Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team for Project Gutenberg at
https://www.pgdp.net/







                                Bulletin
                                   of
                            The Free Library
                            of Philadelphia

                                Number 4


                           SOME NOTES ON THE
                          BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE
                              PHILIPPINES


                                   By

               Rev. THOMAS COOKE MIDDLETON, D.D., O.S.A.


                             December, 1900






                            Copyright, 1900,
                                   by
                   The Free Library of Philadelphia.

                                Press of
                        Edward Stern & Co., Inc.
                              Philadelphia






PREFACE.


So many inquiries have been made in the Free Library of Philadelphia
for information concerning the history and literature of the
Philippines, that an earnest effort was made some time ago to gather
together books bearing on these subjects. The fact that a short
catalogue of Philippine literature, prepared by the bibliographer,
W. E. Retana, comprises as many as three thousand separate works,
is a matter known to comparatively few persons, and it was therefore
with considerable interest that the Philobiblon Club of Philadelphia
obtained the promise of the Rev. Thomas Cooke Middleton that he would
read a paper upon the bibliography of the Philippines before the
Club. This Bulletin is a copy of that paper, as read in substance,
and it would have been published several months since but for the
unfortunate loss of the manuscript in the office of the newspaper to
which the author had confided it. In answer to the urgent requests
of the members of the Philobiblon Club, Father Middleton very kindly
re-wrote it and consented that it should be printed by the Free
Library of Philadelphia for the use of the students and patrons of
the Library. An evil fate, however, seemed to pursue the manuscript,
and within four days after it had been completed for the second time
it perished in the great fire which destroyed the printing house of
J. B. Lippincott Co. Once more the author took courage, and again
wrote out the paper, and these facts are recorded both as a matter
of interest, and to explain why this Bulletin has been so long delayed.

A collection of books on the subject of the Philippines is being
gradually accumulated, and it seems desirable both to furnish the
readers in the Library with information upon the subject, and also
to take an opportunity to counteract the popular misapprehension as
to what has been done by the residents of the Philippines in the way
of literature.

Since the collection of works on this subject was commenced the Free
Library has prepared and mimeographed from time to time for the use
of its readers "Finding Lists" of the books on the shelves relating
to the Philippine Islands. The latest of these lists, prepared May 4,
1900, shows that fifty-four volumes have been collected and also gives
references to nearly six hundred magazine articles in the Library.

Possibly one of the most interesting books received in the Library
is the Flora de Filipinas, consisting of four folio volumes of text
(printed in Spanish and Latin on the same page) and two of colored
lithographed plates. It was published at Manila 1877-1883 for the
friars of St. Augustine under the direction of H. Ex. the late
Sebastiano Vidal y Soler, assisted scientifically by the able
botanists, the Rev. Fathers Fr. Andres Naves and Fr. Celestino
Fernández Villar, both of the Augustinian order of friars. It was
composed from manuscripts of the late Father Blanco of the same
order. The plates were drawn and colored from nature by native artists,
and sent to Barcelona where they were lithographed, and after six
hundred copies were printed off, the stones were destroyed. As will
be noticed, in many cases the specimens are given both in fruit and
flower, necessitating in most instances a gathering of the specimens
at distinct seasons of the year.

The book was published as a serial work, two or three parts with four
plates each (with corresponding descriptions) appearing monthly. There
were several stoppages during the printing of the work, caused by
a large fire at one time and an earthquake at another, from both of
which the printing establishment at which the book was being published
suffered. In this manner the time occupied in the publication was
prolonged.

The original editor was Sr. Domingo Vidal, who unfortunately, after
only two or three parts of the work had been given out, was obliged
to leave the Islands on account of poor health. Several months later
he died and his brother, who had assumed the editorship, upon his
departure from Manila, continued the work until it was finished.

The Trustees of the Free Library of Philadelphia desire to express
their thanks to the Rev. Dr. Middleton for the contribution to
bibliography which follows. A short index has been added, which
it is believed will fit the paper for general use. Many thanks are
due to Mr. John Ashhurst for his assistance in this tedious part of
the Bulletin.


    John Thomson.






INTRODUCTORY.


The following pages, embodying a survey (on a broad scale) of the chief
characteristics of Philippine intellectual energy, in its various lines
of art, science, letters, seem an objective worthy of the American
scholar, who, to his own large group of aboriginal tongues at home,
has now to add to his field of study a similarly far-reaching family
of the many-toned dialects of Malaysia,--twenty-seven idioms at least
in number,--according to Retana's tabulation, whereof I give a list
drawn from his latest bibliography of the Philippines, [1] where,
enumerating the various works published in the several dialects in
use in that archipelago, he has summarized them in the following table:


        Bisaya, or Visaya, generic name for Titles.
     1. Cebuano, Isle of Cebú                          |
     2. Panayano, Hiligayno and Harayo, Isle of Panay  | 352
     3. Leyte, or Leite, and Sámar Isles               |
     4. Tagalo, Isle of Luzon                            230
     5. Ilocano, ibid.                                   143
     6. Bícol, or Vícol, ibid.                            61
     7. Pangasinán, ibid.                                 24
     8. Pampango, ibid.                                   22
     9. Ibanag, ibid.                                     15
    10. Moro-Maguindánao                                   8
    11. Cuyono                                             7
    12. Tiruray                                            6
    13. Bagobo                                             3
    14. Aeta, or Negrito, Isle of Negros                   2
    15. Gaddan, Isle of Luzon                              2
    16. Isinay, ibid.                                      2
    17. Joloano                                            2
    18. Manobo, Isle of Mindanao                           2
    19. Tagbanúa, Isle of Paragua                          2
    20. Tino, or Zambale, Isle of Luzon                    2
    21. Batanes, or Vatanes, Isle (of same name)           1
    22. Bilaan                                             1
    23. Bisaya-montés, Isle of Mindanao                    1
    24. Calamiano                                          1
    25. Egongot, or Ilongote, Isle of Luzon                1
    26. Samal                                              1
    27. Tagacaolo                                          1


This bibliography, which we rightly may term wealthy in its two
thousand six hundred and ninety-seven titles [2] of numbered pieces
of literature, besides being based largely on the author's own choice
collection of Philippina, cites also fourteen other bibliographies
of that archipelago. [3]

In his own list of Philippine languages, or branch-tongues, of this
quarter of Malaysia, in all (as he gives them) thirty-seven in number,
some are mentioned, that, except in a broad sense, will not easily
be recognized as members of the distinctively Philippine family; such
as Sanscrit, Chinese, Japanese, Javanese, Nahuatl of Central America,
along with Kanaka or Ponapé, [4] Chamorro and Malgacho, or Malagasy,
as we more familiarly style it, three dialects spoken in lands outside
of the Philippine zone,--of Yap, or Guap, in the eastern Carolines,
the Marianas, or Ladrones, and Madagascar respectively.

Wherefore, subtracting these nine foreign localized idiom-groups along
with Malay (presumably ancestral tongue of the Philippines, as of
other western Polynesian languages), though herein many scholars hold
that Aeta, or Papuan, is mother, I have reduced the idioms peculiar
(in large measure) to that archipelago itself to the number (given
ahead)--twenty-seven.

On this question of race and idiom unity Zúñiga, whom I cite
frequently in this sketch, says that the vocabularies of New Zealand,
New Holland, New Guinea, and part of New Hebrides (gathered by Captain
Cook) were all easily understood by him through his familiarity with
Philippine dialects; that, moreover, from his knowledge of the racial
and linguistic characteristics of nearly all South Sea islanders,
especially of the peoples from Madagascar to Easter Island, including
(he distinctly declares) the natives of the Friendly, or Society
Isles, of the Sandwich and Marquesas groups, he was of opinion that
aboriginal stock of all, in tongue and blood, including even the
natives of Central America, was Aeta, or Papuan, otherwise styled
(in the Philippines) Negrito. [5] As far back as the early part of the
seventeenth century this same question of race and language identity
of the Philippine people was treated by the Jesuit Chirino, of whom we
shall say more further on; then later by another Jesuit scholar, at one
time provincial superior of his society in the Philippines, Francisco
Colín, in his Lavor evangelica, (Madrid, 1663); and by Lorenzo Hervás
y Panduro, a linguist of deserved eminence in the world of letters,
formerly Jesuit. See his Catalogo (in six quarto vols., Madrid,
1800-1805), and you will learn very much about many strange things,
among others, that the theory maintained by the English Wallace,
the German Blumentritt, and later ethnologists, as to the identity of
these Polynesians--Papuans and Malays--perhaps the only one now held
by scholars--is venerably old, by two centuries and more. But really,
in view of the apparently irreconcilable opinions of linguists on
this topic, further discussion of it seems unprofitable.

As concerns the Philippines themselves, neither have their isles
all been numbered, nor their sub-races and branch-idioms classified,
except in what we may style a generic scheme.

Back now to our bibliographer. No study in mere humanities, it seems,
could be more fascinating to your all-round scholar, and more fruitful
especially to anthropologist, than with the guidance of Retana and
other like gifted students of Philippina, to enlarge somewhat on this
bibliographical theme, since in letters chiefly do men of upright mind
find equipment for meditation of spirit, main source of all healthful,
sober, intellectual recreation and work.

