That pre-Spanish trade was not restricted to the Ilocos provinces, but was active along the whole northern coast of Luzon has been amply proved by many writers.  In fact, the inhabitants of Pangasinan not only had trade relations with Borneo, Japan, and China, [9] but it now seems probable that they can be identified as the Ping-ka-shi-lan who, as early as 1406, sent an embassy to China with gifts of horses, silver, and other objects for the emperor Yung-lo. [10]

Trade relations of an even earlier date are evident throughout all this area, in the presence far in the interior of Chinese pottery of the fourteenth century and possibly of the tenth. [11]

With friendly relations so long established, it is to be expected that many evidences of Chinese material culture would be found in all the northern provinces; and it is not unlikely that a considerable amount of Chinese blood may have been introduced into the population in ancient times, as it has been during the historic period.  It does not seem probable, however that either the influence of Chinese blood or culture need have been stronger in the Ilocos provinces than in the other regions which they visited.

When Salcedo attempted a landing at Vigan, he was at first opposed; but the superior weapons of the Spaniards quickly overcame all resistance, and the invaders took possession of the city, which they rechristened Fernandino.  From this center they carried on an energetic campaign of reduction and Christianization.  As fast as the natives accepted the rule of Spain, they were baptized and taken into the church, and so rapid was the process that by 1587 the Ilocano were reported to be Christianized. [12] In fact, force played such a part that Fray Martin de Herrada, who wrote from Ilocos in June, 1574, protested that the reduction was accomplished through fear, for if the people remained in their villages and received the rule of Spain and the Church, they were accepted as friends and forthwith compelled to pay tribute; but if they resisted and fled to other settlements, the troops followed and pillaged and laid waste their new dwellings. [13]

Paralleling the coast, a few miles inland, is a range of mountains on the far side of which lie the broad valleys of the Abra river and its tributaries.  The more conservative elements of the population retreated to the mountain valleys, and from these secure retreats bade defiance to the newcomers and their religion.  To these mountaineers was applied the name Tinguianes—­a term at first used to designate the mountain dwellers throughout the Islands, but later usually restricted to his tribe. [14] The Tinguian themselves do not use or know the appellation, but call themselves Itneg, a name which should be used for them but for the fact that they are already established in literature under the former term.

Although they were in constant feuds among themselves, the mountain people do not appear to have given the newcomers much trouble until toward the end of the sixteenth century, when hostile raids against the coast settlements became rather frequent.  To protect the Christianized natives, as well as to aid in the conversion of these heathens, the Spanish, in 1598, entered the valley of the Abra and established a garrison at the village of Bangued. [15]