The Murillo Bulletin Issue No. 8

The Murillo Bulletin Journal of PHIMCOS The Philippine Map Collectors Society

Issue No. 8

August 2019

In this Issue:  

Baguio – The City of Pines in early maps, plans and views

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British Naval Cartography in the Philippines during the Napoleonic Wars 

Empire of the Winds

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3/F Glorietta 4 Artspace, Ayala Center, Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines • T (+63 2) 729-8168 • Fax 824-3770 gallery@gop.com.ph www.gop.com.ph

The only Gallery in the Philippines exclusively selling antique prints and antiquarian books before 1900.

The Murillo Bulletin Issue No. 8

August 2019 In this Issue page 3

PHIMCOS News & Events Baguio – The City of Pines in early maps, plans and views c1900 – c1970 by Jonathan Wattis

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PHIMCOS Committee Members 2019

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British Naval Cartography in the Philippines during the Napoleonic Wars by Peter Geldart

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Empire of the Winds by Philip Bowring, reviewed by Margarita V. Binamira

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PHIMCOS Directors & Members 2019

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About PHIMCOS The Philippine Map Collectors Society (PHIMCOS) was established in 2007 in Manila as the first club for collectors of antique maps and prints in the Philippines. Membership of the society, which has grown to a current total of 45 members (including individual and joint members, and corporate nominees), is open to anyone interested in collecting, analysing or appreciating historical maps, charts, prints, paintings and photographs of the Philippines.

PHIMCOS holds quarterly general meetings at which members and their guests discuss cartographic news and give after-dinner presentations on topics such as maps of particular interest, famous cartographers, the mapping of the Philippines, or the lives of prominent Filipino collectors and historians. A major focus for PHIMCOS is the sponsorship of exhibitions, lectures and other educational events designed to educate the public about the importance of cartography as a way of learning both the geography and the history of the Philippines. The Murillo Bulletin, the society’s journal, is published twice a year.

PHIMCOS welcomes new members. The fee for an Individual Membership is Php.6,000 per annum; for Joint Memberships (for two people) and Corporate Memberships (with two nominees) the fee is Php.10,000 per annum. Members and guests who attend general meetings also pay a contribution towards the cost of dinner and drinks of Php.1,200 per member or guest. The application form and additional information on PHIMCOS are available on our website www.phimcos.org .

Front Cover: General Map of the Island of Luzon. Phil. Is. showing The Manila Railroad Company’s Railway & Water Lines 1930 / Bureau Coast and Geodetic Survey Litho

(Peter Geldart collection; image courtesy of Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps Inc.)

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PHIMCOS News & Events

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OR OUR first meeting of the year, held on 27 February and attended by 26 members and 9 guests, PHIMCOS welcomed two visitors from Hong Kong. Our first guest speaker was Philip Bowring, journalist, former editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review, author, and student of the history and economy of maritime Asia, who has lived in Asia since 1973. Philip spoke on "The Philippine Place in Nusantaria", a presentation drawn from his recently-published book Empire of the Winds: The Global Role of Asia’s Great Archipelago, which is reviewed by Marga Binamira on page 29.

With the start of PHIMCOS’s twelfth year the board and its new committees (see page 18) have been discussing how best to maintain the successful growth of our society. To ensure that we maintain a good pipeline of interesting and entertaining speakers for our quarterly meetings, new members are encouraged to join, and we urge our existing members to invite any of their friends who may be interested to come to one of our meetings as a guest.

In the second presentation of the evening Jonathan Wattis covered the history of Baguio from its pre-American origins to the 1970s; his spirited talk was illustrated with photographs, pamphlets, maps and plans that showed the development of the city from a sparsely populated pine forest to a thriving hill station and today’s conurbation. Several members of the audience contributed their own fond recollections of Baguio in times past. An article based on Jonathan’s talk is on page 5.

 although the name “Philippine Map Collectors Society” will remain unchanged, in order to encourage academics, students and other potential new members who may be interested in cartography and related subjects but who are not collectors per se to join, we will make it clear that membership is open to anyone interested in collecting, analysing or appreciating historical maps, charts, prints, paintings and photographs of the Philippines;

On 29 May we enjoyed another lively evening, with 20 members and 11 guests in attendance.

Felice Sta. Maria gave the first presentation, on “A Glimpse into the Use of Maps as Aids in Food History Research”. Felice is currently working on a book about the history of food in the Philippines, and her talk covered the varied fruit and vegetables found in different regions and terrains of the country, including less-wellknown delicacies such as alugbati, katuray and papait.

With our appetites whetted, we then heard from Jimmie González on Expedición a Joló 1876, Bocetos Del Cronista Del Diario De Manila, a book of drawings by the famous Filipino artist Baltasar Giraudier, who accompanied GovernorGeneral Malcampo’s punitive expedition to Sulu. After his talk, not only did Jimmie show us the magnificent book itself, but Edwin Bautista displayed a selection of items from his collection of Moro weapons, including kris, kampilan, an Enfield rifle, and an Islamic anting-anting shirt.

To promote our membership drive, the board has approved the following initiatives:

 the fee for guests attending general meetings will now be the same as for members, currently Php.1,200 per member/guest; and  there is a new membership application form, which can be downloaded from our website.

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PHIMCOS will continue to sponsor exhibitions, lectures and educational events, in partnership with museums, libraries, universities and other institutions. The Roving Exhibition is in the process of being renewed and refreshed, with a new set of panels under preparation, and a talk on maps is planned at the Museo Ng Kaalamang Katutubo (MusKKat).

Alfredo Roca is organising a PHIMCOS tour of Spain from 21 to 29 September 2019, with visits planned inter alia at the Museo Naval and the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid, the Museo Oriental in Valladolid, the Archivo General de Indias in Sevilla, and the Biblioteca Museu Víctor Balaguer in Barcelona.

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Baguio – The City of Pines

Early maps, plans and views c1900 – c1970

by Jonathan Wattis

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AGUIO is a highland city of pine trees and a “Gateway to Wonderland”. Following early settlements by the Ibaloi Igorots and the later arrival of the Spanish in the area, Baguio was developed as the northern capital during the American colonial period in the early 20th century. In this article we will look at some of the early maps, plans and views that trace its progression from pristine rolling hills and forests to become the City of Pines.

In Spanish times The name Baguio is derived from bag-iw the Ibaloi word for moss. The Ibaloi Igorots had already hunted and lived in the area for many hundreds of years when, in the mid-19th century, the Spaniard Don Guillermo Galvey led a number of campaigns into Benguet. These led to the establishment of La Trinidad (about four miles to the north of Baguio) as the Cabecera (provincial capital) of the mountain regions in the last decade of the 19th century. By the end of the Spanish period, La Trinidad was the headquarters of the Comandancia Politico Militar (military district) of Benguet, with a small fort, and was already a hill station.

The population of nearly 3,000 people was quite diverse: a mix of predominantly Ibaloi and other Igorots, with some Ilocanos, Chinese, Spanish and other Europeans. There was even a small botanical garden in La Trinidad, and coffee was grown nearby in Galiano for export from Manila to Spain, where it fetched a fabulous price.

Detail of Baguio from a Spanish map of Luzon c1898 (Raphael Lotilla collection)

The Spaniards had looked into the idea of developing a highland health resort at Baguio and had done some preliminary engineering surveys. Inexplicably the project was cut short in 1891, but La Trinidad continued to develop and a small sanitarium was set up. It was an arduous trek for soldiers or civilians, by horse or on a pony, up the rough trails into the mountains.

The sanitarium was at an embryonic stage and would not grow until the early American period.

The earliest appearances of Baguio (shown to the southeast of La Trinidad) are on an untitled Spanish map of Luzon c1898, and on the 1899 map of North Luzon by Padre José Algué S.J., Director del Observatorio de Manila, published in the Atlas de Filipinas (Washington D.C., 1900). [see corrections in MB Issues Nos. 9 & 10]

Panoramic view of Baguio, Benguet 1900 (University of Michigan, Special Collections Library 1823/phla115) 5

Search for a hill station The American Dean C. Worcester first visited the Philippine Islands in 1887 as a student of zoology and botany at the University of Michigan. He visited again in 1890, this time for nearly two and a half years, along with other specialists, to collect ethnological materiel and zoological specimens, particularly rare birds.

During this second expedition, “when sitting in a native house on a hill overlooking Naujan Lake in Mindoro” in June 1892, Worcester met a number of Spanish officers: “Señor [Domingo] Sanchez, who was an employee of the Spanish Forestry bureau, told me that in the highlands of Northern Luzón at an elevation of about five thousand feet, there was a region of pines and oaks blessed with a perpetually temperate climate and even with occasional frosts.”

He decided that he should make a visit but unfortunately, as a result of caching typhoid and becoming seriously ill, he had to go home to the United States. At the age of 32, Worcester returned in 1899 as a member of the First Philippine Commission.(1) In order to research the feasibility of a hill station he looked into the Spanish archives in Manila, where he discovered the detailed Spanish Commissioners’ report on Baguio which gave information on temperature (six daily observations), the surrounding locality, and locations of springs of potable water. He also found a survey by Spanish engineers for a carriage road to this mountain area, along with the estimated cost of construction. In 1900 the Commission returned to Washington with a report for the President that included the potential benefits of Baguio as a hill station.

In the summer of 1900 a Second Philippine Commission, aka the Taft Commission (headed

by William Howard Taft)(2), arrived in Manila to replace the military administration of General Arthur MacArthur. Worcester was the most influential in terms of Baguio and would serve on the Commission until 1913. In July 1900 he and General Luke E. Wright were tasked with setting up a committee to explore the Benguet region with a view to setting up a hill station / health resort, sanitarium, mountain road and railway.(3) In July 1900 they stayed one week at the home of the German planter Otto Scheerer, who had lived in Baguio since 1896.

