|
NOTES
|
24
|
Montero y Vidal, i, pp. 41-42.
|
|
25
|
Juan de Grijalva. From W. E. Retana's
extracts from his Cronica de la Orden de N. P. S. Augustin en las provincias
de la Nueva España, etc. (1533-1592) in Retana's edition of
Zúñiga's Estadismo de las Islas Filipinas, ii. p.
219 ff. Juan de Salcedo, after being promoted to the high rank of Maestre
de Campo (an independent command), died suddenly in 1576 at the age of
twenty-seven. Far from amassing wealth in his career he died poor. In his
will he provided that after the payment of his debts the residue of his
property should be given to certain Indians of his encomienda. Ibid.,
p. 615.
|
|
26
|
This account of the conversion
is based on Grijalva's contemporary narrative; see Retana's Zúñiga,
ii, pp. 219-220.
|
|
27
|
Montero y Vidal, i, p. 59.
|
|
28
|
Retana's Zúñiga,
ii, p. 222; Morga, Hakluyt Society edition, pp.307-308; Montero y Vidal,
i, p. 60.
|
|
29
|
He was lieutenant to the Governor
and the first justice to be appointed to the supreme court (Audiencia)
on its reorganization. His Sucesos de la islas Philipinas - Mexici ad
Indos, anno 1609, is a work of great rarity. It was reprinted in Paris
in 1890 with annotations by the Filipino author and patriot, Dr. José
Rizal and with an Introduction by Blumentritt. Rizal tries to show that
the Filipinos have retrograded in civilization under Spanish rule; cf.
Retana's comments in his Zúñiga, ii, p. 277. The references
to Morga to follow are to the Hakluyt Society edition.
|
|
30
|
A natural transference of the familiar
name in. Spain for Mohammedans.
|
|
31
|
Morga, pp. 296-297.
|
|
32
|
Morga, p. 323.
|
|
33
|
Relacion de las Encomiendas
existentes en Filipinas el dia 31 de 1.591, en Retana: Archivo del
Bibliófilo Filipino, iv, pp. 39-112.
|
|
34
|
Mendoza, The History of the
Great and Mighty Kingdom of China, Hakluyt Society edition, ii, p.
263.
|
|
35
|
Printed in Retana's Archivo,
iii, pp. 3-45.
|
|
36
|
"Of little avail would have been
the valor and constancy with which Legaspi and his worthy companions overcame
the natives of the islands, if the apostolic zeal of the missionaries had
not seconded their exertions, and aided to consolidate the enterprise.
The latter were the real conquerors; they who without any other arms than
their virtues, gained over the good will of the islanders, caused the Spanish
name to be beloved, and gave the king, as it were by a miracle, two millions
more of submissive and Christian subjects." Tomas de Comyn, State of
the Philippine Islands, etc., translated by William Walton, London,
1821, p. 209. Comyn was the general manager of the Royal Philippine Company
for eight years in Manila and is described by his latest editor, Señor
del Pan, editor of the Revista de Filipinas, as a man of "extensive knowledge
especially in the social sciences." Retana characterizes his book as "un
libro de merito extraordinario," Zúñiga, ii, pp. 175-76.
Mallat says: " C'est par la seule influence de la religion que l'on aconquis
les Philippines, et cette influence pourra seule les conserver." Les
Philippines, histoire, geographie, moeurs, agriculture, industrie et commerce
des Colonies espagnoles dans l'Oceanie, Par J. Mallat, Paris, 1846,
i, p. 40. I may say that this work seems to me the best of all the modern
works on the Philippines. The author was a man of scientific training who
went to the islands to study them after a preparatory residence in Spain
for two years.
|
|
37
|
Morga, p. 325.
|
|
38
|
Mallat, i, p. 389.
|
|
39
|
Morga, p. 320.
|
|
40
|
Mallat, i, pp. 382-385.
|
|
41
|
Morga, p. 312. Mallat, ii, p. 240.
|
|
42
|
Morga, p. 313. Mallat, ii, p. 244.
|
|
43
|
The first regular hospital in the
thirteen colonies was the Pennsylvania Hospital, incorporated in 1751.
