The lack of European religious in the Filipinas Islands for filling at least four-fifths of their curacies is incompatible with the permanent preservation of that colony. It can be safely asserted that the government of his Majesty has in this class of ministers the most powerful force for maintaining that possession in attachment to his sovereignty. Their virtuous and unworldly mode of life; their absolute disinterestedness in regard to temporal matters, which is a marvelous contrast to the greed and ambition of the European trader, the mestizo, and the Chinese; their extraordinary sacrifices in living apart from the society of their equals for nineteen, twenty, and [even] thirty years in those almost uninhabited islands, which are unprovided with the sort of nourishment suitable to their estate; their discretion and patience in correcting and teaching the Indians; their resignation in all kinds of adversity: everything, in short, contributes to make the inhabitants of that land regard them as supernatural beings, and in the light of this conception the fathers exercise over the Indians a moral force more powerful than even that of the government. The Indians live in entire moral separation from the Spaniards; they have their own laws of tradition, their own opinions and customs, entirely unknown to any one who is ignorant of their language or has not continual intercourse with them. The European religious are the only persons in the confidence of the government who by favor of these circumstances, and with a practical and intimate knowledge of the nature and inclinations of the natives there, can find a way into their hearts, incline their wills to what is right, enlighten them, and keep them peaceful and submissive; and without this larger armies would be of no avail.
[The religious are the only persons who understand the condition of their respective villages, and the alcaldes-mayor are usually indolent and inefficient, relying on native interpreters, and caring little for aught save their own profit; they depend on the religious in all cases of difficulty, and the higher authorities are jealous of this superiority of the religious. The government ought to maintain as many religious as possible in the islands, and give them as much political authority as is consistent with their ministry; five hundred of them should be sent there, and the alcaldes-mayor should be obliged to consult every month with their respective curas on the best means of promoting the interests of the people, and the central government can then act on reports of these conferences.]
On the settlement of banished and vagabond foreigners in the islands
[The entrance of these persons causes trouble among the people of the islands: the Indians are easily influenced by white men, especially those who teach them to live in more freedom and insubordination to authority; foreigners of this sort are almost always of lax morals and dangerous political opinions, which are even more dangerous to “the Spaniards of the country, who, although more enlightened than the Indians, are more susceptible to such corruption.” The foreigner thus residing in the islands, “usually from the dregs of other nations,” makes light of all the institutions there, and tries to set the people against the mother country; and three times recently has occurred] the scandal, unheard-of in that colony, of foreigners who, abusing the innocence of the country, have, being already married in their own country, again married Philippine Spanish girls, leaving them abandoned and dishonored. Others, who feigned to be learned physicians and agriculturists, have deceived and defrauded proprietors in the islands. Others have clandestinely introduced impious, revolutionary, and obscene books printed in the Spanish language, but pirated in France, with which they have caused atrocious injury in the morals of families there. In fine, the settlement of foreigners in the islands would not be expedient, even for the sake of the advantages which their industry and arts would produce there; for works carried on always with foreign capital, on the account of foreigners, and by the agency of foreigners, would leave to the country very little benefit as compared to that from labor employed there by Spanish capital, and on the account and for the benefit of Spaniards. If we desire to preserve intact in Filipinas the religious ideas and the pure morals of our ancestors, and due submission to the government of his Majesty, it is necessary to keep the people away from every point of contact with foreigners. In China, Japan, and other nations, the revolutionary spirit has not been able to penetrate, because the laws of those kingdoms keep the gates closed to all strangers. In a colony still in its infancy in customs and enlightenment—which, like a school of education, needs to have for models men of sound morals—it has been very absurd to allow to remain and become citizens therein men who have served a term of exile, and polisones[5] or vagabonds, sometimes followed by officers of justice from the Peninsula; and that the Indian people should see (as so many times I have seen) that this sort of men succeeded in obtaining positions as corporals, revenue officials, and even militia captains, solely from the circumstance of their being white men. It is necessary always to remove from the colonies this sort of people, who on account of their principles and their inclinations must be enemies of order and of government, permitting therein the settlement only of respectable Spanish artisans and merchants, whose upright conduct may serve as an example to that neophyte people, while at the same time they make fortunes for themselves. But even this point needs careful study, and in regard to it I will present the following reflections.
