OF THE ARCHIPELAGO. 455 the same political institutions, and the same lan- guage, accustomed to obey the same authority, would, in the first encounter, as in the case of the Mexicans, the Peruvians, and the Malays of Ma- lacca, have made a respectable resistance, but when once overcome, would bow their necks to the yoke. The manner and principle on which the Spanish conquests were effected, being once described, the history of their intercourse with the natives of Luconia, and of the other islands, which submitted directly to their authority, affords nothing suffi- ciently prominent or interesting to deserve parti- cular recital. The natives suffered endless oppres- sions from private aggression, or the injustice of public measures, and lost no opportunity of attempt- ing to get rid of the Spanish yoke. Many of the more savage tribes retired to the mountains, pre- serving their national independence to this day, and bearing an implacable hatred to the Spanish name. The most interesting portions of the his- tory of the period of two centuries and a half,* which has elapsed since the first permanent con- quest, are, — the history of the wars and quarrels of the colonial government, with the Chinese, foreign or domestic, — with the neighbouring Ma- homedan states, — with the Japanese, — and with European nations. Of all these the most striking incidents will be shortly narrated in their turns. The facts are curious in themselves, and tend in
