History of the Philippine Islands Part 20

[183] "Fine helmets were found broken in with clubs... About thirty also escaped (among whom was Father Farfan), who were enabled to do so because of being in the rear, and lightly armed" (Argensola).--Rizal.

[184] Argensola says that the Chinese killed many peaceful merchants in the parian, while others hanged themselves of their own accord. Among these Argensola mentions General Hontay and the rich Chican--according to the relation of Fray Juan Pobre, because the latter had refused to place the famous Eng-Kang at the head of the movement.--Rizal.

[185] "And they tried to persuade the natives to unite with them; but the latter refused, and on the contrary killed as many of the Sangleys as they caught" (Argensola).--Rizal.

[186] Argensola says that "four thousand Pampangos, armed in the custom of their country, with bows and arrows, half-pikes, s.h.i.+elds, and long broad daggers," were sent by the alcalde of Pampanga to the relief of Manila, which now needed soldiers.--Rizal.

[187] In this struggle many cruelties were committed and many quiet and friendly Chinese killed. Don Pedro de Acuna, who could not prevent or stifle this terrible insurrection in its beginnings, also contributed to the horrible butcheries that ensued. "Accordingly many Spaniards and natives went to hunt the disbanded Sangleys, at Don Pedro's order." Hernando de Avalos, alcalde of La Pampanga, seized more than 400 pacific Sangleys, "and leading them to an estuary, manacled two and two, delivered them to certain j.a.panese, who killed them. Father Fray Diego de Guevara of the order of St. Augustine, prior of Manila, who made this relation, preached to the Sangleys first, but only five abandoned their idolatry." ... Would he not have done better to preach to Alcalde Avalos, and to remind him that he was a man? The Spanish historians say that the j.a.panese and Filipinos showed themselves cruel in the killing of the Chinese. It is quite probable, considering the rancor and hate with which they were regarded. But their commanders contributed to it also by their example. It is said that more than 23,000 Chinese were killed. "Some a.s.sert that the number of Sangleys killed was greater, but in order that the illegality committed in allowing so many to enter the country contrary to the royal prohibitions might not be known, the officials covered up or diminished the number of those who perished" (Argensola).--Rizal.

[188] The coming of the Spaniards to the Filipinas, and their government, together with the immigration of the Chinese, killed the industry and agriculture of the country. The terrible compet.i.tion of the Chinese with any individual of another race is well known, for which reason the United States and Australia refuse to admit them. The indolence, then, of the inhabitants of the Filipinas, is derived from the lack of foresight of the government. Argensola says the same thing, and could not have copied Morga, since their works were published in the same year, in countries very distant from one another, and the two contain wide differences.--Rizal.

The Chinese question has always been of great importance in the Philippines. The dislike of the Filipino for the Chinese seemed instinctive and was deep-rooted. The subject of the Chinese immigration to the islands has served for special legislation on many occasions in Spain, but they have nevertheless persisted in their trading and occupations therein. See Stanley's edition of Morga, appendix II, pp. 363-368; and Los Chinos en Filipinos (Manila, 1886).

[189] This should be six hundred and four.--Rizal.

[190] Nueva Espana.--Rizal.

[191] This archbishop seems to have been a princ.i.p.al cause of the disturbance and ma.s.sacre of the Chinese, by taking a leading part in exciting suspicion against them.--Stanley.

[192] The Arab travelers of the ninth century mention that eunuchs were employed in China, especially for the collection of the revenue, and that they were called thoucam.--Stanley.

[193] "In earlier times a barrier, which ran from Osaka to the border of Yamato and Omi, separated the thirty-three western from the thirty-three eastern provinces. The former were collectively ent.i.tled Kuwansei (p.r.o.nounce Kanse), i.e., westward of the Gate; the latter Kuwanto (p.r.o.nounce Kanto), i.e., eastward of the Gate. Later, however, when under the Tokugawa regime the pa.s.ses leading to the plain in which Yedo, the new capital of Shogune, grew up were carefully guarded; by the Gate (Kuwan) was understood the great guard on the Hakone Pa.s.s, and Kuwanto or Kuwanto-Has.h.i.+u, the eight provinces east of it: Sagami, Musas.h.i.+, Kotsuke, s.h.i.+motsuke, Hitachi, s.h.i.+mosa, Katsusa, and Awa." Thus defined by Rein, in his j.a.pan, p. II, Cf. Griffis, Mikado's Empire, p. 68, note.

[194] A flat-bottomed boat, capable of carrying heavy loads.

[195] Pedro Alvares de Abreu.--Rizal.

