CHAPTER XXVI.

ADMINISTRATION OF McKINLEY (CONTINUED) 1897-1901.

OUR NEW POSSESSIONS.

The Islands of Hawaii--Their Inhabitants and Products--City of Honolulu--History of Cuba--The Ten Years' War--The Insurrection of 1895-98--Geography and Productions of Cuba--Its Climate--History of Porto Rico--Its People and Productions--San Juan and Ponce--Location, Discovery, and History of the Philippines--Insurrections of the Filipinos--City of Manila--Commerce--Philippine Productions--Climate and Volcanoes--Dewey at Manila--The Ladrone Islands--Conclusion.

THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS "THE PARADISE OF THE PACIFIC."

The annexation of the Hawaiian Islands to the United States, by a joint vote of Congress, July 7, 1898, marks a new era in the history of our country. It practically sounded the death-knell of the conservative doctrine of non-expansion beyond our own natural physical boundaries. The only precedent approaching this act, in our history, is the annexation of Texas. The Louisiana Territory, Florida, and Alaska were acquired by purchase; California, New Mexico, and a part of Colorado were obtained by cession from Mexico; Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Idaho by treaty with Great Britain. Texas alone was annexed. The fact, however, that it was a republic is the only circumstance which makes its case analogous to that of Hawaii. Texas lay between two large nations, and was obliged to seek union with one of them. It was within our own continent and inhabited largely by our own people. Hawaii marks our first advance into foreign lands, and ranges America for the first time among the nations whose policy is that of expansion, by territorial extensions, over the globe.

Hawaii is called the "Paradise of the Pacific," and there is little doubt that its climate, fertility and healthfulness justify the name. It is one of the few spots upon earth where one can almost, to use a slang phrase, "touch the button" and obtain any kind of weather he desires. Mark Twain's suggestion to those who go to these islands to find a congenial clime is about as practical as it is humorous--"Select your climate, mark your thermometer at the temperature desired, and climb until the mercury stops there." Everyone who visits Hawaii is charmed with the country, and never forgets its novelty, stupendous and delightful scenery, clear atmosphere, gorgeous sunlight, and profusion of fruits and flowers.

"No alien land in all the world," writes Mr. Clemens, "could so longingly and beseechingly haunt me, sleeping and waking, through half a life-time, as that has done. Other things leave me, but that abides. Other things change, but that remains the same. For me its balmy airs are always blowing; its summer seas flash in the sun; the pulsing of its surf beats in my ear; I can see its garlanded crags, its leaping cascades, its plumy palms drowsing by the shore, its remote summits floating like islands above the cloud rack; I can feel the spirit of its woodland solitudes; I can hear the splash of its brooks; in my nostrils still lives the breath of flowers that perished twenty years ago."

DISCOVERY AND LOCATION.

Captain Cook discovered the islands in January, 1778, and named them the Sandwich Islands, after Lord Sandwich; but the native name, Hawaii, is more generally used. There is good evidence that Juan Gaetano, in the year 1555--223 years before Cook's visit--landed upon their shores. Old Spanish charts and the traditions of the natives bear out this theory, but they were not made known to the world until Cook visited them. It is popularly believed that the original inhabitants of Hawaii came from New Zealand, though that island is some 4,000 miles southwest of them. The physical appearance of the people is very similar, and their languages are so much alike that a native Hawaiian and a native New Zealander, meeting for the first time, can carry on a conversation. Their ideas of the Deity and some of their religious customs are nearly the same. That the islands have been peopled for a long time is proven by the fact that human bones are found under lava beds and coral reefs where geologists declare they have lain for at least thirteen hundred years.

There are eight inhabited islands in the archipelago, Hawaii, Maui, Kahoolawi, Lanai, Molokai, Oahu, Kauai, and Niihau, comprising an area of 6,700 square miles, a little less than that of the State of New Jersey, and about five hundred miles greater than the combined areas of Rhode Island and Connecticut. They extend from northwest to southeast, over a distance of about 380 miles, the several islands being separated by channels varying in width from six to sixty miles. They lie entirely within the tropics, not far from a direct line between San Francisco and Japan, 2,080 miles from San Francisco, which is nearer to them than any other point of land, except one of the Carolines. The largest and most southern island is Hawaii, which has given its name to the group.

THE HIGHEST AND LARGEST VOLCANOES.

The entire archipelago is of volcanic origin, but there are no active craters to be found at the present time, except two, on the island of Hawaii. Mauna Loa is the highest volcano in the world, being nearly 14,000 feet above the sea. It has an immense crater; but, while it still sends forth smoke and has a lake of molten lava at the bottom, there have been no eruptions for a number of years. Kilauea, the largest active volcano on the globe, is about sixteen miles from Mauna Loa, on one of its foothills, 4,000 feet above the sea, and is in a constant state of activity. Its last great eruption occurred in 1894. This volcano was described by the missionary Ellis in the year 1823, and hundreds of tourists visit it every year. Its crater is nine miles in circumference and several hundred feet deep. Under the conduct of competent guides the tourists descend into the crater and walk over the cool lava in places, while near them the hot flame and molten lava are spouting to the height of hundreds of feet.

The largest extinct volcano in the archipelago is on the island of Maui, the bottom of the crater measuring sixteen square miles. All of these stupendous volcanic mountains rise so gently on the western side that horsemen easily ride to their summits.

INHABITANTS OF THE ISLANDS.

When Cook visited Hawaii, he found the islands inhabited, according to his estimate, by 400,000 natives. Forty years later when the census was taken there were 142,000. These diminished one-half during the next fifty years, and the native population of the islands in 1897 was only 31,019. The total population by the last census, when the islands became a part of the United States, was 109,020, made up, in addition to the natives mentioned, of 24,407 Japanese, 21,616 Chinese, 12,191 Portuguese, and 3,086 Americans. The remainder were half-castes from foreign intermarriage with the natives, together with a small representation from England, Germany, and other European countries.

That the original Hawaiians must soon become extinct as a pure race is evident, though they have never been persecuted or maltreated. They are a handsome, strong-looking people, with a rich dark complexion, jet black eyes, wavy hair, full voluptuous lips, and teeth of snowy whiteness; but they are constitutionally weak, easily contract and quickly succumb to disease, and the only hope of perpetuating their blood seems to lie in mixing it by intermarriage with other races.

OLD TIMES IN HAWAII.

Prior to 1795, all the islands had separate kings, but in that and the following year the great king of Hawaii, Kamehameha, with cannon that he procured from Vancouver's ships, assaulted and subjugated all the surrounding kings, and since that time the islands have been under one government. Previous to this, the natives had been at war, according to their traditions, for three hundred years. The fierceness of their hand-to-hand conflicts, as described by their historians, has probably not been surpassed by those of any other people in the world. The four descendants of Kamehameha reigned until 1872, when the last of his line died childless. A new king was elected, who died within a year, and another was then elected by the people. It was to this last line that Queen Liliuokalani belonged, and she was deposed by the revolution of 1893, led by the American and European residents upon the islands. These patriots set up a provisional government and made repeated application for admission to the United States, the tender of the islands being finally accepted by a joint vote of Congress on July 7, 1898, since which time the Hawaiian Islands have been a part of our country.

The manners and customs of the native Hawaiians are most interesting, but space forbids a description of them here. Their religion was a gross form of idolatry, with many gods. Human sacrifice was freely practiced. They deified dead chiefs and worshiped their bones. The great king, Kamehameha I., though an idolater, was a most progressive monarch, and invited Vancouver, who went there in 1794, taking swine, cattle, sheep, and horses, together with oranges and other valuable plants, to bring over teachers and missionaries to teach his people "the white man's religion."

THE WORK OF AMERICAN MISSIONARIES.

But it was not until 1820, after the death of the great king, that the first missionaries arrived, and they came from America. The year previous, in 1819, Kamehameha II. had destroyed many of the temples and idols and forbidden idol worship in the islands; consequently, when the missionaries arrived they beheld the unprecedented spectacle of a nation without a religion. The natives were rapidly converted to Christianity. It was these American missionaries who first reduced the Hawaiian language to writing, established schools and taught the natives. As a result of their work, the Hawaiians are the most generally educated people, in the elementary sense, in the world. There is hardly a person in the islands, above the age of eight years, who cannot read and write. In spite of education, however, many of the ancient superstitions still exist, and some of the old stone temples are yet standing. What the United States will do with these heathen temples remains to be seen. The natives revere them as relics of their savage history, and as such they may be preserved.

Aside from the horrors of superstitions, the Hawaiians lead a happy life, full of amusements of various kinds on the land and water--for Hawaiian men, women and children live much of their time in the water. Infants are often taught the art of swimming before they can walk. The surf riding or swimming of the natives astonished Captain Cook more than any of their remarkable performances. The time selected was when a storm was tossing the waves high and the surf was furious. Then the men and women would dive through the surf, with narrow boards about nine inches wide and eight feet long, and, swimming a mile or more out to sea, mount on the crest of a huge billow, and sitting, kneeling or standing, with wild gesticulations, ride over the waves and breakers like gods or demons of the storm. This practice has now ceased to be indulged in. But the swimming of the Kanaka boys, who flock around incoming steamers, and dive after and catch coins which tourists throw into the water, like so many ducks diving after corn, shows what a degree of perfection the natatorial art has attained among the native Hawaiians. Sledging down the mountain sides, boxing, and tournament riding are other popular amusements; and, with the exception of boxing, the women compete with the men in the amusements.

PRODUCTS AND COMMERCE.

Sugar is king in Hawaii as wheat is in the Northwest. In 1890 there were 19,000 laborers--nearly one-fifth of the total population--engaged on sugar plantations. Ten tons to the acre have been raised on the richest lands. The average is over four tons per acre, but it requires from eighteen to twenty months for a crop to mature. Rice growing is also an important industry. It is raised in marsh lands, and nearly all the labor is done by Chinese, though they do not own the land. Coffee is happily well suited to the soil that is unfitted for sugar and rice, and the Hawaiian coffee is particularly fine, combining the strength of the Java with a delicate flavor of its own.

Diversified farming is coming more into vogue. Fruit raising will undoubtedly become one of the most important branches when fast steamers are provided for its transportation. Sheep and cattle raising must also prove profitable, since the animals require little feeding and need no housing.

"Almost all kinds of vegetables and fruits can be raised, many of those belonging to the temperate zones thriving on the elevated mountain slopes. Fruit is abundant; the guava grows wild in all the islands, and were the manufacture of jelly made from it carried on, on a large scale, the product could doubtless be exported with profit. Both bananas and pineapples are prolific, and there are many fruits and vegetables, which as yet have been raised only for local trade, which would, if cultivated for export, bring in rich returns.

"Of the total exports from the Hawaiian Islands in 1895, the United States received 99.04 per cent., and in the same year 79.04 per cent. of the imports to the islands were from the United States. The total value of the sugar sent to the United States in 1896 was $14,932,010; of rice, $194,903; of coffee, $45,444; and of bananas, $121,273."

THE CHIEF CITY.

