The Philippines: A century Hence

 "Filipinas de cien años"

 First published in La Solidaridad, Madrid, between September 30, 1889,

and February 1, 1890 and was translated by Charles E. Derbyshire.

 PART 1
 “Scarcely had they been attached to the Spanish crown than they had
sustained with their blood and the efforts of their sons the wars and
ambitions, and conquest of the Spanish people, and in these struggles,
in that terrible crisis when a people changes its form of government, its
laws, usages, customs, religion and beliefs;

 "The Philippines was depopulated, impoverished and retarded -- caught

in their metamorphosis without confidence in their past, without faith in
their present".

 “Religious shows, rites that caught the eye, songs, lights, images arrayed
with gold, worship in a strange language, legends, miracles and sermons,
hypnotized the already naturally superstitious spirits of the country but
did not succeed in destroying it altogether Then the end sought was
revealed, it was taken for granted, and the race was insulted, an effort
was made to deny it every virtue, every human characteristic, and there
were even writers and priests who pushed the movement still further”.

 “The spirit of the people was not thereby cowed, and even though it had
been awakened in only a few hearts, its flame nevertheless was surely
and intensely propagated, thanks to abuses and the stupid endeavors of
certain classes to stifle noble and generous sentiments.  Thus when a
flame catches a garment, fear and confusion propagate it more and more,
and each shake, each blow, is a blast from the bellows to fan it into life. 