Patients were first admitted in 1752. Cornell, History of Pennsylvania,
PP. 409-411. There are references to a hospital in New Amsterdam in 1658,
but the New York hospital was the first institution of the kind of any
importance. It was founded in 1771, but patients were not admitted till
1791. Memorial History of New York, iv, P. 407. There was no hospital
for the treatment of general diseases in Boston until the nineteenth century.
The Massachusetts General Hospital was chartered in 1811. Memorial History
of Boston, iv, p. 548.
|
|
44
|
Morga, p. 350.
|
|
45
|
Morga, p. 314.
|
|
46
|
Friar Juan Francisco de San Antonio
who went to the Philippines in 1724, says that "up to the present time
there has not been found a scrap of writing relating to religion, ceremonial,
or the ancient political institutions." Chronicas de la Apostólica
Provincia de San Gregorio, etc. (Sampoloc, near Manila, 1735), i, pp.
149-150 (cited from Retana's Zúñiga, ii, p. 294.)
|
|
47
|
They used palm leaves for paper
and an iron stylus for a pen. "L'escriture ne leur sert que pour s'escrire
les uns aux autres, car ils n'ont point d'histoires ny de Livres d'aucune
Science; nos Religieux ont imprimé des livres en la langue des Isles
des choses de nostre Religion." Relation des Isles Philippines, Faite
par un Religieux qui y a demeuré 18 ans, in Thévenot's
Voyages
Curieux. Paris 1663, ii (p. 5, of the "Relation"). This narrative is
one of the earliest to contain a reproduction of the old Tagal alphabet.
Retana ascribes it to a Jesuit and dates it about 1640: p. 13 of the catalogue
of his library appended to Archivo del Bibliófilo Filipino,
i. The earliest printed data on the Tagal language according to Retana
are those given in Chirino's Relacion de las Islas Filipinas, Rome,
1604.
|
|
48
|
Mendoza's Historie of the Kingdorne
of China, volume ii, p. 263.
|
|
49
|
Ibid., p. 264.
|
|
50
|
Morga, p. 319.
|
|
51
|
Relation d'un Religieux,
Thévenot, volume ii, (p. 7 of the Relation).
|
|
52
|
On the powers of the Governor,
see Morga, pp. 344-345.
|
|
53
|
Throughout this introduction the
Spanish "peso " is rendered by dollar. The reader will bear in mind the
varying purchasing power of the dollar. To arrive at An approximate equivalent
ten may be used as a multiplier for the sixteenth and early seventeenth
centuries, and five for the middle of the eighteenth century.
|
|
54
|
It may be remembered that the official
conscience in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was not so sensitive
in regard to "tips" as it is expected to be today. Le Gentil writes: "Les
Gouverneurs de Manille corrompent journellement leurs grâces, et
les Manillois ne les abordent guère pour leur en demander, sans
se précautioner auparavant du rameau d'or; seul et unique moyen
de se les rendre favorables. Un soir étant allé voir le Gouverneur,
in 1767, à peine m'eut'il demandé des nouvelles de ma santé
qu'il alla me chercher une bouteille de verre de chopine, mesure de Paris,
(half-pint) pleine de paillettes d'or, il me la fit voir en me disant que
c'était un presént dont on l'avoit régalé ce
jour-là même; Oi, me dit-il, me regalaron de este." Voyage
dans Les Mers de L'Inde, Paris, 1781, ii, pp. 152-153. Le Gentil was
in the Philippines about eighteen months in 1766-67 on a scientific mission.
His account of conditions there is one of the most thorough and valuable
that we have for the eighteenth century. As a layman and man of science
his views are a useful offset against those of the clerical historians.
|
|
55
|
Voyage, ii, p. 153. "The
Royal Audience was established to restrain the despotism of the Governors,
which it has never prevented; for the gentlemen of the gown are always
weak-kneed and the Governor can send them under guard to Spain, pack them
off to the provinces to take a census of the Indians or imprison them,
which has been done several times without any serious consequences." Zúñiga:
Estadismo
de las Islas Filipinas o mis Viages por este Pais, ed. Retana, i, p.
