Chapter XI: Appendix (2)
[12] For a brief account of this Society's work, see note on "Agriculture" at end of VOL. LII.
[13] An interesting account of this event is furnished in a letter by Peter Dobell, then Russian consul in the Philippines, which is preserved in the New York Public Library; it is printed in the Bulletin of that institution for June, 1903, at pp. 198-200. Dobell went to Macao for medical treatment in July, 1820, and this letter was written from that city, on November 28 of that year. He thus writes: "I arrived with my wife and daughter at Manilla last March, was received with great apparent attention, politeness & hospitality. After living there a couple of months, however, I perceived that there existed a vast deal of jealousy and envy, against all strangers, and particularly those who resided or intended to form establishments in the country. Those ignorant people could not divest themselves of this feeling, even toward those, whose capitals, talents and industry, were directed to the most laudable pursuits, and promised to produce great public as well as private advantages to the colony. At this crisis several french ships were in the port, one or two Americans and a English ship from Bengal. In the French ships, had arrived a naturalist sent out by the government to make collections, and some persons, who intended to remain in the Philippines to cultivate sugar, cotton &c. &c. In the month of July last, I discovered that I had in my travels, contracted a disease, called by the Doctr Hydrocele and becoming very troublesome to me, I determined as there are no good surgeons in Manilla to pay a short visit to Macao with my family & return to my post, as soon as circumstances would permit, after the operation. This I found, I could do the more conveniently, as my Nephew, a fine young Man of 23 years, had joined me at my arrival and I left him, in full charge of my office &c and departed. This envious disposition, on the part of the Spaniards, increased daily, against the Strangers, until an opportunity presented itself of gratifying their malignant hatred, in the most cruel & bloody manner & without themselves appearing to have any thing to do in the business. It is necessary first to tell you, that the new constitution, had been received during the prevalence of this feeling, giving extensive privileges & liberal encouragement to foreigners, who might think proper to settle in the Philippines & rendering the natives as free & equal, in rights, etc. as their former masters. This certainly made them a little unruly, but, if not secretly instigated, it would never have induced them to commit a crime, that makes humanity shudder. The ship from Bengal, was the Merope Captain Nichols and it was supposed she had brot into the colony the epidemic, that has ravaged all India, this year, under the name of the 'Cholera Morbus.' It made its appearance, in the beginning of October last, carrying off great numbers of the Indians every day. The humane French & other Strangers, who beheld these miserable wretches, dying around them without any medical aid, freely administered what medicines they had, and were actively & daily employed, in endeavoring to alleviate; the distress & cure the complaints of all those, who lived within the sphere of their exertions. This also became, a cause of jealousy and hatred and the villains, began immediately to exasperate the Indians by saying, 'this poisonous disease, was introduced by the French & the other strangers, they have poisoned even the waters, and they administer poison to the sick, purposely to exterpate the whole race of Tagalians.' The ferocious Indians wanted nothing farther to excite them to deeds of blood & plunder. On the 9th of October about 10 or 11 in the morning they collected, to the number of about 3,000 Men armed with pikes knives and bludgeons and proceeded coolly and deliberately to plunder and Massacre all the Strangers on whom they could lay their hands! I have not time to give you the details of this shocking business, but you will certainly read them in the gazettes as I have sent both to England and Russia very full accounts for publication. Suffice it now to say that the Governor & the authorities were vainly implored for assistance. They came, it is true, with the troops, but it was only to behold with sang froid the horrid spectacle. Not a musket was fired to save the lives of those unfortunate and defenceless strangers, who to the number of 39 were plundered & cruelly massacred; some of them were so cut up & mangled it was impossible to recognize them. As the most of them were Roman Catholics, they were all collected and thrown into a hole together without the shadow of a ceremony or a stone to mark their graves! What is worse, the last accts from there down to the 9th of November mention that not a spanish life was lost, nor has a single native as yet suffered punishment for this most atrocious & horrible deed. My house was attacked & pillaged, my Nephew & a Mr Prince of Boston, who lived with him, made prisonners, and, after being near two days in the hands of the Indians, suffering the most abominable treatment, they luckily escaped Death. Eighty five Chinese & 11 English seamen were also plundered & assassinated. I have been obliged to represent this affair in its full suit of Black to my Government and have at the same time declared my intention of going back to Siberia, next April, where I shall await the orders of His Imperial Majesty.... I leave the place & those miscreants to themselves, from the conviction, that its commerce is ruined forever. In the first place they held their productions too high & paid too low for European commodities, so that, when the allowance of the half duties granted to the importers of sugars shall cease, no french ships will visit the Philippines to pay from 7 to 9 Dollars a pecul for Sugars. The Cadmus, you say will make money. If she does, she will I fancy be the only American ship that profits by its trade to Manilla. All those, who came out last year lost money on the sales of their cargoes, &, from what we hear of prices in America, and on the Continent, they must lose by the returns. But what will give the death blow to the prosperity of the Philippines, is the late horrible massacre. All those french and other foreigners, who were anxious to have established themselves in commerce or on estates in the country, are now frightened off and certainly no one will find himself, confident enough to trust to a Government, which could permit such a massacre to take place, immediately under its eyes, when it had 5,000 men in arms, ready at a minutes notice to disperse the Mob. Thus situated, Manilla offers no chance of profit or Speculation; and I confess, however my hopes and wishes may have been disappointed, I turn from them with disgust & horror, better pleased to be ordered to live, in some remote corner of Siberia, on black bread & salt, than roll in wealth, amidst such an inhuman, illiberal and unchristianlike race of Men.... I must close my letter by informing you that the Captain General has refused all the applications for indemnification, from those who have been plundered; so that as yet, neither the punishment due to the assassins has been inflicted, nor redress made to the unfortunate people who were robbed."
