The Philippine Islands and Their People Author:Dean Conant Worcester Subtitle: A Record of Personal Observation and Experience, With a Short Summary of the More Important Facts in the History of the Archipelago General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1898 Original Publisher: Macmillan Company Subjects: Philippines Filipinos History / Asia / Southeast Asia Social Science / Anth... more »ropology / Cultural Travel / Asia / Southeast Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER XI NEGROS From Panay the Steere expedition sailed for Duma- guete, a town in southern Negros, just at the mouth of the Tanon channel which separates that island from Cebu. Dumaguete proved to be a typical Visayan town of the better class. Its shops were kept by Chinese merchants. The population, numbering perhaps 8000 souls, was composed chiefly of natives, with comparatively few mestizos and still fewer Spaniards. The soil near the town was fertile, and the people seemed prosperous. The public buildings were more than ordinarily imposing. The church and convento were in excellent repair, and near them was a substantial structure which had, in the past, served the double purpose of watch- tower and belfry. We established ourselves in the tribunal, which was unusually comfortable for a building of its kind, being divided into several rooms, one of which served as a kitchen, while another afforded us some privacy. A lock-up was finished off on the ground floor. Early in our stay we noticed some strange implements about the place, and vainly attempted to conjecture their use. The Philippine forests and jungles produce a large variety of thorn-bearing pests, one of which has been heartily cursed by many a traveller. CHURCH, CONVENTO, AND WATCH-TOWER -- DUMAGUETE, NEGROS The bejuco (...« less