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| Activities in Batanes | Getting There | Getting Around | Tra vel Tips | Shopping | Learn Ivatan | Tourist Information | Batanes Map The Ivatans lived in relatively well-populated settlements at the time western t ravelers visited the islands. William Dampier, an English buccaneer, visited Bat anes in 1687 and found the people organized into communities built around protec ted settlements called idjangs, which were usually defensive positions on top of steep hills. The Dominican friars attempted to Christianize the Ivatans as early as 1686 but the efforts were abandoned with the death of two resident missionaries. In 1718, missionaries made another attempt to bring the people of Batanes under the Cros s. Missions directed from the island of Calayan in the Babuyan Group were sent t o Batanes to urge the residents to resettle in the Babuyanes. It was to the credit of Governor Jose Basco y Vargas that the islands were final ly brought under the Spanish Crown in 1782. Batanes was annexed to the colony th e following year but the inhabitants remained unreconciled to their loss of libe rty. The islands were constituted into a separate province but it was later down graded to the status of a town and attached to the province of Cagayan. The isla nds regained the status as a province in 1855 but was again reduced to a depende ncy of Cagayan in 1900 when the Americans took control of the islands. In 1909, by virtue of Act 1952, Batanes was again established as a separate province. Because of its strategic location, the Batanes was one of the first points of at tack by the invading Japanese forces at the start of the Pacific hostilities of the Second World War. During the 1950s and 1960s the Philippine government encou raged the Ivatans to resettle in other parts of the country. As a result of that program, Ivatan communites were established in Mindanao. PRE-HISTORY: FROM THE LEGENDARY PAST TO 1686 Batanes pre-history is largely an unexpected field: and what is known of it toda y is from observations derived from a meager number of artifacts found by Pio Mo ntenegro and his companions in some excavations they made on the islands from 19 31 to 1935, and recorded by H. Otley Berger in his "Outline Review of Philippine Archeology." For pre-history folklore is of little help, and there is not much of this available yet.. The pre-historic Ivatans lived in small tribal communities close to the sea and water springs. They saw to it that they could seek refuge in primitive rock fort resses in times of attack from enemies. Their ammunition consisted of stones and probably wooden equipment. They left traces of stone tools and used locally manufactured earthern pots and jars for household needs. Probably in later times, they began to use small quantities of iron tools, god o rnaments and beads. Porcelain and stoneware jars found by Montenegro suggest con tact with other people beyond the islands. It is supposed that trade relations h ad existed between the Ivatans and the peoples of Babuyanes and Northern Luzon b efore the arrival of the Europeans in Batanes. It is likely that it was from suc h trade relations that non-locally produced jars were entered in the islands, so me of which eventually found their way in some burial site. The pre-Hispanic Ivatan buried his dead in a large earthern jar. This custom may have lasted until as late as the 18th century. Their burial jars called Padapad

ay are over 30 inches in diameter. The livelihood of this jar burial people was farming, fishing and the raising of pigs and goats during the late 17th century when the Europeans set foot in Bata nes. They were already well-acquainted with the use of iron tools: they had forg es for smithing what iron came their way, and they had boats, too. EARLY WESTERN CONTACT: 1686-1783 The first European on record to set foot on the islands was Fr. Mateo Gonzalez, O.P. He was then the vicar of the mission of Sta. Ursula in Babuyanes north of L uzon. The Ivatan was a farmer and a fisherman , who fed largely on yam and camote, som e fish, and a variety of fruits from his farm tended mostly by women while he hi mself and his sons went out fishing. He built boats, and made with ingenuity wha t he lacked in tools. He had a few wooden iron equipment some for his occupation and some for his self-defense. His farms were occasionally raveaged by locusts and typhoons. He fought back against locusts by hunting them for food. He raised goats and pigs to supplement his agariculture and fishing. Being without rice a nd corn, he raises only a very limited number of chicken. For his drink, he cult ivated sugarcane and brewed wine out of it. With this he was generous to strange rs. He was dressed scantily from cloth he must have woven from little cotton tha t he grew on his farm. He valued gold and wore it as earrings, or used it as cur rency i his small commercial transactions. He also used it for buying iron. He w as civil and had some law to govern social conduct. An organized political strcu ture in his community was not very clear, although he probably had. His religiou s life was equally undefined if at all. He built his house on hilltops and hills ides - with fortifications. In appearance he was calm, with bronze complexion, a nd kept his hair short. The Dominican Provincial Chapter of 1720 authorized Fr. Juan Bel and six others for a mission in Batanes. When they arrived in Batanes, they were welcomed with gifts of pigs and goats and bananas. When these gifts were refused, the Ivatans took the refusal as an insult. They were also offered basi, tobacco and buyo. Th e food of the people consisted of camote, yam and gabi. (Fr. Bel left for poster ity some pieces of information and his impressions during his subsequent trip to the islands. The people were often hungry. They did some small business selling some fish and cotton. The people appeared to be very peaceful, somewhat of the timid side. They had no idols, but had some "vain observances." They had prayers and made offerings to spirits when they got sick. They believed in the immortality of the soul. They h ad aniteras who taught the people that the souls of the rulers and those of hig social rank went to heaven when they died. It was there where they rested in pre sence of the Creator. But the souls of the common people were not admitted into heaven, and they remained in the air to wander. Illness was believed to be from the devil, and when they got sick, they placed a bolo and a sharpened wood at th e head of the sick man's bed. On October 20, 1721, the king of Spain sent orders to the Royal Audiencia in Man ila to send him detailed report concerning Batanes because of a standing positio n by the Dominicans of the province of the most Holy Rosary that the Ivatans be transferred to Calayan. On March 14, 1728, the king of Spain issued the Royal Cedula for the transfer of the Ivatans from Batanes to Calayan in recognition of the reports that the Ivat ans were suffering from extreme destitution material and spiritual. The cedula e xempted the Ivatans from paying tributes and from rendering personal services fo r thirty years in accordance with the request of the Dominican missionaries of t

