History of the Philippine Islands Vols 1 and 2
by
Antonio de Morga
Part 7 out of 8
Governor Gonzalo Ronquillo.--Rizal.
[33] This Pedro Sarmiento was probably the one who accompanied Fathers
Rada and Marin, and Miguel Loarca to China in 1575; see this series,
VOL. IV, p. 46, and VOL. VI, p. 116. The celebrated mathematician and
navigator, Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa doubtless belonged to a different
branch of the same family. The latter was born in Alcahl de Henares,
in 1532, and died toward the end of the century. Entering the Spanish
army he went to America, perhaps in 1555. As early as 1557 he sailed
in the south seas, and being led to the belief of undiscovered islands
there, several times proposed expeditions for their discovery to the
viceroy of Peru. He was captain of Mendaña's ship in the expedition
that discovered the Solomon Islands. Shortly after, at the instance of
the viceroy, Francisco de Toledo, he visited Cuzco, and wrote a full
description of that country. He was the first to study the ancient
history and institutions of the Incas in detail. When Drake made his
memorable expedition into the South Sea, Sarmiento was sent in his
pursuit, and he wrote a detailed account of the Strait of Magellan and
his voyage through it. He later founded a Spanish colony in the strait,
but it was a failure, and was known afterward as Famine Port. He was
a prisoner, both in England and France, being ransomed by Felipe II
from the latter country. In navigation he was ahead of his times,
as his writings attest. He was persecuted for many years by the Holy
Inquisition on various charges. See Lord Amherst's Discovery of the
Solomon Islands (Hakluyt Soc. ed., London, 1901), vol. i, pp. 83-94;
and Clements R. Markham's Narratives of the voyages of Pedro Sarmiento
de Gamboa (Hakluyt Soc. ed., 1895). Argensola gives (Conquistas de
las islas Malucas), some account of Sarmiento's expedition to the
strait in pursuit of Drake. He seems (pp. 167-168) when speaking of
the incident in our text to confuse these two men. An excellent atlas
containing fourteen illuminated and colored maps is also attributed to
Sarmiento the navigator, number five being a map of India, including
the Moluccas and the Philippines.
[34] See letter by Juan de Moron, VOL. VI, of this series, pp. 275-278.
[35] It was divulged by a Filipino woman, the wife of a soldier
(Sinibaldo de Mas).--Rizal.
[36] Thomas Cavendish or Candish. He is named by various authors as
Escandesch, Cande, Eschadesch, Embleg, and Vimble.--Rizal. See also
appendix A.
[37] This memorable expedition of Sir Francis Drake left Plymouth
November 15, 1577, but an accident caused their return to the same
port, whence they again sailed on the thirteenth of December. After
various fortunes the Strait of Magellan was reached on August 17,
1578. They coasted along the western part of South America, where a
valuable prize was taken. At the island of Canno "wee espyed a shippe,
and set sayle after her, and tooke her, and found in her two Pilots
and a Spanish Gouernour, going for the Ilands of the Philippinás:
Wee searched the shippe, and tooke some of her Merchandizes, and
so let her goe." Thence they voyaged to the Moluccas, which were
reached November 14. Next day they anchored at Yerrenate, where they
were welcomed. The voyage was continued through the islands, around
the Cape of Good Hope, and thence to England, where they arrived
November 3, 1580. See Purchas: His Pilgrims (London, 1625), i, book
ii, ch. iii, pp. 46-57. For accounts of the life and voyages of Drake,
see also, Purchas: ut supra, v, book vii, ch. v, pp. 1391-1398; Bry:
Collectiones peregrinationum (Francofurti, 1625), ser. i, vol. iii,
pars viii, pp. 3-34; Francis Fletcher; The World encompassed by Sir
Francis Drake (London, 1635); Knox: New Collection of voyages and
travels (London, 1767), iii, pp. 1-27; John Barrow: Life, voyages,
and exploits of Admiral Sir Francis Drake (John Murray, Albemarle St.,
1843); Thomas Maynarde: Sir Francis Drake, his voyage 1595 (Hakluyt
Soc. ed., London, 1849); W. S. W. Vaux: The world encompassed by Sir
Francis Drake (Hakluyt Soc. ed., London, 1854).
[38] See VOL. VI of this series for various documents concerning
Father Alonso Sanchez's mission to Spain and Rome.
[39] San Agustín says that these walls were twelve thousand eight
hundred and forty-three geometrical feet in extent, and that they
were built without expense to the royal treasury.--Rizal.
[40] See references to this expedition, VOL. VIII, pp. 242, 250, 251;
and VOL. XIV.
[41] This emperor, also called Hideyosi, had been a stable boy,
called Hasiba.--Rizal.
See VOL. X, p. 25, note I, and p. 171, note 19; also Trans. Asiatic
Soc. (Yokohama), vols. vi, viii, ix, and xi.
[42] See VOL. VIII of this series, pp. 260-267.
[43] San Agustín [as does Argensola] says there were two hundred and
fifty Chinese.--Rizal.
[44] Marikaban.--Rizal.
[45] The original is ballesteras, defined in the old dictionaries as
that part of the galley where the soldiers fought.
[46] A sort of knife or saber used in the Orient.
[47] This lack and defect are felt even now [1890] after three
centuries.--Rizal.
[48] Cho-da-mukha, in Siamese the place of meeting of the chief
mandarins, i.e., the capital.--Stanley.
[49] Phra-Unkar. Phra or Pra is the title given to the kings of Siam
and Camboja.--Rizal.
[50] Si-yuthia, or the seat of the kings.--Stanley.
[51] Id est, the supercargo, in Chinese.--Stanley.
[52] Father Alonso Ximenez or Jimenez took the Dominican habit in
the Salamanca convent. His best years were passed in the missions of
Guatemala. He was one of the first Dominicans to respond to the call
for missionaries for the Dominican province in the Philippines, leaving
for that purpose the Salamanca convent, whither he had retired. His
first mission was on the river of Bataan. A severe illness compelled
him to go to the Manila convent, where he was later elected prior,
and then provincial of the entire Dominican field of the islands,
being the second to hold that office. He later engaged in the two
disastrous expeditions as mentioned in our text, and died December 31,
1598. See Reseña biográfica.
[53] Lantchang or Lanxang is the name of an ancient city in the north
of Cambodia. (Pallegoix's Dictionary).--Stanley.
[54] Rizal says: "There exists at this point a certain confusion in the
order, easy, however, to note and correct. We believe that the author
must have said 'Vencidas algunas dificultades, para la falida, por
auer ydo a efte tiempo, de Camboja a Lanchan, en los Laos vn mádarin
llamado Ocuña de Chu, con diez paroes, etc.;'" whereas the book reads
the same as the above to "Camboja," and then proceeds "a los Laos,
vn mádarin llamado Ocuña de Chu, Alanchan con diez paroes." We have
accordingly translated in accordance with this correction. Stanley
translates the passage as follows: "Some difficulties as to setting
out from Alanchan having been overcome, by the arrival at this time in
Laos from Cambodia of a mandarin named Ocuñia de Chu, with ten prahus,
etc." In the above we follow the orthography of the original.
[55] The river Me-Kong.--Rizal.
[56] Laksamana, a general or admiral in Malay.--Stanley.
[57] Chow Phya is a title in Siam and Cambodia.--Rizal.
[58] That is, his son or other heir was to inherit the title.
[59] Rizal conjectures that this word is a transformation of the
Tagál word, lampitaw, a small boat still used in the Philippines.
[60] We follow Stanley's translation. He derives the word çacatal
[zacatal] from zacate, or sacate, signifying "reed," "hay," or other
similar growths, zacatal thus being a "place of reeds" or a "thicket."
[61] From kalasag, a shield.--Rizal.
[62] Argensola says that this native, named Ubal, had made a feast
two days before, at which he had promised to kill the Spanish
commander.--Rizal.
[63] Perhaps the arquebuses of the soldiers who had been killed in
the combat with Figueroa, for although culverins and other styles
of artillery were used in these islands, arquebuses were doubtless
unknown.--Rizal.
[64] These considerations might apply to the present [1890] campaigns
in Mindanao.--Rizal.
[65] Argensola says that Cachil is probably derived from the Arabic
Katil, which signifies "valiant soldier." "In the Malucas they honor
their nobles with this title as with Mosiur in Francia, which means
a trifle more than Don in España." See also VOL. X, p. 61, note 6.
[66] The Solomon Islands (Islas de Salomon) were first discovered in
1568 by Alvaro de Mendaña de Neyra while on an expedition to discover
the supposed southern continent between Asia and America. Various
reasons are alleged for the name of this group: one that Mendaña
called them thus because of their natural richness; another that
King Solomon obtained wood and other materials there for his temple;
and the third and most probable that they were called after one of
the men of the fleet. As narrated in our text, the expedition of 1595
failed to rediscover the islands. They remained completely lost, and
were even expunged from the maps until their rediscovery by Carteret
in 1767. The discoverers and explorers Bougainville, Surville,
Shortland, Manning, d'Entrecasteaux, Butler, and Williamson, made
discoveries and explorations in the same century. In 1845, they were
visited by d'Urville. H.B. Guppy made extensive geological studies
there in 1882. The French Marist fathers went there first in 1845,
but were forced, in 1848, to abandon that field until 1861. They were
the least known of all the Pacific and South Sea islands. They extend
a distance of over 600 miles, and lie approximately between 4º 30'-12º
south latitude and 154º 40'-162º 30' east longitude. They lie southeast
of New Britain and northwest of New Hebrides. The larger islands are:
Bougainville, Choiseul, Santa Isabel, Guadalconar, Malaita, and San
Cristobal, and are generally mountainous, and volcanic in origin,
containing indeed several active volcanoes. The smaller islands are
generally volcanic and show traces of coral limestone. The climate is
unhealthful, and one of the rainiest in the world. They are extremely
fertile and contain excellent water. The inhabitants are of the Malay
race and were formerly cannibals. They form parts of the British and
German possessions. See Lord Amherst: Discovery of the Solomon Islands
(London, Hakluyt Soc. ed., 1901); H. B. Guppy: The Solomon Islands
(London, 1887); Justo Zaragoza: Historia del descubrimiento australes
(Madrid, 1876).
[67] These places are all to be found on the old maps. Paita or Payta
is shown just above or below five degrees south latitude. Callao was
properly the port of Lima.
[68] Called by the natives Fatuhiwa, situated in 10º 40' south
latitude, and west longitude 138º 15', one of the Marquesas group
belonging to France.--Rizal.
[69] According to Captain Cook, cited by Wallace, these islanders
surpassed all other nations in the harmony of their proportions and
the regularity of their features. The stature of the men is from 175
to 183 cm.--Rizal.
[70] The three islands are identified as Motane (probably), Hiwaoa,
Tahuata or Tanata; the channel as the strait of Bordelais; and the
"good port" as Vaitahu (Madre de Dios) (?).--Rizal.
[71] The breadfruit, which grows on the tree artocarpus incisa. It
is called rima in Spanish, the name by which it was perhaps known
throughout Polynesia.--Rizal.
In the Bissayan Islands this tree was called coló. It reaches a height
of about sixty feet. Its bark exudes a gummy sap, that is used for
snaring birds. For want of areca, the bark is also used by the Indians
as a substitute. The wood is yellow, and is used for making canoes,
and in the construction of houses. See Delgado's Historia General,
and Blanco's Flora de Filipinas.
[72] Probably the Pukapuka group or Union Islands.--Rizal.
[73] Perhaps Sophia Island, which is about this distance from
Lima.--Rizal.
[74] Nitendi.--Rizal.
[75] The small islets may have been the Taumako Islands; the shoals,
Matema, and the "island of no great size," Vanikoro.--Rizal.
[76] Called kilitis in the Philippines, but we are not aware that
indigo is made of it.--Rizal.
Delgado (Historia, Manila, 1892) describes the wild amaranths which he
calls quiletes (an American word, according to Blanco) doubtless the
plant indicated in the text. The native generic name is haroma. There
are numerous varieties, all edible.
