[13] This image is not now carried to the Cathedral on St. Vidal’s day. It is carried in procession, however, on the second Sunday succeeding Epiphany when the Church celebrates the feast of the sweet name of Jesus. Until the end of Spain’s domination of the islands the banner of Castile was also carried in this procession.—Coco.
[14] Literally “barren loves,” the Chrysopopogon acicutatus (Trin.). It is described by Delgado (Historia, p. 744) as a brake that is found quite commonly in the fields, and has small ears that bear a kind of very small millet, like that called vallico in Spain, which grows among the wheat. It has a rough mildew that sticks to the clothes and penetrates them, which the Spaniards call amores secos. It is especially abundant where there are cattle; and when these are grazing, the plants penetrate their eyes, even blinding them because they grow so thickly, and they must be withdrawn with the fingers.
[15] Charts of the villages of Opong and Córdoba in the island of Mactan, made about 1893, showed that the island possessed 15,060 inhabitants.—Coco.
Bulletin No. 1, of Census of the Philippine Islands: 1903, “Population of the Philippines” (issued by the Bureau of the Census, of the Department of Commerce and Labor, Washington, 1904), gives the present population of Mactán, which is in the province of Cebú, as 17,540, all civilized.
The Philippine Islands are divided into provinces or comandancias, the latter meaning military district, and in which civil government has not yet been established. The province or comandancia is divided into municipalities and barrios. That barrio or ward in which the municipal government is located is called the población or centro. The census of the various municipalities has been returned for each barrio. See Bulletin No. 1, ut supra.
[16] Cebú and San Nicolás are now two independent towns. The census of the latter, about 1893, showed 20,498 inhabitants.—Coco.
The population of the island of Cebú, according to the census of 1903 (see Bulletin No. I, ut supra), was 592,247; of the city of Cebú, 31,079; or, if the closer-built part of this municipality, which may properly be regarded as the city of Cebú, be considered, its population is 18,330.
The steady increase in the total population of the Philippines, as shown by various reports and sources, more or less authoritative and trustworthy, is seen in the following figures. At the time of the discovery by Magallanes in 1521, the total population is supposed to have numbered about 500,000. In 382 years, according to the census report of 1903, the population (now 7,635,426, slightly more than the 1900 census of New York State) has multiplied fifteen times. The increase during the past century was 1.5 per cent. Of the present population, 6,987,686 are civilized or partly so, and 647,740 are wild and uncivilized, although they have some knowledge of domestic arts. Of this latter number about 23,000 are Negritos, who are supposed to be the aborigines of the archipelago. Sources (ecclesiastical and governmental) give the census for various years as follows; they cannot all be taken as definite, although some are approximately so:
| 1735 | 837,182 |
| 1799 | 1,522,224 |
| 1805 | 1,741,234 |
| 1812 | 1,933,331 |
| 1815 | 2,502,994 |
| 1817 | 2,062,805 |
| 1818 | 2,026,230 |
| 1827 | 2,593,287 |
| 1833 | 3,153,290 |
| 1840 | 3,096,031 |
| 1845 | 3,434,007 |
| 1850 | 3,800,163 |
| 1862 | 4,734,533 |
| 1870 | 4,698,477 |
| 1876 | 5,567,685 |
| 1879 | 5,817,268 |
| 1887 | 5,984,727 |
| 1891 | 6,101,682 |
| 1896 | 6,261,339 |
That guesswork has figured to some extent in these figures is evident; but as a whole they represent tolerably well the growth of the islands. The figures for 1903 are to be relied on. See Bulletin No. 1, ut supra, and U.S. Gazetteer of the Philippine Islands, pp. 25–31.