A History of the Philippines Part 13

Insurrection in Bohol.--Insurrection seems especially to have troubled the island of Bohol during most of the eighteenth century, and in 1750 an insurrection broke out which practically established the independence of a large portion of the island, and which was not suppressed for thirty-five years. The trouble arose in the town of Inabanga, where the Jesuit priest Morales had greatly antagonized and imbittered the natives by his severity. Some apostasized, and went to the hills. One of these men was killed by the orders of the priest and his body refused Christian burial, and left uncared for and exposed.

A brother of this man, named Dagohoy, infuriated by this indignity, headed a sedition which shortly included three thousand natives. The priest was killed, and his own body left by the road unburied. In spite of the efforts of the alcalde of Cebu, Dagohoy was able to maintain himself, and practically established a small native state, which remained until the occupation of the island by the Recollects, after the Jesuits had been expelled from the Spanish dominions.

Activity of the Jesuits.--During the eighteenth century the Jesuits alone of the religious orders seemed to have been active in prosecuting their efforts and seeking new fields for conversion. The sloth and inactivity which overcame the other orders place in greater contrast the ambition and the activities, both secular and spiritual, of the Jesuits.

Conversion of the Sultan Alim ud Din.--In 1747 they established a mission even on Jolo. They were unable to overcome the intense antagonism of the Moro panditas and datos, but they apparently won the young sultan, Alim ud Din, whose strange story and shifting fortunes have been variously told. One of the Jesuits, Padre Villelmi, was skilled in the Arabic language, and this familiarity with the language and literature of Mohammedanism doubtless explains his ascendency over the mind of the sultan. Alim ud Din was not a strong man. His power over the subordinate datos was small, and in 1748 his brother, Bantilan, usurped his place and was proclaimed sultan of Jolo.

Alim ud Din, with his family and numerous escort, came to Zamboanga, seeking the aid of the Spanish against his brother. From Zamboanga he was sent to Manila. On his arrival, January 3, 1749, he was received with all the pomp and honor due to a prince of high rank. A house for his entertainment and his retinue of seventy persons was prepared in Binondo. A public entrance was arranged, which took place some fifteen days after his reaching the city. Triumphal arches were erected across the streets, which were lined with more than two thousand native militia under arms. The sultan was publicly received in the hall of the Audiencia, where the governor promised to lay his case before the king of Spain. The sultan was showered with presents, which included chains of gold, fine garments, precious gems, and gold canes, while the government sustained the expense of his household. [79]

Following this reception, steps were taken for his conversion. His spiritual advisers cited to him the example of the Emperor Constantine whose conversion enabled him to effect triumphant conquests over his enemies. Under these representations Alim ud Din expressed his desire for baptism. The governor-general, who at this time was a priest, the bishop of Nueva Segovia, was very anxious that the rite should take place; but this was opposed by his spiritual superior, the archbishop of Manila, who, with some others, entertained doubts as to the sincerity of the sultan's profession.

In order to accomplish his baptism, the governor sent him to his own diocese, where at Paniqui, on the 29th of April, 1750, the ceremony took place with great solemnity. On the return of the party to Manila, the sultan was received with great pomp, and in his honor were held games, theatrical representations, fire-works, and bull-fights. This was the high-water mark of the sultan's popularity.

Failure to Reinstate Alim ud Din.--Meanwhile the usurper, Bantilan, was giving abundant evidence of his hostility. The Spaniards were driven from Jolo, and the fleets of the Moros again ravaged the Bisayas. In July arrived the new governor, the Marquis of Obando, who determined to restore Alim ud Din and suppress the Moro piracy.

An expedition set sail, with the sultan on board, and went as far as Zamboanga, but accomplished nothing. Here the conduct of the sultan served to confirm the doubts of the Spaniards as to the sincerity of his friendship. He was arrested, and returned to Manila, and imprisoned in the fortress of Santiago. With varying treatment he remained in the hands of the Spaniards until 1763, when he was returned to Jolo by the English.

