[Native distrust of Europeans.] A Scotch merchant to whom I brought
a letter of introduction invited me with such cordiality to come
and stay with him, that I found myself unable to refuse. While thus
living under the roof and protection of one of the wealthiest and most
respected men in the city, the cabmen I employed insisted on being
paid beforehand every time I rode in their vehicles. This distrust was
occasioned by the scanty feeling of respect most of the Europeans in
Manila inspired in the minds of the natives. Many later observations
confirmed this impression. What a different state of things exists
in Java and Singapore! The reason, however, is easily explained.
[Dutch and English stand well in their colonies.] The Dutch are as
little able as the English to acclimatize themselves in tropical
countries. They get all they can out of countries in which they are
only temporary sojourners, the former by forced service and monopoly,
the latter by commerce. In both cases, however, the end is accomplished
by comparatively few individuals, whose official position and the
largeness of whose undertakings place them far above the mass of the
population. In Java, moreover, the Europeans constitute the governing
classes, the natives the governed; and even in Singapore where both
races are equal before the law the few white men understand how to mark
the difference of race so distinctively that the natives without demur
surrender to them, though not by means of the law, the privileges of a
higher caste. The difference of religion does but widen the gap; and,
finally, every European there speaks the language of the country, while
the natives are totally ignorant of that spoken by the foreigners.
[Dutch colonials well educated.] The Dutch officials are educated at
home in schools specially devoted to the East Indian service. The art
of managing the natives, the upholding of prestige, which is considered
the secret of the Dutch power over the numerous native populations,
forms an essential particular in their education. The Dutch, therefore,
manage their intercourse with the natives, no matter how much they
intend to get out of them, in strict accordance with customary usage
(adat); they never wound the natives' amor propio and never expose
themselves in their own mutual intercourse, which remains a sealed
book to the inhabitants.
[Spanish officials undesirables.] Things are different in the
Philippines. With the exception of those officials whose stay is
limited by the rules of the service, or by the place-hunting that
ensues at every change in the Spanish ministry, few Spaniards who
have once settled in the colony ever return home. It is forbidden
to the priests, and most of the rest have no means of doing so. A
considerable portion of them consist of subaltern officers, soldiers,
sailors, political delinquents and refugees whom the mother-country
has got rid of; and not seldom of adventurers deficient both in means
and desire for the journey back, for their life in the colony is far
pleasanter than that they were forced to lead in Spain. These latter
arrive without the slightest knowledge of the country and without
being in the least prepared for a sojourn there. Many of them are so
lazy that they won't take the trouble to learn the language even if
they marry a daughter of the soil. Their servants understand Spanish,
and clandestinely watch the conversation and the actions, and become
acquainted with all the secrets, of their indiscreet masters, to
whom the Filipinos remain an enigma which their conceit prevents them
attempting to decipher.
[Spanish lack of prestige deserved.] It is easy to understand how
Filipino respect for Europeans must be diminished by the numbers of
these uneducated, improvident, and extravagant Spaniards, who, no
matter what may have been their position at home, are all determined
to play the master in the colony. [Social Standing of Filipinos thus
enhanced.] The relative standing of the Filipinos naturally profits
by all this and it would be difficult to find a colony in which
the natives, taken all in all, feel more comfortable than in the
Philippines. They have adopted the religion, the manners, and the
customs of their rulers; and though legally not on an equal footing
with the latter, they are by no means separated from them by the
high barriers with which, not to mention Java, the churlish reserve
of the English has surrounded the natives of the other colonies.
[Spanish-Filipino bonds of union.] The same religion, a similar form
of worship, an existence intermixed with that of the indigenous
population, all tend to bring the Europeans and the Indians
together. That they have done so is proved by the existence of the
proportionately very numerous band of mestizos who inhabit the Islands.
[Latin races better for colonists in the tropics.] The Spaniards
and the Portuguese appear, in fact, to be the only Europeans who
take root in tropical countries. They are capable of permanent and
fruitful amalgamation [52] with the natives. [53]
[Initiative and individuality missing.] The want of originality, which
among the mestizos, appears to arise from their equivocal position,
is also to be found among the natives. Distinctly marked national
customs, which one would naturally expect to find in such an isolated
part of the world, are sought for in vain, and again and again the
stranger remarks that everything has been learned and is only a veneer.
