From a Photograph.

By way of general description it may be said that the Philippine Archipelago consists of between one and two thousand islands; two of which, Luzon and Mindanao, are much larger than Ireland, while the rest vary in size down to mere islets, rocks, and reefs. Altogether the islands stretch from north to south a distance as great as from the north of England to the south of Italy. The soil is extremely rich, and easily cultivated; vast forests abound, containing valuable timber; and the mineral resources, up to the present undeveloped, are apt to prove a sure source of income under modern methods of working.

But what concerns us most in this inquiry is the character of the inhabitants. The population, which is variously estimated at from eight to ten millions, is made up of more than eighty distinct tribes, which nearly all belong to the Malay race. There are still to be found in some of the islands, and principally in the mountainous districts, the remnants of the aboriginal inhabitants, usually called Negritos. These are of a distinctively inferior type, are rapidly diminishing in numbers, and seem to many observers incapable of civilization. Our only concern therefore is with the Malays, who form the vast bulk of the population, and have in the course of time been nearly all converted to Christianity. Nearly seven million Christians are counted among them; while the unconverted pagans, together with the Moros, or Malay Mohammedans, of Mindanao and the Sulu islands, are not a million in number.

Christianity has effected a wonderful transformation in the character of the people, softening and refining it, as we may judge by the contrast presented by their cruel and bloodthirsty neighbors in Mindanao and the Sulu group, who, nevertheless, belong to the same race, and whose characteristics they must originally have shared. Travellers have not sufficiently dwelt on this important point. They note that the civilized native is self-respecting and self-constrained to a remarkable degree, patient under misfortune, and forbearing under provocation. He is a kind father and a dutiful son. His relatives are never left in want, but are welcome to share the best his house affords, to the end of their days. Unfortunately for himself, he is a happy-go-lucky fellow, delighting in cock-fighting and games of chance, and naturally indolent, his wants being so few and simple. He is a born musician, genial, sociable, loving to dance, sing, and make merry among his companions. His wife is allowed a degree of liberty hardly equalled in any other Eastern country, a liberty she rarely abuses. She is the financier of the family, and the husband consults her when making a bargain. She does her share of the work; but it is not more than her just share, and she is not overburdened with labor. Hospitality is cheerful and open-handed, and the traveller is welcomed to the hut of the native with cordiality. The houses of the natives are kept neat, and are models of cleanliness, and the natives also keep themselves extremely clean. They are practical and fervent Catholics. At the vesper Angelus bell “there is always a pretty scene. An instant hush comes over the busy village. In each house father, mother, and children fall on their knees before the image or picture of some saint, and repeat their prayers. The devotions over, each child kisses the hand of his father and his mother, at the same time wishing them good evening. He then makes an obeisance to each of his brothers and sisters, as well as to each guest who happens to be present, repeating his salutation with each funny bow. Host and hostess also greet one in the same way; and in remote places, where white men are a rarity, the little tots often kneel to kiss one’s hand.” (“The Philippine Islands and their People,” by Dean C. Worcester.)

In sharp contrast to the happy, contented, and peaceful character of the Christian native, is his southern neighbor of the same blood, the fanatical Moro. Mohammedanism has accentuated rather than softened the underlying fierceness of the Malay; as it gives him a religious sanction to cruelty, treachery, murder, pillage, and piracy when directed against the hated Christian. Inhuman and cold-blooded cruelty is the great characteristic of the Moro, who will calmly cut down a slave merely to try the edge of a new weapon. For two centuries and a half the Moros organized piratical expeditions against the northern islands. The coming of the dreaded fleet of war-praus was looked forward to as an annual event; and while the southwest monsoon was blowing, vigilant sentinels were on the lookout night and day from the watch-towers with which every village was provided. The introduction of modern artillery and quick-firing guns at last turned the scales in favor of the Spaniards, and the piratical expeditions are now a thing of the past. All Christians, however, living near the Moros must still carry their lives in their hands, owing to the juramentados. A juramentado is a man who takes an oath to die killing Christians. The more Christians he kills, the higher place of course he is to get in heaven, especially if he loses his own life in the holy work. He dresses in white, shaves his eyebrows, conceals a weapon under his clothing, and then seizing a favorable opportunity, runs amuck, killing without mercy men, women, and children. Of course he gets killed himself in the end, but sometimes not until he has made himself accountable for a great number of deaths.

Though Magellan discovered the Archipelago in 1521, no serious attempt to take possession of it was made till 1565, when an expedition of four hundred soldiers and sailors was fitted out by Philip II., and placed under the leadership of Miguel Lopez de Legaspi. As Philip was inspired by religious zeal, and his principal and perhaps only object was to spread the light of the Gospel, six Augustinian friars accompanied the expedition. We may say with truth that it was these missionaries, and the others who followed in rapid succession, who conquered the Archipelago for Spain. There was no conquest in the strict sense of the term. The Spaniards in most places simply showed themselves to the natives; and the religious, who accompanied them, persuaded the untutored savages to submit to the King of Spain, through whom they would obtain the two-fold blessing of civilization and Christianity. The retention of these rich and fertile islands, so great a source of revenue to the mother-country, was on the whole a very easy task. The religious Orders planted themselves firmly in the colony, and spread themselves everywhere, winning the natives to Christ, keeping them also in loyal obedience to that great European power by whose means the missionaries had been sent to them. They were thus the real bulwarks of Spanish power there, which was kept up rather by gentle persuasion than by force of arms. Mr. Mac Macking, a Scotch Protestant who spent some years there, says: “The warriors who gained them over to Spain were not their steel-clad chivalry, but the soldiers of the Cross,—the priests who astonished and kindled them by their enthusiasm in the cause of Christ.” Up to a few years ago profound peace reigned; and a garrison of 4,200 soldiers, 3,500 gendarmerie, and 2,000 sailors and marines, was considered sufficient to overawe a population of eight millions, besides keeping in check the fanatical and bloodthirsty Moro pirates.

The Augustinians were the pioneers in religious enterprise, coming, as we said already, with Legaspi, in 1565, four years before the Philippines were formally annexed to Spain. They were followed, in 1577, by the Franciscans; and the labors of both Orders were so successful that Manila was erected into an episcopal see in 1579. Two years later Salazar, a Dominican friar laboring in Mexico, was appointed bishop; and he brought the Dominicans with him to Manila. About the same time, also, the Jesuits and the Recollects, or discalced Augustinians, entered the country. All the Orders went about their work with truly religious zeal; and their success was so great that at the end of the century Mendoza could say: “According to the common opinion, at this day there are converted and baptized more than four hundred thousand souls.” It was a success to be proud of among a people who, when the missionaries came, had no religious worship, nor temple, nor priest, nor form of worship. They had but a hazy notion of a Deity, their sole religious ideas consisting of some imperfect notions of a hell and a heaven. Persecution only gave zest to the work, both in the Philippines and in the Ladrones, of which we may speak together in this connection, as they have a common history. Towards the close of the sixteenth century, as we learn from Argensola, more than six thousand Christians had already been martyred in the single province of Ternate, “that so,” he adds, “the foundation of our faith may be in all parts cemented with the blood of the faithful. They dismembered the bodies, and burned the legs and arms in sight of the still living trunks. They impaled the women, and tore out their bowels; children were torn piecemeal before their mothers’ eyes, and infants were rent from their wombs.” (“Discovery and Conquest of the Molucca and Philippine islands,” by B. L. de Argensola.) Opposition, and persecution too, came from the Mohammedan element in the population, which was already formidable when the Spaniards arrived on the scene, Mohammedanism having been introduced into the islands, especially the more southerly group, as far back as the thirteenth century. Accordingly the Mohammedans waged a long and bitter warfare both against missionaries, and the new Christians, numbers of whom were called on to seal their faith with their blood. Still, in spite of persecution, the Church prospered in those early days. Dampier, the English navigator, who visited the Philippines towards the close of the seventeenth century, testifies to the wonderful progress made even then in civilization. “In every village,” he says, “is a stone church, as well as a parsonage-house for the rector, who is always one of the monks. These last, who are all Europeans, are very much respected by the Indians, while the secular clergy, who commonly are Creoles, are held in contempt. Hence the Government shows great deference to the rectors; for, generally speaking, the Indians always consult them on entering on any enterprise, or even as to paying taxes.” Thus, one century had changed the people from savagery to civilization. In Manila, Dampier found the natives pursuing all the avocations of civilized life—they were merchants, skilled artisans in various trades, clerks, etc.

