16 - History of the Philippines by David Prescott Barrows

Delve into one of the earliest comprehensive studies of Philippine history crafted by an American scholar. This remarkable work stems from the authors ethnological research on indigenous island tribes following the American war in the Philippines. Aimed at the Filipino audience, the author skillfully weaves the islands history into the expansive tapestry of European and American narratives, offering a unique perspective on the cultural and historical significance of the Philippines. (Summary by JoeD)

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Chapter nine, Part two of A History of the Philippines.
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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visit LibriVox dot org. A History of the Philippines by

(00:22):
David Barrows, Chapter nine, Part two. The Archipelago and religious orders.
During these decades, conflict was almost incessant between the Archbishop
of Manila and the regular orders in the Philippines. The
regulars were the parish curates, and the archbishop desired that

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all matters of their curacy, touching the administration of the
sacraments and other parish duties, should be subject to the
direction of the bishops. This question of the diocesan visit
was fought over for nearly two hundred years the governor
and the archbishop. Even more serious to the colony were

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the conflicts that raged between the Governor General and the archbishop.
All the points of dissension between church and state which
vexed the Middle Ages, broke out afresh in the Philippines.
The appointment of religious officers, the distribution of revenue, the
treatment of the natives, the claim of the Church to

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offer asylum to those fleeing the arm of the law
its claims of jurisdiction in its ecclesiastical courts over a
large class of civil offenses. These disputes, and many others,
occasion almost incessant discord between the heads of civil and
ecclesiastical authority, the residentsia. We have seen that the power

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of the governor was in fact very large. Theoretically, the
audensia was a limit upon his authority, but in fact
the governor was usually the president of this body, and
oudores were frequently his abettors and rarely his opponents. At
the end of each governor's rule there took place a

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characteristic Spanish institution called the residentia. This was a court
held by the newly elected governor for an examination into
the conduct of his predecessor. Complaints of every description were received,
and often In the history of the Philippines, one who
had ruled the archipelago almost as an independent monarch, found

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himself at the end of his office, ruined and in chains.
It was upon the occasion of the residentia that the
ecclesiastical powers, after a governorship's stormy with disputes, exercised their
power for revenge. Unquestionably, many a governor despite its actual power,
facing as he did the Residentia. At the termination of

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his rule, made peace with his enemies and yielded to
their demands. Corcuera had continuous troubles with the archbishop and
with the religious orders other than the Jesuits. In sixteen
forty four, when his successor for Haardo relieved him, the Franciscans,
Augustinians and Recollects procured his imprisonment and the confiscation of

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his property. For five years, the Conqueror of the Moors
lay a prisoner in the fortresses of San Diego and
Cavite when he was pardoned by the Council of the
Indies and appointed Governor of the Canneries by the King.
Weakening of the governor's power, This power of private and
religious classes to intimidate and overawe the responsible head of

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the Philippine government, was an abuse which continued to the
very close of the Spanish rule. This, together with the
relatively short term of the governor's office, his natural desire
to avoid trouble, his all too frequent purpose of amassing
a fortune, rather than maintaining the dignity of his position
and advancing the interests of the islands combined decade after

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decade to make the spiritual authority more powerful. In the end,
the religious Orders, with their great body of members, their
hold upon the Filipinos, their high influence at the court,
and finally their great landed wealth, governed the islands. The
educational work of the religious Orders. In any criticism of

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the evils connected with the administration of the Philippines, one
must not fail to recognize the many achievements of the
missionary friars that were worthy to the Dominicans and the
Jesuits is due the establishment of institutions of learning. The
Jesuits in sixteen o one had planted their College of
San Jose. The Dominicans. Here, as in Europe, the champions

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of Orthodox learning had their own institution, the College of
Santo Tomas, inaugurated in sixteen nineteen, and were the arrivals
of the Jesuits for the privilege of giving higher instruction.
In sixteen forty five, the Pope granted to the Dominicans
to write to bestow higher degrees, and their college became

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the Royal and Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas. This
splendid name breeds the very spirit of the Middle Ages,
which the Dominican Orders strove to perfect way in the
Philippines down to modern days. Dominicans also founded the College
of San Juan de Letran as a preparatory school to

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the University. We should not pass over the educational work
of the religious orders without mention of the early printing
plants and their publications. The missionary Friars were famous printers,
and in the Philippines as well as in America, some
noble volumes were produced by their handicraft. Founding of hospitals

