The Friars in the Philippines Part 4

As might be expected, the Protestant missionary bodies have inaugurated a movement for sending out missionaries of their own to the Archipelago. The Rev. John R. Hykes was directed last September by the American Bible Society to proceed from Shanghai to Manila, and investigate concerning the Philippines "as a field for Bible work." He submitted his report in a very short time, having made up his mind on the religious needs of the people, the scandalous lives of the Friars, and the superst.i.tion of their benighted paris.h.i.+oners with incredible rapidity. His sensational report duly appeared in the American papers as the "Startling Revelations made by the Rev. John R. Hykes." Sure of a sympathetic audience, he laid on the colors thickly. The report need not occupy much of our attention. Half of it is made up of ordinary information about the country that any one could get for himself out of a good encyclopaedia, and the other half is a rehash and repet.i.tion of the charges already dealt with by us in previous chapters. One statement is, however, worth noticing, as it clearly indicates the hopelessness of getting fair and unbia.s.sed treatment from the enemies of the Church. Mr. Hykes states that he was shocked by the stories of immorality brought against the Friars. And, to make an impression, he adds that the people who told him the stories said they were prepared to give names, dates, and places in confirmation of what they said. Now, as already noted, names, dates, and places were the very things asked for by the Friars in the Memorial to the Spanish Government, as far back as last April; but their enemies, finding those details beyond their power, have adopted the simpler process of repeating the calumnies to all who, like Mr. Hykes, give them a ready and sympathetic hearing. Mr. Hykes, who never went beyond Manila, presumes to judge, in a few days or weeks, of the spiritual condition of six millions of Christians, and more than a thousand priests, scattered over the whole Philippine Archipelago. (See Appendix VI.) We are afraid that too many of the type of Mr. Hykes will be found among the new missionaries of the Philippines, coming in crowds, with their wives and children, to spread, forsooth, the pure light of the Gospel, or rather to engage in the more congenial task of vilifying the Catholic Church.

In an American Protestant missionary review, there is an article on the Philippines, by a former agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society in that country. The article, needless to say, is full of gross misrepresentations. It puts down the Christian population as seven million Romanists; the writer denies the ordinary t.i.tle of Christian to Catholics. This emissary of the Bible Society writes: "The question now asked on all sides is--Are the Philippines at last to be opened to missionary effort? Personally, I feel that a non-sectarian, but strictly evangelical, mission, aiming at the Christianization of the whole territory, is what would succeed best." We may gather from the whole tone of this Protestant missionary review what a low type of Protestantism it represents, a type largely made up of self-presumption, ignorance, and fanaticism. Throughout the paper Catholics are not once designated Christian. It speaks of the nineteenth century being the first century of Christian missions, ignoring all the apostolic work of the Catholic Church. It says in another place that there were no Christian Chinese at the beginning of this century, ignoring the hundreds of thousands of Chinese who have known and loved Jesus Christ since the days of St. Francis Xavier, numbers of whom sealed their faith with their blood. It divides the population of the country into pagans, Romanists, and Christians--the latter, of course, being Protestants of one denomination or another. To such absurd lengths does religious rancor bring it, and all connected with it. Catholics give the t.i.tle of Christian to all who are baptized and profess belief in the Divinity of Jesus Christ. They would not deny it even to the Rev. Mr. Hykes, bad as he is. But perhaps our new missionary friends may be similar to those of whom Marshall speaks in his "Christian Missions," who went out to evangelize the South Sea Islands, and taught the people that baptism was merely a ceremony not at all essential to salvation, thus showing their want of belief in baptismal regeneration. At any rate, it will be news to the Filipinos to hear for the first time from these enlightened men that they are not Christians.

