THE PHILIPPINES OF THE PAST
How have the Philippines come to present such a unique combination of
Spanish and Malay civilization? Let us look into their past. We find for
the early days myths and legends, preserved by oral tradition. Two
quaint stories told by the primitive mountain people, which show how
they believe the Islands first came into being and how the first man and
woman entered into this world, are worth transcribing for their naïve
simplicity:
"A long time ago there was no land. There were only the sea and the sky.
A bird was flying in the sky. It grew tired flying. It wanted something
to rest upon. The bird was very cunning. It set the sea and sky to
quarreling. The sea threw water up at the sky. The sky turned very dark
and angry. Then the angry sky showered down upon the sea all the
Islands. That is how the Islands came."
This second tale is even more child-like:
"A great bamboo grew on one of the Islands. It was very large around,
larger than any of the others. The bird lit on the ground and began to
peck the bamboo. A voice inside said, 'Peck harder, peck harder.' The
bird was frightened at first, but it wanted to know what was inside. So
it pecked and pecked. Still the voice said, 'Peck harder, peck harder.'
At last a great crack split the bamboo from the bottom to the top. Out
stepped a man and a woman. The bird was so frightened that it flew away.
The man bowed very low to the woman, for they had lived in different
joints of the bamboo and had never seen each other before. They were the
first man and woman in the world."
These natives believe there are good and evil spirits, and they invoke
the agency of the latter to explain the mystery of death. They say the
first death occurred when the evil spirit lightning became angry with
man and hurled a dangerous bolt to earth.
The first suggestion of real history is found in the traditions that
tell of Malays from the south who came and settled on these islands. It
is said a race of small black people were already here--the
Negritos--who resembled the African negroes, and who retired into the
hills before the invaders.
Next we hear of a Mohammedan priest who came to the southern
Philippines and gave the people his religion. His followers have to this
day been called Moros.
It was more than two centuries before Captain Cook visited Hawaii, that
white men discovered the Philippines. Magellan, the famous Portuguese
navigator, while sailing in the service of Spain, landed on Mindanao and
Cebu, and took possession of the group in the name of the Spanish king.
Before starting from Seville on this voyage around the world, Magellan
had already spent seven years in India and sailed as far as Sumatra, so
he already knew this part of the world. This time he was in search of
the Spice Islands and of a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific
Ocean. He had touched first at Teneriffe and then crossed the Atlantic
to Brazil, making his way along the coast of South America. There were
many hardships and difficulties to contend with, and mutiny in the fleet
resulted in several deaths. But, as we all know, he persevered, and on
the 15th of October, 1520, discovered the straits which were named after
him.
The Ladrones were reached after fourteen tedious weeks, and on St.
Lazarus' day, in 1521, the Philippines were sighted and named by him for
the saint. In the early times they were sometimes referred to by the
Spaniards as the Eastern, and later as the Western, Islands. They were
finally named the Philippines by Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, after his
king, Philip the Second.
Magellan was quite unlike Captain Cook, whose visit to Hawaii has been
mentioned. He was a nobleman and full of the religious enthusiasm that
fired the Spaniards of his day. He was accompanied by several friars,
who at once began missionary work among the natives, and only a week
after his arrival the Cebuan chief and his warriors were baptized into
the Christian faith. Unfortunately, Magellan took sides with the Cebuans
in their warfare against a neighbouring tribe, and in the battle he was
killed. After his death, the same chieftain turned on Magellan's
followers, but some escaped to their ships. Out of two hundred and fifty
men who had set sail three years before, only eighteen, after suffering
incredible hardships on the long journey by way of India and the Cape of
Good Hope, returned safely to Spain.
The next explorer who touched at the Islands was the Englishman, Sir
Francis Drake, of Spanish Armada fame, who sailed in 1570 on a voyage
round the world. We also hear of another Briton, William Dampier, a
noted free-booter, who, in 1685, tried to cross the Isthmus of Panama
with Captain Sharp. Three times he sailed round the world, and touched
at the northern as well as the southern Philippine Islands.