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by the Franciscans, nor had the Franciscans in the Philippines
neglect the fundamental purpose of their foundation, that of ministration
to the sik In and protected. A narrative of their order,
written in sixteen forty nine gives a long list of
their beneficent foundations. Besides the Hospital of Manila, they had

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an infirmary at Tavite for the native mariners and shipbuilders,
a hospital at Los Banos, another in the city of
Nueva Caceres. Lay Brethren were attached to many of the
convents as nurses. In sixteen thirty three, a curious occurrence
led to the founding of the Leper Hospital of San Lazzaro.
The Emperor of Japan, in a probably ironical mood, sent

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to Manila a shipload of Japanese afflicted with this unfortunate disease.
These people were mercifully received by the Franciscans and cared
for in a home which became the San Lazzaro Hospital
for Lepers. Life and progress of the Filipinos. Few sources
exist that can show us the life, life and progress

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of the Philippino people during these decades. Christianity, as introduced
by the missionary Friars, was generally successful, and yet there
were relapses into Heathenism. All religious leaders and priestesses roused
up from time to time and incited the natives to
rebellion against their new spiritual masters. The payment of tribute

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and the labor required for the building of churches often
drove the people into the mountains. Religious revolts at Bohol
and Leyte. In sixteen twenty one, a somewhat serious revolt
took place on Bohol. The Jesuits who administered the island
were absent in Cebu attending the festas on the canonization

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of Saint Francis Xavior the whisper was raised that the
old heathen deity di Wata was at hand to assist
in the expulsion of the Spaniards. The island rose in
revolt except the two towns of Leboq and Bachlayan. Four
towns were burned, the churches sacked, and the sacred images speered.
The revolt spread to Leyte, where it was headed by

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the old Dattu Pancao of Limasawa, who had sworn friendship
with Legaspi. This insurrection was put down by the Alcalde
Mayor of Cebu, and the Filipino leaders were hanged on Leethe.
Bancau was speared in battle, and one of the heathen
priests suffered the penalty prescribed by the Inquisition for hersy
death by burning. Revolt of the Pampangos the heavy drafting

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of natives to fell trees and build the ships for
the Spanish naval expeditions and the Acapulco trade was also
a cause for insurrection. In sixteen sixty a thousand Pampangos
were kept cutting in the forests of that province alone,
sullen at their heavy lavo and at the harshness of
their overseers. These natives rose in revolt. The sedition spread

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to Pangasinan, Zambales, and Ilocos, and it required the utmost
efforts of the Spanish forces on land and water to
suppress the rebellion uprising of the Chinese. In spite of
the terrible massacre that had been visited upon the Chinese
at the beginning of the century, they had almost immediately commenced,

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returning not only as merchants but as colonists. The early
restrictions upon their life must have been relaxed, for in
sixteen thirty nine there were more than thirty thousand living
in the islands, many of them cultivating lands at Colombai
and at other points on the Laguna de Bay. In
that year, a rebellion broke out in which the Chinese

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in Manila participated. They seized the church of San Pedro
Macati on the passage and fortified themselves From there they
were routed by a combined Filipino and Spanish force. The
Chinese then broke up into small bands which scattered through
the country, looting and murdering, but being pursued and cut
to pieces by the Filipinos. Five months this pillage and

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massacre went on until seven thousand Chinese were destroyed by
the laws of these agriculturists and laborers, Manila was reduced
to great distress activity of the Moro pirates. The task
of the Spaniards in controlling the Moro datus continued to
be immensely difficult. During the years following the successes of

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Corcuera and Almonte. The Moros were continually platting, aid was
furnished from Borneo and Celebes, and they were further incited
by the Dutch. In spite of the vigilance of Zambwanga,
small piratical excursions continually harassed the Visayas, and the Camarinas
continued conflicts with the Dutch. The Dutch, too, from time

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to time, showed themselves in Manila. In sixteen forty six,
a squadron attacked Zambwanga and then came north to the zone.
The Spanish naval strength was white unprepared, but two galleons
lately arrived from Acapulco were fitted with heavy guns. Dominican
friars took their places among the gunners, and under the

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protection of the region of the Rosary, successfully encountered the enemy.
A year later, a fleet of twelve vessels entered Manila
Bay and nearly succeeded in taking Tavite. Failing in this,
they Landedimbataan Province, and for some time held the coasts
of Manila Bay in the vicinity of Abuccai. The narrative

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of franciscanmissions in sixteen forty nine above sighted Gibb's Town
after town in southern Zone, where church and convent had
been burned by the Moros or the Dutch. The abandonment
of Zambwanga and the Malaccas the threat of the Dutch
made the maintenance of the presiding of Zambwanga very burdensome.

