EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS AND CONDITIONS

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS AND CONDITIONSPublic instruction; condition of the sciences of letters and artsAt the head of the public instruction in the Philippines, one finds the university of Manila, calledLa Real y Pontificia Universidad de Santo Tomas[i.e., the royal and pontifical university of Santo Tomás]. Its foundation as a college goes back to the first year of the seventeenth century. Its first benefactors were Archbishop Benavides of Manila, and Bishop Soria of Nueva Segovia. Both of them made it a gift of their library, and, in addition, the first one gave it 1,000 pesos and the second 1,800. In 1619, the house was entrusted to the religious of the Order of St. Dominic. The following year the courses of public instruction were opened there. Finally, on November 27, 1623, King Felipe IV took it under his special protection. In the year 1645, the same monarch obtained a bull from Pope Innocent X, which erected the college of Santo Tomás of Manila into a university. The statutes governing that institution today were not drawn up until a long time after, that is to say, in the year 1781. Instruction there is entrusted to the doctors, licentiates, and masters (maestros). At the present time there are 21, bothdoctors and licentiates, and no masters. Latin, logic, physics, metaphysics, ethics, canon law, and theology are taught there. In addition to that, some time afterward there was founded a chair of Roman law and one of Spanish law. The number of students who attend that university is now 581, namely, sixty-one collegiates, fifteen capistas, who are maintained at the expense of the college, and 505 day students.1The costume of the collegiates is a long robe of green silk with black, sleeves, abeca, a kind of red scarf folded in two parts and crossing over the breast and drawn up behind the shoulders, a black collar with a white border and a cap like that worn by the law advocates of Spain.If the university of Manila is the chief institution of public instruction, it is not the most ancient. From June 8, 1585, the king had ordered the foundation of a college, in which the sons of the Spanish inhabitants of the archipelago might be reared in the love of virtue and letters under the direction of the fathers of the Society of Jesus. But it was only in 1601 that that order could be carried out by the institution of the college of San José. The first collegiates numbered 13, but that number was soon raised to 20, all of whom were the sons or the near relatives of the first authorities of the country. Pope Gregory XV granted that college the right of conferring degrees of philosophy and theology. The funds of that institution are drawn from several estates, which have been conceded to it at different times. They are sufficient to provide for the maintenance of the vice-rector and of the masters, in the annual pay which isgranted to them, as well as to the rector, and for the maintenance of 22 free pupils. Some pay students are also admitted there at the rate of 50 piastres [i.e., pesos] per year. Philosophy, rhetoric, and Latin are taught there. Upon the suppression of the Society of Jesus, that college was closed until 1777. The costume of the students is a red gown with black sleeves and a black cap.The college of San Juan de Letran commenced by being a primary school, founded in 1630 at the expense of a charitable man, whose name, Juan Gerónimo Guerrero, deserves to pass to posterity. He consecrated himself to gathering together in that institution young orphan boys, and to teaching them reading, writing, and the Christian doctrine. He was also able, thanks to the abundant alms which the inhabitants of Manila put into his hands, to provide for the maintenance and clothing of all those children. Before dying that kind-hearted man took the habit of St. Dominic, and entrusted the pious foundation which he had undertaken into the hands of that order. The latter erected it into a college, for which it obtained the protection of the king and some funds for its support. By means of a sum of 600 piastres which the alcalde of Pangasinan is charged to give annually to a Dominican who collects it, that college supports gratuitously 25 orphan boys. It also admits an unlimited number of boarders, both Indians and mestizos, who pay 50 piastres per year. It finally receives under the name of sacristans, porters, librarians, etc., several young students who do not pay anything. The total number of those who receive education in that college under different titles is today 239 persons. Their costume is blue with blacksleeves. A maltese cross is placed at the right on their beca.The charity school (escuela pia) of Manila was established in 1817 under the direction of a special assembly composed of distinguished inhabitants, in the number of which there was a member of the chapter of the cathedral, and one of the tribunal of commerce. The inhabitants who had assembled supplied the funds which were to serve for the maintenance of that useful establishment. But those funds having been used in trade according to custom they had the same fortune that so many other considerable sums and charitable foundations of that capital have had, namely, they were lost because of the revolution of Mexico. The assembly, being dissolved on account of lack of funds, the city took the charity school under its charge. Reading, writing, Christian doctrine, Spanish grammar, and slate arithmetic, are taught there. The pupils must be Spaniards; the sons of well-to-do parents pay 2 piastres per month; those who are less well-to-do, 1 piastre; and the poor pay nothing. In order to be admitted there a ticket from the president of the dissolved assembly was sufficient. At present the regidor is charged in his turn with the management of the establishment which delivers the ticket. The number of pupils at the present time is 50, of whom 26 receive instruction free.In pursuance of reiterated instances from the tribunal of commerce a marine school was opened in Manila in 1820, by royal authorization. Arithmetic, the elements of geometry, rectilinear, and spherical trigonometry, cosmography, and piloting, besides practical geometry applied to the makingof hydrographical maps and plans, with the manner of designing them, were taught there. The whole, conformed to the course of study for the navy, was composed, according to the order of the king, by the chief of the royal fleet, Don Gabriel Ciscar. The expenses of the institution are supplied by the funds calledavería. The tribunal of commerce decides as to the admission of pupils and those who distinguish themselves on graduating to become captains of trading ships, making the voyage to China and India, and even going as far as America and to Europa. This proves that, whatever the Spaniards say of it, the young men of Manila are as susceptible to instruction as those of the mother country. In fact, there is no doubt that if the studies of this school were more solid and less theoretical, most remarkable persons would be seen to graduate from it.Finally, in 1840, a commercial school has been established, which is held in the rooms of the tribunal [of commerce]. Bookkeeping, commercial correspondence, and the living languages are taught there free of charge. By a choice quite extraordinary, a marked preference is given to the French language, although that language is one that is spoken the least in that part of the world; since unfortunately our relations there are very few, as we have no longer any need to go there after sugar.Very well equipped libraries exist in all the convents, and those of the university and of the colleges offer resources to the students who receive their education in those establishments.This is all we have to say in regard to the institutions consecrated to the education of the young men. That of the young women has not been forgotten.The seminary of Santa Potenciana was founded in the year 1589 by Governor Dasmariñas, by virtue of a royal order. Article 27 of that ordinance contains the following: “Upon arriving at the Filipinas Islands you shall ascertain how and where, and with what endowment, a convent for the shelter of girls may be founded, so that both those who should come from here and those born there may live in it and so that they may live modestly, and after being well instructed, may go out therefrom to be married and bear children.”2The worthy governor was so zealous in carrying out the wishes of the king that, in the year 1593, the convent was established in the church of San Andres. A new royal ordinance of June 11, 1594 approved the regulations of it, which bore on the conduct to be observed in the parlor, on the duties of the chaplain, who was to be more than forty years old, and who was to be, at the same time, the manager of the house, on the customs of both pupils and the superior and mistress. It was to be suitable, but modest. The king took charge of the furnishing thereof. The governor was authorized to fix the sum which was to be paid by the women who desired to enter the convent in order to be cloistered there. That sum was to be very moderate.There exists no longer any copy of the first rule of that house, whose archives perished in the terrible earthquake of 1645, when ten or twelve pupils lost their lives. New rules were drawn up and approved in 1696, and remained in force until 1823, at which time they were revised.The school is established at present in a house which was bought for its use by the public treasury,namely, the ancient locality of the arsenal. The treasurer also furnishes the expenses of a small chapel, those of their medical service, of pharmacy, of the infirmary, of the clothing of the pupils, and of six serving girls, the total sum amounting to 700 piastres per year, besides the support of a sacristan, four fagot-gatherers, and one woman to go for provisions. The treasury pays for the support of one superior, of one portress, and twenty-four collegiates, 1½ reals (one franc) per day for each one. And they are given besides, from the royal magazines, 46 baskets ofpinaguarice, of 15 gantas per basket, 25 quintals of wood, and 17 gantas of cocoanut oil for lights.After the foundation of the confraternity of the Santa Misericordia, the latter also supported many poor Spanish orphan girls. It caused those girls to be reared either at Santa Potenciana or in private houses. But in 1632, a house having been bought in order to gather them all there together, the confraternity founded the school of Santa Isabel. The rules drawn up in 1650 were entirely changed in 1813. The number of the pupils in this institution is at present 105, who are admitted under divers titles and conditions. The boarders pay 60 piastres annually. The others get their education free. Day pupils are also admitted there, but they are not allowed to communicate with those who live in the house. The teaching is quite elementary. The service is furnished by twelve servant girls for the interior, and eight men for the outside work.In the preceding chapters, the description of thebeaterios3has been seen, of which the majority are dedicated to the education of poor young girls.One can see, after what we have just said, that education in the Philippines, both of the children of the country and of the mestizos and Indians of both sexes, is not so greatly neglected as certain persons pretend, and that the colony has made, on the contrary, from the earliest times the greatest efforts for the instruction of the people. Even in the smallest villages the Indians find facilities for learning to read and write. For everywhere one finds primary schools which are supported by the people. On the other hand, the aptness of the Indians is quite remarkable. From the most tender age they can be seen trying to draw their letters with a sharpened bamboo either on the sand or on the green banana leaves. Also many excellent copyists can be found among them, who are skilful in imitating any kind of writing, designs, or printed characters. Among others, there is mentioned a missal book which was copied by an Indian and sent to one of the Spanish kings. It is asserted that it was impossible to distinguish it from the original. They also copy geographical maps with rare exactness.It follows, then, that the instruction of the Indians is far from being backward, if one compares it with that of the popular classes in Europe. Nearly all the Tagálogs know how to read and write. However, in regard to the sciences, properly so called, very little progress has been made in them among the Indians of the Philippines. Some mestizos alone have a slight smattering of them, and those among the Indians who have received orders know Latin. The most erudite are without doubt those who, having studied at the university of Santo Tomás, have embraced the career of the bar. Among them arecounted advocates worthy of being placed by the side of the most celebrated in Spain.In regard to what concerns literature, there is a Tagálog grammar and dictionary, as well as a work calledarte, which is a kind of polyglot grammar, of the Tagálog, Bicol, Visayan and Isinayan. All these works, and in general everything that appears in one of the languages of the country, are published by the care of the religious, who have at their disposition the printing house of Santo Tomás, and who have the means of meeting the expenses of the printing, which the Indians could not do. Both at Manila and in its environs there are several printing houses for the use of the public. They are the presses of Nuestra Señora de Loreto at Sampaloc, which issues grammars, dictionaries, works of history, etc. There was formerly published at Manila a newspaper calledEl noticioso Filipino. Today it appears there only as [a paper of] the prices current in Spanish and in English. At our departure the establishment of a new newspaper was beginning.4The literary works consist of pieces in verse, sometimes on very weighty subjects. Thus, for example, the “Passion of our Lord” has been translated into Tagálog verse. Then there are tragedies, which as we have mentioned above are excessively long.5They often contain the entire life of a king. There are, furthermore, little poems,corridas, epithaliums, and songs. These last especially are very numerous and have special names, such ascomintang de la conquista, thesinanpablo, thebatanguiño, thecavitegan.6Not only are the words of these songs, but also the melodies, national, and the Indians note the music of them with prodigious cleverness. All the Indians, in fact, are naturally given to music and there are some of them who play five or six instruments. Also there is not a village, however small it be, where mass is not accompanied by music for lack of an organ. The choice of the airs which they play is not always the most edifying. We have heard in the churches the waltzes of Musard, and the gayest airs of the French comic opera.Thus, as we have just said, the Indians are born musicians. Those who before knew only the Chinese tam-tam, the Javanese drum, and a kind of flute of Pan, made of a bit of bamboo, today cultivate the European instruments with a love which comes to be a passion. They are not, for the most part, very strong in vocal music, for they have very little or no voice. Nevertheless, their singing offers in our opinion a certain character of originality which is not unworthy of attention.7Scarcely had the Spaniards conquered that archipelago than its inhabitants tried to imitate the musical instruments of Europe, and theviguela, a kind of guitar having a very great number of strings, but which is not always the same, soon became their favorite instrument. They manufactured it with a remarkable perfection. And besides, they themselves made the strings.Thebandolonis another guitar, but smaller; having twenty-four metallic strings joined by fours. They are very skilful in playing that instrument, and they make use either of one of their finger nails, which they allow to grow to a very great length, or of a little bit of wood. We do not know from what nation they have borrowed that instrument, which we have never seen in Spain.The music of the villages of which we have spoken is generally composed of violins, of ebony flutes, or even of bamboo in the remote provinces, and of abajo de viguela, a large guitar of the size of a violon-cello, which is played with a horn or ebony finger expressly made [for that purpose]. They draw from it very agreeable sounds. That music, somewhat discordant, is not often wholly without something agreeable in it. We cannot help admiring men who can reach that point without having taken lessons, and of whom the majority have perhaps never had occasion to meet an artist.The military music of the regiments of the garrison at Manila, and in some large villages of the provinces, has reached a point of perfection which is astonishing. We have never heard better in Spain, not even in Madrid. It is at the square of the palace that, on Thursdays, Sundays, and fête days, at eighto’clock in the evening, at the time when the retreat is beaten, the society of Manila and the foreigners and travelers, assemble to hear the concert. The Indians play there from memory for two or three hours alternately, from great overtures of Rossini and Meyerbeer, or contradances, and vaudevilles. They owe the great progress which they have made for some time in their military music to the French masters who direct them. These same musicians are also summoned to the great balls, where they execute pieces among the contradances played by other instruments.We have stated that the vocal music of the Indians is not equal to that of their instrumental music, which is especially true of the quality of their voice, which is sharp and shrill. All their airs are applied to words of love; they are regrets, and reproaches, addressed to a faithless swain, and sometimes allusions drawn from the history of the ancient kings, or from holy Scripture.Sometimes a number of Indians gather in the house of one of them and form a concert of amateurs. At that time they sing the Passion to the accompaniment of a full orchestra. At other times five, seven, or ninebagontaos(young bachelors) assemble at night in the beautiful clear moonlight and run about the villages in the vicinity of Manila, where they give serenades to their sweethearts, theirdalagas, ordonzellias[i.e.,doncella(maidens)], whom the Tagálogs who are of more distinguished rank and who speak Spanish call theirnovias[i.e., sweethearts]. One could imagine nothing more singular and more picturesque than to see during those brilliant nights of the torrid zone, when the moon sheds floods ofsilver light, and the balmy breeze tempers the burning heat of the atmosphere, to see, we say, the Indians croucheden cuclillasfor entire hours without getting tired of that position, which we would find so uncomfortable, singing their love under the windows of their mistresses.Numerous orchestras of musicians are summoned at any hour of the day to the houses of Manila in order to have all sorts of ancient and modern dances there: the old rigodons,8quadrilles, the English contradances, waltzes, gallops, and without doubt the polka will not be long in penetrating there also. It is rare among the Indians, and especially among the mestizos, that a baptism, marriage, or any ceremony is celebrated without music and dancing. The burial of children (criaturas) is always accompanied by music.One further word on the extraordinary talent of the Indians for musical execution. One day we accompanied Monsieur Auguste Barrot, our worthy consul, the alcalde of the province of Laguna, on a tour which he was making for the election of gobernadorcillos. We reached Calaüan, where we stopped to sup and sleep at the house of a respectable cura whose house, like that of all ecclesiastics, was open to all travelers without exception. Travelers are there fed and lodged as long as they please to stop and without any cost to them. Now, at the house of this cura we heard an Indian who played with equal perfection on seven different instruments, on which he executed the most difficult pieces. When he had finished, the good cura, in order to amuse us,performed some sleight of hand tricks and juggling, and showed us a theater of marionnettes, which he had himself mounted.Thecomintang, which we have before mentioned as a national song, is also a dance. While the musicians are playing and singing it an Indian and an Indian woman execute a pantomime which agrees with the words. It is a lover who is trying to inflame the heart of a young girl, about whom he runs while making innumerable amorous movements and greetings in the fashion of the country, accompanied by movements of the arms and of the body, which are not the most decent, but which cause the spectators to break out into loud and joyous laughter. Finally, the lover, not being able to succeed, feigns to be sick and falls into a chair prepared for him. The young girl, frightened, flies to his aid but he rises again very soon cured, and begins to dance and turn about with her in all directions, to the great applause of those present.Thepampamgois another dance which is especially remarkable by the movements of the loins, and the special grace which the women show in it. It is accompanied by very significative clapping of the hands.In the Visayas they dance thebagay, the music and song of which are langorous and melancholy, like that of the comintang. It is also a lover and a mistress who dance, the while they mingle their motions with cries.The Montescos of the provinces of the north of the island of Luçon also dance to the sound of their bamboo flutes, but their gestures and their postures are so indecent that for shame a woman never dances except with her husband.The Negritos in their dances hold in their hands their bow and arrows and utter horrible cries. They make frightful contortions and leaps to which in the country one has given the name ofcamarones, comparing them to those that the sea-crabs make in the water. They end their dance by shooting their arrows into the air, and their eyesight is so quick that they sometimes kill a bird on the wing. Theirouroucay, or song of the mountains, is a very pleasing melody consisting of six measures which are repeated time and time again, which if it were arranged for chorus, would make a fine effect.Thefandango, theçapateado, thecachucha, and other Spanish dances have been adopted by the Indians, and they do not lack grace when they dance them to the accompaniment of castinets, which they play with a remarkable precision. They also execute some dances of Nueva España, such as for example thejarabès, where they show all the Spanish vivacity with movements of their figure, of their breasts, of their hips, to right and left forward and backward, and pirouettes, whose rapidity is such that the eye can scarce follow them.Drawing and painting are much further advanced than one would believe among the Indians of the Philippines. Without taking into account the fine geographical maps of Nicolas de Ocampo, we can cite the miniatures of Denian, and Sauriano, the pictures of churches, and the oil portraits of Oreco. Those works are indeed far from being perfect, for the artists to whom they are due have never had any masters, but they present marks of great talent, and the portraits have a striking resemblance [to the original]. We seize this occasion to testify all ourgratitude to the two mestizo designers, Juan Serapio Transfiguracion Nepomuceno, and his son, for the services which as artists they have been pleased to render us with so much kindness.1These statistics show that Mas has been the chief authority followed by Mallat.↑2Inasmuch as this citation was translated from Mas by Mallat, we have used Mas’s words in preference to retranslating Mallat.↑3See Mallat, i, pp. 367–369.↑4Retana mentions a paper,El Noticiero Filipino, which he conjectures to have been founded in 1838, following Francisco Diaz Puertas, who mentions it. Retana refers to this passage of Mallat. See hisPeriodismo filipino(Madrid, 1895), for data regarding the various newspapers and periodicals of the Philippines. This also appeared in instalments in Retana’s magazineLa Política de España en Filipinas.↑5See “Drama of the Filipinos” by Arthur Stanley Riggs inJournal of American Folk-Lore, xvii, no. lxvii; and Barrantes’sEl teatro tagalo(Madrid, 1889). Mr. Riggs has ready for the press also a book on the drama of the Filipinos.↑6“In the atlas is found theComintango de la languista, noted with the accompaniment of piano and guitar, to which we have joined the words.” (Mallat, ii, p. 247, note). Bowring reproduces this music at the end of hisVisit to the Philippines.