The Philippines are the home of many volcanoes, a number of them still active. Mayon, in the island of Luzon, is one of the most remarkable volcanic mountains on the globe. It is a perfect cone, rising to the height of 8,900 feet, and is in constant activity; its latest destructive eruption took place in 1888. Apo, in the island of Mindanao, 10,312 feet high, is the largest of the Philippine volcanoes. Next is Canloon in Negros, which rises 8,192 feet above the sea. Taal is in a lake, with a height of 900 feet, and is noteworthy as being the lowest volcano in the world. To those not accustomed to volcanoes, these great fire-spouting mountains, which are but prominent representatives of many lesser ones in the islands, seem to be an ever-present danger to the inhabitants; but the natives and those who live there manifest little or no fear of them. In fact, they rather pride themselves in their possession of such terrifying neighbors.
Such is an outline view of the Philippine Archipelago of the present day. A new era has opened up in the history of that wonderful land with its liberation from the Spanish yoke. The dense ignorance and semi-savage barbarities which exist there must not be expected to yield too rapidly to the touch of human kindness and brotherly love with which the Christian world will now visit those semi-civilized and untamed children of nature. Nevertheless, western civilization and western progress will undoubtedly work mighty changes in the lives of those people, in the development of that country, during the first quarter of the twentieth century, which ushers in the dawn of its freedom.
THE BATTLE OF MANILA.
In all the annals of naval warfare there is no engagement, terminating in so signal a victory with so little damage to the victors, as that which made the name of George Dewey immortal on the memorable Sunday morning of May 1, 1898, in Manila Bay. The world knows the story of that battle, for it has been told hundreds of times in the thousands of newspapers and magazines and scores of books throughout the civilized world. But few, perhaps, who peruse these pages have read the simple details of the fight as narrated by that most modest of men, Admiral Dewey himself. We cannot better close this chapter on the Philippines than by inserting Admiral Dewey"s official report of the battle which wrested the Filipinos from Spanish tyranny and placed nearly ten millions of oppressed people under the protecting care of the United States.
[Ill.u.s.tration: YOUNG MAN OF THE UPPER CLa.s.s.
White duck or crash trousers and a silk or pina shirt make a fashionable suit.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: AGUINALDO AT THE AGE OF 22.
Dressed in fine pina cloth shirt.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: DOING THE FAMILY WASH.
The glory of all Philippine women is their long and beautiful hair.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: NATIVE WOMAN FRUIT SELLER.
And customers, Manila.]
ADMIRAL DEWEY"S STORY OF MANILA.
"UNITED STATES FLAGSHIP OLYMPIA, CAVITE, May 4, 1898.
"The squadron left Mirs Bay on April 27th, arrived off Bolinao on the morning of April 30th, and, finding no vessels there, proceeded down the coast and arrived off the entrance to Manila Bay on the same afternoon. The Boston and the Concord were sent to reconnoitre Port Subic. A thorough search was made of the port by the Boston and the Concord, but the Spanish fleet was not found. Entered the south channel at 11:30 P.M., steaming in column at eight knots. After half the squadron had pa.s.sed, a battery on the south side of the channel opened fire, none of the shots taking effect. The Boston and McCulloch returned the fire. The squadron proceeded across the bay at slow speed and arrived off Manila at daybreak, and was fired upon at 5:15 A.M. by three batteries at Manila and two near Cavite, and by the Spanish fleet anch.o.r.ed in an approximately east and west line across the mouth of Bakor Bay, with their left in shoal water in Canacao Bay.
"The squadron then proceeded to the attack, the flagship Olympia, under my personal direction, leading, followed at a distance by the Baltimore, Raleigh, Petrel, Concord, and Boston in the order named, which formation was maintained throughout the action. The squadron opened fire at 5:41 A.M. While advancing to the attack two mines were exploded ahead of the flagship, too far to be effective. The squadron maintained a continuous and precise fire at ranges varying from 5,000 to 2,000 yards, countermarching in a line approximately parallel to that of the Spanish fleet. The enemy"s fire was vigorous, but generally ineffective. Early in the engagement two launches put out toward the Olympia with the apparent intention of using torpedoes.
One was sunk and the other disabled by our fire and beached before they were able to fire their torpedoes.
"At seven A.M. the Spanish flagship Reina Cristina made a desperate attempt to leave the line and come out to engage at short range, but was received with such a galling fire, the entire battery of the Olympia being concentrated upon her, that she was barely able to return to the shelter of the point. The fires started in her by our sh.e.l.ls at the time were not extinguished until she sank. The three batteries at Manila had kept up a continuous fire from the beginning of the engagement, which fire was not returned by my squadron. The first of these batteries was situated on the south mole-head at the entrance of the Pasig River, the second on the south position of the walled city of Manila, and the third at Molate, about one-half mile further south. At this point I sent a message to the Governor-General to the effect that if the batteries did not cease firing the city would be sh.e.l.led. This had the effect of silencing them.
