A History of the Philippines Part 10

The Malecon and the Luneta.--It is interesting at this early date to find mention of the famous recreation drive, the Paseo de Bagumbayan, now commonly known as the Malecon and Luneta. "Manila," says our historian, "has two places of recreation on land; the one, which is clean and wide, extends from the point called Our Lady of Guidance for about a league along the sea, and through the street and village of natives, called Bagumbayan, to a very devout hermitage (Ermita), called the Hermitage of Our Lady of Guidance, and from there a good distance to a monastery and mission (doctrina) of the Augustinians, called Mahalat (Malate)." [57] The other drive lay out through the present suburb of Concepcion, then called Laguio, to Paco, where was a monastery of the Franciscans.

The Chinese in Manila.--Early Chinese Commerce.--We have seen that even as long ago as three hundred years Manila was a metropolis of the Eastern world. Vessels from many lands dropped anchor at the mouth of the Pasig, and their merchants set up their booths within her markets. Slaves from far-distant India and Africa were sold under her walls. Surely it was a cosmopolitan population that the shifting monsoons carried to and from her gates.

But of all these Eastern races only one has been a constant and important factor in the life of the Islands. This is the Chinese. It does not appear that they settled in the country or materially affected the life of the Filipinos until the establishment of Manila by the Spaniards. The Spaniards were early desirous of cultivating friendly relations with the Empire of China. Salcedo, on his first punitive expedition to Mindoro, had found a Chinese junk, which had gone ash.o.r.e on the western coast. He was careful to rescue these voyagers and return them to their own land, with a friendly message inviting trading relations. Commerce and immigration followed immediately the founding of the city.

The Chinese are without question the most remarkable colonizers in the world. They seem able to thrive in any climate. They readily marry with every race. The children that follow such unions are not only numerous but healthy and intelligent. The coasts of China teem with overcrowding populations. Emigration to almost any land means improvement of the Chinese of poor birth. These qualities and conditions, with their keen sense for trade and their indifference to physical hardship and danger, make the Chinese almost a dominant factor wherever political barriers have not been raised against their entrance.

The Chinese had early gained an important place in the commercial and industrial life of Manila. A letter to the king from Bishop Salazar shows that he befriended them and was warm in their praise. [58]

This was in 1590, and there were then in Manila and Tondo about seven thousand resident Chinese, and they were indispensable to the prosperity of the city.

Importance of Chinese Labor and Trade.--In the early decades of Spanish rule, the Philippines were poor in resources and the population was spa.r.s.e, quite insufficient for the purposes of the Spanish colonizers. Thus the early development of the colony was based upon Chinese labor and Chinese trade. As the early writers are fond of emphasizing, from China came not only the finished silks and costly wares, which in large part were destined for the trade to New Spain and Europe, but also cattle, horses and mares, foodstuffs, metals, fruits, and even ink and paper. "And what is more," says Chirino, "from China come those who supply every sort of service, all dexterous, prompt, and cheap, from physicians and barbers to burden-bearers and porters. They are the tailors and shoemakers, metal-workers, silversmiths, sculptors, locksmiths, painters, masons, weavers, and finally every kind of servitors in the commonwealth." [59]

Distrust of the Chinese.--In those days, not only were the Chinese artisans and traders, but they were also farmers and fishermen,--occupations in which they are now not often seen. But in spite of their economic necessity, the Chinese were always looked upon with disfavor and their presence with dread. Plots of murder and insurrection were supposedly rife among them. Writers object that their numbers were so great that there was no security in the land; their life was bad and vicious; through intercourse with them the natives advanced but little in Christianity and customs; they were such terrible eaters that they made foods scarce and prices high.

If permitted, they went everywhere through the Islands and committed a thousand abuses and offenses. They explored every spot, river, estero, and harbor, and knew the country better even than the Spaniard himself, so that if any enemy should come they would be able to cause infinite mischief. [60] When we find so just and high-minded a man as the president of the Audiencia, Morga, giving voice to such charges, we may be sure that the feeling was deep and terrible, and practically universal among all Spanish inhabitants.

The First Ma.s.sacre of the Chinese.--Each race feared and suspected the other, and from this mutual cowardice came in 1603 a cruel outbreak and ma.s.sacre. Three Chinese mandarins arrived in that year, stating that they had been sent by the emperor to investigate a report that there was a mountain in Cavite of solid precious metal. This myth was no more absurd than many pursued by the Spaniards themselves in their early conquests, and it doubtless arose from the fact that Chinese wares were largely purchased by Mexican bullion; but the Spaniards were at once filled with suspicion of an invasion, and their distrust turned against the Chinese in the Islands.

