DAVAO CENTRAL COLLEGE,

INC.
Juan dela Cruz Street, Toril, Davao City
Landline No. (082) 291 1882
Accredited by ACSCU-ACI

GE Hist 1: Readings in Philippine History

Week 5
Unit 2: Content and Contextual Analysis of Selected Primary
Sources in Philippine History
Topic: History of the Philippine Islands an Excerpt from the
Original Work of Antonio De Morga (Chapter 8)

Learning Outcomes:
1. Quote the observations of the writer about the
inhabitants of the Philippine islands when the
Spaniards arrived.
2. Describe the culture of the inhabitants of the
Philippine islands before the colonization.
3. Criticize the way the Filipinos were described by the
writer.

Concept Digest
“In various parts of this island of Luzon are found a
number of natives black in color. Both men and women have
wooly hair, and their stature is not very great, though they
are strong and robust. These people are barbarians, and have
but little capacity. They possess no fixed house or
settlements, but wander in bands and hordes through the
mountains and rough country, changing from one site to
another according to the season. They support themselves in
certain clearings, and by planting rice, which they are very
skillful and certain. [217]
They live also on honey from the mountains, and roots
produced by the ground. They are barbarous people, in whom
one cannot place confidence. They are much given killing and
to attacking the settlements of the other natives, in which
they commit many depredations; and there is nothing that can
be done to stop them, or to subdue or pacify them, although
this is always attempted by fair or foul means, as
opportunity and necessity demand.’’
The apparel and clothing of these natives of Luzon
before the entrance of the Spaniards into the country were
generally, for the men, certain short collarless garments of
cangan, sewed together in the front, and with short sleeves,
and reaching slightly below the waist, some were blue and
others black, while the chiefs had some red ones, called
chinanas. [218] They also whore a strip of colored cloth
wrapped about the waist, and passed between the legs, so
that it covered the privy parts, reaching half-way down the
thigh; these are called banaques. [219] they go with legs
bare, feet unshod, and the head uncovered, wrapping a narrow
cloth, called protong [220] just below it, with which they
bind the forehead and temples. About their necks they wear
gold necklaces, wrought like spun wax, [221] and with links

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 DAVAO CENTRAL COLLEGE,
INC.
Juan dela Cruz Street, Toril, Davao City
Landline No. (082) 291 1882
Accredited by ACSCU-ACI

in our fashion, some larger than others. On their arms they

wear armlets of wrought gold, which they call calombigas,
and which are very large and made in different patterns.
Some wear strings of precious stones- cornelians and agates;
and other blue and white stones, which they esteem highly.
[222] They wear around the legs some strings of these
stones, and certain cords, covered with black pitch in many
foldings, as garters. [223]”
These principles, and lordship were inherited in the male
line and by succession of father and son and their
descendants. If these were lacking, then their brothers and
collateral relatives succeeded. Their duty was to rule and
govern their subjects and followers, and to assist them in
their interests and necessities. What the chiefs received
from their followers was to be held by them in great
veneration and respect; and they were served in their wars
and voyages, and in their tilling, sowing, fishing, and the
building of their houses. To these duties the natives
attended very promptly, whenever summoned by their chief.
They also paid the chiefs tribute (which they called buiz),
in varying quantities, in the crops that they gathered. The
descendants of such chiefs, and their relatives, even though
they did not inherit the lordship, were held in the same
respect and consideration. Such were all regarded as nobles,
and as persons exempt from the services rendered by others,
or the plebeians, who were called timaguas. [224] The same
right of nobility and Chieftainship was preserved from the
women, just as for the men. When any of these chiefs was
more courageous than others in war and upon other occasions,
such a one enjoyed more followers and men; and the others
were under his leadership, even if they were chiefs. These
latter retained to themselves the lordship and particular
government of their own following, which is called barangani
among them. They had datos and special leaders [mandadores]
who attended to the interests of the barangay.
The superiority of these chiefs over those of their
barangani was so great that they held the latter as
subjects; they treated these well or ill, and disposed of
their persons, their children, and their possessions; at
will, without any resistance, or rendering account to
anyone. For every slight annoyance and for slight occasions,
they were wont to kill and wound them, and to enslave them.
It bating in the river, or who have raised their eyes to
look at them less respectfully and for other similar causes.
[312]
When some natives had suits or disputes with others
over matters of property and interest, or over personal
injuries and wrongs received, they appointed old men of the
same district, to try them, the parties being present. If
they had to present proofs, they brought their witnesses