"At 7:35 A.M. I ceased firing and withdrew the squadron for breakfast. At 11:16 I returned to the attack. By this time the Spanish flagship and almost all the Spanish fleet were in flames. At 12:30 the squadron ceased firing, the batteries being silenced and the ships sunk, burned, and deserted.
"At 12:40 the squadron returned and anch.o.r.ed off Manila, the Petrel being left behind to complete the destruction of the smaller gunboats, which were behind the point of Cavite. This duty was performed by Commander E.P. Wood in the most expeditious and complete manner possible. The Spanish lost the following vessels: Sunk, Reina Cristina, Castilla, Don Antonio de Ulloa; burned, Don Juan de Austria, Isla de Luzon, Isla de Cuba, General Lezo, Marquia del Duero, El Correo, Velasco, and Isla de Mindanao (transport); captured, Rapido and Hercules (tugs), and several small launches.
"I am unable to obtain complete accounts of the enemy"s killed and wounded, but believe their losses to be very heavy. The Reina Cristina alone had 150 killed, including the captain, and ninety wounded. I am happy to report that the damage done to the squadron under my command was inconsiderable. There were none killed and only seven men in the squadron were slightly wounded. Several of the vessels were struck and even penetrated, but the damage was of the slightest, and the squadron is in as good condition now as before the battle.
"I beg to state to the department that I doubt if any commander-in-chief was ever served by more loyal, efficient, and gallant-captains than those of the squadron now under my command.
Captain Frank Wildes, commanding the Boston, volunteered to remain in command of his vessel, although his relief arrived before leaving Hong Kong. a.s.sistant Surgeon Kindelberger, of the Olympia, and Gunner J.C. Evans, of the Boston, also volunteered to remain, after orders detaching them had arrived. The conduct of my personal staff was excellent. Commander B.P. Lamberton, chief of staff, was a volunteer for that position, and gave me most efficient aid. Lieutenant Brumby, Flag Lieutenant, and Ensign E.P. Scott, aide, performed their duties as signal officers in a highly creditable manner; Caldwell, Flag Secretary, volunteered for and was a.s.signed to a subdivision of the five-inch battery. Mr. J.L. Stickney, formerly an officer in the United States Navy, and now correspondent for the New York _Herald_, volunteered for duty as my aide, and rendered valuable service. I desire especially to mention the coolness of Lieutenant C.G. Calkins, the navigator of the Olympia, who came under my personal observation, being on the bridge with me throughout the entire action, and giving the ranges to the guns with an accuracy that was proven by the excellence of the firing.
"On May 2d, the day following the engagement, the squadron again went to Cavite, where it remains. On the 3d the military forces evacuated the Cavite a.r.s.enal, which was taken possession of by a landing party.
On the same day the Raleigh and the Baltimore secured the surrender of the batteries on Corregidor Island, paroling the garrison and destroying the guns. On the morning of May 4th, the transport Manila, which had been aground in Bakor Bay, was towed off and made a prize."
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE MOUTH OF THE PASIG RIVER.
The city of Old Manila is surrounded by water. On the west is the sea, to the north is the Pasig River, while moats, connected with the river by sluices, flank the other two sides. All the princ.i.p.al warehouses of the city are on the Pasig, and ships deliver and receive their cargoes direct, without the necessity of cartage.]
OUR NEW POSSESSIONS (CONTINUED).
THE LADRONE, OR MARIANA ISLANDS.
It was a welcome sight to Magellan and his crew when, one day in March, nearly 400 years ago, they beheld the verdant and beautifully sloping hills of the Ladrone Islands. Eighteen weary months before they had sailed from the coast of Spain, and all that time, first to the southwest and then to the northwest, they had followed the setting sun.
Theirs were the first vessels manned by white men that had ever plowed the trackless Pacific; and this was the first land ever seen by white men within that unknown ocean.
It was a pitiable crew on those three small, weather-beaten ships, who drew, that March morning, toward the coast of the present island of Guam, which is now a possession of the United States. Hunger and thirst had driven them to the verge of madness. They had eaten even the leather thongs from their sail fastenings, and only a small mug of water per day was the portion of drink for a man. "Land! Land!!" It was a glad cry from the watch aloft. There were palm trees, cocoanuts, green gra.s.s, tropical fruits, an abundance of fresh water, and--though naked--a curious and friendly people. No wonder Magellan paused to rest himself and his sailors.
Those little islands have never been of much value, and never can be.
Seventeen of them stretching in a row about six hundred miles from north to south, and their total area, including their islets and reefs, is variously estimated at from 400 to 560 square miles. Hence, there is but about one-fourth more territory on the whole seventeen islands combined than is included within the corporate limits of the city of Greater New York.
A broad channel divides the Ladrones into two groups. The northern group consists of ten islets, without inhabitants; the southern group has seven islands, four of which are inhabited. The largest island, _Guahan_, known to us as _Guam_, ceded to us by Spain, was taken by our warship Charleston on July 4, 1898. This island contains the only town in the colony. Its full Spanish name is _San Ignacio de Agana_. It is the capital of the archipelago, and contains more than half of the whole population.