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House of Otto Sheerer (sic), Baguio 1901 (University of Michigan, Special Collections Library 1810/phla077)

Worcester and his colleagues found Baguio as the Spanish report described it: resplendent with magnificent, well-spaced pine trees, thick grass, tree ferns, and beautiful tropical vegetation. They decided this was an ideal site for a future city, providing there was a sufficient water supply. Scheerer directed them to a magnificent spring of crystal-clear water that would adequately serve the purpose. The committee’s report urged the government to begin building a hill station at Baguio, and the two physicians who were on the committee endorsed the suitability of the site for setting up a sanitarium.(4) The Philippine Commissioners sanctioned the development of Baguio as Act No. 2, their second piece of legislation, on September 12th 1900. A number of additional acts relating to Baguio would follow; one such permitted the release for public sale of hundreds of residential and building lots within the boundaries of the new city.

The Benguet Road In 1900 the Commissioners decided that building a transport link between Dagupan and Baguio was of primary importance as it was needed to support the increasing volume of freight required for the establishment and maintenance of the new buildings, and also for the expansion in vegetable trading. However, the construction of a mountain road would prove problematic.

After the Worcester and Wright committee returned to Manila and reported, there was an informal agreement among the Commissioners to proceed with a railway into Benguet. The

completed. While the Commission was in Baguio they were told that it was possible to complete the road but it would cost over $1,000,000. For another opinion and expert advice they summoned the experienced Major Lyman W.V. Kennon to Baguio. In the face of resentment and opposition to the project’s cost, on June 1st 1903 the Commission passed the following resolution:

Building the Benguet Road c1903: “In this, as in many other places, it proved necessary to blast the road out of the solid rock.” (Dean Worcester, The Philippines Past and Present)

Spanish maps suggested two possible routes through the foothills and up the mountains to Baguio, along the valley of either the river Agno or the river Bued. Under Act No. 2, $5000 was budgeted for a survey to ascertain the most advantageous route, and an American engineer, Captain Charles W. Mead (who had been the city engineer of Manila) was reassigned to the Commission to carry out the survey. The manager of the railway company, H.L. Higgins, thought the best route would be up the Bued river valley, and after months of research Mead endorsed this plan. His initial report suggested that a wagon road should be built first so that wheeled vehicles could make the connection while the railway was under construction; this proposal was approved in December 1900 and the building of the railroad was put on hold.(5) Mead was put in charge but progress did not go to plan, and in January 1902 he was replaced by chief engineer N.M. Holmes. They encountered many problems including the difficulty of hiring a reliable labour force, typhoons, floods, unstable rocks, and landslides. By June 1903 only 18 miles of the Benguet Road had been

"On motion, resolved, That it be declared the policy of the Commission to make the town of Baguio, in the Province of Benguet, the summer capital of the Archipelago and to construct suitable buildings, to secure suitable transportation, to secure proper water supply, and to make residence in Baguio possible for all officers and employees of the Insular Government for four months during the year, that in pursuance of this purpose the Secretary of the Interior, the Consulting Engineer to the Commission, the Chief of the Bureau of Architecture, and Major L.W.V. Kennon, United States Army, whom it is the intention of the Commission to put in actual charge of the improvements in Benguet Province, including the construction of the Benguet Road, the erection of the buildings and the construction of a wagon road from Naguilian, be appointed a committee to report plans and estimates to the Commission for the proposed improvements in the Province of Benguet and to submit same to the Commission for action and necessary appropriation."

De Dion-Bouton buses and lorries on the Benguet Road c1910 (American Historical Collection, Rizal Library, Ateneo de Manila University)

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Wagon train on Benguet Road (University of Michigan, Special Collections Library 2121phlg119)

Kennon was put in charge of the road and through good planning and hard work he oversaw the completion of the project within 18 months. On January 29th 1905 Kennon drove into Baguio in the first vehicle to use the whole 28 miles of the Benguet Road, which opened officially in March that year.(6) Initially carts pulled by carabao dominated the road, but these were soon eclipsed by steam and then motorised vehicles. Traffic was controlled by a series of gates that operated as a one-way system on the steep curves of the “Zigzag Road”. Despite the cost, the future value to the people of the islands would make the project very worthwhile.(7) Hotel Pines In 1902 the Commissioners bought a parcel of land from the businessman Otto Scheerer in a good, raised location in the centre of Baguio. On this lot were two houses; one became the home of the Governor of Benguet, and the other (in February 1902) a small sanitarium. Worcester visited again in that year and soon recovered from an illness.

Governor Taft was a large man (6’2” tall and 354 pounds), and when he fell ill the following year he also visited Baguio. On the journey up he rode a magnificent horse. Through a stenographer he sent a cable to Secretary of State Elihu Root in Washington: “Stood trip well, rode horseback 25 miles to 5000 feet altitude. Hope amoebic dysentery cured. Great Province this only 150 miles from Manila with air bracing as Adirondacks or Murray Bay.” The following day he received a reply: “Referring to telegram from your office of 15th April 1903, how is horse?”

The small civil sanitarium stood alone on a promontory overlooking a small pine forest near pristine hills. It could house only eight patients, and the plan was to develop it to cater for 60 people. Using Chinese carpenters from Manila and the local pine trees, by the end of the year the building had expanded with a veranda at the front. Between 1903 and 1905 there were further extensions, and by then the building had doubled its capacity with a two–storied structure and several large cottages for staff.

Gardens of flowers, rows of trees and terraces were also landscaped around the building to add beauty. This attracted not only convalescents but also their relatives; quite suddenly there was a demand for quarters by tourists.

By 1906 the main building of the sanitarium had been leased to a Mr. C. M. Jenkins to transform into a hotel, first class of course! In the meantime, plans for a new hospital at another site were put in place, and in 1907 this was completed. The Baguio General Hospital would become the foremost medical facility in the Mountain Province. The old sanitarium would become the most splendid hotel in Baguio, called “Hotel Pines”.

Governor-General William Howard Taft on a carabao c1902 (U.S. Army Military History Institute)

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As required, Burnham had planned for a summer capital, health resort, central market and hub of recreation. He envisioned Baguio evolving into a compact garden city for up to 30,000 people, but stated that the plan was conditioned by the lack of level ground and the local terrain of rolling hills.

Hotel Pines at Baguio (c1910)

The Burnham Plan William Cameron Forbes, a Harvard-educated investment banker, was appointed to the Philippine Commission in 1904 and served until 1909, when he became Governor-General of the American colony until 1913. He was from a grand old Bostonian family with connections to the 19th-century China Trade and with early Manila trading. As well as being the new Secretary of Commerce and Police, Forbes was the administrator charged with the building and promotion of Baguio. He was instrumental in the hiring of Daniel Burnham, the renowned American architect and urban designer, as the city planner for the new hill station.

In 1903 the population of Baguio was officially only 489 people, but in February that year, 14,000 acres of land had been set aside for the development of the town. In December 1904, after visiting Hawaii and Japan, Burnham and his assistant Pierce Anderson arrived in Manila.

They were guests of Forbes in Baguio for a nineday period over Christmas, and would spend around six weeks in the Philippines gathering information for Burnham’s plan of Baguio, interviewing government officials, studying maps, making surveys, and conducting on-theground research.(8) Together with Forbes they visited the area and discussed ideas for the new city as a health resort, hill station, and regional and summer capital.(9)

Baguio had an elliptical meadow which was one mile long by three-quarters of a mile wide. As this was the only sizeable level ground Burnham decided to build the commercial district and government building around the perimeter. He envisaged a public park in the middle, and on ridges at opposite poles of the park’s main axis would be the municipal and government building complexes. The streets would follow the contours of the terrain, with areas for recreation and spaces for residential development. Large plots of land were set aside for an army camp, a naval reserve, a country club, and an executive mansion. A number of other spaces were to be used for schools, churches and libraries.

Burnham strongly opposed dense settlement in the Baguio hills to preserve the environment, recommending that: “The preservation of the existing woods and other plantings should be looked after, not only on the eminences immediately contiguous to Baguio Proper, but also for the surrounding mountains”. He explained that the plan was fragmentary and hoped that it would serve as a guide through which the new municipality could grow into a composition of convenience and beauty.

On the voyage back to San Francisco Burnham started some preliminary sketches, and by the time they arrived he had already prepared a rough plan. He presented his plan to Secretary of War Taft (10) in October 1905, free of charge.

Daniel Burnham c1905 (public domain)

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Early development In May 1906 an act was passed endorsing Burnham’s plans for both Baguio and Manila.

The architect William B. Parsons was put in charge of implementing the plan for the development of Baguio. With considerable discretion, other architects, including Warwick Green and George E. Hayward, would also contribute to carrying forward the original Burnham Plan blueprint for the organisation of space within the new city.

From his meetings with Burnham and other investigations, Forbes concluded there were three essential ingredients for the successful development of Baguio: firstly, completion of the Benguet Road and a good system of urban streets and roads; secondly, recreational facilities such as hotels, restaurants, clubs and parks; and thirdly, the support of Westerners and Filipinos from Manila, and the Filipino middle class from all over the country.

Although Forbes faced resistance by some of the Commissioners to funding the urban development of the city (because of the high cost of completing the Benguet Road), he did manage to get permission for the sale of private lots within the urban area on condition that the purchasers would build a substantial house on these lots within a reasonable period of time.

The first sale of building lots was on May 28th 1906; despite a ferocious typhoon, 91 residential and 15 business lots were sold. A further sale followed in Manila a few weeks later which saw the remaining surveyed lots all sold. Surprisingly, the sale to rich Westerners and Filipinos was brisk; all funds from the sales were used to improve the city, starting with the roadworks.

