CHAPTER XXVI.

ADMINISTRATION OF McKINLEY (CONTINUED) 1897-1901.

OUR NEW POSSESSIONS.

The Islands of Hawaii--Their Inhabitants and Products--City of

Honolulu--History of Cuba--The Ten Years' War--The Insurrection of

1895-98--Geography and Productions of Cuba--Its Climate--History of

Porto Rico--Its People and Productions--San Juan and Ponce--Location,

Discovery, and History of the Philippines--Insurrections of the

Filipinos--City of Manila--Commerce--Philippine Productions--Climate and

Volcanoes--Dewey at Manila--The Ladrone Islands--Conclusion.

THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS "THE PARADISE OF THE PACIFIC."

The annexation of the Hawaiian Islands to the United States, by a joint

vote of Congress, July 7, 1898, marks a new era in the history of our

country. It practically sounded the death-knell of the conservative

doctrine of non-expansion beyond our own natural physical boundaries.

The only precedent approaching this act, in our history, is the

annexation of Texas. The Louisiana Territory, Florida, and Alaska were

acquired by purchase; California, New Mexico, and a part of Colorado

were obtained by cession from Mexico; Oregon, Washington, Montana, and

Idaho by treaty with Great Britain. Texas alone was annexed. The fact,

however, that it was a republic is the only circumstance which makes its

case analogous to that of Hawaii. Texas lay between two large nations,

and was obliged to seek union with one of them. It was within our own

continent and inhabited largely by our own people. Hawaii marks our

first advance into foreign lands, and ranges America for the first time

among the nations whose policy is that of expansion, by territorial

extensions, over the globe.

[Illustration: NATIVE GRASS HOUSE, HAWAII.]

Hawaii is called the "Paradise of the Pacific," and there is little

doubt that its climate, fertility and healthfulness justify the name.

It is one of the few spots upon earth where one can almost, to use a

slang phrase, "touch the button" and obtain any kind of weather he

desires. Mark Twain's suggestion to those who go to these islands to

find a congenial clime is about as practical as it is humorous--"Select

your climate, mark your thermometer at the temperature desired, and

climb until the mercury stops there." Everyone who visits Hawaii is

charmed with the country, and never forgets its novelty, stupendous and

delightful scenery, clear atmosphere, gorgeous sunlight, and profusion

of fruits and flowers.

"No alien land in all the world," writes Mr. Clemens, "could so

longingly and beseechingly haunt me, sleeping and waking, through half a

life-time, as that has done. Other things leave me, but that abides.

Other things change, but that remains the same. For me its balmy airs

are always blowing; its summer seas flash in the sun; the pulsing of its

surf beats in my ear; I can see its garlanded crags, its leaping

cascades, its plumy palms drowsing by the shore, its remote summits

floating like islands above the cloud rack; I can feel the spirit of its

woodland solitudes; I can hear the splash of its brooks; in my nostrils

still lives the breath of flowers that perished twenty years ago."

DISCOVERY AND LOCATION.

Captain Cook discovered the islands in January, 1778, and named them the

Sandwich Islands, after Lord Sandwich; but the native name, Hawaii, is

more generally used. There is good evidence that Juan Gaetano, in the

year 1555--223 years before Cook's visit--landed upon their shores. Old

Spanish charts and the traditions of the natives bear out this theory,

but they were not made known to the world until Cook visited them. It is

popularly believed that the original inhabitants of Hawaii came from New

Zealand, though that island is some 4,000 miles southwest of them. The

physical appearance of the people is very similar, and their languages

are so much alike that a native Hawaiian and a native New Zealander,

meeting for the first time, can carry on a conversation. Their ideas of

the Deity and some of their religious customs are nearly the same. That

the islands have been peopled for a long time is proven by the fact that

human bones are found under lava beds and coral reefs where geologists

declare they have lain for at least thirteen hundred years.

There are eight inhabited islands in the archipelago, Hawaii, Maui,

Kahoolawi, Lanai, Molokai, Oahu, Kauai, and Niihau, comprising an area

of 6,700 square miles, a little less than that of the State of New

Jersey, and about five hundred miles greater than the combined areas of

Rhode Island and Connecticut. They extend from northwest to southeast,

over a distance of about 380 miles, the several islands being separated

by channels varying in width from six to sixty miles. They lie entirely

within the tropics, not far from a direct line between San Francisco and

Japan, 2,080 miles from San Francisco, which is nearer to them than any

other point of land, except one of the Carolines. The largest and most

southern island is Hawaii, which has given its name to the group.

[Illustration: RAISING THE AMERICAN FLAG IN HONOLULU, AUGUST 12, 1898.

The cut in the corner shows the Royal Palace formerly occupied by the

Hawaiian Kings.]

THE HIGHEST AND LARGEST VOLCANOES.

The entire archipelago is of volcanic origin, but there are no active

craters to be found at the present time, except two, on the island of

Hawaii. Mauna Loa is the highest volcano in the world, being nearly

14,000 feet above the sea. It has an immense crater; but, while it still

sends forth smoke and has a lake of molten lava at the bottom, there

have been no eruptions for a number of years. Kilauea, the largest

active volcano on the globe, is about sixteen miles from Mauna Loa, on

one of its foothills, 4,000 feet above the sea, and is in a constant

state of activity. Its last great eruption occurred in 1894. This

volcano was described by the missionary Ellis in the year 1823, and

hundreds of tourists visit it every year. Its crater is nine miles in

circumference and several hundred feet deep. Under the conduct of

competent guides the tourists descend into the crater and walk over the

cool lava in places, while near them the hot flame and molten lava are

spouting to the height of hundreds of feet.

The largest extinct volcano in the archipelago is on the island of Maui,

the bottom of the crater measuring sixteen square miles. All of these

stupendous volcanic mountains rise so gently on the western side that

horsemen easily ride to their summits.

INHABITANTS OF THE ISLANDS.

When Cook visited Hawaii, he found the islands inhabited, according to

his estimate, by 400,000 natives. Forty years later when the census was

taken there were 142,000. These diminished one-half during the next

fifty years, and the native population of the islands in 1897 was only

31,019. The total population by the last census, when the islands became

a part of the United States, was 109,020, made up, in addition to the

natives mentioned, of 24,407 Japanese, 21,616 Chinese, 12,191

Portuguese, and 3,086 Americans. The remainder were half-castes from

foreign intermarriage with the natives, together with a small

representation from England, Germany, and other European countries.

[Illustration: HULA DANCING GIRLS, HAWAII.]

That the original Hawaiians must soon become extinct as a pure race is

evident, though they have never been persecuted or maltreated. They are

a handsome, strong-looking people, with a rich dark complexion, jet

black eyes, wavy hair, full voluptuous lips, and teeth of snowy

whiteness; but they are constitutionally weak, easily contract and

quickly succumb to disease, and the only hope of perpetuating their

blood seems to lie in mixing it by intermarriage with other races.

OLD TIMES IN HAWAII.

Prior to 1795, all the islands had separate kings, but in that and the

following year the great king of Hawaii, Kamehameha, with cannon that he

procured from Vancouver's ships, assaulted and subjugated all the

surrounding kings, and since that time the islands have been under one

government. Previous to this, the natives had been at war, according to

their traditions, for three hundred years. The fierceness of their

hand-to-hand conflicts, as described by their historians, has probably

not been surpassed by those of any other people in the world. The four

descendants of Kamehameha reigned until 1872, when the last of his line

died childless. A new king was elected, who died within a year, and

another was then elected by the people. It was to this last line that

Queen Liliuokalani belonged, and she was deposed by the revolution of

1893, led by the American and European residents upon the islands. These

patriots set up a provisional government and made repeated application

for admission to the United States, the tender of the islands being

finally accepted by a joint vote of Congress on July 7, 1898, since

which time the Hawaiian Islands have been a part of our country.

The manners and customs of the native Hawaiians are most interesting,

but space forbids a description of them here. Their religion was a gross

form of idolatry, with many gods. Human sacrifice was freely practiced.

They deified dead chiefs and worshiped their bones. The great king,

Kamehameha I., though an idolater, was a most progressive monarch, and

invited Vancouver, who went there in 1794, taking swine, cattle, sheep,

and horses, together with oranges and other valuable plants, to bring

over teachers and missionaries to teach his people "the white man's

religion."

THE WORK OF AMERICAN MISSIONARIES.

But it was not until 1820, after the death of the great king, that the

first missionaries arrived, and they came from America. The year

previous, in 1819, Kamehameha II. had destroyed many of the temples and

idols and forbidden idol worship in the islands; consequently, when the

missionaries arrived they beheld the unprecedented spectacle of a nation

without a religion. The natives were rapidly converted to Christianity.

It was these American missionaries who first reduced the Hawaiian

language to writing, established schools and taught the natives. As a

result of their work, the Hawaiians are the most generally educated

people, in the elementary sense, in the world. There is hardly a person

in the islands, above the age of eight years, who cannot read and write.

In spite of education, however, many of the ancient superstitions still

exist, and some of the old stone temples are yet standing. What the

United States will do with these heathen temples remains to be seen. The

natives revere them as relics of their savage history, and as such they

may be preserved.

[Illustration: CHURCH IN HONOLULU, HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.

Built of lava stone. Seating capacity about 3000.]

Aside from the horrors of superstitions, the Hawaiians lead a happy

life, full of amusements of various kinds on the land and water--for

Hawaiian men, women and children live much of their time in the water.

Infants are often taught the art of swimming before they can walk. The

surf riding or swimming of the natives astonished Captain Cook more than

any of their remarkable performances. The time selected was when a storm

was tossing the waves high and the surf was furious. Then the men and

women would dive through the surf, with narrow boards about nine inches

wide and eight feet long, and, swimming a mile or more out to sea, mount

on the crest of a huge billow, and sitting, kneeling or standing, with

wild gesticulations, ride over the waves and breakers like gods or

demons of the storm. This practice has now ceased to be indulged in. But

the swimming of the Kanaka boys, who flock around incoming steamers, and

dive after and catch coins which tourists throw into the water, like so

many ducks diving after corn, shows what a degree of perfection the

natatorial art has attained among the native Hawaiians. Sledging down

the mountain sides, boxing, and tournament riding are other popular

amusements; and, with the exception of boxing, the women compete with

the men in the amusements.

PRODUCTS AND COMMERCE.

Sugar is king in Hawaii as wheat is in the Northwest. In 1890 there were

19,000 laborers--nearly one-fifth of the total population--engaged on

sugar plantations. Ten tons to the acre have been raised on the richest

lands. The average is over four tons per acre, but it requires from

eighteen to twenty months for a crop to mature. Rice growing is also an

important industry. It is raised in marsh lands, and nearly all the

labor is done by Chinese, though they do not own the land. Coffee is

happily well suited to the soil that is unfitted for sugar and rice, and

the Hawaiian coffee is particularly fine, combining the strength of the

Java with a delicate flavor of its own.

Diversified farming is coming more into vogue. Fruit raising will

undoubtedly become one of the most important branches when fast steamers

are provided for its transportation. Sheep and cattle raising must also

prove profitable, since the animals require little feeding and need no

housing.

"Almost all kinds of vegetables and fruits can be raised, many of those

belonging to the temperate zones thriving on the elevated mountain

slopes. Fruit is abundant; the guava grows wild in all the islands, and

were the manufacture of jelly made from it carried on, on a large scale,

the product could doubtless be exported with profit. Both bananas and

pineapples are prolific, and there are many fruits and vegetables, which

as yet have been raised only for local trade, which would, if cultivated

for export, bring in rich returns.

"Of the total exports from the Hawaiian Islands in 1895, the United

States received 99.04 per cent., and in the same year 79.04 per cent. of

the imports to the islands were from the United States. The total value

of the sugar sent to the United States in 1896 was $14,932,010; of rice,

$194,903; of coffee, $45,444; and of bananas, $121,273."

THE CHIEF CITY.

Honolulu, the capital city, is to Hawaii what Havana is to Cuba, or

better, what Manila is to the Philippine Islands. Here are concentrated

the business, political and social forces that control the life and

progress of the entire archipelago. This city of 30,000 inhabitants is

situated on the south coast of Oahu, and extends up the Nuuanu Valley.

