 Chapter 4 Part 2 of A History of the Philippines. This is a LibriBox recording. All LibriBox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriBox.org. A History of the Philippines by David Barrows. Chapter 4 Part 2. Spain takes possession of the new lands. Of these newly found islands and whatever wealth they might be found to contain, Spain claimed the possession by right of discovery. And of the European nations, it was Spain which first began the exploration-alconolization of America. Spain was now freeing from her long Mohammedan wars, and the nation was being united under Ferdinand and Isabella. The Spaniards were brave, adventurous, and too proud to engage in commerce or agriculture, but ready enough to risk life and treasure in quest of riches abroad. The Spaniards were the bodily religious, and the church encouraged conquest that missionary work might be extended. So Spain regained her career that was soon to make her the foremost power of Europe and one of the greatest colonial empires the world has seen. It is amazing what the Spaniards accomplished in the 50 years following Columbus's first voyage. His Poneola was made the center from which the Spaniards extended their explorations to the continents of both North and South America. On these islands of the West Indies, they found a great trifle of Indians, the Carrives, that were first and cruel. The Spaniards waged a warfare of extermination against them, killing many and enslaving others for work in the mines. The Indian proved unable to exist as a slave, and his sufferings drew the attention of a Spanish priest, Las Casas, who, by vigorous efforts at the court, succeeded in having Indian slavery abolished and African slavery introduced to take its place. This remedy was in the end worse than the disease, for it gave an immense impetus to the African slave trade and people of America with a race of Africans in bondage. Other Spanish explorations and discoveries. Meanwhile, the Spanish soldier, with incredible energy, courage and daring, pushed his conquests. In 1513, Florida was discovered, and in the same year, Balboa crossed the narrow isms of Panama and saw the Pacific Ocean. Contrary to what is often supposed, he did not dream of its past extent, but supposed it to be a narrow body of water lying between Panama and the Asian islands. He named it the South Sea, a name that survived after his true character was revealed by Magellan. Then followed the two most romantic and surprising conquests of colonial history, that of Mexico by Cortez in 1521, and of Peru by Pizarro in 1533-34. These great countries were inhabited by Indians, the most advanced and cultured on the American continents. And here, the Spaniards found enormous treasures of gold and silver. Then the discovery of the mines of Potosi opened the greatest source of the precious metal that Europe had ever known. Spaniards flocked to the New World, and in New Spain, as Mexico was called, was established great by Israel. Year after year enormous wealth was poured into Spain from these American possessions. Emperor Charles V Meanwhile, great political power had been added to Spain and Europe. In 1520, the throne of Spain fell to a young man, Charles, the grandson of 39 on Isabella. His mother was Juana, the Spanish princess, and his father was Philip the Handsome of Burgundy. Philip the Handsome was the son of Maximilian, the Archduke of Austria. Now, it curiously happened that the thrones of each of these three countries was left without other hires than Charles, and in 1520 he was king of Spain, Archduke of Austria, and Duke of Burgundy and the Low Countries, including the rich commercial cities of Holland and Belgium. In addition to all these, the German princes elected him German Emperor, and although he was king Charles I of Spain, he is better known in history as Emperor Charles V. Note I The classical work on this famous ruler is Robertson's life of Charles V, but the student should consult the possible more recent works. End of note I He was then an untried boy of 20 years, and no one expected to find in him a man of resolute energy, cold persistence, and great executive ability. But so he proved, and this was the man that made of Spain the greatest power of the time. He was in constant warfare. He fought four wars with King Francis I of France, five wars with the Turks, buffing the Danube Valley and in Africa, and an unending succession of contests with the Protestant princes of Germany. For Charles so, besides many other important changes, the rise of Protestantism, and the revolt of Germany, Switzerland, and England from Catholicism. The first of any of his emperorship was the assembling of the famous German diet at Worms, where he was tried and condemned the real founder of the Protestant religion, Martin Luther. The Boygeuch of Ferdinand Magellan In the meantime, a way had at least been found to reach the Orient from Europe by sailing west. This discovery, the greatest Boygeuch ever made by man, was accomplished in 1521 by the fleet of Ferdinand Magellan. Magellan was a Portuguese who had been in the east without the caregate. He had fought with the Malays in Malacca, and had helped establish the Portuguese power in India. On his return to Portugal, the injustice of the court dropped him from his native country, and he entered the service of Spain. Charles V commissioned him to attempt a Boygeuch of discovery down the coast of South America with the help of finding a passage to the east. This was Magellan's great hope and faith that south of the continent of America, most likely a passage was worth by which ships could sail to China. As long as Portugal was able to keep close the African route to all other ships and rare-owned, the discovery of some other way was imperative. On the 20th of September 1519, Magellan's fleet of five ships sailed from San Lugar, the seaport of the city of Seville, where were equipped the Spanish colonial fleets. On November 29, they reached the coast of Brazil and then coasted southward. They traded with the natives and at the mouth of Rio de la Plata stayed some days to fish. The weather grew rapidly colder and more stormy as they went farther south, and Magellan decided to stop and winter in the bay of San Julián. Here, the cold of the winter, the storms and the lack of food caused a conspiracy among his captains to mutiny and return to Spain. Magellan acted swiftly and with terrible energy. He captured one of the mutiny's vessels and the chief conspirator was stabbed by the constable Espinosa. The rest surrendered. One leader was executed and two others were marooned or left to their fate on the shore. The Straits of Magellan. The fleet sailed southward again in August, but it was not until November 1, 1520 that Magellan entered the long and tortuous straits that bore his name and which connected the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. South of them were great bleak islands called and desolate. They were inhabited by Indians who are probably the lowest and most wretched savages on the earth. They live on fish and mussels. As they go at all times naked, they carry with them in their boots, brands and culls of fire. Seeing the numerous lights on the shore, Magellan named these islands Tierra del Fuego, the land of fire. For 30 days the ships struggled with the current and shifting winds that prevailed in this channel during which time one ship deserted and returned to Spain. Another had been lost and only three passed out onto the boundless waters on the Pacific. Westward on the Pacific Ocean. But we must not make the mistake of supposing that Magellan and his followers imagined that a great ocean confronted them. They expected that simply sailing northward to a latitude of despised islands would bring them to these desired places. This they did and then turned westward expecting each day to find the Indians. But no land appeared. The days lengthened into weeks, the weeks into months, and still they went forward, carried by the trade winds over a sea so smooth and free from tempests and named it the Pacific. But they suffered horribly from lack of food. Even eating in their exturbation the leather slings of the masts. It was a terrible trial of their courage. Twenty of their number died. The South Pacific is astounded by the islands but curiously the route laid just too far north to behold them. From November 28, when they emerged from the straits of Magellan until March the 7th they encountered only two islands and these were small uninhabited rocks with a water of food which in their bitter disappointment they named the Unfortunate Islands. The Ladroni Islands Their relief must have been inexpressible when on coming up to land on March the 7th they found inhabitants and food, jams, coconuts and rice. At these islands the Spaniards first saw the pro which is light, outrigger and pointed sail. So numerous were dis-crafted that they named the group Las Islas de las Velas the Islands of Sales. But the loss of a ship's boat and other annoying tets led the sailors to designate the islands Los Ladrones, the Thebes a name which they still retain. The Philippine Islands, Samar. Living the Ladrones, Magellan sailed on westward looking for the Moluccas that he sided was the eastern coast of Samar. Pigafeta says Saturday the 16th of March which sided an island which was very lofty mountains. Soon after we'll learn that it was Samar that stand 300 leagues from the islands of the Ladrones. Note 1 Primero viaje al rededor del mundo Spanish translation by Amoredi Madrid 1899, page 27. Home and home. The following day, the Sea Warn expedition landed on the little uninhabited island south of Samar which Pigafeta called Humunu and which is still known as Comanjon or Jomonjol. It was whilst staying in this little island that the Spaniards saw the natives of the Philippines. A pro which contained nine men approached their ship. They saw other boats fishing near and learned that all of these people came from the island of Suluan to the eastward from Jomonjol about 20 kilometers. In their life and appearance these fishing people were much like the presence of some mild lout of southern Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago. Limasawa. Pigafeta says that they stayed on the island of Jomonjol eight days but had great difficulty in securing food. The natives brought them a few coconuts and oranges, palm wine and a chicken or two so on the 25th the Spaniards sailed again and near the south end of Laiti landed on the little island of Limasawa. Here there was a village where they met two chieftains whom Pigafeta called Kings and whose names were Raja Kalambu and Raja Siagu. These two chieftains were visiting Limasawa and harder residences one at Butuan and one at Karajan Some history have stated that the Spaniards accompanied one of these chieftains to Butuan but these notes not appear to have been the case. On the island of Limasawa the natives had dogs, cats, hogs, goats and fowls. They were cultivated in rice, maize, breadfruit and had also coconuts, oranges, bananas, citron and ginger. Pigafeta tells how he visited one of the chieftains at his home on the shore. The house was built as Filipino houses are today raised on posts and attached. Pigafeta thought it looked like a haystack. It had been the day of Saint Lazarus when the Spaniards first reached these islands so that Magellan gave to the group the name of the Archipelago of Saint Lazarus, the name under which the Philippines were frequently described in the early writings although another title Isla del Poniente or Islands of the West was more common up to the time when the title of Filipinas became fixed. Cebu Magellan's people were now getting desperately in need of food and the population of Limasawa had very inadequate supplies. Consequently the natives directed him to the island of Cebu and provided him with guides. Living in Limasawa the fleet sailed for Cebu passing several large islands among them Bohol and reaching Cebu Harbour on Sunday the 7th of April. A junk from Xi'an was anchored at Cebu when Magellan's ships arrived there. And these together with the knowledge that the Filipinas showed of the surrounding countries including China on the one side and the