By the kindness of James A. LeRoy, the Editors have in their hands a copy (furnished by Dr. Pardo de Tavera from the original in his possession) of a decree issued by Governor Folgueras (dated at Manila, October 20, 1820), addressed "to the natives of the Filipinas Islands, and especially to those of the district of Tondo," in which he rebukes them severely for thus violating the law of nations, under the influence of "a general frenzy," and "led astray and infuriated by certain malicious persons." He characterizes their belief that the strangers had poisoned the waters as a foolish and absurd notion, which "the mountain Negritos or the Moros of Joló and Mindanao would be ashamed to entertain;" and reminds them that the strangers whom they have plundered and slain were not only friends and brethren, but the very persons on whom the prosperity of the islands must depend, since they supplied a market for the produce of the country. He then presents the report which has been made by an official whom the governor had specially appointed (October 13) to investigate this idea of the foreigners' crime, which is to the following effect: "As the evidence of guilt [cuerpo de delito, the same as the Latin corpus delicti] in the poisoning which is charged, the Indians have brought to us, among the spoils which they plundered from the houses of the Frenchmen, various animals of different forms, and among them a serpent, of quite the usual size, one of those which they call 'house-snakes,' in a dissected state; others, with some little shellfish, preserved in spirits of wine, in a crystal flask; in another, two granos of muriatic baryte; a quantity of Peruvian bark, which in my opinion would weigh about an arroba and a half; and a box of sheet-tin about a vara long, one-fourth as wide, and six dedos thick, in which also was found a mass of insects, but already decaying; and finally, in the house of a woman who had been accused of being an agent of the French for the alleged poisoning, a little package of some black powders in China paper [i.e., rice paper]." The official states that these animal specimens have evidently "no other object than to enrich cabinets of natural history," and could not in any way have been used for injuring human beings. The muriatic baryte was for use in analyzing mineral waters, and was, moreover, useful in various diseases. The Peruvian bark was, as all might know, a useful medicine and had often been helpful in checking the cholera itself. The black powders, it was also decided, were also of medicinal value; and the entire story is characterized as a fiction and delusion. The official regrets that it was believed by so many persons who should have known better than to accept so gross an error; "but it is certain that they did, and, among them, many of the clergy; and with this the delusion attained such power that it has caused the very scandalous deeds which all good persons lament; for it is certain that there is no better way of propagating an error than for persons of authority to adopt it. There is no doubt, it appears, that this foolish idea of poisoning had its origin in the ignorance of the Indians; but there is as little doubt that malicious persons, imposing upon this folly and lack of knowledge in the Indians, incited them to perpetrate the assassinations and robberies of the disastrous days, October 9 and 10." He adds that one of the books brought to him by the Indians, which they had taken from the house of the French naturalist, was filled with sketches of fishes, mollusks, and birds peculiar to the country, which plainly showed that he was only making zoological observations. In view of all these things, Folgueras calls upon the natives to repent of their sin, to surrender to the authorities the instigators of the tumult, to restore to the plundered foreigners what had been stolen from them, and to denounce the authors of the murders, that justice might be done to these evil persons. These exhortations are especially addressed to the inhabitants of Binondo, "which has been the theatre of the most horrible tragedy, and has covered itself with blood and ignominy." This decree is published by Dr. Pardo de Tavera, from the original printed edition, in his Biblioteca filipina, pp. 45-47.
[14] In his scarce third volume of the Informe, Mas says that the governor, either wittingly or unwittingly, did well in not sending out the soldiers, who were natives, until the fury of the people had spent itself; as otherwise all discipline might easily have been lost, and the soldiers have joined with their kindred in the massacre.
[15] Our author gives the name of this periodical incorrectly; it should be El Noticioso Filipino--see Retana's Periodismo filipino, appendix ii (pp. 561, 563). It was apparently begun on July 29, 1821; it was issued on Sundays. Its publication ceased before November 1 of that year. This information was furnished to Retana by Pardo de Tavera; he also supplied accurate data for La Filantropia (pp. 561-563), which began on September 1, 1821; it seems to have ceased publication in 1822. El Ramillete Patriótico is known only by an allusion in one of the numbers of Filantropia, which speaks of the former as having been "silenced" (presumably by the authorities). Pedro Torres y Lanzas gives (p. 565) a description of Nos. 27-37 (March 16-May 25, 1822) of Filantropia.
[16] Regarding this man and his works, see Retana's El precursor de la político redentorista (Madrid, 1894); it is specially devoted to Varela's Parnaso filipino (Sampaloc, 1814). Retana says of him: "It is unquestionable that his writings in prose and verse encouraged among the Indians the wrong interpretation which was given to the Constitution of 1812, from which resulted the series of insurrections, fortunately isolated, which took place in Filipinas."
[17] This publication was begun in January, 1824, and continued until May, 1833; at first two hundred and fifty copies were printed. It was finally obliged to suspend publication, for lack of funds. See Retana's Periodismo filipino, pp. 10-14, and 566; at the latter place, Torres y Lanzas describes a file of Nos. 49-109 (lacking two numbers) of this publication, which is presumably preserved in the Archivo general at Sevilla.