[77] This word is untranslated by Stanley. Rizal conjectures that
it may come from the Tagál word sagã or jequiriti. But it may be a
misprint for the Spanish sagu or sagui, "sago."
[78] Pingré's translation of the Descubrimiento de las Islas de Salomon
says, p. 41: "On the 17th October there was a total eclipse of the
moon: this luminary, on rising above the horizon, was already totally
eclipsed. Mendaña, by his will, which he signed with difficulty, named
as lady governor of the fleet his wife Doña Isabella de Barreto." And
in a note, he [i.e., Pingré] says that he calculated this eclipse by
the tables of Halley: the immersion must have happened at Paris at
19 hours 6 minutes, and the moon had already been risen since 5 or 6
minutes; so that the isle of Sta. Cruz would be at least 13h. 2m. west
of Paris, which would make it 184 degrees 30 minutes longitude, or
at most 190 degrees, allowing for the Spaniards not having perceived
the eclipse before sunset.--Stanley.
[79] Probably Ponape.--Rizal.
[80] The Descubrimiento de las Islas de Salomon says: "The frigate
was found cast away on the coast with all the crew dead. The galliot
touched at Mindanao, in 10 degrees, where the crew landed on the
islet of Camaniguin; and while wandering on the shore, and dying of
hunger, met with some Indians, who conducted them to a hospital of
the Jesuits. The corregidor of the place sent five men of this ship
prisoners to Manila, upon the complaint of their captain, whom they
had wished to hang. He wrote to Don Antonio de Morga the following
letter: 'A Spanish galliot has arrived here, commanded by a captain,
who is as strange a man as the things which he relates. He pretends
to have belonged to the expedition of General Don Alvaro de Mendaña,
who left Peru for the Solomon isles, and that the fleet consisted
of four ships. You will perhaps have the means of knowing what the
fact is.' The soldiers who were prisoners declared that the galliot
had separated from the general only because the captain had chosen
to follow another route."--Stanley.
[81] Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera in his Historia del descubrimiento de
las regiones australes (Madrid, 1876), identifies this bay with the
present Harbor of Laguán.--Rizal.
[82] Lord Stanley translates the above passage, which reads in the
original "que por quede della razon (si acaso Dios dispusiese de
mi persona, o aya otra qualquiera ocasion; que yo, o la que lleuo
faltemos), aya luz della," etc., as "that an account may remain
(if perchance God should dispose of my life, or anything else
should arise, or I or she that I take with me should be missing),
and that it may give light," etc. Rizal points out that the words
"o la que lleuo faltemos" do not refer to Doña Isabel de Barreto,
but to a similar relation of the voyage that Quiros carried with
him. We have accordingly adopted the latter's rendering, which is by
far more probable.
[83] On the island of Shikoku.--Rizal.
[84] From the Japanese funé, boat. This may be etymologically
equivalent to the English word funny, a kind of small boat.
[85] Lord Stanley connects this word, which he translates "monks,"
with the Nembuds Koo. These, according to Engelbert Kaëmpfer, historian
and physician at the Dutch embassy in Japan, and who lived from 1651 to
1716, are devout fraternities who chant the Namanda, the abbreviation
of "Nama Amida Budsu" ("Great Amida help us"). The Dai-Nembudzsui
are persons especially devoted to Amida's worship. Rizal however
refutes this, and derives Nambaji from the Japanese word Nambanjin,
signifying "dweller of the barbaric south," as the missionaries came
from the south.
[86] See note 85, ante, p. 119.
[87] The Spanish word is dojicos, which is etymologically the same
as the French dogiques. This latter term is defined in The Jesuit
Relations (Cleveland, 1896-1901), xxvii, p. 311, note 1, as a name
given, in foreign missions, to those natives who instruct their
countrymen. They officiated in the absence of the priests.
[88] Fushimi, Osaka, and Sakai.--Rizal.
[89] See VOL. X, p. 171, note 19.
[90] Santa Ines publishes a translation of the same sentence that
varies somewhat in phraseology from the above, but which has the
same sense. It is dated however: "the first year of Quercho, on
the twentieth day of the eleventh moon." J.J. Rein (Japan, London,
1884) publishes a version different from either, which is as follows:
"Taikô--sama. I have condemned these people to death, because they
have come from the Philippine Islands, have given themselves out
as ambassadors, which they are not, and because they have dwelt
in my country without my permission, and proclaimed the law of the
Christians against my command. My will is that they be crucified at
Nagasaki." For the persecutions in this and succeeding administrations,
see Rein, ut supra.
[91] Santa Ines gives the names and order of the crucifixion of
religious and converts, twenty-six in all. They were crucified in a row
stretching east and west as follows: ten Japanese converts, the six
Franciscans, three Jesuits, and seven Japanese converts, with about
four paces between each two. The Japanese served the Franciscans in
various religious and secular capacities. The six Franciscans were:
Francisco Blanco, of Monte Rey, Galicia; Francisco de San Miguel,
lay-brother, of Parrilla, in the Valladolid bishopric; Gonzalo
Garcia, lay-brother, of Bazain, East India, son of a Portuguese
father and a native woman; Felipe de Jesús, or de las Casas, of
Mexico; Martín de la Ascension, theological lecturer, of Beasaín,
in the province of Guipuzcoa; and Pedro Bautista, of San Esteban, in
the Avila bishopric. The Jesuits were, at least two of them, Japanese,
and were not above the rank of brother or teacher. Five Franciscans of
the eleven in Japan escaped crucifixion, namely, Agustín Rodríguez,
Bartolomé Ruiz, Marcelo de Rivadeneira, Jerónimo de Jesús, and Juan
Pobre. The first three were forced to leave Japan in a Portuguese
vessel sailing to India.
[92] The Lequios Islands are identified by Rizal as the Riukiu or
Lu-Tschu Islands. J. J. Rein (Japan, London, 1884) says that they form
the second division of the modern Japanese empire, and lie between
the thirtieth and twenty-fourth parallels, or between Japan proper
and Formosa. They are called also the Loochoo Islands.
[93] See Stanley, appendix v, pp. 398-402, and Rizal, note 4, p. 82,
for extracts and abstracts of a document written by Father Alexander
Valignano, visitor of the Society of Jesus in Japan, dated October 9,
1598. This document states that three Jesuits were crucified by mistake
with the others. The document is polemical in tone, and explains on
natural grounds what the Franciscans considered and published as
miraculous. The above letter to Morga is published by Santa Ines,
ii, p. 364.
[94] Santa Ines publishes a letter from this religious to another
religious of the same order. From this letter it appears that he
later went to Macan, whence he returned to Manila.
[95] Called Alderete in Argensola, doubtless an error of the
copyist.--Rizal.
[96] The same king wrote a letter of almost the same purport to Father
Alonso Ximenez, which is reproduced by Aduarte.--Rizal.
[97] Diego Aduarte, whose book Historia de la Provincia del Santo
Rosario (Manila, 1640), will appear later in this series.
[98] Morga's own account of this, ante, says distinctly that there
were two vessels and that Bias Ruiz had entered the river ahead of
Diego Belloso. Hernando de los Rios Coronel, however, explains this
in his Relacion of 1621, by stating that one of the two vessels had
been wrecked on the Cambodian coast.
[99] The original is en la puente, which translated is "on the
bridge." We have regarded it as a misprint for en el puerto, "in
the port."
[100] This kingdom has disappeared. The ancient Ciampa, Tsiampa,
or Zampa, was, according to certain Jesuit historians, the most
powerful kingdom of Indochina. Its dominions extended from the banks
of the Menam to the gulf of Ton-King. In some maps of the sixteenth
century we have seen it reduced to the region now called Mois, and in
others in the north of the present Cochinchina, while in later maps
it disappears entirely. Probably the present Sieng-pang is the only
city remaining of all its past antiquity.--Rizal.
[101] That is, his mother and grandmother.
[102] From which to conquer the country and the king gradually,
for the latter was too credulous and confiding.--Rizal.
[103] Rizal misprints Malaca.
[104] Stanley thinks that this should read "since the war was
not considered a just one;" but Rizal thinks this Blas Ruiz's own
declaration, in order that he might claim his share of the booty taken,
which he could not do if the war were unjust and the booty considered
as a robbery.
[105] Aduarte says: "The matter was opposed by many difficulties
and the great resistance of influential persons in the community,
but as it was to be done without expense to the royal treasury,
all were overcome."--Rizal.
La Concepción says, vol. iii, p. 234, that the royal officials did
not exercise the requisite care in the fitting of Luis Dasmariñas's
vessels, as the expedition was not to their taste.
[106] A Chinese vessel, lighter and swifter than the junk, using oars
and sails.
[107] Aduarte says that the fleet left the bay on September 17.--Rizal.
La Concepción gives the same date, and adds that Dasmariñas took in
his vessel, the flagship, Father Ximinez, while Aduarte sailed in
the almiranta. The complement of men, sailors and soldiers was only
one hundred and fifty. Aduarte left the expedition by command of the
Dominican superior after the almiranta had put in to refit at Nueva
Segovia, "as he [i.e., the superior] did not appear very favorable to
such extraordinary undertakings." He returned with aid to Dasmariñas,
sailing from Manila September 6, almost a year after the original
expedition had sailed.
[108] The island of Corregidor, also called Mirabilis.--Rizal.
[109] The almiranta was wrecked because of striking some shoals,
while pursuing a Chinese craft with piratical intent. The Spanish ship
opened in two places and the crew were thrown into the sea. Some were
rescued and arrested by the Chinese authorities.--Rizal.
La Concepción says that the majority of the Spaniards determined to
pursue and capture the Chinese vessel contrary to the advice of the
pilot and a few others, and were consequently led into the shoals.
[110] This man became a religious later. We present his famous relation
of 1621 in a later volume of this series. Hernando de los Rios was
accompanied by Aduarte on his mission.
[111] It has been impossible to verify this citation. Of the four
generally known histories of the Indias written at the time of Los
Rios Coronel's letter, that of Las Casas only contains chapters of the
magnitude cited, and those chapters do not treat of the demarcation
question. Gonzalez Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdés: Historia general
y natural de las Indias (Madrid, Imprenta de la Real Academia de
la Historia, 1851), edited by Amador de los Rios, discusses the
demarcation in book ii, ch. viii, pp. 32, 33, and book xxi, ch. ii,
pp. 117, 118; Bartolomé de las Casas: Historia de las Indias (Madrid,
1875), edited by Marquis de la Fuensanta del Valle (vols. 62-66 of
Documentos inéditos para la historia de España), in book i, ch. lxxix,
pp. 485, 486; Antonio de Herrera: Historia general de los Indios
occidentalis (Madrid, 1601), in vol. i, ch. iiii, pp. 50-53, and ch. x,
pp. 62-64; Joseph de Acosta: Historia de las Indias (first published in
Spanish in Sevilla in 1590) does not discuss the matter. Neither is the
reference to Giovanni Pietro Maffei's Historiarum Indicarum (Coloniae
Agrippinae, 1590), where the demarcation is slightly mentioned.
[112] Costa in the original, misprinted cosa in Rizal.
[113] From the context, one would suppose that Los Rios Coronel wrote
Jesuita instead of Theatino.
[114] Undoubtedly the famous Father Mateo Ricci, called Li-Ma-Teou and
Si-Thaí by the Chinese. He was born in Macerata in 1552, and died in
Pekin in 1610. He was one of the greatest Chinese scholars of Europe,
and wrote a number of works in Chinese, which were highly esteemed
and appreciated by the Chinese themselves. He extended Christianity
in the celestial empire more than anyone else, by his tolerance and
keen diplomacy, by composing with great skill what he could not combat
openly. This excited the wrath of the Dominicans, and gave rise to
many controversies....Father Ricci was the associate of the famous
Father Alessandro Valignani.--Rizal.
[115] The latitude of Toledo is 39º 52'; Nankin [Lanquien] 32º;
and Pekin [Paquien] 39º 58'.
