CHAPTER XVI

[Herein are enumerated the charitable foundations (obras pias) [41] placed at the disposal of the Misericordia or of the brethren of St. John. The earliest of these (although its date is not given) appears to be that of General Thomàs Garcia de Cardenas; he gave the Misericordia 12,000 pesos, of which 6,000 should be invested in the Acapulco trade, and the profits applied to different charities--among them, 100 pesos being given to the hospital, which sum is still received by that institution whenever the Acapulco galleons make successful voyages. Another and similar one was founded by Governor Manuel de Leon, with 50,000 pesos of principal; from the returns of this, 400 pesos were to be applied "for the care and comfort of the sick in our hospitals." Master-of-camp Thomàs de Endaya in 1703 gave 8,000 pesos to the Misericordia, one-half to be invested in the Acapulco trade for the benefit of various charities; among these, the hospital was to receive 100 pesos for purchasing rice for the sick. Abbot Juan Bautista Sidot (by other writers written Sidoti) in 1705 collected among the citizens of Manila 12,000 pesos, which he invested in trade--one-third each in Nueva España, China, and the coast of Yaba (i.e., Java)--the returns on all these being held and added to the principal until they should be equal to 40,000 pesos, which sum was to be invested in the same manner, and its proceeds devoted to various charities. Of these, the hospital was to receive 240 pesos annually, thus: 100 pesos for the salary of a physician, 100 for the cost of the dispensary, and 40 for the salary of a surgeon. The further sum of 1,100 pesos a year afterward was assigned to the hospital, since some of Sidoti's plans for aiding other works proved abortive. A fund of 50,000 pesos, similarly invested in the Acapulco trade, was given in 1706 by Fray Andrès Gonzalez, O.P., bishop of Nueva Cazeres, from which 400 pesos a year were to be given to the hospital; he also made provision for distributing every year certain sums to the curas and missionary fathers in his diocese, to be spent in aiding the sick poor in their charge--"for the reason that, having asked permission from the royal Audiencia of Manila to found a hospital in this city of Nueva Cazeres and this not having been granted me, I desire that, since there is no actual hospital, there shall be one in substance." From this wording Maldonado argues that, in case a hospital should be founded there, the fund left by Gonzalez for his diocese--1,305 pesos, presumably for each year--might properly be claimed for the aid of such institution; "with the said contribution, and if the natives of the said province would agree to give [each] a ganta of rice or of oil, or some other little offering of that sort, a hospital could be supported which was suitable for aiding the many necessities which those helpless people suffer." Sargento-mayor Don Antonio Basarte, a citizen of Manila, established another foundation for the Misericordia in 1708; he left 50,000 pesos for this, but after the claims of his legal creditors were satisfied, only 9,849 pesos remained; this was duly invested, but the proceeds did not reach the amount of the original 50,000 pesos until 1726, at which time the returns became available for charitable uses; among these, 250 pesos were allotted for the meat necessary for the support of the sick in the hospitals. Captain Manuel Martinez Lobo left a bequest to the Misericordia; [42] in 1727 this yielded the net sum of 3,300 pesos, which was invested in the trade of Acapulco and Yaba; from the proceeds the officers of the Misericordia were to apply 50 pesos annually for the poor of the hospital, at the time when they should make their yearly visitation of that house. In 1727 General Don Joseph de Morales (then steward of the Misericordia) gave 600 pesos to be invested in trade, from the profits of which 100 pesos annually were to be given for comforts for the sick poor in the hospitals. The same officer at dying left a bequest for charities, in which were included the brethren of St. John; they were to receive (presumably from the returns made on each galleon) 100 pesos for buying shrouds for the sick who should die in the hospitals, 100 for clothing for the religious, and 100 for certain religious functions to be celebrated in their church. Morales's successor as steward, General Don Domingo Antonio de Otero Vermudes (who was also chief alguazil [43] of the Inquisition), in 1729 founded an obra pia with 3,000 pesos; from its returns 100 pesos were to be applied for the support of the poor sick in the hospital. Doña Maria Joachina, the unmarried daughter of Sargento-mayor Don Juan Antonio Collantes y Peredo, having property in her own right, left 4,000 pesos for charitable purposes, which included the payment of 500 pesos yearly for the convalescents from the hospital; this became available in 1736. Licentiate Manuel Suarez de Olivera and Doña Maria Gomez del Castillo (his wife?) left some real estate, on which shops were located, at the place called Los Arroceros (i.e., "the rice-mills"), outside the city walls; its proceeds were to be given in equal shares to the hospital and to the poor who were confined in the prisons. The aforesaid shops "fell into decay, and were rebuilt in 1714, with the stipulation that from the rent of them should be deducted the third part in order to repay the amount spent for that construction;" this was accomplished in 1722, after which the full amount was received by the beneficiaries. It is estimated that this aid amounts to over 150 pesos a year, and its value is greater or less according to whether the shops are all occupied; but "we receive only what is handed over by the deputy steward of the prisoners," to whom the collection of these rents had been entrusted by the Misericordia. Antonio de Arisiga placed 4,000 pesos at interest, for the aid of various charities; from the income of this he applied 50 pesos annually for the comfort of the sick in the hospital; but in the course of time this foundation was impaired by various losses, and the Misericordia divided its income pro rata among its beneficiaries. Juan de Moxica placed at interest 6,750 pesos, from the income of which should be given twelve reals for three masses every week, and the rest for the hospital and treasury of the Misericordia; this income also became diminished, like the preceding one, and what was collected was applied to the aforesaid masses--although, in Maldonado's opinion, any money in excess of Moxica's requirement ought to be applied in equal parts to the hospital and the Misericordia.]

[All the foregoing funds are administered and controlled by the board of the Misericordia; but the hospital has the benefit of certain others in the hands of the Third Order of St. Francis. Don Manuel San Juan de Santacruz established a fund in that order, for investment in the Acapulco trade; the income was applied to various charities, among which the hospital was to receive 100 pesos a year. In 1711 a similar fund was given by Sargento-mayor Don Diego Thomàs de Gorostiaga, also in the Acapulco trade; from its income, the hospital was assigned 100 pesos a year. In 1721, another fund was established by Sargento-mayor Don Juan Lopez, on similar terms, the hospital receiving from the income 50 pesos a year. A like foundation from Don Jacome Maria Balestra, made in 1724, brought to the hospital 120 pesos annually. In the same year and in like manner, another fund was given by the licentiate Don Gabriel de Isturis, which added to the hospital's income 150 pesos a year. In 1728, an obra pia was established in the Third Order by some unknown donor, under the title of San Raphael; from this 80 pesos were given, half to the convent of St. John, and half to the hospital. A year later, a similar fund was established under the title of San Miguel, by Captain Don Miguel de Caraza; among its beneficiaries, the sick of the hospital received, for their food on certain holy days, 25 pesos a year. All those named in this paragraph were administered by the said Third Order.]

[Certain funds were established by benevolent women for charitable purposes, to be at the disposal of our writer, Maldonado. "Doña Margarita Luysa de Avila, who was the widow of Sargento-mayor Don Nicolàs de Rivera, from the residue of her property set aside a principal of 700 pesos for the establishment of a charitable fund, which should be invested by halves in the trade of Nueva España;" to this Maldonado added 1,000 pesos more, given to him by various other benefactors, and invested the whole thus, until its product should bring the fund to a total of 3,362 pesos; it was then to be divided into three parts, and again invested, its income being thus apportioned: "130 pesos, as the offering for 156 masses, which are celebrated in the church of our convent at Manila, three on each Monday in the year--one with an offering of one peso, and the others with one of six reals each; beginning after half-past six in the morning, and not before, nor shall they be said at one time--as suffrages for the souls in purgatory; and this stipend can be applied to the fathers belonging to this community who are priests. Thirty pesos, in order that the reverend father who is prior or superior of this convent may arrange for chanting a solemn mass with vigils, and with the assistance of the community, on one of the days in the octave of the dead, in the month of November, the suffrages being applied in behalf of the founders. One hundred and fifty pesos, in order that the reverend father who may be prior or superior of this convent may distribute this sum, as is stated in the foundation of the said fund, for the expenses at the feast of the gozos [44] of the blessed ever-virgin Mary, our Lady; these must be celebrated in our church as a seven days' feast, which begins on the day of the patronage of the blessed St. Joseph, who is honored as the father of Jesus Christ our Lord--that is, the third Sunday after Easter. Sixty pesos for the offering for eighty masses to be said, with the stipend of six reals each, which the reverend father who is or shall be the prior or superior of this convent is to arrange for being celebrated during the said septenary--fourteen on the first day, and eleven on each of the other days, and inviting for this function priests by whom it can be completed, since this community has not a sufficient number of priests therefor--in order to fulfil this obligation in the manner which is prescribed, and the intention of [the founders; the] said masses must be applied as suffrages for the souls in purgatory, and for those of the founders. Twenty-five pesos, to be distributed during the said septenary among the poor, both men and women, who may be in our infirmaries. Twelve pesos, to be divided as alms among the women servants of the infirmary for women in our hospital. Twenty-eight pesos, to be divided, on the first day of the said septenary, among fourteen Spanish widows, at the rate of two pesos each. Fourteen pesos, for the cost of wine for masses, so much as is deemed necessary for the celebration of those which are mentioned in this foundation. Forty pesos, which must be kept in reserve every year for the repairs on our convent of Manila, according to occasion. This foundation began to operate in the year 1738, and would be in condition for distribution if it were not for the loss of a galleon and another misfortune, which retarded the distribution until the year 1745; and request has been made that its administration be entrusted to the venerable arch-confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament that is established in the church of San Gabriel at Bin[on]doc, a mission village in charge of the holy Order of St. Dominic, outside the walls of this city."]

[Another fund in Maldonado's hands is that which "Doña Josepha Ortega, who was the wife of General Don Antonio Sanchez Cerdàn, set aside from the main part of her estate, the sum of 2,500 pesos as a principal, in order that a charitable fund might be established, at the disposal of the religious who writes this. According to the instructions communicated to him by the said foundress, the said principal must be invested in the trade with Nueva España, its product accruing to it until the fund should reach the amount of 7,818 pesos 3 reals; in that case it should be divided into three parts, each of 2,600 pesos 1 real, with which principal the investment should be continued in the said trade with Nueva España; and the income of this fund, usually amounting to 1,042 pesos, be distributed in this manner: Ninety-two pesos for the offering for that number of masses in the chapel of the ward [used as an] infirmary for women in this hospital of Manila. Twenty-five pesos for the expenses of the function of [the Virgin's] Solitude, which is solemnized in our church on the night of Good Friday in each year. Eighty pesos for the offering for as many masses, which are to be solemnized in our church during the septenary of the most glorious patriarch St. Joseph, at the feast of his gozos, which begins on the fifteenth day of October. Twenty-five pesos for the redemption of captives. Thirty-six pesos, to be divided, during the said septenary, among the sick poor, both men and women, in our hospital of Manila. Twelve pesos, to be divided, during the said septenary, among the women servants of the sick-ward for women in this hospital. One hundred pesos, to be distributed, during the said septenary, by the superior of this convent and one of the father chaplains, among deserving poor widows and orphan girls, especially those who are present in our church at the said festivity. Thirteen pesos, for the same purpose, among the poor beggars who are present in our church at the said festivity. Twenty-five pesos, for a hundred bulls for the living; these will be given as alms by the fathers who assist in the confessionals in our church during the said septenary, and who can ascertain the poor who are in need of this favor. Twenty-five pesos, for the alms of a hundred bulls for the departed, [to be given] on the day when their memory is celebrated in our church in the month of November, the suffrage being applied for those who shall have died in our hospital. Sixty-four pesos one real, for the function of masses, vigils, and responses for the cemetery, which has been established in our church as a suffrage for the dead, in the month of November of each year. Twenty-five pesos, for the holy places of Jerusalem. One hundred and fifty pesos for the cost of chocolate, [45] with which sum arrangements are made to furnish it to the religious of this convent of Manila. One hundred pesos, which are to be reserved each year for the material fabrica of our convent and hospital of Manila, as occasion may require. One hundred pesos for the expenses of the arch-confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament at Binondo, which has been asked to take charge of the administration of this fund. And 134 pesos one real, in order that this sum may be separately invested, and with its accrued products form another foundation, until it shall contain 1,717 pesos one real as principal; and then, divided into three parts, it may be ventured in the galleons of the Nueva España route, and with its returns the following assignments be made: 300 pesos for two dowries, of 150 pesos each, to fatherless girls, the daughters of Spaniards, of virtuous lives--which dowries are to be allotted on one of the days of the septenary, in the manner which will be explained. Forty pesos for the Christmas masses [missas de Aguinaldo] which are celebrated in our church of this convent of Manila. Eleven pesos, for the expenses of the entertainment which must be given to those who meet in the committee which must be called together for the choice of the orphans to whom are to be allotted the dowries aforesaid, during the septenary of St. Joseph, the arrangements for which in detail are punctually set down here. In order that embarrassments arising from personal considerations which intervene may be avoided, heed must be taken in the award of these dowries that the names be presented of those who are needy; and, this having been ascertained by a special conference which the father who is or shall be the superior of this convent shall have with the father priests--and if there are not two, he shall substitute the chief councilor--it shall be declared by the majority of votes who ought by right to be admitted from the persons who make claims; and, this settled, the choice shall be made among those who shall be thus accepted, by drawing lots, and the two dowries shall be awarded to the girls who shall draw the fortunate lots. The method of the said drawing shall be, that the names of all those who are accepted shall be written, each on a slip of paper; and an equal number of other slips, blank, shall be made, and on two of these shall be written the words, 'May I be endowed by the glorious St. Joseph.' Then in one urn, or other suitable receptacle, shall be placed the slips, folded, on which are written the names of the candidates; and in another urn or receptacle like the other shall be placed the blank slips--which, as already stated, shall be equal in number to those containing the names, and shall include those on which was written the fortunate lot, as has been explained--and both urns shall be shaken. [This shall be done] in the afternoon of the first day of the septenary; in the body of the church shall be placed a table with a neat cover, and some chairs, where the superior [of the Order of St. John] shall sit as president, accompanied by the priestly fathers who may belong to it; in case there should be no more than one [of these], the chief councilor shall assist him. With the aid of the father councilor, a slip shall be drawn from [the urn containing] the names, and read, and then another shall be drawn from those that are blank, the writing on the slips being read aloud, and recorded on a paper which the said secretary shall keep by him; after this manner the other slips shall be successively drawn, until from the names those are chosen which the lot shall indicate; and, as it follows that there will be present in the church at this function the parties who are concerned, or some one who can act in their behalf, such person shall be summoned, and the order for payment handed to her, so that she may obtain her donation of 150 pesos for dowry. And for the orderly management of this business there shall be made a book of common paper, in which shall be written the [names and proceedings of the] special committee which shall be called together to investigate the claims; and they shall endeavor, before the choice is made, to gain accurate information, in order that the appointment may be confirmed in accordance with the intention of the said foundation. At the said committee-meeting the [claims of the] parties shall be presented, and especially of those admitted to the drawing, without any opinion being expressed regarding those who shall not be admitted, or any previous information regarding the decision being given to the parties concerned. Those admitted to the drawing shall be notified to come together on the day prescribed, and on the same day these regulations shall be read, when the superior shall have reported that he has carried out all their provisions, as appears from the book of the committee; and the other arrangements that are made for the fulfilment of this charge shall be put into practice in each successive year, the full record thereof being afterward made in the book, with full evidence that to those who were chosen by lot the donation that was assigned them has been paid." Maldonado expects that the income of this foundation as a whole will be available within six years, if no disaster be encountered; but the provision for dowries will have to wait twelve years. He states that two things must be considered, in estimating the value of the funds enumerated in this chapter: first, that when they were founded the profits on the Acapulco trade were reckoned at fifty per cent, but at the time when he writes have diminished at the rate of forty per cent; accordingly, the incomes of the funds have been distributed pro rata to the various beneficiaries. Second, as these incomes depend on the perils of the sea, they have encountered many losses from shipwrecks; or the failure of the vessel to complete the voyage, or even to obtain a cargo at Manila; or the delay in receiving the returns from Acapulco, caused by an unsuccessful fair there, or by other embarrassments.]

[THE OTHER HOSPITALS IN THE ISLANDS]

[This matter is found at the end of chapter ii of Maldonado's book (pp. 25-29), but is transferred to this place as being more appropriate in orderly sequence; he describes the condition of those institutions at the time of writing his book.]

Present condition of the royal hospital of Manila

The new royal hospital being reestablished, and all the expenses necessary for its maintenance being provided for in the royal treasury, for its business management and the assistance of the sick there were allotted a steward, a physician, a surgeon, nurses, and the other servants who were deemed necessary; and for its spiritual administration the discalced religious of the holy order of our holy father St. Francis, in the province of San Gregorio of these islands--which arrangement was approved by a royal decree, dated at Madrid, May 20, 1624. It has continued in this manner up to the present century, when, on account of the lack of religious for the Indian villages dependent on the Franciscans, and other just reasons, they were released from the ministry of the said royal hospital, and the government appointed secular priests as chaplains, with a suitable income. The cost of maintaining the hospital in its present condition is reckoned at 6,841 pesos, thus: The chaplain, steward, and physician, at 300 pesos each; the surgeon, 240; [46] the chief sacristan, three nurses, one assistant surgeon, the keeper of the wardrobe, the cook, and the doorkeeper, each 96 pesos; with this the ordinary expense, 1,368 pesos. [It also requires] 960 cabans of rice, 384 gantas of cocoanut-oil, and 8,400 fowls; also 2,000 pesos, at which amount the provision for medicines is permanently fixed, and 215 pesos besides, which sum is allotted for the cost of wine for mass, wax, and other expenses which are incurred for the titular feast day, which is All Saints' day. Interments are made in the royal chapel of this garrison, which also has for the year's expenses 3,220 pesos more, without counting the extraordinary expenses which are necessary during that time in the hospital, for beds, tents, and other needs, and in the royal chapel for ornaments and the other requirements of the divine worship. In the said royal hospital, without a special order from the superior government no other persons are received, whatever their rank may be, besides the officers and soldiers who are in actual service; and, although some mariners resort to this institution--and these are few, on account of the distance of their residence, which is in Cabite--it has not, either, a ward for women. The steward, the chaplain, and the chief sacristan (who usually is a priest) have their residence in the said hospital, and are continually on duty. The physician and the surgeons are present both afternoon and morning, to visit the sick and give prescriptions for what seems necessary. The nurses and the other servants lack the intelligence which is required [in such work], for those who are occupied in it are poor persons, who have no other situations; and, as the employment is arduous, they do not remain long in it. Several high officials, in discussing this matter, have showed their preference that this responsibility should devolve upon our religious. It is certain that the object of that same institution calls for different service, and might also excuse some [further] expense to his Majesty; but as this depends upon the royal command, it has not proceeded beyond mere talk.

The hospital of our religious order--of which mention will be made further on, as not limited to a special class--is a general one, for men and women of all classes; and in this same holy exercise of their ministry is secured the relief and general consolation of the needy who resort to this charity.

Hospital of San Lazaro

Without the walls of Manila is another hospital, with the name of San Lazaro, in which are gathered all those who are stricken by the contagious disease of the same name; it is administered and cared for by the religious of our holy father St. Francis, and his Majesty has assigned to it, by virtue of a royal decree of January 22, 1672, a contribution of 1,187 pesos 4 reals every year--500 pesos in cash, paid from the royal treasury; the rest is the estimated value of 1,500 cabans of rice, 1,500 fowls, 200 light Ilocos blankets, and one arroba of Castilian wine for the holy sacrifice of mass.

Hospital of San Gabriel for the Sangleys

There is also another hospital outside the walls; it is under the protection of St. Gabriel, and in the charge and administration of the religious in the venerable Order of Preachers of the province of the Santissimo Rosario of these islands; it is designed solely for medical treatment for the Chinese (or Sangleys) who reside in this country. For its maintenance at the beginning, there was assigned to it by his Majesty the ferry across the great river which flows between the said hospital and this city; but this allowance ceased at the building of the great bridge which afterward was constructed, and by royal decree of November 26, 1630, the said allowance was commuted to the sum of 2,000 pesos each year, which is paid from the communal chest [47] which the Sangleys themselves maintain.

Hospital of Los Baños

In the village of Los Baños, in the jurisdiction of the province of La Laguna, which is distant five leguas from Manila, was founded another hospital at the account of his Majesty; it was for the convalescent soldiers, on account of the specific properties of the waters of that district, particularly for venereal diseases [Galicos]. But the institution has been steadily declining with the course of time, and at present there remains only one religious from the holy order of our holy father St. Francis, who is assisted from the royal exchequer with 120 pesos a year.

[Royal] allowances for infirmaries

In virtue of a royal decree of September 4, 1667, every year are issued [treasury] warrants for 300 baskets [sextos; apparently misprint for cestos] of rict and 200 fowls for the infirmary which the holy Order of St. Dominic maintains in the convent at the village of Lalo, the chief town of the province of Cagayan. By another royal decree, dated January 18, 1706, there are also issued to the holy order of our holy father St. Francis 100 pesos for medicines, and the value of 129 pesos in various commodities, and 800 fowls, for the infirmaries which it maintains in this city, [in] Pagsanhan, the chief town of the province of La Laguna, and [in] Naga, the chief town of the province of Camarines. It is understood, however, that this aid is only for the treatment of the sick religious belonging to the said holy communities.

Hospital of Zamboanga

In the fortified town of Samboanga is maintained a dwelling for the sick soldiers, who are assisted by a practitioner with the title of surgeon; for this occupation he is paid four pesos four reals monthly, and for the treatment of the sick a chest of medicines is sent from Manila every year. The lack of skill on the part of this practitioner or surgeon, and, moreover, the fact that less provision is made for the entire amount of assistance [there given] than the hospital order requires, enable one to see what the men in garrison there will suffer. But it is inferred that those are in worse condition who serve in the garrisons of the fortifications of Nuestra Señora del Rosario in Iloylo, San Pedro in Zebù, Santa Isabèl of Paragua in Calamianes, San Francisco in Cagayan, and San Joseph of Tanda in Caraga--not to mention many other posts that are dependent on these principal fortresses--where there is no attendance of surgeons, and no medicines are sent thither. Our community, knowing this, shares in their affliction, by not being able to aid them for lack of the permissions from superiors and the adequate assistance which were indispensable for the proper care of the soldiers.

[The book ends with another chapter, headed "Digression xvii," which contains an apology for the deficiencies of the work, and an account of two miraculous interventions (by their founder St. John and by an image of the Virgin) at their convent in July, 1739. On the former subject he says: "I avoid repetition of the reasons for the lack of elegant style and exactness of terms, and will conclude by saying that various other deficiencies that may be encountered are irreparable; for these natives who serve as amanuenses are so averse to all orthography that even the greatest exactness in pointing out their errors, in work of this sort, cannot prevent them from making mistakes. Some words they separate [from those] to which these belong, and others they do not divide; they write proper names with a small [initial] letter, and place capitals in the midst of any word; sometimes they set down the words without the least understanding of the punctuation. On this account it is necessary that the reader discreetly supply what [deficiencies] of this sort he may notice; and if this [manuscript] be transcribed for any purpose, that it be corrected beforehand--for this effort has already been made, but has not been sufficient; nor would it be, even if the manuscript were copied over and over, for what is thus made correct in one place is compensated by a new error in another place." He ends with the usual protestation of loyalty to the doctrines and precedents of the church, dated at Manila, July 10, 1740.]

LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE INDIA COUNCIL

I wrote last year to your most illustrious Lordship, by way of Nueva España and Portugal, mentioning the pleasure which I felt at the news that your most illustrious Lordship held the presidency of the Council of the Indias; for besides the affection which I profess to your most illustrious Lordship, ever since I experienced your kindness in Balladolid, I have looked for the like success in the management of the important affairs which are entrusted to the Council, and I hope that these unfortunate and remote regions may have a share in the good results which their government needs.

In regard to the troubles which have afflicted this commonwealth: The Dutch, keen to avail themselves of opportunities to extend their commerce, sent hither a warship in the year forty-four, under pretext of an embassy; it was in charge of Monsieur Duvins, the second factor in their trade with Japon. He carried letters from the governor and council of Batavia for the governor and Audiencia here, in which it was stated that he came to look for a bark named "Cathalina Magdalena"--for which a Swiss heretic had given pledges to the Company at Batavia with his own person; it had sailed from here with the name "Sancta Ana," and a commission from the governor here; but it was sold to the Company, who changed its name, and in the charge of the same Swiss it came back here to trade, with consignments belonging to the Dutch. And since, in order to send the squadron to China, [48] the departure of the vessels which were in this bay was prohibited, the said bark was compelled to winter here; and, under pretext of looking after these [commercial] interests, the Dutch sent their envoy with credentials. He carried himself, while here, with the air of an ambassador, and claimed that we should treat him as such, that we should give him audience in a session of the royal court, and that the auditors should visit him; but in polite terms he was given to understand that without express order from his Majesty he could not be treated as he desired; and it was resolved that answer should be made to the letters with entire courtesy--stating that no such bark as the "Cathalina Magdalena" had landed at these islands; but that, if through stress of any storm it should enter our ports, it should receive succor, and our friendly relations would be maintained in all things. His principal topic, however, was that free trade should be permitted to him here, and that the Dutch should bring us all the merchandise necessary for us. But, as he found no opening for a proposition of that sort--on account of the prohibition [of commerce] in the laws [of the kingdoms] and in the treaties of peace, and because of the damage which would ensue to the islands from admitting within them the different religion which neighbors so cunning and so powerful [as the Dutch] would undertake to impart to them--he returned home much disgusted, publishing to the Dutch that Manila could be captured with five hundred soldiers, and even urging this enterprise as an easy one on Barnet, the commander of the English squadron which was then at Batavia.

The Dutch, not discomfited by this repulse, or by the loss of 50,000 pardaos [49] (which are 37,500 pesos)--which as they write from Batavia, the above-mentioned ambassador expended--made an agreement with an English corsair who was at Batavia, with a ship of fifty-two guns and another of thirty, to the effect that under his own flag he should escort four Dutch ships, which they despatched to Acapulco last year with merchandise. And in order to hinder the galleon from leaving this port they deceived a Frenchman, [50] who was very well known here, hinting to him that the squadron of Barenet [sic] and the corsair were going to attack Manila; and they hastened his embarkation, at the cost of 4,000 pesos, in order that he might notify us here. Then they gave orders to the corsair, with two other ships of their own, to let themselves be seen at the entrance of Mariveles, in order to throw Manila into alarm and hinder the sailing of the galleon. By [causing] this fright they succeeded in their purpose to prevent the sailing of the ship, which was lightened of its cargo as soon as the information which the Frenchman gave reached us; and the 4,000 pesos were paid [to him] for the cost of this warning. The said four ships sailed to leeward, and sighted the coast of Ylocos, whence we had news of this. But they could not attain their principal object; for when the six ships had come together in China, and were laden with [goods worth] 900,000 pardaos (each containing six silver reals), they expected the vessel which, after having given that warning here, was to cross over to China [51] and carry to the Dutch a pilot for the navigation to Nueva España; but it could not reach China, and was obliged to go to Batavia. The four Dutch ships and the two [English] corsairs, resolved to carry out their project, sailed from Canton on the fourteenth of September, bound for the coast of Nueva España and Perú to carry on illicit trade, [52] and the English to make reprisals. But God, who chose to punish so mischievous a design, permitted that a hurricane should attack them, when they were four days out from Canton; and as a result the two corsairs were driven back to China--the larger vessel dismasted and battered, and the smaller one badly damaged. The four Dutch ships, badly leaking, spent twelve days in searching for an anchorage on the coast of Ylocos, in order to make repairs; but not finding one, they went back to Batavia, with their goods damaged. According to what is written to us in a despatch that is just received from Batavia--from a person who was sent there from here to make observations on the condition of the English piratical squadron--the Dutch lost on their merchandise half of its value; and the corsair sold for 17,000 pardaos his ship of fifty-two guns, with all its military supplies, since it was no longer fit for navigation, while he went with the other and smaller ship--it is said without [stopping for] food--to another port to repair it. [It is also reported] that the squadron of Barenet had departed for Bombain, toward the Persian Gulf, to cruise against the French, from whom he seized at the Straits [of Malacca] nearly a million pesos. The person who was sent from here to Batavia (who is a Malabar) with a balandra was detained there under the pretext that the governor had gone away, and orders were given that he should not be permitted to depart until the governor's return. But he informed us of everything, by a vessel which he despatched with six men and a French pilot; and he reported that three Dutch fragatas were being equipped and laden with merchandise in order to carry on illicit trade at the entrance of [the Gulf of] Californias, carrying [respectively] forty, thirty, and twenty-five cannon. In his opinion, this was the cause of his detention, in order that, by news [from him] not reaching Manila, the galleon should not sail for Nueva España, and their intention not be known here.

On account of all these advices, and those which we had previously received by way of China making the same statement about the English, it was resolved here that, since the chief [cause for] fear, which was the said squadron--which occasioned the letter with order from the Marqués de la Enseñada, [53] to give warning that a ship should not sail from here with cargo--had ceased, and since the commonwealth was in the most deplorable extremity, with a shipment of goods which had been driven back to port, and laden and unladen the second time, and in evident risk of being lost, a final effort was made by dividing the cargo between two ships equipped for war. One of these carried seventy cannon and the other fifty-two (seventy and forty [respectively] being mounted), and a corresponding number of men, resolved to defend their property and with sufficient force to make resistance to the entire squadron of Barenet, whose ships carried fifty-two, forty-five, forty, and thirty cannon. For the cost of this enterprise the body of merchants offered to aid with 50,000 pesos in Acapulco; and this effort seemed necessary, for, as the viceroy of Mexico had orders not to allow any money to come here, he understood them so strictly that last year he sent a bark [54] without one real. Nevertheless, he was not ignorant that the situado had not been sent here for three years: that with this, and the failure of the [Acapulco] trade, the treasury of the islands ran short 60,000 pesos each year in customs and anchorage duties; that the citizens would necessarily be reduced to poverty, and that these domains were utterly helpless; and that by despatching the aid in November it would arrive here in entire safety from the English--who only through general lack of military foresight were able to secure the prize which they made; for these islands have various ports where our ships can land (thus mocking the enemy), as occurred in the late war; but when they come by the ordinary route and the artillery is in the hold, no other result [than their capture] can be expected.

The damage, most illustrious Sir, is already done, but it calls to heaven for a remedy for the future. That which I propose is, that, since [the merchandise for] this commerce was formerly supplied, either by sending our barks to the Malabar coast, or by Armenians, Moros, or Malabars coming thence with their ships and goods--only tolerating that they might bring some French pilot--orders be given to observe this plan so strictly that warning be given to the Audiencia, the archbishop, and the city [of Manila] that they shall give information if the governor shall contravene those orders, and some exemplary punishment be meted out. For the despotic power which the governors, under pretext of their services, have assumed is great; and the freedom which they have given to the English and the French [55] has arrived at being general license. From this prohibition it follows that they cannot gain so much knowledge about the country and its forts, and that they cannot so greatly injure this commerce, [as hitherto]; for the Asiatics are never so shrewd as the Europeans, and their only concern is for their business, without meddling in observations of our forts or our forlorn condition. To this remedy I add that which I have proposed to the Council, and which on this occasion I repeat.

Observing the aforesaid freedom, the Dutch have ventured to come [against us] with the ease which the Swiss heretic had represented to them; and if this Swiss had not been allowed to come here with his bark, he would not have involved us in such difficulties with the Dutch, for they, in pique, undertook to introduce their commerce into Nueva España--tempting the viceroy with 300,000 pesos which they carried thither last year, planning to give him this money so that he should tolerate [their trading]. And since they are now returning I fear that they are planning to occupy some port in California, [56] in order that it may serve them as a magazine--like the island of Curazas [i.e., Curacoa] in the North Sea--and to make arrangements for carrying on their commerce from Batavia with the same ease as from here. And in order to prevent these or others from undertaking such a scheme (which would be the destruction of America), I have collected testimony regarding all which can aid the Council to realize how, without any expense to the royal treasury, and with the men of whom we have here more than enough belonging to the navy-yard and ships, [Manila] can be fortified for that part of America, for the security of both these and those domains; but I hope for the success of the former proposition, in order not to pile up schemes. I assure your most illustrious Lordship that this can be pushed forward in a way which will be very useful to the nation; because, in order to keep the Dutch under control, it is enough that they know that we keep in readiness the three galleons each of seventy cannon, which the commerce ought to have, and four fragatas besides, with which we can disturb the commerce of the Straits for the inland regions. This is especially easy to do with the English, because, even though they send squadrons from Europa, many of their men die, and they use up their men as fast as they gain ground; and in this country they can never do us harm if we do not give way [to negligence], as hitherto [we have done].

I hope that your most illustrious Lordship will pardon the annoyance of this, as springing from my zeal [57] for the service of the king and the welfare of the nation; and I confide in the inborn devotion [thereto] of your most illustrious Lordship, whose life I entreat God our Lord to preserve for the many years which I desire and need. Manila, July 16, 1746. Most illustrious Sir, I kiss the hands of your most illustrious Lordship. Your most devoted and humble servant,

Pedro Calderon y Henriquez (with rubric)

[Addressed: "To the most illustrious Señor Don Joseph de Carbajal y Lancaster, of the Council and cabinet of the Indias, and president of the Council."]

LETTER OF A JESUIT TO HIS BROTHER

As the ships which in the years 47 and 48 sailed from here to Acapulco were driven back to these islands, the letters which in those years I wrote to my brother could not be despatched. This obliges me to avail myself of a safer opportunity, that afforded by the voyage of the father procurators, Pedro Murillo [58] and Bernardo Pazuengos, who for many and important reasons are going to Europe by way of the coast (that is, the Orient) in a French ship which is going from here to France. In the letters which I wrote in past years, I informed my brother of the enterprise of the missions in Joló and Mindanao, in which we were involved by the governor of these islands, Fray Juan de Arrechedera, by the hasty remittance of the letters despatched from Don Felipe (whom may God keep) to the sultans of Joló and Mindanao, and with his own energetic exhortations and promises to our provincial--so that he gave no opportunity to take any counsel, or to furnish means for avoiding the most serious difficulties. [The worst of these] was, as we soon perceived, that at the very time when he despatched with embassies the letters of our king to the said sultans, the said Governor Arrechedera sent an urgent invitation to the sultan of Joló to come to Manila, where he would be hospitably received and entertained. We all knew that the object of the governor was, that the sultan might bring here abundance of pearls and gold; and we also knew that with the departure of the sultan from his kingdom the mission would come to an end, as has actually happened. [59] At the time we were only mistaken in one thing, and that was, to feel sure that the fathers would not leave Joló or Mindanao; for we reckoned that if the sultan should leave Joló the natives would kill the fathers of that mission, and the sultan would easily justify himself because the act had been committed in his absence, and he could even pretend great sorrow for the deaths of the fathers; and in Mindanao, when it was known that in Joló they had killed the fathers, they would do the same there to those engaged in the Mindanao mission.

In reality the fathers had arrived at Zamboanga. When the Moros found themselves obliged to receive the fathers in their kingdoms, according to the promise which they had given in their replies to our king and to the governor of Manila, the two sultans agreed between themselves that after they had admitted the fathers [to their countries] they would treacherously kill them, and so that their murder could not be attributed to the influence of the sultans. The means which the sultan of Joló took was, that after he left his kingdom they should kill the fathers--although God our Lord disposed affairs otherwise from the schemes which the sultan, with unheard-of craft and perfidy, had plotted.

In order that my brother may be fully informed, and may correctly relate everything to all those whom my brother may think expedient to tell of it, I send that enclosure which Father Ygnacio Malaga wrote to me; this account is worthy of entire credence, since he was almost an eyewitness of everything which he relates, being one of the missionaries appointed for Mindanao.

If what Governor Arrechedera is doing here in Manila with the sultan of Joló could be known in Madrid and Roma, and in every other country, people would have no difficulty in believing the enormous perfidy, treachery, and deceit of the said sultan and other Moros. It is nearly a year since the said sultan of Joló arrived at Manila, accompanied by three concubines and several slave-girls. At his arrival the artillery was discharged; and he was lodged very magnificently, in a house provided beforehand for this purpose, outside the walls of Manila, with a continual guard of soldiers, whose captain was always under the orders of the sultan. The entry of the sultan into Manila was arranged with so much pomp and ostentation that everyone said no more could have been done for the entry of the prince of España if he should come to Manila; but all that is told is less [than the reality]. The governor seeing a scarf woven with pearls and ornaments in gold, immediately his eyes and his heart went out toward the scarf and the many other pearls and jewels which he knew the sultan carried. At this the governor entirely closed his eyes to all the information that was given to him--not only that furnished by the fathers of the said missions who had come back to Manila, but the letters which the governor of Samboanga had written to him--openly saying that he placed more confidence in the king of Joló than in the fathers who sent the information. What causes most general sorrow here (and especially to the archbishop) [60] is, that on account of the governor not being willing to listen to anything against the sultan, that is coming true which the fathers said to his Lordship--that the said sultan from Manila would cause the ruin of these islands, causing the Jolóans by piratical raids to carry away many Christian Indians as captives, and to destroy churches and villages. This is what they are actually doing, as is written by the fathers in Visayas, whose letters I have seen within a few days, and the governor will not permit that a word be uttered in order that it may not be said (although it is well known) that the Moros are destroying the island with the gunpowder and balls which have been sent them from Manila, and the sultan is paying for them with the pearls and gold which he has given to the said governor. What continually renews the grief of all is, that not only is no remedy applied to so dire evils, but that the governor continues to entertain the sultan in Manila as if he were our friend or defender, while he is the greatest traitor and enemy that this Christian church has had; and we greatly fear that by this time the said sultan is making himself master of the post at Samboangan. [61]

It is sufficient to have pointed this out in order that my brother may gain knowledge of the condition in which affairs are. What concerns the mission in Mindanao is made sufficiently clear in the letter from Father Ygnacio Malaga, and everything that he says is the simple truth; but, in order that this truth may not be smothered with the reports which this governor of Manila is sending to the court at Madrid, I have sent my brother that letter of Father Malaga, entreating him to please show it to the father procurator-general Pedro Ygnacio Altamirano, and to any other person whom my brother may think best, for the sake of the credit of this province and of the entire Society--for they do not lack many rivals, who are not willing that the ill-success of the missions of Joló and Mindanao should be attributed to the perfidy and malice of the Moros; but they try to charge it to the very fathers of the Society.

My brother will also please tell the father procurator Altamirano how the father provincial Pedro de Estrada had written to inform his Reverence that all the letters of contract on our side in favor of his illustrious Lordship Fray Arrechedera could not be worded otherwise, since we found ourselves obliged to this by the urgent request of the governor himself, and he had to see all of them. But in reality the course of the said governor cannot in conscience be approved [abonar] except with the reflection that Father Altamirano knows very well that our letters on this matter were being misconstrued, and that his Reverence would not be influenced to bind himself in virtue of them to favor the said Señor Arrechedera. In order to make this more certain, the said father provincial Estrada wrote a letter in order that the said Father Altamirano should not pay any attention to this undertaking of ours; and I, as his secretary at the time of the said father provincial, wrote the third letter, as I did all the rest.

Now it is evident to me that the archbishop of Manila is informing his Majesty very thoroughly of the proceedings of the said governor; and certainly it would go ill with us with the king and his Council, if our reports should be presented in favor of the said governor, while those which the archbishop is now sending are entirely contrary to this. Here we are, as if in Limbo, for we have not had mails from Europe for more than three years, except the news which came from China and Batavia.

The father provincial Pedro de Estrada died at the end of the year 48; his office was temporarily filled by Father José Samaniego, and in seven months he also died. God our Lord has freed these islands from the scourge of the English, for the squadron of forty-three ships which was destined for this coast undertook first to seize Pondicheri and Madrás (which they thought would be an affair of a few days), and then go on to Philipinas; but they did not capture either Pondicheri or Madrás, and much or even the greater part of the squadron was destroyed in a fierce storm. If they had come here, it is certain that now this country would be in the power of the English; for all the precautions that were taken here for our defense were festivities with the sultan of Joló and his concubines, to the profound sorrow of the community; etc. Cavite, December 2, 1749.

[Addressed: "To my brother Pedro, the abbot."]

COMMERCE OF THE PHILIPINAS ISLANDS,

AND ADVANTAGES WHICH THEY CAN YIELD TO HIS MAJESTY CARLOS III

To the king our sovereign Carlos III: [62]

Sire: The pressing obligation which rests upon all good vassals to render some service which shall be profitable to their sovereigns encourages my faint-heartedness to lay at the royal feet of your Majesty this work, which I offer with the utmost submission, with the assurance of my most loyal desires that your Majesty may enjoy the most prosperous and glorious reign over these dominions. [I am also urged on by] my own practical knowledge [of the subject], and the demand of the entire nation, especially of the mercantile interests--although little do they suspect that I have undertaken the enterprise with so much energy from persuading myself that my good fortune would gain for this act your Majesty's kindly regard, which, coming to the knowledge of your loyal vassals, will be received with the utmost satisfaction, and as a proof of your paternal affection and your sincere desire for their advancement.

I entreat our Lord that He will grant you all success and prosperity, and a long life, in order that these realms may enjoy for very many years the felicitous rule which the nation ought to expect from the distinguished qualifications possessed by your Majesty, from which it hopes to become more glorious than ever.

Prologue to the Reader

Commerce is contemporaneous with human society, from whose necessities it was born. [The author here sketches the origin and development of commerce among civilized nations, and states how in his undertaking this work he received the approval of the late king of Spain Fernando VI.]

Commerce of the Philipinas Islands; the benefit and advantages which the said islands ought to yield to his Majesty (whom may God preserve).

[This will seem] a strange statement when it is considered that the Philipinas Islands since the year 1565 have caused to España every year a very great expense, without affording the least temporal advantage; and when I now try to demonstrate the advantage and benefit of them to the crown of España some will say that it is already time to stop; and others will ask, "Who is this newcomer [63] who so boldly tries to persuade us that the Spaniards have neglected their duty for one hundred and ninety-two years?" But so it is, and now is the time to warn them of this neglect; and, although ignorance attempts to prevent this, it shall not make me desist from the undertaking. I desire that his Majesty (whom may God preserve) may have positive knowledge of the treasure which he possesses in the Philipinas Islands; and I am undertaking to place before his Majesty plain and clear evidence that they can and ought to furnish very great profit, and maintain themselves from their own products.

I make no pretensions as an author, nor do I claim to have the ability for that; therefore let us lay aside panegyrics, which are so unprofitable; for, even if this little work deserves them, that does not comport with my purpose, which is simply the service of his Majesty and the advancement of his realms.

As regards all that I shall be able to state of the products of commodities which the said islands yield, in order that every one may know that I do not advocate something that is not so, I recommend (although various persons have written on the subject) to the curious the two books of the reverend master Father Pedro Murillo Velarde, of the Society of Jesus, entitled Historia de las Islas Philipinas and Historia geografica of the same Philipinas Islands.

These are worthy of attention, and in regard to what is theoretical can furnish much light; as for what concerns the practical, and the experience which I have acquired at the cost of much money, labor, and application, I must make evident all the following.

First: We must consider what commodities or products these islands contain or produce, as well as the fact that we do not have to build castles in the air or proceed on fanciful assumptions; all that I assert shall be from my own knowledge.

Second: Whether the products or commodities can be used, and to explain and demonstrate how we can avail ourselves of them; and all that I shall say on this subject will proceed from the long experience which I have had.

Third: The advantages and benefits which will redound to his Majesty, to the Spaniards settled in those regions, and to the Indians themselves.

The first point: As the products of the Philipinas Islands are enumerated by the reverend Father Murillo (whom may God keep in Paradise), whom I have cited, and those of each island separately, in order not to extend this little work needlessly I will state the most important ones, which are the following: Rice, sugar, cotton (of choice quality and very fine), indigo, sulphur, siguey, balate, wax, pepper, coffee, tortoise-shell, mother-of-pearl; gold, mines of iron, and mines of copper (like that of Japon); tobacco, brazil-wood [sibucao], and pearl-fisheries; oil, cacao, birds'-nests, and ebony wood; lead (I believe that, as for the soil in some parts of Bisayas, [64] it melts into lead, just as in the island of Mauricius, which belongs to the French, it melts into iron); cocoanuts, which produce abundance of oil; [65] horses; deer and buffaloes, from which the people make what they call tapa [i.e., dried beef], and also use the sinews; and bichuca, or rattans. [66]

The above-mentioned products are very abundant, and exceedingly easy to collect. I do not, however, wish to include the following, for the reasons which I have mentioned: Lead, [of which] I have not personally actual experience, although I regard it as being as sure as all the others; coffee, which, as it is not cultivated, is not abundant, and its consumption is small for exportation, less than it would be for España or Europa; iron, [the working of] which, although it is very abundant, they have not yet succeeded in perfecting; the pearl-fisheries, which are not operated; copper, the mines of which are not worked; and cocoanuts, which are little used outside [the islands] except for oil and nails. [67]

The second: The commodities that I have mentioned are exported to the places that are enumerated as follows, and sell at prices that are very profitable--although commerce has, as in all regions, its ups and downs [sus altos y bajos]. To various ports of China: rice, sugar, cotton, indigo, bichuca or rattan, balate, pepper, tortoise-shell, mother-of-pearl, brazil-wood, ebony, tapa, the sinews of cattle, birds'-nests, and lead when they have it. To the Malabar coast and Persia: sugar in large quantities, which is sold for money. To the Coromandel coast and Bengala: sugar, indigo, brazil-wood, sulphur, pepper, siguey, birds'-nests, cotton, and often rice.

The third: The advantages and benefit which will accrue to his Majesty from the commerce and exportation of the commodities and products of those same islands are various, to wit: The more that the commodities which they need from outside can be supplied from the native products of the islands themselves, the more silver remains in the [Spanish] dominions. The more commodities or fruits are exported, so much more land will be cultivated, and many more people employed; and consequently the tributes imposed by his Majesty can be all the more easily collected, and from that time the royal exchequer will be better filled; and the vassals, by being kept busy, become more obedient and more loyal. The Spanish traders who are established there are favored [by such policy]; for they obtain their profits on both the exportation and the importation, and if one of these fail, the other will be able to supply the deficiency; but the advantage will be the greater if it can be obtained from both sources of gain. When commerce is flourishing, his Majesty will obtain greater profits from the customs duties, for which reason it is highly expedient that his Majesty encourage the cultivation of the land and the increase of its products--a thing which I do not consider difficult of accomplishment, as I have already demonstrated in another little work, which I have placed in the hands of the ministers. [68]

In order to demonstrate clearly how much the people of Manila could avail themselves of the products of the land, I will relate what occurred with myself (and it is a circumstance which proves what I advanced in the second point), to wit: When I was at Manila the exportation of sugar was rigorously prohibited, so that hardly could a ship carry away enough for its own supply, [the authorities] telling the vessel-owners that it was against the ordinances of his Majesty. I remained for some time under this delusion, until I had carefully examined the said ordinances, from which it was clear to me that his Majesty had decreed everything in favor of his Indian vassals, and that his royal will was, not to oppress them therein. It caused me, then, much pain to see that this thing was so entirely misunderstood, since this prohibition was diametrically opposed to it; for it forbade the people to enjoy the benefits of the country which God had given them, which the king never had intended to take away from them--especially as this [commerce] is the only means that they possess by which they can pay their tributes. Finally I undertook to establish generally the exportation of sugar. Having been warned of the difficulties, I went to the province where it [69] greatly abounds (which is called Pampanga), and did what I could; it was agreed that I should make an experiment, in order to please his Lordship. I consented, on the condition that a certain Don Francisco Salgado, a careful and industrious man, should be appointed my assistant; as I had not the time to execute this plan, I only gave him all [necessary] information and instructions. At last we succeeded in making indigo so good that it stood every test, the severest and most certain that are known being those of water and of fire. I sent specimens of that quality to China, the Coromandel coast, Persia, and Londres [i.e., London]; in the first three places they were anxious to obtain it, and offered good prices, and in the last-named one the indigo that had cost 500 reals vellon was sold for 2,600 reals. They will be able to manufacture every year such quantity as they desire.

I believe that I have succeeded in what I undertook to demonstrate, which is as follows: First, to make known the abundance of the products of the Philipinas Islands; second, to prove from my own experience that it is easy to secure the benefit of these; third, to set forth the advantage and benefit which will accrue to his Majesty, to the Spaniards settled in those regions, and to the Indian vassals generally.

I can say that charity has induced me to make known what I have already related from my own experience, seeing that all that has hitherto been written [on this subject] is very superficial; nor can the most intelligent man form from those books a stable opinion of what these islands are capable of yielding from their so abundant products.

This little work is condensed, but those who are capable of comprehending it will see that it is [so] on account of being written out of thorough understanding and knowledge of what I write about, and not for lack of a very broad field in which I might descant, for it cannot be denied that there is material for filling a volume.

Nevertheless, I do not claim to lay down the law, nor do I presume to change any system; my intention is only to depict things as they are, in order that his Majesty may have actual knowledge of the treasure which he possesses in these islands. No advantage results to me, nor do I expect more than to be a man ready to communicate [what he knows], and desirous to do what shall depend on a limited ability, for the greater benefit of his Majesty and the advancement of his realms. But it is already time that we show in what consists the advantage and benefit which will accrue to his Majesty from the Philipinas Islands.

What precedes this serves only to demonstrate that the Spaniards settled in Manila have a broad field for carrying on a flourishing commerce, and even it would redound much to the advantage of his Majesty. But what I am earnestly advocating is cinnamon, and it is of great importance to his Majesty and worthy of his royal attention; and if I say that no one has hitherto, or since España conquered the Philipinas, made a proposition so certain, so well founded, and so advantageous to his Majesty, and to all his dominions and his vassals, it is not much to say. For it is no exaggeration when I say that it is more than the conquistador accomplished; he succeeded, with honor and glory, in conquering the islands, but they have always cost España most dearly for their maintenance. For not only do I aim to relieve those expenses, which are so large, but those islands can in a few years become a benefit to his Majesty, and to his vassals, both Spaniards and Indians. I do not ask these gratuities, [70] nor that the king should spend one maravedi; my chief object and desire is, that a stable commerce be allowed from those countries to these kingdoms by the most direct route.

No one is ignorant of the vast amount of silver which goes every year from España to the Dutch for the supply of cinnamon, for it is not less than many millions of pesos duros each year, as they have estimated; but I affirm that this is because they [i.e., the Spaniards] are willing to let the silver go out [of the country]. España might with as good reason send to Olanda to buy her wine as her cinnamon. I will not undertake to argue whence it comes, although I know it very well. What I am trying to do, without offending any one, is to remedy this lack which España suffers, that the Spaniards may use their good judgment and their reason and become true patriots. What a pity it is that his Majesty, possessing so noble a commodity, and being able to place it on the market--with as good success as that of Ceylán, and even at less than half of the price--should permit so many millions of silver to pass every year from his dominions to the Dutch! which is to furnish that people with arms for carrying on war when opportunity may offer. It is well known that España consumes more cinnamon than all the other nations; can there, then, be greater folly? In order (as I suppose) to humor the Dutch, España leaves unused the cinnamon which she has in her own house, in order to buy it from those enemies and the destroyers of the holy faith in those countries; I say that this is opposed to the Christian religion, and I prove it in a few words: if España would avail herself of this product which she could so easily dispose of, the Dutch could not maintain [their establishments in] the island of Ceylon, and then España could even introduce missions in that island. But what foolish talk! The Dutch maintain Ceilon? The Spaniards support it; they pay for its ships, its fortresses, and its garrisons which the Dutch have there--although in order to destroy these the Spaniards need neither balls, nor gunpowder, nor war. If any one thinks that this is a sweeping statement [es adelantar mucho], we are of differing opinions, because to me it seems a moderate one.

I am known as a man who has accomplished much, who has traveled in many lands, and who has not passed through them heedlessly; nor have I stopped to consider the expenditure of money, or the risk to health, in order to satisfy my curiosity and obtain well grounded knowledge of all things wherever I have traveled. To the point: Samboanga, the capital of the island of Mindanao, is the place which could produce cinnamon as good as that of Ceylon, if our people knew how to cultivate it; I have already made the experiment, and it will yield the amount that I shall require. The Dutch are well aware of this, [as appears] by evidence which can be verified by me; for they, with their trained and accustomed cunning, placed in the said island a stone with the initial letters of [the name of] their company engraved on it, like those which they are wont to place in their bales of goods, etc., by way of manifesting that these belong to the said company. The said stone was brought to Manila while I was there, and was delivered to the Marques de Obando; and his Lordship, knowing that I understood the tricks and policy of those gentlemen, sent to call me, and, showing me the stone, he said, "What is the meaning of this stone, which they have brought to me under such-and-such circumstances?" I replied to his Lordship, "It is nothing; it is a mark which the Dutch are wont to set up in order to have a pretext, when opportunity offers, for laying claim to the lands in which they have placed the said stones." [71] No one, then, who understands that people--keen, mercenary, and always on the watch--will fail to agree with me, that they do not set up these stones in barren islands, unless it is evident that, on account of the location of these islands, it will not suit the Dutch to have [other people there as] close neighbors. When they abandoned the island of Maurisius, considering it uninhabitable on account of its sterility, they left no engraved stone in it. It is a circumstance which deserves attention, and is even worthy of coming to his Majesty's knowledge; and likewise those who have or have had practical knowledge of these matters regard them in this way. Finally, I have compared the quality of the soil at Samboanga with that of Ceylon, also the leaves of the cinnamon tree; still more, I have gathered the bark of this tree at Samboanga and made certain experiments with it, and when I compared it with that from Ceylon they were of equal value. I consider, then, [from] the manner of making these experiments with the cultivation of the soil and the culture of the cinnamon, [that] it will prove to be equal [to that of Ceylon]. Finally, in commencing the experiments which I have made--with the greatest application and industry, and enormous expenses--they are quite sufficient to prove that it will be possible, in the term of five or six years, to produce a large part of the best cinnamon which comes to Europa. This I have learned from the experiment with a quantity of chocolate which I ordered to be made in my own house at Manila; this product has been greatly liked by the ladies, and by people of taste and understanding, in the said city.

In view of these proofs, which I have from actual knowledge of the method of cultivating and preparing this product, it causes me surprise that his Majesty is losing a source of profit so extensive and lucrative; and I am persuaded that if full knowledge of them could have reached the officials who might have authority to examine the subject, they would have taken suitable measures to secure this benefit--although it is certain that it would not be considered that no one hitherto has attained it [i.e., such knowledge] except that which is here explained by myself, which is the simple truth. And as for what concerns my part, I can serve, if desirable, in carrying out a work so national and so advantageous to his Majesty--in which honor and fame spur me to place myself at the disposal of his Majesty, without causing him the expenditure of one real of silver; for, thanks to God, I have the means for travel. Nevertheless, I shall never weary in the acquisition of the precious treasures of honor and truth; for God only knows the exceeding satisfaction which I feel in being the first and only person who has had the good fortune to furnish this information, so clear and plain that, if it were published to the world, I am sure that the rest of the nations would conspire against me; for they know its great usefulness, and the little difficulty which I would find in carrying out the plan.

I have been assured that the clove is found in Mindanao. I have made every possible effort to investigate this, and I believe that it is certainly so, although I cannot assert more than what experience has taught me. But I can affirm with more certainty that the nutmeg grows there, and needs only to be cultivated; also pepper of the best quality, and most delicious, can be had in abundance. At present the only thing left for us is to reflect upon the many advantages and incredible benefits which will accrue to his Majesty, and to his dominions and vassals, both Spaniards and Indians, without costing him a real vellon to establish this commerce. The English and Dutch, on the other hand, will spend millions to prevent the success of this great project, for which reason it is evidently necessary to maintain the utmost secrecy regarding it.

Recapitulation of the advantages and benefits of this commerce

First: The millions of pesos duros which now pass out of the domains of his Majesty, with which the Dutch are enriching themselves and promoting their main commerce, that of the cinnamon; they will have so much less for hostilities against España, the more that this matter of the cinnamon is pushed in that country, thus rendering it impossible for them to carry away the silver thence.

Second: Great numbers of Indians would be employed who now have no way in which to make a living or to pay their tributes; by this means not only would they be relieved [from their burdens], but it would be with great increase to the royal exchequer; and through their application and gains they would consequently be more faithful and constant vassals, while now idleness and vices prevent them from being such.

Third: The Philipinas Islands are suffering severely from the lack of communication by a direct route with España; this could be easily secured by arming the ships there, which need from España more people than a few officers; and it would be very desirable to transport for those islands some artisans whom they will need for promoting and cultivating the various products of the land.

Fourth: The more that the lands are cultivated and their products made available, the greater will be the number of men and of infidel Indians that will be needed; and consequently they will submit [to Spanish authority], and be converted into loyal vassals and friends, and Christianity will be increased in those regions, without any fear that the Moro and infidel enemies can disturb them.

Fifth: It will be possible to equip every year three or four ships of six hundred to a thousand toneladas each, and despatch them for Europa with cinnamon, pepper, and other spices which will be produced there; and in return they will go back with various commodities and fruits, the products of España, which the people of Manila always find themselves compelled to buy from the English and Dutch, carrying away the money for them. In this manner not only will these gains remain within the dominions of his Majesty, without the other nations being able to draw thence the money with which they carry on war, [to the] injury of the commerce of España, but by this means the [Spanish] dominions that are so remote will come to be to a large extent dependent one upon another; and as the intercourse between them would be mutual and friendly, the Indians consequently would have occasion to see and experience the greatness [of the Spanish power]. Thus they would come to be more faithful and loyal vassals, and returning to their own lands, would influence their countrymen to be the same.

Sixth: No one will deny my statement that the cinnamon would [thus] be obtained at a much less cost [by the Spaniards] than that at which the Dutch can sell it, unless [they encounter] less risk and danger--[which are] so manifest that for the preservation of this commerce they find themselves compelled to maintain a great number of troops and keep up many forts and garrisons, solely to defend themselves. Let to all this be added the governors, and the enormous number of people whom they have in their service, with some very large expenses which arise from the various opinions of the companies--the costs of which, so ill applied, render the cinnamon more expensive (although in reality its cost is low), and it is certain that their commerce in spices does not prove to be so profitable as the nations assert. Very differently, then, will it be in favor of España when she reaches the cultivation of the cinnamon; for in place of the great expenses which his Majesty has had ever since he took possession of the said island, without its producing any benefit, he will obtain the greatest advantages without spending a real vellon more than at present. Especially, labor will be found as cheap, and the cultivation of the soil as easy, as in Ceylon; and the navigation can be made with the same advantages that [other] nations [possess], or even greater. For this reason the cinnamon will cost the merchants forty or fifty per cent less than they have actually paid hitherto. It is certain that it is a very serious damage which España generally suffers in her commerce, from paying, through this negligence, the freight charges of the Dutch ships, and the cost of their officers and seamen; and they even maintain their fortifications, etc., with the money which they obtain from España for this product of cinnamon.

Seventh: Likewise, there would be great advantage to España in the ships which would come from the Philipinas, as I have said (in the fifth point); for they would return laden with many fruits and products of these kingdoms of España.

Eighth: The Americans would likewise share in this great benefit; for the cinnamon, for which they are today paying so exorbitant a price, they would obtain at very nearly the same price at which it is usually sold in Cadiz.

Ninth: If the cinnamon should become cheap, much chocolate would be consumed by the poor; and consequently the duties would amount to much more, to the advantage of his Majesty.

Notwithstanding that the greatness of the enterprise is clearly demonstrated, and no additional information is needed, two things ought to be noted. First, that no damage or expense can result to his Majesty. Second, that from this arrangement, it is evident and positive, not the least injury or disadvantage ensues to España or to America; rather, it is a triple benefit, and indispensable--which, [however,] without general experience and practical knowledge it would be impossible to bring about without each dominion injuring the other; for in this consists the superiority of a man who is an expert.

[The writer then proceeds to mention the spiritual advantages which would result from the temporal; but his argument becomes somewhat lame here, reducing itself to the "hope that, with the help of our Lord, a firm and permanent peace with the Moros may be secured" He makes an interesting statement regarding the extent of the ravages committed by the Mindanao pirates: "I am certain, from accurate information, that during the government of the Marqués de Obando he cost the king eight millions of reals vellon [for this purpose], although he proceeded with the utmost economy and care in the manner in which he used the royal revenue; and, having made in the year 1755 a calculation of the expenses which these piracies were causing to his Majesty and his vassals (both Spaniards and Indians) from the ravages made by the Moros and infidels during the eight years preceding, it amounted to about eighty millions of reals vellon," not to mention the killing of priests and native Christians. Of course, if peace is secured with the Moros, the progress and extension of the missions in the islands is assured. The writer again declares his devotion to the service of God and the king, his readiness to explain his plans further to those who desire more information, and his confidence that they will command the confidence of men of understanding, judgment, and patriotism.]

Although through experience (tempus edrax rerum) one can come to know the utility and advantage which will accrue from the execution of this so vast enterprise, I trust that I have demonstrated it quite sufficiently to render it worthy of the consideration of his Majesty; nevertheless, seeing how much is involved, it is fitting for my honor to furnish proofs, the most detailed and circumstantial. This induces me to quote part of the lading which came in seventeen ships of the Company of Olanda, as published in the Gazette of Amsterdam, dated on July 3 of this present year, one thousand seven hundred and fifty-nine--products which are and may be those of the very islands in question; and in order to show how very important it is to give attention to what is herein proposed, each commodity is valued at the regular price which it can bring in the ports of Cadiz, Alicante, etc.

Prices

Libras [Commodities] Reals reals vellon vellon per Total, libra

4,672,746 of pepper 7 32,709,222 50,000 of nutmeg 39 1,950,000 60,000 of mace 70 4,200,000 360,000 of cloves 50 18,000,000 375,840 of cinnamon 58 21,198,720 3,000 of candied nutmeg 60 180,000 2,398 of candied cloves 70 167,860 883,142 of sugar 3.94 [72] [3,424,000] 40,490 of camphor 16 649,840 6,582 of benzoin 22 134,936 10,500 of borax 15 157,500 12,146 of gum-lac 12 145,752 3,000 of gum myrrh 12 36,000 3,514 of gamboge 16 56,224 20,049 of indigo, superior 30 601,470 ---------- [Total,] eighty-three millions, six hundred and eleven thousand, five hundred and twenty-four reals vellon. 83,611,524

I have taken into consideration the objections which may be brought forward by persons who are little acquainted with trade, and these are reduced, substantially, to the following: That the consumption of these commodities in the dominions of his Majesty cannot be regulated by the above calculation. They speak glibly; but, in order not to lose time with these persons, I answer them, that one is compelled to encounter ignorance, but the only concern of great souls is to serve faithfully their kings and nations, and endure the calumnies which are uttered against honest men--imitating the stars, which, no matter how much the dogs bark, do not cease to shine down upon them and to follow their own courses. Accordingly, let us proceed to truths which are plain:

First: that the Dutch carry these commodities in large quantities, as is above stated--a proof that there is a consumption for that amount, and that this is a profitable trade. Second: that the calculation which I have made cannot be defective, since the [amounts of the] commodities agree with the figures published by the Dutch themselves; and the prices are obtained from the Company of Druggists, in accordance with what they pay for the goods at the ports. Third: that the greater part [of these commodities], and the most important ones, if not [all], can be the products of the Philipinas Islands. Fourth: that these commodities must cost much less than in Olanda, or in any other country, is manifest and undeniable for this reason, that the Dutch are obliged to incur enormous expenses--for governors, members of council, lesser servants without number, and many troops--in order to maintain their establishments; and these expenses increase just so much the prices of their spices, so that, if they buy these from the [Eastern] nations at ten, the goods are worth to them twenty-five. This would not occur with us, because the king does not need to increase the expenses in order to secure the advancement of the islands. It would be entirely different; for, if these plantations are established, thousands of Indians who now are suffering the utmost poverty without having any opportunity to work, and for the same reason cannot pay their tributes, would have a means of gaining their living and of paying their tributes, and on this very account it would serve much for the increase of the royal revenue.

As these Indians are not paid for their labor at higher rates than are those among whom the Dutch reside, we must reckon, for the reasons here stated, that those same commodities would cost much less, and that the Spaniards could sell them at lower prices than do the Dutch; and, as the merchant in every country buys where he will find his greatest advantage, España would be the fair for these commodities which have already enriched so many nations. But let us proceed to reveal the cunning of the Dutch, who furnish only three millions, seven hundred and fifty thousand, eight hundred and forty libras of cinnamon--which, at the rate of sixteen onzas a libra, make six [73] millions, thirteen thousand, four hundred and forty onzas. The rule for making chocolate is to take ten libras of cacao, ten of sugar, and eight onzas of cinnamon, or even less, and on account of the waste [74] it is computed that the result will be twenty libras net; consequently, from the three millions, seven hundred and fifty thousand, eight hundred and forty libras of cinnamon could be made fifteen millions, thirty-three thousand, six hundred libras of chocolate.

Although it is folly to make such a proposition, I ask whether there are not in España, [75] all America, the Philipinas Islands, and, in short, all the so various domains of his Majesty, counting all these together, four millions of persons who drink chocolate sixty-four times in the year, in accordance with the rule of one onza for each time. Even the most ignorant or malicious person will not deny my proposition; this makes, then, the consumption of chocolate sixteen millions of libras, and for making it there will be needed four hundred thousand libras of cinnamon.

Hence are drawn two conclusions. One is, the extreme craftiness of the Dutch, in not furnishing more than the said quantity in order to supply the Spaniards, and in making them believe that they will be left without chocolate; and thus they succeed in obliging the Spaniards to pay for the cinnamon at the very high prices which the Dutch have fixed in these recent years--for it is a hundred per cent more costly, and fifty per cent worse in quality; therefore there is an increase of a hundred and fifty per cent in favor of the Dutch, and of three hundred per cent to the injury of España, who without reason endures this tyranny. Therefore, if the Dutch are not mistaken in the estimate of cinnamon which they published in the Gazette, and as the consumption [of that spice] in España is as I have made evident, there will not be cinnamon to supply all the nations; nevertheless, there will be no lack of it in any of them. [76]

Second: since it is so evident that in the dominions of his Majesty there is consumed in [the beverage of] chocolate alone (without counting the numerous kinds of food in which use is made of it) sixteen millions of libras, and in order to make it there are needed four hundred thousand of cinnamon, at the rate of fifty-eight reals vellon that quantity will cost twenty-three millions, three hundred thousand reals vellon, which is the least that España could advance for the execution of the project. Moreover, I do not know any reason for not admitting the commodity of pepper--which not only is so exceedingly abundant in the islands, but I persuade myself that, since it is so excellent in its crude state, it would with skilful treatment be better than that of any [other] country. It is also plain to us that the Dutch bring [to Europa] four millions, six hundred and seventy-two thousand, seven hundred and forty-six libras of it; they assure me that only because of the great abundance of garlic [77] in España the pepper brings no more than seven reals vellon a libra--[at which rate] the above quantity will amount to thirty-two millions, seven [hundred] and nine thousand, two hundred and twenty-two reals vellon. This added to the twenty-three millions, three hundred thousand reals [for cinnamon] will make fifty-six millions, nine thousand, two hundred and twenty-two reals vellon.

People will say, "Where would we consume so much pepper?" Then where does Olanda consume it, I would like to know? "[And there are] Francia and Inglaterra; do they bring much less [to Europa]?" Do not those who ask such questions know how much the king is paying to Norbega [i.e., Norway] and the northern countries for lumber, cordage, etc., for the construction in his royal navy? and that, if it happens that care is not given in time to the planting of oak groves, he will need much more [from those countries]?--At present these commodities are paid for in ready money, which would not be the case if we could give the merchants there the pepper, etc., so cheaply (or at less expense than [if purchased from] another country), on account of the great consumption of pepper which there is in those countries, and because this would be a [form of] trade that is mutually advantageous, as I have already said, for the day-laborer and the shepherd. It would be permanent, and many millions of reals which now leave España would remain here, to the greatest advantage not only of his Majesty, but of his vassals. I say, then, that no one is able to deny these two propositions, of which his Majesty will be best able to judge. Have I heard some one argue that España has [78] need of preventing thus the exportation of silver? Such arguments are foolish, and one should laugh at them.

Do we not know that Olanda commands that a very large part of the spice product be burned and destroyed, in order that a commodity which brings her so enormous a profit should not, through its excessive abundance, contribute to her loss? I say, then, that if España reaches an excessive abundance of silver, it would be far better for the king to command that the mines be closed, or to fling the silver into the sea, than to let it pass into the hands of those who tomorrow can avail themselves of it to carry on war [against España]. Others I have heard talk [on this subject], so frivolously that I was astounded, hinting at the resentment of this other nation if España should profit by what is her own--that is, the execution of the proposition [that I have made]. That is the same as to say that Inglaterra or any other nation could declare that España shall not cultivate the ground or sow the wheat, because it suited that nation to supply it; it is to talk very heedlessly, without knowing that España can limit the commerce of Francia, Inglaterra, and Olanda whenever she desires, without cannon-ball or gunpowder, by the prohibition of silver alone. If she chooses to deprive any one of those countries of this advantage, she has only to calculate what she owes to the other two for the net balance of their trade, and then not allow any more silver to go out to those countries; and these, needing it for themselves, will not be able to supply the other one. I can assert that España, if she would avail herself of the rights which God has given her, would make herself more worthy of respect by depriving the [other] nations of what is essential, not only for their commerce, but for waging war to advantage.

I believe that no one will dispute the advantages and benefit which can accrue from the Philipinas Islands, and it is this which from the outset I have attempted to demonstrate, although I omit, for the sake of brevity, the explanation of many things.

Keeping in mind how much I owe to the infinite mercy and goodness of supreme Providence, in the second part of the work alluded to, which I presume to present to his Majesty, I have treated at length of the ravages which the Moros have committed during very many years in those islands, and of the exceeding damage which they thus cause to our holy Roman Catholic and apostolic faith, for I cannot do less. Indeed, it is evident that God has assisted me with His divine Grace; and therefore I certainly ought to defend and, if it should be necessary, die for His cause. Accordingly, in whatever concerns the subjection of the Moros, and consequently the protection and advancement of the holy faith in those islands, I hope to deserve that his Majesty will do me the honor of appointing six lieutenant-commanders--three from his royal navy, and three from his army--in order that they may examine with the utmost care the plan upon which I have based my proposition, giving their opinions in writing for presentation to his Majesty, in two copies, one for his Majesty's royal Council of the Indias, the other for myself.

