“ If a native has been unjustly punished, he will never forget it, and will treasure the memory of his wrong until a good opportunity for revenge presents itself. Like all courageous people, he despises cowardice and pusillanimity. He has, therefore, but little regard for the meek and humble Chinaman, who will pocket an insult rather than avenge himself. He greatly esteems the European, who is possessed of the qualities which he admires, and will follow him into the very jaws of death. ”

“ But there is no doubt that the Chinese have been a great boon to the colony. They have had, in the main, a civilizing influence on the natives, and have taught them many important things: as the working of iron and the manufacture of sugar from the juice of the sugar-cane. They have also ever been the leaders in commerce and the chief middlemen of the colony; and for this reason mainly they have been deemed an unwelcome necessity, for, without them, trade would almost be brought to a standstill, and, in consequence, labor would suffer and living be rendered dearer to every class. ”

“ The exclusive spirit of the Roman church, which confines its knowledge to its priests, is but too visible even here: they appear to be more anxious to make Christians, than citizens, and by neglecting this last part of their duty, have but very indifferently fulfilled the first,—the too common error of proselytists of all denominations, which has probably its source in that vanity of human nature, which is as insatiable beneath the cowl as under any garb it has yet assumed. ”

“ In short, the agriculture of Filipinas at this time depends on the irregular and transient stimulus which is furnished to it by the peripatetic capital of the mestizo, who buys only in the years when he calculates that he must in view of the condition of the crops and the market, make a profit; while the Indian farmer always sows his seed heedless of results, and without the guidance of that elementary principle in affairs of commerce that the estimate of what he acquires ought to be based on a calculation of the market for it. ”

“ The Indians live in entire moral separation from the Spaniards; they have their own laws of tradition, their own opinions and customs, entirely unknown to any one who is ignorant of their language or has not continual intercourse with them. The European religious are the only persons in the confidence of the government who by favor of these circumstances, and with a practical and intimate knowledge of the nature and inclinations of the natives there, can find a way into their hearts, incline their wills to what is right, enlighten them, and keep them peaceful and submissive ”

“ From the ignorance of the Indians, not only of the various methods of making plantations, but of the means of preparing the raw materials for their employment in the trade—a cause which is so universal and so mischievous that the agricultural products of Filipinas, which ought to be, on account of their excellent character and the extent of territory of the islands, commodities which should supply all the markets of Europe and hold the first rank in quality, are the most scarce in general commerce, and moreover lowest in price, as I am going to prove by some instances. ”

“ Let it never be forgotten, too, that while the Indians of Manila, on the 9th of October, 1820, were assassinating every foreigner within their reach, the Indians of the country were saving those in their power at the hazard of their lives! ”

“ This spirited and indefatigable order of men, who, both by precept and example, encouraged agriculture, not only as the source of national greatness, but as preparatory to, and inseparable from, conversion to Christianity, which they well knew did not consist alone in ceremonies, but in fulfilling the duties of citizens and men, and who, whatever were their political sins, certainly possessed more than any other the talent of converting men from savage to civilized life, have left in the Phillippines some striking monuments of their wide-spreading and well-directed influence. ”

“ Some Spaniards also have asserted that the Filipinos are naturally disloyal and treacherous, and that their word is not to be depended on. Now, the whole world knows that they have every reason to be disloyal to the Spaniard, who has for centuries so cruelly oppressed them. The devotion to the cause of freedom, however, which has recently made Rizal and hundreds of others martyrs to Spanish cruelty, shows that they also have the stuff that heroes are made of, and that they ran be loyal to an animating principle.” “Though calm, the native is not secretive, but often loquacious. ”

“ In a colony still in its infancy in customs and enlightenment—which, like a school of education, needs to have for models men of sound morals—it has been very absurd to allow to remain and become citizens therein men who have served a term of exile, and polisones5 or vagabonds, sometimes followed by officers of justice from the Peninsula; and that the Indian people should see (as so many times I have seen) that this sort of men succeeded in obtaining positions as corporals, revenue officials, and even militia captains, solely from the circumstance of their being white men. ”

“ The capital and its environs are the refuge of the more perverse, who migrate from the provinces and from their villages, in order not to work and to relieve themselves from paying the tribute. There they devote themselves to studies in the colleges of Santo Tomas, San José, and San Juan de Letran, making progress in a short time, and deceiving the professors with their apparent ingenuousness ”

“ The sources of the colonial revenue are enumerated, with the chief branches of expense, the main part of this being for the military and naval forces, both of which are mismanaged, ill-disciplined, poorly paid, and of course very inefficient. Agriculture is “yet in its infancy,” as a result partly of the oppression of the natives, partly of the expulsion of the Jesuits—who did more than any others to civilize the Indians—and partly of the restrictions on commerce, which now are less oppressive; yet the country is almost incredibly fertile. ”