[116] The pico is a measure of weight. Gregorio Sancianco y Goson
(El Progreso de Filipinas, Madrid, 1881) gives its table thus: 1
pico = 10 chinantes = 100 cates = 1 tael, 6 décimas = 137 libras, 5
décimas = 62 kilógramos, 262 gramos, 1 tael = 22 adarmes = 39 gramos,
60 céntimos. The pico is not a fixed weight. In Manila its equivalent
has been fixed at 137 libras, 6 décimas. In the ports of China and
Singapore the English have adopted the following equivalents: 1 pico
= 133 1/3 English pounds; 1 pico in Manila is equal to 140 English
pounds; and 1 English pico equals 131.4 Castilian pounds.
[117] Certain shells found in the Philippines, and used as money in
Siam, where they are called sigay.
[118] Father Juan Maldonado de San Pedro Mártir was born in Alcalá
de Guadaira in the province of Sevilla. After a course in the
humanities and philosophy, he went to Salamanca University to study
canonical law. He made his profession at the Dominican convent in
Valladolid, where he lived in great austerity. He was one of the
first to respond to the call of Father Juán Crisóstomo for workers
in the Philippines. He was associated with Father Benavides in the
Chinese mission, but was unable to learn the language because of
other duties. He was later sent to Pangasinan, where, in 1588, he
was appointed vicar of Gabón (now Calasiao). He was definitor in the
Manila chapter in 1592, by which he was appointed vicar of Abucay,
in the Bataan district. Shortly after he was again appointed to the
Chinese work, and learned the language thoroughly. In 1596, while on
the unfortunate voyage to Camboja, Father Alonso Jimenez appointed him
vicar-general, but he resigned from this, as well as from the office
of commissary-general of the Holy Office, which he was the first to
hold in the islands. In 1598 he was appointed lecturer on theology,
and in November of the same year went to Camboja. His death occurred
within sight of Cochinchina, December 22, 1598, and he was buried in
Pulocatouan. He was confessor to Luis Dasmariñas. (Reseña Biográfica,
Manila, 1891.)
[119] Rizal misprints guardia de sus personas que podian, as guardia
de sus personas que pedian.
[120] This happened afterward and was a constant menace to the
Spaniards, as many letters, reports, and books attest.
[121] This was the first piratical expedition made against the
Spaniards by the inhabitants of the southern islands.--Rizal.
Barrantes (Guerras Piraticas) wrongly dates the abandonment of La
Caldera and the incursion of the Moros 1590. Continuing he says:
"The following year they repeated the expedition so that the Indians
retired to the densest parts of the forests, where it cost considerable
trouble to induce them to become quiet. For a woman, who proclaimed
herself a sibyl or prophetess, preached to them that they should not
obey the Spaniards any longer, for the latter had allied themselves
with the Moros to exterminate all the Pintados."
[122] From the Malay tingi, a mountain.--Rizal.
[123] The island of Guimarás, southeast of Panay, and separated from
it by the strait of Iloilo.
[124] Neither Stanley nor Rizal throws any light on this word. The
Spanish dictionaries likewise fail to explain it, as does also
a limited examination of Malay and Tagál dictionaries. Three
conjectures are open: 1. A derivative of tifatas, a species of
mollusk--hence a conch; 2. A Malay or Tagál word for either a wind or
other instrument--the Malay words for "to blow," "to sound a musical
instrument," being tiyup and tiyupkân; 3. A misprint for the Spanish
pifas--a possible shorthand form of pifanos--signifying fifes.
[125] J. J. Rein (Japan, London, 1884) say that the son of Taicosama or
Hideyoshi was called Hideyosi, and was born in 1592. He was recognized
by Taicosama as his son, but Taicosama was generally believed not to
have been his father. The Yeyasudono of Morga was Tokugawa Iyeyasu,
lord of the Kuwantô, who was called Gieiaso by the Jesuits. He was
already united by marriage to Taicosama. The men appointed with
Iyeyasu to act as governors were Asano Nagamasa, Ishida, Mitsunari,
Masuda Nagamori, Nagatsuka Masaïye, and Masuda Geni. Iyeyasu, the
Daifusama of our text, tried to exterminate Christianity throughout the
empire. He established the feudal system that ruled Japan for three
centuries, dividing society into five classes, he himself being the
most powerful vassal of the mikado. He framed a set of laws, known
by his name, that were in force for three centuries. Their basis was
certain doctrines of Confucius that recognized the family as the basis
of the state. Iyeyasu was a true statesman, an attractive personage,
and a peace-loving man. He was revered after death under the name
of Gongensama. See also Trans. Asiatic Soc. (Yokohama), vol. iii,
part ii, p. 118, "The Legacy of Iyeyasu."
[126] A manuscript in the British Museum, Dutch Memorable Embassies,
says that he died September 16, 1598, at the age of sixty-four, after
reigning fifteen years. The regent is there called Ongoschio.--Stanley.
[127] Recueil des voyages (Amsterdam, 1725) ii, pp. 94-95 divides
Japanese society into five classes: those having power and authority
over others, called tones, though their power may be dissimilar;
priests or bonzes; petty nobility and bourgeoisie; mechanics and
sailors; and laborers.
[128] This battle was fought at Sekigahara, a little village on the
Nakasendo, in October, 1600. Some firearms and cannon were used but
the old-fashioned spears and swords predominated in this battle, which
was fought fiercely all day. (Murray: Story of Japan, New York, 1894).
[129] John Calleway, of London, a musician, as stated in van Noordt's
account.--Stanley.
[130] See appendix B, end of this volume, for résumé of Dutch
expeditions to the East Indies.
[131] Cuckara, the ladle formerly used to charge cannon which used
no cartridge, but the loose powder from the barrel.
[132] The count of Essex, who in command of an English squadron
captured the city of Cadiz in 1596. He sacked the city and killed
many of the inhabitants, leaving the city in ruins. Drake in 1587
had burned several vessels in the same harbor.
[133] Called "San Antonio" above.
[134] Portuguese, above.
[135] The present port of Mariveles, as is seen from Colin's
map.--Rizal.
[136] Juan Francisco Valdés was preacher in the convent of Santo Niño
de Cebú in 1599, and was a missionary in Caruyan from 1600 until
1606. He died in 1617. Juan Gutiérrez was assistant in the council
[discreto] of the general chapter of his order of 1591. He returned
to Manila after three years and was definitor and minister of Tondo
in 1596, and of Parañaque 1602-1603. After that he returned to Rome
a second time as definitor-general, whence he went to Mexico, where
he exercised the duties of procurator in 1608. See Pérez's Catalogo.
[137] Perhaps "in the direction of the island Del Fraile" is meant
here, since no port of that name is known.--Rizal.
The expression occurs, however, in at least one other contemporaneous
document.
[138] Now Punta de Fuego [i.e., Fire Promontory].--Rizal.
[139] The Dutch account of this combat says that their flagship carried
fifty-three men before the fight, of whom only five were killed and
twenty-six wounded.--Rizal.
[140] This is perhaps the brother of Fernando de los Rios Coronel,
mentioned in his letter to Morga, ante, p. 180.
[141] This is the present Nasugbú, which is located in the present
province of Batangas, a short distance below Punta de Fuego or Fire
Promontory, on the west coast of Luzón.
[142] The governor appears to have ordered this execution of his own
authority, without trial or the intervention of the Audiencia. Since
the independence of Holland was not recognized by Spain until 1609,
it is likely that these men were executed as rebels. If the ground was
that they were pirates, the Dutchmen's own account of their burning
villages, etc., where there were no Spaniards, is more damaging to
themselves than the statements of Morga, and enough to make them out
to have been hostes humani generis.--Stanley.
[143] Van Noordt was not wrecked, as will be seen later in
this work. He returned to Holland after many misfortunes and
adventures.--Rizal.
The Sunda is the strait between the islands of Sumatra and Java.
[144] Hernando de los Rios Coronel in his Memorial y Relacion
attributes both the loss of these two vessels and also that of the
"San Felipe" to Don Francisco Tello's indolence. "For this same reason
other vessels were lost afterward--one called 'Santa Margarita,' which
was wrecked in the Ladrones, another, called 'San Gerónimo,' wrecked
in the Catanduanes, near the channel of those islands, and a third
which sailed from Cibú, called 'Jesus Maria.'" But the last-named,
which sailed during Pedro de Acuña's administration, was not wrecked,
as claimed by the above author.--Rizal.
[145] Port of Baras (?).--Rizal.
[146] Kachil Kota. Kachil is the title of the nobles. Kota or Kutà
signifies fortress.--Rizal.
[147] Leonardo y Argensola (Conquesta de las Molucas, Madrid, 1609,
pp. 262, 263), reproduces this letter translated into Spanish.
[148] These considerations were very narrow, and contrary to the
international obligations of mutual assistance incurred by the Spanish
by their trading with Japan; such treatment of Japan furnished that
country with an additional motive for secluding itself and declining
relations, the benefits of which were so one-sided: however, the
Spaniards themselves may have felt this only nine years later, for,
according to the Dutch Memorable Embassies, part i, p. 163, a large
Spanish ship, commanded by Don Rodrigo de Riduera, came from Mexico
to Wormgouw, near Yeddo, in August of 1611; these Spaniards were
requesting permission from the Japanese emperor to sound the Japanese
ports, because the Manila ships were frequently lost on the voyage
to New Spain, for want of knowledge of those ports. "Moreover, these
same Spaniards requested permission to build ships in Japan, because,
both in New Spain and in the Philippines, there was a scarcity of
timber fit for ships, and also of good workmen." In the Philippines
there was no scarcity of timber, so that the statement to that effect
was either an error of the Dutch author, or a pretext on the part of
the Spaniards.--Stanley.
[149] The Dominican Francisco Morales was born at Madrid, October
14, 1567. He professed at the Valladolid convent, where he became
lecturer on philosophy. In the same convent he fulfilled various
duties until 1602, in which year it was determined to send him to
Japan as vicar-general. With other missionaries he was driven from
the kingdom of Satzuma in 1609. Father Morales worked, however, in
the capital until the persecution of 1614, when he remained hidden
in the country. He was arrested March 15, 1619. A week after he
was conducted, with other priests, to the island of Juquinoxima,
distant three leagues from Nagasaki. In August they were removed to
the prison of Ormura. On September 21, 1622, they were taken again
to Nagasaki, where they were executed next day. He was beautified by
order of the pope. He wrote La relación del glorioso martirio de los
BB. Alonso Navarrete y Hernando Ayala de San José, a quarto of thirty
pages. (Reseña Biográfica, Manila, 1891.)
[150] The Augustinian Diego de Guevara was born in the town of
Baeza, in the province of Jaén, of a noble family. He took the
habit in Salamanca. He arrived at Manila in 1593 with twenty-four
other religious of his order. In May, 1595, he was chosen sub-prior
and procurator of Manila, and in June definitor and discreto [i.e.,
assistant in the council] to the general chapter. He was wrecked at
Japan while on his way to attend the chapter at Rome, however, and
returned to Manila with Father Juan Tamayo, his companion. After the
Chinese insurrection in Manila in 1603, he was sent to Spain, which
he reached by way of Rome. He remained for three years in San Felipe
el Real, but was again sent (1610) to the islands, as visitor of the
Augustinian province. From 1616-1621 he was bishop of Nueva Cáceres,
dying in the latter year. He was the author of various Actas, which
have been used extensively by the province. (Catálogo de los Agustinos,
Manila, 1901.)
[151] Santa Inés mentions this religious as one of those sent back
to Manila by way of a Portuguese vessel about to sail to Portuguese
India, at the time of the persecution.
[152] Probably the Sibukaw.--Rizal. This tree--also spelled
sibucao--grows to a height of twelve or fifteen feet. Its flowers
grow in clusters, their calyx having five sepals. The pod is woody
and ensiform and contains three or four seeds, separated by spongy
partition-walls. The wood is so hard that nails are made of it, while
it is used as a medicine. It is a great article of commerce as a dye,
because of the beautiful red color that it yields.
[153] The Philippines then exported silk to Japan, whence today comes
the best silk.--Rizal.
