"A beautiful city, Admiral Rainey--from a distance. Strongly
fortified--for the fifteenth century. But you can sweep away the
fortifications as easily as you sank the Spanish war vessels. What
is a walled city with a moat to guns that will carry for miles?"
"I do not doubt, General Saguanaldo," returned the American admiral as
he sat on deck of his flag ship in the harbor of Manila, faultlessly
garbed as though for a party, talking to the Filipino insurgent
after the battle that had spread his name around the globe, "I do
not doubt my ability to reduce the Spanish works, but I was looking
to the future. Should I destroy so much private property as would be
involved in bombarding Manila I would make enemies of the owners,
who would give us trouble in days to come. I dare not take such a
serious step until I am instructed from America."
"But consider, admiral," plead the insurgent, "Manila sits there,
fair to see, but she has drawn the very life from the people of the
interior for centuries. The private property of which you speak was
gotten from labor by the sorrow of others."
"You are doubtless right, general, and I would not blame you if
you should seek revenge from them, for your people have suffered
greatly. But with me it is a different proposition. I am not acting
for myself alone."
"Nor am I. It may be you do not know the sorrows of Luzon, Señor
Admiral!"
"It may be I do not, General Saguanaldo."
"May I tell you of them, Admiral Rainey?"
"I shall be pleased to know more of this land that I have just come to
command until my country tells me what to do, or ends the unhappy war."
"When Spaniards from Mexico first landed in Maynila, centuries ago,"
continued General Saguanaldo, "the simple-minded natives bowed to the
white people as to gods; and they have been on their knees rendering
tribute of Luzon's products ever since. It did not take the natives
long to learn the nature of the Spaniards, who were inflamed by the
lust of gold, both by their experience with the Incas and Aztecs in
America and by the hard terms of the Spanish rulers, for we have had
to pay tribute to Rome, to Spain and to Mexico--all."
"I am told the people of the interior are primitive--half naked
Igorrotes, or Negritos, wearing only breech clouts."
"Those live chiefly in the Southern islands. The body of the people
of the Northern islands are of the Malayan stock, loving liberty,
but kept poor by tributes exacted. They were a people of simple ways
and homely virtues. Because of being of Malayan descent they wore
called Moros by the Spaniards. The two tribes of Moros, the Tagals of
Northern Luzon, and the Viscayans of Southern Luzon and North Mindoro,
yielded to Legaspi, to whom the king of Spain gave all the land he
might conquer. He was not a hard master, leaving the olden, native
chiefs in charge; but when, after this, the friars came from Spain,
they began the work of oppression. When the great earthquake destroyed
Maynila in 1645, and over 600 perished in the catastrophe, the natives
were forced to work without pay on the arsenal at Ca Vite, and when,
because of harsh treatment, they rebelled, burning towns and churches,
the friars dispatched soldiers for the head of Sumoroy, the rebel. His
followers sent in the head of a pig instead. The enraged friars and
soldiers tortured to death the mother of Sumoroy, and afterward,
when the rebel was betrayed to them, struck off his head and mounted
it on a pole for the people to look upon."
"Brutal, doubtless. But such things were common in those days,"
returned the admiral.
"God pity us, they are too common in Manila in these days. The
reputation of the friars was such in those days that when some of them
went to Japan it was reported in that land that they were advance
guards of the Spanish army, getting a foothold, and that after them
would come the army to protect them. The Mikado ordered the friars
out, but they defied him. Then the Japanese emperor adopted heroic
measures. He gathered together 150 lepers and sent them to Maynila,
saying that Japan did not allow Roman friars in that country, but,
since these friars were fond of this kind of people, he sent them a
ship load."
"That, too, seems to have been inhuman. How were the lepers received?"
"Oh, the friars built the hospital of St. Lazarus for their
reception. You can see it beyond those palms."
"That was rather a Christian act."
"The friars have done some good. But they insist on foreign friars
ruling instead of native priests, and to maintain their supremacy
keep the people uneducated. Then they claim ownership of large tracts
of the best land, and exact high rentals. The people have rebelled
against their exactions over and over again. Long ago the king of
Tagals killed the alcade of Tayabas province, and made the people
believe that the earth would swallow the Spaniards when they were
attacked, but his rebellion was put down with great slaughter."
"No wonder, General. This confirms my information that the inhabitants
are not free from superstition."
"Eso fue en los dias antiguos [5], Admiral. The people were crude
then. Perhaps they were like your American Indians. But they were
oppressed, and they began even then the rebellion against Spain and the
friars which they have maintained for over 300 years, from the days
when Soliman, the native king, set fire to Maynila and fought them
from the forests, to the last rebellion of Rizal and the religious
deflection of Aglipay."
"It seems to me a man of ability, like you, General, ought to be able
to win."
"We will win. But we have hoped so that the great North American
nation that pitied Cuba and that is fighting for her independence will
so pity us and give us independence. I assure you, Admiral, we have
endured longer and more than Cuba has done. The oppression had been
admitted by our masters. The Augustinians and Jesuits accused each
other of cruelty and the Jesuits were banished. It was not till 1859
that they were permitted to return. I told you about the destruction
of Manila by earthquake in the olden days. That was not the last or
worst seismic disturbance."
"I had heard as much."
