Population movement in the Spanish Pacific during the 17th century: Travellers from Spain to the Philippines

ANTONIO GARCÍA-ABÁSOLO Universidad de Córdoba

Recibido: 26 de septiembre de 2007 Aceptado: 15 de octubre de 2007

Abstract This work is part of a wider scope project which deals with the Spanish population movements towards Spain´s Pacific domains from the 16th to the end of the 19th centuries. All the attention is centered around the official inmigration: that which was registered in Seville´s Casa de Contratación, nowadays kept at the Archivo General de Indias. Final results evolve from the study of the conditioning factors of this human flow towards the East in the 17th century.

Key words Spanish / settlers / Philippines / 17th century.

La aportación pobladora de España a Filipinas en el siglo XVII

Resumen Este trabajo forma parte de un proyecto más amplio, dedicado a estudiar la emigración de España a sus dominios del Pacífico desde el siglo XVI hasta fin del siglo XIX. Este trabajo se centra en la emigración oficial de España a Filipinas, la que se registró en la Casa de Contratación de Sevilla y se conserva en el Archivo General de Indias. Los resultados finales van precedidos de un estudio de los factores condicionantes de este movimiento humano hacia Oriente en el siglo XVII.

Palabras clave Españoles / pobladores / Filipinas / siglo XVII.

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I. INTRODUCTION

This paper which I present today is included in a larger research project devoted to the study of the Spanish emigration to the territories of Spanish territories in the Pacific Ocean area from the 16th to the 19th centuries1. The object of study are the persons who left with the intention of residing there, either permanently or in order to occupy a post for a long period. They are the ones we can consider to be the Spanish settlers in the Philippines. The dispatch of troops is left out on purpose, especially the large contingents sent during the wartime periods of the 19th century. However, the military men who left as passengers for a post, bringing along their family and servants, are also considered settlers and belong to this study. In fact, it could be misleading to consider this last type of people only as military men, because, even if they did come for this purpose, they are professionally very versatile, and their capacity to adapt led them often to successfully engage in commerce during the first centuries of the Spanish government. Therefore, my findings provide me with the possibility of speaking about the different aspects of the emigration in the 17th century, even though they cannot yet be considered as definitive, especially during the final stage of the Spanish presence in the Philippines. I will develop my study from the quantitative to the qualitative, showing the data in graphs whenever possible, and analyzing the most salient points deserving commentary. My intention in the presentation, still within the general guidelines of the larger research project, is to go from the quantitative data to the persons or, in other words, from the number of passengers to the characteristics of the emigration. That is, I will tackle the ratio between men and women, the age at departure time, the profession and social status they had in Spain, the departure place, and the reasons for migrating. The data about the Spanish settlers in the Far East were gathered from last testaments, letters and other similar documents. All this information makes possible to know their private life, especially for

1 Other works that I have already published belonging to this project are the following: «The Private Environment of the Spaniards in the Philippines in the Colonial Period», Philippine Studies, Vol. 44, Manila, July 1996, pp. 349-373; «Pasajeros España-Filipinas (1800-1841)», in El Lejano Oriente Español: Filipinas (siglo XIX), Castañeda Delgado, Paulino (ed.), Seville, 1997, pp. 721-737; «The Contribution of Southern Spain to European Population Settlement in the Pacific», 18th International Congress of Historical Sciences, Montreal, 1995, published in Las relaciones internacionales en el Pacífico (siglos XVIII-XX), Madrid, 1997, C.S.I.C., pp. 185-200; «Pobladores españoles en Manila 1570-1600», Congreso Internacional Presencia Española en el Pacífico, García-Abásolo A. (ed.), España y el Pacífico, Córdoba, 1997, Dirección General de Relaciones Culturales, Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores, pp. 143-155.