[154] These must be the precious ancient china jars that are even
yet found in the Philippines. They are dark gray in color, and are
esteemed most highly by the Chinese and Japanese.--Rizal.
[155] From this point the Rizal edition lacks to the word and in
the second sentence following. The original reads: "que hizieron su
camino por tierra. Entre tanto, se padecian en la nao muchas molestias,
de los Iapones que auia en el puerto."
[156] The word in the original is cabria, which signifies literally
the sheers or machine for raising a temporary mast. It is evidently
used here for the mast itself.
[157] Perhaps to perform the hara-kiri, which was an ancient custom
among the Japanese, and consisted in the criminal's making an incision
in his abdomen, and then afterward sinking the knife in his bosom,
or above the clavicle, in order to run it through the heart. Then
the victim's head was cut off with a stroke of the sword.--Rizal.
[158] Andrea Furtado de Mendoza began his military career at the
age of sixteen, when he accompanied King Sebastian on his ill-fated
expedition to Morocco. A year or two later he went to India and
became famous by his relief of Barcelor. He had charge of many arduous
posts and achieved many military and naval successes. He opposed the
Dutch attempts of Matelief at Malacca. In 1609, he was elected as
thirty-seventh Portuguese governor of India, and filled the office
with great credit to himself and country. (Voyage of Pyrard de Laval,
Hakluyt Society ed., London, 1888, part i, vol. ii, p. 267, note 3.)
[159] The accounts of voyages made for the Dutch East India Company
(Recueil des voyages, Amsterdam, 1725) mention a town Jaffanapatan
in Ceylon, evidently the Jabanapatan of our text.
[160] Hernando de los Rios attributed to these wars of the Moluccas the
reason why the Philippines were at first more costly than profitable to
the king, in spite of the immense sacrifices of the inhabitants in the
almost gratuitous construction of galleons, in their equipment, etc.;
and in spite of the tribute, duty, and other imposts and taxes. These
Molucca expeditions, so costly to the Philippines, depopulated the
islands and depleted the treasury, without profiting the country at
all, for they lost forever and shortly what had been won there so
arduously. It is also true that the preservation of the Philippines
for Spain must be attributed to the Moluccas, and one of the powerful
arguments presented to Felipe II as to the advisability of sustaining
those islands was for the possession of the rich spice islands.--Rizal.
[161] Argensola says that the following things were also sent for
this expedition: "300 blankets from Ilocos, 700 varas of wool from
Castilla, 100 sail-needles, and 30 jars of oil; while the whole cost
of the fleet amounted to 22,260 pesos per month." The expedition,
which was profitless, lasted six months.--Rizal.
[162] See VOLS. XII and XII for documents concerning the coming of
these mandarins, and the subsequent Chinese insurrection.
[163] Ignacio or Iñigo de Santa Maria, of the Dominican convent of
Salamanca, on arriving at the Philippines, was sent to Cagayan. He
was later elected prior of the Manila convent, and then definitor. In
1603 he went to Camboja as superior of that mission. Returning thence
for more workers that same year, he died at sea. (Reseña Biográfica,
Manila, 1891.)
[164] Diego de Soria was born in Yébenes, in the province and
diocese of Toledo, and took the Dominican habit in Ocaña. Showing
signs of a great preacher he was sent to the College of Santo Tomás
in Alcalá de Henares. Thence he went to Manila in 1587 and was one
of the founders of the Dominican convent in Manila, of which he was
vicar-president until June 10, 1588, when he was chosen its prior in
the first provincial chapter of the Philippine province. In 1591 he
was sent to Pangasinan, where he remained until 1595, whence he was
sent to Cagayan at the instance of Luis Perez Dasmariñas. In 1596,
after many successes in Cagayan, he was recalled to Manila as prior of
the convent for the second time. Shortly after he was sent to Spain
and Rome as procurator. He refused the nomination to the bishopric
of Nueva Cáceres, but was compelled to accept that of Nueva Segovia,
and reached the islands somewhat later. In 1608 he was in Vigan,
his residence. He died in 1613 and was buried in the parish church of
Vigan. In 1627 his remains were removed to the Dominican convent at
Lallo-c, in accordance with his wishes. (Reseña Biográfica, Manila,
1891.)
[165] Buzeta and Bravo say that Baltasar Covarrubias was appointed
to the bishopric in 1604, at which time he entered upon his duties;
but that he died in 1607 without having been consecrated.
[166] Copied and condensed from Purchas: His Pilgrimes (London, 1625),
book ii, chap. iiii, pp. 55-71, "the third circumnavigation of the
globe." For other accounts of Candish, see Purchas: ut supra, iv,
book vi, chap. vi, pp. 1192-1201, and chap. vii, pp. 1210-1242; Bry:
Collectiones peregrinationum (Francofurti, 1625), ser. i, vol. iii,
pars viii, pp. 35-59; Pieter van der Aa: Zee en landreysen (Leyden,
1706) xx deel, pp. 1-64; and Hakluyt's Voyages (Goldsmid ed.,
Edinburgh, 1890), xvi, pp. 1-84.
[167] The area of England and Wales is 58,186 sq. mi., that of
Scotland, with its 787 islands, 30,417 (mainland 26,000) sq. mi.,
and that of Luzón, about 41,000 sq. mi.
[168] See also VOL. XI of this series.
[169] Oliver van Noordt was the first Dutch circumnavigator. For
an account of the fight with the Spanish from the side of the Dutch,
see Stanley's translation of Morga, pp. 173-187.
[170] "L'Amsterdam ... avoit été amené à Manille avec 51 morts à son
bord ... que le yacht le Faucon en avoit 34 ... que le Faucon avoit
été aussí emmené avec 22 morts."
[171] Spanish accounts, some of which will be published later in this
series, relate Spielberg's bombardment of Iloilo, and his defeat,
after disembarking by Diego Quinones in 1616; while he was later
completely defeated by Juan Ronquillo at Playa Honda, in 1617.
[172] Following in a translation of the title-page of the other
edition of Morga's work, which shows that a second edition of the
Sucesos was published in the same year as was the first. A reduced
facsimile of this title-page--from the facsimile reproduction in
the Zaragoza edition (Madrid, 1887)--forms the frontispiece to the
present volume. It reads thus: "Events in the Philipinas Islands:
addressed to Don Christoval Gomez de Sandoval y Rojas, duke de Cea,
by Doctor Antonio de Morga, alcalde of criminal causes in the royal
Audiencia of Nueva España, and consultor for the Holy Office of the
Inquisition. At Mexico in the Indias, in the year 1609." In the lower
left-hand corner of the engraved title appears the engraver's name:
"Samuel Estradanus, of Antwerp, made this."
[173] The month is omitted in the text.--Stanley.
[174] Fray Diego Bermeo, a native of Toledo, became a Franciscan
friar; and in 1580 went to Mexico, and three years later to the
Philippines. After spending many years as a missionary in Luzón and
Mindoro, he was elected provincial of his order in the islands (in
1599, and again in 1608). Going to Japan as commissary provincial--in
1603, according to Morga, but 1604 as given by Huerta (Estado,
p. 446)--he was obliged by severe illness to return to Manila; he
died there on December 12, 1609.
[175] Luis Sotelo, belonging to an illustrious family of Sevilla,
made his profession as a Franciscan in 1594. Joining the Philippine
mission, he reached the islands in 1600; and he spent the next two
years in ministering to the Japanese near Manila, and in the study of
their language. In 1600 he went to Japan, where he zealously engaged
in missionary labors. Ten years later, he was sentenced to death for
preaching the Christian religion; but was freed from this danger by
Mazamune, king of Boxu, who sent the Franciscan as his ambassador to
Rome and Madrid. Returning from this mission, Sotelo arrived in the
Philippines in 1618, and four years later resumed his missionary
labors in Japan. In 1622 he was again imprisoned for preaching,
and was confined at Omura for two years, during which time he wrote
several works, in both the Spanish and Japanese languages. Sotelo was
finally burned at the stake in Omura, August 25, 1624. See Huerta's
Estado, pp. 392-394.
[176] The present towns of San Nicolás, San Fernando, etc., lying
between Binondo and the sea.--Rizal.
[177] This remark of Morga can be applied to many other insurrections
that occurred later--not only of Chinese, but also of natives--and
probably even to many others which, in the course of time, will be
contrived.--Rizal.
[178] These devices, of which certain persons always avail themselves
to cause a country to rebel, are the most efficacious to bring such
movements to a head. "If thou wishest thy neighbor's dog to become mad,
publish that it is mad," says an old refrain.--Rizal.
[179] This is the famous Eng-Kang of the histories of
Filipinas.--Rizal.
[180] The Rizal edition of Morga omits the last part of this
sentence, the original of which is "entre vnos esteros y cienagas,
lugar escondido."
[181] "The Chinese killed father Fray Bernardo de Santo Catalina,
agent of the holy office, of the order of St. Dominic ... They attacked
Quiapo, and after killing about twenty people, set fire to it. Among
these they burned alive a woman of rank, and a boy."--Rizal. This
citation is made from Leonardo de Argensola's Conquistas de las Molucas
(Madrid, 1609), a synopsis of which will follow Morga's work.
[182] We are unaware of the exact location of this settlement of
Laguio. It is probably the present village of Kiapo, which agrees
with the text and is mentioned by Argensola. Nevertheless, from the
description of this settlement given by Morga (post, chapter viii)
and Chirino, it can be inferred that Laguio was located on the present
site of the suburb of La Concepción. In fact, there is even a street
called Laguio between Malate and La Ermita.--Rizal.
[183] "Fine helmets were found broken in with clubs... About thirty
also escaped (among whom was Father Farfan), who were enabled to do so
because of being in the rear, and lightly armed" (Argensola).--Rizal.
[184] Argensola says that the Chinese killed many peaceful merchants in
the parián, while others hanged themselves of their own accord. Among
these Argensola mentions General Hontay and the rich Chican--according
to the relation of Fray Juan Pobre, because the latter had refused
to place the famous Eng-Kang at the head of the movement.--Rizal.
[185] "And they tried to persuade the natives to unite with them;
but the latter refused, and on the contrary killed as many of the
Sangleys as they caught" (Argensola).--Rizal.
[186] Argensola says that "four thousand Pampangos, armed in the
custom of their country, with bows and arrows, half-pikes, shields,
and long broad daggers," were sent by the alcalde of Pampanga to the
relief of Manila, which now needed soldiers.--Rizal.
[187] In this struggle many cruelties were committed and many quiet
and friendly Chinese killed. Don Pedro de Acuña, who could not
prevent or stifle this terrible insurrection in its beginnings, also
contributed to the horrible butcheries that ensued. "Accordingly
many Spaniards and natives went to hunt the disbanded Sangleys,
at Don Pedro's order." Hernando de Avalos, alcalde of La Pampanga,
seized more than 400 pacific Sangleys, "and leading them to an estuary,
manacled two and two, delivered them to certain Japanese, who killed
them. Father Fray Diego de Guevara of the order of St. Augustine, prior
of Manila, who made this relation, preached to the Sangleys first,
but only five abandoned their idolatry." ... Would he not have done
better to preach to Alcalde Avalos, and to remind him that he was a
man? The Spanish historians say that the Japanese and Filipinos showed
themselves cruel in the killing of the Chinese. It is quite probable,
considering the rancor and hate with which they were regarded. But
their commanders contributed to it also by their example. It is said
that more than 23,000 Chinese were killed. "Some assert that the number
of Sangleys killed was greater, but in order that the illegality
committed in allowing so many to enter the country contrary to the
royal prohibitions might not be known, the officials covered up or
diminished the number of those who perished" (Argensola).--Rizal.
[188] The coming of the Spaniards to the Filipinas, and their
government, together with the immigration of the Chinese, killed the
industry and agriculture of the country. The terrible competition
of the Chinese with any individual of another race is well known,
for which reason the United States and Australia refuse to admit
them. The indolence, then, of the inhabitants of the Filipinas, is
derived from the lack of foresight of the government. Argensola says
the same thing, and could not have copied Morga, since their works
were published in the same year, in countries very distant from one
another, and the two contain wide differences.--Rizal.