[196] According to Argensola, who gives a succinct relation of this expedition, the number engaged in it were as follows: Spaniards and their officers, 1,423; Pampangos and Tagals (without their chiefs), 344; idem, for maritime and military service, 620; rowers, 649; Indian chiefs, 5; total 3,041. But he adds that all those of the fleet, exclusive of the general's household and followers, numbered 3,095. Probably the 54 lacking in the above number were the Portuguese under command of Abreu and Camelo, although Argensola does not mention Portuguese soldiers.... The names of the Indian chiefs attending the expedition at their own cost were: Don Guillermo (Palaot), master-of-camp; and Captains Don Francisco Palaot, Don Juan Lit, Don Luis Lont, and Don Agustin Lont. These must have behaved exceedingly well, for after the a.s.sault on Ternate, Argensola says: "Not a person of consideration among the Spaniards or the Indians remained unwounded."--Rizal.

[197] Said Dini Baraka ja.--Rizal.

[198] Combes (Mindanao, Retana's ed., cols. 73, 74) describes the bagacay as a small, slender reed, hardened in fire and sharp-pointed; it is hurled by a Moro at an enemy with unerring skill, and sometimes five are discharged in one volley. He narrates surprising instances of the efficacy of this weapon, and says that "there is none more cruel, at close range."

[199] Stanley translates this "flat-boats." Retana and Pastells (Combes's Mindanao, col. 787) derive this word from Chinese chun, "a boat," and regard the joanga (juanga) as a small junk.

[200] "The soldiers, having entered the city, gave themselves universally to violence and pillage. Don Pedro had issued a proclamation conceding that all of the enemy captured within those four days, should be slaves" (Argensola). During the sack, which Don Pedro was unable to restrain, neither children nor young girls were spared. One girl was killed because two soldiers disputed for her.--Rizal.

[201] "The prince's name was Sulamp Gariolano. This step was contrary to the advice of Queen Celicaya" (Argensola).--Rizal.

[202] Sangajy, a Malay t.i.tle (Marsden).--Stanley.

[203] The Jesuit Father Luis Fernandez, Gallinato, and Esquivel made negotiations with the king for this exile, and Father Colin attributes its good outcome to the cleverness of the former. What was then believed to be prudent resulted afterward as an impolitic measure, and bore very fatal consequences; for it aroused the hostility of all the Molucas, even that of their allies, and made the Spanish name as odious as was the Portuguese. The priest Hernando de los Rios, Bokemeyer, and other historians, moreover, accuse Don Pedro de Acuna of bad faith in this; but, strictly judged, we believe that they do so without foundation. Don Pedro in his pa.s.sport a.s.sured the lives of the king and prince, but not their liberty. Doubtless a trifle more generosity would have made the conqueror greater, and the odium of the Spanish name less, while it would have a.s.sured Spanish domination of that archipelago. The unfortunate king never returned to his own country. Hernando de los Rios says that during Don Pedro de Acuna's life he was well treated, but that during the administration of Don Juan de Silva "I have seen him in a poor lodging where all the rain fell on him, and they were starving him to death." He is described by Argensola as of "robust proportions, and his limbs are well formed. His neck and much of his breast are bare. His flesh is of a cloudy color, rather black than gray. The features of his face are like those of an European. His eyes are large and full, and he seems to dart sparks from them. His large eyelashes, his thick bristling beard, and his mustaches add to his fierceness. He always wears his campilan, dagger, and kris, both with hilts in the form of gilded serpents' heads." This description was taken from a picture sent to Spain.--Rizal.

[204] Other disturbances occurred also, because of Don Pedro's enemies having spread the news that the expedition had been destroyed, and most of those making it killed. "This report, having come to the ears of the Indians, was so harmful that they began to mutiny, especially in the provinces of Camarines and Pintados. The friars who instructed them could already do, nothing with them, for they asked why, since the inhabitants of the Malucos were victorious, should they be subject to the Spaniards, who did not defend them from the Moros. They said that the Moros would plunder them daily with the help of Ternate, and that it would be worse henceforth" (Argensola).--Rizal.

La Concepcion states (Hist. de Philipinas, iv, p. 103) that these j.a.panese were settled in Dilao; and that the immediate cause of their mutiny was the killing of a j.a.panese by a Spaniard, in a quarrel.

[205] The authors of this poisoning were then known in Manila, and according to Argensola were those envious of the governor. "But although they were known as such, so that the suspicion of the crowd makes them the authors of the poisoning we shall repress their names ... for all are now dead" (Argensola).--Rizal.

