FAIR
FEW SPOTS OF "ANAY" IN THE FIRST PAGES

ABOUT THE WORK

Arturo Garín y Sociats was a naval lieutenant who participated in the Carlist Wars and was immediately afterward stationed for some years in the Philippines, where, in command of a hydrographic commission, he charted the port of Cataingan (Masbate) in 1890. The present book was completed on board the schooner Sirena at Sulu in February 1880. It is a complete study of the archipelago of Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, which the army had been besieging to gain control. Garín studies the islands from the geological, climatic, geographical, population, commercial, etc. point of view. The chapters dedicated to the political organization, religion, and ethnography of its inhabitants are of particular interest. Perhaps the most interesting is the chapter “Consideraciones” [considerations], where, concerned about stabilizing Spanish sovereignty, he advocates the creation of two military stations in Tawi-Tawi and Cagayan de Jolo, and the construction of prison colonies to send Spanish criminals there, in the same way England had done in Australia. He also advocates not sending colonial officials to the islands, allowing their inhabitants to continue practicing their own religion, defending freedom of commerce, etc. The author was well informed about the history of the Spanish presence in the archipelago and of the English empire, which he criticizes strenuously.