INTRODUCTION 
the Philippines interesting. 
First, is the size and position of the islands. 
They are the largest of the possessions of the United 
States; and the only one of consequence in the Eastern 
Hemisphere. 
Then, the Filipinos form a considerable and a growing 
nationality. There are nearly ten millions of them— 
more than the population of the majority of European 
countries. The increase of numbers has been steady for 
several centuries, and the resources of the islands are 
so great that there is every reason to expect the growth 
to continue. 
Finally, the Philippines furnish an unusual story to 
the student of the development of civilization. Layer 
after layer of culture is recognizable, giving a complete 
transition from the most primitive condition to full 
participation in Western civilization. This is a most 
happy circumstance for the historian, because of its 
rarity outside of Europe and western Asia. In 
aboriginal America, in most of Africa, in Australia, 
over large tracts of the Oceanic island world, the 
student of civilization finds only peoples that lack a 
background of history. Nation differs from nation and 
tribe from tribe in these regions; but it is usually 
difficult to be sure how any given people differs from its 
condition of only a few hundred years before. The 
investigator of these areas is therefore compelled to 
begin his operations almost wholly in the field of geo- 
graphy. It is only after he has laboriously worked out 
all possible classifications on the basis of locality, that 
he can commence to convert this knowledge into an 
expression of probable time sequence of development. 
Even then, his course must be devious and his results 
7 
, ‘HERE are several things that make the peoples of 
