Thomas C. Middleton

“ The Arte of a given dialect, as will be found true also in a measure for grammars and other school-manuals, will be recognized as a compendium of not only literary rules, but of many practical maxims of daily life, whereby the pupils are urged not only to correct speech, but to upright conduct as well through sobriety, piety to the Supreme Being, obedience to rulers, respect for parents and fellows, according to the noblest ideals of refined Christian manhood and womanhood. Thus, with grammar were taught ethics ”

“ Referring here to class-books in the Philippines, where from the earliest years of the conquest every pueblo had its school of primary instruction, it will not be irrelevant to point out the fact very stoutly that though education (as admitted by well-nigh every chronicler) was primitive in character,—and in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries where was it not? yet the course of instruction given in the common schools of bamboo-thatch was (as results amply testify) deep and solid enough for the intellectual calibre of the people. ”

“ Since, so far as known, Malaysia, however saintly, heroic, innocent, the same as our own aborigines, albeit now civilized for three centuries and upwards, has, despite the heartiest aid in teachers and funds, fairly lavished on them by Church and state, turned out no man of shining mark, no scholar, no artist, no genius in statecraft or commerce. The first college-institution with pretensions to higher courses of intellectual training was opened (formally at least) by the Jesuits in 1601, less than half a century, that is, after the arrival of Europeans in Luzon. ”

“ In his Bibliography three different titles (we may observe) bear the imprint of Manila, with the name of this city spelled according to the ancient aboriginal form, albeit but slightly varied from the present—“Maynila”—otherwise, as I have read it, “Mainilla,” a variant in orthography one encounters in old chronicles—a Tagal word (it seems) signifying a species of shrub or bush, in the Spanish rendered arbusto, that in 1571 was found to cover the site of the new city projected by the conquistadores, under the leadership of Miguel López de Legazpi. ”

“ However, accepting facts in the world of letters, as in the objective universe of God’s creation, as they stand, as we see them and know them, with the guidance of Retana himself, we now proceed (as promised) to a description of this Tagal grammar, the earliest specimen of Philippine typography known at least to be extant. ”

“ The earliest Tagal Arte, so styled in chronicles, for what with the universal destructive touch of time, and in Luzon especially, the voracity of that pest of librarians, the anay,—an ant that in a few hours, it is said, will devour a library,—cases as well as books, not a sole copy, apparently, has survived, was composed in 1580 by the Augustinian voyager and missionary, Agustín de Albuquerque, fourth superior of his brotherhood in the Philippines, and printed at Manila in 1637. ”

“ For the scholar unacquainted with Latin, the most serviceable work for learning Tagal is the Essay on Tagal Grammar (Manila, 1878) , composed by the Recoleto missionary and linguist, Toribio Minguella de la Merced, whose Grammar (in the same language) for the use of children (Manila, 1886) was adopted for schools by the Spanish government.
While another helpful work for the study of that same dialect is the Tagal catechism, by the Augustinian, Luis de Amezquita, a popular booklet, first printed in 1666, and (in its thirteenth edition) in 1880, at Manila. ”

“ On the botany of the Philippines, a monumental work of the highest character is the Philippine Flora (classified according to the sexual system of Linnæus) , by the Augustinian, Manuel Blanco, printed at Manila, first in 1837, again in 1845, and finally republished a third time in 1877–1883, in superb style, in four folio volumes of text in Spanish and Latin, embellished with two volumes of colored lithographed plates descriptive of the plants, flowers and fruits of those islands. ”

“ Before closing this brief digression on manuals of piety, I must observe what will prove very useful, I judge, to the scholar, that with works of the first class, as grammars and dictionaries, is to be associated on shelf and desk a goodly number of works of another class—books and treatises that bear the name Arte = Aids to Learning, whereof you will encounter very many in Retana. ”

