Chapter 8

Of the numerous groupes of islands which constitute the maritime division of Asia, the Phillippines, in situation, riches, fertility, and salubrity, are equal or superior to any. Nature has here revelled in all that poets or painters have thought or dreamt of unbounded luxuriance of Asiatic scenery. The lofty chains of mountains—the rich and extensive slopes which form their bases—the ever-varying change of forest and savannah—of rivers and lakes—the yet blazing volcanoes in the midst of forests, coeval perhaps with their first eruption—all stamp her work with the mighty emblems of her creative and destroying powers. Java alone can compete with them in fertility; but in riches, extent, situation, and political importance, it is far inferior.Their position, whether in a political or commercial point of view, is strikingly advantageous. With India and the Malay Archipelago on the west and south, the islands of the fertile Pacific and the rising empires of the new world on the east, the vast market of China at their doors, their insular position and numerous rivers affording a facility of communication and defence to every part of them, an active and industrious population, climates of almost all varieties, a soil so fertile in vegetable and mineral productions as almost to exceed credibility; the PhillippineIslands alone, in the hands of an industrious and commercial nation, and with a free and enlightened government, would have become a mighty empire:—they are—a waste!This archipelago presents, in common with all the islands which form the southern and eastern barrier of Asia, those striking features which mark a recent or an approaching convulsion of nature: they are separated by narrow, but deep, and frequently unfathomable channels; their steep and often tremendous capes and headlands, though clothed with verdure to the very brink, appear to rise almost perpendicularly from the ocean; they have but few reefs or shoals, and those of small extent; and in the interior of the islands, numerous volcanoes, in activity or very recently so, boiling springs and mineral waters of all descriptions, minerals of all kinds on the very surface of the earth, and frequent shocks of earthquakes, all point to this conclusion, and offer a rich and unexplored field to the geologist2and mineralogist, as do their plants and animals to the botanist and zoologist;3the few attempts that have hitherto been made to examine them, having from various causes failed, or only extended to a short distance round the capital.4The climate of these islands is remarkably temperate and salubrious. The thermometer in Manila is sometimes as low as 70°, and rarely exceeds 90° in the house during the N. E. monsoon. In the interiorit is sometimes as low as 68° in the mornings, which are remarkably cool, so much so as to require at time$ woolen clothing. None of the mountains are within the limits of perpetual congelation; but I think some cannot be far from it, as I have seen something much resembling snow on the Pico de Mindoro, and there may be higher ones in the interior of Magindanao.6Both natives and Spaniards live to a tolerable age, in spite of the indolent habits of the latter, and the debauches of both. The Spaniards are most commonly carried off by chronic dysentery, which is called by them “la enfermedád del pays” (the illness of the country): from its very frequent occurrence, at least 7 out of 10 of those who exceed the age of 40, fall victims to this disorder.7Acuteliver complaints are very rare, as is also the chronic affection of that organ, unless as connected with the preceding disorder.Fevers are not common amongst Europeans,in Manila. Amongst the natives, the intermittent is of common occurrence, particularly after the rains (in September and October), and in woody or marshy situations.8This appears to be owing as much to the thinness and want of clothing, together with their habits of bathing indiscriminately at all hours, as to miasmata; and, as their fevers are generally neglected, they often superinduce other and more fatal disorders, as obstructions, &c. Tetanos in cases of wounds is of common occurrence, and generally fatal.Their population, by a census taken in 1817–18, amounted to 2,236,000 souls, and is increasing rapidly. In one province, that of Pampanga, from 1817 to 1818, there was an increase of 6,737 souls, the whole population being in 1817, 22,500; but I suspect some inaccuracy in this. The total increase from 1797 to 1817, 25 [sic] years, is by this statement 835,500, or 3,360 per annum! In this census are included onlythose subject to Spanish laws. About three quarters of a million more may be added for the various independent tribes,9which may be said to possess the whole of the interior of the islands, on some of which, as the large one of Mindanao (called by the natives Magindanao) there are only a few contemptible [Spanish] posts, the interior and a great part of the coast being still subject to the Malay sultans, originally of Arab race.The population of the Marianas and Calamianes Islands, with that of Palawan, which are all included in “The Kingdom of the Phillippines,” arecomprised in this number, but the whole of these does not exceed 19,000.Of this number about 600 only areEuropeanSpaniards, with some few foreigners: the remainder are divided into various classes, of which the principal are, 1st, The Negroes, or aborigines; 2d, the Malays (or Indians, as they are called by the Spaniards); and the Mestizos and Creoles, who are about as 1 to 5 of the Indian population.The Negroes [i.e.,Negritos]10are in all probability the original inhabitants of these islands, as they appear at some remote epoch to have been of almost all the eastern archipelago. The tide of Malay emigration, from whatever cause and part it proceeded, has on some islands entirely destroyed them. Others, as New Guinea, it has not yet reached, a circumstance which seems to point to the west as the original cradle of the Malay race. In the Phillippines, it has driven them from the coast to the mountains, which by augmenting the difficulty of procuring subsistence, may have much diminished their numbers. Still, however, they form a distinct, and perhaps a more numerous class of men than is generally suspected. They have in the present day undisturbed possession of nearly ⅔ds of the island of Luzon, and of others a still larger proportion.These people are small in stature, some of them almost dwarfish, woolly-headed, and thick-lipped, like the negroes of Africa, to whom indeed they beara striking resemblance, though the different tribes vary much in their stature and general appearance. They subsist entirely on the chase, or on fruits, herbs, roots, or fish when they can approach the coast. They are nearly, and often quite naked, and live in huts formed of the boughs of trees, grass &c., or in the trees themselves, when on an excursion or migration. Their mode of life is wandering and unsettled, seldom remaining long enough in one place to form a village. They sometimes sow a little maize or rice, and wait its ripening, but not longer. These are the habits of the tribes which border on the Spanish settlements. Farther within the mountains they are more settled, and even form villages of considerable size, in the deep vallies by which the chains of mountains are intersected. The entrances to these they fortify with plantations of the thorny bamboo, pickets of the same, set strongly in the earth and sharpened by fire, ditches and pit-falls; in short all the means of defence in their power are employed to render these places inaccessible. Here they cultivate corn, rice, and tobacco; the last they sell to Indians, who smuggle it into the towns. This being a contraband article, as it is monopolized by government, the defences are used against the Spanish revenue officers and troops, who on this account never fail to destroy their establishments when they can do so, though many are impregnable to any force they can bring against them, from the nature of the passes, and from the activity of the negroes, who use their bows with wonderful expertness. There are indeed instances of their repulsing bodies of one or two hundred native troops, but affairs of this magnitude are very rare.To this predatory kind of warfare, as well as tothe defective qualities, and often very reprehensible conduct of the missionaries, generally Indian priests (Clerigos), are perhaps to be in some measure attributed their unsettled habits. Those nearest the Spanish settlements carry on a little commerce, receiving wrought iron, cloth, and tobacco, but oftenerdollars, in exchange for gold-dust, &c., or for wax, honey, and other products of their mountains. The circumstance of their receiving dollars, which they rarely use in their purchases, is a curious one; but it is a fact, and very large quantities of money are supposed to be thus buried; from what motive, except a superstitious one, cannot be imagined.11Of their manners or customs little or nothing is known. Like all savage nations, they are abundantly tinctured with superstitions, fickle, and hasty. One of their customs best known is, that upon the death of a chief, they plant themselves in ambush on some frequented track, and with their arrows assassinate the first unfortunate traveller who passes, and not unfrequently two or three; the bodies are carried off as sacrifices to the manes of the deceased.12The communications between the Spanish settlements are often interrupted by this circumstance, as no Indian will venture out when the negroes are known to be “de luto” (in mourning): they are alsosaidto have a “throwing of spears,” similar to those of New Holland, at the death of any eminent person. In fact, upon this, as upon all other points unconnected with masses and sermons, there exists a degree of ignorance which is almost incredible. The early missionaries,in their rage fornominalconversion, appear to have neglected entirely the history or origin of their neophytes; and, as in America, where the monuments of ages were crumbled to the dust to plant the cross, all that related to the history of their converts was considered as unprofitable, if not as impious, the devil13being compendiously supposed to preside over their political as well as religious institutions in all cases. In this belief, and in its consequent effects, the modern missionaries, who are mostly Indian priests, are worthy successors of their Spanish predecessors.The government have many missions established for the purpose of converting them, but with little success. Like most savages, their mode of life has to them charms superior to civilization, or rather to Christianity (for here the