When this examination shall be made, and the plan approved by the king if such be his royal will, I will immediately proceed to furnish the plan of the whole matter which I have drawn up for the execution of the project--from which, after further investigations (which are very just, and perhaps will be quite unprecedented) his Majesty can more easily decide what shall be most expedient in this matter, as also the selection of persons for the said purpose.

As for what pertains to the commerce, for greater certainty I deemed it expedient to communicate my intention to Don Antonio Butlert [sic], formerly a merchant of Cadiz--since he is distinguished not only for his great success in business and his genuine friendship to this nation, but by his long experience in and thorough knowledge of the commerce of these dominions--asking him to give me his disinterested opinion on the subject, in which he should consider with the utmost attention the general welfare of these dominions; and this opinion I have, in writing, and signed with the name of his firm, which reads "Butlert and Matheos."

Some persons who are little acquainted with affairs so vast, and who have still less ability to make ready for the great things which remain to be done, will suppose that the execution [of this plan] is easy, to one who has the writings which I have already furnished; nevertheless, if they engaged in the undertaking they would find themselves much mistaken, and the result would be greatly to the detriment of the nation.

Warned by what I have passed through, and dreading [the effects of] ignorance and malice, I have reached the decision to supplicate the king to grant me the honor of this examination--desiring, whatever may fall to my lot, to prove that I have no other purpose than to serve faithfully both Majesties and their vassals, and entreating them for this end to dispose of my life and person, of which I will gladly make sacrifice in proof of my loyalty and sincere devotion.

Extracts from the proposition of Don Nicolas Norton Nicols; the conditions which he requires; the benefits and advantages which will accrue to his Majesty and his vassals, on whose account his Majesty was pleased to issue a decree on the twenty-third of February last.

The aim of the said proponent is, to establish in the Philipinas Islands plantations of cinnamon, pepper, other spices, etc., and to open a direct commerce between the said islands and Cadiz, by way of the Cape of Good Hope.

Conditions.--That he shall be permitted to undertake the said route from Cadiz, or may go to the said islands and make the voyage from there to Cadiz, as he shall find most convenient. If he shall set out from Cadiz, on account of not having time to build ships he shall be permitted to buy whatever vessels [he may need], without excepting those of foreigners. The cargo from Cadiz must consist of different fruits, liquids, [79] and commodities that are products of España and of her commerce, as on the return voyage it must be from the various products and commodities of the said islands and of their commerce. That his Majesty remit the duties for the first voyage, and that the proponent be permitted to embark freely at Cadiz the silver that he needs to defray the purchase of his return cargo. On the second voyage he shall pay at Cadiz not only the five per cent duties but the three per cent of the silver which he shall thereafter embark, as is done with the [traders of foreign] nations. In order to obviate any objection, he will not enter any port belonging to his Majesty or to any power of Europa; he shall, however, be permitted to enter and anchor at any one of the Indian ports, whether in these or in those seas, and therein buy, sell, exchange, or lade the goods which shall be offered to him.

The advantages, etc., will be the following: His Majesty will not subject his royal revenue to any expense, nor will it be exposed to the evil designs of men, or to the doubtful patriots who pretend to have knowledge. There is no treaty that can be set against him, as he can prove. By the most moderate computation, the Dutch annually export four millions of pesos for the spice-trade; this, therefore, is to make them powerful, to the injury of España. Norvega, St. Petersbourgh, and other countries demand a great amount of cash for lumber, pitch, cordage, sails, etc., for the royal shipbuilding, the greater part of which would be paid for in spices, as these are greatly liked in those countries. Equivalent injury to España, as is stated above. [80] The commodities and products of España would have a much larger market. A strong stimulus to the cultivation of the soil. His Majesty would experience much relief in the expenses of transportation for the missions. This navigation would serve as a nursery for the navy, as is found by experience in other countries. The direct communication would serve as a check on a thousand abuses, not only in the government of the islands, but in other matters. If his Majesty should grant this privilege to the said islands, it would be most just that the commonwealth of Manila should carry on its commerce with Acapulco at its own cost, without laying the burden of it on his Majesty. By not possessing this commerce when she can have it, España is maintaining thousands of strangers in place of a like number of her own vassals; [the latter would] redound to the increase of the royal revenue, and in the course of years to the propagation of the holy faith. The Moros, who now are by their wars destroying the felicitous progress of the Christian religion, when they found by experience how much more it suited their own interests to maintain peace and commerce with the Spaniards than to wage war against them, would inviolably observe their treaties; for, notwithstanding the cruelties which the Dutch practice against their Indians, the latter tolerate them on account of the advantages of their commerce. The people of Manila will, when they have a market for their products, cultivate the land; they will establish family estates, and enrich themselves; and their riches, like those of the Americans, will finally come to España. The duties which your Majesty would receive from this new commerce would in a very few years amount to very considerable sums. It would be a stimulus to other new commercial undertakings, which would be beneficial to his Majesty and his vassals.

The whole matter in small compass

His Majesty, without risking anything, is going to gain infinitely more than what has been [here] stated. The method of securing these vast benefits is the easiest and safest which can be put into practice, and itself makes plain the useful and salutary design of the proponent.

Don Nicolas Norton Nicols

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DATA

The documents in this volume are obtained from the following sources:

1. Santa Misericordia.--From Manifiesta y resumen historico de la fundacion de la venerable hermandad de la Santa Misericordia (Manila, 1728), by Juan Bautista de Uriarte; from a copy in the possession of Edward E. Ayer, Chicago.

2. Survey of the Philipinas.--From a MS. in the Museo-Biblioteca de Ultramar, Madrid--pressmark, "24-4a.-1.735;" various plans in it are here reproduced.

3. Order of St. John.--From Religiosa hospitalidad por los hijos del ... S. Ivan de Dios en Philipinas (Granada, 1742); from a copy in the possession of Edward E. Ayer.

4. Letter to president of Council.--A copy, furnished by Sr. D. Roman Murillo, Madrid, of the original MS., which he, as librarian of the Academia Española, Madrid, found among other papers therein, this being the only one relating to the Philippines.

5. Letter by a Jesuit.--From Ventura del Arco MSS. (Ayer library), iv, pp. 297-305.

6. Commerce of the Philipinas.--From a MS., either the original rough draft or a contemporaneous copy, in the possession of Edward E. Ayer.

7. Relation of the Zambals.--From a certified copy--procured for us by Sr. D. Manuel de Yriarte, chief of Division of Archives at Manila--of the original MS., which is preserved in the archives of the convent of Santo Domingo in Manila.

APPENDIX: RELATION OF THE ZAMBALS

By Domingo Perez, O.P. MS. dated 1680.

Source: A certified copy of the original MS., which is preserved in the archives of the convent of Santo Domingo, Manila.

Translation: This is made by James Alexander Robertson.

RELATION OF THE ZAMBALS

RELATION OF THE ZAMBAL [81] INDIANS OF PLAYA HONDA, THEIR SITUATION AND CUSTOMS. BY FATHER FRAY DOMINGO PEREZ, OF THE ORDER OF PREACHERS AND VICAR-PROVINCIAL OF THE RELIGIOUS WHO ASSIST IN THE SAID MISSION. YEAR OF 1680 [82]

The very reverend father, Fray Baltazar de Santa Cruz, prior-provincial of this province of Santo Rossario of the Order of Preachers in these Philipinas Islands, having visited the villages (which we have today united and their inhabitants reduced to the said villages) and us two ministers who for the space of nine months have been busied in the reduction of said Indians, said reverend father provincial ordered me to write a treatise on the site whence we have drawn the Indians whom we have reduced, their customs, and mode of living.

In order that the evangelical ministers who have to work in this mission may be able more clearly to direct those souls redeemed by the blood of our Lord Christ along the true pathway of heaven from which they have strayed so far for so many years blinded with the darkness of infidelity and idolatry; also in order that this paper may be used so that the ministers of justice of the king, our sovereign, may subject said Indians and establish them under the obedience of his Catholic Majesty: although it is true that for more than sixty years they had ministers of the gospel, neither said ministers nor his Majesty have been able to succeed in getting them to live in a settlement so that they may be administered or have justice as today it is hoped that they will be. The most that it has been possible to obtain with them was that distinct bands of them should unite on various occasions in the mountain on the plateau where the ministers had a house and church. But they immediately broke up again, said division occasioning the wars which those Indians generally wage among their different bands, and the alcaldes-mayor were unable to punish the guilty and ungovernable because of the greater distance from the chief cities where the alcaldes-mayor live to these places, and because the coast of the sea is so rough during all the time of the vendavals and south winds, that it is impossible to navigate along it, while the road overland is so rough and blocked by mountains full of black enemies (those mountains being very rough in parts), and in the ravines there are very great rivers with very strong currents, so that in the rainy season one can have no communication from this place, with Pangasinan, or with Mariueles, or with Pampanga; and during the dry season these Indians are generally with the blacks in the mountains trading wax: consequently, they have never been obedient to the alcaldes-mayor, and hence, neither to his Majesty nor to the gospel ministers whom they have hitherto had. Although they have had ministers of great virtue and most ardent zeal for souls, as can be seen in the annals of their sacred order and even today, there are ex-provincials who have been their ministers whose signal virtues are apparent to all the community.

Of the site and district of Playa Honda

Playa Honda begins at the doors of Mariueles and extends along the mountains which border Pampanga to the point of Sunga and near Pangasinan, which is distant more than forty leguas from Mariueles to the visita of the Christian Baga Indians who are administered by the minister of Mariueles. They perform their duties toward the Church every year, notwithstanding that they show very many imperfections, a fact which is not surprising, since the minister cannot be with them all the time that he would like, as the coast is inaccessible all the time of the vendavals. During that time they must necessarily live without a minister to instruct them. That visita has thirty tributes. Although they have a village laid out with its church and house for the minister, they do not live in the said village except when the minister goes to visit them. They live in their rancherías whence they get molave wood in abundance. They have sufficient fields in said village for all, and for twice as many more if they cared to cultivate them, but they apply themselves more earnestly in cutting said timber than in farming their fields. They get considerable help for [cutting] said wood from the blacks of the mountain, for those blacks are excellent woodsmen. All those blacks are tributary and pay twelve reals annually for their tribute. The tribute is managed by the Indians, and the encomendero does not meddle with them in the collection of the tribute from the blacks, but the Indians pay the said tribute for the blacks. Hence the black serves the Indian all the year, without the black having other profit at the end of the year than his tribute paid. This is the reason why the village is continually without people, because the Indians, on account of the profit from the work of the blacks, go to live with the blacks, or near the pass of the mountain, where said blacks live, in order to assist them in the work, for the blacks unless assisted physically do not work. Four leguas from this visita toward the north is another visita called Mariyumo, administered also by the said father minister of Mariueles. Its people are Christians, although very bad ones, and seriously lacking in the faith, and have very many imperfections. They have very many superstitions and are much given to omens. Not all of them are very fit to receive the annual communion. They also have a village laid out and a church and house for the minister. However, they do not live in the said village, but in their rancherías, much divided among themselves as are those of Baga; although they are not such absolute masters of the blacks as are those of Vaga, they also have blacks under trust on which account they receive many vexations from the encomendero, for it is the regular thing for them to pay the tribute for the blacks. The latter are more free than the blacks of Vaga, for they have more land where they can spread out, which those of Vaga do not have. Those Indians also possess considerable molave timber, but they are lazier than the Indians of Vaga. Consequently, there is no one to cut the wood unless the corregidor of the island who administers justice to them, forces them to cut said wood. It would be doing a great service to God to unite the latter Indians with those of Baga, so that our holy Catholic faith might be well administered to them. They number about forty tributes, and, if they are united with those of Vaga, they can have a minister in residence where they will be well administered, and where they have lands sufficient for their farming, and timber in abundance. In such case there would not be so great a scarcity of that product in the city of Manila.

One legua from Mariyumo begins the bay which lies back of the mountains of Abucay and Samal, where we commenced to get the Indians whom we have collected in this Nuevo Toledo. The said bay has plenty of fish. Its mouth is about one legua wide, and is closed by a small island surrounded by many reefs on the southern side, but on the north it is very deep--so that any sized ship can enter even when laden. But the said bay has no port and lies in the course of all the vendaval and the south winds. It is five leguas long stretching toward the east, and as many wide. Along all that bay, which it will take two days to coast, were scattered twenty-two families, who are today living in this village of Nuevo Toledo where they have their houses and fields. Having passed the said bay and entered the mountain, one legua inland in the mountain, one enters a very level and long plain. One-half legua inland in the plain, is situated the first village called Nuevo Toledo. That plain is six leguas wide and eight long. It is bounded on the east by some very rough mountains which lie between the province of Pampanga and that plain; at the foot of those mountains were the rancherías of Balacbac, which has fourteen families; Lacnipan which had seven; Sigle which had fourteen more; Aglao which had thirty-three. All those families were scattered, so that in no ranchería did five families live together. The sea properly called Playa Honda bathes its western coast. On the sea-coast were thirty-six families of very pernicious Indians, all of whom we collected into the village of Santa Rossa de Banguen, where they possess their houses and fields. Those Indians were scattered along the creeks and carrizals [83] near the sea, along six leguas of coast and level land beyond the plain running toward the north two leguas. At the foot of some very rough mountains between the sea and Buquil, there were fourteen other families whom we have also collected in said village of Santa Rossa de Banguen, which today consists of fifty families. That said village of Santa Rossa is six leguas from that of Nuevo Toledo over a stretch of level land in which there is a very great abundance of game. Many were supported by that and had no fields and wherever they caught the deer or carabao they stayed there until they finished eating it. But at present they possess their gardens in the village, and since care is taken in this, they will not be lazy, and will live in the village where, having their gardens and the food from them, they will not have so great need of the hunt. Six leguas farther on in another site called Nalso, a plain where are stationed the presidio and fort of Pinauen in a corner of said plain at the foot of the mountains of Buquil, was a little village of about forty families, which the very reverend father, Fray Joseph de la Santísima Trinidad, ex-provincial of his order, had collected in said district. There were there, moreover, twelve families who had recently descended the mountains of Buquil, whom, since they were far from the fields, and the flight to the mountains was very near and five families had returned to the mountains, and there was no assurance of the others if left in said site, we transferred to the visita of Alalam, which is now composed of eighty families. The latter place is seven leguas from the village of Santa Rossa de Banguen. Those who have had most difficulty have been the thirty-three families whom we moved from the site and district of Aglao, as they were very wild Indians, and little or not at all softened until the present, and said site is distant six leguas from the village of Nuevo Toledo where we stationed it. Three leguas of the road are very bad, and there is not a drop of water to be found for four leguas, during all the dry season. The road is over sandy ground which is very large and full of rocks left by the river which flows from the mountain of Pinatuba; and in those places where there are no rocks, but only the sand, the road is also very wearisome because that sand has no cohesion, and the least wind that blows lifts the dust which blinds the travelers and has thus cost the greatest hardship to those of this district who take that road in going and coming between the village and the mountain. In the month of January of this year of eighty, we had them all ready in the village, and I, taking them to the mountain so that they might bring down their possessions and rice to the village, and each family having brought down five baskets of rice, one-half the distance along the road, more than half of the people fell sick, because of the great labor which it cost them to pass the said sandy ground. On that account I ordered them to abandon their rice and possessions and to bring it down little by little, and in order that they might make their gardens before the season should expire, and so that they might finish their houses. They have already finished them, and their gardens are at a musket-shot's distance from the village, according to the edict which Governor Don Juan de Vargas Hurtado, knight of the habit of Santiago, changed for them for that purpose. Even in these slight things, his Lordship has been active on account of his so great desire that the Indians be reduced and be reasonable, if we may so say, for as will be seen in their customs in which they have been reared until the present, they were wandering very far from nationality and civilization.

The village of Nuevo Toledo was composed of more than one hundred families, and that of Santa Rossa de Banguen, of fifty, in the month of January of this year 1680. All declared themselves before Adjutant Alonso Martinez Franco, superior commandant of the fort of Paynauen. The latter, at the evident risk of his life, and with the continual watchfulness and zeal of a fervent religious, without heeding his own interest which he would have had if he wished to pay no heed to the order of his superior, and to receive the offerings of gold which the Indians made to him so that he should not oblige them to leave their recesses, has aided us to his own great credit in collecting the Indians whom we have today in the two said villages. He made lists of the people who were in the two villages above mentioned, who amounted to seven hundred and seventy persons. Those people persevere even yet in the said two villages, and will persevere so long as the efforts which are being made to reduce those who are yet intractable in the mountains, do not cease. The said adjutant and superior commandant of the said presidio also formed the new village of Alalam by withdrawing its ancient inhabitants from the places where they lived before, and brought them within a musket-shot of their fields. They were before that one legua distant from their fields. That site has a small bay, which the sea forms there, where there is very good fishing, and where boats can safely enter. The said village did not have such a bay before, in the former site. He also made lists of the Indians whom he brought to the said village, who are the ones of Nalso who were located at the foot of the mountains of Buquil, and those who descended said mountains. I was not present when the said lists were made and hence do not know the number of the persons there, but it is evident to me that those gathered in the said village number more than fifty families. I have seen their houses which are already finished, and are excellent buildings, made of strong and hard materials. Those Indians also will retain in the said village, which is large, the horror which they have for the Spanish arms, and more, if the raids of the Spaniards on the Indians who still keep to the mountains are repeated.

Of the idolatries of all those Indians

Having to treat of the idolatries, superstitions, and customs of the Zambals, I think I ought first to mention that my purpose is not to discourage the ministers of the gospel, who have to plant our holy Catholic faith among those Indians, but to impart to them the brief information which I possess of the little which I have ascertained in respect to the great amount which there is to ascertain, and which will be discovered with the lapse of time, concerning the customs of that blind people, who have lived so misguidedly and so far from reason at the doors of the true evangelical light which we profess. Although they are surrounded by provinces whose inhabitants are excellent Christians, such as the provinces of Pampanga, Pangasinan, and Mariueles, yet notwithstanding they have been influenced very little or not at all for the good by the customs of the Christians, on account of their lack of communication with them; for they only go to the said provinces to trade and traffic for a brief space of time, and then, if anybody is careless they cut off his head. Hence, as I have said, they have but little communication with reasonable people. On the contrary, I think this paper of mine will serve as a stimulus for us religious, who, leaving our convents of our fatherland España and our friends and relatives, being moved by the zeal for souls, come to these Philipinas Islands to publish our holy Catholic faith, to preserve it, and teach good morals. All this drags us from our provinces in España, and deprives us of our fatherland. Here, then, among these miserable Zambals, we shall find much to do. It is unnecessary to go to seek infidels in other kingdoms, for we have them here, although few; and at the same time we have one to subject them for us and place them under our obedience. I say then that this paper of mine will serve as a stimulus to the ministers of the gospel to come to employ themselves in the service of our Lord and His holy Catholic faith, when they consider the great evil that there is to tear out and eradicate from the hearts of these Indians, and the great good that they lack to make them Christians. And although there are very many baptized persons among them, yet in nothing at all are any of them different from the others, if one considers their customs and mode of living. Those baptized are as idolatrous as those not baptized. I am not surprised at this, for until now the former ministers have not had any opportunity for living in residence among them, since they have not cared to collect them into a settlement. And if they have collected them, it has been for a short time only, and their evil customs have taken them again to the mountains and recesses whence we have drawn them, but today according to the efficacy which the governor of these Philipinas Islands places in the spiritual and temporal good of these wretched creatures, we have excellent hopes that they will persevere in their settlements and will be able to be taught the true pathway to heaven.

These Indians have their priests and priestesses, although such have no jurisdiction over the others; for here everyone is master of his own will, and they alone recognize superiority in one in so far as he gives authority to the other priests and priestesses for some special sacrifices. This last is done to the one who pays well for it. This priest is called bayoc, and he dresses like a woman. He wears a tapis [84] or apron, and ties up his hair like a woman, although above the tapis he wears and girds his catan, on the left side, and on the right side, his yua [85] as other men. Those are the weapons of all these Indians and no one goes without them, even though it be within his own house. The idol to whom this bayoc principally offers sacrifice is called Malyari, which means "powerful." This idol is made with a wooden head and its body and hands of straw. They dress it up like an image after their manner, place it on its altar and niche, then light for it torches of pitch for lack of wax candles. All the people of the ranchería assemble to make the sacrifice. Having built his altar, the bayoc takes his spear in his hand and makes three holes in the earth with it. Those holes are filled with wine, and the spear, having been thrust into the ground, the bayoc begins his sacrifice, with a leaf of wild anahao or wild palm in his hand. He commences to shiver, his whole body trembling, and making many wry faces by means of his eyes, he generally talks, sometimes between his teeth, without anyone understanding him. Sometimes he contents himself with the wry faces which he makes with his eyes and the tremblings of all his body. After a few minutes he strikes himself twice on the knee with the hand in which he holds the palm-leaf, and says that he is the anito to whom the sacrifice is being made. At this the sacristan (for the devil has even in this the semblance of God and wishes to resemble His Divine Majesty) explains the need of the person who orders the sacrifice made. The bayoc promises to fulfil the desire of the person who is having the sacrifice made, and immediately the bystanders begin to sing certain songs in praise of the anito or idol. While they are being sung, they give the bayoc and the sacristan something to drink, and after those two, all those present drink. But no one drinks or eats anything that has been offered in the sacrifice until the bayoc eats or drinks, for they say they would die if they ate or drank before the anito, and for the anito to eat or drink is no other thing than for the bayoc to eat or drink.

The office of sacristan, although the bayoc gives it to whomever he wishes, is not of great estimation, and in the absence of the one appointed for such office, the bayoc substitutes in his place the first one he lays his eyes on. But the office of bayoc is held in high estimation among them, and I am not surprised, for it possesses such advantages that for certain honors which he performs for a deceased person, they generally give him ten taes in gold. Those honors are performed so that the soul of the deceased may leave its relatives, for they say that the said soul always follows them until said honors are shown it. [86] Those honors are not shown to all, because all people do not have the means for those expenses. When they are performed, all the relatives and friends of the deceased are invited to be present at them. They offer food made of rice, buyo, tobacco, and wine to the amount that seems sufficient for the guests. Then clothing Malyari as abovesaid, and presiding over the ceremonies in a two-fold manner, [87] there is pure disorder. Some lament, some sing, some play their musical instruments, and some dance after their manner. But whatever those who lament and those who sing, lament and sing is in memory of the deceased. Finally, what is offered is consumed, and when they finish eating and drinking, the sacrifice is finished, and each of the guests takes his cup from which he has drunk, although some are accustomed to leave them, but they are the fewest. Consequently, if one hundred persons attended the honors one hundred other cups would have to be obtained for each person to take his cup. It is to be noticed that they do not always dress the anito Malyari, for only the bayoc has it, but whenever said bayoc offers sacrifices for any deceased person he dresses it, although some sacrifices are also made to other anitos without dressing said Malyari.

They also have their kind of baptism, which only the bayoc has authority to administer, first making a sacrifice to Malyari in the abovesaid manner. At the same time, they clothe the one baptized according to their fashion. He looses his hair and hangs at the ends some small pieces of gold. The sacrifice having been finished, in place of water the bayoc baptizes him with the blood of a hog, either of the domestic or wild variety. The relatives of the one baptized stand all about him and the former on top of a rock. The ceremonies having been finished, the bayoc cuts the ends of the hair of the baptized person, from which hang the bits of gold, and flings them aloft, and the bystanders collect them hurriedly. That gold is afterward held in high estimation and with difficulty will they let go of it. Consequently, those nearest the one baptized and his relatives, while the ceremonies and the sacrifice are being performed, sing certain songs, and all those who are present answer them. However, there are also very few who are baptized in this manner, because the fees which are given to the bayoc are large, and generally amount to eight taes of gold. If while the sacrifice or the ceremony of baptism is being performed, the bystanders make a great racket, and if after the bayoc has ordered them to keep still, the noise does not abate, then the bayoc takes some bran, dust, or sand, and flings it into the air over the heads of those who are making the racket, and after that is done no one dares to open his mouth and all the racket stops.

