CHAPTER XXXII
THE VISAYAS ISLANDS.
Area and population--Panay--Negros--Cebu--Bohol--Leyte--Samar.
This name is given to the group of six considerable islands lying between Luzon and Mindanao, and also to the race inhabiting them. Beginning at the west, these islands are Panay, Negros, Cebu, Bohol, Leyte, and Samar. There are also a number of smaller islands.
Many of the larger as well as the smaller islands are thickly populated, and an extensive emigration takes place to the great and fertile island of Mindanao, where any amount of rich land waits the coming of the husbandmen. I can find no later records of population than the census of 1877. This may seem strange to an American, but to those who know the ignorance and ineptitude of the Spanish administration, it will seem a matter of course. Such data of the population as the Government Offices possess, are mostly due to the priests and the archbishop.
Since 1877 there has undoubtedly been a great increase of population amongst the Visayas, and in 1887 the population of Panay was considered to be more than a million.
The Visayas Islands contain fewer heathen than any other part of the Philippines. In Panay there are a few Negritos and Mundos; in Negros some Negritos and Carolanos. The illustration opposite p. 207 is a full-length photograph of Tek Taita, a Negrito from this island. In Cebu a few Mundos live around the peak of Danao. In Bohol, Leyte, and Samar there are no heathen savages.
It may be said that the heathen in these islands would have died out before now but that they are reinforced continually by remontados, or fugitives from justice, also by people whose inclination for a savage life, or whose love of rapine renders the humdrum life of their village insupportable to them.
The following Table gives the area of each of the six larger islands, and the population in 1877.
Area in square miles. Population according to Census of 1877. Capitals.
Panay (divided into 4,898 777,777 [29] Capiz. three provinces-- Antique. Capiz, Antique, Ilo-ilo. Ilo-ilo) Negros 3,592 204,669 Bacolod. Cebu 2,285 403,296 Cebu. Bohol 1,226 226,546 Tagbilaran. Leyte 3,706 220,515 Tacloban. Samar 5,182 178,890 Catbalogan. --------- 2,011,693
Panay.--This island is approximately an equilateral triangle, with the western edge nearly north and south, having one apex pointing south. A chain of mountains extends in a curved line from the northern to the southern point, enclosing an irregular strip of land which forms the province of Antique. The rivers in this part of the island are naturally short and unimportant. The northern part of the island is the province of Capiz, the principal river is the Panay, which, rising in the centre of the island, runs in a northerly direction for over thirty miles, entering the sea at the Bay of Sapian. The eastern and southern part of the island is the province of Ilo-ilo. The principal river is the Talana, which, rising quite near the source of the River Panay, runs in a southerly and south-easterly direction into the channel between Negros and Panay to the north of the island of Guimaras. There are many spurs to the principal range of mountains, but between them is a considerable extent of land under cultivation. The province of Ilo-ilo is one of the richest and most densely-populated in the Philippines. It now contains at least half a million inhabitants.
Ilo-ilo is open to foreign commerce, and vice-consuls of many nations reside there. Yet the port has neither wharves, cranes, moorings or lights. The coasting steamers drawing up to 13 feet enter a muddy creek and discharge their cargo on the banks as best they can, whilst the ocean-going ships lie out in the bay and receive their cargoes of sugar and other produce from lighters, upon each of which pilotage used to be charged for the benefit of an unnecessary number of pilots, and of the captain of the port, who received a share of the pilotage and strenuously resisted a reform of this abuse.
Under American protection, Ilo-ilo may be expected to become a flourishing port, provided with every convenience for discharging, loading, and repairing ships, as becomes the importance of its trade. The town of Ilo-ilo contained many large buildings, some of them owned by British subjects. During the fighting last year, however, several buildings were burnt.
During the Spanish rule the streets were entirely uncared for, being a series of mud-holes in the rainy season, and thick with dust and garbage in the dry season.
The town and port together are notorious examples of all the worst characteristics of Spanish rule.
The principal towns of this wealthy province are Pototan, Santa Barbara, Janiuay, and Cabatuan, each of which has more than 20,000 inhabitants.
The industries and productions of this and the other islands are treated of under Visayas when describing the inhabitants.
Negros.--A long island of irregular shape, lying between Panay and Cebu. Its axis is nearly north and south, and a chain of mountains runs up it, but nearer to the east than to the west coast.
A little to the north of the centre of this chain, the celebrated volcano Canlaon raises its peak over 8300 feet. It is frequently in
## active eruption, and can be perceived at an immense distance when the
atmosphere is clear. I have seen it and its long plume of vapour from a steamer when passing the north of the island.
In the Sierra de Dumaguete, a range occupying the centre of the southern promontory of the island, and about the centre of the range, there is the volcano of Bacon, about which little is known.
Cebu is a long and narrow island something in the shape of an alligator, looked at from above, with the snout pointing to the southward and westward. It is opposite to Negros, and separated from that island by the Strait of Tanon. It is, in fact, a range of mountains rising out of the sea, and is very narrow, being nowhere more than 22 miles wide. There being a large population of Visayas, and the mountains not being very high, the wandering heathen have to a great extent been weeded out, and only a remnant of wretched Mundos remain about the crests of the cordillera.
The capital city, Cebu, was the first in the Archipelago to possess a municipality, and was, in fact, until 1571, the capital of the Philippines.
It possesses some fine buildings; is the seat of a bishop, and formerly of the Governor-General of Visayas. It is open to foreign commerce, and vice-consuls of the principal nations reside there.
There can be no rivers in an island of this configuration, for the water runs away as from the roof of a house. The crops and industries have been spoken of under the head of Visayas.
There are considerable beds of lignite near Compostela, and various efforts have been made to work them, so far, I fear, without much success. Remarkable shells, and some pearls are obtained round about Cebu and the adjacent islands.
Bohol lies off the southern half of the eastern coast of Cebu, and is only half the size of that island, but it has more than half the population. It is hilly, and the towns and villages are situated on the coast. Only the southern and eastern coast is visited by coasting vessels, the navigation to the north and west being impeded by a labyrinth of coral reefs. The soil of this island is not rich, and the more enterprising of the natives emigrate to Mindanao.
Leyte is an island of very irregular shape--something like a hide pegged out on the ground--and lies between the northern half of Cebu and the southern part of Samar, from which it is only separated by a very narrow passage called the Janabatas Channel, and the Strait of San Juanico. The southern extremity of Leyte approaches the northern promontory of Mindanao, and forms the Straits of Surigao, the second entrance from the Pacific to the seas of the Archipelago. The island is mountainous, and has two lakes, one called Bito is at the narrowest part, and one called Jaro, near the town of that name. There are several good ports. The exports, which go to Manila, are hemp and sulphur of great purity.
Samar.--This is the largest of the Visayas, and yet has fewest inhabitants. It lies to the eastward of all the other islands, and consequently its east coast, like that of Luzon and Mindanao, is exposed to the full fury of the north-east monsoon, and to the ravages of the heavy rollers of the Pacific that burst without warning on its rocky coast.
Its chief port, Catbalogan, is situated on the western coast, and is well-sheltered. From the coast many lofty peaks are visible, but the interior of this island is little known. The exports are hemp and cocoa-nut oil. The northern point of Samar approaches the southern extremity of Luzon, and forms the historic Strait of San Bernardino, one of the entrances to the Philippine Archipelago from the Pacific. It was by this Strait that the annual galleon from Acapulco entered, and here also the British privateers lay in wait for their silver-laden prey.
##