terms are not synonimous); and they rarely remain, should they even consent to be baptized, but on the first caprice, or exaction of tribute, which immediately takes place, and sometimes even precedes this ceremony, return again to their mountains.Exposed to all inclemencies of the weather, and with an unwholesome and precarious diet, they perhaps rarely attain more than forty years of age. Their numbers are supposed rather to diminish than increase; and in a few years this race of men, with their language, will probably be extinct. It is indeed a curious subject of enquiry, whether the language of those of the eastern islands has any, and what resemblance to those of Africa, or the southern parts of New Holland and Van Dieman’s Land?14They are not represented as very mischievous; but if strangers venture too far into their woods, they consider it an aggression, and repel it accordinglywith their arrows. Those who frequent the Spanish settlements are rather of a mild character; and there are instances of Spanish vessels being wrecked on thecoast, whose people, particularly the Europeans, have been treated by them in the kindest manner, and carefully conducted to the nearest settlement.The character of the different tribes appears, however, to vary in this particular: some are described as treacherous and cruel, and those which inhabit thenorth western coasts of the Bay of Manila are accused of having frequently attacked the boats of ships, when these were not sufficiently guarded in their intercourse with them. The natives of the town in the Bay of Mariveles, at the entrance of that of Manila, assured the writer of these pages, that it would be madness to attempt accompanying them into the woods, even in disguise; and in this they persisted, though money was offered them to allow him to proceed with them.The Indians are the descendants of the various Malay tribes which appear to have emigrated to this country at different times, and from different parts of Borneo and Celebes. Their languages, though all derived from one stock (the Malay), has a number of dialects differing very materially; so much so, that those from different provinces frequently do not understand each other.They differ too in their character, and slightly in their manners and customs. The most numerous class of them are the Bisayas,18(a Spanish name, from theiranciently painting their bodies, and using defensive armour). These inhabit the largest part of the southern islands. Luzon contains several tribes, of which the most remarkable are the Ylocos, Cagayanes, Zambales, Pangasinanes, Pampangos, and Tagalos. These still retain their national distinctions and characters to such a degree, that they often occasion quarrels amongst each other. Of their general character as a nation we are now to speak.The Indian of the Phillippine Islands has been strangely misrepresented. He isnotthe being that oppression, bigotry, and indolence, have for 300 years endeavoured to make him, or he is so only when he has no other resource. Necessity, and the force of example have madethose of Manila, what the whole are generally characterized as—traitors, idlers, and thieves.How, under such a system as will be afterwards described, should they be otherwise? Say rather, that all considered, it is surprising to find them what they are; for they are in general (I speak of the Indian of the provinces), mild, industrious, as far as they dare to be so, hospitable, kind, and ingenuous. The Pampango is brave,19faithful, and active; the fidelity of the Cagayan is proverbial; the Yloco and the Pangasinanon are most industrious; the Bisayan is brave and enterprising almost to fool-hardiness:—they are all a spirited, a proudly-spirited race of men; and such materials, in other hands, would form the foundation of all that is great and excellent in human nature.But for 300 years they have been ground to the earth with oppression. They have been crushed bytyranny; their spirit has been tortured by abuse and contempt, and brutalized by ignorance; in a word, there is no injustice that has not been inflicted on them, short of depriving them of their liberty; and in a work published at Madrid in 1819 (Estado de las Yslas Filipinas, par [sic; forpor] Don Tomas Comyn), whose author was a factor of the Phillippine company, a whole chapter (the 4th) is devoted to the mild and humane project “of establishing Spanish agriculturists throughout the islands,” who are, “to require a certain number of Indians from the governors of towns and provinces, who are to be driven to the plantations, where they are tobe obligedto work a certain time, the price of their labour being fixed, and then to be relieved by a fresh drove!”20Such a system, incredible as it may appear, has been proposed to a Spanish cortes; and still more wonderful, plans like these excited no reprobation in Manila. Such were Spanish ideas of governing Indians! Justice would almost tempt us to wish that this scheme had been carried into execution, and that the Indian had risen and dashed his chains on the heads of the authors of such an infernal project. And yet the Indian is marked out as little better than a brute; so many of them are, but to the system of government, and not to the Indian, is the fault to be ascribed.It is not here meant to accuse the Spanish laws; many of them are excellent, and would appear tohave been dictated by the very spirit of philanthropy. But these are rarely enforced, or if they are, delay vitiates their effect. That this colony, the most favoured perhaps under heaven by nature, should have remained till the present day almost a forest, is a circumstance which has generally excited surprise in those who are acquainted with it, and has as generally been accounted for by attributing it to thelazinessof the Spaniards and Indians. This is but a superficial view of the subject; one of those general remarks which being relatively a little flattering to ourselves, pass current as facts, and then “we wonder how any one can doubt of what is so generally received.”—The cause lies deeper, man is not naturally indolent. When he has supplied his necessities, he seeks for superfluities—if he can enjoy them in security and peace;—if not—if the iron gripe of despotism (no matter in what shape, or through what form it is felt), is ready to snatch his earnings from him, without affording him any equivalent—then indeedhebecomes indolent, that is, he merely provides for the wants of to-day. This apathy is perpetuated through numerous generations till it becomes national habit, and then we falsely call it nature. It cannot be too often repeated, that from the poles to the equator, man is the creature of his civil institutions, and is active in proportion to the freedom he enjoys. Who that has perused the History of Java by Sir S. Raffles,21and seen the effects of government plannedby the talents of Minto in thespiritof the British constitution in that country, will now accuse the Javanese of unwillingness to work, if the fruits of his labour are secured to him? And yet we remember when a Javanese was another name for every thing that is detestable. It is ever thus—we blame the race, because that flatters our pride—we should first look to their institutions. I return to the Phillippines.The cause, then, of their little progress is “because there is no security for property;” or in other words, the smallness of the salaries of the officers of justice, as well as of other members of government, and the profligacy inseparable from all despotic governments, have laid the inhabitants under that curse of all societies, venal courts of justice. Does an unfortunate Indian scrape together a few dollars to buy a buffalo, in which consists their whole riches? Woe to him if it is known; and if his house is in a lonely situation—he is infallibly robbed. Does he complain, and is the robber caught? In three months he is let loose again (perhaps with some trifling punishment), to take vengeance on his accuser, and renew his depredations.Hundreds of Indian families are yearly ruined in this manner. Deprived of their cattle, on which theydepend for subsistence, they grow desperate and careless of future exertion, which can but lead to the same results, and thus either drag on a miserable existence from day to day, or join with the robbers23to pursue the same mode of life, and to exonerate themselves from paying tributes and taxes, in return for which no protection is granted. In many provinces this has been carried to such an extent, that whole districts are rendered impassable by the robbers,24who even lay villages under contribution!This is the state of the inland towns. On the coasts, and while a flotilla of gun-boats is maintained at an expense of upwards of half a million of dollars annually, there is no part safe from the attacks of the Malay pirates from Borneo, Sooloo, and Mindanao. These make regular cruises to procure slaves, and have even not unfrequently carried them off, not only from thebayof Manila,25but even from within gun-shot of its ramparts! The very soldiers and sailors sent for their protection plunder them. An Indian in whose neighbourhood troops are posted,or who sees the gun-boats approaching, can no longer consider his property safe; and in the very vicinity of Manila, soldiers ramble about with their loaded muskets, and pilfer all they lay hands upon at midday!26Does the Indian, in spite of all this, escape, and by patient industry make a little way in the world? he is vexed with offices; he is chosen Alguazil, Lieutenant, and Captain of his town; to these offices no pay is attached, they always occasion expenses and create him enemies; he is pinched or cheated by the Mestizos, a forestalling, avaricious, and tyrannical race. Does he suffer in silence? it is a signal for new oppressions: does he complain? a law suit. The Mestizos are all connected, they are rich, and the Indian is poor.The imperfect mode of trial, both in civil and criminal cases (bywrittendeclarations and the decisions of judges alone), lays them open to a thousand frauds; for if the magistrate be supposed incorruptible, his notaries or writers (escribanosandescribientes) are not so; and from their knavery, declarations are often falsified, or one paper is exchanged for another whilst in the act of or before signing them.To such a degree does this exist, that few Indians, even of those who can read Spanish tolerably, will sign a declaration made before a magistrate without threats, or without having some one on whom theycan depend, to assure them they may safely do so. Nor is this to be wondered at, when it is known that declarations on which the life or fortune of an individual may depend are