“ It should be a firm principle of good government to protect and rectify the administration of these indirect taxes, especially those on tobacco and wine—not only because these will be sufficient to cover abundantly all the expenses of army and navy, but because in case of a war and the absolute cessation of trade the government will have this firm support for its existence; and therefore no hearing should be given to the suggestions and proposals of those persons who are craftily working to free the islands from those monopolies. ”

“ The Filipinas Islands, on account of the fertility of their land, their abundant rains, and the great number of animals for labor, constitute an agricultural colony; and to the readiness with which the country supplies the principal articles for human support has been due the rapid increase of its population. And although the Indians, as a general thing, only devote themselves to the cultivation of what they actually need for subsistence, the annual production so far exceeds the necessities of the people that very seldom has the failure or scarcity of provisions been experienced. ”

“ The next and lowest order of ecclesiastics are the Indian clergy (clerigos) ; they are in number from 800 to 1000, and though from the want of Spaniards, the administration of many large districts and towns is confided to them, they are as a body far from being worthy of such an important charge. The majority of them are ignorant to the last degree, proud, debauched, and indolent: in a word, they unite the vices of the priesthood to those of the Indian, and form a class of men who may almost be said to be distinguished by their vices only. ”

“ With India and the Malay Archipelago on the west and south, the islands of the fertile Pacific and the rising empires of the new world on the east, the vast market of China at their doors, their insular position and numerous rivers affording a facility of communication and defence to every part of them, an active and industrious population, climates of almost all varieties, a soil so fertile in vegetable and mineral productions as almost to exceed credibility ”

“ The extraordinary rise in prices—which during the last three years has reached a value double that from which the ability to sell at all times would enable the colony to gain a profit—and the consequent lack of commodities for supplying all the vessels, prevent them from returning in the following years; while the decline of prices below what is fair, caused by the non-arrival of ships, discourages large production in agriculture. The Indians are absolutely without capital and storehouses which would enable them to hold back their produce for another market. ”

“ The Indians, as a rule, have no title of ownership in the lands which they possess, and if any one has such it is a private document, signed by other Indians—who with the greatest readiness deny, change, and forge their signatures—or it will be simply a writing signed by the alcalde-mayor, a copy of which, if it remains in the court, will disappear or be mutilated, with equal readiness, by the Indian clerks of the alcalde, in whose charge the archives are—if indeed these are not entirely destroyed in the frequent fires which occur in the villages. ”

“ Moral or political injustice seldom fails to recoil on the head of the oppressor; and when the government of Manila allowed an indiscriminate massacre and pillage of European foreigners by the mob, and by their shameful lenity gave a tacit sanction to it, they taught the Indian, that he might with equal impunity attack them. The plunder then obtained is a premium to future violence ”

“ The stranger who is travelling through the country, no matter what be his nation or his religion,45 finds at every town the gates of the convent open to him, and nothing is spared that can contribute to his comfort and entertainment. They too are the architects and mechanists: many of them are the physicians and schoolmasters of the country, and the little that has been done towards the amelioration of the condition of the Indian, has generally been done by the Spanish clergy. ”

“ Hence, exclusive of some of the civil and military officers of government, the agents of the Company, and a few respectable merchants and priests, the remainder are but little qualified for select society, and there exists amongst them a want of moral discrimination, a toleration of publicly known vicious characters of both sexes, that is not a little embarrassing to the stranger. This is more particularly the case with the female part of society, with many of whom “era tentada la pobrecita por el demonio!” ”

“ On the coasts, and while a flotilla of gun-boats is maintained at an expense of upwards of half a million of dollars annually, there is no part safe from the attacks of the Malay pirates from Borneo, Sooloo, and Mindanao. These make regular cruises to procure slaves, and have even not unfrequently carried them off, not only from the bay of Manila,25 but even from within gun-shot of its ramparts! The very soldiers and sailors sent for their protection plunder them. ”

“ In fine, the settlement of foreigners in the islands would not be expedient, even for the sake of the advantages which their industry and arts would produce there; for works carried on always with foreign capital, on the account of foreigners, and by the agency of foreigners, would leave to the country very little benefit as compared to that from labor employed there by Spanish capital, and on the account and for the benefit of Spaniards. ”

“ The entrance of these persons causes trouble among the people of the islands: the Indians are easily influenced by white men, especially those who teach them to live in more freedom and insubordination to authority; foreigners of this sort are almost always of lax morals and dangerous political opinions, which are even more dangerous to “the Spaniards of the country, who, although more enlightened than the Indians, are more susceptible to such corruption.” ”

“ The cause, then, of their little progress is “because there is no security for property;” or in other words, the smallness of the salaries of the officers of justice, as well as of other members of government, and the profligacy inseparable from all despotic governments, have laid the inhabitants under that curse of all societies, venal courts of justice. Does an unfortunate Indian scrape together a few dollars to buy a buffalo, in which consists their whole riches? ”