Magellan, Drake and Dampier gave the western world much knowledge of the
Far East, but did not remain long enough in the Islands to have any
great or lasting influence over the natives. The work of civilizing them
was left to Legaspi and the Spanish friars, who were the first real
settlers.
In 1565, the Philippines were occupied by an expedition under Miguel
Lopez de Legaspi, _alcalde_ of the City of Mexico, who was charged to
open a new route to Java and the Southern Islands. On his return voyage
he was to examine the ports of the Philippines, and, if expedient, to
found a colony there. In any case he was to establish trade with the
Islands. The viceroy of Mexico charged him that the friars with the
expedition were to be treated with the utmost consideration, "since you
are aware that the chief thing sought after by His Majesty is the
increase of our holy Catholic faith and the salvation of the souls of
those infidels."
Cebu was occupied, and Manila was taken and made the seat of
government. The occupation of the Islands was not exactly by force of
arms, for there was no fighting, although they found the islands well
populated and the people more or less armed. The natives seemed to
recognize and submit to a better government and religion than they had
ever known. The reports of the Spaniards of the time speak of the
success of small expeditions of perhaps a hundred men, who took over
whole provinces. These soldiers were accompanied by Spanish priests, who
settled among the people, preaching Christianity in the native tongues.
The friars persuaded them to give up their continual feuds and submit to
the central authority which the friars represented.
Legaspi brought with him from Mexico four hundred Spanish soldiers.
Later eight hundred more arrived, and civilian Spaniards, both married
and single, sailed to the Islands as settlers. In 1591, according to the
records of Spanish grants, there were 667,612 natives under Spanish
rule, and twenty-seven officials to enforce the laws and preserve order.
It was reported that in a majority of the grants there was peace,
justice and religious instruction. There were Augustinian, Dominican and
Franciscan friars as well as secular clergy. These men were not only
priests but also fighters and organizers, and did fine work for many
years, until long-continued possession of power gradually made the
orders corrupt and grasping.
Upon their first arrival, the Spaniards found the people established in
small villages, or _barangays_, where the chief lived surrounded by his
slaves and followers. It was considered wise to continue this system,
ruling the villages through the local chieftain, whom the Spaniards
called _cabeza de barangay_. Churches were erected, convent houses were
built about them, and the natives were urged to gather near by. It was
ordered that "elementary schools should be established, in which the
Indians will be taught not only Christian doctrine and reading and
writing but also arts and trades, so that they may become not only good
Christians but also useful citizens."
So at the end of the sixteenth century the Philippines were at peace.
The natives were allowed to move from one town to another, but they were
required to obtain permission, in order to prevent them from wandering
about without religious instruction. The tendency of the Malays is to
separate into small groups, and they have never been dwellers in large
towns. The Spanish priests, therefore, found a constant effort
necessary to keep them concentrated about the churches "under the
bells."
[Illustration: "UNDER THE BELLS."]
The fervour of religious reform which started in Germany was followed by
an equal fervour within the Roman Catholic Church. The period of Julius
II and Leo X was over; the Council of Trent had met. Ignatius Loyola had
seen his visions and sent forth his company, and Spain was full of
priests eager to serve God with the same stern energy which the previous
generation had shown in the search for lands and gold and fabulous gems.
No duty was so grave as that of conformity to the Church, no stigma so
galling as that of heretic. To convert the heathen was an obligation
binding upon all men. All Spanish colonies were missions; the
Philippines were always rather a mission than a colony.
Until the revolt of 1896, Spain never found it necessary to hold the
Islands by armed force; her dominion there was based rather on her
conquest of the minds and souls of men. There had been a few uprisings,
however, and early in the eighteenth century a Spanish governor and his
son were murdered by a mob. But notwithstanding occasional difficulties,
in the main there was peace until the civil service of the Philippines
was assimilated with that of Spain. Then officials became dependent upon
their supporters at home, and were changed with every change of the
ministry. Some Spaniard writing at the time said that with the opening
of the Suez Canal Spanish office holders descended on the Islands like
locusts.
