Lesson Annotation of Antonio

Morga’s Sucesos de las

Islas Filipinas

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to:

1. Analyze Rizal’s ideas on how to rewrite the Philippine History.

2. Explain the underlying purpose of Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas.

3. Compare and contrast Rizal and Morga’s different views about Filipinos and Philippine
culture.

69 Annotation of Antonio Morga’s Sucesos delas Islas Filipinas

6 Annotation of Antonio Morga’s Sucesos delas Islas Filipinas
In not more than five (5) sentences, write
your own interpretation of Rizal’s
statement on the left.
“To foretell the destiny of a Nation _____________________________________
_____________________________________
it necessary to open the books that tell _____________________________________
_____________________________________
of her past “ _____________________________________
_____________________________________
_____________________________________
Jose P. Rizal _____________________________________

Through the centuries, Jose Rizal has been known to be an earnest seeker of
truth - it is this characteristic that marked him as a great historian. When the
Spaniards came to conquer the islands, he had been so passionate to know the
true conditions of the Philippines. But imagine how difficult it was to search for
information during those days - most of the available sources were either written by
friars of the religious orders and zealous missionaries determined to wipe out native
beliefs and cultural practices, which they considered idolatrous and savage.
Despite the colonizers’ claim that they were solely responsible for refining the
Philippine islands, Rizal’s beliefs say otherwise. For him, the native populations of the
Filipinos were self-sustaining and customarily spirited - it was because of the
Spanish colonization that the Philippine’s rich culture and tradition faded to a
certain extent.
In order to support this supposition, Rizal went to look for a reliable account
of the Philippines in the early days and at the onset of Spanish Colonization. Some
references say that while in Europe, Rizal came across research papers published by
eminent European scientists about ethnic communities in Asia - one of them was Dr.
Ferdinand Blumentritt, author of “Versucheiner Ethnographie der Philippinen.” Rizal
wrote to him and that was how their friendship began. It was Dr. Blumentritt, a
knowledgeable Filipinologist, who recommended Dr. Antonio Morga’s Sucesos de las
Islas Filipinas, which, according to many scholars, had an honest description of the
Philippine situation during the Spanish period.
Other sources, however, claim that Rizal learned about Antonio Morga from
his uncle, Jose Alberto, This knowledge about an ancient Philippine history written by a
Spaniard came from the English Governor of Hong Kong, Sir John Browning, who had
once paid his uncle a visit. While in London, Rizal immediately acquainted himself
with the British Museum where he found one of the few remaining copies of Morga’s
Sucesos. At his own expense, Rizal had the work republished with
annotations that showed that the Philippines was an advanced civilization prior to
Spanish colonization. Austin Craig, an early biographer of Rizal, translated some of
the more important annotations into English.
In this lesson, you will learn the importance of analyzing other people’s works in
the past in order to gain a deeper understanding of our nation, with anticipation
that you, too, may write a reliable historical fact of the Philippines.

70 Annotation of Antonio Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas

Dr. Antonio de Morga and his Sucesos
Antonio de Morga (1559-1636) was a Spanish
conquistador, a lawyer and a government official for 43 years in
the Philippines (1594-1604), New Spain and Peru. As Deputy
Governor in the country, he reinstated the Audiencia, taking over
the function of judge or oidor. He was also in command of the
Spanish ships in a 1600 naval battle against Dutch corsairs, but
suffered defeat and barely survived. He may have undergone
important failures in both his military and political capacities but
he is now remembered for his work as a historian. https://www.google.com/search?q=dr.+antonio+de+morgaand
source=lnmsandtbm

He was also a historian. He authored the book, Sucesos de

=ischandsa=Xandved=2ahUKEwiK_qvd_NTmAhWTMt4KHRpmAwsQ_AUoAXo

las Islas Filipinas (Events in the Philippine Islands) in 1609 after being reassigned to
Mexico. This book narrates observations about the Filipinos and the Philippines
from the perspective of the Spaniards. In fact, this book is considered valuable in
the sense that it reflects the first formal record of the earliest days of the Philippines as
a Spanish colony. Morga’s work, which is based partly on documentary research,
keen observation, and partly on his personal involvement and knowledge, is said to be
the best account of Spanish colonialism in the country.
With Morga’s position in the colonial government,
he had access to many important documents that
allowed him to write about the natives’ and their
conquerors’ political, social and economic phases of life
from the year 1493 to 1603.
Rizal was greatly impressed by Morga’s work that
he, himself, decided to annotate it and publish a new
edition. He meticulously added footnotes on every
chapter of the Sucesos that could be a
misrepresentation of Filipino cultural practices. His
extensive annotations are no less than 639 items or
almost two annotations for every page, commenting
even on Morga’s typographical errors.
Rizal began his work in London and completed it
in Paris in 1890. In his dedication to complete his new
edition of the Sucesos, he explained among other things,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_de_Morga#/media/
that the purpose of his work is:
File:Sucesos_de_las_Islas_Filipinas.jpg