left, often for days, in the power of writers or notaries, any of whom may be bought for a doubloon; and some of them are even the menial servants of the magistrate! This applies to Luzon. In the other islands, this miserable system is yet worse: they have seldom but one communication a year with the capital, to which all causes of any magnitude are sent for decision or confirmation; and, as the papers are often (purposely) drawn up with some informality, the cause, after suffering all the first ordeal of chicane and knavery, experiences a year’s delay before it is even allowed a chance of being exposed to that which awaits it at Manila. Or should the cause be at length carried to the Audiencia, or Supreme Court, and there,as is sometimes the case, be judged impartially, the delay of the decision renders it useless—the sentence is evaded—or treated with contempt! This may appear almost incredible, but known to any person who has resided in Manila.While the civil power is thus shamefully corrupt or negligent of its duties, the church has not forgotten that she too has claims on the Indian. She has marked out, exclusive of Sundays, above 40 days in the year on whichnolabour can be performed throughout the islands. Exclusive of these are the numerous local feasts in honor of the patron saints of towns and churches.27The influence of these extendsoften through a groupe of many islands, always to many leagues round their different sanctuaries; and often lasting three or four days, sometimes a week, according to his or her reputation for sanctity; so that including Sundays, the average cannot be less than 110 or 120 days lost to the community in a year. This alone is a heavy tax on the agricultural classes, by whom it is most severely felt; but its consequences are more so, from the habits of idleness and dissipation which it engenders and perpetuates. These feasts are invariably, after the procession is over, scenes of gambling, drinking, and debauchery of every description.“And mony jobs that day begun,Will end in houghmagandie.”29Thus they unsettle and disturb the course of their laboursby calling off their attention from their domestic cares; and by continually offering occasions of dissipation destroy what little spirit of economy or foresight may exist amongst so rude and ignorant a people. Nor is this all; they are subject to numerous other vexations and impositions under the title of church-services; such are, in some towns, five or six men attendant daily in rotation to bring the sick to the church to confess, or to carry the “Padre” with the host to their houses, and many others; all of which, though in themselves trifles, are more harassing, from their unsettling tendency, than pecuniary imposts. An encouragement to celibacy and its consequent evils is also to be found in the (to them) heavy expenses attendant on all the domestic offices of religion, as matrimony, baptism, &c., as well as in the increase of the poll-tax on married persons, for the whole of which the husband is responsible. The ecclesiastical expenses of a marriage between the poorer classes are about five dollars: the others, as christenings, buryings, &c., in proportion. These appear trifles; but if to these are added the confessions,bulas, [i.e., of the Crusade] and other exactions, it will be seen that these constitute no trifling part of the oppressive and ill managed system which has so much contributed to debase their real character.I say nothing here of the natural effect of the Roman Catholic religion on an ignorant people, who imagine, that verbal confession and pecuniary atonements (rarely to the injured person) are a salvo for crimes of all magnitudes: that such is the case, is notorious to every one who has visited Catholic countries.Let us for a moment retrace this picture. To whom after this is it attributable that the Indian is often a vicious and degraded being, particularly in the neighborhood of Manila?If he sees all around him thieving and enjoying their plunder with impunity, what wonder is it that he should thieve also? If his tribunals of all descriptions afford him no redress, or place that redress beyond his reach, what resource has he but private revenge?30If he cannot enjoy the fruits of his labour in peace, why should he work? If he is ignorant, why has he not been instructed? There exist scarcely any schools to teach him his duties: the few that do exist teach him Latin! prayers! theology! jurisprudence! and some little reading and writing;31but heis only taught to read the lives of the saints, and the legends of the church, whose gloomy, fanatical doctrines and sanguinary histories have not a little contributed to make him at times revengeful and intolerant. Does he prevaricate and flatter? It is becausehedarenot speak the truth, and because a long system of oppression has broken his spirit.Does he endeavour to advance himself a few steps in civilization? his attempts are treated with ridicule and contempt;32hence he becomes apathetic, careless of advancement, and often insensible to reproach. The best epithets he hears from Spaniards (often as ignorant as himself) are “Indio!” The God of nature made him so. “Bruto!” He has been and is brutalized by his masters. “Barbaro!” He is often so by force, example, or even by precept. “Ignorante!” He has no means of learning; the will is not wanting. In a word, the spirit of the followers of Cortes and Pizarro, appears to have left its last vestiges here, and perhaps the Indian has been saved from its persecutions only by the weakness of the Spaniard.Such are some of the causes which have marked the character of the Indian, which is not naturally bad, with some of its prominent blemishes. I am far from holding up the Indian of the Phillippines as a faultless being; he is not so;the Indian of Manila34has all the vices attributed to him; but I assert, that the Phillippine islander owes the greater part of his vices to example, to oppression, and above all to misgovernment; and that his character has traits, which under a different system, would have produced a widely different result.To sum up his character:—He is brave, tolerably faithful, extremely sensible to kind treatment, and feelingly alive to injustice or contempt; proud of ancestry, which some of them carry to a remote epoch; fond of dress and show, hunting, riding, and other field exercises; but prone to gambling and dissipation. He is active, industrious, and remarkably ingenious. He possesses an acute ear, and a good taste for music and painting, but little inclination for abstruse studies. He has from nature excellent talents, but these are useless for want of instruction. The little he has received, has rendered him fanatical in religious opinions; and long contempt and hopeless misery has mingled with his character a degree of apathy, which nothing but an entire change of system and long perseverance will efface from it.36The Mestizos are the next class of men who inhabit these islands: under this name are not only included the descendants of Spaniards by Indian women and their progeny, but also those of the Chinese, who are in general whiter than either parent, and carefully distinguish themselves from the Indians.The Mestizos are, as the name denotes, a mixed class, and, with the creoles of the country, like those of all colonies, when uncorrected by an European education, inherit the vices of both progenitors, with but few of the virtues of either. Their character has but few marked traits; the principal ones aretheir vanity, industry, and trading ingenuity: as to the rest, money is their god; to obtain it they take all shapes, promise and betray, submit to everything, trample and are trampled on; all is alike to them, if they get money; and this, when obtained, they dissipate in lawsuits, firing cannon, fireworks, illuminations,processions on feast days and rejoicings, in gifts to the churches, or in gambling. This anomaly of actions is the business of their lives. Too proud to consider themselves as Indians, and not sufficiently pure in blood to be acknowledged as Spaniards, they affect the manners of the last, with the dress of the first, and despising, are despised by both.37They however, cautiously mark on all occasions the lines which separate them from the Indians, and have their own processions, ceremonies, inferior officers of justice, &c., &c. The Indian repays them with a keen contempt, not unmixed with hatred. And these feuds,while they contribute to the safety of a government too imbecile and corrupt to unite the good wishes of all classes, have not unfrequently given rise to affrays which have polluted even the churches and their altars with blood.Such are the three great classes of men which may be considered as natives of the Phillippine Islands. The Creole38Spaniards, or those whose blood is but little mingled with the Indian ancestry, pass as Spaniards. Many of them are respectable merchants and men of large property; while others, from causes which will be seen hereafter, are sunk in all the vices of the Indian and Mestizo.The government of the Phillippine Islands is composed of a governor, who has the title of Captain General, with very extensive powers; a Teniente Rey, or Lieutenant Governor; the Audiencia or Supreme Court, who are also the Council. This tribunal is composed of three judges, the chief of whom has the title of Regent, and two Fiscals or Attorney Generals, the one on the part of the king, the other on that of the natives, and this last has the specious title of “Defensor de los Indios.” The financial affairs are under the direction of an Intendant, who may be called a financial governor. He has the entire control and administration of all matters relative to the revenue, the civil and military auditors and accountants being under him. Commercial affairsare decided by the Consulado, or chamber of commerce, composed of all the principal, and, in Manila, some of the inferior merchants. From this is an appeal to a tribunal “de Alzada” [i.e., of appeal] composed of one judge and two merchants, and from this to the Audiencia, without whose approbation no sentence is valid.The civic administration is confided to the Ayuntamiento (Courts of Aldermen or Municipality). This body, composed of the two Alcaldes, twelve Regidors (or Aldermen) and a Syndic, enjoy very extensive privileges, approaching those of Houses of Assembly; their powers, however, appear more confined to remonstrances and protests, representations against what they conceive arbitrary or erroneous in government, or recommendations of measures suggested either by themselves or others. They have, in general, well answered the object of their institution as a