The Chinese question has always been of great importance in the
Philippines. The dislike of the Filipino for the Chinese seemed
instinctive and was deep-rooted. The subject of the Chinese immigration
to the islands has served for special legislation on many occasions
in Spain, but they have nevertheless persisted in their trading and
occupations therein. See Stanley's edition of Morga, appendix II,
pp. 363-368; and Los Chinos en Filipinos (Manila, 1886).
[189] This should be six hundred and four.--Rizal.
[190] Nueva España.--Rizal.
[191] This archbishop seems to have been a principal cause of the
disturbance and massacre of the Chinese, by taking a leading part in
exciting suspicion against them.--Stanley.
[192] The Arab travelers of the ninth century mention that eunuchs
were employed in China, especially for the collection of the revenue,
and that they were called thoucam.--Stanley.
[193] "In earlier times a barrier, which ran from Osaka to the
border of Yamato and Omi, separated the thirty-three western from the
thirty-three eastern provinces. The former were collectively entitled
Kuwansei (pronounce Kánsé), i.e., westward of the Gate; the latter
Kuwantô (pronounce Kántô), i.e., eastward of the Gate. Later, however,
when under the Tokugawa régime the passes leading to the plain in which
Yedo, the new capital of Shôgune, grew up were carefully guarded;
by the Gate (Kuwan) was understood the great guard on the Hakone
Pass, and Kuwantô or Kuwantô-Hashiu, the eight provinces east of it:
Sagami, Musashi, Kôtsuke, Shimotsuke, Hitachi, Shimosa, Katsusa,
and Awa." Thus defined by Rein, in his Japan, p. II, Cf. Griffis,
Mikado's Empire, p. 68, note.
[194] A flat-bottomed boat, capable of carrying heavy loads.
[195] Pedro Alvares de Abreu.--Rizal.
[196] According to Argensola, who gives a succinct relation of this
expedition, the number engaged in it were as follows: Spaniards
and their officers, 1,423; Pampangos and Tagáls (without their
chiefs), 344; idem, for maritime and military service, 620; rowers,
649; Indian chiefs, 5; total 3,041. But he adds that all those
of the fleet, exclusive of the general's household and followers,
numbered 3,095. Probably the 54 lacking in the above number were the
Portuguese under command of Abreu and Camelo, although Argensola
does not mention Portuguese soldiers.... The names of the Indian
chiefs attending the expedition at their own cost were: Don Guillermo
(Palaot), master-of-camp; and Captains Don Francisco Palaot, Don Juan
Lit, Don Luis Lont, and Don Agustin Lont. These must have behaved
exceedingly well, for after the assault on Ternate, Argensola says:
"Not a person of consideration among the Spaniards or the Indians
remained unwounded."--Rizal.
[197] Said Dini Baraka ja.--Rizal.
[198] Combés (Mindanao, Retana's ed., cols. 73, 74) describes the
bagacay as a small, slender reed, hardened in fire and sharp-pointed;
it is hurled by a Moro at an enemy with unerring skill, and sometimes
five are discharged in one volley. He narrates surprising instances of
the efficacy of this weapon, and says that "there is none more cruel,
at close range."
[199] Stanley translates this "flat-boats." Retana and Pastells
(Combés's Mindanao, col. 787) derive this word from Chinese chun,
"a boat," and regard the joanga (juanga) as a small junk.
[200] "The soldiers, having entered the city, gave themselves
universally to violence and pillage. Don Pedro had issued a
proclamation conceding that all of the enemy captured within those
four days, should be slaves" (Argensola). During the sack, which
Don Pedro was unable to restrain, neither children nor young girls
were spared. One girl was killed because two soldiers disputed for
her.--Rizal.
[201] "The prince's name was Sulamp Gariolano. This step was contrary
to the advice of Queen Celicaya" (Argensola).--Rizal.
[202] Sangajy, a Malay title (Marsden).--Stanley.
[203] The Jesuit Father Luis Fernández, Gallinato, and Esquivel
made negotiations with the king for this exile, and Father Colin
attributes its good outcome to the cleverness of the former. What was
then believed to be prudent resulted afterward as an impolitic measure,
and bore very fatal consequences; for it aroused the hostility of all
the Molucas, even that of their allies, and made the Spanish name
as odious as was the Portuguese. The priest Hernando de los Rios,
Bokemeyer, and other historians, moreover, accuse Don Pedro de Acuña
of bad faith in this; but, strictly judged, we believe that they do
so without foundation. Don Pedro in his passport assured the lives of
the king and prince, but not their liberty. Doubtless a trifle more
generosity would have made the conqueror greater, and the odium of
the Spanish name less, while it would have assured Spanish domination
of that archipelago. The unfortunate king never returned to his own
country. Hernando de los Rios says that during Don Pedro de Acuña's
life he was well treated, but that during the administration of Don
Juan de Silva "I have seen him in a poor lodging where all the rain
fell on him, and they were starving him to death." He is described by
Argensola as of "robust proportions, and his limbs are well formed. His
neck and much of his breast are bare. His flesh is of a cloudy color,
rather black than gray. The features of his face are like those of an
European. His eyes are large and full, and he seems to dart sparks
from them. His large eyelashes, his thick bristling beard, and his
mustaches add to his fierceness. He always wears his campilan, dagger,
and kris, both with hilts in the form of gilded serpents' heads." This
description was taken from a picture sent to Spain.--Rizal.
[204] Other disturbances occurred also, because of Don Pedro's enemies
having spread the news that the expedition had been destroyed, and
most of those making it killed. "This report, having come to the ears
of the Indians, was so harmful that they began to mutiny, especially
in the provinces of Camarines and Pintados. The friars who instructed
them could already do, nothing with them, for they asked why, since
the inhabitants of the Malucos were victorious, should they be subject
to the Spaniards, who did not defend them from the Moros. They said
that the Moros would plunder them daily with the help of Ternate,
and that it would be worse henceforth" (Argensola).--Rizal.
La Concepción states (Hist. de Philipinas, iv, p. 103) that these
Japanese were settled in Dilao; and that the immediate cause of their
mutiny was the killing of a Japanese by a Spaniard, in a quarrel.
[205] The authors of this poisoning were then known in Manila,
and according to Argensola were those envious of the governor. "But
although they were known as such, so that the suspicion of the crowd
makes them the authors of the poisoning we shall repress their names
... for all are now dead" (Argensola).--Rizal.
Cf. La Concepción (Hist. de Philipinas, iv, pp. 105, 106); he ascribes
the report of Acuña's poisoning to the physicians, who sought thus
to shield their own ignorance of his disease.
[206] These were the results of having taken the king and his chiefs,
who had entrusted themselves to Don Pedro de Acuña, prisoners to
Manila, the king of Tidore, the ally of España, had already found
means to break the alliance. The governors appointed by the captive
king refused to have anything to do with the Spaniards. Fear was
rampant in all parts, and the spirit of vengeance was aroused. "When
his vassals saw the ill-treatment that the Spaniards inflicted on
their king, they hated us so much that they acquired an equal liking
for our enemies. (Her. de los Rios)." Don Pedro lacked the chief
characteristic of Legazpi.--Rizal.
[207] This relation forms an appendix to Theodore de Bry's Ninth
part of America (Frankfort, 1601), and was printed by Matthew Becker
(Frankfort, 1602). The copper plates are different from those of the
Dutch edition of the relation.--Stanley.
The plates representing Oliver van Noordt's fleet, presented
in the preceding volume, are taken from tome xvi of Theodore de
Bry's Peregrinationes (first ed.), by courtesy of the Boston Public
Library. The title-page of the relation reads in part: "Description
dv penible voyage faict entovr de l'univers ou globe terrestre, par
Sr. Olivier dv Nort d'Avtrecht, ... Le tout translaté du Flamand en
Franchois, . . . Imprimé a Amsterdame. Ches Cornille Claessz fur l'Eau
au Livre a Escrire, l'An 1602." This relation was reprinted in 1610,
and numerous editions have appeared since.
[208] One of the Canary Islands.
[209] This anchor was given him by a Japanese captain, in Manila Bay,
on December 3, 1600.--Stanley.
[210] What we now call Java used to be called Java major, and the
island of Bali was Java minor.--Stanley.
[Note: Inasmuch as Morga enters somewhat largely into the ancient
customs of the Tagáls and other Filipino peoples in the present
chapter, and as some of Rizal's notes indicative of the ancient culture
of those peoples are incorporated in notes that follow, we deem it
advisable to invite attention to Lord Stanley's remarks in the preface
to his translation of Morga (p. vii), and Pardo de Tavera's comment
in his Biblioteca Filipina (Washington, 1903), p. 276. Stanley says:
"The inhabitants of the Philippines previous to the Spanish settlement
were not like the inhabitants of the great Indian Peninsula, people
with a civilization as that of their conquerors. Excepting that they
possessed the art of writing, and an alphabet of their own, they do
not appear to have differed in any way from the Dayaks of Borneo as
described by Mr. Boyle in his recent book of adventures amongst that
people. Indeed there is almost a coincidence of verbal expressions in
the descriptions he and De Morga give of the social customs, habits,
and superstitions of the two peoples they are describing; though many
of these coincidences are such as are incidental to life in similar
circumstances, there are enough to lead one to suppose a community of
origin of the inhabitants of Borneo and Luzon." Pardo de Tavera says
after quoting the first part of the above: "Lord Stanley's opinion is
dispassionate and not at all at variance with historical truth." The
same author says also that Blumentritt's prologue and Rizal's notes
in the latter's edition of Morga have so aroused the indignation of
the Spaniards that several have even attacked Morga.]
[211] More exactly from 25º 40' north latitude to 12º south latitude,
if we are to include Formosa in the group, which is inhabited likewise
by the same race.--Rizal.
[212] We confess our ignorance with respect to the origin of this
belief of Morga, which, as one can observe, was not his belief in
the beginning of the first chapter. Already from the time of Diodorus
Siculus (first century B. C.), Europe received information of these
islands by one Iamboule, a Greek, who went to them (to Sumatra at
least), and who wrote afterward the relation of his voyage. He gave
therein detailed information of the number of the islands, of their
inhabitants, of their writing, navigation, etc. Ptolemy mentions
three islands in his geography, which are called Sindæ in the Latin
text. They are inhabited by the Aginnatai. Mercator interprets those
islands as Celebes, Gilolo, and Amboina. Ptolemy also mentions the
island Agathou Daimonos (Borneo), five Baroussai (Mindanao, Leite,
Sebu, etc.), three Sabadeibai (the Java group--Iabadiou) and ten
Masniolai where a large loadstone was found. Colin surmises that
these are the Manilas.--Rizal.
Colin (Labor Evangelica, Madrid, 1663) discusses the discovery and
naming of the Philippines. He quotes Ptolemy's passage that speaks
of islands called the Maniolas, whence many suppose came the name
Manilas, sometimes given to the islands. But as pointed out in a
letter dated March 14, 1904, by James A. LeRoy, Spanish writers have
wasted more time on the question than it merits. Mr. LeRoy probably
conjectures rightly that many old Chinese and Japanese documents will
be found to contain matter relating to the Philippines prior to the
Spanish conquest.
[213] It is very difficult now to determine exactly which is this
island of Tendaya, called Isla Filipina for some years. According to
Father Urdaneta's relations, this island was far to the east of the
group, past the meridian of Maluco. Mercator locates it in Panay,
and Colin in Leyte, between Abuyog and Cabalían--contrary to the
opinion of others, who locate it in Ibabao, or south of Samar. But
according to other documents of that period, there is no island by
that name, but a chief called Tendaya, lord of a village situated in
that district; and, as the Spaniards did not understand the Indians
well at that time, many contradictions thus arose in the relations of
that period. We see that, in Legazpi's expedition, while the Spaniards
talked of islands, the Indians talked of a man, etc. After looking
for Tandaya for ten days they had to continue without finding it
"and we passed on without seeing Tandaya or Abuyo." It appears,
nevertheless, that the Spaniards continued to give this name to the
southwestern part of Samar, calling the southeastern part Ibabao or
Zibabao and the northern part of the same island Samar.--Rizal.