↑7In regard to the musical ability of the Filipinos, see the slightly adverse comments of Archbishop Nozaleda, inSenate Document, no. 190, 56th Congress, 2d session, 1900–1901, pp. 98–100.↑8A dance allied to the quadrille, but with different and more graceful figures.↑PRIVILEGES GRANTED TO STUDENTSRoyal order dictating rules for the incorporation, in the universities and audiencias of the colonies, of the studies and titles obtained in those of España, in the course of jurisprudence, and vice-versa.Ministry of Grace and Justice:Your Excellency:Some doubts having been occasioned by the difference existing between the plan of studies in force in the Peninsula, and that which is observed in the islands of Cuba and Puerto-Rico, in regard to whether those youth, who have devoted themselves to the career of jurisprudence, may utilize, in one of these points of the monarchy, the courses taken and the titles obtained in the other; and the queen (whom may God preserve) desiring while the government is bringing to a head the fitting reforms,1to give the advisable harmony to the above-cited systems of education, to avoid the difficulties and prejudices caused by this uncertainty, has deigned to resolve, after hearing the opinion of the royal Council, that the following orders be observed in regard to this point.[Points 1 and 2 refer to Cuba and Puerto-Rico.]3. Students, licentiates, or advocates of the Peninsula who go to continue their career or exercise their profession in the domains of the colonies shall receive credit for the courses which they shall have taken, and the degrees which they shall have obtained shall be recognized whenever they prove them legally, as well as the titles which shall appear to be proved by the competent decision of the supreme Tribunal of Justice or the Ministry of Public Instruction, according to their origin, and derivation.4. The courts in the Antillas and Philippinas shall continue to observe the present practice of not admitting to the exercise of the profession of lawyer any Peninsular lawyer, unless he first makes the presentation of his titles, before the respective royal Audiencia. But when this legal requirement is observed, the assembly shall have no further power to submit the interested person to any exercise or examination with the object of assuring themselves of his fitness, but shall, on the contrary, consider their powers of intervention limited to declaring the legality of his title, once it has been proved according to the ruling of the preceding disposition, and to order that it be recognized and respected throughout their territory.5. If, because of the distance or inclemencies of the navigation, considerable harm should come to licentiates, who, when going to the Peninsula, should lose their diplomas and documents, the Audiencia, opening an informatory writ, shall be able to allow them to exercise their profession for a determined period until the presentation of the documents in fitting form.I write this to your Excellency by royal order, for your information and the advisable results. May God preserve your Excellency many years. Madrid, December 2, 1847.Arrazola[Addressed: “Regent of the royal Audiencia and Chancillería of Manila.”]1See notes from Barrantes, inVOL. XLVI; and the decree of December 20, 1863.↑SUPERIOR SCHOOL OF PAINTING, SCULPTURE, AND ENGRAVINGDrawing and painting, for which the natives of the Filipinas show remarkable aptitude, began to be taught in theSociedad Económica de Amigos del País[i.e., Economic Society of Friends of the Country],1and in a more ample and official manner in the old School of drawing and painting created in 1849. Some notable artists have graduated from that school, who have, by their productions, honored their country in España and other nations, and obtained prizes in various contests.2By royal decrees of August and December, 1893, this institution was reorganized. The section of thefine arts was separated from the professional school of arts and crafts, and the superior school of painting, sculpture, and engraving was created. Teaching was amplified, and instruction given in various art subjects, including color composition modeling, and drawing from the antique and from nature, including figure drawing.3This academy was supported from local funds, a small part being contributed from the general budget. There were no enrolments or academic courses, and hence, no examinations. The pupils could attend as many years as they wished.4After its reorganization in 1893, the general attendance was from 200 to 300, and in spite of the poor instruction, some good work was done.51TheSociedad Económica de Amigos del Paiswas founded in 1813 for the purpose of encouraging interest in the arts, sciences, commerce, and industries. Alexander A. Webb, former American consul at Manila, says of it. “It is claimed on its behalf that it has accomplished a vast amount of good, but there is not that degree of energy and activity manifested in its work to be seen in similar organizations in some other countries.” It had a library of about 2,000 volumes on the arts and sciences, natural history, and agriculture. SeeReport of Commissioner of Education, 1897–98, p. 980.↑2The Filipino artist, Juan Luna y Novicio was a pupil of this academy. He also studied in Madrid, Paris, and Rome, and some of his paintings are conserved in the largest galleries. The total number of pupils enrolled in this academy from 1872 to 1883 was 5,485. SeeCensus of Philippines, iii, p. 615.↑3Archipiélago Filipino, i, p. 349;Census of Philippines, iii, p. 614.↑4Census of Philippines, iii, p. 614.↑5SeeReport of Philippine Commission, 1900, i, pp. 39, 40. Drawing was introduced into the Philippine schools in 1903 upon a systematic basis. The Filipinos are interested and apt in this work, and show talent in original conception and artistic execution. The work is carried on by a staff of nine Filipino drawing teachers, one American teacher for the secondary and American schools, and a supervisor. The Filipino teacher is as competent as the American in this work. SeeReport of Philippine Commission, 1904, pt. 3, p. 890.↑ATENEO MUNICIPALIn 1859, the fathers of the Society of Jesus came anew to these islands to evangelize the savage tribes of Mindanao.1While they were preparing for that enterprise, they were given control (December 10)2of the Escuela pía (charity school) of Manila, which then contained 33 pupils under the auspices of the municipality and the protection of the captain-general, then Fernando Norzagaray. By January 2 of the following year the pupils numbered 124. All the elementary primary studies were taught, as well as most of those of secondary instruction, and superior education, in accordance with the regulations then in force. In 1865 it was declared a college of secondary instruction under the title of “Ateneo Municipal [i.e., Municipal Athenaeum] of Manila,” by the Madrid government. Some years later it had 200 boarding pupils and a large number of day pupils, and it was impossible to accommodateall those who wished to enter from all parts of the archipelago. In addition to the studies which constitute the course leading to the degree of bachelor of arts, studies of application, to agriculture, industry, and commerce were given, and titles of commercial experts, agricultural experts, and later, mechanical experts were issued.There were also classes in drawing, vocal and instrumental music, and gymnastics. Expenses were defrayed by the municipality. Statistics show that between the years 1865–1882, a large per cent of those who have entered for the various branches have graduated, the per cent of those graduates studying agriculture being the lowest. In that period 173 A. B. degrees, 40 titles of commercial expert, and 19 titles of agricultural expert had been conferred. The year 1896–1897 showed a total enrolment of 1,176, of whom 510 belonged to the department of primary instruction, 514 to the general studies of secondary instruction, and 152 to the studies of application. The school enjoyed great prestige from its foundation to the close of the Spanish régime, as the methods followed there were better and more modern than any other in the archipelago.3It had a faculty of 24.41The first band of Jesuits who arrived in the middle of 1859, consisted of six fathers and four brothers, their superior being José Fernandez Cuevas (see Montero y Vidal, iii, p. 272). The royal decree readmitting them was dated March 21, 1852 (Barrantes,Instrucción primaria, p. 103).↑2That charge was approved by a superior decree dated December 15 of the same year (Montero y Vidal, iii, p. 272). Examinations were in charge of the Dominicans (Ed. Report for 1899–1900, ii, p. 1621).↑3The work of the Jesuits in this school is praised highly by Tomás G. del Rosario in theCensus of Philippines, iii, p. 596.↑4SeeReport of Commissioner of Education, 1899–1900, ii, p. 1621.↑EDUCATIONAL SUGGESTIONSSUPERIOR INSTRUCTION1University of Manila. Naval School.The university has many enemies and some arguers who do not oppose it because it is directed by Dominican friars, but because they believe the study of law inadvisable. This opinion is anti-liberal and does not merit refutation. Even if it did merit it, the moment would never be opportune for a democratic revolution, which even runs the danger of going too far in its generalizations, as we have already stated. The greater convenience of a school of medicine and surgery, professions in which the Indians would probably give better results than in the forum, might be maintained. But since true progress does not consist in destroying, but in reforming and improving gradually, we are inclined as the generality of those who have been in Filipinas, to the realization of the secularization which is demanded in regard to superior public instruction, and which appears to be the desire of the government at this time, by means of the establishmentin the university itself of that school, to which the Dominican fathers, who have made the greatest sacrifices for their country, would not hesitate to offer themselves. And even if the study of pharmacy were added to it, it would also be convenient. That science must adjust itself to the conditions of the Indian, and there is an unquestioned need for it there; for, although its principal subdivisions have been studied by some religious, such as botany, mineral waters, etc., there is still much to do. It is the general opinion that the Philippine fields with their innumerable and unknown herbs offer remedies for all diseases, but the science is given up to chicanery, and the empiricism of themediquillos. The Indians accept Spanish medicines under no consideration. Therefore, it is necessary to regenerate the class of the former by prohibiting intrusions into the field of the profession, and by obliging them to study it from its beginnings in the university of Manila under Spanish professors, who ought to be those of military health [Sanidad militar]—men who acquire great skill in the hospitals and come to be specialists in the diseases of the country. The suppression of some obstacles which still exist in regard to the admission of foreign professors will also be an excellent measure. In regard to pharmacy, of which there exist no regular establishments outside of Manila, Cavite, Cebú, and, I believe, Cagayán, great rigor must be exercised in removing from it abuses and ignorance which give place to the most grave consequences. As there exists no authoritative personnel, wandering peddlers easily obtain a permit from the superior government to add to their work the sale of drugs. At times they are subjectedto light examinations by the subdelegate. The consequence is that the provinces are swamped with counterfeit and dangerous products when they are not objects of perfumery, which the poor natives swallow as chemical products. In Pampanga we have seen a preparation of lettuce or of some similar vegetable sold as a tailor’s chalk [jaboncillo de sastre], which was of more use for washing the hands than for modifying the nervous contractions of the muscles.Hence, the intrusions of the mediquillo and of thematandá(the old man) who with true enchantments and superstitious remedies cures the poor sick people, cannot be combated with efficacy. In Batangas dead flies that were killed by the fresh paint of a saint have been prescribed, and brick dust where the mark of a foot had appeared to the native curas as a miraculous thing imprinted by the Virgin who was coming to adore a cross near by. The pills of Holloway and the products of foreign charlatanism reap their harvest.Hence also, the poor parish priests have to serve as physicians and apothecaries in extreme cases. Very frequently the mediquillo when he sees that it is a case of exhaustion, absconds or disappears, and then what can a poor friar do at the bedside of a sick person who dies without human aid? Consequently, the literature of the convents has produced many [medical] works, some of them of merit, destined to be used as avade mecumin these ordinary cases. Even notions of obstetrics (the science of childbirth) are given in some of those books, since there are theologues who counsel proceeding to the most risky operations in order to be able tobaptize the fetus. In theEmbriologia[i.e.,Embriology] of Father Sanz,2one reads of cases truly inconceivable, and in theIlustracion filipina,3a periodical which was published in our time, appeared articles in regard to the mediquillos and midwives, which by themselves alone would authorize a reform of those professions so interesting to humanity. In difficult childbirth it is very common for the operator to press down on the abdomen of the sick woman, and to have recourse to other proceedings similar to it. The first month after birth the Indian children pass in a perpetual martyrdom, for they are rubbed hourly with very hot cocoanut oil, a custom doubtless preserved from the woods, where in their savage state they make of the children a flexible serpent which escapes from the hand.Since surgery, in spite of being an almost useless science in Filipinas, where the great agricultural and industrial works which cause mutilations and accidents do not exist, for the Indian when he works never does it with the enthusiasm and abnegation which we see in Europa, but very tranquilly and carefully looking out beforehand to what he exposes himself—surgery, we repeat, properly so called—does not exist where there are no Spanish operators. For the bite of a monkey, which would disappear in a fortnight by cauterization, we have seen so many plasters applied and so many waters from miraculous springs (among them a bandage soaked in holy water) that they have very likely killed the sick person,since he had suffered two long years when we left the province. If the oils and balsams from those oleaginous plants (and among them there are some truly wonderful) produced no effect, the mediquillo, losing his bearings, soon has recourse to the charms and devilments which bring a sick one to the grave.There is another educational institution in Manila which is susceptible of great development and of producing vast advantages for the country, namely, the naval school. Poorly organized and almost always worse directed, it only graduates pupils with great pretentious, who aspire from the first moment to posts in the warships, where they are quickly confounded with the very least predicaments. If this institution on the other hand were well organized as a school of pilots, it could supply useful men to the great number of boats engaged in the coasting trade. The native sailor is bold even to folly in the ordinary accidents of navigation, but timorous and irresolute in exigencies, and absolutely lacks means to escape from them. Hence they go with the greatest impassiveness through those labyrinths of hidden rocks and reefs, which fill the sea of Mindoro and the Calamianes in pancos and paraos which scarcely can be used for the navigation of rivers and creeks. But at the first puff of a strong wind, which, although it does not break it, tears the helm from their hands at the first movement of that stormy sea where cataclysms are more frequent than ashore, the poorarraez[i.e., master] as the captain there is still called, harassed and disturbed, either kneels down with all his crew to invoke God, placing on the helm hisantin-antin(amulet, a kind of scapulary which noIndian is without during these voyages, and which has more of paganism than Christianity), or takes refuge in the hatchway in order not to behold the dangers that he is running. If any Spaniard is in the boat, the command is assuredly given to him, although he understands less of sea-affairs than the said captain. That has happened more than once to all of us who have traveled much from one island to another, and surely not even in boats of a certain importance, almost brigantines, when the master is a Tagálog, have we ever met with sea-compass, barometer, or glass, or any other of the instruments most indispensable for navigation.This is enough to prove the importance which ought to be given to the naval school, whose organization must be very imperfect, since even yet its results are almost nil. It depends provisionally on the superior civil government, a circumstance which appears absurd to us. Like this there exist many things which we have neither time nor scientific capacity to unfold. It belongs to the government to do now what is proposed, namely, reform the public instruction of Filipinas.SCHOOLS OF PRIMARY LETTERSThe primary school, the most interesting among all peoples, and more yet among backward peoples, was found in our time in an incipient condition, if one considers it as the government desires it, and as a great number of royal decrees resolved. Primary instruction in Castilian was alone known in Manila and some suburbs of the capital, but in the dialects of the country there existed boys’ schools in all the villages, and in the majority of them, also schoolsfor girls. It is a fact that such schools did not count on more elements than the pay assigned by the government for the teachers,4and the parish priests together with the provincial chiefs had to decide on the means for the construction and conservation of the edifices and furnishings, the former paying in addition their salaries to the teachers of the girls, or paying them from the funds of the churches according to the wealth of each one.This system gave the consequent result of there not being any suitable directors for complete primary instruction. But in reading, writing, and religion, in the majority of the villages of the archipelago, there was found a greater number proportionally than in España, for the missionaries alwaysconsidered that education as the first element of civilization and adhesion of those inhabitants to the crown of Castilla.The government tried to improve and make general that education, but in the Spanish language.5For that purpose the assembly appointed in 1861 made some regulations, taking as its base the creation of a normal school, which has had realization, and according to Señor Barrantes, in the above-cited work, it seems that instruction has improved somewhat in what relates to the Spanish.The question of whether the parish priests or missionaries have opposed those rules is of little importance to us. As in all disputable cases there are partisans who favor and those who oppose—not the advantage which the generalization of the Spanish language might be, for all people recognize and admit this hypothesis, but only the results which the generalization of the Spanish language would produce,reckoning on the slight capacity of the natives to utilize the good that they might read in the idiom of Cervantes, and bearing in mind the political make-up of that country and the evil effects which would be produced by the daily publications which would arrive [from España], and which are incapable of enlightening the little but submissive intelligence of those inhabitants, yet always sufficient to excite the passions of men who would easily confuse rights with individual duties, giving a worse result than that which the history of our ancient colonies registers.As we do not know of this department in the present circumstances more than that which the above-cited work brings to light, we shall limit ourselves to calling the attention of the government so that it may introduce in that department all the improvements possible, extending the normal school, which gives very slight results for a people of five millions, and proving whether this normal school, organized with a mixture of the language of the country and of the Spanish and by creating one school in each group of provinces belonging to the same language, would give a more positive result in regard to instruction, and one even more efficacious for the propagation of the Spanish by printing works in two columns in the two languages.6What the archipelago lacks are men and women teachers to give instruction in the primary schools. Industrial teachers, professorships for foremen and assistants for public works and master masons would produce a great result in that country. Lastly, letall the generals bear in mind what the various ancient decrees rule to the effect that a charge shall be made to them in their residencias for their neglect in public instruction.1Edmond Plauchut, writing inRevue des Deux Mondesfor 1877, xx, p. 910, says: “The history of superior instruction, like that of primary, is only the dry relation of a furious struggle between two religious orders, that of the friars, and that of the Jesuits.”↑2TheEmbriologia sagrada(Manila, 1856), by Gregorio Sanz.↑3The first number of this fortnightly paper appeared in Manila, in March, 1859, and its last issue, December 15, 1860. It is but rarely found complete. Retana praises it highly. SeePolitica de España en Filipinas, iii, pp. 103–105.↑4Schools exist in all the villages. The teacher is paid by the government, and usually receives two dollars [i.e., pesos] per month without either lodging or board. In large villages, the pay is as high as three and one-half dollars, but he must pay an assistant out of that. The schools are under the supervision of the parish priests. Reading and writing are taught, the instruction being in Spanish. The teacher is properly required to teach his scholars Spanish, but he himself does not know it. On the other hand, the Spanish officials do not understand the native languages. The priests, moreover, have no inclination to alter these conditions, which are very useful for their influence. Almost the only Indians who know Spanish are those who have been in the service of Europeans. A sort of devotional primer is read in the native speech (Bicol) at first, and later the Christian doctrine. The reading book is called Casayayan. On an average, half of the children attend school, usually from the seventh to the tenth year. They learn to read somewhat, and some learn also a little of writing, but they forget it soon. Only those who later enter service as clerks write easily, and most of them have a good hand. Some pastors do not allow boys and girls to attend the same school, in which case they also pay a special schoolmistress at the rate of one dollar per month. The Indians learn to reckon with great difficulty. They generally rake shells or stones to help them, which they heap up and then count. See Jagor’sReisen in den Philippinen(Berlin, 1873), pp. 128, 129.↑5“The Spanish government was really anxious that all Filipinos should speak the Spanish language, as it is understood that the use of a common language is the manner of forming a national spirit and sentiment, the only thing that can preserve and unite in constant friendship people of different races. Nevertheless, the monastic orders were always decidedly opposed to the Spanish language being spoken in Philippine territory, because their interests would have been greatly injured if such language had become general throughout the archipelago, as from that time they would have ceased to be the intermediaries between the people and the authorities and would no longer be required by either, which would reduce their great influence with both parties.... As a consequence of all this the Spanish language did not become general, and due to the diversity of dialects in the country and the lack of books in these dialects, education went along a hard and difficult path. Some officials of the Spanish government assisted the friars in this work.” See Tomás del Rosario’s article inCensus of Philippines, iii, p. 594. For the friar side of this question, see the statements of Fathers Navarro and Zamora, which will appear in the appendix to ourVOL. XLVI.↑6See appendix toVOL. XLVIfor the regulations of the government normal school.↑