Monucas on the other is additional evidence of the extensive trade relations at the time of the discovery. Cebu seems to have been a large town and it is reported that more than 2,000 warriors with their finances appeared to resist the landing of the Spaniards but assurances of friendliness finally won the Filipinas and Magellan formally compact with the data of Cebu whose name was Humobon. The blood compact The data invited Magellan to seal this compact in accordance with a curious customer of the Filipinas. Each chief pointed himself in the breast and from the wound each sucked and drank the others' blood. It is not certain whether Magellan participated in this blood compact as it has been called but later it was observed many times in the Spanish settlement of the islands especially by Legaspi. The natives were much struck by the service of the mass which the Spaniards celebrated on their landing and after some encouragement desired to be admitted to the Spaniards' religion. More than 800 were baptized including Humobon. The Spaniards established a kind of factory or trading post on Cebu and for some time a profitable trade was engaged in. The Filipinas were well understood training, had scales, weights and measures and were fair dealers. Death of Magellan and now follows the great tragedy of the expedition. The data of Cebu or the Christian king as Pitafeta called their new ally was a war with the islanders of Magtan. Magellan eager to assist one who had adopted the Christian faith landed on Magtan with 50 men and in the battle that ensued was killed by a wound in the arm and spear thrusts through the breast. So died the one who was unquestionably the greatest explorer and most daring adventurer of all time. Thus Cebu Pitafeta perished our guide, our light and our support. It was the crowning disaster of the expedition. The fleet visited other islands. After Magellan's death the natives of Cebu rose and killed the newly elected leader Serrano and the fleet in fear lifted its anchors and sailed southward from the Visayas. They had lost 35 men and their numbers were reduced to 115. One of the ships was burned. There being too few men surviving to handle three vessels. After Tochinov's western Mindanao they sailed westward and saw a small group of Cagayan Zulu. The few inhabitants learned where Muros exiled from Borneo. They landed on an island called Puluan. Hence Palawan where they observed the sport of cock fighting and dodged in by the natives. From here they were guided to Borneo the present city of Brunei. Here was the powerful Magellan colony whose adventurers were already in communication with Luzon and had established a colony on the side of Manila. The city was divided into two sections that of the Magellan Malays, the conquerors, and that of the Diox, the primitive population of the islands. Pika Feta explains over the riches and power of this Magellan city. It contained 25,000 families. The houses built for most part on piles of water. The king's house was of stone and beside it was a great brick fort with over 60 brass and iron cannon. Here the Spaniards saw elephants and camels and there was a rich trade in ginger, camphor, gums and emperors from Zulu. Facilities cut short their state here and they sailed eastward along the north coast of Borneo through the Zulu Archipelago where their cupidity was excited and on to Mindanao. Here they took some prisoners who piloted them south to the Moluccas and finally on November 8 they anchored at Tidor. These Molucca islands at this time were at the height of the Malayan power. The ruler or Raja of Tidor was Almanzar or Ternati, Corala. The king of Gelolo was Joseph. With all these rulers the Spaniards exchanged presents and the Rajas are said by the Spaniards to have sworn perpetual amnesty to the Spaniards and acknowledge themselves pastels of the king. In exchange for clothes the Spaniards laid in a rich cargo of clubs, sandalwood, ginger, cinnamon and gold. They established here a trading post and helped to hold these islands against the Portuguese. They returned to Spain. It was decided to send one ship to Spain by way of the Portuguese routes and the Cape of Good Hope while the other would return to America. Accordingly, the Victoria with a little crew of 60 men 13 of them natives under the command of Juan Sebastián Elcano set sail. The passage was unknown to the Spaniards and full of perils. They sailed to Timor and danced out into the Indian Ocean. They rounded Africa sailing as far south as 42 degrees. Then they went northward in constant peril of capture by some Portuguese fleet encountering storms extreme and with scarcity of food. The distress must have been extreme for on this final passage 21 of their small number died. At Cape Berde Islands they entered the port for supplies trusting that at so not an appointment their real voyage would not be suspected. But some one of the party who went ashore for food in an hour of intoxication boasted of the wonderful journey they had performed and showed some of the products of the Spice Islands. Immediately the Portuguese governor gave orders for the seizure of the Spanish vessel and Elcano learning of his danger left his men who had gone on shore raced sail and put out first pain. On the 6th of September 1522 they arrived at San Lucas at the mouth of the Guadalquipe river on which he situated Sebel one ship out of five and 18 men out of a company of 234 who had set sail almost three full years before. Spain welcomed her worn entire semen with splendid acclaim. To Elcano was given a title of nobility and the famous coat of arms showing the sprays of club cinnamon and nutmeg and the effigy of the club with the moto the proudest and worst ever displayed on any adventurer's shield. Primus Circumdendistimi the first circumnavigation of the earth. Those with the normal suffering and loss of life was accomplished the first circumnavigation of the earth. It proved that Asia could be reached although by a long and circuitous route by sailing westward from Europe. It may be known to Europe that the greatest of all oceans lies between the New World and Asia but it also shows that the earth is incomparably larger than had been believed and supposed. It was the greatest voyage of discovery that has ever been accomplished and greater that can ever be performed again. New lands divided between Spain and Portugal. By this discovery of the Philippines and a new way to despise islands Spain became engaged in a long dispute with Portugal. At the beginning of the modern age there was in Europe no system of rules by which to regulate conduct between states. That system of regulations and customs which we call international law and by which states at the present time are guided in their dealings had no horizon. During the middle age disputes between sovereigns were frequently settled by reference to the emperor or to the pope and the later had frequently asserted his right to determine all such questions as might arise. The pope also had claimed to have the right of disposing of all heathen and newly dispensable peoples. So, after discovery of the west in this by Columbus on request of the court of Spain Pope Alexander VI divided the new lands between them. He declared that all newly discovered countries to the west of a meridian 100 leagues west of the Azores and Cape Byrd Islands should be Spanish possessions. A year later Spain agreed with Portugal to shift this line to the meridian 370 leagues west of Cape Byrd Islands. This division carried on the same meridian around the globe resulted in giving India and Malaysia to Portugal and all the New World except Brazil to Spain. As a matter of fact 180 degrees west of the meridian finally agreed upon extended to the west there on part of the New Ugini and not quite to the Moluccas but in the absence of exact geographical knowledge both parties claimed the Spice Islands. Portugal denied to Spain all right to the Philippines as well and as we shall see a conflict in the far east began which lasted nearly through the century. Portugal captured the traitors whom Elcano had left at the door and broke up the Spanish station in the Spice Islands. The Trinidad, the ownership which was intended to return to America was unable to sail against the strong winds and had to put back to the door after cruising through the waters about New Guinea. Effect of the Century of Discoveries This circumnavigation of the globe completed a period of discovery which had begun a hundred years before with the timid slow attempts at the Portuguese along the coast of Africa. In these years a new era had opened. At its beginning the European knew little of any peoples outside of its own countries and he held scarcely any land outside the continent of Europe. At the end of the hundred years the earth had become fairly well known. The African race the Malay peoples, the American Indians and the Pacific Islanders had been seen and described and from now on the history of the white race was to be connected with that of these other races. The age of colonization a worldwide trade and intercourse had begun. The white man who appeared to form a narrowly pristine upon Europe threatened again and again with conquest by the Mohammedan was now to cover disease with his fleets and all lands with his power. End of Chapter 4 Part 2 Chapter 5 Part 1 of a History of the Philippines This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org A History of the Philippines by David Barrows Chapter 5 Part 1 The Filipino People Before the Arrival of the Spaniards On the arrival of the Spaniards the population of the Philippines seems to have been distributed by tribes in much the same manner as at present. Then as now the Visayas occupied the central islands of the archipelago of the northern coast of Mindanao. The Bicoles, Tegalogs and Pampangos were in the same parts of Luzon as we find them today. The Ilocanos occupied the coastal plain facing the China Sea but since the arrival of the Spaniards they have now expanded considerably and their settlements are now numerous in Pengasinan, Nueva Vizcaya and the Valley of Cagallán. These tribes which today number 7 million souls at the time of Magellan's discovery aggregated not more than 500,000. An early enumeration of the population made by the Spaniards in 1591 which included practically all of these tribes gave a population of less than 700,000. There are other facts too that show us how sparse the population must have been. The Spanish expeditions found many coasts and islands in the Bicayan group without inhabitants. Occasionally a sailor or a canoe would be seen and then these would disappear in some small estero or maingrove swamp and the land seemed as unpopulated as before. At certain points like Lima Sawa, Boudouan and Bohol the natives were more numerous and Cebu was a large and thriving community but the Spaniards were only everywhere to search for settled places and cultivated lands. The sparseness of the population is also well indicated by the scarcity of food. The Spaniards had much difficulty in securing sufficient provisions. A small amount of rice, a pig and a few chickens were obtainable here and there but the Filipinos had no large supplies. After the settlement of Manila was made a large part of the food the city was drawn from China. The very ease with which the Spaniards marched to where they willed and reduced the Filipinos to obedience shows that the latter were weak in numbers. Laguna de Bay and the Camarines were among the most populous portions of the archipelago. All of these things and others show that the Filipinos were but a small fraction of their present number. On the other hand the Negritos seems to have been more numerous or at least more in evidence. They were immediately noticed on the island of Negros where at the present they are few and confined to the interior and in the vicinity of Manila and in Batangas where they are no longer found they were mingling with the Tagalog population. The culture of the various tribes which is now quite the same throughout the archipelago presented some differences. In the southern Visayas where the Spaniards first entered the archipelago there seem to have been two kinds of natives. The hill dwellers who