Revista Española del Pacífico 134 2006/2007, 19-20: 133-151 Population movement in the Spanish Pacific ARTÍCULOS the case of the settlers of the Manila community. Through their lives one can look into the creation of that community, the relationship among the ethnic groups, the different professional occupations, the level of wealth and religious devotions. In a nutshell, there appears a whole new world, which ordinarily is difficult to detect because it is not contained in official documents. After spending several years researching on this kind of documents, I do not hesitate to say that the authentic cultural transfer from Spain to the world was carried through the settlers who left their birth places in order to establish themselves in the West and East Indies. We can attribute to them the development of customs, techniques, beliefs, and life styles, which oftentimes were typical of their place of origin. These settlers formed an active and dynamic foundation, which was capable of adapting to the new conditions and of receiving features characteristic of the colonial environment2. The data for this paper come from the Archivo General de Indias, especially from the division of Contratación. Within the latter, the three most consulted subdivisions were the Libros de pasajeros, Informaciones y licencias, and Autos de bienes de difuntos. Other additional divisions that were also consulted are Arribadas, Ultramar and Indiferente General. Aside from the Archivo General de Indias, I have incorporated partially some documentation from the Archivo Historico Nacional (Madrid). The information gathered from those sources serves very well to meet my objectives, since it makes possible studying the Spaniards in the Far East on two accounts: the passengers who went to the Philippines, and the settlers who lived in the Philippines. These can be studied because we have their last wills, or they are mentioned in others’ last testaments, property inventories, auction sales, records of law-suits. In short, it is a documentation that contains a great deal of qualitative information, and that indirectly can also provide demographic data. I will divide my work in two sections. The first will be dedicated to show the reasons behind the population movements toward Manila. The second part will bring up the outcome of this flow by means of graphs, allowing us to get to know a little better what kind of people were the ones willing to embark in the galleons of the Pacific route.

2 Regarding the research possibilities of this kind of documentation and the methodology applied to deal with it see García-Abásolo, Antonio: La vida y la muerte en Indias, Córdoba, 1992.

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II. FIRST PART: MOTIVATIONS FOR POPULATION MOVEMENT FROM SPAIN TO THE PHILIPPINES

2.1. Stimulus to Emigration. State of Affairs in Spain

The 17th century is marked by an evident decline of Spanish emigration around 1640-1650. This was related to the policy of the royal government that was averse to granting exit permits from a Spain demographically in need. Many people had left Spain in the 16th century: Many families with young children, especially during the second half of the century; many single youth in marrying age. Most likely those who left were those more capable of taking risk and engaging in business. Spain suffered the quantitative and qualitative effects of these migrations, and also those caused by the constant human requirements of the foreign policy of the grand Habsburg monarchs. Among the causes of the Spanish political decline in the 17th century, there is a proliferation of contemporary references to the scarcity of population, which caused, together with other types of reasons, a decrease in the productive capacity of the Spanish kingdoms. The situation aggravated after 1640, due to the revolts in Catalonia and Portugal, and above all, owing to the terrible epidemics that followed in uninterrupted succession until the end of the century. During the 16th and 18th centuries Spain also suffered plague epidemics, however, the ones in the 17th had especially catastrophic consequences, up to the point of being comparable with those that flogged Europe in the 14th century, which were the most terrible and devastating among those known3. Listing of epidemics in the 17th century: 1596-1602: It entered through Santander and spread throughout the whole Spain up to Andalusia. There were 8.000 deaths in Seville and 2.138 in Córdoba. Cabrera de Córdoba (Relaciones de las cosas sucedidas en la Corte de España) gives the estimate of 500.000 deaths (for the whole of Spain). 1629-1631: Epidemic outbreak blamed on the Frenchmen (living in Spain), which was an absurdity that reached the point of asking for a census of Frenchmen in Madrid as one of the means in the program to combat the pest. 1647-1652: In 1647, Levante (the lower West of Spain) and Andalusia were especially hit. In 1649 in Seville, it started in March and it lasted until July. This city was stricken more than ever before, so that this epidemic marked the end of Seville’s era of highest demographic and economic grandeur. No less

