Part 13 (1/2)
Insurrection in Bohol.--Insurrection seems especially to have troubled the island of Bohol during most of the eighteenth century, and in 1750 an insurrection broke out which practically established the independence of a large portion of the island, and which was not suppressed for thirty-five years. The trouble arose in the town of Inabanga, where the Jesuit priest Morales had greatly antagonized and imbittered the natives by his severity. Some apostasized, and went to the hills. One of these men was killed by the orders of the priest and his body refused Christian burial, and left uncared for and exposed.
A brother of this man, named Dagohoy, infuriated by this indignity, headed a sedition which shortly included three thousand natives. The priest was killed, and his own body left by the road unburied. In spite of the efforts of the alcalde of Cebu, Dagohoy was able to maintain himself, and practically established a small native state, which remained until the occupation of the island by the Recollects, after the Jesuits had been expelled from the Spanish dominions.
Activity of the Jesuits.--During the eighteenth century the Jesuits alone of the religious orders seemed to have been active in prosecuting their efforts and seeking new fields for conversion. The sloth and inactivity which overcame the other orders place in greater contrast the ambition and the activities, both secular and spiritual, of the Jesuits.
Conversion of the Sultan Alim ud Din.--In 1747 they established a mission even on Jolo. They were unable to overcome the intense antagonism of the Moro panditas and datos, but they apparently won the young sultan, Alim ud Din, whose strange story and s.h.i.+fting fortunes have been variously told. One of the Jesuits, Padre Villelmi, was skilled in the Arabic language, and this familiarity with the language and literature of Mohammedanism doubtless explains his ascendency over the mind of the sultan. Alim ud Din was not a strong man. His power over the subordinate datos was small, and in 1748 his brother, Bantilan, usurped his place and was proclaimed sultan of Jolo.
Alim ud Din, with his family and numerous escort, came to Zamboanga, seeking the aid of the Spanish against his brother. From Zamboanga he was sent to Manila. On his arrival, January 3, 1749, he was received with all the pomp and honor due to a prince of high rank. A house for his entertainment and his retinue of seventy persons was prepared in Binondo. A public entrance was arranged, which took place some fifteen days after his reaching the city. Triumphal arches were erected across the streets, which were lined with more than two thousand native militia under arms. The sultan was publicly received in the hall of the Audiencia, where the governor promised to lay his case before the king of Spain. The sultan was showered with presents, which included chains of gold, fine garments, precious gems, and gold canes, while the government sustained the expense of his household. [79]
Following this reception, steps were taken for his conversion. His spiritual advisers cited to him the example of the Emperor Constantine whose conversion enabled him to effect triumphant conquests over his enemies. Under these representations Alim ud Din expressed his desire for baptism. The governor-general, who at this time was a priest, the bishop of Nueva Segovia, was very anxious that the rite should take place; but this was opposed by his spiritual superior, the archbishop of Manila, who, with some others, entertained doubts as to the sincerity of the sultan's profession.
In order to accomplish his baptism, the governor sent him to his own diocese, where at Paniqui, on the 29th of April, 1750, the ceremony took place with great solemnity. On the return of the party to Manila, the sultan was received with great pomp, and in his honor were held games, theatrical representations, fire-works, and bull-fights. This was the high-water mark of the sultan's popularity.
Failure to Reinstate Alim ud Din.--Meanwhile the usurper, Bantilan, was giving abundant evidence of his hostility. The Spaniards were driven from Jolo, and the fleets of the Moros again ravaged the Bisayas. In July arrived the new governor, the Marquis of Obando, who determined to restore Alim ud Din and suppress the Moro piracy.
An expedition set sail, with the sultan on board, and went as far as Zamboanga, but accomplished nothing. Here the conduct of the sultan served to confirm the doubts of the Spaniards as to the sincerity of his friends.h.i.+p. He was arrested, and returned to Manila, and imprisoned in the fortress of Santiago. With varying treatment he remained in the hands of the Spaniards until 1763, when he was returned to Jolo by the English.
Great Increase in Moro Piracy.--The year 1754 is stated to have been the bloodiest in the history of Moro piracy. No part of the Bisayas escaped ravaging in this year, while the Camarines, Batangas, and Albay suffered equally with the rest. The conduct of the pirates was more than ordinarily cruel. Priests were slain, towns wholly destroyed, and thousands of captives were carried south into Moro slavery. The condition of the Islands at the end of this year was probably the most deplorable in their history.
Reforms under General Arandia.--The demoralization and misery with which Obando's rule closed were relieved somewhat by the capable government of Arandia, who succeeded him. Arandia was one of the few men of talent, energy, and integrity who stood at the head of affairs in these islands during two centuries.
He reformed the greatly disorganized military force, establis.h.i.+ng what was known as the ”Regiment of the King,” made up very largely of Mexican soldiers. He also formed a corps of artillerists composed of Filipinos. These were regular troops, who received from Arandia sufficient pay to enable them to live decently and like an army.
