The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803; explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commericial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the beginning of the nineteenth century; [Vol. 1, no. 40]

I690-I69I] SAN AGUSTIN ON FILIPINOS

197

Ecclesiasticus fits many, but it fits the Indians better
than all other nations, except the Vix solidi reddet
dimidium,12 for they pay nothing. This is one of
the evil signs that the royal prophet finds in the evil
and ingrate in Psalm xxxvi, verse 21: "The sinner
shall take the loan, and shall not pay." 12 Consequently we find our Indians pagans in this, although
they are Christians.'24
10. If they borrow anything that is not money,
they will never return it until it is requested; and,
as an excuse for not having returned it, they say that
they have not been asked for it.'25
x1. Their laziness is such that if they open a
door they never close it; and if they take any implement for any use, such as a knife, pair of scissors,
hammer, etc., they never return it whence they took
it, but drop it there at the foot of the work.26"
122 ie., "Scarce does he return the half."
128 In the Douay version: "The sinner shall borrow and not
pay again;" being only one-half the verse. M. omits the reference,
but gives the passage.
124 Delgado (Historia, p. 306) commenting on this passage says:
"I find noted many actions of the Indian boys who serve in the
houses and convents; and all are ridiculous things which we ourselves did in our own country when we were boys like them." He
objects to San Agustin's quotation from Scripture on the ground
that it is too general, and that those words were not written merely
for them. "If twenty cases have been experienced where the Indian borrower has failed to return what he borrowed, it cannot
be said that the entire Tagalog nation are sinners, let alone other
nations, which may not have been seen. Such a supposition is illogical."
125 The paragraph structure of M. and D. differs from our
text in the above two paragraphs, and in other places throughout
this letter; and the paragraphs are also unnumbered in both of
these versions. The copy owned by Eduardo Navarro, O.S.A.,
Valladolid, agrees with the Ayer MS. in having numbered paragraphs, but the numbering is not in all cases the same.
126 At this point the following paragraphs which are not contained in either the Ayer MS. or in D. occur.