CHAPTER ly. 



THE PHILIPPINES. 



FIE term Magellania, given to the Philippine Archipelago in honour 

 of its illustrious discoverer, has shared the fate of other denomina- 

 tions, such as the Western Isles and the Archipelago of Saint 

 Lazarus, all of which have yielded to the name conferred on this 

 group by Lopez de Yillalobos to flatter his master, Philip II. All 

 these islands are also in a general way designated as the Spanish Indies, rivalling 

 as they do the Dutch East Indies in extent, picturesque beauty, and the infinite 

 variety of their natural resources. Luzon, the largest member of the group, has 

 alone an area of 40,000 square miles ; Mindanao, next in size, is very nearly as 

 extensive; five others are each over 10,000 square miles in extent, while round 

 about these larger masses is scattered a vast labyrinth of no less than two thousand 

 satellites of all sizes. 



Luzon and its neighbours scarcely yield to Java, Sumatra or Celebes, in the 

 splendour of their tropical landscapes. Perhaps they even offer greater variety 

 from season to season, thanks to the more marked alternation of the monsoons, 

 due to their greater distance from the equator. The vegetation of the seaboard, 

 which comprises the same or corresponding species, is fully as dense and leafy as 

 that of Indonesia ; the shores are everywhere deeply indented by bays and inlets ; 

 island-studded lakes reflect the surrounding woodlands ; the horizon is bounded 

 by lofty crests and cones wrapped in vapours. The inhabitants also, whether 

 aborigines, Malays, Chinese, or half-castes of every shade, present many curious 

 ethnological studies, and appear on the whole to offer more originality than their 

 kindred of Dutch Indonesia. The action of their Spanish rulers, however violent 

 at times, has weighed less oppressively on the natives, whose primitive character 

 has consequently been less profoundly modified than in the Sunda Islands. Some 

 members of the vast archipelago, as well as the more remote districts in the larger 

 islands lying beyond direct Spanish control, have even remained unexplored, while 

 even the regions directly administered by Europeans are still but imperfectly 

 known. No methodic and detailed study of the Philipj)ines has yet been made ; 

 the maps and charts are extremely defective, except for the seaboard, in the 

 survey of which the leading maritime nations have co-operated. The ofiicial 

 returns themselves, being left to careless functionaries and parish priests, too 

 often give superficial and even contradictory results, while for the uncivilised 



