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A VISIT 



TO 



THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



A VISIT 



THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

Br 
SIE JOHU |OWEINfi, Ll.D., RILS, 



LONDON: 
SMITH, ELDEE * CO., 65, CORNHILL. 



[ Tht right <tf TTmuiatim it ratrBtd.'] 



PREFACE 






I 

o 
to 

I 



Ths Philippine Islands are but imperfectly known. 
Though my visit was a short one, I enjoyed many 
advantages, from immediate and constant intercourse 
with the various authorities and the most friendly 
reception by the natives of every class. 

The information I sought was invariably communi- 
cated with courtesy and readiness ; and by this publi- 
cation something will, I hope, be contributed to the 
store of useful knowledge. 

The mighty " tide of tendency" is giving more and 
more importance to the Oriental world. Its resources, 
as they become better known, will be more rapidly 
developed. They are promising fields, which will 
encourage and reward adventure ; inviting recep- 
tacles for the superfluities of European wealth, ac- 
tivity, and intelligence, whose streams will flow back 



Vl PREFACE. 

upon their sources with ever-augmenting contribu- 
tions. Commerce will complete the work in peace 
and prosperity, which conquest began in perturba- 
tion and peril. Whatever clouds may hang over 
portions of the globe, there is a brighter dawning, 
a wider sunrise, over the whole; and the flights of 
time, and the explorings of space, are alike helping 
the ^^ infinite progression** of good. 

J. B. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAF. PAOB 

I. Manila and Nhqhbourhood 1 

/ n. Visit to La Laquna and Tatabas ... 30 

III. HiSTOBT 44 

^ lY. Geoorapbt, Cumate, ktc. .... 71 

V. GOVEBNMKNT, AdMINISTBATIOH, ETC 87^ 

" VL Population 105 

' Vn. Mannebs and Supebstitions of the People . 144 

'^ Vm. Population— Baces 165 

IX. Administbation of Justice 186 

X. Abut and Navt 191 

XI. Public Instbuction 194 '^ 

XII. Ecclesiastical Authobitt 199 '^ 

^XIII. Languages 215 

XrV. Native Pboduce 284 

XV. Vegetables 244 

XVI. Anikals 272 

XVn. MiNEBALS 277 

•XVm. Manufactubes 282 

XIX. PoPULAB Pbovebbs 286 

' XX. GOMKEBCE 292 

"XXI. FniANCEy Taxation, etc 320 

XXU. Taxes 326 

XXni. Opening the New Pobts of Iloilo, Sual and Zam- 

BOANGA 330 ^ 

XXIV. Zamboanga 341 

XXV. Iloilo and Panat 354 -^ 

XXVI. Sual 425^ 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAQB 

Group op Natives {Frontiapiece.) 
Hot Springs at Tivi. (Title-page,) 

Plan of Manila 10 

View prom my Window .... to face page 16 

Lavanderos, or Washerwomen . . . . „ 24 

Waterpall op the Botocan 80 

Village of Majajat to face page 86 

Travelling by Paleee „ 88 

Crater op the Volcano at Taal 71 

Indian Funeral to face page 122 

Girls Bathinq 184 

A Gallera, or Cock-pit .... to face page 152 

Lake op Taal, with Volcano . . . . „ 164 

Chart op Zamboanga 841 

„ Port Iloilo and Panax 854 

„ Port of Sual 425 

Indian Song op the Philippines . to face page 484 



A VISIT 



h 



TO THS 



PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



/ 



CHAPTER I. 

MANILA AND NEXGHBOURHOOD. 

Three hundred and forty years ago, the Portuguese 
navigator Fernando de MagalbcCes, more generally 
known by his Spanish designation Magellanes, pro- 
posed to Carlos I. an expedition of discovery in the 
Eastern seas. The conditions of the contract were 
signed at Zaragoza, and, with a fleet of six vessels, 
the largest of which was only 130 tons burden, and 
the whole number of the crews two hundred and 
thirty-four men, MagalhcCes passed the straits which 
bear his name in November, 1520; in the middle of 
March of the following year he discovered the 
Mariana Islands, and a few days afterwards landed 
on the eastern coast of the island of Mindanao, 
where he was well received by the native population. 
He afterwards visited the island of Zebu, where, 
notwithstanding a menaced resistance from more 

B 



2 PHILIPPINE ISliANDS. 

than two thousand armed men, he succeeded in 
conciliating the king and his court, who were not 
only baptized into the Catholic faith, but recognised 
the supreme sovereignty of the crown of Spain, and 
took the oaths of subjection and vassalage. The 
king being engaged in hostilities with his neigh- 
bours, Magalhdes took part therein, and died in 
Mactan, on the 26th April, 1521, in consequence 
of the wounds he received. This disaster was fol- 
lowed by the murder of all the leading persons of 
the expedition, who, being invited to a feast by their 
new ally, were treacherously assassinated. Guillen 
de Porceleto alone escaped of the twenty-six guests 
who formed the company. Three of the fleet had 
been lost before they reached the Philippines; one 
only returned to Spain — the Vitoria — the first that 
had ever made the voyage round the world, and the 
Spanish king conferred on her commander, Elcano, 
a Biscayan, an escutcheon bearing a globe, with the 
inscription, " Primus circumdedit me." A second ex- 
pedition, also composed of six vessels and a trader, 
left Spain in 1524. The whole fleet miserably 
perished in storms and contests with the Portuguese 
in the Moluccas, and the trader alone returned to 
the Spanish possessions in New Spain. 

About one hundred and twenty of the expedition 
landed in Tidore, where they built themselves a 
fortress, and were relieved by a third fleet sent by 
Heman Cortes, in 1528, to prosecute the disco- 
veries of which MagalhsC&s had had the initiative. 
This third adventure was as disastrous as those 



MANILA AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 3 

which had preceded it. It consisted of ^three ships 
and one hundred and ten men, bearing large sup- 
plies and costly presents. They took possession of 
the Marianas (Ladrone Islands) in the name of the 
king of Spain, reached Mindanao and other of the 
southern islands, failed twice in the attempt to 
reach New Spain, and finally were all victims of the 
climate and of the hostility of the Portuguese, 

But the Spanish court determined to persevere, 
and the Viceroy (Mendoza) of New Spain was 
ordered to prepare a fourth expedition, which was 
to avoid the Molucca Islands, where so many misfor- 
tunes had attended the Spaniards. The fleet consisted 
of three ships and two traders, and the commander 
was Villalobos. He reached the Archipelago, and 
gave to the islands the name of the Philippines, in 
honour of the Prince of Asturias, afterwards Philip 
the Second. Contrary winds (in spite of the royal 
prohi'bition) drove them into the Moluccas, where 
they were ill received by the Portuguese, and ordered 
to return to Spain. Villalobos died in Amboyna, 
where he was attended by the famous missionary, 
St. Francisco Xavier. Death swept away many of 
the Spaniards, and the few who remained were 
removed from the Moluccas in Portuguese vessels, 

A fifth expedition on a larger scale was ordered 
by Philip the Second to " conquer, pacify, and peo- 
ple*" the islands which bore his name. They con- 
sisted of five ships and four hundred seamen and 
soldiers, and sailed from La Natividad (Mexico) in 
1564, under the orders of Legaspi, who was nominated 

B 2 



4 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

Grovemor of the Philippines, with ample powers. 
He reached Tandaya in February, 1565, proceeded 
to Cabalian, where the heir of the native king aided 
his views. In Bojol, he secured the aid and allegiance 
of the petty sovereigns of the island, and afterwards 
fixed himself on the island of Zebu, which for some 
time was the central seat of Spanish authority.* 
Manila was founded in 1581. 

Illness and the despotism of the doctors, who 
ordered me to throw off the cares of my colonial 
government and to undertake a sea voyage of six or 
seven weeks' duration, induced me to avail myself of 
one of the many courtesies and kindnesses for which I 
am indebted to the naval commander-in-chief, Sir 
Michael Seymour, and to accept his friendly offer of 
a steamer to convey me whither I might desire. The 
relations of China with the Eastern Spanish Archi- 
pelago are not unimportant, and were likely to be ex- 
tended in consequence of the stipulations of Lord 
Elgin's Tientsin Treaty. Moreover, the slowly ad- 
vancing commercial liberalism of the Spaniards has 
opened three additional ports to foreign trade, of 
which, till lately, Manila had the monopoly. I 
decided, therefore, after calling at the capital in 
order to obtain the facilities with which I doubted 
not the courtesy of my friend Don Francisco Norza- 
garay, the Captam-General of the Philippines, would 
favour me, to visit Zamboanga, Boilo, and Sual. I 

* A recent History of the Conquest of the Islands, and of the 
Spanish rule^ is given bj Buzeta, yoL i., pp. 57-98. 



MANILA AND NEI6HB0UBH00D. 5 

had already experienced many attentions firom him in 
connection with the government of Hong Kong. It 
will be seen that my anticipations were more than 
responded to by the Governor, and as I enjoyed rare 
advantages in obtaining the information I sought, I 
feel encouraged to record the impressions I received, 
and to give publicity to those facts which I gathered 
together in the course of my inquiries, assisted by 
such publications as have been accessible to me. 

Sir Michael Seymour placed her Majesty's ship 
Magicienne at my disposal. The selection was in all 
respects admirable. Nothing that foresight could 
suggest or care provide was wanting to my comfort, 
and I owe a great deal to Captain Yansittart, whose 
urbanities and attentions were followed up by all his 
officers and men. We left Hong Eong on the 29th 
of November, 1858. The China seas are, perhaps, 
the most tempestuous in the world, and the voyage to 
Manila is frequently a very disagreeable one. So it 
proved to us. The wild cross waves, breaking upon 
the bows, tossed us about with great violence; and 
damage to furniture, destruction of glass and earthen- 
ware, and much personal inconvenience, were among 
the varieties which accompanied us. 

But on the fifth day we sighted the lighthouse at 
the entrance of the magnificent harbour of Manila, 
and some hours' steaming brought us to an anchorage 
at about a mile distant from the city. There began 
the attentions which were associated with the whole 
of our visit to these beautiful regions. The Magi- 
cienne was visited by the various authorities, and ar-» 



6 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

rangemonts were made for my landing and conveyance 
to the palace of the Governor-General. Through the 
capital runs a river (the Pasig), up which we rowed, 
till we reached, on the left bank, a handsome flight of 
steps, near the fortifications and close to the column 
which has been erected to the memory of Magellanes, 
the discoverer of, or, at all events, the founder of 
Spanish authority in, these islands. This illustrious 
name arrested our attention. The memorial is not 
worthy of that great reputation. It is a somewhat 
rude column of stone, crowned with a bronze armillary 
sphere, and decorated midway with golden dolphins 
and anchors wreathed in laurels : it stands upon a 
pedestal of marble, bearing the name of the honoured 
navigator, and is surrounded by an iron railing. It 
was originally intended to be erected in the island of 
Zebu, but, after a correspondence of several years 
with the Court of Madrid, the present site was chosen 
by royal authority in 1847. There was a very hand- 
some display of cavalry and infantry, and a fine band 
of music played " God save the Queen.** Several 
carriages and four were in waiting to escort our 
party to the government palace, where I was most 
cordially received by the captain-general and the 
ladies of his family. A fine suite of apartments had 
been prepared for my occupation, and servants, under 
the orders of a major-domo, were ordered to attend to 
our requirements, while one of the Governor's aides- 
de-camp was constantly at hand to aid us. 

Though the name of Manila is given to the capital 
of the Philippine Islands, it is only the fort and gar- 



MANILA AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 7 

rison occupied by the authorities to which the desig- 
nation was originally applied. Manila is on the left 
bank of the river, while, on the right, the district of 
Binondo is the site inhabited by ahnost all the mer- 
chants, and in which their business is conducted and 
their warehouses built. The palace fills one side of a 
public plaza in the fortress, the cathedral another of 
the same locality, resembling the squares of London, 
but with the advantage of having its centre adorned 
by the glorious vegetation of the tropics, whose leaves 
present all varieties of colour, from the brightest yel- 
low to the deepest green, and whose flowers are remark- 
able for their splendour and beauty. There is a statue 
of Charles the Fourth in the centre of the garden. 

The most populous and prosperous province of the 
Philippines takes its name from the fortification* of 
Manila ; and the port of Manila is among the best 
known and most frequented of the harbours of the 
Eastern world. The capital is renowned for the 
splendour of its religious processions ; for the excel- 
lence of its cheroots, which, to the east of the Cape 
of Good Hope, are generally preferred to the cigars 
of the Havana ; while the less honourable charac- 
teristics of the people are known to be a universal 
love of gambling, which is exhibited among the Indian 
races by a passion for cock-fighting, an amusement 
made a productive source of revenue to the State. 

^ I visited some Cochin Chinese prisoners in the fortification. 
They had been taken at Tnron, and one of them was a mandarin, 
who had exercised some authority there, — said to have been the 
commandant of the place. Thej wrote the Chinese characters, 
but were unable to understand the spoken language. 



8 PHILIPPINB ISLANDS. 

Artists usually introduce a Philippine Indian with a 
game-cock under his arm, to which he seems as much 
attached as a Bedouin Arah to his horse. It is said 
that many a time an Indian .has allowed his wife and 
children i perish in the flames when his house has 
taken fire, but never was. known to fail in securing 
his favourite galh from danger. 

On anchoring off the city, Captain Yansittart 
despatched one of his lieutenants, accompanied by 
my private secretary, to the British consulate, in 
order to announce our arrival, and to offer any facili- 
ties for consular communication with the Magicienne. 
They had some difficulty in discovering the consulate, 
which has no flag-staff, nor flag, nor other designa- 
tion. The Consul was gone to his Jerme mod^ley 
where he principally passes his time among outcast 
Indians, in an almost inaccessible place, at some 
distance from Manila. The Yice-Consul said it was 
too hot for him to come on board, though during a 
great part of the day we were receiving the repre- 
sentatives of the highest authorities of Manila. The 
Consul wrote (I am bound to do him this justice) 
that it would " put him out ** of his routine of habit 
and economy if he were expected to fdte and entertain 
with formality "his Excellency the Plenipotentiary 
and Governor of Hong Kong.'' I hastened to assure 
the Consul that, my presence should cause him no 
expense, but that the absence of anything which be- 
comingly represented consular authority on the arrival 
of one of Her Majesty's large ships of war could hardly 
be passed unnoticed by the commander of that vessel. 



MANILA AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 9 

Crowds of visitors honoured our arrival ; among 
them the archhishop and the principal ecclesiastical 
dignitaries ; deputations from the civiUans, army and 
navy, and the various heads of departments, who 
invited us to visit their estahlishments, exhibited in 
their personal attentions the characteristics of ancient 
Gastilian courtesy. A report had spread among the 
officers that I was a veteran warrior who had served 
in the Peninsular campaign, and helped to liberate 
Spain from the yoke of the French invaders. I had 
to explain that, though witness to many of the events 
of that exciting time, and in that romantic land, I 
was a peaceful spectator, and not a busy actor there. 
The bay of Manila, one of the finest in the world, 
and the river Fasig which flows into it, were, no 
doubt, the great recommendations of the position 
chosen for the capital of the Philippines. During 
the four months of March, April, May, and June, 
the heat and dust are very oppressive, and the mos- 
quitos a fearful annoyance. To these months succeed 
heavy rains, but on the whole the climate is good, 
and the general mortality not great. The average 
temperature through the year is 81° 97' Fahrenheit. 

The quarantine station is at Cavite, a town of con- 
siderable importance on the southern side of the har- 
bour. It has a large manufacturing establishment of 
cigars, and gives its name to the surrounding province, 
which has about 57)000 inhabitants, among whom are 
about 7)000 mestizos (mixed race). From its adjacency 
to the capital, the numerical proportion of persons 
paying tribute is larger than in any oHier province. 



PHILIFFINE ISLANDS. 



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MANILA AND NMGHBOUEHOOD. II 

The city, which is surrounded by ramparts, consists 
of seventeen streets, spacious and crossing at right 
angles. As there is little business in this part of the 
capital (the trade being carried on on the other side 
of the river), few people are seen in the streets, and 
the general character of the place is duU and mono- 
tonous, and forms a remarkable contrast to the 
activity and crowding of the commercial quarters. 
The cathedral, begun in 1654, and completed in 1672, 
is 240 feet in length and 60 in breadth. It boasts of 
its fourteen bells, which have little repose; and of the 
carvings of the fifty-two seats which are set apart for 
the aristocracy. The archiepiscopal palace, though 
sufficiently large, did not appear to me to have any 
architectural beauty. The apartments are furnished 
with simplicity, and though the archbishop is privi- 
leged, like the governor, to appear in some state, it 
was only on the occasion of religious ceremonies that 
I observed anything like display. His reception 
of me was that of a courteous old gentleman. He 
was dressed with great simplicity, and our conversa- 
tion was confined to inquiries connected with eccle- 
siastical administration. He had been a barefooted 
Augustin friar (Becoleto), and was raised to the 
archiepiscopal dignity in 1846. 

The palacio in which I was so kindly accommodated 
was originally built by an opulent but unfortunate 
protSgS of one of the captains-general ; it was recon- 
structed in 1690 by Governor Gongora. It fills a 
considerable space, and on the south-west side has a 
beautiful view of the bay and the surrounding head- 



12 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

lands. There is a handsome Hall of Audience, and 
many of the departments of the government have 
their principal offices within its walls. The patio forms 
a pretty garden, and is crowded with tropical plants. 
It has two principal stone staircases, one leading to 
the private apartments, and the other to the public 
offices. Like all the houses at Manila, it has for 
windows sliding frames fitted with concha^ or plates 
of semi-transparent oysters, which admit an imperfect 
light, but are impervious to the sunbeams. I do not 
recollect to have seen any glass windows in the Philip- 
pines. Many of the apartments are large and well 
furnished, but not, as often in England, over-crowded 
with superfluities. The courtesy of the Governor 
provided every day at his table seats for two officers 
of the Magicienne at dinner, after retiring from 
which there was a tertulia, or evening reception, 
where the notabilities of the capital affi)rded me many 
opportunities for enjoying that agreeable and lively 
conversation in which Spanish ladies excel. A few 
mestizos are among the visitors. Nothing, however, 
is seen but the Parisian costume ; no vestiges of the 
recollections of my youth — the velo, the saya, and the 
basquina; nor the tortoiseshell combs, high towering 
over the beautiful black cabellera ; the fan alone re- 
mains, then, as now, the dexterously displayed weapon 
of womanhood. After a few complimentary salutations, 
most of the gentlemen gather round the card-tables. 

The Calzdda^ a broad road a little beyond the walls 
of the fortress, is to Manila what Hyde Park is to 
London, the Champs Elysees to Paris, and the Meidan 



MANILA AND NEIGHBOUBHOOD. 13 

to Calcutta. It is the gathering place of the opulent 
classes, and from five o'clock p.m. to the nightfall is 
crowded with carriages, equestrians and pedestrians, 
whose mutual salutations seem principally to oecupy 
their attention : the taking off hats and the responses 
to greetings and recognitions are sufficiently weari- 
some. Twice a week a band of music plays on a 
raised way near the extremity of the patio. Soon 
after sunset there is a sudden and general stoppage. 
Every one uncovers his head ; it is the time of the 
aracion announced by the church bells: universal 
silence prevails for a few minutes, after which the 
promenades are resumed. There is a good deal of 
solemnity in the instant and accordant suspension of 
all locomotion, and it reminded me of the prostration 
of the Mussulmans when the voice of the Muezzim 
calls, " To prayer, to prayer.*' A fine evening walk 
which is found on the esplanade of the fortifications, is 
only frequented on Sundays. It has an extensive view 
of the harbour and the river, and its freedom from the 
dust and dirt of the Calzada gives it an additional 
recommendation ; but fashion despotically decides all 
such matters, and the crowds will assemble where 
everybody expects to meet with everybody. In visit- 
ing the fine scenery of the rivers, roads, and villages 
in the neighbourhood of Manila, we seldom met with 
a carriage, or a traveller seeking to enjoy these 
beauties. And in a harbour so magnificent as that 
of Manila one would expect to see skiffs and pleasure- 
boats without number, and yachts and other craft 
ministering to the enjoyment and adding to the 



14 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

variety of life; but there are none. Nobody seems to 
like sporting with the elements. There are no yacht 
regattas on the sea, as there are no horseraces on the 
shore* I have heard the life of Manila called intoler- 
ably monotonous ; in my short stay it appeared to mo 
fuU of interest and animation, but I was perhaps pri- 
vileged. The city is certainly not lively, and the 
Spaniard is generally grave, but he is warm-hearted 
and hospitable, and must not be studied at a distance, 
nor condemned with precipitancy. He is, no doubt, 
susceptible and pundonorosOj but is rich in noble 
qualities. Confined as is the population of Manila 
within the fortification walls, the neighbouring 
country is full of attractions. To me the villages, 
the beautiful tropical vegetation, the banks of the 
rivers, and the streams adorned with scenery so 
picturesque and pleasing, were more inviting than the 
gaiety of the public parade. Every day afforded 
some variety, and most of the pueblos have their 
characteristic distinctions. Malate is filled with 
public offices, and women employed in ornamenting 
slippers with gold and silver embroidery. Santa 
Ana is a favourite Villagiatura for the merchants 
and opulent inhabitants. Near Faco is the cemetery, 
^^ where dwell the multitude," in which are interred 
the remains of many of the once distinguished who 
have ceased to be. Guadalupe is illustrious for its 
miraculous image, and Faco for that of the Saviour. 
The Lake of Arroceros (as its name implies) is one 
of the principal gathering places for boats loaded with 
rice ; near it, too, are large manufactories of paper 



MANILA AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 15 

cigars. Sampaloc is the paradise of washermen and 
washerwomen. La Ermita and other villages are 
remarkable for their bordadorasj who produce those 
exquisite pina handkerchiefs for which such large 
sums are paid. Fasay is renowned for its cultiva* 
tion of the betel. Almost every house has a garden 
with its bamboos, plantains and cocoa-nut trees, and 
some with a greater variety of fruits. Nature has 
decorated them with spontaneous flowers, which hang 
from the branches or the fences, or creep up around 
the simple dwelHngs of the Indians. Edifices of 
superior construction are generally the abodes of the 
mestizos, or of the gobernadorcillos belonging to the 
different pueblos. 

Philip the Third gave armorial bearings to the 
capital, and conferred on it the title of the '* Very 
Noble City of Manila" (La mux noble Ciudad)^ and 
attached the dignity of Excellency to the AyunUimiento 
(municipality). 

During my stay at Manila, every afternoon, at five 
or six o'clock, the Gk>vemor-Greneral called for me in 
my apartments, and escorted by cavalry lancers we 
were conveyed in a carriage and four to different parts 
of the neighbourhood, the rides lasting from one to 
two hours. We seldom took the same road, and thus 
visited not only nearly all the villages in the vicinity, 
but passed through much beautiful country in which 
the attention was constantly arrested by the groups 
of graceful bamboos, the tall cocoa-nut trees, the 
large-leafed plantains, the sugar-cane, the papaya, 
the green paddy fields (in which many people were 



16 PHILIPFINE ISLANDS. 

fishing — and who knows, when the fields are dry, 
what hecomes of the fish, for they never fail to ap- 
pear again when irrigation has taken place?), and 
that wonderful variety and magnificence of tropical 
vegetation, — ^leaves and flowers so rich and gorgeous, 
on which one is never tired to gaze. Much of the 
river scenery is such as a Claude would revel in, 
and high indeed would he the artist's merit who 
could give perpetuity to such colouring. And then 
the sunset skies — such as are never seen in temperate 
zones, — so grand, so glowing, and at times so awful ! 
Almost every puehlo has some dwellings larger and 
hetter than the rest, occupied hy the native autho- 
rities or the mixed races (mostly, however, of Chinese 
descent), who link the Indian to the European popu- 
lation. The first floor of the house is generally 
raised from the ground and reached hy a ladder. 
Bamhoos form the scaffolding, the floors, and prin- 
cipal wood-work ; the nipa palm makes the walls 
and covers the roof. A few mats, a tahle, a rude 
chair or two, some pots and crockery, pictures of 
saints, a lamp, and some trifling utensils, comprise 
the domestic belongings, and while the children are 
crawling about the house or garden, and the women 
engaged in household cares, the master will most 
probably be seen with his game-cock under his arm, 
or meditating on the prowess of the gallo while in 
attendance on the gallinas. 

The better class of houses in Manila are usually 
rectangular, having a court in the centre, round which 
are shops, warehouses, stables and other offices, the 






^* 



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MANILA AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 17 

families occupying the first floor. Towards the street 
there is a corridor which communicates with the 
various apartments, and generally a gallery in the 
interior looking into the patio (court). The rooms 
have all sliding windows, whose small panes admit 
the light of day through semi-transparent oyster- 
shells : there are also Venetians, to help the venti- 
lation and to exclude the sun. The kitchen is gene* 
rally separated from the dwelling. A large cistern 
in the patio holds the water which is conveyed from 
the roofs in the rainy season, and the platform of 
the cistern is generally covered with jars of flowering 
plants or fruits. The first and only floor is built 
on piles, as the fear of earthquakes prevents the 
erection of elevated houses. The roofing is ordi- 
narily of red tiles. 

The apartments, as suited to a tropical climate, 
are large, and many European fashions have been 
introduced: the walls covered with painted paper, 
many lamps hung from the ceiling, Chinese screens, 
porcelain jars with natural or artificial flowers, mir- 
rors, tables, sofas, chairs, such as are seen in 
European capitals ; but the large rooms have not 
the appearance of being crowded with superfluous 
furniture. Carpets are rare — fire-places rarer. 

Among Europeans the habits of European life are 
slightly modified by the climate ; but it appeared to 
me among the Spaniards there were more of the 
characteristics of old Spain than would now be found 
in the Peninsula itself In my youth I often heard 
it said — and it was said with truth — that neither Don 



18 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

Quixote nor Gil Bias were pictures of the past alone, 
but that they were faithful portraits of the Spain 
which I saw around me* Spain had then assuredly 
not been Europeanized; but fifty years — fifty years of 
increased and increasing intercourse with the rest 
of the world — ^have blotted out the ancient nation- 
ality, and European modes, usages and opinions, 
have pervaded and permeated all the upper and mid- 
dling classes of Spanish society — nay, have descended 
deep and spread far among the people, except those 
of the remote and rural districts. There is little 
now to distinguish the aristocratical and high-bred 
Spaniard from his equals in other lands. In the 
somewhat lower grades, however, and among the 
whole body of clergy, the impress of the past is 
preserved with little change. Strangers of foreign 
nations, principally English and Americans^ have 
brought with them conveniences and luxuries which 
have been to some extent adopted by the opulent 
Spaniards of Manila ; and the honourable, hospitable 
and liberal spirit which is found among the great mer- 
chants of the East, has given them ^* name and fame" 
among Spanish colonists and native cultivators. Grone- 
rally speaking, I found a kind and generous urbanity 
prevailing, — friendly intercourse where that inter- 
course had been sought, — the lines of demarcation and 
separation between ranks and classes less marked 
and impassable than in most Oriental countries. I 
have seen at the same table Spaniard, mestizo and 
Indian — priest, civilian and soldier. No doubt a 
common religion forms a common bond ; but to him 



MANILA AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 19 

who has observed the alienations and repulsions of 
caste in many parts of the Eastern world — caste, the 
great social curse — the blending and free intercourse 
of man with man in the PhiUppines is a contrast 
well worth admiring. M. Mallat's enthusiasm is un- 
bounded in speaking of Manila. ^* Enchanting city I " 
he exclaims; **in thee are goodness, cordiality, a 
sweet, open, noble hospitality, — the generosity which 
makes our neighbour's house our own; — in thee the 
difference of fortune and hierarchy disappears. Un- 
known to thee is etiquette. O Manila! a warm 
heart can never forget thy inhabitants, whose me- 
mory will be eternal for those who have known 
them." 

De Mas* description of the Manila mode of life is 
this : — " They rise early, and take chocolate and tea 
(which is here called cha) ; breakfast composed of 
two or three dishes and a dessert at ten ; dinner at 
from two to three; siesta (sleep) till five to six; 
horses harnessed, and an hour's ride to the pasco; 
returning from which, tea, with bread and biscuits 
and sweets, sometimes homewards, sometimes in visit 
to a neighbour ; the evening passes as it may (cards 
frequently) ; homewards for bed at 11 p.m. ; the bed a 
fine mat, with mosquito curtains drawn around ; one 
narrow and one long pillow, called an abrazador 
(embracer), which serves as a resting-place for the 
arms or the legs. It is a Chinese and a convenient 
appliance. No sheets — men sleep in their' stockings, 
shirts, and loose trousers {pajamas) ; the ladies in 
garments something similar. They say ^ people must 

c 2 



20 PHILIPPINB ISLANDS. 

always be ready to escape into the street in case of 
an earthquake.'" I certainly know of an instance 
where a European lady was awfully perplexed when 
summoned to a sudden flight in the darkness, and 
felt that her toilette required adjustment before she 
could hurry forth. 

Many of the pueblos which form the suburbs of 
Manila are very populous. Passing through Binondo 
we reach Tondo, which gives its name to the district, 
and has 31,000 inhabitants. These pueblos have 
their Indian gobemadorcillos. Their best houses are 
of European construction, occupied by Spaniards or 
mestizos, but these form a small proportion of the 
whole compared with the Indian Cabanas. Tondo 
is one of the principal sources for the supply of milk, 
butter, and cheese to the capital ; it has a small 
manufacturing industry of silk and cotton tissues, but 
most of the women are engaged in the manipulation 
of cigars in the great establishments of Binondo. 
Santa Cruz has a population of about 11,000 
inhabitants, many of them merchants, and there 
are a great number of mechanics in the pueblo. 
Near it is the burying-place of the Chinese, or, as 
they are called by the Spaniards, the Sangl^ies 

Santa Cruz is a favourite name in the Philippines. 
There are in the island of Luzon no less than 
four pueblos, each with a large population, called 
Santa Cruz, and several besides in others of the 
Philippines. It is the name of one of the islands, of 
several headlands, and of various other localities, and 



MANILA AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 21 

has been carried by the Spaniards into every region 
Tirhere they have established their dominion. So 
fond are they of the titles they find in their Calendar, 
that in the Philippines there are no less than sixteen 
places called St, John and twelve which bear the 
name of St. Joseph ; Jesus, Santa Maria, Santa Ana, 
Santa Caterina, Santa Barbara, and many other saints, 
have given their titles to various localities, often 
superseding the ancient Indian names. Santa Ana 
is a pretty village, with about 5,500 souls. It is 
surrounded with cultivated lands, which, being irri- 
gated by fertilizing streams, are productive, and give 
their wonted charm to the landscape — ^palms, mangoes, 
bamboos, sugar plantations, and various fruit and 
forest- trees on every side. The district is princi- 
pally devoted to agriculture. A few European houses, 
with their pretty gardens, contrast well with the huts 
of the Indian. Its climate has the reputation of 
salubrity. 

There is a considerable demand for horses in the 
capital. The importation of the larger races from 
Australia has not been successful. They were less 
suited to the climate than the ponies which are now 
almost universally employed. The Filipinos never 
give pure water to their horses, but invariably mix 
it with miel (honey), the saccharine matter of the 
cana dulcej and I was informed that no horse would 
drink water unless it was so sweetened. This, of 
course, is the result of "education." The value of 
horses, as compared with their cost in the remoter 
islands, is double or treble in the capital. In fact. 



22 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

nothing more distinctly proves the disadvantages of 
imperfect communication than the extraordinary dif- 
ference of prices for the same articles in various 
parts of the Archipelago, even in parts which trade 
with one another. There have been examples of 
famine in a maritime district while there has been 
a superfluity of food in adjacent islands. No doubt 
the monsoons are a great impediment to regular 
intercourse, as they cannot be mastered by ordinary 
shipping ; but steam has come to our aid, when 
commercial necessities demanded new powers and 
appliances, and no regions are likely to benefit by 
it more than those of the tropics. 

The associations and recollections of my youth 
were revived in the hospitable entertainment of my 
most excellent host and the courteous and graceful 
ladies of his family. Nearly fifty years before I had 
been well acquainted with the Spanish peninsula — in 
the time of its sufferings for fidelity, and its stru^los 
for freedom, and I found in Manila some of the 
veterans of the past, to whom the " Guerra do 
Independencia" was of all topics the dearest } and it 
was pleasant to compare the tablets of our various 
memories, as to persons, places and events. Of the 
actors we had known in those interesting scenes, 
scarcely any now remain — none, perhaps, of those 
who occupied the highest position, and played the 
most prominent parte ; but their names still served 
" ' I to unite us in sympathizing thoughts and 
, and having had the advantage of an early 
tance with Spanish, all that I had forgotten 



MANILA AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 23 

was again remembered, and I found myself nearly 
as much at home as in former times when wander- 
ing among the mountains of Biscay, dancing on the 
banks of the Guadalquivir, or turning over the dusty 
tomes at Alcala de Henares.* 

There was a village festival at Sampaloc (the 
Indian name for tamarinds), to which we were 
invited. Bright illuminations adorned the houses, 
triumphal arches the streets; everywhere music and 
gaiety and bright faces. There were several balls at 
the houses of the more opulent mestizos or Indians, 
and we joined the joyous assemblies. The rooms 
were crowded with Indian yx)uths and maidens. 
Parisian fashions have not invaded these villages 
— there were no crinolines — these are confined to 
the capital ; but in their native garments there was 
no small variety — ^the many-coloured gowns of home 
manufacture — the richly embroidered kerchiefs of 
pina-— earrings and necklaces, and other adomings; 
and then a vivacity strongly contrasted with the 
characteristic indolence of the Indian races. Tables 
were covered with refreshments— coffee, tea, wines, 
fruits, cakes and sweetmeats ; and there seemed 
just as much of flirting and coquetry as ever marked 
the scenes of higher civilization. To the Europeans 
great attentions were paid, and their presence was 
deemed a great honour. Our young midshipmen were 
among the busiest and liveliest of the throng, and 

* Among my earlj literary efforts was an essay by which the 
strange story was utterly disproved of the destruction of the MSS. 
which had served Cardinal Ximenes in preparing his Polyglot Bible. 



24 PHILIPPINB ISLANDS. 

evcD made their way, without the aid of language, to 
the good graces of the Zagalas. Sampaloc, inhabited 
principally by Indians employed as washermen and 
women, is sometimes called the I^eblo de ios La- 
vanderos. The festivities continued to the matinal 
hours. 

In 1855 the Capttun-Greneral (Grespo) caused 
sundry statistical returns to be published, which 
throw much light upon the social condition of the 
Philippine Islands, and afford such valuable mate- 
rials for comparison with the official data of other 
countries, that I shall extract from them various 
results which appear worthy of attention. 

The city of Manila contains 11 churches, with 
3 convents, 363 private houses; and the other edi- 
fices, amotmting in all to 88, consist of public 
buildings and premises appropriated to various ob- 
jects. Of the private houses, 57 are occupied by 
their owners, and 189 are let to private tenants, 
while 117 are rented for corporate or public pur- 
poses. The population of the city in 1855 was 
8,6l8 souls, as follows: — 



— 


Ifalei. 


Fenulei. 


Total 


Earopean Spaniards . 

Native ditto .... 

Indians and Mestizos 

Chinese 


603 

575 

3,880 

525 


87 

798 

2,493 

7- 


590 
1,378 
6,328 

532 


Total 


5,438 


3,385 


8,818 



ferent are the proportions in another part 
* One woman, six children. 



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.\ \ .-L t'ro.n liivM . txis^ 
. . 1; »t a!t Mtion. 

.: iiins 11 i '. I ^ =» uith 

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'• )q)oratv <'r 
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public 

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* pn jinri'.n^ in iir-o-'u-r p:irt 



•V.'lli.Hi, S %. 'v^'li^'!* 



MANILA AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 



25 



of the capital, the Binondo district, on the other side 
of the river : — 





Males. 


Females. 


Total. 


£uTopeazi Spaniards . 
* Native ditto . • • • 
Foreigners . , . . 
Indians and Mestizos 
Chinese 


167 

569 

85 

10,817 

5,055 


52 

608 

11 

10,685 

8* 


219 

1,177 

96 

21,002 

5,063 


Total 


16,193 


11,364 


27,557 



Of these, one male and two females (Indian) were 
more than 100 years old. 

The proportion of births and deaths in Manila is 
thus given : — 





Spaniards. 


Natirei. 


Total. 


Births .... 
Deaths . . . «< 


4-88 per ct. 
1-68 „ 


4-96 per ct. 
2-72 „ 


4-83 per ct. 
2-48 „ 


Excess of Births over) 
Deaths • .) 


2-70 per ct. 


2-24 per ct. 


2 35 per ct. 



In Binondo the returns are much less favour- 
able : — 



Births 
Deaths 



512 • 
4-77 

0-35 



The statistical commissioners state these discre- 
pancies to be inexplicable; but attribute it in part 
to the stationary character of the population of the 
city, and the many fluctuations which take place in 
the commercial movements of Binondo. 



* All children. 



26 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, 

Binondo is really the most important and most 
opulent pueblo of the Philippines, and is the real 
commercial capital : two-thirds of the houses are 
substantially built of stone, brick and tiles, and about 
one-third are Indian wooden houses covered with the 
nipa palm. The place is full of business and activity. 
An average was lately taken of the carriages daily 
passing the principal thoroughfares. Over the Puente 
Grande (great bridge) their number was 1 ,256 ; 
through the largest square, Plaza de 8. Gabriel, 979; 
and through the main street, 915. On the Calzada, 
which is the great promenade of the capital, 499 car- 
riages were counted — these represent the aristocracy 
of Manila.. There are eight public bridges, and a 
suspension bridge has lately been constructed as 
a private speculation, on which a fee is levied for all 
passengers. 

Binondo has some tolerably good wharfage on the 
bank of the Pasig, and is well supplied with ware- 
houses for foreign commerce. That for the reception 
of tobacco is very extensive, and the size of the edi- 
fice where the state cigars are manufactured may be 
judged of from the fact that nine thousand females are 
therein habitually employed. 

The Puente Grande (which unites Manila with 
Binondo) was originally built of wood upon founda- 
tions of masonry, with seven arches of different sizes, 
at various distances. Two of the arches were de- 
stroyed by the earthquake of 1824, since which 
period it has been repaired and restored. It is 
457 feet in length and 24 feet in width. The 



MANILA AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 27 

views on all sides from the bridge are fine, 
whether of the wharves, warehouses, and busy 
population on the right bank of the river, or the 
fortifications, churches, convents, and public walks 
on the left. 

The population of Manila and its suburbs is about 
150,000. 

The tobacco manufactories of Manila, being the 
most remarkable of the ^^ public shows," have been 
frequently described. The chattering and bustling 
of the thousands of women, which the constantly 
exerted authority of the female superintendents 
wholly failed to control, would have been .dis- 
tracting enough from the manipulation of the to- 
bacco leaf, even had their tongues been tied, but 
their tongues were not tied, and they filled the 
place with noise. This was strangely contrasted 
with the absolute silence which prevailed in the 
rooms solely occupied by men. Most of the girls, 
whose numbers fluctuate from eight to ten thousand, 
are unmarried, and many seemed to be only ten or 
eleven years old. Some of them inhabit pueblos at 
a considerable distance from Manila, and form quite 
a procession either in proceeding to or returning 
from their employment. As we passed through the 
different apartments specimens were given us of the 
results of their labours, and on leaving the establish- 
ment beautiful bouquets of flowers were placed in our 
hands. We were accompanied throughout by the 
superior officers of the administration, explaining to 
us aU the details with the most perfect Castilian 



28 PHILIPPINB ISLANDS. 

courtesy. Of the working people I do not believe 
one in a hundred understood Spanish. 

The river Pasig is the principal channel of com- 
munication with the interior. It passes between 
the commercial districts and the fortress of Manila. 
Its average breadth is about 350 feet, and it is 
navigable for about ten miles, with various depths 
of from 3 to 25 feet. It is crossed by three 
bridges, one of which is a suspension bridge. The 
daily average movement of boats, barges, and rafts 
passing with cargo under the principal bridge, 
was 277» escorted by 487 men and 121 women 
(not including passengers). The whole number 
of vessels belonging to the Philippines was, in 
1852 (the last return I possess), 4,053, represent- 
ing 81,752 tons, and navigated by 30,485 seamen. 
Of these, 1,532 vessels, of 74,148 tons, having 
17)133 seamen, belong to the province of Manila 
alone, representing three-eighths of the ships, seven- 
eighths of the tonnage, and seventeen-thirtieths of the 
mercantile marine. The value of the coasting trade 
in 1852 is stated to have been about four and a-half 
millions of dollars, half this value being in abac& 
(Manila hemp), sugar and rice being the next articles 
in importance. The province of Albay, the most 
southern of Luzon, is represented by the largest 
money value, being about one-fourth of the whole. 
On an average of five years, from 1850 to 1854, the 
coasting trade is stated to have been of the value of 
4,156,459 dollars, but the returns are very imperfect, 
and do not include all the provinces. The statistical 



MANILA AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 29 

commission reports that on an examination of all 
the documents and facts accessible to them, in 1855, 
the coasting trade might be fairly estimated at 
7,200,459 dollars. 

At a distance of about three miles from Binondo, 
on the right bank of the Pasig, is the country house 
of the captain-general, where he is accustomed to 
pass some weeks of the most oppressive season of 
the year : it has a nice garden, a convenient moveable 
bath, which is lowered into the river, an aviary, and 
a small collection of quadrupeds, among which I 
made acquaintance with a chimpanzee, who, soon 
after, died of a pulmonary complaint. 



CHAPTER II. 

VISIT TO LA LAGUKA AND TAYABAS. 

Having arranged for a visit to the Laguna and the 
surrounding hills, whose beautiful scenery has given 
to the island of Luzon a widely-spread celebrity, we 
started accompanied by the Alcalde Mayor, De la 
Herran, Colonel Trasierra, an aide-de-camp of the 
Governor, appointed to be my special guide and 
guardian, my kind friend and gentlemanly compa- 
nion Captain Yansittart, and some other gentlemen. 
The inhabitants of the Laguna are called by the 



LA LAGUNA AND TAYABAS. 31 

Indians of Manila Tagcmlangan^ or Orientals. As 
we reached the various villages, the Principaliaj 
or native authorities, came out to meet us, and 
musical . bands escorted us into and out of all 
the pueblos. We found the Indian villages deco- 
rated with coloured flags and embroidered ker- 
chiefs, and the firing of guns announced our arrival. 
The roads were prettily decorated with bamboos and 
flowers, and everything proclaimed a hearty, how- 
ever simple welcome. The thick and many-tinted 
foliage of the mango — the tall bamboos shaking 
their feathery heads aloft — the cocoa-nut loftier still — 
the areca and the nipa palms — the plaintains, whose 
huge green leaves give such richness to a tropical 
landscape — the bread-fruit, the papaya, and the 
bright-coloured wild-flowers, which stray at will over 
banks and branches — the river every now and then 
visible, with its canoes and cottages, and Indian 
men, women, and children scattered along its banks. 
Over an excellent road, we passed through Santa 
Ana to Taguig, where a bamboo bridge had been 
somewhat precipitately erected to facilitate our pas- 
sage over the stream : the first carriage got over in 
safety ; with the second the bridge broke down, and 
some delay was experienced in repairing the disaster, 
and enabling the other carriages to come forward. 
Taguig is a pretty village, with thermal baths, 
and about 4,000 inhabitants ; its fish is said to 
be particularly fine. Near it is Fateros, which 
no doubt takes its name from the enormous quan- 
tity of artificially hatched ducks (patos) which are 



32 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

bred there, and which are seen in incredible 
numbers on the banks of the river. They are 
fed by small shell-fish found abundantly in the 
neighbouring lake, and which are brought in boats 
to the paterias on the banks of the Fasig. This 
duck-raising is called Itig by the Indians. Each 
pateria is separated from its neighbour by a bamboo 
enclosure on the river, and at sunset the ducks with- 
draw from the water to adjacent buildings, where 
they deposit their eggs during the night, and in the 
morning return in long procession to the river. The 
eggs being collected are placed in large receptacles 
containing warm paddy husks, which are kept at the 
same temperature ; the whole is covered with cloth, 
and they are removed by their owners as fast as they 
are hatched. We saw hundreds of the ducklings 
running about in shallow bamboo baskets, waiting to 
be transferred to the banks of the river. The friar 
at Fasig came out from his convent to receive us. 
It is a populous pueblo, containing more than 22,000 
souls. There is a school for Indian women. It has 
stone quarries worked for consumption in Manila, 
but the stone is soft and brittle. The neighbourhood 
is adorned with gardens. Our host the friar had 
prepared for us in the convent a collation, which was 
served with much neatness and attention, and with 
cordial hospitality. Having reached the limits of his 
alcadia^ the kind magistrate and his attendants left us, 
and we entered a faltta (felucca) provided for us by 
the Intendente de Marina, with a goodly number of 
rowers, and furnished with a carpet, cushions, cur- 



LA LAGUNA AND TAYABAS. 33 

tains, and other comfortable appliances. In this we 
started for the Laguna, heralded by a band of musi- 
cians. The rowers stand erect, and at every stroke 
of the oar fling themselves back upon their seats; 
they thus give a great impulse to the boat ; the 
exertion appears very laborious, yet their work was 
done with admirable good-humour, and when they were 
drenched with rain there was not a murmur. In the 
lake (which is called Bay) is an island, between which 
and the main land is a deep and dangerous channel 
named Quinabatasan, through which we passed. The 
stream rushes by with great rapidity, and vessels 
are often lost in the passage. The banks are covered 
with fine fruit trees, and the hills rise grandly on all 
sides. Our destination was Santa Cruz, and long 
before we arrived a pilot boat had been despatched in 
order to herald our coming. The sun had set, but 
we perceived, as we approached, that the streets were 
illuminated, and we heard the wonted Indian music 
in the distance. Reaching the river, we were con- 
ducted to a gaily-lighted and decorated raft, which 
landed us, — and a suite of carriages, in one of which 
was the Alcalde, who had come from his Cabacera^ or 
head quarters, to take charge of us, — conducted the 
party to a handsome house belonging to an opulent 
Indian, where we found, in the course of preparation, 
a very handsome dinner or supper, and all the notables 
of the locality, the priest, as a matter of course, 
among them, assembled to welcome the strangers. We 
passed a theatre, which appeared hastily erected and 
grotesquely adorned, where, as we were informed, it 

D 



34 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

was intended to exhibit an Indian play in the Tagdl 
language, for our edification and amusement. I 
was too unwell to attend, but I heard there was much 
talk on the stage (unintelligible, of course, to our 
party), and brandishing of swords, and frowns and 
fierce fighting, and genii hunting women into wild 
forests, and kings and queens gaily dressed. The 
stage was open from the street to the multitude, of 
whom many thousands were reported to be present, 
showing great interest and excitement. I was 
told that some of the actors had been imported from 
Manila. The hospitality of our host was super- 
abundant, and his table crowded not only with native 
but with many European luxuries. He was dressed 
as an Indian, and exhibited his wardrobe with some 
pride. He himself served us at his own table, and 
looked and moved about as if he were greatly ho- 
noured by the service. His name, which I gratefully 
record, is Valentin Yalenzuela, and his brother has 
reached the distinction of being an ordained priest 

Santa Cruz has a population of about 10,000 souls. 
Many of its inhabitants are said to be opulent. The 
church is handsome ; the roads in the neighbourhood 
broad and in good repair. There is much game in 
the adjacent forests, but there is not much devotion 
to the chase. Almost every variety of tropical prd- 
duce grows in the vicinity. Wild honey is collected 
by the natives of the interior, and stuffs of cotton and 
abacd are woven for domestic use. The house to 
which we were invited was well furnished, but with 
the usual adornings of saints' images and vessels for 



LA LAGUNA AND TAYABAS. 35 

holy water. In the evening the Tagala ladies of 
the town and neighhourhood were invited to a ball, 
and the day was closed with the accustomed light- 
heartedness and festivity: the bolero and the jota 
seemed the favomite attractions. Dance and music 
are the Indians' delight, and very many of the even- 
ings we passed in the Philippines were devoted to 
these enjoyments. Next morning the carriages of 
the Alcalde, drawn by the 'pretty little ponies of 
Luzon, conducted us to the casa real at Pagsanjan, 
the seat of the government, or Cabacera, of the pro- 
vince, where we met with the usual warm reception 
from our escort Senor Tafalla, the Alcalde. Pag- 
sanjan has about 5,000 inhabitants, being less 
populous than Binan and other pueblos in the pro- 
vince. Hospitality was here, as everywhere, the 
order of the day and of the night, all the more to be 
valued as there are no inns out of the capital, and 
no places of reception for travellers ; but he who is 
recommended to the authorities and patronized by 
the friars will find nothing wanting for his accommo- 
dation and comfort, and will rather be surprised at 
the superfluities of good living than struck with the 
absence of anything necessary. I have been some- 
times amazed when the stores of the convent fur- 
nished wines which had been kept from twenty to 
twenty-five years ; and to say that the cigars and 
chocolate provided by the good friars would satisfy 
the most critical of critics, is only to do justice to 
the gifts and the givers. 

We made an excursion to the pretty village of 

D 2 



36 PHILIPPmE ISLANDS. 

Lumbang, having, as customary, been escorted to the 
banks of the river, which forms the limit of the pueblo, 
by the mounted principalia of Fagsanjan. The cur- 
rent was strong, but a barge awaited us and conveyed 
us to the front of the convent on the other side, where 
the principal ecclesiastic, a friar, conducted us to the 
reception rooms. We walked through the pueblo, 
whose inhabitants amount to 5,000 Indians, occupy- 
ing one long broad street, where many coloured hand- 
kerchiefs and garments were hung out as flags from 
the windows, which were crowded with spectators. 
We returned to the Cabacera, where we slept. Early 
in the morning we took our departure from Pag- 
sanjan. 

We next advanced into the more elevated regions, 
growing more wild and wonderful in their beauties. 
As we proceeded the roads became worse and worse, 
and our horses had some difficulty in dragging the 
carriages through the deep mud. We had often to 
ask for assistance from the Indians to extricate us 
from the ruts, and they came to our aid with patient 
and persevering cheerfulness. When the main road 
was absolutely impassable, we deviated into the forest, 
and the Indians, with large knives — their constant 
companions — chopped down the impeding bushes and 
branches, and made for us a practicable way. After 
some hours' journey we arrived at Majayjay, and 
between files of Indians, with their flags and music, 
were escorted to the convent, whence the good Fran- 
ciscan friar Maximo Kico came to meet us, and led 
us up the wide staircase to the vast apartments above. 



f , 



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.JU • Ml.V* 1 ' • l US, J; 'i itll 



LA LAGUNA AND TAYABAS. 37 

The pueblo has about 8,500 inhabitants ; the climate 
is humid, and its effects are seen in the magnificent 
vegetation which surrounds the place. The church 
and convent are by far the most remarkable of its 
edifices. Here we are surrounded by mountain 
scenery, and the forest trees present beautiful and 
various pictures* In addition to leaves, flowers and 
fruits of novel shapes and colours, the grotesque 
forms which the trunks and branches of tropical trees 
assume, as if encouraged to indulge in a thousand 
odd caprices, are among the characteristics of these 
regions. The native population availed themselves 
of the rude and rugged character of the region to 
offer a long resistance to the Spaniards on their first 
invasion, and its traditional means of defence were 
reported to be so great that the treasures of Manila 
were ordered to be transported thither on the land- 
ing of the English in 1762. Fortunately, say the 
Spanish historians, the arrangement was not carried 
out, as the English had taken 'their measures for the 
seizure of the spoils, and it was found the locality 
could not have been defended against them. 

We were now about to ascend the mountains, and 
were obliged to abandon our carriages. Palanquins, 
in which we had to stretch ourselves at full length, 
borne each by eight bearers, and relays of an equal 
number, 'were provided for our accommodation. The 
Alcalde of the adjacent province of Tayabas had 
come down to' Majayjay to invite us into his district, 
where, he said, the people were on the tiptoe of ex- 
pectation, had made arrangements for our reception, 



38 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

and would be sadly disappointed if we failed to Tisit 
Lucban. We could not resist the kind urgency of 
his representations, and deposited ourselves in the 
palanquins, which had been got ready for us, and 
were indeed well rewarded. The paths through the 
mountains are such as have been made by the tor- 
rents, and are frequently almost impassable from the 
masses of rock brought down by the rushing waters. 
Sometimes we had to turn back from the selected 
road, and choose another less impracticable. In 
some places the mud was so deep that our bearers 
were immersed far above their knees, and nothing 
but long practice and the assistance of their com- 
panions could have enabled them to extricate them- 
selves or us from so disagreeable a condition. But 
cheerfulness and buoyancy of spirits, exclamations 
of encouragement, loud laughter, and a general and 
brotherly co-operation surmounted every difficulty. 
Around us all was solitude, all silence, but the hum 
of the bees and the shrieks of the birds ; deep ravines 
below, covered with forest trees, which no axe of the 
woodman would ever disturb ; heights above still more 
difficult to explore, crowned with arboreous glories ; 
brooks and rivulets noisily descending to larger streams, 
and then making their quiet way to the ocean recep- 
tacle. At last we reached a plain on the top of a 
mountain, where two grandly adorned litters, with 
a great number of bearers, were waiting, and we were 
welcomed by a gathering of graceful young women, 
all on ponies, which they managed with admirable 
agility. They were clad in the gayest dresses. 



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'. -i'." 1 t;iirM^lvt'i! in tho 

Tl'.o path;* thn^uirh the 

I r bovii made bv the tor- 

,':' int>t iinpa-' able from the 

t-i>\*n bv the rushing; waters. 

• .rn b-.u k iVoai the sekxt.ul 

i :iior li^?^ inpr.u^i.-abio. In 

. • i« •' ■..;'! vv.'/ •-.» llv^•p that "tir bearers 

%v.-.-v» ;.:.!:!, r-'il lar aboM» their kne^s, aiid nothing.' 

h'll Invg priietice an 1 the assi'rtunee oi their com- 

',aiii<»iis »M)uhl have i*i\abled tlieni to extricate them- 

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« '• /■ '•• - ai)d l":>v,r'LV .r ^- Ir'ts, e\<^''^»'"iiaii<»ns 

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'ration I'l'iMunted even difficiulv. 

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: :•.»• b'{^< and the .-.' :\ -ks of the biriK ; diM»ij ravines 
'; '■ w^ «'overMl uitli fori-^t t;e'\-^, wuicli iio Olx^^ oi' the 

'". • 1 ever d^- ru/l* • 1:"t^Iiis abo*e stdl i lore 

'■>re, crowi »>d with arbonY»u-' -ImI*-. ; 

\y lu.] ■lyd(*^''*''n'^n::^ toi-rirer .-tr •;jii5>, 

'•' 4iiLt \ :j\ tu li.v' . 'tan r^-ivp- 

• i^ h- J. -i ^';.in on the top 'd' a 

:/o liT iiuilv ;»d-rned h^b/.-^. with 

*'• »i'r >» v.-»vre \\;»it: 'l', an 1 we w»u*e 

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•'-'■ '^ • * r .ii\ in llie :i.t\ .: t drec^^t:. 



'^ty•^ 



LA LAQUNA AND TAYABAS. 39 

The Alcalde called them his Amazanas ; and a pretty 
spokeswoman mformed us, in very pure Castilian, 
that they were come to escort us to Luchan, which 
was ahout a league distant. The welcome was as 
noyel as it was unexpected. I observed the Tagdlas 
mounted indifferently on the off or near side of their 
horses. Excellent equestrians were they ; and they 
galloped and caracolled to the right and the left, 
and flirted with their embellished whips. A band 
of music headed us ; and the Indian houses which 
we passed bore the accustomed demonstrations of 
welcome. The roads had even a greater number 
of decorations — arches of ornamented bamboos on 
both sides of the way, and firing of guns an- 
nouncing our approach. The Amazonas wore bon- 
nets adorned with ribands and flowers, — all had 
kerchiefs of embroidered pina on their shoulders, 
and variously coloured skirts and gowns of native 
manufacture added to the picturesque effect. So 
they gambolled along — before, behind, or at our 
sides where the roads permitted it — ^and seemed quite 
at ease in all their movements. The convent was, 
as usual, our destination ; the presiding friar — 
quite a man of the world — cordial, amusing, even 
witty in his colloquies. He had most hospitably 
provided for our advent. All the principal people 
were invited to dinner. Many a joke went round, 
to which the friar contributed more than his share. 
Talking of the fair (if Indian girls can be so called), 
Captain Yansittart said he had thirty unmarried 
officers on board the Magidenne. 



40 PHILIPPmE ISLANDS. 

'^ A bargain,'' exclaimed the friar ; ^' send them 
hither,— I wiU find pretty wives for aU of them." 

" But you must convert them first.** 

" Ay ! that is my part of the bargain." 

" And you will get the marriage fees." 

" Do you think I forgot that ? " 

After dinner, or supper, as it was called, the 
Amazonas who had escorted us in the morning, 
accompanied by many more, were introduced ; the 
tables were cleared away ; and when I left the 
haU for my bedroom, the dancing was going on 
in full energy. 

Newspapers and books were lying about the rooms 
of the Iveat. The fri« h«l mo« c«ri«it, tlum 
most of his order: conversation with him was not 
without interest and instruction. 

We returned by a different road to Majayjay, for 
the purpose of visiting a splendid waterfall, where 
the descent of the river is reported to be 300 feet. 
We approached on a ledge of rock as near as we 
could to the cataract, the roar of which was awful ; 
but the quantity of mist and steam, which soon 
soaked our garments, obscured the vision and made 
it impossible for us to form any estimate of the 
depth of the fall. It is surrounded by charac" 
teristic scenery — mountains and woods — ^which we 
had no time to explore, and of which the natives 
could give us only an imperfect account : they 
knew there were deer, wild boars, buffaloes, and 
other game, but none had penetrated the wilder 
regions. A traveller now and then had scrambled 



4 



lake 



LA LAGUNA AND TAYABAS. 41 

over the rocks from the foot to the top of the 
waterfall. 

We returned to Majayjay again to he welcomed 
and entertained hy our hosts at the convent with 
the wonted hospitality ; and taking leave of our 
Alcalde, we proceeded to Santa Cruz, where, ei 
barking in our felucca, we coasted along the 
and landed at Calamha, a pueblo of about 4,000 
inhabitants ; carriages were waiting to convey us to 
Binan, stopping a short time at Santa Rosa, where 
the Dominican friars, who are the proprietors of 
large estates in the neighbourhood, invited us as 
usual to their convent. We tarried there but a short 
time. The roads are generally good on the borders 
of the Laguna, and we reached Binan before sunset, 
the Indians having in the main street formed them- 
selves in procession as we passed along. Flags, 
branches of flowering forest trees, and other devices, 
were displayed. First we passed between files of 
youths, then of maidens ; and through a triumphal 
arch we reached the handsome dwelling of a rich 
mestizo, whom we found decorated with a Spanish 
order, which had been granted to his father before 
him. He spoke English, having been educated at 
Calcutta, and his house — a very large one — ^gave 
abundant evidence that he had not studied in vain 
the arts of domestic civilization. The furniture, the 
beds, the tables, the cookery, were all in good taste, 
and the obvious sincerity of the kind reception added 
to its agreeableness. Great crowds were gathered 
together in the square which fronts the house of 



42 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

Pon Jos6 Alberto. Indians brought their game-cocks 
to be admired, but we did not encourage the display 
of their warlike virtues. There was much firing of 
guns, and a pyrotechnic display when the sim had 
gone down, and a large fire balloon, bearing the in- 
scription, ^^The people of Binan to their illus- 
trious visitors,** was successfully inflated, and soaring 
aloft, was lost sight of in the distance, but was ex- 
pected to tell the tale of our arrival to the Magi- 
denne in Manila Bay. Binan is a place of some 
importance. In it many rich mestizos and Indians 
dwell. It has more than 10,000 inhabitants. Large 
estates there are possessed by the Dominican friars, 
and the principal of them was among our earliest 
visitors. There, as elsewhere, the principalia, having 
conducted us to our head-quarters, came in a body 
to present their respects, the gobemadorcillo, who 
usually speaks Spanish, being the organ of the rest. 
Inquiries about the locality, thanks for the honours 
done us, were the commonplaces of our intercourse, 
but the natives were always pleased when ^^ the 
strangers from afar'' seemed to take an interest in 
their concerns. Nowhere did we see any marks of 
poverty ; nowhere was there any crowding, or rude- 
ness, or annoyance, in any shape. Actors and spec- 
tators seemed equally pleased ; in fact, our presence 
only gave them another holiday, making but a small 
addition to their regular and appointed festivals. 
Binan is divided by a river, and is about a mile 
from the Laguna. Its streets are of considerable 
width, and the neighbouring roads excellent. Ge- 



LA LAOUNA AND TATABAS. 43 

nerally the houses have gardens attached to them; 
some on a large scale. They are abundant in fruits 
of great variety. Sice is largely cultivated, as the 
river with its confluents affords ample means of 
irrigation. The lands are usually rented from the 
Dominicans, and the large extent of some of the 
properties assists economical cultivation. Until the 
lands are brought into productiveness, little rent is de- 
manded, and when they become productive the Mars 
have the reputation of being liberal landlords and 
allowing their tenants to reap large profits. It is 
said they are satisfied with one-tenth of the gross 
produce. A tenant is seldom disturbed in posses- 
sion if his rent be regularly paid. Much land is 
held by associations or companies known by the title 
of Casamahanes. There is an active trade between 
Binan and Manila. 

Greatly gratified with all we had seen, we again 
embarked and crossed the Laguna to Fasig. De- 
scending by that charming river, we reached Manila 
in the afternoon. 



44 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



CHAPTER m. 



HISTORY. 



A FEW sketches of the personal history of some of 
the captains-general of Manila will be an apt illus-* 
tration of the general character of the government, 
which, with some remarkable exceptions, appears to 
have been of a mild and paternal character ; while 
the Indians exhibit, when not severely dealt with, 
much meekness and docility, and a generally willing 
obedience. The subjugation of the wild tribes of the 
interior has not made the progress which might have 
been fairly looked for; but the military and naval 
forces at the disposal of the captain-general have 
always been small when the extent of his authority is 
considered. In fact, many conquests have had to be 
abandoned from inadequacy of strength to maintain 
them. The ecclesiastical influences, which have been 
established among the idolatrous tribes, are weak 
when they come in contact with any of the forms of 
Mahomedanism, as in the island of Mindanao, where 
the fanaticism of Mussulman faith is quite as strong 
as that among the Catholics themselves. Misunder- 
standings between the Church and State could 
hardly be avoided where each has asserted a predo- 
minant power, and such misunderstandings have often 



mSTOEY. 45 

led to the effusion of blood and the dislocation of 
goTernment. Mutual jealousies exist to the present 
hour, and as the friars, in what they deem the interests 
of the people, are sometimes hostile to the views of 
the civil authority, that authority has frequently a 
right to complain of being thwarted, or feebly aided, 
by the local clergy. 

While shortly recording the names of the captains- 
general to whom the government of the Philippines 
has been confided, I will select a few episodes from 
the history of the islands, which will show the 
character of the administration, and assist the better 
understanding of the position of the people. 

Miguel Lope de Legaspi, a Biscayan, upon whom 
the title of Conqueror of the Philippines has been 
conferred, was the first governor, and was nominated 
in 1565. He took possession of Manila in 1571} and 
died, it is said, of disgust and disappointment the 
following year. The city was invaded by Chinese 
pirates during the government of his successor Guide 
de Lavezares, who repulsed them, and received high 
honours from his sovereign, Philip II. Francisco de 
Saude founded in Camarines the city of Nueva 
Caceres, to which he gave the name of the place of 
his birth. He was a man of great ambition, who 
deposed one and enthroned another sultan of Borneo, 
and modestly asked from the king of Spain authority 
to conquer China, but was recommended to be less 
ambitious, and to keep peace with surrounding 
nations. Binquillo de Penarosa rescued Cagayan 
from a Japanese pirate, and founded New Segovia 



46 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

and Ar^valo in Fanay; his nephew succeeded 
him, and in doing honour to his memory set the 
Church of St. Augustin on fire; it spread to the 
city, of which a large part was destroyed. In 
1589, during the rule of Santiago de Vera, the only 
two ships which carried on the trade with New 
Spain were destroyed hy a hurricane in the port of 
Cavite. The next governor, Gomez Perez Dasma- 
rinas, sent to Japan the missionaries who were after- 
wards put to death; he headed an expedition to 
Moluco, hut on leaving the port of Mariveles his 
galley was separated from the rest of the fleet ; the 
Chinese crew rose, murdered him, and fled in his 
vessel to Cochin China. His son Luis followed him 
as governor. A Franciscan firiar, who had accom- 
panied the unfortunate expedition of his father, 
informed him that he would find, as he did, his 
patent of appointment in a box which the Chinese 
Had landed in the province of Hocos, and his title 
was in consequence recognised. Francisco Telle de 
Guzman, who entered upon the government in 1596, 
was unfortunate in his attempts to subdue the natives 
of Mindanao, as was one of his captains, who had 
been sent to drive away the Dutch from Mariveles. 

