compares unfavourably in comfort, cleanliness, and sanitation with a
second-class Commercial in a small town in Spain. However, I have a very
nice big cool room, opening on to a broad balcony, where little trees
and plants stand in tubs, and that is very agreeable to the eye, as we
are right in the town and not near any gardens. There are four doors in
this room, and six windows, so that the room is capable of the necessary
draught without which it is impossible to sleep. So far so good, but the
Filipino bed has to be reckoned with—in this case, a vast four-poster,
with a very handsome piece of carving at each end. That at the head is
particularly beautiful, a very free and graceful design of leaves, and
corn, and fruit, which I wish I could take home with me. We took the
precaution of bringing our own _petates_ and pillows when we left our
house, as well as our own towels, and are continually thankful that we
did so!
It is the chief hotel of Iloilo, as I said before, and therefore
frequented by all the Prominent Citizens and their families, to say
nothing of the military, as many of the officers board here. I think they
must be such good-natured people not to make any fuss about the dirty
linen and unwashed plates, or the cold and greasy food. I am afraid we
are not so amiable, for we began at once to have it understood that, as
we were paying the prices of a first-class hotel in London or Paris, we
expected comfort and some cleanliness, and C—— said very definitely to
our waiter that he would knock him down if he attempted again to hand
things on the wrong side. This cleared the air a good deal, and when they
found we insisted on having things nice, they did their best for us, and
really they have made us so comfortable that we are quite patient about
the _Kai-Fong_.
We cleared out of our own house on Friday (this is Monday), and spent all
the following day making over the furniture to the various people who
came, like Joseph’s brethren, bearing money in their hands. We were so
sorry to see the rooms dismantled, for we loved that house, and had lived
in it in such comfort, and so well cared for by our good servants. When
C—— paid the latter off, he gave to each an extra present of money, which
pleased them enormously; and the cook, really quite sad, said over and
over again that he wished we would take him with us to England, and asked
to be allowed to shake hands with us, which great honour we permitted.
Sotero we have brought here to wait on us, as we would not allow Filipino
hotel servants into our rooms, of course; but Domingo has been paid
off, though he refuses to consider himself dismissed, and I believe he
is sleeping in the empty house and standing guard over our big cases,
though no one is likely to run away with them, as they take about five
coolies each to move. I begin to realise here what our openness to the
Monsoons meant, for I have just had to clear out of my bedroom, where I
was writing, and come into the public _sala_ (which is really a furnished
corridor), because the wind shifted a little, so that it no longer blew
into the bedroom. By this I mean that when the wind was off me, I burst
into perspiration, my face dripping on to the paper, my hands as if I
had dipped them in water, my clothes soaking, and my head beginning to
ache and throb. Oh, I can’t find words to express how thankful I am to be
going away from this horrible, everlasting heat! It gets on one’s nerves
not to be able to move a chair, to walk two yards without dripping at
every pore, and one’s clothes feel so irksome and heavy. If one takes
exercise it is acute discomfort—if one does not, one is ill!
We are now having the echoes of the _Comitiva Taft_ visitation, and it is
really most amusing to see how the popular idol has fallen. Fallen for
the Filipinos that is, for the Americans all think him very great and
“cute” to manage as he has done, though they are all declaring openly
that he should have said all this two years ago, as our friend shrewdly
observed to us when we were leaving the banquet. Of course, there is
something to be said for Mr Taft, for if he had made such unpopular
utterances when he was Governor here, his life would not have been worth
two cents a day. All the same, to the lay mind, such subtle change of
front is not very palatable, and one cannot help wishing that politicians
could afford to say straight out what they mean, and stick to it for good
or evil.
The papers from Manila with the account of our festivities have arrived,
and I never read such brazen lying in my life; in fact, the reports are
so cooked that they leave off being annoying and begin to be funny.