At the end of the nineteenth century, the Spanish army had grown to
17,859 of all ranks, only 3,005 of whom were Spaniards, and there was a
constabulary of over 3,000 officers and men, who were almost entirely
natives. The rule of Spain was secured by a native army. There could
have been no widespread discontent, or that army would not have remained
true to its allegiance, especially as its recruits were obtained by
conscription.
The chronicles remind us, however, that the Spaniards did not have
things all their own way. In the early days, they were at first friendly
with the Chinese, and Mexico carried on a flourishing trade with China
by way of Manila until the pirate Li Ma Hong raided the Islands. The
Spaniards were on good terms with the Japanese until the latter
massacred the Jesuit friars in Japan. When the Shogun Iyeyasu expelled
the priests he sent away even those who were caring for the lepers, and
as a final insult, he sent to Manila three junks loaded with lepers,
with a letter to the governor general of the Philippines, in which he
said that, as the Spanish friars were so anxious to provide for the poor
and needy, he sent him a cargo of men who were in truth sore afflicted.
Only the ardent appeals of the friars saved these unfortunates and their
contaminated vessels from being sunk in Manila Bay. Finally the governor
yielded, and these poor creatures were landed and housed in the leper
hospital of San Lazaro, which was then established for their reception
and which remains to-day.
The Spanish governors were also hampered by the lack of effective
support from the older colony of Mexico, which was so much nearer than
the home land that they naturally turned to it for aid. One of them
wrote pathetically to the King of Spain:
"And for the future ... will your Majesty ordain that Mexico shall
furnish what pertains to its part. For, if I ask for troops, they send
me twenty men, who die before they arrive here, and none are born here.
And if I ask for ammunition, they laugh at me and censure me, and say
that I ask impossible things. They retain there the freight money and
the duties; and if they should send to this state what is yours, your
Majesty would have to spend but little from your royal patrimony."
The Portuguese were a source of anxiety to the colonists until Portugal
fell into the hands of Spain. The Dutch, too, who were growing powerful
in the Far East, even took Formosa, which brought them altogether too
near, but they were driven out of that island by the great Chinese
pirate Koxinga.[13]
From the time of Legaspi to the end of Spanish rule there were
occasional attacks upon the Chinese residing in the archipelago, who
were never allowed to live in the Islands without exciting protest and
dislike, based partly upon religious, partly upon commercial grounds.
During the last one hundred years of Spanish supremacy, the greatest
danger to their power was the presence of the Chinese. Efforts to
exclude them were never effective or long enduring, and yet it was felt
that the men who came as labourers and traders were the advance guard of
an innumerable host. In business the Malay has never been the equal of
the shrewd Chinaman, and although the latter might be converted and take
a Spanish name, yet it was always gravely suspected that a search would
find joss sticks smoldering in front of the tutelary deity of commerce
hidden behind the image of the Virgin in his chapel.
So the Chinaman, like the Jew in medieval Europe, carried on his trade
in constant danger of robbery and murder. This antipathy did not,
however, extend to Filipina women, many of whom married the foreigners.
Among the leaders in the Filipino insurrection against the United
States, Aguinaldo, two of his cabinet, nine of his generals, and many of
his more important financial agents were of Chinese descent.
In 1762 the English swooped down upon Manila, but they held the capital
only two years, for, by the Treaty of Paris, the lands they had taken
were returned to Spain. It is said the English conquest, brief as it
was, brought good results to the Islands.
Before going on to the struggle against the friars, I wish to quote
from my father's letters describing his experiences in the Philippines
twenty years before American occupation.
"At Sea, December 2, 1878.
"Yesterday I left Manila, where I have been since the 6th of last
month.... Our first days there were spent in firing salutes and
exchanging visits, and going through all the forms which are customary
when a government vessel comes into a foreign port. Admiral Patterson
sent me here to settle a stabbing affray on board the American barque
_Masonic_, and that took up my attention at first. In the evenings I
went to the opera, and visited the sights of the city. On account of
earthquakes, all the buildings are but one story high. The customs,
fashions, etc., are Spanish. Every one was polite and I found it very
pleasant; but, as you might expect, after a little while I grew
restless. I heard that there was some beautiful scenery in the interior,
and I resolved to go on an investigating trip and see it. Our
vice-consul, Mr. Yongs, and another gentleman went with me.
