Note 183 — San Agustin’s Letter on the Filipinos

79. Finally, summing up all the above, the inference will be that all the actions of these wretched beings are such as are dictated by nature through the animal, intent solely on its preservation and convenience, without any corrective being applied by reason, respect, and esteem for reputation. Consequently, he who first said of a certain people that if they saw the whole world hanging on one nail and needed that nail in order to hang up their hat, they would fling the world down in order to make room for the hat, would have said it of the Indians had he known them. For they think only of what is agreeable to them, or of what the appetite dictates to them; and this they will put in action, if fear, which also dwells in them, do not dissuade them.183 Hence they will be seen dressed in the shirts and clothes of their masters, for the sole reason184 that because they no sooner enter any house than they become the owners of everything in it. And the worst thing is that, although they are not good and faithful servants, intrant in gaudium domini sui.185