WEEK 15:

RIZAL'S ANNOTATIONS
OF MORGA'S SUCESOS
DELAS ISLAS FILIPINAS
AND ANALYSIS OF THE
LETTER TO THE YOUNG
WOMEN OF MALOLOS
 RIZAL’S
ANNOTATIONS
TO MORGA’S
SUCESOS DE LAS
ISLAS FILIPINAS
 LEARNING OUTCOMES
The learners are expected to:

1 2
Analyze Rizal’s ideas on Compare and contrast Rizal and
how to rewrite Philippine Morga’s different views about
history Filipinos and Philippine culture
MEANING OF SUCESOS
DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS

Las Islas Filipinas means “The

Philippine Island” in English and
was named in honor of King Philip
II of Spain
Sucesos means the work of an
honest observer, versatile
bureaucrat, who knew the workings
of the administration from the
inside.
 ABOUT SUCESOS
DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS

One of the important works of the

Philippines about the colonization
of Spain, published by Antonio De
Morga in Mexico 1609.
Explains the political, social and
economical aspects of a colonizer
and the colonized country.
 ABOUT SUCESOS
DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS

The book is based on the experience

and observation of Antonio De Morga

Annotated by Jose Rizal with a

prologue by Dr.Ferdinand
Blumentritt
 INTRODUCTION
To The Filipinos: In Noli Me Tangere I started to sketch
the present state of our native land. But the effect which
my effort produced made me realize that, before
attempting to unroll before your eyes the other pictures
which were to follow, it was necessary first to post you
on the past. So only can you fairly judge the present and
estimate how much progress has been made during the
three centuries of Spanish rule.
 INTRODUCTION
Like almost all of you, I was born and brought up in
ignorance of our country's past and so, without
knowledge or authority to speak of what I neither saw
nor have studied, I deem it necessary to quote the
testimony of an illustrious Spaniard who in the beginning
of the new era controlled the destinies of the Philippines
and had personal knowledge of our ancient nationality in
its last days.
 INTRODUCTION
Governor Antonio de Morga was not only the first to write but
also the first to publish a Philippine history. This statement has
regard to the concise and concrete form in which our author has
treated the matter. Father Chirino's work, printed at Rome in
1604, is rather a chronicle of the Missions than a history of the
Philippines; still it contains a great deal of valuable material on
usages and customs. The worthy Jesuit in fact admits that he
abandoned writing a political history because Morga had already
done so, so one must infer that he had seen the work in
manuscript before leaving the Islands.
 ANNOTATIONS
By the Christian religion, Doctor
Morga appears to mean the Roman
Catholic which by fire and sword he
would preserve in its purity in the
Philippines. Nevertheless, in other
lands, notably in Flanders, these
means were ineffective to keep the
church unchanged, or to maintain its
supremacy, or even to hold its
subjects.
 ANNOTATIONS
Great kingdoms were indeed discovered and
conquered in the remote and unknown parts of the
world by Spanish ships but to the Spaniards who
sailed in them we may add Portuguese, Italians,
French, Greeks, and even Africans and
Polynesians. The expeditions captained by
Columbus and Magellan, one a Genoese Italian
and the other a Portuguese, as well as those that
came after them, although Spanish fleets, still
were manned by many nationalities and in them
went negroes, Moluccans, and even men from the
Philippines and the Marianas Islands.
 ANNOTATIONS
Three centuries ago it was the custom to
write as intolerantly as Morga does, but
nowadays it would be called a bit
presumptuous. No one has a monopoly of the
true God nor is there any nation or religion
that can claim, or at any rate prove, that to it
has been given the exclusive right to the
Creator of all things or sole knowledge of His
real being.
 ANNOTATIONS
The conversions by the Spaniards were not as
general as their historians claim. The missionaries
only succeeded in converting a part of the people of
the Philippines. Still there are Mohamedans, the
Moros, in the southern islands, and negritos, igorots
and other heathens yet occupy the greater part
territorially of the archipelago. Then the islands
which the Spaniards early held but soon lost are
non-Christian-Formosa, Borneo, and the Moluccas.
And if there are Christians in the Carolines, that is
due to Protestants, whom neither the Roman
Catholics of Morga's day nor many Catholics in our
own day consider Christians.
 ANNOTATIONS
It is not the fact that the Filipinos were
unprotected before the coming of the