The success of the sales encouraged the government to release limited financing for certain projects. Sites for a number of public buildings had been surveyed and the construction of Mansion House had been approved. This would become the residence of the Governor-General.

Baguio Market & Session Road c1915

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In the 1906 sale Forbes bought a 12-acre lot overlooking Baguio, about two miles from the centre. His grand house, designed by Burnham and Parsons, was built of stone and called “Topside”. Forbes invited many of the great and good to stay, and his guest book was full of famous names. His motive was to counter the negative effect of the expense of the Benguet Road, and to encourage the elite to invest in building homes in the developing city. He was successful: between 1906 and 1909 almost 300 large lots were sold for building summer houses.

As some people did not develop their lots, Forbes brought in additional taxes for those that did not comply, with the funds used to improve the hill station.

In 1900 the Jesuits had built a meteorological observatory and seismic station on Mirador Hill;(11) a rest house was added in 1907, and a road to the summit of the hill built in 1908.

Later the Dominicans purchased a neighbouring hill for their college and retreat house, where they built one of first concrete buildings in Baguio.

With the Benguet Road now under heavy use, Forbes continued to be a key player in the early development of Baguio. As Secretary, Vice Governor-General (in 1908) and GovernorGeneral (from November 1909) he encouraged and enthusiastically supported infrastructure development, making Baguio the summer capital of the government and, at the same time, the hub of colonial society.

Known as “the Father of Baguio”, by the time he returned home in September 1913 Forbes had overseen a large number of projects, including the following:

Plan of The City of Baguio 1917 (The Imperial Government Railways of Japan)

 1905 saw the building and inauguration of the Baguio Country Club, which was started by Dallas McGrew, initially subsidised by Forbes, and open to Westerners and Filipinos.  In 1906 Captain M.L. Hilgard was tasked with developing Camp John Hay from a temporary tent community to an established built base.

A few years later there were permanent barracks, officers’ quarters, a small hospital, a headquarters, and recreational facilities including a small golf course.  In 1908 a new permanent hospital was built and a new market place was established, along with a police station, waterworks, and new schools. The Teachers Camp, which had been a tented community, was developed with more permanent structures.  In June 1909 Forbes instructed the young American lawyer George Arthur Malcolm to “proceed to a place called Baguio and make it a City”. Malcolm drafted the city’s 32-section charter within a few weeks, and it was enacted by the Philippine Commission as Act No. 1963 on August 9th 1909.  Between 1909 and 1911 a large administrative complex, the Government Center, was developed. This was for the use of the colonial administration when the capital moved to

Baguio in the summer. Eight cottages were built for civil servants and their families, along with dormitories, social halls and public baths.  Also between 1909 and 1911 a new city hall was constructed, along with a number of other public buildings. At the same time General J. Franklin Bell, who commanded the American forces in the Philippines, saw Camp John Hay developed into a major military resort.

After Forbes When Forbes left, Francis B. Harrison became Governor-General of the Philippines (19131921). The transfer of the colonial administration to Baguio in the summer was seen as too expensive, and was abandoned in his first year in office, but Harrison eventually grew to like Baguio, spent more time there and encouraged a limited number of developments. By 1914 a number of schools had been set up, and Filipino residents from Manila had invested $100,000 in Baguio houses.

In his book of 1914 Worcester describes Baguio as follows: “Twenty-one miles of well surfaced roads wind among its pine-covered hills and [allow] beautiful glimpses of the luxuriant vegetation among its numerous small streams.

One [such] spring supplies exceptionally pure water. The scenery everywhere is beautiful and

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Aerial views of Baguio and Camp John Hay (looking south); a view of the Halsema Highway, the new road from Baguio to Bontoc; and views from and towards the Pines Hotel (renamed in c1925); published in the 1930s by the Philippine Tourist Association in its guide Baguio, Sport and Health Center of the Orient, Philippine Islands

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By 1917 the evolution of the Burnham Plan was well under way, and an attractive plan of The City of Baguio was published by The Imperial Government Railways of Japan. The plan shows the line of the Manila Railway and the Proposed Railway Station. The journey from Manila meant taking a train to Dagupan first, followed by San Fabian, Damortis and, via a spur line to Camp 1, thence up to Baguio by the Kennon Road.(13) From the 1930s to the 1960s Amphitheatre at Camp John Hay 1917

in many sections truly magnificent”. A postcard from an English visitor dated December 17th 1917 shows the Amphitheatre at Camp John Hay, a wonderful sight with its terraced stonework by Igorot builders.

Baguio had originally been set up primarily as a convalescent, health and vacation resort, with a secondary role as a regional capital. Over time this was eventually reversed and, with the transfer of local and provincial authority to the Filipinos, the city became primarily a regional capital for the people of the mountain regions.

It continued to flourish as a hill station, and tourism remained an important part of the economy. By the 1920s, with the health benefits of its climate proven, Baguio had become one of the foremost hill stations in tropical Asia, with visitors from Hong Kong, French Indochina and other parts of South East Asia.(12) As the roads to Baguio improved the new market saw people coming from all over Benguet and Mountain Province to sell their produce and to buy products bought up from the lowlands. Fruits, flowers, vegetables and coffee were also being carried down to Manila along the new Benguet Road, together with basketware, wood carvings and textiles.

In 1918 the population of Baguio was already over 5,000 people, and this would grow to over 24,000 in 1939. By the 1930s the city had become a popular tourist destination and various informative and practical tourist guides for visitors were published, usually including a map or two. One of the best, Baguio, Sport and Health Center of the Orient, was a folding guide full of useful information, maps and fascinating photographs published in several editions by the Philippine Tourist Association.

Samuel E. Kane’s 1931 guidebook (above), Baguio – Gateway to Wonderland, described local customs and 20 trips around the region.

Kane had spent nearly 30 years in the Mountain Province and was a fount of knowledge on the area. The guide included a folding map, Road Map – Baguio Gateway to Wonderland, which was sponsored by the Manila Railroad Company and had a train timetable (“Two Trains Available Daily”), details of Railroad Facilities in Baguio, and advice to “Stop at The Pines Hotel The Social Center of Baguio”.

˂ Baguio station c1920 13

A very useful folded tourist plan entitled A New Street and Residence Map of Baguio, The Pines City was published in 1931 by Percy Warner Tinan.(14) The plan shows public buildings, hotels and a long list of private residences grouped into seven sections and identified by a key and Alphabetical Index. The front cover reads: “The Streets of Baguio, outside of a small business center, comprise a vast system of 40 miles of park boulevards, the most mystifying type of roads to the stranger unfamiliar with their many twists and turns. Even more difficult is the location of residences often hidden by great groves of trees. Why waste gasoline hunting for them when this map shows where your friends live?

All Residences, Streets, Gov’t. Buildings, Educational Institutions, Hotels, Etc., Clearly Indicated. Buy this Map Today = NOW.”

The “Who’s Who” of Baguio are also listed in another guidebook, Baguio, Directory and Visitors’ Guide 1936. On seeing the Tinan plan, John Silva has commented: “There it was, in (EE) Section 2, my grandfather’s name J. Ledesma, on a site where his house was [later] destroyed in the carpet bombing. I find it interesting that he had his house where so many Filipinos had their own

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(Peter Geldart collection) houses. The indigenous Filipinos were around Quezon Hill, the Mestizo Filipinos were close to Burnham Park, and the Americans and foreigners were around Mansion House. My grandparents [from Iloilo / Bacolod] loved Baguio, so did my parents, and I eventually went to school in the same school my parents were sent in the 1930s, Maryknoll. This small community allowed my grandfather to befriend many of the other residents, from Quezon to Ortigas, and they would be steadfast friends later.”

An interesting detail is the depiction of the new Baguio Airport at Loacan (Loakan), which was presumably developed for the mining industry (and possibly military aeroplanes) in addition to the small airport at Naguilian that had been operating since 1933. When Philippine Airlines (PAL) started operations in March 1941 the airline’s very first flight, in a twin-engine, fiveseater Beech Model 18 NPC-54 aircraft, with two pilots and five passengers, was from Nielsen Airfield in Makati to Baguio.(15) The Second World War sadly saw Baguio extensively destroyed. Rebuilding took place and by the 1960s it had again become a popular destination with many visitors. In 1961 the population of Baguio was around 51,000 people, and during Holy Week that year 150,000 lowlanders visited the city.(16) Baguio Summer Resort 5000 Ft. Above Sea Level Manila Railroad Company poster c1930s (U.S. National Archives)

Benito Legarda also has many vivid memories of pre-War Baguio, including a music festival that was such a success that the city was dubbed the “Salzburg of the East”.

The region around Baguio and further north and east in Benguet had become a major centre for mining, as shown in the Index Map of Mineral Claims of the Sub-Province of Benguet 1936 Compiled by the Division of Mines, Bureau of Sciences.

By 1970 Baguio City was an important regional capital and a flourishing hill station with a population close to 85,000 people. An anonymous c1970 Map of Baguio City shows some of its major and minor tourist sights, with blue triangles indicating the woodcarving shops along Kennon Road and Asin Road.

With its attractive climate and beautiful scenery, Baguio “Where it is Always Cool All the Year in the Pine Forest 5000 Feet Above the Sea” would continue to grow in popularity. Today the northern capital of Luzon has a population of some 350,000 people (and chronic traffic congestion!).

Detail from Index Map of Mineral Claims of the Sub-Province of Benguet 1936; note Baguio Airport at Loacan (Peter Geldart collection) ˃

This article is based on the presentation given to PHIMCOS by the author on February 27th 2019. The author thanks Andoni Aboitiz, Peter Geldart, Benito Legarda, Raphael Lotilla, Alberto Montilla, Maribel Ongpin and John Silva for their contributions both during the presentation and subsequently. Unless otherwise stated, images are of items in the author’s collection.

