LAUFER] RELATIONS OF CHINESE TO THE PHILIPPINES 2/3 



may now be briefly outlined. 1 In 1639 there was another great 

 rebellion of the Chinese in Manila, still more obstinate and longer 

 than that of 1603. In 1662 Cheng Ch'eng-kung, the famous pirate 

 hero, known to the Spaniards and Portuguese as Kogseng or Kosh- 

 inga (Koxinga), who drove the Dutch from Formosa and estab- 

 lished a kingdom there that he might continue his struggle against 

 the Manchu, sent a letter to the Gobernador de Lara in which he 

 accused the Spaniards of suppressing the Chinese, and demanded 

 that the governor submit to his rule immediately. Upon his failure 

 to do so, the corsair stated that he would come to Manila with his 

 entire force and wipe out the city. His threats caused a panic in 

 Manila, but he died during the preparations for the expedition, and 

 his son and successor to the throne of Formosa concluded a treaty 

 of amity with the Spaniards. Their pent-up anger now burst forth 

 in hatred toward the Sangleys, who were charged with having had 

 an understanding with Koshinga. The parian was pillaged and its 

 inhabitants killed or expelled. Nevertheless the Chinese appeared 

 again, and their settlement w 7 as again tolerated. However great the 

 hatred of the Spaniards and Filipinos toward them was, they were 

 conscious of the fact that without Chinese trade and industry the 

 Philippines could not exist. Since the seventeenth century the Phil- 

 ippines have been in decadence, owing to the decline of Spanish 

 power. The consequence was that Manila lost its attractions for the 

 big Chinese capitalists, who preferred to invest their money in the 

 flourishing Dutch colonies, and that after the second half of the 

 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the Chinese immigrants came 

 from the lowest classes of the coast population of Kuangtung and 

 Fuhkien — "poor devils," whose capital was made up of diligence and 

 thrift only. In 1709 the Chinese were banished from Manila under 

 the pretext that they were carrying off the public wealth; but they 

 did not hesitate to come back again. In the course of the eighteenth 

 century they settled down also in the smaller places on the island of 

 Luzon. In 1747 a royal order for their final expulsion arrived from 

 Madrid, the execution of which was suspended. When the British, 

 in 1762, captured Manila and demanded the surrender of the Islands, 

 the Chinese all joined the English. The governor, Sehor Anda, 

 then gave the order "All Chinese on the island to be hanged !" which 

 was conscientiously carried into effect. Many Chinese retreated 

 with the English, after they had returned Manila to the Spaniards 

 on the conclusion of peace. Nevertheless the parian was populated 



'Compare F. Blumentritt, Die Chinesen auf den Philippine!!, pp. 30-33. 