In the year 1603 three mandarins arrived in 
Manila from China. They said that a Chinaman, 
whom they brought as a prisoner, had assured the. 
Emperor that the island of Cavite was of gold, that 
the Chinaman had staked his life upon his veracity, 
and that they had come to learn the truth of his 
story. They soon after left, having been conducted 



HISTORY. 47 

by the governor to examine Cavite for themselves. 
A report speedily spread that an invasion of the 
Philippines hy a Chinese army of 100,000 was in 
contemplation, and a Chinese called Eng Eang, who 
was supposed to he a great friend of the Europeans, 
was charged with a portion of the defences. A 
nomher of Japanese, the avowed enemies of the 
Chinese, were admitted to the confidence of the 
governor, and communicated to the Chinese the 
mformation that the government suspected a plot. 
A plot there was, and it was said the Chinese deter- 
mined on a rising, and a general massacre of the 
Spaniards on the vespers of St. Francis' day. A 
Philippine woman, who was living with a Chinaman, 
denounced the project to the curate of Quiapo, who 
advised the governor. A numher of the conspira- 
tors were assemhled at a half-league's distance from 
Manila, and Eng Eang was sent with some Spaniards 
to put down the movement. The attempt failed, 
and Eng Eang was afterwards discovered to have 
heen one of the principal promoters of the insurrec- 
tion. In the evening the Chinese attacked Quiapo 
and Tondo, murdering many of the natives. They 
were met hy a hody of 130 Spaniards, nearly all of 
whom perished, and their heads were sent to Parian, 
which the insurgents captured, and hesi^fed the city 
of Manila from Dilao. The danger led to great 
exertions on the part of the Spaniards, the ecclesias- 
tics taking a very active part. The Chinese endea- 
voured to scale the walls, hut were repuked. The 
monks declared that St. Francis had appeared in 



48 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

person to encourage them. The Chinese withdrew 
to their positions, hut the Spaniards sallied out from 
the citadel, humt and destroyed Parian, and pursued 
the flying Chinese to Cahuyao. New reinforcements 
arrived, and the flight of the Chinese continued as 
far as the province of Batangas, where they were 
again attacked and dispersed. It is said that of 24,000 
revolted Chinese only one hundred escaped, who were 
reserved for the galleys. Ahout 2,000 Chinese were 
left, who had not involved themselves in the move- 
ment. Eng Kang was decapitated, and his head 
exposed in an iron cage. It was three years after 
this insurrection that the Court of Madrid had the 
first knowledge of its existence. 

Pedro de Acuna, after the suppression of this 
revolt, conquered Temate, and carried away the 
king, but died suddenly, in 1606, after governing four 
years. Cristobal Tellez, during his short rule, de- 
stroyed a settlement of the Japanese in Dilao. Juan 
de Silva brought with him, in 1609, reinforcements 
of European troops, and in the seventh year of his 
government, made great preparations for attacking 
the Dutch, but died after a short illness. In 1618, 
Alonzo Fajardo came to the Philippines, with con- 
ciliatory orders as regarded the natives, and was 
popular among them. He punished a revolt in 
Buhol, sent an unsuccessful mission to Japan, and 
in a fit of jealousy killed his wife. Suspecting her 
infidelity, he surprised her at night in a house, where 
she had Deen accustomed to give rendezvous to her 
paramour, and found her in a dress which left no 



\ 



HISTORY. 49 

doubt of her crime. The governor called in a priest, 
eommanded him to administer the sacrament, and, 
spite of the prayers of the ecclesiastic, he put her to 
death by a stab from his own dagger. This was in 
1622. Melancholy took possession of him, and he 
died in 1624. Two interim governors followed. Juan 
Nino de Tabera arrived in 1626. He brought with 
him 600 troops, drove the Dutch from their holds, 
and sent Olaso, a soldier, celebrated for his deeds in 
Flanders, against the Jolo Indians ; but Olaao failed 
utterly, and returned to Manila upon his discomfiture. 

A strange event took place in 1630. The holy 
sacrament had been stolen in a glass vase, from the 
cathedral. A general supplication (rogativa) was 
ordered ; the archbishop issued from his palace bare- 
footed, his head covered with ashes, and a rope 
round his neck, wandering about to discover where 
the vase was concealed. All attempts having failed, 
so heavy were the penitences, and so intolerable 
the grief of the holy man, that he sank under the 
calamity, and a fierce contest between the ecclesias- 
tical and civil functionaries was the consequence of 
his death. 

In 1635 there was a large arrival of rich converted 
Japanese, who fled from the fierce persecutions to 
which the Christians had been subjected in Japan ; 
but a great many Catholic missionaries hastened to 
that country, in order to be honoured with the crown 
of martyrdom. Another remarkable ecclesiastical 
quarrel took place at this time. A commissary, 
lately arrived from Europe, ordered that all the friars 



60 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

with beards should be charged with the missions to 
China and Japan ; and all the shorn friars should 
remain in the Philippines. The archbishop opposed 
this, as the Pope's bulls had no regulations about 
beards. Fierce debates were also excited by the 
exercise of the right of asylum to criminals, having 
committed offences, either against the military or the 
civil authority. The archbishop excommunicated — 
the commandant of artillery rebelled. The arch- 
bishop fined him — ^the vicar apostolic confirmed the 
sentence. The Audiencia annulled the proceedings 
— the Bishop of Camarines was called on as the 
arbiter, and absolved the commandant. Appeals 
followed, and one of the parties was accused of slan- 
dering the Most Holy Father. The Jesuits took part 
against the archbishop, who called all the monks 
together, and they fined the Jesuits 4,000 dollars. 
The governor defended the Jesuits, and required the 
revocation of the sentence in six hours. The quarrel 
did not end here : but there was a final compromise, 
each party making some concessions to the other. 

The disasters which followed the insurrection of 
Eng Kang did not prevent the infiux of Chinese 
into the islands, and especially into the province of 
Laguna, where another outbreak, in which it is said 
30,000 Chinese took part, occurred in 1639. They 
divided themselves into guerrillas, who devastated 
the country ; but were subdued in the following year, 
seven thousand having surrendered at discretion. 
Spanish historians say that the hatred of the Indians 
to the Chinese awaked them from their habitual 



HISTORY, 51 

apathy, and that in the destruction of the intruders 
thej exhihited infinite zeal and actiyity. 

In the struggles between the natives and the 
Spaniards, even the missionaries were not always 
safe, and the Spaniards were often betrayed by those 
m whom they placed the greatest confidence. The 
heavy exactions and gabelles inflicted on the Indians 
under Fajardo led to a rising in Falopag, when the 
Jesuit curate was killed and the convent and church 
sacked. The movement spread through several of 
the islands, and many of the prisoners were delivered 
in Caraga to the keeping of an Indian, called Dabao, 
who so well fulfilled his mission, that when the governor 
came to the fortress, to claim the captives, Dabao seized 
and beheaded his Excellency, and, with the aid of the 
prisoners, destroyed most of the Spaniards in the 
neighbourhood, including the priests; so that only 
six, among whom was an Augustine barefooted friar, 
escaped, and fied to the capital. Reinforcements 
having arrived from Manila, the Indians surrendered, 
being promised a general pardon. ^^ The promise,'* 
says the Spanish historian, ^* was not kept ; but the 
leaders of the insurrection were hanged, and multi- 
tudes of the Indians sent to prison." The governor- 
general ^* did not approve of this violation of a 
promise made in the king's name," but ordered the 
punishment of the Spanish chiefe, and the release of 
such natives as remained in prison. 

In 1645, for two months there was a succession of 
fearful earthquakes. In Cagayan a mountain was 
overturned, and a whole town engulphed at its foot. 

• E 2 



52 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

Torrents of water and mud burst forth in many 
places. All the public buildings in the capital were 
destroyed, except the convent and the church of the 
AugustineSy and that of the Jesuits. Six hundred 
persons were buried in Manila under the ruins of 
their houses, and 3,000 altogether are said to have 
lost their lives. 

De Lara was distinguished for his religious senti- 
ments. On his arrival in 1653 he refused to land 
till the atchbishop had preceded him and consecrated 
the ground on which he was to tread. He celebrated 
a jubilee under the authority of the Pope, by which 
the country was to be purified from ^* the crimes, 
censures, and excommunications" with which, for 
so many years, it had been afflicted. The arch- 
bishop, from an elevated platform in Manila, blessed 
the islands and their inhabitants in the presence of 
an immense concourse of people. Reconciliations, 
confessions, restitutions followed these ^^ days of 
sanctity;" but the benedictions seem to have pro- 
duced little benefit, as they were followed by earth- 
quakes, tempests, insurrections, unpunished piracies, 
and, in the words of a Spanish writer, « a web of 
anxieties and calamities.'* Missionaries were sent 
to convert the Mahomedans, but they were put to 
death, and many professed converts turned traitors. 
Rung Sing, the piratical chief, who had conquered 
Formosa, and who had 1,000 junks and 100,000 men 
under his orders, had sent an envoy to Manila de- 
manding the subjection of the islands to his autho- 
rity or threatening immediate invasion. The threat 



mSTORY. 53 

created a general alarm : the Chinese were all ordered 
to quit the country; they revolted, and almost all 
were murdered. "It is wonderful," says De Mas, 
" that any Chinamen shoidd have come to the 
Philippines after the repeated slaughters" of their 
countrymen at different periods, though it is certain 
they have often hrought down the thunderholt on 
their own heads. De Lara, having heen accused of 
corruption, was fined 60,000 dollars, pardoned, and 
returned to Spain, where he hecame an ecclesiastic, 
and died in Malaga, his native city. 

The "religiosity," to use a Spanish word, of 
De Lara was followed hy a very different temper 
in his successor, Salcedo, a Belgian hy birth, nomi- 
nated in 1663. He quarrelled with the priests, fined 
and condemned to banishment the archbishop, kept 
him standing while waiting for an audience, insulted 
him when he had obtained it ; and on the death of the 
archbishop a few months afterwards, there were royal 
fiestas^ while the services De ProfundiSj in honour 
of the dead, were prohibited as incompatible with the 
civil festivities. The Inquisition interfered in the 
progress of time, and its agents, assisted by an old 
woman servant, who held the keys, entered the 
palace, found the Governor asleep, put irons upon 
him, and carried him a prisoner to the Augustine 
convent. They next shipped him off to be tried by 
the Holy Office in Mexico, but he died on his way 
thither. The King of Spain cancelled and con- 
demned the proceedings, confiscated the property of 
those who had been concerned in them, and directed 



54 PHILIPPINB ISLANDS. 

all that had been seized belonging to Salcedo to be 
restored to his heirs. 

Manuel de Leon, in 16699 obtained great reputa- 
tion among the ecclesiastics. He governed for eight 
years and left all his property to obrds pias. His 
predecessor, Manuel de la Fena Bonifaz (nominated 
provisionally), had refused to surrender his authority. 
He was declared an intruder, his goods were con- 
fiscated, and his arrest was ordered, but he sought 
refuge in the convent of the Recoletos, where he 
died. A quaiTel took place between the compe- 
titors for the provisional government — the one ap- 
pointed enjoyed his authority only for six months. 
He was, on his death, succeeded by his competitor, 
who was displaced by Juan de Vargas Hurtado in 
1678. Great misunderstandings between the clergy 
and the civilians took place about this time. The 
governor was excommunicated, having been ordered 
on every holiday to appear in the cathedral and 
in the churches of Farcan and Binondo, barefooted 
and with a rope round his neck. Befusing to 
submit to such a degradation, he lived a solitary 
life, excluded from all intercourse, on the banks 
of the river, until he obtained permission to embark 
for New Spain; he died broken-hearted on the 
voyage. 

It must be remembered, in looking over the 
ancient records of the Fhilippines, that the sole his- 
torians are the monks, and that their applause or con- 
demnation can hardly be deemed a disinterested or 
equitable judgment. Hurtado is accused by them 



HISTORY. 56 

of many acts of despotism : they say that, in order to 
accomplish his objects, he menaced the friars with 
starvation, and by guards, prevented food reaching 
the convents ; that he interfered with the election 
of ecclesiastics, persecuted and ordered the imprison- 
ment of Bonifaz, his immediate predecessor (provi- 
sionally appointed), who fled to a convent of Recoletos 
(barefooted Augustines), and was protected by them. 
The Jesuits denied his claim to protection, but during 
the controversy Bonifaz died, and the records remain 
to exhibit another specimen of the bitterness of the 
odium theologicum and of the unity and harmony of 
which the Church of Bome sometimes boasts as the 
results of her infallibility. The archbishop was at 
this time quarrelling with the civil tribunals, to which 
he addressed his mandamus^ and answered their recal- 
citrancy by reminding them that all secular authority 
was subordinate to ecclesiastical. The archbishop 
was placed under arrest and ordered to be banished 
by the Audiencia. He was conveyed by force in his 
pontifical robes to the vessel which transported him 
to Pangasinan. The Dominicans, to whose order the 
archbishop belonged, launched their excommunica- 
tions and censures, and troops were sent to the 
convent to prevent the ringing of bells and the alarm 
and gathering of the people. The provincial, who had 
taken the active part in resistance, was, with other 
friars, ordered to be banished to Spain. When about 
to be removed, the dean commanded the soldiers 
present to kiss the provincial's feet and do him all 
honour while he poured out his benedictions on the 



56* PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

recalcitrant friars. In the midst of all this confusion 
a new governor (Curuzcalegui) arrived, in 1684, who 
took part with the clergy, and declared himself in 
favour of the hanished archbishop, and condemned 
his judges to banishment. One of them fled to the 
Jesuit's College, a sanctuary, but was seized by the 
troops. This by no means settled the quarrel, the 
following out of which is too complicated and too 
uninteresting to invite further scrutiny here. 

In 1687 the King of Spain sent out a commissioner 
to inquire into the troubles that reigned in the Phi- 
lippines. The Pope had taken up the cause of the 
more violent of the clergy, and Pardo (the arch- 
bishop), thus encouraged in his intemperance, 
declared the churches of the Jesuits desecrated in 
which the bodies of the civilians had been buried, 
who had adjudicated against the monks. Their 
remains were disinterred, but most of the judges who 
had defended the rights of the State agsdnst the eccle- 
siastical invasions were dead before the commissioner 
arrived ; and, happily for the public peace, the turbu- 
lent prelate himself died in 1689* Curuzcalegui also 
died in 1689* After a short provisional interregnum 
(during which Yalenzuela, the Spanish minister, who 
had been banished to the Philippines by Charles II., 
on his return homeward, was killed by the kick of a 
horse in Mexico), Fausto Cruzat y Grongora, was in 
1690 invested with the government. His rule is most 
remarkable for its financial prosperity. It lasted for 
eleven years, for his successor, Domingo de Zubalburo, 
though nominated in 1694, did not arrive till 1701. 



HISTORY. 67 

He improved the harbour, but was dismissed by the 
King of Spain in consequence of his having ad- 
mitted a Papal Legate a latere without requiring the 
presentation of his credentials*. The Audiencia de- 
manded them, and the Legate replied he was sur- 
prised at their venturing to question his powers. He 
frightened the people by this assumption, and pro- 
ceeded to found a college in the name of St. Clement. 
The king was so exasperated that he ordered the 
college to be demolished, fined the Oidores (judges) 
a thousand dollars, and removed the dean from his 
office. Martin de Ursua y Arrimendi arrived in 1 709, 
and died much regretted in 1715 ; he checked the 
influx of the Chinese, and thus conciliated popular 
prejudices. The interim governor, Jos6 Torralba, 
was accused of peculation to the amount of 700,000 
dollars. He was called on by royal order to reim- 
burse and find security for 40,000 dollars ; but failing 
was sent to prison in fetters. He was ordered after- 
wards to be sent to Spain, but agreed to pay 120,000 
dollars. He had not the money, and died a beggar. 
Fernando Bustillo (Bustamente) landed in 1717* 
He spent large sums in useless embassies, and lived 
ostentatiously and expensively. He set about finan- 
cial reforms, and imprisoned many persons indebted 
to the State. He seized some of the principal 
inhabitants of the capital, menaced the judges, 
who fled (o the convents for protection. The 
governor took Torralba into favour, releasing him 
from prison, and using him to undermine the autho- 
rity of the Audiencia, by investing him with its 



58 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS* 

r 

powers. He ordered that on the discharge of a piece 
of artillery, all the Spaniards should repair to the 
palace: he arrested the archbishop, the chapter of 
the cathedral, several prelates and ecclesiastics, 
when a tumult followed ; crowds rushed to the palace; 
they killed the governor and his son, who had 
hurried thither to defend his father. Francisco de 
la Cuesta was called upon to take charge of the 
government. The remaining children of Bustillo 
were sent to Mexico, and the Audiencia made a 
report of what had taken place to the king, who 
appointed Toribio Jos6 Cosio y Campo, and directed 
the punishment of those who had caused the former 
governor s death ; but under the influence of a Fran- 
ciscan monk, Cosio was induced to consent to various 
delays, so that nothing was done in the matter, and 
the government in 1729 was transferred to Fernando 
Valdes y Tamon, who reformed the military exercises, 
sent an expedition to conquer the island of Falaos, 
failed in the attempt, and was succeeded by a 
Fleming, Caspar de la Torre, in 1739* He dealt 
so severely with the fiscal Arroyo as to cause his 
death. He was disliked, became morose and solitary, 
and died in 1 745. The bishop elect of Ilocos, feither 
John Arrechedera, was the next governor, and the 
Sultan of Jolo, who desired to be baptized, visited 
him in Manila. The archbishop, to whom the 
matter was referred, declared that the Sultan had 
been received into the bosom of the Church by the 
Dominican friars of Fanogui. The Marquis of 
Obancfo took possession of the government in 1750. 



HISTORY. 59 

The archbishop, whom he displaced, had received 
orders from the Spanish Cabinet to expel the 
Chinese from the islands; but whether from the 
honest conviction that the execation of the order 
would be pernicious to the permanent interests of 
the Philippines — in which judgment he was per- 
fectly right — or (as the natives avow) from an un- 
warrantable affection for the Chinese, he, on various 
pretexts, delayed the publication of the royal man- 
date. Obando involved himself in quarrels with 
the Mussulman inhabitants of Mindanao, for which 
he had made no adequate preparation. He deter- 
mined to restore the Sultan of Jolo, but on reaching 
Zamboanga he proceeded against the Sultan for 
unfaithfulness {infidencia) ^ sent him to Manila, and 
caused him to be put into prison. The Mahomedans 
revolted. Obando desired to take the command 
against them. The Audiencia objected to the ex- 
posure of the person of the governor. The expedi- 
lion failed, and disorders increased. He left the 
government in a most unsatisfactory state, and died 
on his way homewards. Pedro Manuel de Arandia 
assumed the government in 1754. He had some 
successes against the Mahomedans (or Moors, as 
they are generally called by Spanish writers). He 
intended to restore the Sultan of Jolo, but he 
involved himself in quarrels with the clergy, and his 
proceedings were disapproved by the Spanish Court. 
His unpopularity led to a fixed melancholy, under 
whose influences he died in 1759« Though he left 
his property for charitable purpose43, the fact of its 



60 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

amounting to 250,000 dollars is urged as evidence 
of the corrupt character of his administration. The 
Bishop of Zebu I followed by the Archbishop of 
Manila, Manuel Boyo, held the government provi- 
sionally on the death of Arandia. It was Boyo who 
surrendered Manila, and transferred the island to the 
British in 1762.* He was made a prisoner, and died 

* The account given by Spanish writers of the taking of Manila 
by the British forces, and here translated from Buzeta^s narrative, 
seems given with as much fairness as could be expected. 

''In 1762, the city of Manila had reached to wonderful pro- 
sperity. Its commercial relations extended to the Moluccas, Borneo, 
many parts of India, Malacca, Siam, Cochin China, China, Japan — 
in a word, to all places between the Isthmus of Suez and Behring's 
Straits. But at the end of this year a disaster visited the city 
which prostrated it for many years afler. The English, then at 
war with Spain, presented themselves with considerable forces. 
The most illustrious Archbishop Don Manuel Royo, then tempo- 
rarily in charge of the government, had received no notice of any 
declaration of war, and had made no preparations for defence. 
The enemy's fleet was the bearer of the news. The garrison was 
composed of the regiment del rey, which ought to have numbered 
2,000 men, but was reduced to 500, by detachments, desertion and 
disease. There were only 80 artillerymen, all Indians, who knew 
little about the management of guns. In this state of matters, the 
English fleet suddenly appeared on the 22nd September, 1762. 
It consisted of thirteen ships, with 6,880 excellent troops. In total 
ignorance of public aflairs, the fleet was supposed to be one of 
Chinese aampans. Some defensive measures were adopted, and an 
officer was sent to inquire of the commander of the fleet what was 
his nation, and what the object of his unannounced visit. The 
messenger returned the following day, accompanied by two English 
officers, who stated that the conquest of the islands was the purpose 
of the expedition. They were answered that the islands would de- 
fend themselves. On the night of the u^;, the enemy effected 
their disembarkation at the redoubt of St. Anthony Abbot. An 
attempt was made to dislodge them ; it failed. They were flred 
upon in the morning of the 24th, but with little effect, so well were 



HISTORY. 61 

in prison in 1764, of grief and shame it was said. 
Simon de Anda y Salazar, one of the judges of 

they entrenched and protected by various buildings. In order to 
arrest their proceedings, it was determined to make a yigorous sally, 
whose arrangement was left to M. Fallu, a French officer in the 
service of Spain ; but this valiant soldier soon found that the 
foreign troops were too numerous to be dealt with by his forces. 
He fought during the night, and did not return to the citadel till 
9 A.1L of the following day. There was a suspension of hostilities, 
and the invaders sent a flag of truce to the city. The bombard- 
ment continued on the 25th, and our grape-shot did much damage 
to the enemy. On the 28th, in the morning, the English general 
asked for the head of an officer who, having been the bearer of a 
£ag of truce two days before, had been decapitated by the Indians. 
He demanded also the delivery of the persons who had committed the 
crime, and, if refused, threatened horrible reprisals. The require* 
ment was complied with ; and the Archbishop, who was exercising 
the functions of government, and directing the defence of the city, 
showed himself on horseback to the camp of the enemy, but with- 
out result. On the 29th, the English squadron received a rein- 
forcement of three ships, which bore 850 Frenchmen from 
Pondicherry, who sought an opportunity to turn upon the English, 
and nominated two of their confidants to arrange their desertion and 
the accomplishment of their purpose ; but the two confederates were 
supposed by the Indians to be Englishmen, and, instead of being 
welcomed, were slain. The English, being informed of what had 
taken place, secured themselves against further treachery on the part 
of the French. On the 3rd of October, a large force of Pam- 
pangan Indians having arrived, a sally was resolved upon : it was 
very bloody, but of no benefit for the defence. The following day 
the besiegers made a breach in the Fundicion bulwarks. A council 
of war was held, and the military decided that a capitulation was 
imperative: the citizens were for continuing the defence. Un- 
fortunately the Archbishop was carried away from this opinion, 
which led to so many disasters for Manila. On the 4th, there 
was a general conviction that this city would soon be com- 
peUed to surrender ; and the title of the Lieutenant to the Go« 
vemment having been conferred on the judge (oidor) Simon 
de Anda y Salazar, in order that he might transfer the seat of 
Spanish authority to some other part of the island, and provide 



62 FTnTiTPPmE ISLANDS. 

the Boyal Audiencia, ivas charged with the govern- 
ment during the possession of the capital by the 

for its defence, he lefl the same erening at 10 p.m., in a launch with 
a few rowers, a Tagdl servant, 500 dollars in silver, and forty sheets 
of official stamped paper. These were his resources against an 
enemj having sixteen vessels in the bay, and who were on the 
point of entering the city. Thus without an army or a fleet, a 
man of more than threescore years reached Bulacan, determined 
on pertinacious opposition to those conquerors who were about to 
enter the capitaL They did enter on the following day, leaving their 
entrenchments and advancing in three columns to the breach, which 
was scarcely practicable. Forty Frenchmen of Pondicherry led 
and found no resistance. The fortress was compelled to surrender. 
The city was sacked for forty hours, neither the chiu*ches nor the 
palace of the Archbishop or Governor finding any mercy. The 
loss of the Spaniards during the siege was three officers, two 
sergeants, fifty troops of the line, and thirty civilians of the militia, 
without reckoning the wounded; the Indians had 300 killed and 
400 wounded. The besiegers lost about 1,000 men, of whom 16 
were officers. The fleet fired upon the city more than 5,000 bombs, 
and more than 20,000 balls. It might have been hoped that a sack 
of forty hours and the capitulation of the garrison would have satis- 
fied the enemy; it was not so, for during the sackage the English 
commander informed the Archbishop that all the inhabitants would 
be massacred if two millions of dollars were not immediately paid 
in coin, and two millions more in drafts on the Spanish treasury. 
To this it was necessary to accede, and the charitable Amds and the 
silver ornaments of the churches were devoted to the payment. 

While the events of Manila had this tragic termination, Anda 
collected in Bulacan the Alcalde, the ecclesiastics, and other 
Spaniards, showed them his authority, which was recognised with 
enthusiasm. On the evening of the same day news of the fall of 
Manila was received, and Anda published a proclamation declaring 
himself Governor and Captain-General of the Philippine Islands, 
and chose for the seat of his government Bacalor in Pampanga. 
He thus for fifleen months carried on the war, notwithstanding the 
insurrections fomented by the English, especially among the Chinese, 
and notwithstanding the general disorganization of the provinces. 
In fact, he almost kept the English blockaded in Manila, from 
whose walls they scarcely dared to venture. In Malenta, a pro- 



HISTORY. 63 

English, and established his authority in Fampanga, 
where he maintained himself till the arrival of Fran- 
cisco de la Torre, who was provisionally appointed 
by the Crown, and who, through Anda, received 
back Manila from the British. Jos^ Raou took pos- 
session of the government in 1766. 

The Sultan of Jolo, replaced on his throne by the 
Cnglish, caused great molestations to the island of 
Mindanao, against Baou, who was unable to protect 
his countrymen. The expulsion of the Jesuits having 
been determined on, the secret purpose was commu- 
nicated to the Governor. He was accused of having 
divulged, and of concealing a writing-desk supposed 
to contain important documents. He was ordered to 
be imprisoned in his own house, where he died. 

One of the monkish historians gives the following 
account of the manner in which the rebellious Indians 
were disposed of : — " Arza, with the efficacious aid of 
the Augustin fathers, and of the faithful (who were 
many), went to Yigan, and repeated what he had done 
in Cagallan ; for he hanged more than a hundred, 

perty of the Augustin friars, a French sergeant, named Bretagne, 
who deserted from the English, and induced some thirty of his 
countrymen to follow his example, was made captain, and directed 
operations against the invaders, to whom he appears to have given 
much trouble by intercepting provisions, and attacking stragglers 
from the city. The English offered 5,000 dollars for the delivery 
of Anda alive into their hands. But on the 3rd July, 1763, a 
British frigate arrived announcing an armistice between the belli* 
gerent powers, and directing the cessation of hostilities. In 
March, 1764, news arrived of the treaty of peace ; the English 
evacuated Manila, and Spanish authority was re-established. The 
mischief done by the English was repaired by Governor Basco.** 



64 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

and among them Dona Gabriela, the wife of Silang, 
a mestiza of malas manas (bad tricks), not less 
valiant than her husband, the notary, and a great 
many cabecillas (heads of groups of families), who 
fled to the mountains of Alva ; as to the rest of the 
rabble of this revolted crew, he was satisfied with 
giving them each two hundred lashes, while exposed 
on the pillory. He sent 3,000 Hocos triumphant and 
rich with booty to Fangasinan. This was in 1763.*'* 
After the capture of Manila by the British, they 
were naturally suspected and accused of fomenting 
and encouraging the many insurrections which fol- 
lowed that event. The impetuous and despotic 
character of Anda, who assumed the governorship 
of the islands, had made him many enemies, and he 
seems to have considered all opposition to his arbi- 
trary measures as evidence of treacherous confedera- 
tion with the English. No doubt their presence 
was welcomed, especially by the Mussulman popula- 
tion of the southern islands, as afibrding them some 
hopes of relief from Spanish oppression ; but even the 
Philippine historians do justice to the British autho- 
rities, and state that they punished the piratical acts 
of their allies, without distinction of persons. The 
Spaniards, however, encouraged Tenteng, a Mahome- 
dan datQ (chieftain), to attack the British, whose 
garrison, in Batambangan, was reduced by sickness 
from 400 men to seventy-five infantry and twenty- 
eight artillery. But it was, says De Mas, " solely in 
expectation of booty." From the woods in the night 

• * MS, of the Siege of Manila, by Fr. Juan de Santa Maria.* 



HISTORY. 65 

they stole down on the -English while they were 
asleep, set fire to the houses, and murdered all hut 
six of the garrison, who escaped in a hoat with 
the English commandant; they then hoisted the 
white flag, and did not spare the life of a single Eng- 
lishman left on shore. The Mahomedans seized much 
spoil in arms and money. The Sultan of Jolo and 
the dates, fearing the vengeance of the English, dis- 
claimed all participation in the affair ; but on Ten- 
teng*s reaching Jolo, and delivering up his plunder to 
the authorities, they, ^^ thinking there were now arms 
and money enough to resist both Spaniards and 
English," declared Tenteng to be a hero, and well 
deserving of his country. A few months afterwards, 
a British ship of war appeared, and obtained such 
reparation as the case allowed. 

Anda had won so much credit for resisting the 
English, that he was rewarded by his sovereign 
with many honours, made Councillor of Castile, and 
returned as governor to Manila, in 1770. He im- 
prisoned his predecessor, many of the judges, the 
government secretary, a colonel, and other persons. 
He sent some to Spain, and banished others from the 
capital. He involved himself in ecclesiastical quar- 
rels, met with many vexations, and retired to the 
estate of the Becoleto friars, where he died in 1766. 
De Mas says, in reference to this period: — "For 
more than two centuries, the Philippines had been 
for the crown of Spain a hotbed of so many disputes, 
anxieties, and expenses, that the abandonment of the 
colony was again and again proposed by the minis- 

F 



66 PHILIFPINB ISLANDS. 

ters ; but the Catholic monarchs could noTor consent 
to the perdition of all ^he souls that had been con- 
queredy and which it was still hoped to conquer, in 
these regions." After a short interregnum tempo- 
rarily filled by Pedro Sarrio, Jose Basco arrived in 
1778. He established the tobacco monopoly, sent 
off to Europe three judges, and compelled other 
functionaries to quit the capital, but, after two years* 
occupation of the gubernatorial seat, he returned to 
Spain, and obtained other employment from the 
crown. Pedro Sarrio was again invested with the 
temporary authority. Felix Berenguer de Marquina 
arrived in 178B, and ruled six years. He was 
accused of corruption, but absolved by the king. 
Rafael Maria de Aguilar was nominated in 1793. 

In 1800 the governor-general having consulted the 
assessor on the conduct to be observed towards the 
Mussulman pirates who had entered the port of 
Manila, received a reply which is somewhat grandilo- 
quent : — ^^ It is time all the royal wishes should be 
fulfilled, and that these islands cease to be tributaries 
to a vile and despicable Mahomedan. Let him feel 
the direful visitations of a nation, whose reputation 
has been so often offended and outraged, but which 
has tolerated and concealed its wrongs the better to 
inflict its vengeance ; let the crown be cleansed from 
the tarnish, which in this port, and in the sight 
of so many European nations, it has received from 
the low rabble (canalla). The repeated disasters 
of the Indians appear to have rendered Spaniards 
insensible ; yet is there a man who, having witnessed 



insTORY. 67 

the desolation, murders, ruin of families, has not his 
soul moved with a desire of revenge against the deso- 
lator and destroyer? Were they our wives, sons, 
fathers, brothers, with what clamour should we call 
on the authorities to punish the criminal, and to 

restore our freedom Justice, pity, the 

obligation of your consciences, upon which the royal 

conscience reposes, all plead together 

Eternal memory for him who shall release us from 
the yoke which has oppressed us for ages I " 

A treaty was concluded between the government of 
Manila and the Sultan of Mindanao in 1805. The 
Sultans minister of state was a Mexican deserter; 
the ambassador of the Spaniards a Mexican convict. 
He was, in truth, hardly dealt with, for, after making 
the treaty, he was ordered to fulfil the term of his 
transportetion. 

In 1811, a conspiracy broke out in Bocos, where 
a new god was proclaimed by the Indians, under the 
name of Lungao. There was a hierarchy of priests 
appointed in his honour. They made their first at- 
tempts to convert the idolaters in Cagayan, and to 
engage them to take part against the Spaniards. The 
Catholic missionaries were the special object of their 
dislike, but the information which these ecclesiastics 
gave to the authorities enabled them to suppress the 
rebellion and to punish the leaders. 

The cholera invaded Manila in 1819- A massacre 
of foreigners and Chinese was the consequence, who 
were accused (especially the English) of poisoning 
the wells. Bobberies and other excesses followed the 

F 2 



68 PHUIPPrNE ISLANDS- 

murders* The Host was paraded in vain through 
the streets. The carnage ceased when no more 
victims were to be found, but Spanish persons and 
property were respected. 

Under the government of Martinez, in 1823, a 
rising took, place, headed by Novales, a Manilaman 
in the Spanish service. As many as 800 of the 
troops joined the movement. They took possession 
of the palace, murdered the king's lieutenant, and, 
according to all appearances, would have overthrown 
the government, had there been any organization or 
unity of purpose. But a few courageous men gathered 
around them numbers faithful to the king and the 
royalist party. Soldiers arrived ; the insurgents 
faltered ; the inconstant people began to distrust the 
revolutionary leaders, and Novales was left with one 
piece of artillery, and about 300 to 400 followers. 
Overpowered, he fled, but was compelled to sur- 
render. He was brought to a drumhead court- 
martial, declared he had no accomplices, but was the 
sole seducer of the troops, and was shot with one of 
his sergeants the same day. Amnesty was pro- 
claimed, after twenty non-commissioned officers had 
been executed. 

A serious insurrection broke out in Tayabas during 
the short rule of Oraa (1841-43). The Spaniards 
say it was the work of a Tagal called Apolinano, 
lay-brother of the convent of Lucban, not twenty 
years old, who established a brotherhood ( Cojradid) 
exclusively confined to the native Indians. The ob- 
ject does not seem to have been known, but the 



HIiSTORY. 69 

meetings of the Gofrades excited alarms and sus- 
picions* The archbishop called on the captain- 
general to put down the assemblies, which in some 
places had sought legalization from the authorities. 
The arrest of Apolinano was ordered, upon which 
he fled to the mountains, where he was joined by 
3,000 Indians, and it was reported in Manila that 
he had raised the cry of rebellion in Igsavan, On 
this the Alcalde mayor, accompanied by two Fran- 
ciscan friars, a few troops, and two small pieces of 
artillery, marched upon the denounced rebels. They 
fired upon the Spaniards and killed the Alcalde. 
On the news reaching the capital, a force of about 
800 men was collected. It is said the positions held 
by Apolinano were impregnable, but he had not kept 
the promises he had made to the Indians, that sundry 
miracles were to be wrought in their favour. Only 
a few advanced to meet the Spaniards, and many of 
these were killed and the rest took to flight. Almost 
without loss on their own side, the Spaniards left 
above 240 Indians dead on the field, and shot 200 
whom they made prisoners. Apolinano, in endea- 
vouring to cross a river, was seized by two of his 
own people, bound, and delivered over to the autho- 
rities. He was accused of aspiring to be King of 
the Tagalos. . He averred that the objects of his 
Cofradia were purely and simply religious. He was 
shot on the 4th of November, 1841. De Mas says 
he knew him, and that he was a quiet, sober, un- 
obtrusive young man, exhibiting nothing of the hero 
or the adventurer. He performed menial services 



70 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

at the convent of Lucban ; and as far as I can dis- 
coyer, the main ground^ of suspicion was, that he 
admitted no Spaniards or Mestizos into his religious 
fraternity ; but that so many lives iihould have been 
sacrificed to a mere suspicion is a sad story.' 

Between 1806 and 1844 no less tiian fourteen go- 
vernors followed one another. Among them Narciso 
Claveria (1844-49) is entitled to notice. He added 
the island of Balanguingui to the Spanish possessions. 
One of his declarations obtained for him great 
applause — ^that " he had left Spain torn by civil dis- 
sensions, but that he should make no distinctions 
between his countrymen on the ground of political 
differences, but forget all title except that of Espanol 
y Cahallero (Spaniard and gentleman)." Since that 
time Ramon Montero has been their Governor ad 
interim J yiz.yiTL 1853, 1854, and 1856. The Marquis 
of Novaliches took possession of the government in 
1 854, but held it only for about eight months. Don 
Manuel Crespo arrived in November, 1854, and the 
present Governor-General, Don Fernando de Nor- 
zagaray, on the 9th of March, 1857* 

It is worthy of note that during the period in 
which there have been seventy-eight governors, there 
have been only twenty-two archbishops ; the average 
period of the civil holding being four years — that 
of the ecclesiastical, eleven and a-half years. 



CHAPTER IV. 

GBOSRAPHT — CLIMATE, ETC. 

The generally accepted theoty as to the formation 
of the PhiUppines is, that they all formed part of a 
vast primitive continent, which was broken up by 
some great convulsion of nature, and that these 
islands are the scattered iragments of that conti- 
nent. Buzeta supposes that from Luzon the other 
islands were detached.* 

The Indians have a tradition that the earth was 
borne on the shoulders of a giant, who, getting tired 
of his heavy burden, tumbled it into the ocean, 
leaving nothing above the waters but the mountains, 

* Dicciooario gaogia&oo, estodisUco, historico de las IbIob 
Filipinas. 2 vols. Madrid, 1850. 



72 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

which became igtlands for the salvation of the human 
race. 

I do not propose to give a detailed geographical 
description of the Philippine Islands. Buzeta's two 
octavo volumes will furnish the most accurate par- 
ticulars with which I am acquainted as to the various 
localities. The facts which I collected in the course 
of my personal observation refer specially to the 
islands of Luzon^ Fanay, and Mindanao. The more 
general information has been derived from Spanish 
authorities on the spot, or has been found in 
Spanish books which t have consulted. I cannot 
presume to consider the present volume as complete 
or exhaustive, but it will contribute something to 
augment that knowledge which is already possessed. 

The extent of the Philippine Archipelago is about 
300 leagues from north to south, and 180 leagues 
from east to west. The islands of which it is com- 
posed are innumerable, most of the larger ones having 
some Spanish or mestizo population. A range of 
irregular mountains runs through the centre of the 
whole. Those known by the name of the Caraballos, 
in Luzon, are occupied by unsubdued races of idola- 
trous Indians, and extend for nearly sixty leagues. 
Several large rivers have their sources in the Cara- 
ballos. At the top of Mount Cabunian, whose ascent 
is very difficult, there is a tomb worshipped by the 
pagan Igorrotes. There are large lakes in several 
of the islands, and during the rainy season some of 
them become enormously extended. These inunda- 
tions are naturally favourable to the vegetable pro- 



GEOGRAPHY — CLIMATE, ETC. 73 

ductions by fertilizing vast tracts of land. Min- 
danao^ which means ^' Men of the lake,** has its 
Indian name from the abundance of its inward 
waters, in the same way that La Laguna has been 
adopted by the Spaniards as the designation of the 
province bordering on the Lake of Bay. In this 
latter district are many mineral and thermal springs, 
which have given to one of its pueblos the name of 
Los Bancs (the baths). One of them issues from 
the source at a temperature of 67^ of Beaumur. 
They are much visited by the inhabitants of Manila. 
There are boiling springs in the pueblo of Mainit. 

The climate of the Philippines is little distin- 
guished from that which characterizes many other 
tropical regions of the East It is described in a 
Spanish proverb as — 

Seis meses de polvo, 
Seis meses de lodo, 
Seis meses de todo. 

^^ Six months of dust, six months of mud, six months 

of everything ;** — though it may generally be stated 

that the rainy season lasts one half, and the dry season 

the other half of the year. There are, however, as 

^ the distich says, many months of uncertainty, in 

which humidity invades the ordinary time of drought, 

and drought that of humidity. But from June to 

November the coimtry is inundated, the roads are 

■ for the most part impassable, and travelling in the in- 

^ tenor is difficult and disagreeable. Even in the month 

of December, in several districts of Luzon, we found, 

as before mentioned, places in which carriages are 



I 



w 
I 



74 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

necessarily abandoned, the palanquin bearers being 
up to their thighs in mud ; and other places in which 
we were compelled to open a new way through the 
woods. The heat is too oppressive to allow much ac- 
tiye exertion in the middle of the day, and the siesta 
is generally resorted to from 1 to 3 o'clock p.m., before 
and after which time visits are paid and business 
transacted. The pleasant evening time is, however, 
that of social enjoyment, and the principal people 
have their tertuliasj to which guests are welcomed 
from half-past 8 o'clock to about 1 1 o'clock p. m. 

The variations of the thermometer rarely exceed 
10® of Reaumur, the maximum heat being from 28"* 
to 2y, the minimum 18"* to 19". Winter garments 
are scarcely ever required. 

T|ie difference between the longest and shortest 
day is Ih. 47 m. 12 s. On the 20th June, in 
Manila, the sun rises at 5h. 33 m. 12 s., and sets at 
6h. 26 m. 48 s.; on the 20th December, it rises at 
6h. 26m. 48s., and sets at 5h. 33m. 12s. 

The minimum fall of rain in Manila is 84 inches, 
the maximum 114. Hailstorms are rare. There is 
no mountain sufficiently high to be ^^ snow-capped ;" 
the highest, Banaho, is between 6,000 and 7»000 feet 
above the level of the sea. 

Like other tropical climates, the Philippines are 
visited by the usual calamities gathered by the wild 
elements round that line which is deemed the girdle 
of the world. Violent hurricanes produce fearful 
devastations ; typhoons cover the coasts with wrecks ; 
inundations of rivers and excessive rains destroy the 



GEOGRAPHY — CLIMATE, ETC. 75 

earth's produce, while long-contmued droughts are 
equally fatal to the labours and the hopes of hus- 
bandry. Earthquakes shake the land, overturn 
the strongest edifices and sport destructively with 
the power of man ; volcanic mountains inundate the 
earth with their torrents of burning lava* Clouds of 
locusts sometimes devour all that is green upon the 
surface of the ground ; and epidemic diseases carry 
away multitudes of the human race. The ravages 
caused by accidental fires are often most calamitous, 
as the greater part of the houses are constructed of 
inflammable materials. When such a disaster occurs, 
it spreads with wonderful rapidity, and, there being 
no adequate means of extinction, a whole population 
is often rendered houseless. 

During the change of the monsoons especially, the 
storms are often terrific, accompanied by very violent 
rains, fierce lightning and loud thunder. If in the 
night, the darkness thickens. Many lose their lives 
by lightning strokes, and houses are frequently car- 
ried away by the vehemence of the torrents. 

Bagyo is the Indian name for hurricane. These 
violent outbreaks are generally announced in the 
morning by a Ught smoky mist which appears on 
the mountains ; it gathers, and darkens, and thickens 
into heavy clouds, and before day closes breaks out 
with its fearful and destroying violence, raging from 
an hour and a half to two hours. M. de Gentil 
says that in the torrid zone the clouds which bring 
the most destructive tornadoes are at an elevation 
not exceeding 400 toises of perpendicular height. 



76 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

The largest of the volcanoes is that of Mayon in 
Luzon. It is in the shape of a sugar-loaf, perfectly 
conical. Its base covers several leagues in the pro- 
vinces of Albay and Camarines, and it is one of the 
most prominent objects and landmarks visible from 
the sea ; there is a constant smoke, sometimes accom- 
panied by flames ; its subterranean sounds are often 
heard at a distance of many leagues. The country 
in the neighbourhood is covered with sand and stone, 
which on different occasions have been vomited forth 
from the crater. There is a description by the 
Alcalde of an eruption in 1767) which lasted ten 
days, during which a cone of flame, whose base was 
about forty feet in diameter, ascended, and a river 
of lava was poured out for two months, 120 feet in 
breadth. Great ruin was caused to the adjacent 
villages. The lava torrent was followed about a 
month afterwards by enormous outpourings of water, 
which either greatly widened the beds of the existing 
rivers, or formed new channels in their rush towards 
the sea. The town of Malinao was wholly destroyed, 
and a third part of that of Casana. Many other 
villages suffered ; forests were buried in sand ; which 
also overwhelmed houses and human beings. The 
ravages extended over a space of six leagues* 

From an eruption at Buhayan, sixty leagues from 
Zamboanga, in the island of Mindanao, in 1640, 
large masses of stone were fl\mg to a distance of two 
leagues. The ashes fell in the Moluccas and in 
Borneo. Dense darkness covered Zamboanga. Ships 
at sea lighted their lamps at 8 a.m., but the light 



GEOGRAPHT — CLIMATE, ETC. ^l 

could not be seen through the clouds of sand. The 
mountain whence the explosion originated disap- 
pearedy and a lake was formed and still remains in 

« 

the locality as a record of the agitation. The waters 
of the lake were long white with ashes. The noise 
of the eruption was heard in Manila. 

About twenty leagues from Manila is the province 
of Batanga. In one of the bays is an island called by 
the natives Binintiang Malagui^ remarkable for its 
beauty, for the variety of its vegetation, and the 
number of animals which inhabit it. The eastern 
part of the island is a mountain, whose extinct 
volcano is seen in the form of a truncated cone of 
enormous extent, surrounded by desolation. The 
flanks of the mountain have been torn by vast 
channels, down which the lava-*streams must have 
flowed. The sides are covered with ferruginous and 
sulphurous pyrites and scorisB, which make the ascent 
difficult. It is most accessible on the southern side, 
by which we reach the mouth of the crater, whose 
circumference exceeds three miles, and whose deep 
and wild recesses exhibit astoimding evidences of the 
throes and agitations which in former times must 
have shaken and convulsed this portion of the earth. 
A Spanish writer says it looked ^^ like an execrable 
blasphemy launched by Satan against God.** There 
are still some signs of its past history in the smoke 
which rises from the abyss; but what characterizes 
the spot is the contrast between the gigantic wrecks 
and ruins of nature on one side, and the extreme 
loveliness and rich variety of other parts of the land- 



78 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

scape. Descending into the crater by the help of 
cords round the body, a grand platform is reached at 
the depth of about 600 feet, in which are four smaller 
craters, one constantly and the others occasionally emit- 
ting a white smoke, but they cannot be approached 
on account of the softness and heat of the soil. To 
the east is a lake from which a stream runs round 
the craters over beds of sulphur, which assume the 
colour of emeralds. Formerly this lake was in a 
state of boiling ebullition, but is now scarcely above 
the natural temperature; it blackens silver imme-* 
diately. Frequent earthquakes change the character 
of the crater and its neighbourhood, and every new 
detailed description differs from that which preceded 
it. The Indians have magnificent notions of the 
mineral riches buried in the bosom of the mountain, 
the sulphur mines ^ of which were advantageously 
worked a few years ago, when a well-known naturalist 
(Lopez, now dead) offered to the Spanish govern- 
ment large sums for the monopoly of the right of 
mining the district of Taal. 

On the 21st of September, 1716, sounds like those 
of heavy artillery proceeded from the Taal volcano, 
and the mountain seemed to be in a state of ignition 
over a space of three leagues towards Macolot. 
Gigantic towers of boiling water and ashes were 
thrown up, the earth shook on all sides, the waters 
of the lake were agitated and overran its banks : this 
lasted for three days. The water was blackened, 
and its sulphurous smell infested the whole district. 
In 1764 a yet more violent eruption, lasting eight 



GEOGRAPHY— CLIMATB, ETC. 79 

days, took place, with terrible explosions, heavings 
of the earth, darkness, and such clouds of dust and 
ashes that all the roofs of the houses at Manila, at a 
distance of twenty leagues, were covered* Great 
masses of stones, fire and smoke were thrown from 
the mountain. The lake boiled in bubbles. Streams 
of bitumen and sulphur ran over the district of Bong- 
bong. The alligators, sharks, tunnies, and all the 
large fish, were destroyed in the river and flung upon 
the banks, impregnating the air with stench. It is 
said that subterranean and atmospheric thunders were 
heard at a distance of 300 leagues from the volcano, 
and that the winds carried the ashes to incredible 
distances. In Fanay there was midday darkness. 
Many pueblos were wholly destroyed; among them 
Sala, Janavan, Lipa, and Taal : others bearing the 
same names have been since founded at a greater 
distance from the mountain. 

Lopez gives a description of his descent into the 
crater. He employed 100 men for eight days to 
make a slope for his going down. He says the crater 
is oval, two miles in diameter ; that the lake within 
the crater is surrounded by level and solid ground ; 
that there was a deep chasm which had been recently 
ignited : there was sulphur enough to load many ships. 
He saw a cube of porphyry 20 to 25 feet square. The 
crater wall is perpendicular on all sides ; that on the 
north 1,200 feet high, the lowest exceeding 900 feet. 
He says he believes the south sides to be of porphyry. 
At night, midway of the descent, he saw ^' thousands 
of millions " of jets, whose gas immediately inflamed 



80 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

on coming in contact with the atmosphere, and he 
heard many small detonations. The waters of the 
lake were impregnated with sulphuric acid, and 12 lbs. 
of the water, when distilled, left a mineral residuum 
weighing 2^ lbs. 

There are many remarkable caves in the Philip* 
pines. I translate a description of one in the pro- 
vince of Tondo. Two stonv mountains unite, and 
on their skirt is the road towards a branch of the main 
river. On the left is a cave whose entrance fronts the 
south. The mouth is almost covered with tangling 
vegetation, but it is arched, and, being all of marble, 
is, particularly in the sunshine, strikingly beautiful. 
You enter by a high, smooth, natural wall like the 
fa9ade of a church, over which is a cavity roofed as a 
chapel. The interior pathway is flat, about four 
yards in breadth and six in height, though in some 
places it is much loftier. The roof presents a mul- 
titude of graceful figures, resembling pendent pine- 
apples, which are formed by the constant filtration 
and petrifaction of the water. Some are nearly two 
yards in length, and seem sculptured into regular 
grooves ; others are in the shape of pyramids whose 
bases are against the roof. Arches, which may be 
passed both from above and below, are among these 
wonderful works. Not far from the door is a natural 
staircase, mounting which you enter a large chamber, 
on whose right hand is another road, which, being 
followed, conducts to a second staircase, which opens 
on the principal communication. Suspended on one 
wing are immense numbers of bats, who occupy the 



GEOGRAPHY— CLIMATE, ETC. 81 

recesses of the ceiling. Thoagh there is mud in some 
of the paths, the ground is generally of stone, which, 
on being struck, giyes a hollow sound as if there 
were passages below. Penetrating the cave for above 
200 yards, a loud noise is perceived coming from a 
clear bright river, by the side of which the cave is 
continued under a semicircular roof. The great cave 
has many smaller vaults and projections of a gro- 
tesque and Gothic character. The course of the 
stream is from the north-west to the south-east. 

The destructive ravages and changes produced by 
earthquakes are nowhere more remarkable than in 
the Philippines. They have overturned mountains, 
they have filled up valleys, they have desolated exten- 
sive plains ; they have opened passages for the sea 
into the interior, and from the lakes into the sea 
There are many traditional stories of these territorial 
revolutions, but of late disasters the records are trust-* 
worthy. That of 1796 was sadly calamitous. In 
1824 many churches in Manila were destroyed, to- 
gether with the principal bridge, the barracks, great 
numbers of private houses ; and a chasm opened of 
nearly four miles in length. The inhabitants all fled 
into the fields, and the six vessels in the port were 
wrecked. The number of victims was never ascer- 
tained. In 1828, during another earthquake, the 
vibration of the lamps was found to describe an arch 
of four and a half feet ; the huge comer-stones of the 
principal gate of the city were displaced ; the great 
bells were set ringing. It lasted between two and 
three minutes, rent the walls of several churches and 

G 



82 PHnjppiNB isLAims. 

other buildings, but was not accompanied by subter- 
ranean noises, as is usually the case. 

There are too few occasions on which scientific 
observations have been made on the subject of earth- 
quakes, which take men by surprise and ordinarily 
create so much alarm as to prevent accurate and 
authentic details. A gentleman who had established 
various pendulums in Manila for the purpose of mea- 
suring the inclination of the angles and the course of 
the agitation, states that, in the slight eliarthquakes 
of 20th and 23rd June, 1857} the thermometer being 
at 88% the direction of the first shock was from 
N.N.E. to S.S.E., the duration 14 seconds, and the 
oscillation of the pendulum 1^ degrees ; time, 
2h. Om. 40s. p.m. : 20th June. Second shock from 
N.E. to S.W.; duration, 26 seconds; oscillation of 
pendulum, 2 degrees ; time, 2h. 47m. p.m. : 20th June. 
Third shock S.W. to N.; duration of the shock, 
15 seconds; greatest oscillation, 6 degrees, but slight 
movements continued for a minute, and the oscillations 
were observed from 2 degrees to three-quarters of a 
degree ; time, 5 p.m : 23rd June. 

Earthquakes have produced great changes in the 
geography of the Philippines. In that of 1627) one 
of the most elevated of the mountains of Cagayan 
disappeared. In 1675, in the island of Mindanao, a 
passage was opened to the sea, and a vast plain was 
emerged. Successive earthquakes have brought upon 
Luzon a series of calamities. 

Endemic diseases are rare in the Philippines. 
Intermittent fevers and chronic dysentery are among 



GEOGRAPHY— CLIMATE, ETC. 83 

the most dangerous disorders. There have been two 
invasions of cholera, in 1820 and 1842« Ele- 
phantiasis, leprosy, and St. Anthony's fire are the 
scourges of the Indians ; and the wilder races of the 
interior sufier from a variety of cutaneous complainto. 
The biri biri is common and fataL Venereal diseases 
are widely spread, but easily cured. Among the 
Indians, vegetables alone are used as medicaments. 
Chinese quack-doctors have much influence. In the 
removal of some of the tropical pests, no European 
can compete with the natives. They cure the itch 
with great dexterity, and are said to have remedies 
for pulmonary phthisis. Their plasters are very 
efficacious in external applications. They never em- 
ploy the lancet or the leech. Surgical science is, of 
course, unknown. 

There have been generally in the Philippines a 
few successful medical practitioners from Europe. 
Foreigners are allowed to exercise their profession, 
having previously obtained the authority of the 
Spanish Gk>vemment; but the natives seldom look 
beyond their own simple mode of dealing with the 
common diseases of the islands ; and in those parts 
where there is little or no Spanish population, no one 
is to be found to whom a surgical operation could 
safely be intrusted. The vegetable world furnishes a 
great variety of medicinal herbs, which the instinct 
or the experience of the Indian has turned to account, 
and which are, probably, on the whole, as efficacious 
as the more potent mineral remedies employed by 
European science. Quinine, opium, mercury, and 

G 2 



84 PHnjPPrNB ISLANDS, 

arsenic, are the wonder-workers in the field of Orien- 
tal disease, and their early and proper application 
generally arrests the progress of malady. 

I found practising in the island of Fanay Dr. 
Lefevre, whom I had known in Egypt more than 
twenty years before, and who was one of the cou- 
rageous men who boldly grappled with the current 
superstitions respecting the contagious character of the 
Oriental plague, and the delusions as to the efficacy of 
quarantine regulations, so really useless, costly, and 
vexatious. He placed in my hand some observations 
which he had published at Bombay in 1840, where 
vessels from the Red Sea were subjected to sanatory 
visitations. He asserts that plague is only generated 
at particular seasons, in certain definable conditions 
of the atmosphere, and when miasma is created by 
the decomposition of decaying matter ; that endemic 
plague is unknown in countries where proper atten- 
tion is paid to hygienic precautions ; that severe cold 
or intense heat equally arrests the progress of the 
plague; that the epoch of its ravages is always 
one when damp and exposed animal and vegetable 
substances emit the greatest amount of noxious gases ; 
and that plague has never been known to originate or 
to spread where the air is in a state of purity. I 
was glad to rediscuss the matter with him after so 
ong an added experience, and to find he had been 
more and more confirmed in his former conclusions 
by prolonged residence in the tropics, where endemic 
and epidemic diseases partake of the pestilential cha- 
racter, though they do not assume the forms, of the 



GEOGRAPHY — CLIMATE, ETC. 85 

LeTont plague. Dr. Lefevre affirms that qaarantines 
have done nothing whatever to lessen the dangers or 
check the ravages of the plague, hut much to encou- 
rage its propagation. He complains of the deafness 
and incredulity of those whom the examination of a 
^' thousand indisputable facts ** will not convince, and 
he thus concludes: — ''If I had not with peculiar 
attention studied the plague in the midst of an 
epidemic, and without any more precautions than if 
the danger was nothing — ^if, subsequent to the ter- 
rible visitation of 1835 in Egypt, I had not been fre- 
quently a witness to the scourge — if, finally, since 
that epoch I had not given myself up, with all the 
warmth of passion, to the constant study of this 
malady, to the perusal of histories of the plagues 
which have ravaged the world, and to the examination 
of all sorts of objections — I should not have dared to 
emit such a decided opinion — an opinion respecting 
the soundness of which I do not entertain the slightest 
doubt." 

One cannot but be struck, in reference to the geo- 
graphical character of these islands, with the awful 
serenity and magnificent beauty of their primeval 
forests, so seldom penetrated, and in their recesses 
hitherto inaccessible to the foot of man. There is 
nothing to disturb their silence but the hum of in- 
sects, the song of birds, the noises of wild animals, 
the rustling of the leaves, or the fall of decayed 
branches. It seems as if vegetation revelled in undis- 
turbed and uncontrolled luxuriance. Creeping plants 
wander from tree to tree ; lovely orchids hang them- 



86 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

selves from trunks and boughs. One asks, why is so 
much sweetness, so much glory, wasted ? But is it 
wasted? To the Creator the contemplation of his 
works, even where unmarked by human eye, must be 
complacent ; and these half-concealed, half-developed 
treasures, are but reserved storehduses for man to 
explore; they will furnish supplies to awaken the 
curiosity and gratify the inquiry of successive ages. 
Rove where he may — explore as he will — ^tax his 
intellect with research, his imagination with inven- 
tions — there is, there will be, an infinite field around 
and above him, inexhaustible through countless 
generations. 



I 



87 



CHAPTEK V- 

GOVERNMENT — ADMINISTRATION, ETC. 

Thb Administration of the Philippine Archipelago 
has for its head and chief a captain and governor- 
general, who resides in Manila, the capital of the 
islands, and who is not permitted to quit them with- 
out the authority of the sovereign of Spain. Next 
to the government of Cuba, it is the most important 
and the most lucrative post at the disposal of the 
Cabinet of Madrid, and has unfortunately been gene- 
rally one of the prizes wrested from the unsuccessful, 
and seized by the predominant, political party. It 
was rather a melancholy employment for me to look 
over the collection of portraits of captains-general, 
and many vacant frames waiting for future occupants, 
which ornament the walls of the handsome apart- 
ments in which I dwelt at the palace. Since 1835 
there have been five provisional and eleven formal 
appointments to the governor-generalship. Some of 
these only held their authority for a few months, 
being superseded by ministerial changes at Madrid. 
Of other high functionaries, I observe that there have 
been only two archbishops since 1830, while it is 



88 PHILIPPIKE ISLANDS. 

understood that the service of heads of departments 
is assured for ten years. To the public interests 
the mischiefs which are the results of so uncertain a 
hold of the supreme authority are incalculable. The 
frequent and sudden removals and nominations are, 
indeed, little consistent with the principles of monar- 
chical and hereditary governmenti however accordant 
with the republican institutions of the Western 
world ; and among the causes of the slow develop- 
ment of the immense resources of these beautiful 
islands, the fluctuation of the superintending rule is 
assuredly one of the most prominent. 

The titles of the captain-general occupy a page, 
and embrace the usual attributes of government, 
with the exception of authority over the fleet, which 
is subject to the Ministry of Marine in Spain, and a 
somewhat limited jurisdiction in ecclesiastical matters, 
which is a consequence of the exclusive establishment 
of the Roman Catholic faith. 

The lieutenant-governor, who takes the place of 
the captain-general in case of his death, is called the 
Segundo Caboj or second head. 

The Philippine Islands are divided into provinces, 
subject either to politico-military governors or alcaldes 
mayores, who are generally civilians. 

When the government is military, an assistant 
lieutenant-governor, who must have graduated as a 
lawyer, exercises the preliminary jurisdiction {de 
primera instancia)^ but the alcaldes hold that 
jurisdiction in their own persons. Both dispose in 
their provinces of the military authority, and have 



GOVERNMENT— ADMINISTRATION, ETC. 89 

the controlling direction of the collection of the 
revenues, under responsibility to the General Admi- 
nistrator of Tributes. 

The provinces are divided into ptiebhs (towns or 
villages), over each of which a native Indian or 
mestizo, called a gobemadarcillo (diminutive of go- 
vernor) is placed. He is assisted in the discharge 
of his functions by native lieutenants and alguacils, 
whose number depends upon the extent of the popu- 
lation. This body, which, when gathered together, 
is called the pHncipalia of the pueblo, settles all 
minor matters of police and civil questions between 
the natives as to rights of persons and property. In 
districts where the Chinese or their descendants are 
sufficiently numerous (they are known by the name 
of Sanglejfes)y they are allowed, under special autho- 
rity of the government, to select principalia from 
their own body, independently of Indian jurisdiction. 
These principalia are really popularly chosen muni- 
cipalities, and they are specially charged to assist 
the clergy in all matters connected with public 
worship and ecclesiastical authority. They determine 
questions up to the amount of two taels of gold, or 
forty-four silver dollars. They collect evidence in 
criminal cases, which is submitted to the provincial 
chief; they assist in the collection of the royal 
revenues, circulate the ordinances of the govern- 
ment among the people, and are authorized to levy 
a small but defined contribution in support of their 
dignity. 

Besides these, there are in every pueblo certain 



90 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

functioiiarieB who are called CabezM (heads) de 
Barangay. A harangay is a collection of the chiefs 
of families, or persons paying tribute^ generally 
amounting to forty or fifty. They are under the 
special charge of the cabeza, who must dwell among 
them, and, under bond, collect the tribute due to 
the State. He is required to settle misunderstandings 
and to maintain peace and order, to apportion the 
various charges ai^iong the members of the barangay, 
and to collect the taxes for payment to the gobema- 
dorciUo, or to the functionary appointed for the 
purpose. The cabezas are also considered the 
procuradoresy or law advisers, of these little com- 
munities. 

In ancient times there is little doubt that the office 
was hereditary ; and there are yet localities where 
the hereditary right is maintained ; but it is generally 
elective : and when a vacancy occurs, the gobema- 
dorcillo in council, with the other cabezas, presents 
a name for the approval of the superior authority, 
and the same steps are taken when the increase of 
population requires a new cabeza to be nominated. 
The cabezas, their wives and first-born, who are re* 
quired to assist in the collection of the tribute, are 
exempted from its payment. 

In some provinces the cabezas are only chosen for 
three years ; after which they form part of the prin- 
cipalia, and take the title of Don. I remember, in 
one locality, that the principalia who came to pay 
their respects consisted of more than seventy persons. 
The government complains of the number who. 



GOVERNMENT— ADMINISTRATION, ETC. 91 

under this state of things, are exempted from taxa- 
tion, and I understand some measures are in con- 
templation for limiting the extent of the privileges. 

The elections of the gohemadorcillo are annual, 
and take place on the 1st of April. An extraor- 
dinary excitement generally prevails, the post (a 
really important, popular, and influential one) being 
an object of much ambition. Three names are 
selected, one of whom must have already served as 
gobemadorciUo, for submission to the superior autho- 
rity, on or before the 15th of May, and the chosen 
gobemadorciUo enters on his functions on the 1st of 
June. There is, however, some alteration of dates, 
where, as in the tobacco districts, the period of elec* 
tion interferes with harvest time. 

The head of the province ordinarily presides over 
the elections, to which the principal ecclesiastic is also 
invited. In case of their absence, any native-bom 
Spaniard may be nominated by the principal authority 
to preside. 

There are thirteen electors for each pueblo — ^the 
gobemadorciUo and twelve inhabitants — ^half of whom 
must have been gobernadorcillos or cabezas, and the 
other half be in the actual exercise of those functions ; 
they must also have some well-recognized means of 
existence : domestic servants to the authorities are 
excluded ; as also those who have been punished as 
criminals. 

It is further required that the gobemadorciUo be 
a native Indian or mestizo, an inhabitant of the loca- 
lity where he serves, and above twenty-five years old ; 



92 PHHiTPPDnB ISLANDS. 

having passed the subordinate offices of lieutenant or 
cabeza, having his accounts in order, holding no land 
from the community, and no monopoly (estanco) from 
the government. Simikr recommendations are in- 
sisted on for the first lieutenant and the principal 
(native) magistrates appointed for the settlement of 
questions regarding seed-sowing, police, and cattle. 
These magistrates must have enjoyed the rank of 
gobemadorcillo. As regards the minor officers of 
justice and their attendants, a list is to be made out 
by the gobemadorcillo before quitting office, which is 
to be presented to the authority presiding over the 
elections, and having heard the clergyman (cura) and 
the committee of election, the president approves the 
list for transmission to the supreme authority ; but 
if he finds discordance and irreconcilable opinions be- 
tween the parties before him, he is authorized himself 
to recommend the officers for nomination. 

