The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898; Volume 46, 1721-1739: 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 46, 1721-1739: 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
A brief summary of the principal events from 1721 to 1739 contains
several matters of interest. The murder of Bustamante by a mob
arouses much indignation at Madrid, but the attempts to ascertain and
punish the guilty ones prove ineffectual, and the affair drops into
oblivion. The islands are regularly harassed by the Moro pirates;
punitive expeditions are sent against them, but these are often too
late or too slow to accomplish any results. The coast villages are
fortified, much of this being done by the priests in charge of the
Indians. In 1733 the royal storehouses at Manila are destroyed by fire,
causing great loss to the treasury. Two years later, a Dutch fleet
demands satisfaction for the previous capture of a Dutch ship by a
Spanish coastguard, but retires when the Spaniards pay the value of
the prize. A controversy arises (1736) between the Recollects and
Jesuits over certain missions in northern Mindanao, in which the
Jesuits gain the upper hand. In 1737, one of the auditors makes an
official visitation of several provinces in Luzón, and reforms many
abuses therein. During 1738-39, a controversy rages in Manila over
the complaint made by the mestizos of Santa Cruz regarding unjust
exactions imposed on them by the Jesuits; the decision of the Audiencia
(sustained by the home government) is against that order.
The remainder of this volume is occupied by the educational appendix,
which is the continuance and conclusion of the review of education
begun in VOL. XLV. The first document, which comprises the greater
part of the appendix, treats of primary and normal instruction in the
Philippines, after the government really took such education under its
protection by special legislation. The subject is prefaced by extracts
and synopses from Barrantes which show the earliest legislation,
beginning with 1839 and culminating in the decree of December 20,
1863. Although the appointment of a commission is ordered in the former
year to draft regulations for schools, such appointment is delayed
until 1855, and a report is handed in only in 1861, the work of the
commission being stimulated perhaps by the fact that the governor
appoints an official in 1860 to draft regulations along the same
line. The chief point of debate in the commission is the teaching of
Spanish, the vice-rector of the university of Santo Tomás declaring
against such teaching but being overruled. The decree of December 20,
1863 is the greatest result of the work of the commission. The normal
school created by the decree is formally opened January 23, 1865,
although in operation since May 17, 1864. Irregularity of attendance
and vacations prove the greatest obstacles. Barrantes, who defends
the friars, concludes that the backwardness of primary education is
due rather to the laws of the Indies than to any class such as the
religious corporations; that before 1865 primary education was only a
shadow; and that the Filipinos have not yet sufficiently far advanced
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