Cf. La Concepcion (Hist. de Philipinas, iv, pp. 105, 106); he ascribes the report of Acuna's poisoning to the physicians, who sought thus to s.h.i.+eld their own ignorance of his disease.

[206] These were the results of having taken the king and his chiefs, who had entrusted themselves to Don Pedro de Acuna, prisoners to Manila, the king of Tidore, the ally of Espana, had already found means to break the alliance. The governors appointed by the captive king refused to have anything to do with the Spaniards. Fear was rampant in all parts, and the spirit of vengeance was aroused. "When his va.s.sals saw the ill-treatment that the Spaniards inflicted on their king, they hated us so much that they acquired an equal liking for our enemies. (Her. de los Rios)." Don Pedro lacked the chief characteristic of Legazpi.--Rizal.

[207] This relation forms an appendix to Theodore de Bry's Ninth part of America (Frankfort, 1601), and was printed by Matthew Becker (Frankfort, 1602). The copper plates are different from those of the Dutch edition of the relation.--Stanley.

The plates representing Oliver van Noordt's fleet, presented in the preceding volume, are taken from tome xvi of Theodore de Bry's Peregrinationes (first ed.), by courtesy of the Boston Public Library. The t.i.tle-page of the relation reads in part: "Description dv penible voyage faict entovr de l'univers ou globe terrestre, par Sr. Olivier dv Nort d'Avtrecht, ... Le tout translate du Flamand en Franchois, ... Imprime a Amsterdame. Ches Cornille Claessz fur l'Eau au Livre a Escrire, l'An 1602." This relation was reprinted in 1610, and numerous editions have appeared since.

[208] One of the Canary Islands.

[209] This anchor was given him by a j.a.panese captain, in Manila Bay, on December 3, 1600.--Stanley.

[210] What we now call Java used to be called Java major, and the island of Bali was Java minor.--Stanley.

[Note: Inasmuch as Morga enters somewhat largely into the ancient customs of the Tagals and other Filipino peoples in the present chapter, and as some of Rizal's notes indicative of the ancient culture of those peoples are incorporated in notes that follow, we deem it advisable to invite attention to Lord Stanley's remarks in the preface to his translation of Morga (p. vii), and Pardo de Tavera's comment in his Biblioteca Filipina (Was.h.i.+ngton, 1903), p. 276. Stanley says: "The inhabitants of the Philippines previous to the Spanish settlement were not like the inhabitants of the great Indian Peninsula, people with a civilization as that of their conquerors. Excepting that they possessed the art of writing, and an alphabet of their own, they do not appear to have differed in any way from the Dayaks of Borneo as described by Mr. Boyle in his recent book of adventures amongst that people. Indeed there is almost a coincidence of verbal expressions in the descriptions he and De Morga give of the social customs, habits, and superst.i.tions of the two peoples they are describing; though many of these coincidences are such as are incidental to life in similar circ.u.mstances, there are enough to lead one to suppose a community of origin of the inhabitants of Borneo and Luzon." Pardo de Tavera says after quoting the first part of the above: "Lord Stanley's opinion is dispa.s.sionate and not at all at variance with historical truth." The same author says also that Blumentritt's prologue and Rizal's notes in the latter's edition of Morga have so aroused the indignation of the Spaniards that several have even attacked Morga.]

[211] More exactly from 25 40' north lat.i.tude to 12 south lat.i.tude, if we are to include Formosa in the group, which is inhabited likewise by the same race.--Rizal.

[212] We confess our ignorance with respect to the origin of this belief of Morga, which, as one can observe, was not his belief in the beginning of the first chapter. Already from the time of Diodorus Siculus (first century B. C.), Europe received information of these islands by one Iamboule, a Greek, who went to them (to Sumatra at least), and who wrote afterward the relation of his voyage. He gave therein detailed information of the number of the islands, of their inhabitants, of their writing, navigation, etc. Ptolemy mentions three islands in his geography, which are called Sindae in the Latin text. They are inhabited by the Aginnatai. Mercator interprets those islands as Celebes, Gilolo, and Amboina. Ptolemy also mentions the island Agathou Daimonos (Borneo), five Baroussai (Mindanao, Leite, Sebu, etc.), three Sabadeibai (the Java group--Iabadiou) and ten Masniolai where a large loadstone was found. Colin surmises that these are the Manilas.--Rizal.

Colin (Labor Evangelica, Madrid, 1663) discusses the discovery and naming of the Philippines. He quotes Ptolemy's pa.s.sage that speaks of islands called the Maniolas, whence many suppose came the name Manilas, sometimes given to the islands. But as pointed out in a letter dated March 14, 1904, by James A. LeRoy, Spanish writers have wasted more time on the question than it merits. Mr. LeRoy probably conjectures rightly that many old Chinese and j.a.panese doc.u.ments will be found to contain matter relating to the Philippines prior to the Spanish conquest.