barrier against the encroachments of government, and as a permanent body for reference in cases where local knowledge was necessary, which last deficiency they well supply.The civil power and police are lodged in the hands of a Corregidor and two Alcaldes: the decision of these is final in cases of civil suits, where the value in question is small, 100 dollars being about the maximum.39Their criminal jurisdiction extends only to slight fines and corporal punishments, and imprisonment preparatory to trial. The police is confided to the care of the Corregidor, who has more extensive powers, and also the inspection and control of the prisons.To him are also subject the Indian Captains andOfficers of towns, who are annually elected by the natives. These settle small differences, answer for disturbances in their villages, execute police orders, impose small contributions of money or labour for local objects, such as repairs of roads, &c. &c. They also have the power of inflicting slight punishments on the refractory. To them is also confided the collection of the capitation or poll-tax, which is done by dividing the population of the town or village into tens, each of which has a Cabeça (or head), who is exempt from tribute himself, but answerable for the amount of the ten under him. This tax is then paid to the Alcalde or Corregidor, and from him to the treasury. The Mestizos and Chinese have also their captains and heads, who are equally answerable for the poll-tax.The different districts and islands, which are called provinces, and are 29 in number, are governed by Alcaldes. The more troublesome ones, or those requiring a military form of government, by military officers, who are also Corregidors. Samboangan on the south west coast of Mindanao, and the Marianas, have governors named from Manila, and these are continued from three to five years in office.These Alcaldeships are a fertile source of abuses and oppression: their pay is mean to the last degree, not exceeding 350 dollars per annum, and a trifling per centage on the poll-tax. They are in general held by Spaniards of the lower classes, who finding no possible resource in Manila, solicit an Alcadeship. This is easily obtained, on giving the securitiesrequired by government for admission to these offices, which consist in two sureties40to an amount proportionable to the value of the taxes of the province, which all pass through the Alcalde’s hands.Of the nature and amount of these abuses an idea will be better formed from the following abridged quotations, which are translated from the work of Comyn before quoted (p. 16).41“It is indeed common enough to see the barber or lacquey of a governor, or a common sailor, transformed at once into the Alcalde in chief of a populous province, without any other guide or council than his own boisterous passions.“Without examining the inconvenience which may arise from their ignorance, it is yet more lamentable to observe the consequences of their rapacious avarice, which government tacitly allows them to indulge, under the specious title of permissions to trade (indultos).——“and these are such that it may be asserted, thatthe evil which the Indian feels most severely is derived from the very source which was originally intended for his assistance and protection, that is, from the Alcaldes of the provinces, who, generally speaking, are the determined enemies and the real oppressors of their industry.“It is a well known fact, that far from promoting the felicity of the provinces to which he is appointed, the Alcalde is exclusively occupied with advancing his private fortune, without being very scrupulous as to the means he employs to do so: hardly is he in office than he declares himself the principal consumer, buyer, and exporter of every production of the province. In all his enterprises he requires the forced assistance of his subjects, andifhe condescends to pay them, it is at least only at the price paid for the royal works. These miserable beings carry their produce and manufactures to him, who directly or indirectly has fixed an arbitrary price for them. To offer that price is to prohibit any other from being offered—to insinuate is to command—the Indian dares not hesitate—he must please the Alcalde, or submit to his persecution: and thus, free from all rivalry in his trade, being the only Spaniard in the province, the Alcalde gives the law without fear or even risk, that a denunciation of his tyranny should reach the seat of government.“To enable us to form a more correct idea of these iniquitous proceedings, let us lift a little of the veil with which they are covered, and examine a little their method of collecting the ‘tributo’ (poll-tax).“The government, desirous of conciliating the interests of the natives with that of the revenue, has in many instances commuted the payment of the poll-tax into a contribution in produce or manufactures: a year of scarcity arrives, and this contribution, being then of much higher value than the amount of the tax, and consequently the payment in produce a loss, and even occasioning a serious want in their families, they implore the Alcalde to make a representationto government that they may be allowed to pay the tribute for that year in money. This is exactly one of those opportunities, when, founding his profits on the misery of his people, the Alcalde can in the most unjust manner abuse the power confided to him. He pays no attention to their representations. He is the zealous collector of the royal revenues;—he issues proclamations and edicts, and these are followed by his armed satellites, who seize on the harvests, exacting inexorably the tribute, until nothing more is to be obtained. Having thus made himself master of the miserable subsistence of his subjects, he changes his tone on a sudden—he is the humble suppliant to government in behalf of the unfortunate Indians, whose wants he describes in the most pathetic terms, urging the impossibility of their paying the tribute in produce—no difficulty is experienced in procuring permission for it to be paid in money—to save appearance, a small portion of it is collected in cash, and thewhole amountpaid by him into the treasury, while he resells at an enormous profit, the whole of the produce (generally rice) which has been before collected!”Comyn, p. 134 to 138.This extract, though long, is introduced as an evidence from a Spaniard (not of the lower order, or a disappointed adventurer, but a man of high respectability), of the shameless abuses which are daily practiced in this unfortunate country, and of which the Indian is invariably the victim:and it is far from being an overcharged one. Hundreds of other instances might be cited,42but this one will perhapssuffice to exonerate the writer of these remarks from suspicion of exaggeration, in pointing out some of the most prominent of them.While treating of the government of the Phillippines, we must not forget the ministers of their religion, and the share which they have in preserving these islands as dominions to the crown of Spain. This influence dates from the earliest epoch of their discovery. The followers of Cortes and Pizarro, with their successors, were employed in enriching themselves in the new world; and the spirit of conquest and discovery having found wherewith to satiate the brutal avarice by which it was directed, abandoned these islands to the pious efforts of the missionaries by whom, rather than by force of arms, they were in a great measure subdued; and even in the present day, they still preserve so great an influence, that the Phillippines may be almost said to exist under a theocracy approaching to that of the Jesuits in Paraguay.The ecclesiastical administration is composed of an Archbishop (of Manila), who has three suffragans, Ylocos, Camarines, and Zebu; the first two on Luzon, the last on the island of the same name. The revenue of the Archbishop is 4000, and that of the bishops 3000 dollars annually. The regular Spanish clergy of all orders are about 250, the major part of which are distributed in various convents inthe different islands, though their principal seats are in that of Luzon; and many of them, from age or infirmity, are confined to their convents in Manila.The degree of respect in which “the Padre” is held by the Indian, is truly astonishing. It approaches to adoration, and must be seen to be credited. In the most distant provinces, with no other safeguard than the respect with which he has inspired the Indians, he exercises the most unlimited authority, and administers the whole of the civil and ecclesiastical government, not only of a parish, but often of a whole province. His word is law—his advice is taken on all subjects. No order from the Alcalde, or even the government43is executed without his counsel and approbation, rendered too in many cases the more indispensable from his being the only person who understands Spanish in the village.44To their high honour be it spoken, the conduct of these reverend fathers in general fully justifiesand entitles them to this confidence. The “Padre” is the only bar to the oppressions of the Alcalde: he protects, advises, comforts, remonstrates, and pleads for his flock; and not unfrequently has he been seen, though bending beneath the weight of years and infirmity, to leave his province, and undertake a long and often perilous voyage to Manila, to stand forward as the advocate of his Indians; and these gratefully repay this kind regard for their happiness by every means in their power.Their hospitality is equally praiseworthy. The stranger who is travelling through the country, no matter what be his nation or his religion,45finds at every town the gates of the convent open to him, and nothing is spared that can contribute to his comfort and entertainment. They too are the architects and mechanists: many of them are the physicians and schoolmasters of the country, and the little that has been done towards the amelioration of the condition of the Indian, has generally been done by the Spanish clergy.It is painful, however, to remark, that much thatmight have been done, has been left undone. The exclusive spirit of the Roman church, which confines its knowledge to its priests, is but too visible even here: they appear to be more anxious to make Christians, than citizens, and by neglecting this last part of their duty, have but very indifferently fulfilled the first,—the too common error of proselytists of all denominations, which has probably its source in that vanity of human nature, which is as insatiable beneath the cowl as under any garb it has yet assumed.Some of them too have furnished a striking but melancholy proof of the eloquent moral,

