COLONIAL WARS AND DIFFICULTIES.
From now on trouble came thick and fast upon the Spanish colony in the
Philippines. Some of it was due to the wild and troubled times through
which all the civilized world was passing, but most of it was caused by
the short-sighted folly of the home government.
In 1599, when Antonio Morga (än tō´nē ō mor´gä) was governor-general,
the first real attempt was made to occupy Mindanao and the Sulu
archipelago. For this purpose an expedition started from Manila under
the leadership of Estevan Roderigues (es´tā vän rō dārēg´ēs), a
Portuguese nobleman, who had received permission from Spain to set up a
colony in Mindanao. He was to be governor of that island, and, from his
headquarters there, was to try to conquer the Moros of Sulu, who had
never submitted to Spain’s rule.
This expedition was a sad mistake, and failed from the beginning. The
Mindanao Mohammedans resisted all efforts of the Spanish to land, and
Roderigues lost his life in the very first battle. His body was taken to
Manila for burial. Several other expeditions were sent out, from time to
time, to punish the Moros and force a settlement upon the island; but
none of them succeeded.
The efforts of the Spanish only aroused the anger and hatred of these
people. For two hundred and fifty years after that Moro pirates harried
the shores of all the islands where the Spanish dwelt. They killed and
robbed both Europeans and Filipinos; they burned towns and villages, and
carried off the people to be their slaves. For fear of them the coasts
were deserted. No one dared live near the sea; fishermen dared not
follow their calling, nor farmers till their fields. Traders dared not
come to the island ports to buy or to sell, and the coastwise trade of
the country was all but ruined.
While the Spanish were busy trying to gain a foothold in the south,
there came to Manila two visitors who were the innocent cause of still
more trouble in the country. These were two high mandarins of China, who
reached the city in the year 1603. Their story was that the emperor of
China had heard that there existed, near the city of Cavite, a great
mountain of pure gold. The emperor, they said, could hardly believe this
to be true; so he had sent them to see this mountain, that they might
come back and tell him about it.
At that time Bravo de Acuña (brä´vō dā ä kön yä) was governor-general.
He received the mandarins politely, and sent them with an escort to
Cavite, to see for themselves that no such mountain was there. The
visitors were royally entertained during their stay in Manila, and at
last went home with their report to their emperor.
[Illustration:
A MEMBER OF THE GUIANGA TRIBE OF MINDANAO.
]
This visit caused a great fright in Manila, for the Spanish at once
suspected that there was a plot behind it for the Chinese to seize the
city. They believed, or pretended to believe, that the mandarins had
come merely to spy out the land and prepare the way. At once the city
was made ready against invasion. The garrisons were increased, new ones
were formed, and every Spaniard armed himself. The Filipinos were much
excited over the stories told of coming trouble; while the Chinese,
suspected and insulted by all, could not but understand that some danger
threatened them.
At last the Chinese, wild with fear, took matters into their own hands.
They began to fortify places outside the city, and one evening opened
the battle by firing upon some Filipinos inside the city walls. They
followed up this act by crossing the river and making a savage attack on
Binondo (bē nón´dō), then only a small village on the river bank. After
that they gathered their forces at Tondo, and kept up the siege of
Binondo all that night.
[Illustration:
WARRIORS OF MINDANAO.
]
Next morning a strong force of Spanish marched out against them. This
force was led by Luis Perez Desmarinas, and in it were the pick of all
the young Castilian gentlemen in the country. The best of the Spanish
soldiery were there also, as well as a body of native troops. These
troops were Pampangans, who were then the best trained of the Filipino
soldiers.
On the other hand were thousands of frightened Chinese, ready to fight
to the death, and there was awful work in the streets of Binondo that
day. Neither side gave or got any quarter, and by night, of all those
brave young Spanish gentlemen scarce one was left alive.
But at last the Chinese gave way. They had neither weapons to carry on
war, nor food to help them withstand a siege. They began, therefore, to
fall back toward the interior; but they were hotly chased, and as they
fled nearly 25,000 of them were killed. It was sad business, and all the
more sad because it is likely that neither side really knew what the
fighting was about.
Besides trouble with the Moros in the south and with the Chinese in the
north, the colony had much to bear from Spain’s old-time foe, the Dutch.
