part ii of "Historia," p. 16.)
Montero y Vidal says (pp. 380-382) that the English attacked Zamboanga (1803) on the way to Balambangan, but were repulsed with great loss. They had at the latter place three ships of the East India Company, and five ships belonging to private persons; the garrison included 300 whites, 700 Sepoys under European officers, and 200 Chinese. "In a short time the greater part of these forces abandoned Balambangan to go to Batavia." "The English, after burning the village and the fort, abandoned Balambangan, on December 15, 1806, doubtless on account of the insignificance of that island."
[22] Regarding Anda's birth, see VOL. XLIX, p. 132, note 74. According to Montero y Vidal (Hist. de Filipinas, ii, p. 281), he studied at four different schools (jurisprudence, at Alcalá) taking several degrees, including that of doctor in law. He opened an office in Madrid, and attained great fame as an advocate. In 1755 he received an appointment to the Audiencia of Manila, of which post he took possession on July 21, 1761.
Anda was succeeded ad interim by Pedro Sarrio, "who found himself obliged to compel the obras pías to lend some money to the government" (Mas, Informe, i, part ii of "Historia," p. 21).
[23] A full account of this controversy, with the text of some of the official documents therein, may be found in Mas, ut supra, pp. 23-28.
[24] By a royal decree of January 12, 1777, it was ordained that the Indians should devote themselves to the cultivation of flax and hemp; this must have originated from a suggestion by Anda.
[25] Zúñiga thus relates the result of this experiment in the village of San Pedro Tunasan (Estadismo, i, pp. 29, 30): "The owner of these lands is the college of San José in Manila, which has there a good stone house, and a Spanish manager who attends to the collection of the rent from the tenants. The land is quite fertile; it produces abundance of mangas, cocoanuts, oranges, lemons, camias, balimbins, buyo, sugar, and various other kinds of trees and garden produce. Also there are a good many mulberry trees, and silk is made in the farm buildings. When the Economic Society was established in Manila, when Señor Basco was governor, the rector of the college gave orders that all the land adjoining the farm should be planted with mulberry trees; and, as this tree grows as easily as a weed in this country, in a short time were seen around the house extensive and beautiful plantations of these trees, which could produce an abundant harvest of excellent silk. Silkworms were imported from China, and it was seen that they multiplied readily. Not only on this estate, but in all directions, the promotion of this industry was taken up with ardor. A considerable quantity of silk was made; but on selling it the owners found that they lost money in cultivating this article. When a calculation was made of what the land which the mulberry trees occupied could produce, it was found that even when it was planted with nothing more than camotes it yielded them more than the silk did; add to this the care of the worms and the cost of manufacture, and it will be found that those who devote themselves to its culture must inevitably lose. In other days the promotion of the silk industry had been considered at Manila; and an old printed sermon has been found, written by an Augustinian father, who stated therein the measures which had been taken to introduce into the Filipinas islands an industry which could be very profitable for them. The father preacher exhorted the inhabitants to devote themselves to an occupation which could be so useful to the nation; but those who directed the Economic Society of Friends of the Country took good care to keep that quiet, so that the farmers might not be discouraged by seeing that in other days the cultivation of this product had been attempted, but had been abandoned because, without doubt, no benefit resulted to the producers. But, no matter how many precautions were taken, and efforts made to persuade those who might devote themselves to this industry that much profit could be obtained from it, every one abandoned it. The rector of San José alone continued to manufacture the silk that was yielded from the mulberry trees which he had planted, although at last he had to abandon his project. The silkworms multiply well in Filipinas, and are in a condition to make silk throughout the year; and, as the mulberry trees are always in leaf, silk is yielded all the time. There is practically not a month [in the year] when some silk cannot be obtained--very different from España, where it is necessary to stop gathering silk throughout the winter, as the trees have no leaves. Notwithstanding all these advantages, as we are so near China, which furnishes this commodity very cheaply, it cannot yield any profit in these islands--where, besides this, the daily wages which are paid to workmen are so large, and what they accomplish is so little, on account of their natural laziness, that it is not easy to push not only this but even any other industry in this country."
[26] Acordado, literally, meaning "decision;" lo acordado, "decree of a tribunal enforcing the observance of prior proceedings." Mas says that these magistrates were appointed in imitation of those who performed such functions in America.
[27] See Jagor's note on this association (Reisen, pp. 307, 308).
