But alas! it is feared that through the grim fate of war a like disaster, as has wrecked many another fair shrine of learning and art in countries even nearer our own, has befallen our studios and laboratories at Malabón and Mandaloya, that therefrom their inmates—orphans, instructors and care-takers are now wanderers, with their treasures ravished, their homes destroyed.
13.—Then we meet with a work printed in 1896, at the revolutionary press at Imus, in Cavite province, in Luzon,—a proclamation (in Tagal)—the only imprint bearing the name of this pueblo.
14.—Finally, in 1898, at Mandaloyon, or Mandaloya (named ahead), an old hacienda of the Augustinians in Tondo province, in Luzon, the morning-paper—La República Filipina—began publication with the flag of the new-born republic in colors for heading,—the first journal of the Tagal insurgents, that had so much to do in bringing about the downfall of Spanish rule in the Philippines.
Before concluding this section on early presses, we may add the references made by Retana to other Philippine prints than the ones given in his Biblioteca. In a former work[5] he states that by certain writers, whom he names, presses were said to have been established on the isle of Luzon, viz: at Bacolor in 1619; Macabebe in 1621; and Tayabas in 1703. Similarly, he cites two works, named by the Franciscan antiquarian Huerta as having been printed at Manila earlier than the Bugarín dictionary—the Devocion Tagalog in 1610; and a Diccionario in 1613, both (according to Huerta) from the press of Tomás Pinpin, the Tagal printer. Moreover, under the heading of “Manila” and “Pinpin,” Retana gives the dates of several still older imprints than the Japanese dictionary of 1630, which in his Biblioteca has been accorded the honor of senior of the Philippine press.
The reason for the omission of these titles in Retana’s later bibliography, that otherwise would seem unaccountable, is perhaps a doubt as to their genuinity. But why he should fail to mention this flaw in their line of ancestral title, is like many another perplexing problem that the scholar is apt to encounter in his wanderings through the shadowy, albeit delightful and fascinating realm of letters.
We now pass on to the question of the introduction of the press into the Philippines.
[1] In old Spanish chronicles it is a common thing to meet such titles of these Indian rulers, as Ladia, Radia, Raxa, and Rajá. Lacandola was rajah of Manila.
[2] The Augustinian chronicler, Grijalva, is one of the earliest writers to describe this rite, which, according to him, is performed as follows: “La cerimonia se haze, sacando delos pechos delos que contraen la amistad una poca de sangre, y mezelando la una, y la otra en un poco de vino, le veuen por iguales partes los contrayentes.” (Cronaca del Orden, from 1533–1592, Mexico (in the Augustinian Convent), 1624.) Quotation from Zúñiga, ii, 215. From Buzeta, i, 395, it appears that blood-bargain was first entered into by Legazpi (in 1565) at Bohol, with Chief Sicatuna.
[3] From the report of the Orphanage for 1897–1898, in Estado General, Malabón, 1898.