Lucky enough it was, however, that the affair rested there, as all of the party might have suffered severely for their amusement and fondness for carronading. It only caused the government to increase their strictness in giving passports to the country, which now were only conceded on the pleas of urgent business, or of ill health when that was backed by a medical certificate; the alcalde also became more strict in seeing that all travellers through the province were provided with these documents.
CHAPTER XVII.
In the course of these excursions to the country, the native Indians, with a stray half-breed, generally of the China Mestizo race, are nearly the only people met with, as few Europeans are settled in the provinces, except in the provincial capitals, or near the alcalde, whose dependents they generally are. Should a stranger be able to speak to the natives in their own language, he has a much better opportunity of becoming acquainted with their character, habits, and feelings, than if he is merely able to speak Spanish, a language which only a very small proportion of them understand in the country, although most of those in the neighbourhood of Manilla can speak it after a fashion. For although the law makes it requisite for the Capitan of every pueblo to be able to speak as well as to read and write Spanish, yet this is not always the case, as I have frequently met with these officials, more especially in out-of-the-way places, who did not understand it.
Nearly the whole, certainly above three-fourths of the population, make use of the Tagala or Tagaloc language, which, so far as I am aware, is quite peculiar to these islands, having little or no similarity to Malayee, so that it does not appear to have been derived from a Malay root, although some few Malay words have been engrafted on it, probably from the circumstance of that language being made use of in the province of Bisayas, which is the only place in the islands where it is spoken.
In Pampanga province, the natives speak a distinct language, differing entirely from Tagaloc, quite as much as Welsh does from English, although many of the Pampangans, on growing up, find it useful to know how to speak the Tagaloc, which most of them understand a little of.
The Negritos, who are found in some parts of the islands, are a peculiar race, with features exactly resembling the African negro, although in general smaller made men, but formed with all the characteristics of the African. They also use a distinct language, and have very little intercourse with either of the other races—many tribes of them living, even up to this day, independent of, and unsubdued by, the Spaniards, whose active missionaries have however of late years been making every effort to reduce them to allegiance to the government of Manilla, as well as to the religion of the cross.
These good men have penetrated, where soldiers dare not enter with arms in their hands, and in their case, truly, the sword has given place to the gown, with good effects to all concerned in the reduction of these wild Indians to the Roman Catholic faith, and the arts of civilized life; for many hundreds of them, nay, I believe thousands, are now peaceful cultivators of the soil, which, these good fathers have taught them how to till, instead of living, as they formerly did, at warfare with mankind, and solely on the produce of the chase.
How these differences of race and language have arisen, it is probably impossible now to discover, at least I have never heard any one of the many theories on the subject, for they are nothing more than speculations, which could sustain all the requirements necessary to account for their existence in their present state.
In the character of the native Indians there are very many good points, although they have long had a bad name, from their characters and descriptions coming from the Spanish mouths, who are too indolent to investigate it beyond their households, or at the most beyond their city walls; as very few, indeed, of all the Spaniards I met with have ever been in the country any distance from Manilla, except those whose duty it has been to proceed to a distance, as an alcalde of the province, or as an officer of the troops scattered through the islands,—very many of whom remain at home in the residency or in their quarters, smoking or drinking chocolate, and bewailing their hard fates, which have condemned them to live so far away from Manilla, from the theatre, and from society. They come and go without knowing, or caring to know, anything about the people around them, except when a feast-day comes, when they are always ready enough to visit their houses, dance with the beauties, and consume their suppers.
The most noticeable traits in the Philippine Indians appear to be their hospitality, good-nature, and bonhommie which very many of them have. Their tempers are quick; but, like all of that sort, after effervescing, soon subside into quiet again.