A Visit to the Philippine Islands
by John Bowring · English · Gutenberg #46695 · 717,652 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: A Visit to the Philippine Islands
Author: John Bowring
Release date: August 26, 2014 [eBook #46695]
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Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A VISIT TO THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS ***
A VISIT
TO
THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.
BY
SIR JOHN BOWRING, LL.D., F.R.S.,
LATE GOVERNOR OF HONG KONG, H.R.M.'S PLENIPOTENTIARY IN CHINA,
HONORARY MEMBER OF THE SOCIEDAD ECONOMICA
DE LAS FILIPINAS, ETC. ETC.
LONDON:
SMITH, ELDER & CO., 65, CORNHILL.
M.DCCC.LIX.
[The right of Translation is reserved.]
PREFACE.
The Philippine Islands are but imperfectly known. Though my visit was
a short one, I enjoyed many advantages, from immediate and constant
intercourse with the various authorities and the most friendly
reception by the natives of every class.
The information I sought was invariably communicated with courtesy
and readiness; and by this publication something will, I hope, be
contributed to the store of useful knowledge.
The mighty "tide of tendency" is giving more and more importance to
the Oriental world. Its resources, as they become better known, will be
more rapidly developed. They are promising fields, which will encourage
and reward adventure; inviting receptacles for the superfluities of
European wealth, activity, and intelligence, whose streams will flow
back upon their sources with ever-augmenting contributions. Commerce
will complete the work in peace and prosperity, which conquest began
in perturbation and peril. Whatever clouds may hang over portions
of the globe, there is a brighter dawning, a wider sunrise, over
the whole; and the flights of time, and the explorings of space,
are alike helping the "infinite progression" of good.
J. B.
CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
I. Manila and Neighbourhood 1
II. Visit to La Laguna and Tayabas 30
III. History 44
IV. Geography, Climate, etc. 71
V. Government, Administration, etc. 87
VI. Population 105
VII. Manners and Superstitions of the People 144
VIII. Population--Races 165
IX. Administration of Justice 186
X. Army and Navy 191
XI. Public Instruction 194
XII. Ecclesiastical Authority 199
XIII. Languages 215
XIV. Native Produce 234
XV. Vegetables 244
XVI. Animals 272
XVII. Minerals 277
XVIII. Manufactures 282
XIX. Popular Proverbs 286
XX. Commerce 292
XXI. Finance, Taxation, etc. 320
XXII. Taxes 326
XXIII. Opening the New Ports of Iloilo, Sual and
Zamboanga 330
XXIV. Zamboanga 341
XXV. Iloilo and Panay 354
XXVI. Sual 425
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Group of Natives (Frontispiece.)
Hot Springs at Tivi (Title-page.)
Plan of Manila 10
View from my Window to face page 16
Lavanderos, or Washerwomen ,, 24
Waterfall of the Botocan 30
Village of Majajay to face page 36
Travelling by Palkee ,, 38
Crater of the Volcano at Taal 71
Indian Funeral to face page 122
Girls Bathing 134
A Gallera, or Cock-pit to face page 152
Lake of Taal, with Volcano ,, 164
Chart of Zamboanga 341
Chart of Port Iloilo and Panay 354
Chart of Port of Sual 425
Indian Song of the Philippines to face page 434
A VISIT
TO THE
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.
CHAPTER I.
MANILA AND NEIGHBOURHOOD.
Three hundred and forty years ago, the Portuguese navigator Fernando de
Magalhães, more generally known by his Spanish designation Magellanes,
proposed to Carlos I. an expedition of discovery in the Eastern
seas. The conditions of the contract were signed at Zaragoza, and,
with a fleet of six vessels, the largest of which was only 130 tons
burden, and the whole number of the crews two hundred and thirty-four
men, Magalhães passed the straits which bear his name in November,
1520; in the middle of March of the following year he discovered
the Mariana Islands, and a few days afterwards landed on the eastern
coast of the island of Mindanao, where he was well received by the
native population. He afterwards visited the island of Zebu, where,
notwithstanding a menaced resistance from more than two thousand
armed men, he succeeded in conciliating the king and his court,
who were not only baptized into the Catholic faith, but recognised
the supreme sovereignty of the crown of Spain, and took the oaths of
subjection and vassalage. The king being engaged in hostilities with
his neighbours, Magalhães took part therein, and died in Mactan, on
the 26th April, 1521, in consequence of the wounds he received. This
disaster was followed by the murder of all the leading persons of
the expedition, who, being invited to a feast by their new ally,
were treacherously assassinated. Guillen de Porceleto alone escaped
of the twenty-six guests who formed the company. Three of the fleet
had been lost before they reached the Philippines; one only returned
to Spain--the Vitoria--the first that had ever made the voyage round
the world, and the Spanish king conferred on her commander, Elcano,
a Biscayan, an escutcheon bearing a globe, with the inscription,
"Primus circumdedit me." A second expedition, also composed of six
vessels and a trader, left Spain in 1524. The whole fleet miserably
perished in storms and contests with the Portuguese in the Moluccas,
and the trader alone returned to the Spanish possessions in New Spain.
About one hundred and twenty of the expedition landed in Tidore,
where they built themselves a fortress, and were relieved by a third
fleet sent by Hernan Cortes, in 1528, to prosecute the discoveries
of which Magalhães had had the initiative. This third adventure was
as disastrous as those which had preceded it. It consisted of three
ships and one hundred and ten men, bearing large supplies and costly
presents. They took possession of the Marianas (Ladrone Islands) in the
name of the king of Spain, reached Mindanao and other of the southern
islands, failed twice in the attempt to reach New Spain, and finally
were all victims of the climate and of the hostility of the Portuguese.
But the Spanish court determined to persevere, and the Viceroy
(Mendoza) of New Spain was ordered to prepare a fourth expedition,
which was to avoid the Molucca Islands, where so many misfortunes had
attended the Spaniards. The fleet consisted of three ships and two
traders, and the commander was Villalobos. He reached the Archipelago,
and gave to the islands the name of the Philippines, in honour of
the Prince of Asturias, afterwards Philip the Second. Contrary winds
(in spite of the royal prohibition) drove them into the Moluccas,
where they were ill received by the Portuguese, and ordered to return
to Spain. Villalobos died in Amboyna, where he was attended by the
famous missionary, St. Francisco Xavier. Death swept away many of the
Spaniards, and the few who remained were removed from the Moluccas
in Portuguese vessels.
A fifth expedition on a larger scale was ordered by Philip the
Second to "conquer, pacify, and people" the islands which bore
his name. They consisted of five ships and four hundred seamen and
soldiers, and sailed from La Natividad (Mexico) in 1564, under the
orders of Legaspi, who was nominated Governor of the Philippines,
with ample powers. He reached Tandaya in February, 1565, proceeded
to Cabalian, where the heir of the native king aided his views. In
Bojol, he secured the aid and allegiance of the petty sovereigns
of the island, and afterwards fixed himself on the island of Zebu,
which for some time was the central seat of Spanish authority. [1]
Manila was founded in 1581.
Illness and the despotism of the doctors, who ordered me to throw off
the cares of my colonial government and to undertake a sea voyage of
six or seven weeks' duration, induced me to avail myself of one of the
many courtesies and kindnesses for which I am indebted to the naval
commander-in-chief, Sir Michael Seymour, and to accept his friendly
offer of a steamer to convey me whither I might desire. The relations
of China with the Eastern Spanish Archipelago are not unimportant, and
were likely to be extended in consequence of the stipulations of Lord
Elgin's Tientsin Treaty. Moreover, the slowly advancing commercial
liberalism of the Spaniards has opened three additional ports to
foreign trade, of which, till lately, Manila had the monopoly. I
decided, therefore, after calling at the capital in order to obtain
the facilities with which I doubted not the courtesy of my friend
Don Francisco Norzagaray, the Captain-General of the Philippines,
would favour me, to visit Zamboanga, Iloilo, and Sual. I had already
experienced many attentions from him in connection with the government
of Hong Kong. It will be seen that my anticipations were more than
responded to by the Governor, and as I enjoyed rare advantages in
obtaining the information I sought, I feel encouraged to record the
impressions I received, and to give publicity to those facts which
I gathered together in the course of my inquiries, assisted by such
publications as have been accessible to me.
Sir Michael Seymour placed her Majesty's ship Magicienne at my
disposal. The selection was in all respects admirable. Nothing that
foresight could suggest or care provide was wanting to my comfort,
and I owe a great deal to Captain Vansittart, whose urbanities and
attentions were followed up by all his officers and men. We left Hong
Kong on the 29th of November, 1858. The China seas are, perhaps, the
most tempestuous in the world, and the voyage to Manila is frequently
a very disagreeable one. So it proved to us. The wild cross waves,
breaking upon the bows, tossed us about with great violence; and
damage to furniture, destruction of glass and earthenware, and much
personal inconvenience, were among the varieties which accompanied us.
But on the fifth day we sighted the lighthouse at the entrance of the
magnificent harbour of Manila, and some hours' steaming brought us
to an anchorage at about a mile distant from the city. There began
the attentions which were associated with the whole of our visit to
these beautiful regions. The Magicienne was visited by the various
authorities, and arrangements were made for my landing and conveyance
to the palace of the Governor-General. Through the capital runs a river
(the Pasig), up which we rowed, till we reached, on the left bank,
a handsome flight of steps, near the fortifications and close to
the column which has been erected to the memory of Magellanes, the
discoverer of, or, at all events, the founder of Spanish authority
in, these islands. This illustrious name arrested our attention. The
memorial is not worthy of that great reputation. It is a somewhat
rude column of stone, crowned with a bronze armillary sphere,
and decorated midway with golden dolphins and anchors wreathed in
laurels: it stands upon a pedestal of marble, bearing the name of
the honoured navigator, and is surrounded by an iron railing. It
was originally intended to be erected in the island of Zebu, but,
after a correspondence of several years with the Court of Madrid,
the present site was chosen by royal authority in 1847. There was
a very handsome display of cavalry and infantry, and a fine band of
music played "God save the Queen." Several carriages and four were
in waiting to escort our party to the government palace, where I was
most cordially received by the captain-general and the ladies of his
family. A fine suite of apartments had been prepared for my occupation,
and servants, under the orders of a major-domo, were ordered to attend
to our requirements, while one of the Governor's aides-de-camp was
constantly at hand to aid us.
Though the name of Manila is given to the capital of the Philippine
Islands, it is only the fort and garrison occupied by the authorities
to which the designation was originally applied. Manila is on the
left bank of the river, while, on the right, the district of Binondo
is the site inhabited by almost all the merchants, and in which their
business is conducted and their warehouses built. The palace fills
one side of a public plaza in the fortress, the cathedral another of
the same locality, resembling the squares of London, but with the
advantage of having its centre adorned by the glorious vegetation
of the tropics, whose leaves present all varieties of colour, from
the brightest yellow to the deepest green, and whose flowers are
remarkable for their splendour and beauty. There is a statue of
Charles the Fourth in the centre of the garden.
The most populous and prosperous province of the Philippines takes
its name from the fortification [2] of Manila; and the port of Manila
is among the best known and most frequented of the harbours of the
Eastern world. The capital is renowned for the splendour of its
religious processions; for the excellence of its cheroots, which,
to the east of the Cape of Good Hope, are generally preferred to the
cigars of the Havana; while the less honourable characteristics of
the people are known to be a universal love of gambling, which is
exhibited among the Indian races by a passion for cock-fighting, an
amusement made a productive source of revenue to the State. Artists
usually introduce a Philippine Indian with a game-cock under his arm,
to which he seems as much attached as a Bedouin Arab to his horse. It
is said that many a time an Indian has allowed his wife and children
to perish in the flames when his house has taken fire, but never was
known to fail in securing his favourite gallo from danger.
On anchoring off the city, Captain Vansittart despatched one of his
lieutenants, accompanied by my private secretary, to the British
consulate, in order to announce our arrival, and to offer any
facilities for consular communication with the Magicienne. They had
some difficulty in discovering the consulate, which has no flag-staff,
nor flag, nor other designation. The Consul was gone to his ferme
modèle, where he principally passes his time among outcast Indians,
in an almost inaccessible place, at some distance from Manila. The
Vice-Consul said it was too hot for him to come on board, though during
a great part of the day we were receiving the representatives of the
highest authorities of Manila. The Consul wrote (I am bound to do him
this justice) that it would "put him out" of his routine of habit and
economy if he were expected to fête and entertain with formality "his
Excellency the Plenipotentiary and Governor of Hong Kong." I hastened
to assure the Consul that my presence should cause him no expense,
but that the absence of anything which becomingly represented consular
authority on the arrival of one of Her Majesty's large ships of war
could hardly be passed unnoticed by the commander of that vessel.
Crowds of visitors honoured our arrival; among them the archbishop
and the principal ecclesiastical dignitaries; deputations from the
civilians, army and navy, and the various heads of departments, who
invited us to visit their establishments, exhibited in their personal
attentions the characteristics of ancient Castilian courtesy. A
report had spread among the officers that I was a veteran warrior
who had served in the Peninsular campaign, and helped to liberate
Spain from the yoke of the French invaders. I had to explain that,
though witness to many of the events of that exciting time, and in
that romantic land, I was a peaceful spectator, and not a busy actor
there. The bay of Manila, one of the finest in the world, and the river
Pasig which flows into it, were, no doubt, the great recommendations
of the position chosen for the capital of the Philippines. During
the four months of March, April, May, and June, the heat and dust
are very oppressive, and the mosquitos a fearful annoyance. To these
months succeed heavy rains, but on the whole the climate is good,
and the general mortality not great. The average temperature through
the year is 81° 97' Fahrenheit.
The quarantine station is at Cavite, a town of considerable importance
on the southern side of the harbour. It has a large manufacturing
establishment of cigars, and gives its name to the surrounding
province, which has about 57,000 inhabitants, among whom are about
7,000 mestizos (mixed race). From its adjacency to the capital, the
numerical proportion of persons paying tribute is larger than in any
other province.
The city, which is surrounded by ramparts, consists of seventeen
streets, spacious and crossing at right angles. As there is little
business in this part of the capital (the trade being carried on on
the other side of the river), few people are seen in the streets, and
the general character of the place is dull and monotonous, and forms
a remarkable contrast to the activity and crowding of the commercial
quarters. The cathedral, begun in 1654, and completed in 1672, is 240
feet in length and 60 in breadth. It boasts of its fourteen bells,
which have little repose; and of the carvings of the fifty-two
seats which are set apart for the aristocracy. The archiepiscopal
palace, though sufficiently large, did not appear to me to have any
architectural beauty. The apartments are furnished with simplicity,
and though the archbishop is privileged, like the governor, to appear
in some state, it was only on the occasion of religious ceremonies that
I observed anything like display. His reception of me was that of a
courteous old gentleman. He was dressed with great simplicity, and our
conversation was confined to inquiries connected with ecclesiastical
administration. He had been a barefooted Augustin friar (Recoleto),
and was raised to the archiepiscopal dignity in 1846.
The palacio in which I was so kindly accommodated was originally built
by an opulent but unfortunate protégé of one of the captains-general;
it was reconstructed in 1690 by Governor Gongora. It fills a
considerable space, and on the south-west side has a beautiful view
of the bay and the surrounding headlands. There is a handsome Hall
of Audience, and many of the departments of the government have their
principal offices within its walls. The patio forms a pretty garden,
and is crowded with tropical plants. It has two principal stone
staircases, one leading to the private apartments, and the other to
the public offices. Like all the houses at Manila, it has for windows
sliding frames fitted with concha, or plates of semi-transparent
oysters, which admit an imperfect light, but are impervious to the
sunbeams. I do not recollect to have seen any glass windows in the
Philippines. Many of the apartments are large and well furnished, but
not, as often in England, over-crowded with superfluities. The courtesy
of the Governor provided every day at his table seats for two officers
of the Magicienne at dinner, after retiring from which there was a
tertulia, or evening reception, where the notabilities of the capital
afforded me many opportunities for enjoying that agreeable and lively
conversation in which Spanish ladies excel. A few mestizos are among
the visitors. Nothing, however, is seen but the Parisian costume;
no vestiges of the recollections of my youth--the velo, the saya,
and the basquiña; nor the tortoiseshell combs, high towering over the
beautiful black cabellera; the fan alone remains, then, as now, the
dexterously displayed weapon of womanhood. After a few complimentary
salutations, most of the gentlemen gather round the card-tables.
The Calzada, a broad road a little beyond the walls of the fortress,
is to Manila what Hyde Park is to London, the Champs Elysées to Paris,
and the Meidan to Calcutta. It is the gathering place of the opulent
classes, and from five o'clock P.M. to the nightfall is crowded with
carriages, equestrians and pedestrians, whose mutual salutations
seem principally to occupy their attention: the taking off hats
and the responses to greetings and recognitions are sufficiently
wearisome. Twice a week a band of music plays on a raised way near
the extremity of the patio. Soon after sunset there is a sudden and
general stoppage. Every one uncovers his head; it is the time of the
oracion announced by the church bells: universal silence prevails
for a few minutes, after which the promenades are resumed. There is a
good deal of solemnity in the instant and accordant suspension of all
locomotion, and it reminded me of the prostration of the Mussulmans
when the voice of the Muezzim calls, "To prayer, to prayer." A fine
evening walk which is found on the esplanade of the fortifications,
is only frequented on Sundays. It has an extensive view of the harbour
and the river, and its freedom from the dust and dirt of the Calzada
gives it an additional recommendation; but fashion despotically decides
all such matters, and the crowds will assemble where everybody expects
to meet with everybody. In visiting the fine scenery of the rivers,
roads, and villages in the neighbourhood of Manila, we seldom met
with a carriage, or a traveller seeking to enjoy these beauties. And
in a harbour so magnificent as that of Manila one would expect to see
skiffs and pleasure-boats without number, and yachts and other craft
ministering to the enjoyment and adding to the variety of life; but
there are none. Nobody seems to like sporting with the elements. There
are no yacht regattas on the sea, as there are no horseraces on the
shore. I have heard the life of Manila called intolerably monotonous;
in my short stay it appeared to me full of interest and animation,
but I was perhaps privileged. The city is certainly not lively,
and the Spaniard is generally grave, but he is warm-hearted and
hospitable, and must not be studied at a distance, nor condemned
with precipitancy. He is, no doubt, susceptible and pundonoroso, but
is rich in noble qualities. Confined as is the population of Manila
within the fortification walls, the neighbouring country is full of
attractions. To me the villages, the beautiful tropical vegetation,
the banks of the rivers, and the streams adorned with scenery so
picturesque and pleasing, were more inviting than the gaiety of
the public parade. Every day afforded some variety, and most of the
pueblos have their characteristic distinctions. Malate is filled with
public offices, and women employed in ornamenting slippers with gold
and silver embroidery. Santa Ana is a favourite Villagiatura for
the merchants and opulent inhabitants. Near Paco is the cemetery,
"where dwell the multitude," in which are interred the remains of
many of the once distinguished who have ceased to be. Guadalupe
is illustrious for its miraculous image, and Paco for that of the
Saviour. The Lake of Arroceros (as its name implies) is one of the
principal gathering places for boats loaded with rice; near it, too,
are large manufactories of paper cigars. Sampaloc is the paradise
of washermen and washerwomen. La Ermita and other villages are
remarkable for their bordadoras, who produce those exquisite piña
handkerchiefs for which such large sums are paid. Pasay is renowned
for its cultivation of the betel. Almost every house has a garden with
its bamboos, plantains and cocoa-nut trees, and some with a greater
variety of fruits. Nature has decorated them with spontaneous flowers,
which hang from the branches or the fences, or creep up around the
simple dwellings of the Indians. Edifices of superior construction
are generally the abodes of the mestizos, or of the gobernadorcillos
belonging to the different pueblos.
Philip the Third gave armorial bearings to the capital, and conferred
on it the title of the "Very Noble City of Manila" (La mui noble
Ciudad), and attached the dignity of Excellency to the Ayuntamiento
(municipality).