All the proceedings are the subjects of record, and 
to be signed by the president, the curate (if pre- 
sent), the electors, and the public notary, and to be 
remitted to the supreme authority, except in the 
provinces adjacent to the capital. The president 
may attach to the record any observations of his own 
connected with the returns. A decree of 1850 
required the general adoption of the system which 
has been described, and which appears to me well 
worthy of note, showing how many valuable elements 
of good government are to be found in the popular 
institutions of the Philippine Indians. 

The Chinese of the capital may elect Christian 



GOYERKMEKT— ADMINISTBATIOir, ETC. 93 

converts of their own body, under the presidency of 
the alcalde mayor of Manila, to the offices of gober- 
nadorciUo, first lieutenant, and principal alguacil 
(bailiff). The dependent subordinate officers of jus- 
tice are called bilangasj and are appointed by the 
gobemadorciUo on hb election. The recovery of the 
tribute or taxes from the Chinese is not left to their 
principalia, but is effected by the alcalde mayor or 
superior chief. An officer is appointed to classify 
the Chinese, and apportion the quota of their con- 
tributions according to the wealth of the payer, who 
is chai^d for what is called apatente industricU. 

The gobemadorciUos and officers of justice are 
entitled to sit in the presence of the provincial chiefs, 
who are to require the parochial clergy to treat them 
with due honour and regard. 

M. Mallat, whose Geographical History of the 
Philippines was published in 1846, remarks that, 
of all colonies founded by Europeans, these regions 
are perhaps the least known, and the most worthy 
of being known. The number of islands which com- 
pose the archipelago, — ^their vast extent and bound- 
less variety, — the teeming population of many of 
them, — the character of the climate,-^the wonderful 
fertility of the soil, — the inexhaustible riches of 
hill, valley, and plain, — aU offer to cultivation and 
its civilizing influences abundant rewards. But as 
regards the ^industrious habits'* of the natives, I 
cannot place that consideration, as M. Mallat does, 
among the elements of hope. It is the want of these 
^' industrious habits,** among four or five millions of 



94 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

inhabitants^ which has left the Philippines in a posi- 
tion so little advanced. 

Java under the government of the Dutch, and 
Cuba subjected to the Spanish rule, present, no 
doubt, far more favourable pictures than do the 
Philippines ; but many of the difficulties which sur- 
round the captain-general of Manila, — difficulties 
both religious and social, — do not embarrass the go- 
vernor of Batavia ; the island of Java, the most pro- 
ductive of Netherlands India, being peculiarly free 
from these difficulties; and it cannot be said that 
Sumatra and Borneo are even on a. level with the 
more advanced of the Philippine Islands. 

To the character of the original conquest and of the 
earlier government of the Philippines may be traced 
many of the impediments which now stand in the 
way of improvement. In America and the West 
Indies all the brutality of military conquerors was 
exhibited, and the possession and plunder of new 
territories were encouraged by the Spanish court, 
and were the main object of the Spanish invader. 
But far different was the policy adopted in the Phi- 
lippines, where only a small body of soldiers was ac- 
companied by zealous missionaries, whose purpose was 
rather to convert and christianize the Indians than to 
pillage and destroy them. These friars gradually ob- 
tained a paramount influence over the Indians. The 
interests of trade have ever been the predominant 
consideration among Dutch colonizers, and among 
British adventurers the commercial element has 
always been intimately associated with the desire 



GOVERNMENT— ADMINISTIIATION, ETC. 95 

for territorial occupation. To the Spaniards it must 
be conceded that the religious purpose — ^be its value 
what it may — has never been abandoned or forgotten. 
Ecclesiastical jurisdiction and authority are inter- 
woven in the Philippines with the machinery of 
government and the daily concerns of life. 

And such ecclesiastical action has been compara- 
tively little interfered with in the Philippines. The 
development which mental emancipation has given to 
many Protestant countries and their dependencies has 
reached few Catholic colonies ; nor is that emancipa- 
tion, indeed, consistent with the more rigid discipline 
and doctrines of Bome. But in the case of the most 
prosperous instances of colonization by the British, 
the native races have either wholly disappeared or 
are in progress of extinction, while the infusion of 
Spanish and foreign blood into the colonies of Spain 
has not only allowed the increase of the indigenous 
population, but has been insufficient to change or do 
more than slightly modify their national characters. 
It has undoubtedly been the boast of the Catholics 
that Francis de Xavier and his followers won more 
for the Boman Church in the East than Luther or 
Calvin ever tore away from it in the West; but the 
value of the conquests, contrasted with that of the 
losses and sacrifices, if fairly estimated, would hardly 
be deemed unsatisfactory to the Protestant cause. 

No doubt the great remoteness of the Philippines 
from Europe, the difficulties and infirequency of 
communication, gave to the local authorities more of 
independent action than would otherwise have been 



96 PHILIPPmE ISLANDS. 

allowed to them ; and in case of the death of the go- 
vemor, the archbishop was generally the functionary 
who filled his place; his adjacency to the govern- 
ment, and frequent direction of it, naturally led to 
the strengthening of his own authority and that of 
all ecclesiastics dependent upon him. 

In the earlier periods of Eastern colonization, too, 
the Portuguese, jealous of all European intercourse 
but their own with nations east of the Cape, did 
all in their power to prevent any other than the 
Lusitanian flag from being seen in Oriental waters. 
But as regards missionary objects their views were 
to some extent concurrent with those of the Spanish 
priests, and their proceedings were in harmony with 
those of the Spaniards, especially in so far as both 
received their direction from the Pontiff at Rome. 
It ought not, however, to be forgotten that what- 
ever may have been the progress of Christianity in 
the Philippines, the persecutions, disasters, discom- 
fiture, and death of so many professing Christians 
in Japan, are probably attributable to the ill-guided 
zeal of the Portuguese preachers of the Gospel in 
these still remoter regions. It is well for the in- 
terests of truth, as most assuredly it is for the 
interests of commerce and civilization, that a more 
temperate and tolerant spirit has for the last century 
been associated with the progress of European in- 
fluence in the East. 

The comparatively small number of Spanish settlers 
in the Philippines would not allow them, even if such 
had been their purpose, which it does not appear to 



GOVERNMENT — ADMINISTRATION, ETC. 97 

have been, unnecessarily to interfere with the usages 
of the Indians, or their forms of administration and 
government, except in so far as their conversion to 
Christianity compelled the observance of the Christian 
rites ; and the friars willingly accommodated their 
action to the social habits of the people, respecting, 
as to this hour are respected, most of the patriarchal 
forms of administration and government which had 
existed among them from immemorial time* 

There have been speculations — and M. Mallat is 
among the sanguine anticipators of such an advent — 
that in process of time the Philippines may become 
the dominant political power of the Eastern world, 
subjecting to its paramount influence the Netherlands 
Archipelago, the Pacific, Australia, and even China 
and Japan, and that Manila is destined to be the 
great emporium for the eastern and south-eastern 
world. M. Mallat even goes further, and says: 
** Manila might easily become the centre of the 
exports and imports of the entire globe." It must 
be contented with a less brilliant futurity. Certainly 
its commercial relations might be greatly extended, 
and the Spanish archipelago be much elevated in 
value and in influence ; but in the vast development 
of commercial relations in the Oriental world, the 
Philippines must be contented with a moderate 
though a considerable share of benefit, even under 
the best administration and the adoption of the 
wisest policy. 

Tropical regions fail to attract permanent settlers 
from the West. The foreign merchant comes to 

II 



98 PHILIPPmB ISLANDS. 

realize what he deems an adequate fortune, and to 
withdraw ; the superior public functionary is among, 
or above, but never of, the people. What must be 
looked to is the popular element. Of what are the 
millions composed, and how can the millions be turned 
to account? There is no reason to apprehend 
that these millions will aspire to political power 
or sovereignty. Their pristine habits would permit 
of no general organization. The various races and 
clans would never unite in a national object, or 
recognize one native chief. All that is found of 
order and government among them is local ; except 
through and for their masters, the different islands 
have little or no intercourse with one another. The 
Tagdl and the Bisayan have no common sympathies. 
Dissatisfaction might produce disorder, which, Jf not 
controlled, would lead to anarchy, but not to good 
government. 

The Philippines are free from the curse of slavery. 
Time will settle the controversy as to whether the 
labour of the freeman can, in the long run, be 
brought into competition with that of the slave, 
especially in the tropics ; but that the great tide of 
tendency flows towards the abolition of slavery, that 
civilizing opinion and enlightened Christian legisla- 
tion must sweep the ignominy away, is a conviction 
which possesses the minds of all who see ^'progress" 
in the world. 

As it is, the Philippines have made, and continue 
to make, large contributions to the mother country, 
generally in excess of the stipulated amount which 



GOVERNMENT — ADMINISTIIATION, ETC. 99 

is called the Htuado. I^ainy in her extreme embar- 
rassment, has frequently called on the Philippines to 
come to her aid, and it is to the credit of the successive 
governors-general that, whatever may have been the 
financial disorders at home, the dependants upon the 
Manila treasury have had little motive for complaint, 
and while the Peninsula was engaged in perilous 
struggles for her independence, and even her exist- 
ence as a nation, the public tranquillity of her island 
colonies was, on the whole, satisfactorily maintained, 
and interruptions to the ordinary march of affairs of 
short endurance. 

There. would seem to be no legislation defining the 
powers of the viceroy, or captain-general ; but when- 
ever any important matter is under discussion, it is 
found that reference must be made to Madrid, and 
that the supreme rule of this vast archipelago is in 
the leading strings .of the Spanish Cabinet, impotent 
to correct any great abuses, or to introduce any 
important reforms. The captain-general should be 
invested with a large amount of power, subject, of 
course, to a personal responsibility as to its becoming 
exercise. As he must, if properly selected, know more, 
being present, than strangers who are absent, his go- 
vernment should be trusted on account of that superior 
knowledge. Well does the Castilian proverb say, 
''Mas sabe el loco en su casa que el cuerdo en la 
agena"-^-" The fool knows more about his own house 
than the sage about the house of another." He 
should be liberally paid, that the motives for corrup- 
tion be diminished. He should be surrounded by a 

H 2 



100 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

council composed of the best qualified advisers. 
Many objects would necessarily occupy the attention 
of such a body, and it would naturally have to create 
becoming local machinery and to furnish the materials 
for improved administration, such as surveys and 
statistics of the land and population, which would 
lead to a more satisfactory distribution of provinces, 
districts and pueblos. A simple code of civil and 
criminal law would be a great blessing, and should 
be grounded, in so far as the real interests of justice 
w^l allow, upon the customs and habits of the people, 
while employing, when compatible with those interests, 
the administrative local machinery in use among the 
natives. 

Nothing would be more beneficial to the interests 
of Manila than the establishment of an efficient 
board of works, with provincial ramifications, to whoso 
attention the facilitating communications should be 
specially recommended. The cost and difficulty of 
transport are among the principal impediments to 
the development of the resources of the islands, 
and the tardy progress of the few works which are 
undertaken is discouraging to those who suggest, 
and disappointing to those who expect to benefit 
by them. In many of the provinces the bridges 
are in miserable condition, and the roads frequently 
impassable. Even in the populous island of Fanay 
delays the most costly and annoying interfere with 
the transport of produce to the capital and naturally 
impede the development of commerce. There is, no 
doubt, a great want of directing talent and of that 



GOVERNMENT — ^ADMINISTRATION, ETC. 101 

special knowledge which modem science is able to 
furnish. The construction of bridges being gene- 
rally left to the rude artists who are employed by 
the Spanish functionaries, or to the direction of the 
friars, with whom the stare super aniiqtias vias ia 
the generally received maxim, it is not wonderful 
that there should be so many examples of rude, 
unsafe and unsightly constructions. Moreover, esti- 
mates have to be sent to the capital of all the pro- 
posed outlay, and it is hardly to be expected but 
that sad evidence should be found — as elsewhere — of 
short-sighted and very costly economy. The expense, 
too, almost invariably exceeds the estimates — a 
pretty general scandal; then the work is arrested, 
and sometimes wholly abandoned. Funds there are 
none, and neither poUcy nor patriotism will provide 
them. Even when strongly impelled, the Indian 
moves slowly ; self-action for the promotion of the 
public good he has none. There is no pressure from 
without to force improvements upon the authorities, 
and hence little is to be hoped for as to improvement 
except from direct administrative action. 

I can hardly pass over unnoticed M. de la 
Gironiere's romantic book,* as it was the subject of 
frequent conversations in the Philippines. No doubt 
he has dwelt there twenty years; but in the ex- 
perience of those who have lived there more than 
twice twenty I found little confirmation of the 
strange stories which are crowded into his strange 

♦ There is an English translation — "Twenty Years in the 
Philippines." Vizetelly. 1853. 



102 PHILIPPINB ISLANDS. 

volume. He was a resident of the Philippines 
at the time of my visit, and I believe still lives 
on the property of which he was formerly— but 
I was told is no longer — ^the possessor.* I did 
.not visit his ^^ Paradise," but had some agreeable 
intercourse with a French gentleman who is now in 
charge. I did not find any of that extraordinary 
savagery with which M. de la Gironi^re represents 
himself to be surrounded; and the answer to the 
inquiries I made of the neighbouring authorities as to 
the correctness of his pictures of Indian character was 
generally a shrug and a smile and a reference to my 
own experience. But M. de la Gironiere may have 
aspired to the honour of a Bemardin de St. Pierre 
or a Defoe, and have thought a few fanciful and 
tragic decorations would add to the interest of his 
personal drama. ^^ All the world's a stage,"' and as 
a player thereon M. de la Gironiere perhaps felt 
himself authorized in the indulgence of some lati- 
tude of description, especially when his chosen 
^^ stage" was one meant to exhibit the wonders of 
travel. 

As to M. de la Gironi^re's marvellous encounters 
and miraculous escapes from man and beast; his 
presence at feasts where among the delicacies were 
human brains, steeped by young girls in the juice of 
sugar-cane, of which he did not drink, but his servant 
did ; his discoveries of native hands in ^^ savory " pots 

* I learn from the Captain-Geiieral that Messrs. de la Giroui^re 
and Montblanc are now charged with *' a scientific mission to the 
Philippines/' under the auspices of the French government. 



GOVERNMENT — ADMINISTRATION, ETC. 103 

prepared for food ; his narratives where the rude 
Indians tell elaborate tales in the lackadaisy style of 
a fantastic novel ; his vast possessions ; his incredible 
influence over ferocious bandits and cruel savages; — 
all this must be taken at its value. I confess I have 
Been with some surprise, in M. de la Gironiere's 
book, two ^^ testimonies ^ from M. Dumont d'Urville 
and Admiral La Place, in which, among other matters, 
they give an account of the hatching of eggs by men 
specially engaged for this purpose.* They saw, as any 
one may, in the villages on the Fasig Biver, prodigious 
quantities of ducks and ducklings, and were '^puzzled** 
to find how such multitudes could be produced ; but 
they learnt the wonderful feat was accomplished by 
^' lazy Ta^l Indians," who lay themselves down upon 
the4g,^hieh «, placed m Lh«. The patient to- 
cubators eat, drink, smoke, and chew their betel, and 
while they take care not to injure the fragile sheUs, 
they carefully remove the ducklings as they are brought 
into being (pp. 358 and 362). Now it may well be 
asked who takes care when the lazy Tagdls are asleep ; 
and. if our worthy witnesses had reflected for a moment^ 
they would have known that, if all the inhabitants were 
employed in no other office than that of egg-hatching, 

* I find in Mr. Dixon's book on Domestic Poultiy the merits of 
this discoTeiy in the science of incubation attributed to an ancient 
couple, whose goose having been killed while '^ sitting," the old man 
transferred the '* cooling" eggs to their conmion bed, and he and the 
old lady taking their turns, safely brought the goslings into being. 
I ought to mention that confirmatory proofs of M. de la Gironi^re's 
narrative are added from Mr. H. Lindsay ; but Mr. Lindsay 
guards himself against endorsing the " strange stories " with 
which M. de la Gironi^'s book abounds. 



104 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

they would be hardly sufficient to incubate the " pro- 
digioufl" numbers of ducklings which cQsport on the 
banks of the Fasig. The incubation is really pro^ 
duced by placing warm paddy husks under and over 
the eggBt they are deposited in frames; a canvas 
coverS^U sprid ot« Z bmk., the .rt i, to keq, up 
the needful temperature ; and one man is sufficient to 
the care of a large number of frames, from which he 
releases the ducklings as they are hatched, and con- 
veys them in little flocks to the water-side. The 
communities are separated from one another by 
bamboo fences, but there is scarcely a cottage 
with a river frontage which has not its patero 
(or duckery). 



105 



CHAPTER VI. 

POPULATION. 

In the last generation a wondeiful sensation was pro- 
duced by the propagation of the great Malthasian dis- 
covery—the irresistible, indisputable, inexorable truth 
— ^that the productive powers of the soil were less and 
less able to compete with the consuming demands of 
the human race ; that while population was increasing 
with the rapidity of a swift geometrical progression, 
the means of providing food lagged with the feeble- 
ness of a slow arithmetical advance more and more 
behind; that the seats at nature's table — rich and 
abundant though it was — were being abundantly filled, 
and that there was no room for superfluous and unin- 
vited guests ; in a word, to use the adopted formula, 
that population was pressing more and more upon 
subsistence, and that the results must be increasing 
want, augmenting misery, and a train of calamities 
boundless as the catalogue of the infinite forms of 
mortal wretchedness. 

How often, when threading through the thousand 
islands of the Philippine Archipelago, did the shadow 
of Malthus and the visions of his philosophy pre- 
sent themselves to my thoughts. Of those unnum- 
bered, sea-surrounded regions, how many there are 
that have never been trodden by European foot, 
how few that have been thoroughly explored, and 



106 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

fewer still that are now inhabited by any civilized or 
foreign race I And yet they are covered with beauti- 
ful and spontaneous vegetable riches above, and bear 
countless treasures of mineral wealth below ; their 
powers of production are boundless; they have the 
varieties of climate which mountains, valleys and 
plains afford — rains to water — suns to ripen — ^rivers 
to conduct — harbours for shipment— every recom- 
mendation to attract, adventure and to reward in- 
dustry ; a population of only five or six millions, when 
ten times that number might be supplied to satiety, 
and enabled to provide for millions upon millions 
more out of the superfluities of their means. 

To what a narrow field of observation must the 
mind have been confined that felt alarm at a dis- 
covery, in itself of so little importance, when brought 
into the vast sphere of the world's geography! 
Though the human race has been increasing at a 
rapid and almost immeasurable rate, it will be 
probably found that famines, and plagues, and wars, 
and those calamitous visitations which were deemed 
the redressers of the balance — the restorers of the 
due proportions between man's wants and man's 
supplies — were far more disastrous in ancient than 
in modem times, if the smaller number of then 
existing human beings be taken into consideration. 

The nobler and higher axiom is that " progress" is 
the law of Providence, which never fails, while the 
race of man proceeds in ever-augmenting ^numbers, 
to provide ample means for their maintenance and 
happiness. Neither land nor sea is exhausted nor in 



POPULATION. 107 

process of exhaustion. What myriads of acres, whether 
in cold, temperate, or tropical climes, remain to be 
appropriated! what still greater amount to be im- 
proved by cultivation I And while in the more densely 
peopled parts of the world outlets may be required 
for those who are ill at ease and bom to no inheri- 
tance but labour, how wonderfully are locomotive 
facilities increased, so that the embarrassment to am- 
bulatory man is less to discover a fit place for his 
domicile, than to select one amid the many which 
ofier themselves to his choice I If the poverty-struck 
Irish could emigrate in such multitudes to American 
or Australian regions, far greater are the fieu^ilities 
possessed by those better conditioned labouring masses 
of Europe who are still heavily pressed by the competi- 
tion of neighbours more fortunate than themselves. 

It is a matter of surprise that the Spanish colo- 
nies should not have attracted a greater number of 
Spaniards to settle in them ; but the national spirit 
of the Iberian peninsula has ceased to be ambulatory 
or adventurous. Spain itself is thinly peopled, and 
offers great resources to its satisfied peasantry. 
" God," they say, « has given everything to Spain 
which He had to give. Our land is an Eden — 
why should we desert it?" Yet Spain, backward, 
inert and unenergetic, as she has proved herself to 
be in the rivalry of active nations, has taken her 
part in the proud history of human advancement. 
The more enterprising invaders of Gothic or Anglo- 
Saxon blood have frequently extirpated the indi- 
genous races of the remote countries in which they 



108 PHnJPPINE ISLANDS. 

have settled. One wave of emigration has followed 
another; commerce and cultivation have created a 
demand for, and provided a supply of, the intrusive 
visitors. But Spain has never furnished such num- 
bers as to dislodge the aboriginal tribes. Her colo- 
nists have been always accompanied by large bodies 
of ecclesiastics, bent upon bringing *Uhe heathen** 
into the Christian fold. These missionaries have no 
doubt often stood between the cupidity of the con- 
queror and the weakness of the conquered. They 
have preserved, by protecting the Indian clans, and 
it may be doubted whether ultimately the perma- 
nent interests of man will not have been served by 
influences, whose beneficial consequences may remain 
when the most prominent evils connected with those 
influences may be greatly modified or wholly pass away. 
My observations and my reflections, then, lead to 
this conclusion — that,, whatever exceptional cases there 
may be, the great tide of advancement roljs foward 
in ever-growing strength; — that the course of the 
Divine government is 

From seeming evil still educing good^ 

And BETTER tibence again, and BETTTEB still. 

In infinite progression ; — 

that the human family, taken as a whole, is con- 
stantly improving; — that every generation is wiser 
and better than that which preceded it; — that the 
savage and least improvable races will continue to 
be supplanted or absorbed by those of a higher in- 
telligence ; — that the semi-civilized will only be per- 
petuated by contact with a greater civilization, which 



I 



I 



POPULATION. 109 

will raise them in the scale of humanity. A middle 
race, such as China contributes in the shape of emi- 
grating millions, is wonderfully advancing the work 
of civilization. The process is everywhere visible 
in the remoter Eastern world. The mestizo de- 
scendants of Chinese fathers and Indian mothers 
form incomparably the most promising portion of the 
Philippine population. In Siam, Burmah, Cochin 
China, profitable employments are mainly absorbed 
by Chinese settlers. In Netherlands India they are 
almost invariably prosperous. To them Sumatra, 
Borneo, and the other islands, must look, and not 
to the indigenous peoples, for any considerable de- 
velopment of their resources. In our Straits Archi- 
pelago they have superseded the Klings in all the 
most beneficial fields of labour, as the Klings had 
previously superseded the less industrious Malays. 
The progress of the higher capabilities, and the de- 
pression of the lower, may be traced in the extinction 
of so many rude languages and the spread of those 
which represent civilization in its most advanced 
stages. It may be foretold, I think, without presump- 
tion, that in some future time the number of tongues 
spoken on the face of the globe will be reduced to 
a very small amount. In the course of a century 
many a local idiom utterly perishes, and is invariably 
replaced by one of more extensive range and greater 
utility. When it is remembered that the tvritten 
language of China is understood by one-third of the 
human race ; that probably more than one-tenth of 
mankind have an acquaintance with spoken English 



no 



PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



— ^the language which has far more widely planted 
roots, and more extensive ramifications, than any 
other; when the daily decay of the provincial 
dialects of France, Germany, Spain, and Italy is 
watched, good ground will he discovered for the an* 
ticipation that many of the existing instruments for 
oral communication will he extinguished, the number 
of dead languages will be much augmented, and of 
living proportionally decreased. 

I know not on what authority M. Mallat esti- 
mated, in 1846, the population of the Philippines 
at 7)000,000, — ^an augmentation, he says, of more 
than 50 per cent, from 1816, when he states the 
population to have been 4,600,000. He says that 
it quadrupled itself from 1774 to 1816. He attri- 
butes the enormous increase from the later period 
to the introduction of vaccination and the general 
tranquillity of the country; but the correctness of 
the data may well be doubted. 

The Christian population of the Philippines is 
stated by Father Juan Fernandez to be — 





PaebloB. 


Sonlfl. 


Under the Archbishopric of Manila . 
„ Bishopric of New Segovia 
„ Bishopric of New Caceres 
y, Bishopric of Zebu . 


185 
132 
104 
806 


185,000 

745,000 

480,000 

1,200,000 


In all 


727 


8,560,000 



The population of the Philippines is generally sup- 
posed to be about four millions ; but, as the Indians 
who dwell in the interior of several of the islands — 
those especially who occupy the unexplored forest and 



POPULATION, 



111 



mountainous districts — cannot be included in any 
official census, any calculations can only be deemed 
approximative. The returns furnished by the govern- 
ment to the Guia de Foresteros for the year 1858 
give the" following results : — 







MCTttMt 




• 






Fbotdksb, 


Natlyei 
triouiB* 

* 


aod 
Chiiieie 
Tribu- 
taries. 


Total 


Birtlif* 


Deatfai. 


liages. 


Manila . 


86,850 


25,418 


276,059 


11,346 


9,251 


1,956 


Bnlacan 


91,551 


12,119 


214,261 


8,789 


5,172 


1,542 


Fampanga . 


79,912 


9,631 


170,849 


9,101 


4,407 


2,237 


Nneva Ecga . 


40,949 


■•• 


74,698 


5,963 


2,547 


1,176 




17,473 


3,176 


42,332 


1,941 


1,171 


347 


Cavite . .. 


41,471 


6,943 


56,832 


3,867 


2,619 


868 


Batangas . 


115,359 


3,063 


247,676 


11,133 


6,270 


1,956 


Moron . 


20,288 


1,964 


43,010 


1,900 


1,508 


553 


LaLagnna . 


65,177 


1,866 


132,264 


5,935 


4,295 


1,553 


Zambales 


28,028 


149 


31,116 


2,320 


1,191 


635 


MindoTo 


7,385 


• 


15,135 


734 


645 


191 


Pangarinan . 


97,786 


1,551 


272,427 


9,172 


6,368 


2,756 


La Union 


39,044 


117 


45,657 


3,894 


1,526 


1,165 


llooos Snr . 


77,974 


2,293 


179,407 


7,305 


3,647 


1,801 


nocos Norte. 


70,305 


16 


140,226 


6,189 


3,695 


1,536 


Cagayan 


27,784 


71 


54,457 


2,443 


1,489 


638 


Abra • • • 


8,009 


200 


36,737 


782 


354 


407 


Nuava Biacaya 


6,116 


•• • 


19,754 


452 


387 


131 


Lalsabela . 


14,112 


••• 


26,372 


1,040 


757 


265 


Camarines . 


78,012 


125 


209,696 


6,273 


3,456 


1,770 


Albaj . 


103,928 


990 


204,840 


7,458 


6,722 


1,099 


Tajabat 


44,940 


154 


102,210 


3,049 


2,124 


949 


Borias . 


470 


••■ 


525 


17 


12 


1 


MastMiteof Tlcao. 


5,421 


27 


10,992 


249 


108 


55 


Zebn . 


81,457 


4,267 


267,540 


12,653 


3,740 


2,374 


Negrof. 


24,522 


394 


113,379 


4,499 


2,688 


804 




4,003 


•■• 


17,964 


730 


279 


172 


Bohol . 


64,760 


692 


175,686 


5,924 


2,476 


1,452 


Samar • 


61,586 


437 


117,866 


6,161 


3,437 


1,863 


lieite . 


66,371 


790 


134,493 


5,582 


2,168 


1,387 


Antiqae 


25,567 


42 


77,639 


4,810 


1,708 


664 


UoUo . 


174,884 


1,442 


527,970 


17,675 


9,231 


3,697 


Gapiz . 


66,614 


8 


143,713 


9,810 


4,199 


1,187 


Snriago 


13,801 


148 


18,848 


944 


525 


181 


MiMmlii 


23,729 


266 


46,517 


2,155 


845 


396 


Zamboanga . 


3,871 


16 


10,191 


429 


956 


55 


BatUan 


167 


4 


447 


43 


71 




Bifllig . . . 


4,686 


21 


12,718 


394 


143 


112 


Darao . , 


304 


••• 


800 


21 


9 


18 


Bomblon 


8,517 


••• 


17,068 


892 


375 


149 


Totals . 


1,787,528 


78,400 


4,290,371 


184,074 


102,466 


40,093 



112 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

Proportion of nativefi to mixed races . ^ . 96*00 per cent. 

natives (paying tribute) to population 29*00 f, 

mixed races to population . . 1*75 „ 

births to population . . . 4*00 „ 



. -90 „ 

64-00 to 36-00 „ 

. 2-70 „ 



deaths to population 
marriages to population 
births to deaths 
births to marriages 

Imperfect returns are given from Corregidor and Pulo Caballo, 
370 inhabitants in all: From Benguet, 6,803, of whom 4,639 
are pagans, and 15 Christian tributaries: From Cayan, 17,035, the 
whole population, of which 10,861 tributaries. 

The number of European Spaniards settled in the 
Philippines bears a very small proportion to that of 
the mixed races. There are 670 males and 119 
females in the capital (Manila and Binondo). Of 
these there are 114 friars, all living in Manila, eight 
ecclesiastics, forty -six merchants, fourteen medical 
practitioners, and the majority of the others military 
and civil functionaries. But in none of the islands 
does the proportion of Spaniards approach that 
which is found in the capitdi. Probably the whole 
number of European Spaniards in the islands does 
not amount to two thousand. 

There are ninety-six foreigners established in Bi- 
nondo — eighty-five males and eleven females (none 
in Manila proper). Of these fifty are merchants 
or merchants' assistants. There are twenty-two 
British subjects, fifteen French, fifteen South Ame- 
ricans, eleven citizens of the United States, nine 
Germans, and nine Swiss. 

Independently of European Spaniards, there are 
many families which call themselves hijos del pays 



POPULATION. 1 13 

(children of the country), descendants of Spanish 
settlers, wlio avoid mingling with native Indian blood. 
They have the reputation of being more susceptible 
than are even the old Castilians in matters of 
etiquette, and among them are many who have re- 
ceived a European education. They are generally 
candidates for public employment, but are said to 
be less steady, and more addicted to play and to 
pleasure, than their progenitors; but they are emi- 
nently hospitable. They dress in European style 
when they appear in public, but at home both men 
and women use the loose and more convenient Indian 
costume. They complain, on their part, that barriers 
are raised between them and their countrjrmen from 
the Peninsula; in a word, that the spirit of caste 
exercises its separating and alienating influences in 
the PhUippines, as elsewhere. 

The mestizos, or mixed races, form a numerous 
and influential portion of the Filipinos ; the num- 
ber settled in the islands of women of European 
birth is small, and generally speaking they are the 
wives of the higher Spanish functionaries and of 
superior officers in the army and navy, whose term 
of service is generally limited. Though the daughters 
of families of pure Spanish blood generally marry in 
the colony and keep up a good deal of exclusiveness 
and caste, it is seldom that the highest society is 
without a large proportion of mestiza ladies, children 
of Spanish fathers and native mothers. The great 
majority of the merchants and landed proprietors 
belong to this class, and most of the subordinate 

I 



1 1 4 PinUPPINE ISLANDS- 

offices of government are filled by them. There 
are very many descendants of Chinese by native 
women; but the paternal type seems so to absorb 
the maternal, that the children for whole generations 
bear the strongly marked character which distinguishes 
the genuine native of the flowery land, even through 
a succession of Indian mothers. I shall have occasion 
to speak of a visit I made to a district^ (Molo, near 
Iloilo), which in former times had been the seat of 
a large Chinese colony, where the Chinese race had 
disappeared centuries ago, hut the Chinese phy- 
siognomy, and the Chinese character, had left their 
unmistakeable traces in the whole population. I 
found nowhere among the natives a people so indus- 
trious, so persevering, so economical, and, generaUy, 
SQ prosperous. Almost every house had a loom, and 
it is the place where the best of the pina fabrics 
are woven. We were invited to a ball at which the 
principal native ladies were present, and I had to 
answer a discurso delivered in excellent Castilian 
hy the leading personage. I was informed that the 
young women were remarkable for their chastity, and 
that an erring sister obtained no forgiveness among 
them. Their parents object to their learning Spanish 
lest it should be an instrument of seduction. Of 
the mestizos of Chinese or Mongolian descent, De 
Mas says : — " They are called Sangley^ which means 
Chinese merchant or traveller. They inherit the in- 
dustrious and speculative spirit of their forefathers. 
Most of them have acquired riches and lands, and 
the largest part of the retail trade is in their hands. 



POPULATION. 115 

They form the middle class of the Filipinos. Their 
prosperity and hotter education produce the natural 
results, and their moral and intellectual character is 
far superior to that of the Indians. They are luxu- 
riously dressed, are more elegant and handsome than 
the Indians; some of their women are decidedly 
heautifiil. But they preserve most of the hahits of 
the Indians, whom they exceed in attention to religious 
duties because they are superior in intelligence. This 
race is likely to increase in numbers and in influence, 
and, in consequence of the large importation of China- 
men, to augment in the localities of their settlements 
at a greater rate than the Indian population.'* * 

There can be no doubt that the predominance of 
the characteristics of the father over those of the 
mother has improved, through successive genera- 
tions, the general character of the race of mestizo 
Chinese. They are more active and enterprising, 
more prudent and persevering, more devoted to 
trade and commerce, than the Indies. They all 

• The Chinese seem everywhere to preserve the same charac- 
teristics. The British Consul-General of Borneo writes to me: — 
*' Chinese settlers cannot flourish imder Malay rule. We have a 
few hundreds, but the country would absorb hundreds of thousands. 
In the interior I found among the aborigines a lively remembrance of 
the former Chinese pepper-growers; they have been all destroyed 
or driven away by civil dissensions. There remain a few of their 
descendants, who speak the language of their fathers, but they are 
not distinguishable from the natives. A Chinese merchant was 
speaking disparagingly of one of the chiefs, who turned round, and, 
much to the astonishment of the Chinaman, accosted him in Yery 
tolerable Fokien. The little pepper-growing that remains is partly 
conducted by the mixed races. The produce is slightly increasing, 
and a few Chinese with native wives are beginning to try it again." 

I 2 



• • 



116 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

preserve the black hair, which is characteristic of 
China, ^^ the black-haired " being one of the national 
names by which the people of the " middle kingdom" 
are fond of designating themselves. The slanting 
position of the eyes, forming an angle over the nose, 
the beardless chin, the long and delicate fingers (in 
conformity with Chinese usage they frequently allow 
the middle nail of the left hand to grow to a great 
length), their fondness for dress and ornament, distin- 
guish them. They exercise great influence over the 
Indians, who believe them to be masters of the 
art of money-getting. The children of a Spanish 
mestizo by a Chinese mestiza, are called Toma atras, 
^^ going back ; " those of a Chinese mestizo by an 
Indian woman are considered as Chinese and not 
Indian half-castes. The mingling of Chinese blood 
is observable in all the town populations. The 
number of mestizos of European descent is trifling 
compared with those of Chinese origin. Their 
houses are invariably better furnished than those of 
the natives. Many of them adopt the European cos- 
tume, but where they retain the native dress it is 
finer in quality, gayer in colours, and richer m orna- 
ment. Like the natives, they wear their shirts over 
the trousers, but the shirt is of pina or sinamay 
fastened with buttons of valuable stones ; and a gold 
chain is seldom wanting, suspended round the neck. 
The men commonly wear European hats, shoes and 
stockings, and the sexes exhibit no small amount of 
dandyism and coquetry. 

The great mass of the indigenous population of the 



POPULATION. 117 

Philippine Islaiids may be divided into two principal 
races — the Tagdlos occupying the north, and the 
Bisayos the south. Of these, all who inhabit the 
towns and villages profess Christianity, and are much 
under the influence of the regular clergy, who admi- 
nister the religious ordinances in the various pro- 
vinces, which are, for the most part, submitted to 
the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of different orders of 
brotherhood. There are a few instances of the 
Indians being invested with the full rights of priest- 
hood, though they generally reach no higher post 
than that of assistants to the friars. At the great 
ceremony which I attended of the Purisima Con^ 
cepcion at Manila, an Indian was chosen to deliver 
the sermon of the day ; it was, as usual, redolent 
with laudations of the Virgin, and about equal to the 
average style of flowery Spanish preaching. But as 
we recede from the towns, religious ordinances are 
neglected, and in the centre and mountainous parts 
of the islands Christianity ceases to be the profes-i 
sion of the inhabitants; the friars deplore their 
ignorant and abandoned state, and occupy themselves 
in the endeavour to bring them into their fold, and to 
enforce the payment of that tribiito from which they, 
as well as the government, derive their revenues. 
If this be paid, if the services of the Church be duly 
performed, confession made, fit co-operation given to 
the religious processions and festivals (which are the 
native holidays), matters go on well between the 
clergy and the people. I found many of the friars 
objects of affection and reverence, and deservedly so. 



118 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

as guardians and restorers of the family peace, en- 
couragers of the children in their studies, and other- 
wise associating their efforts with the well-being of 
the community; but removed, as the ecclesiastics 
frequently are, from the control of public opinion, 
there is often scandal, and good ground for it. 

Father Zuniga opines that the Philippines were 
originally colonized by the inhabitants of America ; 
but he fails altogether in the proofs he seeks in the 
analogy of languages. The number of Malayan 
words in Tagal and Bisayan is greater than any to 
bo traced to American dialects; and here I may 
remark, by the way, that there is no topic on which 
so much absurdity has been committed to the press 
as on the derivation and affinity of languages — a 
subject in which Spanish authority is seldom of much 
value. El Senor Erro, for example, in his book on 
the antiquity of the Bascuence, gives a description and 
picture of a jar found in a well in Guipuscoa, which 
had on it the words " Gott erbarme dein armes 
Wiirmchen ! " This he reports to be a Biscayan 
inscription in honour of the priestesses of the sun 
anterior to the introduction of Christianity, and he 
doubts not that the vase (a piece of coarse modem 
German pottery) was used in the sacred services of 
the temple ! 

De Mas supposes that the Indians employed alpha- 
betical writing anterior to the arrival of the Spanish, 
and gives five alphabets as used in different provinces, 
but having some resemblance to one another. I 
doubt alike the antiquity and authenticity of the 



J 



POPULATION- 119 

records ; but give a specimen which he says is a con- 
tract upon Chinese paper for a sale of land in Bula- 
can, dated 1652. 



^h^ryzj LfZJ^^Jl/P X ^-C>2. 






n^fj I ^ i^, "" J Z^ 



/f^2^l:^Jl:^zr/^z^^^zJo^ 



My own inquiries led to no discoveries of old 
records, or written traditions, or inscriptions of re- 
mote times, associated with Indian history. There is 
sufficient evidence that some rude authority existed — 
that there were masters and slaves — ^that the land 
was partially cultivated and the sea explored by 
labourers and fishermen, leading necessarily to a 
recognition of some rights of property — that there 
were wars between hostile tribes, which had their 
leaders and their laws. The early records of the 
missionaries give the names of some of the chiefs, and 
detail the character of the authority exercised by the 
ruling few over the subject many. They say that 
gold would procure the emancipation of a slave and 
his reception among the Mahaldicas^ or privileged 
class. Prisoners of war, debtors, and criminals, were 
held in bonds. The daughter of a Mahaldica could 
be obtained in marriage, where the lover was unable 
to pay her money value, by vassalage to her father 
for a certain number of years. If a man of one 



120 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS- 

tribe married the woman of another, the children 
were equally, or as nearly as possible, divided among 
the two tribes to which the parents belonged. Pro- 
perty was partitioned among the sons at the father s 
death, the elder enjoying no rights over the 
younger. 

Local superstitions prevailed as to rocks, trees, and 
rivers. They worshipped the sun and moon ; a blue 
bird called tignuimanoquin ; a stag named meylupaj 
" lord of the soil ;" and the crocodile, to which they 
gave the title of nonOy or " grandfather.*' A demon 
named Osuang was supposed to torment children, to 
cause pains in childbirth, to live on human flesh, and ' 
to have his presence announced by the ticiicj a bird of 
evil augury. Naked men brandished swords from the 
roof and other parts of the choza to frighten the fiend 
away, or the pregnant woman was removed from the 
neighbourhood of the tictic. The Manacolam was a 
monster enveloped in flames, which could only be ex- 
tinguished by the ordure of a human being, whose death 
would immediately follow. The Silagan seized and 
tore out the liver of persons clad in white. The Mag- 
tatangal deposited his head and entrails in the evening 
in some secret place, wandered about doing mischief 
in the night, and resumed his ^^ deposit" at break 
of day. So strange and wild are the fancies of cre- 
dulity I Sacrifices were ofiered in deprecation of 
menaced evils, or in compliment to visitors, by female 
priestesses called Catalona^ who distributed pieces of 
the sacrificed animal. There were many witches and 
sorcerers, exercising various functions, one of whom. 



POPULATION. 121 

the Manyisalaty was the love inspirer and the confi- 
dant of youths and maidens. 

On entering a forest the Indian supplicated the 
demons not to molest him. The crackling of wood, the 
sight of a snake in a cottage newly huilt, were deemed 
presages of evil. In the house of a fisherman it was 
deemed improper to speak of a forest, in that of a 
huntsman of the sea. A pregnant woman was not 
allowed to cut her hair, lest her child should be horn 
hairless. 

The price paid for a woman given in marriage was 
regulated by the position of the parties. The mother 
had a claim, as well as the nurse who had had charge 
of the childhood of the bride. Whatever expense the 
daughter had caused to the father he was entitled 
to recover from the bridegroom. Among opulent 
families there was a traditional price, such as the 
father or grandfather had paid for their wives. If 
the bride had no living parents, her price was paid to 
herself. Three days before the marriage the roof of 
the parental dwelling was extended, and an apart* 
ment, called a palapala^ added for the wedding 
festival; the guests brought their presents to the 
bride, and, whatever the value, it was expected that 
when, on future occasions, the relations of hosts and 
guests were changed, an o£Pering of not less value 
should be given. Among the ceremonies it was 
required that the lovers should eat from the same 
plate and drink from the same cup. Mutual pledges 
and promises of affection were given, and the catalona 
pronounced a benediction. Sad scenes of drunken- 



122 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

ness and scandal are said to have followed the cere- 
mony in the after festivities, which lasted three days. 
In the northern islands only one wife was allowed, hut 
any numher of handmaids and slaves ; in the south, 
where, no douht, Islamism was not without its in- 
fluence, any numher of legitimate wives was permitted : 
circumcision was also practised. 

Hired mourners, as well as the members of the 
family, were gathered round the corpse, and sang 
hymns proclaiming the virtues of the dead. The 
body was washed, perfumed, dressed and sometimes 
embalmed. The poor were speedily buried in the 
silong over which their huts were constructed. The 
rich were kept for several days, laid out in a coffin 
made of a solid trunk, the mouth covered with gold- 
leaf, and the place of sepulture any favourite spot 
which the deceased might have selected ; if on the 
bank of a river, the passage of boats was interdicted 
for some time, lest the dead should interfere with the 
concerns of the living, and a guard had charge of the 
tomb, near which the garments, usual food and arms 
of the departed were placed in a separate box — in the 
case of a woman, her loom and instruments of labour. 
Where a chief of distinction was interred, a building 
was erected, in which two goats, two deer, and two 
pigs were imprisoned and a fettered slave belonging 
to the deceased, who was ordered to accompany his 
master to the other world, and died a miserable death 
of starvation. It was supposed on the third day after 
the interment that the dead man visited his family : 
a vase of water was placed at the door, that he might 






*mt «- 



•* 



. ^- 



f'- 



> ■ ■ 



.5S?- 










J* 



4f! 



I • 



ft 

t 






i>f 



/ 



% '. 



vr 

V 






* 



.» 



r^ 



•^> 



'.•> 
-**. 



>, 







s ' i .* 1 •. 

•i HI litO.c i« llciwctl til-* i<'i*o- 
'■ .!<• . v\iili'!i lastiMl {h^vo ih\ -. 

'■ ttr.d sli;\'S; in tlio «;t)utli, 

. J -ru v\:i^ ;«♦.{. witlioi.t it^ in- 

'- I ' '• .Itiiii.iti^ wives v.as pi riuitti*.^ : 

't\ '.uiTjtl ilu"* corpse, aiul sjsiiu 
'. *\r \;rlu<\^ nf the (Irnd, Tlif 

' rfuni'Ml dressed and sometimo 

• .. ■ : /y'T vs\f,- siK^cdilv buried in uw 
v/'' ' • 'ii Ii tn.r ii! t- wore construct <^d. Tin* 
r*. .1 »' .' ; i pt f )r >» .1' u days, laid out in a coHin 
^»m1c or *• .- lid t. r'.\, ;I." rr"»utli covered with gold- 

• * * t';,' -.luvO of -jiiituro vn\ favourite spot 

Niser^ ;. 'viV4» oel(^(.tra ; 'f on tile 

• V r, t; * • of lM'it> vva< iiiterdlcted 

' . e. 1- . ! ' >. iiVl iriicnVre v ah the 

. ;i-h-s ( t i'', . , a auJifii hud charge of the 

• .nb, r'Mi* .... * T nent.s usual fo-'d jjid arms 

i A vNcr ..'ii ed In a -separate box" - in the 

.rx. ' i ..>in arid In^lr'nn«i;ts of labour. 

lincrluu \n.«s interred, a huildiivj 

^' 'Ao g'»at-, tvvo deer, and two 

lad a telti3rod ^slavo beli'Upng 

«» w^as ordevt'd to aec()r>j)any \\\^ 

■ wciild, and d^"d a mi<orah]c lieath 

.«:v& ^uppo>ed on tlie third day after 

rh- the dead n .'i vibUoil his laiiiilv : 

■r 

.' ]•!.•. :eil i'l ' e door, thiU lie niiL'lit 



t M 



POPULATION. 123 

wash and free himself from the dirt of the grave ; a 
wax light was left huming through the day; mats 
were spread and covered with ashes, that the foot- 
marks of the dead might be traced; and the door 
was opened at the accustomed time of meals, and a 
splendid repast laid out for the expected visitor. No 
doubt it was disposed of by the attendants in the 
same way as other costly sacrifices. The Indians of 
the north put on black, those of the south white, 
mourning robes. 

In the administration of justice the elders were 
consulted, but there was no code of laws, and the 
missionaries affirm that the arbitrators of quarrels 
were generally but too well paid for their awards. 
Murder committed by a slave was punished with 
death — committed by a person of rank, was indem- 
nified by payments to the injured family. When a 
robbery took place, all the suspected persons were 
ordered to bring a load of grass ; these loads were 
mixed in a heap, and if the stolen article was found it 
was restored to the owner, and no inquiry made as to 
the bringer of the bundle in which it was concealed. If 
this method failed, they flung all the suspected into a 
river, and held him to be guilty who came first to the 
surface, on the theory that remorse would not allow 
him to keep his breath. Many are said to have been 
drowned in order to escape the ignominy of rising out 
of the water. They sometimes placed candles of 
equal length in the hands of all the accused, and ho 
was held to be guilty whose candle first went out. 
Another mode was to gather the accused round a 



124 PHILIFFINE ISLANDS. 

light, and he towards whom the flames turned was 
condemned as the criminal. Adultery was condoned 
for hy fine to the wronged persons. 

Gold was used by weight as the medium of ex- 
change, but there was no coined or stamped currency. 
The largest weight was called a gael^ but it repre- 
sented a dollar and a quarter in silver, nearly corre- 
sponding to the Chinese ounce or tael ; a gael con- 
sisted of two tingay a tinga of two sapaha ;* a sapaha 
was divided into sangragGj a very small bean, which 
was the minimum weight. Accounts were kept by 
heaps of stones of different sizes. Their measures 
were the dipa (brace = 6 feet), the dancal (pahn), 
tumuro (^pan), sangdamac (breadth of the hand), 
sangdati (breadth of the finger). Thus, as among 
many rude nations (the vestiges are still to be traced 
in the phraseology of civilization) every man carried 
with him his standard of mensuration. 

Time was reckoned by suns and moons, in the 
Philippines as in China. In Chinese the same 
words designate day and sun, moon and month, har- 
vest and year. The morning was called "cock- 
crowing,** the evening " sun-leaving." 

No Indian passed another without a salutation and 
a bending of the left knee. An inferior entering the 
house of a superior crouched down until ordered to 
rise. Earrings were worn by women and sometimes 

* Both ffael and sapaha are terms probably introduced bj traders 
with China. Tael and sapeque are the names given by Euro- 
peans to the liang and tsien of the Chinese, the silver oimce and its 
tliousandth part. 



POPULATION. 125 

by men; the chiefs had coloured turbans, scarlet if 
they had killed an enemy, striped if they had killed 
seven or more. Peace was made by the mingling 
blood with wine, and each drank of the blood of the 
other. This was the most solenm of their oaths. 

Chastity seems to have been unknown, though a 
price was always exacted for a woman's favours. 

Many Mahomedan superstitions and usages had 
found their way to the interior, and among them the 
rite of circumcision. 

All the Indians are bom with a circular dark spot 
on the buttock, of the size of a shilling; as their 
skins darken the mark extends, becomes lighter in 
colour, and in age is scarcely distinguishable. 

There is a tradition that the Indians were formerly 
in the habit of punishing an unpopular person by a 
penalty which they called Cobacolo^ and which was 
inflicted on any who had misled them by false 
counsels. The whole population assembled, went to 
the house of the offender, every one bearing a cudgel ; 
some surrounded the house to prevent escape, and 
others entered and, by blows, drove the victim to the 
balcony, from whence he was compelled to leap, and 
he was then chased out of the neighbourhood, after 
which the house was razed to the ground, and all 
that it contained destroyed. The tradition is pre* 
served in many popular proverbs and phrases, in 
which the Cobacolo is used as a menace to evil-doers. 

Among the most celebrated books on the Philip- 
pines are the ^' Cronicas Franciscanas," by Fr. Gas- 
par de S. Agustin, an Augustine monk of Madrid, 



126 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

who lived forty years among the IndianSi and- from 
whose descriptions I have made a few selections ; but 
there are remarkable contrarieties of opinion among 
different writers. Their fields of observation are 
different, and natural temperament has much to do 
with the judgment formed. Our Iriar does not give 
the natives a favourable character. According to 
him they are generally ^' inconstant, distrustful, 
malicious, sleepy, idle, timid, and fond of travelling 
by rivers, lakes, and seas.** 

" They are great consumers of fish, which are 
found in immense abundance. After rains the fields 
and marshes and ponds are filled with them. Fish 
two palms long are often pulled up from among the 
paddy. As the waters dry up, the fish retreat to 
any muddy recess, and the Indians catch them with 
their hands, or kill them with sticks.** I have seen 
many Indians fishing in the paddy grounds, and what 
becomes of the fish in the times of drought, when no 
" muddy recesses** are to be found, it is hard to say, 
but where there is water fish may invariably be 
sought for with success. 

" They eat three meals a day, consisting principally 
of rice, the sweet potato, and a small quantity of fish 
or meat ; the daily cost of the whole being half a rial*' 
(= sd. sterling). " As labourers they get half a rial 
in addition to their food. They willingly borrow 
money, which they do not repay, and he who will not 
encourage ingratitude must show them no favour ; to 
exact a promise is to ensure a falsehood. They are 
the ingrates described in the 36th Psalm. They 



POPULATION, 127 

never shut the door they have opened; they return 
nothing to its place; they never do the work they 
have been paid for beforehand, yet they do not fail 
to ask for an advance : the carpenter must have 
money to buy wood ; the washerman to get soap ; 
and they even practise their devices upon the parish 
priest I They have the art of blundering about every-* 
thing ; they fold all garments the wrong way ; turn 
a shirt inside out, always present the back where the 
front should be." The father is somewhat severe, 
and of my own experience I can say there was at 
least about as much chance in such matters of the 
Indians doing right as wrong. Alava said of the 
Indians that their brains were in their hands. 

The padre continues : — " They are envious, ill- 
bred, and impertinent. They will even ask a padre, 
* Whence do you come ? where are you going ? I If 
you are reading a letter, they will look over your 
shoulders, though not able to read themselves ; and 
if two people are talking in secret, the Indians will 
come near, though not understanding a word." Grave 
charges these. '^ They enter houses, and even con- 
vents, without leave, and seem to make themselves at 
home in a manner to excite wonderment and anger ; 
even when the padre is asleep, they make a great 
noise in trampling the floor, though in their own 
houses they walk with as much care as if treading 
among eggs. They use no chairs at home, but 
absolutely wear out those of the convents by sitting 
and lounging on them, particularly in the balco- 
nies, where they can get a look at the women.'* 



128 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

These extracts are as characteristic of the monk 
as of the Indian. *^Thej care nothing for dog, 
cat, horse nor cow; the game-cock is their great 
concern ; him they visit at dawn ; him they caress 
through the day; they will contemplate him with 
eyes fixed for half an hour at a time: the passion 
never decays ; many of them think of nothing else. 
The government patronizes cock-fights. Last year 
they produced 40,000 dollars *• (in 1859, 86,000 
dollars) ; ^^ sad resource this for so many tears, crimes, 
and punishments I What quarrels, what lawsuits, 
what appeals I And in their gambling they pass the 
night till sunrise. The chief of the Barangay (clan) 
loses the tribute-money he has collected ; his doom is 
the prison, or a fiight to the mountains. They hate 
to live in houses or convents where they would be 
placed beyond even the odour of women. They take 
care of their own plates, and exhibit in their dwell- 
ings some possessed before the arrival of the Spaniards, 
but in convents and houses they break plates enough 
to ruin their masters. This is because of their 
stupidity, or that they are thinking of their beloved, 
or of anything but what ought to occupy their 
thoughts ; and if they let fall a dish, it is passed over 
by the Spaniards, or they are only called 'brute I 
animal I savage I' In their own house, however, the 
breaking a piece of earthenware would be followed 
with a good number of cane blows, and this is of 
more efficacy than all Cicero's Philippics (sic in orig.) 
They cannot be trusted with a sword, mirror, glass, 
gun, watch, nor any delicate thing ; they are sure to 



POPULATION. 1 29 

spoil it. You may confide to them a bamboo, a stick, 
a piece of timber, a palm-branch, and to a few of 
them a ploughshare. 

*^ They are bold and insolent in making unreason- 
able requests, careless of the when or the how. They 
remind me in their petitions of what happened to 
Sancho Fanza in the island of Barataria, when 
troubled with that impertinent and intrusive rustic 
Michael Turra. For their four eggs they want a 
hundred dollars. I never see an Indian coming 
towards me with a gift — something worthless, of 
course, and of no use to himself — ^flowers or fruits, 
but I exclaim, in the words of Laocoon to the Tro- 
jans" (grandiloquent friar t) ^^ ^Timeo Danaos dona 
ferentes.* The Bishop of Troya, Don Francisco 
Gines Barrientes, a most circumspect prelate, told 
me that an Indian brought him a handkerchief of 
Guava fruit and asked him for the loan of fifty 
dollars. And when the Lord Marquis de Yillasierra, 
Don Fernando de Yalenzuela, was in the castle of 
Cavite, an Indian gave him a cock, for which the 
Marquis ordered him to be paid six times its value, 
and the Indian said he expected eighty cavans of rice, 
and this, too, was in the time of scarcity, when every 
cavan was worth two dollars. It matters little, how- 
ever, for they are just as well pleased when they fail 
as when they succeed, for they do not value anything 
given them by a Spaniard, not even by a priest I In 
selling they wiU ask thirty and accept six; they 
take the chance of cheating, and, knowing the great 
goodness {la suma handad) of the Spanish character. 



130 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

they do not apprehend any expriBssion of anger in 
consequence of an absurd pretension." 

The friar thus describes a negotiation between an 
Indian peasant and a merchant : — ^' The peasant has 
two or three hundredweight of indigo for sale ; he 
does not come alone, but with his relations, friends, 
and sometimes the women, for the indigo belongs to 
several who form the suite of the seller. Every offer 
has to be communicated to the party, who are 
crouched in a circle round the negotiator ; the offer 
being discussed, they agree to the reduction of a 
dollar in the price — the buyer requires three; this 
matter being settled, another discussion begins ; some 
of the indigo is damp and dirty, and an allowance 
must be made, and thus the negotiation goes on ha- 
rassing and never-ending, so that very few Spaniards 
wiU tolerate such impertinence and importunity, and 
the conference ends by a dry inquiry, * Will you ? yes I 
or no I ' If no, the Indians are angrily ordered into 
the street, but the more patient mestizos and Chinese 
make the Indians their guests, feed them and lodge 
them, and get these commodities on their own terms, 
in Chinese style, for the Indian, is very stupid in 
trading matters." And then the father gives abun- 
dant evidence of their simplicity. '' In fine, the 
Indian prefers the rial of a Chinese to the dollar of 
a Spaniard." Who can wonder, then, at the pro- 
sperous condition of the Chinese in the Philippines ? 
^' The Indians show great indifference to danger : 
they will not move out of the way of a restive horse, 
nor, if in a small boat, give place to a large one. 



POPULATION. 131/ 

In the river, if they see crocodiles approaching, they 
take no notice and adopt no precautions. The Koran 
says that every one has his fate written in the marks 
on his forehead ; so think the Indians, not that they 
have read the Koran, hut because of their own folly, 
which exposes them to daily misfortunes." " They 
are very credulous among themselves, yet believe no- 
thing but what is unfavourable about the Spaniards. 
It is evident that the act of faith is supernatural 
when they acknowledge the divine mysteries taught by 
the Spaniards. In other matters they believe in 
nothing which is adverse to their interests. They do 
not object to rob Spaniards, not even the ministers 
of religion. Of this we have irresistible evidence, so 
that there can be no doubt, and we can only regret 
that no remedy can be found." 

The Augustine provincial friar of Ilocos, report- 
ing on the insurrection of 1807 in that province, 
says : — " Here, as elsewhere, there are abundance 
of robbers and' pilferers ; it is of no use to bring 
them to Manila, they should be punished in the 
locality; but they can be no more extirpated than 
can the rats and mice. Indeed there is an Indian 
proverb which says : — * Robbers and rats will dis- 
appear together.' " I cannot' endorse the friar's 
indiscriminating censures, for I have heard extraor- 
dinary evidences of extraordinary integrity. The 
Alcalde of Cagayan told me that, though he had 
frequently left uncounted dollars in the care of the 
Indians, he had never discovered a single fraud. 

One would suppose that the rich and potent friars 

K 2 



132 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

were tolerably well protected against the Indians, yet 
one of them writes : — " The Indians do not now 
employ lances and arrows against our ministry, but 
papers, pens, tales, jokes and calumnies. So much 
have they been taught politics in Manila that now in 
all the pueblos are obscure scribblers, pettifoggers, 
pretenders, who are clever enough in writing memo- 
rials on stamped paper, to be presented to the Royal 
Audiencia. So if the parish priest reprove or punish 
them for their evil and scandalous lives, they meet 
together, drink wine, and fill a folio paper with their 
crosses, and march off to Manila, to the tribunal 
which they deem the most impressionable, from 
whence great vexations are caused to the poor parish 
priest. And much courage is required to bear this 
species of martyrdom, which is sufficiently common in 
the Indies." — (Abb6 Amodea.) 

I do not know how lately there have been perquisi- 
tions against witches, but in the middle of the last 
century I find the record of a most diligent pursuit 
and rigorous punishment against the witches of Pam- 
panga. The proceedings were superintended by a 
friar named Theodore of the Mother of God, who 
made a special report to the Meidcan Inquisition. 
He says : — " There are witches in every pueblo, and 
in some they form a third part of the population. 
These slaves of the devil are divided into sundry 
classes : lamiasj who suck the blood of infants ; 
striges^ who are wanderers on the face of the earth ; 
sagaSj who dwell in houses, and convey to the devil 
all the information he requires ; larvasy who devote 



POPULATION. 133 

themselves to carnal delights ; temures^ who prepare 
love filtres ; but all unite to do mischief to the 
human race.** 

Of the credulity of the Indians there is no 
end of examples. In 1 832, when the Santa Ana 
arrived with 250 soldiers, a report spread like wild- 
fire that the King of Spain had ordered all the 
children of the Indians to be collected, that their 
blood might be spilt upon the Spanish mines to make 
them more productive. The women fled to their 
homes, seized their children, and sought an asylum 
in the houses of the Spanish ladies in Manila. The 
men artned themselves with spears, and rushed 
tumultuously through the streets. The agitation 
was appeased with some difficulty. What any man 
reputed as a sage among the Indians avers, acquires 
immediate authority, and is not to be controlled by 
the influence of the priests ; the words " Vica ng 
maruning,** meaning " The wise say so,** is the ready 
answer to all impugners. " God preserve us,** says 
the friar, *^from Indian sages I for the Indians are 
proud, and will not obey the priest, nor the friar, nor 
the chaplain, unless obliged by fear, and they are 
not always afraid, though they feel thoroughly con- 
vinced of the superiority of the Spaniard, and are 
governed in spite of themselves. They imitate the 
Spaniard in all that is evil — his love of dress, his 
swearing habits, addiction to gaming, and all the 
vicious practices of the zaramullos (fops or busy^ 
bodies) ; but Spanish courtesy and urbanity and good 
education they neither study nor copy; but revels 



134 PHIUPPINE ISLANDS. 

and drunken bouts, and riotous weddings and burial 
excesses and tjrrannical acts of all sorts they have 
inherited irom their ancestors, and still preserve, so 
that they have Spanish vices added to their own." 

They show much deference to everything that is 
aristocratic among themselves. The jacket-wearing 
principalia are treated with great deference, and their 
rank religiously respected. First, the gobemadorcillo ; 
then the ex-gobemadorcillos, who are called passed 
captains, in order of seniority ; then the acting lieu- 
tenant, who must be the head of a harangay ; then 
the heads of barangays according to age ; then passed 
lieutenants, and so on ; and their rank is recognized 
by the adjacent communities. 



Bathing is universal, men and women in the same 
place. Tho men wear pantaloons, the women cover 



POPULATION. 1 35 

themselves with a garment which they throw off when 
they enter the water. No scandal is caused hy the 
habit, and several attempts of the Spanish authorities 
to interfere with the ancient usage have failed. 

The Indians embrace by touching noses ; but lip- 
kissing often accompanies the act. When the nostril 
is contracted (as in the act of smelling), and the 
Indian looks towards a person at a distance, it is 
deemed an invitation to a closer embrace. Strange 
stories are told of the exquisite sense of smell pos- 
sessed by the Indians ; that by it they can distinguish 
the dresses of their masters and mistresses, and 
lovers ascertain the state of each other's affections. 
Inner garments are interchanged which are supposed 
to be impregnated with the passions of the owners. 
In disregard of the monks, the Indians secretly cir- 
cumcise their children. The banian-tree {Balete^ 
Ficus Indica) is held sacred. They bum incense 
under it, which they obtain from the friars under 
various pretences. How strangely are the rites x>f 
idolatry mingled with Christian observances! This 
is not the case alone in the Philippines. One of Dr. 
Gutzlaff's renowned converts in Hong Eong used to 
say that to please the missionary he had added 
another god — the Christian's God — ^to those he wor- 
shipped before ; and I have known of secret visits to 
heathen temples on the part of Chinese professing 
Christians, when they were about to enter upon any 
important undertaking. " There is no driving out of 
them,*' says the padre, ^^ the cursed belief that the 
spirits of their ancestors are in the woods and among 



136 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

the roots of bamboos, and that they can bring good 
or evil upon them. They will oflfer sacrifices to them ; 
and all our books and all our preachings have failed 
to remove the impressions left by any old man whom 
they choose to call * a sage/ *' " The curates,** says De 
Mas, ^^ profess to believe that these superstitions are 
passing away ; no doubt the Indian conceals them as 
much as he can from his father confessor, but I have 
on many occasions convinced myself of their existence 
and influence.** Who, indeed, knowing anything of 
the credulity of the less instructed classes, and not 
these alone, among ourselves, can wonder at the 
state of " the religious mind ** of the Philippine 
Indian ? And so little are the priests themselves 
wholly free from infirmity, that a Philippine curate, 
Mallares, committed and caused to be committed no 
less than fifty-seven assassinations in the town of 
Magalan, believing that he should thus save his 
mother from being bewitched. Mallares was executed 
in 1840; and in his report the fiscal expresses his 
horror of " the incredible and barbarous prodigality 
of bloodshed by this monster.*' 

^^ The Indian knows no medium," again to quote 
from the father. " Ask for tepid water, he will bring 
it boiling ; say it is too hot, and you will get it quite 
cold. He lives in a circle of extremes. He rejoices 
if you lose patience and give him a beating, for he 
goes and boasts of having put his master into a 
passion. To irritate the Indian, you must take no 
notice of his short-comings. The sagacious men 
among them say that the Indian and the cane (for 



POPULATION. 137 

his correction) always grow together. They have 
another proverh: ^The Spaniard is fire, and the 
Indian snow, and the snow puts out the fire/ " One 
of the padres reports that his servant-boy said to 
him : " Tou are a new comer, and are too indulgent : 
if I do amiss you ought to chastise me. Don't you 
know the proverb, ' The Indian and the cane grow 
together ? ' " ^^ They blaspheme and abuse God 
when their prayers ar6 not granted, and use language 
which would indeed be horrible were it not known 
how thoughtless they are, and how impossible it is 
for them to conform themselves to the Divine will."* 

They are fond of religious dramas, especially of 
one in Tagdl representing the passion and death of 
Christ; but these religious representations and 
gatherings give rise to scandal and abnse, and the 
birth of many illegitimate children. The priests 
have generally prohibited these exhibitions at night, 
and sometimes disperse them, whip in hand ; at other 
times the singers are denounced, and get flogged for 
their pains — or pleasures. 

