"Barely clothed, and more often naked, revelling day and night in
drunkenness, given to the practice of infanticide, holding virginity
as a dishonor, having among them people who practiced defloration as a
profession, ignorant of the value and uses of money, making use of men,
women and children to pay debts, in continual warfare with one another
and enslaving their prisoners, practicing wholesale murder of slaves on
the death of a chief or important personage, adoring and sacrificing
to rocks, trees, crocodiles and idols of wood; lacking religion, but
having in its stead most bestial and absurd superstitions; without
temples, monuments or even literature, although they possessed a
species of written language. The only human ideas they possessed were
adopted from the Chinese, Japanese and Borneo Mohammedans whom they
imitated after the manner of apes. This, historians tell us, was the
condition of this people 340 years ago! when the missionaries planted
the Cross on Philippine soil, and brought to the benighted natives
the gospel." So much for the certain amount of civilization.
Cannons and silk dresses: of a kind; as to the cannons, where
did they all come from? Bought from or exchanged with the Borneo
moros probably. As to these and the silk dresses, the savages of the
south-sea islands enjoyed the use of such things and enjoyed them with
better knowledge of how to use them! They enjoyed political liberty;
let us see what Morga the historian who speaks most glowingly of the
ancient civilization of the Filipino peoples, has to say on this point.
He says: "In all these islands the people had neither kings nor lords
to dominate them as in other kingdoms and provinces. But in each
island were many chiefs from among the same natives, some greater
than others each one with his subjects, by groups and families, who
obeyed and respected them. Sometimes these chiefs were at peace with
one another and some times at war.... The superiority which these
chiefs had over the people of their group was such that they held
them as subjects, with power to treat them well or ill, disposing of
their persons, children and estates at their will, without resistance
or the necessity of giving account to anyone, and for very slight
offences they killed and wounded them and made slaves of them; and
if it happened that one of the chiefs were bathing in the river and a
native passed in front of him or looked upon him with want of respect,
and for other similar things, they made slaves of them for ever." This
is a good and practical kind of political liberty, just the kind of
liberty the country would enjoy if in the hands of the leaders of the
Federal Party, so anxious for liberties for themselves and coercion
for those who do not agree with their way of thinking.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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