How far these latter were actually plotting sedition and how far they were driven into attack by their fears at the conduct of the Spaniards can hardly be decided. But the fact is, that on the evening of Saint Francis day the Chinese of the Parian rose. The dragon banners were raised, war-gongs were beaten, and that night the pueblos of Quiapo and Tondo were burned and many Filipinos murdered.

In the morning a force of 130 Spaniards, under Don Luis Dasmarinas and Don Tomas Bravo, were sent across the river, and in the fight nearly every Spaniard was slain. The Chinese then a.s.saulted the city, but, according to the tradition of the priests, they were driven back in terror by the apparition on the walls of Saint Francis. They threw up forts on the site of the Parian and in Dilao, but the power of their wild fury was gone and the Spaniards were able to dislodge and drive them into the country about San Pablo de Monte. From here they were dispersed with great slaughter. Twenty-three thousand Chinese are reported by Zuniga to have perished in this sedition. If his report is true, the number of Chinese in the Islands must have increased very rapidly between 1590 and 1603.

Restriction of Chinese Immigration and Travel.--Commerce and immigration began again almost immediately. The number of Chinese, however, allowed to remain was reduced. The Chinese ships that came annually to trade were obliged to take back with them the crews and pa.s.sengers which they brought. Only a limited number of merchants and artisans were permitted to live in the Islands. They were confined to three districts in the city of Manila, and to the great market, the Alcayceria or Parian.

The word "Parian" seems to have been also used for the Chinese quarter in and adjoining the walled city, but here is meant the district in Binondo about the present Calle San Fernando. A block of stores with small habitations above them had been built as early as the time of Gonsalez. It was in the form of a square, and here were the largest numbers of shops and stores.

They could not travel about the Islands, nor go two leagues from the city without a written license, nor remain over night within the city after the gates were closed, on penalty of their lives. They had their own alcalde and judge, a tribunal and jail; and on the north side of the river Dominican friars, who had learned the Chinese language, had erected a mission and hospital. There was a separate barrio for the baptized Chinese and their families, to the number of about five hundred.

The Chinese in the Philippines from the earliest time to the present have been known by the name of "Sangleyes." The derivation of this curious word is uncertain; but Navarrete, who must have understood Chinese well, says that the word arose from a misapprehension of the words spoken by the Chinese who first presented themselves at Manila. "Being asked what they came for, they answered, 'Xang Lei,'

that is, 'We come to trade.' The Spaniards, who understood not their language, conceiving it to be the name of a country, and putting the two words together, made one of them, by which they still distinguish the Chinese, calling them Sangleyes."

The j.a.panese Colony.--There was also in those early years quite a colony of j.a.panese. Their community lay between the Parian and the barrio of Laguio. There were about five hundred, and among them the Franciscans claimed a goodly number of converts.

The Filipino District of Tondo.--We have described at some length the city south of the river and the surrounding suburbs, most of them known by the names they hold to-day. North of the Pasig was the great district of Tondo, the center of that strong, independent Filipino feeling which at an early date was colored with Mohammedanism and to this day is strong in local feeling. This region has thriven and built up until it has long been by far the most important and populous part of the metropolis, but not until very recent times was it regarded as a part of the city of Manila, which name was reserved for the walled citadel alone.

A bridge across the Pasig, on the site of the present Puente de Espana, connected the two districts at a date later than Morga's time. It was one of the first things noticed by Navarrete, who, without describing it well, says it was very fine. It was built during the governorship of Nino de Tabora, who died in 1632. [61] Montero states that it was of stone, and that this same bridge stood for more than two centuries, resisting the incessant traffic and the strength of floods. [62]

The Decline of Manila during the Next Century.--Such was Manila thirty-five and forty years after its foundation. It was at the zenith of its importance, the capital of the eastern colonies, the mart of Asia, more splendid than Goa, more powerful than Malacca or Macao, more populous and far more securely held than Ternate and Tidor. "Truly,"

exclaimed Chirino, "it is another Tyre, so magnified by Ezekiel." It owed its great place to the genius and daring of the men who founded it, to the freedom of action which it had up to this point enjoyed, and to its superlative situation.

In the years that followed we have to recount for the most part only the process of decline. Spain herself was fast on the wane. A few years later and the English had almost driven her navies from the seas, the Portuguese had regained their independence and lost empire, the Dutch were in the East, harrying Portuguese and Spaniard alike and fast monopolizing the rich trade. The commerce and friendly relations with the Chinese, on which so much depended, were broken by ma.s.sacre and reprisal; and, most terrible and piteous of all, the awful wrath and l.u.s.t of the Malay pirate, for decade after decade, was to be visited upon the archipelago.

The colonial policy of the mother-land, selfish, shortsighted, and criminal, was soon to make its paralyzing influence felt upon trade and administration alike. These things were growing and taking place in the next period which we have to consider,--the years from 1600 to 1663. They left the Philippines despoiled and insignificant for a whole succeeding century, a decadent colony and an exploited treasure.

