stant writers to speak with contempt
of Catholic missions, but it must not be forgotten that France and
England were converted to Christianity by similar methods. The
Protestant ridicules the wholesale baptisms and conversions and
a Christianity not even skin-deep, but that was the way in which
Christianity was once propagated in what are the ruling Christian
nations of today. The Catholic, on the other hand, might ask for some
evidence that the early Germans, or the Anglo-Saxons would ever have
been converted to Christianity by the methods employed by Protestants.

The wholesale baptisms have their real significance in the
frame of mind receptive for the patient Christian nurture that
follows. Christianity has made its real conquests and is kept alive
by Christian training, and its progress is the improvement which one
generation makes upon another in the observance of its precepts. One
who has read the old Penitential books and observed the evidences
they afford of the vitality of heathen practices and rites among the
people in England in the early Middle Ages will not be too harsh in
characterizing the still imperfect fruits of the Catholic missions
of the last three centuries.

In the light, then, of impartial history raised above race prejudice
and religious prepossessions, after a comparison with the early years
of the Spanish conquest in America or with the first generation or
two of the English settlements, the conversion and civilization of
the Philippines in the forty years following Legaspi's arrival must be
pronounced an achievement without a parallel in history. An examination
of what was accomplished at the very ends of the earth with a few
soldiers and a small band of missionaries will it is believed reveal
the reasons for this verdict. We are fortunate in possessing for this
purpose, among other materials, a truly classic survey of the condition
of the islands at the opening of the seventeenth century written by a
man of scholarly training and philosophic mind, Dr. Antonio de Morga,
who lived in the islands eight years in the government service. [30]

The Spaniards found in the population of the islands two sharply
contrasted types which still survive--the Malay and the Negrito. After
the introduction of Christianity the natives were commonly classified
according to their religion as Indians (Christian natives), Moors
[31] (Mohammedan natives), and Heathen (Gentiles) or Infidels. The
religious beliefs