Excerpts from the Novel: Misterios de Filipinas Published 1859
Originally written in Spanish by: D. Antonio Garcia del Canto
Translated into English by: Maria Remedios Layug Zachary
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"In the Philippines, only two classes exist, the aristocrats and the plebeians. You should not compare the aristocrats’ titles to the pompous titles created by feudalism, which were also created to give splendor to the monarchies, as a compensation for immortal services, or because the king was an excessive spender, like the Henrys and Felipes. Don’t, because an aristocrat in the Philippines has the same rights to his title as the plebeian with whom he lives. To be an aristocrat in the Philippines, the only title you need is to be a European, and to be from to the great proletarian family one must belong to the Malayan race with olive or dark bronze skin that is scattered all over the beautiful and fertile islands of the Oceania. Even though between these two classes (like an assimilation to our middle class) there exists another class, there is no tie between them, nor sympathy that will enable them to subjugate as a group the more powerful. This intermediate class is what we Spaniards have given the name of mestiza." (Author wrote mestiza because clase is feminine i.e. la clase mestiza. Also the author originally said only two classes but then he went on to talk about three classes)
"Nothing is more beautiful than the immense bay of Manila. It measures 30 leagues in width, in which all the fleets of the world can anchor. It looks like a crystal lake, the only movements in it were the circles and bubbles formed by the playing golden fishes who jump from out of the water eager to inhale the balmy breeze caused by the fragrant flowers of the East."
"Spaniards in the Philippines don’t use mattresses, instead they sleep on a mat or two laid over a cot made of rattan "
"A child of a Spaniard and a native of the Philippines is called a mestizo while in America, a child of a Spaniard and a native is called a mulato".
"Hijo del pais: born in the Philippines to pure European or pure Spanish parents. Criollo is the term used in America".
"Cumintang is a popular type of song in the province of Tondo. It is the first kind that Spanish women and mestizas learn to play with harp".
"In spite of being very simple, Europeans ignore Tagalog absolutely. They don’t spend time to study it. I can guarantee that for every 100 who stayed in Manila for 6 years, 4 don’t understand nor speak Tagalog. Tagalog is particularly convenient for chiefs and officials in the military. Nobody can doubt a Tagalog-speaking officer who leaves with 40 or 50 men under his command but there isn’t anyone to whom he could direct his command in Spanish, except for the sergeant who only has a very basic grasp of Spanish".
"In Manila, the city that is enclosed within walls, you breath a heavy and suffocating atmosphere, particularly during late in the day. This is due to the absolute lack of the lightest breeze, as well as the foul-smelling exhalations that are emitted by Its few clean moats, often deadly for its inhabitants, and particularly for Europeans. However, after having hardly stepped outside the drawbridges and looking at the horizon to see the setting sun, the heart widens and you breathe with delicious pleasure upon contemplating the magnificent panorama that is showing in the distance. Nothing is more beautiful, more poetic than seeing from the intrenchment (a shapeless mound of earth on the seashore in the camp of Bagumbayan) on an afternoon in January, the islands of Corregidor and Mariviles, still golden with the weakening rays of the sun that greet the appearance of the pale goddess of the night, who presents herself by shedding love, light and melancholy on the opposite horizon".
"This magnificent landscape is discovered through the already mentioned intrenchment, and if we unite this landscape with the 100 carriages that roll on the street, they’re generally magnificent. This is because next to the aristocratic carriage, the elegant tilbury runs fast. They carry the pale women, yes, but they’re pretty with their paleness, their black, languid and voluptuous eyes, that to us represent the Houris promised by Muhammad to the good believers. And to form a totally enchanting sight, we turn our eyes to the sides of the street and we see a thousand indias and mestizas in the cigar trade on their way to Malate, Ermita and Santa Ana with their embroidered camisas made from piña, silk skirts of different colors and slippers with gold and silver embroideries. A European who saw this picture for the first time will come to know the pleasant effect that it must have caused in him. But God, one has hardly set foot on the dusty or muddy streets of the city, then he falls into a melancholic apathy and the heart closes with pain to all the sweet sensations".
