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Annotations to Dr. Antonio Morga's Sucesos de las Islas

Filipinas (1609)  (Translated by Austin Craig)
As a child José Rizal heard from his uncle, José Alberto, about a ancient history of the Philippines written
by a Spaniard named Antonio de Morga. The knowledge of this book came from the English Governor of
Hong Kong, Sir John Browning, who had once paid his uncle a visit.  While in London, Rizal immediately
acquainted himself with the British Museum where he found one of the few remaining copies of that work. 
At his own expense, he had the work republished with annotations that showed the Philippines was an
advanced civilization prior to the Spanish conquest.  Austin Craig, an early biographer of Rizal, translated
into English some of the more important of these annotations.

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To the Filipinos: In Noli Me Tangere ("The Social Cancer") I started to sketch the

present state of our native land. But the effect which my effort produced made me
realize that, before attempting to unroll before your eyes the other pictures which were
to follow, it was necessary first to post you on the past. So only can you fairly judge the
present and estimate how much progress has been made during the three centuries (of
Spanish rule).

Like almost all of you, I was born and brought up in ignorance of our country's past and
so, without knowledge or authority to speak of what I neither saw nor have studied, I
deem it necessary to quote the testimony of an illustrious Spaniard who in the beginning
of the new era controlled the destinies of the Philippines and had personal knowledge of
our ancient nationality in its last days.

It is then the shade of our ancestor's civilization which the author will call before you. If
the work serves to awaken in you a consciousness of our past, and to blot from your
memory or to rectify what has been falsified or is calumny, then I shall not have labored
in vain. With this preparation, slight though it may be, we can all pass to the study of the
future.

José Rizal
Europe, 1889

Governor Morga was not only the first to write but also the first to publish a Philippine
history. This statement has regard to the concise and concrete form in which our author
has treated the matter. Father Chirino's work, printed in Rome in 1604, is rather a
chronicle of the Missions than a history of the Philippines; still it contains a great deal of
valuable material on usages and customs. The worthy Jesuit in fact admits that he
abandoned writing a political history because Morga had already done so, so one must
infer that he had seen the work in manuscript before leaving the Islands.

 By the Christian religion, Dr. Morga appears to mean the Roman Catholic which
by fire and sword he would preserve in its purity in the Philippines. Nevertheless
in other lands, notably in Flanders, these means were ineffective to keep the
church unchanged, or to maintain its supremacy, or even to hold its subjects.

 Great kingdoms were indeed discovered and conquered in the remote and
unknown parts of the world by Spanish ships but to the Spaniards who sailed in
them we may add Portuguese, Italians, French, Greeks, and even Africans and
Polynesians. The expeditions captained by Columbus and Magellan, one a
Genoese Italian and the other a Portuguese, as well as those that came after
them, although Spanish fleets, still were manned by many nationalities and in
them were negroes, Moluccans, and even men from the Philippines and the
Marianes Islands.