lived in the interior of the islands in small numbers who were garments of tree bark and who sometimes built their houses in the trees and the sea dwellers who were very much like the present day Moro tribes south of Mindanao who are known as the Samal and who built their villages over the sea or on the shore and lived much in boats. These were probably later arrivals than the forest people. From both of these elements the Visaya Filipinos are descended but while the coast people have been entirely absorbed some of the hill folk are still pagan and uncivilized and must be very much as they were when the Spaniards first came. The highest grade of culture was in the settlements where there was harmony with Borneo, Siam, and China and especially about Manila where many Mohammedan Malays had colonized. With the exception of the Negrito all the languages of the Philippines belong to one great family which has been called the Malayo Polynesian. All are believed to be derived from one very ancient mother tongue. It is astonishing how widely these Malayo Polynesian tongues have spread. Farthest east in the Pacific are the Polynesian languages. Then those of the small islands known as Micronesia then Melanesian or Papuan. The Malayan throughout the East Indian Archipelago and to the north the languages of the Philippines. But this is not all for far westward on the coast of Africa is the island of Madagascar many of whose languages have no connection with African but belong to the Malayo Polynesian family. It should be a matter of great interest to Filipinos that the great scientist Baron William von Humboldt considered the Tagalog to be the richest and most perfect of all the languages of the Malayo Polynesian family and perhaps the type of them all. It possesses, he said all the forms collectively of which particular ones are found singly in other dialects and it has preserved them all with very trifling exceptions unbroken and in entire harmony and symmetry. The Spanish Friars on their arrival in the Philippines devoted themselves at once to learning the native dialects and to the preparation of prayers and catechisms in these native tongues. They were very successful in their studies. Father Terino tells us one Jesuit who learned sufficient Tagalog in 70 days to preach and hear confession. In this way the Bessayon, the Tagalog, and the Ilocano were soon mastered. In the light of the opinion of von Humboldt it is interesting to find these early Spaniards pronouncing the Tagalog the most difficult and the most admirable. Of all of them says Padre Terino the one which most pleased me and filled me with admiration was the Tagalog because, as I said to the First Archbishop and afterwards to other serious persons both there and here, I found in it four qualities of the four best languages of the world Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Spanish. And of Hebrew the mysteries and obscurities of the Greek the articles and the precision not only of the appellative but also of the proper nouns of the Latin the wealth and elegance and of the Spanish the good breeding politeness and courtesy the Malayan languages contain a considerable proportion of words borrowed from the Sanskrit and in this the Tagalog Bessayon and Ilocano are included. Whether these words were passed along from one Malayan group to another or whether they were introduced by the actual presence and power of the Hindu in this archipelago may be fair ground for debate but the case for the latter position has been so well and brilliantly put by Dr. Pardo de Tabera that his conclusions are here given in his own words the words which Tagalog borrowed, he says are those which signify intellectual acts, moral conceptions, emotions superstitions, names of deities, of planets of numerals of high number, of botany of war and its results and consequences and finally of titles and dignities some animals instruments of industry and the names of money from the evidence of these words Dr. Pardo argues for a period in the early history of the Filipinos not merely of commercial intercourse that of the Chinese but of Hindu political and social domination I do not believe, he says and I base my opinion on the same words that I have brought together in this vocabulary that the Hindus were here simply as merchants but that they dominated different parts of the archipelago where today are spoken the most culture languages the Tagalog, the Visayan and the Ilocano and that the higher culture of these languages comes precisely from the influence of the Hindu race over the Filipino it is impossible to believe that the Hindus, if they came only as merchants, however great their number would have impressed themselves in such a way as to give to these Islanders the number and the kind of words which they did give these names of dignitaries of Kosikes of high functionaries of the court of noble ladies indicate that all of these high positions with names of Sanskrit origin were occupied at one time by men who spoke that language the words of a similar origin for objects of war, fortresses and battle songs for designating objects of religious belief for superstitions emotions, feelings industrial and farming activities show us clearly that the warfare religion literature, industry and agriculture were at one time in the hands of the Hindus and that this race was effectively dominant in the Philippines when the Spaniards arrived in the Philippines the Filipinos were using systems of writing borrowed from Hindu or Javanese sources they have learned from us to write running the lines left hand to the right but formally they only wrote from above downwards placing the first line at the left hand and continuing with the others to the right and opposite of the Chinese and Japanese they write upon canes or on leaves of a palm using for a pen a point of iron nowadays in writing not only their own but also our letters are very well cut and paper like ourselves they have learned our language and pronunciation and write as well as we do and even better, for they are so bright that they learn everything with the greatest of ease I have brought with me handwriting with very good and correct lettering in Digbaon I had in school a very small child who in three months time learned by copying from well written letters and sent him to write enough better than I and transcribed for me writings of importance very faithfully and without errors or mistakes besides the Tagalogs the Visayas, Pampangos Pengasinans and Iocanos had alphabets or more properly syllabaries similar to this one Dr. Pardo de Tavera has gathered many data concerning them and shows that they were profoundly received by the Filipinos from a Sanskrit source the Filipinos used this writing for setting down their poems and songs which were their only literature none of this however has come down to us and the Filipinos soon adopted the Spanish alphabet forming the syllables necessary to write their language from these letters as all these have phonetic values this is still very easy for a Filipino to learn to pronounce and so read his own tongue these old characters lingered for a couple of centuries in certain places Padre Totanes tells us that it was rare in 1705 to find a person who could use them but the Tagbanwas a pagan people on the island of Palawan use a similar syllabary to this day besides poems they had songs they sang as they rode their canoes as they pounded the rice from its husk and as they gathered for feast or entertainment and especially there were songs for the dead in these songs says Jirino they recounted the deeds of their ancestors or of their deities end of chapter 5 part 1 chapter 5 part 2 of a history of the Philippines this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org a history of the Philippines by David Boros chapter 5 part 2 the Filipino people before the arrival of the Spaniards Chinese in the Philippines very different from the Hindu was the early influence of the Chinese there is no evidence that previous to the Spanish conquest the Chinese settled or colonized in these islands at all and yet 300 years before the arrival of Magellan their trading fleets were coming here regularly and several of the islands were well known to them one evidence of this prehistoric trade is in the ancient Chinese jars and pottery which have been exhumed in the vicinity of Manila but the Chinese writings themselves furnish us even better proof about the beginning of the 13th century though not earlier than 1205 a Chinese author named Chao Jukua wrote a work upon the maritime commerce of the Chinese people one chapter of his work is devoted to the Philippines which he calls the country of Ma'i according to this record it is indicated that the Chinese were familiar with the islands of the archipelago several hundred years ago the country of Ma'i says this interesting classic quote is situated to the north of Pony that is Borneo about a thousand families inhabit the banks of a very winding stream the natives cloth themselves in sheets of cloth resembling bedsheets or cover their bodies with sarongs the sarong is a gay-colored typical garment of the Ma'i scattered through the extensive forests are copper Buddha images but no one knows how they got there when the merchant or Chinese ships arrive at this port they anchor in front of an open place which serves as a market where they trade in the produce of the country when a ship enters this port the captain makes a pair of white umbrellas to the mandarins the merchants are obliged to pay this tribute in order to obtain the goodwill of these lords close quote the products of the country are stated to be yellow wax cotton, pearls, shells, betel nuts, and yuta cloth which was perhaps one of the several cloths still woven of abaca or pinia the articles imported by the Chinese were quote porcelain trade gold, objects of lead, glass beads of all colors iron cooking pans and iron needles close quote very curious is the accurate mention in this Chinese writing of the negritos the first of all accounts to be made of the little blacks quote in the interior of the valleys lives a race called haitan they are of low stature have round eyes of a yellow color curly hair and their teeth are easily seen between their lips that is probably not darkened by betel chewing or artificial stains they build their nests in the treetops and in each nest lives a family which consists of from three to five persons they travel about in the densest thickets of the forest and without being seen themselves shoot their arrows at the passerby for this reason they are much feared if the Chinese trader throws them a small porcelain bowl they will stoop down to catch it and then run away with it shouting joyfully close quote these junks also visited the more central islands but here traffic was conducted on the ships the Chinese on arrival announcing themselves by beating gongs and the Filipinos coming out to them in their light boats among other things here offered by the natives for trade are mentioned quote strange cloth close quote perhaps cinnamey or juicy and fine mats this Chinese trade continued probably quite steadily until the arrival of the Spaniards then it received an enormous increase through the demand for Chinese food products and wares made by the Spaniards the value of the Mexican silver which the Spaniards offered in exchange the spread of Mohammedanism and especially the foundation of the colony of Borneo brought the Philippines into important commercial relations with the Meleis of the south previous to the arrival of the Spaniards these relations seem to have been friendly and peaceful the Mohammedan Meleis sent their praos northward to the provinces of trade and they were settling in the north Philippines as they had on Mindanao when Legasapi's fleet soon after its arrival lay near the island of Borneo the Maestro de Campo had a hard fight with a Moro vessel which had come up for trade and took six prisoners one of them whom they call the pilot was closely interrogated by the Adelentado and the information obtained which is recorded by Padre San Augustin Legasapi had a Meleis slave interpreter with him and San Augustin says that Padre Urdaneta quote, knew well the Malayan