"Currently the Parian is a filthy housing of prostitutes and vices, because in addition to selling meat, fish and other kinds of rotten foods that infest the rest of the town, it is where the lost women, the military deserters, escapees from prison, gather inside its walls to discuss their issues and how awful and wretched are the lives of the native women because all of them go to the capital to serve in the houses of Spaniards through which they liberate themselves from the burden caused by living in the provincial towns".
"Cavite is a stronghold located two leagues from Manila; it is in its own bay. It is the capital of the province and the area is heavily covered with forests; the reason all criminals seek shelter in it. It has become the meeting place of more than 200 men alarming the governor of the colony".
"Nothing is more common than seeing everyday in Manila the deserting soldiers and convicts joining the thieves because the indio prefers the chain of the convict than the honorable profession of the soldier. Anyone who doesn’t understand the character of an indio needs a broad explanation. An indio from birth enjoys the freedom of a bird. Nature belongs to him, so to speak and the admirable fertility of the nature’s virgin floor gives him more food than he needs, almost without having to work. The oceans and rivers give him magnificent fishes, the warmth of the climate allows him to walk naked, the palm lends him its shade and the smooth moss offers him a soft bed. He has very few necessities because his sustenance is valued by the here and now. He slides with his free and happy life in the inner provinces and he doesn’t know nor aspire for better enjoyments. This indio, raised with delicious and appetizing liberty since his birth, is suddenly taken and transported to Manila because the time has come for him to be conscripted for military service. As a soldier, he is subjected to military discipline; which he doesn’t understand. He is obligated to eat as scheduled at the beat of the drum when he is accustomed to eating each time his stomach indicates it. He is dressed in a dress coat that drowns him when he has never squeezed his chest nor his arms on anything but a shirt made of sinamay and generally he does not put on his shirt. He puts on a bowtie on his neck which has the same effect as an adjusted noose. He puts on shoes that squeeze his feet as if he put them inside a press. All of these combined confuses him. It makes him desperate and he doesn’t long for anything but the moment he will be able to get rid of a very insufferable existence. For the indio, a very light suit has to be designed, without a bowtie or any garment that restricts him, and then the decline in the deserters will be noticed. This will even encourage the Indios to re-enlist".
"It’s also common to see on the streets of Manila a pair of convicts, bound by the same chain, looking for the soldier in charge of their custody so that they can be taken to prison; meanwhile that soldier is in some portal or buyo store talking about love to his woman, but this pair, even though left unguarded, do not escape because there are indios who prefer prison than the bad treatment from the baranggay head, an indio like them".
"Pasig River is navigable through pancos and paraws, water vessels in the Philippines. These boats are used for all trades with Laguna".
"Both banks of Pasig are extremely picturesque and are adorned with good recreational houses where the inhabitants of Manila go to bathe and amuse themselves continuously and particularly during the hot season. All the people that rise up from its shores are rich and its inhabitants live in enviable happiness".
"It’s a common saying that in Manila, there are four months of dust, four months of mud, and four months of everything".
"From 1844 until 1851 there was only one Spanish shopkeeper in Manila. This is because the Spaniards believe that they are lowering their dignity by engaging in this honorable trade. This is the reason the Chinese have a monopoly on the business because they are shoemakers, tailors, carpenters and they do most of the mechanical jobs. These are what make the Chinese in Manila rich in a few years. There was one Catalan shopkeeper during that time, named Dupuig, a tailor, honorable and hardworking. He was very active, free from the stupid worries of the common people. There was also a Catalan tailor in Manila named Ferrer". (Wonder why the author said no more than one Spanish shopkeeper existed when there were 2 of them?)
"All indias and mestizas have magnificent hair, and above all very long and thick, which must consist of washing their hair daily and then perfuming their hair with coconut oil".
