Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga

“ To chastise these insults of the Moors, the Governor sent Juan Gallinato, with two hundred Spaniards, to Jolo; but after making an attempt to possess himself of a fort, which the King of Jolo had on a lofty hill, he returned to Manila, without [211] having effected any thing of consequence.
From that time to the present, the Moors have not ceased to infest our colonies. It is incredible what a number of Indians they have made prisoners, what towns they have plundered, what villages they have annihilated, and what ships they have taken. ”

“ The country which surrounds it is fertile, and adapted to every species of cultivation; but in the hands of the Spaniards it lies an useless waste. They have neither availed themselves of the position of the town, or of the fertility of the surrounding soil; they allow it to exhaust itself, and bear of its own accord crops which they will not be at the trouble of getting in. Even the law, which ought to lend its aid in support of the cultivator of the soil, is at Manila inimical to his views, and the exportation of that abundance which nature holds out to man is prohibited. ”

“ I do not deny that these islands could easily have been peopled by the Malays, but how could they colonize the Isles de Palaos and Marianas, which are distant more than three hundred leagues? and it is still more improbable that they colonized the islands of San Duisk and Otaheite, which are distant two thousand leagues from the Philippines. All these people, however, have the same language, the same manners and customs, and consequently the same origin as our Indians. ”

“ Our historians, affecting always the marvellous, divide into different classes, the inhabitants the Spaniards found, on their first arrival in the Philippines. They denominate them satyrs, men with tails, sea monsters, and whatever else of the fabulous, is calculated to raise wonder in the human mind. In reality, however, they found only two classes, that which we know by the appellation of Negroes, and that of the Indians. The Negroes are very small in stature, and more of a copper colour than those of Guinea, with soft hair and flat noses. ”

“ The Dominican friars, in endeavouring to escape, often ran the risk of their lives; some were, however, enabled to get away, but those who remained were obliged to refuse the sacrament to the Indians, and for which they intended to murder them, until the voice of the women, as also of [225] those who had not entered into the rebellion by choice, prevailing, it was resolved to spare their lives. To add to all their troubles, those poor friars had the additional regret to find their fidelity suspected, merely because they were not murdered by the Indians. ”

“ The Philippine Islands were so named by Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, in compliment to Philip the Second, when Prince of Asturias. They originally were called the Western Isles, or the Archipelago of Saint Lazarus, the name which Magellan gave them when first discovered by him. These islands are numerous; their appearance on the map is that of a large blanket full of holes and rents. The principal of them is Luzon, so called, because at the doorway of each house stands a large wooden mortar, which, in the language of the country, is called Losong, and in which the Indians [2] wash their rice. ”

“ In a few days he found himself master of the whole province, and he appointed Jesus of Nazareth to be Captain-general of it, he himself assuming the title of his Alcalde Mayor for the protection of the Catholic religion, and of the dominions of the King of Spain. He published a manifesto, which breathed the true spirit of Christianity; always wore his rosary; and obliged the Indians to hear mass, ordering them to confess, and to take care that the children went regularly to school. ”

“ Without, in any respect, detracting from the merit of the propagators of the Christian faith in these islands, or claiming any superiority for our own tenets or practice, I fear we need not travel beyond the pillars of Hercules to the southward, and the Ultima Thulé to the northward, to discover such perversion of human intellect, although, I trust, it is no proof that we are very bad Christians. ”

“ There are many lakes in the island of Luçon; the most considerable is that called by the Spaniards Laguna de Bay. The river, which washes the walls of Manila, flows out of this lake, and thus a communication, by means of boats, is open to its surrounding shores. This lake is about 30 leagues in circumference, and about 120 fathoms in depth. In the middle of it is an island, which holds out a refuge to some Indian families. They live by fishing, and preserve their liberty by prohibiting the approach of strangers to their asylum. ”

“ But the truth is, that the Spanish government is rather desirous of considering the Philippines as the grand depot of the commerce of South America with India and China, and it may be presumed that, on this account, not only is its industry repressed, but the very heavy expense of the settlement submitted to and annually sent from New Spain. The revenue stated to be collected in the islands amounts to about one million of dollars, and this, together with about the same sum remitted by the Acapulco ships, enable the government to defray the annual charges of the colonial establishment. ”

