40
THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS
[Vol. 51
which they had collected for scientific purposes. A crowd of armed Indians therefore gathered in the square of Binondo on October 9, attacked the houses of the foreigners, and murdered twenty-seven persons – among whom was not one Spaniard; nor did they, in plundering the houses, rob any Spaniard. The governor sent out some troops, but they accomplished nothing in checking the riot, which ended only at nightfall; and he did nothing to prevent further crimes of this sort, so that the mob renewed their acts of violence the next day,[1] plundering and
- ↑ An interesting account of this event is furnished in a letter by Peter Dobell, then Russian consul in the Philippines, which is preserved in the New York Public Library; it is printed in the Bulletin of that institution for June, 1903, at pp. 198-200. Dobell went to Macao for medical treatment in July, 1820, and this letter was written from that city, on November 28 of that year. He thus writes: "I arrived with my wife and daughter at Manilla last March, was received with great apparent attention, politeness & hospitality. After living there a couple of months, however, I perceived that there existed a vast deal of jealousy and envy, against all strangers, and particularly those who resided or intended to form establishments in the country. Those ignorant people could not divest themselves of this feeling, even toward those, whose capitals, talents and industry, were directed to the most laudable pursuits, and promised to produce great public as well as private advantages to the colony. At this crisis several french ships were in the port, one or two Americans and a English ship from Bengal. In the French ships, had arrived a naturalist sent out by the government to make collections, and some persons, who intended to remain in the Philippines to cultivate sugar, cotton &c &c. In the month of July last, I discovered that I had in my travels, contracted a disease, called by the Doctr Hydrocele and becoming very troublesome to me, I determined as there are no good surgeons in Manilla to pay a short visit to Macao with my family & return to my post, as soon as circumstances would permit, after the operation. This I found, I could do the more conveniently, as my Nephew, a fine young Man of 23 years, had joined me at my arrival and I left him, in full charge of my office &c and departed. This envious disposition, on the part of the Spaniards, increased daily, against the Strangers, until an opportunity presented itself of gratifying their malignant hatred, in the most cruel & bloody manner & without themselves appearing to have any thing to do in the business. It is necessary first to tell you, that the new constitution, had been received during the prevalence of this feeling, giving extensive privileges & liberal encouragement to foreigners, who might think proper to settle in the Philippines & rendering the natives as free & equal, in rights, etc as their former masters. This certainly made them, a little unruly, but, if not secretly instigated, it would never have induced them to commit a crime, that makes humanity shudder. The ship from Bengal, was the Merope Captain Nichols and it was supposed she had brot into the colony the epidemic, that has ravaged all India, this year, under the name of the 'Cholera Morbus.' It made its appearance, in the beginning of October last, carrying off great numbers of the Indians every day. The humane French & other Strangers, who beheld these miserable wretches, dying around them without any medical aid, freely administered what medicines they had, and were actively & daily employed, in endeavoring to alleviate, the distress & cure the complaints of all those, who lived within the sphere of their exertions. This also became, a cause of jealousy and hatred and the villains, began immediately to exasperate the Indians by saying, 'this poisonous disease, was introduced by the French & the other strangers, they have poisoned even the waters, and they administer poison to the sick, purposely to exterpate the whole race of Tagalians.' The ferocious Indians wanted nothing farther to excite them to deeds of blood & plunder. On the 9th of October about 10 or 11 in the morning they collected, to the number of about 3,000 Men armed with pikes knives and bludgeons and proceeded coolly and deliberately to plunder and Massacre all the Strangers on whom they could lay their hands! I have not time to give you the details of this shocking business, but you will certainly read them in the gazettes as I have sent both to England and Russia very full accounts for publication. Suffice it now to say that the Governor & the authorities were vainly implored for assistance. They came, it is true, with the troops, but it was only to behold with sang froid the horrid spectacle. Not a musket was fired to save the lives of those unfortunate and defenceless strangers, who to the number of 39 were plundered & cruelly massacred; some of them were so cut up & mangled it was impossible to recognize them. As the most of them were Roman Catholics, they were all collected and thrown into a hole together without the shadow of a ceremony or a stone to mark their graves! What is worse, the last accts from there down to the 9th of November mention that not a Spanish life was lost, nor has a single native as yet suffered punishment for this most atrocious & horrible deed. My house was attacked & pillaged, my Nephew & a Mr Prince of Boston, who lived with him, made prisonners, and, after being near two days in the hands of the Indians, suffering the most abominable treatment, they luckily escaped Death. Eighty five Chinese & 11 English seamen were also plundered & assassinated. I have been obliged to represent this affair in its full suit of Black to my Government and have at the same time declared my intention of going back to Siberia, next April, where I shall await the orders of His Imperial Majesty. ... I leave the place & those miscreants to themselves, from