ILOILO, Zi'ltee'14. A province comprising the southern half of the island of Panay in the Phil ippines and about thirty, mostly small, outlying islands, one of which, however, Guimaras, is 30 miles long by 10 miles wide. The area of the province is 2fil60 square miles, and its population in 1900 was 472,793. It has a coastline of 270 miles with numerous safe harbors and anchoring grounds, among which those of Iloilo and Con cepcion arc the most notable. The provinee is separated from those of Capiz and Antique on the north by a chain of rugged mountains covered with forests, from which numerous rivers and torrents flow to the sea, often bringing destruc tive floods. The climate, tempered by the con stant monsoons, is much 1110re moderate and far more healthful than that of Manila. The level lands, which constitute the greater part of the area of the province, are very productive, all kinds of tropical fruits flourishing; hut the in habitants •re chiefly given to the cultivation of sugar and tobacco. The chief manufacturing
industry is that of textiles such as homespun fabrics of sinamay, pifia, jusi. etc. Commercial communieation between the cities is easy and regular, the roads being generally in good eon dit ion. The greater part of the inhabitants con sist of tribes of Bisnyns. with many European and Chinese I/esti:0s, or in the cities, and a few Negritos in the mountains. The Bi sayas were first converted to Christianity by the Augustine Fathers in the middle of the sixteenth century. The province suffered for a long dine from the piratical Moros, and forts were built here by the Spaniards as early as 15Si. In 1616 an unsuccessful attempt was made by the Dutch to capture l'anay. At the end of the Span ish-Ameriean War in 1898 the natives were in cc mplete possession of the island, and showed determined resistance to American authority. Capital, Iloilo (q.v.).