During my stay at Manila, every afternoon, at five or six o'clock,
the Governor-General called for me in my apartments, and escorted by
cavalry lancers we were conveyed in a carriage and four to different
parts of the neighbourhood, the rides lasting from one to two hours. We
seldom took the same road, and thus visited not only nearly all the
villages in the vicinity, but passed through much beautiful country in
which the attention was constantly arrested by the groups of graceful
bamboos, the tall cocoa-nut trees, the large-leafed plantains, the
sugar-cane, the papaya, the green paddy fields (in which many people
were fishing--and who knows, when the fields are dry, what becomes
of the fish, for they never fail to appear again when irrigation has
taken place?), and that wonderful variety and magnificence of tropical
vegetation,--leaves and flowers so rich and gorgeous, on which one
is never tired to gaze. Much of the river scenery is such as a Claude
would revel in, and high indeed would be the artist's merit who could
give perpetuity to such colouring. And then the sunset skies--such as
are never seen in temperate zones,--so grand, so glowing, and at times
so awful! Almost every pueblo has some dwellings larger and better
than the rest, occupied by the native authorities or the mixed races
(mostly, however, of Chinese descent), who link the Indian to the
European population. The first floor of the house is generally raised
from the ground and reached by a ladder. Bamboos form the scaffolding,
the floors, and principal wood-work; the nipa palm makes the walls and
covers the roof. A few mats, a table, a rude chair or two, some pots
and crockery, pictures of saints, a lamp, and some trifling utensils,
comprise the domestic belongings, and while the children are crawling
about the house or garden, and the women engaged in household cares,
the master will most probably be seen with his game-cock under his
arm, or meditating on the prowess of the gallo while in attendance
on the gallinas.
------
FIGURE
VIEW FROM MY WINDOW SAN MIGUEL.
------
The better class of houses in Manila are usually rectangular, having
a court in the centre, round which are shops, warehouses, stables
and other offices, the families occupying the first floor. Towards
the street there is a corridor which communicates with the various
apartments, and generally a gallery in the interior looking into
the patio (court). The rooms have all sliding windows, whose small
panes admit the light of day through semi-transparent oyster-shells:
there are also Venetians, to help the ventilation and to exclude the
sun. The kitchen is generally separated from the dwelling. A large
cistern in the patio holds the water which is conveyed from the roofs
in the rainy season, and the platform of the cistern is generally
covered with jars of flowering plants or fruits. The first and only
floor is built on piles, as the fear of earthquakes prevents the
erection of elevated houses. The roofing is ordinarily of red tiles.
The apartments, as suited to a tropical climate, are large, and
many European fashions have been introduced: the walls covered with
painted paper, many lamps hung from the ceiling, Chinese screens,
porcelain jars with natural or artificial flowers, mirrors, tables,
sofas, chairs, such as are seen in European capitals; but the large
rooms have not the appearance of being crowded with superfluous
furniture. Carpets are rare--fire-places rarer.
Among Europeans the habits of European life are slightly modified by
the climate; but it appeared to me among the Spaniards there were more
of the characteristics of old Spain than would now be found in the
Peninsula itself. In my youth I often heard it said--and it was said
with truth--that neither Don Quixote nor Gil Blas were pictures of the
past alone, but that they were faithful portraits of the Spain which
I saw around me. Spain had then assuredly not been Europeanized; but
fifty years--fifty years of increased and increasing intercourse with
the rest of the world--have blotted out the ancient nationality, and
European modes, usages and opinions, have pervaded and permeated all
the upper and middling classes of Spanish society--nay, have descended
deep and spread far among the people, except those of the remote and
rural districts. There is little now to distinguish the aristocratical
and high-bred Spaniard from his equals in other lands. In the somewhat
lower grades, however, and among the whole body of clergy, the impress
of the past is preserved with little change. Strangers of foreign
nations, principally English and Americans, have brought with them
conveniences and luxuries which have been to some extent adopted by
the opulent Spaniards of Manila; and the honourable, hospitable and
liberal spirit which is found among the great merchants of the East,
has given them "name and fame" among Spanish colonists and native
cultivators. Generally speaking, I found a kind and generous urbanity
prevailing,--friendly intercourse where that intercourse had been
sought,--the lines of demarcation and separation between ranks and
classes less marked and impassable than in most Oriental countries. I
have seen at the same table Spaniard, mestizo and Indian--priest,
civilian and soldier. No doubt a common religion forms a common bond;
but to him who has observed the alienations and repulsions of caste in
many parts of the Eastern world--caste, the great social curse--the
blending and free intercourse of man with man in the Philippines is
a contrast well worth admiring. M. Mallat's enthusiasm is unbounded
in speaking of Manila. "Enchanting city!" he exclaims; "in thee
are goodness, cordiality, a sweet, open, noble hospitality,--the
generosity which makes our neighbour's house our own;--in thee the
difference of fortune and hierarchy disappears. Unknown to thee is
etiquette. O Manila! a warm heart can never forget thy inhabitants,
whose memory will be eternal for those who have known them."
De Mas' description of the Manila mode of life is this:--"They rise
early, and take chocolate and tea (which is here called cha); breakfast
composed of two or three dishes and a dessert at ten; dinner at from
two to three; siesta (sleep) till five to six; horses harnessed, and
an hour's ride to the pasco; returning from which, tea, with bread
and biscuits and sweets, sometimes homewards, sometimes in visit
to a neighbour; the evening passes as it may (cards frequently);
homewards for bed at 11 P.M.; the bed a fine mat, with mosquito
curtains drawn around; one narrow and one long pillow, called an
abrazador (embracer), which serves as a resting-place for the arms or
the legs. It is a Chinese and a convenient appliance. No sheets--men
sleep in their stockings, shirts, and loose trousers (pajamas); the
ladies in garments something similar. They say 'people must always
be ready to escape into the street in case of an earthquake.'" I
certainly know of an instance where a European lady was awfully
perplexed when summoned to a sudden flight in the darkness, and felt
that her toilette required adjustment before she could hurry forth.
Many of the pueblos which form the suburbs of Manila are very
populous. Passing through Binondo we reach Tondo, which gives its
name to the district, and has 31,000 inhabitants. These pueblos
have their Indian gobernadorcillos. Their best houses are of European
construction, occupied by Spaniards or mestizos, but these form a small
proportion of the whole compared with the Indian Cabánas. Tondo is one
of the principal sources for the supply of milk, butter, and cheese
to the capital; it has a small manufacturing industry of silk and
cotton tissues, but most of the women are engaged in the manipulation
of cigars in the great establishments of Binondo. Santa Cruz has a
population of about 11,000 inhabitants, many of them merchants, and
there are a great number of mechanics in the pueblo. Near it is the
burying-place of the Chinese, or, as they are called by the Spaniards,
the Sangleyes infieles.
Santa Cruz is a favourite name in the Philippines. There are in
the island of Luzon no less than four pueblos, each with a large
population, called Santa Cruz, and several besides in others of
the Philippines. It is the name of one of the islands, of several
headlands, and of various other localities, and has been carried by
the Spaniards into every region where they have established their
dominion. So fond are they of the titles they find in their Calendar,
that in the Philippines there are no less than sixteen places called
St. John and twelve which bear the name of St. Joseph; Jesus, Santa
Maria, Santa Ana, Santa Caterina, Santa Barbara, and many other saints,
have given their titles to various localities, often superseding the
ancient Indian names. Santa Ana is a pretty village, with about 5,500
souls. It is surrounded with cultivated lands, which, being irrigated
by fertilizing streams, are productive, and give their wonted charm to
the landscape--palms, mangoes, bamboos, sugar plantations, and various
fruit and forest trees on every side. The district is principally
devoted to agriculture. A few European houses, with their pretty
gardens, contrast well with the huts of the Indian. Its climate has
the reputation of salubrity.
There is a considerable demand for horses in the capital. The
importation of the larger races from Australia has not been
successful. They were less suited to the climate than the ponies which
are now almost universally employed. The Filipinos never give pure
water to their horses, but invariably mix it with miel (honey), the
saccharine matter of the caña dulce, and I was informed that no horse
would drink water unless it was so sweetened. This, of course, is the
result of "education." The value of horses, as compared with their
cost in the remoter islands, is double or treble in the capital. In
fact, nothing more distinctly proves the disadvantages of imperfect
communication than the extraordinary difference of prices for the
same articles in various parts of the Archipelago, even in parts
which trade with one another. There have been examples of famine in
a maritime district while there has been a superfluity of food in
adjacent islands. No doubt the monsoons are a great impediment to
regular intercourse, as they cannot be mastered by ordinary shipping;
but steam has come to our aid, when commercial necessities demanded
new powers and appliances, and no regions are likely to benefit by
it more than those of the tropics.
The associations and recollections of my youth were revived in the
hospitable entertainment of my most excellent host and the courteous
and graceful ladies of his family. Nearly fifty years before I had
been well acquainted with the Spanish peninsula--in the time of its
sufferings for fidelity, and its struggles for freedom, and I found
in Manila some of the veterans of the past, to whom the "Guerra de
Independencia" was of all topics the dearest; and it was pleasant to
compare the tablets of our various memories, as to persons, places
and events. Of the actors we had known in those interesting scenes,
scarcely any now remain--none, perhaps, of those who occupied the
highest position, and played the most prominent parts; but their
names still served as links to unite us in sympathizing thoughts and
feelings, and having had the advantage of an early acquaintance with
Spanish, all that I had forgotten was again remembered, and I found
myself nearly as much at home as in former times when wandering among
the mountains of Biscay, dancing on the banks of the Guadalquivir,
or turning over the dusty tomes at Alcalá de Henares. [3]
There was a village festival at Sampaloc (the Indian name for
tamarinds), to which we were invited. Bright illuminations adorned
the houses, triumphal arches the streets; everywhere music and gaiety
and bright faces. There were several balls at the houses of the more
opulent mestizos or Indians, and we joined the joyous assemblies. The
rooms were crowded with Indian youths and maidens. Parisian fashions
have not invaded these villages--there were no crinolines--these
are confined to the capital; but in their native garments there was
no small variety--the many-coloured gowns of home manufacture--the
richly embroidered kerchiefs of piña--earrings and necklaces, and
other adornings; and then a vivacity strongly contrasted with the
characteristic indolence of the Indian races. Tables were covered
with refreshments--coffee, tea, wines, fruits, cakes and sweetmeats;
and there seemed just as much of flirting and coquetry as ever marked
the scenes of higher civilization. To the Europeans great attentions
were paid, and their presence was deemed a great honour. Our young
midshipmen were among the busiest and liveliest of the throng,
and even made their way, without the aid of language, to the good
graces of the Zagalas. Sampaloc, inhabited principally by Indians
employed as washermen and women, is sometimes called the Pueblo de
los Lavanderos. The festivities continued to the matinal hours.
In 1855 the Captain-General (Crespo) caused sundry statistical returns
to be published, which throw much light upon the social condition
of the Philippine Islands, and afford such valuable materials for
comparison with the official data of other countries, that I shall
extract from them various results which appear worthy of attention.
The city of Manila contains 11 churches, with 3 convents, 363
private houses; and the other edifices, amounting in all to 88,
consist of public buildings and premises appropriated to various
objects. Of the private houses, 57 are occupied by their owners, and
189 are let to private tenants, while 117 are rented for corporate or
public purposes. The population of the city in 1855 was 8,618 souls,
as follows:--
---------------------+--------+----------+-------
---- | Males. | Females. | Total.
---------------------+--------+----------+-------
European Spaniards | 503 | 87 | 590
Native ditto | 575 | 798 | 1,373
Indians and Mestizos | 3,830 | 2,493 | 6,323
Chinese | 525 | 7[4] | 532
+--------+----------+-------
Total | 5,433 | 3,385 | 8,818
---------------------+--------+----------+-------
Far different are the proportions in another part of the capital,
the Binondo district, on the other side of the river:--
---------------------+--------+-----------+-------
---- | Males. | Females. | Total.
---------------------+--------+-----------+-------
European Spaniards | 67 | 52 | 219
Native ditto | 569 | 608 | 1,177
Foreigners | 85 | 11 | 96
Indians and Mestizos | 10,317 | 10,685 | 21,002
Chinese | 5,055 | 8[5] | 5,063
+--------+-----------+-------
Total | 16,193 | 11,364 | 27,557
---------------------+--------+-----------+-------
Of these, one male and two females (Indian) were more than 100
years old.
The proportion of births and deaths in Manila is thus given:--
----------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------
---- | Spaniards. | Natives. | Total.
----------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------
Births | 4·38 per ct. | 4·96 per ct. | 4·83 per ct.
Deaths | 1·68 ,, | 2·72 ,, | 2·48 ,,
+--------------+--------------+-------------
Excess of Births over | | |
Deaths | 2·70 per ct. | 2·24 per ct. | 2·35 per ct.
----------------------+--------------+--------------+-------------
In Binondo the returns are much less favourable:--
Births 5·12
Deaths 4·77
0·35
The statistical commissioners state these discrepancies to be
inexplicable; but attribute it in part to the stationary character
of the population of the city, and the many fluctuations which take
place in the commercial movements of Binondo.
Binondo is really the most important and most opulent pueblo of the
Philippines, and is the real commercial capital: two-thirds of the
houses are substantially built of stone, brick and tiles, and about
one-third are Indian wooden houses covered with the nipa palm. The
place is full of business and activity. An average was lately taken
of the carriages daily passing the principal thoroughfares. Over
the Puente Grande (great bridge) their number was 1,256; through
the largest square, Plaza de S. Gabriel, 979; and through the main
street, 915. On the Calzada, which is the great promenade of the
capital, 499 carriages were counted--these represent the aristocracy
of Manila. There are eight public bridges, and a suspension bridge
has lately been constructed as a private speculation, on which a fee
is levied for all passengers.
Binondo has some tolerably good wharfage on the bank of the Pasig,
and is well supplied with warehouses for foreign commerce. That
for the reception of tobacco is very extensive, and the size of the
edifice where the state cigars are manufactured may be judged of from
the fact that nine thousand females are therein habitually employed.
The Puente Grande (which unites Manila with Binondo) was originally
built of wood upon foundations of masonry, with seven arches of
different sizes, at various distances. Two of the arches were destroyed
by the earthquake of 1824, since which period it has been repaired
and restored. It is 457 feet in length and 24 feet in width. The
views on all sides from the bridge are fine, whether of the wharves,
warehouses, and busy population on the right bank of the river, or
the fortifications, churches, convents, and public walks on the left.
The population of Manila and its suburbs is about 150,000.
The tobacco manufactories of Manila, being the most remarkable of
the "public shows," have been frequently described. The chattering
and bustling of the thousands of women, which the constantly exerted
authority of the female superintendents wholly failed to control, would
have been distracting enough from the manipulation of the tobacco leaf,
even had their tongues been tied, but their tongues were not tied,
and they filled the place with noise. This was strangely contrasted
with the absolute silence which prevailed in the rooms solely occupied
by men. Most of the girls, whose numbers fluctuate from eight to ten
thousand, are unmarried, and many seemed to be only ten or eleven
years old. Some of them inhabit pueblos at a considerable distance
from Manila, and form quite a procession either in proceeding to or
returning from their employment. As we passed through the different
apartments specimens were given us of the results of their labours,
and on leaving the establishment beautiful bouquets of flowers were
placed in our hands. We were accompanied throughout by the superior
officers of the administration, explaining to us all the details with
the most perfect Castilian courtesy. Of the working people I do not
believe one in a hundred understood Spanish.
The river Pasig is the principal channel of communication with the
interior. It passes between the commercial districts and the fortress
of Manila. Its average breadth is about 350 feet, and it is navigable
for about ten miles, with various depths of from 3 to 25 feet. It is
crossed by three bridges, one of which is a suspension bridge. The
daily average movement of boats, barges, and rafts passing with
cargo under the principal bridge, was 277, escorted by 487 men and
121 women (not including passengers). The whole number of vessels
belonging to the Philippines was, in 1852 (the last return I possess),
4,053, representing 81,752 tons, and navigated by 30,485 seamen. Of
these, 1,532 vessels, of 74,148 tons, having 17,133 seamen, belong
to the province of Manila alone, representing three-eighths of the
ships, seven-eighths of the tonnage, and seventeen-thirtieths of the
mercantile marine. The value of the coasting trade in 1852 is stated to
have been about four and a-half millions of dollars, half this value
being in abacá (Manila hemp), sugar and rice being the next articles
in importance. The province of Albay, the most southern of Luzon,
is represented by the largest money value, being about one-fourth of
the whole. On an average of five years, from 1850 to 1854, the coasting
trade is stated to have been of the value of 4,156,459 dollars, but the
returns are very imperfect, and do not include all the provinces. The
statistical commission reports that on an examination of all the
documents and facts accessible to them, in 1855, the coasting trade
might be fairly estimated at 7,200,459 dollars.
At a distance of about three miles from Binondo, on the right bank
of the Pasig, is the country house of the captain-general, where he
is accustomed to pass some weeks of the most oppressive season of
the year: it has a nice garden, a convenient moveable bath, which
is lowered into the river, an aviary, and a small collection of
quadrupeds, among which I made acquaintance with a chimpanzee, who,
soon after, died of a pulmonary complaint.
CHAPTER II.
VISIT TO LA LAGUNA AND TAYABAS.
Having arranged for a visit to the Laguna and the surrounding
hills, whose beautiful scenery has given to the island of Luzon
a widely-spread celebrity, we started accompanied by the Alcalde
Mayor, De la Herran, Colonel Trasierra, an aide-de-camp of the
Governor, appointed to be my special guide and guardian, my kind
friend and gentlemanly companion Captain Vansittart, and some other
gentlemen. The inhabitants of the Laguna are called by the Indians of
Manila Tagasilañgan, or Orientals. As we reached the various villages,
the Principalia, or native authorities, came out to meet us, and
musical bands escorted us into and out of all the pueblos. We found
the Indian villages decorated with coloured flags and embroidered
kerchiefs, and the firing of guns announced our arrival. The roads
were prettily decorated with bamboos and flowers, and everything
proclaimed a hearty, however simple welcome. The thick and many-tinted
foliage of the mango--the tall bamboos shaking their feathery heads
aloft--the cocoa-nut loftier still--the areca and the nipa palms--the
plantains, whose huge green leaves give such richness to a tropical
landscape--the bread-fruit, the papaya, and the bright-coloured
wild-flowers, which stray at will over banks and branches--the
river every now and then visible, with its canoes and cottages,
and Indian men, women, and children scattered along its banks. Over
an excellent road, we passed through Santa Ana to Taguig, where a
bamboo bridge had been somewhat precipitately erected to facilitate
our passage over the stream: the first carriage got over in safety;
with the second the bridge broke down, and some delay was experienced
in repairing the disaster, and enabling the other carriages to come
forward. Taguig is a pretty village, with thermal baths, and about
4,000 inhabitants; its fish is said to be particularly fine. Near it
is Pateros, which no doubt takes its name from the enormous quantity
of artificially hatched ducks (patos) which are bred there, and which
are seen in incredible numbers on the banks of the river. They are
fed by small shell-fish found abundantly in the neighbouring lake,
and which are brought in boats to the paterias on the banks of the
Pasig. This duck-raising is called Itig by the Indians. Each pateria
is separated from its neighbour by a bamboo enclosure on the river,
and at sunset the ducks withdraw from the water to adjacent buildings,
where they deposit their eggs during the night, and in the morning
return in long procession to the river. The eggs being collected
are placed in large receptacles containing warm paddy husks, which
are kept at the same temperature; the whole is covered with cloth,
and they are removed by their owners as fast as they are hatched. We
saw hundreds of the ducklings running about in shallow bamboo baskets,
waiting to be transferred to the banks of the river. The friar at Pasig
came out from his convent to receive us. It is a populous pueblo,
containing more than 22,000 souls. There is a school for Indian
women. It has stone quarries worked for consumption in Manila, but
the stone is soft and brittle. The neighbourhood is adorned with
gardens. Our host the friar had prepared for us in the convent a
collation, which was served with much neatness and attention, and
with cordial hospitality. Having reached the limits of his alcadia,
the kind magistrate and his attendants left us, and we entered a
falua (felucca) provided for us by the Intendente de Marina, with
a goodly number of rowers, and furnished with a carpet, cushions,
curtains, and other comfortable appliances. In this we started for
the Laguna, heralded by a band of musicians. The rowers stand erect,
and at every stroke of the oar fling themselves back upon their seats;
they thus give a great impulse to the boat; the exertion appears very
laborious, yet their work was done with admirable good-humour, and
when they were drenched with rain there was not a murmur. In the lake
(which is called Bay) is an island, between which and the main land
is a deep and dangerous channel named Quinabatasan, through which
we passed. The stream rushes by with great rapidity, and vessels are
often lost in the passage. The banks are covered with fine fruit trees,
and the hills rise grandly on all sides. Our destination was Santa
Cruz, and long before we arrived a pilot boat had been despatched in
order to herald our coming. The sun had set, but we perceived, as we
approached, that the streets were illuminated, and we heard the wonted
Indian music in the distance. Reaching the river, we were conducted
to a gaily-lighted and decorated raft, which landed us,--and a suite
of carriages, in one of which was the Alcalde, who had come from his
Cabacera, or head quarters, to take charge of us,--conducted the party
to a handsome house belonging to an opulent Indian, where we found,
in the course of preparation, a very handsome dinner or supper,
and all the notables of the locality, the priest, as a matter of
course, among them, assembled to welcome the strangers. We passed
a theatre, which appeared hastily erected and grotesquely adorned,
where, as we were informed, it was intended to exhibit an Indian
play in the Tagál language, for our edification and amusement. I was
too unwell to attend, but I heard there was much talk on the stage
(unintelligible, of course, to our party), and brandishing of swords,
and frowns and fierce fighting, and genii hunting women into wild
forests, and kings and queens gaily dressed. The stage was open from
the street to the multitude, of whom many thousands were reported to
be present, showing great interest and excitement. I was told that
some of the actors had been imported from Manila. The hospitality
of our host was super-abundant, and his table crowded not only with
native but with many European luxuries. He was dressed as an Indian,
and exhibited his wardrobe with some pride. He himself served us
at his own table, and looked and moved about as if he were greatly
honoured by the service. His name, which I gratefully record, is
Valentin Valenzuela, and his brother has reached the distinction of
being an ordained priest.