language close quote the pilot said that quote, those of Borneo brought for trade with the Filipinos copper and tin which was brought to Borneo from China porcelain dishes and bells in their fashion very different from those that the Christians use and benzuin and colored blankets from India and cooking pans made in China and that they also brought iron lances very well tempered and knives and other articles of barter and that in exchange for them they took away from the island's gold slaves, wax and a kind of small seashell which they call Sihuyes which passes for money in the Kingdom of Siam and other places and also they carry off some white cloths of which there is a great quantity in the islands close quote Utuan on the north coast of Mindanao seems to have been quite a trading place resorted to by vessels from all quarters this country, like many other parts of the Philippines has produced from time immemorial small quantities of gold all the early voyagers speak of the gold earrings and ornaments of the natives Utuan also produced sugarcane and was a trading port for slaves this unfortunate traffic in human life seems to have been not unusual but was doubtless stimulated by the commerce with Borneo Junks from Siam trading with Cebu were also encountered by the Spaniards this intercourse and traffic reminded the Filipinos with many of the accessories of civilized life long before the arrival of the Spaniards their chiefs and Datos dressed in silks and maintained some splendor of surroundings nearly the whole population of the tribes of the coast wrote and communicated by means of syllabary vessels from Luzon traded as far south as Mindanao and Borneo although the products of Asia proper came through the fleets of foreigners and perhaps what indicates more clearly than anything else the advance the Filipinos were making through their communication with outside people is their use of firearms of this point there is no question everywhere in the vicinity of Manila Anupong in Pampanga at Cainta and Laguna de Bay the Spaniards encountered forts mounting small cannon or cacas the Filipinos seem to have understood moreover the arts of casting cannon and of making powder the first gun factory established by the Spaniards was in charge of a Filipino from Pampanga the weakest side of the culture of the early Filipinos was their political and social organization and they were weak here in precisely the same way that the now uncivilized peoples of northern Luzon are still weak their state did not embrace the whole tribe or nation it included simply the community outside of the settlers in one immediate vicinity all others were enemies or at most foreigners there were in the Philippines no large states nor even great rajas and sultans such as were found in the Mele archipelago but instead on every island a multitude of small communities each independent of the other and frequently waging war the unit of their political order was a little cluster of houses from 30 to 100 families called a barangay and which still exists in the Philippines as the barrio at the head of each barangay was a chief known as the dato a word no longer used in the northern Philippines though it persists among the moros of Mendenau the powers of these datos within their small areas appear to have been great and they were treated with utmost respect by the people the barangays were grouped together in tiny federations including about as much territory as the present towns whose affairs were conducted by the chiefs or datos although sometimes they seem to have all been in obedience to a single chief known in some places as the harri at other times by the Hindu word raha or the Mohammedan term sultan sometimes the power of one of these rachas seems to have extended over the whole of the small island but usually their kingdoms embraced only a few miles the Spaniards in enforcing their authority through the islands the real power from the datos grouping the barangays into towns or pueblos but making the datos sebesas de barrio or gobernador ocios something of the old distinction between the dato or principal and the common man may be still represented in the gente ilustrada or the more wealthy educated and influential class found in each town and the gente baja or the poor and uneducated beneath the datos according to Cirino and morga were the three classes of filipinos the free persons or maharleka who paid no tribute to the dato but who accompanied him to war rode his boat when he went on a journey and attended him in his house this class is called by morga class then there was a very large class who appeared to have been freedmen or liberated slaves who had acquired their own homes and lived with their families but who owed the dato or maharleka heavy debts of service to sow and harvest in his rice fields to tend his fish traps to row his canoe to build his house to attend him when he had guests and to perform any other duties that the chief might command these semi free were called alapin namamaha and their condition of bondage descended to their children beneath these existed a class of slaves these were the sigigi liris and they were numerous their slavery arose in several ways some were those who as children had been captured in war and their lives spared by slaves by selling their freedom in times of hunger but most of them became slaves through debt which descended from father to son the sum of five or six pesos was enough in some cases to deprive a man of his freedom these slaves were absolutely owned by their lord who could theoretically sell them like cattle but in spite of its bad possibilities this filipino slavery was generally not of a cruel or distressing nature the slaves frequently associated on kindly relations with their masters and were not overworked this form of slavery still persists in the filipines among the moros of min de now and cholo children of slaves inherited their parents slavery if one parent was free and the other slave the first, third and fifth children were free and sixth slaves this whole matter of inheritance of slavery was curiously worked out in minute details community feeling was very strong within the barangay a man could not leave his own barangay for life in another without the consent of the community and the payment of money if a man of one barrio married a woman of another their children were divided between two barangays the barangay was responsible for the good conduct of its members and if one of them suffered an injury from a man outside the whole barangay had to be appeased disputes and wrongs between members of the same barangay were referred to a number of old men who decided the matter in accordance with the customs of the tribe which were handed down by tradition the filipinos on the arrival of the spaniards worshippers but they had one spirit whom they believed was the greatest of all and the creator or maker of things the takalo called this deity the bisaya laon and the ilocano kabounian they also worshipped the spirits of their ancestors which were represented by small images called anitos fetishes which are any objects believed to have miraculous power were common among the people and idols or images were worshipped pigafeta describes some idols which he saw in sebu and tirino tells us that within the memory of filipinos whom he knew they had idols of stone, wood, bone or the tooth of a crocodile and that there were some of gold they also reverenced animals and birds especially the crocodile and a mythical bird of blue or yellow color which was called by the name of their deity they had no temples or public places of worship but each one had his anitos in his own house and performed his sacrifices and acts of worship there as sacrifices they killed pigs or chickens and made such occasions times of feasting, songs and drunkenness so the filipino was undoubtedly filled with superstitious fears and imaginings the mohammedans outside of southern Mindanao and Jolo had settled in the vicinity of Manila Bay on the Mindoro Lubang and adjacent coasts of the Luzon the spread of mohammedanism was stopped by the spaniards although it is narrated that for a long time many of those living on the shores of Manila Bay were forced to eat pork which is forbidden by the Quran and practiced the rite of circumcision as late as 1583 Bishop Salazar in writing to the king of affairs in the Philippines says the moros had preached the law of mohammed to great numbers in these islands and by this preaching many of the Gentiles had become mohammedans and further he adds those who have received this fowl law guard it with much persistence and there is great difficulty in making them abandon it and with cause too for the reasons they give to our shame and confusion are that they were better treated by the preachers of mohammed than they have been treated by the preachers of Christ close quote the material surroundings of the filipino before the arrival of the spaniards the center of population of each town today with its great church, tribunal stores and houses of stone and wood is certainly in marked contrast but the appearance of a barrio a little distance from the center is today probably much as it was then then as now the bulk of the people lived in humble houses of bamboo and nipah raised on poles above the dampness of the soil and as now the food was largely rice and the excellent fish which abound in river and sea there were on the water the same familiar bankas and fish corals and on land the rice fields and coconut groves the filipinos had then most of the present domesticated animals dogs, cats, goats, chickens and pigs and perhaps in luson the domesticated buffalo although this animal was widely introduced into the filipinos from China after the spanish conquest horses came with the spaniards and their numbers were increased by the bringing in of chinese mayors whose importation is frequently mentioned the spaniards introduced also the cultivation of tobacco coffee and cocoa and perhaps also the native corn of america, the maize although pigatheta says they found it already growing in the bisayas the filipino has been affected by these centuries of spanish sovereignty far less on his material side than he has on the spiritual and it is mainly in the deepening and elevating of his emotional and mental life and not in the bettering of his material condition that advance has been made End of chapter 5 Chapter 6 of History of the filipinos This is LibriVox Recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org A History of the Philippines by David Barrows Chapter 6 The Spanish Soldier and the Spanish Missionary History of the Philippines as a part of the history of the spanish colonies We have already seen how the filipinos were discovered by Magellan in his search for the Spice Islands Brilliant and romantic as is the story of that voyage it brought no immediate reward to Spain Portugal remained in her enjoyment of the eastern trade and nearly half a century elapsed before Spain obtained a settlement in these islands but if for a time he neglected the Far East, the Spaniard from the peninsula threw himself with almost incredible energy and devotion into the material and spiritual conquest of America All the greatest achievements of the Spanish Soldier and the Spanish Missionary had been secured within 50 years from the day when Columbus sighted the West Indies In order to understand the history of the Philippines we must not forget that these islands formed a part of this great colonial empire and were under the same administration but for over two centuries the Philippines were reached through Mexico and to a great extent influenced by Mexico The same governors, judges and soldiers held office in both hemispheres passing from America to the Philippines and being promoted from the islands to the higher official positions of Mexico and Peru So to understand the rule of Spain in the Philippines we must study the great administrative machinery and the great body of laws which were developed for the government of the Indies Character of the Spanish explorers The conquests themselves were largely affected through the enterprise and wealth of private individuals but these men held commissions from the Spanish