animals when they are so tangled up in the loops that they

can not escape.

Many of the Negritos have been enslaved by the other Filipino tribes, and we may meet some of these little negro slaves as we go on with our travels; for these people are to be found throughout the archipelago.

Later, we make a trip up the Pasig River and in and along the coast of Laguna de Bay. We should like to

visit the Mayon volcano at the southeastern end of the island, and the Taal at the southwest. The Taal volcano rises in a lake partially surrounded by mountains; it is a thousand feet high, and its steaming crater is more than a mile wide. The Mayon volcano is one of the most beautiful mountains of the Philippines, and it equals almost any other mountain of the world in beauty. It is almost a half mile higher than Mount Washington, and is a perfect cone from the top of which rise plumes of feathery vapor which can be seen for miles out at sea.

27.

THE VISAYAN ISLANDS - THE HEMP

INDUSTRY

E have left Manila on one of the coasting steamers,

WE

and are now making our way from port to port through the Visayan Islands, which form the middle zone of our Philippine archipelago. They are of much the same nature as Luzon, composed of mountains and valleys with rich plains here and there along the coast.

The land is everywhere green. The plains are covered with plantations of rice, sugar, and hemp, and the mountains are so wooded that they look blue in the distance, rolling on and on in smoky masses until lost in the lowhanging clouds. The coasts are bordered with cocoanut trees which here grow at their best, and under them are silver-gray villages of thatched huts, with fishing traps on the beach, and fishing inclosures fenced with bamboos extending far out from the shore. We pass quaint boats with outriggers manned by brown-skinned men and boys engaged in catching and trapping the fish for which the waters are noted. Some are gathering beche de mer, and others the pearl shells off the coral islands of the group.

As we go onward, stopping at a new island every few days, we are surprised at the size of the Visayans, and also at their resources and vast population. These islands are of greater extent than all the other large island groups of the Pacific Ocean put together, excepting New Zealand. They have more than four times the combined population of the Solomons, the Fijis, New Caledonia, Samoa, the Carolines, and the Hawaiian Islands, and

more than one third of all the people of the Philippines. They have three hundred and fifty towns, ranging from fifteen hundred to twenty-five thousand inhabitants each, and more than thirteen hundred and sixty villages with a total population of about two and one half millions.

The most of the people are on the eight larger islands of the group; namely, Panay (pȧ-nï'), Negros (nā'grōs), Samar (sä'mär), Leyte (lā'ē-tā), Cebu (thā-vōo'), Bohol (bō-hōl'), Masbate (mås-bä'tā), and Romblon (rōm-blōn'). These islands are also the richest. They abound in hard wood and in hemp, sugar cane, coffee, tobacco, and rice. They raise many kinds of vegetables and all sorts of tropical fruits. Some of them are rich in iron, copper, and coal, and others have gold, silver, and lead.

The Visayan people are somewhat similar to the natives of Luzon, although they have a different language. They live about the same way, and their villages are not unlike those we saw north of Manila.

We stop at Cebu, the capital of Cebu Island, situated where Magellan made his treaty with the natives, and cross over to Mactan, just opposite, where he was killed. Cebu is one of the chief hemp ports of the Philippines, and we can now see how this important product is raised and prepared for the markets.

Do you know what hemp is? Every one of us has used it again and again. We have handled it as string and played with it as jumping rope. Some of our farmers bind their grain with it, our seamen use it to pull up and let down their sails, and it is made into all sorts of ropes from clotheslines to cables. Here in the Philippines the

finer kinds are woven into cloth, and some varieties are

sent to Paris where they are made into hats, nets, and carpets.

Hemp comes from the fibers of certain plants found in various parts of the world. Manila hemp, which is about the best of all, is the variety produced in the Philippines. It is the fiber of the same plant family that produces the banana. The hemp plant looks just like a banana plant, being composed of many wide leaves wrapped round and round a central stalk, which, when full grown, reaches a height of fifteen or more feet. The outer leaves are of a beautiful green; they are about a foot wide and often ten feet in length. As they grow they branch out from the stalk, shading the ground. The hemp comes from the white inner leaves, which are wound tightly around the central stem, there being so many that the plant at its base is often ten inches thick.

As it stands in the field it is as crisp as celery, and it can be chopped off with a carving knife or corn cutter. Each leaf has countless fibers extending through it, and these, when cleaned and dried, form the hemp of

commerce.

Hemp is raised in all of the Philippine Islands, and it is so largely exported that it brings in millions of dollars every year. Men are baling hemp in Cebu, and we see the fibers spread out on the ground and hung up to dry as we stroll through the town. Later on we go out on horseback with one of the natives to visit his plantation, passing buffalo carts loaded with hemp coming in. We go by vast fields of hemp, and our friend takes us through a mile or so of hemp fields on his estate to a place where they are harvesting the crop. We follow him closely for

OUR COLONIES 12

fear we may get lost. It is noon, but the plants are so near together that their great leaves join and shut out the sun; there are no paths, and we can see but a few feet in any direction. Now and then we stumble upon a cocoanut tree, but, as a rule, there is nothing but hemp, hemp, hemp.

Here and there is an open place where a stalk has been cut, but sprouts are growing about the stump, and we are

told that a plantation once started reproduces itself many times. In forming new fields the sprouts from the older plants are pulled off and planted, and three years after that time the crop is ready for cutting. The only cultivation necessary is to keep down the weeds and to set out fresh sprouts now and then.

Let us watch them harvesting the hemp. Brown-skinned,