And most of it is raw to the last degree--a medley of diverse and hostile races, ranging from the puny and dying remnant of the Negritos, who live like wild beasts in the highlands, subsisting upon the roots which they claw out of the ground, to the fierce and unsubdued Mohammedan tribes that still keep up the bloody war of creeds which raged in Spain itself for so many centuries. These latter are chiefly of Malay origin and many of them are professional head-hunters, well qualified to retort Spanish outrages in kind. There are also Chinese in large numbers and half-castes of all varieties. The proportion of Europeans is small, even in the cities. The resident Spaniards are all soldiers or officials of some sort and are there simply for what they can make by extortion and corrupt practices. The Philippine islands were discovered in 1521 by Magellan, the circumnavigator, and were conquered by Spain and made a colony in the reign of Philip II., for whom they were named, half a century later. Spanish sway never has extended over more than half of the 1,400 islands of the archipelago, the others remaining under their native wild tribes and Mohammedan rulers. The conjectural area is about 120,000 square miles, and the estimated population about 7,500,000. About half this area and three-quarters of this population are nominally under Spanish rule, but the insurrection has left things in a good deal of doubt. The remainder of the people are governed according to their own customs, by independent native princes. Education is exceedingly backward. The Roman Catholic clergy have been industrious, and probably 2,500,000 natives are nominal converts to the Christian religion; but education has advanced very little among them. There is a Roman Catholic archbishop of Manila, besides three bishops. The history of the Philippines has included a succession of revolutions against Spanish authority, put down by ferocious warfare and cruelty on the part of the victors. The conversion and subjugation of the islands were not accompanied by quite the horrors that characterized the Spanish conquest of South America, but the record is second only to that. Manila was captured by the English in 1762 and was held by them for two years until ransomed by the Spanish by a payment of 1,000,000 pounds. Contests with rebellious tribes, attacks by pirates, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tornadoes help to break the monotony of the history. MANILA, THE CAPITAL OF THE COLONY.