Note 123 — PART II

The islands have suffered too from another cause, the adoption of the Spanish language as that of the courts of justice, &c. &c. and the consequent neglect of that of the natives amongst the higher classes of Europeans. Hence they are ignorant of the feelings and prejudices of the people they govern, and who look to them for example, or at least for precept; and not a little of the extensive influence of the priesthood may be owing to their intimate knowledge of the language, and the mutual confidence which results from this. The Indian, meanwhile, has not neglected the language of his masters; and as from the Indian writers, who transact all business, every thing is known, it follows, while both mistakenly consider their interests as separate, the natives and creoles have much the advantage. Both despise and detest the Spaniards, the majority of whom, divided into factions of Andaluces, Montaneses, Serviles, and Liberales,123 abuse each other cordially; while the few who know and feel that there are other and higher duties owing from them to the Indian, must look on with regret, or complain to be disregarded or insulted. The disaffected, and those who have nothing to fear and every thing to hope from a popular commotion, do not lose sight of these advantages; and are rapidly spreading doctrines gleaned from the works of Voltaire, Rousseau, Tom Paine; &c. and stimulating them with songs of liberty and equality; as unfit for them as they were for the creoles and slaves of St. Domingo, to whose fate the Phillippines are fast verging, and from which nothing but some extraordinary event can save them.124