led by the same officer, afterward met with some success, but American
popularity suffered in consequence. The Apayao country is the only
sub-province under a native Governor, and its Governor, Señor Blas
Villamor, is the only Filipino that has ever shown any interest in
or sympathy for the highlanders. His task has been a difficult one;
for example, his only line of communication, the Abulug River, runs
through a territory inhabited by Negritos, who had been so abused
by the Christian natives on the one hand, and whose heads had been
so diligently sought by the wild Tinguians of the mountains, on the
other, that they had acquired the habit of greeting strangers with
poisoned arrows. His mountain region itself was inhabited by inveterate
head-hunters, most of whom had never even seen a white man. Conditions
are improving, however; the raids against the Christian and Negrito
inhabitants of the lowlands of Cagayán have been completely checked,
and Mr. Worcester hopes that head-hunting will diminish. It still
exists. Strong told me, on his return to Manila, that, looking into
a head-basket after leaving Tabuk, he found in it fresh fragments
of a human skull; for the Apayaos take the skull like the other
highlanders, but unlike them, break it into pieces. But with these
people head-hunting is a part of their religious belief, and so all
the harder to uproot. With the others it is a matter of vengeance,
or else even of sport. "On the other hand, the people of Apayao have
many good qualities. They are physically well-developed and are quite
cleanly. They erect beautifully constructed houses. Their women are
well clothed, and both men and women love handsome ornaments. They
are quite industrious agriculturists and are now begging for seed and
for domestic animals in order that they may emulate their Christian
neighbors in the raising of agricultural products."

Of course we should have been very glad to go on with Mr. Worcester