 These centuries ago it was the custom to write as intolerantly as Morga does, but
nowadays it would be called a bit presumptuous. No one has a monopoly of the
true God nor is there any nation or religion that can claim, or at any rate prove,
that to it has ben given the exclusive right to the Creator of all things or sole
knowledge of His real being.
 The conversions by the Spaniards were not as general as their historians claim.
The missionaries only succeeded in converting a part of the people of the
Philippines. Still there are Mohammedans, the Moros, in the southern islands,
and Negritos, Igorots and other heathens yet occupy the greater part territorially
of the archipelago. Then the islands which the Spaniards early held but soon lost
are non-Christian -- Formosa, Borneo, and the Moluccas. And if thre are
Christians in the Carolines, that is due to Protestants, whom neither the Roman
Catholics of Morga's day nor many Catholics in our own day consider Christians.
 It is not the fact that the Filipinos were unprotected before the coming of the
Spaniards. Morga himself says, further on in telling of the pirate raids from the
islands had arms and defended themselves. But after the natives were disarmed
the pirates pillaged them with impunity, coming at times when they were
unprotected by the government, which was the reason for many of the
insurrections.
 The civilization of the Pre-Spanish Filipinos in regard to the duties of life for that
age was well advanced, as the Morga history shows in its eighth chapter.
 The islands came under Spanish sovereignty and control through compacts,
treaties of friendship and alliances for reciprocity. By virtue of the last
 arrangement, according to some historians, Magellan lost his life on Mactan and
the soldiers of Legaspi fought under the banner of King Tupas of Cebu.
 The term "conquest" is admissible but for a part of the islands and then only in its
broadest sense. Cebu, Panay, Luzon, Mindoro, and some others cannot be said
to have been conquered.
 The discovery, conquest and conversion cost Spanish blood but still m ore
Filipino blood. It will be seen later on in Morga that with the Spaniards and on
behalf of Spain there were always more Filipinos fighting than Spaniards.
 Morga shows that the ancient Filipinos had army and navy with artillery and other
implements of warfare. Their prized krises and kampilans for their magnificent
temper are worthy of admiration and some of them are richly damascened. Their
coats of mail and helmets, of which there are specimens in various European
museums, attest their great advancement in this industry.
 Morga's expression that the Spaniards "brought war to the gates of the Filipinos"
is in marked contrast with the word used by subsequent historians whenever
recording Spain's possessing herself of a province, that she pacified it. Perhaps
"to make peace" then meant the same as "to stir up war." (This is a veiled
allusion to the old Latin saying of Romans, often quoted by Spaniard's that they
make a desert, calling it making peace. -- Austin Craig)
 Megellan's transferring from the service of his own king (i.e. the Portuguese) to
employment under the King of Spain, according to historic documents, was
because the Portuguese King had refused to grant him the raise in salary which
he asked
 Now it is known that Magellan was mistaken when he represented to the King of
Spain that the Molucca Islands were within the limits assigned by the Pope to the
Spaniards. But through this error and the inaccuracy of the nautical instruments
of that time, the Philippines did not fall into the hands of the Portuguese.
  Cebu, which Morga calls "The City of the Most Holy Name of Jesus," was at first
called "The village of San Miguel."
 The image of the Holy Child of Cebu, which many religious writers believed was
brought to Cebu by the angels, was in fact given by the worthy Italian chronicler
of Magellan's expedition, the Chevalier Pigafetta, to the Cebuan queen.
 The expedition of Villalobos, intermediate between Magallan's and Legaspi's
gave the name "Philipina" to one of the southern islands, Tendaya, now perhaps
Leyte, and this name later was extended to the whole archipelago.
 Of the native Manila rulers at the coming of the Spaniards, Raja Soliman was
called "Rahang mura", or young king, in distinction from the old king, "Rahang
matanda". Historians have confused these personages.
 The native fort at the mouth of the Pasig river, which Morga speaks of as
equipped with brass lantkas and artillery of larger caliber, had its ramparts
reinforced with thick hardwood posts such as the Tagalogs used for their houses
and called "harigues", or "haligui".
 Morga has evidently confused the pacific coming of Legaspi with the attack of
Goiti and Salcedo, as to date. According to other historians it was in 1570 that
Manila was burned, and with it a great plant for manufacturing artillery. Goiti did
not take possession of the city but withdrew to Cavite and afterwards to to
 Panay, which makes one suspicious of his alleged victory. As to the day of the
date, the Spaniards then, having come following the course of the sun, were
some sixteen hours later than Europe. This condition continued until the end of
the year 1844, when the 31st of December was by special arrangement among
the authorities dropped from the calendar for that year. Accordingly Legaspi did
not arrive in Manila on the 19th but on the 20th of May and consequently it was
not on the festival of Santa Potenciana but on San Baudelio's day. The same
mistake was made with reference to the other earlyl events still wrongly
commemorated, like San Andres's day for the repulse of the Chinese corsair Li
Ma-hong.
 Though not mentioned by Morga, the Cebuans aided the Spaniards in their
expedition against Manila, for which reason they were long exempted from
tribute.
 The southern islands, the Bisayas, were also called "The land of the Painted
People (or Pintados, in Spanish)" because the natives had their bodies decorated
with tracings made with fire, somewhat like tattooing.
 The Spaniards retained the native name for the new capital of the archipelago, a
little changed, however, for the Tagalogs had called their city "Maynila."
 When Morga says that the lands were "entrusted (given as encomiendas) to
those who had "pacified" them, he means "divided up among." The word
"entrust," like "pacify," later came to have a sort of ironical signification. To
entrust a province was then as if it wre said that it was turned over to sack,
abandoned to the cruelty and covetousness of the encomendero, to judge from
the way these gentry misbehaved.
 Legaspi's grandson, Salcedo, called the Hernando Cortez of the Philippines, was
the "conqueror's" intelligent right arm and the hero of the "conquest." His honesty
and fine qualities, talent and personal bravery, all won the admiration of the
Filipinos. Because of him they yielded to their enemies, making peace and
friendship with the Spaniards. He it was who saved Manila from Li Ma-hong. He
died at the early age of twenty-seven and is the only encomendero recorded to
have left the great part of his possessions to the Indians of his encomienda.
Vigan was his encomienda and the Illokanos there were his heirs.
 The expedition which followed the Chinese corsair Li Ma-hong, after his
unsuccessful attack upon Manila, to Pangasinan province, with the Spaniards of
whom Morga tells, had in it 1,500 friendly Indians from Cebu, Bohol, Leyte and
Panay, besides the many others serving as laborers and crews of the ships.
Former Raja Lakandola, of Tondo, with his sons and his kinsmen went too, with
200 more Bisayans and they wre joined by other Filipinos in Pangasinan.
 If discovery and occupation justify annexation, then Borneo ought to belong to
Spain. In the Spanish expedition to replace on its throne a Sirela or Malacla, as
he is variously called, who had been driven out by his brother, more than fifteen
hundred Filipino bowmen from the provinces of Pangasinan, Kagayan and the
