This is all we have to say in regard to the institutions consecrated to the education of the young men. That of the young women has not been forgotten.
The seminary of Santa Potenciana was founded in the year 1589 by Governor Dasmariñas, by virtue of a royal order. Article 27 of that ordinance contains the following: “Upon arriving at the Filipinas Islands you shall ascertain how and where, and with what endowment, a convent for the shelter of girls may be founded, so that both those who should come from here and those born there may live in it and so that they may live modestly, and after being well instructed, may go out therefrom to be married and bear children.”[2] The worthy governor was so zealous in carrying out the wishes of the king that, in the year 1593, the convent was established in the church of San Andres. A new royal ordinance of June 11, 1594 approved the regulations of it, which bore on the conduct to be observed in the parlor, on the duties of the chaplain, who was to be more than forty years old, and who was to be, at the same time, the manager of the house, on the customs of both pupils and the superior and mistress. It was to be suitable, but modest. The king took charge of the furnishing thereof. The governor was authorized to fix the sum which was to be paid by the women who desired to enter the convent in order to be cloistered there. That sum was to be very moderate.
There exists no longer any copy of the first rule of that house, whose archives perished in the terrible earthquake of 1645, when ten or twelve pupils lost their lives. New rules were drawn up and approved in 1696, and remained in force until 1823, at which time they were revised.
The school is established at present in a house which was bought for its use by the public treasury, namely, the ancient locality of the arsenal. The treasurer also furnishes the expenses of a small chapel, those of their medical service, of pharmacy, of the infirmary, of the clothing of the pupils, and of six serving girls, the total sum amounting to 700 piastres per year, besides the support of a sacristan, four fagot-gatherers, and one woman to go for provisions. The treasury pays for the support of one superior, of one portress, and twenty-four collegiates, 1½ reals (one franc) per day for each one. And they are given besides, from the royal magazines, 46 baskets of pinagua rice, of 15 gantas per basket, 25 quintals of wood, and 17 gantas of cocoanut oil for lights.
After the foundation of the confraternity of the Santa Misericordia, the latter also supported many poor Spanish orphan girls. It caused those girls to be reared either at Santa Potenciana or in private houses. But in 1632, a house having been bought in order to gather them all there together, the confraternity founded the school of Santa Isabel. The rules drawn up in 1650 were entirely changed in 1813. The number of the pupils in this institution is at present 105, who are admitted under divers titles and conditions. The boarders pay 60 piastres annually. The others get their education free. Day pupils are also admitted there, but they are not allowed to communicate with those who live in the house. The teaching is quite elementary. The service is furnished by twelve servant girls for the interior, and eight men for the outside work.
In the preceding chapters, the description of the beaterios[3] has been seen, of which the majority are dedicated to the education of poor young girls.
One can see, after what we have just said, that education in the Philippines, both of the children of the country and of the mestizos and Indians of both sexes, is not so greatly neglected as certain persons pretend, and that the colony has made, on the contrary, from the earliest times the greatest efforts for the instruction of the people. Even in the smallest villages the Indians find facilities for learning to read and write. For everywhere one finds primary schools which are supported by the people. On the other hand, the aptness of the Indians is quite remarkable. From the most tender age they can be seen trying to draw their letters with a sharpened bamboo either on the sand or on the green banana leaves. Also many excellent copyists can be found among them, who are skilful in imitating any kind of writing, designs, or printed characters. Among others, there is mentioned a missal book which was copied by an Indian and sent to one of the Spanish kings. It is asserted that it was impossible to distinguish it from the original. They also copy geographical maps with rare exactness.
It follows, then, that the instruction of the Indians is far from being backward, if one compares it with that of the popular classes in Europe. Nearly all the Tagálogs know how to read and write. However, in regard to the sciences, properly so called, very little progress has been made in them among the Indians of the Philippines. Some mestizos alone have a slight smattering of them, and those among the Indians who have received orders know Latin. The most erudite are without doubt those who, having studied at the university of Santo Tomás, have embraced the career of the bar. Among them are counted advocates worthy of being placed by the side of the most celebrated in Spain.
In regard to what concerns literature, there is a Tagálog grammar and dictionary, as well as a work called arte, which is a kind of polyglot grammar, of the Tagálog, Bicol, Visayan and Isinayan. All these works, and in general everything that appears in one of the languages of the country, are published by the care of the religious, who have at their disposition the printing house of Santo Tomás, and who have the means of meeting the expenses of the printing, which the Indians could not do. Both at Manila and in its environs there are several printing houses for the use of the public. They are the presses of Nuestra Señora de Loreto at Sampaloc, which issues grammars, dictionaries, works of history, etc. There was formerly published at Manila a newspaper called El noticioso Filipino. Today it appears there only as [4]
The literary works consist of pieces in verse, sometimes on very weighty subjects. Thus, for example, the “Passion of our Lord” has been translated into Tagálog verse. Then there are tragedies, which as we have mentioned above are excessively long.[5] They often contain the entire life of a king. There are, furthermore, little poems, corridas, epithaliums, and songs. These last especially are very numerous and have special names, such as comintang de la conquista, the sinanpablo, the batanguiño, the cavitegan.[6] Not only are the words of these songs, but also the melodies, national, and the Indians note the music of them with prodigious cleverness. All the Indians, in fact, are naturally given to music and there are some of them who play five or six instruments. Also there is not a village, however small it be, where mass is not accompanied by music for lack of an organ. The choice of the airs which they play is not always the most edifying. We have heard in the churches the waltzes of Musard, and the gayest airs of the French comic opera.