Part 3

It was the evening of the 22nd of September when the English fleet arrived in the bay, and the following morning Admiral Cornish sent an officer to the Governor, demanding the surrender of the citadel. At this peremptory proceeding the haughty Spaniard was highly incensed, and his refusal was couched in terms no less indignant than defiant.

Words having signally failed to bring the Spanish to terms, a demonstration of force was decided upon, and Brigadier-General Draper was sent on shore with a large body of troops. The garrison, however, treated this display with counter demonstrations, and Draper's threats with lofty disdain. Draper therefore resolved to parley no longer, and the bombardment began the next day.

The British forces consisted of 1600 European troops, nearly 3000 seamen, and about 800 Sepoys--about 5000 fighting men. The forces in Manila, on the other hand, were only 603 Spaniards and 77 small guns. In the meantime, the ardor of the British had been inflamed by the capture of a Spanish galleon containing $2,500,000 in specie.

The Archbishop, Manuel Antonio Rojo, who acted also as Governor,--the seat of that functionary being vacant at the time,--seeing the hopelessness of the conflict, and desiring to avert unavailing bloodshed, counseled surrender. But the soldiers in the garrison, under their fiery leader Simon de Anda, were utterly intractable, and prepared vigorously for the defense. After a few unsuccessful sorties, the Spanish batteries, on the 24th September, began a rapid but harmless cannonade. Again a company sallied forth from the garrison to attack the invaders, but this also was repulsed, with considerable loss to the Spanish. The English now renewed the bombardment, and terrific havoc was made among the ranks of the enemy. Some two thousand natives, in three columns, advanced toward the three improvised redoubts held by the British, and were driven back with great loss and confusion. Panic-stricken, the natives fled back to their villages, and on the 5th of October the besieging forces entered the walled city. The bombardment, meanwhile, continued. Nor did it cease until the forts were demolished and most of the Spanish artillerymen killed. It is estimated that 20,000 cannon-balls and 5000 shells were thrown into the city.

The military men among the Spanish now counseled surrender. The civilians, contrariwise, were eager to continue the defense. But as most of the fortifications were destroyed, and since "confusion worse confounded" already reigned in the city, many fled to the surrounding villages.

The opposing civilians having barricaded and otherwise obstructed the streets, the British advanced into the heart of the city, clearing the way before them with a raking fire of musketry.

General Draper now sent Colonel Monson to the Archbishop, demanding instant and absolute surrender. The Archbishop appeared and offered himself as a prisoner, also presenting terms of capitulation. These provided for the free exercise of religion, the security of private property, unrestricted commerce between the Spaniards and the natives, and the English support of the Supreme Court in its attempts to preserve order.

The British Demand an Indemnity.

General Draper readily granted these terms, but demanded an indemnity of $4,000,000. To this the Spanish agreed, and these terms were then signed by both parties to the compact.

When the Union Jack was first unfurled from Fort Santiago, it is said that the British burst forth into a chorus of ringing cheers.

But their joy was not unmixed with sensations of sorrow; for, it is reported, over 1500 men, and many gallant officers, were lost in the assault. The city was then given over to the mercy of the victorious troops, and a riotous scene of pillage ensued; many excesses were committed, the Sepoys, in particular, committing many atrocities. General Draper forthwith gave the command that these outrages should cease; and guards were at once placed at the doors of the convents and the nunneries to prevent outrages on the women. A few thieving Chinamen, who had taken advantage of the confusion to add to their own profit, were hanged; and the General, it is said, with his own hand cut down a soldier that he caught stealing after his inhibition had been proclaimed.

The English now demanded the payment of the stipulated indemnity, but the enforced contributions from the wealthy inhabitants, with the silver from the churches--all that the Spaniards professed to be able to collect--amounted to only a little more than half a million dollars,--but one-eighth of the stipulated sum. Threat and force were alike unavailing to produce the other monies promised, although the friars, it is believed, had secreted immense sums, determined at all hazards to preserve their accumulated store from the rapacity of their Protestant enemy.

By the terms of the capitulation the entire Archipelago had been surrendered to the British; but Simon de Anda, who commanded the Spanish forces during the siege, had now established himself in Bulacan as Provisional Governor, in opposition to the authority of the Archbishop who had bitterly denounced the surrender. The clergy, however, were the more influential part of the Colonial Government, and General Draper accordingly treated with them alone, obtaining their consent to a cession of all the islands to the King of England. Draper himself then returned to England, leaving behind a Provisional Military Government.

Admiral Cornish now demanded the payment of the million dollars that the British had finally decided to accept as full indemnity.

The Spaniard, however, continued to plead poverty, and the money was not forthcoming. Several thousands of dollars were eventually unearthed in the convent where the friars had hidden it. The British, though convinced of the deception that these holy brethren had practised to save these dollars,--wrung from the hearts of the poor,--were, however, unable to lay their hands upon the treasure.