The wild scenes of popular enthusiasm, the crowded banquet, the frantic
love of the people of Panay for their idol, and so on, and so on. And
as to sheer reporting, Mr Taft’s speech (which the Manila people are
informed was greeted by the natives with thunderous applause) is given
at great length, but the impassioned utterances of the patriot who
clutched the chair-back are dismissed in a few mild words. No mention,
too, of the ominous banners in the procession, of the note on the back
of the _menu_ at the banquet, and not the faintest hint of the one or
two hisses which greeted the sentiments of the _Secwar_ himself. So much
for the local papers. And if that is the way they dally with truth out
here, one can only faintly wonder what impression of this trip is being
disseminated amongst the intelligent voters in the far-off U.S.A., by our
well-informed journalistic friend and others of his kidney.
The Iloilo banquet, by-the-bye, wound up rather disastrously for American
dignity, as the rowdy party at the table near us got up some quarrel with
one of the Filipino waiters; there were blows and fighting, and the whole
lot were chucked out into the street. This, as you may imagine, has made
a horrible scandal, and produced a very bad impression.
About the banquet, too, it now appears that the Filipinos subscribed
70 _pesos_ towards that and the general expenses, and the rest of the
community, ourselves included, made the sum up to the 4000 required, plus
a grant from the Treasury.
C—— went to see our poor old Spanish friend about something a day or two
ago (the ex-courtier, whose visit I think I described to you), and when
C—— said that he had not seen him at the banquet, the old fellow replied
that he had sent the committee 12 _pesos_ towards the expenses, with a
letter of well-wishing, etc., as he thought it was his duty to do so,
and to contribute what he could.
“Well,” said C——, “but didn’t they answer with an invitation to the
banquet?”
“No,” said the old man, “they did not even acknowledge the money.”
He seemed rather down on his luck about the whole thing, and more anxious
than ever to sell his piece of land and go home to Spain to die.
LETTER XLIII.
HOMEWARD BOUND
S.S. _Kai-Fong_, _August 25_, 10 A.M.
Iloilo is now far away below the horizon astern, and if I look over the
side, I am afforded the delightful spectacle of one Philippine Island
slipping past after the other into pale blue fluff, and I hope they will
stay down under my horizon for ever.
We scraped out through a network of taxes, like fish trying to get out of
a fish-_corral_. Our two large cases had to get a Customs permit before
they could be put on board, for which they got from us a _peso_ in the
form of a stamp upon the Export Entry, and another _peso_ and a half
for what they call wharfage. This means that they did not examine the
contents of the cases, but gave C—— a paper to sign and an export permit.
Another item is an Internal Revenue tax of a _peso_ on each passenger
ticket. Fancy if we at home had to pay 10 shillings in taxes before we
could go across the Channel!
It is so nice to be in such a clean and comfortable steamer, and to
have fresh vegetables and fruit, brought on ice from Hong Kong; and one
wonders how the Americans can tolerate the contrast between this and
those dreadful Spanish cockroach-traps which they dignify by the name of
the Mail.
All the crew are Chinese, of course, looking so straight and tall and
intelligent after the stumpy, stupid, little Filipinos. With them too, as
with the Filipino horses, the eye has been thrown out of focus, for the
Chinese simply look colossal. I keep on thinking to myself what a very
tall man that is, and he is only the usual height of ordinary men.
Most of the second-class passengers are Chinese, and they have queer
meals on the lower deck, all squatting round a wooden tray on which are
one or two big bowls of rice and bits of meat and vegetables. Round
these are piled little bowls, into which the mixture is served out,
and the Chinamen all set to work with chop-sticks, which is so like
a conjuring-trick that one can watch them as long as they will go on
with it! Amongst these people is a Chinaman with his Filipino wife, a
little ugly woman, with her lips jutting out beyond the end of her nose,
dressed in a gay _camisa_, and for ever smoking a huge, ragged cigar.
Some children of theirs cling to them most of the time, and a very
gaudily-dressed little chap of a more purely Filipino type, whom the
Chinaman is exporting to a friend in Amoy who has bought the child for 10
dollars. You can buy children very cheaply in the Philippines; and away
from the big towns, and very often in them, they are openly offered for
sale; and most of the rich native and _Mestizo_ families have servants
which have been bought as children. I daresay, though I have never
inquired about it, that the Americans strenuously deny this officially,
but unofficially it is a perfectly well-known custom. This small slave
was a very native little chap of three or four, got up in purple cotton
coat and a crimson jockey cap, and radiantly happy in his new clothes,
and we could not really feel very sorry for him. The Chinamen all take
the greatest care of their hair, combing it out every day, and some of
them have magnificent, glossy, black locks, right down to their knees;
but others, whose hair is thin and scanty, eke out their pigtails with
long cords of black silk gimp.
