A SHORT HISTORY OF

THE PHILIPPINES.

CHAPTER I.

THE LAND OF THE FILIPINOS.

Geography and History-We cannot fully understand the history of a country unless we know its geography. The forms of the mountains and rivers, the extent of the plains, the kind of soil, and the climate help decide where the cities shall be built. They explain why the people raise certain products. They tell how their commerce arose. They have a great effect upon the language and customs. They help show why some of the people became civilized and others remained wild. We shall therefore study the geography of the Philippines to see what it may teach us about their history.

The Philippine Archipelago. For a thousand miles from north to south the myriad islands of the Philippines dot the ocean. They are scattered over the sea in the form of a great triangle, lying at the northern end of the Malay Archipelago, about six hundred miles from the China coast. For this reason they were among the last islands settled by the

Malayan races and the last of the Malay Archipelago to be discovered by Europeans.

There are more than three thousand islands and islets in the Philippine group. We must not think that all of these are the homes of men. At present only about three hundred are inhabited. The rest are rocky islets or barren sand heaps.

Where the Islands Came From.-Far away to the south lie thousands of other islands. One can almost see from shore to shore across the narrow straits that separate them. Wise men think that long ago all these islands were a part of the great continent of Eurasia. Then the land sank beneath the sea. Afterward parts of the sunken land rose again above the water. islands the sea is shallow. trace the peaks and ridges that connect the mountains of one island with another.

Between many of the Along its bottom we can

In many of the Philippines we find coral rocks and bones of fishes in the earth far above the sea.

These things grew beneath the ocean. Now they are on the tops of high mountains. Along the coasts we find old sea-beaches high above the water. These facts make us believe that the Philippines were once under the ocean. Then the forces that make earthquakes and volcanoes lifted mountains above the sea. These mountain tops are the Philippine Islands.

All this happened long before men lived here. The great plains and valleys have been formed.