A Visit to the Philippine Islands

by John Bowring

There are ninety-six foreigners established in Binondo—eighty-five males and eleven females (none in Manila proper). Of these fifty are merchants or merchants’ assistants. There are twenty-two British subjects, fifteen French, fifteen South Americans, eleven citizens of the United States, nine Germans, and nine Swiss.

Independently of European Spaniards, there are many families which call themselves hijos del pays (children of the country), descendants of Spanish settlers, who avoid mingling with native Indian blood. They have the reputation of being more susceptible than are even the old Castilians in matters of etiquette, and among them are many who have received a European education. They are generally candidates for public employment, but are said to be less steady, and more addicted to play and to pleasure, than their progenitors; but they are eminently hospitable. They dress in European style when they appear in public, but at home both men and women use the loose and more convenient Indian costume. They complain, on their part, that barriers are raised between them and their countrymen from the Peninsula; in a word, that the spirit of caste exercises its separating and alienating influences in the Philippines, as elsewhere.

The mestizos, or mixed races, form a numerous and influential portion of the Filipinos; the number settled in the islands of women of European birth is small, and generally speaking they are the wives of the higher Spanish functionaries and of superior officers in the army and navy, whose term of service is generally limited. Though the daughters of families of pure Spanish blood generally marry in the colony and keep up a good deal of exclusiveness and caste, it is seldom that the highest society is without a large proportion of mestiza ladies, children of Spanish fathers and native mothers. The great majority of the merchants and landed proprietors belong to this class, and most of the subordinate offices of government are filled by them. There are very many descendants of Chinese by native women; but the paternal type seems so to absorb the maternal, that the children for whole generations bear the strongly marked character which distinguishes the genuine native of the flowery land, even through a succession of Indian mothers. I shall have occasion to speak of a visit I made to a district (Molo, near Iloilo), which in former times had been the seat of a large Chinese colony, where the Chinese race had disappeared centuries ago, but the Chinese physiognomy, and the Chinese character, had left their unmistakable traces in the whole population. I found nowhere among the natives a people so industrious, so persevering, so economical, and, generally, so prosperous. Almost every house had a loom, and it is the place where the best of the piña fabrics are woven. We were invited to a ball at which the principal native ladies were present, and I had to answer a discurso delivered in excellent Castilian by the leading personage. I was informed that the young women were remarkable for their chastity, and that an erring sister obtained no forgiveness among them. Their parents object to their learning Spanish lest it should be an instrument of seduction. Of the mestizos of Chinese or Mongolian descent, De Mas says:—“They are called Sangley, which means Chinese merchant or traveller. They inherit the industrious and speculative spirit of their forefathers. Most of them have acquired riches and lands, and the largest part of the retail trade is in their hands. They form the middle class of the Filipinos. Their prosperity and better education produce the natural results, and their moral and intellectual character is far superior to that of the Indians. They are luxuriously dressed, are more elegant and handsome than the Indians; some of their women are decidedly beautiful. But they preserve most of the habits of the Indians, whom they exceed in attention to religious duties because they are superior in intelligence. This race is likely to increase in numbers and in influence, and, in consequence of the large importation of Chinamen, to augment in the localities of their settlements at a greater rate than the Indian population.”[1]

There can be no doubt that the predominance of the characteristics of the father over those of the mother has improved, through successive generations, the general character of the race of mestizo Chinese. They are more active and enterprising, more prudent and persevering, more devoted to trade and commerce, than the Indios. They all preserve the black hair, which is characteristic of China, “the black-haired” being one of the national names by which the people of the “middle kingdom” are fond of designating themselves. The slanting position of the eyes, forming an angle over the nose, the beardless chin, the long and delicate fingers (in conformity with Chinese usage they frequently allow the middle nail of the left hand to grow to a great length), their fondness for dress and ornament, distinguish them. They exercise great influence over the Indians, who believe them to be masters of the art of money-getting. The children of a Spanish mestizo by a Chinese mestiza, are called Torna atras, “going back;” those of a Chinese mestizo by an Indian woman are considered as Chinese and not Indian half-castes. The mingling of Chinese blood is observable in all the town populations. The number of mestizos of European descent is trifling compared with those of Chinese origin. Their houses are invariably better furnished than those of the natives. Many of them adopt the European costume, but where they retain the native dress it is finer in quality, gayer in colours, and richer in ornament. Like the natives, they wear their shirts over the trousers, but the shirt is of piña or sinamay fastened with buttons of valuable stones; and a gold chain is seldom wanting, suspended round the neck. The men commonly wear European hats, shoes and stockings, and the sexes exhibit no small amount of dandyism and coquetry.

