Source:

http://www.artesdelasfilipinas.com/archives/197/the-filipino-people-before-the-arrival-of-the-
spaniards?fbclid=IwAR3d7vXOQungi30Yg-rc6JSIb1qQODBVDTveEcrBvI8hxygkr9JYLaF8pKY

THE FILIPINO PEOPLE BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF THE

SPANIARDS
by: David P. Barrows, Ph.D.

April-May 2016--Position of Tribes – on the Spaniards, the population

of the Philippines seems to have been distributed by tribes in much the
same manner as at present. Then, as now, the Bisayas occupied the
central islands of the archipelago and some of the northern coast of
Mindanao. The Bikols, Tagalogs, and Pampangos were in the same
parts of Luzon as we find them today. The Ilokanos occupied the coastal
plain facing the China Sea, but since the arrival of the Spaniards they
have expanded considerably and their settlement are now numerous in
Pangasinan, Nueva Vizcaya, and the valley of the Cagayan.

The Number of People – These tribes which to-day number nearly

7,000,000 souls, at the time of Magellan’s discovery aggregated not
more than 500,000. An early enumeration of the population made by the
Spaniards in 1591, which included practically all of these tribes, gave a
population of less than 700,000. (See chapter VIII., The Philippines
Three Hundred Years Ago.)

There are other facts too that show us how sparse the population must
have been. The Spanish expeditions found many coasts and islands in
the Bisayan group without inhabitants. Occasionally a sail or a canoe
would be seen, and then these would disappear in some small “estero”
or mangrove swamp and the land seem as unpopulated as before. At
certain points, like Limasaua, Butuan, and Bohol, the natives were more
numerous, and Cebu was a large and thriving community; but the
Spaniards had nearly everywhere to search for settled places and
cultivated lands.

The sparseness of population is also well indicated by the great scarcity

of food. The Spaniards had much difficulty in securing sufficient
provisions. A small amount of rice, a pig and a few chickens, were
obtainable here and there, but the Filipinos had no large supplies. After
the settlement of Manila was made, a large part of the food of the city
was drawn from China. They very ease with which the Spaniards
marched where they willed and reduced the Filipinos to obedience
shows that the latter were weak in numbers. Laguna de Bay and the
Camarines were among the most populous portions of the archipelago.
All of these and others show that the Filipinos were but a small fraction
of their present number.

On the other hand, the Negritos seem to have been more numerous, or
at least more in evidence. They were immediately noticed on the island
of Negros, where at the present they are few and confined to the interior;
and in the vicinity of Manila and in Batangas, where they are no longer
found, they were mingling with the Tagalog population.

Conditions of Culture – The culture of the various tribes, which is now

quite the same throughout the archipelago, presented some differences.
In the southern Bisayas, where the Spaniards first entered the
archipelago, there seem to have been two kinds of natives: the hill
dwellers, who lived in the interior of the islands in small numbers, who
wore garments of tree bark and who sometimes built their houses in the
trees; and the sea dwellers, who were very much like the present day
Moro tribes south of Mindanao, who are known as the Samal, and who
built their villages over the sea or on the shore and lived much in boats.
These were probably later arrivals than the forest people. From both of
these elements the Bisaya Filipinos are descended, but while the coast
people have been entirely absorbed, some of the hill-folk are still pagan
and uncivilized, and must be very much as they were when the
Spaniards first came.

The highest grade of culture was in the settlements where there was
regular trade with Borneo, Siam, and China, and especially about
Manila, where many Mohamedan Malays had colonized.
Languages of the Malayan Peoples – With the exception of the
Negrito, all the languages of the Philippines belong to one great family,
which has been called the “Malayo-Polynesian.” All are believed to be
derived from one very ancient mother-tongue. It is astonishing how
widely these Malayo-Polynesian tongues have spread. Farthest east in
the Pacific are the Polynesian languages, then those of the small islands
known as Micronesia; then Melanesian or Papuan; the Malayan
throughout the East Indian archipelago, and to the north the languages
of the Philippines. But this is not all; for far westward on the coast of
Africa is the island of Madagascar, many of whose languages have no
connection with African but belong to the Malayo-Polynesian family.