Simon de Anda, the self-constituted Governor, now became unusually active in the provinces, and several expeditions were sent out to quell the various insurrections that he had been stirring up. One of these, numbering 600 men, under the leadership of Captain Eslay, in the province of Bulacan, assaulted and took a fortified convent. They were also victorious in some engagements with a body of natives, several thousand strong, under the command of Lieutenant Bustos, a Spanish officer. As several Austin friars had been found among the slain, the British rightly believed that their order had been conspiring against them. Many, therefore, were arrested. Eleven were sent back to Europe.

Naturally suspicious of all the friars, the English now entered the Augustine convent and found that these priests had been no less deceitful than their brethren in the other orders. Six thousand, five hundred dollars in coin were found hidden in the garden, and large quantities of wrought silver elsewhere. The convent itself was then searched and all the valuables found therein taken.

About this time the Spaniards professed to have discovered a conspiracy among the Chinese in the province of Pampanga, the object being, they said, to murder Anda and his Spanish followers. The Chinese had raised extensive fortifications, saying that these preparations were all made as a defense against an expected attack from the British.

The Spaniards, however, suspecting sympathy with their enemies, attacked the Celestials and a general massacre of the Chinese followed. Many thousands, too, were killed that had taken no part in the war.

Admiral Cornish, disgusted and infuriated with their obvious deception and palpable dilly-dallying, again demanded the payment of the indemnity. But he was forced to content himself with a bill on the Madrid Treasury.

Anda now appointed Bustos Alcalde of Bulacan: he hoped great things of his seditious and unscrupulous lieutenant; he knew that he would resort to every means to harass the enemy: he therefore, accordingly, ordered him to recruit and train troops.

For Anda still cherished the hope of confining the British, perhaps, even, of driving them from the colony. So, with practiced subtlety and with masked deviltry, he set about accomplishing his grim purpose.

Intrigues Against the British.

The British were now kept busy suppressing the numerous intrigues against their power that sprang up among the Spanish residents everywhere. Many sorties also were made to dislodge the persistent and irrepressible Anda and his lieutenant Bustos, now encamped at Malinta, a village a few miles from Manila. Most of those assaults, however, proved indecisive and ineffectual. The priests proved troublesome, and were the cause of much bloodshed, teaching the natives that the British were infidels.

The Augustine friars were especially hostile, many laying aside the cowl for the helmet. At Masilo, indeed, the British were defeated by an Austin friar, who, with a small band of natives, attacked them from ambush.

The Austin friars, however, had some cause for grievance. For, according to a recent historian, they had lost nearly a quarter of a million dollars, fifteen of their convents were destroyed, several valuable estates despoiled, ten of the members killed in the battle, and nineteen were taken prisoners and sent as exiles to India and Europe.

On the 23d of July, 1763, an English vessel brought news of an armistice between the conflicting Powers. And in the latter part of August the British Commander received notice of the articles of peace, by which Manila was to be evacuated (Peace of Paris, 10th of Feb., 1763).

It was several months, however, before peace was finally established in the island, fierce quarrels having arisen among the rival factions of the Spaniards as to who should be Governor and receive the city officially from the British. The Archbishop having died, Anda, who was in actual command of the troops, was fully recognized by the British as Governor. Don Francisco de La Torre arriving at this time from Spain with a commission as Governor-General, Anda resigned the Government to him on the 17th of March, 1764. Several serious quarrels now took place, due to jealousy among the English officers; but Anda, on behalf of the new Governor, formally received the city from the British, who embarked for India, after having met all claims that could be justly established against them.

THE SPANISH COLONIAL GOVERNMENT.

The Encomiendoros and the Alcaldes.

In the early days of the colony there were, besides the Governor-General, the sub-governors, known as Encomiendoros, who rented their provinces at so much per annum, called Encomiendas, from the General Government. These Encomiendoros were usually men of wealth, that entered into politics as a speculation. More properly, I should say, as a peculation; for it became their policy to fleece the natives and to extort as much money as possible during the term of their incumbency. Few, indeed, left the scene of their civil brigandage without full coffers; and as enormous fortunes were to be made during a few years sojourn in the islands, no wonder that this office was eagerly sought after in Spain.

This imitation of the methods of the Roman tax-payers, however, became so demoralizing to the morale of the Spaniards themselves, and so ruinous to the colony and to the natives, that a more equitable policy was introduced. The Encomiendoros were succeeded by Judicial Governors, called Alcaldes, to whom was paid a small salary, from $300 upward a year, according to the prominence of the province.

