Húc tamen ex illa Barbarus urbe fugit.[181]
78. It is not my intention to include the Sangley mestizos here, as they are a different race. For although they were the children of Indians at the beginning, they have been approaching more and more to the Chinese nation with the lapse of successive generations. Et compositum ex multis atrahit ad se nuturam simplicis dignioris.[182] Consequently, I leave their description for whomever wishes to undertake that task; for I fear that I shall succeed but very ill with the task which I have here undertaken, as it is so difficult.
79. Finally, summing up all the above, the inference will be that all the actions of these wretched beings are such as are dictated by nature through the animal, intent solely on its preservation and convenience, without any corrective being applied by reason, respect, and esteem for reputation. Consequently, he who first said of a certain people that if they saw the whole world hanging on one nail and needed that nail in order to hang up their hat, they would fling the world down in order to make room for the hat, would have said it of the Indians had he known them. For they think only of what is agreeable to them, or of what the appetite dictates to them; and this they will put in action, if fear, which also dwells in them, do not dissuade them.[183] Hence they will be seen dressed in the shirts and clothes of their masters, for the sole reason[184] that because they no sooner enter any house than they become the owners of everything in it. And the worst thing is that, although they are not good and faithful servants, intrant in gaudium domini sui.[185]
80. They also have other qualities worthy of envy, non quoad causam sed quoad efectum.[186] Such is their contentment with their lot, for they believe that there is no people in the whole world better than they, and that if they possess a bamboo hut, a little rice for a few days, a few small fish, and a couple of leaves of tobacco, they do not envy the tables of Xerxes or Eliogabalus,[187] and can sing with Lucan:
O tuta potestas Augusti parvique laris.
Prohl munera nondum intellecta Deum quibus hoc
Contingere templis, vel posuit muris nullo
Trepidare tumulto, Cæsarea pulsata manu.[188]
81. They are also worthy of envy for the calmness and conformity with which they die, with so wonderful peace, as if they were making a journey from one village to another—the Lord working in these creatures as the Lord that He is,[189] for in that transit His mercy shines forth more; and thus said David (Psalm, XLVII, 21) Domini, Domini, exitus mortis;[190] whence that reduplication which the Hebrew grammar calls ohatsere,[191] signifies the superlative in name and action. The same is the declaration of divine wisdom (Proverbs, XX): In viis justitiæ ambulo, in medio semitarum judicii, ut ditem diligentes me.[192] The Father celestial summons them for the relief of their burdens, and of the troubles which they have had during life: Venite qui laboratis, et onerati estis, et ego reficiam vos (Matthew xi, 28).[193]
For it is a fact that if one consider the life and lot of most of them, they resemble that merchant in the gospel of Matthew (chapter 13), who gave all that he had for the precious pearl; for it costs them more than is apparent to become Christians, with so much cutting of timber, and many personal services; and thus God gives them the true rest of death, as to poor and needy ones. Parcet pauperi, et inopi, et animas pauperum salvas faciet (Psalm, xii, 13).[194] Exiguo enim conceditur missericordia (Wisdom, vi, 7).[195]