[A compromise civilization.] As Spain forcibly expelled the
civilization of the Moors, and in Peru that of the Incas, so in the
Philippines it has understood how to set aside an equally well-founded
one, by appropriating in an incredible manner, in order to take root
itself the more quickly, all existing forms and abuses. [54]
[Imitation instilled and self-respect banished.] The uncivilized
inhabitants of the Philippines quickly adopted the rites, forms,
and ceremonies of the strange religion, and, at the same time, copied
the personal externalities of their new masters, learning to despise
their own manners and customs as heathenish and barbarian. Nowadays,
forsooth, they sing Andalusian songs, and dance Spanish dances; but
in what sort of way? They imitate everything that passes before their
eyes without using their intelligence to appreciate it. It is this
which makes both themselves and their artistic productions wearisome,
devoid of character, and, I may add, unnatural, in spite of the skill
and patience they devote to them. These two peculiarities, moreover,
are invariably to be found amongst nations whose civilization is but
little developed; the patience so much admired is often nothing but
waste of time and breath, quite out of proportion to the end in view,
and the skill is the mere consequence of the backward state of the
division of labor.
[Educated Filipino unnatural.] If I entered the house of a well-to-do
Filipino, who spoke Spanish, I was received with the same phrases his
model, a Spaniard, would employ; but I always had the feeling that it
was out of place. In countries where the native population remains
true to its ancient customs this is not the case; and whenever I
have not been received with proper respect, I have remarked that the
apparent fact proceeded from a difference in social forms, not more
to be wondered at than a difference in weights and measures. In Java,
and particularly in Borneo and the Moluccas, the utensils in daily use
are ornamented with so refined a feeling for form and color, that they
are praised by our artists as patterns of ornamentation and afford
a proof that the labor is one of love, and that it is presided over
by an acute intelligence. [Native art-sense spoiled.] Such a sense
of beauty is seldom to be met with in the Philippines. Everything
there is imitation or careless makeshift. Even the piña embroideries,
which are fabricated with such wonderful patience and skill, and
are so celebrated for the fineness of the work, are, as a rule,
spiritless imitations of Spanish patterns. One is involuntarily
led to these conclusions by a comparison of the art products of the
Spanish-American communities with those of more barbarous races. The
Berlin Ethnographical Museum contains many proofs of the facts I have
just mentioned.
[Indolence from absence of incentive.] The oars used in the
Philippines are usually made of bamboo poles, with a board tied to
their extremities with strips of rattan. If they happen to break, so
much the better; for the fatiguing labor of rowing must necessarily
be suspended till they are mended again.
[Carelessness from lack of responsibility.] In Java the carabao-carts,
which are completely covered in as a protection against the rain,
are ornamented with many tasteful patterns. The roofless wagons used
in the Philippines are roughly put together at the last moment. When
it is necessary to protect their contents from the wet, an old pair
of mats is thrown over them, more for the purpose of appeasing the
prejudices of the "Castilians" than really to keep off the rain.
[Weakened character and want of dignity.] The English and the Dutch are
always looked upon as strangers in the tropics; their influence never
touches the ancient native customs which culminate in the religion of
the country. But the populations whom the Spaniards have converted to
their religion have lost all originality, all sense of nationality;
yet the alien religion has never really penetrated into their inmost
being, they never feel it to be a source of moral support, and it is
no accidental coincidence that they are all more or less stamped with
a want of dignity....
[Spanish rule not benevolent, but beneficial.] With the exception of
this want of national individuality, and the loss of the distinguishing
manners and customs which constitute the chief charm of most eastern
peoples, the Filipino is an interesting study of a type of mankind
existing in the easiest natural conditions. The arbitrary rule of
their chiefs, and the iron shackles of slavery, were abolished by the
Spaniards shortly after their arrival; and peace and security reigned
in the place of war and rapine. The Spanish rule in these Islands was
always a mild one, not because the laws, which treated the natives
like children, were wonderfully gentle, but because the causes did
not exist which caused such scandalous cruelties in Spanish America
and in the colonies of other nations.