Spaniards. Morga himself says, further on in
telling of the pirate raids from the south, that
previous to the Spanish domination the islands
had arms and defended themselves. But after
the natives were disarmed the pirates pillaged
them with impunity, coming at times when
they were unprotected by the government,
which was the reason for many of the
insurrections.
 ANNOTATIONS
The civilization of the Pre-Spanish
Filipinos in regard to the duties of life for
that age was well advanced, as the Morga
history shows in its eighth chapter.
 ANNOTATIONS
The islands came under Spanish sovereignty
and control through compacts, treaties of
friendship and alliances for reciprocity. By
virtue of the last arrangement, according to
some historians, Magellan lost his life on
Mactan and the soldiers of Legaspi fought
under the banner of King Tupas of Cebu.
 ANNOTATIONS
The term "conquest" is admissible but for a
part of the islands and then only in its
broadest sense. Cebu, Panay, Luzon
Mindoro and some others cannot be said to
have been conquered.
 ANNOTATIONS
The discovery, conquest and conversion
cost Spanish blood but still more Filipino
blood. It will be seen later on in Morga that
with the Spaniards and on behalf of Spain
there were always more Filipinos fighting
than Spaniards.
 ANNOTATIONS
Morga shows that the ancient Filipinos had
army and navy with artillery and other
implements of warfare. Their prized krises
and kampilans for their magnificent temper
are worthy of admiration and some of them
are richly damascened. Their coats of mail
and helmets, of which there are specimens
in various European museums, attest their
great advancement in this industry.
 ANNOTATIONS
Morga's expression that the Spaniards
"brought war to the gates of the Filipinos"
is in marked contrast with the word used
by subsequent historians whenever
recording Spain's possessing herself of a
province, that she pacified it. Perhaps "to
make peace" then meant the same as "to
stir up war."
 ANNOTATIONS
Magellan's transferring from the service of his own king to
employment under the King of Spain, according to historic
documents, was because the Portuguese King had refused to
grant him the raise in salary which he asked.
Now it is known that Magellan was mistaken when he represented
to the King of Spain that the Molucca Islands were within the
limits assigned by the Pope to the Spaniards. But through this
error and the inaccuracy of the nautical instruments of that time,
the Philippines did not fall into the hands of the Portuguese.
 ANNOTATIONS
Cebu, which Morga calls "The City of the Most Holy Name of
Jesus," was at first called "The village of San Miguel."
The image of the Holy Child of Cebu, which many religious
writers believed was brought to Cebu by the angels, was in
fact given by the worthy Italian chronicler of Magellan's
expedition, the Chevalier Pigafetta, to the Cebuano queen.
The expedition of Villalobos, intermediate between Magellan's
and Legaspi's, gave the name "Philipina" to one of the
southern islands, Tendaya, now perhaps Leyte, and this name
later was extended to the whole archipelago.
 ANNOTATIONS
Of the native Manila rulers at the coming of the Spaniards,
Raja Soliman was called "Rahang mura", or young king, in
distinction from the old king, "Rahang matanda". Historians
have confused these personages. The native fort at the mouth
of the Pasig river, which Morga speaks of as equipped with
brass lantakas and artillery of larger caliber, had its ramparts
reinforced with thick hardwood posts such as the Tagalogs
used for their houses and called "harigues", or "haligui".
 ANNOTATIONS
Morga has evidently confused the pacific coming of Legaspi with
the attack of Goiti and Salcedo, as to date. According to other
historians it was in 1570 that Manila was burned, and with it a
great plant for manufacturing artillery. Goiti did not take
possession of the city but withdrew to Cavite and afterwards to
Panay, which makes one suspicious of his alleged victory. As to
the day of the date, the Spaniards then, having come following the
course of the sun, were some sixteen hours later than Europe.
This condition continued till the end of the year 1844, when the
31st of December was by special arrangement among the
authorities dropped from the calendar for that year.
 ANNOTATIONS
Accordingly, Legaspi did not arrive in Manila on the 19th but on
the 20th of May and consequently it was not on the festival of
Santa Potenciana but on San Baudelio's day. The same mistake
was made with reference to the other early events still wrongly
commemorated, like San Andres' day for the repulse of the
Chinese corsair Li Ma-hong.