"The place where more piña cloth is manufactured than any other place is the Island of Panay, one of the islands of the Visayas, particularly in the province of Iloilo, so much so that It is one of the richest provinces in the archipelago. The inhabitants of Iloilo enjoy major luxuries and comfort. There are many mestizos in this province and the mestizas are generally very pretty".
"The Indios and Mestizos are dressed alike. They wear cotton or silk pants, red or blue with but with many stripes or are checkered with different background color. Their shirt is made of piña or nipis that are worn over their red, white or blue pants. Their shirts are either embroidered or unembroidered, depending on their wealth. They wear a red cotton handkerchief around their head or a salacot instead of a cotton handkerchief. To complement their attires they have to add a rosary made of pearls, gold or coral. Everyone wears his rosary hanging down to the middle of his chest like that of a collar worn by a Knight of the Golden Fleece. The indios in the province and, even the women, take off their shirts to work, most of all when they pound rice, which is called peeling off the husk".
"The Salacot is a kind of almost flat hat, woven from a fiber called nito, it has very wide wings and is extremely light; It’s adorned with cords that are tied under the chin in the style of a chinstrap, and on top they put a silver plate and an animal figure also made of silver, usually a rooster. All the Indios of the provinces use it to work in the field, although without any decoration. Because it is very light in weight, this hat is used for preserving the head from the sun and rain. Unadorned, it is very cheap; it can be bought from 2-1/2 to 3 reales of silver. The Philippine military uses it always for marches and expeditions. You can form an exact idea of its shape if you compare it to the lid of a metal inkwell".
"The leaves of the buyo plant, prepared with the fruit of the Bonga (palm) and a little lime are chewed by the Filipinos and produce a disgusting, red saliva. Immensely consumed in the Philippines, it is difficult to find a Filipino, including Spaniards born in the Philippines, who is not constantly chewing buyo. This they do because they say it is very invigorating.
The preparation of buyo plant, bonga and lime is called buyo as a whole. It makes one’s teeth ugly and could cause the loss of teeth. Among the indios and mestizos, there is a custom between buyo users of chewing a buyo before giving it to each other: they call this disgusting proof of love Zapa-Zapa".
"Sampaguita is a flower belonging to the jazmin family, very fragrant and abundant in the Philippines".
"Gumamela is a flower belonging to the rose family, but its petals (although the author wrote hojas, I would say he meant pétalos) are wider. It comes in many colors; but the one used for hair is red".
"Bathing is a basic necessity in the Philippines, same as eating and sleeping. Everybody takes a bath every day of the year and there are people who stay in the water for three or four hours".
"The climate in the Philippines changes the system inside a European’s body that the most active, hardworking becomes apathetic and lazy. What’s more, the servants are cheap and an indio is a very humble servant. Many Spaniards, so that they don’t have to move, even when a burning light is within their reach, tell their servants to light their cigars".
"If there is any snake that instills fear in the Filipinos, it is the Dahompalay. Even though it is not a rod long, its venom is more active than that of the viper. In spite of this, several Indios catch them and play with them, always managing to not let the snake be near their mouths, arms or hands".
"In the Philippines, as in all countries in Intertropical zones, there is hardly any twilight because by the time the sun sets it is already night and the day appears almost at the same time as the eastern heavenly body".
"Filipinos, savages or civilized, have a great liking for living by themselves. So much so that some build their houses in the most hidden part of the forest. It is believed that the reason is so that the parish priests do not disturb them during the superstitious ceremonies that they practice even though they are Christians".
"Vengeance is indispensable among the savages. If a person from a village kills one from another, everyone from the village where the dead person lived armed themselves to kill someone from where the killer lives. This causes a never-ending war. We were in Pangasinan in 1846 when someone from a village gouged out the eyes of someone from another village. The people from the village where the now blind man lived gouged out the eyes of two people from the other village in return. The people from the other village gouged out the eyes of two from the other. Everyone would have been blind if the Comandante General of the Igorrotes, Sr. Coballes y Bermudez, had not ordered his adjutant Don Gabriel Arraz to put them in peace with each other".
