and the pier fade gradually away. But even after he
has reached the "white man's country" some time he may "hear the East
a-calling," and come back again.

Chapter IV.

Around the Provinces.

A half century before the founding of Manila, Magellan had set up the
cross upon a small hill on the site of Butuan, on the north coast
of Mindanao, celebrating the first mass in the new land, and taking
possession of the island in the name of Spain. Three centuries have
passed since then, and there are still tribes on that island who
have never yielded to the influence of Christianity nor recognized
the authority of Spain or the United States. Magellan's flotilla
sailing north touched at Cebu, where the explorers made a treaty
with King Hamabar. The king invited them to attend a banquet, where,
on seeing that his visitors were off their guard, he slew a number
of them mercilessly, while the rest escaped. On the same spot three
hundred and fifty-odd years later, three American schoolteachers were
as treacherously slain by the descendants of this Malay king.

Not till the expedition of Legaspi and the Augustine monks visited
the shores of the Visayan islands were the natives subjugated, and the
finding of the _Santo Nino_ (Holy Child) brought this about. Since then
the monks and friars, playing on the superstition of the islanders,
have managed to control them and to mold them to their purposes. In
1568 a permanent establishment was made at Cebu by the bestowal of
munitions, troops, and arms, brought by the galleons of Don Juan de
Salcedo. The conquest of the northern provinces began soon after the
flotilla of Legaspi came to anchor in Manila Bay.

The idea that Manila or the island of Luzon comprises most of our
possessions in the East is one that I have found quite prevalent
throughout America. The broken blue line of the coast of Luzon
reaches away in a dim contour to the northward for two hundred miles,
until the chain of the Zambales Mountains breaks into the flying,
wave-lashed islands standing out against the trackless sea. Southern
Luzon, the country of Batangas, and the Camarines, extends a hundred
miles south of Manila Bay.

In the far north are the rich provinces of Cagayan, Ilocos Norte and
Ilocos Sur, Abra, Benguet, and Nueva Viscaya. The land at the sea level
produces hemp, tobacco, rice, and cocoanuts; the heavily-timbered
mountain slopes contain rich woods, cedar, mahogany, molave, ebony,
and ipil.