[Here follows a "résumé of the measures proposed in this memorial,"
which we have already presented by sections, at the end of each subject
treated. At the end is a list of the items of estimated increase in
the public revenues of the islands provided the reforms advocated by
Bernaldez are adopted.]
[Another MS. in the possession of Edward E. Ayer, dated Madrid,
July 15, 1827, is of similar scope to this; it is signed with the
initials "P. de S. M.," and is addressed to the Spanish minister
Ballesteros. The writer states, in the prefatory note, that his
paper is the fruit of his many years of practical experience and
observation, being actively engaged in commerce from Manila throughout
the Philippine archipelago, in China, in all the foreign colonies
of India, and on the Pacific coasts of America; and that he has
written this paper "in the short time since he knew the charge given
to Señor Bernaldez." He sends it to the minister to be laid before
"the junta extraordinaria (or special committee) which at that time
was considering the judicious informatory report of the auditor Señor
Bernaldez Folgueras in regard to the protection and preservation of
the Filipinas Islands;" and he offers to appear before the committee
in person, to give any further information or explanation which may
be desired. He states that, like Ballesteros, he is a Galician; and
he displays much enthusiasm for the advancement and prosperity of
Filipinas. This MS. is headed, "Impartial reflections of a Spaniard,
who is enrolled among the citizens of Manila, upon the causes of
the decadence of the Filipinas Islands, and the means which he deems
most suitable for making them productive to the central government,
and for restoring them to the state which, by their advantageous
location, they are capable of occupying." It begins by deploring the
injury and loss caused to the islands by the piracies of the Moros,
and recommending that the Spanish government remedy the abuses and
negligence displayed in the administration of the colony, and the
enormous and extravagant expenditure of funds in the wars against
those pirates. This latter could be ended by effecting the conquest
of Joló, Mindanao, and other centers of piracy, and establishing
therein military and agricultural colonies of Visayans; this,
and the development of the natural resources of those islands,
would stop piracy and add much to the colonial revenues. Following
the example of the English colonies in America, and of the Jesuit
missionaries in Paraguay and California, agriculture should be
fostered in every way in Filipinas--where much greater success can
be obtained because the native population is large and robust, and
needs not to be supplemented by slave labor, which fortunately has
been kept out of the islands. This and other industries there can be
promoted at the same time, by proper measures. The preservation of
the colony cannot be left to the Indians, and six thousand men from
España, selected carefully, should be sent to Filipinas as soldiers
and colonists, lands being bestowed on them; and with them should
come commissioners of high standing and integrity to reform abuses
in the colony and take measures for its benefit. Banks should be
established, currency provided for, and facilities given to all the
people for securing credit when needed--under the care, protection,
and partly the management of the government. Commerce should be
made entirely free to the world, in all kinds of products, whether
native or foreign, save for the payment of moderate customs duties. A
lottery should be established; fire and marine insurance companies
should be protected; all artisans, of every class, nationality,
and religion, should be free to settle in the islands (those who
oppose this show puerile fears and absurd and impolitic notions);
the ownership of land should be made secure and legal; waste lands
should be brought under cultivation, under penalty of losing title to
them; such lands should be freely granted to all, whether natives or
foreigners, who will cultivate them; and intending colonists be aided
in all practicable ways, even from the public funds. The convents and
cabildos which have the administration of funds deposited with them
for the promotion of agriculture should be obliged to render their
accounts of these, and to distribute them so as to carry out the
intentions of the founders; and the funds which were to be invested
in the Acapulco trade should, as that has now ceased, be applied to
the benefit of agriculture. Foreign nations should be allowed to send
consuls to Manila, which would be a benefit not only to foreigners
residing in the islands, but reciprocally to Spaniards who navigate
the seas controlled by foreign nations. A printing-office should be
established there, and provision be made for the publication of a daily
paper devoted to commerce and industry, and having correspondents in
the other Oriental colonies to furnish information of their progress
and achievements in all the useful arts. A mint should be erected at
Manila; and the government establishments there for making cannon and
gun-powder, which now are almost useless, should be put on an effective
footing, and those articles should be supplied for the defense of
the merchant and coasting vessels. A probate court has been formed,
for the proper care of intestate property and that left to minors;
and its administration should be regulated carefully, and the funds
in its charge be administered for the benefit of its owners and of
the country. Manila and its environs should be sufficiently policed,
and lawlessness curbed; vagabonds should be kept under control, and
all who employ Indian servants should be made responsible for their
conduct; and such servants should not be employed by any one, whether
Spaniard or foreigner, nor allowed to enter colleges as students,
without producing certificates from the police department. A college
should be established in which the youth should receive instruction in
belles lettres, medicine, chemistry, botany, experimental physics, and
mathematics; and a botanical garden should be made near Manila. Martins
should be introduced into Luzon, for the extermination of the locust
plague. The intendancy of the royal exchequer should be separated
from the office of captain-general, so that the intendant shall have
authority to direct the affairs of the former independently.]