[Circumstances have favored the Filipinos.] It was fortunate for
the Filipinos that their islands possessed no wealth in the shape of
precious metals or valuable spices. In the earlier days of maritime
traffic there was little possibility of exporting the numerous
agricultural productions of the colony; and it was scarcely worth
while, therefore, to make the most of the land. The few Spaniards
who resided in the colony found such an easy method of making money
in the commerce with China and Mexico, by means of the galleons,
that they held themselves aloof from all economical enterprises,
which had little attraction for their haughty inclinations, and
would have imposed the severest labor on the Filipinos. Taking into
consideration the wearisome and dangerous navigation of the time,
it was, moreover, impossible for the Spaniards, upon whom their too
large possessions in America already imposed an exhausting man-tax,
to maintain a strong armed force in the Philippines. The subjection,
which had been inaugurated by a dazzling military exploit, was chiefly
accomplished by the assistance of the friar orders, whose missionaries
were taught to employ extreme prudence and patience. The Philippines
were thus principally won by a peaceful conquest.
[Have fared better than the Mexicans.] The taxes laid upon the peoples
were so trifling that they did not suffice for the administration
of the colony. The difference was covered by yearly contributions
from Mexico. The extortions of unconscientious officials were by no
means conspicuous by their absence. Cruelties, however, such as were
practised in the American mining districts, or in the manufactures
of Quito, never occurred in the Philippines.
[A land of opportunity.] Uncultivated land was free, and was at
the service of any one willing to make it productive; if, however,
it remained untilled for two years, it reverted to the crown. [55]
[Low taxes.] The only tax which the Filipinos pay is the poll-tax,
known as the tributo, which originally, three hundred years ago,
amounted to one dollar for every pair of adults, and in a country
where all marry early, and the sexes are equally divided, really
constituted a family-tax. By degrees the tribute has been raised to
two and one-sixteenth dollars. An adult, therefore, male or female,
pays one and one-thirty-second dollar, and that from his sixteenth to
his sixtieth year. Besides this, every man has to give forty days'
labor every year to the State. This vassalage (polos y servicios)
is divided into ordinary and extraordinary services: the first
consists of the duties appertaining to a watchman or messenger, in
cleaning the courts of justice, and in other light labors; the second
in road-making, and similar heavier kinds of work, for the benefit
of villages and provinces. The little use, however, that is made of
these services, is shown by the fact that any one can obtain a release
from them for a sum which at most is not more than three dollars. No
personal service is required of women. A little further on, important
details about the tax from official sources, which were placed at my
disposal in the colonial office, appear in a short special chapter.
[Fortunate factors.] In other countries, with an equally mild climate,
and an equally fertile soil, the natives, unless they had reached a
higher degree of civilization than that of the Philippine Islanders,
would have been ground down by native princes, or ruthlessly plundered
and destroyed by foreigners. In these isolated Islands, so richly
endowed by nature, where pressure from above, impulse from within,
and every stimulus from the outside are wanting, the satisfaction
of a few trifling wants is sufficient for an existence with ample
comfort. Of all countries in the world, the Philippines have the
greatest claim to be considered a lotos-eating Utopia. The traveller,
whose knowledge of the dolce far niente is derived from Naples,
has no real appreciation of it; it only blossoms under the shade of
palm-trees. These notes of travel will contain plenty of examples to
support this. One trip across the Pasig gives a foretaste of life
in the interior of the country. Low wooden cabins and bamboo huts,
surmounted with green foliage and blossoming flowers, are picturesquely
grouped with areca palms, and tall, feather-headed bamboos, upon its
banks. Sometimes the enclosures run down into the stream itself, some
of them being duck-grounds, and others bathing-places. The shore is
fringed with canoes, nets, rafts, and fishing apparatus. Heavily-laden
boats float down the stream, and small canoes ply from bank to bank
between the groups of bathers. The most lively traffic is to be seen
in the tiendas, large sheds, corresponding to the Javanese harongs,
which open upon the river, the great channel for traffic.
[River resorts.] They are a source of great attraction to the
passing sailors, who resort to them for eating, drinking, and other
convivialities; and while away the time there in gambling, betel
chewing, and smoking, with idle companions of both sexes.
[Sleeping pilots.] At times somebody may be seen floating down
the stream asleep on a heap of coconuts. If the nuts run ashore,
the sleeper rouses himself, pushes off with a long bamboo, and
contentedly relapses into slumber, as his eccentric raft regains
the current of the river. One cut of his bolo-knife easily detaches
sufficient of the husk of the nuts to allow of their being fastened
together; in this way a kind of wreath is formed which encircles and
holds together the loose nuts piled up in the middle.
[Labor-saving conditions.] The arduous labors of many centuries
have left as their legacy a perfect system of transport; but in
these Islands man can obtain many of his requirements direct with
proportionately trifling labor, and a large amount of comfort for
himself.