[28] "Only one plant of those that were carried to the Filipinas Islands was introduced, and its cultivation directed, by the government; this was the tobacco. Perhaps there is no other which is more enjoyed by the natives, or more productive of revenue, than is this plant. So important for España is its utility that it alone, if his Majesty's government promotes its maintenance intelligently, can become a greater resource than all the other incomes of the colony." "Tobacco is the most important branch of the commerce of these islands; its leaves, which in all the provinces are of excellent quality, in some of them reach such perfection that they cannot be distinguished from those of Havana. The government has reserved to itself the right to sell tobacco; its manufacture is free only in the Visayas, but in all the island of Luzon this is subject to the vigilance of the government. Nevertheless, the proprietors or growers are permitted to cultivate it in Pampanga, Gapan, Nueva Ecija, and in the province of Cagayan; but the government buys from them the entire crop at contract prices." "To the far-seeing policy of the captain-general Don José Basco is due the establishment of this revenue, one of the richest in the islands. Its direct result, a short time after it had been established, was that the obligations of the colony and its political existence, far from depending, as before, on an allotment made in its favor by the capital, were advantageously secured; and in the succeeding years this branch of the revenue displayed a very notable increase, with well-grounded indications of the greater one of which it was susceptible. In 1781 this income was established; and at the beginning of 1782 it was extended to the seventeen provinces into which the island of Luzon was then divided. It is easy to estimate the resistance which was encountered in establishing this revenue--not only through the effect of public opinion, which immediately characterized the project as foolhardy, but through the grievance which it must be to the natives and the obstacles continually arising from the contraband trade. Certainly it was hard to deprive the natives suddenly of the right (which they had enjoyed until then) of cultivating without restriction a plant to the use of which they had been accustomed from infancy, being regarded among them as almost of prime necessity. But there was no other means, if that worthy governor's economic idea was to be realized, than the monopoly, which should prohibit simultaneously in the island of Luzon the sowing and cultivation of the said plant, reducing it to the narrow limits of certain districts, those which were most suitable for obtaining abundant and good crops. If to this be added the necessity imposed on the consumers of paying a higher price for a commodity which until then had been easily obtained, we must admit that the undertaking was exceedingly arduous and hazardous." "At the outset, districts were set aside in which its cultivation was permitted: Gapan, in the province of Pampanga; some districts in Cagayan, and the little island of Marinduque--although in these last two places only an insignificant amount was harvested. Notwithstanding the difficulties which surround every new enterprise, from the year 1808 the net profits which the monopoly annually produced exceeded 500,000 dollars [duros]." (Buzeta and Bravo, Diccionario, i, pp. 51, 173, 438, 439.)
See Jagor's interesting account of the tobacco monopoly (especially in the middle of the nineteenth century), in his Reisen, pp. 257-270. One of his notes (p. 256) states that the income from this monopoly was $8,418,939 in the year 1866-67; another (p. 259) cites authorities to show that tobacco was first introduced into southern China from the Philippines, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, "probably by way of Japan."
The idea of establishing the tobacco monopoly had been urged by Viana in 1766 (see pp. 109, 110, post).
[29] The title given to him was "Conde de la Conquista de las islas Batanes" ("Count of the Conquest of the Batanes islands"); and the principal village in those islands bears the name of Basco.
[30] Regarding the Chinese in Filipinas, see (besides many documents in this series) the following works: Mallat, Les Philippines (Paris, 1846), ii, chapters xxii, xxvii, xxix; Jagor, Reisen, pp. 271-279; Rafael Comenge's Cuestiones filipinas, part i, "Los Chinos" (Manila, 1894); F. W. Williams, "The problem of Chinese immigration in further Asia," in Report, 1899, of American Historical Association (Washington, 1900), i, pp. 171-204; China en Filipinas (Manila, 1889), articles written mainly by Pablo Feced; Los Chinos en Filipinas (Manila, 1886).
[31] When the tobacco monopoly was established in Cagayan, the natives so resented this measure "that many of them abandoned the province and went to Manila" (Buzeta and Bravo, Diccionario, i, p. 438).
[32] Agustin Pedro Blaquier (Blasquier) was born at Barcelona in 1747, and entered the Augustinian convent there at the age of twenty-one. In 1772 he arrived at Manila, where he completed his studies; and was then sent to Ilocos. Later, he held important offices in his order; he was made assistant to the bishop of Nueva Segovia (1795), and succeeded to that office four years later. He died at Ilagan while visiting his diocese, December 30, 1803. He was of scholarly tastes, possessed a fine library, and left various MS. writings.
[33] Apparently meaning the obligation of the cura to reside in the home belonging to the parish, provided for his use.
