Philippine Islands

“ There must be merchants in the Philippine Islands. There must be tradesmen, artisans, mechanics, workers in wood, iron, and leather, and followers of the arts and crafts known to civilization. If the Filipino people do not take up these lines of work, and carry them out well and wisely, outsiders will come in and monopolize them. They have already come to the archipelago. Moreover, they will continue to come, from China and Japan, from India and Ceylon, and from all the countries of Europe, if the people of the country do not themselves learn to take their places. ”

“ Everywhere is wealth of trees, clothing the mountains to their summits, and bordering the long green miles of ocean-shore.
On a smaller scale, but not less beautiful than lordly Luzon, are the many minor islands, such as Panay, Negros, Cebú, Sámar, and others of names that would be strange to foreign ears. Here there are no stretches of barren lands, no drought-stricken shores, as in some of the isles of the West, no flat and chalky fields like those of Barbadoes; and even the loveliest of the Antilles must yield the palm of beauty to these charming isles of the eastern ocean. ”

“ The seas shall teem with ships carrying the products of the islands to foreign shores, and bringing back full cargoes to supply the demands of the islanders, commerce steadily growing in amount as civilization awakens the natives to the perception of new wants.
Examples of a similar rejuvenation could easily be pointed out, and there is no conceivable reason why the Philippines should not be added to the list. These islands have been lavishly dealt with by nature; they have an industrious population; yet they have been allowed to remain for centuries in a semi-savage industrial condition ”

“ Some of the islands yield all kinds of spices which are carried away and distributed throughout the world. These islands are commonly designated in their books, descriptions, and sea-charts, as the great archipelago of San Lazaro, and are located in the eastern ocean. Among the most famous of them are the islands of Maluco, Céleves, Tendaya, Luzon, Mindanao, and Borneo, which are now called the Filipinas. ”

“ No word about the islands can be complete unless it touches upon the wonderful beauty of this country. This is a great part of the good inheritance of the people. It ought to quicken the pleasure and pride of every Filipino in his beautiful land. Its lofty mountains, its lovely plains and noble rivers, the rich verdure that clothes the country, all go to make up beautiful pictures everywhere. There is much that can and must be done to make the cities and towns more fit and beautiful places for people to live in; but for the outside country nature has done great things. ”

“ Land was given them for houses and hospitals; so they have founded two residences, where they are making great headway in the conversion of the Japanese, and the religious are very well treated. As the emperor himself [229] has for three years desired and insisted upon the commerce of the Philipinas with his realms, a ship has accordingly been sent each year from the islands to those of Quanto, with merchandise from China, and various articles of which they have more than enough in the aforesaid [Philippine] islands ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is probable, and almost incontestible, that the Philippine Islands were primitively peopled by aborigines, a small race of negroes still inhabiting the interior of the forests in pretty large numbers, called Ajetas by the Tagalocs, and Négritos by the Spaniards. Doubtless at a very distant period the Malays invaded the shores, and drove the indigenous population into the interior beyond the mountains ”

“ The stability of the Government of the Islands during a time of growing Filipino participation is a proof to the world that when the time comes for the government to be entirely in the hands of the Island’s inhabitants, both as to internal and external affairs, foreign commerce need not fear for loss of credit or trade, due to any of the great political upheavals which have been so common in other countries which were once colonies but are now independent. ”

“ In the beginning of the controversy there were many who believed that the Philippine Islands would become a source of profit to the United States. It was confidently predicted that a multitude of Americans would flock to the islands and find rich reward in the development of their resources. ”

“ The climate [of Mariveles] is very unhealthful, and the location is not a pleasant one as the island is shut in on all sides by thick forests, and because of the continual beating of the sea. There lived the venerable shepherd, meditating on the ingratitude of his sheep, venting his feeling in gentle sighs, and relieving his afflicted breast with tears. Thus was he found by four prebendaries of the Manila cabildo who went to console him, and to propose to him certain matters in behalf of the governor, which we shall detail later. ”

“ It is spoken and understood everywhere, not only by the above-mentioned natives of the island of Luzon, but by the natives of all the islands. From this fact those who know something concerning the past of these people infer that the other nations of the archipelago have long carried on trade and commerce with Manila. Because the island is the center of an infinite number of nations and barbarous people, some heathens and some Mahometans ”

“ He is most valiant and influential who has cut off most heads. No woman will marry any one who has not cut off some heads. They are so inhuman and churlish a race that they do not care whether those whom they kill are women, children, or men. They obstruct the most needed road in the island, and occupy the best land. They are near the province of La Pampanga, which is inhabited by an agricultural people, who support Manila. ”

“ This island is thickly populated and large. The greater and better part of it is still to be conquered, I would say from what I have seen of the villages and land. It does not seem to me that there will be any more resistance from any of them when they learn of the advantages of friendship with the Spaniards; for they have already been informed of the way in which those are treated who resist. To the present time, all that has been explored in this island is about fifty or sixty leagues along the coast from Manilla to Yvalón, [7] which is the landing-place for the ships sailing to Nueva Spaña. ”