Honolulu, the capital city, is to Hawaii what Havana is to Cuba, or better, what Manila is to the Philippine Islands. Here are concentrated the business, political and social forces that control the life and progress of the entire archipelago. This city of 30,000 inhabitants is situated on the south coast of Oahu, and extends up the Nuuanu Valley. It is well provided with street-car lines--which also run to a bathing resort four miles outside the city--a telephone system, electric lights, numerous stores, churches and schools, a library of over 10,000 volumes, and frequent steam communication with San Francisco. There are papers published in the English, Hawaiian, Portuguese, Japanese, and Chinese languages, and a railroad is being built, of which thirty miles along the coast are already completed. Honolulu has also a well-equipped fire department and public water-works. The residence portions of the city are well laid out, the houses, many of which are very handsome, being surrounded by gardens kept green throughout the year. The climate is mild and even, and the city is a delightful and a beautiful place of residence. Hawaii is peculiarly an agricultural country, and Honolulu gains its importance solely as a distributing centre or depot of supplies. Warehouses, lumber yards, and commercial houses abound, but there is a singular absence of mills and factories and productive establishments. There are no metals or minerals, or as yet, textile plants or food plants, whose manufacture is undertaken in this unique city.

The Hawaiian Islands are, without question, on the threshold of a great industrial era, fraught with most potent results to the prosperity and development of that land. Its climate is delightful and healthful, and its soil so fertile that it will easily support 5,000,000 people.

OUR NEW POSSESSIONS (CONTINUED).

CUBA, "THE CHILD OF OUR ADOPTION."

Although Cuba is not a part or a possession of the United States, it has since the war with Spain, in 1898, come under the protection of this government, and is, therefore, entitled to a place in this volume. In the hand of Providence, this island became the doorway to America. It was here that Columbus landed, October 28, 1492. True, he touched earlier at one of the smaller islands to the north; but it was merely a halting before pushing on to Cuba. "Juana" Columbus called the island, in honor of Isabella's infant son. Afterward it was successively known as Fernandina, Santiago, and Ave Maria; but the simple natives, who were there to the number of 350,000, called it _Cooba_, and this name prevailed over the Spanish titles, as the island has finally prevailed over Spanish domination, and it has come under the protection of America with its Indian name, slightly changed to _Cuba_, remaining as the sole and only heritage we have of the simple aborigines who have utterly perished from the face of the earth under Spanish cruelty.

In 1494 Columbus visited Cuba a second time, and once again in 1502. In 1511 Diego Columbus, the son of the great discoverer, with a colony of between three and four hundred Spaniards, came, and in 1514 he founded the towns of Santiago and Trinidad. Five years later, in 1519, the present capital Havana, or _Habana_, was founded. The French reduced the city in 1538, practically demolishing the whole town. Under the governor, De Soto, it was rebuilt and fortified, the famous Morro Castle and the Punta, which are still standing, being built at that early date.

THE ORIGINAL INHABITANTS.

The natives, whom Columbus found in Cuba, were agreeable in feature, and so amiable in disposition that they welcomed the white man with open arms, and, besides contributing food, readily gave up their treasures to please the Spaniards. Unlike the warlike cannibal tribes of the Lesser Antilles, known as the Caribs, they lived in comparative peace with one another, and had a religion which recognized the Supreme Being. Columbus held several conferences with these simple natives, who numbered, according to his estimate, from 350,000 to half a million souls, and his associations and dealings with them on his first visit were always friendly and of a mutually pleasing nature. But when he returned to Spain he left soldiers, who brutally maltreated them, until the natives rose in revolt and exterminated every white man. Even Columbus himself, in 1494, had to fight the Indians at the landing-place.

A salubrious climate, a fertile soil, and simple wants rendered it unnecessary for the native to do hard work; and although it is well proven that he did mine copper and traded in it with the mound builders of Florida, yet the native was not accustomed to arduous toil, and rebelled against it. This, perhaps, was unfortunate, for the perpetuity of his race at that time depended upon this very quality. The Spanish "friend" who came to the island was incapable of work. He neither would nor could, under his ethics of self-respect, abase himself to labor, so he proceeded to enslave the native to labor for him. The Cuban rebelled, and fled before the superior Spanish weapons from the coasts to the mountain fastnesses of the interior.

EXTERMINATION OF THE NATIVES.

Then began that cruel and long-continued war of extermination, of which history has recorded the most shocking details. The conquest was begun under Diego Columbus, the son of the great discoverer. The merciless Velasquez was his general, and the frightful cruelties which he inaugurated upon the simple natives have been continued for nearly four hundred years by his successors in the island, though the annihilation of the aboriginal tribes themselves was a brief and bloody work. Velasquez rode them down and trampled them--regardless of age or sex--under the iron hoofs of his war-horses, slashed them with swords, devastated their villages, and bore them away into slavery. The Cuban had no weapons; the mountain fastnesses could not hide him from his relentless pursuer. African slaves, who were brought to the island in Spanish ships, were armed and forced by their masters to chase the natives, and not a forest or mountain top was a place of refuge for these doomed children of the soil. One historian declares: "There is little doubt that before 1560 the whole of this native population had disappeared from the island. They were so completely exterminated that it is doubtful if the blood of their race was even remotely preserved in the mixed classes who followed African and Chinese introduction."

A PERIOD OF REST.

For nearly two hundred years after the extermination of the natives, Cuba rested without a struggle in the arms of Spain. The early settlers engaged almost wholly in pastoral pursuits. Tobacco was indigenous to the soil, and in 1580 the Cuban planters began its culture. Later, sugar-cane was imported from the Canaries, and found to be a fruitful and profitable crop. The beginning of the culture of sugar demanded more laborers, and the importation of additional slaves was the result. In 1717, Spain attempted to make a monopoly of the tobacco culture, and the first Cuban revolt occurred. In 1723 a second uprising took place, because of an oppressive government; but these early revolts against tyranny were insignificant as compared with those of the last half-century.

In 1762, the city of Havana was captured by the English, with an expedition commanded by Lord Albemarle, but his fighting troops were principally Americans under the immediate command of Generals Phineas Lyman and Israel Putnam of Revolutionary fame. The story of Putnam's command in this war is thrilling and sad. After first suffering shipwreck and many hardships in reaching the island, they lay before Havana, where Spanish bullets and fever almost annihilated the whole command. Scarcely more than one in fifty lived to return to America. By the Treaty of Paris, 1763, Cuba was unfortunately restored to Spain, and it was afterward that her troubles with the "Mother Country," as Spain affectionately called herself to all her provinces, began. The hand of oppression for one and a quarter centuries relaxed not its grasp, and year by year grew heavier and more galling.

DISCONTENT AND INSURRECTIONS.

Some of the most prolific seeds of modern revolutions may be said to have been sown when the African slave trade assumed important proportions, in 1791. About the same time began a large importation of Chinese coolies, for which Cuba paid a bounty of $400 apiece to the importer. These coolies bound themselves to the Spaniards for eight years, for which they were paid $4.00 per month as wages. The new influx of labor and the coming of Las Casas as Captain-General to Cuba, in 1790, mark the beginning of Cuba's great period of prosperity. This enterprising ruler introduced numerous public improvements, established botanical gardens and schools of agriculture, with a view to developing and increasing Cuba's resources and commercial importance. Owing to his wise administration, Cuba prospered and remained undisturbed for a long while. An insurrection occurred among the slaves in 1812, which was promptly put down with characteristic cruelty, and the blacks remained "good niggers" for a third of a century. By the year 1844, the slave trade with Cuba had grown to enormous proportions. In that year alone, statistics tell us, 10,000 slaves were landed from Africa upon the island. Another wild and fanatical insurrection occurred the same year among them, which, as before, ended in failure. Seventy-eight of the rebels were shot, and many otherwise punished. By 1850, the slaves had so multiplied and the importation had been so large that the census showed there were nearly 500,000 on the island.

Meantime, in 1823 and 1827, insurrections were attempted on the part of the Creoles (descendants of Spanish and French settlers) and other free Cubans. They failed, and the blood of the martyrs was seed in the ground. Revolutionist and enslaved insurrectionist gradually drifted together. They had a common cause--to struggle for freedom against oppression. The bondsman was little or no worse off than the Creoles, Chinese coolies, and free negroes--all native-born Cubans were shut out from the enjoyment of true citizenship. They must do the work and pay the tribute, but Spaniards, born in Spain, were alone allowed to hold office of profit or trust under the government; and they looked with inexpressible contempt upon the rest of the population, and, with the backing of the army, preserved their domination in spite of their inferior numbers. The governor-general was appointed from Spain and held office from three to five years, and was expected to steal or extort himself rich in that time. It is said not one governor-general ever failed to do so.

THE TEN YEARS' WAR.

The first long and determined struggle of the oppressed people of Cuba for liberty began in 1868. In that year a revolution broke out in Spain, and the patriots seized the opportunity, while the mother country was occupied at home, for an heroic effort to liberate themselves. They rose first at Yara, in the district of Bayamo, and on October 10th of that year made a declaration of independence. Eight days later the city of Bayamo was taken by the patriots, and early in November they defeated a force sent against them from Santiago. The majority of the South American republics hastened to recognize the Cubans as belligerents; but--though they held their own in guerrilla warfare against the Spanish forces for ten years, fighting in the forests and bravely resisting all the efforts of Spain to subdue them--there was not one great power in the world willing to extend to the patriots the recognition of belligerent rights. The cruelty of the Spaniards toward the soldiers they captured, and to all inhabitants who sympathized with the patriots' cause, was equaled only by the courage, fortitude, and exalted patriotism which animated their victims. The following instances, selected from scores that might be cited, are given in the Spaniards' own words, translated, _verbatim_, into English:

SPANISH TESTIMONY OF HORRORS PRACTICED.

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

"We captured seventeen, thirteen of whom were shot outright; on dying they shouted, 'Hurrah for free Cuba! hurrah for independence!' A mulatto said, 'Hurrah for Cespedes!' On the following day we killed a Cuban officer and another man. Among the thirteen that we shot the first day were found three sons and their father; the father witnessed the execution of his sons without even changing color, and when his turn came he said he died for the independence of his country. On coming back we brought along with us three carts filled with women and children, the families of those we had shot; and they asked us to shoot them, because they would rather die than live among Spaniards."

Pedro Fardon, another officer, who entered entirely into the spirit of the service he honored, writes on September 22, 1869:

"Not a single Cuban will remain in this island, because we shoot all those we find in the fields, on the farms, and in every hovel."

And, again, on the same day, the same officer sends the following good news to his old father:

"We do not leave a creature alive where we pass, be it man or animal. If we find cows, we kill them; if horses, ditto; if hogs, ditto; men, women, or children, ditto; as to the houses, we burn them: so every one receives his due--the men in balls, the animals in bayonet-thrusts. The island will remain a desert."

These atrocities were perpetrated not alone by the common soldier. In fact, the above reports come from men who were officers in the Spanish army, and they show that such actions were approved by the highest authority. A well-authenticated account assures us that General Count Balmaceda himself went on one occasion to the home of a patriot family, Mora by name, to arrest or kill the patriots he had heard were stopping there; but, finding the men all absent, he wreaked his vengeance and thirst for blood by butchering the two Mora sisters and burning the house over their bodies.

PEACE AND FAIR PROMISES.