“ Supported by their courage, animated by their hatred, they dare approach even the gates of the capital: their progress is marked with pillage, murder, devastation, and rape; they even live at the expense of such of their countrymen as have submitted; they carry off, they tear from them the support of a miserable existence, which these latter have neither the strength nor the courage to defend. ”

“ These Moorish Indians are certainly very valiant, and their enmity has been drawn upon us [212] by our own conduct; for instead of following the laudable example of the first settlers in these islands, who brought the natives under subjection, principally by the mild interference of the friars, it seems, of late years, to have been the object of the Spaniards, since the great increase of the lucrative commerce of Manila, to acquire, by oppression and force, lands and establishments on these islands, without any view to conciliate the natives. ”

“ It is true that we never can expect such rapid progress as our ancestors made in the conquest, because the Indians are more enlightened. Even the Christian converts persuade them not to be baptized, that [130] they may avoid the payment of tribute or other imposts. The custom, too, of one tribe revenging the murder of an individual of that tribe upon the tribe of the murderer, very much impedes conversion, and consequently civilization, for from hence results the necessity of the weakest tribes changing their residence, or forming a confederacy with others. ”

“ The Moors of Borneo, imitating the conduct of the Indians of Jolo in their piracies, the Governor sent Major Monforte with orders to chastise them severely, as a warning to the rest. Monforte landed in Borneo, burning and destroying all the towns within his reach, together with great quantities of provisions, and a number of vessels, and making about two hundred prisoners, thus retaliating on them for their piratical attacks on us. Exclusive of these continual depredations of the Moors and Dutch, the provinces in Luzon were by no means in a tranquil state. ”

“ Jolo is only a small island of 30 to 40 leagues in circumference: it notwithstanding merits the attention of the European powers, on account of its being so well adapted for the cultivation of spices, and generally for commerce.
It produces a great many elephants; amber is found there, and there is a pearl fishery. Its harbour is a retreat for the Moors, who piratically infest these seas, distress the navigation of the Spaniards, and carry off in their incursions the colonists, of whom they make slaves; the coast is furnished with fish sufficient for the daily food of the inhabitants ”

“ Here, therefore, we appear to have found the most probable solution of our difficulties, that is, that the first settlers came out of the east, we may presume from the coast of South America, and proceeding gradually to the westward through the Pacific Ocean, studded as we find it with islands, and clusters of islands, at no very great distance from each other, and of course of easy access before the wind, it follows that to whatever point, in an eastern direction, we can trace the Tagalic language, we may conclude that at that point emigration must have commenced. ”

“ The difficulties which have been thrown in the way of the unloading and loading of vessels, have thoroughly disgusted the merchants of the Isle of France; a commerce, nevertheless, which might be rendered equally advantageous to both nations.
The only vessels admitted at Manila are those of the Chinese and Indians, on the pretence that these people may thug be made converts; these are the vessels which import into Manila the articles of absolute necessity and of luxury, and take in exchange the piastres brought by the galleon from Acapulco. ”

“ He reduced to obedience in the island [173] of Layte, and the province of Pangasinan, some towns which refused to pay the usual tribute, and he effectually suppressed symptoms of sedition in the other provinces, and which took their rise in the ill treatment of the factors. The factors entertained the idea, that the Indians whom they had found on their lands, ought to be considered in the light of slaves in every respect, and compelled them to work, appropriating all the wages of their labour to their own use, by which means they enjoyed all the luxuries of life, and even accumulated fortunes. ”

“ The Philippines and Moluccas are commonly divided into two distinct Archipelagos; but, in my opinion, all these islands in reality form but one; and if they were all under one Sovereign, they would, doubtless, be comprehended under one designation.
The Philippines are attached to the crown of Spain, and the Dutch possess the Moluccas. These last are more deserving of consideration, and richer than the [252] first. They owe their fertility to the industry of a nation laborious, commercial, and addicted to cultivation. ”