298 Voyage of the Novara. 



of other nations, where the Europeans have always been re- 

 garded by the natives as the lords of a conquered country. 

 The English in India, Ceylon, and New Zealand, and the 

 Dutch in Java, all appear to have a much firmer and more 

 secure footing than the Spaniards, despite their having 

 mingled with the people. How little can be effected by 

 forced amalgamation of speech and manners, is best illus- 

 trated by the late separation of Central and Southern America 

 from the Spanish rule, "although in most of these countries 

 the majority of the people speak only Spanish, and are go- 

 verned entirely in accordance with Spanish customs. Much 

 better founded seems to us the observation that it was less 

 the sword than the cross of Spain which brought the Philip- 

 pines under the tlnrone of Castile, and that the natives have 

 become Spanish Christians, without being Spanish subjects. 

 The entire Archipelago is nothing but one rich church do- 

 main, a safe retreat for the legion of Spanish monks, who 

 are able to lord it here with unrestrained power. There is 

 a Governor-general of the Philippines only so long as it 

 pleases the Augustinian, Dominican, and Franciscan friars ;- 

 and if ever an insurrection breaks out in tlie Archipelago, 

 designed to shake off the Spanish yoke, there will be more 

 •than one monk to head the movement. 



In a country where the cloister and its denizens interfere 

 so arbitrarily in, all the concerns of life, and impart to the 

 capital itself, as indeed to the entire Archipelago, a character 

 entirely peculiar to itself, religious establishments and their 



