Four Young Explorers; Or, Sight-Seeing in the Tropics

by Oliver Optic

  CHAPTER XXVII

  SOME ACCOUNT OF THE PHILIPPINES

  The Guardian-Mother continued on her course without encountering eithertyphoon or other tempest, and her passengers kept very comfortable underthe awnings. The ship was in about 10 deg. of north latitude and 110 deg. ofeast longitude. She was sailing with the wind nearly dead ahead, andtherefore the breeze was good on deck, and even in the cabins.

  At the appointed hour the passengers were in their chairs in ConferenceHall, two of them occupied by the siamangs, and the baby in the lap ofMiss Blanche, who had become very much attached to the little creature.On the frame in front of the orang-outang was a complete map of thePhilippine Islands, covering seventeen degrees of latitude, and ten oflongitude, with enough of the seas around them to make their positionclear to the audience.

  Professor Giroud was introduced for this occasion as the speaker; and hewas received with more than usual applause, for he had not occupied therostrum as much as formerly, General Noury having been kept busy sincehis reappearance off Batavia. It may be said that after the rest of theday before the party were in excellent condition to be instructed.

  "We are sailing just now in comparatively shallow water; and just to thesouth of us there are innumerable shoals, with only from four to tenfathoms of water on them. If the water were entirely drained from theChina Sea, the bottom would be like a hilly region; for these numerousshoals would be the tops of various elevations, and the same would betrue of a less extent north of us. The portion of the sea over which weare now moving would appear to be a considerable valley. You all haveimagination enough to see what I have described.

  "All around the Philippines on the east and south the water is from twoto four thousand fathoms deep; so that if the seas were dried up aroundthem, these islands would appear like a number of irregular chains ofmountains, and the highest peak would be over 10,000 feet above thepresent surface of the water.

  "From north to south these islands extend about a thousand miles, andfrom east to west about half that distance, with the Sulu or Mindoro Seafour hundred miles across it in either direction, nearly enclosed withinthem; for the north-east coast of Borneo is part of its boundary on thesouth. As the commander mentioned at dinner last evening, there are overtwo thousand islands in the group; and leaving out those rocks andshoals which are not big enough for a man to stand upon, there aretwelve hundred of them.

  "On a map of the world, or even of Asia, the Philippine Islands occupybut a small space, and in your school-days you have doubtless regardedthem as of but little importance; but several of the islands are largerthan any New England State, and two of them are as large as Virginia andOhio, and nearly as large as New York and Pennsylvania. Luzon andMindanao," and the professor pointed to them on the map, "the mostnortherly and the most southerly, have each about 40,000 square miles,and the area of all the islands is 116,000 miles. I think most of youcould have no idea from your study of maps of the extent of thePhilippines.

  "Mindoro, the next island south of Luzon, has 9,000; and the others from1,200 to 5,500. I shall not mention or describe them separately. Weshall visit only Manila and the country near it, and you would notremember even the names of the islands over night. They are allmountainous and volcanic. The highest mountain is Apo, in Mindanao,which is 10,400 feet high, and there are others of 9,000 feet.

  "The islands are volcanic, and therefore subject to earthquakes; and aninstrument in Manila which indicates vibrations of the earth is said tobe shaking about all the time. Several destructive ones are recorded inthe past. In 1863 Manila was nearly destroyed by one, and the greatsouthern island is especially liable to them.

  "The mountain ranges mostly extend north and south; and there is spacebetween them for some considerable rivers, as the Rio Grande in Luzonhas a course of 220 miles. The Agusan in Mindanao is navigable for 60miles. In this island are several lakes, with rivers flowing from them.In addition to which are many lacustrine basins."

  "Spare us, Professor!" exclaimed Uncle Moses.

  "The word comes from _lacus_, Latin for lake, and applies here to suchlakes as send their overflow to the sea or other lakes by streams madeby the rush of water. But I don't use many such words, and I hardlyexpected a classical scholar to object," replied the professor.

  "But I objected in behalf of several here who never studied Latin; andbesides the overflow is entirely apart from the root of the word. But Iam satisfied, and the commander may invite you to proceed," chuckledBrother Avoirdupois.

  "On account of the high mountains and the abundant sea-breezes, thoughhot and moist, this group is not so unhealthy as most tropical islandsand countries. The fevers of hot countries are here of the mild,intermittent kind"--

  "What is intermittent, Professor?" asked Felix. "Is it the kind theydon't have in Ireland?"

  "I should say that it was."

  "An intermittent fever, Felix, is one that comes and goes, like the oldwoman's soap," interjected Mrs. Blossom, the nurse; and everybodylaughed to hear her say anything.

  "The diseases most dreaded in these islands are consumption, dysentery,and anaemia"--

  "Mercy, Professor!" cried Mr. Woolridge.

  "The reduction in the amount of blood in the system, and the conditionresulting from this loss, is anaemia. Dr. Hawkes can explain it morefully," replied the professor.

  "Not necessary," added the surgeon.

  "As all over the Eastern Archipelago, there are two seasons, the wet andthe dry, produced by the monsoons; but the irregularity of the surfacevariously modifies the result. For the southern and western sides of themountains the south-west monsoons give the wet season, and thenorth-east the dry season, and _vice versa_. Manila is subjected by theinfluence of the south-west winds to rains from June to November, withdry weather the rest of the year.

  "The temperature is about the same all the year round. The coolest monthis December, when the glass stays at about 77 deg.; and in May, the hottestmonth, at 86 deg.. Of course there are days, and times of day, when thetemperature is lower than the one, and higher than the other. Theextremes where we are going vary only about 25 deg.--from 66 deg. to 91 deg.; and wehave it hotter than the last in New York. The average rainfall is aboutseventy inches, varying by months from one-third of an inch in March, totwenty inches in August.