244.
|
|
56
|
"Cuando se pusieren edictos, publicaren,
y pregonaren las residencias, sea de forma que vengan á noticia
de los Indios, para que puedan pedir justicia de sus agravios con entera
libertad." Law of 1556, lib. v, tit. xv, ley xxviii of the Recopilacion
de Leyes de los Reinos de las Indias.
|
|
57
|
Recopilacion, lib. v, tit.
xv, ley vii.
|
|
58
|
Churchill's Voyages, iv,
pp. 427-428.
|
|
59
|
"I request the reader not to infer
from my opinion of the tribunals of residence, my confidence in their efficacy.
My homage is immediately and solely addressed to the wisdom of the law.
I resign all criticism on its operation, to those who know the seductive
infiuence of Plutus over the feeble and pliant Ilemis." De Pons: Voyage
to the Eastern Part of Terra Firma or the Spanish Main in South America
during the years 1801, I802, 1803, and 1804. New York, 1806, ii, p.
25.
|
|
60
|
"Une loi très sage, mais
malheureusement sans effet, qui devrait modérer cette autorité
excessive, est celle qui permet à chaque citoyen de poursuivre le
gouvemeur vétéran devant son successeur; mais celui-ci est
intéressé à excuser tout ce qu'on reproche à
son prédécesseur; et le citoyen assez téméraire
pour se plaindre, est exposé à de nouvelles et à de
plus fortes vexations." Voyage de La Pérouse autour du Monde,
Paris, 1797, ii, p. 350.
|
|
61
|
His comments on the kind of officials
needed are not without interest today: "A governor must understand war
but he must not be over confident of his abilities. Let him give ear to
the advice of those who know the country where things are managed very
differently from what they are in Europe. Those who have tried to carry
on war in the islands as it is carried on in Flanders and elsewhere in
Europe have fallen into irreparable mistakes. The main thing, however,
is to aim at the welfare of the people, to treat them kindly, to be friendly
toward foreigners, to take pains to have the ships for New Spain sail promptly
and in good order, to promote trade with neighboring people and to encourage
ship-biulding. In a word, to live with the Indians rather like a father
than like a governor." Relation et Memorial del' état des Isles.Philippines,
et des Isles Moluques by Ferdinand de los Rios Coronel, Prestre
et Procureur General des Isles Philippines, etc. Thevenot, ii p. 23
of the Relation).
|
|
62
|
Morga, p. 345. Recopilacion,
lib. ii, tit. xv, ley xi.
|
|
63
|
Ibid, ley lviii. Le Gentil, ii,
pp. 159, 161.
|
|
64
|
Recopilacion, lib. ii tit.
xv, ley,xi.
|
|
65
|
Mallat, i, pp. 349-50. For a historical
summary of the variations in the names of the provinces see Retana's Zúñiga's
Estadismo, ii, p. 376 ff.
|
|
66
|
They received the tribute in kind
in fixed amounts and made money out of the fluctuations of the market prices.
At times of scarcity and consequent high prices this procedure doubled
or trebled the burden of the tribute. See State of the Philippine Islands,
by Tomas de Comyn, translated by William Walton, p. 197. Mallat says: "
Rien n'est plus funeste au pays que la permission qui est accordée
aux alcaldes de faire le commerce pour leur compte." i, p. 351. See also
Retana's note, Zúñiga, Estadismo, ii, p 530. This
right to trade was abolished in 1844.
|
|
67
|
"It is a fact common enough to
see a hair-dresser or a lackey converted into a governor; a sailor or a
deserter, transformed into a district magistrate, collector, or military
commander of a populous province, without other counsellor than his own
crude understanding, or any other guide than his passions. Such a metamorphosis
would excite laughter in a comedy or farce; but, realized in the theatre
of human life, it must give rise to sensations of a very different nature.
