Chapter I: Preface

So many inquiries have been made in the Free Library of Philadelphia for information concerning the history and literature of the Philippines, that an earnest effort was made some time ago to gather together books bearing on these subjects. The fact that a short catalogue of Philippine literature, prepared by the bibliographer, W. E. Retana, comprises as many as three thousand separate works, is a matter known to comparatively few persons, and it was therefore with considerable interest that the Philobiblon Club of Philadelphia obtained the promise of the Rev. Thomas Cooke Middleton that he would read a paper upon the bibliography of the Philippines before the Club. This Bulletin is a copy of that paper, as read in substance, and it would have been published several months since but for the unfortunate loss of the manuscript in the office of the newspaper to which the author had confided it. In answer to the urgent requests of the members of the Philobiblon Club, Father Middleton very kindly re-wrote it and consented that it should be printed by the Free Library of Philadelphia for the use of the students and patrons of the Library. An evil fate, however, seemed to pursue the manuscript, and within four days after it had been completed for the second time it perished in the great fire which destroyed the printing house of J. B. Lippincott Co. Once more the author took courage, and again wrote out the paper, and these facts are recorded both as a matter of interest, and to explain why this Bulletin has been so long delayed.

A collection of books on the subject of the Philippines is being gradually accumulated, and it seems desirable both to furnish the readers in the Library with information upon the subject, and also to take an opportunity to counteract the popular misapprehension as to what has been done by the residents of the Philippines in the way of literature.

Since the collection of works on this subject was commenced the Free Library has prepared and mimeographed from time to time for the use of its readers "Finding Lists" of the books on the shelves relating to the Philippine Islands. The latest of these lists, prepared May 4, 1900, shows that fifty-four volumes have been collected and also gives references to nearly six hundred magazine articles in the Library.

Possibly one of the most interesting books received in the Library is the Flora de Filipinas, consisting of four folio volumes of text (printed in Spanish and Latin on the same page) and two of colored lithographed plates. It was published at Manila 1877-1883 for the friars of St. Augustine under the direction of H. Ex. the late Sebastiano Vidal y Soler, assisted scientifically by the able botanists, the Rev. Fathers Fr. Andres Naves and Fr. Celestino Fernandez Villar, both of the Augustinian order of friars. It was composed from manuscripts of the late Father Blanco of the same order. The plates were drawn and colored from nature by native artists, and sent to Barcelona where they were lithographed, and after six hundred copies were printed off, the stones were destroyed. As will be noticed, in many cases the specimens are given both in fruit and flower, necessitating in most instances a gathering of the specimens at distinct seasons of the year.

The book was published as a serial work, two or three parts with four plates each (with corresponding descriptions) appearing monthly. There were several stoppages during the printing of the work, caused by a large fire at one time and an earthquake at another, from both of which the printing establishment at which the book was being published suffered. In this manner the time occupied in the publication was prolonged.

The original editor was Sr. Domingo Vidal, who unfortunately, after only two or three parts of the work had been given out, was obliged to leave the Islands on account of poor health. Several months later he died and his brother, who had assumed the editorship, upon his departure from Manila, continued the work until it was finished.

The Trustees of the Free Library of Philadelphia desire to express their thanks to the Rev. Dr. Middleton for the contribution to bibliography which follows. A short index has been added, which it is believed will fit the paper for general use. Many thanks are due to Mr. John Ashhurst for his assistance in this tedious part of the Bulletin.

John Thomson.

INTRODUCTORY.

The following pages, embodying a survey (on a broad scale) of the chief characteristics of Philippine intellectual energy, in its various lines of art, science, letters, seem an objective worthy of the American scholar, who, to his own large group of aboriginal tongues at home, has now to add to his field of study a similarly far-reaching family of the many-toned dialects of Malaysia,--twenty-seven idioms at least in number,--according to Retana's tabulation, whereof I give a list drawn from his latest bibliography of the Philippines, [1] where, enumerating the various works published in the several dialects in use in that archipelago, he has summarized them in the following table:

Bisaya, or Visaya, generic name for Titles.
1. Cebuano, Isle of Cebu |
2. Panayano, Hiligayno and Harayo, Isle of Panay | 352
3. Leyte, or Leite, and Samar Isles |
4. Tagalo, Isle of Luzon 230
5. Ilocano, ibid. 143
6. Bicol, or Vicol, ibid. 61
7. Pangasinan, ibid. 24
8. Pampango, ibid. 22
9. Ibanag, ibid. 15
10. Moro-Maguindanao 8
11. Cuyono 7
12. Tiruray 6
13. Bagobo 3
14. Aeta, or Negrito, Isle of Negros 2
15. Gaddan, Isle of Luzon 2
16. Isinay, ibid. 2
17. Joloano 2
18. Manobo, Isle of Mindanao 2
19. Tagbanua, Isle of Paragua 2
20. Tino, or Zambale, Isle of Luzon 2
21. Batanes, or Vatanes, Isle (of same name) 1
22. Bilaan 1
23. Bisaya-montes, Isle of Mindanao 1
24. Calamiano 1
25. Egongot, or Ilongote, Isle of Luzon 1
26. Samal 1
27. Tagacaolo 1