“If the book (Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas)

succeeds to awaken
your consciousness of our past, already effaced from
your memory,
and to rectify what has been falsified and slandered,
then I have not worked in vain, and with this as a
basis, however small it may be, we shall be able to
study the future.”
What, then, was Morga’s purpose for writing the Sucesos? Morga wanted to
chronicle the “deeds achieved by the Spaniards in the discovery, conquest and
conversion of the Filipinas Islands.” Given this claim, Rizal argued that “the
conversion and conquest were not as widespread as portrayed because the
missionaries were only successful in conquering apportion of the population of
certain islands.”
71 Annotation of Antonio Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas
 Why, you may ask, would Rizal annotate Morga’s work? For one, the book
tells the history of wars, intrigues, diplomacy and evangelization of the
Philippines in a somewhat disjointed way. Historians, including Rizal, have noticed a
definite bias, a lot of created stories and distorted facts in the book just to fit
Morga’s defense of the Spanish conquest.
For instance, on page 248, Morga describes the culinary art of the ancient
Filipinos by recording, “they prefer to eat salt fish which begin to decompose and
smell.” Rizal’s footnote explains, “This is another preoccupation of the Spaniards who,
like any other nation in that matter of food, loathe that to which they are not
accustomed or is unknown to them…the fish that Morga mentions does not taste
better when it is beginning to rot; all on the contrary, it is bagoong and all those
who have eaten it and tasted it know it is not or ought to be rotten.”
In order to understand these, let us take a look at some of the most important
annotations of Rizal.

The Preface
Written with ”Jose Rizal, Europe 1889” as a signature, the following Preface
was indicated in Rizal’s Annotation (From Annotations to Dr. Antonio Morga’s
Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, n.d., as translated in English):

“To the Filipinos: In Noli Me Tangere (The Social Cancer) I

started to sketch the present state of our native land. But the
effect which my effort produced made me realize that, before
attempting to unroll before your eyes the other pictures which
were to follow, it was necessary first to post you on the past. So
only can you fairly judge the present and estimate how much
progress has been made during the three centuries (of
Spanish rule).

Like almost all of you, I was born and brought up in ignorance

of our country’s
past and so, without knowledge or authority to speak of what I
neither saw nor
have studied, I deem it necessary to quote the testimony of an
illustrious Spaniard
who in the beginning of the new era controlled the destinies of
the Philippines and had personal knowledge of our ancient
nationality in its last days.

It is then the shade of our ancestor’s civilization

which the au-
thor will call before you. If the work serves to
awaken in you a
consciousness of our past, and to blot from your
memory or to
rectify what has been falsified or is calumny, then
I shall not
have labored in vain. With this preparation, slight
though it
may be, we can all pass to the study of the future.”

Notable Annotations
The English translation of some of the more important
annotations of the Sucesos was done by an early biographer
 of Rizal, Austin Craig (1872-1949). The following are
excerpts from Rizal's annotations to inspire young Filipinos of
today (Taken from Craig, 1929 as translated by Derbyshire,
https://www.google.com/search?q=antonio+de+morg a+sucesos+ de+las
+islas+filipinasandsource=lnmsandtbm=ischandsa=Xandved=2ahUKEwi
R15OMoNXmAhXK7WEKHVzqCp8Q_AUoAXoECBQQAwandbiw=1707
andbih=760#imgrc=BGbOfHaFshQPiM:
n.d. in kahimyang.com).

