Frederic H. Sawyer

“ That great monarch’s words exactly express my conclusions about the young Tagals and other natives.
To take a young native lad away from his parents, to place him in a corrupted capital like Manila, and to cram him with the intricacies of Spanish law, while there is probably, not in all those who surround him, one single honest and upright man he can look up to for guidance and example, is to deprive him of whatever principles of action he may once have possessed, whilst giving him no guide for his future conduct. ”

“ Vegetation here runs riot, hardly checked by the devastating typhoon, or the fall of volcanic ashes. From the cocoa-nut palm growing on the coral strand, from the mangrove, building its pyramid of roots upon the ooze, to the giant bamboo on the banks of the streams, and the noble mango tree adorning the plains, every tropical species flourishes in endless variety, and forests of conifers2 clothe the summits of the Zambales and Ilocan mountains. ”

“ All Manila, lying in the glare and dust, prays for rain. Overhead, a sky like burnished copper darts down heat-rays that penetrate the roofs, and literally strike the heads of the occupants. The dry air is surcharged with electricity to such an extent that every living thing feels the powerful influence; the sweetest natures become irritable, and quite ready to admit that “this is, indeed, a beastly world.”
The nervous system suffers, the newspapers relate cases of stabbing, or even running amok amongst the natives, and perhaps some suicides occur. ”

“ The Philippines, and above all Luzon, have nothing in this world to equal them in climate, beauty of landscape, and fertility of soil. Luzon is the finest diamond that the Spanish adventurers have ever found. ”

“ About three days after Juan de la Cruz was lodged in Cavite jail, the dead body of the San Roque damsel, gashed by savage blows of the fatal bolo, was left by the ebb on the sands of Parañaque, a village just across the little Bay of Bacoor opposite to San Roque. She had paid with her life for her frailty as many another woman has done in every clime. ”

“ Let us be just; what British, French, or Dutch colony, populated by natives, can compare with the Philippines as they were till 1895?
And what about American rule? It has begun unfortunately, and has raised a feeling of hatred in the natives that will take a generation to efface. It will not be enough for the United States to beat down armed resistance. A huge army must be maintained to keep the natives down. As soon as the Americans are at war with one of the Great Powers, the natives will rise; whenever a land-tax is imposed there will be an insurrection. ”

“ I think, therefore, that the American Administration of the Philippines should be empowered to prevent or regulate the immigration of impecunious Americans or Europeans whose presence in the Islands must be extremely prejudicial to the much-desired pacification. No, the poor white is not wanted in the Islands, he would be a curse, and a residence there would be a curse to him. He would decay morally, mentally, and physically. The gorgeous East not only deteriorates the liver, but where a white man lives long amongst natives, he suffers a gradual but complete break-up of the nervous system. ”

“ So great was the scandal that Moriones issued a decree that all persons accused of gang-robbery should be tried by a military tribunal. And he appointed a permanent court-martial for this purpose, to the great disgust of all the lawyer element. These courts were abolished some years later after his return to Spain; then the Guardia Civil made their own arrangements, and the mortality amongst bandits was excessive. When some well-known robber was by any chance taken alive, he always, so they said, tried to escape by running away from his captors, and this obliged them to fire upon him. ”

“ Finally, when bands of slave-hunting, murdering Moros swept down like wolves on their flocks, they placed themselves at the head of their ill-armed parishioners and led them into battle against a ferocious enemy who gives no quarter, with the calmness of men who, long before, had devoted their lives to the Master’s cause, to whom nothing in this world is of any consequence except the advancement of the Faith and the performance of duty. ”

“ If, as not unfrequently happens, you should at this time receive an invitation to the funeral of a friend or compatriot just deceased from typhoid fever, and to be buried within twenty-four hours, you will begin to wonder whether Manila is good enough for you. Day after day the rain-clouds disperse amidst the rumbling of a distant thunder-storm, and day after day do longing eyes watch for their coming, and hope for the cloud-burst. ”

