The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898; Volume 50: 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 50: 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 is equal proof for what I demanded regarding the trade of the
Spaniards with the Indians. It is grievous to see that no one dares
to carry on this trade; for, however strict may be the orders which
have been issued, not only by your governors but by this Audiencia, the
curas of doctrinas have many means for rendering them ineffective. They
dissuade the Spaniards from going to the Indian villages, where, as a
rule, they are treated with incredible contempt, and are denied even
the food which they need (and for which they offer money), because
neither the governadorcillo nor any other Indian dares to sell it
without permission from the father minister. Not only does the father
usually deny this, but he stirs up the anger of the Indians against
the Spaniard--whom they call Castila; the name of Castilian has
thus become exceedingly odious among the natives, and they regard
every Spaniard with dislike, if indeed not with hatred. To see a
Spaniard in their villages appears to them such a novelty that all the
inhabitants--old persons, the youths, and the children--sally out to
look at him, with loud yells and uproar, in which one can only hear,
"Castila! Castila!" and amid the annoyance of being surrounded by
Indians, without being able to understand them, the Spaniard has no
other resource than to go in search of the father of the doctrina,
and humiliate himself before him with the same abjectness as the said
Indians show, in order that the reverence shown to this despot may
furnish him with lodging and food, and render his life safe. This
would not happen if the Castilian language had been extended into
the provinces, for experience shows that every Indian who understands
it feels much affection for the Spaniards; and the natives aid them
wherever they meet them, if they are not in the presence of the
fathers of doctrinas.
It is no less certain that many of the fathers trade in the villages
which they administer, and that for this reason also they are
undertaking to hinder, by the aforesaid means, the trade of the
Spaniards. All this will seem as incredible to your Majesty as it
seemed to me until my official duties, and the things that I myself
have seen in the provinces through which I have traveled, proved its
truth to me; and even more than what is notorious and public to all who
have lived in these islands for some time can be told to your Majesty
by Doctor Don Simon Anda y Salazar, who certainly was often undeceived,
by experience, in regard to the aforesaid intentions of the religious.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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