268 AUSTRALASIA, 



populous member o£ the whole group. Here are several more or less important 

 places, such as Capiz on the north coast ; San Jone de Buenavista and Antique on 

 the west side ; Sibalon farther inland in the same district ; Concepcion in the north- 

 east, and in the south-east Ilo-Ilo, on the well-sheltered channel separating Panay 

 from the islet of Guimaras. Next to Manilla, Ilo-Ilo is the most frequented 

 seaport in the Philippines. Since it has been thrown open to foreign trade, it has 

 rapidly attracted to itself a large share of the export trade in sugar and other 

 colonial produce, as well as of the import trade in European and Chinese wares. 

 A little to the north of Ilo-Ilo lies the episcopal suburb of Jaro. 



Although Ilo-Ilo is the central emporium for the whole of the Visayas 

 Islands, Cebu or Zebu, the chief place in the island of like name, ranks as the 

 capital of the group, probably owing to the priority of its foundation. Its first 

 buildings were erected by the conqueror Legaspi in 1571, just fifty years after 

 Magellan had met his death on the islet of Mactan close to this sjDot. Cebu, 

 which like Ilo-Ilo was thrown open to international trade in 1863, exports the rice 

 of Panay, the abaca of Leyte, the wax, ratans, and mother-of-pearl of Mindanao, 

 the sugar and tobacco forwarded from Taghilaran and Marihojoc, capital of the 

 neighbouring island of Bohol. In the Cebu district are some carboniferous beds, 

 which jaeld a coal of good quality. 



The large island of Mindanao, still almost entirely occupied by independent 

 tribes, has no Spanish stations except a few here and there on the seaboard. One 

 of the most promising of these stations is Misamis, in an auriferous district on the 

 north coast. Butuan has the advantage of being situated on the estuary of the 

 great river Agusan ; Surigao, at the northern extremity of the island, commands 

 the chief channel opening eastwards in the direction of the Pacific ; Bislig, towards 

 the middle of the east coast, possesses an excellent harbour on a seaboard exposed 

 to fierce gales during half the year. Here is the only safe anchorage on the 

 east side of the island south of Suragao. West of Vergara, recently founded on 

 the spacious Gulf of Davao or Tagloc, the only settlements are Cottabato and 

 PoUoc, in the fertile plain watered by the Rio Grande, and Zamboanga, an old 

 station at the extremity of the south-western headland dating from the year 1635. 

 This place, which exports the best coffee in the archipelago, is remarkably 

 salubrious, notwithstanding its position on a low-lying plain broken by brackish 

 lagoons or swamps at the foot of wooded hills. Its inhabitants, nearly all half- 

 breeds, are none the less proud of their Spanish descent, and speak Castilian with 

 great purity. In the last century Zamboanga temporarily disappeared under a 

 shower of ashes from a neighbouring: volcano. 



In the Sulu (Jolo) archipelago, since 1876 formally annexed to the Spanish 

 colonial possessions, each of the larger islands has its military or naval station to 

 keep the unruly inhabitants in awe, and guard the neighbouring seas from their 

 piratical excursions. At Banian, against which the French had sent an expedition 

 in 1845 to avenge the murder of some sailors, the Manilla government fearing a 

 permanent French occupation, has founded the town of Isabella, which, thanks to 

 its excellent harbour facing Zamboanga, seems destined one day to acquire some 