The method exercised by the bayoc in delegating power to the other priests of the idols is not less ridiculous than all his other affairs. The new anitero or priest-to-be collects much wine, and the bayoc attends for one or two days a great drunken revel which must last for the space of seven days without cessation. In that revel everyone who enters or goes out, has leave to drink, and they are so long-winded in that matter that as many as gather there have to get drunk, and until he falls down and becomes dead drunk, they do not allow him to leave that place. Then the bayoc thereupon proclaims such and such a miserable wretch as master of such and such an anito. As soon as the seven continuous days of the first revel are finished, they begin another seven days counting every second day; and when those second seven days are ended, they begin another seven, counting every third day. If any of these circumstances are lacking, the bayoc says that the idol or anito will punish them, and such anito will not obey the priest. The pay which is given to the bayoc for his assistance and proclamation to the new priest of his priesthood is according to the anito which he takes; for the anitos have their hierarchies among themselves. There is one anito which costs eight taes of gold, some that cost six, some four, and some three, according to the anito which each one wishes.

Acasi. The anito superior to all seems to me to be the one called Acasi; for they sing him a song which says "Mag yaman man a Malyari monagon si Acasi," namely, "Although Malyari is powerful Acasi gets the first fruits." This is the refrain when they sing in the sacrifice which is made to this idol. That idol has few priests, for the authority given them by the bayoc to be able to offer sacrifice to him costs them a great sum. That idol, they say, is useful for the sick, and for works of importance. All his priests declare that they talk with Acasi, but no one says that he sees him or does anyone of the bystanders hear him talk. The same is true of the other idols and their priests; and all become good and drunk whenever a sacrifice is made, and the priest tells them that the idol has told him the lies that he makes up, and the others believe them as truth. This is universal among all the other sacrifices which are made to the other idols.

Manglobar. There is another idol called Manglobar. They say that that idol pacifies angry hearts. Hence, when anyone commits a murder, he sends to the priest of that idol to have him pacify the relatives of the murdered man, and to reconcile them with the murderer. That reconciliation consists in the murderer giving gold or something worth it to the relatives of the murdered person, according to the rank of the latter. If the murderer has no gold, then he gives a slave, who is generally some Negrillo of the mountain, whom they capture for that purpose. And if he cannot do that the priest kills a son of the murderer or a very near relative. If the murderer cannot do any of the above things, they kill him. The party offended also generally has recourse to such priest in order that the offender may be reconciled with the offended, and that is very general when the offender is more powerful than the party offended or has more kindred to protect him. Only a priest is able to uncover that idol.

Mangalagar. There is another idol called Mangalagar. Of that idol it is said that he accompanies the priest wherever he goes on all occasions when they invoke him (good guardian angel!) when they have to make any garro or mangao, which means to cut off some head. If they have made a catch, they give thanks to such idol, and make him a sacrifice. This is so closely followed that they will under no circumstances mount into their house without first offering some sacrifice to such idol; for they say that they will be punished by that Mangalagar, if they do not make him a feast before entering their houses, and they will have no luck another time in cutting off any other head. All those feasts are made with wine and drunken reveling. That idol has many priests, but not so many as do the anitos whom they have for their paddy fields.

Of the anitos which they have for their rice, I have not been able to discover more than five, as follows:

Aniton Tauo. He seems to me to be lord of the winds, and superior to his four associates whom I shall immediately name. They offer the pinicpig, which are the firstfruits of their rice to that one. They gather the green rice and pound it, and afterwards parch it in a jar or kettle and offer it to him, first making their bit of an altar where they hang some handfuls of rice in proportion to the devotion of each one. They call that method of offering mamiarag. Then follows Dumagan, who they say causes the rice to head well; then Calasacas, who makes it ripen; then Calasocos, who they say dries it. Accordingly, they sacrifice to him so that he may not dry it up. Then follows Damolag, who they say keeps it from the hurricanes when it is in flower. Those anitos or idols have very many priests and priestesses, although, as I have said, no one sees the said idols or talks with them. They do not even paint them or have their images; but what the priest or priestess says to them they consider as an oracle and say that it will not fail. Every class of people have recourse to those sacrifices; although some Indians do not believe in it at all, yet, notwithstanding, all attend them, Christians and heathens, without excepting anyone.

Of the superstitions of the Indians

I believe that the errors which they possess in this matter of superstitions are not less than those which I have mentioned of their idolatry, although I have not investigated it as thoroughly as the matter of their idolatry. But with the lapse of time, they will be discovered and ascertained. There is a bird which they call salacsac. Its beak is red, as are also its feet. Some of its feathers are green and some blue with black and white spots. That bird gets its food in the river. If it appears on the right hand of any one journeying to any place, he returns, for he says that some accident will happen to him, or some great trouble on the road, or in the place where he is going, such as being killed, or being shot with arrows, or something similar. If the said bird appears on his left hand he says that the same thing will happen to those whom he leaves at home, such as his children, wife, father, mother, or very near relative, and on that account he also returns. However, if the bird sings like a man who is laughing, then he goes on, and says that that bird is favorable to him. But if the said bird sings or croaks in any other way he returns, for he says that it announces some very great danger to him. There is another bird smaller than a gurrion which they call pasimanuquen. They say the same of this as of the salacsac. They say the same of the tocó, so called by the Tagálog, and chacon by the Spaniard. If they go to the mountain or near it and any tree falls, they say the same as of the chacon and of the two birds above mentioned. If they go on a journey and hear anyone sneeze they also return, and if they are prepared and about to do anything, they leave it then if anyone sneezes. If they hear any crow cawing at night, they say that it announces the death of a very near relative. If any dog which belongs to them breaks any of its teeth or falls down, they either kill the dog or give it to some one; for they say that it announces some death to them. If the dog jumps out of the window when it wants to leave the house, they also say that it announces the same thing. If they dream that the clothing that they have is ragged, they throw it away because they say that they will die. If they dream that the house falls down on them and burns them, they destroy it, for they also say they will die. The devil also has attempted to discredit the holy rosary among them, and when they go hunting they take it off, for they say that the dogs will bite the deer or wild boar if they wear a rosary. Not one of these Indians eats if he is alone, because they say that they will die. Consequently, what they do is generally to make their food ready and carry it until they find a company before whom they may eat. They have also dedicated some places of the mountain and bamboos to the anito, and, consequently, they cut nothing there, for they say that they will die and that the anito will kill them, although they do not know to what anito it is dedicated, or who dedicated the said mountain or district to such and such an anito, and know only an old observance which they have received from their ancestors. In their marriages they also have their superstitions. After any marriage has been performed, husband and wife go to the mountain to seek the salacsac or the pasimanuquen, and if the bird sings well they return very happy; but if it sings badly they return very sad. If it sings well they carry along the road a bombon or pitcher of water, and by means of the said water, which is drunk by all the bystanders, the two newly-married people will have children. For the bird to sing well, it must sing on their right hand and in the manner of the said bird which laughs. To sing ill means nothing else than to sing on the left hand, so that the bird is somewhat hoarse and sad. In such case they say that said marriage will have a bad ending, and that one of the two will die in a short time. If they do not see the bird, they say that they will have no children.

Of the customs of these Indians

Although those Indians have their kind of rank, since some are chiefs, and others not, and there are others who are descended from slaves, yet notwithstanding that they have no obedience one for the other. The poor man does not obey the rich, nor does the chief have any authority over him who is not a chief. Those who are obeyed (although but little) are the old men, when they assemble as if in council or meeting of the old men. But, in private no one dares to order another one, neither the chief him who is not a chief, nor the rich man the poor man; for here every one is master of his own will, and each one thinks that he is greater than his neighbor. Their method of governing is by fear, and accordingly each one tries to make the others fear him more than any other. In order to accomplish that each one endeavors to beat the others in committing murders, so that the others may fear him. They commit those murders by treachery. In order that the relatives of the murdered man may not slay the murderer, the latter pays such and such a sum of gold to the kindred of the murdered person, according to the rank of the deceased. For if such deceased was a chief or had many kin, his murder costs more and is redeemed by a greater sum. The lowest price with which a murder is generally redeemed is five taes of gold. If the murderer has no gold, he redeems the said murder with silver at the rate of eight pesos per tae of gold, although gold is valued at ten pesos per tae among those Indians; for it is very low grade gold, and as I have heard said does not reach fourteen carats. The little gold that they do possess is much adulterated with silver, copper, and bronze. But if the said murderer has no gold or silver with which to redeem the murder that he committed, he goes to the mountain and deceives some black or steals him and drags him to his ranchería, and delivers him to the relatives of the murdered man so that they may slay the said black. There is [no] great difficulty in this for in mountains there they have many acquaintances among the blacks. Those blacks are not without their enemies in some rancherías of the blacks themselves, where they go to make the seizure. And since the blacks are very revengeful in taking vengeance on their enemies, they aid the Zambals to capture them. The Zambal gives the black, whose services he has used for that purpose, some arrows or machetes.

But it must also be noticed that they do not always kill the black who is thus captured, for sometimes they let him live, and he is made a perpetual slave. There are many such slaves today, and I even believe that all the slaves whom they have are of this kind. If the murderer gives a slave in this way, he redeems the murder that he committed. Even if he cannot give gold or silver or a slave he kills one of his sons or delivers him to the relatives of the murdered one so that they may slay him. They never hesitate to kill that son thus delivered up, for when he can bear arms he will rebel and return to his father. If perchance the child of the murderer given for ransom of the murder which he committed is a daughter, when the said daughter is married she will go to the house of her father or relatives with her husband. For among the Zambals the woman is greater than the man, and the men sometimes obey the women. The latter are very haughty, and when the husband does not obey his wife, marriages are unmade very easily. If we reach such straits that the murderer has neither gold, silver, nor anything of value and cannot get a slave in the mountain, or a black, which is the same thing for that purpose, and has no son or daughter, or very near relative, such as some small orphan child, then in such case his kin themselves help him in ransoming himself, for in any other event, the relatives of the murdered person would infallibly kill him.

Accordingly, these Indians esteem it highly to have kinship, and, although they be very remote relatives, they treat one another as brothers because of the need which they have one of the other, so that they may be aided one by the other in such cases. Notwithstanding the said estimation which they have for their relatives, we see an evil and perverse custom which they have which is worse than the most blood-thirsty beasts, namely, that Zambals are not accustomed to have more than two children, one a male and the other a female. Consequently, if they already have one male child, they kill all the sons at birth until a daughter is born. Then after they have had said daughter scarcely is the woman pregnant when they already arrange to kill the son or daughter, as soon as it emerges from the womb of the mother. But if any one begs said son or daughter, even while yet in the womb of its mother it is given to such person. But the one who has asked for it must pay its mother all the time that the said mother is occupied in suckling such boy or girl; and afterward it is considered as the child of that person at whose account it was reared and kept alive. However, I know many in this manner who have great love for their true parents. Since we discovered said custom among them, we had delivered from death three children, although to the great sorrow of their parents because they had not killed them. But as soon as we find out that any woman is pregnant, we warn her that she must not kill the son or daughter that she brings forth, for we will punish her very severely, and they, for fear of the punishment, allow their children to live.

They also have their mourning for very near deceased relatives. That consists in wearing a cloth on the head, which they are accustomed to remove in no case until they have committed a murder. And as long as they wear the said mourning which they call balata, [88] they are not accustomed to sing, or dance, or play their musical instruments; nor will they attend any feast among them. Those feasts are always made with wine, and their musical instruments are played at them. But when they have cut off some head, or committed some murder, then they remove the balata, or mourning. For that purpose the relatives assemble and a great drunken revel is made where much wine is consumed and some days spent in this occupation. Accordingly, it is necessary that among these Indians many murders must be committed, for no mourning is removed until some murder has been committed, and then the relatives of the one who has been recently murdered in order to remove the previous mourning, also put on new mourning, and in order to remove that it is necessary to commit another murder. Hence, they mutually kill one another, and they are always wearing mourning, except when the murder is committed far away among the blacks, or among the Indians subject to his Majesty in the neighboring provinces. And in order that they may not proceed ad infinitum in this manner, they try to commit the murders which they do commit secretly, when it is not in their district, so that the said murder may not be attributed to them. But, having committed the said murder, then they tell it to their neighbors, and they make merry, sing, and play their music, for as long a time as they ceased to make merry during the time when they wore the balata. Thus it is commonly said that three-fourths of those who die among these Zambals die violent deaths, and one-fourth and even not that much, die natural deaths. But whenever there is any death, be it violent or natural, there is the balata which must be removed by another death, either by killing another Zambal, a black of the mountain, or an Indian of the provinces, near the said Zambals, or a black of the mountain, or an Indian. I know a man who is said to have committed sixty murders. I do not dare to assert as true that which is told me of that Indian, but what I know is that those Indians do not get angry or take it as an affront among themselves to be so cruel, but on the contrary they highly praise and assert those customs, and are vain of the murders which they commit. Thus, as among the Spaniards, one speaks and talks with courtesy of "my associate so and so," "my neighbor," "my comrade," etc., and it is a kind of discourtesy to say "Juan Fernandez" "Pedro Sanchez," etc.; so also among these Indians it is a discourtesy to be called by one's companions only men. It is a high and good politeness to be called by the name which signifies in their own language, "an accomplice in a murder" that title being "Araoc;" and thus they say Araoc Juan, etc. And as they are little given to flattery, they never give the name of Araoc to him who does not really and truly possess it; for it is regarded among them as making a jest at one to whom the said title is given, if it does not belong to him, just as among us it is a jest to give the title of a brave man to one who does not dare to draw his sword from his belt.

Their marriages are not made between relatives, but on the contrary they try to marry those who are not related to them; and I believe that the reason therefor is to acquire new kinship by means of marriage, for we see that he who has the most kindred is the most powerful, is the one held in highest esteem by all and commits more murders in which consists their greatest estate, for he has more and greater opportunity to go scotfree from those murders which he commits. Marriages are not performed until the relatives of both parties are assembled, and order the two contracting parties to eat together from one plate. All the other preceding preparations and ceremonies belong to the contract of the marriage and the betrothal. Said marriages, moreover, are [not] made by virtue of the wish of the contracting parties, for they are married from childhood when most of the contracting parties do not even have the use of their reason. The reason that has been given to me for this is so that they may be raised together from childhood, and contract love one for the other. But we see that very many marriages result badly, and after marriage the parties separate, although in this regard the men are very patient, for among these Indians, as among all those of this land, it is the custom for the man to give the dowry to the woman. Among the Zambals, it is the custom not only to give the dowry to the woman, but also another kind of dowry to all the relatives of the said woman. They call the latter dowry sambon. Among the Tagálogs it was also formerly the custom and was called sohol. That second dowry among these Indians is generally larger than the first, which is the one that is given to the woman. If husband and wife quarrel, and she wishes to separate from her husband and marry another man, and if the cause of the quarrel has been given by the man; they are divorced and he loses the dowry which he gave to his wife, as well as that which he gave to the relatives of said wife. But if the cause of the said quarrel proceeded from the wife and she wishes to be divorced, she must return all the dowry, and in such case her relatives also return that which was given to them. And since it is of some consequence to them whether the two married people live at peace or at war, it is very common for all the woman's kin to take her side, in order not to return what was given to each one. Consequently, although there may never be justice, the woman always has the argument on her side to do that which she wishes. And since there is no other justice here than the yua, bows and arrows, the tanca, and caraza, the greater kindred and those most interested always prevail; and since these are the relatives of the woman to whom the dowry was given and the husband is alone, and at the most is supported by his brothers, always or generally the argument is on the side of the wife, and the husband has to give up both dowries. Consequently, the poor Zambal, in order not to be left without wife and dowry, endures whatever his wife wishes. Besides, these Indians are not so barbarous that they do not know when they are right in what they ask, and when they are not right. Consequently, the wife will never say that she wishes to be divorced unless it is when the husband was the evident cause of the quarrel. However, sometimes they are accustomed to make friendship between the husband and wife, on condition that the husband commit a murder. In such an event he leaves the house and does not come again into the presence of his wife until he commits said murder. The murder having been committed, and said wife hearing of it, before the husband reaches the house, his wife goes to receive him with a new bajaque in her hands, in order to present it to her husband in sign of congratulation for obeying her. But in such an event the wife and her relatives have to make good the damage which follows from the said murder, and the husband is free. The ceremony of the wife going out to meet her husband with the present of the bajaque on said occasion is of so great importance among these Indians that the husband will be grieved if his wife fails in this ceremony or courtesy.

The married women have one good custom, and that is that they are chaste and loyal to their husbands. Scarcely can a married woman be found among the Zambals of whom it can be said casually that she has had lascivious communication with another, although it is very common for all the people to sleep together in one hut or thicket, and all, both men and women, are intoxicated. But there will be no occasion for a man to jest with a married woman, and more, in the presence of others. But I also believe that that chastity or less incontinence in this matter was not taught by the devil for the welfare and honor of these Zambals, but to give them more opportunities to commit more murders and to make them more turbulent, for the married men are very jealous of their wives and in no case do they leave them. Wherever they go, they go together, and do not lose sight of one another. When they go on a journey, they take all their possessions and the wife carries it all in a basket which she bears on her back by means of a cord from the head. The man with his bow and arrow escorts her. They are accustomed even to carry the hen and its chicks in the said basket or under the arm, so that they carry all that they can of the possessions which they have in their house except what is not portable, and those they hide in the thicket. And if the husband absents himself because of any occurrence, and cannot take his wife with him, and if, during the said absence, the wife weakens in her chastity, and it comes to be common property in the ranchería, for if she has been weak it is very difficult to keep such news from her husband, for these Indians cannot keep a secret: then in such an event the husband kills without any remedy the one who has offended him by sinning with his wife. And having killed such a person, he informs the relatives themselves of said wife of the treachery which his wife has committed in order that they may kill her; and if the said relatives neglect to kill such a wife, then, in that case her own husband kills her and can kill also any relative of the said wife without being obliged in that account to pay anything. Notwithstanding this custom, that quarrel is generally patched up with gold, but they must have much gold among them for that means. I know a principal woman, one of the most influential of said Zambals, whom one of these contentions cost more than thirty taes of gold and two slaves whom she delivered up so that their heads might be cut off. But it is to be noted that the offender of the wife, or the adulterer [mancebo], gives said gold to the husband of said wife, and the wife gives the gold to her own relatives, if they are her cousins and brothers. That woman and chieftainess is called Monica Corosan and was married in facie eclesia [i.e., with the rites of the Church], and because she has been weak and little or not at all faithful to her husband, it cost her the sum above mentioned, and she was divorced and separated from her legitimate husband, by whom she had a son, and was remarried to her adulterer. He already has three daughters. But although the said quarrel was patched up by means of the gold she has not dared to appear before her relatives for more than twelve years. Consequently, the fact that said women are so chaste proceeds from this rigor which they exercise in this matter. If they value their husbands and relatives so greatly, it is because the latter may take vengeance. I believe that the single women are also chaste, although some are generally careless; but both the woman and the accomplice pay with their lives if the fact is learned. If any woman is pregnant, her relatives force her to tell who is the accomplice of her pregnancy, and if the two do not marry, the relatives kill them both without being obliged to give any compensation therefor.

Burials. In their burials, they are not wont to shroud the deceased but to clothe him. If he is a chief they put two dresses on him, according to their manner, and two robes. If the deceased has any share in any inheritance of gold, before they bury said deceased, the gold is divided before the corpse itself, and the part which belonged to him is placed in the grave with the said corpse with his store of certain articles of food. I have heard it said of the natives of Buquil that if the deceased is a chief and has any slave, they kill a slave and bury him with his master. I have had very little to do with the natives of Buquil, and, consequently, I do not know how much truth there is in this, and I do not affirm it. I have also heard another thing said which would horrify the ears were I to tell it; hence I do not dare to set it down on this paper. For, as I say, I have had but little to do with the natives of Buquil, as they have not allowed us to enter there, and if I were to qualify it as true when I was not sure that it was true, if it afterwards appears to be false, it will be inferred that there is but little truth in this paper of mine. Consequently, I will not mention it.

There is a kind of contempt which is very great among the Indians for one who has not murdered anyone. Consequently, those who have some little gold with which to pay for their murders are much given to this vice of murdering. They generally buy slaves or negrillos of the mountain so that their little sons might kill them. Binding the wretched slave or black they take said sufferer into the presence of their sons from three to seven years old and there kill him, and by that means their minds and all their being become acquainted with the idea of blood, so that when they are grown they may have so evil a custom. It is a curious thing that they generally buy many blacks or slaves for that purpose, and if one cannot do it, or has no wealth for the purpose of buying a black or slave in order that he may kill him alone, he unites with others, and thus many together buy said black. One buys the right to give the first lance-thrust or stab, another the second, another to take away a quarter of the head, another another bit of it, another half the head--according to the amount of the capital of each one--and he who wounds him with greater ferocity, that one has the best lot. I will relate a matter in regard to this, which happened to me when I was vicar of Abucay. Once I had about five little Zambal lads in the convent whom I was teaching to pray and read. It happened that the fathers of three of them came to see them, and that gave the children, who were seven or eight years old, a desire to return to Playa Honda with their fathers. I gave them permission, for their parents begged it of me. I did not give permission to the other two, and, consequently, they remained in said convent with me. While the other little fellows were returning in company with their fathers and passing by Mariyumo, which is a visita of Mariueles, it happened that the Indians of that visita, who are also Zambals and but very little different from those of Playa Honda, had that day caught a black of the mountain, whom they were about to kill on the following day. The Zambals and the children, their sons, stayed for the feast in celebration of the killing of the black. For their joy in being present at a death of any person in such a manner is as great as it is for Spaniards to attend a zarza or play or all to play at ring. [89] That news came to the ears of the children, who remained under my care in Abucay, two months afterwards. They were told of the feast which their three companions had had in the village of Mariyumo when they were at the killing; and so great was their sorrow that they had not returned on that past occasion with their three companions that they began to bewail their lack of luck because they had not returned with their companions so that they also might have been present at the killing. Hence, one can infer their so great inclination for this vice, for those who have never seen nor known any better customs learn to kill from early childhood. And in case that anyone has entire information concerning the peace and quiet into which the Christians come by means of the Catholic faith, since they have to live among Indians of such customs, they must always have death in their hands or before their eyes, for one can trust no one, since they do not trust themselves. For every step that they take is at the risk of their lives. Often they kill from necessity, as they believe, so that they may not be killed, as happens when they see in their rancherías any person or persons whom they do not know. Since they do not know whether such persons are about to kill them, they anticipate them and take away their lives, but it is more usual to kill for revenge and to make oneself feared and famous in this matter. There are many of them who, when they have committed fifteen murders, place on the hams of the legs certain strings of a small white fruit of an herb which they call bantacan. When they have killed seventeen persons, they place the said fruit very close together in the manner of a rosary which they call tigdin. When the number has reached more than nineteen, they take away said fruit and in its place wear certain very highly colored sigueyes. But it is to be noted that, although twenty men take part in one murder, in order that they may wear that regalia, which they consider as tabi, [90] each one claims said murder as his, as if he had done it alone. They also generally tie a long narrow strip of anahao, or palmleaf, on the hilt of their dagger or yua. That token shows that he who carries it was the first one to strike the person that was killed on that occasion. Notwithstanding the abovesaid, if anyone goes to their rancherías in company with another Zambal of their number, he is sufficiently safe although he might be still safer at Manila.

