io;
in fact in some regions it is very unsafe to go outside of the army
posts without a proper guard.

As to the character of the civilized Filipinos opinion seems to differ
among the Americans of the Islands. That they are not yet capable of
self-government seems to be almost universally believed by Americans who
have lived among them; and that they are not energetic as a class is
only what might be expected in such a climate. Some Americans have a
rather high opinion of the moral character and general trustworthiness
of the average native; others do not hold such a high opinion of him and
consider him the inferior of the American negro, mentally, morally and
physically. As students in the University of the Philippines it is said
they compare favorably with students in American universities.

Doubtless there is as much variation, mental and moral, among the
natives of the Philippine Islands as among the inhabitants of an
Anglo-Saxon country, so that one's opinions are apt to be influenced
by the class of natives with which he chiefly comes in contact.

II. A VISIT TO TAY TAY.

The cutter _Busuanga_ of the Philippine Bureau of Navigation had been
chartered to go to Tay Tay on the Island of Palawan, to bring back to
Manila the party of naturalists of the Bureau of Science who had been
studying the little-known fauna and flora of that far-away island, the
most westerly of the Philippine group.

[Illustration: VILLAGE OF TAY TAY FROM THE HARBOR.]

After leaving the dock at Manila at sundown we steamed out of the bay,
past the searchlights of Corregidor and the other forts which were
sweeping entirely across the entrance to the bay in a way that would
immediately expose any enemy that might attempt to slip by in the dark,
and by nine o'clock we were headed in a south-westerly direction across
the China Sea.

The next day we passed through winding passages along the Calamaines
group where every hour brought to view new islands of the greatest
beauty and of every size and shape. Upon one of these islands is a leper
colony which we visited and found most interesting.

[Illustration: TWO PROMINENT HOUSES IN TAY TAY.]

Early on the second morning we entered the harbor of the small but
ancient village of Tay Tay (pronounced "tie tie" and spelled in various
ways) on the eastern shore of Palawan. Not a white man lives in this
inaccessible hamlet and it is seldom that one visits it, as there is no
regular communic