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 DAVAO CENTRAL COLLEGE,
INC.
Juan dela Cruz Street, Toril, Davao City
Landline No. (082) 291 1882
Accredited by ACSCU-ACI

there, and the case was immediately judged according to what

was found, according to the usages of their ancestors on
like occasions; and that sentence was observed and executed
without any further objection or delay, [313]
The natives’ laws throughout the islands were made in
the same manner, and they followed the traditions and
customs of their ancestors, without anything being written.
Some provinces had different customs than others in some
respects. However, they agreed in most, and in all the
islands generally the same usages were followed. [314]
There are three conditions of persons among the natives
of these islands, and into which their government is
divided: the chiefs, of whom we have already treated; the
timaguas, who are equivalent to plebians; and slaves, those
of both chiefs and timaguas. The slaves were of several
classes. Some were for all kinds of work and slavery, like
those which we ourselves hold. Such are called sagigilid;
[315] they served inside the house, as did likewise the
children born of them. There are others who live by their
own houses with their families, outside the house of their
lord; and come, at the season, to aid him in his sowings and
harvests, among his rowers when he embarks, in the
construction of his house when it is being built, and to
serve in his house when there are guests of distinction.
These are bound to come to their lord’s house whenever he
summons them, and to serve in these offices without any pay
or stipend. These slaves are called namamahay, [316] and
their children and descendants are slaves of the same class.
From these slaves- sagigilid and namamahayan- are issue,
some of whom are whole slaves, some of whom are half slaves,
and still others one-fourth slaves. It happens thus; if
either the father or the mother was free, and they had only
child, he was half free and half slave. If they had more
than one child, they were divided as follows: the first
follows the condition of the father, free or slave; the
second that of the mother. If there were an odd number of
children, the last was half free and half slave. Those who
descended from these, if children of a free mother or
father, were only one-fourth slaves, because of being
children of a free father or mother and of a half-slave.
These half slaves or one-fourth slaves, whether sagigilid or
namamahay, served their masters during every other moon; and
in this respect so is such condition slavery.
In the same way, it may happen in division between
heirs that a slave will fall to several, and serves each one
for the time that is due him. When the slave is not wholly
slave, but half or fourth, he has the right, because of that
part that is free, to control his master to emancipate him
for a just price. This price is appraised and regulated for
persons according to the quality of their slavery, whether

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 DAVAO CENTRAL COLLEGE,
INC.
Juan dela Cruz Street, Toril, Davao City
Landline No. (082) 291 1882
Accredited by ACSCU-ACI

it be saguiguilid or namamahay, half slave or quarter slave.

But if he is wholly slave, the master cannot be compelled to
ransom or emancipate him for any price.
The usual price of a saguiguilid slave among the
natives is, at most, generally ten taes of good gold, or
eighty pesos, if he is namamahay. Half of that sum. The
others are in the same proportion, taking into consideration
the person and his age.
No fixed beginning can be assigned as the origin of
these kinds of slavery among these natives, because all the
slaves are natives of the islands, and not strangers. It is
thought that they were made in their wars and quarrels. The
most certain knowledge is that the most powerful made the
others slaves, and seized them for slight cause or occasion,
and many times for loans and usurious contracts which were
current among them. The interest, capital, and debt,
increased so much with delay that the barrowers became
slaves.
Consequently, all these slaveries have violent and
unjust beginnings; and most if the suits among the natives
are over these, and they occupy the judges in the exterior
court with them, and their confessors in that of conscience.
[317]
These slaves comprise the greatest wealth and capital
of the natives of these islands, for they are very useful to
them and necessary for the cultivation of their property.
They are sold, traded, and exchanged among them, just as any
bother mercantile article, from one village to another, from
one province to another, and likewise from one island to
another. Therefore, and to avoid so many suits as would
occur if these slaveries were examined, and their origin and
scurce ascertained, they are preserved and held as they were
formerly.
This marriage of these natives, commonly and generally
were, and are: Chiefs with women chiefs; timaguas with those
of that rank; and slaves with those of their own class. But
sometimes these classes intermarry with one another. They
considered one woman, whom they married, as the legitimate
wife and the mistress of the house; and she was styled
ynasaba. [318] Those whom they kept besides hey they
considered as family. The children of the first were
regarded as legitimate and whole heirs of their parents; the
children of the others were not so regarded, and left
something by assignment, but they did not inherit.
The dowry was furnished by the man, being given by his
parents. The wife furnished nothing for the marriage, until
she had inherited it from her parents. The solemnity of the
marriage consisted in nothing more than the agreement
between the parents and relatives of the contracting
parties, the payment of the dowry agreed upon to the father