[18] In 1823 the pirates captured the provincial of the Recollects, with one of his friars; and that order had to furnish 10,000 pesos for their ransom. (Montero y Vidal, Hist. de Filipinas, ii, p. 482.)
[19] General Ricafort published a relation of this enterprise, dated at Manila, December 30, 1829; he describes the island, presents an historical sketch of the insurrection in Bohol since 1744 and the efforts to quell it, and at the end furnishes a tabulated statement of the expeditions sent by his orders, with number of men, expenditures, etc., and of their results--a statement signed by Captain Manuel Sanz, the leader of the expedition, and dated at Talibon, August 31, 1829; to this is added the signed statement by the parish curas of Bohol that the numbers of insurgents who have been conquered or have submitted to the Spanish rule agree with their respective registers. According to this account, the number of insurgents reduced or submitted was 19,420; to this must be added 98 "banished for their rebellious dispositions," and 395 "obstinate persons who died at the hands of the troops," and an unknown ("for lack of information") number of those killed in the year 1827 and on March 28 of 1828, and more than 3,000 souls who have fled to other provinces. Some of the troops were Spaniards from Manila, but the main part of the force was composed of Indians from Bohol and Cebú, to the number of 5,970 and 54 respectively; 294 of the former and 32 of the latter deserted the ranks, and 4,977 Boholans and 22 Cebuans were at the end disbanded, as being on the sick list; and very few were either killed or wounded in the campaign. The reduced insurgents were formed into the following new villages: Catigbian, with 1,967 souls; Batuanan, with 6,266 souls; Cabulao, with 790; Balilijan, with 2,100; and Vilar, with 930. In other villages were distributed the remaining insurgents.
[20] "The Chinese refused to accept their reduction into villages; more than eight hundred elected to return to their own country; four hundred odd were assigned to labor on the public works, as being insolvent; and about a thousand fled to the mountains in order to elude payment and punishment. The intendant, in view of the difficulty in collecting [their] taxes, explained to the government the expediency of modifying the enactment; and this was done in 1834." (Note by Montero y Vidal.)
[21] These funds were chiefly the obras pías which had been administered by the Jesuit order in Filipinas up to their expulsion from the islands; at that time, nearly half of these foundations were extinguished by the authorities, and such moneys as remained in them were covered into the royal treasury. Forty-five of the Jesuit obras pías were thus left, which were administered by the government in the following manner: The capital was divided (as had long been the custom of all the orders in Filipinas in administering obras pías) into three parts; one of these was invested in the commerce of Acapulco, another in that of the Coromandel Coast and China, and the other third remained on deposit as a reserve to make good any losses in the amounts invested. Much light is thrown on the management of these funds by the Jesuits, in the official report made (June 23, 1797), in pursuit of a command from the Spanish government, by Angel de la Fuente, the chief of the Bureau of Secular Revenues [Contaduría de Temporalidades] at Manila; the original MS. of this is in the possession of Edward K. Ayer, Chicago. Fuente examined the account-books which the Jesuits had kept of these funds, and found them full of confusion, discrepancies, and omissions; but after comparing and verifying them so far as he could, he made a list of them, with statement of their origin, amount, and application. He found that in seventeen of these funds there was no evidence that the money had been applied as directed by the donors, and only partial indications of this in fifteen others. He reported that many of these obras pías had been contributed for the advantage and benefit of the Jesuits themselves, and therefore, since that order had been suppressed, the funds might now justly be applied to any desirable pious purpose. To this end, he recommended that nineteen of the funds be placed in charge of the diocesan authorities, and twelve others used by the government for specified purposes, and that the rest be covered into the royal treasury.
[22] "In order to give aid to the widow of Torres, and pay the expenses of her voyage to España, a subscription was raised which produced 12,000 pesos; but we note that the promoter of this married the widow, and they returned to the Peninsula together." (Note by Montero y Vidal.)
[23] The "pillar dollar" was so called from the pillars on the reverse of the coin, which represent the pillars of Hercules, or the Straits of Gibraltar; this device was characteristic of the Spanish-American coinage. This dollar was the peso duro (or "hard dollar"), of eight reals; and its half, quarter, eighth, sixteenth, and thirty-second parts were represented by smaller coins. The greater part of the supply of pillar dollars were made in Mexico; but this coinage ceased in 1822. In the Peninsula, the coins were the dollar--formerly of ten reals, but now of twenty reals vellón--the half, the peseta or pistareen (which is one-fifth of the dollar, or four reals vellón), and the half and the quarter pistareen. After the Peninsular revolution of 1821, pillar dollars were struck for a short time at Madrid, but these are easily distinguishable from the true pillar dollar. In 1810-16, silver coins were used in Brazil, which were only the Spanish dollar, softened by annealing, and then restamped; the pillars may be distinguished underneath this surface, by close inspection. See Eckfeldt and DuBois, Manual of Gold and Silver Coins (Philadelphia, 1842), pp. 33, 77, 119, 122, See also chapter on Spanish coinage, especially that called "vellón," in Lea's Inquisition in Spain (New York, 1906-07), i, pp. 560 et seq.; this latter, although debased, was the standard of value until 1871, when it was replaced by the decimal system.
[24] "According to a memorial published by Don Francisco Enríquez on leaving his office, there were at that time in the funds [of his department] a surplus of 1,000,000 pesos, and in the storehouses over 275,000 bales of tobacco, the value of which exceeded 4,000,000 hard dollars." (Note by Montero y Vidal.)
