In October, 1820, was created the office of general intendant of army and treasury, separate from the superior government; and it was conferred upon Colonel Luis Urréjola, with a salary of 5,000 pesos. In May, 1821, the Constitution of 1812 was again proclaimed in Filipinas, only to be again abrogated in 1824, as a result of Fernando VII’s triumph (with French aid) over the Liberal party in Spain. “Folgueras gave great impulse to the Economic Society of Friends of the Country; and he attempted to found in Manila a school of medicine, surgery, and pharmacy, commencing for this purpose the indispensable documentary evidence [expediente], but he did not succeed in carrying out this plan—a failure much to be regretted, because nearly all of the towns [in the islands] had neither physician nor drug-store. As a compensation, the creation of the nautical academy was an excellent idea, for its practical results are of great value.” “In 1821 appeared the second periodical which was published in the country, entitled El Noticiero Filipino;[15] [i.e., “The Philippine Intelligencer”]; and in the same year were published two others, El Ramillete Patriótico [“The Patriotic Bouquet”] and La Filantropía [“Philanthropy”]. The life of all was of short duration.”
Folgueras was replaced by a proprietary governor, Juan Antonio Martinez, who began to exercise that office on October 30, 1822. He brought with him many military officers from the Peninsula, “a measure counseled by Folgueras, in view of the deficiency of officers in the regiments of Filipinas, and the little confidence which they inspired; and this was the cause or pretext which he advanced to the court to exculpate himself for not having adopted more energetic measures when the melancholy assassinations were committed by the Indians among the foreigners in 1820. The body of officers in the army of Filipinas was almost entirely composed of American Spaniards. These were greatly displeased at the increase of Peninsular officers, partly because they supposed that thus their own promotions would be stopped, and partly on account of race antagonisms.” They talked so much against the newcomers that the governor became distrustful, and finally discovered that the American officers were plotting and conspiring against authority; he consequently arrested the persons suspected of this intrigue, and sent them to Spain (February 18, 1823)—among them being Luis Rodríguez Varela, styled El Conde Filipino [“The Filipino Count”];[16] and the factor of the Company of Filipinas, José Ortega. Nevertheless, the plots continued, and the authorities sent him who appeared to be the leader in these, Captain Andrés Novales, to fight the pirates in northern Mindanao; he embarked (June 1, 1823), but was driven back by a storm, and immediately he and his accomplices determined to “declare themselves openly against the authority of España,” and set up a government of their own. The insurgents (some eight hundred in number) seized the cabildo house, and incarcerated therein the leading military chiefs and some magistrates; then they murdered Folgueras, and took from his pockets the keys of the city; and they fortified themselves in the royal palace, and attempted to seize the artillery quarters. Here they were resisted bravely by a few loyal officers and men, and word was conveyed to the governor, who collected the troops available and sent these against the palace. The insurgents there were soon overcome, and many abandoned their posts and fled; Novales was made a prisoner, taken before a court-martial—to whom he declared that he had no accomplices, and was alone guilty of seducing the troops—and with the sergeant Mateo (who had commanded the insurgent force in the palace) was shot that afternoon, as also was Lieutenant Ruiz, who had assassinated Folgueras. Amnesty was extended to all the remaining prisoners, except six officers, who were shot soon afterward. On October 26, 1824, great damage was done in Manila by a severe earthquake, which destroyed the barracks, several churches, and many houses; and this was followed (November 1) by a fearful hurricane, which ruined many buildings and wrecked a multitude of sailing vessels. In this same year the Economic Society founded a monthly periodical entitled Registro Mercantil[17] [“The Mercantile Register”].
The ravages of the Moro pirates continuing, and becoming each year more menacing,[18] Martínez sent out an expedition against them (February 29, 1824), which laid waste the shores of Joló and southern Mindanao, and killing a considerable number of Moros, among whom were three of their fiercest and most treacherous dattos. Martínez advocated such operations as this, as the only means of stopping the piracies of the Moros. During the period of 1823–29, the Augustinian missionary Fray Bernardo Lago succeeded in reducing to village life and converting more than eight thousand Tinguianes and Igorrots in the province of Abra, forming the mission of Pidigan. In 1825 Martínez was replaced by Mariano Ricafort Palacín y Abarca, and departed for Spain; a few days after leaving Manila he died, and was buried in Cochinchina.