Great Increase in Moro Piracy.--The year 1754 is stated to have been the bloodiest in the history of Moro piracy. No part of the Bisayas escaped ravaging in this year, while the Camarines, Batangas, and Albay suffered equally with the rest. The conduct of the pirates was more than ordinarily cruel. Priests were slain, towns wholly destroyed, and thousands of captives were carried south into Moro slavery. The condition of the Islands at the end of this year was probably the most deplorable in their history.

Reforms under General Arandia.--The demoralization and misery with which Obando's rule closed were relieved somewhat by the capable government of Arandia, who succeeded him. Arandia was one of the few men of talent, energy, and integrity who stood at the head of affairs in these islands during two centuries.

He reformed the greatly disorganized military force, establishing what was known as the "Regiment of the King," made up very largely of Mexican soldiers. He also formed a corps of artillerists composed of Filipinos. These were regular troops, who received from Arandia sufficient pay to enable them to live decently and like an army.

He reformed the a.r.s.enal at Cavite, and, in spite of opposition on all sides, did something to infuse efficiency and honesty into the government. At the head of the armament which had been sent against the Moros he placed a Jesuit priest, Father Ducos. A capable officer was also sent to command the presidio at Zamboanga, and while Moro piracy was not stopped, heavy retaliation was visited upon the pirates.

Arandia's most popular act of government was the expulsion of the Chinese from the provinces, and in large part from the city. They seem to have had in their hands then, perhaps even more than now, the commerce or small trade between Manila and provincial towns. To take over this trade, Arandia founded a commercial company of Spaniards and mestizos, which lasted only for a year. The Christianized Chinese were allowed to remain under license, and for those having shops in Manila Arandia founded the Alcayceria of San Fernando. It consisted of a great square of shops built about an open interior. It stood in Binondo, on the present Calle de San Fernando, in what is still a populous Chinese quarter.

Death of Arandia and Decline of the Colony.--Arandia died in May, 1759, and the government was a.s.sumed by the bishop of Cebu, who in turn was forced from his position by the arrival of the archbishop of Manila, Don Manuel Rojo. The archbishop revoked the celebrated orders of good government which Arandia had put into force, and the colony promised to relapse once more into its customary dormant condition. This was, however, prevented by an event which brought to an end the long period of obscurity and inertia under which the colony had been gradually decaying, and introduced, in a way, a new period of its history. This was the capture of the Philippine Islands by the British in 1762.

CHAPTER XI.

THE PHILIPPINES DURING THE PERIOD OF EUROPEAN REVOLUTION. 1762-1837.

The New Philosophy of the Eighteenth Century.--The middle of the eighteenth century in Europe was a time when ideas were greatly liberalized. A philosophy became current which professed to look for its authority not to churches or hereditary custom and privilege, but to the laws of G.o.d as they are revealed in the natural world. Men taught that if we could only follow nature we could not do wrong. "Natural law" became the basis for a great amount of political and social discussion and the theoretical foundation of many social rights. The savage, ungoverned man was by many European philosophers and writers supposed to live a freer, more wholesome and more natural life than the man who is bound by the conventions of society and the laws of state.

Most of this reasoning we now know to be scientifically untrue. The savage and the hermit are not, in actual fact, types of human happiness and freedom. Ideal life for man is found only in governed society, where there is order and protection, and where also should be freedom of opportunity. But to the people of the eighteenth century, and especially to the scholars of France, where the government was monarchical and oppressive, and where the people were terribly burdened by the aristocracy, this teaching was welcomed as a new gospel. Nor was it devoid of grand and n.o.ble ideas--ideas which, carried out in a conservative way, might have bettered society.

It is from this philosophy and the revolution which succeeded it that the world received the modern ideas of liberty, equality, fraternity, and democracy. These ideas, having done their work in America and Europe, are here at work in the Philippines today. It remains to be seen whether a society can be rebuilt here on these principles, and whether Asia too will be reformed under their influence.

Colonial Conflicts between the Great European Countries.--During the latter half of the eighteenth century there culminated the long struggle for colonial empire between European states which we have been following. We have seen how colonial conquest was commenced by the Portuguese, who were very shortly followed by the Spaniards, and how these two great Latin powers attempted to exclude the other European peoples from the rich Far East and the great New World which they had discovered.