CHAPTER IX.

THE DUTCH AND MORO WARS. 1600-1663.

Loss of the Naval Power of Spain and Portugal.--The seizure of Portugal by Philip II. in 1580 was disastrous in its consequences to both Portugal and Spain. For Portugal it was humiliation and loss of colonial power. Spain was unequal to the task of defending the Portuguese possessions, and her jealousy of their prosperity seems to have caused her deliberately to neglect their interests and permit their decline. In one day Portugal lost possession of that splendid and daring navy which had first found a way to the Indies. Several hundred Portuguese ships, thousands of guns, and large sums of money were appropriated by Spain upon the annexation of Portugal. [63]

Most of these ill-fated ships went down in the English Channel with the Great Armada.

When the terrible news of the destruction of this powerful armament, on which rested Spanish hopes for the conquest and humiliation of England, was brought to the Escorial, the magnificent palace where the years of the king were pa.s.sed, Philip II., that strange man, whose countenance never changed at tidings of either defeat or victory, is reported to have simply said, "I thank G.o.d that I have the power to replace the loss." He was fatuously mistaken. The loss could never be made good. The navies of Spain and Portugal were never fully rebuilt. In that year (1588), preeminence on the sea pa.s.sed to the English and the Dutch.

The Netherlands Become an Independent Country.--Who were these Dutch, or Hollanders? How came they to wrest from Spain and Portugal a colonial empire, which they hold to-day without loss of prosperity or evidence of decline? In the north of Europe, facing the North Sea, is a low, rich land, intersected by rivers and washed far into its interior by the tides, known as Holland, the Low Countries, or the Netherlands. Its people have ever been famed for their industry and hardihood. In manufacture and trade in the latter Middle Age, they stood far in the lead in northern Europe, Their towns and cities were the thriftiest, most prosperous, and most cleanly.

We have already explained the curious facts of succession by which these countries became a possession of the Spanish king, Emperor Charles the Fifth. The Low Countries were always greatly prized by Charles, and in spite of the severities of his rule he held their affection and loyalty until his death. It was in the city of Antwerp that he formally abdicated in favor of his son, Philip II., and, as described by contemporary historians, this solemn and imposing ceremony was witnessed with every mark of loyalty by the a.s.sembly.

The Rebellion.--But the oppressions and persecutions of Philip's reign drove the people to rebellion. The Netherlands had embraced the Protestant religion, and when, in addition to plunder, intimidation, the quartering of Spanish soldiery, and the violation of sovereign promises, Philip imposed that terrible and merciless inst.i.tution, the Spanish Inquisition, the Low Countries faced the tyrant in a pa.s.sion of rebellion.

War, begun in 1556, dragged on for years. There was pitiless cruelty, and the sacking of cities was accompanied by fearful butchery. In 1575 the seven Dutch counties declared their independence, and formed the republic of the Netherlands. Although the efforts of Spain to reconquer the territory continued until the end of the century, practical independence was gained some years before.

Trade between Portugal and the Netherlands Forbidden.--A large portion of the commerce of the Low Countries had been with Lisbon. The Portuguese did not distribute to Europe the products which their navies brought from the Indies. Foreign merchants purchased in Lisbon and carried these wares to other lands, and to a very large degree this service had been performed by the Dutch. But on the annexation of Portugal, Philip forbade all commerce and trade between the two countries. By this act the Dutch, deprived of their Lisbon trade, had to face the alternative of commercial ruin or the gaining of those Eastern products for themselves. They chose the latter course with all its risks. It was soon made possible by the destruction of the Armada.

The Dutch Expeditions to the Indies.--In 1595 their first expedition, led by one Cornelius Houtman, who had sailed in Portuguese galleons, rounded the Cape of Good Hope and entered the Indian domain. The objective point was Java, where an alliance was formed with the native princes and a cargo of pepper secured. Two things were shown by the safe return of this fleet,--the great wealth and profit of the Indian trade, and the inability of Spain and Portugal to maintain their monopoly.

In 1598 the merchants of Amsterdam defeated a combined Spanish and Portuguese fleet in the East, and trading settlements were secured in Java and Joh.o.r.e. In 1605 they carried their factories to Amboina and Tidor.

Effect of the Success of the Dutch.--The exclusive monopoly over the waters of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, which Portugal and Spain had maintained for a century, was broken. With the concurrence of the Roman See, they had tried to divide the New World and the Orient between them. That effort was now pa.s.sed. They had claimed the right to exclude from the vast oceans they had discovered the vessels of every other nation but their own.

