The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 - Volume 40 of 55, 1690-1691: 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 40 of 55, 1690-1691: 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
508. If children were had in adultery, they all lived with the
mother. If the party aggrieved had been paid and satisfied by the
culprit with gold, according to their custom, the children were
declared legitimate, and inherited equally with the real legitimate
children in the inheritance of the father; but they inherited nothing
from the mother. But if the injury were not atoned for, they had no
inheritance, and were not regarded as legitimate.
509. These children, and those had by one's own slave woman
(notwithstanding the liberty which she and her children enjoyed),
and much less the children had by a slave of another master
(notwithstanding that gold was paid for her during her pregnancy),
did not succeed to the nobility of their parents, nor to their
privileges; but were always considered as people of low birth, and
were enrolled among the timavas in the villages. The legitimate
children alone could inherit nobility, and even posts. Hence if
the father were absolute lord in one barangay, his sons succeeded
to that office, according to priority of birth; and if there were
no sons, then the daughters, and after them the nearest relatives;
and it was unnecessary to appoint or name them in their wills. They
have never had the custom of making wills, and at most leave a list
of their wealth and obligations. However, the custom is now coming
in of making some testamentary memoranda before the village clerk,
so that it may be legal in court.
NOTES
[1] Domingo Zabálburu de Echevarri (see Vol. XVII, p. 294).
[2] For description of Borneo, see Vol. XXXIII, p. 353, note
419. Malayo refers to a portion of the Malay Peninsula. For the origin,
settlement, and distribution of the native peoples in the Philippines,
see Barrows's account in Census of Philippine Islands, i, pp. 411-417,
447-477; cf. Crawfurd's Dictionary of Indian Islands, pp. 249-253.
[3] João de Barros, the great Portuguese historian, was born at Vizeu
in 1496 and became page to the crown prince (afterward João III),
for whose amusement he wrote his three-volume romance, Cronica de
Emperador Clarimundo (Coimbra, 1520). João III appointed him captain
of the fortress of San Jorge de Mina, governor of the Portuguese
possessions in Guinea, and (1533) treasurer and general agent for
Portuguese India. An attempt to colonize a grant of land in Brazil
(received 1539) failed, and was abandoned. Barros died in 1570. The
book referred to in the text was his Decados, a history of Portuguese
India, written in fulfilment of a royal commission. The first "decade"
was completed in nine years (1552), the second soon after, and the
third ten years later. The fourth was left unfinished at his death,
but was completed later by Diogo do Conto, who added eight more
volumes. A complete edition was printed at Lisbon in twenty-four
volumes (1778-88). Barros was a conscientious writer and a good
stylist. (New International Encyclopædia.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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