The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 Part 19

[18] Fray Diego Piero was a.s.signed upon his arrival at the islands in 1684 to the convent of Malaueg in Cagayan. His stay in the Babuyanes was short as is related in the text. His remaining missionary labors were in the province of Cagayan. His death occurred at Lallo-c at the beginning of 1712 or a trifle before. See Resea biogrfica, ii, pp. 236, 237.

[19] The island of Calayan was taken formal possession of for the United States by the government ship "Princeton," January 10, 1900. It is one of the islands of the Babuyanes group, and is lofty and uneven. See Gazetteer of Philippine Islands, p. 418.

[20] Fray Jos Galfarroso (or Halfarroso de la Trinidad, as his name is given in Resea biogrfica) made his profession September 10, 1664. Upon his arrival at the Philippines in 1671, he was a.s.signed to the Cagayan field, where he held various posts, and where most if not all of his missionary labors were pa.s.sed. He died, probably in Cagayan, early in 1700. See ut supra, ii, pp. 160, 161.

[21] Fray Juan de Santo Domingo was born in 1640 near Calatayud, and professed in the convent of Ocaa October 22, 1661. He went to the Philippines in 1666, his first two years being occupied in duties in Manila. a.s.signed to the province of Pangasinan, he labored there for eighteen years, and exercised various duties. In 1682 he was chosen definitor, and in 1686 he was transferred to the Manila convent. He was the real founder of the Beaterio of Santa Catalina de Sena, and ordained its rules July 26, 1696, while provincial. During his term as provincial he also organized the tertiary branch of his order. After his term as provincial he was appointed vicar of the beatas and president of the college of San Juan de Letrn. In 1702 he was again elected prior of Manila convent, and because of the death of the provincial exercised the duties of that office, to which he was regularly elected again in 1706. At the end of his second term he again took up his duties as head of the beaterio and college. Besides the above posts and offices he was also commissary of the Holy Office and definitor in the chapters of 1682 and 1716. His death occurred at Manila, January 15, 1726. See Resea biogrfica, ii, pp. 26-34.

[22] See sketches of these missionaries in Resea biogrfica, ii, pp. 363-457.

[23] Sketches of these missionaries will be found in Resea biogrfica, ii, pp. 457-497.

[24] Fray Francisco de la Vega was a.s.signed to Cagayan in 1686, where he labored in various missions there and in the Babuyanes. He died at Fotol in the beginning of 1710. See Resea biogrfica, ii, pp. 249, 250.

[25] Fray Vicente del Riesgo was a native of San Flix de Valdesoto. On arriving at the Philippines at the age of twenty-six, he was a.s.signed to the Cagayan field where he spent the rest of his life (with the exception of a brief period spent in Manila as prior of that convent, and master of novitiates), and where he occupied various posts. He died in Cabagan, June 24, 1724. See Resea biogrfica, ii, pp. 440-446.

[26] Fray Toms Ortiz took the Augustinian habit at the age of nineteen, at the Valladolid convent in 1687. Within a short time after his arrival in Manila he became lecturer there (1695), and acted as secretary of the province. Soon however he went to China to engage in the mission work of that empire, and upon the expulsion of the missionaries in 1713, he was appointed prior of Manila, and in 1716 provincial. He filled other important posts in the mission work of the islands, and died at Manila in 1742. He composed numerous works in Spanish, Taglog, and Chinese. See Perez's Catlogo, pp. 167-173. A fuller account of his life is also given in vol. xxix of Revista Agustiniana.

[27] The calumpang tree (Sterculia foetida--Linn.) grows to a great size; its roots branch out half way up the trunk, and are so large that a roof could be laid over them so that they could be used as a dwelling. The fruit of this tree resembles a pomegranate, which divides when ripe into four quarters having certain kernels, from which an oil is extracted which is used for medicine, and which the natives use to anoint the hair. The wood is easy to work but is not very durable. See Delgado's Historia, p. 457; Blanco's Flora, p. 524; and Official Handbook of the Philippines, p. 346.

[28] Many instances of ancestor worship by the peoples of the Philippines are recorded in this series. There is no evidence that suggests that the custom was borrowed from the Chinese. It had become the general rule almost in the Philippines to refer many things, the origin of which was unknown, to the Chinese.