"The majority of the savages, particularly from Mayoyao and Silipan, practice the barbarous customs of giving human heads as wedding gifts".
"Although, unlike other villages, the savages of Amburayan mountain range are not famous for practicing cannibalism, there had been an occasion where they ate the dead bodies of their own people. This happened according to Mas in the village of Baruncucureng, near the town of Tagudin in the province of Ilocos Sur".
"The Italones and Ibilaos, when they kill an enemy, they drink their enemy’s blood and eat pieces of their enemy’s lungs and entrails to make them courageous".
"The Gaddanes, Mayoyaos and others, when they kill an enemy they cut off the enemy’s head, then they begin dancing while drinking his blood and passing his head from one person to the other. They also like sucking the brains of their dead enemies, then adorning the handles of their swords with their enemies’ molars".
"No other disease horrifies the Igorots more than smallpox. So much so that when it spreads in a village, everyone abandons the village and leaves the people suffering from the disease, be they fathers, mothers, brothers or offsprings. For the most part, the sick people left to the ravages of their disease die as a consequence".
"Servant indios, even when loaded with chores, are accustomed to waking up the same time as their masters. In their own homes, servant indios are early risers".
“Tu cuidado” is an expression widely used in the Philippines by the Spaniards. A master sends a servant to do a job difficult to perform and the instruction the master gives his servant is “tu cuidado.” The servant will then know that he has to perform it in the best possible way. This expression is extended even in the military. When the instructions are verbal, “tu ciudado” means the chief is giving the responsibility to the officer who is going to carry out a commission. A lover wants to go to a dance where his beloved cannot go, he consults with her and she replies “tu cuidado" the lover has to take into account that she may be a jealous type. He may get uncomfortable with his decision and finally resolve prudently what to do, taking into account whether or not he will displease his beloved, etc".
"The indios take their wives and daughters to the houses of the Spaniards to prostitute them whenever it is worth money; and it should be noted that mothers are less likely to prostitute their daughters than fathers. We could cite towns and names of people and events of this nature that we have witnessed. In his story about the Philippines, Mas says referring to what a friar said: "Another rare attribute is that although some are usually jealous, but when they want to request something from a Spaniard, they do not go, but rather send their wife or daughter, without being suspicious of the outcome"; And then Mas adds: “If Fray Gaspar had been to Madrid, He would not be so surprised that men wanting something would send their women to obtain favors.” For the rest, the Filipinos, not only with suspicion, but with full knowledge, usually send and even lead them to the Spaniards in order to obtain some employment or merely money. The most direct means in general of keeping a married woman is to win over her husband, as well as to keep an unmarried woman, win over her mother. I have very particularly known a butler who was extremely in love with his wife, and was jealous even of his shadow: however, at the slightest hint from his master he brought her into his room, and it seems he wished it very often. Reflecting on this, I am convinced of the reason behind this. Partly, to the Filipinos, the act of love (sex?) is of little importance. Most of all, they are persuaded that their women never fall in love with the Spaniards and the Filipino women are only in it for the gain. To the Filipino women, it is a personal service like any other. The women take with them their whole hearts when the act of love is done".
"It seems to me that Mr. Mas was very wrong in his reflection, and what he attributes to the little importance of acts of love and to the idea they have that their women never love us, cannot be true at all. If that were true why are the rich Filipinos not doing it with their women? Why aren’t the daughters of rich indios not giving themselves up to a Spaniard even if the reason is not seduction or money? On the contrary, we see that all of them would like to marry Spaniards and that those who are married to a Spaniard are very faithful and very loving to their husbands. So what is the reason that some give themselves to us and prostitute and others don't? It has something to do with the wealth that the Indio possesses. The rich Indio has his aspirations, his pride and his honor. The education that a rich India receive greatly influences her loving behavior, while the miserable India who has not received any education, has no thought of honor and delicacy. This scandal can only cut off the moral education that the Indias receive through the pulpit in their towns".