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Notes & References (1)

The First Philippine Commission, aka the Schurman Commission, was established by President William McKinley in January 1899. Tasked to make recommendations on how to set up a civilian government to replace U.S. military rule following the Treaty of Paris, the Commission comprised Dr. Jacob G. Schurman, President of Cornell University, Colonel Charles Denby, Admiral George A. Dewey, General Elwell L. Otis, and Dean C. Worcester, zoology professor at Michigan University and “Philippines Affairs Expert”.

(2)

Taft was appointed Civil Governor of the Philippines on July 4th 1901, and on September 1st 1901 all the other members of the Second Philippine Commission became Secretaries. Worcester was appointed Secretary of the Interior of the Philippines.

(3) The committee included a Filipino meteorologist and an English engineer, Horace L. Higgins, who had built the Manila – Dagupan railway.

(4)

The physicians were Major L. M. Maus and Dr. Frank S. Bourns of the U.S. Army Medical Corps.

(5)

By 1909 the need for carrying increasing freight to and from the Mountain Province, in addition to more construction materials required by the army and navy, prompted the Commission to agree a concession with the British-owned Manila Railway Company Limited to extend the railway from Dagupan by way of Aringay and Galiano to Baguio. Despite all the difficulties of construction, apparently over 80% had been completed by 1914, when work on the rail extension ceased.

(6)

In February 1922 the Benguet Road was renamed the Kennon Road in honour of his achievement.

(7)

The initial budget for the road from Pozorrubio in Pangasinan to Baguio was $75,000. When the road was eventually completed the total cost was just under $2,000,000, and additional costs for maintenance and restoration in the following years would add nearly $800,000 more by 1913.

(8)

Before leaving home Burnham had contacted Desmond Fitzgerald, a hydraulic engineer from Brookline, Mass., who had recently studied the water supply in Baguio for the government. He asked Fitzgerald (a) whether Baguio had a gravity supply of water sufficient for public fountains and baths; (b) if not, was there a mountain valley nearby that could be used as a water reservoir for the city; and (c) if a gravity system did not exist and could not be created, from where could the water be pumped cheaply enough to allow large swimming baths and public fountains? See: https://burnhampi.wordpress.com.

(9)

Burnham’s travel diary captured American colonial life in the tropics. He was treated “with all the available turn-of-the-century colonial civility”, and even in Baguio “due chiefly to Commissioner Forbes, the amenities were not lacking”; cf. https://burnhampi.wordpress.com. In his journal, Forbes wrote: “It is new, strange, and delightful (to lay) out a city on this rolling land. We have about thirty things to provide sites for and we want to distribute them beautifully, conveniently and expediently”.

(10) Taft returned to the United States in January 1904 as Secretary of War, but he remained involved with the Philippines and visited in April 1905 accompanied by 7 senators, 23 congressmen and Alice Roosevelt (the President’s daughter). He visited Manila again in 1907 for the inauguration of the first Philippine Assembly. In 1908 Taft was elected the 27th President of the United States.

(11) Founded by the Jesuits in 1865 as the Observatorio Meteorológico del Ateneo Municipal de Manila, after its destruction in World War II the Manila Observatory resumed operations in Baguio in 1951. In 1963 it relocated to the campus of Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City; cf. https://www.observatory.ph.

(12) The benefits of the climate in Baguio were comparable with those in British hill stations, of which there were no less than 29 in 1913. A change from the tropical heat of the lowlands to the hills was beneficial not only to convalescing but also for invigorating healthy people, and a letter from the medical services in India to the Department Surgeon of the Philippines stated how beneficial they were. As a result private companies, the government and the army set up places for rest and recreation around Baguio.

(13) As shown in the map of The Manila Railroad Company's Railway & Water Lines 1930 (see front cover).

In the 1960s the journey from Manila to Baguio took 4½ hours by rail to Dagupan, followed by another 3 hours by bus up the Kennon Road.

16

(14) A New Street and Residence Map of Baguio, The Pines City, revised and published Oct. 1st 1931 by Percy Warner Tinan from the Bureau of Public Works Map prepared for the City of Baguio, 1929; printed by Catholic School Press, Baguio.

(15) https://www.philippineairlines.com/AboutUs/HistoryAndMilestone.

(16) Baguio Midland Courier, Vol. XIV, No. 40 (March 26, 1961).

Select Bibliography Dean C. Worcester, The Philippine Islands and their people - A record of personal observation and experience, with a short summary of the more important facts in the history of the archipelago, The Macmillan Company, New York (1899).

Dean C. Worcester, The Philippines Past and Present, The Macmillan Company, New York (1914); see Volume I, Chapter XVII “Baguio and the Benguet Road”.

The Imperial Government Railways of Japan, An Official Guide to Eastern Asia Vol. V – East Indies, Tokyo (1917).

Philippine Tourist Association, Baguio – Sport and Health Center of the Orient, Philippine Islands, Where it is Always Cool All the Year, printed by McCullough Printing Co., Manila (1930).

Samuel E. Kane, Baguio – Gateway to Wonderland Describing 20 Trips in the Mountain Province with Interesting Customs of the Mountain People, Sugar News Press, Manila (1931).

Baguio, Directory and Visitors’ Guide 1936, Catholic School Press, Baguio (1936).

Robert R. Reed, City of Pines: The Origins of Baguio as a Colonial Hill Station and Regional Capital, with a forward by Paul Wheatley, Research Monograph No. 13, Center for South and Southeast Asia Studies, University of California, Berkley, California (1976).

Bona Elisa O. Resurreccion, A Century of Being Baguio, published for the Baguio Centennial Commission by Visual Prose Creative Consultants Company (2009).

17

PHIMCOS Committee Members 2019 Communications Committee

Education Committee

Finance Committee

Membership Committee

Margarita V. Binamira*

Andoni F. Aboitiz*

Vincent S. Pérez*

Hans B. Sicat*

Ernestine D. Villareal-Fernando

Edwin R. Bautista*

Jaime C. González

Lisa Ongpin Periquet

Marcelo Cordero Fernando Jr.

Jaime C. Laya

Hans B. Sicat

Alfredo Roca

‡

Emmanuel A. Ticzon

Peter Geldart

Yvette Montilla

#

* Chair / Co-Chair

18

‡

Editor, The Murillo Bulletin

#

Website administrator

Regina F. Sicat

British Naval Cartography in the Philippines during the Napoleonic Wars

by Peter Geldart

D

URING THE Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815) the Royal Navy was active across the Indian Ocean and the East Indies from its base in India.

In the Philippines the British fought the French navy, chased and captured prizes from the Spanish, and seized two of the treasure ships of La Real Compañía de Filipinas.(1)(2) When not actively in pursuit of enemy ships, the Royal Navy sought to improve its charts, which had scarcely been updated from those published by Alexander Dalrymple and J.B.N.D. d'Après de Mannevillette in the 1770s. They acquired any charts they found on captured vessels and made efforts to survey the uncharted seas, reefs, islands and coasts of the archipelago. The surveyors of the East India Company’s navy were also at work throughout the eastern seas.

Lieut. Manuel Camacho’s chart

When PHIMCOS members visited the Bodleian Library in Oxford in June 2018 (3), among the other cartographic treasures displayed for us was a large (65 cm x 125 cm) manuscript chart of the San Bernardino Strait with the title: An Spherical Chart of a part of the Archipelago of the Philippne. Islands extg from the Bay of Manilla to the Strait of S.n Bern.no made by the lieut.t of the Royal Navy D.n Manuel Martines Camacho in the year 1804.

The title is followed by a list of navigational “Explanations”, including the following:  “The Bay of Manilla [according] to the Sloops of war Descubierta and Atrevida is reconoitred and its situacion ascertained.”(4)  “The whole of the Island of Mindoro and the range of the Coast that extends to the north of this Province of Taiava from the point of Santiago as far as the point of Lobo, and the ridge of Mountains called Rosario have been visited by the lieutenant of the Navy Dn. Geronimo Delgado who by order of the Government of Manilla raised the plan of the said Coast from 1800 to 1802.”(5)  “The lines of red points in this chart express a course of the compass the old and new demarcations made by D.n Manuel Martinez Camacho in his 2 voyages through the straits on board the ship Paz of the Royal Philli ne Company in 1803 and 1804.”(6) An English manuscript copy of a chart of the San Bernardino Channel by Lieut. Manuel M. Camacho of the Real Compañía (image © Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford) ѵ (Ref. No. MS D49 (151))

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As well as the details of the coasts and islands, the chart also shows two coastal profiles, captioned View of the lands of Luzon and of Samar in the mouth of the Strait of Sn. Bernardino, which show (with an alphabetical key) the Volcano of Bulasan, the small island of Sn. Bernardino, the point of Calantas, the island of Capul, the point of Biri, the point Valicuatro, and the place from which “the Volcano of Albai is seen in fine weather”. A separate profile shows a View of Cape Espiritu Santo in the island of Samar.

data because of “the differences that appeared between the longitude in which we considered ourselves and that in which [the islands] should have been, as recorded … on the Spanish nautical charts copies of which we had the use [and] the chart published in year 6 of the French Republic.” The document is dated “Rl. Isla de Leon 16 de Julio de 1806” and signed “Man. Mrtnz. Camacho”.

This chart is clearly a copy of a Spanish chart, drawn by a British mariner (or traveller) who translated the Spanish text literally. Thus “Carta Esferica de parte del archipielago de las yslas Filipinas” has become “An Spherical Chart of a part of the Archipelago of the Philippne.

