For years Columbus labored to interest the Spanish court. A great event had happened in Spanish history. Ferdinand, king of Aragon, had wedded Isabella of Castile, and this marriage united these two kingdoms into the modern country of Spain. Soon the smaller states except Portugal were added, and the war for the expulsion of the Moors was prosecuted with new vigor. In 1492, Grenada, the last splendid stronghold of the Mohammedans in the peninsula, surrendered, and in the same year Isabella furnished Columbus with the ships for his voyage of discovery.
Columbus sailed from Palos, August 3, 1492, reached the Canaries August 24, and sailed westward on September 6. Day after day, pushed by the strong winds, called the “trades,” they went forward. Many doubts and fears beset the crews, but Columbus was stout-hearted. At the end of thirty-four days from the Canaries, on October 12, they sighted land. It was one of the groups of beautiful islands lying between the two continents of America. But Columbus thought that he had reached the East Indies that really lay many thousands of miles farther west. Columbus sailed among the islands of the archipelago, discovered Cuba and Hispaniola (Haiti), and then returned to convulse Europe with excitement over the new-found way [70]to the East. He had not found the rich Spice Islands, the peninsula of India, Cathay or Japan, but every one believed that these must be close to the islands on which Columbus had landed.
An Early Connection with the Hindus.—The Malayan languages contain also a considerable proportion of words borrowed from the Sanskrit, and in this the Tagálog, [92]Bisayan, and Ilocano are included. Whether these words were passed along from one Malayan group to another, or whether they were introduced by the actual presence and power of the Hindu in this archipelago, may be fair ground for debate; but the case for the latter position has been so well and brilliantly put by Dr. Pardo de Tavera that his conclusions are here given in his own words. “The words which Tagálog borrowed,” he says, “are those which signify intellectual acts, moral conceptions, emotions, superstitions, names of deities, of planets, of numerals of high number, of botany, of war and its results and consequences, and finally of titles and dignities, some animals, instruments of industry, and the names of money.
Trade with the Moro Malays of the South.—The spread of Mohammedanism and especially the foundation of the colony of Borneo brought the Philippines into important commercial relations with the Malays of the south. Previous to the arrival of the Spaniards these relations seem to have been friendly and peaceful. The Mohammedan [100]Malays sent their praos northward for purposes of trade, and they were also settling in the north Philippines as they had in Mindanao.
When Legaspi’s fleet, soon after its arrival, lay near the island of Bohol, the “Maestro de Campo” had a hard fight with a Moro vessel which had come up for trade, and took six prisoners. One of them, whom they call the “pilot,” was closely interrogated by the Adelantado and some interesting information obtained, which is recorded by Padre San Augustin.9 Legaspi had a Malay slave interpreter with him and San Augustin says that Padre Urdaneta “knew well the Malayan language.” The pilot said that “those of Borneo brought for trade with the Filipinos, copper and tin, which was brought to Borneo from China, porcelain, dishes, and bells made in their fashion, very different from those that the Christians use, and benzoin, and colored blankets from India, and cooking-pans made in China, and that they also brought iron lances very well tempered, and knives and other articles of barter, and that in exchange for them they took away from the islands gold, slaves, wax, and a kind of small seashell which they call ‘sijueyes,’ and which passes for money in the kingdom of Siam and other places; and also they carry off some white cloths, of which there is a great quantity in the islands.”
Classes of Filipinos under the Datos.—Beneath the datos, according to Chirino and Morga, there were three classes of Filipinos; the free persons, or “maharlica,” who paid no tribute to the dato, but who accompanied him to war, rowed his boat when he went on a journey, and attended him in his house. This class is called by Morga “timauas.”11
Then there was a very large class, who appear to have been freedmen or liberated slaves, who had acquired their own homes and lived with their families, but who owed to dato or maharlica heavy debts of service; to sow and harvest in his ricefields, to tend his fish-traps, to row his canoe, to build his house, to attend him when he had guests, and to perform any other duties that the chief might command. These semi-free were called “aliping namamahay,” and their condition of bondage descended to their children
The Mohammedan Malays.—The Mohammedans outside of southern Mindanao and Jolo, had settled in the vicinity of Manila Bay and on Mindoro, Lubang, and adjacent coasts of Luzon. The spread of Mohammedanism was stopped by the Spaniards, although it is narrated that for a long time many of those living on the shores of Manila Bay refused to eat pork, which is forbidden by the Koran, and practiced the rite of circumcision. As late as 1583, Bishop Salazar, in writing to the king of affairs in the Philippines, says the Moros had preached the law of Mohammed to great numbers in these islands and by this preaching many of the Gentiles had become Mohammedans; and further he adds, “Those who have received this foul law guard it with much persistence and there is great difficulty in making them abandon it; and with cause too, for the reasons they give, to our shame and confusion, are that they were better treated by the preachers of Mohammed than they have been by the preachers of ChristThe Spaniards introduced also the cultivation of tobacco, coffee, and cacao, and perhaps also the native corn of America, the maize, although Pigafetta says they found it already growing in the Bisayas
The Royal Audiencia.—Very early the Spanish court, in order to protect its own authority, found it necessary to succeed the ambitious and adventurous conqueror by a ruler in close relationship with and absolute dependence on the royal will. Thus in Mexico, Cortes the conqueror was removed and replaced by the viceroy Mendoza, who established upon the conquests of the former the great Spanish colony of New Spain, to this day the most successful of all the states planted by Spain in America.
To limit the power of the governor or viceroy, as well [110]as to act as a supreme court for the settlement of actions and legal questions, Spain created the “Royal Audiencia.” This was a body of men of noble rank and learned in the law, sent out from Spain to form in each country a colonial court; but their powers were not alone judicial; they were also administrative. In the absence of the governor they assumed his duties
Languages of the Malayan Peoples.—With the exception of the Negrito, all the languages of the Philippines belong to one great family, which has been called the “Malayo-Polynesian.” All are believed to be derived from one very ancient mother-tongue. It is astonishing how widely this Malayo-Polynesian speech has spread. Farthest east in the Pacific there is the Polynesian, then in the groups of small islands, known as Micronesian; then Melanesian or Papuan; the Malayan throughout the East Indian archipelago, and to the north the languages of the Philippines. But this is not all; for far westward on the coast of Africa is the island of Madagascar, many of whose languages have no connection with African but belong to the Malayo-Polynesian family.
Early Civilization in India.—More than two thousand years ago, India produced a remarkable civilization. There were great cities of stone, magnificent palaces, a life of splendid luxury, and a highly organized social and political system. Writing, known as the Sanskrit, had been developed, and a great literature of poetry [37]and philosophy produced. Two great religions, Brahminism and Buddhism, arose, the latter still the dominant religion of Tibet, China, and Japan. The people who produced this civilization are known as the Hindus. Fourteen or fifteen hundred years ago Hinduism spread over Burma, Siam, and Java. Great cities were erected with splendid temples and huge idols, the ruins of which still remain, though their magnificence has gone and they are covered to-day with the growth of the jungle
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On the arrival of the Spaniards, the population of the Philippines seems to have been distributed by tribes in much the same manner as at present. Then, as now, the Bisaya occupied the central islands of the archipelago and some of the northern coast of Mindanao. The Bicol, Tagálog, and Pampango were in the same parts of Luzon as we find them to-day. The Ilocano occupied the coastal plain facing the China Sea, but since the arrival of the Spaniards they have expanded considerably and their settlements are now numerous in Pangasinan, Nueva Vizcaya, and the valley of the Cagayan.
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