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The Philippine Islands

Chapter 2: Introduction.
By Ramon Reyes Lala
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The book surveys the archipelago's past and present through descriptive history and cultural observation, tracing early European contact and conquest, subsequent colonial administrations, and moments of foreign intervention. It examines Spanish colonial institutions, church influence, taxation, and legal practices alongside portraits of provincial cities, Manila's urban life, and commerce from treasure fleets to nineteenth-century trade changes. Detailed chapters profile indigenous peoples and Moro societies, local customs, weddings, festivals, and village entertainments, and celebrate the islands' tropical scenery and agricultural promise. The work balances historical narrative with travelogue-like sketches, economic commentary, and social portraiture to present a comprehensive account of geography, institutions, and everyday life.

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Title: The Philippine Islands

Author: Ramon Reyes Lala

Release date: May 17, 2013 [eBook #42726]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024

Language: English

Credits: Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net/ for Project
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS ***

The Philippine Islands

The Philippine Islands
By
Ramon Reyes Lala
A Native of Manila
Illustrated
MDCCCXCIX
Continental Publishing Company
25 Park Place, New York

Copyright 1898
By
Continental Publishing Co.

The Philippine Islands

TO
Rear-Admiral Dewey,
WHOSE RECENT GREAT VICTORY OVER THE
SPANISH FLEET
HAS BEGUN A NEW ERA OF FREEDOM AND PROSPERITY
FOR MY COUNTRY,
AND TO
President McKinley,
IN WHOSE HAND LIES THE DESTINY OF
EIGHT MILLIONS OF FILIPINOS,
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED.

Contents.

Preface      23

Early History of the Islands.

Discovery and Conquest—Adventures of Juan Sebastian Elcano-Legaspi, the first Governor-General—Li-ma-hong, the Chinese Pirate—The Dutch appear upon the Scene—The Japanese, and the Martyred Saints      29–48

The British Occupation.

General Draper’s Expedition—The British demand an Indemnity—Intrigues against the British      49–56

The Spanish Colonial Government.

The Encomiendoros and the Alcaldes—The Present Division and Administration—The Taxes and what became of Them—Dilatory and Abortive Courts—A New Yorker’s Experience      57–70

The Church in the Colony.

Priesthood and the People—Conflicts between Church and State—Clashing among the Friars—The Monks opposed to Reform      71–79

The Various Tribes of the Philippines.

Character of the Natives—A Native Wedding—Dress and Manners—The Half-Breeds, or Mestizos—Savage Tribes in the Interior: the Aetas, or Negritos—The Gaddanes—The Igorrotes—The Igorrote-Chinese—The Tinguianes—The Chinese: Hated but Indispensable      80–106

The Mohammedans of Sulu.

Cross or Crescent?—The Sultan’s State—The Dreaded Juramentados—The Extent of Mohammedan Rule—Sulu Customs      107–118

Manila.

The Old City—Binondo and the Suburbs—Educational and Charitable Institutions—The Cathedral and the Governor-General’s Palace—The Beautiful Luneta; the Sea Boulevard      119–137

Other Important Cities and Towns.

Iloilo; Capital of the Province of Panay—Cebú, a Mecca for many Filipinos—General Topography of the Islands      138–150

Natural Beauty of the Archipelago.

A Botanist’s Paradise—A Diadem of Island Gems—The Magnificence of Tropical Scenery—The Promise of the Future      151–158

A Village Feast.

The Morning Ceremonies—How the Afternoon is Spent—The Evening Procession—The Entertainment at Home—The Moro-Moro and the Fire-works      159–173

History of Commerce in the Philippines.

The Spanish Policy—The Treasure-Galleons—Disasters to Spanish Commerce—Other Nations enter into Competition—Fraud and Speculation—The Merchants of Cádiz—Royal Restrictions on Trade      174–187

Commerce During the Present Century.