Bisayas participated.
 It is notable how strictly the early Spanish governors were held to account. Some
stayed in Manila as prisoners, one, Governor Corcuera, passed five years with
Fort Santiago as his prison.
 In the fruitless expedition against the Portuguese in the island of Ternate, in the
Molucca group, which was abandoned because of the prevalence of beriberi
among the troops, there went 1,500 Filipino soldiers from the more warlike
provinces, principally Kagayans and Pampangans.
 The "pacification" of Kagayan was accomplished by taking advantage of the
jealousies among its people, particularly the rivalry between two brothers who
were chiefs. An early historian asserts that without this fortunate circumstance,
for the Spaniards, it would have been impossible to subjugate them.
 Captain Gabriel de Rivera, a Spanish commander who had gained fame in a raid
on Borneo and the Malacca coast, was the first envoy from the Philippines to
take up with the King of Spain the needs of the archipelago.
 The early conspiracy of the Manila and Pampangan former chiefs was revealed
to the Spaniards by a Filipina, the wife of a soldier, and many concerned lost
their lives.
 The artillery cast for the new stone fort in Manila, says Morga, was by the hand of
an ancient Filipino. That is, he knew how to cast cannon even before the coming
of the Spaniards, hence he was distinguished as "ancient." In this difficult art of
ironworking, as in so many others, the modern or present-day Filipinos are not so
far advanced as were their ancestors.
 When the English freebooter Cavandish captured the Mexican galleon Santa
Ana, with 122,000 gold pesos, a great quantity of rich textiles -- silks, satins and
damask, musk perfume, and stores of provisions, he took 150 prisoners. All
these because of their brave defense were put ashore with ample supplies,
except two Japanese lads, three Filipinos, a Portuguese and a skilled Spanish
pilot whom he kept as guides in his further voyaging.
 From the earliest Spanish days ships were built in the islands, which might be
considered evidence of native culture. Nowadays this industry is reduced to small
craft, scows and coasters.
 The Jesuit, Father Alonso Sanchez, who visited the papal court at Rome and the
Spanish King at Madrid, had a mission much like that of deputies now, but of
even greater importance since he came to be a sort of counselor or
representative to the absolute monarch of that epoch. One wonders why the
Philippines could have a representative then but may not have one now.
 In the time of Governor Gomez Perez Dasmariñas, Manila was guarded against
further damage sch as was suffered from Li Ma-hong by the construction of a
massive stone wall around it. This was accomplished "without expense to the
royal treasury." The same governor, in like manner, also fortified the point at the
entrance to the river where had been the ancient native fort of wood, and he
gave it the name Fort Santiago.
 The early cathedral of wood which was burned which was burned through
carelessness at the time of the funeral of Governor Dasmariñas' predecessor,
Governor Ronquillo, was made, according to the Jesuit historian Chirino, with
hardwood pillars around which two men could not reach, and in harmony with
this massiveness was all the woodwork above and below. It may be surmised
from this how hard workers were the Filipinos of that time.
 A stone house for the bishop was built before starting on the governor-general's
residence. This precedence is interesting for those who uphold the civil power.
 Morga's mention of the scant output the scant output of large artillery from the
Manila cannon works because of lack of master foundry workers shows that after
the death of the Filipino Panday Pira there were not Spaniards skilled enough to
take his place, nor were  his sons as expert as he.
 It is worthy of note that China, Japan and Cambodia at this time maintained
relations with the Philippines. But in our day it has been more than a century
since the natives of the latter two countries have come here. The causes which
ended the relationship may be found in the interference by the religious orders
with the institutions of those lands.
 For Governor Dasmariñas' expedition to conquer Ternate, in the Moluccan group,
two Jesuits there gave secret information. In his 200 ships, besides 900
Spaniards, there must have been Filipinos for one chronicler speaks of Indians,
as the Spaniards called the natives of the Philippines, who lost their lives and
others who were made captives when the Chinese rowers mutinied. It was the
custom then always to have a thousand or more native bowmen and besides the
crew were almost all Filipinos, for the most part Bisayans.
 The historian Argensola, in telling of four special galleys for Dasmariñas'
expedition, says that they were manned by an expedient which was generally
considered rather harsh. It was ordered that there be bought enough of the
Indians who were slaves of the former Indian chiefs, or principals, to form these
crews, and the price, that which had been customary in pre-Spanish times, was
to be advanced by the ecomenderos who later would be reimbursed from the
royal treasury. In spite of this promised compensation, the measures still seem
severe since those Filipinos were not correct in calling their dependents slaves.
The masters treated these, and loved them, like sons rather, for they seated
them at their own tables and gve them their own daughters in marriage.
 Morga says that the 250 Chinese oarsmen who manned Governor Dasmariñas'
swift galley were under pay and had the special favor of not being chained to
their benches. According to him it was covetousness of the wealth aboard that
led them to revolt and kill the governor. But the historian Gaspar de San Agustin
states that the reason for the revolt was the governor's abusive language and his
threatening the rowers. Both these authors' allegations may have contributed, but
more important was the fact that there was no law to compel these Chinamen to
row in the galleys. They had come to Manila to engage in commerce or to work in
trades or to follow professions. Still the incident contradicts the reputation for
enduring everything which they have had. The Filipinos have been much more
long-suffering than the Chinese since, in spite of having been obliged to row on
more than one occasion, they never mutinied. 
 It is difficult to excuse the missionaries' disregard of the laws of nations and the
usages of honorable politics in their interference in Cambodia on the ground that
it was to spread the Faith. Religion had a broad field awaiting them in the
Philippines where more than nine-tenths of the natives were infidels. That even
now there are to be found here so many tribes and settlements of non-Christians
takes away much of the prestige of that religious zeal which in the easy life in
 towns of wealth, liberal and fond of display, grows lethargic. Truth is that the
ancient activity was scarcely for the Faith alone, because the missionaries had to
go to islands rich in spices and gold though there were at hand Mohammedans
and Jews in Spain and Africa, Indians by the million in the Americas, and more
millions of protestants, schismatics and heretics peopled, and still people, over
six-sevenths of Europe. All of these doubtless would have accepted the Light and
the true religion if the friars, under pretext of preaching to them, had not abused
their hospitality and if behind the name Religion had not lurked the unnamed
Domination.
 In the attempt made by Rodriguez de Figueroa to conquer Mindanao according
to his contract with the King of Spain, there was fighting along the Rio Grande
with the people called the Buhahayenes. Their general, according to Argensola,
was the celebrated Silonga, later distinguished for many deeds in raids on the
Bisayas and adjacent islands. Chirino relates an anecdote of his coolness under
fire once during a truce for a marriage among Mindanao "principalia." Young
