The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 43, 1670-1700: 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 — John Shaqi
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 43, 1670-1700: 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 43, 1670-1700: 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
there might be easy communication from one village to the other. All
that was done at the cost of the order, which paid those who built
the houses. Those houses were built by people of other villages and
provinces, and they were given already built to the Zambals; for to
compel them to make them was morally impossible.
This effort of causing the Indians to form their villages would
have been of slight use, if at the same time they had not been
obliged to work in making their fields in order that they might
have the wherewithal to sustain life, so that they might not be
under the necessity of abandoning their villages and returning to the
mountains, where with the hunt and with various roots, the Indians are
wont to sustain life at small cost, without the care and trouble of
cultivation. And as they were unaccustomed to the cultivation of the
soil, and did not know how to plow, or dig, and had no instruments
for that, nor even seed for planting: they were provided with all
this by our religious. More than fifty buffaloes or carabaos (which
are their oxen), by which the plowing is done in this country, were
taken there at the cost of the order. Also many plows were bought
for them, and they were also given the seed so that they could
allege no reasonable excuse. Inasmuch as they did not know how to
plow or to plant, salaried Indians were taken from other provinces,
so that they might cultivate the land, and so that the Zambals might
learn of them. After the land that first year had been cultivated,
and the rice had headed, it was given to them at the time of harvest,
so that they might reap and gather it. But so great was the laziness
of those Zambals that many of them refused to accept the land because
it was not reaped. But others, having the profit so plainly in sight,
set to work to reap it and gather it; and since by that means they made
sure of their food, they were inclined to work and the cultivation of
their fields. Our religious encouraged them in this by thus forcibly
setting before their eyes the profit of the harvest, that they would
have afterward. The religious accompanied them to the fields to work,
heartily praised those who applied themselves, and perhaps, in order
to inspire them by their example, put their hands to the plow. For
the religious very well understood that if the Indians did not turn
husbandmen, they would not be secure in the level land, and they would
easily return to the mountains under the obligation of necessity. And
thus that necessary diligence was compulsory in order to reduce them
to a civilized life and to a good government.
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