It is amusing to read the contradictory opinions of 
the friars respecting their flocks. One says : — ** Their 
confessions are false ; they never own to any but three 
sins: first, that they have neglected church-going; 
second, that they eat meat during Lent ; and third, 
that they have sworn profanely .** Another reports 
— " No Spaniard can be more devout and fervid than 
the Indians of Manila in their confessions. They 
obey the instructions they receive, and I have the 
same good account from many padres of many Indians 



138 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

in the provinces." No doubt the ecclesiastical statis- 
tics would be curious, if obtainable. In Lilio, the 
curate reports that of 1,300 persons paying tribute in 
1 840, 600 never confessed, and ^^ this pueblo is not of 
the most remiss.'' In Vigan, of 30,000 inhabitants, 
the attendance at church did not exceed from 500 to 
800 (De Mas), except on the yearly festival of the 
Virgin, patroness of the pueblo. Father Agustin's 
indignation is vehemently expressed as regards con- 
fession : — *^ The infernal Macchiavel Satan has taught 
them a policy as good for their bodies as bad for their 
souls, which is that they own their errors and crimes 
to one another, and conceal them, however excessive, 
from the spiritual father, from the Spanish alcalde, 
notwithstanding their personal quarrels, and, as they 
call them, murder-enmities ; so that there is among 
them no greater oflfence than to tell the padre or the 
alcalde what has happened in the pueblo, which they 
say is mabibig^ the most abominable of sins ; indeed, 
the only offence which they hold to be sin." 

The friars speak in general more favourably of the 
women than of the men. They are more devout, 
more submissive, more willing to listen to their ghostly 
fathers, one of whom says : — ^^ Did all mankind hang 
upon a single peg, and that peg were wanted by an 
Indian for his hat, he would sacrifice all mankind. 
They have no fear of death, but this is an infinite mercy 
of the Divine Being, who knows how fragile they are ; 
they talk about death, even in the presence of the 
dying, without any concern. If condemned to the 
scaffold, they exhibit equal indifference, and smoke 



POPULATION. 139 

their cigar with wonted tranquilUty. Their answer 
to the attendant priest is invariably, 'I know! am 
going to die. I cannot help it. I have been wicked 
— ^it was the will of God, — it was my fate/ But the 
approach of death neither interferes with their sleep 
nor their meals.** " The tree must bear its fruit,** he 
continues. '^ Grod in his wisdom has made many races 
of men. as He ha* made many varieties of flowers, and 
at last I reconciled myself to seeing the Indians do 
everything differently from what we should do, and 
keeping this in view, I could mould them like wax to 
my purpose.** 

As a general result I have not found among these 
Indian races any one distinguished for intellectual 
superiority. A few were not backward in their know- 
ledge of the mechanical arts; one or two examples 
there were of genius as sculptors ; a universal love 
and devotion to the musical art, and some apprecia- 
tion even of the merits of European composers ; but, 
it must be added, little or nothing is done to develop 
such capacities as the Indians possess ; the field of 
public instruction is narrowed alike by religious and 
official influences^ and the social tone of the opulent 
classes, to which alone the Indian can look up, is 
greatly below that of the Spanish peninsula. Litera- 
ture is little cultivated: the public newspapers are 
more occupied with the lives of saints, and prepara- 
tion for, or accounts of, religious fiestas^ than with 
the most stirring events of the political world. The 
Spaniards have never been celebrated for very busy 
inquiries, or very active virtues ; but it is to be hoped 



140 PHnjPPINE ISLANDS. 

that the manana^ to which everything is referred, will 
at last become an hoy dia. 

It has been said of the Indian that he is more of a 
quadruped than a biped. His hands are large, and the 
toes of his feet pliant, being exercised in climbing 
trees, and divers other active functions. He is almost 
amphibious, passing much of his time in the water. 
He is insensible alike to the burning sun and the 
drenching rain. The impressions made upon him 
are transitory, and he retains a feeble memory of 
passing or past events. Ask him his age, he will not 
be able to answer : who were his ancestors ? he 
neither knows nor cares. He receives no favours 
and cannot, therefore, be ungrateful ; has little am- 
bition, and therefore little disquiet ; few wants, and 
hence is neither jealous nor envious ; does not con- 
cern himself with the affairs of his neighbour, nor 
indeed does he pay much regard to his own. His 
master vice is idleness, which is his felicity. The 
labour that necessity demands he gives grudgingly. 
His health is generally good, and when deranged he 
satisfies himself with the use of herbs, of whose 
astringent or laxative powers he has had experience. 
He uses no , soap to wash, no razor to shave ; the 
river is his bathing-place, and he pulls out the 
hairs in his face with the assistance of a sharp shell ; 
he wants no clock to tell him of the flight of time 
— no table, nor chairs, nor plates, nor cutlery, to 
assist him at his meals ; a hacha^ or large knife, and 
bag are generally hung at his waist ; he thinks 
no music equal to the crowing of his cock, and 



POPULATION, 1 4 1 

holds a shoe to be as superfluous as a glove or a 
neck-collar. 

I certainly have not discovered among the Indians 
that enduring ^* k tout jamais ^ horror of foreigners 
upon which M. Mallat dwells, and which he repre- 
sents as specially and properly directed against 
Englishmen. On the contrary , I found many Eng- 
lishmen settled in the Philippines objects of great 
confidence and affection ; and I have heard mestizos 
and Indians say that they put greater trust in 
English commercial probity than in that of any 
other nation. I have witnessed the cordiality with 
which the old Spanish proverb, ^^Paz con Yngla- 
terra y con todo el mundo guerra," has been quoted 
in large assemblies of the Filipinos. And assuredly 
there is no nation which has contributed more than 
England to the prosperity of the Spanish archi- 
pelago. Evidence enough will be found in the 
course of this narrative of the kindness shown to 
Englishmen. 

It has been said that the Spaniards have very dis- 
creetly and successfully used the '^ divide et impera " 
among the Indian races as a means of preserving their 
own authority. There is little sympathy, it is true, 
between the remoter races ; but that their separation 
and aberration form a part of the Spanish policy 
may be disproved by the fact that in Binondo nearly 
one-third of the resident inhabitants are Indians from 
distant provinces. 

The numerical power of the Spaniards is small, 
that of the armed natives great, were there among 



142 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

them a disposition to rebel against their rulers : I 
believe there is little of such disposition. Lately the 
Tagal soldiers have been called into active service in 
a foreign country (Cochin China), and involved in a 
quarrel where the Spanish interest is not very dis- 
cernible. No complaints have been made of their 
conduct, though they have been exposed to much 
privation. 

There is a pretty custom among the peasantry of 
the interior. Little bamboo frames are seen either 
supported by a post, or projecting from a window of 
the choza, on which is to be found, covered with 
plantain leaves, a supply of food, or fruits, provided 
from the Indian's garden, which invariably surrounds 
his dwelling. Any passing traveller supplies him- 
self, paying nothing if he be poor, but otherwise 
leaving such compensation as he may deem proper. 
No sort of reproach attaches to the person who, 
without the means of payment, partakes of the prof- 
fered bounty. These hospitable receptacles are 
most common in the least peopled localities, and 
reminded me of the water and the lamp which I 
have found in the tombs of sainted Mussulmans, 
who had themselves discharged, or required their 
followers thus to discharge, the claims of humanity, 
and in the arid desert provided these grateful, silent, 
and touching welcomes to the thirsty and weary 
traveller. 

The tact or talent of imitation is strong among the 
Indians, and facilitated the efforts of the friars, but 
very various and contradictory reports are found of 



V 



POPULATION. 143 

their aptitudes. Those of Pampanga, Cagayan, Pan- 
gasinan, Ilocos, and Zebu are reported to be valiant, 
generous, laborious, and frequently exhibiting artisti- 
cal taste. I found the love and the practice of music 
universal, and saw some remarkable specimens of 
sculptural ability, but of painting nothing Indian was 
ever presented to my attention, and the examples 
of persevering dedication to any sort of labour 
were few indeed. As servants, the Tag^ls are in all 
respects inferior to the Chinese; as soldiers, the 
officers generally reported of them favourably. The 
Indians settled in Manila are said to be the worst of 
their races : no doubt great cities are the recipients 
of the dregs of a people, but they attract at the same 
time the highest order of merit. The courtesies 
which we received as their guests seemed boundless ; 
no effort too great to do us honour : something, 
indeed much, could not but be attributed to the 
guidance of the priests and the presence of the autho- 
rities, but there were a thousand marks of spon- 
taneous kindness, such as no external influence could 
have commanded. 



^ 



144 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



CHAPTER VII. 

MANNERS AND SUPERSTITIONS OP THE PEOPLE. 

Far more than the fair portion of domestic and social 
cares falls upon the Indian female, and she has far less 
than her hecoming share of enjoyments. Barharous 
practices are frequently associated with parturition. 
The Mahuling hilot^ the good midwife, is called in. 
If the hirth he delayed, witches are supposed to he 
the cause, and their dispersion is effected hy the 
explosion of gunpowder from a hamhoo cane close 

to the head of the sufferer. The new-hom infant 

* 

is la^d on a mat or pillow and exposed to the air, 
to facilitate the escape of evil influences from the 
body, which is brought about by burning three wax 
tapers placed on the two cheeks and chin of the 
babe, often to its great peril. These practices are 
to some extent checked and controlled by the priests, 
who provide where they can for the baptism and 
registration of the infant. 

The patriarchal custom of serying in the house 
of the father in order to obtain the hand and heart 
of the daughter, is by no means abolished in the 
Philippines ; nor is the yet more intimate inter- 



MANNERS AND SUPERSTITIONS. 145 

course of plighted lovers, which is reported to be 
still in usage in the ruder parts of Wales, and with 
the same perilous consequences to the feebler sex. 
The domestication of the lover in the house of his 
intended father-in-law leads to the birth of great 
numbers of illegitimate children, to frequent viola- 
tions of vows and promises, to domestic quarrels and 
much misery. The influence of the friars is gene- 
rally employed for the protection of the frail one. 
They are opposed both by duty and interest to these 
irregularities, matrimonial fees being among the most 
productive contributions to their revenues. 

I find one of the priests giving the foUowing 
instructions to the Indians as to marriage: — ^^It is 
not right,** he says, " to marry heedlessly, nor to 
hurry the sacred ceremony as if it were to be got 
rid of as soon as possible. Let the parties consult 
the padre, who will learn if they are really disposed 
to marry. You Indians say the male naturally runs 
after the female and obtains her consent (an Indian 
proverb) ; but this is not decorous ; the proper mode 
of courting is for the priest to say, * Will you be 

the spouse of , according to the arrangements 

of our holy mother Church ? * This is first to be 
asked of the woman, and then an inquiiy is to be 
made of the man whether he will have the woman, 
and the ancient and immodest usages of past times 
must then be abandoned." In the same spirit is the 
common saying of the Indians, " Savangmatovir ang 
ihinahatol nang manga padre" (The counsels of 
the padre are always right). And again — "There 

L 



146 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

is no Christian road but through the Roman Catholic 
Church.'^ 

F. de los Santos says there is no instance of a 
Tag^la woman making advances in the way of 
marriage, nor of a father or mother looking out a 
bridegroom for their daughter; that it would be a 
great afiront were any girl to seek the favour of 
the person whom she wished to be her mother-in-law 
in order to win the son. No woman was ever heard 
to say, *| Manciganguin mo aco" (Make me thy 
daughter-in-law). 

The same friar asserts that the Indians have 
learnt the meaning which the Europeans attach to 
" horns,** and that the corresponding Tagal word 
sungayan (horned animal) cannot be used indis« 
erectly without giving great offence. He is very 
angry with the nonsense {boherias and disparates) 
which he says the natives address to their children. 
A mother will call her babe father, and mother, 
and aunt, and even king and queen, sir and madam, 
with other extravagant and unbecoming outbreaks 
of affection, which he reproves as altogether blame- 
worthy and intolerable. 

Though there is some variety in the houses of 
the Indians, according to their opidence, they pre- 
serve a common character, having bamboo floors, 
nipa roofs, and wooden pillars to support them. A 
speculation was entered into near Manila to provide 
more comfortable domestic accommodation for the 
natives by introducing imported improvements ; but 
the houses were unoccupied, an4 the adventure 



MANNERS AND SUPERSTITIONS. 147 

proved a losing one. I have seen handsome lamps 
suspended from the roofs, and pictures hung upon 
the walls, of some of the Indian dwellings ; while 
among the mestizos many aspire to all the decora- 
tions of Spanish luxury, competing with the richest 
among the European settlers. But religious orna- 
ments are never forgotten, such as images and pic- 
tures of the Virgin and her child, vessels for holy 
water and crucifixes. 

The heds of the Indians are merely mats on which 
the whole family repose indiscriminately. Here they 
smoke their cigars, chew their hetel, and fall asleep. 
The domestic utensils are "a mortar for grinding 
rice, hamboos for all purposes, cup and spoons of 
the cpcoa-nut shell, pots and kettles, a knife called 
a goIoCf a bench against the wall, a stool which 
serves for a table, a Chinese basin for oil, a clay 
lamp, some cotton wicks, torches of the resin-cane, 
an image of the Virgin, a crucifix, mats, a jar of 
betel leaves, some areca nuts and lime ready for use, 
and sometimes a flute or guitar."— (Buzeta.) 

The Indians have a very vague idea of distance. 
TUanan and«*.^a» J^he names given to places 
of rest between different localities. Instead of the 
Spanish word league, they say " taval," which is the 
distance an ordinary burthen can be carried without 
stoppage. 

The forty days* labour which is exacted every year 
from the Indians is called atag or bayani. This is 
in addition to the tribute of a dollar and one-third ; 
but exemption from the atag may be obtained by 

L 2 



148 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, 

the payment of three dollars. The tribute is called 
bovis or buvis. '^Buvis aco sa balangay ni covan' 
(I am tributary to such and such a balangay). 

A curious illustration of the passion for gaming, 
so general among the Filipinos, is given by the 
statistical commission, in the report on Binondo. 
Among the not prohibited games is that called by 
the natives Panguingui. It is played \vith six packs 
of cards, and five or six persons make a party. This 
game is most popular among all classes. The autho- 
rities prohibit its being played during the hours of 
labour, but it is permitted from twelve to two p.m., 
and from sunset to ten p.m., on ordinary days, and 
there is no restriction on festival days. The commis- 
sion determined to visit without notice the difierent 
tables where the game was played ; they found on 
an average 200 tables occupied, but there were 39 
ready for play unoccupied. 

Players at the 200 tables, 867 men and 313 women. 
Spectators „ 405 „ 353 ,, 

This did not include the tables in private houses, to 
which the commission had no access. It is to be 
presumed that these visits took place during the 
authorised hour of play, but this is not stated by the 
commission. 

Though games of hazard are prohibited to the 
multitude, the great game of the lottery is monthly 
played for the profit of the government and the 
perdition of the people. Its existence and its tempta- 
tions encourage that gambling passion which is one 
of the greatest plagues of the Filipinos. The news- 



MANNERS AND SUPERSTITIONS. 149 

papers are constantly occupied with long lists of per- 
sons condemned to heavy fines and imprisonments for 
indulging in what may be called the besetting sin of 
the Indians, from which, however, neither mestizos, 
Chinese nor Europeans are by any means free. 

But the passion for play is most strikingly and 
universally exhibited in the cock-fights, so character- 
istic that I can scarcely avoid entering upon some 
details. 

A writer on the Philippines, after showing the 
antiquity of cock-fighting, and tracing its history 
through most of the civilized nations of the world, 
thus concludes : — " In Spain there is a notable affec- 
tion for cock-fights, and great is the care with which 
the birds are trained to the combat. In America this 
amusement is a dominant passion, and the Filipinos 
are not a whit behind the Americans. Nay, here 
the passion is a delirium, and no law can check the 
number or the duration of the fights, accompanied by 
slaughter of the combatants, which may be well called 
perfidious" (Le. in violation of protecting regulations). 
*^ In other places they sharpen the spurs of the cocks. 
In the Philippines they are armed with razors, and 
chance more than skill decides the contest. Every 
day countless numbers perish, but the race is not 
diminished. There is hardly a locality which has 
not more cocks than human inhabitants. On the 
Puente Grande of Manila, at between foiir and 
five A.M., hundreds and hundreds of ^ the shrill 
clarions' are heard on all sides, and from vast dis- 
tances ; it is a string of signals passed from mouth to - 



160 PHnJPFINB ISLANDS. 

mouth, from the port of Bangui, in North Ilooos, to 
Manog, the southernmost point of Albay. There are 
cocks in every house, at every comer, at the foot of 
every tree, along the quays and shores, on the prows 
of every coasting ship, and, as if the living were not 
enough, they are sculptured, they are painted and 
charcoaled (not artistically) on every wall for public 
admiration, and public admiration recognizes the 
portraiture, though the information is not placed 
there — as by the painter of old — to announce, * This 
is a cock.* " 

The following is a translation of an advertisement 
from a Manila newspaper : — " Principal Cock-fight 
of Tondo. — The subscriber informs the public that 
on all cock-fighting days a great crowd from all parts, 
nearly half of them Chinese, attend, so that on a 
single day there are from 90 to 100 combats, and 
this not only from the convenience of the place, 
which is made of tiles, but because the doubloons 
(onzas) which circulate there are honest doubloons 
(son de reciho). — Dalmacio Oligario." 

It is considered a discourtesy to touch an Indian's 
game*cock, and permission is always asked to examine 
a favourite bird. He is the object of many a caress ; 
he eats, crows, and sleeps in the arms of his master ; 
and, whatever else may be forgotten, the cock is in 
continual remembrance. I have found him cele- 
brated in verse in terms the most affectionate. A 
cock that has been frequently victorious is subjected 
to the most minute criticism, in order to discover by 
external marks what may serve to characterise his 



liA^ 



MANNERS AND SUPERSTITIONS. 151 

merits. The scales of his legs are counted, their 
form and distribution, the bent of the rings on the 
spurs, and whether the two spurs resemble each other ; 
the shape of the toes and their nails^ the number 
and colours of the wing -feathers (eleven being the 
fayourite quantity) ; white eyes are preferred to 
chesnut ; a short comb falling over the eye and beak 
is a recommendation. Cocks of different colours bear 
different names — ^white, puti / red, pula ; white with 
black spots, talisain; red body and black tail and 
wings, bulic or taguiguin; black, cdsilietij or macHn; 
black and white, Unabay; ash-colour, alyuen ; black 
and white, having black legs, tagaguin ; and many 
others. The wild cock is called labuyo. 

Of cock-fighting I translate Buzeta's description : 
— "The Indians have an inveterate passion for the 
sport, which occupies the first place in their amuse- 
ments. The cock is the first object of their care, 
their general companion, which accompanies them 
even to the church-door, and is fastened to a bamboo 
plug outside, when they enter for the service of the 
mass. For no money will they dispose of a favourite 
bird. Some possess as many as half-a-dozen of these 
inappreciable treasures, for whose service they seem 
principally to live. 

" Every pueblo has its gallera^ or amphitheatre, for 
the cock-fights, from which the government draws a 
considerable revenue. The galleras are large build- 
ings constructed of palm-trunks, bamboo, and nipa 
leaves, consisting of a hall, lighted from windows in 
the roof. In the centre is a stage, raised about five 



152 riiiupriXE islands. 

feet high, surrounded hy hamhoo galleries, which are 
reached hy the spectators, who pay according to the 
adjacency and convenience of the seats. The gallera 
is generally crowded. The Indian enters with his 
cock under his arm ; he caresses the favourite, places 
him on the ground, lifts him up again, smooths his 
feathers, talks to him, hlows his cigar-smoke over 
him, and, pressing him to his hreast, tells him to fight 
bravely. The cock generally crows aloud in defiance 
and in pride. His rival appears, a sharpened spur, 
or rather two-edged knife, or razor, is fastened to the 
natural spur of the bird, and after being for some time 
presented to each other the sign of combat is given, 
which is carried on with extraordinary excitement, 
imtil an alguacil announces that the betting is closed. 
The announcement is followed by universal silence. 
The owners of the cocks withdraw at another signal, 
and the combatants contemplate each other, their 
feathers agitated and erect; they bend their necks, 
shake their heads, and spring upon one another ; the 
fight continues until one is mortally wounded and 
falls. The conqueror springs upon him, and crows 
in token of victory; but it is not unusual for the 
wounded cock to rise and turn upon his victor. If 
the victor should fly (as is sometimes the case), he is 
condemned to ignominious death ; his feathers are 
plucked, and he is suspended almost naked on the 
outside of the gallera. The wounds of the living 
bird are staunched by an infusion of tobacco leaves 
in cocoa-nut wine. He becomes from that hour a 
favourite to be betted on, and if disabled for future 



N 



MANNERS AND SUPERSTITIONS. 163 

frays, he is carefully provided for by his master. 
There are cock-doctors and receiving-houses devoted 
to the healinc: of their wounds. 

^^ In the neighbourhood of the gallera are stalls, 
where wines, sweetmeats, chocolate, and other refresh- 
ments, are sold, prepared by Indians and Chinese. A 
whole day is devoted to the combat, and even the 
charms of the siesta are forgotten, and the Indian 
often returns to his home after sunset a wretched 
and a ruined man." 

The Indians were sometimes desirous that we 
should witness the exhibition, and brought their 
faTOurite cocks to be admired; but I had little 
curiosity to witness such a display, picturesque as 
it was no doubt — more picturesque than humane. 

Don Ildefonso de Aragon passes this severe judg- 
ment upon the sport : — -." Perpetual idlers," the In- 
dians, " they go from cockpit to cockpit, those univer- 
sities of every vice, which the owners think themselves 
privileged to keep constantly open and accessible ; 
hence they come forth consummate masters of rogue^, 
jugglery, frauds, ready for acts of violence in private 
and in public, in town and in country." 

Kite-flying (introduced by the Chinese, among 
whom it is an amusement both for young and old, 
and who have made their kites musical by day and 
illuminated by night) is popular in the Philippines, 
as are fire-balloons and other pyrotechnic displays. 

Except on suitable occasions, the Indian is sober 
and economical, but he makes great efforts at display 
when desirous of honouring his guests. On two or 




154 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

three occasions we sat down to meals, which a gas- 
tronomer would scarcely have ventured to criticise ; 
a variety of wines, health-drinking, and even speech- 
making, music and firing of guns, accompanying the 
festivity. Smoking never fails to form a* part of 
the entertainment ; pure cigars of various sizes, and 
paper cigarritos, heing always at hand. St. Andrew s 
day, kept in celebration of the delivery of the Phi- 
lippines from piratical Chinese, is one of great re- 
joicing. 

In religions ceremonies the Indian takes a busy 
part, and lends a very active co-operation. When 
they take place after sunset, crowds attend with burn- 
ing tapers. Gun-firing, music and illuminations are 
the general accompaniments of the great ^fiestas. I 
have more than once mentioned the universality of 
the musical passion, which is easily trained to excel- 
lent performances. An Indian, we heard, was not 
selected to the band unless he could play for eight 
hours without cessation. The national music of 
Spain is generally studied, and, in honour to us, in 
some places they learnt our ^^ God save the Queen ! " 
We were not hypercritical upon the first attempts, 
but such tributes from a race, that only sought to do 
our sovereign, our country, and ourselves all honour, 
could not but greatly gratify us. 

When at Guimbal (Hoilo), we were waited on at 
table wholly by Indian female children, prettily 
dressed ; whose bright eyes expressed extreme curio- 
sity, and whose anxiety to understand and to ad- 
minister to every wish was very charming. They 



MANNERS AND SUPERSTITIONS. 155 

were mach pleased to exhibit the various garments 
they wore of the pina cloth, I remarked one who 
went to the friar, and whispered in his ear, " But 
where are the golden garments of the general ?" mean- 
ing me, and the padre had to explain to the children 
that "golden garments" were only worn on State 
occasions, which did not seem satisfactory, as the 
occasion of our arrival in the pueblo was one of un- 
precedented excitement and display. They crowded 
round me, however, and looked into my face, and 
expressed admiration at my long soft hair. Their 
associating finery with rank reminded me of a visit 
once paid me by a young Abyssinian prince, who was 
taken up the narrow staircase by some mistake of the 
servants, and who (his interpreter told me) after- 
wards said to him, " You told me I was to see a 
great man — had ever a great man so small a stair- 
case ? " At his next visit, he was conducted through 
the principal portals up the wide marble steps of the 
house in which I lived, and he expressed extreme 
satisfaction, and said, " Ah ! this is as it should be." 

A few of the Indians reach the dignity of the 
priesthood, but they are generally asistentes to the 
friars. I have heard from the lips of Indian priests 
as pure Castilian as that spoken in Madrid. 

"I have observed," says Father Diaz, "that the 
word of an Indian is more to be trusted when he uses 
one of the ancient forms of speech, such as ^totoo 
nang totoo* (it is as true as truth, or, it is truly true), 
than when called on to take a solemn oath in the 
name of God or of the cross." A youth always seeks 



156 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

to get the promise of his sweetheart made according 
to the old Tagdl usage, and it is held as the hest 
security of veracity in all the relations of life. 

Many of the padres complain that, notwithstand- 
ing all the religious instruction given, the taint of 
idolatry still exists among the converted Indians. 
There is a sort of worship of ancestors which is 
seen in many forms. They attach to the word 
nono (forefather) the same spiritual meaning which 
the Chinese give to Kwei. These nonos are often 
addressed in prayer, in order to hring down blessings 
or to avert calamities. If an Indian gather a flower 
or fruit, he silently asks leave of the nono. Certain 
spots, woods and rivers, he never passes without 
an invocation to these departed genii. Pardon is 
asked for short-comings or actions of doubtful cha- 
racter. There is a disease called pamoao which is 
attributed to the influence of the nonos, to whom 
petitions and sacrifices are ofiered to obtain relief. 
These idolatries, says one of the iriars, are so deeply 
rooted and so widely spread as to demand the utmost 
vigilance for their extirpation. 

So, again, they have their native devil, in the 
shape of a little black old man, a wild horse, or 
monster. As a protection against this fiend, how- 
ever, they apply to their rosary, which certainly 
afibrds evidence that Ae is an orthodox demon of 
whom the padres cannot fairly complain. 

Witches and witchery are called in to discover * 
thieves and to unbewitch bewitched persons ; but sca- 
pularies and saints, especially St. Anthony of Padua, 



i . 



MANNERS AND SUPERSTITIONS. 157 

are auxiliaries in undoing the mischiefs menaced 
or done. The cauldrons of the weird sisters in 
Macbeth would find counterparts among the people 
of the Philippine Islands, hut there must he a min- 
gling of Christian texts and Catholic superstitions 
to complete the identity. One author says these 
incantations are used for the attainment of riches, 
beautiful wives, success in hattle, escape from justice, 
and other objects of desire. Father Ortiz will have 
it that the secrets of these supernatural influences 
are treasured up in various manuscript works ^^ which 
ought to be burned." Their preservation and pub- 
lication (if they exist) would be more serviceable, 
because more instructive, to mankind. 

Indian women are seldom seen without some re- 
ligious ornaments. They have rosaries of corals or 
pearl beads, medals of copper or gold, having figures 
of Our Lady of Mexico or Guadalupe. The scapu- 
lary is generally found hanging by the rosary. Many 
of the Indians are associated in the Cofradias, whose 
different emblems they preserve with great venera- 
tion; such as St. Augustine's string, St. Francis' 
cord, St. Thomas's belt ; but they also hang upon 
their children's necks crocodiles' teeth as a preser- 
vative against disease. 

The ancient Indian name for God was Bathala^ to 
whom they attributed the creation of the world. 
Remnants of the old idolatry remain among the 
people, and the names of some of the idols are 
preserved. A few phrases are still retained, espe- 
cially in the remoter parts, as, for example, " Mag- 



158 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

pabathala ca" (Let the will of Bathala be done), 
and the priests have been generally willing to re- 
cognize the name as not objectionable in substitution 
for Dios. The Tagal word adopted for idolatry is 
PagaanitOf but to the worship of images they give 
the term Anita. I find among the records reference 
to an idol called Lacambui, probably the god of 
eatingy as the Spaniards call him Abogado de la 
Oarganta (the throat-advocate). The idol Lacan* 
pate was the god of the harvest, and was equally 
male and female; ^^an hermaphrodite devil,** he is 
called by one of the friars. lAnga wa§ the god 
who cured diseases. Lojohan bacor protected the 
growing crops. Aman Sinaya was the fisherman's 
god, and was appealed to when the nets were cast. 
Ama ni Caable was the protector of huntsmen. An 
ill-famed idol named Tumano was believed to wander 
about at night among human habitations; the In- 
dians threw ashes upon him, and calling out, '^Iri, 
iri,** he fled, being " a cowardly devil/* Mancucutor 
was the patron of a particular class of Indians, but 
the traditions are very obscure. 

There is a bird called by the natives Tigmamano- 
quirif and if, when they are going to a festival, this 
bird flies from the right to the left, it is considered of 
auspicious augury, but disastrous if it fly from the 
left to the right. The bird (I know not its classical 
name) is never killed by the Indians, but if caught it 
is set free with the words, " Kayona tigmamanoquin, 
lunchan mo nang halinging** (Be gone, bird I and sing 
sweetly for me). 



MANNERS AND SUPERSTITIONS, 159 

The Indians believe that a guardian angel is born 
at the birth of every Christian child, to whose special 
c^are through life the infant is confided. In some 
parts this angel is called Catotoboj in others Toga- 
ianor. But the Tagals habitually employ the 
Castilian words angel and angeks in the Catholic 
sense. I remember to have heard a clever Dutchman 
say that Java was well governed by knowing how 
to use properly two Arabic words — Islam (faith), 
which was never to be interfered with ; and Kismet 
(&te), under whose influence Mussulmans cheerfully 
submit to their destiny. The Santa Iglesia madre 
is the charm by which the Philippines are ruled* 

The Indian women are generally cleanly in their 
persons, using the bath very frequently, and con- 
stantly cleaning and brightening their black and 
abundant hair, which they are fond of perfuming and 
tying in a knot behind, called the pusdd^ which is 
kept together by a small comb and gilded needles, 
and is adorned with a fragrant flower. They are 
proud of their small foot, which the Chinese call 
golden lily, and which has a slipper, often embroidered 
with gold or silver, just supported by the toes. 
Their walk is graceful and somewhat coquettish; 
they smoke, eat betel, and are rather given to display 
a languid, liquid eye, for which they have an Indian 
expression, ^^ Mapungay na mata." 

The dress of the Filipinos is simple enough. It 
consists of a shirt worn outside a pair of pantaloons ; 
but the shirt is sometimes of considerable value, 
woven of the pina, handsomely embroidered, and of 



160 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

various colours, bright red being predominant, I 
asked an opulent Indian to show me his wardrobe, 
and he brought out twenty-five shirts, exhibiting 
them with great pride ; there were among them some 
which may have been worth a hundred dollars each. 
It is difficult to fix a limit to the money value of 
the more exquisite specimens of weaving and em- 
broidery. A small pocket handkerchief sent to the 
Queen of Spain is said to have cost five hundred 
dollars. One or two doubloons (onz(zs) of gold are 
asked for the panvslos (kerchiefs) usually sold in the 
shops of the capital. The finest qualities are woven 
in the neighbourhood of Iloilo. The loom is of the 
rudest and simplest construction ; one woman throws 
the shuttle, another looks after the threads. The 
cloth is sent to Manila to be embroidered. The 
women wear gowns of the fabrics of the country, into 
which, of late, the silks of China and the coloured 
yarns of Lancashire have been introduced. The 
better-conditioned wear an embroidered shawl or ker- 
chief of pina. This is the representative of female 
vanity or ambition. When we passed through the 
towns and villages of the interior, a handsomely 
adorned pina handkerchief was the flag that often 
welcomed us from the windows of the native huts, and 
sometimes the children bore them about and waved 
them before us in the processions with which they 
were wont to show their pleasure at our presence. 

The dress of the Indians is nearly the same through- 
out the islands ; the pantaloons of cotton or silk, 
white or striped with various colours, girded round 



MANNERS AND SUPERSTITIONS. l6l ) 

the waist with a kerchief, whose folds serve for 
pockets, and a shirt over the pantaloons of cotton. 
Sinamay (a native cloth), or piiia for the more opu- 
lent, is universally employed. Straw hat or kerchief 
round the head ; hut the favourite covering is a huge 
circular cap like a large inverted punch-howl, made 
generally of hamboo, but sometimes of tortoise-shell, 
and having a metal spike or other ornament at the 
top ; it is fitted to the head by an internal frame, 
and fastened by a ribbon under the chin. This 
salacot is used by many as a protection against sun 
and rain; it appeared to me too heavy to be con- 
venient. 

Among the Indian women the opulent wear costly 
embroidered garments of pina, and many of them pos- 
sess valuable jewels, and are decorated on occasions 
of festivity with earrings, necklaces and bracelets of 
pearls, diamonds and other precious stones. A few 
of them speak Spanish, and during our visits became 
the interpreters for the others, as the Indian women 
generally took a part in the graceful but simple 
ceremonials which marked our progress; sometimes 
forming a Une through the towns and villages, and 
waving many-coloured flags over us as we passed, 
escorted by the native bands of music. In some 
families the garments which were worn a century ago 
are still preserved. Many of the petty authorities are 
the hereditary possessors of local rank, and on grand 
occasions make displays of the costumes of their 
forefathers. There is some variety in the mode of 
dressing the hair. The Tagdlas clean it with lemon 

M 



162 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

juice, and employ cocoa-nut oil made fragrant by 
infusions of odoriferous flowers. They clean their 
hands with pumice-stone. In many parts the thumb- 
nail of the right hand is allowed by both sexes to 
grow to a great length, which assists playing on the 
guitar, and divers domestic operations* The under 
garments of the women are tightened at the waist, 
and their camisas hare long and wide sleeves, which 
are turned back upon the arms, and embroidered in 
more or less costly taste. They all chew the areca, 
and, as age advances, they blacken their eyebrows and 
wear false hair like their patrician mistresses. They 
sometimes paint their nails with vermilion, and td 
be entitled a Castilaf which means European, is re- 
cognized as a great compliment. 

Rice is the ordinary food of the Indians. It is 
boiled for half an hour, and then called canin. The 
capsicum, or chile, is used for a condiment. They 
eat three meals a day, out of a large dish, help- 
ing themselves with their fingers, and sometimes 
using a plantain leaf for a plate. They also have 
sauces round the central dish, into which they dip 
the canin. They introduce the thumb first into the 
mouth, and very dexterously employ the fingers to 
push forward the food. The luxuries of the native 
are pretty nearly reduced to the cigar and the betel- 
nut. Indeed these can scarcely be called luxuries ; 
they are more necessary to him than his simple food, 
which consists generally of boiled rice, sometimes 
flavoured with fish or vegetables, and his sweetmeat 
the sugar-cane. As he obtains his cigarritos at the 



MANNERS AND SUPERSTITIONS. l63 

estoncD for less than two cuertos a dozen, and can 
make them, or buy them from a contrabandista, at 
not even half that price, and as the cost of the 
areca is extremely small, his wants and his enjoy- 
ments are easily and cheaply supplied. His garments 
are few and economical, and such as in most parts of 
the islands are supplied by the rude family loom ; but 
the source of his ruin is in his gallo and his passion 
for play, to which nine-tenths of the miseries of the 
Indian are to be traced. Out of his embarrassments 
the Chinaman makes his profit, buying the labour of 
the indebted and extorting its maximum with coarse 
and often cruel tyranny. The Chinese have a 
proverb that the Indian must be led with rice 
in the left hand of his master and a bamboo in 
the right. 

There is in some of the islands abundance of deer 
and wild boars; they are killed by arrows of two 
kinds — one barbed with a clove from the wild palm, 
shot direct ; another with an iron head, shot upwards 
and falling down upon the animal. The Indians 
make a dry venison (called tapa) of the flesh and 
send it to the Manila market. Much wild fowl is 
found in the forest, especially of the gallinaceous 
species. The Bisayan caves are frequented by the 
swallows which produce the edible bird's-nests, and 
which are collected by the natives for exportation to 
China. 

Multitudes of Indians get their living by the 
fisheries. The fish most esteemed is the sabalo^ which 
is only found in the Taal Lake, whose water is fresh 

M 2 



164 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

and flows into the sea. In the centre of the lake is 
an island, with its always burning volcano. At the 
season when the sabalo quit the lake for the sea, an 
estocade of bamboos is erected across the river, the 
top of which does not reach the surface of the 
water ; three or four yards below, another estocade is 
placed, raised five or six feet above the surface, and 
the two estocades are united by a bamboo platform. 
The fish leap over the first barrier, and fall on the 
platform, where they are caught : some of them are 
as large as salmon. The Bay Lake is celebrated for 
the curbina, an excellent fish. By the banks of the 
river enormous nets are seen, which are sunk and 
raised by a machinery of bamboo, and the devices 
employed for the capture of fish are various and 
singular. In the Bisayans the Indians make faggots, 
which they kindle, and, walking on the banks with a 
spear in their right hand, the fish approach the light 
and are harpooned and flung upon the shore. I 
understand the sea -slug, which the Indians call ba- 
late, is thus captured. It is a well-known delicacy 
among the Chinese. Turtle are caught by watch- 
ing their approach (the watcher being concealed) and 
simply turning them on their backs when they are 
at a certain distance from the water. Native divers 
bring up the mother-of-pearl oyster, but the pearl 
fishery is not of much importance. These divers also 
discover the enormous shell-fish which serve as re- 
ceptacles for holy water in the churches. 




u 



« 



*' r. 



rf ^ 
/ 



r^ 



*;*^ 






r-' 



f 



-^>y 



A. 







I 



■ .<::• 



- ** 



•h^' 



J^ 









^^BBpjt * 



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t;>!i.- 



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''i« 



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n 



4. • r alujve !!u' -» • • • 
•• Jril hv a if.'. ']'»'» : . 

^I'A barrit»r, and i '. : t- 

r-juj-'it : v;)Tno *»t the -i * • 

..• •'•!: bv Ui*: baiii- ^ of ti.«- 

i i* -..'. I > \\r Iiuhm- r. ik*- taiTiXot^, 

. , rti-i, \.i.!.i'./ !)n tiv hr.nk<5 with a 

• ! aiid rj«i. ^i^ upon thr shoro. I 
-'•i-.-'ii-; vu'ch t?i«.» IiidiaM-» • »iJl ia- 

'■• ' x ;'.»v»L I: i- a v,- »'l"K»ii»\\n delloacv 

• * 

* )»h ':'• ua*' nor !>' iriL! ' •iiK'OHlcd) and 

■ . tu-in Mil iJM'ir ]y\ ..- when thcv arc 

distance from th«? n;^t*M*. Nativ»» divers 

• ilic mother- »t-ponrl «'^{or, but the p«Mirl 

t "f •.■•Mih irr.pnrt.i •)••!*, Tl:'\>»e divers also 

* *' »• •■.iirrMoii^ 9hoIl-fi,h whi'.li serve as re- 

• !' r \h*]^ WHter in the « hurche.-:. 



165 



CHAPTER Vin. 



POPULATION — RACES. 



Though the far greater number of the pagan 
Indians^ ss they are called by the Spaniards, belong 
to the same races as those who inhabit the towns, 
there are many exceptional cases. Independent and 
separated from the pagans, there are numerous Ma- 
homedans, especially in the island of Mindanao, of 
which only a small tract along the coast has been sub- 
jected by the Spaniards ; these, whom the Spaniards 
designate as Moras, a name to which traditional 
and national associations attach great abhorrence, are 
probably of Malayan descent. There, as in every 
region where missionaries have sought to undermine 
or depreciate the authority of the Koran, the attempt 
has wholly failed. I saw some of these people at 
Zamboanga, and found them familiar with the Arabic 
formula of Islamism, and that many of their names, 
such as Abdallah, Fatima, and others, were such as 
are common to the Mussulmans. They are under- 
stood to be in amity with the Spaniards, who have 
treaties with the reigning Sultan; but I found no 
evidence of their recognition of Spanish authority. 

The enmity between the Mahomedan races (Maros) 
and the Spaniards may be deemed hereditary. The 



166 PHIUPPINE ISLANDS. 

answer given by the Bajah Soliman of Tondo to 
Legaspi, the first governor of the Philippines, who 
solicited his friendship, is characteristic: — "Not 
until the sun is cut in two, not until I seek the 
hatred instead of the love of woman, will I be the 
friend of a Castila** (Spaniard). 

Living in the remotest mountainous regions of 
Mindanao, never, I believe, explored by European 
adventurers, there is a race in the very lowest stages 
of barbarism, I cannot say of civilization, for of that 
they present no trace. They are said to wear no gar- 
ments, to build no houses, to dress no food. They 
wander in the forest, whose wild fruits they gather 
by day, and sleep among the branches of the trees by 
night. They have no form of government, no chief, 
no religious rites or usages. I saw one of the race 
who was brought for sale as any wild animal might 
have been to the governor of Zamboanga. He re- 
fused to purchase, but retained the lad, who was 
apparently of about eight or nine years of age. At 
Iloilo, he was waiting, with other native servants, at 
table, and he appeared to me the most sprightly and 
intelligent of the whole — bright-eyed, and watching 
eagerly every sign and mandate of his master. He 
was very dark-coloured, almost black; his hair dis- 
posed to be woolly ; he had neither the high cheeks 
ttor the thick lips of the African negro, but resembled 
many specimens I have seen of the Madagascar 
people. I was informed that the whole tribe — but 
the word is not appropriate, for they are not gre- 
garious — are of very small stature ; that they avoid all 



POPULATION— jRACES. l67 

intercourse with other races, collect nothing, barter 
nothing, and, in fact, want nothing. I had once 
occasion to examine in the prison of Eandy (Ceylon) 
one of the real '^ wild men of the woods " of that 
island, who had been convicted for murder ; the 
moral sense was so unawakened, that it was obvious 
no idea of wrong was associated with the act, and 
the judge most properly did not consider, him a re- 
sponsible being on whom he could inflict the penalties 
of the law. There was little resemblance between 
the Filipino and the Cingalese in any external charac- 
teristic. Ethnological science would be greatly ad* 
vanced if directed to the special study of the barbar- 
ous aboriginal races of whom specimens yet remain, 
but of which so many have wholly disappeared, who 
can have had no intercourse with each other. I 
believe there are more varieties of the human family 
than have hitherto been recognized by physiologists, 
amongst whom no aflBnity of language will be found. 
The theories current as to the derivation of the 
many varieties of the human race from a few primi- 
tive types will not bear examination. Civilization 
and education will modify the character of the skull, 
and the diffsrences between the crania of the same 
people are so great as to defy any general law of clas- 
sification. The farther back we are enabled to go, the 
greater will be the distinction of types and tongues ; 
and it will be seen that the progress of time and 
.commerce and knowledge and colonization, has anni- 
hilated many an independent idiom, as it has de- 
rtroyed many an aboriginal race. 



168 THILIFFIKE ISLAJsDfc?. 

Against the wilder savages who inhabit the forests 
and mountains of the interior, expeditions are not' 
unfrequently directed by the government, especially 
when there has been any molestation to the native 
Christian population. Their chiefs are subjected to 
various punishments, and possession is taken of their 
villages and strongholds ; but these are not always 
permanently held, from the insufficiency of military 
force to retain them. But it is clear that these rude 
tribes must ultimately be extinguished by the exten- 
sion of cultivation and the pressure of a higher 
civilization. 

De Mas lays down as a principle that the Igorrotes 
of Luzon are heathens of the same race as the con- 
verted Indians, but in a savage state. The Aetas^ or 
Negritos^ are a separate race, not indigenous, but 
the descendants of invaders and conquerors. He 
had many opportunities of intercourse with them, 
and speaks favourably of his reception among them. 
The men had no other covering than a belt of 
bark fibres, the women a sort of petticoat of the 
same texture. Unmarried girls wore a species of 
collar made from the leaves of a mountain palm, 
whose ends met between their naked breasts. The 
females played on a rude guitar, the case being 
a piece of bamboo, with three strings from the 
roots of a tree, and which they tuned by tightening 
or loosening with their left hand. When it rained, 
they covered themselves with large palm -leaves, 
which they also used as shelter from the sun. He 
says they resisted all attempts upon their chastity. 



POPULATION — RACES. 1 69 

They brought wax, honey and deer, and sought for 
tobacco and rice in exchange. For money they 
cared not. The mode of showing respect is to offer 
water to the superior — ^no son can accept it from, but 
must hand it to, his fattier. They exhibit much fear 
of the evil spirits that are in the forests, but all infor- 
mation they gave was at secondhand. They had not 
seen the spirits, but others had, and there was no 
doubt about that. The friars report them to be short 
lived — their age seldom exceeding forty years. Father 
Mozo says : " They have their localities, in which 
they group themselves and which they unwillingly 
leave : fixed abodes they have none, but shift from 
place to place within a circumference of four to five 
leagues. They drive four rough sticks into the 
ground, surround them with the flexible branches 
of the yliby fling down some palm-leaves, bring in a 
piece of wood for a pillow, and have their house and 
bed ready. The game killed by one belongs to all 
— the head and neck being thrown to the dogs. The 
community ordinarily consists of twenty to twenty- 
five persons, who select the most courageous of their 
number as chief. In the summer they locate them- 
selves on the banks of rivers, but during the rainy and 
windy seasons they confine themselves to their rude 
huts. If a death take place, they bury the corpse, but 
flee from the locality, lest others be summoned away. 
When they seek wild honey in the woods, the finder 
of a swarm marks the tree where the bees are, and 
the property is deemed his own until he has time to 
return and remove the comb. A fire is lighted at the 
foot of the tree — the smoke drives away the bees — 



170 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

the Indian mounts, bearing a broad palm-leaf folded 
in the shape of a vase, into which he turns the honey* 
comb, ties it over, and descends. All his wants are 
supplied when, in addition to his matches for fire, his 
bow and arrows, and his rude cutlass, he has a small 
supply of tobacco for his luxury. If food be scarce, 
he drinks hot water and ties a cord tightly round his 
body ; he eats also of a root called sticbaOy but in the 
warm weather indigenous fruits are never wanting." 
After a string of quotations from the classics, illus- 
trating the pains, penalties and passions of civilized 
existence, with the serenity, stupidity and satisfaction 
of these children of nature, the padre says : ^^ Finally, 
in admiration of their manner of life, if they were but 
enlightened by our holy faith — if they only suffered 
what they suffer for the sake of God — I verily believe 
they would not be paralleled by the austerest monk 
of the Thebaid. True it is they commit the sin of 
divorce — true it is that a slip before marriage is 
seldom heard of; but they are cruel, they are mur- 
derers i " Such is the consistency of ecclesiastical 
judgment. 

There are many speculations as to the origin of the 
darker, or black races, who now occupy the northern 
and central mountainous and little visited regions, and 
from whom one of the islands, Negros^ takes its name. 
They principally dwell in the wilder part of the pro- 
vinces of Ilocos South, Fangasinan, Gagayan, and 
Nueva Ecija. They are of small stature, have some- 
what flattened noses, curled hair, are agile, have no 
other dress than a covering of bark over their glials, 
are dexterous hunters, have no fixed dwellings, but 



POPULATION — RACES. 171 

sleep wherever sunset finds them. Their whole pro- 
perty consists of their how, a hamhoo quiver and 
arrows, a strip of skin of the wild boar, and the 
girdle, which the Spaniards call the tapa rabo (tail 
cover). The Negritos are held to be the aboriginal 
inhabitants of the islands, which were invaded by 
those now called Indios, who much resemble, though 
they are a great improvement on, the Malayan race. 
The Negritos retired into the wilder districts as the 
Tagals advanced, but between the two races there 
exists a great intensity of hatred. The Negritos are 
the savages of the Philippines, and are divided into 
many tribes, and it is said every grade between can- 
nibalism and the civilization of the Indian is found 
among them. They generally live on the wild fruits 
and vegetables which grow spontaneously, though some 
cultivate rice, and attend to the irrigation of their fields. 
Some make iron weapons, and the Itanegy according 
to the friars, only want conversion to be in all respects 
equal to the Indies. This race has a mixture of 
Chinese blood, the Ifugaos of that of the Japanese. 
The ruder savages ornament their cabins with the 
skulls of their enemies. The Apat/os live in com- 
fortable houses, and employ . for fioors polished 
planks instead of the interwoven bamboos of the 
Tagdls. They carry on a trade in wax, cocoa and 
tobacco, and deck their dwellings with China earthen- 
ware. The Isinay Negritos profess Christianity. In 
the island of Luzon there are estimated to be 200,000 
heathens, in that of Mindanao 800,000 idolaters and 
Mussulmans. But it is impossible to follow out 
the mixed races in all their ramifications and pecu- 



172 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

liarities. Among the characteristics of the wilder 
races is the separation of the toes, which enables 
them to pick up even minute objects, so if they 
let anything fall they use foot or hand with equal 
facility ; they will descend head downwards the rig- 
ging of a ship, holding on with their feet ; the great 
toe is much more separated from the others than 
in the white races. Their sense of smelUng is ex- 
quisite, and they profess, without the aid of language, 
to discover the state of the affections from the breath. 

Though they have a pantheon of gods and goddesses 
(for most of their divinities have wives), they have 
no temples, and no rites of public worship. They 
consult soothsayers (usually old women) in their 
diseases and difficulties ; and there are sacrifices, 
outpouring and mingling of blood, libations of fer- 
mented liquors, violent gesticulations, and invocations 
to Cambunian (God), the moon, and the stars, and 
the ceremonials end with eating and drinking to 
excess. They sacrifice a pig to pacify the Deity 
when it thunders, and adore the rainbow after the 
storm. Before a journey they kindle a fire, and if 
the smoke do not blow in the direction they intend 
to take they delay their project. The flight of birds 
is watched as an important augury, and the appear- 
ance of a snake as a warning against some approach- 
ing calamity. 

The mountain tribes are subject to no common 

ruler, but have their separate chieftains, called bar- 
vadSy to whom a certain number of dependants is 
assigned. On the death of a barnaas, the intes- 
tines are extracted, examined and burnt, for the 



POPULATION — RACES. 1 73 

purpose of ascertaining by the arts of divination the 
future destiny of the tribe. The body is placed in a 
chair, relations and friends are invited, and a great 
festivity of eating and drinking provided from the 
flocks and rice-fields of the deceased, with shouts 
and songs celebrating the virtues of departed bamaas. 
The banquet closes with all species of excesses, and 
both sexes remain drunk, exhausted or asleep on the 
ground about the corpse. It is said that the flesh of 
the departed is distributed among the guests, and 
Buzeta avers that such a case lately occurred at 
Tagudin (Ilocos South) ; but as he attributes it to 
the poverty of the deceased who had not left behind 
wherewithal to provide for the festival, the carnal dis- 
tribution could hardly have been deemed an honour. 
The stories of the cannibalism of the natives must be 
received with distrust, there being a great disposition 
to represent them as worse savages than they really 
are. The arms of a warrior are gathered together 
after his death, and his family will not part with them. 
A vessel into which wine has been poured is placed at 
the foot of the trophies, in order that it may imbibe 
the virtue and valour of the departed, and obtain his 
auspices. 

In case of the murder of an individual, the whole 
of the tribe unite to revenge his death. Prisoners 
taken in war are made slaves, and sell for from ten 
to twenty-five dollars each. Old men are bought, 
upon whom to try the poisonous powers or sharpness 
of their weapons. Adultery and the third oflence of 
robbery are punished with death. Polygamy is not 
allowed, but there is no difficulty about divorce. 



174 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

A great Tariety of languages is to be found among 
the wild people of the interior ; not only are dialects 
of the yarious tribes unintelligible to each other, but 
sometimes a language is confined to a single family 
group. Where there has been no intercourse there is 
no similitude. Words are necessary to man, and lan- 
guage is created by that necessity. Hence the farther 
the study of idioms is pursued back into antiquity, the 
greater will their number be found. Civilization has 
destroyed hundreds, perhaps thousands, of idioms, and 
is still carrying on the work by diminishing the num- 
ber of lavages in which man holds intercourse with 
man. It is no bold prophecy to arer that in the 
course of centuries the number of separate tongues 
will be reduced to a small amount. In France, the 
French ; in Italy, the Tuscan ; in Spain, the Castilian ; 
in Germany, the Saxon ; in Great Britain, the Eng- 
lish; — are becoming the predominant languages of 
the people, and have been gradually superseding the 
multitude of idioms which were used only a few gene- 
rations ago. Adelung recorded the names of nearly 
4,000 spoken and existing languages, but a list of 
those which time has extinguished would be far more 
extensive. 

That such large portions of the islands should be 
held by independent tribes, whether heathen or 
Mahomedan, is not to be wondered at when the 
geographical character of the country is considered. 
Many of their retreats are inaccessible to beasts of 
burden ; the valleys are intolerably hot ; the moun- 
tains unsheltered and cold. There is also much 
ignorance as to the localities, and the Spaniards are 



POPULATION — RACES. 1 75 

subject to be surprised from unknown ambushes in 
passes and ravines. The forests, through which the 
natives glide like rabbits, are often impenetrable to 
Europeans. No attempts have succeeded in enticing 
the ^* idolaters" down to the plains from these woods 
and mountains, to be tutored, taxed and tormented. 
Yet it is a subject of complaint that these barba- 
rians interfere, as no doubt they do, with the royal 
monopoly of tobacco, which they manage to smuggle 
into the provinces. ^^ Fiscal officers and troops," 
says De Mas, ^' are stationed to prevent these abuses, 
but these protectors practise so many extortions on 
the Indians, and cause so much of discontent, that 
commissions of inquiry become needful, and the diffi- 
culties remain unsolved." In some places the idola- 
ters molest " the peaceful Christian population," and 
make the roads dangerous to travellers. De Mas has 
gathered information from various sources, and from 
him I shall select a few particulars; but it appears 
to me there is too much generalization as to the un- 
subjugated tribes, who are to be found in various 
stages of civilization and barbarism. The Tinguianes 
of Ilocos cultivate extensive rice-fields, have large 
herds of cattle and horses, and carry on a consider- 
able trade with the adjacent Christian population. 
The Chinese type is said to be traceable in this race. 
The women wear a number of bracelets, covering the 
arm from the wrist to the elbow. The heaviest 
Tinguian curse is, ^^May you die while asleep," 
which is equivalent to saying, '^ May your death-bed 
be uncelebrated." It is a term of contempt for an 
Indian to say to another, ^* Malubha ang Caitiman 



176 



PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



mo" — ^ Great is thy blackness (negreguraj Sp.). 
The Indians call Africans Pogot. 

There are many Albinos in the Philippines. They 
are called by the natives Sons of the Sun ; some are 
white, some are spotted, and others have stripes on 
their skins. They are generally of small intellectual 
capacity. 

Buzeta gives the following ethnological table, de- 
scriptive of the physical characteristics of the various 
races of the Philippines : — 



— 


Pure Indians. 


Mestizos. 


Negritos. 


Size . 


Handsome, middle, some- 


The same. 






times tall. 




and thin. 


Skin. 


Copper or quince colour, 


Lighter, some- 


Dark copper. 




fine. 


what yellow. 




Body, 


Slight, well-formed,strong. 


Heavy. 


Slight and agile. 


Hair. 


Black, even, thidc, harsh. 


Less thick. 


Black, curly, but 
less so than the 
Africans. 


Head. 


Medium or pmall, round, 
and flat behind. 


Generally large. 


Small androunder. 


Forehead . 


Open, often narrow. 


Open. 


Narrow. 


Eyes . 


Black, brilliant. 


Less uniform. 


Large, penetrat- 
ing, brilliant. 


Eyebrows . 


Thick and arched. 


Less arched. 




Eyelids . 


Long. 




Very long. 


Nose . 


Medium, generally flat. 


Thickw. 


Medium, slightly 
flat 


Month 


Large,medium sometimes. 


Larger. 


Medium. 


lips . 


Medium. 


Thicker. 


Medium, rounder. 


Teeth 


White^ regular, strong. 


Strong and 
large. 


Long, very strong. 


Upper Man- 


Ordmary size. 


High, salient. 


Ordinary. 


dible 








Lower Man- 


Ordinary and strong. 


Strong, open. 


Well-formed. 


dible 








Breast 


Wide; woman's hard and 


Firm but nar^ 


Firm but'narrow. 




firm. 


row. 


m 


Carriage . 


Graceful, elegant 


Graceflil. 


Easy and careless. 


Buttocks . 


Broad and hard. 


Broad, hard. 


Broad, hard. 


Muscles . 


Small 


Small. 


Small 


Thighs 


Small. 


Small. 


Small. 


Feet . 


Rmall. 


Small 


Rmall and well- 
formed. 


Flesh. 


Hard. 


Hard. 


Hard. 


Hair (body) 


Lightly spread. 


None. 


Little. 


Beard 


None. 


Little. 


Little. 


Genital* • 


Small. 


Small. 


Small 



POPULATION — RACES. 177 

The Altaban Indians have an idol whom they call 
CubigUf whose wife is Bujds. The Gaddans give the 
name of Amanolayy meaning Creator of Man, to the 
object of their worship, and his goddess is Dalingay. 
There are no temples nor public rites, but appeals to 
the superior spirits in cases of urgency are generally 
directed by the female priest or sorceress, who 
sprinkles the idol with the blood of a buffalo, fowl 
or guinea-pig, offers libations, while the Indians lift 
up their hands exclaiming, ^^ Siggam Cabunian ! 
Siggam Bulamaiag ! Siggam aggen ! *" ( O thou 
God ! O thou beautiful moon ! O thou star ! ) A 
brush is then dipped in palm wine, which is sprinkled 
over the attendants. (This is surely an imitation of 
Catholic aspersions.) A general carousing follows. 

The priests give many examples of what they call 
Indian ignorance and stupidity, but these examples 
generally amount only to a disclaimer of all know- 
ledge respecting the mysteries of creation, the origin 
and future destiny of man, the nature of religious 
obligations, and the dogmas of the Catholic faith. 
It may be doubted whether the mere habitual repe- 
tition of certain formulas affords more satisfactory 
evidence of Christian advancement than the openly 
avowed ignorance of these heathen races. 

If an Indian is murdered by one of a neighbouring 
tribe, and the offence not condoned by some arranged 
payment, it is deemed an obligation on the part of 
the injured to retaliate by killing one of the offending 
tribe. 

The popular amusement is dancing; they form 

N 



178 PHILIPPINB ISLANDS. 

themselves into a circle, stretching out their hands, 
using their feet alternately, leaping on one and lifting 
the other behind ; so they move round and round with 
loud cries to the sounds of cylindrical drums struck 
by both hands. 

The skulls of animals are frequently used for the 
decoration of the houses of the Indians. Galvey says 
he counted in one dwelling, in Capangar, 405 heads 
of buffaloes and bullocks, and more than a thousand 
of pigs, causing an intolerable stench. 

They use the bark of the Uplay in cases of inter- 
mittent fever, and have much knowledge of the 
curative qualities of certain herbs ; they apply hot 
iron to counteract severe local pain, so that the 
flesh becomes cauterized ; but they almost invariably 
have recourse to amulets or charms, and sacrifice 
fowls and animals, which are distributed among the 
attendants on the sick persons. 

Fadre Mozo says of the Italons (Luzon) that he 
has seen them, after murdering an enemy, drink 
his blood, cut up the lungs, the back of the head, 
the entrails, and other parts of the body, which they 
eat raw, avowing that it gave them courage and 
spirit in war. The skulls are kept in their houses 
to be exhibited on great occasions. This custom is 
probably of Bornean origin, for Father Quarteron, 
the vicar apostolic of that island, told me that he 
once fell in with a large number of savages who were 
carrying in procession the human skulls with which 
their houses were generally adorned, and which they 
called "giving an airing to their enemies." The 






POPULATION— RACES. 179 

teeth are inserted in the handles of their hangers. 
After enumerating many more of the harbarooa cus- 
toms of the islands, the good friar Mozo exclaims : — 
'* Fancy our troubles and labours in rescuing such 
barbarians from the power of the devil ! " They 
sacrifice as many victims as they find fingers opened 
after death. If the hand be closed, none. They 
suffer much from cutaneous diseases. The Busaos 
paint their arms with flowers, and to carry orna- 
ments bore their ears, which are sometimes stretched 
down to their shoulders. The Ifugaos wear on a 
necklace pieces of cane denoting the number of 
enemies they have killed. Galvey says he counted 
twenty-three worn by one man who fell in an affray 
with Spanish troops. This tribe frequently attacks 
travellers in the mountains for the sake of their 
skulls. The missionaries represent them as the 
fiercest enemies of Christians. Some of the monks 
speak of horrible confessions made by Igorrote women 
after their conversion to Christianity, of their inter- 
course with monkeys in the woods, and the Padre 
Lorenzo indulges in long details on the subject, de- 
claring, moreover, that a creature was once brought 
to him for baptism which " filled him with suspicion.'* 
De Mas reports that a child with long arms, covered 
with soft hair, and much resembling a monkey, was 
exhibited by his mother in Viyan, and taught to ask 
for alms. 

De Mas recommends that the Spanish Government 
should buy the saleable portion of the Mahomedan 
and pagan tribes, convert them, and employ them 

N 2 



180 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

in the cultivation of land; and he gives statistics 
to show that there would he an accumulation of 
120 per cent., while their removal would set the 
Indians together hy the ears, who would destroy one 
another, and relieve the islands from the plague of 
their presence. This would seem a new chapter in 
the history of slave-trade experiments. He calculates 
that there are more than a million pagans and Ma- 
homedans in the islands. Galvey's ^^ Diary of un Ex- 
pedition to Benguet in January, 1829," and another 
to Bacun in Decemher, 1831, are histories of per- 
sonal adventures, many of a perilous character, in 
which many lives were lost, and many habitations de- 
stroyed. They are interesting as exhibiting the diffi- 
culties of subjugating these mountain races. Galvey 
conducted several other expeditions, and died in 1839- 
There are few facts of more interest, in connection 
with the changes that are going on in the Oriental 
world, than the outpouring of the surplus Chinese 
population into almost every region eastwards of 
Bengal ; and in Calcutta itself there is now a 
considerable body of Chinese, mostly shoemakers, 
many of whom have acquired considerable wealth, 
and they are banded together in that strong gre- 
garious bond of nationality which accompanies them 
wherever they go, and which is not broken, scarcely 
even influenced, by the circumstances that surround 
them. In the islands of the Philippines they have 
obtained almost a monopoly of the retail trade, and 
the indolent habits of the natives cannot at all com- 
pete with these industrious, frugal, and persevering 



POrULATION— RACES. 181 

intruders. Hence they are objects of great dislike 
to the natives ; but, as their generally peaceful de- 
meanour and obedience to the laws give no hold to 
their enemies, their numbers, their wealth, their 
importance increase from year to year. Yet they 
are but birds of passage, who return home to be 
succeeded by others of their race. They never bring 
their wives, but take to themselves wives or hand- 
maidens from the native tribes. Legitimate mar- 
riage, however, necessitates the profession of Chris- 
tianity, and many of them care little for the public 
avowal of subjection to the Church of Rome. They 
are allowed no temple to celebrate Buddhist rites, 
but have cemeteries specially appropriated to them. 
They pay a fixed contribution, which is regulated by 
the rank they hold as merchants, traders, shop- 
keepers, artisans, servants, &c. Whole streets in 
Manila are occupied by them, and wherever we went 
we found them the most laborious, the most pro- 
sperous of the working classes. Thousands upon 
thousands of Chinamen arrive, and are scattered 
over the islands, but not a single Chinese woman 
accompanies them from their native country. 

In the year 1857i 4,232 Chinamen landed in the 
port of Manila alone, and 2,592 left for China. 

Of the extraordinary unwiUingness of the women 
of China to emigrate, no more remarkable evidence 
can be found than in the statistics of the capital of 
the Philippines. In 1855, there were in the fortress 
of Manila 525 Chinamen, but of females only two 
women and five children. In Binondo, 5,055 China- 



182 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

men, but of females only eight, all of whom were 
children. Now, when it is remembered that the 
Philippines are, with a favourable monsoon, not more 
than three or four days' sail from China, that there 
are abundance of opulent Chinese settled in the 
island, that the desire of having children and per- 
petuating a race is universal among the Chinese 
people, it may be easily conceived that there must 
be an intensely popular feeling opposed to the emi- 
gration of women. 

And such is undoubtedly the fact, and it is a fact 
which must prove a great barrier to successful coolie 
emigration. No women have been obtainable either 
for the British or Spanish colonies, though the ex- 
portation of coolies had exceeded 60,000, and except 
by kidnapping and direct purchase from the procur- 
esses or the brothels, it is certain no woman can be 
induced to emigrate. This certainty ought to be 
seriously weighed by the advocates of the importation 
of Chinese labourers into the colonies of Great 
Britain. In process of time. Hong Kong wUl pro- 
bably furnish some voluntary female emigrants, and 
the lat« legalization of emigration by the Canton 
authorities will accelerate the advent of a result so 
desirable. 

