The Indian Archipelago, Its History and Present State

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1853 edition. Excerpt: ...dangerous to confide in the humanity, and hopeless to resist the arms of the invader. The Spaniards landed, took possession of the place, and prepared for its permanent occupation. Ingenious devices were adopted to induce the natives to return and people the new city, whose site was already marked out. They listened to the promises of peace, yielded to the cajolements of their strange visitors, and came down with their chiefs to acknowledge the sovereignty of Spain. Viewed by the light of modern theories, these trans-Character actions appear to deserve enumeration among the poiicy. achievements of piracy. Luzon had never sent forth any marauders to attack the Spanish settlements; her inhabitants had never seized any shipping, or insulted the conqueror's flag. A force was landed, the country was declared annexed, and the people were summoned to yield up their independence without so much as the pretence of an excuse. With the navigators of those days, discovery gave the right of conquest, as power in all times appears to have given the right of oppression. The example of William Penn was among the first recognitions of a title in the savage possessors of the soill, but since that period opinions have passed through Right of a filtering process, and we apply the rules of justice to conques acts of territorial extension on the part of states, as to those of appropriation on the part of private individuals. The conquests of the Spaniards, considered from.another point of view, were beneficial to the Indian tribes. That they afterwards ceased to be so2, was because the successors of Legaspi departed from the line of policy his wisdom had traced out. He preferred peace before war, commercial treaties before the victories of the sword, and...