3 Domínguez Ortiz, Antonio: La sociedad española del siglo XVII. Madrid: CSIC., 1963. pp. 66 y ss.

Revista Española del Pacífico 136 2006/2007, 19-20: 133-151 Population movement in the Spanish Pacific ARTÍCULOS than 60,000 persons died, causing a very far-reaching depopulation. In Córdoba there were 13,780 deceased, and later on the plague spread to Aragon, and to all the North of Spain. 1676-1685: The epidemic spread through the same regions but in a less violent fashion. In Andalusia, the greater number of casualties took place in the East. In Spain as a whole, the brutal familiarity with death during the 17th century (1.250.000 persons died) had psychological effects, surfacing in the adoption of more severe life-styles. Enduring testimony of the presence of death are the canvasses of some Baroque painters, specifically those of Valdés Leal dealing with the Last Things in the Hospital de la Caridad of Seville4. Yet not everything had eschatological undertones. The same Seville that saw the hieroglyphic paintings of the Last Things of Valdés Leal also contemplated the paintings of Murillo showing the amiable and hopeful path of the practice of the works of mercy, which was a very consoling view in a city where the pest had reduced the population by half 5. Both painters enjoyed an unquestionable success in Seville during the second half of the 17th century. Seville was a city capable of harmonizing death and mercy, as it shows the work of the aristocrat Miguel de Mañara, who mobilized the the upper class of Seville to bury the dead by means of the Brotherhood of the Holy Charity.

2.2. One Cause for Depopulation: Spanish Emigration to the Indies

Contemporary opinions then often considered that one of the reasons for Spain’s depopulation had been the emigration to the New World, and it was still so during the 17th century. Two interesting quotes can help explain the veracity of this thesis, as well as the real capacity to be heard of those who wanted to correct this tendency. In the 1597 Cortes, the deputy Martín de Porras exposed the problem and its solution with clarity, and he is just one example among many others:

4 Domínguez Ortiz, Antonio: La sociedad española del siglo XVII, pp.69 y ss. Also Orto y ocaso de Sevilla. Seville, 1946, 2nd ed. Seville, 1981, pp. 131-134; and «La Sevilla del siglo XVII», in Historia de Sevilla, Seville, 1984, pp. 67-82. Regarding the iconography of Valdés Leal for the Hospital de la Caridad see Brown, Jonathan: Images and Ideas in Seventeenth Century Spanish Painting. Princeton, 1978. 5 Valdivieso, Enrique: Valdés Leal. Seville, 1991, pp. 8-9.

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«(beseeches his Majesty) deign to put a stop in the drain of people abroad from these Kingdoms, aware that they are not lacking in anything more than in people, and to command that no one may travel to the Indies for some years, except for friars to preach doctrine, and civil servants for the governance of the land, applying great responsibility that the others may not go, since those latter kingdoms cannot be populated without depopulating the former one». Well within the 17th century, in the Cortes of 1623, there was again an insistence on the necessity of controlling the emigration toward the Indies, in the Memorial presented by Juan Álvarez Serrano, a native of Andújar, and a professor at the University of Seville. «(he refers to) the obvious harm of so many people without license going to the Indies, with the effects that those Kingdoms are ruined and Spain is wasted away, and the dukes, counts, and marquises suffer the depopulation of their estates and the decline of their income, because many leave and stay there without anybody stopping them from going every year in two fleets and a navy, and in courier ships, or in other types of ships». In the second half of the 17th century, the intention of leaving for the New World must have been more frequent, as a result of the increase of the effects of epidemics and their consequences. However, studies on the emigration to Indies show that the emigration of Spaniards to America declined in the 17th century, even though the contradiction between the intentions and the facts need not be a paradox. The answer to this puzzle may be that the people leaving were really desperate cases, and in fact the increased official control responded to a greater number of illegal departures, which are obviously difficult to gauge6.

2.3. The Crossing of Oceans

Candidates to residency in the Philippines, both Spaniards and Mexicans, must have considered the difficulties of having to cross to one or two oceans respectively. The trips were long, in ships hardly designed to take care of a crew, and very tough, therefore, to carry ordinary passengers. These rather hard conditions were even extraordinarily harder in the route Manila-Acapulco, which probably was the most toilsome route in modern times. There is no lack of accounts attesting to this effect among those that managed to survive this