During five years, ending in 1856, there were for 
grave crimes only fourteen committals of Chinamen 
in the whole of the provinces, being an average of 
less than three per annum ; no case of murder, 
none of robbery with violence, none for rape. There 
were nine cases of larceny, two of cattle-stealing, one 



POPULATION— RACES. 183 

forgery, one coining, one incendiarism. These facts 
are greatly creditable to the morality of the Chi- 
nese settlers. Petty ofiences are punished, as in the 
case of the Indians, by their own local princi- 
palia. 

A great majority of the shoemakers in the Philip-^ 
pines are Chinese. Of 784 in the capital, 633 are 
Chinamen, and 151 natives. Great numbers arc 
carpenters, blacksmiths, water-carriers, cooks, and 
daily labourers, but a retail shopkeeping trade is the 
favourite pursuit. Of late, however, many are merg- 
ing into the rank of wholesale dealers and merchants, 
exporting and importing large quantities of goods on 
their own account, and having their subordinate 
agents scattered over most of the islands. Where 
will not a Chinaman penetrate— what risks will he 
not run— to what suffering will he not submit— what 
enterprises will he not engage in— what perseverance 
will he not display — ^if money is to be made ? And, in 
truth, this constitutes his value as a settler : he is 
economical, patient, persistent, cunning; submissive 
to the laws, respectful to authority, and seeking only 
freedom from molestation while he adds dollar to 
dollar, and when the pile is sufficient for his wants or 
his ambition, he returns home, to be succeeded by 
others, exhibiting the same qualities, and in their 
turn to be rewarded by the same success. 

When encouragement was first given to the 
Chinese to settle in the Philippines, it was as agri- 
cultural labourers, and they were not allowed to 
exercise any other calling. The Japanese were 



184 ^IlILIrPl^^E islands. 

also invited, of whom scarcely any are now to be 
found in the islands. The reputation of the Chinese 
as cultivators of the land no doubt directed the atten- 
tion of the Manila authorities towards them ; but no 
Chinaman continues in any career if he can discover 
another more profitable* Besides this, they were no 
favourites among the rural population, and in their 
gregarious nature were far more willing to band 
themselves together in groups and hwey (associa- 
tions) than to disperse themselves among the pas- 
toral and agricultural races, who were jealous of them 
as rivals and hated them as heathens. They have 
created for themselves a position in the towns, and 
are now too numerous and too wealthy to be disre- 
garded or seriously oppressed. They are mostly 
from the province of Fokien, and Amoy is the 
principal port of their embarkation. I did not find 
among them a single individual who spoke the 
classical language of China, though a large propor- 
tion read the Chinese character. 

When a Chinese is examined on oath, the formula 
of cutting off the head of a white cock is performed 
by the witness, who is told that, if he do not utter the 
truth, the blood of his family will, like that of the 
cock, be spilt and perdition overtake them. My long 
experience of the Chinese compels me to say that I 
believe no oath whatever — nothing but the appre- 
hension of punishment — affords any, the least security 
against perjury. In our courts in China various forms 
have at different times been used— cock beheading ; 
the breaking of a piece of pottery ; the witness repeat- 



POPULATION — K ACES. 1 85 

ing imprecations on himself, and inviting the break- 
ing up of all his felicities if he lied ; the burning of 
a piece of paper inscribed with a form of oath, and an 
engagement to be consumed in hell, as that paper on 
earth, if he spoke not the truth ; — these and other 
ceremonies have utterly failed in obtaining any 
security for veracity. While I was governor of 
Hong Kong an ordinance was passed abolishing 
the oath-taking, as regards the Chinese, and punish- 
ing them severely as perjurers when they gave false 
testimony. The experiment has succeeded in greatly 
fortifying and encouraging the utterance of truth and 
in checking obscurity and mendacity. I inquired 
once of an influential person in Canton what were 
the ceremonies employed among themselves where 
they sought security for truthful evidence. He said 
there was one temple in which a promise made would 
be held more binding than if made in any other 
locality ;. but he acknowleged their tribunals had no 
real security for veracity. There is a Chinese pro- 
verb which says, "Puh tab, pub chaou," meaning 
" Without blows, no truth ;'* and the torture is con- 
stantly applied to witnesses in judicial cases. The 
Chinese religiously respect their written, and gene- 
rally their ceremonial, engagements — they **lose face" 
if these are dishonoured. But little disgrace attends 
lying, especially when undetected and unpunished, and 
the art of lying is one of the best understood arts of 
government. Lies to deceive barbarians are even 
recommended and encouraged in some of their 
classical books. 



186 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



CHAPTER IX. 

ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 

The supreme court of justice in the Philippines is the 
AudieTwia estaihWshed in Manila, which is the tribunal 
of appeal from the subordinate jurisdiction, and the 
consultative council of the Governor-General in cases 
of gravity. 

The court is composed of seven oidores^ or judges. 
The president takes the title of Begent. There are 
two government advocates, one for criminal, the other 
for civil causes, and a variety of subordinate officers. 
There are no less than eighty barristers, matriculated 
to practise in the Audiencia. 

A Tribunal de ComerciOf presided over by a judge 
nominated by the authorities, and assisted, under 
the title of ConsuleSj by gentlemen selected from 
the principal mercantile establishments of the 
capital, is charged with the settlement of com- 
mercial disputes. There is a right of appeal to 
the Audiencia, but scarcely any instance of its 
being exercised. 



1 



ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE. 187 

There is a censorship called the Comerda perma- 
nente de censura. It consists of four ecclesiastics and 
four civilians, presided over by the civil fiscal, and its 
authority extends to all books imported into or printed 
in the islands. 

There are fourscore lawyers {abogados) in Manila. 
As far as my experience goes, lawyers are the curse 
of colonies. I remember one of the most intelligent 
of the Chinese merchants who had settled at Singa- 
pore, after having been long established at Hong 
Kong, telling me that all the disadvantages of Singa- 
pore were more than compensated by the absence of 
'^ the profession," and all the recommendations of 
Hong Kong more than counterbalanced by the pre- 
sence of gentlemen occupied in fomenting, ' and re- 
compensed for fomenting, litigations and quarrels. 
Many of them make large fortunes, not unfrequently 
at the expense of substantial justice. A sound ob- 
server says, that in the Philippines truth is swamped 
by the superfluity of law documents. The doors 
opened for the protection of innocence are made 
entrances for chicanery, and discussions are carried 
on without any regard to the decorum which prevails 
in European courts. Violent invectives, recrimina- 
tions, personalities, and calumnies, are ventured upon 
under the protection of professional privilege. When 
I compare the equitable, prompt, sensible and inex- 
pensive judgments of the consular courts in China 
with the results of the costly, tardy, unsatisfactory 
technicalities of judicial proceedings in many colonies, 
I would desire a general proviso that no tribunal 



188 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

should be accessible in civil cases until after an ex- 
amination by a court of conciliation. The extortions 
to which the Chinese are subjected, in Hong Kong, 
for example — ^and I speak from personal knowledge 
— make one blush for " the squeezing** to which, 
indeed, the corruption of their own mandarins have 
but too much accustomed them. In the Philippines 
there is a great mass of unwritten, or at least un- 
printed, law, emanating from different and indepen- 
dent sources, often contradictory, introduced tradi- 
tionally, quoted erroneously ; a farrago, in which the 
" Leyes de Indias,** the " Siete partidas,** the " No- 
visima recompilacion," the Roman code, the ancient 
and the royal fueros — to say nothing of proclamations, 
decrees, notifications, orders, bandos — produce all the 
" toil and trouble " of the witches' cauldron, stirred 
by the evil genii of discord and disputation. 

Games of chance (J u egos de azar) are strictly pro- 
hibited in the Philippines, but the prohibition is 
utterly inefficient ; and, as I have mentioned before, 
the Manila papers are crowded with lists of persons 
fined or imprisoned for violation of the law ; some- 
times forty or fifty are cited in a single newspaper. 
More than one captain-general has informed me that 
the severity of the penalty has not checked the uni- 
versality of the offence, connived at and participated 
in by both ecclesiastics and civilians. 

The fines are fifty dollars for the first, and one 
hundred dollars for the second, offence, and for the 
third, the punishment which attaches to vagabondage 
—imprisonment and the chain-gang. 



-VDMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE, 



189 



Billiard-tables pay a tax of six dollars per month. 
There is an inferior wooden table which pays half 
that sum. 

The criminal statistics of five years, from 1851 to 
1855 present the following total number of convic- 
tions for the graver offences. They comprise the 
returns from all the provinces. Of the whole number 
of criminals, more than one-half are from 20 to 29 
years old ; one-third from 30 to 39 ; one-ninth from 
40 to 49; one-twentieth from 15 to 19; and one- 
forty-fifth above 50. 

They consist of 467 married, 8 1 widowers, and 690 
unmarried men. 

During the said period 236 had completed the 
terms of their sentences, 217 had died, and 785 re- 
mained at the date of the returns. 



Adultery , . . , 
Adultery, with homicide 
Prohibited arms 
Abandonment of post 


1 
1 
7 
6 


Brought forward 
Murder, with wounding and 

robbery 
Robberies . . . . 


259 

314 
390 


Bigamy . . . . 


1 


Robberies, with violence 


120 


Drunkenness 


2 


Robberies of Tobacco 


6 


Horse and cattle stealing 


. 21 


Robberies on bodies (Dacoits] 


) 36 


Conspiracy 
Smuggling 
Deserters . . . . 


. 17 

1 

. 126 


Wounding in quarrels 
Woimding (causing death) . 
Incendiarism 


. 44 
7 
4 


Rape . . . . 
Rape and incest . 


. 14 
4 


Incendiarism, with robbery 
Incest . . . . 


' 16 
G 


Rape and robbery 
Poisoning . . . , 
Forging passports . . 
Fraudulent distilling . 
Vagabonds 
Coining 


6 

2 
. 13 

1 
. 35 

1 


Mutiny . . . 
Nonpayment of fines . 
False name 
Parricide . 
Resistance to military 
Escape from prison . 


7 

3 
1 
2 

. 18 
5 


Carried forward 


. 259 


Total 


1,238 



In the city of Manila there was only one conviction 



190 PHILIPPrHB ISLANDS. 

for murder in five years. The proportion of the 
graver offences in the different provinces is nearly 
the same, except in the island of Negros, where of 
forty-four criminals, twenty-eight were convicted of 
murder. 



191 



CHAPTER X. 

ARMY AND NAVY. 

Thb army of the Philippines, with the exception of 
two brigades of artillery and a corps of engineers 
which are furnished by Spain, is recruited from the 
Indians, and presents an appearance generally satis- 
factory. They are wholly officered by Europeans. 

There are nine regiments of native infantry, one 
of cavalry, called the Luzon Lancers, and there is 
a reserve corps of officers called Cuadro de Rem- 
plazosj from whom individuals are selected to fill up 
vacancies. 

There is a small body of Alabarderos de sermcio 
at the palace in the special service of the captain- 
general. Their origin dates from a.d. 1590, and 
their halberds and costume add to the picturesque 
character of the palace and the receptions there. 

There are also four companies called the Urban 
Militia of Manila, composed of Spaniards, who may 
be called upon by the governor for special services 
or in cases of emergency. 

A medical board exercises a general inspection 
over the troops. Its superior functionaries are Euro- 



192 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

pean Spaniards. Hospitals in which the military 
invalids are received are suhject to the authority of 
the medical hoard as far as the treatment of such 
invalids is concerned. The medical board nominates 
an officer to each of the regiments, who is called an 
Ayudante. 

Of late a considerable body of native troops has 
been sent from Manila to Cochin China, in order to 
co-operate with the French military and marine forces 
in that country. They are reported to have behaved 
well in a service which can have had few attractions, 
and in which they have been exposed to many suf- 
ferings, in consequence of the climate and the hostile 
attitude of the native inhabitants. What object the 
Spaniards had in taking so important a part in this 
expedition to Touron remains hitherto unexplained. 
Territory and harbours in Oriental regions, rich and 
abundant, they hold in superfluity ; and assuredly 
Cochin China affords nothing very inviting to well- 
informed ambition ; nor are the Philippines in a 
condition to sacrifice their population to distant, un- 
certain, perilous, and costly adventures. There is 
no national pride to be flattered by Annamite con- 
quests, and the murder of a Spanish bishop may 
be considered as atoned for by the destruction of 
the forts and scattering of the people, at the price, 
however, of the lives of hundreds of Christians and 
of a heavy pecuniary outlay. France has its pur- 
poses — frankly enough disclosed — to obtain some 
port, some possession of her own, in or near the 
China seas. I do not think such a step warrants 



ARMY AND NAVY. 193 

distrust or jealousy on our part. The question may 
be asked, whether the experiment is worth the cost ? 
Probably not, for France has scarcely any commercial 
interest in China or the neighbouring countries ; nor 
is her colonial system, fettered as it always has been 
by protections and prohibitions, likely to create such 
interest. In the remote East, France can carry on 
no successful rivalry with Great Britain, the United 
States, Holland, or Spain, each of which has points 
of geographical superiority and influence which to 
France are not accessible. One condition is a sine 
qua nan in these days of trading rivalry — lowness 
of price, associated with cheapness of transport. 
France offers neither to the foreign consumer in 
any of the great articles of supply : she will have 
high prices for her producers. 

The maritime forces are under the orders of the 
commandant of the station. They consist of four 
steamers and one brig-of-war, six gunboats, and a 
considerable number of Jaluas (feluccas), which are 
employed in the coasting service and for the suppres- 
sion of piracy. 



194 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, 



CHAPTER XL 



PUBLIC INSTiEtUCTION. 



^ Public instruction is in an unsatisfactory state in the 
Philippines — the provisions are little changed from 
those of the monkish ages. 

In the University of St. Thomas there are ahout 
a thousand students. The professorships are of 

^ theology, the canon and civil law, metaphysics and 
grammar ; hut no attention is given to the natural 
sciences, to the modern janguages, nor have any of 
the educational reforms which have penetrated most 
of the colleges of Europe and America found their 
way to the Philippines. In the colegios and schools 
what is called philosophy, rhetoric and Latin are the 

\ principal objects of attention. The most numerously 
attended of these establishments were founded two 
or three centuries ago, and pursue the same course of 
instruction which was adopted at their first esta- 
blishment. There are several colleges and convents 
for women. That of Santa Potenciana was established 
under a royal decree, dated a.d. 1589, which requires 
that girls (doncellas) be received and taught to 
"live modestly" (honestamente)^ and, under sound 



PUBLIC . INSTRUCTION. 1 95 

doctrine^ to "come out** for "marriage and propa- 
gation of the race" {hagan propngdcion). There is a 
nautical school, of which I heard a favourable report^ 
and an academy of painting, which has hitherto pro- 
duced no Murillo or Velasquez. The best native 
works of art which I saw were two heads of the 
Virgin and St. Francisco, carved by an Indian in 
ivory, and which adorn the convent of Lucban, in the 
province of Tayabas. The good friars attributed to 
them almost miraculous virtues, and assured me that, 
though heavy rains preceded and followed the pro- 
cessions in which the images were introduced, a bright 
and beautiful sunshine accompanied them in their 
progress. 

Among the novel objects that meet the eye in 
Manila, especially on the morning of religious ,/^to^, 
are groups of veiled women, wearing a dark mys- 
terious costume, who visit the different churches. 
Their dress is a black woollen or silken petticoat, 
over which is a large shining mantilla, or veil, of a 
deep mulberry colour; others wear the ancient 
hooded Andalusian black cloak. There are the^ 
sisterhoods called the Colegialas de los Beaterias 
— religious establishments in which young women 
receive their education; some supported by "pious / 
foundations," others by voluntary contributions. The 
rules of th^se convents vary, as some of the nuns 
never quit the buildings, others visit the churches 
under the guardianship of a " mother ;** in some it 
is permitted to the colegiala to join her family at 
certain seasons, and to participate in social enjoy- 

o 2 



196 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

^ments at home or abroad. These pay for their 
education sums varying from two to eight dollars a 
month, according to the regulations of the different 

\ beaterios, which have also their distinguishing cos- 
tumes in some of the details, such as the colour of the 
lining of their dress. It is said there is scarcely a 
family of respectability in Manila that has not one 
^ daughter at least in a beaterio. In that of Santa 
v^ Bosa the monthly pay is five dollars. Its inmates 
rise at five a.m., to chant the trisagio (holy, holy, 
holy), to hear mass and engage in devotion iTor the 
first part of the rosary till six ; then to wash and 
dress; breakfast at half-past six; instruction from 
seven to ten ; dinner at half-past eleven in the 
refectory ; siesta and rest till half-past two p.m. ; 
devotion in the chapel, going through the second 
part of the rosary; instruction from half-past three 
till half-past five ; at the " oration," they return to 
the chapel, recite the third part of the rosary, and 
engage in reading or meditation for half an hour; 
sup at eight p.m.; enjoy themselves in the cloister or 
garden till nine ; another prayer, and they retire to 
N their cells. In the beaterio of St. Sebastian of Calum- 
pang the inmates rise at four a.m. : the pay is five 
dollars ; but the general arrangements are the same 
as those described. In the beaterio of Santa Cata- 
lina de Sena they are not allowed to leave the con- 
vent. The pay is eight dollars : it has the reputation 
of superior accommodation, and less economical food. 
The beaterio of the Jesuits has about 900 inmates ; 
but this number is much exceeded in Lent, when 



PUBLIC IXSTRUCTION. 197 

great numbers enter to perform their spiritual exer- 
cises. The pay is only two dollars per month ; but 
much sewing and washing is done within the convent 
for its support. When the Jesuits were expelled, 
the direction of this beaterio passed to the vicar- 
general of the archbishopric. 

The beaterio of Pasig is solely devoted to the \ 
reception of Indian orphans, and its founder required 
that they should be taught " Christian doctrine, sew- 
ing, reading, writing, embroidery, and other instruc-^ 
tion becoming the sex." 

There are many charitable institutions in Manila. 
The Jesuits, afterwards expelled from the Philippines 
by Carlos II., founded several of the most important. 
The Hospital of San Juan de Dios has 112 beds; 
that of San Jose de Cavite 260, of which 104 are for 
soldiers, and the rest for paupers and criminals. 
There is an Administracion de Obras PiaSj under the 
direction of the archbishop, the regent, and some of 
the superior civil authorities, which lends money to 
the Indians to the value of two-thirds of their landed 
property, one-half of their value on plate and jewel- 
lery, and insures vessels employed in the coasting 
trade. A caja de comunidad exacts half a rial\ 
(3\d.) annually from the Chinese and Indians for 
the payment of " schoolmasters, vaccinators, defence 
of criminals, chanters, and sacristans of churches." ^ 
The fund is administered by the directing board of 
finance. 

The history of the Hospital of St. Lazarus, under 
charge of the Franciscan friars, is not without in- 



198 PinUPPINE ISLANDS- 

terest. It was constructed for the use of the natives 
in 1578, was enlarged, and twice consumed by fire. 
In the year 1632, it received 150 Christian lepers 
exiled from Japan, and thence took its present 
name. It was demolished by the captain-general in 
1662, when the Chinese pirates menaced the capital, 
as it was deemed an impediment to the defence of the 
place. The inmates were removed ; and another 
hospital was built, which was again destroyed in 
1783, in consequence of its having been useful to 
the English in their invasion in 1762; but a few 
years afterwards the present edifice was built on 
lands which belonged to the Jesuits before the 
extinction of their society in the Philippines. 



■P 



199 



CHAPTER XII. 

ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY. 

Thbbb are in. the Philippines one archiepiscopal and 
three episcopal sees. The metropolitan archbishopric 
of Manila was founded by Clement YII. in 1595, 
and endowed by Philip 11. with a revenue of 600,000 
maravedis (= 200/. sterling). The bishopric of New 
Segovia was created at the same time with a similar 
endowment. The see is now (1859) vacant. Tbe 
bishopric of Cebu was established in 1567, soon after 
the conquest of the island by the Spaniards. Nueva 
Gaceres has also a bishop. The selection of candidates 
for these ecclesiastical honours has been generally left 
to the religious brotherhood who are most numerous 
in the district where . there is a vacancy, and the 
candidate, being approved by the sovereign of Spain, 
is submitted to the Pope for confirmation. Some 
nominations have taken place where the bishop elect 
has not been willing to quit the mother-country for 
the colonies, which I was informed had caused the 
adoption of a resolution not to instal a bishop until 



. 200^ PIIILIPPTXE ISLANDS. 

he has taken possession of his see. Most of the 
ecclesiastical authority is in the hands of the friars or 
* regular clergy. There are proportionally few secular 
priests in the islands. The Dominicans and Augus- 
tine monks have large possessions, especially in the 
central and southern provinces ; the Franciscans 
are most numerous in the northern. To the hospi- 
tality and kindness of the friars during the whole 
of my journey I bear a willing and grateful testi- 
mony. Everywhere the convents were opened to 
us with cordial welcome, and I attribute much of 
the display of attention on the part of the Indians 
to the reception we everywhere experienced from 
the Spanish padres. The Dominican monks have 
charge of the mission to Fokien, in China, and 
Tonquin. 

The ecclesiastical records of the Philippines over- 
flow with evidences of the bitter, and sometimes 
bloody, controversies of the Church with the civil 
authority, and with quarrels of the religious bodies 
among themselves. In the year 1710 the Domi- 
nicans declared themselves not subject to the juris- 
diction of diocesan visits. One of their resolutions 
says : — " The provinces hold it for evident and 
certain that such visits would lead to the perdition 
of religious ministers, which is the opinion that has 
been for many years held by grave and zealous eccle- 
siastics and superior prelates who have dwelt in the 
province." In 1757 the Augustine friars (calzados) 
were menaced with the confiscation of their property 
if they denied the supreme authority and the ad- 



KCCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY. 201 

mission of parochial curates regularly appointed; 
and they resolved that such submission ^^ would be 
the ruin of their institution and to the notable detri- 
ment of souls." In 1767 Benedict XIV. published 
a bull insisting on the recognition of the metro- 
politan authority, which was still resisted by the 
Augustines. In 1775 a royal mandate wais issued 
at Madrid insisting that all regular curates be sub- 
mitted to their provincial in questions de vita et 
morilmsj to the bishop, in all matters of spiritual 
administration, and to the captain-general as vice- 
regal patron. Whether the ecclesiastical police is 
better kept by the interference of the higher autho- 
rities, or by the independent action among themselves 
of the different religious orders, is a question much 
debated, but the substantive fact remains that the 
iriar has an enormous and little-controlled influence 
in the locality of his cure^ and that where abuses 
exist it is very difficult to collect evidence, and still 
more so to inflict punishment in case of his mis- 
doings. 

It cannot be denied that, in the language of 
Tomas de Comyn, "the missionaries were the real 
conquerors of the Philippines ; their arms were not, 
indeed, those of the warrior, but they gave laws to 
millions, and, scattered though they were, they esta- 
blished by unity of purpose and of action a perma- 
nent empire over immense multitudes of men." Up 
to the present hour there are probably few parishes 
in which the gobernadorcillo, having received a man- 
date from the civil authority, fails to consult the 



202' PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

friar, and the efficiency and activity of the Indian 
functionary in giving effect to the mandate will 
much depend on the views the padre may take of 
the orders issued. 

Eeligious processions are the pride and the passion 
of the Filipinos, and on great festivals they bring 
together prodigious crowds both as actors and spec- 
tators. The most brilliant are those which take 
place after sunset, when some thousands of persons 
carry lighted wax candles, and the procession is 
sometimes a mile long, composed of all the mili- 
tary and civil authorities and of the ecclesiastical 
functionaries, vying with each other in the display 
of their zeal and devotion. On these occasions 
splendidly dressed images of the various objects of 
veneration form an important part of the ceremonial. 
I was assured that the jewels worn by the image 
of Nuestra Senora de la Imaculada Concepcion on 
the day of her festival exceeded 25,000 dollars in 
value. Numerous bands of music accompany the 
show. One of the most interesting parts of the 
exhibition is the number of little girls prettily and 
fancifully dressed in white, who follow some of the 
images of the saints or the palio of the archbishop. 
One of the processions witnessed was forty minutes 
in passing, and of immense length, the whole way 
being lined with bearers of wax lights on both sides. 
There seems a rivalry among the religious orders as 
to whose displays shall be the most effective and im- 
posing. The images are of the size of life, and clad 
in gorgeous garments encumbered with ornaments 



ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY, 203 

They are borne on the shoulders of their votaries, 
occupying a platform, whence they are visible to the 
crowd.* 



* There may be some iaterest in the following details, as a 
specimen ; but it is by no means one of the most distinguished. 

Programme of the Procession of the Holy Interment, proceeding 
from the Church of San Domingo, and returning thither through 
the principal streets of Manila : — 

Civil guards on horseback. 
Files of bearers of wax lights along the line of procession. 
Military, under their several heads and colours. 
Carabineers of the Hacienda, bearing lights, S. 
Company of Engineers, 
Carabineers of Public Safety, 
Cavalry (Lancers), 
Infantry (Borbon), 
Ditto (Princesa), 
Ditto (Infante), 
Ditto (Fernando VII.), 
Artillery Brigade, No. I, 
Ditto, No. 2, 

Infantry (Rey), 

Peasants bearing lights. 

Officers of the army and marine and public functionaries. 

Collegiate of St. John of Lateran. 

Secular clergy. 

Brotherhood of St. Domingo. 

Two files of sisterhood (Beatas). 

The centre of the procession to consist of 

Band of music of Infantry (Rey). 

Standard. 

Ten representations of the Passion, carried by the clergy at 

appropriate distances. 
Six collegiates of St. John of Lateran with cirios (large wax lights). 

Image of St. John the Evangelist. 

Eleven representations of the Passion, carried by the clergy. 

Six collegiates of St. John with cirios. 

Image of St. Mary of Magdalene. 

Band of music of Infantry (Ferdinand VII.). 

Ten 



ditto, 


8. 


ditto. 


8. 


ditto. 


32. 


ditto. 


32. 


ditto, 


32. 


ditto, 


32. 


ditto. 


32. 


ditto, 


32. 


ditto. 


32. 


ditto, 


32. 



204 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

These religious ceremonials, so dear to, and so 
characteristic of, the Filipinos, are called P entacasL 
Everyhody seems to take a part, whether within or 
without doors. All invite or are invited, and busv 
hands are engaged in making sweetmeats, preparing 
meats, or adorning apartments (with furniture bor- 
rowed from all sides, a favour to be reciprocated in 

Ten representations of the Passion, as before. 

Musical choir chanting the Miserere, 

Eight coUegiates of St. Thomas with cirios. 

Car conveying The Lord, 

By the side of the car, eight Halberdiers, with funeral halberds. 

Music of Infantry (No. 7). 

Pall (palio) carried by collegiates of St. John of Lateran. 

Brotherhood of the interment, in semicircle. 

Six collegiates of St. John of Lateran with cirios. 

Image of Santa Maria Salome. 

Six collegiates of St. Thomas with cirios. 

Image of Santa Maria Jacoba. 

Choir of music, singing Stahat Mater, 

Six collegiates of St. Thomas in file with cirios. 

Image of our Lady de los Dolores. 

Pall carried by six collegiates of St. Thomas. 

Freste (celebrator of high mass) in his black cope, with two 

sacristans at the right and the left. 

H. E. the Governor-General, at his left the Lieutenant-Governor, at 

his right the Prior of St. Domingo, President of the 

Brotherhood of the Holy Interment. 

Preceding these are all the supreme authorities of the islands 

in full dress, followed by the military and naval officers of high 

rank. 

Brigade of European Artillery, with officers. 

Drums (muffled) playing funeral march. 

Bands of music (as at funerals). 

European brigade, with muskets reversed. 

Escort of Captain-General on horseback. 

Note — That in this religious procession perfect equality is to be 

presei-ved. 



ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY, 205 

turn), miisiciaDs are collected, strangers are sought 
for, and universal bustle pervades the locality. 

" On the eve preceding the festival," says a native 
author, describing what takes place in the neighbour- 
hood of Manila, ^' the pueblo exhibits all the activity 
of preparation. In the streets, handsome arches are 
constructed of bamboo, covered with painted linen, 
and representing various orders of architecture ; 
graceful drapery is suspended over the arch, which 
has sundry openings or windows, in which variegated 
lanterns are placed (an art taught, no doubt, by the 
Chinese, who possess it in perfection). Within the 
lanterns ornamented figures are kept in perpetual 
movement by the heated atmosphere. Nosegays of 
artificial flowers, groups of fruits, and various devices 
decorate the houses, and the Tocal musicians serenade 
the priests and the authorities ; while the whole 
population crowd the church for the vesper service. 
The dalagas (girls) prepare their gayest attire to take 
part in the procession, in which queens and saints 
and various scriptural personages are represented 
by the Zagalas or females of the leading families, 
in garments of velvet and gold, with all the jewels 
that can be collected — ^not that always the costume 
testifies to much classical or historical knowledge ; 
it is, however, very gay and gorgeous, satisfactory to 
the wearers, admired and applauded by the specta* 
tors. Popular songs are sung to the music of the 
guitar, and the gaieties are carried on to the midnight 
hour. At eight o'clock on the following morning 
mass is attended, a sermon preached, a procession 



206 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

follows, and all retire to their dwellings to escape 
the heat of the day; but in the principal houses 
repasts are ready for any guests who may call, and 
a considerable variety of Indian dishes are laid out 
upon the table. At four p.m., the military arrive 
with their music, and generally the village musicians 
and the church choir assemble near the church, and 
welcome the many visitors who come from the capital. 
So great is the crowd of carriages, that they are not 
allowed to pass through the streets, but their occu- 
piers quit them at the entrance of the pueblo, and 
make their way to the hosts who have invited them. 
A great number of Spanish ladies from Manila are 
generally seated at the windows to witness the busy 
scene. Not only are the streets crowded by the 
gaily dressed inhabitants, but multitudes of Indians 
come from the interior to take part in the festivity. 
The native authorities, preceded by music, then visit 
the various houses to collect the Zagalas, who come 
forth in their regal robes and crowns, with a suite of 
attendants. There is a great display of fireworks, 
rockets, and balloons, and the procession proceeds to 
the church. It is a grand day for the gallera, or 
cockpit, which resembles the bull-fight arena in 
Spain : it is filled to suffocation with noisy and 
excited actors and spectators ; immense bets are 
laid ; booths surround the place, where food and drink 
are sold, and among the delicacies roasted sucking- 
pigs abound. The procession usually starts at six p.m. 
All those who take part bear a lighted wax-candle : 
first, the children of the pueblo ; then the soldiers ; 



ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY. 207 

then the image of the Virgin, with an escort of veiled 
women ; then the image of the saint of the day or of the 
place, the car drawn hy a number of dalagas in white 
garments, bearing garlands and crowns of flowers, fol- 
lowed by the authorities and by the priest in his 
golden cope ; then a military band and cavalry soldiers ; 
then the principal Zagala, whose queenly train is 
borne by eight or ten Indian girls, in white garments, 
adorned with flowers. Other Zagalas, personifying 
the Christian virtues, follow — Faith, Hope, Charity, 
with their characteristic attributes. Sometimes there 
are cars in which scenes of Scripture are exhibited 
by living actors ; others displaying all the fancies of 
devotees. The procession parades the streets till the 
night is far advanced ; the images are then restored to 
the church, and other amusements begin. The prin- 
cipal guests are invited to an open, but temporarily 
erected building, handsomely curtained, and briUiantly 
lighted, in the centre of which is a large table, covered 
with delicacies, and ornamented with groups and 
pyramids of flowers. The first attentions are shown 
to the ecclesiastics, and then to the other visitors, 
according to their rank and position. The streets 
and houses being illuminated as the night advances, the 
principal inhabitants gather their guests together, 
and at ten p.m. there are displays of fireworks and 
balloons, in which the rivalry of the pyrotechnic artists 
of the capital have a fine field for exercise. Most of 
the pueblos around Manila have their festival days, 
and in the competition for giving glory to their local 
saints and patrons, they seek to outdo the capital 



208 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

itself. Santa Cruz, which is an opulent and popu- 
lous locality, rejoices in the protection of St. Stanis- 
laus, and outhids most of the rest for ostentatious 
show, in which the inhabitants of Manila take an 
active part. The Chinese have their day in celebrat- 
ing St. Nicholas in Guadalupe. Tondo has its 
distinguished festivals. Binondo is great and gor- 
geous on the day of "Our Lady of the Rosary of 
Saint Dominic.'* Sampaloc claims " Our Lady of 
Loreto." Santa Ana worships " Our Lady of the 
abandoned ones'' (de los desamparados). Fandacan 
has its gatherings in honour of " The sweet name of 
Jesus," and its beautiful scenery adds to the attrac- 
tions of the place. St. Sebastian processionizes its 
silver car, in which "Our Lady of Carmel" is con- 
veyed in state. The suspensions caused by the rainy 
months, Lent, and a few other interruptions, are 
compensated by the extra ceremonials and festivities 
of the holy weeks, and other seasons of Catholic 
gratulation. The mere list of all these Jiestas 
would occupy pages, and it was my good fortune to 
visit the islands at a time when I had an oppor- 
tunity of witnessing many of these characteristic 
exhibitions. 

The opulence of the individual monks, and of some 
of the monkish fraternities in the islands, has often 
and naturally been a subject of reproach. The 
revenues received by individuals are in many locali- 
ties very large, amounting in remote districts to eight 
or nine thousand dollars a year, and much more, 
it is reported, in such populous pueblos as Binondo. 



ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY. . 209 

Some of these communities also possess large tracts 
of land, whose management is superintended at 
periodical meetings held in the capital, when friars 
from the different provinces, and of the same 
hrotherhood, are summoned to give an account of 
their stewardship, and to discuss the general interests 
of the fraternity. The accumulations of the friars 
pass to the convents at their death, hut they have 
little difficulty in disposing of them while living. 

It has heen said that the policy of the friars in the 
Philippines is to conduct the Indian to heaven hy 
a pathway of flowers. Little molestation will he 
experience from his ghostly father, if he he strict 
in his religious ohservances, pay his regular contri- 
butions to Church and State, and exhibit those out* 
ward marks of respect and reverence which the 
representatives of the Deity claim as their lawful 
heritage ; but there are many thorns amidst the 
flowers, and drawbacks, on the heavenly road ; and 
the time may come when higher and nobler aspira- 
tions than those which now satisfy the poor untu- 
tored, or little tutored, Indian, will be his rule of 
conduct. 

The personal courtesies, the kind reception and 
multifarious attentions which I received from the 
friars in every part of the Philippines naturally dis- 
pose me to look upon them with a friendly eye. I 
found among them men worthy of being loved and 
honoured, some of considerable intellectual vigour ; but 
literary cultivation and scientific acquirements are 



— T 



210 PniLIPPINE ISLANDS. 

rare. Occapied with their own concerns, they are little 
acquainted with mundane affairs. Politics, geography, 
history, have no charms for those who, even had 
they the disposition for study, would, in their seclu- 
sion and remoteness, have access to few of its 
appliances. Their convents are almost palatial, with 
extensive courts, grounds and gardens; their reve- 
nues frequently enormous. Though their mode of life 
is generally unostentatious and simple, many of them 
keep handsome carriages and have the hest horses 
in the locality; and they are surrounded generally 
by a .prostrate and superstitious population, upon 
whose hopes and fears, thoughts and feelings, they 
exercise an influence which would seem magical were 
it not by their devotees deemed divine. This in- 
fluence, no doubt, is greatly due to the heroism, 
labours, sufferings and sacrifices of the early mission- 
aries, and to the admirably organized hierarchy of 
the Roman Church, whose ramifications reach to 
the extremest points in which any of the forms or 
semblances of Christianity are to be discovered. 
Volumes upon volumes — the folio records of the 
proceedings of the different religious orders, little 
known to Protestant readers — fill the library shelves 
of these Catholic establishments, which are the re- 
ceptacles of their religious history. 

The most extensively influential brotherhood in the 
Philippines is that of the Augustines {AgosHnos 
Calzados)f who administer to the cure of more than 
a million and a half of souls. The barefooted 



ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY. 211 

Augu8tines (Agasiinos DescalzoSj or Recoletos) claim 
authority over about one-third of this number. Tho 
Dominicans occupy the next rank, and their congre- 
gations are scarcely less numerous than those of the 
barefooted Augustines. Next come the Franciscans, 
who are supposed to rank with the Dominicans in 
the extent of their authority. Independently of the 
monastic orders and the superior ecclesiastic authori- 
ties, there are but a small number of parochial or 
secular clergy in the Philippines. 

On occasions of installations under the *^ royal 
seal," the ceremonies take place in the church of the 
Augustines, the oldest in Manila, where also the 
regimental flags receive their benediction, and other 
public civil festivals are celebrated. A convent is 
attached to the church. Both the regular Augustines 
and the Becoletos receive pecuniary assistance from 
the State. The Franciscans rank next to the Augus- 
tines in the number of their clergy. 

A source of influence possessed by the friars, and 
from which a great majority of civil functionaries are 
excluded, is the mastery of the native languages. 
All the introductory studies of ecclesiastical aspirants 
are dedicated to this object. No doubt they have 
great advantages from living habitually among the 
Indian people, with whom they keep up the most 
uninterrupted intercourse, and of whose concerns 
they have an intimate knowledge. One of the most 
obvious means of increasing the power of the civil 
departments would be in encouragement given to 

p 2 



212 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

their functionaries for the acquirement of the native 
idioms* I believe Spanish is not employed in the 
pulpits anywhere beyond the capital. In many of 
the pueblos there is not a single individual Indian 
who understands Castilian, so that the priest is often 
the only link between the government and the com-^ 
munity, and, as society is now organized, a necessary 
link. It must be recollected, too, that the different 
members of the religious brotherhoods are bound 
together by stronger bonds and a more potent and 
influential organization than any oflSicial hierarchy 
among civilians ; and the government can expect no 
co-operation from the priesthood in any measures 
which tend to the diminution of ecclesiastical autho- 
rity or jurisdiction, and yet the subjection of that 
authority to the State, and its limitation wherever 
it interferes with the public well-being, is the great 
necessity and the all-important problem to be solved 
in the Philippines. But here, too, the Catholic 
character of the government itself presents an enor- 
mous and almost invincible difficulty. Nothing is so 
dear to a Spaniard in general as his religion; his 
orthodoxy is his pride a!nd glory, and upon this 
foundation the Bomish Church naturally builds up a 
political power and is able to intertwine its pervad- 
ing influence with all the machinery of the civil 
government. The Dutch have no such embarrass- 
ment in their archipelago. 

The Captain-General has had the kindness to fur- 
nish me with the latest returns of the ecclesiastical 



ECCLESUSTICAL AUTHORITY. 



213 



corporatious in the Philippines (dated 1859)- They 
are these : — 





Tribu- 
taries. 


Souls. 


Bap- 
tisms. 


Mar* 

riaget. 

1,166 
4,166 


Deaths. 


BecoLKTOS : 

Archbishopric of Manila . 
Province of Zebu • 


29,899 
90,701 


122,842 
454,279 


5,335 
18,559 


3,334 
6,500 


Total 


120,600 


577,121 


23,894 


5,332 


9,834 


FRA1ICI8CA3C6 : 

Archbiihoprtc of Manila . 
Bishopric of New Caceres . 
Bishopric of Zebu . 


60,936 
72,477 
57,778 


227,866 
289,012 
237,583 


7,988 
9,957 
9,941 


1,923 
2,505 
2,260 


7,896 
7,020 
4,691 


Total 


191,191 


754,461 


27,886 


6,688 


19,607 


AUGUSTIKES : 

Archbishopric of Manila . 
Bidhoprio of IIocos • 
Bishopric of Zeba • 


162,749 

85,574 

136,642 


678,791 
357,218 
607,821 


28,826 
15,775 
27,049 

71,650 


6,194 
4,218 
4,049 


20,669 

8,383 

16,361 


Total 


384,965 


1,643,830 


14,461 


45,413 


DoicixiCAKfl : 

Archbishopric of Manila . 
New Segoria • 


20,803 
77,314 


74,843 
352,750 


3,230 
1,374 


603 
3,909 


2,806 
9,216 


Total 


98,117 


427,593 


4,604 


4,512 


12,022 



The Dominicans have charge of the missions to 
the province of Fokien in China and Tonquin. They 
report in 1857: — In Fokien: 11,034 confessions and 
10,476 communions, 1,973 infant and 213 adult 
haptisms, 284 marriages and 288 confirmations. 
In Eastern Tonquin : 3,283 infant and 302 adult 
haptisms, 4,424 extreme unctions, 64,052 confessions, 



214 PiniilPPINB ISLANDS. 

60,167 communions and 658 marriages. In Central 
Tonquin : 5,776 infant and 400 adult baptisms, 
32,229 extreme unctions, 141,961 confessions, 131,438 
communions and 1,532 marriages. 



215 



CHAPTER XIIL 



LANGUAGES. 



The Tagal and Bisayan are the most widely spread 
of the languages of the Philippines, but each has 
such a variety of idioms that the inhabitants of dif- 
ferent islands and districts frequently are not intelli- 
gible to one another, still less the indigenous races 
who occupy the mountainous districts. The more 
remarkable divisions are the dialects of Pampangas, 
Zambal, Pangasinan, Ilocos, Cagayan, Camarines, 
Batanes, and Chamorro, each derived from one of the 
two principal branches. But the languages of the 
unconverted Indians are very various, and have little 
affinity. Of these I understand above thirty distinct 
vocabularies exist. The connexion between and the 
construction of the Tagdl and Bisavan will be best 
seen by a comparison of the Lord's' Prayer in each, 
with a verbal rendering of the words : — 

Taoal. 
Ama nanim Q) sungma (') Ba langit ca (*), Bambahin {*) ang 
Father our (to as) art in heaven thou, worshipped (be) the 

(') Personal pronoans are aco, I; anim, we. The TaglU has no possessire 
pronouns; but employs instead the genitive of the personaL 

O Urn, to be; ungma, thou art. 

(') Ca, or yc€u>f personal pronoun, thou, always follows the verbj mo is 
the genitive. 

(*) Samba, adore; Mmbahin, the future tense. 



216 PIIILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

gnalan ino ; mupa ea anim ang caharian mo ; strndin anglool mo 
name thine; come to us the kingdom thine; done (be) the will tlune 

dito sa lupa para na sa langit; bigianmo camin ngai-on nang anim 
here in earth so as in heaven ; giren (be) us now the our 

caiiin sa arao-arao(^) at patauarvin-mo camis nang animg manga-otang, 
rice of day day, and forgiren (be) us the our faults, 

para nang pagpasawat nanim sa naiigagcacaoton ea 

as if pardoned (are) our those who hare committed faults against 

anim; at hunag-mo earning ipahivntolotC) sa tocso; at yadia-mo 
us; and let not us fall in temptation; and deUrer 

camis sa ditan masama. 
us in all ill. 

BiSATAN. 

Amaban namu nga itotat ca sa langit, ipapagdayat (') an imong 
Father our who art thou in heaven, praised be the thy 

ngalan ; monnhi (*) caiiamun an imong pagcabadi (') ; tumancmi an 
name; come tons the thy kingdom; done (be) the 

imong buot dinhi si juta maingun sa langit; ibatag mo damsin an 
thy will here in earth as in heaven; given (be) us the 

canun namim sa matagarvlao, ug pauadin-mo (') canir san mga-sala 
rice our on everyday, and pardoned (be) us the sins 

namu, maingun giniiara (J) namun san mganacasala danum ; ngan 
our, as pardoned our those sin against us; not 

diri imo tugotan cami mabolog sa manga-panulai sa amun 
by thee permitted (be) us fidl in temptations of our 

manga eaatiai("); apan baricim-mo canii sa manga- maraut 
enemies; also delivered (be) us of evil 

ngatanan. 
all. 

(') Arao, sun, or day. (*) From anchi, adverb, here. 

(») Tobi, to allow to escape. (*) From hadi, king. 

(3) Vat^at, praise; the future passive (•) C) From iiara, forgiveness, 

is conveyed by ipapag, (•) From auai, to quaml. 



217 



1 


iiliif}! iuiiiliiii 


1 


lii,y|iiilfii!!li' 


1 


iiJiiltiiHllWrtJ 


^ 


III 1 

1 ? 3 S' 

1 i n^ ill. 

ili,y:liililllilllli 


^ 


h -ail 

— ■§■§ ■•§.2 a ■ 1 ■ 

li^iliiilEiliiill 


1 


"""'""-"■" = §88111111 



218 PlIILIPPmE ISLANDS. 

A vocabulary of the Tagal was printed in 1613 
by Fadre San Buenaventura ; and a folio Vocabulario 
by Fr. Domingo de los Santos, in Sampaloc (Manila), 
1794. This vocabulary cqnsists of nearly 11,000 
terms, the same word conveying so many meanings 
that the actual number of Tagal words can scarcely 
exceed 3,500, The examples of distinct interpreta- 
tions of each are innumerable. 

Another Vocabulario de la Lengua Tagala, by 
" various grave and learned persons,** corrected and 
arranged by the Jesuit Fathers Juan de Noceda and 
Pedro de San Lucar, was published in Valladolid in 
1832. The editor says he would fain have got rid 
of the task, but the " blind obedience " he owed to 
his superior compelled him to persevere. Rules for 
the accurate grammatical construction of the lan- 
guage cannot, he says, be given, on account of 
the exceptions and counter-exceptions. The con- 
fusion between active and passive participles is a 
labyrinth he cannot explore. There are more 
books on the language (artes)j he avers, than on any 
dead or living language ! He has consulted no less 
than thirty-seven, among which the first place is due 
to the Tagal Demosthenes (Father Francis de San 
Jos6), to whose researches none have the knowledge 
of adding anything valuable. He professes to have 
given all the roots, but not their ramifications, which 
it is impossible to follow. But the Vocabulario is 
greatly lauded by the " Visitador," as " an eagle in 
its flight,** and "a sun in its brilliancy.** It is re- 
ported to have added three thousand new words to 



LANGUAGES. 219 

the vocabulary. The editor himself is modest enough, 
and declares he has brought only one drop to a 
whole ocean. The work, which had been in many 
hands, occupied Father Noceda thirty years, and he 
allowed no word to pass until " twelve Indians '* 
agreed that he had found its true meaning. He 
would not take less, for had he broken his rule and 
diminished the numbers, who knows, he asks, with 
what a small amount of authority he might have 
satisfied himself? There can be no doubt that to 
find absolute synonymes between languages so unlike 
as the Gastilian and the Tagaloc was an utterly im* 
possible task, and that the root of a word of which 
the editor is in search is often lost in the inflections, 
combinations and additions, which surround and 
involve it, without reference to any general principle. 
And after all comes the question, What is the 
Tagaloc language ? That of the mountains difiers 
much from that of the valleys ;• the idiom of the 
Comingtang from those of the Tingues. 

The word Tag^la, sometimes written Tagal, 
Tagalo, or Tagdloc, I imagine, is derived from Taga^ 
a natiTC. Taga Majayjay is a native of Majayjay. 
A good Christian is called Ang manga taga langitj a 
native of heaven ; and it is a common vituperation to 
say to a man, " Taga infierno,'* signifying, " You must 
be a native of hell.** 

The Tag61 language is not easily acquired. A 
Spanish proverb says there must be un am de arte y 
dos di bahaque — one year of grammar and two of 
bahaque. The bahaque is the native dress. The 



220 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

friars informed me that it required several years of 
residence to enable them to preach in Tagal ; and in 
many of the convents intercourse is almost confined 
to the native idioms, as there are few opportunities 
of speaking Spanish. 

The blending of nouns and verbs into a single 
word, and the difficulty of tracing the roots of either, 
is one cause of perplexity, the paucity of words re- 
quiring many meanings for the same sound. Thus 
ayao means, enough, passage of merchandise, dear- 
ness, and is a note of admiration ; baba signifies 
brace, beard, lungs, perchance, abscess ; bobo^ a 
net, to melt, to frighten, to spill ; alangalang^ 
courtesy, elevation, dignity. Hence, too, the frequent 
repetitions of the same word. AboabOj mist ; alaala^ 
to remember ; ngalangala^ palate ; galagala^ bitu- 
men ; dilidilij doubt ; hasaha^a^ a fish. 

So a prodigious number of Tagal words are given to 
represent a verb in^its various applications, in which 
it is diflScult to trace any common root or shadow of 
resemblance. Noceda, for the verb give (darj 
Spanish) has 140 Tagal words ; for (meter) puij 
there are forty-one forms ; for (hacer) doj one 
hundred and twenty-six. The age of the moon is 
represented by twelve forms, in only two of which 
does the Tagal word for moon occur. 

It is scarcely necessary to say that a language 
so rude as the Tagal could never become the channel 
for communicating scientific or philosophical know- 
ledge. Yet M. Mallat contends that it is rich, so- 
norous, expressive, and, if encouraged, would soon 



LANGUAGES. 221 

possess a literature worthy of a place among that of 
European nations ! 

A folio dictionary of the Bisayan and Spanish 
language, as spoken in the island of Fanay, was 
published in 1841 (Manila), having been written by 
Father Alonzo de Mentrida. The Spanish and 
Bisayan, by Father Julian Martin, was published in 
the following year. 

The letters e, f^ r, and z are wanting, and the 
only sound not represented by our alphabet is the ng. 
The Tagala Indians employ the letter p instead of 
the^ which they cannot pronounce. Parancisco for 
Francisco^ palso for /also, pino for JinOj &c. The r 
is totally unutterable by the Tagdlos. They convert 
the letter into dy and subject themselves to much 
ridicule from the mistakes consequent upon this infir- 
mity. The z is supplanted by *, which does not con- 
vey the Castilian sound as represented by our soft th. 

In many provinces, however, of Spain, the Castilian 
pronunciation of z is not adopted. There is in the 
Tagal no vowel sound between a and i, such as is 
represented in Spanish by the letter e. 

In teaching the Tagal alphabet, the word f/aou, 
being the demonstrative pronoun, is inserted after 
the letter which is followed by the vowel a, and the 
letter repeated, thus: — Aa yaou (a), baba yaou 
{b)y caca yaou (c), dada yaou (rf), gaga yaou (g-), 
hahayaou (A), lala yaou (/), mama yaou (m), nana 
yaou (n), nganga yaou {ng)y papa yaou (p)j sasa 
yaou (s)y tatayaou (<), vavayaou {v). The rig is a 
combination of the Spanish n with g. 



222 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

Nouns in Tagal have neither eases, numbers, nor 
genders. Verbs have infinitive, present, preterite, 
past, future, and imperative tenses, but they are not 
changed by the personal pronouns. Among other 
singularities, it is noted that no active verb can 
begin with the letter b. Some of the interjections, 
and they are very numerous in the Tagaloc, are of 
different genders. How sad I addressed to a man, is 
paetogf to a woman, paetagi 

The Tagdls employ the second person singular icaOj 
or CO J in addressing one another, but add the word po, 
which is a form of respect. In addressing a woman 
the word po is omitted, but is expected to be used by 
a female in addressing a man. The personal pro- 
noum follow i™t«d of preceding Jh verb, Ld 
nouns, as napa aco, I say ; napa suja^ it is good. 

One characteristic of the language is that the 
passive is generally employed instead of the active 
verb. A Tagal will not say " Juan loves Maria," 
but " Maria is loved by Juan." Fr. de los Santos 
says it is more elegant to employ the active than 
the passive verb, but I observe in the religious books 
circulated by the friars the general phraseology is, 
" It is said by God ;" " it is taught by Christ,*' &c. 

Though the Tagdl is not rich in words, the same 
expression having often a great variety of meanings, 
there is much perplexity in the construction. The 
padre Verduga, however, gives a list of several 
species of verbs, with modifications of nouns sub* 
jected to the rules of European grammar. 

In adopting Spanish words the Tagals frequently 



LANGUAGES- 223 

simplify and curtail them; for example, for zapato 
(shoe) they use onlyj^ato; Lingo for Domingo; havay^ 
caballo (horse). The diminutive of Maria is Ma- 
riangui ; whence Angui^ the ordinary name for Mary. 

In looking through the dictionary, I find in the 
language only thirty-five monosyllahles, viz., a, abj 
an, ang, at, ay, ca [with thirteen difibrent meanings 
— ^a numeral (1), a personal pronoun (they), four 
substantives (thing, companion, fright, abstract), one 
verb (to go), and the rest sundry adjectival, adver- 
bial, and other terms], cat/, co, con, cun, di, din, 
ga, ha, i, in, is, ma (with eighteen meanings, among 
which are four nouns substantive, eight verbs, and 
four adjectives), man, mi, mo, na, iiga, o, oy, pa 
(seven meanings), po, sa, sang, si, sing, ta, ya, and yi. 

Watches are rare among the Indians, and time 
is not denoted by the hours of the clock, but by 
the ordinary events of the day. De Mas gives no 
less than twenty-three different forms of language 
for denoting various divisions, some longer, some 
shorter, of the twenty-four hours ; such as — dark- 
ness departs ; dawn breaks ; light advances {ma- 
gumagana) ; the sun about to rise (sisilang na ang 
arao); full day (arao na) *, sun risen; hen laying; 
(sun) height of axe ; height of spear (from the 
horizon) ; midday ; sun sinking ; sun set (lung 
monanna) ; Ave Maria time ; darkness ; blackness ; 
children's bed-time ; animas ringing ; midnight near ; 
midnight ; midnight past (mababao sa haling g^^iy). 
And the phraseology varies in different localities. 
As bell-ringing and clock-striking were introduced 



224; PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

by the Spaniards, miosfc of the t^rms now in use 
must have been employed before their arrival. 

Repetitions of the same syllable are common both 
in the Tagal and Bisayan languages. They are not 
necessarily indicative of a plural form, but frequently 
denote sequence or continuation, as — lavay lavay^ 
slavery (continued work) ; ingilingil^ the growl of 
a dog; ngingiyao iigingiyaOj the purring of a cat; 
cococococan, a hen calling her chickens ; pocto poctOj 
uneven, irregular (there is a Devonshire word, scary, 
having exactly the same meaning) ; timbon timbon, 
piling up ; punit punit, rags ; angao angdo^ an in- 
finite number ; aling alingj changeable ; caval caval, 
uncertain. Some Spanish words are doubled to avoid 
being confounded with native sounds ; as dondon for 
don. These repetitions are a necessary consequence 
of the small number of primitive words. 

Though the poverty of the language is remark- 
. able, yet a great variety of designations is found for 
certain objects. Rice, for example, in the husk is 
palay (Malay, padi); before transplanting, botohor; 
when beginning to sprout, buticas; when the ear 
appears, basag ; in a more advanced stage, maymota ; 
when fully ripe in ear, bongana ; when borne down 
by the wind or the weight of the ear, dayapa ; early 
rice, cavato; sticky rice, lagquitan; ill-formed in 
the grain, popong; rice cleaned but not separated 
from the husks, loba; clean rice, bigas; waste rice, 
binlor; ground rice, digas; roasted rice, biniisa; 
roasted to appear like flowers, binulddac ; rice paste, 
pilipig; fricasseed rice, sinaing; another sort of 






LANGUAGES. 225 

prepared rice, soman. There are no less than nine- 
teen words for varieties of the same object. And 
so with verbs : — To tie, tali ; to tie round, lingquis ; 
\o tie a belt, babat ; to tie the hands, gapus; to 
tie a person by the neck, tobong ; to tie with a 
noose, hasohaso; to tie round a jar, boat; to tie 
up a corpse, balacas; to tie the mouth of a purse, 
pogong; to tie up a basket, bilit; to tie two sticks 
together, pangcol; to tie up a door, gacot; to tie 
up a bundle (as of sticks), bigquis; to tie up 
sheaves of grain, tangcas ; to tie up a living 
creature, niquit; to tie the planks of a floor to- 
gether, gilaguir ; a temporary tie, balaguir ; to tie 
many times round with a knot, balaguil; tight tie, 
yaguis ; to tie bamboos, dalin ; to tie up an article 
\enij pangayla. Of these twenty -one verbs the root 
of scarcely any is traceable to any noun substantive. 
For rice there are no less than sixty-five words in 
Bisayan ; for bamboo, twenty. 

There are numerous names for the crocodile. 
Buaya conveys the idea of its size from the egg 
to the full-grown animal, when he is called bua- 
yang cotoOj a true crocodile. For gold there are 
no less than fifteen native designations, which denote 
its various qualities. 

Juan de Noceda gives twenty-nine words as trans- 
lations of mirar (to look) ; forty-two for meter (to 
put) ; seventy-five for menear (to move) ; but syno- 
nymes are with difficulty found in languages having 
no affinity, especially when any abstract idea is to 
be conveyed. 

Q 



226 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

In family relations the generic word for brother 
is colovong ; elder brother, cacang : if there be 
only three, the second is called colovong ; the third, 
hongso : but if there be more than three, the second 
is named sumonor ; the third, colovong. Twin 
brothers are camhaL Anac is the generic name 
for son ; an only son, bogtong ; the first-bom, 
panganay ; the youngest, hongso; an adopted son, 
ynaanac. Magama means father and son united; 
magcunaama^ father and adopted son ; nagpapaama, 
he who falsely calls another his father ; pinana- 
mahan^ a falsely called father; TrummWy father or 
mother of many children ; maganac^ father, mother 
and family of children (of many) ; caanactilicj the 
sons of two widowers ; magcay brothers by adoption. 

A common ironical expression is, Catalastasan mo 
ay a a I (How very clever I) 

The Indian name for the head of a barrio, or 
barangay, is dato, but the word more commonly 
used at present is the Castilian caheza; so that 
now the Indian generally denominates this native 
authority caheza sa balangay. The Tagal word 
for the principal locality of a district is doyo, in 
Castilian, cabazera. 

The word cantar has been introduced for the 
music of the Church, but many of the ancient 
Indian words have been retained, such as Pinanan 
umbitanan ang patay — They sing the death-song; 
dayao, the song of victory ; hune, the song of 
birds. The noise of the ghiko lizard is call 
halotictic. 



LANGUAGES. 



227 



The following may serve as specimens of Tagal 
polysyllabic words : — 



Anagnalaldqui . 






son. 


Ananababai 






daughter. 


Cababula^nang 






lie. 

1 


Malanuingiolog 






thunder. 


Pagaisisi 
Pagbahanducan 




* 


suffering. 


Paguisingsingan 






finger. 


PagpapaHopa 






pears. 


Palayanglayaiigan 






swallow. 


Pangangaujaya 






damage. 


Sangtinacpan 






the world. 


Solonmangayao 






comet; exhalation. 


Magbabaca 
Tagupagbaca 




4 


warrior, from baca to light. - 


Tangcastancasan 






faggot. 


Masaquit angmangapilipis anco 




my head aches. 






'{ 


I will flog thee (thou shalt 


Habampasinguita 


• • < 


be flogged by me). 






* 


I will wake thee (thou shalt 


G uiguiaingincata 


• • 


be waked by me). 


Magpasaralabanhangan 




everlasting. 


Pananangpahataya 


• • ( 




faith. 


Mapagpaunbabao 


• • a 




deceitful. 


Mapagpaluinara 


• « 4 




ungrateful. 



Odd numbers in Tagal are called gangsal^ even 
numbers tocol. 

Affirmative, Yes I . . . Oo ; tango. 

Negative, No ! . . Di; dili; houag; dakan. 

Many Malayan words are to be traced, some in 
their pure, others in a corrupted form, not only in 
the Tagal and Bisayan, but in other idioms of the 
Philippines.* Such are Langit^ heaven ; putiy white ; 
mata^ eye ; vata^ stones ; mura^ cheap ; and some 
wi?\ers. Slightly modified are dita for lina^ language ; 

* Mr. John Crawfurds's Dissertation in his Malayan Grammar. 

Q 2 



229 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

babij for babut/, pig ; hagin (Tag.) and hangin (Bis.) 
for angirij wind ; masaguit for sakitj sick ; patay for 
mati (MaL), mat (Pers.), dead; nagcasama for 
samasamay in company ; matacut for takot^ fear ; 
ulan for vdiarij rain ; and a few others. The Malay 
word tuaUj meaning honourable, and generally em- 
ployed to signify the obedience and deference of the 
speaker to the person addressed, is mostly used by 
the Tagals in an ironical sense. Ay touafi co! 
Honourable man indeed I " Do not tuan me," is 
equivalent to, " None of your nonsense." 

The monks have introduced most of the Castilian 
words of Greek and Latin origin necessary for the 
profession of the Catholic faith, or the celebration of 
its religious rites, for few of which could any repre- 
sentatives be found in the aboriginal tongues. 

Considering the long possession of many portions 
of the Philippines by tribes professing Mahomedan- 
ism, the number of current Arabic words is small : 
I heard salarrij salute; malim^ master; arrac^ wine 
or spirits ; arraes for rm, captain. And among the 
Mussulmans of Mindanao, Islam^ koran^ ra^soul 
(prophet), bismillah, kitab, and other words imme- 
diately connected with the profession of Islamism, 
were quite familiar. 

The only Chinese word that I found generally in 
use was sampan^ a small boat, meaning literally three 
planks. 

Many of the sounds in the Tagal are so thoroughly 
English that they fell strangely on my ear. Toohig 
is water; and asiriy salt, when shouted out to the 



LANGUAGES. ; 229 

Indian servants at table, somewhat startled me, and 
I could not immediately find out what was the excess 
denounced, or the peccadillo committed. Most of 
the friars speak the native idioms with fluency, never 
preach in any other, and living, as most of them do, 
wholly surrounded by the Indian population, and 
rarely using their native Spanish tongue, it is not to 
be wondered at that they acquire great facility in 
the employment of the Indian idioms. Most of the 
existing grammars and dictionaries were written 
by ecclesiastics to aid in the propagation of the 
Christian doctrine, and small books are printed (all 
on religious subjects) for the instruction of the 
people. I could not discover that they have any 
historical records or traditions brought down from 
a remote antiquity. 

The more my attention has been directed to the 
study of the idioms of distant countries, the more 
I am struck bv the absurd fancies and theories which 
have obtained so much currency with regard to the 
derivation and aflinities of languages. The Bisca- 
yans firmly hold their Euscaran idiom to have been 
the tongue of Adam and Eve in Paradise, and con- 
sequently the universal language of primitive man 
and the fountain-head of all others. More than one 
Cambrian patriot has claimed the same honour for 
the Welsh, insisting that all the dialects of the world 
have been derived from the Cymri. But it would 
be hard to prove that a single word has descended to 
the present times from the antediluvian world. In- 
tercourse and commerce seem the only channels 



230 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

through which any portion of the language of any 
one nation or tribe has passed into the vocabulary of 
any other. The word sack is said to be that of the 
most general diflPusion. A French writer contends 
it was the only word preserved at the time of the 
Babel confusion of languages, and it was so preserved 
in order that the rights of property might be re- 
spected in the general anarchy. In the lower 
numerals of remote dialects there are many seem- 
ingly strange affinities, which may be attributed to 
their frequent use in trading transactions. Savages, 
having no such designations of their own, have fre- 
quently adopted the higher decimal numbers em- 
ployed by civilized nations, of which the extended use 
of the word lac for 10,000 is an example. Muster^ 
among trading nations, is, with slight variations, the 
almost universally received word for pattern ; so the 
words accountj date, and many similar. How many 
maritime terms are derived from the Dutch, how 
many military from the French, how many locomotive 
from the English ! The Justinian code has impreg- 
nated all the languages of Europe with phrases taken 
from the Roman law. To the Catholic missal may 
be traced in the idioms of converted nations almost 
all their religious phraseology. In the facilities of 
combination which the Greek in so high a degree 
possesses science has found invaluable auxiliaries. 
Our colonies are constantly adding to our stores, and 
happily there is not (as in France) any repugnance 
to the introduction of useful, still less of necessary 
words. Bentham used to say that purity of language 



LANGUAGES. 231 

and poverty of language were nearly synonymous. It 
is well for the interests of knowledge that the English 
tongue receives without diflSculty new and needful 
contributions to the ancient stock. The well of pure 
English undefiled is not corrupted, but invigorated, 
by the streams which have been poured into it from 
springs both adjacent and remote. Language must 
progress with and accommodate itself to the pro- 
gress of knowledge, and it is well that a language 
clear, defined and emphatic as our own— derived 
from many sources, whence its plasticity and variety 
— ^having much monosyllabic force and polysyllabic 
cadence — condensed and yet harmonious — should be 
the language having now the strongest holds and the 
widest extension. 

Among the evidences of progress which the world 
exhibits, not only is the gradual extinction of the 
inferior by the advance of the superior races of man 
a remarkable fact, but equally striking is the disap- 
pearance of the rude and imperfect idioms, and their 
supplantation by the more efficient instruments of 
advancement and civilization found in the languages 
of the cultivated nations. The attempts which have 
been made to introduce the phraseology of ad- 
vanced arts and sciences into tongues which only 
represent a low stage of cultivation, have been lamen- 
tably unsuccessful. No appropriate niches can be 
found in barbarian temples for the beautiful produc- 
tions of the refined genius of sculpture. The coarse 
garments of the savage cannot be fitly repaired with 
the choice workmanship of the gifted artisan. And 



232 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

few benefits can be conceived of more importance to 
the well-being of the human family than that the 
means of oral intercourse should be extended, and 
that a few widely spread languages (if not a universal 
one, whose introduction may be deemed an utterly 
hopeless dream) will in process of time become the 
efficient instrument of communication for the whole 
world. 