The great mass of the indigenous population of the Philippine Islands may be divided into two principal races—the Tagálos occupying the north, and the Bisáyos the south. Of these, all who inhabit the towns and villages profess Christianity, and are much under the influence of the regular clergy, who administer the religious ordinances in the various provinces, which are, for the most part, submitted to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of different orders of brotherhood. There are a few instances of the Indians being invested with the full rights of priesthood, though they generally reach no higher post than that of assistants to the friars. At the great ceremony which I attended of the Purisima Conception at Manila, an Indian was chosen to deliver the sermon of the day; it was, as usual, redolent with laudations of the Virgin, and about equal to the average style of flowery Spanish preaching. But as we recede from the towns, religious ordinances are neglected, and in the centre and mountainous parts of the islands Christianity ceases to be the profession of the inhabitants; the friars deplore their ignorant and abandoned state, and occupy themselves in the endeavour to bring them into their fold, and to enforce the payment of that tributo from which they, as well as the government, derive their revenues. If this be paid, if the services of the Church be duly performed, confession made, fit co-operation given to the religious processions and festivals (which are the native holidays), matters go on well between the clergy and the people. I found many of the friars objects of affection and reverence, and deservedly so, as guardians and restorers of the family peace, encouragers of the children in their studies, and otherwise associating their efforts with the well-being of the community; but removed, as the ecclesiastics frequently are, from the control of public opinion, there is often scandal, and good ground for it.

Father Zuñiga opines that the Philippines were originally colonized by the inhabitants of America; but he fails altogether in the proofs he seeks in the analogy of languages. The number of Malayan words in Tagal and Bisayan is greater than any to be traced to American dialects; and here I may remark, by the way, that there is no topic on which so much absurdity has been committed to the press as on the derivation and affinity of languages—a subject in which Spanish authority is seldom of much value. El Señor Erro, for example, in his book on the antiquity of the Bascuence, gives a description and picture of a jar found in a well in Guipuscoa, which had on it the words “Gott erbarme dein armes Würmchen!” This he reports to be a Biscayan inscription in honour of the priestesses of the sun anterior to the introduction of Christianity, and he doubts not that the vase (a piece of coarse modern German pottery) was used in the sacred services of the temple!

De Mas supposes that the Indians employed alphabetical writing anterior to the arrival of the Spanish, and gives five alphabets as used in different provinces, but having some resemblance to one another. I doubt alike the antiquity and authenticity of the records; but give a specimen which he says is a contract upon Chinese paper for a sale of land in Bulacan, dated 1652.

My own inquiries led to no discoveries of old records, or written traditions, or inscriptions of remote times, associated with Indian history. There is sufficient evidence that some rude authority existed—that there were masters and slaves—that the land was partially cultivated and the sea explored by labourers and fishermen, leading necessarily to a recognition of some rights of property—that there were wars between hostile tribes, which had their leaders and their laws. The early records of the missionaries give the names of some of the chiefs, and detail the character of the authority exercised by the ruling few over the subject many. They say that gold would procure the emancipation of a slave and his reception among the Mahaldicas, or privileged class. Prisoners of war, debtors, and criminals, were held in bonds. The daughter of a Mahaldica could be obtained in marriage, where the lover was unable to pay her money value, by vassalage to her father for a certain number of years. If a man of one tribe married the woman of another, the children were equally, or as nearly as possible, divided among the two tribes to which the parents belonged. Property was partitioned among the sons at the father’s death, the elder enjoying no rights over the younger.

Local superstitions prevailed as to rocks, trees, and rivers. They worshipped the sun and moon; a blue bird called tigmamanoquin; a stag named meylupa, “lord of the soil;” and the crocodile, to which they gave the title of nono, or “grandfather.” A demon named Osuang was supposed to torment children, to cause pains in childbirth, to live on human flesh, and to have his presence announced by the tictic, a bird of evil augury. Naked men brandished swords from the roof and other parts of the choza to frighten the fiend away, or the pregnant woman was removed from the neighbourhood of the tictic. The Manacolam was a monster enveloped in flames, which could only be extinguished by the ordure of a human being, whose death would immediately follow. The Silagan seized and tore out the liver of persons clad in white. The Magtatangal deposited his head and entrails in the evening in some secret place, wandered about doing mischief in the night, and resumed his “deposit” at break of day. So strange and wild are the fancies of credulity! Sacrifices were offered in deprecation of menaced evils, or in compliment to visitors, by female priestesses called Catalona, who distributed pieces of the sacrificed animal. There were many witches and sorcerers, exercising various functions, one of whom, the Manyisalat, was the love inspirer and the confidant of youths and maidens.