Volume 14 Australasia - dana ward's homepage

;CHAPTEE IV.THE PHILIPPINES.HE term Magellania, given to the Philippine Archipelago in honourof its illustrious discoverer, has shared the fate of other denominations,such as the Western Isles and the Archipelago of SaintLazarus, all of which have yielded to the name conferred on thisgroup by Lopez de Villalobos to flatter his master, Philip II. Allthese islands are also in a general way designated as the Spanish Indies, rivallingas the)' do the Dutch East Indies in extent, picturesque beauty, and the infinitevariety of their natural resources. Luzon, the largest member of the group, hasalone an area of 40,000 square miles ; Mindanao, next in size, is very nearly asextensive; five others are each over 10,000 square miles in extent, while roundabout these larger masses is scattered a vast labyrinth of no less than two thousandsatellites of aU sizes.Luzon and its neighbours scarcely yield to Java, Sumatra or Celebes, in thesplendour of their tropical landscapes. Perhaps they even offer greater varietyfrom season to season, thanks to the more marked alternation of the monsoons,due to their greater distance from the equator. The vegetation of the seaboard,which comprises thesame or corresponding species, is fully as dense and leafy asthat of Indonesia ;the shores are everywhere deeply indented by bays and inlets;island-studded lakes reflect the surrounding woodlands ; the horizon is boundedby lofty crests and cones wrapped in vapours. The inhabitants also, whetheraborigines, Malays, Chinese, or half-castes of every shade, present many curiousethnological studies, and appear on the whole to offer more originality than theirkindred of Dutch Indonesia. The action of their Spanish rulers, however violentat times, has weighed less oppressively on the natives, whose primitive characterhas consequently been less profoundly modified than in the Sunda Islands. Somemembers of the vast archipelago, as well as the more remote districts in the largerislands lying beyond direct Spanish control, have even remained unexplored, wtileeven the regions directly administered by Europeans are still but imperfectlyknown. No methodic and detailed study of the Philippines has yet been madethe maps and charts are extremely defective, except for the seaboard, in thesurvey of which the leading maritime nations have co-operated. The oflicialreturns themselves, being left to careless functionaries and parish priests, toooften give superficial and even contradictory results, while for the uncivilisedK 2