You are grateful to the generous Spanish commander who, one year before I was born, captured your flagship but released it and you when he learned that you were the grandson of his benefactor, the Emperor of Borneo. That apparently kindly act may have been calculation, for he and his two ships were still within the Emperor's power, but at any rate, whatever his motive, you have kept the oath that you swore on the Koran. 


You have given friendship, because he is of your benefactor's country, to this unlucky voyager who during the many nights that he has come to dances at our home has done nothing but boast of the might of the gods that protect him and of personal prowess that his condition belies. You have kept your word, but Captain Bernardo is not repaying your kindness with good faith. 


You want a stranger son-in-law who shall save you from the perplexity of choosing one from among the many suitors who are rivals for my hand, and enable you to avoid possible ill-will from those that would be disappointed. Then you think that you can best do your duty by the people of Lusung if you give them as their future leader one well-skilled in the warfare of these invaders who have mastered the Moluccas, though fortunately they are fighting among themselves, and may yet seek to take our land. 


But a braggart is not likely to be a great warrior, and this Bernardo de la Torre is not a true man. The Ranee, my queen mother, and I have noted how with one pretext and another he has ever postponed the setting of the wedding day. 


And now comes this flimsy excuse that he set sail in the night and rushed across the bay with all speed till the wind failed him beyond Kawit just to try his ship. He is not a finished prevaricator and I, at least, am no longer in doubt about him and shall not be further deceived. 


I had rather die a maid with no one to help me to cross the bamboo bridge over the river of eternity, if there is any truth in the belief of the kaffirs of this country, than have a husband unwilling and so unworthy. 


And for a man of any self-respect, would not that wedding in which he owes all to the bride be too humiliating ? Think how for the ceremony all his presents must be begged or borrowed, one giving him nipa wine, another betelnuts, this one lending him a wedding-ring, you yourself providing the ceremonilal cotton cloths and foregoing the groom's gift of gold. Now I dress in silks and eat out of golden dishes as the favored child of my powerful father, but as a married woman those luxuries would embitter my life by reminding me that I had a husband who could not provide for his wife as a man should but was dependent upon his father-in-law for even the barest necessities so that but for charity I should be poorer than the most poverty-stricken in the land. Is it of such a future that any girl, much less a princess, dreams ? 

<h3>
Princess Makandala
</h3>




Source: 
Gems of Philippine oratory; selections representing fourteen centuries of Philippine thought, carefully compiled from credible sources in substitution for the pre-Spanish writings destroyed by missionary zeal, to supplement the later literature stunted by intolerant religious and political censorship, and as specimens of the untrammeled present-day utterances by Austin Craig, page 15-16, University of Manila, 1924.

The disappointing romance of the Rajah's daughter, Princess Makandala