It is well provided with street-car lines--which also run to a bathing

resort four miles outside the city--a telephone system, electric lights,

numerous stores, churches and schools, a library of over 10,000 volumes,

and frequent steam communication with San Francisco. There are papers

published in the English, Hawaiian, Portuguese, Japanese, and Chinese

languages, and a railroad is being built, of which thirty miles along

the coast are already completed. Honolulu has also a well-equipped fire

department and public water-works. The residence portions of the city

are well laid out, the houses, many of which are very handsome, being

surrounded by gardens kept green throughout the year. The climate is

mild and even, and the city is a delightful and a beautiful place of

residence. Hawaii is peculiarly an agricultural country, and Honolulu

gains its importance solely as a distributing centre or depot of

supplies. Warehouses, lumber yards, and commercial houses abound, but

there is a singular absence of mills and factories and productive

establishments. There are no metals or minerals, or as yet, textile

plants or food plants, whose manufacture is undertaken in this unique

city.

[Illustration: SUGAR CANE PLANTATION, HAWAIIAN ISLANDS.

About one-fifth of the entire population is engaged in sugar culture.

The average product is about three tons per acre.]

The Hawaiian Islands are, without question, on the threshold of a great

industrial era, fraught with most potent results to the prosperity and

development of that land. Its climate is delightful and healthful, and

its soil so fertile that it will easily support 5,000,000 people.

[Illustration: SENOR MONTERO RIOS

President of the Spanish Peace Commission whose painful duty required

him to sign away his country's colonial possessions.]

[Illustration: GENERAL RAMON BLANCO

Who succeeded Weyler as Captain-General of Cuba in 1897. He was formerly

Governor-General of the Philippine Islands.]

[Illustration: ADMIRAL CERVERA

Commander of Spanish Fleet at Santiago.]

[Illustration: SAGASTA

Premier of Spain during the Spanish-American War.]

[Illustration: PROMINENT SPANIARDS IN 1898]

OUR NEW POSSESSIONS (CONTINUED).

CUBA, "THE CHILD OF OUR ADOPTION."

Although Cuba is not a part or a possession of the United States, it has

since the war with Spain, in 1898, come under the protection of this

government, and is, therefore, entitled to a place in this volume. In

the hand of Providence, this island became the doorway to America. It

was here that Columbus landed, October 28, 1492. True, he touched

earlier at one of the smaller islands to the north; but it was merely a

halting before pushing on to Cuba. "Juana" Columbus called the island,

in honor of Isabella's infant son. Afterward it was successively known

as Fernandina, Santiago, and Ave Maria; but the simple natives, who were

there to the number of 350,000, called it _Cooba_, and this name

prevailed over the Spanish titles, as the island has finally prevailed

over Spanish domination, and it has come under the protection of America

with its Indian name, slightly changed to _Cuba_, remaining as the sole

and only heritage we have of the simple aborigines who have utterly

perished from the face of the earth under Spanish cruelty.

[Illustration: TOMB OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS IN THE CATHEDRAL AT HAVANA.

The ashes of the great discoverer were removed from this tomb to Spain

in December, 1898.]

In 1494 Columbus visited Cuba a second time, and once again in 1502. In

1511 Diego Columbus, the son of the great discoverer, with a colony of

between three and four hundred Spaniards, came, and in 1514 he founded

the towns of Santiago and Trinidad. Five years later, in 1519, the

present capital Havana, or _Habana_, was founded. The French reduced the

city in 1538, practically demolishing the whole town. Under the

governor, De Soto, it was rebuilt and fortified, the famous Morro Castle

and the Punta, which are still standing, being built at that early date.

THE ORIGINAL INHABITANTS.

The natives, whom Columbus found in Cuba, were agreeable in feature, and

so amiable in disposition that they welcomed the white man with open

arms, and, besides contributing food, readily gave up their treasures to

please the Spaniards. Unlike the warlike cannibal tribes of the Lesser

Antilles, known as the Caribs, they lived in comparative peace with one

another, and had a religion which recognized the Supreme Being. Columbus

held several conferences with these simple natives, who numbered,

according to his estimate, from 350,000 to half a million souls, and his

associations and dealings with them on his first visit were always

friendly and of a mutually pleasing nature. But when he returned to

Spain he left soldiers, who brutally maltreated them, until the natives

rose in revolt and exterminated every white man. Even Columbus himself,

in 1494, had to fight the Indians at the landing-place.

A salubrious climate, a fertile soil, and simple wants rendered it

unnecessary for the native to do hard work; and although it is well

proven that he did mine copper and traded in it with the mound builders

of Florida, yet the native was not accustomed to arduous toil, and

rebelled against it. This, perhaps, was unfortunate, for the perpetuity

of his race at that time depended upon this very quality. The Spanish

"friend" who came to the island was incapable of work. He neither would

nor could, under his ethics of self-respect, abase himself to labor, so

he proceeded to enslave the native to labor for him. The Cuban rebelled,

and fled before the superior Spanish weapons from the coasts to the

mountain fastnesses of the interior.

EXTERMINATION OF THE NATIVES.

Then began that cruel and long-continued war of extermination, of which

history has recorded the most shocking details. The conquest was begun

under Diego Columbus, the son of the great discoverer. The merciless

Velasquez was his general, and the frightful cruelties which he

inaugurated upon the simple natives have been continued for nearly four

hundred years by his successors in the island, though the annihilation

of the aboriginal tribes themselves was a brief and bloody work.

Velasquez rode them down and trampled them--regardless of age or

sex--under the iron hoofs of his war-horses, slashed them with swords,

devastated their villages, and bore them away into slavery. The Cuban

had no weapons; the mountain fastnesses could not hide him from his

relentless pursuer. African slaves, who were brought to the island in

Spanish ships, were armed and forced by their masters to chase the

natives, and not a forest or mountain top was a place of refuge for

these doomed children of the soil. One historian declares: "There is

little doubt that before 1560 the whole of this native population had

disappeared from the island. They were so completely exterminated that

it is doubtful if the blood of their race was even remotely preserved in

the mixed classes who followed African and Chinese introduction."

[Illustration: MAGNIFICENT INDIAN STATUE IN THE PRADO, HAVANA, CUBA.]

A PERIOD OF REST.

For nearly two hundred years after the extermination of the natives,

Cuba rested without a struggle in the arms of Spain. The early settlers

engaged almost wholly in pastoral pursuits. Tobacco was indigenous to

the soil, and in 1580 the Cuban planters began its culture. Later,

sugar-cane was imported from the Canaries, and found to be a fruitful

and profitable crop. The beginning of the culture of sugar demanded more

laborers, and the importation of additional slaves was the result. In

1717, Spain attempted to make a monopoly of the tobacco culture, and the

first Cuban revolt occurred. In 1723 a second uprising took place,

because of an oppressive government; but these early revolts against

tyranny were insignificant as compared with those of the last

half-century.

In 1762, the city of Havana was captured by the English, with an

expedition commanded by Lord Albemarle, but his fighting troops were

principally Americans under the immediate command of Generals Phineas

Lyman and Israel Putnam of Revolutionary fame. The story of Putnam's

command in this war is thrilling and sad. After first suffering

shipwreck and many hardships in reaching the island, they lay before

Havana, where Spanish bullets and fever almost annihilated the whole

command. Scarcely more than one in fifty lived to return to America. By

the Treaty of Paris, 1763, Cuba was unfortunately restored to Spain, and

it was afterward that her troubles with the "Mother Country," as Spain

affectionately called herself to all her provinces, began. The hand of

oppression for one and a quarter centuries relaxed not its grasp, and

year by year grew heavier and more galling.

DISCONTENT AND INSURRECTIONS.

Some of the most prolific seeds of modern revolutions may be said to

have been sown when the African slave trade assumed important

proportions, in 1791. About the same time began a large importation of

Chinese coolies, for which Cuba paid a bounty of $400 apiece to the

importer. These coolies bound themselves to the Spaniards for eight

years, for which they were paid $4.00 per month as wages. The new influx

of labor and the coming of Las Casas as Captain-General to Cuba, in

1790, mark the beginning of Cuba's great period of prosperity. This

enterprising ruler introduced numerous public improvements, established

botanical gardens and schools of agriculture, with a view to developing

and increasing Cuba's resources and commercial importance. Owing to his

wise administration, Cuba prospered and remained undisturbed for a long

while. An insurrection occurred among the slaves in 1812, which was

promptly put down with characteristic cruelty, and the blacks remained

"good niggers" for a third of a century. By the year 1844, the slave

trade with Cuba had grown to enormous proportions. In that year alone,

statistics tell us, 10,000 slaves were landed from Africa upon the

island. Another wild and fanatical insurrection occurred the same year

among them, which, as before, ended in failure. Seventy-eight of the

rebels were shot, and many otherwise punished. By 1850, the slaves had

so multiplied and the importation had been so large that the census

showed there were nearly 500,000 on the island.

Meantime, in 1823 and 1827, insurrections were attempted on the part of

the Creoles (descendants of Spanish and French settlers) and other free

Cubans. They failed, and the blood of the martyrs was seed in the

ground. Revolutionist and enslaved insurrectionist gradually drifted

together. They had a common cause--to struggle for freedom against

oppression. The bondsman was little or no worse off than the Creoles,

Chinese coolies, and free negroes--all native-born Cubans were shut out

from the enjoyment of true citizenship. They must do the work and pay

the tribute, but Spaniards, born in Spain, were alone allowed to hold

office of profit or trust under the government; and they looked with

inexpressible contempt upon the rest of the population, and, with the

backing of the army, preserved their domination in spite of their

inferior numbers. The governor-general was appointed from Spain and held

office from three to five years, and was expected to steal or extort

himself rich in that time. It is said not one governor-general ever

failed to do so.

[Illustration: DARING ATTACK BY THE PATRIOTS OF CUBA UPON A FORT NEAR

VUELTAS.]

THE TEN YEARS' WAR.

The first long and determined struggle of the oppressed people of Cuba

for liberty began in 1868. In that year a revolution broke out in Spain,

and the patriots seized the opportunity, while the mother country was

occupied at home, for an heroic effort to liberate themselves. They rose

first at Yara, in the district of Bayamo, and on October 10th of that

year made a declaration of independence. Eight days later the city of

Bayamo was taken by the patriots, and early in November they defeated a

force sent against them from Santiago. The majority of the South

American republics hastened to recognize the Cubans as belligerents;

but--though they held their own in guerrilla warfare against the Spanish

forces for ten years, fighting in the forests and bravely resisting all

the efforts of Spain to subdue them--there was not one great power in

the world willing to extend to the patriots the recognition of

belligerent rights. The cruelty of the Spaniards toward the soldiers

they captured, and to all inhabitants who sympathized with the patriots'

cause, was equaled only by the courage, fortitude, and exalted

patriotism which animated their victims. The following instances,

selected from scores that might be cited, are given in the Spaniards'

own words, translated, _verbatim_, into English:

SPANISH TESTIMONY OF HORRORS PRACTICED.

Jacob Rivocoba, under date of September 4, 1896, writes:

"We captured seventeen, thirteen of whom were shot outright; on dying

they shouted, 'Hurrah for free Cuba! hurrah for independence!' A

mulatto said, 'Hurrah for Cespedes!' On the following day we killed a

Cuban officer and another man. Among the thirteen that we shot the

first day were found three sons and their father; the father

witnessed the execution of his sons without even changing color, and

when his turn came he said he died for the independence of his

country. On coming back we brought along with us three carts filled

with women and children, the families of those we had shot; and they

asked us to shoot them, because they would rather die than live among

Spaniards."

Pedro Fardon, another officer, who entered entirely into the spirit of

the service he honored, writes on September 22, 1869:

"Not a single Cuban will remain in this island, because we shoot all

those we find in the fields, on the farms, and in every hovel."

And, again, on the same day, the same officer sends the following good

news to his old father:

"We do not leave a creature alive where we pass, be it man or animal.

If we find cows, we kill them; if horses, ditto; if hogs, ditto; men,

women, or children, ditto; as to the houses, we burn them: so every

one receives his due--the men in balls, the animals in

bayonet-thrusts. The island will remain a desert."

These atrocities were perpetrated not alone by the common soldier. In

fact, the above reports come from men who were officers in the Spanish

army, and they show that such actions were approved by the highest

authority. A well-authenticated account assures us that General Count

Balmaceda himself went on one occasion to the home of a patriot family,

Mora by name, to arrest or kill the patriots he had heard were stopping

there; but, finding the men all absent, he wreaked his vengeance and

thirst for blood by butchering the two Mora sisters and burning the

house over their bodies.

PEACE AND FAIR PROMISES.