Our list of Philippina, as you will notice, although given merely in
outline, embraces in its sweep across the literary horizon of that
quarter of Malaysia many works of recognized merit in the several lines
of intellectual energy--of history, archæology, ethnology, philology
and natural philosophy; books, all of them, which, if perchance not
masterpieces according to the higher standard of Caucasian scholarship,
will yet be acknowledged of much interest, nay, of great value in
the inspiration and development of scientific thought.

In this bibliographical skeleton, then, I shall point out those
sources of information anent the Philippine Islands, wherein the
scholar can best find a general description or history of them, the
most trustworthy works on their very varied and multiform language,
as well as other topics cognate with these. Hence these sub-sections
into which my paper is split: (1) Works of General Information; (2)
Authorities on Philippine Dialects; (3) Some Literary Curios among
Philippina; (4) Philippine Presses; (5) Introduction of Printing into
the Philippines.

First, I name the chief works of reference, [6] of the highest, most
authoritative character, bearing on the distinctive peculiarities of
the Philippines,--works that will be recognized as serviceable to the
general reader and scholar, to him that seeks to learn of the history
of that archipelago, of its antiquities, and characteristics of the
many tribes that people it,--of their customs, religious beliefs,
superstitions and rites; of the fauna, flora, geology of those
islands; in brief, of whatever refers to this part of Malaysia. For
no matter how much the Malay,--Javan, Bornese, Sumatran, as well
as Philippinian--has been civilized--Christianized, so far (as
must be conceded) he has not become Caucasian in mind, nor will, nor
spirit. He remains as he was, (nor any wonder), wholly Asiatic. Albeit,
for three centuries and upwards, taught, ruled, elevated (at times,
too, disedified) by white men, the Malay, or brown man, is not,
perhaps never will be, employed by Europeans, save in very limited
sphere, in wholly subordinate trusts, whether in commerce, trade,
or whatsoever other field of human activity.






I.

WORKS OF GENERAL INFORMATION.


But let us on to our list of works of general reading. Sifting the
treasure-stores of authorities named in Retana and others, I find
the following books of most value and service, whereof, though some
few among them, and for that matter the highest in their respective
classes, are no longer in print, yet these very masterpieces, if
not obtainable by purchase, like many another priceless blessing,
still are worth knowing by title to book-lover and scholar, who,
if perchance he cannot have these repertories of human lore on his
shelves, will know at least by what title to seek them on others.

Of the Philippines and their neighboring archipelagos these works
rank of the highest worth:

The history of Mindanao, Jolo, and their adjacent islands (Madrid,
1667), written by the Jesuit, Francisco Combés--the most ancient
detailed account of that region of Polynesia, known as the Archipelago
del Sur, and invaluable beyond other guides to the ethnologist
especially.

Then an account of the establishment of Christianity in the Marianas
Islands (Madrid, 1670?) similarly the oldest and at the same time most
reliable history of these Ladrones, or robber, islands, so styled by
early Spanish voyagers because of the thievish proclivities of the
natives, every one of them in theory and practice an annexationist and
protectionist to the back-bone, till the Jesuit missionary and scholar,
Diego Luis de Sanvitores, author of this history, rechristened them
Marianas, in honor (according to some chroniclers) of Doña Mariana
of Austria, Queen of Spain, in loving and tenderest-hearted homage
(according to others) of the Blessed Virgin, whose rosary that savant
was wont to recite every day. [7]

Then the story of the various religious missions in the Philippines
entrusted to members of his Society by another Jesuit, Pedro
Murillo Velarde (Manila, 1749), a rare and valuable work, whereof
an accompanying chart, drawn in 1734, should, strictly speaking, be
styled the earliest detailed topographical map of the Philippines. From
the pen of the same scholar issued, too, an historical geography
of that archipelago (Madrid, 1752), of much worth, the same as his
chart, for its scientific details--albeit little known, it seems,
to Philippinologists.

Then we have the rare and deeply interesting history (Madrid, 1756) of
some tribes in Luzon, hardest to convert--the Igorrotes, Tinguianes,
Apayaos and Adanes, four races of Indians in the hill-country of
Ilocos and Pangasinán, in spiritual charge of the Augustinians,
a member of which brotherhood, Manuel Carillo, is the author.

Another book, that because of its manifold literary merit, of
historical accuracy and statistical detail, is styled by Retana
"an historical work par excellence," is the general history of the
Philippines (Sampaloc, 1788-1792), by the Recoleto missionary, Juan
de la Concepción, copious source of varied and valuable information,
wherein--albeit somewhat prolix in style, at times, too, rather
digressive--the author may fairly be said to be without rival.

Then comes the descriptive and historical account of the Marianas
Islands (Madrid, 1875), by Felipe La Corte y Ruano Calderón, the best
work on that little-known archipelago, and a rich source of general
information anent these Malaysian islands.

On the botany of the Philippines, a monumental work of the highest
character is the Philippine Flora (classified according to the sexual
system of Linnæus), by the Augustinian, Manuel Blanco, printed at
Manila, first in 1837, again in 1845, and finally republished a
third time in 1877-1883, in superb style, in four folio volumes of
text in Spanish and Latin, embellished with two volumes of colored
lithographed plates descriptive of the plants, flowers and fruits
of those islands. One of the co-laborers on the third edition of
this Flora was Ignacio Mercado, a Philippine botanist himself, and
professed member of the Augustinian brotherhood.

The same Father Blanco also translated into Tagal the French physician
Tissot's work on medicine, enriched with his own life-long observations
on Philippine plant-lore.

Along with Blanco's Flora should be named the catalogue of fauna
of the Philippines (Manila, 1895-1896), by the Dominican zoologist,
Casto de Elera, an expert in that line of biological science,--a work
in folio (in three volumes) of two thousand three hundred pages and
upwards, termed by Retana not only a monumental work--easily to be
believed--but one unique of its character.

The geology of the islands (Madrid, 1840?), treated by Isidro
Sainz de Baranda, government inspector of mines, besides being well
worth reading, is the earliest study on this topic made on strictly
scientific lines.

Two works, sole representatives of their kind, are named by Retana
as of singular value to the physician not only, but to ethnologist
and scholar especially,--one the Embriologia Sagrada (Manila, 1856),
by the Recoleto missionary Gregorio Sanz, written in aid of his fellow
caretakers of souls, whose services in behalf of suffering humanity in
out-of-the-way districts were often called upon by the natives, whose
practice of the curing art, based on their own traditional formulas,
especially in cases of child-bearing, was, despite the efforts of the
missionary to uproot their unnatural and utterly heathen disregard for
human life, attended too often with destruction of progeny and mother.

The other repository of singular and very curious information is a
treatise in Visaya-Cebuano and Spanish by another Recoleto evangelist,
Manuel Vilches (Manila, 1877), written similarly in benefit of
Indian sick, the Manual, that is, of the Visaya Physician, or native
doctor--mediquillo, as in the Philippines these votaries of Hippocrates
are styled, a work praised by Retana as replete with Indian plant-lore.

The richest and most valuable collection of statistics relating to
the Philippines, so at least acknowledged by experts, more reliable
too than the Spanish government's own work, is the Estado general
of all the pueblos--Christianized settlements--in the islands, drawn
up by the Dominican archbishop of Manila, Pedro Payo (Manila, 1886),
whereof the data were gathered by his vicars-forane and parochial-cures
throughout the archipelago. While the most artistic map of Luzon,
so styled by Retana, is the chart of that island (Madrid, 1883),
published in four sheets by Enrique D'Almonte y Muriel.

With mention of two other authors I close this section of
Philippina,--one the history of the islands, or rather a detailed
account of his travels therein, by the Augustinian scholar and
voyager Joaquín Martínez de Zúñiga (Sampaloc, 1803), a work known by
its Spanish title as Estadismo de las Filipinas o mis viajes, which,
translated into English by John Maver, was published in London in 1814;
and lately edited by Retana himself at Madrid in 1893.

As will be easily apparent to even the most cursory reader, Zúñiga's
travels, critical throughout in spirit, display on well nigh every
page the results of keen observation of affairs during his wanderings,
combined moreover with sober reflections on the character and condition
of the various races of people of the chief Philippine islands.

In acknowledgment of its scientific worth, Retana has enriched Zúñiga's
history (in the edition just noted) with twelve scholarly appendices
replete with copious erudition, among other topics on the ethnography
and geography of the islands; on animals, plants, and minerals. In
these appendices, too, will be found copious bibliographies on special
topics, as trade, commerce, the não de Acapulco, taxation, finance,
and the like.