Crown Their actions were subject to strict royal control and a large proportion of the profits and plunder of their expeditions were paid to the royal treasury Upon some of these conquerors the Crown bestowed the proud title of Adelantado The Spanish nobility threw themselves into these hazardous undertakings with the courage and fixed determination born of their long struggle with the Moors Out of the sole trying circumstances of western conquest many obscure men rose through their brilliant qualities of spirit to positions of eminence and power but the exalted offices of viceroy and governor were reserved for the title favorites of the king The Royal Audiencia Very early the Spanish court in order to protect its own authority found it necessary to succeed the ambitious and adventurous conqueror by a ruler close relationship with and absolute dependence on the royal will Thus in Mexico Cortez the conqueror was removed and replaced by the viceroy Mendoza who established upon the conquests of the former the great Spanish colony of New Spain to this day the most successful of all the states planted by Spain in America To limit the power of the governor or viceroy as well as to act as a supreme court for the settlement of actions and legal questions was created The Royal Audiencia This was a body of men of noble rank and learned in the law sent out from Spain to form in each country a colonial court but its powers were not alone judicial they were also administrative in the absence of the governor the audiencia assumed his duties Treatment of the natives by the Spanish In his treatment of the natives whose lands he captured the Spanish king attempted three things First to secure to the colonist and to the crown the advantages of their labor second to convert the Indians to the Christian religion as maintained by the Roman Catholic church and third to protect them from cruelty and inhumanity Edict after edict law after law issued from the Spanish throne with these ends in view as they stand upon the greatest of colonial law books the recopilacion de les de las indias they display an admirable sensitiveness to the needs of the Indian and an appreciation of the dangers to which he was subjected but in the actual practice these beneficent provisions were largely useless the first and third of Spain's purposes in her treatment of the natives proved incompatible history has shown that liberty and enlightenment cannot be taken from a race with one hand and protection given it with the other all classes of Spain's colonial or frankly in pursuit of wealth greed filled them all and was the mainspring of every discovery and every settlement the king wanted revenue for his treasury the noble and the soldier boody for their private purse the friar wealth for his order the bishop power for his church all this wealth had to come out of the native toiler on the lands which the Spanish conqueror had seized and while noble motives were probably never absent and at certain times prevailed yet in the Spain the native of America and of the Philippines was a sufferer under the hand and power of the Spaniard the encomanderos Spain's system of controlling the lives and the labor of the Indians was based to a certain extent on the feudal system still surviving in the peninsula at the time of her colonial conquests the captains and soldiers and priests of her successful conquests had assigned to them great estates or fruitful lands with their native inhabitants which enrolled for their own profit such estates were called first repartimientos but very soon it became the practice in America to grant large numbers of Indians to the service of a Spaniard who had over them the power of a master and who enjoyed the profits of their labor in return he was supposed to provide for the conversion of the Indians in their religious instruction such a grant of Indians was called an encomienda the encomandero was not absolute lord of the lives and properties of the Indians for elaborate laws were framed for the latter's protection yet the granting of subjects without the land on which they lived made possible their transfer and sale from one encomandero to another and in this way thousands of Indians of America were made practically slaves and were forced into labor in the mines as we have already seen the whole system was attacked by the Dominican priest Las Casas in the history of American colonization and various efforts were made in America to limit the encomiendas and to prevent their introduction into Mexico and Peru but the great power of the encomandero in America together with the influence of the church which held extensive encomiendas had been sufficient to extend the institution even against Las Casas impassioned remonstrances its abolition in Mexico was decreed in 1544 but commissioners representing the municipality of Mexico and the religious orders were sent to Spain to ask the king to revoke at least those parts of the new laws which threatened the interests of the settlers by a royal decree of October 20th, 1545 the desired revocation was granted this action filled the Spanish settlers with joy and the enslaved Indians with despair thus was the institution early established as a part of the colonial system and came with the conquerors to the Philippines restrictions on colonization and commerce for the management of all colonial affairs the king created a great board or bureau known as the council of the indies which sat in Madrid and his members were among the highest officials of Spain the Spanish government exercised the closest supervision over all colonial matters and colonization was never free all persons, wares passing from Spain to any of her colonial possessions were obliged to pass through Seville and this one port of Lone this wealthy ancient city situated on the river Guadalquivir in southwestern Spain was the gateway to the Spanish Empire from this port went forth the mailed soldier the robed friar the adventurous noble and the brave and high born Spanish ladies who accompanied their husbands to such great distances over the sea and back to this port were brought the gold of Peru the silver of Mexico and the silks and embroideries of China dispatched through the Philippines it must be observed that all intercourse between Spain and her colonies were rigidly controlled by the government Spain sought to create and maintain an exclusive monopoly of her colonial trade to enforce and direct this monopoly there wasn't Seville the commercial house or Casa de Contratación no one could sail from Spain to a colonial possession without a permit and after government registration no one could send out goods or import them except through the commercial house and upon the payment of extraordinary impulses trade was absolutely forbidden to any except Spaniards and by her forts and fleets Spain strove to isolate her colonies from the approach of Portuguese, Dutch or English whose ships no less daringly manned than those of Spain herself to seize in search of the plunder and spoils of foreign conquest and trade summary of the colonial policy of Spain Spain sought foreign colonies first for the spoils of accumulated wealth that could be seized and carried away at once and secondly for the income that could be procured through the labor of the inhabitants of the lands she gained in framing her government and administration of her colonies she sought primarily the political enlightenment and welfare of the Spanish colonists nor the native race but the glory power and patronage of the crown the commercial and trade regulations were devised not to develop the resources and increase the prosperity of the colonies but to add wealth to the peninsula yet the purposes of Spain were far from being wholly selfish with zeal and success she sought the conversion of the heathen natives whom she subjected and in this showed a humanitarian interest in advance of the Dutch and English who rivaled her in colonial empire the colonial ideals under which the policy of Spain was framed were those of the times in the centuries that have succeeded public wisdom and conscience on these matters have miserably improved nations no longer make conquests frankly to exploit them but the public opinion of the world demands that the welfare of the colonial subject be sought and that he be protected from official greed there is great advance still to be made it can hardly be said that the world yet recognizes that a stronger people should assist a weaker without assurance of material reward but this is the direction in which the most enlightened feeling is advancing every undertaking of the white race which has such aims and view is an experiment worthy of profound interest and solicitous sympathy result of the voyage of Magellan and Alcano the mind of the Spanish adventurer was greatly excited by the result of Sebastian Alcano's voyage here is the opportunity for rich trade and great profit numerous plans were laid before the king one of them for the building of an Indian trading fleet and an annual voyage to the Maluccas to gather a great harvest of spices Portugal protested against this move until the question of her claim to the Maluccas under the division of Pope Alexander could be settled the exact longitude of Donate west from the line 370 leagues beyond the Verde islands was not well known Spaniards argued that it was less than 180 degrees and therefore in spite of Portugal's earlier discovery belong to them the pilot Medina for example explained to Charles the fifth that from the meridian 370 degrees west of San Anton the most westerly island of the Verde group to the city of Mexico was 59 degrees from Mexico to Navidad 9 degrees and from this port to Cebu 100 degrees a total of only 168 degrees leaving a margin of 12 degrees therefore by the final treaty the Indies Lucas Borneo Guilolo and the Philippines were Spain's a great council of ambassadors and cosmographers was held at Barajos in 1524 but reached no agreement Spain announced her resolution to occupy the Maluccas and Portugal threatened with death the Spanish adventurers who should be found there the first expedition to the Philippines Spain acted immediately upon her determination and in 1525 dispatched an expedition under Jofre de la Uisa to reap the fruits of Magellan's discoveries the captain of one vessel was Sebastián Elcano who completed the voyage of Magellan on his ship sailed Andrés de Boraneta who later became an Augustinian friar and accompanied the expedition of Legaspí that finally affected the settlement of the Philippines not without great hardship and losses did the fleet pass the straits of Magellan and enter the Pacific Ocean in mid ocean La Uisa died and four days later the famous Sebastián Elcano following a routes somewhat similar to that of Magellan the fleet reached first the Ladrone Islands and now from here they attempted to sail to Cebu but the strong northeast monsoon drove them southward to the Maluccas and they landed on Tidor the last day of the year 1526 the failure of the expedition the Portuguese were at this moment fighting to reduce the native Rajas of these islands to subjection they regarded the Spaniards as enemies and each party of Europeans was shortly engaged in fighting and in inciting the natives the condition of the Spaniards became desperate in the extreme and indicates at what cost of life the conquests of the 16th century were made their ships had become so battered by storm as to be no longer sea worthy the two officers who had successively followed La Uisa and Elcano in command had likewise perished of the 450 men who had sailed from Spain but 120 now survived these under the leadership of Hernando de la Torre threw up a fort on the island of Tidor unable to go further or to retire and awaited hoped for sucker from Spain relief came not from the peninsula but from Mexico under the instructions of the Spanish king in October 1527 Cortes dispatched from Mexico a small expedition in charge of Di Alvaro de Saavedra swept rapidly by the equatorial trades in a few months Saavedra had traversed the Carolines reprovisioned on Mindanao and reached its survivors on Tidor twice they attempted to return to new Spain but strong trade winds blow without cessation north