"From Manila we went in a boat up a short river, which had its rise in a
large lake, about twenty-five miles long, that we crossed in a steamer.
I think I never saw such quantities of two things as were on that
lake--namely, ducks and mosquitoes.
"From the lake we continued our journey in two-horse vehicles, like the
_volantes_ of Havana, and in these we went from village to village, on
our way to the mountains. We were very well treated. The Spanish
authorities at Manila provided us with whatever we required. The
villages were clusters of thatched huts around a church, and the
religion seemed to be a curious mixture of Roman Catholic Christianity
and pagan superstition, as I concluded from the style of the pictures
with which the churches were adorned. These were chiefly representations
of hell and its torments. Devils, with the traditional tails and horns,
and armed with pitchforks, were turning over sinners in lakes of burning
brimstone....
"We found the natives very musical; they sang and played on a variety of
instruments, and they were rather handsome. The women had, without
exception, the longest and most luxuriant hair I ever saw in all my
travels. You know it is a rare thing among us for a woman to have hair
that sweeps the ground, but here the exception is the other way; nearly
every woman I saw had hair between five and six feet in length.
"I was told that back among the mountains there existed tribes whom the
Spaniards have never been able to conquer, and no one dares to venture
among them, not even the priests. Our road was constantly ascending, and
as we advanced toward the interior the scenery became beautiful. Peaks
of mountains rose all about us; plains and valleys stretched out,
covered with tropical vegetation; picturesque villages, clustering
around their churches, were visible here and there; and in the distance
were glimpses of the sea, sparkling and bright in the sun.
"I was told of a wonderful ravine among the mountains that was worth
seeing and I decided to visit it, especially as it was a favourable
time; the river, by which it had to be approached, was then high, and
its fifteen cascades, which usually had to be climbed past, dragging the
canoe, were reduced to four. I took three natives with me, and we
ascended successfully. I have called it a ravine, but a gorge would be a
better term, for it is worn directly through the mountain by a large
river, and the rock rises up on each side, as sheer and straight as if
cut by machinery.
"After I had ascended a certain distance, I stopped for a time to
examine all the wild magnificence about me. The rocky wall on each side
was so high that when I looked up I could see the stars shining in that
bright noonday, as if it were night. Huge birds came flapping up the
gorge far above my head; and yet they were far below the top of the
mountain of rock. I do not know how many feet it rose, but I never saw
any precipice where the impression of height was so effectually
given--it seemed immense.
"Beneath us was the deep, broad stream, looking very dark in the
twilight that such a shadow made, and I could not help feeling
awestruck. But the opening of the gorge framed as smiling and cheerful a
landscape as could possibly be devised, to contrast with the inner
gloom. It was a wide, varied and splendid view of the country beyond,
sloping to the distant sea, and all of it as aglow with light and colour
as sea and land could be, beneath a tropic sun.
"Descending the river on our way out, I had a characteristic adventure,
which will make me satisfied for a time. We had passed two of the rapids
in safety, but as we approached the third, the canoe struck on a rock or
something in the current, bow on, and swinging round, half filled with
water. The natives in the end of the canoe nearest the rock sprang out
and clung to the vines which hung over its sides, but the other man and
I went over the fall in the half-swamped canoe, and were wholly at the
mercy of the stream, with an unusually good prospect of getting a good
deal more of it.
"The fall once passed through, the current drove us toward the shore, if
that is what you would call a precipice of rock, running straight down
far below the surface of the water. I succeeded in grasping the vines
and pulling the canoe after me by my feet. The water was quite close by
the rock, and the other two men, crawling down to us, hung on with me,
and bailed out the boat till it was safely afloat, and then we went down
the rest of the way without accident."
