[21] “It is true that the Chinese could not have received worse treatment; they have always been laden with accusations of all kinds. As for their being of no benefit to the country, this assertion is entirely contrary to the facts. The Chinese have committed abuses, it is true; but it is only right to acknowledge that they are industrious, patient, respectful, and sober; and that with such traits they must necessarily be useful to the country in which they are.” (Pardo de Tavera, note 20, p. 80.)
The feeling against the Chinese in Manila after the English invasion was very bitter, as has been already noticed; it is reflected in Viana’s official opinions, as is evident in the following (Respuestas, fol. 127v): “It is a matter of public notoriety that nearly all the Sangleys of the Parián have been traitors to God and to the king, by having offered public sacrifices to their idols, aided the English enemies, and acted basely against the entire Spanish nation. Any representations made by the said Sangleys ought therefore to be regarded with suspicion, and more especially when they are not traders; for such persons cannot carry back to China the profits of the trade, but only the fears arising from their crime.” The Chinese in question had left the Parián in the late war, and gone to their own country; and now had returned to Manila, desiring to remain there on their former footing. Viana advises that a rigorous investigation of their previous status, actions, and character be made by the government, and any of them found to have acted treasonably toward the Spaniards be punished with the utmost severity; while those who had not been traitors, but had left the Parián on account of their trading or other like reasons, ought to be fined at least fifty pesos each for having done so without permission. Again (fol. 134v) he says of a certain widow (Gabriela Josepha by name), whose dwelling had been seized on account of her supposed disloyalty, that “as she is a Sangley mestiza, there is strong reason to suspect that she is the widow of some traitor.” After the English left Manila, the Sangleys there (in number 400 to 500) were compelled to labor on the ditch and other defenses of the city, as a punishment for their previous revolt. In April, 1765, they offered to the government 12,000 pesos, as “a free donation, in view of the exhausted condition of the royal treasury;” and 8,000 pesos more to the Audiencia, in order that they might be relieved from the aforesaid labor, which sum was surrendered by the auditors to the royal exchequer. Viana recommended (Respuestas, fol. 125v, 126) that these donations be accepted, and the Sangleys relieved from the ditch-digging for such time as the 8,000 pesos would last; he estimated that the work might be completed with this sum, since the government could order that from the provinces all the criminals in the jails, and the “vagabonds and mischievous persons who abound in the villages,” should be sent in to Manila to work on the ditch—thus subserving at once the ends of justice, economy, and military defense. Viana in this paper sarcastically refers to the part taken by the Chinese in aiding the English against the Spaniards during the late war, when, he says, thousands of Sangleys performed all sorts of labors for the English, besides contributing money to aid them; he therefore considers it but just that they should now labor in the royal service, since it is quite enough favor to them that their lives have been spared by the Spaniards.—Eds. [↑]
[22] “In this, as in other points in the memorial, Anda is not the only one who points out the abuses committed by the missionaries.” (Here Le Gentil is cited; see our VOL. XXVIII, pp. 210, 218, where he speaks of the absolute power of the religious.) “The friars explained their attitude against the Spaniards by saying that those who went to the provinces served only to instruct the Indians in vices; but it is certain that, granted the sort of life led by the curas, and their absolute independence, the presence of a Spaniard in the town must have been vexatious to them. Besides, the latter could not tolerate their abuses without protesting against them; and his attitude would have served as an example and stimulus for the Indians to escape from the insupportable domination and tyranny of the fathers.