[25] Hangers-on of the palace at Manila tried to throw on Galvey the blame for this failure; but Montero y Vidal cites Galvey's diary, to show that he had to contend with overwhelming difficulties, inadequate supplies and lack of proper facilities, and the insalubrity of the country. He stated therein that he had made "forty-five expeditions into the hill-country, and had received therein four wounds, two of which were mortal." He died in 1839.
[26] Royal decrees of 1835 and 1836 suppressed the Jesuit order throughout the Spanish empire; all the religious communities and colleges of men (excepting the colleges of missionaries for Asia, the clergy of the Escuelas Pías and the hospital convents of St. John of God), and the houses of the military orders; and all the beaterios whose inmates were not devoted to educational or hospital labors.
[27] "In Filipinas the peseta is worth only 32 cuartos." (Vidal y Soler, Viajes por Jagor, p. 227; published in 1874.)
[28] Soon after his return to Spain he published a book (Cádiz, 1839) relating his experiences as governor of Filipinas.
[29] Camba's wife died, three months after their arrival at Manila; and at her funeral certain military honors were paid her, as provided in the regulations of affairs in the Indias, and these were promptly approved by the home government. Camba's enemies, however, accused him at Madrid of having had the same honors paid to his wife as were customary with royal persons; and, at the time, the artillery officials demanded from him pay for the powder used on that occasion. (Note by Montero y Vidal.)
[30] In conjunction with the Audiencia, he commissioned a magistrate, Francisco Otín y Duazo, to draw up new "Ordinances of good government," in 1838. (Montero y Vidal, ii, p. 360.)
[31] Montero y Vidal says (iii, p. 21): "On March 21, 1840, the Economic Society of Friends of the Country made a grant of 500 pesos to Father Blanco for the expenses of printing and publishing the Flora which bears his name." In 1845 a second edition appeared, corrected and enlarged by the author himself; and a third edition was issued (1877-80) at the cost of the Augustinian order. This last was in four volumes, a limited edition, with an atlas (in two volumes) containing 478 colored plates; it also included a previously unpublished MS. on Philippine botany, written late in the sixteenth century, and an appendix prepared by the editors of Blanco (Fathers Andrés Naves and Celestino Fernández-Villar) in which they endeavored to coördinate Blanco's species with those of other authors and to enumerate all the species of Philippine plants then known. See an account of Blanco's work and that of his later editors, with estimate of the scientific value of both, in Review of the Identifications of Species Described in Blanco's "Flora" (Manila, 1905), by Elmer D. Merrill, botanist of the Bureau of Government Laboratories at Manila.
[32] In Retana's Periodismo filipino (pp. 566, 567) Torres y Lanzas describes some copies of this periodical, dated October 5-November 9, 1839, and January 23-February 6, 1841; he cites a letter by Urréjola to show that Precios corrientes was published weekly, beginning July 6, 1839, by private enterprise.
[33] By a later royal decree, the fiscal was to settle any case of disagreement between the two censors, and any books seized by the authorities should be only sent back to the shipper, and not kept by them--the archbishop having demanded that confiscated books should be surrendered to him. (Note by Montero y Vidal.)
[34] The full title of this book is as follows: Remarks on the Phillippine Islands, and on their capital Manila. 1819 to 1822. By an Englishman. "When a traveller returneth home, let him not leave the countries where he hath travelled altogether behind him." Lord Bacon--Essays. Calcutta: Printed at the Baptist mission Press, Circular Road; and sold by Messrs. W. Thacker and Co. St. Andrew's Library. 1828.
Opposite the title-page is a folding map, entitled "Map of the province of Tondo." It is Spanish, dated 1819; and shows as well portions of the adjacent provinces. The book is dedicated "To Holt Mackenzie, Esq. This Work is respectfully inscribed, by his obedient humble servant, The Author. Calcutta, March, 1828."
Notes signed "Eds." are supplied by the Editors; the rest are those of the author himself. The original text is reproduced as exactly as possible.
[35] Besides the references already given, see J. Roth's sketch of the geology of the Philippines, in appendix to Jagor's Reisen, pp. 333-354.--Eds.
[36] The Bureau of Government Laboratories at Manila published, during 1902-05, a valuable series of bulletins on various topics in botany, ornithology, biology, diseases of man and beast, etc., and another series was published by the Mining Bureau; the former bureau is now replaced by the Bureau of Science.--Eds.
[37] In the environs of Manila, a monument is erected to the memory of ..., [37-A] a Spanish naturalist of unwearied industry, and it is said, great talents, sent out by government to examine the Phillippine Islands. After seven years' incessant labour, he died of a fever, and at his death his manuscripts, which are all written in cyphers, were taken possession of by the government; they are said yet to remain buried in the archives of 'la Secretaria,' having never been sent to Europe!