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In sixteen fifty six, the administration of the Malaccas was
united with that of Mindanao, and the governor of the former,
Don Francisco d este Bar, was transferred from Ternate to
Zambwanga and made Lieutenant Governor and Captain General of all
the provinces of the South. Six years later, the Malaccas,

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so long a vetted by the Spaniards and so slowly
won by them, together with Zambanga, were wholly abandoned and
to the Spice Islands. The Spaniards were never to return
This sudden retirement from their southern possessions was not, however,
occasioned by the incessant restlessness of the Morros, nor by

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the plottings of the Dutch. It was due to a
threat of danger from the north, cosinga the Chinese adventurer.
In sixteen forty four, China was conquered by the manchus
Pe King capitulated at once and the Ming dynasty was overthrown.
But it was only by many years of fighting that

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the Manches overcame the Chinese of the central and southern provinces.
These were years of turbulence, revolt, and piracy. More than
one Chinese adventurer rose to a romantic position during the
disturbed time. One of these adventurers, named it Kowan, had
been a poor fisherman of Chio. He had lived in Macau,

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where he had been converted to Christianity, and had been
a cargador or cargo bearer in Manila. He afterwards went
to Japan and engaged in trade. From these humble and
laborious beginnings, like many another of his persistent countrymen, he
gained great wealth, which, on the conquest of the Manches

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he devoted to piracy. His son was notorious Ku Singh
or Coxinda, who four years resisted the armies of the
Manchus and maintained an independent power over the coasts of
Fukien and czech Yang. About sixty sixty, the forces of
the Manches became too formidable for him to longer resist

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them upon the mainland, and Cosinga determined upon the capture
of Formosa and the transparence of his kingdom to that island.
For thirty eight years, this island had been dominated by
the Dutch, whose fortresses commanded the channel of the Pescadores.
The colony was regarded as an important one by the

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Dutch colonial government at Batavia. The city of Taiwan on
the west coast was a considerable center of trade. It
was strongly protected by the fortress of Zealand and had
a garrison of twenty two hundred Dutch soldiers. After months
of fighting, Cosinga, with an overpowering force of Chinese, compelled

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the surrender of the Hollanders, and the beautiful island passed
into his power. A threatened invasion of the Philippines. Exalted
by his success against the European arms, Cosinga resolved upon
the conquests of the Philippines. He summoned to his service
the Italian Dominican missionary Ricci, who had been living in

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the province of Fukien, and in the spring of sixteen
sixty two, despatched him as an ambassador to the governor
of the Philippines to demand the submission of the archipelago.
Manila was thrown into a terrible panic by this demand,
and indeed no such danger had threatened the Spanish in
the Philippines since the invasion of Limahon. The Chinese conqueror

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had an innumerable army, and his armament stores and navy
had been greatly augmented by the surrender of the Dutch.
The Spaniards, however, were united on resistance. The governor, Don
Sabiniano Manrique de Llara returned a defiant answer to Cosinga,
and the most radical measures were adopted to place the

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colony in a state of defense. Chinese were ordered immediately
to leave the islands. Fearful of massacre, these wretched people
again broke out in rebellion and assaulted the city. Many
were slain, and other bands wandered off into the mountains,
where they perished at the hands of the natives. Others

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escaping by frail boats, joined the Chinese colonists on Formosa.
Churches and convents in the suburbs of Manila which might
afford shelter to the assailant, were raised to the ground.
More than all this, the Maluccas were forsaken, never again
to be recovered by Spaniards, and the presidios of Zambwanga

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and Cuyo, which served as a kind of bridle on
the moros of Holo and Minne, now were abandoned. All
Spanish troops were concentrated in Manila, Fortifications were rebuilt, and
the population waited anxiously for the attack. But the blow
never fell, before which he arrived at Taiwan, Cosinga was dead,
and the peril of Chinese inn had passed. Effects of

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these events, but the Philippines had suffered irretrievable laws. Spanish
prestige was gone, Manila was no longer as she had
been at the commencement of the century, the capital of
the East. Spanish sovereignty was again confined to Lauzan and
the Visayas. The Chinese trade on which rested the economic

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prosperity of Manila, had once again been ruined for a
hundred years. The history of the Philippines is a dull monotony,
quite unrelieved by any heroic activity or the presence of
a noble character. End of Chapter nine, Part two. Recording
by Senna Ceyer, Fresno, California,