The Greater Republic Part 78

THE WARLIKE MOROS.

The fierce Moro warriors keep the Spanish settlers along their coasts in a constant state of alarm, and the visitor to the towns feels as if he were at an Indian outpost in early American history, because of the constant state of apprehension that prevails. Fortunately, however, the Moros along the coast have learned to distinguish between the Spaniard and the Englishman or American, and through them the generosity of the _Englese_, as they call all Anglo-Saxons, has spread to their brethren in the interior. Therefore, American and English explorers have been enabled to go into sections where the Spanish friars and monks, who have been practically the only Spanish explorers, would meet with certain death. The Mohammedan fanaticism of the Moros, and that of the Catholic friars and Jesuits, absolutely refuse compromise.

The Negritos (little Negroes) and the Mangyans are the princ.i.p.al representatives of the aboriginal inhabitants before the Malayan tribes came. There are supposed to be, collectively, about 1,000,000 of them, and they are almost as dest.i.tute of clothing and as uncivilized as the savages whom Columbus found in America, and far more degenerate and loathsome in habits.

THE CITY OF MANILA.

The Island of Luzon, on which the city of Manila stands, is about as large as the State of New York, its area being variously estimated at from 43,000 to 47,000 square smiles. It is the largest island in the Philippine group, comprising perhaps one-third of the area of the entire archipelago. Its inhabitants are the most civilized, and its territory the most thoroughly explored. The city of Manila is the metropolis of the Philippines. The population of the city proper and its environs is considered to be some 300,000 souls, of whom 200,000 are natives, 40,000 full-blooded Chinese, 50,000 Chinese half-castes, 5,000 Spanish, mostly soldiers, 4,000 Spanish half-castes, and 300 white foreigners other than Spaniards. Mr. Joseph Earle Stevens, already referred to, who represented the only American firm in the city of Manila, under Spanish rule (which finally had to turn its business over to the English and leave the island a few years since), informs us that he and three others were the only representatives of the United States in Manila as late as 1893.

The city is built on a beautiful bay from twenty-five to thirty miles across, and on both sh.o.r.es of the Pasig River. On the right bank of the river, going up from the bay, is the old walled town, and around the walls are the weedy, moats or ditches. The heavy guns and frowning cannon from the walls suggest a troubled past. This old city is built in triangular form, about a mile on each side, and is regarded as very unhealthful, for the walls both keep out the breeze and keep in the foul air and odors. The princ.i.p.al buildings in the old part of the city are the cathedral, many parish churches, a few schoolhouses, and the official buildings. The population in the walled city is given at 20,000. Up to a few years ago, no foreigner was permitted to sleep within its walls on account of the Spaniards' fear of a conspiracy. A bridge across the Pasig connects old Manila with the new or unwalled city, where nearly all of the business is done and the native and foreign residents live.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BRIDGE OVER THE PASIG RIVER.

This bridge connects the old walled city on one side of the river with the new unwalled city on the other. Sea-going vessels ascend the river up to the bridge.]

EARTHQUAKES AND TYPHOONS.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE s.h.i.+PYARDS AND a.r.s.eNAL AT CAVITE.

Cavite is a city of about 5000 inhabitants, ten miles from Manila. The Spanish a.r.s.enal and the only s.h.i.+pyards in the colony are located here.

It is the chief naval station of the islands, and has always been considered the key to Manila from the sea. It was seized by the insurgents in 1872, and again in 1896, and it was its forts that so hara.s.sed Dewey with their bombardment, and it was one of the first places occupied by the Americans after the fall of Manila.]

It does not take one long to exhaust the sights of Manila, if the people, who are always interesting, are excepted. Aside from the cathedral and a few of the churches, the buildings of the city are anything but imposing. In fact, there is little encouragement to construct fine edifices because of the danger from earthquakes and typhoons. It is said that not a year pa.s.ses without a number of slight earthquake shocks, and very serious ones have occurred. In 1645 nearly all of the public buildings were wrecked and 600 persons killed.

A very destructive earthquake was that of 1863, when 400 people were killed, 2,000 wounded, and 46 public buildings and 1,100 private houses were badly injured or completely destroyed. In 1874 earthquakes were again very numerous throughout the islands, shocks being felt at intervals in certain sections for several weeks. But the most violent convulsion of modern times occurred in 1880 when even greater destruction than in 1863 visited Manila and other towns of Luzon.

Consequently there are very few buildings to be found more than two stories high; and the heavy tile roofs formerly in use have, for the most part, been replaced by lighter coverings of galvanized iron.

[Ill.u.s.tration: RAISING THE FLAG ON FORT SAN ANTONIO DE ABAD, MALATE.

This old fort was silenced by Dewey's guns August 13, 1898, with the a.s.sistance of land forces under General Anderson. The Astor Battery on sh.o.r.e under Captain March supported General McArthur's forces on the right wing. It was the California and Colorado Volunteer Regiments, with the Eighteenth Regulars, who finally drove out the Spaniards and occupied the position where the Californians at once raised the Stars and Stripes. The marks of Dewey's sh.e.l.ls are seen on the side of the fort.]