[37-A] Apparently referring to Antonio Pineda (VOL. L, p. 61); but he died only three years after leaving Spain. In the expedition to which he was attached, he was director of the department of natural sciences; he was accompanied by Louis Née, a Frenchman naturalized in Spain. They visited Uruguay, Patagonia, Chile, Peru, and Nueva España; and in Chile were joined by the Hungarian naturalist, Tadeo Haenke (who, reaching Cádiz after their vessel sailed, was obliged to sail to South America to meet them). From Acapulco they went to Marianas and Filipinas; and journeyed (1791) through Luzón from Sorsogón to Manila. Pineda labored diligently in Luzón, and made large collections; but died at Badoc, in Ilocos, in 1792; his brother Arcadio Pineda, who was first lieutenant of the ship, was charged to put in order the materials collected by Antonio, but many of these were lost on the return journey. Returning to South America, at Callao Haenke and Née parted company; the former again traveled in America, but in the vicissitudes of these journeys much of the material collected by him was lost or spoiled. The residue was classified and described, after his death, by the leading botanists of Europe, and this matter was published in a work entitled Reliquiæ Haenkeane, seu descriptiones et icones plantarum quæ in America meridionali et boreali in insulis Philippinis et Marianis collegit Thaddeus Haenke, Philosophiæ Doctor, Phytographus Regis Hispaniæ (Pragæ, 1825-35). Née went from Concepción, Chile, overland to Montevideo, and thence to Spain; and in September, 1794, he reached Cádiz, with a herbarium of 10,000 plants, of which 4,000 were new ones. These were preserved in the Botanical Gardens at Madrid, with more than 300 drawings. See Ramón Jordana y Morera's Bosquejo geográfico é historico-natural del archipiélago filipino (Madrid, 1885), pp. 356-358, 361; and José Gogorza y González's Datos para la fauna filipina (Madrid, 1888), p. 2.--Eds.
[38] The loftiest peak in Mindoro is Mount Halcón, said to be 8,800 feet in height. The most prominent volcano in the archipelago is Mayón, 7,916 feet high, in Albay, Luzon; in Negros is another volcano, called Canlaón, 8,192 feet high. In Panay the highest peak is Madiaás, 7,264 feet; and in Mindanao is the loftiest peak in the entire archipelago, the almost extinct volcano of Apo, which rises to 10,312 feet. See the chapter on "Mountains and rivers," in Census of Philippines, i, pp. 00-73.--Eds.
[39] Le Gentil says (Voyage, ii, p. 29): "This animal [the hog] is so common there that they even use its fat for sauces, ragouts, and fried articles; for butter is not known in Manila, and there is very little use of milk there. The Manilans doubtless find less difficulty (for in that climate people are very fond of repose) in using pork fat in their food than in rearing and keeping cattle and making butter. This sort of food, joined to the heat and the great humidity of that country, occasions serious dysentery in many persons." He adds (p. 123): "The venereal disease (or 'French disease,' as they call it, I know not why), is very common there [in Manila]; but they do not die from it; the great heat and copious perspiration enable people to live at Manila with this malady, they marry without being frightened at it, and the evil passes by inheritance to their children; it is a sort of heritage with which but few European families are not stained."--Eds.
[40] Le Gentil thus speaks of the placer-mining practiced by the Indians in Luzon (Voyage, ii, p. 32): "It is true that this sort of life shortens the days of these wretched people; as they are perpetually in the water, they swell, and soon die. Besides that, the friars say that it is their experience that the Indians who lead that sort of life have no inclination to follow the Christian life, and that they give much trouble to the ministers of God who instruct them. Despite that, it is to the friars and to the alcaldes that these Indians sell their gold."--Eds.
[41] In his "Non-Christian Tribes of Northern Luzon," Worcester calls attention to the various indefinite modes of using the word "tribe," among ethnological writers, and proposes (p. 803) the following definition as a means of securing clearness and accuracy therein: "A division of a race composed of an aggregate of individuals of a kind and of a common origin, agreeing among themselves in, and distinguished from their congeners by, physical characteristics, dress, and ornaments; the nature of the communities which they form; peculiarities of house architecture; methods of hunting, fishing, and carrying on agriculture; character and importance of manufactures; practices relative to war and the taking of heads of enemies; arms used in warfare; music and dancing, and marriage and burial customs; but not constituting a political unit subject to the control of any single individual nor necessarily speaking the same dialect." He adds: "Where different dialects prevail among the members of a single tribe it should be subdivided into dialect groups." He also says (p. 798): "It was the usage of the Spaniards to designate as a tribe each group of people which had a dialect, more or less peculiar, of its own. Furthermore, the custom which is widespread among the hill people of northern Luzon of shouting out the name of a settlement when they desire to call for one or more persons belonging to it, seems in many instances to have led the Spaniards to adopt settlement names as tribal ones, even when there were no differences of dialect between the peoples thus designated."--Eds.
[42] The fullest and most authoritative account of the Negritos is, of course, the monograph by W. A. Reed, The Negritos of Zambales, published by the Philippine Ethnological Survey. See also Worcester's account of them in his "Non-Christian Tribes of Northern Luzon," in Philippine Journal of Science, October, 1906, pp. 805 et seq.--Eds.
[43] See Le Gentil, Voyage aux Indes.
[44] Is not this, or something resembling it, a custom of the natives of Australasia?
[45] See Herrera and Ant. de Solis, Hist. of Mexico.
[46] The negro of the east appears to have amalgamated with some other family. On the south coasts of Australasia, they resemble in many points the people just described. This continues to be the case as far as Cape Capricorn. To the northward of this, as far as Murray's Islands in Torres Straits, they are a stout, tall, athletic race of men, [46-A] and as hairy on the face and body as Europeans, with long hair, and without the negro cast of countenance. This race may be traced by intervals to Ternate, Gilolo, &c., where they are called Harraforas; [46-B] but none are found in the Phillippines (unless the Ylocos have some relationship to them). Is not the native of New Ireland and Queen Charlotte's Islands too of this race? [46-C] The difference between them is most striking. The one are dwarfish negroes, the others almost black Europeans. Both are essentially different from the Malay family, and not only so, but from each other (the native of Amboyna, I think, forms the link between them) and this difference is apparently anatomical, in the shape of the skull, facial angles, &c.