72 Annotation of Antonio Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas

 Governor Antonio de Morga was not only the first to write but
also the first to
publish a Philippine history. This statement has regard to the concise
and concrete form in
which our author has treated the matter. Father Chirino's work,
printed at Rome in 1604,
is rather a chronicle of the Missions than a history of the
Philippines; still it contains a
great deal of valuable material on usages and customs. The worthy
Jesuit in fact admits
that he abandoned writing a political history because Morga had
already done so, so
one must infer that he had seen the work in manuscript before
leaving the Islands.
By the Christian religion, Doctor Morga appears to mean the
Roman Catholic which by fire and sword he would preserve in its
purity in the Philippines. Nevertheless in other lands, notably in
Flanders, these means were ineffective to keep the church
unchanged, or to maintain its supremacy, or even to hold its subjects.
Great kingdoms were indeed discovered and conquered in the
remote and unknown
parts of the world by Spanish ships but to the Spaniards who sailed
in them we may add
Portuguese, Italians, French, Greeks, and even Africans and
Polynesians. The expeditions
captained by Columbus and Magellan, one a Genoese Italian and the
other a Portuguese,
as well as those that came after them, although Spanish fleets, still
were manned by many
nationalities and in them went negroes, Moluccans, and even men
from the Philippines
and the Marianes Islands.
Three centuries ago it was the custom to write as intolerantly
as Morga does, but
nowadays it would be called a bit presumptuous. No one has a
monopoly of the true God
nor is there any nation or religion that can claim, or at any rate
prove, that to it has been
given the exclusive right to the Creator of all things or sole knowledge
of His real being.
The conversions by the Spaniards were not as general as their
historians claim. The
missionaries only succeeded in converting a part of the people of the
Philippines. Still there
are Mahometans, the Moros, in the southern islands, and negritos,
igorots and other heathens
yet occupy the greater part territorially of the archipelago. Then
the islands which the
Spaniards early held but soon lost are non-Christian-Formosa,
Borneo, and the
Moluccas. And if there are Christians in the Carolines, that is due to
Protestants, whom
neither the Roman Catholics of Morga's day nor many Catholics in our
own day consider
Christians.
It is not the fact that the Filipinos were unprotected before
the coming of the
Spaniards. Morga himself says, further on in telling of the pirate raids
from the south, that
previous to the Spanish domination the islands had arms and
defended themselves. But
after the natives were disarmed the pirates pillaged them with
impunity, coming at times
when they were unprotected by the government, which was the
reason for many of the
insurrections.
The civilization of the Pre-Spanish Filipinos in regard to the duties
of life for that
age was well advanced, as the Morga history shows in its eighth
chapter.
The islands came under Spanish sovereignty and control
through compacts, treaties of friendship and alliances for reciprocity.
By virtue of the last arrangement, according to some historians,
Magellan lost his life on Mactan and the soldiers of Legaspi fought
under the banner of King Tupas of Cebu.
The term "conquest" is admissible but for a part of the islands
and then only in its
broadest sense. Cebu, Panay, Luzon Mindoro and some others cannot
be said to have been
conquered.
The discovery, conquest and conversion cost Spanish blood but
still more Filipino
blood. It will be seen later on in Morga that with the Spaniards
and on behalf of Spain

73 Annotation of Antonio Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas

there were always more Filipinos fighting than Spaniards.
Morga shows that the ancient Filipinos had army and navy with
artillery and other
implements of warfare. Their prized krises and kampilans for their
magnificent temper are
worthy of admiration and some of them are richly damascened.
Their coats of mail and
helmets, of which there are specimens in various European museums,
attest their great ad-
vancement in this industry.
Morga's expression that the Spaniards "brought war to the gates
of the Filipinos" is
in marked contrast with the word used by subsequent historians
whenever recording
Spain's possessing herself of a province, that she pacified it. Perhaps
"to make peace" then
meant the same as "to stir up war." (This is a veiled allusion to the
old Latin saying of
Romans, often quoted by Spaniard's, that they made a desert,
calling it making peace.
(Austin Craig).
Magellan's transferring from the service of his own king to
employment under the King of Spain, according to historic
documents, was because the Portuguese King had refused to grant
him the raise in salary which he asked.
Now it is known that Magellan was mistaken when he
represented to the King of Spain that the Molucca Islands were
within the limits assigned by the Pope to the Spaniards. But through
this error and the inaccuracy of the nautical instruments of that time,
the Philippines did not fall into the hands of the Portuguese.
Cebu, which Morga calls "The City of the Most Holy Name of
Jesus," was at first called "The village of San Miguel."
The image of the Holy Child of Cebu, which many religious
writers believed was brought to Cebu by the angels, was in fact
given by the worthy Italian chronicler of Magellan's expedition, the
Chevalier Pigafetta, to the Cebuano queen.
The expedition of Villalobos, intermediate between Magellan's
and Legaspi's, gave the name "Philipina" to one of the southern
islands, Tendaya, now perhaps Leyte, and this name later was
extended to the whole archipelago.
Of the native Manila rulers at the coming of the Spaniards, Raja
Soliman was called "Rahang mura", or young king, in distinction
from the old king, "Rahang matanda". Historians have confused
these personages. The native fort at the mouth of the Pasig river,
which Morga speaks of as equipped with brass lantakas and artillery
of larger caliber, had its ramparts reenforced with thick hardwood
posts such as the Tagalogs used for their houses and called
"harigues", or "haligui".
Morga has evidently confused the pacific coming of Legaspi with
the attack of Goiti
and Salcedo, as to date. According to other historians it was in
1570 that Manila was
burned, and with it a great plant for manufacturing artillery. Goiti
did not take possession
of the city but withdrew to Cavite and afterwards to Panay, which makes
one suspicious of
his alleged victory. As to the day of the date, the Spaniards then,
having come following the course of the sun, were some sixteen
hours later than Europe. This condition continued till the end of
the year 1844, when the 31st of December was by special
arrangement among the authorities dropped from the calendar for
that year. Accordingly Legaspi did not arrive in Manila on the 19th
but on the 20th of May and consequently it was not on the festival of
Santa Potenciana but on San Baudelio's day. The same mistake was
made with reference to the other early events still wrongly
commemorated, like San Andres' day for the repulse of the Chinese
corsair Li Ma-hong.
Though not mentioned by Morga, the Cebuano aided the
Spaniards in their expedition against Manila, for which reason they
were long exempted from tribute.