At this time there were really very few Spanish in the islands. There
had been less than a thousand when the battle with the Chinese was
fought. Many were killed on that fatal day, so that in the new trouble
the Spaniards would have fared ill, had it not been that the army of the
colony now numbered many Filipino soldiers in its ranks.
From the end of the sixteenth century down to the year 1763, there was
war between Spain and the Dutch, and this war caused much hardship in
the islands. It was Spain’s short-sighted method in dealing with her
colonies to restrict their trade whenever it was likely to interfere
with that of her home merchants. So harsh were the measures by which she
held in check the trade of her colonies that she kept all her
dependencies poor, so that in the end the mother country lost more than
she gained.
At this time the Philippine merchants were allowed to trade only with
Mexico. Once a year, usually in July, a state galleon left Manila
carrying goods to that country. The goods were sold in Mexico, and the
money and other goods were sent back by galleon to Manila.
[Illustration:
DUTCH SHIPS ATTACKING A CHINESE TRADING JUNK.
]
The galleons also carried the mail, and great sums of money which Mexico
sent over to meet the expenses of the island government. They were
always rich prizes, and Spain’s enemies knew this all too well. They
would lie in wait for them, to capture and despoil them. The Dutch
ships, in particular, often did this. From first to last they captured a
good many of the royal galleons.
Every capture meant calamity to the islands. It meant for Manila
merchants the loss of a whole year’s business. To the State and to the
Church it meant loss of income, of salaries, and of money to carry on
all public work. To the natives it meant harder and longer tasks, deeper
poverty, heavier burdens which they must endure in raising the extra
tribute, and heavier taxes by which the loss was made good.
For a hundred and fifty years there was fighting over the royal
galleons. At one time, when Spain and England were at war, there were
six years during which no galleon reached Manila. The country was in
such sore straits that even the Chinese revolted, and the Spanish were
nearly starved.
Spain, however, seemed to learn no lesson from these experiences. She
went on as of old, sending one galleon a year, richly laden, at the
mercy of the enemy, “putting all her eggs into one basket,” as the
saying is, and when the “one basket” came to mishap all was lost.
Besides keeping a lookout for the galleons, the Dutch ships were wont to
lie in wait outside Manila harbor, to catch Chinese and Japanese trading
junks coming into port. In this way they often captured rich prizes, and
made still greater drain upon the islands. It was necessary for the
colony to raise large sums of money and many bodies of fighting men to
go against these ships in order to protect the harbor from them. Many
battles were fought with the Dutch in Philippine waters, and many times
the efforts of the natives brought victory to the Spanish side.
But it was a hard and bitter experience. The colony lived in a state of
constant danger and of real want from this source. Not until the middle
of the eighteenth century, when peace was made with Holland, had the
people of these islands any security of life or commerce.
_Summary._—In 1599 the first real attempts were made to settle in
Mindanao. An expedition was sent south, but failed, and its leader was
killed. The Spanish only stirred up the Moros against themselves, so
that the pirates came north and laid waste the coast towns. In 1603
two Chinese mandarins came to Manila, looking for a mountain of gold
which they had heard was near Cavite. This visit awakened a fear that
the Chinese meant to seize Manila, and the city was made ready against
invasion. The Chinese of Manila were driven by abuse to make an attack
on some natives, and the Spanish then fell upon them, killing over
25,000. The Spanish themselves lost the pick of their soldiers and
cavaliers that day. Owing to Spain’s war with the Dutch, the islands
at this time, and for many years after, suffered great losses and
hardships. The Dutch used to lie in wait to capture the galleons that
carried merchandise and money back and forth between Manila and
Mexico. Whenever a galleon was lost, the whole country suffered; but
the weight fell heaviest upon the natives, who, by extra tribute and
taxes, had to make the loss good.
_Questions._—Tell about the first expedition to settle Mindanao. What
did the Moros do to avenge what they deemed Spanish invasion? Give an
account of the battle against the Chinese. What led up to this battle?
How was trade carried on between the islands and Mexico? What was the
result of the capture of a galleon by Spain’s enemies? Why was Spain’s
restriction of her colonies’ trade a bad thing for her?
[Illustration]