Spaniards out of bravado fired at his feet but he passed on as if unconscious of
the bullets.
 Argensola has preserved the name of the Filipino who killed Rodriguez de
Figueroa. It was Ubal. Two days previously he had given a banquet, slaying for it
a beef animal of his own, and then made the promise which he kept, to do away
with the leader of the Spanish invaders. A Jesuit writer calls him a traitor though
the justification for that term of reproach is not apparent. The Buhahayen people
were in their own country, and had neither offended nor declared war upon the
Spaniards. They had to defend their homes against a powerful invader, with
superior forces, many of whom were, by reason of their armor, invulnerable so
far as rude Indians were concerned. Yet these same Indians were defenseless
against the balls from their muskets. By the Jesuit's line of reasoning, the heroic
Spanish peasantry in their war for independence would have been a people even
more treacherous. It was not Ubal's fault that he was not seen and, as it was
wartime, it would have been the height of folly, in view of the immense disparity
of arms, to have first called out to this preoccupied opponent, and then been
killed himself.
 The muskets used by the Buhayens were probably some that had belonged to
Figueroa's soldiers who had died in battle. Though the Philippines had latakas
and other artillery, muskets were unknown until the Spaniards came.
 That the Spaniards used the word "discover" very carelessly may be seen from
an admiral's turning in a report of his "discovery" of the Solomon islands though
he noted that the islands had been discovered before.
 Death has always been the first sign of European civilization on its introduction in
the Pacific Ocean. God grant that it may not be the last, though to judge by
statistics the civilized islands are losing their populations at a terrible rate.
Magellan himself inaugurated his arrival in the Marianes islands by burning more
than forty houses, many small craft and seven people because one of his ships
had been stolen. Yet to the simple savages the act had nothing wrong in it but
was done with the same naturalness that civilized people hunt, fish, and
subjugate people that are weak or ill-armed.
 The Spanish historians of the Philippines never overlook any opportunity, be it
suspicion or accident, that may be twisted into something unfavorable to the
Filipinos. They seem to forget that in almost every case the reason for the
rupture has been some act of those who were pretending to civilize helpless
peoples by force of arms and at the cost of their native land. What would these
same writers have said if the crimes committed by the Spaniards, the Portuguese
and the Dutch in their colonies had been committed by the islanders?
 The Japanese were not in error when they suspected the Spanish and
Portuguese religious propaganda to have political motives back of the missionary
activities. Witness the Moluccas where Spanish missionaries served as spies;
Cambodia, which it was sought to conquer under cloak of converting; and many
other nations, among them the Filipinos, where the sacrament of baptism made
of the inhabitants not only subjects of the King of Spain but also slaves of the
encomenderos, and as well slaves of the churches and converts. What would
Japan have been now had not its emperors uprooted Catholicism? A missionary
record of 1625 sets forth that the King of Spain had arranged with certain
members of Philippine religious orders that, under guise of preaching the faith
and making Christians, they should win over the Japanese and oblige them to
make themselves of the Spanish party, and finally it told of a plan whereby the
King of Spain should become also King of Japan. In corroboration of this may be
cited the claims that Japan fell within the Pope's demarcation lines for Spanish
expansion and so there was complaint of missionaries other than Spanish there.
Therefore it was not for religion that they were converting the infidels!
 The raid by Datus Sali and Silonga of Mindanao, in 1599 with 50 sailing vessels
and 3,000 warriors, against the capital of Panay, is the first act of piracy by the
inhabitants of the South which is recorded in Philippine history. I say "by the
inhabitants of the South" because earlier there had been other acts of piracy, the
earliest being that of Magellan's expedition when it seized the shipping of friendly
islands and even of those whom they did not know, extorting for them heavy
ransoms. It will be remembered that these Moro piracies continued for more than
two centuries, during which the indomitable sons of the South made captives and
carried fire and sword not only in neighboring islands but into Manila Bay to
Malate, to the very gates of the capital, and not once a year merely but at times
repeating their raids five and six times in a single season. Yet the government
was unable to repel them or to defend the people whom it had disarmed and left
without protection. Estimating that the cost to the islands was but 800 victims a
year, still the total would be more than 200,000 persons sold into slavery or
killed, all sacrificed together with so many other things to the prestige of that
empty title, Spanish sovereignty.
 Still the Spaniards say that the Filipinos have contributed nothing to Mother
Spain, and that it is the islands which owe everything. It may be so, but what
about the enormous sum of gold which was taken from the islands in the early
years of Spanish rule, of the tributes collected by the encomenderos, of the nine
million dollars yearly collected to pay the military, expenses of the employees,
diplomatic agents, corporations and the like, charged to the Philippines, with
salaries paid out of the Philippine treasury not only for those who come to the
 Philippines but also for those who leave, to some who never have been and
never will be in the islands, as well as to others who have nothing to do with
them. Yet allof this is as nothing in comparison with so many captives gone, such
a great number of soldiers killed in expeditions, islands depopulated, their
inhabitants sold as slaves by the Spaniards themselves, the death of industry,
the demoralization of the Filipinos, and so forth, and so forth. Enormous indeed
would the benefits which that sacred civilization brought to the archipelago have
to be in order to counterbalance so heavy a cost.
 While Japan was preparing to invade the Philippines, these islands were sending
expeditions to Tonquin and Cambodia, leaving the homeland helpless, even
against the undisciplined hordes from the South, so obsessed were the
Spaniards with the idea of making conquests.
 In the alleged victory of Morga over the Dutch ships, the latter found upon the
bodies of five Spaniards, who lost their lives in that combat, little silver boxes
filled with prayers and invocations to the saints. Here would seem to be the origin
of the anting-anting of the modern tulisanes, which are also of a religious
character.
 In Morga's time, the Philippines exported silk to Japan whence now comes the
best quality of that merchandise.
 Morga's views upon the failure of Governor Pedro de Acuña's ambitious
expedition against the Moros unhappily still apply for the same conditions yet
exist. For fear of uprisings and loss of Spain's sovereignty over the islands, the
inhabitants were disarmed, leaving them exposed to the harassing of a powerful
and dreaded enemy. Even now, though the use of steam vessels has put an end
to piracy from outside, the same fatal system still is followed. The peaceful
country folk are deprived of arms and thus made unable to defend themselves
against the bandits, or tulisanes, which the government cannot restrain. It is an
encouragement to banditry thus to make easy its getting booty.
 Hernando de los Rios blames these Moluccan wars for the fact that at first the
Philippines were a source of expense to Spain instead of profitable in spite of the
