Dumaguete Post Card Circa 1900

Dumaguete Post Card Circa 1900

 

While anchored at the island of Bohol, Miguel Lopez de Legaspi in 1565 dispatched a frigate to reconnoiter the coasts of the islands that were visible from that point. This frigate entered the channel between the islands of Cebu and Negros. Because of the swift current, the frigate had to go around Negros Island to return. They related various tales about their expedition around this island called Buglas by the natives, but because they saw many black inhabitants, the Spaniards named the island Negros. They found settlements along the coast, usually along the entrance of rivers, and most of them were inhabited by black natives.

 

Originally, the old name was Dananguet, it was located along the northern side of the entrance of what is now called Banica River. Its ideal location shelters it from the devastating typhoons that passes Luzon and northern Visayas, for it lies south of the typhoon paths. Clusters of Malays and Negritos settled here, for water was plentiful. Communication was easier and food from land and sea was abundant. Miguel de Loarca in his Relasion de las Islas Filipinas wrote that the area between Tanjay and Dumaguet on the east coast was the most populated.

 

Because of its location (Dumaguete faces Mindanao and Sulu) it would be the first Christian pueblo along the way to the more prosperous towns and islands in northern Philippines.

 

Marauding Moro pirates carried away valuables from the churches and houses they pillaged along with young men and women they had kidnapped to be sold as slaves in Borneo. Thus this pueblo came to be called Dumaguet, from the Visayan root daguet which means “to snatch or kidnap.” The belfry tower (it still stands today) served as a watchtower to warn the people that the Moros were approaching.