THE COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE.
Before we go farther with this story of the Philippines, let us look,
for a little while, at the country itself, and the people who live in
it.
Men who are wise in science tell us that there must have been in the
Pacific Ocean, some thousands of years ago, a great body of land that
has now sunk out of sight. We do not know when it sank; but after it did
so there must have been, one after another, a great many volcanic
eruptions that broke up the sunken continent into smaller tracts of
land. Many of these eruptions took place under water, and with the
overflow of lava the separate tracts grew larger.
Later still this sunken land began slowly to rise from the sea. In some
places this change is still going on. New islands have come up out of
the sea within the memory of people who are still alive, and there have
been, within modern times, great changes on some of the Philippine
Islands. The whole group is of volcanic origin, but there are now very
few active volcanoes left in the country. Of these Mayon (mī ōn´), in
the southern part of Luzon, is the largest. This is said to be the most
beautiful volcano in the world. Its form is a perfect cone. Taal (tä´äl)
volcano, which is on an island in Lake Bombon (bôm´bôn), is also a
famous volcano.
There are over 1,200 islands in the archipelago, but we do not know
exactly how many there are. They have never been counted. Some of them
are hardly more than bits of rock showing above the sea, while Luzon,
the largest, is 480 miles long.
On all of the islands there are large mountains. Great peaks rise, in
some cases to a height of 7,000 or 8,000 feet, covered to the very top
with forests of mighty trees. The finest building timber in the world
will some day come from these islands. Teak, ebony, mahogany, and cedar
trees grow here, besides rubber and camphor trees, and many others for
which there is great demand in all the markets of the world. Fine fruit
trees of many sorts are also found. When there are good roads in the
islands over which to haul logs, and modern mills and machinery to make
them into lumber, the timber trade of the Philippines will be a great
industry.
There are now about eight millions of people in the Philippines. How
many were here when the Spanish came we do not know. The larger part of
the people in the islands are of the Malay (mā´lā) race. These were not
the first dwellers in the country, but came from the Malay Peninsula,
and it is likely that they had not been here more than two or three
hundred years when the Spanish came. They are the people whose lives and
acts make up most of what we call the “history” of the islands, and they
are the people usually meant by the term “Filipinos.”
[Illustration:
ABORIGINES OF MINDANAO.
]
Up in the mountains, living in nearly as wild a state as when the
Spanish came, we still find the aborigines. This is a word which means
the first dwellers in a country. It is thought that the first people who
lived in the northern islands were the Aetas, or Negritos. A race called
the Indonesians (in dō nā´sē äns) are the aborigines of the great island
of Mindanao.
The Negritos are dying out. They are a small, timid people, with thick
lips and flat noses. Their hair is like curly wool. They hunt and fight
with bows and arrows, and are very quick and active. Their chief food is
fish, and the brown mountain rice which they plant and harvest. Even if
taken when children and brought up in a city, they do not grow to like
civilized life, but run away and go back to the mountains as soon as
they have the chance.
An important tribe of wild people in these islands are the Igorrotes (ig
ō rō´tēs), of whom there are many on Luzon. The Igorrotes are the finest
and strongest of all the wild tribes in the country. They are very
brave, and are good fighters, using in warfare a short, broad knife,
which they wield with deadly skill. They never submitted to the
Spaniards, and were badly used by that people. The Spaniards always made
war upon them, and at one time tried to put an end to all of the tribe
in Luzon. They burned their villages and killed all who fell in their
power. They could not conquer them, however, and the Igorrotes have
always hated the Spanish fiercely.
The civilized Filipino people spring from none of these wild tribes. As
we have said, they are Malays, and came here from the great Malay
Peninsula. The Malays, from earliest times, were a sea-going folk,
daring sailors, and skillful in managing their boats. They went boldly
to sea in tiny crafts, with only the stars to guide them, taking risks
such as no Europeans dared to take. They overran the islands of the
South Pacific, going even as far as the island of Madagascar. They
settled in the Philippines, drove the natives back into the mountains,
and made their homes along the coasts and on the rich plains. They had a
written alphabet of their own when the Spanish came, and were far ahead,
even then, of the native races.
The Malays who settled in the island of Mindanao were converted to the
Moslem faith by some Arabian missionaries who came to that island as
early as the twelfth or thirteenth century. From Mindanao this religion
was carried to the island of Sulu (sö l´ö), and it is now the faith of
the people of the entire Sulu archipelago. The people who held to this
religion were called Moros by the Spanish, and by this name they are
still known.
There are many tribes in the islands, both of the aborigines and of the
Malay people. In early days these tribes were more separate than at
present, and had little to do with one another, save when there was war
among them. Each had its own language, and even now a great many
dialects are spoken in the islands. This fact, among others, has helped
to keep the tribes apart and to prevent them from becoming a strong,
united people.
We see, from what has been said, that the dwellers in the Philippine
Islands are not strictly a people in the sense that the Spanish or the
English are a people. Even the Malay folk in the islands have been, from
the very first, split up into many tribes, having little in common.
Under some methods of government these tribes might have been united;
but Spanish rule was not of a sort to bind them together. Rather, it set
tribes against one another, and used some to help conquer others. It did
not draw them together in a strong national life such as has made the
United States of America a great and powerful nation.
[Illustration:
A MORO OF JOLÓ, IN THE SULU ARCHIPELAGO.
]
The United States has been settled by people from many countries. These
people have gone to America from nearly every nation on earth; but the
different races have become one strong American people by reason of a
common interest in the good government of their country, and a common
desire for its welfare. Each State has its own life and government, but
all are united to form the great country of which each is a part, and to
support the Federal Government which binds the States together.
When the Filipino people have learned thus to stand together, a new day
will dawn for these islands. When the people all speak one language, and
when young and old can read and write that language, the country will be
more united, and will begin to know something of that national life
which other countries enjoy. The people will then be united; they will
know how to govern their land wisely and justly. They will understand,
as they have not done before, the relation one nation bears to others in
the world, and will be able to develop the great wealth of their
country.
The two great tribes of Malay Filipinos are the Tagals and the Visayans.
The Tagals live in southern Luzon, the Visayans in the group of islands
called the Visayas, which lie south of Luzon and north of Mindanao.
There are, besides, many lesser peoples in the islands, so that, as we
have seen, there could be no common national life.
The tribes were governed by great chiefs or kings, who ruled through
small chiefs and dattos. Each of these was at the head of about a
hundred families whom he stood for in the tribal council, and for whom
he was spokesman before the great chief. The small chief was called the
head of a hundred. It was a simple, but effective, form of government,
and suited the people. Legaspi and Salcedo made no changes in it, except
to declare the king of Spain the ruler of all the tribes. They had the
great chiefs swear loyalty to Spain, and then left them to govern for
the king.
[Illustration:
ANCIENT ALPHABETS IN USE IN THE ARCHIPELAGO WHEN THE SPANISH CAME.
Among the Moros of Mindanao and Sulu there are still in use words that
were obsolete in the Arabic in the time of Mohammed.
]
[Illustration:
NEGRITOS IN A PRAHU.
]
Later, however, when Legaspi and Salcedo were gone, many evils crept in.
The great chiefs were put out of power, and little by little
self-government was taken from the people. They came at last to have no
voice in the ordering of their own lives, and no one to speak for them
to their unknown ruler in Spain.
_Summary._—The Philippine Islands are believed to be part of a great
continent that once lay in the South Pacific Ocean. This continent
sank. Afterwards a slow upheaval brought the islands up from the sea.
The Aetas, or Negritos, were the earliest inhabitants of the country.
The Indonesians of Mindanao are also aborigines. The Igorrotes are a
wild tribe of Luzon and the Visayas, who have from the first been
enemies of Spain. The Spanish treated them cruelly and won their
hatred. The civilized Filipinos are of Malay origin, and came here
from the Malay Peninsula. Those who settled in Mindanao were converted
to the Mohammedan faith in the twelfth or thirteenth century by
Arabian missionaries; and they are called Moros. The people of the
islands are broken up into many tribes, and this has hindered their
becoming a united people. The tribal form of government was simple,
and so well suited to the country that Legaspi made little change in
it. The Spanish who came after him, however, took all self-government
from the people.
_Questions._—What are we taught of the origin of the Philippine
Islands? Who are the aborigines? What is the origin of the civilized
Filipinos? How did the Moslem faith come into the country? Describe
the early form of government.
[Illustration]