Santa Cruz has a population of about 10,000 souls. Many of its
inhabitants are said to be opulent. The church is handsome; the
roads in the neighbourhood broad and in good repair. There is much
game in the adjacent forests, but there is not much devotion to
the chase. Almost every variety of tropical produce grows in the
vicinity. Wild honey is collected by the natives of the interior, and
stuffs of cotton and abacá are woven for domestic use. The house to
which we were invited was well furnished, but with the usual adornings
of saints' images and vessels for holy water. In the evening the Tagála
ladies of the town and neighbourhood were invited to a ball, and the
day was closed with the accustomed light-heartedness and festivity:
the bolero and the jota seemed the favourite attractions. Dance and
music are the Indians' delight, and very many of the evenings we passed
in the Philippines were devoted to these enjoyments. Next morning
the carriages of the Alcalde, drawn by the pretty little ponies of
Luzon, conducted us to the casa real at Pagsanjan, the seat of the
government, or Cabacera, of the province, where we met with the usual
warm reception from our escort Señor Tafalla, the Alcalde. Pagsanjan
has about 5,000 inhabitants, being less populous than Biñan and other
pueblos in the province. Hospitality was here, as everywhere, the order
of the day and of the night, all the more to be valued as there are no
inns out of the capital, and no places of reception for travellers;
but he who is recommended to the authorities and patronized by the
friars will find nothing wanting for his accommodation and comfort,
and will rather be surprised at the superfluities of good living than
struck with the absence of anything necessary. I have been sometimes
amazed when the stores of the convent furnished wines which had been
kept from twenty to twenty-five years; and to say that the cigars and
chocolate provided by the good friars would satisfy the most critical
of critics, is only to do justice to the gifts and the givers.
We made an excursion to the pretty village of Lumbang, having,
as customary, been escorted to the banks of the river, which forms
the limit of the pueblo, by the mounted principalia of Pagsanjan. The
current was strong, but a barge awaited us and conveyed us to the front
of the convent on the other side, where the principal ecclesiastic,
a friar, conducted us to the reception rooms. We walked through the
pueblo, whose inhabitants amount to 5,000 Indians, occupying one
long broad street, where many coloured handkerchiefs and garments
were hung out as flags from the windows, which were crowded with
spectators. We returned to the Cabacera, where we slept. Early in
the morning we took our departure from Pagsanjan.
We next advanced into the more elevated regions, growing more wild
and wonderful in their beauties. As we proceeded the roads became
worse and worse, and our horses had some difficulty in dragging the
carriages through the deep mud. We had often to ask for assistance
from the Indians to extricate us from the ruts, and they came to our
aid with patient and persevering cheerfulness. When the main road was
absolutely impassable, we deviated into the forest, and the Indians,
with large knives--their constant companions--chopped down the impeding
bushes and branches, and made for us a practicable way. After some
hours' journey we arrived at Majayjay, and between files of Indians,
with their flags and music, were escorted to the convent, whence the
good Franciscan friar Maximo Rico came to meet us, and led us up the
wide staircase to the vast apartments above. The pueblo has about
8,500 inhabitants; the climate is humid, and its effects are seen
in the magnificent vegetation which surrounds the place. The church
and convent are by far the most remarkable of its edifices. Here
we are surrounded by mountain scenery, and the forest trees present
beautiful and various pictures. In addition to leaves, flowers and
fruits of novel shapes and colours, the grotesque forms which the
trunks and branches of tropical trees assume, as if encouraged to
indulge in a thousand odd caprices, are among the characteristics
of these regions. The native population availed themselves of the
rude and rugged character of the region to offer a long resistance
to the Spaniards on their first invasion, and its traditional means
of defence were reported to be so great that the treasures of Manila
were ordered to be transported thither on the landing of the English
in 1762. Fortunately, say the Spanish historians, the arrangement
was not carried out, as the English had taken their measures for the
seizure of the spoils, and it was found the locality could not have
been defended against them.
We were now about to ascend the mountains, and were obliged to abandon
our carriages. Palanquins, in which we had to stretch ourselves at
full length, borne each by eight bearers, and relays of an equal
number, were provided for our accommodation. The Alcalde of the
adjacent province of Tayabas had come down to Majayjay to invite us
into his district, where, he said, the people were on the tiptoe of
expectation, had made arrangements for our reception, and would be
sadly disappointed if we failed to visit Lucban. We could not resist
the kind urgency of his representations, and deposited ourselves
in the palanquins, which had been got ready for us, and were indeed
well rewarded. The paths through the mountains are such as have been
made by the torrents, and are frequently almost impassable from
the masses of rock brought down by the rushing waters. Sometimes
we had to turn back from the selected road, and choose another less
impracticable. In some places the mud was so deep that our bearers
were immersed far above their knees, and nothing but long practice
and the assistance of their companions could have enabled them to
extricate themselves or us from so disagreeable a condition. But
cheerfulness and buoyancy of spirits, exclamations of encouragement,
loud laughter, and a general and brotherly co-operation surmounted
every difficulty. Around us all was solitude, all silence, but the
hum of the bees and the shrieks of the birds; deep ravines below,
covered with forest trees, which no axe of the woodman would ever
disturb; heights above still more difficult to explore, crowned with
arboreous glories; brooks and rivulets noisily descending to larger
streams, and then making their quiet way to the ocean receptacle. At
last we reached a plain on the top of a mountain, where two grandly
adorned litters, with a great number of bearers, were waiting, and we
were welcomed by a gathering of graceful young women, all on ponies,
which they managed with admirable agility. They were clad in the gayest
dresses. The Alcalde called them his Amazonas; and a pretty spokeswoman
informed us, in very pure Castilian, that they were come to escort us
to Lucban, which was about a league distant. The welcome was as novel
as it was unexpected. I observed the Tagálas mounted indifferently
on the off or near side of their horses. Excellent equestrians were
they; and they galloped and caracolled to the right and the left, and
flirted with their embellished whips. A band of music headed us; and
the Indian houses which we passed bore the accustomed demonstrations
of welcome. The roads had even a greater number of decorations--arches
of ornamented bamboos on both sides of the way, and firing of guns
announcing our approach. The Amazonas wore bonnets adorned with ribands
and flowers,--all had kerchiefs of embroidered piña on their shoulders,
and variously coloured skirts and gowns of native manufacture added
to the picturesque effect. So they gambolled along--before, behind,
or at our sides where the roads permitted it--and seemed quite at ease
in all their movements. The convent was, as usual, our destination; the
presiding friar--quite a man of the world--cordial, amusing, even witty
in his colloquies. He had most hospitably provided for our advent. All
the principal people were invited to dinner. Many a joke went round,
to which the friar contributed more than his share. Talking of the
fair (if Indian girls can be so called), Captain Vansittart said he
had thirty unmarried officers on board the Magicienne.
"A bargain," exclaimed the friar; "send them hither,--I will find
pretty wives for all of them."
"But you must convert them first."
"Ay! that is my part of the bargain."
"And you will get the marriage fees."
"Do you think I forgot that?"
After dinner, or supper, as it was called, the Amazonas who had
escorted us in the morning, accompanied by many more, were introduced;
the tables were cleared away; and when I left the hall for my bedroom,
the dancing was going on in full energy.
Newspapers and books were lying about the rooms of the convent. The
friar had more curiosity than most of his order: conversation with
him was not without interest and instruction.
We returned by a different road to Majayjay, for the purpose of
visiting a splendid waterfall, where the descent of the river is
reported to be 300 feet. We approached on a ledge of rock as near as
we could to the cataract, the roar of which was awful; but the quantity
of mist and steam, which soon soaked our garments, obscured the vision
and made it impossible for us to form any estimate of the depth of
the fall. It is surrounded by characteristic scenery--mountains and
woods--which we had no time to explore, and of which the natives
could give us only an imperfect account: they knew there were deer,
wild boars, buffaloes, and other game, but none had penetrated the
wilder regions. A traveller now and then had scrambled over the rocks
from the foot to the top of the waterfall
We returned to Majayjay again to be welcomed and entertained by our
hosts at the convent with the wonted hospitality; and taking leave
of our Alcalde, we proceeded to Santa Cruz, where, embarking in our
felucca, we coasted along the lake and landed at Calamba, a pueblo of
about 4,000 inhabitants; carriages were waiting to convey us to Biñan,
stopping a short time at Santa Rosa, where the Dominican friars, who
are the proprietors of large estates in the neighbourhood, invited us
as usual to their convent. We tarried there but a short time. The roads
are generally good on the borders of the Laguna, and we reached Biñan
before sunset, the Indians having in the main street formed themselves
in procession as we passed along. Flags, branches of flowering forest
trees, and other devices, were displayed. First we passed between files
of youths, then of maidens; and through a triumphal arch we reached
the handsome dwelling of a rich mestizo, whom we found decorated with
a Spanish order, which had been granted to his father before him. He
spoke English, having been educated at Calcutta, and his house--a very
large one--gave abundant evidence that he had not studied in vain the
arts of domestic civilization. The furniture, the beds, the tables,
the cookery, were all in good taste, and the obvious sincerity of
the kind reception added to its agreeableness. Great crowds were
gathered together in the square which fronts the house of Don José
Alberto. Indians brought their game-cocks to be admired, but we did
not encourage the display of their warlike virtues. There was much
firing of guns, and a pyrotechnic display when the sun had gone down,
and a large fire balloon, bearing the inscription, "The people of
Biñan to their illustrious visitors," was successfully inflated, and
soaring aloft, was lost sight of in the distance, but was expected to
tell the tale of our arrival to the Magicienne in Manila Bay. Biñan
is a place of some importance. In it many rich mestizos and Indians
dwell. It has more than 10,000 inhabitants. Large estates there are
possessed by the Dominican friars, and the principal of them was
among our earliest visitors. There, as elsewhere, the principalia,
having conducted us to our head-quarters, came in a body to present
their respects, the gobernadorcillo, who usually speaks Spanish, being
the organ of the rest. Inquiries about the locality, thanks for the
honours done us, were the commonplaces of our intercourse, but the
natives were always pleased when "the strangers from afar" seemed to
take an interest in their concerns. Nowhere did we see any marks of
poverty; nowhere was there any crowding, or rudeness, or annoyance, in
any shape. Actors and spectators seemed equally pleased; in fact, our
presence only gave them another holiday, making but a small addition
to their regular and appointed festivals. Biñan is divided by a river,
and is about a mile from the Laguna. Its streets are of considerable
width, and the neighbouring roads excellent. Generally the houses have
gardens attached to them; some on a large scale. They are abundant
in fruits of great variety. Rice is largely cultivated, as the river
with its confluents affords ample means of irrigation. The lands are
usually rented from the Dominicans, and the large extent of some of
the properties assists economical cultivation. Until the lands are
brought into productiveness, little rent is demanded, and when they
become productive the friars have the reputation of being liberal
landlords and allowing their tenants to reap large profits. It is said
they are satisfied with one-tenth of the gross produce. A tenant is
seldom disturbed in possession if his rent be regularly paid. Much
land is held by associations or companies known by the title of
Casamahanes. There is an active trade between Biñan and Manila.
Greatly gratified with all we had seen, we again embarked and crossed
the Laguna to Pasig. Descending by that charming river, we reached
Manila in the afternoon.
CHAPTER III.
HISTORY.
A few sketches of the personal history of some of the captains-general
of Manila will be an apt illustration of the general character of the
government, which, with some remarkable exceptions, appears to have
been of a mild and paternal character; while the Indians exhibit,
when not severely dealt with, much meekness and docility, and a
generally willing obedience. The subjugation of the wild tribes of
the interior has not made the progress which might have been fairly
looked for; but the military and naval forces at the disposal of the
captain-general have always been small when the extent of his authority
is considered. In fact, many conquests have had to be abandoned from
inadequacy of strength to maintain them. The ecclesiastical influences,
which have been established among the idolatrous tribes, are weak when
they come in contact with any of the forms of Mahomedanism, as in the
island of Mindanao, where the fanaticism of Mussulman faith is quite
as strong as that among the Catholics themselves. Misunderstandings
between the Church and State could hardly be avoided where each has
asserted a predominant power, and such misunderstandings have often
led to the effusion of blood and the dislocation of government. Mutual
jealousies exist to the present hour, and as the friars, in what
they deem the interests of the people, are sometimes hostile to the
views of the civil authority, that authority has frequently a right
to complain of being thwarted, or feebly aided, by the local clergy.
While shortly recording the names of the captains-general to whom
the government of the Philippines has been confided, I will select
a few episodes from the history of the islands, which will show the
character of the administration, and assist the better understanding
of the position of the people.
Miguel Lope de Legaspi, a Biscayan, upon whom the title of Conqueror
of the Philippines has been conferred, was the first governor, and
was nominated in 1565. He took possession of Manila in 1571, and died,
it is said, of disgust and disappointment the following year. The city
was invaded by Chinese pirates during the government of his successor
Guido de Lavezares, who repulsed them, and received high honours from
his sovereign, Philip II. Francisco de Saude founded in Camarines the
city of Nueva Caceres, to which he gave the name of the place of his
birth. He was a man of great ambition, who deposed one and enthroned
another sultan of Borneo, and modestly asked from the king of Spain
authority to conquer China, but was recommended to be less ambitious,
and to keep peace with surrounding nations. Rinquillo de Peñarosa
rescued Cagayan from a Japanese pirate, and founded New Segovia and
Arévalo in Panay; his nephew succeeded him, and in doing honour to
his memory set the Church of St. Augustin on fire; it spread to the
city, of which a large part was destroyed. In 1589, during the rule of
Santiago de Vera, the only two ships which carried on the trade with
New Spain were destroyed by a hurricane in the port of Cavite. The
next governor, Gomez Perez Dasmariñas, sent to Japan the missionaries
who were afterwards put to death; he headed an expedition to Moluco,
but on leaving the port of Mariveles his galley was separated from the
rest of the fleet; the Chinese crew rose, murdered him, and fled in
his vessel to Cochin China. His son Luis followed him as governor. A
Franciscan friar, who had accompanied the unfortunate expedition of
his father, informed him that he would find, as he did, his patent of
appointment in a box which the Chinese had landed in the province of
Ilocos, and his title was in consequence recognised. Francisco Tello
de Guzman, who entered upon the government in 1596, was unfortunate
in his attempts to subdue the natives of Mindanao, as was one of his
captains, who had been sent to drive away the Dutch from Mariveles.
In the year 1603 three mandarins arrived in Manila from China. They
said that a Chinaman, whom they brought as a prisoner, had assured the
Emperor that the island of Cavite was of gold, that the Chinaman had
staked his life upon his veracity, and that they had come to learn the
truth of his story. They soon after left, having been conducted by the
governor to examine Cavite for themselves. A report speedily spread
that an invasion of the Philippines by a Chinese army of 100,000 was
in contemplation, and a Chinese called Eng Kang, who was supposed to
be a great friend of the Europeans, was charged with a portion of the
defences. A number of Japanese, the avowed enemies of the Chinese,
were admitted to the confidence of the governor, and communicated to
the Chinese the information that the government suspected a plot. A
plot there was, and it was said the Chinese determined on a rising,
and a general massacre of the Spaniards on the vespers of St. Francis'
day. A Philippine woman, who was living with a Chinaman, denounced the
project to the curate of Quiapo, who advised the governor. A number
of the conspirators were assembled at a half-league's distance from
Manila, and Eng Kang was sent with some Spaniards to put down the
movement. The attempt failed, and Eng Kang was afterwards discovered to
have been one of the principal promoters of the insurrection. In the
evening the Chinese attacked Quiapo and Tondo, murdering many of the
natives. They were met by a body of 130 Spaniards, nearly all of whom
perished, and their heads were sent to Parian, which the insurgents
captured, and besieged the city of Manila from Dilao. The danger led
to great exertions on the part of the Spaniards, the ecclesiastics
taking a very active part. The Chinese endeavoured to scale the walls,
but were repulsed. The monks declared that St. Francis had appeared in
person to encourage them. The Chinese withdrew to their positions, but
the Spaniards sallied out from the citadel, burnt and destroyed Parian,
and pursued the flying Chinese to Cabuyao. New reinforcements arrived,
and the flight of the Chinese continued as far as the province of
Batangas, where they were again attacked and dispersed. It is said that
of 24,000 revolted Chinese only one hundred escaped, who were reserved
for the galleys. About 2,000 Chinese were left, who had not involved
themselves in the movement. Eng Kang was decapitated, and his head
exposed in an iron cage. It was three years after this insurrection
that the Court of Madrid had the first knowledge of its existence.
Pedro de Acuña, after the suppression of this revolt, conquered
Ternate, and carried away the king, but died suddenly, in 1606,
after governing four years. Cristobal Tellez, during his short rule,
destroyed a settlement of the Japanese in Dilao. Juan de Silva brought
with him, in 1609, reinforcements of European troops, and in the
seventh year of his government, made great preparations for attacking
the Dutch, but died after a short illness. In 1618, Alonzo Fajardo came
to the Philippines, with conciliatory orders as regarded the natives,
and was popular among them. He punished a revolt in Buhol, sent an
unsuccessful mission to Japan, and in a fit of jealousy killed his
wife. Suspecting her infidelity, he surprised her at night in a house,
where she had been accustomed to give rendezvous to her paramour, and
found her in a dress which left no doubt of her crime. The governor
called in a priest, commanded him to administer the sacrament, and,
spite of the prayers of the ecclesiastic, he put her to death by a stab
from his own dagger. This was in 1622. Melancholy took possession of
him, and he died in 1624. Two interim governors followed. Juan Niño
de Tabera arrived in 1626. He brought with him 600 troops, drove the
Dutch from their holds, and sent Olaso, a soldier, celebrated for his
deeds in Flanders, against the Jolo Indians; but Olaso failed utterly,
and returned to Manila upon his discomfiture.
