Jose Rizal-The Indolence of the Filipino Mobile

8/6/2019 Jose Rizal-The Indolence of the Filipino Mobile

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THE INDOLENCE OF

THE FILIPINO

JOSE RIZAL

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(LA INDOLENCIA DE LOS FILIPINOSIN ENGLISH.)

EDITORS EXPLANATIONMr. Charles Derbyshire, who put Rizals

great novel Noli me tangere and its sequelEl Filibusterismo into English (as The So-cial Cancer and The Reign of Greed), be-

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sides many minor writings of the Great-est Man of the Brown Race, has rendereda similar service for La Indolencia de losFilipinos in the following pages, and withthat same fidelity and sympathetic compre-hension of the authors meaning which hasmade possible an understanding of the realRizal by English readers. Notes by Dr. JamesA. Robertson (Librarian of the Philippine

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Library and co-editor of the 55-volume se-ries of historical reprints well called ThePhilippine Islands 1493-1898, so comprehen-sive are they) show the breadth of Rizalshistorical scholarship, and that the only er-ror mentioned is due to using a faulty reprintwhere the original was not available indi-cates the conscientiousness of the pioneerworker.

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An appropriate setting has been attemptedby page decorations whose scenes are takenfrom Philippine textbooks of the World BookCompany and whose borders were made inthe Drawing Department of the PhilippineSchool of Arts and Trades.

The frontispiece shows a hurried pen-cil sketch of himself which Rizal made inBerlin in the Spring of 1887 that Prof. Blu-

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mentritt, whom then he knew only throughcorrespondence, might recognize him at theLeitmeritz railway station when he shouldarrive for a proposed visit. The photographfrom which the engraving was reproducedcame one year ago with the Christmas greet-ings of the Austrian professor whose recentdeath the Philippine Islands, who knew himas their friend and Rizals, is mourning.

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The picture perhaps deserves a coupleof comments. As a child Rizal had beentrained to rapid work, an expertness keptup by practice, and the copying of his owncountenance from a convenient near-by mir-ror was but a moments task. Yet the in-cident suggests that he did not keep pho-tographs of himself about, and that he hadthe Cromwellian desire to see himself as he

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really was, for the Filipino features are moreprominent than in any photograph of hisextant.

The essay itself originally appeared inthe Filipino forthrightly review, La Solidari-dad, of Madrid, in five installments, run-ning from July 15 to September 15, 1890.It was a continuation of Rizals campaignof education in which he sought by blunt

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truths to awaken his countrymen to theirown faults at the same time that he wasarousing the Spaniards to the defects in Spainscolonial system that caused and continuedsuch shortcomings.

To-day there seems a place in Manilafor just suets, missionary work as The Indo-lence of the Filipino aimed at. It may helpon the present improving understanding be-

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tween Continental Americans and their coun-trymen of these Far Off Eden Isles, for thewriter submits as his mature opinion, basedon ten years acquaintance among Filipinosthrough studies which enlisted their inter-est, that the political problem would havebeen greatly simplified had it been under-stood in Deweys day that among intelligentAmericans the much-talked-of lack of ca-

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pacity referred to the mass of the peopleswant of political experience and not to anyalleged racial inferiority. To wounded pridehas the discontent been due rather than towithholding of political privileges.

Spanish Philippine history has curiouslyrepeated itself during the fifteen years ofAmericas administration of this archipelago.

Just as some colonial Spaniards seemed11


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to the Filipinos less creditable representa-tives of the metropolis than the average ofthose who remained in the Peninsula, sonot all who now pass for Americans in thePhilippines are believed here to measure upto the highest homestandard.

Sitters in swivel-chairs underneath elec-tric fans hold hopeless the future of the landwhere men do not desire to be drudges just

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as did their predecessors who in wide armedlazy seats, beneath punkahs, talked of Fil-ipino indolence.

Ingratitude, to-day as then, is the reg-ular rejoinder to the progressing peoplesprotest against paternalism, and altruisticregard for their real welfare is still repre-sented as the reason why special legislationshould be provided when Filipinos prefer

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spired their political aspirations. It betraysblindness somewhere that ever since 1898Filipinos have been trying to get loose fromAmerica in order to set up here an Ameri-can form of government,

There seems now a, prospect that in-sular legislation may make available to theindividual the guarantees of personal lib-erty upon which America at home prides

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Unwillingness to work when there is noth-ing in it for them is common to Filipinosand Americans, for Thomas Jefferson ad-mitted that extravagance and indolence werethe chief faults of his countrymen. Labor-saving machinery has made the fruits ofAmericans labors in their land of abun-dance afford a luxury in living not elsewhereexisting. But the Filipino, in his rich and

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pensable, but also by serious and disinter-ested persons; and as evidence of greater orless weight may be adduced in oppositionto that which Dr. Sancianco cites, it seemsexpedient, to us to study this question thor-oughly, without superciliousness or sensi-tiveness, without prejudice, without pessimism.And as we can only serve our country bytelling the truth, however bit, tee it be,

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The word indolence has been greatly mis-used in the sense of little love for work andlack of energy, while ridicule has concealedthe misuse. This much-discussed questionhas met with the same fate as certain panaceasand specifies of the quacks who by ascrib-ing to them impossible virtues have discred-ited them. In the Middle Ages, and evenin some Catholic countries now, the devil

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pines worse happens to him who seeks theorigin of the trouble outside of accepted be-liefs.

The consequence of this misuse is thatthere are some who are interested in statingit as a dogma and others in combating it asa ridiculous superstition, if not a punishabledelusion. Yet it is not to be inferred fromthe misuse of a thing that it does not exist.

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We think that there must be somethingbehind all this outcry, for it is incrediblethat so many should err, among whom wehave said there are a lot of serious and dis-interested persons. Some act in bad faith,through levity, through want of sound judg-ment, through limitation in reasoning power,ignorance of the past, or other cause. Somerepeat what they have heard, without, ex-

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Examining well, then, all the scenes andall the men that we have known from Child-hood, and the life of our country, we believethat indolence does exist there. The Fil-ipinos, who can measure up with the mostactive peoples in the world, will doubtlessnot repudiate this admission, for it is truethat there one works and struggles againstthe climate, against nature and against men.

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the work is not violent and amounts formany to talking and gesticulating in theshade and beside a lunch-stand,flee to wa-tering places, sit in the cafes or stroll about?What wonder then that the inhabitant oftropical countries, worm out and with hisblood thinned by the continuous and exces-sive heat, is reduced to inaction? Who isthe indolent one in the Manila offices? Is it

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Chinaman who in other colonies cultivatesthe soil does so only for a certain numberof years and then retires. [4]

We find, then, the tendency to indolencevery natural, and have to admit and blessit, for we cannot alter natural laws, andwithout it the race would have disappeared.Man is not a brute, he is not a, machine;his object is not merely to produce, in spite

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of the pretensions of some Christian whiteswho would make of the colored Christiana kind of motive power somewhat more in-telligent and less costly than steam. Mansobject is not to satisfy tile passions of an-other man, his object is to seek happinessfor himself and his kind by traveling alongthe road of progress and perfection.