We have seen how this attempt failed, how the Dutch and the English broke in upon this gigantic reserve, drove the Spanish fleets from the seas, and despoiled and took of this great empire almost whatever they would. The Dutch and English then fought between themselves. The English excluded the Dutch from North America, capturing their famous colony of New Amsterdam, now New York, and incorporating it (1674) with their other American colonies, which later became the United States of America. But in the East Indies the Dutch maintained their trade and power, gradually extending from island to island, until they gained--what they still possess--an almost complete monopoly of spice production.

War between England and France.--In India, England in the eighteenth century won great possessions and laid the foundation for what has been an almost complete subjugation of this Eastern empire. Here, however, and even more so than in America, England encountered a royal and brilliant antagonist in the monarch of France.

French exploration in North America had given France claims to the two great river systems of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, the latter by far the greatest and richest region of the temperate zone. So, during much of this eighteenth century, England and France were involved in wars that had for their prizes the possession of the continent of North America and the great peninsula of India.

This conflict reached its climax between 1756 and 1763. Both states put forth all their strength. France called to her support those countries whose reigning families were allied to her by blood, and in this way Spain was drawn into the struggle. The monarchs of both France and Spain belonged to the great house of Bourbon. War was declared between England and Spain in 1761. Spain was totally unfitted for the combat. She could inflict no injury upon England and simply lay impotent and helpless to retaliate, while English fleets in the same year took Havana in the west and Manila in the east.

English Victory over French in India and America.--English power in India was represented during these years by the greatest and most striking figure in England's colonial history--Lord Clive. To him is due the defeat of France in India, the capture of her possessions, and the founding of the Indian Empire, which is still regarded as England's greatest possession. The French were expelled from India in the same year that the great citadel of New France in America--Quebec--was taken by the English under General Wolfe.

The Philippines under the English.--Expedition from India to the Philippines.--Lord Clive was now free to strike a blow at France's ally, Spain; and in Madras an expedition was prepared to destroy Spanish power in the Philippines. Notice of the preparation of this expedition reached Manila from several sources in the spring and summer of 1762; but with that fatality which pursued the Spaniard to the end of his history in the Philippines, no preparations were made by him, until on the 22d of September a squadron of thirteen vessels anch.o.r.ed in Manila Bay.

Through the mist, the stupid and negligent authorities of Manila mistook them for Chinese trading-junks; but it was the fleet of the English Admiral Cornish, with a force of five thousand British and Indian soldiers under the command of General Draper. For her defense Manila had only 550 men of the "Regiment of the King" and eighty Filipino artillerists. Yet the Spaniards determined to make resistance from behind the walls of the city.

Surrender of Manila to the English.--The English disembarked and occupied Malate. From the churches of Malate, Ermita, and Santiago the British bombarded Manila, and the Spaniards replied from the batteries of San Andres and San Diego, the firing not being very effective on either side.

On the 25th, Draper summoned the city to surrender; but a council of war, held by the archbishop, who was also governor, decided to fight on. Thirty-six hundred Filipino militia from Pampanga, Bulacan, and Laguna marched to the defense of the city, and on the 3rd of October two thousand of these Filipinos made a sally from the walls and recklessly a.s.saulted the English lines, but were driven back with slaughter. On the night of the 4th of October a breach in the walls was made by the artillery, and early in the morning of the 5th four hundred English soldiers entered almost without resistance. A company of militia on guard at the Puerto Real was bayoneted and the English then occupied the Plaza, and here received the surrender of the fort of Santiago.

The English agreed not to interfere with religious liberty, and honors of war were granted to the Spanish soldiers. Guards were placed upon the convent of the nuns of Santa Clara and the beaterios, and the city was given over to pillage, which lasted for forty hours, and in which many of the Chinese a.s.sisted.

Independent Spanish Capital under Anda at Bulacan.--The English were thus masters of the city, but during their period of occupation they never extended their power far beyond the present limits of Manila. Previous to the final a.s.sault and occupation of Manila, the authorities had nominated the oidor, Don Simon de Anda y Salazar, lieutenant-governor and captain-general of the Islands, with instructions to maintain the country in its obedience to the king of Spain. Anda left the capital on the night of October 4, pa.s.sing in a little banca through the nipa swamps and esteros on the north sh.o.r.e of Manila Bay to the provincial capital of Bulacan.

