Philippine Progress Prior to 1898 Part 13

The alleged outlaws, who were really persons who had been wronged in the land troubles, were pardoned and from their number under their former chief was organized a corps of rural guards which speedily brought a theretofore unknown tranquillity.

No wonder the Filipinos gave to the new administration an honor unknown to his predecessors, the spontaneous tribute of a popular serenade.

Twenty-one months pa.s.sed and De La Torre was replaced by Izquierdo, for whom he conscientiously compiled an explanation of his administration that the new authority might intelligently carry on the work. But reaction came, those who had applauded De La Torre for that reason found themselves in disfavor.

As a precaution Governor De La Torre had had all foreign mail examined and the list of men of liberal ideas thus obtained was the basis of the persecutions which followed the executions and wholesale exiling nominally connected with Cavite.

An old man, he retired to his family estates, once broad but sadly shrunken through his years of liberality. There from Pozorubio he wrote his defence against the charge of being responsible for the uprising of Cavite.

Contrast the brave words of the Governor-General upon his first coming to the Philippines, and his expressions after the conclusion of his office when he was upon the defensive.

"As good, honored and loyal, you are recognized as our brothers. * * *

I shall indicate to you the salient features that will characterize my administration, which I hope will be as my character dictates, foreign to all kinds of repression, because command is more pleasant when it is chosen by those who are under the necessity of being affected by it."

And on the defensive: "I have governed, with justice and, honesty, conformably to the special laws of that country, without consenting or permitting the slightest alteration in them, and what is more, without permitting in the newspapers of Manila any discussion nor even any allusion as to whether or no it were desirable to alter or modify those laws."

Yet that was the most liberal period of Philippine history under Spanish rule. Twenty odd years later another liberal Governor of the Philippines defended himself against the charge of too great humanity by telling of how many men he had ordered shot.

Sorry indeed was Spain when a De La Torre had to save himself with his countrymen in the Peninsula by exaggerating his despotism and a Blanco found his only defense in magnifying his brutality. There's a contrast with the present regime which marks 1898 as the beginning of different days, and the men of the old era are ent.i.tled to the charitable consideration which belongs to those who come out of great tribulation.

Biographical details and incidents of De La Torre's administration would detract from the one great lesson which paints the past in its true colors and reveals how the Filipino people found themselves without hope and came to resort to the weapon of despair, insurrection. The outcome of the events of 1869 was the origin of the events of 1896.

THE REBELLION IN THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

(A British magazine article of 1896, by John Foreman.)

At this crisis, when the development of j.a.pan is attracting public attention, the following paragraph in a recent issue of the St. James Gazette would be highly instructive were it based on real facts. That journal says:--

"This revolt, in fact, is really a consequence, to some extent, of the rising power of j.a.pan in Far Eastern waters. Having acquired Formosa and become ambitious of a territorial and commercial empire, the eyes of the j.a.panese have lately been eagerly directed towards the next islands to the south; and the weakness of Spain is regarded as the opportunity of j.a.pan. But it is quite another matter whether the European powers will take the same view."

Those who have been long resident in the Far East and are well informed on the subject do not take that view at all. From the facts which I am about to give regarding this rebellion it will be clearly seen that the above statement is merely a hypothetical conjecture.

A plot was formed, at the instance of rich Chinese half-breeds, to murder all the Europeans. The priests choose to call this secret society "freemasonry," whilst the conspirators themselves style their body the "Katipunan," which simply means the "League." Each member, on being sworn in, made the "blood compact," which consists of an incision in the arm or leg whence the blood was taken to inscribe the roll of brotherhood. The general ma.s.sacre of whites was to have taken place on the night of the 20th of August last, but at almost the last hour a woman came to Father Mariano Gil, the parish priest of Tondo--a suburb of Manila--and paved the way for a repentant member of the League to make his full confession of the plot under a promise of immunity from punishment. The promise was given and the confession made. An hour afterwards the civil guard was on the track of the princ.i.p.al leaders of the movement. Three hundred known malcontents were arrested in a few hours in the capital and adjacent provinces of Bulacan and Pampanga and further arrests having since been effected daily, the Manila prisons are overcrowded with suspects and proved delinquents. Room for more is being made by the periodical shipping off of batches of prisoners to the Caroline Islands, Mindanao Island, Fernando Po, and other distant possessions. I have just learnt from the secretary of the military court that at this moment there are 4,377 individuals awaiting trial by court-martial. Many of the richest men in the colony, the leaders of Manila society, such as it is, figure amongst the promoters of this conspiracy. Pedro Rojas, a wealthy Chinese half-caste and popularly supposed to be the prime mover of the rebellion, accepted the hospitality of the Governor-General in his palace only forty-eight hours before the hour destined to witness the general ma.s.sacre. The most curious fact--which no one dares to discuss in public--is that this man, denounced by all, was allowed to quietly leave the colony. He embarked in a steamer, ostensibly for Spain, but left it at Singapore and is supposed to be residing in some Asiatic port to watch events. The arch-agitator, Jose Rizal, who had been purging himself of his former misdemeanors by a two years' banishment to the south, was sent as a prisoner to Spain, where he was confined in the Catalunian fortress of Montjuich for a few days and then shipped back to Manila for trial.

