That it was the spirit of kindness, Christian love, and brotherly helpfulness of the missionaries that effected the real conquest of the islands is abundantly testified by qualified observers of various nationalities and periods, [37] but the most convincing demonstration is the ridiculously small military force that was required to support the prestige of the Catholic king.  The standing army organized in 1590 for the defense of the country numbered four hundred men! [38] No wonder an old viceroy of New Spain was wont to say:  “En cada fraile tenia el rey en Filipinas un capitan general y un ejercito entero”—­ “In each friar in the Philippines the King had a captain general and a whole army.” [39] The efforts of the missionaries were by no means restricted to religious teaching, but were also directed to promote the social and economic advancement of the islands.  They cultivated the innate taste for music of the natives and taught the children Spanish. [40] They introduced improvements in rice culture, brought Indian corn and cacao from America and developed the cultivation of indigo and coffee, and sugar cane.  Tobacco alone of the economic plants brought to the islands by the Spaniards owes its introduction to government agency. [41]

The young capital of the island kingdom of New Castile, as it was denominated by Philip II, in 1603 when it was described by Morga invites some comparison with Boston, New York, or Philadelphia in the seventeenth century.  The city was surrounded by a wall of hewn stone some three miles in circuit.  There were two forts and a bastion, each with a garrison of a few soldiers.  The government residence and office buildings were of hewn stone and spacious and airy.  The municipal buildings, the cathedral, and the monasteries of the three orders were of the same material.  The Jesuits, besides providing special courses of study for members of their order, conducted a college for the education of Spanish youth.  The establishment of this college had been ordered by Philip II in 1585 but it was 1601 before it was actually opened. [42] Earlier than this in 1593 there had been established a convent school for girls, [43] the college of Saint Potenciana.  In provisions for the sick and helpless, Manila at the opening of the seventeenth century was far in advance of any city in the English colonies for more than a century and a half to come. [44] There was first the royal hospital for Spaniards with its medical attendants and nurses; the Franciscan hospital for the Indians administered by three priests and by four lay brothers who were physicians and apothecaries and whose skill had wrought surprising cures in medicine and surgery; the House of Mercy, which took in sick slaves, gave lodgings to poor women, portioned orphan girls, and relieved other distresses; and lastly, the hospital for Sangleyes or Chinese shopkeepers in the Chinese quarter. [45] Within the walls the houses, mainly of stone and inhabited by Spaniards, numbered about six