MISSION FIELDS AT OUR DOORS.
By E. J. B.
LEAVING Honolulu for the Philippines, we may pass the group of small but fertile islands that make up the Ladrones. The stars and stripes float over Guam, the most southerly of the group. There are twenty of these islands, and their area is estimated at 416 square miles. The islands produce sugar, rice, and indigo, and the breadfruit, banana, and coconut grow there in their perfection. A mission has just been opened in Guam by a party of American missionaries. The Philippine Group is variously stated to contain from 1,400 to 2,000 islands. The largest of these, Luzon, is about the size of Ohio, containing 44,400 square miles. The area of the whole group is placed at 143,000 square miles; but the islands have not been fully explored and surveyed, and so definite figures are impossible. The Philippines are wholly within the tropics; but the climate is said to be unusually good for tropical regions. The annual mean temperature is 81°, and ranges in a year from 61° to 97°. “There are three well-marked seasons—temperate and dry from November to February, hot and dry from March to May, and temperate and wet from June to October.” The soil is very fertile. Only about one-ninth of it is under cultivation; yet the value of the raw products exported in 1897 was $29,700,000. The principal exports are rice, corn, hemp, sugar, tobacco, coconuts, and cacao. The value of the hemp alone exported in 1894 was $12,000,000. The islands are believed to contain considerable undeveloped mineral wealth. The population is estimated at 8,000,000. The islands are the home of many nationalities. Thirty different peoples or tribes, each tribe speaking a language or dialect of its own, dispute the right of possession. It is believed that the woolly-headed Negritos were the original inhabitants. They are dwarfs, the average stature of a full-grown man being four feet, eight inches. The Negritos have been driven back or driven out by successive incursions of Malay tribes. The chief of these Malay tribes seems to be the Tagals, who have shown such a persistent determination to govern themselves, and perhaps their neighbors as well. They are numerous in the lowlands of Luzon, forming the principal inhabitants of Manila, Cavite, and other important places, and they are prominent in other islands of the group. The Tagals are nearly all Roman Catholics, tho their old superstitions have not all disappeared. The Visayas, next in power and importance to the Tagals, are numerous in some of the islands, and are also Catholics. But there are many Mohammedans among the Malays, and some of the island tribes are pagan and savage. Besides these, the Chinaman is there in force, to stay and make money. So when Uncle Samuel took these islands to have and to hold, he brought under the American flag a rare medley of nationalities, languages, and religions, to say nothing of civilizations ranging from the wild men of the mountains to the priest-taught Tagals and civilized but “heathen Chinee.” The priests and friars had things their own way for about three hundred years. During this time the Bible was not given to the people, and religious liberty was unknown. All this is changing. The people are beginning to demand and appreciate religious liberty. Here is an illustration: “An amendment to the school regulations, open for public discussion before the commission, was introduced, to the effect that as the prevailing church was Roman Catholic, all the teachers should be of that faith. The controversy showed very plainly that there is a public and general demand for a change from old lines. At Malibay the people defy the ecclesiastical authorities, claim the cathedral as municipal property, pay for a Protestant pastor, and attend his services with enthusiasm.” —Annual Report American Bible Society. But of course the priests will not permit Protestant influences to gain strength without opposition. Indeed, they have already made unpleasantness for members of their flock who showed a leaning to Protestantism. In connection with getting the Bible into the Philippines, an interesting incident is told of a New York woman. She could speak Spanish, and down on the wharves she had a little mission for Spanish sailors. Some of the sailors were from ships trading to the Philippines. The woman got these sailors to translate into the Tagalog and Visayan languages the text, “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” With a few other verses she printed this text on her own press, and by the Spanish sailors sent the beautiful message of love and hope to these two great Filipino tribes. A little later the American Bible Society began operations. Advance sheets of the Annual Report of this society give some interesting particulars of their work. An agent was sent to Manila in the autumn of 1899, and the Bible Society and the missionaries are co-operating in the work of translating and circulating the Bible. Some of the Gospels have been published in some of the native languages, but most of the work of this character is still in the hands of translators and publishers. The Bible Society already has its colporters in the field, tho in limited numbers. One of them gives an account of two months spent in the southern part of Luzon. He carried Chinese Scriptures, English and Spanish Bibles and Testaments, and Gospels in the Tagalog. In two months this colporter disposed of about 3,000 copies of the Scriptures. Among other interesting items, he mentions sending twenty copies of Tagalog Gospels into each of two islands where the Word of God had never before been known. Another colporter, speaking of his experiences, says: “Travel thru the interior is tedious and trying, and accommodations are impossible. Always under military guard, still life is in jeopardy. God, however, richly repays. Everywhere we find men waiting for the Word, and in almost every town we are asked to send a Protestant worker.” The summing up of the colporter work for the year is “sales, 7,743; gifts, 349.” This means that the Word of God has been carried to several islands, and has found its way into many towns and hamlets. It has reached the people in their homes, the sailors on the sea, the lepers in their hospital, and the soldiers in camp and hospital. The seed of the Word has been sowed, and “what shall the harvest be?”