[Easy food.] Off the Island of Talim, in the great Lagoon of Bay, my
boatmen bought for a few cuartos several dozens of fish quite twelve
inches long; and those which they couldn't eat were split open, salted,
and dried by a few hours' exposure to the heat of the sun on the roof
of the boat. When the fishermen had parted with their contemplated
breakfast, they stooped down and filled their cooking-vessels with
sand-mussels (paludina costata, 2.a G.), first throwing away the
dead ones from the handfuls they picked up from the bottom of the
shallow water.
[River's importance.] Nearly all the dwellings are built by the water's
edge. The river is a natural self-maintaining highway, on which loads
can be carried to the foot of the mountains. The huts of the people,
built upon piles, are to be seen thickly scattered about its banks,
and particularly about its broad mouths. The appropriateness of
their position is evident, for the stream is at once the very
center of activity and the most convenient spot for the pursuit
of their callings. At each tide the takes of fish are more or less
plentiful, and at low-water the women and children may be seen picking
up shell-fish with their toes, for practice has enabled them to use
their toes as deftly as their fingers, or gathering in the sand-crabs
and eatable seaweed.
[Riverside gaiety.] The riverside is a pretty sight when men, women,
and children are bathing and frolicking in the shade of the palm-trees;
and others are filling their water-vessels, large bamboos, which they
carry on their shoulders, or jars, which they bear on their heads;
and when the boys are standing upright on the broad backs of the
carabaos and riding triumphantly into the water.
[Coco-palms.] It is here too that the coco-palm most flourishes, a tree
that supplies not only their food and drink, but also every material
necessary for the construction of huts and the manufacture of the
various articles which they use. While the greatest care is necessary
to make those growing further inland bear even a little fruit, the
palm-trees close to the shore, even when planted on wretched soil,
grow plentiful crops without the slightest trouble. Has a palm-tree
ever been made to blossom in a hothouse? Thomson [56] mentions that
coco-trees growing by the sea-side are wont to incline their stems over
the ocean, the waters of which bear their fruit to desert shores and
islands, and render them habitable for mankind. Thus the coco-tree
would seem to play an essential part in the ocean vagabondage of
Malaysia and Polynesia.
[Nipa-palms.] Close to the coco-trees grow clumps of the stunted
nipa-palms, which only flourish in brackish waters; [57] their
leaves furnish the best roof-thatching. Sugar, brandy, and vinegar
are manufactured from their sap. Three hundred and fifty years ago
Pigafetta found these manufactures in full swing, but nowadays
they seem to be limited to the Philippines. Besides these, the
pandanus-tree, from the leaves of which the softest mats are woven,
is always found in near proximity to the shore.
[Fertile fields.] Towards the interior the landscape is covered with
rice-fields, which yearly receive a fresh layer of fertile soil,
washed down from the mountains by the river, and spread over their
surface by the overflowing of its waters; and which in consequence
never require any fertilizer. [The carabao.] The carabao, the favorite
domestic animal of the Malays, and which they keep especially for
agricultural purposes, prefers these regions to all others. It loves
to wallow in the mud, and is not fit for work unless permitted to
frequent the water.
[Bamboo.] Bamboos with luxuriant leafy tops grow plentifully by the
huts in the rice-fields which fringe the banks of the river. In my
former sketches of travel I have endeavored to describe how much
this gigantic plant contributes to the comfort and convenience of
tropical life. Since then I have become acquainted with many curious
purposes to which it is turned, but to describe them here would be
out of place. [58] I may be allowed, however, to briefly cite a
few examples showing what numerous results are obtained from simple
means. Nature has endowed these splendid plants, which perhaps surpass
all others in beauty, with so many useful qualities, and delivered
them into the hands of mankind so ready for immediate use, that a
few sharp cuts suffice to convert them into all kinds of various
utensils. [Strength.] The bamboo possesses, in proportion to its
lightness, an extraordinary strength; the result of its round shape,
and the regularity of the joints in its stem. The parallel position and
toughness of its fibers render it easy to split, and, when split, its
pieces are of extraordinary pliability and elasticity. To the gravelly
soil on which it grows it owes its durability, and its firm, even,
and always clean surface, the brilliancy and color of which improve by
use. [Convenience.] And finally, it is a great thing for a population
with such limited means of conveyance that the bamboo is to be found
in such abundance in all kinds of localities and of all dimensions,
from a few millimeters to ten or fifteen centimeters in diameter,
even sometimes to twice this amount; and that, on account of its
unsurpassed floating power, it is pre-eminently fitted for locomotion
in a country poor in roads but rich in watercourses. A blow with a bolo
is generally enough to cut down a strong stem. [Usefulness.] If the
thin joints are taken away, hollow stems of different thicknesses can
be slid into one another like the parts of a telescope. From bamboos
split in half, gutters, troughs, and roofing tiles can be made. Split
into several slats, which can be again divided into small strips and
fibers for the manufacture of baskets, ropes, mats, and fine plaiting
work, they can be made into frames and stands. Two cuts in the same
place make a round hole through which a stem of corresponding diameter
can be firmly introduced. If a similar opening is made in a second
upright, the horizontal stem can be run through both. Gates, closing
perpendicularly or horizontally in frames moving without friction on
a perpendicular or horizontal axis, can be made in this way.
