THE PHILIPPINES
423
The public revenue is about $14,622,040, 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 1893 and 1894 was as follows:-
1894
1893
Sugar
Quantity
Value
Quantity
Value
Hemp
261,521,901 kilograms $16,914,980 | 210,646,386 kilograms $10,975,185
93,742,824
"
12,556,548
98,497,799
14,516,717
>>
Tobacco, Manu-
factured ......
1,285,093
1,581,486
1,1 11,365
"
1,750,006
Tobacco, Raw
10,744,608
2,388,014
7,019,117
1,408,662
291,479
31
11
168,742
603,156
11
17
355,890
Occurrence.
Coffee
The foreign trade is confined to the ports of Manila, Iloilo, Cebu, and Zamboanga. In 1894 the value of the imports was $23,558,552 and the duty collected thereon $3,695,446.
The value of the exports was $33,149,984 and the export duties $630,439. 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 year may be divided into three seasons, the first, cold and dry, commences in November; the second, warm but still dry, commences in March, the greatest heat being experienced from April to the end of May, and the third, which is excessively wet, continues from June to the middle of November. During the rainy season 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 The islands are also the centre of great volcanic action. The 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 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 sally 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. 1828, during another earthquake, the vibration of the lamps was found to describe an are 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, 1863, 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 periol 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 island of Negros with its districts Capiz, Romblon, Iloilo, and Conception; and of the adjacent islands Sibuyan, Banton, Tablas, Luciara, Maestro de