Islands”(7); and in the pilotage notes a phrase such as “the height of Ambil is well steered with the point of Santiago” appears to be a literal translation of “… está bien dirigido con …”, whereas the English usage would read “bring the top of Ambil in one with the point of Santiago”.

Detail from AMN 0101 Ms.0096 / 013 (image courtesy of the Biblioteca Virtual del Ministerio de Defensa)

We do not know how or when the original chart was acquired by a British seaman, nor when, where or by whom it was copied. But we do have contemporary evidence of Camacho’s voyage across the Pacific from the Philippines on board the Paz in 1804 from a one-page, double-sided manuscript kept in the archives of the Museo Naval de Madrid,(8) which reads (in part): “Sailing in the frigate Paz of the Real Compañía de Filipinas commanded by Don José Zavalla(9) from Manila to Lima at 6 a.m. on 19 September 1804 we saw NE.¼E. at 20 to 25 miles a beautiful island of great height, mountainous in the shape of a sugar loaf; continuing from there to starboard with the wind from the E., at 9 a.m. we saw another to N¼NO, more distant, quite flat, extending NNE.SSO. with two ravines clearly visible; soon another to the N.9O.O. somewhat smaller, of medium height, elevated on the N. part. … At 9 p.m. we saw another at N¼ NO. very far away as high as the first but extending to the NE.”

Camacho goes on to give the position of these islands, as calculated from his own ship’s position, and explains that he is recording the 20

Camacho’s name is recorded again in 1818, when “D. Manuel Martin Camacho” is listed as having graduated as an Alférez de Fregata (ensign) in the Spanish Royal Navy’s Cuerpo de Pilotos (pilot corps) in Cadiz in 1813.(10) As for his chart, we do not know what became of the original, but the copy was put to good use. Marked on the chart in pencil is a course line which runs from north of the east entrance to the San Bernardino Strait, with a position dated 25th June 1833, westwards through the strait until it exits and heads up the coast of Luzon, with another position recorded to the southwest of Subic Bay on 29th June. Unknown to Lieut. Camacho, his chart was still of value nearly 30 years after he drew it.

HMS Belliqueux HMS Belliqueux, a 64-gun third-rate Royal Navy ship of the line launched in 1780 and named after the French ship Belliqueux captured in 1758, saw action against the French off Martinique in 1781, at the Battle of the Saints off Domenica in 1782, and off the coast of Brazil in 1800. In 1806 Belliqueux (Captain George Byng)(11) was part of Rear-Admiral Pellew’s squadron at Madras, and took part in the raid on Batavia in November that year.

Returning to convoy duty, during a passage from China to Penang in the summer of 1807 the Master (12) of the Belliqueux, William McKellar, was able to survey a number of dangerous shoals in the Philippines. These surveys resulted in three manuscript charts that have been preserved in the archives of the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) in Taunton:

Manuscript chart of the Scarborough Shoal, with the track of HMS Belliqueux on 24th July 1807 (sourced from the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office, Ref. A855 Be1)

 The true position, of the Scarbrough Shoal, with the track of H.M. Ship Belliqueux, 24th July 1807. There is no scale, but latitude and longitude (“by mean of two Chronometers”) are shown, along with sight lines and the remarks: “discover’d the breakers from the Mast Head” and “This part appear’d from the Mast Head like A Sand Bank”.(13)  A Sketch of the South end of Northumberland Straits, taken in H.M. Ship Belliqueux by Wm. McKellar Master, under the directions of George Byng Esqr. Captain. Shewing her Track, with the Soundings, Shoals, set of the currents, &c. &c. - in July, 1807. The chart is oriented to the west, with latitude and longitude shown but no scale. At the top “Part of Coron” appears, and at the bottom there is a coastal profile showing the “Appearance of the land, when on the Southern extremity of the rocky Shoal in 10 [fathoms] off Delian [Isle] 12 Miles”.(14)  Chart of Basilan Straits, by Wm. McKellar Master of H.M. Ship Belliqueux, under the directions of George Byng Esqr. Captain, also shewing her track through the straits, with the Soundings, Shoals, Anchorage, &c. in August 1807. The chart has a key of References, with

“Observations at Anchor, Lattde. by good Meridn. Obsn. Longd. by Chronometers”, but no scale. “Part of Magindanao” is shown, with the comment “along this coast appear’d wild and rocky”, and there are drawings of “A white building” and “Sambouagan Fort”.

“Belliqueux’s rocky Shoal” surrounds “Teinga or Flat Isle”, to the northeast of the “Sangboys or Hare’s Ears”. A coastal profile at bottomleft shows the “Appearance of the high land over Sambouagan”.(15) Four years later, reduced versions of these three charts were published in London in The Naval Chronicle, the most influential maritime publication of its day, with revised titles and accompanying text, as follows: (a) Scarborough Shoal in the China Seas, which is described as “the first authentic representation” of the shoal, with the “reef or bank [being] a very extensive danger, having no soundings close to it, particularly on the south side” ; (b) Mindora or Northumberland Strait; and (c) Sketch of Basilan Strait with the Belliqueux Shoal, “a danger, accurately determined, if not actually discovered, on board H.M.S. Belliqueux, when commanded by Captain George Byng, now Viscount Torrington, to whom we are indebted for the original survey”.(16) 21

Manuscript sketch of the South end of Northumberland Straits, with the track of HMS Belliqueux in July 1807 (sourced from the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office, Ref. A854 Be1)

Manuscript chart of the Basilan Straits, with the track of HMS Belliqueux in August 1807 (sourced from the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office, Ref. A853 Be1)

22

HMS Psyche France and Spain had been allies since 1796 and, following the breakdown of the Treaty of Amiens, in December 1804 Spain again declared war against Britain. But in May 1808 Napoleon replaced the Spanish Bourbon kings with his brother Joseph Bonaparte and, following popular uprisings (notably the Dos de Mayo in Madrid) and insurrections across Spain, by midJune Spain was at war with France, supported

by Great Britain as its new ally. Consequently, “upon the arrival of intelligence respecting the change of political affairs in Spain”(17), in 1809 Rear-Admiral William O’Brien Drury sent Captain Christopher Cole in command of the 36gun frigates HMS Doris and HMS Psyche (Captain John Edgecumbe) to conciliate the government of the Philippines and establish relations with the Spanish colony.

Cole “having completely succeeded in this mission”, Doris and Psyche sailed to Macao “in quest of two French frigates which were reported to be cruising in the China sea”.(17) They did not find the French ships, and Cole: “endeavoured to return through the sea of China, against the foul-weather monsoon. His endeavours, however, proved ineffectual, the ships being forced into the Mindoro Sea and Pacific Ocean. A scarcity of provisions, added to the severe weather and fatigue encountered by the crews of the Doris and Psyche, now produced an attack of scurvy and dysentery, by which the former frigate lost 40 men before she anchored in Malacca Roads, and on her arrival there no less than 80 others were confined to their hammocks through sickness. The Psyche suffered in a nearly equal degree.”(17)

forced again to anchor in 27 fathoms, where she lay 2 days blowing a gale at westward, with the rocks under her stern.

When the weather became moderate, she passed to the North, and N. Westward, along the West side of the chain of islands, through an intricate channel formed between the chain and N.E. Island, which is a large island on the N.E. side of the bay. Here, she narrowly escaped being lost upon a reef which projects from the West point of the island that lies directly East from N. E. lsland, and bounds the East side of Psyche’s Channel.”

Despite and indeed because of his ship’s tribulations, Charles Maitland, Psyche’s Master, was able to make A Chart of Suragao upon the Island of Magindano. Maitland notes that “The Whole interior of the Bay, with the Woody Islands, Linago, and East Islands are my own surveying; the Rest of the Islands I took from other Charts”. This detailed manuscript chart has also been preserved in the archives of the UKHO, together with a fair copy (also in manuscript) with the revised title Surigao by Charles Maitland Master of H.M.S. Psyche when commanded by Capt. Jno. Edgecumbe and the annotation “copied from a manuscript communicated by Capt Edgecumbe 4th August 1814”.(19)

Psyche’s vicissitudes north of Surigao were reported by Horsburgh in his India Directory: (18) “Having no good directions, this ship did not keep Surigao Point and the Mindanao shore aboard, but passed to the eastward of South Woody Island, and finding the ebb tide running rapidly to the S. Eastward, she was obliged to anchor in 40 fathoms. The cable immediately parted, and a second anchor was let go, which not bringing the ship up, she was obliged to cut; but in working against the strong ebb tide she was horsed close over to the islands bounding the East side of the bay,

Charles Maitland’s manuscript chart of Surigao (1809) (sourced from the UK Hydrographic Office, Ref. A119 Bb2)

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by, or were based on the surveys of, other cartographers, notably the talented surveyors employed in the EIC’s private navy, the Bombay Marine.(20) Preliminary versions of the charts were lithographed by the Government of India in Calcutta before they were sent to London for engraving and publishing by Horsburgh.(21) Detail of “Psyche’s Passage” from the fair copy of Charles Maitland’s chart of Surigao (sourced from the UK Hydrographic Office, Ref. A997 Bb3)

The latter shows the “Track of the Psyche, from her dangerous situation, through an unknown Channel, into the safest anchorage at Suragao”, followed by “Track of the Psyche outwards August 2d 1809”. The chart also shows part of the coastline of “Magindano”, the islands north of Surigao, settlements, details of the hydrography, and the location where a Spanish ship was lost off East Island (Siargao Island) in 1808.

Extensive “Remarks” give details of the ship’s course, with “Psyche’s Passage” identified between “N.E. Island’ (Hikdop Island) to the west and “Point Escape” (on Sibale Island) to the east. Maitland’s chart was subsequently used

by Aaron Arrowsmith in his Chart of the Philippine Islands (see below).