[214] Sugbú, in the dialect of the country.--Rizal.
[215] Morga considers the rainy season as winter, and the rest of
the year as summer. However this is not very exact, for at Manila,
in December, January, and February, the thermometer is lower than
in the months of August and September. Consequently, in its seasons
it is like those of España and those of all the rest of the northern
hemisphere.--Rizal.
[216] The ancient traditions made Sumatra the original home of the
Filipino Indians. These traditions, as well as the mythology and
genealogies mentioned by the ancient historians, were entirely lost,
thanks to the zeal of the religious in rooting out every national pagan
or idolatrous record. With respect to the ethnology of the Filipinas,
see Professor Blumentritt's very interesting work, Versuch einer
Etnographie der Philippinen (Gotha, Justus Perthes, 1882).--Rizal.
[217] This passage contradicts the opinion referred to in Boyle's
Adventures among the Dyaks of Borneo, respecting the ignorance of the
Dyaks in the use of the bow, which seems to imply that other South
Sea islanders are supposed to share this ignorance. These aboriginal
savages of Manila resemble the Pakatans of Borneo in their mode of
life.--Stanley.
[218] We do not know the origin of this word, which does not seem to
be derived from China. If we may make a conjecture, we will say that
perhaps a poor phonetic transcription has made chinina from the word
tininã (from tinã) which in Tagál signifies teñido ["dyed stuff"],
the name of this article of clothing, generally of but one color
throughout. The chiefs wore these garments of a red color, which made,
according to Colin, "of fine gauze from India."--Rizal.
[219] Bahag "a richly dyed cloth, generally edged with gold" among
the chiefs.--Rizal.
[220] "They wrapped it in different ways, now in the Moro style, like
a turban without the top part, now twisted and turned in the manner
of the crown of a hat. Those who esteemed themselves valiant let the
ends of the cloth, elaborately embroidered, fall down the back to the
buttocks. In the color of the cloth, they showed their chieftaincy, and
the device of their undertakings and prowess. No one was allowed to use
the red potong until he had killed at least one man. And in order to
wear them edged with certain edgings, which were regarded as a crown,
they must have killed seven men" (Colin). Even now any Indian is seen
to wear the balindang in the manner of the putong. Putong signifies
in Tagál, "to crown" or "to wrap anything around the head."--Rizal.
[221] This is the reading of the original (cera hilada). It seems more
probable that this should read "spun silk," and that Morga's amanuensis
misunderstood seda ("silk") as cera ("wax"), or else it is a misprint.
[222] "They also have strings of bits of ivory" (Colin).--Rizal.
[223] "The last complement of the gala dress was, in the manner of our
sashes, a richly dyed shawl crossed at the shoulder and fastened under
the arm" (even today the men wear the lambong or mourning garment
in this manner) "which was very usual with them. The Bisayans, in
place of this, wore robes or loose garments, well made and collarless,
reaching to the instep, and embroidered in colors. All their costume,
in fact, was in the Moorish manner, and was truly elegant and rich;
and even today they consider it so" (Colin).--Rizal.
[224] This manner of headdress, and the long robe of the Visayans,
have an analogy with the Japanese coiffure and kimono.--Rizal.
[225] Barõ.--Rizal.
[226] A tree (Entada purseta) which grows in most of the provinces
of the Philippines. It contains a sort of filament, from which is
extracted a soapy foam, which is much used for washing clothes. This
foam is also used to precipitate the gold in the sand of rivers. Rizal
says the most common use is that described above.
[227] This custon still exists.--Rizal.
[228] This custom exists also among the married women of Japan,
as a sign of their chastity. It is now falling into disuse.--Rizal.
[229] The Filipinos were careful not to bathe at the hour of
the siesta, after eating, during the first two days of a cold,
when they have the herpes, and some women during the period of
menstruation.--Rizal.
[230] This work, although not laborious, is generally performed
now by the men, while the women do only the actual cleaning of the
rice.--Rizal.
[231] This custom is still to be seen in some parts.--Rizal.
[232] A name given it by the Spaniards. Its Tagál name is
kanin.--Rizal.
[233] The fish mentioned by Morga is not tainted, but is the
bagoong.--Rizal.
[234] A term applied to certain plants (Atmaranthus, Celosia, etc.) of
which the leaves are boiled and eaten.
[235] From the Tagál tubã, meaning sap or juice.--Rizal.
[236] The Filipinos have reformed in this respect, due perhaps to the
wine-monopoly. Colin says that those intoxicated by this wine were
seldom disagreeable or dangerous, but rather more witty and sprightly;
nor did they show any ill effects from drinking it.--Rizal.
[237] This weapon has been lost, and even its name is gone. A proof
of the decline into which the present Filipinos have fallen is the
comparison of the weapons that they manufacture now, with those
described to us by the historians. The hilts of the talibones now
are not of gold or ivory, nor are their scabbards of horn, nor are
they admirably wrought.--Rizal.
Balarao, dagger, is a Vissayan word.--Stanley.
[238] The only other people who now practice head-hunting are the
Mentenegrins.--Stanley.
[239] A Tagál word meaning oar.--Stanley.
[240] A common device among barbarous or semi-civilized peoples,
and even among boatmen in general. These songs often contain many
interesting and important bits of history, as well as of legendary
lore.
[241] Karang, signifying awnings.--Rizal and Stanley.
[242] The Filipinos, like the inhabitants of the Marianas--who are no
less skilful and dexterous in navigation--far from progressing, have
retrograded; since, although boats are now built in the islands,
we might assert that they are all after European models. The
boats that held one hundred rowers to a side and thirty soldiers
have disappeared. The country that once, with primitive methods,
built ships of about 2,000 toneladas, today [1890] has to go to
foreign ports, as Hong-Kong, to give the gold wrenched from the poor,
in exchange for unserviceable cruisers. The rivers are blocked up,
and navigation in the interior of the islands is perishing, thanks to
the obstacles created by a timid and mistrusting system of government;
and there scarcely remains in the memory anything but the name of all
that naval architecture. It has vanished, without modern improvements
having come to replace it in such proportion as, during the past
centuries, has occurred in adjacent countries....--Rizal.
[243] It seems that some species of trees disappeared or became
very scarce because of the excessive ship-building that took place
later. One of them is the betis.--Rizal.
Blanco states (Flora, ed. 1845, p. 281) that the betis (Azaola betis)
was common in Pampanga and other regions.
Delgado describes the various species of trees in the Philippines
in the first six treatises of the first part of the fourth book of
Historia general de Filipinas (Manila, 1892). He mentions by name more
than seventy trees grown on the level plains and near the shores;
more than forty fruit-trees; more than twenty-five species grown in
the mountains; sixteen that actually grow in the water; and many kinds
of palms. See also Gazetteer of the Philippine Islands (Washington,
1902), pp. 85-95, and Buzeta and Bravo's Diccionario (Madrid, 1850),
i, pp. 29-36.
[244] Sanctor is called santol (Sandoricum indicum--Cavanilles), in
Delgado (ut supra, note 71). The tree resembles a walnut-tree. Its
leaves are rounded and as large as the palm of the hand, and are
dark green in color. Excellent preserves are made from the fruit,
which was also eaten raw by the Indians. The leaves of the tree have
medicinal properties and were used as poultices. Mabolo (Diospyros
discolor--Willd.) signifies in Tagál a thing or fruit enclosed in
a soft covering. The tree is not very high. The leaves are large,
and incline to a red color when old. The fruit is red and as large
as a medium-sized quince, and has several large stones. The inside of
the fruit is white, and is sweet and firm, and fragrant, but not very
digestible. The wood resembles ebony, is very lustrous, and is esteemed
for its solidity and hardness. The nanca [nangka, nangca; translated
by Stanley, jack-fruit] (Artocarpus integrifolia--Willd.), was taken
to the Philippines from India, where it was called yaca. The tree
is large and wide-spreading, and has long narrow leaves. It bears
fruit not only on the branches, but on the trunk and roots. The
fruit is gathered when ripe, at which time it exhales an aromatic
odor. On opening it a yellowish or whitish meat is found, which
is not edible. But in this are found certain yellow stones, with a
little kernel inside resembling a large bean; this is sweet, like
the date, but has a much stronger odor. It is indigestible, and when
eaten should be well masticated. The shells are used in cooking and
resemble chestnuts. The wood is yellow, solid, and especially useful
in making certain musical instruments. Buzeta and Bravo (Diccionario,
i, p. 35) say that there are more than fifty-seven species of bananas
in the Philippines.
[245] Pilê (Canarium commune--Linn.). Delgado (ut supra) says that this
was one of the most notable and useful fruits of the islands. It was
generally confined to mountainous regions and grew wild. The natives
used the fruit and extracted a white pitch from the tree. The fruit
has a strong, hard shell. The fruit itself resembles an almond, both
in shape and taste, although it is larger. The tree is very high,
straight, and wide-spreading. Its leaves are larger than those of
the almond-tree.
[246] Delgado (ut supra) describes the tree (Cedrela
toona--Roxb.) called calanta in Tagál, and lanipga in Visayan. The tree
is fragrant and has wood of a reddish color. It was used for making
the hulls of vessels, because of its strength and lightness. The same
author describes also the asana (Pterocarpus indicus--Willd.) or as it
is called in the Visayas, naga or narra--as an aromatic tree, of which
there are two varieties, male and female. The wood of the male tree is
pinkish, while that of the female tree is inclined to white. They both
grow to a great size and are used for work requiring large timber. The
wood has good durable qualities and is very impervious to water, for
which reason it was largely used as supports for the houses. Water
in which pieces of the wood were placed, or the water that stood in
vessels made of this wood, had a medicinal value in dropsy and other
diseases. In the provinces of Albay and Camarines the natives made
curiously-shaped drinking vessels from this wood.
[247] So many cattle were raised that Father Gaspar de San Agustin,
when speaking of Dumangas, says: "In this convent we have a large ranch
for the larger cattle, of so many cows that they have at times numbered
more than thirty, thousand ... and likewise this ranch contains many
fine horses."--Rizal.
[248] To the flesh of this fowl, called in Tagál ulikbâ, are attributed
medicinal virtues.--Rizal.
[249] These animals now [1890] exist in the islands, but are held in
small esteem.--Rizal.
[250] See chapter on the mammals of the islands, in Report of
U. S. Philippine Commission, 1900, iii, pp. 307-312. At its end is the
statement that but one species of monkey is known, and one other is
reported, to exist in the Philippines; and that "the various other
species of monkey which have been assigned to the Philippines by
different authors are myths pure and simple."
[251] Camalote, for gamalote, a plant like maize, with a leaf a yard
long and an inch wide. This plant grows to a height of two yards
and a half, and when green serves for food for horses (Caballero's
Dictionary, Madrid, 1856).--Stanley.
At that time the name for zacate (hay).--Rizal.
[252] In Japanese fimbari, larks (Medhurst's Japanese
Vocabulary).--Stanley.
[253] Pogos, from the Tagál pugô.--Rizal.
Delgado (ut supra) describes the pogos as certain small gray birds,
very similar to the sparrows in Spain. They are very greedy, and if
undisturbed would totally destroy the rice-fields. Their scientific
name is Excalfactoria chinensis (Linn.).
[254] Stanley conjectures that this word is a misprint for maynelas,
a diminutive of maina, a talking bird. Delgado (ut supra) describes
a bird called maya (Munia jagori--Cab.; Ploceus baya--Blyth.; and
Ploceus hypoxantha--Tand.), which resembles the pogo, being smaller
and of a cinnamon color, which pipes and has an agreeable song.
[255] Stanley translates this as "wild ducks." Delgado (ut supra)
describes a bird called lapay (Dendrocygna vagans--Eyton.), as similar
to the duck in body, but with larger feet, which always lives in the
water, and whose flesh is edible.