At last, Spain, seeing that she could neither induce the Cubans to

surrender nor draw them into a decisive battle; and finding,

furthermore, that her army of 200,000 men was likely to be annihilated

by death, disease, and patriot bullets, made overtures, which, by

promising many privileges to the people that they had not before

enjoyed, effected a peace. As a result of this war, slavery was

abolished in the island; but Spain's promises for fair and equitable

government were repudiated, and the civil powers became more

extortionate and severe than ever. This war laid a heavy debt upon

Spain, and Cuba was taxed inordinately. The people soon saw that they

had been duped. The world looked upon Cuba and Spain as at peace. To the

outsider the surface was placid, but underneath "the waters were

troubled." Such heroic spirits as Generals Calixto Garcia, Jose Marti,

Antonio Maceo, and Maximo Gomez, leaders in the ten years' struggle,

still lived, though scattered far apart, and in their hearts bore a load

of righteous wrath against their treacherous foe. While such men lived

and such conditions existed another conflict was inevitable.

THE LAST GREAT STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM.

It was on February 24, 1895, that the last revolution of the Cuban

patriots began. Spain had heard the mutterings of the coming storm, and

hoped to stay it by visiting with severe punishment every Cuban

suspected of patriotic affiliations. Antonio Maceo, a mulatto, but a man

of fortune and education, a veteran of the ten years' war, and a Cuban

by birth, was banished to San Domingo. There were other exiles in Key

West, New York, and elsewhere. Jose Marti was the leading spirit in

forming the Cuban Junta in New York and organizing revolutionary clubs

among Cubans everywhere. Antonio Maceo was the first of the old leaders

in the field. He went secretly to Cuba and began organizing the

insurrectionists, and when war was declared the flag of the new

republic, bearing a lone white star in a red field, was flung to the

breeze. Captain-General Calleja declared martial law in the insurgents'

vicinity, and troops were hastily summoned and sent from Spain. The

revolutionists from the start fought by guerrilla methods of warfare,

dashing upon the unsuspecting Spanish towns and forces, and escaping to

the mountains before the organized Spaniards could retaliate.

Jose Marti and Jose Maceo--brother of the general--were prompt to join

the active forces, and on April 13, 1895, General Maximo Gomez, a native

of San Domingo, came over and was made commander of the insurgent

forces. This grizzled old hero, with nearly seventy years behind him,

was at once an inspiration and a host within himself. An army of 6,000

men was ready for his command, and the revolution took on new life and

began in all its fury. On May 19th the insurgents met their first great

disaster, when Jose Marti was led into an ambush and killed. But his

blood was like a seed planted, from which thousands of patriots sprang

up for the ranks. Within a few days there were 10,000 ill-armed but

determined men in the field. They had no artillery, nearly half were

without guns, and there was little ammunition for those who were armed.

THE PLANS OF CAMPOS THWARTED.

In April, 1895, Captain-General Calleja was replaced by Martinez Campos,

the commander in the preceding war, and one of the ablest of the Spanish

generals. He sought to conciliate the people and alleviate the

prevailing distress, but the rebels in arms had lost all faith in

Spanish honor, while the veteran Gomez proved so wily that Campos could

neither capture him nor force him into an engagement. Everywhere Gomez

marched he gathered new patriots. Near the city of Bayamo, Maceo

attacked Campos, and the Spanish commander barely escaped with his life.

He was besieged in Bayamo, and had to stay there until 10,000 soldiers

were sent to escort him home. That was the last of Campos' fighting. By

August, Spain had spent $21,300,000 and lost 20,000 men by death, and

39,000 additional soldiers had been brought into the island, 25,000 of

them the flower of the Spanish army, and she was also forced to issue

$120,000,000 bonds, which she sold at a great sacrifice, to carry on the

war.

[Illustration: CAPTAIN C.D. SIGSBEE

Commander of the "Maine" at the frightful catastrophe in Havana Harbor,

February 15, 1898.]

The patriots met September 13, 1895, at Camaguey and formed their

government by adopting a constitution and electing a president and other

state officers. This body formally conferred upon Gomez the commission

of commander-in-chief of the army. Before the close of the month, there

were 30,000 rebels in the field. Spanish war-ships patroled the coast,

but the insurgents held the whole interior of Santiago province, and

government forces dared not venture away from the sea. The same was true

of Santa Clara and Puerto Principe. Matanzas was debatable ground; but

Gomez made bold raids into the very vicinity of Havana. Spain continued

to increase her army, till by the year 1898 it numbered about 200,000

men.

As if the cup of Cuba's sorrow were not sufficiently bitter, or her

long-suffering patriots had not drunk deep enough of its gall, General

Campos was recalled, and General Valeriano Weyler (nicknamed "The

Butcher") arrived in February, 1896. He promptly inaugurated the most

bitter and inhuman policy in the annals of modern warfare. It began with

a campaign of intimidation, in which his motto was "Subjugation or

Death." He established a system of espionage that was perfect, and the

testimony of the spy was all the evidence he required. He heeded no

prayer and knew no mercy. His prisons overflowed with suspected

patriots, and his sunrise executions, every morning, made room for

others. It was thus that General Weyler carried on the war from his

palace against the unarmed natives, his 200,000 soldiers seldom securing

a shot at the insurgents, who were continually bushwhacking them with

deadly effect, while yellow fever carried them off by the thousands. How

many lives Weyler sacrificed in that dreadful year will never be known.

How many suspects he frightened into giving him all their gold for mercy

and then coldly shot for treason, no record will disclose; but the

crowded, unmarked graves on the hillside outside Havana are mute but

eloquent witnesses of his infamy.

[Illustration: SUNRISE EXECUTIONS.

Outside the prison walls, Havana. Weyler's way of getting rid of

prisoners.]

Under these conditions, Gomez declared that all Cubans must take sides.

They must be for or against. It was no time for neutrals and there could

be no neutral ground, so he boldly levied forced contributions upon

planters unfavorable to his cause, and extended protection to those who

befriended the patriots. Exasperated by Weyler's atrocities upon

non-combatant patriots, he dared to destroy or confiscate the property

of Spanish sympathizers.

THE DEATH OF GENERAL MACEO.

On the night of December 4, 1896, the insurgents suffered an irreparable

loss in the death of General Maceo, who was led into an ambush and

killed, it is believed, through the treachery of his staff physician.

Eight brothers of Maceo had previously given their lives for Cuban

freedom.

At the close of 1896, the island was desolate to an extreme perhaps

unprecedented in modern times. The country was laid waste and the

cities were starving. Under the pretext of protecting them, Weyler

gathered the non-combatants into towns and stockades, and it is

authoritatively stated that 200,000 men, women, and children of the

"reconcentrados," as they were called, died of disease and starvation.

The insurgents remained masters of the island except along the coasts.

The only important incident of actual warfare was the capture of

Victoria de las Tunas, in Santiago province, by General Garcia at the

head of 3,000 men, after three days' fighting. In this battle the

Spanish commander lost his life and forty per cent. of his troops were

killed or wounded; the rest surrendered to Garcia, and the rebels

secured by their victory 1,000 rifles, 1,000,000 rounds of ammunition,

and two Krupp guns.

In the spring of 1898 the United States intervened. The story of our war

with Spain for Cuba's freedom is elsewhere related.

[Illustration: CLARA BARTON.

President of the American Red Cross Society.]

Spain has paid dearly for her supremacy in Cuba during the last third of

the nineteenth century. Notwithstanding the fact that the revenue from

Cuba for several years prior to the Ten Years' War of 1868-78 amounted

to $26,000,000 annually--about $18 for every man, woman, and child in

the island--$20,000,000 of it was absorbed in Spain's official circles

at Havana, and "the other $6,000,000 that the Spanish government

received," says one historian, "was hardly enough to pay transportation

rates on the help that the mother country had to send to her army of

occupation." Consequently, despite this enormous tax, a heavy debt

accumulated on account of the island, even before the Ten Years' War

began.

FEARFUL COST OF THE WAR.

At the close of the Ten Years' War (1878) Spain had laid upon the island

a public debt of $200,000,000, and required her to raise $39,000,000 of

revenue annually, an average at that time of nearly $30 per inhabitant.

But Spain's own debt had, also, increased to nearly $2,000,000,000, and

during this Ten Years' War she had sent 200,000 soldiers and her

favorite commanders to the island, only about 50,000 of whom ever

returned. According to our Consular Report of July, 1898, when the last

revolution began, 1895, the Cuban debt had reached $295,707,264. The

interest on this alone imposed a burden of $9.79 per annum upon each

inhabitant. During the war, Spain had 200,000 troops in the island, and

the three and one-half years' conflict cost her the loss of nearly

100,000 lives, mostly from sickness, and, as yet, unknown millions of

dollars. The real figures of the loss of life and treasure seem

incredible when we consider that Cuba is not larger than our State of

Pennsylvania, and that her entire population at the beginning of the war

was about one-fourth that of the State named, or a little less than that

of the city of Chicago alone. Yet Spain, with an army larger than the

combined northern and southern forces at the battle of Gettysburg, was

unable to overcome the insurgents, who had never more than one-fourth as

many men enlisted. But she harassed, tortured, and starved to death

within three years, perhaps, over 500,000 non-combatant citizens in her

attempt to subjugate the patriots, and was in a fair way to depopulate

the whole island when the United States at last intervened to succor

them.

THE FUTURE OF THE ISLAND.

What the future of Cuba may be under new conditions of government

remains to be seen. Certainly, in all the world's history few sadder or

more devastated lands have gathered their remnants of population upon

the ashes of their ruins and turned a hopeful face to the future.

[Illustration: A SPANISH MESTIZA.]

But the soil, the mineral and the timber not even Spanish tyranny could

destroy; and in these lie the hope, we might say the sure guarantee, of

Cuba's future. In wealth of resources and fertility of soil, Cuba is

superior to all other tropical countries, and these fully justify its

right to the title "Pearl of the Antilles," first given it by Columbus.

Under a wise and secure government, its possibilities are almost

limitless. Owing to its location at the entrance of the Gulf of Mexico,

which it divides into the Yucatan and Florida channels, on the south and

north, the island has been termed the "Key to the Gulf of Mexico," and

on its coat of arms is emblazoned a key, as if to imply its ability to

open or close this great sea to the commerce of the world.

Cuba extends from east to west 760 miles, is 21 miles wide in its

narrowest part and 111 miles in the widest, with an average width of 60

miles. It has numerous harbors, which afford excellent anchorage. The

area of the island proper is 41,655 square miles (a little larger than

the State of Ohio); and including the Isle of Pines and other small

points around its entire length, numbering in all some 1,200, there are

47,278 square miles altogether in Cuba and belonging to it. The island

is intersected by broken ranges of mountains, which gradually increase

in height from west to east, where they reach an elevation of nearly

8,000 feet. The central and western portions of the island are the most

fertile, while the principal mineral deposits are in the mountains of

the eastern end. In Matanzas and other central provinces, the

well-drained, gently sloping plains, diversified by low, forest-clad

hills, are especially adapted to sugar culture, and the country under

normal conditions presents the appearance of vast fields of cane. The

western portion of the island is also mountainous, but the elevations

are not great, and in the valleys and along the fertile slopes of this

district is produced the greater part of the tobacco for which the

island is famous.

FERTILITY OF SOIL AND ITS PRODUCTS.

The soil of the whole island seems well-nigh inexhaustible. Except in

tobacco culture, fertilizers are never used. In the sugar districts are

found old canefields that have produced annual crops for a hundred years

without perceptible impoverishment of the soil. Besides sugar and

tobacco, the island yields Indian corn, rice, manioc (the plant from

which tapioca is prepared), oranges, bananas, pineapples, mangoes,

guava, and all other tropical fruits, with many of those belonging to

the temperate zone. Raw sugar, molasses, and tobacco are the chief

products, and, with fruits, nuts, and unmanufactured woods, form the

bulk of exports, though coffee culture, formerly active, is now being

revived, and its fine quality indicates that it must in time become one

of the most important products of the island.

As a sugar country, Cuba takes first rank in the world. Mr. Gallon, the

English Consul, in his report to his government in 1897 upon this Cuban

crop, declared: "Of the other cane-sugar countries of the world, Java is

the only one which comes within 50 per cent. of the amount of sugar

produced annually in Cuba in normal times, and Java and the Hawaiian

Islands are the only ones which are so generally advanced in the process

of manufacture." Our own Consul, Hyatt, in his report of February, 1897,

expresses the belief that Cuba is equal to supplying the entire demands

of the whole western hemisphere with sugar--a market for 4,000,000 tons

or more, and requiring a crop four times as large as the island has ever

yet produced. Those who regard this statement as extravagant should

remember that Cuba, although founded and settled more than fifty years

before the United States, has nearly 14,000,000 acres of uncleared

primeval forest-land, and is capable of easily supporting a population

more than ten times that of the present. In fact, the Island of Java,

not so rich as Cuba, and of very nearly the same area, with less

tillable land, has over 22,000,000 inhabitants as against

Cuba's--perhaps at this time--not more than 1,200,000 souls.