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS AND CONDITIONSPublic instruction; condition of the sciences of letters and artsAt the head of the public instruction in the Philippines, one finds the university of Manila, calledLa Real y Pontificia Universidad de Santo Tomas[i.e., the royal and pontifical university of Santo Tomás]. Its foundation as a college goes back to the first year of the seventeenth century. Its first benefactors were Archbishop Benavides of Manila, and Bishop Soria of Nueva Segovia. Both of them made it a gift of their library, and, in addition, the first one gave it 1,000 pesos and the second 1,800. In 1619, the house was entrusted to the religious of the Order of St. Dominic. The following year the courses of public instruction were opened there. Finally, on November 27, 1623, King Felipe IV took it under his special protection. In the year 1645, the same monarch obtained a bull from Pope Innocent X, which erected the college of Santo Tomás of Manila into a university. The statutes governing that institution today were not drawn up until a long time after, that is to say, in the year 1781. Instruction there is entrusted to the doctors, licentiates, and masters (maestros). At the present time there are 21, bothdoctors and licentiates, and no masters. Latin, logic, physics, metaphysics, ethics, canon law, and theology are taught there. In addition to that, some time afterward there was founded a chair of Roman law and one of Spanish law. The number of students who attend that university is now 581, namely, sixty-one collegiates, fifteen capistas, who are maintained at the expense of the college, and 505 day students.1The costume of the collegiates is a long robe of green silk with black, sleeves, abeca, a kind of red scarf folded in two parts and crossing over the breast and drawn up behind the shoulders, a black collar with a white border and a cap like that worn by the law advocates of Spain.If the university of Manila is the chief institution of public instruction, it is not the most ancient. From June 8, 1585, the king had ordered the foundation of a college, in which the sons of the Spanish inhabitants of the archipelago might be reared in the love of virtue and letters under the direction of the fathers of the Society of Jesus. But it was only in 1601 that that order could be carried out by the institution of the college of San José. The first collegiates numbered 13, but that number was soon raised to 20, all of whom were the sons or the near relatives of the first authorities of the country. Pope Gregory XV granted that college the right of conferring degrees of philosophy and theology. The funds of that institution are drawn from several estates, which have been conceded to it at different times. They are sufficient to provide for the maintenance of the vice-rector and of the masters, in the annual pay which isgranted to them, as well as to the rector, and for the maintenance of 22 free pupils. Some pay students are also admitted there at the rate of 50 piastres [i.e., pesos] per year. Philosophy, rhetoric, and Latin are taught there. Upon the suppression of the Society of Jesus, that college was closed until 1777. The costume of the students is a red gown with black sleeves and a black cap.The college of San Juan de Letran commenced by being a primary school, founded in 1630 at the expense of a charitable man, whose name, Juan Gerónimo Guerrero, deserves to pass to posterity. He consecrated himself to gathering together in that institution young orphan boys, and to teaching them reading, writing, and the Christian doctrine. He was also able, thanks to the abundant alms which the inhabitants of Manila put into his hands, to provide for the maintenance and clothing of all those children. Before dying that kind-hearted man took the habit of St. Dominic, and entrusted the pious foundation which he had undertaken into the hands of that order. The latter erected it into a college, for which it obtained the protection of the king and some funds for its support. By means of a sum of 600 piastres which the alcalde of Pangasinan is charged to give annually to a Dominican who collects it, that college supports gratuitously 25 orphan boys. It also admits an unlimited number of boarders, both Indians and mestizos, who pay 50 piastres per year. It finally receives under the name of sacristans, porters, librarians, etc., several young students who do not pay anything. The total number of those who receive education in that college under different titles is today 239 persons. Their costume is blue with blacksleeves. A maltese cross is placed at the right on their beca.The charity school (escuela pia) of Manila was established in 1817 under the direction of a special assembly composed of distinguished inhabitants, in the number of which there was a member of the chapter of the cathedral, and one of the tribunal of commerce. The inhabitants who had assembled supplied the funds which were to serve for the maintenance of that useful establishment. But those funds having been used in trade according to custom they had the same fortune that so many other considerable sums and charitable foundations of that capital have had, namely, they were lost because of the revolution of Mexico. The assembly, being dissolved on account of lack of funds, the city took the charity school under its charge. Reading, writing, Christian doctrine, Spanish grammar, and slate arithmetic, are taught there. The pupils must be Spaniards; the sons of well-to-do parents pay 2 piastres per month; those who are less well-to-do, 1 piastre; and the poor pay nothing. In order to be admitted there a ticket from the president of the dissolved assembly was sufficient. At present the regidor is charged in his turn with the management of the establishment which delivers the ticket. The number of pupils at the present time is 50, of whom 26 receive instruction free.In pursuance of reiterated instances from the tribunal of commerce a marine school was opened in Manila in 1820, by royal authorization. Arithmetic, the elements of geometry, rectilinear, and spherical trigonometry, cosmography, and piloting, besides practical geometry applied to the makingof hydrographical maps and plans, with the manner of designing them, were taught there. The whole, conformed to the course of study for the navy, was composed, according to the order of the king, by the chief of the royal fleet, Don Gabriel Ciscar. The expenses of the institution are supplied by the funds calledavería. The tribunal of commerce decides as to the admission of pupils and those who distinguish themselves on graduating to become captains of trading ships, making the voyage to China and India, and even going as far as America and to Europa. This proves that, whatever the Spaniards say of it, the young men of Manila are as susceptible to instruction as those of the mother country. In fact, there is no doubt that if the studies of this school were more solid and less theoretical, most remarkable persons would be seen to graduate from it.Finally, in 1840, a commercial school has been established, which is held in the rooms of the tribunal [of commerce]. Bookkeeping, commercial correspondence, and the living languages are taught there free of charge. By a choice quite extraordinary, a marked preference is given to the French language, although that language is one that is spoken the least in that part of the world; since unfortunately our relations there are very few, as we have no longer any need to go there after sugar.Very well equipped libraries exist in all the convents, and those of the university and of the colleges offer resources to the students who receive their education in those establishments.This is all we have to say in regard to the institutions consecrated to the education of the young men. That of the young women has not been forgotten.The seminary of Santa Potenciana was founded in the year 1589 by Governor Dasmariñas, by virtue of a royal order. Article 27 of that ordinance contains the following: “Upon arriving at the Filipinas Islands you shall ascertain how and where, and with what endowment, a convent for the shelter of girls may be founded, so that both those who should come from here and those born there may live in it and so that they may live modestly, and after being well instructed, may go out therefrom to be married and bear children.”2The worthy governor was so zealous in carrying out the wishes of the king that, in the year 1593, the convent was established in the church of San Andres. A new royal ordinance of June 11, 1594 approved the regulations of it, which bore on the conduct to be observed in the parlor, on the duties of the chaplain, who was to be more than forty years old, and who was to be, at the same time, the manager of the house, on the customs of both pupils and the superior and mistress. It was to be suitable, but modest. The king took charge of the furnishing thereof. The governor was authorized to fix the sum which was to be paid by the women who desired to enter the convent in order to be cloistered there. That sum was to be very moderate.There exists no longer any copy of the first rule of that house, whose archives perished in the terrible earthquake of 1645, when ten or twelve pupils lost their lives. New rules were drawn up and approved in 1696, and remained in force until 1823, at which time they were revised.The school is established at present in a house which was bought for its use by the public treasury,namely, the ancient locality of the arsenal. The treasurer also furnishes the expenses of a small chapel, those of their medical service, of pharmacy, of the infirmary, of the clothing of the pupils, and of six serving girls, the total sum amounting to 700 piastres per year, besides the support of a sacristan, four fagot-gatherers, and one woman to go for provisions. The treasury pays for the support of one superior, of one portress, and twenty-four collegiates, 1½ reals (one franc) per day for each one. And they are given besides, from the royal magazines, 46 baskets ofpinaguarice, of 15 gantas per basket, 25 quintals of wood, and 17 gantas of cocoanut oil for lights.After the foundation of the confraternity of the Santa Misericordia, the latter also supported many poor Spanish orphan girls. It caused those girls to be reared either at Santa Potenciana or in private houses. But in 1632, a house having been bought in order to gather them all there together, the confraternity founded the school of Santa Isabel. The rules drawn up in 1650 were entirely changed in 1813. The number of the pupils in this institution is at present 105, who are admitted under divers titles and conditions. The boarders pay 60 piastres annually. The others get their education free. Day pupils are also admitted there, but they are not allowed to communicate with those who live in the house. The teaching is quite elementary. The service is furnished by twelve servant girls for the interior, and eight men for the outside work.In the preceding chapters, the description of thebeaterios3has been seen, of which the majority are dedicated to the education of poor young girls.One can see, after what we have just said, that education in the Philippines, both of the children of the country and of the mestizos and Indians of both sexes, is not so greatly neglected as certain persons pretend, and that the colony has made, on the contrary, from the earliest times the greatest efforts for the instruction of the people. Even in the smallest villages the Indians find facilities for learning to read and write. For everywhere one finds primary schools which are supported by the people. On the other hand, the aptness of the Indians is quite remarkable. From the most tender age they can be seen trying to draw their letters with a sharpened bamboo either on the sand or on the green banana leaves. Also many excellent copyists can be found among them, who are skilful in imitating any kind of writing, designs, or printed characters. Among others, there is mentioned a missal book which was copied by an Indian and sent to one of the Spanish kings. It is asserted that it was impossible to distinguish it from the original. They also copy geographical maps with rare exactness.It follows, then, that the instruction of the Indians is far from being backward, if one compares it with that of the popular classes in Europe. Nearly all the Tagálogs know how to read and write. However, in regard to the sciences, properly so called, very little progress has been made in them among the Indians of the Philippines. Some mestizos alone have a slight smattering of them, and those among the Indians who have received orders know Latin. The most erudite are without doubt those who, having studied at the university of Santo Tomás, have embraced the career of the bar. Among them arecounted advocates worthy of being placed by the side of the most celebrated in Spain.In regard to what concerns literature, there is a Tagálog grammar and dictionary, as well as a work calledarte, which is a kind of polyglot grammar, of the Tagálog, Bicol, Visayan and Isinayan. All these works, and in general everything that appears in one of the languages of the country, are published by the care of the religious, who have at their disposition the printing house of Santo Tomás, and who have the means of meeting the expenses of the printing, which the Indians could not do. Both at Manila and in its environs there are several printing houses for the use of the public. They are the presses of Nuestra Señora de Loreto at Sampaloc, which issues grammars, dictionaries, works of history, etc. There was formerly published at Manila a newspaper calledEl noticioso Filipino. Today it appears there only as [a paper of] the prices current in Spanish and in English. At our departure the establishment of a new newspaper was beginning.4The literary works consist of pieces in verse, sometimes on very weighty subjects. Thus, for example, the “Passion of our Lord” has been translated into Tagálog verse. Then there are tragedies, which as we have mentioned above are excessively long.5They often contain the entire life of a king. There are, furthermore, little poems,corridas, epithaliums, and songs. These last especially are very numerous and have special names, such ascomintang de la conquista, thesinanpablo, thebatanguiño, thecavitegan.6Not only are the words of these songs, but also the melodies, national, and the Indians note the music of them with prodigious cleverness. All the Indians, in fact, are naturally given to music and there are some of them who play five or six instruments. Also there is not a village, however small it be, where mass is not accompanied by music for lack of an organ. The choice of the airs which they play is not always the most edifying. We have heard in the churches the waltzes of Musard, and the gayest airs of the French comic opera.Thus, as we have just said, the Indians are born musicians. Those who before knew only the Chinese tam-tam, the Javanese drum, and a kind of flute of Pan, made of a bit of bamboo, today cultivate the European instruments with a love which comes to be a passion. They are not, for the most part, very strong in vocal music, for they have very little or no voice. Nevertheless, their singing offers in our opinion a certain character of originality which is not unworthy of attention.7Scarcely had the Spaniards conquered that archipelago than its inhabitants tried to imitate the musical instruments of Europe, and theviguela, a kind of guitar having a very great number of strings, but which is not always the same, soon became their favorite instrument. They manufactured it with a remarkable perfection. And besides, they themselves made the strings.Thebandolonis another guitar, but smaller; having twenty-four metallic strings joined by fours. They are very skilful in playing that instrument, and they make use either of one of their finger nails, which they allow to grow to a very great length, or of a little bit of wood. We do not know from what nation they have borrowed that instrument, which we have never seen in Spain.The music of the villages of which we have spoken is generally composed of violins, of ebony flutes, or even of bamboo in the remote provinces, and of abajo de viguela, a large guitar of the size of a violon-cello, which is played with a horn or ebony finger expressly made [for that purpose]. They draw from it very agreeable sounds. That music, somewhat discordant, is not often wholly without something agreeable in it. We cannot help admiring men who can reach that point without having taken lessons, and of whom the majority have perhaps never had occasion to meet an artist.The military music of the regiments of the garrison at Manila, and in some large villages of the provinces, has reached a point of perfection which is astonishing. We have never heard better in Spain, not even in Madrid. It is at the square of the palace that, on Thursdays, Sundays, and fête days, at eighto’clock in the evening, at the time when the retreat is beaten, the society of Manila and the foreigners and travelers, assemble to hear the concert. The Indians play there from memory for two or three hours alternately, from great overtures of Rossini and Meyerbeer, or contradances, and vaudevilles. They owe the great progress which they have made for some time in their military music to the French masters who direct them. These same musicians are also summoned to the great balls, where they execute pieces among the contradances played by other instruments.We have stated that the vocal music of the Indians is not equal to that of their instrumental music, which is especially true of the quality of their voice, which is sharp and shrill. All their airs are applied to words of love; they are regrets, and reproaches, addressed to a faithless swain, and sometimes allusions drawn from the history of the ancient kings, or from holy Scripture.Sometimes a number of Indians gather in the house of one of them and form a concert of amateurs. At that time they sing the Passion to the accompaniment of a full orchestra. At other times five, seven, or ninebagontaos(young bachelors) assemble at night in the beautiful clear moonlight and run about the villages in the vicinity of Manila, where they give serenades to their sweethearts, theirdalagas, ordonzellias[i.e.,doncella(maidens)], whom the Tagálogs who are of more distinguished rank and who speak Spanish call theirnovias[i.e., sweethearts]. One could imagine nothing more singular and more picturesque than to see during those brilliant nights of the torrid zone, when the moon sheds floods ofsilver light, and the balmy breeze tempers the burning heat of the atmosphere, to see, we say, the Indians croucheden cuclillasfor entire hours without getting tired of that position, which we would find so uncomfortable, singing their love under the windows of their mistresses.Numerous orchestras of musicians are summoned at any hour of the day to the houses of Manila in order to have all sorts of ancient and modern dances there: the old rigodons,8quadrilles, the English contradances, waltzes, gallops, and without doubt the polka will not be long in penetrating there also. It is rare among the Indians, and especially among the mestizos, that a baptism, marriage, or any ceremony is celebrated without music and dancing. The burial of children (criaturas) is always accompanied by music.One further word on the extraordinary talent of the Indians for musical execution. One day we accompanied Monsieur Auguste Barrot, our worthy consul, the alcalde of the province of Laguna, on a tour which he was making for the election of gobernadorcillos. We reached Calaüan, where we stopped to sup and sleep at the house of a respectable cura whose house, like that of all ecclesiastics, was open to all travelers without exception. Travelers are there fed and lodged as long as they please to stop and without any cost to them. Now, at the house of this cura we heard an Indian who played with equal perfection on seven different instruments, on which he executed the most difficult pieces. When he had finished, the good cura, in order to amuse us,performed some sleight of hand tricks and juggling, and showed us a theater of marionnettes, which he had himself mounted.Thecomintang, which we have before mentioned as a national song, is also a dance. While the musicians are playing and singing it an Indian and an Indian woman execute a pantomime which agrees with the words. It is a lover who is trying to inflame the heart of a young girl, about whom he runs while making innumerable amorous movements and greetings in the fashion of the country, accompanied by movements of the arms and of the body, which are not the most decent, but which cause the spectators to break out into loud and joyous laughter. Finally, the lover, not being able to succeed, feigns to be sick and falls into a chair prepared for him. The young girl, frightened, flies to his aid but he rises again very soon cured, and begins to dance and turn about with her in all directions, to the great applause of those present.Thepampamgois another dance which is especially remarkable by the movements of the loins, and the special grace which the women show in it. It is accompanied by very significative clapping of the hands.In the Visayas they dance thebagay, the music and song of which are langorous and melancholy, like that of the comintang. It is also a lover and a mistress who dance, the while they mingle their motions with cries.The Montescos of the provinces of the north of the island of Luçon also dance to the sound of their bamboo flutes, but their gestures and their postures are so indecent that for shame a woman never dances except with her husband.The Negritos in their dances hold in their hands their bow and arrows and utter horrible cries. They make frightful contortions and leaps to which in the country one has given the name ofcamarones, comparing them to those that the sea-crabs make in the water. They end their dance by shooting their arrows into the air, and their eyesight is so quick that they sometimes kill a bird on the wing. Theirouroucay, or song of the mountains, is a very pleasing melody consisting of six measures which are repeated time and time again, which if it were arranged for chorus, would make a fine effect.Thefandango, theçapateado, thecachucha, and other Spanish dances have been adopted by the Indians, and they do not lack grace when they dance them to the accompaniment of castinets, which they play with a remarkable precision. They also execute some dances of Nueva España, such as for example thejarabès, where they show all the Spanish vivacity with movements of their figure, of their breasts, of their hips, to right and left forward and backward, and pirouettes, whose rapidity is such that the eye can scarce follow them.Drawing and painting are much further advanced than one would believe among the Indians of the Philippines. Without taking into account the fine geographical maps of Nicolas de Ocampo, we can cite the miniatures of Denian, and Sauriano, the pictures of churches, and the oil portraits of Oreco. Those works are indeed far from being perfect, for the artists to whom they are due have never had any masters, but they present marks of great talent, and the portraits have a striking resemblance [to the original]. We seize this occasion to testify all ourgratitude to the two mestizo designers, Juan Serapio Transfiguracion Nepomuceno, and his son, for the services which as artists they have been pleased to render us with so much kindness.1These statistics show that Mas has been the chief authority followed by Mallat.↑2Inasmuch as this citation was translated from Mas by Mallat, we have used Mas’s words in preference to retranslating Mallat.↑3See Mallat, i, pp. 367–369.↑4Retana mentions a paper,El Noticiero Filipino, which he conjectures to have been founded in 1838, following Francisco Diaz Puertas, who mentions it. Retana refers to this passage of Mallat. See hisPeriodismo filipino(Madrid, 1895), for data regarding the various newspapers and periodicals of the Philippines. This also appeared in instalments in Retana’s magazineLa Política de España en Filipinas.↑5See “Drama of the Filipinos” by Arthur Stanley Riggs inJournal of American Folk-Lore, xvii, no. lxvii; and Barrantes’sEl teatro tagalo(Madrid, 1889). Mr. Riggs has ready for the press also a book on the drama of the Filipinos.↑6“In the atlas is found theComintango de la languista, noted with the accompaniment of piano and guitar, to which we have joined the words.” (Mallat, ii, p. 247, note). Bowring reproduces this music at the end of hisVisit to the Philippines.↑7In regard to the musical ability of the Filipinos, see the slightly adverse comments of Archbishop Nozaleda, inSenate Document, no. 190, 56th Congress, 2d session, 1900–1901, pp. 98–100.↑8A dance allied to the quadrille, but with different and more graceful figures.↑