Ricafort assumed office on October 14, 1825, and by royal orders also took possession of the intendancy of exchequer, although Urréjola was continued in its charge; but in the following January Ricafort concluded that “this dual command was impossible,” and restricted the intendant to certain routine functions, at the same time asking the approval of the home government for this proceeding. He had brought with him a portrait of Fernando VII, presented by the king to his colony of Filipinas; the municipal council of Manila decided to pay this portrait the same honors as if the king himself had visited the islands, and during the week of December 19–25 festivities of every kind were conducted, with the utmost display and magnificence. (Five years later, orders from the Spanish government were received at Manila, censuring the extravagant expenditures on that occasion, said, to amount to some 16,000 pesos, as an unwarranted and blamable use of municipal funds, and regulating, for the future, expenditures of this sort.) A royal decree of June 8, 1826, ordained that the secularization of parish curacies should cease, and that those ministries should be restored to the religious orders, which was accordingly done. On September 15 of that year Fray Hilarión Diez, an Augustinian, took possession of the archbishopric of Manila, replacing Zulaibar, who had died on March 4, 1824. In June a circular letter was sent by Ricafort to the provincial governors, reminding them of the law (art. 26 of the “Ordinances of good government”) which forbade them to hinder in any way the trade in the products of the provinces, whether by Spaniards, natives, or mestizos, and whether in kind or with money, ordering them to permit trade freely everywhere, without any delays or exactions against those doing business. In 1827 Ricafort sent an expedition against Joló, which was kept off by the valor of the Joloans; but the Spaniards burned and ravaged the settlements on the shores of Illana Bay, doing the Moros much damage. In that same year the Spanish government reëstablished the naval bureau at Manila, independent of the captain-general, and Pascual Enrile was appointed as its chief; he proceeded to reorganize all branches of the service, including that intended to serve against the pirates, whom he was able to restrain to a great extent; and he constructed several cruisers and other vessels, one of which remained in active service for forty years. He established the jurisdiction of the bureau throughout the archipelago, creating port-captains for Iloilo, Capiz, Cebú, and Pangasinán. Ever since the insurrection of 1744 in Bohol, caused by the imprudence of the Jesuit Morales, the insurgents had (under their chief Dagohoy) maintained hostilities, not only against the Spaniards, but even harassing their own countrymen who occupied the coastal villages of that island. The Recollects, in charge of the missions of Bohol after the expulsion of the Jesuits, tried to persuade the rebels to submit to Spanish authority, and secured from Governor Raon a general amnesty for them; but it resulted only in their defying further the authority of the government, which was long unable to take any measures for subduing them. Finally, in 1827, the danger to the loyal villages of Bohol was so menacing that the authorities were compelled to protect them and reduce the insurgents; and to this end Ricafort sent powerful expeditions (May, 1827, and April, 1828), which after strenuous efforts compelled the rebels to submit.[19] That governor accomplished much during his term of office for the promotion of agriculture. He ordained (1825 and 1826) that the native gobernadorcillos should furnish to agriculturists the idle and unoccupied Indians within their jurisdictions, to work on the estates, these laborers being paid their daily wages; and on October 30, 1827, that all complaints in civil cases relating to farm laborers should be settled by the magistrates as promptly and simply as possible, “observing the contracts and usages of the Indians, when these are not unjust,” and that no Indian laborer should be imprisoned for a purely civil debt (save those to the royal exchequer), nor should his animals, tools, lands, or house be seized therefor. The Spanish minister of the exchequer, Luis López Ballesteros, also took a paternal interest in the islands, and secured royal decrees for the benefit of their industries. One of these (dated April 6, 1828) encouraged the importation into Filipinas of all machinery suitable for spinning and