A strange event took place in 1630. The holy sacrament had been stolen
in a glass vase, from the cathedral. A general supplication (rogativa)
was ordered; the archbishop issued from his palace barefooted, his
head covered with ashes, and a rope round his neck, wandering about
to discover where the vase was concealed. All attempts having failed,
so heavy were the penitences, and so intolerable the grief of the holy
man, that he sank under the calamity, and a fierce contest between
the ecclesiastical and civil functionaries was the consequence of
his death.
In 1635 there was a large arrival of rich converted Japanese,
who fled from the fierce persecutions to which the Christians had
been subjected in Japan; but a great many Catholic missionaries
hastened to that country, in order to be honoured with the crown of
martyrdom. Another remarkable ecclesiastical quarrel took place at this
time. A commissary, lately arrived from Europe, ordered that all the
friars with beards should be charged with the missions to China and
Japan; and all the shorn friars should remain in the Philippines. The
archbishop opposed this, as the Pope's bulls had no regulations about
beards. Fierce debates were also excited by the exercise of the right
of asylum to criminals, having committed offences, either against the
military or the civil authority. The archbishop excommunicated--the
commandant of artillery rebelled. The archbishop fined him--the
vicar apostolic confirmed the sentence. The Audiencia annulled the
proceedings--the Bishop of Camarines was called on as the arbiter,
and absolved the commandant. Appeals followed, and one of the parties
was accused of slandering the Most Holy Father. The Jesuits took part
against the archbishop, who called all the monks together, and they
fined the Jesuits 4,000 dollars. The governor defended the Jesuits,
and required the revocation of the sentence in six hours. The quarrel
did not end here: but there was a final compromise, each party making
some concessions to the other.
The disasters which followed the insurrection of Eng Kang did not
prevent the influx of Chinese into the islands, and especially
into the province of Laguna, where another outbreak, in which it
is said 30,000 Chinese took part, occurred in 1639. They divided
themselves into guerrillas, who devastated the country; but were
subdued in the following year, seven thousand having surrendered at
discretion. Spanish historians say that the hatred of the Indians to
the Chinese awaked them from their habitual apathy, and that in the
destruction of the intruders they exhibited infinite zeal and activity.
In the struggles between the natives and the Spaniards, even the
missionaries were not always safe, and the Spaniards were often
betrayed by those in whom they placed the greatest confidence. The
heavy exactions and gabelles inflicted on the Indians under Fajardo
led to a rising in Palopag, when the Jesuit curate was killed and the
convent and church sacked. The movement spread through several of the
islands, and many of the prisoners were delivered in Caraga to the
keeping of an Indian, called Dabao, who so well fulfilled his mission,
that when the governor came to the fortress, to claim the captives,
Dabao seized and beheaded his Excellency, and, with the aid of the
prisoners, destroyed most of the Spaniards in the neighbourhood,
including the priests; so that only six, among whom was an Augustine
barefooted friar, escaped, and fled to the capital. Reinforcements
having arrived from Manila, the Indians surrendered, being promised
a general pardon. "The promise," says the Spanish historian, "was not
kept; but the leaders of the insurrection were hanged, and multitudes
of the Indians sent to prison." The governor-general "did not approve
of this violation of a promise made in the king's name," but ordered
the punishment of the Spanish chiefs, and the release of such natives
as remained in prison.
In 1645, for two months there was a succession of fearful
earthquakes. In Cagayan a mountain was overturned, and a whole town
engulfed at its foot. Torrents of water and mud burst forth in many
places. All the public buildings in the capital were destroyed,
except the convent and the church of the Augustines, and that of the
Jesuits. Six hundred persons were buried in Manila under the ruins of
their houses, and 3,000 altogether are said to have lost their lives.
De Lara was distinguished for his religious sentiments. On his arrival
in 1653 he refused to land till the archbishop had preceded him
and consecrated the ground on which he was to tread. He celebrated a
jubilee under the authority of the Pope, by which the country was to be
purified from "the crimes, censures, and excommunications" with which,
for so many years, it had been afflicted. The archbishop, from an
elevated platform in Manila, blessed the islands and their inhabitants
in the presence of an immense concourse of people. Reconciliations,
confessions, restitutions followed these "days of sanctity;" but
the benedictions seem to have produced little benefit, as they
were followed by earthquakes, tempests, insurrections, unpunished
piracies, and, in the words of a Spanish writer, "a web of anxieties
and calamities." Missionaries were sent to convert the Mahomedans,
but they were put to death, and many professed converts turned
traitors. Kung Sing, the piratical chief, who had conquered Formosa,
and who had 1,000 junks and 100,000 men under his orders, had sent
an envoy to Manila demanding the subjection of the islands to his
authority or threatening immediate invasion. The threat created a
general alarm: the Chinese were all ordered to quit the country;
they revolted, and almost all were murdered. "It is wonderful," says
De Mas, "that any Chinamen should have come to the Philippines after
the repeated slaughters" of their countrymen at different periods,
though it is certain they have often brought down the thunderbolt
on their own heads. De Lara, having been accused of corruption,
was fined 60,000 dollars, pardoned, and returned to Spain, where he
became an ecclesiastic, and died in Malaga, his native city.
The "religiosity," to use a Spanish word, of De Lara was followed
by a very different temper in his successor, Salcedo, a Belgian
by birth, nominated in 1663. He quarrelled with the priests, fined
and condemned to banishment the archbishop, kept him standing while
waiting for an audience, insulted him when he had obtained it; and on
the death of the archbishop a few months afterwards, there were royal
fiestas, while the services De Profundis, in honour of the dead, were
prohibited as incompatible with the civil festivities. The Inquisition
interfered in the progress of time, and its agents, assisted by an
old woman servant, who held the keys, entered the palace, found the
Governor asleep, put irons upon him, and carried him a prisoner to the
Augustine convent. They next shipped him off to be tried by the Holy
Office in Mexico, but he died on his way thither. The King of Spain
cancelled and condemned the proceedings, confiscated the property of
those who had been concerned in them, and directed all that had been
seized belonging to Salcedo to be restored to his heirs.
Manuel de Leon, in 1669, obtained great reputation among the
ecclesiastics. He governed for eight years and left all his property
to obras pias. His predecessor, Manuel de la Peña Bonifaz (nominated
provisionally), had refused to surrender his authority. He was declared
an intruder, his goods were confiscated, and his arrest was ordered,
but he sought refuge in the convent of the Recoletos, where he died. A
quarrel took place between the competitors for the provisional
government--the one appointed enjoyed his authority only for six
months. He was, on his death, succeeded by his competitor, who was
displaced by Juan de Vargas Hurtado in 1678. Great misunderstandings
between the clergy and the civilians took place about this time. The
governor was excommunicated, having been ordered on every holiday to
appear in the cathedral and in the churches of Parcan and Binondo,
barefooted and with a rope round his neck. Refusing to submit to such a
degradation, he lived a solitary life, excluded from all intercourse,
on the banks of the river, until he obtained permission to embark
for New Spain; he died broken-hearted on the voyage.
It must be remembered, in looking over the ancient records of the
Philippines, that the sole historians are the monks, and that their
applause or condemnation can hardly be deemed a disinterested
or equitable judgment. Hurtado is accused by them of many acts
of despotism: they say that, in order to accomplish his objects,
he menaced the friars with starvation, and by guards, prevented
food reaching the convents; that he interfered with the election of
ecclesiastics, persecuted and ordered the imprisonment of Bonifaz, his
immediate predecessor (provisionally appointed), who fled to a convent
of Recoletos (barefooted Augustines), and was protected by them. The
Jesuits denied his claim to protection, but during the controversy
Bonifaz died, and the records remain to exhibit another specimen of
the bitterness of the odium theologicum and of the unity and harmony
of which the Church of Rome sometimes boasts as the results of her
infallibility. The archbishop was at this time quarrelling with the
civil tribunals, to which he addressed his mandamus, and answered
their recalcitrancy by reminding them that all secular authority
was subordinate to ecclesiastical. The archbishop was placed under
arrest and ordered to be banished by the Audiencia. He was conveyed by
force in his pontifical robes to the vessel which transported him to
Pangasinan. The Dominicans, to whose order the archbishop belonged,
launched their excommunications and censures, and troops were sent
to the convent to prevent the ringing of bells and the alarm and
gathering of the people. The provincial, who had taken the active
part in resistance, was, with other friars, ordered to be banished
to Spain. When about to be removed, the dean commanded the soldiers
present to kiss the provincial's feet and do him all honour while he
poured out his benedictions on the recalcitrant friars. In the midst
of all this confusion a new governor (Curuzcalegui) arrived, in 1684,
who took part with the clergy, and declared himself in favour of the
banished archbishop, and condemned his judges to banishment. One of
them fled to the Jesuit's College, a sanctuary, but was seized by
the troops. This by no means settled the quarrel, the following out
of which is too complicated and too uninteresting to invite further
scrutiny here.
In 1687 the King of Spain sent out a commissioner to inquire into the
troubles that reigned in the Philippines. The Pope had taken up the
cause of the more violent of the clergy, and Pardo (the archbishop),
thus encouraged in his intemperance, declared the churches of the
Jesuits desecrated in which the bodies of the civilians had been
buried, who had adjudicated against the monks. Their remains were
disinterred, but most of the judges who had defended the rights of
the State against the ecclesiastical invasions were dead before
the commissioner arrived; and, happily for the public peace, the
turbulent prelate himself died in 1689. Curuzcalegui also died in
1689. After a short provisional interregnum (during which Valenzuela,
the Spanish minister, who had been banished to the Philippines by
Charles II., on his return homeward, was killed by the kick of a
horse in Mexico), Fausto Cruzat y Gongora, was in 1690 invested
with the government. His rule is most remarkable for its financial
prosperity. It lasted for eleven years, for his successor, Domingo
de Zubalburo, though nominated in 1694, did not arrive till 1701. He
improved the harbour, but was dismissed by the King of Spain in
consequence of his having admitted a Papal Legate à latere without
requiring the presentation of his credentials. The Audiencia demanded
them, and the Legate replied he was surprised at their venturing to
question his powers. He frightened the people by this assumption,
and proceeded to found a college in the name of St. Clement. The
king was so exasperated that he ordered the college to be demolished,
fined the Oidores (judges) a thousand dollars, and removed the dean
from his office. Martin de Ursua y Arrimendi arrived in 1709, and died
much regretted in 1715; he checked the influx of the Chinese, and thus
conciliated popular prejudices. The interim governor, Jose Torralba,
was accused of peculation to the amount of 700,000 dollars. He was
called on by royal order to reimburse and find security for 40,000
dollars; but failing was sent to prison in fetters. He was ordered
afterwards to be sent to Spain, but agreed to pay 120,000 dollars. He
had not the money, and died a beggar. Fernando Bustillo (Bustamente)
landed in 1717. He spent large sums in useless embassies, and lived
ostentatiously and expensively. He set about financial reforms, and
imprisoned many persons indebted to the State. He seized some of the
principal inhabitants of the capital, menaced the judges, who fled to
the convents for protection. The governor took Torralba into favour,
releasing him from prison, and using him to undermine the authority
of the Audiencia, by investing him with its powers. He ordered that
on the discharge of a piece of artillery, all the Spaniards should
repair to the palace: he arrested the archbishop, the chapter of the
cathedral, several prelates and ecclesiastics, when a tumult followed;
crowds rushed to the palace; they killed the governor and his son, who
had hurried thither to defend his father. Francisco de la Cuesta was
called upon to take charge of the government. The remaining children
of Bustillo were sent to Mexico, and the Audiencia made a report of
what had taken place to the king, who appointed Toribio José Cosio
y Campo, and directed the punishment of those who had caused the
former governor's death; but under the influence of a Franciscan monk,
Cosio was induced to consent to various delays, so that nothing was
done in the matter, and the government in 1729 was transferred to
Fernando Valdes y Tamon, who reformed the military exercises, sent
an expedition to conquer the island of Palaos, failed in the attempt,
and was succeeded by a Fleming, Gaspar de la Torre, in 1739. He dealt
so severely with the fiscal Arroyo as to cause his death. He was
disliked, became morose and solitary, and died in 1745. The bishop
elect of Ilocos, father John Arrechedera, was the next governor,
and the Sultan of Jolo, who desired to be baptized, visited him in
Manila. The archbishop, to whom the matter was referred, declared
that the Sultan had been received into the bosom of the Church by the
Dominican friars of Panogui. The Marquis of Obando took possession of
the government in 1750. The archbishop, whom he displaced, had received
orders from the Spanish Cabinet to expel the Chinese from the islands;
but whether from the honest conviction that the execution of the order
would be pernicious to the permanent interests of the Philippines--in
which judgment he was perfectly right--or (as the natives avow) from
an unwarrantable affection for the Chinese, he, on various pretexts,
delayed the publication of the royal mandate. Obando involved himself
in quarrels with the Mussulman inhabitants of Mindanao, for which he
had made no adequate preparation. He determined to restore the Sultan
of Jolo, but on reaching Zamboanga he proceeded against the Sultan
for unfaithfulness (infidencia), sent him to Manila, and caused him
to be put into prison. The Mahomedans revolted. Obando desired to
take the command against them. The Audiencia objected to the exposure
of the person of the governor. The expedition failed, and disorders
increased. He left the government in a most unsatisfactory state,
and died on his way homewards. Pedro Manuel de Arandia assumed the
government in 1754. He had some successes against the Mahomedans
(or Moors, as they are generally called by Spanish writers). He
intended to restore the Sultan of Jolo, but he involved himself in
quarrels with the clergy, and his proceedings were disapproved by
the Spanish Court. His unpopularity led to a fixed melancholy, under
whose influences he died in 1759. Though he left his property for
charitable purposes, the fact of its amounting to 250,000 dollars is
urged as evidence of the corrupt character of his administration. The
Bishop of Zebu, followed by the Archbishop of Manila, Manuel Royo,
held the government provisionally on the death of Arandia. It was Royo
who surrendered Manila, and transferred the island to the British
in 1762. [6] He was made a prisoner, and died in prison in 1764,
of grief and shame it was said. Simon de Anda y Salazar, one of the
judges of the Royal Audiencia, was charged with the government during
the possession of the capital by the English, and established his
authority in Pampanga, where he maintained himself till the arrival of
Francisco de la Torre, who was provisionally appointed by the Crown,
and who, through Anda, received back Manila from the British. José
Raon took possession of the government in 1766.
The Sultan of Jolo, replaced on his throne by the English, caused
great molestations to the island of Mindanao, against Raon, who
was unable to protect his countrymen. The expulsion of the Jesuits
having been determined on, the secret purpose was communicated to
the Governor. He was accused of having divulged, and of concealing a
writing-desk supposed to contain important documents. He was ordered
to be imprisoned in his own house, where he died.
One of the monkish historians gives the following account of the
manner in which the rebellious Indians were disposed of:--"Arza, with
the efficacious aid of the Augustin fathers, and of the faithful (who
were many), went to Vigan, and repeated what he had done in Cagallan;
for he hanged more than a hundred, and among them Doña Gabriela,
the wife of Silang, a mestiza of malas mañas (bad tricks), not less
valiant than her husband, the notary, and a great many cabecillas
(heads of groups of families), who fled to the mountains of Alva; as
to the rest of the rabble of this revolted crew, he was satisfied with
giving them each two hundred lashes, while exposed on the pillory. He
sent 3,000 Ilocos triumphant and rich with booty to Pangasinan. This
was in 1763." [7]
After the capture of Manila by the British, they were naturally
suspected and accused of fomenting and encouraging the many
insurrections which followed that event. The impetuous and despotic
character of Anda, who assumed the governorship of the islands, had
made him many enemies, and he seems to have considered all opposition
to his arbitrary measures as evidence of treacherous confederation
with the English. No doubt their presence was welcomed, especially by
the Mussulman population of the southern islands, as affording them
some hopes of relief from Spanish oppression; but even the Philippine
historians do justice to the British authorities, and state that they
punished the piratical acts of their allies, without distinction of
persons. The Spaniards, however, encouraged Tenteng, a Mahomedan dato
(chieftain), to attack the British, whose garrison, in Balambangan,
was reduced by sickness from 400 men to seventy-five infantry and
twenty-eight artillery. But it was, says De Mas, "solely in expectation
of booty." From the woods in the night they stole down on the English
while they were asleep, set fire to the houses, and murdered all
but six of the garrison, who escaped in a boat with the English
commandant; they then hoisted the white flag, and did not spare the
life of a single Englishman left on shore. The Mahomedans seized much
spoil in arms and money. The Sultan of Jolo and the datos, fearing the
vengeance of the English, disclaimed all participation in the affair;
but on Tenteng's reaching Jolo, and delivering up his plunder to the
authorities, they, "thinking there were now arms and money enough to
resist both Spaniards and English," declared Tenteng to be a hero,
and well deserving of his country. A few months afterwards, a British
ship of war appeared, and obtained such reparation as the case allowed.
Anda had won so much credit for resisting the English, that he
was rewarded by his sovereign with many honours, made Councillor of
Castile, and returned as governor to Manila, in 1770. He imprisoned his
predecessor, many of the judges, the government secretary, a colonel,
and other persons. He sent some to Spain, and banished others from the
capital. He involved himself in ecclesiastical quarrels, met with many
vexations, and retired to the estate of the Recoleto friars, where
he died in 1766. De Mas says, in reference to this period:--"For
more than two centuries, the Philippines had been for the crown
of Spain a hotbed of so many disputes, anxieties, and expenses,
that the abandonment of the colony was again and again proposed by
the ministers; but the Catholic monarchs could never consent to the
perdition of all the souls that had been conquered, and which it was
still hoped to conquer, in these regions." After a short interregnum
temporarily filled by Pedro Sarrio, José Basco arrived in 1778. He
established the tobacco monopoly, sent off to Europe three judges,
and compelled other functionaries to quit the capital, but, after two
years' occupation of the gubernatorial seat, he returned to Spain,
and obtained other employment from the crown. Pedro Sarrio was again
invested with the temporary authority. Felix Berenguer de Marquina
arrived in 1788, and ruled six years. He was accused of corruption, but
absolved by the king. Rafael Maria de Aguilar was nominated in 1793.
In 1800 the governor-general having consulted the assessor on
the conduct to be observed towards the Mussulman pirates who had
entered the port of Manila, received a reply which is somewhat
grandiloquent:--"It is time all the royal wishes should be fulfilled,
and that these islands cease to be tributaries to a vile and
despicable Mahomedan. Let him feel the direful visitations of a
nation, whose reputation has been so often offended and outraged,
but which has tolerated and concealed its wrongs the better to
inflict its vengeance; let the crown be cleansed from the tarnish,
which in this port, and in the sight of so many European nations,
it has received from the low rabble (canalla). The repeated disasters
of the Indians appear to have rendered Spaniards insensible; yet is
there a man who, having witnessed the desolation, murders, ruin of
families, has not his soul moved with a desire of revenge against
the desolator and destroyer? Were they our wives, sons, fathers,
brothers, with what clamour should we call on the authorities to
punish the criminal, and to restore our freedom.... Justice, pity,
the obligation of your consciences, upon which the royal conscience
reposes, all plead together.... Eternal memory for him who shall
release us from the yoke which has oppressed us for ages!"
A treaty was concluded between the government of Manila and the Sultan
of Mindanao in 1805. The Sultan's minister of state was a Mexican
deserter; the ambassador of the Spaniards a Mexican convict. He was,
in truth, hardly dealt with, for, after making the treaty, he was
ordered to fulfil the term of his transportation.
In 1811, a conspiracy broke out in Ilocos, where a new god was
proclaimed by the Indians, under the name of Lungao. There was a
hierarchy of priests appointed in his honour. They made their first
attempts to convert the idolaters in Cagayan, and to engage them to
take part against the Spaniards. The Catholic missionaries were the
special object of their dislike, but the information which these
ecclesiastics gave to the authorities enabled them to suppress the
rebellion and to punish the leaders.