This office, however, proved almost equally remunerative to the holders; for, by means of a Government license to trade, they were able to create, to their own advantage, monopolies in every line of industry, thus freezing out all competitors. Though each was responsible to the Central Government for the taxes of his provinces, yet this did not prevent the shrewd and unprincipled from finding profit here also. For, by a system of false weights and measures, the native, who, in lieu of silver, brought his produce in payment for taxes, was shamefully defrauded, the Alcalde sending the indebted amount to the Government storehouse and selling the rest to his own profit. In addition, many of these Alcaldes, by arbitrary decrees and despotic methods, conducted a system of public robbery that in a few years enriched them at the expense of the long-suffering natives; for them there was no redress, inasmuch as each Alcalde was also the head of the Legal Tribunal in his own province. These abuses, however, became so flagrant that the Alcaldes were finally forbidden to trade; but as this measure was not as effectual as had been expected, sweeping reforms were instituted.

To recount what these were; to mention in detail what malignant opposition was manifested by a large body of natives and resident Spaniards toward the purposed overthrow of the old system, would be only to reiterate well-known characteristics and abnormalities of the Spanish nature; placed, too, in but a slightly different setting.

I will merely add that these Alcaldes, these perpetrators and beneficiaries of wholesale misrule and dishonor, yielded finally to the reform-wave, and, accordingly, fell away before their own judicial perversion. And the new system, it must be confessed, is a great improvement upon the old.

But the evil wrought upon the Filipino mind and character was deep-planted. For, by the despotic and summary disposing of his labor and chattels, in the name of the King,--abetted frequently, too, by seemingly supernatural means,--respect for the Spaniard and the white man in general had fled, fear and distrust supplanting it.

In the new order of things,--instituted by a decree from the Queen-Regent Maria Cristina, the 26th of February, 1886,--18 Civil Governorships were created, and the Alcaldes' functions were confined to their Judgeships. And thus the former frightful distortion of justice was overcome and banished.

So, too, under this law of 1886 each Civil Governor has a Secretary, who serves as a check upon his chief, if he be illegally inclined.

Accordingly, two new official safeguards were thus erected in the fabric of Colonial Administration in these 18 different provinces.

The Present Division and Administration.

The colony was then divided into 19 civil provinces, including Sulu, and into 3 grand military divisions.

As before, at the head was the Governor-General,--the supervising and executive officer of the province,--directly responsible to Spain. His salary is $40,000 a year. He is assisted by an Executive Cabinet and by an Administrative Council. The Provincial Governor, the successor to the Alcalde, must be a Spaniard, and at least 30 years old. He is the direct representative of the Governor-General and it is his duty to execute his decrees and to maintain order. He also has the power of appointment and removal, presides over provincial elections, controls the civil and local guard, interprets the laws,--usually to suit his own profit or convenience,--supervises the balloting for military conscription, can assess fines to the amount of $50, or imprison for 30 days, is Superintendent of Public Instruction, issues licenses and collects taxes. It is his duty also to furnish statistics and to control the Postal and Telegraph service. He is the Superintendent of health, prisons, charities, agriculture, forestry, and of manufactures. It will thus be seen that his duties are as diverse as they are important. He is now allowed no percentage, nor other emolument than his salary. At the same time, a shrewd Governor is yet able to reap a golden harvest. This, however, can be done only in conjunction with other Government officers.

Owing to the extreme shortness of his term of office--three years only--there is no incentive for the improvement of his province, as his successors would reap the results as well as the credit of his industry. Besides, he has no reason to hope that a good work begun will be a good work continued; for the next Governor may be averse to exertion, or may be at variance with his policy.

Most of the Governors live in good style; as a rule they spend about two hours a day in Government employ. Is it to be wondered at, then, that this office is so eagerly sought after in Spain?

There are about 750 towns in the colony; each governed by a Gobernadorcillo, "Little Governor," called Capitan; usually a native or half-caste. This office is elected every two years, and is to the Provincial Governor what the latter is to the Governor-General. He is the tax-collector of his district, and is, furthermore, responsible for the amount apportioned to his district. If he fails to collect this, he must make the deficit good out of his own pocket. Under him are a number of deputies, called Cabezas, each likewise responsible for another division of the population called a Barangay,--a collection of forty or fifty families. If the individuals of this group are unable to pay, the property is distrained and sold by the deputy, who would otherwise have to make good the amount himself. If the proceeds of the sale fail to equal the indebtedness of the delinquent, he is cast into prison.

I have often seen respectable men deported to the penal settlements; and for no other offense than inability to pay the oppressive tax laid upon their shoulders, regardless of the season,--whether productive or not. Their families, meanwhile, left without a head, were thrown into the most woeful destitution.