6 Dominguez Ortiz, Antonio: La sociedad…, pp. 86-90.

Revista Española del Pacífico 138 2006/2007, 19-20: 133-151 Population movement in the Spanish Pacific ARTÍCULOS experience and had the capability of putting them in down in writing. On the other hand, those who were well acquainted with this route had not need of anyone telling them in writing what they already knew so well. Perhaps, one of the most vivid accounts is the one of Gemelli Carreri, who traversed the route from Manila to Acapulco between June of 1697 and January of 1698: seven months confined to a galleon. It is best to transcribe his account literally, both because he was an Italian, and therefore, an observant and sensible person, as well as because it proves how the experiences of this kind of trips were left indelibly marked in the protagonists. «The trip from the Philippines to America can be considered as the longest and most terrible in the world, because of the vast ocean that must be crossed (which encompasses almost half of the earth’s globe, navigating always against the wind), and because of the tremendous tempests that are unleashed there, one after another, and because of the grave illnesses that strike the persons navigating during six or seven months at sea, having to bear with temperatures sometimes cold, or hot or temperate, which are enough to ruin a man of steel, and it is more than enough to destroy a man of flesh and bones, who is not well fed in high sea». To tell the truth he also mentions, to alleviate the reader, that there were no lice in the Orient, which was an ordinary pest in ship travels. He continues his relation explaining the reasons why some people ventured to make those trips, and even to repeat them. «In spite of the terrible sufferings of this remarkable trip, the appetite for riches makes many dare the trip for four, six, and even up to ten times. Even the sailors who in high sea curse the trip, when they arrive to Acapulco, forget their sufferings (like women after giving birth), craving the 275 reales de a ocho that the king pays them upon returning. The total pay is 350 reales de a ocho, but they receive only 75 in Cavite, when they leave for America, because if they would receive half of their wages then, very few would return to the Philippine islands to get the rest. Undoubtedly, merchants gain 150 or 200% per trip, agents get 9%, which totals a good amount over the 200.000 or 300.000 reales de a ocho. In fact, it is a great satisfaction to return home in less than a year with a clean profit of 17.000 o 18.000 reales de a ocho, aside from other personal enterprises, because with that amount he can live peacefully the rest of his life. In Acapulco, after a trip of 204 days and five hours, those who arrived embraced each other with tears of joy». Side by side with this experience, the trip to Manila turned out to be more comfortable, only by contrast to the return trip, because with a lot of difficulty can we apply that adjective to a galleon trip of more than two months in the Pacific.

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«From Acapulco to Manila there is no need to take unnecessary detours, because after going down from 17(to 13), the same parallel of Manila is followed, with favorable winds, so that the trip last for two and a half or three months at most without any storm». Gathering the separate testimonies of two pilots in his boat, Gemelli made the following calculations about the distance traveled in his trip from Manila to Acapulco7.

Travelling distance 125º 2.500 leagues 12.500 km 130º 3.000 leagues 15.000 km

For Acapulco-Manila 118º 2.200 leagues 11.000 km

2.4. Testimonies on human contributions from México to the Philippines during the 17th Century

As the title of this work indicated, its objective is to get to know the people travelling in the Acapulco-Manila route, and among them, more specifically those that were enlisted in the Casa de Contratación of Seville in order to go to the Philippines. This was not the only type of emigrants that arrived in the Philippines. From the beginning, there is also the presence of Mexican Spaniards, either Creole or from the peninsula, blacks and even Mexican Indians. As a matter of fact, this contribution is noticed in many aspects of the present-day cultural legacy of the Philippines, from architecture to gastronomy. However, it is very difficult to find documentation that allows studying these passengers, unlike in the case of passengers from Spain for whom we have the books of passengers, the required pre-departure information and license papers. It is significant to observe the insistence of the governor generals that the Viceroys of México did not pay attention to the Philippines as it was expected. They especially remarked that not as many families have migrated from México to the Philippines in the 17th century when compared to those who did in the last quarter of the 16th century. The period with the largest emigration, and with greatest women participation, happened between 1571 and 1630. This occurrence is also similar to the

7 Carreri, Gemelli: Giro del Mondo. Venice, 1719 from texts selected and commented by Leonard, Irving A.: Viajeros por la América Latina colonial. México, 1992, pp. 131-139.