and south on either side of the equator for the space of more than 1200 miles and the northern latitude of combs and prevailing westerly winds were not yet known twice Saavedra beat his way eastward among the strange islands of Papua and Melanesia only to be at last driven back upon Tidor and there to die the survivors were forced to abandon the Malucas by surrendering to the Portuguese they were assisted to return to Europe by way of Malacca Ceylon in Africa and they arrived at Lisbon in 1536 the survivors of Lois expedition having been gone from Spain 11 years the efforts of the Spanish crown to obtain possession of the spice islands Malucas and Celebes with their coveted products of nutmeg cinnamon and pepper were for the time suspended by the Treaty of Zaragoza 1529 the Emperor Charles V for the sum of 350,000 gold dukets mortgaged his claim to the Malucas for 13 years the revisions of this treaty were respected by the Spaniards and then another attempt was made to obtain a foothold in the East Indies second expedition to the Philippines the facts that disaster had overwhelmed so many that the two oceans must be crossed and that no sailing route from Asia back to America was known did not deter the Spaniards from their perilous conquests and in 1542 another expedition sailed from Mexico under command of Lopez de Villalobas to explore the Philippines and if possible to reach China across the Pacific they made a safe and pleasant voyage in the warm waters of the Pacific they sailed among those wonderful coral atolls rings of low shore decked with palms grouped in beautiful archipelagos whose appearance has never failed to delight the navigator and whose composition is one of the most interesting subjects known to students of the earth's structure and history some of these many islands Villalobas took possession of in the name of Spain these were perhaps the Pelu Islands or the Carolines at last Villalobas reached the coast of Mindanao but after some deaths and sickness they sailed again and were carried south by the monsoon to the little island of Sarangani south of the southern peninsula of Mindanao the natives were hostile but the Spaniards drove them from their stronghold and made some captures of musk, amber, oil and gold dust in need of provisions they planted the maize or Indian corn the wonderful cereal of America which yielded so bountiously planting food was greatly needed by the Spaniards and was very difficult to obtain the naming of the islands Villalobas equipped a small vessel and sent it northward to try to reach Cebu this vessel reached the coast of Samar Villalobas gave to the island the name of Felipina in honor of the Spanish Infante or heir apparent Philip who was soon to succeed his father Charles V as King Philip II of Spain later in his correspondence with the Portuguese Villalobas speaks of the archipelago as Las Felipinas although for many years the title of the Islas del Poniente continued in use Villalobas name of Felipinas gradually gained place and has lived the end of the expedition while on Sarangani demands were made by the Portuguese who claimed that Mindanao belonged with Celebes and that the Spaniards should leave driven from Mindanao by lack of food and hostility of the natives Villalobas was blown southward by storms to Guilolo here after long negotiations the Portuguese compelled him to surrender the survivors of the expedition dispersed some remaining in the Indies and some eventually reaching Spain but Villalobas overwhelmed by discouragement died on the island of Ambuena the priest who ministered to him in his last hours the famous Jesuit missionary to the Indies Saint Francis Xavier 23 years were to elapse after the sailing of Villalobas's fleet before another Spanish expedition should reach the Philippines the year 1565 dates the permanent occupation of the archipelago by the Spanish increase in political power of the church under Philip II the champion of ecclesiasticism the Spanish crown cemented the union of the monarchy with the church and devoted the resources of the empire not only to colonial acquisition but to combating the Protestant revolution on the one hand and heathenism on the other the Spanish king affected so closely union of the church and state in Spain that from this time on religious issues increasingly gained in importance and profoundly influenced the policy in fate of the nation the policy of Philip II however brought upon Spain the revolt of the Dutch lowlands with England and her struggle with these two nations drained her resources both on land and sea and occasioned a physical and moral decline but while Spain was constantly losing power and prestige in Europe the king was extending his colonial domain lending royal aid to the ambitious adventurer and to the ardent missionary friar Spain's object being to Christianize as well as to conquer the missionary became a very important figure in the history of every colonial enterprise and these great orders to whom missions were entrusted thus became the central institutions in the history of the Philippines the rise of monasticism monasticism was introduced into Europe from the east at the very commencement of the Middle Ages the fundamental idea of the old monasticism was retirement from human society in the belief that the world was bad and could not be bettered and that men could lead holier lives and better please God by forsaking secular employments and family relations and devoting all their attention to purifying their characters the first important order in Europe were the Benedictines organized in the 6th century their rule and organization were the pattern for those that followed the clergy of the church were divided thus into two groups first the parish priests or ministers who lived among the people over whom they exercised the cure of souls and who because they were of the people themselves and lived their lives in the way they were shown with the community were known as the secular clergy and second the monks or regular clergy who were so called because they lived under the rule of their order in the early part of the 13th century monasticism which had waned somewhat during the preceding two centuries received a new impetus and inspiration from the organization of new orders known as brethren or friars the idea underlying their organization was noble and higher than that of the old monasticism or emphasized the idea of service of ministry both to the hearts and bodies of depressed and suffering men the Dominicans the order of Dominicans was organized by Saint Dominic of Spain about 1215 the primary object of its members was to defend doctrines of the church and by teaching and preaching destroy the doubts and protests which in the 13th century were beginning to disturb the claims of the catholic church and the papacy traveled about humbly clad preaching in the villages and towns and seeking to expose and punish the heretic the medieval universities through their study of philosophy and the Roman law were producing a class of men disposed to hold opinions contrary to the teachings of the church Dominicans realized the importance of these great centers of instruction and entered them as teachers and masters and by the beginning of the 15th century had made them strongholds of conservatism and orthodoxy the Franciscans in the same epic of revival the order of Franciscans was founded by Saint Francis of Assisi in Italy the aims of this order were not only to preach and administer the sacraments but to nurse the sick provide for the destitute and alleviate the dreadful misery which affected whole classes in the middle ages they took vows of absolute poverty and so humble was the car prescribed by their rule that they went barefooted from place to place the Palestinian order was given organization by Pope Alexander IV in 1256 and still other orders followed the generation of the orders without doubt the early ministrations of these friars were productive of great good both on the religious and humanitarian sides but as the orders became wealthy the friars lost their spirituality and their lives grew vicious by the beginning by the beginning of the 16th century the administration of the church throughout Europe had become so corrupt the economic burden of the religious order so great and religious teaching and beliefs so material that the best and noblest minds in all countries were agitating for reform the reformation in addition to changes in church administration many Christians were demanding a greater freedom of religious thinking and radical changes in the church doctrine which had taken form in the middle ages thus while all the best minds in the church were making reformation of character and of administration great differences arose between them as to the possibility of change in church doctrines these differences accordingly separated them into two parties the papal party adhered strongly to the doctrine as it was then accepted while various leaders in the north of Europe including Martin Luther in Germany Swing Lee in Switzerland and John Calvin in France and Geneva broke with the authority of the Pope to make reformation of the individual conscience upon the side of the papacy the emperor Charles V through the weight of the Spanish monarchy and to enforce the papal authority he attacked the German princes by force of arms the result was a great revolt from the Roman Catholic church which spread all over northern Germany a large portion of Switzerland the lowlands of the Rhine and England and which included a numerous and very influential element among the French people these countries with the exception of France have remained Protestant to the present day and the great expansion of the English people in America and the East has established Protestantism in all parts of the world effects of the reformation in the Roman Catholic church the reform movement which lasted through the century brought about a great improvement in the Roman Catholic church many who remain devoted to Roman Catholic orthodoxy were zealous for administrative reform the assembly of churchmen the council of Trent for years devoted itself to legislation to correct abuses the inquisition was revived and put into force against Protestants especially in the dominions of Spain and the religious orders were reformed and stimulated to new sacrifices and great undertakings but greater perhaps than any of these agencies in re-establishing the power of the pope and reviving the life of the Roman Catholic church was the organization of a new order the society of Jesus the founder was a Spaniard Ignatius Loyola the Jesuits devoted themselves especially to education and missionary activity their schools soon covered Europe while their mission stations were to be found in both North and South America India, the East Indies China and Japan the Spanish missionary the Roman Catholic church having lost a large part of Europe thus strove to make up the loss of the land Spain, being the power most rapidly advancing her conquests abroad was the source of the most tireless missionary effort from the time of Columbus every fleet that sailed to gain plunder and lands for the Spanish Kingdom carried bans of friars and churchmen to convert to Christianity the heathen peoples whom the sword of the soldiers should reduce to obedience the laws of the Indies gave special power and prominence to the priest in these early days of Spain's colonial empire many priests were men of piety learning and unselfish devotion their efforts softened somewhat the violence and brutality that often marred the Spanish treatment of the native and they became the civilizing agents among the peoples whom the Spanish soldiers had conquered in Paraguay, California and the Philippines the power and importance of the Spanish missionary outweighed that of the soldier or governor in the settlement of those countries and the control of the native inhabitants End of Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Part 1 of A History of the Philippines This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org A History of the Philippines by David Barrows Chapter 7 Part 1 Period of Conquest and Settlement 1565-1600 Cause of Settlement and Conquest of the