The Royal Company—The Restrictions are gradually Abolished—Vexatious Duties on Foreign Imports—Duties made Uniform—Spanish Opposition to Foreign Trade—Trade with the Natives—The Decline of American Trade—Recent Measures and Statistics—Bad Results of Spanish Rule      188–198

Agriculture: The Sugar and Rice Crops.

Agriculture, the Chief Industry—The Principal Products of the Colony—The Cultivation of Sugar-cane—Methods of Manufacturing Sugar—The Several Systems of Labor—The Rice Crop—Methods of Rice-Cultivation—Primitive Machines, and Importance of the Rice Crop      199–213

The Hemp Plant and its Uses.

Description of the Abacá—The Process of Manufacture—Some Facts about Hemp-growing—Difficulties with Native Labor—Tricks of the Natives—Competition with Other Lands—Experience of a Planter—What the Hemp is used for      214–226

Culture and Use of Tobacco.

The Cultivation of Tobacco, a State Monopoly—Oppressive Conditions in Luzon—How Speculators take Advantage of the Natives—The Quality of Manila Tobacco—Methods of Preparing the Tobacco Leaf—Smoking, a Universal Habit      227–236

The Cultivation of Coffee.

The Origin of the Industry—Indifference of Coffee-planters—Speculation in Coffee—Methods of Cultivation—Harsh Methods of the Government      237–242

Betel-Nut, Grain, and Fruit-Growing.

The Areca Palm and the Betel Nut—The Nipa Palm and Nipa Wine—Various Fruits of the Islands—Cereals and Vegetables—Cotton and Indigo Planting—The Cocoa Industry—The Traffic in Birds’ Nests      243–250

Useful Woods and Plants.

The Huge Forests—The Bamboo Plant and its Uses—The Bejuco Rope—The Useful Cocoanut Palm—Oppressive Regulations of the Government—The Early Missionaries Beneficial to the Natives      251–259

Mineral Wealth of the Islands.

Early Search for Gold—The Mining Laws and Methods of the Colony—Where the Precious Metal is Found—The Whole Country a Virgin Mine—Precious Stones and Iron—Peculiar Method of Mining Copper—Other Materials and the Coal Fields,      260–272

Animal Life in the Colony.

The Useful Buffalo, and Other Domestic Animals—Reptiles, Bats, and Insects—A Field for the Sportsman—The Locust Scourge—The Chief Nuisances: Mosquitoes and Ants      273–283

Struggle of the Filipinos for Liberty.

Early Insurrections Against the Spaniards—The Burgos Revolt—The Present Rebellion—The Katipunan—The Black Hole of Manila—The Forbearance of the Natives—The Rebel Army—The Tagál Republic Proclaimed—Treachery of the Spaniards—Dr José Rizal and his wife Josephine—Execution of Rizal—The Philippine Joan of Arc—Rizal’s Farewell Poem—Aguinaldo Confers with Admiral Dewey—Aguinaldo as Dictator: His Proclamations—Triumphant Progress of the Rebels—The Spaniards Fortify Manila—Sketch of Aguinaldo      284–309

Dewey at Manila.

The White Squadron—Declaration of War, and Journey to the Philippines—Luzon Sighted, and Preparations for Battle—The Fleet Sails by Corregidor—First Shot of the War—The Spanish Fleet is Sighted—Dewey Attacks the Enemy—The Fate of the Reina Cristina—The Commodore Pipes all Hands to Breakfast—The Americans Renew the Battle—The Yankees are Victorious      310–325

The American Occupation.

Merritt and the Expedition—The Battle of Malate—Capture of Manila—Capitulation of the Philippines—Awaiting the Peace Commission—Instructions to Merritt      326–342

Illustrations.

Maps      343

Introduction.

The absolute present necessity for accurate information by the people of the United States respecting the Philippines has been met in no more satisfactory manner than by this book.

The author, Mr. Ramon Reyes Lala, is a Filipino and was born in Manila. His collegiate education was completed in England and Switzerland. A long sojourn in Europe has instructed him in European thought, tendencies, and methods. He has lived in the United States for many years, and has become, by naturalization, a citizen of this country.