Talking of servants, when we came down to the Muelle Loney (to think
I shall never see that place again!) this morning, we found Domingo
waiting, in his smartest clothes, spotlessly white, and his skin shining
with soap, to see us off. Poor fellow, he hung round, blubbering quietly,
and carrying anything he could catch hold of, and when he said good-bye
his face was quite pathetic. I think he felt he was losing the only
people in the world who had ever treated him well, and he was one of the
best specimens of a typical, unspoilt Filipino, stolid, obedient, humble,
and faithful as a dog, and C—— said he would have given anything to have
been able to take him with us, as the poor creature implored us to do.
At the last, when the launch was pushing off, Domingo made a wild rush
to spring on board, but was too late; and the last we saw of him was
standing on the quay with his hat off and the tears streaming down his
big, brown face.
We discussed this rush of Domingo’s, but can arrive at no satisfactory
solution of what he wanted to do, for I think he only wanted to come
out to the _Kai-Fong_, but C—— says he is certain he meant to follow us
to Hong Kong and compel us to take him with us. Well, we can’t do that,
but we have done our best for him in making him from a rough coolie into
a clean, smart servant, who can get double the wages he received from
us; and we found him a good place before we left, though, as I said
before, I am not at all sure how either he or the other will do with
the impatience and curses with which the average white man thinks he
impresses his dignity upon the coloured person. It is not to be done in
the Anglo-Indian method; no, nor in the American extreme of familiarity.
Of that I was persuaded before I came here, and am still more convinced
now that I have more experience.
The only way to impress anyone, black, brown, _or_ white, with the idea
of your dignity, is to be dignified yourself. But I suppose this is too
much of an obvious truism for anyone to attempt to think over or act
up to. Well, it served me in very good stead; and all I know is that,
though every soul I spoke to had endless complaints about the impudence,
laziness, or dishonesty of their servants, whether they were of the
nation who kicked them, or those who allowed them to wear a vest in the
house and not say _señor_, we never had any trouble once we got rid of
our first Americanised cook—my house went as on oiled axles, and we never
missed one single thing from start to finish. So what am I to say of the
Filipinos? Those with whom I came in contact, as well as my own servants,
were a narrow, cunning, good-humoured people, vain, superstitious,
stupid, great gamblers, kind to their children, and bitterly cruel to
animals—oh, the poor hens hung up by the heels in the sun! and the
wretched pigs with their four feet lashed together that used to lie
all day scorching in the Plaza at Molo! the awful open sores under the
harness of the starving ponies! the brutal, sickening, cock-fighting!
For those horrors alone, I should be thankful to leave this country,
even were it the paradise which it is not. No, no terrestrial paradise,
for one has the laziness, the heat, the apathy, and cruelty of the
East, without the compensations of artistic beauty, cheapness, plenty,
and luxury, which make up for those drawbacks in other hot countries.
A shuffling, drab, discontented, thick-headed, costly East—with all
the worst traditions of four hundred years of the off-scourings of the
Spanish monkish orders, overlaid by a veneer of shallow cock-sureness
hastily assimilated from a totally incongruous alien civilisation.
We carry a cargo of sugar, and from the ventilators come up gusts of that
peculiar, heavy, nauseous odour, which carries one back instantly to the
_camarins_ of Iloilo. I can’t believe that the Philippines are really a
thing of the past for me—it is not that I was there so long; but there
was so little variety, and we saw and did and heard the same things so
often, that I am left with an impression of as many years as we have been
there months.
THE END
[Illustration: THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS]
FOOTNOTES
[1] England is 50,823 square miles in extent, and Luzon is 40,885.
[2] Fivepence. The amount of bread this sum will buy in the Philippines
is equal to half the English 2d. loaf.
[3] Another method is to tie a rope round the _carabao’s_ horns, and
it is so tight that it cuts into the flesh, so that the _carabaos_
frequently go mad with pain and “run amok.”