[29] This is the anting-anting. See Retana's Aniteras, which gives examples of formulas, most of which are a meaningless conglomeration of words.

[30] A Taglog word for a sort of earthen vessel. See Noceda and Sanlucar's Vocabulario de la lengua tagala.

[31] The translation of the t.i.tle-page of the Historia is as follows: "History of the Philipinas Islands, composed by the reverend father lector, Fray Joaquin Martinez de Zuiga of the Order of St. Augustine, ex-definitor of his province, calificador of the Holy Office, and regular parish priest of the village of Paraaque. With the necessary licenses. Printed in Sampaloc, by Fray Pedro Argelles de la Concepcion, Franciscan religious, in the year 1803."

Joaquin Martnez de Ziga was one of the most ill.u.s.trious men of the Augustinian order who ever labored in the Philippines. He was born in Aguilar in Navarra, February 19, 1760, and deciding to embrace the religious life professed in the Augustinian college at Valladolid January 26, 1779. Setting out for the Philippines in 1785, he remained one year in Mexico, before going to them, arriving in Manila, August 3, 1786. In the islands he learned the Taglog language, and acted as minister-a.s.sociate in Batangas and Tambobon for four years. In 1790 he was appointed lector [i. e., reader or lecturer], but was soon appointed parish priest of Hagonoy (1791). In 1792 he acted as secretary of the province, and in 1794 and 1797 administered the villages of Calumpit and Pasig respectively. Being invited by General lava to accompany him on his tour of inspection among the islands, he did so, and the Estadismo (published in Madrid in 1893 by W. E. Retana) is the fruit of that journey. After returning to Manila, he took charge of the parish of Paraaque (1801-1806). In 1806 he was elected provincial of the order. He had also filled the office of definitor in 1794, and was a calificador of the Holy Office. After his provincialate he resumed charge of the ministry of Paraaque which he held until his death (March 7, 1818). The Historia has been translated into English by John Maver and printed in two editions. He is said also to have translated, annotated, and printed the work of Le Gentil, but which Retana (Estadismo, i, pp. xviii, xxix) says cannot now be found. Apropos of this, Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera sends a copy of the t.i.tle-page of a MS. of this Spanish work which is as follows: "Voyage of M. Le Gentil, to the Philipinas Islands, translated from the French into the Spanish, by the very reverend father lector, Fray Joaquin Martinez de Zuiga.... The translator adds some notes in which he reveals and refutes many errors of the author." Pardo de Tavera says that this MS. is unpublished and that its existence is unsuspected and not known even by the Augustinians. See Prez's Catloga, pp. 346-348, and Pardo de Tavera's Biblioteca Filipina (Washington, 1903), p. 252.

[32] Louis Lapicque, chief of the laboratory of the faculty of Medicine in Paris, was commissioned by the Minister of Public Instruction in 1892 to study the question of the distribution of the Negrito and to collect data concerning that race. He spent the months of March-December 1893 in this study, working in the Andaman Islands, the Mergui Islands in the Bay of Bengal, and the Malay Peninsula, and considering also in his report the inhabitants of other places, especially the Philippines. He brings out the interesting conclusion that the inhabitants of the Andaman Islands are perhaps the purest race in existence, and that they are closely allied to the Negritos of the Philippines. Both being brachycephalic, they are thus differentiated from the African negro, who is dolichocephalic. See Annales de Gographie, v, pp. 407-424. Wm. A. Reed (Negritos of Zambales, p. 34) gives the average of the cephalic index of the nineteen individuals whom he was able to measure as 82 for the males and 86 for the females.

[33] Angola, formerly called Dongo or Ambonde, is located on the west coast of Africa. Its coast was discovered in 1486 by the Spaniards who still own it.

[34] Of the Bontoc Igorot, Albert Ernest Jenks, chief of the Ethnological Survey of the Philippines, says (The Bontoc Igorot, Manila, 1905, p. 14): "He belongs to that extensive stock of primitive people of which the Malay is the most commonly named. I do not believe he has received any of his characteristics, as a group, from either the Chinese or j.a.panese, though this theory has frequently been presented."