At last, Spain, seeing that she could neither induce the Cubans to surrender nor draw them into a decisive battle; and finding, furthermore, that her army of 200,000 men was likely to be annihilated by death, disease, and patriot bullets, made overtures, which, by promising many privileges to the people that they had not before enjoyed, effected a peace. As a result of this war, slavery was abolished in the island; but Spain's promises for fair and equitable government were repudiated, and the civil powers became more extortionate and severe than ever. This war laid a heavy debt upon Spain, and Cuba was taxed inordinately. The people soon saw that they had been duped. The world looked upon Cuba and Spain as at peace. To the outsider the surface was placid, but underneath "the waters were troubled." Such heroic spirits as Generals Calixto Garcia, Jose Marti, Antonio Maceo, and Maximo Gomez, leaders in the ten years' struggle, still lived, though scattered far apart, and in their hearts bore a load of righteous wrath against their treacherous foe. While such men lived and such conditions existed another conflict was inevitable.

THE LAST GREAT STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM.

It was on February 24, 1895, that the last revolution of the Cuban patriots began. Spain had heard the mutterings of the coming storm, and hoped to stay it by visiting with severe punishment every Cuban suspected of patriotic affiliations. Antonio Maceo, a mulatto, but a man of fortune and education, a veteran of the ten years' war, and a Cuban by birth, was banished to San Domingo. There were other exiles in Key West, New York, and elsewhere. Jose Marti was the leading spirit in forming the Cuban Junta in New York and organizing revolutionary clubs among Cubans everywhere. Antonio Maceo was the first of the old leaders in the field. He went secretly to Cuba and began organizing the insurrectionists, and when war was declared the flag of the new republic, bearing a lone white star in a red field, was flung to the breeze. Captain-General Calleja declared martial law in the insurgents' vicinity, and troops were hastily summoned and sent from Spain. The revolutionists from the start fought by guerrilla methods of warfare, dashing upon the unsuspecting Spanish towns and forces, and escaping to the mountains before the organized Spaniards could retaliate.

Jose Marti and Jose Maceo--brother of the general--were prompt to join the active forces, and on April 13, 1895, General Maximo Gomez, a native of San Domingo, came over and was made commander of the insurgent forces. This grizzled old hero, with nearly seventy years behind him, was at once an inspiration and a host within himself. An army of 6,000 men was ready for his command, and the revolution took on new life and began in all its fury. On May 19th the insurgents met their first great disaster, when Jose Marti was led into an ambush and killed. But his blood was like a seed planted, from which thousands of patriots sprang up for the ranks. Within a few days there were 10,000 ill-armed but determined men in the field. They had no artillery, nearly half were without guns, and there was little ammunition for those who were armed.

THE PLANS OF CAMPOS THWARTED.

In April, 1895, Captain-General Calleja was replaced by Martinez Campos, the commander in the preceding war, and one of the ablest of the Spanish generals. He sought to conciliate the people and alleviate the prevailing distress, but the rebels in arms had lost all faith in Spanish honor, while the veteran Gomez proved so wily that Campos could neither capture him nor force him into an engagement. Everywhere Gomez marched he gathered new patriots. Near the city of Bayamo, Maceo attacked Campos, and the Spanish commander barely escaped with his life. He was besieged in Bayamo, and had to stay there until 10,000 soldiers were sent to escort him home. That was the last of Campos' fighting. By August, Spain had spent $21,300,000 and lost 20,000 men by death, and 39,000 additional soldiers had been brought into the island, 25,000 of them the flower of the Spanish army, and she was also forced to issue $120,000,000 bonds, which she sold at a great sacrifice, to carry on the war.

The patriots met September 13, 1895, at Camaguey and formed their government by adopting a constitution and electing a president and other state officers. This body formally conferred upon Gomez the commission of commander-in-chief of the army. Before the close of the month, there were 30,000 rebels in the field. Spanish war-ships patroled the coast, but the insurgents held the whole interior of Santiago province, and government forces dared not venture away from the sea. The same was true of Santa Clara and Puerto Principe. Matanzas was debatable ground; but Gomez made bold raids into the very vicinity of Havana. Spain continued to increase her army, till by the year 1898 it numbered about 200,000 men.

As if the cup of Cuba's sorrow were not sufficiently bitter, or her long-suffering patriots had not drunk deep enough of its gall, General Campos was recalled, and General Valeriano Weyler (nicknamed "The Butcher") arrived in February, 1896. He promptly inaugurated the most bitter and inhuman policy in the annals of modern warfare. It began with a campaign of intimidation, in which his motto was "Subjugation or Death." He established a system of espionage that was perfect, and the testimony of the spy was all the evidence he required. He heeded no prayer and knew no mercy. His prisons overflowed with suspected patriots, and his sunrise executions, every morning, made room for others. It was thus that General Weyler carried on the war from his palace against the unarmed natives, his 200,000 soldiers seldom securing a shot at the insurgents, who were continually bushwhacking them with deadly effect, while yellow fever carried them off by the thousands. How many lives Weyler sacrificed in that dreadful year will never be known. How many suspects he frightened into giving him all their gold for mercy and then coldly shot for treason, no record will disclose; but the crowded, unmarked graves on the hillside outside Havana are mute but eloquent witnesses of his infamy.

Under these conditions, Gomez declared that all Cubans must take sides. They must be for or against. It was no time for neutrals and there could be no neutral ground, so he boldly levied forced contributions upon planters unfavorable to his cause, and extended protection to those who befriended the patriots. Exasperated by Weyler's atrocities upon non-combatant patriots, he dared to destroy or confiscate the property of Spanish sympathizers.

THE DEATH OF GENERAL MACEO.

On the night of December 4, 1896, the insurgents suffered an irreparable loss in the death of General Maceo, who was led into an ambush and killed, it is believed, through the treachery of his staff physician. Eight brothers of Maceo had previously given their lives for Cuban freedom.

At the close of 1896, the island was desolate to an extreme perhaps unprecedented in modern times. The country was laid waste and the cities were starving. Under the pretext of protecting them, Weyler gathered the non-combatants into towns and stockades, and it is authoritatively stated that 200,000 men, women, and children of the "reconcentrados," as they were called, died of disease and starvation. The insurgents remained masters of the island except along the coasts. The only important incident of actual warfare was the capture of Victoria de las Tunas, in Santiago province, by General Garcia at the head of 3,000 men, after three days' fighting. In this battle the Spanish commander lost his life and forty per cent. of his troops were killed or wounded; the rest surrendered to Garcia, and the rebels secured by their victory 1,000 rifles, 1,000,000 rounds of ammunition, and two Krupp guns.

In the spring of 1898 the United States intervened. The story of our war with Spain for Cuba's freedom is elsewhere related.

Spain has paid dearly for her supremacy in Cuba during the last third of the nineteenth century. Notwithstanding the fact that the revenue from Cuba for several years prior to the Ten Years' War of 1868-78 amounted to $26,000,000 annually--about $18 for every man, woman, and child in the island--$20,000,000 of it was absorbed in Spain's official circles at Havana, and "the other $6,000,000 that the Spanish government received," says one historian, "was hardly enough to pay transportation rates on the help that the mother country had to send to her army of occupation." Consequently, despite this enormous tax, a heavy debt accumulated on account of the island, even before the Ten Years' War began.

FEARFUL COST OF THE WAR.

At the close of the Ten Years' War (1878) Spain had laid upon the island a public debt of $200,000,000, and required her to raise $39,000,000 of revenue annually, an average at that time of nearly $30 per inhabitant. But Spain's own debt had, also, increased to nearly $2,000,000,000, and during this Ten Years' War she had sent 200,000 soldiers and her favorite commanders to the island, only about 50,000 of whom ever returned. According to our Consular Report of July, 1898, when the last revolution began, 1895, the Cuban debt had reached $295,707,264. The interest on this alone imposed a burden of $9.79 per annum upon each inhabitant. During the war, Spain had 200,000 troops in the island, and the three and one-half years' conflict cost her the loss of nearly 100,000 lives, mostly from sickness, and, as yet, unknown millions of dollars. The real figures of the loss of life and treasure seem incredible when we consider that Cuba is not larger than our State of Pennsylvania, and that her entire population at the beginning of the war was about one-fourth that of the State named, or a little less than that of the city of Chicago alone. Yet Spain, with an army larger than the combined northern and southern forces at the battle of Gettysburg, was unable to overcome the insurgents, who had never more than one-fourth as many men enlisted. But she harassed, tortured, and starved to death within three years, perhaps, over 500,000 non-combatant citizens in her attempt to subjugate the patriots, and was in a fair way to depopulate the whole island when the United States at last intervened to succor them.

THE FUTURE OF THE ISLAND.

What the future of Cuba may be under new conditions of government remains to be seen. Certainly, in all the world's history few sadder or more devastated lands have gathered their remnants of population upon the ashes of their ruins and turned a hopeful face to the future.

But the soil, the mineral and the timber not even Spanish tyranny could destroy; and in these lie the hope, we might say the sure guarantee, of Cuba's future. In wealth of resources and fertility of soil, Cuba is superior to all other tropical countries, and these fully justify its right to the title "Pearl of the Antilles," first given it by Columbus. Under a wise and secure government, its possibilities are almost limitless. Owing to its location at the entrance of the Gulf of Mexico, which it divides into the Yucatan and Florida channels, on the south and north, the island has been termed the "Key to the Gulf of Mexico," and on its coat of arms is emblazoned a key, as if to imply its ability to open or close this great sea to the commerce of the world.

Cuba extends from east to west 760 miles, is 21 miles wide in its narrowest part and 111 miles in the widest, with an average width of 60 miles. It has numerous harbors, which afford excellent anchorage. The area of the island proper is 41,655 square miles (a little larger than the State of Ohio); and including the Isle of Pines and other small points around its entire length, numbering in all some 1,200, there are 47,278 square miles altogether in Cuba and belonging to it. The island is intersected by broken ranges of mountains, which gradually increase in height from west to east, where they reach an elevation of nearly 8,000 feet. The central and western portions of the island are the most fertile, while the principal mineral deposits are in the mountains of the eastern end. In Matanzas and other central provinces, the well-drained, gently sloping plains, diversified by low, forest-clad hills, are especially adapted to sugar culture, and the country under normal conditions presents the appearance of vast fields of cane. The western portion of the island is also mountainous, but the elevations are not great, and in the valleys and along the fertile slopes of this district is produced the greater part of the tobacco for which the island is famous.

FERTILITY OF SOIL AND ITS PRODUCTS.

The soil of the whole island seems well-nigh inexhaustible. Except in tobacco culture, fertilizers are never used. In the sugar districts are found old canefields that have produced annual crops for a hundred years without perceptible impoverishment of the soil. Besides sugar and tobacco, the island yields Indian corn, rice, manioc (the plant from which tapioca is prepared), oranges, bananas, pineapples, mangoes, guava, and all other tropical fruits, with many of those belonging to the temperate zone. Raw sugar, molasses, and tobacco are the chief products, and, with fruits, nuts, and unmanufactured woods, form the bulk of exports, though coffee culture, formerly active, is now being revived, and its fine quality indicates that it must in time become one of the most important products of the island.

