The Story of the Philippines and Our New Possessions, by Murat Halstead

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The Story of the Philippines and Our New Possessions,
Including The Ladrones, Hawaii, Cuba and Porto Rico.

The Story of the Philippines.

Natural Riches, Industrial Resources, Statistics of Productions,
Commerce and Population; The Laws, Habits, Customs, Scenery and
Conditions of the Cuba of the East Indies and the Thousand Islands
of the Archipelagoes of India and Hawaii, With Episodes of Their
Early History

The Eldorado of the Orient

Personal Character Sketches of and Interviews with Admiral Dewey,
General Merritt, General Aguinaldo and the Archbishop of Manila.

History and Romance, Tragedies and Traditions of our Pacific
Possessions.

Events of the War in the West with Spain, and the Conquest of Cuba
and Porto Rico.

By Murat Halstead,

_War Correspondent in America and Europe, Historian of the Philippine
Expedition_.

Splendidly and Picturesquely Illustrated with Half-Tone Engravings from
Photographs, Etchings from Special Drawings, and the Military Maps of
the Philippines, Prepared by the War Department of the United States.

_Our Possessions Publishing Co._

1898

The engravings in this volume were made from original photographs,
and are specially protected by copyright; and notice is hereby given,
that any person or persons guilty of reproducing or infringing upon
the copyright in any way will be dealt with according to law.

Inscribed
To the Soldiers and Sailors
of
The Army and Navy of the United States,
With Admiration for Their Achievements
In the War With Spain;
Gratitude for the Glory They Have Gained for the American Nation,
And Congratulations That All the People of All the
Country Rejoice in the Cloudless Splendor of Their Fame
That is the Common and Everlasting
Inheritance of Americans.

Author's Preface.

The purpose of the writer of the pages herewith presented has
been to offer, in popular form, the truth touching the Philippine
Islands. I made the journey from New York to Manila, to have the
benefit of personal observations in preparing a history for the
people. Detention at Honolulu shortened my stay in Manila, but
there was much in studies at the former place that was a help at the
latter. The original programme was for me to accompany General Merritt,
Commander-in-Chief of the Philippine Expedition, but illness prevented
its full realization, and when I arrived in Manila Bay the city had
already been "occupied and possessed" by the American army; and the
declaration of peace between the United States and Spain was made,
the terms fully agreed upon with the exception of the settlement of
the affairs of the Philippines. While thus prevented from witnessing
stirring military movements other than those attending the transfer
of our troops across the Pacific Ocean, an event in itself of
the profoundest significance, the reference of the determination
of the fate of the Philippine Islands to the Paris Conference,
and thereby to the public opinion of our country, in extraordinary
measure increased the general sensibility as to the situation of the
southern Oriental seas affecting ourselves, and enhanced the value
of the testimony taken on the spot of observers of experience, with
the training of journalism in distinguishing the relative pertinence
and potency of facts noted. Work for more than forty years, in the
discussion from day to day of current history, has qualified me for
the efficient exercise of my faculties in the labor undertaken. It
has been my undertaking to state that which appeared to me, so that
the reader may find pictures of the scenes that tell the Story that
concerns the country, that the public may with enlightenment solve
the naval, military, political, commercial and religious problems we
are called upon by the peremptory pressure of the conditions local,
and international, to solve immediately. This we have to do, facing the
highest obligations of citizenship in the great American Republic, and
conscious of the incomparably influential character of the principles
that shall prevail through the far-reaching sweep of the policies that
will be evolved. I have had such advantages in the assurance of the
authenticity of the information set forth in the chapters following,
that I may be permitted to name those it was my good fortune to consult
with instructive results; and in making the acknowledgments due. I
may be privileged to support the claim of diligence and success in
the investigations made, and that I am warranted in the issue of this
Story of the Philippines by the assiduous improvement of an uncommon
opportunity to fit myself to serve the country.