The evil is not that indolence exists more43


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the Philippines is a magnified indolence, anindolence of the snowball type, if we maybe permitted the expression, an evil thatincreases in direct proportion to the squareof the periods of time, an effect of misgov-ernment and of backwardness, as we said,and not a cause thereof. Others will holdthe contrary opinion, especially those whohave a hand in the misgovernment, but we

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decision.Something like this happens in the case

of the Philippines. Instead of physician,read government, that is, friars, employees,etc. Instead of patient, Philippines; insteadof malady, indolence.

And, just as happens in similar casesthen the patient gets worse, everybody loseshis head, each one dodges the responsibility

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of fear. The patient is near his finish!Yes, transfusion of blood, transfusion of

blood! New life, new vitality! Yes, the newwhite corpuscles that you are going to injectinto its veins, the new white corpuscles thatwere a cancer in another organism will with-stand all the depravity of the system, willwithstand the blood-lettings that it suffersevery day, will have more stamina than all

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least the cause of death may be known. Weare not trying to put all the blame on thephysician, and still less on the patient, forwe have already spoken of a predispositiondue to the climate, a reasonable and natu-ral predisposition, in the absence of whichthe race would disappear, sacrificed to ex-cessive labor in a tropical country.

Indolence in the Philippines is a chronic53


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islands to which we were going. [6]Further on he speaks of the vessels and

utensils of solid gold that he found in Bu-tuan, where the people worked mines. Hedescribes the silk dresses, the daggers withlong gold hilts and scabbards of carved wood,the gold, sets of teeth, etc. Among cerealsand fruits he mentions rice, millet, oranges,lemons, panicum, etc.

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That the islands maintained relations withneighboring countries and even with dis-tant ones is proven by the ships from Siam,laden with gold and slaves, that Magellanfound in Cebu. These ships paid certainduties to the King of the island. In thesame year, 1521, the survivors of Magel-lans expedition met the son of the Rajah ofLuzon, who, as captain-general of the Sul-

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tan of Borneo and admiral of his fleet, hadconquered for him the great city of Lave(Sarawak?). Might this captain, who wasgreatly feared by all his foes, have been theRajah Matanda whom the Spaniards after-wards encountered in Tondo in 1570?

In 1539 the warriors of Luzon took partin the formidable contests of Sumatra, andunder the orders of Angi Siry Timor, Rajah

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they could maintain a hundred rowers ona side (Morga;) that sea bore everywherecommerce, industry, agriculture, by the forceof the oars moved to the sound of warlikesongs (8) of the genealogies and achieve-ments of the Philippine divinities. (Colin,Chap. XV.) (9)

Wealth abounded in the islands. Pi-gafetta tells us of the abundance of food-

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paid everything, and moreover voluntarilyadded coconuts, bananas, and sugar-cane jars filled with palm-wine. When Caesarwas taken prisoner by the corsairs and re-quired to pay twenty five talents ransom,he replied; Ill give you fifty, but later Illhave you all crucified! The chief of Paraguawas more generous: he forgot. His con-duct, while it may reveal weakness, also

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demonstrates that the islands were abun-dantly provisioned. This chief was namedTuan Mahamud; his brother, Guantil, andhis son, Tuan Mahamed. (Martin Mendez,Purser of the ship Victoria: Archivos de In-dias.)

A very extraordinary thing, and one thatshows the facility with which the nativeslearned Spanish, is that fifty years before

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the arrival of the Spaniards in Luzon, inthat very year 1521 when they first cameto the islands, there were already nativesof Luzon who understood Castilian. In thetreaties of peace that the survivors of Mag-ellans expedition made with the chief ofParagua, when the servant-interpreter diedthey communicated with one another througha Moro who had been captured in the is-

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land of the King of Luzon and who under-stood some Spanish. (Martin Mendez, op,cit ) Where did this extemporaneous inter-preter learn Castilian? In the Moluccas? InMalacca, with the Portuguese? Spaniardsdid not reach Luzon until 1571.

Legazpis expedition met in Butuan var-ious traders of Luzon with their boats ladenwith iron, wax cloths, porcelain, etc. (Gas-

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par de San Agustin,) plenty of provisions,activity, trade, movement in all the south-ern islands. (11)

They arrived at the Island of Cebu, abound-ing in provisions, with mines and washingsof gold, and peopled with natives, as Morgasays; very populous, and at a port fre-quented by many ships that came from theislands and kingdoms near India, as Colin

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says; and even though they were peacefullyreceived discord soon arose. The city wastaken by force and burned. The fire de-stroyed the food supplies and naturally faminebroke out in that town of a hundred thou-sand people, (12) as the historians say, andamong the members of the expedition, butthe neighboring islands quickly relieved theneed, thanks to the abundance they enjoyed.

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All the histories of those first years, inshort, abound in long accounts about theindustry and agriculture of the natives: mines,gold-washings, looms, farms, barter, navalconstruction, raising of poultry and stock,weaving of silk and cotton, distilleries, man-ufactures of arms, pearl fisheries, the civetindustry, the horn and hide industry, etc.,are things encountered at every step, and,

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considering the time and the conditions inthe islands, prove that there was life, therewas activity, there was movement.

And if this, which is deduction, doesnot convince any minds imbued with unfairprejudices, perhaps of some avail may bethe testimony of the oft-quoted Dr. Morga,who was Lieutenant-Governor of Manila forseven years and after rendering great ser-

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authorities in the Philippines as to the er-rors they committed. The natives, saysMorga, in chapter VII, speaking of the oc-cupations of the Chinese, are very far fromexercising those trades and have even for-gotten much about farming, raising p oul-try, stock and cotton, and weaving cloth ASTHEY USED TO DO IN THEIR PAGAN-ISM AND FOR A LONG TIME AFTER

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examining the decadence and misery, assertthe same thing. Dr. Hans Meyer, when hesaw the unsubdued tribes cultivating beau-tiful fields and working energetically, askedif they would not become indolent whenthey in turn should accept Christianity anda paternal government.

Accordingly, the Filipinos, in spite ofthe climate, in spite of their few needs (they

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were less then than now), were not the indo-lent creatures of our time, and, as we shallsee later on, their ethics and their mode oflife were not what is now complacently at-tributed to them.

How then, and in what way, was thatactive and enterprising infidel native of an-cient times converted into the lazy and in-dolent Christian, as our contemporary writers

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to subject the people either by cajolery orforce; there were fights, there was slaughter;those who had submitted peacefully seemedto repent of it; insurrections were suspected,and some occurred; naturally there were ex-ecutions, and many capable laborers per-ished. Add to this condition of disorderthe invasion of Limahong, add the contin-ual wars into which the inhabitants of the

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Philippines were plunged to maintain thehonor of Spain, to extend the sway of herflag in Borneo, in the Moluccas and in Indo-China; to repel the Dutch foe: costly wars,fruitless expeditions, in which each time thou-sands and thousands of native archers androwers were recorded to have embarked, butwhether they returned to their homes wasnever stated. Like the tribute that once

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some fourteen thousand tributaries. Fromfifty thousand families to fourteen thousandtributaries in little over half a century!