Of the change which we see today in these Indians

He who considers their barbarous customs, idolatries, superstitions, and the natural and great inclination for killing which these Indians possess, and in which they have been reared; and hears of the so great change and the difference which exists at present in all their customs, when compared to those that they possessed in their recesses and rancherías: will easily understand that already God is walking among them, and that He has already taken pity on the souls and wishes them for Himself. The immortality of the soul has already been explained to these Indians in their mother tongue; as has also the reward which God has for those who keep His commandments and those of our holy mother Church, and the punishment reserved for those who break them, and that, for as many sins as man commits he has to take his punishment in this life or in the next; and the unity of God, His eternity, and at the same time that which the Christian man must believe in order to be saved.

It has been father Fray Domingo Escalera who has already learned their language, and has gone communicating it from one to the other, until there are now very few who do not understand this. When said father explains to them something of which they have not heard, all look at one another, as if surprised to hear what they are hearing. I have not had the capacity to do as much as the said father, but I have managed to explain it also in the Tagálog tongue to those who understand it. But they do not understand many things, and I cannot tell them to them. Consequently, I trust, God helping, that said father will produce great fruit among these Indians, as he has learned their language. These Indians did not observe any festivals or Sunday, or Lent, or vigil, or Friday. Consequently, although there are many Christians baptized from childhood, it was the same as if they were heathen, and there was no difference between heathens and Christians. Having explained to them on one occasion the seriousness of the sin of breaking feast days, one of them went to the mountain and one Sunday while cutting some bamboos he hurt his foot. The rumor spread among the Indians that God had punished that Indian because he worked on Sunday, and from that time they have observed feast days and Sundays. On another occasion, namely, Ash Wednesday, the said father told them that they ought to abstain from eating meat throughout Lent, and that God would punish whoever broke said precept. Next day an Indian went hunting, and having killed a carabao calf, while he was cutting it up and carrying it to his house or to the village, the mother of the calf came out of the thicket and killed the Indian. Thereupon, the father took occasion to again charge them to abstain from meat during Lent, Friday, and vigil. All through Lent there was scarcely one Christian or heathen who dared to eat meat. For about eight months we lived in a small house which had scarcely room for the two beds of two religious. We had three Indians of Abucay who built us another larger house where we could live with some freedom. There was no Indian who would be so kind as to aid them in their customs in anything, until they saw that the presidio of the Spaniards which is located twelve leguas from the village where we united these Indians, had already about forty men, and as soon as they heard the arquebuses in Buquil, which was ten leguas from the said village, they moved quickly, and no longer answered a dry "no quiero" [i.e., "I will not"], for whatever we commanded them, as they had before answered us all the time. I have already said above that the devil had discredited the rosary of the most holy Virgin, our Lady, among these Indians, and although some had rosaries which some faithful ones or religious had given them, in order to incline them to that holy devotion, yet no one of them could recite it, for there was no one who knew anything of the prayer. They only kept it in order to show it to those who went to trade and traffic at their rancherías, in order that they might consider them as Christians, as it is a kind of affront among them not to be a Christian. On the contrary they believed that nothing good would happen to them if they wore the rosary about their necks. But seeing the esteem which we had for those sacred beads, and that in their sicknesses when they asked us for any remedy for their attacks in which we do not apply any other medicine except the sacred rosary, and when they recognize that they recover miraculously from their illness by the use of the rosary alone, they believe that the devil had deceived them, and are growing very fond of this holy devotion, so that now very many of the married men, the single youth, indeed, the old men, wear the rosary about their necks, some recite it in their houses, and others attend church morning and afternoon to recite the rosary with the lads, and very many of them already know the whole prayer, and recite it at night in their houses in a loud voice. They formerly obeyed no one, but now they show great respect to their gobernadorcillos, to their chief, and to the old men, so that, if they are seated anywhere and their gobernadorcillo arrives, they all rise, and no one sits or covers his head until his gobernadorcillo is seated. Father Domingo Escalera has lived for a short time with the Indians of Nuebo Toledo, since they were gathered together. Having come to the said village during the last days of the past Lenten season, and seeing the so great change that God had produced in them, he said: "At the rate with which God is changing the hearts of these Indians, they will be better Christians than those of Masinloc before ten years' time, although said Indians of Masinloc have been Christians for more than sixty years." When we reached their districts in the beginning, the children and even the women fled from us, but today the women are very affable and those who have anything to wear go to church and scarcely can we keep the children away from us. When we go to the village, they come down from their houses and accompany us, and we can scarcely walk, because they seize us by our habits, and place their scapularies before our eyes. Every morning and afternoon they go to the church to pray and to hear mass. Before mass we recite the rosary, and after mass the whole prayer. In the afternoon we leave the church in the manner of a procession in two choirs, and the father sings the prayer and they answer until the prayer is finished. And on entering the church again candles are lighted to our Lady, and the holy rosary is also recited.

Method used in getting these Indians to persevere in said prayers

The Zambals are the most cowardly people in these islands, although they have hitherto been considered by the neighboring provinces as a people of great courage and warlike. Their cowardice could be proved by many examples, but that does not concern the present matter. Their whole strength consists in fleeing, and their courage in hiding. From that cowardice it proceeds that all the murders that they commit are by treachery. It never happens that if, fighting face to face, the enemy escapes and is on his guard and watchful, they commit any murder, because of their great timidity and cowardice. Accordingly, in order that those whom we have assembled in the three villages above mentioned, may persevere in their settlements, the most efficacious fear and the one most suited to their nature is that the Spaniards of the fort and presidio of Paynauen of whom they have a very great fear, may come very often to the said villages and overrun the land, and penetrate even into their old recesses where they formerly lived; and if perchance they should find anything planted in the said recesses that they would destroy it and cut it down without leaving them anything. And so that they may see that the father protects them, when the said Spaniards come to the village, the father opposes them and takes the part of the Indians. [91] But it is always necessary in this matter for the soldiers to conquer, and the father is always very careful to always inform the Spaniards by whom and where anything is planted which it may be necessary to destroy, and that the edicts which his Lordship, the governor, sent them be carried out. These are to the effect that no one should plant anything in the old rancherías and that in the village each one should plant one thousand feet of gabes, and five hundred of sugar-cane; that said soldiers are to continue to make raids through the whole plain as I say, very often; yet, whenever the soldiers come to the village, they are to ask the gobernadorcillo and cabezas (for whom already they have some obedience) for permission to go to look for those who have become fugitives, and the father is to go along in order to assure such fugitive. As said absence has proceeded a trifle from fear of the Spaniard, the Indians of the village themselves are to go to seek those who should have become fugitives, in order that they may not go in company with the Spaniard to the mountain, for the fear which they have of the said soldiers is inexplicable. They are to oblige said Indians to make their gardens and fields in the village, where they have fine lands, very fertile for fields and gardens. If any are found to be neglectful in this, such persons are to be bound in order to keep them and take them to the fort so that they may pound rice for the soldiers. By those measures, there is no man who dares to return to the mountain. After they have lost their fear of the Spaniards, the latter are to try to excite trouble between the Indians and the blacks of the mountain, [92] but at all events said Spaniards are to make no trouble for the Indians whom they find in the villages, but rather must treat them well.

In order that this may have effect, it is necessary for the governor to send twenty or thirty horses to the said district, so that the Spaniards may get over the country, for the roads are intolerable, especially from the fort to Santa Rossa de Banguen. That is a distance of six leguas of very troublesome sandy ground without a drop of fresh water in the dry season. There is a distance of six leguas also from Santa Rossa de Banguen to Nuevo Toledo, where one cannot find a tree under which to rest. Accordingly, without the said horses, nothing can be done, for all those who should go to the said places run great risk from the sun, as happened when Adjutant Alvaro Martin Franco went to the said villages to hold the elections, when almost all the Spaniards who accompanied him fell sick. Said horses will be of great use to the soldiers in hunting, for this country has abundance of game. With the horses also they can overrun the land of Buquil, and terrorize intractable persons. Since said Spaniards often go to and fro between these villages and to Buquil, no Indian will go to the mountain, since no harm is done to them in the village; and those of the mountain considering their restlessness and that they are not safe and that the Spaniards destroy their fields will descend to sow and to live in the settlement. For today, if those of the mountain do not descend, it is because they fear that the Spaniards will punish them for not having descended before.

In order to suppress all their bad customs, after having preached against them, proving them with natural arguments which are very easy and clear, with some examples which cause them horror, the most efficacious means which I find is for the father to investigate all their customs, and to understand them thoroughly, so that he may know them all; and then to make fun of the Indians because they do not know that that is bad. If this is not sufficient, it is efficacious for the father to make them afraid that he is going to retire because they refuse to learn good customs, and abandon their abuses and atrocities, so that in such an event the Spaniards may come upon them and kill them all; and by means of the fear which they have the father can do whatever he wishes with them.

I assert that I have investigated thoroughly whatever I have written in this paper by the aid of some Christian Zambals who are very good Catholics whom I have had under my care for four years, and whom I have been teaching to read and have instructed in our holy Catholic faith by means of the Tagálog books which have been written for that purpose by the zealous ministers whom that Tagálog nation has had. One of these Zambals is the son of a priest of the idols, who was reared in a ranchería where sacrifices were often made to the idols. An uncle of this lad whom I also have under my charge was formerly bayoc of the Zambals, so that he knows all the ceremonies, superstitions, and sacrifices, and is also thoroughly conversant with their customs, for he lived among the said Zambals for about twenty years. Besides this, for three years I have had with me another child about ten years old who also knows the customs of these Indians, because he was born and raised among them, for he is the son of Zambal parents. All of those persons tell me what passes among the said Zambals. Besides this, I have also managed to prove it from the children of the village who, since they do not realize my purpose in questioning them in regard to these things, tell me it all. But if I ask any of the old men, or anyone who is very maliciously minded, he will not tell me anything unless I ask him secretly.

Consequently, I consider as true whatever I have written here, and I have refused to write anything of which I am doubtful.

Fray Domingo Perez

[Below is added by another person:]

Until the year 1682, said Zambals were reduced and softened by the vigilance and attendance of the father missionaries of the order of our father St. Dominic. May our Lord prosper everything as He is able.

Afterward in November, of the year 83, a bold Indian with another who accompanied him, waited in a concealed thicket for the father-vicar, Fray Domingo Perez, who was journeying from one village to another, and shot him with an arrow, so that he reached his village badly wounded and died in a short time, after confessing to father Fray Juan Rois. Since that time the Zambals have been in revolt. May it be the Lord's will that they grow quiet. Now since the assembly of 84 the fathers have been living cautiously and near the fortress. The vicar is father Fray Gregorio [93] and his associate Fray Juan Navas, [94] errant. In Masinloc the vicar is Fray Juan Fernandez [95] and his associate Fray Juan, [96] errant.

[Copy endorsed: "The undersigned, provincial archivist of the province of Santísimo Rosario de Filipinas and conventual of the convent of Santo Domingo of this city, certifies that the preceding copy is faithfully copied from the original, which is preserved in the third archives of martyrs--cajon 8, legajo 1, no. 2. In order that the above may be apparent he signs the present in this convent of Santo Domingo, January 3, 1906. The archivist,

Fray Julián Malumbres (rubric), O.P."]

[Endorsed: "A copy.

Manuel de Yriarte, chief, division of archives, ex-officio notary public."]

NOTES

[1] The translation of the title-page of this book is as follows: "Manifesto and historical summary of the foundation of the venerable brotherhood of the Santa Misericordia of the city of Manila, the hospital, house, and girls' school and church of Santa Ysabel; with the accommodations and advantages for the common public welfare, particularly of these islands; the alms, succors, and dowries for the holy religious orders, and hospitals, orphan girls, widows, those in prison, and other needy persons. Satisfaction of the charitable and indefatigable task, disinterested and noble method of procedure, faithful management without interruption or any diminution in the works of charity, and the administration of the pious foundations under their charge. Favors and protection which it merited and obtained from our Catholic Monarchs. Recommendation, concessions, indulgences, and relics with which the supreme pontiffs have honored and enriched it. All compiled and extracted from the books, bulls, decrees, and other authentic instruments which are kept in their archives, by commission and order of the purveyor and deputies who comprise the present board, by Captain Don Juan Baptista de Uriarte, regidor of this most noble city, and its procurator-general, and former treasurer and present secretary of said venerable brotherhood. Printed in the college and university of Santo Thomas, with the necessary licenses, by Juan Correa. The year 1728." The narrative is preceded by an introduction; a statement by the author to the purveyor and deputies of the financial board of the Santa Misericordia, to the effect that he has completed his task of compilation, dated June 28, 1728; thanks of the purveyor and deputies to the author, and expression of intention to print the work, dated June 30, 1728; decree to be sent to Fray Juan de Arrechedera, O.P., commissary of the Holy Office, dated June 30, 1728; approbation of latter, July 8, 1728; government license, July 9, 1728; table of chapters; note to reader.

Torrubia gives the following figures for the work accomplished by the Misericordia from its foundation (in 1594) up to 1730. "This house has endowed twenty-three thousand orphan girls, the daughters of Spaniards; it has spent in their maintenance five hundred and eight thousand, nine hundred and sixteen pesos. It has supplied to our Catholic monarch in pressing emergencies four hundred and forty-nine thousand, four hundred and eighteen pesos. It has expended in Divine worship one hundred and fifty-five thousand, seven hundred and eighty-four pesos; and it has given in alms four million, one hundred and thirteen thousand, two hundred and seven pesos. This statement of expenditures is accurate, and is drawn from the original books of the said house. In the life of the venerable Fray Simon de Roxas, book 8, fol. 418, it is mentioned as unprecedented that the Misericordia of Lisboa in one year gave in alms thirty thousand ducados; but that of Manila gives every year seventy-one thousand, eight hundred and twenty-four pesos."

[2] See other letters from Corcuera to the Misericordia, dated in 1637 and 1639 respectively, in our VOL. XXIX, pp. 172-174.

[3] The Order of the Holy Trinity was founded primarily by St. John of Matha, a native of Provence who was ordained to the priesthood. On the occasion of his first mass, he determined to devote himself to the redemption of Christian captives from the Mahometans. Retiring for a season of prayer to the cell of the aged French hermit, St. Felix of Valois, the latter approved the plan, and in 1197, they both went to Rome where they obtained the approbation of Pope Innocent III for the erection of a new order. The pope ordered the bishop of Paris and the abbot of St. Victor to draw up the rules for the order, which received papal sanction in 1198. A white habit with a red and blue cross on the breast was assigned as a distinctive dress. It received a new confirmation and additional privileges by a papal bull of 1209. The French monarch Philippe Auguste authorized the existence of the order in his kingdoms, and Gauthier III, lord of Châtillon, granted them land for a convent. Later as the order increased, the latter, seconded by the king, granted them Cerfroid, near Grandlieu, on the borders of Valois, which became the chief house of the order. The two saints founded many houses in France. Many Christian slaves were ransomed in Morocco and Spain. It was a fundamental rule of the order that at least one-third of its revenues should be set aside for the redemption of captives. It was estimated in the seventeenth century that since its foundation the order had ransomed 30,720 Christian captives. At one time there were as many as two hundred and fifty houses. See Baring Gould's Lives of the Saints, ii, pp. 226-230; and Addis and Arnold's Catholic Dictionary, p. 810.

[4] The limits of our space prevent us from presenting part i of this interesting document in full; but such matter is selected as relates to Manila, Cavite, Cebú, and Zamboanga, as being the most important Spanish settlements in the islands. The list at the end shows the contents of Valdés Tamón's report in full, and presents an enumeration of all the military posts, with the names bestowed on the forts therein. Part ii, on the ecclesiastical estate, is translated in full (save for preliminary and final remarks, and two letters of minor interest).

[5] The city of Manila is located in 14° 35' 31'' N. latitude, and 120° 58' 08'' E. longitude (from Greenwich). The following longitudes (reckoned from Greenwich) will enable the reader to compute the differences in maps on which longitude is reckoned from other meridians:

Madrid (Observatory), Spain, 3° 41' 21'' W.; San Fernando (Observatory), Spain, 6° 12' 24'' W.; Paris (Observatory), France, 2° 20' 14'' E.; Ferro, the extreme southwest of the Canary Islands (the assumed dividing line between the east and west hemispheres), 17° 20' W.; Washington, D. C. (Observatory), 77° 2' 48'' W. (U. S. Philippine Gazetteer, p. 183.)

[6] See accompanying plan of Manila, obtained from the Valdés Tamón MS. in Madrid. An interesting "historical sketch of the walls of Manila" is found in the Annual Report of the U. S. War Department, 1903, iii, pp. 434-446, which contains numerous illustrations of the walls and gates, some of which show defenses which have since been demolished. A note (by Capt. A. C. Macomb) states that the map of Manila referred to in Valdés Tamón's report is supposed to be identical with that carried to England by General Draper after the capture of Manila in 1762, which is now in the British Museum in London. Concerning the plates of the map taken to England by Draper (the famous Murillo Velarde map, engraved in 1734), see our VOL. XLIX, note 25.

[7] Possibly guns for firing chain-shots (also called "angel-shots").

[8] Pandayes: a term adapted from the Tagal, panday being the equivalent of the Spanish oficial.

[9] Thus in MS., but evidently a clerical error, since the amount of pay is so inadequate for the number of men. The amounts of pay given in these lists, added together, make a total which is over 7,000 pesos short of the total in the next paragraph; it is probable, then, that the pay of these artisans should be at least 7,000 more than the amount stated in the text.

[10] Perhaps meaning men who had the care of keeping the barracks in order and repair. The word is not found in the dictionaries.

[11] A word evidently coined from the native word galagala (see VOL. XII, p. 34, note), and probably referring to the occupation of gathering the resin which bears that name. It may be added to the note above cited that this resin (also known as "almáciga" and "dammar") is obtained in the mountains of southern Luzón and Panay, the best coming from Camarines. (Official Handbook of Philippines, p. 296); galagala, then, may be a Bícol word.

[12] Cebú is in 10° 18' N. latitude, and 123° 53' 05'' E. longitude (U. S. Gazetteer of Philippine Islands, p. 454).

[13] In the Ventura del Arco MSS. (Ayer library), iv, pp. 335-408, is the transcript of an interesting document--"Information furnished by Don José Antonio Niño de Villavicencio in regard to the situation of the town of Zamboanga; its original subordination to the royal crown; its fortification, dismantling, and reestablishment; the condition in which it was in 1737; its expenses; and the amounts which it paid toward these." After a sketch (illustrated by various official documents) of the early history of Zamboanga as a military post, he relates its dismantling, and its reestablishment by Bustamante; this latter is begun on April 5, 1719, under the command of General Gregorio Padilla y Escalante, and its fort is named "Nuestra Señora del Pilar de Zaragoza." Villavicencio carefully describes the fort, and presents an itemized statement of the expenses of maintaining it--which amount to 20,000 pesos annually, besides a reserve fund of 5,000 pesos which may be drawn upon for extraordinary and urgent expenses. The salary of the governor and military commander is 396 pesos a year. Two Jesuit chaplains are kept there, who receive each 100 pesos annually. There are eighteen other officers (commissioned and non-commissioned), and two hundred privates; also five other officials, including a surgeon. Besides this force of Spaniards is a company of Pampango soldiers--a hundred men and five officers; and a considerable number of men are also employed as rowers, builders, coast-guards, and seamen. Rations amounting to 9,855 cavans of rice are allowed in the budget of expenses; and the sum of 5,000 pesos is allowed yearly for ammunition and military supplies for this post. The rice and other provisions are mainly furnished from the provinces of Iloilo and Panay, on account of their fertility and their nearness to Zamboanga. A considerable part of the expenses of that post is obtained from the contribution made by the inhabitants of the subjugated provinces, each tributario giving annually a ganta of clean rice; this amounts to 109,503 gantas of clean rice--equivalent, at the rate of twenty gantas cleaned to 48 gantas of palay, to 10,950 cavans of the latter--which is estimated to be worth, at the prices paid by the royal officials, 5,356 pesos. Enumeration is made of the numbers of tributes paid in various provinces, as follows: Tondo, 5,606 1/2; Bulacan, 4,963 1/2; Pampanga, 8,067; Pangasinan, 10,896 1/2; Ilocos, 8,665 3/4; Cagayan, 5,218 1/2; Laguna de Bay, 6,795; Tayabas, 1,612 1/2; Camarines, 7,512; Albay, 3,481; Panay, 6,170 1/2; Yloilo, 10,406 1/2; Island of Negros, 503 1/2; Leite, 8,154 1/4; Cebu, 4,411 1/2. All these are tributaries of the crown; to these are added the contributions made by "the tributaries and the encomenderos of the encomiendas independent of the royal crown," which amount to 18,144 gantas. A deduction must be made from these of 1,105 3/4 gantas, "from those who in the number of the said tributes do not make this contribution, on account of being servants of the churches, and for other reasons;" the result is the total above given. The tributaries of the following provinces are exempted from the contribution: Balayan, Mindoro, Caraga, Mariveles, Calamianes, and Cavite. A further source of revenue for the expenses of Zamboanga is found in the monopoly on the wine of the country; this had formerly belonged to the crown, but had been surrendered at the petition of the city of Manila. Later, the citizens being called upon to make donations for the support of Zamboanga, the city petitioned that this be accomplished by renewing the above crown monopoly of wine. "This new monopoly having begun to be in force from the year 1731, the sum at which this contribution [to Zamboanga] may be estimated must be figured according to the successful bids [remates] at which the privilege has been leased;" it was farmed out--that is, sold at auction to the highest bidder for a term of three to five years. The first of these was Don Esteban Garcia de los Rios, for 1731-33, for the sum of 10,000 pesos a year; the second, Captain Pedro de Ceballos, for 1734-36, 15,500 pesos a year; the third, Captain José Ruiz, for 1737-41, 25,000 pesos a year. The proceeds of this monopoly, then, averaged during eleven years 16,833 pesos a year. This document is dated at Manila, February 4, 1738.

In regard to the contributions made by the Indians for the expenses (outside of ecclesiastical) of the Philippine colonies, Torrubia says (Dissertacion, pp. 98-103): "When the post of Samboangan was rebuilt in the year 1755, it was the opinion of the very reverend Father Juan de Bueras, provincial of the Society of Jesus, that the Indians of Pintados, as those most interested in the maintenance of the fort, should aid therein with a half-ganta of rice for each tribute. His opinion was accepted, but with the enlargement of the contribution to two gantas (which make one ganta of cleaned rice), and its extension to all the islands, which amount is paid up to this day. I have understood that this contribution amounts annually, on the average, to two thousand five hundred pesos. During the fifty and more years when Samboangan did not exist, it was paid just as when the fort was there, notwithstanding that the cabildo opposed it; and the Indians paid, without the motive for this imposition still remaining, at the least estimate, more than one hundred and fifty thousand pesos. The Indians are obliged to make other contributions. For the maintenance of the soldiers, they furnish rice to his Majesty at two reals a caban, and usually it is worth more; this is called the compra, and forty or forty-five thousand cabans (or fanegas) of rice are levied from them in compra, allotting it pro rata according to what each Indian sows. For these cabans (or fanegas) no more than two reals are paid, although that amount is worth four reals, or more; and it is to be noted that in the suburbs of Manila the price ordinarily does not go below three reals. The same practice is current in the compras of wheat, although it is true that in this the Indians seldom lose much. Besides this, the Indians do the timber-cutting for the ships, and do not receive more than sixteen reals a month, which they do not have even for their tools (which they carry with them); they are soldiers, they row in the galleys, and they are mariners, artillerists, calkers, and carpenters. And we know very well that in these occupations they serve in the Ribera of Cavite without pay, and likewise in the armadas, three, four, or five years, only to obtain a situation in the ship which goes to Nueva España or Acapulco. Here [i.e., in Madrid], without considering these contributions, all the expenses [of the islands] are summed up for the account of his Majesty." He goes on to say that from the sum of expenses must also be deducted the voluntary contributions of the citizens; also that these military expenses have been unfairly laid at the door of the Zamboanga fort. The soldiers there and in the forts at Cebú and Iloilo are paid from the situado contributed by the natives themselves; and the fleets which are sent against the Moros, and the coastguard galleys at Zamboanga, are not an expense caused by the fort there; "even if they were, it is a necessary one, under penalty of the Moros eating us alive."