Before the middle of the last century, life in the Philippines must have
been, for Spaniards and natives alike, one long period of siesta. The
sound of the wars and the passing of governments and kings in Europe
must have seemed to these loiterers in a summer garden like the drone of
distant bees. After that period conditions changed rapidly. In 1852, the
Jesuits returned to the Philippines; in 1868, the reactionary Queen
Isabella II fled from Spain, because of the rise of republicanism; in
1869, the Suez Canal was opened. All these events had their influence,
but the return of the Jesuits was of dominating importance.
Throughout the nineteenth century the sole idea of the Tagals was to get
rid of the friars, and for several reasons, which I will explain as
briefly as possible. The Roman Catholic clergy are divided into regular
and secular. Members of the secular clergy are subordinate to the
bishops and archbishops, through whom the decrees of the Holy See are
promulgated. The regular clergy, monks and friars, are subordinate to
provincials elected for comparatively short terms of office by members
of their own order. The Jesuits form a group by themselves but belong
rather to the regular than the secular.
Over three hundred years after the conversion of the Filipinos, the
Spanish monks and friars considered it still unsafe to admit natives
into the hierarchy of the Catholic Church. _The secular clergy were
mostly natives, the regular clergy were Spaniards._ Naturally this
condition of affairs in time produced friction.
To understand the case in regard to the Jesuits, it is necessary to go
back nearly a century. In 1767, the King of Spain issued a decree
expelling the Jesuits from his possessions. Their property was
confiscated, their schools were closed, and they were treated as enemies
of the state. They had been among the earliest missionaries in the
Philippines, and were probably the wealthiest and most influential of
all the clergy there. Their departure left no priests for the richest
parishes in the provinces of Cavite and Manila, which had been their
sphere of influence. The question at once arose as to who would succeed
them, and as it happened, the Archbishop of Manila who had to answer it
was a member of the secular clergy, a Spanish priest to be sure, but of
liberal tendencies. Consequently, he filled the parishes with native
priests, who continued to occupy them until the return of the Jesuits.
Now the parish priest was the most influential man in the community. As
native priests used this influence to build up the prestige of the
seculars, the ecclesiastical feuds which arose became embittered by
racial antagonism.
When a royal order was received permitting the return of the Jesuits it
became at once necessary to find places for them in the ecclesiastical
government. Spain decided that the parishes of Cavite and Manila should
be henceforth filled by members of the order of Recollets, who were to
transfer their missions in Mindanao to the Jesuits. The Archbishop
protested against this increase in the power of the regular clergy, and
the Governor General assembled his council to act upon the protest. All
the members of the council who were born in Spain voted against the
Archbishop. All those born in the Philippines voted for him. The
regulars gained another victory over the seculars; the native was
publicly informed that he was not fit to administer the parishes of his
own people, and he saw himself definitely assigned to the position of
lay brother or of curate. Whatever threads of attachment there had been
between the opposing factions broke on the day of that decision, and
every native priest from that moment became a center of disaffection and
of the propaganda of hatred of the friars. This was perhaps the real
beginning of the movement which continued, now secretly, now openly,
until it broke out in actual revolt in 1872. The Spaniards put down this
uprising of the Tagalogs with such cruelty that they feared a later
retaliation, and sought help from the friars. This the friars gave them,
in return for added wealth and power, which was granted, of course, at
the expense of the vanquished natives.
Worcester writes in one of his earlier books, "During the years 1890-93,
while traveling in the archipelago, I everywhere heard the mutterings
that go before a storm. It was the old story: compulsory military
service; taxes too heavy to be borne, and imprisonment or deportation
with confiscation of property for those who could not pay them; no
justice except for those who could afford to buy it; cruel extortion by
the friars in the more secluded districts; wives and daughters ruined;
the marriage ceremony too costly a luxury for the poor; the dead refused
burial without payment of a substantial sum in advance; no opportunity
for education; little encouragement for industry and economy, since to
acquire wealth meant to become a target for officials and friars alike;
these and a hundred other wrongs had goaded the natives and half-castes
until they were stung to desperation."