As a sugar country, Cuba takes first rank in the world. Mr. Gallon, the English Consul, in his report to his government in 1897 upon this Cuban crop, declared: "Of the other cane-sugar countries of the world, Java is the only one which comes within 50 per cent. of the amount of sugar produced annually in Cuba in normal times, and Java and the Hawaiian Islands are the only ones which are so generally advanced in the process of manufacture." Our own Consul, Hyatt, in his report of February, 1897, expresses the belief that Cuba is equal to supplying the entire demands of the whole western hemisphere with sugar--a market for 4,000,000 tons or more, and requiring a crop four times as large as the island has ever yet produced. Those who regard this statement as extravagant should remember that Cuba, although founded and settled more than fifty years before the United States, has nearly 14,000,000 acres of uncleared primeval forest-land, and is capable of easily supporting a population more than ten times that of the present. In fact, the Island of Java, not so rich as Cuba, and of very nearly the same area, with less tillable land, has over 22,000,000 inhabitants as against Cuba's--perhaps at this time--not more than 1,200,000 souls.

MINERAL AND TIMBER RESOURCES.

The mineral resources of Cuba are second in importance to its agricultural products. Gold and silver are not believed to exist in paying quantities, but its most valuable mineral, copper, seems to be almost inexhaustible. The iron and manganese mines, in the vicinity of Santiago, are of great importance, the ores being rated among the finest in the world. Deposits of asphalt and mineral oils are also found.

The third resource of Cuba in importance is its forest product. Its millions of acres of unbroken woodlands are rich in valuable hard woods, suitable for the finest cabinet-work and ship-building, and also furnish many excellent dye woods. Mahogany, cedar, rosewood, and ebony abound. The palm, of which there are thirty-odd species found in the island, is one of the most characteristic and valuable of Cuban trees.

CITIES AND COMMERCE.

The commerce of Cuba has been great in the past, but Spanish laws made it expensive and oppressive to the Cubans. Its location and resources, with wise government, assure to the island an enormous trade in the future. There are already four cities of marked importance to the commercial world: Havana with a population of 250,000, Santiago with 71,000, Matanzas with 29,000, and Cienfuegos with 30,000, are all seaport cities with excellent harbors, and all do a large exporting business. Add to these Cardenas with 25,000, Trinidad with 18,000, Manzanillo with 10,000, and Guantanamo and Baracoa, each with 7,000 inhabitants, we have an array of ten cities such as few strictly farming countries of like size possess. Aside from cigar and cigarette making, there is little manufacturing in Cuba; but fruit canneries, sugar refineries, and various manufacturing industries for the consumption of native products will rapidly follow in the steps of good government. Hence, in the field of manufacturing this island offers excellent inducements to capital.

SEASONS AND CLIMATE.

Like all tropical countries, Cuba has but two seasons, the wet and the dry. The former extends from May to October, June, July, and August being the most rainy months. The dry season lasts from November to May. This fact must go far toward making the island more and more popular as a winter health resort. The interior of the island is mountainous, and always pleasantly cool at night, while on the highlands the heat in the day is less oppressive than in New York and Pennsylvania during the hottest summer weather; consequently, when once yellow fever, which now ravages the coasts of the island on account of its defective sanitation, is extirpated, as it doubtless will be under the new order of things, Cuba will become the seat of many winter homes for wealthy residents of the United States. Even in the summer, the temperature seldom rises above 90 deg., while the average for the year is 77 deg. At no place, except in the extreme mountainous altitude, is it ever cold enough for frost.

THE EVACUATION OF HAVANA.

The complete transfer of authority in the island of Cuba from Spain to the United States took place on Sunday, January 1, 1899. At noon on that day Captain-General Castellanos and staff met the representatives of the United States in the hall of his palace, and with due formality and marked Spanish courtesy, in the name of the King and Queen Regent of Spain, delivered possession of Cuba to General Wade, head of the American Evacuation Committee, and he in turn transferred the same to General Brooke, who had been appointed by President McKinley as Military Governor of the Division of Cuba. No unpleasant incident marred the occasion. General Castellanos spoke with evident yet becoming emotion on so important an occasion. Three Cuban generals were present, who, at General Castellanos' request, were presented to him, and the Spaniard said, with marked grace and evident sincerity, "I am sorry, gentlemen, that we are enemies, being of the same blood;" to which one of the Cuban patriots courteously responded, with commendable charity, "We fought only for Cuba, and now that she is free we are no longer enemies."

The formal transfer had scarcely taken place within the palace hall when the flag of Spain was lowered from Morro Castle, Cabanas Fortress, and all the public buildings, and the stars and stripes instantly arose in its place on the flagpoles of these old and historic buildings. As its graceful folds floated gently out upon the breeze, the crowds from the streets cheered, the band played the most appropriate of all airs, while voices in many places in the throng, catching up the tune, sang the inspiring words of the "Star-Spangled Banner."

OUR NEW POSSESSIONS (CONTINUED).

BEAUTIFUL PORTO RICO.

It was in November of the year 1493, on his second voyage to the New World, that Columbus landed upon a strange island in quest of water for his ships. He found it in abundance, and called the place _Aquadilla_--the watering place. As he had done at Cuba the year before, the great discoverer held pleasant conferences with the natives, and with due ceremony took possession of the island for his benefactors and sovereigns--Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. From that day until it was ceded to the United States in 1898, as a result of the Spanish-American War, Porto Rico remained one of the most attractive and valuable of Spain's West Indian possessions.

The simple and friendly natives gladly welcomed their Spanish invaders, who, with the same promptness which was manifested in Cuba, proceeded to enslave and exterminate them. In 1510, Ponce de Leon founded the first settlement on the site of the present village of Puerto Viejo. The next year the noted invader founded San Juan, the present capital of the island. One of the most interesting sights of this old city to-day is the Casa Blanca, built at that period as the palatial residence of Ponce de Leon. It was there, perhaps, after he had finished his conquest of the island, that this famous old Spaniard listened to the wonderful story of the natives, who served him as slaves, concerning the mysterious country over the sea which had hidden in its forests a fountain wherein an old man might plunge and be restored to all the vigor of youth. It was there and thus, perhaps, while sitting at leisure in his palace, that de Leon planned the voyage in search of that "fountain of youth" which resulted in the discovery and exploration of Florida.

ANCIENT INHABITANTS.

As to the number of natives in Porto Rico when the Spaniards came old chroniclers differ. Some say there were 500,000, others 300,000. It is all surmise. Probably the latter figure is an over-estimate, for Cuba, more than ten times as large, was not thought to contain more than half a million inhabitants at most. A detailed account of their manners and customs was written by one of the early Spaniards, and part of it is translated by the British Consul, Mr. Bidwell, in his Consular Report of 1880. Some of the statements in this old book are most peculiar and interesting. Within the last forty years archaeologists have discovered many stone axes, spear-heads and knives, stone and clay images, and pieces of earthenware made by the aboriginal Porto Ricans, and these are preserved in the Smithsonian Institute at Washington, in Berlin, and elsewhere. It is curious that none of these remains had been found prior to 1856. On the banks of the Rio Grande there still stands, also, a rude stone monument, with strange designs carved upon its surface.

From the earliest times, the island, with its rich produce and commerce, was the prey of robbers. The fierce cannibal Caribs from the south made expeditions to it before the white men came; and for many decades after the Spanish conquest it suffered attacks from pirates by sea and brigands upon land, who found easy hiding within its deep forests.

ATTACKS AND INVASIONS BY FOREIGN FORCES.

In 1595, San Juan was sacked by the English under Drake, and again, three years later, by the Duke of Cumberland. In 1615, Baldwin Heinrich, a Dutchman, lost his life in an attack upon the governor's castle, and several of his ships were destroyed by a hurricane. The English failed to capture it, fifty-three years later; and Abercrombie tried it again in 1797, but had to give up the undertaking after a three days' siege. It was one hundred and one years after Abercrombie's siege before another hostile fleet appeared before and bombarded San Juan. That was done by Admiral Sampson, May 12, 1898, with the United States squadron of modern ironclad battleships and cruisers. In this engagement Morro Castle, which, though impregnable a hundred years before, was unable to withstand modern guns, and was in a large part reduced to ruins.

General Nelson A. Miles landed his United States troops on the island in July, 1898, and on the 12th of August, before he completed his conquest, hostilities were closed by the protocol of peace, and amid the rejoicing of the natives "Beautiful Porto Rico" became a province of the United States. The one and only attempt the Porto Ricans ever made to throw off the Spanish yoke was in 1820; but conditions for hiding from the soldiers were not so good as the Cubans enjoyed in their large island, and Spanish supremacy was completely re-established by 1823.

THE ISLAND AND ITS POPULATION.

Porto Rico is at once the most healthful and most densely populated island of the West Indies. It is almost rectangular in form--100 miles long and 36 broad. Its total area is about 3,600 square miles--a little larger than the combined areas of Rhode Island and Delaware. Its population, unlike that of Cuba, has greatly increased within the last fifty years. In 1830, it numbered 319,000; in 1887, 813,937--about 220 people to the square mile, a density which few States of the Union can equal. About half of its population are negroes or mulattoes, who were introduced by the Spaniards as slaves in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Among the people of European origin the most numerous are the Spaniards, with many Germans, Swedes, Danes, Russians, Frenchmen, Chuetos (descendants from the Moorish Jews), and natives of the Canary Islands. There are also a number of Chinese, while the Gibaros, or small land-holders and day-laborers of the country districts, are a curious old Spanish cross with the aboriginal Indian blood. In this class the aborigines are more fortunate than the original Cubans in having even a trace of their blood preserved.

The island is said to be capable of easily supporting three times its present population, the soil is so universally fertile and its resources are so well diversified. Though droughts occur in certain parts of the island, it is all extremely well watered, by more than one thousand streams, enumerated on the maps, and the dry sections have a system of irrigation which may be operated very effectually and with little expense. Of the 1,300 streams, forty-seven are considerable rivers.

TIMBER IN ABUNDANCE AND VARIETY.

Forests still cover all the elevated parts of the hill country of the interior, the inhabitants living mostly along the coast. The main need to set the interior teeming with a thrifty and healthy population is a system of good roads. The interior, with the exception of a few extensive savannas, is one vast expanse of rounded hills, covered with such rich soil that they may be cultivated to their summits. At present these forests are accessible only by mule tracks. "The timber of the island," says our official report, "comprises more than five hundred varieties of trees, and in the more elevated regions the vegetation of the temperate zones is not unknown. On the hills is found a luxuriant and diversified vegetation, tree-ferns and mountain palms being abundant. At a lower level grow many varieties of trees noted for their useful woods, such as the mahogany, cedar, walnut, and laurel. The mammee, guaiacum, and copal, besides other trees and shrubs valuable for their gum, flourish in all parts of the island. The coffee tree and sugar cane, both of which grow well at an altitude of a thousand feet or more, were introduced into the island--the former from Martinique in 1722, the latter from the Canaries, through Santo Domingo. Tobacco grows easily in the lowlands, while maize, pineapples, bananas, etc., are all prolific. The banana and plantain bear fruit within ten months after planting, and like the cocoa palm, live through an ordinary life-time."