"Spanish women born in the Philippines (criollas) like eating with their hands, no spoon no fork. The most decent thing to do when eating would have been using spoon and fork given their education and social status. We were surprised one time by a young aristocrat woman eating rice and chicken with her hand. This can only be explained by the little care the parents have on the women hired to raise their daughters or the other servants who teach their daughters to eat according to the natives’ custom."
"All the convents and Spaniards’ houses are full of little boys who are sons of the towns’ principales. If a Spaniard go to the province, the indios beg this Spaniard to let their sons serve him that way their sons can learn the Spanish language".
"Generally Spaniards use carriage, same way the parish priests do in the Philippines, clergies or friars. So much so that the friars, aside from owning a carriage or two for recreation, they own four or six horses to form a team, and one or two horses for mounting. However, they find putting their feet in the stirrup bothersome that they don’t ever put their feet in the stirrup. They have them for luxury. This causes us to laugh hearing in Spain some men talking with real Christian compassion about the friars in a ship leaving for the Philippines. The poor ones will suffer from their jobs, deprivations and miseries of the missions".
"Vigan is the capital of Ilocos Sur. It has about 40,000 residents and after Manila and Cebu, it is the best in the islands".
"Don Sinibaldo de Mas in his history of the Philippines stated that in order to marry, a young man has to give his girlfriend money or something worth as much. Many times what this young man has to give is really for the parents. Without the dowry, the girl’s parents would rather let their daughter stay unmarried even though she is already pregnant. Sinibaldo de Mas also stated that it is rare for women to be virgins on their wedding day and many have had children before their marriage. They do not give great importance to these slips, no matter how much the priests insist on putting it into consideration. Don Sinibaldo de Mas have heard assurance from some men that they don’t see their women dishonored, on the contrary it is a testament that someone else has fallen in love with their women before. Señor Mas quoted Fr. Manuel Ortiz in his history. According to him Fr. Manuel Ortiz said, ”The little modesty that indios and indias have among themselves is very common. For this reason they do not shy away from being together in the houses where they live. They eat and sleep together, no matter the gender, married or not, girl or boy ….. everything. There must have been many sins committed not only of one kind but many, as a result many abominations and monstrosity.” The author added another quote (presumably from Fr. Manuel Ortiz) “that in the province of Pangasinan we have seen a girl pregnant by her father, because incest is very common among the indios. However, she was going to marry a young man from the same town. When the young man was asked if he was embarrassed to marry a woman who got pregnant by her father (widely and notoriously known in his town), he answered with great indifference “Parejo, señor” meaning “It’s all the same to me whether it is her father’s child or mine".
"Tribunal is the house of the city council or the ayuntamiento. These houses, in general, are very badly built, and as a consequence it does not look very decent for the town hall to be within the grounds of the tribunal. We would like the government of the metropoli (Spain) to give it some thoughts and order that the tribunal be all built the same; And since in many towns they serve as lodging for the troop that transits, a place could be set aside inside the tribunal exclusively for this purpose, and another for the Spaniards of any class who travel through the islands, so that they do not have to beg the friars or priests to lodge them in their convents". (the author wrote conventos).
"Señor Mas says in his work, in the chapter on Administration of Justice, page 21 of volume 2. " To put an indio in jail is to transfer him to a room better than his own; there they give him food and for however little and bad the food was, it will never be worse that the food he is accustomed to having everyday. In jail he does not work, on the contrary he lies down all day, which is his happiness. You will find his compatriots in the same room with whom he talks and chews buyo: therefore in this country the idea of going to jail is much different than in Spain, where the men are always animated by the spirit of activity and the love for work.”