“ There can be no doubt that if peace and an honest administration can be secured, capital will be attracted and considerable increase in the export of hemp, tobacco, and sugar will gradually take place as fresh land can be cleared and planted. As I have elsewhere said, the Philippines in energetic and skilful hands will soon yield up the store of gold which the poor Spaniards have been so mercilessly abused for leaving behind them. But the Philippines are not and never will be a country for the poor white man.
A white man cannot labour there without great danger to his health. ”

“ They are usually buried in their fields with lance, sword, and bolo laid beside them. They make a mound of earth over the grave, fixing several stakes like St Andrew’s crosses, and protecting the whole with the bark of a tree fastened over the stakes. From a high post hangs a bag of rice, that the soul of the defunct may sustain itself on the long journey to Mount Bolotucan, the highest peak of the whole region. The soul having arrived on this peak, gives one great jump, and reaches heaven, at a higher or lower level, according to the greater or lesser probity of its life on earth. ”

“ The land is there and the labour is there, and all that is wanting is capital, and a settled government that will make roads and bridges and keep them in repair, clear the rivers of obstructions and improve the ports, and above all, establish and maintain some tolerable courts of justice. The sun, the rain, the soil, and the hardy Philippine farmer will do the rest—a population equal to that of Java could live in affluence in the Philippines. ”

“ All these circumstances brought about a great change in the relations between the Spaniards and the natives. Whereas formerly the wealthy native kept open house on feast days, and received with pleasure the visits of Spaniards, generally elderly men used to the country and speaking the language of the people, he now found his house invaded by a crowd of young officials new to the country and its ways, who fell on the eatables like a swarm of famishing locusts, and soon devoured the turkeys and hams and other good things he had provided to entertain his friends. ”

“ In beauty it will compare with the best parts of Surrey, such as the view from Leith Hill, looking south. Sugar and coffee are the principal products, and the towns of Taal, Baúang, Batangas, and Lipa are amongst the wealthiest of Luzon. The fields are well cultivated, and oxen are much used, both for ploughing and for drawing carts. The beef in this province is excellent.
Opposite to this beautiful and wealthy province lies the huge island of Mindoro. Ever black and gloomy does it look, its lofty mountains almost perpetually shrouded in rain-clouds. ”

“ These people live in the fairest and healthiest parts of Luzon, no fevers lurk amongst those pine-clad mountains, no sultry heats sap the vital powers. What an opportunity for a grand missionary enterprise! What a noble material to work on, every condition seems favourable. The very fact of their rejection of the form of Christianity presented to them, and their distrust of the Spaniards, may influence them in favour of some simpler doctrine. ”

“ To the inhabitants of these small islands, fertile Mindanao, with its broad lands, free to all, is what the United States were a generation ago to the cotters of Cork or Kerry—a land of promise.
There is, however, a demoralising tendency at work amongst the Visayas. The profits of bartering with the hill-men are so great, that they are tempted away from their agriculture, and from their looms, to take up this lucrative trade, in competition with the Chinese.
The Visaya has one great advantage over the Chinaman; he has the courage to go up into the hills, and find his customers in their haunts. ”

“ But as the slaughter of the Dervishes at Omdurman teaches, not even the most dauntless bravery can prevail against modern weapons in the hands of tolerably disciplined troops. The quick-firing gun, the howitzer with shrapnell shell, the machine-gun and the magazine-rifle must inevitably bring about the subjugation of every lowland population not supplied with these dread engines of civilisation, and only the hardy dwellers in Nature’s loftiest fastnesses, the Himalayas or the Andes, may hope to retain their independence in the future. ”

“ They must not be rushed, for, if alarmed by innovations, they may take to the woods en masse, and the labour of years will have been wasted.
I look to this tribe, when trained to use fire-arms, and stiffened with a few Americans, to destroy the power of the pirate races—the murderous, slave-hunting Moros, with whom it is useless to make treaties, who cannot be converted till the power of their dattos is broken, and who must be sternly put down by force unless the nascent civilisation of Mindanao is to be thrown back for a century. ”

“ The whole business is extremely risky, it requires a manager, immune to jungle fever, a man of great vigour yet patient and tactful. Such a man, understanding the native ways, would probably succeed after years of hard and dangerous work; but I warn any one thinking of taking up this business that in Luzon valuable trees are few and far between, and distant from port or river, whilst in other islands where there are timber trees they stand there because no one could ever be induced to go and cut them. ”