MINERALS AND MINING.

"The mineral resources of the island," says our consul in his report, "have been very little developed, the only mineral industry of any importance being the salt works situated at Guanica, Salinas, and Cabo Rojo. Sulphides of copper and magnetic oxides of iron are found in large quantities, and formerly gold to a considerable extent was found in many of the streams. At present the natives still wash out nuggets by the crude process in use in the time of Ponce de Leon. Marble, carbonates, lignite, and amber are also present in varying quantities, and hot springs and mineral waters occur, the best known ones being at Coamo, near Santa Isabel."

COMMERCE.

The commerce of Porto Rico amounted, in 1896, to $36,624,120, exceeding the records of all previous years; the increase, no doubt, being largely due to the unsettled condition of Cuba. The value of the exports for the same year was, for the first time for more than a decade, slightly in excess of that of the imports; the former being valued at $18,341,430, the latter at $18,282,690. The chief exports from the island are agricultural products. The principal articles are sugar, coffee, molasses, and tobacco; while rice, wheat, flour, and manufactured articles are among the chief imports. The value of the sugar and molasses exported to the United States during the ten years from 1888 to 1897 made up 95 per cent. of the total value of the exports to that country. Fruits, nuts, and spices are also exported to a small extent. Of the non-agricultural exports the most important are perfumery and cosmetics; chemicals, drugs, and dyes; unmanufactured wood, and salt.

The leading article of import from the United States is wheat flour. Corn and meal, bread, biscuit, meats, dairy products, wood and its manufactures, iron, steel, etc., are also imported.

CITIES AND TOWNS.

San Juan, the capital, is situated on an island off the northern coast of the mainland, with which it is now connected by the San Antonio bridge. The city is a perfect specimen of a walled and fortified town, with Morro Castle crowning the promontory at the western extremity of the island. The population, including the inhabitants of Marina and Puerta de Tierra, as well as those within the city walls, was estimated in 1896 at 30,000, and consists largely of negroes and of mixed races. Owing to the lack of a good water supply, and the general unsanitary conditions which prevail, the city is unhealthy. The houses are all of two stories, the poorer inhabitants occupying the ground floor, while those better off live above them. There is no running water in the city, the inhabitants being dependent for their supply upon the rainfall which is caught on the flat roofs of the houses and stored in cisterns, and in dry seasons the supply is entirely exhausted. The city is built upon clay mixed with lime packed hard and impervious to water. Its manufactures are of small importance.

The city of Ponce, with a population of 37,500, and in commercial importance the second city of Porto Rico, is situated two miles from the coast in the southern part of the island. With an ample water supply conveyed to the city by an aqueduct it is, perhaps, the healthiest town on the island. Playa, its port, having a population of 5,000, is connected with it by a fine road.

The town of Arecibo, with a population of from 6,000 to 7,000, is situated on the northern coast of Porto Rico, and is the port for a district of some 30,000 inhabitants.

CLIMATE.

The climate of the island, though hot and humid, is healthful, except in marshy districts and in cities where sanitary rules are neglected. Yellow fever seldom occurs, and when it does it is confined to the unsanitary towns and their surroundings, never appearing far from the coasts. The thermometer does not fall below 50 deg. or rise above 90 deg. The heat is not so great as at Santiago, though the latter is one and a half degrees further north. As in Cuba, there are but two seasons, the rainy and the dry, the former lasting from July to December, the latter from January to the close of June. The delightful, dry and salubrious atmosphere of midwinter and spring, with its general healthfulness, promises to bring this island into prominence both as a resort for invalids and for homes to those who would escape the rigors of northern winters.

Porto Rico is an ideal lazy man's country, and the overworked American will, undoubtedly, come to make it more and more his Mecca for rest and recuperation. Even the interior feels the soft, salt air from the ocean. The people are kind-hearted, "easy-going," hospitable, and fond of amusement. Every environment conduces to the dismission of all worriment, to rest, sleep, and a happy-go-lucky state of mind.

OUR NEW POSSESSIONS (CONTINUED).

THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.

"Most bounteous here in her sea-girt lands, Nature stretches forth her hands,

* * * * *

And walks on gold and silver, and knows her power increased, Nor fears the tyrant longer--'Our Lady of the East.'"--_Stoddard_.

The most important, and by far the most interesting, as well as the least known of America's new possessions, gained by her war with Spain, are the Philippine Islands. Comparatively few Americans have ever set foot upon that far-away and semi-civilized land, the possession of which enables America to say with England, "The sun never sets upon our flag."

The Philippines lie almost exactly on the other side of the globe from us. Approximately speaking, our noonday is their midnight; our sunset is their sunrise. There are some 1,200 of these islands, 400 of which are inhabited or capable of supporting a population; they cover about 125,000 square miles; they lie in the tropical seas, generally speaking, from five to eighteen degrees north latitude, and are bounded by the China Sea on the west and the Pacific Ocean on the east; they are about 7,000 miles southwest from San Francisco, a little over 600 southeast from Hong Kong, China, and about 1,000 almost due north from Australia; they contain between 5,000,000 and 8,000,000 inhabitants, about one-third of whom had prior to Dewey's victory, May 1, 1898, acknowledged Spanish sovereignty to the extent of paying regular tribute to the Spanish crown; the remainder are bound together in tribes under independent native princes or Mohammedan rulers. Perhaps 2,500,000 all told have become nominal Catholics in religion. The rest are Mohammedans and idolaters. There are no Protestant churches in the islands.

THE STORY OF DISCOVERY.

It was twenty-nine years after Columbus discovered America that Magellan saw the Philippines, the largest archipelago in the world, in 1521. The voyage of Magellan was much longer and scarcely less heroic than that of the discoverer of America. Having been provided with a fleet by the Spanish king with which to search for spice islands, but secretly determined to sail round the world, he set out with five vessels on August 10, 1519, crossed the Atlantic to America, and skirted the eastern coast southward in the hope of finding some western passage into the Pacific, which, a few years previous, had been discovered by Balboa. It was a year and two months to a day from the time he left Spain until he reached the southern point of the mainland of South America and passed through the straight which has since borne his name. On the way, one of his vessels deserted; another was wrecked in a storm. When he passed through the Straight of Magellan he had remaining but three of his original five ships, and they were the first European vessels that ever breasted the waves of the mighty western ocean. Once upon the unknown but placid sea--which he named the Pacific--the bold navigator steered straight to the northwest. Five months later, about March 1st, he discovered the Ladrone Islands--which name Magellan gave to the group on account of the thieving propensities of the natives--the word _Ladrone_ meaning robber.

After a short stay at the islands, he steered southwest, landing on the north coast of Mindanao, the second largest island of the Philippines. The natives were friendly and offered to pilot Magellan to the island of Cebu, which lay to the north, and which they reported to be very rich. After taking possession of Mindanao in the name of his king, the discoverer proceeded to Cebu, where he made such demonstrations and gave such descriptions of the glory and power of Spain that he easily formed a treaty with the king of the island, who swore allegiance to his new-found master and had himself and chief advisers baptized in the Catholic faith. Magellan then joined the king in his war against some of the neighboring powers, and on April 25, 1521, was killed in a skirmish. The spot where he fell is now marked by a monument.

FIRST CIRCUMNAVIGATION OF THE GLOBE.

Trouble soon arose between Magellan's sailors and their new-found allies. The Spaniards were invited to a banquet, and twenty-seven of them were treacherously slain. The remainder, fearing for their lives, escaped in their ships and sailed for home. It was soon discovered that they had too few men to manage the three vessels, and one of them was destroyed. The other two proceeded on their voyage and discovered the spice island of Tidor, where they loaded with spices; but a few days later one of the vessels sprang a leak and went down with her freight and crew. The other, after many hardships, reached Spain, thus completing the first circumnavigation of the globe.

SECOND EXPEDITION TO THE PHILIPPINES.

In 1555, Philip II. came to the Spanish throne and determined to send another expedition to the East Indies. His religious zeal inspired him to conquer and christianize the islands. To shorten the long and dangerous voyage, he decided to prepare and start with five ships from the coast of Mexico. Miguel Lopez de Legaspi led the expedition, consisting of four hundred soldiers and sailors and six Augustine monks. In due time the expedition landed at Cebu. The formidable appearance of the ships awed the natives, and on April 27, 1565--forty years after Magellan's remnant had fled from the island--Legaspi landed and took possession. In honor of the Spanish king the archipelago was given the name of the Philippine Islands.

In 1570 Legaspi sent his grandson, Salcedo, to subdue the island of Luzon, the northernmost and the largest of the Philippine group. He landed near the present site of Manila. The trustful natives readily agreed to accept the Spanish king as their master, and to pay tribute. Such slight tribal resistances as were offered were quickly subdued. The next year Legaspi went to Manila to visit his grandson; and, seeing the importance of the situation and its fine harbor, declared that city the capital of the whole archipelago and the king of Spain the sovereign of all the islands. Accordingly, he moved his headquarters to that point, built houses and fortifications, and within a year had the city well organized, when he died, leaving Salcedo as his successor in command. It is remarkable how much these two men accomplished with so small a force; but they did it not so much by arms as by cajoling and deceiving the simple natives. Furthermore, they allowed the conquered people to be governed by their own chiefs in their own way, so long as they paid a liberal tribute to the Spanish crown.

STRUGGLES FOE SUPREMACY.

The history of the Philippines has been monotonous from their discovery until the present, a monotony broken at times by periods of adventures in which Manila has generally been the central scene. About 1580, Lima-hong, a Chinese pirate, took the city with an armed fleet of sixty-two vessels, bearing 4,000 men and 1,500 women. They met with stubborn resistance, but succeeded in scaling the walls and entering the city. The Spanish forces were driven into a fort, which the Chinese stormed. A bloody hand-to-hand conflict followed, and the Chinese were finally repulsed.

Early in the seventeenth century the Dutch attempted to obtain possession of the Philippines. They captured scores of Spanish merchantmen and treasure ships. Many naval engagements followed, the details of which read like the thrilling records of buccaneers and pirates, rather than the wars between two civil powers. Finally, after half a century of warfare, the Dutch were decisively beaten, and abandoned their efforts to capture the Spanish islands, much to the disadvantage of the Filipinos, for the islands of Java, Sumatra, and other Dutch possessions to the south of the Philippines have been remarkably prosperous under the mild rule of the Netherlands.

MANILA TAKEN BY THE ENGLISH.

In 1662, the Chinese planned a revolution against the Spanish authorities. The governor heard of it, and a general massacre of the Mongolians followed. It was even planned to destroy every Chinaman on the islands, and they were in a fair way to do it, when, at length, the Spaniards bethought themselves that by so doing they would practically depopulate the islands of tradesmen and mechanics. Accordingly, they offered pardon to those who would surrender and swear allegiance. A century later, England sent a fleet under Admiral Cornish, with General Draper commanding the troops, against Manila. After a desperate battle the city fell, and the terms of surrender incorporated provisions for free trade, freedom of speech, and, best of all, freedom in religion to the inhabitants of the islands, and required Spain to pay England about $4,000,000 indemnity. By the Peace of Paris, in 1763, however, the war between England and Spain was terminated, and one of the conditions was that Spain should retain the sovereignty of the Philippines. The English troops were withdrawn, and the unfortunate islands were again placed (as Cuba was by the same treaty) under the domination of their tyrannical mistress, and remained under Spanish rule from that time until the Americans freed them in 1898.