Revista Española del Pacífico 140 2006/2007, 19-20: 133-151 Population movement in the Spanish Pacific ARTÍCULOS emigration to the Spanish America, and this means that it was more an emigration of settlers precisely when there was more need for it. Non statistical documentation refers that, during the 17th century, there were not as many families from México that went to the Philippines as it had occurred during the earlier times. The Viceroys of New Spain made many repeated appeals: They had great difficulty in finding persons who would like to go to the Philippines. The main interest of the Mexicans for the Philippines was the commerce of Chinese goods8, that put into motion an important flow of silver investments since the last quarter of the 16th century. According to Viceroy Martín Enríquez, the profits of Mexican investments in the Galleon trade was higher than those from gold business: 300% as compared to 100%. Gemelli Carreri confirmed this opinion towards the end of the 17th century, establishing that the commerce of Chinese products earned profits of 200%. The extraordinary speed with which the American silver was brought to Acapulco since the 1670s, was already an unstoppable process, in spite of the concern of the Viceroys and of the crown, that were forced to overlook the 17th century frauds because, as soon as the tariffs and the government control became more strict, there arouse threats of abandoning Manila on the part of the Spanish population, both from the Península and the Mexican Creoles. Those were the consequences caused by the strict policy of Pedro de Quiroga’s visit, which was backed up the Viceroy Marquis of Cadereyta: The trips between Acapulco and Manila became less regular between 1636 and 1640. Acontemporary witness declares that many citizens of Manila moved to stay in their land-estates and devoted themselves to farming, while others joined the army, and the majority requested license from the king to return to Spain9. Besides, it is frequently noted that, among the passengers who left Spain for the Philippines, many stayed behind in México. This occurrence was always a danger because there was a greater attraction toward the Viceroyalty of New Spain than to that of the exotic Islas del Poniente. The latter did not enjoy very good reputation in México, considering the difficulties experienced by Mexicans and Spaniards to adapt to the living conditions of the Philippines. Moreover, it was a danger that surfaced from the first moment, as it can be proven by the precautionary measures taken by Governor Gonzalo Ronquillo, who brought

8 A group investigating the more than three centuries long relationships between the Chinese and Spaniards in the Philippines was set up, and is being presently coordinated, by myself. This project is sponsored by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology. 9 On the problems of the visit of Quiroga and the effects of the strict policy in the threats of leaving by the citizens of Manila see Real Cédula to the Viceroy of México, marqués de Cadereyta, Madrid, September 2, 1628, AGI, Filipinas 330, L 4, F 73v-75r.

141 Revista Española del Pacífico 2006/2007, 19-20: 133-151 ARTÍCULOS Antonio García-Abásolo his expedition of settlers passing by Panama, in order to avoid concretely the effects of the Mexican attraction10. At any rate, we do not have any documentary support to calibrate the proportions of this alleged bloodshed of Spanish settlers in México on their way to the Philippines. In the last analysis, it may be advisable to consider the possibility that such an assumption may have been used for too long without enough evidence. It is necessary to keep into account that the passengers who prepared to board in Seville, had to go through a very exacting paper work, that cost time, money and connections; and that the majority of those who registered for the Philippines, excluding the large settlers expeditions of the 16th century, did so as members of the entourage of government officials or of groups of friars, and therefore, they were under vigilance. Furthermore, the fact that this tendency was known from an early time also increased government control: There is evidence that fugitives were pursued and returned to their original itinerary, even though some may have succeeded to get lost in the Viceroyalty of New Spain. In short, there are also reasons to think that the Spanish settlers that registered in the Casa de Contratación to go to the Philippines, made it in the islands. With respect to the religious, it is verified by the graphs that there was an increase of arrivals toward the end of the 16th century, and it is understood that, what it is known as the golden age of the missions between the years 1578 and 1609, had to be supported by a large increase of religious. Since the decade 1630-1640, the Augustinians decreased their particular leadership in the Philippines, as a consequence of the problems derived from the «alternativa» and from mere bad luck, because they underwent many casualties in the transpacific trips. In 1630, governor Juan Niño de Tavora asked the king in a letter that no further doctrinas may be awarded to the Augustinians, and he includes a harsh criticism towards them. It seems that the evil came, at least partially, from a sector of mestizo and Creole Augustinians that lacked the necessary preparation11.

10 García-Abásolo, Antonio: «El Poblamiento español de Filipinas». In García-Abásolo, A. (ed): España y el Pacífico, Cordoba, 1997, Dirección General de Relaciones Culturales, Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores de España, pp. 143-155. English edition, «Spanish Settlers in the Philippines (1571-1599)», Cuadernos de Historia, num.1, 1998, Manila, Instituto Cervantes, pp. 119-132. 11 Niño de Tavora to the king, Manila, August 4, 1630, AGI, Filipinas 8. Rodríguez, Isacio: Historia de la Provincia del Santísimo Nombre de Jesús de Filipinas. Vol. XIX, Valladolid, 1987. I thank Dr. Isacio Rodríguez for his observations on the sending of Augustinian missionaries to the Philippines during the 17th and 18th centuries.