These light roofs, however, are in constant danger of being stripped off by the typhoons, terrible storms which come with a twisting motion as if rising from the earth or the sea, fairly pulling everything detachable after them. Masts of s.h.i.+ps and roofs of houses are frequently carried by these hurricanes miles distant. The better to resist the typhoons, most of the light native houses are built on bamboo poles, which allow the wind to pa.s.s freely under them, and sway and bend in the storm like a tree; whereas, if they were set solidly on the earth, they would be lifted up bodily and carried away. Gla.s.s windows being too frail to resist the shaking of the earthquakes and the typhoons, small, translucent oyster sh.e.l.ls are used instead. The light thus admitted resembles that pa.s.sing through ground-gla.s.s, or, rather, stained gla.s.s, for the coloring in the sh.e.l.ls imparts a mellow tinted radiance like the windows of a cathedral.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A POPULAR STREET CONVEYANCE.

As elsewhere, carriages and street cars are used in Manila, but there are hundreds of the above "native cabs," for carrying single persons short distances, and they are liberally patronized.]

MANILA AS A BUSINESS CENTER.

The streets of Manila are wretchedly paved or not paved at all, and as late as 1893 were lighted by kerosene lamps or by wicks suspended in dishes of cocoanut oil. Lately an electric plant has been introduced, and parts of the city are lighted in this manner. There are two lines of street cars in Manila. The motive power for a car is a single small pony, and foreigners marvel to see one of those little animals drawing thirty-odd people.

The retail trade and petty banking of Manila is almost entirely in the hands of the half-castes and Chinese, and many of them have grown immensely wealthy. There are only about three hundred Europeans in business in the whole Philippine group, and they conduct the bulk of the importing and exporting trade. Manila contains a number of large cigar and cigarette factories, one of which employs 10,000 hands. There is also a sugar refinery, a steam rice mill, and a rope factory worked partly by men and partly by oxen, a Spanish brewery and a German cement factory, a Swiss umbrella factory and a Swiss hat factory. The single cotton mill, in which $200,000 of English capital is invested, runs 6,000 spindles.

The statistics of 1897 show that the whole trade of Manila comprised only forty-five Spanish, nineteen German, and seventeen English firms, with six Swiss brokers and two French storekeepers having large establishments. One of the most profitable businesses is said to be that of selling cheap jewelry to the natives. Breastpins which dealers buy in Europe for twelve cents each are readily sold for from $1.50 to $2.00 each to the simple Filipinos. Almost everything that is manufactured abroad has a fine prospective market in the Philippines, when the condition of the people permits them to buy.

A certain charm attaches to many specimens of native handiwork. The women weave exquisitely beautiful fabrics from the fiber of plants. The floors of Manila houses are admired by all foreigners. They are made of hard wood and polished with banana leaves and greasy cloths until they s.h.i.+ne brightly and give an aspect of cool airiness to the room.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A WEDDING PROCESSION.

As in Asiatic countries, weddings in the Philippines are occasions of great ceremony. No marriage would be considered "in style" without a gorgeous procession.]

Any kind of amus.e.m.e.nt is popular with the Filipinos--with so much leisure on their hands--provided it does not require too great exertion on their part. They are fond of the theatre, and, up to a few years ago, bullfighting was a favorite pastime; but the most prominent of modern amus.e.m.e.nts for the natives and half-castes is c.o.c.kfighting. It is said that every native has his fighting c.o.c.k, which is reared and trained with the greatest care until he shows sufficient skill to ent.i.tle him to an entrance into the public c.o.c.kpit where he will fight for a prize. The chickens occupy the family residence, roosting overhead; and, in case of fire, it is said that the game "rooster" is saved before the babies.

Professor Worcester tells an amusing story of the annoyance of the crowing c.o.c.ks above his head in the morning and the devices and tricks he and his companions employed to quiet them. The Manila lottery is another inst.i.tution which intensely excites the sluggish native, and takes from him the money which he does not lose on the c.o.c.kfights. Under the United States Government this lottery will, no doubt, be abolished in time. It formerly belonged to the Spanish Government, and Spain derived an annual profit of half a million dollars from it.

GENERAL COMMERCE OF THE PHILIPPINES.

It is hardly necessary, so far as the commercial world is concerned, to mention any other locality outside of the city of Manila. To commerce, this city (whose total imports in 1897 were only $10,000,000 and its exports $20,000,000) is the Philippine Islands. Its present meagre foreign trade represents only an average purchase of about one dollar per inhabitant, and an average sale of two dollars per inhabitant for the largest archipelago in the world, and one of the richest in soil and natural resources. The bulk of these exports were hemp, sugar, and tobacco; and, strange as it may seem, the United States received 41 per cent. of her hemp and 55 per cent. of her sugar for the year 1897, notwithstanding the fact that we had not one commercial firm doing business in that whole vast domain.

The city of Iloilo is on the southern coast of the fertile island of Panay, and, next to Manila, the chief port of the Philippines. It has an excellent harbor, and the surrounding country is very productive, having extensive plantations of sugar, rice, and tobacco. The population of Iloilo is only 12,000, but there are a few larger towns in the district, of which it is the seaport. Though the city at spring tides is covered with water, it is said to be a very healthful place, and much cooler than Manila.

