The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-08-26

Social and political conditions are
unfortunately mixed in the Philippines,
and one must have some knowledge of
them before he can thoroughly under
stand the present situation there
says Mr.. Francis Pearce, a lapidary,
and formerly British soldier, who was
chatting with a Globe Democrat man
in Auctioneer Selkirk's office yesterday.
He spent three months at Manila in
1862 and made some interesting obser-
vations as to the social customs of the
people.
Il was the Daymaster's clerk in the
Seventeenth Lancers of the British
army, and was in India during the In
dian mutiny, from 1858 to 1861 con-
tinued Mr.. Pearce. In 1862 Great Brit
ain had some trouble with China, and
we were sent around there to attack
the Chinese forts at Taku, at the
mouth of the Peiho river, in the gulf of
Pechili The Seventeenth Lancers were
on the Odin, a paddle-w wheeled boat,
and she sprung leak, and we put into
Manila bay, where We remained for
three months and nine days before the
English transport boat Mary shepherd
came and took us to Hongkong. While
lying at Manila l had ample opportu-
of the conditions in the island of Lu-
zon. Ard those conditions were the
same as they had been for nearly three
centuries, and, no doubt, therefore,
were the same when Admiral Dewey
sailed into the bay.
THE real insurgents in the Philip
pines are the Malays. They owned the
islands about three centuries ago when
Spain came along and took possession
fCrcibly. The Malays have been the
insurgents ever since. But there is an
other large element of the population,
composed of what are called 'Kanakas,
who are not insurgents but, on the con-
trary, are disposed to submit quietly
to Spanish rule. There is some mys-
terry about the origin of these Kanakas
They may have been the original own
ers of the Philippines, and were par
TALLY conquered or driven out of some
of the islands by the Malays long be-
fore Spain took possession. The Ka-
nakas are not as warlike and vicious
as the Malays The Kanakas work for
the SDaniards, and are generally en-
ployed on the gunboatS and act as pi-
lets. Many of them have been brought
to the Philippines from the Caroline
islands by the Spaniards. But the Ma
lays do not work at all, and are always
Matching an insurrection.
Take the island of Luzon, on which
the city of Manila is located, and which
is the largest of the Philippine group,
and I found that all the north AID
northwestern portion of the island were
overrun with Malays, while the south
ern and southwestern portion was in
habited by Kanakas. The Malays are
divided into tribes, governed by their
chiefs, and the interior tribes are
wholly unciviliZed, and have always re-
fused to pay tribute to Spain. In the
mountains the Malays are absolutely
free from Spanish rule, and have never
been conquered. These mountaineers
are warlike when disturbed. and they
have furnished the rebel leaders for
1 was at Manila the father of the pres
ent insurgent leader, Aguinaldo, was
the leader of a band of insurgents. He
was a Malay mountaineer. These
mountaineerS never come down into the
valleys, and the SDaniards let them
severely alone. These mountaineerS
have no need of intercourse with the
outside world, as in their savage state
they wear little or no clothes, and the
brief clothing that some of them do
wear is made of NJ we grasses. In
that hot climate the MalayS find food
growing wild on the trees and in the
ground. When they want a meal they
can gather mangOeS, tamarindS, plan
tain. bread fruit and wild rice, wild
lemons and wild oranges. They chew
the betal nut, and smoke tobacco in
veterately. Some of these Malays, of
the more intelligent classes, are Budd-