History for ready reference, Volume 6
volume 24, page 15).
These opposing views are suggestive of the seriousness of the problem which the subject offers to the new authority in the Philippines. The American Commission now studying such problems in those islands has presented its first views concerning the Spanish friars in a lengthy report, written by Judge Taft, and transmitted to Washington as part of the general report of the Commission, bearing date November 30, 1900. The passages quoted below contain what is most essential in the interesting document:
"Ordinarily, the Government of the United States and its servants have little or no concern with religious societies or corporations and their members. With us, the Church is so completely separated from the State that it is difficult to imagine cases in which the policy of a Church in the selection of its ministers and the assignment of them to duty can be regarded as of political moment, or as a proper subject of comment in the report of a public officer. {398} In the pacification of the Philippines by our Government, however, it is impossible to ignore the very great part which such a question plays. Excepting the Moros, who are Moslems, and the wild tribes, who are pagans, the Philippine people belong to the Roman Catholic Church. The total number of Catholic souls shown by the Church registry in 1898 was 6,559,998. To care for these in that year there were in the archipelago 746 regular parishes, 105 mission parishes and 116 missions, or 967 in all. Of the regular parishes all save 150 were administered by Spanish monks of the Dominican, Augustinian, or Franciscan orders. Natives were not admitted to these orders. There were two kinds of Augustinians in these islands, the shod and the unshod. The latter are called Recolletos, and are merely an offshoot from the original order of St. Augustine.
"By the revolutions of 1896 and 1898 against Spain, all the Dominicans, Augustinians, Recolletos, and Franciscans acting as parish priests were driven from their parishes to take refuge in Manila. Forty were killed and 403 were imprisoned, and were not all released until by the advance of the American troops it became impossible for the insurgents to retain them. Of the 1,124 who were in the islands in 1896, only 472 remain. The remainder were either killed or died, returned to Spain, or went to China or South America. There were also in the islands engaged in missions and missionary parishes, 42 Jesuits, 16 Capuchins, and six Benedictines, and while many of these left their missions because of disturbed conditions they do not seem to have been assaulted or imprisoned for any length of time. In addition to the members of the monastic orders, there were 150 native secular clergymen in charge of small parishes who were not disturbed. There were also many native priests in the larger parishes who assisted the friar curates and they have remained, and they have been and are acting as parish priests. The burning political question, discussion of which strongly agitates the people of the Philippines, is whether the members of the four great orders of St. Dominic, St. Augustine, St. Francis, and the Recolletos shall return to the parishes from which they were driven by the revolution. Colloquially the term 'friars' includes the members of these four orders. The Jesuits, Capuchins, Benedictines, and the Paulists, of whom there are a few teachers here, have done only mission work or teaching, and have not aroused the hostility existing against the four large orders to which we are now about to refer. …
"The truth is that the whole government of Spain in these islands rested on the friars. To use the expression of the Provincial of the Augustinians, the friars were 'the pedestal, or foundation, of the sovereignty of Spain in these islands,' which being removed, 'the whole structure would topple over.' … Once settled in a parish, a priest usually continued there until superannuation. He was, therefore, a constant political factor for a generation. The same was true of the Archbishop and the bishops. The civil and military officers of Spain in the island were here for not longer than four years, and more often for a less period. The friars, priests, and bishops, therefore, constituted a solid, powerful, permanent, well organized political force in the islands which dominated policies. The stay of those officers who attempted to pursue a course at variance with that deemed wise by the orders was invariably shortened by monastic influence. Of the four great orders, one, the Franciscans, is not permitted to own property, except convents and schools. This is not true of the other three. They own some valuable business property in Manila, and have large amounts of money to lend. But the chief property of these orders is in agricultural land. The total amount owned by the three orders in the Philippines is approximately 403,000 acres. Of this 121,000 acres is in the Province of Cavité alone. The whole is distributed as follows: Cavité, Province of Luzon, 121,747 acres; Laguna, Province of Luzon, 62,172 acres; Manila, Province of Luzon, 50,145; Bulacan, Province of Luzon, 39,341; Morong, Province of Luzon, 4,940; Bataan, Province of Luzon, 1,000; Cagayan, Province of Luzon, 49,400; Island of Cebu, 16,413; Island of Mindoro, 58,455. Total, 403,713. …
"It cannot admit of contradiction that the autocratic power which each friar curate exercised over the people and civil officials of his parish gave them a most plausible ground for belief that nothing of injustice, of cruelty, of oppression, of narrowing restraint of liberty, was imposed on them for which the friar was not entirely responsible. His sacerdotal functions were not in their eyes the important ones, except as they enabled him to clinch and make more complete his civil and political control. The revolutions against Spain's sovereignty began as movements against the friars. … Having in view these circumstances, the statement of the bishops and friars that the mass of the people in these islands, except only a few of the leading men of each town and the native clergy, are friendly to them cannot be accepted as accurate. All the evidence derived from every source but the friars themselves shows clearly that the feeling of hatred for the friars is well nigh universal and permeates all classes. In the provinces of Cavité, Laguna, and Bulacan, as well as in the country districts of Manila, the political feeling against the friars has in it also an element of agrarianism. For generations the friars have been lords of these immense manors, upon which, since 1880, they have paid no taxes, while every 'hombre' living on them paid his cedula, worked out a road tax, and, if he were in business of any kind, paid his industrial impost. …
"In the light of these considerations it is not wonderful that the people should regard the return of the friars to their parishes as a return to the conditions existing before the revolution. The common people are utterly unable to appreciate that under the sovereignty of the United States the position of the friar as curate would be different from that under Spain. This is not a religious question, though it concerns the selection of religious ministers for religious communities. The Philippine people love the Catholic Church. … The depth of their feeling against the friars may be measured by the fact that it exists against those who until two years ago administered the sacraments of the Church upon which they feel so great dependence and for which they have so profound a respect. The feeling against the friars is solely political. The people would gladly receive as ministers of the Roman Catholic religion any save those who are to them the embodiment of all in the Spanish rule that was hateful. {399} If the friars return to their parishes, though only under the same police protection which the American Government is bound to extend to any other Spanish subjects in these islands, the people will regard it as the act of that Government. They have so long been used to have every phase of their conduct regulated by governmental order that the coming again of the friars will be accepted as an executive order to them to receive the friars as curates with their old, all-absorbing functions. It is likely to have the same effect on them that the return of General Weyler under an American Commission as Governor of Cuba would have had on the people of that island.
"Those who are charged with the duty of pacifying these islands may therefore properly have the liveliest concern in a matter which, though on its surface only ecclesiastical, is, in the most important phase of it, political, and fraught with the most critical consequences to the peace and good order of the country, in which it is their duty to set up civil government. … It is suggested that the friars, if they returned, would uphold American sovereignty and be efficient instruments in securing peace and good order, whereas the native priests who now fill the parishes are, many of them, active insurgent agents or in strong sympathy with the cause. It is probably true that a considerable number of the Filipino priests are hostile to American sovereignty, largely because they fear that the Catholic Church will deem it necessary, on the restoration of complete peace, to bring back the friars or to elevate the moral tone of the priesthood by introducing priests from America or elsewhere. But it is certain that the enmity among the people against the American Government caused by the return of the friars would far outweigh the advantage of efforts to secure and preserve the allegiance of the people to American Sovereignty which might be made by priests who are still subjects of a monarchy with which the American Government has been lately at war, and who have not the slightest sympathy with the political principles of civil liberty which the American Government represents.
"We have set forth the facts upon this important issue because we do not think they ought to be or can be ignored. We earnestly hope that those who control the policy of the Catholic Church in these islands with the same sagacity and prevision which characterize all its important policies, will see that it would be most unfortunate for the Philippine Islands, for the Catholic Church and for the American Government to attempt to send back the friars, and that some other solution of the difficulties should be found. … The friars have large property interests in these islands which the United States Government is bound by treaty obligations and by the law of its being to protect. It is natural and proper that the friars should feel a desire to remain where so much of their treasure is. … It would avoid some very troublesome agrarian disturbances between the friars and their quondam tenants if the Insular Government could buy these large haciendas of the friars, and sell them out in small holdings to the present tenants, who, forgiven for the rent due during the two years of war, would recognize the title of the Government without demur, and gladly accept an opportunity, by payment of the price in small instalments, to become absolute owners of that which they and their ancestors have so long cultivated. With the many other calls upon the insular treasury a large financial operation like this could probably not be conducted to a successful issue without the aid of the United States Government, either by a direct loan or by a guaranty of bonds to be issued for the purpose. The bonds or loans could be met gradually from the revenues of the islands, while the proceeds of the land, which would sell readily, could be used to constitute a school fund. This object, if declared, would make the plan most popular, because the desire for education by the Filipinos of all tribes is very strong, and gives encouraging promise of the future mental development of a now uneducated and ignorant people. The provincials of the orders were understood in their evidence to intimate a willingness on the part of the orders to sell their agricultural holdings if a satisfactory price should be paid. What such a price would be we are unable without further investigation to state. If an agreement could not be reached it is probable, though upon this we express no definite opinion, that there would be ground in the circumstances for a resort to condemnation proceedings."