The Gobernadorcillo gets the munificent salary of $200 a year, though his expenses, for clerk-hire, for presents to his chief, and for entertainments in his honor, are often many times greater. A shrewd Gobernadorcillo, however, manages to make something out of the place, which, in some districts, is eagerly sought after by rich planters. The official dress of this worthy is a short black jacket, the tail worn over the trousers. He also carries a stick as a sign of authority. To him is entrusted the apprehension of criminals, and he has command of the local guards, or cuadrilleros, the police of the towns.

The Taxes and What Became of Them.

It can easily be guessed that the taxes are not inconsiderable, when I simply mention a few things that are assessed: There is a tax on the ownership and sale of live-stock and vehicles, on realty, and on all private industries and manufactures. Opium, liquors, stamps, tobacco, and lotteries yield an immense revenue. Then there is a Community-fund, which is usually several hundred thousand dollars a year in each province, and is supposed to be spent in the interest of the community. The Chinese Capitation tax also brings in a large amount. But the most common and onerous tax of all is that arising from the Government sale of Cédulas, or documents of identity, which is a poll-tax from $25 down. The individual paying less than $3.50 is subject to 15 days' hard labor each year and to a fine of 50 cents for each day that he shall fail to work. Those whose cédulas have cost more than $3.50 must also pay a municipal tax of $1.50. The cédula is also used as a passport, and must be brought into court to render legal instruments effective.

From this brief and imperfect survey of the system of provincial taxation, it can easily be gathered that the revenues are considerable; and yet, of the hundreds of thousands of dollars extorted from the natives in each province, under the plausible pretexts of an avaricious policy, it is safe to say that not a dollar is expended for any local improvements. No building of bridges, no constructing of highways, no public schools, nor halls of justice must mar the stagnant serenity of provincial life. Nothing is ever repaired; a system of "let alone" blights every aspiration, and is fatal to the extension of commerce and industry. Consequently, in the wet season, for vehicles, the public roads are impassable, and, in many parts of the country, for months transportation is practically at a stand-still. As if effectually to close every door to progress, private individuals, too, are forbidden by law to repair the highways.

Did any government ever foster a more imbecile and iniquitous policy for its own damnation?

Although the speculations in the colony are not so enormous as formerly, yet there is no doubt that they still amount to several millions annually; mostly, however, at the seat of Government in Manila. It is indeed notorious that General Weyler, during his brief incumbency of the office, succeeded in placing several millions of dollars to his credit--I should have said to his dishonor!

Dilatory and Abortive Courts.

Perhaps no feature of Colonial life is fraught with more evil and is so disgusting, as the process of the courts. The Supreme Court of the early years of the colony was modeled after the one in Majorca, and on several occasions when the Governorship has been left vacant, it has assumed the functions of the executive--pro-tem.

There are two Supreme Law Courts in the colony: one in Manila; the other in Cebú. The President of the one in Manila has a salary of $7,000 a year; that of Cebú, $6,000. There are also 41 Superior Courts, of various degrees of importance, the salary of the judges ranging from $2,000 to $4,000 per annum. The department of Justice alone costs the colony about $350,000 a year.

The dilatoriness of the courts has become proverbial. It is, in fact, years before a case can be brought to a close. Meantime, the litigant has been fleeced out of an amount perhaps a hundred times the value of the article under litigation. The islands are full of native pettifoggers from the law schools of Manila, who have learned too well the meaning of the Spanish mañana. A suit can never be considered as disposed of; for another judge, scenting the faint possibility of a fee, may again have it retried. Thus I have seen the lives of acquitted persons again brought into jeopardy by the meddlesome officiousness and the grasping greed of a new judge. He that goes to court in the Philippines must not do so without reckoning the cost.

Commenting on this, a recent English traveler says: "Availing one self of the dilatoriness of the Spanish law, it is possible for a man to occupy a house, pay no rent, and refuse to quit on legal grounds during a couple of years or more." A person who has not a cent to lose can persecute another by means of a trumped up accusation, until he is ruined by an "informacion de pobreza"--a declaration of poverty--which enables the persecutor to keep the case going as long as he chooses, without needing money for fees.

A New Yorker's Experience.

The following experience of an American friend of mine, whom I knew very well in Manila, will bring out in a graphic way the course of justice in the Philippines. Nor is his experience uncommon. It is, in fact, the usual one of the stranger or the native who goes to the fountain of Justice for the redress of a grievance.

I quote part of his letter written to a common friend:

In 1871 I joined Mr. William Morton Clark of Philadelphia, who had a large timber business on the island of Luzon, and started cutting some timber contracted for by the Chinese government.

I soon discovered that I was interfering with the business of a certain priest, who was also in the same line of business.

Shortly before this, this priest and an inspector of roads had loaded the Spanish bark Santa Lucia for Hong-Kong, and had made things so disagreeable for others who had tried to ship merchandise that foreigners were becoming afraid to risk their capital.

Mr. Clark finding how things were going on soon abandoned the enterprise, and I then determined to fight the thing out on my own account.