Negritos of Zambales | Page 4

to resist
the strangers in the open, in the woods and mountains and mouths of
the rivers they were very powerful. They made sudden attacks on the
pueblos and compelled their neighbors to pay tribute to them as to lords
of the earth which they inhabited, and if these did not wish to pay them
they killed right and left, collecting the tribute in heads. * * *
One of the islands of note in this Archipelago is that called Isla de

Negros on account of the abundance of them [negroes]. In one point of
this island--on the west side, called "Sojoton"--there is a great number
of Negritos, and in the center of the island many more.
Chirino has the following to say of the Negritos of Panay at the end of
the sixteenth century: [7]
Amongst these (Bisayas) there are also some negroes, the ancient
inhabitants of the island of which they had taken possession before the
Bisayas. They are somewhat less black and less ugly man those of
Guinea, but are smaller and weaker, although as regards hair and beard
they are similar. They are more barbarous and savage than the Bisayas
and other Filipinos, for they do not, like them, have houses and fixed
settlements. They neither sow nor reap, and they wander through the
mountains with their women and children like animals, almost naked. *
* * Their sole possessions are the bow and arrow.
Meyer, [8] who has given the subject much study and has conducted
personal investigations on the field, states that "although at the time of
the arrival of the Spaniards in the country, and probably long before,
the Negritos were in process of being driven back by the Malays, yet it
appears certain that their numbers were then larger, for they were
feared by their neighbors, which is now only exceptionally the case."
Of the vast amount of material that has been written during the past
century on the Negritos of the Philippines a considerable portion can
not be taken authoritatively. Exceptions should be made of the writings
of Meyer, Montano, Marche, and Blumentritt. A large part of the
writings on the Philippine Negritos have to do with their distribution
and numbers, since no one has made an extended study of them on the
spot, except Meyer, whose work (consisting of twelve chapters and
published in Volume IX of the Publications of the Royal
Ethnographical Museum of Dresden, 1893) I regret not to have seen.
Two chapters of this work on the distribution of the Negritos,
republished in 1899, form the most recent and most nearly correct
exposition of this subject. Meyer summarizes as follows:
It may be regarded as proved with certainty that Negritos are found in

Luzon, Alabat, Corregidor, Panay, Tablas, Negros, Cebu, northeast
Mindanao, and Palawan. It is questionable whether they occur in
Guimaras, Mindoro, and the Calamianes.
This statement would be more nearly correct if Corregidor and Cebu
were placed in the second list and Guimaras in the first. In this paper it
is possible, by reason of special investigations, to give more reliable
and detailed information on this subject than any yet published.

Present Distribution in the Philippines [9]

In Luzon
This paper concerns itself chiefly with the Zambales Negritos whose
distribution in Zambales and the contiguous Provinces of Bataan,
Pampanga, and Tarlac is treated in detail in the following chapter. But
Negritos of more or less pure blood, known variously as Aeta, Agta,
Baluga, Dumagat, etc., are found in at least eleven other provinces of
Luzon. Beginning with the southern end of the island there are a very
few Negritos in the Province of Sorsogon. They are found generally
living among the Bicol population and do not run wild in the woods;
they have probably drifted down from the neighboring Province of
Albay. According to a report submitted by the governor of Sorsogon
there are a few of these Negritos in Bacon and Bulusan, and four
families containing Negrito blood are on the Island of Batang near
Gabat.
Eight pueblos of Albay report altogether as many as 800 Negritos,
known locally as "Agta." It is not likely any of them are of pure blood.
In all except three of the towns they are servants in Bicol houses, but
Malinao, Bacacay, and Tabaco report wandering groups in the
mountains.
Meyer, who makes no mention of Negritos in Sorsogon or Albay,
deems their existence in the Camarines sufficiently well authenticated,

according to Blumentritt, who places Negrito half-breeds in the
neighborhood of Lagonoy and around Mount Isarog. Information
received by The Ethnological Survey places them in the mountains near
Baao, Bulic, Iriga, Lagonoy, San José, Gao, and Tigaon, as well as
scattered over the Cordillera de Isarog around Sagnay. All of these
places are in the extreme southeastern part of