We would never get through, had we toquote all the evidence of the authors regard-ing the frightful diminution of the inhab-itants of the Philippines in the first yearsafter the discovery. In the time of theirfirst bishop, that is, ten years after Legazpi,

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Philip II said that they had been reducedto less than two thirds.

Add to these fatal expeditions that wastedall the moral and material energies of thecountry, the frightful inroads of the terriblepirates from the south, instigated and en-couraged by the government, first in orderto get complaint and afterwards disarm theislands subjected to it, inroads that reached

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the very shores of Manila, even Malate it-self, and during which were seen to set outfor captivity and slavery, in the baleful glowof burning villages, strings of wretches whohad been unable to defend themselves, leav-ing behind them the ashes of their homesand the corpses of their parents and chil-dren. Morga, who recounts the first pirat-ical invasion, says: The boldness of these

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people of Mindanao did great damage tothe Visayan Islands, as much by what theydid in them as by the fear and fright whichthe native acquired, because the latter werein the power of the Spaniards, who heldthem subject and tributary and unarmed,in such manner that they did not protectthem from their enemies or leave them meanswith which to defend themselves, AS THEY

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DID WHEN THERE WERE NO SPANIARDSIN THE COUNTRY. These piratical at-tacks continually reduced the number of theinhabitants of the Philippines, since the in-dependent Malays were especially notoriousfor their atrocities and murders, sometimesbecause they believed that to preserve theirindependence it was necessary to weakenthe Spaniard by reducing the number of his

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subjects, sometimes because a greater ha-tred and a deeper resentment inspired themagainst the Christian Filipinos who, beingof the their own race, served the stranger inorder to deprive them of their precious lib-erty. These expeditions lasted about threecenturies, being repeated five and ten timesa year, and each expedition cost the islandsover eight hundred prisoners.

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With the invasions of the pirates fromSulu and Mindanao, says Padre Gaspar deSan Agustin, [the island of Bantayan, nearCebu] has been greatly reduced, becausethey easily captured the people there, sincethe latter had no place to fortify themselvesand were far from help from Cebu. The hos-tile Sulu did great damage in this island in1608, leaving it almost depopulated. (Page

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380).These rough attacks, coming from with-

out, produced a counter effect, in the inte-rior, which, carrying out medical compar-isons, was like a purge or diet in an individ-ual who has just lost a great deal of blood.In order to make headway against so manycalamities, to secure their sovereignty andtake the offensive in these disastrous con-

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tests, to isolate the warlike Sulus from theirneighbors in the south, to care for the needsof the empire of the Indies (for one of thereasons why the Philippines were kept, ascontemporary documents prove, was theirstrategic position between New Spain andthe Indies), to wrest from the Dutch theirgrowing colonies of the Moluccas and getrid of some troublesome neighbors, to main-

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tain, in short, the trade of China with NewSpain. it was necessary to construct newand large ships which, as we have seen, costlyas they were to the country for their equip-ment and the rowers they required, werenot less so because of the manner in whichthey were constructed. (16) Fernando delos Rios Coronel, who fought in these warsand later turned priest, speaking of these

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Kings ships, said: As they were so large,the timber needed was scarcely to be foundin the forests (of the Philippines!), and thusit was necessary to seek it with great diffi-culty in the most remote of them, where,once found, in order to haul and conveyit to the shipyard the towns of the sur-rounding country had to be depopulated ofnatives, who get it out with immense la-

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bor, damage, and cost to them. The na-tives furnished the masts for a galleon, ac-cording to the assertion of the Franciscans,and I heard the governor of the provincewhere they were cut, which is Lacuna deBay, say that to haul them seven leaguesover very broken mountains 6,000 nativeswere engaged three months, without fur-nishing them food, which the wretched na-

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TIVATING THE VERY FERTILE PLAINTHEY HAVE. (17)

If this is not sufficient to explain thedepopulation of the islands and the aban-donment of industry, agriculture and com-merce, then add the natives who wore ex-ecuted, those who loft their wives and chil-dren and fled in disgust to the mountains,those who were sold into slavery to pay the

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the rest of his work by speaking every mo-ment of the state of neglect in which lay thefarms and fields once so flourishing and sowell cultivated, the towns thinned that hadformerly been inhabited by many leadingfamilies!

How is it strange, then, that discour-agement may have been infused into thespirit of the inhabitants of the Philippines,

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when in the midst of so many calamitiesthey did not know whether they would seesprout the seed they were planting, whethertheir field was going to be their grave ortheir crop would go to feed their execu-tioner? What is there strange in it, whenwe see the pious but impotent friars of thattime trying to free their poor parishionersfrom the tyranny of the encomenderos by

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advising them to stop work in the mines,to abandon their commerce, to break uptheir looms, pointing out to them heavenfor their whole hope, preparing them fordeath as their only consolation? (18)

Man works for an object. Remove theobject and you reduce him to inaction Themost active man in the world will fold hisarms from the instant he understands that

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it is madness to bestir himself, that thiswork will be the cause of his trouble, thatfor him it will be the cause of vexations athome and of the pirates greed abroad. Itseems that these thoughts have never en-tered the minds of those who cry out againstthe indolence of the Filipinos.

Even were the Filipino not a man likethe rest; even were we to suppose that zeal

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in him for work was as essential as the move-ment of a wheel caught in the gearing ofothers in motion; even were we to deny himforesight and the judgment that the pastand the present form, there would still beleft us another reason to explain the attackof the evil. The abandonment of the fieldsby their cultivators, whom the wars andpiratical attacks dragged from their homes

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was sufficient to reduce to nothing the hardlabor of so many generations. In the Philip-pines abandon for a year the land most beau-tifully tended and you will see how you willhave to begin all over again: the rain willwipe out the furrows, the floods will drownthe seeds, plants and bushes will grow upeverywhere, and on seeing so much uselesslabor the hand will drop the hoe, the la-

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borer will desert his plow. Isnt there leftthe fine life of the pirate?

Thus is understood that sad discourage-ment which we find in the friar writers ofthe 17th century, speaking of once very fer-tile plains submerged, of provinces and townsdepopulated, of products that have disap-peared from trade, of leading families exter-minated. These pages resemble a sad and

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monotonous scene in the night after a livelyday. Of Cagayan Padre San Agustin speakswith mournful brevity: A great deal of cot-ton, of which they made good cloth that theChinese and Japanese every year boughtand carried away. In the historians time,the industry and the trade had come to anend!

It seems that these are causes more thorn109


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sufficient to breed indolence even in the midstof beehive. Thus is explained why, afterthirty-two years of the system, the circum-spect and prudent Morga said that the na-tives have forgotten much about farming,raising poultry, stock and cotton, and weav-ing cloth, as they used to do in their pa-ganism and FOR A LONG TIME AFTERTHE COUNTRY HAD BEEN CONQUERED!

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Still they struggled a long time againstindolence, yes: but their enemies were sonumerous that at last they gave up!

