Chapter IV (2)

[29] Rodrigo de Agandum Moriz (in religion, Fray Rodrigo de San Miguel) was born in Valladolid--or, according to some authorities, in Orio of Guipuzcoa--in 1584, and entered the discalced Augustinian order at the age of fourteen years. Joining the Philippine mission in 1606, he ministered to the natives in various districts of Luzón with great acceptance, employing his poetical talents in teaching the Christian faith to the Indians. In 1614 he went to Spain for more missionaries, returning to the islands in 1617-18. Again voyaging to Europe (1622), he went, via India and Persia, to Rome, where he arrived in 1626. Declining the pope's offer to make him a bishop and patriarch in the Indias, he planned a mission to Chaldea; but he died at Orio, while en route to Madrid, December 26, 1626. He left several manuscript works, mainly historical, among which was _Historia general de las islas accidentales á la Asia adyacentes, llamadas Philipinas_; this was published in _Documentos inéditos para la historia de España_, tomos lxxviii and lxxix (Madrid, 1882), but it was apparently left unfinished by the author, the part that is extant treating mainly of the early explorations by Magalhães and Villalobos, and of the history of the Moluccas.

In the Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla, is the following letter from Felipe IV to a brother of Fray Rodrigo:

"The King. It has been learned in the Council of the Indias that father Fray Rodrigo de San Miguel, a discalced Augustinian religious, who is said to be a brother of your Grace, brought from the Yndias a general history of the Filipinas Islands, compiled with great care, as, in order to write it, he had examined the archives and authentic memoirs of those regions; that it has been lately our Lord's pleasure to take father Fray Rodrigo, who has died in Vizcaya; and that your Grace was given two of his books, especially the above history. And inasmuch as that work would be very important for what is written on the general history of the said islands by order of his Majesty, the matter having been discussed with the father provincial of the said order, in which the latter has declared that the said history is in possession of your Grace; the Council has directed me to write to your Grace, in its name, that it would be greatly to the service of his Majesty for your Grace to send me the said history for the said purpose. And if your Grace wish remuneration for it, or that it be returned after having used it for the said purpose, your Grace will advise me of what you desire in this matter, so that those gentlemen may know it, and so that the advisable measures may be taken. May God preserve your Grace, as I desire. Madrid, May seventeen, one thousand six hundred and twenty-seven.

_Antonio Gonzalez de Legardo_

On the receipt of this letter, I beg your Grace to advise me immediately, for the Council anxiously awaits a reply because of the history." (_Pressmark_: "est. 139, caj. 1, leg. 15.")

[30] Andrés del Espíritu Santo was born at Valladolid in 1585, and made his profession at Portillo in 1601. Entering the Philippine mission, he began his labors with the natives in the province of Zambales, where he was very successful. In 1609, and again in 1615, he was chosen vicar-provincial. Afterward going to Spain for more missionaries, he returned to the islands in 1622, and four years later became provincial, as again in 1632. The rest of his life was spent at Manila, where he died in 1658.

[31] A city between Vera Cruz and Mexico City, more commonly known as Puebla; it was founded about 1530, and became the seat of the diocese in 1550, and soon was a flourishing agricultural and manufacturing center.

[32] _Instituto_: constitution, or rules of observance, adopted by the order.

[33] "Now I shall die happy."

[34] Luís de Jesús states (_Historia_, p. 79) that this name is a corruption of Manavilis.

[35] Cf. the accounts by Loarca (_Vol_. V of this series) and Plasencia (_Vol_. VII).

[36] This tree (_Mangifera altísima_) resembles the mango, but its fruit is much smaller. The tree grows to a greater height than the mango. The fruit is eaten by the natives, being used with vinegar. See Blanco's _Flora_.

[37] "Behold the cross of the Lord. Flee, ye adverse ones. The lion of Judah is conqueror."

[38] Antonio de San Agustin was born in Manila, the son of Francisco de las Misas, and made his profession in the Recollect convent there, in December, 1614. He was a minister in various places, and had been prior of several convents. In 1658, while returning from an official visit to the Calamianes Islands, he was captured by Moros, who slew him. At the time of his death he was sixty-six years old.

