Had these wise and admirable laws been carried out in the spirit in which they were made, the Philippines might have been Spanish to this day and the natives would have had little to complain of.
The Philippines were for nearly three centuries after their discovery by the Spaniards a mere dependency of Mexico, communication being kept up by an annual galleon or sometimes two sailing between Acapulco and Manila through the Strait of San Bernardino. The long and tedious voyage deterred all but priests and officials from proceeding to the Philippines.
When this route was given up, which happened some ten years before the Independence of Mexico, which was proclaimed in 1820, communication with the Peninsula was by sailing vessels via the Cape of Good Hope. That was a voyage that would not be lightly undertaken either going or returning. Spaniards who then came to the Archipelago often stayed there for the rest of their lives.
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the establishment of a line of steamers bringing Manila within thirty days of Barcelona was the most important event in the history of the Philippines since the conquest, and it had the gravest consequences. It greatly stimulated the trade of the Philippines, but it enormously increased the number of Spaniards in the Islands. Hordes of hungry-looking Iberians arrived by every steamer with nominations to posts for which most of them possessed no qualification. It seemed as if all the loafers of the Puerta del Sol and the Calle de Alcalá were to be dumped in the Philippines and fed by the Treasury.
Vicols Preparing Hemp.—Drawing Out the Fibre.
See p. [286].
Reduced Fac-simile of the Document of Identity of the Author, Showing the Amount Paid Annually as Poll-tax, $22.50.
To face p. 53.