And,--I feel that attention shall be called thereto, first because
the subject itself is deeply interesting to lovers especially of
folk-lore, then again, because commonly much misunderstood,--in one
of his appendices to Zúñiga (ii *66-*83), Retana has reproduced some
twenty-five pages of a Pangasinán Charm Book, covered with strange
words--jumbles, most of them, of mutilated Church Latin, with crosses
and queer-looking symbols. This charm-book in MS. (as are all its
fellows), whereof copies without count are circulated among the lowest,
most superstitious classes of islanders--Indians and meztizos, that is,
Spaniard, or Chinese, mixed with native,--is wont to be worn around
the neck, in the disguise of a Catholic scapular, as safeguard to
the wearer against perils of any kind, chiefly the knife, or bullet,
of his enemy. Again,--I am quoting Retana, who gives his own personal
experiences in Luzon,--so jealously and closely (he says) do these
Indian charm-bearers guard their secret heathenish practice from their
missionaries, who, for ages, albeit not always with good result, have
been striving to detach their wards from such superstitious usages,
that the same scholar and curio-hunter, despite his keenest research
in Luzon, has never been able to catch even a glimpse but of three
of these pagan scapularies, the ones shown to him by a Dominican
missionary, Father Casimiro Lafuente, for many years cure at the
pueblo of Santa Barbara, in Pangasinán, now (1893) a member of the
house of his brotherhood at Avila, in Spain. Moreover, it appears,
from the same Retana, that Father Lafuente, so many years resident
in the islands, had never succeeded in unearthing other scapularies
than these self-same three.

Many other forms of heathenism, some of them not even yet wholly banned
from the Philippines, the reader will find described in another of
Retana's works--de Aniterías (Madrid, 1894).

Zúñiga also tells all worth knowing of the abominable rites practised
among Luzonians,--of their Nonos, Duendes, the Pag-Papasipin, Tigbalag,
Patianac, Bongsol, and Bilao. Much of what he says regarding the
attachment of these peoples to unclean and impious ceremonies he
has gathered from that rarest of books--one copy only believed to
be extant, at the colonial museum of the Augustinians at Valladolid
(in Spain), the Práctica (Manila, 1731), of Father Tomás Ortiz,
one-time missionary of that brotherhood in China, then for thirty
years resident in Luzon, where he died in 1742.

Better, however, consult Zúñiga himself, [8] and the notes thereon by
Retana, who singularly has failed to insert Ortiz' Práctica in his
Biblioteca, and you will find much of interest;--among other things
about tattooing, common practice at one time among all Polynesians,
the same as among our own aborigines, until taught more refined ways
by Christian missionaries; and about wakes too,--solemn ceremonials
of grief, with banquetting and chants--on the occasion of the death
of kindred. [9]

Anent these and similar breaches of the Divine commands against
Satanism, it is surprising (I would observe) to reflect how many
forms of spirit and idol-worship [10] are (to their degradation
be it said) common with Malaysian and Caucasian. (See in our own
periodicals, published presumably by bright-minded, clean-souled
Christian philosophers, yes, see in these oracles of our fireside,
advertisements of magicians, diviners, fortune-tellers, charm-workers,
not to speak of other law breakers, whose mere self-interest seems
to have dulled all true intellective sense.)

The last authority on general topics I name here as invaluable as
well as deeply interesting to the scholar is the Encyclopedia (in
two volumes) of the Augustinian travelers, Manuel Buzeta and Felipe
Bravo (Madrid, 1851)--a work replete with most varied information
along with statistics, now, of course, out of date, on the ethnology,
geography, topography, dialects, customs and rites of the aborigines
in the Philippine archipelago.

Barring, as is only fair, any eulogy on the antiquated features of
this Encyclopedia, which yet will be recognized of much service to
the historian, the writer himself, who herein is supported among
others by Retana, would style this monument of varied scholarship
and research a masterpiece of all-round learning; within its lines
an indispensable guide to every Philippinologist.

Such, then, are the books most trustworthy and serviceable in their
respective fields of history, antiquities, ethnology, and other
sciences relating to Philippina.

Before leaving this subject to dwell on Philippinian linguistics,
I venture a brief digression on a class of works of general historic
character--repertories of all ethnic science, little known, however,
albeit to their serious disadvantage, to most students, and prized only
by your true-hearted book-lover, who has sense to value what he reads
for its own worth mainly, not because stamped with popular approval.

These are annals of the religious brotherhoods in the East, to
be recognized in Retana and other catalogues under the various
titles of chronicles--sometimes as Conquistas, a by no means
unfamiliar term--stories, that is, of the conquest of heathendom,
woven oftentimes, no doubt, as recreation by the missionary amid
his cares; sometimes as relief from thoughts of his far-away native
land--journals, as it were, drawn up by the wanderer, who, besides
being traveler, usually was a more or less keen-eyed observer, at home
wherever Providence sent him; where, too, he studied (for self-interest
was also at stake) whatever regarded the natives in his care--the
lands they dwelt in, the skies above them, the waters around them.

Scholars such as these on life-long service in their foreign homes
were wont to make themselves conversant with every characteristic
of the natives--with the language first of all, then the legends,
poetry, chants; with the traditions and customs of the people, the
industries and sports of their dusky-hued friends and brothers.

As a rule, these plain, simply-told recitals of matters of fact,
chronicle among other curios of literature, all kinds of even the
most out-of-the-way learning anent the races of men; of plants and
animals, of the various oftentimes most singular phenomena of air,
earth, and water--subjects, all of them, of eagerest quest on the
part of scientist, ethnologist, linguist, philosopher, naturalist.

These stories, albeit at times verbose, at others digressive,
will be acknowledged by the honest-minded critic as rich, indeed,
in many-sided lore, enough to repay amply whatever time or trouble
you have spent in their reading.

With the exception of one collection of missionary annals--the
Relations of the Jesuits in North America; now being edited by
Reuben Gold Thwaites, Secretary of the State Historical Society of
Wisconsin--I know of no exact counterpart in the field of English
literature to these delightful narratives of old-time missionary
travelers, Maver's translation of Zúñiga's Estadismo, in 1814, being
not only out of print, but I suppose unpurchasable.

With the aid of such monuments as these--all original records of
old-time conquistadores and their fellow-missionaries in the Americas,
it has resulted (to the delight and blessing of students) that the
cyclopedias of Americana (thirty nine volumes of them), wherein you
will find enshrined whatever is worthy of preservation in the various
chequered cycles of aboriginal and Spanish polity and art, massed
together by the Western historian Bancroft, are veritably invaluable to
the antiquarian, besides being wholesome and refreshing food for men of
intellective genius, as therein, along with abundant matter for romance
and epic, you will see unraveled and laid bare many a drama of life.






II.

AUTHORITIES ON PHILIPPINE DIALECTS.


Now a few words anent the chief authorities on Philippine
linguistics--treatises, namely, bearing on the various dialects
employed in that archipelago, twenty-seven in number, as observed
ahead, all, however, akin in their common stock--Malay, of which these
idioms, or patois, are daughters, yet with countless, sharply-marked
differences between one another.

A working knowledge of the many fashions of speech so much needed
as obvious, nay, indispensable to traveler or missionary, will be
gained most quickly and thoroughly, it should be premised, from books
of two-fold character,--(1) namely, from grammars and dictionaries
of the several idioms, based on scientific rules of philology; then
(2) from devotional works--books of Christian piety, very numerous
in the Philippines, as are religious manuals, prayer-, sermon-,
and confession-books, whereof titles abound in Retana, all pretty
much from the busy pen of missionaries themselves, to whose zeal
and ability in the instruction of their brown and black many-tongued
wards is due largely, nay, wholly, whatever of humanizing, Christian
character is found in Malaysia, as in fact is true also in other
countries now civilized and enlightened, albeit once barbarian.

In his latest bibliography, [11] where the number of published
works in each of the twenty-seven dialects of the Philippines is
set down by Retana, you will observe from a study of his lists, that
though in many dialects there are no grammars so entitled, or other
scientific aids to learning a given idiom, yet there are many works
of religious cast printed therein,--hand-books of practical religion,
which you will find useful beyond measure to linguists. Since from
these prayer-books, wherein are set down plainly the simplest and
commonest rules of Christian ethical conduct, you can easily gather
a working knowledge of the language itself, as the missionary who
composed them was careful to put matters of every-day interest in the
plain, every-day speech of the islanders. Before closing this brief
digression on manuals of piety, I must observe what will prove very
useful, I judge, to the scholar, that with works of the first class,
as grammars and dictionaries, is to be associated on shelf and desk
a goodly number of works of another class--books and treatises that
bear the name Arte = Aids to Learning, whereof you will encounter
very many in Retana.

The Arte of a given dialect, as will be found true also in a measure
for grammars and other school-manuals, will be recognized as a
compendium of not only literary rules, but of many practical maxims of
daily life, whereby the pupils are urged not only to correct speech,
but to upright conduct as well through sobriety, piety to the Supreme
Being, obedience to rulers, respect for parents and fellows, according
to the noblest ideals of refined Christian manhood and womanhood. Thus,
with grammar were taught ethics; with politics, religion.

Referring here to class-books in the Philippines, where from
the earliest years of the conquest every pueblo had its school of
primary instruction, it will not be irrelevant to point out the fact
very stoutly that though education (as admitted by well-nigh every
chronicler) was primitive in character,--and in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries where was it not? yet the course of instruction
given in the common schools of bamboo-thatch was (as results amply
testify) deep and solid enough for the intellectual calibre of the
people. Since, so far as known, Malaysia, however saintly, heroic,
innocent, the same as our own aborigines, albeit now civilized
for three centuries and upwards, has, despite the heartiest aid
in teachers and funds, fairly lavished on them by Church and state,
turned out no man of shining mark, no scholar, no artist, no genius in
statecraft or commerce. The first college-institution with pretensions
to higher courses of intellectual training was opened (formally at
least) by the Jesuits in 1601, less than half a century, that is,
after the arrival of Europeans in Luzon.

