A History of the Philippines Part 5

For instance, in order to say 'cama,' the two letters alone suffice.

ca ma

If to the ka there is placed a point above, it will say

que ma

If it is given to both below, it will say

co mo

The final consonants are supplied or understood in all cases, and so to say 'cantar,' they write

ca ta

barba,

ba ba

But with all, and that without many evasions, they make themselves understood, and they themselves understand marvellously. And the reader supplies, with much skill and ease, the consonants that are lacking. They have learned from us to write running the lines from the left hand to the right, but formerly they only wrote from above downwards, placing the first line (if I remember rightly) at the left hand, and continuing with the others to the right, the opposite of the Chinese and j.a.panese.... They write upon canes or on leaves of a palm, using for a pen a point of iron. Nowadays in writing not only their own but also our letters, they use a feather very well cut, and paper like ourselves.

They have learned our language and p.r.o.nunciation, and write as well as we do, and even better; for they are so bright that they learn everything with the greatest ease. I have brought with me handwriting with very good and correct lettering. In Tigbauan, I had in school a very small child, who in three months' time learned, by copying from well-written letters that I set him, to write enough better than I, and transcribed for me writings of importance very faithfully, and without errors or mistakes. But enough of languages and letters; now let us return to our occupation with human souls." [9]

Sanskrit Source of the Filipino Alphabet.--Besides the Tagalog, the Bisaya, Pampango, Pangasinan, and Ilocano had alphabets, or more properly syllabaries similar to this one. Dr. Pardo de Tavera has gathered many data concerning them, and shows that they were undoubtedly received by the Filipinos from a Sanskrit source.

Early Filipino Writings.--The Filipinos used this writing for setting down their poems and songs, which were their only literature. None of this, however, has come down to us, and the Filipinos soon adopted the Spanish alphabet, forming the syllables necessary to write their language from these letters. As all these have phonetic values, it is still very easy for a Filipino to learn to p.r.o.nounce and so read his own tongue. These old characters lingered for a couple of centuries, in certain places. Padre Totanes [10] tells us that it was rare in 1705 to find a person who could use them; but the Tagbanua, a pagan people on the island of Paragua, use a similar syllabary to this day. Besides poems, they had songs which they sang as they rowed their canoes, as they pounded the rice from its husk, and as they gathered for feast or entertainment; and especially there were songs for the dead. In these songs, says Chirino, they recounted the deeds of their ancestors or of their deities.

Chinese in the Philippines.--Early Trade.--Very different from the Hindu was the early influence of the Chinese. There is no evidence that, previous to the Spanish conquest, the Chinese settled or colonized in these islands at all; and yet three hundred years before the arrival of Magellan their trading-fleets were coming here regularly and several of the islands were well known to them. One evidence of this prehistoric trade is in the ancient Chinese jars and pottery which have been exhumed in the vicinity of Manila, but the Chinese writings themselves furnish us even better proof. About the beginning of the thirteenth century, though not earlier than 1205, a Chinese author named Chao Ju-kua wrote a work upon the maritime commerce of the Chinese people. One chapter of his work is devoted to the Philippines, which he calls the country of Mayi. [11] According to this record it is indicated that the Chinese were familiar with the islands of the archipelago seven hundred years ago. [12]

Chinese, Description of the People.--"The country of Mayi," says this interesting cla.s.sic, "is situated to the north of Poni (Burney, or Borneo). About a thousand families inhabit the banks of a very winding stream. The natives clothe themselves in sheets of cloth resembling bed sheets, or cover their bodies with sarongs. (The sarong is the gay colored, typical garment of the Malay.) Scattered through the extensive forests are copper Buddha images, but no one knows how they got there. [13]

"When the merchant (Chinese) ships arrive at this port they anchor in front of an open place ... which serves as a market, where they trade in the produce of the country. When a ship enters this port, the captain makes presents of white umbrellas (to the mandarins). The merchants are obliged to pay this tribute in order to obtain the good will of these lords." The products of the country are stated to be yellow wax, cotton, pearls, sh.e.l.ls, betel nuts, and yuta cloth, which was perhaps one of the several cloths still woven of abaca, or pina. The articles imported by the Chinese were "porcelain, trade gold, objects of lead, gla.s.s beads of all colors, iron cooking-pans, and iron needles."

