From available evidences, the "Atta" or Negrito - a short dark-skinned nomad - was the first man in Cagayan. They were later moved to the uplands by the Malays who eventually became the Ibanags, Itawes, Yogads, Gaddangs, Irayas and Malawegs - the natives of Cagayan - who actually came from one ethnicity. These are the people found by the Spaniards in the different villages along the rivers all over Cagayan. The Spaniards rightly judged that these various villagers came from a single racial stock and decided to make the Ibanag language the "lingua franca", both civilly and ecclesiastically for the entire people of Cagayan which they called collectively as the "Cagayanes" which later was transliterated to become "Cagayanos".