In regard to common Indian schools, so zealously guarded by the
Leyes de las Indias, I have picked up here and there from old-time
chroniclers scraps of many ordinances passed by the crown relative to
their foundation and conduct. Among them the following bits of quaint
old-fashioned oversight of the dominies in charge. Thus, in 1754, I
have read that each maestro of a mission-school was to get, in lieu
of support, "a peso and one caban--a measure--of rice a month." (A
caban was equal to 75 litres, about the same number of quarts,
English.) Again, every mission-priest was called upon to supply (free
to his pupils) "paper and ink." Moreover, as early as the beginning of
the century just closing, in 1817, it was ordained that boys' schools
were to be kept on the ground-floor of the mission-house; while the
girls were to be taught at their mistress' home. (Malaysia--thus it
was ordained--was not to experiment with the "co-educational theory.")

Now for the promised works of chief authority on Philippine
linguistics,--monuments of the various dialects of that archipelago,
that, along with their purely technical value to the student of idioms,
will be acknowledged as useful to scholars in even far different
lines of intellectual play.

Of the best works for the study of Visaya, or Bisaya, first dialect
in the islands acquired by missionary and conquistador, wherein he
gives 352 titles (p. xxix), Retana has the following: "Up to a few
years ago the dictionary held in highest repute by linguists was the
work of the Augustinian scholar Alonso de Méntrida," a vocabulary of
the Hiligueina, or Hiligayno, and Haraya tongues--two of the three
chief dialects spoken in Panay, not very different from the Visaya
of Cebú, used, however, by the less cultured tribes of hillsmen in
that island. This vocabulary, first printed in 1637, and in 1841
republished at Manila, with diagrams of Indian alphabets, enlarged in
another edition in 1842, by a brother missionary, Julián Martín, has
now been supplanted by the Visaya-Spanish dictionary (in two volumes),
of another Augustinian scholar, Juan Félix de la Encarnación, printed
at Manila, first, in 1851-1852, then in 1866 and again in 1885.

Another work deserving of praise is the Arte of the Visaya idiom
in use in the islands of Sámar and Leite (Binondo, 1872), composed
by the Franciscan traveler, Antonio Figuerroa, in which latter
language--Leite, that with slight changes is similar to Cebuano,
the first grammar was published by the Jesuit missionary, Domingo
Ezquerra, in 1662.

Helpful, too, as much as the former Arte in philology is the Christian
Doctrine translated into Visaya-Cebuano by the Recoleto scholar and
orator, Tomás de San Jerónimo, known to his contemporaries as "the
Cicero of Cebú." His school-book re-issued at Binondo in 1876 is a
reprint of his edition of 1731.

Of the Tagal dialect,--a form of speech so hard to acquire with nicety
that, according to a Spanish saying, one needs therefor "un año de
arte y dos de bahaque," [12] that is to say, unless I am wrong in
my interpretation of the last word--"bahaque" which likely is Aeta,
the scholar needs "a year of study and two of practice."

The earliest Tagal Arte, so styled in chronicles, for what with the
universal destructive touch of time, and in Luzon especially, the
voracity of that pest of librarians, the anay,--an ant that in a few
hours, it is said, will devour a library,--cases as well as books,
not a sole copy, apparently, has survived, was composed in 1580
by the Augustinian voyager and missionary, Agustín de Albuquerque,
fourth superior of his brotherhood in the Philippines, and printed
at Manila in 1637.

In Tagal the works most highly praised are the following: The Critical
Treatise on Tagalisms (Mexico, 1742), by the Franciscan linguist,
Melchior Oyanguren, the only work known wherein that tongue is
contrasted on scientific lines with the classic Latin, Greek, and
Hebrew, and Mandarin Chinese. The author was moved to prepare his
manual for the instruction of his brother missionaries prior to their
entrance into their field of work in Luzon.

The Tagal dictionary, by the Jesuit missionary, Juan de Noceda, and
others of his society (Manila, 1754), a lexicographical treasure,
was reprinted at Valladolid in 1836, and (in its most highly-prized
form) again, in 1860, at Manila, with valuable additions by some
Augustinian experts.

For the scholar unacquainted with Latin, the most serviceable work
for learning Tagal is the Essay on Tagal Grammar (Manila, 1878),
composed by the Recoleto missionary and linguist, Toribio Minguella de
la Merced, whose Grammar (in the same language) for the use of children
(Manila, 1886) was adopted for schools by the Spanish government.

While another helpful work for the study of that same dialect is the
Tagal catechism, by the Augustinian, Luis de Amezquita, a popular
booklet, first printed in 1666, and (in its thirteenth edition)
in 1880, at Manila.

A rare and precious treatise, praised for its critical spirit, is
the study on Tagal poetry--a compendium of that dialect reprinted
at Sampaloc in 1787, from the first edition of 1703; and again at
Manila, in 1879, by another member of the same brotherhood, Gaspar de
San Agustín, author, besides, of one of the most valued Conquistas,
or histories of the islands.

For the study of Tagal refrains--for this people is ballad-lover to
the core--and similar turns of speech, an excellent work, one unique
of its kind, is the Colección (Guadalupe, 1890), by two well-known
Franciscan linguists, Gregorio Martín and Mariano Martínez Cuadrado.

The Tagal Arte (Sampaloc, 1745), along with a manual (also in Tagal)
for the administration of the Sacraments, composed by the Franciscan
missionary, Sebastián de Totanes, "is" (according to our bibliographer)
"the best edition of the best grammar" written by missionaries of
that order.

In Ilocano, another of the unnumbered dialects of Luzon, there is a
good dictionary (Manila, 1849), by the Augustinian scholar, Andrés
Carro (aided by others of his brotherhood)--the first work of its
kind, reprinted only a few years ago, in 1888. Serviceable, too, for
the study of the same dialect--Ilocano--as doubtless easy to obtain,
is the Catecismo, by another member of that same order, Francisco López
(Manila, 1877), whereof editions fairly without number have issued.

In Batanes, or Vatanes, a dialect used in the islets north of Luzon,
mission-field of the Dominicans, hard to reach, nor easy at best to
live in, is composed the Catechism of the Christian Doctrine (Manila,
1834), by a missionary of that order--the only work, perhaps, printed
in that language, wherein Retana states he is about to edit a grammar
and dictionary. In his Biblioteca (p. 51) he gives the Ave Maria in
Batanes, Ibanag and Ilocano, in order to show (he says) the diversities
between these idioms.

The Pampanga Arte (Manila, 1729), by the Augustinian, Diego Bergaño, an
estimable aid to the would-be learner of that language, was reissued at
Sampaloc in 1736. By the same author is a dictionary of Pampanga--the
only work of its class, printed at Manila, first in 1732, and again
in 1860.

In the Ibanag tongue, otherwise Ibanay or Cagayan, the dictionary by
the Dominican linguist, José Bugarín, and companions (Manila, 1854),
we have what Retana styles a masterpiece of philological craft,
"the first and (in fact) only vocabulary of that dialect" whereof
of all Philippine tongues "the orthography is the most difficult to
manage." In another place, however (p. 102), he has named another
Ibanag dictionary (Manila, 1867), constructed from Dominican MSS.,
to which similarly (by error I suppose) he has awarded seniority of
press. Prior to the above date--1854--in that vast region of Cagayan,
where, by the way, is grown the choicest tobacco in the Philippines,
the missionaries, for generation and generation of island-pupils had
relied wholly on MS. copies of Padre Bugarín's dictionary.

In Pangasinán, or Caboalan, dialect used in the province of the
same name in Luzon, we have another linguistic treasure--the Arte
of Mariano Pellicer, of the same brotherhood, reprinted at Manila,
in 1862, from the edition of 1690, whereof in the course of time,
as writers tell us, it came to pass that up to about the middle of
the present century only one copy survived. Then re-cast by Pellicer,
in 1840, it was re-published by him some twenty years later.

Of the Cuyona dialect I note two works of merit,--one (p. 113) an
explanation of the Christian Doctrine (Manila, 1871), by the Recoleto
missionary, Pedro Gibert de Santa Eulalia, edited by the Dominican
Mariano Cuartero, first bishop of St. Isabel, or Elizabeth, of Jaro,
in the island of Panay, one of the four suffragans of Manila, an
industrious scholar, editor of many works in Indian dialects, whom the
reader, however, is not to confound with another prelate of the same
name, Recoleto bishop of Nueva Segovia, in Luzon, nephew of the former,
who, in this one respect, was like his uncle--author of no book:
while the other Cuyona treasure, whereof there are very few in that
language, ("poquisimos libros," says Retana, p. 230), seven titles
in all comprising the bibliography of that tongue, is the Plan of
Religion (Manila, 1886), by the same industrious and scholarly Gibert.

In the Gaddan idiom, wherein only two books have been printed,
both very devotional in character, is a Catechism (Manila, 1833),
and the Pathway to Heaven (ib., 1873), by Dominican missionaries in
the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya and Isabela, in Luzon.