The Negritos.--Very curious is the accurate mention in this Chinese writing, of the Negritos, the first of all accounts to be made of the little blacks. "In the interior of the valleys lives a race called Hai-tan (Acta). They are, of low stature, have round eyes of a yellow color, curly hair, and their teeth are easily seen between their lips. (That is, probably, not darkened by betel-chewing or artificial stains.) They build their nests in the treetops and in each nest lives a family, which only consists of from three to five persons. They travel about in the densest thickets of the forests, and, without being seen themselves, shoot their arrows at the pa.s.sers-by; for this reason they are much feared. If the trader (Chinese) throws them a small porcelain bowl, they will stoop down to catch it and then run away with it, shouting joyfully."

Increase in Chinese Trade.--These junks also visited the more central islands, but here traffic was conducted on the ships, the Chinese on arrival announcing themselves by beating gongs and the Filipinos coming out to them in their light boats. Among other things here offered by the natives for trade are mentioned "strange cloth,"

perhaps cinamay or jusi, and fine mats.

This Chinese trade continued probably quite steadily until the arrival of the Spaniards. Then it received an enormous increase through the demand for Chinese food-products and wares made by the Spaniards, and because of the value of the Mexican silver which the Spaniards offered in exchange.

Trade with the Moro Malays of the South.--The spread of Mohammedanism and especially the foundation of the colony of Borneo brought the Philippines into important commercial relations with the Malays of the south. Previous to the arrival of the Spaniards these relations seem to have been friendly and peaceful. The Mohammedan Malays sent their praos northward for purposes of trade, and they were also settling in the north Philippines as they had in Mindanao.

When Legaspi's fleet, soon after its arrival, lay near the island of Bohol, the "Maestro de Campo" had a hard fight with a Moro vessel which had come up for trade, and took six prisoners. One of them, whom they call the "pilot," was closely interrogated by the Adelantado and some interesting information obtained, which is recorded by Padre San Augustin. [14] Legaspi had a Malay slave interpreter with him and San Augustin says that Padre Urdaneta "knew well the Malayan language." The pilot said that "those of Borneo brought for trade with the Filipinos, copper and tin, which was brought to Borneo from China, porcelain, dishes, and bells made in their fashion, very different from those that the Christians use, and benzoin, and colored blankets from India, and cooking-pans made in China, and that they also brought iron lances very well tempered, and knives and other articles of barter, and that in exchange for them they took away from the islands gold, slaves, wax, and a kind of small seash.e.l.l which they call 'sijueyes,'

and which pa.s.ses for money in the kingdom of Siam and other places; and also they carry off some white cloths, of which there is a great quant.i.ty in the islands."

Butuan, on the north coast of Mindanao, seems to have been quite a trading-place resorted to by vessels from all quarters. This country, like many other parts of the Philippines, has produced from time immemorial small quant.i.ties of gold, and all the early voyagers speak of the gold earrings and ornaments of the natives. Butuan also produced sugarcane and was a trading-port for slaves. This unfortunate traffic in human life seems to have been not unusual, and was doubtless stimulated by the commerce with Borneo. Junks from Siam trading with Cebu were also encountered by the Spaniards.

Result of this Intercourse and Commerce.--This intercourse and traffic had acquainted the Filipinos with many of the accessories of civilized life long before the arrival of the Spaniards. Their chiefs and datos dressed in silks, and maintained some splendor of surroundings; nearly the whole population of the tribes of the coast wrote and communicated by means of a syllabary; vessels from Luzon traded as far south as Mindanao and Borneo, although the products of Asia proper came through the fleets of foreigners; and perhaps what indicates more clearly than anything else the advance the Filipinos were making through their communication with outside people is their use of firearms. Of this point there is no question. Everywhere in the vicinity of Manila, on Lubang, in Pampanga, at Cainta and Laguna de Bay, the Spaniards encountered forts mounting small cannon, or "lantakas." [15] The Filipinos seem to have understood, moreover, the arts of casting cannon and of making powder. The first gun-factory established by the Spaniards was in charge of a Filipino from Pampanga.

Early Political and Social Life.--The Barangay.--The weakest side of the culture of the early Filipinos was their political and social organization, and they were weak here in precisely the same way that the now uncivilized peoples of northern Luzon are still weak. Their state did not embrace the whole tribe or nation; it included simply the community. Outside of the settlers in one immediate vicinity, all others were enemies or at most foreigners. There were in the Philippines no large states, nor even great rajas and sultans such as were found in the Malay Archipelago, but instead on every island were a mult.i.tude of small communities, each independent of the other and frequently waging war.

The unit of their political order was a little cl.u.s.ter of houses from thirty to one hundred families, called a "barangay," and which still exists in the Philippines as the "barrio." At the head of each barangay was a chief known as the "dato," a word no longer used in the northern Philippines, though it persists among the Moros of Mindanao. The powers of these datos within their small areas appear to have been great, and they were treated with utmost respect by the people.

The barangays were grouped together in tiny federations including about as much territory as the present towns, whose affairs were conducted by the chiefs or datos, although sometimes they seem to have all been in obedience to a single chief, known in some places as the "hari," at other times by the Hindu word "raja," or the Mohammedan term "sultan." Sometimes the power of one of these rajas seems to have extended over the whole of a small island, but usually their "kingdoms" embraced only a few miles.

Changes Made by the Spaniards.--The Spaniards, in enforcing their authority through the islands, took away the real power from the datos, grouping the barangays into towns, or "pueblos," but making the datos "cabezas de barrio," or "gobernadorcillos." Something of the old distinction between the dato, or "princ.i.p.al," and the common man may be still represented in the "gente ill.u.s.trada," or the more wealthy, educated, and influential cla.s.s found in each town, and the "gente baja," or the poor and uneducated.

Cla.s.ses of Filipinos under the Datos.--Beneath the datos, according to Chirino and Morga, there were three cla.s.ses of Filipinos; the free persons, or "maharlica," who paid no tribute to the dato, but who accompanied him to war, rowed his boat when he went on a journey, and attended him in his house. This cla.s.s is called by Morga "timauas." [16]

Then there was a very large cla.s.s, who appear to have been freedmen or liberated slaves, who had acquired their own homes and lived with their families, but who owed to dato or maharlica heavy debts of service; to sow and harvest in his ricefields, to tend his fish-traps, to row his canoe, to build his house, to attend him when he had guests, and to perform any other duties that the chief might command. These semi-free were called "aliping namamahay," and their condition of bondage descended to their children.

Beneath these existed a cla.s.s of slaves. These were the "siguiguiliris," and they were numerous. Their slavery arose in several ways. Some were those who as children had been captured in war and their lives spared. Some became slaves by selling their freedom in times of hunger. But most of them became slaves through debt, which descended from father to son. The sum of five or six pesos was enough in some cases to deprive a man of his freedom.

These slaves were absolutely owned by their lord, who could theoretically sell them like cattle; but, in spite of its bad possibilities, this Filipino slavery was ordinarily not of a cruel or distressing nature. The slaves frequently a.s.sociated on kindly relations with their masters and were not overworked. This form of slavery still persists in the Philippines among the Moros of Mindanao and Jolo. Children of slaves inherited their parents' slavery. If one parent was free and the other slave, the first, third, and fifth children were free and the second, fourth, and sixth slaves. This whole matter of inheritance of slavery was curiously worked out in minute details.

Life in the Barangay.--Community feeling was very strong within the barangay. A man could not leave his own barangay for life in another without the consent of the community and the payment of money. If a man of one barrio married a woman of another, their children were divided between the two barangays. The barangay was responsible for the good conduct of its members, and if one of them suffered an injury from a man outside, the whole barangay had to be appeased. Disputes and wrongs between members of the same barangay were referred to a number of old men, who decided the matter in accordance with the customs of the tribe, which were handed down by tradition. [17]

The Religion of the Filipinos.--The Filipinos on the arrival of the Spaniards were fetish-worshipers, but they had one spirit whom they believed was the greatest of all and the creator or maker of things. The Tagalog called this deity Bathala, [18] the Bisaya, Laon, and the Ilocano, Kabunian. They also worshiped the spirits of their ancestors, which were represented by small images called "anitos." Fetishes, which are any objects believed to possess miraculous power, were common among the people, and idols or images were worshiped. Pigafetta describes some idols which he saw in Cebu, and Chirino tells us that, within the memory of Filipinos whom he knew, they had idols of stone, wood, bone, or the tooth of a crocodile, and that there were some of gold.

They also reverenced animals and birds, especially the crocodile, the raven, and a mythical bird of blue or yellow color, which was called by the name of their deity Bathala. [19] They had no temples or public places of worship, but each one had his anitos in his own house and performed his sacrifices and acts of worship there. As sacrifices they killed pigs or chickens, and made such occasions times of feasting, song, and drunkenness. The life of the Filipino was undoubtedly filled with superst.i.tious fears and imaginings.

The Mohammedan Malays.--The Mohammedans outside of southern Mindanao and Jolo, had settled in the vicinity of Manila Bay and on Mindoro, Lubang, and adjacent coasts of Luzon. The spread of Mohammedanism was stopped by the Spaniards, although it is narrated that for a long time many of those living on the sh.o.r.es of Manila Bay refused to eat pork, which is forbidden by the Koran, and practiced the rite of circ.u.mcision. As late as 1583, Bishop Salazar, in writing to the king of affairs in the Philippines, says the Moros had preached the law of Mohammed to great numbers in these islands and by this preaching many of the Gentiles had become Mohammedans; and further he adds, "Those who have received this foul law guard it with much persistence and there is great difficulty in making them abandon it; and with cause too, for the reasons they give, to our shame and confusion, are that they were better treated by the preachers of Mohammed than they have been by the preachers of Christ." [20]

Material Progress of the Filipinos.--The material surroundings of the Filipino before the arrival of the Spaniards were in nearly every way quite as they are to-day. The "center of population" of each town to-day, with its great church, tribunal, stores and houses of stone and wood, is certainly in marked contrast; but the appearance of a barrio a little distance from the center is to-day probably much as it was then. Then, as now, the bulk of the people lived in humble houses of bamboo and nipa raised on piles above the dampness of the soil; then, as now, the food was largely rice and the excellent fish which abound in river and sea. There were on the water the same familiar bancas and fish corrals, and on land the rice fields and cocoanut groves. The Filipinos had then most of the present domesticated animals,--dogs, cats, goats, chickens, and pigs,--and perhaps in Luzon the domesticated buffalo, although this animal was widely introduced into the Philippines from China after the Spanish conquest. Horses came with the Spaniards and their numbers were increased by the bringing in of Chinese mares, whose importation is frequently mentioned.

The Spaniards introduced also the cultivation of tobacco, coffee, and cacao, and perhaps also the native corn of America, the maize, although Pigafetta says they found it already growing in the Bisayas.

The Filipino has been affected by these centuries of Spanish sovereignty far less on his material side than he has on his spiritual, and it is mainly in the deepening and elevating of his emotional and mental life and not in the bettering of his material condition that advance has been made.

CHAPTER VI.

THE SPANISH SOLDIER AND THE SPANISH MISSIONARY.

History of the Philippines as a Part of the History of the Spanish Colonies.--We have already seen how the Philippines were discovered by Magellan in his search for the Spice Islands. Brilliant and romantic as is the story of that voyage, it brought no immediate reward to Spain. Portugal remained in her enjoyment of the Eastern trade and nearly half a century elapsed before Spain obtained a settlement in these islands. But if for a time he neglected the Far East, the Spaniard from the Peninsula threw himself with almost incredible energy and devotion into the material and spiritual conquest of America. All the greatest achievements of the Spanish soldier and the Spanish missionary had been secured within fifty years from the day when Columbus sighted the West Indies.