The dissensions in the Philippines which ended in the rebellion of
1896-7 began with disagreements among the Spaniards themselves. A
progressive party arose before which the clerical or conservative party
slowly but steadily lost ground, and the legislation of modern Spain was
by degrees introduced into the Islands. The country was not able to
endure the taxation which would have been necessary to raise the
revenues to carry out this legislation. Hence laws which were passed
against the advice of the Spanish clergy in the Philippines were left
largely in their hands for execution, not because they were loved or
trusted, but because they were the only Spanish functionaries who knew
the language and the people and whose residence in the Islands was a
permanent one. If the friars had used their power wisely and
unselfishly, there would have been no trouble, but they used it too
often simply to keep the people down and extort money, for which they
gave little return.
By degrees the mestizos took sides. The Chinese mestizos soon grew
restive under this priestly government, and aided the progressive
Spanish party in Manila. As time passed they had it borne in upon them
that revolution might pay.
The insurrection of 1896-7 was planned and carried out under the
auspices of a society local to the Philippines, called the "Katipunan,"
the full title of which may be translated as "Supreme Select Association
of the Sons of the People." According to Spanish writers on the subject,
it was the outgrowth of a series of associations of Freemasons formed
with the expressed purpose of securing reforms in the government of the
Philippines, but whose unexpressed and ultimate object was to obtain
the independence of the archipelago. As if to accomplish this purpose,
a systematic attack was made on the monastic orders in the Philippines,
to undermine their prestige and to destroy their influence upon the
great mass of the population. The honorary president of the Katipunan
was José Rizal, whose name was used, without his permission, to attract
the masses to the movement.
Rizal was born in 1861 not far from Manila. He came of intelligent
stock. After his early training at the Jesuit school in Manila and the
Dominican university, Rizal went to Spain, where he took high honors at
the University of Madrid in medicine and philosophy. Post-graduate work
in France and Germany followed.
He was an ardent patriot, and in order to awaken his countrymen to the
need of reform, although he was a Roman Catholic, he published while in
Germany his book called "Noli Me Tangere,"--Touch Me Not--which dealt
with the immoral life of the friars. An English translation has been
issued with the title, "The Social Cancer." The circulation of the book
in the Islands was forbidden, but it was read by most of the educated
Filipinos. In reading it, one is again and again struck by the author's
clear comprehension of the needs and the difficulties of the Filipinos,
and the calm, unprejudiced way in which their problems are discussed.
[Illustration: JOSE RIZAL.]
In 1891, Rizal began the practice of medicine in Hongkong. Meanwhile,
the Spanish authorities, in their desire to get him into their power,
worked upon his feelings by persecuting his mother. The trick was
successful, and he returned to Manila, where he was soon arrested, and
banished to the island of Mindanao.
The most powerful leader of the insurrection was Andres Bonifacio, a
passionate and courageous man of little education. He sent an agent to
Dr. Rizal to aid him in escaping from his place of exile and to request
him to lead the Katipunan in open revolt. Rizal refused, believing that
the Filipinos were not yet ready for independence. Bonifacio resolved to
proceed without him.
Bonifacio assured his audience that when he gave the signal the native
troops would join them. It was of great importance to the success of his
plan that the army, as in 1872, was engaged in operations against the
Moros. There were available in Manila only some three hundred Spanish
artillery, detachments amounting to four hundred men, including seamen,
and two thousand native soldiers. The plot was discovered, but Bonifacio
escaped from Manila, and sent out orders for an uprising in that part
of Luzon which had been organized by the Katipunan. Manila was attacked,
but the rebels were repulsed. Martial law was proclaimed in eight
provinces of Luzon, followed by wholesale executions. Many of those
arrested on suspicion "were confined in Fort Santiago, one batch being
crowded into a dungeon for which the only ventilation was a grated
opening at the top, and one night the sergeant of the guard carelessly
spread his sleeping-mat over this, so the next morning some fifty-five
asphyxiated corpses were hauled away."