tremendous sacrifices of the Filipinos, their practically gratuitous labor in building
and equipping the galleons, and despite, too, the tribute, tariffs and other imposts
and monopolies. These wars to gain the Moluccas, which soon were lost forever
with the little that had been so laboriously obtained, were a heavy drain upon the
Philippines. They depopulated the country and bankrupted the treasury, with not
the slightest compensating benefit. True also is it that it was to gain the Moluccas
that Spain kept the Philippines, the desire for the rich spice islands being one of
the most powerful arguments when, because of their expense to him, the King
thought of withdrawing and abandoning them.
 Among the Filipinos who aided the government when the Manila Chinese
revolted, Argensola says there were 4,000 Pampangans "armed after the way of
their land, with bows and arrows, short lances, shields, and broad and long
daggers." Some Spanish writers say that the Japanese volunteers and the
Filipinos showed themselves cruel in slaughtering the Chinese refugees. This
may very well have been so, considering the hatred and rancor then existing, but
those in command set the example.
 The loss of two Mexican galleons in 1603 called forth no comment from the
religious chroniclers who were accustomed to see the avenging hand of God in
the misfortunes and accidents of their enemies. Yet there were repeated
shipwrecks of the vessels that carried from the Philippines wealth which
encomenderos had extorted from the Filipinos, using force, or making their own
laws, and when not using these open means, cheating by the weights and
measures.
 The Filipino chiefs who at their own expense went with the Spanish expedition
against Ternate, in the Moluccas, in 1605, were Don Guillermo Palaot, Maestro
de Campo, and Captains Francisco Palaot, Juan Lit, Luis Lont, and Agustin Lont.
They had with them 400 Tagalogs and Pampangans. The leaders bore
themselves bravely for Argensola writes that in the assault on Ternate, "No
officer, Spaniard or Indian, went unscathed!"
 The Cebuans drew a pattern on the skin before starting in to tatoo. The Bisayan
usage then was the same procedure that the Japanese today follow.
 Ancient traditions ascribe the origin of the Malay Filipinos to the island of
Samatra. These traditions were almost completely lost as well as the mythology
and the genealogies of which the early historians tell, thanks to the zeal of the
missionaries in eradicating all national remembrances as heathen or idolatrous.
The study of ethnology is restring this somewhat.
 The chiefs used to wear upper garments, usually of Indian fine gauze according
to Colin, of red color, a shade for which they had the same fondness that the
Romans had. The barbarous tribes in Mindanao still have the same taste.
 The "easy virtue" of the native women that historians note is not solely to the
simplicity with which they obeyed their natural instincts but much more due to a
religious belief of which Father Chirino tells. It was that in the journey after death
to "Kalualhatiran," the abode of the spirit, there was a dangerous river to cross
that had no bridge other than a very narrow strip of wood over which a woman
could not pass unless she had a husband or lover to extend a hand to assist her.
Furthermore, the religious annals of the early missions are filled with countless
instances where native maidens chose death rather than sacrifice their chastity
to the threats and violence of encomenderos and Spanish soldiers. As to the
mercenary social evil, that is worldwide and there is no nation that can "throw the
first stone" at the other. For the rest, today the Philippines has no reason to blush
in comparing its womankind with the women of the most chaste nation in the
world.
 Morga's remark that the Filipinos like fish better when it is commencing to turn
bad is another of those prejudices which Spaniards like all other nations, have. In
matters of food, each is nauseated with what he is unaccustomed to or doesn't
know is eatable. The English, for example, find their gorge rising when they see a
Spaniard eating snails, while in turn the Spanish find roast beef English-style
repugnant and can't understand the relish of other Europeans for beef steak a la
Tartar which to them is simply raw meat. The Chinamen, who likes shark's meat,
cannot bear Roquefort cheese, and these examples might be indefinitely
extended. The Filipinos favorite fish dish is the bagong and whoever has tried to
 eat it knows that it is not considered improved when tainted. It neither is, nor
ought to be, decayed.
 Colin says the ancient Filipinos had had minstrels who had memorized songs
telling their genealogies and of the deeds ascribed to their deities. These were
chanted on voyages in cadence with the rowing, or at festivals, or funerals, or
wherever there happened to be any considerable gatherings. It is regrettable that
these chants have not been preserved as from them it would have been possible
to learn much of the Filipinos' past and possibly of the history of neighboring
islands.
 The cannon foundry mentioned by Morga as in the walled city was probably on
the site of the Tagalog one which was destroyed by fire on the first coming of the
Spaniards. That established in 1584 was in Lamayan, that is, Santa Ana now,
and was transferred to the old site in 1590. It continued to work until 1805.
According to Gaspar San Augustin, the cannon which the pre-Spanish Filipinos
cast were "as great as those of Malaga," Spain's foundry. The Filipino plant was
burned with all that was in it save a dozen large cannons and some smaller
pieces which the Spanish invaders took back with them to Panay. The rest of
their artillery equipment had been thrown by the Manilans, then Moros, into the
sea when they recognized their defeat.
 Malate, better Maalat, was where the Tagalog aristocracy lived after they were
dispossessed by the Spaniards of their old homes in what is now the walled city
of Manila. Among the Malate residents were the families of Raja Matanda and
Raja Soliman. The men had various positions in Manila and some were
employed in government work nearby. "They were very courteous and well-
mannered," says San Agustin. "The women were very expert in lace-making, so
much so that they were not at all behind the women of Flanders."
 Morga's statement that there was not a province or town of the Filipinos that
resisted conversion or did not want it may have been true of the civilized natives.
But the contrary was the fact among the mountain tribes. We have the testimony
of several Dominican and Augustinian missionaries that it was impossible to go
anywhere to make conversions without other Filipinos along and a guard of
soldiers. "Otherwise, says Gaspan de San Agustin, there would have been no
fruit of the Evangelic Doctrine gathered, for the infidels wanted to kill the Friars
who came to preach to them." An example of this method of conversion given by
the same writer was a trip to the mountains by two Friars who had a numerous
escort of Pampangans. The escort's leader was Don Agustin Sonson who had a
reputation for daring and carried fire and sword into the country, killing many,
including the chief, Kabadi.
 "The Spaniards," says Morga, "were accustomed to hold as slaves such natives
as they bought and others that they took in the forays in the conquest or
pacification of the islands." Consequently in this respect the "pacifiers" introduced
no moral improvement. We even do not know if in their wars the Filipinos used to
make slaves of each other, though that would not have been strange, for the
chroniclers tell of captives returned to their own people. The practice of the
Southern pirates, almost proves this, although in these piratical wars the
Spaniards were the first aggressors and gave them their character.
EL FILIBUSTERISMO: SUMMARY
This novel is a sequel to the Noli. It has a little humor, less idealism, and less romance than the
Noli Me Tangere. It is more revolutionary and more tragic than the first novel.

