An Historical View of the Philippine Islands Volume I Part 8

Note VII.--Page 18.

This sh.e.l.l, which even here, as every where else, bears the name of cowrie, forms likewise the currency of Africa, as it formerly did that of India; and this may probably furnish an argument in favour of the Malay origin.

Note VIII.--Page 21. Note IX.--Same page.

Two causes are here a.s.signed for the wretched state of these dependencies, apparently different, but in fact flowing from the same source. We are told that the surrounding nations are more industrious, and can work at a cheaper rate, and that the insects and rats destroy the produce of the soil. Were the encouragement of agriculture and manufactures an object of importance in the colonial system of the Philippines, the extension and protection of the former would soon circ.u.mscribe the dominion of the rats, its most destructive enemy; and if the productions of the soil were, as they ought to be, in as great plenty, and at as low a rate as on the neighbouring islands, manufactures, particularly with the aid of machinery, would be afforded at a profit adequate to the exertions of industry. But the truth is, that the Spanish government is rather desirous of considering the Philippines as the grand depot of the commerce of South America with India and China, and it may be presumed that, on this account, not only is its industry repressed, but the very heavy expense of the settlement submitted to and annually sent from New Spain. The revenue stated to be collected in the islands amounts to about one million of dollars, and this, together with about the same sum remitted by the Acapulco ships, enable the government to defray the annual charges of the colonial establishment.

Note X.--Page 24.

The Spanish author, on the subject of the origin of these Negroes, forms a conclusion directly at variance with what he afterwards says with regard to the origin of the Indians. He admits that the similarity of the former to those of Angola, with the exception of only a shade in colour, carries sufficient conviction as to their parent stock, and of course allows the islands to have been originally colonized from Africa, and by a people infinitely less advanced in cultivation than the Indians, setting aside at once his own very well founded subsequent conclusion, that the colonization of all the islands of the South Sea, with the Marianas, Philippines, &c. must have originated in South America, and proceeded gradually before the wind. The constant course of easterly winds in the Pacific, joined to the instances he adduces of similitude of language, unquestionably aid his hypothesis, which, though probably more curious than practically useful, is yet deserving of attention. There is not, indeed, a more embarra.s.sing subject than that frequently proves to be, which treats of the origin and ancient connexion of distant nations, and after all, as in this case, we are too often left on the field of conjecture.

Note XI.--Page 25.

The reason here given for the wretched condition of these people seems more candidly than might be expected from a Spaniard, to take the load of responsibility from them and cast it on the government; and the perusal of the succeeding pages will but too well confirm the propriety of the censure.

Note XII.--Page 36.

Sonnerat a.s.serts, that among the mild inhabitants of the fertile plains on the west border of the Lake Bay, adultery is the only crime punished with death; but it seems more reasonable to conclude, that of the two the Spaniard is most to be relied on.

Note XIII.--Page 37.

The striking resemblance of this to the price exacted by Laban from Jacob for his two daughters, will not be pa.s.sed over by the reader unnoticed; and we are obliged to conclude either that such similarity of customs must originate in a common source, or that a certain state of social life, in certain climates, will produce manners mutually approximating.

Note XIV.--Page 42.

Without, in any respect, detracting from the merit of the propagators of the Christian faith in these islands, or claiming any superiority for our own tenets or practice, I fear we need not travel beyond the pillars of Hercules to the southward, and the Ultima Thule to the northward, to discover such perversion of human intellect, although, I trust, it is no proof that we are very bad Christians.

The influence of traditional superst.i.tions is too generally known and admitted to require to be descanted on. Its operation commences with the first dawn of reason, and very rarely is it found that even all the strength of the human mind, aided by religion and philosophy, can thoroughly eradicate the impressions it makes. The water kelpie of the north of Scotland differs from the Patianac and Tigbalang, only as being a good natured and very useful being; and we are all familiar with the mythologic machinery of our ancestors, for we will take leave to entertain a belief that Fingal and Ossian did once exist, and that the latter pourtrayed the manners, customs and opinions of his time.

Note XV.--Page 46.

It is curious to observe the progress of science and discovery, and still more deserving our notice is the transitory nature of power. The magisterial authority a.s.sumed by the Pontiff on this occasion might possibly have saved the effusion of human blood, and its interposition at that crisis, as a mediator between the most powerful nations then in existence, if it was beneficial in no other respect, seems to have stimulated the Spaniards to attempt the discovery of a pa.s.sage into the Pacific by the southern coast of America.

Note XVI.--Page 65.

This must either be a mistake, or we must conclude that the intercourse of the Portuguese with these islands had furnished them with the European improvements.

Notes XVII. and XVIII.--Pages 106-7.

The circ.u.mstances stated on both these occasions, incontestably prove that the energy and exertions of the Portuguese in establishing their own exclusive dominion in the eastern Archipelago, even in defiance of the fiat of his Holiness, had led them to impart to the natives that knowledge which they themselves had been but lately possessed of; for the use of cannon, on board ships, did not come into practice till about the year 1539.

Note XIX.--Page 129.

Thus it is that the Spaniards appear even to have deceived themselves in subduing those islands. In the course of this work, the reader will be enabled to appreciate the nature of what the Spaniards called a conquest. The progress of a few men into the interior of a country under the protection of fire-arms, and the baptism of some individuals, to whose language the Spaniards were perfect strangers, and who of course could form no idea of the obligations imposed by the ceremony, seem to const.i.tute their notion of conquest. Thus it is too that their authority extends over so small a portion of these delicious islands.

Note XX.--Page 197.

The inhuman custom of infanticide is not only practised with impunity in China, but seems even countenanced as the readiest means of limiting a population which would otherwise be superabundant, and in time exceed the productive powers of the country. By the narrative of Lord Macartney we learn, that in the tract of country through which the emba.s.sy pa.s.sed, the population appeared excessive; at the same time that cultivation and industry seemed to be extended to their utmost limits. All the accounts we possess of that extraordinary empire concur in this representation. What effect the very pious application of the funds of the eleemosynary establishments at Manila may have in checking this savage custom is not noticed by the author; and we have reason to fear the practice is so general, that any attempt to check it by this means might rather tend to stimulate the avarice of the parents, and produce an opposite effect. The Chinese are as yet but in a half civilized state, and while they continue so we can entertain but slender hopes of any alteration more consistent with the feelings of humanity.

Note XXI.--Page 211.

The whole of this paragraph comprises a more virulent Philippic against the Spanish government than we could have expected from a Spaniard; but which the reader is by this time convinced is no less just than spirited. That the mild measures the author recommends would have the desired effect may be fairly doubted. He appears to write as a monk rather than as a statesman; but it cannot admit of a question, that if it were possible to combine with such measures a military establishment, under the control of wise laws, whose mild influence might be generally felt, and equally protect the native as the Spaniard, the unstable authority of that nation upon these islands would soon a.s.sume a different character, and reduce the quantum of human misery which their present system is calculated to perpetuate.

T. DAVISON, Lombard-street, Whitefriars, London.