"To-day is Saturday, to-morrow will be Monday." We have thus made our day of the week and month the same as that of our people at home. It is interesting to know that the Philippine Islands had for more than three centuries a different day of the week from us, because the early navigators were not aware of this necessity of adjusting the date when they crossed the meridian one hundred eighty. They kept the same days of the week which they brought with them from the East, and the day they gave was adopted as the proper day of the week in the Philippines. At the same time the days for Hongkong and the other countries about, which had been fixed by people coming from Europe, were the same as those of the rest of the world, so that Hongkong, which is only a few hundred miles from Manila, had its Sunday while Manila was having Monday. It was not until the 31st of December, 1844, that the matter was rectified by dropping that day from the Manilan calendar. We are surprised at the size of the Philippines, and the space they take on the map of the globe. If we could lift up the archipelago, including the water within its boundaries, and drop it upon the United States, it would cover about one fourth of the country. From north to south it is longer than the distance from Boston to Chicago, and from east to west its width is greater than the distance from Boston to Pittsburg. By far the greater part of this area is water, but the islands are more than fifteen hundred in number, and some are so large that all together the Philippines have more land than any state of the Union, except Texas. They have almost twice as much land as all New England, LIBRARY and more than the combined areas of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. Luzon (loo-zōn') is larger than Ohio, and Mindanao (mēn-da-nä'ō) than Pennsylvania. Samar (sä'mär) and Palawan (på'lä-wan) are each about the size of Connecticut, and Leyte (lā'ē-tā), Mindoro (mēn-dō'rō), and Negros (nā'grōs) are each more than twice as large as Delaware. The islands are largely volcanic, having mountains covered with valuable timber, and filled with coal, iron, copper, and other minerals, and valleys and plains where the soil is so fertile that it produces large crops of sugar, rice, tobacco, and hemp, and all sorts of tropical fruits. The country is everywhere well watered. It has some navigable rivers and lakes, and many excellent harbors. The Philippines lie in the North Torrid Zone, but the climate is good the greater part of the year, and so tempered by the winds from the sea and the mountains that our people can live here in comfort. The hottest months are April, May, and June, and the coldest are November, December, January, and February. There is also, in the interior and on the western coasts, a dry season from about the first of November until the end of May, and a rainy season between June and October, inclusive. These islands are not like New Guinea, the vast country we visited north of Australia, a wild land sparsely inhabited by savages. There are wild men, it is true, but the greater part of the inhabitants are Christians, and many of them more or less civilized. The population is large. When Uncle Sam adopted the Filipinos, he made a mighty addition to our national family. Our little brown cousins out here are about one twelfth of our whole population. That is, if Uncle Sam could put all of his people into one field and mix them thoroughly, one in each dozen would be a brown-skinned Filipino. There are about seven million people in the islands, including several different races and many tribes, each of which has its own peculiar habits and customs. There are, in the first place, the Negritos (nā-grē'tōs), who are supposed to be the first inhabitants, and to have come from New Guinea. They are little black men with frizzly hair, who live in the highest mountains and other inaccessible places. They are few in number, and are widely scattered. Next are the Indonesians, composing about sixteen tribes, found chiefly in the island of Mindanao. They are generally savage, or at the best semicivilized. They have tall and strong frames, light yellow skins, aquiline noses, and wavy black hair. There are wild men, it is true." Last, and more important than the two other classes, are the Malayans, who form almost the whole population. They are the descendants of Malays who have come here from time to time from Malaysia and intermarried with the Negritos and Indonesians, and also with the Chinese, Japanese, and Europeans who have found their way to the islands. Of this mixed class there are more than six millions; some of them are pagans, some are Mohammedan Moros, and the remainder, comprising the most of the Malayans, are Christians. In addition to the natives there are also some Spaniards and other Europeans, and now that we have the islands, many Americans. But we shall see the people themselves as we travel over the country. The natives are different in different parts of the archipelago, and, broadly speaking, the islands may be divided into three zones, according to the predominant races which inhabit them. The northern zone, where we shall first land, embraces Luzon and its neighboring islands. There are the people with whom we had the most trouble when we took possession of the country. They are Tagalos (tȧ-gäl'ōs) and other similar tribes, many of them well educated and all having more or less civilization. South of Luzon and north of Mindanao is what might be called the middle zone. It consists of the Visayan (vē-sä'yän) Islands, inhabited by Visayan people much like the Tagalos, although they are more peaceful and not so courageous. They are also civilized, having many villages and towns, plantations and farms. South of this Visayan Island Zone lies the third and last zone, the zone of the Moros or our Mohammedan cousins. It includes the great island of Mindanao, the pear-shaped island of Basilan, the island of Palawan, and the hundreds of islands of the Sulu Group which may be seen dotting the water like a series of stepping stones from Mindanao to Borneo. These zones we must remember are not inhabited entirely by the above-mentioned races. Each island has its savage tribes which live in the mountains, and the chief races have different tribes or families, each having its own language. There are so many odd natives that we feel rather queer when we remember that they are all now under control of the United States, and as such our cousins under our great Uncle Sam. 23. MANILA, THE CAPITAL OF THE 'HE day is just breaking, but we are already on deck THE at the prow of the ship looking at the coast of Luzon. On both sides of us are low, green hills with smoky blue mountains behind them, and right in front is a little green island with the sun rising over it. That island is Corregidor (cōr-rā-hē-thōr'), from which the Spaniards fired |