That these Bible scatterers can and will do harm there is no doubt. Already they have flooded Porto Rico with tracts and pamphlets, crammed with the usual vile charges against the Catholic Church and her ministers. But it is equally certain that they will never succeed in making the Philippines a Protestant country. It is a matter of notoriety that Protestant missions are not overwhelmingly successful in any part of the world, and that the funds are kept up in most instances by glowing and rosy-colored, if not altogether accurate, reports, sent by the missionaries to their supporters at home. The review which I have just quoted is forced to acknowledge that in Brazil, after thirty-five years' work, there are only eight thousand Protestants out of a population of sixteen millions. No less than eight American Protestant Missionary Societies have been working there together, well supplied with funds, as is always the case; and yet this is the result. In fact, eight thousand may not be the result at all, for the missionaries have, very often, peculiar methods in the science of statistics. In Mexico, too, they have been at work for many years unmolested by the authorities, and yet they have but wretched results to show for themselves at the present day. They make no impression either on the rich or the very poor; any successes they have being amongst the impecunious middle cla.s.ses, the children of whom they teach gratuitously in their schools, and feed and clothe, and who carry away with them from these schools, as the princ.i.p.al result of the religious training they receive, a bitter hatred of the Church in which they were born. Just as in Mexico, so the Protestant missionaries are sure to make proselytes among the same cla.s.ses in the Philippines, from which cla.s.ses we know that the promoters of the rebellion have been mainly recruited; but the better cla.s.ses and also the poorer, whatever their shortcomings, have the old Faith and are intensely devoted to the Catholic Church. These are no more likely than the people of Mexico and Brazil to be led to accept the mutilated form of Christianity which will be presented to them by Mr. Hykes and his friends; unless, indeed, there is such a deplorable dearth of priests that they will be left without instruction and guidance.

There are grave problems ahead which will tax the wisdom of the American Congress far more than the military occupation of the country. John Foreman, who spent some years there, and claims to be a Catholic, advocates (National Review, September, 1898) the disendowment of the Church as a necessary financial measure which would bring a certain amount of relief to the colonial treasury. With the exception of 3,000 a year paid to the Archbishop of Manila, and 1,500 to each of the three other bishops, it is difficult to see how the endowment comes in except as a measure adopted by every civilized State in dealing with its uncivilized subject races; and unless the United States is prepared to abandon the role of civilizer, she will be obliged to keep up the paltry endowment made in the past by Spain for that purpose. The Church in the Philippines is, on the whole, self-supporting. She is in the position that the Church in France, Spain, and Portugal was before the Revolution, which, when it appeared successively in each country was followed by a seizure of ecclesiastical property. The salaries paid to the clergy in those countries are given as a compensation for past robberies. The writer has been at pains to get at the truth in this matter and has put himself in communication with a Dominican Friar, who lived for twenty-seven years in the Philippines, and now holds the distinguished position of Rector of the Spanish-Dominican College, in Rome. From him the writer has received the following information regarding the landed estates of the Friars, and the salaries paid to them by the Spanish Government. As far as he knows all these estates were acquired by purchase, and were not given by the Government; they hold the t.i.tle-deeds of them in their possession. He is not prepared to say whether on their first introduction to the country, three centuries ago, the Government made them grants of land; but we ourselves may infer from the early history of the Dominicans there, that whatever they got was from the early Spanish colonists and the converted natives as free gifts. He adds that in any case the introduction of agriculture is due to their exertions. The Friars who ministered to the spiritual wants of the people may be placed in three categories. There were, first of all, the ordinary parish priest, who lived among a settled Catholic population. He subsisted on his benefice, which is not Government property, and was endowed by no subsidy from the Government. Secondly, there was the missionary parish priest, who lived in a parish where the majority are Catholics, but which also contained a proportion of the heathen. He received some salary from the Government, but much less than that given to the missionaries pure and simple, who lived in the midst of an entirely heathen population. These latter, whose business it was to civilize as well as convert the people to Christianity, and to teach them agriculture and the mechanical arts, were paid according as the mission district was large or small. In the large districts they received 200 annually, and 50 a year was paid to the native priests who acted as their a.s.sistants and curates. In the smaller districts the sum allowed was 100. The Jesuits, too, on their return to the Philippines some forty years ago, whence they had been banished in the middle of the last century, got an annual subsidy as compensation for the lands they formerly possessed, which had been confiscated by the Spanish Government of the day. Something also was given towards the education of young Franciscan missionaries, and they were allowed their pa.s.sage out from Spain. The figures we have quoted are modest enough, seen in the light of modern colonial salaries and expenditure. A continuance of the very moderate subsidies allowed to the missionary Friars by the Spanish Government would no more mean a union between Church and State than did the "contract"