The Tagalog Language – it should be a matter of great interest to

Filipinos that the great scientist, Baron William von Humboldt,
considered the Tagalog to be the richest and most perfect of all the
languages of the Malayo-Polynesian family, and perhaps the type of
them all. “It possesses,” he said, “all the forms collectively of which
particular ones are found in other dialects; and it has preserved them all
with very trifling exceptions unbroken, and in entire harmony and
symmetry.” The Spanish friars, on their arrival in the Philippines, devoted
themselves at once to learning the native dialects and to the preparation
of prayers and catechisms in these native tongues. They were very
successful in their studies. Father Chirino tells us one Jesuit who learned
sufficient Tagalog in seventy days to preach and hear confession. In this
way the Bisayan, the Tagalog, and the Ilokano were soon mastered.

In the light of the opinion of Von Humboldt, it is interesting to find these

early Spaniards pronouncing the Tagalog the most difficult and the most
admirable. “Of all them,” says Padre Chirino, “the one which most
pleased me and filled me with admiration was the Tagalog. Because, as I
said to the first archbishop, and afterwards to other serious persons,
both there and here, I found in it four qualities of the four best languages
of the world: Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and Spanish; of the Hebrew the
mysteries and obscurities; of the Greek, the articles and the precision not
only of the appellative but also of the proper nouns; of the Latin, the
wealth and elegance; and of the Spaniards, the good breeding,
politeness, and courtesy.”

An early Connection with the Hindus – The Malayan languages contain a

considerable proportion of words borrowed from the Sanskrit, and in this
the Tagalog, Bisayan, and Ilokano are included. Whether these words
were passed along from one Malayan group to another, or whether they
were introduced by the actual presence and power of the Hindu in this
archipelago, may be fair ground for debate; but he case for the latter
position has been so well and brilliantly put by Dr. Pardo de Tavera that
his conclusions are here given in his own words. “The words which
Tagalog borrowed,” he says, “are those which signify intellectual acts,
moral conceptions, emotions, superstitions, names of deities, of planets,
of numerals of high number, of botany, of war and its results and
consequences and, finally of titles and dignities, some animals,
instruments of industry, and the names of money.”

From the evidence of these words, Dr. Pardo argues for a period in the
early history of the Filipinos, not merely of commercial intercourse, like
that of the Chinese, but of Hindu political and social domination. “I do not
believe,” he says, “and I base my opinion on the same words that I have
brought together in this vocabulary, that the Hindus were here simply as
merchants, but that they dominated different parts of the archipelago,
where to-day are spoken the most cultured languages, - the Tagalo, the
Visayan, the Pampanga, and the Ilocano; and that the higher culture of
these languages comes precisely from the influence of the Hindu race
over the Filipino.”

The Hindus in the Philippines. – “It is impossible to believe that the

Hindus, if they came only as merchants, however great their number,
would have impressed themselves in such a way as to give to these
islanders the number and the kind of words which they did give. These
names of dignitaries, of caciques, of high functionaries of the court, of
noble ladies, indicate that all of these high positions with names of
Sanskrit origin were occupied at one time by men who spoke that
language. The words of a similar origin for objects of war, fortresses, and
battle-songs, for designating objects of religious belief, for superstitions,
emotions, feelings, industrial and farming activities, show us clearly that
the warfare, religion, literature, industry, and agriculture were at one time
in the hands of the Hindus, and that this race was effectively dominant in
the Philippines.”