He collected the historical material for this work largely from the Spanish archives in Manila before the last rising of the people of Luzon in rebellion against Spain. His mastery of the English language is that of the thorough scholar. His qualifications for his work are those of the student, trained by many studies. He possesses by nativity the gift, incommunicable to any alien, of giving a true color and duly proportioned form to his delineations of his own people. These endowments have enabled him to produce a work of striking and permanent value.

The most meritorious feature of Mr. Lala’s book is unquestionably its impartiality of statement and judgment. This is particularly apparent in his descriptions of the moral and intellectual character of his countrymen. No defect is extenuated, nor is there any patriotic exaggeration of merits. The capacities and limitations of the Filipinos are plainly and photographically depicted. The difficulties and the facilities of their political control by the United States are weighed in a just balance by the reader himself in considering these portrayals of national character.

This colorless truth of statement appears not alone in Mr. Lala’s special descriptions of the character of his people. It is also manifest, as it is incidentally displayed, in his many expositions of the systems and methods of labor, of social usages, of domestic life, of civil administration, of military capacity, of popular amusements and of religious faith. The result is that he has communicated to the reader an unusually distinct conception of national and ethnic character. This is always a very difficult task. The most graphic portrayal in this respect most commonly enables the reader merely to perceive indistinctly, but not clearly to see.

The book is of a most practical character. Its statements of commercial history and methods, and of past and present business and industrial conditions, are most satisfactory. Such an exposition is at this time most indispensably needed. Everybody knows, in a general way, that the Philippine Islands produce sugar, rice, hemp, tobacco, coffee, and many other agricultural staples, and that they are rich in minerals and valuable woods. But heretofore it has been very difficult to obtain specific information upon these subjects. Mr. Lala has given this information. The practical man, the farmer, the manufacturer, the merchant, the miner is here informed concerning resources, methods, prices, labor, wages, profits, and roads. While this information is not technical, it is instructively full and is evidently reliable.

The descriptions of the processes of cultivating and preparing hemp, sugar, coffee, rice, and tobacco, and the suggestions of the ways by which these methods can be easily improved, and the products made more profitable, are, in every way, most satisfactory.

The Philippines began to come under European control with the administration of Legaspi, the first Governor-General, in 1565, long before the English had colonized any portion of North America.

For about three hundred and fifty years the Spanish system has been in contrast with that of every other colonizing nation. It has been worse than the worst of any of these. While there is no elaborate contrast of these systems in Mr. Lala’s book, he nevertheless depicts so thoroughly the manifold and inveterate rapacity, cruelty, corruption, and imbecility of Spanish colonial administration, that he also discloses the vast possibilities of the better contrasted systems.

No war was ever yet waged in the interests of humanity, as the war against Spain unquestionably was, that did not produce consequences entirely unforeseen at its beginning. This truth was never more convincingly confirmed than by the war just ended. The United States demanded the evacuation by Spain of Cuba and Cuban waters. Compliance by Spain would have limited the consequences to the evacuation. She did not comply. She chose the arbitrament of war, and the result was her extirpation from her insular possessions in the West Indies and the Philippines.

This providential and revolutionary event imposed upon the United States duties unforeseen, but none the less imperious. As to the Philippines, those duties are complicated by the irresistible tendencies which seem to make certain the dismemberment of China, and the subjection of that immemorial empire to all the influences of Western civilization. This is an event not inferior in importance to the discovery of America by Columbus, and the interest of the United States in its consequences is of incalculable importance. With this interest its relations to the Philippines is inseparably connected, and those relations present for consideration policies which disenchant the situation of all idealism and make it intensely practical. To this possible result the war waged against the United States by Aguinaldo and his followers has decisively contributed.

But, in any event, whatever the relations of the United States to the Philippines may finally become, the book of Mr. Lala will undoubtedly influence and assist the considerate judgment of those whose duty shall call them to determine the momentous questions which are now enforcing themselves for solution upon the attention of the American people.