The poetry of the Tagals is in quantity of twelve 
syllables. They have the Spanish asonante, but words 
are considered to rhyme if they have the same vowel 
or the same consonant at a terminal, as thus : — 

In beautiful Btai*light 
Heaven's concave is drest, 
And the clouds as tliey part 
Make the brightness more bright. 

So stick would rhyme with things knot with rob ; 
and the Indian always chant their verses when they 
recite them, which, indeed, is a generally received 
Asiatic custom. The San tze King, or three-syllable 
classic, which is the universally employed elementary 
book in the schools of China, is always sung, and 
the verse and music naturally aid the memory. The 
music of the song sung by the Tagalas to tranquillize 
children, called the helehele, De Mas says, resembles 
that of the Arab. 

I have found a few proverbs in verse, of which 
these are examples : — 

Isda acong yaga saprap Weak men, by the helping aid 

Galataliptip calapad Of the mighty, strong are made. 

Caya naquiqui pagpusag 
Ang cala goyo y apahap. 



LANGUAGES. 



233 



Aba aji casampaga 
Nang ponay na olila 
Un umumbo y pogscap na 
Va!aii magsopcop na ma. 



Ycao ang caott co 
Pacacaou so tomanda y 
Maguinguin bata pa 

Ang catacayac 
Sucat macapagcati nang dagat. 

Coya ipinacataaataas. 
Nang domagongdong ang 
cagpac. 



It is a very careless hen, 

Who will not stretch her pinions 

when 
The young brood for protection fly 
From storms and rains and 

threatening sky. 

In going and coming on lifers long 
stage, 
You may say as a certain truth. 
That men may travel firom youth to 
age, 
But never from age to youth. 

Many few make a many. 

The higher the flight the greater 
the fall. ToUuntur in altum ut 
lapsu graviore ruant. — Claud. 



Note. — The chapter I had written on the language of the Philip- 
pines was, with many others of my MSS., submerged in the Red 
Sea by the Alma wreck, and much of their contents is utterly illegi- 
ble ; nor have I been able, from any materials accessible to nie in 
this coimtry, to present anything like a satisfactory sketch. Under 
the circumstances, my short-comings 'tvill, I doubt not, be forgiven. 



234 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



NATIVE PRODUCE. 



The Leyes de Indias emphatically recognize the 
wrongs and injuries of which the Indians are con- 
stantly the victims, and seek to furnish remedies 
against them : they annul dishonest contracts — they 
order the authorities rigorously to punish acts of 
oppression — they declare that the transactions of the 
Spanish settlers have frequently heen "the ruin of 
the Indians ** — they point out the mischiefs produced 
by the avarice in some cases, and inaction in others, 
of the mestizos, who are commonly the go-betweens in 
bargains of colonists with natives. The local ordenan- 
zasj which are numerous and elaborate, have for their 
object to assure to the Indian the fruits of his labours 
— to protect him against his own imprudence and the 
usurious exactions of those to whom he applies in 
his difficulties ; they provide against the usurpation 
of his lands, declare the sovereign the rightful owner 
of property which there are no heirs to claim, and in- 
sist that everywhere the Indian shall draw from the soil 
he cultivates the means of comfortable subsistence: the 
accumulation of properties acquired from the Indians 



NATIVE PRODUCE. 235 

by ecclesiastical bodies is prohibited, notwithstand- 
ing which prohibition enormous estates are held by 
the monkish fraternities. There are also arrange- 
ments for setting apart " common lands " for general 
use, independently of private estates. Many of the 
provisions are of so vague a character as to insure 
their non-observance, and others so particular and 
special in their requirements as to make their en- 
forcement impossible. The 71st article, for example, 
compels the Indians ^^ to plant useful trees, suited to 
the soil" — to sow wheat, rice, maize, vegetables, cotton, 
pepper, &e., in proper localities — to maintain " every 
species of appropriate cattle " — to have " fruits grow- 
ing in their gardens and orchards round their 
houses" — to keep "at least twelve hens and one 
cock" (a very superfluous piece of legislation), and 
one "female sucking pig;" they must be encouraged 
to manufacture cloths and cordage; and failing in 
these duties for the space of two years, they are to lose 
their lands, which, by public proclamation, shall be 
appropriated to others. There is, in fact, no abso- 
lute territorial right of property among the Indians. 
It can always be seized and reappropriated by the 
Spanish authorities. Lands are held on condition 
that they are cultivated. There are lands possessed 
by Spaniards and by corporations of the clergy prin- 

• 

cipally, which pay a nominal rental to the crown, but 
the rental is so small as to be of no account. There 
is no diflSculty in obtaining gratuitous concessions of 
territorial surface on the sole obligation of bringing 
it into cultivation. Long usage and long possession 



236 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

• 

have no doubt created supposed rights, which are 
able to rnaintain themselves even against competing 
private claims or the obvious requirements of public 
utility. Questions arise as to what is meant by 
" cultivation," and the country is full of controversies 
and lawsuits, of which land is generally the subject- 
matter. The larger proprietors constantly speak of 
the difficulty of obtaining continuous labour — of the 
necessity of perpetual advances to the peasant — of 
the robbery of the ripe harvests when raised. Hence 
they are accustomed to underlet their lands to petty 
cultivators, who bring small and unsatisfactory re- 
turns to the owners and to the market. They com- 
plain of the jealousy and ill-will of the Indians, their 
intrigues and open resistance to foreign settlers, and 
of the too indulgent character of the "Law of the 
Indies.'' It appears to me that there is abundant 
field for advantageous agricultural experiments, not 
perhaps so much in the immediate vicinity of large 
and populous places, as on the vast tracts of uncared- 
for territory, which demand nothing but attention 
and capital, perseverance and knowledge, to render a 
prodigal return. No doubt the agriculturist should 
have possession absolutely and irrevocably secured 
to him. Once installed by the government he must 
be protected against all molestation of his title. I do 
not believe in the invincible inertness of the Indians 
when they are properly encouraged. I heard of a 
native in one of the most distant villages I visited 
in Pinay, who had been recommended by a friar to 
take to sugar-growing. He did so, and obtained five 



NATIVE PRODUCE. 237 

t 

hundred dollars for the produce which he, for the 
first time, took down to Iloilo. He will get a 
thousand the second year ; and others were following 
his example. A little additional lahour produces so 
much that the smallest impulse gives great results, 
especially where employed over a vast extent. But 
Indian indolence is not only prejudicial from the little 
assistance it offers to agricultural activity in pre- 
paring, sowing, watching and gathering the harvest ; 
it is unable to furnish any of those greater appli- 
ances which must be considered rather of public 
than of private concern. Hence the absence of 
facilities for irrigation, the imperfect state of the 
river navigation, the rarity of canals, the badness 
of the roads in so manv localities. The seasons brin<; 
their floods, and the mountain torrents create th^ir 
gullies ; but the water escapes into the sea, and the 
labourer brings his produce, as best he may, amidst 
the rocks and sand and mud which the cataracts have 
left behind them. I have seen beasts of bufden 
struggling in vain to extricate themselves, with their 
load; frl the gulf into which the, h.d Mien, «.d 
in which they were finally abandoned by their con- 
ductors. I have been carried to populous places 
in palanquins, whose bearers, sometimes sixteen in 
number, were up to their thighs amidst mire, 
slough, tangled roots, loose stones and fixed boulders. 
De Mas says that the labourer absorbs three-fifths of 
the gross produce, leaving two-fifths to the proprietor 
and capitalist ; but the conditions of labour are so 
very various that it is difficult to reach any general 



238 PinLIPPINE ISLANDS. 

conclusion, beyond the undoubted fact that neither 
capitalist nor labourer receives anything like the 
amount of profit which, under a better system, would 
be enjoyed by both ; that the cost is far greater, and 
the returns far sma,ller, than they should be; and 
that the common prosperity suffers from the position 
of each. Whatever may be said of the enervating 
effects of climate and the want of motive to give 
activity to industry, it is probable that all nations, 
even the most industrious and the most opulent, have 
passed through their stages of indolence and inac- 
tivity. China affords an example that climate alone 
is no insuperable barrier to energetic exertions in all 
departments of the field of production, and that the 
possession of much is no necessary check upon the 
desire of obtaining and enjoying more. The value of 
lands is very various. De Mas says that the quinon 
(of 1,000 square fathoms), in Pangasinan, sells for 
from 220 to 250 dollars ; in the Laguna, 250 
to 300; in Ilocos Sur, 300; in the neighbourhood 
of Manila, 1,000. He seems to consider sugar as, 
on the whole, the most profitable investment. He 
gives several tables of the cost and charges of sundry 
tropical productions, but the many elements of uncer- 
tainty, the cost of raising, the vicissitudes of climate, 
the attacks of insects, the fluctuations in the amount 
and value of accessible labour, and all the ebbs and 
flows of supply and demand, make all calculations only 
approximative. His apuntes, however, are well worth 
consulting by those interested in detailed inquiry. He 
gives as a result of rice cultivation a minimum profit 



NATIVE PRODUCE. 239 

of 24 per cent., a maximum profit of 76 per cent, per 
annum. This would seem sufficiently inviting, espe- 
cially as the Spaniards are reported to be fonder of 
agriculture than of any other pursuit, and fonder of 
being owners of lands than of any other property, 
according to their old refrain : — 

^^ No yessel on the sea, 
But the house that's mine for me, 
And all the lands around which Fve been used to see." * 

Indigo will render, according to De Mas, 100 per 
cent. Coffee, on the same authority, will double 
its capital in four years. Cocoa returns 90 per cent. 
Attempts to introduce mulberry cultivation for silk 
have had little success, though the specimens sent to 
Europe have obtained prizes for their excellent 
quality. The worms require a more continuous 
attention than the Indians are willing to give, and 
the same may be said of those spices, nutmegs, 
cinnamon, and any produce which demands unre- 
mitting care. The spontaneous productions of the 
Philippines do not easily obtain the benefit of a 
more enlightened mode of culture. 

The rights of property require thorough investiga- 
tion and recognition in a country which has not been 
surveyed or cadastred ; where the foreign population 
is migratory and uncertain ; where documentary titles 
are, for the most part, wanting, and appropriation of 
the soil has been little controlled by the supreme 
authorities; where there is no land-tax, and the reli- 
gious bodies hold immense territories generally under- 

* Barco ninguno, casa la que yiras, tierras las que yeas. 



240 PinLIPPINE ISLANDS. 

let to the natives. The smallness of estates necessarily 
adds to the cost of production, and it would not be 
easy to induce wealthy capitalists to settle unless 
facilities were given for the acquisition and cultiva- 
tion of extensive properties. Such capitalists would 
introduce the improvements in agricultural science 
which are now wholly wanting ; they would bring 
with them able heads and hands to conducti and 
better instruments to give practical effect to superior 
knowledge. A desire is frequently expressed for the 
formation of agricultural societies, but these are 
rather the children than the parents of progress, and 
the numerous and respectable body which already 
exists in Manila, the " Sociedad Economica," has not 
been instrumental in introducing any very important 
changes. There is in the Spanish mind too great a 
disposition to look to ^^ authority" as the source and 
support of all reforms ; 'but the best service of autho- 
rity in almost all cases of productive industry is non- 
interference and inaction; it is not the meddling 
with, but the leaving matters alone, that is wanted ; 
it is the removal of restrictions, the supersession of 
laws which profess to patronize and protect, but 
whose patronage and protection mean the sacrifice of 
the many to the few. Government, no doubt, can 
greatly assist the public weal by the knowledge it can 
collect and distribute. Nothing is more desirable 
than that the rich territorial capabilities of the 
Philippines should be thoroughly explored by efficient 
scientific inquiry. Geologists, chemists, mechani- 
cians, botanists, would teach us much respecting the 



NATIVE PRODUCE. 241 

raw materials of these multitudinous islands, so 
inviting to the explorer, and so little explored. 
Mountains, forests, plains, lakes, rivers, solicit the 
investigation, which they could not fail to reward. 

Of the indigenous productions found by the 
Spaniards the dry mountain rice seems to have been 
the principal article cultivated by the Indians for 
food, the arts of irrigation being little known, and 
the mode of culture of the simplest character. The 
missionaries taught the Indians to divide their lands, 
to improve their agriculture, to store their harvests, 
and generally to meliorate their condition by more 
knowledge and foresight. Maize and Wheat were 
introduced froin America, though for a long time 
the use of wheaten bread was confined to the service 
of the mass. There is now an adequate supply for 
the wants of the consumer. Melons, water-melons 
and various fruits, peas, pumpkins, onions, cucum- 
bers, garlic and other vegetables, soon found their 
way from Mexico to the church gardens, and thence 
to more extensive cultivation. Coffee sprang up 
wild in the island of Luzon, ungathered by the 
natives. Tobacco was introduced under the patron- 
age of the government, and is become the most im- 
portant source of revenue. Pepper and cassia grew 
unnoticed, but the cocoa-nut tree and the plantain 
were among the most precious of the Indian's pos- 
sessions, and the areca was not less valued. Indigo 
was indigenous, and the wild cotton-tree was uncared 
for ; nor can it be other than a subject of regret 
that to the present hour so inadequate an attention 

R 



242 PHILIPPINB ISLANDS. 

has been paid to the natural productions of the 
islands, and means so little efficient taken for itn- 
proving their quality or extending their cultivation. 
At the present time there are few large estates 
having the benefit of well-directed labour and suffi- 
cient capital. Of those possessed by the religious 
communities little can be expected in the way of 
agricultural improvement, but the cultivated lands 
are generally in the hands of small native proprietors. 
Where the labourer is hired, his daily pay is from 
a half rial to a rial and a half (S^d. to I0d.)j 
varying in the different provinces. 

The quinon is the ordinary measure of land ; it is 
divided into 10 baletas^ these into 100 loanes^ which 
represent 31,250 Castilian varas. Three labourers 
are supposed sufficient for the cultivation of a 
quinon. In 1841 the Captain-General Urbiztondo 
published a decree encouraging the importation of 
Chinese agricultural labourers by landed proprie- 
tors, and with a special view to the cultivation 
of sugar, indigo and hemp. The decree was ex- 
pected to produce a beneficial revolution — it has 
been a dead letter. Imported labour, subject to all 
sorts of restrictions, cannot in the long run com- 
pete with free indigenous labour. The question is a 
very grave one in its ramifications and influence on 
colonial interests, when they come into the field 
against the free trade and the free labour of the 
competing world. I doubt altogether the powers of 
the West Indies — dependent upon imported and costly 
immigrants-^to rival the rich fields of the East, when 



NATIVE PRODUCE. 243 

capital and activity shall turn to account their 
feracious soil, more genial climate, and more econo- 
mical means of production. Progress there is hut 
the natural development of the elements which Pro- 
vidence has allotted to them, whereas in the West 
India colonies everythinff is forced and unnatural, 
pu>«h,«d .t aB iZmeJ, cost and maintained b; 
constant sacrifices. 



R 2 



244 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



CHAPTER XV. 



VEGETABLES. 



The money value of the tobacco grown in the Philip- 
pines is estimated at from 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 of 
dollars, say 1,000,000/. sterling. Of this nearly one 
half is consumed in the islands, one-quarter is ex- 
ported in the form of cheroots (which is the Oriental 
word for cigars), and the remainder sent to Spain 
in leaves and cigars, being estimated as an annual 
average conribution exceeding 800,000 dollars. The 
sale of tobacco is a strict government monopoly, 
but the impossibility of keeping up any efficient 
machinery for the protection of that monopoly is 
obvious even to the least observant. The culti- 
vator, who is bound to deliver all his produce 
to the government, first takes care of himself and 
his neighbours, and secures the best of his growth 
for his own benefit. Out of the capital of Manila 
scarcely anything is smoked but the cigarro ilegi- 
Hmo ; and in the capital you frequently get a hint 
that " the weed '* is not from the estanco real. 
From functionaries able to obtain the best which 
the government brings to market, a present is often 
volunteered, which shows that they avail themselves 



VEGETABLES, 245 

of something better than that best. And in discus- 
sing the matter with the most intelligent of the 
empleadosj they agreed that the emancipation of the 
producer, the manufacturer and the seller, and the 
establishment of a simple duty, would be more pro- 
ductive to the revenue than the present vexatious 
and inefficient system of privilege. 

There has been an enormous increase in the re- 
venues from tobacco. They gave nett — 

Annual Ayenire. 
From 1782 to 1785 . . 260,597 dolls. 86,8fi5 dolls. 

„ 1786 to 1800 (15 years) 4,950,101 „ 330,006 

„ 1801 to 1815 (15 years) 7,228,071 „ 481,871 

'„ 1816 to 1830 (15 years) 8,403,368 „ 560,225 

„ 1831 to 1835 (5 years) 3,707,164,, 741,433 

„ 1836 to 1839 (4 years) 4,990,011 „ 1,247,503 

Since when the produce has more than quadrupled in 
value. 

In 1810 the deliveries were 50,000 bales (of two 
arrobas), of which Gapan furnished 47|000, and Ca- 
gayan 2,000. In 1841 Cagayan furnished 170,000 
bales; Gapan, 84,000; and New Biscay, 34,000. 
But the produce is enormously increased ; and so 
large is the native consumption, of which a large 
proportion pays no duty, that it would not be easy 
to make even an approximative estimate of the ex- 
tent and value of the whole tobacco harvest. Where 
the fiscal authorities are so scattered and so corrupt ; 
— where communications are so imperfect and some- 
times wholly interrupted ; — where large tracts of 
territory are in the possession of tribes unsubdued 
or in a state of imperfect subjection; — where even 
among the more civilized Indians the rights of pro- 



246 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

perty are rudely defined, and civil authority imper* 
fectly maintained ; — ^i^vhere smuggling, though it may 
be attended with some risk, is scarcely deemed by 
anybody an ofience, and the very highest function- 
aries themselves smoke and offer to their guests 
contraband cigars, on account of their superior 
quality, — it may well be supposed that lax laws, 
lax morals and lax practices, harmonize with each 
other, and that such a state of things as exists in 
the Philippines must be the necessary, the inevitable 
result It is sufficient to look at the cost of the 
raw material and the value of the manufactured 
article to perceive what an enormous margin of profit 
there exists. A quintal of tobacco will produce — 

Dollars. 
14 cases, each containing 1,000 cigars, whose value 

is, at 6} dolls, per case 87*50 

The quintal of tobacco costs . . 5*00 dolls. 

Manu£u;ture 5*25 „ 

14 cases at 2 rials .... 3*50 „ 

18*75 



Profit . . 73*75 

Cheroots (cigars) are manufactured in two forms, 
— that of the Havana, the smaller end being twisted 
to a point, — or cut at both ends, the usual Manila 
form. They are of sundry qualities, as' follows : — 
Largest size, 125 to a box — 1st Regalias, 1st Cabal- 
leros and Londres; second size, 250 to a box — 
2nd Regalias and 1st Cortados, 2nd Caballeros, 
1st Havanas (ordinary size, and such as are more 
commonly used, Nos. 2 and 3 being those in most 
demand) ; 500 to a box — Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 6 Ha- 



VEGETABLES. 



247 



vanasi 2 and 3 Cortados. Besides these, enormous 
quantities of paper cigars (cigarillos) are consumed 
by the natives. They are sold in packets of twenty- 
five, at 5 cuartes ; thirty, at 5^ cuartes ; thirty-six, 
at 5| cuartes. 

The estanco prices for these cigars are, per box — 



Imperidles box contains 125 cigars 

R^;aliafl and Caballeros „ „ 125 „ 



R^ialiajs and uaDoueroi 
1 Havanas, 1 Cortados 

9. 



2 
3 
4 

5 „ 

Londres 



II 

19 



2 
3 



II 

II 



II 
II 
II 
II 
II 
II 
II 



125 „ 

250 „ 

500 „ 

500 „ 

500 „ 

500 „ 

125 „ 



Dollars. 
8750 
3-125 
3-500 
4-000 
3-500 
3-000 
2-500 
1-875 



Upon these minimum prices biddings take place at 
the monthly public auctions. So large is the demand 
that it is difficult to obtain any but fresh cigars, 
which require to be kept for two or three years 
to ripen. 

The collection of tobacco and the manufacture of 
cigars are under the charge of an administration 
whose head-quarters are in Manila. The warehouses 
are of immense extent, and 20,000 persons probably 
find oocupation in the preparation of this article of 
luxury, to say nothing of those employed in its pro- 
duction. The provinces in which there are esta- 
blishments for the collection are Gagayan, La Isabela, 
New Ecija, La Union, Abra and Cayan. The 
largest of the manufactures of cigars are in Binondo 
(Manila) and Cavite, in the province of the same 
name. 



248 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, 

Fr, Blanco thus describes the Nicotiana tabacum 
of the Philippines : ^^ It is an annual, growing to 
the height of a fathom, and furnishes the tobacco 
for the estancos (licensed shops). Here, as every- 
where else, its quality and taste vary. General 
opinion prefers the tobacco of Gapan, but that of 
the Fasy districts, Laglag and Lambunao, in Iloilo, 
of Maasin or Leyte, is appreciated for its fine aroma ; 
also that of Cagayan, after being kept for some years, 
— for otherwise, like the tobacco of the island of 
Negros, it bums the mouth. It is a narcotic, and 
will subdue recent tumours. It is salutary when 
smoked, and even a necessity in these regions ; it 
disperses phlegm, protects from the bad consequences 
of humidity and the morning dews, and is only in- 
jurious to health when used in excess. Snuff re- 
lieves from headaches and disperses gloomy humours. 
A small piece of smoked tobacco at the end of a 
stick applied to the nose of the lizard, which is 
here called the chacon (probably the ghiko), causes 
its instant death. A cruel practice,** (adds the father), 
*'for the reptile is most useful, destroying cockroaches, 
centipedes, mice and other vermin ; besides which 
its song may cheer the timid, who believe that while 
that song lasts there will be no earthquakes nor any 
excess of rain." — (Fp. 74-75*) 

I am informed by the alcalde mayor of Cagayan 
that he sent last year (1858) to Manila from that 
province tobacco for no less a value than 2,000,000 
dollars. The quality is the best of the Fhilippines ; it 
is all forwarded in leaf to the capital. He speaks of 



VEGETABLES. 249 

the character of the Indians with great admiration, 
and says acts of dishonesty are very rare among 
them, and that property is conveyed in perfect safety 
throagh the province. The quantity of leaf trans- 
mitted was 300,000 hales, divided into seven 
qualities, of which the prices paid were from two 
to seven rials per quintal, leaving a large margin of 
profit. The tobacco used by the natives is not sub- 
ject to the estanco, and on my inquiring as to the 
cost of a cigar in Cagayan, the answer was, ^^ Casi 
nada" (Almost nothing). They are not so well 
rolled as those of the government, but undoubtedly 
the raw material is of the very best. 

The demand for the important article of coffee in 
Australia and California will probably hereafter be 
largely supplied from the Spanish archipelago. Of 
the mode of cultivation, there is nothing particularly 
characteristic of the Philippines. The ground hav- 
ing been cleared (where on a large extent, by fire), 
it is fenced in, the soil prepared, and after having 
been steeped in water for two or three days, the 
sprouts are stuck into the holes which had been 
made for their reception, and in the following year 
are ready for cutting. The use of the plough 
largely increases the produce. The cultivation of 
sugar is rapidly extending. The harvest takes place 
generally from March to May. Four groups of la- 
bourers are employed: the cutters and the carters in 
the field, the grinders and the boilers in the manu- 
factory. Improvements are gradually being intro- 
duced, as larger capitalists and more intelligent cul- 



*s 



250 rHILEPHNB ISLANDS. 

tivators come forward; and the establishment of 
refineries now in progress will induce many beneficial 
changes. Much of the clayed sugar which I saw 
delivered at Manila for refining into loaves had 
rather the appearance of dirty mud than of a valuable 
commodity. Though slowly, the work of improve- 
ment goes on, and there could be no greater evidence 
of it than the presence of a number of Chinese em- 
ployed in the various stages of the fabric. Nor do 
these Chinese labourers fail to bring with them much 
practical knowledge. They are mostly from Fokien, 
a province in which the production of sugar is great, 
and in which there are large sugar refineries, mostly, 
however, for the manufacture of sugar-candy, which 
is the form in which the Chinese usually purchase 
the sugar for consumption, pounding it into powder. 
I visited several extensive establishments at Chang- 
chow-foo, about thirty miles from Amoy, a port 
whence the exportation is large. 

There are several varieties of the sugar-cane* The 
zambales is used principally as food ; the encamddo 
(red), morada (purple), blanca (white), and liitada 
(striped), give the syrup for manufacture. The 
planting of the sprouts takes place between February 
and May. Weeds are removed by ploughing, and the 
plants ripen in ten or twelve months. In some pro- 
vinces crops are cultivated for three successive years ; 
in others, the soil is allowed to rest an intermediate 
year, and maize or other produce grown. When cut, 
the canes are carried to mills called by the natives 
cabayavan^ to be crushed. The mills consist of two 



x^ 



VEGETABLES. 26 1 

cylindrical stones with teeth of the molave wood ; a 
buffalo turns the wheel and the juice is conveyed to 
the hoilers. The improvements of the West are 
being slowly introduced, and sundry economical pro- 
cesses have heen adopted. Increasing demand, ex- 
tended cultivation and, ahove all, the application of 
larger capitals and greater activity, will, undoubtedly, 
make the Philippines one of the great producing 
countries. A variety of tables have been printed, 
showing that the average annual profits on coffee 
cultivation are from 20 to 30 per cent.; in some 
provinces considerably more. 

Bice being of far more general production, is esti- 
mated to give an average yearly profit of from 12 to 20 
per cent. ; sesame returns an average of about 20 per 
cent. ; cocoa-nuts may be considered at about equal 
to rice in the yearly benefits they leave, but the con- 
ditions are so various that it may be difficult to gene- 
ralize. It may, however, be asserted with tolerable 
certainty, that money employed with ordinary pru- 
dence in agricultural investments will give an interest 
of from 20 to 30 per cent. 

The consumption of rice is univei*sal, and the super- 
fluity of the harvests is taken to the Chinese markets. 
The varieties of rice have been elsewhere spoken of, 
but they may be classed under the two general 
heads of water and mountain rice. The aquatic 
rice IS cultivated as in Europe and America; the 
sowing of the dry rice usually precedes that of the 
water rice, and takes place at the end of May. It is 
usually broadcast on the hills, requires to be hoed 



252 PHILIPPINB ISLANDS. 

and weeded, and is ripened in from three to four 
months and a half. It is harvested ear hy ear. 

Fr. Blanco describes four species of water-cultivated 
(de (igua)j and five of mountain-produced (secano) 
rice. Of the first class, the lamuyo ( Oryza sativa 
lamuyo) is principally cultivated, especially in Ba- 
tangas. The barbed rice ( Oryza aristata) grows in 
Ilocos. Of the mountain fice, that called quinanda 
( Oryza sativa quinanda) is the most esteemed. The 
cultivation of the water rice begins by the prepara- 
tion of the seed deposits {semillero)y into which, at 
the beginning of the rainy season, the seed is thrown, 
after a thorough impregnation of the ground with 
water, of which several inches remain on the surface. 
Ploughing and harrowing produce a mass of humid 
mud. During the growth of the seed, irrigation is 
continued, and after six weeks the crops are ready 
for transplanting to the rice-fields. Men generally 
pull up the plants, and convey them to the fields, 
where women up to their knees in mire separate the 
plants, and place them in holes at a regular distance 
of about five inches from one another. They are 
left for some days to take root, when the grounds 
are again irrigated. The rice grows to the height of 
somewhat more than a yard, and after four months 
is ready for harvest. It is a common usage to 
cut every ear separately with an instrument whose 
Indian name is yatap. In some parts a sickle 
called a lilit is used. The lilit has a crook by 
which a number of ears are collected, and being 
grasped with the left hand, are cut by the serrated 



VEGETABLES. 253 

blade of the sickle held in the right hand. The 
crops of aquatic rice vary from thirty to eightyfold. 

The mountain rice is sown broadcast after plough- 
ing and harrowingi and buffaloes are employed to 
trample the seed into the ground. More care is 
sometimes taken, and holes made at regular dis* 
tances, into which three or four grains of rice are 
dropped. Careful cultivation and great attention to 
the removal of weeds are said to produce hundred- 
fold crops. 

It is stated by Father Blanco that a third of the 
rice harvest has been known to perish in consequence 
of the dilatory and lazy way in which the reaping is 
conducted. 

There is no doubt that the Philippines offer great 
facilities for the cultivation of indigo, but it has been 
neglected and inadequate attention paid to the manu- 
facture. The growers state that there is in Europe 
a prejudice against Manila indigo; but such prejudice 
can only be the result of experience, and would be 
removed by greater care on the part of the growers, 
manufacturers and exporters. The crops, however, 
are uncertain, and often seriously damaged or de- 
stroyed by tempestuous weather, and by invasions 
of caterpillars. The seed is broadcast, sown imme- 
diately after the temperate season. It grows rapidly, 
but requires to have the weeds which spring up with 
it cleared away. It is ready for harvesting in the 
rainy months, generally in June. The fermentation, 
straining, beating, cleaning, pressing, and final pre- 
paration are carried on, not according to the im- 



264 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

proved processea of British India, but as they were 
introduced by the Spaniards. The Indians, like the 
Chinese, employ the dye in its liquid state. 

The consumption of the betel root is incredibly 
great. There are in the city of Manila, in the courts 
and ground floors of the houses, altogether 898 ware- 
houses and shops, of which 429 (or nearly half the 
whole) are devoted to the sale of the prepared betel, 
or to the materials of which it is composed. There 
are two warehouses where the leaf in which the areca 
nut is wrapped is sold wholesale; there are 105 retail 
shops for the same article, and there are 308 shops 
in which is sold for immediate use the nut mixed 
with shell-lime, and served with the buyo (leaf of the 
piper betel), ready for conveyance to the mouth of 
the consumer, to whom it is from usage become an 
article of necessity even more urgent than the rice 
he eats or the water he drinks. 

Of the areca, Fr. Blanco, in his Flora de Filipinos^ 
gives the following account : — " This species of palm, 
with which everybody is acquainted, and which like 
its fruit is called honga by the Indians, grows to 
about the average height of the cocoa-nut tree. Its 
trunk is smaller at the base than the top, very straight, 
with many circular rings formed by the junction of 
the leaves before they fall, which they do on growing 
to a certain size. The use of the nut, which is 
somewhat smaller than a hen's egg, is well known. 
When the bonga is wanting, the Indians employ the 
bark of the guava, or of the antipole (Artocarpus). 
Mixed with lime and the pepper leaf, it makes the 



VEGETABLES. 255 

saliva red. The Indians apply this saliya to the 
navel of their children as a cure for the colic and a 
protection from the effects of cold air. When ripe, 
the fruit is red and, I believe, might be used as a 
red dye. With copperas it makes a black dye, but 
inferior to that of the aroma. The lower part of the 
leaves, called talupac^ is very clean, broad, white and 
flexible, making excellent wrappers and serving many 
useful purposes. The sprouts are salted and eaten, 
and are agreeable to the taste, but when cut the tree 
perishes.''— (P. 495.) 

Father Blanco says of the piper betel {Pimenta 
betel) J whose leaves are employed as envelopes to the 
areca nut and lime : — " This plant is universally 
known, in consequence of the immense consumption 
of the betel, or buyo^ as the betel is called by the 
Spaniards. The betel of Pasay, near Manila, is 
much esteemed ; that of Banang, in Batangas, is the 
best of that province, and probably superior to the 
betel of Pasay. The tree prefers a somewhat sandy 
soil, but if too sandy, as in Pasay, fish is used as a 
manure, or the rind of the Ajonjoli (sesame), or other 
oleaginous fruits. The tree must be frequently 
watered. The roots are renovated after a year, 
but if left to grow old they produce flowers like 
the litlit {Piper obliquum). The fruit is called by 
the natives poro. Of the Piper parmfolium^ an ine- 
briating liquor is made. The Indians use the leaves 
as a preservative against the cholera. All the 
species of Piper are useful against the poison of 
snakes. The wound is first scarified, and either the 



256 PHILIPPINB ISLANDS, 

juice or bruised leaves of the plant applied and fre- 
quently changed. ' I was called/ says the author of 
the Flora of the AntiHeSj * to a negro whose thigh 
had just been bitten by a snake. The poison had 
made frightful progress. All the remedies of art 
had been employed in vain. A negro appeared, and 
asked leave to apply the popular mode of cure. 
There was then no hope of the recovery of the 
patient — human life was at stake — I did not hesitate. 
In a few moments the progress of the poison was 
stopped by the simple application of the Piper pro- 
cumbens. On the third application the cure was 
completed.' "—(Pp. 16, 17.) 

Of the vegetation of the Philippines, the bamboo 
may be deemed the most extensive, the most useful, 
and the most beautiful. The graceful groups of Canas 
(the Spanish name, the Tagdl is Bocaui) are among 
the most charming decorations of the island scenery, 
and are scattered with great profusion and variety on 
the sides of the streams and rivers, on hills and 
plains, and always to be found adjacent to the resi- 
dence of the native. Waving their light branches 
at the smallest breeze, they give perpetual life to 
the landscape, while they are of daily service to 
the people. The Bambus arundo grows to a 
great height, and its cane is sometimes more 
than eight inches in diameter. In it is some- 
times found a small stone, called Tabctxir^ to 
which the Indians attribute miraculous healing vir- 
tues. The Bambus lumampao and the lima are 
so hard that the wood is used for polishing brass. 



VEGETABLES. 257 

The bamboo serves for an infinity of uses ; from the 
food that nourishes man or beast, to the weapons 
that destroy his life : for the comforts of home ; for 
the conveniences of travel; for the construction of 
bridges, several hundred feet in length, over which 
heavy artillery can safely pass; for shipping and 
cordage ; for shelter, and for dwellings and domestic 
utensils of all sorts ; for vessels of every size to retain, 
and tubes to convey, water and other fluids ; for mats, 
palings, and scaffoldings; for musical instruments, 
even organs for churches ; for a hundred objects of 
amusement ; and, indeed, for all the purposes of life 
the bamboo is distinguished. It is the raw material 
on which the rude artist makes his experiments- 
roots, trunks, branches, leaves, all are called into the 
field of utility. There is much of spontaneous pro- 
duction, but it may be multiplied by layers and cut- 
tings. Some of the bamboos grow to an enormous size. 
That called by the natives cauayang totoo^ and by 
the Spaniards caiia espino^ reaches the height of from 
forty to fifty feet, the diameter of the stalk or trunk 
exceeding eight inches. One of its divisions will 
sometimes hold two pecks of wheat. An infusion of 
this bamboo is poisonous to deer ; but its leaves are 
eaten by horses and cattle and its young shoots as 
salad by man. The cauayang quiling (caiia macho 
of the Spaniards) grows to about forty feet in height, 
its stem being of the size of a man's arm. From the 
thickness of the rind and the smallness of the hollow, 
it is the strongest of the bamboos, and is used for 
carrying burdens on the shoulders ; a fourth part 

s 



258 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

of the whole cane, of the length of two yards, when 
split, will support any weight that a man can carry. 
The cane has an elasticity which lightens the burden 
to the bearer. The varieties of the bamboo are 
scarcely to be counted. The interior of the osin 
gives a white substance, which is used as a cure for 
urinal and eye diseases. 

I once heard a remark that the Crystal Palace 
itself could have been filled with specimens of various 
applications of the bamboo. Minus the glass, the 
palace itself might have been constructed of this 
material alone, and the protecting police furnished 
from it with garments, hats and instruments of 
punishment. The living trees would fill a conserva- 
tory with forms and colours of wondrous variety 
and beauty; and if paintings and poetry, in which 
the bamboo takes a prominent place, were allowed, 
not the walls of the Louvre could be sufficient for 
the pictures and the scrolls. 

The various classes of canes, rattans and others 
of the Calamus family, have a great importance and 
value. The palasan is frequently three hundred 
feet long, and in Mindanao it is said they have 
been found of more than treble that length. They 
are used for cords and cables ; but as the fibres are 
susceptible of divisions, down to a very fine thread, 
they are woven into delicate textures, some of which, as 
in the case of hats and cigar*cases, are sold at enormous 
prices. If not exposed to damp, the fibres are very 
enduring, and are safe from the attacks of the weevil. 

The native name for hemp is anahOy the Spanish, 



VEGETABLES. 259 

canamo ; but the raw material known in com- 
merce as Manila hemp, is called in the Philip* 
pines by its Indian name, abaca. It is become a 
very important article of export, and in the year 
1 858 no less than 25,000 tons were shipped for 
foreign countries from Manila alone. Of this quan- 
tity Great Britain received about one-fourth, and 
the greater portion of the remainder went to the 
United States. Next to sugar and tobacco, it ranks 
highest in the list of exported produce. It is em- 
ployed not only for cordage, but for textile fabrics. 
It is the fibre of one of the plantain family — the 
MiLsa trogloditarum textoria. Dampier says that 
its growth is confined to the island of Mindanao; 
but the quantity there grown is, at the present time, 
trifiiing compared to the production of Luzon, Panay, 
and other islands of the archipelago. The finer qua- 
lities are in considerable demand for weaving, and 
these are, of course, subjected to a more elaborate 
manipulation. It readily receives red and blue dyes ; 
the morinda QSid marsdeniaj native plants, being em- 
ployed for the purpose. The fruit is said to be 
edible, but I am not aware of ever having seen it 
introduced, nor would it be likely to compete with 
the best of the delicious plantains which the Philip- 
pines produce. Father Blanco says that of these 
there are no less than fifty-seven varieties. The 
native name is saguing. Curious traditions are 
connected with this fruit. The Arabs say it was 
introduced into the world by Allah, when the Pro- 
phet lost his teeth, and could no longer enjoy the 

s 2 



260 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS- 

date. It is sometimes called Adam's apron, on the 
supposition that it was the plant whose leaves he 
and Eve employed to cover their nakedness. Its 
use is universal, hoth in its natural state and cooked 
in various forms. 

The cultivation of Coffee might he largely ex- 
tended. For that, and indeed for every tropical pro- 
duce, there is scarcely a limit to the unappropriated 
lands well suited to their production. Some of the 
coffee is of excellent quality, scarcely distinguishahle 
from that of Arahia, hut the general character is less 
favourahle. 

Indeed there is an ohvious contrast hetween the 
great improvements which have taken place in the 
Dutch archipelago, the British colonies, Ceylon for 
example, and the stagnation created hy the too 
stationary hahits of the Indian producer. He is 
little attentive to the proper selection of soil, the 
temperature or elevation of the ground, the choice 
of the seed, the pruning of the tree, the care of 
the herry, the separation of the outer coatings, and 
other details, which may help to account for the 
comparatively small extension of coffee production, 
especially considering the enormously increased de- 
mand for the article, and the prodigious development 
of it's cultivation in Netherlands India, Ceylon and 
elsewhere. 

The quality of the Cocoa is excellent, and I have 
nowhere tasted hotter chocolate than in the Philip- 
pines, hut the tree is principally planted for the 
private use of its possessors. In the convents parti- 



VEGETABLES. 261 

cularly, the friars are proud of their chocolate, which 
is generally made under their own superintendence, 
and from fruit raised in their own grounds and gar* 
dens. A little attention is required in the selection 
of soil and locality ; the fruit is gathered as it ripens, 
and after the removal of the cuticle simply requires 
to he sun-dried. 

It is sown in the month of Novemher, and the 
shade of the hanana is sought for its protection. The 
cocoa of Zehu is reported to he equal in excellence 
to that of the Caracas. In the island of Negros 
there is a large spontaneous production. The Indian 
soaks the cocoa in sugar juice, and in many parts the 
beverage is taken twice a day. 

The supply of Cotton is one of the most interesting 
of questions as regards our manufacturing population, 
and I have felt surprised at the small sagacity, the 
parva sapientiaj which has heen exhibited by many 
who have devoted their attention to the matter. 
The expectation that Negroland Africa will be able 
to fill up the anticipated vacuum of supply is a 
vain hope originating in ignorance of the character 
and habits of the native races, and it will end in 
disappointment and vexation. The capabilities of 
British India are great, and the elements of success 
are there; but the capabilities of China are vastly 
greater, and I believe that as in two or three years 
China was able to send raw silk to the value of ten 
millions sterling into the market, and immediately 
to make up for the absence of the European supply, 
so to China we may hereafter look for a boundless 
supply of raw cotton ; she now clothes more than 



262 PHHiTPPINE ISLANDS. 

three hundred and fifty millions of her people from 
her own cotton-fields. The prices in China are so 
nearly on a level with those of India that though they 
allow an importation to the yearly value of two or 
three millions sterling in the southern provinces of 
China, importations into the northern are scarcely 
known. The quality, the modes of cultivation, of 
cleaning, of packing, are all susceptible of great 
improvements ; their interests will make the Chinese 
teachable, and the Yang-tse-Kiang may be the chan* 
nel for the solution of the cotton difficulty. 

There seems no sufficient reason why cotton wool 
should not have been more largely exported from the 
Philippines. It is cheaply produced and might 
follow the crops of mountain rice. There is a 
domestic demand, and that seems to satisfy the 
grower, for cotton has almost ceased to be an article 
of foreign trade. The staple is said to be short. 
The plant is an annual and produces its crop in two 
or three months after it is sown. It is gathered in 
the midday sun before the advent of the rainy season, 
which destroys both shrub and seedpod. 

Cocoa-nut trees ( Cocos nuciferd)^ called Nioc by 
the Tagals, eminently contribute to the ornament, 
comfort, and prosperity of the natives. Trunks, 
branches, leaves, fruit, all are turned to account. 
Oil, wine and spirits are made from its juices. The 
bark is employed for caulking and cables ; the shell 
of the cocoa is wrought and carved in many ways for 
spoons, cups and domestic utensils ; the burnt shell 
is employed for dyeing black. The trunk often forms 
the frame, the leaves the cover, of the Indian houses. 



VEGETABLES. 263 

The fibres of the leaves are manufactured into cloths 
for garments; the fibres of the fruit into brushes. 
The pulp is eaten or made into sweetmeats and the 
milk is esteemed for its medicinal virtues. The root, 
when roasted, is used as a decoction for the cure of 
dysentery. 

A Spanish writer says that an Indian wants 
nothing but his Cecal (cocoa-nut palm garden) for 
his comfortable support. The tree will give him 
water, wine, oil, vinegar, food, cords, cups, brushes, 
building materials, black paint, soap, roofing for his 
house, strings for his rosaries, tow, red dye, medicine, 
plaister for wounds, light, fire, and many other neces- 
saries. It produces fruit after seven years' growth. 
The nipa palm is almost, though not quite as useful. 
These spontaneous bounties of nature may not be the 
allies or promoters of civilization, but they are the 
compensations which make savage life tolerable and, 
if not of high enjoyment, not far from happy. 

A very small quantity of Pepper is now grown, 
though it was formerly one of the most prized pro- 
ductions of the islands. It is said that the Indians 
destroyed all their pepper plantations in conse- 
quence of frauds practised on them by the Manila 
merchants. 

Attempts to introduce some of the more costly 
spices, such as the Cinnamon and Nutmeg, have not 
been attended with success. 

Fruits are abundant. There are no less than fifty- 
seven varieties of the banana. The fame of the 
Manila mango is universal in the East. There are 



1 



264 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

many sorts of oranges, pines (d^ianas) in great 
quantities, guavas, rose-apples, and the mangosteen is 
found in Mindanao. The chico is a favourite fruit 
in winter, somewhat resemhling the medlar, but I 
must refer those who desire more extended informa- 
tion to Father Blanco's Flora^ imperfect though it be. 

Among the riches of the Philippine Islands, the 
forest trees occupy an important place. A collection 
of 350 specimens was sent to the Boyal Exhibition in 
London in the form of square-based prisms. In the 
year 1858 Colonel Valdes published a report on the 
character and resistance of Philippine woods for 
buildings (maderas de construcciori). The specimens 
on which the experiments were made were cubes of 
one centimetre and prisms of one centimetre square 
by one metre of breadth. The woods were allowed 
one year s drying. Five experiments were made on 
each, and the average results adopted. 

The abbreviations employed in the following tables, 
which give a synopsis of the results, are : — 

E Elasticity. 

F Strength of cohesion. 

/ Arc of flexion produced by a constant weight of 1 kilogram hung 

from the centre, 
n Arc at which fracture took place. 
P Weight applied at the centre of the arc. 

c Distance between the supporters of the wood : in some 68 cen- 
timetres, in others GO. 
Section of prisms, 1 square centimetre. 
Length of the same, 1 metre. 
R Weight producing fracture at the bend. 
T Coefficient of fracture by bending, or of maximum bend. 

Resistance is estimated in the direction of the fibres (diagonally) 
and perpendicularly upon them. 



VEGETABLES. 



265 



Scale of Kesistance and Special Qualities of 
Woods, extracted from the Table, pp. 266-7 1 . 

Thoge with an asterisk are little used for building, either on aooonnt of 
their cost, scarcity, or nnsuitableness for the purpose. 





1. RSilSTAKCB. 












2. 


Resistance' 


Pressun* 




1 


to 






Tension' 
or 


Tortion. 


Elasticity. 


aetloa 






of 


Horizontal 


Porpendlenlar 


Cohesion. 






with the 


upon the 








water. 


fibre. 


flhre. 




1 






1 
•Ehano. 


•Ebano. 


Pototan. 


Molare. 


Malatalisay. 


Molave. 


Alopag. 


Palma-brara 


Malabugat. 


Bitoc. 


•Malatapay. 




*BaIlbttgo. 


"Camagon. 


Baliti. 


Malamjat. 


Molave. 




•Santol. 


Camaynao. 


Molave. 


Yacal. 


Laneti. 




MoUre. 


Acre. 


Alttpag. 


Oaijo. 


Bitoc. 


Banitba. 


•AlintatM. 


•Alintatao. 


^Balibago. 


Alupag. 


Malavidondao. 




•Camagon. 


Ypll. 


Yacal. 


*Camagon. 


YpU. 


Mangacha- 


J*a]ma-bnTa. 


MolaTe. 


* Ebano. 


Camaynan. 


Tangan. 


[puy. 




•Santol. 


Malavidondao. 


Banabk. 


1 Malabagat. 


Pototan. 


•NarnL 


•MaUUpaj. 


Bitoc. 


•Balibago. 


Bfaladntad. 




• Malatapaj. 


Alttpag. 


Malacintnd. 


Amoguis. 


Gnijo. 


Palma-brara 


Baliti. 


Dongon. 


*Plncaptaicahan. 




•Narra. 




Acre. 


•Balibago. 


Paio-Maria. 


Laneti. 


, Yacal. 




Calantas. 


•Narra. 


'Manga. 


UaUTidondao. 


•Ebano. 




Yacal. 


Yacal. 


BKDAlSk, 


Mangachapny. 


1 Calampit. 




•Tludalo. 


Balitt. 


Calampit. 


•Tindalo. 


, Palma-brava. 




Paliuapls. 


Palo-Maria. 


Calamanaanay. 


•Manga. 


, Calamanaanay. 




Uangacliapny. 


*Uanga. 


Palma-brava. 


•Alintatao. 


' Bolongita. 




Dongon. 


Palusapis. 


Palasapif. 


Ypil. 


•Balibago. 




Camaynan. 


Pototan. 


Ualanijat. 


•Santol. 


Palo-Maria. 




Ypfl. 


Panao. 


Bolongita. 


Palma-brara. 


1 Sampaloc. 




FDtotan. 


Aninabla. 


Tugan. 


Bolongita. 


•Camagon. 




Palo-Maria. 


Qaijo. 


Sampaloc. 


Pototan. 


Dongon. 




MaUdntud. 


Hangacha- 


•Santol. 


AninabU. 


•Manga. 


Molave. 


Panao. 


9^M%r 


Panao. 


•MaUUpay. 


, Acre. 




* Manga. 


najr. 
Amogula. 


*Camagon. 


Antipolo. 


Amoguis. 


Yaral. 


•Pincapincahan. 


BanaUk. 


Anonang. 


Dongon. 


Laaan. 




GuUo. 


Anonang. 


•Malatapay. 


Acre. 


•Alintatao. 


Palo-Maria. 


Bolongita. 


Bolongita. 


«Alintotao. 


Malacintnd. 


Tangnili. 




MalaTldondao. 


Lanetl. 


GnUo. 


Palo-Marto. 


•Tindalo. 


GuUo. 


BanaU. 


Ualabngat. 


Lanan. 


•Pincapincahan. 


•Phicapineahan. 


Antipolo. 


Calnmptt. 


Ualaridon- 
dao. 


Tangnili. 


•Nam. 


Panao. 


[dao. 


Anonang. 


•Tindalo. 


•Narra. 


Calampit. 
Sampaloc. 


Banabil. 


Malavidon- 


UaUrvJat. 


•Pincapinca- 
han. 
Ualacintod. 


Dongon. 


Palusapis. 






Areognls. 


•Ebano. 


MalanUat. 


Calantii. 


Bitoc 


Bltoc. 


Antipolo. 


Tagan. 


•Santol. 


Bancal. 


Amognto. 


Tangnlln. 


Ypil. 


Tangnili. 


Camaynan. 




Lanett. 


•Batlcnlln. 


Calampit. 


•Baticnlln. 


Aninabla. 


MalaUUsay. 


Tangan. 


Sampaloc 


MalaUllsay. 


Calantis. 


Antipolo. 




Sampaloc. 


Lanan. 


Camaynan. 


Panao. 


Baneal. 


Lanan. 


Malabngat. 


Calampit. 


Aninabla. 


Malatalisay. 


AInpag. 


Aninabla. 


Tangnili. 


Malarqjat. 
Antipolo. 


Acre. 


Dalili. 


Calantis. 


Narra. 


Malalaliaaf. 


•lindalo. 




Pototan. 




Antipolo. 


Bancal. 


Bancal. 


Bancal. 


Mangachapuy. 


[pny. 


Laoan. 


Calantaa. 


Laneti. 


Palnaapis. 


•Malacatbun. 


Mangacba- 


Bancal. 


Tangan. 


Mangachapuy. 


MaUbngat. 


•Baticnlhi. 


[nay. 


•Baticalln. 


Malatalteay. 


* Malacatbun. 


Anonang. 


Anonang. 


Calamansa- 


*llalaeatbnn. 


•Malacatbun. 


•Baticultai. 


•Malacatbun. 


1 BallU. 

.1 


Malacfntod. 



266 



PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



2 



3 

4 



8 

9 
10 

11 
12 

13 
14 
15 

16 



NAiut, DsscBirroa ahd AmicATioic. 




AoRB— Mimosa acre (Monodelphia dodecandria) .... 
Abounds in the islands. Employed for buildings and skip' 
ping. 
Alintatao — DiospyroB pilosbantera (?) (Octandria mono- 
ginia). 

Several varieties. Used for household furniture, Luzon and 
Visayas, 
Alupag Alopai — ^Euphoria Htchi (Octandria monoginla) . 

Used for posts. Abounds, 
Ambooues or Amoguis — Cjrtocarpa quioqiiistila (Decandria 
pentaginia). 

Suffers much from termites. Used for planks, 
Aninabla or AKncAPLA-^Mlmosa conana(?) (Monoeda dode- 
candria). 

Used for house and boat building. Valued for light weight 
and long duration. 
Anonako— Cordia sebesteria (Pentandria monoglnia) . 

Leaves, while growing, covered with worms. Wood used for 
drums and musical instruments. 
Amtipolo — ^Artocarptu incisa (Monoecia diandria) 

For canoes, floors and machines. Garters are made Jrom a 
gum that exudes. 
Balibago — Hibiscus tellacius (Monodelphia poliandria) 

Cords and paper made of the barks gunpowder qf the char-- 
coal, 
Baliti — ^Ficns Indica (Moncscia triandria) ..... 

Banian tree. Chopped roots used for curing wounds, 
Batioulin — MjUingtonia quadripihnata (bidinamia angio- 
spermia). 

White woods for moulds and sculpture. Lasts long without 
decay. Abounds, 
Banaba — Munchaustia speciosa (Poliadelpbia poliandria) . 

Cheat tenacity; resists action of climate and water, 
Baxtbal — ^Naaclea glaberrima (Pentandria monoginla) 

Tenacious and enduring. Used for furniture andjUoorSf ships^ 
casks and quays, 

BiTOo — Mirtica(?) 

A strong wood to resist pressure. 
BoLOVGuiTA — Diospyros (Octandria monoginla) . 

Solid texture for building. Abounds, 
Calamansahat — Gimbematla calamansanay (Decandria mono 
ginia). 
Planks for flooring and building, 
Caiantab (Natiye Cedar) — Cedrela odorata (Pentandria monoginia) 
Found throughout the Philippines, Used for canoes. Taratara, 
a variety. 



Cent. 
1-6 



0-3 
1-4 

1-2 



0-4 

01 

10 

0-2 
0-2 

07 
1-2 

115 

00 

1-0 

10 



Gmt. 
13-0 



6-3 
7-0 



4-0 

10-0 

lO-O 

0-6 
01 



0-7 
10-5 

13-0 
iO-8 
10-0 

7-0 



VEGETABLES. 



267 









1 


tUMta 


-. 


ss 


J. 




BaWum tD 1 




'■ 


R. 


1 
1 

1 


Toprainn 

br cable 


■s 

J! 


1 




1 


<iKS 


Jtonlof 


p. 




i 

[ 

L 


it 


» 


4-78 


680 


KUo. 
110 


EltD. 

1-18 


498 


340' 


4W 


IJIOOO 
=0 001 


49-6 


49,130 


KHo. 
140-0 


Kilo. 
14-00 


631 


68-0 


1-SS 


0-91 


B98 


800 


738 


1/1080 

=0-0008 


73-8 


78,800 


169-0 


18-00 


506 


60-0 
GB-O 


1-40 
1-40 


oea 
ow 


666 
338 


iSO 
130 


1,343 
873 


1/1443 
=00007 


184-3 
57-3 


179,380 
86,888 


178-8 
lSS-5 


17-83 
16-56 


4-83 


680 


115 


0'5B 


840 


146 


493 


1/133S 

=000075 


493 


65,500 


146-87 


14-64 


8-28 


60-0 


0-5 


046 


340 


130 


745 


I/I943 
=00005 


74-5 


144,700 


64-0 


6-40 


5-53 


68-0 


0-9 


0-41 


S88 


70 


584 


1/I3B0 
=000078 


56-4 


78,608 


119-0 


11-50 


5-53 


88-0 


0-B 


0-46 


«ie 


300 


1,180 


1/934 
=0-00108 


1|8'0 


108,000 


166-0 


16-50 


14 -95 
2-10 


60« 

es-o 


0-; 

09 


0-40 
0-48 


498 
IS6 


176 


1,346 
819 


1/8008 
=000049 
1/18IS 

=000055 


134-5 
31-5 


870,000 
39,300 


891 
114-9 


8'91 
11-45 


506 
4 -60 


6S-0 
68-0 


1-8 
0-6 


0-65 
0-58 


348 
230 


136 
66 


904 
470 


1/148 
=0-00071 


90-4 
470 


113,300 
65,500 


1660 
76*37 


16-80 
7-64 


9-90 
8-40 

8-74 


88-0 
6S0 
68-0 


1-S 
1-3 


0-71 
0-90 
0-86 


338 
360 
939 


100 
130 
130 


1,010 
898 
893 


I/TOO 

1/917 
=0-00109 

1/885 
=0-00118 


lOI-O 
898 
89-8 


Se,390 
78,800 
78,800 


316-4 
193-0 


31-84 
15-30 
18-90 


5 06 


68-0 


085 


0-40 


470 


60 


917 


I/ISIB 
=0-00066 


51-7 


78,600 


108-8 


10-83 



268 



PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



Name, DEscuPTioir akd Application. 



17 Calumpit — TermiDalia edulis (Decaodria monoginia) . 
Abounds in Angol. Building, Great strength on the line of 

the fibres, 

18 Camaoor — Variety of the Diospyros piioshantera (Alin- 
tatao). 

BeautifujUy veined and spotted. Easily polished. Fine Jurni" 
ture. 

19 Camatuas — ^Dio8pyro«(?) 

Used for building, 

20 BoNooN — Variety of Hercalia ambiformiB (Moncecia add- 
phia). 

Good building wood. Largely produced, 

21 Ebaho— Variety of the Sapote negro Diospyros nigra; variety 
of Camagon and Alintatao. 

Bears a very fine polish, 

22 QuiJo— Dipterocarpua guijo (Foliandria monoginia) . 
Shipbuilding, keels, carriage-wheels. Much estis cap- 

T 2 



276 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

tured by dropping a cord upon the body of the 
animal wben the shell is opened, the animal imme- 
diately closes upon the cord, and is dragged to the 
surface with the greatest ease. I am not aware of 
the existence of any conchological work on the Phi- 
lippines, though there is a great variety of land and 
water shells. 



277 



CHAPTER XVII. 



MINEBALS. 



The Mining Laws, Reglamento de Minas^ are of 
a liberal character and allow concessions to be made 
to any person, Spaniard, Indian, mestizo, naturalized 
or established foreigner, who shall discover and 
report the discovery of a mine, and undertake to 
work it. Sundry officials and all ecclesiastics are 
excluded from the privilege. The work must ba 
entered upon in ninety days, under cert>ain conditions ; 
four months of continued suspension, or eight months 
of interrupted labour, within the year bring the loss 
of the conceded privilege. There must not be less 
than eight labourers employed. The mines are 
subjected to the inspection of the mining department. 
The mining regulations were published by the Cap- 
tain-General Claveria in January, 1846. 

The gold of the Philippines is produced by wash- 
ing and digging. In several of the provinces it is 
found in the rivers, and natives are engaged in wash- 
ing their deposits. The most remarkable and profit- 
able of the gold mines worked by the Indians are 



278 PHILIPPINB ISLANDS. 

those of Tulbin and Suyuc. They break the rock with 
hammers, and crush it between two small millstones, 
dissolving the fragments in water, by which the gold 
is separated. They melt it in small shells, and it 
produces generally from eight to ten dollars an ounce, 
but its fineness seldom exceeds sixteen carats. It is 
found in qu%rtz, but the nuggets are seldom of any 
considerable size. The inhabitants of Caraga cut 
in the top of a mountain a basin of considerable 
size, and conduct water to it through canals made of 
the wild palm ; they dig up the soil while the basin 
is filling, which is opened suddenly, and exhibits 
for working any existing stratification of gold ; these 
operations are continued till the pits get filled with 
inroads of earth, when they are abandoned ; gene- 
rally, when a depth has been reached which produces 
the most advantageous returns, the rush of waters 
•conveys away much of the metal which would other- 
wise be deposited and collected. Gold is also found 
in the alluvial deposits which are ground between 
stones, thrown into water, and the metal sinks to 
the bottom. The rivers of Caraballo, Gamarines, 
and Misamis, and the mountains of Caraga and Zebu, 
are the most productive. Many Indian families 
support themselves by washing the river sands, and 
in the times of heavy rains gold is found in the 
streets of some of the pueblos when the floods have 
passed. There can be no doubt of the existence of 
much gold in the islands, but principally in the parts 
inhabited by the independent tribes. 

The Sociedad Exploradora is engaged in working 






MINERALS. 279 

gold-mines and washing auriferous sands in the pro- 
vince of New Ecija. 

Gold dust is the instrument of exchange in the 
interior of Mindanao, and is carried about in bags 
for the ordinary purposes of life. The possession of 
California by the Spaniards for so many generations 
without the development of its riches may explain 
their inertness and indifference in the Philippines, 
notwithstanding the repeated averments of Spanish 
writers that the archipelago abounds in gold. 

Iron also abounds, especially in the province of 
Bulacan ; but it may be doubted whether it can be 
produced as cheaply as it may be imported, especially 
while roads are in so backward a state, and carriage 
charges so heavy. Many iron-works have been en- 
tered on and abandoned. 

A coal-mine is being explored at Guila Guila, in 
the island of Zebu, on the river Mananga, at a dis- 
tance of about six miles from the town of San 
Nicolas, which has nearly 20,000 inhabitants and 
is by far the largest town in the island. There are 
reported to be strata of coal from one to four feet in 
thickness. The proprietor informs me that he ex- 
pects in the course of another year to be able to 
deliver coals on the coast at a moderate rate in 
Tangui, which is close to the town of Falisay. 

Of the various objects of speculation, mining is 
probably the most attractive to the adventurer, from 
the high premiums which it sometimes brings to the 
successful. When the risk is divided among many 
shareholders, it partakes of the character of a lottery, 



280 PHIUPPIlSrE ISLANDS. 

in which the chances are proportioned to the stakes ; 
but where, as in most of the mining speculations of 
the Philippines, the enterprises are conducted by 
individuals, without adequate means to overcome the 
preliminary difficulties and to support the needful 
outlay, disappointment, loss, ruin and the abandon- 
ment of probably valuable and promising undertak- 
ings are but of too frequent occurrence. I have before 
me some details of the attempts made to work the 
copper ores of Mancayan, in the district of Cagan 
(now called Lepanto), in South Ilocos (Luzon). 
They have been worked in the rudest way by the 
Igorrote Indians from time immemorial, and the 
favourable report of the richness of the ores which 
were sent to Europe led to renewed but inadequate 
attempts for their exploitation. A good deal of 
money has, I understand, been lost, without pro- 
viding the necessary machinery for extracting the 
metal, or roads for its conveyance. A sample ta.ken 
from a stratum ten feet in height and seven in 
breadth, on the side of a pit four yards deep, 
gave, as the results of an analysis, 44 per cent, of 
copper, 29 of sulphur, 18 of arsenic, and 9 of iron. 
The ruggedness of the rocks, the thickness of the 
forest jungle, the indolence of the natives, and, pro- 
bably more than these, the absence of an intelligent 
direction and sufficient pecuniary resources, have pro- 
duced much discouragement. Don Antonio Hernan- 
dez says there are 280 Indian (Igorrote) families 
occupied in Mancayan in copper digging and melt- 
ing ; that they only produce annually about 200 picos 



MINERALS. 281 

(of 137^ lbs. each), which they sell at from eight to 
nine dollars per pico on the spot ; to the neighbouring 
Christian Indians at ten to twelve, who resell them 
on the coast at from thirteen to sixteen dollars. 

The Indians in Ilocos and Fangasinan manufac- 
ture their own domestic utensils from the copper 
extracted by themselves. 

Finely variegated marbles exist in the province of 
Bataan, and some have been used for ornamenting 
the churches ; but their existence has excited little 
attention, and no sale was found for some large blocks 
quarried by a patriotic adventurer. 

I have before mentioned that there are many 
mineral waters in the island — sulphurous and ferru- 
ginous — at Antipole. In the Laguna there is a 
virgin patroness, whose festival lasts eighteen days, 
and immense crowds of all races come to drink the 
waters, and join the processions in her honour. The 
inhabitants of Manila attribute great virtues to the 
waters of Fagsangban. 



282 PHILEPHNB ISLANDS- 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



MANUFACTURES. 



The art of weaving, or that of crossing threads so as 
to produce a wearable tissue, is one bf the evidences 
of a transition from savage towards civilized life. In 
cold countries the painting the body, or covering it 
with furs and skins, or bark of trees, is the resource 
of a wild people ; but the necessity for dress of any 
sort is so little felt in tropical regions that the 
missionaries claim the credit of introducing the loom, 
and of instructing the natives in all the matters most 
conducive to their comforts. For their houses they 
taught them to make lime and brick and tiles — 
staircases, windows and chimneys — and better to pro- 
tect themselves against rain and storms ; chairs, 
tables and domestic utensils followed ; carriages for 
conveyance of commodities ; but, above all, the friars 
boast of the application, and devotion, and success of 
the Indians in decorating the Christian churches, 
building and ornamenting altars, sculpturing virgins 
and saints, and generally contributing to the splen- 
dours of ecclesiastical ceremonials. 

The science of ship-building made great advances. 



MANUFACTURES. 283 

To the canoes {harotos is the Indian name) scooped 
out of a single trunk, and used only for river 
navigation, succeeded well-built vessels of several 
hundred tons, by which a commerce along the coast 
and among the islands was established. At first the 
planks were the whole length of the vessel, but 
European improvements have gradually been adopted, 
and the ships now built in the Philippines are not 
distinguishable from those of the mother country. 
We found many on the stocks on the banks of the 
river Agno, and the Indian constructors were desirous 
of looking into all the details of H. M. s ship Ma- 
giciennej in which the captain and officers most 
courteously aided them, in order to avail themselves 
of any improvements which our vessel exhibited. 
The cost of construction was reported to be about 
15/. sterling per ton. The Bella Bascangadaj a 
vessel of 760 tons, built in Fangasinan, cost 54,000 
dollars, or about 11,000/. sterling. 

