rotect them and
provide religious instruction. The early friars alleged extortionate
greed and brutal conduct on the part of the _encomenderos_ and made
vigorous protests in the natives' behalf.--TR.

[133] Horse and cow.

[134] Fray Gaspar de San Agustin, O.S.A., who came to the Philippines
in 1668 and died in Manila in 1724, was the author of a history
of the conquest, but his chief claim to immortality comes from a
letter written in 1720 on the character and habits of "the Indian
inhabitants of these islands," a letter which was widely circulated
and which has been extensively used by other writers. In it the
writer with senile querulousness harped up and down the whole gamut
of abuse in describing and commenting upon the vices of the natives,
very artlessly revealing the fact in many places, however, that his
observations were drawn principally from the conduct of the servants
in the conventos and homes of Spaniards. To him in this letter is
due the credit of giving its wide popularity to the specious couplet:

El bejuco crece (The rattan thrives
Donde el indio nace, Where the Indian lives,)

which the holy men who delighted in quoting it took as an additional
evidence of the wise dispensation of the God of Nature, rather
inconsistently overlooking its incongruity with the teachings of Him
in whose name they assumed their holy office.

It seems somewhat strange that a spiritual father should have written
in such terms about his charges until the fact appears that the letter
was addressed to an influential friend in Spain for use in opposition
to a proposal to carry out the provisions of the Council of Trent by
turning the parishes in the islands over to the secular, and hence,
native, clergy. A translation of this bilious tirade, with copious
annotations showing to what a great extent it has been used by other
writers, appears in Volume XL of Blair and Robertson's _The Philippine
Islands.--_ TR.

[135] The Colegio de la Inmaculada Concepcion Concordia, situated
near Santa Ana in the suburbs of Manila, was founded in 1868 for
the education of native girls, by a pious Spanish-Filipino lady,
who donated a building and grounds, besides bearing the expense of
bringing out seven Sisters of Charity to take charge of it.--TR.

[136] The execution of the Filipino priests Burgos, Gomez, and Zamora,
in 1872.--TR.

[137] The fair day is foretold by the morn.

[138] _Paracmason_