This judgment of Crawfurd in 1820 was echoed by Mallat (who was for a time in charge of the principal hospital in Manila), in 1846, when he expressed his belief that the inhabitants of the Philippines enjoyed a freer, happier, and more placid life than was to be found in the colonies of any other nation. [120]

Sir John Bowring, who was long Governor of Hong Kong, was impressed with the absence of caste:  “Generally speaking, I found a kind and generous urbanity prevailing,—­friendly intercourse where that intercourse had been sought,—­the lines of demarcation and separation less marked and impassable than in most oriental countries.  I have seen at the same table Spaniard, Mestizo and Indian—­priest, civilian, and soldier.  No doubt a common religion forms a common bond; but to him who has observed the alienations and repulsions of caste in many parts of the eastern world—­caste, the great social curse—­the binding and free intercourse of man with man in the Philippines is a contrast worth admiring.” [121] Not less striking in its general bearing than Crawfurd’s verdict is that of the German naturalist Jagor who visited the islands in 1859-1860.

“To Spain belongs the glory of having raised to a relatively high grade of civilization, improving greatly their condition, a people which she found on a lower stage of culture distracted by petty wars and despotic rule.  Protected from outside enemies, governed by mild laws, the inhabitants of those splendid islands, taken as a whole, have no doubt passed a more comfortable life during recent centuries than the people of any tropical country whether under their own or European rule.  This is to be accounted for in part by the peculiar conditions which protected the natives from ruthless exploitation.  Yet the monks contributed an essential part to this result.  Coming from among the common people, used to poverty and self-denial, their duties led them into intimate relations with the natives and they were naturally fitted to adapt the foreign religion and morals to practical use.  So, too, in later times, when they came to possess rich livings, and their pious zeal, in general, relaxed as their revenues increased, they still contributed most essentially to bring about conditions, both good and bad, which we have described, since, without families of their own and without refined culture, intimate association with the children of the soil was a necessity to them.  Even their haughty opposition to the secular authorities was generally for the advantage of the natives.” [122] Similar testimony from a widely different source is contained in the charming sketch “Malay Life in the Philippines” by William Gifford Palgrave, whose profound knowledge of oriental life and character and his experience in such divergent walks in life as soldier and Jesuit missionary in India, pilgrim to Mecca, and English consul in Manila, give his opinion more than ordinary value.