The hero of El Filibusterismo is a rich jeweler named Simoun. He was Crisostomo Ibarra of the
Noli, who, with Elias’ help, escaped from the pursuing soldiers at Laguna de Bay, dug up his
buried treasure, and fled to Cuba where he became rich and befriended many Spanish officials.
After many years he returned to the Philippines, where he freely moved around. He is a powerful
figure not only because he is a rich jeweler but also because he is a good friend and adviser of
the governor general.

Outwardly, Simoun is a friend of Spain. However deep in his heart, he is secretly cherishing a
terrible revenge against the Spanish authorities. His two magnificent obsessions are to rescue
Maria Clara from the nunnery of Santa Clara and to foment a revolution against the hated
Spanish masters.

The story of El Filibusterismo begins on board the clumsy, roundish shaped steamer Tabo, so
appropriately named. This steamer is sailing upstream the Pasig from Manila to Laguna de Bay.
Among the passengers are Simoun, the rich jeweler; Doña Victorina, the ridiculously pro-
Spanish native woman who is going to Laguna in search of her henpecked husband, Tiburcio de
Espadaña, who has deserted her; Paulita Gomez, her beautiful niece; Ben-Zayb (anagram of
Ibañez), a Spanish journalist who writes silly articles about the Filipinos; Padre Sibyla, vice-
rector of the University of Santo Tomas; Padre Camorra, the parish priest of the town of Tiani;
Don Custodio, a pro-spanish Filipino holding a position in the government; Padre Salvi, thin
Franciscan friar and former cura of San Diego; Padre Irene, a kind friar who was a friend of the
Filipino students; Padre Florentino, a retired scholarly and patriotic Filipino priest; Isagani, a
poet-nephew of Padre Florentino and a lover of Paulita; and Basilio, son of Sisa and promising
medical student, whose medical education is financed by his patron, Capitan Tiago.

