they did not sustain us,
provide us with food, serve us, and conduct us through the islands
with so much love and security that they would all first perish before
the father in whatever perils arise.

These and many other like things were overlooked by Father Murillo, who
was enraptured by their music, engraving, and rugs. By the aforesaid,
one will see with how little truth the statement is printed that the
Indians are the greatest enemies that the father ministers have;
for certainly all the above could not be reconciled with such a
proposition. On the contrary, it must be said that the Indians are
those who defend us from our enemies; for, in the presidios, who are
the soldiers, who sail in the war fleets, who are in the vanguard
in war? Could the Spaniards, perchance, maintain themselves alone
in this country, if the Indians did not aid in everything? Little
experience and less reflection would he have who should propose
such a thing. Therefore, these two things do not harmonize well,
that those who hate us should defend us, and that those who are our
greatest enemies should be the ones to maintain and support us. Nor
is it to be wondered at that there have been insurrections on several
occasions; these, perhaps, have not arisen because the Indians were
ill-disposed to the Spaniards; but, on the contrary, we know that
many of them have been caused by the cruelty, wickedness, and tyranny
of some alcalde-mayor and other Spaniards who, having been elevated
from low beginnings, try to become gods and kings in the provinces,
tyrannizing over the Indians and their possessions. This is often the
cause of the insurrections. Would that I could mention some especial
cases in this matter. However, I do not care to dip my pen in blood,
and write tragedies instead of history. For, although I could say
more, the authority and arrogance that every Spaniard assumes upon
his arrival in this country is incredible.

THE NATIVE PEOPLES AND THEIR CUSTOMS

[San Antonio, [338] in his Cronicas (Manila, 1738-44), i, pp. 129-172,
has the following ethnological matter. We omit the side heads.]

CHAPTER XXXIX

Of the origin of the Indians

[After a brief allusion to the creation of man at the beginning of
the world, the writer continues:]

384. Now, then, I have said as much as there is to say of the origin
of the Indians, if we speak of the first and most remote. For to
endeavor to determine the first settlers