Around the Provinces.
A half century before the founding of Manila, Magellan had set up the
cross upon a small hill on the site of Butuan, on the north coast
of Mindanao, celebrating the first mass in the new land, and taking
possession of the island in the name of Spain. Three centuries have
passed since then, and there are still tribes on that island who
have never yielded to the influence of Christianity nor recognized
the authority of Spain or the United States. Magellan's flotilla
sailing north touched at Cebu, where the explorers made a treaty
with King Hamabar. The king invited them to attend a banquet, where,
on seeing that his visitors were off their guard, he slew a number
of them mercilessly, while the rest escaped. On the same spot three
hundred and fifty-odd years later, three American schoolteachers were
as treacherously slain by the descendants of this Malay king.
Not till the expedition of Legaspi and the Augustine monks visited
the shores of the Visayan islands were the natives subjugated, and the
finding of the _Santo Niño_ (Holy Child) brought this about. Since then
the monks and friars, playing on the superstition of the islanders,
have managed to control them and to mold them to their purposes. In
1568 a permanent establishment was made at Cebu by the bestowal of
munitions, troops, and arms, brought by the galleons of Don Juan de
Salcedo. The conquest of the northern provinces began soon after the
flotilla of Legaspi came to anchor in Manila Bay.
The idea that Manila or the island of Luzon comprises most of our
possessions in the East is one that I have found quite prevalent
throughout America. The broken blue line of the coast of Luzon
reaches away in a dim contour to the northward for two hundred miles,
until the chain of the Zambales Mountains breaks into the flying,
wave-lashed islands standing out against the trackless sea. Southern
Luzon, the country of Batangas, and the Camarines, extends a hundred
miles south of Manila Bay.
In the far north are the rich provinces of Cagayan, Ilocos Norte and
Ilocos Sur, Abra, Benguet, and Nueva Viscaya. The land at the sea level
produces hemp, tobacco, rice, and cocoanuts; the heavily-timbered
mountain slopes contain rich woods, cedar, mahogany, molave, ebony,
and ipil. A wonderful river rushes through the mountain cañons, and
the famous valley of the Cagayan is formed--the garden of Eden of the
Philippines. The peaks of the Zambales are so high that frost will
sometimes gather at the tops, while in the upper forests even the flora
of the temperate zone is reproduced. Negritos, the primeval savages,
run wild in the great wilderness, while cannibals, head-hunters,
and other barbaric peoples live but a short distance from the shore.
The islands to the south of Luzon reach in a long chain toward Borneo,
a distance of six hundred miles. During a journey to the southern
islands a continuous procession of majestic mountains moves by like
a panorama--first the misty peaks of the Mindoro coast; and then
the wooded group of islands in the Romblon Archipelago, that rises
abruptly out of the blue sea. Hundreds of smaller islands, like
bouquets, dot the waters off Panay, while the bare ridges of Cebu of
the Plutonic peaks of Negros loom up far beyond. Passing the triple
range of Mindanao, the scattered islands of the Jolo Archipelago,
the Tapul and the Tawi-Tawi groups mark the extreme southern limits
of the Philippines.
In nearly all these islands the interior is taken up by various tribes
of savages, sixty or seventy different tribes in all, speaking as many
different dialects. There are the Igorrotes of the north, who make
it their religion, when the fire-tree blooms, to go out on a still
hunt after human heads. When one of their tribe dies, the number of
fingers that he holds up as he breathes his last expresses the number
of heads which his survivors must secure. An Igorrote suitor, too, must
pay the price, if he would have his bride, in human heads. The head
of his best friend or of his deadliest enemy is equally acceptable;
and if his own pate fall in the attempt, he would not be alone among
those who have "lost their heads" because of a fair woman.
Although the island of Luzon was settled later than the southern
islands, civilization has been more widely disseminated in the north. A
railway line connects Manila with Dagupan and the other cities of
the distant provinces. Aparri, on the Rio Grande, near its mouth,
is the commercial port of Cagayan. The country around is rich in
live stock, and is partly under cultivation. During the rainy season,
however, the pontoon bridges over the Rio Grande are swept away; the
roads become impassable. The raging torrent of the river threatens
the inland navigation, while the monsoons on the China Sea make
transportation very difficult.