Simoun, a man of wealth and mystery, is a very close friend and confidante of the Spanish
governor general. Because of his great influence in Malacañang, he was called the “Brown
Cardinal” or the “Black Eminence”. By using his wealth and political influence, he encourages
corruption in the government, promotes the oppression of the masses, and hastens the moral
degradation of the country so that the people may become desperate and fight. He smuggles arms
into the country with the help of a rich Chinese merchant, Quiroga, who wants very much to be
Chinese consul of Manila. His first attempt to begin the armed uprising did not materialize
because at the last hour he hears the sad news that Maria Clara died in the nunnery. In his
agonizing moment of bereavement, he did not give the signal for the outbreak of hostilities.

After a long time of illness brought about by the bitter loss of Maria Clara, Simoun perfects his
plan to overthrow the government. On the occasion of the wedding of Paulita Gomez and Juanito
Pelaez, he gives a wedding gift to them a beautiful lamp. Only he and his confidential associates,
Basilio (Sisa’s son who joined his revolutionary cause), know that when the wick of his lamp
burns lower the nitroglycerine, hidden in its secret compartment, will explode, destroying the
house where the wedding feast is going to be held killing all the guests, including the governor
general, the friars, and the government officials. Simultaneously, all the government buildings in
Manila will be blown by Simoun’s followers.