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 DAVAO CENTRAL COLLEGE,
INC.
Juan dela Cruz Street, Toril, Davao City
Landline No. (082) 291 1882
Accredited by ACSCU-ACI

of the bride, [319] and the assembling at the wife’s

parents’ house of all the relatives to eat and drink until
they would fall down. At night the man took the woman to his
house and into his power, and there she remained. These
marriages were annulled and dissolved for slight cause,
which acted as mediators in the affairs. At such a time the
man took the dowry (which they call vigadicaya), [320]
unless it happened that they separated through the husband’s
fault;
For when it was not returned to him, and the wife’s
parents kept it. The property that they had acquired
together was divided in to halves, and each one disposed of
his own. If one made any profits in which the other did not
have a share or participate, he acquired it for himself
alone.
The Indians were adopted one by another, in presence of the
relatives. The adopted person gave and delivered all his
actual possession to the one who adopted him. Thereupon he
remained in his house and care, and had a right to inherit
with the other children. [321]
Adulteries were not punished corporally. If the
adulterer paid the aggrieved party the amount adjudged by
the old men and agreed upon by them, then the injury was
pardoned, and the husband was appeased and retained his
honor. He would still live with his wife and there would be
no further talk about the matter.
In inheritance all the legitimate children inherited
equally from their parents whatever property they had
acquired. If there were any movable or landed property which
they had received from their parents, such went to the
nearest relative and the collateral side of that stock, if
there were no legitimate children by an ynasaba. This was
the case either with or without a will. In the act of
drawing a will, there was no further ceremony than to have
written it or to have stated it orally before acquaintances.
If any chief was lord of a barangay, then in that case,
the eldest son of an ynasaba succeeded him. If he died, the
second son succeeded. If there were no sons, then the
daughters succeeded in the same order. If there were no
legitimate successors, the succession went to the nearest
relative belonging to lineage and relationship of the chief
who had been the last possessor of it.
If any native had slave women concubines of any of
them, and such slave woman had children, those children were
free, as was the slave. But if she had no children, she
remained a slave. [322]
These children by a slave woman, and those borne by a
married woman, were regarded as illegitimate, and did not
succeed to the inheritance with the other children, neither
were the parents obliged to leave them anything. Even if

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 DAVAO CENTRAL COLLEGE,
INC.
Juan dela Cruz Street, Toril, Davao City
Landline No. (082) 291 1882
Accredited by ACSCU-ACI

they were the sons of chiefs, they did not succeed to the
nobility or chieftainship of the parents, nor to their
privileges, but they remained and were reckoned as plebeians
and in the number and rank of the other timaguas.
The contract and negotiations of these natives were
generally illegal, each one paying attention to how he might
better his own business and interest. Loans which interest
were very common and much practiced, and the interest
incurred was excessive. The debt doubled and increased all
the time while payment was delayed, until it stripped the
debtor of all his possessions, and he and his children, when
all their property was gone, became slaves. [323]
Their customary method of trading was by bartering one
thing for another, such as food, cloth, cattle, fowls,
lands, houses, fields, slaves, fishing-grounds, and palm-
trees (both nipa and wild). At Sometimes a price intervened,
which was paid in gold, as agreed upon, or in metal bells
brought from China. These bells they regard as precious
jewels, resemble large pans and are very sonorous. [324]
They play upon these at their feasts, and carry them to the
war in their boat instead of drums and others instruments.
There are often delays and terms for certain payments, and
bondsmen who intervene and bind themselves, but always with
very usurious and excessive profits and interests.
Crimes were punished by request of the aggrieved
parties. Especially were thefts punished with greater
severity, the robbers being enslaved or sometimes put to
death. [325] The same was true of insulting words,
especially when spoken to chiefs. They had among themselves
many expressions and words which they regarded as the
highest insult, when said to men and women. These were
pardoned less willingly and with greater difficulty that was
personal violence, such as wounding and assaulting. [326]
Concubinage, rape, and incest, were not regarded at
all, unless committed by a timagua on the person of a woman
chief. It was a quite ordinary practice for a married man to
have lived a long time in concubinage with the sister of his
wife. Even before having communication which his wife he
could have had access for a long time to his mother-in-law,
especially if the bride were very young until she were of
sufficient age. This was done in sight of all the relatives.
Single men are called bagontaos, [327] and girls of
marriageable age, dalagas. Both classes are people of little
restraint, and from early childhood they have communication
with one another, and mingle with facility and little
secrecy, and without this being regarded among the natives
as a cause for anger. Neither do the parents, brothers, or
relatives, show any anger, especially if there is any
material interest in it, and but little is sufficient with
each and all.