Here he called together the provincial of the Augustinian monks, the alcalde mayor of the province, and some other Spaniards. They resolved to form an independent government representing Spain, and to continue the resistance. This they were able to do as long as the British remained in the Islands. The English made a few short expeditions into Bulacan and up the Pasig River, but there was no hard fighting and no real effort made to pursue Anda's force. The Chinese welcomed the English and gave them some a.s.sistance, and for this Anda slew and hung great numbers of them.

The Philippines Returned to Spain.--By the Treaty of Paris in 1763, peace was made, by which France surrendered practically all her colonial possessions to England; but England returned to Spain her captures in Cuba and the Philippines. In March, 1764, there arrived the Spanish frigate "Santa Rosa," bringing the first "Lieutenant of the King for the Islands," Don Francisco de la Torre, who brought with him news of the Treaty of Paris and the orders to the English to abandon the Islands.

Resistance of the English by the Friars.--In resistance to the English and in the efforts to maintain Spanish authority, a leading part had been taken by the friars. "The sacred orders," says Martinez de Zuniga, [80] "had much to do with the success of Senor Anda. They maintained the Indians of their respective administrations loyal to the orders; they inspired the natives with horror against the English as enemies of the king and of religion, inciting them to die fighting to resist them; they contributed their estates and their property; and they exposed their own persons to great dangers." The friars were certainly most interested in retaining possession of the Islands and had most to lose by their falling into English hands.

Increase of the Jesuits in Wealth and Power.--In this zealous movement for defense, however, the Jesuits bore no part; and there were charges made against them of treasonable intercourse with the English, which may have had foundation, and which are of significance in the light of what subsequently occurred.

At the close of the eighteenth century, all the governments of Catholic Europe were aroused with jealousy and suspicious hatred against the Jesuits. The society, organized primarily for missionary labor, had gradually taken on much of a secular character. The society was distinguished, as we have seen in its history in the Philippines, by men with great capacity and liking for what we may call practical affairs as distinguished from purely religious or devotional life. The Jesuits were not alone missionaries and orthodox educators, but they were scientists, geographers, financiers, and powerful and almost independent administrators among heathen peoples. They had engaged so extensively and shrewdly in trade that their estates, warehouses, and exchanges bound together the fruitful fields of colonial provinces with the busy marts and money-centers of Europe. Their wealth was believed to be enormous. Properly invested and carefully guarded, it was rapidly increasing.

What, however, made the order exasperating alike to rulers and peoples were the powerful political intrigues in which members of the order engaged. Strong and masterful men themselves, the field of state affairs was irresistibly attractive. Their enemies charged that they were unscrupulous in the means which they employed to accomplish political ends. It is quite certain that the Jesuits were not patriotic in their purposes or plans. They were an international corporation; their members belonged to no one nation; to them the Society was greater and more worthy of devotion than any state, in which they themselves lived and worked.

Dissolution of the Society of Jesus.--Europe had, however, reached the belief, to which it adheres today, that a man must be true to the country in which he lives and finds shelter and protection and in which he ranks as a political member, or else incur odium and punishment. Thus it was their indifference to national feeling that brought about the ruin of the Jesuits. It is significant that the rulers, the most devoted to Catholicism, followed one another in decreeing their expulsion from their dominions. In 1759 they were expelled from Portugal, in 1764 from France, and April 2, 1767, the decree of confiscation and banishment from Spain and all Spanish possessions was issued by King Carlos III. Within a year thereafter, the two most powerful princes of Italy, the king of Naples and the Duke of Parma, followed, and then the Grand Master of the Knights of Malta expelled them from that island. The friends of the order were powerless to withstand this united front of Catholic monarchs, and in July, 1773, Pope Clement XIV. suppressed and dissolved the society, which was not restored until 1814.