"Señor Mas was most inaccurate on his report on the paragraph cited above. He hastily wrote his work within 16 months and he was sick for much of the time. A Filipino is horrified of imprisonment, not of the imprisonment per se, not for his reputation or anything like that. He is horrified because naturally no one is more inclined towards liberty and laziness than he who is accustomed to liberty and laziness since birth".
"Forbid an Indio to walk by rivers and seas, engage in cockfight and be, as Señor Mas says in another chapter, within the scent of a woman (you don’t experience these in prison) and you’ll see him desperate".
"But even if it were not, the prison system in the Philippines is the most horrifying than can be imagined. With the exception of the Tondo jail and some other provincial capitals, the rest have jails in name only; the prison of the indio during the summary of a cause or misdemeanor is in the tribunales. These buildings are open all the time and to prevent prisoners from escaping, guilty or not, prisoners are put in stocks1 . With the stocks in place they stay in prison for days, months or years. But let us concentrate on the model prisons, which is in Manila or Tondo. Let’s say that 100 or 200 prisoners are cramped together in an underground jail, the level of which is lower than that of the river that licks the walls of the building . In this jailhouse which is 60 or 70 rods2 long, prisoners are confused. Whatever crime they committed, they are not given more than rice for food, they are not provided beds to sleep on, and those who have mats sleep on them; but those who don’t, sleep on the hard and humid floor such that they breath an impossible to avoid nauseating and rotten atmosphere".
- Stock (Cepo). Instrument made of two thick logs, together the logs form round holes. Through the holes the neck or leg of the prisoner is locked joining the logs. Source: Real Academia Española
- Rods: old English measure of distance equal to 16.5 feet (5.029 metres), with variations from 9 to 28 feet (2.743 to 8.534 metres) also being used. Source: Encyclopaedia Britannica
"As for saying that an indio does not care about being in prison, we only need to cite the many uprisings that happened in Manila jail so that the prisoners could escape. These uprisings have been verified many times. We will cite the uprisings and escapes by the prisoners from Capiz, Antique, Calamianes and thousands of others that we will not mention because we deemed it unnecessary. Many times we have been on guard duty in the jail house of Tondo in Manila. In spite of the night breeze, it was not easy to walk by the front of the building because we could not stand the bad odor coming from the sewer of the place where the prisoners were cramped. We can say the same thing about a penal establishment called galera or presidio".
"In the provinces, the theft with the highest consequence of punishment is the stealing of carabaos. This is because without his carabao an indio would not know what to do".
"Mr. Mas says in his work speaking of mayors “The mayor does not know the language. His interpreter is the clerk of court, an indio, and the chief troublemaker. The clerk of court is almost always in agreement with the rich indios. Because the mayor is a businessman in reality, naturally he is more interested in his business than agents and he lets the clerk run the court. The clerk becomes the arbitrator and this is how the clerk makes himself a fortune".
"In all the Courts or Town Hall houses there are always some horses ready for courier duty. Immediately when a letter from an authority arrives at a court, a sheriff rides on horseback to get to the court of the next town, until from town to town the document reaches its destination. Because an indio when riding horses does not need a chair, saddle, or any kind of tack, he does this duty with more accurateness".
"In Manila, every unmarried woman is called niña, even those who are forty years old. When calling a young woman, you first say niña then you say her name. The same thing happens to the young men". (most likely the author meant that young men are called niños.)
"Manila, at one time China’s emporium of commerce, so much so that the Spaniards and foreigners called it the Pearl of the Orient, is now so poor that it needs the genius of a great man to raise it. Not too long ago, the Philippines was considered only as a deportation point. There were very few, or perhaps no one, who considered stepping on the sand of its shores. This is because even the adventurers do not see any value in it, because our possessions in America offer bigger areas of lands to make a fortune.