Washington, March 22d, 1899.

[Cushman Kellogg Davis, U. S. Senate, Minnesota, 1887 to ——; Chairman Committee on Foreign Relations; Member of the Commission that met at Paris, September 1898, to arrange terms of peace between the United States and Spain.]

Preface.

About twenty years ago, when a student at St. John’s College, London, I was frequently asked by people I met in society for information regarding the Philippines and the Filipinos. Many also, who showed considerable interest, and who wished, for various reasons, to carry their investigations further, complained that there was in English no good book on the subject. Afterward, when I continued my studies at a French college in Neûchatel, Switzerland, I met with many similar inquiries, and here too in America I found demand for a comprehensive, reliable work upon my country.

But it was not until I had traveled considerably through Europe, studying the history of the various States and peoples, that the idea of writing a history of my own fatherland occurred to me. It was mortifying then to think that the glories of my native land were no better known. Accordingly, I resolved to become the chronicler, and I began at once to collect material for a work on the Philippines, that should, I trusted, be deemed a permanent contribution to historical literature.

Upon my return to Manila from Europe, I immediately began a study of the Colonial archives in the office of the Governor-General. From these I gathered many valuable data about the early history of the colony, and also much information that would be locked to the curious traveler. And on account of my knowledge of Spanish, and because of my friendship with the Governor-General Moriones, I was enabled to do this thoroughly. Thus I gradually laid the foundation for the present work.

When, a few years later,—in 1887,—because of my sympathy with the rising cause of the insurgents, Spanish tyrants banished me from my country and my kindred, I carried away all the manuscripts I had already written, resolved to finish the task I had set before me amid a more congenial environment.

I came to the United States. Of this country I, in due time, became a citizen. However, I kept up my relations with friends in Manila; for I still felt an interest in the fate of my native land. Though I have since revisited the Orient, I preferred to retain my American citizenship, rather than again put myself under the iron yoke of Spain. I have, nevertheless, kept pace with the march of events in the colony, and had, indeed, about completed my history when Dewey’s grand victory denoted a new era for the Filipinos, and, hence, made the addition of several chapters necessary. I have thus added much of supreme interest to Americans; bringing the book to the capture of Manila by the American forces.

My acquaintance with the leading insurgents,—Rizal, Aguinaldo, Agoncillo, the Lunas, and others,—has also enabled me to speak with authority about them and the cause for which they have fought.

In writing this work I have consulted all previous historians, the old Spanish chroniclers, Gaspar de San Agustin, Juan de la Concepcion, Martinez Zuñiga, Bowring, Foreman, and various treatises, anthropological and historical, in French, Spanish, and English.

To all these writers I am indebted for many valuable facts.

It has been my aim to give—rather than a long, detailed account—a concise, but true, comprehensive, and interesting history of the Philippine Islands; one, too, covering every phase of the subject, and giving also every important fact.

And my animating spirit of loyalty for my own countrymen makes me feel that I cannot more clearly and fully manifest my affection for them and my native land than by writing this book.

Many of the pictures are photographs taken by myself. The rest were selected from a great number of others, that were accessible, as being most typical of Philippine life and scenery.

The student of history, and he that would learn something about the customs of the people, and the natural resources of the country, may, I trust, find the perusal of this work not without profit and interest.

I desire to attest here my gratitude for the many courtesies shown me, and for the hearty manner in which I have been received, in this great, free country.

Everywhere it was the same.

And I would say to all loyal, ardent Filipinos, that I believe that they eventually will not regret the day when Commodore Dewey sundered the galling chains of Spanish dominance, and when General Merritt, later, hoisted the Stars and Stripes over the Archipelago.

They will, rather, most surely live to recognize and appreciate the unsullied manifold advantages and benefits incident to American occupation and to a close contact with this honest, vigorous type of manhood.

The Author.

New York December, 1898.