“ The Visayas are no less credulous than the Tagals, for in Samar, during my recollection, there have been several disturbances caused by fanatics who went about in rags, and by prayers, incoherent speeches, and self-mortification acquired a great reputation for sanctity. The poor ignorant people, deluded by these impostors, who gave themselves out to be gods, and as such, impervious to bullets, and immortal, abandoned their homes and followed these false gods wherever they went, listening to their wild promises, and expecting great miracles. They soon came into collision with the Guardia Civil ”

“ Absolutely indifferent to bloodshed or suffering, he will take the life of a slave or a stranger merely to try the keenness of a new weapon. He will set one of his sons, a mere boy, to kill some defenceless man, merely to get his hand in at slaughter.1 If for any reason he becomes disgusted with his luck, or tired of life, he will shave off his eyebrows, dress himself entirely in red, and taking the oath before his Pandit, run amok in some Christian settlement, killing man, woman and child, till he is shot down by the enraged townsmen. ”

“ Trained to arms from his earliest youth, he excels in the management of the lance, the buckler and the sword. These weapons are his inseparable companions: the typical Moro is never unarmed. He fights equally well on foot, on horseback, in his fleet war canoe, or in the water, for he swims like a fish and dives like a penguin. ”

“ What a state of things in a country where maize will grow up and give edible grain in forty-two days from the date of planting it! I trust that the change of government may result in some benefit to these poor people, and that a Governor or Protector of Aborigines may be appointed with absolute power who will check the abuses of the half-caste and Chinese usurers, and give the poor down-trodden Tagbanúas, at one time I firmly believe a comparatively civilised people, a chance to live and thrive. ”

“ Is there not amongst all the multitudinous Philippines some desert island where the people trained in the Spanish courts and all their breed could be deported, where they might set up a court, and bring actions against each other and cheat and lie and forge till they die? ”

“ Yet the Malay race can claim to have enlisted the sympathies of some not undistinguished men. Rajah Brooke, Spenser St. John, Hugh Clifford, Professor Blumentritt, Louis Becke, Joseph Conrad—the names that first occur to me—have all confessed to an affection for them. The old Spanish conquerors speak of their dignified courtesy and gentle manners.
There are, however, in America, generous souls who can judge the Tagals fairly and even indulgently. ”

“ With such servants as these, the mistress of the house, free from domestic cares, may take her shower-bath, and, clad in Kabaya and Sarong, await the moment when she must resume the garments of civilisation, and receive her guests looking as fresh, in spite of the thermometer, as if she had stepped out of a coupé in Piccadilly or Fifth Avenue. Ladies used to the ministry of Irish Biddy or Aunt Chloe ought to fancy themselves transported to heaven when they find themselves at the head of a household in Manila. ”

“ In a tropical climate it is necessary to be very careful in the use of spirits.
Having lived for more than twenty-five years in the tropics, and having kept my health remarkably well, I feel warranted in giving my experience. I have made surveys, or directed works, in many climates, exposed to all weathers, and I know that the very worst thing a man can take, if he has to work or march in the sun, is spirits. There is nothing that will predispose him to sunstroke as much as spirits. For marching, walking, or shooting, in the sun, I know nothing like cold tea without milk or sugar. ”

“ Now that the fortune of war has handed over the sovereignty of the Philippines to an enterprising and energetic race, I cannot doubt that the mystery of centuries will be dispelled.
Amongst the Californian, Colorado, or Nevada volunteers, there should be men having the courage, the knowledge of prospecting, and the physical strength necessary for success in this quest, if they can obtain permission from their superiors to attempt it. The prospects are so good that they should not have any difficulty in getting capitalists to finance them. ”

“ When the ground is ready for planting, the whole population turns out, and, being supplied with the young shoots in bundles, of which tally is kept, proceed to plant each individual shoot of paddy by hand.
Ankle-deep in the soft mud of the paddy-fields stand long rows of bare-legged men, women and children, each in a stooping position, holding against the body with the left hand a large bundle of rice-plants, incessantly and rapidly seizing a shoot with the right hand, and plunging it into the black slime with the forefinger extended. ”