resident Japanese. Although overcrowding was mainly the cause of
the Chinese immigration, the considerations already described seem
to have influenced the better class of emigrants who incorporated
themselves with the Filipinos from 1642 on through the eighteenth
century. Apparently these emigrants left their Chinese homes to avoid
the shaven crown and long braided queue that the Manchu conquerors
were imposing as a sign of submission--a practice recalled by
the recent wholesale cutting off of queues which marked the fall
of this same Manchu dynasty upon the establishment of the present
republic. The patriot Chinese in Manila retained the ancient style,
which somewhat resembled the way Koreans arrange their hair. Those who
became Christians cut the hair short and wore European hats, otherwise
using the clothing--blue cotton for the poor, silk for the richer--and
felt-soled shoes, still considered characteristically Chinese.

The reasons for the brutal treatment of the unhappy exiles and the
causes of the frequent accusation against them that they were intending
rebellion may be found in the fear that had been inspired by the
Chinese pirates, and the apprehension that the Chinese traders and
workmen would take away from the Filipinos their means of gaining a
livelihood. At times unjust suspicions drove some of the less patient
to take up arms in self-defense. Then many entirely innocent persons
would be massacred, while those who had not bought protection from
some powerful Spaniard would have their property pillaged by mobs that
protested excessive devotion to Spain and found their patriotism so
profitable that they were always eager to stir up trouble.

One of the last native Chinese emperors, not wishing that any of
his subjects should live outside his dominions, informed the Spanish
authorities that he considered the emigrants evil persons unworthy
of his interest. His Manchu successors had still more reason to be
careless of the fate of the Manila Chinese. They were consequently ill
treated with impunity, while the Japanese were "treated very cordially,
as they are a race that demand good treatment, and it is advisable
to do so for the friendly relations between the Islands and Japan,"
to quote the ancient history once more.

Pagan or Christian, a Chinaman's life in Manila then was not an
enviable one, though the Christians were slightly more secure. The
Chinese quarter was at first inside the city, but before long it became
a considerable district of several streets along Arroceros near the
present Botanical Garden. Thus the Chinese were under the guns of the
Bastion San Gabriel, which also commanded two other Chinese settlements
across the river in Tondo--Minondoc, or Binondo, and Baybay. They had
their own headmen, their own magistrates and their own prison, and no
outsiders were permitted among them. The Dominican Friars, who also
had a number of missionary stations in China, maintained a church and
a hospital for these Manila Chinese and established a settlement where
those who became Christians might live with their families. Writers
of that day suggest that sometimes conversions were prompted by the
desire to get married--which until 1898 could not be done outside the
Church--or to help the convert's business or to secure the protection
of an influential Spanish godfather, rather than by any changed belief.

Certainly two of these reasons did not influence the conversion of
Doctor Rizal's paternal ancestor, Lam-co (that is, "Lam, Esq."),
for this Chinese had a Chinese godfather and was not married till
many years later.

He was a native of the Chinchew district, where the Jesuits first, and
later the Dominicans, had had missions, and he perhaps knew something
of Christianity before leaving China. One of his church records
indicates his home more definitely, for it specifies Siongque, near
the great city, an agricultural community, and in China cultivation
of the soil is considered the most honorable employment. Curiously
enough, without conversion, the people of that region even to-day
consider themselves akin to the Christians. They believe in one god
and have characteristics distinguishing them from the Pagan Chinese,
possibly derived from some remote Mohammedan ancestors.

Lam-co's prestige among his own people, as shown by his leadership of
those who later settled with him in Binan, as well as the fact that
even after his residence in the country he was called to Manila to
act as godfather, suggests that he was above the ordinary standing,
and certainly not of the coolie class. This is bogne out by his
marrying the daughter of an educated Chinese, an alliance that was
not likely to have been made unless he was a person of some education,
and education is the Chinese test of social degree.

He was baptized in the Parian church of San Gabriel on a Sunday in June
of 1697. Lam-co's age was given in the record as thirty-five years,
and the names of his parents were given as Siang-co and Zun-nio. The
second syllables of these names are titles of a little more respect
than the ordinary "Mr." and "Mrs.," something like the Spanish Don
and Dona, but possibly the Dominican priest who kept the register
was not so careful in his use of Chinese words as a Chinese would
have been. Following the custom of the other converts on the same
occasion, Lam-co took the name Domingo, the Spanish for Sunday, in
honor of the day. The record of this baptism is still to be seen in
the records of the Parian church of San Gabriel, which are preserved
with the Binondo records, in Manila.

Chinchew, the capital of the district from which he came, was a
literary center and a town famed in Chinese history for its loyalty;
it was probably the great port Zeitung which so strongly impressed
the Venetian traveler Marco Polo, the first European to see China.

The city was said by later writers to be large and beautiful and to
contain half a million inhabitants, "candid, open and friendly people,
especially friendly and polite to foreigners." It was situated forty