74 Annotation of Antonio Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas

 The southern islands, the Bisayas, were also called "The Land of
the Painted People (or Pintados, in Spanish)" because the natives had
their bodies decorated with tracings made with fire, somewhat like
tattooing.
The Spaniards retained the native name for the new capital of the
archipelago, a little changed, however, for the Tagalogs had called
their city "Maynila."
When Morga says that the lands were "entrusted" (given as
encomiendas) to those who had "pacified" them, he means "divided
up among." The word "en trust," like "pacify," later came to have a
sort of ironical signification. To entrust a province was then as if it
were said that it was turned over to sack, abandoned to the cruelty
and covetousness of the encomendero, to judge from the way these
gentry misbehaved.
Legaspi's grandson, Salcedo, called the Hernando Cortez of the
Philippines, was the
"conqueror's" intelligent right arm and the hero of the "conquest."
His honesty and fine
qualities, talent and personal bravery, all won the admiration of the
Filipinos. Because of
him they yielded to their enemies, making peace and friendship with
the Spaniards. He it
was who saved Manila from Li Ma-hong. He died at the early age of
twenty-seven and is
the only encomendero recorded to have left the great part of his
possessions to the Indians of
his encomienda. Vigan was his encomienda and the Ilokanos there
were his heirs.
The expedition which followed the Chinese corsair Li Ma-
hong, after his unsuccessful attack upon Manila, to Pangasinan
province, with the Spaniards of whom Morga tells, had in it 1,500
friendly Indians from Cebu, Bohol, Leyte and Panay, besides the
many others serving as laborers and crews of the ships. Former
Raja Lakandola, of Tondo, with his sons and his kinsmen went, too,
with 200 more Bisayans and they were joined by other Filipinos in
Pangasinan.
If discovery and occupation justify annexation, then Borneo
ought to belong to
Spain. In the Spanish expedition to replace on its throne a Sirela
or Malaela, as he is
variously called, who had been driven out by his brother, more
than fifteen hundred
Filipino bowmen from the provinces of Pangasinan, Kagayan, and the
Bisayas participated.
It is notable how strictly the earlier Spanish governors were held
to account. Some
stayed in Manila as prisoners, one, Governor Corcuera, passing five
years with Fort
Santiago as his prison.
In the fruitless expedition against the Portuguese in the island
of Ternate, in the Molucca group, which was abandoned because of
the prevalence of beriberi among the troops, there went 1,500
Filipino soldiers from the more warlike provinces, principally
Kagayans and Pampangans.
The "pacification" of Kagayan was accomplished by taking
advantage of the jealousies
among its people, particularly the rivalry between two brothers who
were chiefs. An early
historian asserts that without this fortunate circumstance, for the
Spaniards, it would have
been impossible to subjugate them.
Captain Gabriel de Rivera, a Spanish commander who had
gained fame in a raid on Borneo and the Malacca coast, was the first
envoy from the Philippines to take up with the King of Spain the needs
of the archipelago.
The early conspiracy of the Manila and Pampangan former chiefs
was revealed to the
Spaniards by a Filipina, the wife of a soldier, and many concerned lost
their lives.
The artillery cast for the new stone fort in Manila, says Morga,
was by the hand of an ancient Filipino. That is, he knew how to cast
cannon even before the coming of the Spaniards, hence he was
distinguished as 4"ancient." In this difficult art of ironworking, as in
so many others, the modern or present-day Filipinos are not so far
advanced as were

