412
THE PHILIPPINES
The public revenue is about $12,000,000, of which the larger part is raised from direct taxes, Customs, monopolies, and lotteries.
The chief articles of produce are sugar, hemp, tobacco, and coffee, the export of which in 1892 and 1893 was as follows:-
1893
1892
Quantity
Value
Quantity
Value
Sugar
252,798,196 kilograms $11,341,014 | 261,521,901 kilograms $16,914,980
Hemp
70,491,481
"
10,053,322
93,742,824
12,556,548
Tobacco, Manu-
factured Tobacco, Raw
1,596,363
"
1,432,811
1,285,093
"}
1,581,486
......
Coffee
12,136,370 1,358,374
2,268,999
10,744,608
2,388,014
"
""
634,380
291,479
"
168,742 The foreign trade is confined to the ports of Manila, Iloilo, Cebu, and Zamboanga. In 1893 the value of the imports was $25,922,515 and of the exports $36,187,966.
"The
The climate of the Philippines varies little from that of other places in the same latitude. The range of the thermometer during the year is from a little over sixty degrees to about ninety. The rainy season usually lasts six months, and during this time inundations of rivers are frequent and travelling in the interior almost impossible. Long-continued droughts, however, sometimes occur, when the ground becomes parched and the crops are utterly destroyed. Husbandry also suffers from the ravages of locusts, which will sometimes almost entirely denude a whole province of herbage. The principal part of the group comes within the range of the typhoons, and terrific storms are of frequent occurrence. The islands are also the centre of great volcanic action. destructive ravages and changes produced by earthquakes," says Sir John Bowring, writing in 1859, are nowhere more remarkable than in the Philippines. They have overturned mountains, they have filled up valleys, they have desolated extensive plains; they have opened
opened passages from the sea into the interior, and from the lake into the sea.
There are many traditional stories of these territorial revolutions, but of late disasters the records are trustworthy. That of 1796 was sadly calamitous. In 1824 many churches in Manila were destroyed, together with the principal bridge, the barracks, great numbers of private houses; and a chasm opened of nearly four miles in length. The inhabitants all fled into the fields, and six vessels in the port were wrecked. The number of victims was never ascertained. In 1828, during another earthquake, the vibration of the lamps was found to describe an arc of four and a half feet; the huge corner stones of the principal gate of the city were displaced; the great bells were set ringing. It lasted between two and three minutes, rent the walls of several churches and other buildings, but was not accompanied by subterranean noises, as is usually the case."
In 1832, 1852, 1860, 1869, and 1880 there were terrible shocks of earthquake and, finally, in 1891, in the Province of Pangasinan earthquakes were continually repeated during a month, shaking down buildings, crushing their inmates, and creating a panic among the inhabitants.
The local storms that come in the months of May and June, the period of the greatest heat, are at times very severe. On the 29th May, 1873, there was one of sufficient force to destroy within the walls of Manila alone forty-one dwellings. Typhoons also sweep over the islands in great fury and the one of the 20th October, 1882, left thousands without shelter, the wind in its fury tearing down many of the native huts as well as more solid structures in brick and stone; floods were caused by the heavy rain, and great loss of life and property resulted.
The Philippine Archipelago is divided into three great groups of islands called Luzon, Visayas or Bisayas, and Mindanao. Luzon includes the provinces of Manila, Bulacan, Pampanga, Carlac, Zambales, Bataan, New Ecija, Pangasinan, North Ilocos, Abra, Union, New Viscaya, Cagayan, Laguna, Batangas, Tayabas, Albay, North and South Camarines, Sorsogon, and the districts of Principe, Lepanto, Bontoc, Benguet, Morong, and Infanta, and the adjacent islands Babuyanes and Batanes on the North, Polillo, Alhabat, Catanduanes, and Marianas on the East, Mindoro, Burias, Masbate, and Marinduque on the South, and Calamianes, Paraguay, and Balabac, on the East. The second group, the Bisayas or Visayas, is made up of Cebu, Bohol, Samar, Leyte, and the ancient island of Negros with its districts Capiz, Romblon, Iloilo, and Conception; and of the adjacent islands Sibuyan, Banton, Tablas, Luciara, Maestro de Campo, Bantayan, Dauis, and Camote to the North and N.E., and of the island of Fuego or Siquijor to the South. The third group, or sea of Mindanao, which is the part of the archipelago least subject to the Spaniards, is divided into the districts of Zamboanga, Misamis, Suriago, New Guipuzgoa, Davao Bislig, and Basilan, with the