Page:American Historical Review, Volume 12.djvu/154

 144 Reviews of Books to the appendix a little compilation of royal decrees regarding the regular clergy in the Philippines, the editors have chosen and displayed this material very well, giving us information particularly on these points : growth of Philippine population, also development of particular regions, indicated by the spread of parishes, the ecclesiastical censuses, etc. ; upon the contests between regular and secular clergy, with evidence that there were proportionately more seculars in early years than later, and the hold of the friars upon Philippine parishes grew stronger quite steadily till the last half-century; upon the friars' attitude toward the Filipinos, and vice versa ; upon the government's support of the church, the prop- erty of the religious orders, and the Philippine educational and charitable institutions. Of course, the appendix is not a complete survey of any one of these matters, which figure in every period of Philippine history ; but a good deal of related matter is here brought together in convenient form for consultation. Friar Aduarte's Dominican chronicles (Manila, 1640), though much less verbose, tedious and unproductive of vital information than most of the chronicles dignified by the title of " Philippine histories ", are not worth three volumes' space. They have been synopsized very consider- ably in translation, with omission of much matter regarding Dominican missionaries in China and Japan not pertinent to this series. One could still eliminate the major portion of the work, and lose nothing that is really valuable to the historical student, as are the chapters and passages giving information on the early discussions over secularization, on Philip- pine population just after the conquest, and on the missions among the wild peoples in Pangasinan, Zambales and the Cagayan valley. The few readers who like to follow the old chroniclers for their very prolixity, their tales of miracles wrought in behalf of the faith, etc., may best be sent to the original texts with their quaint old Spanish that often defies rendition. The historical student has little need for accounts of Philip- pine chapter-sessions, or biographies of worthy missionaries long since dead; and he will begrudge the space given to this sort of thing. Not very much of historical value is to be gleaned from the 125 pages of Dominican, Franciscan and Recollect chronicles in volume XXXV., the latter continued in volume XXXVL, while volume XXXVII. is more than two-thirds made up of Dominican and Augustinian chronicles of very scant historical value, outside of Friar Diaz's account of the secularization controversy. Not so the sprightly, also well-directed, ob- servations and information given by the Dominican traveller, Father Navarrete (Tratados Historicos, Madrid, 1676), at the end of this volume and the beginning of volume XXXVIII. The separate documents upon the question of secularization in the seventeenth century are very valu- able, particularly the resume in volume XXXVL Pigafetta's relation of the Magellan voyage, which has been pub- lished separately and is reviewed by itself, appears in this series also, occupying vohmies XXXIII. and XXXIV. (in part). The latter