The provinces of North and South Ilocos bristle with dense forests,
where not only savages, but deer, wild hogs, and jungle-fowl abound,
and where the white man's foot has never been. The natives bring the
forest products, pitch, rattan, and the wild honey, to the coast towns,
where they can exchange their goods for rice. While in the mountainous
regions of the northern part, barbarians too timid to approach the
coast are found, most of the pagan natives are of a mixed type. The
primitive Negritos, living in these parts, as those also living on
the island of Negros and in Mindanao, are of unknown origin--unless
they are allied with similar types of pigmies, such as the Sakais of
the Malay Peninsula, or the Mincopies of the Andaman Islands in the
Indian Ocean. Some anthropologists would even associate them with
the black dwarfs in the interior of Africa. These savages live a
nomadic life, and seldom come down near the villages. But the mixed
tribes, the Negrito-Malay, or the Malay-Japanese, are bolder and
more enterprising. The presence of the Japanese and Chinese pirates
in this country in the early days has been the cause of many of the
eccentric types whose origin, entirely independent from the origin of
the Negritos, was Malayan. Here the Ilocanes, or the natives of the
better class, the Christians of these provinces, although of Malay
origin, belong to a more cultured class of Malay ancestry. They are
amenable to Christian influences, and their manners are agreeable
and pleasing. They cultivate abundant quantities of sugar, cotton,
indigo, rice, and tobacco, and the women weave the famous _Ilocano_
blankets that are sold at such a premium in Manila. Vigan, the capital
of South Ilocos, has the finest public buildings and the best-kept
streets of any of the provincial cities.
Another tribe of people, the Zambales, are to be found toward the
center of Luzon. Few Igorrotes, Ilocanes, and Negritos live in the
province of Zambales or Pangasinan. Pampanga Province also has its
own tribe and a different dialect. Tagalog is spoken around Manila,
in Laguna Province, in Batangas, and the Camarines; Visayan is the
language of the southern islands.
A monotonous sameness is the characteristic of most of the small
Filipino towns. In seeing one you have seen all; you wonder what
good can come out of such a Nazareth, and there are very few of
the provincial capitals, indeed, that merit a description. Rambling
official buildings, made of white concrete and roofed with _nipa_
or with corrugated iron; a ragged plaza, with the church and convent,
and the long streets lined with native houses; pigs with heads like
coal-scuttles; chickens and yellow dogs and naked brats, scabby
and peanut-shaped,--such are the first and last impressions of the
Filipino town.
We reached Cebu during the rainy season, and it was a little city
of muddy streets and tiled roofs. As the transport came to anchor
in the harbor, Filipino boys came out in long canoes, and dived for
pennies till the last you saw of them was the white soles of their
bare feet. And in another boat two little girls were dancing, while
the boys went through the manual of arms. A number of tramp steamers,
barkentines, and the big Hong Kong boat were lying in the harbor,
while the coasting steamers of the Chinese merchants and the smaller
hemp-boats lined the docks. As this was our first port in the Visayan
group, the difference between the natives here and those of the Far
North was very noticeable. There, the volcanic, wiry Tagalog, or
the athletic Igorrote savage; here, the easy-going, happy Visayan,
carabao-like in his movements, with a large head, enormous mouth
and feet.
Along the water front a line of low white buildings ran,--the
wholesale houses of the English, Chinese, Spanish, and American
commercial firms. The street was full of carabao carts, yoked to their
uncomfortable cattle. Agents and merchants, dressed in white, were
hurrying to and fro with manifests. Around the corner was a long street
blocked with merchandise, and shaded with the awnings of the Chinese
stores. There was a little barber-shop in a _kiosko_, where an idle
native, crossing his legs and tilting back his chair, abandoned himself
to the spirit of a big guitar. The avenue that branched off here would
be thronged with shoppers during the busy hours. Here were the retail
stores of every description--"The Nineteenth-century Bazaar," the
stock of which was every bit as modern as its name--clothing-stores,
tailor-shops, restaurants, jewelry-stores, and curio bazaars.