In the Aeta language of the Negritos, or little black men, perhaps the
primitive race of the Philippines--whose name I have encountered in
many forms of spelling, as Ata, Ataa, Aeta, Agta, Aita, Ita, Itaa,
[13] there are similarly, only two works known to Retana, whose
bibliographical notices have been of so much value,--one a Report
on the Philippine Islands (Paris, 1885), addressed to the French
Minister of Public Instruction by J. Montano, a book of over two
hundred and nine pages, illumined with numerous phototypes, and,
what renders it of exceptional value, enriched with vocabularies,
"the first," Retana declares, in Aeta, Bilaan, Manobo (of the natives
of Mindanao), Sámal and Tagacaolo dialects.

As companion volume to the above, though far smaller in bulk, is a
little treatise (Dresden, 1893), of double authorship, the German
A. B. Meyer giving therein a very interesting Aeta vocabulary, and
his Dutch co-laborer, H. Kern, a comparative study of the same tongue,
which he traces to Malay ancestry.

For the study of Chamorro, idiom of the Marianas Islands, one
will find serviceable the little book of devotions (Manila, 1887),
with counsels for the worthy reception of the Sacraments of God,
(p. 248)--the only work, in fact, we have in this dialect, by the
Recoleto linguist and traveler, Aniceto Ibáñez del Carmen.

Finally, with three other samples of the Philippine press as proofs
of the variety of its polyglot fonts, and I shall have done with this
digression on the many languages used in this part of Polynesia,--one
a grammar in the dialect of Yap or Guap (p. 248), in the western
Caroline archipelago (Manila, 1888), composed apparently by the
Capuchin missionary, Ambrosio de Valencia; the second (p. 332)
a Hispano-Kanaka dictionary (Tambóbong, 1892), by another Capuchin
wanderer, according to Retana, Agustín María de Ariñez. While the
last, a work, as will readily be acknowledged, of interest as well
as importance to ethnologists, linguists, Americanists especially,
is the list of Nahuatlisms of Costa Rica (San José de Costa Rica,
1892), by Juan Fernández Ferraz, a goodly-sized volume of over two
hundred pages, wherein, on purely linguistic grounds, the author
has maintained the kinship of our own Central Americans and the
Philippinians, from the fact especially that in the respective
countries of these two antipodal peoples, abound very many terms of
every-day use, with identical spelling and meaning. In his Biblioteca
(p. 340), Retana has gathered a few of these homonyms and synonyms.

Such, then, are the chief authorities on language among our Philippina
that, while entertaining, nay instructing the philologist, will
delight also the general student, the writers whereof, as the reader
will not be slow to observe, were in far larger number all churchmen
and missionaries.

In fact, of the 1142 authors, whose works he has enumerated
(Biblioteca, xxxv-xxxvi), Retana states that four hundred and sixty-six
are ecclesiastics, that is, ninety-eight secular clergymen and three
hundred and sixty-eight members of religious brotherhoods, whereof
the Augustinians--the writer's own order--numbering one hundred and
forty-one authors, inclusive of thirty-seven Recoletos--the bare-footed
branch of that fraternity--figure highest. Next in rank, we have one
hundred Dominicans, then fifty-seven Jesuits, fifty-six Franciscans,
and fourteen authors of orders not specified.

Of these brotherhoods, who thus in Malaysia, as in other quarters
of the globe, brought forth so brilliant an array of scholars and
philanthropists, the first-named, the Augustinians, with Legazpi,
crossing two oceans and one continent therefore, found a home in the
Philippines at the conquest of that archipelago in 1565; in 1577 the
first Franciscans reached the isles; in 1581, the Dominicans, with
the first bishop of Manila (by actual possession), Domingo Salazar,
member of the same brotherhood, accompanied too by some Jesuits,
while the Recoletos first crossed the Pacific in 1611.

These churchmen, with very few exceptions Spanish, with later on a
sprinkling of Portuguese, Dutchmen, Germans, Italians and Irishmen,
scholars, as a rule, of fair repute, some even of European eminence,
from their advent into Polynesia, besides their care in implanting
Christian altruism, wherewith only (as history attests) thrive
science and art, have toiled ever since to imbue these islanders,
whom they found heathen--without letters, laws, or settled abode--with
learning, the arts of husbandry, building, carving, painting, weaving,
and the like graces of intellectual grandeur--in brief, with whatever
of civilization now marks Malaysian genius.

From Manila, as centre of intellectual enlightenment for all
eastern Asiatic and Polynesian lands in the sixteenth century, were
transplanted the germs of philanthropy--of wisdom and charity--to
Borneo, the Carolines, Moluccas, as well as the mainland of Asia,
to China and Japan, while in India the Portuguese, with headquarters
at Goa, fulfilled the same destiny as their Iberian brothers.

Speaking of the heroism of these self-exiled churchmen and worshipers
of the Christian Minerva in Asiatic tropics, I quote the words of
the famed French savant, Elisée Reclus, a witness, by the way, in no
measure partial to cloister life. In his Universal Geography [14]
he declares that "Los Filipinos son de los pueblos mas civilizados
del Extremo Oriente. Los han civilizado los frailes"--that is,
"The Philippines are one of the most civilized people of the Far
East. The friars have civilized them."






III.

SOME LITERARY CURIOS AMONG PHILIPPINA.


Among the curios of artistic and literary cast, your bright-minded
reader, if on the alert to spy anything deserving of notice, will find
here and there in Retana's pages enshrined many a bit of out-of-the-way
information. The following half dozen or so of oddities will probably
be acknowledged, not unworthy of mention among these Philippina:

They are La Razon: A Plea Against Certain Vexatious Encroachments of
the Crown on Mexican and Manila Trade, by José Nuño de Villavicencio
(Sampaloc, 1737), which bears on its cover the most tasty design by
Philippine burin--a plate illustrative of the contents of the Plea,
engraved by Francisco Suárez, a Tagal artist.

El Cosmopolita--The Cosmopolitan--(Manila, 1895-1896), the first
periodical (p. 458), with phototypes, published in the islands.

The first Almanac and Guide-Book for strangers and travelers, with
a Map of the Archipelago, was issued at Manila for the year 1834.

The newspaper--El Ilocano--a bi-weekly, published in Spanish and
Ilocano at Manila (p. 464), from 1889 to 1896 (?) was the first
periodical written in Indian dialect.

Again, another periodical--El Hogar (p. 464), The Fireside--a
weekly, of 16 pages, started at Manila in 1892, under the direction
of Madam Amparo Gómez de la Serna, was the first paper devoted
to science, letters, beaux-arts, and useful information published
almost exclusively in the interests of women, while the Revista de
Filipinas (p. 132), a bi-weekly, that, starting at Manila in 1875,
lived only two years, is the worthiest of Philippine periodicals,
noticeable chiefly for the deeply scientific cast of its papers.

The Romancero Filipino, a work of fancy (Manila, 1892), by Manuel
Romero Aquino, is styled (p. 554) by Retana the neatest and best
piece of work by Philippine pen.

While The American Soldier, a four-page daily newspaper, whereof
the opening number is dated Manila, September 10, 1898, is the
first periodical, maybe print of any sort, in the English language,
published in the islands.

With the foregoing extravaganzas of literature we note that the series
of Philippine periodicals, which in Retana's own collection number
(he says) one hundred and twelve, in their entirety do not surpass
one hundred and sixty. Of his own he gives the titles (Biblioteca,
xxiii-xxviii) from Del Superior Gobierno, the first newspaper issued
in the islands, with the imprint of Manila, August 8, 1811, down to
the latest--Thé Kon Leche (Tea and Milk)--a four-page weekly satirical
periodical, with illustrations (in two colors), published at Manila
in 1898.

The oldest piece of what we may style distinctively Philippine
literature, whereof, moreover, only one copy is believed to be extant,
albeit printed abroad in Europe, is an Account of Legazpi's Expedition
from Mexico to Cebú in 1565, sent from Seville to one Miguel Salvador,
of Valencia, and printed one year later at Barcelona. This Copia--thus
entitled in Retana--heads his list of Philippina, a study of which,
with the supplement (p. 505 et seq.), discloses the fact that of
the books that head his Biblioteca, the first nineteen were printed
abroad--eighteen in Europe; that is, nine in Spain, at Barcelona,
Madrid, Burgos, Valencia and Seville; seven in Italy, at Rome, Genoa
and Venice; one each in France, at Paris, and in Flanders, at Antwerp
("Amberes" in the Spanish), where a Mendoza's History of China was
printed in 1596, by Bellero; and the nineteenth in Mexico.

The first fruit itself of the Philippine press--thus styled by Retana,
though mistakenly, we judge--was the Spanish-Japanese Dictionary of
1630, on which I will make some remarks when treating of the early
Philippine press.

Moreover, it is noticeable that of these earliest Philippina not one of
them treats distinctively of religious matters, but--with the exception
of two, Fragoso's and Acosta's Botanies, or works on Eastern flora--are
wholly historical in character, embracing, as they do, along with the
Copia of 1566, eleven editions of the still estimable history of China
and other Asiatic lands, by the Augustinian traveler, Juan González
de Mendoza, whereof the Roman edition (by Vincenzo Acolti in 1585)
gives plates illustrative of Chinese typographical symbols--the first
shown to Europeans. Of this history, it may be observed, thirty-eight
editions have appeared in all--in Latin, Spanish, Italian, French,
German, Dutch, and English. Among these early Philippina--to continue
our analysis--is a history of that archipelago, by the Franciscan
chronicler, Marcelo de Ribadeneyra; a report on the same islands, by
the Jesuit scholar, Pedro Chirino--the first work of its kind published
in Europe (Rome, 1604), with diagrams of Philippine characters--signs,
namely, employed by the natives in writing, whereof, says Retana,
"a miserable edition" was printed at Manila in 1890. Then follow
other works, among them a story of the conquest of the Moluccas, one
of the sixteenth century names of the Philippines, a work of utmost
value to the historical writer, composed by the presbyter, Bartolomé
Leonardo de Argensola (Madrid, 1609); then a trustworthy account of
the triumph of Spanish arms in the Philippines, by Antonio de Morga,
auditor-general of the crown in those colonies, printed in Mexico in
1609; and lastly the report of Governor Francisco Guzman de Tello,
eleventh captain-general of those islands (Seville, 1598?).