James Horsburgh and Daniel Ross Another discovery for the PHIMCOS members who visited London in June 2018 was a very large, two-volume sea atlas containing a compendium of 176 charts (including duplicates) published in the early 19th century by the Honourable East India Company (EIC), which was acquired by the British Museum in 1855. The charts were published by James Horsburgh, a former EIC sailor who, following a shipwreck on the island of Diego Garcia in 1786, took up nautical surveying in order to produce more accurate charts of the East Indies than were then available. His early charts were published by Alexander Dalrymple, and Horsburgh succeeded Dalrymple as the EIC’s hydrographer in 1810. In 1809-11 Horsburgh published the first of many editions of his India Directory, which became the standard work for the navigation of oriental trade routes in the first half of the 19th century.

Horsburgh did not produce many of his own charts; the majority of his published charts were

24

The most illustrious of the Bombay Marine’s surveyors was Daniel Ross, the illegitimate son of a successful Jamaican merchant and a freed slave, who had joined the Bombay Marine in 1795 and began to survey the China seas in 1806.(22) Of Ross’s 46 published charts two are of the Philippines.

In 1806 the 32-gun frigate HMS Greyhound conducted a number of successful raids around Manila Bay,(1) but her luck ran out when she struck the Bagualatan or Iba shoal off the coast of Luzon and was wrecked in October 1808.(23) The officers and crew were taken to Manila, where they were well treated and the officers freed on their own parole. Two British ships, HMS Diana and the Discovery, a survey brig of the Bombay Marine under Ross’s command, sailed to Manila in January 1809 under a flag of truce to rescue the captives. On the voyage back to India they were intercepted and chased down to the Straits of Singapore by two French frigates, where Diana escaped but Discovery was captured, taken to Batavia and sold as a prize. The British officers (including Ross) and crew “were kept in intolerable conditions in the Meester Cornelius Fort” until they were released in September, with Ross (perhaps because of his surveying work for the EIC) being exchanged only in December 1809.(24) On his release from captivity Ross complained that “the French had taken all his finished charts, and left him only half-finished work”.(24) He returned to Macao (via Malacca) and, back in command of the Bombay Marine’s remaining survey brig Antelope, headed for the Paracels.

When returning to Macao in the summer of 1810 he detoured to explore the coast of Palawan and produced his Chart Exhibiting the Track of the Honorable Companys Brig Antelope On the Coast of Palawan in 1810, which was published by Horsburgh on 10th January, 1815.

Stephen Davies has commented on Ross’s chart of the coast of Palawan as follows:

(second) HCS Discovery starting from the southwest of Palaoan (Paluan) Bay on 22nd March, 1816 and the daily positions of the ship as it sailed around the Apo Reef and then through the islands to the west and north of Busvagon (Busuanga) until 11th April. This chart, which was referenced by Charles Darwin,(26) was also subsequently used by Arrowsmith.

Title cartouche of Lieutenant Daniel Ross’s chart of the west coast of Palawan (1815) (image © British Library Board, Maps 147.e.18.(137)) “[This] chart was what is called a sketch survey, fleshed out as far as possible with data from four other sources: (a) the track of an EIC convoy, shepherded by HMS Grampus, by the Alnwick Castle in company with the Royal George that we know called in Manila on 11th-12th November, 1810 before heading for the Pearl River; (b) a separate group of EIC ships, the Bombay, the Canton and the Surat Castle, which trailed the first by four days, although all five ships arrived at the Second Bar within three days of each other; (c) a ship called the Cape Packet from South Africa which worked up the west coast of Palawan from 29th October until 1st November, 1810; and (d) a single track of HCS Discovery inbound from Pulau Sapata into the strait between Palawan and the Calamians, before standing away northwards, one assumes from some time before 1809 and her capture by the French. The fifth and most comprehensive source of data in terms of ground covered, shows the obvious backwards and forwards, in-and-out track of the Antelope between c10th March and 19th April, 1810.”(25)

Ross continued to survey the coast of China and the China Sea, but he returned to the Philippines six years later and produced a detailed Plan of the Appo Shoal and Islands Adjacent by Lieut. Ross – 1816 (published by Horsburgh on 25th October, 1817). The chart states that “The Coast of Mindoro is taken from the Spanish Charts”, and shows the track of the

One chart in the British Library’s atlas of EIC charts of particular interest, being previously unknown to the author,(27) was a Chart of the Channels, Islands, and Dangers, Between Luzon and Formosa (see back cover). The chart, published by Horsburgh on 8th September, 1810, is dedicated to Captain Thomas Robertson.(28) A lengthy note explains that the Cumbrian’s Reef (southeast of Taiwan and north of the Batanes) “seems to be the same Danger that was seen by Capt. Gadd, in the Ship Oster Gothland, in Jany.

1800; … by Capt. Purefoy, of the Charlotte, in 1808; and by Capt. Tate, of the Cumbrian, in July 1809”.(29) Horsburgh continues: “It is indeed, surprising, that this Reef has been seldom seen, and is not yet marked on any Chart. I have therefore projected this Chart, to exhibit the relative situation of it, the other Dangers, and the Islands, with the Channels between them; for this part of the Eastern Seas, is very imperfectly delineated in most Charts.”

Daniel Ross’s chart of the Appo Shoal (1817) (image © British Library Board, Maps 147.e.18.(7))

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Another note records that: “The Southern Bashees, are Inhabited; likewise, all the Babuyan’s are said to be, except Lapurip and Claro Babuyan; the eruption’s of the Volcano at the West end of the Latter, having driven the natives from that Island to Fuga.”

Aaron Arrowsmith The charts resulting from the Royal Navy and Bombay Marine surveys were not only published by the Admiralty and James Horsburgh (respectively), but were also copied by the commercial “blueback” chartmakers in London, notably by Aaron Arrowsmith.

Arrowsmith, who began to work as a mapmaker in the 1770s, was Dalrymple’s assistant at the Admiralty for about a year from September 1795; he then set up his own chart publishing firm specialising in large, individual maps containing the most up-to-date information available. These charts were frequently revised, as new information became known.

In 1800 Arrowsmith published his Chart of the East India Islands, Exhibiting the several Passages between the Indian and Pacific Oceans; Inscribed to the Commanders and Officers of the British Ships Navigating those Seas, which is notable because the Paracel Islands and the fictitious wan-li shi-tang(30) are absent, replaced within a dotted line by the warning: “A good look out with soundings is recommended to explore this obscure part.” In 1809 he re-issued the chart with significant changes, notably to the Philippines where he copied Felipe Bauzá’s Carta General del Archipiélago De Filipinas Levantada en 1792 y 93 por los Comandantes y oficiales de las Corbetas de S.M. Descubierta y Atrevida (published as two sheets in Madrid the previous year) and added the tracks taken by Malaspina’s ships. In 1812 the third edition of this chart was further enhanced with inter alia accurate details of the Paracel Islands, taken from Ross’s surveys, in place of the warning note.

On 6th June, 1812 Arrowsmith published his own Chart of the Philippine Islands, from the Spanish Chart 1808, again copied from Bauzá’s twosheet chart but with the rider: “The Adjacent Islands are added from the latest Surveys”. In some areas Arrowsmith has improved Bauzá’s chart, but in others (for example the Calamianes

26

Islands and the Cuyo Archipelago) his version is less detailed than the original. A notable change to the Spanish chart is the addition of HMS Psyche’s track through the Surigao Isles, copied from Maitland’s chart which Arrowsmith must have obtained from Capt. Edgecumbe before the latter gave it to the Admiralty in 1814.

Six years later Arrowsmith published the first of many revised editions of this chart, with “Additions to 1818”. [see correction in MB Issue No. 9.] Here the main differences are the replacement of an amœba-like “Apo Bank” with a more detailed Appo Shoal, and revised coastlines for Busvagon and Calamiane with numerous soundings to their north and west, all derived from Daniel Ross’s chart published the previous year. The Cuyo Islands and the Cagayan Islands are also expanded as Arrowsmith was meticulous in keeping his charts up to date.

Detail of Appo Shoal and Busvagon from the 1818 edition of Aaron Arrowsmith’s Chart of the Philippine Islands (image courtesy of Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps Inc.)

Conclusion During the Napoleonic Wars British naval cartography in Asia continued apace, whether by the Royal Navy, the Bombay Marine, East Indiamen, or other merchant ships who sighted and reported dangers to navigation. In the Philippines these activities enabled surveys of a significant number of dangerous reefs, shoals and unfamiliar coasts to be recorded and published for the first time, and the information was shared between the Admiralty, the EIC and the commercial chart publishers

However, sea charts are essentially ephemeral – an out-of-date chart being of little use and potentially dangerously misleading – and as the 19th century progressed the earlier charts were replaced with more accurate ones from the British Admiralty and the Spanish Dirección de Hidrografía. Consequently few have survived outside library collections, and they are not well

known; there are undoubtedly more such lost, overlooked or hidden-away charts of the Philippines and its surrounding seas to be discovered. Furthermore, neither the Masters and other cartographers who surveyed the archipelago, nor the histories of their ships, are widely known or appreciated. Much fascinating research awaits!

This article is based in part on the presentation given to PHIMCOS by the author on 30th May, 2018.

The author thanks Dr. Stephen Davies, Hon. Professor of the University of Hong Kong and former Museum Director of the Hong Kong Maritime Museum, for his great assistance with the research for this article.

Notes & References (1)

See British Naval Actions in the Philippines during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars

by Thomas B. Colvin, Peter Geldart & Christian Perez, The Murillo Bulletin Issue No. 7 (February 2019).

(2)

La Real Compañía de Filipinas, established by royal decree in 1785, was given a monopoly of trade between Spain and the Philippines (both direct and via South America). The company did not prosper and, although it was recapitalised in 1805, its privileges were revoked in 1830.