Though not mentioned by Morga, the Cebuans aided the

Spaniards in their expedition against Manila, for which reason
they were long exempted from tribute.
 ANNOTATIONS
The southern islands, the Bisayas, were also called "The land of
the Painted People" (or Pintados, in Spanish) because the natives
had their bodies decorated with tracings made with fire,
somewhat like tattooing.
The Spaniards retained the native name for the new capital of the
archipelago, a little changed, however, for the Tagalogs had called
their city "Maynila."
 ANNOTATIONS
When Morga says that the lands were "entrusted" (given as
encomiendas) to those who had "pacified" them, he means "divided
up among." The word "entrust," like "pacify," later came to have a
sort of ironical signification. To entrust a province was then as if
it were said that it was turned over to sack, abandoned to the
cruelty and covetousness of the encomendero, to judge from the
way this gentry misbehaved.
 ANNOTATIONS
Legaspi's grandson, Salcedo, called the Hernando Cortez of the
Philippines, was the "conqueror's" intelligent right arm and the
hero of the "conquest." His honesty and fine qualities, talent and
personal bravery, all won the admiration of the Filipinos. Because
of him they yielded to their enemies, making peace and friendship
with the Spaniards. He it was who saved Manila from Li Ma-
hong. He died at the early age of twenty-seven and is the only
encomendero recorded to have left the great part of his
possessions to the Indians of his encomienda. Vigan was his
encomienda and the Ilokanos there were his heirs.
 ANNOTATIONS
The expedition which followed the Chinese corsair Li Ma-Hong,
after his unsuccessful attack upon Manila, to Pangasinan
province, with the Spaniards of whom Morga tells, had in it 1,500
friendly Indians from Cebu, Bohol, Leyte and Panay, besides the
many others serving as laborers and crews of the ships. Former
Raja Lakandula, of Tondo, with his sons and his kinsmen went,
too, with 200 more Bisayans and they were joined by other
Filipinos in Pangasinan.
 ANNOTATIONS
If discovery and occupation justify annexation, then Borneo ought
to belong to Spain. In the Spanish expedition to replace on its
throne a Sirela or Malaela, as he is variously called, who had been
driven out by his brother, more than fifteen hundred Filipino
bowmen from the provinces of Pangasinan, Cagayan, and the
Bisayas participated.
It is notable how strictly the earlier Spanish governors were held
to account. Some stayed in Manila as prisoners, one, Governor
Corcuera, passing five years with Fort Santiago as his prison.
 ANNOTATIONS
In the fruitless expedition against the Portuguese in the island of
Ternate, in the Molucca group, which was abandoned because of
the prevalence of beriberi among the troops, there went 1,500
Filipino soldiers from the more warlike provinces, principally
Cagayan and Pampanga.
The "pacification" of Cagayan was accomplished by taking
advantage of the jealousies among its people, particularly the
rivalry between two brothers who were chiefs. An early historian
asserts that without this fortunate circumstance, for the
Spaniards, it would have been impossible to subjugate them.
 ANNOTATIONS
Captain Gabriel de Rivera, a Spanish commander who had gained
fame in a raid on Borneo and the Malacca coast, was the first envoy
from the Philippines to take up with the King of Spain the needs of
the archipelago.
The early conspiracy of the Manila and Pampanga former chiefs
was revealed to the Spaniards by a Filipina, the wife of a soldier,
and many concerned lost their lives.
The artillery cast for the new stone fort in Manila, says Morga,
was by the hand of an ancient Filipino. That is, he knew how to
cast cannon even before the coming of the Spaniards, hence he was
distinguished as 4"ancient." In this difficult art of ironworking, as
in so many others, the modern or present-day Filipinos are not so
far advanced as were their ancestors.
 ANNOTATIONS
When the English freebooter Cavendish captured the Mexican
galleon Santa Ana, with 122,000 gold pesos, a great quantity of
rich textiles-silks, satins and damask, musk perfume, and stores of
provisions, he took 150 prisoners. All these because of their brave
defense were put ashore with ample supplies, except two Japanese
lads, three Filipinos, a Portuguese and a skilled Spanish pilot
whom he kept as guides in his further voyaging.
From the earliest Spanish days, ships were built in the islands,
which might be considered evidence of native culture. Nowadays
this industry is reduced to small craft, scows and coasters.
 ANNOTATIONS
The Jesuit, Father Alonso Sanchez, who visited the papal court at
Rome and the Spanish King at Madrid, had a mission much like that
of deputies now, but of even greater importance since he came to be
a sort of counsellor or representative to the absolute monarch of
that epoch. One wonders why the Philippines could have a
representative then but may not have one now.
In the time of Governor Gomez Perez Dasmariňas, Manila was
guarded against further damage such as was suffered from Li Ma-
Hong by the construction of a massive stone wall around it. This
was accomplished "without expense to the royal treasury." The
same governor, in like manner, also fortified the point at the
entrance to the river where had been the ancient native fort of
wood, and he gave it the name Fort Santiago.
 ANNOTATIONS
The early cathedral of wood which was burned through carelessness
at the time of the funeral of Governor Dasmariňas' predecessor,
