464« SPANISH HISTORY • subject, they slowly crept back to the Philippines, and in a few years were as numerous as ever. The outcry against the Chinese was always suf- ficiently general in the Philippines, yet there were some whose interests were concerned in affording them protection, and by large gifts, they obtained from the avarice of those in power what their jus- tice denied them. The court of Madrid, with its usual hostility to every sound principle of colonial government, sup- ported public clamour, and sent repeated orders for the expulsion of the Chinese. In the year 1649, a royal edict for their absolute expulsion arrived, but was evaded by the interests of those in power, and by the wisdom of an archbishop, who at the time exercised the civil government. Two years after this order, a second was actually carried into effect, and the Chinese were expelled.* They were no sooner expelled, than the public began, from want of supplies, and want of trade, to feel the
- ** One of the good things which Senor Atandia effected
was the expulsion of the Chinese. He dispatched all these heathens to their own country ! — Tiie Spaniards who inte- rested themselves in the res'dence of the Chinese in Manila, represented to the govern(»r that there would be a want of people to carry on the trade with the islands if they were ex- pelled; and to obviate this difficulty, he established a com" pany of native Spaniards and mastizoes Jar that purpose^ 'which, however J ivas found very incompetent for the task '^ — Zuniga, Vol. II. Cap. xii.