The two merely scientific works, alluded to ahead, are "Discourses on
Aromatic Things--Plants, Fruit, and the like simple Medicines employed
in the East Indies," composed by Juan Fragoso, a rare and curious work
(Madrid, 1572); and a Treatise on the Drugs and Medicines used in the
East Indies, with plates representing various plants, by Cristóbal
Acosta, published first in Spanish at Burgos in 1578; in Latin (in
two editions) in 1582 and 1593; in French (also in two editions)
in 1602 and 1619; lastly in English in 1604.






IV.

PHILIPPINE PRESSES.


Now for a description of the different printing-presses--or, rather,
places--in the Philippines, from the earliest named by Retana in his
Biblioteca, in all fourteen distinct localities, where printing was
carried on in the three islands of Luzon, Panay and Cebú.

1.--From an analysis of the titles I find that Manila ranks earliest,
where (with limitations to be set later) a printing-press was
established in 1630, in which year, at the Dominican College of
St. Thomas, a Spanish-Japanese dictionary, the work of Portuguese
Jesuit missionaries and scholars, now translated into Spanish, was
printed by Tomás Pinpin, a native Tagal, and Jacinto Magaurlua. This
dictionary (now extremely rare), even though not the first book
printed in the islands, as stated by Retana, must yet be ranked among
the earliest specimens of Philippine literature.

In his Bibliography three different titles (we may observe) bear
the imprint of Manila, with the name of this city spelled according
to the ancient aboriginal form, albeit but slightly varied from
the present--"Maynila"--otherwise, as I have read it, "Mainilla,"
a variant in orthography one encounters in old chronicles--a Tagal
word (it seems) signifying a species of shrub or bush, in the Spanish
rendered arbusto, that in 1571 was found to cover the site of the new
city projected by the conquistadores, under the leadership of Miguel
López de Legazpi.

In this same year, it may be added, the site of the future metropolis
of Malaysia was taken possession of by Spanish arms, with due
observance of ceremonial, sealed with the three local chieftains,
[15] Lacandola, Matandá and Soliman, by blood-bargain--pacto de
sangre. [16] Here, too, at Manila, the second church in Malaysia
devoted to the Supreme Being, the first having been founded at Cebú,
was dedicated the same year (1571) to God, under the most fitting title
of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle, first great missionary to
heathendom. At Cebú, by agreement with Chief Tupas, the standard of
Christian comity--the Cross--had been reared in 1565, and its church
dedicated in honor of St. Michael Archangel, name-saint of Legazpi,
though shortly after rechristened El Santo Niño--the Holy Child--its
title to-day.

The three works then printed at "Maynila," or Bush Town, in Luzon,
are a Manual of Devotions to St. Roch, translated into Tagal by the
Augustinian missionary, Esteban Diez, a skilled Tagalist, in 1820;
a periodical--the Revista Católica--whereof the first and only number
(p. 309) was issued in 1890; and lastly, a weekly paper (the same as
the former) in Tagal, published in 1896.

2.--The second place to witness the establishment of a press
was Sampaloc, in Zambales province, in Luzon, where, in 1736,
at the Franciscan convent of Our Lady of Loreto, was printed the
Augustinian Diego Bergaño's Arte, in Pampanga--first fruit, it seems,
of typographical genius in that pueblo. While the last imprint with the
name of Sampaloc is an almanac, or church calendar, for the year 1838
(more probably, however, printed the year ahead), when the old press,
founded by Franciscan friars a hundred years before, disappears.

3.--At Tayabas, in the province of the same name, in Luzon (p. 31),
was printed a Tagal dictionary, by the Franciscan, Totanes, now
supplanted, however, by Noceda's far superior work on philological
score, especially with the additions made thereto by the Augustinians
in the Manila edition of 1860. This Tayabas imprint is the only work
I have encountered with the name of that pueblo.

4.--The first Cavite imprint (p. 38) dates (it seems) from 1815--a
church calendar for the following year; while the last, with the
name of this Manila suburb written, however, with a K--"Kavite"--is
an appeal of the revolutionary party in 1898 (p. 451), under the
official seal of the Gobierno Dictatorial de Filipinas.

5.--Binondo is the fifth place, whereof the first work--statistical
reports of Franciscan missionaries--was printed in 1865; the last,
José Patricio Clemente's Moral Lectures for Youth (p. 540), in
1872. In regard, however, to this town, it should be observed that
in his earlier bibliography (ed. 1893) Retana names a work printed
by Pinpin in the Hospital of St. Gabriel, at Binondo, in 1623.

6.--At Vigan, the old Villa Fernandina of the Ilocos, known also to
Spaniards as Nueva Segovia, a city founded in the sixteenth century
by Juan Salcedo, one of the captains under Legazpi, and so christened
by him in memory of his native place in Spain, but now known as Lalo,
or Lal-lo,--here was started a Sunday newspaper, El Eco de Vigan,
published in Ilocano in 1883, that died, however, a year after birth.

7.--In Iloilo (on the island of Panay) was printed, in 1885, the
pastoral letter of Alejandro Arrué, Recoleto bishop of St. Isabel,
or Elizabeth, of Jaro.

8.--Then comes Guadalupe, eighth place on our list, a sanctuary village
on the left bank of the river Tasig, a couple of leagues from Manila,
a shrine founded by Augustinians in 1601, in honor of St. Nicholas,
the wonder-worker of Tolentino, a place visited yearly by great numbers
of Chinese Confucians, as well as Christians, who hold that saint in
highest and most singular veneration. At Guadalupe, in 1886, issued
two works from the orphanage press--An Abridgment of the Christian
Doctrine of Pouguet and Fleuri, drawn up in Bisaya by Father Mateo
Pérez, Augustinian cure of Argao; and Lozano's Novena to St. Thomas
of Villanova. The last imprint of Guadalupe--a Tagal Catechism, by
Luis de Amezquita, a brother missionary of Pérez--bears the date 1890.

9.--The earliest sample of Cebú print--the island where, under
Legazpi, three centuries earlier, civilization first found a footing in
Malaysia--is a work that elicits from Retana remarkable praise, in view
of the difficulties that attended its printing; the paper--such was the
dearth in the Visayas of proper material for good press-work--being
of five or six different qualities in body, make, color. This work,
that I think we may style a triumph of adaptive art, is the Ensayo
para una Galería de Asturianos ilustres, a genealogical monument
(in three volumes), by the Augustinian antiquary, Fabiáno Rodríguez,
begun in 1888 and completed in 1893. While the last Cebú imprint,
a government statistical report on crime and the like, is dated 1892.

10.--Tambóbong, a pueblo near the coast, in Tondo province, about
three miles from Manila, comes tenth in our list, where, at the
orphan asylum of Our Lady of Consolation, in 1889, was printed a
weekly newspaper--the Revista Católica de Filipinas--discontinued
in 1896. While the last imprint from this press--An Abridgment of
the History of Spain (of only eight pages)--was issued, presumably,
in 1897.

11.--At Nueva Caceres, or Camarines, in Luzon, a town founded in
the sixteenth century by Governor Francisco Sande, in memory of his
birthplace in Estremadura, but now known even officially as Naga,
the first work bearing the name of that pueblo--a hand-book of
devotions--issued from the press of the Sagrada Familia, in 1893; and
two years later (in 1895) the last--A Life of St. Monica and her son,
St. Augustine--written, the same as the former, in Bícol dialect.

12.--In 1895, we read the earliest printed samples of Malabón art--a
poetical tribute of gratitude to Our Lady of Welcome--Bien-Venida,
one of the many titles of the Mother of God, so dear to Philippine
soul, by Fructuoso Arias Camisón, from the orphan-press of Our Lady
of Consolation (in care of Augustinians). Only once, it may be noted,
is the name of this pueblo--encountered quite frequently in Retana,
the same (he says) as Tambóbong, written "Malabóng," a somewhat unusual
form of spelling--employed by Manuel Sastrón, in his description of
Batangas, printed in 1895.

From several specimens of Malabón press-work, now before me, I may
observe that, for accuracy in composition, neatness--in brief, of
general excellence in workmanship--these samples of the orphanage
establishment at Malabón would not fail to honor even a Philadelphia
craftsman.