the conviction, that its commerce is ruined forever. In the first place they held their productions two high & paid too low for European commodities, so that, when the allowance of the half duties granted to the importers of sugars shall cease, no french ships will visit the Philippines to pay from 7 to 9 Dollars a pecul for Sugars. The Cadmus, you say will make money. If she does, she will I fancy be the only American ship that profits by its trade to Manilla. All those, who came out last year lost money on the sales of their cargoes, &, from what we hear of prices in America, and on the Continent, they must lose by the returns. But what will give the death blow to the prosperity of the Philippines, is the late horrible massacre. All those french and other foreigners, who were anxious to have established themselves in commerce or on estates in the country, are now frightened off and certainly no one will find himself, confident enough to trust to a Government, which could permit such a massacre to take place, immediately under its eyes, when it had 5,000 men in arms, ready at a minutes notice to disperse the Mob. Thus situated, Manilla offers no chance of profit or Speculation; and I confess, however my hopes and wishes may have been disappointed, I turn from them with disgust & horror, better pleased to be ordered to live, in some remote corner of Siberia, on black bread & salt, than roll in wealth, amidst such an inhuman, illiberal and unchristianlike race of Men. ... I must close my letter by informing you that the Captain General has refused all the applications for indemnification, from those who have been plundered; so that as yet, neither the punishment due to the assassins has been inflicted, nor redress made to the unfortunate people who were robbed." By the kindness of James A. LeRoy, the Editors have in their hands a copy (furnished by Dr. Pardo de Tavera from the original in his possession) of a decree issued by Governor Folgueras (dated at Manila, October 20, 1820), addressed "to the natives of the Filipinas Islands, and especially to those of the district of Tondo," in which he rebukes them severely for thus violating the law of nations, under the influence of "a general frenzy," and "led astray and infuriated by certain malicious persons." He characterizes their belief that the strangers had poisoned the waters as a foolish and absurd notion, which "the mountain Negritos or the Moros of Joló and Mindanao would be ashamed to entertain;" and reminds them that the strangers whom they have plundered and slain were not only friends and brethren, but the very persons on whom the prosperity of the islands must depend, since they supplied a market for the produce of the country. He then presents the report which has been made by an official whom the governor had specially appointed (October 13) to investigate this idea of the foreigners' crime, which is to the following effect: "As the evidence of guilt [cuerpo de delito, the same as the Latin corpus delicti] in the poisoning which is charged, the Indians have brought to us, among the spoils which they plundered from the houses of the Frenchmen, various animals of different forms, and among them a serpent, of quite the usual size, one of those which they call 'house-snakes,' in a dissected state; others, with some little shellfish, preserved in spirits of wine, in a crystal flask; in another, two granos of muriatic baryte; a quantity of Peruvian bark, which in my opinion would weigh about an arroba and a half; and a box of sheet-tin about a vara long, one-fourth as wide, and six dedos thick, in which also was found a mass of insects, but already decaying; and finally, in the house of a woman who had been accused of being an agent of the French for the alleged poisoning, a little package of some black powders in China paper [i.e., rice paper]." The official states that these animal specimens have evidently "no other object than to enrich cabinets of natural history," and could not in any way have been used for injuring human beings. The muriatic baryte was for use in analyzing mineral waters, and was, moreover, useful in various diseases. The Peruvian bark was, as all might know, a useful medicine and had often been helpful in checking the cholera itself. The black powders, it was also decided, were also of medicinal value; and the entire story is characterized as a fiction and delusion. The official regrets that it was believed by so many persons who should have known better than to accept so gross an error; "but it is certain that they did, and, among them, many of the clergy; and with this the delusion attained such power that it has caused the very scandalous deeds which all good persons lament; for it is certain that there is no better way of propagating an error than for persons of authority to adopt it. There is no doubt, it appears, that this foolish idea of poisoning had its origin in the ignorance of the Indians; but there is as little doubt that malicious persons, imposing upon this folly and lack of knowledge in the Indians, incited them to perpetrate the assassinations and robberies of the disastrous days, October 9 and 10." He adds that one of the books brought to him by the Indians, which they had taken from the house of the French naturalist, was filled with sketches of fishes, mollusks, and birds peculiar to the country, which plainly showed that he was only making zoological observations. In view of all these things, Folgueras calls upon the natives to repent of their sin, to surrender to the authorities the instigators of the tumult, to restore to the plundered foreigners what had been stolen from them, and to denounce the authors of the murders, that justice might be done to these evil persons. These exhortations are especially addressed to the inhabitants of Binondo, "which has been the theatre of the most horrible tragedy, and has covered itself with blood and ignominy." This decree is published by Dr. Pardo de Tavera, from the original printed edition, in his Biblioteca filipina, pp. 45-47.