The cholera invaded Manila in 1819. A massacre of foreigners and
Chinese was the consequence, who were accused (especially the English)
of poisoning the wells. Robberies and other excesses followed the
murders. The Host was paraded in vain through the streets. The carnage
ceased when no more victims were to be found, but Spanish persons
and property were respected.
Under the government of Martinez, in 1823, a rising took, place,
headed by Novales, a Manilaman in the Spanish service. As many as 800
of the troops joined the movement. They took possession of the palace,
murdered the king's lieutenant, and, according to all appearances,
would have overthrown the government, had there been any organization
or unity of purpose. But a few courageous men gathered around them
numbers faithful to the king and the royalist party. Soldiers arrived;
the insurgents faltered; the inconstant people began to distrust
the revolutionary leaders, and Novales was left with one piece of
artillery, and about 300 to 400 followers. Overpowered, he fled, but
was compelled to surrender. He was brought to a drumhead court-martial,
declared he had no accomplices, but was the sole seducer of the troops,
and was shot with one of his sergeants the same day. Amnesty was
proclaimed, after twenty non-commissioned officers had been executed.
A serious insurrection broke out in Tayabas during the short rule of
Oraa (1841-43). The Spaniards say it was the work of a Tagál called
Apolinano, lay-brother of the convent of Lucban, not twenty years
old, who established a brotherhood (Cofradia) exclusively confined
to the native Indians. The object does not seem to have been known,
but the meetings of the Cofrades excited alarms and suspicions. The
archbishop called on the captain-general to put down the assemblies,
which in some places had sought legalization from the authorities. The
arrest of Apolinano was ordered, upon which he fled to the mountains,
where he was joined by 3,000 Indians, and it was reported in Manila
that he had raised the cry of rebellion in Igsavan. On this the Alcalde
mayor, accompanied by two Franciscan friars, a few troops, and two
small pieces of artillery, marched upon the denounced rebels. They
fired upon the Spaniards and killed the Alcalde. On the news reaching
the capital, a force of about 800 men was collected. It is said the
positions held by Apolinano were impregnable, but he had not kept the
promises he had made to the Indians, that sundry miracles were to be
wrought in their favour. Only a few advanced to meet the Spaniards,
and many of these were killed and the rest took to flight. Almost
without loss on their own side, the Spaniards left above 240 Indians
dead on the field, and shot 200 whom they made prisoners. Apolinano,
in endeavouring to cross a river, was seized by two of his own people,
bound, and delivered over to the authorities. He was accused of
aspiring to be King of the Tagálos. He averred that the objects of
his Cofradia were purely and simply religious. He was shot on the 4th
of November, 1841. De Mas says he knew him, and that he was a quiet,
sober, unobtrusive young man, exhibiting nothing of the hero or the
adventurer. He performed menial services at the convent of Lucban;
and as far as I can discover, the main ground of suspicion was, that
he admitted no Spaniards or Mestizos into his religious fraternity;
but that so many lives should have been sacrificed to a mere suspicion
is a sad story.'
Between 1806 and 1844 no less than fourteen governors followed
one another. Among them Narciso Claveria (1844-49) is entitled
to notice. He added the island of Balanguingui to the Spanish
possessions. One of his declarations obtained for him great
applause--that "he had left Spain torn by civil dissensions, but that
he should make no distinctions between his countrymen on the ground of
political differences, but forget all title except that of Español y
Caballero (Spaniard and gentleman)." Since that time Ramon Montero has
been their Governor ad interim, viz., in 1853, 1854, and 1856. The
Marquis of Novaliches took possession of the government in 1854,
but held it only for about eight months. Don Manuel Crespo arrived
in November, 1854, and the present Governor-General, Don Fernando de
Norzagaray, on the 9th of March, 1857.
It is worthy of note that during the period in which there have been
seventy-eight governors, there have been only twenty-two archbishops;
the average period of the civil holding being four years--that of
the ecclesiastical, eleven and a-half years.
CHAPTER IV.
GEOGRAPHY--CLIMATE, ETC.
The generally accepted theory as to the formation of the Philippines
is, that they all formed part of a vast primitive continent, which was
broken up by some great convulsion of nature, and that these islands
are the scattered fragments of that continent. Buzeta supposes that
from Luzon the other islands were detached. [8]
The Indians have a tradition that the earth was borne on the shoulders
of a giant, who, getting tired of his heavy burden, tumbled it into
the ocean, leaving nothing above the waters but the mountains, which
became islands for the salvation of the human race.
I do not propose to give a detailed geographical description of
the Philippine Islands. Buzeta's two octavo volumes will furnish
the most accurate particulars with which I am acquainted as to the
various localities. The facts which I collected in the course of my
personal observation refer specially to the islands of Luzon, Panay,
and Mindanao. The more general information has been derived from
Spanish authorities on the spot, or has been found in Spanish books
which I have consulted. I cannot presume to consider the present
volume as complete or exhaustive, but it will contribute something
to augment that knowledge which is already possessed.
The extent of the Philippine Archipelago is about 300 leagues from
north to south, and 180 leagues from east to west. The islands of
which it is composed are innumerable, most of the larger ones having
some Spanish or mestizo population. A range of irregular mountains
runs through the centre of the whole. Those known by the name of the
Caraballos, in Luzon, are occupied by unsubdued races of idolatrous
Indians, and extend for nearly sixty leagues. Several large rivers
have their sources in the Caraballos. At the top of Mount Cabunian,
whose ascent is very difficult, there is a tomb worshipped by the
pagan Igorrotes. There are large lakes in several of the islands, and
during the rainy season some of them become enormously extended. These
inundations are naturally favourable to the vegetable productions by
fertilizing vast tracts of land. Mindanao, which means "Men of the
lake," has its Indian name from the abundance of its inward waters,
in the same way that La Laguna has been adopted by the Spaniards as
the designation of the province bordering on the Lake of Bay. In this
latter district are many mineral and thermal springs, which have given
to one of its pueblos the name of Los Baños (the baths). One of them
issues from the source at a temperature of 67° of Reaumur. They are
much visited by the inhabitants of Manila. There are boiling springs
in the pueblo of Mainit.
The climate of the Philippines is little distinguished from that
which characterizes many other tropical regions of the East. It is
described in a Spanish proverb as--
Seis meses de polvo,
Seis meses de lodo,
Seis meses de todo.
"Six months of dust, six months of mud, six months of
everything;"--though it may generally be stated that the rainy season
lasts one half, and the dry season the other half of the year. There
are, however, as the distich says, many months of uncertainty, in which
humidity invades the ordinary time of drought, and drought that of
humidity. But from June to November the country is inundated, the roads
are for the most part impassable, and travelling in the interior is
difficult and disagreeable. Even in the month of December, in several
districts of Luzon, we found, as before mentioned, places in which
carriages are necessarily abandoned, the palanquin bearers being up
to their thighs in mud; and other places in which we were compelled
to open a new way through the woods. The heat is too oppressive to
allow much active exertion in the middle of the day, and the siesta is
generally resorted to from 1 to 3 o'clock P.M., before and after which
time visits are paid and business transacted. The pleasant evening
time is, however, that of social enjoyment, and the principal people
have their tertulias, to which guests are welcomed from half-past 8
o'clock to about 11 o'clock P.M.
The variations of the thermometer rarely exceed 10° of Reaumur, the
maximum heat being from 28° to 29°, the minimum 18° to 19°. Winter
garments are scarcely ever required.
The difference between the longest and shortest day is 1h. 47m. 12s. On
the 20th June, in Manila, the sun rises at 5h. 33m. 12s., and sets
at 6h. 26m. 48s.; on the 20th December, it rises at 6h. 26m. 48s.,
and sets at 5h. 33m. 12s.
The minimum fall of rain in Manila is 84 inches, the maximum
114. Hailstorms are rare. There is no mountain sufficiently high to be
"snow-capped;" the highest, Banaho, is between 6,000 and 7,000 feet
above the level of the sea.
Like other tropical climates, the Philippines are visited by
the usual calamities gathered by the wild elements round that
line which is deemed the girdle of the world. Violent hurricanes
produce fearful devastations; typhoons cover the coasts with wrecks;
inundations of rivers and excessive rains destroy the earth's produce,
while long-continued droughts are equally fatal to the labours and
the hopes of husbandry. Earthquakes shake the land, overturn the
strongest edifices and sport destructively with the power of man;
volcanic mountains inundate the earth with their torrents of burning
lava. Clouds of locusts sometimes devour all that is green upon the
surface of the ground; and epidemic diseases carry away multitudes
of the human race. The ravages caused by accidental fires are often
most calamitous, as the greater part of the houses are constructed of
inflammable materials. When such a disaster occurs, it spreads with
wonderful rapidity, and, there being no adequate means of extinction,
a whole population is often rendered houseless.
During the change of the monsoons especially, the storms are often
terrific, accompanied by very violent rains, fierce lightning and
loud thunder. If in the night, the darkness thickens. Many lose their
lives by lightning strokes, and houses are frequently carried away
by the vehemence of the torrents.
Bagyo is the Indian name for hurricane. These violent outbreaks
are generally announced in the morning by a light smoky mist which
appears on the mountains; it gathers, and darkens, and thickens into
heavy clouds, and before day closes breaks out with its fearful and
destroying violence, raging from an hour and a half to two hours. M. de
Gentil says that in the torrid zone the clouds which bring the most
destructive tornadoes are at an elevation not exceeding 400 toises
of perpendicular height.
The largest of the volcanoes is that of Mayon in Luzon. It is in the
shape of a sugar-loaf, perfectly conical. Its base covers several
leagues in the provinces of Albay and Camarines, and it is one of
the most prominent objects and landmarks visible from the sea;
there is a constant smoke, sometimes accompanied by flames; its
subterranean sounds are often heard at a distance of many leagues. The
country in the neighbourhood is covered with sand and stone, which on
different occasions have been vomited forth from the crater. There is
a description by the Alcalde of an eruption in 1767, which lasted ten
days, during which a cone of flame, whose base was about forty feet
in diameter, ascended, and a river of lava was poured out for two
months, 120 feet in breadth. Great ruin was caused to the adjacent
villages. The lava torrent was followed about a month afterwards by
enormous outpourings of water, which either greatly widened the beds
of the existing rivers, or formed new channels in their rush towards
the sea. The town of Malinao was wholly destroyed, and a third part
of that of Casana. Many other villages suffered; forests were buried
in sand; which also overwhelmed houses and human beings. The ravages
extended over a space of six leagues.
From an eruption at Buhayan, sixty leagues from Zamboanga, in the
island of Mindanao, in 1640, large masses of stone were flung to
a distance of two leagues. The ashes fell in the Moluccas and in
Borneo. Dense darkness covered Zamboanga. Ships at sea lighted their
lamps at 8 A.M., but the light could not be seen through the clouds
of sand. The mountain whence the explosion originated disappeared,
and a lake was formed and still remains in the locality as a record of
the agitation. The waters of the lake were long white with ashes. The
noise of the eruption was heard in Manila.
About twenty leagues from Manila is the province of Batanga. In one
of the bays is an island called by the natives Binintiang Malagui,
remarkable for its beauty, for the variety of its vegetation, and
the number of animals which inhabit it. The eastern part of the
island is a mountain, whose extinct volcano is seen in the form of
a truncated cone of enormous extent, surrounded by desolation. The
flanks of the mountain have been torn by vast channels, down which the
lava-streams must have flowed. The sides are covered with ferruginous
and sulphurous pyrites and scoriæ, which make the ascent difficult. It
is most accessible on the southern side, by which we reach the mouth
of the crater, whose circumference exceeds three miles, and whose
deep and wild recesses exhibit astounding evidences of the throes
and agitations which in former times must have shaken and convulsed
this portion of the earth. A Spanish writer says it looked "like an
execrable blasphemy launched by Satan against God." There are still
some signs of its past history in the smoke which rises from the abyss;
but what characterizes the spot is the contrast between the gigantic
wrecks and ruins of nature on one side, and the extreme loveliness
and rich variety of other parts of the landscape. Descending into
the crater by the help of cords round the body, a grand platform is
reached at the depth of about 600 feet, in which are four smaller
craters, one constantly and the others occasionally emitting a white
smoke, but they cannot be approached on account of the softness and
heat of the soil. To the east is a lake from which a stream runs
round the craters over beds of sulphur, which assume the colour of
emeralds. Formerly this lake was in a state of boiling ebullition,
but is now scarcely above the natural temperature; it blackens silver
immediately. Frequent earthquakes change the character of the crater
and its neighbourhood, and every new detailed description differs from
that which preceded it. The Indians have magnificent notions of the
mineral riches buried in the bosom of the mountain, the sulphur mines
of which were advantageously worked a few years ago, when a well-known
naturalist (Lopez, now dead) offered to the Spanish government large
sums for the monopoly of the right of mining the district of Taal.
On the 21st of September, 1716, sounds like those of heavy
artillery proceeded from the Taal volcano, and the mountain seemed
to be in a state of ignition over a space of three leagues towards
Macolot. Gigantic towers of boiling water and ashes were thrown up,
the earth shook on all sides, the waters of the lake were agitated
and overran its banks: this lasted for three days. The water was
blackened, and its sulphurous smell infested the whole district. In
1754 a yet more violent eruption, lasting eight days, took place,
with terrible explosions, heavings of the earth, darkness, and such
clouds of dust and ashes that all the roofs of the houses at Manila,
at a distance of twenty leagues, were covered. Great masses of stones,
fire and smoke were thrown from the mountain. The lake boiled in
bubbles. Streams of bitumen and sulphur ran over the district of
Bong-bong. The alligators, sharks, tunnies, and all the large fish,
were destroyed in the river and flung upon the banks, impregnating
the air with stench. It is said that subterranean and atmospheric
thunders were heard at a distance of 300 leagues from the volcano,
and that the winds carried the ashes to incredible distances. In
Panay there was midday darkness. Many pueblos were wholly destroyed;
among them Sala, Janavan, Lipa, and Taal: others bearing the same
names have been since founded at a greater distance from the mountain.
Lopez gives a description of his descent into the crater. He employed
100 men for eight days to make a slope for his going down. He says
the crater is oval, two miles in diameter; that the lake within the
crater is surrounded by level and solid ground; that there was a deep
chasm which had been recently ignited: there was sulphur enough to load
many ships. He saw a cube of porphyry 20 to 25 feet square. The crater
wall is perpendicular on all sides; that on the north 1,200 feet high,
the lowest exceeding 900 feet. He says he believes the south sides to
be of porphyry. At night, midway of the descent, he saw "thousands of
millions" of jets, whose gas immediately inflamed on coming in contact
with the atmosphere, and he heard many small detonations. The waters
of the lake were impregnated with sulphuric acid, and 12 lbs. of the
water, when distilled, left a mineral residuum weighing 2 1/2 lbs.
There are many remarkable caves in the Philippines. I translate
a description of one in the province of Tondo. Two stony mountains
unite, and on their skirt is the road towards a branch of the main
river. On the left is a cave whose entrance fronts the south. The
mouth is almost covered with tangling vegetation, but it is arched,
and, being all of marble, is, particularly in the sunshine, strikingly
beautiful. You enter by a high, smooth, natural wall like the façade
of a church, over which is a cavity roofed as a chapel. The interior
pathway is flat, about four yards in breadth and six in height, though
in some places it is much loftier. The roof presents a multitude of
graceful figures, resembling pendent pineapples, which are formed
by the constant filtration and petrifaction of the water. Some
are nearly two yards in length, and seem sculptured into regular
grooves; others are in the shape of pyramids whose bases are against
the roof. Arches, which may be passed both from above and below,
are among these wonderful works. Not far from the door is a natural
staircase, mounting which you enter a large chamber, on whose right
hand is another road, which, being followed, conducts to a second
staircase, which opens on the principal communication. Suspended
on one wing are immense numbers of bats, who occupy the recesses of
the ceiling. Though there is mud in some of the paths, the ground is
generally of stone, which, on being struck, gives a hollow sound as if
there were passages below. Penetrating the cave for above 200 yards,
a loud noise is perceived coming from a clear bright river, by the
side of which the cave is continued under a semicircular roof. The
great cave has many smaller vaults and projections of a grotesque and
Gothic character. The course of the stream is from the north-west to
the south-east.
The destructive ravages and changes produced by earthquakes are
nowhere more remarkable than in the Philippines. They have overturned
mountains, they have filled up valleys, they have desolated extensive
plains; they have opened passages for the sea into the interior,
and from the lakes into the sea There are many traditional stories
of these territorial revolutions, but of late disasters the records
are trustworthy. That of 1796 was sadly calamitous. In 1824 many
churches in Manila were destroyed, together with the principal bridge,
the barracks, great numbers of private houses; and a chasm opened of
nearly four miles in length. The inhabitants all fled into the fields,
and the six vessels in the port were wrecked. The number of victims was
never ascertained. In 1828, during another earthquake, the vibration of
the lamps was found to describe an arch of four and a half feet; the
huge corner-stones of the principal gate of the city were displaced;
the great bells were set ringing. It lasted between two and three
minutes, rent the walls of several churches and other buildings,
but was not accompanied by subterranean noises, as is usually the case.
There are too few occasions on which scientific observations have been
made on the subject of earthquakes, which take men by surprise and
ordinarily create so much alarm as to prevent accurate and authentic
details. A gentleman who had established various pendulums in Manila
for the purpose of measuring the inclination of the angles and the
course of the agitation, states that, in the slight earthquakes
of 20th and 23rd June, 1857, the thermometer being at 88°, the
direction of the first shock was from N.N.E. to S.S.E., the duration
14 seconds, and the oscillation of the pendulum 1 1/2 degrees; time,
2h. 0m. 40s. P.M.: 20th June. Second shock from N.E. to S.W.; duration,
26 seconds; oscillation of pendulum, 2 degrees; time, 2h. 47m. P.M.:
20th June. Third shock S.W. to N.; duration of the shock, 15 seconds;
greatest oscillation, 6 degrees, but slight movements continued
for a minute, and the oscillations were observed from 2 degrees to
three-quarters of a degree; time, 5 P.M.: 23rd June.
Earthquakes have produced great changes in the geography of the
Philippines. In that of 1627, one of the most elevated of the mountains
of Cagayan disappeared. In 1675, in the island of Mindanao, a passage
was opened to the sea, and a vast plain was emerged. Successive
earthquakes have brought upon Luzon a series of calamities.
Endemic diseases are rare in the Philippines. Intermittent fevers
and chronic dysentery are among the most dangerous disorders. There
have been two invasions of cholera, in 1820 and 1842. Elephantiasis,
leprosy, and St. Anthony's fire are the scourges of the Indians; and
the wilder races of the interior suffer from a variety of cutaneous
complaints. The biri biri is common and fatal. Venereal diseases are
widely spread, but easily cured. Among the Indians, vegetables alone
are used as medicaments. Chinese quack-doctors have much influence. In
the removal of some of the tropical pests, no European can compete
with the natives. They cure the itch with great dexterity, and are
said to have remedies for pulmonary phthisis. Their plasters are very
efficacious in external applications. They never employ the lancet
or the leech. Surgical science is, of course, unknown.
There have been generally in the Philippines a few successful medical
practitioners from Europe. Foreigners are allowed to exercise their
profession, having previously obtained the authority of the Spanish
Government; but the natives seldom look beyond their own simple mode
of dealing with the common diseases of the islands; and in those
parts where there is little or no Spanish population, no one is to
be found to whom a surgical operation could safely be intrusted. The
vegetable world furnishes a great variety of medicinal herbs, which
the instinct or the experience of the Indian has turned to account,
and which are, probably, on the whole, as efficacious as the more
potent mineral remedies employed by European science. Quinine, opium,
mercury, and arsenic, are the wonder-workers in the field of Oriental
disease, and their early and proper application generally arrests
the progress of malady.
