ce to convince the lover of
truth and the friend of general prosperity, how urgent it is to
introduce as early as possible, the reform proposed into the interior
administration of this important, although neglected colony; and it
is to be hoped that the government, guided by these same sentiments,
will not be led away by those narrow-minded people, who predict danger
from every thing that is new; but, after due and mature deliberation,
resolve to adopt a measure dictated by reason, and at the same time
conformable to the best interests of the state.

Of little avail would have been the valor and constancy with which
Legaspi and his worthy companions overcame the natives of these
islands, if the apostolic zeal of the missionaries had not seconded
their exertions, and aided to consolidate the enterprise. The latter
were the real conquerors; they who, without any other arms than their
virtues, won over the good will of the islanders, caused the Spanish
name to be beloved, and gave to the king, as it were by a miracle,
two millions more of submissive and Christian subjects. These were
the legislators of the barbarous hordes who inhabited the islands
of this immense Archipelago, realizing, by their mild persuasion,
the allegorical prodigies of Amphion and Orpheus.

[Pioneer Philippine government a theocracy.] As the means the
missionaries called in to their aid, in order to reduce and civilize
the Indians, were preaching and other spiritual labors, and, although
scattered about and acting separately, they were still subject to
the authority of their prelates, who, like so many chiefs, directed
the grand work of conversion, the government primitively established
in these colonies must necessarily have partaken greatly of the
theocratical order, and beyond doubt it continued to be so, till,
by the lapse of time, the number of colonists increased, as well as
the effective strength of the royal authority, so as to render the
governing system uniform with that established in the other ultramarine
dominions of Spain.

This is also deduced from the fragments still remaining of the first
constitution, or mode of government introduced in the Batanes Islands
and missions of Cagayan, administered by the Dominican friars in a
spiritual and temporal manner; as well as from what may frequently be
observed in the other provinces, by any one who bestows the smallest
attention. Although the civil magistracies have since been regulated,
a