The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1898-06-02
The OflciaI Paper OF San Juan County.
THURSDAY, JUNE End, 1898.
FACTS ABOUT THE PHILIPPINES.

The seizure of the Philippine islands
and the apparent determination OF the
United States government to hold
them as permanent possession natur'
ally make important facts concerning
their history, extent, resources, trade
and climatic conditions of special inter-
est in this country. From the best
sources of information at our command
we have compiled the following for the
information of our readers.
The islands lie just east of the China
sea, midway between the equator and
the tropic of cancer. They were dis
covered by Magellan in March, 1921,
and named by him the st. Largarus
islands. On the 9th of April following
he lost his life on one of the small ISL
ands of the archipelago, called Mactau.
The great navigator was Portuguese,
but he was then in the Spanish service.
Though claiming the islands by right
of Magellan's discovery, Spain did not
take possession until 1854, about which
time they were named the Philippines
I'm honor of King Philip III. They re-
manned in undisputed possession of
Spain until 1862, when they were seized
by a British force under Gen. Draper
and Admiral Cornish as a partial pun
ishment to Spain for aiding France in
the seven years war. Havana " as cap
tured in the same year. Then, as now,
Manila and the neighboring fortress
and arsenal of Cavite were the strong
holds of the islands, and OH or within
the Notifications of the two places were
625 cannon. In 1854 England reliu-
guished possession of the islands to
Spain upon receiving ransom of one
million pounds sterling, and on March
81 Manila was evacuated by the British
garrison. From that time until May
/, 1898, when the United States
squadron, under Commodore Dewey,
destroyed the Spanish fleet at Manila
and Cavite, the Spanish remained in
possession of the islands, undisturbed
except by occasional ineffective native
instructions.
The islands have never been thor
oughly explored or surveyed and even
their exact number is unknown. It is
believed to exceed !, 400 and this COM
bined area is estimated at over ia 900
square miles. Luzon, the largest island,
is $40 miles long and has an area of
almost Al 900 square miles, making it
nearly as large as Cuba and consider
ably more than half as large as the
state of Washington. Mindanao, the
second largest, has an area of over 81
600 square miles, and there are num-
Der of others of considerable size. Hun
dreds of the small islands are little
more than barren rocks of volcanic
origin.
The large islands are very rich in
natural resources, both agricultural and
mineral. The chief products are hemp,
tobacco, sugar, coffee, indigo and copra.
In 1896 the export trade amounted to
about $37, 000, 900 and imports to about
$11 100000. Most of the larger sugar
plantations, some of them exceeding
1000 acres in extent, are monastic prop
erty and are leased to Chinese half
breeds. There are large deposits of iron
ore of excellent quality and consider
able deposits of copper. Gold has been
found on many of the islands, but not
as rule in paying quantities. Coal is
abundant.
The climate of all the islands is tropi-
cal, that Of Luzon being the most en-
durable for Europeans or Americans.
At Manila three seasons are recognized
"a hot, cold and a wet. The hot sea-
son extends from March to June inclu-
sive, during which time the average
temperature is little over 81 degrees.
The "cold" season, which would be
considered hot here, extends from No
vember to February or March, and the
average temperature is reported at over
72 degrees. The months from July to
October inclusive are known as the wet
season, during which the mean temper
ature is nearly IS degrees and the aver
age rain fall over sc inches, or double
the average annual rain fall of this
county.
The population is heterogeneous
mixture of nations, or Negritos mot
now numerous), Malays, Chinese, half.
castles, or Mestizos, and probably not
more than 10000 Europeans, which is
a pretty small percentage in total
population variously estimated at from
five and half to ten millions.