CHARACTER OF THE SPANISH PRESENCE
IN THE PHILIPPINES
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1. WEBMASTER's NOTE

The present article is practically two thirds of Yale University’s Edward Gaylor Bourne’s Historical Introduction to Blair and Robertson’s The Philippine Islands: 1493-1898. Published in 1902, this monumental work, 55 volumes in the original, translated into English what the editors thought were the most relevant documents in Spanish, American (Central and South) and Philippine Archives that could shed light on the history and culture of the Philippines. This outstanding scholarly work was undertaken for the benefit of the scholar and the curious as well as of the civil servant and his masters in the US Government. Many of the documents translated were made public for the fist time through the translation of Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson.

The Introduction to Blair and Robertson, as the magnum opus is popularly known among scholars, by E. G. Bourne provides a broad background to place the contents of the documents translated in their proper historical perspective. Bourne himself avers:

“The aim of the Introduction is rather to give the discovery and conquest of the Philippines their setting in the history of geographical discovery, to review the unparalleled achievements of the early conquerors and missionaries, to depict the government and commerce of the islands before the revolutionary changes of the last century, and to give such a survey, even though fragmentary, of Philippine life and culture under the old régime as will bring into relief their peculiar features and, if possible, to show that although the annals of the Philippines may be dry reading, the history of the Philippine people is a subject of deep and singular interest.”
It is this quality what prompted me to include almost the totality of the Introduction as an article in our web site. We in the Circulo Hispanofilipino promote awareness of the Philippines’ Hispanic culture. I thought Bourne’s Introduction, written in 1902, contains serene and understanding insights on the character of the Spanish presence in the Islands that led to the development of the peculiar Hispanic culture we share with the rest of the Hispanic peoples.

The title I chose to head the article, different from that of the original Historical Introduction, reflects the fact that the contents are a selection of the material in Bourne's Introduction. I must also caution that breaking the selection into chapters, splitting some of the long paragraphs and adding chapters and subtitles is my idea and is of my doing for an easier reading from the Web. The text and notes, however, are taken literally from the original.

The portion of the Bourne’s Introduction that is published here as an article was scanned from the 1973 edition by Cacho Publishing House (Cacho Hermanos Press) of Blair and Robertson and was done after ascertaining with Cacho Hermanos’ Publishing Manager Mr. Ramon Sunico that the Introduction is already of public domain. The 1973 Cacho Hermanos edition was the second reprint of the monumental work, the first made in the Philippines, and was a pioneer’s job in the sense that for the first time Blair and Robertson was made widely available in the Philippines at a time when such sets had been for some time already unavailable in the market.

Your Web master
May, 2002