Torrubia ends his Dissertacion, which is a plea for the maintenance of the fort at Zamboanga, with a scheme for the formation of a fund--to be formed by levying a small tax on each of the Christian Sangleys, and on every "tramp," whether Indian or mestizo--which shall be regarded as an obra pia, and be placed in the management of the Misericordia; its proceeds are to be used for the support of the military posts and fleets which are maintained against the Moros, for the support of missionaries in the Moro provinces, and even for the extension of the gospel still further. This would relieve the natives from the oppressive "Zamboanga donation," the citizens from the frequent contributions now expected from them by the government, and the royal treasury from the heavy burden of supporting the present list of armadas and forts; and the Moro pirates would be easily held in check, and the interests of both the Spaniards and the Indians protected.

[14] Zamboanga is in 6° 53' N. latitude, and 123° 5' E. longitude (U. S. Philippine Gazetteer, p. 928).

Zamboanga was selected as the site for the fort in Moroland, "because it was the indispensable landing-place for the hostile people; because it deprived the Mindanaos of that port, which was the most important one in their dominion, in which they built their ships, and where they took refuge from an enemy; because it was the most suitable place for our infantry; and because it was the frontier of all the islands of Moroland, where those enemies landed, recruited their forces, and repaired their vessels. It also was the point of vantage for intimidating those kings, and depriving Mindanao of half its power; and for facing (at three leguas distance) Basilan, the people of which are so valiant, and subject to Joló, so that that king also is thus disarmed of half his forces. To this was added the consideration that the post had Christian Indians as neighbors, who, free from the extortions of the Moros, would aid in the conquest [of those lands] and the extension of our power and of our faith, as has been actually done." (Torrubia, pp. 45, 46.)

[15] Fábrica (Latin, Italian, and Spanish; French, fabrique): a technical term in church administrative usage. The ordinary and common meaning is the material building or edifice, which (technically) includes repairs, improvements, changes, etc., as well as the necessary expense for caretakers of it, as watchmen, beadles, sweepers, etc.; these people are paid from the funds of the fábrica--which might be rendered as "building-fund," except that in ecclesiastical usage fábrica usually presupposes that the building it already reared, while the English phrase "building-fund" includes the idea of constructing it. (Yet in Latin, Italian, and Spanish the term fábrica is also used to include money for the erection of the church edifice, in cases where it has not yet been built; where it has been completed and paid for, fábrica is restricted to the meaning first given above, the "keep" of the building.)

Thus usually the term has a material sense only; but sometimes (though not commonly) fábrica is taken, as in the present text, in a spiritual sense, and implies the support or maintenance (honoraria) of the churchmen, the ministers attached to the building, as well as the maintenance of divine worship, as required by ritual. Fábrica then refers to affairs of the soul or spirit, the spiritual upbuilding or edifice of the faithful. By extension, the same term is sometimes used to mean the board of churchwardens who administer the property. In the Philippines the church property (save that belonging to the religious corporations) was in the hands of the bishop as sole trustee and administrator, a power which he might delegate to his provisor or vicar. The distribution of the fund mentioned in the text is unusual.--Rev. T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.

[16] To this should be added 4 tomins, omitted in the table for lack of room; the same addition should therefore be made to the total of the cash column.

[17] This name, also Pineda in the next item, and Manzano in the last one, is abbreviated in the original; and the forms given above are necessarily conjectural.

[18] In the MS. "Tondo" was written here, but afterward crossed out.

[19] To this sum should be added 4 granos, omitted from the amount of cash stated for Mindoro, for lack of room.

[20] He was royal secretary in the Council of the Indias. In this letter (dated September 20, 1735) he states that the king desires information about the islands, and their fortresses and fortifications, because the recent fire in the palace at Madrid had destroyed many papers; he asks for plans of fortifications, and reports of troops, munitions, and artillery, and that they be sent as speedily as possible.

[21] Evidently, from the context, referring to Cagayán de Misamis, in Mindanao.

[22] At the time a royal secretary; his letter is dated at Madrid, August 30, 1739, and asks for the report on the ecclesiastical estate in the islands which is herewith presented.

[23] The title-page of this book reads in English thus: "Religious hospital work [conducted] by the sons of our pious father and patriarch, the father of the poor, St. John of God, in his province of San Raphael of the Philipinas Islands: a condensed epitome of its foundation, progress, and present condition, in succinct and instructive style. Dedicated to the very reverend father Fray Alonso de Jesus y Ortega, general of the same holy hospital order, by the reverend father Fray Antonio de Arze, vicar provincial and visitor, and prior of the convent at Manila--in obedience to whom it was written by Fray Juan Manuel Maldonado de Puga, a religious and priest; preacher, master of novices, and chaplain rector in the same convent of Manila. Year of 1742." The dedication to the general, by Antonio de Arze, is dated at Manila, July 14, 1740. The book is approved by Fray Pedro de Zaragoza, of the same order, at Ocaña, February 26, 1742; and permission for its issue is given by the general of the order at Granada, September 28 following. It is approved by Father Martin Garcia, S.J., "synodal examiner of this archbishopric and that of Sevilla, and of the bishoprics of Malaga and Barzelona," at Granada, on September 20; and the license by the ordinary is dated at Granada, on September 26. The approval of the book by the Inquisition is signed by Fray Pablo de Ezija, a Capuchin, at Granada, June 12 of the same year; and finally, the permission of the royal Council to print it is dated at Madrid, on July 9. The colophon reads: "Printed at Granada, by Joseph de la Puerta, printer and seller of books: year of 1742."

[24] The same as French entresol; apparently equivalent to the English word "basement," and referring to the space left under Filipino buildings.

[25] Spanish, azucar rosado; described by Dominguez as "sugar cooked to the point of caramel, to which is added a little lemon juice, so that the sugar remains [granulated] like sponge sugar, thus serving, with water, for a refreshing drink."

[26] These signatures indicate that the opinion rendered by the Jesuits dates back of 1717, since in that year Clain died; it is probably earlier than 1708, since in that year Arias and Bobadilla went to the Palaos Islands (Murillo Velarde, Hist. de Philipinas, fol. 377 verso).

[27] Palma brava: the common name of Livistonia rotundifolia, of the order Palmæ; see Merrill's Dictionary of the Plant Names of the Philippines (Manila, 1903).

[28] Of interest in this connection is Herrmann Sokeland's "Ancient Desemers or Steelyards," in Annual Report of Smithsonian Institution, 1900, pp. 551-364. It is well illustrated with engravings of various primitive weighing instruments which are preserved in the museums of Berlin, Germany, some of which came from Thibet and India.

[29] Apparently meaning here, not the Castilian language in general, but as spoken in the islands.

[30] The marco is a weight equivalent to the half of a libra, and is used for weighing gold and silver. The marco of gold is divided into fifty castellanos, and that of silver into eight onzas. (Barcia.)

[31] Albarejo (or alberjon): a provincial term (used in La Mancha), applied, like the Catalan candeal, to a variety of white wheat. (Barcia.)

[32] Spanish tumbaga (from Malay tambâga, copper): an alloy of copper and zinc, or a species of brass, with an excess of zinc; also known as "Dutch gold" and "pinchbeck."

[33] In the Spanish text, extension; but this is apparently a misprint for some other word, for which, in accordance with the obvious meaning, we substitute "suppression." At the beginning of Maldonado's work is printed a list of errata therein, thirty-two in number; this is followed by the naïve remark, "There are some others, which the discreet reader can correct."

[34] Spanish, Pico de oro; the same as the Greek Chrysostom.

[35] The word caballería has many meanings, but probably only two are here involved; these are found in the supplement to Domínguez's Diccionario nacional (ed. of 1878). One is, "In the Indias it is understood as the distribution of lands or seigniorial domains granted to the settlers or conquistadors in a country." It is possible that the text refers to some of those military allotments, which might have descended unbroken to Maldonado's time; but it is much more probable that he uses the word in the sense of a measure for land. Caballería, in Andalusia, means also the area of sixty fanegas (or 3.8758 hectares) of land.

[36] This sentence sounds somewhat contradictory to the following one; but it is the literal rendering of the Spanish, se graduaron con prelacion de los Legados à las deudas de Justicia. This is but one of many uncertainties in the text of Maldonado's work which presumably arise from the blunders of native amanuenses which he mentions at the beginning of chapter xvii; the translation is as close as possible, but in various places has been necessarily made more free than is usual in this series, in order to render intelligible involved, elliptical, or even apparently erroneous phraseology.

[37] In the text, Escudo--a rather surprising and foreign use of this word instead of corona.

[38] In the text, Tierras Tubiganes: tubigan is the Tagal word for Spanish aguanoso, meaning "wet," or "irrigated."

[39] In the text, simenteras tabalcanes; but the word tabalcan does not appear in Tagal dictionaries, and is probably a misprint for tubigan, as a result of some error by Maldonado's native copyists. Quiñon in Spanish means "share" or "portion," usually of profit in an enterprise; but here it is evidently the Hispanicized form of the Tagal qiñong, which is defined by Noceda and Sanlucar as a land measure equivalent to 100 brazas square of area.

[40] That is, the founder of the order, St. John of God.

[41] Montero y Vidal says (Hist. de Filipinas, i, p. 463, note) of the obras pias: "In 1880 they possessed a capital of 2 1/2 millions of pesos, belonging to the following religious bodies: Discalced Augustinians, 127,938 pesos fuertes; idem at Cavite, 33,117; Order of St. Francis, 500,840; Order of St. Dominic, 205,092; the [archiepiscopal] see, 88,155; House of Misericordia, 811,154; the city, 37,272; the privileged confraternities, 97,617." See our VOL. XXVIII, p. 298, note 138.

[42] An interesting account of this legacy is given by Uriarte in his history of the Misericordia (q.v., ante). Lobo, a native of Viana, in Portugal, died on September 8, 1709, at Agaña in the Marianas Islands, "having executed a power of attorney for disposing of his estate, in which he left the board of the holy Misericordia as his executor, declaring his mother, Isabel Gonzales Lobo--a widow, and a resident in the said town [i.e., Viana]--the heiress of his property, in case she had survived him. If not, he named his soul as his heir, with the declaration that although he had in the said town married Victoria de Silva he had no children by her, nor had she brought him a dowry at the time and when they contracted matrimony." The Misericordia made inquiries in Spain to ascertain whether the mother were still alive, and the wife brought in a claim for part of Lobo's property; it also appeared that the deceased had left a sealed will with his uncle, Francisco Martinez Casados, in Viana. Not until 1723 did the papers arrive from Spain to settle the difficulties attending this will; it seems to have been decided earlier that Victoria de Silva was entitled to one-half of the property gained by Lobo during the period of their marriage [bienes gananciales], but the Misericordia refused to pay out any money until the said documents should arrive from Spain; also that board administered a large sum of money belonging to Lobo, which was lent to General Miguel Martinez at interest, and could not be repaid for several years, especially as his estate was long in probate and greatly decreased in value. "Accordingly, even if the conveyance of the share belonging to the said Victoria de Silva could have been made, there was no opportunity for it." Nothing further is said about Victoria, but the inference is that she had by 1723 died, or dropped out of sight, or was unable to push her claims further. At all events, the Misericordia, according to Uriarte, sold the property and distributed the proceeds according to the terms of Lobo's will--having first consulted the learned doctors of the Manila universities as to their justification in doing so, who fully sustained the board's course; it followed, then, that their procedure was lawful and Christian, and that they were not to blame for the delays which occasioned the final disposition of the estate of Lobo. The opinion of the Jesuit university is reproduced in full; it is dated November 2, 1727, and signed by the licentiate Don Francisco Fernandez Thoribio (apparently an auditor who held the chair of civil law in the university) and Father Pedro Murillo Velarde, and is fortified by numerous citations from canons. They decide that, Lobo in his last will "having left his soul as the heir of his property, that means only the direction that all of it may and should be spent in suffrages, alms, pious foundations, and other ways which can result for the relief and welfare of his soul; and in saying that he 'gives to the honorable steward and deputies of the Board all his own faculty, amply and sufficiently,' he means that he leaves to the judgment of the said Board the disposal of his goods, in such manner as shall, according to the circumstances, appear most to the pleasure of God, and the welfare and relief of his soul. Accordingly, in virtue of the said power and faculty the said honorable steward and deputies have authority to proceed to the execution of the will, in the manner which we propose." They approve of the bequests made by Lobo for three chaplaincies; for the aid of the seminary of Santa Isabel and the support of orphan girls; and for masses for the souls in purgatory. They recommend that the girls of Santa Isabel set aside the masses and prayers of a certain day for the repose of Lobo's soul, for which shall also be said a thousand masses; and that an offering be yearly made from this estate for the aid of the home for wayward girls, in which a day shall also be observed with prayers for Lobo's soul. No mention of Victoria de Silva is made in this opinion.

[43] Alguazil: one of the many words of law and administration derived by the Spaniards from the Arabs. The word was originally, according to Dozy, al-vacil, which was from al-wazir, "vizier." Under the Arabs it was used to denote an officer of high rank, equivalent to dux. The governors of provinces under the Ommiade Khalifs sometimes received the title by way of extra dignity. The Christians used the word down to the fourteenth century as an equivalent to judge of first instance. Descending lower, in time it came to designate an officer of the court, the bailiff--in which sense only alguacil is now used. (H. E. Watts, in note to his edition of Don Quixote [London, 1895], iv, p. 14.)

[44] Gozos: "verses in praise of the Virgin or of the saints, in which certain words are repeated at the end of every couplet" (Velázquez).

[45] In 1686 the Dominicans in Filipinas were strictly forbidden to drink chocolate. This ordinance was observed for several years, until chocolate became so cheap and so generally used (even by the poorest Indians and negroes) that it came to be regarded as a necessity rather than a delicacy, and the prohibition was removed from the friars. (Salazar, Hist. Sant. Rosario, p. 379.)

The culture of the cacao (Theobroma cacao), from the seeds of which chocolate is prepared, was introduced from Nueva España into the Philippines under the rule of Governor Diego de Salcedo. Murillo Velarde accredits this to the Jesuit Juan Davila (Hist. de Philipinas, fol. 395 v.): "He cared for both the temporal and spiritual good of the Indians, endeavoring that they should possess some means of gain which would cause them to remain permanently in the villages, in order to remove the difficulties which ensued from their wandering hither and yon--for, going about in this manner, they were not instructed in the Christian doctrine or in Christian morals--besides other damages which they cause. For this purpose he interceded with the governor, Don Diego de Salcedo, to cause to be brought from Nueva España some shoots of cacao, in order to plant them in Bisayas. The governor accordingly obtained them, while the father was at Carigara, where a plantation was begun with good results; and from that place it has spread to other villages and islands of Pintados--with great benefit to those Indians, and to the general advantage of all the islands; for this beverage is more necessary here than in other regions. It is especially so for the ministers [of religion], who go about in continual voyages and navigations, very often without having the comfort of having any other provision or nourishment." Father Davila was born in Sevilla in 1615, entered the Jesuit order at the age of fifteen; and was ordained in 1639. For a time he was minister in the college for Irishmen in Sevilla. He came to the islands in 1643, and labored in the Bisayan missions for many years; he died in Ylog, Negros, June 20, 1706. For seven years before his death he suffered from a malignant cancer in the face. Concepción says (Hist. de Philipinas, ix, p. 150): "Chocolate is a great aid to feeble stomachs; and cacao is now produced in such abundance that it serves as the common beverage of every class of people, although it is true that some islands produce it of better quality and richness than do others."

The introduction of the cacao which was made in 1670 (see VOL. XX, p. 198) is reconciled with that by Davila thus, by Blanco (Flora, ed. 1845, p. 420): "It is very probable that with the remittance of cacao plants which came from America at his order, some others were brought over by private persons; and thus, at the same time when the cacao was spreading through Carigara (where Father Davila was laboring) and through other regions, it would also be cultivated by Tagals. In the year 1674, when Father Ignacio de Mercado was parish priest of Lipa, he says that he distributed seeds of this tree to many persons." The allusion here to Tagals refers to San Agustin's statement that the plant of cacao brought over by Pedro Brabo in 1670 was stolen from him by an Indian of Lipa, named Juan del Aguila, who hid and cultivated it; and thence it spread throughout the islands.

[46] There is some uncertainty in the Spanish text, which reads, Cirujano dozientos; y quarenta el Sacristan Mayor. Apparently there is some typographical error in the punctuation; but there is no means of verifying the fact involved.

[47] The money in the communal fund of the Chinese in the Parián was called Lapuat, and in 1718 amounted to more than 20,000 pesos (Concepción, Hist. de Philipinas, ix, p. 234).

[48] War had been declared by England against Spain in October, 1739, in consequence of injuries inflicted on British commerce in the West Indies; but letters of marque and reprisal had been issued by the English government in July preceding, under which Captain Edward Vernon captured the city of Portobello (November 22, 1739), and the castle at Cartagena. Captain George Anson also was placed in command of a large fleet, to harass the Spaniards along the coast of Peru, then to proceed northward, attack Panama, and capture the Spanish treasure-fleet, in which proceedings Vernon was to coöperate with him. Anson's fleet was broken up by storms and sickness, and the two commanders failed to make connections; so Anson, after various depredations on the western coast of South America, sailed to China, where he repaired his ship. Then he set out to meet the Spanish galleon from Acapulco, the "Covadonga;" and on June 30, 1743, Anson captured this vessel after a hot fight, with over 1,500,000 pesos of silver, mostly in coin. To avenge this loss, a squadron of four ships (the one here mentioned in our text) was despatched by the Manila government in pursuit of Anson; they went to China, but could not find the Englishman, who had sailed for his own country.

[49] Pardao (or pardo): a coin used in Portuguese India, worth 3 tostoons 3 vintens (Michaelis). This is equivalent to 360 reis, or to very nearly 35 cents in United States money.

[50] After Governor Torre's death (September 21, 1745), the government of the islands ad interim was assumed by Fray Juan de Arrechedera, bishop-elect of Nueva Segovia. His first care was to inspect the defenses and supplies of Manila, in view of the dangers which menaced the colony from the English; and he sent to Batavia for cannon, guns and ammunition, his envoy being a Frenchman who was well accredited in the foreign factories, named Antonio Piñon, who is probably the man mentioned by Calderon. Piñon returned to Manila with those supplies, to the value of 38,995 pesos. (Concepción, Hist. de Philipinas, xi, pp. 305, 306.)

[51] It is clear that the name China (which the French and Italians pronounce Cina) is not the original name of that kingdom, but is one imposed upon it by the foreigners who went thither to trade and barter; it was adopted by the Portuguese, and afterward by our people of the Philippines. Father Julio Aleni, a Jesuit, in a book written in the Chinese language says, in discussing this point: "China, according to foreigners, signifies 'the country or kingdom of silk;' and, since there is so great abundance of that commodity therein, those who sailed thither to buy it would say, 'Let us go to the country of silk,' or 'to China,' which means the same. The like statement was made to me by Don Fray Gregorio Lopez, bishop of Basilea, in whose charge is now the church of China, a religious of ours, and a native of that empire. To this opinion also incline Trigautius and Kircher." The most common and ordinary name which those people give to their empire, not only in books but in conversation, is Chung Kue, that is, "the kingdom in the middle." In former times they gave this name to the province of Hò Nan, which lies almost in the middle and heart of that empire; from that region it was afterward applied to that entire country. Others say that the Chinese regarded their kingdom as being in the middle of the world, through their ignorance of the many kingdoms that the world contains. For that reason they also call it Tien Hia, that is, "the world," or, "the largest or principal part of the world." Another name they very commonly give to it, calling it Hoa Kue, or Chung Hoa, which means "flowery kingdom," or "garden, forest, and pleasant place of the middle of the world." In the time of the emperor Xun this name was much used, and it is still used in literature. It is a very suitable name for that empire, for in truth it is throughout a beautiful garden and a peaceful and pleasant forest. (Domingo F. Navarrete's Tratados historicos, pp. 1, 2.)

[52] See Raynal's account of "the settlements, wars, policy, and commerce of the Dutch in the East Indies," in his Établissemens et commerce des Européens, i, pp. 151-260. An interesting description of Batavia, the capital of the Dutch possessions in the Orient, is given in pp. 221-228; and an account of the organization, administration, and policy of the Dutch East India Company, in pp. 158-161, 228-255. The foundation and early history of the Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope are related in pp. 201-213.

[53] Apparently a member of the royal Council; he sent orders that during the war with Great Britain no galleon should sail from Manila for Acapulco, stating that the king thus decreed in order to prevent those rich cargoes from falling into the hands of the English. The merchants petitioned Governor Arrechedera to suspend this decree, at least by permitting them to send to Acapulco the goods which had been registered for that port three years before--which were already damaged by this delay, and would be ruined by a longer one; he did so (with the advice of his counselors), and the galleon "Rosario" and the patache "Pilar" were sent with cargoes in June, 1746. To accomplish this, in the exhausted condition of the colonial treasury, the merchants were obliged to contribute 50,000 pesos for the outfitting of the ships and other expenses; and the royal officials, with the consent of the ecclesiastical cabildo, borrowed from the funds in the treasury belonging to the cathedral 29,805 pesos. The ships were manned with crews of 500 and 350 men respectively. They made the voyage safely, and returned to Manila with the situado for that year and 30,000 pesos on the arrearages in those of previous years. The "Rosario" was again despatched with a cargo, and with request for the situados which had been held back in Mexico; as these amounted to six, the islands were in great need, and the royal treasury almost empty; but the vessel was ill-constructed, and was driven back to port by storms.

[54] Concepción says (Hist. de Philipinas, xi, p. 237) that this was "a little vessel, which was in the service of the missions and presidios in California;" the viceroy sent it because, having heard nothing from Manila for a long time, he feared that Anson had caused destruction there.

[55] Raynal devotes book iv of his Établissemens et commerce des Europées (t. i, pp. 400-548) to the "voyages, settlements, wars, and commerce of the French in the East Indies." The first voyage to India undertaken by a French commercial company (1601) was commanded by Pyrard de Laval, whose account of his adventures in the Maldive Islands has already been cited in these volumes; but this enterprise was unsuccessful. After various abortive attempts by Frenchmen to engage in the Oriental trade, an East India Company was formed in France (1664) by the great Colbert, with an exclusive charter and many special privileges. The company made a settlement in Madagascar, which was abandoned in 1670, and the French ships then went to India, where they established a post at Surat, and afterward one at Pondicherry. At first the trade prospered, especially at the latter post; but after a time the affairs of the company were mismanaged, its funds diminished so that ruinous expedients, only temporarily successful, were resorted to; its markets at home were spoiled by the sale of India goods, taken by French privateers from English and Dutch prizes, at very low prices; for lack of money, the company could not keep up its purchases in India; heavy duties were laid on all India goods; the conduct of the home government toward the company was, although vacillating, generally oppressive, and its administration corrupt; and the company long struggled on the brink of ruin. At the end of the fifty years' term of their charter, they secured (1714) an extension for ten years more; and in the period of "frenzied finance" engineered by John Law (1716-21) various other trading companies were merged in this one, which later was substantially aided by the French government. For a time the company acquired great power and extensive territories in India; but war broke out between France and England, and in 1761 Pondicherry was captured and destroyed by the English. Afterward, from 1764 to 1769, the company conducted a prosperous Oriental trade; but its affairs had long been mismanaged, and the government had meddled with these unduly, while there had been much corruption among both its directors and its officials. It was found to be heavily indebted, and its finances fell into almost hopeless confusion; and finally a royal decree dated August 15, 1769, suspended the exclusive privileges granted to the Company of the Indies, and gave all Frenchmen liberty to navigate and trade beyond the Cape of Good Hope. The company thereupon undertook to liquidate their affairs, and made over to the government (April 7, 1770) their property, the latter assuming the debts and obligations of the company.