Little has been done for the introduction of im- 
proved machinery for the manufacture of tissues, 
which are made of silk, cotton, abaca, and, above all, 
the exquisitely fine fabrics produced from the fibre 
of the pine-apple leaf, called pinas. These are 
worked on the simplest looms, made of bamboos, and 
of a thread so fine that it is necessary to protect it, 
by the use of a fine gauze, from even the agitation 
of the wind. The Bisayan provinces, and especially 
the neighbourhood of Iloilo, are most distinguished 
for the manufacture of this beautiful tissue, which is 
sent to the capital for embroidery, and prices which 



284 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

seem fabulous are paid for the more elaborate speci- 
mens — one or two ounces of gold being frequently 
given for a small handkerchief. In Zebu handsome 
cotton rugs are made, and in Panay a variety of 
stuffs of sundry materials. 

The Indians have the art of softening and manu- 
facturing horn. In metals they make chains of 
silver and gold of great fineness, for which formerly 
there was a great demand in Mexico, but I believe 
Em*opean jewellery has supplanted the Indian crafts- 
man. 

Mats are a remarkable production of the islands. 
Many of them are very beautiful, of various colours, 
and are ornamented with gold and silver patterns. 
As mattresses are never used for beds, everybody 
sleeps on a mat, which in some cases, but not gene- 
rally, is provided with a sheet and a long soft pillow, 
which is placed between the legs and deemed a 
needful appliance for comfortable repose. 

Fibre-wrought hats and cigar-cases of various 
colours, the white, however, being the most costly 
and beautiful, compete with similar productions of 
the natives of Panama. 

The tools and instruments employed by the Indians 
in manufacture are all of the simplest and rudest 
character. 

The alcoholic beverage called vino de nipa is 
largely produced in the Philippines. It was made a 
monopoly as early as 1712 in the provinces near the 
capital, and then produced 10,000 dollars of annual 
revenue ; the farm was abolished in 1780, and in 



MANUPACTURES. 285 

1814 the collection was transferred to the general 
administration. The juice is ohtained hy cutting a 
hole in a pulpy part of the palm, introducing a 
hamhoo cane, and hinding the tree over the receiving 
vessel. The sale of the nipa wine is a monopoly in 
the hands of the Government. The monopoly is 
much and reasonahly complained of hy the Indians. 
Excise duties leading to domiciliary visits, and in- 
terfering with the daily concerns of life, have heen 
always and in all countries deemed one of the most 
vexatious and disagreeahle forms of taxation. Man, 
whatever he his colour, is everywhere man, and 
everywhere exhibits, though in different forms, the 
same general dislikes and sympathies. The heavy 
hand of extortion and oppression does not crush the 
Filipinos, but a redistribution of the forms of taxa- 
tion would be beneficial to the fiscal interest and 
satisfactory to the people. 



286 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

POPULAR PROVERBS. 

The following collection of proverbs will be found 
curious and characteristic. They will serve to throw 
light upon the genius of the people, and are appro- 
priate specimens of the Tag^l idiom :- 

Ang manga casalanan ang nacasisira sa calolova. — Sins are the 
diseases of the soul. 

Yalan di dungmating na dalita t^ saguit cay Job ay dili y saman 
nagogolorhianan ang coniyang loob. — ^Job had manj troubles, but 
they did not affect the inner man. 

Gatotohin mo ang catatoro co. — Make thyself a friend of my 
friend. 

Avatin mo angcoob mo sa quinauiuilihan niyang masama. — 
Separate thy will (purpose) from him whose love has a bad object. 

Houag mong pitahin ang yala. — Desire not what is not (not 
attainable). 

At cun ano caya ang pinagpipilitanan. — They dispute about what 
their dispute shall be (are determined to quarrel). 

Masamang cahuy ang dinamomonga. — Bad tree produces no fruit. 

Maminsanminsan ay susulat ca at maminsanminsa y .babata ca 
nang sulat. — Write now and then, read now and then. 

Nang anoman at maca tomama sa olo ninyo. — ^Don*t fling up a 
stone, it may fall on your own head. 

Paombaychan ca at napapagal ca. — Sing a lullaby at your 
wedding. 

Houag mo acong pangalatacan at dili aco hayop. — ^Don't drive 
me, for I am not a beast. 



POPULAR PROVERBS. 287 

Ay at linologmocan mo iyang duma ? — ^Why seat yourself in that 
dirty place ? 

Houag mo acong galavirin niyan osap na iyan. — ^Don't involve me 
in that quarrel. 

Hindi matimoan, ang balat nang Bnaya, nang anomang tiIos.-^A 
knife will not enter a crocodile^s back. 

Tigois cang nag papacalonay. — ^What thou doest do quietly. 

Tingalen mo ang balatic. — ^Lift up your eyes, and you will see 
the stars. {Balatic, the AsUlejos of the Spaniards — Castor and 
Pollux.) 

Magguimbal ca manguiguimbal. — ^The drummer should beat the 
drum. 

Houag ninyong yngayan ang natotolog.— Wake not what is >- 
sleeping. 

Hindi nag aaya ang manga ducha. — ^The poor have no nurse. 

Mababao na loob. — He carries his heart in his hand. 

Lumaclac ca un valan ynuman. — ^He would suck a horse-brush 
rather than not drink. 

Nag babacobaco ca pala. — Listen 1 thou doest what thou knowest not. 

Calouhalhatiang manga gavang magagaling. — Good deeds are ^ 
heavenly doings. 

Nag cacaligalig tovina ang pangiboghoin. — ^Disquiet is the con- ' 
stant companion of jealousy. 

Papaslangin mo iyang matologuin, — To make a sentinel of a 
sluggard {dormtlon, Spanish). 

Ang mahabang dila tapit gupitan. — A long tongue ought to be 
clipped. 

Ang manga cayamanan ay pain din nang demonic sa tavo. — 
Riches are the baits of the devil for man. 

Ang manga paguyac nang manga ducha ay macadarating sa 
langit. — ^The cries of the wretched will reach Heaven. 

Na aalinagnagan ang langsangan nang ilao sa bahay. — ^A candle 
in a house will illumine a street. 

Maguipag ani ca doon sa nag aani. — ^Reap thy rice with the 
reapers. 

Si Adan ang nagtongtong mula sa atin. — There is no higher 
ancestry than Adam. 

Caylan ca maoocan nang cahunghaiigan mo? — When will you 
cast your fool's skin ? (When will you be wise ?) 

Sucat parasuhan ang manga magnanacao. — ^For thieves punish- 
ment and penitence. 



288 PHTLTPPINE ISLANDS. 

Papagdalitin mo iyang manmung. — ^Let him make a song or sing 
one (to a pretender). 

Caylan magcaca hapahap ang inyong ylog ? — ^When will your 
river produce a conger eel ? (to a boaster.) 

Ang caidian nang bait mo ay gaano 1 — ^How short must be the 
shortness of thy understanding. 

Mabuti ang simbahan cung tabingan. — Beautiful is the church, 
but it must have its curtains (mysteries). 

Nang magcalulay tulay na ang balita sa maraving taro ay siyang 
ypinagcabalirbor. — Truth having passed through many (lips), be- 
comes so entangled and altered, that it no longer resembles truth. 

Maylomalong tamis sapolot at lacas sahalimao ? — What is sweeter 
than honey, or stronger than a lion ? 

Ungmasoc lamang aco saujo. — Tell a lie to find a truth. 

Houag mong ypanotnor sa maruming camay. — ^Trust not the dis- 
. entanglement of the threads to a man with dirty hands. 

Papasaylanginmo iyang nagbabanalbanalan.—- If he be so virtuous, 
let him go to the wilderness (become a hermit). 

Ayat sa lalandos cang naparito. — ^You come to the work and bring 
no tools. 

Ilouag mong guisingin ang natotolc^. — ^Wake not the sleeping. 

Mapagsacasacang tavo sicuan. — Trust not the deceiver who says, 
« I'U do it by and by." 

Houag mong ayoquin ang bavas nang catouirang justicia. — Bend 
not the straight rod of justice.^ 

Ivinavasuas ang aguipo, nang dimipaling ang apuy. — ^He fans the 
aslies to keep up the fire. 

Angpagal ot ava nang Dios ang yquinayayaman co. — ^Labour and 
God's mercy bring ridies. 

Pinapananaligquita sa Dios ay nagbibifigibiugihanca. — I tell 
thee to trust in God, and tliou makest thyself deaf. 

Tionay mandin sa loob nang tavong mabait ang camnruhan.— 
An insult is a thorn that pierces the heart of an honourable 
man. 

Sungmusubo ang polot — Sweets have their froth (the saccharine 
matter of the sugar-cane). 

Yaong nanacap pacsvarin mo sa palo. — ^For bravados, blows. 

Ypinagbabalo balo mo saamin ang pagaayunar mo. — Thou wilt 
deceive by feigning fasting (religious hypocrisy), 

Ang amo ay among dati paramtan man nang mabuti. — The 
monkey, however richly dressed, is but a monkey. 



POPULAB PROVERBS. 289 

Aunque la xnona se viste de seda, en xnona se qneda, (Spanish ,, 
proverb.)— Though clad in silk, the monkey is a monkey slilL 

Honang cang mag hamalhamalan. — Do not seem to sniffle 
(through the nose) in the presence of a sniffler (tie., do not expose 
the defects of another). 

Magyngat cayo sapusang lambong. — Beware of a vrild cat. 

Ang magandanglalaqui huboma y mariguit — Even though naked, ^ 
gentility will show itsdf. 

Ang lapat na capitan may pinagcacapitanan. — ^Let governors 
govern. 

Vahmgpalay ang amalong mo.— 'There is no rice in thy granary 
(to an empty-headed person). 

Tmolos ang camay ay guinagat nang alopihan. — ^He struck a 
blow with his hand, and got bitten by a centipede. 

Dino dolobasa ang dinumlan. — ^Making ignorance your inter- 
preter. 

Nagcapalu na maudin ang canilan pagtatacapan. — ^Answer with 
nonsense the nonsense of others. 

Anong ypinagpaparangalanmo ? — ^Why so jactant ?•— (a phrase to 
check boasting). 

Maalam cang magsima sa taga? — Can he make the barb to the 
hook ? (Is he clever ?) 

Mabuit ay nagpapatang patangan finguin. — Being clever, he 
feigns stupidity. 

Dibabao ang langit sa macasalanan. — Heaven is far off from 
sinners. 

Gagadolong lisa iyan. — Serious as the bite of a louse's egg (nit). 

Hindi macacagat ang valang ngipin. — ^He who has no teeth can- 
not bite. 

Malubha angpagpap aratimo samasaman gara.— Much obstinacy # 
in an evil deed. 

lyang caratinanmo angy capapacasamamo. — Thy obstinacy will ^ 
be thy perdition. 

Pinag cayasalanan mo ang panginoong Dios.— A sin against a 
neighbour is an offence against God. 

Pinagbibiyayan an ninyo ang demonic. — To pay tribute to the 
devil. 

Tingmitintinna ang darong magalao. — ^Tum lewdness to chastity. 

Yalan di dalita itong buhay natin. — Life is labour. 

Mapaparaii ang tora sa Mgit magponJing man «m.-The joy of 
heaven will last and be perpetuated for ever and ever, and with- 
out end. 

U 



290 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS- 

Cajaiiga t may tapal nvty sugat din.-— Where the wotmd is, the 
plaister should be. 

Houag cang omotang uang salapi.-— Ask not for the money 
you lend. 

Lubiranmo am navala ang pasilmo.; — To play witih the string 
when the top is lost. (A pbra«e used when a patron refi^ses a 
favour.) 

Yalan cabolohan ang logor dito sa lupa.— -The pleasures of earth 
are not worth a hair. 

Maytanim no sa mabalo. — Sow not among stones. 

Hungmo holangcapala aymarami panggava.— ^Yoa are trifling 
while 80 much work is to be done. 

Caya aco guinguinguiyacos dito. — ^I scratch myself because 
nobody will scratch me. 

Napaguidaraan aco mya.— If I quarrel with myself, it shall be 
when I am alone. 

Ano t guinagasaan mo aco ? — ^If you soold me, why with so much 
noise ? 

Ang palagay na loob malivag magolorhanang.—- Excesses ase rare 
when the heart is at rest. 

Caya co smosoyo siya y aco y tauong aba. — ^He must obey who 
is weak and poor. 

Ang pagsisi ainghuli ay valang guinapapacanan di baguin ang 
naiigag cacasaguit sa infiemo. — Repentance is of little value when 
the penitent is in the hands of the devil (hell, or the executioner).* 

Momoal moal mangusap. — He who speaks with a full mouth will 
not be understood. 

Hindi sosoco dito any dimahaba. — ^A short man will not knock his 
head against the roof. 

Paspaain mo ang bunga at hunag mong pasapan ang cahuy.— In 
beating down the fruit, beat not down the tree. 

Ang pagcatototo nang loob ang yguinagagaling nanglahat.— Unity 
of purpose brings certainty of success. 

Nangingisbigsiya nanggalit. — ^Petrified with rage (addressed to 
a person " borracho de colera," as the Spaniards say). 

Aglahi si cabin baquit mayag ang diti. — Saying No I with the 
.lips, and Tes I with the heart. 

Houag mong angcahan ang di mo masasacopan.— Do not adven- 
ture much until you are certain of the issue. 

* There are many names for the public execatloner, denoting the plaoea 
in which he ezercifes his profesiioo, and ths iastnunents he employs for 
inflicting the punishment of death. 



POPULAR PROVEBBS, 291 

Some Spanish proverbs have made their way into 
Tagal. 

Baqnit siya j namong cahi ay siyang nabalantogni. Fa^ por 
lana y bolvio trasquilado. — ^He went for wool, and returned shorn. 

I have selected most of these proverbs, aphorisms 
and moral and religious maxims from Fr. de los Santos' 
folio volume, and they would have some interest if they "i 
represented the thoughts and feelings of a civilized 
nation. That interest will hardly be less when the 
social code of semi-barbarians is studied in these 
short sentences. The influence and teachiqgs of the 
priests will be found in many ; others will be deemed 
characteristic of local usages, and some will find a 
recommendation in their grotesqueness and origi- 
nality. I have thought these examples of the Ian-* 
guage might not be without their value to phi- 
lologists. 



u 2 



292 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS- 



CHAPTER XX. 



GOMMEBCE. 



To foreign nations — ^to our own especially — ^the par- 
ticular interest felt in the state of the Philippines 
is naturally more of a commercial than of a political 
character. They mtist grow in trading importance ; 
already enough has been done to make a retrograde 
or even a stationary policy untenable. Every step 
taken towards emancipation from the ancient fetters 
which ignorance and monopoly laid upon their pro- 
gress has been so successful and so productive as to 
promise and almost to ensure continuance in a course 
now proved to be alike beneficial to the public trea- 
sury and to the common weal. The statistics which 
I have been able to collect are often unsatisfactory 
and inaccurate, but, upon the whole, may be deemed 
approximative to the truth, and certaialy not without 
value as means of comparison between the results of 
that narrow-minded exclusive system which so long 
directed the councils of Spain and the administration 
of lets Indias, and the wiser and more liberal views 
which make their way through the dense darkness 
of the past. 



COMMEECE. 293 

The caprices and mischiefs of a privileged and pro- 
tected trade and the curses which monopolies bring 
with them to the general interests, may, indeed, be 
well studied in the ancient legislation of Spain as 
regards her colonies. One vessel only was formerly 
allowed to proceed from the Philippines to Mexico ; 
she was to be commanded by officers of the royal 
navy, equipped as a ship of war, and was subject to a 
variety of absurd restrictions and regulations: the 
adventurers were to pay 20,000 dollars for their 
privilege; and no one was allowed to adventure 
unless he were a vocal de consuladOy which required 
a residence of several years in the islands, and the 
possession of property to the extent of 8,000 dollars. 
The privilege often passed clandestinely, by pur- 
chase, into the hands of friars, officials, women and 
other speculators — and it may well be supposed at 
what prices the goods had to be invoiced. Such 
being the licensed pillage in Asia, on arriying at 
Acapulco, in America, to which place the cargo was 
necessarily consigned, 33^ per cent, was imposed 
upon the valuation of the Manila invoices. And on 
the return of the ship similar or even more absurd 
conditions were exacted : she was only allowed to 
bring back double the value of the cargo she con- 
yeyed ; but, as the profits were often enormous, every 
species of fraud was practised to give fictitious values 
to the articles imported — ^in fact, from the beginning 
to the end of the undertaking there seems to have 
been a rivalry in roguery among all parties concerned. 

The establishment of the Company of the Philip- 



294 PHILIPriNB ISLANDS, 

pines, in 1785, gave to monopoly another shape, hut 
led to some development of colonial industry. 

It is scarcely needful to follow the history of 
the commerce of the Philippines through the many 
changes which have produced its present compara* 
tive prosperity — a prosperity to he measured hy the 
amount of emancipation which has heen introduced. 
Had the Spanish authorities the courage to utter the 
magic words ^' Laissez faire, laissez passer ! ** what a 
cornucopia of hlessings would he poured upon the 
archipelago ! 

But it could hardly he expected fix)m a govern- 
ment constituted like the government of Spain, that, 
either of its own spontaneous movement, or hy 
licence delegated to the Captain-General, so grand a 
work would he accomplished as the estahlishment 
of free production, free commerce, free settlement, 
and free education in the Philippines ; and yet a step 
so hold and nohl© would, as I fully helieve, in a few 
years he followed hy progress and prosperity far 
heyond any calculations that have heen ventured 
on. The little that has heen hazarded for the 
liberty of trade, though hurriedly and imperfectly 
done, cannot but encourage future efforts; and in 
the meantime many beneficial reforms have been 
pressed upon the attention of the government with 
such conclusive statistics and irresistible logic, that, 
if it depended on these alone, the Philippines might 
hope to enter upon the early enjoyment of their 
heritage of future advancement. The reform of 
the tarifis — ^the removal of petty vexatious fiscal 



COMMEBGE. 295 

interferences — improvements in the navigation of 
the rivers — ^the cleansing the harhours — ^lighthousci 
buoys and other appliances for the security of ship- 
ping-are among the more obvious and immediate 
claims of commerce. In Manila the absence of 
docks for repairing and harbouring vessels is much 
felt ; the custom-house is on the wrong side of the 
river — ^though it were better it should exist on neither 
side ; there are no means of regular postal commu- 
nication with the islands from the Peninsula; tug- 
steamers, life-boats, quays and piers, seamen's houses, 
marine hospitals, are Wanting, but their introduction 
has been so strongly advocated that its advent may 
be hoped for. In truth, it is pleasant to find in a 
country so remote and so long under the most dis- 
couraging and retarding influences, that inquiry, 
which is the pioneer and the handmaid of all im- 
provement, is already busily at work and wiU not 
be at work in vain. 

A communication was made to the Chamber of 
Commerce by the Grovemor-Greneral in 1868, re- 
questing that the merchants would point out to him 
the best possible means for developing the riches of 
the Philippine Islands by extending their foreign 
trade. The British merchants, after expressing a 
general wish that the islands should enjoy the bene- 
fits of that system of free trade and liberal commer- 
cial policy whose ^' great results'* are manifest to all, 
point out the special grievances which demand imme- 
diate reform. 

L The present system of requiring permits for 



296 PHHiTPPINE ISLANDS. 

every cargo boat employed, leads to many needless 
charges, vexations and delays. 

2. Keform of the tariffs which press very heavily 
on certain articles, for the protection of some small 
manufacturing interest in the island. This is spe- 
cially the case with cotton goods intended for common 
use ; those of the colours given by dyes produced in 
the island are selected for the heaviest impost, to 
give encouragement to native dyers. Many articles 
are estimated much beyond their real value, so that 
the percentage duty becomes excessive. Lawns, for 
instance, are tariffed at double their market price. 
Iron chains worth five dollars per cwt- are tariffed 
at twelve dollars. A small quantity of white, black, 
blue, purple and rose-coloured cotton twist being 
produced, there is a duty of from 40 to 50 per cent., 
while red, yellow, green, &c., which the natives can- 
not dye, are admitted duty free. These are striking 
exemplifications of the workings of a protective 
system. 

Other blue goods are prohibited because the islands 
produce indigo ; and for the protection of the native 
shoemakers (who, by the way, are almost invariably 
Chinese and mere birds of passage in the country), 
foreign boots and shoes pay from 40 to 50 per cent., 
to the great detriment of the public health, for the 
country-tanned leather will not keep out the rain and 
the mud, while the protective duty encourages the 
Chinese settler to become a manufacturer, who is 
less wanted than the agricultural labourer. In the 
same spirit the tailors are protected, i.e. allowed to 



COMMERCE. 297 

overcharge the consumer to the extent of 40 to 50 
per cent., the duty on imported clothes, which goes 
principally to the Chinese. Foreign fruits, preserves 
and liquors have to bear similar burdens, for cannot 
the Philippines give confectionary and sweets enough 
of their own ? So runs the round of folly and mis- 
calculation. One hundred dozen of Spanish beer 
entered the Philippines in 1857) and to protect and 
encourage so important an interest an excessive im- 
post was levied on 350 pipes and nearly 100,000 
bottles of beer not Spanish. 

3. Then, again, the heavy differential duties in 
favour of Spanish ships are a well-grounded subject 
of discontent and highly prejudicial to the general 
interest. The levying tonnage duties upon ships 
entering and departing without cargoes is a grievance 
of which there are just complaints. The adjacency of 
so many free ports — Hong Kong, Macao and Singa- 
pore — ^and the more liberal system of the Australian 
and Polynesian regions, place the Philippine trade in 
a disadvantageous position. Among the documents 
which I collected is one from a native merchant, in 
which he says : — " The demonstrations of political 
economists, and the practical results of firee-trado 
legislation, establish the fact that public credit and 
public prosperity are , alike benefited by the emanci- 
pation of commerce, and narrow is the view which, 
looking only to the temporary defalcation of revenue 
from the diminution of imports, forgets the enormous 
increase of all the sources of revenue from lowering 
prices and extending demand." In this way the 



298 rHn.TPHNE ISLANDS. 

« 

great truths which have heen silently and successfully 
revolutionizing otir commercial legislation are spread 
on all the wings of all the winds, and will finally 
encircle the world in the great honds of brotherhood, 
with peace and prosperity for attendants. 

By a decree of the 18th June, 1857, the restric- 
tions on the trade in rice and paddy were removed, 
and foreign grain was allowed to enter duty free, not, 
only into the ports opened to foreign trade, but into 
divers subordinate ports. Though the permission was 
then temporary, it has now become permanent, and 
I found that the emancipation of these important 
articles from all custom-house interference had been 
attended with the best results, by regulating and 
assimilating prices, without any detriment to native 
production. The more general the principles of 
free trade the more security will there be against 
dearth and famine on the one side, and superfluity 
and glut on the other. 

Eice is sold by the cavan. Its price is ordinarily 
double that of paddy. The average fluctuations are 
from one to two dollars. 

In 1810 the import trade of the Philippines 
amounted to only 6,329,000 dollars, of which more 
than half consisted of precious metals, sent from the 
Spanish colonies of America. From Europe and 
the United States the trade was only 175,000 dollars. 
The exports were 4,795,000 dollars, of which one- 
and-a-half million consisted of silver to China, and 
the whole amount of exports to Europe and the 
United States was 250,000 dollars. The great start 



COMMERCE. 299 

took place in 1834, when the monopoly of the Phi- 
lippine Company terminated, and commerce may he 
regarded as progressive from that time. Of the 
trade with the surrounding islands, that with Jolo, 
conducted principally hy Chinese, is important. One 
of the leading articles of export is the edihle hird's* 
nests, of whose collection a Spanish writer gives the 
following account :— " The nests are cbllected twice a 
year ; those most valued from deep and humid caverns. 
Early training is needful to scale the localities where 
the nests are found, and the task is always dangerous. 
To reach the caves it is necessary to descend perpen- 
dicularly many hundred feet, supported hy a rope 
made of bamhoo or junk, suspended over the sea 
waves as they dash against the rocks." There is also 
from Jolo a considerable exportation of tortoise-shell. 
Trepang (sea-slug, Holothuria) and shark-fins are 
sent to the Chinese markets; also mother-of-pearl, 
wax and gold dust. The voyage from Manila to 
Jolo and return generally occupies seven to eight 
months. A trade in most respects resembling that of 
Jolo is carried on between Manila and the Moluccas. 
Spices are, however, added to the imports. There is 
a large trade between Singapore and Manila, and with 
Amoy, in China, the transactions are very important. 
Vessels are generally loading from and to that port. 
Rice, paddy, cocoa-nut oil, sugar, fine woods, table 
delicacies and a variety of minor articles, are ex- 
ported; silks, nankins, tea, vermilion, umbrellas, 
earthenware and a thousand smaller matters, make 
up the returns. 



300 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

Internal trade sT^ers much from the many impe- 
diments to communication and the various shiftings 
to which merchandise is exposed. It is said that in 
the transit from the north of Luzon to the capital 
there are as many as a hundred floatin&f rafts upon 
which the goods must b. carried across the different 
streams ; at each considerable delay is experienced, 
as the raft (balsa) is seldom found when and where it 
is wanted. And during half the year inland convey- 
ance is the only meaos of transport, as the monsoons 
make the sea voyage impossible for coasting vessels. 
Indeed, in the remoter islands months frequently pass 
without arrivals from the capital. Some of the fairs 
in the interior are largely attended by the Mahome- 
dan and heathen natives, who will not visit the ports 
or larger towns. That of Yligan (Misamis, in Min- 
danao) is much visited by Moros, who bring thither 
for sale paddy, cocoa, coffee, gold dust, cotton fabrics, 
krises and weapons of war, with many other native 
articles, which they exchange mostly for European 
and Chinese wares. Panaguis, in Luzon, is another 
market much frequented by the Igorrote Indians. 
Many of the ancient river communications have been 
stopped by inundations, which have given a new 
direction to the stream, and by the invasion of snags, 
trees and rocks from the upper regions. There is a 
great deal of ambulatory petty trade in the interior ; 
the Chinese especially are active pedlars and factors, 
and make their way to buy and to sell wherever there 
is a profit to be gained. They are to a great extent 
the pioneers of commerce, and in this way valuable 



COMMEECE. 301 

auxiliaries and co-operators by opening new fields to 
be hereafter more extensively explored. 

There are in Manila seven English, three American, 
two French, two Swiss and one German, commercial 
establishments. In the new ports there is no Euro- 
pean house of business except at Iloilo, where there 
is an English firm, of which the British vice-consul 
is the directing partner. 

Among the curiosities of conmiercial legislation is 
a decree of the governor of the Philippines, dated 
only a few years ago, by which it was ordered that 
no vessel should be allowed to introduce a cargo 
from China or the East Indies unless an engage- 
ment was entered into by the captain to bring to 
Manila f/oe hundred living shrikes {miTtuiB ?), as 
the bird was reported to be most useful in destroy- 
ing the insects which were at that time seriously 
damaging the harvests. I believe not a single bird 
was ever brought. It would have been about as 
easy and as reasonable to require them to import 
some slices of the moon, for the catching, and the 
caging, and the keeping, are scarcely within mortal 
capscbilities, and 500 birds were the required minimum 
by every ship ; nor was it the least remarkable part of 
the decree or requirement that they were all to be 
delivered gratis. 

For the protection of the revenue there is an 
armed body called the Carahineros de Real Hacienda. 
It is composed of natives under European officers, 
and is charged with both land and sea service. They, 
wear a military uniform and a broad hat resembling 



802 PHILIPPINB ISLANDS. 

a large punch^bowl, which is, howeyer, ^n admirable 
protection from the sun s rays. 

Great Britain has a salaried consul and vice-consul 
in Manila and yioe-consuls in Hollo and BnaL France 
has also a salaried consul in the capital. The United 
States, Portugal, Belgium, Sweden and Chili, are 
represented by members of commercial establish- 
ments, who exercise consular authority in Manila. 
The American consul is Mr. Charles Griswold, and 
few are the visitors to these islands who have not 
enjoyed his hospitality and benefited by his expe- 
rience. 

The post-office establishments are imperfect and 
unsatisfactory and the charges for the conveyance 
of letters heavy. There is a weekly postal communi- 
cation from the capital with the provinces in the 
island of Luzon, and southwards as far as Samar 
and Leyte, but all the other eastern and southern 
islands are left to the chances which the coasting 
trade offsrs and are frequently many months without 
receiving any news from the capital or the mother 
country. A regular service, providmg for the wants 
of these important districts, Fanay especially, with 
its population exceeding half a million, is greatly to 
be desired. 

There is now a fortnightly service carried on by 
the steamers of the Peninsular and Oriental Com- 
pany between Manila and Hong Kong, generally 
reaching forty-eight hours before the departure, and 
quitting forty-eight hours after the arrival, of the 
steamers from Europe. It is conducted with great 



COMMEROE, 803 

regularity and the letters from Spain arriye in about 
fifty days ; but many days would be saved were there 
a branch 8teamer from Malta to Alicant. For this 
service an annual sum (recoverable monthly) of 
120,000 dollars is paid by the Manila government 
to the company. The steamers are freed from all 
pprt chai'ges except pilotage. 

The government has published proposals for the 
establishment of a steam-packet company for the 
service of the islands, ofiering 45,000 dollars an* 
nually as a State contribution, but I believe there 
is no immediate prospect of the adoption of the 
scheme* 

The Banco Espanol de Isabel 11. is a jpint-stock 
company, whose capital is 400,000 dollars, in 1,000 
shares of 400 dollars each. It was established in 
the year 1855, and has generally paid to the share- 
holders dividends at the rate of six to eight per 
cent, per annum. It issues promissory notes, dis- 
counts local bills of exchange and lends money on 
mortgage. The general rate of interest in the Phi- 
lippines fluctuates from six to nine per cent. The 
yearly operations of the bank exceed 2,000,000 of 
dollars. The value of about half-a-million of bills 
of exchange is usually under discount. Its ordinary 
circulation does not exceed 200,000 doUars in pro- 
missory notes and it has deposits and balances to 
the value of about 1,750,000 dollars. The bank 
has afforded considerable facilities to commerce, and 
has answered one of its principal objects, that of 
bringing into circulation some of the hparded money 



•nr 



1 



304 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

of the natives. Most of the foreign houses are share- 
holders. 

The decimal system of accounts and currency was 
introduced into the Philippines hy a royal decree, 
and an end put to all the complications of maravedis, 
quartos, and reales de echo, hy the simple adoption 
of the dollar, divided into one hundred cents. It 
would he, indeed, a wretched compliment to the 
population of England (let me say it in passing) 
if, as certain opponents of improvement have averred, 
they would never he brought to appreciate or com- 
prehend a change to decimal denominations which 
the "untutored mind*' of the "wild Indian'' has 
abeady begun to adopt, using his digits as the in- 
struments of the new philosophy, and aided now and 
then probably by the simple abacus of the Chinese 
shopkeeper, with whom he has much to do. 

The weights and measures used in the Philippines 
are — 

The Arroba (25 lbs. Spaniflh) . . = 25 -36 Esgluh lbs. 
The Quintal (100 „ ). .= 101-44 „ 

The Catty = 1-895 „ 

The Pecul of 137 catties (361bB.Spani8h)= 139-48 ,, 

Cavan = 25 gautas. 

Gauta = Schupaa. 

p. . f 1^ Spanish inches. 

I 11 English inches. 
__ f 8 pies. 

^*™ "" t 33 English inches. 

Gavan of rice (clean) weighs . .132 lbs. avoirdupois. 

„ paddy .... 103^ „ 

Jar of oil 96 „ 

The following return gives the exports from Manila 
for the year 1858 : — 



COilMERCE. 



305 



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306 PHILIPPINB ISLANDS. 

In the year 1855, Don Sinibaldo de Mas, having 
been charged with an official mission of inquiry into 
the state of these islands, published an article on the 
revenues of the Philippines, addressed to the finance 
minister of Spain.* 

He begins his report by contrasting the population 
and commerce of Cuba with that of the Philippines ; 
stating that Cuba, with less than a million of in- 
habitants, has a trade of 27,500,000 dollars, while 
the Philippines, which he says contained, in 1850, 
4,000,000 of people in a state of subjection and 
1,000,000 unsubdued, had a trade of less than 
6,000,000 of dollars. He calculates the coloured 
population of Cuba at 600,000 ; the white population 
of the Philippines at from 7,000 to 8,000 persons. 
He deduces that, if the produce of the Philippines 
were proportioned to that of Cuba, it would be of the 
value of 250,000,000 dollars, and that the revenue 
should be 48,000,000 dollars, instead of about 
9,600,000 dollars. 

He avers that the soil is equal in its produc- 
tive powers to any in the world ; that the quality of 
the produce — sugar, coffee, tobacco, indigo, cocoa 
and cotton — is most excellent ; that it possesses 
almost a monopoly of abacd (Manila hemp) ; and he 
goes on to consider the means of turning these natural 
advantages to the best account. 

He altogether repudiates any extension of the exist- 

♦ Articulo sobre las Rentas de Filipinos y los medios de aumen^ 
tarlaSf por D. Sinibaldo de Mas (afterwards Minister Plenipotentiaiy 
of Spain in China). Madrid, 1853. 



COMMERCE. 307 

ing system, or augmentation of taxation in its present 
forms ; and states, what is most true, that to the 
development of agriculture, industry and commerce 
the Philippines must look for increased prosperity. 
His three proposals are : — 

1. Opening new ports to foreign trade. 

2. Emancipating the production, manufacture and 
sale of tobacco. 

3. Increasing the population of the islands. 

By a royal decree, dated 31st March, 1855, three 
additional ports were opened to foreign trade- 
Zamboanga (Mindanao), Iloilo (Fanay), and Sual 
(Luzon). The results have not responded to anti- 
cipations. One reason is obvious — custom-house 
officers, custom-house restrictions, customs-house vexa- 
tions accompanied the seemingly liberal legislation. 
These are sufficient to check, if not to crush, the 
growth of intercourse. I doubt if in either of the 
new ports the custom-house receipts cover the costs 
of collection. The experiment should have been a 
free-trade experiment, but the jealousies and fears 
of the capital were probably influential. It ought 
not to have been forgotten that the new ports, 
charged with all the burdens which pressed upon 
Manila, ofiered none of its facilities, the crea- 
tion of many generations — wharves and warehouses, 
accomplished merchants, capital, foreign settlers, 
assured consumption of imports and supply of ex- 
ports ; these counterbalanced the cost of convejrance 
of goods to or from the capital, while, on the other 
hand, the introduction of a custom-house has preju- 

X 2 



308 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

diced the trade which previously existed — as, for 
example, the call of whalers at Zamhoanga, unwilling 
to submit to the fiscal exactions now introduced. 
But if every port in the Philippines were made free 
from custom-houses a great impulse would be given 
to industry, commerce and shipping ; the loss to the 
treasury would be inconsiderable, for the net proceeds 
of the customs duties is very insignificant, while other 
sources of revenue would be undoubtedly increased 
by the impulse given to the general prosperity. 
De Mas states that the extension of the trade of 
Cuba from the Havana to other ports led to 
an augmentation in its value from 2,000,000 to 
30,000,000 dollars. 

Two plans are suggested by Senor De Mas for the 
emancipation of the tobacco cultivation and manufac- 
ture from the existing State monopoly. One, the 
levying a heavy land tax on all lands devoted to the 
produce ; the other, the imposition of a duty on 
exportation. He estimates that a haleta of land 
(1,000 brazas square) gives 1,500 plants, and 4 
to 5 cwt. of tobacco, saleable at 4 to 5 dollars per 
quintal. The cost of manufacturing 14,000 cigars, 
which represent 1 cwt., 6^ dollars, and boxes for 
packing, 3 J dollars. He says the value of the 
cigars is 6^ dollars per box (it is now considerably 
more), in which case the profit would be 77\ dollars, 
and proposes a duty of 70 dollars per cwt., which is 
more than five times the cost of the article. He 
gives satisfactory reasons for the conclusion that 
cigars would be made much more economically by 



COMMERCE. 309 

the peasantry than by the goverumenty shows that 
the cost of the machinery of administration might be 
greatly diminished, asserts that the Indians em- 
ployed at home would be satisfied with lower gains 
than the wages paid by the government, and supposes 
that the unoccupied houses of the natives would be 
dedicated to the making of cigars as a pleasant and 
profitable domestic employment. It may be doubted 
whether he estimates at its full value the resistance 
which the indolent habits of the Indian oppose to 
voluntary or spontaneous labour ; but the conclusion 
I have reached by not exactly the same train of 
reasoning is the same as that arrived at by my 
friend whom I have been quoting, namely, that the 
government monopoly is less productive than free 
cultivation, manufacture and sale might become ; 
that a reduction of prices would extend demand, 
leave larger benefits to the treasury and confer 
many advantages upon the people ; and that the 
arguments (mostly of those interested in the mono- 
poly) in favour of the existing system are not 
grounded on sound reasoning, nor supported by 
statistical facts. 

The tobacco monopoly (estanco) was established 
in 1780 by Governor-General Basco; it was strongly 
opposed by the friars, and menaces of severe pun- 
ishments were held over those who sought to escape 
the obligations imposed. But to the present hour 
there are said to be large plantations of tobacco 
which escape the vigilance of government, and cigars 
are purchaseable in many of the islands at one-fourth 



310 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

of the government price. The personal estahlishment 
for the protection of the tohacco monopoly consists 
of nearly a thousand officials and more than thirty 
revenue hoats. It is, notwithstanding, cultivated 
largely in provinces where the cultivation is pro- 
hibited by law; and I find in a report from the 
Alcalde of Misamis (Mindanao) the following phrase : 
" The idea of interfering with the growth of tobacco 
for the benefit of the treasury must be abandoned, as 
the territory where it is produced is not subject to 
Spanish authority.** 

Attempts were made a few years ago to encourage 
the planting of tobacco in the province of Iloilo, by 
a company which made advances to the Indians ; but 
the enterprise, discouraged by the government, failed, 
and I found, when I visited the locality, the ware- 
houses abandoned and the company dissolved. There 
have been many expeditions for the destruction and 
confiscation of illicit tobacco ; and on more than one 
occasion insurrections, tumults, serious loss of life 
and very doubtful results have followed these inter- 
ferences. The statistical returns show that the con- 
sumption of the State tobacco varies considerably 
in the different provinces, being influenced by the 
greater or less difficulty of obtaining the contraband 
article. 

There have been divers projects for augmenting 
the population of the Philippines — from China, from 
Switzerland, from Borneo and even from British 
India. The friars have never looked with com- 
placency on any of these schemes. They all present 



COM^IERCE. 311 

elements which would not easily he suhjected to 
ecclesiastical influence. The Chinese would not he 
willing cultivators of the soil if any other pursuit 
should promise greater profits, and it is quite certain 
that the indolent Indian will nowhere he ahle to com* 
pete with the industrious, persevering and economi- 
cal Chinese. Many suggestions have heen made for 
the introduction of Chinese women, with a view of 
attaching Chinese families to the soil ; hut hitherto 
nothing has sufficed to conquer the abhorrence with 
which a Chinese female contemplates the abandon- 
ment of her country, nor the general resistance to 
such abandonment on the part of the Chinese clans. 
Chinese female children have been frequently kid- 
napped for conveyance to the Philippines, and some 
horrible circumstances have come to the knowledge 
of British authorities in China, followed by the ex- 
posure and punishment of British subjects concerned 
in these cruel and barbarous deeds. An establish- 
ment of a sisterhood in China, called that of the 
Sainte Enfance^ has been looked to as a means of 
christianizing female children, and conveying them 
to the Philippines ; they have collected or purchased 
many orphans, but small success has attended these 
well-meant, but not well-directed labours. In 1855, 
it was stated in an official document (De Mas, p. 26) 
that in 1858, an annual entry of 2,500 children 
might be expected. The calculation has been a total 
mistake ; the establishments in China are in a state 
of embarrassment and difficulty, and I am not aware 
that a single Chinese female has been supplied for the 



312 PHIUPPINE ISLANDS. 

suggested purpose. Any number of orphans or aban- 
doned children might be bought in the great cities of 
Chin^i, especially from the orphan asylums ; but an 
incre^ed demand would only encourage their aban- 
donment by their mothers. These foundling hospitals 
are of very doubtful utility, and produce, probably, 
more misery than they cure. 

The greatest impediment to the progress of tho 
Philippines, and the development of their immense 
resources, is attributable to the miserable traditional 
policy of the mother country, whose jealousies tie the 
hands of the governors they appoint to rule ; so that 
the knowledge and experience which are acquired in 
the locality are wholly subjected to the ignorance and 
shortsightedness of the distant, but supreme autho- 
rity. Would the Spaniard but recognize the wisdom 
of one of their many instructive proverbs — Mas sabe 
el loco en su casa que cuerdo en la agena (the 
fool knows more about his own home than the wise 
man of the home of another) — more confidence might 
be reposed in those who are thoroughly cognizant of 
local circumstances and local wants. As it is, every- 
thing has to be referred to Madrid. A long delay is 
inevitable — an erroneous decision probable; circum- 
stances are constantly changing, and what would have 
been judicious to-day may be wholly unadvisable to- 
morrow. Then there is the greatest unwillingness 
to surrender even the shadow of authority, or any of 
those sources of patronage which a government so 
enervate and corrupt as that of Spain clings to as 
its props and protection. Again, the uncertainty of 



COMMERCE. 313 

tenure of office, which attaches to all the superior 
offices held under the Spanish Government, is alike 
calculated to demoralize and discourage. Before a 
governor has surveyed his territory and marked out 
to himself a course of action, he may he superseded 
under one of those multitudinous changes which grow 
out of the caprices of the court or the clamour of the 
people. It was a melancholy employment of mine to 
look round the collection of the various portraits of 
the captains-general which adorned my apartment, 
hearing the dates of their appointment and their super- 
session. Some of them only occupied their office for a 
few months, and were as carelessly and recklessly dis- 
missed as a worthless weed is flung away. And 
there seemed no expectation of any change in this 
respect, for there were many hlauk frames made to 
receive the vera effigies of future excellencies. Our 
colonial system is wiser, as we appoint governors for 
six years, and, except under special circumstances, 
they are not dispossessed of their government. 
Whether there may he any moral deterioration con- 
nected with the possession of power, sufficient to 
counterhalance all the henefits which are furnished 
by long experience and locaL knowledge, may he a 
question for philosophy and statesmanship. 

But other causes of backwardness are traceable to 
those very elements of wealth and prosperity, to 
which these islands must look for their future pro- 
gress. A soil so feracious, a sun so bright, rains 
so bountiful, require so little co-operation from the 
aid of man that he becomes careless, indolent, un- 



314 PIIILIPPINB ISLANDS. 

concerned for the morrow. He has hut to stretch 
out his hand, and food drops into it. The fibre of 
the aloe, which the female weaves with the simplest 
of looms, gives her garments ; the uprights and the 
floors and the substantial parts of his dwelling are 
made of the bamboo, which he finds in superfluous 
abundance ; while the nipa palm provides roofs and 
sides to his hut. Wants he has few and he cares 
little for luxuries. His enjoyments are in religious 
processions, in music and dancing, in his gallo above 
all. He may take possession without rent of any quan- 
tity of land which he is willing to cultivate. There 
is a tendency, no doubt, to improvement. Cultivation 
extends and good examples are not without effect. 

In times of tranquillity Spain has nothing to fear 
for her Philippine colonies. So long as they are un- 
molested by foreign invaders and the government is 
carried on with mildness and prudence, there is little 
to be apprehended from any internal agitation ; but I 
doubt the efficiency of any means of defence at the dis- 
posal of the authorities, should a day of trouble come. 
The Indian regular forces might for some time be 
depended on ; but whether this could be anticipated 
of the militia or any of the urban auxiliaries is 
uncertain. The number of Spaniards is small — ^in 
most of the islands quite insignificant ; indolence and 
indifference characterize the indigenous races ; and if, 
on the one hand, they took no part in favour of intru- 
sive strangers, on the other, they could not be looked 
to for any patriotic or energetic exertions on behalf 
of their Spanish rulers. They have, indeed, no tra- 



COMMERCE. 315 

ditions of former independence— no descendants of 
famous ancient chiefs or princes, to whom they look 
with affection, hope or reverence. There are no 
fragments left of hierarchies overthrown. No Mon- 
tezumas, no Colocolos, are named in their songs, or 
perpetuated in their memories. There are no ruins 
of great cities or temples ; in a word, no records of 
the remote past. There is a certain amount of dis- 
satisfaction among the Indians, hut it is more strongly 
felt against the native gohemadorcillos — the heads of 
barangay — the privileged members of the local prin- 
cipalia — when exercising their " petty tyrannies," 
than against the higher authorities, who are beyond 
the hearing of their complaints. "The governor- 
general is in Manila (far away) ; the king is in Spain 
(farther still) ; and God is in heaven (farthest of 
all)." It is a natural complaint that the tribute 
or capitation tax presses equally on all classes of In- 
dians, rich or poor. The heads of barangay, who are 
charged with its collection, not unfrequently dissipate 
the money in gambling. One abuse has, however, 
been reformed — the tribute in many provinces was 
formerly collected in produce, and great were the 
consequent exactions practised upon the natives, from 
which the treasury obtained no profit, but the petty 
functionaries much. I believe the tax is now almost 
universally levied in money. All Spaniards, all 
foreigners (excepting Chinese), and their descen- 
dants are exempted from tribute. One - of the most 
intelligent of the merchants of Manila (Don Juan 
Bautista Marcaida) has had the kindness to furnish 



316 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

mc with sundry memoranda on the subject of the 
capabilities of the Philippine' Islands, and the means 
of developing them. To his observations, the result of 
careful observation, much experience and extensive 
reading, I attach great value. They are imbued 
with some of the national prejudices of a Spanish 
Catholic, in whose mind the constitution of the 
Eomish Church is associated with every form of 
authority, and who is unwilling to see in that very 
constitution, and its necessary agencies, invincible 
impediments to the fullest progress of intellect — ^to 
the widest extension of agricultural, manufacturing 
and commercial prosperity — in a word, to that great 
agitation of the popular mind, to which Protestant 
nations owe their religious reforms, and their un- 
doubted superiority in the vast field of speculation 
and adventure. 

He says : — " The social organization of the Philip- 
pines is the most paternal and civilizing of any known 
in the world ; having for its basis the doctrines of the 
Gospel, and the kind and fatherly spirit of the Laws 
of the Indies.*' It may be admitted, in reference to 
the legislation of the colonies of many nations, that 
the Spanish code is comparatively humane and that 
the influence of the Romish clergy has been frequently 
and successfully excited for the protection and benefit 
of conquered natives, and of imported slaves; but 
M. Marcaida goes on to acknowledge and point out 
" the torpid and unimproving character of the exist- 
ing system," and to demand important changes for the 
advancement of the public weal. 



COMMERCE. 317 

" The government moves slowly, from its compli- 
cated organization, and from the want of adequate 
powers to give effect to those reforms which are sug- 
gested by local knowledge, but which are overruled 
by the unteachable ignorance, or selfish interests, or 
political intrigues of the mother country." 

As regards the clergy, he thinks the administration 
generally good, but that the progress of time and 
altered circumstances necessitate many important 
changes in the distribution of the ecclesiastical au- 
thority, a new arrangement of the pueblos, a better 
education of the church functionaries, a great aug- 
mentation of the number of parochial priests (many 
of whom have now cures varying from 3,000 to 60,000 
souls). He would have the parish clergyman both the 
religious and secular instructor of his community, 
and for this purpose requires that he should be 
becomingly and highly educated — a consummation 
for which the government would have some difficulty 
in providing the machinery, and for which assuredly 
the Church would not lend its co-operation. 

^^ For the administration of justice, the Philippines 
have one supreme and forty-two subordinate tribunals. 
The number is wholly insufficient for the necessities 
of 5,000,000 of inhabitants scattered over 1,200 
islands, and occupying so vast a territorial space." 
There can be no doubt that justice is often inacces- 
sible, that it is costly, that it is delayed, defeated, 
and associated with many vexations. Spain has never 
been celebrated for the integrity of its judges, or the 
purity of its courts. A pleyto in the Peninsula is 



318 PHILIPPINB ISLANDS. 

held to be as great a curse as a suit in Chancery in 
England, with the added evil of want of confidence 
in the administrators of the law. Their character 
would hardly be improved at a distance of 10,000 
miles from the Peninsula ; and if Spain has some diffi- 
culty in supplpng herself at home with incorruptible 
functionaries, that difficulty would be augmented in 
her remotest possessions. There seemed to me much 
admirable machinery in the traditional and still 
existing usages and institutions of the natives. Much 
might, no doubt, be done to lessen the dilatory, costly 
and troublesome character of lawsuits, by introducing 
more of natural and less of technical proceedings; 
by facilitating the production and examination of 
evidence ; by the suppression of the masses of papel 
sellado (documents upon stamped paper) ; by dimi- 
nishing the cost and simplifying the process of ap- 
peal ; and, above all, by the introduction of a code 
applicable to the ordinary circumstances of social life. 

He thinks the attempts to conglomerate the popu- 
lation in towns and cities injurious to the agricultural 
interests of the country ; but assuredly this agglomera- 
tion is friendly to civilization, good government and 
the production of wealth, and more likely than the 
dispersion of the inhabitants to provide for the intro- 
duction of those larger farms to which the Philippines 
must look for any very considerable augmentation of 
the produce of the land. 

"The natural riches of the country are incal- 
culable. There are immense tracts of the most 
feracious soil ; brooks, streams, rivers, lakes, on all 



COMMERCE. 319 

sides ; mountains of minerals, metals, marbles in vast 
variety ; forests whose woods are adapted to all the 
ordinary purposes of life ; gums, roots, medicinals, 
dyes, fruits in great variety. In many of the islands 
the cost of a sufficiency of food for a family of five is 
only a cuarto, a little more than a farthing, a day. 
Some of the edible roots grow to an enormous size, 
weighing from 50 to 70 lbs. : — gutta-percba, caout- 
chouc, gum-lac, gamboge, and many other gums 
abound. Of fibres the number is boundless ; in fact, 
the known and the unknown wealth of the islands only 
requires fit aptitudes for its enormous development. 

" With a few legislative reforms,** he concludes, 
"with improved instruction of the clergy, the islands 
would become a paradise of inexhaustible riches, and 
of a well-being approachable in no other portion of 
the globe. The docility and intelligence of the 
natives, their imitative virtues (wanting though they 
be in forethought), make them incomparably superior 
to any Asiatic or African race subjected to Euro- 
pean authority. Where deep thought and calculation 
are required, they will fail ; but their natural dispo- 
sitions and tendencies, and the present state of civi- 
lization among them, give every hope and encourage- 
ment for the future." * 

* M. Marcaida considers the best historical and descriptive 
authorities to be the Fathers Blanco, Santa Maria, Zuniga, Con- 
cepcion, and Buzeta. He speaks highly of Don Sinibaldo de Mas* 
ApunteSf of which I have largely availed myself. 



1 



320 



PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



CHAPTER XXL 



FINANCE, TAXATION, ETC. 



The gross revenues of the Philippines are ahout 
10,000,000 dollars. The hudget for 1859 is as 
follows : — 



Hegeipts. 



Contributions and 

taxes 
Custom-houjBes 
Monopolies . 
Lotteries 
State property 
Uncertain receipts 
Marine 



Dollars. 



1,928,607-92 

600,000-00 

7,199,950-59 

253,500-00 

12,118-59 

21,826-00 

1,338-00 



Total 10,017,341-10 



EXPENDITURK. 

Dollars. 
Grace and Justice 679,519-11 
War . . . 2,216,669-44 
Flumce (Hacienda) 5,367,829-83 
Marine . . 904,531-27 
Government . 272,528-62 

Remitted to * and 

paid for Spain . 1,011,850-00 



Total 10,452,728-27 



Thus ahout one-tenth of the gross revenue is re- 
ceived hy the mother country in the following shapes : 
— Salaries of Spanish consuls in the East, 22,500 
dollars; remittances to Spain and hills drawn hy 
Spain, 680,600 dollars; tohacco and freights, 168,750 
dollars ; credits to French government for advances 
to the imperial navy, 140,000 dollars. 

Of the direct taxes, 68,026*77 dollars are paid as 
tribute by the unconverted natives, 114,604*50 dol- 



FINANCE, TAXATION, ETC. 321 

lars by the mestizos (half-rax;es), 136,20878 dollars 
by the Chinese, and 1,609,757'87 dollars by the 
Indians (or tribes professing Christianity). 

The produce of the customs is so small, and the 
expenses of collection so great — the cost of the coast 
and inland preventive service alone being 265,271 '99 
dollars; general and provincial administrations, be- 
tween 70,000 and 80,000 dollars— that I am per- 
suaded it would be a sound, wise and profitable 
policy to abandon this source of taxation altogether, 
and to declare all the ports of the Philippines ^ee. 

I have also come to the conclusion that the mono- 
polies, which give a gross revenue to the treasury of 
more than 7,000,000 dollars, are, independently of 
their vicious and retardatory action upon the public 
weal, far less productive than taxation upon the 
same articles might be made by their emancipation 
from the bonds of monopoly. I leave here out of 
sight the enormous amount of fraud and crime, and 
the pernicious efiects upon the public morals of a 
universal toleration of smuggling, as well as the 
consideration of all the vexations, delays, checks 
upon improvement, corruption of officials and the 
thousand inconveniences of fiscal interference at 
every stage and step ; and only look at the acknow- 
ledged cost of the machinery — ^it amounts to about 
5,000,000 dollars — so that the net produce to the 
State scarcely exceeds 2,000,000 dollars. 

The whole receipt from the tobacco monopoly is 
5,097,795 dollars. The expenses for which this 
department is debited are (independently of the 

Y 



322 



PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



proportion of the general charges of administra- 
tion) — 



Pebsonal — 

CoUection of Tobaccos 

Manti&cture of Cigars 
Materiel — 

CJollection of Tobacco 

Manufactures of Cigars . 

Purchase of Tobacco 

Paper and other charges . 

Coat of sorting Tobacco . 

Cost of'manufacturing - . 

Charges for oonveyance . 

Bozes, packing, warehousing, &c. 



Bollan. 


Cents. 


24,604 





44,366 





66,741 


75 


6,888 





1,412,608 


80 


62,865 


3 


13,200 


29 


1,171,262 


73 


259,321 


76 


150,000 





8,211,752 


86 



So that the net rendering of this most valuahle pro- 
duction is only 1,886,042* 14 dollars, or 37 per cent, 
upon the gross amount, 63 per cent, heing expended 
on the production of the tobacco and manufacture 
of the cigars. I am of opinion that from 4,000,000 
to 5,000,000 dollars might be realized with immense 
benefit to the public by a tax upon cultivation, or 
the imposition of a simple export duty^ or by a 
union of both. Production would thus be largely 
extended, prices moderated to the consumer and 
the net revenue probably more than doubled. 

From the produce of the lottery, 253,500 dollars, 
there have to be deducted — expenses of administra- 
tion, 4,472 dollars ; prizes paid, 195,000 dollars ; 
prizes not claimed, 1,000 dollars ; commission on 
sales of tickets, 4,680 dollars ; making in all, 
205,152 dollars; so that this fertile source of misery. 



FINANCE, TAXATION, ETC. 823 

disappointment, and frequently of crime, does not 
produce a net income of 50,000 dollars to the State. 
It may well be doubted if such a source of revenue 
should be maintained. The revenue derived from 
cock-fights, 86,326*25 dollars, is to some extent sub« 
ject to the same condemnation, as gambling is the 
foundation of both, but in the case of the galleras 
the produce is paid without deduction into the 
treasury. 

In the Bisayas palm wine has been lately made 
the object of a State monopoly which produces 
324,362 dollars, but is very vexatious in its opera- 
tion and much complained of by the Indians. The 
tax on spirituous liquors gives 1,465,638 dollars. 
The opium monopoly brings 44,333*34 dollars ; that 
of gunpowder, 21,406 dollars. Of smaller sources 
of income the most remarkable are — ^Fapal bulls, 
giving 58,000 dollars ; stamps, 3996OO dollars ; fines, 
30,550 dollars ; post-office stamps, 19,490 dollars ; 
fishery in Manila harbour, 6,500 dollars- 
It is remarkable that there are no receipts from 
the sale or rental of lauds. Public works, roads 
and bridges are in charge of the locality, while of 
the whole gross revenue more than seven-tenths are 
the produce of monopolies. 

Of the government expenditure, under the head 
of Grace and Justice, the clergy receive 488,329*28 
dollars, and for pious works 39,801*83; Jesuit mis- 
sions to Mindanao, 25,000. The cost of the Audiencia 
is 65,556 ; of the alcaldes and gobemadores, 53,332 
dollars. 

Y 2 



324 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

In the war department the cost of the staff is 
154,148-80 dollars; of the infantry, 857,031-17 dol- 
lars ; cavalry, 52,901-73 dollars; artillery, 192,408*71 
dollars; engineers, 32,173 dollars; rations, 140,644-31 
dollars ; mat&riely 149,727*10 dollars ; transport, 
112,000 dollars; special services, 216,673-89 dollars. 
In the finance expenses the sum of 310,615-75 dol- 
lars appears as pensions. 

The personnel of the marine department is 
235,671*82 dollars; cost of building, repairing, &c., 
266,813-17 dollars ; salaries, &c., are 155,294-98 
dollars ; rations, 190,740-84 dollars. 

The governor-general receives, including the secre- 
tariat, 31,056 dollars; expenses, 2,500 dollars. The 
heaviest charge in the section of civil services is 
120,000 dollars for the mail steamers between Hong 
Kong and Manila, and 35,000 dollars for the service 
between Spain and Hong Kong. There is an addi- 
tional charge for the post-office of 6,852 dollars. The 
only receipt reported on this account is for post-office 
stamps, 19,490 dollars. 

I have made no reference to the minor details of 
the incomings and outgoings of Philippine finance. 
The mother country has little cause to complain, 
receiving as she does a net revenue of about 5.^. 
per head from the Indian population. In fact, 
about half of the whole amount of direct taxation 
goes to Spain, independently of what Spanish sub- 
jects receive who are employed in the public service. 
The Philippines happily have no debt, and, consider- 
ing that the Indian pays nothing for his lands, it 



FINANCE, TAXATION, ETC. 325 

cannot be said that he is heavily taxed. But that 
the revenues are susceptible of immense develop- 
ment — that production, agricultural and manufac- 
tured, is in a backward and unsatisfactory state — 
that trade and shipping might be enormously in- 
creased — and that great changes might be most 
beneficially introduced into many branches of admi- 
nistration, must be obvious to the political economist 
and the shrewd observer. The best evidence I can 
give of a grateful remembrance of the kindnesses I 
received will be the frank expression of opinions 
friendly to the progress and prosperity of these fertile 
and improveable regions. Meliorations many and great 
have already made their way ; it suffices to look back 
upon the state of the Philippines, ^^ cramped, cabined 
and confined" as they were, and to compare them 
with their present half-emancipated condition* No 
doubt Spain has much to learn at home before she 
can be expected to communicate commercial and 
political wisdom to her dependencies abroad. But 
she may be animated by the experience she has had, 
and at last discover that intercourse with opulent 
nations tends not to impoverish, but to enrich those 
who encourage and extend that intercourse. 



326 PHHiTPPINB ISLANDS. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



TAXES. 



Down to the year 1784 so unproductive were the 
Philippines to the Spanish revenues, that the trea- 
sury deficit was supplied hy an annual grant of 
250,000 dollars provided hy the Mexican govern- 
ment. A capitation tax was irregularly collected 
from the natives; also a custom-house duty (almo- 
jarifango) on the small trade which existed, and 
an excise {ahahald) on interior sales. Even to 
the heginning of the present century the Spanish 
American colonies furnished the funds for the mili- 
tary expenses of Manila. In 1829 the treasury 
became an independent branch ^of administration. 
Increase of tribute-paying population, the tobacco 
and wine monopoly, permission given to foreigners 
to establish themselves as merchants in the capital, 
demand for native and consumption of foreign pro- 
ductions, and a general tendency towards a more 
liberal policy, brought about their usual beneficial 
results ; and, though slowly moving, the Philippines 
have entered upon a career of prosperity susceptible 
T)f an enormous extension. 



TAXES. 327 

The capitation tax, or tribute paid by the natives, 
is the foundation of the financial system in the 
Philippines. It is the only direct tax (except for 
special cases), makes no distinction of persons and 
property, has the merit of antiquity, and is collected 
by a machinery provided by the Indians themselves. 
Originally it was levied in produce, but compounded 
for by the payment of a dollar (eight reales), raised 
afterwards to a dollar and a quarter, and finally the 
friars have managed to add to the amount an addi- 
tional fifty per cent., of which four-fifths are for 
church, and one-fifth for commercial purposes. 

The tribute is now due for every grown-up individual 
of a family, up to the age of sixty ; the local authori- 
ties (cabezas de harangay)^ their wives and eldest or 
an adopted son, excepted. A cabeza is charged with 
the collection of the tribute of his cabaceria, consist- 
ing generally of about fifty persons. There are many 
other exceptions, such as discharged soldiers and per- 
sons claiming exemptions on particular grounds, to 
say nothing of the uncertain collections from Indians 
not congregated in towns or villages, and the certain 
non-collections from the wilder races. Buzeta esti- 
mates that only five per cent, of the whole population 
pay the tribute. Beyond the concentrated groups 
of natives there is little control; nor is the most 
extended of existing influences — ^the ecclesiastical — 
at all disposed to aid the revenue collector at the 
price of public discontent, especially if the claims of 
the convent are recognized and the wants of the 
church sufficiently provided for, which they seldom 



328 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

fail to be. The friar frequently stands between the 
fiscal authority and the Indian debtor, and, as his 
great object is to be popular with his flock, he, when 
his own expectations are satisfied, is naturally a 
feeble supporter of the tax collector. The friar has 
a large direct interest in the money tribute, both 
in the sanctorum and the tithe ; but the Indian has 
many means of conciliating the padre and does not 
fail to employ them, and the padre s influence is not 
only predominant, but it is perpetually present, and 
in constant activity. There is a decree of 1835 
allowing the Indians to pay tribute in kind, but at 
rates so miserably low that I believe there is now 
scarcely an instance of other than metallic payments. 
The present amount levied is understood to be — 

For the Government 
For the tithe .... 
Community Fund {Caja de Cotnunidad) 
Sanctorum (Church) 



10 rials of plate. 


1 » 


97 


) 1 „ 


)} 


3 „ 


>i 


15 rials, 


or IJ dollai'. 



Which at 4^. Qd. per dollar makes a capitation tax of 
about 8^. Qd. per head. 

The Sangleys (mestizos of Chinese origin) pay 
20 rials government tribute, or 25 rials in all, being 
about 14^. sterling. 

There are some special levies for local objects, but 
they are not heavy in amount. 

The Chinese have been particularly selected to be 
the victims of the tax-gatherer, and, considering the 
general lightness of taxation, and that the Chinese had 
been invited to the Philippines with every assurance of 



J 



TAXES. 329 

protection 9 and as a most important element for the 
development of the resources of the country, the 
decree of 1828 will appear tolerahly exacting. It 
divides Chinese settlers into three classes : — 

Merchants who are to pay a monthly tax of 

10 dollars £27 per annum. 

Shopkeepers who are to pay a monthly tax 

of 4 dollars 10 16 „ 

All others who hare to pay a monthly tax 

of 2 dollars 5 8 „ 

Not consenting to this, and if unmarried, they might 
quit the country in six months, or pay the value of 
their tribute in labour, and they were, after a delay 
of three months in the payment of the tax, to be 
fineable at 2 rials a day. At the time of issuing the 
decree there were 5,708 Chinese in the capital, of 
whom immediately 800 left for China, 1,083 fled to 
the mountains and were kindly received and pro- 
tected by the natives, 453 were condemned to the 
public works, and the rest left in such a condition of 
discontent and misery that in 1831 the intendente 
made a strong representation to the government in 
their favour, and in 1834 authority was given to 
modify the whole fiscal legislation as regarded the 
Chinese. 

The Chinese, on landing in Manila, whether as 
sailors or intending settlers, are compelled to inhabit 
a public establishment called the Alcaiceria de San 
FemandOj for which payment is exacted, and there is 
a revenue resulting to the State from the profits 
thereof. 



330 PHILIPPINB ISLANDS. 



CHAPTER XXm. 

OPENING THE NEW PORTS OP ILOILO, SUAL AND 

ZAMBOANGA. 

The opening of the ports of Sual, Iloilo and 
Zamboanga to foreign trade, was of course intended 
to give development to the local interests of the 
northern, central and southern portions of the archi- 
pelago, the localities selected appearing to offer the 
greatest encouragements, and on the determination of 
the Spanish government being known, her Britannic 
Majesty's Consul at Manila recommended the ap- 
pointment of British vice-consuls at Sual and Iloilo, 
and certainly no better selections could have been 
made than were made on the occasion, for the most 
competent gentleman in each of the ports was fixed 
upon. 

Mr. Farren 8 report, which has been laid before 
Parliament, very fairly represents the claims of the 
new ports and their dependencies ; each has its 
special recommendations. The population of the 
northern division, comprising Fangasinan, the two 
Jlocos (North and South), Abra and La Union, may 
be considered among the most industrious, opulent 



NEW PORTS OPENED. 331 

and inteUigent of the Philippines. Cagayan pro- 
duces the largest quantity of the finest quality of 
tohacco. 