weaving cotton, offered public aid to private enterprises for improvement in weaving and dyeing, and promised protection and encouragement to all projects for promoting native manufactures of cloth; and made the exportation of raw cotton from the islands free, in order to promote the cultivation of that plant. Another decree (of the same date) permitted the free importation of all kinds of agricultural machinery and implements into Filipinas; and authorized premiums and rewards from the public funds to Filipino farmers who should first make large plantations of coffee, cacao, cinnamon, and cloves, as also to those who should make most progress in the plantations of Chinese cinnamon [canelón], tea, and mulberry-trees, and in raising silk, etc. Those who kept in cultivation a certain area of land, and day-laborers who continued to work for a certain number of years, were exempted from paying tributes; and the native farmers were allowed to keep cockpits in operation daily and without tax, on the estates which they cultivated. “In spite of so many privileges, not many of them were inclined to the cultivation of their fields.” Another royal order (April 6, 1828) made important regulations regarding the Chinese residing in the islands; they were to be gathered into villages, as were the Indians; their heads of barangay were to collect the tributes, as in the Indian villages, being allowed three per cent of the collections for their trouble; they were classified into three groups—those who were engaged in foreign or wholesale trade, those in domestic or retail trade, and artisans of all classes—who were obliged to pay a monthly tax of ten, four, and two pesos respectively; those who had settled in the islands, but were not married, must return to China within six months; and any Chinaman who failed to pay his tax for three months was to be sent to compulsory labor on some estate, at a specified wage, from which should be deducted two pesos a month until his tax dues should be paid.[20] Still another royal order of the same date gave free permission to any person of sufficient means to cultivate the opium poppy in Filipinas and export its product therefrom; and ordered that its culture should begin on lands close to Manila. Another decree ordained the establishment of a mint at Manila; but this desirable measure was not carried out until many years afterward, and the islands meanwhile had to suffer from the wretched clipped and debased currency which had so long prevailed there. On October 13, 1828, Ricafort published an edict that all money which came to the islands coined by the revolted Spanish colonies of America should be recoined at Manila, taxing it one per cent for this recoinage. On November 9 following, a long but not destructive earthquake occurred. In that same year a conspiracy was set on foot by some civil officials; it was discovered, and its promoters sent to Spain. As a result, the authorities created a public vigilance commission, and demanded more troops from Spain; a regiment was accordingly sent to Manila in 1830. By royal decree of October 27, 1829, it was provided that the post of superintendent of the exchequer should be filled by the intendant of the army and treasury; accordingly this charge was assumed (September 9, 1830) by Francisco Enriquez, who for two years had been intendant succeeding Urréjola. In January, 1829, an officer named Guillermo Galvey (whose duty it was to follow up smugglers in Pangasinán and Ilocos) conducted an expedition into the district of Benguet; an interesting account of this is found in the diary left by him. By royal decree of April 5, 1820 Spanish vessels were permitted to enter British ports just as British vessels were admitted to Spanish ports. Ricafort, having finished his government of Filipinas, sailed for Spain at the end of 1830. He was a governor of good judgment and much energy, and did much to improve the condition of Manila and of the country. He issued edicts imposing penalties on those who should sing obscene songs, and on blasphemers, gamblers, beggars, and parents who brought up their children in evil ways; and he “made provision for a general domiciliary visitation of Manila and the formation of a list of its citizens, which measure resulted in many persons of bad antecedents abandoning the capital. He also decreed standards for weights and measures, which unfortunately soon fell into disuse; and he created a military commission with power to execute evildoers, which fulfilled the object of its creation.”