Systems of Writing among the Filipinos - When the Spaniards arrived

in the Philippines, the Filipinos were using systems of writing borrowed
from Hindu or Javanese sources. This matter is so interesting that one
cannot do better than to quote in full Padre Chirino’s account, as he is
the first of the Spanish writers to mention it and as his notice is quite
complete.
“So given are these islanders to reading and writing that there is hardly a
man and much less a women, that does not read and write in letters
peculiar to the island of Manila, very different from those of China,
Japan, and of India, as will be seen from the following alphabet.
“The vowels are three; but they serve for five, and are,

The consonants are no more than twelve, and they serve to write both
consonant and vowel, in this form. The letter alone, without any point
either above or below, sounds with a. For instance, in order to say
‘cama,’ the two letters alone suffice.
But with all, and that without many evasions, they make themselves
understood, and they themselves understand marvelously. And the
reader supplies, with much skill and ease, the consonants that are
lacking. They have learned from us to write running the lines from the left
hand to the right, but formerly they only wrote from above downwards,
placing the first line (if I remember rightly) at the left hand, and continuing
with the others to the right, the opposite of the Chinese and Japanese….
They write upon canes or on leaves of a palm, using for a pen a point of
iron. Nowadays in writing not only their own but also our letters, they use
a quill very well cut, and paper like ourselves.

They have learned our language and pronunciation, and write as well as
we do, and even better; for they are so bright that they learn everything
with the greatest ease. I have brought with me handwriting with very
good and correct lettering. In Tigbauan, I had in school a very small
child, who in three months’ time learned, by copying from well-written
letters that I set him, to write enough better than I, and transcribed for me
writings of importance very faithfully, and without errors or mistakes. But
enough of languages and letters; now let us return to our occupation with
human souls.”

Sanskrit Source of the Filipino Alphabet – Besides the Tagalogs, the

Bisayas, Pampangos, Pangasinans, and Ilokanos had alphabets, or
more properly syllables similar to this one. Dr. Pardo de Tavera has
gathered many data concerning them, and shows that they were
undoubtedly received by the Filipinos from a Sanskrit source.

Early Filipino Writings – The Filipinos used this writing for setting down
their poems and songs, which were their only literature. None of this,
however, has come down to us, and the Filipinos soon adopted the
Spanish alphabet, forming the syllables necessary to write their
language from these letters. As all these have phonetic values, it is still
very easy for a Filipino to learn to pronounce and so read his own
tongue. These old characters lingered for a couple of centuries, in certain
places. Padre Totanes tell us that it was rare in 1705 to find a person
who could use them; but the Tagbanwas, a pagan people on the island
of Palawan, use a similar syllabary to this day. Besides poems, they had
songs which they sang as they rowed their canoes, as they pounded the
rice from its husk, and as they gathered for feast or entertainment; and
especially there were songs for the dead. In these songs, says Chirino,
they recounted the deeds of their ancestors or their deities.

Chinese in the Philippines – Early Trade – Very different from the

Hindu was the early influence of the Chinese. There is no evidence that,
previous to the Spanish conquest, the Chinese settled or colonized in
these islands at all; and yet three hundred years before the arrival of
Magellan their trading-fleets were coming here regularly and several of
the islands were well known to them. One evidence of this prehistoric
trade is in the ancient Chinese jars and pottery which have been
exhumed in the vicinity of Manila, but the Chinese writings themselves
furnish us even better proof. About the beginning of the thirteenth
century, though not earlier than 1205, a Chinese author named Chao Ju-
kua wrote a work upon the maritime commerce of the Chinese people.
One chapter of his work is devoted to the Philippines, which he calls the
country of Mayi. According to this record it is indicated that the Chinese
were familiar with the islands of the archipelago seven hundred years
ago.

Chinese Description of the People – “The country of Mayi,” says this

interesting classic, “is situated to the north of Poni (Burney, r Borneo).
About a thousand families inhabit the banks of a very winding stream.
The natives clothe themselves in sheets of cloth resembling bed sheets,
or cover their bodies with sarongs. (The sarong is the gay colored,
typical garment of the Malay.) Scattered through the extensive forests
are copper Buddha images, but no one knows how they got there.
“When the merchant (Chinese) ships arrive at this port they anchor in
front of an open place… which serves as a market, where they trade in
the produce of the country. When a ship enters this port, the captain
makes presents of white umbrellas (to the mandarins). The merchants
are obliged to pay this tribute in order to obtain the good will of these
lords.” The products of the country are stated to be yellow wax, cotton,
pearls, shells, betel nuts, and yuta cloth, which was perhaps one of the
several cloths still woven of abaca, or pina. The articles imported by the
Chinese were “porcelain, trade gold, objects of lead, glass beads of all
colors, iron cooking-pans, and iron needles.”

