“I said ‘almost exceptional’ because rarely is an intra-tropical people a satisfactory one to eye or mind.  But this cannot be said of the Philippine Malays who in bodily formation and mental characteristics alike, may fairly claim a place, not among middling ones merely, but among almost the higher names inscribed on the world’s national scale.  A concentrated, never-absent self-respect, an habitual self-restraint in word and deed, very rarely broken except when extreme provocation induces the transitory but fatal frenzy known as ‘amok,’ and an inbred courtesy, equally diffused through all classes, high or low, unfailing decorum, prudence, caution, quiet cheerfulness, ready hospitality and a correct, though not inventive taste.  His family is a pleasing sight, much subordination and little constraint, unison in gradation, liberty—­not license.  Orderly children, respected parents, women subject but not oppressed, men ruling but not despotic, reverence with kindness, obedience in affection, these form lovable pictures, not by any means rare in the villages of the eastern isles.” (Here again comes the necessity of combatting the popular impression that the Philippines is a tropical land peopled by Malays.  The modification of climate from being an ocean archipelago suggests that these islands are really subtropical, while mixture of blood joined with three centuries of European civilization makes the term Malay misleading.—­C.)

* * * * *

PART VII

Filipino Merchants of the Early 1890s

F. Karuth, F. R. G. S., (President of an English corporation interested in Philippine mining) about 1894, wrote: 

“Few outside the comparatively narrow circle who are directly interested in the commerce and resources of the Philippine Islands know anything about them.  The Philippine merchants are a rather close community which only in the last decade or so has expanded its diameter a little.  There are a number of very old established firms amongst them, several of them being British....  Amongst them also are firms—­perhaps as far as wealth and local influence go, the most important firms—­whose chiefs are partly at least of native blood.

NOTES

[1] New York noon is Manilla 1:04 next morning.—­C.

[2] Navarrete, iv, 97 Obs. 2a.

[3] According to Albo’s ship journal, he perceived the difference at the Cape de Verde Islands on July 9, 1522; “Y este dia fue miercoles, y este dia tienen ellos pot jueves.” (And this day was Wednesday and this day they had as Thursday.)

[4] In a note on the 18th page of the masterly English (Hakluyt Society) translation of Morga, I find the curious statement that a similar rectification was made at the same time at Macao, where the Portuguese, who reached it on an easterly course, had made the mistake of a day the other way.