A History of the Philippines

by David P. Barrows

It is noteworthy, then, that all the assaults that have been made upon the city, from that of Limahong, to those of the British in 1763, and of the Americans in 1898, have been directed against the southern wall by an advance from Parañaque. Dasmariñas also inclosed the city with a stone wall, the base from which the present noble rampart has arisen. It had originally a width of from seven and a half to nine feet. Of its height no figure is given, Morga says simply that with its buttresses and turrets it was sufficiently high for the purposes of defense.

The Old Fort.—There was a stone fort on the south side facing Ermita, known as the Fortress of Our Lady of Guidance; and there were two or more bastions, each with six pieces of artillery,—St. Andrew’s, now a powder magazine at the southeast corner, and St. Gabriel’s, over-looking the Parian district, where the Chinese were settled.

The three principal gates to the city, with the smaller wickets and posterns, which opened on the river and sea, were regularly closed at night by the guard which made the rounds. At each gate and wicket was a permanent post of soldiers and artillerists.

The Plaza de Armas adjacent to the fort had its arsenal, stores, powder-works, and a foundry for the casting of guns and artillery. The foundry, when established by Ronquillo, was in charge of a Pampangan Indian called Pandapira.

The Spanish Buildings of the City.—The buildings of the city, especially the Casas Reales and the churches and monasteries, had been durably erected of stone. Chirino claims that the hewing of stone, the burning of lime, and the training of native and Chinese artisans for this building, were the work of the Jesuit father, Sedeño. He himself fashioned the first clay tiles and built the first stone house, and so urged and encouraged others, himself directing, the building of public works, that the city, which a little before had been solely of timber and cane, had become one of the best constructed and most beautiful in the Indies.[20] He it was also who sought out Chinese painters and decorators and ornamented the churches with images and paintings.

Within the walls, there were some six hundred houses of a private nature, most of them built of stone and tile, and an equal number outside in the suburbs, or “arrabales,” all occupied by Spaniards (“todos son vivienda y poblacion de los Españoles”).[21]

This gives some twelve hundred Spanish families or establishments, exclusive of the religious, who in Manila numbered at least one hundred and fifty,[22] the garrison, at certain times, about four hundred trained Spanish soldiers who had seen service in Holland and the Low Countries, and the official classes.

The Malecon and the Luneta.—It is interesting at this early date to find mention of the famous recreation drive, the Paseo de Bagumbayan, now commonly known as the Malecon and Luneta. “Manila,” says our historian, “has two places of recreation on land; the one, which is clean and wide, extends from the point called Our Lady of Guidance for about a league along the sea, and through the street and village of natives, called Bagumbayan, to a very devout hermitage (Ermita), called the Hermitage of Our Lady of Guidance, and from there a good distance to a monastery and mission (doctrina) of the Augustinians, called Mahalat (Malate).”[23] The other drive lay out through the present suburb of Concepcion, then called Laguio, to Paco, where was a monastery of the Franciscans.

The Chinese in Manila.—Early Chinese Commerce.—We have seen that even as long ago as three hundred years Manila was a metropolis of the Eastern world. Vessels from many lands dropped anchor at the mouth of the Pasig, and their merchants set up their booths within her markets. Slaves from far-distant India and Africa were sold under her walls. Surely it was a cosmopolitan population that the shifting monsoons carried to and from her gates.

But of all these Eastern races only one has been a constant and important factor in the life of the Islands. This is the Chinese. It does not appear that they settled in the country or materially affected the life of the Filipinos until the establishment of Manila by the Spaniards. The Spaniards were early desirous of cultivating friendly relations with the Empire of China. Salcedo, on his first punitive expedition to Mindoro, had found a Chinese junk, which had gone ashore on the western coast. He was careful to rescue these voyagers and return them to their own land, with a friendly message inviting trading relations. Commerce and immigration followed immediately the founding of the city.