[Joaquin Martinez de Zúñiga, O. S. A., in his Historia (Sampaloc, 1803),[6] pp. 19–38, devotes one chapter to the inhabitants of the Philippines. We translate from the copy belonging to the library of E. E. Ayer.]
Chapter II
Of the inhabitants whom the Spaniards found in the Philipinas, and of their language, customs, and religion.
Our historians, always inclined to the marvelous, divide the peoples whom the Spaniards found in the Philipinas into three classes. In their histories there is not a lack of satyrs, men with tails, and mermen, and whatever else can cause wonder in human nature. But truly, only two classes of people are found, namely, those whom we know by the name of Aetas or Negritos,[7] and the Indians. The Negritos are small, not so black as those of Guinea, and have kinky hair and flat noses. They live naked in the mountains, and only cover themselves in front with the bark of a tree. They live on roots and the deer which they hunt with arrows in which they are very skilful. They sleep where night overtakes them. They have no idea of religion, so that they resemble wild beasts rather than men. The effort has been made to domesticate and christianize them, and they are not much opposed to it, provided that they are given food to eat. But if they are ordered to work to support their family, they return to the mountain although they have just been baptized. For that reason they are not now baptized although they agree to it, except some children whom the Indians or Spaniards generally have in their houses. Even in this case, one cannot be secure of them for when they grow up they generally return to the mountains with their fellowcountrymen. Beyond all doubt those Negritos are the first settlers of these islands, and retired to the mountains when the Indians came hither. The latter inhabit the coasts, and formerly the Negritos waged continual war with them, and would not permit them to cut wood in the mountains unless they paid tribute to them. Today they have but little power, and yet they are feared; for whenever any Negrito is killed, or when any one dies suddenly, another Negrito generally offers himself among his companions and takes an oath not to return to his own people until he kills three or four Indians. He does it by lying in ambush in their villages and by treacherously killing in the mountains him who becomes separated from his companions.
Some believe the origin of these Negritos to be that they came from the negros of Angola,[8] and the reason why they are not so black as their ancestors consists, they say, in the climate of these Indias which is more moderate. That might be so, for it is as easy for him who changes his climate to decrease in blackness during a long series of generations as it is for him to increase it by living in an inclement climate. But the flat nose and the use of the dialect of the same language which the Indians of these islands use, proves sufficiently that their origin is one and the same with them. The fact that they are blacker than the Indians, depends only on their having lived many centuries in the water by night and day, in wind and sun, and exposed to all the inclemencies of the weather. That and their lack of government has transferred them to their almost wild condition in which we see them.
The Indians whom the Spaniards found here were of average stature, olive color, or the color of boiled quinces, large eyes, flat noses, and straight hair. All had some form of government more or less civilized. They were distinguished by different names, but their features and customs prove that the origin of all these people is one and the same, and that they did not compose different races. They had their own petty rulers, who were generally the most valiant, or those who had inherited the kingdom from their fathers, if they could conserve it. Their dominion extended over one or two rude settlements, or at most was according to the valor of him who ruled. They were continually at war with the neighboring settlements, and made one another slaves. From those wars there resulted three classes of people among them: namely, the chiefs who were the masters of the settlement; the slaves; and the freemen, who consisted of slaves or their descendants to whom their masters had given freedom. The last class are called Timavas even yet, which properly signifies “freed-man.” In some districts Indians are found who are whiter than others—descendants doubtless of some Chinese or Japanese, who were shipwrecked on these coasts, and whom the Indians naturally hospitably received and with whom they mingled. That is commonly believed in regard to the Ygorrotes of Ylocos.[9] Their eyes, similar to those of the Chinese, prove that they mingled with the companions of Limahon who fled to those mountains when Juan de Salcedo had besieged them in Pangasinan.
It is not easy to prove the origin of these peoples but their language might supply some light. Although the languages spoken by the Indians are many and diverse, they resemble one another so closely that it is recognized clearly that they are all dialects of one and the same tongue, as the Spanish, French, and Italian are of the Latin. The prepositions and pronouns are almost the same in all of them, the numerals differ but slightly, many words are common to all, and they have the same structure. This language, which is one single language, with different dialects, is spoken from Madagascar to Philipinas and no one can contradict this.[10] I add that it is spoken in Nueva Guinea and in all the lands of the south, in the Marianas, in the islands of San Duisk, in those of Otayti,[11] and in almost all the islands of the South Sea. In a collection of voyages wherein are found several dictionaries of the terms which the travelers could learn in each one of these islands I have seen with wonder that the pronouns are almost all the same; that in the Tagálogs the numerals resemble those of any other language of these islands, and most of the words are the same and have the same meaning as in the Tagálog language. But the thing which made me believe more in the identity of these languages was my examination of Don Juan Hovel, an Englishman, who spoke the dialect of San Duisk with a servant of his who was a native of those islands. I found that the construction was the same as that of the languages which are spoken in Philipinas. Consequently, I had no reason to doubt that all these languages are dialects of one speech which is the most extensive in the world, and which is spoken through many thousands of leguas from Madagascar to the islands of San Duisk, Otayti, and the island of Pasquas[12] which is not six hundred leguas distant from America; and the fact that the Indians of Philipinas do not understand the peoples of those islands when they pass through their lands does not offer any argument against this supposition, for neither do the Spaniards understand the French, nor in these islands do those of some provinces understand one another.