he province of the Most Holy Rosary. Fr. Amado believed the Ivatans "timid and faint-hearted." and should be treated with great prudence. But he also felt that should force be used to get them out of their homeland, they might resist force: and if they were overcome, bringing them to Calayan would do them no good since they could very well run away "to ta ke refuge and hide where only dogs could track them down." He proposed that shou ld translation get through, the Ivatans should be provided with vital supplies f or an indefinite time and until they could support themselves from the produce o f their farms in Calayan. About 1769, Don Mathias Suarez Vezino landed in Batanes and was there for over a month and a half. He reported seeing abundant fruits, gold of good quality, and copper. He saw cloth made from cotton, and that there was a kind of valuable fi ber there, probably what the natives call hasu, which was used by the Ivatans fo r making nets, ropes, and other necessities. He estimated tne population to be a bout 50,000. In March 1770, Joaquin Melgareho, a trader from Cagayan, left on board a small c hampan loaded with 500 cavans of rice for Batanes; and in two days or so, he lan ded in Batanes. He showed them a few commodities such as beads, carabao hide, and the like the I vatans were willing to trade some local products: goats, pigs, very fine cotton, G-strings, tapis for women, fishing nets, spools of thread. The natives also br ought gold of 20 carats, and coarse sotton cloth. The bartering went on until al l of Melgarejo's goods were gone. Melgarejo noted that hteir houses were small and roofed with cogoc, that they ha d two doors but no windows, that there were no divisions of the house into rooms , thate there were boards used for sleeping, that there was some sort of chimney where light came in. The walls of the houses were made of stones, big and small , which had been arranged one on top of the other. At a wedding, he observed that during the ceremony, four or five pieces of gold were given as dowry to the bride whoo gave these to her father. Some Chinese jar s filled with sugarcane were placed on the middle of the floor and dancing took place around them. The dance looked strange to him for the dancers "raised their hands and feet skywards in strange gestures." The celebration lasted four or fi ve days. At a funeral, he saw the father of the dead man wailing and going through extrav agant signs of mourning. The earrings of the dead were taken away, but some taba cco was placed in his G-string, and along with him were buried his plates, his c ooking pots, his jar. Then the father of the dead man drank himself into stupor. After 15 days, a goat was killed and distributed to the relatives of the dead m an who in turn were to offer it to the dead. This time, the father of the dead d id not take part. Melgarejo tried to find out from the natives where they believ ed the dead had gone. In answer someone pointed heavenward. The gold ornaments which the Ivatans used appeared ot Melgarejo to have been obt ained from gold-panning at the foot of the mountains. He saw an abundance of gol d ornaments among the natives. The farm products were cotton, fibers for making nets, camote, gabi, ubi, sugarc ane wine. They had lots of cogon in the fields, cogon being the roofing material for their houses. On January 31, 1781, Josef de Huelva y Melgarejo, drawing information provided h im by the navigator Mtias Suarez and the trader Joaquim Melgarejo wrote whis rep

ort on Batanes geography and people. The Ivatans, he reported, built in small houses built close to one another "like the Chinese houses at the Parian." They were built very low because of earthqua kes and typhoons, and the entrances were so low it was necessary to crawl. They were roofed with cogon. The farms were planted with "yam, gabi, camote, sugarcane and some barona and to bacco." He noted that there was too little land for rice. There were enclosures close to their houses where they raised pigs. They raised chicken, goats; they also had some dogs and cats. Huelva considered the Ivatan costumes of the time "indecent." The men wlaked aro und naked except for their G-strings; and the women wore a piece of cloth which covered only from the waist down to the knee. The cloth was used by the women wa s made of cotton and undyed. They were ostentatious of whatever they had, including lard, for their social po sition depended largely on their wealth. Huelva noted that the son of a rich man who became impoverished lost the respect of the comminity. They got drink with their palek (sugacane wine), and they were filthy in their persons. The men cut their hair short, but the women kept their hair long and twisted into a bun on t heir heads. they were superstitious, and in the administration of justice very s evere: even for a light crime the punishment was being buried alive. The islands were described as having no real parts. But there were small beaches on which the natives had their small boats for safety after coming from the sea . Itbayat was mentioned as having no port nor place for anchorage but it was a p roductive land, and was reported to have about seven communities. It produced pl enty of cotton for weaving. Preparatory to the final annexation of Batanes to the Spanish dominion, some for matlities had to be made. The people were to be asked whether or not they were w illing to accept the sovereignty of the Spanish king and to be his loyal subject s. For this purpose, Don Dionisio de los Reyes and a crew under his command left Appari on May 30, 1782. they landed in Batanes on June 1, 1782 at the port of M ahatao where they assembled the chieftains of the Ivatans. It was there that de los Reyes formally presented to the people the offer of the Spanish king to take them under his lordship and protection, with the promise of giving them only te mporal but especially well-being. Whether the natives understood perfectly the c ontents of the royal message or not is another question, but the records say tha t they accepted the royal offer enthusiastically.