"In 1863 the city was again destroyed by earthquake, which killed
thousands of people and left much destitution. The grafting that
followed was scandalous and caused much dissatisfaction. It was in
1872 that the great insurrection occurred. But for an error in signals
which started the trouble before the people were ready to support it,
it would have succeeded. As it was, many were executed and shot. At
another time the people were promised amnesty if they would lay down
their arms, but when they did so thousands were massacred. Then came
a period of organizing secret societies to work against the friars,
who were also rulers."
"But these are only incidents that come in the history of every land."
"Por Dios, Donde se hallaria otro pais que has sufrido tanto. [6]
Think of it! Up to 1811 the Philippine islands dared not trade with
any country but Mexico, not excepting their neighbor, China. Then
the picturesque, half-moon-shaped galleons of Mexico did all the
carrying of the Philippines and charged prices such as would enrich
them in spite of the pirates they frequently met. For this trade
Mexican promoters and the Spanish crown received their tribute, and
the Spanish friars, too, had their share. The people were abjectly
poor. Even the soldiers were often unpaid, and begged their support
from the people whom they subjected. The friars charged exorbitant
rentals on the lands they claimed. They encouraged the people to
build cathedrals, monasteries and churches, but the cathedrals,
monasteries and churches did not belong to the people after they had
built them. They charged the people rental on graves in consecrated
ground, and when the rent was not paid they evicted the dead. They made
the price of marriage so high that many of the people lived together
out of wedlock. The friars selected the women of the people they
fancied and openly consorted with them, and the children of friars
are common throughout the islands. The people are poor, living for
the most part in grass houses, while the friars are rich and live in
luxury; and this has been going on for centuries."
"Bad, very bad; the morals of the tropics and the Orient."
"This is not all. The friars exercised the power of secret
investigation, and one never knew when he was safe. A friar might
report a man as a conspirator against Spain, and, while meeting
him and showing friendship for him in public, secretly secure his
banishment. There have been cases which I could name, where friars,
coveting the wife or sister of a man, have procured his banishment
or even secured for him an appointment at a distance, so that they
might have the way open to accomplish their purposes. There was a fear
which beset every man, even those who through fear were nearest to
the friars, that if his eyes should light upon his wife or daughter
in an envious way, if he did not give them up he was lost."
"Surely, General, this is exaggerated."
"The half has not been told. In Lenten time, which was the period
when the country folk came to confess, the parish friar would give
strict orders to the scribes of the church that in the distribution
or giving out of the certificates to the penitents among himself
and his coadjutors they should give him the young unmarried women
and servant penitents, whom he obscenely solicited through words and
manipulations in the confessional."
"Why, this is horrible."
"It is, indeed. Some reverend friars arrogated to themselves rights
which in feudal times were called rights of pernada, or the right
to enter the bed of a new bride before the husband. The parish friar
converted himself up to a certain point into an absolute lord, master
of lives and property, and, if he so willed, made and unmade everything
according to his fancy. Master of the will of the people more through
fear than out of love for him, he nominated town authorities that
pleased him, which nomination elevated almost always the greatest
flatterer of all his parishioners, and it is plain that all weighty
determinations dictated by the municipal authorities were not proper
initiatives, but those of his amours."
"It does not seem possible. Why, that is worse than Cuba."
"Imagine paying rental on a grave for the bones of a dear one, until
your money was exhausted, and then seeing the remains dumped into
a pile of bones along with scores of other victims. Imagine being
required to produce a certain crop each year to be turned over to the
friars, and if you failed, becoming indebted to them so that there was
no hope of your ever paying out. Imagine being compelled to sell your
rice to the friar at the price he might offer, and being forbidden
to take it to an open market where the price was higher. Would you
rebel against such conditions?"
"The American would not tolerate it even for a moment."
"That is not all. They were cruel, not only in the treatment of their
servants by beating them, but they also took great delight in being eye
witnesses to tortures and beatings of men and in prisons and jails by
the civil authorities. They were always, when witnessing these acts,
accompanied by some of the higher Spanish civil authorities, and
these acts were usually carried out at the instigation of the friars."
"I did not know of all these things."
"Would to God that you knew, Admiral. Listen! In 1781 the growing of
tobacco on Luzon was made a government monopoly. If farmers refused to
plant a certain amount of tobacco the land was taken from them. Law
required the natives to 'tend the tobacco that when raised belonged
to the government; that is, to the friars. If the crop was less than
the amount estimated for each farmer, he was heavily fined and became
responsible for that much more the year following. If the crop was
above the estimate, the government seized it all and destroyed what
it could not sell to advantage."
"No doubt you have suffered much."
"Cuba does not know suffering, Admiral. Yet you liberty-loving
Americans are warring to give Cuba her freedom. Give us freedom,
too. Promise me, Admiral."
The insurgent general, with the impetuosity of the tropics, fell on
his knees before Admiral Rainey and seized his hands.
"America will see you have your rights. Arise," the admiral said,
flipping a speck from his coat as he spoke. The insurgent leader
reverently kissed the hand of the admiral, and, crying, "You will
be hailed as the great emancipator," signaled to his attendants, and
prepared to leave the flagship. Under Rainey's guns the company made
its way to shore, not far from the old moat outside the city's walls,
now overgrown with grasses and vegetation, which served for draining
the outlying country.