The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1903-07-07
HISTORICAL RESEARCH
Plan For Collecting Records OF
the Philippines.
MISSION OF SCHOLARLY FILIPINO

Professor C. j. Zulueta, Appointed t.
the Office by the American Gov
eminent, Will Work Principally L.
the Archives of Seville and Other
Spanish Cftics-Inducements I'oy
Scientific investigation.
Thus early in it's history the Ameri-
can government in the Philippines has
started to do something for the worlds
scholars. says the New York Post. The
historical records of the islands and
their people, in large part still buried
in the archives. are to be collected at
government expense and made availa-
BILE for reference in more convenient
form.
For the work Of collection a well
equipped Filipino has recently been
named to an office specially created for
the purpose md is now about to begin
the work in Spain. He will spend Il
year at least there. working principally
in the archives of Seville. which are
much the richest in Philippine, and
also in those of Madrid, Barcelona and
Simancas. Then he Will visit France
and perhaps other countries on the OIL
tinent in search of material yet unpu5-
lisl!ed from which to make copies. and,
of course. the British museum. He will
then come to the United States by way
of Mexico. where there are now re-
putcd to be buried in various archives.
both in the City of Mexico and in sev-
eral outside towns. man. more data
bearing on Philippine history than it
contained.
This work OF collecting copies Of doc
umentary sources will occupy the Fill
Pine in question. Professor G.. j. Zulue-
tn. at least three years. He receives
$3.50 in gold per year and. of course.
necessary expenses in travelling and
procuring the copies desired. 1t is IN
derstood that the library of congress
at Washington is also to receive II
copy of each document. the other being.
sent to Manila for the new Philippine
government library. Librarian Put
man,. who was recently on Il tour of the
orient gathering material and making
arrangements for reciprocal exchanges.
etc. was in Manila in search of ma
teriai for the Congressional library.
and is said to have made an arrange
ment whereby the latter library shares
in this work with the Philippine gov
ernment.
Philippine history has been left
mainly TO the friars. who have pub
lished Il number Of chronicles. begin
ming with the earlier years Of Spanish
occupation. Recently several Spanish
laymen have worked in this line. But
the impress of controversy left or al
most everything previously written in
Philippine history. due to the fact that
the friar chronicler Of one order not
willfully. but inevitably. magnifed the
pense of the other orders, has not been
removed by these lay writer's. The
more. therefore. that Il man reads in
Philippine history as written to date
the more puzzled he will become I'M
less lie cover practically the whole
field and can balance the statements
of one writer against another and
SiCuI lHC lIutI w d uSd SOAlS
comparison. The reader needs. too.
some knowledge of the Filipinos as
they are today and some actual con.
tact with the "friar question as it
! stands at this moment.
In other words. Philippine history
! has never been written. in the modern
| sense of that word. Considering the
o,-,.o 80 x-l,n+ hoo l.,1o ,,,,h1;ol,oA
hitherto. the careful reader will be
constantly on his guard as to accepting
commonly published estimates of the
| state of culture of the Filipinos when
they We're discovered by the Spaniards.
! the share OF the friars in the work of
internal improvement us compared
with the share of Spanish civilians, the
! educational question and the teaching
of Spanish, the merits of the continual
controversies between the friars and
the civil authorities. the auses of the
various uprisings and the character of
the participants. the composition and
size of. the antifriar party on the Is
lands and the capacity Of the natives
in general. Professor Zulueta. named
for the mission above described. is one
of the little handful of Filipinos who
have really made an honest study of
their peoples past. Like Jose Rial,
he is to a certain extent a partisan.
He is. however. a scholar in touch with
modern methods and the modern spirit
of research. He has been professor of
history in the Manila lyceum, u Sec
ondary school for boys inaugurated by
Filipinos in 1900.
The Philippine government will try
to build up in connection with the his
torical library a scientific library of re-
search and reference. This library will
be connected with the Philippine mu-
scum, which was started in a modest
way two years ago., under the bureau