Recollections of Manilla and the Philippines | Page 2

celebration, and, as the story goes, were so
much edified by the sight, that they were baptized Christians, and an
oath of allegiance and vassalage to the King of Spain administered to
them; and their example being followed to a great extent by the nobles
and people of Cebu, the Christian forms of faith and the symbolic cross
were planted by the Spaniards in the country of the antipodes.
Some time afterwards, Magallanes met the end which best becomes a
brave and good soldier, by dying in the battle-field in the cause of his
new friends and allies.
But without his master-mind to direct them, things no longer went on
so smoothly between the Spaniards and the natives; and under his
successor, the hostile feelings then given birth to, soon found a tragical
vent, which resulted in a number of the white men being cruelly
massacred by their Indian hosts, and in the flight of their companions,
who, fearful of their own safety, made all sail on their ships, and bore
away, leaving their unfortunate countrymen to their fate, without

attempting and even refusing to ransom such of them whose lives were
spared, from having been less obnoxious to the Indians than the others.
This fatal accident left the surviving crews so much weakened in
numerical strength, that not having men enough left to work all the
ships, the "Concepcion" was set fire to, and the survivors steered
towards the Moluccas.
It were tedious to follow them through all their adventures; suffice it to
say, that Juan Sebastian de El Cano was the only captain who
succeeded in taking his ship home again round the Cape of Good Hope.
After many anxieties and vicissitudes he entered the same port of San
Lucar from which he had sailed about three years before; and as a
memento of his skill and of his being the first navigator who had made
the circuit of the world, the king granted him for an armorial bearing, a
globe, with the legend, "Primus circumdedit me," which he had thus so
honourably gained.
At intervals of about four years between each other, three separate
expeditions were fitted out from Spain and America for these islands,
which were named "Las Felipiñas" by Villalobos, commander of the
last of these squadrons, in honour of the then Prince of Asturias,
afterwards better known as King Philip the Second of Spain.
In the meantime the Portuguese, jealous of the vicinity of such
powerful neighbours as the Spaniards, to their empire of the East which
Vasco de Gama and Albuquerque had so brilliantly founded for their
country, took advantage of the financial distress of the Spanish king,
who was then arming against France and Germany, and for an
inconsiderable amount purchased his right of conquest over all the
Philippines.
But they did not long retain them; for on Prince Philip of the Asturias
becoming King of Spain he regained the islands by breaking through
the treaty which confirmed their sale. Having, in 1564, appointed Don
Miguel Lopez de Legaspi commander of an expedition fitted out for the
purpose of reacquiring them, and having made him Governor and
Adelantado of all the countries he could conquer,--which now-a-days
appears to be rather a vague commission, but was then a custom of that

venturous time,--that dignitary reached the Philippines, which had been
altogether neglected by the Portuguese, and without difficulty
re-established Spanish supremacy over the group, of which he may be
considered as the first governor.
Their favorable reception by the natives rendered the acquisition
altogether, or nearly, a bloodless one, for the warriors who gained them
over to Spain were not their steel-clad chivalry, but the soldiers of the
cross:--the priests, who, going out among a simple but somewhat
passionate people, astonished and kindled them by their enthusiasm in
the cause of Christ; while the novel doctrines they taught so
enthusiastically, aided by the usual splendid accompaniments of that
religion, captivated their senses, and took possession of their
imaginations.
Manilla was founded on the island of Luzon, the most important of all
the islands in the group; and the situation of the new capital on the
shore of a long bay, into which flow numerous rivers, bringing down
from the interior of a fertile country through which they run, its varied
and valuable produce, has secured for it prosperity and commercial
importance. A trade with China sprang up, and its commencement was
soon followed by many emigrants from that densely-peopled country,
whose habits of industry and prudence very soon began to increase and
develope the natural fertility of the soil, and whose numerous
descendants have mingled with the native character some of those
useful virtues which it seems scarcely probable they would possess but
for this slight mixture of blood.
Alas, that priestly ambition and the