spaniards-double the number Salcedo took to the Ilocos in 1572 -as well as 1750 Chinese, Japanese and Filipinos. Nor could the
Spanish government guarantee protection to their lowland vassals
from Igorot attack. In the 18th century, a Spanish historian says
the Ilocano farmers had to work their fields with the sickle in one
hand and a weapon in the other, and travellers could not use the
royal highway along the coast without armed escorts. When
one officer proposed an attack on the Igorots in 1796 and told
the governor it would be an easy victory, he replied, "Don't forget
to make an estimate of the pensions for the widows and mothers
of those killed in battle."
The traditional Igorot arsenal consisted of wooden shields,
bamboo lances and highly effective stakes planted in the grassy
trails to strike their enemies in the ankle or foot. Bows and
arrows were only rarely used, and iron weapons like spears, bolos
and head-axes only appeared later. Their defensive tactics included

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