MINERAL AND TIMBER RESOURCES.

The mineral resources of Cuba are second in importance to its

agricultural products. Gold and silver are not believed to exist in

paying quantities, but its most valuable mineral, copper, seems to be

almost inexhaustible. The iron and manganese mines, in the vicinity of

Santiago, are of great importance, the ores being rated among the finest

in the world. Deposits of asphalt and mineral oils are also found.

The third resource of Cuba in importance is its forest product. Its

millions of acres of unbroken woodlands are rich in valuable hard woods,

suitable for the finest cabinet-work and ship-building, and also furnish

many excellent dye woods. Mahogany, cedar, rosewood, and ebony abound.

The palm, of which there are thirty-odd species found in the island, is

one of the most characteristic and valuable of Cuban trees.

CITIES AND COMMERCE.

The commerce of Cuba has been great in the past, but Spanish laws made

it expensive and oppressive to the Cubans. Its location and resources,

with wise government, assure to the island an enormous trade in the

future. There are already four cities of marked importance to the

commercial world: Havana with a population of 250,000, Santiago with

71,000, Matanzas with 29,000, and Cienfuegos with 30,000, are all

seaport cities with excellent harbors, and all do a large exporting

business. Add to these Cardenas with 25,000, Trinidad with 18,000,

Manzanillo with 10,000, and Guantanamo and Baracoa, each with 7,000

inhabitants, we have an array of ten cities such as few strictly farming

countries of like size possess. Aside from cigar and cigarette making,

there is little manufacturing in Cuba; but fruit canneries, sugar

refineries, and various manufacturing industries for the consumption of

native products will rapidly follow in the steps of good government.

Hence, in the field of manufacturing this island offers excellent

inducements to capital.

SEASONS AND CLIMATE.

Like all tropical countries, Cuba has but two seasons, the wet and the

dry. The former extends from May to October, June, July, and August

being the most rainy months. The dry season lasts from November to May.

This fact must go far toward making the island more and more popular as

a winter health resort. The interior of the island is mountainous, and

always pleasantly cool at night, while on the highlands the heat in the

day is less oppressive than in New York and Pennsylvania during the

hottest summer weather; consequently, when once yellow fever, which now

ravages the coasts of the island on account of its defective sanitation,

is extirpated, as it doubtless will be under the new order of things,

Cuba will become the seat of many winter homes for wealthy residents of

the United States. Even in the summer, the temperature seldom rises

above 90 deg., while the average for the year is 77 deg. At no place,

except in the extreme mountainous altitude, is it ever cold enough for

frost.

[Illustration: A VOLANTE, THE TYPICAL CUBAN CONVEYANCE.]

THE EVACUATION OF HAVANA.

The complete transfer of authority in the island of Cuba from Spain to

the United States took place on Sunday, January 1, 1899. At noon on that

day Captain-General Castellanos and staff met the representatives of the

United States in the hall of his palace, and with due formality and

marked Spanish courtesy, in the name of the King and Queen Regent of

Spain, delivered possession of Cuba to General Wade, head of the

American Evacuation Committee, and he in turn transferred the same to

General Brooke, who had been appointed by President McKinley as Military

Governor of the Division of Cuba. No unpleasant incident marred the

occasion. General Castellanos spoke with evident yet becoming emotion on

so important an occasion. Three Cuban generals were present, who, at

General Castellanos' request, were presented to him, and the Spaniard

said, with marked grace and evident sincerity, "I am sorry, gentlemen,

that we are enemies, being of the same blood;" to which one of the Cuban

patriots courteously responded, with commendable charity, "We fought

only for Cuba, and now that she is free we are no longer enemies."

[Illustration: ENTRANCE TO THE PUBLIC GROUNDS, HAVANA, CUBA.]

The formal transfer had scarcely taken place within the palace hall when

the flag of Spain was lowered from Morro Castle, Cabanas Fortress, and

all the public buildings, and the stars and stripes instantly arose in

its place on the flagpoles of these old and historic buildings. As its

graceful folds floated gently out upon the breeze, the crowds from the

streets cheered, the band played the most appropriate of all airs, while

voices in many places in the throng, catching up the tune, sang the

inspiring words of the "Star-Spangled Banner."

OUR NEW POSSESSIONS (CONTINUED).

BEAUTIFUL PORTO RICO.

It was in November of the year 1493, on his second voyage to the New

World, that Columbus landed upon a strange island in quest of water for

his ships. He found it in abundance, and called the place

_Aquadilla_--the watering place. As he had done at Cuba the year before,

the great discoverer held pleasant conferences with the natives, and

with due ceremony took possession of the island for his benefactors and

sovereigns--Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. From that day until it was

ceded to the United States in 1898, as a result of the Spanish-American

War, Porto Rico remained one of the most attractive and valuable of

Spain's West Indian possessions.

[Illustration: A MARKET GIRL, PORTO RICO.]

The simple and friendly natives gladly welcomed their Spanish invaders,

who, with the same promptness which was manifested in Cuba, proceeded to

enslave and exterminate them. In 1510, Ponce de Leon founded the first

settlement on the site of the present village of Puerto Viejo. The next

year the noted invader founded San Juan, the present capital of the

island. One of the most interesting sights of this old city to-day is

the Casa Blanca, built at that period as the palatial residence of Ponce

de Leon. It was there, perhaps, after he had finished his conquest of

the island, that this famous old Spaniard listened to the wonderful

story of the natives, who served him as slaves, concerning the

mysterious country over the sea which had hidden in its forests a

fountain wherein an old man might plunge and be restored to all the

vigor of youth. It was there and thus, perhaps, while sitting at leisure

in his palace, that de Leon planned the voyage in search of that

"fountain of youth" which resulted in the discovery and exploration of

Florida.

[Illustration: SAN JUAN, PORTO RICO.

This city, the capital of Porto Rico, was founded by Ponce de Leon in

1511. It is a fine specimen of an old walled town, having portcullis,

gates, walls and battlements which cost millions of dollars. It is built

on a long, narrow island, connected with the mainland by a bridge. Its

population in 1899, estimated at 31,000.]

ANCIENT INHABITANTS.

As to the number of natives in Porto Rico when the Spaniards came old

chroniclers differ. Some say there were 500,000, others 300,000. It is

all surmise. Probably the latter figure is an over-estimate, for Cuba,

more than ten times as large, was not thought to contain more than half

a million inhabitants at most. A detailed account of their manners and

customs was written by one of the early Spaniards, and part of it is

translated by the British Consul, Mr. Bidwell, in his Consular Report of

1880. Some of the statements in this old book are most peculiar and

interesting. Within the last forty years archaeologists have discovered

many stone axes, spear-heads and knives, stone and clay images, and

pieces of earthenware made by the aboriginal Porto Ricans, and these are

preserved in the Smithsonian Institute at Washington, in Berlin, and

elsewhere. It is curious that none of these remains had been found prior

to 1856. On the banks of the Rio Grande there still stands, also, a rude

stone monument, with strange designs carved upon its surface.

From the earliest times, the island, with its rich produce and commerce,

was the prey of robbers. The fierce cannibal Caribs from the south made

expeditions to it before the white men came; and for many decades after

the Spanish conquest it suffered attacks from pirates by sea and

brigands upon land, who found easy hiding within its deep forests.

ATTACKS AND INVASIONS BY FOREIGN FORCES.

In 1595, San Juan was sacked by the English under Drake, and again,

three years later, by the Duke of Cumberland. In 1615, Baldwin Heinrich,

a Dutchman, lost his life in an attack upon the governor's castle, and

several of his ships were destroyed by a hurricane. The English failed

to capture it, fifty-three years later; and Abercrombie tried it again

in 1797, but had to give up the undertaking after a three days' siege.

It was one hundred and one years after Abercrombie's siege before

another hostile fleet appeared before and bombarded San Juan. That was

done by Admiral Sampson, May 12, 1898, with the United States squadron

of modern ironclad battleships and cruisers. In this engagement Morro

Castle, which, though impregnable a hundred years before, was unable to

withstand modern guns, and was in a large part reduced to ruins.

General Nelson A. Miles landed his United States troops on the island in

July, 1898, and on the 12th of August, before he completed his conquest,

hostilities were closed by the protocol of peace, and amid the rejoicing

of the natives "Beautiful Porto Rico" became a province of the United

States. The one and only attempt the Porto Ricans ever made to throw off

the Spanish yoke was in 1820; but conditions for hiding from the

soldiers were not so good as the Cubans enjoyed in their large island,

and Spanish supremacy was completely re-established by 1823.

THE ISLAND AND ITS POPULATION.

Porto Rico is at once the most healthful and most densely populated

island of the West Indies. It is almost rectangular in form--100 miles

long and 36 broad. Its total area is about 3,600 square miles--a little

larger than the combined areas of Rhode Island and Delaware. Its

population, unlike that of Cuba, has greatly increased within the last

fifty years. In 1830, it numbered 319,000; in 1887, 813,937--about 220

people to the square mile, a density which few States of the Union can

equal. About half of its population are negroes or mulattoes, who were

introduced by the Spaniards as slaves in the 16th and 17th centuries.

[Illustration: THE CUSTOM HOUSE, PONCE, PORTO RICO, AFTER THE RAISING OF

THE AMERICAN FLAG BY GENERAL MILES.]

Among the people of European origin the most numerous are the Spaniards,

with many Germans, Swedes, Danes, Russians, Frenchmen, Chuetos

(descendants from the Moorish Jews), and natives of the Canary Islands.

There are also a number of Chinese, while the Gibaros, or small

land-holders and day-laborers of the country districts, are a curious

old Spanish cross with the aboriginal Indian blood. In this class the

aborigines are more fortunate than the original Cubans in having even a

trace of their blood preserved.

The island is said to be capable of easily supporting three times its

present population, the soil is so universally fertile and its resources

are so well diversified. Though droughts occur in certain parts of the

island, it is all extremely well watered, by more than one thousand

streams, enumerated on the maps, and the dry sections have a system of

irrigation which may be operated very effectually and with little

expense. Of the 1,300 streams, forty-seven are considerable rivers.

TIMBER IN ABUNDANCE AND VARIETY.

Forests still cover all the elevated parts of the hill country of the

interior, the inhabitants living mostly along the coast. The main need

to set the interior teeming with a thrifty and healthy population is a

system of good roads. The interior, with the exception of a few

extensive savannas, is one vast expanse of rounded hills, covered with

such rich soil that they may be cultivated to their summits. At present

these forests are accessible only by mule tracks. "The timber of the

island," says our official report, "comprises more than five hundred

varieties of trees, and in the more elevated regions the vegetation of

the temperate zones is not unknown. On the hills is found a luxuriant

and diversified vegetation, tree-ferns and mountain palms being

abundant. At a lower level grow many varieties of trees noted for their

useful woods, such as the mahogany, cedar, walnut, and laurel. The

mammee, guaiacum, and copal, besides other trees and shrubs valuable for

their gum, flourish in all parts of the island. The coffee tree and

sugar cane, both of which grow well at an altitude of a thousand feet or

more, were introduced into the island--the former from Martinique in

1722, the latter from the Canaries, through Santo Domingo. Tobacco grows

easily in the lowlands, while maize, pineapples, bananas, etc., are all

prolific. The banana and plantain bear fruit within ten months after

planting, and like the cocoa palm, live through an ordinary life-time."

MINERALS AND MINING.

"The mineral resources of the island," says our consul in his report,

"have been very little developed, the only mineral industry of any

importance being the salt works situated at Guanica, Salinas, and Cabo

Rojo. Sulphides of copper and magnetic oxides of iron are found in large

quantities, and formerly gold to a considerable extent was found in many

of the streams. At present the natives still wash out nuggets by the

crude process in use in the time of Ponce de Leon. Marble, carbonates,

lignite, and amber are also present in varying quantities, and hot

springs and mineral waters occur, the best known ones being at Coamo,

near Santa Isabel."

COMMERCE.

