Of all the Malay peoples, the Tagalogs of Luzon have been the foremost to learn the arts of western civilization. They have surpassed their near relatives, the Visayans, who live in the central part of the islands. Perhaps it is the closer contact with the Spanish that has given the Tagalogs their great progress. At all events they have become well to do and prosperous as measured by other Malay peoples.

The Moros, who live mainly in the southern part, have scarcely reached civilization. In the Sulu islands they have their own government, at the head of which is a native sultan. In many parts of the islands there are tribes governed by chiefs called "dattos." Some of the natives are prosperous farmers, but many of them are savages.

A great deal has been said about the misrule and cruelty of the Spanish governors and officials. Being soldiers and task-masters it is likely that they did many things that will not stand the searchlight of civilization. But the work of the priests will always leave a pleasant flavor. For three hundred years they braved every danger and suffered every hardship in their work. For every one that fell a victim to disease, or to the bolo, there was another ready to fill his place. They not only converted the natives to Christianity, but they also taught them to be thrifty farmers and prosperous business men. As a result the Filipinos are the only Asian people of considerable numbers that have yet become Christians.

The carabao, harnessed to a dray or wagon, shuffles along
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When the Philippine Islands became a possession of the United States, one of the first things done was to establish several thousand schools. A thousand American teachers were at first employed. Training schools for teachers were established, and in the course of a few years more than five thousand Filipino teachers were conducting native schools. English is taught in all the schools, and there are special schools in which agriculture, mechanical trades, and commerce are taught.

There is good reason for all this, for the islands have wonderful resources. Gold, silver, copper, and iron are abundant. The forests have an abundance of hard woods that sooner or later will find a market both in Europe and America. The rice-fields will easily produce enough grain for the whole population, and a considerable amount to sell in addition, when all the rice-lands are cultivated. For want of good wagon roads and railways only a small part of the rice-lands are cultivated.

There is an abundance of good grazing land that will produce meat for twice the present population. Most of the cattle now grown in the islands are of the kind found in India.

The most common beast of burden, however, is the carabao, or water-buffalo. What an ugly looking beast it is! It is as clumsy as a hippopotamus, as ugly as a rhinoceros, and as kind and gentle as an old muley cow. Harnessed to a dray or a wagon, it shuffles along, its big, flat feet seeming to walk all over the road. But those same big feet are the animal's chief stock in trade. They enable him to walk through both sand and deep mud—mud so soft and deep that a horse or a mule would sink to its body. Nothing but the carabao's flatboat-like feet could drag ploughs through the soft mud of the rice-fields.