The Inhabitants of the PhilippinesSawyer, Frederic H.
History
The Inhabitants of the Philippines
Sawyer, Frederic H.
Ethnology -- Philippines; Philippines -- Social life and customs
At the present time they maintain seven missionaries in the province
of Hun-nan in China. In Spain they support three colleges, Valladolid,
La Vid, and La Escorial. They are also in charge of the magnificent
church of that extraordinary palace, and of the priceless library of
which they are editing a catalogue.
The Augustinians have published a great many works, such as grammars
and vocabularies of the native dialects, and many books of devotion.
One of their leading men, Father Manuel Blanco, was a most learned
and laborious botanist. He collected and classified so many of the
Philippine plants that the Order decided to complete his work and
publish it. Fray Andres Naves and Fray Celestino Fernandez Villar,
both well-known to me, worked for years at this, and were assisted
by my illustrious friend H. E. Don Sebastian Vidal Soler and others.
The result is a most sumptuous and magnificent work--published in
Manila--there being four folio volumes enriched by many hundreds
of coloured plates of the different trees, shrubs, orchids and
lianas, most beautifully executed from water-colour paintings by
D. Regino Garcia and others. This monumental book is called the
'Flora Filipina.' It received a diploma of honour at the International
Colonial Exhibition of Amsterdam in 1883. The British Museum possesses
a copy, but unfortunately most of the work was destroyed by fire in
the bombardment of the Convent of Guadalupe during the war.
However, the widow of Señor Vidal, now Mrs. Amilon of Philadelphia,
still has some copies to dispose of.
I hope that what I have said about the Augustinians will show that
they are not the lazy and unprofitable persons they are sometimes
represented. The same may be said of the Dominicans.
The Augustinians were followed, after an interval of seven years,
by the Franciscans, four years after that by the Jesuits, six years
after the Jesuits came the Dominicans.
Last of all came the Recollets, or bare-footed Augustinians.
The following Table gives the numbers of friars of the five religious
orders in the Philippines, at the dates mentioned, taken from their own
returns. The first column gives the dates of the first foundation of
the Order, the second the date of its arrival in the Archipelago. The
other columns give the statistics of baptisms, marriages and deaths,
taken from the parish registers.
Statement of the Population Administered by the Religious Corporations
and Secular Clergy in the Philippines, 1896.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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