It appears that some months ago a deputation of Philippine natives went to j.a.pan and presented a pet.i.tion to the Mikado, praying his Majesty to annex these Islands. The pet.i.tion was signed, it is said, by 5,000 natives and half-breeds. The j.a.panese Government, far from regarding the troubled condition of Spanish affairs as their opportunity, forwarded the pet.i.tion to the Spanish Government, thus the names of 5,000 disaffected persons became known to the authorities here and were inscribed in their Black Book. No measures, however, were taken until the storm was about to burst. Intense excitement prevailed amongst the Europeans as the names of the 300 arrested were disclosed, for they were not mostly individuals known to us personally or by repute. But since then three months have lingered on, with the daily arrests of so many men of position that we are prepared to meet the most startling event with perfect equanimity.

On the 23rd of August the leading newspaper of Manila published a stirring article, ringing with high patriotism, which concluded with an appeal to the Spaniards to go en ma.s.se to Government House the next day to discuss a proposal for extraordinary measures. They closed their offices and shops and went. It looked like a Sunday or a three-cross saint day. The Governor-General refused to receive them, and fined the newspaper $500, which was raised at once by public subscription. Indignation was openly expressed. A cablegram was sent to the Home Government asking for one thousand troops, etc. The reply came advising the immediate dispatch of 2,000 men, two millions of cartridges, 6,000 Remington rifles, and the gunboats Isla de Luzon and Isla de Cuba. Every fortnight, indeed, has brought fresh supplies of troops, which now make a total in the colony of about 10,000 Spanish regulars under arms.

On the 26th of August one thousand rebels appeared at Caloocan, four miles from Manila. They murdered some Chinese and took others prisoners. They were held back by the gendarmerie until reinforcements of cavalry came from the capital, but just before the squadron of troops arrived the rebels fled. The cavalry scoured the district and returned to Manila the next day. I saw them pa.s.s over the Bridge of Spain. There was tremendous excitement. Groups formed about the Escolta--the princ.i.p.al business street--discussing the situation. For days no one met another without having some news, real or imaginary, to disclose. Business was, and still is, much interrupted. Market people, washmen, traders of all sorts from outside, were afraid to venture along the approaches to the city. Two days pa.s.sed--three days pa.s.sed, there was really no fresh event. The nervous tension of the amazed population began to slacken. A reaction set in, and whilst precautions were discussed and everybody was prepared to say what he should do, the Caloocan onslaught began to be talked of as a mere filibustering expedition which would break up at the first smell of powder, and simply go to swell the ranks of the ever-existing brigand bands. The Governor-General refused to proclaim martial law. The circ.u.mstances were declared to be not sufficiently grave to warrant that measure being taken, and the public were settling down into a state of acquiescence with that view when, like a bombsh.e.l.l, the news of a far more serious raid fell upon Manila. On Sunday, 30th of August, before daybreak, the rebels again concentrated at San Juan del Monte, four miles from the city walls. An artilleryman was murdered, and an attempt was made to seize the powder-magazine, whilst several of the loyalists were wounded.

FILIPINOS WITH DEWEY'S SQUADRON

(Hongkong Telegraph, April 28, 1898.)

The United States Asiatic Squadron left Mirs Bay yesterday afternoon for the Philippines. It was previously arranged that the fleet should have left on Tuesday, but the departure was delayed to await the arrival of Mr. O. F. Williams and several officers who had stayed behind for dispatches. As we have already intimated, Mr. Williams and the officers were stormstayed on Tuesday and had to return to Hongkong. * * * * * * Meanwhile Mr. Rounsevelle Wildman, United States Consul at Hongkong, and Mr. Williams had had interviews with several of the Philippine rebel chiefs who were deported to Hongkong, and arrangements were made that one of their number, J. Alejandrino, should accompany the squadron, and act as the intermediary between the Americans and rebels. Yesterday morning, about eight o'clock, Mr. Wildman, Mr. Williams, the United States officers, newspaper representatives, and J. Alejandrino, accompanied by two rebel friends, started in the Fame to make their way to the fleet.

A PREDICTION OF 1872

(From the London and China Telegraph of March 22, 1872, retranslated.) Reviewing the Cavite uprising, it concludes:

"The magnificent resources of these Islands have been neglected too long, whatever has been done toward their development is due to Anglo-Saxons whose efforts have been impeded by every possible means through the indifferent and indolent ideas of the Spanish government. As to the future government of the Philippines, could our government, or the American, be induced to accept any responsibility no one would benefit more than they from a change in affairs so necessary to the due development of the rich and magnificent products of that soil. Therefore the best thing that the inhabitants there could do would be to establish their independence under a republican form of government, making use in this of some of the Anglo-Saxons who now reside among them.