The scarcity of educated and knowledgeable men was the reason why those who came to its shores, already coming from some jail or prison in Spain or America, mariners, cabin boys in some ship, servants and barbers of some Governor, were appointed mayors of a province. Even though they were unskilled not only to civilize but govern, they had sufficient aptitude to become capitalists. In six or five years they found their fortunes to be worth 70 to 100,000 pesos. This is the composition of the population, or, to be exact, the aristocracy of Manila".
"When fate, or rather the intolerance, the ineptitude and bad faith, made us lose our rich possessions in América, Manila lost its position. Few years before, in 1815 the Philippines was no longer trading with Acapulco. For a little more than two centuries, this trade with Acapulco generated over 400.000,000 Pesos Fuertes for the cashboxes of the businessmen in Manila. When Mexico and other provinces in America got its independence from Spain, many families from more decent origins arrived in the Philippines and therefore the start of a somewhat better treatment and education of the Spaniards in the Philippines. The majority of those who came from America lost their fortune through the insurrection. They had to give deference to those deeply rooted in the country so that they could benefit from their influence and capitals; therefore their improvement was slow and always the prevailing treatment they got from the richest and cream of the society was uncivil and ordinary".
"At last the year 1845 came, time of military revolts and upheavals in the motherland. This epoch made a lot of the families of employees and militaries apply for their passes to the Philippines and since then has started the development of finer and more delicate treatment of them although from time to time they had to endure their maritime or tavern origin".
"The Spaniard in Manila, whatever his position and even though in Spain he had been a ragman or something like that, he becomes vain such that, he comes to imagine that he is a feudal lord. He uses stamps, coats of arms and liveries, that many Spanish nobles would recognize as exclusively theirs. They are all military personnel, employees or businessmen. The employee enjoys a high salary with very lucrative commissions; he does not work more than three hours a day because even though he is in the office for five hours, two or three hours are spent reading newspapers or gossiping about the government or individuals. It is the military that suffers in every way. Aside from being very laborious, being a guard or doing any other ordinary services, a military personnel has to do his duties in excessive heat and it is incomprehensible why all the rulers make a soldier dressed as he does in Europe, with buckles and ties. This causes a decrease in the number of military personnel due to death by 14% each year. Aside from this, soldiers are away on departures and detachments that last 12 or 14 months, not counting the expeditions in the mountains of the savages, during which a soldier has to live carefully in the humid and unhealthy mountains. He is continuously exposed to the rays of the sun and heavy rain that floods the Philippines for months. As a result of this, the cemeteries are filled with dead bodies and crosses are planted on the mountains. It is sad to say that a soldier’s salary is very low, from the captain down, that it hardly covers his basic necessities. This is the cause of the always hateful and serious comparisons in the colonies; meanwhile those who are suffering in the honorable career in the armed services are forgotten. It is the military that in necessary cases sustains the conquest and opposes the uprisings that perhaps is found closer than what some think. It is the military who evaluates the situation of public affairs through the situation of its domestic affairs. Isn’t it painful to see a Colonel with thirty or more years of service, commanding a regiment, who, with much influence, can maintain the precious dominion with a salary of just five thousand pesos? At the same time, is the salary of a judge (who like many judges just finished his studies and is a bad lawyer) ₱4,000.00?
Is it not scandalous to see a superintendent earning a salary of 12,000 pesos, with house and other trifles, a superintendent who just a year or two before was perhaps not even a government employee, while the General Segundo Cabo, military inspector and the second highest authority in the islands does not earn more than 6,000? It’s a salary almost equal to that of a judge. And lastly, is it not shameful to see a military with 20 or 50 years of service, perhaps having been wounded heavily, enjoy his meager monthly salary of 40 pesos, if he is a sublieutenant, or 50 if he is a lieutenant, at the same time an adolescent who just got out of school is assigned to the islands by the Minister of Finance, receives 60 or 80 pesos each month, the lowest monthly salary he can get, and he has to be taught to read and write upon arrival before he applies for or he is given the job he came to the Philippines for and what is more scandalous, he obtains a Royal order to stay in the Península with all his salary but the goal is to study in school" .