[4] The actual numbers of the Commission have been changed several times,
but the proportion of American to Filipino remains practically unaltered,
as does the method of their election.
[5] In the Spanish days, no Filipino was allowed to carry a
walking-stick, except the _Presidente_ of a town, which distinction was
jealously preserved.
[6] The Government owns 60,000,000 acres; but no non-Filipino can obtain
more than 40 acres, and no corporation may hold more than 2500 acres.
Five years after the passing of this law, that is in 1907, all corporate
lands owned in excess of this amount and under cultivation must be
disposed of or forfeited.
[7] A corruption of _tubig_, Visayan for water.
[8] The fighting _bolo_, the more deadly and elaborate weapon is always
kept concealed in the hut.
[9] This breach of Oriental decorum is one of the most fatal and
irreparable mistakes the Americans have made in the Philippines. It is a
subject on which the Filipino or _Mestizo_ is not slow to speak his mind.
Alas for misunderstandings!
[10] The Tagalos are a much more industrious race than the Visayans, and
are always in demand as clerks, workmen, or servants, in preference to
the Southerners.
[11] I have before me a cutting from _The Manila Times_, containing
an account of the arrival in Manila, by the Transport _Dix_ from San
Francisco, of “eleven strong-limbed, square-jawed bloodhounds” ... “for
the work of trailing the _Ladrones_ of Cavite and the _Pulajanes_ of
Samar.”
INDEX
A
Agius, Cardinal, 235
Aglipay, Father, 109, 237, 262, 312
Aglipayanos, 109, 155, 195, 197, 235, 237
Agriculture, neglect of, 298, 299
Aguinaldo, Emilio, 11, 51
“American Ideal,” The, 134, 185
American occupation of the Philippines, 88, 156
_Anting-anting_, 69, 204
Antipolo, 6
Ants, 70
Arms of the Philippines, 122
_Azotea_, the, 24
B
_Baile_, a, or ball, 164, 201, 279
Baker, Sir Samuel, 283
Bananas, 206
_Banda de Musica Popular, La_, 184, 295
Banquet, 329
Beds, 45
Beggars, 193
Benguet, 151, 239
Betel-nut, 219
Bilibid prison, 135
_Bolo_, or native knife, 232
Bombardment of Iloilo, 89
Bread, price of, 34
Bridge, 132, 149
Business houses, 44
_Butuan_, S.S., 110, 152, 157
C
_Camarins_, 175
Camp Josman, 85, 280
Canloon volcano, 16
Carabaos, 79, 293
Card-playing, 132
Carnival, 161, 199
_Carromatas_, 63
Carter, Mrs, 328
Catbologan, 289
Cebú, 9
Children, 64, 129, 178;
sale of, 343
Chinese immigrants prohibited, 176
Chinese New Year, the, 195
Chinese servants, 141
“Christ’s Funeral,” 196
Christmas, 47
Cigars, native, 177
Climate, 18, 110, 169, 229
Clothes, 115
Clubs, 57, 161
Cock-fighting, 139, 286
Cockroaches, 71, 211
Cocoanuts, 207, 208, 231
Constabulary, 86
Crickets (_cicadas_), 69
Currency, 20, 27
Customs, tariff and methods, 32, 43, 65, 195, 234, 291, 342
D
Dancing, 57
Declaration Day, 270
Decoration Day, 245
Democracy, American idea of, 144
Dingley Tariff, 330
Dogs, 128
Dress, 53
Drought, 172
E
Earthquake, 226
Easter, 195
Education, 49, 221, 258
Eurasians, position of, 62
F
Fashions in Manila, 125
_Fiestas_, 52, 276
Filipinos, the, 13, 14, 62, 154, 189, 212, 244, 309
Fire trees, 207
Fish, 294;
traps for, 218
Flies, 290
Flowers, 130
Food, 48
Friars, Spanish, 50
Fruit, 48, 299
Fulcher, Mr, Vice-Consul at Cebú, 10
Funeral, a, 194
Furniture, 30
G
Gibson Girl, the, 123
_Gobierno_, the, 278
Government, character of the, 86
Graveyards, 164, 296
Guimaras, 16, 40, 55, 104, 182, 188, 203
H
Harbour at Manila, 117
Hawks, 128
Heat, 169, 229, 239, 265
Hemp, 11
Hijaldo, Monsignore, 236
Holidays, 195
Hong Kong, 229
Hoskyn’s Store, 26
Hospital, American, 244
Hotels, 6, 337
House-building, 189
Houses, descriptions of, 20, 23
I
Ice, 167
Iglesia Filipina Independiente, La. _See_ Aglipayanos.
