the inhabitants hospitable”. The colonizers were able to get enough food supplies and went back to Cebu to report to Legazpi what they had found. Hispanization In June 1565, Captain Luis de la haya left Cebu for Araut. With him was Fray Juan de Alva, an Augustinian friar ordered by his superiors to preach and to convert the people of Araut to Christianity. The inhabitants then were animistic believers. Like other pre-Hispanic Filipinos, they worshipped environmental spirits, but Fray de Alva did not find much difficulty in converting the natives, to the new faith. Of the early Augustinian fathers who came to Panay, he was the first to learn the native tongue which was Kinaray-a, hence and as such he can relate to the people easily. Shortly he was able to initiate the construction, of a church with the help of the coverts in 1572. In the 16th century, Araut gained prominence, being the first community trodded by the Spaniards when they came to Panay. It was also the first town in Panay to have received the blessing of Christianity and first to have a temporary church erected. In 1605, thirty years after it was established as a town (founded in 1572) the Spanish clergy, who then ruled the community together with the cabeza de barangay, changed the name Araut to Dumangas. Fifty nine years later the church was again razed to the ground. Bair and Robertson recorded: " it was Saturday March 15, 1687 the church and the house in Dumangas was burned. Burned together with the edifices were offering (actually tributes of natives) from Cebu and other Visayan Island and 2,000 canvas of rice which was stored in the hours." Dumangas and world trade Before the opening of Iloilo to foreign trade, Dumangas have produced huge quantities of the rice. In 1842, the rice shipped from Iloilo were drawn mainly from the vast plains of Dumangas and its neighboring towns. The opening of the port of Iloilo to foreign trade in 1855 paved way for further progress in Dumangas. The town had indirectly shared on the lucrative trade. Sugar became the main bulk of production and export which were produced in farms called haciendas. Local sugar planters built sugar mills for local production of muscovado sugar sold to Chinese merchants. Revolutionary period of Dumangas When revolution broke out in Luzon in 1896, the revolutionaries spread quickly throughout the