Who is there that does not feel horrorstruck, and tremble for the innocent,
when he sees a being of this kind transferred from the yard-arm to the
seat of justice, deciding in the first instance on the honor, lives, and
property of a hundred thousand persons, and haughtily exacting the homage
and incense of the spiritual ministers of the towns under his jurisdiction,
as well as of the parish curates, respectable for their acquirements and
benevolence, and who in their own native places, would possibly have rejected
as a servant the very man whom in the Philippines they are compelled to
court, and obey as a sovereign." State of the Philippine Islands,
London, 1821, p. 194.
|
|
68
|
Morga, p. 323.
|
|
69
|
Jagor describes an election which
he saw in the town of Lauane, of four thousand five hundred inhabitants,
in the little island of the same name which lies just off the north shore
of Samar. As it is the only description of such a local election that I
recall I quote it in full. "It took place in the town house. At the table
sits the Governor or his proxy, on his right the pastor and on his left
the secretary who is the interpreter. All the Cabezas de Barangay, the
Gobernadorcillo and those who have formerly been such have taken their
places on the benches. In the first place six of the Cabezas, and six of
the ex- Gobernadorcillos respectively are chosen by lot to serve as electors.
The Gobernadorcillo in office makes the thirteenth. The rest now leave
the room. After the chairman has read the rules and exhorted the electors
to fulfil their duty conscientiously, they go one by one to the table and
write three names on a ballot. Whoever receives the largest number of votes
is forthwith nominated for Gobernadorcillo for the ensuing year, if the
pastor or the electors make no well- founded objections subject to the
confirmation of the superior court in Manila, which is a matter of course
since the influence of the pastor would prevent an unsuitable choice. The
same process was followed in the election of the other local officials
except that the new Gobernadorcillo was called in that he might make any
objections to the selections. The whole transaction was very quiet and
dignified." Reisen in den Philippinen, Berlin, 1873, pp. 189-190.
Sir John Bowring's
account of this system of local administration is the clearest of those
I have found in English books. A Visit to the Philippine Islands,
London, 1859, pp. 89-93.
|
|
70
|
The Gobernadorcillo in council
with the other Cabezas presented a name to the superior authority for appointment.
Bowring, p. 90.
|
|
71
|
Zúñiga, Estadismo
de las Islas Filipinas, i, P. 245. Cf. Mal1at, i, p. 358.
|
|
72
|
Comyn: State of the Philippine
Islands, ch. vii.
|
| 73 |
Mallat, i, pp. 40, 386. Jagor,
pp. 95-97.
|
|
74
|
Mallat, i, p. 380 ff.; Comyn, p.
212 ff.
|
|
75
|
Mallat, i, p. 365.
|
|
76
|
Morga, p. 333.
|
|
77
|
Delgado: Historia de Filipinas,
Biblioteca Historica Filipina, Manila, 1892, pp. 155-156. Delgado wrote
in 1750-51. Somewhat different figures are given by Le Gentil on the basis
of the official records in 1735, ii, p. 182. His total is 705,903 persons.
|
|
78
|
LeGentil, i, p. 186.
|
|
79
|
Recopilacion, lib. vi, tit.
iii, ley xxi. Morga, p. 330.
"Avec toutes les recommandations
possible, il arrive encore que le moine chargé de la peuplade par
où vous voyagez, vous laisse rarement parler seul aux Indiens. Lorsque
vous parlez en sa présence à quelque Indien qui entend un
peu le Castillan, si ce Religieux trouve mauvais que vous conversiez trop
long-temps avec ce Naturel, il lui fait entendre dans la langue du pays,
de ne vous point répondre en Castillan, mais dans sa langue: l'Indien
obéit." Le Gentil, ii, p. 185.
|
|
80
|
State of the Philippine Islands,
pp. 216-217. These responsibilities and the isolation from Europeans together
with the climate frequently brought on insanity. Le Gentil, ii, p. 129.
Mallat, i, p. 388.
|
|
81
|
Ibid., p. 214.
|
|
82
|
In 1637 the military force maintained
in the islands consisted of one thousand seven hundred and two Spaniards
and one hundred and forty Indians. Memorial de D. Juan Grau y Monfalcon,
Procurador General de las Islas Filipinas, Docs. Inéditos del Archivo
de Indias, vi, p. 425. In 1787 the garrison at Manila consisted of one
regiment of Mexicans comprising one thousand three hundred men, two artillery
companies of eighty men each, three cavalry companies of fifty men each.
