Philippines. With the exception of those officials whose stay is
limited by the rules of the service, or by the place-hunting that
ensues at every change in the Spanish ministry, few Spaniards who
have once settled in the colony ever return home. It is forbidden
to the priests, and most of the rest have no means of doing so. A
considerable portion of them consist of subaltern officers, soldiers,
sailors, political delinquents and refugees whom the mother-country
has got rid of; and not seldom of adventurers deficient both in means
and desire for the journey back, for their life in the colony is far
pleasanter than that they were forced to lead in Spain. These latter
arrive without the slightest knowledge of the country and without
being in the least prepared for a sojourn there. Many of them are so
lazy that they won't take the trouble to learn the language even if
they marry a daughter of the soil. Their servants understand Spanish,
and clandestinely watch the conversation and the actions, and become
acquainted with all the secrets, of their indiscreet masters, to
whom the Filipinos remain an enigma which their conceit prevents them
attempting to decipher.

[Spanish lack of prestige deserved.] It is easy to understand how
Filipino respect for Europeans must be diminished by the numbers of
these uneducated, improvident, and extravagant Spaniards, who, no
matter what may have been their position at home, are all determined
to play the master in the colony. [Social Standing of Filipinos thus
enhanced.] The relative standing of the Filipinos naturally profits
by all this and it would be difficult to find a colony in which
the natives, taken all in all, feel more comfortable than in the
Philippines. They have adopted the religion, the manners, and the
customs of their rulers; and though legally not on an equal footing
with the latter, they are by no means separated from them by the