The religious orders established schools and colleges, founded libraries and museums, and set up printing presses. Starting on a clean slate, it can be said that the missionaries encouraged the growth of literature, art, science, and industry. Because of the destruction of ancient writings, in their eagerness to erase the previous cultural records of the Philippines, only the orally transmitted literature has survived. It was also at this point when the Spanish missionaries tried to eliminate the ancient written literature of the Filipinos. The contribution of this mission work toward the advancement of education, culture, and architecture in general was enormous, although in later years the friars came to be considered as the opponents of the enlightenment of the people. For this purpose thousands of Catholic missionaries belonging to various orders came to the Philippines. Spain’s foremost aim in the Philippines was to spread their religion. Then he proceeded to establish a Spanish town on Cebu Island, to convert the people to Roman Catholicism. The actual work of colonization began in 1565, when Miguel Lopez de Legazpi concluded treaties of friendship with the native chiefs. Magellan never completed the journey himself he was killed in an encounter with natives after having claimed the Philippines for Spain. Such was the state of culture of the Filipinos when Ferdinand Magellan arrived in the Philippines at the head of a Spanish expedition searching for the Spice Islands in 1521. Spanish historians, writing about the early Filipinos, affirmed that there was hardly a man or woman who could not read and write. Several languages were spoken, then, as now, although there was one common alphabet called babaying, which resembled the ancient alphabet of India. Punishments with varying degrees of severity were meted out to culprits whose offenses were tried in public courts presided over by the chiefs. The people practiced monogamy in general. The women’s position in society was high tribal laws and customs recognized her equality with the men in many respects. They cultivated rice, which was their staple food, fished the extensive waters around them, and brewed many kinds of drinks, which they were very fond of. The natives dwelt on houses made of bamboo and palm leaves, and were properly attired at all times. When European traders, in search for a new route to the Spice Islands, stumbled into the Philippine archipelago in 1521, they found the people living in a comparatively high state of civilization. The Spaniards ruled the Philippines for 300 years under these conditions, continually harassed by Chinese pirates, by the Moros (Mohammedans from Mindanao and Sulu), by the Dutch and the English who wanted to take possession of the Islands, and finally by the frequent revolts on the part of the natives.