La Pérouse, ii, p. 368.
|
|
83
|
Apuntes Interesantes sobre Las
Islas Filipinas, etc., escritos por un Español de larga esperiencia
en el pais y amante del progresso, Madrid, 1869, p. 13. This very interesting
and valuable work was written in the main by Vicente Barrantes, who was
a member of the Governor's council and his secretary. On the authorship
see Retana's Archivo ii, Biblioteca Gen., p. 25, which corrects
his conjecture published in his Zúñiga, ii, p. 135.
|
|
84
|
Apuntes Interesantes, pp.
42-43.
|
|
85
|
Zúñiga, Estadismo,
i, p. 246; Le Gentil, ii, p. 172.
|
|
86
|
Le Gentil, ii, p. 172.
|
|
87
|
Morga, p. 336.
|
|
88
|
Morga, ibid.
|
|
89
|
Morga, ibid.
|
|
90
|
Recopilacion, lib. ix, tit.
xxxv, ley vi and ley xv. As will be seen there was usually only one ship.
|
|
91
|
Ibid., ley xxxiv.
|
|
92
|
Ibid., ley lxviii.
|
|
93
|
Ibid., ley lxxviii.
|
|
94
|
Ibid., ley xiv.
|
|
95
|
Morga, p. 344. Zúñiga,
i, pp. 271-274. "El barco de Acapulco ha sido la causa de que los españoles
hayan abandonado las riquezas naturales e industriales de las Islas." Ibid.,
p. 443.
|
|
96
|
Le Gentil, ii, pp. 203-230; Zúñiga,
i, P. 266 ff.
|
|
97
|
Le Gentil, ii, p. 205; Careri,
Voyage
Round the World, Churchill's Voyages, iv, p. 477.
|
|
98
|
Zúñiga, i, p. 267.
|
|
99
|
Zúñiga, i, p. 267.
|
|
100
|
Le Gentil, ii, p. 207.
|
|
101
|
Zúñiga, i, p. 268.
|
|
102
|
Churchill's Voyages, iv,
p. 491. I am aware that grave doubts as to the reality of Gemelli Careri's
travels existed in the eighteenth century. Robertson says "it seems now
to be a received opinion (founded as far as I know, on no good evidence)
that Careri was never out of Italy, and that his famous Giro del Mondo
is an account of a ficticious voyage." Note 150, History Of America.
The most specific charges against Careri relate to his account of his experiences
in China. See Privost's Histoire des Voyages, v, pp. 469-70. His
description of the Philippines and of the voyage to Acapulco is full of
details that have every appearance of being the result of personal observation.
In fact, I do not see how it is possible that this part of his book is
not authentic. The only book of travels which contains a detailed account
of the voyage from Manila to Acapulco written before Careri published that
is descr:ibed in Medina's Bibliografia Española de Filipinas
is the Peregrinacion del Mundo del Doctor D. Pedro Cubero Sebastian,
of which an edition was published in 1682 in Naples, Careri's own home;
but Careri's account is no more like Cubero's than any two descriptions
of the same voyage are bound to be; nor is it clear that Careri ever saw
Cubero Sebastian's narrative.
|
|
103
|
Zúñiga, i, p. 268.
Careri mentions the case of a Dominican who paid five hundred dollars for
the eastern passage. Op. cit. p. 478; on page 423 he says the usual fare
for cabin and diet was five hundred to six hundred dollars.
|
|
104
|
Churchill's Voyages, iv,
p 499.
|
|
105
|
Op, cit. p. 491. Yet Careri had
no such experience as befell Cubero Sebastian in his voyage. When they
were nearing the end of the voyage a very fatal disease, "el berben, o
mal de Loanda" (probably the same as beri-beri), broke out, as well as
dysentery, from which few escaped who were attacked. There were ninety-two
deaths in fifteen days. Out of four hundred persons on board, two hundred
and eight died before Acapulco was reached. Peregrinacion del Mundo
de D. Pedro Cubero Sebastian, Zaragoza, 1688, p.268.
|
|
106
|
Careri: Op. cit. p. 503.
|
|
107
|
Montero y Vidal: Hist. Gen.
