History of Philippine press / Carson Taylor.

History of the Philippine Press

The first newspaper published in the Philippines, so
far as recorded, was a sheet called Del Superior Govierno,
the first number of which came out on August 8, 1811. It
apparently was devoted exclusively to news of political conditions in Europe as affecting the interests of Spain.
Retana, the historian, says, "This publication was born
as a result of the extreme anxiety in the Philippines from
1809 to 1811 concerning the grave events that were taking
place in Europe during that period. It was apparently published by private initiative and probably distributed free in
a very limited way."
"It had no regular publication date and appeared only
when European news was available. It lasted only over a
period of six months, during which time there were 15 numbers published. The last one appeared February 7, 1812,
and contained the announcement, "'If new and interesting
material is received this newspaper will be continued weekly, in the meantime it will be suspended until some correspondence is received.' "
Retana reproduces the first page of No. 6 issue of this
paper, which appeared on September 24, 1811. It contained
a reproduction of a letter dated at Macao, September 9, 1811,
signed by D. Francisco Mayo and D. Pedro de Echeverrigaray, factors of the Real Compafiia de Filipinos and addressed to the publishers, in which it was stated, "We have received by the British war frigate Clorinda and the Barco de
Macao, San Miguel correspondence from July 26 to August
last from which we have learned of political conditions in
Europe and more particularly of our beloved country up to
the beginning of February.
"We lived in great anxiety as to the result of the critical
situation until the 6th instant, when an American ship arrived, having sailed from Philadelphia on May 3, bringing
copies of a gazette from that city from April 1 to May 1
containing the welcome news that we are beginning to realize our hopes that out country will be saved." Then follows
a series of extracts from the Philadelphia paper, the name
of which was not mentioned. Among the quotations was one
to the effect that the French General, Massena, had suffered
a severe defeat.