Two deep cuts give an angular shape to the stem; and when its two sides
are wide enough apart to admit of a cross-stem being placed between
them, they can be employed as roof-ridges or for the framework of
tables and chairs; a quantity of flat split pieces of bamboo being
fastened on top of them with chair-cane. These split pieces then
form the seats of the chairs and the tops of the tables, instead of
the boards and large bamboo laths used at other times. It is equally
easy to make an oblong opening in a large bamboo in which to fit the
laths of a stand.
A couple of cuts are almost enough to make a fork, a pair of tongs
or a hook.
If one makes a hole as big as the end of one's finger in a large
bamboo close under a joint, one obtains by fastening a small piece of
cloth to the open end, a syphon or a filter. If a piece of bamboo is
split down to the joint in strips, and the strips be bound together
with others horizontally interlaced, it makes a conical basket. If
the strips are cut shorter, it makes a peddler's pack basket. If
a long handle is added, and it is filled with tar, it can be used
as a signal torch. If shallower baskets of the same dimensions,
but with their bottoms cut off or punched out, are placed inside
these conical ones, the two together make capital snare baskets for
crabs and fish. If a bamboo stem be cut off just below the joint,
and its lower edge be split up into a cogged rim, it makes, when the
partition of the joint is punched out, an earth-auger, a fountain-pipe,
and many things of the kind.
* * * * *
[Pleasures of travel.] Strangers travelling in the interior have
daily fresh opportunities of enjoying the hospitality of nature. The
atmosphere is so equitably warm that one would gladly dispense with
all clothing except a sun-hat and a pair of light shoes. Should one
be tempted to pass the night in the open air, the construction of a
hut from the leaves of the palm and the fern is the work of a few
minutes; [Village rest houses.] but in even the smallest village
the traveller finds a "common house" (casa real), in which he can
take up his quarters and be supplied with the necessaries of life
at the market price. There too he will always meet with semaneros
(those who perform menial duties) ready to serve him as messengers
or porters for the most trifling remuneration. But long practice
has taught me that their services principally consist in doing
nothing. On one occasion I wanted to send a man who was playing
cards and drinking tuba (fresh or weakly-fermented palm-sap) with his
companions, on an errand. [Pleasant prison life.] Without stopping his
game the fellow excused himself on the ground of being a prisoner,
and one of his guardians proceeded in the midst of the intense heat
to carry my troublesome message. Prisoners have certainly little
cause to grumble. [Frequent floggings little regarded.] The only
inconvenience to which they are exposed are the floggings which the
local authorities very liberally dispense by the dozens for the most
trifling offences. Except the momentary bodily pain, however, these
appear in most cases to make little impression on a people who have
been accustomed to corporal punishment from their youth upwards. Their
acquaintances stand round the sufferers, while the blows are being
inflicted, and mockingly ask them how it tastes.
[Change from Malayan character.] A long residence amongst the earnest,
quiet, and dignified Malays, who are most anxious for their honor,
while most submissive to their superiors, makes the contrast in
character exhibited by the natives of the Philippines, who yet belong
to the Malay race, all the more striking. The change in their nature
appears to be a natural consequence of the Spanish rule, for the same
characteristics may be observed in the natives of Spanish America. The
class distinctions and the despotic oppression prevalent under their
former chiefs doubtless rendered the Filipinos of the past more like
the Malays of today.