We are as yet in the infancy of our knowledge of the origin of these various families of the human race: like that of languages, it will in all probability remain one more of conjecture than of fact; but it is still a subject of deep interest. I have heard from respectable authority, that the language of Cagayan, the most northern province but one of the island of Luzon, the men of which are tail, stout, olive-coloured, almost beardless, and proverbial for their mildness, peaceable behaviour, and fidelity, so much resembles that of the Sandwich islanders, that some of these at Manila found no difficulty in making the Cagayan servants understand them! The province of Ylocos is the next to this to the north, and forms the north coast of the island. The Ylocos are black, short-bearded men, and noted for their insubordination and dissipated character.
[46-A] The writer of this memoir has, on the coast of New Holland, between Cape Capricorn and Endeavour Straits, had occasion to know this fact. A party of these savages attacked the captain and supercargo of a vessel in which he was an officer, and they were repulsed only by firearms. The account of them given by the supercargo, and indeed by all the party attacked, uniformly agreed in describing them as the finest made and strongest looking men possible. Their bodies were also very hairy.
[46-B] The term "Haraforas" is applied to the Subanos of Mindanao by Captain Forrest; from his Voyage, pp. 266, 268, 271, 273, 278-282, we obtain the following interesting and first-hand information about that people:
"The vassals of the Sultan, and of others, who possess great estates, are called Kanakan. Those vassals are sometimes Mahometans, though mostly Haraforas ["who are also called Subanos, or Oran Manubo," p. 186]. The latter only may be sold with the lands, but cannot be sold off the lands. The Haraforas are more opprest than the former. The Mahometan vassals are bound to accompany their lords, on any sudden expedition; but the Haraforas being in a great measure excused from such attendance, pay yearly certain taxes, which are not expected from the Mahometan vassals. They pay a boiss, or land tax. A Harafora family pays ten battels of paly (rough rice) forty lb. each; three of rice, about sixty lb.; one fowl, one bunch of plantains, thirty roots, called clody, or St. Helena yam, and fifty heads of Indian corn. I give this as one instance of the utmost that is ever paid. Then they must sell fifty battels of paly, equal to two thousand pound weight, for one kangan. So at Dory, or New Guinea, one prong, value half a dollar, or one kangan, given to a Harafora, lays a perpetual tax on him. Those vassals at Magindano have what land they please; and the Mahometans on the sea coast, whether free or kanakan, live mostly by trading with the Haraforas, while their own gardens produce them betel nuts, coco nuts, and greens. They seldom grow any rice, and they discourage as far as they can, the Haraforas from going to Mindano, to sell the produce of their plantations. On the banks of the Pelangy and Tamantakka, the Mahometans grow much rice. The boiss is not always collected in fruits of the earth only. A tax-gatherer, who arrived at Coto Intang, when I was there, gave me the following list of what he had brought from some of Rajah Moodo's crown lands, being levied on perhaps five hundred families. 2870 battels of paly, of forty lb. each; 490 Spanish dollars; 160 kangans; 6 tayls of gold, equal to 30 l [sterling]; 160 Malons: a cloth made of the plantain tree, three yards long, and one broad. This last mentioned cloth is the usual wear of the country women, made in the form of a Bengal lungy, or Buggess [i.e., Bugis] cloth, being a wide sack without a bottom; and is often used as a currency in the market. The currency in most parts of the country, is the Chinese kangan, coarse cloth, thinly woven, nineteen inches broad, and six yards long; the value at Sooloo is ten dollars for a bundle of twenty-five sealed up; and at Magindano much the same; but at Magindano dollars are scarce. These bundles are called gandangs, rolled up in a cylindrical form. They have also, as a currency, kousongs, a kind of nankeen, dyed black; and kompow, a strong white Chinese linen, made of flax; of which more particularly hereafter. The kangans generally come from Sooloo; so they are got at second hand: for the Spaniards have long hindered Chinese junks, bound from Amoy to Magindano, to pass Samboangan. This is the cause of so little trade at Magindano, no vessels sailing from Indostan thither; and the little trade is confined to a few country Chinese, called Oran Sangly, and a few Soolooans who come hither to buy rice and paly, bringing with them Chinese articles: for the crop of rice at Sooloo can never be depended on. In the bazar, or market, the immediate currency is paly. Ten gantangs of about four pounds each, make a battel; and three battels (a cylindrical measure, thirteen inches and five-tenths high; the same in diameter) about one hundred and twenty pounds of paly, are commonly sold for a kangan. Talking of the value of things here, and at Sooloo, they say, such a house or prow, &c., is worth so many slaves; the old valuation being one slave for thirty kangans. They also specify in their bargains, whether is meant matto (eye) kangan, real kangan, or nominal kangan. The dealing in the nominal, or imaginary kangan, is an ideal barter. When one deals for the real kangans, they must be examined; and the gandangs, or bundles of twenty-five pieces, are not to be trusted, as the dealers will often forge a seal, having first packed up damaged kangans. In this the Chinese here, and at Sooloo, are very expert. The China cash at Magindano, named pousin, have holes as in China. I found them scarce; their price is from one hundred and sixty to one hundred and eighty for a kangan. At Sooloo is coined a cash of base copper, called petis, of which two hundred, down to one hundred and seventy, go for a kangan."
