LAUFER] RELATIONS OF CHINESE TO THE PHILIPPINES 265 



Chinese embassy which he credits with the plan of taking Manila is of 

 course identical with the peaceable envoy of the "Ming shih," whose 

 task it was to bring his countrymen back to China. In this, as in sub- 

 sequent cases, we find the Spaniards, in their dealings with the Chi- 

 nese, misinterpreting their motives of action, and in consequence 

 doing them injury and injustice. This was due chiefly to their igno- 

 rance of the language and to their lack of well-trained interpreters. 

 From other temporary Spanish records it also becomes evident that 

 Das Marinas fell a victim to his own rashness and inconsiderateness. 

 He had a large army ready to conquer the Moluccas, but was not 

 able to secure rowers enough for his galleys. He therefore seized 

 by force any Chinese in the parian of Manila he could lay hold of 

 and had them chained to the banks of oars on the galleys. Most of 

 these wretched victims were peaceable merchants and artisans. 

 Besides these, he forced into his service as soldiers a number of 

 Chinese traders and sailors who had just arrived from China. His 

 murder is fixed by the Spanish chroniclers as having taken place on 

 the night of October 25-26, 1593, which tallies exactly with the 

 statement of the "Ming shih ;" also the facts there told of the mis- 

 sion of Luis das Marinas to China to ask indemnity for his slain 

 father are confirmed by the Spanish authors. He returned without 

 having effected his purpose ; but the Portuguese gobernador of 

 Malacca sent some of the murderers who had been caught there to 

 Manila, where they were executed. It will be observed that the 

 simple accounts of the Chinese are not valueless either in corrob- 

 orating or in supplementing the Spanish records, and put in a much 

 clearer and better light the true motives of the Chinese people, 

 which could be but imperfectly understood by the Spaniards of 

 those times. 



An instructive example of how myth sometimes develops from 

 history is furnished by Juan de la Concepcion, whose voluminous 

 "Historia General de Filipinas" appeared at Manila in 1788-92, in 

 fourteen volumes. His account of the Chinese mutiny in 1593 is 

 partial and one-sided. In speaking of the death of the governor, he 

 says the Chinese split his head in two with their alfanges. He 

 retired severely wounded, lay down on his bed, took the prayer-book 

 of his order in his hands and an "imagen de Nuestra Senora y con 

 estos consuelos de su piedad, dio su alma al Sehor." The older 

 sources relate nothing of such a touching scene, but agree in saying 

 that his head was cut off at a blow. 



From an historical point of view, the cruelty of Das Marinas 

 toward the Chinese, and his death, which resulted from it, form 



