re-trove it will prove to
the historian, geographer, antiquarian, naturalist, geologist and
ethnologist. At every stopping-place my little note-book was filled
with statistics as to trade in hemp, cane-sugar, cocao, rice, copra,
tobacco, and the like. I even had a hint here and there as to the
geology of the group, but ruthlessly blue-pencilled out such bits of
useful information, and while it may not be at all utilitarian, rejoice
that I have been privileged to see these islands in a state of nature,
before the engineer has honeycombed the virgin forest with iron rails;
before the great heart of the hills is torn open for the gold, or coal,
or iron to be found there; before the primitive plough, buffalo, and
half-dressed native give way to the latest type of steam or electric
apparatus for farming; before the picturesque girls pounding rice in
wooden mortars step aside for noisy mills; before the electric light
frightens away the tropic stars, and dims the lantern hanging from
the gable of every nipa shack; before banking houses do away with the
cocoanut into which thrifty natives drop their money, coin by coin,
through a slit in the top; before the sunlit stillness of these
coast towns is marred by the jar and grind of factory machinery;
before the child country is grown too old and too worldly-wise.

Chapter II

DUMAGUETE

Our first stopping place after a two days' trip from Manila was
Dumaguete, on the southeast corner of the island of Negros. We
reached there at seven o'clock on Christmas morning, and found it
a tropically picturesque little town, surrounded by forest-grown
hills, and built mostly of nipa, with the exception of the church,
_convento_, watch-tower, and _tribunal_, which were of wood painted
a dazzling white.

All day long men and boys, innocent of even an excuse for clothes,
hovered about the ship in _bancas_ or dugouts, chattering volubly with
each other in Visayan, or begging us in broken Spanish to throw down
coins that they might exhibit their natatorial accomplishments, and,
when we finally yielded, diving with yells of delight for the bits of
silver, seeming quite as much pleased, however, with chocolates wrapped
in tin-foil as they had been with the money, and uttering shrill cries
that sounded profanely like "Dam'me--dam'me," to attract our attention.

When a coin was thrown overboard every one dived for it with becoming
unanimity, and the water being very clear, we could see