75 Annotation of Antonio Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas

their ancestors.
When the English freebooter Cavendish captured the Mexican
galleon Santa Ana,
with 122,000 gold pesos, a great quantity of rich textiles-silks, satins
and damask, musk
perfume, and stores of provisions, he took 150 prisoners. All these
because of their brave
defense were put ashore with ample supplies, except two Japanese
lads, three Filipinos, a
Portuguese and a skilled Spanish pilot whom he kept as guides in his
further voyaging.
From the earliest Spanish days ships were built in the
islands, which might be considered evidence of native culture.
Nowadays this industry is reduced to small craft, scows and
coasters.
The Jesuit, Father Alonso Sanchez, who visited the papal court
at Rome and the Spanish King at Madrid, had a mission much like
that of deputies now, but of even greater importance since he came
to be a sort of counsellor or representative to the absolute
monarch of that epoch. One wonders why the Philippines could have a
representative then but may not have one now.
In the time of Governor Gomez Perez Dasmariñas, Manila was
guarded against
further damage such as was suffered from Li Ma-hong by the
construction of a massive
stone wall around it. This was accomplished "without expense to the
royal treasury." The
same governor, in like manner, also fortified the point at the
entrance to the river where
had been the ancient native fort of wood, and he gave it the name Fort
Santiago.
The early cathedral of wood which was burned through
carelessness at the time of
the funeral of Governor Dasmariñas' predecessor, Governor
Ronquillo, was made,
according to the Jesuit historian Chirino, with hardwood pillars
around which two men
could not reach, and in harmony with this massiveness was all the
woodwork above and
below. It may be surmised from this how hard workers were the
Filipinos of that time.
A stone house for the bishop was built before starting on the
governor-general's
residence. This precedence is interesting for those who uphold the
civil power. Morga's
mention of the scant output of large artillery from the Manila
cannon works because of
lack of master foundry men shows that after the death of the
Filipino Panday Pira there
were not Spaniards skilled enough to take his place, nor were his sons
as expert as he.
It is worthy of note that China, Japan and Cambodia at this
time maintained
relations with the Philippines. But in our day it has been more than
a century since the
natives of the latter two countries have come here. The causes
which ended the
relationship may be found in the interference by the religious orders
with the institutions
of those lands.
For Governor Dasmariñas' expedition to conquer Ternate, in the
Moluccan group,
two Jesuits there gave secret information. In his 200 ships, besides
900 Spaniards, there
must have been Filipinos for one chronicler speaks of Indians, as the
Spaniards called the
natives of the Philippines, who lost their lives and others who were
made captives when
the Chinese rowers mutinied. It was the custom then always to have
a thousand or more
native bowmen and besides the crew were almost all Filipinos, for the
most part Bisayans.
The historian Argensola, in telling of four special galleys for
Dasmariñas' expedition,
says that they were manned by an expedient which was generally
considered rather harsh.
It was ordered that there be bought enough of the Indians who were
slaves of the former
Indian chiefs, or principales, to form these crews, and the price,
that which had been
customary in pre-Spanish times, was to be advanced by the
encomenderos who later would be
reimbursed from the royal treasury. In spite of this promised
compensation, the measures
still seemed severe since those Filipinos were not correct in calling
their dependents slaves

76 Annotation of Antonio Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas

The masters treated these, and loved them, like sons rather, for they
seated them at their own tables an gave them their own daughters in
marriage.
Morga says that the 250 Chinese oarsmen who manned Governor
Dasmariñas' swift
galley were under pay and had the special favor of not being
chained to their benches.
According to him it was covetousness of the wealth aboard that led
them to revolt and kill
the governor. But the historian Gaspar de San Agustin states that the
reason for the revolt
was the governor's abusive language and his threatening the rowers.
Both these authors' allegations may have contributed, but more
important was the fact that there was no law to compel these
Chinamen to row in the galleys. They had come to Manila to
engage in commerce or to work in trades or to follow professions.
Still the incident contradicts the reputation for enduring everything
which they have had. The Filipinos have been much more long-
suffering than the Chinese since, in spite of having been obliged to
row on more than one occasion, they never mutinied.
It is difficult to excuse the missionaries' disregard of the laws
of nations and the
usages of honorable politics in their interference in Cambodia on the
ground that it was to
spread the Faith. Religion had a broad field awaiting it then in the
Philippines where more
than nine-tenths of the natives were infidels. That even now there are
to be found here so
many tribes and settlements of non-Christians takes away much of
the prestige of that
religious zeal which in the easy life in towns of wealth, liberal and
fond of display, grows
lethargic. Truth is that the ancient activity was scarcely for the
Faith alone, because the
missionaries had to go to islands rich in spices and gold though
there were at hand
Mohammedans and Jews in Spain and Africa, Indians by the million
in the Americas, and
more millions of protestants, schismatics and heretics peopled,
and still people, over
six-sevenths of Europe. All of these doubtless would have accepted
the Light and the true
religion if the friars, under pretext of preaching to them, had not
abused their hospitality
and if behind the name Religion had not lurked the unnamed
Domination.
In the attempt made by Rodriguez de Figueroa to conquer
Mindanao according to
his contract with the King of Spain, there was fighting along the Rio
Grande with the
people called the Buhahayenes. Their general, according to
Argensola, was the celebrated Silonga, later distinguished for many
deeds in raids on the Bisayas and adjacent islands. Chirino relates
an anecdote of his coolness under fire once during a truce for a
marriage among Mindanao "principalia." Young Spaniards out of
bravado fired at his feet but he passed on as if unconscious of the
bullets.
Argensola has preserved the name of the Filipino who killed
Rodriguez de Figueroa.
It was Ubal. Two days previously he had given a banquet, slaying for it
a beef animal of his
own, and then made the promise which he kept, to do away with the
leader of the Spanish
invaders. A Jesuit writer calls him a traitor though the
justification for that term of reproach is not apparent. The
Buhahayen people were in their own country, and had neither
offended nor declared war upon the Spaniards. They had to defend
their homes against a powerful invader, with superior forces, many
of whom were, by reason of their armor, invulnerable so far as
rude Indians were concerned. Yet these same Indians were
defenseless against the balls from their muskets. By the Jesuit's line of
reasoning, the heroic Spanish peasantry in their war for
independence would have been a people even more treacherous. It
was not Ubal's fault that he was not seen and, as it was wartime, it
would have been the height of folly, in view of the immense disparity
of arms, to have first called out to this preoccupied opponent, and
then been killed himself.
The muskets used by the Buhahayens were probably some that
had belonged to