[The writer proceeds to describe the character of the Tagalog natives,
which he paints in gloomy colors.] It is impossible to define either
the character of these Tagálos, or their morality--although it can be
said that they have none; for, although in outward appearance they
profess the Catholic religion, inwardly and in their actions they
manifest that they follow no religion. The zeal with which the first
conquistadors undertook to instruct them in the true belief has been
useless; and the watchful care of the missionaries whom the piety
of our kings has not ceased to send to those regions has been of no
avail, except to make of their neophytes, instead of true Catholics
and useful members of society, a new species of men, who unite the
slothfulness of the savages to the vices of civilized peoples. Thus
it is that the Tagálos are fickle, vagabonds, full of superstitions,
assassins, liars, licentious but without love, adroit thieves; and,
in one word, they do not respect even the most sacred of the laws,
divine or human. They lose no opportunity to make mischief among the
authorities, and between the latter and Spaniards of all classes;
and they have the cunning to throw the blame on these last, as being
more timid. Moreover, they perjure themselves without the least
scruple; their telling the truth depends on their being more or less
carefully instructed by the parties to the suit; and unfortunate is
he who summons them as his witnesses. They do not understand love,
and their sensuality is carried to the extreme; consequently they are
cruel fathers and worse husbands, and they have not the least respect
or consideration for their wives. Paternal love is a strange thing
for them, and therefore when they punish their children they do so
barbarously, and if they begin it in the morning they do not finish
until night. The same cruel disposition is seen among the schoolmasters
who are paid by the government to teach the youth in their villages.
The code of laws for the Indias, considering these Indians as
neophytes like those of the Antillas and the Americas, has made them
participants in the privileges and liberties granted to those natives;
and it exempts them from the penalties of which they render themselves
worthy by the atrocious crimes which they continually commit. Incest,
for example, is a common vice among them, for which opportunity is
given by the little privacy in which the families live; for the
mother, daughters, and sisters all sleep in one bed [hacen cama
redonda], without any other separation from the men than merely a
blanket. It is difficult to prove this crime among them, and only the
cura or missionary could rebuke them and apply the proper correction,
in their wrongly-understood condition of neophytes, if in confession
they should reveal their sin; but, as lying is their dominant vice,
they are silent or else deny it, and the cura cannot, even when he
knows of it, obtain any satisfaction from them. The capital and its
environs are the refuge of the more perverse, who migrate from the
provinces and from their villages, in order not to work and to relieve
themselves from paying the tribute. There they devote themselves to
studies in the colleges of Santo Tomas, San José, and San Juan de
Letran, making progress in a short time, and deceiving the professors
with their apparent ingenuousness; at the same time they are occupied
as servants to the Spaniards and foreigners, but only nominally, since
they do not go to their master's house except for eating, sleeping, and
stealing from him (which they do with astonishing dexterity). After a
little time, having abused the master's patience, and having violated
his wife, daughters, and other relatives, if he has such (without
respecting even those who have not reached the age of puberty), they
end by departing with the utmost coolness; and in order to avoid
recognition, and so that they cannot be caught if they happen to be
pursued, they employ the trick of shaving the head, and, while naked,
anointing the entire body with oil, and then take to flight, with no
other covering than a mere breech-clout. The poor Spaniard, although
he finds that he has been robbed, does not think of resorting to the
magistrates to make complaint, for he knows that instead of doing him
justice they would, after making him spend much money, sentence him
to pay the costs and exculpate the Indian, regarding the latter as a
neophyte. Still less does he say a word about the rape, in order not to
make public his own dishonor. Let it not be supposed that this occurs
only among private persons; for there have been persons in authority
who have experienced in their own houses similar acts of insolence
from these vicious and immoral neophytes. After these evil deeds,
they disappear, as I have said; and in a very short time they are
seen returning from Ilocos, Camarines, and Cebú, ordained as clerics,
with what sort of character may be understood--now cleansed from all
their crimes, and absolved from guilt and penalty, to continue their
studies in the colleges. Thus they graduate as bachelors and doctors,
and secure curacies, in which they commit the acts of folly which
may easily be inferred, and which it would be tedious to explain
here; and with their corrupt behavior they set an example to their
parishioners of dissoluteness, impiety, and slothfulness.
