THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 65 



civil relation does not rest on a firm, fixed com- 

 pact ; and liistory shows them to us sometimes as 

 tolerated, sometimes as persecuted, and at other 

 times as insurgents. Many of them, to settle with 

 more security, suffer themselves to be baptized, 

 and when they leave Manilla, with the riches they 

 have acquired, in ships of their own nation, fre- 

 quently send to the archbishop the white Neo- 

 phytes* dress and cross, which they have received 

 from him, that he may confer them on others of 

 their countrymen. 



The Papuas, the first ^possessors of the soil, the 

 Aetos or Negritos of the Spaniards, are savages, 

 who, without a fixed abode, without agriculture, 

 rove about the mountains, and live by the chase, 

 on wild fruits and honey. They cannot be en- 

 ticed to adopt any other mode of life. Even those 

 who have been brought up from their childhood 

 among Spaniards are wavering Christians, and not 

 seldom fly from their patrons to the people of their 

 own colour in the desert. They appear to be 

 more hostile to the Indians who drove them out, 

 than to the Spaniards wlio are their avengers. 

 Very little is known respecting them, and we were 

 not fortunate enough to obtain any decisive in- 

 formation on this subject. They are, in general, 

 represented to be a mild and unsuspicious people ; 

 and, in particular, have never been accused of 

 eating human flesh. They go naked, except an 

 apron of the bark of trees. We tried in vain to see 



VOL. III. F 



