Note 156 — Chapter VII

“It is difficult to ascertain whether the Filipino is a brave man or a coward. On one side, we see any braggart terrify a multitude; and on the other, some face dangers and death with unmoved spirit. When one of them decides to kill another, he does it without thinking at all of the consequences. A man of Vigan killed a girl who did not love him, six other persons, and a buffalo; and then stabbed at a tree, and killed himself. Another servant of the tobacco superintendent killed a girl for the same reason, before a crowd of people, and then himself. A soldier killed a girl for the same reason while I was passing in front of Santo Thomás. A coachman, in November, 1841, tried to kill another man, because of a love affair; and, failing in the attempt, killed himself. Filipino sailors have committed many cruelties, and have a reputation throughout the entire Indian Sea as turbulent fellows and assassins. The [insurance] companies of Bengal do not insure at full risk a vessel in which one-half the crew is composed of islanders. When I was in the island of Pinang, at the strait of Malacca, I tried to get passage to Singapor, in order to go to Filipinas, in the brigantine “Juana” and to take in my company as a servant one of the seventeen sailors of Manila, who had been discharged from a Portuguese vessel because of a row that they had had with the captain. The commander of the “Juana” was a Chinese, and the crew Malayan; counting sailors and Chinese passengers there were about 40 persons aboard. Under no consideration would the captain admit me together with the servant, telling me: ‘No, no, even if you give me a hundred pesos, I will take no man from Manila.’ In fact, after much begging, I had to resign myself and leave him ashore, and take ship without knowing who would guide and serve me; for I understood neither Chinese nor Malayan. At the same time, I have heard that the Filipinos are cowards in a storm. The infantry captain Molla told me that the captain of a pontín which encountered a heavy tempest began to weep, and the sailors hid in order not to work; and he had to drive them out of the corners with a stick, for which they began to mutiny and to try to pitch him overboard. Ashore they have given some proofs of boldness by attacking Spaniards to their faces.... Sergeant Mateo was boldly confronted in the insurrection of 1823. The soldiers have the excellent quality of being obedient, and if they have Spanish officers and sergeants, will not turn their backs on the fire; but alone they have never given proof of gallantry. In the war with the English, they always fled ... and the few Europeans whom Anda had were his hope, and the soul of all his operations. I have asked many officers who have fought with Filipinos, either against the savages in the mountains, or against ladrones; and they all have told me that when it comes to fighting, they preferred to have twenty-five Europeans to one hundred Filipinos. Many allege, in proof of their bravery, the indifference with which they die; but this is rather a sign of stupidity than of good courage. From all of the above data, we might deduce that the individual whom we are analyzing is more often found to be cowardly than impassive and fearless; but that he is apt to become desperate, as is very frequently observed. They express that by the idea that he is hot-headed, and at such times they commit the most atrocious crimes and suicide. He is cruel, and sheds blood with but little symptoms of horror, and awaits death calmly. This is because he does not feel so strongly as we do the instinct of life. He has no great spirit for hazardous enterprises, as for instance that of boarding a warship, breaking a square, gaining a bridge, or assaulting a breach, unless he be inflamed by the most violent passions, that render him frantic.” (Mas, pp. 119–121.)