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III. SECOND PART: HUMAN MOVEMENT FROM SPAIN TO THE PHILIPPINES DURING THE 17TH CENTURY. GRAPHS*

3.1. Model Card of the Database of the Settlers in the Pacific: Graph n.º 1

In order to understand better the characteristics of the work being presented, it is necessary to show a data card of the database file which constitutes the basis for the graphic-statistical study now delivered. As it can be noted, each passenger-settler is identified by means of nine variables, which can be used to create sequences in a computer, and a field of general observations, to gather additional information of a qualitative nature, which cannot be presented as sequences. Therefore, the basis of this work is a well known passenger-settler and not just a mere number within a large group. On the other hand, the current time length of the database (1571-1841) allows for comparative analysis of the results corresponding to the 17th century, which is the objective of our study.

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3.2. Passengers in the 17th century: Graph n.º 2

PASSENGERS OF PHILIPPINES 1571-1841

800 700 Men 600 Women 500 400 300 200 100 0 1571-791580-891590-991600-091610-191620-291630-391640-491650-591660-691670-791680-891690-991700-091710-191720-291730-391740-491750-591760-691770-791800-091810-191820-291830-41

PASSENGERS OF PHILIPPINES 1600-1699

800 700 Men 600 Women 500 400 300 200 100 0 1600-09 1910-19 1620-29 1630-39 1640-49 1650-59 1660-69 1670-79 1680-89 1690-99

Two graphs are shown together: that of passengers between 1571 and 1841, and that of the passengers for the 17th century. For both there is distinction between men and women; the number of clerics among the men is shown as well.

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In the total number of passengers recorded, 2.472 correspond to the 17th century, amounting to 49% of the total, and averaging 25 passengers per year. In absolute terms, therefore, it was the 17th century that brought more Spanish settlers to the Pacific, although in the last 30 years of the 16th century there occurred the highest relative contribution, reaching 27% of the total and an annual average of 45 passengers. For purposes of a statistical analysis of the population movement during the 17th century, it is more interesting and practical to group the passengers in periods of 10 years. Thus, trends are better outlined, which is precisely the objective and interest for this kind of work. At first glance an unequal distribution between men and women can be observed, which is much more remarkable than in the beginnings of the Spanish emigration to the Americas, since in the latter case it started to level off toward the end of the 16th century, when the type of family emigration which the laws favored consolidated. The legislation was the same for the Philippines, however, the difference between men and women remaining constant since the 16th century until the end of the Spanish period. The absolute numbers indicate an overwhelming imbalance in favor of the male population. However, it is necessary to make an essential adjustment when analyzing qualitatively the Spanish settlement in the Philippines. There is a need to keep in mind the character of the Philippines as an eminently missionary province, with uninterrupted and abundant arrival of friars. In reality, I think that it could be said that while the religious during the 16th century failed in their attempts to make America become a Missionary State, they were successful in the Philippines. The religious controlled the colonization effectively leaving their imprint well marked, carrying out the evangelization even as far as continental Asia. They did their work of cross-cultural influences, in the arts, technology, and even oftentimes in administrative matters. If the Church and the missionaries were a guarantee of the preservation of order in America until the end of the 18th century, it can be said that in the Philippines it is possible that their activity may not have yet ended. The emigration of families is clearly seen at the end of the 16th century, in fact it was fostered to be so, as it is verified especially in the expedition organized by Gonzalo Ronquillo in 157812, although it is not the only case. But it was prolonged, retaining a good proportion of women’s presence until the third decade of the 17th century. This is important, because it means that the feminine presence is abundant when the community of Manila and its cultural patterns

