Philippina

“ Especially valuable to the student in Philippiniana is the short description of the Philippines by Chao Ju-kua, who probably wrote in the thirteenth century, more than a century before the first European discovery. Chao Ju-kua’s information seems to have been obtained personally from Chinese traders to the Philippines, and although very imperfect and all too short, one can identify almost certainly the islands of Luzón, Mindoro, Mindanao, Paragua, and the Visayas. The people are slightly described; and various products of the islands are given and trading methods described. ”

“ In the Philippines the humane policy of the home government had no such powerful obstacles to contend with. Business was not developed. The natives were allowed to live the indolent life of the tropics. Compared with the results of English or Dutch colonization the conversion and civilization of the Filipinos is a most remarkable achievement. Notwithstanding the undeniable vices, follies and absurd illiberalities of the Spanish colonial régime, the Philippines were the only group in the East Indies that improved in civilization in the three centuries following their discovery. ”

“ The richest and most valuable collection of statistics relating to the Philippines, so at least acknowledged by experts, more reliable too than the Spanish government’s own work, is the Estado general of all the pueblos—Christianized settlements—in the islands, drawn up by the Dominican archbishop of Manila, Pedro Payo (Manila, 1886) , whereof the data were gathered by his vicars-forane and parochial-cures throughout the archipelago. While the most artistic map of Luzon, so styled by Retana, is the chart of that island (Madrid, 1883) , published in four sheets by Enrique D’Almonte y Muriel. ”

“ Every year a chief is elected, dependant for affairs of importance on the governor of the province, which latter, in his turn, depends on the governor of the Philippine islands. I confess that I have always considered the mode of government peculiar to the Philippines as the most convenient and best adapted for civilization. The Spaniards, at the period of their conquest, found it in full operation in the isle of Luzon.
I shall here enter into some details. Every Indian population is divided into two classes, the noble and the popular. ”

“ There are now about eight millions of people in the Philippines. How many were here when the Spanish came we do not know. The larger part of the people in the islands are of the Malay (mā ́lā) race. These were not the first dwellers in the country, but came from the Malay Peninsula, and it is likely that they had not been here more than two or three hundred years when the Spanish came. They are the 44people whose lives and acts make up most of what we call the “history” of the islands, and they are the people usually meant by the term “Filipinos.” ”

“ In these Philipinas your Majesty has some Spanish settlements; and in this city of Manila, the capital, and in the others, are usually about seven hundred men, and sometimes as many as eight hundred. Although your Majesty has ordained that reënforcements should be sent annually from Nueva Spaña, that has not been done; and, even when soldiers are sent, there are but few. And as, after their arrival here, they have no pay or any means of gain, they suffer great hunger and privation, and cannot endure more than the dry season. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Despite the settlement with Portugal, the rich Spice Islands to the south still attracted them, and there were soon revealed the fertile coasts of Siam and Cambodia, the great empire of China, the beautiful island of Formosa, and the Japanese archipelago. These, with their great populations and wealth, were more alluring fields than the poor and sparsely populated coasts of the Philippines. ”

“ Under this handicap the islands never were a self-supporting, much less an income-yielding, dependency. They were always a burden upon the treasury of New Spain. Their principal trade was with China and was in the hands of the Chinese. The vast majority of the pueblos were simple self-supporting communities of farmers and small artisans.
Secluded from the outside world, the domestic history of the Philippines is distinctively parochial in its character. There is little progressive political or economic evolution from generation to generation. ”

“ Until an inept bureaucracy was substituted for the old paternal rule, and the revenue quadrupled by increased taxation, the Filipinos were as happy a community as could be found in any colony. The population greatly multiplied; they lived in competence, if not in affluence; cultivation was extended, and the exports steadily increased.—Let us be just; what British, French, or Dutch colony, populated by natives can compare with the Philippines as they were until 1895? ”

“ Governmentally and strategically, the Philippine Islands, except Mohammedan Mindanao, which is a separate and distinct problem, may be described very simply and sufficiently as consisting of the great island of Luzon, on which Manila is situated, and the Visayan group.6 We are already familiar with the conditions in Luzon in December, 1898. You hear a great deal about the Philippine archipelago consisting of a thousand and one islands, but there are only eight that are, broadly speaking, worth considering here. The moment a jagged submarine ledge peeps out of the water it becomes an island. ”

“ No, the friars of the Philippines were different: elegant, handsome, well-dressed, their tonsures neatly shaven, their features symmetrical and serene, their gaze meditative, their expression saintly, somewhat rosy-cheeked, cane in hand and patent-leather shoes on their feet, inviting adoration and a place in a glass case. Instead of the symbols of gluttony and incontinence of their brethren in Europe, those of Manila carried the book, the crucifix, and the palm of martyrdom ”

“ The most peculiar feature of the old régime in the Philippines is to be found in the regulations of the commerce of the islands. In the Recopilacion de leyes de los reinos de las Indias, the code of Spanish colonial legislation, a whole title comprising seventy-nine laws is devoted to this subject. For thirty years after the conquest the commerce of the islands was unrestricted and their prosperity advanced with great rapidity. ”