[34] Huerta gives his name (Estado, p. 437) as Juan Antonio Gallego or de Santa Rosa, and Orbigo as the place of his birth (1729). He came to the islands in 1759, and after serving in both the missions and Manila, spent the years 1771-79 as procurator of his province to the court of Madrid. Returning to Filipinas, he took possession of the bishopric of Nueva Cáceres (which had been vacant during thirteen years) on April 27, 1780. In his first official visit of that diocese he showed so much devotion and zeal that even the hardships of travel in mountains and forests there did not prevent him from completing his task, and he was the first bishop to set foot in the Catanduanes Islands. After nine years of this service he was promoted to the archbishopric of Manila, where he was beloved for his virtues. He died at Santa Ana, on May 15, 1797. Montero y Vidal says (Hist. de Filipinas, ii, p. 353) that this prelate was "very peaceable, and of excellent character; learned, and plain in his habits; on which account he had no enemies."
[35] See note 26, p. 50, ante. An opinion rendered by Viana on April 22, 1765 (Respuestas, fol. 126v, 127), shows that the institution of the Santa Hermandad had been transplanted from Spain to the Philippines. It seems that the "alcalde of the Hermandad," also styled the "provincial alcalde of Manila," claimed that he ought not to be obliged to go outside of Manila in the exercise of his office (which, by the way, was one of those classed as saleable). The fiscal decides that the alcalde is under obligation to act within the municipal territory and jurisdiction of Manila, which includes all the land within five leguas of the city; that outside that limit he may send a suitable deputy, instead of going in person; that the laws of the kingdom do not fix any definite limits for the jurisdiction of the Hermandad, and that the wording of the alcalde's commission is ambiguous in the same matter; and that the Audiencia is competent to settle the present question. Viana therefore recommends that suitable action be taken by that court, who are reminded that the aforesaid alcalde receives no salary and his agents [quadrilleros] no pay, and therefore he cannot be compelled to go outside of Manila when he maintains and arms these men entirely at his own expense. "The said office can never be of public utility unless it be placed on some other footing."
[36] Montero y Vidal cites (Hist. de Filipinas, ii, p. 361) the following from Fray Nicolás Becerra's Estado general de la provincia de S. Nicolás de Tolentino de padres Agustinos descalzos de Filipinas (Sampaloc, 1820): "Before the invasion of the Moros, Mindoro was the storehouse of Manila, on account of the great amount of rice harvested in it. In that epoch--truly a fortunate one for this island, for our order, and for the State--so great was the number of inhabitants that they formed fourteen large ministries (curacies) and one active mission; all this was the result of the careful attention and apostolic zeal of the Recollect fathers, who took into their charge the furtherance of Mindoro's conquest, at a time when its reduction had only been begun. Then came its desolation by the Moros, leaving it without inhabitants or ministers; and for the two ministries of Calapan and Naujan which remained, and which this province resigned, the illustrious archbishop appointed two clerics. These administered those parishes during twenty-nine years, that is, until the year 1805, at which time Mindoro returned, by special favor of the superior government, to the administration of the Recollect fathers." Montero y Vidal also states (ut supra) that in 1803 Aguilar created a corregidor for Mindoro, with special charge to persuade its remaining inhabitants--who in fear of the Moros had, years before, fled into the interior of the island--to return to their villages on the coasts. He made his headquarters at Calapan, the chief village of Mindoro, and soon the natives returned to their dwellings, while the Moros seldom troubled that region.
[37] "Besides the tribute, every male Indian has to serve 40 days in the year on the public works (pólos and services), a week for the court of justice (tanoria), and a week as night-watch (guard duty). The pólos, etc. consist in labor and service for state and community purposes--the building of roads and bridges, service as guides, etc." This requisition may, however, be commuted to a money payment, varying according to the wealth of the province--usually $3, but sometimes as low as $1. "The tanoria consists in a week of service for the court of justice, which usually is limited to keeping the building clean, guarding the prisoners, and similar light duties; but those who in turn perform this service must spend a week in the government building, on call. One may buy his freedom from the tanoria also, for 3 reals; and from the patrol, for 1 3/4 reals." (Jagor, Reisen, p. 295.)
On pp. 90, 91, Jagor says that the moneys collected for exemption and pólos were in his time sent to Manila, and in earlier days appropriated by the gobernadorcillos (sometimes with the connivance of the local alcalde himself); but that they ought to be spent in public works for the benefit of the respective communities where the money was collected. He instances this use of it in the province of Albay (in 1840) by the alcalde Peñaranda, who spent the money thus collected for roads, which Jagor found still tolerably good, although the apathy of later officials had neglected to repair them when injured and to replace worn-out bridges.
[38] Spanish, azufre; in another sentence, apparently misprinted axúcar ("sugar"). The former reading is more probably correct.
[39] Regarding the Chinese in the Philippines, see Reports of the Philippine Commission, as follows: 1900, vol. ii (testimony taken before the Commission; consult index of volume); 1901,