“ Of these brotherhoods, who thus in Malaysia, as in other quarters of the globe, brought forth so brilliant an array of scholars and philanthropists, the first-named, the Augustinians, with Legazpi, crossing two oceans and one continent therefore, found a home in the Philippines at the conquest of that archipelago in 1565; in 1577 the first Franciscans reached the isles; in 1581, the Dominicans, with the first bishop of Manila (by actual possession) , Domingo Salazar, member of the same brotherhood, accompanied too by some Jesuits, while the Recoletos first crossed the Pacific in 1611. ”

“ Zúñiga also tells all worth knowing of the abominable rites practised among Luzonians,—of their Nonos, Duendes, the Pag-Papasipin, Tigbalag, Patianac, Bongsol, and Bilao. Much of what he says regarding the attachment of these peoples to unclean and impious ceremonies he has gathered from that rarest of books—one copy only believed to be extant, at the colonial museum of the Augustinians at Valladolid (in Spain) , the Práctica (Manila, 1731) , of Father Tomás Ortiz, one-time missionary of that brotherhood in China, then for thirty years resident in Luzon, where he died in 1742. ”

“ In Pangasinán, or Caboalan, dialect used in the province of the same name in Luzon, we have another linguistic treasure—the Arte of Mariano Pellicer, of the same brotherhood, reprinted at Manila, in 1862, from the edition of 1690, whereof in the course of time, as writers tell us, it came to pass that up to about the middle of the present century only one copy survived. ”

“ In his latest bibliography,1 where the number of published works in each of the twenty-seven dialects of the Philippines is set down by Retana, you will observe from a study of his lists, that though in many dialects there are no grammars so entitled, or other scientific aids to learning a given idiom, yet there are many works of religious cast printed therein,—hand-books of practical religion, which you will find useful beyond measure to linguists. ”

“ But alas! it is feared that through the grim fate of war a like disaster, as has wrecked many another fair shrine of learning and art in countries even nearer our own, has befallen our studios and laboratories at Malabón and Mandaloya, that therefrom their inmates—orphans, instructors and care-takers are now wanderers, with their treasures ravished, their homes destroyed. [31]
13.—Then we meet with a work printed in 1896, at the revolutionary press at Imus, in Cavite province, in Luzon,—a proclamation (in Tagal) —the only imprint bearing the name of this pueblo. ”

“ The oldest piece of what we may style distinctively Philippine literature, whereof, moreover, only one copy is believed to be extant, albeit printed abroad in Europe, is an Account of Legazpi’s Expedition from Mexico to Cebú in 1565, sent from Seville to one Miguel Salvador, of Valencia, and printed one year later at Barcelona. This Copia—thus entitled in Retana—heads his list of Philippina, a study of which, with the supplement (p. 505 et seq.) , discloses the fact that of the books that head his Biblioteca, the first nineteen were printed abroad—eighteen in Europe ”

“ The last imprint of Guadalupe—a Tagal Catechism, by Luis de Amezquita, a brother missionary of Pérez—bears the date 1890.
9.—The earliest sample of Cebú print—the island where, under Legazpi, three centuries earlier, civilization first found a footing in Malaysia—is a work that elicits from Retana remarkable praise, in view of the difficulties that attended its printing; the paper—such was the dearth in the Visayas of proper material for good press-work—being of five or six different qualities in body, make, color. ”

“ A collection of books on the subject of the Philippines is being gradually accumulated, and it seems desirable both to furnish the readers in the Library with information upon the subject, and also to take an opportunity to counteract the popular misapprehension as to what has been done by the residents of the Philippines in the way of literature. ”

“ If Aduarte is right in his assertion that Juan de Vera was “the first printer in the Philippines,” then the press was at work prior to the year 1610, and the Tagal Arte (just described) is not the forerunner of Philippine imprints. ”

“ The other repository of singular and very curious information is a treatise in Visaya-Cebuano and Spanish by another Recoleto evangelist, Manuel Vilches (Manila, 1877) , written similarly in benefit of Indian sick, the Manual, that is, of the Visaya Physician, or native doctor—mediquillo, as in the Philippines these votaries of Hippocrates are styled, a work praised by Retana as replete with Indian plant-lore. ”

