Note 251 — Chapter VII

Now if the statements of authors in regard to physical or moral matters are so at variance that we can say that each author has a different opinion—as says the proverb, Quot capita, tot sententiæ—and if thus far no ground and certain point has been found at which the understanding may stop, how is it strange that they do not find, in order to describe Indians with customs so unusual and artificial as have those of Manila, a compound idea made up of all that they have learned from the Spaniard, both good and evil; all that they have learned from the Guachinango;251 and what they have learned from the mestizo, the Sangley, the Moro, the Malabar, the Cafre, and all the other people with whom they have intercourse and with whom they trade? Granting this to be true, it appears that the definition of Father Murillo fits these Spanish-speaking Indians, but not the others, who have not had any intercourse with diverse classes of people. On this account it seems to me that father Fray Gaspar hit the definition exactly, when he said in his letter that the Asiatic Indians of Filipinas are almost the same as all the people of the nations of Eastern India, in what concerns their genius, disposition, and inclination; and are not distinguished one from another except in their rites, clothing, and languages. I add, in what regards their abilities and capacities—which are so good, and in general so well inclined—that I believe that if children, either boys or girls, were taken from Filipinas to Viscaya or to Castilla, the natives [of those countries] would not distinguish them from the Vizcainos, Castilians, or mountaineers. For their vices are not due so much to their nature, as to their bad rearing and education; and they are easily instructed both in the evil and in the good. And notwithstanding what father Fray Gaspar, Father Murillo, and Fray Juan [Francisco] de San Antonio have said, they would have been more successful had they not said, with exaggeration, that it would be impossible to write everything that they have observed of the Indians, on all the paper that is found in China. That is a hyperbole that transcends all faith. Thus does he continue in all that he says; and he affirms, further, that it surpasses all that we can touch with the hands or see with the eyes. Hence from the beginning we can state those two rules of law: semel malus, semper præsumitur malus; and the other, malum ex quocumque defectu.252...