Of the residence of European Spaniards in Filipinas
By a necessary and inevitable effect of certain causes, physical and moral, which would take too long to explain here, the Spanish race in the colonies—or the descendants of Europeans, and mestizos of these, born and reared there—have from their birth political sentiments which are entirely opposite to those of their ancestors and other Europeans. They regard the Indian as an entirely passive being, the European as a foreigner, and the land as exclusively their own. The educational institutions which thus far have been founded in the colonies, with the object of uniting their inhabitants, by means of enlightening them, under the same principles of religion, morals, and politics, have not been able to uproot those ideas; on the other hand, recent events in the Americas have proved that the men who had most education and acquaintance with the sciences were the party leaders [corifeos] of revolution and independence. It ought to be regarded as an incontestable truth that as soon as the Spanish race in Filipinas reaches a greater number than that of the Europeans, and with this increase acquires a certain degree of moral force, a war for independence will be declared; and according to this idea the educational institutions, when there is not sincerity in the minds of the persons and in the laws that aim at encouraging this class of population in the colonies, have a tendency hostile to the preservation of the royal government in them. This class of Spanish families is, for another reason, very unfortunate in Filipinas, and may be regarded as condemned to perpetual slothfulness and misery. They cannot devote themselves to agriculture, because in that burning climate only the Indian resists labor so hard; nor to handicrafts, because the wages which the Indian and the Sangley mestizo alike earn, which is sufficient to meet their simple needs, is insufficient to pay for another sort of food and clothing for the Spaniards. For these same reasons, they cannot occupy themselves in the coasting trade; nor, finally, in the commerce of the islands on a large scale, for lack of sufficient capital, since by inheritance is divided among all the sons the wealth which their European parents left to them; and the practice of law is there a career to which resort is very unfortunate. All these causes, added to the lassitude which the climate inspires, maintain that class of people in such a condition of idleness and poverty, especially the women, that it has been necessary to establish in the capital alone six seminaries and beaterios in which to shelter and educate Spanish girls; and that in the ordinance regarding the Acapulco galleon his Majesty should grant to the Spanish widows of merchants the special favor of a pension or widow’s usufruct on the boletas of that vessel, their only means of making a living.
[Bernaldez declares that these European Spaniards, “there abandoned, as it were, to the mercy of charity, or to vices,” are not only useless but dangerous to the country; that among them revolutions are born; that it is for the best interests of España to retain her population at home, and, while furnishing means for Spaniards to enrich themselves in the colonies or their trade, to attract to the mother country all possible wealth and capital, not allowing her children to remain abroad after acquiring wealth; and, finally, “to remove from the colonies all cause of insurrection, than which there is none greater and more terrible than the propagation [therein] of the Spanish race.” Moreover, the Europeans settled in the colonies “have too much influence, through their exclusive wealth and connections, for weakening governmental action there; and care nothing for any political changes except as they can find therein opportunity for speculations” (on which he instances the action of European Spaniards in Mexico in Iturbide’s short reign, and in other events of the revolution there). “The Filipinas Islands need, to maintain them in tranquillity, nothing more than a stable system of administration, civil and spiritual, by means of religious, and an army trained and commanded by competent European leaders, officers, sergeants, and corporals, with the necessary number of civil officials.” The creole inhabitants should be diminished as much as possible, all Spaniards being required to return with their families to their own country; and “aid given to destitute widows and orphans of Spaniards who die in Filipinas would be better employed in paying for their removal to Europa.” This matter should be considered in the residencia of every governor. Convicts and exiles should no longer be sent to the islands. No foreigner should be allowed to marry there except on condition of leaving the country with his wife. No European adventurer or idler should be allowed to remain in the islands unless he proffer sufficient security for his good conduct and occupation; he may then remain not longer than ten years; otherwise, he should be at once sent back whence he came. Every ship should carry back to España as many Spaniards as it brought to the islands; and European Spaniards should not be allowed to remain in Filipinas more than ten years, after which they should be compelled to return with their families to España.]
Of the residencias
[It is highly desirable that public officials should undergo strict residencia, and that regulations be made for these, which are adapted to the special needs of Filipinas. This is especially true of the alcaldes-mayor, who, as they have permission to trade, are more tempted to evade or infringe the laws; and many persons are appointed to that office who “lack all the qualifications necessary for obtaining any public office whatever.” Unfortunately, since the royal decree of August 24, 1799, no alcalde has been or can be subject to residencia, and they consequently enjoy absolute impunity in their transgressions; for that decree does not allow a sufficient time for complaints to be made in a country like Filipinas, where intercourse between the provinces and the capital is so uncertain, interrupted, and difficult, on account of the vicissitudes of weather and climate, the lack of roads and postal facilities, and the great distance of many provinces from Manila. “This impunity has most serious results, very detrimental to the peace and quiet of the islands; for such has been the class of persons whom necessity has compelled to appoint as alcaldes-mayor that not only have they used their authority to possess themselves of the property of the Indians—seizing the boats of traders, which injured the natives in their traffic—and defrauded the Indians with unjust exactions; but they have humiliated the religious, stolen moneys from the king, outraged young girls, burned houses, and, in short, have thrown the provinces into a condition of effervescence and of conspiracy against the government which sent to the natives such a ruler.” Bernaldez urges the government to take such measures that the residencia of the alcaldes may be made effective and just.]