The Negritos – Very curious is the accurate mention in this Chinese

writing, of the Negritos, the first of all accounts to be made of the little
blacks. “In the interior of the valleys lives a race called Hai-tan (Aeta).
They are of low stature, have reound eyes of a yellow color, curly hair,
and their teeth are easily seen between their lips. (That is, probably, not
darkened by betel-chewing or artificial stains.) They build their nests in
the treetops and in each nest lives a family, which only consists of from
three to five persons. They travel about in the densest thicket of the
forests, and, without being seen themselves, shoot their arrows at the
passers-by; for this reason they are much feared. If the trader (Chinese)
throws them a small porcelain bowl, they will stoop down to catch it and
then run away with it, shouting joyfully.”

Increase in Chinese Trade – These junks also visited the more central
islands, but here traffic was conducted on the ships, the Chinese on
arrival announcing themselves by beating gongs and the Filipinos
coming out to them in their light boats. Among other things here offered
by the natives for trade are mentioned “strange cloth,” perhaps sinamay
or jusi, and fine mats.
This Chinese trade continued probably quite steadily until the arrival of
the Spaniards. Then it received an enormous increase through the
demand for Chinese food products and wares made by the Spaniards,
and because of the value of the Mexican silver which the Spaniards
offered in exchange.

Trade with the Moro of the South – The spread Mohammedanism and
especially the foundation of the colony of Borneo brought the Philippines
into important commercial relations with the Malays of the south.
Previous to the arrival of the Spaniards these relations seem to have
been friendly and peaceful. The Mohammedan Malays sent their praus
northward for purposes of trade, and they were also settling in the north
Philippines as they had in Mindanao.

When Legazpi’s fleet, soon after its arrival, lay near the island of Bohol,
Captain Martin de Goiti had a hard fight with a Moro vessel which was
cruising for trade, and took six prisoners. One of them, whom they call
the “Pilot,” was closely interrogated by the commander and some
interesting information obtained, which is recorded by Padre San
Augustin. Legaspi had a Malay slave interpreter with him and San
Augustin says that Padre Urdaneta “knew well the Malayan language.”
The pilot said that “those of Borneo brought for trade with the Filipinos,
copper and tin, which was brought to Borneo from China, porcelain,
dishes, and bells made in their fashion, very different from those that the
Christians use, and benzoin, and colored blankets from India, and
cooking pans made in China, and that they also brought iron lances very
well tempered, and knives and other articles of barter, and that in
exchange for them they took away from the islands gold, slaves, wax,
and a kind of small seashell which they call ‘sijueyes’ and which passes
for money in the kingdom of Siam and other places; and also they carry
off some white cloths, of which there is a great quantity in the islands.”
Butuan, on the north coast of Mindanao, seems to have been white a
trading-place resorted to by vessels from all quarters. This region, like
many other parts of the Philippines, has produces from time immemorial
small quantities of gold, and all the early voyagers speak of the gold
earrings and ornaments of the natives. Butuan also produced sugarcane
and was a trading-port for slaves. This unfortunate traffic in human life
seems to have been not unusual, and was doubtless stimulated by the
commerse with Borneo. Junks from Siam trading with Cebu were also
encountered by the Spaniards.

