The men of Cainta
Robert Bennett Bean and Federico S. Planta
Anatomical Laboratory, Philippine Medical School, Manila, P.I.
The town of Cainta, a stone's throw from Tagaytay near the Lake of Bay (Laguna de Bay), is of consideratrble historic interest becuase of the many bloody battles fought in its vicinity between the Spaniards and the natives, the Chinese and the natives, and the Spaniards and the Chinese. It is of great interest to the anthropologist because it presents a body of people different from the surrounding population.
Cainta was founded before the Spaniards came to the Islands, according to a statement in a history of the Philippines by Jose Montero y Vidal, who, in the first volume, page 41, affirms that Juan Salcedo, one of the first Spanish Conquerors who came to the Philippines, having in 1571 subdued the natives of Cainta and Taytay first, went to the Lake (La Laguna), pacifying man towns.
There seem to be no data concerning the origian of the inhabitants of Cainta, but one of two suppositions is plausible. Either they are derived from settlers of East Indian origin who arrived before the Spaniards, or else they represent the descendants of a British regiment of East Indian troops who remained when the British evacuated the Philippines in 1763. The history of P. Murillo, written in 1752, volume 7, page 33, speaks of some of the inhabitants of the Philippines, when the Spanriards arrived, as black people, called for politeness sake Creoles (Criollas or Morenos), who were characterised as very active politically. Murillo believed that these people came from Malabay or Coromandel, belonging to the British, and they were probably of East Indian origin. . . read more