Governor Ronquillo, was made, according to the Jesuit historian
Chirino, with hardwood pillars around which two men could not
reach, and in harmony with this massiveness was all the woodwork
above and below. It may be surmised from these how hard workers
were the Filipinos of that time.
A stone house for the bishop was built before starting on the
governor-general's residence. This precedence is interesting for those
who uphold the civil power. Morga's mention of the scant output of
large artillery from the Manila cannon works because of lack of
master foundrymen shows that after the death of the Filipino Panday
Pira there were not Spaniards skilled enough to take his place, nor
were his sons as expert as he.
 ANNOTATIONS
It is worthy of note that China, Japan and Cambodia at this time
maintained relations with the Philippines. But in our day it has been
more than a century since the natives of the latter two countries have
come here. The causes which ended the relationship may be found in
the interference by the religious orders with the institutions of those
lands.
For Governor Dasmariňas' expedition to conquer Ternate, in the
Moluccan group, two Jesuits there gave secret information. In his
200 ships, besides 900 Spaniards, there must have been Filipinos for
one chronicler speaks of Indians, as the Spaniards called the natives
of the Philippines, who lost their lives and others who were made
captives when the Chinese rowers mutinied. It was the custom then
always to have a thousand or more native bowmen and besides the
crew were almost all Filipinos, for the most part Bisayans.
 ANNOTATIONS
The historian Argensola, in telling of four special galleys for
Dasmariňas' expedition, says that they were manned by an expedient
which was generally considered rather harsh. It was ordered that
there be bought enough of the Indians who were slaves of the former
Indian chiefs, or principales, to form these crews, and the price, that
which had been customary in pre-Spanish times, was to be advanced
by the encomenderos who later would be reimbursed from the royal
treasury. In spite of this promised compensation, the measures still
seemed severe since those Filipinos were not correct in calling their
dependents slaves. The masters treated these, and loved them, like
sons rather, for they seated them at their own tables an gave them
their own daughters in marriage.
 ANNOTATIONS
Morga says that the 250 Chinese oarsmen who manned
Governor Dasmariňas’ swift galley were under pay and had
the special favor of not being chained to their benches.
According to him it was covetousness of the wealth aboard
that led them to revolt and kill the governor. But the historian
Gaspar de San Agustin states that the reason for the revolt
was the governor's abusive language and his threatening the
rowers. Both these authors' allegations may have contributed,
but more important was the fact that there was no law to
compel these Chinamen to row in the galleys. They had come
to Manila to engage in commerce or to work in trades or to
follow professions.
 ANNOTATIONS
Still the incident contradicts the reputation for enduring
everything which they have had. The Filipinos have been much
more long-suffering than the Chinese since, in spite of having been
obliged to row on more than one occasion, they never mutinied.
It is difficult to excuse the missionaries' disregard of the laws of
nations and the usages of honorable politics in their interference in
Cambodia on the ground that it was to spread the Faith. Religion
had a broad field awaiting it then in the Philippines where more
than nine-tenths of the natives were infidels. That even now there
are to be found here so many tribes and settlements of non-
Christians takes away much of the prestige of that religious zeal
which in the easy life in towns of wealth, liberal and fond of
display, grows lethargic.
 ANNOTATIONS
Truth is that the ancient activity was scarcely for the Faith
alone, because the missionaries had to go to islands rich in spices
and gold though there were at hand Mohamedans and Jews in
Spain and Africa, Indians by the million in the Americas, and
more millions of protestants, schismatic and heretics peopled,
and still people, over six-sevenths of Europe. All of these
doubtless would have accepted the Light and the true religion if
the friars, under pretext of preaching to them, had not abused
their hospitality and if behind the name Religion had not lurked
the unnamed Domination.
 ANNOTATIONS
In the attempt made by Rodriguez de Figueroa to conquer
Mindanao according to his contract with the King of Spain, there
was fighting along the Rio Grande with the people called the
Buhahayenes. Their general, according to Argensola, was the
celebrated Silonga, later distinguished for many deeds in raids
on the Bisayas and adjacent islands. Chirino relates an anecdote
of his coolness under fire once during a truce for a marriage
among Mindanao "principalia." Young Spaniards out of bravado
fired at his feet but he passed on as if unconscious of the bullets.
 ANNOTATIONS
Argensola has preserved the name of the Filipino who killed
Rodriguez de Figueroa. It was Ubal. Two days previously he
had given a banquet, slaying for it a beef animal of his own, and
then made the promise which he kept, to do away with the
leader of the Spanish invaders. A Jesuit writer calls him a
traitor though the justification for that term of reproach is not
apparent. The Buhahayen people were in their own country, and