Indebtedness for kind consideration in this work is gratefully
acknowledged to Major-General Merritt, commanding the Philippine
Expedition; Major-General Otis, who succeeds to the duties of
military and civil administration in the conquered capital of the
islands; Admiral George Dewey, who improved, with statesmanship,
his unparalleled victory in the first week of the war with Spain,
and raised the immense questions before us; General F.V. Greene,
the historian of the Russo-Turkish war, called by the President to
Washington, and for whose contributions to the public intelligence
he receives the hearty approval and confidence of the people; Major
Bell, the vigilant and efficient head of the Bureau of Information
at the headquarters of the American occupation in the Philippines;
General Aguinaldo, the leader of the insurgents of his race in Luzon,
and His Grace the Archbishop of Manila, who gave me a message for the
United States, expressing his appreciation of the excellence of the
behavior of the American army in the enforcement of order, giving peace
of mind to the residents in the distracted city of all persuasions
and conditions, and of the service that was done civilization in the
prevention, by our arms, of threatened barbarities that had caused
sore apprehension; and, I may add, the Commissioner of the Organized
People of the Philippines, dispatched to Washington accompanying
General Greene; and of the citizens of Manila of high character,
and conductors of business enterprises with plants in the community
whose destiny is in the hands of strangers.

These gentlemen I may not name, for there are uncertainties that
demand of them and command me to respect the prudence of their
inconspicuity. This volume seems to me to be justified, and I have no
further claim to offer that it is meritorious than that it is faithful
to facts and true to the country in advocacy of the continued expansion
of the Republic, whose field is the world.

Steamship China, Pacific Ocean, September 20, 1898.

The Origin of this Story of the Philippines.

The letter following is the full expression by the author of this
volume of his purposes and principles in making the journey to the
East Indies.

_Going to the Philippines_.

Washington City, D.C., July 18.

With the authorization of the Military Authorities, I shall go to
the Philippine Islands with General Merritt, the Military Governor,
and propose to make the American people better acquainted with that
remarkable and most important and interesting country. The presence
of an American army in the Philippines is an event that will change
broad and mighty currents in the world's history. It has far more
significance than anything transpiring in the process of the conquest
of the West India possessions of Spain, for the only question there,
ever since the Continental colonies of the Spanish crown won their
independence, has been the extent of the sacrifices the Spaniards, in
their haughty and vindictive pride, would make in fighting for a lost
Empire and an impossible cause with an irresistible adversary. That
the time was approaching when, with the irretrievable steps of the
growth of a living Nation of free people, we would reach the point
where it should be our duty to accept the responsibility of the
dominant American power, and accomplish manifest Destiny by adding
Cuba and Porto Rico to our dominion, has for half a century been the
familiar understanding of American citizens. Spain, by her abhorrent
system, personified in Weyler, and illustrated in the murderous
blowing up of the Maine with a mine, has forced this duty upon us;
and though we made war unprepared, the good work is going on, and the
finish of the fight will be the relegation of Spain, whose colonial
governments have been, without exception, disgraceful and disastrous
to herself, and curses to the colonists, to her own peninsula. This
will be for her own good, as well as the redemption of mankind from
her unwholesome foreign influences, typified as they are in the
beautiful city of Havana, which has become the center of political
plagues and pestilential fevers, whose contagion has at frequent
intervals reached our own shores.

In the Philippine Islands the situation is for us absolutely novel. It
cannot be said to be out of the scope of reasonable American expansion
and is in the right line of enlarging the area of enlightenment and
stimulating the progress of civilization. The unexpected has happened,
but it is not illogical. It must have been written long ago on the
scroll of the boundless blue and the stars. The incident of war was
the "rush" order of the President of the United States to Admiral
Dewey to destroy the Spanish fleet at Manila, for the protection
of our commerce. The deed was done with a flash of lightning, and
lo! we hold the golden key of a splendid Asiatic archipelago of
a thousand beautiful and richly endowed islands in our grip. This
is the most brilliant and startling achievement in the annals of
navies. Never before had the sweep of sea power, ordered through
the wires that make the world's continents, oceans and islands one
huge whispering gallery, such striking exemplification. There was
glory and fame in it, and immeasurable material for the making of
history. We may paraphrase Dr. Johnson's celebrated advertisement
of the widow's brewery by saying: Admiral Dewey's victory was not
merely the capture of a harbor commanding a great city, one of the
superb places of the earth, and the security of a base of operations
to wait for reinforcements commensurate with the resources of the
United States of America--the victorious hero fixed his iron hand
upon a wonderful opportunity it was the privilege of our Government
to secure at large, according to the rights of a victorious Nation
for the people thereof--a chance for the youth of America, like that
of the youth of Great Britain, to realize upon the magnificence of
India; and this is as Dr. Johnson said of the vats and barrels of
the Thrale estate--"the potentiality of wealth beyond the dreams of
avarice." It is a new departure, but not a matter for the panic or
apprehension of conservatism, that the Stars and Stripes float as the
symbol of sovereignty over a group of islands in the waters of Asia,
that are equal to all the West Indies. If we are strangers there now we
shall not be so long. We have a front on the Pacific Ocean, of three
great States--Washington, equal to England; Oregon, whose grandeur
rolls in the sound of her famous name, and incomparable California,
whose title will be the synonym of golden good times forever. The
Philippines are southwest from our western front doors. They have
been the islands of our sunsets in the winter. Now they look to us
for the rosy dawn out of which will come the clear brightness of the
white light of mornings and the fullness of the ripening noons, all
the year around. With our bulk of the North American continent bulging
into both the great oceans, it was foreordained since the beginning
when God created the earth, that we, the possessors of this imperial
American zone, should be a great Asiatic Power. We have it now in
evidence, written in islands among the most gorgeous of those that
shine in the Southern seas--islands that are east from the Atlantic
and west from the Pacific shores of the One Great Republic--that
we may personify hereafter, sitting at the head of the table when
the empires of the earth consult themselves as to the courses of
empire. Our Course of Empire is both east and west.

The contact of American and Asiatic civilization in the Philippines,
with the American army there, superseding the Spaniards, will be
memorable as one of the matters of chief moment in the closing days
of the nineteenth century, and remembered to date from for a thousand
years. It is my purpose to write of this current history while it
is a fresh, sparkling stream, and attempt something more than the
recitation of the news of the day, as it is condensed and restrained
in telegrams; to give it according to the extent of my ability and the
advantages of my opportunity, the local coloring, the characteristic
scenery; the pen pictures of the people and their pursuits; sketches
of the men who are doers of deeds that make history; studies of the
ways and means of the islanders; essays to indicate the features of
the picturesque of the strange mixture of races; the revolutionary
evolutions of politics; the forces that pertain to the mingling of
the religions of the Occident and the Orient, in a chemistry untried
through the recorded ages. It is a tremendous canvas upon which I am
to labor, and I know full well how inadequate the production must be,
and beg that this index may not be remembered against me. It is meant
in all modesty, and I promise only that there will be put into the
task the expertness of experience and the endeavor of industry.

_Murat Halstead._

Contents.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE

THE ORIGIN OF THIS STORY OF THE PHILIPPINES

CHAPTER I.

ADMIRAL DEWEY ON HIS FLAGSHIP.

A Stormy Day on Manila Bay--Call on Admiral Dewey--The Man in
White--He Sticks to His Ship--How He Surprised the Spaniards--Every
Man Did His Duty on May-Day--How Dewey Looks and Talks--What He Said
About War With Germany in Five Minutes--Feeds His Men on "Delicious"
Fresh Meat from Australia--Photography Unjust to Him

CHAPTER II.

LIFE IN MANILA.

Character of the Filipinos--Drivers Lashing Laboring Men in
the Streets--What Americans Get in Their Native Air--The Logic
of Destiny--Manila as She Fell Into Our Hands--The Beds in the
Tropics--A Spanish Hotel--Profane Yells for Ice--Sad Scenes in the
Dining Room--Major-General Calls for "Francisco"--A Broken-Hearted
Pantry Woman

CHAPTER III.