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901. Act of the United States Congress increasing army and authorizing the enlistment of native troops. Rejection of the proviso of Senator Hoar.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901 (February-March). Congressional grant of military, civil and judicial powers for the government of the Islands to persons whom the President may appoint. The so-called "Spooner Amendment."
During the first session of the 56th Congress the following bill was introduced in the U. S. Senate by Mr. Spooner, of Wisconsin, but received no action:
"Be it enacted, etc., That when all insurrection against the sovereignty and authority of the United States in the Philippine Islands, acquired from Spain by the treaty concluded at Paris on the 10th day of December, 1898, shall have been completely suppressed by the military and naval forces of the United States, all military, civil, and judicial powers necessary to govern the said islands shall, until otherwise provided by Congress, be vested in such person and persons, and shall be exercised in such manner as the President of the United States shall direct for maintaining and protecting the inhabitants of said islands in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion."
Half the following session of Congress passed before any disposition to take the action proposed by Senator Spooner was shown. Then the matter was brought to notice and pressed by the following communication to the Secretary of War, from the Commission in the Philippines:
"If you approve, ask transmission to proper Senators and Representatives of following: Passage of Spooner bill at present session greatly needed to secure best result from improving conditions. Until its passage no purely central civil government can be established, no public franchises of any kind granted, and no substantial investment of private capital in internal improvements possible." This was repeated soon afterwards more urgently by cable in the message following:
{400}
"Sale of public lands and allowance of mining claims impossible until Spooner bill. Hundreds of American miners on ground awaiting law to perfect claims. More coming. Good element in pacification. Urgently recommend amendment Spooner bill so that its operation be not postponed until complete suppression of all insurrection, but only until in President's judgment civil government may be safely established."
The request of the Philippine Commission, endorsed by the Secretary of War, was communicated to Congress by the President, who said in doing so: "I earnestly recommend legislation under which the government of the islands may have authority to assist in their peaceful industrial development." Thereupon the subject was taken up in Congress, not as formulated in Senator Spooner's bill of the previous session, but in the form of an amendment to the Army Appropriation Bill, then pending in the Senate. The amendment, as submitted to discussion in the Senate on the 25th of February, 1901, was in the following terms:
"All military, civil, and judicial powers necessary to govern the Philippine Islands, acquired from Spain by the treaties concluded at Paris on the 10th day of December, 1898, and at Washington on the 7th day of November, 1900, shall, until otherwise provided by Congress, be vested in such person and persons and shall be exercised in such manner as the President of the United States shall direct, for the establishment of civil government and for maintaining and protecting the inhabitants of said islands in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and religion: Provided, That all franchises granted under the authority hereof shall contain a reservation of the right to alter, amend, or repeal the same. Until a permanent government shall have been established in said archipelago full reports shall be made to Congress, on or before the first day of each regular session, of all legislative acts and proceedings of the temporary government instituted under the provisions hereof, and full reports of the acts and doings of said government and as to the condition of the archipelago and its people shall be made to the President, including all information which may be useful to the Congress in providing for a more permanent government."
Strenuous opposition was made, firstly to the hasty grafting of so profoundly important a measure of legislation on an appropriation bill, and secondly to the measure itself, as being a delegation of powers to the President which did violence to the Constitution and to all the precedents and principles of the American government, and also as having objects which would not only do flagrant wrong to the people of the Philippine Islands, but bring dishonor on those of the United States. The military authority already exercised by the President in the Philippines sufficed fully, it was contended, for every purpose of temporary or provisional government there, except in its lack of ability to grant franchises and to dispose of the public lands. Hence it was freely charged that the controlling influences which pressed this measure on the government came from capitalists and speculators who were reaching after valuable franchises, mining rights and land grants in the archipelago. Said Senator Daniel in the debate: "So far as any legislation which looks forward to the opening of the way to civil government may be involved to the softening of the conditions which exist, to the amelioration of the distresses which are upon the Philippine people, I would give most cheerful acquiescence. But because we desire to do these things in a good spirit, in a resolute and patriotic spirit, let us not permit the provocation of difficult conditions to lead us into enacting any kind of provision of law that is not necessary to these ends. Let us not undertake to give to the President of the United States any power of disposing of the permanent assets of the Philippine people; let us not put him in the attitude of being a franchise giver or a franchise seller or a franchise lessor. The franchises of those islands—their rivers, their ferries, their streets, their roads, the thousand and one privileges which are granted by public authority—are as important and as valuable to that people and as permanently associated with their happiness and their prosperity as are their fields or their mines or their fisheries or anything else which belongs to their country. … It is true there is the reservation of the right to alter, amend, or repeal, but while that is legally broad enough for any remedial legislation whatsoever to follow, we know that practically it is of very small consequence. If capital goes in and invests itself in improvements which are in themselves of a permanent nature, if railroads are constructed, telegraph lines run, telephones established, ferries built, steamers and boats, gas establishments, electrical establishments—if those things are disposed of, the man who once gets in will never be gotten out. In all such affairs possession is nine points of the law before they get into court, where it is generally made the tenth."
Senator Hoar called attention "to the fact that the report of the Taft commission urges that power be given to sell the public lands at once, as it is necessary for their development, and a large amount of capital is there now clamoring to be invested," and he remarked: "So I suppose that one of the chief purposes of this is that the public lands in the Philippine Islands may be sold before the people of the islands have any chance whatever to have a voice in their sale." He then quoted the following passages from the report of the Taft commission:
"The commission has received a sufficient number of applications for the purchase of public land to know that large amounts of American capital are only awaiting the opportunity to invest in the rich agricultural field which may here be developed. In view of the decision that the military government has no power to part with the public land belonging to the United States, and that the power rests alone in Congress, it becomes very essential, to assist the development of these islands and their prosperity, that Congressional authority be vested in the government of the islands to adopt a proper public-land system, and to sell the land upon proper terms. There should, of course, be restrictions preventing the acquisition of too large quantities by any individual or corporation, but those restrictions should only be imposed after giving due weight to the circumstances that capital can not be secured for the development of the islands unless the investment may be sufficiently great to justify the expenditure of large amounts for expensive machinery and equipments. {401} Especially is this true in the cultivation of sugar land. … Restricted powers of a military government referred to in discussing the public lands are also painfully apparent in respect to mining claims and the organization of railroad, banking, and other corporations, and the granting of franchises generally. It is necessary that there be some body or officer vested with legislative authority to pass laws which shall afford opportunity to capital to make investment here. This is the true and most lasting method of pacification." "In other words," said Senator Hoar, "the leading, principal, bald proposal on which this amendment rests is that before those 10,000,000 people are allowed any share in their own government whatever their property is to be sold by Americans to Americans in large quantities, as on the whole the best means of pacification—that the best way to pacify a man is to have one foreign authority to sell his property and another to buy it." An amendment to the amendment, offered by Senator Bacon, reserving to Congress the right to annul any grant or concession made, or any law enacted, by any governmental authority created under the powers proposed to be conferred on the President; another offered, by Senator Vest, providing that "no judgment, order, nor act by any of said officials so appointed shall conflict with the Constitution and laws of the United States," and still others of somewhat kindred aims, were voted down; but the influence of Senator Hoar prevailed with the Senate so far as to induce its acceptance of the following important modification of the so-called "Spooner Amendment":
"Provided, That no sale or lease or other disposition of the public land, or the timber thereon, or the mining rights therein, shall be made: And provided further, That no franchise shall be granted which is not approved by the President of the United States, and is not, in his judgment, clearly necessary for the immediate government of the islands and indispensable for the interests of the people thereof, and which can not, without great public mischief, be postponed until the establishment of a permanent civil government, and all such franchises shall terminate one year after the establishment of such civil government."
With this proviso added, the "Spooner amendment" was adopted by the Senate on the 26th of February (yeas 45, nays 27, not voting 16), and agreed to by the House on the 1st of March (yeas 161, nays 136, not voting 56).
_Congressional Record, February 25-March 1, 1901._
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901 (March). Organization of provincial governments. Establishment of a department of public education. Proposed tariff. Date fixed for cessation of military regime.
On the 3d of March, the President of the Philippine Commission, Judge Taft, addressed a cable despatch to the U. S. Secretary of War in which he reported: "Commission has last three weeks organized five provincial governments—Pampanga, Pangasinan, Tarlac, Bulacan, Bataan—last two are Tagalog provinces. Attended each provincial capital in a body; met by appointment Presidentes, Councillors, and principal men of towns; explained provisions general provincial act and special bill for particular province and invited discussion natives present of both bills. Conventions thus held very satisfactory; amendments suggested, considered, special bills enacted, appointments followed. … In three large provinces natives appointed provisional Governors. In Bataan, on petition, eight out of nine towns, volunteer officer appointed. In Tarlac feeling between loyal factions required appointment American. … In compliance with urgent native invitations leave March 11 for south to organize provinces Tayabas, Romblon, Iloilo, Capiz, Zamboanga, such others are ready. Returning shall organize Zambales, Union, Cagayan, Ilocos Norte. Military Governor has recommended organization Batangas, Cavité, Laguna, Nueva Ecija, but shall delay action as to these until return from northern and southern trips."
On the 18th of March it was announced from Washington that a number of recent Acts of the Philippine Commission had been received at the War Department, among them one which establishes a general department of public instruction, with a central office at Manila, under the direction of a general superintendent, to be appointed by the commission, at a salary of $6,000 a year. "Schools are to be established in every pueblo in the archipelago where practicable, and those already established shall be reorganized where necessary. There are to be ten school divisions in the archipelago, each with a division superintendent, and there is to be a superior advisory board, composed of the general superintendent and four members to be appointed by the Philippine Commission, to consider the general subject of education in the islands and make regulations. The English language, as soon as practicable, shall be made the basis of all public instruction, and soldiers may be detailed as instructors until replaced by trained teachers. Authority is given to the general superintendent to obtain from the United States 1,000 trained teachers, at salaries of not less than $75 nor more than $100 a month, the exact salary to be fixed according to the efficiency of the teacher. The act provides that no teacher or other person "shall teach or criticise the doctrines of any church, religious sect or denomination or shall attempt to influence the pupils for or against any church or religious sect in any public school." Violation of this section is made punishable by summary dismissal from the public service. It is provided, however, that it may be lawful for the priest or minister of the pueblo where the school is situated to teach religion for half an hour three times a week in the school building to pupils whose parents desire it. But if any priest, minister or religious teacher use this opportunity "for the purpose of arousing disloyalty to the United States or of discouraging the attendance of pupils or interfering with the discipline of schools," the division superintendent may forbid such offending priest from entering the school building thereafter. The act also provides for a normal school at Manila for the education of natives in the science of teaching. It appropriates $400,000 for school buildings, $220,000 for text books and other supplies for the current calendar year, $25,000 for the normal school, $15,000 for the organization and maintenance of a trade school in Manila and the same amount for a school of agriculture.
{402}
The new tariff for the Islands, which the Commission had been long engaged in framing, was submitted, in March, to the government at Washington for approval. "In his letter of transmittal Judge Taft says that the proposed bill follows largely the classification of the Cuban tariff, 'but has been considerably expanded by the introduction of articles requiring special treatment here by reason of different surroundings and greater distance from the markets.' Judge Taft says also that the disposition of the business interests of the islands is to accept any tariff the commission proposes, provided only that the duties are specific and not ad valorem. The question of revenue was kept steadily in view in the preparation of the schedules, but it was not the only consideration. Raw materials of Philippine industries, tools, implements and machinery of production, materials of transportation, the producers and transmitters of power and food products are taxed as lightly as possible. … Export duties are levied on only six articles—hemp, indigo, rice, sugar, cocoanuts, fresh or as copra, and tobacco. The free list admits natural mineral waters, trees, shoots and plants, gold, copper and silver ores, fresh fruits, garden produce, eggs, milk, ice and fresh meat, except poultry and game. There is also a list of articles conditionally free of duty. The importation of explosives is prohibited, but that of firearms is not."
It is announced from Washington that "Judge Taft and General MacArthur have agreed upon July 1 as the date for the establishment of civil government in the Philippines. The military regime in the islands will therefore cease on June 30, when General Chaffee will relieve General MacArthur of the command, and Governor Taft will be inaugurated the next day with considerable ceremony."
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS: A. D. 1901 (March-April). Capture of Aguinaldo. His oath of allegiance to the United States. His address to his countrymen, counselling peace.
A stratagem, executed with great daring by General Funston of the American forces, accomplished the capture of the Filipino leader, Aguinaldo, on the 23d of March. From intercepted correspondence, it had been learned that Aguinaldo, then occupying his headquarters at Palanan, Isabela Province, was expecting to be joined by some riflemen, whom his brother had been ordered to send to him from central Luzon. On this, General Funston conceived the plan of equipping a number of native troops who should pass themselves off as the expected reinforcements, several American officers going with them ostensibly as prisoners, the hope being that Aguinaldo might thus be reached and taken by surprise. General MacArthur approved the scheme, and it was carried out with success. The party was made up of 78 Macabebe scouts, four Tagalogs who had formerly been officers in the insurgent army, and General Funston, Captain Newton, Lieutenants Hazzard and Mitchel, who acted the part of prisoners. They were taken by gunboat from Cavite to a point above Baler, whence they made their way on foot, sending a message in advance that the expected reinforcements were on the way and had captured some prisoners en route. The following brief narrative of what occurred subsequently is taken from a newspaper account of the expedition:
"For six days the expedition marched over an exceedingly difficult country, covering 90 miles. When the men reached a point eight miles from Aguinaldo's camp they were almost exhausted from lack of food and the fatigue of the march. They stopped at this place and sent a message to Aguinaldo, requesting him to send food to them. The ruse thus far had worked with the greatest success, and on March 22d, when Aguinaldo sent provisions, it was seen that he did not have the slightest suspicion. With the food he sent word that the Americans were not wanted in his camp, but instructing their supposed captors to treat them kindly. On March 23d the march was resumed, the Macabebe officers starting an hour ahead of the main body of the expedition. The 'prisoners,' under guard, followed them. When the party arrived at Aguinaldo's camp a bodyguard of 50 riflemen was paraded, and the officers were received at Aguinaldo's house, which was situated on the Palanan River. After some conversation with him, in which they gave the alleged details of their suppositious engagement with an American force, they made excuses and quietly left the house. They at once gave orders in an undertone for the Macabebes to get in position and fire on the bodyguard. The order was obeyed with the greatest rapidity, and three volleys were delivered. The insurgents were panic-stricken by the sudden turn in affairs, and they broke and ran in consternation. Two of them, however, were killed and eighteen wounded. Simultaneously with the delivery of the volleys the American officers rushed into Aguinaldo's house. Major Alhambra, one of Aguinaldo's staff, had been shot in the face. He, however, was determined not to be captured and he jumped from a window into the river and disappeared. Two captains and four lieutenants made their escape in a similar manner. Aguinaldo, Colonel Villa, his chief of staff, and Santiago Barcelona, the insurgent treasurer, did not have time to make an attempt to get away before General Funston and the others were upon them, demanding their surrender. Seeing that the situation was hopeless, they gave themselves up. Aguinaldo was furious at having been caught, but later he became philosophical and declared that the ruse by which he had been captured was the only one which would have proved successful if the Americans had tried for 20 years. One of the Macabebes was wounded. The party stayed two days at the camp and then marched overland to the coast, where the Vicksburg, whose arrival was excellently timed, picked them up and brought them back to Manila."
On the 2d of April, a despatch from General MacArthur to the War Department announced that Aguinaldo, on the advice of Chief Justice Arellano, had taken the following oath of allegiance to the United States: "I hereby renounce all allegiance to any and all so-called revolutionary governments in the Philippine Islands, and recognize and accept the supreme authority of the United States of America therein; I do solemnly swear that I will bear true faith and allegiance to that government; that I will at all times conduct myself as a faithful and law abiding citizen of the said islands, and will not, either directly or indirectly, hold correspondence with or give intelligence to an enemy of the United States, nor will I abet, harbor or protect such enemy; that I impose upon myself these voluntary obligations without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion, so help me God."
{403}
On the 19th of April, Aguinaldo issued the following address to his countrymen: "I believe I am not in error in presuming that the unhappy fate to which my adverse fortune has led me is not a surprise to those who have been familiar with the progress of the war. The lessons taught with a full meaning, and which have recently come to my knowledge, suggest with irresistible force that a complete termination of hostilities and lasting peace are not only desirable, but absolutely essential to the welfare of the Philippine Islands. The Filipinos have never been dismayed at their weakness, nor have they faltered in following the path pointed out by their fortitude and courage. The time has come, however, in which they find their advance along this path to be impeded by an irresistible force, which, while it restrains them, yet enlightens their minds and opens to them another course, presenting them the cause of peace. This cause has been joyfully embraced by the majority of my fellow countrymen who already have united around the glorious sovereign banner of the United States. In this banner they repose their trust and believe that under its protection the Filipino people will attain all those promised liberties which they are beginning to enjoy. The country has declared unmistakably in favor of peace. So be it. There has been enough blood, enough tears and enough desolation. This wish cannot be ignored by the men still in arms, if they are animated by a desire to serve our noble people, which has thus clearly manifested its will. So do I respect this will, now that it is known to me. After mature deliberation, I resolutely proclaim to the world that I cannot refuse to heed the voice of a people longing for peace, nor the lamentations of thousands of families yearning to see their dear ones enjoying the liberty and the promised generosity of the great American Nation. By acknowledging and accepting the sovereignty of the United States throughout the Philippine Archipelago, as I now do, and without any reservation whatsoever, I believe that I am serving thee, my beloved country. May happiness be thine."
PHŒNICIANS, The: Modified estimates of their influence upon early European civilization.
See (in this volume) ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCH: CRETE.
PILLAGER INDIAN OUTBREAK.
See (in this volume) INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1898.
PLAGUE, The Bubonic.
For years the plague has "continued to breed in various inner parts of Asia, and in 1894, coming from the Chinese province of Yunnan, it invaded Canton, taking there 60,000 victims in a few weeks. Thence it spread to Hong Kong, reached next year the island of Haïnan and Macao, invaded Formosa in 1896, and in the autumn of the same year appeared at Bombay. In the big city of India it found all necessary conditions for breeding, unchecked, for several months in succession: famine, overcrowding, and the absence of all preventive measures; and from Bombay it was carried by rail and road, to different parts of India. … Happily enough, the plague is no longer the mysterious, revengeful being which it used to be for our ancestors. Its cause and modes of propagation are well known. It is an infectious disease with a short period of incubation. From four to six days after infection takes place, a sudden loss of forces—often a full prostration, accompanied by a high fever-sets in. A bubo appears, and soon grows to the size of an egg. Death soon follows. If not—there is a chance of slow and painful recovery; but that chance is very small, because even under the best conditions of nursing, the mortality is seldom less than four out of each five cases of illness. As to the means of propagation of the plague, they are many. The poison may infect a wound or a scratch; it may be ingested in food; it may be simply inhaled. Dust from an infected house was sufficient to infect healthy rats; and when healthy rats were shut up in one cage with unhealthy ones, all caught the disease and died. Already in 1881 Netten Redcliffe and Dr. Pichon indicated that before the plague attacks men it destroys mice and rats. This was fully confirmed in 1894 by the Japanese and French bacteriologists Kitasato and Yersin, at Hong Kong, and by Dr. Rennie, of the Chinese Customs, at Canton. Masses of dead rats were seen in the streets of the infested parts of Hong Kong, and the keeper of the west gates of Canton collected and buried 24,000 of these animals. Dr. Rennie also pointed out that among those inhabitants of Canton who lived in boats on the river there were no cases of plague, except a few imported from town, so that even rich Cantonese took to living in boats; and he explained the immunity of the boat-dwellers by the absence of infection through rats. The worst is, however, that swine, and even goats and buffaloes, snakes and jackals, are attacked by the plague. …
"As soon as the plague broke out at Hong Kong, the great Japanese bacteriologist Kitasato and the French doctor Yersin, who is well known for his work with Roux on the serum treatment of diphtheria, were already on the spot. Yersin obtained from the English authorities permission to erect a small straw hut in the yard of the chief hospital, and there he began his researches. Both Kitasato and Yersin had no difficulty in ascertaining that the plague buboes teemed with special bacteria, which had the shape of tiny microscopic sticklets, thickened at their ends. To isolate these bacteria, to cultivate them in artificial media, and to ascertain the deadly effects of these cultures upon animals, was soon done by such masters in bacteriology as Kitasato and Yersin. The cause of the plague was thus discovered. It was evident that infected rats and swine—especially swine with the Chinese, who keep them in their houses—were spreading the disease, in addition to men themselves. The same bacteria teemed in the dead animals. As to men, the discharges from their buboes, and even, in many cases, their expectorations, were full of plague bacteria. Besides, Yersin soon noticed that in his 'laboratory,' where he was dissecting animals killed by the plague, the flies died in numbers. He found that they were infested with the same bacteria, and carried them about: inoculations of bacteria obtained from the flies at once provoked the plague in guinea-pigs. Ants, gnats, and other insects may evidently spread infection in the same way, while in and round the infested houses the soil is impregnated with the same bacteria. As soon as the pest microbe became known, experiments were begun, at the Paris Institut Pasteur, for finding the means to combat it; and in July 1895 Yersin, Calmette, and Borel could already announce that some very promising results had been obtained."
_P. Kropotkin, Recent Science (Nineteenth Century, July, 1897)._
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Of the first appearance of the plague in India, at Bombay, and the early stages of its spread in that country, the Viceroy, Lord Elgin, made the following report to the Secretary of State for India, on the 27th of January, 1897: "The first official intimation of the outbreak which reached us was in a telegram from the Government of Bombay, dated the 29th September 1896. The disease was then reported to be of a mild type, and at first it showed no tendency to increase. … Throughout the months of October and November the disease made little or no progress, and the number of deaths reported a day averaged nine. Early in December there was a marked increase, and the number of deaths reported daily from the 2nd to the 23rd (inclusive) was about 32. From the 24th December onwards there was another marked increase, and the number of deaths reported from that date to the 14th January (inclusive) averaged about 51. The next week shows a further increase, the reported number of deaths averaging 74 a day. The total number of deaths reported during October was 276; during November, 268; during December, 1,160; and from the 1st to the 25th January, 1,444. The total number of deaths reported from the beginning of the outbreak thus amounts to 3,148. We have reason to fear that all deaths from the plague have not been reported as such, and that the true mortality from the disease is higher than is shown by the above figures. … For a considerable time, except for a few imported cases in some towns in Gujarat, the outbreak was confined to Bombay itself, but on the 23rd of December we learnt from the Government of Bombay that the plague had broken out in Karachi. … The total number of deaths that have been reported in Karachi, from the beginning of the outbreak up to the 24th January, is 608. It will be observed that the disease has been very malignant in Karachi, and that almost all the cases reported have been fatal. As soon as the Surgeon General with the Government of Bombay reported to that Government that he had seen cases of a mild type of bubonic plague in the city, preventive measures were adopted and a Committee of medical experts were appointed to report on the disease and the situation. The Municipal Corporation have from the outset required the infected quarters to undergo a thorough and systematic cleaning and disinfection; and they have also pushed on vigorously other sanitary measures, such as the improvement of house connections and the construction of surface drains in quarters where the drainage was defective. A house-to-house visitation by medical officers has also been instituted. The Corporation have sanctioned liberal measures towards these ends, and the executive officers have displayed great energy in carrying them out. … We have informed the Government of Bombay that we consider it necessary that the plan of removing all persons from infected houses, and thoroughly cleansing and disinfecting the buildings, should be carried out, and we have asked His Excellency in Council, if he agrees, to report the measures that are adopted to bring the plan into general effect."
To the above suggestion that all persons be removed from infected houses, the government of Bombay replied, on the 12th of February: "His Excellency is advised that, to give full effect to such a proposal, at the lowest computation, 30,000 persons belonging to different races, castes, and creeds would need to be provided with temporary dwellings. There is no site within the limits of the Bombay municipality which would accommodate a tenth of this number. Great difficulty has attended all attempts at the segregation of healthy inmates of infected houses hitherto made, and very limited success bas been achieved. From the beginning of the outbreak of this disease it has been found that the native inhabitants of the city are very reluctant to leave their houses or to allow any member of their family afflicted with the disease to be taken away. Indeed, their dread of the disease itself appears to be hardly so powerful as their horror of being removed from their houses. Ignorance and superstition prevent them from discerning either that removal to a hospital is good for the sick or removal [from] infected dwellings good for the healthy, and they are far more easily moved by fear of the municipal and police authorities than by any realisation of the benefits that will accrue from a sensible course of action. It is estimated that not less than 300,000 persons have already fled from Bombay, moved so to do, not only by fear of the plague, but quite as much, if not more, by an unfounded and unreasonable fear of what might happen to them at the hands of the police and municipal authorities were they to remain."
Contending with such obstacles to the use of the most effective measures for checking the spread of the disease, the authorities at Bombay and elsewhere, who seem to have worked with energy, saw little to encourage their efforts for some time. In a second report to the Secretary of State for India, made February 10, Lord Elgin was compelled to write: "We much regret that we are unable to report that the plague shows any signs of abating. In both Bombay and Karachi there has been an increase in the daily number of seizures and deaths since the beginning of the current month." But, a month later, on the 10th of March, the Viceroy reported that "the position of affairs in Bombay is distinctly better. There has been a decrease in the reported number of plague seizures and deaths, and the total daily mortality from all causes shows a marked diminution. During the week ending the 22nd February, the average daily number of seizures and deaths was 115 and 117, respectively; during the following week the daily average fell to 107 and 99, whilst during the period March 2nd to March 8th it has been 99 and 84. … Persons are now returning to the quarters of Bombay, which are comparatively free from plague, from the more infected outlying suburbs, and the Government of Bombay have therefore found it necessary to watch persons entering as well as those leaving Bombay. In the suburbs of Kurla, Bandora, and Bhiwandi the plague continues to be severe. Outside Bombay in the Presidency proper the number of indigenous cases has increased, and the disease shows a tendency to spread, especially in the Thana and Surat districts. … Outside Karachi the plague shows no tendency to spread in Sind, and Sukkur is the only other place from which indigenous cases have been reported."
_Great Britain, Parliamentary Publications (Papers by Command: C.-8386, 1897; and C.-8511, 1897)._
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From that time there appears to have been a nearly steady subsidence of the disease until the following September, when it showed renewed virulence at Poona, and began to be newly spread, invading districts in the Punjab and elsewhere outside of the Bombay Presidency. By the middle of November Poona was substantially empty of inhabitants, except those stricken with the disease and those who bravely cared for the sick and dying. In December there was a fresh outbreak in Bombay, which soon became more deadly than that of the previous winter and spring. By the beginning of February, 1898, and through March, the deaths from plague alone in Bombay had risen above a thousand a week. Then another subsidence occurred, followed by another recrudescence of the disease in August, and another decline in October. But the variations in other districts were not uniform with those in Bombay. At the end of 1898, the total of mortality from plague in all the afflicted districts of India, reckoning from the beginning, was believed to exceed 100,000, including 70,000 in the Bombay Presidency and Sind (28,000 in the city of Bombay), and 2,000 in the Punjab. In Calcutta there had been but 150 deaths. Although the measures taken for checking the spread of the pestilence were far less stringent than they would have been among people more capable of understanding what they meant and what their importance was, they alarmed the religious jealousies of both the Hindus and the Mohammedans, and were resisted and resented with dangerous fury at a number of times. At Poona, in June, 1897, two British officials were murdered by young Brahmins, who had been excited to the deed by native journals, the language of which was so violent that the government found it necessary to prosecute several for sedition. At Bombay, in March, 1898, when the plague was at its worst, there were very serious riots, in which a number of Europeans were killed, and troops were called to the help of the police before the frenzied mob could be overcome.
Again, in 1899, there was a revival of the disease in India, especially at Bombay, during the winter, with a decline in April and fresh virulence in September. At the end of the year the estimate of total mortality from plague in India since the beginning was 250,000.
Of the wider spreading of the pestilence during 1900 the following summary of information is given in the annual report of the United States Secretary of the Treasury, in connection with details of quarantine measures: "The Surgeon-General reports that plague has been more widely distributed during the year than was ever known in history, and for the first time obtained lodgment in the Western Hemisphere, at Santos, Brazil, in October, 1899. By this it is not meant that the disease has been actually more prevalent than before, but that its points of contact have embraced nearly every civilized country in the world, though its prompt recognition and application of modern methods have either entirely prevented its spread or have caused it to disappear after a short period of infection. The scientific knowledge of the disease renders it far less to be dreaded than before, but increase in rapid communication between different parts of the world facilitates its transportation. In illustration, the fact is cited that 20 vessels have been reported, arriving at as many principal seaports in different parts of the world, on which plague was discovered on arrival or had manifested itself during the voyage. As heretofore, its chief ravages have been in India, where preventive measures have been hindered by religious fanaticism. In India during the year there were 66,294 deaths. Notable outbreaks of the disease occurred in Kobe and in Formosa, Japan, at Oporto, Santos, Rio de Janeiro, Honolulu, Sydney, Mauritius, Hongkong, and Glasgow.
"In December, 1899, on account of the apparent spread of this disease, 12 commissioned officers were detailed by order of the President for duty in the offices of the United States consuls at the principal ports in England and on the Continent. In June, the disease fortunately not having become as widespread as anticipated, they were recalled, with the exception of five, who are still retained for the purpose of furnishing information and for service at any needed point. Two of those thus retained, when the plague was announced at Glasgow, Scotland, on August 28, 1900, were immediately sent to that point and began inspection of vessels for the United States and also for Canada, by request of that Government, thus enabling vessels to be entered at ports on this side without undue restraint. In the laboratory of the Service, scientific investigations as to the viability of the plague bacillus and the methods and efficiency of disinfection have been conducted, and the results, together with excerpts from all available literature hearing upon the prevention of plague, have been published in the Public Health Reports, forming, for this year, a volume containing most complete information upon this disease. About 700,000 doses of Haffkine's prophylactic were also prepared in the laboratory and sent to the United States quarantine officers at home and abroad, together with large quantities of Yersin's serum, purchased early in the year from the Pasteur Institute in Paris. In these two preparations, the one (Haffkine) a prophylactic and the other (Yersin) both prophylactic and a cure, the Surgeon-General says that science has effective methods of combating the spread of this disease."
_United States, Secretary of the Treasury, Annual Report, December 4, 1900._
The "antitoxin, or serum, first prepared by Professor Haffkine as a plague inoculation, called Haffkine's prophylactic, is now being used in Bombay and western India with remarkable results. This prophylactic is prepared by first taking the plague bacilli, or the young germs, from a person affected with the plague and cultivating them. These microbes are killed by artificial means and a high degree of heat. From these dead germs and their poisonous excrements is produced a fluid that is believed to have acquired the power, when injected into the human system, to render the blood immune from the attack of plague germs and to neutralize their effect. The injection of such a poison has the effect of an antitoxin and prevents the system from nourishing plague. A dead plague germ being inoculated into a person, plague will not follow. A person after having one attack of the disease is rarely liable to a second. The person first inoculated is subject to symptoms of the plague. {406} In vaccination for smallpox a living germ is dealt with, whereas in plague inoculation dead seed only are injected. … Inoculation is exceedingly unpopular among the natives. The government has had great labor in persuading the Hindoo mind of the efficacy of Haffkine's prophylactic against plague and at the same time of its utter harmlessness in every other respect. The Hindoo is suspicious that the dead germs and their toxic excreta may be of animal rather than vegetable substance, which would make the injection of the fluid into their body a religious offense."
_United States Consular Reports, January, 1900, page 101._
"In the present epidemic, plague-spots are scattered over the whole face of the globe from Sydney to Santos and Hongkong, and recently from San Francisco suspicious cases have been reported. The annual pilgrimage of Moslems to worship at the shrines of Mecca and Medina is now, as in the past, of all human agencies, the most active in spreading the pest. … Since Egypt is nearest, plague first appears there in the seaport towns, particularly Alexandria. Sanitary conditions have improved vastly, like economics, under British control; and, last year, what in other times might have been a devastating epidemic was limited to relatively a few scattered cases. Recognizing the danger to themselves, the European powers have been led to take steps, under the Venice Convention, for their own protection. An international quarantine, under the control of the Egyptian Sanitary, Maritime, and Quarantine Council, in which the powers have one vote each and Egypt three, has established stations at two points on the Red Sea."
_American Review of Reviews, May, 1900._
PLATT AMENDMENT, The.
See (in this volume) CUBA: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).
PLURAL VOTING.
See (in this volume) BELGIUM: A. D. 1894-1895.
PLYMOUTH COLONY: Return of the manuscript of Bradford's History to Massachusetts.
See (in this volume) MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1897.
POET LAUREATE.
To the line of English Poets Laureate (see, in volume 3, LAUREATE, ENGLISH POETS), there was added on the 1st of January, 1896, the name of Alfred Austin, succeeding Tennyson, who died October B, 1892.
POLAND, Russian: Relaxation of oppressions.
See (in this volume) RUSSIA: A. D. 1897.
POLAR EXPLORATION, Arctic and Antarctic: A chronological record.
Until quite recent years, the antarctic region had had few explorers. In 1598-9 Dirk Gerritz was carried south by a storm and found land, probably the South Shetlands, at 64° South latitude. Capt. Cook made two antarctic voyages, in the second one reaching latitude 71° 10' South, at longitude 106° 54' West, sailing entirely around the southern ocean in a high latitude, and discovering many islands. In a Russian expedition, 1819-21, Bellinghausen discovered Peter I. Island and Alexander I. Land. Enderby Land was discovered by John Biscoe in 1831-2. In 1840-3 the great English expedition under Captain (afterward Sir) James Ross, in the Erebus and Terror, discovered and named Victoria Land, and reached latitude 78° 11', February 23, 1842. The continent which Captain Charles Wilkes claimed to have discovered in 1840 has not been found by later explorers. In 1874 the Challenger was turned back by the ice in latitude 66° 43' South.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1892-1893.
Whaling voyage of the Dundee vessels, the Balæna, Active, Diana and Polar Star, equipped for geographical observation by the Royal Geographical Society and others interested, carrying William S. Bruce, C. W. Donald, and W. G. Burn Murdoch. Accompanied by the Norwegian sealer Jasen, under Captain Larsen. South Shetlands and Graham Land visited and valuable observations made.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1893-1900. Scientific exploration of Labrador by A. P. Low. Operations still in progress.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1894-1895.
Commercial voyage of the Norwegian whaler Antarctic, under Captain Kristensen, sent by Captain Svend Foyn, fitted out by H. J. Bull, and carrying the scientist C. E. Borchgrevinck. The valuable right whale was not found, but large beds of guano were discovered in Victoria Land, where a landing was made near Cape Adare.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895.
Return of Peary relief expedition with Lieutenant Robert E. Peary and his companions. In spite of great difficulties Lieutenant Peary had again crossed the ice-sheet to Independence Bay, determined the northern limits of Greenland, charted 1,000 miles of the west coast, discovered eleven islands and the famous Iron Mountain (three great meteorites), and obtained much knowledge of the natives. The purely scientific results of the expedition are of great value. The relief expedition was organized by Mrs. Peary.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895. Cruise of Mr. Pearson and Lieutenant Feilden in Barents Sea.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895.
Return of Martin Ekroll from Spitzbergen after a winter's study of the ice conditions there. Convinced that his plan of reaching the pole by a sledge journey had little chance of success.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895.
Survey of the lower Yenesei River and Obi Bay by Siberian hydrographic expedition.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895.
Commercial expedition of Captain Wiggins from England to Golchika, at the mouth of the Yenesei.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895.
Russian geological expedition to Nova Zembla.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895.
Russian expedition under the geologist Bogdanovich to the Sea of Okhotsk and Kamchatka.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1895-1896.
Two scientific voyages of the Danish cruiser Ingolf in the seas west and east of Greenland.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Summer expedition of naturalists and college students to the northern coast of Labrador.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Attempt of Lieutenant Peary to remove the great meteorite discovered by him at Cape York, Greenland. After dislodging it he was compelled by the ice to leave it. Small parties from Cornell University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology and one under Mr. George Bartlett, left by Peary at different points to make scientific observations and collections, returned with him.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Hydrographical survey of the Danish waters of Greenland and Iceland.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Hansen sent to Siberia to look for traces of Nansen.
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POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Return of Dr. Nansen from voyage begun in 1893. After skirting the coast of Siberia almost to the Lena delta, the Fram was enclosed by the ice and drifted with it north and northwest. On March 14, 1895, in 84° 4' North latitude, 102° East longitude, Nansen and Johansen left the Fram and pushed northward with dogs and sledges across an ice floe till they reached latitude 86° 13.6', at about 95° West longitude, on April 8, within 261 statute miles of the pole. With great difficulty they made their way to Franz Josef Land, where they wintered, and in June met explorer Jackson. Returning on the Jackson supply steamer Windward, they reached Vardö August 13. The Fram drifted to latitude 85° 57' North, 66° East longitude, then southwestward, reaching Tromsoë August 20, 1896. Nansen demonstrated the existence of a polar sea of great depth, comparatively warm below the surface, apparently with few islands; though he did not find the trans-polar current he sought.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Spitzbergen crossed for the first time, by Sir W. Martin Conway and party.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Many parties visit the northern coast of Norway and Nova Zembla to view the total eclipse of the sun, August 8-9.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1896.
Expedition sent by Russian Hydrographic Department to find site for a sealers' refuge in Nova Zembla. Bielusha Bay, on the southwest coast, chosen.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Expedition sent by Canadian government to investigate Hudson Bay and Strait as a route to Central Canada. Passage found to be navigable for at least sixteen weeks each summer.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Seventh Peary expedition to Greenland. Accompanied by parties for scientific research. Preliminary arrangements made with the Eskimos for the expedition of 1898, and food-stations established. Relics of Greeley's expedition found on Cape Sabine, and the great meteorite at Cape York brought away at last.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Second expedition of Sir Martin Conway for the exploration of Spitzbergen.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
A summer resort established on west coast of Spitzbergen, with regular steamer service for tourists during July and August.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Cruise of Mr. Arnold Pike and Sir Savile Crossley among the islands east of Spitzbergen.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Cruise of Mr. Pearson and Lieutenant Feilden in the Laura in the Kara Sea and along the east coast of Nova Zembla, for the purpose of studying the natural history of the region.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Expedition of F. W. L. Popham with a fleet of steamers through Yugor Straits to the Yenesei.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Hydrological and commercial expedition, comprising seven steamers, under Rear-Admiral Makaroff, sent by the Russian government to the north Siberian sea.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Balloon voyage of Salamon August Andrée and two companions, Mr. Strindberg and Mr. Fraenkel, starting from Danes' Island, north of Spitzbergen, in the hope of being carried to the pole. Four buoys from the balloon have been found. The first, found in Norway in June, 1899, and containing a note from Andrée, was thrown out eight hours after his departure. The "north pole buoy," to be dropped when the pole was passed, was found empty on the north side of King Charles Island, north-east of Spitzbergen, September 11, 1899. A third buoy, also empty, was found on the west coast of Iceland July 17, 1900. Another, reported from Norway, August 31, 1900, contained a note showing that the buoy was thrown out at 10 P. M., July 11, 1897, at an altitude of 250 metres (820 feet), moving North 45 East, with splendid weather. Many search expeditions, some equipped at great expense, have returned unsuccessful. In spite of many rumors nothing definite is known of the fate of any of the party. One message from Andrée was brought back by a carrier pigeon. It was dated July 13, 12.30 P. M., in latitude 82° 2', longitude 12° 5' East, and stated that the balloon was moving eastward.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
New islands on the southern coast of Franz Josef Land discovered by Captain Robertson of the Dundee whaler Balæna.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Return of Jackson-Harmsworth expedition from three years' exploration of Franz Josef Land and the region north of it. Franz Josef Land was resolved into a group of islands and almost entire]y mapped. Small parties journeying northward over the ice, establishing depots of supplies, the most northern in latitude 81° 21', discovered and named Victoria Sea, the most northern open sea in the world.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897.
Anglo-Australasian antarctic conference in London.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897-1899.
Journey of Andrew J. Stone through the Canadian Rockies, down Mackenzie River and along the arctic coast, in search of rare mammals and information concerning the native tribes. Mr. Stone often had only one companion. He traveled rapidly, in one period of five months covering 3,000 miles of arctic coast and mountains, between 70° and 72° North latitude and between 117½° and 140° West longitude.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1897-1899.
Belgian antarctic expedition under Captain Adrien de Gerlache to lands south of America. Sailed from Antwerp to explore and chart coast line, expecting to leave party to winter at Cape Adare and explore interior. Near Alexander I. Land the Belgica caught in the ice pack and held for a year, drifting as far south as latitude 71° 36', in longitude 87° 39' West. Finally released by the cutting of a canal through the ice. This dreary winter the first spent by men far enough south to lose sight of the sun. The continent found to be mountainous, glaciated, and without land animals except a few insects, though sea fowl abounded. One flowering grass, and a few mosses, rock lichens, and fresh-water algæ constitute the flora. Some 500 miles of coast chartered.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Expedition of Dr. K. J. V. Steenstrup to Greenland to study the glaciers of Disko island.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Completion by Dr. Thoroddsen of his systematic exploration of Iceland, begun in 1881.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Spitzbergen circumnavigated and surveyed by Dr. A. G. Nathorst. Coast mapped and important scientific observations made.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Pendulum observations made in Spitzbergen by Professor J. H. Gore, with instruments of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, for the determination of the force of gravity in that latitude.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Cruise of Prince Albert of Monaco, on coast of Spitzbergen, for the purpose of making scientific observations.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Some claim to Spitzbergen made by Russia. Never before claimed by any nation.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
German arctic expedition under Theodor Lerner to the islands east of Spitzbergen, for scientific purposes and to obtain news of Andrée if possible.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Andrée search expedition under J. Stadling sent to the Lena delta, the mouth of the Yenesei and the islands of New Siberia by the Swedish Anthropological and Geographical Society.
{408}
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Conference on antarctic exploration held in the rooms of the Royal Society, London, February 24.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898-1899.
Reconnoitring expedition by Danish party under Lieutenant G. C. Amdrup, to east coast of Greenland. Coast explored and mapped from Angmagsalik, 65¾ North latitude, to 67° 22'. Remains of a small extinct Eskimo settlement found.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898-1899.
Second attempt by Walter Wellman to reach the north pole. Wintered in Franz Josef Land, establishing an outpost, called Fort McKinley, in latitude 81° North. In February Mr. Wellman, with three companions, started northward and seemed likely to succeed in their undertaking, but a serious accident befalling Mr. Wellman, and an icequake destroying many dogs and sledges, a hurried return to headquarters was necessary. Here important scientific observations were made. The 82d parallel was reached by the explorer.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898-1899.
German expedition for deep-sea exploration in antarctic waters, in charge of Professor Carl Chun, on the Valdivia. Southern ocean found to be of great depth.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898-1900.
British antarctic expedition under Borchgrevinck to Victoria Land; the funds provided by Sir George Newnes. Latitude 78° 50' South reached, and the present position of the southern magnetic pole determined.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898.
Carefully planned expedition of Lieutenant Peary, purposing to advance toward the pole by west coast of Greenland, establishing food stations and depending upon picked Eskimos for co-operation with his small party. In the last dash for the pole, supply sledges to be sent back as emptied, and the returning explorer, with two companions only, to be met by a relief party of Eskimos. The Windward was presented by Mr. Harmsworth for this expedition. Lieutenant Peary was disabled for several weeks in 1898-9 by severe frost-bites, causing the loss of seven toes. The Greeley records were found at Fort Conger and sent back by the annual supply vessel. Sextant and record of the Nares expedition found and sent back; presented by Lieutenant Peary to the Lords of the Admiralty of Great Britain and placed in the museum of the Royal Naval College at Greenwich. Vessel sent to Greenland each summer to carry supplies and bring back letters, carrying also small parties of explorers, scientists, university students and hunters, to be left at various points and picked up by the vessel on its return.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1898. Expedition of Captain Sverdrup to northern Greenland Lieutenant Peary's especial field.
Having planned a polar expedition similar to Peary's he sailed up the west coast, but the Fram was frozen in near Cape Sabine. Sverdrup therefore explored the western part of Ellesmere Land, then sailed again in an attempt to round the northern coast of Greenland.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
International conference held at Stockholm in June recommended a program for hydrographical and biological work in the northern parts of the Atlantic ocean, the North Sea, the Baltic, and adjoining seas.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Scientific expedition of Edward Bay, a Dane, to Melville Bay, Greenland.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Swedish expedition under Dr. A. G. Nathorst to search for Andrée in eastern Greenland. Valuable observations made and fjord-systems of King Oscar Fjord and Kaiser Franz Josef Fjord mapped.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Explorations in Iceland by F. W. W. Howell and party.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Hydrographic surveys on the coasts of Iceland and the Färoe Islands by MM. Holm and Hammer in the Danish guard-ship Diana.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Joint Russian and Swedish expedition to Spitzbergen, for the measurement of a degree of the meridian. Owing to the condition of the ice, the northern and southern surveying parties unable to connect their work.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Explorations in Spitzbergen by the Prince of Monaco, with a scientific staff.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Successful experimental voyage of the Russian Vice-Admiral Makaroff in his ice-breaking steamer, the Yermak, north of Spitzbergen.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Russian government expedition, to cost £5,400, to explore northern shores of Siberia to mouths of the Obi and Yenesei.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899-1900.
Arctic expedition of the Duke of the Abruzzi. His ship, the Stella Polare, was left at Crown Prince Rudolf Land during the winter. The Duke became incapacitated by a fall and by the loss of two joints from the fingers of his left hand, incurably frost-bitten; but a small party under Captain Cagni pushed northward till provisions were exhausted. Nansen's record was beaten, the Italian party reaching latitude 86° 33', at about 56° East longitude. No land was found north or northwest of Spitzbergen. Three men were lost from Cagni's party.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1899.
Exploration of Ellesmere Land, Greenland, by Dr. Robert Stein, of the United States Geological Survey, Dr. Leopold Kann of Cornell, and Samuel Warmbath of Harvard, who took passage in the Peary supply ship Diana, trusting to chance for conveyance home. Their totally inadequate outfit was generously augmented by Peary's friends of the Diana. Dr. Kann returned in 1900, leaving Dr. Stein.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Seward peninsula, the most westward extension of Alaska, explored and surveyed by five government expeditions.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Exploration of the interior of northern Labrador by a party from Harvard University. Soundings along the coast by schooner Brave.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Second Danish expedition under Lieutenant Amdrup to east Greenland, completing the work of 1898-9 by mapping the coast between 67° 20' North and Cape Gladstone, about 70° North, and making valuable scientific collections.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Swedish expedition, under Gustav Kolthoff, to eastern Greenland, for study of the arctic fauna.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Swedish scientific expedition of Professor G. Kolthoff to Spitzbergen and Greenland.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Exploration of Spitzbergen by a Russian expedition under Knipovich.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Russian expedition to east coast of Nova Zembla by Lieutenant Borissoff to complete survey of the islands.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Dr. Nansen's expedition under the leadership of Dr. J. Hjort, for the physical and biological examination of the sea between Norway, Iceland, Jan Mayen and Spitzbergen.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
German expedition, under Captain Bade, to explore East Spitzbergen, King Charles' Land and Franz Josef Land, and to look for traces of Andrée.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Attempt of a German, Captain Bauendahl, to reach the north pole, leaving his vessel in the ice north of Spitzbergen and traveling over the ice with provisions for two years, weighing ten tons.
{409}
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1900.
Scientific expedition of Baron E. von Toll to the unexplored Sannikoff Land, sighted in 1805 from the northern coast islands of New Siberia. Preceded by a party which established food depots at various places months before.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1901.
Three exploring parties sent to Alaska by the United States Geological Survey.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1901.
Expedition sent by the Duke of the Abruzzi to Franz Josef Land to search for the three men lost from his party in 1900.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1901.
North polar expedition under Mr. Evelyn B. Baldwin of the United States Weather Bureau; splendidly equipped by Mr. William Ziegler of New York. Mr. Baldwin, who has had arctic experience with Lieutenant Peary and Mr. Wellman, will probably proceed by way of Franz Josef Land.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1901.
Several expeditions to co-operate in exploration of the antarctic region and to reach the south pole if possible. The British expedition, long striven for by the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Society and made possible by L. W. Longstaff's contribution of £25,000, to be under the command of Captain Robert Scott and to explore the Victoria (90°-180° East) and Ross (180°-90° West) quadrants,—in the main the region south of the Pacific. The Weddell (90° West-0°, Greenwich) and Enderby (0°-90 East) quadrants assigned to the finely equipped German expedition, under Drygalski, which will first explore south of the Indian Ocean. The Swedish expedition under Dr. Nordenskïold to explore the lands south of America. A private Scottish expedition under William S. Bruce to explore the Weddell Sea region south of the Atlantic Ocean. An Argentine expedition to visit the South Shetlands.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1901.
Projected expedition of Captain J. E. Bernier of Quebec, on Nansen's principle, with a specially built vessel, to sail through Bering Strait, coast Siberia to longitude 170° or 165° East, then enter the ice. Sledging parties to push toward the pole, marking the route with hollow signal poles (of aluminum) packed with records and provisions, and maintaining communication with the ship by wireless telegraphy. This is one of two plans which he lays before the Canadian government. The other contemplates a movement, with dogs and reindeers, from Franz Josef Land, coming back to Spitzbergen, taking 12 or 14 men, all scientists.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1901.
Projected expedition of Herr Annschütz-Kämpfe, of Munich, to the north pole, in a submarine boat capable of carrying five men and remaining under water for fifteen hours at a time.
POLAR EXPLORATION: 1901.
As this goes to press (April, 1901), a national antarctic expedition is being fitted out, jointly, by the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Society of Great Britain, assisted by a subsidy of £45,000 from the British government. A steamer named the "Discovery," built especially for the expedition, at Dundee, was launched in March, and is being equipped with remarkable completeness. Special arrangements, says "The Times," will be made for magnetic work, while meteorology, geology and biology will be well cared for. "The staff of navigating officers and of scientific specialists has been carefully selected, and under Commander Robert Scott. R. N., who will be in command of the expedition, their work, we may be sure, will be so well organized that nothing of importance will be neglected. There will be five navigating officers, three of them belonging to the Royal Navy and two others to the Royal Naval Reserve, while the special scientific staff, including the two medical officers, will be of equal strength. … Captain Scott is at present investigating the question of the utility of balloons."
POLISH PARTY, in Austria.
See (in this volume) AUSTRIA-HUNGARY: A. D. 1895-1896, and after.
POONA, The Plague at.
See (in this volume) PLAGUE.
POPE LEO XIII.
See (in this volume) PAPACY.
POPULATION: Of Europe and countries peopled from Europe.
See (in this volume) NINETEENTH CENTURY: EXPANSION.
POPULIST PARTY, The.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1896 (JUNE-NOVEMBER); and 1900 (MAY-NOVEMBER).
PORT ARTHUR: A. D. 1894. Capture by Japanese.
See (in this volume) CHINA: A. D. 1894-1895.
PORT ARTHUR: A. D. 1895. Trans-Siberian Railway. Russo-Chinese Treaty.
See (in this volume) RUSSIA IN ASIA: A. D. 1891-1900.
PORT ARTHUR: A. D. 1898. Lease to Russia.
See (in this volume) CHINA: A. D. 1898 (MARCH-JULY).
----------PORTO RICO: Start--------
[Image: Map of Porto Rico.]
PORTO RICO: Area and Population.
In the testimony given, January 13, 1900, before the United States Senate Committee on Pacific Islands and Porto Rico, General George W. Davis, Military Governor of Porto Rico, gave the following information: "The island of Puerto Rico has an area of about 3,600 square miles, according to the best information that now exists, but that area has to be verified, and it is doubted if the area is quite so large. It has a population of about a million, perhaps—certainly one of the most densely populated areas of 3,000 or 4,000 square miles on the face of the earth, approximating the density of population of Belgium, I think, and considerably greater than that of any of our thickly settled agricultural regions in the United States. New England has about 200 to the square mile while Puerto Rico has nearly 300. The inhabitants are mostly of Spanish origin—emigrants from Spain during the last 400 years and their descendants. There is a large representation from the Canary Islands and the Balearic group in the Mediterranean, a large number of Corsicans and their descendants, and consequently they are French subjects, a few Germans, a few English, and very few Americans before the occupation; a few Venezuelans, a few from Santo Domingo, and a few Cubans, but the most of the population is Spanish. Included in that million are about 300,000 negroes and mulattoes, approximately a little more than that number. {410} About one-third of the entire population is of the negro or mixed race, what would be called in the United States 'colored' people. Of pure-blood negroes there are about 70,000, the remainder mulattoes, and all speaking Spanish, and largely the slaves liberated in 1874. The number of slaves liberated at that time was considerably less than the number of negroes in Puerto Rico, the number being only about 30,000, for whom some $11,000,000 was paid the owners. That statement gives a fair idea of the character of the population as respects numbers and race." Several small adjacent islands are regarded as belonging to Porto Rico and were included in the cession to the United States. One of these, named Viequez, about 15 miles long and 3 or 4 miles wide, is very fertile, and has about 7,000 inhabitants. On another, called Culebra, there are some 600 or 700 people. The remaining islands are smaller and unimportant.
_56th Congress, 1st Session, Senate Document Number 147, pages 1-2._
PORTO RICO: The government as it was under Spanish rule.
"The civil government of the island was the Governor-General, and the Governor-General was the civil government. All power was lodged in his hands and he was accountable only to Madrid. He was at once the executive, the legislative, and the judicial head. As Captain-General, he had chief command of the military forces, and made such disposition of them as he chose; as Governor-General, he conducted civil affairs, whether insular or municipal, according to his own pleasure. … If, as occasionally happened, he was a wise and good man, seeking the welfare of the people rather than his own personal enrichment or the advancement of his political friends, there was less cause for complaint from the people, who were completely ignored. As the position was one of great power and of large opportunities for pecuniary profit, it not infrequently went to those who were prepared to exploit it in their own interests. …
"The system of autonomy, which was proclaimed November 25, 1897 [see, in this volume, CUBA: A. D. 1897 (NOVEMBER)], was never fully installed. The war intervened, and the provincial legislature, which was its most important feature, was dissolved when Sampson's fleet appeared, and the Governor-General conducted the government practically on the old plan, except that the ministry, as provided by the autonomistic law, was retained, as follows: Secretary of government or of state, secretary of the treasury, secretary of the fomento or interior, including public works, public instruction, public lands, mines, etc., agriculture and commerce, and secretary of justice and worship. The last three secretaries were subordinate to the secretary of government, through whom all orders from the Governor-General and all communications to or from him must pass. The autonomist law allowed the secretaries or ministers to be members of one or the other of the two legislative chambers. The Governor-General with his council constituted the executive power. No act of his was valid unless approved by one of the secretaries, and the secretaries could issue no order which he had not countersigned. He had the power to convoke or dissolve the chambers, to refer objectionable bills to Madrid for approval or disapproval, and to appoint or remove the secretaries. All matters of a diplomatic character were in his hands exclusively, and, constituted by the Pope patronato real, he was the head of the church in the island and practical director of ecclesiastical affairs. The legislature consisted of two chambers, the council and the house of representatives. The council was composed of fourteen members, eight of whom were elected, and six appointed by the Crown; the house of representatives of one representative for each 25,000 inhabitants, elected by the people. The liberality of this law is further indicated by the fact that it gave the right of suffrage to all males of 25 years of age and over. The two chambers were empowered to legislate on all insular questions, such as the estimates, which must be adopted by the Cortes at Madrid, public instruction, public works, sanitation, charities, etc. It will be seen that the reforms granted by this autonomistic decree were large in the letter, taking powers which the Governor-General had exercised unquestioned and giving them to the people, who had never been allowed to participate in the government of their own country. Whether it would have proved liberal in practical operation is not so certain. The Government invariably discriminated against Porto Ricans in favor of Spaniards, and it is also to be remembered that Spanish laws as written and Spanish laws as administered are not always identical."
_H. K. Carroll (Special Commissioner), Report on Porto Rico, 1899, pages. 15-16._
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898 (May). American bombardment of forts at San Juan.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (APRIL-JUNE).
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898 (July-August). American conquest of.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-AUGUST: PORTO RICO).
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898 (July-December). Suspension of hostilities. Cession to the United States.
See (in this volume) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1898 (JULY-DECEMBER).
PORTO RICO: A. D. 1898-1899 (August-July). Popular feeling in the Island on the American occupation. Welcome to the Stars and Stripes. Expectations and desires of the people. Their character. Extent of illiteracy. The Peones.
"All classes of natives of the island welcomed the American Army, American occupation, and American methods, and accepted without hesitation the Stars and Stripes in place of the red and yellow bars. They had not been disloyal to the old flag; but it had come to represent to them, particularly during the present century, in which a class feeling developed between the insular and the peninsular Spaniard, partiality and oppression. In the short war, some of the natives occupying official positions made demonstrations of loyalty to the Crown of Spain, as was perfectly natural, but they were among the first to submit to American rule when the protocol promised cession of the island to the United States. On the other hand, as the commissioner is informed, a Porto Rican who had hoped and prayed for American intervention for fifty years enrolled himself as a Spanish citizen some months after the war was concluded, and his hopes had been realized. Porto Ricans generally complained that the former Government discriminated in favor of the Spaniard, who, in the distribution of the offices, was preferred to the native, and who, aided by the powerful influence of the authorities, prospered in business as banker, merchant, manufacturer, or agriculturist. They also insist that the internal improvement of the island was neglected; that agriculture bore more than its share of the burden of taxation; that the assessments were very inequitable and unequal; that education was not fostered, and that in general the welfare of the people was not the first concern of their rulers.
{411}
"They expect under American sovereignty that the wrongs of centuries will be righted; that they will have an honest and efficient government; the largest measure of liberty as citizens of the great Republic under the Constitution; home rule as provided by the Territorial system; free access to the markets of the United States and no customs duties on goods coming from our ports; a school system modeled after that of the United States; the adoption of the English language in due time and the general adaptation to the island of all those institutions which have contributed to the prosperity, progress, and happiness of the American people. The largest and most representative gathering, since American occupation, was held in San Juan, October 30, 1898, without distinction of party or class with the object of consultation and formulation of a programme for the future. In brief, the propositions of the congress as submitted to the commissioner for presentation to the President of the United States were these: Immediate termination of military and inauguration of civil government; establishment of the Territorial system, with laws common to other Territories of the Union; a legislature in two branches; suffrage for all male citizens of 21 years of age or over, the right to be surrendered at the end of the first two years by those who do not then know how to read and write; judicial reform; introduction of the jury system; autonomy for municipal governments; taxation on the basis of valuation; free and reciprocal commerce with the ports of the United States; aid for agriculture; obligatory and universal education; trade schools; savings banks. This programme of reforms seems to have very general support, although there is a difference of opinion on certain points. Many Porto Ricans urged the commissioner to represent them as desiring that the military regime be made as short as possible, not because the military governors were in any way objectionable or their rule oppressive, but because the civil status of the island should be fixed with no unnecessary delay. There was no other opinion except among foreign subjects, many of whom thought that the people were not yet ready for self-government, and that the firm hand of military power would be needed for probably two years. …
"If the desire to assume the burdens of local self-government may be taken as indicating some degree of capacity for self-government, the people of Porto Rico certainly have the desire. They may be poor, but they are proud and sensitive, and would be bitterly disappointed if they found that they had been delivered from an oppressive yoke to be put under a tutelage which proclaimed their inferiority. Apart from such qualifications as general education and experience constitute, the commissioner has no hesitation in affirming that the people have good claims to be considered capable of self-government. Education and experience, although too high a value can hardly be set upon them, do not necessarily make good citizens. … The unswerving loyalty of Porto Rico to the Crown of Spain, as demonstrated by the truth of history, is no small claim to the confidence and trust of the United States. The people were obedient under circumstances which provoked revolt after revolt in other Spanish colonies. The habit of obedience is strong among them. Their respect for law is another notable characteristic. They are not turbulent or violent. Riots are almost unknown in the island; so is organized resistance to law; brigandage flourished only for a brief period after the war and its object was revenge rather than rapine. They are not a criminal people. The more violent crimes are by no means common. Burglary is almost unknown. There are many cases of homicide, but the number in proportion to population is not as large as in the United States. Thievery is the most common crime, and petty cases make up a large part of this list of offenses. The people as a whole are a moral, law-abiding class, mild in disposition, easy to govern, and possess the possibilities of developing a high type of citizenship."
_H. K. Carroll (Special Commissioner), Report on Porto Rico, 1899, pages 55-57._
"On the 25th day of July, 1899, an election was held in Adjuntas for municipal officers, and the registration was made in conformity to General Orders, No. 112, c. s., Headquarters Department of Puerto Rico. The order imposed the following qualifications for electors: Men over 21 years old, able to read and write, or who were taxpayers of record, who had been actual residents of the island for at least two years, and of the municipality for six months preceding the date of the election. The number who proved these qualifications before the board of registration was 906, out of a population, according to the census of 1897, of 18,505; that is, less than 5 per cent could vote under the conditions stated. There was much public interest in this election, and it is believed that about all who were eligible were registered. This incident indicated that in the whole island there may be approximately 45,000 who could vote under the conditions of the order above referred to. The class who can not fulfill these conditions, say 75 per cent of the males over 21 years of age, are usually in a state of abject poverty and ignorance, and are assumed to include one-fifth of the inhabitants. They are of the class usually called peones. This word in Spanish America, under old laws, defined a person who owed service to his creditor until the debt was paid. While those laws are obsolete, the condition of these poor people remains much as before. So great is their poverty that they are always in debt to the proprietors or merchants. They live in huts made of sticks and poles covered with thatches of palm leaves. A family of a dozen may be huddled together in one room, often with only a dirt floor. They have little food worthy of the name and only the most scanty clothing, while children of less than 7 or 8 years of age are often entirely naked. A few may own a machete or a hoe, but more have no worldly possessions whatever. Their food is fruit, and if they are wage-earners, a little rice and codfish in addition. They are without ambition and see no incentive to labor beyond the least that will provide the barest sustenance. All over the island they can be seen to-day sitting beside their ruined huts, thinking naught of to-morrow, making no effort to repair and restore their cabins nor to replant for future food.
{412}
"The remarks of Mr. James Anthony Froude in his work on 'The English in the West Indies' apply with full force to these people: 'Morals in the technical sense they have none, but they can not be said to sin because they have no knowledge of law, and therefore they can commit no breach of the law. They are naked and not ashamed. They are married but not parsoned. The women prefer the looser tie, that they may be able to lose the man if he treats her unkindly. Yet they are not licentious. … The system is strange, but it answers. … There is evil, but there is not the demoralizing effect of evil. They sin, but they sin only as animals, without shame, because there is no sense of doing wrong. They eat the forbidden fruit, but it brings with it no knowledge of the difference between good and evil. … They are innocently happy in the unconsciousness of the obligations of morality. They eat, drink, sleep, and smoke, and do the least in the way of work they can. They have no ideas of duty, and therefore are not made uneasy by neglecting it.' Between the negro and the peon there is no visible difference. It is hard to believe that the pale, sallow, and often emaciated beings are the descendants of the conquistadores who carried the flag of Spain to nearly all of South America, and to one-third of North America."
_General George W. Davis, Report on the Civil Government of Puerto Rico, September 30, 1899 (Message and Documents: Abridgment, 1899-1900,