[213] It is very difficult now to determine exactly which is this island of Tendaya, called Isla Filipina for some years. According to Father Urdaneta's relations, this island was far to the east of the group, past the meridian of Maluco. Mercator locates it in Panay, and Colin in Leyte, between Abuyog and Cabalian--contrary to the opinion of others, who locate it in Ibabao, or south of Samar. But according to other doc.u.ments of that period, there is no island by that name, but a chief called Tendaya, lord of a village situated in that district; and, as the Spaniards did not understand the Indians well at that time, many contradictions thus arose in the relations of that period. We see that, in Legazpi's expedition, while the Spaniards talked of islands, the Indians talked of a man, etc. After looking for Tandaya for ten days they had to continue without finding it "and we pa.s.sed on without seeing Tandaya or Abuyo." It appears, nevertheless, that the Spaniards continued to give this name to the southwestern part of Samar, calling the southeastern part Ibabao or Zibabao and the northern part of the same island Samar.--Rizal.

[214] Sugbu, in the dialect of the country.--Rizal.

[215] Morga considers the rainy season as winter, and the rest of the year as summer. However this is not very exact, for at Manila, in December, January, and February, the thermometer is lower than in the months of August and September. Consequently, in its seasons it is like those of Espana and those of all the rest of the northern hemisphere.--Rizal.

[216] The ancient traditions made Sumatra the original home of the Filipino Indians. These traditions, as well as the mythology and genealogies mentioned by the ancient historians, were entirely lost, thanks to the zeal of the religious in rooting out every national pagan or idolatrous record. With respect to the ethnology of the Filipinas, see Professor Blumentritt's very interesting work, Versuch einer Etnographie der Philippinen (Gotha, Justus Perthes, 1882).--Rizal.

[217] This pa.s.sage contradicts the opinion referred to in Boyle's Adventures among the Dyaks of Borneo, respecting the ignorance of the Dyaks in the use of the bow, which seems to imply that other South Sea islanders are supposed to share this ignorance. These aboriginal savages of Manila resemble the Pakatans of Borneo in their mode of life.--Stanley.

[218] We do not know the origin of this word, which does not seem to be derived from China. If we may make a conjecture, we will say that perhaps a poor phonetic transcription has made chinina from the word tinina (from tina) which in Tagal signifies tenido ["dyed stuff"], the name of this article of clothing, generally of but one color throughout. The chiefs wore these garments of a red color, which made, according to Colin, "of fine gauze from India."--Rizal.

[219] Bahag "a richly dyed cloth, generally edged with gold" among the chiefs.--Rizal.

[220] "They wrapped it in different ways, now in the Moro style, like a turban without the top part, now twisted and turned in the manner of the crown of a hat. Those who esteemed themselves valiant let the ends of the cloth, elaborately embroidered, fall down the back to the b.u.t.tocks. In the color of the cloth, they showed their chieftaincy, and the device of their undertakings and prowess. No one was allowed to use the red potong until he had killed at least one man. And in order to wear them edged with certain edgings, which were regarded as a crown, they must have killed seven men" (Colin). Even now any Indian is seen to wear the balindang in the manner of the putong. Putong signifies in Tagal, "to crown" or "to wrap anything around the head."--Rizal.

[221] This is the reading of the original (cera hilada). It seems more probable that this should read "spun silk," and that Morga's amanuensis misunderstood seda ("silk") as cera ("wax"), or else it is a misprint.

[222] "They also have strings of bits of ivory" (Colin).--Rizal.

[223] "The last complement of the gala dress was, in the manner of our sashes, a richly dyed shawl crossed at the shoulder and fastened under the arm" (even today the men wear the lambong or mourning garment in this manner) "which was very usual with them. The Bisayans, in place of this, wore robes or loose garments, well made and collarless, reaching to the instep, and embroidered in colors. All their costume, in fact, was in the Moorish manner, and was truly elegant and rich; and even today they consider it so" (Colin).--Rizal.

[224] This manner of headdress, and the long robe of the Visayans, have an a.n.a.logy with the j.a.panese coiffure and kimono.--Rizal.

[225] Baro.--Rizal.

[226] A tree (Entada purseta) which grows in most of the provinces of the Philippines. It contains a sort of filament, from which is extracted a soapy foam, which is much used for was.h.i.+ng clothes. This foam is also used to precipitate the gold in the sand of rivers. Rizal says the most common use is that described above.