[39] The first father named above was afflicted by a grievous plague of vermin [_chinches_--literally, "bedbugs"], seemingly after a request that he might suffer his purgatory on earth. At the time of his death, "raising his voice and saying, _In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum_, he expired, without making another movement. Immediately the _chinches_ disappeared and not one could be found, although one could gather than by handfuls before, as they say."

[40] The _Congregatio de Propaganda Fide_, one of the "sacred congregations" of the Catholic Church, was founded in 1622, by Pope Gregory XV, conferring upon it most ample powers for the propagation of the faith, and especially for the superintendence of missions in countries where heretics or infidels had to be evangelized. The jurisdiction proper of the congregation extends to all territories which are governed _more missionum_, or as missionary countries--not by the bishops of the regular hierarchy, but by prefects and vicars apostolic. It has, moreover, legislative and judicial power. See Hoffmanns' _Catholic Directory_, 1896, p. 48.

[41] The status of a tertiary, or "member of the third order," was originated by St. Francis of Assisi, after the foundation of his own order, and that of the Minorite nuns who lived under a rule prescribed by him. In 1221 he instituted a third order, the members of which, men and women, should be bound by rule to more unworldliness of life, pious devotion, and works of mercy than those of ordinary persons living in the world. He called them "Brothers and Sisters of Penance." They had to take a year's novitiate, and a simple vow to observe the rule. Many tertiaries, in course of time, desired to take solemn vows and live in community, while still conforming to the rule of the Third Order; thus arose various congregations of tertiary monks and nuns. Other religious orders had their Third Order; that of the Augustinians was established at the beginning of the fifteenth century. (Addis and Arnold's _Catholic Dictionary_, p. 792.)

[42] Following are translations of the title-pages of this work, of which facsimiles are here presented:

_Engraved title-page_: "General History of the discalced religious of the Order of the hermits of the great father and doctor of the Church, St. Augustine, of the congregation of España and of the Indias. To the most excellent duke of Ixar count of Salinas. By Father Fray Luis de Jesus son of the same congregation, and its chronicler. Volume second. From the year M.DC.L. Divided into three decades. Engraved by Pedro a Villafranca royal engraver, Madrid. 1663."

_Printed title-page:_ "General History of the discalced religious of the Order of the hermits of the great father and doctor of the Church, St. Augustine, of the congregation of España and of the Indias. By Father Fray Luis de Jesus, son of the same congregation, pensioned lecturer, general chronicler, and acting provincial of Castilla the old and the new. Dedicated to the most excellent Señor Don Jayme Francisco de Hijar Silva Sarmiento, etc., protector of our sacred Reform convent. Volume second. Divided into three decades, from the year twenty-one to that of fifty. With privilege. In Madrid: Printed by Lucas Antonio de Bedmar, printer of the kingdom. Year of 1681."

[43] Delgado in his _Historia_, pp. 813-816, describes this bird. _Tabón_, he says, is a word that signifies in the Pintados "to hide by covering, or to cover by concealing it with earth." When the chick first appears its plumage is white and gray. Its wings are used at first for aid in running rather than in flying. The bird lives mainly on fish, which it catches in the sea. The eggs, which are very nutritious, are eaten with gusto by the natives.

[44] This is the flying lemur (_Galeopithecus philippinensis_; called _káguang_ or _caguán_ by the Visayans), an animal belonging to the Quadrumana, and the Prosimidæ (semi-apes). Alfred R. Wallace found it in Sumatra, Borneo, and Singapore; see his description of it in _Malay Archipelago_ (New York, 1869), pp. 145, 146. Jagor found it in Sámar--_Travels in the Philippines_ (English translation, London, 1875), pp. 242-244. See also Delgado's description (_Historia_, p. 845). This lemur has, like the flying squirrel, a volucral membrane, which not only covers all its limbs but reaches to its tail; and thus the creature glides from tree to tree. This explains the writer's allusion to it as a bird.

[45] The creature thus described is the tarsier (_Tarsius spectrum_), belonging to the same class (semi-apes) as the lemur, _ante._ Jagor (_ut supra_, p. 252) was told in Luzón that it could be found only in Samar, and that it lived exclusively on charcoal--of course, an erroneous notion. In Samar it was called _mago_ or _macauco._ The _Report_ of U.S. Philippine Commission for 1900 (iii, p. 311) mentions several Islands as its habitat, and the belief of the natives that it lives on charcoal. Delgado cites the same notion (_Historia_, p. 875); he supposes the tarsier to be a sort of wild cat.