Result of this Intercourse and Commerce – This intercourse and

traffic had acquainted the Filipinos with many of the accessories of
civilized life long before the arrival of the Spaniards. Their chiefs and
datos dresses in silks, and maintained some splendor of surroundings;
nearly the whole population of the tribes of the coast wrote and
communicated by means of a syllabary; vessels from Luzon traded as
far south as Mindanao and Borneo, although the products of Asia proper
came through the fleets of foreigners; and perhaps what indicates more
clearly than anything else the advance the Filipinos were making through
their communication with outside people is their use of firearms. Of this
point there is no question. Everywhere in the vicinity of Manila, on
Lubang, in Pampanga, at Cainta and Laguna de Bay, the Spaniards
encountered forts mounting small cannon, or “lantakas” The Filipinos
seem to have understood, moreover, the arts of casting cannon and of
making powder. The first gun-factory established by the Spaniards was
in charge of a Filipino from Pampanga.
Early Political and Social Life - The Barangay – The weakest side of
the culture of the early Filipinos was their political and social
organization, and they were weak here in precisely the same way that
the now uncivilized peoples of northern Luzon are still weak. Their state
did not embrace the whole tribe or nation; in included simply the
community. Outside of the settlers in one immediate vicinity, all others
were enemies or at most foreigners. There were in the Philippines no
large states, nor even great rajas and sultans such as were found in the
Malay Archipelago, but instead on every island were a multitude of small
communities, each independent of the other and frequently waging war.

The unit of their political order was a little cluster of houses of from thirty
to one hundred families, called a “barangay,” which still exists in the
Philippines as the “barrio.” At the head of each barangay was a chief
known as the “dato,” a word no longer used in the northern Philippines,
though it persists among the Moros of Mindanao. The powers of these
datos within their small areas appear to have been great, and they were
treated with utmost respect by the people.

The barangays were grouped together in tiny federations including about

as much territory as the present towns, whose affairs were conducted by
the chiefs or datos, although sometimes they seem to have all been in
obedience to single chief, known in some places as the “hari,” at other
times by the Hindu word “raja,” or the Mohammedan term “sultan.”
Sometimes the power of one of these rajas seems to have extended
over the whole of a small island, but usually their “kingdoms” embraced
only a few miles.
Changes Made by the Spaniards – The Spaniards, in enforcing their
authority through the islands, took away the real power from the datos,
grouping the barangays into town, or “pueblos,” and making the datos,
headmen, caciques or principales. Something of the old distinction
between the dato, or “principal,” and the common man may be still
represented in the “gente ilustrada,” or the more wealthy, eaducated, and
influential class found in each town, and the “gente baja,” or the poor and
uneducated.

Classes of Filipinos under the Datos – Beneath the datos, according to

Chirino and Morga, there three classes of Filipinos. First were the free
“maharlika,” who paid no tribute to the dato, but who accompanied him to
war, rowed his boat when he went on a journey, and attended him in his
house. This class is called by Morga “timauas.”

Then there was a very large class, who appear to have been freedmen
or liberated slaves, who had acquired their own homes and lived with
their families, but who owed to dato or maharlika heavy debts of service;
to sow and harvest in his rice fields, to tend his fish-traps, to row his
canoe, to build his house, to attend him when he had guests, and to
perform any other duties that the chief might command,” and their
condition of bondage descended to their children.

Beneath these existed a class of slaves. These were the “siguiguiliris,”

and they were numerous. Their slavery arose in several ways. Some
were those who as children had been captured in war and their lives
spared. Some became slaves by selling their freedom in times of hunger.
But most of them became slaves through debt, which descended from
father to son. A debt of five or six pesos was enough in some cases to
deprive a man of his freedom.

These slaves were absolutely owned by their lord, who could

theoretically sell them like cattle; but, in spite of its bad possibilities, this
Filipino slavery was apparently not of a cruel or distressing nature. The
slaves frequently associated on kindly relations with their masters and
were not overworked. This form of slavery still persists in the Philippines
among the Moros of Mindanao and Jolo. Children of slaves inherited
their parents’ slavery. If one parent was free and the other slave, the first,
third, and fifth children were free and the second, fourth, and sixth
slaves. This whole matter of inheritance of slavery was curiously worked
out in details.

Life in the Barangay – Community feeling was very strong within the
barangay. A man could not leave his own barangay for life in another
without the consent of the community and the payment of money. If a
man of one barrio married a women of another, their children were
divided between the two barangays. The barangay was responsible for
the good conduct of its members, and if one of them suffered an injury
from a man outside, the whole barangay had to appeased. Disputes and
wrongs between members of the same barangay were referred to
number of old men, who decided the matter in accordance with the
customs of the tribe, which were handed down by tradition.