[35] That the theory of the origin of the Filipino peoples here expressed is false needs no demonstration. The peoples of the Philippines show two stocks--the Malayan and the Negrito. The inhabitants of the Polynesian Islands (using the term in its restricted sense) probably migrated from the East Indies and hence are allied to the modern Malayan peoples, and the same is true of the Huvas of Madagascar, having migrated from the parent stock from which the latter peoples originated. Sec Cust's Modern Languages of East India (London, 1878); and New International Encyclopdia; Lesson's Les Polynsiens (Paris, 1880-84); and Ratzel's History of Mankind (English translation, London, 1898).

[36] The San Duisk Islands are the Sandwich or Hawaiian Islands; and the Otayti Islands are the Society Islands, so called from their largest island O-Taiti, Taiti, or Tahiti. The group of the Society Islands, of which Tahiti is chief, is called Windward Islands.

[37] Easter Island, so called because discovered by Roggeveen on Easter of 1772; called also Waihu, Teapi, and by the natives Rapanui. The inhabitants of this island are the last outpost of the Malayo-Polynesian race. It has belonged to Chile since 1888.

[38] The Taglog word for "house" is bahay, not balay.

[39] A reference to La Araucana, a Spanish epic poem written by Alonso de Ercilla y Zuiga, the first part of which (15 cantos) was published at Madrid, 1569. This is the first work of literary merit known to have been composed upon either American continent. Ercilla y Zuiga accompanied Felipe II to England on the occasion of his marriage to Mary Tudor. Thence he went to Chile with the army to fight the rebellious Araucanians. He was accused of having plotted an insurrection, and was condemned to death but the sentence was commuted to exile to Callao. He returned to Spain in 1562 and being coldly received wandered through various European countries until 1580 when he died in Madrid poor and forgotten. The continuations of his poem consisting of 37 cantos in all, were published in 1578 and 1590. The complete poem is published in vol. 17 of Autores espaoles (Madrid, 1851). See New International Encyclopdia, and Grande Encyclopdie.

[40] In May, 1874, three canoes containing sixteen savages were driven by gales from the Pelew Islands, and after drifting on the ocean sixty days reached Formosa, distant 1,600 miles; and all but one survived these hardships--a striking example of endurance in both themselves and their craft (Davidson, Formosa, p. 215).

[41] Charles Wilkes was born in New York City, in 1798. He entered the U. S. navy as midshipman in 1818, and sailed in the Mediterranean and Pacific. He became lieutenant in 1826, and was placed in charge of the department of charts and instruments in 1830. In 1838, he was placed in charge of the expedition authorized by Congress in 1836 for the purpose of exploring and surveying the southern ocean. This was the first scientific expedition fitted out by the United States government, and much valuable information resulted from it. Of the record of the expedition (which lasted during the years 1838-1842) consisting of nineteen volumes, Wilkes wrote the six containing the narrative and the volumes on meteorology and hydrography. In 1843 he was made a commander, and a captain in 1855. He served through most of the Civil war on the northern side and was the one who removed the Confederate commissioners Slidell and Mason from the English mail boat "Trent," November 8, 1861. He was made a commodore in July 1862, retired in June 1864, and created a rear admiral on the retired list, in 1866. His death occurred in 1877. The names of the vessels in his fleet were the sloops of war "Vincennes" and "Peac.o.c.k," the brig "Porpoise," the store-ship "Relief," and the two tenders, "Sea-Gull,"

and "Flying-Fish." See Introduction to Vol. i. of Wilkes's narrative, and New International Encyclopdia.

[42] i.e., The island of Busuanga, the largest of the Calamianes group, which has an area of 390 square miles. See Census of Philippines, i, p. 274.

[43] i.e., The island of Amboln, south of Mindoro, of four square miles. See ut supra, i, p. 267.

[44] The island of Simara, near Rombln.

[45] "Although Spain had jurisdiction over these islands for more than three centuries, little topographic information had been acquired regarding them, except such as was of a very general character. The coasts were badly mapped, and in many places are now known to have been miles out of position. The coast charts, made from Spanish surveys, are so inaccurate as to be, on the whole, worse than useless to mariners, while of the interior of the larger islands, little was known except what could be seen from the sea." Census of the Philippines, i, p. 51.

[46] The population is given by the Census for 1903 (ii, p. 30) as 743,646.

[47] On my arrival at Singapore, this circ.u.mstance was investigated by a court of inquiry. The result showed that Mr. Knox had no knowledge of the Vincennes having been seen; for the officer of the watch had not reported to him the fact.--Wilkes.