de Filipinas, 'i, pp. 418, 463. On page 461 is a brief bibliography
of the history of Philippine commerce. According to Montero y Vidal, the
best modern history of Philippine commerce is La Libertad de cornercio
en las islas Filipinas, by D. Manuel de Azearraga y Palmero, Madrid,
1872.
|
|
108
|
Montero y Vidal, ii, p. 122.
|
|
109
|
Montero y Vidal, ii, p. 122.
|
|
110
|
Comyn: State of the Philippine
Islands, pp. 83-97.
|
|
111
|
Estadismo, i, p. 272.
|
|
112
|
Zúñiga, i, p. 274.
|
|
113
|
Of the commerce with China it is
not necessary to speak at length, as a full account of it is given in Morga.
It was entirely in the hands of the Chinese and Mestizos and brought to
Manila oriental textiles of all kinds, objects of art, jewelry, metal work
and metals, nails, grain, preserves, fruit, pork, fowls, domestic animals,
pets, "and a thousand other gewgaws and ornaments of little cost and price
which are valued among the Spaniards." (Morga, p. 339.) Besides the Chinese,
that with Japan, Borneo, the Moluccas, Siam, and India was so considerable
that in spite of the obstructions upon the commerce with America, Manila
seemed to the traveler Careri (p. 444) "one of the greatest places of trade
in the world."
|
|
114
|
Documentos Inéditos delAchivo
de Indias, v, pp. 475-77.
|
|
115
|
It would be vain to guess how many
hundred people there are who are familiar with the denunciations of Las
Casas to one who knows anything of the more than six hundred laws defining
the status and aiming at the protection of the Indians in the Recopilacion.
|
|
116
|
Cf. Jagor: Reisen in den Philippinen,
p. 31.
|
|
117
|
Voyage de La Pérouse
autour du Monde, Paris, 1797, ii, p. 347.
|
|
118
|
History of the Indian Archipelago,
etc., by John Crawfurd, V. R. S. Edinburgh, 1820, vol. ii, pp. 447-48.
|
|
119
|
That I take to be his meaning.
His words are: "Ces institutions (i. e., the local administration) si sages
et si paternelles ont valu à l'Espagne la conservation d'une colonie
dont les habitants jouissent, à notre avis, de plus de liberté,
de bonheur et de tranquilleté que ceux d'aucune autre nation." i,
p. 357. Cf. also his final chapter: "L'indigène des Philippines
est l'homme le plus heureux du monde. Malgré son tribut, il n'est
pas d'être vivant en société qui paye moins d'impôt
que lui. Il est libre, il est heureux et ne pense nullement à se
soulever." ii, p. 369.
|
|
120
|
Visit to the Philippine Islands,
London, 1859, p. 18. Cf. the recent opinion of the English engineer, Frederic
H. Sawyer, who lived in Luzon for fourteen years. "The islands were badly
governed by Spain, yet Spaniards and natives lived together in great harmony,
and I do not know where I could find a colony in which Europeans mixed
as much socially with the natives. Not in Java, where a native of position
must dismount to salute the humblest Dutchman. Not in British India, where
the Englishwoman has now made the gulf between British and native into
a bottomless pit." The Inhabitants of the Philippines, New York,
1900, p. 125.
|
|
121
|
Reisen in den Philippinen, p. 287.
|
|
122
|
Cornhill Magazine 1878, pp. 161,
167. This article is reprinted in Palgrave's Ulysses, or Scenes in Many
Lands.
|
|
123
|
The Inhabitants of the Philippines,
pp. vi, viii.
|
|
124
|
"Ils font voir beaucoup d'inclination
et d'empressement pour aller à l'église les jours de Fêtes
et Solemnités; mais pour ouir la Messe les jours de preceptes, pour
se confesser et communier lorsque la Sainte Eglise l'ordonne, il faut employer
le fouet, et les traiter comme des enfans à l'ecole." Quoted by
Le Gentil, ii, p. 61, from Friar Juan Francisco de San Antonio's Chronicas
de la Apostolica Provincia de San Gregorio, etc., commonly known as
the Franciscan History. It will be remembered that in our own country
in the eighteenth century college discipline was still enforced by corporal
punishment; and that attendance upon church was compulsory, where there
was an established church, as in New England.