UPRISINGS OF THE NATIVES.

In nearly all the uprisings of the natives, the tyranny of the church, as conducted by the friars and priests, was the cause. Such was the case in 1622, in 1649, and in 1660. The occasion of the revolt of 1744 is a fair example of the provocations leading to all. A Jesuit priest ordered all his parishioners arrested as criminals when they failed to attend mass. One of the unfortunates died, and the priest denied him rights of burial, ordering that his body be thrown upon the ground and left to rot in the sun before his dwelling. The brother of the man in his exasperation organized a mob, captured the priest, killed him, and exposed his body for four days. Thus was formed the nucleus of a rebel army. The insurgents in their mountain fastnesses gained their independence and maintained it for thirty-five years, until they secured from Spain a promise of the expulsion of the Jesuit priests from the colony.

Other revolutions followed in 1823, 1827, and 1844, but all were suppressed. In 1872, the most formidable outbreak up to that time occurred at Cavite. Hatred of the Spanish friars was the cause of this uprising also. Spain had promised in the Council of Trent to prohibit friars from holding parishes. The promises were never carried out, and the friars grew continually richer and more powerful and oppressive. Had the plan of the insurgents not been balked by a mistaken signal, no doubt they would have destroyed the Spanish garrison at Manila, but a misunderstanding caused their defeat. The friars insisted that the captured leaders should be executed, and it was done.

THE LAST STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY.

In 1896, the insurrection broke out again. Its causes were the old oppressions: unbearable taxes, and imprisonment or banishment, with the complete confiscation of property of those who could not pay; no justice except for those who could buy it; extortion by the friars; marriage ceremony so costly that a poor man could not pay the fee; homes and families broken up and ruined; burial refused to the dead, unless a large sum was paid in advance; no provision and no chance for education. Such were some of the causes that again goaded the natives to revolution and nerved them with courage to achieve victory after victory over their enemies until they were, promised most of the reforms which they demanded. Then they laid down their arms, and, as usual, the Governor-General failed to carry out a single pledge.

Such was the condition, and another revolt, more formidable than any of the past, was forming, when Commodore Dewey with his American fleet entered Manila Bay, May 1, 1898, and, by a victory unparalleled in naval warfare, sunk the Spanish ships, silenced the forts, and dethroned the power of Spain forever in a land which her tyranny had blighted for more than three hundred years.

THE PEOPLE OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

It is impossible within the scope of this article to give details concerning all the inhabitants of this far-away archipelago. Professor Worcester, of the University of Michigan, tells us that the population comprises more than eighty distinct tribes, with individual peculiarities. They are scattered over hundreds of islands, and one who really wants to know these peoples must leave cities and towns far behind, and, at the risk of his life, through pathless forests, amid volcanic mountains, at the mercy of savages, penetrate to the innermost wilds. Notwithstanding the fact that for hundreds of years bold men, led by the love of science or by the spirit of adventure, have continued to penetrate these dark regions, there are many sections where the foot of civilized man has never trod; or, if so, he came not back to tell of the lands and peoples which his eyes beheld.

DIFFICULTIES OF EXPLORING THE COUNTRY.

There have been great obstacles in the way of a thorough exploration of these islands. Spain persistently opposed the representatives of any other nation entering the country. She suspected every man with a gun of designing to raise an insurrection or make mischief among the natives. The account of red tape necessary to secure guns and ammunition for a little party of four or five explorers admitted through the customs at Manila is one of the most significant, as well as one of the most humorous, passages in Professor Worcester's story of his several years' sojourn while exploring the archipelago.

In the second place, the savage tribes in the interior had no respect for Spain's authority, and will have none for ours for years to come. Two-thirds of them paid no tribute, and many of them never heard of Spain, or, if so, only remembered that a long time ago white men came and cruelly persecuted the natives along the shore. These wild tribes think themselves still the owners of the land. Some of them go naked and practice cannibalism and other horrible savage customs. Any explorer's life is in danger among them; consequently most tourists to the Philippines see Manila and make short excursions around that city. The more ambitious run down to the cities of Iloilo and Cebu, making short excursions into the country from those points, and then return, thinking they have seen the Philippines. Nothing could be further from the truth. Such travelers no more see the Philippine Islands than Columbus explored America.

Even near the coast there are savages who are almost as ignorant as their brethren in the interior. Mr. Stevens tells us that only "thirty miles from Manila is a race of dwarfs that go without clothes, wear knee-bracelets of horsehair, and respect nothing but the jungle in which they live." The principal native peoples are of Malayan origin. Of these, to the north of Manila are the Igorrotes; in the islands south of Luzon are the civilized Visayas, and below them in Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago are the fierce Moros, who originally came from the island of Borneo, settling in the Philippines a short time before the Spanish discovery. They are Mohammedans in religion, and as fanatical and as fearless fighters as the Turks themselves. For three hundred years the Spaniards have been fighting these savages, and while they have overcome them in nearly all the coast towns, they have expended, it is said, upward of $100,000,000 and sacrificed more than one hundred thousand lives in doing so.

THE WARLIKE MOROS.

The fierce Moro warriors keep the Spanish settlers along their coasts in a constant state of alarm, and the visitor to the towns feels as if he were at an Indian outpost in early American history, because of the constant state of apprehension that prevails. Fortunately, however, the Moros along the coast have learned to distinguish between the Spaniard and the Englishman or American, and through them the generosity of the _Englese_, as they call all Anglo-Saxons, has spread to their brethren in the interior. Therefore, American and English explorers have been enabled to go into sections where the Spanish friars and monks, who have been practically the only Spanish explorers, would meet with certain death. The Mohammedan fanaticism of the Moros, and that of the Catholic friars and Jesuits, absolutely refuse compromise.

The Negritos (little Negroes) and the Mangyans are the principal representatives of the aboriginal inhabitants before the Malayan tribes came. There are supposed to be, collectively, about 1,000,000 of them, and they are almost as destitute of clothing and as uncivilized as the savages whom Columbus found in America, and far more degenerate and loathsome in habits.

THE CITY OF MANILA.

The Island of Luzon, on which the city of Manila stands, is about as large as the State of New York, its area being variously estimated at from 43,000 to 47,000 square smiles. It is the largest island in the Philippine group, comprising perhaps one-third of the area of the entire archipelago. Its inhabitants are the most civilized, and its territory the most thoroughly explored. The city of Manila is the metropolis of the Philippines. The population of the city proper and its environs is considered to be some 300,000 souls, of whom 200,000 are natives, 40,000 full-blooded Chinese, 50,000 Chinese half-castes, 5,000 Spanish, mostly soldiers, 4,000 Spanish half-castes, and 300 white foreigners other than Spaniards. Mr. Joseph Earle Stevens, already referred to, who represented the only American firm in the city of Manila, under Spanish rule (which finally had to turn its business over to the English and leave the island a few years since), informs us that he and three others were the only representatives of the United States in Manila as late as 1893.

The city is built on a beautiful bay from twenty-five to thirty miles across, and on both shores of the Pasig River. On the right bank of the river, going up from the bay, is the old walled town, and around the walls are the weedy, moats or ditches. The heavy guns and frowning cannon from the walls suggest a troubled past. This old city is built in triangular form, about a mile on each side, and is regarded as very unhealthful, for the walls both keep out the breeze and keep in the foul air and odors. The principal buildings in the old part of the city are the cathedral, many parish churches, a few schoolhouses, and the official buildings. The population in the walled city is given at 20,000. Up to a few years ago, no foreigner was permitted to sleep within its walls on account of the Spaniards' fear of a conspiracy. A bridge across the Pasig connects old Manila with the new or unwalled city, where nearly all of the business is done and the native and foreign residents live.

EARTHQUAKES AND TYPHOONS.

It does not take one long to exhaust the sights of Manila, if the people, who are always interesting, are excepted. Aside from the cathedral and a few of the churches, the buildings of the city are anything but imposing. In fact, there is little encouragement to construct fine edifices because of the danger from earthquakes and typhoons. It is said that not a year passes without a number of slight earthquake shocks, and very serious ones have occurred. In 1645 nearly all of the public buildings were wrecked and 600 persons killed. A very destructive earthquake was that of 1863, when 400 people were killed, 2,000 wounded, and 46 public buildings and 1,100 private houses were badly injured or completely destroyed. In 1874 earthquakes were again very numerous throughout the islands, shocks being felt at intervals in certain sections for several weeks. But the most violent convulsion of modern times occurred in 1880 when even greater destruction than in 1863 visited Manila and other towns of Luzon. Consequently there are very few buildings to be found more than two stories high; and the heavy tile roofs formerly in use have, for the most part, been replaced by lighter coverings of galvanized iron.

These light roofs, however, are in constant danger of being stripped off by the typhoons, terrible storms which come with a twisting motion as if rising from the earth or the sea, fairly pulling everything detachable after them. Masts of ships and roofs of houses are frequently carried by these hurricanes miles distant. The better to resist the typhoons, most of the light native houses are built on bamboo poles, which allow the wind to pass freely under them, and sway and bend in the storm like a tree; whereas, if they were set solidly on the earth, they would be lifted up bodily and carried away. Glass windows being too frail to resist the shaking of the earthquakes and the typhoons, small, translucent oyster shells are used instead. The light thus admitted resembles that passing through ground-glass, or, rather, stained glass, for the coloring in the shells imparts a mellow tinted radiance like the windows of a cathedral.

MANILA AS A BUSINESS CENTER.

The streets of Manila are wretchedly paved or not paved at all, and as late as 1893 were lighted by kerosene lamps or by wicks suspended in dishes of cocoanut oil. Lately an electric plant has been introduced, and parts of the city are lighted in this manner. There are two lines of street cars in Manila. The motive power for a car is a single small pony, and foreigners marvel to see one of those little animals drawing thirty-odd people.

The retail trade and petty banking of Manila is almost entirely in the hands of the half-castes and Chinese, and many of them have grown immensely wealthy. There are only about three hundred Europeans in business in the whole Philippine group, and they conduct the bulk of the importing and exporting trade. Manila contains a number of large cigar and cigarette factories, one of which employs 10,000 hands. There is also a sugar refinery, a steam rice mill, and a rope factory worked partly by men and partly by oxen, a Spanish brewery and a German cement factory, a Swiss umbrella factory and a Swiss hat factory. The single cotton mill, in which $200,000 of English capital is invested, runs 6,000 spindles.

The statistics of 1897 show that the whole trade of Manila comprised only forty-five Spanish, nineteen German, and seventeen English firms, with six Swiss brokers and two French storekeepers having large establishments. One of the most profitable businesses is said to be that of selling cheap jewelry to the natives. Breastpins which dealers buy in Europe for twelve cents each are readily sold for from $1.50 to $2.00 each to the simple Filipinos. Almost everything that is manufactured abroad has a fine prospective market in the Philippines, when the condition of the people permits them to buy.

