Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1899-02-11
aalistellanenus &eadimg.
PHILIPPINES AS THEY ARE.
Observations of an Intelligent American
Who Has Been a Resident For Twenty

Who Has Been Resident FOR twenty
Years.
The following letter was written at
the personal request of Senator Morgan
by Ogden E. Edwards:
Hon. John T. Morgan, United States
Senate:
SIR resided in Manila more than
20 years. I travelled in Luzon and
visited the principal islands at the
south-Samar, Leyte, Cebu, Pansy and
Negros-where my firm had business
1 was on many committees called by
the Spanish government to report on
finance, currency and social questions,
thus knowing the Spanish and govern
mental view, while my daily inter-
course with the natives taught me
their ideas on the same questions.
Being at home in the use of the Span
ish language, I needed no interpreter,
and acquired my information at first
hand.
The inhabitants are mostly of Malay
descent. Before the discovery of the
islands by Magellan, the brown,
straight haired Malays had driven into
the interior of Luzon, and the other
islands, a race of black, woolly-haired
men, akin to the Papuans.. These
blacks, or Negritos as they are called,
are comparatively few in number and
inhabit the mountain region in the in
terror; all the coast lands being held
by the Malays who are divided into
many tribes all speaking dialects oI
Malay.
The Tagalogs inhabit the country
around Manila and are the most civil
lied of all the tribes. They are good
agriculturists, their rice fields being
marvels of skillful irrigation. They
are good seamen and ship builders
building vessels of over 40 tons. As
steersmen they are preferred to any
eastern people, being SO employed on
the peninsular and Oriental steamships
and most of the boats trading on the
China sea.
If treated with justice and kindness
they are capable of strong attachment
1 had in the employment of my firm
men of the third generation-men
whose fathers and grandfathers had
served US, and I kept my own servants
till they died or 1 left the islands.
1 found them very honest. The
household silver in use by my firm
from 1880 to 1883 was always in charge
of native servants. None of it was
ever stolen. I never lost anything by
robbery, though my house was open
all day long, and in my daily absence
cared for only by my native servants.
| was told two weeks labor of man
and his wife in the planting season
and the same time at harvest would
produce rice enough TO feed them fol
a year, and 1 think the statement is
correct. Forty times the amount oi
seed planted is small crop 100 times
is exceptionally large. Perhaps sc
fold would be the average. | have
seen three crops of maize four Indian
corD) grown on the same bit of ground
in one year. This land was irrigated
Planted in good land it gives 200 fold
the quantity of seed used.
The camote grows wild, and is also
cultivated; when rice is dear there is
a large increase in the use of the
camote. The banana grows every
where in the islands and is one of the
staple articles of food, either raw OF
cooked. In ten months after setting
out the shoots gathered ripe bananas
in my garden. The trees reproduce
themselves and do not require to be re
set oftener than once in 16 to 20 years
Sugar is one of the principal exports
of the islands-in 1894, valued at $11,
100000.
Hemp, so called, is fibre of the
variety of the plantation tree, known
as masa textilis. 1t is produced only
in the Philippine islands. Its export
now reaches about 100000 of bales
and was valued in 1894 at upwards oI
$l4, 100000. Its principal use is fol
binders twine.
Coffee is of very fine quality and is
mostly sent to France. The produc
ton is not over 1000 tons. 1 have
known its price to vary from So to $50
per picut of $50 pounds.
Tobacco of excellent quality is grown
in different parts of the islands. Its
export value in 1894 amounted tc
So 100000 and could be largely in.
creased.
Minerals are the principal articles Of
export. Gold exists in many of the
islands and an English company has
been formed to work the quartz mines
on the Pacific coast of Luzon.
A company has been formed also
to work the coal mine in Cebu.
Every since the first occupation ol
the islands by the Spaniards copper oI
pure quality has been produced by
tn savage Negristos and they have
traded it for goods with the Malays
In one or more places on the island
of Cebu petroleum has been found.
The iron mines of Arggat are said
to produce 95 per cent. of pure ore
and the natives prefer cutting tools
made of this iron to those imported
Here again want of roads and greed
of the Spanish official destroyed the
industry.
The islands are aboundingly rich in
fine timber. Upwards of II kinds are
exported. The best is molave, akin
to teak. 1t resists insects, water and
weather. Other kinds are valuable
for furniture. / have seen table six
feet in diameter made of one piece OF
pana wood.