system which was sanctioned by Congress up to 1894, for dealing with the education of the North American Indians. According to this system, both Catholic and Protestant missionaries were paid by Government according to the number of pupils who attended their schools, and these schools, of course, were taught on strictly denominational lines. That system had most beneficial results as long as it lasted, and was acceptable to the Indians. Its abandonment in favor of the public-school system has resulted in the crying injustice of compelling Catholic Indian fathers and mothers to send their children to certain schools to which they have a conscientious objection. [6]

The school question is one of the gravest problems that the American Government will be called upon to face when her troops have effectively occupied the Philippines. One of the cries of the rebel leaders is for the secularization of the schools, and this cry, emanating from infidel and secret society sources, will a.s.suredly be echoed by the Protestant ministers. It was these latter who, seeing their ministrations rejected by the Indians, raised the agitation against the "contract" system.

It is a shame and a wonder to find professed ministers of religion joining in a cry with the professed destroyers of religion. Secularization of education is always the first cry among those who oppose the Catholic religion. According to the showing of Dr. Parsons, it was attempted and sometimes successfully carried out in Colombia, Chili, and Ecuador, in which latter country the bishops were banished because they protested against it. Yet in spite of the anti-Christian spirit, exhibited in this and in many other ways, Dr. Parsons makes it clear that the masonic lodges in Peru actually receive aid out of the funds supplied to Christianize (according to sectarian ideas) the natives by the Protestant American public.

The notorious ex-Indian commissioner Morgan, now a Baptist prophet, has already sounded a characteristically aggressive note on this point, and is conjuring the Government to drive the Catholic religion out of all the schools in Cuba, a movement already accomplished in the eastern part of the island. Morgan says: "Here is a field opened for the missionary spirit, such as the young people of our country have never yet seen. To carry thither and plant the seeds of civilization, and to do this in the joyful confidence that all official a.s.sistance is a.s.sured to them, will doubtlessly fill with enthusiasm hundreds of ambitious young teachers." We may wonder what Morgan means by "official a.s.sistance" given for the spreading of Protestantism among a Catholic people, when, according to theory, the American Const.i.tution does not support one form of religion over another. But theory is one thing and practice is another; and though in theory Church and State are entirely separate, the theory has not, in the past, hindered the United States from giving substantial a.s.sistance to Protestantism. This is how the case stands for America. Rightly or wrongly she has taken over an enormous Catholic population in the East. If she is not able to make any concession on the score of religion, or to stretch a point to meet the wishes of the people and govern them according to their ideas, then it is only consonant with reason and justice that her Const.i.tution, which never contemplated colonial empire, will have to be modified to meet the exigencies of a situation unimagined by its original founders and makers. But, in reality, is any modification of the Const.i.tution necessary in order that religious instruction may take place in the schools of the Archipelago? In Ireland there is no State Church, and yet the National School System is so arranged that religious instruction can be given for half an hour every day of the week. The system is in theory undenominational, but in practice denominational.