[256] For descriptions of the birds in the Philippines, see Delgado
(ut supra) book v, part i, 1st treatise, pp. 813-853; Report of
U.S. Philippine Commission, 1900, iii, pp. 312-316; and Gazetteer of
the Philippine Islands (Washington, 1902), pp. 170, 171. There are
more than five hundred and ninety species of birds in the islands, of
which three hundred and twenty-five are peculiar to the archipelago,
and largely land birds. There are thirty-five varieties of doves and
pigeons, all edible.
[257] There are now domestic rabbits, and plenty of peacocks.--Rizal.
[258] Doubtless the python, which is often domesticated in the
Philippines. See VOL. XII, p. 259, note 73.
[259] La Gironiére (Twenty Years in the Philippines--trans. from
French, London, 1853) describes an interesting fight with a huge
crocodile near his settlement of Jala-Jala. The natives begged for
the flesh in order to dry it and use it as a specific against asthma,
as they believed that any asthmatic person who lived on the flesh for
a certain time would be infallibly cured. Another native wished the
fat as an antidote for rheumatic pain. The head of this huge reptile
was presented to an American, who in turn presented it to the Boston
Museum. Unfortunately La Gironiére's picturesque descriptions must
often be taken with a grain of salt. For some information regarding
the reptiles of the islands see Report of U.S. Philippine Commission,,
1900, iii, pp. 317-319.
[260] Unless we are mistaken, there is a fish in the Filipinas called
Pámpano.--Rizal.
[261] For catalogue and scientific description of the mollusks
of the Philippines, see the work of Joaquín González Hidalgo--now
(1904) in course of publication by the Real Academia de Ciencias
of Madrid--Estudios preliminares sobre la fauna malacológica de las
Islas Filipinas.
[262] The Río Grande.--Rizal.
[263] No fish is known answering to this description.--Stanley.
[264] The island of Talim.--Rizal.
[265] Retana thinks (Zúñiga, ii, p. 545*) that this device was
introduced among the Filipinos by the Borneans.
[266] A species of fishing-net. Stanley's conjecture is wrong.
[267] Esparavel is a round fishing-net, which is jerked along by
the fisher through rivers and shallow places. Barredera is a net of
which the meshes are closer and tighter than those of common nets,
so that the smallest fish may not escape it.
[268] Cf. methods of fishing of North American Indians, Jesuit
Relations, vi, pp. 309-311, liv, pp. 131, 306-307.
[269] A species of fish in the Mediterranean, about three pulgadas
[inches] long. Its color is silver, lightly specked with black.
[270] The fish now called lawlaw is the dry, salted sardine. The
author evidently alludes to the tawilis of Batangas, or to the dilis,
which is still smaller, and is used as a staple by the natives.--Rizal.
For information regarding the fishes of the Philippines, see Delgado
(ut supra), book v, part iv, pp. 909-943; Gazetteer of the Philippine
Islands (ut supra), pp. 171-172; and (with description of methods of
fishing) Report of U. S. Philippine Commission, 1900, iii, pp. 319-324.
[271] Pahõ. A species of very small mango from one and one-half
to five centimeters in its longer diameter. It has a soft pit, and
exhales a strong pitchy odor.--Rizal.
[272] A Spanish word signifying a cryptogamous plant; perhaps referring
to some species of mushroom.
[273] In Tagál this is kasubhã. It comes from the Sanskrit kasumbha,
or Malay kasumba (Pardo de Tavera's El Sanscrito en la lengua
tagalog).--Rizal.
This plant is the safflower or bastard saffron (Certhamus tinctorius);
its flowers are used in making a red dye.
[274] Not a tree, but a climber. The plants are cultivated by
training them about some canes planted in the middle of certain
little channels which serve to convey irrigation to the plant twice
each day. A plantation of betel--or ikmó, as the Tagáls call it--much
resembles a German hop-garden.--Rizal.
[275] This fruit is not that of the betel or buyo, but of the bonga
(Tagál buñga), or areca palm.--Rizal.
[276] Not quicklime, but well slaked lime.--Rizal.
Rizal misprints un poco de cal viva for vn poluc de cal viua.
[277] The original word is marcada. Rizal is probably correct in
regarding it as a misprint for mascada, chewed.
[278] It is not clear who call these caskets by that name. I
imagine it to be the Spanish name, properly spelt buxeta. The king
of Calicut's betel box is called buxen in the Barcelona MS. of the
Malabar coasts.--Stanley.
[279] See VOL. IV, p. 222, note 31; also Delgado (ut supra),
pp. 667-669. Delgado says that bonga signifies fruit.
[280] Tagál, tukõ.--Rizal.
[281] This word in the original is visitandolas; Rizal makes it
irritandolas (shaking or irritating them), but there are not sufficient
grounds for the change.
[282] The Indians, upon seeing that wealth excited the rapacity of
the encomenderos and soldiers, abandoned the working of the mines,
and the religious historians assert that they counseled them to a
similar action in order to free them from annoyances. Nevertheless,
according to Colin (who was "informed by well-disposed natives")
more than 100,000 pesos of gold annually, conservatively stated,
was taken from the mines during his time, after eighty years of
abandonment. According to "a manuscript of a grave person who had
lived long in these islands" the first tribute of the two provinces
of Ilocos and Pangasinan alone amounted to 109,500 pesos. A single
encomendero, in 1587, sent 3,000 taheles of gold in the "Santa Ana,"
which was captured by Cavendish.--Rizal.
[283] This was prohibited later.--Rizal.
[284] See VOL. XIV, pp. 301-304.
According to Hernando de los Rios the province of Pangasinan was said
to contain a quantity of gold, and that Guido de Labazaris sent some
soldiers to search for it; but they returned in a sickly state and
suppressed all knowledge of the mines in order not to be sent back
there. The Dominican monks also suppressed all knowledge of the mines
on account of the tyranny of which gold had been the cause in the
West Indies.--Stanley.
[285] Pearl-fishing is still carried on along the coasts of Mindanao
and Palawan, and in the Sulu archipelago. In the latter region pearls
are very abundant and often valuable; the fisheries there are under
the control of the sultan of Sulu, who rents them, appropriating for
himself the largest pearls.
[286] Probably the cowry (Cypræa moneta). Crawfurd states
(Dict. Ind. Islands, p. 117) that in the Asiatic archipelago this
shell is found only on the shores of the Sulu group, and that it
"seems never to have been used for money among the Indian Islanders
as it has immemorially been by the Hindus."
[287] Jagor, Travels in the Philippines (Eng. trans., London, 1875),
devotes a portion of his chapter xv to these jars. He mentions the
great prices paid by the Japanese for these vessels. On p. 164, occurs
a translation of the above paragraph, but it has been mistranslated
in two places. Stanley cites the similar jars found among the Dyaks
of Borneo--the best called gusih--which were valued at from $1,500 to
$3,000, while the second grade were sold for $400. That they are very
ancient is proved by one found among other remains of probably the
copper age. From the fact that they have been found in Cambodia, Siam,
Cochinchina, and the Philippines, Rizal conjectures that the peoples
of these countries may have had a common center of civilization at
one time.
[288] "Not many years ago," says Colin (1663), "a large piece [of
ambergris] was found in the island of Joló, that weighed more than
eight arrobas, of the best kind, namely, the gray."--Rizal.
[289] This industry must now be forgotten, for it is never heard
of.--Rizal.
[290] Perhaps Morga alludes to the sinamay, which was woven from abaká,
or filament of the plant Musa textilis. The abaká is taken from the
trunk and not the leaf.--Rizal.
[291] This name seems to be Malay, Babu-utan, wild swine.--Stanley.
[292] The men of these islands were excellent carpenters and
ship-builders. "They make many very light vessels, which they take
through the vicinity for sale in a very curious manner. They build
a large vessel, undecked, without iron nail or any fastening. Then,
according to the measure of its hull, they make another vessel that
fits into it. Within that they put a second and a third. Thus a large
biroco contains ten or twelve vessels, called biroco, virey, barangay,
and binitan." These natives were "tattooed, and were excellent rowers
and sailors; and although they are upset often, they never drown." The
women are very masculine. "They do not drink from the rivers, although
the water is very clear, because it gives them nausea.... The women's
costumes are chaste and pretty, for they wear petticoats in the
Bisayan manner, of fine medriñaque, and lamboncillos, which resemble
close-fitting sayuelos [i.e., woolen shifts worn by certain classes
of religious]. They wear long robes of the same fine medriñaque. They
gather the hair, which is neatly combed, into a knot, on top of the
head, and place a rose in it. On their forehead they wear a band of
very fine wrought gold, two fingers wide. It is very neatly worked and
on the side encircling the head it is covered with colored taffeta. In
each ear they wear three gold earrings, one in the place where Spanish
women wear them, and two higher up. On their feet they wear certain
coverings of thin brass, which sound when they walk." (The citations
herein are from Colin.) These islands have also retrograded.--Rizal.
[293] Cavite derives its name from the Tagál word cavit, a creek,
or bend, or hook, for such is its form.--Stanley.
[294] This province had decreased so greatly in population and
agriculture, a half century later, that Gaspar de San Agustin said:
"Now it no longer has the population of the past, because of the
insurrection of that province, when Don Sabiniano Manrique de Lara
was governor of these islands, and because of the incessant cutting
of the timber for the building of his Majesty's ships, which prevents
them from cultivating their extremely fertile plain." Later, when
speaking of Guagua or Wawà, he says: "This town was formerly very
wealthy because of its many chiefs, and because of the abundant
harvests gathered in its spacious plains, which are now submerged by
the water of the sea."--Rizal.
[295] Now the port of Sorsogón.--Rizal.
[296] Now the port of Mariveles (?).--Rizal.
[297] Subik (?).--Rizal.
[298] Mindoro is at present [1890] so depopulated that the minister of
the Colonies, in order to remedy this result of Spanish colonization,
wishes to send there the worst desperadoes of the peninsula, to see
if great criminals will make good colonists and farmers. All things
considered, given the condition of those who go, it is indubitable
that the race that succeeds must know how to defend itself and live,
so that the island may not be depopulated again.--Rizal.
[299] Samar. This proves contrary to the opinion of Colin, who places
Tendaya in Leite.--Rizal.
[300] Southeastern part of Samar.--Rizal.
[301] Colin says, however, that they did tattoo the chins and
about the eyes [barbas y cejas]. The same author states also that
the tattooing was done little by little and not all at once. "The
children were not tattooed, but the women tattooed one hand and
part of the other. In this island of Manila the Ilocos also tattooed
themselves, although not so much as did the Visayans." The Negritos,
Igorrotes, and other independent tribes of the Filipinas still tattoo
themselves. The Christians have forgotten the practice. The Filipinas
used only the black color, thus differing from the Japanese, who
employ different colors, as red and blue, and carry the art to a
rare perfection. In other islands of the Pacific, the women tattoo
themselves almost as much as the men. Dr. Wilhelm Joest's Tätowiren
Narbenzeichnen und Körperbemahlen (Berlin, 1887) treats the matter
very succinctly.--Rizal.
[302] This is a confused statement, after what just precedes it and
according to the evidence of Father Chirino (see VOL. XII, chapter
vii). Morga must mean that they wore no cloak or covering when they
went outside the house, as did the Tagáls (both men and women),
who used a kind of cape.--Rizal. [This is the sense in which Stanley
understood and translated this passage.]
[303] Gûbat, grove, field, in Tagál. Mangubat [so printed in the text
of Rizal's edition] signifies in Tagál "to go hunting, or to the wood,"
or even "to fight."--Rizal.
[304] "At the arrival of the Spaniards at this island (Panay)" says
San Agustín, "it was said to have more than 50,000 families. But
they decreased greatly ... and at present it has about 14,000
tributarios--6,000 apportioned to the crown, and 8,000 to individual
encomenderos." They had many gold-mines, and obtained gold by
washing the sand in the Panay River; "but instigated by the outrages
received from the alcaldes-mayor," says the same historian, "they
have ceased to dig it, preferring to live in poverty than to endure
such troubles."--Rizal.