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS AND CONDITIONSPublic instruction; condition of the sciences of letters and arts

Public instruction; condition of the sciences of letters and arts

Public instruction; condition of the sciences of letters and arts

At the head of the public instruction in the Philippines, one finds the university of Manila, calledLa Real y Pontificia Universidad de Santo Tomas[i.e., the royal and pontifical university of Santo Tomás]. Its foundation as a college goes back to the first year of the seventeenth century. Its first benefactors were Archbishop Benavides of Manila, and Bishop Soria of Nueva Segovia. Both of them made it a gift of their library, and, in addition, the first one gave it 1,000 pesos and the second 1,800. In 1619, the house was entrusted to the religious of the Order of St. Dominic. The following year the courses of public instruction were opened there. Finally, on November 27, 1623, King Felipe IV took it under his special protection. In the year 1645, the same monarch obtained a bull from Pope Innocent X, which erected the college of Santo Tomás of Manila into a university. The statutes governing that institution today were not drawn up until a long time after, that is to say, in the year 1781. Instruction there is entrusted to the doctors, licentiates, and masters (maestros). At the present time there are 21, bothdoctors and licentiates, and no masters. Latin, logic, physics, metaphysics, ethics, canon law, and theology are taught there. In addition to that, some time afterward there was founded a chair of Roman law and one of Spanish law. The number of students who attend that university is now 581, namely, sixty-one collegiates, fifteen capistas, who are maintained at the expense of the college, and 505 day students.1The costume of the collegiates is a long robe of green silk with black, sleeves, abeca, a kind of red scarf folded in two parts and crossing over the breast and drawn up behind the shoulders, a black collar with a white border and a cap like that worn by the law advocates of Spain.If the university of Manila is the chief institution of public instruction, it is not the most ancient. From June 8, 1585, the king had ordered the foundation of a college, in which the sons of the Spanish inhabitants of the archipelago might be reared in the love of virtue and letters under the direction of the fathers of the Society of Jesus. But it was only in 1601 that that order could be carried out by the institution of the college of San José. The first collegiates numbered 13, but that number was soon raised to 20, all of whom were the sons or the near relatives of the first authorities of the country. Pope Gregory XV granted that college the right of conferring degrees of philosophy and theology. The funds of that institution are drawn from several estates, which have been conceded to it at different times. They are sufficient to provide for the maintenance of the vice-rector and of the masters, in the annual pay which isgranted to them, as well as to the rector, and for the maintenance of 22 free pupils. Some pay students are also admitted there at the rate of 50 piastres [i.e., pesos] per year. Philosophy, rhetoric, and Latin are taught there. Upon the suppression of the Society of Jesus, that college was closed until 1777. The costume of the students is a red gown with black sleeves and a black cap.The college of San Juan de Letran commenced by being a primary school, founded in 1630 at the expense of a charitable man, whose name, Juan Gerónimo Guerrero, deserves to pass to posterity. He consecrated himself to gathering together in that institution young orphan boys, and to teaching them reading, writing, and the Christian doctrine. He was also able, thanks to the abundant alms which the inhabitants of Manila put into his hands, to provide for the maintenance and clothing of all those children. Before dying that kind-hearted man took the habit of St. Dominic, and entrusted the pious foundation which he had undertaken into the hands of that order. The latter erected it into a college, for which it obtained the protection of the king and some funds for its support. By means of a sum of 600 piastres which the alcalde of Pangasinan is charged to give annually to a Dominican who collects it, that college supports gratuitously 25 orphan boys. It also admits an unlimited number of boarders, both Indians and mestizos, who pay 50 piastres per year. It finally receives under the name of sacristans, porters, librarians, etc., several young students who do not pay anything. The total number of those who receive education in that college under different titles is today 239 persons. Their costume is blue with blacksleeves. A maltese cross is placed at the right on their beca.The charity school (escuela pia) of Manila was established in 1817 under the direction of a special assembly composed of distinguished inhabitants, in the number of which there was a member of the chapter of the cathedral, and one of the tribunal of commerce. The inhabitants who had assembled supplied the funds which were to serve for the maintenance of that useful establishment. But those funds having been used in trade according to custom they had the same fortune that so many other considerable sums and charitable foundations of that capital have had, namely, they were lost because of the revolution of Mexico. The assembly, being dissolved on account of lack of funds, the city took the charity school under its charge. Reading, writing, Christian doctrine, Spanish grammar, and slate arithmetic, are taught there. The pupils must be Spaniards; the sons of well-to-do parents pay 2 piastres per month; those who are less well-to-do, 1 piastre; and the poor pay nothing. In order to be admitted there a ticket from the president of the dissolved assembly was sufficient. At present the regidor is charged in his turn with the management of the establishment which delivers the ticket. The number of pupils at the present time is 50, of whom 26 receive instruction free.In pursuance of reiterated instances from the tribunal of commerce a marine school was opened in Manila in 1820, by royal authorization. Arithmetic, the elements of geometry, rectilinear, and spherical trigonometry, cosmography, and piloting, besides practical geometry applied to the makingof hydrographical maps and plans, with the manner of designing them, were taught there. The whole, conformed to the course of study for the navy, was composed, according to the order of the king, by the chief of the royal fleet, Don Gabriel Ciscar. The expenses of the institution are supplied by the funds calledavería. The tribunal of commerce decides as to the admission of pupils and those who distinguish themselves on graduating to become captains of trading ships, making the voyage to China and India, and even going as far as America and to Europa. This proves that, whatever the Spaniards say of it, the young men of Manila are as susceptible to instruction as those of the mother country. In fact, there is no doubt that if the studies of this school were more solid and less theoretical, most remarkable persons would be seen to graduate from it.Finally, in 1840, a commercial school has been established, which is held in the rooms of the tribunal [of commerce]. Bookkeeping, commercial correspondence, and the living languages are taught there free of charge. By a choice quite extraordinary, a marked preference is given to the French language, although that language is one that is spoken the least in that part of the world; since unfortunately our relations there are very few, as we have no longer any need to go there after sugar.Very well equipped libraries exist in all the convents, and those of the university and of the colleges offer resources to the students who receive their education in those establishments.This is all we have to say in regard to the institutions consecrated to the education of the young men. That of the young women has not been forgotten.The seminary of Santa Potenciana was founded in the year 1589 by Governor Dasmariñas, by virtue of a royal order. Article 27 of that ordinance contains the following: “Upon arriving at the Filipinas Islands you shall ascertain how and where, and with what endowment, a convent for the shelter of girls may be founded, so that both those who should come from here and those born there may live in it and so that they may live modestly, and after being well instructed, may go out therefrom to be married and bear children.”2The worthy governor was so zealous in carrying out the wishes of the king that, in the year 1593, the convent was established in the church of San Andres. A new royal ordinance of June 11, 1594 approved the regulations of it, which bore on the conduct to be observed in the parlor, on the duties of the chaplain, who was to be more than forty years old, and who was to be, at the same time, the manager of the house, on the customs of both pupils and the superior and mistress. It was to be suitable, but modest. The king took charge of the furnishing thereof. The governor was authorized to fix the sum which was to be paid by the women who desired to enter the convent in order to be cloistered there. That sum was to be very moderate.There exists no longer any copy of the first rule of that house, whose archives perished in the terrible earthquake of 1645, when ten or twelve pupils lost their lives. New rules were drawn up and approved in 1696, and remained in force until 1823, at which time they were revised.The school is established at present in a house which was bought for its use by the public treasury,namely, the ancient locality of the arsenal. The treasurer also furnishes the expenses of a small chapel, those of their medical service, of pharmacy, of the infirmary, of the clothing of the pupils, and of six serving girls, the total sum amounting to 700 piastres per year, besides the support of a sacristan, four fagot-gatherers, and one woman to go for provisions. The treasury pays for the support of one superior, of one portress, and twenty-four collegiates, 1½ reals (one franc) per day for each one. And they are given besides, from the royal magazines, 46 baskets ofpinaguarice, of 15 gantas per basket, 25 quintals of wood, and 17 gantas of cocoanut oil for lights.After the foundation of the confraternity of the Santa Misericordia, the latter also supported many poor Spanish orphan girls. It caused those girls to be reared either at Santa Potenciana or in private houses. But in 1632, a house having been bought in order to gather them all there together, the confraternity founded the school of Santa Isabel. The rules drawn up in 1650 were entirely changed in 1813. The number of the pupils in this institution is at present 105, who are admitted under divers titles and conditions. The boarders pay 60 piastres annually. The others get their education free. Day pupils are also admitted there, but they are not allowed to communicate with those who live in the house. The teaching is quite elementary. The service is furnished by twelve servant girls for the interior, and eight men for the outside work.In the preceding chapters, the description of thebeaterios3has been seen, of which the majority are dedicated to the education of poor young girls.One can see, after what we have just said, that education in the Philippines, both of the children of the country and of the mestizos and Indians of both sexes, is not so greatly neglected as certain persons pretend, and that the colony has made, on the contrary, from the earliest times the greatest efforts for the instruction of the people. Even in the smallest villages the Indians find facilities for learning to read and write. For everywhere one finds primary schools which are supported by the people. On the other hand, the aptness of the Indians is quite remarkable. From the most tender age they can be seen trying to draw their letters with a sharpened bamboo either on the sand or on the green banana leaves. Also many excellent copyists can be found among them, who are skilful in imitating any kind of writing, designs, or printed characters. Among others, there is mentioned a missal book which was copied by an Indian and sent to one of the Spanish kings. It is asserted that it was impossible to distinguish it from the original. They also copy geographical maps with rare exactness.It follows, then, that the instruction of the Indians is far from being backward, if one compares it with that of the popular classes in Europe. Nearly all the Tagálogs know how to read and write. However, in regard to the sciences, properly so called, very little progress has been made in them among the Indians of the Philippines. Some mestizos alone have a slight smattering of them, and those among the Indians who have received orders know Latin. The most erudite are without doubt those who, having studied at the university of Santo Tomás, have embraced the career of the bar. Among them arecounted advocates worthy of being placed by the side of the most celebrated in Spain.In regard to what concerns literature, there is a Tagálog grammar and dictionary, as well as a work calledarte, which is a kind of polyglot grammar, of the Tagálog, Bicol, Visayan and Isinayan. All these works, and in general everything that appears in one of the languages of the country, are published by the care of the religious, who have at their disposition the printing house of Santo Tomás, and who have the means of meeting the expenses of the printing, which the Indians could not do. Both at Manila and in its environs there are several printing houses for the use of the public. They are the presses of Nuestra Señora de Loreto at Sampaloc, which issues grammars, dictionaries, works of history, etc. There was formerly published at Manila a newspaper calledEl noticioso Filipino. Today it appears there only as [a paper of] the prices current in Spanish and in English. At our departure the establishment of a new newspaper was beginning.4The literary works consist of pieces in verse, sometimes on very weighty subjects. Thus, for example, the “Passion of our Lord” has been translated into Tagálog verse. Then there are tragedies, which as we have mentioned above are excessively long.5They often contain the entire life of a king. There are, furthermore, little poems,corridas, epithaliums, and songs. These last especially are very numerous and have special names, such ascomintang de la conquista, thesinanpablo, thebatanguiño, thecavitegan.6Not only are the words of these songs, but also the melodies, national, and the Indians note the music of them with prodigious cleverness. All the Indians, in fact, are naturally given to music and there are some of them who play five or six instruments. Also there is not a village, however small it be, where mass is not accompanied by music for lack of an organ. The choice of the airs which they play is not always the most edifying. We have heard in the churches the waltzes of Musard, and the gayest airs of the French comic opera.Thus, as we have just said, the Indians are born musicians. Those who before knew only the Chinese tam-tam, the Javanese drum, and a kind of flute of Pan, made of a bit of bamboo, today cultivate the European instruments with a love which comes to be a passion. They are not, for the most part, very strong in vocal music, for they have very little or no voice. Nevertheless, their singing offers in our opinion a certain character of originality which is not unworthy of attention.7Scarcely had the Spaniards conquered that archipelago than its inhabitants tried to imitate the musical instruments of Europe, and theviguela, a kind of guitar having a very great number of strings, but which is not always the same, soon became their favorite instrument. They manufactured it with a remarkable perfection. And besides, they themselves made the strings.Thebandolonis another guitar, but smaller; having twenty-four metallic strings joined by fours. They are very skilful in playing that instrument, and they make use either of one of their finger nails, which they allow to grow to a very great length, or of a little bit of wood. We do not know from what nation they have borrowed that instrument, which we have never seen in Spain.The music of the villages of which we have spoken is generally composed of violins, of ebony flutes, or even of bamboo in the remote provinces, and of abajo de viguela, a large guitar of the size of a violon-cello, which is played with a horn or ebony finger expressly made [for that purpose]. They draw from it very agreeable sounds. That music, somewhat discordant, is not often wholly without something agreeable in it. We cannot help admiring men who can reach that point without having taken lessons, and of whom the majority have perhaps never had occasion to meet an artist.The military music of the regiments of the garrison at Manila, and in some large villages of the provinces, has reached a point of perfection which is astonishing. We have never heard better in Spain, not even in Madrid. It is at the square of the palace that, on Thursdays, Sundays, and fête days, at eighto’clock in the evening, at the time when the retreat is beaten, the society of Manila and the foreigners and travelers, assemble to hear the concert. The Indians play there from memory for two or three hours alternately, from great overtures of Rossini and Meyerbeer, or contradances, and vaudevilles. They owe the great progress which they have made for some time in their military music to the French masters who direct them. These same musicians are also summoned to the great balls, where they execute pieces among the contradances played by other instruments.We have stated that the vocal music of the Indians is not equal to that of their instrumental music, which is especially true of the quality of their voice, which is sharp and shrill. All their airs are applied to words of love; they are regrets, and reproaches, addressed to a faithless swain, and sometimes allusions drawn from the history of the ancient kings, or from holy Scripture.Sometimes a number of Indians gather in the house of one of them and form a concert of amateurs. At that time they sing the Passion to the accompaniment of a full orchestra. At other times five, seven, or ninebagontaos(young bachelors) assemble at night in the beautiful clear moonlight and run about the villages in the vicinity of Manila, where they give serenades to their sweethearts, theirdalagas, ordonzellias[i.e.,doncella(maidens)], whom the Tagálogs who are of more distinguished rank and who speak Spanish call theirnovias[i.e., sweethearts]. One could imagine nothing more singular and more picturesque than to see during those brilliant nights of the torrid zone, when the moon sheds floods ofsilver light, and the balmy breeze tempers the burning heat of the atmosphere, to see, we say, the Indians croucheden cuclillasfor entire hours without getting tired of that position, which we would find so uncomfortable, singing their love under the windows of their mistresses.Numerous orchestras of musicians are summoned at any hour of the day to the houses of Manila in order to have all sorts of ancient and modern dances there: the old rigodons,8quadrilles, the English contradances, waltzes, gallops, and without doubt the polka will not be long in penetrating there also. It is rare among the Indians, and especially among the mestizos, that a baptism, marriage, or any ceremony is celebrated without music and dancing. The burial of children (criaturas) is always accompanied by music.One further word on the extraordinary talent of the Indians for musical execution. One day we accompanied Monsieur Auguste Barrot, our worthy consul, the alcalde of the province of Laguna, on a tour which he was making for the election of gobernadorcillos. We reached Calaüan, where we stopped to sup and sleep at the house of a respectable cura whose house, like that of all ecclesiastics, was open to all travelers without exception. Travelers are there fed and lodged as long as they please to stop and without any cost to them. Now, at the house of this cura we heard an Indian who played with equal perfection on seven different instruments, on which he executed the most difficult pieces. When he had finished, the good cura, in order to amuse us,performed some sleight of hand tricks and juggling, and showed us a theater of marionnettes, which he had himself mounted.Thecomintang, which we have before mentioned as a national song, is also a dance. While the musicians are playing and singing it an Indian and an Indian woman execute a pantomime which agrees with the words. It is a lover who is trying to inflame the heart of a young girl, about whom he runs while making innumerable amorous movements and greetings in the fashion of the country, accompanied by movements of the arms and of the body, which are not the most decent, but which cause the spectators to break out into loud and joyous laughter. Finally, the lover, not being able to succeed, feigns to be sick and falls into a chair prepared for him. The young girl, frightened, flies to his aid but he rises again very soon cured, and begins to dance and turn about with her in all directions, to the great applause of those present.Thepampamgois another dance which is especially remarkable by the movements of the loins, and the special grace which the women show in it. It is accompanied by very significative clapping of the hands.In the Visayas they dance thebagay, the music and song of which are langorous and melancholy, like that of the comintang. It is also a lover and a mistress who dance, the while they mingle their motions with cries.The Montescos of the provinces of the north of the island of Luçon also dance to the sound of their bamboo flutes, but their gestures and their postures are so indecent that for shame a woman never dances except with her husband.The Negritos in their dances hold in their hands their bow and arrows and utter horrible cries. They make frightful contortions and leaps to which in the country one has given the name ofcamarones, comparing them to those that the sea-crabs make in the water. They end their dance by shooting their arrows into the air, and their eyesight is so quick that they sometimes kill a bird on the wing. Theirouroucay, or song of the mountains, is a very pleasing melody consisting of six measures which are repeated time and time again, which if it were arranged for chorus, would make a fine effect.Thefandango, theçapateado, thecachucha, and other Spanish dances have been adopted by the Indians, and they do not lack grace when they dance them to the accompaniment of castinets, which they play with a remarkable precision. They also execute some dances of Nueva España, such as for example thejarabès, where they show all the Spanish vivacity with movements of their figure, of their breasts, of their hips, to right and left forward and backward, and pirouettes, whose rapidity is such that the eye can scarce follow them.Drawing and painting are much further advanced than one would believe among the Indians of the Philippines. Without taking into account the fine geographical maps of Nicolas de Ocampo, we can cite the miniatures of Denian, and Sauriano, the pictures of churches, and the oil portraits of Oreco. Those works are indeed far from being perfect, for the artists to whom they are due have never had any masters, but they present marks of great talent, and the portraits have a striking resemblance [to the original]. We seize this occasion to testify all ourgratitude to the two mestizo designers, Juan Serapio Transfiguracion Nepomuceno, and his son, for the services which as artists they have been pleased to render us with so much kindness.

At the head of the public instruction in the Philippines, one finds the university of Manila, calledLa Real y Pontificia Universidad de Santo Tomas[i.e., the royal and pontifical university of Santo Tomás]. Its foundation as a college goes back to the first year of the seventeenth century. Its first benefactors were Archbishop Benavides of Manila, and Bishop Soria of Nueva Segovia. Both of them made it a gift of their library, and, in addition, the first one gave it 1,000 pesos and the second 1,800. In 1619, the house was entrusted to the religious of the Order of St. Dominic. The following year the courses of public instruction were opened there. Finally, on November 27, 1623, King Felipe IV took it under his special protection. In the year 1645, the same monarch obtained a bull from Pope Innocent X, which erected the college of Santo Tomás of Manila into a university. The statutes governing that institution today were not drawn up until a long time after, that is to say, in the year 1781. Instruction there is entrusted to the doctors, licentiates, and masters (maestros). At the present time there are 21, bothdoctors and licentiates, and no masters. Latin, logic, physics, metaphysics, ethics, canon law, and theology are taught there. In addition to that, some time afterward there was founded a chair of Roman law and one of Spanish law. The number of students who attend that university is now 581, namely, sixty-one collegiates, fifteen capistas, who are maintained at the expense of the college, and 505 day students.1The costume of the collegiates is a long robe of green silk with black, sleeves, abeca, a kind of red scarf folded in two parts and crossing over the breast and drawn up behind the shoulders, a black collar with a white border and a cap like that worn by the law advocates of Spain.

If the university of Manila is the chief institution of public instruction, it is not the most ancient. From June 8, 1585, the king had ordered the foundation of a college, in which the sons of the Spanish inhabitants of the archipelago might be reared in the love of virtue and letters under the direction of the fathers of the Society of Jesus. But it was only in 1601 that that order could be carried out by the institution of the college of San José. The first collegiates numbered 13, but that number was soon raised to 20, all of whom were the sons or the near relatives of the first authorities of the country. Pope Gregory XV granted that college the right of conferring degrees of philosophy and theology. The funds of that institution are drawn from several estates, which have been conceded to it at different times. They are sufficient to provide for the maintenance of the vice-rector and of the masters, in the annual pay which isgranted to them, as well as to the rector, and for the maintenance of 22 free pupils. Some pay students are also admitted there at the rate of 50 piastres [i.e., pesos] per year. Philosophy, rhetoric, and Latin are taught there. Upon the suppression of the Society of Jesus, that college was closed until 1777. The costume of the students is a red gown with black sleeves and a black cap.

The college of San Juan de Letran commenced by being a primary school, founded in 1630 at the expense of a charitable man, whose name, Juan Gerónimo Guerrero, deserves to pass to posterity. He consecrated himself to gathering together in that institution young orphan boys, and to teaching them reading, writing, and the Christian doctrine. He was also able, thanks to the abundant alms which the inhabitants of Manila put into his hands, to provide for the maintenance and clothing of all those children. Before dying that kind-hearted man took the habit of St. Dominic, and entrusted the pious foundation which he had undertaken into the hands of that order. The latter erected it into a college, for which it obtained the protection of the king and some funds for its support. By means of a sum of 600 piastres which the alcalde of Pangasinan is charged to give annually to a Dominican who collects it, that college supports gratuitously 25 orphan boys. It also admits an unlimited number of boarders, both Indians and mestizos, who pay 50 piastres per year. It finally receives under the name of sacristans, porters, librarians, etc., several young students who do not pay anything. The total number of those who receive education in that college under different titles is today 239 persons. Their costume is blue with blacksleeves. A maltese cross is placed at the right on their beca.

The charity school (escuela pia) of Manila was established in 1817 under the direction of a special assembly composed of distinguished inhabitants, in the number of which there was a member of the chapter of the cathedral, and one of the tribunal of commerce. The inhabitants who had assembled supplied the funds which were to serve for the maintenance of that useful establishment. But those funds having been used in trade according to custom they had the same fortune that so many other considerable sums and charitable foundations of that capital have had, namely, they were lost because of the revolution of Mexico. The assembly, being dissolved on account of lack of funds, the city took the charity school under its charge. Reading, writing, Christian doctrine, Spanish grammar, and slate arithmetic, are taught there. The pupils must be Spaniards; the sons of well-to-do parents pay 2 piastres per month; those who are less well-to-do, 1 piastre; and the poor pay nothing. In order to be admitted there a ticket from the president of the dissolved assembly was sufficient. At present the regidor is charged in his turn with the management of the establishment which delivers the ticket. The number of pupils at the present time is 50, of whom 26 receive instruction free.

In pursuance of reiterated instances from the tribunal of commerce a marine school was opened in Manila in 1820, by royal authorization. Arithmetic, the elements of geometry, rectilinear, and spherical trigonometry, cosmography, and piloting, besides practical geometry applied to the makingof hydrographical maps and plans, with the manner of designing them, were taught there. The whole, conformed to the course of study for the navy, was composed, according to the order of the king, by the chief of the royal fleet, Don Gabriel Ciscar. The expenses of the institution are supplied by the funds calledavería. The tribunal of commerce decides as to the admission of pupils and those who distinguish themselves on graduating to become captains of trading ships, making the voyage to China and India, and even going as far as America and to Europa. This proves that, whatever the Spaniards say of it, the young men of Manila are as susceptible to instruction as those of the mother country. In fact, there is no doubt that if the studies of this school were more solid and less theoretical, most remarkable persons would be seen to graduate from it.

Finally, in 1840, a commercial school has been established, which is held in the rooms of the tribunal [of commerce]. Bookkeeping, commercial correspondence, and the living languages are taught there free of charge. By a choice quite extraordinary, a marked preference is given to the French language, although that language is one that is spoken the least in that part of the world; since unfortunately our relations there are very few, as we have no longer any need to go there after sugar.

Very well equipped libraries exist in all the convents, and those of the university and of the colleges offer resources to the students who receive their education in those establishments.

This is all we have to say in regard to the institutions consecrated to the education of the young men. That of the young women has not been forgotten.

The seminary of Santa Potenciana was founded in the year 1589 by Governor Dasmariñas, by virtue of a royal order. Article 27 of that ordinance contains the following: “Upon arriving at the Filipinas Islands you shall ascertain how and where, and with what endowment, a convent for the shelter of girls may be founded, so that both those who should come from here and those born there may live in it and so that they may live modestly, and after being well instructed, may go out therefrom to be married and bear children.”2The worthy governor was so zealous in carrying out the wishes of the king that, in the year 1593, the convent was established in the church of San Andres. A new royal ordinance of June 11, 1594 approved the regulations of it, which bore on the conduct to be observed in the parlor, on the duties of the chaplain, who was to be more than forty years old, and who was to be, at the same time, the manager of the house, on the customs of both pupils and the superior and mistress. It was to be suitable, but modest. The king took charge of the furnishing thereof. The governor was authorized to fix the sum which was to be paid by the women who desired to enter the convent in order to be cloistered there. That sum was to be very moderate.

There exists no longer any copy of the first rule of that house, whose archives perished in the terrible earthquake of 1645, when ten or twelve pupils lost their lives. New rules were drawn up and approved in 1696, and remained in force until 1823, at which time they were revised.

The school is established at present in a house which was bought for its use by the public treasury,namely, the ancient locality of the arsenal. The treasurer also furnishes the expenses of a small chapel, those of their medical service, of pharmacy, of the infirmary, of the clothing of the pupils, and of six serving girls, the total sum amounting to 700 piastres per year, besides the support of a sacristan, four fagot-gatherers, and one woman to go for provisions. The treasury pays for the support of one superior, of one portress, and twenty-four collegiates, 1½ reals (one franc) per day for each one. And they are given besides, from the royal magazines, 46 baskets ofpinaguarice, of 15 gantas per basket, 25 quintals of wood, and 17 gantas of cocoanut oil for lights.

After the foundation of the confraternity of the Santa Misericordia, the latter also supported many poor Spanish orphan girls. It caused those girls to be reared either at Santa Potenciana or in private houses. But in 1632, a house having been bought in order to gather them all there together, the confraternity founded the school of Santa Isabel. The rules drawn up in 1650 were entirely changed in 1813. The number of the pupils in this institution is at present 105, who are admitted under divers titles and conditions. The boarders pay 60 piastres annually. The others get their education free. Day pupils are also admitted there, but they are not allowed to communicate with those who live in the house. The teaching is quite elementary. The service is furnished by twelve servant girls for the interior, and eight men for the outside work.

In the preceding chapters, the description of thebeaterios3has been seen, of which the majority are dedicated to the education of poor young girls.

One can see, after what we have just said, that education in the Philippines, both of the children of the country and of the mestizos and Indians of both sexes, is not so greatly neglected as certain persons pretend, and that the colony has made, on the contrary, from the earliest times the greatest efforts for the instruction of the people. Even in the smallest villages the Indians find facilities for learning to read and write. For everywhere one finds primary schools which are supported by the people. On the other hand, the aptness of the Indians is quite remarkable. From the most tender age they can be seen trying to draw their letters with a sharpened bamboo either on the sand or on the green banana leaves. Also many excellent copyists can be found among them, who are skilful in imitating any kind of writing, designs, or printed characters. Among others, there is mentioned a missal book which was copied by an Indian and sent to one of the Spanish kings. It is asserted that it was impossible to distinguish it from the original. They also copy geographical maps with rare exactness.

It follows, then, that the instruction of the Indians is far from being backward, if one compares it with that of the popular classes in Europe. Nearly all the Tagálogs know how to read and write. However, in regard to the sciences, properly so called, very little progress has been made in them among the Indians of the Philippines. Some mestizos alone have a slight smattering of them, and those among the Indians who have received orders know Latin. The most erudite are without doubt those who, having studied at the university of Santo Tomás, have embraced the career of the bar. Among them arecounted advocates worthy of being placed by the side of the most celebrated in Spain.