An early solution of the difficulty might be some such procedure as the following. Let the parish priests be managers of the schools, and have a voice in the appointment of properly certified masters and mistresses, and let a fixed time be devoted to religious instruction every day. If the Protestants succeed in attracting converts, and are able to gather a sufficient number of children in any place to form a school, they can receive the same treatment as regards payment and control of religious instruction. Thus religious dissension would be reduced to the minimum. Secularization of education would tend to drive every form of religion out of the people, for Protestantism could not hope to make headway for a long time in the Philippines; as, to say the least, it would take some years for the ministers to get a sufficient knowledge of the various languages in use, and establish themselves in face of the opposition they are sure to meet with. It would also put all the Friars in opposition to the Government, while fair treatment would make them its best friends, and urge them to keep the people as loyal to the American Const.i.tution as they kept them to the Spanish Crown for three centuries.

If, then, the Government, after due inquiry, find that the vast majority of the people do not join in the cry for secularization, but desire to have the Catholic religion taught in the schools which their children attend, it would be nothing short of religious persecution to introduce the public schools system of the States into the Philippines. It is ever to be borne in mind that the new American possession in the Far East is one in which the great bulk of the people are practical Catholics who attend to all their religious duties.

To counteract the baleful influence of the Protestant missionary and Bible societies, it will be necessary for the Catholic Church in America to be alive to the new and grave responsibilities thus thrown upon her by the hand of Providence, and to send out English-speaking priests at once to the Philippines, to make up for the great dearth of priests caused by the excesses of the rebels. Before the rebellion they numbered between one and two thousand, a small number in comparison with the Catholic population. Fifty have been killed outright; many others have died of the hards.h.i.+ps undergone in captivity; while several hundreds have left the country, apparently with no intention of returning. Every year till last year, bands of enthusiastic young missionaries used to go out from the colleges in Spain to fill up the gaps in the ranks of the Friars, caused by sickness and death. That perennial source of life and strength can no longer be relied upon under the new conditions. The energies of the Spanish Friars will most likely be expended in Spain itself, where the lack of priests is still severely felt, and in developing their great and flouris.h.i.+ng missions in China, j.a.pan, Tonquin, and Formosa.

It is a matter of astonishment that the Church in the United States has up to the present no organization for supplying foreign mission. Perhaps the struggle to keep abreast in numbers with the growing Catholic population has absorbed all her energies. But now, for the first time in her history, she must cast her eyes beyond her boundaries, and send speedy help to the millions of children who have been given to her keeping, and whose voice may be heard from across the wide ocean, calling to her for spiritual help and ministration. Let her gaze steadily and thoughtfully on the vast harvest of souls given unto her. She shall reap where others have sown and planted. Let her gird herself to the work, and go forth and gather with joy the good wheat that others--the poor Spanish missionaries--have sown in tears and cultivated through much tribulation.

A fact of interest in connection with the aspect of our subject under consideration is the challenge sent to Archbishop Ireland by an American Presbyterian of authority in his sect. He tells the Archbishop in effect that if the Catholic Church in the United States will undertake the missionary equipment of the Philippines, his sect will gladly withdraw from the field, and devote their efforts to Africa instead. Without attaching any more importance to this declaration than it deserves, especially as it is founded on the false a.s.sumption that one Gospel is preached by Catholic priests in Was.h.i.+ngton and another in Manila, we may, nevertheless, infer from it that these men believe they would have a much easier task in dealing with the Spanish missionaries than with Catholic missionaries from the States. Without saying anything in disparagement of the learning of a body of men which has produced a Gonzalez, one of the greatest philosophers of the century, we believe that American priests, being more in touch with modern times and more open to modern ideas, could give them valuable lessons in the conflict between the Church and the world, as it is carried on in our own days. It is not by profound theological arguments that we can deal with men who can neither understand nor appreciate them. Priests are wanted for the Philippines who can make their voices heard beyond its boundaries; who can mould public opinion by means of the daily Press; who can keep in touch with the politics and legislation of the United States; and can bring public opinion there to bear on unjust and unfair treatment, if anything of the kind is attempted against the Catholics of that unfortunate Archipelago.

POSTSCRIPT.