had neither offended nor declared war upon the Spaniards. They
had to defend their homes against a powerful invader, with
superior forces, many of whom were, by reason of their armor,
invulnerable so far as rude Indians were concerned. Yet these
same Indians were defenseless against the balls from their
muskets.
 ANNOTATIONS
By the Jesuit's line of reasoning, the heroic Spanish peasantry in
their war for independence would have been a people even more
treacherous. It was not Ubal's fault that he was not seen and, as
it was wartime, it would have been the height of folly, in view of
the immense disparity of arms, to have first called out to this
preoccupied opponent, and then been killed himself.
The muskets used by the Buhahayens were probably some that
had belonged to Figueroa's soldiers who had died in battle.
Though the Philippines had lantakas and other artillery,
muskets were unknown till the Spaniards came.
 ANNOTATIONS
By the Jesuit's line of reasoning, the heroic Spanish peasantry in their
war for independence would have been a people even more
treacherous. It was not Ubal's fault that he was not seen and, as it
was wartime, it would have been the height of folly, in view of the
immense disparity of arms, to have first called out to this preoccupied
opponent, and then been killed himself.
The muskets used by the Buhahayens were probably some that had
belonged to Figueroa's soldiers who had died in battle. Though the
Philippines had lantakas and other artillery, muskets were unknown
till the Spaniards came.
That the Spaniards used the word "discover" very carelessly may be
seen from an admiral's turning in a report of his "discovery" of the
Solomon Islands though he noted that the islands had been discovered
before.
 ANNOTATIONS
Death has always been the first sign of European civilization on its
introduction in the Pacific Ocean. God grant that it may not be the
last, though to judge by statistics the civilized islands are losing their
populations at a terrible rate. Magellan himself inaugurated his arrival
in the Marianas islands by burning more than forty houses, many
small craft and seven people because one of his boats had been stolen.
Yet to the simple savages the act had nothing wrong in it but was
done with the same naturalness that civilized people hunt, fish, and
subjugate people that are weak or ill-armed.
The Japanese were not in error when they suspected the Spanish and
Portuguese religious propaganda to have political motives back of the
missionary activities.
 ANNOTATIONS
Witness the Moluccas where Spanish missionaries served as spies;
Cambodia, which it was sought to conquer under cloak of converting;
and many other nations, among them the Filipinos, where the
sacrament of baptism made of the inhabitants not only subjects of the
King of Spain but also slaves of the encomenderos, and as well slaves
of the churches and convents. What would Japan have been now had
not its emperors uprooted Catholicism? A missionary record of 1625
sets forth that the King of Spain had arranged with certain members
of Philippine religious orders that, under guise of preaching the faith
and making Christians, they should win over the Japanese and oblige
them to make themselves of the Spanish party, and finally it told of a
plan whereby the King of Spain should become also King of Japan.
 ANNOTATIONS
In corroboration of this may be cited the claims that Japan fell within
the Pope's demarcation lines for Spanish expansion and so there was
complaint of missionaries other than Spanish there. Therefore, it was
not for religion that they were converting the infidels!
The raid by Datus Sali and Silonga of Mindanao, in 1599 with 50
sailing vessels and 3,000 warriors, against the capital of Panay, is the
first act of piracy by the inhabitants of the South which is recorded in
Philippine history. I say "by the inhabitants of the South" because
earlier there had been other acts of piracy, the earliest being that of
Magellan's expedition when it seized the shipping of friendly islands
and even of those whom they did not know, extorting for them heavy
ransoms.
 ANNOTATIONS
It will be remembered that these Moro piracies continued for more
than two centuries, during which the indomitable sons of the South
made captives and carried fire and sword not only in neighboring
islands but into Manila Bay to Malate, to the very gates of the capital,
and not once a year merely but at times repeating their raids five and
six times in a single season.Yet the government was unable to repel
them or to defend the people whom it had disarmed and left without
protection. Estimating that the cost to the islands was but 800 victims
a year, still the total would be more than 200,000 persons sold into
slavery or killed, all sacrificed together with so many other things to
the prestige of that empty title, Spanish sovereignty.
 ANNOTATIONS
Still the Spaniards say that the Filipinos have contributed nothing to
Mother Spain, and that it is the islands which owe everything. It may
be so, but what about the enormous sum of gold which was taken from
the islands in the early years of Spanish rule, of the tributes collected
by the encomenderos, of the nine million dollars yearly collected to pay
the military, expenses of the employees, diplomatic agents,
corporations and the like, charged to the Philippines, with salaries
paid out of the Philippine treasury not only for those who come to the
Philippines but also for those who leave, to some who never have been
