Report in GEM 101:

The Life and Works of

Rizal

(CHAPTER 6 – ANNOTATION OF ANTONIO

MORGA’S SUCESOS DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS)

Submitted by:
Novymae Jaspe
Milbert Palencia
Ma. Isabel Villaran
(BSED- 2 Social Studies)
Submitted To:
Mrs. Jhenina Oducado
(Course Facilitator)

ANNOTATION OF ANTONIO MORGA’S SUCESOS DE LAS ISLAS FILIPINAS

 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 Philippine.
 Most of the available sources of information 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.
 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.
 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.
 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.

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 was also a historian. He authored the book, Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (Events in the Philippine
Islands) 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.
 Rizal was greatly impressed by Morga’s work that he, himself, decided to annotate it and publish a new
edition.
 Rizal began his work in London and completed it in Paris in 1890. If the book (Sucesos de las Islas
Filipinas) succeeds to awaken your consciousness of our past.
 Governor Antonio de Morga was not only the first to write but also the first to publish a Philippine history.
 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.”
 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.
 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, n.d.
in kahimyang.com).
 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.

Prepared by:
Novy Mae Jaspe

 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.
 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.” 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.
 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.
 Raja Soliman was called “Rahang mura”, or young king, in distinction from the old king, “Rahang
matanda”.
 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.
 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.
 The southern Islands, the Boys, were also called “The Land of the Painted People (or Pintados, in Spanish)”
 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 encomiendai) 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.
 Legaspi’s grandson, Salcedo, called the Hernando Cortez of the Philippines, was the “conqueror’s”
intelligent right arm and the hero of the “conquest.”
 He it was who saved Manila from Li Ma-hong. He died at the early age of twenty-seven and is the only
encomenders recorded to have left the great part of his possessions to the Indians of his encomienda. Vigan
was his encomienda and the ilocanos 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.
 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.
 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.
 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 carly 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.
 When the English freebooter Cavendish captured the Mexican galleon Santa Ana, with 122,000 gold pesos,
a great quantity of tich textiles-silks, satins and damask, musk perfume, and stores of provisions, he took
150 prisoners
 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.
 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.
 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.
 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.
 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 encomenders
who later would be reimbursed from the royal treasury.
 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.
 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.
 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.”
 The Bababayen people were in their own country, and had neither offended nor declared war upon the
Spaniards. 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 again. They not the balls from their muskets.
 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 Bahahayens were probably some that had belonged to Figueroa’s
soldiers who had died in battle.

Prepared by:
Ma. Isabel Villaran

 The muskets used by the Buhahayens were probably some that had belonged to 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.
 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.
 The Japanese were not in error when they suspected the Spanish and Portuguese religious propaganda to
have political motives back of the missionary activities.
 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
 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.
 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 .
 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.
 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.
 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.
 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."
 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.
 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 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.
 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.
 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.
 Colin says the ancient Filipinos had minstrels who had memorized songs telling their genealogies and of
the deeds ascribed to their deities.
 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.
 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.
 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.
 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.
 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.
3) The present state of the Philippines was not necessarily superior to its past.

Prepared by:
Milbert Palencia