cause he dare not speak the truth, and because a long system of oppression has broken his spirit.
Does he endeavour to advance himself a few steps in civilization? his attempts are treated with ridicule and contempt;[1] hence he becomes apathetic, careless of advancement, and often insensible to reproach. The best epithets he hears from Spaniards (often as ignorant as himself) are "Indio!" The God of nature made him so. "Bruto!" He has been and is brutalized by his masters. "Barbaro!" He is often so by force, example, or even by precept. "Ignorante!" He has no means of learning; the will is not wanting. In a word, the spirit of the followers of Cortes and Pizarro, appears to have left its last vestiges here, and perhaps the Indian has been saved from its persecutions only by the weakness of the Spaniard.
Such are some of the causes which have marked the character of the Indian, which is not naturally bad, with some of its prominent blemishes. I am far from holding up the Indian of the Phillippines as a faultless being; he is not so; the Indian of Manila[3]
- ↑ See El Yndio Agraciado (The aggrieved Indian), a pamphlet published at Manila in 1821, but suppressed by order of government.[2]
- ↑ Pardo de Tavera says of this pamphlet, in his Biblioteca Filipino, p. 146: "It attacks one Don M. G., a Philippine Spaniard, who was allowed to propose a plan of studies which was not much to the liking of the Filipino Indians. As appears by the title of this pamphlet, there existed in Manila at that time a publication (probably weekly) called El noticioso Filipino. [See also Tavera's account of this sheet, at foot of the same page, which he regards as the first periodical which appeared in Manila]. Doubtless the former was the doing of some friar, who took the name of 'Indian' in order to express himself more freely."—Eds.
- ↑ This distinction should never be lost sight of. The Indian of Manila, from whom strangers generally form their estimate of this people, is so mixed, that a genuine Indian (Malay) family is scarcely to be met with; they are a mixture of Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Mexican (from the troops), seamen of different nations, and Spaniards besides, "Toutes les Capitales se ressemblent, et çe n'est pas d'eux qu'il faut juger les mœurs d'un peuple quelconque."[4]—Rousseau. Let it never be forgotten, too, that while the Indians of Manila, on the 9th of October, 1820, were assassinating every foreigner within their reach, the Indians of the country were saving those in their power at the hazard of their lives!
- ↑ That is, "All capital cities are alike, and it is not by them that the morals of any people should be judged."—Eds.