FROM LONG ISLAND TO LUZON.

Across the Continent--An American Governor-General Steams Through
the Golden Gate--He is a Minute-Man--Honolulu as a Health Resort--The
Lonesome Pacific--The Skies of Asia--Dreaming Under the Stars of the
Scorpion--The Southern Cross

CHAPTER IV.

INTERVIEW WITH GENERAL AGUINALDO.

The Insurgent Leader's Surroundings and Personal Appearance--His
Reserves and Ways of Talking--The Fierce Animosity of the Filipinos
Toward Spanish Priests--A Probability of Many Martyrs in the Isle
of Luzon

CHAPTER V.

THE PHILIPPINE MISSION.

Correspondence with Aguinaldo About It--Notes by Senor Felipe
Agoncillo--Relations Between Admiral Dewey and Senor Aguinaldo--Terms
of Peace Made by Spanish Governor-General with Insurgents, December,
1897--Law Suit Between Aguinaldo and Arlacho--Aguinaldo's Proclamation
of May 21, 1898

CHAPTER VI.

THE PROCLAMATIONS OF GENERAL AGUINALDO.

June 16th, 1898, Establishing Dictatorial Government--June 20th, 1898,
Instructions for Elections--June 23d, 1898, Establishing Revolutionary
Government--June 23d, 1898, Message to Foreign Powers--June 27th,
1898, Instructions Concerning Details--July 23d, 1898, Letter from
Senor Aguinaldo to General Anderson--August 1st, 1898, Resolution
of Revolutionary Chiefs Asking Recognition--August 6th, 1898, Message
to Foreign Powers Asking Recognition

CHAPTER VII.

INTERVIEW WITH ARCHBISHOP OF MANILA.

Insurgents' Deadly Hostility to Spanish Priests--The Position of
the Archbishop as He Defined It--His Expression of Gratitude to the
American Army--His Characterization of the Insurgents--A Work of
Philippine Art--The Sincerity of the Archbishop's Good Words

CHAPTER VIII.

WHY WE HOLD THE PHILIPPINES.

The Responsibility of Admiral Dewey--We Owe It to Ourselves to Hold
the Philippines--Prosperity Assured by Our Permanent Possession--The
Aguinaldo Question--Character Study of the Insurgent Leader--How
Affairs Would Adjust Themselves for Us--Congress Must Be Trusted to
Represent the People and Firmly Establish International Policy

CHAPTER IX.

THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS AS THEY ARE.

Area and Population--Climate--Mineral Wealth--Agriculture--Commerce
and Transportation--Revenue and Expenses--Spanish Troops--Spanish
Navy--Spanish Civil Administration--Insurgent Troops--Insurgent Civil
Administration--United States Troops--United States Navy--United
States Civil Administration--The Future of the Islands

CHAPTER X.

OFFICIAL HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF MANILA.

The Pith of the Official Reports of the Capture of Manila, by
Major-General Wesley Merritt, Commanding the Philippine Expedition;
General Frank V. Greene, General Arthur McArthur, and General
Thomas Anderson, with the Articles of Capitulation, Showing How
8,000 Americans Carried an Intrenched City with a Garrison of 13,000
Spaniards, and Kept Out 14,000 Insurgents--The Difficulties of American
Generals with Philippine Troops

CHAPTER XI.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF GENERAL MERRITT.

The Official Gazette Issued at Manila--Orders and Proclamation of
Major-General Wesley Merritt, Who, as Commander of the Philippine
Expedition, Became, Under the Circumstances of the Capture of Manila,
the Governor of That City

CHAPTER XII.

THE AMERICAN ARMY IN MANILA.

Why the Boys Had a Spell of Homesickness--Disadvantages of the
Tropics--Admiral Dewey and His Happy Men--How Our Soldiers Passed
the Time on the Ships--General Merritt's Headquarters--What Is Public
Property--The Manila Water Supply--England Our Friend--Major-General
Otis, General Meritt's Successor

CHAPTER XIII.