Philippines The previous Spanish expeditions whose misfortunes have been narrated seem to have proved to the court of Spain that they could not drive the Portuguese from the Malucas But to the east of the Malucas lay great unexplored archipelagos which might lie within the Spanish demarcation and which might yield spices in other valuable articles of trade and as the Portuguese had made no effective occupation of the Philippines the minds of Spanish conquerors turned to this group also as a coveted field of conquest even though it was pretty well understood that they lay in the latitude of the Malucas and so were denied by treaty to Spain In 1559 the Spanish king Felipe II commanded the viceroy of Mexico to undertake again the discovery of the islands lying toward the Malucas But the rights of Portugal to islands within demarcation were to be respected 5 years passed before ships and equipments could be prepared and during these years the objects of the expedition received considerable discussion and underwent some change The king invited Andrés de Oraneta who years before had been a captain in the expedition of Loisa to accompany the expedition as a guide and director Oraneta, after his return from the previous expedition had renounced military life and had become an Augustinian friar He was known to be a man of wise judgment with good knowledge of cosmography and as a missionary he was able to give to the expedition that religious strength which characterized all Spanish undertakings It was Oraneta's plan to colonize not the Philippines but New Guinea But the Audeancia of Mexico which had charge of fitting out the expedition charged it in minute instructions to reach and if possible colonize the Philippines to trade for spices and to discover a foreign sailing route back across the Pacific to New Spain The natives of the islands were to be converted to Christianity and missionaries were to accompany the expedition In the quaint language of Freigaspard de San Agustín there were sent holy guides to unforell and wave the banners of Christ even to the remotest portions of the islands and to drive the devil from the tyrannical possession which he had held for so many ages usurping to himself the adoration The third expedition to the Philippines The expedition sailed from the port of Nantebidad, Mexico November 21st, 1564 under the command of Miguel Lopez de la Gaspe The ships followed for a part of the way a course further south than was necessary and touched at some inhabited islands of Micronesia About the 22nd of January they reached the Ladrones and had some trouble with the natives They reached the southern end of Samar about February the 13th Possession of Samar was taken by Legaspi in the name of the king and small parties were sent both north and south to look for villages of the Filipinos A few days later they rounded the southern part of Samar crossed the strait to the coast of southern Leyte and captain Martin de Goití discovered the town of Caballion and on the 5th of March the fleet sailed to this town Provisions were scarce on the Spanish vessels and great difficulty was experienced in getting food from the few natives met in boats or in the small settlements discovered Legaspi at Bohol About the middle of March the fleet arrived at Bohol doubtless the southern or eastern shore While near here Goití in a small boat captured a moro prow from Borneo and after a hard fight brought back the moros as prisoners to Legaspi There proved to be quite a trade existing between the moros from Borneo and the natives of Bohol in Mindamao Here on Bohol they were able to make friendly terms with the natives and with Cicatuna the Datto of Bohol Legaspi performed the ceremony of blood covenant the Spanish leader and Filipino chief each made a small cut in his own arm or breast and drank the blood of the other bar to send out the steam the blood was mixed with a little wine or water and drunk from a goblet this custom was the most sacred bond of friendship among the Filipinos and friendship so pledged was usually kept with great fidelity Legaspi in Cebu On the 27th of April 1565 Legaspi's fleet reached Cebu Here in this beautiful straight and fine anchoring ground Magellan's ships had lingered until the death of their leader 44 years before a splendid native settlement lined the shore so Father Charino tells us for a distance of more than a week the natives of Cebu were fearful and greatly agitated and seemed determined to resist the landing of the Spaniards but at the first discharge of the guns of the ships the natives abandoned the shore and setting fire to the town portrayed into the jungles and hills without loss of life the Spaniards landed and occupied the harbor and town finding of the holy child of Cebu the Spanish soldiers found in one of the houses of the natives a small wooden image of the child Jesus a similar image Pigafeta tells us he himself had given to a native while in the island with Magellan it had been preserved by the natives and was regarded by them as an object of veneration to the pious Spaniards the discovery of this sacred object was hailed as an event of great good fortune it was taken by the monks and carried to a shrine especially erected for it the rest is in the church of the Augustinians an object of great devotion settlement made at Cebu in honor of this image the settlement of the Spaniards in the Philippines later received the name of city the most holy name of Jesus here Legaspia established a camp and by great tact and skill gradually won the confidence and friendship of the inhabitants a formal peace was at last concluded in which the dato Tupas recognized the sovereignty of Spain and the people of Cebu and the Spaniards bound themselves to assist each other against the enemies of either they had some difficulty in understanding one another but the Spaniards had with them a Mohammedan Malay of Borneo called Sida Mal who had been taken from the East Indies to the peninsula and thence to Mexico and Legaspia's expedition the languages of Malaysia and the Philippines are so closely related that this man was able to interpret almost immediately however the missionaries began the study of the native dialect and Padre Cirino tells us that Friar Martin Errada made here the first Filipino vocabulary and was soon preaching the gospel to the natives in their own language discovery of the northern return route across the Pacific before the arrival of the expedition in the Philippines the captain of one of Legaspia's ships inspired by ungenerous ambition and the hopes of getting a reward of the rest of the fleet having arrived first in the islands he started at once upon the return voyage unlike preceding captains who had tried to return to New Spain by sailing eastward from the islands against both wind and ocean current this captain sailed northward beyond the trades into the more favorable westerly winds and found his way back to America and New Spain Legaspia's instructions required him to dispatch at least one vessel on the return voyage to New Spain after arriving in the Philippines accordingly on June 1 the San Pablo set sail carrying about 200 men including Ordaneta and another Friar this vessel also followed the northern route across the Pacific and after a voyage of great hardship occupying three and a half months it reached the coast of North America at California and followed it southward to Acapulco the discovery made by these captains of a favorable route for vessels returning to New Spain, safe from capture by the Portuguese completed the plans of the Spanish for the occupation of the Philippines in 1567 another vessel was dispatched by Legaspia and made this voyage successfully the sailing of the San Pablo left Legaspia and Cebu with a colony of only 150 Spaniards poorly provided with resources to commence the conquest of the Philippines but he kept the friendship and respect of the natives in 1566 and 1568 ships with reinforcements arrived from Mexico while Legaspia was at Panay in 1570 they finally arrived a ship which brought instructions from the king in reply to Legaspia's first reports that the islands should be held and colonized these orders appointed Legaspia Adalantado and Governor and allowed the assignment of natives and comiendas to the soldiers who had affected the conquest the further exploration of the islands had meanwhile proceeded the great difficulty experienced by Legaspia was to procure sufficient food for his expedition at different times he sent a ship to the nearest islands and twice his ship went south to Mindanao to procure a cargo of cinnamon to be sent back to New Spain meanwhile a captain Enriquez de Guzmán had discovered Maspate Buryas and Tikal and had landed on Luzon in the neighborhood of Albay called then Italón thus month by month the Spaniards gained acquaintance with the beautiful island sea of the archipelago with its green islands and brilliant sheets of water with safe harbors and scattered settlements while Legaspia's resources were weakest he was attacked and blockaded at Cebu by Portuguese fleet which sought to prevent the Spanish occupation both to strengthen his position and to secure better supplies Legaspia moved his camp in 1569 to the island of Panay the Bacean tribes tattooed their bodies with ornamental designs a practice widespread throughout Oceanica and which still is common among the tribes of northern Luzon this practice caused the Spaniards to give to the Pisayas the title of Islas de los Pintados the islands of the painted Legaspia found that the island of Mindoro had been partially settled by Moros from the south and many of those settlements were devoted to piracy preying especially upon the towns on the north coast of Panay in January 1570 Legaspia dispatched his grandson Juan de Salcedo to punish these marauders capture of pirate strongholds Salcedo had a force of 40 Spaniards and a large number of Baceas he landed on the western coast of Mindoro and took the pirate town of Mambaral the main stronghold of the Moros he found to be on the small island of Lubang northwest of Mindoro here they had three strong forts with high walls on which were mounted small brass cannon or Lantacas two of these forts were surrounded by moats there were several days of fighting before Lubang was conquered the possession of Lubang brought the Spaniards almost to the entrance of Manila Bay conquest of the Moro city of Manila expedition from Panay they had already come to Legaspia of an important Mohammedan settlement named Manila on the shore of a great bay and a Mohammedan chieftain called Malmat was procured to guide the Spaniards on their conquest of this region for this purpose Legaspia sent his field marshal Martín de Goití with Salcedo 120 Spanish soldiers and 14 or 15 boats filled with Bacean allies they left Panay early in May and after stopping at Mindoro came to anchor in Manila Bay off the mouth of the Pasig river the Mohammedan city on the south bank of the river was the fortified town of the Mohammedan chieftain Raja Soliman on the north bank was the town of Tondo under the Raja Alcandora or La Candola Morga tells us that these Mohammedan settlers from the island of Borneo had commenced to arrive on the island only a few years before the coming of the Spaniards they had settled and married among the Filipino population already occupying Manila Bay and had introduced some of the forms and practices of the Mohammedan religion the city of Manila was defended by a fort apparently on the exact site of the present fort of Santiago it was built of the trunks of palms and had embrasures where were mounted a considerable number of Canaan or Lantacas capture of the city the natives received the foreigners at first with a show of friendliness but after they had landed on the banks of the Pasig Soliman with a large force assaulted them the impetuous Spaniards charged and carried the fortifications and the natives fled setting fire to their settlement when the fight was over the Spaniards found among the dead the body of a Portuguese artillerist who had directed the defense doubtless he was one who had deserted the fire since far south in the Indian archipelago to cast in his fortunes with the Malays it being the commencement of the