77 Annotation of Antonio Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas

Figueroa's soldiers who had died in battle. Though the Philippines
had lantakas and other artillery, muskets were unknown till the
Spaniards came.
That the Spaniards used the word "discover" very carelessly
may be seen from an admiral's turning in a report of his "discovery"
of the Solomon islands though he noted that the islands had been
discovered before.
Death has always been the first sign of European civilization on its
introduction in
the Pacific Ocean. God grant that it may not be the last, though to
judge by statistics the civilized islands are losing their populations at
a terrible rate. Magellan himself inaugurated his arrival in the
Marianes islands by burning more than forty houses, many small craft
and seven people because one of his boats had been stolen. Yet to
the simple savages the act had nothing wrong in it but was done with
the same naturalness that civilized people hunt, fish, and subjugate
people that are weak or ill-armed.
The Spanish historians of the Philippines never overlook any
opportunity, be it
suspicion or accident, that may be twisted into something
unfavorable to the Filipinos.
They seem to forget that in almost every case the reason for the
rupture has been some act
of those who were pretending to civilize helpless peoples by force of
arms and at the cost
of their native land. What would these same writers have said if the
crimes committed by
the Spaniards, the Portuguese and the Dutch in their colonies had
been committed by the
islanders?
The Japanese were not in error when they suspected the
Spanish and Portuguese
religious propaganda to have political motives back of the missionary
activities. Witness
the Moluccas where Spanish missionaries served as spies; Cambodia,
which it was sought
to conquer under cloak of converting; and many other nations, among
them the Filipinos,
where the sacrament of baptism made of the inhabitants not only
subjects of the King of
Spain but also slaves of the encomenderos, and as well slaves of the
churches and convents.
What would Japan have been now had not its emperors
uprooted Catholicism? A
missionary record of 1625 sets forth that the King of Spain had
arranged with certain
members of Philippine religious orders that, under guise of preaching
the faith and making
Christians, they should win over the Japanese and oblige them to make
themselves of the
Spanish party, and finally it told of a plan whereby the King of Spain
should become also
King of Japan. In corroboration of this may be cited the claims that
Japan fell within the
Pope's demarcation lines for Spanish expansion and so there
was complaint of
missionaries other than Spanish there. Therefore it was not for
religion that they were
converting the infidels!
The raid by Datus Sali and Silonga of Mindanao, in 1599 with 50
sailing vessels and
3,000 warriors, against the capital of Panay, is the first act of piracy
by the inhabitants of
the South which is recorded in Philippine history. I say "by the
inhabitants of the South"
because earlier there had been other acts of piracy, the earliest
being that of Magellan's
expedition when it seized the shipping of friendly islands and even of
those whom they did
not know, extorting for them heavy ransoms. It will be
remembered that these Moro
piracies continued for more than two centuries, during which the
indomitable sons of the
South made captives and carried fire and sword not only in
neighboring islands but into
Manila Bay to Malate, to the very gates of the capital, and not once
a year merely but at
times repeating their raids five and six times in a single season. Yet
the government was
unable to repel them or to defend the people whom it had
disarmed and left without
protection. Estimating that the cost to the islands was but 800 victims
a year, still the total
would be more than 200,000 persons sold into slavery or killed, all
sacrificed together with

