The Inhabitants of the PhilippinesSawyer, Frederic H.
History
The Inhabitants of the Philippines
Sawyer, Frederic H.
Ethnology -- Philippines; Philippines -- Social life and customs
In fact, the regulations enforced at that time by the Guardia Civil
were against carrying such a weapon. The bolo, on the other hand,
is a necessary tool.
I visited the province of Camarines Sur, going from Manila to Pasacao
by sea, and from there travelled by road to an affluent of the River
Vicol, and then by canoe on a moonlit night to Nueva Cáceres, the
capital of the province.
Here I met a remarkable man, the late Bishop Gainza, and was much
impressed by his keen intellect and great knowledge of the country.
He was said to be a man of great ambition, and I can quite believe
it. Originally a Dominican monk, it was intended that he should have
been made Archbishop of Manila, but, somehow, Father Pedro Paya, at
that time Procurator of the Order in Madrid, got himself nominated
instead, and Gainza had to content himself with the bishopric of
Nueva Cáceres.
He was a model of self-denial, living most frugally on a small part of
his revenue, contributing a thousand dollars a year to the funds of
the Holy Father, and spending the remainder in building or repairing
churches and schools in his diocese, or in assisting undertakings he
thought likely to benefit the province.
Amongst other works, I remember that he had tried to cut a canal from
the River Vicol to the Bay of Ragay. He had excavated a portion of
it, but either on his death, or from the difficulties raised by the
Public Works Department, the work was abandoned.
The Franciscan friars, who held the benefices in that province,
opposed him, and annoyed him in every possible way.
The present bishop, Father Arsenio Ocampo, formerly an Augustinian
monk, is a clever and enlightened man, with whom I had dealings when
he was Procurator-General of his Order.
I have made this digression from my subject, because so much has
been said against the clergy of the Philippines, that I feel impelled
to bring before my readers this instance of a bishop who constantly
endeavoured to promote the interests of his province.
Nueva Cáceres possessed several schools, a hospital, a lepers'
hospital, and a training-college for school-mistresses had just been
established by Bishop Gainza's initiative.
The shops were mostly in the hands of Chinese, who did a flourishing
trade in Manchester goods, patadoins, and coloured handkerchiefs.
There were several Spanish and Mestizo merchants who dealt in hemp
and rice.
From Nueva Cáceres I travelled by a good road to Iriga, a town near
the volcano of that name, passing close to the Isarog on my way. From
Iriga I visited the country round about, and Lake Bula.
Some years after I went from Manila by sea to Tabaco, on the Pacific
coast of Albay, getting a fine night view of the Mayon volcano (8272
feet) in violent eruption.
From Tabaco I drove to Tivi and visited the celebrated boiling-well
and hot-springs at that place, much frequented by the natives, and
sometimes by Europeans, for the cure of rheumatism and other diseases.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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