Since these chapters were prepared for the press there has come to hand from the ex-missionary, referred to in the previous pages more than once, additional and valuable information. [7] Though it embraces various matters, we think it better to give it altogether, as it possesses a peculiar authority and interest of its own, coming as it does from a Friar who lived in the Philippines for twenty-seven years, and who knew the country well in its normal and peaceful state, long before the Freemasons had wrought havoc in the relations between the priests and the people.

1. Those who were princ.i.p.ally engaged in writing against the Friars for the past few years, and injuring their prestige at home, were the civil functionaries and military officers, who for the most part lived at Manila and knew next to nothing about them and their doings. These men were biased by anti-religious ideas implanted in them by an irreligious education. It is easy to estimate the effect of an enormous correspondence of this kind, leaving Manila every fortnight, and pa.s.sing into the hands of politicians in the mother-country, especially as there was nothing to counteract its influence on the part of the Friars, who did their work quietly and earnestly, and had very little correspondence with Spain at all.

2. The parish priests were ex-officio inspectors of the primary schools, but, having no voice in the appointment of masters and mistresses, and finding unsuitable persons thrust on them, were forced in many cases to retire from the schools in disgust, and limit their connection with them as much as possible.

3. The parish priests were also ex-officio presidents of certain munic.i.p.al committees, and were supposed to help in the appointment of justices of the peace and petty governors, by sending in reports of the qualifications or otherwise of the nominees. The system worked well for a long time. But, latterly, owing to the new spirit in Manila, where the persons in office seemed leagued against the Friars, these privileged communications invariably leaked out; and if the parish priest, as in duty bound, laid bare defects and deficiencies the first to hear of it would be the person of whom they were told. This was naturally a constant source of irritation and loss of prestige. The officials seemed to take a delight in lowering the parish priest in the eyes of the better cla.s.s of natives. If the parish priest ventured to advise the governors as to what was best to be done in the interests of the communes, especially with regard to the secret societies, the governors would laugh, call him a visionary--an innocent man. No wonder, then, that the parish priests gradually began to retire within themselves, and leave growing evils unchecked, when they saw all their endeavor balked by the powerful opposition of the civil and military governors. This untoward state of things left the rebels free to mature and carry out their plans.

4. Here is an instance of how badly this state of things reacted on the country. The introduction of the new Penal Code was a great blunder of the Government. It was unnecessary; the natives were all opposed to it, and the strength and extent of that opposition was well known to the Friars who lived in the midst of the people. Under normal conditions they would have advised the repeal of the Code, and their advice would have been taken. But they were forced to remain silent while the Government in its folly was putting the obnoxious Code in force. If they had warned the Government, instead of getting the respectful hearing to which they were ent.i.tled, by their long experience and their intimate knowledge of the people, they would simply have been dubbed reactionists.

5. How foolish it was of the Government to alienate the most loyal Spaniards in the whole Archipelago, the most distinctively Spanish element,--the Friars. They were almost ultra-loyal, and did their best to inspire feelings of loyalty in the b.r.e.a.s.t.s of the natives. They were powerful bodies with a strong bond of cohesion, having large interests in the country. They had glorious traditions to look back upon and keep them up to the ideal they had formed of their mission martyrs, a history to remember with pride; and all around them a Christian people, the fruit of their apostolic toil and that of their predecessors. The officials, on the other hand, were mere birds of pa.s.sage, who took no real interest in the country. It was a case of every one for himself; every official keeping his eye on Spain with a view to an early return, while he went through his appointed work. It is remarkable too that in the Philippines there is no cla.s.s of old rich Spanish families such as are to be found in other colonies; the families are all of yesterday--the riches in the hands of Chinese merchants, and the foreign trade in the hands of the English and Germans.