The other open port, Cebu, on the eastern coast of the island of the same name, is a well-built town, and has a population of about 13,000.

From this point the bulk of the hemp for export comes.

GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE ISLANDS.

It is impossible to speak of the other islands in detail. Seven of the group average larger than the State of New Jersey; Luzon is as extensive as Ohio, Mindanao equals Indiana; and, as we have stated before, about four hundred of them are inhabitable, and, like Java, Borneo, and the Spice Islands, all are rich in natural resources. They are of a volcanic origin, and may be described in general as rugged and mountainous. The coasts of most of the islands are deeply indented by the sea, and the larger ones are well watered by streams, the mouths of which afford good harbors. Many of the mountainous parts abound in minerals. Mr. Karuph, President of the Philippine Mineral Syndicate, in May, 1898, addressed a letter to Hon. John Hay, at that time our amba.s.sador to England, in which he declares that the Philippines will soon come prominently forward as a new center of the world's gold production. "There is not a brook," says Mr. Karuph, "that finds its way into the Pacific Ocean whose sands and gravel do not pan the color of gold. Many valuable deposits are close to deep water. I know of no other part of the world, the Alaskan Treadwell mines alone excepted, where pay ore is found within a few hundred yards of the anchorage of sea-going vessels." In addition to gold, iron, copper, lead, sulphur, and other minerals are found, and are believed to exist in paying quant.i.ties. The numerous mineral springs attest their presence in almost every part of the princ.i.p.al islands.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DRYING SUGAR.

Large pans containing the sugar are set in the sun to evaporate the moisture. No refining or clarifying machinery has been introduced into the Philippine Islands.]

FORESTS AND TIMBER.

The forest products of the islands are perhaps of greater value than their mineral resources. Timber not only exists in almost exhaustless quant.i.ty, but--considering the whole group, which extends nearly a thousand miles from north to south--in unprecedented diversity, embracing sixty varieties of the most valuable woods, several of which are so hard that they cannot be cut with ordinary saws, some so heavy that they sink in water, and two or three so durable as to afford ground for the claim that they outlast iron and steel when placed in the ground or under water. Several of these woods are unknown elsewhere, and, altogether, they are admirably suited for various decorative purposes and for the manufacture of fine implements and furniture.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE STRANGE WAGONS OF ALBAY.

The eighty-odd different tribes who inhabit the Philippines have varying dialects, manners, and customs. The peculiar house-roofed wagons, shown in the above ill.u.s.tration, are found in only one locality.]

Here also are pepper, cinnamon, wax, and gums of various sorts, cloves, tea, and vanilla, while all tropical fruits, such as cocoanuts, bananas, lemons, limes, oranges of several varieties, pineapples, citrons, bread-fruits, custard apples, pawpaws, and mangroves nourish, and most of them grow wild, though, of course, they are not equal to the cultivated fruit. There are fifty-odd varieties of the banana in the archipelago, from the midget, which makes but a single mouthful, to the huge fruit eighteen inches long. There seems to be no limit to which tropical fruits and farm products can be cultivated.

The animal and bird life of the Philippines offer a field of interesting research to naturalists. There are no important carnivorous animals. A small wild-cat and two species of civet-cats const.i.tute about all that belong to that cla.s.s. The house-cats of the Philippines have curious fish-hook crooks in the ends of their tails. There are several species of deer in the archipelago. Hogs run wild in large numbers. The large water buffalo (_carabao_) has been domesticated and is the chief beast of burden with the natives. The _timarau_ is another small species of buffalo, very wild and entirely untamable; and, though numerous in certain places, is hard to find, and when brought to bay dies fighting.

Birds abound in all of the islands; nearly six hundred species have been found, over fifty of which exist nowhere else in the world. One of these species builds a nest which is highly prized by Chinese epicures as an article of diet. Prof. Worcester tells us "the best quality of them sometimes bring more than their weight in gold." Crocodiles are numerous in fresh-water lakes and streams, attaining enormous size, and in certain places causing much loss of life among stock and men as well.

Snakes also abound, and some of them are very venomous. Cobras are found in the southern islands. Pythons are numerous, some of the smaller sizes being sold in the towns and kept in houses to catch rats, at which they are said to be more expert than house-cats.

All the domestic animals, aside from the _carabao_, have been introduced from abroad. Cattle are extensively raised, and in some of the islands run wild. The horses are a small Spanish breed, but are very strong and have great endurance. Large European horses do not stand the climate well.

CLIMATE, VOLCANOES, ETC.

The mean annual temperature of Manila is 80 F. The thermometer seldom rises above 100 or falls below 60 anywhere in the archipelago. There is no month in the year during which it does not rise as high as 91.

January and December are the coldest months, the average temperature being 70 to 73. May is the warmest, the average being 84. April is the next warmest, with an average of 83; but the weather is generally very moist and humid, which makes the heat more trying. The three winter months have cool nights. Malaria is prevalent, but contagious diseases are comparatively few. Yellow fever and cholera are seldom heard of.