Their position, whether in a political or commercial point of view, is strikingly advantageous. With India and the Malay Archipelago on the west and south, the islands of the fertile Pacific and the rising empires of the new world on the east, the vast market of China at their doors, their insular position and numerous rivers affording a facility of communication and defence to every part of them, an active and industrious population, climates of almost all varieties, a soil so fertile in vegetable and mineral productions as almost to exceed credibility; the PhillippineIslands alone, in the hands of an industrious and commercial nation, and with a free and enlightened government, would have become a mighty empire:—they are—a waste!

This archipelago presents, in common with all the islands which form the southern and eastern barrier of Asia, those striking features which mark a recent or an approaching convulsion of nature: they are separated by narrow, but deep, and frequently unfathomable channels; their steep and often tremendous capes and headlands, though clothed with verdure to the very brink, appear to rise almost perpendicularly from the ocean; they have but few reefs or shoals, and those of small extent; and in the interior of the islands, numerous volcanoes, in activity or very recently so, boiling springs and mineral waters of all descriptions, minerals of all kinds on the very surface of the earth, and frequent shocks of earthquakes, all point to this conclusion, and offer a rich and unexplored field to the geologist2and mineralogist, as do their plants and animals to the botanist and zoologist;3the few attempts that have hitherto been made to examine them, having from various causes failed, or only extended to a short distance round the capital.4

The climate of these islands is remarkably temperate and salubrious. The thermometer in Manila is sometimes as low as 70°, and rarely exceeds 90° in the house during the N. E. monsoon. In the interiorit is sometimes as low as 68° in the mornings, which are remarkably cool, so much so as to require at time$ woolen clothing. None of the mountains are within the limits of perpetual congelation; but I think some cannot be far from it, as I have seen something much resembling snow on the Pico de Mindoro, and there may be higher ones in the interior of Magindanao.6

Both natives and Spaniards live to a tolerable age, in spite of the indolent habits of the latter, and the debauches of both. The Spaniards are most commonly carried off by chronic dysentery, which is called by them “la enfermedád del pays” (the illness of the country): from its very frequent occurrence, at least 7 out of 10 of those who exceed the age of 40, fall victims to this disorder.7Acuteliver complaints are very rare, as is also the chronic affection of that organ, unless as connected with the preceding disorder.

Fevers are not common amongst Europeans,in Manila. Amongst the natives, the intermittent is of common occurrence, particularly after the rains (in September and October), and in woody or marshy situations.8This appears to be owing as much to the thinness and want of clothing, together with their habits of bathing indiscriminately at all hours, as to miasmata; and, as their fevers are generally neglected, they often superinduce other and more fatal disorders, as obstructions, &c. Tetanos in cases of wounds is of common occurrence, and generally fatal.

Their population, by a census taken in 1817–18, amounted to 2,236,000 souls, and is increasing rapidly. In one province, that of Pampanga, from 1817 to 1818, there was an increase of 6,737 souls, the whole population being in 1817, 22,500; but I suspect some inaccuracy in this. The total increase from 1797 to 1817, 25 [sic] years, is by this statement 835,500, or 3,360 per annum! In this census are included onlythose subject to Spanish laws. About three quarters of a million more may be added for the various independent tribes,9which may be said to possess the whole of the interior of the islands, on some of which, as the large one of Mindanao (called by the natives Magindanao) there are only a few contemptible [Spanish] posts, the interior and a great part of the coast being still subject to the Malay sultans, originally of Arab race.

The population of the Marianas and Calamianes Islands, with that of Palawan, which are all included in “The Kingdom of the Phillippines,” arecomprised in this number, but the whole of these does not exceed 19,000.

Of this number about 600 only areEuropeanSpaniards, with some few foreigners: the remainder are divided into various classes, of which the principal are, 1st, The Negroes, or aborigines; 2d, the Malays (or Indians, as they are called by the Spaniards); and the Mestizos and Creoles, who are about as 1 to 5 of the Indian population.

The Negroes [i.e.,Negritos]10are in all probability the original inhabitants of these islands, as they appear at some remote epoch to have been of almost all the eastern archipelago. The tide of Malay emigration, from whatever cause and part it proceeded, has on some islands entirely destroyed them. Others, as New Guinea, it has not yet reached, a circumstance which seems to point to the west as the original cradle of the Malay race. In the Phillippines, it has driven them from the coast to the mountains, which by augmenting the difficulty of procuring subsistence, may have much diminished their numbers. Still, however, they form a distinct, and perhaps a more numerous class of men than is generally suspected. They have in the present day undisturbed possession of nearly ⅔ds of the island of Luzon, and of others a still larger proportion.

These people are small in stature, some of them almost dwarfish, woolly-headed, and thick-lipped, like the negroes of Africa, to whom indeed they beara striking resemblance, though the different tribes vary much in their stature and general appearance. They subsist entirely on the chase, or on fruits, herbs, roots, or fish when they can approach the coast. They are nearly, and often quite naked, and live in huts formed of the boughs of trees, grass &c., or in the trees themselves, when on an excursion or migration. Their mode of life is wandering and unsettled, seldom remaining long enough in one place to form a village. They sometimes sow a little maize or rice, and wait its ripening, but not longer. These are the habits of the tribes which border on the Spanish settlements. Farther within the mountains they are more settled, and even form villages of considerable size, in the deep vallies by which the chains of mountains are intersected. The entrances to these they fortify with plantations of the thorny bamboo, pickets of the same, set strongly in the earth and sharpened by fire, ditches and pit-falls; in short all the means of defence in their power are employed to render these places inaccessible. Here they cultivate corn, rice, and tobacco; the last they sell to Indians, who smuggle it into the towns. This being a contraband article, as it is monopolized by government, the defences are used against the Spanish revenue officers and troops, who on this account never fail to destroy their establishments when they can do so, though many are impregnable to any force they can bring against them, from the nature of the passes, and from the activity of the negroes, who use their bows with wonderful expertness. There are indeed instances of their repulsing bodies of one or two hundred native troops, but affairs of this magnitude are very rare.

To this predatory kind of warfare, as well as tothe defective qualities, and often very reprehensible conduct of the missionaries, generally Indian priests (Clerigos), are perhaps to be in some measure attributed their unsettled habits. Those nearest the Spanish settlements carry on a little commerce, receiving wrought iron, cloth, and tobacco, but oftenerdollars, in exchange for gold-dust, &c., or for wax, honey, and other products of their mountains. The circumstance of their receiving dollars, which they rarely use in their purchases, is a curious one; but it is a fact, and very large quantities of money are supposed to be thus buried; from what motive, except a superstitious one, cannot be imagined.11

Of their manners or customs little or nothing is known. Like all savage nations, they are abundantly tinctured with superstitions, fickle, and hasty. One of their customs best known is, that upon the death of a chief, they plant themselves in ambush on some frequented track, and with their arrows assassinate the first unfortunate traveller who passes, and not unfrequently two or three; the bodies are carried off as sacrifices to the manes of the deceased.12The communications between the Spanish settlements are often interrupted by this circumstance, as no Indian will venture out when the negroes are known to be “de luto” (in mourning): they are alsosaidto have a “throwing of spears,” similar to those of New Holland, at the death of any eminent person. In fact, upon this, as upon all other points unconnected with masses and sermons, there exists a degree of ignorance which is almost incredible. The early missionaries,in their rage fornominalconversion, appear to have neglected entirely the history or origin of their neophytes; and, as in America, where the monuments of ages were crumbled to the dust to plant the cross, all that related to the history of their converts was considered as unprofitable, if not as impious, the devil13being compendiously supposed to preside over their political as well as religious institutions in all cases. In this belief, and in its consequent effects, the modern missionaries, who are mostly Indian priests, are worthy successors of their Spanish predecessors.

