CHARACTERISTICS OF THE POPULATION.
And most of it is raw to the last degree—a medley of diverse and hostile races, ranging from the puny and dying remnant of the Negritos, who live like wild beasts in the highlands, subsisting upon the roots which they claw out of the ground, to the fierce and unsubdued Mohammedan tribes that still keep up the bloody war of creeds which raged in Spain itself for so many centuries. These latter are chiefly of Malay origin and many of them are professional head-hunters, well qualified to retort Spanish outrages in kind. There are also Chinese in large numbers and half-castes of all varieties. The proportion of Europeans is small, even in the cities. The resident Spaniards are all soldiers or officials of some sort and are there simply for what they can make by extortion and corrupt practices.
The Philippine islands were discovered in 1521 by Magellan, the circumnavigator, and were conquered by Spain and made a colony in the reign of Philip II., for whom they were named, half a century later. Spanish sway never has extended over more than half of the 1,400 islands of the archipelago, the others remaining under their native wild tribes and Mohammedan rulers. The conjectural area is about 120,000 square miles, and the estimated population about 7,500,000. About half this area and three-quarters of this population are nominally under Spanish rule, but the insurrection has left things in a good deal of doubt. The remainder of the people are governed according to their own customs, by independent native princes. Education is exceedingly backward. The Roman Catholic clergy have been industrious, and probably 2,500,000 natives are nominal converts to the Christian religion; but education has advanced very little among them. There is a Roman Catholic archbishop of Manila, besides three bishops.
The history of the Philippines has included a succession of revolutions against Spanish authority, put down by ferocious warfare and cruelty on the part of the victors. The conversion and subjugation of the islands were not accompanied by quite the horrors that characterized the Spanish conquest of South America, but the record is second only to that. Manila was captured by the English in 1762 and was held by them for two years until ransomed by the Spanish by a payment of 1,000,000 pounds. Contests with rebellious tribes, attacks by pirates, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tornadoes help to break the monotony of the history.
MANILA, THE CAPITAL OF THE COLONY.
Manila, the capital city of the colony and of Luzon, the largest island, lies 628 miles, or sixty hours' easy steaming, southeast of Hongkong, and twice that distance northeast of Singapore. The population of the city is about 330,000, of whom only 10,000— including troops, government officials and clergy—are Europeans, and not more than 500 are English-speaking people. A few American houses have branches in Manila, so that there is an American population of perhaps 100. The city faces a fine bay, into which flows the River Pasig. Most of the Europeans live in Binondo, a beautiful suburb on higher ground, across the river. There are many native dialects, but the social, official and business idiom is Spanish. The army of Spanish civil, religious, military and naval officials is a leech on the people in the same fashion as it was in Cuba. All the places of profit are monopolized by them, appointments to choice offices in the Philippines being given to those whom it is desired to reward for service to the government in Spain. It is quite well understood that such an appointee is expected to gain a fortune as rapidly as he can, by any method possible, so that he may give way for some one else to be brought over from Spain for a similar reward. The policy is the same as the colonial policy of Spain in Cuba was, and the same results have followed.
But, indeed, pillage of the wretched natives is the almost open aim of the government—the sole end for which it is organized and maintained; so why should petty officials be scrupulous? It is the old Roman provincial system, denounced by Cicero 2,000 years ago, but in Spain unforgotten and unimproved. What other use has she for dependencies, except as a source of revenue wrung by torture from the misery of slaves, and incidentally as a battening ground for her savage war dogs? Here the detestable Weyler is said to have accumulated a fortune of several millions of dollars in three years—more than twenty times the whole amount of his salary!
The methods employed in this legalized system of robbery are medieval in character, but often highly ingenious. One of them is the "cedula personal," a sort of passport. Every person in the islands and over eighteen years of age and accessible to the authorities is required to take out one of these documents; even the women are not exempt. The cedula must be renewed annually and the cost is from $1.50 to $25, according to circumstances—the chief circumstances being the victim's ability to pay. This in a country where wages sometimes fall as low as five cents a day! And any one who holds a cedula costing less than $3 is further required to render the government fifteen days of unremunerated labor.
INSTANCES OF PETTY EXTORTION.
But the cedula is only one device out of many for extracting gold from the refractory ore of poverty. A hungry native cannot kill his own hog or buffalo for meat without a special permit—which, of course, must be paid for. He is not allowed to press out a pint of cocoanut oil from the fruit of his own orchard until he has obtained a license, and this also has its price. The orchard itself is taxed; everything is taxed in the Philippines.