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 DAVAO CENTRAL COLLEGE,
INC.
Juan dela Cruz Street, Toril, Davao City
Landline No. (082) 291 1882
Accredited by ACSCU-ACI

As long as these natives lived in their paganism, it was

not known that they had fallen into the abominate sin
against nature. But after the Spaniards had entered their
country, through communication with them—and still more,
through that with the Sangleys, who have come from China,
and are much given to that vice—it has been communicated to
them somewhat, both to men and to women. In this matter it
has been necessary to take action.
The native of the islands of Pintados, especially the
women, are very vicious and sensual. Their perverseness has
discovered lascivious methods of communication between men
and women; and there is one to which they are accustomed
from their youth. The men skillfully make a hole in their
virile member near its head, and insert therein a serpent’s
head, either of metal or ivory, and fasten it with a peg of
the same material passed through the hole, so that it cannot
become unfastened. With this device, they have communication
with their wives, and are unable to withdraw until a long
time after copulation. They are very fond of this and
receive much pleasure from it, so that, although devices are
called sagras, and there are very few of them, because since
they have become Christians, strenuous efforts are being
made to do away with these, and not consent to their use;
and consequently the practice has been checked in great
part. [328]
Herbalist and witches are common among these natives,
but are not punished or prohibited among them, so long as
they do not cause any special harm, But seldom could that be
ascertained or known.
There were also when whose business was to ravish and
take away virginity from young girls. These girls were taken
to such men, and the latter were paid for ravishing them,
for the natives considered it a hindrance and acquaintance
if the girls were virgins when they married.
In matters of religion, the natives proceeded more
barbarously and with greater blindness than in all the rest.
For besides being pagans, without any knowledge of the true
God, they neither strove to discover Him by way of reason,
nor had any fixed belief. The devil usually deceived them
with a thousand errors and blindness. He appeared to them in
various horrible and frightful forms, and as fierce animals,
so that they feared Him and trembled before Him. They
generally worshiped him, and made images of him in the said
forms. These they kept in caves and private houses, where
they offered them perfumes them perfumes and odors, and food
and fruit, calling them anitos. [329]
Others worshiped the sun and the moon, and made feasts
and drunken revels at the conjunction of those bodies. Some
worshipped a yellow-colored bird that dwells in their woods,
called batala. They generally worship and adore the

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 DAVAO CENTRAL COLLEGE,
INC.
Juan dela Cruz Street, Toril, Davao City
Landline No. (082) 291 1882
Accredited by ACSCU-ACI

crocodiles when they see them, by kneeling down and clasping

their hanads, because of the harm that they receive from
those reptiles; they believe that by so doing the crocodile
will become appeased and leave them. Their oaths,
execrations, and promises are all as above mentioned,
namely, “May buhayan eat thee, if thou dost not speak truth,
or fulfil what thou hast promised,’’ and similar things.
There were no temples throughout those islands, nor
houses generally used for the worship of idols; but each
person possessed and made his house own anitos, [330]
without any fixed rite or ceremony. They had no priests or
religious to attend to religious affairs, except certain old
men and women called catalonas. These were experienced
witches and sorcerers, who kept the other people deceived.
The latter communicated to these sorcerers their desires and
needs, and the catalonas told them innumerable
extravagancies and lies. The catalonas uttered prayers and
performed other ceremonies to the idols for the sick; and
they believed in omens and superstitions, with witch the
devil inspired them, whereby they declared whether the
patient would recover or die. Such were their cures and
methods, and they used various kinds of divinations for all
things. All this was with so little aid, apparatus, or
foundation—which God permitted, so that the preaching of the
holy gospel should find those of that region better prepared
for it, and so that those natives would confess the truth
more easily, and it, and would be less difficult to withdraw
them from their darkness, and the errors in which the devil
kept them for so many years. They never sacrificed human
beings as is done in other kingdoms. They believed that
there was a future life where those who had been brave and
performed valiant feats would be rewarded; while those who
had done evil would be punished. But they did not know how
or where this would be. [331]

Source:
De Morga, Antonio. History of the Philippine islands: From
their discovery by Magellan in 1521 to the beginning of the
XVII Century; with description of Japan, China and adjacent
countries. Translated by Blair and Robertson. Ohio: The
Arthur and Clark Company. 1907.

References:
1. Torrentira M.(2020), Readings in Philippine History
Course Module
2. Candelaria, J.L. et. al. (2018) Readings in Philippine
History. Rex Book Store. Manila.