I found practising in the island of Panay Dr. Lefevre, whom I had
known in Egypt more than twenty years before, and who was one of the
courageous men who boldly grappled with the current superstitions
respecting the contagious character of the Oriental plague, and the
delusions as to the efficacy of quarantine regulations, so really
useless, costly, and vexatious. He placed in my hand some observations
which he had published at Bombay in 1840, where vessels from the Red
Sea were subjected to sanatory visitations. He asserts that plague is
only generated at particular seasons, in certain definable conditions
of the atmosphere, and when miasma is created by the decomposition of
decaying matter; that endemic plague is unknown in countries where
proper attention is paid to hygienic precautions; that severe cold
or intense heat equally arrests the progress of the plague; that the
epoch of its ravages is always one when damp and exposed animal and
vegetable substances emit the greatest amount of noxious gases; and
that plague has never been known to originate or to spread where the
air is in a state of purity. I was glad to rediscuss the matter with
him after so long an added experience, and to find he had been more
and more confirmed in his former conclusions by prolonged residence
in the tropics, where endemic and epidemic diseases partake of the
pestilential character, though they do not assume the forms, of the
Levant plague. Dr. Lefevre affirms that quarantines have done nothing
whatever to lessen the dangers or check the ravages of the plague,
but much to encourage its propagation. He complains of the deafness and
incredulity of those whom the examination of a "thousand indisputable
facts" will not convince, and he thus concludes:--"If I had not with
peculiar attention studied the plague in the midst of an epidemic,
and without any more precautions than if the danger was nothing--if,
subsequent to the terrible visitation of 1835 in Egypt, I had not
been frequently a witness to the scourge--if, finally, since that
epoch I had not given myself up, with all the warmth of passion,
to the constant study of this malady, to the perusal of histories
of the plagues which have ravaged the world, and to the examination
of all sorts of objections--I should not have dared to emit such a
decided opinion--an opinion respecting the soundness of which I do
not entertain the slightest doubt."
One cannot but be struck, in reference to the geographical character
of these islands, with the awful serenity and magnificent beauty of
their primeval forests, so seldom penetrated, and in their recesses
hitherto inaccessible to the foot of man. There is nothing to disturb
their silence but the hum of insects, the song of birds, the noises
of wild animals, the rustling of the leaves, or the fall of decayed
branches. It seems as if vegetation revelled in undisturbed and
uncontrolled luxuriance. Creeping plants wander from tree to tree;
lovely orchids hang themselves from trunks and boughs. One asks, why
is so much sweetness, so much glory, wasted? But is it wasted? To the
Creator the contemplation of his works, even where unmarked by human
eye, must be complacent; and these half-concealed, half-developed
treasures, are but reserved storehouses for man to explore; they will
furnish supplies to awaken the curiosity and gratify the inquiry
of successive ages. Rove where he may--explore as he will--tax his
intellect with research, his imagination with inventions--there is,
there will be, an infinite field around and above him, inexhaustible
through countless generations.
CHAPTER V.
GOVERNMENT--ADMINISTRATION, ETC.
The Administration of the Philippine Archipelago has for its head
and chief a captain and governor-general, who resides in Manila, the
capital of the islands, and who is not permitted to quit them without
the authority of the sovereign of Spain. Next to the government of
Cuba, it is the most important and the most lucrative post at the
disposal of the Cabinet of Madrid, and has unfortunately been generally
one of the prizes wrested from the unsuccessful, and seized by the
predominant, political party. It was rather a melancholy employment
for me to look over the collection of portraits of captains-general,
and many vacant frames waiting for future occupants, which ornament the
walls of the handsome apartments in which I dwelt at the palace. Since
1835 there have been five provisional and eleven formal appointments to
the governor-generalship. Some of these only held their authority for
a few months, being superseded by ministerial changes at Madrid. Of
other high functionaries, I observe that there have been only two
archbishops since 1830, while it is understood that the service of
heads of departments is assured for ten years. To the public interests
the mischiefs which are the results of so uncertain a hold of the
supreme authority are incalculable. The frequent and sudden removals
and nominations are, indeed, little consistent with the principles
of monarchical and hereditary government, however accordant with the
republican institutions of the Western world; and among the causes
of the slow development of the immense resources of these beautiful
islands, the fluctuation of the superintending rule is assuredly one
of the most prominent.
The titles of the captain-general occupy a page, and embrace the
usual attributes of government, with the exception of authority over
the fleet, which is subject to the Ministry of Marine in Spain, and
a somewhat limited jurisdiction in ecclesiastical matters, which is a
consequence of the exclusive establishment of the Roman Catholic faith.
The lieutenant-governor, who takes the place of the captain-general
in case of his death, is called the Segundo Cabo, or second head.
The Philippine Islands are divided into provinces, subject either to
politico-military governors or alcaldes mayores, who are generally
civilians.
When the government is military, an assistant lieutenant-governor, who
must have graduated as a lawyer, exercises the preliminary jurisdiction
(de primera instancia), but the alcaldes hold that jurisdiction in
their own persons. Both dispose in their provinces of the military
authority, and have the controlling direction of the collection
of the revenues, under responsibility to the General Administrator
of Tributes.
The provinces are divided into pueblos (towns or villages), over
each of which a native Indian or mestizo, called a gobernadorcillo
(diminutive of governor) is placed. He is assisted in the discharge
of his functions by native lieutenants and alguacils, whose number
depends upon the extent of the population. This body, which, when
gathered together, is called the principalia of the pueblo, settles
all minor matters of police and civil questions between the natives
as to rights of persons and property. In districts where the Chinese
or their descendants are sufficiently numerous (they are known by the
name of Sangleyes), they are allowed, under special authority of the
government, to select principalia from their own body, independently
of Indian jurisdiction. These principalia are really popularly chosen
municipalities, and they are specially charged to assist the clergy
in all matters connected with public worship and ecclesiastical
authority. They determine questions up to the amount of two taels of
gold, or forty-four silver dollars. They collect evidence in criminal
cases, which is submitted to the provincial chief; they assist in
the collection of the royal revenues, circulate the ordinances of
the government among the people, and are authorized to levy a small
but defined contribution in support of their dignity.
Besides these, there are in every pueblo certain functionaries who are
called Cabezas (heads) de Barangay. A barangay is a collection of the
chiefs of families, or persons paying tribute, generally amounting
to forty or fifty. They are under the special charge of the cabeza,
who must dwell among them, and, under bond, collect the tribute
due to the State. He is required to settle misunderstandings and to
maintain peace and order, to apportion the various charges among the
members of the barangay, and to collect the taxes for payment to the
gobernadorcillo, or to the functionary appointed for the purpose. The
cabezas are also considered the procuradores, or law advisers, of
these little communities.
In ancient times there is little doubt that the office was
hereditary; and there are yet localities where the hereditary right is
maintained; but it is generally elective: and when a vacancy occurs,
the gobernadorcillo in council, with the other cabezas, presents a
name for the approval of the superior authority, and the same steps
are taken when the increase of population requires a new cabeza to be
nominated. The cabezas, their wives and first-born, who are required to
assist in the collection of the tribute, are exempted from its payment.
In some provinces the cabezas are only chosen for three years;
after which they form part of the principalia, and take the title
of Don. I remember, in one locality, that the principalia who came
to pay their respects consisted of more than seventy persons. The
government complains of the number who, under this state of things,
are exempted from taxation, and I understand some measures are in
contemplation for limiting the extent of the privileges.
The elections of the gobernadorcillo are annual, and take place on
the 1st of April. An extraordinary excitement generally prevails,
the post (a really important, popular, and influential one) being
an object of much ambition. Three names are selected, one of whom
must have already served as gobernadorcillo, for submission to the
superior authority, on or before the 15th of May, and the chosen
gobernadorcillo enters on his functions on the 1st of June. There is,
however, some alteration of dates, where, as in the tobacco districts,
the period of election interferes with harvest time.
The head of the province ordinarily presides over the elections, to
which the principal ecclesiastic is also invited. In case of their
absence, any native-born Spaniard may be nominated by the principal
authority to preside.
There are thirteen electors for each pueblo--the gobernadorcillo and
twelve inhabitants--half of whom must have been gobernadorcillos
or cabezas, and the other half be in the actual exercise of those
functions; they must also have some well-recognized means of existence:
domestic servants to the authorities are excluded; as also those who
have been punished as criminals.
It is further required that the gobernadorcillo be a native
Indian or mestizo, an inhabitant of the locality where he serves,
and above twenty-five years old; having passed the subordinate
offices of lieutenant or cabeza, having his accounts in order,
holding no land from the community, and no monopoly (estanco)
from the government. Similar recommendations are insisted on
for the first lieutenant and the principal (native) magistrates
appointed for the settlement of questions regarding seed-sowing,
police, and cattle. These magistrates must have enjoyed the rank
of gobernadorcillo. As regards the minor officers of justice and
their attendants, a list is to be made out by the gobernadorcillo
before quitting office, which is to be presented to the authority
presiding over the elections, and having heard the clergyman (cura)
and the committee of election, the president approves the list for
transmission to the supreme authority; but if he finds discordance
and irreconcilable opinions between the parties before him, he is
authorized himself to recommend the officers for nomination.
All the proceedings are the subjects of record, and to be signed by
the president, the curate (if present), the electors, and the public
notary, and to be remitted to the supreme authority, except in the
provinces adjacent to the capital. The president may attach to the
record any observations of his own connected with the returns. A
decree of 1850 required the general adoption of the system which has
been described, and which appears to me well worthy of note, showing
how many valuable elements of good government are to be found in the
popular institutions of the Philippine Indians.
The Chinese of the capital may elect Christian converts of their
own body, under the presidency of the alcalde mayor of Manila,
to the offices of gobernadorcillo, first lieutenant, and principal
alguacil (bailiff). The dependent subordinate officers of justice
are called bilangos, and are appointed by the gobernadorcillo on his
election. The recovery of the tribute or taxes from the Chinese is
not left to their principalia, but is effected by the alcalde mayor
or superior chief. An officer is appointed to classify the Chinese,
and apportion the quota of their contributions according to the wealth
of the payer, who is charged for what is called a patente industrial.
The gobernadorcillos and officers of justice are entitled to sit
in the presence of the provincial chiefs, who are to require the
parochial clergy to treat them with due honour and regard.
M. Mallat, whose Geographical History of the Philippines was published
in 1846, remarks that, of all colonies founded by Europeans, these
regions are perhaps the least known, and the most worthy of being
known. The number of islands which compose the archipelago,--their
vast extent and boundless variety,--the teeming population of many of
them,--the character of the climate,--the wonderful fertility of the
soil,--the inexhaustible riches of hill, valley, and plain,--all offer
to cultivation and its civilizing influences abundant rewards. But as
regards the "industrious habits" of the natives, I cannot place that
consideration, as M. Mallat does, among the elements of hope. It is
the want of these "industrious habits," among four or five millions
of inhabitants, which has left the Philippines in a position so
little advanced.
Java under the government of the Dutch, and Cuba subjected to the
Spanish rule, present, no doubt, far more favourable pictures than
do the Philippines; but many of the difficulties which surround the
captain-general of Manila,--difficulties both religious and social,--do
not embarrass the governor of Batavia; the island of Java, the most
productive of Netherlands India, being peculiarly free from these
difficulties; and it cannot be said that Sumatra and Borneo are even
on a level with the more advanced of the Philippine Islands.
To the character of the original conquest and of the earlier government
of the Philippines may be traced many of the impediments which now
stand in the way of improvement. In America and the West Indies all
the brutality of military conquerors was exhibited, and the possession
and plunder of new territories were encouraged by the Spanish court,
and were the main object of the Spanish invader. But far different
was the policy adopted in the Philippines, where only a small body of
soldiers was accompanied by zealous missionaries, whose purpose was
rather to convert and christianize the Indians than to pillage and
destroy them. These friars gradually obtained a paramount influence
over the Indians. The interests of trade have ever been the predominant
consideration among Dutch colonizers, and among British adventurers
the commercial element has always been intimately associated with
the desire for territorial occupation. To the Spaniards it must be
conceded that the religious purpose--be its value what it may--has
never been abandoned or forgotten. Ecclesiastical jurisdiction and
authority are interwoven in the Philippines with the machinery of
government and the daily concerns of life.
And such ecclesiastical action has been comparatively little interfered
with in the Philippines. The development which mental emancipation
has given to many Protestant countries and their dependencies has
reached few Catholic colonies; nor is that emancipation, indeed,
consistent with the more rigid discipline and doctrines of Rome. But
in the case of the most prosperous instances of colonization by the
British, the native races have either wholly disappeared or are in
progress of extinction, while the infusion of Spanish and foreign
blood into the colonies of Spain has not only allowed the increase
of the indigenous population, but has been insufficient to change
or do more than slightly modify their national characters. It has
undoubtedly been the boast of the Catholics that Francis de Xavier
and his followers won more for the Roman Church in the East than
Luther or Calvin ever tore away from it in the West; but the value
of the conquests, contrasted with that of the losses and sacrifices,
if fairly estimated, would hardly be deemed unsatisfactory to the
Protestant cause.
No doubt the great remoteness of the Philippines from Europe, the
difficulties and infrequency of communication, gave to the local
authorities more of independent action than would otherwise have
been allowed to them; and in case of the death of the governor,
the archbishop was generally the functionary who filled his place;
his adjacency to the government, and frequent direction of it,
naturally led to the strengthening of his own authority and that of
all ecclesiastics dependent upon him.
In the earlier periods of Eastern colonization, too, the Portuguese,
jealous of all European intercourse but their own with nations east
of the Cape, did all in their power to prevent any other than the
Lusitanian flag from being seen in Oriental waters. But as regards
missionary objects their views were to some extent concurrent with
those of the Spanish priests, and their proceedings were in harmony
with those of the Spaniards, especially in so far as both received
their direction from the Pontiff at Rome. It ought not, however, to be
forgotten that whatever may have been the progress of Christianity in
the Philippines, the persecutions, disasters, discomfiture, and death
of so many professing Christians in Japan, are probably attributable
to the ill-guided zeal of the Portuguese preachers of the Gospel in
these still remoter regions. It is well for the interests of truth, as
most assuredly it is for the interests of commerce and civilization,
that a more temperate and tolerant spirit has for the last century
been associated with the progress of European influence in the East.
The comparatively small number of Spanish settlers in the Philippines
would not allow them, even if such had been their purpose, which
it does not appear to have been, unnecessarily to interfere with
the usages of the Indians, or their forms of administration and
government, except in so far as their conversion to Christianity
compelled the observance of the Christian rites; and the friars
willingly accommodated their action to the social habits of the people,
respecting, as to this hour are respected, most of the patriarchal
forms of administration and government which had existed among them
from immemorial time.
There have been speculations--and M. Mallat is among the sanguine
anticipators of such an advent--that in process of time the Philippines
may become the dominant political power of the Eastern world,
subjecting to its paramount influence the Netherlands Archipelago,
the Pacific, Australia, and even China and Japan, and that Manila is
destined to be the great emporium for the eastern and south-eastern
world. M. Mallat even goes further, and says: "Manila might easily
become the centre of the exports and imports of the entire globe." It
must be contented with a less brilliant futurity. Certainly its
commercial relations might be greatly extended, and the Spanish
archipelago be much elevated in value and in influence; but in the
vast development of commercial relations in the Oriental world, the
Philippines must be contented with a moderate though a considerable
share of benefit, even under the best administration and the adoption
of the wisest policy.
Tropical regions fail to attract permanent settlers from the West. The
foreign merchant comes to realize what he deems an adequate fortune,
and to withdraw; the superior public functionary is among, or above,
but never of, the people. What must be looked to is the popular
element. Of what are the millions composed, and how can the millions
be turned to account? There is no reason to apprehend that these
millions will aspire to political power or sovereignty. Their pristine
habits would permit of no general organization. The various races and
clans would never unite in a national object, or recognize one native
chief. All that is found of order and government among them is local;
except through and for their masters, the different islands have little
or no intercourse with one another. The Tagál and the Bisayan have
no common sympathies. Dissatisfaction might produce disorder, which,
if not controlled, would lead to anarchy, but not to good government.
The Philippines are free from the curse of slavery. Time will settle
the controversy as to whether the labour of the freeman can, in
the long run, be brought into competition with that of the slave,
especially in the tropics; but that the great tide of tendency
flows towards the abolition of slavery, that civilizing opinion
and enlightened Christian legislation must sweep the ignominy away,
is a conviction which possesses the minds of all who see "progress"
in the world.
As it is, the Philippines have made, and continue to make, large
contributions to the mother country, generally in excess of the
stipulated amount which is called the situado. Spain, in her extreme
embarrassment, has frequently called on the Philippines to come to
her aid, and it is to the credit of the successive governors-general
that, whatever may have been the financial disorders at home,
the dependants upon the Manila treasury have had little motive for
complaint, and while the Peninsula was engaged in perilous struggles
for her independence, and even her existence as a nation, the public
tranquillity of her island colonies was, on the whole, satisfactorily
maintained, and interruptions to the ordinary march of affairs of
short endurance.
There would seem to be no legislation defining the powers of the
viceroy, or captain-general; but whenever any important matter is
under discussion, it is found that reference must be made to Madrid,
and that the supreme rule of this vast archipelago is in the leading
strings of the Spanish Cabinet, impotent to correct any great abuses,
or to introduce any important reforms. The captain-general should
be invested with a large amount of power, subject, of course, to a
personal responsibility as to its becoming exercise. As he must, if
properly selected, know more, being present, than strangers who are
absent, his government should be trusted on account of that superior
knowledge. Well does the Castilian proverb say, "Mas sabe el loco en
su casa que el cuerdo en la agena"--"The fool knows more about his
own house than the sage about the house of another." He should be
liberally paid, that the motives for corruption be diminished. He
should be surrounded by a council composed of the best qualified
advisers. Many objects would necessarily occupy the attention of
such a body, and it would naturally have to create becoming local
machinery and to furnish the materials for improved administration,
such as surveys and statistics of the land and population, which would
lead to a more satisfactory distribution of provinces, districts and
pueblos. A simple code of civil and criminal law would be a great
blessing, and should be grounded, in so far as the real interests of
justice will allow, upon the customs and habits of the people, while
employing, when compatible with those interests, the administrative
local machinery in use among the natives.
Nothing would be more beneficial to the interests of Manila than
the establishment of an efficient board of works, with provincial
ramifications, to whose attention the facilitating communications
should be specially recommended. The cost and difficulty of transport
are among the principal impediments to the development of the resources
of the islands, and the tardy progress of the few works which are
undertaken is discouraging to those who suggest, and disappointing
to those who expect to benefit by them. In many of the provinces
the bridges are in miserable condition, and the roads frequently
impassable. Even in the populous island of Panay delays the most
costly and annoying interfere with the transport of produce to the
capital and naturally impede the development of commerce. There
is, no doubt, a great want of directing talent and of that special
knowledge which modern science is able to furnish. The construction
of bridges being generally left to the rude artists who are employed
by the Spanish functionaries, or to the direction of the friars, with
whom the stare super antiquas vias is the generally received maxim,
it is not wonderful that there should be so many examples of rude,
unsafe and unsightly constructions. Moreover, estimates have to be
sent to the capital of all the proposed outlay, and it is hardly to
be expected but that sad evidence should be found--as elsewhere--of
short-sighted and very costly economy. The expense, too, almost
invariably exceeds the estimates--a pretty general scandal; then the
work is arrested, and sometimes wholly abandoned. Funds there are none,
and neither policy nor patriotism will provide them. Even when strongly
impelled, the Indian moves slowly; self-action for the promotion of
the public good he has none. There is no pressure from without to
force improvements upon the authorities, and hence little is to be
hoped for as to improvement except from direct administrative action.
