Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 15.djvu/819

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. the Treaty of Tordesillas, June 7, 1494, 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands), while the Portuguese were to confine their efforts to the field of discovery east of that line. In the race for the control of the spice trade of the East Indies the Portuguese came off victorious, for they reached the Moluccas or Spice Islands the year before Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean, revealing that the Spaniards had found, not the Indies, but a great barrier continent that blocked the way thither.

The Moluccas lay so far to the east of India as to make it probable that if the demarcation line were extended round the earth they would be found to be in the Spanish half of the globe. It was to demonstrate this hypothesis and carry to completion the great design of Columbus to find a western route to the Spice Islands that Magellan undertook his voyage around America and across the Pacific. In March, 1521, he discovered a group of islands which he named after Saint Lazarus, whose festival was celebrated early in his stay among them. A few weeks later the heroic navigator lost his life in a skirmish with the natives. That he had achieved his project and proved that the Spice Islands lay within the Spanish half of the world was accepted by King Charles of Spain, but the impossibility of accurately determining longitude in those days, the difficulties of the voyage through the Straits of Magellan and across the Pacific, and financial necessities led him to relinquish all claims to sail or trade west of a new demarcation line, in the Antipodes, 297 leagues east of the Moluccas. (Treaty of Saragossa, 1529.) This really surrendered all rights to the newly discovered Islands of Saint Lazarus, which were slightly to the west of the Moluccas. The conquest of Mexico and the establishment there of the prosperous Viceroyalty of New Spain removed the difficulties presented by the navigation of the Straits of Magellan, and, in contravention of the provisions of the treaty, an expedition was dispatched to the islands in 1542 under the command of Villalobos. This expedition had no permanent result beyond giving to the group the name of ‘Islas Felipinas,’ in honor of the Prince, later King Philip II. The permanent conquest of the islands was achieved under Legaspi at the head of an expedition fitted out in Mexico. Legaspi arrived at Cebú in April, 1565. It was three years before his first reinforcements came, and five years before the conquest of Luzon was undertaken. In June, 1571, the city of Manila was founded, and this became the seat of the Spanish power. Within the next year great progress was made and at the time of Legaspi's death in August, 1572, the Spanish authority was securely planted in the islands and the conversion of the natives considerably advanced. Legaspi's force was small and the conquest was accompanied by relatively little bloodshed. The lack of social and political cohesion among the natives, the weakness of their religious beliefs, and the rivalries and hostility of the local chieftains opened the way for a patient and tactful prosecution of the policy of divide and rule: one chief after another was won over to the Spaniards, the picturesque ceremonials of the Church appealed to the artistic sense of the people, and the simple clan-like social organization was skillfully utilized by the Spaniards as the basis of their rule. Lying on the extreme verge of the vast empire of Spain, the islands

were commonly known as the Western Islands (Islas del Ponicute), and until December 31, 1844, they were reckoned, so far as the calendar was concerned, in the Western Hemisphere, Manila time being about sixteen hours slower than Madrid time. The Portuguese protested against this invasion of their East Indian realm, but the conquest of Portugal by Spain in 1580 settled the question before there had been any serious collision. More formidable than the hostility of Portugal or the resistance of the natives were the incursions of Chinese pirates and later the attacks by the Dutch, who during their great contest with Spain made their way to the Indian seas and took possession of the Spice Islands.

The dominating impulse in this remote extension of Spanish power had been religious rather than commercial. The new conquest was to be an outpost of Christianity facing the great Asiatic heathen world. From it as a base the missionaries could prosecute their labors effectively in China and Japan. Religious purposes and interests continued to dominate the life of the islands for over three centuries. They never were in the true sense of the term a Spanish colony, but a great mission like the more familiar Jesuit missions in Paraguay and California. It is as a mission that the history of Spanish rule should be studied and its results estimated. To convert the natives, to collect them in villages where they would live under the oversight of the pastor with the faithful obedience of the flock to the shepherd and prepare themselves for salvation, was the simple ideal of the mission. That it was in a large measure achieved is the very general testimony of fairly dispassionate observers. The Christian population steadily increased, and the requirements of religion, while rigorously enforced, were not more burdensome than in Europe. There was little real oppression and hardly any exploitation of the people. Plantation slavery, the dark page in West Indian colonization, never existed. Schools were provided in the pueblos and in the larger towns hospitals and colleges; the native languages were given literary form, grammars and dictionaries were compiled and translations made of the simpler literature of the devotional life. The Christian population of the islands formed a unique community, the only large body of Asiatics permanently converted to Christianity in modern times. In its general framework the administration of the islands as a Spanish dependency was modeled on the system introduced into America, which in turn was an adaptation of that existing in the provinces of Spain. At the head was the Governor with viceregal powers, having by his side the Audiencia or Supreme Court. This body served not only as the highest court of appeal, but also as a check upon the arbitrary authority of the Governor. Another important restraint upon that official was the residencia, or obligation to stand ready to answer all charges of misbehavior which should he preferred during a period of six months, after the termination of his tenure of office. The heads of the provincial administration were the Alcaldes Mayores, whose functions were both executive and judicial. In his judicial duties the Alcalde Mayor was assisted by an assessor and a notary. The administrative division below the province was the pueblo or village, which was ruled by the Petty Governor, who was