THE WHITE UNIFORMS OF OUR HEROES IN THE TROPICS.

The Mother Hubbard Street Fashion in Honolulu, and That of Riding
Astride--Spoiling Summer Clothes in Manila Mud--The White Raiment
of High Officers--Drawing the Line on Nightshirts--Ashamed of Big
Toes--Dewey and Merritt as Figures of Show--The Boys in White

CHAPTER XIV.

A MARTYR TO THE LIBERTY OF SPEECH.

Dr. Jose Rizal, the Most Distinguished Literary Man of the Philippines,
Writer of History, Poetry, Political Pamphlets, and Novels, Shot on the
Luneta of Manila--A Likeness of the Martyr--The Scene of His Execution,
from a Photograph--His Wife Married the Day Before His Death--Poem
Giving His Farewell Thoughts, Written in His Last Hours--The Works
That Cost Him His Life--The Vision of Friar Rodriguez

CHAPTER XV.

EVENTS OF THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR.

No Mystery About the Cause of the War--The Expected and the Inevitable
Has Happened--The Tragedy of the Maine--Vigilant Wisdom of President
McKinley--Dewey's Prompt Triumph--The Battles at Manila and Santiago
Compared--General Shafter Tells of the Battle of Santiago--Report of
Wainwright Board on Movements of Sampson's Fleet in the Destruction of
Cervera's Squadron--Stars and Stripes Raised Over Porto Rico--American
and Spanish Fleets at Manila Compared--Text of Peace Protocol

CHAPTER XVI.

THE PEACE JUBILEE.

The Lessons of War in the Joy Over Peace in the Celebrations
at Chicago and Philadelphia--Orations by Archbishop Ireland
and Judge Emory Speer--The President's Few Words of Thrilling
Significance--The Parade of the Loyal League, and the Clover Club
Banquet at Philadelphia--Address by the President--The Hero Hobson
Makes a Speech--Fighting Bob Evans' Startling Battle Picture--The
Destruction of Cervera's Fleet--The Proclamation of Thanksgiving

CHAPTER XVII.

EARLY HISTORY OF THE PHILIPPINES.

The Abolishment of the 31st of December, 1844, in Manila--The Mystery
of the Meridian 180 Degrees West--What Is East and West?--Gaining and
Losing Days--The Tribes of Native Filipinos--They Had an Alphabet and
Songs of Their Own--The Massacre of Magellan--His Fate Like That of
Captain Cook--Stories of Long-Ago Wars--An Account by a Devoted Spanish
Writer of the Beneficent Rule of Spain in the Philippines--Aguinaldo
a Man Not of a Nation, But of a Tribe--Typhoons and Earthquakes--The
Degeneracy of the Government of the Philippines After It Was Taken
from Mexico--"New Spain"--The Perquisites of Captain-Generals--The
Splendor of Manila a Century Ago

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES.

Important Facts About the Lesser Islands of the Philippine
Archipelago--Location, Size and Population--Capitals and
Principal Cities--Rivers and Harbors--Surface and Soil--People
and Products--Leading Industries--Their Commerce and Business
Affairs--The Monsoons and Typhoons--The Terrors of the Tempests and
How to Avoid Them

CHAPTER XIX.

SPECIFICATIONS OF GRIEVANCES OF THE FILIPINOS.

An Official Copy of the Manifesto of the Junta Showing the Bad Faith
of Spain in the Making and Evasion of a Treaty--The Declaration
of the Renewal of the War of Rebellion--Complaints Against the
Priests Defined--The Most Important Document the Filipinos Have
Issued--Official Reports of Cases of Persecution of Men and Women in
Manila by the Spanish Authorities--Memoranda of the Proceedings in
Several Cases in the Court of Inquiry of the United States Officers

CHAPTER XX.