In regard to what concerns literature, there is a Tagálog grammar and dictionary, as well as a work calledarte, which is a kind of polyglot grammar, of the Tagálog, Bicol, Visayan and Isinayan. All these works, and in general everything that appears in one of the languages of the country, are published by the care of the religious, who have at their disposition the printing house of Santo Tomás, and who have the means of meeting the expenses of the printing, which the Indians could not do. Both at Manila and in its environs there are several printing houses for the use of the public. They are the presses of Nuestra Señora de Loreto at Sampaloc, which issues grammars, dictionaries, works of history, etc. There was formerly published at Manila a newspaper calledEl noticioso Filipino. Today it appears there only as [a paper of] the prices current in Spanish and in English. At our departure the establishment of a new newspaper was beginning.4

The literary works consist of pieces in verse, sometimes on very weighty subjects. Thus, for example, the “Passion of our Lord” has been translated into Tagálog verse. Then there are tragedies, which as we have mentioned above are excessively long.5They often contain the entire life of a king. There are, furthermore, little poems,corridas, epithaliums, and songs. These last especially are very numerous and have special names, such ascomintang de la conquista, thesinanpablo, thebatanguiño, thecavitegan.6Not only are the words of these songs, but also the melodies, national, and the Indians note the music of them with prodigious cleverness. All the Indians, in fact, are naturally given to music and there are some of them who play five or six instruments. Also there is not a village, however small it be, where mass is not accompanied by music for lack of an organ. The choice of the airs which they play is not always the most edifying. We have heard in the churches the waltzes of Musard, and the gayest airs of the French comic opera.

Thus, as we have just said, the Indians are born musicians. Those who before knew only the Chinese tam-tam, the Javanese drum, and a kind of flute of Pan, made of a bit of bamboo, today cultivate the European instruments with a love which comes to be a passion. They are not, for the most part, very strong in vocal music, for they have very little or no voice. Nevertheless, their singing offers in our opinion a certain character of originality which is not unworthy of attention.7

Scarcely had the Spaniards conquered that archipelago than its inhabitants tried to imitate the musical instruments of Europe, and theviguela, a kind of guitar having a very great number of strings, but which is not always the same, soon became their favorite instrument. They manufactured it with a remarkable perfection. And besides, they themselves made the strings.

Thebandolonis another guitar, but smaller; having twenty-four metallic strings joined by fours. They are very skilful in playing that instrument, and they make use either of one of their finger nails, which they allow to grow to a very great length, or of a little bit of wood. We do not know from what nation they have borrowed that instrument, which we have never seen in Spain.

The music of the villages of which we have spoken is generally composed of violins, of ebony flutes, or even of bamboo in the remote provinces, and of abajo de viguela, a large guitar of the size of a violon-cello, which is played with a horn or ebony finger expressly made [for that purpose]. They draw from it very agreeable sounds. That music, somewhat discordant, is not often wholly without something agreeable in it. We cannot help admiring men who can reach that point without having taken lessons, and of whom the majority have perhaps never had occasion to meet an artist.

The military music of the regiments of the garrison at Manila, and in some large villages of the provinces, has reached a point of perfection which is astonishing. We have never heard better in Spain, not even in Madrid. It is at the square of the palace that, on Thursdays, Sundays, and fête days, at eighto’clock in the evening, at the time when the retreat is beaten, the society of Manila and the foreigners and travelers, assemble to hear the concert. The Indians play there from memory for two or three hours alternately, from great overtures of Rossini and Meyerbeer, or contradances, and vaudevilles. They owe the great progress which they have made for some time in their military music to the French masters who direct them. These same musicians are also summoned to the great balls, where they execute pieces among the contradances played by other instruments.

We have stated that the vocal music of the Indians is not equal to that of their instrumental music, which is especially true of the quality of their voice, which is sharp and shrill. All their airs are applied to words of love; they are regrets, and reproaches, addressed to a faithless swain, and sometimes allusions drawn from the history of the ancient kings, or from holy Scripture.

Sometimes a number of Indians gather in the house of one of them and form a concert of amateurs. At that time they sing the Passion to the accompaniment of a full orchestra. At other times five, seven, or ninebagontaos(young bachelors) assemble at night in the beautiful clear moonlight and run about the villages in the vicinity of Manila, where they give serenades to their sweethearts, theirdalagas, ordonzellias[i.e.,doncella(maidens)], whom the Tagálogs who are of more distinguished rank and who speak Spanish call theirnovias[i.e., sweethearts]. One could imagine nothing more singular and more picturesque than to see during those brilliant nights of the torrid zone, when the moon sheds floods ofsilver light, and the balmy breeze tempers the burning heat of the atmosphere, to see, we say, the Indians croucheden cuclillasfor entire hours without getting tired of that position, which we would find so uncomfortable, singing their love under the windows of their mistresses.

Numerous orchestras of musicians are summoned at any hour of the day to the houses of Manila in order to have all sorts of ancient and modern dances there: the old rigodons,8quadrilles, the English contradances, waltzes, gallops, and without doubt the polka will not be long in penetrating there also. It is rare among the Indians, and especially among the mestizos, that a baptism, marriage, or any ceremony is celebrated without music and dancing. The burial of children (criaturas) is always accompanied by music.

One further word on the extraordinary talent of the Indians for musical execution. One day we accompanied Monsieur Auguste Barrot, our worthy consul, the alcalde of the province of Laguna, on a tour which he was making for the election of gobernadorcillos. We reached Calaüan, where we stopped to sup and sleep at the house of a respectable cura whose house, like that of all ecclesiastics, was open to all travelers without exception. Travelers are there fed and lodged as long as they please to stop and without any cost to them. Now, at the house of this cura we heard an Indian who played with equal perfection on seven different instruments, on which he executed the most difficult pieces. When he had finished, the good cura, in order to amuse us,performed some sleight of hand tricks and juggling, and showed us a theater of marionnettes, which he had himself mounted.

Thecomintang, which we have before mentioned as a national song, is also a dance. While the musicians are playing and singing it an Indian and an Indian woman execute a pantomime which agrees with the words. It is a lover who is trying to inflame the heart of a young girl, about whom he runs while making innumerable amorous movements and greetings in the fashion of the country, accompanied by movements of the arms and of the body, which are not the most decent, but which cause the spectators to break out into loud and joyous laughter. Finally, the lover, not being able to succeed, feigns to be sick and falls into a chair prepared for him. The young girl, frightened, flies to his aid but he rises again very soon cured, and begins to dance and turn about with her in all directions, to the great applause of those present.

Thepampamgois another dance which is especially remarkable by the movements of the loins, and the special grace which the women show in it. It is accompanied by very significative clapping of the hands.

In the Visayas they dance thebagay, the music and song of which are langorous and melancholy, like that of the comintang. It is also a lover and a mistress who dance, the while they mingle their motions with cries.

The Montescos of the provinces of the north of the island of Luçon also dance to the sound of their bamboo flutes, but their gestures and their postures are so indecent that for shame a woman never dances except with her husband.

The Negritos in their dances hold in their hands their bow and arrows and utter horrible cries. They make frightful contortions and leaps to which in the country one has given the name ofcamarones, comparing them to those that the sea-crabs make in the water. They end their dance by shooting their arrows into the air, and their eyesight is so quick that they sometimes kill a bird on the wing. Theirouroucay, or song of the mountains, is a very pleasing melody consisting of six measures which are repeated time and time again, which if it were arranged for chorus, would make a fine effect.

Thefandango, theçapateado, thecachucha, and other Spanish dances have been adopted by the Indians, and they do not lack grace when they dance them to the accompaniment of castinets, which they play with a remarkable precision. They also execute some dances of Nueva España, such as for example thejarabès, where they show all the Spanish vivacity with movements of their figure, of their breasts, of their hips, to right and left forward and backward, and pirouettes, whose rapidity is such that the eye can scarce follow them.

Drawing and painting are much further advanced than one would believe among the Indians of the Philippines. Without taking into account the fine geographical maps of Nicolas de Ocampo, we can cite the miniatures of Denian, and Sauriano, the pictures of churches, and the oil portraits of Oreco. Those works are indeed far from being perfect, for the artists to whom they are due have never had any masters, but they present marks of great talent, and the portraits have a striking resemblance [to the original]. We seize this occasion to testify all ourgratitude to the two mestizo designers, Juan Serapio Transfiguracion Nepomuceno, and his son, for the services which as artists they have been pleased to render us with so much kindness.

1These statistics show that Mas has been the chief authority followed by Mallat.↑2Inasmuch as this citation was translated from Mas by Mallat, we have used Mas’s words in preference to retranslating Mallat.↑3See Mallat, i, pp. 367–369.↑4Retana mentions a paper,El Noticiero Filipino, which he conjectures to have been founded in 1838, following Francisco Diaz Puertas, who mentions it. Retana refers to this passage of Mallat. See hisPeriodismo filipino(Madrid, 1895), for data regarding the various newspapers and periodicals of the Philippines. This also appeared in instalments in Retana’s magazineLa Política de España en Filipinas.↑5See “Drama of the Filipinos” by Arthur Stanley Riggs inJournal of American Folk-Lore, xvii, no. lxvii; and Barrantes’sEl teatro tagalo(Madrid, 1889). Mr. Riggs has ready for the press also a book on the drama of the Filipinos.↑6“In the atlas is found theComintango de la languista, noted with the accompaniment of piano and guitar, to which we have joined the words.” (Mallat, ii, p. 247, note). Bowring reproduces this music at the end of hisVisit to the Philippines.↑7In regard to the musical ability of the Filipinos, see the slightly adverse comments of Archbishop Nozaleda, inSenate Document, no. 190, 56th Congress, 2d session, 1900–1901, pp. 98–100.↑8A dance allied to the quadrille, but with different and more graceful figures.↑

1These statistics show that Mas has been the chief authority followed by Mallat.↑

2Inasmuch as this citation was translated from Mas by Mallat, we have used Mas’s words in preference to retranslating Mallat.↑

3See Mallat, i, pp. 367–369.↑

4Retana mentions a paper,El Noticiero Filipino, which he conjectures to have been founded in 1838, following Francisco Diaz Puertas, who mentions it. Retana refers to this passage of Mallat. See hisPeriodismo filipino(Madrid, 1895), for data regarding the various newspapers and periodicals of the Philippines. This also appeared in instalments in Retana’s magazineLa Política de España en Filipinas.↑

5See “Drama of the Filipinos” by Arthur Stanley Riggs inJournal of American Folk-Lore, xvii, no. lxvii; and Barrantes’sEl teatro tagalo(Madrid, 1889). Mr. Riggs has ready for the press also a book on the drama of the Filipinos.↑

6“In the atlas is found theComintango de la languista, noted with the accompaniment of piano and guitar, to which we have joined the words.” (Mallat, ii, p. 247, note). Bowring reproduces this music at the end of hisVisit to the Philippines.↑

7In regard to the musical ability of the Filipinos, see the slightly adverse comments of Archbishop Nozaleda, inSenate Document, no. 190, 56th Congress, 2d session, 1900–1901, pp. 98–100.↑

8A dance allied to the quadrille, but with different and more graceful figures.↑

PRIVILEGES GRANTED TO STUDENTSRoyal order dictating rules for the incorporation, in the universities and audiencias of the colonies, of the studies and titles obtained in those of España, in the course of jurisprudence, and vice-versa.Ministry of Grace and Justice:Your Excellency:Some doubts having been occasioned by the difference existing between the plan of studies in force in the Peninsula, and that which is observed in the islands of Cuba and Puerto-Rico, in regard to whether those youth, who have devoted themselves to the career of jurisprudence, may utilize, in one of these points of the monarchy, the courses taken and the titles obtained in the other; and the queen (whom may God preserve) desiring while the government is bringing to a head the fitting reforms,1to give the advisable harmony to the above-cited systems of education, to avoid the difficulties and prejudices caused by this uncertainty, has deigned to resolve, after hearing the opinion of the royal Council, that the following orders be observed in regard to this point.[Points 1 and 2 refer to Cuba and Puerto-Rico.]3. Students, licentiates, or advocates of the Peninsula who go to continue their career or exercise their profession in the domains of the colonies shall receive credit for the courses which they shall have taken, and the degrees which they shall have obtained shall be recognized whenever they prove them legally, as well as the titles which shall appear to be proved by the competent decision of the supreme Tribunal of Justice or the Ministry of Public Instruction, according to their origin, and derivation.4. The courts in the Antillas and Philippinas shall continue to observe the present practice of not admitting to the exercise of the profession of lawyer any Peninsular lawyer, unless he first makes the presentation of his titles, before the respective royal Audiencia. But when this legal requirement is observed, the assembly shall have no further power to submit the interested person to any exercise or examination with the object of assuring themselves of his fitness, but shall, on the contrary, consider their powers of intervention limited to declaring the legality of his title, once it has been proved according to the ruling of the preceding disposition, and to order that it be recognized and respected throughout their territory.5. If, because of the distance or inclemencies of the navigation, considerable harm should come to licentiates, who, when going to the Peninsula, should lose their diplomas and documents, the Audiencia, opening an informatory writ, shall be able to allow them to exercise their profession for a determined period until the presentation of the documents in fitting form.I write this to your Excellency by royal order, for your information and the advisable results. May God preserve your Excellency many years. Madrid, December 2, 1847.Arrazola[Addressed: “Regent of the royal Audiencia and Chancillería of Manila.”]1See notes from Barrantes, inVOL. XLVI; and the decree of December 20, 1863.↑

PRIVILEGES GRANTED TO STUDENTSRoyal order dictating rules for the incorporation, in the universities and audiencias of the colonies, of the studies and titles obtained in those of España, in the course of jurisprudence, and vice-versa.

Royal order dictating rules for the incorporation, in the universities and audiencias of the colonies, of the studies and titles obtained in those of España, in the course of jurisprudence, and vice-versa.

Royal order dictating rules for the incorporation, in the universities and audiencias of the colonies, of the studies and titles obtained in those of España, in the course of jurisprudence, and vice-versa.

Ministry of Grace and Justice:Your Excellency:Some doubts having been occasioned by the difference existing between the plan of studies in force in the Peninsula, and that which is observed in the islands of Cuba and Puerto-Rico, in regard to whether those youth, who have devoted themselves to the career of jurisprudence, may utilize, in one of these points of the monarchy, the courses taken and the titles obtained in the other; and the queen (whom may God preserve) desiring while the government is bringing to a head the fitting reforms,1to give the advisable harmony to the above-cited systems of education, to avoid the difficulties and prejudices caused by this uncertainty, has deigned to resolve, after hearing the opinion of the royal Council, that the following orders be observed in regard to this point.[Points 1 and 2 refer to Cuba and Puerto-Rico.]3. Students, licentiates, or advocates of the Peninsula who go to continue their career or exercise their profession in the domains of the colonies shall receive credit for the courses which they shall have taken, and the degrees which they shall have obtained shall be recognized whenever they prove them legally, as well as the titles which shall appear to be proved by the competent decision of the supreme Tribunal of Justice or the Ministry of Public Instruction, according to their origin, and derivation.4. The courts in the Antillas and Philippinas shall continue to observe the present practice of not admitting to the exercise of the profession of lawyer any Peninsular lawyer, unless he first makes the presentation of his titles, before the respective royal Audiencia. But when this legal requirement is observed, the assembly shall have no further power to submit the interested person to any exercise or examination with the object of assuring themselves of his fitness, but shall, on the contrary, consider their powers of intervention limited to declaring the legality of his title, once it has been proved according to the ruling of the preceding disposition, and to order that it be recognized and respected throughout their territory.5. If, because of the distance or inclemencies of the navigation, considerable harm should come to licentiates, who, when going to the Peninsula, should lose their diplomas and documents, the Audiencia, opening an informatory writ, shall be able to allow them to exercise their profession for a determined period until the presentation of the documents in fitting form.I write this to your Excellency by royal order, for your information and the advisable results. May God preserve your Excellency many years. Madrid, December 2, 1847.Arrazola[Addressed: “Regent of the royal Audiencia and Chancillería of Manila.”]

Ministry of Grace and Justice:

Your Excellency:

Some doubts having been occasioned by the difference existing between the plan of studies in force in the Peninsula, and that which is observed in the islands of Cuba and Puerto-Rico, in regard to whether those youth, who have devoted themselves to the career of jurisprudence, may utilize, in one of these points of the monarchy, the courses taken and the titles obtained in the other; and the queen (whom may God preserve) desiring while the government is bringing to a head the fitting reforms,1to give the advisable harmony to the above-cited systems of education, to avoid the difficulties and prejudices caused by this uncertainty, has deigned to resolve, after hearing the opinion of the royal Council, that the following orders be observed in regard to this point.

[Points 1 and 2 refer to Cuba and Puerto-Rico.]

3. Students, licentiates, or advocates of the Peninsula who go to continue their career or exercise their profession in the domains of the colonies shall receive credit for the courses which they shall have taken, and the degrees which they shall have obtained shall be recognized whenever they prove them legally, as well as the titles which shall appear to be proved by the competent decision of the supreme Tribunal of Justice or the Ministry of Public Instruction, according to their origin, and derivation.

4. The courts in the Antillas and Philippinas shall continue to observe the present practice of not admitting to the exercise of the profession of lawyer any Peninsular lawyer, unless he first makes the presentation of his titles, before the respective royal Audiencia. But when this legal requirement is observed, the assembly shall have no further power to submit the interested person to any exercise or examination with the object of assuring themselves of his fitness, but shall, on the contrary, consider their powers of intervention limited to declaring the legality of his title, once it has been proved according to the ruling of the preceding disposition, and to order that it be recognized and respected throughout their territory.

5. If, because of the distance or inclemencies of the navigation, considerable harm should come to licentiates, who, when going to the Peninsula, should lose their diplomas and documents, the Audiencia, opening an informatory writ, shall be able to allow them to exercise their profession for a determined period until the presentation of the documents in fitting form.

I write this to your Excellency by royal order, for your information and the advisable results. May God preserve your Excellency many years. Madrid, December 2, 1847.

Arrazola

[Addressed: “Regent of the royal Audiencia and Chancillería of Manila.”]

1See notes from Barrantes, inVOL. XLVI; and the decree of December 20, 1863.↑

1See notes from Barrantes, inVOL. XLVI; and the decree of December 20, 1863.↑

SUPERIOR SCHOOL OF PAINTING, SCULPTURE, AND ENGRAVINGDrawing and painting, for which the natives of the Filipinas show remarkable aptitude, began to be taught in theSociedad Económica de Amigos del País[i.e., Economic Society of Friends of the Country],1and in a more ample and official manner in the old School of drawing and painting created in 1849. Some notable artists have graduated from that school, who have, by their productions, honored their country in España and other nations, and obtained prizes in various contests.2By royal decrees of August and December, 1893, this institution was reorganized. The section of thefine arts was separated from the professional school of arts and crafts, and the superior school of painting, sculpture, and engraving was created. Teaching was amplified, and instruction given in various art subjects, including color composition modeling, and drawing from the antique and from nature, including figure drawing.3This academy was supported from local funds, a small part being contributed from the general budget. There were no enrolments or academic courses, and hence, no examinations. The pupils could attend as many years as they wished.4After its reorganization in 1893, the general attendance was from 200 to 300, and in spite of the poor instruction, some good work was done.51TheSociedad Económica de Amigos del Paiswas founded in 1813 for the purpose of encouraging interest in the arts, sciences, commerce, and industries. Alexander A. Webb, former American consul at Manila, says of it. “It is claimed on its behalf that it has accomplished a vast amount of good, but there is not that degree of energy and activity manifested in its work to be seen in similar organizations in some other countries.” It had a library of about 2,000 volumes on the arts and sciences, natural history, and agriculture. SeeReport of Commissioner of Education, 1897–98, p. 980.↑2The Filipino artist, Juan Luna y Novicio was a pupil of this academy. He also studied in Madrid, Paris, and Rome, and some of his paintings are conserved in the largest galleries. The total number of pupils enrolled in this academy from 1872 to 1883 was 5,485. SeeCensus of Philippines, iii, p. 615.↑3Archipiélago Filipino, i, p. 349;Census of Philippines, iii, p. 614.↑4Census of Philippines, iii, p. 614.↑5SeeReport of Philippine Commission, 1900, i, pp. 39, 40. Drawing was introduced into the Philippine schools in 1903 upon a systematic basis. The Filipinos are interested and apt in this work, and show talent in original conception and artistic execution. The work is carried on by a staff of nine Filipino drawing teachers, one American teacher for the secondary and American schools, and a supervisor. The Filipino teacher is as competent as the American in this work. SeeReport of Philippine Commission, 1904, pt. 3, p. 890.↑

SUPERIOR SCHOOL OF PAINTING, SCULPTURE, AND ENGRAVING

Drawing and painting, for which the natives of the Filipinas show remarkable aptitude, began to be taught in theSociedad Económica de Amigos del País[i.e., Economic Society of Friends of the Country],1and in a more ample and official manner in the old School of drawing and painting created in 1849. Some notable artists have graduated from that school, who have, by their productions, honored their country in España and other nations, and obtained prizes in various contests.2By royal decrees of August and December, 1893, this institution was reorganized. The section of thefine arts was separated from the professional school of arts and crafts, and the superior school of painting, sculpture, and engraving was created. Teaching was amplified, and instruction given in various art subjects, including color composition modeling, and drawing from the antique and from nature, including figure drawing.3This academy was supported from local funds, a small part being contributed from the general budget. There were no enrolments or academic courses, and hence, no examinations. The pupils could attend as many years as they wished.4After its reorganization in 1893, the general attendance was from 200 to 300, and in spite of the poor instruction, some good work was done.5