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125
|
Voyage, ii, p. 62.
|
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126
|
Voyage, ii, p. 350.
|
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127
|
Voyage, ii, pp. 95, 97.
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128
|
Le Gentil says the lassitude of
the body reacts upon the mind. "In this scorching region one can only vegetate.
Insanity is commonly the result of hard study and excessive application."
Voyage,
ii, p. 94.
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129
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La Imprenta en Manila desde
sus origenes hasta 1810, Santiago de Chile, 1896.
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130
|
Adiciones y Observaciones à
La Imprenta en Manila, Maddrid, 1899.
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131
|
For representative lists of these,
see Blumentritt's privately printed Bibliotheca Philippina, Theile
i and ii.
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132
|
It is, all things considered, a
singular fact that in all that list there is no translation of parts of
the Bible, except of course the fragmentary paraphrases in the catechism
and doctrinals. The only item indicating first-hand Biblical study in the
Philippines under the old régime that has come to my notice in the
bibliographies of Medina and Retana is this, that Juan de la Concepcion
the historian left in manuscript a translation of the Holy Bible into Spanish.
La
Imprenta en Manila, p. 221. This failure to translate the Bible into
the native languages was not peculiar to Spanish rule in the Philippines.
Protestant Holland, far behind Spain in providing for native education,
was equally opposed to the circulation of the Bible. "Even as late as the
second or third decade of this century the New Testament was considered
a revolutionary work, and Herr Bruckner, who translated it, had his edition
destroyed by Government." Guillemard, Malaysia and the Pacific Archipelagoes,
p. 129.
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133
|
Mallat says that the elements were
more generally taught than in most of the country districts of Europe (i,
p. 386) and quotes the assertion of the Archbishop of Manila: "There are
many villages such as Argas, Dalaguete, Bolohon, Cebu, and several in the
province of Iloilo, where not a single boy or girl can be found who cannot
read and write, an advantage of which few places in Europe can boast."
Ibid., p. 388.
|
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134
|
Estadismo, i, p. 300.
|
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135
|
Estadismo, i, p. 63.
|
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136
|
Zúñiga, i, pp. 73-75.
|
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137
|
Voyage, ii, p. 131.
|
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138
|
Ibid., p. 132, and Zúñiga,
i, p. 76. A modern work on this drama is El Teatro tagalo by Vicente
Barrantes, Madrid, 1889.
|
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139
|
Number 877 in Retana's Biblioteca
Filipina. This novel was published in Manila in 1885. Friar Bustamente
was a Franciscan.
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140
|
Estadismo, i, pp. 60-61.
Commodore Alava was on his way to make scientific observations of the volcano
of Taal. Le Gentil writes: "Selon une Ordornnance du Roi, renouvelée
peut'être cent fois, il est ordonné aux Religieux d'renseigner
le castillan aux jeunes indiens; mais Sa Majesté, m'ont unanimement
assuré les Espagnoles à Manille, n'a point encore été
obéie jusqu'à ce jour." Voyage, ii, p. 184. Cf. Zúñiga,
Estadismo,
i, pp. 299-300. For some of these ordinances see Retana's notes to Zúñiga,
ii, p. 57 ff.
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141
|
Cf. Retana's views expressed ten
years ago upon the impracticability of supplanting to any extent the Tagal
language by the Spanish. The same considerations apply equally well to
English. Estadismo, ii, p. 59 ff.
|
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142
|
Estadismo, i, pp. 12-13. |
|
143
|
Retana's Zúñiga,
ii, p. 527. |
|
144
|
Estadismo, i, p. 174. I
cannot take leave of Zúñiga's book without recording my opinion
that it is the finest flower of the Philippine literature. Zúñiga
did for the island of Luzon what Arthur Young did for France a few years
earlier, or to take an apter parallel, what President Dwight did for New
England. His careful observations, relieved of tedium by a rare charm of
style, his sweetness of temper, quiet humor, his love of nature and of
man all combine to make his "Travels" a work that would be accorded a conspicuous
place in the literature of any country. An English translation will appear
in the present series. |
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