Ricafort was succeeded (December 23, 1830) by Pascual Enrile y Alcedo, a most zealous and able governor. He personally visited the northern provinces of Luzón, accompanied by his relative and adjutant, José María Peñaranda (afterward the governor of Albay), a military engineer, who afterward made journeys and surveys in a large part of the rest of that island; this resulted in carefully prepared itineraries, plans, and maps, which were utilized in the construction of highways and bridges, and the establishment of postal routes, which opened up communication between regions before destitute of such facilities, and sometimes in places heretofore deemed impassable. The navigable rivers and bayous of Pangasinán were explored and mapped; a highway was made in Pampanga which should be safe from the overflow of Lake Canarem; and explorations were made from east to west in Luzón for the sake of bringing the shores of the island into communication with the fertile plains of the interior. On May 14, 1834, Peñaranda was made corregidor or governor of the province of Albay, “which experienced a complete transformation during his just and beneficent rule. To him it owed its most important roads, bridges, and public edifices, and the promotion of its agriculture, on which account his name is venerated by the inhabitants of Albay; they perpetuated the memory of this illustrious but modest patriot by erecting, some years after his death, a monument to him in the plaza of the capital of the province.” The Economic Society of Friends of the Country contributed to the development of agriculture, in the time of Enrile, by its reports, memoirs, and material support. We read with surprise, however, that in 1833 this Society, in an opinion requested from it by the home government, opposed the establishment of a mint at Manila, and informed Enrile that such institution was at that time unnecessary. In March, 1831, Galvey made an expedition into the country of the Igorrots; and in the following December, to the district of Bacún. A decree of May 9, 1831, established a custom-house in Zamboanga, “in order to prevent the frauds committed by foreigners in the port of Joló, and to facilitate and promote expeditions to that point.” A royal decree of April 24, 1832, substituted the garrote for the gallows in capital punishments. Another, dated February 16, 1833, provided for the adjustment and management of the funds belonging to the obras pías, which charge was entrusted later to a committee composed of the governor of the islands, some of the treasury officials, and the archbishop.[21] The treasury officials, by a decree of July 3, 1833, accepted the proposal of certain persons to establish “a lottery, at their own account and risk, offering to pay to the treasury forty per cent [of the receipts?], besides twenty-five per cent of the value of the tickets which composed each drawing, after furnishing adequate security as a guarantee for the fulfilment of their promise.” The exclusive privilege of this lottery was granted to these persons for a period of five years. Enrile created the Guía de forasteros [“Guide for Strangers”] of Filipinas; it first appeared in 1834. Our author reproduces (t. ii, pp. 539, 540) the table of contents of this annual. Fernando VII died on September 29, 1833, and was succeeded by his daughter Isabel II, to be until her majority under the regency of her mother, Maria Cristina; this was quickly followed by the Carlist insurrection, the reactionary party being headed by the young prince Carlos, who was proclaimed king as Carlos V, and civil war ensued, which for seven years stained the soil of Spain with the blood of her own sons. By royal order of August 10, 1834, the Chinese traders were restricted to the Parián, and those Chinese who were allowed to reside in the provinces must devote themselves to agricultural pursuits. Enrile issued an edict on October 1, 1834, removing the special duties imposed on the Chinese champans, and placing them under the same regulations as the vessels of other foreign nations. On February 2, 1835, the official despatches arrived from Spain which decreed the restoration of the constitutional regime and the convocation of the Cortes. Enrile strengthened the naval forces sent against the pirates [la marina sutil, composed of light-draught vessels], and was able to drive them away from the coasts of Visayas. He also increased the area planted in tobacco, enforced just weights and measures, endeavored to correct the evils resulting from the debased money of the islands, and caused a light-house to be erected on Corregidor Island. Our writer commends this governor as being “one of the most intelligent and industrious who have ever ruled Filipinas.” “To him the country owes material improvements of the utmost value, of so much importance as the great highways of Luzón, which have facilitated the intercourse between the provinces, bringing them into postal communication, one after another, by means of the mail-routes established by him; and the administration of the colony is indebted to him for regulations and procedures that are scientific and orderly, in all the branches that have contributed to the development of the general welfare, making considerable increase in the public wealth. Agriculture, commerce, and navigation likewise experienced the beneficial results of this illustrious governor’s judicious management; and his term of office was the source of the rapid progress which has been made from that time by these most important factors of the general welfare—in great part, thanks to the impulse received from the measures, dictated by him, which conduced to the natural development of those industries.” Enrile resigned his post, and returned to Spain early in 1835.
