PRIMITIVE WEAPONS AND ARMOR OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 25 



The influence of still another people on the Philippines has to be 

 considered, namely, the Chinese. There is no evidence that the 

 Chinese affected permanently the intellectual life of the natives as 

 did the Hindu, or that warlike institutions and weapons were intro- 

 duced by them as by the Arabic Mohammedan. The Chinese, to the 

 contrary, were traders. They must have carried on trade with vari- 

 ous Malay settlements along the estuaries and bays of the Philippine 

 coast many years before the arrival of Mohammedan missionaries. 

 Three hundred years before the arrival of the Spanish, Chinese junks 

 were regularly trading with the Philippine Islands. Archeological 

 material recently unearthed by Dr. Carl E. Guthe, consisting of 

 Chinese porcelain and pottery, substantiate the writings of a Chinese 

 author, Chao Ju-kua, that the Chinese were acquainted with several 

 of the Philippine Islands over 700 years ago. Chinese pottery jars 

 of ancient manufacture and brass work, such as gongs, are still trea- 

 sured by the Filipinos of the present day. 



The Chinese people did not absorb the lore of the East regarding 

 the use of iron and steel in the production of hand weapons for cut- 

 ting and piercing. They were essentially an agricultural and trad- 

 ing people and sought their conquests in the field of commerce. 

 There has always been something ludicrous in the linking up of 

 Chinese culture traits to include the concept of hand-to-hand fighting 

 and the manufacture of efficient fighting weapons. It is at this point 

 that the Malay, the primitive as well as the Hinduized or Moham- 

 medanized tribes, differ from the more nonresisting, fatalistic 

 Chinese branch of the Mongolian race. It has, moreover, always 

 been the southern Chinese provinces that erupted from time to time 

 in rebellion or in piracy. The northern Chinese pursued warfare in 

 a more dilettante fashion, having rules about fighting before lunch 

 and the like. Even the more warlike Japanese did not develop fight- 

 ing at close range but developed a craftsmanship in spears and hal- 

 berds. 



That contact with Chinese, Spanish, and Filipino was not en- 

 tirely along peaceful, commercial lines is witnessed by the numer- 

 ous combats instigated by Chinese pirates. The fighting craft and 

 fighting implements of the early Chinese were remarkably ineffi- 

 cient, and weapons tending to be employed for show and for dis- 

 play consisted of ineffective blades of poor temper and form. They 

 were usually burdened with considerable meaningless tinsel. Still, 

 at times, remarkable expeditions and courageous projects were 

 undertaken. The Chinese pirate Limahong, in his attack on Manila 

 in 1574, relied on the strength of superior forces consisting of sev- 

 eral thousand soldiers and 62 war junks. Leadership was in part 

 exercised by a group of Japanese in his employ. It is said that at 

 the crucial moment, the arrival of a Spanish detachment of 50 