[46] The gecko (_Gecko verticillatus_), a reptile allied to the lizard. Two species of this animal in the Philippines frequent the houses: one very small, which feeds on mosquitoes, flies, and other pests, and works noiselessly; the other larger (up to eight inches long) with a heavy body and a loud call. The latter is, to judge from Delgado's description (_Historia_,p. 885) the one mentioned in our text.

[47] The cuttlefish, or octopus (_Sepia octopus_).

[48] This was in 1609, and the fort erected was that of Tandag; it was on a bay on the northeast coast of Surígao province, Mindanao.

[49] Apparently the same as the present Gigáquit, a town an the northeast coast of the province of Surígao.

[50] Juan de la Madre de Dios assumed the habit of the discalced Augustinians at Valladolid, making his profession in 1615. With eight other missionaries, he arrived at Manila in 1620; and some two years later he entered the Mindanao mission. His ministry there was short; for toward the end of 1623 he was slain by a fierce Moro chief whom he had rebuked for his acts of injustice and tyranny. See sketches of his life, in Luis de Jesús's _Historia_, pp. 53-55; and _Provincia de S. Nicolas de Tolentino_, pp. 308, 309.

[51] Apparently referring to the missions founded by the Jesuits, some years before, in northern Mindanao; see _Vol_. XIII, pp. 48, 80. Fuller accounts of these missions are given in Combés's _Historia de Mindanao_, which will be presented in later volumes of this series.

[52] Situated in central Surigao, on a chain of lakes and rivers from which issues the Butúan River, flowing northward into the bay of same name.

[53] See Delgado's account of the various kinds of bees in the Philippines (_Historia_, pp. 848-850).

[54] The pangolin or _Manis_, commonly known as ant-eater. The preceding sentence probably refers to the flying lemur (note 44, _ante_.)

[55] Cf. account of the weapons used by the Mindanaos, given by Retana and Pastells in their edition of Combés's _Historia de Mindanao_, cols. 782 and 783. Also cf. weapons of North American Indians, as described in _Jesuit Relations_--see Index, vol. lxxii, pp. 337, 338.

[56] Referring to Sìargao Island, off northeast coast of Mindanao; about twenty-one miles long and fourteen wide.

[57] _Cimarrón_ is an American word meaning "wild" or "unruly," and is also applied to a runaway slave. O.T. Mason, in his translation of Blumentritt's _Native Tribes of the Philippines_ (Washington, 1901), says (p. 536) that "this characterization is given to heathen tribes of most varied affiliation, living without attachment and in poverty, chiefly posterity of the Remontados." Buzeta and Bravo (_Diccionario_) say that these people are "collections or tribes of infidels known by this name in the island of Luzón and others of the archipelago. There is at present a tribe living in the dense forests of the mountain Isaroc in the province of Camarines Sur. There are also some collections of these and some hostiles in the mountains of the island and province of Samar. They are descendants of the Negrito race, who seem to become differentiated from their own species because of their extraordinarily wild and mountainous life." Hence the name seems to have been given these people in Mindanao simply to distinguish them as especially barbarous and difficult to establish relations among. They were probably one of the numerous tribes of Negritos such as inhabit Mindanao today.

[58] In a brief description of the Philippine Islands which occurs in a geographical work by the Chinese writer Chao-Yu-Kua (who flourished in the thirteenth century)--which account will appear later in this series--is an interesting mention of "nests" built in trees by the Aetas or Negritos, who live therein in single families. Professor Friedrich Ratzel (_History of Mankind_, Butler's translation, London and New York, 1896) says (i, p. 111) that the Battaks in Sumatra, and many Melanesians lived in trees; and on p. 422, he says: "Among the Battaks safe dwelling-places are also found at the point where a tree-stem forks or throws off branches; the central shoot is lopped off, and the surrounding branches remain." Continuing he speaks of the huts built by the Ilongotes of Luzón on tree stems, which are made from leaves of the nipa-palm and bamboo. "The Orang-Sakei and the Lubus of Sumatra also live to some extent in trees" (p. 423). There are also tree-dwellers in Africa and India.

