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At Vigan, the capital of Ilocos, we narrowly escaped drowning in the surf when returning to our steamer. For a time our good viray with some twenty oarsmen was unable to make headway through the rolling waves. It broached to, nearly filled with water, and struck the bottom heavily several times.
Apad, the principal man of Tinglayan, was confined six years in Spanish jails at Bontoc and Vigan because he repeatedly failed to compel his people to bring in the amount of palay assessed them. They say there were three small guardhouses on the outskirts of Bontoc pueblo, and armed Igorot from an outside town were not allowed to enter. They were disarmed, and came and went under guard.
When Florent arrived at Le Vigan his mother was already buried. She had insisted upon having her illness concealed from him till the very last moment, for fear of disturbing his studies. Thus he found little Quenu, who was then twelve years old, sitting and sobbing alone on a table in the middle of the kitchen. A furniture dealer, a neighbour, gave him particulars of his mother's last hours.
I had thought," he added, "that the great lesson taught them at Vigan and Anduze would have restored tranquillity to the Cevennes, at least for a time. But, on the contrary, the severity of the measures heretofore adopted seems only to have had the effect of exasperating and hardening them in their iniquitous courses."
This line, which, when finished, will connect Le Vigan with Millau and Albi, will be an immense boon to the inhabitants one of the numerous iron roads laid by the Republican Government in what had hitherto been forgotten parts of France. Close to these works a magnificent cascade is seen, a sheet of glistening white spray pouring down the dark, precipitous escarpment.
Half-way between Nimes and Le Vigan lies the little town of Sauve, at which the Suffolk farmer halted in July 1787. "Pass six leagues of a disagreeable country," he wrote. "Vines and olives." But why a disagreeable country? Beautiful I thought the landscape as I went over the same ground on a warm September afternoon a century and odd years later, on alighting to be greeted with a cheery
Even to-day the people of Balbalasang make the long journey to Bangued, or even to Vigan, to secure Chinese iron, which they carry back to their mountain forges. There is no positive proof that the Filipinos formerly mined and smelted iron, but there is a strong probability that they did so, prior to the introduction of trade metal.
The fact that these men returned safely unaccompanied by Gallman or any other American is the best possible proof of the positive results already achieved by our Government in civilizing the highlanders. We ride to Bontok. Bat-nets. Character of the country. Ambawan. Difficulties of the trail. Bird-scarers. Talubin. Bishop Carroll of Vigan. We reach Bontok. "The Star-Spangled Banner."
Certain of his fables every little scholar knows by heart. Associations of other kinds are come upon by travellers bound from Quissac to Le Vigan, that charming little centre of silkworm rearing described by me elsewhere. A few miles from our village lies Ganges, a name for ever famous in the annals of political economy and progress.
Throughout the remainder of this journey I am bound to say that we were struck with the kindness and gentleness of our drivers to their horses. Any sign of ill-temper or skittishness was always coaxed away, an angry word or blow never being resorted to. As I have said, Le Vigan might easily be made a charming halting-place for tourists in these regions.
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