516 GEOGRA PHIC LITER A TURE 



might be said in support of this view of the case. If peculation becomes 

 too extensive, however, so that the perquisites of those in high places are 

 interfered with, an investigation is ordered" (page 469). But Foreman 

 says, " If the peculations by the government employes, from the highest 

 cireles downward, could be arrested, the inhabitants of this colony would 

 doubtless be several millions richer per annum. One is frequently hear- 

 ing of officials leaving for Spain with sums far exceeding the total emol- 

 uments they have received during their term of office. Some provincial 

 employes acquire a pernicious habit of annexing what is not theirs, by 

 all manner of pretexts. To cite one of many instances: I knew a gov- 

 ernor of Negros island who seldom saw a native pass the Government 

 house with a good horse without begging it of him ; thus, under fear of 

 his avenging a refusal, his subjects furnished him little by little with a 

 large stud, which he sold before he left, much to their disgust" (page 471). 

 The taxes and the methods of collecting them are atrocious : The coman- 

 dante of Panay "reconcentrated" his people in villages in order to facili- 

 tate the collection of taxes; and he amused himself by riding about the 

 country and firing the houses of those who delayed gathering in the vil- 

 lages designated. " We one day saw him burn three native huts. He 

 gave the inmates no warning, but in each case jumped from his horse, 

 pulled a bunch of dry grass, lighted it and thrust it into the thatch, which 

 burned like tinder. Those within jumped from doors and windows in 

 their haste to escape. When a house was completely burned, he very 

 courteously suggested that it might be well for its occupants to look for a 

 site in town when ready to rebuild " (page 234). The same comandante 

 had an ingenious device for bringing delinquent tax-payers to terms : " He 

 caused them to be caught and tied to trees, and then set a large and vicious 

 dog on to them, and encouraged it to worry them " (page 234). An equally 

 ingenious officer armed his tax-gatherers with a sort of cat-o'-nine-tails 

 made from vines of the bejuco, which are circled at intervals of an inch or 

 two by rings of recurved thorns; with these bloody devices the delinquent 

 was lassoed and dragged before the tribunal, where he was stripped to the 

 waist, extended on a bench, and flogged methodically with a rattan which 

 cut the skin and brought blood with each blow. " We were often forced to 

 witness these cruel whippings during our stay. Some of the victims lay 

 still and bore their torture in silence ; others cried out, and threw them- 

 selves from the bench, with every blow. If they made too much trouble in 

 this way, they were tied in place. After the whipping they were shut into 

 the jail beneath the tribunal, and kept there until relatives or friends paid 

 their debts. If there was too much delay, another whipping followed. 

 Men sometimes died from the effects of these beatings, and women were 

 subjected to the same inhuman treatment as men " (page 256). The be- 

 juco itself was sometimes used for flogging, but not commonly, since the 

 l-esults were too often fatal. The taxes so barbarously collected were 

 levied on almost every conceivable form of property or privilege ; the 

 annual tax for the cedula personal, or document of identity, varied from 

 fifty cents to twenty-five dollars according to the supposed means of the 

 applicant, and no person could transact business or travel without such a 

 document ; cocoanut trees were subject to an annual tax of five cents, and 