6. It used to be said that the Friars wished to have a hand in everything. The three important departments of justice, finance, and military affairs were outside their province altogether, and these as purely secular matters they never touched. The complaint arose from their being ever ready to preach against sedition and disloyalty, and to use their moral influence publicly and privately for that purpose. But the Friars for the sake of the people did take part in other than purely spiritual concerns, and the activity of mind it engendered was personally a great help and relief to them. The general rule is that young priests, coming over for the first time, suffer a great deal from that ennui to which all cla.s.ses of Europeans are subject to in the Archipelago. Gradually the sense of the sublime duties to which they have vowed themselves, and the example of the older brethren work a wonderful change in them for the better. They then begin to throw themselves with ardor into their work, and identifying themselves with the people among whom their ministrations lie, take a great interest even in their temporal affairs, and are glad to help them over their difficulties, especially those arising between them and the governors. Any friction between the governors and the Friars has generally arisen from the latter being prompt to defend the rights of the natives.

7. It is untrue to say that the Friars did not wish to spread the Spanish language. What they were opposed to was the folly of trying to teach the Christian doctrine and some other elementary knowledge in a language not understood by the people. In this matter they gave their candid opinion to the Government that it was impossible to teach Spanish in out-of-the-way rural schools. But in towns they taught in Spanish, and taught the Spanish language and literature. They used to induce parents to send their children to Manila for the purpose of learning Spanish.

8. Regarding their opposition to the rebellion from the pulpit, in private conversation, and by means of the press, they fought the secret societies, its princ.i.p.al cause, and the propagation of evil and irreligious literature. They pointed out these evils on several occasions since 1887 to the governors, and were told in reply that these societies were of no importance, that they had nothing to do with the rebellion, and, in fact, that the preparations of the rebels were of no serious consequence. General Weyler was the only governor who gave them a hearing. With that solitary exception the official element remained incredulous. The secret society of the "Katipunan,"

the compact of blood, and the enrolment of levies, were all discovered by the Prior of Guadalupe, who sent a report of it to General Blanco three months before the rising took place. Padre Mariane Gol exposed the intentions of the lodges a long time before Aug. 19, 1898, and also gave notice of concealed deposits of arms, and a detailed account of what took place at Manila on the arrival of the j.a.panese s.h.i.+p Konga.

APPENDIX I.

A SHORT ACCOUNT OF MISSIONS IN CHINA, CONDUCTED BY THE DOMINICAN FRIARS OF THE PHILIPPINES. [8]

Missionaries supplied by the religions Orders in the Philippines to the large fields of labor in China and j.a.pan are not confined to the Dominicans, but as we have not details at hand regarding the other Orders, we present to our readers part of the work done by the Dominicans, which will serve as a specimen of the rest.

The Dominicans have charge since 1631 of the Vicariate Apostolic of Fo-Kien, which at present contains 20,000,000 inhabitants. The Most Rev. Dr. Salvator Masot, O.P., is the present Vicar-apostolic, and working under him are eighteen Spanish Dominicans, one native Dominican, and twelve secular native priests. The vicariate is divided into twenty-two districts, each under the care of a priest, and the Christian population numbers 35,000. The districts are subdivided into what are called Christianities, or places of meeting where prayer is said, and the Christian doctrine taught. About fifty of them are provided with an oratory or chapel where Ma.s.s is said, and the sacraments administered; and they have also attached to them thirty schools for boys and eight for girls. There is also under the care of the Dominicans a seminary for the education of young native students who show a vocation for the priesthood.

In 1883 part of the vicariate was cut off and formed into the Vicariate Apostolic of Amoy, which also was made to embrace the Island of Formosa. The most Rev. Dr. Ignatius Ibanez is Vicar-apostolic, and under his direction are working fourteen Spanish Dominicans, one native Dominican. The vicariate is divided into fourteen districts, half of which are in Formosa. They have forty chapels or oratories, twenty schools for boys and girls, and a seminary in the town of Ta-Kow in Formosa.