  "The flora of the islands is just what you would expect in this climate.Nearly or quite all the plants you have found in the other islands youhave visited are to be found here. Particularly plenteous here are thefibrous plants, and abaca forms in its prepared state one of the mostimportant exports of the islands. This is a sort of plantain from whichcomes the Manila hemp, as it is sometimes called, though it is amisnomer; and with us it is called simply manila, the sailors tell me.It is extensively cultivated here, and grows something like the banana.

  "The stalks on which the leaves grow are split into long strips, arethreshed, combed, washed, and dried, and then they become manila, ofwhich many of the ropes of this ship are made, though hemp makes thebetter article. The finest fibres are sometimes fifteen feet long, andfrom such some very delicate manufactured goods are produced. Thecoarser parts are used for cordage, which is very serviceable. When wewere at Nassau, in the Island of New Providence, last year, we sawfields of _sisal_, which has in late years come into use as a substitutefor common hemp and manila, and is said to resist the action ofsea-water better than any other material.

  "The fauna may seem to be quite limited to the Nimrods of our company,for the large animals we have found in other islands do not exist in thePhilippines. The buffalo and the gibbon are the largest in the islands,with a variety of monkeys. The elephant, tiger, rhinoceros, bear, andorang-outang have no home here. The only dangerous animals are thecrocodile, serpents, and other reptiles. If the Nimrods wish to huntthey will have to try their hand at the wild buffaloes, though they arenot to be found near Manila.

  "Birds are numerous and various, and especially the gallinaceous bipeds,such as barnyard fowls, grouse, and pheasan
ts; but the most highlyvalued here is the 'rooster,' if I may call him by his common Americanname, for cock-fighting is one of the national amusements of Spain andits dependencies. You will see plenty of it in Manila, if you are sodisposed; but it is not an elevating sport, any more than bull-fighting,which may possibly prevail here. Coal and iron are the most commonminerals, with others; but mining is too severe work for the enterpriseof the people, and I believe most of the mines of Cuba are worked byAmericans.

  "The original inhabitants of the Philippines were doubtless Negritos;and I hasten to explain the name before I am 'picked up.' It was theword used by the Spaniards to designate, not alone the negroes as wefind them in Africa, but those who are similar to them. People of thisrace formerly inhabited all these islands, but there are scarcely any ofthem left at the present time. Hindus, Malays, and other natives of theadjacent countries and islands, came here, and the races mingled.

  "The people found here at the present time have a variety of names,beginning with the pure Spaniards, Creoles, Tagals, Chinese, andMestizoes. The Spaniards and the Tagals need no explanation, for thelatter are the pure natives of the islands. Creole, I believe, isvariously used in different locations; but it is a Spanish word, comingfrom _criolla_, which means grown up. They are one thing in the SpanishWest Indies, another in Brazil.

  "A more general definition is a person born in any country, but not ofnative blood. In the Philippines, Creoles are the children of Spanishfathers and native mothers. Mestizoes are children of Chinese parents onone side and natives on the other. The last class are usually called'metis' in Manila and elsewhere. You will doubtless see all of theseclasses, and with a little practice will be able to identify them.

  "The Spaniards of the islands are Catholics, often, I am sorry to say,merely nominally such. Many of the natives are Mohammedan, though thegreater portion are Catholic. The Philippines were discovered byMagellan, as we generally call him, though that was not his correctname, in 1521. He was born in Portugal, and his name was Magalhaes. Heserved as a soldier in Malacca and Morocco, and was lamed for life in abattle in the latter. He did not think his services were appreciated byhis king, and he offered them to Spain.

  "He presented to Charles V. a plan for reaching the Moluccas by sailingto the west; and, his scheme being approved, he was fitted out with afleet of five ships. He passed through the straits south of Patagonia,which still bear his name, crossed the great ocean, to which he gave thename of Pacific, though it was discovered by Balboa, who called it theSouth Sea. Succeeding in his enterprise, he reached the Philippines,after putting down a mutiny. He was killed in an expedition he led inthe islands. The Victoria, his ship, returned to Spain in charge of oneof his subordinates, thus completing the first voyage ever made aroundthe world.

  "There were several governments in the islands, and most of them wereconquered or conciliated so that they came under Spanish rule; but theMohammedans of Sulu, the Archipelago north-east of Borneo, and Mindanaoretained their independence for a long period, and they still retaintheir boundaries and government.

  "Manila has a population of 270,000, and there are several otherconsiderable towns with 30,000 or more. There is a submarine cable toHong Kong, 720 miles of telegraph, and 16 miles of railroad out ofManila. The army consists of 4,800 men, with 3,500 gendarmerie, orpolice, such as ride in pairs all over Spain. It has a navy of twocorvettes, six _avisos_, or despatch vessels, sixteen gunboats, with2,000 sailors and marines. I believe I have told you all that isnecessary to know about the Philippine Islands in a general way; and Ithank you for your attention through the long talk I have given you,"the professor concluded, and retired from the rostrum in the midst ofthe hearty applause bestowed upon him.

  "I think we all know more about the Philippines than we ever knewbefore, though I have been there; and to-morrow I shall have somethingto say, very briefly, about the city of Manila," said the commander.

  "When shall we get there, Captain?" asked Dr. Hawkes.

  "Day after to-morrow morning; but I shall lay off so as not to get thereat three in the morning."[1]

  FOOTNOTE:

  [1] On board of a steamer from Colombo, Ceylon, to London, I met aneducated Scotch gentleman from Manila, who pronounced the namePhilippine, the last _i_ long. On the steamer from Liverpool to Boston,I met a lady, also from Manila, and she pronounced it with a long _i_ inthe last syllable. I conclude this is the fashion among English-speakingpeople in the Philippine Islands.--O. O.