Their own religion: For a religious system they worshiped their ancestors and performed human sacrifices. The Spaniards found in these islands less than a million inhabitants, who were divided into innumerable tribes governed by rulers who had no more title of sovereignty than that they were enabled to impose upon the people by brute force and untold cruelties. The inhabitants formed a jumble of inferior races some more or less pure in blood, others intermixed; people speaking many dialects. They all lacked religion, in the proper sense of the word; they lacked morals, in fact they were wanting in everything that raises man above the level of the brute creation.
As to their own writing, certain it is that they possessed a crude and very inefficient manner of writing, but what is very remarkable is, that in spite of their possessing a system of script, not a single piece of their literary work has yet been discovered nor even a written tradition. This goes to prove that either the Filipinos were at that time too deep in the savage ages to realise the importance of writing, or that the form of script was useless for practical purposes.
To the second question the initiated replied that the friar missionaries had done nothing to civilize the Filipinos, as they considered the civilization and illustration of the country to be incompatible with their interests[60].
To the third question the initiated was to reply that they had faith, courage and constancy to aid them to remedy these evils in the future.[61]
The master of ceremonies warned him that he was taking a very important and very solemn step, and he was recommended to retire if he did not feel courage enough to continue since he would uselessly expose his life. If the initiated insisted in continuing with the mysteries of the initiation he was presented to the reunion of the brethren to be tried by the proofs assigned, which were very similar to those adopted in universal masonry, but surrounded with more paganism, if that be possible. He was blindfolded and made to discharge a revolver against an imaginary enemy, a person he was made to believe really was present and awaiting there the executionary bullet which should make him pay the penalty of a treason. If he passed through the proofs successfully he was introduced into the hall of oaths and there with his own blood, drawn by means of an incision made in the left arm between the shoulder and the elbow, he signed the oath.
Note 79. See note [50], pages 171, 173 and 174.
Note 80. The liberty of the Tagalog people; the chief aim which gave rise to the revolt. The first thing the separatists desired was to get rid of the Peninsular Spaniard; the next to go would have been the insular Spaniard, then the Spanish mestizo, then the Chinee half-caste and the Chinee; after which would come the gradual extinction of the various tribes. In the mean time the country would suffer considerably and at last...? See page 69, last four lines of the first paragraph.
It is well nigh impossible to imagine to what the liberty of the Tagalog people would mean if it were put into practice. If the South American states which are recognized as independent, are unable to govern themselves in spite of the political superiority of the people inhabiting them over the peoples of this archipelago, without an unending series of revolutions, what might we expect from the Philippines? Give the country independence with one of the native “commissioners” as president of the republic and how long do you suppose it would be before Pedro Paterno at the head of some 5 or 6,000 men would march into Manila to depose the president and proclaim himself Emperor Pedro I? And before the new Emperor could install himself in Malacañan he would have at his heels a thousand and one petty chiefs, princes, kings and perhaps even a few ambitious queens!
It is over a half a century ago since the South American Republics became independent, and at that time the rest of the world cared but little for the consequences of such a step. But this indifference of the nations can never exist here in the Orient at the commencement of this XX Century. It would never suit the rest of the world to see independence declared in the Philippines and especially if that independence left the reins of government in the hands of the Tagalog people.
The question of the expulsion from the country or the destruction of the Spaniards has been spoken of under several notes; the idea was, doubtless, a semi-savage interpretation of the preachings and teachings spread abroad by the Bible societies in all parts and especially in Spanish countries. And this becomes the more probable when we call to mind what the El Imparcial of the 26th of August 1896 published concerning this identical point. Speaking of the state of the country in general as a result of the insurrection, it says: