An Englishwoman in the Philippines

Journey from Hong Kong. First sight of the Philippine coast. Manila Bay. The Pasig River. A drive through the streets. Old Manila. Spanish influences. Manila hotels. The Virgin...

Beautiful islands. Coin divers. A glimpse of Cebú. The hemp industry. The Island of Mactan. Magellan. A curious record in orthography. Fellow-passengers. Soldiers and school-tea...

We find a house. Domestic architecture. The Azotea. Results of American extravagance. Iloilo shops. Filipino servants. Settling down. Chinese shops. Furniture. “Philippines for...

The road to Molo. Picturesque scenes. Custom House methods. An unpleasant surprise. Philippine trading firms. An over-zealous law. The Philippine bed. Christmas Eve. The tropic...

A Filipino _Fiesta_. The national hero. Doctor Rizal and his work. A languid festival. A musical people. Dress of the native women. _Piña_ muslin. Dress of native men. Scrupulou...

A ball at the Spanish Club. The _Rigodon_. Curious costumes. Bringing in the New Year. A painful interlude. Position of Eurasians. New Year’s Day. The suburbs of Iloilo. Filipin...

Heat and drought. Bathrooms. A handsome cow-boy. Cost of living. Military manners. Camp Josman. The Government of the Philippines. A “pull.” An arbitrary tax. The Plaza Libertad...

A journey to Manila. The mail steamer. Food for Esquimaux. A comfortable night. Dream Islands. Dress for Europeans. Manila. The harbour. Curious reasoning. American hustling. A...

Evening on the Pasig River. Malacañan Palace. An evening _fête_. The Arms of the Philippines. “The Gubernatorial party.” “Manila at a glance.” The Gibson Girl. An amusing episod...

The suburbs of Manila. Hawks. A nursery-garden. Orchids. By the bandstand in the evening. Manila society. A city of cards. Intramuros. Americanised Filipinos. The American Ideal...

Home letters. The Simla of Manila. The return journey to Iloilo. A crowded ship. My cabin-mate. Filipino schoolboys. The first-fruits of the American Ideal. Filipino manners. So...

Carnival festivities. Lenten relaxations. A Palais Royale farce at the Filipino Club. “Hiawatha.” At a _baile_. A walk through the town. A Chinese graveyard. A troublesome cook....

Roofs of Philippine houses. A walk along the quay. Chinese sailors. A mistaken policy. Native shops. Curious cigars. Desolate mud-flats. One of the results of high wages. A Span...

A little trip on the sea. Marvellous scenery. The ship of the Ancient Mariner. Coast villages. A band in the Plaza. Oriental tastes. The difference of Eastern and Western minds....

A trip to Nagaba. A native house. The “Philippine cuckoo.” _Nipa_ thatch. Ylang-Ylang. A swimming-bath. A stroll along the rocks. A fisherman’s hut. Country-folk. The village. P...

The departure for Nagaba. An amusing landing. Morning on the beach. A fish _corral_. Trading vessels. A native kitchen. Betel-nut. A row up the river. Up in the woods. A magnifi...

Evening on the Iloilo River. Pleasant natives. A cocoanut-grove. The _bolo_. Green cocoanut. Salt pits. More trouble with the Customs. The verdict of Solomon. A hopeless grievan...

The coolness of 90°. A letter from Benguet. Expense of travelling. Baby mongeese. Native neighbours. The sanitary control. An appeal to _verguenza_. An ill-kept town. An inhuman...

News of the coming of Mr Taft and his party. Miss Alice Roosevelt. A simple-minded damsel. Relaxing wind. By the Molo road. A lovely scene. An Eurasian household. A melodrama. A...

Declaration Day. The cult of the Stars and Stripes. An angry critic. The procession. American officers. Methods of horsemanship. A cruel vanity. American soldiers. The Veteran A...

A sad loss. The Filipino and his fighting-cock. Tricks of the ring. Off to the front. Peace and prosperity. A horrible story. A plague of flies. A slovenly guest. The poll-tax a...

A Gymkhana on the beach. An _alfresco_ domestic servant agency. Road-mending. The foreign cemetery. Justice for the white man. Treatment of servants. The Filipino tiller of the...

Farewell to Nagaba. The three-card trick. The Secret Police. A pleasant sail. Through the village. A native shop. Corn pone. An Anglipayano church. An idyll. Filipino coffee. La...

Preparations for the Patron Saint. Arcadian animals. Mr Taft’s intentions. Determined patriots. A famous phrase. The blessings of a free press. American altruism. Political Peck...

The _Comitiva Taft_. A reception that failed. Unappreciative guests. The decorations. A culinary treat. A call in the dark before the dawn. Gay streets. The visitors. “Miss Alic...

A pleasant prospect. Comfortable quarters. Chop-sticks. A happy little slave. The Chinese pigtail. An unspoilt Filipino. The dignity of the white man. The dregs of East and West...

We arrived here early yesterday morning from Hong Kong, after three days of rather a horrible sea voyage, as the steamer was more than crowded, the weather rough, and we carried...

I hear there will be a mail going out from Iloilo to-morrow, the day we arrive, so I will write you a letter to go by it, that you may not be disappointed—six weeks hence!

We arrived here on Friday last (the 2nd), and I at once sent off a letter to you, written on board the _Kai-Fong_, which letter ought to reach you some time in the middle of Jan...

I am sure you will be pleased to hear that we have already found a house to suit us, in fact we are quite charmed with it, and can’t be too thankful that we did not hastily take...

One of the most aggravating characteristics of the Filipinos is the way they murmur, for they have naturally very soft voices, which become positively a whisper with shyness and...

We are settling down very comfortably into our charming house, which we like more and more, and are continually congratulating ourselves on our luck in having found such a nice...

We have just come back from a delightful drive, to a town called Molo, which lies inland, in the direction of the river, but on the opposite bank to Jaro, the latter, as I think...

I think you may be amused to hear about a Filipino _Fiesta_, which took place yesterday, called Rizal Day—the anniversary of the death of the national hero, a Filipino of the na...

I wonder how you brought the year in. We were invited to a ball given by the Club Artistica, the Spanish Club, situated in a suite of very large rooms in the upper story of a bi...

The day has come round for me to catch the mail, but I feel that I can hardly write calmly, as I am barely sane upon the subject I wish to tell you about, which is the Customs....

We went a night or two ago to a performance at the theatre—a Filipino performance in a Filipino theatre. I daresay it sounds strange to you to hear of a theatre in Iloilo, but y...

Mail-day has come round again, but I don’t feel as though I had much energy for writing, or anything else, as we are in the midst of a heat-wave, which means, in this part of th...

To-day is the Chinese New Year, and all last night the Chinamen were letting off crackers down in the town. All to-day they have been going on with them, too, and as the chief r...

You must excuse my writing still being rather bad, as my illness has left me so weak that I shall not be out of bed for some days longer, in fact I am beginning to be fearfully...

I am launched, you see, and on my journey to Manila after all, though I do not feel at all well again yet; but that is not surprising, as it takes such a long time to pull round...

I sent a long letter to you by the mail, which went out this morning; but I must begin another at once, as I want to tell you about the reception last night. Indeed, if I don’t...

I wrote in the morning yesterday, and after the heat of the day we drove outside the town to a nursery garden. To get there we passed through long streets of untidy suburbs, not...

I am still in Manila, you see, but am going home to-morrow, so I will write a line to go out by the next mail, which I should miss if I waited till I get to Iloilo.

I will begin a letter to you now, as I may not have much time for writing just after I get home. Not that there is really any fear of my letter to you coming off second best in...

I am sure you will be glad to hear that I feel much better for my Manila trip, and able to go for our evening walks again, which we still enjoy very much, though the season is g...

Many thanks for your letter of February 23rd. We were greatly interested in your description of the radium baths, though it seems difficult, out here, to imagine that there is a...

Many thanks for the book about carpentry, which arrived quite safely by this mail, and is a treasury of delight to C——, who has got all sorts of ideas out of it. One of the firs...

We drove down to the Muelle Loney (too hot to walk at five o’clock), and when we had got on board the launch and seated ourselves in basket chairs in the bows, she steamed down...

Nothing from you by the mail to-day. The forwarding from Manila seems to be so unsatisfactory that we think you had better begin sending letters straight to this place. The addr...

This is Easter Monday, and since Thursday the town has been crammed full of people—natives—and alive with processions. We got a double allowance of the latter, as the Aglipayano...

We went last Sunday to spend the day at Nagaba, a native village opposite Iloilo, in the island of Guimaras. We took the trip at the invitation of some friends who had gone to s...

I had two sweet little love-birds sent me yesterday, sitting jammed up in a tiny dirty cage in which they had travelled from China. They looked so uncomfortable and draggled, po...

We went over in the launch on Saturday, leaving here at half-past four, and to look at the start from here you would have thought we were going for good to China or Japan!

We had a slight earthquake here on Wednesday morning, the 11th. It was my first experience of that form of excitement, and I am sure I don’t want another. The queer thing that e...

We went out on the river one evening last week at the invitation of two members of the boating club, which has its being in a _nipa_ hut on the bank above the town, off the Molo...

lemonade! Perhaps it is all right if you have been shipwrecked and your mouth is full of sea water, but then I imagine so few people who write the descriptions can ever have had...

I know you will be glad to hear that we are having a lull in the great heat, as the rain is beginning, or, at any rate, the Monsoon is blowing through rain, steadily from the S....

I don’t think I have yet mentioned to you the great excitement in Manila, and in the Philippines generally, which are convulsed by the wind of the coming of Mr Taft, the Secreta...

You must forgive the writing of this letter being rather bad, as I am ill in bed again, and likely to remain there for some time, for I have developed a tiresome complaint, whic...

C—— and another man got up a paper-chase last Sunday, and, by way of being cordial, advertised the event in _El Tiempo_ a day or two before, C—— and his friend arranging to be t...

The weather is becoming more stormy, and typhoons are signalled, but so far they seem to go wide of us, which is a very good thing. The thermometer the last few days has been ve...

This is a tremendous day here, and a universal public holiday—Declaration Day, you know; the anniversary of the day when the States declared themselves independent of the Mother...

I know you will be sorry to hear that the last of our dear little mongeese is dead—killed by the dogs next door a week ago. We heard squeaking and barking and scuffling in the a...

We are having much cooler weather now, the thermometer sometimes as low as 77°, and hardly ever above 80°, and at night it has even been down to 64°. We have had some spells of...

I think I told you we had been very lucky in the selling of the greater part of our furniture, and now we have got the _calesa_ and pony off our hands as well, which is a great...

We went a last trip to Nagaba on Sunday, but only for the day, and were lucky in having very fine weather and delightfully cool, only 80°, with a lovely breeze blowing, and the...

We have now decided to go to Hong Kong by the _Kai-Fong_, which sails next Saturday or Monday, the 20th or 22nd. The _Sung-Kiang_ loaded up as much as she could and shoved off o...

I must tell you all about this _Comitiva Taft_ dissipation, of which we had the first taste on Monday, the 15th, when a printed notice was left at our house, saying that the “Co...

We are up-rooted at last, you see, out of our own delightful house, and enduring the cooking and service of the best hotel this place has to afford, while we wait for the _Kai-F...

Iloilo is now far away below the horizon astern, and if I look over the side, I am afforded the delightful spectacle of one Philippine Island slipping past after the other into...