He reformed the a.r.s.enal at Cavite, and, in spite of opposition on all sides, did something to infuse efficiency and honesty into the government. At the head of the armament which had been sent against the Moros he placed a Jesuit priest, Father Ducos. A capable officer was also sent to command the presidio at Zamboanga, and while Moro piracy was not stopped, heavy retaliation was visited upon the pirates.
Arandia's most popular act of government was the expulsion of the Chinese from the provinces, and in large part from the city. They seem to have had in their hands then, perhaps even more than now, the commerce or small trade between Manila and provincial towns. To take over this trade, Arandia founded a commercial company of Spaniards and mestizos, which lasted only for a year. The Christianized Chinese were allowed to remain under license, and for those having shops in Manila Arandia founded the Alcayceria of San Fernando. It consisted of a great square of shops built about an open interior. It stood in Binondo, on the present Calle de San Fernando, in what is still a populous Chinese quarter.
Death of Arandia and Decline of the Colony.--Arandia died in May, 1759, and the government was a.s.sumed by the bishop of Cebu, who in turn was forced from his position by the arrival of the archbishop of Manila, Don Manuel Rojo. The archbishop revoked the celebrated orders of good government which Arandia had put into force, and the colony promised to relapse once more into its customary dormant condition. This was, however, prevented by an event which brought to an end the long period of obscurity and inertia under which the colony had been gradually decaying, and introduced, in a way, a new period of its history. This was the capture of the Philippine Islands by the British in 1762.
CHAPTER XI.
THE PHILIPPINES DURING THE PERIOD OF EUROPEAN REVOLUTION. 1762-1837.
The New Philosophy of the Eighteenth Century.--The middle of the eighteenth century in Europe was a time when ideas were greatly liberalized. A philosophy became current which professed to look for its authority not to churches or hereditary custom and privilege, but to the laws of G.o.d as they are revealed in the natural world. Men taught that if we could only follow nature we could not do wrong. ”Natural law” became the basis for a great amount of political and social discussion and the theoretical foundation of many social rights. The savage, ungoverned man was by many European philosophers and writers supposed to live a freer, more wholesome and more natural life than the man who is bound by the conventions of society and the laws of state.
Most of this reasoning we now know to be scientifically untrue. The savage and the hermit are not, in actual fact, types of human happiness and freedom. Ideal life for man is found only in governed society, where there is order and protection, and where also should be freedom of opportunity. But to the people of the eighteenth century, and especially to the scholars of France, where the government was monarchical and oppressive, and where the people were terribly burdened by the aristocracy, this teaching was welcomed as a new gospel. Nor was it devoid of grand and n.o.ble ideas--ideas which, carried out in a conservative way, might have bettered society.
It is from this philosophy and the revolution which succeeded it that the world received the modern ideas of liberty, equality, fraternity, and democracy. These ideas, having done their work in America and Europe, are here at work in the Philippines today. It remains to be seen whether a society can be rebuilt here on these principles, and whether Asia too will be reformed under their influence.
Colonial Conflicts between the Great European Countries.--During the latter half of the eighteenth century there culminated the long struggle for colonial empire between European states which we have been following. We have seen how colonial conquest was commenced by the Portuguese, who were very shortly followed by the Spaniards, and how these two great Latin powers attempted to exclude the other European peoples from the rich Far East and the great New World which they had discovered.
We have seen how this attempt failed, how the Dutch and the English broke in upon this gigantic reserve, drove the Spanish fleets from the seas, and despoiled and took of this great empire almost whatever they would. The Dutch and English then fought between themselves. The English excluded the Dutch from North America, capturing their famous colony of New Amsterdam, now New York, and incorporating it (1674) with their other American colonies, which later became the United States of America. But in the East Indies the Dutch maintained their trade and power, gradually extending from island to island, until they gained--what they still possess--an almost complete monopoly of spice production.
War between England and France.--In India, England in the eighteenth century won great possessions and laid the foundation for what has been an almost complete subjugation of this Eastern empire. Here, however, and even more so than in America, England encountered a royal and brilliant antagonist in the monarch of France.
French exploration in North America had given France claims to the two great river systems of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, the latter by far the greatest and richest region of the temperate zone. So, during much of this eighteenth century, England and France were involved in wars that had for their prizes the possession of the continent of North America and the great peninsula of India.
This conflict reached its climax between 1756 and 1763. Both states put forth all their strength. France called to her support those countries whose reigning families were allied to her by blood, and in this way Spain was drawn into the struggle. The monarchs of both France and Spain belonged to the great house of Bourbon. War was declared between England and Spain in 1761. Spain was totally unfitted for the combat. She could inflict no injury upon England and simply lay impotent and helpless to retaliate, while English fleets in the same year took Havana in the west and Manila in the east.