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 PHILIPPINE

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PHILIPPINE

universal hospitality are the well-regulated homes and the happy family life which one soon finds to be the rule. Children are orderly, respectful, and obedient, to their parents. The native is self-respecting and self-restrained to a remarkable degree. . . . He is patient under misfortune and forbearing under provo- cation. . . . He is a kind father and a dutiful son. His aged relatives are never left in want, but are brought to his home and are welcome to share the best that it affords to the end of their days".

(3) Frederick H. Sawyer lived for fourteen years in the Philippines; he writes: "The Filipino possesses a great deal of self-respect, and his demeanour is quiet and decorous. He is polite to others and expects to be treated politely himself. He is averse to rowdyism or horseplay of any kind, and avoids giving offence. For an inhabitant of the tropics he is fairly industrious, sometimes even very hard-working. Those who have seen him poling cascos against the stream of the Pasig will admit this. He is akeen sportsman, and will readily put his money on his. favourite horse or gamecock; he is also addicted to other forms of gambling. The position taken by women in a community is often considered as a test of the degree of civilization it has attained. Measured by this standard, the Filipinos come out well, for among them the wife exerts great influence in the family and the husband rarely com- pletes any important business without her concur- rence.

"The Filipinos treat their children with great kind- ness and forbearance. Those who are well-off show much anxiety to secure a good education for their sons and even for their daughters. Parental authority extends to the latest period in life. I have seen a man of fifty years come as respectfully as a child to kiss the hands of his aged parents when the vesper bell sounded, and this notwithstanding the presence of several European visitors in the house. Children, in return, show great respect to both parents, and come morning and evening to kiss their hands. They are trained in good manners from their earliest youth, both by precept and example".

History. — The islands were discovered 16 March, 1521, by Ferdinand Magellan. Several other ex- peditions followed, but they were fruitless. In 1.564 Legaspi sailed from Mexico for the Philippines. He was accompanied by the Augustinian friar Urdaneta. As a layman this celebrated priest had accompanied the expedition of Loaisa in 1524, which visited Min- danao and the Moluccas. Legaspi landed in Cebii in 1565. The islands had been called San Lazaro by Magellan ; Villalobos, who commanded an expedition from Mexico, called the island at which he touched Filipina, in honour of Prince Philip. This name was extended to the whole archipelago by Legaspi, who was sent out by the former prince then ruling as Philip n.

Tiiough there were not wanting indications of ho.s- tility and distrust towards the Spaniards from the inhabitants of Cebii, Legaspi succeeded in winning their friendship after a few months. Later, in 1569, he removed the seat of government to Iloilo. He sent his nephew Juan Salcedo to explore the islands to the north. Salcedo's report to his uncle was favourable and in 15. I Legaspi, leaving the afTairs of government in the hands of natives, proceeded north and founded the city of Maynila, later Manila. Legaspi imme- diately set about the organization of the new colony; he appointed rulers of provinces, arranged for yearly voyages to New Spain, and other matters pertain- ing to the welfare of the country. In his work of pacification he wa.s greatly aided by the friars who were then l^eginning the work of Christian civ- ilization in the Philippines which was to go on for several centuries. Legaspi died in 1574. To him belongs the glory of founding the Spanish sovereignty in the islands. He was succeeded by Lavezares.

About this time the Chinese pirate Li-ma-hon invaded Luzon, with a fleet of over sixty vessels and about 6000 people. A storm that ind ) he llrri as it neared Manila wrecked some of his bonis, Iml l,i-ma-hon proceeded on his journey and landed l.'jOO men. Repulsed in two attacks by the Spaniards, Li-ma-hon went north and settled in Pangasinan province. The following year (1575) Salcedo was sent against them; he de- feated them and drove the fleeing Chinese into the mountains.

A few years later the arrival of the first bishop is chronicled, the Dominican Salazar, one of the greatest figures in the history of the Philippines; he was ac- companied by a few Jesuits (1581). The Augustin- ians had come with Legaspi, the Franciscans arrived in 1577, and the Dominicans in 1.587. By unanimous vote of the entire colony the Jesuit Sanchez was sent to Spain to explain to Philip II the true state of affairs in the islands. His mission was entirely successful; Philip was persuaded to retain his new possessions, which many of his advisers were counselling him to relinquish. In 1591 an ambassador came from Japan demanding that tribute be paid that country. This the new governor Dasmarinas refused, but he drew up a treaty instead that was satisfactory to both parties. An expedition that started out against the Moluccas in 1593 ended disastrously. On the voyage some of the Chinese crew mutinied, killed Dasmarinas and took the ship to China. Dasmarinas built the fortress of Santiago, Manila, and fortified the city with stone walls. He was succeeded by his son Luis. During his governorship the convent of Santa Isabel, a school and home for children of Spanish soldiers, was founded (1594). It exists to this day. The Audiencia or Supreme Court- was re-established about this time. As it was appointed from Mexico and sup- ported from the islands it had proved too great a drain on the resources of the colony, and so had been sup- pressed after the visit of the Jesuit Sanchez to Philip II. The last years of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth centuries were marked by the seizure, by the Japanese, of a richly-laden Spanish vessel from the islands. It had sought shelter in a storm in a port of that country. The crew were put to death. Then there was a fruitless expedition against Cambodia; a naval fight against two Dutch pirate-ships, one of which was captured; and a con- spiracy of the Chinese against the Spaniards. The force of the latter, 130 in number, was defeated, and every man of them decapitated. The Chinese were repulsed later, and it is said that 23,000 of them were killed. The Recollect Fathers arrived in Manila in 1606.

During the first half of the seventeenth century the colony had to struggle against internal and external foes; the Dutch in particular, the Japanese, the Chi- nese, the Moros, the natives of Bohol, Leyte, and Cagayan. A severe earthquake destroyed Manila in 1645. In spite of the difficulties against which the islands had to struggle, the work of evangelization went rapiilly forward. The members of the various religious orders, with a heroism rarely paralleled even in the annals of Christian missions, penetrated farther and farther into the interior of the country, and estab- lished their missions in what had been centres of Paganism. The natives were won by the self-sacri- ficing lives of the missionaries, and accepted the teachings of Christianity in great numbers. Books were written in the native dialects, schools were every- where established, and every effort employed for the material and moral improvement of the jjeople. From the time of the fearless Salazar, the missionaries had always espoused the cause of tlie natives against the injustices and exactions of individual rvilers. It is not strange, therefore, that trnulile ari)si> at times lietween the civil and cci-lesiastical authorities. As these mi.s- vmderstandings grew from the mistakes of individuals,