the spirit of progress invaded the island.

To facilitate the understanding of the historical materials which will
be collected in this series and to lay the foundation for a just and
appreciative comparison of the institutions of the Philippines with
those of other European dependencies in the tropics, it will be my aim
now to bring into relief the distinctive features of the work wrought
in the islands which raised a congeries of Malay tribes to Christian
civilization, and secured for them as happy and peaceful an existence
on as high a plane as has yet been attained by any people of color
anywhere in the world, or by any orientals for any such length of time.

Such a survey of Philippine life may well begin with a brief
account of the government of the islands. This will be followed by a
description of the commercial system and of the state of the arts and
of education, religion, and some features of social life during the
eighteenth century and in the first years of the nineteenth before
the entrance of the various and distracting currents of modern life
and thought. In some cases significant details will be taken from the
works of competent witnesses whose observations were made somewhat
earlier or later. This procedure is unobjectionable in describing
a social condition on the whole so stationary as was that of the
Philippines before the last half century.

From the beginning the Spanish establishments in the Philippines were
a mission and not in the proper sense of the term a colony. They were
founded and administered in the interests of religion rather than of
commerce or industry. They were an advanced outpost of Christianity
whence the missionary forces could be deployed through the great
empires of China and Japan, and hardly had the natives of the islands