[305] This entire paragraph is omitted in the Rizal edition. In the
original it is as follows:
La Lengua de todos, los Pintados y Bicayas, es vna mesma, por do se
entienden, hablando y escriuiendo, en letras y caratores que tienen
particulares, que semejan á los Arabigos, y su comun escribir entre
los naturales, es en hojas de arboles, y en cañas, sobre la corteza;
que en todas las islas ay muchas, de disforme grueso los cañutos,
y el pie es vn arbol muy grueso y maciço.
[306] This difference is no greater than that between the Spanish,
Portuguese, and Italian.--Rizal.
[307] See Chirino (Relacion de las islas Filipinas) VOL. XII, chapters
xv-xvii. His remarks, those of Morga, and those of other historians
argue a considerable amount of culture among the Filipino peoples prior
to the Spanish conquest. A variety of opinions have been expressed
as to the direction of the writing. Chirino, San Antonio, Zúñiga,
and Le Gentil, say that it was vertical, beginning at the top. Colin,
Ezguerra, and Marche assert that it was vertical but in the opposite
direction. Colin says that the horizontal form was adopted after
the arrival of the Spaniards. Mas declares that it was horizontal
and from left to right, basing his arguments upon certain documents
in the Augustinian archives in Manila. The eminent Filipino scholar,
Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera has treated the subject in a work entitled
"Contribucion para el estudio de los antiguos alfabetos filipinos"
(Losana, 1884). See Rizal's notes on p. 291 of his edition of Morga.
[308] This portion of this sentence is omitted in Stanley.
[309] Báhay is "house" in Tagál; pamamáhay is that which is in the
interior and the house. Bahandin may be a misprint for bahayín,
an obsolete derivative.--Rizal.
[310] Cf. this and following sections with Loarca's relation, VOL. V,
of this series; and with Plasencia's account, VOL. VII, pp. 173-196.
[311] Timawá.--Rizal.
[312] The condition of these slaves was not always a melancholy
one. Argensola says that they ate at the same table with their masters,
and married into their families. The histories fail to record the
assassination for motives of vengeance of any master or chief by
the natives, as they do of encomenderos. After the conquest the evil
deepened. The Spaniards made slaves without these pretexts, and without
those enslaved being Indians of their jurisdiction--going moreover,
to take them away from their own villages and islands. Fernando de los
Rios Coronel, in his memorial to the king (Madrid, 1621) pp. 24-25,
speaks in scathing terms of the cruelties inflicted on the natives
in the construction of ships during the governorship of Juan de
Silva. A letter from Felipe II to Bishop Domingo de Salazar shows
the awful tyranny exercised by the encomenderos upon the natives,
whose condition was worse than that of slaves.--Rizal.
[313] For remarks on the customs formerly observed by the natives of
Pampanga in their suits, see appendix to this volume.
[314] This fundamental agreement of laws, and this general uniformity,
prove that the mutual relations of the islands were widespread, and the
bonds of friendship more frequent than were wars and quarrels. There
may have existed a confederation, since we know from the first
Spaniards that the chief of Manila was commander-in-chief of the
sultan of Borneo. In addition, documents of the twelfth century that
exist testify the same thing.--Rizal.
[315] This word must be sagigilid in its Tagál form. The root gílid
signifies in Tagál, "margin," "strand," or "shore." The reduplication
of the first syllable, if tonic, signifies active future action. If
not tonic and the suffix an be added, it denotes the place where the
action of the verb is frequently executed. The preposition sa indicates
place, time, reference. The atonic reduplication may also signify
plurality, in which case the singular noun would be sagílid, i.e.,
"at the margin," or "the last"--that is, the slave. Timawá signifies
now in Tagál, "in peace, in quietness, tranquil, free," etc. Maginoo,
from the root ginoo, "dignity," is now the title of the chiefs; and
the chief's reunion is styled kaginoóhan. Colin says, nevertheless,
that the Chiefs used the title gat or lakan, and the women dayang. The
title of mama applied now to men, corresponds to "uncle," "Señor,"
"Monsieur," "Mr.," etc.; and the title al of women to the feminine
titles corresponding to these.--Rizal.
[316] Namamahay (from bahay, "house"), "he who lives in his own
house." This class of slaves, if they may be so called, exists even
yet. They are called kasamá (because of being now the laborers of
a capitalist or farmer), bataan ("servant," or "domestic"), kampon,
tao, etc.
[317] This class of slavery still exists [1890] in many districts,
especially in the province of Batangas; but it must be admitted that
their condition is quite different from that of the slave in Greece or
Rome, or that of the negro, and even of those made slaves formerly by
the Spaniards. Thanks to their social condition and to their number in
that time, the Spanish domination met very little resistance, while
the Filipino chiefs easily lost their independence and liberty. The
people, accustomed to the yoke, did not defend the chiefs from
the invader, nor attempt to struggle for liberties that they never
enjoyed. For the people, it was only a change of masters. The nobles,
accustomed to tyrannize by force, had to accept the foreign tyranny,
when it showed itself stronger than their own. Not encountering love
or elevated feelings in the enslaved mass, they found themselves
without force or power.--Rizal.
[318] Inasawa, or more correctly asawa (consort).--Rizal.
[319] This dowry, if one may call it so, represented to the parents
an indemnity for the care and vigilance that they had exercised in
their daughter's education. The Filipina woman, never being a burden
to any one (either to her parents or to her husband), but quite the
contrary, represents a value, whose loss to the possessor must be
substituted.... The Tagál wife is free, and treated with consideration;
she trades and contracts, almost always with the approbation of her
husband, who consults her in all his acts. She takes care of the money,
and educates the children, half of whom belong to her...--Rizal.
[320] Bigay-káya, "to give what one can," "a voluntary offering,
a present of good will" ... This bigay-káya devolved entire to
the married couple, according to Colin, if the son-in-law was
obedient to his parents-in-law; if not, it was divided among all the
heirs. "Besides the dowry, the chiefs used to give certain gifts to
the parents and relatives, and even to the slaves, which were great
or less according to the rank of the one married." (Colin).--Rizal.
[321] This good custom still exists, ... although it is gradually
passing away.--Rizal.
[322] Such is the law throughout most parts of Asia; in Siam the
woman becomes free without having children. It is only in America that
fathers could and did sell their own children into slavery.--Stanley.
[323] This condition of affairs and the collection of usury is true
still [1890]. Morga's words prove true not only of the Indian, but also
of the mestizos, the Spaniards, and even of various religious. So far
has it gone that the government itself not only permits it, but also
exacts the capital and even the person to pay the debts of others,
as happens with the cabeza de barangay [head of a barangay].--Rizal.
[324] The tam-tam and the pum-piang are still used.--Rizal.
[325] The early Filipinos had a great horror of theft, and even the
most anti-Filipino historian could not accuse them of being a thievish
race. Today, however, they have lost their horror of that crime. One
of the old Filipino methods of investigating theft was as follows:
"If the crime was proved, but not the criminal, if more than one was
suspected ... each suspect was first obliged to place a bundle of
cloth, leaves, or whatever he wished on a pile, in which the thing
stolen might be hidden. Upon the completion of this investigation
if the stolen property was found in the pile, the suit ceased." The
Filipinos also practiced customs very similar to the "judgments of
God" of the middle ages, such as putting suspected persons, by pairs,
under the water and adjudging guilty him who first emerged.--Rizal.
[326] The Filipino today prefers a beating to scoldings or
insults.--Rizal.
[327] From bago, new, and tao, man: he who has become a man.--Rizal.
[328] In speaking of a similar custom in Australia, Eyre (Central
Australia, i, p. 213), says: "This extraordinary and inexplicable
custom must have a great tendency to prevent the rapid increase of
the population."--Stanley. [Stanley does not translate this paragraph
of the text.]
[329] It appears that the natives called anito a tutelary genius,
either of the family, or extraneous to it. Now, with their new
religious ideas, the Tagáls apply the term anito to any superstition,
false worship, idol, etc.--Rizal.
[330] Others besides Morga mention oratories in caves, where the idols
were kept, and where aromatics were burned in small brasiers. Chirino
found small temples in Taitay adjoining the principal houses. [See
VOL. XII. of this series, chapter xxi.] It appears that temples were
never dedicated to bathala maykapal, nor was sacrifice ever offered
him. The temples dedicated to the anito were called ulañgo.--Rizal.
[331] San Agustín says that hell was called solad, and paradise,
kalualhatian (a name still in existence), and in poetical language,
ulugan. The blest abodes of the inhabitants of Panay were in the
mountain of Madias.--Rizal.
[332] Cf. the "wake" of the Celtic and Gaelic peasants. Cf. also the
North-American Indian burial ceremonies, and reverence paid to the
dead, in Jesuit Relations, i, p. 215; ii, pp. 21, 149; viii, p. 21;
x, pp. 169, 247, 283-285, 293; xiii, 259; xxi, 199; xxiii, 31; lxv,
141; etc.
In the Filipino burials, there were mourners who composed panegyrics
in honor of the dead, like those made today. "To the sound of this
sad music the corpse was washed, and perfumed with storax, gum-resin,
or other perfumes made from tree gums, which are found in all these
woods. Then the corpse was shrouded, being wrapped in more or less
cloth according to the rank of the deceased. The bodies of the more
wealthy were anointed and embalmed in the manner of the Hebrews,
with aromatic liquors, which preserved them from decay.... The
burial-place of the poor was in pits dug in the ground under their
own houses. After the bodies of the rich and powerful were kept and
bewailed for three days, they were placed in a chest or coffin of
incorruptible wood, adorned with rich jewels, and with small sheets
of gold in the mouth and over the eyes. The coffin was all in one
piece, and the lid was so adjusted that no air could enter. Because
of these precautions the bodies have been found after many years,
still uncorrupted. These coffins were deposited in one of three
places, according to the inclination and arrangement of the deceased,
either on top of the house among the treasures ... or underneath it,
but raised from the ground; or in the ground itself, in an open hole
surrounded with a small railing ... nearby they were wont to place
another box filled with the best clothes of the deceased; and at
meal-time they set various articles of food there in dishes. Beside
the men were laid their weapons, and beside the women their looms or
other implements of work" (Colin).--Rizal.
[333] Kasis. This is another instance of the misapplication of this
Arabic term, which means exclusively a Christian priest.--Stanley.
[334] This custom has not fallen into disuse among the Filipinos,
even among the Catholics.--Rizal.
Lieutenant Charles Norton Barney, of the medical department of the
U. S. Army, has an article in Journal of the Association of Military
Surgeons for September, 1903, on "Circumcision and Flagellation
among the Filipinos." In regard to circumcision he states that
it "is a very ancient custom among the Philippine indios, and so
generalized that at least seventy or eighty per cent of males in the
Tagál country have undergone the operation." Those uncircumcised at
the age of puberty are taunted by their fellows, and such are called
"suput," a word formerly meaning "constricted" or "tight," but now
being extended to mean "one who cannot easily gain entrance in sexual
intercourse." The "operation has no religious significance," nor is
it done for cleanliness, "but from custom and disinclination to be
ridiculed," probably [as Morga proves] having been learned from the
Moros. The friars were unable to check the custom. Among the Tagáls
the operation is called "tuli," and the method of circumcising is
described at length. The author derives his information from a mestizo
and a full-blooded native. The custom is mentioned by Foreman.
[335] Appellation given to their ecclesiastical sages by Mahometans.
[336] See the king's decree granting this coat-of-arms, in VOL. IX,
pp. 211-215, with two representations of the coat-of-arms.
[337] Convents occupy almost one-third part of the walled city.--Rizal.
[338] The walls did not even have any moats then; these were dug after
the English invasion of 1762. The walls were also rearranged at that
time, and perfected with the lapse of time and the needs that arose
in the city.--Rizal.
[339] Rizal misprints al cabo del lienço as al campo del lienzo.
[340] Now [1890] the gates of the city are open all night, and in
certain periods, passage along the streets and through the walls is
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