Extent.
The Philippine Archipelago, in which I include the Sulu group, lies entirely within the northern tropic; the southernmost island of the Tawi-tawi group called Sibutu reaches down to 4° 38′ N., whilst Yami, the northernmost islet of the Batanes group, lies in 21° 7′ N. This gives an extreme length of 1100 miles, whilst the extreme breadth is about 680 miles, measured a little below the 8th parallel from the Island of Balábac to the east coast of Mindanao.
Various authorities give the number of islands and islets at 1200 and upwards; many have probably never been visited by a white man. We need only concern ourselves with the principal islands and those adjacent to them.
From the hydrographic survey carried out by officers of the Spanish Navy, the following areas have been calculated and are considered official, except those marked with an asterisk, which are only estimated.
The Spanish official estimate of the area of the whole Archipelago is 114,214 square miles[1] equivalent to 73,000,000 acres, so that the remaining islands ought to measure between them something over 2000 square miles.
Beauty and Fertility.
Lest I should be taxed with exaggeration when I record my impressions of the beauty and potential wealth of the Archipelago, so far as I have seen it; I shall commence by citing the opinions of some who, at different times, have visited the islands.
I think I cannot do better than give precedence to the impressions of two French gentlemen who seem to me to have done justice to the subject, then cite the calm judgment of a learned and sagacious Teuton, and lastly quote from the laboured paragraphs of a much-travelled cosmopolite, at one time Her Britannic Majesty’s Consul at Manila.