12 On the expedition of Ronquillo see García-Abásolo: «El poblamiento español de Filipinas (1571- 1599)».

145 Revista Española del Pacífico 2006/2007, 19-20: 133-151 ARTÍCULOS Antonio García-Abásolo are being structured and settled. The transfer of life style was more feasible during those years than in other times in the Philippines and Manila, and this has to be understood in this way because the feminine migration is equivalent in all respects, in this environment and in the Spanish America, to the emigration of families: The family was the authentic vehicle of transmission of lasting cultural patterns. After these years, the feminine presence declines and only rises again on occasion of bureaucrat passengers that bring along their families. It was also frequent that in the expeditions of religious there were some families among their habitual servants, that ended up settling down in the Philippines. However, I have not found any such a case in the 17th century: 115 male servants accompanied the religious throughout the century. In the case of officials it is possible to bring out some passengers as a group, that can be used to prove the noteworthy presence of women: Jerónimo de Salazar, fiscal of the audience of Manila, embarked in 1596 with his wife and eight servants. The lawyer Alvaro Rodríguez , judge of the audiencia, brought eight servants of the same year. Fray Domingo de Salazar was accompanied by twenty two religious and almost 20 servants. Hernando de los Ríos Coronel, solicitor of the city of Manila, who returned to the Philippines in 1610, brought along twelve servants, some of whom were married couples with young children. Alvaro de Mesa y Lugo, judge of the Audiencia de Manila, traveled to the Philippines in 1617 with his family and servants, making a group of ten persons with some women among them. Juan Ruiz de Escalona, treasurer, left for Manila in 1617 with his wife, three children, and servants. Fernando de Escaño, judge of the Audiencia de Manila, took a trip to Manila in 1670 with a group of eight persons, several of whom were women from his family and his attendants.

3.3. Passengers’ Distribution by Age: Graph n.º 3

The age of the passengers seldom appears in the documentation. I have been able to find the age of 10% of the identified passengers to the Philippines throughout the 17th century. The graph is divided in five- year periods, to make the evaluation clearer. It can be noticed that the Spanish stock was made up mostly of young people, as it can be expected. The majority of the group is below 30 years old (79%). However, it is also important to point out that there

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DISTRIBUTION BY AGE

>40 Women 31 to 40 Men 25 to 30

21 to 25

16 to 20

11 to 15

6 to 10

≤5

0 1020304050607080 is a high percentage of people above 30 years (21%) and it is also high even for those above 40 years (6%), which was the average life-expectancy during those years. It must be said that almost all the data on age gathered here refer to the non-ecclesiastical passengers. In fact, the large number of children below 15 years (10%) speaks of emigration models characteristic of families, and this is further proven by the high percentage of children below 5 years (4%). The ratio between girls and boys is also a very interesting piece of information: it is even until the age of five, and it is between the ages of 6 to 15 that the number of girls is twice that for boys. This is important information because, in spite of what has just been said, the community of Manila was always in need of Spanish women.

3.4. Distribution of Passengers According to their Origin: Graph n.º 4

This graph shows clearly the very prominent presence of Castilians, Andalusians, Extremadurans, that constitute 81%. The other 19% is made up by passengers from all the other Spanish regions, even from those areas which are not commonly associated with emigration to the Indies. The 1% of Greeks, Italians, and Portugueses came from the seamen hired in the galleons, just like

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DISTRIBUTION BY ORIGIN

America Andalusia Aragon Asturias Castile Catalonia Estremadura Philippines Galicia Greece Italy Japan Murcia Basque Country Portugal La Rioja 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 the 2.3% of Orientals are persons who go back after being part of the entourage of bureaucrats, friars and other people going to Spain out of duty. It is also interesting to note that the majority of the women that passed to the Philippines during the 17th century were Andalusians. This fact is explained by the proximity to the embarking port, the familiarity with the sea, the closeness to that world of news coming with the fleets going to the Indies. Those reasons are even more proven by the fact that among the Andalusian women the majority were from Seville.

3.5. Social-Professional Make-up of the Passengers to the Philippines: Graph n.º 5

It is an impossible task to make a complete statistical study of the professions of the passengers to the Indies based on the available documentation. This information rarely appears because the majority of the passengers were wage earners; that is, people hired in the country side or in the city, and farmers owning a small piece of land, which perhaps they had mortgaged so they could cover the expenses incurred for having to travel to the Indies. Most likely, the officials in the Casa de Contratación did not consider it necessary to reflect this common socio-political circumstance of the majority of those applying for

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DISTRIBUTION SOCIO-PROFESSIONAL

