PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

[s. 603] : A group of islands lying in the Western Pacific Ocean, and extending almost due N. and S. from Formosa to Borneo and the Moluccas, through 16° of latitude and 9° of longitude. The group contains nearly 2,000 The islands, some of which are mere islets. largest islands are Luzon, with a population of 3,500,000; Panay, 735,000; Negros, 391,777; Cebu, 504,000; Samar, 200,753; Leyte, 270,491; Mindoro, 200,000; Palawan, 70,000, and Mindanao, 600,000. The whole area of the group is estimated at 122,000 square miles, and the population is about 8,000,000. The climate of the islands is varied, according to In general it may be position and altitude. described as hot, tempered somewhat by ocean breezes, but very moist and more than ordinarily One of our people trying to American residents. going to the islands in perfect health and remaining two or three years without taking regular will find air in the mountains, of general health seriously affected. Vegewhole offers the tation is luxurious and on the support. people an easy The majority of the inhabitants are of the Malay stock, now very much mixed. There are about 25,000 Europe ans in the islands, about 100,000 Chinese, in whose hands are the principal industries, and a considerable number, not yet ascertained, of wild tribes, some of whom seem The languages of the to be Negrito dwarfs. Spanish has been the people are numerous. change his official language and is used by educated Filipinos, but has not at all displaced the native languages in the households of the people. It will now be quickly replaced by English. The chief of the forty or fifty native languages spoken in the islands are the Tagalog, the Pampangan, the Pangas in an, the Visayan, in two main dialects, the Cugnan and the Zambales, besides the Moro dialects of the south, which have taken up a certain number of Arabic words. The Philippines were discovered and conquered by the Spaniards in the 16th century. Having received a certain amount of advantage from Spanish control and tutelage during 350 years, and having been ceded to the United States by the treaty of peace signed December 10, 1898, they wait to see whether the American influence will be more beneficent and stimulating than the Spanish. With the exception of the southern portion of Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago, inhabited by Mohammedan Malays, Philippine Islands Ping-yangr-lisieii whom the Spaniards called Moras (Mohammedans or Moors), the islands are under civil government, with practical autonomy in the municipalities, and with 39 provinces, each under a governor elected by the people through their municThe law-making power rests ipal councilors. with a commi ion at Manila under a Governor appointed and supervised by the President of the United States. The religion of the Philippines, excepting that of the Mohammedan Sulu archipelago and parts Mindanao, is overwhelmingly Roman Cathoaltho in the mountain districts of the larger islands paganism in the form of ancestor-worship The Roman and spirit-worship also exists. Catholic Church has divided the islands into nearly 900 parishes, of which some 600 have been administered by foreign friars of the Aug us Dominican and Francis can orders. tinian, These friars have had not only the religious, but of lic, in actual fact, the civil, control of the islands, and have used their power for the advantage of They their orders rather than of the people. have acquired ownership, for instance, of more than 400,000 acres of choice land in the islands, besides holding title to a great number of churches and other public buildings. Through various causes needle to enumerate this body of foreign friars, that is to say the Roman Catholic establishment, has alienated the affections of the ma of the Filipinos, and as soon as the Spanish power in the islands was broken all of the friars were forcibly expelled from their parishes, saving their lives by taking refuge in Manila or even in foreign lands. The people have said: “Our people have had 300 years of friars’ religion, and now we want a better one.” This does not, however, imply a revolt from Roman Catholicism, for most of the people know of no other form of religion. In some provinces the Roman Catholic clergy still sharply control public sentiment, but in others there is a tendency to form a national Roman Catholic Church, which has been commenced by certain of the native clergy who have thrown off allegiance to the Pope of Rome. The whole situation of Roman Catholicism in the islands is one which causes the gravest inquietude among the august prelates at Rome, the change which withdraws national support from that church and