The government have many missions established for the purpose of converting them, but with little success. Like most savages, their mode of life has to them charms superior to civilization, or rather to Christianity (for here the terms are not synonimous); and they rarely remain, should they even consent to be baptized, but on the first caprice, or exaction of tribute, which immediately takes place, and sometimes even precedes this ceremony, return again to their mountains.

Exposed to all inclemencies of the weather, and with an unwholesome and precarious diet, they perhaps rarely attain more than forty years of age. Their numbers are supposed rather to diminish than increase; and in a few years this race of men, with their language, will probably be extinct. It is indeed a curious subject of enquiry, whether the language of those of the eastern islands has any, and what resemblance to those of Africa, or the southern parts of New Holland and Van Dieman’s Land?14

They are not represented as very mischievous; but if strangers venture too far into their woods, they consider it an aggression, and repel it accordinglywith their arrows. Those who frequent the Spanish settlements are rather of a mild character; and there are instances of Spanish vessels being wrecked on thecoast, whose people, particularly the Europeans, have been treated by them in the kindest manner, and carefully conducted to the nearest settlement.

The character of the different tribes appears, however, to vary in this particular: some are described as treacherous and cruel, and those which inhabit thenorth western coasts of the Bay of Manila are accused of having frequently attacked the boats of ships, when these were not sufficiently guarded in their intercourse with them. The natives of the town in the Bay of Mariveles, at the entrance of that of Manila, assured the writer of these pages, that it would be madness to attempt accompanying them into the woods, even in disguise; and in this they persisted, though money was offered them to allow him to proceed with them.

The Indians are the descendants of the various Malay tribes which appear to have emigrated to this country at different times, and from different parts of Borneo and Celebes. Their languages, though all derived from one stock (the Malay), has a number of dialects differing very materially; so much so, that those from different provinces frequently do not understand each other.

They differ too in their character, and slightly in their manners and customs. The most numerous class of them are the Bisayas,18(a Spanish name, from theiranciently painting their bodies, and using defensive armour). These inhabit the largest part of the southern islands. Luzon contains several tribes, of which the most remarkable are the Ylocos, Cagayanes, Zambales, Pangasinanes, Pampangos, and Tagalos. These still retain their national distinctions and characters to such a degree, that they often occasion quarrels amongst each other. Of their general character as a nation we are now to speak.

The Indian of the Phillippine Islands has been strangely misrepresented. He isnotthe being that oppression, bigotry, and indolence, have for 300 years endeavoured to make him, or he is so only when he has no other resource. Necessity, and the force of example have madethose of Manila, what the whole are generally characterized as—traitors, idlers, and thieves.

How, under such a system as will be afterwards described, should they be otherwise? Say rather, that all considered, it is surprising to find them what they are; for they are in general (I speak of the Indian of the provinces), mild, industrious, as far as they dare to be so, hospitable, kind, and ingenuous. The Pampango is brave,19faithful, and active; the fidelity of the Cagayan is proverbial; the Yloco and the Pangasinanon are most industrious; the Bisayan is brave and enterprising almost to fool-hardiness:—they are all a spirited, a proudly-spirited race of men; and such materials, in other hands, would form the foundation of all that is great and excellent in human nature.

But for 300 years they have been ground to the earth with oppression. They have been crushed bytyranny; their spirit has been tortured by abuse and contempt, and brutalized by ignorance; in a word, there is no injustice that has not been inflicted on them, short of depriving them of their liberty; and in a work published at Madrid in 1819 (Estado de las Yslas Filipinas, par [sic; forpor] Don Tomas Comyn), whose author was a factor of the Phillippine company, a whole chapter (the 4th) is devoted to the mild and humane project “of establishing Spanish agriculturists throughout the islands,” who are, “to require a certain number of Indians from the governors of towns and provinces, who are to be driven to the plantations, where they are tobe obligedto work a certain time, the price of their labour being fixed, and then to be relieved by a fresh drove!”20

Such a system, incredible as it may appear, has been proposed to a Spanish cortes; and still more wonderful, plans like these excited no reprobation in Manila. Such were Spanish ideas of governing Indians! Justice would almost tempt us to wish that this scheme had been carried into execution, and that the Indian had risen and dashed his chains on the heads of the authors of such an infernal project. And yet the Indian is marked out as little better than a brute; so many of them are, but to the system of government, and not to the Indian, is the fault to be ascribed.

It is not here meant to accuse the Spanish laws; many of them are excellent, and would appear tohave been dictated by the very spirit of philanthropy. But these are rarely enforced, or if they are, delay vitiates their effect. That this colony, the most favoured perhaps under heaven by nature, should have remained till the present day almost a forest, is a circumstance which has generally excited surprise in those who are acquainted with it, and has as generally been accounted for by attributing it to thelazinessof the Spaniards and Indians. This is but a superficial view of the subject; one of those general remarks which being relatively a little flattering to ourselves, pass current as facts, and then “we wonder how any one can doubt of what is so generally received.”—The cause lies deeper, man is not naturally indolent. When he has supplied his necessities, he seeks for superfluities—if he can enjoy them in security and peace;—if not—if the iron gripe of despotism (no matter in what shape, or through what form it is felt), is ready to snatch his earnings from him, without affording him any equivalent—then indeedhebecomes indolent, that is, he merely provides for the wants of to-day. This apathy is perpetuated through numerous generations till it becomes national habit, and then we falsely call it nature. It cannot be too often repeated, that from the poles to the equator, man is the creature of his civil institutions, and is active in proportion to the freedom he enjoys. Who that has perused the History of Java by Sir S. Raffles,21and seen the effects of government plannedby the talents of Minto in thespiritof the British constitution in that country, will now accuse the Javanese of unwillingness to work, if the fruits of his labour are secured to him? And yet we remember when a Javanese was another name for every thing that is detestable. It is ever thus—we blame the race, because that flatters our pride—we should first look to their institutions. I return to the Phillippines.

The cause, then, of their little progress is “because there is no security for property;” or in other words, the smallness of the salaries of the officers of justice, as well as of other members of government, and the profligacy inseparable from all despotic governments, have laid the inhabitants under that curse of all societies, venal courts of justice. Does an unfortunate Indian scrape together a few dollars to buy a buffalo, in which consists their whole riches? Woe to him if it is known; and if his house is in a lonely situation—he is infallibly robbed. Does he complain, and is the robber caught? In three months he is let loose again (perhaps with some trifling punishment), to take vengeance on his accuser, and renew his depredations.

Hundreds of Indian families are yearly ruined in this manner. Deprived of their cattle, on which theydepend for subsistence, they grow desperate and careless of future exertion, which can but lead to the same results, and thus either drag on a miserable existence from day to day, or join with the robbers23to pursue the same mode of life, and to exonerate themselves from paying tributes and taxes, in return for which no protection is granted. In many provinces this has been carried to such an extent, that whole districts are rendered impassable by the robbers,24who even lay villages under contribution!

This is the state of the inland towns. On the coasts, and while a flotilla of gun-boats is maintained at an expense of upwards of half a million of dollars annually, there is no part safe from the attacks of the Malay pirates from Borneo, Sooloo, and Mindanao. These make regular cruises to procure slaves, and have even not unfrequently carried them off, not only from thebayof Manila,25but even from within gun-shot of its ramparts! The very soldiers and sailors sent for their protection plunder them. An Indian in whose neighbourhood troops are posted,or who sees the gun-boats approaching, can no longer consider his property safe; and in the very vicinity of Manila, soldiers ramble about with their loaded muskets, and pilfer all they lay hands upon at midday!26

Does the Indian, in spite of all this, escape, and by patient industry make a little way in the world? he is vexed with offices; he is chosen Alguazil, Lieutenant, and Captain of his town; to these offices no pay is attached, they always occasion expenses and create him enemies; he is pinched or cheated by the Mestizos, a forestalling, avaricious, and tyrannical race. Does he suffer in silence? it is a signal for new oppressions: does he complain? a law suit. The Mestizos are all connected, they are rich, and the Indian is poor.