This bibliography, which we rightly may term wealthy in its two thousand six hundred and ninety-seven titles [2] of numbered pieces of literature, besides being based largely on the author's own choice collection of Philippina, cites also fourteen other bibliographies of that archipelago. [3]

In his own list of Philippine languages, or branch-tongues, of this quarter of Malaysia, in all (as he gives them) thirty-seven in number, some are mentioned, that, except in a broad sense, will not easily be recognized as members of the distinctively Philippine family; such as Sanscrit, Chinese, Japanese, Javanese, Nahuatl of Central America, along with Kanaka or Ponape, [4] Chamorro and Malgacho, or Malagasy, as we more familiarly style it, three dialects spoken in lands outside of the Philippine zone,--of Yap, or Guap, in the eastern Carolines, the Marianas, or Ladrones, and Madagascar respectively.

Wherefore, subtracting these nine foreign localized idiom-groups along with Malay (presumably ancestral tongue of the Philippines, as of other western Polynesian languages), though herein many scholars hold that Aeta, or Papuan, is mother, I have reduced the idioms peculiar (in large measure) to that archipelago itself to the number (given ahead)--twenty-seven.

On this question of race and idiom unity Zuniga, whom I cite frequently in this sketch, says that the vocabularies of New Zealand, New Holland, New Guinea, and part of New Hebrides (gathered by Captain Cook) were all easily understood by him through his familiarity with Philippine dialects; that, moreover, from his knowledge of the racial and linguistic characteristics of nearly all South Sea islanders, especially of the peoples from Madagascar to Easter Island, including (he distinctly declares) the natives of the Friendly, or Society Isles, of the Sandwich and Marquesas groups, he was of opinion that aboriginal stock of all, in tongue and blood, including even the natives of Central America, was Aeta, or Papuan, otherwise styled (in the Philippines) Negrito. [5] As far back as the early part of the seventeenth century this same question of race and language identity of the Philippine people was treated by the Jesuit Chirino, of whom we shall say more further on; then later by another Jesuit scholar, at one time provincial superior of his society in the Philippines, Francisco Colin, in his Lavor evangelica, (Madrid, 1663); and by Lorenzo Hervas y Panduro, a linguist of deserved eminence in the world of letters, formerly Jesuit. See his Catalogo (in six quarto vols., Madrid, 1800-1805), and you will learn very much about many strange things, among others, that the theory maintained by the English Wallace, the German Blumentritt, and later ethnologists, as to the identity of these Polynesians--Papuans and Malays--perhaps the only one now held by scholars--is venerably old, by two centuries and more. But really, in view of the apparently irreconcilable opinions of linguists on this topic, further discussion of it seems unprofitable.

As concerns the Philippines themselves, neither have their isles all been numbered, nor their sub-races and branch-idioms classified, except in what we may style a generic scheme.

Back now to our bibliographer. No study in mere humanities, it seems, could be more fascinating to your all-round scholar, and more fruitful especially to anthropologist, than with the guidance of Retana and other like gifted students of Philippina, to enlarge somewhat on this bibliographical theme, since in letters chiefly do men of upright mind find equipment for meditation of spirit, main source of all healthful, sober, intellectual recreation and work.

Our list of Philippina, as you will notice, although given merely in outline, embraces in its sweep across the literary horizon of that quarter of Malaysia many works of recognized merit in the several lines of intellectual energy--of history, archaeology, ethnology, philology and natural philosophy; books, all of them, which, if perchance not masterpieces according to the higher standard of Caucasian scholarship, will yet be acknowledged of much interest, nay, of great value in the inspiration and development of scientific thought.

In this bibliographical skeleton, then, I shall point out those sources of information anent the Philippine Islands, wherein the scholar can best find a general description or history of them, the most trustworthy works on their very varied and multiform language, as well as other topics cognate with these. Hence these sub-sections into which my paper is split: (1) Works of General Information; (2) Authorities on Philippine Dialects; (3) Some Literary Curios among Philippina; (4) Philippine Presses; (5) Introduction of Printing into the Philippines.

First, I name the chief works of reference, [6] of the highest, most authoritative character, bearing on the distinctive peculiarities of the Philippines,--works that will be recognized as serviceable to the general reader and scholar, to him that seeks to learn of the history of that archipelago, of its antiquities, and characteristics of the many tribes that people it,--of their customs, religious beliefs, superstitions and rites; of the fauna, flora, geology of those islands; in brief, of whatever refers to this part of Malaysia. For no matter how much the Malay,--Javan, Bornese, Sumatran, as well as Philippinian--has been civilized--Christianized, so far (as must be conceded) he has not become Caucasian in mind, nor will, nor spirit. He remains as he was, (nor any wonder), wholly Asiatic. Albeit, for three centuries and upwards, taught, ruled, elevated (at times, too, disedified) by white men, the Malay, or brown man, is not, perhaps never will be, employed by Europeans, save in very limited sphere, in wholly subordinate trusts, whether in commerce, trade, or whatsoever other field of human activity.