80), it is alleged, had grave
altercations with the friars, and found it necessary to remind the
Archbishop Payo that the supreme power in the Philippines belonged
to the State--not to the Church representative.

From the earliest times of Spanish dominion, it had been the practice
of the natives to expose to view the corpses of their relations
and friends in the public highways and villages whilst conveying
them to the parish churches, where they were again exhibited to the
common gaze, pending the pleasure of the parish priest to perform the
last obsequies. This outrage on public decorum was proscribed by the
Director-General of Civil Administration in a circular dated October,
18, 1887, addressed to the Provincial Governors, enjoining them to
prohibit such indecent scenes in future. Thereupon the parish priests
simply showed their contempt for the civil authorities by simulating
their inability to elucidate to the native petty governors the true
intent and meaning of the order. At the same time, the Archbishop
of Manila issued instructions on the subject to his subordinates
in very equivocal language. The native local authorities then
petitioned the Civil Governor of Manila to make the matter clear to
them. The Civil Governor forthwith referred the matter back to the
Director-General of Civil Administration. This functionary, in a new
circular dated November 4, confirmed his previous mandate of October
18, and censured the action of the parish priests, who "in improper
language and from the pulpit," had incited the native headmen to set
aside his authority. The author of the circular sarcastically added
the pregnant remark, that he was penetrated with the conviction that
the Archbishop's sense of patriotism and rectitude _would deter him
from subverting the law_. This incident seriously aroused the jealousy
of the friars holding vicarages, and did not improve the relations
between Church and State.

CHAPTER V

Early Relations With Japan

Two decades of existence in the 16th century was but a short period
in which to make known the conditions of this new Colony to its
neighbouring States, when its only regular intercourse with them was
through the Chinese who came to trade with Manila. Japanese mariners,
therefore, appear to have continued to regard the north of Luzon
as "no-man's-land"; for years after its nominal annexation by the
Spaniards they assembled there, whether as merchants or buccaneers
it is