IVWe recognize the causes that, awoke the

predisposition and provoked the evil: nowlet us see what foster and sustain it. In thisconnection, government and governed haveto bow our heads and say: we deserve our

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fate.We have already truly said that when

a house becomes disturbed and disordered,we should not accuse the youngest, child orthe servants, but the head of it, especially ifhis authority is unlimited, he who does notact freely is not responsible for his actions;and the Filipino people, not being masterof its liberty, is not responsible for either

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its misfortunes or its woes. We says this,it is true, but, as will be seen later on, wealso have a large part, in the continuationof such a disorder.

The following, among other causes, con-tributed to foster the evil and aggravateit: the constantly lessening encouragementthat labor has met with in the Philippines.Fearing to have the Filipinos deal frequently

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with other individuals of their own race,who were free and independent, as the Borneans,the Siamese, the Cambodians, and the Japanese,people who in their customs and feelingsdiffer greatly from the Chinese, the Govern-ment acted toward these others with greatmistrust and great severity, as Morga testi-fies in the last pages of his work, until theyfinally ceased to come to the country. In

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fact, it seems that once an uprising plannedby the Borneans was suspected: we say sus-pected, for there was not even an attempt,although there were many executions. (19)And, as these nations were the very onesthat, consumed Philippine products, whenall communication with them had been cutoff, consumption of these products also ceased.The only two countries with which the Philip-

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pines continued to have relations were Chinaand Mexico, or New Spain, and from thistrade only China and a few private indi-viduals in Manila got any benefit. It, fact,the Celestial Empire sent, her junks ladenwith merchandise, that merchandise whichshut down the factories of Seville and ruinedthe Spanish industry, and returned ladenin exchange with the silver that was every

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year sent from Mexico. Nothing from thePhilippines at that time went to China, noteven gold, for in those years the Chinesetraders would accept no payment but silvercoin. (20) To Mexico went little more: somecloth and dry goods which the encomen-doros took by force or bought from the na-tives at, a paltry price, wax, amber, gold,civet, etc, but nothing more, and not even

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be gained, they would furnish New Spainwith their merchandise and the money thatis brought to Manila, would not leave thisplace, (21)

The coastwise trade, so active in othertimes, had to die out, thanks to the pirati-cal attacks of the Malays of the south; andtrade in the interior of the islands almostentirely disappeared, owing to restrictions,

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passports and other administrative require-ments.

Of no little importance were the hin-drances and obstacles that from the begin-ning were thrown in the farmerss way bythe rulers, who were influenced by childishfear and saw everywhere signs of conspir-acies and uprisings. The natives were notallowed to go to their labors, that is, their

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farms, without permission of the governor,or of his agents and officers, and even of thepriests as Morga says. Those who know theadministrative slackness and confusion ina country where the officials work scarcelytwo hours a day; those who know the costof going to and returning from the capitalto obtain a permit; those who are aware ofthe petty retaliations of the little tyrants

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will well understand how with this crudearrangement it is possible to have the mostabsurd agriculture. True it is that for sometime this absurdity, which would be ludi-crous had it not been so serious, has disap-peared; but even if the words have gone outof use other facts and other provisions havereplaced them. The Moro pirate has disap-peared but there remains the outlaw who

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infests the fields and waylays the farmer tohold him for ransom. Now then, the gov-ernment, which has a constant fear of thepeople, denies to the farmers even the useof a shotgun, or if it does allow it does sovery grudgingly and withdraws it at plea-sure; whence it results with the laborer,who, thanks to his means of defense, plantshis crops and invests his meager fortune

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in the furrows that he has so laboriouslyopened, that when his crop matures, it oc-curs to the government, which is impotentto suppress brigandage, to deprive him ofhis weapon; and then, without defense andwithout security he is reduced to inactionand abandons his field, his work, and takesto gambling as the best means of securinga livelihood. The green cloth is under the

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them to work for their benefit, made oth-ers give up their merchandise for a trifle ornothing at all, or cheated them with falsemeasures.

Speaking of Ipion, in Panay, Padre Gas-par de San Agustin says: It was in an-cient times very rich in gold, ............... butprovoked by the annoyances they sufferedfrom some governors they have ceased to

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get it out, preferring to live in poverty thanto suffer such hardships. (Page 378). Fur-ther on, speaking of other towns, he says:Goaded by the ill treatment of the encomenderoswho in administering justice have treatedthe natives as their slaves and not as theirchildren, and have only looked after theirown interests at the expense of the wretchedfortunes and lives of their charges ...............

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breed of encomenderos has become extinct.A term passes away but the evil and thepassions engendered do not pass away solong as reforms are devoted solely to chang-ing the names.

The wars with the Dutch, the inroadsand piratical attacks of the people of Suluand Mindanao disappeared; the people havebeen transformed; new towns have grown

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words of a modern French traveler who wasin the Philippines for a long time:

The good curate, he says with refer-ence to the rosy picture a friar had givenhim of the Philippines, had not told meabout the governor, the foremost official ofthe district, who was too much taken upwith the ideal of getting rich to have time totyrannize over his docile subjects; the gov-

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tives, he with abuse of his powers thinksonly of destroying all competition that maytrouble him or attempt to participate in hisprofits. It matters little to him that thecountry is impoverished, without cultiva-tion, without commerce, without, industry, just so the governor is quickly enriched!

Yet the traveler has been unfair in pick-ing out the governor especially: Why only

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ipinos, as well as all those who have triedto engage in business in the Philippines,know how many documents, what comings,how many stamped papers, how much pa-tience is needed to secure from the govern-ment a permit for an enterprise. One mustcount upon the good will of this one, onthe influence of that one, on a good bribeto another in order that the application be

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not pigeonholed, a present to the one fur-ther on so that he may pass it on to hischief; one must pray to God to give himgood humor and time to see and examineit; to another, talent to recognize its ex-pediency; to one further on sufficient stu-pidity not to scent behind the enterprise aninsurrectionary purpose; and that they maynot all spend the time taking baths, hunt-

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ing or playing cards with the reverend friarsin their convents or country houses. Andabove all, great patience, great knowledgeof how to get along, plenty of money, a greatdeal of politics, many salutations, great in-fluence, plenty of presents and complete res-ignation! How is it strange that, the Philip-pines remain poor in spite of their very fer-tile soil, when history tells us that the coun-

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to fostering industry; and wherefore? Chinafurnished the trade, and they had only totake advantage of it and pick up the goldthat dropped out on its way from Mexicotoward the interior of China, the gulf whenceit never returned.

The pernicious example of the domina-tors in surrounding themselves with servantsand despising manual or corporal labor as

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a thing unbecoming the nobility and chival-rous pride of the heroes of so many cen-turies; those lordly airs, which the nativeshave translated into tila ka castila, and thedesire of the dominated to be the equal ofthe dominators, if not essentially, at leastin their manners: all this had naturally toproduce aversion to activity and fear or ha-tred of work.

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Moreover, Why work? asked many na-tives. The curate says that the rich manwill not go to heaven The rich man on earthis liable to all kinds of trouble, to be ap-pointed a cabeza de barangay, to be de-ported if an uprising occurs, to be forcedbanker of the military chief of the town,who to reward him for favors received seizeshis laborers and his stock, in order to force

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him to beg for mercy, and thus easily paysup. Why be rich? So that all the officers ofjustice may have a lynx eye on your actions,so that at the least slip enemies may beraised up against you, you may be indicted,a whole complicated and labyrinthine storymay be concocted against you, for whichyou can only get away, not by the threadof Ariadne but by Danaes shower of gold,

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and still give thanks that you are not keptin reserve for some needy occasion? Thenative, whom they pretend to regard as animbecile, is not so much so that he doesnot understand that it is ridiculous to workhimself to death to become worse off. Aproverb of his says that the pig is cooked inits own lard, and as among his bad quali-ties he has the good one of applying to him-

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self all the criticisms and censures he prefersto live miserable and indolent, rather thanplay the part of the wretched beast of bur-den.

Add to this the introduction of gam-bling. We do not mean to san that beforethe coming of the Spaniards the natives didnot gamble: the passion for grumbling is in-nate in adventuresome and excitable races,

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though Pigafetta tells us of it, he mentionsit only in Paragua, and not in Cebu norin any other island of the south, where hestayed long time. Morga does not speak ofit, in spite of his having spent seven years inManila, and yet he does describe the kindsof fowl, the jungle hens and cocks. Neitherdoes Morga, speak of gambling, when hetalks about vices and other defects, more

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or less concealed, more or less insignificant.Moreover, excepting the two Tagalog wordssabong and tari, the others are of Spanishorigin, as soltada (setting the cocks to fight,then the fight itself), presto, (apuesta, bet),logro (winnings), pago (payment), senten-ciador (referee), case (to cover the bets),etc. We say the same about gambling: theword sugal (jugar, to gamble), like kump-

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isal (confesar, to confess to a priest), in-dicates that gambling was unknown in thePhilippines before the Spaniards. The wordlaro (Tagalog, to play) is not the equiva-lent of the word sunni. The word balasa(baraja, playing-card) proves that the in-troduction of playing-cards was not due tothe Chinese, who have a kind of playing-cards also, because in that case they would

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have taken the Chinese name. Is not thisenough? The word taya (taltar, to bet),paris-paris (Spanish pares, pairs of cards),politana (napolitana, a winning sequence ofcards), sapore (to stack the cards), kapote(to slam), monte, and so on, all prove theforeign origin of this terrible plant, whichonly produces vice, and which has found inthe character of the native a fit soil, culti-

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vated by circumstances.Along with gambling, which breeds dis-

like for steady and difficult toil by its promiseof sudden wealth and its appeal to the emo-tions, with the lotteries, with the prodigal-ity and hospitality of the Filipinos, wentalso, to swell this train of misfortunes, thereligious functions, the great number of fies-tas, the long masses for the women to spend

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their mornings and the novenaries to spendtheir afternoons, and the night, for the pro-cessions and rosaries. Remember that lackof capital and absence of means paralyzeall movement, and you will see how the na-tive has perforce to be indolent for if anymoney might remain to him from the tri-als, imposts and exactions, he would haveto give it to the curate for bulls, scapularies,

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candles, novenaries, etc. And if this doesnot suffice to form an indolent character, ifthe climate and nature are not enough inthemselves to daze him and deprive him ofall energy, recall then that the doctrines ofhis religion teach him to irrigate his fieldsin the dry season, not by means of canalsbut with masses and prayers; to preservehis stock during an epizootic with holy wa-

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ter, exorcisms and benedictions that costfive dollars an animal; to drive away thelocusts by a procession with the image ofSt. Augustine, etc. It is well, undoubt-edly, to trust greatly in God; but it is bet-ter to do what one can and not trouble theCreator every moment, even when these ap-peals redound to the benefit of His minis-ters. We have noticed that the countries

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which believe most in miracles are the lazi-est, just, as spoiled children are the mostill-mannered. Whether they believe in mir-acles to palliate their laziness or they arelazy because they believe in miracles, wecannot say; but the fact is the Filipinos weremuch less lazy before the word miracle wasintroduced into their language.

The facility with which individual lib-155


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erty is curtailed, that continual alarm of allfrom the knowledge that they are liable tosecret report, a governmental ukase, and tothe accusation of rebel or suspect, an ac-cusation which, to be effective, does notneed proof or the production of the accuser.With that lack of confidence in the future,that uncertainty of reaping the reward oflabor, as in a city stricken with the plague,

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the manufacturer or for the farmer; the gov-ernment furnishes no aid either when poorcrop comes, when the locusts (23) sweepover the fields, or when a cyclone destroysin its passage the wealth of the soil; nor doesit take any trouble to seek a market for theproducts of its colonies. Why should it doso when these same products are burdenedwith taxes and imposts and have not free

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entry into the ports, of the mother country,nor is their consumption there encouraged?While we see all the walls of London coveredwith advertisements of the products of itscolonies, while the English make heroic ef-forts to substitute Ceylon for Chinese tea,beginning with the sacrifice of their tasteand their stomach, in Spain, with the ex-ception of tobacco, nothing from the Philip-

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pines is known: neither its sugar, coffee,hemp, fine cloths, nor its Ilocano blankets.The name of Manila is known only fromthose cloths of China or Indo-China whichat one time reached Spain by way of Manila,heavy silk shawls, fantastically but coarselyembroidered, which no one has thought ofimitating in Manila, since they are so easilymade; but the government has other cares,

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and the Filipinos do not know that such ob-jects are more highly esteemed in the Penin-sula than their delicate pina, embroideriesand their very fine jusi fabrics. Thus dis-appeared our trade in indigo, thanks to thetrickery of the Chinese, which the govern-ment could not guard against, occupied asit was with other thoughts; thus die now theother industries; the fine manufactures of

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the Visayas are gradually disappearing fromtrade and even from use; the people, con-tinually getting poorer, cannot afford thecostly cloths and have to be content withcalico or the imitations of the Germans, whoproduce imitations even of the work of oursilversmiths.

The fact that the best plantations, thebest tracts of land in some provinces, those

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that from their easy access are more prof-itable than others, are in the hands of thereligious corporations, whose desideratumis ignorance and a condition of semi-starvationfor the native, so that they may continueto govern him and make themselves neces-sary to his wretched existence, is one of thereasons why many towns do not progressin spite of the efforts of their inhabitants.

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We will be met with the objections, as anargument on the other side, that the townswhich belong to the friars are comparativelyricher than those which do not belong tothem. They surely are! Just as their brethrenin Europe, in founding their convents, knewhow to select the best valleys, the best up-lands for the cultivation of the vine or theproduction of beer, so also the Philippine

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monks (25) have known how to select thebest towns, the beautiful plains, the well-watered fields, to make of them rich plan-tations. For some time the friars have de-ceived many by making them believe thatif these plantations were prospering, it wasbecause they were under their care, and theindolence of the native was thus empha-sized; but they forget that in same provinces

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where they have not been able for some rea-son to get possession of the best tracts ofland, their plantations, like Baurand andLiang, are inferior to Taal, Balayan andLipa, regions cultivated entirely by the na-tives without any monkish interference what-soever.

Add to this lack of material inducementthe absentee of moral stimulus, and you will

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tion, while other officers, such as the presscensor, are preserved, it is because the be-lief exists that the light of progress mayinjure the people more than all the adul-terated foods (26). In the same way, an-other young man won a prize in a literarycompetition, and as long as his origin wasunknown his work was discussed, the news-papers praised it and it was regarded as a

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Finally, passing over many other moreor less insignificant reasons, the enumera-tion of which would be interminable, let usclose this dreary list with the principal andmost terrible of all: the education of thenative.

From his birth until he sinks into hisgrave, the training of the native is brutal-izing, depressive and antihuman (the word

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inhuman is not sufficiently explanatory: whetheror not the Academy admit it, let it go).There is no doubt that the government, somepriests like the Jesuits and some Domini-cans like Padre Benavides, have done a greatdeal by founding colleges, schools of pri-mary instruction, and the like. But thisis not enough; their effect is neutralized.They amount to five or ten years (years

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they demand of him divine actions. Andwe say divine actions, because he must be agod who does not become indolent in thatclimate, surrounded by the circumstancesmentioned. Deprive a man, then, of hisdignity, and you not only deprive him ofhis moral strength but you also make himuseless even for those who wish to make useof him. Every creature has its stimulus, its

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mainspring: mans is his self-esteem. Takeit away from him and he is a corpse, and hewho seeks activity in a corpse will encounteronly worms.

Thus is explained how the natives of thepresent time are no longer the same as thoseof the time of the discovery, neither morallynor physically.

The ancient writers, like Chirino, Morga177


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and Colin, take pleasure in describing themas well-featured, with good aptitudes forany thing they take up, keen and suscepti-ble and of resolute will, very clean and neatin their persons and clothing, and of goodmien and bearing. (Morga). Others de-light in minute accounts of their intelligenceand pleasant manners, of their aptitude formusic, the drama, dancing and singing; of

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the facility with which they learned, notonly Spanish but also Latin, which they ac-quired almost by themselves (Colin); oth-ers, of their exquisite politeness in their deal-ings and in their social life; others, like thefirst Augustinians, whose accounts Gasparde San Augustin copies, found them moregallant and better mannered than the in-habitants of the Moluccas. All live off their

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than Legazpi, nor more manly than Morga,nor more studious than Colin and Gasparde San Agustin, our contemporary writers,we say, find that the native is a creaturesomething more than a monkey but muchless than a man, an anthropoid, dull-witted,stupid, timid, dirty, cringing, grinning, ill-clothed, indolent, lazy, brainless, immoral,etc., etc.

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Filipinos consists in that they have becomeonly half-way brutes. The Filipino is con-vinced that to get happiness it is necessaryfor him to lay aside his dignity as a rationalcreature, to attend mass, to believe what istold him, to pay what is demanded of him,to pay and forever to pay; to work, sufferand be silent, without aspiring to anything,without aspiring to know or even to under-

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stand Spanish, without separating himselffrom his carabao, as the priests shamelesslysay, without protesting against any injus-tice, against any arbitrary action, againstan assault, against an insult; that is, notto have heart, brain or spirit: a creaturewith arms and a purse full of gold ............theres the ideal native! Unfortunately, orbecause the brutalization is not yet com-

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plete and because the nature of man is in-herent in his being in spite of his condition,the native protests; he still has aspirations,he thinks and strives to rise, and theres thetrouble!

VIn the preceding chapter we set forth

the causes that proceed from the govern-ment in fostering and maintaining the evil

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we are discussing. Now it falls to us toanalyze those that emanate from the peo-ple. Peoples and governments are corre-lated and complementary: a fatuous gov-ernment would be an anomaly among righ-teous people, just as a corrupt people can-not exist under just rulers and wise laws.Like people, like government, we will say inparaphrase of a popular adage.

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We can reduce all these causes to twoclasses: to defects of training and lack ofnational sentiment.

Of the influence of climate we spoke atthe beginning, so we will not treat of theeffects arising from it.

The very limited training in the home,the tyrannical and sterile education of therare centers of learning, that blind subordi-

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nation of the youth to one of greater age,influence the mind so that a man may notaspire to excel those who preceded him butmust merely be content to go along withor march behind them. Stagnation forciblyresults from this, and as he who devoteshimself merely to copying divests himself ofother qualities suited to his own nature, henaturally becomes sterile; hence decadence.

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Indolence is a corollary derived from thelack of stimulus and of vitality.

That modesty infused into the convic-tions of every one, or, to speak more clearly,that insinuated inferiority, a sort of dailyand constant depreciation of the mind sothat, it may not be raised to the regionsof light, deadens the energies, paralyzes alltendency toward advancement, and at the

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least struggle a man gives up without fight-ing. If by one of those rare accidents, somewild spirit, that is, some active one, excels,instead of his example stimulating, it onlycauses others to persist in their inaction.Theres one who will work for us: lets sleepon! say his relatives and friends. True it isthat the spirit of rivalry is sometimes awak-ened, only that then it awakens with bad

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humor in the guise of envy, and instead ofbeing a lever for helping, it is an obstaclethat produces discouragement.

Nurtured by the example of anchoritesof a contemplative and lazy life, the na-tives spend theirs in giving their gold to theChurch in the hope of miracles and otherwonderful things. Their will is hypnotized:from childhood they learn to act mechani-

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of intelligence and will the native, of oldlogical and consistentas the analysis of hispast and of his language demonstratesshouldnow be a mass of dismal contradictions?That continual struggle between reason andduty, between his organism and his new ide-als, that civil war which disturbs the peaceof his conscience all his life, has the result,of paralyzing all his energies, and aided by

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the severity of the climate, makes of thateternal vacillation, of the doubts in his brain,the origin of his indolent disposition.

You cant know more than this or thatold man! Dont aspire to be greater thanthe curate! You belong to an inferior race!You havent any energy! This is what theytell the child, and as they repeat it so of-ten, it has perforce to become engraved on

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his mind and thence mould and pervade allhis actions. The child or youth who tries tobe anything else is blamed with vanity andpresumption; the curate ridicules him withcruel sarcasm, his relatives look upon himwith fear, strangers regard him with greatcompassion. No forward movement! Getback in the ranks and keep in line!

With his spirit thus moulded the native195


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falls into the most pernicious of all rou-tines: routine not planned, but imposedand forced. Note that the native himselfis not, naturally inclined to routine, buthis mind is disposed to accept all truths, just as his house is open to all strangers.The good and the beautiful attract him, se-duce and captivate him, although, like theJapanese, he often exchanges the good for

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the evil, if it appears to him garnished andgilded. What he lacks is in the first placeliberty to allow expansion to his adventure-some spirit, and good examples, beautifulprospects for the future. It is necessary thathis spirit, although it may be dismayed andcowed by the elements and the fearful mani-festation of their mighty forces, store up en-ergy, seek high purposes, in order to strug-

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gle against obstacles in the midst of unfa-vorable natural conditions. In order thathe may progress it is necessary that a revo-lutionary spirit, so to speak, should boil inhis veins, since progress necessarily requireschange; it implies the overthrow of the past,there deified, by the present; the victoryof new ideas over the ancient and acceptedones. It will not be sufficient to speak to

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his fancy, to talk nicely to him, nor thatthe light illuminate him like the ignis fatuusthat leads travelers astray at night; all theflattering promises of the fairest hopes willnot suffice, so long as his spirit is not free,his intelligence not respected.