HAWAII AS ANNEXED.

The Star Spangled Banner Up Again in Hawaii, and to Stay--Dimensions
of the Islands--What the Missionaries Have Done--Religious Belief
by Nationality--Trade Statistics--Latest Census--Sugar Plantation
Laborers--Coinage of Silver--Schools--Coffee Growing

CHAPTER XXI.

EARLY HISTORY OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS.

Captain James Cook's Great Discoveries and His Martyrdom--Character
and Traditions of the Hawaiian Islands--Charges Against the Famous
Navigator and Effort to Array the Christian World Against Him--The
True Story of His Life and Death--How Charges Against Cook Came
to Be Made--Testimony of Vancouver, King and Dixon, and Last
Words of Cook's Journal--Light Turned on History That Has Become
Obscure--Savagery of the Natives--Their Written Language Took
Up Their High Colored Traditions and Preserved Phantoms--Scenes in
Aboriginal Theatricals--Problem of Government in an Archipelago Where
Race Questions Are Predominant--Now Americans Should Remember Captain
Cook as an Illustrious Pioneer

CHAPTER XXII.

THE START FOR THE LAND OF CORN STALKS.

Spain Clings to the Ghost of Her Colonies--The Scene of War Interest
Shifts from Manila--The Typhoon Season--General Merritt on the Way
to Paris--German Target Practice by Permission of Dewey--Poultney
Bigalow with Canoe, Typewriter and Kodak--Hongkong as a Bigger and
Brighter Gibraltar

CHAPTER XXIII.

KODAK SNAPPED AT JAPAN.

Glimpses of China and Japan on the Way Home from the
Philippines--Hongkong a Greater Gibraltar--Coaling the China--Gangs
of Women Coaling the China--How the Japanese Make Gardens of the
Mountains--Transition from the Tropics to the Northern Seas--A
Breeze from Siberia--A Thousand Miles Nothing on the Pacific--Talk
of Swimming Ashore

CHAPTER XXIV.

OUR PICTURE GALLERY.

Annotations and Illustrations--Portraits of Heroes of the War in the
Army and Navy, and of the Highest Public Responsibilities--Admirals
and Generals, the President and Cabinet--Photographs of Scenes
and Incidents--The Characteristics of the Filipinos--Their Homes,
Dresses and Peculiarities in Sun Pictures--The Picturesque People of
Our New Possessions

CHAPTER XXV.

CUBA AND PORTO RICO.

Conditions In and Around Havana--Fortifications and Water Supply of the
Capital City--Other Sections of the Pearl of the Antilles--Porto Rico,
Our New Possession, Described--Size and Population--Natural Resources
and Products--Climatic Conditions--Towns and Cities--Railroad and
Other Improvements--Future Possibilities

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE LADRONES.

The Island of Guam a Coaling Station of the United States--Discovery,
Size and Products of the Islands

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE OFFICIAL TITLE TO OUR NEW POSSESSIONS IN THE INDIES.

Full Text of the Treaty of Peace with Spain Handed the President of
the United States as a Christmas Gift for the People, at the White
House, 1898--The Gathered Fruit of a Glorious and Wonderful Victory

CHAPTER XXVIII.

BATTLES WITH THE FILIPINOS BEFORE MANILA.

The Aguinaldo War Upon the Americans--The Course of Events
in the Philippines Since the Fall of Manila--Origin of the
Filipino War--Aguinaldo's Insolent and Aggressive Acts, Including
Treachery--His Agent's Vanity and Duplicity in Washington--Insurgents
Under Aguinaldo Attack American Forces--Battle of Manila,
February 4 and 5--Heroism of American Troops in Repelling the
Insurgents--Aguinaldo's Proclamations--Agoncillo's Flight to
Canada--The Ratification of the Treaty of Peace with Spain by the
American Senate Followed the Fighting--The Gallantry and Efficiency
of the American Volunteers--Another Glorious Chapter of Our War History

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE AGUINALDO WAR OF SKIRMISHES.