CHAPTER I.

THE PHILIPPINE ARCHIPELAGO.

THE Philippine Archipelago lies between 4° 41′ and 21° N. latitude, almost exactly south of the heart of China, and north of a line running through the center of Australia. Its latitude is the same as Southern India, Somaliland, Venezuela, and Costa Rica, and it lies 12° and more south of Cuba.

The Archipelago comprises over one thousand islands, only eleven of which possess real geographical importance. The largest of these eleven is Luzon at the extreme north; next is Mindanao in the south; then Panay, Negros, Mindoro, Samar, Leyte, Cebu, Masbate, Bojol, and Paragua make up the list of larger islands. Of these, both Mindoro and Paragua are thinly populated, and have comparatively little available land for agricultural purposes, though heavy forests abound on both islands.

The area of the entire group is one hundred and twelve thousand square miles. This gives the Philippines a land surface about equal to all New England, plus New York; or Illinois, Indiana, and two-thirds of Ohio. Compared with European States, the Philippines contain as many square miles of land surface as Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Greece; or a little less than Great Britain and Ireland, and a little more than Italy. The Islands lack but twenty-eight thousand square miles of being as large as Japan. On the score of size they may well be expected to assume a separate station among the

governments of the world, and can easily bear a population of twenty millions, or enough to be equal to national demands.

The Archipelago is distinctly volcanic in its character, and evidences of volcanic activity are by no means all a matter of historical record. There are many active volcanoes in different parts of the group. The most beautiful is Mayon, in Southern Luzon. It is a perfect cone, rising to a height of 8,900 feet, and is in a state of constant activity. Its last severe eruption took place in 1888. At that time red-hot stones fell several miles away, lava, streams destroyed the villages about its base, and ashes lay so thick on roofs ten miles away as to break them in by their weight. The fierce glare lit up the country for fifty miles. Mount Apo, in Mindanao, is the loftiest of these active volcanoes, reaching an elevation of 10,312 feet.

The Taal volcano, less than two days' travel south from Manila in Luzon, has been the most destructive in recent years. The first eruption of sufficient importance to be recorded by the historians of those times was in 1641. Again in 1706, 1709, 1716, 1731, 1749, and 1754, this volcano burst forth with more or less violence, dealing death and destruction upon all sides. Manila is but thirty-six miles from this volcano as the bird flies, and during the eight days of its eruption in August, 1749, people in the capital ate their midday meal by the light of candles, so thick was the cloud of ashes that filled all the sky; and on all sides priests and friars were besieged night and day by penitents, alarmed and seeking confession. The smell of fire and smoke, added to the stench from the dead fish cast upon the shores of the lake, in the center of which Taal volcano is located, caused a malignant fever which carried off half the inhabitants of the

province. The city of Taal, the capital of the province, was utterly consumed, and the site is crusted over with lava to this day. This remarkable volcano is much visited from Manila. Looking into the crater, which is about 4,500 feet wide, one sees three distinct lakes of boiling liquids, the colors of which are constantly undergoing change, green, yellow, and chocolate hues being clearly discernible. No one can guess when it will again pour out its floods of fire and ashes.

Earthquakes are of rather frequent occurrence in all parts of the group except in the long, rocky island of Paragua. For some unknown reason that thinly-populated strip of rock and forest seems wholly free from seismic disturbance. Serious shocks took place in 1610, November, 1645; August, 1658; in 1675, 1699, 1796, and 1852. In the shock of 1645 all but one monastery and two churches then standing in Manila were shaken down, all the public buildings destroyed, and the governor-general was with much difficulty extricated from the ruins of his palace. In 1863 occurred an earthquake which did terrible damage, though it lasted only half a minute. In Manila alone four hundred were killed outright, two thousand were wounded, many dying of their injuries, and a total property loss of $4,000,000 (gold) was experienced. Official returns give forty-six public buildings thrown down, and twenty-eight more practically destroyed; five hundred and seventy private buildings were wrecked, and five hundred and twenty-eight more racked so severely as to require rebuilding. Ruins of this latest severe earthquake can be seen in several places about Manila yet. The heavy tile roofs which had been in almost universal use until that terrible experience have been displaced by corrugated iron since that time.

Slight earthquake shocks are of very frequent occur

rence; and so accustomed have the people become to them that they are scarcely a matter for comment. The newcomer naturally feels slightly nervous when his pictures take to clattering on the walls, books fall from their shelves, and the framework of the house creaks and groans like a ship laboring in a heavy sea. Nothing but

a repetition of the sudden devastations of 1863 will convince old-timers that a Philippine earthquake is to be taken seriously.

The Archipelago owes its existence to the forces which still fly their banners from volcano tops, and shiver the thin crust of rock and soil on its surface. In the Tertiary period the Philippines, together with Borneo, Java, Su