The Religion of the Filipinos – The Filipinos on the arrival of the

Spaniards were fetish-worshipers, but they had one spirit whom they
believed was the greatest of all and the creator or maker of things. The
Tagalogs called this deity Bathala, the Bisayas, Laon, and the Ilokanos,
Kabunian. They also worshiped the spirits of their ancestors, which were
represented by small images called “anitos.” Fetishes, which are any
objects believed to possess miraculous power, were common among the
people, and idols or images were worshiped. Pigafetta describes some
idols which he saw in Cebu, and Chirino tells us that, within the memory
of Filipinos whom he knew, they had idols of stone, wood, bone, or the
tooth of a crocodile, and that there were some of gold.

They also reverenced animals and birds, especially the crocodile, the
crow, and a mythical bird of blue or yellow color, which was called by the
name of their deity Bathala. They had no temples or public places of
worship, but each one had his anitos in his own house and performed his
sacrifices and acts of worship there. As sacrifices they killed pigs or
chickens, and made such occasions times of feasting, song, and
drunkenness. The life of the Filipino was undoubtedly filled with
superstitious fears and imaginings.

The Mohammedan Malays – The Mohammedan outside of southern

Mindanao and Jolo, had settled in the vicinity of Manila Bay and on
Mindoro, Lubang, and adjacent coasts of Luzon. The spread of
Mohammedanism was stopped by the Spaniards, although it is narrated
that for a long time many of those living on the shores of Manila Bay
refused to eat pork, which is forbidden by the Koran, and practiced the
rite of circumcision. As late as 1583, Bishop Salazar, in writing to the king
of affairs in the Philippines, says the Moros had preached the law of
Mohammed to great numbers in these islands and by this preaching
many of the Gentiles had become Mohammedans; and further he adds,
“Those who have received this foul law guard it with much persistence
and there is great difficulty in making them abandon it; and with cause
too, for the reasons they give, to our shame and confusion, are that they
were better treated by the preachers of Mohammed than they have been
by the preachers of Christ.”

Material Progress of the Filipinos – The material surroundings of the

Filipino before the arrival of the Spaniards were in nearly every way quite
as they are to-day. The “center of population” of each town to-day, with
its great church, tribunal, stores and houses of stone and wood, is
certainly in marked contrast; but the appearance of a barrio a little
distance from the center is to-day probably much as it was then. Then,
as now, the bulk of the people lived in humble houses of bamboo and
nipa raised on piles above the dampness of the soil; then, as now, the
food was largely rice and the excellent fish which abound in river and
sea. There were on the water the same familiar bancas and fish corrals,
and on land the rice fields and cocoanut groves. The Filipinos had then
most of the present domesticated animals, dogs, cats, goats, chickens,
and pigs, and perhaps in Luzon the domesticated buffalo, although this
animal was widely introduced into the Philippines from China after the
Spanish conquest. Horses followed the Spaniards and their numbers
were increased by the bringing in of Chinese mares, whose importation
is frequently mentioned.
The Spaniards introduced also the cultivation of tobacco, coffee, and
cacao, and perhaps also the native corn of America, the maize, although
Pigafetta says they found it already growing in the Bisayas.

The Filipino has been affected by these centuries of Spanish sovereignty

far less on his material side than he has on his spiritual, and it is mainly
in the depending and elevating of his emotional and mental life and not
in the bettering of his material condition that advance has been made.

SOURCE: Barrows, David P.. A History of the Philippines. World Book

Company, Yonkers-On-Hudson, New York . 1914. pp. 88-107

NOTE: David P. Barrows, Ph.D was a professor and dean of the

Graduate School in the University of California; formerly director of
Education for the Philippine Islands. His book was prepared at the
suggestion of the educational authorities for pupils in the public high
schools of the Philippines as an introduction to the history of the country.

The aim of publishing this chapter is to provide a source material for the
study of history of the Philippines.