A certain charm attaches to many specimens of native handiwork. The women weave exquisitely beautiful fabrics from the fiber of plants. The floors of Manila houses are admired by all foreigners. They are made of hard wood and polished with banana leaves and greasy cloths until they shine brightly and give an aspect of cool airiness to the room.

Any kind of amusement is popular with the Filipinos--with so much leisure on their hands--provided it does not require too great exertion on their part. They are fond of the theatre, and, up to a few years ago, bullfighting was a favorite pastime; but the most prominent of modern amusements for the natives and half-castes is cockfighting. It is said that every native has his fighting cock, which is reared and trained with the greatest care until he shows sufficient skill to entitle him to an entrance into the public cockpit where he will fight for a prize. The chickens occupy the family residence, roosting overhead; and, in case of fire, it is said that the game "rooster" is saved before the babies. Professor Worcester tells an amusing story of the annoyance of the crowing cocks above his head in the morning and the devices and tricks he and his companions employed to quiet them. The Manila lottery is another institution which intensely excites the sluggish native, and takes from him the money which he does not lose on the cockfights. Under the United States Government this lottery will, no doubt, be abolished in time. It formerly belonged to the Spanish Government, and Spain derived an annual profit of half a million dollars from it.

GENERAL COMMERCE OF THE PHILIPPINES.

It is hardly necessary, so far as the commercial world is concerned, to mention any other locality outside of the city of Manila. To commerce, this city (whose total imports in 1897 were only $10,000,000 and its exports $20,000,000) is the Philippine Islands. Its present meagre foreign trade represents only an average purchase of about one dollar per inhabitant, and an average sale of two dollars per inhabitant for the largest archipelago in the world, and one of the richest in soil and natural resources. The bulk of these exports were hemp, sugar, and tobacco; and, strange as it may seem, the United States received 41 per cent. of her hemp and 55 per cent. of her sugar for the year 1897, notwithstanding the fact that we had not one commercial firm doing business in that whole vast domain.

The city of Iloilo is on the southern coast of the fertile island of Panay, and, next to Manila, the chief port of the Philippines. It has an excellent harbor, and the surrounding country is very productive, having extensive plantations of sugar, rice, and tobacco. The population of Iloilo is only 12,000, but there are a few larger towns in the district, of which it is the seaport. Though the city at spring tides is covered with water, it is said to be a very healthful place, and much cooler than Manila.

The other open port, Cebu, on the eastern coast of the island of the same name, is a well-built town, and has a population of about 13,000. From this point the bulk of the hemp for export comes.

GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE ISLANDS.

It is impossible to speak of the other islands in detail. Seven of the group average larger than the State of New Jersey; Luzon is as extensive as Ohio, Mindanao equals Indiana; and, as we have stated before, about four hundred of them are inhabitable, and, like Java, Borneo, and the Spice Islands, all are rich in natural resources. They are of a volcanic origin, and may be described in general as rugged and mountainous. The coasts of most of the islands are deeply indented by the sea, and the larger ones are well watered by streams, the mouths of which afford good harbors. Many of the mountainous parts abound in minerals. Mr. Karuph, President of the Philippine Mineral Syndicate, in May, 1898, addressed a letter to Hon. John Hay, at that time our ambassador to England, in which he declares that the Philippines will soon come prominently forward as a new center of the world's gold production. "There is not a brook," says Mr. Karuph, "that finds its way into the Pacific Ocean whose sands and gravel do not pan the color of gold. Many valuable deposits are close to deep water. I know of no other part of the world, the Alaskan Treadwell mines alone excepted, where pay ore is found within a few hundred yards of the anchorage of sea-going vessels." In addition to gold, iron, copper, lead, sulphur, and other minerals are found, and are believed to exist in paying quantities. The numerous mineral springs attest their presence in almost every part of the principal islands.

FORESTS AND TIMBER.

The forest products of the islands are perhaps of greater value than their mineral resources. Timber not only exists in almost exhaustless quantity, but--considering the whole group, which extends nearly a thousand miles from north to south--in unprecedented diversity, embracing sixty varieties of the most valuable woods, several of which are so hard that they cannot be cut with ordinary saws, some so heavy that they sink in water, and two or three so durable as to afford ground for the claim that they outlast iron and steel when placed in the ground or under water. Several of these woods are unknown elsewhere, and, altogether, they are admirably suited for various decorative purposes and for the manufacture of fine implements and furniture.

Here also are pepper, cinnamon, wax, and gums of various sorts, cloves, tea, and vanilla, while all tropical fruits, such as cocoanuts, bananas, lemons, limes, oranges of several varieties, pineapples, citrons, bread-fruits, custard apples, pawpaws, and mangroves nourish, and most of them grow wild, though, of course, they are not equal to the cultivated fruit. There are fifty-odd varieties of the banana in the archipelago, from the midget, which makes but a single mouthful, to the huge fruit eighteen inches long. There seems to be no limit to which tropical fruits and farm products can be cultivated.

The animal and bird life of the Philippines offer a field of interesting research to naturalists. There are no important carnivorous animals. A small wild-cat and two species of civet-cats constitute about all that belong to that class. The house-cats of the Philippines have curious fish-hook crooks in the ends of their tails. There are several species of deer in the archipelago. Hogs run wild in large numbers. The large water buffalo (_carabao_) has been domesticated and is the chief beast of burden with the natives. The _timarau_ is another small species of buffalo, very wild and entirely untamable; and, though numerous in certain places, is hard to find, and when brought to bay dies fighting.

Birds abound in all of the islands; nearly six hundred species have been found, over fifty of which exist nowhere else in the world. One of these species builds a nest which is highly prized by Chinese epicures as an article of diet. Prof. Worcester tells us "the best quality of them sometimes bring more than their weight in gold." Crocodiles are numerous in fresh-water lakes and streams, attaining enormous size, and in certain places causing much loss of life among stock and men as well. Snakes also abound, and some of them are very venomous. Cobras are found in the southern islands. Pythons are numerous, some of the smaller sizes being sold in the towns and kept in houses to catch rats, at which they are said to be more expert than house-cats.

All the domestic animals, aside from the _carabao_, have been introduced from abroad. Cattle are extensively raised, and in some of the islands run wild. The horses are a small Spanish breed, but are very strong and have great endurance. Large European horses do not stand the climate well.

CLIMATE, VOLCANOES, ETC.

The mean annual temperature of Manila is 80 deg. F. The thermometer seldom rises above 100 deg. or falls below 60 deg. anywhere in the archipelago. There is no month in the year during which it does not rise as high as 91 deg. January and December are the coldest months, the average temperature being 70 deg. to 73 deg.. May is the warmest, the average being 84 deg. April is the next warmest, with an average of 83 deg.; but the weather is generally very moist and humid, which makes the heat more trying. The three winter months have cool nights. Malaria is prevalent, but contagious diseases are comparatively few. Yellow fever and cholera are seldom heard of.

The Philippines are the home of many volcanoes, a number of them still active. Mayon, in the island of Luzon, is one of the most remarkable volcanic mountains on the globe. It is a perfect cone, rising to the height of 8,900 feet, and is in constant activity; its latest destructive eruption took place in 1888. Apo, in the island of Mindanao, 10,312 feet high, is the largest of the Philippine volcanoes. Next is Canloon in Negros, which rises 8,192 feet above the sea. Taal is in a lake, with a height of 900 feet, and is noteworthy as being the lowest volcano in the world. To those not accustomed to volcanoes, these great fire-spouting mountains, which are but prominent representatives of many lesser ones in the islands, seem to be an ever-present danger to the inhabitants; but the natives and those who live there manifest little or no fear of them. In fact, they rather pride themselves in their possession of such terrifying neighbors.

Such is an outline view of the Philippine Archipelago of the present day. A new era has opened up in the history of that wonderful land with its liberation from the Spanish yoke. The dense ignorance and semi-savage barbarities which exist there must not be expected to yield too rapidly to the touch of human kindness and brotherly love with which the Christian world will now visit those semi-civilized and untamed children of nature. Nevertheless, western civilization and western progress will undoubtedly work mighty changes in the lives of those people, in the development of that country, during the first quarter of the twentieth century, which ushers in the dawn of its freedom.

THE BATTLE OF MANILA.

In all the annals of naval warfare there is no engagement, terminating in so signal a victory with so little damage to the victors, as that which made the name of George Dewey immortal on the memorable Sunday morning of May 1, 1898, in Manila Bay. The world knows the story of that battle, for it has been told hundreds of times in the thousands of newspapers and magazines and scores of books throughout the civilized world. But few, perhaps, who peruse these pages have read the simple details of the fight as narrated by that most modest of men, Admiral Dewey himself. We cannot better close this chapter on the Philippines than by inserting Admiral Dewey's official report of the battle which wrested the Filipinos from Spanish tyranny and placed nearly ten millions of oppressed people under the protecting care of the United States.

ADMIRAL DEWEY'S STORY OF MANILA.

"UNITED STATES FLAGSHIP OLYMPIA, CAVITE, May 4, 1898.

"The squadron left Mirs Bay on April 27th, arrived off Bolinao on the morning of April 30th, and, finding no vessels there, proceeded down the coast and arrived off the entrance to Manila Bay on the same afternoon. The Boston and the Concord were sent to reconnoitre Port Subic. A thorough search was made of the port by the Boston and the Concord, but the Spanish fleet was not found. Entered the south channel at 11:30 P.M., steaming in column at eight knots. After half the squadron had passed, a battery on the south side of the channel opened fire, none of the shots taking effect. The Boston and McCulloch returned the fire. The squadron proceeded across the bay at slow speed and arrived off Manila at daybreak, and was fired upon at 5:15 A.M. by three batteries at Manila and two near Cavite, and by the Spanish fleet anchored in an approximately east and west line across the mouth of Bakor Bay, with their left in shoal water in Canacao Bay.

"The squadron then proceeded to the attack, the flagship Olympia, under my personal direction, leading, followed at a distance by the Baltimore, Raleigh, Petrel, Concord, and Boston in the order named, which formation was maintained throughout the action. The squadron opened fire at 5:41 A.M. While advancing to the attack two mines were exploded ahead of the flagship, too far to be effective. The squadron maintained a continuous and precise fire at ranges varying from 5,000 to 2,000 yards, countermarching in a line approximately parallel to that of the Spanish fleet. The enemy's fire was vigorous, but generally ineffective. Early in the engagement two launches put out toward the Olympia with the apparent intention of using torpedoes. One was sunk and the other disabled by our fire and beached before they were able to fire their torpedoes.

"At seven A.M. the Spanish flagship Reina Cristina made a desperate attempt to leave the line and come out to engage at short range, but was received with such a galling fire, the entire battery of the Olympia being concentrated upon her, that she was barely able to return to the shelter of the point. The fires started in her by our shells at the time were not extinguished until she sank. The three batteries at Manila had kept up a continuous fire from the beginning of the engagement, which fire was not returned by my squadron. The first of these batteries was situated on the south mole-head at the entrance of the Pasig River, the second on the south position of the walled city of Manila, and the third at Molate, about one-half mile further south. At this point I sent a message to the Governor-General to the effect that if the batteries did not cease firing the city would be shelled. This had the effect of silencing them.