Numerous plazas were surrounded by old Spanish buildings and
hotels. The public gardens--if the acre of dried palms and withered
grass may so be called--were situated near the water front, and had a
band stand for the use of the musicians on _fiesta_ days. The racetrack
was adjacent to the gardens, and the public buildings faced these
reservations. The magnificent old churches, with their picturesque
bell towers; the white convent walls, with niches for the statuettes
of saints; the colleges and convents,--give to the provincial capital
an air of dignity.
The boarding-house, kept by a crusty but good-hearted Englishman,
stood opposite the row of porches roofed with heavy tiles, that made
_Calle Colon_ a colonnade. Across the street was a window in the wall,
where the brown-eyed Lucretia used to sell ginger-ale and sarsaparilla
to the soldiers. With her waving pompadour, her olive cheeks, and
sultry eyes, Lucretia was the belle of all the town. There wasn't a
soldier in the whole command who wouldn't have laid down his life for
her. And in this land where nothing seemed to be worth while, Lucretia,
with her pretty manners and her gentle ways, had a good influence
upon the tawny musketeers who dropped in to play a game of dominos
or drink a glass of soda with her; and she treated all of them alike.
A monkey chattered on the balcony, sliding up and down the bamboo-pole,
or reaching for pieces of bananas which the boarders passed him
from the dinner-table. "Have you chowed yet?" asked a grating voice,
which, on a negative reply, ordered a place to be made ready for me
at the table. Barefooted _muchachos_ placed the thumb-marked dishes
on the dirty table-cloth. I might add that a napkin had been spread
to cover the spot where the tomato catsup had been spilled, and that
the chicken-soup, in which a slice of bread was soaked, slopped over
the untidy thumb that carried it. But I omitted this course, as the
red ants floating on the surface of the broth rendered the dish a
questionable delicacy. The boarders had adjourned to the parlor,
and were busy reading "Diamond Dick," "Nick Carter," and the other
five and ten cent favorites. A heavy rain had set in, as I drew my
chair up to the light and tried to lose myself in the adventures of
the boy detective.
But the mosquitoes of Cebu! The rainy season had produced them by
the wholesale, and full-blooded ones at that. These were the strange
bed-fellows that made misery that night, as they discovered openings
in the mosquito-bar that, I believe, they actually made themselves! The
parlor (where the bed was situated) was a very interesting room. There
was a rickety walnut cabinet containing an assortment of cobwebby
Venus's fingers, which remind you of the mantel that you fit over
the gas jet; seashells that had been washed up, appropriately branded
"Souvenir of Cebu;" tortoise-shell curios from Nagasaki, and an album
of pictures from Japan. The floor was polished every morning by the
house-boys, and the furniture arranged in the most formal manner,
_vis-á-vis_.
The _señorita_ Rosario, the sister-in-law of the proprietor, came in
to entertain me presently, dressed in a bodice of blue _piña_, with the
wide sleeves newly starched and ironed, and with her hair unbound. She
sat down opposite me in a rocking-chair, shook off her slippers on the
floor, and curling her toes around the rung, rocked violently back and
forth. She punctuated her remarks by frequent clucks, which, I suppose,
were meant to be coquettish. Her music-teacher was expected presently;
so while I wrote a letter on her _escritorio_, the _señorita_ smoked
a cigarette upon the balcony. The _maestro_ came at last; a little,
pock-marked fellow, dapper, and neatly dressed, his fingers stained
with nicotine from cigarettes. Together they took places at the
small piano, and I could see by their exchange of glances that the
music-lesson was an incidental feature of the game. They sang together
from a Spanish opera the song of Pepin, the great braggadocio, of whom
't is said, when he goes walking in the streets, "the girls assemble
just to see him pass."
"Cuando me lanzo a calle
Con el futsaque y el cla,
Todas las niñas se asoman
Solo por ver me pasar:
Unas a otras se dicen
Que chico mas resa lao!