"On Sooloo are no Haraforas. The Haraforas on Magindano make a strong cloth, not of cotton, but of a kind of flax, very like what the Batta people wear on the coast of Sumatra." "One day near Tubuan, a Harafora brought down some paddy from the country: I wanted to purchase it; but the head man of the village, a Magindanoer, would not permit him to sell it me. I did not dispute the point; but found afterwards, the poor Harafora had sold about three hundred pounds of paly for a prong, or chopping knife." "They all seem to be slaves to the Magindano people: for these take what they please, fowls or anything in the house they like best; and if the owners seem angry, threaten to tie them up, and flog them." "The inhabitants of this country [of the Illanos] have generally their name from the lake [i.e., Lake Lanao] on which they reside. The inlanders dwell chiefly towards the East, where are said to be thirty thousand men, intermixed in many places with the Haraforas, who seem to be the primitives of the island. On the north coast of Magindano, the Spaniards have had great success, in converting to Christianity those Haraforas. Their agreeing in one essential point, the eating of hog's flesh, may, in a great measure, have paved the way."
"The Magindano people sell to the Haraforas iron chopping knives, called prongs, cloth, salt, &c., for their rice and other fruits of the earth. For the Haraforas dread going to sea, else they could carry the produce of their lands to a better market. They are much imposed on, and kept under by their Mahometan lords; and are all tributary to the Sultan, or to some Rajah Rajah (noblemen) under him. Their system proves thus the feudal." "The Haraforas are thinly scattered; and, being all tributary, many together seldom stay long at one place. This cannot be for want of water, pasture, or fertile ground; as with the Tartars on the continent of Asia. On this island, almost every spot is covered either with timber, brushwood, reeds, or grass; and streams are found every where in abundance. Nor can it be to avoid wild beasts; there are none on the island: a good cause why deer, wild horses and other wild cattle are found in so many parts of it. I suspect that the Haraforas are often so opprest that some have wisely got inland, beyond the tax-gatherer's ken."
Evidently Forrest and the writer of the Remarks had in mind two different peoples, to whom they applied the term Haraforas. Crawfurd explains this name (Dictionary Ind. Islands, p. 10) as a corruption of Alforas; it is "not a native word at all, nor is it the generic name of any people whatsoever. It is a word of the Portuguese language, apparently derived from the Arabic article al, and the preposition fora, 'without.' The Indian Portuguese applied it to all people beyond their own authority, or who were not subdued by them, and consequently to the wild races of the interior. It would seem to be equivalent to the 'Indios bravos' of the Spaniards, as applied to the wild and unconquered tribes of America and the Philippines."--Eds.
[46-C] And that groupe to which Quiros, Mendana, or Torres gave the name of "Yslas de Gente Hermosa"? [Still thus named on modern charts; see Voyages of Quiros (Hakluyt Society's publications, London, 1904), pp. xxiv, 217, 424, 431.--Eds.
[47] Our author here confuses the Spanish name "Pintados" (literally, "painted," referring to their tattooed bodies) with the native name, "Bisayas," both being indifferently applied to the islands south of Luzon.--Eds.
[48] See Sir William Draper's dispatches at the siege of Manila.
[49] Was it not by this system (the mita) that the mines and plantations of Mexico were wrought? and Mexico,--that Mexico which the Spaniards of Cortes in the 15th century called New Spain,--became nearly a desert?
[50] A higher and purer praise is due to this gentleman than having written the work alluded to: it is that he acted on its spirit, and first taught the "red man" to know himself as man, and (a far more arduous undertaking), he taught the white man that his prosperity was essentially connected with that of the native. The country in which the foundations of our power were laid on such a basis, should not have been given away like a ministerial snuff-box. [50-A]
[50-A] Java was conquered by England in 1811, but was restored to Holland five years later. During that time the island was governed by Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles (1781-1826), who published a History of Java (London, 1817); he was afterward governor of the English settlements in Sumatra (1818-24), in both these posts ruling with great ability and vigor and an enlightened and liberal mind. Gilbert Elliot, Baron Minto, a noted English statesman, was governor-general of India during 1807-13, and went with Raffles to Java to organize its government.--Eds.
[51] See Descripcion Geografica y Topografica de la Ysla de Luzon, Por Don Yldefonso de Arragon, Parte IV. Prov. de la Pampanga, p. 3, 5, &c. The author is a colonel of engineers. [In 1818-20, he was chief of the topographical bureau at Manila.--Eds.]
[52] Ibid.
[53] "Estos (Pueblos) aunque immediatos a las orillas de la mar, estén libres de las invasiones de los Moros; la espesura de las Manglares occulta y hace dificil la entrada, &c."
"These (towns), though close to the sea shore, are free from the invasions of the Moors (pirates); the thickness of the mangroves conceal and render the entrances difficult." The writer is speaking of towns, of which none are more than 20 miles from Manila!-- Descripcion Geog. y Topograf.
[54] The writer was once obliged to arm all his servants against 16 soldiers with their muskets from a neighboring military post. The two parties remained some minutes with their arms levelled at each other, when a parley was begun, which ended the affair without bloodshed. The origin of the quarrel was a dispute at cockfighting between his servants and the soldiers.