Just before the outbreak, Rizal received permission to join the army in
Cuba as surgeon, but on the way there was arrested and brought back to
Manila. His fate was now sealed. The trial by court-martial was a farce.
On a December day in 1896 he was led to execution.
Rizal was undoubtedly the noblest and most unselfish of the Filipino
leaders, and his execution was not only a crime but a blunder on the
part of the Spanish authorities. From his prison he issued an address to
the Filipinos remarkable for its moderation and its condemnation of the
"savage rebellion," stating that the education of the people must
precede any truly beneficial reforms, and urging them to go back to
their homes. The Spanish officials deemed this not sufficiently
"patriotic" to be published, and sentenced its author to the death of a
traitor by shooting in the back. To-day he is the national hero of the
Filipinos.
[Illustration: FORT SANTIAGO.]
The seacoast towns were under the leadership of Emilio Aguinaldo, a
young radical, who was already a recognized leader among the local
disaffected. The Spaniards had not expected this outbreak in Cavite.
Aguinaldo had personally assured the governor of the province of his
devotion to Spain, but when fighting began isolated Spanish officers
were killed and their families carried into captivity. The difficulties,
of the Spaniards were increased by the fact that the defense of Manila
and Cavite until reinforcements arrived, would be largely in the hands
of native troops, among whom the Katipunan was known to have been at
work. But the troops of the old native regiments--the men who for years
had followed Spanish officers--were on the whole faithful, and it was
largely due to them that Manila and Cavite were held.
The leaders in the insurrection were of that class who called themselves
_ilustrados_, enlightened, a class whose blood is, in almost every case,
partly Spanish or partly Chinese. The supremacy of the friars was
passing, and men of this class intended to be the heirs to their
domain. The idea of forming a republic and even of adopting the titles
appropriate to a republic to designate the functionaries of a Malay
despotism was an afterthought.
Reinforcements arrived from Spain, and by June 10, 1897, the
insurrection was broken, and Aguinaldo with his remaining adherents had
taken refuge at Biacnabato, some sixty miles from Manila. He was now
without a rival, for Bonifacio had dared to attempt his life, had been
brought before a court-martial, had been condemned to death and had
disappeared.
Aguinaldo, who now called himself not only Generalissimo of the Army of
Liberation but President of the Revolutionary Government, had adopted
guerilla warfare, and the Spanish commands were forced to follow an
enemy who was never dangerous to large bodies, but who always was to
small ones--an enemy who, wearing no uniform, upon the approach of a
large body became peaceful labourers in the fields along the road, but
were ready to pick up their rifles or bolos and use them against a small
party or a straggler. Still, whatever they had fought for at first, the
insurgent leaders were now fighting for their own safety.
The governor general sought in various ways to gain the support of the
country. He called for Filipino volunteers, and, curiously enough, they
responded with enthusiasm. The rapidity with which they were recruited
was probably largely due to the activity of the friars. This added to
the hatred of them felt by the class of natives represented by
Aguinaldo.
Between June and December, 1897, the time was spent in an obscure
bargaining, the outcome of which was the so-called Treaty of Biacnabato,
which Primo de Rivera--the governor general--has stated was merely a
promise to pay a money bribe to the insurgents if they would cease a
combat in which they had lost hope of success but which they could still
prolong to the detriment of the resources and the prestige of Spain.
The result of the bargainings was that Spain agreed to pay eight hundred
thousand Mexican dollars for the surrender of Aguinaldo and his
principal leaders and the arms and ammunition in their possession. An
amnesty was proclaimed. Aguinaldo and his leaders were sent to Hongkong
under escort, where they declared themselves loyal Spanish subjects.
Primo de Rivera returned to Spain. As he received in return for the
money only about two hundred rifles and a little ammunition, it is not
probable that he made any of the promises of changes in the government
of the archipelago which the Filipinos have insistently stated since
then were the real objects of the agreement.
Whatever may have been the true motives which actuated the Spanish
governor general in adopting this method of terminating a successful
campaign, he succeeded in purchasing only an armistice and not a peace.