A few words about the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Dominic, who are engaged on the work of the Holy Infancy in both vicariates, will be interesting. There are fifteen European sisters in all, besides eight native women. They have five orphanages in which are housed 200 female orphans abandoned by their unnatural parents in infancy, and kept by the Sisters till they can marry them into Christian families. Besides these they have rescued since 1891, 800 others whom they place under the care of Christian nurses, and look after till they can settle them in life.

The only fact we can give of the Vicariate of Central Tonquin, also under the care of the Philippine Dominicans, is that in 1890 alone 2,100 natives were converted and baptized.

APPENDIX II.

EXTRACTS RELATING TO THE FRIARS, FROM THE OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE OF GENERALS WEYLER AND MORIONES.

GENERAL WEYLER.

"The mission of the Religious Orders is not over, as is pretended by some who, having fallen foul of them, seek to abolish them altogether, or at least to restrict and limit their influence. It is this spirit of jealousy that has dictated many of the so-called reforms, which we have seen enforced of late years.

"But these people seem to forget that we have established our authority in Luzon and the Visayas by the exercise of moral influence alone, backed up by the parish priest, for as none has such intimate and friendly relations with the people as the priest, so no one knows better than he what the people think, nor is any one better able to give them wise advice, to restrain them, and influence them for good. He alone can make Spaniards of them. By his office and position he is best fitted to make things easy for our minor officials in their different charges and districts.

"Remove the control of Religion, and what do you do? You remove the Spanish element, forgetful of the fact that we have to depend on a native army whose dialect we do not understand, and who, in turn, understand not ours; that we have amongst us but a very limited number of Spanish soldiers--this is really how we are situated. I firmly believe that the day that witnesses the abolition of the Religious Orders, or even the serious restriction of their influence, will also witness the loss of Cuba and Puerto Rico. Even were we to fill the ranks of the army entirely with Spanish recruits, we should not improve matters, for then there would be an immense increase to the expenditure, whereas at present the Orders cost us next to nothing. All the religious live in common after the manner of a corporation; so that whatever the priest receives, goes to the support of all, and to maintain their colleges and seminaries in Spain. Far, then, from being an inconvenience in the Philippines, religious zeal is our surest support, and should be by every means promoted and encouraged.

"The natives are naturally simple and credulous, and of little discernment; and so are p.r.o.ne to superst.i.tion and idolatry, and can be easily imposed upon by any quick-witted impostor who is able to relate strange and wonderful stories. To prevent them being drawn away, the light of the true religion is absolutely necessary.

"In Luzon and the Visayas the Government should make religion a support on which to lean, and should regard the existence of the Religious Orders as a most effective means of spreading and diffusing civilization, and of consolidating vast mult.i.tudes of men of different and widely separated races. It is only by gaining the good-will of these ma.s.ses we can hope to rule them and draw them to ourselves. In the establis.h.i.+ng of new outposts and ranches, we must count on the influence of the missionary. It is with this end in view that I have established certain missions, which will, I hope, in a few years give the most satisfactory results. I hope that they will be even the indirect means of increasing the revenues and income of the State, although the new Christians are to be free of all taxes for the next ten years. In a word, I know of no better means of civilizing the natives than the missionary post.

"It is clear that as society progresses in civilization and enlightenment, the less we are dependent on the influence of the priest; for as civilization advances organization becomes more perfect. What I deduce from this is that the reforms necessary in these islands should be carried out in logical succession, and in proportion to the state of civilization in each province.

"To aid us in accomplis.h.i.+ng this good work, it is necessary that we should multiply the means for the diffusion of learning, for teaching the Spanish language, encourage and stimulate labor and industry, banish as far as possible card-playing and gambling, and extinguish certain instincts and customs peculiar to half-civilized men.

"These are my aims, and to their realization I have devoted myself with earnestness, taking for my programme--if I might so express it--the advancement and strengthening of the civil authority, the spreading of civilization and learning, so that the country may enjoy at no distant date the blessings that have come to other countries through the same means.