Two years ago (in 1898), just prior to the siege of Manila, under
the care of two Fathers and four lay-brothers of the Augustinians,
resident at this orphan asylum, one hundred and one lads were being
taught the following trades: 13 compositors, 12 press-workers, 30
bookbinders, 3 gilders, 43 candlemakers, while 44 other youngsters,
too small for hard work, were, the same as their seniors, given food,
clothing, and shelter; [17] while similarly, at Mandaloya orphan
asylum for girls, conducted by twenty-two sisters (of the same order),
a hundred and twenty-two lassies were taught music (piano), painting,
drawing, embroidery, flower-, lace- and dress-making, hair-dressing,
laundry-work, and sewing. [18]

But alas! it is feared that through the grim fate of war a like
disaster, as has wrecked many another fair shrine of learning and
art in countries even nearer our own, has befallen our studios
and laboratories at Malabón and Mandaloya, that therefrom their
inmates--orphans, instructors and care-takers are now wanderers,
with their treasures ravished, their homes destroyed.

13.--Then we meet with a work printed in 1896, at the revolutionary
press at Imus, in Cavite province, in Luzon,--a proclamation (in
Tagal)--the only imprint bearing the name of this pueblo.

14.--Finally, in 1898, at Mandaloyon, or Mandaloya (named ahead),
an old hacienda of the Augustinians in Tondo province, in Luzon,
the morning-paper--La República Filipina--began publication with
the flag of the new-born republic in colors for heading,--the first
journal of the Tagal insurgents, that had so much to do in bringing
about the downfall of Spanish rule in the Philippines.

Before concluding this section on early presses, we may add the
references made by Retana to other Philippine prints than the ones
given in his Biblioteca. In a former work [19] he states that by
certain writers, whom he names, presses were said to have been
established on the isle of Luzon, viz: at Bacolor in 1619; Macabebe
in 1621; and Tayabas in 1703. Similarly, he cites two works, named by
the Franciscan antiquarian Huerta as having been printed at Manila
earlier than the Bugarín dictionary--the Devocion Tagalog in 1610;
and a Diccionario in 1613, both (according to Huerta) from the press
of Tomás Pinpin, the Tagal printer. Moreover, under the heading of
"Manila" and "Pinpin," Retana gives the dates of several still older
imprints than the Japanese dictionary of 1630, which in his Biblioteca
has been accorded the honor of senior of the Philippine press.

The reason for the omission of these titles in Retana's later
bibliography, that otherwise would seem unaccountable, is perhaps a
doubt as to their genuinity. But why he should fail to mention this
flaw in their line of ancestral title, is like many another perplexing
problem that the scholar is apt to encounter in his wanderings through
the shadowy, albeit delightful and fascinating realm of letters.

We now pass on to the question of the introduction of the press into
the Philippines.






V.

INTRODUCTION OF PRINTING INTO THE PHILIPPINES.


As regards the introduction of printing itself into that archipelago,
wherein (as writers agree) the first press was set to work in the
opening years of the seventeenth century, yet there is dispute as to
two points,--the precise date, namely, when the printing-press was
first established there, and the country whence it was carried to
those islands.

Though in his Biblioteca Retana inferentially states that the
Spanish-Japanese Dictionary of 1630 was the earliest Philippine
imprint, yet in another work of a few years ahead, one of his
numerous valuable appendices to Zúñiga's Travels, [20] the same
author has maintained, rightly and soundly enough it would seem,
a wholly different opinion. There he reproduces the title-page of a
work printed twenty years earlier, in 1610, which he himself saw in
the Museo Biblioteca de Ultramar, whereof the title (he declares)
is as follows:

Arte y Reglas | de la Lengua | Tagala. | Por el Padre. F. Fray
Francisco de. S. Joseph de la | Orde de. S. Domingo Predicador General
en la Prouincia | de. N. Señora del Rosario de las Islas Filipinas. |

[Here the Grand Seal of the Dominican Order (in wood) with this
legend:]

| Mihi avtem ab | sit glorianisi incruce Dñi Ñri IESVXPIAD--| GAL. 6. |

| En el Partido de Bataan | galo, Año de 1610. |

Substantially the aforesaid title means that the book--a Tagal
grammar--was composed by Father Francisco de S. Joseph (whose
family-name (as otherwise known) was Blancas), of the Dominican Order,
preacher-general of his province of Our Lady of the Rosary in the
Philippines, and printed at Bataan, A.D. 1610. [21]

In one of his Appendices to Zúñiga, [22] Retana affirms that the
printer of this Arte was the Tagal Tomás Pinpin.

Why, then, with this sample of early Philippine typography before his
eyes, presumably yet extant on the shelves of the Museo de Ultramar,
Retana (whose interesting description of Blancas' Arte of 1610 will
shortly follow) should have deemed it right to omit all mention
of it in his latest bibliography, wherein, so far as I can read,
there is not the slightest reference to it, seems truly a literary
conundrum--one that, for me at least, baffles all power of solution.

However, accepting facts in the world of letters, as in the objective
universe of God's creation, as they stand, as we see them and know
them, with the guidance of Retana himself, we now proceed (as promised)
to a description of this Tagal grammar, the earliest specimen of
Philippine typography known at least to be extant.

Blancas' Arte is a book printed on rice paper--papel de arroz--with
a preface of sixteen unnumbered pages and three hundred and eleven
(of text) numbered, that is, three hundred and twenty-seven in all,
yet in one instance wrongly paged, since the observant eye of our
bibliographer has detected that what really is page 157 in the Arte
has been printed "156," the body of the grammar thus comprising,
not 311 pages, as the printer has made it, but in reality 312.

On the verso of the title (that is, page 2) are given various licenses
to print, issued among other officials by Miguel Ruiz of Binondoc
(an old form apparently for the town now known as Binondo), this
permit being dated February 6, 1609. Then follow the licenses of
Father Blancas' own provincial superior, dated Manila, June 3, and
another official's, whose name (Retana says) is missing by reason of
the page having been torn, dated from Quiapo, on (month too wanting)
24, of the same year--1609--with the former.

On the third page, with the date July 28, 1609, we read the names of
several Manila church-officers, eight in all, licensing Father Blancas'
Arte, among them the dean of the cathedral-chapter of Manila, the
archdeacon Arellano, and Pedro de Rojas, who, as secretary apparently
of that body, adds his attestation to the chapter-action above.

From pages 4 to part of 7 is a Tagal Hymn to the Holy Virgin, Mother
of Our Lord; then following the finale of this hymn, a prayer to God,
Almighty Giver of all intellectual light, for power to be granted His
servants to learn of His wisdom and ability to tell it to the Tagals.

Then, following some ancient Tagal characters, comes the grammar in
chief, which has been printed (as is obvious) [23] from type, bearing
distinct marks of use. Wherefore, since we have now concluded Retana's
description of this Arte, we, in turn, may observe--the inference seems
lawful--that our Bataan press of 1610 had been at work before that
year, and Father Blancas' Arte is not the earliest Philippine imprint.

A point made by Retana with reference to Bataan, place of imprint on
the title thereof, is to this effect that instead of Bataan, name (he
says) of a province, and in olden time of a very unimportant pueblo
(known, however, more correctly as "Batan"), [24] one should read
Abucay, capital of the province of Bataan, a far likelier place for
the establishment of a printing-office. [25]

So much, then, for the still more ancient work than Bugarín's
dictionary of 1630.

But how much earlier than 1610, date of the Tagal Arte, or in what part
of the Philippine archipelago, the press was at work, is a puzzle,
that relying on the only authorities bearing in any manner on the
priority of the press, we shall now seek to unravel.

When referring to this question of early typography [26] Retana
declares that there are only two authors that treat of the introduction
of the press into the Philippines,--one the history of his province
(of the Holy Rosary), which with the Philippines embraced also China
and Japan, by the Dominican traveler and missionary, Father Diego
Aduarte, whose work, published at Manila, in 1640, is the second
title in our Biblioteca, bearing the name of that city as place
of imprint, and the only old-time authority (in print) treating of
ancient Malaysian typography.

The other is a history (published a few years ago) entitled La Orden
de Predicadores, of the Dominicans (Madrid, 1884), by a member of that
brotherhood, Father Martínez-Vigil, at one time resident at Manila,
where he held a chair in the university of that city, and now (1900)
bishop of Oviedo in Spain.

We shall, therefore, summon these two witnesses in the question in
point of primeval Philippina.

Aduarte's reference to early typography [27] contains substantially
the following statements: that living with the Fathers of his Order
(at Binondo) was a Christian Chinese, named Juan de Vera, a most
worthy man, printer by trade, who had learned his art at home, and
"the first printer" in the Philippines; that moreover he was employed
by Father Blancas in getting out divers hand-books of devotion for
the Indians, as well as for the missionaries themselves; and that
as the said Juan was a good worker, always busy at his trade, he
printed very many books, among them a Memorial of the Christian life;
book on the postrimerias--that is, the Four Great Last Truths--Death,
Judgment, Heaven, Hell; Preparation for Communion; Confession-Book;
the Mysteries of the Rosary; an Arte for the Tagals, or Aid to learn
Spanish, and the like. Such are the titles of some of the books
printed at Binondo by Juan de Vera.