(3)

See The PHIMCOS U.K. Tour 2018 by Andoni Aboitiz, The Murillo Bulletin Issue No. 6 (August 2018).

(4)

The Descubierta and Atrevida were the two purpose-built corvettes which carried the expedition led by Alessandro Malaspina to the Spanish possessions in South America, the Pacific and the Philippines in 1789-94; the expedition’s charts were made by Felipe Bauzá y Cañas and José de Espinosa y Tello.

(5)

Don Jerónimo Delgado was a Pilotín (Master’s mate) on board Malaspina’s ship Atrevida; in 1795 he produced two manuscript charts titled Plano Que comprende la Ysla de Mindoro and a number of manuscript charts of harbours and coves on Mindoro; these charts are in the Archivo Museo Naval de Madrid and can be viewed in the Biblioteca Virtual del Ministerio de Defensa.

(6)

The lines of red points, presumably shown on the Spanish chart, are absent from the British copy.

(7)

Carta esférica was the 18th/19th century Spanish term for a nautical chart made using a projection of a sphere onto a two-dimensional surface, but the term is not used for English nautical charts.

(8)

Archivo Museo Naval de Madrid, Informes dirigidos al Depósito Hidrográfico con noticias sobre el Pacífico tomadas por: - José Ramón Zavalla, comandante de la fragata "Paz", en 1804, AMN 0101 Ms.0096 / 013; transcribed and translated from the original Spanish by the author.

(9)

Zavalla’s ship should not be confused with the Santo Domingo de la Calzada, also known as the Príncipe de la Paz, which sailed from Manila to the River Plate in 1804-05 and was captured by the British at the siege of Montevideo on 3 February, 1807; see Una Fregata de la Real Compañía de Filipinas en el Ocaso de un Imperio. La Santo Domingo de la Calzada (1803-1807) (II) by Diego Téllez Alarcia, Revista de Historia Naval Año XXXV Núm. 138, Instituto de Historia y Cultura Naval, Armada Española (2017).

(10) Estado General de la Real Armada. Año de 1818. Madrid en la Imprenta Real.

(11) Vice-Admiral George Byng, 6th Viscount Torrington (1768–1831), was a grandnephew of Admiral John Byng who, because of his failure to prevent Minorca falling to the French in 1756, was notoriously court-martialled and executed by firing squad “pour encourager les autres”.

(12) In the Royal Navy, the Master was the senior warrant officer, trained in and responsible for the navigation of the vessel (including taking and recording the ship’s position). In 1808, Masters, Pursers and Surgeons were given status similar to that of commissioned officers, as warrant officers of wardroom rank; in 1867 the rank became a commissioned officer rank and was renamed Navigating Lieutenant.

(13) The chart, UKHO Ref. A855 Be1, measures 21 cm x 35 cm and is annotated in pencil “15 July 1809”.

(14) The chart, UKHO Ref. A854 Be1, measures 23 cm x 35 cm and is annotated in pencil “15 July 1809”.

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Northumberland Strait lies in the Mindoro Strait between the island of Coron and Apo Reef. In the entry for the Calamianes Islands in the India Directory, James Horsburgh states: “Near the S.E. part of Coron, lies the Island Delian, with a round rock close to its South point, to the eastward of which H.M.S. Belliqueux, got 5½ fathoms on a coral bank about 3½ leagues East of Dalian, in July, 1807.”

(15) The chart, UKHO Ref. A853 Be1, measures 38 cm x 50 cm and is annotated in pencil “Rec. 15 July 1809”.

(16) The published charts measure 14cm x 22cm and appear, respectively, as Plate CCCXCII in Vol. XXIX, Plate CCCXCVII in Vol. XXX, and Plate CCCXCIX in Vol. XXX, The Naval Chronicle for 1813, Joyce Gold, London.

They are reproduced on pp. 122-123 in Mapping the Philippine Seas, PHIMCOS, Manila (2017).

(17) John Marshall, Royal Naval Biography: Or, Memoirs of the Services of All the Flag-Officers, Superannuated Rear-Admirals, Retired-Captains, Post-Captains, and Commanders, Whose names appeared on the Admiralty List of Sea Officers at the commencement of the present year, or who have since been promoted; Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, London (1823).

(18) James Horsburgh, India Directory, or Directions for Sailing to and from the East Indies, China, New Holland, Cape of Good Hope, Brazil, and the Interjacent Ports, compiled chiefly from Original Journals at the East India House, and from Observations and Remarks, made during twenty-one years’ experience navigating in those seas, Second Edition, Black, Parbury, and Allen, London (1817).

(19) Maitland’s draft, UKHO Ref. A119 Bb2, measures 54cm x 42 cm and is linen-backed; the fair copy, UKHO Ref. A997 Bb3, measures 51cm x 42 cm and is on “very light paper” watermarked “J. Whatman 1806”.

(20) In 1821 Horsburgh dedicated his chart China Sea Sheet I “To Capt. D. Ross, and His Assistants Lieuts.

P. Maughan, J. Crawfurd and J. Houghton of the Bombay Marine; Who under the Auspices of the Honble.

East India Company having performed with Arduous Zeal a difficult and dangerous Exploration of the China Sea, so Essential to the safety of Navigation. This Chart … is now Inscribed as a Tribute due to Those Laudable Exertions”.

(21) Clements R. Markham, C.B., F.R.S., A Memoir on the Indian Surveys, W.H. Allen and Co., London (1878).

(22) See “ ‘Some deep-laid scheme of the perfidious English’ – Captain Daniel Ross, FRS, IN and the systematic hydrographical surveying of the China Seas, 1806–1820” by Stephen Davies, in the IMCoS Journal No. 155, International Map Collectors’ Society, London (December 2018).

(23) The Naval Chronicle for 1810 Vol. XXIV (From July to December), Joyce Gold, London.

(24) Agnes Butterfield, Captain Daniel Ross, FRS of the Bombay Marine, later Indian Navy, 1780-1849 – a sketch of his career, typescript in the archives of The Royal Society, London (1982).

(25) Quotation from Davies op cit expanded in his correspondence with the author.

(26) Charles Darwin, The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs, Smith, Elder and Co., London (1842).

(27) See The Naming and Mapping of the Batanes: Mapmakers have a Problem with these Islands! by Peter Geldart & Christian Perez, The Murillo Bulletin Issue No. 2 (June 2016); the State Library of New South Wales also has a copy of this chart, ref. Libraries Australia ID 44537309.

(28) From Biographical Memoir of James Horsburgh, Esq. F.R.S.: “[In 1805] Mr. Horsburgh had the good fortune to sail for England, from China, in the Cirencester, Captain Thomas Robertson; a gentleman of great benevolence and sincerity. … Captain Robertson, with whom Mr. Horsburgh returned from India, shortly after his arrival in this country, introduced him to Captain Joseph Cotton [… who], distinguished by his desire for the promotion of science, and every thing connected with the improvement of navigation, has, by his continued support, greatly facilitated the publication of Mr. Horsburgh’s various professional works.” The Naval Chronicle for 1812 Vol. XXVIII (From July to December), Joyce Gold, London.

(29) The sightings of the Cumbrian’s Reef by the Swedish ship Oster Gothland, the country ship Charlotte, and the eponymous licensed East Indiaman Cumbrian are discussed in Memoir, Explanatory of a Chart of the Coast of China and the Sea Eastward … by Captain James Burney, Luke Hansard & Sons, London (1811).

(30) The mythical wan-li shi-tang was believed by Chinese seamen to be a great ridge in the ocean near the entrance of the seas into the underworld; it appears on 16th century Portuguese charts as a long, sailshaped archipelago of dangerous reefs, shoals and islands extending southwards from the Paracel Islands, and is then shown on Dutch, French and British charts until the start of the 19th century.

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Empire of the Winds: The Global Role of Asia’s Great Archipelago reviewed by Margarita V. Binamira Empire of the Winds: The Global Role of Asia’s Great Archipelago

by Philip Bowring I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd, London ▪ New York, 2019 ISBN 978 178831 446 6 / HB with dust jacket 317 pp., 16 maps, 34 color and 28 b&w plates

I

N A SWEEPING historical saga, Philip Bowring relates the story of the rise and fall of kingdoms and communities living in “the world’s biggest, most important archipelago” and its adjacent coasts, which he calls “Nusantaria.”

Known today as Southeast Asia, Bowring’s Nusantaria comprises “the single maritime region between the northern entrances to the Melaka and Luzon straits and the Banda Islands in the extreme east”; he also discusses its links with Taiwan, Madagascar, the Marianas and the coastal regions of Thailand, China and southern India.

Using an interdisciplinary approach combining, archeology, geography, linguistics, political economy and political science, Bowring narrates the rise and fall of the different societies that have inhabited Nusantaria from the end of the last ice age (around 10,000 years ago) to the present. Prior to the great melt, the islands and seashores were connected, allowing for some migration to happen on foot. Where Philippine educators teach that the original Austronesian speakers came down from China and Taiwan to populate the islands to the south and east, from the Philippines to Indonesia and Polynesia, Bowring challenges us to think that it might have been the other way around – they originated from the south and instead moved north, populating the islands as they went.

There is evidence to support both arguments.

What is clear, and Bowring makes it the thesis of his book, is that a similarity of base cultures and languages link all Nusantarians, including we “Filipinos” (to use the term loosely since the concept of a “Philippines” had not yet been established), both to one another and to our northern neighbor, China.

All around Nusantaria’s more than 25,000 islands are Austronesian speakers, whose languages and dialects have evolved through the millennia yet contain similar if not the same descriptive words to refer to identical objects and concepts. The interaction that Filipinos had, mainly through inter-island trade and commerce, was crucial in shaping who we are; we had our own identities, fragmented as we were, prior to the arrival of the Spanish in the early 16th century.

