Note 4 — EVENTS IN FILIPINAS, 1801–1840

On March 4, 1810, the new proprietary governor Manuel González Aguilar, assumed his office. On February 14 preceding, a decree had been issued by the Spanish government granting to all the colonies in America and to Filipinas representation in the Spanish Cortes by deputies chosen by the various capital cities. The sessions of this Cortes began on September 24, 1810, and Filipinas was represented therein by acting deputies; afterward, one was duly chosen (Ventura de los Reyes) by the municipality of Manila, according to the forms required.4 “In the jurisdiction of each village in the Philippine archipelago, there are extensive communal lands, in which the natives can keep, almost without cost and easily guarded, their herds of cattle and horses. In regard to these lands (which in that country are called estancias [“ranches”]), the new governor framed a useful ordinance, which remained in force, with good results, during a long period. (It has now fallen into disuse, and many of the communal lands have become the property, illegally acquired, of private persons.) Important service was rendered [to the country] by these ranches, on account of the increase of live-stock and its great cheapness; and a positive source of wealth for the provinces was initiated with the exportation of their cattle.” In the sessions of Cortes in 1811, a decree was issued (January 26) that trade in quicksilver should be free in all the Spanish dominions of Indias and Filipinas. In the summer of 1811, a new rebellion broke out among the natives of Ilocos Norte, some of whose chiefs attempted to found a new religion, in behalf of a deity whom they called Lungao;5 they endeavored to persuade the heathen mountain-dwellers of Cagayan to join them, but the insurrection was quelled promptly by the Spaniards, and the ringleaders put to death. It was in González Aguilar’s time that the Indians were allowed to render the services required from them for public works on those in their neighborhood. In order to relieve the public anxiety and impatience caused by the dearth of news from the mother-country, the authorities of the colony undertook to publish a sort of gazette containing such information as was available from Europe—mostly received through English publications that came from Bengal. Accordingly, “the first newspaper in Filipinas made its appearance on August 8, 1811,”6 the second number appearing three days later; it was published during the rest of 1811 and part of 1812, and must have ceased for lack of material.7 “On account of the war which España was sustaining against the French invaders, the religious corporations agreed to contribute with their donations toward the expenses of so great an undertaking; the Order of Dominicans gave with that object, in August, 1812, the sum of 36,000 pesos. On March 19 the Constitution of 1812 was promulgated at Cádiz, and orders were issued that allegiance to it should be sworn in all the towns of the monarchy. The deputies signed it on the eighteenth, and among the signatures appears that of Don Ventura de los Reyes.” The Constitution was solemnly proclaimed in Manila on April 17, 1813, and the oath of allegiance was taken on the following day. A decree in Cortes (July 3, 1813) extended to the veteran troops of the over-seas colonies the same scale of rewards as had been recently granted to the soldiers of the Peninsula. In that same year a special effort was made by the Spanish government to add to its revenues by pushing in the colonies the sale of bulls of the Crusade.8