[59] "In older works are so named [Caragas] the warlike and Christian inhabitants of the localities subdued by the Spaniards on the east coast of Mindanao, and, indeed, after their principal city, Caraga. It has been called, if not a peculiar language, a Visaya dialect, while now only Visaya (near Manobo and Mandaya) is spoken, and an especial Caraga nation is no longer known." (Blumentritt's "Native Tribes of the Philippines," in _Smithsonian Report_, 1899, p. 535.)

[60] The title-pages of La Concepción's fourteen volumes show more or less difference in their wording. Following is a translation of the title of vol. iv, a facsimile of which is here presented: "General history of Philipinas: temporal and spiritual conquests of these Spanish dominions, their establishment, progress, and decadence; comprehending the empires, kingdoms, and provinces of islands and continents with which there has been communication and commerce by immediate coincidences, with general notices regarding geography, hydrography, natural history, politics, customs, and religions, in which so universal a title should be interested. By father Fray Juan de la Concepcion, discalced Augustinian Recollect, pensioned lecturer, ex-provincial, synodal examiner of the archbishopric of Manila, and chronicler of his province of San Nicolas of the Philipinas islands. Volume IV. With permission of the superiors. At Manila, in the printing office of the royal and conciliar seminary of San Carlos; printed by Agustin de la Rosa y Balagtas. Year of 1788."

[61] A term applied to the gun-room on a ship, which was considered as under the protection of St. Barbara.

[62] The Armenian church was founded by St. Gregory, who was consecrated bishop of Armenia in the year 302 A.D. Owing to a misunderstanding, this church refused to accept the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon (451 A.D.) regarding certain questions of heresies, which led to its gradual separation from the Greek church. In the middle of the fifteenth century arose dissensions, which resulted in a schism; these were mainly occasioned by Roman Catholic missionaries who endeavored to proselytize the Armenians to the doctrine, liturgy, and ceremonies of the Roman church, to which they gained many adherents. This led to dissensions and persecutions, which continued until, in the middle of the eighteenth century, the Armenian patriarch secured the intervention of Peter the Great, and the protection of the Russian church, under which that of Armenia has since remained.

[63] The Order of the Carmelites was founded by a crusader named Berthold, in the middle of the twelfth century. Some time after becoming a monk in Calabria he went to Mount Carmel, where he was joined by various other hermits living there in solitude. They adopted the rule of life framed for them by Albert, patriarch of Jerusalem, which consisted of sixteen articles. These forbade the possession of property; ordered that each hermit should live in a cell by himself; interdicted meat; recommended manual labor and silence; and imposed a strict fast from the exaltation of the cross to Easter, Sundays being excepted. The hermits were compelled to abandon Mount Carmel by the advance of the Mahomedan power, and established themselves in Cyprus, and other places. In Europe they were compelled to live in common and mitigate their rule, and they became known as one of the mendicant orders. In England, where they became very numerous, they were called the "White Friars." To St. Simon Stock, the first general, the Virgin is said to have shown the scapular in a vision. The order became divided into two branches, according to whether they observed the strict or the mitigated rule, being designated as Observatines and Conventuals. The Carmelite nuns were first instituted by John Soreth, general of the order in the fifteenth century. See Addis and Arnold's _Catholic Dictionary_, pp. 120-122.

[64] Gregorio de Santa Catalina, who had gone to Rome with twelve religious to urge the support of the pope for the Recollects.

[65] "Fray Miguel de Santa Maria, with his seven companions, arrived at Tandág in the year 1622" (_Provincia de S. Nicolás de Tolentino_, p. 276).

[66] A letter dated May 22, 1904, from father Fray Eduardo Navarro, O.S.A., Valladolid, Spain, who spent many years in the Philippines, thus defines several terms as used in the islands. _Pueblo_ ["town" or "village"] is to be understood in its usual significance. But beside the pueblo proper, where are established the church, parochial house, and city hall, all the pueblos have, at a greater or less distance, groups of a greater or less number of houses. If they belong to Christians, they are called barrios ["suburbs"], and have a distinctive name; if of infidels, they are called rancherías ["a collection of huts"] of such and such a chief.

[67] _i.e._, "at the entrance to the church;" said of marriages duly performed with church rites.