“At the end of this present century an intelligent and respectable Dominican friar says, in an official memorial, referring to the Spaniards of the provinces in Filipinas: ‘If they remain many years they live altogether like the Indians—dragging along a miserable and wretched life, a disgrace to the Spanish name in these islands—and become utterly slothful and vicious, deserving I know not whether pity or execration. For, since they come from España without education or ability to undertake even a simple commission—and it is a wonder if in their own country they ever knew how to plow or make a pair of shoes—here they are of no use whatever. And, as here all the Spaniards bear the title of Don, and are addressed as Señor, they are prone to desire to appear as such, establishing themselves with a white suit [Americana], which costs them half a peso, and giving themselves airs as gentlemen, and persons of distinction. There are very few of them who make some little fortune—a situation which, however little it can be bettered, is never to be envied—and almost all of them lead a life that is melancholy and wretched enough, having become idlers, and scandalizing the Indians of the villages wherever they go, being a disgrace to the Spanish name in these islands.’ Such is the opinion regarding the Spaniards residing in the provinces, expressed by the reverend father Fray José María Ruiz, in his Memoria prepared for the Exposition of Filipinas at Madrid in 1887, pp. 284, 285. In a decree dated August 4, 1765, the king, angered by the conduct of the friars who oppose the residence of the Spaniards in the provinces, issues strict orders that no hindrance shall be placed in the way of such residence.” (Pardo de Tavera, note 21, pp. 80–82.) [↑]
[23] On July 9, 1765, Viana demanded from the Audiencia (Respuestas, fol. 167v, 168) that the Sangley traders of the Parián and the alcaicería be expelled from the islands and their goods confiscated, as a punishment for their late treason, and also because they have been getting control of the retail trade of Manila, and thus injuring the Spanish shopkeepers. He also renews his proposal that the married Chinese of the Parián be sent to Santa Ynes, as a sort of penal colony to work in the mines and cultivate the ground adjoining. [↑]
[24] “Father Fray Gaspar de San Agustin judged the Chinese with the same prejudice as he did the Indians; yet he was less hard and unjust than he was against the latter, about whom he wrote so much evil that afterward it was not possible to find any more failings or offenses to hurl against them.” (Pardo de Tavera, note 23, p. 83.) [↑]
[25] In the text, yermo (“desert”), a conjectural reading by Pardo de Tavera. [↑]
[26] “There were in Manila some Chinese Dominican friars, who had come from the missions which the Order of Preachers maintained in the neighboring empire.” (Pardo de Tavera, note 24, p. 83.) [↑]
[27] See instructions for the new Audiencia, VOL. V, pp. 298–300. [↑]
[28] In the year 1583 some revolts by the Indians occurred, caused by the bad treatment they received from the encomenderos; some of these fancied that the Indians of their encomiendas were to serve them as slaves, and spared neither the lives nor the property of the natives in making themselves rich. The government intended to make some reforms, but delayed so long that the natives, having no other means of protecting themselves, thought they must revolt against the encomenderos. In 1584 the new Audiencia arrived at Manila, presided over by Santiago de Vera; “the state of things in which he found the country, the injustices which were committed on every side, the violent means to which the oppressed found themselves obliged to resort for self-defense, impressed him deeply—above all, when in 1585 rebellion was declared by the Pampango and Tagal Indians. That prudent magistrate comprehended that the first thing which he must do in order to rule with justice was to understand the usages and customs of the country which he was commissioned to rule; and it was then that, knowing the remarkable abilities of the virtuous Fray Juan de Plasencia, Dr. Vera wrote to him, asking that he would inform him in regard to the social and political organization of the Tagals. As for the abuses of the encomenderos, undoubtedly they were magnified and exaggerated by the friars, whose interest it was to disparage the former, in order that they themselves might be absolute masters of the country in place of the encomenderos.” Pardo de Tavera cites in full a letter from the king to Archbishop Salazar, dated March 27, 1583, in which the grievances of the Indians are enumerated. “We are informed that in that province [of Filipinas] the Indian natives are seen to be dying, on account of the bad treatment inflicted on them by their encomenderos; and that the number of the said Indians has been so diminished that in some places more than a third of them are dead. This is because the taxes are levied on them for the full amount, two-thirds more than what they are under obligation to pay, and they are treated worse than slaves, and as such many are sold by some encomenderos to others; and some are flogged to death; and there are women who die or break down under their heavy burdens. Others, and their children, are compelled to serve on their lands, and sleep in the fields; and there they bring forth and nurse infants, and they die, bitten by poisonous insects; and many hang themselves, and are left to die, without food; and others eat poisonous herbs. And there are mothers who kill their own children when they are born, saying that they do so to free them from the sufferings which they are enduring. And the said Indians have conceived a very bitter hatred to the name of Christian, and regard the Spaniards as deceivers, and pay no attention to what is taught to them; accordingly, whatever they do is through force. And these injuries are greater for the Indians who belong to our royal crown, as being under [official] administration.” The king, in view of all this, renews his instructions to the viceroys and governors to enforce the laws in behalf of the Indians, and urges the bishop and other ecclesiastics to use their influence for this same purpose. (Pardo de Tavera, note 25, pp. 83–86.) See also Salazar’s letter to the king (VOL. V, pp. 210–247). [↑]