THE NATIVE INHABITANTS.
When first visited by Europeans, the archipelago contained from 40,000 to 60,000 souls, represented by two distinct cla.s.ses, the n.o.bles and the people, between whom marriage, and even contact, were forbidden. But the Spanish conquest soon ended this distinction by reducing all alike to servitude. For a long time after Spanish occupation, the natives complained and finally rebelled against the oppressive measures of their rulers; but by the end of the seventeenth century they ceased their resistance, and it was found by a census that fully half of them had perished or escaped in their canoes to the Caroline Islands, and that two-thirds of their one hundred and eighty villages had fallen to ruins.
Then came an epidemic which swept away nearly all the natives of Guam; and the island of Tinian (one of the group) was depopulated and its inhabitants brought to Guam.
[Ill.u.s.tration: NATIVE HOUSE AND PALMS, LADRONE ISLANDS.]
Nearly all the new arrivals soon died. In the year 1760, a census showed a total of only 1,654 inhabitants left in all the islands, and the Spaniards repopulated them by bringing Tagals from the Philippines.
These, mixed with the remaining natives and Spaniards, have steadily increased. The population of the islands in 1899 was estimated at about 9,000. The people are generally lacking in energy, loose in morals, and miserably poor. Their education has been seriously neglected. Their religion is Catholic, no Protestant missions having been encouraged--we might say, not allowed--there or in the Philippines or the Carolines.
TOPOGRAPHY, CLIMATE, ETC.
The islands of the northern group are mountainous, the alt.i.tudes reaching from 2,600 to 2,700 feet. There are evidences of volcanoes all over the archipelago, and some mountains contain small craters and cones not yet extinct. The climate of the Ladrones, though humid, is salubrious, and the heat, being tempered by the trade winds, is milder than in the Philippines. The yearly average temperature of Guam is 81.
Streams are everywhere copious--though the clearing of the land has diminished their size of late years. The original flora consists generally of Asiatic plants, but much has been introduced from the Philippines and other sources.
Cocoanuts, palms, the bread tree, and tropical trees and plants generally, thrive. The large fruit bat which abounds in the Philippines is indigenous to the Ladrones, and, despite its objectionable odor, is a princ.i.p.al article of food. Swine and oxen are allowed to run wild, and are hunted when needed. There are only a few species of birds; even insects are rare; and the reptiles are represented by several kinds of lizards and a single species of serpent. No domestic animals were known in the islands until introduced by the Spaniards.
When the United States steamship Charleston opened fire on the little city of Agana, July 4, 1898, the people had not heard of the war, and the governor said he thought "the n.o.ble Americans were saluting" him, and was "deeply humiliated because he had no powder to return their salute." It was an easy, bloodless victory. The governor and his soldiers were carried to Manila as prisoners, and an American garrison of a few men left to take charge of this new American territory in the Pacific.
CONCLUSION.
Thus at the close of the nineteenth century, the Greater United States a.s.sumes its appointed place among the foremost nations of the world, and stands on the threshold of achievements whose grandeur no man dare attempt to prophesy. We pause, awed, grateful, and profoundly impressed, when we recall the mighty events, the amazing progress, and the wonderful advancements in discovery, science, art, literature, and all that tends to the good of mankind that are certain to give the twentieth century a pre-eminence above all the years that have gone before.
The new era of our country has opened. The United States enters on the first stage of the transformation from an isolated commonwealth into an outreaching power with dependencies in both hemispheres. We can no longer hold an att.i.tude of aloofness from the rest of the world. With vulnerable points in our outlying possessions, we must make ready to defend them not only by force of arms but by diplomatic skill.
Entangling alliances as heretofore will be avoided, and the conditions, complications, and policies of foreign powers must in the future possess a practical importance for us.
The original thirteen States have expanded into forty-five, embracing the vast area between the two oceans and extending from the British possessions to the Gulf of Mexico. To them has now been added our colonial territory, so vast in extent that, like the British Empire, the sun never sets on our dominions. Where a hundred years ago were only a few scattered villages and towns, imperial cities now raise their heads.
Thousands of square miles of forest and solitude have given place to cultivated farms, to factories, and workshops that hum with the wheels of industry. The Patent Office issues 40,000 patents each year. We have three cities with more than a million population apiece, and twenty-five with a population ranging from a hundred thousand to half a million.
Greater New York is the second city in the world, and, if its present rate of growth continues, it will surpa.s.s London before the middle of the coming century. Our population has grown from 3,000,000 at the close of the Revolution to 75,000,000. When Andrew Jackson became President there was not a mile of railroad in the United States. To-day our mileage exceeds that of all the countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, and the employes, connected directly or indirectly with railroads in the United States, number almost a million persons. The half-dozen crude newspapers of the Revolution have expanded into more than 20,000, whose daily news is gathered from every quarter of the globe. The total yearly issue is more than three billions.