r princes. Besides that weapon the Mindanao uses lance,
kris, and shield, as do the other nations. Both these and those have
begun to use firearms too much, having acquired that from intercourse
with our enemies. They manage all sorts of artillery excellently, and
in their fleets all their craft carry their own pieces, with ladle,
culverins, esmerils, and other small weapons. [82]

SAN AGUSTIN'S LETTER ON THE FILIPINOS

[Gaspar de San Agustin, O.S.A., wrote the following letter regarding
the Filipinos. This letter has been widely discussed pro and con
by various writers, because of the views expressed therein. Many
manuscript copies of it exist in various collections, archives, and
libraries. The present translation is made from an early manuscript
copy, belonging to Mr. E. E. Ayer, of Chicago. In footnotes we give
the variant readings of the MS. conserved in the Museo-Biblioteca de
Ultramar, Madrid (pressmark "6-5a; caja 17; 21-4a"), that MS. being
indicated in our notes by the letter M.; and of the letter as published
in Delgado's [83] Historia (pp. 273-296, where it shows marks of
having been edited by either Delgado or his editor), that publication
being indicated by the letter D. Sinibaldo de Mas presents many of the
essential parts of the letter in his Informe de las Islas Filipinas
en 1842, i, "Poblacion," pp. 63-132. He says: "In order to give an
idea of their physical and moral qualities, I am going to insert some
paragraphs from a letter of Father Gaspar de San Augustin of the year
1725, [84] suppressing many Latin citations from the holy fathers
which weigh that letter down, and adding some observations from my
own harvest, when I think them opportune." We shall use most of these
observations in the annotations herewith presented. Sir John Bowring
gives, on pp. 125-139 of his Visit to the Philippine Isles (London,
1859) some excerpts taken from Mas's Informe, but he has sadly mixed
San Agustin's and Mas's matter, and has ascribed some of the latter's
observations to San Agustin, besides making other errors. [85]]

Letter from fray Gaspar de San Agustin to a friend in Espana who
asked him as to the nature and characteristics [genio] of the Indian
natives of these Philipinas Islands. [86]

My Dear Sir:

Although your command has so great weight with me, the undertaking of
performing it satisfactorily is so difficult that I doubt my ability
to fulfil what you ask. It would be more easy for me, I