De la sal que va tirando
Voy a coher un punao."
When the music-teacher had departed, the _señorita_ leaned out of
the balcony, watching the crowd of beggars in the street below. Of
all the beggars of the Orient, those of Cebu are the most clinging
and persistent and repulsive. Covered with filthy rags and scabs,
with emaciated bodies and pinched faces, they are allowed to come
into the city every week and beg for alms. Their whining, "_Da mi
dinero, señor, mucho pobre me_" ("Give me some money, sir, for I am
very poor"), sounds like a last wail from the lower world.
It was at Iloilo that we took a local excursion steamer across to
the _pueblo_ of Salai, in Negros. It was a holiday excursion, and the
boat was packed with natives out for fun. There was a peddler with a
stock of lemon soda-water, sarsaparilla, sticks of boiled rice, cakes,
and cigarettes. A game of _monte_ was immediately started on the deck,
the Filipinos squatting anxiously around the dealer, wagering their
_suca ducos_ (pennies) or their silver pieces on the turn of certain
cards. It was a perfectly good-natured game, rendered absurd by the
concentric circles of bare feet surrounding it. There seemed to be
a personality about those feet; there were the sleek extremities
of some more prosperous councilman or _insurrecto_ general; there
were the horny feet of the old women, slim and bony, or a pair of
great toes quizzically turned in; and there were flat feet, speckled,
brown, or yellow, like a starfish cast up on the sand. They seemed to
watch the game with interest, and to note every move the dealer made,
smiling or frowning as they won or lost. There was a tramway at Salay,
drawn by a bull, and driven by a fellow whose chief object seemed to
be to linger with the _señorita_ at the terminus. The town was hotter
than the desert of Sahara, and as sandy; there was little prospect
o£ relief save in the distant mountains rising to the clouds in the
blue distance.
Returning to our caravansary at Iloilo, we discovered that our beds
had been assigned to others; there was nothing left to do but take
possession of the first unoccupied beds that we saw. One of our party
evidently got into the "Spaniard's" bed, the customary resting-place
of the proprietor, for presently we were awakened by the anxious
cries of the _muchachos, "Señor, señor, el Español viene_!" (Sir,
the Spaniard comes!) But he was not to be put out by any Spaniard,
and expressed his sentiments by rolling over and emitting a loud
snore. The Spaniard, easily excited, on his entrance flew into an
awful rage, while the usurper calmly snored, and the _muchachos_
peeked in through the door at peril of their lives.
Nothing especially of interest is to be found at Iloilo,--only a
long avenue containing Spanish, native, and Chinese stores; a tiny
_plaza_, where the city band played and the people promenaded hand
in hand; a harbor flecked with white, triangular sails of native
_velas_; and the river, where the coasting boats and tugs are lying
at the docks. Neat cattle take the place of carabaos here to a great
extent. There is the usual stone fort that seems to belong to some
scene of a comic opera. America was represented here by a Young Men's
Christian Association, a clubhouse, and a _presidente_. The troops
then stationed in the town added a certain tone of liveliness.
It was a week of carol-singing in the streets, of comedies performed
by strolling bands of children, masses, and concerts in the _plaza_. On
Christmas afternoon we went out to the track to see the bicycle races,
which at that time were a fad among the Filipinos. The little band
played in the grand-stand, and the people cheered the racers as
they came laboriously around the turn. The meet was engineered by
some American, but, from a standpoint of close finishes, left much
to be desired. The market-place on Christmas eve was lighted by a
thousand lanterns, and the little people wandered among the booths,
smoking their cigarettes and eating peanuts. Until early morning
the incessant shuffling in the streets kept up, for every one had
gone to midnight mass. Throughout the town the strumming of guitars,
the voices of children, and the blare of the brass band was heard,
and the next morning Jack-pudding danced on the corner to the infinite
amusement of the crowd. As for our own celebration, that was held in
the back room of a local restaurant, the Christmas dinner consisting
of canned turkey and canned cranberry-sauce, canned vegetables,
and ice-cream made of condensed milk.