[25] Charts of the villages of Opong and Cordoba in the island of Mactan, made about 1893, showed that the island possessed 15,060 inhabitants.—­Coco.

Bulletin No. 1, of Census of the Philippine Islands:  1903, “Population of the Philippines” (issued by the Bureau of the Census, of the Department of Commerce and Labor, Washington, 1904), gives the present population of Mactan, which is in the province of Cebu, as 17,540, all civilized.

The Philippine Islands are divided into provinces or comandancias, the latter meaning military district, and in which civil government has not yet been established.  The province or comandancia is divided into municipalities and barrios.  That barrio or ward in which the municipal government is located is called the poblacion or centro.  The census of the various municipalities has been returned for each barrio.  See Bulletin No. 1, ut supra.

[26] Cebu and San Nicolas are now two independent towns.  The census of the latter, about 1893, showed 20,498 inhabitants.—­Coco.

The population of the island of Cebu, according to the census of 1903 (see Bulletin No.  I, ut supra), was 592,247; of the city of Cebu, 31,079; or, if the closer-built part of this municipality, which may properly be regarded as the city of Cebu, be considered, its population is 18,330.

The steady increase in the total population of the Philippines, as shown by various reports and sources, more or less authoritative and trustworthy, is seen in the following figures.  At the time of the discovery by Magallanes in 1521, the total population is supposed to have numbered about 500,000.  In 382 years, according to the census report of 1903, the population (now 7,635,426, slightly more than the 1900 census of New York State) has multiplied fifteen times.  The increase during the past century was 1.5 per cent.  Of the present population, 6,987,686 are civilized or partly so, and 647,740 are wild and uncivilized, although they have some knowledge of domestic arts.  Of this latter number about 23,000 are Negritos, who are supposed to be the aborigines of the archipelago.  Sources (ecclesiastical and governmental) give the census for various years as follows; they cannot all be taken as definite, although some are approximately so: 

1735 837,182 1799 1,522,224 1805 1,741,234 1812 1,933,331 1815 2,502,994 1817 2,062,805 1818 2,026,230 1827 2,593,287 1833 3,153,290 1840 3,096,031 1845 3,434,007 1850 3,800,163 1862 4,734,533 1870 4,698,477 1876 5,567,685 1879 5,817,268 1887 5,984,727 1891 6,101,682 1896 6,261,339

That guesswork has figured to some extent in these figures is evident; but as a whole they represent tolerably well the growth of the islands.  The figures for 1903 are to be relied on.  See Bulletin No. 1, ut supra, and U.S.  Gazetteer of the Philippine Islands, pp. 25-31.