and never will be in the islands, as well as to others who have nothing
to do with them.
 ANNOTATIONS
Yet all of this is as nothing in comparison with so many captives gone,
such a great number of soldiers killed in expeditions, islands
depopulated, their inhabitants sold as slaves by the Spaniards
themselves, the death of industry, the demoralization of the Filipinos,
and so forth, and so forth. Enormous indeed would the benefits which
that sacred civilization brought to the archipelago have to be in order
to counterbalance so heavy a-cost.
While Japan was preparing to invade the Philippines, these islands
were sending expeditions to Tonquin and Cambodia, leaving the
homeland helpless even against the undisciplined hordes from the
South, so obsessed were the Spaniards with the idea of making
conquests.
 ANNOTATIONS
In the alleged victory of Morga over the Dutch ships, the latter found
upon the bodies of five Spaniards, who lost their lives in that combat,
little silver boxes filled with prayers and invocations to the saints.
Here would seem to be the origin of the anting-anting of the modern
tulisanes, which are also of a religious character.
In Morga's time, the Philippines exported silk to Japan whence now
comes the best quality of that merchandise.
Morga's views upon the failure of Governor Pedro de Acuna’s
ambitious expedition against the Moros unhappily still apply for the
same conditions yet exist. For fear of uprisings and loss of Spain's
sovereignty over the islands, the inhabitants were disarmed, leaving
them exposed to the harassing of a powerful and dreaded enemy.Even
now, though the use of steam vessels has put an end to piracy from
outside, the same fatal system still is followed.
 ANNOTATIONS
The peaceful countryfolk are deprived of arms and thus made unable
to defend themselves against the bandits, or tulisanes, which the
government cannot restrain. It is an encouragement to banditry thus
to make easy its getting booty.
•Hernando de los Rios blames these Moluccan wars for the fact that at
first the Philippines were a source of expense to Spain instead of
profitable in spite of the tremendous sacrifices of the Filipinos, their
practically gratuitous labor in building and equipping the galleons, and
despite, too, the tribute, tariffs and other imposts and monopolies.
These wars to gain the Moluccas, which soon were lost forever with
the little that had been so laboriously obtained, were a heavy drain
upon the Philippines. They depopulated the country and bankrupted
the treasury, with not the slightest compensating benefit.
 ANNOTATIONS
True also is it that it was to gain the Moluccas that Spain kept the
Philippines, the desire for the rich spice islands being one of the most
powerful arguments when, because of their expense to him, the King
thought of withdrawing and abandoning them.
Among the Filipinos who aided the government when the Manila
Chinese revolted, Argensola says there were 4,000 Pampangans
"armed after the way of their land, with bows and arrows, short
lances, shields, and broad and long daggers." Some Spanish writers
say that the Japanese volunteers and the Filipinos showed themselves
cruel in slaughtering the Chinese refugees. This may very well have
been so, considering the hatred and rancor then existing, but those in
command set the example.
 ANNOTATIONS
The loss of two Mexican galleons in 1603 called forth no comment
from the religious chroniclers who were accustomed to see the
avenging hand of God in the misfortunes and accidents of their
enemies. Yet there were repeated shipwrecks of the vessels that
carried from the Philippines wealth which encomenderos had extorted
from the Filipinos, using force, or making their own laws, and, when
not using these open means, cheating by the weights and measures.
•The Filipino chiefs who at their own expense went with the Spanish
expedition against Ternate, in the Moluccas, in 1605, were Don
Guillermo Palaot, maestro de campo, and Captains Francisco Palaot,
Juan Lit, Luis Lont, and Agustin Lont.They had with them 400
Tagalogs and Kapampangans. The leaders bore themselves bravely
for Argensola writes that in the assault on Ternate, "No officer,
Spaniard or Indian, went unscathed."
 ANNOTATIONS
The loss of two Mexican galleons in 1603 called forth no comment
from the religious chroniclers who were accustomed to see the
avenging hand of God in the misfortunes and accidents of their
enemies. Yet there were repeated shipwrecks of the vessels that
carried from the Philippines wealth which encomenderos had extorted
from the Filipinos, using force, or making their own laws, and, when
not using these open means, cheating by the weights and measures.
•The Filipino chiefs who at their own expense went with the Spanish
expedition against Ternate, in the Moluccas, in 1605, were Don
Guillermo Palaot, maestro de campo, and Captains Francisco Palaot,
Juan Lit, Luis Lont, and Agustin Lont.They had with them 400
Tagalogs and Kapampangans. The leaders bore themselves bravely
for Argensola writes that in the assault on Ternate, "No officer,
Spaniard or Indian, went unscathed."
 ANNOTATIONS
The Cebuanos drew a pattern on the skin before starting in to tattoo.
The Bisayan usage then was the same procedure that the Japanese
today follow.
•Ancient traditions ascribe the origin of the Malay Filipinos to the
island of Sumatra. These traditions were almost completely lost as
well as the mythology and the genealogies of which the early