He was succeeded ad interim (March 1, 1835) by Gabriel de Torres, at the time the commander of the army [segundo cabo] under Enrile; as a military officer, he immediately proposed plans for the improvement of the military service; but these were checked by his premature death,[22] less than two months after entering on his office. In his place, the command was assumed (April 23) by the officer next him in rank, Juan Crámer; but he surrendered this office on September 9 following to the new segundo cabo, Pedro Antonio Salazar Castillo y Varona. The latter, on April 25, 1836, issued an edict that “the plain [sencillas] pesetas coined in the Peninsula should be accepted [in the islands] at their lawful value of four reals vellón instead of five, as if they were pillar coins [columnarias];[23] accordingly they began to circulate, having been recently introduced into the islands.” On June 11, 1836, the superintendency of treasury affairs was assumed by Urréjola in place of Enríquez.[24] On July 28, Salazar found it necessary to issue an edict for the enforcement of the laws which prohibited carrying gunpowder and firearms to the Indias, and selling them in countries hostile to Spain; this referred especially to Moroland, where evidently the pirates had been thus aided by unscrupulous traders to make their raids against the northern islands. Salazar thought that he could restrain those piracies by carrying on commerce with the Moros, and therefore made a treaty with the sultan of Joló, Mahamad Diamalud Quiram (September 22, 1836), which stipulated “that every three-masted ship which made port at Joló with Chinese passengers from Manila should pay 2,000 pesos fuertes, and smaller vessels in proportion to their size;” but “the most important cargo which went from Manila to Joló never exceeded 2,500 pesos. The Joloan barks which should go to Zamboanga were to pay a duty of one per cent, and those which entered at Manila two per cent; but no Joloan bark was accustomed to go to Manila.” The governor of Zamboanga also made a treaty with another Moro ruler; but it resulted only in increasing the insolence of the pirates, who paid no attention to their treaties. At the beginning of 1836, Salazar sent an expedition under Galvey to occupy the Igorrot country; but it was, despite Galvey’s remonstrances, sent in too great haste, and without adequate preparations, and too near the beginning of the rainy season; they reached that region, and built some forts, but so many of the soldiers were attacked by sickness that the expedition was forced to give up the undertaking and retire, “without any other result than the expenditure of several thousand dollars.”[25] In that same year, Peñaranda conducted with brilliant success an expedition to dislodge the pirates from Masbate Island, where they had fortified themselves. “Afterward, he established a system of signals in the provinces of the south, to watch the movements of those pirates.” On January 26, 1837, Salazar sent an urgent request to the Spanish government for the despatch of Spanish regulars to supply the parish curacies throughout the archipelago, as (for the same reasons advanced by former governors) he considered the Indian clerics unfit for that purpose. In view of the secularization of the orders that had been decreed in Spain,[26] he desired that some two hundred of the friars there should be sent to Filipinas, which, added to those already in the islands, would be sufficient for the parishes. The political disturbances in Spain found some reflection in the distant colonies; and in February, 1837, there was danger of a tumult arising, “some insisting that the Constitution should be proclaimed, in order that they might utilize the change to their own advantage;” among these were several officers of high rank. Absurd reports were circulated throughout Manila: that the governor was opposed to the proclamation, and was intending to banish certain persons from the country, and that he was a Carlist, etc. Violent measures were proposed by some of the radicals, but these were resisted by some of the cooler heads; and many citizens opposed the proclamation of the Constitution, fearing that serious disturbances would result. Salazar, being informed of these things, promised that when the royal despatches arrived he would open them in the presence of all, and fulfil whatever orders he should receive from the home government. This occurred on August 26 of that year, and the royal orders decreed that no change in political affairs should be made in Filipinas until the Cortes should decide the matter; this and Salazar’s tact reconciled the contending factions. At the same time he received a decree reducing in all departments the military forces of the islands; the authorities resolved to suspend the execution of this order, and sent an envoy to remonstrate with the government on this subject—for this purpose choosing one of the officers who had been most prominent in the recent controversy, and thus removing from Manila a person whose presence there was regarded as dangerous. By royal order of February 1, 1836 (published in the islands on March 31, 1837), order was given that there should be compiled and published in Manila every year tables of the values of the moneys from the new provinces of America, in order that their value might, in their circulation in Manila, be properly adjusted to the Spanish peso; consequently, the recoinage of American money was stopped. A later edict ordered that from June 1, 1837, “the coin called cuarto should circulate at the rate of twenty to the real,[27] instead of seventeen as hitherto, on account of the greater size and weight of the new coins; and to this new subdivision were adjusted the prices of the measures of tobacco established therefor, and the revenues from wine. Also the circulation of cigars [tabacos] in place of money was forbidden; the Indians had introduced this on account of the scarcity of copper coin, and because the greater part of that then current was counterfeit, on which account a multitude of disputes had arisen. The governor decided, moreover, that the Spanish peseta should be accepted at thirty-two cuartos, five [pesetas], therefore, corresponding to the peso fuerte.” A royal order of May 31, 1837, declared certain jurisdictions—Caraga, Samar, Iloilo, Antique, Capis, Albay, Camarines Sur, and Tayabas—to be those of governors, at once military and political, who should be military officers appointed by the War Department; all the rest (excepting Cavite, Zamboanga, and the Marianas, which also were filled like the foregoing) were classed as alcaldeships, and appointments thereto should be made from the attorney-general’s office [Ministerio de Gracia y Justicia]. The Constitution of 1837 was decreed and sanctioned by the Cortes on June 8 of that year; and it was ordained by that body that the provinces of Ultramar should be governed by special laws, a provision reiterated by succeeding constitutions. “From that time Filipinas lost its representation in the Cortes.”