[The writer then enumerates the good qualities of this people,
so far as they go. They are inclined to the arts and sciences, and
learn quickly, and their deficiencies therein are due only to their
lack of books for their instruction, and tools with which to finish
off their work; this is mainly due to their improvidence, "for an
Indian, even though he is a doctor and a cura, is unable to save one
cuarto for purchasing those things, no matter how cheap they may be;
on the other hand, he will, if he needs money for his vices, pledge
his breviary or sell his missal." "Nevertheless, they exercise all
the occupations except those of silversmith, tailor, and watch-maker,
for no one would trust them [in these];" but lack of tools prevents
them from doing as good work as Europeans. They have taste in the
fine arts, and almost all the buildings are planned by them. They
are excellent artillerists, and a French naval commander (in 1798)
thought them better than his own; and are useful in naval fights, on
account of their courage and agility. An Indian will in a few days'
practice understand as much of seamanship as a European would gain
in twenty years; and many of them have migrated from the islands as
seamen on the ships. But they resent being called "negroes," and in
several cases where they have been thus affronted they have mutinied,
killed the Europeans, and fled with the ship and cargo. So great
has been this migration that in the other colonies of Asia rigorous
measures have been taken to stop it, and "in all the ports of India,
the entrances and roads are full of gibbets on which men from Manila
are hanged, for a warning; but, seeing that this had no effect,
all the owners and captains of merchant ships have been compelled by
law not to receive on their vessels more than four or six of these
Indians." The Tagálos are free with their money, and readily lend to
any European whatever they may possess. They take great care of their
fighting cocks ("who are for them actual idols"), are very temperate
in eating and drinking, and are never seen intoxicated. They are often
devoted to agricultural labor, and will do well in it when they are
supplied with better methods and appliances.]
[Some account is given of the Negritos and other wild tribes of Luzón;
and it is stated that any colonist who wishes to settle among them
will be able to succeed in any agricultural or other enterprise which
he may undertake, if he will obtain the consent of the chiefs, pay
the savages whom he may employ exactly what he has agreed to give,
and not annoy them with matters of religion. As for the civilized
Tagálos, their women are entirely different from the men; they are
kind, hospitable, and industrious, and, although coquettish, are
very modest and decorous in behavior. They sow the rice, and gather
all the crops; roll cigars, and weave beautiful fabrics of cotton
and abacá; and embroider beautifully, besides making hats, mats, and
many other articles. In fine, "if it were possible to put an end to
all the men and leave only the women, or rather unite them to other
men who would possess their good qualities and think as they do,
Filipinas would come to be the most wealthy and fortunate country
in the universe." It is certain that agriculture would be the best
mode of life for the Indians, and they ought to be urged to engage
in it, after the examples furnished by the Jesuits in Paraguay,
the Quakers in America, and other successful colonists. The writer
suggests various means to stimulate the Indians to greater industry
(especially as the Spaniards cannot undertake work in the fields),
and for the formation and management of agricultural enterprises; he
would have them well treated, promptly and justly paid, and supplied
with house, land, and suitable amusements. It has been a great mistake
to prohibit the alcaldes-mayor and other provincial officials from
owning estates there, while permitting them to engage in trade; this
policy ought to be reversed, and they be obliged to cultivate the land,
and prevented from harassing the Indians as they have done. In forming
large estates, provision should be made for the homes of the laborers
being comfortable, arranged in regular streets, protected as far as
possible from the danger of fire, and shaded by trees of useful sorts;
and from these should be well isolated the proprietor's dwelling,
sheds, machinery, and other property. Gardens, orchards, fishponds,
etc., should be formed; and all appliances should be furnished which
are desirable for improving the quantity and quality of the products
of the estate, and for providing a safe and abundant supply of food,
and of the luxuries which are dear to the heart of the Indian. Careful
directions are given for the selection of land, the supply of water,
cattle-raising, making of plantations, protection against storms,
etc. An interesting account is given of the Chinese in Filipinas,
their trade, relations with the Spaniards, the abuses in these,
the hatred felt toward them by the Tagálos (resulting mainly from
the illicit relations of the Chinese with the Indian women), their
mode of life, etc.; they should be compelled to devote themselves
only to agriculture and the useful arts, and to abandon commerce and
business entirely. They have been very injurious to the interests of
the islands, and ought to be expelled from Filipinas, save as they are
engaged in handicrafts or the tillage of the soil. The Spaniards ought
thus to follow the example of the Dutch in Java and other islands,
where the Chinese have made excellent agriculturists and manufacturers
of agricultural products, and have enriched both themselves and the
Dutch; if they had been thus treated in Filipinas, that country would
now be as prosperous and wealthy as are the Dutch colonies, and its
trade would be as rich and extensive as that of the Dutch. As it is,
enormous sums of money have been carried to Filipinas from España, and
spent in the islands, with hardly any return to the mother country;
and the greater part of this wealth has been absorbed by the trade
with China, and has been stored away in that country.]
[A note at the end of this MS. outlines the author's plan for the
establishment of a banking system at Manila.]