Part 16 (1/2)

[2] The facts of Doctor Antonio de Morga's life are meager. He must have been born in Sevilla, as his birth register is said to exist in the cathedral of that city. He sailed from Acapulco for the Philippines in 1595 in charge of the vessels sent with reenforcements that year. He remained there eight years, during which time he was continually in office. In 1598, upon the reestablishment of the Manila Audiencia he was appointed senior auditor. In 1600 he took charge of the operations against the Dutch and commanded in the naval battle with them. He left the islands July 10, 1603, in charge of the s.h.i.+ps sailing that year to Mexico. After that period he served in the Mexico Audiencia; and as late as 1616 was president of the Quito Audiencia, as appears from a ma.n.u.script in the British Museum. His book circulated, at least, in part, in ma.n.u.script before being published. Torrubia mentions a ma.n.u.script called Descubrimiento, conquista, pacificacion y poblacion de ias Islas Philipinas, which was dated 1607, and dedicated to ”his Catholic Majesty, King Don Phelipe III, our sovereign.” Morga combined the three functions of historian, politician, and soldier, and his character is many sided and complex. He is spoken of in high terms as an historian, and Rizal, as well as Blumentritt, exalts him above all other historians of the Philippines.

[3] Throughout this work, all notes taken entire or condensed from Jose Rizal's edition of Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas por el Doctor Antonio de Morga (Paris, 1890), will be signed Rizal, unless Rizal is given as authority for the note or a portion of it in the body of the note. Similarly those notes taken or condensed from Lord Henry E. J. Stanley's translation of Morga, The Philippine Islands.... by Antonio de Morga (Hakluyt Soc. ed., London, 1868), will be signed Stanley, unless Stanley is elsewhere given as authority as above.

Dr. Jose Rizal, the Filipino patriot, was born in 1861 at Calamba in Luzon, of pure Tagal stock, although some say that it was mixed with Chinese blood. Through the advice of Father Leontio, a Tagal priest, he was sent to Manila to the Jesuit inst.i.tution Ateneo Munic.i.p.al--where he was the pupil of Rev. Pablo Pastells, now of Barcelona. His family name was Mercado, but at the advice of his brother, who had become involved in the liberal movement, he took that of Rizal. After taking his degree at Manila, he studied in Spain, France, and Germany. He founded the Liga Filipina, whose princ.i.p.al tenet was ”Expulsion of the friars and the confiscation of their property,” and which was the basis of the revolutionary society of the Sons of the Nation. On Rizal's return to Manila, after several years of travel, in 1892, he was arrested and exiled to Dapitan. In 1895, he was allowed to volunteer for hospital service in Cuba, but was arrested in Barcelona, because of the breaking out of the Filipino insurrection, and sent back to Manila, where he was shot on December 30, 1896, by native soldiers. Besides being a skilled physician, Dr. Rizal was a poet, novelist, and sculptor, and had exhibited in the salon. His first novel Noli me tangere appeared in Berlin in 1887, and was, as Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera remarks, the first book to treat of Filipino manners and customs in a true and friendly spirit. It was put under the ban by the Church. Its sequel El Filibusterismo appeared in 1891.

Sir Henry Edward John Stanley, third Baron of Alderley, and second Baron Eddisbury of Sinnington, a member of the peerage of the United Kingdom, and a baronet, died on December 10, 1903, at the age of seventy-six. He was married in 1862 to Fabia, daughter of Senor Don Santiago Federico San Roman of Sevilla, but had no issue. He spent many years in the East, having been first attache at Constantinople and Secretary of Legation at Athens. He embraced the Mahometan religion and was buried by its rites privately by Ridjag Effendi, Imaum of the Turkish emba.s.sy.

[4] Charles chose as his motto Plus ultra, being led thereto by the recent world discoveries and the extension of Spanish dominions. This motto is seen on his coins, medals, and other works.

[5] Perhaps Morga alludes to Argensola, who published his Historia de la conquista de las Molucas this same year of 1609.--Rizal.

[6] This was the second establishment of the Audiencia, in 1598.

[7] The term ”proprietary governor” refers to the regularly appointed (hence governor in his own right) royal representative who governed the islands; all others were governors ad interim, and were appointed in different manners at different periods. The choice of governors showed a gradual political evolution. In the earliest period, the successor in case of death or removal was fixed by the king or the Audiencia of Mexico (e.g., in the case of Legazpi). Some governors (e.g., Gomez Perez Dasmarinas) were allowed to name their own successor. After the establishment of the Audiencia, the choice fell upon the senior auditor. The latest development was the appointment of a segundo cabo, or second head (about the equivalent of lieutenant-governor), who took the office ad interim in case of the governor's death or removal, or a vacancy arising from any other cause.

[8] Morga may refer to accounts of the battle with Oliver van Noordt, or the ma.n.u.scripts of Juan de Plasencia, Martin de Rada, and others.--Rizal.

[9] Magalhaes and Serrano died on the same day. Argensola commenting on this fact says: ”At this time his friend Serrano was going to India; and although in different parts, the two navigators died on the same day, almost under like circ.u.mstances.”

[10] This is too strong a statement, and Morga's knowledge is inexact, as Magalhaes had sailed the eastern seas while in the service of the Portuguese monarch.

[11] Argensola (Conquistas de las Islas Malucas, Madrid, 1609) mentions the expedition sent out by the bishop of Plasencia, Don Gutierre de Vargas.

[12] An error for 1542.

[13] Urdaneta received Felipe II's order to accompany the expedition while in Mexico.--Rizal.

See VOL. II of this series for Urdaneta's connection with this expedition.

[14] See abstract of these instructions, VOL. II, pp. 89-100.

[15] Called Villa de San Miguel at first, according to San Agustin.--Rizal.

[16] Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, not Legazpi, first gave the name Filipinas to the archipelago.

[17] Rizal identifies Rajamora with Soliman, and says that he was called Rajamora or Rahang mura in opposition to Rajamatanda or Rahang matanda, signifying, as Isabelo de los Reyes y Florentino partially points out in an article ent.i.tled ”Los Regulos de Manila,” pp. 87-111 of Articulos varios (Manila, 1887), the young raja and the old raja. In the above article, the latter seeks to identify Rajamora or Soliman with the Raxobago of San Agustin, and declares that Rajamatanda and Lacandola are identical. The confusion existing in later writers regarding these names is lacking in Morga, and Rizal's conjecture appears correct.

[18] Arigues comes from the Tagal word haligi, which are stout wooden posts, used to support the frames of buildings. The word is in quite common use in the Philippines among the Spanish speaking people. It is sometimes used to denote simply a column.--Rizal (in part).

[19] This was the date of Legazpi's arrival at Manila and not of the a.s.sault, which occurred in 1570.--Rizal.

Goiti took possession of Manila for the king, June 6, 1570. See various doc.u.ments in VOL. III of this series.

[20] The inhabitants of Sebu aided the Spaniards on this expedition, and consequently were exempted from tribute for a considerable period.--Rizal.

[21] Rizal conjectures that this is a typographical error and should read de Bisayas o de los Pintados, i.e., Bisayas or Los Pintados.

[22] The Tagals called it Maynila.--Rizal.

For the meaning of this name, see VOL. III, p. 148, note 41.