As the wedding feast begins, the poet Isagani, who has been rejected by Paulita because of his
liberal ideas, is standing outside the house, watching sorrowfully the merriment inside. Basilio,
his friend, warns him to go away because the lightened lamp will soon explode.

Upon hearing the horrible secret of the lamp, Isagani realizes that his beloved Paulita was in
grave danger. To save her life, he rushes into the house, seizes the lightened lamp, and hurls it
into the river, where it explodes.

The revolutionary plot was thus discovered. Simoun was cornered by the soldiers, but he
escaped. Mortally wounded, and carrying his treasure chest, he sought refuge in the home of
Padre Florentino by the sea.

The Spanish authorities, however, learns of his presence in the house of Padre Florentino.
Lieutenant Perez of the Guardia Civil informs the priest by letter that he would come at eight
o’clock that night to arrest Simoun.

Simoun eluded arrest by taking poison. As he is dying, he confesses to Padre Florentino,

revealing his true identity, his dastardly plan to use his wealth to avenge himself, and his sinister
aim to destroy his friends and enemies.

The confession of the dying Simoun is long and painful. It is already night when Padre
Florentino, wiping the sweat from his wrinkled brow, rises and begins to meditate. He consoles
the dying man saying: “God will forgive you Señor Simoun. He knows that we are fallible. He
has seen that you have suffered, and in ordaining that the chastisement for your faults should
come as death from the very ones you have instigated to crime, we can see His infinite mercy.
He has frustrated your plans one by one, the best conceived, first by the death of Maria Clara,
then by a lack of preparation, then in some mysterious way. Let us bow to His will and render
Him thanks!”

Watching Simoun die peacefully with a clear conscience and at peace with God. Padre
Florentino falls upon his knees and prays for the dead jeweler. He takes the treasure chest and
throws it into the sea; as the waves close over the sinking chest.