Capiz, “An attractive town of neat appearance”, from the notes of Reverend Walter C. Clapp

The Presidencia of the town of Capiz. Inset: photo of Walter C. Clapp

In November 1902, Walter C. Clapp, the first Episcopal priest in the Philippines went to Panay Island, where he visited Iloilo and then Capiz  to do a "prospecting tour" on behalf of the Episcopal mission. On November 25th he left Iloilo for Capiz. His short stint in Capiz was later included in a report he presented to the Episcopal mission in the United States. Here are extracts of his notes about Capiz, providing a glimpse of how the place looks like at the turn of the 20th century.

Rev. Walter C. Clapp

Some Notes of Matters Philippine

By The Reverend Walter C. Clapp

The Sacramento Missionary, Lenten-tide 1903

From Iloilo, on Tuesday, November 25th, I took passage on the General Blanco for Capiz, the capital of the province of the same name, lying near the coast of northern Panay. The water distance from Iloilo is about one hundred and twenty minutes, and the trip should be made in fifteen hours in these slow, inter-island craft. But we were delayed in getting clearance from the medical officer, delayed again and almost anchored by having to tow to two heavy lorchas [three-masted sailing ship] in the faces of a strong monsoon.

Forty-eight hours from the time of leaving Iloilo we dropped anchor in the harbor at Le Bas [Libas, a fishing community], at the mouth of the Panay River, on which Capiz is situated. A quilez [probably caleza?] took us up to the town along a smooth road bordered on each side by a thick towering growth of nipa palm. I may say, in passing that the abundant production of this plant in the province determines its chief and characteristic industry. From the budding stalks is gathered, by tapping the nipa tuba, which, fermented, becomes the nipa vino, from which in turn, by distillation, are obtained various grades of aguardiente, or alcohol.

Capiz is an attractive town of neat appearance, simple, almost medieval, in its isolation. Stone watch-towers at the river-mouth in one direction, and on the sea-beach in another, guarding against the approach of the dreaded Moros, are reminders of a past that is by no means ancient. A large and recently-constructed church forms the architectural center of the town.

The Rev. Clapp would later spearhead the Cordillera mission in 1903 . He adopted a three-year old Igorot and baptized him as Hilary. Later, the boy would become the first Igorot doctor and the first Igorot governor of the Mountain Province.