78 Annotation of Antonio Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas

so many other things to the prestige of that empty title, Spanish
sovereignty.
Still the Spaniards say that the Filipinos have contributed
nothing to Mother Spain,
and that it is the islands which owe everything. It may be so, but what
about the enormous
sum of gold which was taken from the islands in the early years of
Spanish rule, of the
tributes collected by the encomenderos, of the nine million dollars
yearly collected to pay the
military, expenses of the employees, diplomatic agents, corporations
and the like, charged
to the Philippines, with salaries paid out of the Philippine treasury not
only for those who
come to the Philippines but also for those who leave, to some who
never have been and
never will be in the islands, as well as to others who have nothing to
do with them. Yet all
of this is as nothing in comparison with so many captives gone, such
a great number of
soldiers killed in expeditions, islands depopulated, their inhabitants
sold as slaves by the
Spaniards themselves, the death of industry, the demoralization of
the Filipinos, and so
forth, and so forth. Enormous indeed would the benefits which that
sacred civilization
brought to the archipelago have to be in order to counterbalance so
heavy a-cost.
While Japan was preparing to invade the Philippines, these
islands were sending
expeditions to Tonquin and Cambodia, leaving the homeland
helpless even against the
undisciplined hordes from the South, so obsessed were the
Spaniards with the idea of
making conquests.
In the alleged victory of Morga over the Dutch ships, the latter
found upon the bodies of five Spaniards, who lost their lives in that
combat, little silver boxes filled with prayers and invocations to the
saints. Here would seem to be the origin of the antinganting of the
modern tulisanes, which are also of a religious character.
In Morga's time, the Philippines exported silk to Japan whence
now comes the best quality of that merchandise.
Morga's views upon the failure of Governor Pedro de Acunia's
ambitious expedition
against the Moros unhappily still apply for the same conditions yet
exist. For fear of upris-
ings and loss of Spain's sovereignty over the islands, the inhabitants
were disarmed, leaving
them exposed to the harassing of a powerful and dreaded enemy.
Even now, though the
use of steam vessels has put an end to piracy from outside, the same
fatal system still is
followed. The peaceful country folk are deprived of arms and thus
made unable to defend themselves against the bandits, or tulisanes,
which the government cannot restrain. It is an encouragement to
banditry thus to make easy its getting booty.
Hernando de los Rios blames these Moluccan wars for the
fact that at first the
Philippines were a source of expense to Spain instead of
profitable in spite of the
tremendous sacrifices of the Filipinos, their practically gratuitous
labor in building and
equipping the galleons, and despite, too, the tribute, tariffs and
other imposts and
monopolies. These wars to gain the Moluccas, which soon were lost
forever with the little
that had been so laboriously obtained, were a heavy drain upon the
Philippines. They
depopulated the country and bankrupted the treasury, with not the
slightest compensating
benefit. True also is it that it was to gain the Moluccas that Spain
kept the Philippines, the
desire for the rich spice islands being one of the most powerful
arguments when, because
of their expense to him, the King thought of withdrawing and
abandoning them.
Among the Filipinos who aided the government when the Manila
Chinese revolted,
Argensola says there were 4,000 Pampangans "armed after the way of
their land, with bows
and arrows, short lances, shields, and broad and long daggers."
Some Spanish writers say
that the Japanese volunteers and the Filipinos showed themselves
cruel in slaughtering the
Chinese refugees. This may very well have been so, considering the
hatred and rancor then

79 Annotation of Antonio Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas

existing, but those in command set the example.
The loss of two Mexican galleons in 1603 called forth no
comment from the
religious chroniclers who were accustomed to see the avenging
hand of God in the
misfortunes and accidents of their enemies. Yet there were
repeated shipwrecks of the
vessels that carried from the Philippines wealth which
encomenderos had extorted from the
Filipinos, using force, or making their own laws, and, when not using
these open means,
cheating by the weights and measures.
The Filipino chiefs who at their own expense went with the
Spanish expedition against Ternate, in the Moluccas, in 1605, were
Don Guillermo Palaot, Maestro de Campo, and Captains Francisco
Palaot, Juan Lit, Luis Lont, and Agustin Lont. They had with them 400
Tagalogs and Pampangans. The leaders bore themselves bravely for
Argensola writes that in the assault on Ternate, "No officer, Spaniard
or Indian, went unscathed."
The Cebuanos drew a pattern on the skin before starting in to
tattoo. The Bisayan
usage then was the same procedure that the Japanese today follow.
Ancient traditions ascribe the origin of the Malay Filipinos to the
island of Sumatra. These traditions were almost completely lost as
well as the mythology and the genealogies of which the early
historians tell, thanks to the zeal of the missionaries in eradicating
all national remembrances as heathen or idolatrous. The study of
ethnology is restoring this somewhat.
The chiefs used to wear upper garments, usually of Indian fine
gauze according to Colin, of red color, a shade for which they had the
same fondness that the Romans had. The barbarous tribes in
Mindanao still have the same taste.
The "easy virtue" of the native women that historians note is not
solely attributable
to the simplicity with which they obeyed their natural instincts but
much more due to a
religious belief of which Father Chirino tells. It was that in the
journey after death to
"Kalualhatian," the abode of the spirit, there was a dangerous river
to cross that had no
bridge other than a very narrow strip of wood over which a woman
could not pass unless
she had a husband or lover to extend a hand to assist her.
Furthermore, the religious
annals of the early missions are filled with countless instances where
native maidens chose
death rather than sacrifice their chastity to the threats and
violence of encomenderos and
Spanish soldiers. As to the mercenary social evil, that is worldwide
and there is no nation
that can 'throw the first stone' at any other. For the rest, today the
Philippines has no
reason to blush in comparing its womankind with the women of the
most chaste nation in
the world.
Morga's remark that the Filipinos like fish better when it is
commencing to turn bad
is another of those prejudices which Spaniards like all other nations,
have. In matters of
food, each is nauseated with what he is unaccustomed to or doesn't
know is eatable. The
English, for example, find their gorge rising when they see a Spaniard
eating snails, while in
turn the Spanish find roast beef English-style repugnant and can't
understand the relish of
other Europeans for beefsteak a la Tartar which to them is
simply raw meat. The
Chinaman, who likes shark's meat, cannot bear Roquefort cheese,
and these examples
might be indefinitely extended. The Filipinos' favorite fish dish is the
bagoong and whoever
has tried to eat it knows that it is not considered improved when
tainted. It neither is, nor
ought to be, decayed.
Colin says the ancient Filipinos had minstrels who had memorized
songs telling their
genealogies and of the deeds ascribed to their deities. These were
chanted on voyages in
cadence with the rowing, or at festivals, or funerals, or wherever
there happened to be any

