Chapter 12

44. Upon your arrival at those islands, and when the situation is actually before you, you shall investigate the new method and circumstances with which the new entrances and pacifications are and can be justifiably made, as well as the few soldiers, slight cost, and the great ease and profit with which they can be made, because of the country being divided into many islands, and there being many petty rulers. These fall out among themselves on slight occasion, and make treaties with the Spaniards, and hence are kept in order with but little assistance. Since the petition made there in regard to the pay and the number of soldiers has been granted--and you are to maintain the soldiers in good discipline, and keep them quiet, and punctually paid--you shall make the said entrances and pacifications with great circumspection and just cause, in which you shall observe the rules of the instructions, which shall be furnished to you, regarding new discoveries.

45. It is said that there is great need of such pacification in the said islands, especially in the very districts where the Spaniards live and travel, for all of the natives are in revolt and unsubdued, because of the lack of soldiers, and of the injuries and annoyances inflicted upon the natives by what soldiers are there. Moreover, as we are informed from there, many provinces of the island of Luçon either have never been subdued, or, if subdued, have revolted--as, for instance, those of Cagayan, Pangasinan, Payasondan, Çambales, Balente, and others, which are situated among the pacified provinces quite near and round about Manila; all the provinces, therefore, are in confusion and disorder. Upon your arrival at the said islands, you shall ordain in this whatever is advisable. You shall proceed in this as shall seem expedient, commencing as shall be right, and be attentive to the remedy for these evils, with very special care and assistance, since evil may happen to what is distant, if one's own house is left in suspicion and unsubdued. Besides there is the great obligation to endeavor to instruct the many people converted already, who are under my royal protection. These, because of their lack of the requisite peace and quiet, live in great hardship and danger; for those who are in revolt and unpacified harass them daily, kill and assault them, and burn their crops. Because of this, and because they also kill many Spaniards, not only is there no increase in what has been gained, but each day that is becoming less. Everything demands and requires so prompt a remedy, which is thus committed to you.

46. Beyond and beside the said provinces which are here and there disaffected among the Spaniards and the Indians already converted, are others, which although not so near, owing to their remoteness and the nature of their inhabitants, still cannot be called new discoveries, because they have been visited and known already. These are Babuyanes, the island of Hermosa, the island of Cavallos ["horses"], Lequios, the island of Ayncio, Javas, Burney, Paca, Guancalanyanes, Mindanao, Siao [Siam], Maluco, and many others. Because it has been reported that they are falling into a worse condition daily, and having been advised that their welfare and the safety of the Spaniards demand their pacification, and that delay might render it difficult, you shall ascertain the manner and method with which the said pacification and subjection can be best and most quickly brought about, and you shall execute it, as seems best to you.

47. Since it seems advisable that you, from whom I expect so much, should have authority and power to make all the said entrances and pacifications at the cost of my royal estate, in respect to which if you were constrained to await a reply from here, in a land so distant, important occasions and opportunities might be lost, I have resolved to give you authorization for this. Accordingly I grant it to you, and order the officials of my royal estate of the said islands that, in all matters under your control, they shall honor and pay all the orders that you present to them for the said purpose. But you shall observe that you are to use the said authority only in the most important matters which shall arise, after consulting about matters of law with the ecclesiastics and the lawyers, and those of action with the captains and men of experience and conscience, and taking account of all other necessary conditions, so that the expense may be no greater than can be avoided, and profitable.

48. In order that you may accomplish them better and avoid expense, I authorize you to covenant and bargain with captains, encomenderos, and any others, in respect to the said entrances and pacifications, they to make them wholly or partly at their own cost, as seems advisable to you; and to give them title, for a limited time, as governors of the islands or provinces that they explore or pacify, and as captains and masters-of-camp, providing you do not give them title as adelantado or mariscal. You shall advise me of it, when anyone undertakes this, reporting the services, capacity, and merits of such person. The said covenant and agreement which you shall make may be kept in force until I approve them, because time will be saved thus--but with the condition of sending them to me, so that I may confirm them. You shall bind the parties to the agreement, upon the arrival of the said confirmations, to some brief period, such as you may assign for it.

49. I have been told that, although a few of the encomenderos of the said islands, who fear God and their consciences, are trying to establish ministers of religious instruction in their encomiendas, others are not doing this, and refuse to do it as they are obliged, and as is advisable, notwithstanding that there are plenty of the said ministers; that there are encomiendas which have been paying tribute peacefully for fifteen, twenty, or twenty-five years, without the Indians of them ever having seen a minister or heard a word of Christian instruction; and that also many other encomiendas pay tribute by pure force of soldiers and arquebuses, who rebel and revolt because of the oppression and severity with which they are treated, without knowing the reason why they should pay it, since they have no instruction. Since, besides the obligation to procure the welfare of those souls, their conversion, instruction, and teaching, which should be the chief constraining force; and since even for temporal affairs, for the peace and tranquillity of the country, so that those pacified should not revolt, and so that those in revolt should be subdued, the best method is that of instruction--for which the common treatment, mildness, upright life, and counsels of the religious and ministers of the gospel incline and regulate their minds: therefore I charge you that, after consulting with the bishop you shall, in my name, provide what is advisable in this, so that the necessary instruction may be furnished, that my conscience, and his, and your own may be relieved.

50. I have also been informed that, in collecting the tributes from the Indians, there has been in the past, and is at present, great disorder, because the former governors of the said islands have done things very confusedly and haphazardly. Because the tribute of each Indian is of the value of eight reals, paid in what the Indian might possess, some persons take advantage of certain words of the said assessments, and of the articles in which tributes are designated--such as cotton cloth, rice, and other products of the country--to cause the said lawlessness. This disorder has consisted in each one collecting whatever he wished, to the great offense and injury of the said Indians; for when gold is abundant, their encomenderos demand coin from the Indians; and when coin is abundant and gold scarce, they demand gold, although the said Indians have to search for and buy it. In short, they always demand their tributes in those things which are scarce, by reason of which, for the tribute worth eight reals, some collect fifteen, and others twenty, twenty-five, thirty, and more, according to the value of those things that are demanded. They cause the Indians to seek them and bring them from other parts, to their great vexation and affliction. It is advisable to check this lawlessness and excess. Therefore I charge you to ordain that, in the payment of the said tributes, the order referred to in section six of these instructions shall be observed. That section treats of the Indians being allowed to pay their tributes in coin, gold, or products, as they may choose.

51. Another section of the said memorial also pointed out that, although certain Spaniards of tender conscience have freed their slaves, native to the said islands, in fulfilment of the provision of my decrees, many others have retained them, and do not allow them to have houses of their own, or to live on their own land under the ordinary instruction. It is advisable to remedy this also; and I therefore commit it to you, and order you that, immediately upon your arrival at the said islands, you shall set at liberty all those Indians held as slaves by the Spaniards.

52. I am informed that the said Indians have suffered many grievances and burdens from all the ministers of justice, because the latter have incited many suits, not only of cases after the country was discovered, but of others that had happened in its pagan days, among both the living and their forefathers, and both civil and criminal cases. These are not summary, but have all the terms, demands, preliminary hearings, and reviews, which can be found in any chancilleria of these kingdoms. In these the Indians have wasted and continue to waste their possessions. Although in section twenty-nine of these instructions, it treats of what you and the bishop have to do or provide as a remedy for these vexations of suits by Spaniards and Indians, once more I charge you and recommend you to strive to have the suits finished and decided promptly and summarily. You must take note that this will be one of the matters in which I shall consider myself most faithfully and fully served by you.

53. In regard to the confusion existing, past and present, in the religious leaving the said islands for the mainland of China and other places, without permission of the governor or bishop--asserting that, through their all-sufficient power, those who hinder them shall be excommunicated--the advisable course has also been pointed out in time past--namely, that the religious should go there with the resolution to settle in the said Philipinas Islands, and not go elsewhere without your permission and that of the said bishop. This must be construed in respect to the religious who shall have been assigned to make a settlement and to live there, and not with those who have license from me to pass farther and to go to other regions; for when this is given or permitted to them, it is after much consideration.

54. It has been said that, for the remedy of past confusion and wrongs, which have resulted from people going from the said islands to China and other districts without order or permission, it would be advisable to ordain, under severe penalties, that no secular Spaniard may leave them for any place or on any business, or supply a fragata, provisions, or any other assistance to any of the said religious, without my special order, or your permission and that of the said bishop. Inasmuch as this fits in with the provision of the above section, the same provision there is to be noted by you, so that likewise you may know what pertains to this, and doing that you shall understand it thoroughly.

You shall attend to all of the above with the care and close attention that I expect from your character and prudence, and from your earnest zeal in affairs touching my service. San Lorenço, August nine, one thousand five hundred and eighty-nine.

_I The King_

By order of the king, our sovereign:

_Juan de Ybarra_

Countersigned by the council.

Customs of the Tagalogs

(_Two Relations by Juan de Plasencia, O.S.F._)

After receiving your Lordship's letter, I wished to reply immediately; but I postponed my answer in order that I might first thoroughly inform myself in regard to your request, and to avoid discussing the conflicting reports of the Indians, who are wont to tell what suits their purpose. Therefore, to this end, I collected Indians from different districts--old men, and those of most capacity, all known to me; and from them I have obtained the simple truth, after weeding out much foolishness, in regard to their government, administration of justice, inheritances, slaves, and dowries. [25] It is as follows:

_Customs of the Tagalogs_

This people always had chiefs, called by them _datos_, who governed them and were captains in their wars, and whom they obeyed and reverenced. The subject who committed any offense against them, or spoke but a word to their wives and children, was severely punished.

These chiefs ruled over but few people; sometimes as many as a hundred houses, sometimes even less than thirty. This tribal gathering is called in Tagalo a _barangay_. It was inferred that the reason for giving themselves this name arose from the fact (as they are classed, by their language, among the Malay nations) that when they came to this land, the head of the barangay, which is a boat, thus called--as is discussed at length in the first chapter of the first ten chapters--became a _dato_. And so, even at the present day, it is ascertained that this barangay in its origin was a family of parents and children, relations and slaves. There were many of these barangays in each town, or, at least, on account of wars, they did not settle far from one another. They were not, however, subject to one another, except in friendship and relationship. The chiefs, in their various wars, helped one another with their respective barangays.

In addition to the chiefs, who corresponded to our knights, there were three castes: nobles, commoners, and slaves. The nobles were the free-born whom they call _maharlica_. They did not pay tax or tribute to the dato, but must accompany him in war, at their own expense. The chief offered them beforehand a feast, and afterward they divided the spoils. Moreover, when the dato went upon the water those whom he summoned rowed for him. If he built a house, they helped him, and had to be fed for it. The same was true when the whole barangay went to clear up his lands for tillage. The lands which they inhabited were divided among the whole barangay, especially the irrigated portion, and thus each one knew his own. No one belonging to another barangay would cultivate them unless after purchase or inheritance. The lands on the _tingues_, or mountain-ridges, are not divided, but owned in common by the barangay. Consequently, at the time of the rice harvest, any individual of any particular barangay, although he may have come from some other village, if he commences to clear any land may sow it, and no one can compel him to abandon it. There are some villages (as, for example, Pila de la Laguna) in which these nobles, or maharlicas, paid annually to the dato a hundred gantas of rice. The reason of this was that, at the time of their settlement there, another chief occupied the lands, which the new chief, upon his arrival, bought with his own gold; and therefore the members of his barangay paid him for the arable land, and he divided it, among those whom he saw fit to reward. But now, since the advent of the Spaniards, it is not so divided.

The chiefs in some villages had also fisheries, with established limits, and sections of the rivers for markets. At these no one could fish, or trade in the markets, without paying for the privilege, unless he belonged to the chief's barangay or village.

The commoners are called _aliping namamahay_. They are married, and serve their master, whether he be a dato or not, with half of their cultivated lands, as was agreed upon in the beginning. They accompanied him whenever he went beyond the island, and rowed for him. They live in their own houses, and are lords of their property and gold. Their children inherit it, and enjoy their property and lands. The children, then, enjoy the rank of their fathers, and they cannot be made slaves (_sa guiguilir_) nor can either parents or children be sold. If they should fall by inheritance into the hands of a son of their master who was going to dwell in another village, they could not be taken from their own village and carried with him; but they would remain in their native village, doing service there and cultivating the sowed lands.

The slaves are called _aliping sa guiguilir_. They serve their master in his house and on his cultivated lands, and may be sold. The master grants them, should he see fit, and providing that he has profited through their industry, a portion of their harvests, so that they may work faithfully. For these reasons, servants who are born in the house of their master are rarely, if ever, sold. That is the lot of captives in war, and of those brought up in the harvest fields.

Those to whom a debt was owed transferred the debt to another, thereby themselves making a profit, and reducing the wretched debtors to a slavery which was not their natural lot. If any person among those who were made slaves (_sa guiguilir_)--through war, by the trade of goldsmith, or otherwise--happened to possess any gold beyond the sum that he had to give his master, he ransomed himself, becoming thus a _namamahay_, or what we call a commoner. The price of this ransom was never less than five taels, and from that upwards; and if he gave ten or more taels, as they might agree, he became wholly free. An amusing ceremony accompanied this custom. After having divided all the trinkets which the slave possessed, if he maintained a house of his own, they divided even the pots and jars, and if an odd one of these remained, they broke it; and if a piece of cloth were left, they parted it in the middle.

The difference between the _aliping namamahay_ and the _aliping sa guiguilir_, should be noted; for, by a confusion of the two terms, many have been classed as slaves who really are not. The Indians seeing that the alcaldes-mayor do not understand this, have adopted the custom of taking away the children of the _aliping namamahay_, making use of them as they would of the _aliping sa guiguilir_, as servants in their households, which is illegal, and if the _aliping namamahay_ should appeal to justice, it is proved that he is an _aliping_ as well as his father and mother before him and no reservation is made as to whether he is _aliping namamahay_ or _atiping sa guiguilir_. He is at once considered an _alipin_, without further declaration. In this way he becomes a _sa guiguilir_, and is even sold. Consequently, the alcaldes-mayor should be instructed to ascertain, when anyone asks for his _alipin_, to which class he belongs, and to have the answer put in the document that they give him.

In these three classes, those who are _maharlicas_ on both the father's and mother's side continue to be so forever; and if it happens that they should become slaves, it is through marriage, as I shall soon explain. If these maharlicas had children among their slaves, the children and their mothers became free; if one of them had children by the slave-woman of another, she was compelled, when pregnant, to give her master half of a gold tael, because of her risk of death, and for her inability to labor during the pregnancy. In such a case half of the child was free--namely, the half belonging to the father, who supplied the child with food. If he did not do this, he showed that he did not recognize him as his child, in which case the latter was wholly a slave. If a free woman had children by a slave, they were all free, provided he were not her husband.

If two persons married, of whom one was a _maharlica_ and the other a slave, whether _namamahay_ or _sa guiguilir_, the children were divided: the first, whether male or female, belonged to the father, as did the third and fifth; the second, the fourth, and the sixth fell to the mother, and so on. In this manner, if the father were free, all those who belonged to him were free; if he were a slave, all those who belonged to him were slaves; and the same applied to the mother. If there should not be more than one child he was half free and half slave. The only question here concerned the division, whether the child were male or female. Those who became slaves fell under the category of servitude which was their parent's, either namamahay or sa guiguilir. If there were an odd number of children, the odd one was half free and half slave. I have not been able to ascertain with any certainty when or at what age the division of children was made, for each one suited himself in this respect. Of these two kinds of slaves the sa guiguilir could be sold, but not the namamahay and their children, nor could they be transferred. However, they could be transferred from the barangay by inheritance, provided they remained in the same village.

The maharlicas could not, after marriage, move from one village to another, or from one barangay to another, without paying a certain fine in gold, as arranged among them. This fine was larger or smaller according to the inclination of the different villages, running from one to three taels and a banquet to the entire barangay. Failure to pay the fine might result in a war between the barangay which the person left and the one which he entered. This applied equally to men and women, except that when one married a woman of another village, the children were afterwards divided equally between the two barangays. This arrangement kept them obedient to the dato, or chief, which is no longer the case--because, if the dato is energetic and commands what the religious fathers enjoin him, they soon leave him and go to other villages and other datos, who endure and protect them and do not order them about. This is the kind of dato that they now prefer, not him who has the spirit to command. There is a great need of reform in this, for the chiefs are spiritless and faint-hearted.

Investigations made and sentences passed by the dato must take place in the presence of those of his barangay. If any of the litigants felt himself aggrieved, an arbiter was unanimously named from another village or barangay, whether he were a dato or not; since they had for this purpose some persons, known as fair and just men, who were said to give true judgment according to their customs. If the controversy lay between two chiefs, when they wished to avoid war, they also convoked judges to act as arbiters; they did the same if the disputants belonged to two different barangays. In this ceremony they always had to drink, the plaintiff inviting the others.

They had laws by which they condemned to death a man of low birth who insulted the daughter or wife of a chief; likewise witches, and others of the same class.