of the horrors of the African slave trade or of the life-wasting
labors of the old plantation system.

Whether we compare the condition of the natives of the other islands in
the Eastern Archipelago or of the peasants of Europe at the same time
the general well-being of the Philippine mission villagers was to be
envied. A few quotations from unimpeachable witnesses, travelers of
wide knowledge of the Orient, may be given in illustration and proof
of this view. The famous French explorer of the Pacific, La Pérouse,
who was in Manila in 1787, wrote: "Three million people inhabit
these different islands and that of Luzon contains nearly a third of
them. These people seemed to me no way inferior to those of Europe;
they cultivate the soil with intelligence, they are carpenters,
cabinet-makers, smiths, jewelers, weavers, masons, etc. I have
gone through their villages and I have found them kind, hospitable,
affable," etc. [118]

Coming down a generation later the Englishman Crawfurd, the historian
of the Indian Archipelago, who lived at the court of the Sultan of
Java as British resident, draws a comparison between the condition
of the Philippines and that of the other islands of the East that
deserves careful reflection.

"It is remarkable, that the Indian administration of one of the
worst governments of Europe, and that in which the general principles
of legislation and good government are least understood,--one too,
which has never been skillfully executed, should, upon the whole,
have proved the least injurious to the happiness and prosperity
of the native inhabitants of the country. This, undoubtedly, has
been the character of the Spanish connection with the Philippines,