lipinos in
Bagumbayan--the "new town" to which Lakandola's subjects had migrated
when Legaspi dispossessed them of their own "Maynila." With the
building of the moat this village disappeared, but the name remained,
and it is often used to denote the older Luneta, as well as the drive
leading to it.

Within the walls lived the Spanish rulers and the few other persons
that the fear and jealousy of the Spaniard allowed to come in. Some
were Filipinos who ministered to the needs of the Spaniards, but the
greater number were Sangleyes, or Chinese, "the mechanics in all trades
and excellent workmen," as an old Spanish chronicle says, continuing:
"It is true that the city could not be maintained or preserved without
the Sangleyes."

The Chinese conditions of these early days are worth recalling, for
influences strikingly similar to those which affected the life of Jose
Rizal in his native land were then at work. There were troubled times
in the ancient "Middle Kingdom," the earlier name of the corruption
of the Malay Tchina (China) by which we know it. The conquering
Manchus had placed their emperor on the throne so long occupied by
the native dynasty whose adherents had boastingly called themselves
"The Sons of Light." The former liberal and progressive government,
under which the people prospered, had grown corrupt and helpless,
and the country had yielded to the invaders and passed under the
terrible tyranny of the Tartars.

Yet there were true patriots among the Chinese who were neither
discouraged by these conditions nor blind to the real cause of their
misfortunes. They realized that the easy conquest of their country
and the utter disregard by their people of the bad government which
had preceded it, showed that something was wrong with themselves.

Too wise to exhaust their land by carrying on a hopeless war,
they sought rather to get a better government by deserving it,
and worked for the general enlightenment, believing that it would
offer the most effective opposition to oppression, for they knew well
that an intelligent people could not be kept enslaved. Furthermore,
they understood that, even if they were freed from foreign rule, the
change would be merely to another tyranny unless the darkness of the
whole people were dispelled. The few educated men among them would
inevitably tyrannize over the ignorant many sooner or later, and it
would be less easy to escape from the evils of such misrule, for the
opposi