There were three large colleges,—two under the care of the Dominicans, and one carried on by the Augustinians. There was also a Poor Clare convent, containing forty nuns, together with a hospital and an orphanage. The religious establishments occupied one-third of the city as it then stood. This may seem out of proportion to the religious needs of the city; but we must remember that in Manila, then as now, priests of the various Orders were in training for the numerous missions of the Archipelago, Tonkin, and China (see Appendix I.), and, at the period of which we are speaking, of Japan as well.

Passing on to the present century, the Rev. David Abeel, a Protestant missionary, says of the Philippines: “The Church of Rome has here proselytized to itself the entire population. The influence of the priests is unbounded.” In the year 1858 Mr. Crawford, who was formerly governor of Singapore, made the following declaration at a public missionary meeting: “In the Philippine Islands the Spaniards have converted several millions of people to the Roman Catholic faith, and an immense improvement in their social condition has been the consequence.” Mr. MacMacking confesses that the suppression of the Jesuits, who were banished from the Philippines in 1768, “was attended with the worst effects to the trade and agriculture of the islands.” He adds that “religious processions are as frequently passing through the streets as they are in the Roman Catholic countries of Europe.” He testifies that “the Church has long proved to be, on the whole, by much the most cheap and efficacious instrument of good government and order—even the common people learn reading by its aid, so much at least as to enable them to read their prayer-books and other religious manuals. There are very few Indians who are unable to read, and I have always observed that the Manila men serving on board ships and forming their crew have been much oftener able to subscribe their names to the ship’s articles than the British seamen on board the same vessels could do.” Prosessor Ferdinand Blumentritt, a German Protestant, who is universally acknowledged to be the most competent authority on all that regards the Philippines, spoke most highly of the missionary and scientific work of the Religious Orders there, at a meeting of the Vienna Geographical Society in 1896. The weight of testimony from such a source all must acknowledge; it is indeed a pleasure to present the German scientist’s remarks to the consideration of fair-minded readers.

“I wish to add some remarks,” said Blumentritt, “about the Philippines, as here the Catholic missionaries are usually active not only in the spread of Christianity and its civilization, but also in the geographical and ethnographical exploration of the archipelago. Unfortunately the reports of the missions of the various Orders are not equally accessible, e.g., we have very little account of the Augustinian missions, which are located principally in the lands of the Igorrotes (Northwest Luzon) and on the Island of Negros, among the Budkidnon savages. The only important publication upon Augustinian missions which I have been able to see is the Memoria acerea de las Missiones de los P. P. Augustinos Calzados, Madrid, 1892. According to this the Calced Augustinians in 1892 had in the province of Abra, among the Tinguians, who inhabit it, eight missions with 25,100 souls; in that of Lepanto, two missions with 2,200 souls (Igorrotes); in that of Bengnet, also two missions, with 849 souls (Igorrotes)—total, 28,149 souls, as against 5,302 in 1829. Between 1874 and 1885 the number of savages and heathens converted to Christianity was 1,356; from 1885 to 1888 there were 549. In 1892 the erection of 15 new missions was projected in the provinces of Tiagan, Bontok, Amburayan, and Quiangan.