There were also men whose business was to ravish and take away virginity from young girls. These girls were taken to such men, and the latter were paid for ravishing them, for the natives considered it a hindrance and impediment if the girls were virgins when they married.
In matters of religion, the natives proceeded more barbarously and with greater blindness than in all the rest. For besides being pagans, without any knowledge of the true God, they neither strove to discover Him by way of reason, nor had any fixed belief. The devil usually deceived them with a thousand errors and blindnesses. He appeared to them in various horrible and frightful forms, and as fierce animals, so that they feared him and trembled before him. They generally worshiped him, and made images of him in the said forms. These they kept in caves and private houses, where they offered them perfumes and odors, and food and fruit, calling them anitos. [158]
Others worshiped the sun and the moon, and made feasts and drunken revels at the conjunction of those bodies. Some worshiped a yellow-colored bird that dwells in their woods, called batala. They generally worship and adore the crocodiles when they see them, by kneeling down and clasping their hands, because of the harm that they receive from those reptiles; they believe that by so doing the crocodiles will become appeased and leave them. Their oaths, execrations, and promises are all as above mentioned, namely, "May buhayan eat thee, if thou dost not speak truth, or fulfil what thou hast promised," and similar things.
There were no temples throughout those islands, nor houses generally used for the worship of idols; but each person possessed and made in his house his own anitos, [159] without any fixed rite or ceremony. They had no priests or religious to attend to religious affairs, except certain old men and women called catalonas. These were experienced witches and sorcerers, who kept the other people deceived. The latter communicated to these sorcerers their desires and needs, and the catalonas told them innumerable extravagancies and lies. The catalonas uttered prayers and performed other ceremonies to the idols for the sick; and they believed in omens and superstitions, with which the devil inspired them, whereby they declared whether the patient would recover or die. Such were their cures and methods, and they used various kinds of divinations for all things. All this was with so little aid, apparatus, or foundation—which God permitted, so that the preaching of the holy gospel should find those of that region better prepared for it, and so that those natives would confess the truth more easily, and it would be less difficult to withdraw them from their darkness, and the errors in which the devil kept them for so many years. They never sacrificed human beings as is done in other kingdoms. They believed that there was a future life where those who had been brave and performed valiant feats would be rewarded; while those who had done evil would be punished. But they did not know how or where this would be. [160]
They buried their dead in their own houses, and kept their bodies and bones for a long time in chests. They venerated the skulls of the dead as if they were living and present. Their funeral rites did not consist of pomp or assemblages, beyond those of their own house—where, after bewailing the dead, all was changed into feasting and drunken revelry among all the relatives and friends. [161]
A few years before the Spaniards subdued the island of Luzon, certain natives of the island of Borneo began to go thither to trade, especially to the settlement of Manila and Tondo; and the inhabitants of the one island intermarried with those of the other. These Borneans are Mahometans, and were already introducing their religion among the natives of Luzon, and were giving them instructions, ceremonies, and the form of observing their religion, by means of certain gazizes [162] whom they brought with them. Already a considerable number, and those the chiefest men, were commencing, although by piecemeal, to become Moros, and were being circumcised [163] and taking the names of Moros. Had the Spaniards' coming been delayed longer, that religion would have spread throughout the island, and even through the others, and it would have been difficult to extirpate it. The mercy of God checked it in time; for, because of being in so early stages, it was uprooted from the islands, and they were freed from it, that is, in all that the Spaniards have pacified, and that are under the government of the Filipinas. That religion has spread and extended very widely in the other islands outside of this government, so that now almost all of their natives are Mahometan Moros, and are ruled and instructed by their gaçizes and other morabitos; [164] these often come to preach to and teach them by way of the strait of Ma[la]ca and the Red Sea, through which they navigate to reach these islands.
The arrival of the Spaniards in these Filipinas Islands, since the year one thousand five hundred and sixty-four, the pacification and conversion that has been made therein, their mode of governing, and the provisions of his Majesty during these years for their welfare, have caused innovations in many things, such as are usual to kingdoms and provinces that change their religion and sovereign. The foremost has been that, besides the name of Filipinas which all the islands took and received from the beginning of their conquest, they belong to a new kingdom and seigniory to which his Majesty, Filipo Second, our sovereign, gave the name of Nuevo Reyno de Castilla ["New Kingdom of Castilla">[. By his royal concession, he made the city of Manila capital of it, and gave to it as a special favor, among other things, a crowned coat-of-arms which was chosen and assigned by his royal person. This is an escutcheon divided across. In the upper part is a castle on a red field, and in the lower a lion of gold, crowned and rampant, holding a naked sword in its right paw. One-half of the body is in the form of a dolphin upon the waters of the sea, to signify that the Spaniards crossed the sea with their arms to conquer this kingdom for the crown of Castilla. [165]
The city of Manila was founded by the adelantado Miguel Lopez de Legazpi, first governor of the Filipinas, in the island of Luzon. It occupies the same site where Rajamora had his settlement and fort—as has been related more at length—at the mouth of the river which empties into the bay, on a point between the river and the sea. The whole site was occupied by this new settlement, and Legazpi apportioned it to the Spaniards in equal building-lots. It was laid out with well-arranged streets and squares, straight and level. A sufficiently large main square [Plaza mayor] was left, fronting which were erected the cathedral church and municipal buildings. He left another square, that of arms [Plaza de armas], fronting which was built the fort, as well as the royal buildings. He gave sites for the monasteries, [166] hospital, and chapels which were to be built, as being a city which was to grow and increase continually—as already it has done; for, in the course of the time that has passed, that city has flourished as much as the best of all the cities in those regions.
The city is completely surrounded with a stone wall, which is more than two and one-half varas wide, and in places more than three. It has small towers and traverses at intervals. [167] It has a fortress of hewn stone at the point that guards the bar and the river, with a ravelin close to the water, upon which are mounted some large pieces of artillery. This artillery commands the sea and river, while other pieces are mounted farther up to defend the bar, besides some other moderate-sized field-pieces and swivel-guns. These fortifications have their vaults for storing supplies and munitions, and a magazine for the powder, which is well guarded and situated in the inner part; and a copious well of fresh water. There are also quarters for the soldiers and artillerymen, and the house of the commandant [alcayde]. The city has been lately fortified on the land side at the Plaza de armas, where it is entered by a strong wall and two salient towers, defended with artillery, which command the wall and gate. This fortress is called Santiago, and has a company of thirty soldiers with their officers, and eight artillerymen who guard the gate and entrance by watches—all in charge of a commandant who lives inside, and has the guard and custody of the fort.
There is another fortress, also of stone, in the same wall, within culverin range, located at the end [168] of the curtain, which extends along the shore of the bay. It is called Nuestra Señora de Guia, and is a very large round tower. It has its own court, well, and quarters inside, as well as the magazine, and other rooms for work. It has a traverse extending to the beach, on which are mounted a dozen large and moderate-sized pieces, which command the bay and sweep the wall, which extends along the shore to the gate and to the fort of Santiago. On the other side the fortress has a large salient tower, mounted with four large pieces, which command the shore ahead in the direction of the chapel of Nuestra Señora de Guia. The gate and entrance is within the city and is guarded by a company of twenty soldiers and their officers, six artillerymen, and one commandant and his lieutenant, who live inside.