In the same collection of voyages, I found a dictionary of only five terms which the Spaniards were able to learn in the Patagonian coast. One of those terms was Baláy[13] which signifies “house” in that language; and with that same word do the Pampangos and Visayans designate house. It may be a mere coincidence which does not prove that the languages of various people are identical. But, seeing that in addition to this the names of South America sound like those of Philipinas, I tried to find some dictionary of that land. Not finding one I examined carefully the few words of the language of Chile which Ercilla has in his Araucana,[14] and I found them sufficiently like the Tagálog language. The name “Chile” is not strange to this language where the cormorant is called “cachile.” It is also a pronoun which the Malays apply to the sons of kings. “Chilian,” which is a village of Chile, is a Tagálog composition, in which, adding an “an,” we have a word which signifies “place,” and we get “cachilian” which signifies “place where there are cormorants.” Mapocho, the site of the city of Santiago, is another Tagálog composition that signifies “place.” Thus from pocquiot, a kind of herb, we get mapocquiot, a place where that plant abounds. Apo is the name given to him who governs, and that name is applied by these Indians to him who has any authority in the village. In Chile, words and phrases are reduplicated: as Ytayta, Biobio, Lemolemo, Colocolo, etc. The same is done in the Tagálog and thus we say: Ataata, Bilobilo, Lebomlebom, and Colocolo. The other words are either Tagálog or very similar, and the connection that is found in so few words in these two languages is [too] great to say that it is accident, although it is not sufficient so that we can say that they are dialects of one language.
If on a comparison of the grammar and dictions of these two languages it is found that they originate from one and the same tongue, I would be so bold as to say that the Indians of Philipinas originate from the Indians of South America, and that the language of the latter is the parent language of which all the languages of these islands are dialects. Many will consider this a paradox, for the Malays being so near it would appear that the Filipinos must have originated from them, as our authors have generally believed. I cannot deny that these islands could have been easily settled by the Malays; but how shall we account for the peopling of the islands of Palaos and Marianas which are more than three hundred leguas distant? Where shall we get at those who settled the islands of San Duisk and Otayti, which are two thousand leguas from Philipinas? All these people have the same language, the same features, the same customs, and consequently, the same origin as our Indians. It is impossible that people should go from Philipinas to people those lands, for the east wind dominates constantly throughout the torrid zone, and that wind blowing head on would not permit the ship to sail to those islands. Rather on the contrary we must believe that the inhabitants of all the islands of the South Sea came from the Orient with wind astern as we have seen happen to the Indians of Palaos,[15] who have come to our Philipinas several times driven by the wind, and the east winds have not allowed them to return to their land. Let us suppose that if then these islands were not peopled, those Indians would have been the first settlers. We do not know whether our Indians by a like accident, have been carried by the winds to the Oriental islands. On the contrary we believe the opposite, since at times the best pilots cannot make that navigation, and return without finding the islands whither they were sailing, as it is necessary to take a high latitude for that voyage. On this head we must seek the easiest solution, namely, that the settlers came from the east from island to island. Consequently, the most eastern land where the Tagálog language is found must be the country whence our Indians originate.
One could well hesitate to assent to this truth, moved by the fact that the use of writing in the manner employed by the Malays was found established among these Indians, but it could very well happen that they might derive their origin from other nations and learn to write from the Malays, who would learn that science from the continent of India. The method of writing was by forming the lines from top to bottom, and beginning at the left and finishing at the right as did the Hebrews and Chinese. Their characters were quite different from ours. They had no vowels, for since there are only three vowels in those languages, namely, the a, e, and u, by placing a point above or below the consonant, or by not placing any point, it is easily known what the vowel is, which corresponds to the consonant letter, and it is read very well without the necessity of vowels. Although they knew how to write these people had no written laws, and governed themselves according to their traditions, and by natural law corrupted by the passions. The civil suits were sentenced by the petty rulers with the assistance of some old men. In criminal matters the relatives generally showed justice or it was settled with the aggressor on a gold basis in particular unless death followed. But in that case they did not content themselves except with the penalty of retaliation. If the murderer was of another settlement common cause was made, and the entire village fought against the settlement, from which resulted murders and wars in which slaves were made mutually. When it was suspected that one had robbed another, he was obliged to take a stone from a kettle filled with boiling water. If he did not do it (which we called the vulgar clearance from guilt), he was fined a certain sum of gold, the greater part of which went to the petty ruler. Adultery was punished by a pecuniary fine, as was also lack of respect for old people. But trickery in contracts was not considered wrong and was not punished by any penalty; and usury was common among them in all transactions.