establishes schools outside of the control of the bishops, being one to which European Roman Catholics cannot readily adapt themselves. In the meantime the condition of the common people in the Philippines who are Christians in name has attracted the sympathetic attention of the Protestant mi ionary societies of the United While there are exceptions among the States. educated cla es, the characteristic qualities of the common Roman Catholic Christian Filipino (that is to say, of the ma of the people) are the following: There is a strange lack of either religious or political fraternity between them, a mere dialect separating neighbors as widely as the ocean. Like all Asiatics, they look upon representatives of Western civilization with an instinctive dislike and suspicion, and they hardly know the meaning of lofty ambitions or aspirations. They are immoral, have a rooted conviction that all foreign clergy are immoral, and they allow nothing in the religious teaching of foreigners to restrain them from being idle, di ipated, deceitful, vacillating and e entially worthle . The two interests capable of 586 thoroughly engaging their attention are, first, cock-fighting (with gambling), and, second, gorgeous church proce ions. It is clear that no great future awaits such a people unle through a more profound understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Presbyterian Board of Foreign Mi ions in the United States (North) was the first Protestant society to establish a mi ion in the Philippines. It first proposed to the great denominational societies a conference for such arrangements as to comity and territorial limitations as will prevent any impre ion of rivalry between the denominations. This has resulted in the formation of “The Evangelical Union of the Philippine Islands,” each denomination adding in brackets its distinctive name. Comity being settled upon, the PN established Mr. Rogers its first mi ionary in Manila in April, 1899. It now has 4 other stations on the islands of Panay (1900), Negros (1901) and Cebu (1902), with 10 organized churches, several schools, one of them industrial; 2 hospitals and about 500 communicants. The has sent out CA mi ionaries temporarily working with the PN. The Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States, after Methodist laymen had commenced holding meetings in Manila in 1899 (before the Presbyterian mi ion was opened), organized a mi ion station there in May, 1900, taking for its field the northern section of the island of Luzon. It now has work in 27 places, with three central stations, besides its station in Manila. It has about 4,000 profe ing Christians under its care, The Ameri1,000 of them being communicants. can Baptist Mi ionary Union opened its first station in 1900 on the island of Panay, and its second in 1901 on the island of Negros. It now has 3 organized churches, 5 places of worship and about 400 communicants. It has given much attention to printing and circulating the Scriptures and general evangelistic literature. The Protestant Episcopal Church has a strong station at Manila (1902), where the mi ionary bishop resides, and another in the highlands of Benguet (Luzon), with especial reference to the untamed Igorrotes who live there and have never known Christianity except as the religion of the men who have guns and kill people. The United Brethren in Christ have also a mi ion station in Manila (1902) and another in the Ilocano speaking provinces (1901) in the N. W. coast of Luzon. The has a station (1902) in AU of these mi ions the island of Mindanao. are working with the hope of benefiting the people. It is not their aim to waste time in The _B fighting the Roman Catholic Church. and FBS and the ABS also have agencies in the islands and are pre ing forward Bible translation and have circulated about 80,000 copies per annum of the Gospels and other portions already printed. El Archipelago Filipino, 2 vols, and atlEis, Washington, D. C, ABCFM 1900; Report of the Philippine Com mine i on, 4 vols., Washington, D. C, 1900-1901; Foreman (J.), The Philippine Islands, 2d ed., London and New York, 1899; Worcester (D. C), The Philippine Islands and Their People, New York, 1898; Sawyer (F. H.), The Inhabitants of the Philippine Islands, London, 1900. In the Mi ionary Review of the World are some valuable articles on the Philippines: Ethnology, Vol. XI., p. 821; Vol. XV., p. 536; Religion, Vol. XI., pp. 517, 520; XIV. (with a survey of mi ion prospects), pp. 510, 586; Vol. XV., p. 678. PHOKWANE A railway station in S. Bechuanaland, Africa, situated about 70 miles N. of Kimberly. Station of the SPG, with (1903) 1: Philippine Islands «87 mi ionary and 905 profe ed Christians. Some -write the name Phokoane. 605