PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



635 



American missionaries have raised a complaint 



that the authorities of IVru refused to register and 



legalize marriages between Proie-tants in Peru, 



if Ecuador and Bolivia. A bill was 



promised that will legalize such marriages. In 



mber a mob threatened the American mis- 



in Cuzco, and soldiers were ordered out to 



protect t hem. 



PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, a colony of Spain 

 in the East Indies. The Philippine Islands are 

 over 400 in number, all of small extent except Lu- 

 zon. 40.024 square miles, and Mindanao. Manila, 

 the capital city, has 104.062 inhabitants. There is 

 a considerable Spanish population and a large popu- 

 ulation of Chinese. The native inhabitants are of 

 the Malay race, with some tribes of Negritos. One 

 seventh of the population consists of unconquered 

 tribes. The revenue was estimated for 1895 at 

 8,715,980, and expenditures at 2.656,026. There 

 is a duty on tobacco exported, and heavy import 

 duties are levied on all imports, as high as 100 per 

 cent, ad valorem on petroleum and cotton cloth. 

 The value of the imports in 1894 was $28,529.777. 

 and of exports $33.149,984. The values exported 

 of the principal commercial products were : Ma- 



ried on as flourishing a trade as has ever 

 under Spanish rule. The planters are mostly me 

 ti/.i's, some of whom are very wealthy. The half- 

 9 furnish also the educated and" professional 

 . and the minor ollices are filled by them, 

 superior officials are Spaniards, whose eagerm 

 amass wealth and return to Spain is the cause of 

 much corruption and oppression. The actual rulers 

 in the interior are the Spanish monks, who have 



often stood between the ] pie and extortionate 



officials, but have often proved harsh and exacting 

 masters and avaricious for the sake of the Church. 

 The Spaniards are mostly found in the citadel called 

 Old Manila, whose 12,000 inhabitants are either 

 Spaniards or persons in the employ of the Spanish 

 Government. In the other towns a Spanish govern- 

 or and his staff, with a garrison of a few hundred 

 native soldiers under Spanish officers, have been 

 sufficient to keep the people in subjection. The 

 soldiers of the Philippines are mestizos. The mili- 

 tary forces have consisted of about 3,000 Spanish 

 and 18.000 native troops. The captain general in 

 the beginning of 1896 was Marshal R. Blanco y 

 Arenas. Marquis of Pena-Plata. The natives rose 

 in 1872 against the Spaniards, but the rebellion 



VRBOR OF MAVII 



IPPINE ISLANDS. 



nila hemp, $14,517,000; sugar. 810.975.000: tobacco, 

 $3,159,000; cocoanuts. s2.:j4it.nii<i : coffee, *:!56.000; 

 coal. S3.j0.000. There were 97.787 tons of Manila 

 hemp, 261.686 tons of sugar. 307 tons of coffee, and 

 11.525 tons of copra produced in 1893. In that 

 year 230.616 quintals of leaf tobacco and 138.438,- 

 000 cigars were exported. 



The Philippines have been subject to Spain since 

 1660. but Spanish rule was nor generally acknowl- 

 edged till 1829, and to this day the Negrito tribes 

 in Mindanao and in the wooded and mountainous 

 parts of the other islands have no communications 

 with the Spaniards. There are many wealthy Chi- 

 nese who monopolize the trade of the islands, buy- 

 ing from the planters and sugar-makers to sell to 

 Europeans and Americans. Chinese merchants 

 were established there many centuries before the 

 islands were discovered by Magellan, and they car- 



was not widespread and was soon put down. Since 

 then the taxes have become more oppressive. Re- 

 cently the tariff duties, framed to give a monopoly 

 of the market for manufactured products to Span- 

 ish producers, have been increased to a point that 

 smothers commerce, arousing the resentment of the 

 English. Dutch, and American merchants, as well 

 as the Chinese. These latter, more closely bound 

 to the native population than the others, have often 

 had to suffer from the extortionate practices of the 

 officials. Some of the specific grievances of the 

 natives are the corvee, requiring forty days of 

 forced labor for the public from each man every 

 year : the income tax. assessed arbitrarily and often 

 collected from persons who have no incomes ; the 

 poll tax. recently increased from S3.75 to ><> : the 

 carriage tax of s3 for each wheel : the excessive li- 

 cense fees, often $500 a year for a small retail shop ; 