The reasons that originate in the lack ofnational sentiment are still more lamentableand more transcendental.

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Convinced by the insinuation of his in-feriority, his spirit harassed by his educa-tion, if that brutalization of which we spokeabove can be called education, in that ex-change of usages and sentiments among dif-ferent nations, the Filipino, to whom re-main only his susceptibility and his poeticalimagination, allows himself to be guided byhis fancy and his self-love. It is sufficient

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that the foreigner praise to him the im-ported merchandise and run down the na-tive product for him to hasten to make thechange, without reflecting that everythinghas its weak side and the most sensible cus-tom is ridiculous in the eyes of those whodo not follow it. They have dazzled himwith tinsel, with strings, of colored glassbeads, with noisy rattles, shining mirrors

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and other trinkets, and he has given in re-turn his gold, his conscience, and even hisliberty. He changed his religion for the ex-ternal practices of another cult; the convic-tions and usages derived from his climateand needs, for other usages and other con-victions that developed under another skyand another inspiration. His spirit, well-disposed toward everything that looks good

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a luxurious litter, the result was that theimitative people became bookish, devout,prayerful; it acquired ideas of luxury andostentation, without thereby improving themeans of its subsistence to a correspondingdegree.

The lack of national sentiment bringsanother evil, moreover, which is the absenceof all opposition to measures prejudicial to

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the people and the absence of any initiativein whatever may redound to its good. Aman in the Philippines is only an individ-ual, he is not a member of a nation. Heis forbidden and denied the right of asso-ciation, and is therefore weak and sluggish.The Philippines are an organism whose cellsseem to have no arterial system to irrigateit or nervous system to communicate its

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impressions; these cells must, nevertheless,yield their product, get it where they can: ifthey perish, let them perish. In the view ofsome this is expedient so that a colony maybe a colony; perhaps they are right, but notto the effect that a colony may flourish.

The result of this is that if a prejudicialmeasure is ordered, no one protests; all goeswell apparently until later the evils are felt.

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Another blood-letting, and as the organismhas neither nerves nor voice the physicianproceeds in the belief that the treatment isnot injuring it. It needs a reform, but asit must not speak, it keeps silent and re-mains with the need. The patient wantsto eat, it wants to breathe the fresh air,but as such desires may offend the suscep-tibility of the physician who thinks that he

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has already provided everything necessary,it suffers and pines away from fear of receiv-ing scolding, of getting another plaster anda new blood-letting, and so on indefinitely.

In addition to this, love of peace andthe horror many have of accepting the fewadministrative positions which fall to theFilipinos on account of the trouble and an-noyance these cause them places at the head

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of the people the most stupid and incapablemen, those who submit to everything, thosewho can endure all the caprices and ex-actions of the curate and of the officials.With this inefficiency in the lower spheresof power and ignorance and indifference inthe upper, with the frequent changes andthe eternal apprenticeships, with great fearand many administrative obstacles, with a

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voiceless people that has neither initiativenor cohesion, with employees who nearly allstrive to amass a fortune and return home,with inhabit, ants who live in great hard-ship from the instant they begin to breathe,create prosperity, agriculture and industry,found enterprises and companies, things thatstill hardly prosper in free and well-organizedcommunities.

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with the public offices forced on him, thedonations and bribes that he has to makeso that he may drag out his wretched exis-tence. The cord is already too taut.

We have heard many complaints, andevery day we read in the papers about theefforts the government is making to rescuethe country from its condition of indolence.Weighing its plans, its illusions and its dif-

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ficulties, we are reminded of the gardenerwho tried to raise a tree planted in a smallflower-pot. The gardener spent his daystending and watering the handful of earth,he trimmed the plant frequently, he pulledat it to lengthen it and hasten its growth,he grafted on it cedars and oaks, until oneday the little tree died, leaving the manconvinced that it belonged to a degenerate

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species, attributing the failure of his exper-iment to everything except the lack of soiland his own ineffable folly.

Without education and liberty, that soiland that sun of mankind, no reform is pos-sible, no measure can give the result de-sired. This does not mean that we shouldask first for the native the instruction ofa sage and all imaginable liberties, in or-

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der then to put a hoe in his hand or placehim in a workshop; such a pretension wouldbe an absurdity and vain folly. What wewish is that obstacles be not put in his way,that the many his climate and the situa-tion of the islands afford be not augmented,that instruction be not begrudged him forfear that when he becomes intelligent hemay separate from the colonizing nation or

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ask for the rights of which he makes him-self worthy. Since some day or other hewill become enlightened, whether the gov-ernment wishes it or not, let his enlighten-ment be as a gift received and not as con-quered plunder. We desire that the pol-icy be at once frank and consistent, thatis, highly civilizing, without sordid reserva-tions, without distrust, without fear or jeal-

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may act with the security that some dayor other it will reap the harvest and willfind a people its own in heart and interest;there is nothing like a favor for securingthe friendship or enmity of man, accord-ing to whether it be conferred with goodwill or hurled into his face and bestowedupon him in spite of himself. If the logi-cal and regulated system of exploitation be

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chosen, stifling with the jingle of gold andthe sheen of opulence the sentiments of in-dependence in the colonies, paying with itswealth for its lack of liberty, as the Englishdo in India, who moreover leave the govern-ment to native rulers, then build roads, layout highways, foster the freedom of trade;let the government heed material interestsmore than the interests of four orders of

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ungrateful children.1. Sancianco y Goson, Gregorio: El pro-

greso de Filipinas. Estudios economicos,administrativos y polticos. Parte economica.Madrid, Imp. de la Vda. de J M. Perez,1881 Pp XIV-260.

An eminent student of Philippine lifeand history, James A. LeRoy in his ThePhilippines, 1860-1898Some comment and

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bibliographical notes published in volume52 of Blair and Robertson, Philippine Is-lands 1493-1898, praises this book (p. 141)as especially valuable on administrative mat-ters just prior to the revision of the fiscalregime in connection with the abolition ofthe government tobacco monopoly, and forits data on land, commerce, and industry

2. Before 1590, one of the Spanish offi-222


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cers in the Philippines, commenting on theclimate of the Islands, declared, with con-siderable acumen, that Europeans could standlife and work here if they observed conti-nence in regard to the use of alcoholic bev-erages.

3. See Morgas Report of conditionsin the Philippines (June 8, 1598) in Blairand Robertson vol. 10. pp. 75-80, in which

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various abuses of the friars are set forth.This should be compared with the follow-ing pages of the same relation (pp. 89-90)on secular affairs, from which it will be rec-ognized that the condition was not so muchthe resultant of one class as of Spanish na-tional character. Cf. also, Anda y SalazarB. and R, vol. 50, pp. 137-190; and LeGentil, Voyage (Paris, 1779-81), vol. 1, pp.

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183-191. It would be hardly fair not to callto mind that the Filipinos are debtors to thefriars in many ways, and the Filipinos them-selves should be the last to forget this. For agood exposition from the friar point of view,see Zamora, Las Corporaciones-Religiosasen Filipinas: Valladolid, 1901.

See also Mallat, Les Philippines (Paris,1846), vol. 1, pp. 374-389.