This doctrine in the History of International Law is known as that of mare clausum, or "closed sea." The death-blow to this domination was given by the entrance of the Dutch into the Indies, and it is not a mere coincidence that we find the doctrine of closed sea itself scientifically a.s.sailed, a few years later, by the great Dutch jurist, Grotius, the founder of the system of international law in his work, De Libero Mare.

The Trading Methods of the Dutch.--The Dutch made no attempts in the Indies to found great colonies for political domination and religious conversion. Commerce was their sole object. Their policy was to form alliances with native rulers, promising to a.s.sist them against the rule of the Portuguese or Spaniard in return for exclusive privileges of trade. In this they were more than successful.

In 1602 they obtained permission to establish a factory at Bantam, on the island of Java. This was even then a considerable trading-point. "Chinese, Arabs, Persians, Moors, Turks, Malabars, Peguans, and merchants from all nations were established there,"

the princ.i.p.al object of trade being pepper. [64]

The character of the treaty made by the Dutch with the king of Bantam is stated by Raffles. "The Dutch stipulated to a.s.sist him against foreign invaders, particularly Spaniards and Portuguese; and the king, on his side, agreed to make over to the Dutch a good and strong fort, a free trade, and security for "their persons and property without payment of any duties or taxes, and to allow no other European nation to trade or reside in his territories."

Spanish Expedition against the Dutch in the Moluccas.--The Spaniards, however, did not relinquish the field to these new foes without a struggle, and the conflict fills the history of the eighteenth century. When the Dutch expelled the Portuguese from Amboina and Tidor in February, 1605, many of the Portuguese came to the Philippines and enlisted in the Spanish forces. The governor, Don Pedro Bravo de Acuna, filled with wrath at the loss of these important possessions, with great activity organized an expedition for their conquest.

In the previous year there had arrived from Spain eight hundred troops, two hundred of them being native Mexicans. Thus Acuna was able to organize a powerful fleet that mounted seventy-five pieces of artillery and carried over fourteen hundred Spaniards and sixteen hundred Indians. [65] The fleet sailed in January, 1606. Tidor was taken without resistance and the Dutch factory seized, with a great store of money, goods, and weapons. The Spaniards then a.s.sailed Ternate; the fort and plaza were bombarded, and then the town was carried by storm.

Thus, at last was accomplished the adventure which for nearly a century had inspired the ambitions of the Spaniards, which had drawn the fleet of Magellan, which had wrecked the expeditions of Loyasa and Villalobos, for which the Spaniards in the Philippines had prepared expedition after expedition, and for which Governor Dasmarinas had sacrificed his life. At last the Moluccas had been taken by the forces of Spain.

Capture of a Dutch Fleet at Mariveles.--So far from disposing of their enemies, however, this action simply brought the Dutch into the Philippines. In 1609, Juan de Silva became governor of the Islands and in the same year arrived the Dutch admiral, Wittert, with a squadron. After an unsuccessful attack on Iloilo, the Dutch fleet anch.o.r.ed off Mariveles, to capture vessels arriving for the Manila trade.

At this place, on the 25th of April, 1610, the Spanish fleet, which had been hastily fitted at Cavite, attacked the Dutch, killing the admiral and taking all the ships but one, two hundred and fifty prisoners, and a large amount of silver and merchandise. These prisoners seem to have been treated with more mercy than the captives of Van Noort's fleet, who were hung at Cavite. The wounded are said to have been cared for, and the friars from all the religious orders vied with one another to convert these "Protestant pirates" from their heresy.

An Expedition against the Dutch in Java.--Spain made a truce of her European wars with Holland in 1609, but this cessation of hostilities was never recognized in the East. The Dutch and Spanish colonists continued to war upon and pillage each other until late in the century. Encouraged by his victory over Wittert, Silva negotiated with the Portuguese allies in Goa, India, to drive the Dutch from Java. A powerful squadron sailed from Cavite in 1616 for this purpose. It was the largest fleet which up to that date had ever been a.s.sembled in the Philippines. The expedition, however, failed to unite with their Portuguese allies, and in April, Silva died at Malacca of malignant fever.

The Dutch Fleets.--Battles near Corregidor.--The fleet returned to Cavite to find that the city, while stripped of soldiers and artillery, had been in a fever of anxiety and apprehension over the proximity of Dutch vessels. They were those of Admiral Spilbergen, who had arrived by way of the Straits of Magellan and the Pacific. He has left us a chart of the San Bernadino Straits, which is reproduced here. Spilbergen bombarded Ilolio and then sailed for the Moluccas.

A year later he returned, met a Spanish fleet of seven galleons and two galleras near Manila and suffered a severe defeat. [66] The battle began with cannonading on Friday, April 13, and continued throughout the day. On the following day the vessels came to close quarters, the Spaniards boarded the Dutch vessels, and the battle was fought out with the sword.