Drawing and painting, for which the natives of the Filipinas show remarkable aptitude, began to be taught in theSociedad Económica de Amigos del País[i.e., Economic Society of Friends of the Country],1and in a more ample and official manner in the old School of drawing and painting created in 1849. Some notable artists have graduated from that school, who have, by their productions, honored their country in España and other nations, and obtained prizes in various contests.2

By royal decrees of August and December, 1893, this institution was reorganized. The section of thefine arts was separated from the professional school of arts and crafts, and the superior school of painting, sculpture, and engraving was created. Teaching was amplified, and instruction given in various art subjects, including color composition modeling, and drawing from the antique and from nature, including figure drawing.3This academy was supported from local funds, a small part being contributed from the general budget. There were no enrolments or academic courses, and hence, no examinations. The pupils could attend as many years as they wished.4After its reorganization in 1893, the general attendance was from 200 to 300, and in spite of the poor instruction, some good work was done.5

1TheSociedad Económica de Amigos del Paiswas founded in 1813 for the purpose of encouraging interest in the arts, sciences, commerce, and industries. Alexander A. Webb, former American consul at Manila, says of it. “It is claimed on its behalf that it has accomplished a vast amount of good, but there is not that degree of energy and activity manifested in its work to be seen in similar organizations in some other countries.” It had a library of about 2,000 volumes on the arts and sciences, natural history, and agriculture. SeeReport of Commissioner of Education, 1897–98, p. 980.↑2The Filipino artist, Juan Luna y Novicio was a pupil of this academy. He also studied in Madrid, Paris, and Rome, and some of his paintings are conserved in the largest galleries. The total number of pupils enrolled in this academy from 1872 to 1883 was 5,485. SeeCensus of Philippines, iii, p. 615.↑3Archipiélago Filipino, i, p. 349;Census of Philippines, iii, p. 614.↑4Census of Philippines, iii, p. 614.↑5SeeReport of Philippine Commission, 1900, i, pp. 39, 40. Drawing was introduced into the Philippine schools in 1903 upon a systematic basis. The Filipinos are interested and apt in this work, and show talent in original conception and artistic execution. The work is carried on by a staff of nine Filipino drawing teachers, one American teacher for the secondary and American schools, and a supervisor. The Filipino teacher is as competent as the American in this work. SeeReport of Philippine Commission, 1904, pt. 3, p. 890.↑

1TheSociedad Económica de Amigos del Paiswas founded in 1813 for the purpose of encouraging interest in the arts, sciences, commerce, and industries. Alexander A. Webb, former American consul at Manila, says of it. “It is claimed on its behalf that it has accomplished a vast amount of good, but there is not that degree of energy and activity manifested in its work to be seen in similar organizations in some other countries.” It had a library of about 2,000 volumes on the arts and sciences, natural history, and agriculture. SeeReport of Commissioner of Education, 1897–98, p. 980.↑

2The Filipino artist, Juan Luna y Novicio was a pupil of this academy. He also studied in Madrid, Paris, and Rome, and some of his paintings are conserved in the largest galleries. The total number of pupils enrolled in this academy from 1872 to 1883 was 5,485. SeeCensus of Philippines, iii, p. 615.↑

3Archipiélago Filipino, i, p. 349;Census of Philippines, iii, p. 614.↑

4Census of Philippines, iii, p. 614.↑

5SeeReport of Philippine Commission, 1900, i, pp. 39, 40. Drawing was introduced into the Philippine schools in 1903 upon a systematic basis. The Filipinos are interested and apt in this work, and show talent in original conception and artistic execution. The work is carried on by a staff of nine Filipino drawing teachers, one American teacher for the secondary and American schools, and a supervisor. The Filipino teacher is as competent as the American in this work. SeeReport of Philippine Commission, 1904, pt. 3, p. 890.↑

ATENEO MUNICIPALIn 1859, the fathers of the Society of Jesus came anew to these islands to evangelize the savage tribes of Mindanao.1While they were preparing for that enterprise, they were given control (December 10)2of the Escuela pía (charity school) of Manila, which then contained 33 pupils under the auspices of the municipality and the protection of the captain-general, then Fernando Norzagaray. By January 2 of the following year the pupils numbered 124. All the elementary primary studies were taught, as well as most of those of secondary instruction, and superior education, in accordance with the regulations then in force. In 1865 it was declared a college of secondary instruction under the title of “Ateneo Municipal [i.e., Municipal Athenaeum] of Manila,” by the Madrid government. Some years later it had 200 boarding pupils and a large number of day pupils, and it was impossible to accommodateall those who wished to enter from all parts of the archipelago. In addition to the studies which constitute the course leading to the degree of bachelor of arts, studies of application, to agriculture, industry, and commerce were given, and titles of commercial experts, agricultural experts, and later, mechanical experts were issued.There were also classes in drawing, vocal and instrumental music, and gymnastics. Expenses were defrayed by the municipality. Statistics show that between the years 1865–1882, a large per cent of those who have entered for the various branches have graduated, the per cent of those graduates studying agriculture being the lowest. In that period 173 A. B. degrees, 40 titles of commercial expert, and 19 titles of agricultural expert had been conferred. The year 1896–1897 showed a total enrolment of 1,176, of whom 510 belonged to the department of primary instruction, 514 to the general studies of secondary instruction, and 152 to the studies of application. The school enjoyed great prestige from its foundation to the close of the Spanish régime, as the methods followed there were better and more modern than any other in the archipelago.3It had a faculty of 24.41The first band of Jesuits who arrived in the middle of 1859, consisted of six fathers and four brothers, their superior being José Fernandez Cuevas (see Montero y Vidal, iii, p. 272). The royal decree readmitting them was dated March 21, 1852 (Barrantes,Instrucción primaria, p. 103).↑2That charge was approved by a superior decree dated December 15 of the same year (Montero y Vidal, iii, p. 272). Examinations were in charge of the Dominicans (Ed. Report for 1899–1900, ii, p. 1621).↑3The work of the Jesuits in this school is praised highly by Tomás G. del Rosario in theCensus of Philippines, iii, p. 596.↑4SeeReport of Commissioner of Education, 1899–1900, ii, p. 1621.↑

ATENEO MUNICIPAL

In 1859, the fathers of the Society of Jesus came anew to these islands to evangelize the savage tribes of Mindanao.1While they were preparing for that enterprise, they were given control (December 10)2of the Escuela pía (charity school) of Manila, which then contained 33 pupils under the auspices of the municipality and the protection of the captain-general, then Fernando Norzagaray. By January 2 of the following year the pupils numbered 124. All the elementary primary studies were taught, as well as most of those of secondary instruction, and superior education, in accordance with the regulations then in force. In 1865 it was declared a college of secondary instruction under the title of “Ateneo Municipal [i.e., Municipal Athenaeum] of Manila,” by the Madrid government. Some years later it had 200 boarding pupils and a large number of day pupils, and it was impossible to accommodateall those who wished to enter from all parts of the archipelago. In addition to the studies which constitute the course leading to the degree of bachelor of arts, studies of application, to agriculture, industry, and commerce were given, and titles of commercial experts, agricultural experts, and later, mechanical experts were issued.There were also classes in drawing, vocal and instrumental music, and gymnastics. Expenses were defrayed by the municipality. Statistics show that between the years 1865–1882, a large per cent of those who have entered for the various branches have graduated, the per cent of those graduates studying agriculture being the lowest. In that period 173 A. B. degrees, 40 titles of commercial expert, and 19 titles of agricultural expert had been conferred. The year 1896–1897 showed a total enrolment of 1,176, of whom 510 belonged to the department of primary instruction, 514 to the general studies of secondary instruction, and 152 to the studies of application. The school enjoyed great prestige from its foundation to the close of the Spanish régime, as the methods followed there were better and more modern than any other in the archipelago.3It had a faculty of 24.4

In 1859, the fathers of the Society of Jesus came anew to these islands to evangelize the savage tribes of Mindanao.1While they were preparing for that enterprise, they were given control (December 10)2of the Escuela pía (charity school) of Manila, which then contained 33 pupils under the auspices of the municipality and the protection of the captain-general, then Fernando Norzagaray. By January 2 of the following year the pupils numbered 124. All the elementary primary studies were taught, as well as most of those of secondary instruction, and superior education, in accordance with the regulations then in force. In 1865 it was declared a college of secondary instruction under the title of “Ateneo Municipal [i.e., Municipal Athenaeum] of Manila,” by the Madrid government. Some years later it had 200 boarding pupils and a large number of day pupils, and it was impossible to accommodateall those who wished to enter from all parts of the archipelago. In addition to the studies which constitute the course leading to the degree of bachelor of arts, studies of application, to agriculture, industry, and commerce were given, and titles of commercial experts, agricultural experts, and later, mechanical experts were issued.

There were also classes in drawing, vocal and instrumental music, and gymnastics. Expenses were defrayed by the municipality. Statistics show that between the years 1865–1882, a large per cent of those who have entered for the various branches have graduated, the per cent of those graduates studying agriculture being the lowest. In that period 173 A. B. degrees, 40 titles of commercial expert, and 19 titles of agricultural expert had been conferred. The year 1896–1897 showed a total enrolment of 1,176, of whom 510 belonged to the department of primary instruction, 514 to the general studies of secondary instruction, and 152 to the studies of application. The school enjoyed great prestige from its foundation to the close of the Spanish régime, as the methods followed there were better and more modern than any other in the archipelago.3It had a faculty of 24.4

1The first band of Jesuits who arrived in the middle of 1859, consisted of six fathers and four brothers, their superior being José Fernandez Cuevas (see Montero y Vidal, iii, p. 272). The royal decree readmitting them was dated March 21, 1852 (Barrantes,Instrucción primaria, p. 103).↑2That charge was approved by a superior decree dated December 15 of the same year (Montero y Vidal, iii, p. 272). Examinations were in charge of the Dominicans (Ed. Report for 1899–1900, ii, p. 1621).↑3The work of the Jesuits in this school is praised highly by Tomás G. del Rosario in theCensus of Philippines, iii, p. 596.↑4SeeReport of Commissioner of Education, 1899–1900, ii, p. 1621.↑

1The first band of Jesuits who arrived in the middle of 1859, consisted of six fathers and four brothers, their superior being José Fernandez Cuevas (see Montero y Vidal, iii, p. 272). The royal decree readmitting them was dated March 21, 1852 (Barrantes,Instrucción primaria, p. 103).↑

2That charge was approved by a superior decree dated December 15 of the same year (Montero y Vidal, iii, p. 272). Examinations were in charge of the Dominicans (Ed. Report for 1899–1900, ii, p. 1621).↑

3The work of the Jesuits in this school is praised highly by Tomás G. del Rosario in theCensus of Philippines, iii, p. 596.↑

4SeeReport of Commissioner of Education, 1899–1900, ii, p. 1621.↑

EDUCATIONAL SUGGESTIONSSUPERIOR INSTRUCTION1University of Manila. Naval School.The university has many enemies and some arguers who do not oppose it because it is directed by Dominican friars, but because they believe the study of law inadvisable. This opinion is anti-liberal and does not merit refutation. Even if it did merit it, the moment would never be opportune for a democratic revolution, which even runs the danger of going too far in its generalizations, as we have already stated. The greater convenience of a school of medicine and surgery, professions in which the Indians would probably give better results than in the forum, might be maintained. But since true progress does not consist in destroying, but in reforming and improving gradually, we are inclined as the generality of those who have been in Filipinas, to the realization of the secularization which is demanded in regard to superior public instruction, and which appears to be the desire of the government at this time, by means of the establishmentin the university itself of that school, to which the Dominican fathers, who have made the greatest sacrifices for their country, would not hesitate to offer themselves. And even if the study of pharmacy were added to it, it would also be convenient. That science must adjust itself to the conditions of the Indian, and there is an unquestioned need for it there; for, although its principal subdivisions have been studied by some religious, such as botany, mineral waters, etc., there is still much to do. It is the general opinion that the Philippine fields with their innumerable and unknown herbs offer remedies for all diseases, but the science is given up to chicanery, and the empiricism of themediquillos. The Indians accept Spanish medicines under no consideration. Therefore, it is necessary to regenerate the class of the former by prohibiting intrusions into the field of the profession, and by obliging them to study it from its beginnings in the university of Manila under Spanish professors, who ought to be those of military health [Sanidad militar]—men who acquire great skill in the hospitals and come to be specialists in the diseases of the country. The suppression of some obstacles which still exist in regard to the admission of foreign professors will also be an excellent measure. In regard to pharmacy, of which there exist no regular establishments outside of Manila, Cavite, Cebú, and, I believe, Cagayán, great rigor must be exercised in removing from it abuses and ignorance which give place to the most grave consequences. As there exists no authoritative personnel, wandering peddlers easily obtain a permit from the superior government to add to their work the sale of drugs. At times they are subjectedto light examinations by the subdelegate. The consequence is that the provinces are swamped with counterfeit and dangerous products when they are not objects of perfumery, which the poor natives swallow as chemical products. In Pampanga we have seen a preparation of lettuce or of some similar vegetable sold as a tailor’s chalk [jaboncillo de sastre], which was of more use for washing the hands than for modifying the nervous contractions of the muscles.Hence, the intrusions of the mediquillo and of thematandá(the old man) who with true enchantments and superstitious remedies cures the poor sick people, cannot be combated with efficacy. In Batangas dead flies that were killed by the fresh paint of a saint have been prescribed, and brick dust where the mark of a foot had appeared to the native curas as a miraculous thing imprinted by the Virgin who was coming to adore a cross near by. The pills of Holloway and the products of foreign charlatanism reap their harvest.Hence also, the poor parish priests have to serve as physicians and apothecaries in extreme cases. Very frequently the mediquillo when he sees that it is a case of exhaustion, absconds or disappears, and then what can a poor friar do at the bedside of a sick person who dies without human aid? Consequently, the literature of the convents has produced many [medical] works, some of them of merit, destined to be used as avade mecumin these ordinary cases. Even notions of obstetrics (the science of childbirth) are given in some of those books, since there are theologues who counsel proceeding to the most risky operations in order to be able tobaptize the fetus. In theEmbriologia[i.e.,Embriology] of Father Sanz,2one reads of cases truly inconceivable, and in theIlustracion filipina,3a periodical which was published in our time, appeared articles in regard to the mediquillos and midwives, which by themselves alone would authorize a reform of those professions so interesting to humanity. In difficult childbirth it is very common for the operator to press down on the abdomen of the sick woman, and to have recourse to other proceedings similar to it. The first month after birth the Indian children pass in a perpetual martyrdom, for they are rubbed hourly with very hot cocoanut oil, a custom doubtless preserved from the woods, where in their savage state they make of the children a flexible serpent which escapes from the hand.Since surgery, in spite of being an almost useless science in Filipinas, where the great agricultural and industrial works which cause mutilations and accidents do not exist, for the Indian when he works never does it with the enthusiasm and abnegation which we see in Europa, but very tranquilly and carefully looking out beforehand to what he exposes himself—surgery, we repeat, properly so called—does not exist where there are no Spanish operators. For the bite of a monkey, which would disappear in a fortnight by cauterization, we have seen so many plasters applied and so many waters from miraculous springs (among them a bandage soaked in holy water) that they have very likely killed the sick person,since he had suffered two long years when we left the province. If the oils and balsams from those oleaginous plants (and among them there are some truly wonderful) produced no effect, the mediquillo, losing his bearings, soon has recourse to the charms and devilments which bring a sick one to the grave.There is another educational institution in Manila which is susceptible of great development and of producing vast advantages for the country, namely, the naval school. Poorly organized and almost always worse directed, it only graduates pupils with great pretentious, who aspire from the first moment to posts in the warships, where they are quickly confounded with the very least predicaments. If this institution on the other hand were well organized as a school of pilots, it could supply useful men to the great number of boats engaged in the coasting trade. The native sailor is bold even to folly in the ordinary accidents of navigation, but timorous and irresolute in exigencies, and absolutely lacks means to escape from them. Hence they go with the greatest impassiveness through those labyrinths of hidden rocks and reefs, which fill the sea of Mindoro and the Calamianes in pancos and paraos which scarcely can be used for the navigation of rivers and creeks. But at the first puff of a strong wind, which, although it does not break it, tears the helm from their hands at the first movement of that stormy sea where cataclysms are more frequent than ashore, the poorarraez[i.e., master] as the captain there is still called, harassed and disturbed, either kneels down with all his crew to invoke God, placing on the helm hisantin-antin(amulet, a kind of scapulary which noIndian is without during these voyages, and which has more of paganism than Christianity), or takes refuge in the hatchway in order not to behold the dangers that he is running. If any Spaniard is in the boat, the command is assuredly given to him, although he understands less of sea-affairs than the said captain. That has happened more than once to all of us who have traveled much from one island to another, and surely not even in boats of a certain importance, almost brigantines, when the master is a Tagálog, have we ever met with sea-compass, barometer, or glass, or any other of the instruments most indispensable for navigation.This is enough to prove the importance which ought to be given to the naval school, whose organization must be very imperfect, since even yet its results are almost nil. It depends provisionally on the superior civil government, a circumstance which appears absurd to us. Like this there exist many things which we have neither time nor scientific capacity to unfold. It belongs to the government to do now what is proposed, namely, reform the public instruction of Filipinas.SCHOOLS OF PRIMARY LETTERSThe primary school, the most interesting among all peoples, and more yet among backward peoples, was found in our time in an incipient condition, if one considers it as the government desires it, and as a great number of royal decrees resolved. Primary instruction in Castilian was alone known in Manila and some suburbs of the capital, but in the dialects of the country there existed boys’ schools in all the villages, and in the majority of them, also schoolsfor girls. It is a fact that such schools did not count on more elements than the pay assigned by the government for the teachers,4and the parish priests together with the provincial chiefs had to decide on the means for the construction and conservation of the edifices and furnishings, the former paying in addition their salaries to the teachers of the girls, or paying them from the funds of the churches according to the wealth of each one.This system gave the consequent result of there not being any suitable directors for complete primary instruction. But in reading, writing, and religion, in the majority of the villages of the archipelago, there was found a greater number proportionally than in España, for the missionaries alwaysconsidered that education as the first element of civilization and adhesion of those inhabitants to the crown of Castilla.The government tried to improve and make general that education, but in the Spanish language.5For that purpose the assembly appointed in 1861 made some regulations, taking as its base the creation of a normal school, which has had realization, and according to Señor Barrantes, in the above-cited work, it seems that instruction has improved somewhat in what relates to the Spanish.The question of whether the parish priests or missionaries have opposed those rules is of little importance to us. As in all disputable cases there are partisans who favor and those who oppose—not the advantage which the generalization of the Spanish language might be, for all people recognize and admit this hypothesis, but only the results which the generalization of the Spanish language would produce,reckoning on the slight capacity of the natives to utilize the good that they might read in the idiom of Cervantes, and bearing in mind the political make-up of that country and the evil effects which would be produced by the daily publications which would arrive [from España], and which are incapable of enlightening the little but submissive intelligence of those inhabitants, yet always sufficient to excite the passions of men who would easily confuse rights with individual duties, giving a worse result than that which the history of our ancient colonies registers.As we do not know of this department in the present circumstances more than that which the above-cited work brings to light, we shall limit ourselves to calling the attention of the government so that it may introduce in that department all the improvements possible, extending the normal school, which gives very slight results for a people of five millions, and proving whether this normal school, organized with a mixture of the language of the country and of the Spanish and by creating one school in each group of provinces belonging to the same language, would give a more positive result in regard to instruction, and one even more efficacious for the propagation of the Spanish by printing works in two columns in the two languages.6What the archipelago lacks are men and women teachers to give instruction in the primary schools. Industrial teachers, professorships for foremen and assistants for public works and master masons would produce a great result in that country. Lastly, letall the generals bear in mind what the various ancient decrees rule to the effect that a charge shall be made to them in their residencias for their neglect in public instruction.1Edmond Plauchut, writing inRevue des Deux Mondesfor 1877, xx, p. 910, says: “The history of superior instruction, like that of primary, is only the dry relation of a furious struggle between two religious orders, that of the friars, and that of the Jesuits.”↑2TheEmbriologia sagrada(Manila, 1856), by Gregorio Sanz.↑3The first number of this fortnightly paper appeared in Manila, in March, 1859, and its last issue, December 15, 1860. It is but rarely found complete. Retana praises it highly. SeePolitica de España en Filipinas, iii, pp. 103–105.↑4Schools exist in all the villages. The teacher is paid by the government, and usually receives two dollars [i.e., pesos] per month without either lodging or board. In large villages, the pay is as high as three and one-half dollars, but he must pay an assistant out of that. The schools are under the supervision of the parish priests. Reading and writing are taught, the instruction being in Spanish. The teacher is properly required to teach his scholars Spanish, but he himself does not know it. On the other hand, the Spanish officials do not understand the native languages. The priests, moreover, have no inclination to alter these conditions, which are very useful for their influence. Almost the only Indians who know Spanish are those who have been in the service of Europeans. A sort of devotional primer is read in the native speech (Bicol) at first, and later the Christian doctrine. The reading book is called Casayayan. On an average, half of the children attend school, usually from the seventh to the tenth year. They learn to read somewhat, and some learn also a little of writing, but they forget it soon. Only those who later enter service as clerks write easily, and most of them have a good hand. Some pastors do not allow boys and girls to attend the same school, in which case they also pay a special schoolmistress at the rate of one dollar per month. The Indians learn to reckon with great difficulty. They generally rake shells or stones to help them, which they heap up and then count. See Jagor’sReisen in den Philippinen(Berlin, 1873), pp. 128, 129.↑5“The Spanish government was really anxious that all Filipinos should speak the Spanish language, as it is understood that the use of a common language is the manner of forming a national spirit and sentiment, the only thing that can preserve and unite in constant friendship people of different races. Nevertheless, the monastic orders were always decidedly opposed to the Spanish language being spoken in Philippine territory, because their interests would have been greatly injured if such language had become general throughout the archipelago, as from that time they would have ceased to be the intermediaries between the people and the authorities and would no longer be required by either, which would reduce their great influence with both parties.... As a consequence of all this the Spanish language did not become general, and due to the diversity of dialects in the country and the lack of books in these dialects, education went along a hard and difficult path. Some officials of the Spanish government assisted the friars in this work.” See Tomás del Rosario’s article inCensus of Philippines, iii, p. 594. For the friar side of this question, see the statements of Fathers Navarro and Zamora, which will appear in the appendix to ourVOL. XLVI.↑6See appendix toVOL. XLVIfor the regulations of the government normal school.↑