On January 23, 1898, a Te Deum was sung in the cathedral of Manila to
mark the reëstablishment of peace in the archipelago.
The insurgent leaders had been bought off and their followers had
surrendered their arms.
As Spanish dominion in the Philippines was now about to close, let us
stop a moment to inquire what it had brought to the Islands. It may have
been hard and utterly unprogressive, but it turned the tribes of Luzon
and the Visayas from tribal feuds and slave-raiding expeditions to
agriculture.
To accomplish these results required untiring energy and a high
enthusiasm among the missionaries. They had lived among savages,
speaking their tongue, until they had almost forgotten their own. Spain
had ceased to be everything to them; their order was their country.
Spanish officials came and went, but the ministers of the Church
remained, and as they grew to be the interpreters of the wants of the
people, in many cases their protectors against spoliation, power fell
into their hands. It is rather interesting to learn that in 1619, in the
reign of Philip III, it was proposed to abandon the Philippines on
account of their useless expense to Spain, but a delegation of friars
from the Islands implored him not to abandon the twenty thousand
Christians they had converted, and the order was countermanded.
Spanish dominion left the people Christians, whereas, if the Islands had
not been occupied by Spain, their people would in all probability to-day
be Mohammedan. The point of view of the Spanish friars may not be ours,
but when their efforts are judged by the good rather than the evil
results, it can still be said that Spain gave Christianity and a long
term of peace to the Philippine archipelago. The Filipinos are the only
Christian Asiatics.
But Philippine history was to take an unexpected turn. The
Spanish-American war broke out, and a new factor appeared upon the scene
in the shape of Commodore Dewey and his fleet. We all know the story of
the battle of Manila Bay, but we may just recall it briefly.
It was the night of April 30, 1898, that the American Asiatic squadron,
which had received its orders at Hongkong, arrived off the Philippines.
They took a look first into Subig Bay, but seeing no enemy, they made
their way into Manila Bay by the Boca Grande entrance. There were
rumours of mines in the channel and big guns in the forts, but Dewey
took the chance, and the fleet steamed in at night. The ships formed two
columns, the fighting ships all in one line, and the auxiliary vessels
about twelve hundred yards behind. They moved at the rate of their
slowest vessel.
Black thunder clouds at times obscured even the crescent moon that
partially lighted their course, but occasional lightning flashes gave
the bold Americans a glimpse of frowning Corregidor and the sentinel
rock of El Fraile. The ships were dark except for one white light at the
stern of each as a guide to the vessel next in line. As the _Olympia_
turned toward El Fraile her light was seen by a Spanish sentry. A sheet
of flame from the smokestack of the _McCulloch_, a revenue cutter
attached to the fleet, also betrayed its presence to the enemy at the
same moment. El Fraile and a battery on the south shore of the bay at
once opened fire, which was returned by the ships to such good purpose
that the battery was silenced in three minutes. Slowly, steadily,
Dewey's ships steamed on, and at dawn discovered the gray Spanish
vessels lying in front of the naval arsenal at Cavite, over on the
distant shore to the right. Admiral Montojo's flagship, the _Reina
Cristina_, and the _Castilla_, and a number of smaller vessels, formed a
curved line of battle, which was protected in a measure by the shore
batteries. The Spaniards had one more ship than the Americans, but the
latter had bigger guns.
Silently the American squadron advanced across the bay, with the Stars
and Stripes flying from every ship. At quarter past five on the morning
of May 1st, the Spanish ships fired their first shots. When less than
six thousand yards from their line, Dewey gave the famous order to
Captain Gridley, in command of the _Olympia_: "You may fire when you're
ready, Gridley."
Two hours later, the _Reina Cristina_ had been burned, the _Castilla_
was on fire, and all but one of the other Spanish vessels were abandoned
and sunk. Dewey gave his men time for breakfast and a little rest, then
shelled and silenced the batteries at Cavite. Soon after noon the
Spaniards surrendered, having lost 381 men and ten war vessels. Seven
Americans were slightly wounded, but none were killed. So ended this
famous battle.