"The local government would be acting with practical wisdom did it not oppose a peaceable revolution. That a separation has to take place is inevitable. The power of Spain to govern distant colonies has disappeared, never to return.

"We cannot, however, end this article without paying a merited tribute of respect to the gallant Governor and Captain-General. His proclamation, which we published in the last issue of the London and China Telegraph, is worthy of the most exalted patriotism. He had the duty of stifling the revolution, but now it will be found that its spirit is like the fabled seven-headed serpent."

NOTES

[1] "This modest work, which does not pretend to be without mistakes, and perhaps other flaws, has a special interest in that it treats of a matter about which the historians of those islands had hardly occupied themselves. The chronicles written by the laborious ecclesiastics, the only books of history which may be consulted about the Philippines, contain nothing but descriptions of the campaigns against the Dutch, the wars against the infidels--in the Archipelago as well as on the continent of Asia--the rebellions of the natives in some provinces, so easily suppressed, the b.l.o.o.d.y encounters with the Chinese settled in the islands, portentous miracles, progress of the missions in China, Annam and j.a.pan, famous conflicts between the ecclesiastical jurisdiction and the civil power represented by the Governor General and the Real Acuerdo, great crimes, other notable events of different kinds and changes in the personnel and form of administration of the country.

"But in all these works, though useful and important, there is observed, among others, the absence of antecedents relative to economic and mercantile legislation, the scarcity of data to show the development of wealth of the country and of its commercial movement, the lack of a critical a.n.a.lysis of the legal provisions concerning such activities, and of their influence on the decadence or progress of production and commerce." (Manuel Azcarraga y Palmero, Gobernador civil cesante de Manila, Alcalde mayor que ha sido de Cagayan y de Bulacan, Auditor honorario de Marina, etc., La Libertad de Comercio en las Islas Filipinas.--Madrid, 1872, pp. 9-10.)

[2] " * * * The result is that Spanish writers, with them the Filipinos, and to a great extent the writers of Philippine treatises in other languages (drawing hastily upon Spanish sources), have over emphasized the political history of this Philippine record. Of course, in Spain and the Spanish countries long-standing habit makes it the tendency to look to government for everything, and to think of all amelioration of evils and all incitements to progress as coming from above; while social and economic conditions in the Philippines are such as to emphasize this tendency, the aristocracy of wealth and education standing apart from the ma.s.ses and being, to the latter, identified in the main with the government, with the "powers above." Nevertheless, it is to be insisted that social and economic progress in the Philippines during the last half-century should be considered separately and studied more practically than they have been thus far." (Le Roy's Bibliographical Notes.--Bl. and Rb., Vol. 52, 134.)

[3] For detailed discussion of this theory, see The Economic Interpretation of History, by E. R. A. Seligman. Also, History of Civilization in England, by H. T. Buckle, Vol. I, Chapter II, Influence Exercised by Physical Laws over Organization of Society and the Character of Individuals. This chapter is reprinted in Sociology and Social Progress, by T. N. Carver.

[4] "In many ways the next decade of the history of the Philippines may resemble the splendid development of the neighboring country of j.a.pan. Both countries have in past times been isolated more or less from the life and thought of the modern world. Both are now open to the full current of human affairs. Both countries promise to play an important part in the politics and commerce of the Far East. Geographically, the Philippines occupy the more central and influential position, and the success of the inst.i.tutions of the Philippines may react upon the countries of southeastern Asia and Malaysia to an extent that we cannot appreciate or foresee." (Dr. D. P. Barrows, A History of the Philippines, pp. 9-10.)

"Manila was also the commercial center of the Far East, and the entrepot through which the kingdoms of eastern Asia exchanged their wares. Here came great fleets of junks from China laden with stores. Morga fills nearly two pages with an enumeration of their merchandise, which included all manner of silks, brocades, furniture, pearls and gems, fruits, nuts, tame buffalo, geese, horses and mules, all kinds of animals, 'even to birds in cages, some of which talk and others sing and which they make perform a thousand tricks; there are innumerable other gewgaws and knickknacks, which among Spaniards are in much esteem.'

"Each year a fleet of thirty to forty vessels sailed with the new moon in March. The voyage across the China Sea, rough with the monsoons, occupied fifteen or twenty days, and the fleet returned at the end of May or the beginning of June. Between October and March there came, each year, j.a.panese ships from Nagasaki which brought wheat, silks, objects of art, and weapons, and took away from Manila the raw silk of China, gold, deer horns, woods, honey, wax, palm-wine, and wine of Castile.