The imperfect mode of trial, both in civil and criminal cases (bywrittendeclarations and the decisions of judges alone), lays them open to a thousand frauds; for if the magistrate be supposed incorruptible, his notaries or writers (escribanosandescribientes) are not so; and from their knavery, declarations are often falsified, or one paper is exchanged for another whilst in the act of or before signing them.

To such a degree does this exist, that few Indians, even of those who can read Spanish tolerably, will sign a declaration made before a magistrate without threats, or without having some one on whom theycan depend, to assure them they may safely do so. Nor is this to be wondered at, when it is known that declarations on which the life or fortune of an individual may depend are left, often for days, in the power of writers or notaries, any of whom may be bought for a doubloon; and some of them are even the menial servants of the magistrate! This applies to Luzon. In the other islands, this miserable system is yet worse: they have seldom but one communication a year with the capital, to which all causes of any magnitude are sent for decision or confirmation; and, as the papers are often (purposely) drawn up with some informality, the cause, after suffering all the first ordeal of chicane and knavery, experiences a year’s delay before it is even allowed a chance of being exposed to that which awaits it at Manila. Or should the cause be at length carried to the Audiencia, or Supreme Court, and there,as is sometimes the case, be judged impartially, the delay of the decision renders it useless—the sentence is evaded—or treated with contempt! This may appear almost incredible, but known to any person who has resided in Manila.

While the civil power is thus shamefully corrupt or negligent of its duties, the church has not forgotten that she too has claims on the Indian. She has marked out, exclusive of Sundays, above 40 days in the year on whichnolabour can be performed throughout the islands. Exclusive of these are the numerous local feasts in honor of the patron saints of towns and churches.27The influence of these extendsoften through a groupe of many islands, always to many leagues round their different sanctuaries; and often lasting three or four days, sometimes a week, according to his or her reputation for sanctity; so that including Sundays, the average cannot be less than 110 or 120 days lost to the community in a year. This alone is a heavy tax on the agricultural classes, by whom it is most severely felt; but its consequences are more so, from the habits of idleness and dissipation which it engenders and perpetuates. These feasts are invariably, after the procession is over, scenes of gambling, drinking, and debauchery of every description.

“And mony jobs that day begun,Will end in houghmagandie.”29

“And mony jobs that day begun,

Will end in houghmagandie.”29

Thus they unsettle and disturb the course of their laboursby calling off their attention from their domestic cares; and by continually offering occasions of dissipation destroy what little spirit of economy or foresight may exist amongst so rude and ignorant a people. Nor is this all; they are subject to numerous other vexations and impositions under the title of church-services; such are, in some towns, five or six men attendant daily in rotation to bring the sick to the church to confess, or to carry the “Padre” with the host to their houses, and many others; all of which, though in themselves trifles, are more harassing, from their unsettling tendency, than pecuniary imposts. An encouragement to celibacy and its consequent evils is also to be found in the (to them) heavy expenses attendant on all the domestic offices of religion, as matrimony, baptism, &c., as well as in the increase of the poll-tax on married persons, for the whole of which the husband is responsible. The ecclesiastical expenses of a marriage between the poorer classes are about five dollars: the others, as christenings, buryings, &c., in proportion. These appear trifles; but if to these are added the confessions,bulas, [i.e., of the Crusade] and other exactions, it will be seen that these constitute no trifling part of the oppressive and ill managed system which has so much contributed to debase their real character.

I say nothing here of the natural effect of the Roman Catholic religion on an ignorant people, who imagine, that verbal confession and pecuniary atonements (rarely to the injured person) are a salvo for crimes of all magnitudes: that such is the case, is notorious to every one who has visited Catholic countries.

Let us for a moment retrace this picture. To whom after this is it attributable that the Indian is often a vicious and degraded being, particularly in the neighborhood of Manila?

If he sees all around him thieving and enjoying their plunder with impunity, what wonder is it that he should thieve also? If his tribunals of all descriptions afford him no redress, or place that redress beyond his reach, what resource has he but private revenge?30If he cannot enjoy the fruits of his labour in peace, why should he work? If he is ignorant, why has he not been instructed? There exist scarcely any schools to teach him his duties: the few that do exist teach him Latin! prayers! theology! jurisprudence! and some little reading and writing;31but heis only taught to read the lives of the saints, and the legends of the church, whose gloomy, fanatical doctrines and sanguinary histories have not a little contributed to make him at times revengeful and intolerant. Does he prevaricate and flatter? It is becausehedarenot speak the truth, and because a long system of oppression has broken his spirit.

Does he endeavour to advance himself a few steps in civilization? his attempts are treated with ridicule and contempt;32hence he becomes apathetic, careless of advancement, and often insensible to reproach. The best epithets he hears from Spaniards (often as ignorant as himself) are “Indio!” The God of nature made him so. “Bruto!” He has been and is brutalized by his masters. “Barbaro!” He is often so by force, example, or even by precept. “Ignorante!” He has no means of learning; the will is not wanting. In a word, the spirit of the followers of Cortes and Pizarro, appears to have left its last vestiges here, and perhaps the Indian has been saved from its persecutions only by the weakness of the Spaniard.

Such are some of the causes which have marked the character of the Indian, which is not naturally bad, with some of its prominent blemishes. I am far from holding up the Indian of the Phillippines as a faultless being; he is not so;the Indian of Manila34has all the vices attributed to him; but I assert, that the Phillippine islander owes the greater part of his vices to example, to oppression, and above all to misgovernment; and that his character has traits, which under a different system, would have produced a widely different result.

To sum up his character:—He is brave, tolerably faithful, extremely sensible to kind treatment, and feelingly alive to injustice or contempt; proud of ancestry, which some of them carry to a remote epoch; fond of dress and show, hunting, riding, and other field exercises; but prone to gambling and dissipation. He is active, industrious, and remarkably ingenious. He possesses an acute ear, and a good taste for music and painting, but little inclination for abstruse studies. He has from nature excellent talents, but these are useless for want of instruction. The little he has received, has rendered him fanatical in religious opinions; and long contempt and hopeless misery has mingled with his character a degree of apathy, which nothing but an entire change of system and long perseverance will efface from it.36

The Mestizos are the next class of men who inhabit these islands: under this name are not only included the descendants of Spaniards by Indian women and their progeny, but also those of the Chinese, who are in general whiter than either parent, and carefully distinguish themselves from the Indians.The Mestizos are, as the name denotes, a mixed class, and, with the creoles of the country, like those of all colonies, when uncorrected by an European education, inherit the vices of both progenitors, with but few of the virtues of either. Their character has but few marked traits; the principal ones aretheir vanity, industry, and trading ingenuity: as to the rest, money is their god; to obtain it they take all shapes, promise and betray, submit to everything, trample and are trampled on; all is alike to them, if they get money; and this, when obtained, they dissipate in lawsuits, firing cannon, fireworks, illuminations,processions on feast days and rejoicings, in gifts to the churches, or in gambling. This anomaly of actions is the business of their lives. Too proud to consider themselves as Indians, and not sufficiently pure in blood to be acknowledged as Spaniards, they affect the manners of the last, with the dress of the first, and despising, are despised by both.37They however, cautiously mark on all occasions the lines which separate them from the Indians, and have their own processions, ceremonies, inferior officers of justice, &c., &c. The Indian repays them with a keen contempt, not unmixed with hatred. And these feuds,while they contribute to the safety of a government too imbecile and corrupt to unite the good wishes of all classes, have not unfrequently given rise to affrays which have polluted even the churches and their altars with blood.

Such are the three great classes of men which may be considered as natives of the Phillippine Islands. The Creole38Spaniards, or those whose blood is but little mingled with the Indian ancestry, pass as Spaniards. Many of them are respectable merchants and men of large property; while others, from causes which will be seen hereafter, are sunk in all the vices of the Indian and Mestizo.

The government of the Phillippine Islands is composed of a governor, who has the title of Captain General, with very extensive powers; a Teniente Rey, or Lieutenant Governor; the Audiencia or Supreme Court, who are also the Council. This tribunal is composed of three judges, the chief of whom has the title of Regent, and two Fiscals or Attorney Generals, the one on the part of the king, the other on that of the natives, and this last has the specious title of “Defensor de los Indios.” The financial affairs are under the direction of an Intendant, who may be called a financial governor. He has the entire control and administration of all matters relative to the revenue, the civil and military auditors and accountants being under him. Commercial affairsare decided by the Consulado, or chamber of commerce, composed of all the principal, and, in Manila, some of the inferior merchants. From this is an appeal to a tribunal “de Alzada” [i.e., of appeal] composed of one judge and two merchants, and from this to the Audiencia, without whose approbation no sentence is valid.