Military man

Seaman

Servants

Clerics

Craftsmen

8006004002000 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 license to go to the Indies. We know that in the 17th century, the representatives in the Cortes asked the king not to allow that wage earners in good health for working would leave Spain for the Indies. In the movement of passengers to the Philippines in the 17th century there is, however, an abundance of data regarding jobs and professions. This is due to the fact that 78% of the passengers found were clerics and religious. There is also a high proportion of servants (17.4%). The term «servant» is equivocal, because it meant both a job as well as a means to go to the Indies: each passenger who applied for a license to travel could also ask at the same time permission for one or several servants, who at times were their relatives, ending up by forming a sort of entourage. Some were servants in the usual sense of the word, that is, people at the service of another; and others were temporary servants, hired close to the embarking port, near Seville, in order to be of help during the voyage. That is why the majority of the servants were Andalusian, and even mostly from Seville. Among the 0.5% of the craftsmen there are several ship carpenters, which was an occupation very much in demand and requested from the Philippines, where there were shipyards and good types of wood. The galleons made in the Philippines were very appreciated in México from the start. The military deserved better to be classified as men of war, and of expected war; but in fact, the frequent activity of the officers in the Philippines was trading Oriental products. As it was to be expected in a set-up like Manila’s, the presence of the military

149 Revista Española del Pacífico 2006/2007, 19-20: 133-151 ARTÍCULOS Antonio García-Abásolo marked the life of the community. Governor Niño de Tavora made the king note it, maybe in rather exaggerated manner, in 1629 in the following terms: «Since it is a garrison, this city is full of militia that always carries their weapons on the shoulder. The majority of these people are restless and wicked, the rejects of Spain and New Spain»13. I have studied the life of many of these army men, officers in the garrisons of the Philippines, that ended up becoming rich businessmen. 1605 Captain Hernán Sánchez, trader with México. 1608 Alonso Arias de Granda, trader with México. 1608 Pedro de Zúñiga, businessman specialized in dealings with Japan. 1636, Juan Cardoso, Mayor Sergeant of Manila who founded and operated a company with a brother of his residing in México. The company was started in 1627 with a capital of 22,000 pesos, equally divided among the two, and it yielded abundant benefits. Juan Cardoso died in 1636 in his return trip from Manila to Acapulco, when he was going to enjoy his earnings.

IV. CONCLUSION

Considering the characteristics of the Spanish settlement in the Philippines, we would have to conclude that it is difficult to identify the cultural contribution exported there, because it must have been mitigated in such an exotic population as the one gathered in Manila. It could even be said that those contributions, even though they were notably Castilian, Andalusian or Extremaduran, were diversified from the start in such a manner that it is not possible to venture to look for cultural identities, in the speaking style in which idioms were used, like Boyd-Bowman did for America. Besides, it is always necessary to count on the Mexican contribution, which was active from the first moment providing richness and diversity. The human group created in Manila was a fantastic anthropological jigsaw puzzle, considering the variegated mixture of native and foreign ethnic groups that assembled there between 1570 and 1600, that is, during the first generation of settlers in the Philippines. At any rate, it can be seen through the data gathered that the number of passengers native of Castile were almost twice the natives of Andalusia. Likewise, we can say that Castilians, Andalusians, and Extremadurans dominated completely the European landscape of Manila, which it also included some samples of the other Spanish regions and Mexicans.

13 Juan Niño de Tavora to the king, Cavite, August 1, 1629, AGI, Filipinas 21. Rodríguez, Isacio: Historia de la Provincia del Santísimo Nombre de Jesús de Filipinas, Vol. XIX, Valladolid, 1987.

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On the other hand, the Spanish community of Manila did not undergo a process of race mixing, as it has happened in the Americas. Thus, the mestizo family as an element for acculturation in the Philippines has to be regarded in a very broad sense, like something very Western, or at least like the Spanish way of considering what is Western. Although what has been just said should be no obstacle to finding exceptional isolated cases of cross-cultural influences, like for instance in the manner in which devotions are understood. In any case, and even though it is not possible to be accurate, a superficial survey of the Philippines shows immediately many vestiges of a wonderful and original common patrimony Spanish-Philippine, or Spanish-Mexican-Philippine, which at present is happily the object of attention and solicitude on the part of scholars and governments. ✒ ANTONIO GARCÍA-ABÁSOLO

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