Pampanga is about 850 square miles in area and is presently inhabited by more than 1.7 million people. During the Spanish times, Pampanga was one of the richest Philippine provinces. It is believed that early Pampangans were descendants of Malayan pioneers from the Malay Peninsula and Singarak Lake in West Sumatra. They settled along the river banks of the Rio Grande de la Pampanga in the Island of Luzon covering a large territory which extended to the Gulf of Lingayen in the North, to the Zambales mountains in the West, to the Sierra Madre range in the East and to Manila Bay in the South.