I can hardly pass over unnoticed M. de la Gironière's romantic
book, [9] as it was the subject of frequent conversations in the
Philippines. No doubt he has dwelt there twenty years; but in the
experience of those who have lived there more than twice twenty I
found little confirmation of the strange stories which are crowded
into his strange volume. He was a resident of the Philippines at the
time of my visit, and I believe still lives on the property of which
he was formerly--but I was told is no longer--the possessor. [10]
I did not visit his "Paradise," but had some agreeable intercourse
with a French gentleman who is now in charge. I did not find any of
that extraordinary savagery with which M. de la Gironière represents
himself to be surrounded; and the answer to the inquiries I made of
the neighbouring authorities as to the correctness of his pictures
of Indian character was generally a shrug and a smile and a reference
to my own experience. But M. de la Gironière may have aspired to the
honour of a Bernardin de St. Pierre or a Defoe, and have thought a
few fanciful and tragic decorations would add to the interest of his
personal drama. "All the world's a stage," and as a player thereon
M. de la Gironière perhaps felt himself authorized in the indulgence
of some latitude of description, especially when his chosen "stage"
was one meant to exhibit the wonders of travel.
As to M. de la Gironière's marvellous encounters and miraculous escapes
from man and beast; his presence at feasts where among the delicacies
were human brains, steeped by young girls in the juice of sugar-cane,
of which he did not drink, but his servant did; his discoveries
of native hands in "savory" pots prepared for food; his narratives
where the rude Indians tell elaborate tales in the lackadaisy style
of a fantastic novel; his vast possessions; his incredible influence
over ferocious bandits and cruel savages;--all this must be taken
at its value. I confess I have seen with some surprise, in M. de
la Gironière's book, two "testimonies" from M. Dumont d'Urville
and Admiral La Place, in which, among other matters, they give
an account of the hatching of eggs by men specially engaged for
this purpose. [11] They saw, as any one may, in the villages on the
Pasig River, prodigious quantities of ducks and ducklings, and were
"puzzled" to find how such multitudes could be produced; but they
learnt the wonderful feat was accomplished by "lazy Tagál Indians,"
who lay themselves down upon the eggs, which are placed in ashes. The
patient incubators eat, drink, smoke, and chew their betel, and while
they take care not to injure the fragile shells, they carefully remove
the ducklings as they are brought into being (pp. 358 and 362). Now it
may well be asked who takes care when the lazy Tagáls are asleep; and,
if our worthy witnesses had reflected for a moment, they would have
known that, if all the inhabitants were employed in no other office
than that of egg-hatching, they would be hardly sufficient to incubate
the "prodigious" numbers of ducklings which disport on the banks of
the Pasig. The incubation is really produced by placing warm paddy
husks under and over the eggs; they are deposited in frames; a canvas
covering is spread over the husks; the art is to keep up the needful
temperature; and one man is sufficient to the care of a large number
of frames, from which he releases the ducklings as they are hatched,
and conveys them in little flocks to the water-side. The communities
are separated from one another by bamboo fences, but there is scarcely
a cottage with a river frontage which has not its patero (or duckery).
CHAPTER VI.
POPULATION.
In the last generation a wonderful sensation was produced by the
propagation of the great Malthusian discovery--the irresistible,
indisputable, inexorable truth--that the productive powers of the soil
were less and less able to compete with the consuming demands of the
human race; that while population was increasing with the rapidity of
a swift geometrical progression, the means of providing food lagged
with the feebleness of a slow arithmetical advance more and more
behind; that the seats at nature's table--rich and abundant though
it was--were being abundantly filled, and that there was no room
for superfluous and uninvited guests; in a word, to use the adopted
formula, that population was pressing more and more upon subsistence,
and that the results must be increasing want, augmenting misery,
and a train of calamities boundless as the catalogue of the infinite
forms of mortal wretchedness.
How often, when threading through the thousand islands of the
Philippine Archipelago, did the shadow of Malthus and the visions of
his philosophy present themselves to my thoughts. Of those unnumbered,
sea-surrounded regions, how many there are that have never been trodden
by European foot, how few that have been thoroughly explored, and fewer
still that are now inhabited by any civilized or foreign race! And
yet they are covered with beautiful and spontaneous vegetable riches
above, and bear countless treasures of mineral wealth below; their
powers of production are boundless; they have the varieties of climate
which mountains, valleys and plains afford--rains to water--suns to
ripen--rivers to conduct--harbours for shipment--every recommendation
to attract adventure and to reward industry; a population of only
five or six millions, when ten times that number might be supplied
to satiety, and enabled to provide for millions upon millions more
out of the superfluities of their means.
To what a narrow field of observation must the mind have been confined
that felt alarm at a discovery, in itself of so little importance,
when brought into the vast sphere of the world's geography! Though
the human race has been increasing at a rapid and almost immeasurable
rate, it will be probably found that famines, and plagues, and wars,
and those calamitous visitations which were deemed the redressers
of the balance--the restorers of the due proportions between man's
wants and man's supplies--were far more disastrous in ancient than
in modern times, if the smaller number of then existing human beings
be taken into consideration.
The nobler and higher axiom is that "progress" is the law of
Providence, which never fails, while the race of man proceeds in
ever-augmenting numbers, to provide ample means for their maintenance
and happiness. Neither land nor sea is exhausted nor in process
of exhaustion. What myriads of acres, whether in cold, temperate,
or tropical climes, remain to be appropriated! what still greater
amount to be improved by cultivation! And while in the more densely
peopled parts of the world outlets may be required for those who are
ill at ease and born to no inheritance but labour, how wonderfully
are locomotive facilities increased, so that the embarrassment to
ambulatory man is less to discover a fit place for his domicile, than
to select one amid the many which offer themselves to his choice! If
the poverty-struck Irish could emigrate in such multitudes to American
or Australian regions, far greater are the facilities possessed by
those better conditioned labouring masses of Europe who are still
heavily pressed by the competition of neighbours more fortunate
than themselves.
It is a matter of surprise that the Spanish colonies should not have
attracted a greater number of Spaniards to settle in them; but the
national spirit of the Iberian peninsula has ceased to be ambulatory
or adventurous. Spain itself is thinly peopled, and offers great
resources to its satisfied peasantry. "God," they say, "has given
everything to Spain which He had to give. Our land is an Eden--why
should we desert it?" Yet Spain, backward, inert and unenergetic,
as she has proved herself to be in the rivalry of active nations,
has taken her part in the proud history of human advancement. The more
enterprising invaders of Gothic or Anglo-Saxon blood have frequently
extirpated the indigenous races of the remote countries in which they
have settled. One wave of emigration has followed another; commerce
and cultivation have created a demand for, and provided a supply of,
the intrusive visitors. But Spain has never furnished such numbers
as to dislodge the aboriginal tribes. Her colonists have been always
accompanied by large bodies of ecclesiastics, bent upon bringing "the
heathen" into the Christian fold. These missionaries have no doubt
often stood between the cupidity of the conqueror and the weakness of
the conquered. They have preserved, by protecting the Indian clans,
and it may be doubted whether ultimately the permanent interests
of man will not have been served by influences, whose beneficial
consequences may remain when the most prominent evils connected with
those influences may be greatly modified or wholly pass away.
My observations and my reflections, then, lead to this
conclusion--that, whatever exceptional cases there may be, the great
tide of advancement rolls forward in ever-growing strength;--that
the course of the Divine government is
From seeming evil still educing good,
And BETTER thence again, and BETTER still,
In infinite progression;--
that the human family, taken as a whole, is constantly improving;--that
every generation is wiser and better than that which preceded it;--that
the savage and least improvable races will continue to be supplanted or
absorbed by those of a higher intelligence;--that the semi-civilized
will only be perpetuated by contact with a greater civilization,
which will raise them in the scale of humanity. A middle race,
such as China contributes in the shape of emigrating millions,
is wonderfully advancing the work of civilization. The process
is everywhere visible in the remoter Eastern world. The mestizo
descendants of Chinese fathers and Indian mothers form incomparably
the most promising portion of the Philippine population. In Siam,
Burmah, Cochin China, profitable employments are mainly absorbed by
Chinese settlers. In Netherlands India they are almost invariably
prosperous. To them Sumatra, Borneo, and the other islands, must look,
and not to the indigenous peoples, for any considerable development
of their resources. In our Straits Archipelago they have superseded
the Klings in all the most beneficial fields of labour, as the Klings
had previously superseded the less industrious Malays. The progress
of the higher capabilities, and the depression of the lower, may be
traced in the extinction of so many rude languages and the spread of
those which represent civilization in its most advanced stages. It may
be foretold, I think, without presumption, that in some future time
the number of tongues spoken on the face of the globe will be reduced
to a very small amount. In the course of a century many a local idiom
utterly perishes, and is invariably replaced by one of more extensive
range and greater utility. When it is remembered that the written
language of China is understood by one-third of the human race;
that probably more than one-tenth of mankind have an acquaintance
with spoken English--the language which has far more widely planted
roots, and more extensive ramifications, than any other; when the
daily decay of the provincial dialects of France, Germany, Spain, and
Italy is watched, good ground will be discovered for the anticipation
that many of the existing instruments for oral communication will be
extinguished, the number of dead languages will be much augmented,
and of living proportionally decreased.
I know not on what authority M. Mallat estimated, in 1846, the
population of the Philippines at 7,000,000,--an augmentation, he says,
of more than 50 per cent from 1816, when he states the population to
have been 4,600,000. He says that it quadrupled itself from 1774 to
1816. He attributes the enormous increase from the later period to
the introduction of vaccination and the general tranquillity of the
country; but the correctness of the data may well be doubted.
The Christian population of the Philippines is stated by Father Juan
Fernandez to be--
------------------------------------+---------+-----------
---- |Pueblos. | Souls.
------------------------------------+---------+-----------
Under the Archbishopric of Manila | 185 | 135,000
,, Bishopric of New Segovia | 132 | 745,000
,, Bishopric of New Caceres | 104 | 480,000
,, Bishopric of Zebu | 306 | 1,200,000
+---------+-----------
In all | 727 | 3,560,000
------------------------------------+---------+-----------
The population of the Philippines is generally supposed to be about
four millions; but, as the Indians who dwell in the interior of several
of the islands--those especially who occupy the unexplored forest and
mountainous districts--cannot be included in any official census, any
calculations can only be deemed approximative. The returns furnished
by the government to the Guia de Foresteros for the year 1858 give
the following results:--
Provinces. Natives Mestizos Total Births. Deaths. Marriages.
paying and Chinese Population.
tribute. Tributaries.
Manila 86,250 25,418 276,059 11,346 9,251 1,956
Bulacan 91,551 12,119 214,261 8,789 5,172 1,542
Pampanga 79,912 9,631 170,849 9,101 4,407 2,237
Nueva Ecija 40,949 ... 74,698 5,963 2,547 1,176
Bataan 17,473 3,176 42,332 1,941 1,171 347
Cavite 41,471 6,943 56,832 8,867 2,619 868
Batangas 115,359 3,063 247,676 11,133 6,270 1,956
Moron 20,288 1,964 43,010 1,900 1,508 553
La Laguna 65,177 1,866 132,264 5,935 4,295 1,553
Zambales 28,023 149 31,116 2,320 1,191 635
Mindoro 7,335 ... 15,135 734 645 191
Pangasinan 97,786 1,551 272,427 9,172 6,368 2,756
La Union 39,044 117 45,657 3,894 1,526 1,165
Ilocos Sur 77,974 2,293 179,407 7,305 3,647 1,801
Ilocos Norte 70,305 16 140,226 6,189 3,695 1,536
Cagayan 27,784 71 54,457 2,443 1,489 638
Abra 8,009 200 36,737 782 354 407
Nueva Biscaya 6,116 ... 19,754 452 387 131
La Isabela 14,112 ... 26,372 1,040 757 265
Camarines 78,012 125 209,696 6,273 3,456 1,770
Albay 103,928 990 204,840 7,458 6,722 1,099
Tayabas 44,940 154 102,210 3,049 2,124 949
Burias 470 ... 525 17 12 1
Masbate of Ticao 5,421 27 10,992 249 103 55
Zebu 81,457 4,267 267,540 12,653 3,740 2,374
Negros 24,522 394 113,379 4,499 2,688 804
Calamianes 4,003 ... 17,964 730 279 172
Bohol 64,760 692 175,686 5,924 2,476 1,452
Samar 61,586 437 117,866 6,161 3,437 1,863
Leite 66,371 790 134,493 5,582 2,168 1,387
Antique 25,567 42 77,639 4,810 1,708 664
Iloilo 174,884 1,442 527,970 17,675 9,231 3,697
Capiz 66,614 8 143,713 9,810 4,199 1,187
Surigao 13,801 148 18,848 944 525 181
Misamis 23,729 266 46,517 2,155 845 396
Zamboanga 3,871 16 10,191 429 956 55
Basilan 167 4 447 43 71
Bislig 4,686 21 12,718 394 143 112
Davao 304 ... 800 21 9 18
Romblon 3,517 ... 17,068 892 375 149
--------- ------ --------- ------- ------- ------
Totals 1,787,528 78,400 4,290,371 184,074 102,466 40,093
Proportion of natives to mixed races 96.00 per cent.
Proportion of natives (paying tribute) to
population 29.00 per cent.
Proportion of mixed races to population 1.75 per cent.
Proportion of births to population 4.00 per cent.
Proportion of deaths to population 2.33 per cent.
Proportion of marriages to population .90 per cent.
Proportion of births to deaths 64.00 to 36.00 per cent.
Proportion of births to marriages 2.70 per cent.
Imperfect returns are given from Corregidor and Pulo Caballo, 370
inhabitants in all: From Benguet, 6,803, of whom 4,639 are pagans,
and 15 Christian tributaries: From Cayan, 17,035, the whole population,
of which 10,861 tributaries.
The number of European Spaniards settled in the Philippines bears a
very small proportion to that of the mixed races. There are 670 males
and 119 females in the capital (Manila and Binondo). Of these there
are 114 friars, all living in Manila, eight ecclesiastics, forty-six
merchants, fourteen medical practitioners, and the majority of the
others military and civil functionaries. But in none of the islands
does the proportion of Spaniards approach that which is found in
the capital. Probably the whole number of European Spaniards in the
islands does not amount to two thousand.
There are ninety-six foreigners established in Binondo--eighty-five
males and eleven females (none in Manila proper). Of these fifty
are merchants or merchants' assistants. There are twenty-two British
subjects, fifteen French, fifteen South Americans, eleven citizens
of the United States, nine Germans, and nine Swiss.
Independently of European Spaniards, there are many families
which call themselves hijos del pays (children of the country),
descendants of Spanish settlers, who avoid mingling with native
Indian blood. They have the reputation of being more susceptible than
are even the old Castilians in matters of etiquette, and among them
are many who have received a European education. They are generally
candidates for public employment, but are said to be less steady,
and more addicted to play and to pleasure, than their progenitors;
but they are eminently hospitable. They dress in European style when
they appear in public, but at home both men and women use the loose
and more convenient Indian costume. They complain, on their part,
that barriers are raised between them and their countrymen from the
Peninsula; in a word, that the spirit of caste exercises its separating
and alienating influences in the Philippines, as elsewhere.
The mestizos, or mixed races, form a numerous and influential portion
of the Filipinos; the number settled in the islands of women of
European birth is small, and generally speaking they are the wives
of the higher Spanish functionaries and of superior officers in the
army and navy, whose term of service is generally limited. Though
the daughters of families of pure Spanish blood generally marry in
the colony and keep up a good deal of exclusiveness and caste, it
is seldom that the highest society is without a large proportion of
mestiza ladies, children of Spanish fathers and native mothers. The
great majority of the merchants and landed proprietors belong to this
class, and most of the subordinate offices of government are filled
by them. There are very many descendants of Chinese by native women;
but the paternal type seems so to absorb the maternal, that the
children for whole generations bear the strongly marked character
which distinguishes the genuine native of the flowery land, even
through a succession of Indian mothers. I shall have occasion to
speak of a visit I made to a district (Molo, near Iloilo), which
in former times had been the seat of a large Chinese colony, where
the Chinese race had disappeared centuries ago, but the Chinese
physiognomy, and the Chinese character, had left their unmistakable
traces in the whole population. I found nowhere among the natives a
people so industrious, so persevering, so economical, and, generally,
so prosperous. Almost every house had a loom, and it is the place
where the best of the piña fabrics are woven. We were invited to a
ball at which the principal native ladies were present, and I had to
answer a discurso delivered in excellent Castilian by the leading
personage. I was informed that the young women were remarkable for
their chastity, and that an erring sister obtained no forgiveness
among them. Their parents object to their learning Spanish lest it
should be an instrument of seduction. Of the mestizos of Chinese
or Mongolian descent, De Mas says:--"They are called Sangley, which
means Chinese merchant or traveller. They inherit the industrious and
speculative spirit of their forefathers. Most of them have acquired
riches and lands, and the largest part of the retail trade is in their
hands. They form the middle class of the Filipinos. Their prosperity
and better education produce the natural results, and their moral and
intellectual character is far superior to that of the Indians. They are
luxuriously dressed, are more elegant and handsome than the Indians;
some of their women are decidedly beautiful. But they preserve most of
the habits of the Indians, whom they exceed in attention to religious
duties because they are superior in intelligence. This race is likely
to increase in numbers and in influence, and, in consequence of the
large importation of Chinamen, to augment in the localities of their
settlements at a greater rate than the Indian population." [12]
There can be no doubt that the predominance of the characteristics of
the father over those of the mother has improved, through successive
generations, the general character of the race of mestizo Chinese. They
are more active and enterprising, more prudent and persevering, more
devoted to trade and commerce, than the Indios. They all preserve the
black hair, which is characteristic of China, "the black-haired" being
one of the national names by which the people of the "middle kingdom"
are fond of designating themselves. The slanting position of the eyes,
forming an angle over the nose, the beardless chin, the long and
delicate fingers (in conformity with Chinese usage they frequently
allow the middle nail of the left hand to grow to a great length),
their fondness for dress and ornament, distinguish them. They exercise
great influence over the Indians, who believe them to be masters
of the art of money-getting. The children of a Spanish mestizo by
a Chinese mestiza, are called Torna atras, "going back;" those of a
Chinese mestizo by an Indian woman are considered as Chinese and not
Indian half-castes. The mingling of Chinese blood is observable in
all the town populations. The number of mestizos of European descent
is trifling compared with those of Chinese origin. Their houses are
invariably better furnished than those of the natives. Many of them
adopt the European costume, but where they retain the native dress it
is finer in quality, gayer in colours, and richer in ornament. Like
the natives, they wear their shirts over the trousers, but the shirt
is of piña or sinamay fastened with buttons of valuable stones;
and a gold chain is seldom wanting, suspended round the neck. The
men commonly wear European hats, shoes and stockings, and the sexes
exhibit no small amount of dandyism and coquetry.
The great mass of the indigenous population of the Philippine Islands
may be divided into two principal races--the Tagálos occupying
the north, and the Bisáyos the south. Of these, all who inhabit
the towns and villages profess Christianity, and are much under
the influence of the regular clergy, who administer the religious
ordinances in the various provinces, which are, for the most part,
submitted to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of different orders of
brotherhood. There are a few instances of the Indians being invested
with the full rights of priesthood, though they generally reach
no higher post than that of assistants to the friars. At the great
ceremony which I attended of the Purisima Conception at Manila, an
Indian was chosen to deliver the sermon of the day; it was, as usual,
redolent with laudations of the Virgin, and about equal to the average
style of flowery Spanish preaching. But as we recede from the towns,
religious ordinances are neglected, and in the centre and mountainous
parts of the islands Christianity ceases to be the profession of the
inhabitants; the friars deplore their ignorant and abandoned state,
and occupy themselves in the endeavour to bring them into their
fold, and to enforce the payment of that tributo from which they,
as well as the government, derive their revenues. If this be paid,
if the services of the Church be duly performed, confession made,
fit co-operation given to the religious processions and festivals
(which are the native holidays), matters go on well between the clergy
and the people. I found many of the friars objects of affection and
reverence, and deservedly so, as guardians and restorers of the family
peace, encouragers of the children in their studies, and otherwise
associating their efforts with the well-being of the community;
but removed, as the ecclesiastics frequently are, from the control
of public opinion, there is often scandal, and good ground for it.