The commerce of Porto Rico amounted, in 1896, to $36,624,120, exceeding

the records of all previous years; the increase, no doubt, being largely

due to the unsettled condition of Cuba. The value of the exports for the

same year was, for the first time for more than a decade, slightly in

excess of that of the imports; the former being valued at $18,341,430,

the latter at $18,282,690. The chief exports from the island are

agricultural products. The principal articles are sugar, coffee,

molasses, and tobacco; while rice, wheat, flour, and manufactured

articles are among the chief imports. The value of the sugar and

molasses exported to the United States during the ten years from 1888 to

1897 made up 95 per cent. of the total value of the exports to that

country. Fruits, nuts, and spices are also exported to a small extent.

Of the non-agricultural exports the most important are perfumery and

cosmetics; chemicals, drugs, and dyes; unmanufactured wood, and salt.

[Illustration: NATIVE BELLES, PORTO RICO.]

The leading article of import from the United States is wheat flour.

Corn and meal, bread, biscuit, meats, dairy products, wood and its

manufactures, iron, steel, etc., are also imported.

CITIES AND TOWNS.

San Juan, the capital, is situated on an island off the northern coast

of the mainland, with which it is now connected by the San Antonio

bridge. The city is a perfect specimen of a walled and fortified town,

with Morro Castle crowning the promontory at the western extremity of

the island. The population, including the inhabitants of Marina and

Puerta de Tierra, as well as those within the city walls, was estimated

in 1896 at 30,000, and consists largely of negroes and of mixed races.

Owing to the lack of a good water supply, and the general unsanitary

conditions which prevail, the city is unhealthy. The houses are all of

two stories, the poorer inhabitants occupying the ground floor, while

those better off live above them. There is no running water in the city,

the inhabitants being dependent for their supply upon the rainfall which

is caught on the flat roofs of the houses and stored in cisterns, and in

dry seasons the supply is entirely exhausted. The city is built upon

clay mixed with lime packed hard and impervious to water. Its

manufactures are of small importance.

[Illustration: THE MARKET PLACE, PONCE, PORTO RICO.]

The city of Ponce, with a population of 37,500, and in commercial

importance the second city of Porto Rico, is situated two miles from the

coast in the southern part of the island. With an ample water supply

conveyed to the city by an aqueduct it is, perhaps, the healthiest town

on the island. Playa, its port, having a population of 5,000, is

connected with it by a fine road.

The town of Arecibo, with a population of from 6,000 to 7,000, is

situated on the northern coast of Porto Rico, and is the port for a

district of some 30,000 inhabitants.

CLIMATE.

The climate of the island, though hot and humid, is healthful, except in

marshy districts and in cities where sanitary rules are neglected.

Yellow fever seldom occurs, and when it does it is confined to the

unsanitary towns and their surroundings, never appearing far from the

coasts. The thermometer does not fall below 50 deg. or rise above 90 deg.

The heat is not so great as at Santiago, though the latter is one and a

half degrees further north. As in Cuba, there are but two seasons, the

rainy and the dry, the former lasting from July to December, the latter

from January to the close of June. The delightful, dry and salubrious

atmosphere of midwinter and spring, with its general healthfulness,

promises to bring this island into prominence both as a resort for

invalids and for homes to those who would escape the rigors of northern

winters.

Porto Rico is an ideal lazy man's country, and the overworked American

will, undoubtedly, come to make it more and more his Mecca for rest and

recuperation. Even the interior feels the soft, salt air from the ocean.

The people are kind-hearted, "easy-going," hospitable, and fond of

amusement. Every environment conduces to the dismission of all

worriment, to rest, sleep, and a happy-go-lucky state of mind.

OUR NEW POSSESSIONS (CONTINUED).

THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.

"Most bounteous here in her sea-girt lands,

Nature stretches forth her hands,

* * * * *

And walks on gold and silver, and knows her power increased,

Nor fears the tyrant longer--'Our Lady of the East.'"--_Stoddard_.

The most important, and by far the most interesting, as well as the

least known of America's new possessions, gained by her war with Spain,

are the Philippine Islands. Comparatively few Americans have ever set

foot upon that far-away and semi-civilized land, the possession of which

enables America to say with England, "The sun never sets upon our flag."

[Illustration: FILIPINOS OF THE SAVAGE TRIBES.]

The Philippines lie almost exactly on the other side of the globe from

us. Approximately speaking, our noonday is their midnight; our sunset is

their sunrise. There are some 1,200 of these islands, 400 of which are

inhabited or capable of supporting a population; they cover about

125,000 square miles; they lie in the tropical seas, generally speaking,

from five to eighteen degrees north latitude, and are bounded by the

China Sea on the west and the Pacific Ocean on the east; they are about

7,000 miles southwest from San Francisco, a little over 600 southeast

from Hong Kong, China, and about 1,000 almost due north from Australia;

they contain between 5,000,000 and 8,000,000 inhabitants, about

one-third of whom had prior to Dewey's victory, May 1, 1898,

acknowledged Spanish sovereignty to the extent of paying regular tribute

to the Spanish crown; the remainder are bound together in tribes under

independent native princes or Mohammedan rulers. Perhaps 2,500,000 all

told have become nominal Catholics in religion. The rest are Mohammedans

and idolaters. There are no Protestant churches in the islands.

[Illustration: NATIVE HUNTERS, PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.]

THE STORY OF DISCOVERY.

[Illustration: THE ESCOLTA, LOOKING SOUTH.

This is the Broadway of Manila. Along this famous street the principal

retail shops of the city are situated. Chinese and half-castes are the

principal retail merchants. At the time of the capture of the city by

Admiral Dewey and General Merritt there were not over one dozen European

merchants in Manila. Not one American firm was there; the last one, a

Boston hemp dealer, having been driven out some years before.]

It was twenty-nine years after Columbus discovered America that Magellan

saw the Philippines, the largest archipelago in the world, in 1521. The

voyage of Magellan was much longer and scarcely less heroic than that of

the discoverer of America. Having been provided with a fleet by the

Spanish king with which to search for spice islands, but secretly

determined to sail round the world, he set out with five vessels on

August 10, 1519, crossed the Atlantic to America, and skirted the

eastern coast southward in the hope of finding some western passage into

the Pacific, which, a few years previous, had been discovered by Balboa.

It was a year and two months to a day from the time he left Spain until

he reached the southern point of the mainland of South America and

passed through the straight which has since borne his name. On the way,

one of his vessels deserted; another was wrecked in a storm. When he

passed through the Straight of Magellan he had remaining but three of

his original five ships, and they were the first European vessels that

ever breasted the waves of the mighty western ocean. Once upon the

unknown but placid sea--which he named the Pacific--the bold navigator

steered straight to the northwest. Five months later, about March

1st, he discovered the Ladrone Islands--which name Magellan gave to the

group on account of the thieving propensities of the natives--the word

_Ladrone_ meaning robber.

[Illustration: THE BEAUTIFUL LUNETA, MANILA's FASHIONABLE PROMENADE AND

DRIVE.

This most celebrated drive and promenade in the city of Manila is by the

old sea wall. The Governor and Archbishop, with their escorts and

striking equipages, came every afternoon to air themselves, and in the

cool of every summer evening, when the fine military band of the Spanish

army used to play. The whole population apparently came out to listen.

This was also the place of all great processions, executions, etc.]

After a short stay at the islands, he steered southwest, landing on the

north coast of Mindanao, the second largest island of the Philippines.

The natives were friendly and offered to pilot Magellan to the island of

Cebu, which lay to the north, and which they reported to be very rich.

After taking possession of Mindanao in the name of his king, the

discoverer proceeded to Cebu, where he made such demonstrations and gave

such descriptions of the glory and power of Spain that he easily formed

a treaty with the king of the island, who swore allegiance to his

new-found master and had himself and chief advisers baptized in the

Catholic faith. Magellan then joined the king in his war against some of

the neighboring powers, and on April 25, 1521, was killed in a skirmish.

The spot where he fell is now marked by a monument.

FIRST CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE.

Trouble soon arose between Magellan's sailors and their new-found

allies. The Spaniards were invited to a banquet, and twenty-seven of

them were treacherously slain. The remainder, fearing for their lives,

escaped in their ships and sailed for home. It was soon discovered that

they had too few men to manage the three vessels, and one of them was

destroyed. The other two proceeded on their voyage and discovered the

spice island of Tidor, where they loaded with spices; but a few days

later one of the vessels sprang a leak and went down with her freight

and crew. The other, after many hardships, reached Spain, thus

completing the first circumnavigation of the globe.

SECOND EXPEDITION TO THE PHILIPPINES.

In 1555, Philip II. came to the Spanish throne and determined to send

another expedition to the East Indies. His religious zeal inspired him

to conquer and christianize the islands. To shorten the long and

dangerous voyage, he decided to prepare and start with five ships from

the coast of Mexico. Miguel Lopez de Legaspi led the expedition,

consisting of four hundred soldiers and sailors and six Augustine monks.

In due time the expedition landed at Cebu. The formidable appearance of

the ships awed the natives, and on April 27, 1565--forty years after

Magellan's remnant had fled from the island--Legaspi landed and took

possession. In honor of the Spanish king the archipelago was given the

name of the Philippine Islands.

In 1570 Legaspi sent his grandson, Salcedo, to subdue the island of

Luzon, the northernmost and the largest of the Philippine group. He

landed near the present site of Manila. The trustful natives readily

agreed to accept the Spanish king as their master, and to pay tribute.

Such slight tribal resistances as were offered were quickly subdued. The

next year Legaspi went to Manila to visit his grandson; and, seeing the

importance of the situation and its fine harbor, declared that city the

capital of the whole archipelago and the king of Spain the sovereign of

all the islands. Accordingly, he moved his headquarters to that point,

built houses and fortifications, and within a year had the city well

organized, when he died, leaving Salcedo as his successor in command. It

is remarkable how much these two men accomplished with so small a force;

but they did it not so much by arms as by cajoling and deceiving the

simple natives. Furthermore, they allowed the conquered people to be

governed by their own chiefs in their own way, so long as they paid a

liberal tribute to the Spanish crown.

STRUGGLES FOE SUPREMACY.

The history of the Philippines has been monotonous from their discovery

until the present, a monotony broken at times by periods of adventures

in which Manila has generally been the central scene. About 1580,

Lima-hong, a Chinese pirate, took the city with an armed fleet of

sixty-two vessels, bearing 4,000 men and 1,500 women. They met with

stubborn resistance, but succeeded in scaling the walls and entering the

city. The Spanish forces were driven into a fort, which the Chinese

stormed. A bloody hand-to-hand conflict followed, and the Chinese were

finally repulsed.

[Illustration: PHILIPPINE WARRIORS.]

Early in the seventeenth century the Dutch attempted to obtain

possession of the Philippines. They captured scores of Spanish

merchantmen and treasure ships. Many naval engagements followed, the

details of which read like the thrilling records of buccaneers and

pirates, rather than the wars between two civil powers. Finally, after

half a century of warfare, the Dutch were decisively beaten, and

abandoned their efforts to capture the Spanish islands, much to the

disadvantage of the Filipinos, for the islands of Java, Sumatra, and

other Dutch possessions to the south of the Philippines have been

remarkably prosperous under the mild rule of the Netherlands.

MANILA TAKEN BY THE ENGLISH.

In 1662, the Chinese planned a revolution against the Spanish

authorities. The governor heard of it, and a general massacre of the

Mongolians followed. It was even planned to destroy every Chinaman on

the islands, and they were in a fair way to do it, when, at length, the

Spaniards bethought themselves that by so doing they would practically

depopulate the islands of tradesmen and mechanics. Accordingly, they

offered pardon to those who would surrender and swear allegiance. A

century later, England sent a fleet under Admiral Cornish, with General

Draper commanding the troops, against Manila. After a desperate battle

the city fell, and the terms of surrender incorporated provisions for

free trade, freedom of speech, and, best of all, freedom in religion to

the inhabitants of the islands, and required Spain to pay England about

$4,000,000 indemnity. By the Peace of Paris, in 1763, however, the war

between England and Spain was terminated, and one of the conditions was

that Spain should retain the sovereignty of the Philippines. The English

troops were withdrawn, and the unfortunate islands were again placed (as

Cuba was by the same treaty) under the domination of their tyrannical

mistress, and remained under Spanish rule from that time until the

Americans freed them in 1898.

UPRISINGS OF THE NATIVES.

In nearly all the uprisings of the natives, the tyranny of the church,

as conducted by the friars and priests, was the cause. Such was the case

in 1622, in 1649, and in 1660. The occasion of the revolt of 1744 is a

fair example of the provocations leading to all. A Jesuit priest ordered

all his parishioners arrested as criminals when they failed to attend

mass. One of the unfortunates died, and the priest denied him rights of

burial, ordering that his body be thrown upon the ground and left to rot

in the sun before his dwelling. The brother of the man in his

exasperation organized a mob, captured the priest, killed him, and

exposed his body for four days. Thus was formed the nucleus of a rebel

army. The insurgents in their mountain fastnesses gained their

independence and maintained it for thirty-five years, until they secured

from Spain a promise of the expulsion of the Jesuit priests from the

colony.

Other revolutions followed in 1823, 1827, and 1844, but all were

suppressed. In 1872, the most formidable outbreak up to that time

occurred at Cavite. Hatred of the Spanish friars was the cause of this

uprising also. Spain had promised in the Council of Trent to prohibit

friars from holding parishes. The promises were never carried out, and

the friars grew continually richer and more powerful and oppressive. Had

the plan of the insurgents not been balked by a mistaken signal, no

doubt they would have destroyed the Spanish garrison at Manila, but a

misunderstanding caused their defeat. The friars insisted that the

captured leaders should be executed, and it was done.

[Illustration: A NATIVE RESIDENCE IN THE SUBURBS OF MANILA.

Every cottage, however humble, is surrounded by tropical trees and

flowers. The interiors are remarkably clean and cheerful. Bamboo enters

largely into the construction of all native houses and they are

generally covered with thatch.]

THE LAST STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY.

In 1896, the insurrection broke out again. Its causes were the old

oppressions: unbearable taxes, and imprisonment or banishment, with the

complete confiscation of property of those who could not pay; no justice

except for those who could buy it; extortion by the friars; marriage

ceremony so costly that a poor man could not pay the fee; homes and

families broken up and ruined; burial refused to the dead, unless a

large sum was paid in advance; no provision and no chance for education.

Such were some of the causes that again goaded the natives to revolution

and nerved them with courage to achieve victory after victory over their

enemies until they were, promised most of the reforms which they

demanded. Then they laid down their arms, and, as usual, the

Governor-General failed to carry out a single pledge.

Such was the condition, and another revolt, more formidable than any of

the past, was forming, when Commodore Dewey with his American fleet

entered Manila Bay, May 1, 1898, and, by a victory unparalleled in naval

warfare, sunk the Spanish ships, silenced the forts, and dethroned the

power of Spain forever in a land which her tyranny had blighted for more

than three hundred years.

THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

It is impossible within the scope of this article to give details

concerning all the inhabitants of this far-away archipelago. Professor

Worcester, of the University of Michigan, tells us that the population

comprises more than eighty distinct tribes, with individual

peculiarities. They are scattered over hundreds of islands, and one who

really wants to know these peoples must leave cities and towns far

behind, and, at the risk of his life, through pathless forests, amid

volcanic mountains, at the mercy of savages, penetrate to the innermost

wilds. Notwithstanding the fact that for hundreds of years bold men, led

by the love of science or by the spirit of adventure, have continued to

penetrate these dark regions, there are many sections where the foot of

civilized man has never trod; or, if so, he came not back to tell of the

lands and peoples which his eyes beheld.

DIFFICULTIES OF EXPLORING THE COUNTRY.

There have been great obstacles in the way of a thorough exploration of

these islands. Spain persistently opposed the representatives of any

other nation entering the country. She suspected every man with a gun of

designing to raise an insurrection or make mischief among the natives.

The account of red tape necessary to secure guns and ammunition for a

little party of four or five explorers admitted through the customs at

Manila is one of the most significant, as well as one of the most

humorous, passages in Professor Worcester's story of his several years'

sojourn while exploring the archipelago.

In the second place, the savage tribes in the interior had no respect

for Spain's authority, and will have none for ours for years to come.

Two-thirds of them paid no tribute, and many of them never heard of

Spain, or, if so, only remembered that a long time ago white men came

and cruelly persecuted the natives along the shore. These wild tribes

think themselves still the owners of the land. Some of them go naked and

practice cannibalism and other horrible savage customs. Any explorer's

life is in danger among them; consequently most tourists to the

Philippines see Manila and make short excursions around that city. The

more ambitious run down to the cities of Iloilo and Cebu, making short

excursions into the country from those points, and then return, thinking

they have seen the Philippines. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Such travelers no more see the Philippine Islands than Columbus explored

America.

[Illustration: A TYPICAL MORO VILLAGE, SOUTHERN PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.]

Even near the coast there are savages who are almost as ignorant as

their brethren in the interior. Mr. Stevens tells us that only "thirty

miles from Manila is a race of dwarfs that go without clothes, wear

knee-bracelets of horsehair, and respect nothing but the jungle in which

they live." The principal native peoples are of Malayan origin. Of

these, to the north of Manila are the Igorrotes; in the islands south of

Luzon are the civilized Visayas, and below them in Mindanao and the Sulu

Archipelago are the fierce Moros, who originally came from the island of

Borneo, settling in the Philippines a short time before the Spanish

discovery. They are Mohammedans in religion, and as fanatical and as

fearless fighters as the Turks themselves. For three hundred years the

Spaniards have been fighting these savages, and while they have overcome

them in nearly all the coast towns, they have expended, it is said,

upward of $100,000,000 and sacrificed more than one hundred thousand

lives in doing so.

THE WARLIKE MOROS.

The fierce Moro warriors keep the Spanish settlers along their coasts in

a constant state of alarm, and the visitor to the towns feels as if he

were at an Indian outpost in early American history, because of the

constant state of apprehension that prevails. Fortunately, however, the

Moros along the coast have learned to distinguish between the Spaniard

and the Englishman or American, and through them the generosity of the

_Englese_, as they call all Anglo-Saxons, has spread to their brethren

in the interior. Therefore, American and English explorers have been

enabled to go into sections where the Spanish friars and monks, who have

been practically the only Spanish explorers, would meet with certain

death. The Mohammedan fanaticism of the Moros, and that of the Catholic

friars and Jesuits, absolutely refuse compromise.

The Negritos (little Negroes) and the Mangyans are the principal

representatives of the aboriginal inhabitants before the Malayan tribes

came. There are supposed to be, collectively, about 1,000,000 of them,

and they are almost as destitute of clothing and as uncivilized as the

savages whom Columbus found in America, and far more degenerate and

loathsome in habits.

THE CITY OF MANILA.

The Island of Luzon, on which the city of Manila stands, is about as

large as the State of New York, its area being variously estimated at

from 43,000 to 47,000 square smiles. It is the largest island in the

Philippine group, comprising perhaps one-third of the area of the entire

archipelago. Its inhabitants are the most civilized, and its territory

the most thoroughly explored. The city of Manila is the metropolis of

the Philippines. The population of the city proper and its environs is

considered to be some 300,000 souls, of whom 200,000 are natives, 40,000

full-blooded Chinese, 50,000 Chinese half-castes, 5,000 Spanish, mostly

soldiers, 4,000 Spanish half-castes, and 300 white foreigners other than

Spaniards. Mr. Joseph Earle Stevens, already referred to, who

represented the only American firm in the city of Manila, under Spanish

rule (which finally had to turn its business over to the English and

leave the island a few years since), informs us that he and three others

were the only representatives of the United States in Manila as late as

1893.

The city is built on a beautiful bay from twenty-five to thirty miles

across, and on both shores of the Pasig River. On the right bank of the

river, going up from the bay, is the old walled town, and around the

walls are the weedy, moats or ditches. The heavy guns and frowning

cannon from the walls suggest a troubled past. This old city is built in

triangular form, about a mile on each side, and is regarded as very

unhealthful, for the walls both keep out the breeze and keep in the foul

air and odors. The principal buildings in the old part of the city are

the cathedral, many parish churches, a few schoolhouses, and the

official buildings. The population in the walled city is given at

20,000. Up to a few years ago, no foreigner was permitted to sleep

within its walls on account of the Spaniards' fear of a conspiracy. A

bridge across the Pasig connects old Manila with the new or unwalled

city, where nearly all of the business is done and the native and

foreign residents live.

[Illustration: BRIDGE OVER THE PASIG RIVER.

This bridge connects the old walled city on one side of the river with

the new unwalled city on the other. Sea-going vessels ascend the river

up to the bridge.]

EARTHQUAKES AND TYPHOONS.

[Illustration: THE SHIPYARDS AND ARSENAL AT CAVITE.

Cavite is a city of about 5000 inhabitants, ten miles from Manila. The

Spanish arsenal and the only shipyards in the colony are located here.

It is the chief naval station of the islands, and has always been

considered the key to Manila from the sea. It was seized by the

insurgents in 1872, and again in 1896, and it was its forts that so

harassed Dewey with their bombardment, and it was one of the first

places occupied by the Americans after the fall of Manila.]

It does not take one long to exhaust the sights of Manila, if the

people, who are always interesting, are excepted. Aside from the

cathedral and a few of the churches, the buildings of the city are

anything but imposing. In fact, there is little encouragement to

construct fine edifices because of the danger from earthquakes and

typhoons. It is said that not a year passes without a number of slight

earthquake shocks, and very serious ones have occurred. In 1645

nearly all of the public buildings were wrecked and 600 persons killed.

A very destructive earthquake was that of 1863, when 400 people were

killed, 2,000 wounded, and 46 public buildings and 1,100 private houses

were badly injured or completely destroyed. In 1874 earthquakes were

again very numerous throughout the islands, shocks being felt at

intervals in certain sections for several weeks. But the most violent

convulsion of modern times occurred in 1880 when even greater

destruction than in 1863 visited Manila and other towns of Luzon.

Consequently there are very few buildings to be found more than two

stories high; and the heavy tile roofs formerly in use have, for the

most part, been replaced by lighter coverings of galvanized iron.

[Illustration: RAISING THE FLAG ON FORT SAN ANTONIO DE ABAD, MALATE.

This old fort was silenced by Dewey's guns August 13, 1898, with the

assistance of land forces under General Anderson. The Astor Battery on

shore under Captain March supported General McArthur's forces on the

right wing. It was the California and Colorado Volunteer Regiments, with

the Eighteenth Regulars, who finally drove out the Spaniards and

occupied the position where the Californians at once raised the Stars

and Stripes. The marks of Dewey's shells are seen on the side of the

fort.]

These light roofs, however, are in constant danger of being stripped off

by the typhoons, terrible storms which come with a twisting motion as if

rising from the earth or the sea, fairly pulling everything detachable

after them. Masts of ships and roofs of houses are frequently carried by

these hurricanes miles distant. The better to resist the typhoons, most

of the light native houses are built on bamboo poles, which allow the

wind to pass freely under them, and sway and bend in the storm like a

tree; whereas, if they were set solidly on the earth, they would be

lifted up bodily and carried away. Glass windows being too frail to

resist the shaking of the earthquakes and the typhoons, small,

translucent oyster shells are used instead. The light thus admitted

resembles that passing through ground-glass, or, rather, stained glass,

for the coloring in the shells imparts a mellow tinted radiance like the

windows of a cathedral.

[Illustration: A POPULAR STREET CONVEYANCE.

As elsewhere, carriages and street cars are used in Manila, but there

are hundreds of the above "native cabs," for carrying single persons

short distances, and they are liberally patronized.]

MANILA AS A BUSINESS CENTER.

The streets of Manila are wretchedly paved or not paved at all, and as

late as 1893 were lighted by kerosene lamps or by wicks suspended in

dishes of cocoanut oil. Lately an electric plant has been introduced,

and parts of the city are lighted in this manner. There are two lines of

street cars in Manila. The motive power for a car is a single small

pony, and foreigners marvel to see one of those little animals drawing

thirty-odd people.

The retail trade and petty banking of Manila is almost entirely in the

hands of the half-castes and Chinese, and many of them have grown

immensely wealthy. There are only about three hundred Europeans in

business in the whole Philippine group, and they conduct the bulk of the

importing and exporting trade. Manila contains a number of large cigar

and cigarette factories, one of which employs 10,000 hands. There is

also a sugar refinery, a steam rice mill, and a rope factory worked

partly by men and partly by oxen, a Spanish brewery and a German cement

factory, a Swiss umbrella factory and a Swiss hat factory. The single

cotton mill, in which $200,000 of English capital is invested, runs

6,000 spindles.

