



Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net/










THE FORMER PHILIPPINES THRU FOREIGN EYES

Edited by Austin Craig





Preface

Among the many wrongs done the Filipinos by Spaniards, to be charged
against their undeniably large debt to Spain, one of the greatest,
if not the most frequently mentioned, was taking from them their
good name.

Spanish writers have never been noted for modesty or historical
accuracy. Back in 1589 the printer of the English translation of Padre
Juan Gonzalez de Mendoza's "History of the Great and Mighty Kingdom of
China" felt it necessary to prefix this warning: * * * the Spaniards
(following their ambitious affections) do usually in all their writings
extoll their own actions, even to the setting forth of many untruthes
and incredible things, as in their descriptions of the conquistes of