66 



MANILA DAILY BULLETIN 



HISTORICAL 



PRE-SPANISH 



Early Philippine history fades away into 

 the history of Chinese foreign adventure and 

 commerce, trading having been carried on 

 between the two countries for a thousand 

 years prior to the Spanish conquest. 



SPANISH 



Magallanes discovered the Philippines in 

 1521, about 100 years before the Pilgrim 

 Fathers landed at Plymouth Rock. Spaniards 

 settled Cebu, 1568. Legaspi occupied Ma- 

 nila, 1570. British captured Manila, 1762. 



AMERICAN 



United States occupied Manila August 13, 

 1898. Treaty of Paris signed December 10, 

 1898. Filipino insurrection began February 

 4, 1899. First provincial government organ- 

 ized (Pampanga), February 6, 1901. First 

 American Civil Governor, William H. Taft, 

 July 1, 1901. Philippine Act passed July 1, 

 1902. Jones Act passed August 29, 1916. 



GEOGRAPHY 



The Philippine Archipelago extends from 

 the Batanes Islands in the north to the Tawi- 

 tawi group at the southern end of the Sulu 

 islands, ^.distance of 1,152 miles. 



The archipelago is composed of 3,141 is- 

 lands, of which 400 are inhabited. 



DEPTH OF SEAS 



Interisland: Average, 75 fathoms; maxi- 

 mum, 500 fathoms. High seas: Maximum 

 depth is on southern coast of Mindanao, 

 5,000 meters, or about 3 miles. Jolo sea: 

 4,069 meters. Coast line: 11,444 miles. 

 Manila Bay, circumference, 100 miles. 



DIFFERENCES IN TIME 



Manila is in advance of 



London 8 hrs. 03 min. 



New York 12 hrs. 59 min. 



San Francisco 16 hrs. 1 1 min. 



Washington 13 hrs. 00 min. 



AREA OF ARCHIPELAGO 



Square miles. 



Total area, land and water 832,968 



Land 127,825 



Water 705.115 



COMPARATIVE AREAS 



Square miles. 



Philippines 127,853 



British Isles 120,973 



New York, New Jersey, Pennsylva- 

 nia, and Delaware 104,970 



Japan 147.649 



Luzon island is as large as Denmark, Bel- 

 gium, and Holland combined. 



Mindanao is about equal in area to Por- 

 tugal. 



DISTRIBUTION OF AREA 



Square miles. 



Forest land 72,000 



Commercial forest 61.000 



Cultivated 14.000 



Grass lands 20,000 



Unexplored 14,000 



Forest lands contain some 747 native tree 

 species; 50 to the acre in some parts. Min- 

 danao has 423 varieties. Over 200 varieties 

 come to the Manila market. One-half of 

 the forest land is virgin. 



CULTIVATED LAND 



Acres. 



Rice 3,000.000 



Hemp 1,236,000 



Coconuts 680.000 



Corn 1.070,000 



Tobacco 145,000 



Sugar 445,000 



Maguey 76,000 



Cacao 2,600 



Coffee 2,000 



COMPARATIVE CULTIVATION 



Japan and the Philippines: Japan with 14- 

 000,000 acres of arable land produces crops 

 to the value of 1*2,000,000,000. Philippines 

 with 7,000,000 acres produces only t*200,- 

 000,000. 



POPULATION 



Total from latest (1917-18) Philippine 

 Health Service records: 9,500,000. 



Christians 8,730,000 



Mohammedans 275,000 



Non-Christians and Pagans. . 595,000 



Japanese 42,800,000 



PROGRESS OF POPULATION IN PHILIPPINES 



1735... 837.182 



1805 1,741,234 



1826 2,593,287 



1840 3.096,031 



1862 4,734,533 



1887 5,984.727 



1896 6,261,339 



1903 



1917-18 9,500,000 



CLIMATE 



Average temperature for 30 years: 80 

 Fahrenheit. 



Dry temperate months: November, De- 

 cember, January, and February. 



Intermediate months: March, July, Aug- 

 ust, September, October. 



Hot months: May and June. 



RAINFALL 



Maximum days of rain in July, August, 

 September. 



Minimum days of rain in February and 

 March. 



Dry season: November to May, inclusive. 



Wet season: June to October, inclusive. 



Typhoons: Frequent in July, August, 

 September, and October. 



MOUNTAINS 



Feet. 



