The work of De Morga has value as a novelty, as it is more than a defense—­a laudation of the Spanish rule in the Philippines in the sixteenth century.  The title page is a fair promise of a remarkable performance, and it is here presented: 

    The
    Philippine Islands,
    Moluccas, Siam, Cambodia,
    Japan and China,

    at the close of the Sixteenth Century

    By Antonio de Morga.

    Translated from the Spanish, with Notes and a Preface, and a
    Letter from Luis Vaez De Torres, Describing His Voyage Through
    the Torres Straits, by the

    Hon. Henry E. J. Stanley.

The original work of De Morga was printed in Mexico in 1609, and has become extremely rare; there is no copy of it in the Bibliotheque Imperiale of Paris.  This translation is from a transcription made for the Hakluyt Society from the copy in the Grenville Library of the British Museum; the catalogue of which states that “this book, printed at Mexico, is for that reason probably unknown to Bibliographers, though a book of great rarity.”

The translator gives a new view to Americans of the part that Spaniards have played in the Philippines.  He plunges deep into his subject, saying: 

“The great point in which Manila has been a success, is the fact that the original inhabitants have not disappeared before the Europeans, and that they have been civilized, and brought into a closer union with the dominant race than is to be found elsewhere in similar circumstances.  The inhabitants of the Philippines previous to the Spanish settlement were not like the inhabitants of the great Indian peninsula, people with a civilization as old as that of their conquerors.  Excepting that they possessed the art of writing, and an alphabet of their own, they do not appear to have differed in any way from the Dayaks of Borneo as described by Mr. Boyle in his recent book of adventures amongst that people.  Indeed, there is almost a coincidence of verbal expressions in the descriptions he and De Morga give of the social customs, habits, and superstitions of the two peoples they are describing; though many of these coincidences are such as are incidental to life in similar circumstances, they are enough to lead one to suppose a community of origin of the inhabitants of Borneo and Luzon.”  Mr. Consul Farren, Manila, March 13th, 1845, wrote and is quoted in support of this view as follows: 

“The most efficient agents of public order throughout the islands are the local clergy, many of whom are also of the country.  There are considerable parts of these possessions in which the original races, as at Ceylon, retain their independence, and are neither taxed nor interfered with; and throughout the islands the power of the government is founded much more on moral than on physical influence.  The laws are mild, and peculiarly favorable to the natives.  The people are indolent, temperate and superstitious.  The government is conciliatory and respectable in its character and appearance, and prudent, but decisive in the exercise of its powers over the people; and united with the clergy, who are shrewd, and tolerant, and sincere, and respectable in general conduct, studiously observant of their ecclesiastical duties, and managing with great tact the native character.”