Iloilo, 9, 16, 17, 118;
bombarded, 89
Intramuros, the old Spanish Manila, 4, 133
J
Jaro, 17, 42, 90, 186, 236
Jewellery, 126
_Jusi_, 54
K
_Kai-Fong_, S.S., 10, 310, 342
Katipunan, the, 11, 51
Kitchen, native, 218
L
_Ladrones_, 152, 288
Laguna de Bayo, 2
Language of the Filipinos, 157
Lazones, 299
Letters, 191
Lizards, 67
Love-birds, 238
Luneta, the, 131
Luzon, 2, 8, 283
M
Mactan (Maktan), 11
Magellan, 11, 162
Malacañan, Palace of, 120
Malaspina volcano, 16
Manila, 2, 117;
divided into wards, 3;
new harbour works, 117;
streets, 125, 138
Mindanao, 8
Mindoriao, 42
Missionaries, 107
Molo, 42, 90, 186
Mongeese, 240, 256, 262, 286
Monsoons, 16, 82, 174, 211, 230, 248
_Monte_, the native card-game, 132, 251
Mosquitoes, 72, 193, 243
Muelle Loney, 175, 176, 182
Music, 52, 162, 184
N
Nagaba, 202, 213, 215, 306
Native houses, 203, 205
Negritos, 193
Negros Island, 16, 56, 266
_Nipa_ thatch, 204
Nursery garden, a, 129
O
Opera, Italian, 213, 227
Orchids, 39, 40, 130
P
Palm Sunday, 193
Panay, 17, 182, 289
Paper-chase, attempt at a, 260
Pasig River, 2, 116
Pearls, 294
Philippines, arms of the, 122
_Piña_, 54, 268
Plaza Libertad, the, at Iloilo, 90
Ponies, Philippine, 4
Processions, 5, 193, 196, 198, 271, 323
Provincial treasurer, the, 168
_Pulajanes_, 288
Q
_Quilez_, or native carriage, 92, 170
R
Railways, 129
Rain, 191
_Rainbow_, U.S.S., 103
Rats, 211
Reclamation of mud-flats, 178
Rents, 24, 141
Rice, 35
_Rigodon_ dance, the, 59, 123, 279
Rizal, Doctor, 50, 162
Roman Catholics, 107, 194, 198, 235
Roosevelt, Miss Alice, 247, 307, 317, 327
S
St Louis Exhibition, 136
Salt-pits, 233
Samar Island, 288
_Sanidad_, launch, 158
Sanitary control, 242
Santa Mesa, 138
Schools, 49
School teachers, 12
Secret Police, 302
Servants, 27, 28, 38, 141, 164, 192
Shops, 25, 44, 138
Snakes, 69
Soil, the, 49
Spiders, 72
Sugar, production of, 104, 266, 328
T
Taft, Mr, 31, 62, 142, 247, 262, 300, 307-336, 339
Tagalos, the, 13, 14, 267
Theatricals, Filipino, 74, 161
Timber, 30
_Tuba_, 207
Typhoons, 23, 211
V
Vegetables, 48, 298
“Veteran Army of the Philippines,” 273
Virgin of Antipolo, the, 6, 109
Visaya, 13
Volcanoes, 16
W
Wages, 92, 141
Washington, George, 162
Water plants, 3
Water supply, 47, 172
Wedding, an English-Mestizo, 127
Wild pigs, 206
Worcester, Mrs, 140
Wright, Mr and Mrs Luke E., 119, 122, 140, 317
Y
_Ylang-Ylang_ tree, 204
Z
_Zafiro_, S.S., 2
PRINTED BY OLIVER AND BOYD, EDINBURGH.