ABSTRACT
The expeditions to the Magat Valley, which are well documented, dramatically exhibit the strengths and weaknesses of the approach of the Spaniards to ‘conquest’ in the Philippines. Here ‘conquest’ should be understood in the way it is interpreted in San Agustín’s book of 1698. 1 The title says Conquistas de las Islas Filipinas but this is to be understood as religious conquest or appropriation [to the Christian faith], or as we might prefer to say, conversion. As his editor, the Augustinian Pedro Galende puts it, he ‘emphasizes the three essential aspects of the conquest: the mainly pacific mode used by the soldiers, the evangelical aspect crystallized by the Augustinian missionaries, and the establishment of the Augustinian Province’. 2 Force of arms was supposed to be used solely for the protection of the Spaniards and, although the Spaniards were certainly prepared to fight, especially to defend themselves and their priests, the whole approach from Legazpi on was (at least supposed) to be through peace and friendship and this was explicit in the instructions to Gómez Pérez and his son, and even for the first governor, Legazpi, before him. 3 Under Gómez Pérez and his son this was pursued to a very large extent. It is explicit in the accounts of the expedition made by the son, Luis Pérez, in 1591. However, it is also clear from the reports that, although the Spaniards persuaded many of the local inhabitants to swear allegiance to the Spanish king and the process of conversion to the Catholic faith was begun, there was no enduring devotion to either. The basic problem seems to have been that, although Spaniards constantly expressed their benevolent intent, they did not leave anyone, no soldiers, no priests and not even administrators, to ensure continued loyalty. Despite later desultory attempts to convert the people of the region it was not until the nineteenth century that they made real and enduring progress. 4