The Jesuits Expelled from the Philippines.--The order expelling the Jesuits from the Philippines was put into effect in the year 1767. The instructions authorized the governor in case of resistance to use force of arms as against a rebellion. [81] Besides their colleges in Manila, Tondo, Cavite, Leyte, Samar, Bohol, and Negros, the Jesuits administered curacies in the vicinity of Manila, in Cavite province, in Mindoro and Marinduque, while the islands of Bohol, Samar, and Leyte were completely under their spiritual jurisdiction. In Mindanao their missions, a dozen or more in number, were found on both the northern and southern coasts. Outside of the Philippines proper they were the missionaries on the Ladrones, or Marianas. Their property in the Philippines, which was confiscated by the government, amounted to 1,320,000 pesos, although a great deal of their wealth was secreted and escaped seizure through the connivance of the governor, Raon.

Governor Anda's Charges against the Religious Orders.--Don Simon de Anda had been received in Spain with great honor for the defense which he had made in the Islands, and in 1770 returned as governor of the Philippines. His appointment was bitterly resented by the friars. In 1768, Anda had addressed to the king a memorial upon the disorders in the Philippines, in which he openly charged the friars with commercialism, neglect of their spiritual duties, oppression of the natives, opposition to the teaching of the Spanish language, and scandalous interference with civil officials and affairs. Anda's remedy for these abuses was the rigorous enforcement of the laws actually existing for the punishment of such conduct and the return to Spain of friars who refused to respect the law.

He was, however, only partially successful in his policy. During the six years of his rule, he labored unremittingly to restore the Spanish government and to lift it from the decadence and corruption that had so long characterized it. There were strong traits of the modern man in this independent and incorruptible official. If he made many enemies, it is, perhaps, no less to the credit of his character; and if in the few years of his official life he was unable to restore the colony, it must be remembered that he had few a.s.sistants upon whom to rely and was without adequate means.

The Moro Pirates.--The Moros were again upon their forays, and in 1771 even attacked Aparri, on the extreme northern coast of Luzon, and captured a Spanish missionary. Anda reorganized the Armada de Pintados, and toward the end of his life created also the Marina Sutil, a fleet of light gunboats for the defense of the coasts against the attacks of pirates.

Failure of an English Settlement.--The hostility of the Moro rulers was complicated by the interference of the English, who, after the evacuation of Manila, continued to haunt the Sulu archipelago with the apparent object of effecting a settlement. By treaty with the Moro datos, they secured the cession of the island of Balanbangan, off the north coast of Borneo. This island was fortified and a factory was established, but in 1775 the Moros attacked the English with great fury and destroyed the entire garrison, except the governor and five others, who escaped on board a vessel, leaving a great quant.i.ty of arms and wealth to the spoils of the Moros. The English factors, who had taken up business on the island of Jolo, fled in a Chinese junk; and these events, so unfortunate to the English, ended their attempts to gain a position in the Jolo archipelago until many years later.

Increase in Agriculture.--Anda died in October, 1776, and his successor, Don Jose Basco de Vargas, was not appointed until July, 1778. With Basco's governorship we see the beginning of those numerous projects for the encouragement of agriculture and industry which characterized the last century of Spanish rule. His "Plan general economico" contemplated the encouragement of cotton-planting, the propagation of mulberry-trees and silk-worms, and the cultivation of spices and sugar. Premiums were offered for success in the introduction of these new products and for the encouragement of manufacturing industries suitable to the country and its people.

Out of these plans grew the admirable Sociedad Economica de Amigos del Pais, which was founded by Basco in 1780. The idea was an excellent one, and the society, although suffering long periods of inactivity, lasted for fully a century, and from time to time was useful in the improvement and development of the country, and stimulated agricultural experiments through its premiums and awards.

Establishment of the Tobacco Industry.--Up to this time the Philippine revenues had been so unproductive that the government was largely supported by a subsidy of $250,000 a year paid by Mexico. Basco was the first to put the revenues of the Islands upon a lucrative basis. To him was due the establishment, in 1782, of the famous tobacco monopoly (estanco de tabacos) which became of great importance many years later, as new and rich tobacco lands like the Cagayan were brought under cultivation.

Favorable Commercial Legislation.--The change in economic ideas, which had come over Europe through the liberalizing thought of the eighteenth century, is shown also by a most radical step to direct into new channels the commerce of the Philippines. This was the creation in 1785 of a great trading corporation with special privileges and crown protection, "The Royal Company of the Philippines."