EDUCATIONAL SUGGESTIONSSUPERIOR INSTRUCTION1University of Manila. Naval School.The university has many enemies and some arguers who do not oppose it because it is directed by Dominican friars, but because they believe the study of law inadvisable. This opinion is anti-liberal and does not merit refutation. Even if it did merit it, the moment would never be opportune for a democratic revolution, which even runs the danger of going too far in its generalizations, as we have already stated. The greater convenience of a school of medicine and surgery, professions in which the Indians would probably give better results than in the forum, might be maintained. But since true progress does not consist in destroying, but in reforming and improving gradually, we are inclined as the generality of those who have been in Filipinas, to the realization of the secularization which is demanded in regard to superior public instruction, and which appears to be the desire of the government at this time, by means of the establishmentin the university itself of that school, to which the Dominican fathers, who have made the greatest sacrifices for their country, would not hesitate to offer themselves. And even if the study of pharmacy were added to it, it would also be convenient. That science must adjust itself to the conditions of the Indian, and there is an unquestioned need for it there; for, although its principal subdivisions have been studied by some religious, such as botany, mineral waters, etc., there is still much to do. It is the general opinion that the Philippine fields with their innumerable and unknown herbs offer remedies for all diseases, but the science is given up to chicanery, and the empiricism of themediquillos. The Indians accept Spanish medicines under no consideration. Therefore, it is necessary to regenerate the class of the former by prohibiting intrusions into the field of the profession, and by obliging them to study it from its beginnings in the university of Manila under Spanish professors, who ought to be those of military health [Sanidad militar]—men who acquire great skill in the hospitals and come to be specialists in the diseases of the country. The suppression of some obstacles which still exist in regard to the admission of foreign professors will also be an excellent measure. In regard to pharmacy, of which there exist no regular establishments outside of Manila, Cavite, Cebú, and, I believe, Cagayán, great rigor must be exercised in removing from it abuses and ignorance which give place to the most grave consequences. As there exists no authoritative personnel, wandering peddlers easily obtain a permit from the superior government to add to their work the sale of drugs. At times they are subjectedto light examinations by the subdelegate. The consequence is that the provinces are swamped with counterfeit and dangerous products when they are not objects of perfumery, which the poor natives swallow as chemical products. In Pampanga we have seen a preparation of lettuce or of some similar vegetable sold as a tailor’s chalk [jaboncillo de sastre], which was of more use for washing the hands than for modifying the nervous contractions of the muscles.Hence, the intrusions of the mediquillo and of thematandá(the old man) who with true enchantments and superstitious remedies cures the poor sick people, cannot be combated with efficacy. In Batangas dead flies that were killed by the fresh paint of a saint have been prescribed, and brick dust where the mark of a foot had appeared to the native curas as a miraculous thing imprinted by the Virgin who was coming to adore a cross near by. The pills of Holloway and the products of foreign charlatanism reap their harvest.Hence also, the poor parish priests have to serve as physicians and apothecaries in extreme cases. Very frequently the mediquillo when he sees that it is a case of exhaustion, absconds or disappears, and then what can a poor friar do at the bedside of a sick person who dies without human aid? Consequently, the literature of the convents has produced many [medical] works, some of them of merit, destined to be used as avade mecumin these ordinary cases. Even notions of obstetrics (the science of childbirth) are given in some of those books, since there are theologues who counsel proceeding to the most risky operations in order to be able tobaptize the fetus. In theEmbriologia[i.e.,Embriology] of Father Sanz,2one reads of cases truly inconceivable, and in theIlustracion filipina,3a periodical which was published in our time, appeared articles in regard to the mediquillos and midwives, which by themselves alone would authorize a reform of those professions so interesting to humanity. In difficult childbirth it is very common for the operator to press down on the abdomen of the sick woman, and to have recourse to other proceedings similar to it. The first month after birth the Indian children pass in a perpetual martyrdom, for they are rubbed hourly with very hot cocoanut oil, a custom doubtless preserved from the woods, where in their savage state they make of the children a flexible serpent which escapes from the hand.Since surgery, in spite of being an almost useless science in Filipinas, where the great agricultural and industrial works which cause mutilations and accidents do not exist, for the Indian when he works never does it with the enthusiasm and abnegation which we see in Europa, but very tranquilly and carefully looking out beforehand to what he exposes himself—surgery, we repeat, properly so called—does not exist where there are no Spanish operators. For the bite of a monkey, which would disappear in a fortnight by cauterization, we have seen so many plasters applied and so many waters from miraculous springs (among them a bandage soaked in holy water) that they have very likely killed the sick person,since he had suffered two long years when we left the province. If the oils and balsams from those oleaginous plants (and among them there are some truly wonderful) produced no effect, the mediquillo, losing his bearings, soon has recourse to the charms and devilments which bring a sick one to the grave.There is another educational institution in Manila which is susceptible of great development and of producing vast advantages for the country, namely, the naval school. Poorly organized and almost always worse directed, it only graduates pupils with great pretentious, who aspire from the first moment to posts in the warships, where they are quickly confounded with the very least predicaments. If this institution on the other hand were well organized as a school of pilots, it could supply useful men to the great number of boats engaged in the coasting trade. The native sailor is bold even to folly in the ordinary accidents of navigation, but timorous and irresolute in exigencies, and absolutely lacks means to escape from them. Hence they go with the greatest impassiveness through those labyrinths of hidden rocks and reefs, which fill the sea of Mindoro and the Calamianes in pancos and paraos which scarcely can be used for the navigation of rivers and creeks. But at the first puff of a strong wind, which, although it does not break it, tears the helm from their hands at the first movement of that stormy sea where cataclysms are more frequent than ashore, the poorarraez[i.e., master] as the captain there is still called, harassed and disturbed, either kneels down with all his crew to invoke God, placing on the helm hisantin-antin(amulet, a kind of scapulary which noIndian is without during these voyages, and which has more of paganism than Christianity), or takes refuge in the hatchway in order not to behold the dangers that he is running. If any Spaniard is in the boat, the command is assuredly given to him, although he understands less of sea-affairs than the said captain. That has happened more than once to all of us who have traveled much from one island to another, and surely not even in boats of a certain importance, almost brigantines, when the master is a Tagálog, have we ever met with sea-compass, barometer, or glass, or any other of the instruments most indispensable for navigation.This is enough to prove the importance which ought to be given to the naval school, whose organization must be very imperfect, since even yet its results are almost nil. It depends provisionally on the superior civil government, a circumstance which appears absurd to us. Like this there exist many things which we have neither time nor scientific capacity to unfold. It belongs to the government to do now what is proposed, namely, reform the public instruction of Filipinas.SCHOOLS OF PRIMARY LETTERSThe primary school, the most interesting among all peoples, and more yet among backward peoples, was found in our time in an incipient condition, if one considers it as the government desires it, and as a great number of royal decrees resolved. Primary instruction in Castilian was alone known in Manila and some suburbs of the capital, but in the dialects of the country there existed boys’ schools in all the villages, and in the majority of them, also schoolsfor girls. It is a fact that such schools did not count on more elements than the pay assigned by the government for the teachers,4and the parish priests together with the provincial chiefs had to decide on the means for the construction and conservation of the edifices and furnishings, the former paying in addition their salaries to the teachers of the girls, or paying them from the funds of the churches according to the wealth of each one.This system gave the consequent result of there not being any suitable directors for complete primary instruction. But in reading, writing, and religion, in the majority of the villages of the archipelago, there was found a greater number proportionally than in España, for the missionaries alwaysconsidered that education as the first element of civilization and adhesion of those inhabitants to the crown of Castilla.The government tried to improve and make general that education, but in the Spanish language.5For that purpose the assembly appointed in 1861 made some regulations, taking as its base the creation of a normal school, which has had realization, and according to Señor Barrantes, in the above-cited work, it seems that instruction has improved somewhat in what relates to the Spanish.The question of whether the parish priests or missionaries have opposed those rules is of little importance to us. As in all disputable cases there are partisans who favor and those who oppose—not the advantage which the generalization of the Spanish language might be, for all people recognize and admit this hypothesis, but only the results which the generalization of the Spanish language would produce,reckoning on the slight capacity of the natives to utilize the good that they might read in the idiom of Cervantes, and bearing in mind the political make-up of that country and the evil effects which would be produced by the daily publications which would arrive [from España], and which are incapable of enlightening the little but submissive intelligence of those inhabitants, yet always sufficient to excite the passions of men who would easily confuse rights with individual duties, giving a worse result than that which the history of our ancient colonies registers.As we do not know of this department in the present circumstances more than that which the above-cited work brings to light, we shall limit ourselves to calling the attention of the government so that it may introduce in that department all the improvements possible, extending the normal school, which gives very slight results for a people of five millions, and proving whether this normal school, organized with a mixture of the language of the country and of the Spanish and by creating one school in each group of provinces belonging to the same language, would give a more positive result in regard to instruction, and one even more efficacious for the propagation of the Spanish by printing works in two columns in the two languages.6What the archipelago lacks are men and women teachers to give instruction in the primary schools. Industrial teachers, professorships for foremen and assistants for public works and master masons would produce a great result in that country. Lastly, letall the generals bear in mind what the various ancient decrees rule to the effect that a charge shall be made to them in their residencias for their neglect in public instruction.

SUPERIOR INSTRUCTION1University of Manila. Naval School.The university has many enemies and some arguers who do not oppose it because it is directed by Dominican friars, but because they believe the study of law inadvisable. This opinion is anti-liberal and does not merit refutation. Even if it did merit it, the moment would never be opportune for a democratic revolution, which even runs the danger of going too far in its generalizations, as we have already stated. The greater convenience of a school of medicine and surgery, professions in which the Indians would probably give better results than in the forum, might be maintained. But since true progress does not consist in destroying, but in reforming and improving gradually, we are inclined as the generality of those who have been in Filipinas, to the realization of the secularization which is demanded in regard to superior public instruction, and which appears to be the desire of the government at this time, by means of the establishmentin the university itself of that school, to which the Dominican fathers, who have made the greatest sacrifices for their country, would not hesitate to offer themselves. And even if the study of pharmacy were added to it, it would also be convenient. That science must adjust itself to the conditions of the Indian, and there is an unquestioned need for it there; for, although its principal subdivisions have been studied by some religious, such as botany, mineral waters, etc., there is still much to do. It is the general opinion that the Philippine fields with their innumerable and unknown herbs offer remedies for all diseases, but the science is given up to chicanery, and the empiricism of themediquillos. The Indians accept Spanish medicines under no consideration. Therefore, it is necessary to regenerate the class of the former by prohibiting intrusions into the field of the profession, and by obliging them to study it from its beginnings in the university of Manila under Spanish professors, who ought to be those of military health [Sanidad militar]—men who acquire great skill in the hospitals and come to be specialists in the diseases of the country. The suppression of some obstacles which still exist in regard to the admission of foreign professors will also be an excellent measure. In regard to pharmacy, of which there exist no regular establishments outside of Manila, Cavite, Cebú, and, I believe, Cagayán, great rigor must be exercised in removing from it abuses and ignorance which give place to the most grave consequences. As there exists no authoritative personnel, wandering peddlers easily obtain a permit from the superior government to add to their work the sale of drugs. At times they are subjectedto light examinations by the subdelegate. The consequence is that the provinces are swamped with counterfeit and dangerous products when they are not objects of perfumery, which the poor natives swallow as chemical products. In Pampanga we have seen a preparation of lettuce or of some similar vegetable sold as a tailor’s chalk [jaboncillo de sastre], which was of more use for washing the hands than for modifying the nervous contractions of the muscles.Hence, the intrusions of the mediquillo and of thematandá(the old man) who with true enchantments and superstitious remedies cures the poor sick people, cannot be combated with efficacy. In Batangas dead flies that were killed by the fresh paint of a saint have been prescribed, and brick dust where the mark of a foot had appeared to the native curas as a miraculous thing imprinted by the Virgin who was coming to adore a cross near by. The pills of Holloway and the products of foreign charlatanism reap their harvest.Hence also, the poor parish priests have to serve as physicians and apothecaries in extreme cases. Very frequently the mediquillo when he sees that it is a case of exhaustion, absconds or disappears, and then what can a poor friar do at the bedside of a sick person who dies without human aid? Consequently, the literature of the convents has produced many [medical] works, some of them of merit, destined to be used as avade mecumin these ordinary cases. Even notions of obstetrics (the science of childbirth) are given in some of those books, since there are theologues who counsel proceeding to the most risky operations in order to be able tobaptize the fetus. In theEmbriologia[i.e.,Embriology] of Father Sanz,2one reads of cases truly inconceivable, and in theIlustracion filipina,3a periodical which was published in our time, appeared articles in regard to the mediquillos and midwives, which by themselves alone would authorize a reform of those professions so interesting to humanity. In difficult childbirth it is very common for the operator to press down on the abdomen of the sick woman, and to have recourse to other proceedings similar to it. The first month after birth the Indian children pass in a perpetual martyrdom, for they are rubbed hourly with very hot cocoanut oil, a custom doubtless preserved from the woods, where in their savage state they make of the children a flexible serpent which escapes from the hand.Since surgery, in spite of being an almost useless science in Filipinas, where the great agricultural and industrial works which cause mutilations and accidents do not exist, for the Indian when he works never does it with the enthusiasm and abnegation which we see in Europa, but very tranquilly and carefully looking out beforehand to what he exposes himself—surgery, we repeat, properly so called—does not exist where there are no Spanish operators. For the bite of a monkey, which would disappear in a fortnight by cauterization, we have seen so many plasters applied and so many waters from miraculous springs (among them a bandage soaked in holy water) that they have very likely killed the sick person,since he had suffered two long years when we left the province. If the oils and balsams from those oleaginous plants (and among them there are some truly wonderful) produced no effect, the mediquillo, losing his bearings, soon has recourse to the charms and devilments which bring a sick one to the grave.There is another educational institution in Manila which is susceptible of great development and of producing vast advantages for the country, namely, the naval school. Poorly organized and almost always worse directed, it only graduates pupils with great pretentious, who aspire from the first moment to posts in the warships, where they are quickly confounded with the very least predicaments. If this institution on the other hand were well organized as a school of pilots, it could supply useful men to the great number of boats engaged in the coasting trade. The native sailor is bold even to folly in the ordinary accidents of navigation, but timorous and irresolute in exigencies, and absolutely lacks means to escape from them. Hence they go with the greatest impassiveness through those labyrinths of hidden rocks and reefs, which fill the sea of Mindoro and the Calamianes in pancos and paraos which scarcely can be used for the navigation of rivers and creeks. But at the first puff of a strong wind, which, although it does not break it, tears the helm from their hands at the first movement of that stormy sea where cataclysms are more frequent than ashore, the poorarraez[i.e., master] as the captain there is still called, harassed and disturbed, either kneels down with all his crew to invoke God, placing on the helm hisantin-antin(amulet, a kind of scapulary which noIndian is without during these voyages, and which has more of paganism than Christianity), or takes refuge in the hatchway in order not to behold the dangers that he is running. If any Spaniard is in the boat, the command is assuredly given to him, although he understands less of sea-affairs than the said captain. That has happened more than once to all of us who have traveled much from one island to another, and surely not even in boats of a certain importance, almost brigantines, when the master is a Tagálog, have we ever met with sea-compass, barometer, or glass, or any other of the instruments most indispensable for navigation.This is enough to prove the importance which ought to be given to the naval school, whose organization must be very imperfect, since even yet its results are almost nil. It depends provisionally on the superior civil government, a circumstance which appears absurd to us. Like this there exist many things which we have neither time nor scientific capacity to unfold. It belongs to the government to do now what is proposed, namely, reform the public instruction of Filipinas.

SUPERIOR INSTRUCTION1

University of Manila. Naval School.The university has many enemies and some arguers who do not oppose it because it is directed by Dominican friars, but because they believe the study of law inadvisable. This opinion is anti-liberal and does not merit refutation. Even if it did merit it, the moment would never be opportune for a democratic revolution, which even runs the danger of going too far in its generalizations, as we have already stated. The greater convenience of a school of medicine and surgery, professions in which the Indians would probably give better results than in the forum, might be maintained. But since true progress does not consist in destroying, but in reforming and improving gradually, we are inclined as the generality of those who have been in Filipinas, to the realization of the secularization which is demanded in regard to superior public instruction, and which appears to be the desire of the government at this time, by means of the establishmentin the university itself of that school, to which the Dominican fathers, who have made the greatest sacrifices for their country, would not hesitate to offer themselves. And even if the study of pharmacy were added to it, it would also be convenient. That science must adjust itself to the conditions of the Indian, and there is an unquestioned need for it there; for, although its principal subdivisions have been studied by some religious, such as botany, mineral waters, etc., there is still much to do. It is the general opinion that the Philippine fields with their innumerable and unknown herbs offer remedies for all diseases, but the science is given up to chicanery, and the empiricism of themediquillos. The Indians accept Spanish medicines under no consideration. Therefore, it is necessary to regenerate the class of the former by prohibiting intrusions into the field of the profession, and by obliging them to study it from its beginnings in the university of Manila under Spanish professors, who ought to be those of military health [Sanidad militar]—men who acquire great skill in the hospitals and come to be specialists in the diseases of the country. The suppression of some obstacles which still exist in regard to the admission of foreign professors will also be an excellent measure. In regard to pharmacy, of which there exist no regular establishments outside of Manila, Cavite, Cebú, and, I believe, Cagayán, great rigor must be exercised in removing from it abuses and ignorance which give place to the most grave consequences. As there exists no authoritative personnel, wandering peddlers easily obtain a permit from the superior government to add to their work the sale of drugs. At times they are subjectedto light examinations by the subdelegate. The consequence is that the provinces are swamped with counterfeit and dangerous products when they are not objects of perfumery, which the poor natives swallow as chemical products. In Pampanga we have seen a preparation of lettuce or of some similar vegetable sold as a tailor’s chalk [jaboncillo de sastre], which was of more use for washing the hands than for modifying the nervous contractions of the muscles.Hence, the intrusions of the mediquillo and of thematandá(the old man) who with true enchantments and superstitious remedies cures the poor sick people, cannot be combated with efficacy. In Batangas dead flies that were killed by the fresh paint of a saint have been prescribed, and brick dust where the mark of a foot had appeared to the native curas as a miraculous thing imprinted by the Virgin who was coming to adore a cross near by. The pills of Holloway and the products of foreign charlatanism reap their harvest.Hence also, the poor parish priests have to serve as physicians and apothecaries in extreme cases. Very frequently the mediquillo when he sees that it is a case of exhaustion, absconds or disappears, and then what can a poor friar do at the bedside of a sick person who dies without human aid? Consequently, the literature of the convents has produced many [medical] works, some of them of merit, destined to be used as avade mecumin these ordinary cases. Even notions of obstetrics (the science of childbirth) are given in some of those books, since there are theologues who counsel proceeding to the most risky operations in order to be able tobaptize the fetus. In theEmbriologia[i.e.,Embriology] of Father Sanz,2one reads of cases truly inconceivable, and in theIlustracion filipina,3a periodical which was published in our time, appeared articles in regard to the mediquillos and midwives, which by themselves alone would authorize a reform of those professions so interesting to humanity. In difficult childbirth it is very common for the operator to press down on the abdomen of the sick woman, and to have recourse to other proceedings similar to it. The first month after birth the Indian children pass in a perpetual martyrdom, for they are rubbed hourly with very hot cocoanut oil, a custom doubtless preserved from the woods, where in their savage state they make of the children a flexible serpent which escapes from the hand.Since surgery, in spite of being an almost useless science in Filipinas, where the great agricultural and industrial works which cause mutilations and accidents do not exist, for the Indian when he works never does it with the enthusiasm and abnegation which we see in Europa, but very tranquilly and carefully looking out beforehand to what he exposes himself—surgery, we repeat, properly so called—does not exist where there are no Spanish operators. For the bite of a monkey, which would disappear in a fortnight by cauterization, we have seen so many plasters applied and so many waters from miraculous springs (among them a bandage soaked in holy water) that they have very likely killed the sick person,since he had suffered two long years when we left the province. If the oils and balsams from those oleaginous plants (and among them there are some truly wonderful) produced no effect, the mediquillo, losing his bearings, soon has recourse to the charms and devilments which bring a sick one to the grave.There is another educational institution in Manila which is susceptible of great development and of producing vast advantages for the country, namely, the naval school. Poorly organized and almost always worse directed, it only graduates pupils with great pretentious, who aspire from the first moment to posts in the warships, where they are quickly confounded with the very least predicaments. If this institution on the other hand were well organized as a school of pilots, it could supply useful men to the great number of boats engaged in the coasting trade. The native sailor is bold even to folly in the ordinary accidents of navigation, but timorous and irresolute in exigencies, and absolutely lacks means to escape from them. Hence they go with the greatest impassiveness through those labyrinths of hidden rocks and reefs, which fill the sea of Mindoro and the Calamianes in pancos and paraos which scarcely can be used for the navigation of rivers and creeks. But at the first puff of a strong wind, which, although it does not break it, tears the helm from their hands at the first movement of that stormy sea where cataclysms are more frequent than ashore, the poorarraez[i.e., master] as the captain there is still called, harassed and disturbed, either kneels down with all his crew to invoke God, placing on the helm hisantin-antin(amulet, a kind of scapulary which noIndian is without during these voyages, and which has more of paganism than Christianity), or takes refuge in the hatchway in order not to behold the dangers that he is running. If any Spaniard is in the boat, the command is assuredly given to him, although he understands less of sea-affairs than the said captain. That has happened more than once to all of us who have traveled much from one island to another, and surely not even in boats of a certain importance, almost brigantines, when the master is a Tagálog, have we ever met with sea-compass, barometer, or glass, or any other of the instruments most indispensable for navigation.This is enough to prove the importance which ought to be given to the naval school, whose organization must be very imperfect, since even yet its results are almost nil. It depends provisionally on the superior civil government, a circumstance which appears absurd to us. Like this there exist many things which we have neither time nor scientific capacity to unfold. It belongs to the government to do now what is proposed, namely, reform the public instruction of Filipinas.