historians tell, thanks to the zeal of the missionaries in eradicating all
national remembrances as heathen or idolatrous. The study of
ethnology is restoring this somewhat.
•The chiefs used to wear upper garments, usually of Indian fine gauze
according to Colin, of red color, a shade for which they had the same
fondness that the Romans had. The barbarous tribes in Mindanao still
have the same taste.
 ANNOTATIONS
The "easy virtue" of the native women that historians note is not solely
attributable to the simplicity with which they obeyed their natural
instincts but much more due to a religious belief of which Father Chirino
tells. It was that in the journey after death to "Kalualhatian," the abode
of the spirit, there was a dangerous river to cross that had no bridge
other than a very narrow strip of wood over which a woman could not
pass unless she had a husband or lover to extend a hand to assist her.
Furthermore, the religious annals of the early missions are filled with
countless instances where native maidens chose death rather than
sacrifice their chastity to the threats and violence of encomenderos and
Spanish soldiers. As to the mercenary social evil, that is worldwide and
there is no nation that can 'throw the first stone' at any other. For the
rest, today the Philippines has no reason to blush in comparing its
womankind with the women of the most chaste nation in the world.
 ANNOTATIONS
Morga's remark that the Filipinos like fish better when it is commencing
to turn bad is another of those prejudices which Spaniards like all other
nations, have. In matters of food, each is nauseated with what he is
unaccustomed to or doesn't know is eatable. The English, for example,
find their gorge rising when they see a Spaniard eating snails, while in
turn the Spanish find roast beef English-style repugnant and can't
understand the relish of other Europeans for beefsteak a la Tartar which
to them is simply raw meat. The Chinaman, who likes shark's meat,
cannot bear Roquefort cheese, and these examples might be indefinitely
extended. The Filipinos' favorite fish dish is the bagoong and whoever
has tried to eat it knows that it is not considered improved when tainted.
It neither is, nor ought to be, decayed.
 ANNOTATIONS
Colin says the ancient Filipinos had minstrels who had memorized songs
telling their genealogies and of the deeds ascribed to their deities. These
were chanted on voyages in cadence with the rowing, or at festivals, or
funerals, or wherever there happened to be any considerable gatherings.
It is regrettable that these chants have not been preserved as from them
it would have been possible to learn much of the Filipinos' past and
possibly of the history of neighboring islands.
The cannon foundry mentioned by Morga as in the walled city was
probably on the site of the Tagalog one which was destroyed by fire on
the first coming of the Spaniards. That established in 1584 was in
Lamayan, that is, Santa Ana now, and was transferred to the old site in
1590. It continued to work until 1805. According to Gaspar San
Agustin, the cannon which the pre-Spanish Filipinos cast were "as great
as those of Malaga," Spain's foundry.
 ANNOTATIONS
The Filipino plant was burned with all that was in it save a dozen large
cannons and some smaller pieces which the Spanish invaders took back
with them to Panay. The rest of their artillery equipment had been
thrown by the Manilans, then Moros, into the sea when they recognized
their defeat.
•Malate, better Maalat, was where the Tagalog aristocracy lived after
they were dispossessed by the Spaniards of their old homes in what is
now the walled city of Manila. Among the Malate residents were the
families of Raja Matanda and Raja Soliman. The men had various
positions in Manila and some were employed in government work
nearby. "They were very courteous and well-mannered," says San
Agustin. "The women were very expert in lacemaking, so much so that
they were not at all behind the women of Flanders."
 ANNOTATIONS
Morga's statement that there was not a province or town of the Filipinos
that resisted conversion or did not want it may have been true of the
civilized natives. But the contrary was the fact among the mountain
tribes. We have the testimony of several Dominican and Augustinian
missionaries that it was impossible to go anywhere to make conversions
without other Filipinos along and a guard of soldiers. "Otherwise, says
Gaspar de San Agustin, there would have been no fruit of the Evangelic
Doctrine gathered, for the infidels wanted to kill the Friars who came to
preach to them." An example of this method of conversion given by the
same writer was a trip to the mountains by two Friars who had a
numerous escort of Pampangans. The escort's leader was Don Agustin
Sonson who had a reputation for daring and carried fire and sword into
the country, killing many, including the chief, Kabadi.
 ANNOTATIONS
"The Spaniards, says Morga, were accustomed to hold as slaves such
natives as they bought and others that they took in the forays in the
conquest or pacification of the islands." Consequently, in this respect the
"pacifiers" introduced no moral improvement. We even do not know if in
their wars the Filipinos used to make slaves of each other, though that
would not have been strange, for the chroniclers tell of captives returned
to their own people. The practice of the Southern pirates almost proves
this, although in these piratical wars the Spaniards were the first
aggressors and gave them their character.