“ Few people come from the other nations—Sian, Camboja, Borneo, Patan, and other islands—outside our government; and they immediately return in their vessels. Consequently, there is nothing special to be said of them, except that care is exercised in receiving and despatching them well, and seeing that they return quickly to their own countries.
Since I have told, in the short time at my disposal, the characteristics of the Filipinas Islands, and their customs and practices, it will not be inappropriate to discuss the navigation to them since it is made thither from Nueva España ”

“ The most northern land in the Philippines is Y'Ami Island, of the Batanes group; the most southern is Balut Island, of the Sarangani Islands, south of Mindanao; the most western is Balabac Island, north of Borneo; and the most eastern is Sancó Point, on the east coast of Mindanao. The archipelago is bounded on the north and west by the China Sea, on the east by the Pacific Ocean, and on the south by the Sea of Celebes and the coastal waters of Borneo. ”

“ There is to be said under this head, that the Philippine Islands are of natural riches almost without parallel. The great isle of Luzon teems with productions that have markets the world over, and it is commonplace for the savages in the mountains to come out of their fastnesses with nuggets of gold to make purchases. ”

“ American dominion has never been welcomed by the Filipinos. All the principal Christianized islands, practically representing the whole Archipelago, except Moroland, resisted it by force of arms, until, after two years of warfare, they were so far vanquished that those still remaining in the field, claiming to be warriors, were, judged by their exploits, undistinguishable from the brigand gangs which have infested the Islands for a century and a half. ”

“ It appears probable, from what we know of other islands, where these people are found gathered in the most inaccessible mountains, that these are the first ones that occupied all these islands; but, as they are more ancient and are so shut in, nothing more is known of their origin than what is evident from this land, connected by its islands in a chain with those of Burney, Macaçar, and Great Maluco. This nation maintains only one excellence—at the cost, [however,] of its brutal condition and wretched mode of life—namely, its liberty. ”

“ Whether we compare the condition of the natives of the other islands in the Eastern Archipelago or of the peasants of Europe at the same time the general well-being of the Philippine mission villagers was to be envied. A few quotations from unimpeachable witnesses, travelers of wide knowledge of the Orient, may be given in illustration and proof of this view. The famous French explorer of the Pacific, La Pérouse, who was in Manila in 1787, wrote: "Three million people inhabit these different islands and that of Luzon contains nearly a third of them. ”

“ Should we wish the Filipino people to judge of Americans by the drunken, truculent American loafers who infest the small towns of the Islands, living on the fruits of the labour of Filipino women, and who give us more trouble than any other element in the Islands? ”

“ Their boats are very narrow, and have only a counterweight at the opposite end, where they carry their sail. The sail is lateen, and woven from palms, in these craft do they venture forth intrepidly through those seas, from island to island, so that one would think that they had a treaty with wind and water. The ships en route to the Filipinas pass through these islands, at different latitudes at various times. So many boats go out to meet them, that they quite surround the ships. The natives try to trade water and the products of their islands for iron, the substance that they esteem most ”

“ On the east is the open ocean, and on the south the greatest of the archipelagos of the ocean, which is divided into live archipelagos. These are broken up into so many islands, kingdoms, and provinces, that one would believe that nature did not desire men to ascertain their number. Both Javas, our Malucas, Borneo, and Nueva Guinea are known; on the west, and at a distance of three hundred leguas, Malaca, Sian, Patan, Camboxa, Cochinchina, and other different provinces on the mainland of Asia. The Chinese abandoned living in our Filipinas, but not its trade ”

“ It produces considerable quantities of rice, palm-wine, and all manner of provisions. It has flourishing and wealthy settlements, on what is called the river of Panay. The chief one is Oton, which has a bar and port for galleys and ships, shipyards for building large ships, and a great amount of timber for their construction. There are many natives, who are masters of all kinds of shipbuilding. Near this island lies an islet eight leguas in circumference, which is densely populated by natives who are all carpenters. They are excellent workmen, and practice no other trade or occupation ”

“ Since the Philipinas Islands are so far away and distant, surrounded by so many great kingdoms of infidels, the entry and intercourse which the Chinese and Japanese enjoy in Manila, and their friendly relation with the natives, give us reason to fear that the former, allying themselves with the natives, may attempt some disturbance, as they are inclined to do. ”

“ They inhabit a chain of small islands, which extends from Paragua to Borney; some of them are Mahometans, and others heathen. But they [all] cause much damage to the Bisayan Islands, which they ravage without opposition—going so far as to carry away, in the year 1672, the alcalde-mayor Don José de San Miguel, as we have related in another place. They have a great advantage in the exceeding swiftness of their vessels, which enables them to find their defense in flight. Their confidence and boldness reached such a height that they even dared to infest the coasts of the island of Manila. ”

“ The Filipinas Islands, on account of their great extent, their advantageous location in the center of the commercial world of Asia, their considerable population, and the fertility of their soil—which is capable of yielding all the products which are grown between the two tropics—require from his Majesty’s paternal government a carefully planned system of measures which shall strengthen their peace and internal security, and at the same time advance their agriculture, industry, and commerce to that high degree to which they have been destined by Providence. ”

“ The old régime in the Philippines has disappeared forever. In hardly more than a generation the people have passed from a life which was so remote from the outside contemporary world that they might as well have been living in the middle ages in some sheltered nook, equally protected from the physical violence and the intellectual strife of the outside world, and entirely oblivious of the progress of knowledge. ”