Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/498

 4)54i SPANISH HISTORY gion had also a large share in it. The expeditiou was accompanied by a number of priests, who were actively employed in the pious office of converting the simple natives ; and it may be safely asserted, that the benevolent influence of religion has had, from the earliest to the latest period of the Spanish authority in these islands, the most powerful ascend- ancy in the civili;zation of the people, and in re- conciling them to their conquerors. The Spaniards now founded the city of Manila, and by this measure, which took place in the year 1571, their power may be considered as es- tablished. Resistance was frequently made to their arms, but its amount in any one place was trifling, for even the people of Luconia, the most civilized of the Philippines, divided, like all sava- ges, into numerous petty communities, incapable of combining to resist an invader, proved but a feeble enemy. The same circumstance, the division of the peo- ple into many tribes of different conditions of ci- vilization, and speaking many languages, with the subsequent weakness of the Spanish nation, and the hostile and savage habits acquired by the tribes not at first subdued, are what have since opposed the greatest obstacles to the Span- ish arms, and hindered the total subjugation of the country. A people united as one nation, with