evidence, written in islands among the most gorgeous of those that shine in the Southern seas--islands that are east from the Atlantic and west from the Pacific shores of the One Great Republic--that we may personify hereafter, sitting at the head of the table when the empires of the earth consult themselves as to the courses of empire. Our Course of Empire is both east and west. The contact of American and Asiatic civilization in the Philippines, with the American army there, superseding the Spaniards, will be memorable as one of the matters of chief moment in the closing days of the nineteenth century, and remembered to date from for a thousand years. It is my purpose to write of this current history while it is a fresh, sparkling stream, and attempt something more than the recitation of the news of the day, as it is condensed and restrained in telegrams; to give it according to the extent of my ability and the advantages of my opportunity, the local coloring, the characteristic scenery; the pen pictures of the people and their pursuits; sketches of the men who are doers of deeds that make history; studies of the ways and means of the islanders; essays to indicate the features of the picturesque of the strange mixture of races; the revolutionary evolutions of politics; the forces that pertain to the mingling of the religions of the Occident and the Orient, in a chemistry untried through the recorded ages. It is a tremendous canvas upon which I am to labor, and I know full well how inadequate the production must be, and beg that this index may not be remembered against me. It is meant in all modesty, and I promise only that there will be put into the task the expertness of experience and the endeavor of industry. _Murat Halstead._ Contents. AUTHOR'S PREFACE THE ORIGIN OF THIS STORY OF THE PHILIPPINES CHAPTER I. ADMIRAL DEWEY ON HIS FLAGSHIP. A Stormy Day on Manila Bay--Call on Admiral Dewey--The Man in White--He Sticks to His Ship--How He Surprised the Spaniards--Every Man Did His Duty on May-Day--How Dewey Looks and Talks--What He Said About War With Germany in Five Minutes--Feeds His Men on "Delicious" Fresh Meat from Australia--Photography Unjust to Him CHAPTER II. LIFE IN MANILA. Character of the Filipinos--Drivers Lashing Laboring Men in the Streets--What Americans Get in Their Native Air--The Logic of Destiny--Manila as She Fell Into Our Hands--The Beds in the Tropics--A Spanish Hotel--Profane Yells for Ice--Sad Scenes in the Dining Room--Major-General Calls for "Francisco"--A Broken-Hearted Pantry Woman CHAPTER III. FROM LONG ISLAND TO LUZON. Across the Continent--An American Governor-General Steams Through the Golden Gate--He is a Minute-Man--Honolulu as a Health Resort--The Lonesome Pacific--The Skies of Asia--Dreaming Under the Stars of the Scorpion--The Southern Cross CHAPTER IV. INTERVIEW WITH GENERAL AGUINALDO.