The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-09-29
PHILIPPINE NATIVE WEAPONS.

lected by the Spanish.
 There is located in Manila a place
 that is the Mecca and delight of relic
 hunters. It contains everything con-
 ceivable in the shape of crude wea-
 pons of warfare, and is the one spot in
 the city for relics of standardization,
 some of which show genius in the man
 her of imitation.
 The collection has been accomplishing
 for over two centuries, and there is no
 part of is not represented by the arms
 typical of the tribe from which they
 came. When a tribe was conquered l its munitions O. war were seized and
 brought to this junk room for safe 1 keeping. | Perhaps the weapons universally
 used throughout the archipelago are | the bolo and machete, There is a
 stack of them that contains every de- | scription of the weapons made. There l is the big awkward machete that looks ugly-a weapon that is largely utilized among the natives not only for fight ing but for cutting cane, etc. With it
 or the bolo a native can cut sufficient bamboo to build hia caso or perform any kind of architectural feat. He is
 handy with it. and ia a dangerous enemy at close quarters There is pos
 sibly 50 different kinds of knives in- cluded in the collection. Some are more fancy than others and are encased in handsome leather sheaths Those were l1cl1D11y, hy off and ar cn large or formidable as the bolos that rank and file carried.
 Perhaps .he most interesting collec- tion in the building is the bamboo and gaspipe cannon, made in imitation of the artillery of the Europeans It is not likely that they ever did much damage to their oppressors with those engines of war, for they appear to be capable of doing more execution to those operating them than to the enemy.
 There is one kind made from one inch to three-inch pipe. strongly se- cured 10 a stock Of wood in crude manner, Some were bound with rat tan cords It is not possible that the inventor ever intended that there should be any recoil and consequently it was difficult for .hem to secure gunners, aa that honorable position in the rebel artillery must have been very dangerous and unpleasant
 There are some cannon made entirely of bamboo. The wood is bound to- gether by iron, In some instances, and if this was not available, wooden bands made out of bamboo or rattan were. used. The sizes of those can nons run all the way from two to six inches.
 Then comes the lava cannon balls | used. They are made of the lava of volcanoes, and when not available, | stones of nearly circular shape were used. There are none of them that | would cause much commotion among the enemy, but they represent the crude attempt of people to combat | the modern methods of their oppres- sors.
 The stands and shelves are lined with | every kind of old-fashioned fiintlock | used in early days by the Spaniards, | and afterward fell into the hands of i the natives. There are also many imi- | tations of those, among which is that | of the flint. Instead of using flint, the | improved gun of the natives had a | small piece of grooved bamboo By | forcing a pointed stick made of bam- boo up and down this groove. like the | American Indians method with pieces of fir, sparks will fly and communicate | to the pan where the priming lays. | The barrels of the guns made by the | natives were composed of gas-pipe, and | the woodwork was very crude.
 The sabers and swords in the collec- ton are all well tempered although the most of them are poorly finished. There are quite a number of old Span- sh swords which they came by as they came by everything that ia use- less
 The spears are all of the same make and are possibly the most unique and that the islands produce. They are highly finished, the wood lsed being ebony. The iron prongs are polished and have very striking appear ance, The poles are about six feet long and it is said that the war ors could use those weapons very 
 The blow gun of the mountain tribes inds small place in the collection. There was large collection at one ime, but the demand for them was so great that they soon disappeared.
 There is also in the collection num- Der of models that belonged to the office of patents, that represent the rude attempts of the natives to intro-