Being by nature credulous, ignorant and superstitious, the indian fell an easy victim to the mysteries of freemasonry, which served him as are introduction to the semi-savage methods of the "Liga Filipina" and the barbarous practices of the Katipunan, the pacto-de-sangre of which, carried him back to the savage times of his remote ancestors who were drawn from their mountain and forest lairs and domesticated by the Religious Orders.
Notes 20, 21, 22. The initiations, proofs, oaths etc., of Universal freemasonry were utilized by the Filipino lodges to serve as a ceremonial, a very essential thing to the success of any association among orientals. Nothing suited the taste of the Filipino better than the awe inspiring solemnity of his initiation. These ceremonies however fell into abuse, and by the time they became utilized by the Katipunan they had reached the verge of the grossest superstition and absurdity.
Note 23. The G. Cons. Reg. was installed in 1893. A masonic document bearing a seal "Gr. Consejo Regional de Filipinas. G. Secretaria", and purporting to be a copy of two paragraphs from a letter of the illustrious bro. Kupang (Marcelo H. del Pilar) dated from Madrid on the 17th December 1894, says: "D. Miguel (Morayta) has a very poor opinion of the Reg. (Regional Council).... He says that this Council continues working well for some few months, at the end of which all the enthusiasm of the founders vanishes and.... Oh, if we could only by our acts give the lie to this pessimism. Morayta was the founder of the Council.
Note 24. La Solidaridad was the official organ of Filipino freemasonry in all its branches. Although it was published in the peninsula its circulation was intended for the Philippines. Its editors were the leaders of the disaffection against the metropolis and stout advocates, indirectly, of an impossible independence. The chief aim of the paper was to mortify everything Spanish, and to this end its columns were continually full of seditious articles aimed, not merely at individuals but at the State. Its diatribes against the Government of the Metropolis were of the bitterest nature, and therefore but little publicity was given to the sheet in Madrid, where it was printed. It enjoyed no exchange with the periodicals of importance of the city, had no street sales, nor was it exposed for sale publicly. The libraries did not carry it on their tables and it never reached the hands of the public authorities. In fact the people of the official element know nothing of its existence.