80 Annotation of Antonio Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas

considerable gatherings. It is regrettable that these chants have not
been preserved as from them it would have been possible to learn
much of the Filipinos' past and possibly of the history of neighboring
islands.
The cannon foundry mentioned by Morga as in the walled city
was probably on the
site of the Tagalog one which was destroyed by fire on the first
coming of the Spaniards.
That established in 1584 was in Lamayan, that is, Santa Ana now, and
was transferred to
the old site in 1590. It continued to work until 1805. According to
Gaspar San Agustin, the cannon which the pre-Spanish Filipinos cast
were "as great as those of Malaga," Spain's foundry. The Filipino
plant was burned with all that was in it save a dozen large cannons
and some smaller pieces which the Spanish invaders took back with
them to Panay. The rest of their artillery equipment had been thrown
by the Manilans, then Moros, into the sea when they recognized their
defeat.
Malate, better Maalat, was where the Tagalog aristocracy
lived after they were
dispossessed by the Spaniards of their old homes in what is now the
walled city of Manila.
Among the Malate residents were the families of Raja Matanda and
Raja Soliman. The men
had various positions in Manila and some were employed in
government work near by.
"They were very courteous and well-mannered," says San Agustin.
"The women were very
expert in lacemaking, so much so that they were not at all behind the
women of Flanders."
Morga's statement that there was not a province or town of
the Filipinos that
resisted conversion or did not want it may have been true of the
civilized natives. But the
contrary was the fact among the mountain tribes. We have the
testimony of several
Dominican and Augustinian missionaries that it was impossible to go
anywhere to make
conversions without other Filipinos along and a guard of soldiers.
"Otherwise, says Gaspar
de San Agustin, there would have been no fruit of the Evangelic
Doctrine gathered, for the
infidels wanted to kill the Friars who came to preach to them." An
example of this method
of conversion given by the same writer was a trip to the mountains by
two Friars who had
a numerous escort of Pampangans. The escort's leader was Don
Agustin Sonson who had a
reputation for daring and carried fire and sword into the country,
killing many, including
the chief, Kabadi.
The Spaniards, says Morga, were accustomed to hold as slaves
such natives as they
bought and others that they took in the forays in the conquest or
pacification of the
islands.”
Consequently, in this respect, the “pacifiers” introduced no
moral improvement. We
even do not know, if in their wars the Filipinos used to make slaves of
each other, though
that would not have been strange, for the chroniclers tell of captives
returned to their own
people. The practice of the southern pirates almost proves this,
although in these piratical
wars the Spaniards were the first aggressors and gave them their
character.

Rizal’s Arguments of Morga’s Sucesos

Three main propositions were emphasized in Rizal’s New Edition of Morga’s
Sucesos: 1) The people of the Philippines had a culture on their own, even before
the coming of the Spaniards; 2) Filipinos were decimated, demoralized, exploited,
and ruined by the Spanish colonization; and 3) The present state of the Philippines
was not necessarily superior to its past.
In Rizal’s historical essay, he correctly observed that as a colony of Spain,
“The Philippines was depopulated, impoverished and retarded,
astounded by metaphor sis,
with no confidence in her past, still without faith in her present and
without faltering hope
in the future.

81 Annotation of Antonio Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas

 He went to say:

“…little by little, they (Filipinos) lost their old traditions, the

mementoes of their
past; they gave up their writing, their songs, their poems, their laws,
in order to learn other
doctrines which they did not understand, another morality, another
aesthetics, different
from those inspired by their climate and their manner of thinking.
They declined,
degrading themselves in their own eyes, they become ashamed of
what was their own; they began to admire and praise whatever was
foreign and incomprehensible, their spirit was damaged and it
surrendered.”

Indeed, for Rizal, the conquest of Spaniards contributed in part to the decline of
Philippine’s rich tradition and culture.
82 Annotation of Antonio Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas