IN THE CHURCH OF OUR LADY OF VICTORY.--PIGAFETTA.
The Victoria cast anchor in the Port of Seville on September 8, 1522.
Joy filled the city on that day, and heralds went forth to proclaim the
news.
What news it was!
That Magellan had found a new way to the Pacific.
That he had discovered the Pacific to be a mighty ocean.
That he had sailed over it and found a new ocean world.
That he was dead.
That he had made immortal discoveries, and that one of his ships had
sailed around the world.
The hero of the day was Del Cano, the commander of the Victoria.
There was a most beautiful church in Seville, called Our Lady of
Victory. To that the returning mariners were summoned to give thanks for
their discovery on the day after their arrival, September 9, 1522.
Bells rang out on the shining air. The remnant of the happy crews
entered the church amid the joyous music to hear the songs of
thanksgiving for victory:
"We praise thee, O God!
We believe thee to be
The Father everlasting!"
They had returned in the Victoria, and the service had to them a special
significance in the church of that name.
Mesquita must have heard the acclaiming city.
To the prisoner who had waited in hope, the trumpets of the heralds must
have been sweet after his release! Juana, the demented Queen, was yet
watching by the tomb in view of her window, hoping at each dawn of the
morning that she would find that the dust had awakened to life again.
Charles was mapping Europe; his fire of ambition was glowing, and the
news of the new fields of the ocean that these discoveries had brought
to him filled him with pride and exultation.
He resolved on giving Del Cano and his mariners a splendid reception,
after the manner that Isabella had received Columbus.
Del Cano was now the living representative of Magellan. In publicly
receiving him with heralds, music, and festival he would do honor to
Magellan, whose name was now immortal. So Charles spread his tables of
silver and gold to those who had lived on the open sea on scraps of
leather, and magnanimously welcomed as knights of the sea those who had
followed the sun around the world.
Spain opened the prison doors of Mesquita.
How must Del Cano have welcomed Mesquita as he came forth from his
prison, vindicated on these festal days!
Mesquita was a hero now, and a hero among heroes, for he had been a
martyr to the cause. The people's hearts overflowed toward him.
So the islands of the new ocean world came to be the possessions of
Spain, and from Philip, who succeeded Charles, were called the
Philippines. They were to be governed, robbed, taxed, and, in part,
reduced to slavery for the enrichment of Spain for nearly four hundred
years. Then Spain was to vanish from their history in the smoke of
Admiral Dewey's guns, and over them was to float the flag of the
republic of the West.
It is a strange allotment of events that these islands should introduce
the republic of the West into the Asiatic world. A half century ago the
subject of Europe in Asia excited the attention of mankind, but no one
ever dreamed that a like topic of America in Asia would ever become one
of the political problems of the world.
[Illustration: Pigafetta presenting the history of the voyage to the
King of Spain.]
The future of these islands must be one of civilization, education,
and development, and we may hope that these will be brought about under
the divine law of American institutions, that "all governments derive
their just powers from the consent of the governed." Justice alone is
the true sword of power, perpetuity, and peace. To lead the natives of
these islands to desire to receive all that is best in civilized life,
is one of the great missions of the republic of the West; and that
republic, governed by the conscience of the people, will be true to the
cause of human rights.
* * * * *
Pigafetta? We must let him tell the story of his life on his return.
"Leaving Seville I repaired to Valladolid, where I presented his sacred
Majesty, Don Carlos, neither gold nor silver, but other things far more
precious in the eyes of so great a sovereign. For I brought to him,
among other things, a book written in my own hand, giving an account of
all the things which had happened day by day on the voyage.
"Then I went to Portugal, where I related to King John the things that I
had seen.
"Returning by the way of Spain, I came to France, where I presented
treasures that I had brought home to the regent mother of the most
Christian King Don Francis.
"Then I turned my face toward Italy, where I gave myself to the service
of the illustrious Philip de Villiers l'Isle Adams, the Grand Master of
Rhodes."
The scene of the presentation of the parchment story of Magellan to
Charles V is most interesting. That manuscript was like the return of
Magellan himself; it told what the hero of the sea had been and what he
had done. It was in itself a work of genius, and the world has never
ceased to read it in the spirit of sympathy in which it was written.
We may fancy the scene: the young King surrounded by his court, in his
happiest days; the Italian Knight amid the splendors of the audience
room, placing in the hands of the new Caesar the roll of the narrative of
the voyage around the world! Such a story no pen had ever traced before.
That must have been one of the proudest moments in the life of Charles
as he took from the Knight the map of the round world.
To the last Pigafetta was true to the Admiral; and one of the best
things that can be said of any man is, "He is true hearted."
A wooden statue of Del Cano was found at Cavite on the surrender of that
port to Commodore Dewey. It was sent to Washington. It should be
replaced by some worthy work of art.
The island of Guam, of the Ladrones, which broke the long voyage of
Magellan over the Pacific, and which is some fifteen hundred miles from
Luzon, was captured by Captain Glass, of the United States cruiser
Charleston, July 21, 1898. It is a connecting link between the West and
the Orient. A memorial of Magellan, Del Cano, and Pigafetta might be
suitably placed there.
* * * * *
The author of the Songs of the Sierras has described the spirit of
Columbus in a poem which has been highly commended. The interpretation
applies as well to Magellan. We quote two verses: genius must overcome
obstacles, and all obstacles, to be made divine.
THE PORT.
Behind him lay the gray Azores,
Behind, the gates of Hercules.
Before him not the ghosts of shores,
Before him only shoreless seas.
The good mate said: "Now must we pray,
For, lo! the very stars are gone.
Brave Admiral, speak--what shall I say?"
"Why say--Sail on, sail on, sail on!"
They sailed, they sailed. Then spoke the mate:
"This mad sea shows her teeth to-night;
She curls her lip and lies in wait
With lifted teeth as if to bite.
Brave Admiral, say but one good word,
What shall we do when hope is gone?"
The words leaped as a leaping sword--
"Sail on, sail on, sail on and on!"
SUPPLEMENTAL.
THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.--LAGASPI.--THE STRUGGLE OF THE NATIVES WITH
SPAIN.--STORY OF THE PATRIOT RIZAL.--AGUINALDO.
The Philippine Islands, which promise to become a republic of the seas,
and the first republic in Asiatic waters, were for generations held by
Spain. These one thousand and more sea gardens, some eleven thousand
miles from New York, number about as few islands of importance as there
are American States. The government of the more populous islands has
been so restrictive that, before the boom of Dewey's guns in the China
Sea, little was known about them to the world.
The archipelago consists of some six hundred islands that might find
marking on an ordinary map of the world.
Twenty-five of these have gained a commercial standing, from which are
collected products for foreign trade. The chief of these is Luzon, and
the principal ports of the larger islands are Iloilo, on the island of
Panay; Zebu and Zamboango.
Luzon and the northern islands are inhabited by a partly civilized
race, called the Tagals, who are supposed to be descended from
immigrants from the Malay peninsula. They have had the reputation of a
mild-mannered people, as they have long received, directly or
indirectly, European influences. There are two thousand one hundred
schools in Luzon and some six millions of the natives of the islands are
claimed as Catholics.
A sultanate was formed on the Sulu archipelago nearly eight hundred
years ago, and the Mohammedan populations are called Moros or Moors. The
Visayas people are a lower race. Colonies of Chinese are to be found in
many of the larger islands, and these constitute the centers of thrift
and industry.
The official language of the islands is Spanish, but the natives speak
in twenty or more dialects. The islands are supposed to contain about
ten million people, but there are no correct censuses by which to
compute the number. Even the islands themselves seem not to have been
correctly counted.
The history of the islands since their discovery has been one of the
most silent in the world. They have been governed by Spain in such a
manner as to enrich the Crown of Spain. When the Pope apportioned the
newly discovered world among the Kings of the Church, the Western
Hemisphere was given to Spain, and by an error of division Spain
received the Moluccas or Spice Islands. Magellan declared the King of
Spain suzerain of the islands, and after many years Spain sent an
expedition from one of her colonies to Zebu to begin the occupation of
the Spicery. The leader of this expedition, Miguel de Legaspi, caused
his men to marry native women, hoping thereby more easily to subdue a
wild and untrained race.
In 1571 this colonizer brought Manila under his influence, and induced
the native King to accept the suzerainty of the Spanish King. He
proclaimed Manila the seat of Government, and made it an episcopal city.
Legaspi came to learn a very strange thing. It was that the Chinese had
made themselves masters of navigation _by monsoons_. They came down from
their coasts to Manila Bay on northwest monsoons, and when the monsoons
changed they were carried back again. This power was akin to steam.
Their boats were junks, but they filled the marts of Manila with silks
and other Oriental luxuries.
Legaspi encouraged this trade. He was the founder of trade in the ports
of the China Sea. He caused a market place to be built for the Chinese
traders in Manila, in the form of a circus, and afterward opened a
quarter for them within the walls. The Chinese still hold a large part
of the retail trade of the port. Before the late Spanish war, they
numbered about sixty thousand, and one hundred thousand in the port and
provinces.
The monks came and sought to convert the people; their efforts were
partly successful, but sometimes ended in tragedies.
The trade between Spain and the Philippines was for a long time carried
on by the way of Mexico. The intercourse between the Crown and her
dependencies here was infrequent. The Mohammedans waged frequent wars
against the Catholic missionaries, whom they sought to exterminate.
The friars became the real rulers of the civilized parts of the islands.
The will of the Spanish priest was absolute. He was independent of State
authority. The rule of the Church was so severe that it brought religion
into disfavor, and when the power of Aguinaldo arose, that chief
insisted upon the expulsion of certain monastic orders, as detrimental
to liberty, and demanded the restoration of the estates of the Church to
the people.
Such is, in brief, the simple history of the islands discovered by
Magellan before the archipelago was ceded by the treaty of Paris to the
United States.
MANILA.
Beautiful Manila, shining over the China Sea--so seductive to the white
man when seen from a distance, so withering to all his energies when the
same white man becomes a resident there!
A two days' voyage from Hong Kong brings the traveler to Luzon to the
river Pasig, where the grim old fortresses of Manila, earthquake rent,
like a haze of green vegetation, break the view. Palms lift their green
cool shadows in the burning air.
Manila is a walled city. The entrance is by drawbridges, which are
raised at night.
The mediaeval atmosphere does not disappear when one finds one's self
within the walls. Exhaustion and decay are everywhere. The large open
bay lies in the splendors of the sunlight when the day is calm, and the
visitor would never dream of its turbulent condition when it is lashed
by the typhoon.
[Illustration: Admiral Dewey.]
Across the bay stands Cavite, the naval station, the scene of Dewey's
victory over the Spanish fleet.
The city has some two hundred and seventy thousand inhabitants. The
merchants, as we have said, are largely Chinese, and their quarters are
picturesque with gay bazaars.
In the shadow land of trees and open dry marshes outside of the city are
beautiful estates, and along the roadsides people go waving their fans
slowly and listlessly. Here are the parks, the bull ring, and the lovely
botanical gardens.
Commercial Manila is a city of coolies, who bare their backs to the
sun, though little work can be done here in the noonday heat.
[Illustration: PHILIPPINE ISLANDS]
Some years ago a terrible cold came to Manila. It was on a late December
night, near morning. The thermometer went down to 74 deg. Think of that,
and of the poor coolies, and of the negritos, or the little black
dwarfs, and of those who lived in the thousands of huts of bamboo or
reeds! True, 74 deg. would indicate a hot day in our American June or July,
but in Manila it was a cold morning, and the people came shivering into
the streets, to tell each other of their sufferings.
The best description of Manila before the war that we have seen was
written by Crozet, and is contained in an English translated book
entitled Crozet's Voyage to Tasmania, New Zealand, the Ladrone Islands,
and the Philippines. From this beautifully illustrated work we present a
view of the city and the surrounding island as it appeared seven years
or more ago:
"The city of Manila is one of the most beautiful that Europeans have
built in the East Indies; its houses are all of stone, with tile roofs
and they are big, comfortable and well ventilated. The streets of Manila
are broad and perfectly straight; there are five principal streets,
which divide the city lengthwise, and about ten which divide it
broadways. The form of the city is that of an oblong, surrounded by
walls and ditches, and defended on the side of the river by a badly
planned citadel, which is about to be pulled down and rebuilt. The city
walls are flanked by a bastion at every one of the four angles. There
are at Manila eight principal churches, with an open place in front of
every one; they are all beautiful, large and very richly decorated. The
Cathedral is a building which would grace any of our European cities,
and has just been rebuilt by an Italian Theatin,[A] who is an able
architect. The two rows of columns which support the vaults of the nave
and of the aisles are of magnificent marble; so also are the columns of
the portal, the altars, the steps, and the pavement. These marbles are
obtained from local quarries, are of great variety, and are of the
greatest beauty. The space in front of the Cathedral is very large, and
is the finest in the city.
[A] A regular order of clergy established at Rome in 1524, but which
does not appear to have spread much beyond Italy and France.
"On one side the palace of the Governor is flanked by the Cathedral, on
the other by the Town Hall. The Town Hall is very beautiful. At the
extremity of the place in front of the Cathedral a large barracks is
being constructed, which is to be capable of lodging eight thousand
troops.
"Private houses, as well as public buildings, are all one story high.
Spaniards never live on the ground floor, on account of the dampness,
but they occupy the first floor instead. The heat of the climate
has induced them to build very large apartments, with verandas running
right round the outside, so as to keep out of the sun; the windows form
part of the verandas, and the daylight only enters the rooms by means of
the doors which open out on to these verandas. The ground floor serves
as a storehouse, and to prevent the rising of moisture from the soil its
surface is raised a foot, by means of a bed of charcoal; then sand or
gravel is placed on top of this bed, which is finally paved with stone
or brick laid with mortar.
"As the country is very subject to earthquakes, the houses, although
built of stone, are strengthened with large posts of wood or iron fixed
perpendicularly in the ground, rising to the top of the wall-plates, and
built within the walls, so that they can not be seen, and then crossed
on every floor by master girders, strongly bound together and bolted by
wooden keys, which so consolidate the whole building.
"Manila is built on the mouth of a beautiful river, which flows from a
lake, called by the Spaniards _Lagonne-de-bay_, and which is situated
five leagues inland. Forty streams flow into this lake, which is twenty
leagues in circumference, and around which there are as many villages as
streams. The Manila River is the only one which flows out of the lake.
It is covered with boats, bringing to the city every sort of provision
from the forty agricultural tribes established on the lake shores.
"The suburbs are bigger and more thickly populated than the city itself;
they are separated from it by a river, across which a beautiful bridge
has been thrown. The Minondo suburb is more especially inhabited by
half-breeds, Chinese, and Indians, who are for the most part goldsmiths
and silversmiths, and all of them work people.
"The Saint Croix suburb is inhabited by Spanish merchants, by foreigners
of all nations, and by Chinese half-breeds. This quarter is the most
agreeable one in the country, because the houses, which are quite as
fine as those of the city, are built on the river bank, and thereby they
enjoy all the conveniences and pleasantness due to such a position.
"In spite of such advantages, the city is badly situated, being placed
between two intercommunicating volcanoes, and of which the interiors,
being always active, are evidently preparing its ruin. The two volcanoes
are those of the Lagonne-ed-Taal and of Monte Albay. When one burns, the
other smokes. I shall speak later on of the former of these volcanoes,
which, to me at least, appeared a most singular one.
[Illustration: Native Houses in Manila.]
"Until the shocks of the volcanoes shall decide its fate, Manila remains
the capital of the Spanish establishments in the Philippines. Here
reside the Governor, who is called the Captain General and President of
the Royal Audience. Don Simon de Auda filled this office when I arrived
at Manila. This Governor had previously been a member of the Royal
Audience, and when the English, at the end of the last war, took Manila,
he escaped from the city before the surrender, placed himself at the
head of the Indians of the province of Pampague, and, without regard to
the capitulation of the city, he is said to have succeeded in confining
the English within their conquest, starving equally the conquerors and
the conquered. Noticing that the Chinese established outside the city
walls were furnishing provisions to English and Spaniards alike, he
butchered them, putting more than ten thousand to the sword. It seemed
to me, however, that the Spaniards in general considered the efforts of
this councillor to be more harmful than advantageous to the welfare of
the Spanish colony. The English, harassed by the Indians under Don Simon
de Auda, had on their part armed and raised other provinces of Luzon, so
as to oppose Indian to Indian, and this sort of civil war did more harm
to the colony than even the capture of Manila by the English.
"However this may be, Don Simon de Auda returned to Spain after the
peace, was rewarded for his zeal by being made Privy Councillor of
Castile, and was sent back to Manila as Governor General of the
Philippines. Since his arrival in his province he has started a number
of important projects, but difficult to be carried out at one and the
same time. He has started considerable fortifications in various parts
of the city, very large barracks, dykes at the mouth of the river, a
powder-mill, smelting furnaces and forges to work the iron mines, and a
number of other useful works, which might have succeeded better had they
been started in due succession.
"The Philippine Archipelago contains fourteen principal islands, the
Government of which is divided into twenty-seven provinces, which are
governed by _alcaldes_ under the orders of the Governor Captain General.
All these islands are thickly populated, being about three million.
These islands extend from the tenth to the twenty-third degree north
latitude, and vary in breadth from about forty leagues at the north end
of Luzon up to two hundred leagues from the south of the southeast point
of Mindanao to the southwest point of Paragoa.
"They are all fertile and rich in natural products. But although the
Spaniards have been established here for more than two hundred years,
they have not yet succeeded in making themselves masters of the islands.
They have no foothold on Paragoa, which is almost eighty leagues long,
nor on the adjacent small islands; they only possess a few acres on the
big island of Mindanao, which is two hundred leagues in circumference,
nor are they yet fully acquainted with the interior of the island of
Luzon, where they have their chief settlement, namely, the city of
Manila. Luzon is the largest of these islands, being a hundred and
forty leagues long from Cape Bojador to Bulusan Point, which is the most
northerly point, and about forty leagues broad. In the northern part of
Luzon, near the province of Ilocos, there are some aborigines with whom
the Spaniards have never been able to establish communication. It is
believed that these people are the descendants of Chinese, who, having
been shipwrecked on these shores, have established themselves in the
mountains of this part of the island. It is said that some Indians know
the routes by which access is gained to this people, and that they have
been well received by them; but it is in the interest of these Indians
to withhold the knowledge from the Spaniards, on account of their great
trade profits with those people, who lack many things and have only
provisions and gold."
THE STORY OF THE PATRIOT RIZAL.
DR. JOSE RIZAL, a virtuous Catholic reformer, was the Samuel Adams of
the awakening of moral feeling against the tyranny of Spain. He sought
to reform the Government and to correct corruption in the Church.
He belonged to the province of Cavite. He was a small man, of a clear,
sensitive conscience, and great intellectual penetration and force. It
became the one purpose of his life to free his countrymen. "He organized
the Revolution," says a monument to Samuel Adams, and Dr. Rizal sought
to organize a revolution in a like manner as the "last of the Puritans"
in New England, by the collecting of facts for correspondence with
patriots at Manila and Hong Kong.
In his school life he beheld the universal corruption going on around
him. His heart was moved to pity the people.
He wrote a letter in which he urged reform by the expulsion of corrupt
officers of the Government and of certain immoral priests. This awakened
the Government and made him secret enemies. He was accused by the
Government of treason and by the decadent priests of the Church of
blasphemy. He held to his convictions against all opposition, knowing
that right was right and truth was truth.
He sought to unite the worthy representatives of the State and Church in
an effort to bring about a change which should honor morals and give
justice to the people. Among men of conscience his influence secretly
grew. He hoped to gain such force as to make an appeal to the court at
Madrid.
He organized a moral revolution.
Conscience is power, but its progress is slow.
In 1890 Dr. Rizal published a pamphlet that stirred the island world. He
pictured the sufferings of the natives under the Spanish rule. He
appealed to the enlightened Church, conscience and humanity.
The patriot's friends saw that the reform movement was about to be
crushed, and said to Rizal:
"Escape to Hong Kong!"
There was a patriotic club in Hong Kong that sought the emancipation of
the natives of Luzon and the Philippines from the extortions of Spain.
It would be well for him now to go there.
"How shall I leave the city?" was the one question that suddenly haunted
his mind.
He must go by sea. He could not go on board a ship without being
detected and detained.
"Get into a perforated box," said a fellow patriot, "and I will ship you
with the merchandise."
Dr. Rizal secreted himself in the perforated box, and was shipped from
Luzon to Hong Kong.
He was received with great enthusiasm by the Philippine patriots in Hong
Kong.
But he was more dangerous to the officials of Luzon in Hong Kong than at
Cavite. It became a problem with the latter how to get him once more in
their power.
The Governor General Weyler caused a dispatch to be sent to him which
stated that he "was too valuable a man for the State to lose his
services," that his past conduct would be overlooked, and that he could
safely return to his own island.
Honest himself, he could not believe that the dispatch was insincere.
He went back to Manila. His foes were bent on his destruction.
He was one day absent from his rooms attending probably to his medical
duties, when some soldiers led by a spy entered his apartments and
searched his trunks and pretended to find there seditious books.
Dr. Rizal was arrested. His enemies formed the court to try him for
treason.
The books were put out as evidence against him.
"I imported no books," said he.
"But the books are here."
"The customhouse officers found no books in my trunks," said Dr. Rizal.
"But here are the books that witness against you."
"There were no books in my room when I left it," said he.
"But we found them there."
"Let me call the customhouse officers."
The court refused the request.
"Let me summon the owner of my room."
The court refused the request.
"The witness against me is a convict, a spy, and a perjurer."
The court found him guilty.
He was sent into exile. The injustice of the trial was a flame of
liberty; the British consul protested against it, and riots broke out in
Cavite against the officials that countenanced such a mockery of
justice.
He went again to Hong Kong. Weyler had left Luzon, and had been
succeeded by Despajol.
His case aroused the Patriot Club. The patriots resolved to go to Spain
and lay their cause before the throne. They were mobbed in Spain and
sent to Manila for trial.
The trial was a farce; Dr. Rizal was again condemned.
On December 6, 1896, he was led out of the Manila prison into the
courtyard. A file of soldiers awaited the coming. A sharp volley of
shots broke the stillness of the air; and that heart, so true to
liberty, was broken and lay bleeding on the earth. So perished one of
the noblest patriots of the islands of the China Sea.
AGUINALDO.
AGUINALDO, called "the greatest of the Malays," in that he rose against
Spanish tyranny, is one of the interesting characters of the closing
century. His true character can hardly be determined at the present
time. Future events must reveal it. He is of mixed blood, and is said to
more resemble a European than a Malay.
He was born in the province of Cavite, and is supposed to have European
blood in his veins. He was brought up as a house boy in the apartments
of a Jesuit priest--a house boy being an errand boy; a boy handy for all
common work.
It has been the policy of Spain for centuries to keep her subjects on
the Pacific islands in partial ignorance; but this bright boy had an
impulse to learn, to acquire knowledge, to grasp the truth of life. He
had a remarkable memory, and he became such an apt scholar as to excite
wonder. When he was fourteen years old he entered the medical school at
Manila. He lost the favor of the Church by joining the Masonic order.
[Illustration: Aguinaldo.]
In 1888 he went to Hong Kong, where was a Philippine colony. Here he
sought and obtained a military education, and studied military works,
and the historical campaigns of the world's greatest heroes. He learned
Latin, English, French, and Chinese.
At the breaking out of the insurrection of the Philippines against Spain
in 1896, Aguinaldo espoused the cause of liberty, and was made an
officer and became a leader. The revolution grew and affected the native
troops, and its spirit filled the archipelago. It became the purpose of
the more fiery patriots to "drive the Spaniards into the sea."
Aguinaldo advocated the acceptance of concessions by the Spanish
Government, by which the rights of the native races should be recognized
and protected. His policy was accepted, and the insurgents disbanded. He
received Spanish gold to abandon the war for independence, and fell
under the suspicion that his patriotism was purchasable. This suspicion
has shadowed his fame. He went to Hong Kong.
The island Hong Kong, which is English, is a school of good government.
Here Aguinaldo seems to have conceived an ambition to free the native
races of the archipelago, and form a republic of the confederated
islands. The Spanish-American War revealed to him an opportunity to
strike for liberty. He said to the Filipinos: "The hour has come."
The Filipinos looked upon him as the man for the crisis.
An article in the Review of Reviews represents the chief as saying to an
American naval officer:
"There will be war between your country and Spain, and in that war you
can do the greatest deed in history by putting an end to Castilian
tyranny in my native land. We are not ferocious savages. On the
contrary, we are unspeakably patient and docile. That we have risen from
time to time is no sign of bloodthirstiness on our part, but merely of
manhood resenting wrongs which it is no longer able to endure. You
Americans revolted for nothing at all compared with what we have
suffered. Mexico and the Spanish republics rose in rebellion and swept
the Spaniard into the sea, and all their sufferings together would not
equal that which occurs every day in the Philippines. We are supposed to
be living under the laws and civilization of the nineteenth century, but
we are really living under the practices of the Middle Ages.
"A man can be arrested in Manila, plunged into jail, and kept there
twenty years without ever having a hearing or even knowing the complaint
upon which he was arrested. There is no means in the legal system there
of having a prompt hearing or of finding out what the charge is. The
right to obtain evidence by torture is exercised by military, civil, and
ecclesiastical tribunals. To this right there is no limitation, nor is
the luckless witness or defendant permitted to have a surgeon, a
counsel, a friend, or even a bystander to be present during the
operation. As administered in the Philippines one man in every ten dies
under the torture, and nothing is ever heard of him again. Everything is
taxed, so that it is impossible for the thriftiest peasant farmer or
shopkeeper to ever get ahead in life.
"The Spanish policy is to keep all trade in the hands of the Spanish
merchants, who come out here from the peninsula and return with a
fortune. The Government budget for education is no larger than the sum
paid by the Hong Kong authorities for the support of Victoria College
here. What little education is had in the Philippines is obtained from
the good Jesuits, who, in spite of their being forbidden to practice
their priestly calling in Luzon, nevertheless devote their lives to
teaching their fellow-countrymen. They carry the same principle into the
Church, and no matter how devout, able, or learned a Filipino or even a
half-breed may be, he is not permitted to enter a religious order or
ever to be more than an acolyte, sexton, or an insignificant assistant
priest. The State taxes the people for the lands which it says they own,
and which as a matter of fact they have owned from time immemorial, and
the Church collects rent for the same land upon the pretext that it
belongs to them under an ancient charter of which there is no record.
Neither life nor limb, liberty nor property have any security whatever
under the Spanish administration."
Such was his indictment of Spain.
He began a war for independence from Spain in the provinces of Luzon. He
was an inspiring general and practically made prisoners of some fifteen
thousand of the Spanish forces. He organized a Government at least
nominally Republican, although it has been called a dictatorship. The
purchase of the Philippines by the United States, in accordance with the
Treaty of Paris, has been opposed by Aguinaldo and his followers in a
most distressing war. He has claimed the absolute independence of all
the Philippines, although, so far as our knowledge goes, his authority
does not extend far beyond certain districts of the Island of Luzon.
Without anticipating the verdict of history upon our relations to the
Philippines, it is enough to add that the bloodshed and suffering caused
by this war are most deplorable.
HONG KONG.
HONG KONG and the China Sea have come to stand not only for Europe in
Asia, but for America in Asia, though of the latter, Manila is the port.
The center of the world's forces changes, and it is a strange current of
events that has made the China Sea, with its English port of Hong Kong,
and the Luzon port of Manila, facing each other across the blue ocean
way, the pivotal point of not only England in China, but of America in
the East. The Anglo-Chinese community in Hong Kong represents the union
of Europe and Asia in the family of nations, and America joins the world
of the higher civilization at Manila, the scene of Dewey's victory.
The civilizing history of Hong Kong is largely associated with Sir John
Bowring, whom a large part of the world recalls merely as a writer of
popular hymns; as, "In the Cross of Christ I Glory."
The British free traders secured Hong Kong as a market for the East, and
added it to the British Empire in the middle of the century. The Suez
Canal increased the importance of Hong Kong.
[Illustration: Hong Kong]
Hong Kong, not being an integral part of Asia, became a place of
refugees before its union with the British Empire. It lay in the route
of the British possessions in Africa, India, and North America. Its
Urasian destiny was seen in the alliance between Europe and Asia
concluded at Canton (1634) between the East India Company and the
Chinese Government. It then became the vantage ground of the Anglo-Saxon
race. The early English Governors of Hong Kong made the port the cradle
of liberty and free trade, and a civilizing influence in the East.
The island is some nine miles long and from two to six miles broad, with
a population of more than one hundred and twenty thousand, most of whom
are Chinese. It was ceded in perpetuity to the British by the treaty of
Nankin in 1843, when its Government began to be administered by Colonial
Governors, under whom it grew commercially.
The East India Trade Company had prepared the way for this little
Britain in the East. The United States in the middle of the century
began to trade at Canton from the ports of Boston and Salem. It is a
very curious and almost forgotten fact that the first cargoes from New
England to Canton consisted largely of ginseng, a plant now little
esteemed, but which at that time had acquired such a medical reputation
in China as to be almost worth its weight in gold. The plant was held to
be a magical cure for nearly all diseases and to possess the gift of
immortal youth.
Boston and Salem are still adorned with the tall and stately mansions of
these old merchants, whose wooden vessels went to the China Sea, at
first carrying ginseng and returning with tea. A writer in a Boston
paper thus pictures this period:
"The generation that would not have had to look at a map to find out
where Manila was when George Dewey arrived there, is almost passed away.
These were the great sailors of their time; men who met emergencies with
nerve and overcame tempest and adversity with equal complacency, who
knew the merchants of Canton and Calcutta as well as the merchants of
Salem and Boston, and whose tempers were never ruffled if even stress of
circumstance compelled them to put up with a paltry profit of one
hundred per cent. They lived at a time when there might easily be a
fortune in a single freight, and when one turn round the world might
represent more than a million of money. Most of them lived before the
day of the bill of exchange, and when the solid old method of carrying
specie in the hold was the familiar business practice. They knew the
pirate of the China Sea and he of Barbary, too, for it was this
old-fashioned system of carrying your capital with you that made the
pirates' life worth living. They lived before the cable as well, and
from the moment that a ship cleared from Canton or Manila or Singapore
there was no way in the world for the consignee or the merchant in
Boston to know what she had on board until she arrived here to speak
for herself. Be it silks or teas or what-not, the merchant must move
quickly to bid or buy, for the nature and value of the cargo could not
have been discounted in advance, while the ship was skimming the oceans.
Each vessel made her own market, and the wharf was the market place. It
was good news, indeed, when a captain with a cargo of teas was informed
by his owners, who may have met him upon the completion of a two years'
cruise, that the price of tea had advanced the day before his arrival.
It was pretty apt to be something in the captain's own pocket, too, for
in those days he was allowed to carry twenty-five tons of freight for
his own private speculation, and a salary of three hundred dollars a
month in addition was not uncommon. There are retired captains on Cape
Cod and in Salem and in the suburbs of Boston to-day who earned a
competence in those times of Boston's water-front prosperity. They
became masters sometimes before they were of age, and occasionally there
would be one, like the late R. B. Forbes, who would become a great
merchant, the head of a famous, wealthy house, known the world over,
almost before he realized how great was the fortune that had overtaken
him. And there was another very nice thing about those old days of
plenty. If a man came home from China rich, invested his wealth in a
railroad or some manufacturing or mining project that would be pretty
apt to ruin him, all he would have to do would be to exile himself,
under the right auspices, for another year or two in China, and then
return to his home and friends with his fortunes quite mended."
[Illustration: Iloilo.]
The great merchant at Canton at the time of the Boston commercial period
was Honqua. He was as noble as he was rich, and Mr. Forbes, the famous
old Boston merchant, relates the following story of him:
"A New England trader had gone to Canton, and had been unsuccessful, and
owed Honqua one hundred thousand dollars. He desired to return home, but
could not do so if he discharged the debt. Honqua heard of his
condition, pitied him, and sent for him.
"'I shall be sorry to part from you,' he said, 'but I wish you to return
as you so desire, happy and free. Here are all your notes canceled.'"
Here was superb commercialism.
The American sovereignty over the Philippine Islands opens the way to
China by the China Sea. In the progress of events the achievements of
Magellan have led the ships of the West to the East again, and it is
possible that there may yet be great Mongol emigrations to the western
shores of the southern continent. The lantern or farol of Magellan was
never more prophetic than now. So suggestion lives.
TRAVELERS' TALES OF THE PHILIPPINES.
HONG KONG is the market place of the Eastern world. Here the East and
West meet in the airy bazaars, and from it, it is easy to find one's way
to Luzon, over the bright sea mirrors, the sleepy, dreamy splendors of
the China Sea.
But few travelers have written books on Luzon, and those have usually
published them in French or in Spanish. Travelers from the East have, as
a rule, not remained long on the island, where earthquakes, typhoons,
malarial fevers, and the plague itself have been not unfrequent
visitors, and where one welcomes gratefully the shadows of the night in
the seasons of fervid heat. The rain storms are downpours and deluges
that are blinding, but they leave behind their inky tracts a paradise of
beauty and bloom.
The morning on the China Sea in serene weather is a royal glory. It has
the odors of Araby and the freshness of an Eden. The earth seems
waiting. The sails hang listlessly on the glassy, breathless straits,
and the sun sheds its splendor through the pale blue air as powerfully
as the clouded heavens poured down the rain.
The Filipinos are a sensitive race, and many of them have a keen sense
of injustice. Great numbers of them have a church education, and their
views of the world are bounded by what they have learned of India,
China, and Malaysia and Iberian peninsula from the priests of Spain.
A recent traveler from Manila said to me:
"The Filipinos have hot blood and are revengeful, but they are quick to
discern justice. A boy who attended me at the hotel came to me one day
bleeding.
"'My master has beaten me,' he said, 'with a rawhide.'
"'He has abused you,' I said. 'Why?'
"'He took me into the storeroom and lashed me, and the rawhide cut me. I
bleed.'
"'Why did he punish you?'
"'The porter told him he found me neglecting my work by hiding away and
fighting cocks. It was not true. The porter lied; he hates me.'
"'Go to the marshal and make a complaint against the landlord. Go now,
before the blood dries. A master has no right to beat one like that. It
is inhuman. Justice ought to be done.'
"'But I do not blame _him_; he is not to blame. The porter is to blame.
The porter lied.'
"'But the marshal would hardly take up your case against the porter; he
would hold him to be a person of slight consequence.'
"'But wrong is wrong whether it be done by a landlord or his porter. The
porter should go to prison for twenty years!'"
The case then dropped, but the boy carried a case for revenge against
the porter in his heart. He was quick to discern justice.
Cockfighting is a favorite diversion among the Filipinos. A traveler
says that he has seen Filipinos going to mass carrying gamecocks under
their arms to set fighting in the cemetery after the service.
The brutal sport is a passion, and is to be seen going on almost
everywhere on festal days, and in the evenings in the cool shadows of
awnings and palms.
Alfred Marche published a book in Paris in 1887 entitled Luxon and
Palaveran; Six Annes de Voyages aux Philippines. It contains some vivid
pictures of the natives, of the habits and customs of the country, of
the earthquakes and storms. He describes the earthquake seasons when the
earth trembled, and the people rushed wildly into the open courts at the
first tremor. As great as the terror was the Chinese did not leave their
merchandise unprotected for fear of thieves, showing that the trembling
earth did not overcome the nature of the merchant or the native thief.
The one would face death for his goods and the other for his chance of
getting plunder.
Monsieur Marche gives some views of the tropic jungles, one of which is
illustrated by a very curious anecdote and pictorial illustration.
One day one of his native servants told him that he had seen in the
woods an immense python, which seemed to have been gorged with some
animal that he had swallowed, and so rendered sluggish and resistless.
"I should like to see so large a serpent," said the traveler.
An hour afterward, while he was sitting in the shadow of his bungalow,
an extraordinary sight met his eyes. The native had gone into the wood
and had put a cord about the neck of the great serpent and attached it
to the horns of a buffalo, and the buffalo was dragging the python
toward the bungalow. The python was seven meters long (thirty-nine
inches to a meter), a distended mass of folds and flesh (page 356,
Alfred Marche's Luzon).
What had he swallowed? What creature was there inside of him that was
about to be digested, and that so distorted his folds?
The serpent was harmless in the noose and from the weight of his meal.
The traveler severed the python's vertebrae, rendering it inoffensive,
and then made an incision into its abdomen.
A surprise followed. Out of the abdomen came a calf of some months'
growth. The animal's legs were so doubled under its body as to make the
latter horizontal. The serpent was prepared for the museum of the
traveler.
The same traveler describes earthquakes, after which victims were fed
by tubes let down under the ponderous debris.
One of the most interesting books of travel in Luzon that we have ever
read is entitled Aventures d'un Gentilhomme Breton aux iles Philippines,
par P. de la Gironiere (Paris, 1855). A part of the work has been
translated into English by Frederick Hardman, and from this translation
in part we select material for a view of the life of the French savant
in Jala-Jala, a very interesting district of the island. The original
French work is very vividly illustrated. The English abridgment is
without illustrations. (French edition, Boston Public Library, No.
3040a, 182. English abridgment, 5049a, 69.)
THE ADVENTURES OF DR. DE LA GIRONIERE IN LUZON.
(After Hardman.)
CHANGING THE HEART OF A BRIGAND.
"JALA-JALA is a long peninsula, stretching from north to south into the
middle of Bay Lake. The peninsula is divided longitudinally by a chain
of mountains, which gradually diminish in elevation, until, for the last
three leagues, they dwindle into mere hills. These mountains, of easy
access, are covered partly with wood and partly with beautiful pastures,
where the grass attains a height of between one and two yards, and, when
waving in the wind, resembles the waves of the ocean. Finer vegetation
can nowhere be found; it is refreshed by limpid springs, flowing from
the higher slopes of the mountain down into the lake. Owing to these
pastures, Jala-Jala is richer in game than any other part of the island
of Luzon. Deer, wild boar, and buffalo, quails, hens, snipes, pigeons of
fifteen or twenty kinds, parrots; in short, all manner of birds, there
abound. The lake teems with water-fowl, and especially with wild ducks.
Notwithstanding its extent, the island contains no dangerous or
carnivorous beasts; the worst things to be feared in that way is the
civet, a little animal about the size of a cat, which attacks only
birds; and the monkeys, which issue from the forest by troops, and lay
waste the maize and sugar fields.
"The lake, which yields excellent fish, is less favored than the land;
for it contains a great many caymans, a creature of such enormous size
that in a few minutes it divides a horse piecemeal and absorbs it into
its huge stomach. The accidents occasioned by these caymans are frequent
and terrible, and I have seen more than one Indian fall victims to them.
"At the period of my purchase the only human inhabitants of Jala-Jala
were a few Indians, of Malay extraction, who lived in the woods and
tilled some nooks of land. At night they were pirates upon the lake, and
they afforded shelter to all the banditti of the surrounding provinces.
The people at Manila had given me the most dismal account of the
district; according to them, I should soon be murdered: my turn for
adventure was such, that all their stories, instead of alarming me, only
increased my desire to visit men who were living almost in a savage
state.
"As soon as I had bought Jala-Jala, I traced for myself a plan of
conduct, having for its object to attract the banditti to me; to this
end, I felt that I must not appear among them in the character of an
exacting and sordid owner, but in that of a father. All depended upon
the first impressions I should make upon these Indians, now my vassals.
On landing, I went straight to a little hamlet, composed of a few
cabins.
"My faithful coachman was with me; we were each of us armed with a good
double-barreled gun, a brace of pistols, and a saber. I had already
ascertained, from some fishermen, to which Indian I ought to address
myself. This man, who was much respected by his countrymen, was called,
in the Tagal tongue, _Mabutin-Tajo_, translatable as _The brave and
valiant_.
"He was quite capable of committing, without the slightest remorse, five
or six murders in the course of a single expedition; but he was brave;
and courage is a virtue before which all primitive races respectfully
bow. My conversation with _Mabutin-Tajo_ was not long; a few words
sufficed to win his good will, and to convert him into a faithful
servant for the whole time I dwelt at Jala-Jala. This is how I spoke to
him:
"'You are a great rascal,' I said; 'I am the lord of Jala-Jala; it is my
will that you amend your conduct; if you refuse, you shall expiate all
your misdeeds. I want a guard; give me your word of honor to turn honest
man, and I will make you my lieutenant.'
"When I completed this brief harangue, Alila (that was the brigand's
name) remained for a moment silent, his countenance indicating deep
reflection. I waited for him to speak; not without a certain degree of
anxiety as to what his answer would be.
"'Master!' he at last exclaimed, offering me his hand and putting one
knee to the ground, 'I will be faithful to you until death!'
"I was very well pleased with this reply, but I concealed my
satisfaction.
"''Tis good,' I said; 'to show you that I have confidence in you, take
this weapon, and use it only against enemies.'
"I presented him with a Tagal sabre, on which was inscribed in Spanish:
'Draw me not without cause, nor sheath me without honor.'
"This legend I translated into Tagal; Alila thought it sublime, and
swore ever to observe it.
"'When I go to Manila,' I added, 'I will bring you epaulets and a
handsome uniform; but you must lose no time in getting together the
soldiers you are to command, and who will compose my guard. Take me at
once to him among your comrades whom you think most capable of acting as
sergeant.'
"We walked a short distance to the habitation of a friend of Alila's,
who usually accompanied him on his piratical expeditions. A few words,
in the same strain as those I had spoken to my future lieutenant,
produced the same effect on his comrade, and decided him to accept the
rank I offered him. We passed the day recruiting in the various huts,
and before night we had got together, in cavalry, a guard of ten men, a
number I did not wish to exceed. I took the command as captain.
"The next day I mustered the population of the peninsula, and,
surrounded by my new guards, I selected a site for a village, and one
for a house for myself. I gave orders to the fathers of families to
build their cabins upon a line which I marked out, and I desired my
lieutenant to employ all the hands he could procure in extracting stone,
cutting timber, and preparing everything for my dwelling. My orders
given, I set out for Manila, promising soon to return. On reaching home,
I found my friends uneasy on my account; for, not having heard from me,
they feared I had fallen victim to the caymans or the pirates. The
narrative of my voyage, my description of Jala-Jala, far from making my
wife averse to my project of living there, rendered her on the contrary
impatient to visit our property, and to settle upon it."
Dr. de la Gironiere lived many years at Jala-Jala in the peninsula
country. He relates many adventures in the primitive forests, one of
which is as follows:
A BUFFALO HUNT IN JALA-JALA.
"THE Indians consider the pursuit of the buffalo the most dangerous of
all hunts; and my guards told me they would rather place their naked
breast at twenty paces from a rifle's muzzle than find themselves at the
same distance from a wild buffalo. The difference is, they say, that a
rifle bullet may only wound, whereas a buffalo's horn is sure to kill.
"Taking advantage of their fear of the buffalo, I one day informed them,
with all the coolness I could assume, of my intention to hunt that
animal. Thereupon they exerted all their eloquence to dissuade me from
my project; they drew a most picturesque and intimidating sketch of the
dangers and difficulties I should encounter; I, especially, as one
unaccustomed to that sort of fight--for such a chase is in fact a life
or death contest. I would not listen to them. I had declared my will; I
would not discuss the subject, or attend to their advice.
[Illustration: Boats on the River Pasig.]
"It was fortunate that I did not; for these affectionate counsels, these
alarming pictures of the dangers I was about to run, were given and
drawn by way of snare; they had agreed among themselves to estimate my
courage accordingly as I accepted or avoided the combat. My only reply
was an order to get everything in readiness for the hunt. I took care
that my wife should know nothing of the expedition, and I set out,
accompanied by a dozen Indians, almost all armed with guns.
"The buffalo is hunted differently in the plain and in the mountains. In
the plain, all that is needed is a good horse, agility, and skill in
throwing the lasso. In the mountains, an extraordinary degree of
coolness is requisite. This is how the thing is done: The hunter takes a
gun, upon which he is sure he can depend, and so places himself that the
buffalo, on issuing from the forest, must perceive him. The very instant
the brute sees you, he rushes upon you with his very utmost speed,
breaking, crushing, trampling under foot, everything that impedes his
progress. He thunders down upon you as though he would annihilate you;
at a few paces distance, he pauses for a moment, and presents his sharp
and menacing horns.
"It is during that brief pause that the hunter must take his shot, and
send a bullet into the center of his enemy's brow. If unfortunately the
gun misses fire, or if his hand trembles and his ball goes askew, he is
lost--Providence alone can save him! Such, perhaps, was the fate that
awaited me; but I was determined to run the chance. We reached the edge
of a large wood, in which we felt sure that buffaloes were; and there we
halted. I was sure of my gun; I thought myself tolerably sure of my
coolness, and I desired that the hunt should take place as if I had been
a common Indian. I stationed myself on a spot over which everything made
it probable that the animal would pass, and I suffered no one to remain
near me. I sent every man to his post, and remained alone on the open
ground, two hundred paces from the edge of the forest, awaiting a foe
who would assuredly show me no mercy if I missed him.
"That is certainly a solemn moment in which one finds himself placed
thus between life and death, all depending on the goodness of a gun, and
on the steadiness of the hand that grasps it. I quietly waited. When all
had taken up their positions, two men entered the forest, having
previously stripped off a part of their clothes, the better to climb the
trees in case of need. They were armed only with cutlasses, and
accompanied by dogs. For more than half an hour a mournful silence
reigned. We listened with all our ears, but no sound was heard.
"The buffalo is often very long before giving sign of life. At last the
reiterated barking of the dogs, and the cries of the prickers, warned us
that the beast was afoot. Soon I heard the cracking of the branches and
young trees, which broke before him as he threaded the forest with
frightful rapidity. The noise of his headlong career was to be compared
only to the gallop of several horses, or to the rush of some monstrous
and fantastical creature; it was like the approach of an avalanche. At
that moment, I confess, my emotion was so great that my heart beat with
extraordinary rapidity. Was it death, a terrible death, that thus
approached me? Suddenly the buffalo appeared. He stood for a moment,
glared wildly about him, snuffed the air of the plain, and then, his
nostrils elevated, his horns thrown back upon his shoulders, charged
down upon me with terrible fury.
"The decisive moment had come. A victim there must be--either the
buffalo or myself--and we were both disposed to defend ourselves
stoutly. I should be puzzled to describe what passed within me during
the short time the animal took to traverse the interval between us. My
heart, which had beat so violently when I heard him tearing through the
forest, no longer throbbed. My eyes were fixed upon his forehead with
such intensity that I saw nothing else. There was a sort of deep silence
within me. I was too much absorbed to hear anything--even the baying of
the dogs as they followed their prey at a short distance.
"At last the buffalo stopped, lowered his head, and presented his horns;
just as he gave a spring I fired. My bullet pierced his skull--I was
half saved. He fell to the ground, just a pace in front of me, with the
ponderous noise of a mass of rock. I put my foot between his horns and
was about to fire my second barrel, when a hollow and prolonged roar
informed me that my victory was complete. The buffalo was dead. My
Indians came up. Their joy turned to admiration; they were delighted; I
was all that they wished me to be.
"Their doubts had been dissipated with the smoke of my gun; I was brave,
I had proved it, and they had now entire confidence in me. My victim was
cut up, and carried in triumph to the village. In right of conquest I
took his horns; they were six feet in length; I have since deposited
them in the Nantes museum. The Indians, those lovers of metaphor, those
givers of surnames, thenceforward called me _Malamit Oulou_--Tagal
words, signifying 'cool head.'"
The traveler describes the cayman, which is of enormous size--the whale
of the oozy lagoon. He relates the following adventure with a boa:
THE BOA OF LUZON.
"THE other monster of which I have promised a description, the boa, is
common in the Philippines, but it is rare to meet with a very large
specimen. It is possible, even probable, that centuries (?) are
necessary for this reptile to attain its largest size; and to such an
age the various accidents to which animals are exposed rarely suffer it
to attain. Full-sized boas are met with only in the gloomiest, most
remote, and most solitary forests.
[Illustration: A boa.]
"I have seen many boas of ordinary size, such as are found in our
European collections. There were some, indeed, that inhabited my house;
and one night I found one, two yards long, in possession of my bed.
"Several times, passing through the woods with my Indians, I heard the
piercing cries of a wild boar. On approaching the spot whence they
proceeded we almost invariably found a wild boar, about whose body a boa
had twisted its folds, and was gradually hoisting him up into the tree
round which it had coiled itself. (See book for illustration.)
"When the wild boar had reached a certain height the snake pressed him
against the tree with a force that crushed his bones and stifled him.
Then the boa let its prey fall, descended the tree, and prepared to
swallow what it had slain. This last operation was much too lengthy for
us to await its end.
"To simplify matters, I sent a ball into the boa's head. Then my Indian
took the flesh to dry (bucanier) it, and the skin for dagger sheaths. It
is unnecessary to say that the wild boar was not forgotten. It was a
prey that had cost us little pains.
"One day an Indian surprised one of these reptiles asleep, after it had
swallowed an enormous doe deer. Its size was such that a buffalo cart
would have been required to transport it to the village.
"The Indian cut it in pieces, and contented himself with as much as he
could carry off. I sent for the remainder. They brought me a piece about
eight feet long, and so large that the skin, when dried, enveloped the
tallest man like a cloak. I gave it to my friend Lindsay.
"I had not yet seen one of the full-grown reptiles, of which the Indians
spoke to me so much (always with some exaggeration), when one afternoon,
crossing the mountains with two shepherds, our attention was attracted
by the sustained barking of my dogs, who seemed assailing some animal
that stood upon its defense. We at first thought it was a buffalo which
they had brought to bay, and approached the spot with precaution.
"My dogs were dispersed along the brink of a deep ravine, in which was
an enormous boa. The monster raised his head to a height, of five or six
feet, directing it from one edge to the other of the ravine, and
menacing his assailants with his forked tongue; but the dogs, more
active than he was, easily avoided his attacks. My first impulse was to
shoot him, but then it occurred to me to take him alive and send him to
France. Assuredly he would have been the most monstrous boa that had
ever been seen there. To carry out my design, we manufactured nooses of
cane, strong enough to resist the most powerful wild buffalo. With great
precaution we succeeded in passing one of our nooses round the boa's
neck; then we tied him tightly to a tree, in such a manner as to keep
its head at its usual height--about six feet from the ground.
"This done, we crossed to the other side of the ravine and threw another
noose over him, which we secured like the first. When he felt himself
thus fixed at both ends, he coiled and writhed, and grappled several
little trees which grew within his reach along the edge of the ravine.
Unluckily for him, everything yielded to his efforts; he tore up the
young trees by the roots, broke off the branches, and dislodged enormous
stones, round which he sought in vain to obtain the hold or point of
resistance he needed. The nooses were strong, and withstood his most
furious efforts. To convey an animal like this several buffaloes and a
whole system of cordage was necessary. Night approached; confident in
our nooses we left the place, proposing to return next morning and
complete the capture--but we reckoned without our host. In the night the
boa changed his tactics, got his body round some huge blocks of basalt,
and finally succeeded in breaking his bonds and getting clear off. I was
greatly disappointed, for I doubted whether I should ever have another
chance.
"Human beings rarely fall victims to these huge reptiles. I was able to
verify but one instance. A criminal hid from justice in a cavern. His
father, who alone knew of his hiding place, went sometimes to see him
and to take him rice. One day he found, instead of his son, an enormous
boa asleep. He killed it, and found his son's body in its stomach. The
priest of the village, who went to give the body Christian burial, and
who saw the remains of the boa, described it to me as of almost
incredible size."
AN ADVENTURE WITH A MONSTER CAYMAN.
"At the period at which I first occupied my habitation and began to
colonize the village of Jala-Jala, caymans abounded upon that side of
the lake. From my windows I daily saw them gamboling in the water, and
waylaying and snapping at the dogs that ventured too near the brink. One
day a female servant of my wife's having been so imprudent as to bathe
at the edge of the lake was surprised by one of them, a monster of
enormous size. One of my guards came up at the very moment she was being
carried off; he fired his carbine at the brute and hit it under the
fore-leg (the armpit), which is the only vulnerable place. But the wound
was insufficient to check the cayman's progress, and it disappeared with
its prey. Nevertheless, this little bullet-hole was the cause of its
death; and here it is to be noted that the slightest wound received by
the cayman is incurable. The shrimps, which abound in the lake, get into
the hurt; little by little their number increases, until at last they
penetrate deep into the solid flesh and into the very interior of the
body. This is what happened to the one which devoured my wife's maid. A
month after the accident the monster was found dead upon the bank five
or six leagues from my house. Indians brought me back the unfortunate
woman's earrings, which they had found in its stomach.
"Upon another occasion a Chinese was riding with me. We reached a river,
and I let him go on alone in order to ascertain whether the river was
very deep or not. On a sudden three or four caymans, which lay in
waiting under the water, threw themselves upon him; horse and Chinese
disappeared, and for some minutes the water was tinged with blood.
"I was very curious to obtain a near sight of one of these voracious
monsters. At the time that they frequented the vicinity of my house I
made several attempts to attain that end. One night I baited a huge
hook, secured by a chain and strong cord, with an entire sheep. Next
morning sheep and chain had disappeared. I lay in wait for the creatures
with my gun, but the bullets rebounded from their scales. A large dog,
of a race peculiar to the Philippines and exceeding any European dog in
size, happening to die, I had his carcase dragged to the shore of the
lake; I then hid myself in a little thicket and waited, with my gun in
readiness, the coming of a cayman. But presently I fell asleep, and when
I awoke the dog had disappeared. It was fortunate the cayman had not
taken the wrong prey.
"When the colony of Jala-Jala had been a few years founded, the caymans
disappeared from its neighborhood. I was out one morning with my
shepherds, at a few leagues from my house, when we came to a river which
must be swum across. One of them advised me to ascend it to a narrower
place, for that it was full of caymans, and I was about to do so when
another Indian, more imprudent than his companions, spurred his horse
into the stream. 'I do not fear the caymans!' he exclaimed. But he was
scarcely halfway cross when we saw a cayman of monstrous size advancing
toward him. We uttered a shout of warning; he at once perceived the
danger, and, to avoid it, got off his horse at the opposite side to that
upon which the cayman was approaching, and swam with all his strength
toward the bank. On reaching it, he paused behind a fallen tree trunk,
where he had water to his knees, and where, believing himself in perfect
safety, he drew his cutlass and waited. Meanwhile the cayman reared his
enormous head out of the water, threw himself upon the horse, and seized
him by the saddle. The horse made an effort, the girths broke, and,
while the cayman crunched the leather, the steed reached dry land.
Perceiving that the saddle was not what he wanted, the cayman dropped it
and advanced upon the Indian. We shouted to him to run. The poor fellow
would not stir, but waited calmly, cutlass in hand, and, on the
alligator's near approach, dealt him a blow upon the head. He might as
well have tapped upon an anvil. The next instant he was writhing in the
monster's jaws. For more than a minute we beheld him dragged in the
direction of the lake, his body erect above the surface of the water
(the cayman had seized him by the thigh), his hands joined, his eyes
turned to heaven, in the attitude of a man imploring divine mercy. Soon
he disappeared. The drama was over, the cayman's stomach was his tomb.
"During this agonizing moment we had all remained silent, but no sooner
had my poor shepherd disappeared than we vowed we would avenge his
death.
"I had three nets made of strong cord, each net large enough to form a
complete barrier across the river. I also had a hut built, and put an
Indian to live in it, whose duty was to keep constant watch and to let
me know as soon as the cayman returned to the river. He watched in vain
for upward of two months; but at the end of that time he came and told
me that the monster had seized a horse and dragged it into the river to
devour it at leisure. I immediately repaired to the spot, accompanied by
my guards, by my priest, who positively would see a cayman hunt, and by
an American friend of mine, Mr. Russell, of the house of Russell and
Sturgis, who was then staying with me. I had the nets spread at
intervals, so that the cayman could not escape back into the lake. This
operation was not effected without some acts of imprudence; thus, for
instance, when the nets were arranged, an Indian dived to make sure that
they reached the bottom, and that our enemy could not escape by passing
below them. But it might very well have happened that the cayman was in
the interval between the nets, and so have gobbled up my Indian.
Fortunately everything passed as we wished. When all was ready, I
launched three pirogues, strongly fastened together side by side, with
some Indians in the center, armed with lances, and with tall bamboos
with which they could touch bottom. At last, all measures having been
taken to attain my end without any risk or accident, my Indians began to
explore the river with their long bamboos.
"An animal of such formidable size as the one we sought can not very
easily hide himself, and soon we beheld him upon the surface of the
river, lashing the water with his long tail, snapping and clattering
with his jaws, and endeavoring to get at those who dared disturb him in
his retreat. A universal shout of joy greeted his appearance; the
Indians in the pirogues hurled their lances at him, while we, upon
either shore of the river, fired a volley. The bullets rebounded from
the monster's scales, which they were unable to penetrate; the keener
lances made their way between the scales and entered the cayman's body
some eight or ten inches. Thereupon he disappeared, swimming with
incredible rapidity, and reached the first net.
"The resistance it opposed turned him; he reascended the river, and
again appeared on the top of the water. This violent movement broke the
staves of the lances which the Indians had stuck into him, and the iron
alone remained in the wounds. Each time that he reappeared the firing
recommenced, and fresh lances were plunged into his enormous body.
Perceiving, however, how ineffectual firearms were to pierce his
cuirass of invulnerable scales, I excited him by my shouts and gestures;
and when he came to the edge of the water, opening his enormous jaws all
ready to devour me, I approached the muzzle of my gun to within a few
inches and fired both barrels, in the hope that the bullets would find
something softer than scales in the interior of that formidable cavern,
and that they would penetrate to his brain. All was in vain. The jaws
closed with a terrible noise, seizing only the fire and smoke that
issued from my gun, and the balls flattened against his bones without
injuring them. The animal, which had now become furious, made
inconceivable efforts to seize one of his enemies; his strength seemed
to increase instead of diminishing, while our resources were nearly
exhausted. Almost all our lances were sticking in his body, and our
ammunition drew to an end. The fight had lasted more than six hours,
without any result that could make us hope its speedy termination, when
an Indian struck the cayman, while at the bottom of the water, with a
lance of unusual strength and size.
"Another Indian struck two vigorous blows with a mace upon the butt end
of the lance; the iron entered deep into the animal's body, and
immediately, with a movement as swift as lightning, he darted toward the
nets and disappeared. The lance-pole, detached from the iron head,
returned to the surface of the water; for some minutes we waited in
vain for the monster's reappearance; we thought that his last effort had
enabled him to reach the lake, and that our chase was perfectly
fruitless. We hauled in the first net, a large hole in which convinced
us that our supposition was correct. The second net was in the same
condition as the first. Disheartened by our failure, we were hauling in
the third when we felt a strong resistance. Several Indians began to
drag it toward the bank, and presently, to our great joy, we saw the
cayman upon the surface of the water, expiring.
"We threw over him several lassos of strong cords, and when he was well
secured we drew him to land. It was no easy matter to haul him up on the
bank; the strength of forty Indians hardly sufficed. When at last we had
got him completely out of the water, and had him before our eyes, we
stood stupefied with astonishment; for a very different thing was it to
see his body thus, and to see him swimming when he was fighting against
us. Mr. Russell, a very competent person, was charged with his
measurement. From the extremity of the nostrils to the tip of the tail
he was found to be _twenty-seven feet_ long, and his circumference was
eleven feet, measured under the armpits. His belly was much more
voluminous, but we thought it useless to measure him there, judging that
the horse upon which he had breakfasted must considerably have
increased his bulk."
SWIFTS.
The edible swallows' nests are found in most of the islands of the
Eastern archipelago.
A traveler, Mr. H. Pryer, who made a visit to one of the swifts' caves
in Borneo, thus describes the coming and the going of the dusky birds:
"At a quarter past six in the evening the swifts began to return to the
caves of their nests; a few had been flying in and out all day long, but
now they began to pour in, at first in tens and then in hundreds, until
the sound of their wings was like a strong gale of wind whistling
through the rigging of a ship.
"They continued flying until after midnight. As long as it remained
light I found it impossible to catch any with my butterfly net, but
after dark I found it only necessary to wave my net to secure as many as
I wanted.
"They must possess wonderful powers of sight to fly about in the dark of
the recesses of their caves and to return to their nests, which are
often built in places where no light penetrates."
The edible nests are a luxury in China, where they are used in soups.
The bird makes her nest of saliva, and plasters it on to the rocks
inside of caves. The nests are collected by means of boats, ropes, and
ladders, and bring in the Chinese market from L2 to L7 per pound. There
have been imported to Canton more than eight million nests in a single
year.
Such are some views of life inside of the vast possession of the sea
which Magellan discovered for Spain, but which has fallen under the
folds of the flag of the Republic of the West.
THE END.
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_THE STORY OF WASHINGTON._ By ELIZABETH EGGLESTON SEELYE. Edited by
Dr. Edward Eggleston. With over 100 Illustrations by Allegra
Eggleston. A new volume in the "Delights of History" Series,
uniform with "The Story of Columbus." 12mo. Cloth, $1.75.
"One of the best accounts of the incidents of Washington's life for
young people."--_New York Observer._
"The Washington described is not that of the demigod or hero of the
first half of this century, but the man Washington, with his
defects as well as his virtues, his unattractive traits as well as
his pleasing ones.... There is greater freedom from errors than in
more pretentious lives."--_Chicago Tribune._
"The illustrations are numerous, and actually illustrate, including
portraits and views, with an occasional map and minor pictures
suggestive of the habits and customs of the period. It is
altogether an attractive and useful book, and one that should find
many readers among American boys and girls."--_Philadelphia Times._
"A good piece of literary work presented in an attractive
shape."--_New York Tribune._
"Will be read with interest by young and old. It is told with good
taste and accuracy, and if the first President loses some of his
mythical goodness in this story, the real greatness of his natural
character stands out distinctly, and his example will be all the
more helpful to the boys and girls of this generation."--_New York
Churchman._
"The book is just what has been needed, the story of the life of
Washington, as well as of his public career, written in a manner so
interesting that one who begins it will finish, and so told that it
will leave not the memory of a few trivial anecdotes by which to
measure the man, but a just and complete estimate of him. The
illustrations are so excellent as to double the value of the book
as it would be without them."--_Chicago Times._
_THE STORY OF COLUMBUS._ By ELIZABETH EGGLESTON SEELYE. Edited by
Dr. Edward Eggleston. With 100 Illustrations by Allegra Eggleston.
"Delights of History" Series. 12mo. Cloth, $1.75.
"A brief, popular, interesting, and yet critical volume, just such
as we should wish to place in the hands of a young reader. The
authors of this volume have done their best to keep it on a high
plane of accuracy and conscientious work without losing sight of
their readers."--_New York Independent._
"In some respects altogether the best book that the Columbus year
has brought out."--_Rochester Post-Express._
"A simple story told in a natural fashion, and will be found far
more interesting than many of the more ambitions works on a similar
theme."--_New York Journal of Commerce._
"This is no ordinary work. It is pre-eminently a work of the
present time and of the future as well."--_Boston Traveller._
"Mrs. Seelye's book is pleasing in its general effect, and reveals
the results of painstaking and conscientious study."--_New York
Tribune._
"A very just account is given of Columbus, his failings being
neither concealed nor magnified, but his real greatness being made
plain."--_New York Examiner._
"The illustrations are particularly well chosen and neatly
executed, and they add to the general excellence of the
volume."--_New York Times._
New York: D. APPELTON AND CO., 72, Fifth Avenue.