Commenting on the above statements of Aduarte, our bibliographer,
however, makes this very sensible observation,--the omission, namely,
of any positive information on two points of utmost importance to
the antiquary and historian,--at what time, that is, was de Vera's
press set up in the Philippines; and whence was it brought to those
islands? Anent the first press it is noteworthy (according to the
unanimous opinion of critics) that it certainly was not carried thither
from Spain, though maybe sent over from Mexico, where printing was
established in the early years of the sixteenth century, Retana,
however, maintaining as likelier that the first printing-outfit
introduced into the Philippines was brought thither from Japan, where
(as we otherwise know) a book, the Sanctos no Gosagueo, or Compendium
of the Lives of the Saints, was printed at the Jesuit College at
Katsusa, in 1591. In the same kingdom I find printed (at another
Jesuit College) at "Nangasaki," in 1603, the Vocabulario de Japón,
Japanese ancestor of the old Bugarín dictionary elsewhere referred to
(in this paper) as having been published at Manila in 1630. [28] In
Japan,--the fact is worth noting,--ten different works were printed
in Roman characters prior to the year 1599.

But let us return to Luzon. If Aduarte is right in his assertion
that Juan de Vera was "the first printer in the Philippines," then
the press was at work prior to the year 1610, and the Tagal Arte
(just described) is not the forerunner of Philippine imprints.

So much for one of Retana's oracles. Now pass we on to consider the
second and only other writer that, with original sources at hand,
has treated of this bibliographical problem, Father Martínez-Vigil,
who, in the story of his order (named ahead) mentions this fact, that
when resident at Manila he was shown a very rich codex--a MS.--of over
six hundred folios, on Chinese paper, in perfect condition, for many
reasons (all duly set forth) of unassailable authenticity, and albeit
(he remarks) somewhat hard to decipher, except to a palæontologist, yet
written with marvelous clearness and neatness of penmanship. In this
MS., which (the Father says) was written during the years 1609-1610,
besides an account of all notable occurrences in the islands from 1581
to 1606, with which latter year the story ends, four years earlier, you
should observe, than Pinpin's Arte of 1610, are also to be read these
words: "Los que primero imprimieron fueron del órden de San Agustín
el P. Fr. Juan de Villanueva, algunos tratadillos; mas del órden de
Sto. Domingo el P. Fr. Francisco de San Joseph cosas mayores y de
mas tomo el primero que escribió en lengua araya fué de la Compañia."

Whereof, the meaning substantially is, that "the first printers (in
the Philippines) were of the Order of St. Augustine, among them Father
Juan de Villanueva, publisher of some small treatises--tratadillos;
then others of the Order of St. Dominic, of whom Father Francisco
de San Joseph printed works of larger bulk, and was the first of his
brethren to write in araya (Tagal?)."

Here then, in these quotations from two Dominican monuments--Aduarte's
history and the MS. (quoted by Martínez-Vigil), the latter ending
with events of the year 1606--you have all that antiquity tells of
the introduction of the printing-press into the Philippines.

To the assertion (in the MS.), relative to the Augustinian press,
may be appended an item or so in regard to the art-establishment of
that order at Lubao, in Pampanga province in Luzon, which I have
picked up from one of their chroniclers, Gaspar de San Agustín,
a Tagal and Visaya linguist, who died, some say at Tondo, others
at Manila, in 1724, after nearly fifty years' mission-service in
the islands. In his history (Madrid, 1698), are the following words
in reference to Lubao convent: "Se han celebrado en este Convento
algunos Capitulos intermedios y mucho tiempo huvo Estudios menores de
Gramatica y Retorica; y teniamos tambien en él una muy buena Imprenta,
traida del Japón, en que se imprimian muchos libros, assi en la lengua
Española como Pampanga y Tagala." [29]

In brief, that is, Father Gaspar says that "in Lubao convent, where the
order maintained a school of grammar and rhetoric, there was a press
(brought from Japan), whereon many books were printed in Spanish,
Pampanga, and Tagal." May we not, then, be justified in surmising
that this Lubao press was the one referred to in the MS. adduced by
Martínez-Vigil, that attributes to Augustinians the introduction
of typography into the Philippines? And, moreover, since the said
ancient MS. ends with the year 1606, that this Lubao press was at
work at a still earlier date?

But, enough. With no originals at hand, we feel disinclined to pursue
this topic further as to the priority of printing in the islands,
nor do we care to press the question, whether, namely, the first book
of Philippine manufacture was Bugarín's dictionary of 1630, Blancas'
Arte of 1610, or the Lubao tratadillos of 1606.

In our own colonies (we may observe) printing was introduced, first at
Cambridge in Massachusetts, in 1638; while in Pennsylvania the first
book printed--an almanac--by William Bradford, of Philadelphia, is
dated 1685, a full half century later, that is, than the introduction
of this "art preservative of arts" into Malaysia.






NOTES


[1] See his Catálogo Abreviado de la Biblioteca Filipina (Madrid,
1898), pp. xxix-xxxi.

[2] These figures are given by Retana--a faulty enumeration, however,
in that they fail to include all the titles in his work. Thus
(p. 338), instead of a series-number we read four ciphers, to be met
with elsewhere the same as his bis mark (pp. 59, 90, 118, 565). Again
Méntrida's Arte and Diccionario of 1637, mentioned twice (Nos. 100,
173) have not been entered by Retana in his lists; neither has the
first edition (Tayabas, 1703,) of Santos' Tagal dictionary, (pp. 31,
32.). In reality then, instead of only 2697 titles in his Biblioteca,
one should count, I venture to guess, at least some twenty or thirty
more than are given.

[3] Biblioteca, vii-xi.

[4] Singularly varied are the names given by writers to this
dialect of Yap, as Bonabe, Bonibet, Bornabi, Funopet, Panapee,
Ponapé, Puynipet, while to the French the island itself is known as
Ascension. (Art. "Caroline Islands," Encycl. Brit.)

[5] Read, however, his observations thereon in full in his Estadismo,
i, 426-429. The same opinion as to Aeta being mother-tongue in the
Philippines is pronounced also by Buzeta, ii, 49.

[6] Throughout this sketch, unless otherwise noted, I follow only
Spanish authorities.

[7] See the Augustinian Zúñiga's Estadismo ii, *395, to which further
reference will be made.

[8] Estadismo, i, 426-429.

[9] For these usages, see Zúñiga, Estadismo, i, 533-534.

[10] Various heathen rites, practised by these islanders, are
described in Buzeta (i, 60, etc.), as well as names of deities,
and other enormities of man's distortion of truth.

[11] Biblioteca, xxix-xxxi.

[12] Relative to this term bahaque, which I have met only once,
in the Historia Franciscana, (parte I, lib. i, cap. 39,) is the
following description of the black men, the Aetas, or negroes, of
Negros, "andan totalmente desnudos," (the author says,) "y solo traen
cubiertas las partes verendas con unos como Lienzos, tirantes de atrás
á adelante, que se llamen Bahaques, los quales hacen de cortesas de
Arboles majadas con gran tiento, de modo que ay algunos, que parecen
Lienzo fino; y rodeandose por la Cintura un Bejúco, en el amarran el
Bahaque por sus dos extremos." See Zúñiga, i, 423, wherefore, perhaps,
the significance of bahaque in the proverb.

[13] Retana's Appendix G, in Zúñiga's Estadismo, ii, *492.

[14] This quotation is from page 28 of Apostolado de la Prensa, No. 82
(Madrid, 1898), which locates it in tome xiv, p. 541, of Reclus.

[15] In old Spanish chronicles it is a common thing to meet such titles
of these Indian rulers, as Ladia, Radia, Raxa, and Rajá. Lacandola
was rajah of Manila.

[16] The Augustinian chronicler, Grijalva, is one of the earliest
writers to describe this rite, which, according to him, is performed as
follows: "La cerimonia se haze, sacando delos pechos delos que contraen
la amistad una poca de sangre, y mezelando la una, y la otra en un
poco de vino, le veuen por iguales partes los contrayentes." (Cronaca
del Orden, from 1533-1592, Mexico (in the Augustinian Convent),
1624.) Quotation from Zúñiga, ii, 215. From Buzeta, i, 395, it appears
that blood-bargain was first entered into by Legazpi (in 1565) at
Bohol, with Chief Sicatuna.

[17] From the report of the Orphanage for 1897-1898, in Estado General,
Malabón, 1898.

[18] From the report of the Orphanage at Mandaloya, in Estado
(as ahead).

[19] See Appendix B, in Zúñiga's Estadismo, ii, *105-*123, where
Retana has given, with a list of the early presses in the Philippines,
the names of the printers.

[20] Zúñiga Estadismo, ii, 101.

[21] Provinces of the other friars in Malaysia (including the
Philippines) are entitled as follows: Augustinians--Most Holy Name of
Jesus; Franciscans--St. Gregory the Great; Hospitallers--St. Raphael
Archangel; Recoletos--St. Nicholas of Tolentino.

[22] Zúñiga Estadismo, Appendice B, ii, *103, *104, and *115.

[23] Thus Retana, ii, *103 (as above).

[24] Zúñiga Estadismo, ii, *350.

[25] Id., ii, *104-*105.

[26] Id., ii, *95-*100.

[27] For the original in full (too long to quote here) see Retana in
Estadismo (as above), ii, *95-*98, where it covers nearly three pages.

[28] The Jesuit Mission Press in Japan. 1591-1610. By Ernest Mason
Satow. [Privately printed.] 1888, where you will find reproduced in
photographic fac-simile the title-page of the above-named books.

[29] Zúñiga, Estadismo, ii, *111-*112.