[48] The full name of this village is San Jos de Buenavista. It is the capital of Antique.

[49] The crest of the mountains in Panay is a few miles inland from the west coast. Among the peaks of that range, are the following: Usigan, 4,300 ft.; Agtay, 3,764 ft.; Madias, 7,466 ft.; Nangtud, 6,834 ft.; Maymagui, 5,667 ft.; Llorente, 4,466 ft.; Tiguran, 4,900 ft.; and Igbanig, 4,343 ft. See Census of Philippines, i, p. 69.

[50] Wilkes accompanies (p. 349) this description of Caldera fort with a sketch.

[51] There are two islands called Sangboy, one called the north island and the other the south island. They both belong to the Pilas group of the Sulu Archipelago, and are less than one square mile in area. See Census of Philippines, i, p. 283.

[52] Wilkes presents figures of both the whole canoe and a cross section, on p. 353.

[53] For the methods of fishing in the Philippines, see Official Handbook, p. 151. Wilkes also mentions (v, pp. 321, 322) various methods, namely, by weirs, hooks, and seine. The former are made of bamboo stakes in the shallow waters of the lake of Bay where it empties into the Pasig. The nets used in the bay are suspended by the four corners from hoops attached to a crane by which they are lowered into the water. The fishing-boats are little better than rafts and are called saraboas.

[54] Evidently at the village of Jol.

[55] On p. 354, Wilkes presents a sketch of houses at Soung--the typical Moro house.

[56] A full-page engraving of the "Mosque in the town of Sooloo"

faces page 354 of Wilkes's narrative.

[57] Chewing the betel-nut and pepper-leaf also produce this effect, and is carried on to a great extent among these islanders.--Wilkes.

[58] Cf. the description of the betel caskets given by Morga, VOL. XVI, p. 99.

[59] The Sultan, on the visit of one of our merchant-vessels, had informed the supercargo that he wished to encourage our trade, and to see the vessels of the United States coming to his port.--Wilkes.

[60] An engraving made from this sketch is given by Wilkes facing p. 358.

[61] Opium is known by its Arabic name "afyun" throughout the Eastern Archipelago. Crawfurd a.s.serts that its moderate use produces no worse results than does the moderate use of wine, spirits, and perhaps smoking. Shortly after American occupation of the Philippines, the necessity for taking some action in regard to the traffic was seen. The Philippine Commission were convinced that the smoking of opium was increasing among the Filipinos. Accordingly a committee was appointed to study the conditions, and restrictions of other Oriental countries in regard to opium. There were then practically no restrictions in regard to the smoking of the drug. On August 1, 1903, there were 190 opium dens in Manila, and no license was required, as they had no authority in law. The vice was mainly restricted to the Chinese. In 1904 a considerable amount of opium was smuggled into the district of Lanao in Mindanao. "Nothing has had a more demoralizing effect upon the Moros and savage peoples than opium, and it will absolutely destroy them if its importation and use is authorized.... It is believed that a license to smoke opium, sufficiently low to escape fraud, should be issued for those hopelessly addicted to the habit, and that exceedingly severe penalties should attach to those who furnish opium to youth or those who are nonsmokers.... It is a poor policy in developing a people to count on the income of legalized vice for a large portion of the revenue, as is done in most eastern colonies." The importation of opium has shown considerable increase during American occupation. See Crawfurd's Dictionary, pp. 312-314; and the following reports of the Philippine Commission--for 1903, pt. i, p. 63, pt. 2, p. 96; for 1904, pt. 2, pp. 590, 591, pt. 3, p. 545.

[62] Since our return, inquiries have been made by him, which resulted in proving that such was in truth their origin, and that the vessel in which they were shipped was for a long time missing. The identical stones which he saw were a part of a monument that was on its way to Canton.--Wilkes.

[63] Marongas belongs to the Jol group of the Sulu Archipelago, and has an area of .4 square miles. See Census of Philippines, i, p. 284.

[64] The Sulug or Sulus were the dominant people of Jol before their conversion to Mahometanism, and still maintain that position. The bulk of the Moro Sulus is on the island of Jol and the islands immediately south as far as Sia.s.si and Pandami. See Census of Philippines, i, pp. 463, 464.

[65] Orang is the Malay term for man or human being. As used here it would mean "the men," i. e., "n.o.bles."