season of rains and typhoons the Spaniards decided to defer the occupation of Manila and after exploring Cavite Harbour they returned to Panay a year was spent in strengthening their hold on the Bessayas and in arranging for their conquest of Luzon Anmaspeite were placed a friar and six soldiers so small was the number that could be spared founding of the Spanish city of Manila with a force of 230 men Legaspi returned in the spring of 1571 to the conquest of Luzon it was a bloodless victory the Filipino Rajas declared themselves vassals of the Spanish king and in the months of May and June the Spaniards established themselves in the present site of the city at once Legaspi gave orders for the reconstruction of the fort the building of quarters a convent for the Augustinian monks a church and 150 houses the boundaries of this city followed closely the outlines of the Tagalog city Manila and it seems probable that the location of buildings then established has been adhered to until the present time this settlement appeared so desirable to Legaspi that he had once designated it as the capital of the archipelago almost immediately he organized its municipal government Ayuntamiento the first battle on Manila Bay in spite of their ready submission the Rajas, Soliman and La Candola La Candola did not yield their sovereignty without a struggle they were able to secure assistance in the Tagalog and Pampongo settlements of Maga Bebe and Haganoy Haganoy a great fleet of 40 war-pros gathered in palm-lined estuaries on the north shore of Manila Bay and came swooping down the shallow coast to drive the Spaniards from the island against them were sent Goiti and 50 men the protective male armor the heavy swords and lances the horrible firearms coupled with the persistent courage and fierce resolution of the Spanish soldier of the 16th century swept back this native armament the chieftain Soliman was killed the conquest of central Luzon Goiti continued his marching and conquering northward until the southern end of the plain of central Luzon that stretches from Manila Bay to the Gulf of Lingayan they submissive before him a little later the Raja La Candola died having accepted Christian baptism and the only powerful resistance on the island of Luzon was ended Goiti was sent back to the Visayas and the command of the army of Luzon fell to Salcedo the brilliant and daring grandson of Lugaspi at this time only 22 years of age this young knight led his command up the Pasig River Quinta and Teite at that time important Tagalog towns were conquered and then the country south of Laguna de Bay the town of Quinta was fortified and defended by small cannon and although Salcedo spent three days in negotiations it was only taken by storm in which 400 Filipino men and women perished from here Salcedo marched over the mountains to the pacific coast and south into the Camarines where he discovered the gold mines of Paracale and Mambulao at about this time the Spaniards discovered the Cullos and Calamianes islands in the northern part of Palawan exploration of the coast of northern Luzon in 1572 Salcedo with a force of only 45 men sailed northward from Manila landed in Zambales and Pangasinan and on the long and rich Ilocos coast affected a permanent submission of the inhabitants he also visited the coast further north where the great and fertile valley of the Cagayan the largest river of the archipelago reaches to the sea from here he continued his adventurous journey down the pacific coast of Luzon to the island of Bolio and returned by way of Laguna de Bey to Manila death of Lagospey he arrived in September 1572 to find that his grandfather and commander Lagospey had died a month before August 20th 1572 after seven years of labor the conqueror of difficulties was dead but almost the entire archipelago had been added to the crown of Spain 300 years of Spanish dominions secured little more territory than that traversed and pacified by the conquerors of these early years in spite of their slender forces the daring of the Spaniards induced them to follow a policy of widely extending their power affecting settlements and enforcing submission wherever rich coasts and the gathering of population attracted them within a single years time most of the coast country of Luzon had been traversed important positions seized and the inhabitants portioned out on us on the death of Lagospey the command fell to Guido de la Becerres reasons for this easy conquest of the Philippines the explanation of how so small a number of Europeans could so rapidly and successfully reduce to subjection the inhabitants of a territory like the Philippines separated into so many islands is to be found in several things first the expedition had a great leader one of those knights combining sagacity with resolution glorify the brief period when Spanish prestige was highest no policy could ever be successful in the Philippines which did not depend for its strength upon giving a measure of satisfaction to the Filipino people Lagospey did this he appears to have won the native Datos treating them with consideration and holding out to them the expectations of a better and more prosperous era which the sovereignty of the Spaniard would bring almost from the beginning of an island already reduced flock to his standard to assist in the conquest of another the small forces of the Spanish soldiers were augmented by hundreds of Filipino allies second another reason is found in the wonderful courage and great fighting power of the Spanish soldier each man splendidly armored and weaponed deadly with either sword or spear carrying in addition the archibus the most efficient firearm of the time that will in combat to many natives who might press upon him with their naked bodies and inferior weapons third Lagospey was extremely fortunate in his captains who included such old campaigners as the Field Marshal Martin de Goití who had been to the Philippines before with Villalobos and such gallant use as Salcedo one of the most attractive military figures in all Spanish history fourth in considering this Spanish conquest the islands were far more sparsely inhabited than they are today the Visayan islands, the rich camarines the island of Luzon had in Lagospey's time only a small fraction of their present great populations this population was not only small but it was also extremely disunited not only were the great tribes separated by the differences of language but as we've already seen each tiny community was practically independent and the power of Adato very limited to great princes with large forces of fighting retainers whom they could call to arms such as the Portuguese had encountered among the Malays south in the eastern acapella fifth but certainly one of the greatest factors in the yielding of the Filipino to the Spaniard was the preaching of the missionary friars no man is so strong with an unenlightened and barbarous race as he who claims power from God and the preaching of the Catholic faith with its impressive and dramatic services it's holy sacraments its power to arrest the attention and to admit at once the rude mind into the circle of its ministry on the heart of the Filipino without doubt he was ready and eager for a loftier and truer religious belief and ceremonial there was no powerful native priesthood to oppose the introduction of Christianity the preaching of the faith and the baptism of converts proceeded as rapidly as the missionaries could be attained the dangers of the Spanish occupation such conditions promised the success of the Spanish occupation provided the small colony could be protected from outside attacks but even from the beginning the position of this little band of conquerors was perilous their numbers were small and at times much scattered and their only source of sucker lay thousands of miles away across the greatest body of water on the earth in a land itself a colony newly rested from the hand of the savage across the narrow waters of the China sea only a few days distant even in the slow sailing junks lay the teeming shores of the most populous country in the world in those days not averse to foreign conquest attempted the Chinese under Lima Hong to capture Manila activity of the southern Chinese it was from the Chinese that the first heavy blow fell the southeastern coast of China comprising the provinces of Kuangtung had always exhibited a restlessness and passion for emigration not displayed by other parts of the country from these two provinces through the ports of Amoy and Canton have gone these Chinese traders and coolies to be found in every part of the east in many other countries of the world 300 years before the arrival of the Spaniards, Chinese junks traversed the Philippine seas and visited regularly Luzon and the coast of Mindanao Lima Hong's expedition to the Philippines this coast of China has always been notorious for its piracy the distance of the capital at Peking and the weakness of the provincial viceroy's have made possible its suppression it was one of these bold filibusters of the China Sea called Lima Hong who two years after the death of Agassi attempted the conquest of the Philippines the stronghold of this Corsair was the island of Pihon where he fortified himself and developed his power reports of the prosperous condition of Manila reached him and he prepared a fleet of 62 war junks with 4,000 soldiers and sailors the accounts even state that a large number of women and artisans were taken on board to form the nucleus of the settlement as soon as the Spaniards should be destroyed in the latter part of November 1574 this powerful fleet came sweeping down the western coast of Luzon and on the 29th gathered in the little harbor of Mariveles at the entrance to Manila Bay 8 miles south of Manila is the town of Parniake on an estuary which affords a good landing place for boats entering from the bay here on the night following Lima Hong put ashore 600 men under one of his generals Sioko who was a Japanese the attack upon Manila from here they marched rapidly up the beach and fell furiously upon the city almost their first victim was the Field Marshal Goiti the fort of Manila was at this date a weak affair without ditches or escarpment and it was here that the struggle took place the Spaniards although greatly outnumbered were able to drive back the Chinese but they themselves lost heavily Lima Hong then sent ashore heavy reinforcements and prepared to overwhelm the garrison the Spaniards were saved from defeat by the timely arrival of Salcedo with 50 musketeers from his station it began he had seen the sails of Lima Hong's fleet cruising southward along the Luzan coast is suspecting that so great an expedition could have no other purpose than the capture of Manila he embarked on seven small boats and reached the city in six days just in time to participate in the furious battle between the Spaniards and the entire forces of the Chinese pirate the result was the complete defeat of the Chinese who were driven back upon their boats the result of Lima Hong's expedition although defeated in his attack on Manila Lima Hong was yet determined on a settlement in Luzan and sailing northward he landed in Pangasinan and began constructing fortifications at the mouth of the river Lingayan the Spaniards did not wait for him to strengthen himself and to dispute with them afresh for the possession of the island but organized in March an expedition of 250 Spaniards and 1500 Filipinos under Salcedo they landed suddenly in the Gulf of Lingayan burned the entire fleet of the Chinese attacked the camp of the pirates and killed a number of them the rest though hemmed in by the Spaniards were able to construct small boats in which they escaped from the islands thus ended this formidable attack which threatened for a time to overthrow the power of Spain in the east it was the beginning however of important relations with China before Lima Hong's escape a junk arrived from the viceroy of Fugian petitioning for the delivery of the Chinese pirate two Augustinian friars accompanied his junk back to China eager for such great fields of missionary conquest they carried letters from La Besares inviting Chinese friendship and intercourse End of Chapter 7 Part 1