“ In the Ibanag tongue, otherwise Ibanay or Cagayan, the dictionary by the Dominican linguist, José Bugarín, and companions (Manila, 1854) , we have what Retana styles a masterpiece of philological craft, “the first and (in fact) only vocabulary of that dialect” whereof of all Philippine tongues “the orthography is the most difficult to manage.” In another place, however (p. 102) , he has named another Ibanag dictionary [21] (Manila, 1867) , constructed from Dominican MSS., to which similarly (by error I suppose) he has awarded seniority of press. ”

“ No study in mere humanities, it seems, could be more fascinating to your all-round scholar, and more fruitful especially to anthropologist, than with the guidance of Retana and other like gifted students of Philippina, to enlarge somewhat on this bibliographical theme, since in letters chiefly do men of upright mind find equipment for meditation of spirit, main source of all healthful, sober, intellectual recreation and work. ”

“ For no matter how much the Malay,—Javan, Bornese, Sumatran, as well as Philippinian—has been civilized—Christianized, so far (as must be conceded) he has not become Caucasian in mind, nor will, nor spirit. ”

“ The Tagal Arte (Sampaloc, 1745) , along with a manual (also in Tagal) for the administration of the Sacraments, composed by the Franciscan missionary, Sebastián de Totanes, “is” (according to our bibliographer) “the best edition of the best grammar” written by missionaries of that order.
In Ilocano, another of the unnumbered dialects of Luzon, there is a good dictionary (Manila, 1849) , by the Augustinian scholar, Andrés Carro (aided by others of his brotherhood) —the first work of its kind, reprinted only a few years ago, in 1888. ”

“ With the foregoing extravaganzas of literature we note that the series of Philippine periodicals, which in Retana’s own collection number (he says) one hundred and twelve, in their entirety do not surpass one hundred and sixty. Of his own he gives the titles (Biblioteca, xxiii–xxviii) from Del Superior Gobierno, the first newspaper issued in the islands, with the imprint of Manila, August 8, 1811, down to the latest—Thé Kon Leche (Tea and Milk) —a four-page weekly satirical periodical, with illustrations (in two colors) , published at Manila in 1898. ”

“ Speaking of the heroism of these self-exiled churchmen and worshipers of the Christian Minerva in Asiatic tropics, I quote the words of the famed French savant, Elisée Reclus, a witness, by the way, in no measure partial to cloister life. In his Universal Geography4 he declares that “Los Filipinos son de los pueblos mas civilizados del Extremo Oriente. Los han civilizado los frailes”—that is, “The Philippines are one of the most civilized people of the Far East. The friars have civilized them.” [24]
1 Biblioteca, xxix–xxxi. ”

“ With no originals at hand, we feel disinclined to pursue this topic further as to the priority of printing in the islands, nor do we care to press the question, whether, namely, the first book of Philippine manufacture was Bugarín’s dictionary of 1630, Blancas’ Arte of 1610, or the Lubao tratadillos of 1606.
In our own colonies (we may observe) printing was introduced, first at Cambridge in Massachusetts, in 1638 ”

“ Then, following some ancient Tagal characters, comes the grammar in chief, which has been printed (as is obvious) 4 from type, bearing distinct marks of use. Wherefore, since we have now concluded Retana’s description of this Arte, we, in turn, may observe—the inference seems lawful—that our Bataan press of 1610 had been at work before that year, and Father Blancas’ Arte is not the earliest Philippine imprint. ”

“ To the assertion (in the MS.) , relative to the Augustinian press, may be appended an item or so in regard to the art-establishment of that order at Lubao, in Pampanga province in Luzon, which I have picked up from one of their chroniclers, Gaspar de San Agustín, a Tagal and Visaya linguist, who died, some say at Tondo, others at Manila, in 1724, after nearly fifty years’ mission-service in the islands. ”

“ In Tagal the works most highly praised are the following: The Critical Treatise on Tagalisms (Mexico, 1742) , by the Franciscan linguist, Melchior Oyanguren, the only work known wherein that tongue is contrasted on scientific lines with the classic Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and Mandarin Chinese. The author was moved to prepare his manual for the instruction of his brother missionaries prior to their entrance into their field of work in Luzon. ”