Chart of the port of San Luis, in the Marianas Islands, 1738; by Adjutant Domingo Garrido de Malavar
[Photographic facsimile from original MS. in Archivo general de Indias, Sevilla]
On August 4, 1837, arrived at Manila the new governor of the islands, Andrés García Camba, a knight of the Order of Santiago. He had already spent ten years in Filipinas (April, 1825, to March, 1835), and had gone to Spain as the deputy of Manila to the Cortes, an honor twice again conferred upon him. He was received with the utmost enthusiasm, although the Liberals at Manila were irritated by the action of the Cortes in depriving the islands of representation therein; but Camba himself had liberal views, as well as a generous and kindly nature, and gained the good-will of that party. This made trouble for him, however, in another direction. The civil war in Spain aroused there great partisan bitterness, which spread to the colonies; and in Filipinas was a Carlist and reactionary faction, who opposed Camba in every way. “The regular clergy, as a body, were partisans of the Pretender, and not only gave him their sympathy but aided him, as well as the Carlist publications, with their money. The court of Madrid was aware of this attitude of the friars, and had already sharply censured Salazar for his indulgence and lenity toward them. Several Carlist partisans had been banished from Spain to the Marianas, but had gone to Manila instead, and were not only unmolested there, but visited and entertained by many of the most prominent people of the city, and especially by the ecclesiastical element. Camba found that Carlist reunions were being held in the convents of San Juan de Dios and Santo Domingo, and that even the archbishop, [Fray José Segui] was an avowed adherent of the Pretender; the governor tried to conciliate the disaffected, but with little success, since the clergy, the Audiencia, and many influential persons, both citizens and officials, were jealous and hostile toward him.”[28] He was obliged to compel the archbishop to deposit certain funds, belonging to the Cavite hospital, in the royal treasury, instead of the Dominican convent; also to arrest a Dominican friar for conducting treasonable correspondence with Carlists, and to send to Spain a military officer concerned therein. Notwithstanding Camba’s ability, integrity, and devotion to the interests of the islands, and his patience with his opponents, they exerted so much influence and carried on so many intrigues against him, not only in Manila but at Madrid, that they procured his recall to Spain;[29] and on December 29, 1838, he surrendered the governorship to his successor, Luis Lardizábal y Montoya. Notwithstanding the obstacles and difficulties which Camba continually encountered, he accomplished some important improvements in the administration,[30] the chief of these being the reorganization of the postal service, which from 1838 was conducted under one bureau and on modern lines; he improved the means of communication between the provinces, and pushed forward the reduction of the heathen tribes. He informed the Spanish government that the attempts to make treaties and alliances with the sultans of Joló were of no use in bringing any permanent or substantial advantage to Spanish navigation and commerce. In 1837 was published the Flora de Filipinas of the Augustinian Fray Manuel Blanco, the first attempt to form a compendium of Philippine botany.[31] A royal decree of October 24, 1838, “created in Spain a consulting committee for the administration of colonial affairs, as members of the same being appointed, among others, the ex-governors of Filipinas Ricafort and Enrile.”