The civic administration is confided to the Ayuntamiento (Courts of Aldermen or Municipality). This body, composed of the two Alcaldes, twelve Regidors (or Aldermen) and a Syndic, enjoy very extensive privileges, approaching those of Houses of Assembly; their powers, however, appear more confined to remonstrances and protests, representations against what they conceive arbitrary or erroneous in government, or recommendations of measures suggested either by themselves or others. They have, in general, well answered the object of their institution as a barrier against the encroachments of government, and as a permanent body for reference in cases where local knowledge was necessary, which last deficiency they well supply.

The civil power and police are lodged in the hands of a Corregidor and two Alcaldes: the decision of these is final in cases of civil suits, where the value in question is small, 100 dollars being about the maximum.39Their criminal jurisdiction extends only to slight fines and corporal punishments, and imprisonment preparatory to trial. The police is confided to the care of the Corregidor, who has more extensive powers, and also the inspection and control of the prisons.

To him are also subject the Indian Captains andOfficers of towns, who are annually elected by the natives. These settle small differences, answer for disturbances in their villages, execute police orders, impose small contributions of money or labour for local objects, such as repairs of roads, &c. &c. They also have the power of inflicting slight punishments on the refractory. To them is also confided the collection of the capitation or poll-tax, which is done by dividing the population of the town or village into tens, each of which has a Cabeça (or head), who is exempt from tribute himself, but answerable for the amount of the ten under him. This tax is then paid to the Alcalde or Corregidor, and from him to the treasury. The Mestizos and Chinese have also their captains and heads, who are equally answerable for the poll-tax.

The different districts and islands, which are called provinces, and are 29 in number, are governed by Alcaldes. The more troublesome ones, or those requiring a military form of government, by military officers, who are also Corregidors. Samboangan on the south west coast of Mindanao, and the Marianas, have governors named from Manila, and these are continued from three to five years in office.

These Alcaldeships are a fertile source of abuses and oppression: their pay is mean to the last degree, not exceeding 350 dollars per annum, and a trifling per centage on the poll-tax. They are in general held by Spaniards of the lower classes, who finding no possible resource in Manila, solicit an Alcadeship. This is easily obtained, on giving the securitiesrequired by government for admission to these offices, which consist in two sureties40to an amount proportionable to the value of the taxes of the province, which all pass through the Alcalde’s hands.

Of the nature and amount of these abuses an idea will be better formed from the following abridged quotations, which are translated from the work of Comyn before quoted (p. 16).41

“It is indeed common enough to see the barber or lacquey of a governor, or a common sailor, transformed at once into the Alcalde in chief of a populous province, without any other guide or council than his own boisterous passions.

“Without examining the inconvenience which may arise from their ignorance, it is yet more lamentable to observe the consequences of their rapacious avarice, which government tacitly allows them to indulge, under the specious title of permissions to trade (indultos).

——“and these are such that it may be asserted, thatthe evil which the Indian feels most severely is derived from the very source which was originally intended for his assistance and protection, that is, from the Alcaldes of the provinces, who, generally speaking, are the determined enemies and the real oppressors of their industry.

“It is a well known fact, that far from promoting the felicity of the provinces to which he is appointed, the Alcalde is exclusively occupied with advancing his private fortune, without being very scrupulous as to the means he employs to do so: hardly is he in office than he declares himself the principal consumer, buyer, and exporter of every production of the province. In all his enterprises he requires the forced assistance of his subjects, andifhe condescends to pay them, it is at least only at the price paid for the royal works. These miserable beings carry their produce and manufactures to him, who directly or indirectly has fixed an arbitrary price for them. To offer that price is to prohibit any other from being offered—to insinuate is to command—the Indian dares not hesitate—he must please the Alcalde, or submit to his persecution: and thus, free from all rivalry in his trade, being the only Spaniard in the province, the Alcalde gives the law without fear or even risk, that a denunciation of his tyranny should reach the seat of government.

“To enable us to form a more correct idea of these iniquitous proceedings, let us lift a little of the veil with which they are covered, and examine a little their method of collecting the ‘tributo’ (poll-tax).

“The government, desirous of conciliating the interests of the natives with that of the revenue, has in many instances commuted the payment of the poll-tax into a contribution in produce or manufactures: a year of scarcity arrives, and this contribution, being then of much higher value than the amount of the tax, and consequently the payment in produce a loss, and even occasioning a serious want in their families, they implore the Alcalde to make a representationto government that they may be allowed to pay the tribute for that year in money. This is exactly one of those opportunities, when, founding his profits on the misery of his people, the Alcalde can in the most unjust manner abuse the power confided to him. He pays no attention to their representations. He is the zealous collector of the royal revenues;—he issues proclamations and edicts, and these are followed by his armed satellites, who seize on the harvests, exacting inexorably the tribute, until nothing more is to be obtained. Having thus made himself master of the miserable subsistence of his subjects, he changes his tone on a sudden—he is the humble suppliant to government in behalf of the unfortunate Indians, whose wants he describes in the most pathetic terms, urging the impossibility of their paying the tribute in produce—no difficulty is experienced in procuring permission for it to be paid in money—to save appearance, a small portion of it is collected in cash, and thewhole amountpaid by him into the treasury, while he resells at an enormous profit, the whole of the produce (generally rice) which has been before collected!”Comyn, p. 134 to 138.

This extract, though long, is introduced as an evidence from a Spaniard (not of the lower order, or a disappointed adventurer, but a man of high respectability), of the shameless abuses which are daily practiced in this unfortunate country, and of which the Indian is invariably the victim:and it is far from being an overcharged one. Hundreds of other instances might be cited,42but this one will perhapssuffice to exonerate the writer of these remarks from suspicion of exaggeration, in pointing out some of the most prominent of them.

While treating of the government of the Phillippines, we must not forget the ministers of their religion, and the share which they have in preserving these islands as dominions to the crown of Spain. This influence dates from the earliest epoch of their discovery. The followers of Cortes and Pizarro, with their successors, were employed in enriching themselves in the new world; and the spirit of conquest and discovery having found wherewith to satiate the brutal avarice by which it was directed, abandoned these islands to the pious efforts of the missionaries by whom, rather than by force of arms, they were in a great measure subdued; and even in the present day, they still preserve so great an influence, that the Phillippines may be almost said to exist under a theocracy approaching to that of the Jesuits in Paraguay.

The ecclesiastical administration is composed of an Archbishop (of Manila), who has three suffragans, Ylocos, Camarines, and Zebu; the first two on Luzon, the last on the island of the same name. The revenue of the Archbishop is 4000, and that of the bishops 3000 dollars annually. The regular Spanish clergy of all orders are about 250, the major part of which are distributed in various convents inthe different islands, though their principal seats are in that of Luzon; and many of them, from age or infirmity, are confined to their convents in Manila.

The degree of respect in which “the Padre” is held by the Indian, is truly astonishing. It approaches to adoration, and must be seen to be credited. In the most distant provinces, with no other safeguard than the respect with which he has inspired the Indians, he exercises the most unlimited authority, and administers the whole of the civil and ecclesiastical government, not only of a parish, but often of a whole province. His word is law—his advice is taken on all subjects. No order from the Alcalde, or even the government43is executed without his counsel and approbation, rendered too in many cases the more indispensable from his being the only person who understands Spanish in the village.44To their high honour be it spoken, the conduct of these reverend fathers in general fully justifiesand entitles them to this confidence. The “Padre” is the only bar to the oppressions of the Alcalde: he protects, advises, comforts, remonstrates, and pleads for his flock; and not unfrequently has he been seen, though bending beneath the weight of years and infirmity, to leave his province, and undertake a long and often perilous voyage to Manila, to stand forward as the advocate of his Indians; and these gratefully repay this kind regard for their happiness by every means in their power.

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

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

Some of them too have furnished a striking but melancholy proof of the eloquent moral,

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