"There is another kind of employees in the rich heritage of the Philippine Islands.
I am speaking of the mayors and governors of the provinces. There is no other class of this kind. Within five or six years they will have owned a capital of 40 to 50,000 pesos and this is to assume that it will be enough so that the administration of justice is run with the least righteousness possible. When a mayor or governor of a province arrives in Manila he takes 8 or 10,000 duros from a trading house or from a religious foundation with 15% discount and pays 6% to those who stood as guarantors for the amount borrowed. Upon taking charge of the administration of the province that the government has entrusted to him, he does not bother to track where he is progressing and where he is not, if the industry is prospering, if he can introduce some improvements in this or the other, what articles can be major exports or will sell the most in Europe and if his delegates are fulfilling their duties well. Instead, he distributes his capital among the indios in the rice business on condition of paying in the first harvest with a 100 or 200 per 100 profit. He pursues everyone who engages in business, Spanish or native, until that Spanish or native is driven out of the province or abandons his trade. He employs the indios to build for him a storage for his commercial products, without payment for their labor, and he becomes a species of a Chinese Mandarin or a pasha bearing a standard of three tails. There are some honorable exceptions, but they are the least".
"Nobody exploits the young mestizas of Manila with more impertinence than the English merchants. They spend a lot of money on these women to sustain them with luxury. It is very rare that they don’t have a kept woman".
"Do not think that there is a slight exaggeration. The towns of Santa Cruz, San Sebastian and Binondo, towns outside of Manila, have magnificent annual festivities in honor of their saints. The rich mestizos always invite some Spaniards to come and honor their houses. For their guests on the day of festivity, as they say, they throw their houses outside the windows. From morning the tables are filled with hams, turkeys, chickens and thousands of other kinds of delicacies and exquisite wines. These tables are ready for dining because the mestizos are very happy to see Spaniards at their tables even though they don’t know them. So, there is a family that does not eat at home. They attend festivities with all their greediness in the first house that they believe there is a buffet; they get into the house, go to the table, eat and leave without talking to anyone. They do not even bother to ask who is the owner of the house so that they can give him thanks. This goes unnoticed up to a certain point, because almost every Spanish family does it, continuously going up and down the stairs of every house where there is food. And lastly, in the last house they visit, they fill up their pockets and have desserts in their own homes for five or six days afterwards".
"Liver diseases are very often suffered by Europeans and are generally fatal".
"The indios have healers who know certain herbs to cure their illnesses. These healers perfectly help the sick people to die. They attribute all the illnesses to the air and try to extract it from the sick person’s body with cupping glasses and scrubs, which in addition to irritating the sick a lot, it does not do anything more than make the illness worse".
"However, for surgical cases, perhaps the indios as healers have more understanding of the cases than the Spanish medical surgeons, because they have many health and medicinal herbs. They know these herbs and medicines' effects better than anyone, and know when to apply them. They also practice healing through witchcraft and other superstitions that they had to resort to at any cost to evade the government and clerics. But for this, it is necessary that the government obtain a pair of doctors in each province with equal number of practitioners that can help with patience the natural healers in cases of absolute necessities: in childbirth is where the Spanish doctors are needed more. A labor that does not appear normal causes the death of the mother and infant. In a town in Ilocos, we have seen a poor india suffering horribly for four days from pain until she succumbed due to the baby’s left arm having been pulled out but no one had the knowledge to have the slightest disposition. (To this translator, it sounds like a case of a baby positioned horizontally inside the womb, instead of the usual baby’s head downward and nearest the birth canal. A case where the infant’s arm entered the birth canal first and the baby got stuck inside)"
I will only say that the remission of deportees to the islands, has caused the ultimate harm to our moral influence, because along with those who were deported for political reasons, the perverts were mixed. These are men without faith, without patriotism; the scum of society. These scums placed the Spanish grandeur and dignity at the same level as the lowest of the indigenous people".