In the period 1725 to 1770, the East India Company of France sent out 761 trading ships, an average of 17 each year; the number in 1725 was 33, but it dwindled toward the close of that period until, in 1769, it was but 3; the ships, during the 45 years, were manned by 87,223 men, an average of 115 to each ship. The amount of merchandise carried to the Indias varied from 7,800,000 livres' worth (in 1769) to 612,000 (in 1764), and for the entire period was 133,000,000. The vessels that returned to France numbered 585; they carried thither goods which had cost 344,000,000 livres in the East, and which were sold in France for 636,000,000: the years in which these sales produced most profit were: 1741, a gain of 12,327,000 livres; 1752, 13,719,000 livres; and 1755, 12,785,000 livres. During the first decade, the company paid on its sales, as duties to the crown, the sum of 25,000 livres annually; then until 1765, with a few exceptions, 3,000 livres a year; and during 1765-71, sums varying from 538,000 to 126,000 livres a year. The annual dividends varied usually from eight and a quarter to three millions of livres; steadily decreasing (in groups of years) to the latter figure; in 1746 the dividend was 15,000,000, but in that year the company borrowed the large sum of 25,000,000. In 1765 the dividend was but 766,000 livres. Its capital in 1725 was 100,000,000 livres due from the crown, and 39,835 in its ships and other assets. In June, 1747, the government increased its obligations to the company to 180,000,000 livres, in compensation for depriving it of the monopoly of the sale of tobacco, and engaged to pay it the interest on that sum forever at the rate of five per cent. (See a tabulated statement of the affairs of the French company, at the end of the atlas volume of Raynal's work.)

After the exclusive privileges of the company were suspended, the India commerce was carried on by private persons, and steadily flourished. Raynal presents another table, showing the net product of this private commerce, as indicated by the sales at the French port of l'Orient, during 1771-78 inclusive, of merchandise brought from the Indies, China, and the islands of France and Bourbon; it shows a regular and large increase, save in 1778. The amounts of these sales vary from 10,336,000 livres in 1771 to 27,509,000 in 1777; in the following year the amount was but 14,026,000. The total sales for the eight years amounted to 149,273,000 livres, an annual average of 18,659,000.

[56] "[Lower] California serves as a way-station for the vessels which sail from the Philippines to Mexico; Cape St. Lucas, situated at the southern extremity of the peninsula, is the place where they halt. They find there a good port, fresh food, and signals which warn them if any enemy has appeared in those places which are most dangerous for them. It was in 1734 that the galleon landed there for the first time; and the orders given to it, and its necessities, have drawn it to that place ever since." (Raynal, Établissemens et commerce des Européens, ii, p. 106.)

[57] The writer of this letter was one of the auditors of the royal Audiencia at Manila (Concepción, Hist. de Philipinas, xi, p. 295).

[58] Evidently referring to Pedro Murillo Velarde, extracts from whose Historia de Philipinas have already appeared in this series. The phrase "the Orient" alludes to the route via India to Europe.

[59] Full accounts of this mission may be found in Ventura del Arco MSS., iv, pp. 447-591, in letters from the Jesuits Pedro Estrada and Juan Angles, dated June 25, 1748, and June 18, 1749, respectively--with letter from Felipe V to the sultan of Joló, and the latter's reply.

[60] This was Fray Pedro de la Santisima Trinidad Martinez de Arizala; he was a native of Madrid, and had been an auditor in the royal Audiencia of Quito for seventeen years, and was an honorary member of the Council of the Indias. But, "disillusioned with the world, and weary of honors, his sensitive conscience found room in the estate of a Franciscan religious, taking their habit, and professing their austere life." He took possession of the archbishopric of Manila on August 27, 1747, at the age of fifty-two years. Difficulties arose between him and Arrechedera; but he contented himself with laying these troubles before the court at Madrid. He died on May 28, 1755. (Concepción, Hist. de Philipinas, xii, pp. 38-40, and xiii, pp. 338, 339.)

[61] See the detailed account of this episode, and of events connected with it, in Concepción's Hist. de Philipinas, xii, chaps, ii-v, which may thus briefly be summarized:

In 1735 Maulana, sultan of Joló, abdicated in favor of his son Mahamad Alimudin. This youth was "brought up in the school of his father," in matters of craft and policy; he had spent some time at Batavia, where he became proficient in the Arabic and Malayan languages, and in the Koran--"which he explained with so much erudition that the Joloans gave him the title of chief pandita of that kingdom," and he attained among the Moros "an authority almost supreme." He negotiated for peace with the Spaniards, which was effected in 1737; he promised to restore the Christian captives, but his datos resented this, and refused to obey. In May, 1740, a Recollect priest, Fray Hypolito de San Agustin, was captured by Moro pirates; but certain Joloans--especially their pandita, one Yaloc--rescued him and took him to Joló, where he was kindly received and cared for. The sultan demanded a ransom of 12,000 pesos for him; after many difficulties and negotiations, and some aid from the Jesuits, the captive priest secured his liberty by binding the Recollect province to pay the amount demanded for ransom. Soon afterward, the sultan was persuaded by Commandant Zacharias and the Jesuit Isasi at Zamboanga to commute his claim to 1,000 pesos, which was gladly paid by the Recollects. The peace made with Alimudin stopped the invasions by the Joloans, but the Tirones from the Bornean coast continued their destructive raids. Remonstrances being made at Madrid by the representatives of Philippine interests, the king wrote the letters to the rulers of Joló and Tamontaca (the latter being Ameril Mahomenin Campsa), which have been previously mentioned in this series; they were received at Manila in July, 1746, and were sent to their destination by the hands of the Jesuits Isasi and Arcada. These envoys conducted various negotiations with the sultan, who demanded (and received) from the Manila government aid of money, guns, and iron--for Joló, to repay him for the expenses which he had incurred in aiding the Spaniards against the Tirones; for Tamontaca (or Mindanao), to aid in the war with Gula, the son of the rebel Malinog. Arrangements were made for the opening of Jesuit missions in Joló and Tamontaca; but they soon came to naught. In September, 1748, a rebellion in Joló unseated Alimudin, and sent him a fugitive to Zamboanga; and, Ameril and Gula having become reconciled, threatened treachery sent the Jesuit Moreno back from Tamontaca to the same refuge. Alimudin went to Manila, here he was received with much éclat by Governor Arrechedera; he was there apparently converted to the Christian faith by the governor's persuasions.

[62] "By the marriage with Elizabeth Farnese (ancestry normal), Philip V had, as an heir, Charles III, of Spain, who was the best of the more modern sovereigns of that country--in fact, the only normal one since before the days of the Emperor Charles V, now seven generations in the background. Not that Charles III inherited any of the ancient genius, for that had gone, never to appear again. He was, however, ([to cite] Hume), 'an enlightened, generous, and just king and a noble and magnanimous man,' and (Rose's Biographical Dictionary) 'possessed abilities as a monarch, and virtues as a private citizen, ... was a popular sovereign and a great economist of time, scrupulously methodical in all his operations.'" Thus writes Dr. F. A. Woods, in his Heredity in Royalty (New York, 1906), pp. 155, 156--a book which endeavors, on scientific lines, to ascertain the influence of heredity as displayed in the royal families of Europe. The chapter on the rulers of Spain is found at pp. 124-171. He says (p. 138): "The origin of the well-known insanity in the Spanish and Austrian houses, perpetuated over thirteen generations and involving more than a score of individuals, is a very interesting question. It cannot be traced with certainty prior to Isabella, the Queen of John II, of Castile. This Isabella was out and out insane, according to the English alienist, W. W. Ireland; and from her, onward, the insanity passed along in one form or another by the very intermarriages which their pride and political motives caused them to arrange, with the intended idea of making permanent their world power, but with the inevitable result of losing that same prestige by placing it in the hands of the unfortunate children whose inheritance was necessarily mental weakness as the result of such unwise wedlocks."

For account of Carlos III's reign, see Manuel Danvila y Collado's Reinado de Carlos III (Madrid, 1894). An interesting description of this monarch's character and mode of life may be found in the Dublin Magazine for April, 1763, pp. 238, 239; it is written by a clergyman named Clark, "chaplain to the Earl of Bristol, late ambassador at the court of Madrid." He says, among other things: "He is the greatest Nimrod of his time: he sacrifices everything to this favorite pleasure; he was disgusted at his public entry, because it hindered him of four days sport. He stayed three days at Toledo, and killed six wild mountain-cats, which, as I was well informed by those who had calculated the expence of that expedition, cost him exactly 1000 l. a cat." "It has been imagined that he is a very weak prince, and of little or no understanding: Ir is a great mistake; he has some parts, but is mulish and obstinate to the last degree; and, by being constantly flattered, he imagines that he has more understanding than he really possesses. He is reserved beyond the common reserve of princes, has no confidant, and communicates his will only by his orders to put into execution. He can neither be led nor driven; all must come from himself." "He allows no minister to remonstrate or argue with him." "He arrested and banished the inquisitor-general, and sent him prisoner to a convent. He engaged in the present war with England, contrary to the sentiments of his ministers, and in direct opposition to the voice of the whole nation."

[63] A copy of the naturalization papers of Nicolas Norton y Nicols as a Spaniard exists in the Archivo general de Indias at Sevilla; its pressmark is, "Est. 105, caj. 2, leg. 13, libro 12, fol. 226b-229b," and the document is dated at Aranjuez, August 3, 1758. Norton became a Catholic, and was allowed to trade in the Philippines. The allusion to "192 years" is somewhat incorrect, if he refers to the first discovery of the islands, which occurred in 1565; or else he may have begun to write out this proposal to the king as early as 1757, which would tally with the above numbers.

[64] In the text, Bisarjas, evidently a clerical error. This, and a few similar discrepancies in the MS., strengthen the conjecture that it is not written by Norton's own hand; it was probably dictated by him to an amanuensis.

[65] See articles describing the cocoanut, its uses, culture, etc., in Census of the Philippine Islands, iv, pp. 53-76; its uses are thus characterized (p. 72): "Briefly summed up, its timber can be employed in every form of house construction; its foliage in making mats, sacks, and thatches; its fruit in curry and sweet-meats; its oil for medicine, cookery, and illumination; its various uses in the manufacture of wines, spirits, sugar, and vinegar." See also various scientific articles regarding the culture of the cocoanut palm, its enemies, and the qualities of its oil, in the Philippine Journal of Science, Manila, 1906 (published by the Philippine government).

[66] Spanish, cañas, which (as sometimes elsewhere) indicates that this name was bestowed indifferently on the bamboo and the rattan; but the latter is here meant, of course, as being named bichuca (for bejuco).

[67] Spanish, clauos; apparently meaning that the natives used in their housebuilding wedges made from the wood of the cocoanut tree as a substitute for iron nails.

[68] Probably alluding to a document which is preserved in the Archivo de Indias at Sevilla, by Norton y Nicols, dated at Madrid, September 2, 1757; it will be mentioned in the bibliographical section of this series (VOL. LIII).

[69] The context would imply that sugar is here referred to; but the writer does not mention it again, and seems to have abandoned his attempt to export it.

[70] Spanish, estas ayudas de, followed by a blank space, doubtless intended to be filled by costas.

[71] Concepción mentions this stone (Hist. de Philipinas, xii, p. 25), found on a site selected by the Dutch; they had marked "a stone with the letter T, which, as it was interpreted, signified, 'annexed to Terrenate.' This same token they had placed in other uninhabited islands in the vicinity. This marked stone was dug up by the sultan of Mindanao, who sent it to the governor of Samboangan, Don Pedro Zacharias. Two Dutch chalupas went to call the Mindanaos to account for this act, intending to obtain satisfaction for it by placing the marked stone in the locality of Silangan, on the mainland of Mindanao; but Radiamura courageously drove back the Dutch who made a landing--who, in retreating, swore to return with adequate forces for that enterprise."

[72] There is some confusion or error in these figures, which read, in the MS., "35 = 3.94 @ 2,82:600." Without them, the totals amount to 80,187,524; subtracting this from the entire total, there remains a balance of 3,424,000, apparently indicating the value of the sugar--save that the total for benzoin is erroneously figured in the MS.; it should be 144,804. The MS. is also uncertain on some of the other totals.

[73] The writer (or more probably his amanuensis) has made an error in transcribing these sums; "six millions" should read "sixty millions," and at the end of the paragraph the amount of chocolate should be "one hundred and fifty" instead of "fifteen" millions. The remaining figures are correct.

[74] "In 1618, according to the testimony of Dr. Marradón, of Marchena, to one hundred cacao-beans must be added a pound and a half of sugar, two onzas of cinnamon, fourteen grains of Mexican pepper, a half-onza of cloves, and two reals' weight of anise and annotto; and one might add almonds, nuts, and orange-flower water. Years afterward Dr. Colmenero of Ledesma modified this formula, making the paste in the proportion of one hundred cacao-beans, one-half libra of sugar, two granos of pepper, anise, cloves, Alexandrian [i.e., white] roses, logwood, cinnamon, almonds, nuts, and a sufficient quantity of annotto to give it color."

Until the end of the eighteenth century chocolate was prepared mainly by hand-labor. "In the seventeenth century, the preparation of the chocolate was made by artisans, who received twelve reals and an azumbre [i.e., about half a gallon] of wine for preparing each day the portion of chocolate from sixteen libras of clear cacao. The chocolate, thus prepared and sold under the name of 'health chocolate,' often contained special ingredients, chosen on account of the fashion, or of the taste of the consumers; and if in those times great praise was given to the chocolate which contained aromatic essences--vanilla, amber, and orange--certainly not less famous on that account was the chocolate of Madrid with its doradilla [i.e., ceterach], that of Ávila with its pimentón [i.e., a large variety of pepper], and that of Pamplona with its pepper and ginger. Fray Manuel Ordoñez says, referring to the paste which we are considering, that 'in the past century it was sold only in the apothecary shops, like physicians' prescriptions, for our cure;' and from this citation we may infer not only that chocolate was regarded as a special medicine, but that it was considered as a therapeutic agent, worthy of being kept by the pharmacists of the seventeenth century. Later, in the eighteenth century, the preparation of chocolate began to be made by the guild of spice-dealers, its ingredients being reduced to the cacao, cinnamon or vanilla, and sugar; and the custom became somewhat general of adding to the paste some biscuit-dough, in order to make it thicker when it was diluted with water. At the same time when the 'health chocolate' was sold in the spice-shops, a medicinal chocolate was prepared in the apothecary shops, in which the principal products of the pharmacopeia entered as ingredients. As the preparation of chocolate had become general in the convents, in attempting to compete with the spice-dealers the friars did not think of making it of better quality; but, in order to sell it more cheaply, they subtracted from cacao and cinnamon what they added in ingredients that were not always harmless for the parishioner's health. In order that the importance of this adulteration may be estimated, it is sufficient to cite some of the additions most used, as wheat flour, rice flour; ground lentils, peas, beans, and maize; starch, potato starch, and dextrine; olive oil, sweet almond oil, yolk of egg, tallow of veal and mutton; storax, chestnut [flour], gum tragacanth; cinnabar, red oxide of mercury, red lead, carbonate of lime, etc." The manufacture of chocolate has been conducted almost entirely by machinery during the past century, and has accordingly thrown out the majority of the artisans who made it by hand. (José del Carmenal, cited in Gräfenberg's Spanisches Lesebuch, Frankfurt, 1899, pp. 7-11.)

[75] At the end of the atlas volume in Raynal's Établissemens et commerce des Européens is a tabular "Enumeration of the population of Spain, prepared in 1768 by order of his Lordship Conde de Aranda, president of the Council of Castilla." The population is given separately for each of the eight archbishoprics (which contain 48 bishoprics, 2 of them "exempt"). The lay population was thus classed: married persons, 1,724,567 men and 1,714,505 women; unmarried (presumably including children), 2,809,069 boys and 2,911,858 girls; total, 9,159,999. Add the number of the clergy (both regular and secular), which was 147,805, and the entire population numbered 9,307,804. Two curious discrepancies may be noted: the number of married men is greater than that of the married women by 10,062, and the girls exceed the boys by 102,789 (this latter an excess of about 3 2/3 per cent). The only region in which the number of married men is practically the same as that of married women is the archdiocese of Valencia, and the only one where the same thing is true of the boys and girls is the archdiocese of Zaragoza. The greatest discrepancy in the numbers of both these classes is found in the archdiocese of Burgos, where there were 197,064 married men, and only 185,997 married women; and it had 330,428 girls and only 310,545 boys. Highly significant is the enumeration of the privileged classes, of whom in the total population there were 846,657, thus classified: those enjoying royal privileges, 89,393; in the department of finances, 27,577; in that of the Crusade, 4,248; in that of the Inquisition, 2,645; in the nobility, 722,794. It is to be observed that three-fourths of all the privileged class are found in the archdiocese of Burgos and the two exempt bishoprics--in the former, 324,661; in the latter, 306,378. Not less interesting are the statistics of the ecclesiastical estate. In the 16,427 cities and villages were 18,106 parishes, which were served by 15,641 curas. There were 2,004 monasteries, containing 55,453 religious; and 1,026 convents with 26,465 nuns. All these religious orders employed also 8,552 persons as procurators and treasurers, and with the orders were affiliated 26,294 laymen. In the service of the churches were 25,248 laymen; and besides the curas there were 50,246 chaplains and beneficed priests. The total of all these items is 147,805, the number above given.

[76] A literal translation of the text; but there seems to be some omission or confusion in the statement. Possibly the writer intended to make it contingent on the success of his project for making cinnamon plantations.

[77] In the text, aljoresesite; there is no such word in the lexicons, and it probably is an error (perhaps of an amanuensis) for ajo aceite, the name of a pungent preparation of garlic, oil, etc., which is used in the southern countries of Europe as a condiment.

[78] Thus in original, but the context would indicate that "no" was omitted here.

[79] Spanish, caldos: a term applied to the wine, oil, and brandy that are transported by sea (Dominguez).

[80] The somewhat fragmentary nature of these statements indicates the probability that they are but memoranda, and the whole MS. a rough draft, which was to be presented to the king in revised and improved form.

[81] Wm. Reed (Negritos of Zambales) says, (p. 27): "Everything in the history of the Zambal people and their present comparative unimportance goes to show that they were the most indolent and backward of the Malayan peoples. While they have never given the governing powers much trouble, yet they have not kept pace with the agricultural and commercial progress of the other people, and their territory has been so steadily encroached on from all sides by their more aggressive neighbors that their separate identity is seriously threatened. The rich valleys of Zambales have long attracted Ilokano immigrants, who have founded several important towns. The Zambals themselves, owing to lack of communication between their towns, have developed their separate dialects.... [but] Zambal as a distinct dialect is gradually disappearing." "The Zambals, however, lived in so close contact with the Negritos that they impressed their language on them so thoroughly, that no trace of the dialect of the latter people remains in Zambales" (p. 28).

As pointed out in a recent communication from James A. LeRoy, the Zambals were mountaineers, kin to the Igorot of today, and of Malay origin. They probably formed a portion of a very early migratory movement from the south who were pushed back into the hills. They must not be confused with the Negritos, who are not Malayan. The Malayan origin of the Zambals can be easily seen from Perez's description.

[82] Fray Vicente Salazar in his Historia, chapter xxx, pp. 134-138 ("Description of the province of Zambales, and the genius, customs, and ceremonies of its Indians") makes use of this document by Perez, which he greatly condenses. Indeed, it forms his sole authority on the Zambals. In the two following chapters ("Fruit of the preaching of our religious in the changing of the customs of the Zambals;" and "Of some miracles which our Lord worked in this mission and reduction of the Zambals") also he uses considerable of the material of Perez.

[83] Carrizal: land which is full of reed-grass.

[84] Tapis is a Tagálog word, being the name of a garment worn by women as a skirt. See Noceda and Sanlucar's Vocabulario de la lengua tagala.

[85] Iua: a Tagálog word for a weapon resembling a dagger. See ut supra.

[86] Wm. A. Reed (Negritos of Zambales, p. 26), commenting on Salazar's description of the Zambals, which is condensed from Perez, says: "Of course it is impossible to tell how much of this is the product of the writer's imagination, or at least of the imagination of those earlier chroniclers from whom he got his information, but it can well be believed that the natives had a religion of their own and that the work of the missionaries was exceedingly difficult." In this connection, it is interesting to note that Perez later vouches for the entire truth of whatever he has written.

[87] The original reads: presidiendo las ceremonias Bis. The transcriber of the document for the present editors has added the following note: "The structure and meaning of this word is not well understood." It is the Latin word Bis, meaning "in a twofold manner," indicating that the god Malyari presides over both the feast and the honors to the deceased.

[88] Balata is also used by the Tagálogs to signify "abstinence from something in memory of any person." See Noceda and Sanlucar's Vocabulario.

[89] The Spanish for "to play at ring" is correr á la sortija. This is an equestrian sport, which is played by taking an iron ring as large as a Segovian ochavo (a small brass coin). This ring is fitted into another piece of iron, from which it can be easily withdrawn. The latter is hung from a cord or pole a few feet from the ground, and the horsemen and others who take part in the game, taking the proper distance, go toward the ring at a run. The one who bears off the ring on his lance is declared the winner. See Dominguez's Diccionario.

[90] A word of respect in the Tagálog dialect.

[91] Even when I was a missionary to the heathens from 1882 to 1892, I had occasion to observe the said policy, to inform the chief of the fortress of the measures that he ought to take, and to make a false show on the other side so that it might have no influence on the fortress. (Note by Dominican transcriber.)

[92] The same thing was advised by father Fray Remigio Rodriguez del Alamo to Don Narciso Claveria y Oscariz, in respect to the different tribes of Ifugaos. (Note by Dominican transcriber.)

[93] This was Gregorio Giraldez, who reached the Philippines in 1679. He was a Galician by birth and professed in the Dominican order August 31, 1666. He was immediately sent to the province of Zambales, being appointed in 1682 vicar of Alalang, and in 1684, of Paynaven. In 1686 he became superior of the Manila convent. He filled the offices also of procurator-general, president of San Juan de Letran, and vicar-provincial. His death occurred at Manila, May 28, 1702. See Salazar's Historia, p. 130; and Reseña biográfica, ii, pp. 215, 216.

[94] Juan de la Nava went to the Philippines in 1684, and was assigned immediately to Masinloc, in the province of Zambales, which post he filled for four years. In 1690 he was appointed vicar-provincial there, at the same time having in charge the house at Paynaven. His death occurred August 24, 1691. See Salazar's Historia, pp. 583, 584, and Reseña biográfica, ii, p. 252.

[95] Juan Fernandez was born in the province of Asturias, and professed at Valladolid, September 8, 1674. Reaching the Philippines in 1679 at the age of twenty-six, he was sent to the province of Zambales, being assigned in 1680 to Masinloc, where he remained until 1686. He was also vicar of Santiago Apostol de Bolinao (1688-96) and of Santa Catalina V. y M. de Agno; vicar-provincial (1692-94); at Bolinao again (1696-98); superior of Manila convent (1698-1702); president of the house of Santa Mónica de Marihumo, in Zambales, from 1702 until his death in the first half of 1703. See Salazar's Historia, p. 130; and Reseña biográfica, ii, pp. 223, 224.

[96] This was Juan Rois. See VOL. XLI, p. 250, note 76.