“ It is remarkable, that the Indian administration of one of the worst governments of Europe, and that in which the general principles of legislation and good government are least understood,—one too, which has never been skillfully executed, should, upon the whole, have proved the least injurious to the happiness and prosperity of the native inhabitants of the country. This, undoubtedly, has been the character of the Spanish connection with the Philippines, with all its vices, follies, and illiberalities; and the present condition of these islands affords an unquestionable proof of the fact. ”

“ For the Philippine Islands a very bright future may be hoped. How soon prosperity and happiness will come to the country depends, however, more largely upon its own people than upon any outside influence. The Americans in the Philippines can only advise and teach; the actual work of building up the country, and of making it a power in the Orient, must be done by the Filipinos. ”

“ As to the increase of your Majesty’s dominion, there is no doubt that while you are master and lord of the Filipinas, your crown encircles and embraces all the world; for today your kingdom stretches on the eastern side from Portuguese India to Malaca, and between the point of the mainland of Malaca and the island of Samatra is the strait of Sincapura by which one enters the South Sea and goes to the above-named places and the Filipinas, while on the western side the coasts of Piru and Nuevaespaña border on the South Sea, whence one goes likewise to the Filipinas. ”

“ If ever a fair land has been cursed with the wearisome breed of fault-finders, both indigenous and exotic, that land is the Philippines, so it is indeed refreshing to turn from the dreary waste of carping criticisms, pragmatical “scientific” analyses, and sneering half-truths to a story pulsating with life, presenting the Filipino as a human being, with his virtues and his vices, his loves and hates, his hopes and fears. ”

“ As being one of the first of published books regarding the Philippines, it has especial value. Political, social, and economic phases of life, both among the natives and their conquerors, are treated. The futility of the Spanish policy in making external expeditions, and its consequent neglect of internal affairs; the great Chinese question; the growth of trade; communication with Japan; missionary movements from the islands to surrounding countries; the jealous and envious opposition of the Portuguese ”

“ It is a new departure, but not a matter for the panic or apprehension of conservatism, that the Stars and Stripes float as the symbol of sovereignty over a group of islands in the waters of Asia, that are equal to all the West Indies. If we are strangers there now we shall not be so long. We have a front on the Pacific Ocean, of three great States—Washington, equal to England; Oregon, whose grandeur rolls in the sound of her famous name, and incomparable California, whose title will be the synonym of golden good times forever. The Philippines are southwest from our western front doors. ”

“ We have said and statistics prove that it is impossible to exterminate the Filipino people. [96] And even were it possible, what interest would Spain have in the destruction of the inhabitants of a country she can not populate or cultivate, whose climate is to a certain extent disastrous to her? What good would the Philippines be without the Filipinos? Quite otherwise, under her colonial system and the transitory character of the Spaniards who go to the colonies, a colony is so much the more useful and productive to her as it possesses inhabitants and wealth. ”

“ At that time, that sea where float the islands like a set of emeralds on a paten of bright glass, that sea was everywhere traversed by junks, paraus, barangays, vintas, vessels swift as shuttles, so large that they could maintain a hundred rowers on a side (Morga) ; that sea bore everywhere commerce, industry, agriculture, by the force of the oars moved to the sound of warlike songs of the genealogies and achievements of the Philippine divinities. ”

“ The Visayans and their islands are touched upon, some little space being devoted to the first Spanish settlement at Cebú, whence the Spaniards move to Panay after the negotiations with and assault by the Portuguese under Pereira. More men and religious are needed to develop the Philippines and to christianize them thoroughly. ”

“ Under American rule there has been brought about in the Philippines an admirable state of public order, and life and property are to-day safe throughout practically the whole of an archipelago which, at the close of Spanish sovereignty, was harried by tulisanes, ladrones and Moros. ”

“ This province of Philipinas of the order of our father St. Augustine has enjoyed, from the time of its foundation at the conquest of these islands, the utmost peace in its ordinary government; and it is by virtue of this that it has accomplished so great results in the service of the two majesties [i.e., God and the king of Spain] —being always occupied in the conversion of these peoples, and in the direction of those who are converted; and devoting so much care to the fulfilment of its obligations, even when the results of their labors made their devotion so manifest. ”

“ We have now learned something of the different islands of the Philippine archipelago and of the possibilities that lie in them. Much has been done in the past to make this country a source of income to the Spanish crown; much, however, remains to be done, to make of the islands a country whose prosperity shall help the people themselves. ”

“ After travelling so far together, the reader will permit me to direct his attention to the geographical position and natural advantages of the Philippines, which are unequalled by any other islands in the whole eastern Archipelago. Their vicinity to the immensely populous empire of China is in itself enough to render them a most flourishing colony. ”

“ To the unselfish and heroic efforts of the early friars Spain in large measure owed her dominion over the Philippine Islands and the Filipinos a marked advance on the road to civilization and nationality. In fact, after the dreams of sudden wealth from gold and spices had faded, the islands were retained chiefly as a missionary conquest and a stepping-stone to the broader fields of Asia, with Manila as a depot for the Oriental trade. ”

“ From the amount of the tributes, however, referred to by these historians, and levied at different times, the evident conclusion is, that the Spaniards did not find the tenth part of the inhabitants, which are now in existence.
The geographical description of the Philippines is, that they are in the torrid zone, between five and nineteen degrees of northern latitude; the sun twice passes its zenith, and produces those vapours which, descending in copious showers, and being again absorbed by the earth, form fountains, hot springs, and large lakes. ”