The statistics of 1897 show that the whole trade of Manila comprised

only forty-five Spanish, nineteen German, and seventeen English firms,

with six Swiss brokers and two French storekeepers having large

establishments. One of the most profitable businesses is said to be that

of selling cheap jewelry to the natives. Breastpins which dealers buy in

Europe for twelve cents each are readily sold for from $1.50 to $2.00

each to the simple Filipinos. Almost everything that is manufactured

abroad has a fine prospective market in the Philippines, when the

condition of the people permits them to buy.

A certain charm attaches to many specimens of native handiwork. The

women weave exquisitely beautiful fabrics from the fiber of plants. The

floors of Manila houses are admired by all foreigners. They are made of

hard wood and polished with banana leaves and greasy cloths until they

shine brightly and give an aspect of cool airiness to the room.

[Illustration: A WEDDING PROCESSION.

As in Asiatic countries, weddings in the Philippines are occasions of

great ceremony. No marriage would be considered "in style" without a

gorgeous procession.]

Any kind of amusement is popular with the Filipinos--with so much

leisure on their hands--provided it does not require too great exertion

on their part. They are fond of the theatre, and, up to a few years ago,

bullfighting was a favorite pastime; but the most prominent of modern

amusements for the natives and half-castes is cockfighting. It is said

that every native has his fighting cock, which is reared and trained

with the greatest care until he shows sufficient skill to entitle him to

an entrance into the public cockpit where he will fight for a prize. The

chickens occupy the family residence, roosting overhead; and, in case of

fire, it is said that the game "rooster" is saved before the babies.

Professor Worcester tells an amusing story of the annoyance of the

crowing cocks above his head in the morning and the devices and tricks

he and his companions employed to quiet them. The Manila lottery is

another institution which intensely excites the sluggish native, and

takes from him the money which he does not lose on the cockfights. Under

the United States Government this lottery will, no doubt, be abolished

in time. It formerly belonged to the Spanish Government, and Spain

derived an annual profit of half a million dollars from it.

GENERAL COMMERCE OF THE PHILIPPINES.

It is hardly necessary, so far as the commercial world is concerned, to

mention any other locality outside of the city of Manila. To commerce,

this city (whose total imports in 1897 were only $10,000,000 and its

exports $20,000,000) is the Philippine Islands. Its present meagre

foreign trade represents only an average purchase of about one dollar

per inhabitant, and an average sale of two dollars per inhabitant for

the largest archipelago in the world, and one of the richest in soil and

natural resources. The bulk of these exports were hemp, sugar, and

tobacco; and, strange as it may seem, the United States received 41 per

cent. of her hemp and 55 per cent. of her sugar for the year 1897,

notwithstanding the fact that we had not one commercial firm doing

business in that whole vast domain.

The city of Iloilo is on the southern coast of the fertile island of

Panay, and, next to Manila, the chief port of the Philippines. It has an

excellent harbor, and the surrounding country is very productive, having

extensive plantations of sugar, rice, and tobacco. The population of

Iloilo is only 12,000, but there are a few larger towns in the district,

of which it is the seaport. Though the city at spring tides is covered

with water, it is said to be a very healthful place, and much cooler

than Manila.

The other open port, Cebu, on the eastern coast of the island of the

same name, is a well-built town, and has a population of about 13,000.

From this point the bulk of the hemp for export comes.

GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE ISLANDS.

It is impossible to speak of the other islands in detail. Seven of the

group average larger than the State of New Jersey; Luzon is as extensive

as Ohio, Mindanao equals Indiana; and, as we have stated before, about

four hundred of them are inhabitable, and, like Java, Borneo, and the

Spice Islands, all are rich in natural resources. They are of a volcanic

origin, and may be described in general as rugged and mountainous. The

coasts of most of the islands are deeply indented by the sea, and the

larger ones are well watered by streams, the mouths of which afford good

harbors. Many of the mountainous parts abound in minerals. Mr. Karuph,

President of the Philippine Mineral Syndicate, in May, 1898, addressed a

letter to Hon. John Hay, at that time our ambassador to England, in

which he declares that the Philippines will soon come prominently

forward as a new center of the world's gold production. "There is not a

brook," says Mr. Karuph, "that finds its way into the Pacific Ocean

whose sands and gravel do not pan the color of gold. Many valuable

deposits are close to deep water. I know of no other part of the world,

the Alaskan Treadwell mines alone excepted, where pay ore is found

within a few hundred yards of the anchorage of sea-going vessels." In

addition to gold, iron, copper, lead, sulphur, and other minerals are

found, and are believed to exist in paying quantities. The numerous

mineral springs attest their presence in almost every part of the

principal islands.

[Illustration: DRYING SUGAR.

Large pans containing the sugar are set in the sun to evaporate the

moisture. No refining or clarifying machinery has been introduced into

the Philippine Islands.]

FORESTS AND TIMBER.

The forest products of the islands are perhaps of greater value than

their mineral resources. Timber not only exists in almost exhaustless

quantity, but--considering the whole group, which extends nearly a

thousand miles from north to south--in unprecedented diversity,

embracing sixty varieties of the most valuable woods, several of which

are so hard that they cannot be cut with ordinary saws, some so heavy

that they sink in water, and two or three so durable as to afford ground

for the claim that they outlast iron and steel when placed in the

ground or under water. Several of these woods are unknown elsewhere,

and, altogether, they are admirably suited for various decorative

purposes and for the manufacture of fine implements and furniture.

[Illustration: THE STRANGE WAGONS OF ALBAY.

The eighty-odd different tribes who inhabit the Philippines have varying

dialects, manners, and customs. The peculiar house-roofed wagons, shown

in the above illustration, are found in only one locality.]

Here also are pepper, cinnamon, wax, and gums of various sorts, cloves,

tea, and vanilla, while all tropical fruits, such as cocoanuts, bananas,

lemons, limes, oranges of several varieties, pineapples, citrons,

bread-fruits, custard apples, pawpaws, and mangroves nourish, and most

of them grow wild, though, of course, they are not equal to the

cultivated fruit. There are fifty-odd varieties of the banana in the

archipelago, from the midget, which makes but a single mouthful, to the

huge fruit eighteen inches long. There seems to be no limit to which

tropical fruits and farm products can be cultivated.

The animal and bird life of the Philippines offer a field of interesting

research to naturalists. There are no important carnivorous animals. A

small wild-cat and two species of civet-cats constitute about all that

belong to that class. The house-cats of the Philippines have curious

fish-hook crooks in the ends of their tails. There are several species

of deer in the archipelago. Hogs run wild in large numbers. The large

water buffalo (_carabao_) has been domesticated and is the chief beast

of burden with the natives. The _timarau_ is another small species of

buffalo, very wild and entirely untamable; and, though numerous in

certain places, is hard to find, and when brought to bay dies fighting.

Birds abound in all of the islands; nearly six hundred species have been

found, over fifty of which exist nowhere else in the world. One of these

species builds a nest which is highly prized by Chinese epicures as an

article of diet. Prof. Worcester tells us "the best quality of them

sometimes bring more than their weight in gold." Crocodiles are numerous

in fresh-water lakes and streams, attaining enormous size, and in

certain places causing much loss of life among stock and men as well.

Snakes also abound, and some of them are very venomous. Cobras are found

in the southern islands. Pythons are numerous, some of the smaller sizes

being sold in the towns and kept in houses to catch rats, at which they

are said to be more expert than house-cats.

All the domestic animals, aside from the _carabao_, have been introduced

from abroad. Cattle are extensively raised, and in some of the islands

run wild. The horses are a small Spanish breed, but are very strong and

have great endurance. Large European horses do not stand the climate

well.

CLIMATE, VOLCANOES, ETC.

The mean annual temperature of Manila is 80 deg. F. The thermometer seldom

rises above 100 deg. or falls below 60 deg. anywhere in the archipelago.

There is no month in the year during which it does not rise as high as 91

deg. January and December are the coldest months, the average temperature

being 70 deg. to 73 deg.. May is the warmest, the average being 84 deg.

April is the next warmest, with an average of 83 deg.; but the weather

is generally very moist and humid, which makes the heat more trying. The

three winter months have cool nights. Malaria is prevalent, but

contagious diseases are comparatively few. Yellow fever and cholera are

seldom heard of.

The Philippines are the home of many volcanoes, a number of them still

active. Mayon, in the island of Luzon, is one of the most remarkable

volcanic mountains on the globe. It is a perfect cone, rising to the

height of 8,900 feet, and is in constant activity; its latest

destructive eruption took place in 1888. Apo, in the island of Mindanao,

10,312 feet high, is the largest of the Philippine volcanoes. Next is

Canloon in Negros, which rises 8,192 feet above the sea. Taal is in a

lake, with a height of 900 feet, and is noteworthy as being the lowest

volcano in the world. To those not accustomed to volcanoes, these great

fire-spouting mountains, which are but prominent representatives of many

lesser ones in the islands, seem to be an ever-present danger to the

inhabitants; but the natives and those who live there manifest little or

no fear of them. In fact, they rather pride themselves in their

possession of such terrifying neighbors.

Such is an outline view of the Philippine Archipelago of the present

day. A new era has opened up in the history of that wonderful land with

its liberation from the Spanish yoke. The dense ignorance and

semi-savage barbarities which exist there must not be expected to yield

too rapidly to the touch of human kindness and brotherly love with which

the Christian world will now visit those semi-civilized and untamed

children of nature. Nevertheless, western civilization and western

progress will undoubtedly work mighty changes in the lives of those

people, in the development of that country, during the first quarter of

the twentieth century, which ushers in the dawn of its freedom.

THE BATTLE OF MANILA.

In all the annals of naval warfare there is no engagement, terminating

in so signal a victory with so little damage to the victors, as that

which made the name of George Dewey immortal on the memorable Sunday

morning of May 1, 1898, in Manila Bay. The world knows the story of that

battle, for it has been told hundreds of times in the thousands of

newspapers and magazines and scores of books throughout the civilized

world. But few, perhaps, who peruse these pages have read the simple

details of the fight as narrated by that most modest of men, Admiral

Dewey himself. We cannot better close this chapter on the Philippines

than by inserting Admiral Dewey's official report of the battle which

wrested the Filipinos from Spanish tyranny and placed nearly ten

millions of oppressed people under the protecting care of the United

States.

[Illustration: YOUNG MAN OF THE UPPER CLASS.

White duck or crash trousers and a silk or pina shirt make a fashionable

suit.]

[Illustration: AGUINALDO AT THE AGE OF 22.

Dressed in fine pina cloth shirt.]

[Illustration: DOING THE FAMILY WASH.

The glory of all Philippine women is their long and beautiful hair.]

[Illustration: NATIVE WOMAN FRUIT SELLER.

And customers, Manila.]

ADMIRAL DEWEY'S STORY OF MANILA.

"UNITED STATES FLAGSHIP OLYMPIA, CAVITE, May 4, 1898.

"The squadron left Mirs Bay on April 27th, arrived off Bolinao on the

morning of April 30th, and, finding no vessels there, proceeded down

the coast and arrived off the entrance to Manila Bay on the same

afternoon. The Boston and the Concord were sent to reconnoitre Port

Subic. A thorough search was made of the port by the Boston and the

Concord, but the Spanish fleet was not found. Entered the south

channel at 11:30 P.M., steaming in column at eight knots. After half

the squadron had passed, a battery on the south side of the channel

opened fire, none of the shots taking effect. The Boston and

McCulloch returned the fire. The squadron proceeded across the bay at

slow speed and arrived off Manila at daybreak, and was fired upon at

5:15 A.M. by three batteries at Manila and two near Cavite, and by

the Spanish fleet anchored in an approximately east and west line

across the mouth of Bakor Bay, with their left in shoal water in

Canacao Bay.

"The squadron then proceeded to the attack, the flagship Olympia,

under my personal direction, leading, followed at a distance by the

Baltimore, Raleigh, Petrel, Concord, and Boston in the order named,

which formation was maintained throughout the action. The squadron

opened fire at 5:41 A.M. While advancing to the attack two mines were

exploded ahead of the flagship, too far to be effective. The squadron

maintained a continuous and precise fire at ranges varying from 5,000

to 2,000 yards, countermarching in a line approximately parallel to

that of the Spanish fleet. The enemy's fire was vigorous, but

generally ineffective. Early in the engagement two launches put out

toward the Olympia with the apparent intention of using torpedoes.

One was sunk and the other disabled by our fire and beached before

they were able to fire their torpedoes.