University of Manila. Naval School.

The university has many enemies and some arguers who do not oppose it because it is directed by Dominican friars, but because they believe the study of law inadvisable. This opinion is anti-liberal and does not merit refutation. Even if it did merit it, the moment would never be opportune for a democratic revolution, which even runs the danger of going too far in its generalizations, as we have already stated. The greater convenience of a school of medicine and surgery, professions in which the Indians would probably give better results than in the forum, might be maintained. But since true progress does not consist in destroying, but in reforming and improving gradually, we are inclined as the generality of those who have been in Filipinas, to the realization of the secularization which is demanded in regard to superior public instruction, and which appears to be the desire of the government at this time, by means of the establishmentin the university itself of that school, to which the Dominican fathers, who have made the greatest sacrifices for their country, would not hesitate to offer themselves. And even if the study of pharmacy were added to it, it would also be convenient. That science must adjust itself to the conditions of the Indian, and there is an unquestioned need for it there; for, although its principal subdivisions have been studied by some religious, such as botany, mineral waters, etc., there is still much to do. It is the general opinion that the Philippine fields with their innumerable and unknown herbs offer remedies for all diseases, but the science is given up to chicanery, and the empiricism of themediquillos. The Indians accept Spanish medicines under no consideration. Therefore, it is necessary to regenerate the class of the former by prohibiting intrusions into the field of the profession, and by obliging them to study it from its beginnings in the university of Manila under Spanish professors, who ought to be those of military health [Sanidad militar]—men who acquire great skill in the hospitals and come to be specialists in the diseases of the country. The suppression of some obstacles which still exist in regard to the admission of foreign professors will also be an excellent measure. In regard to pharmacy, of which there exist no regular establishments outside of Manila, Cavite, Cebú, and, I believe, Cagayán, great rigor must be exercised in removing from it abuses and ignorance which give place to the most grave consequences. As there exists no authoritative personnel, wandering peddlers easily obtain a permit from the superior government to add to their work the sale of drugs. At times they are subjectedto light examinations by the subdelegate. The consequence is that the provinces are swamped with counterfeit and dangerous products when they are not objects of perfumery, which the poor natives swallow as chemical products. In Pampanga we have seen a preparation of lettuce or of some similar vegetable sold as a tailor’s chalk [jaboncillo de sastre], which was of more use for washing the hands than for modifying the nervous contractions of the muscles.

Hence, the intrusions of the mediquillo and of thematandá(the old man) who with true enchantments and superstitious remedies cures the poor sick people, cannot be combated with efficacy. In Batangas dead flies that were killed by the fresh paint of a saint have been prescribed, and brick dust where the mark of a foot had appeared to the native curas as a miraculous thing imprinted by the Virgin who was coming to adore a cross near by. The pills of Holloway and the products of foreign charlatanism reap their harvest.

Hence also, the poor parish priests have to serve as physicians and apothecaries in extreme cases. Very frequently the mediquillo when he sees that it is a case of exhaustion, absconds or disappears, and then what can a poor friar do at the bedside of a sick person who dies without human aid? Consequently, the literature of the convents has produced many [medical] works, some of them of merit, destined to be used as avade mecumin these ordinary cases. Even notions of obstetrics (the science of childbirth) are given in some of those books, since there are theologues who counsel proceeding to the most risky operations in order to be able tobaptize the fetus. In theEmbriologia[i.e.,Embriology] of Father Sanz,2one reads of cases truly inconceivable, and in theIlustracion filipina,3a periodical which was published in our time, appeared articles in regard to the mediquillos and midwives, which by themselves alone would authorize a reform of those professions so interesting to humanity. In difficult childbirth it is very common for the operator to press down on the abdomen of the sick woman, and to have recourse to other proceedings similar to it. The first month after birth the Indian children pass in a perpetual martyrdom, for they are rubbed hourly with very hot cocoanut oil, a custom doubtless preserved from the woods, where in their savage state they make of the children a flexible serpent which escapes from the hand.

Since surgery, in spite of being an almost useless science in Filipinas, where the great agricultural and industrial works which cause mutilations and accidents do not exist, for the Indian when he works never does it with the enthusiasm and abnegation which we see in Europa, but very tranquilly and carefully looking out beforehand to what he exposes himself—surgery, we repeat, properly so called—does not exist where there are no Spanish operators. For the bite of a monkey, which would disappear in a fortnight by cauterization, we have seen so many plasters applied and so many waters from miraculous springs (among them a bandage soaked in holy water) that they have very likely killed the sick person,since he had suffered two long years when we left the province. If the oils and balsams from those oleaginous plants (and among them there are some truly wonderful) produced no effect, the mediquillo, losing his bearings, soon has recourse to the charms and devilments which bring a sick one to the grave.

There is another educational institution in Manila which is susceptible of great development and of producing vast advantages for the country, namely, the naval school. Poorly organized and almost always worse directed, it only graduates pupils with great pretentious, who aspire from the first moment to posts in the warships, where they are quickly confounded with the very least predicaments. If this institution on the other hand were well organized as a school of pilots, it could supply useful men to the great number of boats engaged in the coasting trade. The native sailor is bold even to folly in the ordinary accidents of navigation, but timorous and irresolute in exigencies, and absolutely lacks means to escape from them. Hence they go with the greatest impassiveness through those labyrinths of hidden rocks and reefs, which fill the sea of Mindoro and the Calamianes in pancos and paraos which scarcely can be used for the navigation of rivers and creeks. But at the first puff of a strong wind, which, although it does not break it, tears the helm from their hands at the first movement of that stormy sea where cataclysms are more frequent than ashore, the poorarraez[i.e., master] as the captain there is still called, harassed and disturbed, either kneels down with all his crew to invoke God, placing on the helm hisantin-antin(amulet, a kind of scapulary which noIndian is without during these voyages, and which has more of paganism than Christianity), or takes refuge in the hatchway in order not to behold the dangers that he is running. If any Spaniard is in the boat, the command is assuredly given to him, although he understands less of sea-affairs than the said captain. That has happened more than once to all of us who have traveled much from one island to another, and surely not even in boats of a certain importance, almost brigantines, when the master is a Tagálog, have we ever met with sea-compass, barometer, or glass, or any other of the instruments most indispensable for navigation.

This is enough to prove the importance which ought to be given to the naval school, whose organization must be very imperfect, since even yet its results are almost nil. It depends provisionally on the superior civil government, a circumstance which appears absurd to us. Like this there exist many things which we have neither time nor scientific capacity to unfold. It belongs to the government to do now what is proposed, namely, reform the public instruction of Filipinas.

SCHOOLS OF PRIMARY LETTERSThe primary school, the most interesting among all peoples, and more yet among backward peoples, was found in our time in an incipient condition, if one considers it as the government desires it, and as a great number of royal decrees resolved. Primary instruction in Castilian was alone known in Manila and some suburbs of the capital, but in the dialects of the country there existed boys’ schools in all the villages, and in the majority of them, also schoolsfor girls. It is a fact that such schools did not count on more elements than the pay assigned by the government for the teachers,4and the parish priests together with the provincial chiefs had to decide on the means for the construction and conservation of the edifices and furnishings, the former paying in addition their salaries to the teachers of the girls, or paying them from the funds of the churches according to the wealth of each one.This system gave the consequent result of there not being any suitable directors for complete primary instruction. But in reading, writing, and religion, in the majority of the villages of the archipelago, there was found a greater number proportionally than in España, for the missionaries alwaysconsidered that education as the first element of civilization and adhesion of those inhabitants to the crown of Castilla.The government tried to improve and make general that education, but in the Spanish language.5For that purpose the assembly appointed in 1861 made some regulations, taking as its base the creation of a normal school, which has had realization, and according to Señor Barrantes, in the above-cited work, it seems that instruction has improved somewhat in what relates to the Spanish.The question of whether the parish priests or missionaries have opposed those rules is of little importance to us. As in all disputable cases there are partisans who favor and those who oppose—not the advantage which the generalization of the Spanish language might be, for all people recognize and admit this hypothesis, but only the results which the generalization of the Spanish language would produce,reckoning on the slight capacity of the natives to utilize the good that they might read in the idiom of Cervantes, and bearing in mind the political make-up of that country and the evil effects which would be produced by the daily publications which would arrive [from España], and which are incapable of enlightening the little but submissive intelligence of those inhabitants, yet always sufficient to excite the passions of men who would easily confuse rights with individual duties, giving a worse result than that which the history of our ancient colonies registers.As we do not know of this department in the present circumstances more than that which the above-cited work brings to light, we shall limit ourselves to calling the attention of the government so that it may introduce in that department all the improvements possible, extending the normal school, which gives very slight results for a people of five millions, and proving whether this normal school, organized with a mixture of the language of the country and of the Spanish and by creating one school in each group of provinces belonging to the same language, would give a more positive result in regard to instruction, and one even more efficacious for the propagation of the Spanish by printing works in two columns in the two languages.6What the archipelago lacks are men and women teachers to give instruction in the primary schools. Industrial teachers, professorships for foremen and assistants for public works and master masons would produce a great result in that country. Lastly, letall the generals bear in mind what the various ancient decrees rule to the effect that a charge shall be made to them in their residencias for their neglect in public instruction.

SCHOOLS OF PRIMARY LETTERS

The primary school, the most interesting among all peoples, and more yet among backward peoples, was found in our time in an incipient condition, if one considers it as the government desires it, and as a great number of royal decrees resolved. Primary instruction in Castilian was alone known in Manila and some suburbs of the capital, but in the dialects of the country there existed boys’ schools in all the villages, and in the majority of them, also schoolsfor girls. It is a fact that such schools did not count on more elements than the pay assigned by the government for the teachers,4and the parish priests together with the provincial chiefs had to decide on the means for the construction and conservation of the edifices and furnishings, the former paying in addition their salaries to the teachers of the girls, or paying them from the funds of the churches according to the wealth of each one.This system gave the consequent result of there not being any suitable directors for complete primary instruction. But in reading, writing, and religion, in the majority of the villages of the archipelago, there was found a greater number proportionally than in España, for the missionaries alwaysconsidered that education as the first element of civilization and adhesion of those inhabitants to the crown of Castilla.The government tried to improve and make general that education, but in the Spanish language.5For that purpose the assembly appointed in 1861 made some regulations, taking as its base the creation of a normal school, which has had realization, and according to Señor Barrantes, in the above-cited work, it seems that instruction has improved somewhat in what relates to the Spanish.The question of whether the parish priests or missionaries have opposed those rules is of little importance to us. As in all disputable cases there are partisans who favor and those who oppose—not the advantage which the generalization of the Spanish language might be, for all people recognize and admit this hypothesis, but only the results which the generalization of the Spanish language would produce,reckoning on the slight capacity of the natives to utilize the good that they might read in the idiom of Cervantes, and bearing in mind the political make-up of that country and the evil effects which would be produced by the daily publications which would arrive [from España], and which are incapable of enlightening the little but submissive intelligence of those inhabitants, yet always sufficient to excite the passions of men who would easily confuse rights with individual duties, giving a worse result than that which the history of our ancient colonies registers.As we do not know of this department in the present circumstances more than that which the above-cited work brings to light, we shall limit ourselves to calling the attention of the government so that it may introduce in that department all the improvements possible, extending the normal school, which gives very slight results for a people of five millions, and proving whether this normal school, organized with a mixture of the language of the country and of the Spanish and by creating one school in each group of provinces belonging to the same language, would give a more positive result in regard to instruction, and one even more efficacious for the propagation of the Spanish by printing works in two columns in the two languages.6What the archipelago lacks are men and women teachers to give instruction in the primary schools. Industrial teachers, professorships for foremen and assistants for public works and master masons would produce a great result in that country. Lastly, letall the generals bear in mind what the various ancient decrees rule to the effect that a charge shall be made to them in their residencias for their neglect in public instruction.

The primary school, the most interesting among all peoples, and more yet among backward peoples, was found in our time in an incipient condition, if one considers it as the government desires it, and as a great number of royal decrees resolved. Primary instruction in Castilian was alone known in Manila and some suburbs of the capital, but in the dialects of the country there existed boys’ schools in all the villages, and in the majority of them, also schoolsfor girls. It is a fact that such schools did not count on more elements than the pay assigned by the government for the teachers,4and the parish priests together with the provincial chiefs had to decide on the means for the construction and conservation of the edifices and furnishings, the former paying in addition their salaries to the teachers of the girls, or paying them from the funds of the churches according to the wealth of each one.

This system gave the consequent result of there not being any suitable directors for complete primary instruction. But in reading, writing, and religion, in the majority of the villages of the archipelago, there was found a greater number proportionally than in España, for the missionaries alwaysconsidered that education as the first element of civilization and adhesion of those inhabitants to the crown of Castilla.

The government tried to improve and make general that education, but in the Spanish language.5For that purpose the assembly appointed in 1861 made some regulations, taking as its base the creation of a normal school, which has had realization, and according to Señor Barrantes, in the above-cited work, it seems that instruction has improved somewhat in what relates to the Spanish.

The question of whether the parish priests or missionaries have opposed those rules is of little importance to us. As in all disputable cases there are partisans who favor and those who oppose—not the advantage which the generalization of the Spanish language might be, for all people recognize and admit this hypothesis, but only the results which the generalization of the Spanish language would produce,reckoning on the slight capacity of the natives to utilize the good that they might read in the idiom of Cervantes, and bearing in mind the political make-up of that country and the evil effects which would be produced by the daily publications which would arrive [from España], and which are incapable of enlightening the little but submissive intelligence of those inhabitants, yet always sufficient to excite the passions of men who would easily confuse rights with individual duties, giving a worse result than that which the history of our ancient colonies registers.

As we do not know of this department in the present circumstances more than that which the above-cited work brings to light, we shall limit ourselves to calling the attention of the government so that it may introduce in that department all the improvements possible, extending the normal school, which gives very slight results for a people of five millions, and proving whether this normal school, organized with a mixture of the language of the country and of the Spanish and by creating one school in each group of provinces belonging to the same language, would give a more positive result in regard to instruction, and one even more efficacious for the propagation of the Spanish by printing works in two columns in the two languages.6

What the archipelago lacks are men and women teachers to give instruction in the primary schools. Industrial teachers, professorships for foremen and assistants for public works and master masons would produce a great result in that country. Lastly, letall the generals bear in mind what the various ancient decrees rule to the effect that a charge shall be made to them in their residencias for their neglect in public instruction.

1Edmond Plauchut, writing inRevue des Deux Mondesfor 1877, xx, p. 910, says: “The history of superior instruction, like that of primary, is only the dry relation of a furious struggle between two religious orders, that of the friars, and that of the Jesuits.”↑2TheEmbriologia sagrada(Manila, 1856), by Gregorio Sanz.↑3The first number of this fortnightly paper appeared in Manila, in March, 1859, and its last issue, December 15, 1860. It is but rarely found complete. Retana praises it highly. SeePolitica de España en Filipinas, iii, pp. 103–105.↑4Schools exist in all the villages. The teacher is paid by the government, and usually receives two dollars [i.e., pesos] per month without either lodging or board. In large villages, the pay is as high as three and one-half dollars, but he must pay an assistant out of that. The schools are under the supervision of the parish priests. Reading and writing are taught, the instruction being in Spanish. The teacher is properly required to teach his scholars Spanish, but he himself does not know it. On the other hand, the Spanish officials do not understand the native languages. The priests, moreover, have no inclination to alter these conditions, which are very useful for their influence. Almost the only Indians who know Spanish are those who have been in the service of Europeans. A sort of devotional primer is read in the native speech (Bicol) at first, and later the Christian doctrine. The reading book is called Casayayan. On an average, half of the children attend school, usually from the seventh to the tenth year. They learn to read somewhat, and some learn also a little of writing, but they forget it soon. Only those who later enter service as clerks write easily, and most of them have a good hand. Some pastors do not allow boys and girls to attend the same school, in which case they also pay a special schoolmistress at the rate of one dollar per month. The Indians learn to reckon with great difficulty. They generally rake shells or stones to help them, which they heap up and then count. See Jagor’sReisen in den Philippinen(Berlin, 1873), pp. 128, 129.↑5“The Spanish government was really anxious that all Filipinos should speak the Spanish language, as it is understood that the use of a common language is the manner of forming a national spirit and sentiment, the only thing that can preserve and unite in constant friendship people of different races. Nevertheless, the monastic orders were always decidedly opposed to the Spanish language being spoken in Philippine territory, because their interests would have been greatly injured if such language had become general throughout the archipelago, as from that time they would have ceased to be the intermediaries between the people and the authorities and would no longer be required by either, which would reduce their great influence with both parties.... As a consequence of all this the Spanish language did not become general, and due to the diversity of dialects in the country and the lack of books in these dialects, education went along a hard and difficult path. Some officials of the Spanish government assisted the friars in this work.” See Tomás del Rosario’s article inCensus of Philippines, iii, p. 594. For the friar side of this question, see the statements of Fathers Navarro and Zamora, which will appear in the appendix to ourVOL. XLVI.↑6See appendix toVOL. XLVIfor the regulations of the government normal school.↑

1Edmond Plauchut, writing inRevue des Deux Mondesfor 1877, xx, p. 910, says: “The history of superior instruction, like that of primary, is only the dry relation of a furious struggle between two religious orders, that of the friars, and that of the Jesuits.”↑

2TheEmbriologia sagrada(Manila, 1856), by Gregorio Sanz.↑

3The first number of this fortnightly paper appeared in Manila, in March, 1859, and its last issue, December 15, 1860. It is but rarely found complete. Retana praises it highly. SeePolitica de España en Filipinas, iii, pp. 103–105.↑

4Schools exist in all the villages. The teacher is paid by the government, and usually receives two dollars [i.e., pesos] per month without either lodging or board. In large villages, the pay is as high as three and one-half dollars, but he must pay an assistant out of that. The schools are under the supervision of the parish priests. Reading and writing are taught, the instruction being in Spanish. The teacher is properly required to teach his scholars Spanish, but he himself does not know it. On the other hand, the Spanish officials do not understand the native languages. The priests, moreover, have no inclination to alter these conditions, which are very useful for their influence. Almost the only Indians who know Spanish are those who have been in the service of Europeans. A sort of devotional primer is read in the native speech (Bicol) at first, and later the Christian doctrine. The reading book is called Casayayan. On an average, half of the children attend school, usually from the seventh to the tenth year. They learn to read somewhat, and some learn also a little of writing, but they forget it soon. Only those who later enter service as clerks write easily, and most of them have a good hand. Some pastors do not allow boys and girls to attend the same school, in which case they also pay a special schoolmistress at the rate of one dollar per month. The Indians learn to reckon with great difficulty. They generally rake shells or stones to help them, which they heap up and then count. See Jagor’sReisen in den Philippinen(Berlin, 1873), pp. 128, 129.↑

5“The Spanish government was really anxious that all Filipinos should speak the Spanish language, as it is understood that the use of a common language is the manner of forming a national spirit and sentiment, the only thing that can preserve and unite in constant friendship people of different races. Nevertheless, the monastic orders were always decidedly opposed to the Spanish language being spoken in Philippine territory, because their interests would have been greatly injured if such language had become general throughout the archipelago, as from that time they would have ceased to be the intermediaries between the people and the authorities and would no longer be required by either, which would reduce their great influence with both parties.... As a consequence of all this the Spanish language did not become general, and due to the diversity of dialects in the country and the lack of books in these dialects, education went along a hard and difficult path. Some officials of the Spanish government assisted the friars in this work.” See Tomás del Rosario’s article inCensus of Philippines, iii, p. 594. For the friar side of this question, see the statements of Fathers Navarro and Zamora, which will appear in the appendix to ourVOL. XLVI.↑

6See appendix toVOL. XLVIfor the regulations of the government normal school.↑

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