How far back this trade and migration go is up for discussion. Bowring notes, as does conventional wisdom in the Philippines, that the oldest human inhabitants lived in Palawan, where their remains are found in the Tabon Caves. These date back some 25,000 years, to the beginning of the end of the last ice age. However, recently confirmed evidence in the Philippines now traces the earliest inhabitant, christened Homo luzonensis, to the Callao Cave in the Cagayan Valley of northern Luzon, dating back at least 50,000 to 67,000 years. How the ancestors of Homo luzonensis arrived on the island, and who they may have interacted with, remain a mystery. Further evidence of stone tools and a butchered rhinoceros skeleton more than 700,000 years old, located near the Callao Cave, make us wonder if indeed human interaction was already on-going as far back as then.

Fast forwarding through the centuries, Bowring highlights how trade brought more than the exchange of goods to various Nusantarian communities, including those in the Philippines.

The exchange of ideas, evidenced by the growth and commonality of religions, linguistic areas and even the cuisine, shows just how close the linkages are. He describes the political and social mores of the different populations throughout the archipelago, where Hindu / Buddhist influence was evident; various kingdoms in Mindanao, the Visayas and Luzon referred to their leaders as “Rajah” or “Datu,” both derived from Sanskrit. In fact, Bowring notes that the very name “Visayas” is derived from Sanskrit.

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After discussing the early history of Nusantaria and its cultural exchanges, the book has chapters on the empire of Srivijaya, the Sailendra dynasty of Java, the Tamil Chola dynasty, the kingdom of Champa, Madagascar, trade with China from the Tang to the Ming dynasties, the Majapahit kingdom, the voyages of Zheng He, and Malay Melaka. Unlike other histories of Southeast Asia, in which the Philippines is often overlooked, Bowring addresses our archipelago in four chapters: “The Northern Outliers”, “Barangays and Baybayin”, “Where Kings reign But Priests Rule”, and “The Sulu Factor: Trading, Raiding, Slaving”.

Most of Bowring’s characterization of precolonial life in the Philippines comes from descriptions by the colonial settlers themselves.

Bowring cites passages and observations from Antonio Pigafetta, Antonio de Morga, Francisco Alcina, S.J., and the original author of the Boxer Codex. All were European, notably Spanish, voyagers to or settlers in the Philippines.

Bowring notes that a common thread in all their depictions was a pre-Hispanic Philippines that “lacked a highly developed political system, written laws, or an established religion linked to a monarchy.” Though it was weak in these areas, it did share many of the Nusantarian social and cultural traditions like literature and writing. However, being naturally fragmented by geography, any political cohesion was difficult for the indigenous communities (barangays) to attain, which made Spain’s colonization and the predominance of the Catholic Church easier to achieve.

In many ways, Bowring argues, the entry of Spain and the Catholic Church marginalized the Philippines from the rest of Nusantaria. Spain’s rulers established their hold over the islands by placing the Philippines under the Viceroyalty of New Spain (now Mexico) and putting in a system of governance that effectively reduced the indigenous indios to living in feudal states.

Local and national governments were patterned after the Spanish system in Latin America. The added layer of a Catholic hierarchy effectively put the indios under the control of both church and state, oftentimes confusing the locals as to who was truly governing.

Pre-colonial trade flourished with the rest of Nusantaria, along with Japan and China. With

30

Spain’s entry, both commerce and influence shifted to the east across the Pacific Ocean. The Galleon Trade became the principal means of business; for 250 years, galleons plied the transPacific routes from Manila with silk and ceramics from China and Japan, spices, and local products including beeswax, fabrics and gold, principally in exchange for silver from the Americas. Millions in silver flowed westwards from Acapulco and other American trading ports, enriching Chinese and Spanish traders and the international trading economy. The local Philippine economy floundered, with the Spaniards introducing very little in terms of new technology and education. The Philippines remained a backwater in terms of real economic development and regional and intellectual advancement.

From the 16th to the middle of the 19th centuries, Spain’s hold on the Philippines notwithstanding, the decline in Nusantarian maritime activity was noticeable. One exception was the Sulu Zone which Bowring describes as being “the lands below the winds” (below the typhoon belt), centered on the island of Sulu, including the Sulu Archipelago, north-eastern Borneo, south-western Mindanao and southern Palawan. The importance of the Sulu Zone in inter-island trade reached its peak in the early 19th century. Sulu, by virtue of its location, was at the crossroads of westward trade to India (and beyond, to Europe) and northward trade to China and Japan. When the English established a trading presence in Sulu, it was to buy Chinese tea in exchange for, of all things, weapons. By the first half of the 19th century it was not only the English doing business in Sulu, but also the Americans, lured by the armaments-, opiumand slave-trading, all of which were in full swing.

The traders (and influencers) that remained a constant throughout the centuries were the Chinese. As trade with Nusantaria increased, the Chinese established themselves in local communities, and predominantly Chinese villages cropped up over time in ports all over the archipelagos. They were tolerated mainly because they were seen to be primarily businessmen, with no other underlying agenda than profiting from commercial trade. Yet their influence in terms of language, food, and culture is clearly seen in the many communities they established; so-called “Chinatowns” are

not an uncommon sight in many port cities around Nusantaria, the Philippines included.

Bowring notes that through the centuries, as Spain’s worldwide empire shrank, its hold over the Philippines also began to weaken. Yet Spain succeeded in turning the Philippines away from its Nusantarian neighbors. Even as Spain’s influence in Europe declined, it could not stop the effects of shifting winds emerging worldwide. The industrial revolution in Europe created demand for raw material and other products from the colonies, and the Philippines was no exception. All of a sudden, the Philippines was exporting enormous amounts of cultivated crops like tobacco, coffee, rubber and sugar to satisfy Europe’s insatiable desire for these commodities. Benefitting greatly were a new breed of mercantile capitalists, the hacienderos and the Chinese. As a result, a new economic and intellectual class emerged in the Philippines: the ilustrados.

These ilustrados were a well off, mostly foreigneducated, prosperous but not aristocratic class that would stir up the movement for equality and eventually independence. Bowring notes that José Rizal embodied the very essence of an ilustrado. Educated overseas and a firsthand observer of European change, Rizal wrote about the oppression at the hands of a Spain dominated by a church and a monarchy unable to keep up with a quickly-modernizing world.

Rizal’s execution in 1896 would usher in a period of rebellion by Filipinos for an independent Philippines, not knowing that the country would be handed over from one colonizer to another. The Philippines ended up being collateral damage in the SpanishAmerican war when, with the Treaty of Paris of 1898, Spain ceded the Philippines to the United States, to begin another cycle of imperialism.

Over the next 50 years, the Americans would leave a legacy of government, healthcare and education.

After the Americans and the Filipinos fought together against the Japanese in World War II, the Philippines finally saw independence in 1946. Bowring observes that despite being under American rule for 50 years, the continued presence of the highly structured Catholic Church in the country had the effect of uniting

a geographically fragmented island nation, especially for Luzon and the Visayas. The Muslim Moros in Mindanao, however, continued to maintain their own religious identity, oftentimes at odds with the government in Manila.

Bowring concludes by saying that Nusantaria, despite being divided by political states and religions, has a unique identity forged largely by the interaction resulting from its dependence on the sea. Unfortunately, this common identity has been lost in the histories of individual modern states. If they looked deeper into their shared histories, the countries of Southeast Asia could realize the strength of a united people and not be intimidated by their larger neighbors, China and India.

Though Empire of the Winds: The Global Role of Asia’s Great Archipelago is not an easy tome to digest, it offers sweeping glimpses of Southeast Asia’s history. Through the millennia, the call of the sea was fundamental in the shaping of an identity unique to this Nusantaria of over 500 million inhabitants today. As the English poet John Donne wrote, “no man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the whole, a part of the main…”. Another Englishman, Philip Bowring, illustrates that truth in this book.

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PHIMCOS Board Members 2019 Mariano Cacho, Jr. Chairman Emeritus

Jaime C. González President

Jaime C. Laya Ph.D. Vice-President

Margarita V. Binamira Secretary

Vincent S. Pérez Treasurer

Andoni F. Aboitiz Director

Edwin R. Bautista Director

Peter Geldart Director

Hans B. Sicat Director

Assistant to the PHIMCOS Board: Yvette Montilla

PHIMCOS Members 2019 Individual members Andoni F. Aboitiz

Margarita V. Binamira

William Brandenburg

Robin Bridge

Mariano Cacho, Jr.

Richard Jackson

Jaime C. Laya

Benito Legarda

Elizabeth Lietz

Rudolf J.H. Lietz

Raphael P.M. Lotilla

José L. Mabilangan

Gonzalo Mac-Crohon

Carlos Madrid

Francisco Romero Milán

Jorge Mojarro

Alberto Montilla

Ambeth Ocampo

Maria Isabel Ongpin

Christian Perez

Vincent S. Pérez

Lisa Ongpin Periquet

Dieter Reichert

Alfredo Roca

Emmanuel A. Ticzon

Jonathan Wattis

William-Alain Miailhe de Burgh

Joint members Angelica & Edwin R. Bautista

Marinela & Maria Paz Fabella

Ernestine D. Villareal-Fernando & Marcelo Cordero Fernando Jr.

Ma. Fedeliz & Peter Geldart

Marie Constance & Jaime C. González

Felice & Andres Sta. Maria

Corporate members Calamian Islands Corp. (nominees: Carlos R. Araneta & Janet T. Ong) Legispro Corp. (nominees: Hans B. Sicat & Regina F. Sicat) Ortigas Foundation, Inc. (nominees: Jonathan Best & Beatriz V. Lalana)

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