First inhabitants
Throughout history, most first settlers locate
themselves near waterways, where they can fish for food,
and
have access to water for drinking and watering their
crops once planting is learned. Settlers also use the
waterways as natural buffer against enemies and a faster
means than land to move about their territory.
This holds true as well with the first inhabitants of
Vigan. Ages before the coming of the Spaniards to the
Philippine islands, the first inhabitants of Vigan
founded settlements in this northwestern part of the big
island
of Luzon, initially finding shelter in coves or
looc. The settlements stretched north to south from
Ilocos Norte’s Bangui down to La Union’s Namacpacan.
The waters that surrounded this regional settlement was
a boon to the life of the first inhabitants as it
enabled it to be known as a thriving trading center.
Here traders from as far as ancient Japan, China and
Malaya traveled to exhange goods making use of the China
Sea and the many rivers that surround and course through
Vigan to transport their wares and people.
The region was known during those ancient times as
Samtoy. This name was derived from the words sao mi
ditoy, which means our language. Traders and visitors to
Samtoy not only knew it as a place for trading with
locals and foreigners, it was also widely known for its
rich gold mines.
When the Spanish expedition headed by Juan de Salcedo
arrived in the settlement of Samtoy on the 13th of June
in 1557, they made the natural choice of founding a city
in the settlement dedicating it to King Ferdinand
of
Spain. They named the region Ylocos, while the town
itself was called Ciudad Fernandina, now known as Vigan.
Though the earliest foreign visitors from Japan, China
and Malaya did not come to conquer but to trade, some
of
them stayed and settled in ancient Vigan. Despite the
fact that they were not fairly treated by the Spanish
when they took power, the Chinese endeavored to remain,
working and propagating their craft and intermarrying
with the locals.
They were initially relegated to living in the outskirts
called Pariancillo. There they produced and traded in
goods such as the local wine basi, jars or burnay, lime,
indigo, tobacco and the local woven textile called abel.
These products reached as far as Europe. Their tenacity
and hard work produced an elite class of Filipino
Chinese families that became powerful and wealthy enough
to further propel the economic growth of Vigan and
affect changes not only in the politics and history of
the town and the region during the latter part of the
Spanish colonization, but the whole country as well. |