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4. The history of the Philippines is fullof references to Chinese who came here forthe reasons assigned by Rizal. The anti-quarian will be interested in consulting asmall work entitled Notes on the Malay Archipelagoand Malacca, compiled from Chinese sources,by W. P. Groeneveldt.

5 See B. and R., vol 34, pp. 183-191for a description of the early Chinese trade

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in the Philippines, also translated by Hirthfrom Chinese sources, but evidently not thesame as referred to by Rizal,

6. This citation is translated directlyfrom the original Italian Ms. Rizals ac-count is seen to be slightly different andarises from the fact that he made use ofAmorettis printed version of the Ms., whichis wrong in many particulars. Amoretti at-

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tempted to change the original Ms. intomodern Italian, with disastrous result. Itis to be regretted that Walls y Merino fol-lowed the same garbled text, in his Primerviaje alrededor del Mundo (Madrid, 1899).

Dr. Antonio de Morgas book is per-haps the most famous of all the early bookstreating of the Philippines. Its full title is asfollows: Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas: Di-

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rigido a Don Cristoval Gomez de Sandovaly Rojas, Duque de Cea, Mexico, En casa deGeronymo Balli, 1609. The original editionis very rare, and is worth almost its weightin gold. The manuscript circulated for someyears before the date of publication.

The second Spanish edition of the workwas published by Rizal himself, who wasalways a sincere admirer of the book. It

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bears the following title-page: Sucesos delas Islas Filipinas por el Doctor Antonio deMorga. Obra publicada en Mejico el ano de1609 nuevamente sacada a luz y anotadapor Jose Rizal y precedida de un prologodel Prof. Fernando Blumentritt. Paris, Li-breria de Garnier Hermanos, 1890. Shortlybefore Rizal began work on his edition, aSpanish scholar, Justo Zaragoza, began the

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publication of a new edition of Morga. Thebook was reprinted, but the notes, prologue,and life of Morga which Zargoza had in-tended to insert, were never completed be-cause of that editors death. Only two copiesof this edition, so far as known, were everbound, one of which belongs to the Ayercollection in Chicago, and the other by theTabacalera purchase to the Philippine Li-

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brary, in Manila. Still one other Spanishedition has appeared, namely: Sucesos delas Islas Filipinas por el Dr. Antonio deMorga. Nueva edicion enriquecida con losescritos ineditos del mismo autor ilustradacon numerosas notas que amplian el textoy prologada extensamente por W. E. Re-tana, Madrid, Libreria General de Victo-riano Suarez, Editor, 1909. Retana adds

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a life of Morga and numerous documentswritten by him. An English edition waspublished as follows: The Philippine Is-lands, Moluccas, Siam, Cambodia, Japan,and China. at the close of the sixteenthcentury. By Antonio de Morga. Translatedfrom the Spanish, with notes and a pref-ace, and a letter from Luis Vaez de Tor-res, describing his voyage through the Tor-

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res Straits, by the Hen. Henry E. J. Stan-ley, London, Printed for the Hakluyt Soci-ety, 1868. However, Stanleys translationis poor, and parts of passages are not trans-lated at all. [It was this edition then inpreparation by the Hakluyt Society, whichSir John Bowring, a director of the society,mentioned on his visit to Rizals uncle inBinan, so that to make the book available

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China and adjacent countries, by Dr. An-tonio de Morga, alcalde of criminal causes,in the Royal Audiencia of Nueva Espana,and counsel for the Holy Office of the in-quisition. Completely translated into En-glish, edited and annotated by E. H. Blairand J. A. Robertson. Cleveland, Ohio, TheArthur H. Clark Company, 1907. See B.and R. vols. 9-12 for other documents by

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Morga, and vol. 53 (or Robertsons Bibliog-raphy of the Philippine Islands, Cleveland,1908), for bibliographical details regardingMorga and titles to documents. Perhapsthe most famous of all his writings outsideof his book is his relation mentioned ante,note 3.

7. Published at London in 1783. See p.346.

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8. See B. and R., vol. 4, pp. 221, 222,for an old boatsong.

9. Colins Labor evangelica, publishedin Madrid, 1663; a new edition, in threevolumes, and greatly enriched by notes andwas published by Pablo Pastells, S. J. (Barcelona,1900-1902).

10. See B. and R., vol. 33, pp. 233-235.The original says the ransom included 150

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very nature a seafaring people. The factof an inter-island traffic is indicative of aculture above that possessed by a people inthe barbarian stage of culture. Of course,there was considerable Chinese trade as wellthroughout the islands.

12. This estimate is somewhat high.A writer in speaking of the population ofManila, the metropolis of the Philippines

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then as now, about 1570 says that its pop-ulation scarcely reached 80,000, instead ofthe 200,000 reported.

13 Licentiate Pedro de Rojas, of the ManilaAudiencia, in a letter to Felipe II, June 30,1586Vol.6, pp. 265-274 says (p. 270): Ifthere were no trade with China, the citizensof these islands, would be richer; for the na-tives if they had not so many tostons, would

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pay their tributes in the articles which theyproduce, and which are current, that is,cloths, lampotes, cotton, and gold.all ofwhich have great value in Nueva Espana.These they cease to produce because of theabundance of silver; and what is worse andentails more loss upon your Majesty, is thatthey do not, as formerly, work the minesand take out gold. The old records con-

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tains numerous references to the decline ofthe native industries of the Philippines afterthe arrival of the Spaniards and the increaseof Chinese trade.

14. See ante, note 13.15. The decrease of p opulation among

native people in the Philippines after thearrival of the Spaniards compares in no de-gree with what occurred in America. A

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most distressing picture of conditions in thePhilippines is given by Bishop Domingo deSalazar in his relation written about 1583(see B. & R., vol 5, pp. 210-255. See espe-cially p. 212.) It is well to balance Salazarsaccount with those of others

(A tributary was generally reckonedas five persons, one tribute being requiredfor each adult male. Hence tributaries

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and families may here be taken to meanabout the same number,D.)

16. The forced labor required by theSpaniards in shipbuilding formed one of thelegitimate causes of complaint among thepeople almost from the beginning.

17. See ante, note 15, also note 16.18. The early friars, although many of

them fell into some of the very faults which245


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they condemned, inveighed boldly againstthe cruelty of the Spaniards. Doubtless theirattitude did encourage their converts to with-draw from industry to a certain degree.

19. See B. & R, vol. 4, pp. 148-303.20 See B & R., vol. 6, for early accounts

of Chinese trade and Spanish measures af-fecting it The hostility between Spaniardsand Portuguese enters largely into the ques-

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tion. The effects of the deplorably bad eco-nomics of Spain in its trade relations arestill felt in the Peninsula.

21. See ante, note 20.22. See ante, note 20. The arrival and

departure of the annual galleon were timesof activity, but otherwise Manila was a dulltown, with little industry. The Chinese usurpedall the petty trade.

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23 It is to the credit, of the SociedadEconomica de Amigos del Pais de Filipinas,founded by the energetic governor Basco yVargas in 1781, that it extended its many-sided interests to the destructi

Jose Rizal-The Indolence of the Filipino Mobile

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