Note 14 — THE FRIAR MEMORIAL OF 1898

And for their patriotic significance. Apart from their essentially religious character, the regulars of the archipelago have another significance that makes them odious to the separatists. They are the only permanent and deeply-rooted Spanish institution in the islands, with a suitable and rigorous organization, perfectly adapted to these regions. While the other Peninsulars live here in the fulfilment of their duty more or less time, as is convenient to their private interests, and with no other bond that follows them to Filipinas than their own convenience, being ignorant of the language of the country and having no other relations with the natives than those of a superficial intercourse, we religious come here to sacrifice our whole life. We form as it were a net of soldiers of religion and of the fatherland in the archipelago, scattered even to the remotest villages of the islands. Here we have our history, our glories, the ancestral house, so to speak, of our family. Bidding an eternal farewell to our native soil, we condemn ourselves voluntarily, by virtue of our vows, to live forever consecrated to the moral, religious, and political education of these natives, for whose defense we have in all ages waged campaigns, which, without the pious boastings [crudezas] and exaggerations of Las Casas,14 have constantly reproduced in Filipinas the figure of the immortal defender of the American natives.