"At seven A.M. the Spanish flagship Reina Cristina made a desperate

attempt to leave the line and come out to engage at short range, but

was received with such a galling fire, the entire battery of the

Olympia being concentrated upon her, that she was barely able to

return to the shelter of the point. The fires started in her by our

shells at the time were not extinguished until she sank. The three

batteries at Manila had kept up a continuous fire from the beginning

of the engagement, which fire was not returned by my squadron. The

first of these batteries was situated on the south mole-head at the

entrance of the Pasig River, the second on the south position of the

walled city of Manila, and the third at Molate, about one-half mile

further south. At this point I sent a message to the Governor-General

to the effect that if the batteries did not cease firing the city

would be shelled. This had the effect of silencing them.

"At 7:35 A.M. I ceased firing and withdrew the squadron for

breakfast. At 11:16 I returned to the attack. By this time the

Spanish flagship and almost all the Spanish fleet were in flames. At

12:30 the squadron ceased firing, the batteries being silenced and

the ships sunk, burned, and deserted.

"At 12:40 the squadron returned and anchored off Manila, the Petrel

being left behind to complete the destruction of the smaller

gunboats, which were behind the point of Cavite. This duty was

performed by Commander E.P. Wood in the most expeditious and complete

manner possible. The Spanish lost the following vessels: Sunk, Reina

Cristina, Castilla, Don Antonio de Ulloa; burned, Don Juan de

Austria, Isla de Luzon, Isla de Cuba, General Lezo, Marquia del

Duero, El Correo, Velasco, and Isla de Mindanao (transport);

captured, Rapido and Hercules (tugs), and several small launches.

"I am unable to obtain complete accounts of the enemy's killed and

wounded, but believe their losses to be very heavy. The Reina

Cristina alone had 150 killed, including the captain, and ninety

wounded. I am happy to report that the damage done to the squadron

under my command was inconsiderable. There were none killed and only

seven men in the squadron were slightly wounded. Several of the

vessels were struck and even penetrated, but the damage was of the

slightest, and the squadron is in as good condition now as before the

battle.

"I beg to state to the department that I doubt if any

commander-in-chief was ever served by more loyal, efficient, and

gallant-captains than those of the squadron now under my command.

Captain Frank Wildes, commanding the Boston, volunteered to remain in

command of his vessel, although his relief arrived before leaving

Hong Kong. Assistant Surgeon Kindelberger, of the Olympia, and Gunner

J.C. Evans, of the Boston, also volunteered to remain, after orders

detaching them had arrived. The conduct of my personal staff was

excellent. Commander B.P. Lamberton, chief of staff, was a volunteer

for that position, and gave me most efficient aid. Lieutenant Brumby,

Flag Lieutenant, and Ensign E.P. Scott, aide, performed their duties

as signal officers in a highly creditable manner; Caldwell, Flag

Secretary, volunteered for and was assigned to a subdivision of the

five-inch battery. Mr. J.L. Stickney, formerly an officer in the

United States Navy, and now correspondent for the New York _Herald_,

volunteered for duty as my aide, and rendered valuable service. I

desire especially to mention the coolness of Lieutenant C.G. Calkins,

the navigator of the Olympia, who came under my personal observation,

being on the bridge with me throughout the entire action, and giving

the ranges to the guns with an accuracy that was proven by the

excellence of the firing.

"On May 2d, the day following the engagement, the squadron again went

to Cavite, where it remains. On the 3d the military forces evacuated

the Cavite arsenal, which was taken possession of by a landing party.

On the same day the Raleigh and the Baltimore secured the surrender

of the batteries on Corregidor Island, paroling the garrison and

destroying the guns. On the morning of May 4th, the transport Manila,

which had been aground in Bakor Bay, was towed off and made a prize."

[Illustration: THE MOUTH OF THE PASIG RIVER.

The city of Old Manila is surrounded by water. On the west is the sea,

to the north is the Pasig River, while moats, connected with the river

by sluices, flank the other two sides. All the principal warehouses of

the city are on the Pasig, and ships deliver and receive their cargoes

direct, without the necessity of cartage.]

OUR NEW POSSESSIONS (CONTINUED).

THE LADRONE, OR MARIANA ISLANDS.

It was a welcome sight to Magellan and his crew when, one day in March,

nearly 400 years ago, they beheld the verdant and beautifully sloping

hills of the Ladrone Islands. Eighteen weary months before they had

sailed from the coast of Spain, and all that time, first to the

southwest and then to the northwest, they had followed the setting sun.

Theirs were the first vessels manned by white men that had ever plowed

the trackless Pacific; and this was the first land ever seen by white

men within that unknown ocean.

It was a pitiable crew on those three small, weather-beaten ships, who

drew, that March morning, toward the coast of the present island of

Guam, which is now a possession of the United States. Hunger and thirst

had driven them to the verge of madness. They had eaten even the leather

thongs from their sail fastenings, and only a small mug of water per day

was the portion of drink for a man. "Land! Land!!" It was a glad cry

from the watch aloft. There were palm trees, cocoanuts, green grass,

tropical fruits, an abundance of fresh water, and--though naked--a

curious and friendly people. No wonder Magellan paused to rest himself

and his sailors.

Those little islands have never been of much value, and never can be.

Seventeen of them stretching in a row about six hundred miles from north

to south, and their total area, including their islets and reefs, is

variously estimated at from 400 to 560 square miles. Hence, there is but

about one-fourth more territory on the whole seventeen islands combined

than is included within the corporate limits of the city of Greater New

York.

A broad channel divides the Ladrones into two groups. The northern group

consists of ten islets, without inhabitants; the southern group has

seven islands, four of which are inhabited. The largest island,

_Guahan_, known to us as _Guam_, ceded to us by Spain, was taken by our

warship Charleston on July 4, 1898. This island contains the only town

in the colony. Its full Spanish name is _San Ignacio de Agana_. It is

the capital of the archipelago, and contains more than half of the whole

population.

THE NATIVE INHABITANTS.

When first visited by Europeans, the archipelago contained from 40,000

to 60,000 souls, represented by two distinct classes, the nobles and the

people, between whom marriage, and even contact, were forbidden. But the

Spanish conquest soon ended this distinction by reducing all alike to

servitude. For a long time after Spanish occupation, the natives

complained and finally rebelled against the oppressive measures of their

rulers; but by the end of the seventeenth century they ceased their

resistance, and it was found by a census that fully half of them had

perished or escaped in their canoes to the Caroline Islands, and that

two-thirds of their one hundred and eighty villages had fallen to ruins.

Then came an epidemic which swept away nearly all the natives of Guam;

and the island of Tinian (one of the group) was depopulated and its

inhabitants brought to Guam.

[Illustration: NATIVE HOUSE AND PALMS, LADRONE ISLANDS.]

Nearly all the new arrivals soon died. In the year 1760, a census showed

a total of only 1,654 inhabitants left in all the islands, and the

Spaniards repopulated them by bringing Tagals from the Philippines.

These, mixed with the remaining natives and Spaniards, have steadily

increased. The population of the islands in 1899 was estimated at about

9,000. The people are generally lacking in energy, loose in morals, and

miserably poor. Their education has been seriously neglected. Their

religion is Catholic, no Protestant missions having been encouraged--we

might say, not allowed--there or in the Philippines or the Carolines.

TOPOGRAPHY, CLIMATE, ETC.

The islands of the northern group are mountainous, the altitudes

reaching from 2,600 to 2,700 feet. There are evidences of volcanoes all

over the archipelago, and some mountains contain small craters and cones

not yet extinct. The climate of the Ladrones, though humid, is

salubrious, and the heat, being tempered by the trade winds, is milder

than in the Philippines. The yearly average temperature of Guam is 81 deg.

Streams are everywhere copious--though the clearing of the land has

diminished their size of late years. The original flora consists

generally of Asiatic plants, but much has been introduced from the

Philippines and other sources.

Cocoanuts, palms, the bread tree, and tropical trees and plants

generally, thrive. The large fruit bat which abounds in the Philippines

is indigenous to the Ladrones, and, despite its objectionable odor, is a

principal article of food. Swine and oxen are allowed to run wild, and

are hunted when needed. There are only a few species of birds; even

insects are rare; and the reptiles are represented by several kinds of

lizards and a single species of serpent. No domestic animals were known

in the islands until introduced by the Spaniards.

When the United States steamship Charleston opened fire on the little

city of Agana, July 4, 1898, the people had not heard of the war, and

the governor said he thought "the noble Americans were saluting" him,

and was "deeply humiliated because he had no powder to return their

salute." It was an easy, bloodless victory. The governor and his

soldiers were carried to Manila as prisoners, and an American garrison

of a few men left to take charge of this new American territory in the

Pacific.

CONCLUSION.

Thus at the close of the nineteenth century, the Greater United States

assumes its appointed place among the foremost nations of the world, and

stands on the threshold of achievements whose grandeur no man dare

attempt to prophesy. We pause, awed, grateful, and profoundly impressed,

when we recall the mighty events, the amazing progress, and the

wonderful advancements in discovery, science, art, literature, and all

that tends to the good of mankind that are certain to give the twentieth

century a pre-eminence above all the years that have gone before.

The new era of our country has opened. The United States enters on the

first stage of the transformation from an isolated commonwealth into an

outreaching power with dependencies in both hemispheres. We can no

longer hold an attitude of aloofness from the rest of the world. With

vulnerable points in our outlying possessions, we must make ready to

defend them not only by force of arms but by diplomatic skill.

Entangling alliances as heretofore will be avoided, and the conditions,

complications, and policies of foreign powers must in the future possess

a practical importance for us.

The original thirteen States have expanded into forty-five, embracing

the vast area between the two oceans and extending from the British

possessions to the Gulf of Mexico. To them has now been added our

colonial territory, so vast in extent that, like the British Empire, the

sun never sets on our dominions. Where a hundred years ago were only a

few scattered villages and towns, imperial cities now raise their heads.

Thousands of square miles of forest and solitude have given place to

cultivated farms, to factories, and workshops that hum with the wheels

of industry. The Patent Office issues 40,000 patents each year. We have

three cities with more than a million population apiece, and twenty-five

with a population ranging from a hundred thousand to half a million.

Greater New York is the second city in the world, and, if its present

rate of growth continues, it will surpass London before the middle of

the coming century. Our population has grown from 3,000,000 at the close

of the Revolution to 75,000,000. When Andrew Jackson became President

there was not a mile of railroad in the United States. To-day our

mileage exceeds that of all the countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa

combined, and the employes, connected directly or indirectly with

railroads in the United States, number almost a million persons. The

half-dozen crude newspapers of the Revolution have expanded into more

than 20,000, whose daily news is gathered from every quarter of the

globe. The total yearly issue is more than three billions.

No country can approach the advancements we have made in invention, in

discovery, in science, in art, in education and in all the civilizing

agencies of mankind. Volumes would be required to name our achievements

in these lines. Our material property has been or is equally wonderful.

When the Civil War closed, our public debt was nearly $3,000,000,000. On

December 1, 1898, it was $1,036,000,000. Most of the leading nations

have great debts, but the United States is the only one which is

steadily decreasing its debt and at the same time enormously increasing

its resources. The debt of Great Britain is now about $87 per capita,

that of France $115, of Holland $100, of Italy $75, and of the United

States less than $15, with the security increasing all the time.

Let the thoughtful reader note these striking facts. European nations

generally, and some South American nations also, have been compelled to

resort to various methods of taxation to supply the sums needed for

ordinary governmental expenses, to meet the interest on the existing

debt, to provide resources for new expenditures, buildings, armament,

subsidies, and various public works. England has an income tax and many

stamp taxes, a house tax, and collects some 20 per cent. of its revenue

from direct taxation. France has a tobacco monopoly, registration taxes,

stamp taxes, tax on windows, and innumerable local taxes, one being the

octroi, or tax on goods entering cities. In addition to an income tax,

and many stamp taxes, Austria derives a good deal of its public revenue

from lotteries. Italy goes still further with her tobacco monopoly,

house tax, income tax, salt tax, octroi duties, stamp taxes, and heavy

legacy and registration taxes. In the United States, however, the public

revenues have been provided for and all public expenses met, and the

national debt reduced beside, without recourse to any direct taxation.

We have no government monopolies, and the Treasury maintains a healthful

condition from the receipts of customs and internal revenue payments.

Thus with the spirit of fraternity between all sections of the Union

stronger than ever before, with the spirit of patriotism more deeply

imbedded and all-pervading, with our moral, educational, and material

prosperity and progress greater than any time in our past history, and

never equaled by any nation, since the annals of mankind began--we face

the future, bravely resolved to meet all requirements, responsibilities,

and duties as become men whose motto is

IN GOD IS OUR TRUST.

_The End._