[68] "Strictly speaking, then, the work of the redemption of those islanders [in Mindanao] belongs to the Jesuits and the Recollects. The latter commenced their labors by virtue of an arrangement made in the year 1622, by the bishop of Cebú, Very Reverend Father Fray Pedro de Arce--agreed upon with the captain-general of the archipelago, who was then the famous Don Alonso Fajardo de Tenza. Their first enterprises were on the northern and eastern coasts of Mindanao, as well as in the adjacent islets of Dinagat, Camiguin, and Siargao. In the year 1631, the ninth of their evangelizing work, the Recollect fathers suffered painful but glorious losses; for six of those missionaries were martyred by the inhabitants of the island." (Retana and Pastells, in their edition of Combés's _Historia de Mindanao_, col. 788.)

[69] River and pueblo of same name in the province of Misamis, in northern Mindanao; the river falls into the bay of Macajalar.

[70] A point on the northern coast of Misamis province.

[71] Referring to Leo VI, Emperor of the East, styled "the Philosopher" and "the Wise;" he occupied the throne of Constantinople from 886 to 911 A.D. He wrote several books, among which is a treatise on military tactics, which was published by J. Meursius, at Leyden, in 1612.

[72] The islands in the Calamianes and Cuyos groups number one hundred and forty-five that are charted, besides nearly sixty that are uncharted. See descriptions of these groups in _U. S. Gazetteer of Philippine Islands_, pp. 412-415, 480-484. The names Calamian and Busuañga are now applied to separate islands, the largest, of the Calamianes group.

[73] The bird here referred to (_Collocalia troglodites_) is a specie of swift; the nests, composed of a gelatinous secretion from the salivary glands in the mouths of the birds, sell at high price almost their weight in gold, when fresh and clean. The best nests are obtained on the precipitous sides of the Peñon de Coron, between Culion and Busuanga, where the natives gather them at no little personal risk. The nests are known to commerce as _salangana_. (_U. S. Gazetteer of Philippine Islands_, pp. 170, 482.)

Delgado says (_Hist. de Filipinas_, p. 821) that the material used by the bird is a species of seaweed, called _ñgoso_, or another called _lano_--and not, as Colin and San Antonio would have it, the foam of the sea. See _ut supra_, pp. 727, 728, and 822.

See also Retana's note in his edition of Zúñiga's _Estadismo_, ii, pp. 430*, 431*.

[74] The balate--also known as "sea slug," "sea cucumber," "beche de mer," and commercially as "trepang"--is a slug (_Holothuria edulis_) used as food in the Eastern Archipelago and in China, in which country it is regarded as a delicacy by the wealthy classes, and brings from seven to fifty cents a pound in the markets. (See _U. S. Gazetteer of Philippine Islands_, pp. 482, 483.) Delgado, writing in 1754, says (p. 935) that in Manila the dried balate was usually worth thirty-five to forty (or even more) silver pesos a pico (or pecul; equivalent, in the Philippines, to 137.9 U.S. pounds).

[75] "Better known as Peñon de Corón ("Crown Peak"); a small, rocky island off the eastern end of Busuañga Island, famous for the fine quality of the edible bird's-nests found there.

[76] Apparently the present Calamián island is here referred to; its chief town is Culion.

[77] Now known as Palawan; its northern part forms the province of Paragua, which includes many dependent islands lying near it.

[78] "In general it may be said that the Philippines politically speaking, and the Philippines zoologically speaking, are not identical areas, for Balabac, Palawan, and the Calamianes Islands are strongly characterized by the presence of numerous Bornean forms which are conspicuously absent throughout the remaining islands of the archipelago. Although the Philippines are commonly held to form an eastern extension of the Indo-Malayan subregion, it should not be forgotten that at least among the birds and mammals there is a large amount of specialization in the islands to the eastward of the Balabac-Palawan-Calamianes group.... The Philippines are very poor in mammals.... They are undoubtedly well adapted to a large and diversified mammalian fauna, and the only plausible explanation of the scarcity of forms is to suppose either that they have never been connected with Borneo and the Asiatic continent or that, if at one time connected, they have since been subjected to such subsidence as to wipe out the greater part of their mammalian fauna." (U.S. Philippine Commission's _Report_, 1900, iii, p. 307.)

[79] This is an error on the part of La Concepción; Fray Rodrigo went to Europe in 1622, but died there in 1626. The missions of Mindanao and Paragua were begun by Recollects who arrived at Manila in 1620 and 1622, and continued by missionaries who came in 1627 and 1637.