[55] Such are, for example, Nuestra Señora de Antipolo, about 20 miles east of Manila, and the Santo Niño (Holy Child) of Zebû: to both of these it is reckoned almost indispensable to make a pilgrimage: the natives of Luzon to the first, which is about 25 miles from Manila; and those of all the Bisayas or Southern Islands to the other. From Antipolo [55-A] alone have been sent in a single year 180,000 dollars as the produce of the masses! And the writer has conversed with pilgrims from the province of Ylocos! In all cases of peril and difficulty, a vow is made to one of these saints, which is seldom left unfulfilled. The crew of a small vessel of men offered 54 dollars for masses at the convent of St. Augustin (I think), on the day of the feast del Santo Niño.
[55-A] For detailed account of the shrine at Antipolo, its worship, miracles, etc., see Murillo Velarde's Hist. de Philipinas, fol. 210v-229v; and in the engraved frontispiece to that work may be seen a representation of the statue of the Virgin of Antipolo (see our VOL. XLIV, opposite titlepage).--Eds.
[56] This word is defined by the Standard Dictionary (New York, 1895) as a Scottish slang word meaning "unlawful sexual intercourse." It is apparently allied to the obsolete Northumbrian word "houghen-moughen," meaning "greedy, ravenous"--see Wright's English Dialect Dictionary, iii (London, 1902), p. 247.--Eds.
[57] Nothing has stamped the character of the Manila Indian with greater atrocity in the eyes of Englishmen, than their frequent appeals to assassination (the knife) in cases of supposed or actual wrongs. How long is it since dirks were laid aside, because useless, in Scotland? When men cannot appeal immediately to a magistrate, they appeal to themselves. Duels too are another kind of appeals of the same sort.
[58] "At Manila, therefore, a doctor [of law] is a species of phenomenon, and many years pass without one of them being seen; in two universities there is no doctor, while in 1767 there was but one competitor for the doctoral of the cathedral. Yet it must be noted that this competitor was a Mexican, and was not born in Manila. Of what use, therefore, are two universities in this city? Would not a single one be more than enough? One who knows Latin is greatly esteemed in Manila, because that language is not common there, in spite of the two universities which I have just mentioned; what is learned in those institutions is very poor, and is only imperfectly understood. When I arrived there, a great many persons asked me if I knew Latin, and when I answered that I knew a little of it they apparently had after that more respect for me. All the ancient prejudices of the schools seem to have abandoned us of Europe only to take refuge at Manila, where certainly they have long remained, for the ancient doctrine is there in too good hands to give place to sound ideas of physics. Don Feliciano Marqués often honestly confessed to me that in Spain they were a hundred years behind France, in the sciences; and that at Manila they were a hundred years behind Spain. One can judge, by that, of the present state of physics at Manila, in the midst of two universities. In that city electricity is known only by name, and the Holy Office of the Inquisition has prohibited experiments in that line. I knew there a Frenchman, a surgeon by profession, a man of parts and of inquiring mind, who was threatened with the Inquisition for having tried to make such experiments; but I think that what really drew upon him this ill-fortune was the experiment of the "little friar." [This simple experiment in physics was made with a little figure resembling a friar; it had never before been seen in Manila, and everybody ran to look at it and laugh.] "This experiment of the surgeon, who made his little friar dance, and sometimes sink to the bottom of the vial by way of correcting him, drew upon him the displeasure of the entire body of religious with whom Manila swarms; there was talk of the Holy Office, and it was said that the surgeon's experiment was a case for the Inquisition. The surgeon, therefore--whose only intention in the experiment was to vex the friars who had prevented him from making his experiments in electricity--was compelled to cease his pleasantry, and Manila had to express its detestation of the pleasure that it had taken in seeing the experiment." [The author was visited by many people at his observatory, who desired to see the sun and the planets through his telescope;] "the women were even more curious than the men about the rare things which I showed them, and which I took pleasure in explaining to them; but not a single religious came to visit my observatory." (Le Gentil, Voyage, ii, pp. 96, 97.)--Eds.
[59] See El Yndio Agraciado (The aggrieved Indian), a pamphlet published at Manila in 1821, but suppressed by order of government. [59-A]
[59-A] Pardo de Tavera says of this pamphlet, in his Biblioteca Filipina, p. 146: "It attacks one Don M. G., a Philippine Spaniard, who was allowed to propose a plan of studies which was not much to the liking of the Filipino Indians. As appears by the title of this pamphlet, there existed in Manila at that time a publication (probably weekly) called El noticioso Filipino. [See also Tavera's account of this sheet, at foot of the same page, which he regards as the first periodical which appeared in Manila]. Doubtless the former was the doing of some friar, who took the name of 'Indian' in order to express himself more freely."--Eds.
[60] This distinction should never be lost sight of. The Indian of Manila, from whom strangers generally form their estimate of this people, is so mixed, that a genuine Indian (Malay) family is scarcely to be met with; they are a mixture of Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican (from the troops), seamen of different nations, and Spaniards besides, "Toutes les Capitales se ressemblent, et çe n'est pas d'eux qu'il faut juger les moeurs d'un peuple quelconque." [60-A] --Rousseau. Let it never be forgotten, too, that while the Indians of Manila, on the 9th of October, 1820, were assassinating every foreigner within their reach, the Indians of the country were saving those in their power at the hazard of their lives!
[60-A] That is, "All capital cities are alike, and it is not by them that the morals of any people should be judged."--Eds.
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The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 51, 1801-1840Chapter XI: Appendix (2)
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