Father Zuñiga opines that the Philippines were originally colonized by
the inhabitants of America; but he fails altogether in the proofs he
seeks in the analogy of languages. The number of Malayan words in Tagal
and Bisayan is greater than any to be traced to American dialects;
and here I may remark, by the way, that there is no topic on which so
much absurdity has been committed to the press as on the derivation
and affinity of languages--a subject in which Spanish authority is
seldom of much value. El Señor Erro, for example, in his book on the
antiquity of the Bascuence, gives a description and picture of a jar
found in a well in Guipuscoa, which had on it the words "Gott erbarme
dein armes Würmchen!" This he reports to be a Biscayan inscription
in honour of the priestesses of the sun anterior to the introduction
of Christianity, and he doubts not that the vase (a piece of coarse
modern German pottery) was used in the sacred services of the temple!
De Mas supposes that the Indians employed alphabetical writing anterior
to the arrival of the Spanish, and gives five alphabets as used in
different provinces, but having some resemblance to one another. I
doubt alike the antiquity and authenticity of the records; but give
a specimen which he says is a contract upon Chinese paper for a sale
of land in Bulacan, dated 1652.
My own inquiries led to no discoveries of old records, or written
traditions, or inscriptions of remote times, associated with Indian
history. There is sufficient evidence that some rude authority
existed--that there were masters and slaves--that the land was
partially cultivated and the sea explored by labourers and fishermen,
leading necessarily to a recognition of some rights of property--that
there were wars between hostile tribes, which had their leaders and
their laws. The early records of the missionaries give the names
of some of the chiefs, and detail the character of the authority
exercised by the ruling few over the subject many. They say that
gold would procure the emancipation of a slave and his reception
among the Mahaldicas, or privileged class. Prisoners of war, debtors,
and criminals, were held in bonds. The daughter of a Mahaldica could
be obtained in marriage, where the lover was unable to pay her money
value, by vassalage to her father for a certain number of years. If
a man of one tribe married the woman of another, the children were
equally, or as nearly as possible, divided among the two tribes to
which the parents belonged. Property was partitioned among the sons
at the father's death, the elder enjoying no rights over the younger.
Local superstitions prevailed as to rocks, trees, and rivers. They
worshipped the sun and moon; a blue bird called tigmamanoquin; a stag
named meylupa, "lord of the soil;" and the crocodile, to which they
gave the title of nono, or "grandfather." A demon named Osuang was
supposed to torment children, to cause pains in childbirth, to live
on human flesh, and to have his presence announced by the tictic,
a bird of evil augury. Naked men brandished swords from the roof and
other parts of the choza to frighten the fiend away, or the pregnant
woman was removed from the neighbourhood of the tictic. The Manacolam
was a monster enveloped in flames, which could only be extinguished by
the ordure of a human being, whose death would immediately follow. The
Silagan seized and tore out the liver of persons clad in white. The
Magtatangal deposited his head and entrails in the evening in some
secret place, wandered about doing mischief in the night, and resumed
his "deposit" at break of day. So strange and wild are the fancies of
credulity! Sacrifices were offered in deprecation of menaced evils,
or in compliment to visitors, by female priestesses called Catalona,
who distributed pieces of the sacrificed animal. There were many
witches and sorcerers, exercising various functions, one of whom,
the Manyisalat, was the love inspirer and the confidant of youths
and maidens.
On entering a forest the Indian supplicated the demons not to molest
him. The crackling of wood, the sight of a snake in a cottage newly
built, were deemed presages of evil. In the house of a fisherman it
was deemed improper to speak of a forest, in that of a huntsman of
the sea. A pregnant woman was not allowed to cut her hair, lest her
child should he horn hairless.
The price paid for a woman given in marriage was regulated by the
position of the parties. The mother had a claim, as well as the nurse
who had had charge of the childhood of the bride. Whatever expense
the daughter had caused to the father he was entitled to recover from
the bridegroom. Among opulent families there was a traditional price,
such as the father or grandfather had paid for their wives. If the
bride had no living parents, her price was paid to herself. Three days
before the marriage the roof of the parental dwelling was extended,
and an apartment, called a palapala, added for the wedding festival;
the guests brought their presents to the bride, and, whatever the
value, it was expected that when, on future occasions, the relations
of hosts and guests were changed, an offering of not less value should
be given. Among the ceremonies it was required that the lovers should
eat from the same plate and drink from the same cup. Mutual pledges
and promises of affection were given, and the catalona pronounced
a benediction. Sad scenes of drunkenness and scandal are said to
have followed the ceremony in the after festivities, which lasted
three days. In the northern islands only one wife was allowed, but
any number of handmaids and slaves; in the south, where, no doubt,
Islamism was not without its influence, any number of legitimate
wives was permitted: circumcision was also practised.
Hired mourners, as well as the members of the family, were
gathered round the corpse, and sang hymns proclaiming the virtues
of the dead. The body was washed, perfumed, dressed and sometimes
embalmed. The poor were speedily buried in the silong over which their
huts were constructed. The rich were kept for several days, laid out
in a coffin made of a solid trunk, the mouth covered with gold-leaf,
and the place of sepulture any favourite spot which the deceased
might have selected; if on the bank of a river, the passage of boats
was interdicted for some time, lest the dead should interfere with
the concerns of the living, and a guard had charge of the tomb, near
which the garments, usual food and arms of the departed were placed
in a separate box--in the case of a woman, her loom and instruments
of labour. Where a chief of distinction was interred, a building was
erected, in which two goats, two deer, and two pigs were imprisoned
and a fettered slave belonging to the deceased, who was ordered to
accompany his master to the other world, and died a miserable death
of starvation. It was supposed on the third day after the interment
that the dead man visited his family: a vase of water was placed
at the door, that he might wash and free himself from the dirt of
the grave; a wax light was left burning through the day; mats were
spread and covered with ashes, that the footmarks of the dead might
be traced; and the door was opened at the accustomed time of meals,
and a splendid repast laid out for the expected visitor. No doubt
it was disposed of by the attendants in the same way as other costly
sacrifices. The Indians of the north put on black, those of the south
white, mourning robes.
In the administration of justice the elders were consulted, but there
was no code of laws, and the missionaries affirm that the arbitrators
of quarrels were generally but too well paid for their awards. Murder
committed by a slave was punished with death--committed by a person
of rank, was indemnified by payments to the injured family. When a
robbery took place, all the suspected persons were ordered to bring
a load of grass; these loads were mixed in a heap, and if the stolen
article was found it was restored to the owner, and no inquiry made
as to the bringer of the bundle in which it was concealed. If this
method failed, they flung all the suspected into a river, and held
him to be guilty who came first to the surface, on the theory that
remorse would not allow him to keep his breath. Many are said to have
been drowned in order to escape the ignominy of rising out of the
water. They sometimes placed candles of equal length in the hands
of all the accused, and he was held to be guilty whose candle first
went out. Another mode was to gather the accused round a light, and he
towards whom the flames turned was condemned as the criminal. Adultery
was condoned for by fine to the wronged persons.
Gold was used by weight as the medium of exchange, but there was no
coined or stamped currency. The largest weight was called a gael, but
it represented a dollar and a quarter in silver, nearly corresponding
to the Chinese ounce or tael; a gael consisted of two tinga, a tinga
of two sapaha; [13] a sapaha was divided into sangraga, a very small
bean, which was the minimum weight. Accounts were kept by heaps of
stones of different sizes. Their measures were the dipa (brace = 6
feet), the dancal (palm), tumuro (span), sangdamac (breadth of the
hand), sangdati (breadth of the finger). Thus, as among many rude
nations (the vestiges are still to be traced in the phraseology of
civilization) every man carried with him his standard of mensuration.
Time was reckoned by suns and moons, in the Philippines as in
China. In Chinese the same words designate day and sun, moon and month,
harvest and year. The morning was called "cock-crowing," the evening
"sun-leaving."
No Indian passed another without a salutation and a bending of the
left knee. An inferior entering the house of a superior crouched
down until ordered to rise. Earrings were worn by women and sometimes
by men; the chiefs had coloured turbans, scarlet if they had killed
an enemy, striped if they had killed seven or more. Peace was made
by the mingling blood with wine, and each drank of the blood of the
other. This was the most solemn of their oaths.
Chastity seems to have been unknown, though a price was always exacted
for a woman's favours.
Many Mahomedan superstitions and usages had found their way to the
interior, and among them the rite of circumcision.
All the Indians are born with a circular dark spot on the buttock,
of the size of a shilling; as their skins darken the mark extends,
becomes lighter in colour, and in age is scarcely distinguishable.
There is a tradition that the Indians were formerly in the habit
of punishing an unpopular person by a penalty which they called
Cobacolo, and which was inflicted on any who had misled them by false
counsels. The whole population assembled, went to the house of the
offender, every one bearing a cudgel; some surrounded the house to
prevent escape, and others entered and, by blows, drove the victim to
the balcony, from whence he was compelled to leap, and he was then
chased out of the neighbourhood, after which the house was razed to
the ground, and all that it contained destroyed. The tradition is
preserved in many popular proverbs and phrases, in which the Cobacolo
is used as a menace to evil-doers.
Among the most celebrated books on the Philippines are the "Cronicas
Franciscanas," by Fr. Gaspar de S. Agustin, an Augustine monk of
Madrid, who lived forty years among the Indians, and from whose
descriptions I have made a few selections; but there are remarkable
contrarieties of opinion among different writers. Their fields
of observation are different, and natural temperament has much to
do with the judgment formed. Our friar does not give the natives a
favourable character. According to him they are generally "inconstant,
distrustful, malicious, sleepy, idle, timid, and fond of travelling
by rivers, lakes, and seas."
"They are great consumers of fish, which are found in immense
abundance. After rains the fields and marshes and ponds are filled
with them. Fish two palms long are often pulled up from among the
paddy. As the waters dry up, the fish retreat to any muddy recess, and
the Indians catch them with their hands, or kill them with sticks." I
have seen many Indians fishing in the paddy grounds, and what becomes
of the fish in the times of drought, when no "muddy recesses" are
to be found, it is hard to say, but where there is water fish may
invariably be sought for with success.
"They eat three meals a day, consisting principally of rice, the sweet
potato, and a small quantity of fish or meat; the daily cost of the
whole being half a rial" (= 3d. sterling). "As labourers they get
half a rial in addition to their food. They willingly borrow money,
which they do not repay, and he who will not encourage ingratitude must
show them no favour; to exact a promise is to ensure a falsehood. They
are the ingrates described in the 36th Psalm. They never shut the
door they have opened; they return nothing to its place; they never
do the work they have been paid for beforehand, yet they do not fail
to ask for an advance: the carpenter must have money to buy wood;
the washerman to get soap; and they even practise their devices upon
the parish priest! They have the art of blundering about everything;
they fold all garments the wrong way; turn a shirt inside out, always
present the back where the front should be." The father is somewhat
severe, and of my own experience I can say there was at least about as
much chance in such matters of the Indians doing right as wrong. Alava
said of the Indians that their brains were in their hands.
The padre continues:--"They are envious, ill-bred, and
impertinent. They will even ask a padre, 'Whence do you come? where
are you going?' If you are reading a letter, they will look over your
shoulders, though not able to read themselves; and if two people are
talking in secret, the Indians will come near, though not understanding
a word." Grave charges these. "They enter houses, and even convents,
without leave, and seem to make themselves at home in a manner to
excite wonderment and anger; even when the padre is asleep, they make
a great noise in trampling the floor, though in their own houses they
walk with as much care as if treading among eggs. They use no chairs
at home, but absolutely wear out those of the convents by sitting
and lounging on them, particularly in the balconies, where they can
get a look at the women."
These extracts are as characteristic of the monk as of the
Indian. "They care nothing for dog, cat, horse nor cow; the game-cock
is their great concern; him they visit at dawn; him they caress through
the day; they will contemplate him with eyes fixed for half an hour
at a time: the passion never decays; many of them think of nothing
else. The government patronizes cock-fights. Last year they produced
40,000 dollars" (in 1859, 86,000 dollars); "sad resource this for so
many tears, crimes, and punishments! What quarrels, what lawsuits, what
appeals! And in their gambling they pass the night till sunrise. The
chief of the Barangay (clan) loses the tribute-money he has collected;
his doom is the prison, or a flight to the mountains. They hate to
live in houses or convents where they would be placed beyond even the
odour of women. They take care of their own plates, and exhibit in
their dwellings some possessed before the arrival of the Spaniards,
but in convents and houses they break plates enough to ruin their
masters. This is because of their stupidity, or that they are
thinking of their beloved, or of anything but what ought to occupy
their thoughts; and if they let fall a dish, it is passed over by
the Spaniards, or they are only called 'brute! animal! savage!' In
their own house, however, the breaking a piece of earthenware would be
followed with a good number of cane blows, and this is of more efficacy
than all Cicero's Philippics (sic in orig.) They cannot be trusted
with a sword, mirror, glass, gun, watch, nor any delicate thing;
they are sure to spoil it. You may confide to them a bamboo, a stick,
a piece of timber, a palm-branch, and to a few of them a ploughshare.
"They are bold and insolent in making unreasonable requests, careless
of the when or the how. They remind me in their petitions of what
happened to Sancho Panza in the island of Barataria, when troubled
with that impertinent and intrusive rustic Michael Turra. For their
four eggs they want a hundred dollars. I never see an Indian coming
towards me with a gift--something worthless, of course, and of no
use to himself--flowers or fruits, but I exclaim, in the words of
Laocoon to the Trojans" (grandiloquent friar!) "'Timeo Danaos dona
ferentes.' The Bishop of Troya, Don Francisco Gines Barrientes, a most
circumspect prelate, told me that an Indian brought him a handkerchief
of Guava fruit and asked him for the loan of fifty dollars. And when
the Lord Marquis de Villasierra, Don Fernando de Valenzuela, was in
the castle of Cavite, an Indian gave him a cock, for which the Marquis
ordered him to be paid six times its value, and the Indian said he
expected eighty cavans of rice, and this, too, was in the time of
scarcity, when every cavan was worth two dollars. It matters little,
however, for they are just as well pleased when they fail as when
they succeed, for they do not value anything given them by a Spaniard,
not even by a priest! In selling they will ask thirty and accept six;
they take the chance of cheating, and, knowing the great goodness
(la suma bondad) of the Spanish character, they do not apprehend any
expression of anger in consequence of an absurd pretension."
The friar thus describes a negotiation between an Indian peasant
and a merchant:--"The peasant has two or three hundredweight of
indigo for sale; he does not come alone, but with his relations,
friends, and sometimes the women, for the indigo belongs to several
who form the suite of the seller. Every offer has to be communicated
to the party, who are crouched in a circle round the negotiator;
the offer being discussed, they agree to the reduction of a dollar
in the price--the buyer requires three; this matter being settled,
another discussion begins; some of the indigo is damp and dirty,
and an allowance must be made, and thus the negotiation goes on
harassing and never-ending, so that very few Spaniards will tolerate
such impertinence and importunity, and the conference ends by a
dry inquiry, 'Will you? yes! or no!' If no, the Indians are angrily
ordered into the street, but the more patient mestizos and Chinese
make the Indians their guests, feed them and lodge them, and get these
commodities on their own terms, in Chinese style, for the Indian is
very stupid in trading matters." And then the father gives abundant
evidence of their simplicity. "In fine, the Indian prefers the rial
of a Chinese to the dollar of a Spaniard." Who can wonder, then,
at the prosperous condition of the Chinese in the Philippines? "The
Indians show great indifference to danger: they will not move out
of the way of a restive horse, nor, if in a small boat, give place
to a large one. In the river, if they see crocodiles approaching,
they take no notice and adopt no precautions. The Koran says that
every one has his fate written in the marks on his forehead; so
think the Indians, not that they have read the Koran, but because
of their own folly, which exposes them to daily misfortunes." "They
are very credulous among themselves, yet believe nothing but what is
unfavourable about the Spaniards. It is evident that the act of faith
is supernatural when they acknowledge the divine mysteries taught
by the Spaniards. In other matters they believe in nothing which is
adverse to their interests. They do not object to rob Spaniards, not
even the ministers of religion. Of this we have irresistible evidence,
so that there can be no doubt, and we can only regret that no remedy
can be found."
The Augustine provincial friar of Ilocos, reporting on the insurrection
of 1807 in that province, says:--"Here, as elsewhere, there are
abundance of robbers and pilferers; it is of no use to bring them to
Manila, they should be punished in the locality; but they can be no
more extirpated than can the rats and mice. Indeed there is an Indian
proverb which says:--'Robbers and rats will disappear together.'" I
cannot endorse the friar's indiscriminating censures, for I have heard
extraordinary evidences of extraordinary integrity. The Alcalde of
Cagayan told me that, though he had frequently left uncounted dollars
in the care of the Indians, he had never discovered a single fraud.
One would suppose that the rich and potent friars were tolerably
well protected against the Indians, yet one of them writes:--"The
Indians do not now employ lances and arrows against our ministry, but
papers, pens, tales, jokes and calumnies. So much have they been taught
politics in Manila that now in all the pueblos are obscure scribblers,
pettifoggers, pretenders, who are clever enough in writing memorials on
stamped paper, to be presented to the Royal Audiencia. So if the parish
priest reprove or punish them for their evil and scandalous lives, they
meet together, drink wine, and fill a folio paper with their crosses,
and march off to Manila, to the tribunal which they deem the most
impressionable, from whence great vexations are caused to the poor
parish priest. And much courage is required to bear this species of
martyrdom, which is sufficiently common in the Indies."--(Abbé Amodea.)
I do not know how lately there have been perquisitions against
witches, but in the middle of the last century I find the record of
a most diligent pursuit and rigorous punishment against the witches
of Pampanga. The proceedings were superintended by a friar named
Theodore of the Mother of God, who made a special report to the Mexican
Inquisition. He says:--"There are witches in every pueblo, and in some
they form a third part of the population. These slaves of the devil
are divided into sundry classes: lamias, who suck the blood of infants;
striges, who are wanderers on the face of the earth; sagas, who dwell
in houses, and convey to the devil all the information he requires;
larvas, who devote themselves to carnal delights; temures, who prepare
love filtres; but all unite to do mischief to the human race."
Of the credulity of the Indians there is no end of examples. In 1832,
when the Santa Ana arrived with 250 soldiers, a report spread like
wild-fire that the King of Spain had ordered all the children of the
Indians to be collected, that their blood might be spilt upon the
Spanish mines to make them more productive. The women fled to their
homes, seized their children, and sought an asylum in the houses
of the Spanish ladies in Manila. The men armed themselves with
spears, and rushed tumultuously through the streets. The agitation
was appeased with some difficulty. What any man reputed as a sage
among the Indians avers, acquires immediate authority, and is not
to be controlled by the influence of the priests; the words "Vica
ng maruning," meaning "The wise say so," is the ready answer to all
impugners. "God preserve us," says the friar, "from Indian sages! for
the Indians are proud, and will not obey the priest, nor the friar,
nor the chaplain, unless obliged by fear, and they are not always
afraid, though they feel thoroughly convinced of the superiority of
the Spaniard, and are governed in spite of themselves. They imitate the
Spaniard in all that is evil--his love of dress, his swearing habits,
addiction to gaming, and all the vicious practices of the zaramullos
(fops or busy-bodies); but Spanish courtesy and urbanity and good
education they neither study nor copy; but revels and drunken bouts,
and riotous weddings and burial excesses and tyrannical acts of all
sorts they have inherited from their ancestors, and still preserve,
so that they have Spanish vices added to their own."
They show much deference to everything that is aristocratic
among themselves. The jacket-wearing principalia are treated with
great deference, and their rank religiously respected. First, the
gobernadorcillo; then the ex-gobernadorcillos, who are called passed
captains, in order of seniority; then the acting lieutenant, who must
be the head of a barangay; then the heads of barangays according to
age; then passed lieutenants, and so on; and their rank is recognized
by the adjacent communities.
Bathing is universal, men and women in the same place. The men wear
pantaloons, the women cover themselves with a garment which they throw
o
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