Apo 10,312 



Pulog 9.450 



Mayon 8,970 



Halcon 8,865 



Malindang 8,197 



Canlaon 8,192 



Sto. Tomas , 7,418 



Data 7,364 



Banajao 7,382 



Pagsan 7,339 



Isarog 6,450 



Pinalobo 6,137 



Cristobal 5,288 



Bulusan 5,100 



Maquiling 4,783 



Arayat 3,564 



Talim 1,519 



Taal 1,050 



There are 50 volcanos in the archipelago, 

 of which 20 are active and 30 are extinct. 



The principal active volcanos are Taal, 

 Canloan, and Apo. 



The principal extinct volcanos are Talim, 

 Maquiling, Cristobal, Banajao, and Isarog. 



RIVERS 



Miles 



Grande de Pampanga 220 



Pulangi, Mindanao 300 



Other rivers of importance are the Agno 

 Grande, Grande de Pampanga, Agusan, and 

 Pasig. 



Mindoro has 60 rivers and Samar 26, none 

 of them of commercial value. 



REAL ESTATE VALUES 

 [1 pesos*0.50) 



Manila rM04,024.000 



Provinces 392,180,000 



MORTALITY (AMERICANS AND EUROPEANS) 

 PER 1,000(1917-18) 



Manila 8.0 



New York 16.5 



San Francisco 15.0 



Chicago 14.0 



Glasgow 18.0 



Belfast 22.0 



No feature of life in the Philippines has 

 been more maligned than the long-suffering 

 climate. Every prospective tourist to the 

 Orient has been treated to a ten-course menu 

 of stock stories of the unbearable heat, the 

 destructive typhoons, the fearful earth- 

 quakes, and the general dreary dead level of 

 death and disease that follows in the wake 

 of the pestilential climate. Imaginative 

 exiles have helped along this repertory by 

 inventing lurid stories of departed exiles 

 who woke up in the fires of the nether world 

 and shouted for some one to shut the door 

 and let it warm up a little. 



Climate, so far as the most of us are con- 

 cerned with it, is composed of four elements. 

 Temperature, humidity, purity of the air, 

 and environment are the things that make 

 a country habitable or otherwise. All the 

 different varieties of climate on the globe 

 can be made to order anywhere that the 

 proper ingredients of temperature, moisture, 

 and air can be got together. This may be 

 heresy to those who live by exploiting the 

 invisible virtues of some particular climate 

 the land under which they may have for 

 sale but it will stand the test of scientific 

 demonstration. 



The climate of the Philippines, broadly 

 speaking, is the most healthful and com- 

 fortable of any portion of the Tropics in- 

 habited by man. Compared in detail with 

 the climate of New York, or Chicago, or 

 St. Louis it has many points to the good, 

 and really very few on the wrongside of thescale. 



There is a complete absence of extremes 

 of temperature. Except at the highest al- 

 titudes, frost is unknown; and in the hot- 

 test places sunstroke is also unheard of. 

 The limit of the upward tendency of the 

 thermometer is 100 degrees Fahrenheit. 

 The total annual variation is not more than 

 40 degrees. It is simply summer all the 

 year, and nine months of it is very pleasant 

 summer. December, January, half of No- 

 vember, and February furnish the most de- 

 lightful climatic conditions in the world. 

 It is neither hot nor cold, but "just right" 

 all the time. The very air breathes the 

 luxury of nonresistance to nature; and if 

 ever life is worth living anywhere, it is here. 

 Toward the 1st of March it begins to warm 

 up. The thermometer daily climbs a little 

 higher, and there may be a week when the 

 noon time is suggestive of those hot spring 

 days in the States, when the unaccustomed 

 heat is hard to bear. Sunset finds pleasant 

 evenings and nights cool enough to sleep well. 



About June the rains begin, and with them 

 comes relief from heat, for when it is raining 

 in Manila it is always comfortable. The 

 "wet season" is the most comfortable time 

 of the year, and if one does not have to do 

 too much provincial traveling, he has nothing 

 to dread from the rain. Alternate showers, 

 clouds, and clearings fill the months till 

 November,, when the rain gradually gives 

 away and the delightful "winter" comes again. 



Such is the year in Manila. This routine, 

 however, varies somewhat in different parts 

 of the Islands and with different years, but 

 theaverage will not vary much from thisoutline. 



In a climate with as high average humidity 

 as that which prevails in the Islands, the 

 question of comfort is nine-tenths a matter 

 of finding and keeping in a breeze. Even 

 a gentle zephyr means perfect comfort, 

 while stillness of air means torture with the 

 temperature unchanged. And here is the 

 great advantage of the Philippines. There 



(Continued on page 80} 



