up other states.

Blount resorts to a similar questionable procedure in trying to show
the insignificance of Mindoro and Palawan. There are an island of
Mindoro and a province of Mindoro; an island of Palawan and a province
of Palawan. In each case the province, which includes numerous small
islands, as well as the large one from which it takes its name, is
much larger and more populous than is the main island, and obviously
it is the province with which we are concerned.

Even if Blount wished to limit discussion to the Christian natives
commonly called Filipinos, his procedure is still wholly unfair. Of
these there are 3,575,001 in Luzon and 3,412,685 in the other
islands. In other words, the Filipino population is almost equally
divided between the two regions.

As he would not have found it convenient to discuss the conditions
which arose in Mindanao under Insurgent rule, he attempts to show
that no political importance attaches to them. In the passage above
quoted he does not so much as mention either Mindoro or Palawan
(Paragua). Elsewhere, however, he attempts to justify his action by
making the following statements:--

"The political or governmental problem being now reduced from 3141
islands to eleven, the last three [323] of the nine contained in the
above table may also be eliminated as follows: [324]--

"Mindoro, the large island just south of the main bulk of Luzon,
pierced by the 121st meridian of longitude east of Greenwich, is
thick with densely wooded mountains and jungle over a large part
of its area, has a reputation of being very unhealthy (malarious),
is also very sparsely settled, and does not now, nor has it ever,
cut any figure politically as a disturbing factor." [325]

Apart from the fact that the political problem involved in the
government of the important islands which Blount would thus leave
out of consideration, is not solved by ignoring it, certain of his
further statements cannot be allowed to go uncorrected.

The allegation that the island has never "cut any figure politically
as a disturbing factor" is absurd. In the Spanish days its forests
furnished a safe refuge for evildoers who were from time to time
driven out of Cavite and Batangas. A large proportion of its
Filipino inhabitants were criminals who not infrequently organized
regular piratical expeditions and raided towns in Masbate, Romblon
and Palawan. The people of the Cuyos and Calamianes groups lived
in constant terr