Source: Rizal's Life and Minor Writings, pp. 310-331, Austin Craig,
1929, Translations were made by Mr. Chas. E. Derbyshire for the author.
 BACKGROUND
wHO? 20 WOMEN FROM
1 PROMINENT CHINESE-FILIPINO
FAMILIES IN MALOLOS, BULACAN

WHY? REQUESTING PERMISSION

2 TO OPEN A NIGHT SCHOOL
WHERE THEY COULD BE TAUGHT
THE SPANISH LANGUAGE UNDER
TEODORO SANDIKO
 BACKGROUND
WHAT? SIGNED AND PRESENTED A
LETTER TO THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL
3 VALERIANO WEYLER ON DECEMBER 12,
1888.

SO? M.H. DEL PILAR (WHO WAS IN

BARCELON) ASKED RIZAL (WHO IS IN
4 LONDON) ON FEBRUARY 17, 1889 ,TO
WRITE A LETTER IN TAGALOG TO THESE
WOMEN. RIZAL SENT THE LETTER BACK
TO DEL PILAR ON FEBRUARY 22, 1889
FOR TRANSMITTAL TO MALOLOS.
 MAIN POINTS
Saintliness is not Mother is the first
just about going to influence of man’s
church and kissing consciousness. Do
the hands of the not be the women
friars. It is not that friars created,
blond ovedience. It rather be like the
is by reason Spartan Woman.
because thoughts
are noble and free.
 MAIN POINTS
The power and Mothers are If not yet
good judgment very married, she
of Filipinos are important in should be
well known but building a honorable
now in slavery. strong family. and command
European and She must respect
American women teach her
are educated children well
and strong- and love her
willed. husband.
 ANALYSIS

The power of languange. A

Patriarchy is perpetuated by particular friar opposed the
friars. Women should be idea of educating these women
submissive and saintly seeing it is a threat to the rule
of the government.

Rizal believed that women Be open-minded and use

should be empowered reason for better judgment.
because it will lead to a For marriage, find a
good citizens. honorable man.