"At 7:35 A.M. I ceased firing and withdrew the squadron for breakfast. At 11:16 I returned to the attack. By this time the Spanish flagship and almost all the Spanish fleet were in flames. At 12:30 the squadron ceased firing, the batteries being silenced and the ships sunk, burned, and deserted.

"At 12:40 the squadron returned and anchored off Manila, the Petrel being left behind to complete the destruction of the smaller gunboats, which were behind the point of Cavite. This duty was performed by Commander E.P. Wood in the most expeditious and complete manner possible. The Spanish lost the following vessels: Sunk, Reina Cristina, Castilla, Don Antonio de Ulloa; burned, Don Juan de Austria, Isla de Luzon, Isla de Cuba, General Lezo, Marquia del Duero, El Correo, Velasco, and Isla de Mindanao (transport); captured, Rapido and Hercules (tugs), and several small launches.

"I am unable to obtain complete accounts of the enemy's killed and wounded, but believe their losses to be very heavy. The Reina Cristina alone had 150 killed, including the captain, and ninety wounded. I am happy to report that the damage done to the squadron under my command was inconsiderable. There were none killed and only seven men in the squadron were slightly wounded. Several of the vessels were struck and even penetrated, but the damage was of the slightest, and the squadron is in as good condition now as before the battle.

"I beg to state to the department that I doubt if any commander-in-chief was ever served by more loyal, efficient, and gallant-captains than those of the squadron now under my command. Captain Frank Wildes, commanding the Boston, volunteered to remain in command of his vessel, although his relief arrived before leaving Hong Kong. Assistant Surgeon Kindelberger, of the Olympia, and Gunner J.C. Evans, of the Boston, also volunteered to remain, after orders detaching them had arrived. The conduct of my personal staff was excellent. Commander B.P. Lamberton, chief of staff, was a volunteer for that position, and gave me most efficient aid. Lieutenant Brumby, Flag Lieutenant, and Ensign E.P. Scott, aide, performed their duties as signal officers in a highly creditable manner; Caldwell, Flag Secretary, volunteered for and was assigned to a subdivision of the five-inch battery. Mr. J.L. Stickney, formerly an officer in the United States Navy, and now correspondent for the New York _Herald_, volunteered for duty as my aide, and rendered valuable service. I desire especially to mention the coolness of Lieutenant C.G. Calkins, the navigator of the Olympia, who came under my personal observation, being on the bridge with me throughout the entire action, and giving the ranges to the guns with an accuracy that was proven by the excellence of the firing.

"On May 2d, the day following the engagement, the squadron again went to Cavite, where it remains. On the 3d the military forces evacuated the Cavite arsenal, which was taken possession of by a landing party. On the same day the Raleigh and the Baltimore secured the surrender of the batteries on Corregidor Island, paroling the garrison and destroying the guns. On the morning of May 4th, the transport Manila, which had been aground in Bakor Bay, was towed off and made a prize."

OUR NEW POSSESSIONS (CONTINUED).

THE LADRONE, OR MARIANA ISLANDS.

It was a welcome sight to Magellan and his crew when, one day in March, nearly 400 years ago, they beheld the verdant and beautifully sloping hills of the Ladrone Islands. Eighteen weary months before they had sailed from the coast of Spain, and all that time, first to the southwest and then to the northwest, they had followed the setting sun. Theirs were the first vessels manned by white men that had ever plowed the trackless Pacific; and this was the first land ever seen by white men within that unknown ocean.

It was a pitiable crew on those three small, weather-beaten ships, who drew, that March morning, toward the coast of the present island of Guam, which is now a possession of the United States. Hunger and thirst had driven them to the verge of madness. They had eaten even the leather thongs from their sail fastenings, and only a small mug of water per day was the portion of drink for a man. "Land! Land!!" It was a glad cry from the watch aloft. There were palm trees, cocoanuts, green grass, tropical fruits, an abundance of fresh water, and--though naked--a curious and friendly people. No wonder Magellan paused to rest himself and his sailors.

Those little islands have never been of much value, and never can be. Seventeen of them stretching in a row about six hundred miles from north to south, and their total area, including their islets and reefs, is variously estimated at from 400 to 560 square miles. Hence, there is but about one-fourth more territory on the whole seventeen islands combined than is included within the corporate limits of the city of Greater New York.

A broad channel divides the Ladrones into two groups. The northern group consists of ten islets, without inhabitants; the southern group has seven islands, four of which are inhabited. The largest island, _Guahan_, known to us as _Guam_, ceded to us by Spain, was taken by our warship Charleston on July 4, 1898. This island contains the only town in the colony. Its full Spanish name is _San Ignacio de Agana_. It is the capital of the archipelago, and contains more than half of the whole population.

THE NATIVE INHABITANTS.

When first visited by Europeans, the archipelago contained from 40,000 to 60,000 souls, represented by two distinct classes, the nobles and the people, between whom marriage, and even contact, were forbidden. But the Spanish conquest soon ended this distinction by reducing all alike to servitude. For a long time after Spanish occupation, the natives complained and finally rebelled against the oppressive measures of their rulers; but by the end of the seventeenth century they ceased their resistance, and it was found by a census that fully half of them had perished or escaped in their canoes to the Caroline Islands, and that two-thirds of their one hundred and eighty villages had fallen to ruins. Then came an epidemic which swept away nearly all the natives of Guam; and the island of Tinian (one of the group) was depopulated and its inhabitants brought to Guam.

Nearly all the new arrivals soon died. In the year 1760, a census showed a total of only 1,654 inhabitants left in all the islands, and the Spaniards repopulated them by bringing Tagals from the Philippines. These, mixed with the remaining natives and Spaniards, have steadily increased. The population of the islands in 1899 was estimated at about 9,000. The people are generally lacking in energy, loose in morals, and miserably poor. Their education has been seriously neglected. Their religion is Catholic, no Protestant missions having been encouraged--we might say, not allowed--there or in the Philippines or the Carolines.

TOPOGRAPHY, CLIMATE, ETC.

The islands of the northern group are mountainous, the altitudes reaching from 2,600 to 2,700 feet. There are evidences of volcanoes all over the archipelago, and some mountains contain small craters and cones not yet extinct. The climate of the Ladrones, though humid, is salubrious, and the heat, being tempered by the trade winds, is milder than in the Philippines. The yearly average temperature of Guam is 81 deg. Streams are everywhere copious--though the clearing of the land has diminished their size of late years. The original flora consists generally of Asiatic plants, but much has been introduced from the Philippines and other sources.

Cocoanuts, palms, the bread tree, and tropical trees and plants generally, thrive. The large fruit bat which abounds in the Philippines is indigenous to the Ladrones, and, despite its objectionable odor, is a principal article of food. Swine and oxen are allowed to run wild, and are hunted when needed. There are only a few species of birds; even insects are rare; and the reptiles are represented by several kinds of lizards and a single species of serpent. No domestic animals were known in the islands until introduced by the Spaniards.

When the United States steamship Charleston opened fire on the little city of Agana, July 4, 1898, the people had not heard of the war, and the governor said he thought "the noble Americans were saluting" him, and was "deeply humiliated because he had no powder to return their salute." It was an easy, bloodless victory. The governor and his soldiers were carried to Manila as prisoners, and an American garrison of a few men left to take charge of this new American territory in the Pacific.

CONCLUSION.

Thus at the close of the nineteenth century, the Greater United States assumes its appointed place among the foremost nations of the world, and stands on the threshold of achievements whose grandeur no man dare attempt to prophesy. We pause, awed, grateful, and profoundly impressed, when we recall the mighty events, the amazing progress, and the wonderful advancements in discovery, science, art, literature, and all that tends to the good of mankind that are certain to give the twentieth century a pre-eminence above all the years that have gone before.

The new era of our country has opened. The United States enters on the first stage of the transformation from an isolated commonwealth into an outreaching power with dependencies in both hemispheres. We can no longer hold an attitude of aloofness from the rest of the world. With vulnerable points in our outlying possessions, we must make ready to defend them not only by force of arms but by diplomatic skill. Entangling alliances as heretofore will be avoided, and the conditions, complications, and policies of foreign powers must in the future possess a practical importance for us.

The original thirteen States have expanded into forty-five, embracing the vast area between the two oceans and extending from the British possessions to the Gulf of Mexico. To them has now been added our colonial territory, so vast in extent that, like the British Empire, the sun never sets on our dominions. Where a hundred years ago were only a few scattered villages and towns, imperial cities now raise their heads. Thousands of square miles of forest and solitude have given place to cultivated farms, to factories, and workshops that hum with the wheels of industry. The Patent Office issues 40,000 patents each year. We have three cities with more than a million population apiece, and twenty-five with a population ranging from a hundred thousand to half a million. Greater New York is the second city in the world, and, if its present rate of growth continues, it will surpass London before the middle of the coming century. Our population has grown from 3,000,000 at the close of the Revolution to 75,000,000. When Andrew Jackson became President there was not a mile of railroad in the United States. To-day our mileage exceeds that of all the countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, and the employes, connected directly or indirectly with railroads in the United States, number almost a million persons. The half-dozen crude newspapers of the Revolution have expanded into more than 20,000, whose daily news is gathered from every quarter of the globe. The total yearly issue is more than three billions.

No country can approach the advancements we have made in invention, in discovery, in science, in art, in education and in all the civilizing agencies of mankind. Volumes would be required to name our achievements in these lines. Our material property has been or is equally wonderful. When the Civil War closed, our public debt was nearly $3,000,000,000. On December 1, 1898, it was $1,036,000,000. Most of the leading nations have great debts, but the United States is the only one which is steadily decreasing its debt and at the same time enormously increasing its resources. The debt of Great Britain is now about $87 per capita, that of France $115, of Holland $100, of Italy $75, and of the United States less than $15, with the security increasing all the time.

Let the thoughtful reader note these striking facts. European nations generally, and some South American nations also, have been compelled to resort to various methods of taxation to supply the sums needed for ordinary governmental expenses, to meet the interest on the existing debt, to provide resources for new expenditures, buildings, armament, subsidies, and various public works. England has an income tax and many stamp taxes, a house tax, and collects some 20 per cent. of its revenue from direct taxation. France has a tobacco monopoly, registration taxes, stamp taxes, tax on windows, and innumerable local taxes, one being the octroi, or tax on goods entering cities. In addition to an income tax, and many stamp taxes, Austria derives a good deal of its public revenue from lotteries. Italy goes still further with her tobacco monopoly, house tax, income tax, salt tax, octroi duties, stamp taxes, and heavy legacy and registration taxes. In the United States, however, the public revenues have been provided for and all public expenses met, and the national debt reduced beside, without recourse to any direct taxation. We have no government monopolies, and the Treasury maintains a healthful condition from the receipts of customs and internal revenue payments.

Thus with the spirit of fraternity between all sections of the Union stronger than ever before, with the spirit of patriotism more deeply imbedded and all-pervading, with our moral, educational, and material prosperity and progress greater than any time in our past history, and never equaled by any nation, since the annals of mankind began--we face the future, bravely resolved to meet all requirements, responsibilities, and duties as become men whose motto is

IN GOD IS OUR TRUST.

_The End._