Opening the text

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 28 of 55: 1637-38; Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century

History

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 28 of 55: 1637-38; Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century

Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources

the fatigues that the Recollect must have endured who placed the
first stone and finished the work, in each of those parishes (which
are a like number of villages), public halls have been constructed
under the direction of the parish priests. In all of them schools for
both sexes have been erected, where religious instruction is given
to them. Since this exercises its proper influence on the minds of
the youth, it has succeeded in forming the present generation--who
are established in all the beliefs of our true religion, exactly
observant of the practices which it imposes upon them, thankful and
respectful to the ministers of Jesus Christ, and very diligent in
the fulfilment of their social duties, all those who pay tribute to
his Majesty being comprehended in this obligation.

The number of those who paid tribute in this island could not have been
very large in the eight missions that existed when the island came
into our possession, when one considers the state of insubordination
in which that multitude were living, most of whom were separated from
organized society and in revolt in the interior of the territory. In
proportion as it continued to assume its normal state, and commenced
to enjoy the peace that it has at the present time, its population
continued to increase, and in the year one thousand eight hundred
and thirty-eight was more than one hundred thousand souls; in one
thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, the total of its population was
increased to one hundred and fifty thousand; at present the island
of Bohol, which is a province, has a population of two hundred and
sixty thousand souls. [149]

This prodigious increase of inhabitants in an area so small, and
amid conditions so little advantageous for agriculture, has no other
explanation than the conscientious and constant labor of the regular
parish priests, each of whom notes in his respective parish register
with scrupulous niceness the heights and depths of his district,
without any of the alterations that can modify the statistics of
his village escaping his eye; and who assigns to their respective
dwellings men and women, and youths and old people, with the correct
date of their birth. From this patriotic labor it results that the
obligations of the royal treasury are satisfied by all the people of
Bohol at the moment when they become of proper age.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

History

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 — Volume 28 of 55: 1637-38; Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century

Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources

the fatigues that the Recollect must have endured who placed the
first stone and finished the work, in each of those parishes (which
are a like number of villages), public halls have been constructed
under the direction of the parish priests. In all of them schools for
both sexes have been erected, where religious instruction is given
to them. Since this exercises its proper influence on the minds of
the youth, it has succeeded in forming the present generation--who
are established in all the beliefs of our true religion, exactly
observant of the practices which it imposes upon them, thankful and
respectful to the ministers of Jesus Christ, and very diligent in
the fulfilment of their social duties, all those who pay tribute to
his Majesty being comprehended in this obligation.

The number of those who paid tribute in this island could not have been
very large in the eight missions that existed when the island came
into our possession, when one considers the state of insubordination
in which that multitude were living, most of whom were separated from
organized society and in revolt in the interior of the territory. In
proportion as it continued to assume its normal state, and commenced
to enjoy the peace that it has at the present time, its population
continued to increase, and in the year one thousand eight hundred
and thirty-eight was more than one hundred thousand souls; in one
thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, the total of its population was
increased to one hundred and fifty thousand; at present the island
of Bohol, which is a province, has a population of two hundred and
sixty thousand souls. [149]

This prodigious increase of inhabitants in an area so small, and
amid conditions so little advantageous for agriculture, has no other
explanation than the conscientious and constant labor of the regular
parish priests, each of whom notes in his respective parish register
with scrupulous niceness the heights and depths of his district,
without any of the alterations that can modify the statistics of
his village escaping his eye; and who assigns to their respective
dwellings men and women, and youths and old people, with the correct
date of their birth. From this patriotic labor it results that the
obligations of the royal treasury are satisfied by all the people of
Bohol at the moment when they become of proper age.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

No reviews yet