The central division, the most thickly peopled of 
the whole, has long furnished Manila with a large 
proportion of its exports, which, in progress of time, 
will, no doubt, be sent directly from the ports of 
production to those of consumption ; while the 
southern, and the least promising at present, has 
every element which soil and climate can contribute 
to encourage the cultivation of vast tracts hitherto 
unreached by the civilizing powers of commerce and 
colonization. 

The population in the northern division is large. 
In Uocos, South and North, there are twelve towns 
with from 5,000 to 8,000 inhabitants; seven with 
8,000 to 12,000 ; seven with from 12,000 to 20,000; 
and three with from 20,000 to 33,000. In Panga- 
sinan, nine towns with from 5,000 to 12,000; seven 
with from 12,000 td 20,000; and three with from 
20,000 to 26,000 inhabitants. The capital (Caba- 
zera) of Cagayan has above 15,000 inhabitants. The 
middle zone presents a still greater number of popu- 
lous places. Zebu has fourteen towns with 5,000 to 
10,000 inhabitants, and nine towns of from 10,000 
to 12,000 ; and in Iloilo there are seven towns with 
from 5,000 to 10,000 inhabitants; fourteen towns 
with from 10,000 to 20,000 ; seven with from 20,000 
to 30,000; two with from 30,000 to 40,000; and 
one (Haro) with 46,000 inhabitants. 

These statistics for 1 857 show a great increase of 



332 PIULIPPINE ISLANDS. 

population since Mr. Farren's returns and prove that 
the removal of restrictions has acted most beneficially 
upon the common weal, imperfect as the emancipa- 
tion has been. There cannot be a doubt that more 
expansive views would lead to the extension of a 
liberal policy^ and that mines of unexplored and un- 
developed treasure are to be found in the agricultural 
and commercial resources of these regions. The im- 
portance of direct intercourse with foreign countries 
is increased by the fact that, for many months of the 
year, the monsoons interrupt the communication of 
the remoter districts with the capital. The old spirit 
of monopoly not only denied to the producer the 
benefit of high prices, and to the consumer the 
advantage of low prices, but the trade itself neces- 
sarily fell into the hands of unenterprising and 
sluggish merchants, wholly wanting in that spirit 
of enterprise which is the primum mobile of com- 
mercial prosperity. For it is the condition, curse 
and condemnation of monopoly, that while it nar- 
rows the vision and cramps the intellect of the 
monopolist, it delivers the great interests of com- 
merce to the guardianship of an inferior race of 
traders, excluding those higher qualities which 
are associated with commercial enterprise when 
launched upon the wide ocean of adventurous and 
persevering energy. How is the tree to reach its 
full growth and expansion whose branches are con- 
tinually lopped off lest their shadows should extend, 
and their fruit fall for the benefit of others than 
its owner ? 



NEW PORTS OPENED. 333 

But in reference to the beneficial changes which 
have been introduced, their value has been greatly 
diminished by the imperfect character of the conces- 
sions. They should have been complete; they should, 
while opening the ports to foreign trade, have allowed 
that trade full scope and liberty. The discussions 
which have taken place have, however, been eminently 
useful, and the part taken in favour of commercial 
freedom by Mr. Bosch and Mr. Loney, both British 
vice-consuls, has been creditable to their zeal and 
ability. In the Philippines, the tendency of public 
opinion is decidedly in the right direction. The re- 
sistance which for so many years, or even centuries, 
opposed the admission of strangers to colonial ports, 
no doubt was grounded upon the theory that they 
would bring less of trade than they would carry away 
— that they would participate in the large profits of 
those who held the monopoly, but not confer upon 
them any corresponding or countervailing advantages. 

Mr. Farren states that, in 1855, " the British trade 
with the Philippines exceeded in value that of Great 
Britain with several of the States of Europe, with 
that of any one State or port in Africa, was greater 
than the British trade with Mexico, Columbia, or 
Guatemala, and nearly ranked in the second-class 
division of the national trade with Asia, the total 
value of exports and imports approaching three 
millions sterling. The export of sugar to Great 
Britain and her colonies was, in 1854, 42,400 tons, 
that to Great Britain alone having gradually grown 
upon the exports of 1852, which was 5,06l tons, to 



334 PHTLIPPINB ISLA}!0)S. 

27»254 tons, which exceeds the exports to the 4vhole 
world in 1852. The imports of British goods and 
manufactures, which was 427,020/. in value in 1845, 
exceeded 1,000,000/. sterling in 1853." It still pro- 
gresses, and the removal of any one restriction, the 
encouragement of any one capability, will add to 
that progress, and infallibly augment the general 
prosperity. 

The statistics of the island of Fanay for 1857 give 
to the province of Hollo 527,970 ; to that of Gapiz, 
143,713 ; and to that of Antique, 77>639 ; making in 
all 749,322, or nearly three-quarters of a million of 
inhabitants. The low lands of Gapiz are subject to 
frequent inundations. It has a fine river, whose 
navigation is interfered with by a sandbank at its 
mouth. The province is productive, and gives two 
crops of rice in the year. The harbourj3 of Batan 
and of Capiz (the cabacera) are safe for vessels of 
moderate size. The inhabitants of Antique, which 
occupies all the western coast of Fanay, are the least 
industrious of the population of the island. The 
coast is dangerous. It has two pueblos, Bugason 
and Fandan, with more than 10,000 souls. The 
cabacera San Jose has less than half that number. 
The roads of the provinces are bad and communica- 
tions with Iloilo difficult. The lands are naturally 
fertile, but have not been turned to much account by 
the Indians. There are only forty-two mestizos in the 
province. There is a small pearl and turtle fishery, 
and some seaslugs are caught for the Chinese market. 

Iloilo has, no doubt, been fixed on a^ the seat of 



NEW PORTS OPENED. 335 

the government, from the facilities it offers to naviga- 
tion ; hut it is much smaller, less opulent and even 
less active than many of the towns in its neighhour- 
hood. The province of Hollo is, on the whole, per- 
haps the most advanced of any in the PhiUppines, 
excepting the immediate neighhourhood of the capital. 
It has fine mountainous scenery, richly adorned with 
forest trees, while the plains are eminently fertile. 
All tropical produce appears to flourish. The manu- 
facturing industry of the women is characteristic, 
and has heen referred to in other places, especially 
with reference to the extreme beauty of the pina 
fabric. Of the mode of preparing the fabric Mallat 
gives this account : — 

^^ It is from the leaves of the pine-apple — the 
plant which produces such excellent fruits — ^that the 
white and delicate threads are drawn which are the 
raw material of the nipis or pina stuffs. The sprouts 
of ananas are planted, which sometimes grow under 
the fruit to the number of a dozen ; they are torn 
off, and are set in a light soil, sheltered, if possible, 
and they are watered as soon as planted. After four 
months th^ crown is removed, in order to prevent the 
fruiting, and that the leaves may grow broader and 
longer. At the age of eight months they are an ell 
in length, and six fingers in breadth, when they are 
torn away and stretched out on a plank, and, while 
held by his foot, the Indian with a piece of broken 
earthenware scrapes the pulp till the fibres appear. 
These are taken by the middle, and cautiously raised 
from one end to the other ; they are washed twice or 



336 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

thrice in water, dried in the air and cleaned ; they 
are afterwards assorted according to their lengths and 
qualities. Women tie the separate threads together in 
paqketSy and they are ready for the weaver s use. In 
the weaving it is desirahle to avoid either too high 
or too low a temperature — too much drought, or too 
much humidity — and the most delicate tissues are 
woven under the protection of a mosquito net. Such 
is the patience of the weaver, that she sometimes pro- 
duces not more than half an inch of cloth in a day. 
The finest are called pinilian^ and are only made to 
order. Ananas are cultivated solely for the sake of 
the fibre, which is sold in the market. Most of the 
stuffs are very narrow ; when figured with silk, they 
sell for about 10*. per yard. The plain, intended for 
embroidery, go to Manila, where the most extravagant 
prices are paid for the finished work." 

Mr. Vice-Consul Bosch has written an interesting 
report on the capabilities of the province of Pan- 
gasinan, and of Sual, its principal port. The circum- 
ference of coast is from fifty to sixty miles on the 
south and east of the Gulf of Lingayen. The interior 
abounds with facilities for water communication, and 
the most important river, the Agno, enters the sea at 
St. Isidro, about one and a half mile from Sual. 
The Agno has about seventy to eighty miles of 
internal navigation, and brings produce from the 
adjacent provinces of La Union and Nueva Ecija. 
The exports to Manila are generally made from 
Sual, those for China from Dagupan. Dagupan 
is at the mouth of a large estuary, but a bar prevents 



NEW PORTS OPENED. 337 

the entry of any large vessel. The want of safe 
anchorage is the disadvantage of all the coast of the 
provincOi with the exception of the harhour of Sual. 
This harhour, though small, is safe: it is nearly 
circular. It would hold from twelve to fifteen large 
vessels and thirty to forty coasters, and is well pro- 
tected on every side, hut there is a somewhat danger- 
ous hank within the port. 

There are only ahout 400 houses in Sual : they are 
scattered on the plain in front of the harhour, and 
are of wood. There are, besides, 100 Indian huts 
{cliozds) constructed of the nipa palm. The church 
is a poor, provisional edifice. 

Sual is exhibiting some signs of improvement*. 
The road to the neighbouring province of Zambales 
is in progress. The allied forces in Cochin China 
have been lately drawing provisions, especially cattle, 
from Sual. The value of the exports from Sual, for 
1 858, is 670,095 dollars ; the imports of foreign goods 
and manufactures into the three ports of the pro- 
vince — Dagupan, Binmaley and Lingayen — amount 
to 464,116 dollars, all brought by coasting vessels, 
of which 75 belong to the province. The largest 
pueblo of the province is San Carlos, with 26,376 
inhabitants ; the second, Binmaley, with 24,91 1 ; 
the third, Lingayen, with 23,063 ; but the popula- 
tion of Sual is only 3,451. Eice and sugar are the 
leading articles of produce exported, but there is at 
Calasiao a considerable manufacture of hats, cigar- 
cases, mats and other fabrics of the various fibres of 
the country. There are no large estates, nor manu- 

z 



338 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

factures on an extensive scale. Eyerjtfaing is done 
by small proprietors and domestic industry. There 
are many places where markets (called tiangues) are 
periodically held, and articles of all sorts brought 
thither for sale. It is calculated that Fangasinan 
could give 20|000 tons of rice for exportation, after 
providing for local wants. The sugar, though it 
might be produced abundantly, is carelessly pre- 
pared. Much wood is cut for ship-building and 
other purposes. On the arrival of the N. E. mon- 
soon commercial enterprise begins and many ship- 
ments take place ; the roads are passable, the ware- 
houses fiUed with goods : this lasts till the end of 
June or July. Then come on the heavy rains : the 
vessels for the coasting trade are laid up for the 
season ; the rivers overflow ; most of the temporary 
bridges are carried away by the floods ; everybody is 
occupied by what the Spaniards call their " interior 
life ; " they settle the accounts of the past year 
and prepare for that which is to come, and the 
little foreign trade of Sual is the only evidence of 
trading activity. 

Labour is moderately remunerated. Taking fifty 
ship carpenters, employed in one yard, the least paid 
had 5 rials, the highest 10 rials per week (say 3^. to 
6^.). They are also allowed two measures of rice 
and a little meat or fish. A field labourer (or pem) 
has a rial a day and his food. A cart with a buffalo 
and leader costs 1^ rial per day. 

Almost all purchases are made by brokers {per^ 
soneros)^ who, for a commission, generally of 5 per 



NEW PORTS OPENED. 339 

cent., and a guatantee of 2^ per cent., collect the 
products of the country from the cultivators, to whom 
they make advances — always in silver ; and it some- 
times passes through many hands hefore it reaches 
the labouring producer. 

There are few native Spaniards in Fangasinan. A 
good many mestizos are devoted to commerce. In 
Lingayen, with 23,000 inhabitants, there are more 
than 1,000 mestizos ; in Binmaley, with 24,000 in- 
habitants, only twenty-two mestizos : the first being 
a trading, the second an agricultural, pueblo. There 
are few Indians who have acquired opulence. The 
Chinese element has penetrated, and they obtain 
more and more influence as active men of business. 
No Oriental race can compete with them where 
patience, perseverance and economy can be brought 
into play. They are not liked; but they willingly 
suffer much annoyance and spread and strengthen 
themselves by unanimity of purpose. In Calasiao 
they are said in two years to have established nearly 
eighty shops, and were gradually insinuating them- 
selves into all profitable occupations — attending the 
markets both as buyers and sellers, and establishing 
relations with the interior such as no native Indian 
would have ever contemplated. Nor in the ordinary 
transactions of life do they make the mistake of 
requiring extravagant profits. A Chinaman may, 
indeed, ask a high price or offer a low one in his 
different relations, but when he sees his way to a 
clear profit, he will not let the bargain escape him. 
There is an increasing demand for European mer- 

z 2 



340 FHnJPHNE ISLANDS. 

chandise, of which the Chinese are the principal 
importers ; and they, ahove all other men, are likely 
to open new channels of trade. The current rate of 
interest is 10 per cent. ; though the church funds are 
lent at 6 per cent, to those whom the clergy are dis* 
posed to favour, which indeed is the legal rate. 

Mr. Bosch's return for the year 1858 shows that 
eight large vessels, with 79I85 tons, and 282 coasters, 
with 7>780 tons, entered the port of Sual. Only four 
of the former carried cargoes away, two having gone 
to repair damages, and two heing Spanish govern- 
ment steamers for the remittal to Manila of money 
which amounted to 210,000 dollars. 



g 



.■^ 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



We steamed away from Manila on the 20th Decem- 
ber. It was our first purpose to visit Labuau, which 
had become of some interest to me as GoTemor of 
Hong Kong, having been made of late the penal 
settlement for a certain number of Chinese convicts. 
Two groups of sixty each had been sent thither, and 
the Grovemor was desirous their number should be 
increased. I do not see how the settlement can be 
made a prosperous or productive one. The coals 
which it furnishes are not liked by our engineers, and 
seldom employed if English or Welsh coals can be 



342 FHILIPFINE ISLANDS. 

obtained. A considerable quantity was reported to 
^^r^s^ lytag on the ,h«r. without d«n«.d, 
but I found no willingness, either on the part of the 
naval authorities or of the merchantSi to purchase it. 
I expect both China and Japan will be in a condition 
to provide this very important article on cheaper 
terms and of better quality than that of Labuan, or 
any part of Borneo. I should have been glad to have 
had an opportunity of forming an opinion, grounded 
on my own observations, as to the prospects of 
Sarawak. I am disposed to believe the Grovemment 
has acted judiciously in refusing to buy the colony, 
and to encumber the treasury with the charges which 
its establishments would inevitably entail. The argu- 
ments which I have seen put forward in its favour by 
the advocates of the purchase, have certainly little 
weight. To represent the locality as of any importance 
as a place of call between Europe and China, is to 
display extraordinary geographical and commercial 
ignorance : it is hundreds of miles out of the regular 
course, and has in itself no attraction to induce any 
vessel to waste the time which must be expended 
in visiting it. It has a fertile soil, which may be 
said of the whole circumjacent region — of almost 
every island in the tropical archipelagos ; but it must 
depend principally on imported labour, costly and 
capricious in its supply, and which must be directed 
by European machinery, still more costly and un- 
certain, for the climate is, and will long continue, 
unfriendly to the health of European settlers. The 
native population is too barbarous to labour; with 



J 



^ 



ZAMBOANGA. 343 

few wants, they have few motives to exertion. I have 
had the advantage of much conversation with the 
Catholic Vicar Apostolic of Borneo, whose knowledge 
of the natives is prohahly greater than that of any 
other European, as he has lived so much among them 
in the discharge of the duties of his mission. He 
represents the different trihes as engaged in perpetual 
wars with one another, each taking any opportunity 
of pillaging or doing mischief to its neighhours ; and 
our involving ourselves in the native quarrels, hy 
ill-judged partisanship, must lead, he thinks, to much 
cruelty and injustice. He gave me many particulars 
of the savage practices of which he had heen an eye* 
witness, particularly in the displays and processions 
of hunJhead. „^phi« of L^ Aho^h I 
had not an opportunity of visiting Borneo and of 
witnessing there the progress that has been made 
under European influences, I have had so many 
means of studying the character of the native and 
unsubdued races in the territories of Spain and the 
Netherlands, that I feel quite justified in the conclu- 
sion, that little is to be expected from their co-opera- 
tion, either as producers of tropical, or consumers of 
European, articles. The great element which is now 
revolutionizing these regions, is the introduction of 
Chinese labour, which has received a check not 
easily to be surmounted in the unfortunate outbreak 
at Sarawak, after the events in Canton ; but the 
introduction of the Chinese must be spontaneous, and 
not forced. The Chinese field-labourer works un- 
willingly for a master who is to receive the profits of 



344 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

his labour ; but far different are his feelings, his 
activity and perseverance, when the profits are all 
to be his own. Then, indeed, he becomes a valuable 
settler, from whom much is to be expected. Our 
new treaties — the presence of British shipping in so 
many ports of China — the supersession of the heavy 
junks by the square-rigged vessels of the West, which 
the habit of insuring that the Chinese are now 
adopting cannot fail to promote — ^will all assist in the 
transfer of the surplus population of China to regions 
where their industry will find a wider scope and a 
more profitable field. The adventurous Vpirit in 
China is becoming more and more active. The tens 
of thousands who have emigrated to California and 
Australia, and the thousands who have returned with 
savings which they have deemed a sufficiency, have 
given an impulse to the emigrating passion, which 
will act strongly and beneficially in all countries to- 
wards which it may be directed. In process of time, 
and with the co-operation of the mandarins, who are 
really interested in the removal of a wretched, some- 
times starving and always discontented, social element, 
the difficulties attaching to the removal of females 
may in time be surmounted, and the Chinese may 
perpetuate, what they have never yet done, a Chinese 
community in the lands where they settle. No doubt 
the mestizo mixture of races — the descendants of 
Chinese fathers and Indian mothers— is now exten- 
sively spread, and is a great improvement upon the 
pure Malay or Indian breed. The type of the father 
is more strongly preserved than that of the mother ; 



\ 



ZAMB0AK6A. 345 

its greater vigour has given it predominance. The 
Chinese mestizo is physically a being superioc to the 
Indian — ^handsomer in person, stronger in limb, more 
active in intellect, more persevering in labour, more 
economical in habits. The marvellous exodus of 
Chinese from their country is one of the most re- 
markable ethnological circumstances of modem his- 
tory, and is producing and will produce extraordi- 
nary and lasting results. I do not believe any of the 
other Oriental races able to withstand the secret 
and widely spreading influences of Chinese competi- 
tion and superiority. Dealt with justly and fairly, the 
Chinese are the most manageable of men, but they 
will be dangerous where despotism drives them to 
despair. 

On the sixth day of our voyage we arrived at 
Zamboanga. Indian houses were visible through 
the plantain trees, and amidst the woodlands of the 
coast, and a large fortification, with the yellow and 
scarlet Spanish flag, advised us of our adjacency to 
the seat of government. We sent on shore, and found 
the guns and the garrison were not in a condition 
to return our salute, but we received an early and 
cordial communication from the governor. Colonel 
Navarro, inviting us to take up our abode at his 
residence, and we landed at a convenient wooden pier, 
which is carried out for some distance into the har- 
bour. There was a small body of soldiers to meet us 
on landing. In walking about we found one street 
wholly occupied by Chinese shopkeepers, well sup- 
plied with European and Chinese wares ; they gene- 



r 



346 FHnJFPmB ISLANDS. 

rally appeared contented and prosperous, and will 
certainly find the means of supplying whatever the 
population may demand ; they will leave nothing un- 
done which is likely to extend their trade or augment 
their profits. There are about three hundred Chinese 
settled in Zamboanga, mostly men of Fokien. We 
walked to the fortification, and on our way met several 
of the Mahomedan women who had been captured 
in a late fray with natives ; their breasts were unco- 
vered, and they wore not the veils which almost inva- 
riably hide the faces of the daughters of Islam. We 
learnt that these females were of the labouring and 
inferior classes ; but in the fortification we saw the 
wives and children of the chiefe, who bad been cap- 
tured, and they presented the most marvellous con- 
trasts, between the extreme ugliness of the aged and 
the real beauty of some of the young. One mother 
especially, who had a child on her haunches, appeared 
to me singularly graceful and pleasing. Most of the 
captured chiefs had been sent to Manila; but in 
another part of the fortress there were some scores of 
prisoners, among whom, one seemed to exercise ascen- 
dency over the rest, and he repeated some of the 
formula of the Koran in Arabic words. The Spaniards 
represented them bb a fierce, faithless and cruel race, 
but they have constantly opposed successful resistance 
to their invaders. 

Next to Luzon, Mindanao is the largest of the 
Philippines. Though its surface is 3,200 square 
leagues in extent, th? Spaniards do not occupy one- 
tenth of the whole. The number of Mahomedans 



ZAMBOANGA. 347 

(Moras) is great in the interior, and they are the 
subjects of an independent Sultan, whose capital is 
Selangan, and who keeps up amicable relations with 
the Spanish authorities. To judge by some of their 
native manufactures which I saw at Zamboanga, they 
are by no means to be considered as barbarians. The 
inland countiy is mountainous, but has some fine lakes 
and rivers little visited by strangers. There are 
many spacious bays. Storms and earthquakes are fre- 
quent visitants. The forests are said to be extensive, 
and filled with gigantic trees, but travellers report 
the jungle to be impenetrable. Mines of gold, quick- 
silver and sulphur are said to abound. Besides 
Zamboanga, the Spaniards have settlements in Misa- 
mis, Caraga and New Guipuzcoa, but they are re- 
ported to be unhealthy from the immense putrefaction 
of decaying vegetables produced by a most feracious 
soil, under the influence of a tropical sun. Beyond 
the Moros, and in the wildest parts of the mountains, 
are colomred races in a low state of savage existence. 
Mindanao was one of the earliest conquests of Magal- 
lanes (1521). The Augustine friars were the first 
missionaries, and they still retain almost a monopoly 
of religious instruction, but their success among the 
Mahomedans has been small. Many attempts have 
been made by the Spaniards to subdue the interior, 
but, however great their temporary success, they have 
never been able long to maintain themselves against 
the fanaticism of the Moros, the dangers and diffi- 
culties of the country and the climate, while sup- 
ported only by inadequate military means. Misamis 



348 PHTLIPPmE ISLANDS. 

is used as a penal settlement. The Spaniards have 
not penetrated far into the interior of this part of the 
island, which is peopled hy a race of Indians said not 
to be hostile, but, being frequently at war with the 
more formidable Mahomedans^ they are considered 
by the Spaniards as affording them some protec- 
tion, their locality dividing the European settlements 
from the territory of the Moors. But there is little 
development of agriculture or industry, and not one 
inhabitant in ten of the province pays tribute. The 
Jesuits had formerly much success in these regions ; 
on their expulsion the Becolets (barefooted Angus- 
tines) occupied their places, but it would seem with 
less acceptance. The settlers and the Indians re- 
cognizing the Spanish authority have been so fre- 
quently molested by the Moors that their numbers 
are far less than they were formerly, and it is believed 
the revenues are quite inadequate to pay the expenses 
of the establishments ; but it is said some progress is 
being made, and if all impediments to commercial 
intercourse were removed, a great amelioration in 
the condition and prospects of the natives would 
result. Caraga, from which New Guipuzcoa has 
been lately detached, has Surigao for its capital, and 
is on the north-east corner of the island. The 
dominions of the Sultan of Mindanao mark the limits 
of the province. A race of Indians remarkable for 
the whiteness of their skin, and supposed to be of 
Japanese descent, called Tago-balvoys, live on the 
borders of a creek in the neighbomrhood of a town 
bearing the name of Bisig, a station of the Becolets* 



ZAMBOANGA. 349 

Some of this race pay tribute, and live in a state of 
constant hostility with the Moros. They are ad- 
vanced in civilization beyond the neighbouring tribes. 
Butuan, in this province, was the last landing place 
of Magallanes; he planted a cross there, and the 
Indians took part in the ceremonials, and profess 
Christianity to the present hour. The Moros have 
destroved some of the earlier establishments of the 
SpaoiLd,. There .re imme,«e tr«,ls of unoul- 
tivated and fertile lands. Teak is reported to 
abound in the forests, which are close to the habita- 
tions of the settlers. The orang-utan is common, and 
there are many varieties of apes and monkeys, wild 
beasts, particularly buffaloes and deer, and several 
undescribed species of quadrupeds. The Spaniards 
say that the province of Caraga is the richest of 
the Philippines ; it is certainly one of the least ex- 
plored. A Frenchman has been engaged in work- 
ing the gold mines ; I know not with what success. 
A favourite food of the natives is the wild honey, 
which is collected in considerable quantities, and 
eaten with firuits and roots. The Butuan Eiver is 
navigable for boats. There are very many separate 
races of natives, among whom the Mandayos are said 
to be handsome, and to bear marks of European 
physiognomy. Some of the tribes are quite black, 
fierce and ungovernable. Cinnamon and pepper are 
believed to be indigenous. Wax, musk and tortoise- 
shell are procurable, but as the Spanish settlements 
are not much beyond the coast little is done for the 
encouragement of the productive powers of the 



850 PHHiTPPINE ISLANDS. 

interior. Oold, however, no doubt from the facility 
of its trangport, is not an unimportant article of 
export, and the Spaniards complain that the natives 
attend to nothing else, so that there is often much 
suffering from dearth, and the insalubrity of the 
climate deters strangers from locating themselves. 
This is little to be wondered at, as the attacks of 
pirates are frequent and the powers of government 
weak. Along the coasts are towers provided with 
arms and ammunition for their defence; but the 
pirates frequently interrupt the communications by 
sea, on which the inhabitants almost wholly depend, 
there being no passable roads. On the approach of 
the piratical boats the natives generally abandon 
their own and flee to the mountains. There are 
niany Mahomedan tribes who take no part in these 
outrages, such as the Bagobos, Cuamanes and 
others. Even the mails are interrupted by the 
pirates, and often delayed for days in localities 
where they seek shelter. All these drawbacks not* 
withstanding, the number of tributaries is said to 
have greatly increased, and the influence of the friars 
to have extended itself. I have compared various 
statistical returns, and find many contradictions and 
inconsistencies.* Some evidence that little progress 
has been made is seen in the fact that in the province 
of Surigao, where the census gives 18,848 Indians, 
there are only 148 mestizos ; in that of Misamis, only 
266 mestizos to 46,517 Indians ; in Zamboanga, to 

* Buzeta maj be consulted, especially under the head ** Caraga,'* 
on which he has a long article. 



i 



ZAMBOAKGA. 351 

10,191 Indians, 16 mestizos; Basilan^ 447 Indians 
and 4 mestizos; Bislig, 12,718 Indians and 21 mes- 
tizos ; Davao, 800 Indians, no mestizo. This state 
of things assuredly proves that the island of Min- 
danao, whatever he its fertility, has few attractions 
for strangers, otherwise the proportion of the mixed 
races to the population would he very different from 
what it appears to be. Father Zuniga,who, in 1799> 
puhlishcd an account of the visit of General Alava^ 
gives many particulars of the then state of the island, 
and suggests many plans for extending Spanish 
influence. 

Zamboanga is not likely to become a port of much 
importance unless it is wholly emancipated from 
fisc^ restrictions. The introduction of the custom- 
house has driven away the whalers that formerly 
visited the harbomrs; there is little capital, and the 
trading establishments are on a very small scale. 
The roads in the immediate neighbourhood are in 
very tolerable order; the villages have the general 
character of Indian pueblos ; the country is rich in 
all the varieties of tropical vegetation ; but the in- 
terior, even close to the cabaceras, is imperfectly 
known. Its produce is small in reference to the 
obvious fertility of the soil. Some companies of 
troops arrived during our stay at Zamboanga, and it 
is probable an effort is to be made to strengthen 
and widen the authority of the Spanish govern- 
ment. 

Of the arms used by the Motos the governor had 
a large collection, consisting of long spears, swords of 



352 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

various forms, handsomely adorned kreeses, daggers 
and knives displaying no small amomit of manufac- 
turing art. 

Confined as the Spaniards are to a narrow strip 
of land along the coast, it may be supposed there are 
few conveniences for locomotion, nevertheless a car- 
riage was found, and a pair of horses^ and harness 
such as it was, and an Indian driver, and thus we 
managed to obtain a very pleasant evening ride into 
the country, and had an opportunity of seeing its 
great fertility and its varied productions, leading to 
natural feelings of regret that so many of the boons 
of Providence should remain unenjoyed and unim- 
proved, accompanied with the hope that better days 
may dawn. But the world is full of undeveloped 
treasures, and its *^ Yarrows unvisited" promise a 
bright futurity. 

There would seem to have been some increase in 
the population of Zamboanga. In 1779 Zuiiiga re- 
ports it to be 5,612 souls, ^^ncluding Indians, 
Spaniards, soldiers and convicts ;" in 1818 the num- 
ber is stated to have been 8,640; in 1847, 7,190. 
The Guia of 1850 gives 8,618 ; that of 1858, 10,191, 
of whom 16 were mestizos, and tribute-payers 3,871 ; 
but I do not think much reliance can be placed on 
the statistical returns. The last states that the mar- 
riages were 55, the births 429, the deaths 956, which 
represents a fearful mortality. In the province of 
Misamis for the same period the proportion of births 
to deaths was 2,155 to 845. 

A great value is attached to some of the canes 



ZAlkifiOANGA. 353 

which are found on the island of Palawan, or 
Faragua, especially where they are of variegated 
colours, or pure white, and without the interruption 
of a knot, so as to serve for walking-sticks. I was 
informed that two hundred dollars had heen given 
for a fine specimen. 

A gold-headed stick, with a silk cord and tassels, 
is the emhlem of authority in the Philippines. 



AA 



CHAPTER XXV. 

ILOILO AMD PANAY. 

Of the three ports lately opened to foreign commerce, 
Boilo is the most promising. The province of Iloilo 
is one of the most populous of the Philippines. It 
contains more than half a million of inhahitants, 
and though portions of the proTince are very thinly 



ILOILO AND PANAY. 356 

peopled, there is an average exceeding 2,000 inhabit- 
tants per square league. Independently of the pueblos 
which I visited, and of which some description will 
be given, Cabatuan has 23,000 inhabitants, Miagao 
31,000, Dumangas 25,000, Janiuay 22,000, Fototan 
34,600, and several others more than 10,000 souls. 
The province is not only one of the most nume- 
rously peopled, it is, perhaps, the most productive 
in agricultural, the most active in manufacturing, 
industry, and among the best instructed of the Philip* 
pines.* It has extensive and cultivated plams and 
forest-covered mountains ; its roads are among the 
best I have seen in the archipelago* At the en- 
trance of the channel are a number of islands called 
the Seven (mortal) Sins — Los Skie Pecados. The 
large island of Guimaras limits the channel on the 
south ; it was visited by some of our party, who re- 
turned delighted with the extensive stalactite caverns 
which they explored, reaching them with some diffi- 
culty over the rocks, through the woods and across 
the streams which arrested their progress. The 
forests are full of game and the river Cabatuan 
abounds with crocodiles. There are many rivulets 
and rivers which greatly assist the cultivator, and 
we found a good supply of cattle. The ponies of 
Iloilo are among the best in the archipelago, and 

* Archbisliop Hilarion says : — *' There are multitudes of pueblos, 
such as Argao, Dalaguete, Boljoon in Zebu, and manj in the pro- 
vince of Doilo, where it would be difficult to find eidier a boj ot 
girl unable to read or write, which is more than can be said for 
many of the cities of the Peninsula.*^—- (Answer to Manila Depu- 
tation.) 

AA 2 



^ 



356 PHILIPPINB ISLANDS. 

some attention is paid to the breeding of sheep. A 
good deal of salt is made, and there is a considerable 
fishery of trepang (sea-slug) and tortoises for the 
sake of the shells. But the island is most renowned 
for the pina fabrics called nipas and sinamays, some 
of which are of exquisite fineness and beauty ; they 
are largely exported, and their perfection has given 
them a vast reputation even in Europe. 

On the arrival of the Spaniards they found the 
district occupied by painted Indians, full of super* 
stitions, which, notwithstanding the teachings of the 
Augustine friars, are still found to prevail, especially 
at the time of anypubUc calamity. They are among 
the best formed of the Indians, speak a dialect of 
the Bisayan, which they called Hiligtc^nay but in 
the remoter parts another idiom named the Halayo 
prevails. The Augustines boast of having converted 
fifty thousand families in 1566, but they were not 
able to induce them to cultivate their lands and to 
store their surplus produce, and the locusts having 
desolated the district, in the two following years 
more than half the population perished of hunger. 
But the missionaries made no progress among the 
Negritos who dwelt in the wilder parts of the moun- 
tainous regions, and who were joined by many desiring 
to escape from the authority of the invaders. These 
savages have not unfrequently attacked the villages 
of the converted Indians, but of late years have 
found it more prudent and profitable to bring down 
their wax and pitch, and exchange them for rice and 
garments. They have no general ruler, but each 



J 



ILOILO AND PANAY. 357 

clan has its recognized head, and it is said that, 
when perplexed as to choice of a successor to a 
departed chief, they send deputations to the mis- 
sionaries and ask their advice and assistance to 
regulate their choice. Formerly the district was 
frequently attacked by pirates, who committed great 
ravages and destroyed several towns. In 1716 the 
Dutch attacked the fortress of Iloilo, but were com- 
pelled to retire after a heavy loss both in killed and 
wounded. There has been a great increase in the 
population, which in 1736 numbered 67»708 souls; 
in 1799, 176,901 ; in 1845, 277,571 ; and by the last 
census, 527,970, of whom 174,874 pay tribute. 
There is a small number of Spaniards — of mestizos 
many, of whom the larger proportion are sangleys, 
the descendants of Chinese fathers and native mo- 
thers. The increase of the population must be great, 
the census in 1857 giving 17,675 births, and only 
9,231 deaths. 

The approach to Iloilo is by a channel between a 
sandbank (which has spread nearly a mile beyond 
the limits given in the charts) and the island of 
Guimaras. The town appears adjacent as it is ap«^ 
preached, but the river by which vessels enter makes 
a considerable bend and passes round close to the 
town. We observed a large fortification, but it had 
not the means of saluting us^ and we were therefore 
exonerated from the duty of exploding H. M.'s gun- 
powder ; but if not in the shape of noisy salutations, 
the courtesies of the Spanish authorities were dis- 
played in every possible way towards the officers and 



358 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

crew of our ftigate, for whose service and entertain- 
ment everything was done. We were soon waited 
on by a gentleman from the British vice-consulate. 
The vice-consul returned to Iloilo the day after 
our arrival. It would indeed be well if all British 
functionaries possessed as much aptitude, knowledge 
and disposition to be useful as we found in Mr. 
Loney, to whom the commerce of the Philippines 
generally, and the port of Iloilo especially, is under 
great obligations. To him, more than to any other 
individual, the development of the trade of Fanaj 
will be due. 

From the Governor of Iloilo, Colonel Jos^ Maria 
Carlos, especially I experienced great kindness. He 
was suffering under a sore affliction — ^for affliction 
holds sway over every part of the world — the loss 
of an only and beloved son who had preceded him 
as governor of the province and was an object of 
so much affection that the people earnestly implored 
the Captain-C^eneral to allow the father to succeed 
him, ^which was granted. It was touching to hear 
the tales of the various displays of popular sym- 
pathy and sorrow which accompanied the death and 
the interment of Don Emilio Carles, whom no less 
than fifty carriages followed to his grave in Ar^valo. 
I passed the village more than once with the mourn- 
ing fether ; at a time, too, when sorely suffering from 
sorrows of my own, I felt the consolation which is 
found in remembering and helping others to remem- 
ber the virtues of the dead. These are their best 
monuments, though not written on tablets of stone. 



] 



ILOELO AND PANAY. 359 

The principalia of Molo came to invite us to a 
ball, and very prettily the ball was got up. It is 
a most industrious locality; in ancient times was a 
Chinese colony, and is now occupied by mestizos and 
their descendants, most of them having a mingling 
of Chinese blood. The pueblo has 16,428 inhabi- 
tants, of whom the mestizos are 1,106. It is one 
of the busiest towns in the island, and everything 
has a prosperous and active look. Some of the 
buildings have in the same apartment many looms 
occupied in making the pina stuffs. The place was 
gaily illuminated on occasion of the ball, and the 
gobemadorcillo made an oration in Spanish to the 
effect that the locality had been much honoured 
by our presence, and that the memory of the day 
would be long preserved. Many of the mestizos 
keep their carriages, which were placed at the dis- 
posal of our friends, and which fell into the pro* 
cession when music and firing of guns and muskets 
accompanied us through the town. Molo is an island 
formed by two creeks, and entered by bridges on both 
sides. I believe it is one of the few localities served 
by a secular curate. It is about four miles from 
Iloilo, the road being good, and many Indian houses 
are seen on both sides of the way. Almost all these 
have their gardens growing plantains, coooa-nutS| 
bread-fruits, cocoa, betel and other vegetable produc- 
tions. Sugar planting appeared to be extending, and 
there are many paddy-fields and much cultivation of 
maize. 

The Governor and British vice-consul aooompanied 



360 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

US in our pleasant excursions to the interior, during 
which we visited some of the most populous pueblos 
of the provinces. We travelled in comfortable car-* 
riages, the friars or the gobemadorciUos providing us 
with relays of horses, and the convents were generally 
the places appointed for our reception, in which we 
invariably found most hospitable cheer. One day it 
was • determined to visit Janiuay, and we first stopped 
at Jaro, a pueblo of more than 22,000 souls. The 
roads had their usual adomings : the Indian cottages 
exhibited their flags, the equestrian principalia came 
out to escort us, and the native bands of music went 
before us when we entered and when we quitted the 
populous part of the town. Jaro is deemed the most 
opulent place in the island of Fanay. It was founded 
in 1584 or 1585. Cultivation extends to some dis-^ 
tance around it. It boasts of its stone bridge, more 
than 700 feet in length and 36 feet in breadth, the 
erection of which, as well as the excellent roads by 
which the pueblo is approached, are due to the muni- 
ficence of a curate knighted by his sovereign for his 
patriotic sacrifices. Though the country is level, the 
rich vegetation on the banks of the streams and by 
the borders of the highway make the scenery pic^. 
turesque. The manufacture of fine stuffs and cotton, 
pina and silk, is very considerable. These fabrics 
are exposed for sale at a weekly market, held on 
Thursdays, which is crowded by people from eveiy 
part of the province, being the largest of the Iloilo 
marts. From Jaro we proceeded to Santa Barbara, 
a pueblo of 23,000 souls. Here we were received at 



ILOILO AND PANAY. 36 1 

the convent of the Augustine friars, in whose hands 
are all the cures of Iloilo, to one of whom we had the 
pleasure of giving a passage to Manila, whither he 
was bound as the delegate to the annual assembly of 
the fraternity. Here, too, other Augustine friars 
visited us, all inviting us to partake of the hospitali- 
ties of their spacious convents. Santa Barbara is a 
modem town, built in 1759) and placed under the 
special protection of the saint whose name it bears. It 
has shared in the general prosperity of the province : 
in 1820 it had no manufactures; but it has now 
a weekly market for the sale of the produce of its 
looms, consisting principally of cottons, sail-canvas, 
quilts, coverlets, &c. The forests furnish fine timber 
for building and for cabinet work, and are crowded 
with wild bees, whose wax and honey form a con- 
siderable article of traffic. Excellent were the 
carriages and horses of the friars. Our next rest- 
ing-place was Cabatuan, somewhat larger than Santa 
Barbara. Cabatuan was founded in 1732. It is on 
the banks of the river Tiguin ; sometimes nearly dry, 
and at others deluging the country with its impetuous 
torrents. The numerous crocodiles make fishing un- 
safe ; and the navigation even of small boats is often 
interrupted, either by the superfluity or insufficiency 
of its waters. There is a large production of rice 
and of cocoa-nut oil for lighting. From Cabatuan we 
went to Janiuay, which was the limit of the day s 
journey, and of our visit to the interior. It is called 
Matagul in the ancient maps of the province, and 



362 FHILIPriNE ISLANDS. 

has about the same number of inhabitants as Santa 
Barbara. The convent and church are on a slightly 
elevated ground, and offer a pretty view of the pueblo 
and surrounding country. Many of the women are 
engaged in the labours of the loom, but agriculture 
is the principal industry of the neighbourhood. We 
had hoped to visit the Dingle mountain, one of 
whose caves or grottos is said to present the cha- 
racter of a temple of fantastic architecture, adorned 
with rock crystal and exhibiting masses of marble 
and alabaster which form its walls; another cave 
is formed of granite, which abounds in the locditys 
but we had to return to Iloilo to meet the principal 
people at a late dinner, succeeded as usual by a ball. 
The Grovemor's house being at some distance from 
the town, we were kindly accommodated at that of 
one of the native merchants, conveniently situated on 
the quay of the river. Several of the friars, who had 
been our hosts, were the guests of the mwchants; 
and the kind hospitality we experienced did not 
justify the constant expression of courteous regrets 
for the inadequacy of the entertainment, the blunders 
of the native servants (sometimes amusing enough)^ 
and the contrasts between the accommodations of 
Europe and those which a remote Spanish settle- 
ment in the Philippines could afford ; but there was 
so much of courtesy, good breeding and cordiality 
that it was impossible to feel otherwise than grateful 
and contented, and, after all, in this world to do all 
we can is to discharge every duty^ 



n; 



ILOILO AND PANAY. 363 

The next day we made our arrangements for visit* 
ing the different puehlos on the cowt, and, starting in 
our carriages soon after daybreak, we pUssed through 
Molo and Ar6valo to Oton. Arevalo has some cele- 
brity in the annals of the Philippines, and had a spe« 
cial interest for the Governor, as here had been lately 
displayed the affection of the Indians for his son, whose 
funeral they had honoured with such special marks of 
sympathy and regret. Arevalo was formerly the resi- 
dence of the governor — ^built by Bonquillo in 1581, 
who gave it the name of his birth-place. Molested 
by the Indians, attacked by pirates and the govern- 
ment quite disorganized, it was for a long time 
abandoned ; and the seat of authority being removed 
to Hollo, Ar6valo presents few signs of activity: 
there are about 8,000 inhabitants in this district. 
At Oton we saw from the Augustine convent an 
interesting ceremony. It was on a Sunday; and 
on quitting the church the inhabitants were sum- 
moned by beat of drum to attend the reading of 
a proclamation of the government. They were 
all in their holiday garments, and men, women 
and children formed a circle round one of the 
native Indian authorities, who, in a loud voice, 
read in the Bisayan tongue the document which 
he had been ordered to communicate to the people. 
There was perfect silence during the reading, and 
a quiet dispersion of the crowd. Fortifications are 
erected along the coast, and a great variety of 
manufactures were brought to us for examination. 
A good deal of English cotton twist is sold, which 



364 PHILIPPINB ISLANDS. 

forms the warp of most of the fahrics.* There were 
rugs of silk and cotton ; varieties of coloured ging- 
hapis; tissues, in which the fihres of the abaca 
and the pina were mixed with our cotton thready 
whose importation is, however, confined to the co- 
lours which the Indians are themselves not able to 
dye. Oton has nearly 23,000 inhabitants. I observe 
the proportion of births to deaths is as nearly four 
to one, and that while there are five births to one 
marriage, the deaths exceed the marriages by less 
than one-third, so that the increase of population 
must be very great. In 1818, it was less than 9,000. 
Tigbauan, with its 21,000 inhabitants, was our next 
halting place. Its general character resembles that of 
Oton. Bice is the principal agricultural production, 
but the women are mostly employed in weaving stufiTs, 
which find markets in Albay and Camarines. We 
were accompanied from the Augustine convent by a 
friar of Guimbal, who obviously exercised much in- 
fluence over his brethren and over the whole com- 
munity. His conversation was both entertaining 
and instructive. He had a good stud of horses, a 
handsome carriage, and he certainly employs his large 
revenues with generous hospitality. Not to repeat 
what has been repeated so often, the Indians, on the 

* Among the arts by which pernicious legislation is defeated, a 
curious example is presented in the Philippine Islands. White 
cotton twist being prohibited in the interest of certain home pro- 
ducers, it is found to be more economical to import yellow and 
green twist, which is allowed to enter, and it is afterwards con- 
verted to white by extracting the colour, which is easily accom* 
plished by steeping the thread in a strong infusion of lime. 






ILOILO AND PANAY. 365 

whole line of our journey, made a holiday time for our 
reception, which partook everywhere of the character 
of a public festivity. After the principalia had accom- 
panied us to the convents, and received their thanks 
from me, and their dismissal from the Grovemor and 
the friar, a number of little girls were introduced, to 
whom the service of the table and attendance on the 
guests were confided. There was a strange mixture of 
curiosity, fear and respect in their deportment ; but 
they gathered round my arm-chair ; their bright black 
eyes looked inquiringly into my face, and asked for 
orders ; while one, who seemed rather a pet of the 
ghostly father, put her hand into the curls of my 
white hair, which she seemed to consider worthy of 
some admiration: but the friar told me they were 
discoursing among themselves whether it was possible 
I could be a general and a great man, who had no 
gold about my clothes ; I was not dressed half as finely 
as the officers they had been accustomed to see. They 
were very proud of some of the piiia garments they 
wore, and one after another came to display their 
finery. They took care to supply me with cigars, and 
that light should be ready whenever the cigar was ex- 
tinguished, and when we sat down to our well-furnished 
repast, several of them were at hand to remove the 
plates, to provide others, and to see that we were well 
provided with the delicacies of the day. On our way 
back to Iloilo, we learnt that the principalia of Molo 
were to escort us in their carriages to our domicile ; 
they were waiting for us in the main road, so that 
we made together quite a procession. They had 



366 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

before invited Captain Vansittart and the officers of 
the Magicienne to their ball, and many attended^ 
keeping up the dance to an early morning hour. 

We left Iloilo the following day. The Governor 
and several of the principal people, among whom was 
a large group of Augustine friars, accompanied us 
with music to the ship. Three loud shouts of grateful 
hurrah broke forth from our decks, cordially responded 
to by our hosts — and so farewell I and all happiness 
to Iloilo* 

I have sent to Sir William Hooker, for the museum 
of the Boyal Gardens at Kew, sixty specimens of 
woods grown in the northern and western districts of 
the island of Fanay and the province of Antique, of 
which the most notable are — the molavsy the most 
useful and compact of the Philippine woods, and 
applied to all purposes of building; hancaluag^ for 
fine work ; dungon^ for ship-building and edifices ; 
hago-arour^ building and cabinet-work; lumaii, a 
species of teak ; guisocj a flexible wood for ships and 
houses ; ipil has similar merits ; naga^ resembling 
mahogany, used for furniture ; cansalodj planks for 
floors; maguilombqt/^ for the same purpose; duca^ 
haslayan^ oyacya^ for ship-building ; tipolo^ for musical 
instruments ; lanipga^ a species of cedar used for carv« 
ing and sculpture ; bayog^ spars for masts and yards ; 
bancalf for internal roofs and carving ; mahguibuyo^ 
for flooring ; ogjayan^ flexible for joints, &c. ; lanitan^ 
guitars, violins, &c* ; janlaatan^ furniture ; latiaany 
spars for shipping ; basa^ in large blocks for building 
and shipping ; talagtag^ cabinet-work ; nino^ the bark 






ILOILO AND PANAY. 367 

used for dyeing both red and yellow ; bacaitf Bpara ; 
panaOf a medicinal wood used for sore eyes by the 
Indians; banate^ a fine and solid box-wood, used 
for billiard-maces, has been exported to Europe; 
hancolinaOy ebony; cctsla has a fruit resembling 
a French bean, whose oil is used by the natives for 
their lamps; jaras^ for construction of houses* It 
will be observed that all these bear their Indian 
names, which are generally applied to them by the 
Spaniards. 

As regards the commercial position and prospects 
of the whole of the central and southern islands of 
the Philippine Archipelago, the most satisfactory 
details which have reached me are those furnished 
in 1867 by the Vice-Consul of Hollo, Mr. Loney, to 
the Consul of Manila, from which I extract the fol- 
lowing information. 

That portion of the Philippines called the Bisayas 
may be generally described as including the whole of 
the islands to the southward of Luzon, though, strictly 
speaking, it is understood to comprehend only those 
of Samar, Leyte, Panay, Negros, Cebu, Bohol (with 
their dependencies, Tablas, Bomblon, Sibuyan, &c.), 
and four provinces — Misamis, Caraga, Zamboanga, 
and Nueva Guipuzcoa — of the important island of 
Mindanao, next to Luzon the finest and largest of 
the archipelago. 

The administration of the revenue of the Bisayas 
was formerly in charge of a separate Government 
Intendency ( OoUerno Intendencia de BisajfOi) esta- 
blished in the city of Cebu ; but this being abolished 



368 PHnjPPmE ISLANDS- 

in 1849> all the provinces, as regards revenue, are 
now equally under control of the Superintendencia at 
Manila. While, however, the provinces and districts 
of Luzon (with the exception of Cavite, La Isabels^ 
Nueva Viscaya, El Abra, San Mateo, and La Union) 
are presided over by civil functionaries {alcaldes 
mayores)^ those of the Bisayas are governed by 
military officers (gobernadores militares y poliiicos) 
of the rank of captain to that of colonel, assisted in 
most instances by a lieutenant-governor, a civilian, 
and usually a lawyer, who takes cognizance of all 
ordinary civil and criminal cases. 

The Bisayan group is mostly inhabited by a race re- 
sembUng, in all essential characteristics, the Tagdlog, 
and other Malayan races of Luzon. Their language 
may be called a dialect of the Tagalog, though rather 
harsher in sound, and neither so copious, so refined, 
nor so subjected to grammatical rules, as this latter 
idiom. The Bisayan has more Malay words than 
have the dialects spoken in Luzon, The natives of 
these islands and those of Luzon imperfectly compre- 
hend each other, though their languages are evidently 
derived from the same parent stock. 

The Bisayas furnisl^ a hardy, seafaring race ; but, 
as a rule, the general tendency to indolence, attributed 
to the Philippine " Indian," applies, in a perhaps 
greater degree, to the inhabitants of the whole 
southern group, and constitutes at present, in the 
absence of any available means of coercion, one of 
the principal obstacles to a more rapid extension of 
agriculture by the introduction of European capital. 



ILOILO AND PANAY. 369 

The cbristianized population of the Biaajas may 
be estimated as follows : — 

Samar 118,000 

Lejte . . . . . . 115,000 

Itomblon 1C,G00 

Panay:— 

Capiz 135,000 

Iloilo 450,000 

Antique 80,000 

Ceba and Bohol . . . . 385,200 

Negroe 108,000 

Calamianes 18,000 

Uindanao: — 

UiBamis 44,500 

Carsga (Surigoo) .... 15^00 

New Guipozcoa (Bislig nnd Dnvao) 11,200 

Zamboanga 12,000 

Total . 1,508,800 

This estimate does not include the unsubdued tribes 
inhabiting the mountains in the interior, some idea of 
the number of which may be formed from a note of 
those ascertained to have existed in 1849, in the under- 
noted provinces : — ■ 

Uieamia G6,000 

Saniar 25,964 

Lejte (not ascetl.tineil). 

Negroa 8,545 

Panay 13,900 

Cebu 4,903 

Total . 119,312 

The largest number of unsubjected tribes (prin- 
cipally Mahomedan) inhabit Mindanao, the total 
population of which is generally asserted to amount 
to nearly one million souls. 



370 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

llie island of Panay, advantageously placed to- 
wards the centre of the Bisayas group^ is distant at 
its nearest point — that of Potol, in lat. 11° 48' N., 
long. 122° W. of Greenwich — 180 miles in a right 
line from Manila. Its shape is nearly triangular, and 
it has a bircumference of about 300 miles. It is the 
fifth in size of the Philippine Islands, coming in this 
respect after Luzon, which has a circumference of 
1,059 miles; Mindanao, 900; Paragua, 420; and 
Samar, 390 ; but, though smaller than the islands 
just named, it is, next to Luzon, the most populous 
of the archipelago, if Mindanao, with the doubtful 
population of independent tribes above-mentioned, be 
left out of the question. 

Panay is divided into the three provinces of Capiz, 
Antique, and Iloilo, which together contain a popu- 
lation of about 665,000. 

Capiz occupies the whole of the northern portion 
of thie coast of Patiay, for a distance of seventy-seven 
miles. 

Its limits towards the interior may be defined by 
a curved line, commencing from a little to the east- 
ward of Point Bulacan, passing by the Pico de Arc- 
angel, in the Siaurdgan Mountains, and continued 
westward to Pandan, on the coast. Its chief town 
is Capiz, situated on the river of the same name. 
Though broken towards the southern and western 
portion by an irregular series of mountain chains, 
the greater part of the territory of Capiz consists of 
extensive low-lying plains, which produce rice in great 
abundance. It possesses a few good harbours, par- 



ILOILO AND PANAY. 371 

ticularly that df Batan; and Capiz itself, situated 
at the confluence of the rivers Fanay and Capiz, 
affords secure anchorage. Its tribute-paying popu- 
lation is officially reported to be 135,00d souls. 

Antique takes up the western side of the island, to 
an extent of 84 miles — from Point Naso on the 
south to Fandan on the north — is of triangular shape, 
and limited on the north by the province of Capiz, 
on the south and east by that of Iloilo, and on the 
west by the sea. Antique is very mountainous, and, 
being comparatively thinly inhabited, does not at 
present produce much for export^ especially as the 
greater development of its resources is retarded by 
the want of good harbours, of which it does not pos- 
sess one along its whole line of coast. At its chief 
town and port, San Jose de Buenavista, a breakwater 
is in process of construction, which, if completed, 
will give a great impulse to the trade of the province, 
by enabling vessels to load there at all seasons of the 
year. At San Jose foreign whaling and other vessels 
not unfrequently call for water and fresh provisions. 
The number of its inhabitants, exclusive of the re- 
monfados and monteses^ who occupy the mountainous 
districts, is computed to amount to 80,000 souls. 

Iloilo extends over the south-eastern portion of the 
island, is also of triangular form, bounded on the 
north by Capiz, on the west by Antique, and on the 
south-east by the arm of the sea which separates it 
from the islaad of Negros. This, the largest, richest 
and most peopled of the three provinces, deserves 
more particular notice. 

BB 2 



372 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

Iloilo, its chief town, and the residence of its 
governor, distant 254 miles in a direct line from 
Manila, and placed by Spanish hydrographers in 
lat. 10° 48^ W« of the meridian of San Bernardino, 
is situated near the south-eastern extremity of the 
island, close to the sea, on the border of the narrow 
channel formed by the island of Guimar^s, which 
lies opposite to it at a distance of two miles and a 
half from the Fanay shore. 

The town is built principally on low, marshy 
ground, subject to tidal influence, partly fronting 
the sea, and partly along the left bank of a creek, 
or inlet, which runs towards Jaro,, and after describ- 
ing a semicircle again meets the sea near Molo. 
Although the principal seaport and seat of the 
government of the province, its population is not 
so large as that of many of the towns in its vicinity. 
It does not at present exceed 7|500, while Jaro, 
Molo and Oton, towns in its immediate neighbour- 
hood, possess 33,000, 15,000 and 20,000 respec- 
tively. This comparative scarcity of inhabitants is 
principally owing to the want of space for further 
extension on the narrow tongue of land on which 
the town is chiefly built. This obstacle to its further 
increase should in time cease to exist, as efficient 
measures are being taken to draw the population 
more inland ; among others, the erection of a new 
government house and public offices at a more cen- 
tral point ; the contemplated removal of the present 
church to a more advantageous and open site, beyond 
the tongue of land alluded to ; and the convergence 



ILOILO AND PANAY. 373 

at this place of new and more direct roads (now in 
course of construction ) leading to and from the 
adjacent populous towns. 

Notwithstanding the drawback of limited space, 
the progress in size and importance of the town has 
of late years been very marked, while the European 
residents, who, in 1840, numbered only three, now, 
in 1857, amount to 31 in Iloilo, and 30 in the 
remaining towns of the province. A considerable 
portion of this number arrived during the past two 
years, and the effect of this increase of Europeans, 
though their number is so small, is already visible 
in the construction of new buildings, and projects 
for the erection of many others. The rise in house 
property may be illustrated by the fact that the 
house in which the vice-consulate is established — 
constructed of wood with a palm-thatched roof — 
is subject to a rental of 33 dollars per month, or 
about 80/. per annum. The value of land for build-' 
ing lots has also augmented in proportion. 

The population of the province is given officially 
as 511,066; but there is reason to think it consi- 
derably exaggerated, and that 400,000, or at most 
450,000, would be nearer the real amount. 

The harbour of Iloilo, though well protected and 
naturally good, is not without inconveniences, capable, 
however, of being obviated with little trouble, and, 
provided with one of the excellent charts lately issued 
by the Comisian Hidrograjica (and, if approaching 
from the north, with a pilot), large vessels may enter 
with safety. 



374 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS- 

The island of Guimaras, which is twenty-two miles 
long by three in breadth, forms in front of Iloilo a 
sheltered passage, running nearly north and south, 
of a width varying from two miles and a half 
to six miles, with deep water and good anchorage. 
The entrance to this passage from the south is a 
good deal narrowed by the Oton shoal (Bofo de 
Otan)y which stretches for a considerable distance 
from the Fanay shore, and contracts for about a 
mile in length the available channel at this part 
to the breadth of about two miles. This, how- 
ever, will be no obstacle for large ships during the 
south-west monsoon (especially when the channel is 
properly buoyed oflF), the passage being perfectly 
clear as far as it e:(tends ; and with a contrary 
north-^ast monsoon they can work or drag through 
with the tide, keeping well over towards Guimaras, 
the coast of which is clear with deep water close in, 
anchoring, if necessary, on the edge of the shoal, 
which affords good holding-ground, and, being of soft 
sand, may be safely approached. The whole of this 
coast, protected as it is by Guimar^, the Fanay 
shore, and, in a considerable degree, by the island 
of Negros, pffers secure anchorage in the north-east 
monsoon ; ^nd situated on the south-wpst portion of 
Guimaras, the fine port of Buluanga, or Sta. Ana, 
of easy access and capable of admitting vessels of 
the largest tonnage, will afford shelter under almost 
any circumstances. The approach to thp opposite or 
northern entrance is generally made by the coasting 
vessels through the chain of small islands (Gigantes, 



ILOILO AND PANAY. 375 

Pan de Azucar, Sicogon, Apiton, &c.), called collec- 
tively the Silanga^ which lie off the north-east coast 
of Fanay and afford an excellent refuge for a con- 
siderable distance to the vessels engaged in the 
trade with Manila and the southernmost Bisayas. 
But though there is good anchorage among these 
islands, particularly at Fan de Azucar and Tagu, it 
would be more prudent for vessels of large burden, 
i|i cases where there is no practical acquaintance 
with the set of the tides and currents, to take the 
outside channel between the Silanga and the island 
pf Negros. After passing the Calabazas rocks and 
Fepitas shoal and making the castle or bloc]s:house 
of Banate (formerly erected, like many others along 
the Fhilippine coasts, for defence against the pirates 
of the Soolop Sea), the route is due south until 
sighting a group of seven remarkable rocks, called 
the " Seven Sins,'* for which a direct course should 
then be made, the lead being kept going to avoid 
the Iguana Bank (which is well marked off on the 
charts referred to), and on getting south of the 
Iloilp Fort vessels of a certain tonnage may enter 
the creek, or, if too large, shoul4 briiig up on the 
east side of the fort, where they are protepted from 
the wind and the strength of the tides. The depth 
of water on the bar at the entrance to the creek 
is about five fathoms at low wat^r; but at a short 
distance farther inside the water shoals to fifteen 
feet at \qw water, and then deepens again. The 
rise and fall being six feet, a vessel of 300 tons, 
drawing, when loaded, sixteeQ to eighteen feet, can 



376 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, 

easily obt^n egress with a full cargo. A dredging 
machine employed to clear away the mud which has 
been allowed to accumulate at the shallower parts 
near the entrancoi would enable ships of almost any 
burden to complete their cargoes inside. The Santa 
Justa^ a Spanish ship of 700 tons, loaded, in 1851, 
^part of a cargo of tobacco inside the creek, and 
finished her lading outside. 

It should be mentioned that, the banks of the creek 
being of soft mud, there is little or no risk to be 
apprehended from grounding. Proceeding about a 
mile and a half up the creek (which varies in breadth 
from half a mile to three-quarters of a mile, and 
affords complete protection from wind and sea), the 
coasting crafts bring up at the jetties of their re- 
spective owners, and have the great advantage of 
discharging and loading at the stores without the 
necessity of employing boats. 

Beyond this point, the creek stretches as far as 
Molo. Formerly the coasting vessels used, when 
necessary, to go on to Molo, but the drawbridge 
through which they had to pass having got out of 
repair, and the present bridge (now in very bad 
condition) affording no means of passage, they re- 
main at Iloilo, to which place the Molo traders have 
had to transfer their warehouses. 

The export trade of Iloilo, hitherto confined to 
the port of Manila and the adjacent islands, is at 
present chiefly carried on by four Spanish firms re- 
sident at Iloilo and owners of the better class of 
native craft sailing from this port; but to these 



ILOILO AND PANAY. 377 

are to bo added a considerable number of mestizos, 
or half-castes, principally of Chinese descent, living 
at the neighbouring towns of Molo and Jaro, several 
of whom are also owners of vessels, and employ con- 
siderable sums in the trade. 

The principal products exported are leaf tobacco, 
sugar, sapan-wood, rice in the husk (or paddy)', hemp 
and hides, besides other articles in lesser quantity, 
including horns, beche-de-mer, mother-of-pearl sheU, 
beeswax, canes, &c., and a considerable amount of 
native manufactured goods. Leaf, or unmanufactured 
tobacco, is at present the article of most importance, 
and the one which the Spanish traders have found 
most lucrative. It is purchased by them from the 
small native growers, and shipped to Manila for ex- 
clusive sale to the government, at prices fixed by the 
factory appraisers, according to the size and quality 
of the leaf. From Iloilo some 30,000 quintals were 
shipped last year for Manila, and from Capiz 20,000, 
giving about 50,000 as the exportable quantity of the 
leaf produced in Panay per annum. 

The export of tobacco to Manila, until the year 
1845, did not amount in this province to more than 
10,000 quintals per annum; but in that year the 
agent of a Manila firm having raised the usual low 
prices given by the Iloilo traders from 10 rials to an 
average of 20 to 21 rials for the three first qualities, 
the export, in 1847, had rapidly reached 24,000 
quintals. 

The attention of the government being directed 
to its growing importance, it was resolved to insti- 



378 PHTLIPPmE ISLANDS. 

tute a system of " Coleccion,'* through the governor 
and a stg^ff of collectors, similar to those " CoUec- 
clones " that are established at Cagayan, La Union, 
and Nueva Ecija. By this system, the purchase 
for, and export to, Manila by private traders, though 
not positively interdicted (as is the case in the pro- 
vinces just named), was so much prejudiced and 
interfered with by the unequal competition with the 
government (to which the private buyers had ulti- 
mately to sell what they shipped), that the total 
export from Iloilo fell duriqg the six years from 1848 
to 1853 from 25,000 to 18,900 quintals. In this 
latter year the coleccion was withdrawn. In 1853 a 
company formed at Madrid was allowed the exclusive 
privilege of the manufacture and export of cigars and 
leaf tobacco to foreign markets. A large and expen- 
sive stone-built factory was erected near Iloilo, the 
manufacture of cigars organized, and purchases of 
the leaf effecj^d, and, latterly, the company's opera- 
tions werq extended to the cultivation of the plapt in 
different parts of the province. A clause, howpver, 
in its charter rendered it incumbent on the company 
to furnish the factories at Manila, if required, with a 
considerable yearly amount both of leaf tobacco and 
cigars, pqual, if necessary, to the amount annually 
derived in the province from other sources. As a 
consequence, the requirements made for the Manila 
factories (purposely augmented, it is said, by the 
hostility of the then Intendente de Hacienda to the 
company) ^ere to such an extent as virtually to 
deprive it of all power to act on its own account; 



ILOILO AND PANAY. 379 

^ndy after an existence of nearly three years, its 
embarrassments were such as to compel its extinction, 
with the loss of a considerable portion of the capital 
originally sunk. Had the authorities at Manila 
favoured its development, the result, though neces- 
sarily cramped by the defective principle inherent 
in all monopolies, might have been favourable, as, 
with the liberty to manufacture for, and ship to, 
foreign markets, it could have afforded to give good 
prices, and might have extended the culture of the 
tobacco plant. It is a suggestive fact in connection 
with this subject that one of the Europeans formerly 
in the employ of the company has since had cigars 
manufactured for local consumption, which he has 
sold at 8 dollars per thousancf, nearly, if not quite, 
equal in quality to the "Imperiales" occasionally 
manufactured at the factory at Manila at 25 dol- 
lars per thousand. 

Since 1853, and coexistent with the company's 
operations, the purchase and shipment of -tobacco 
by private individuals have been resumed on their 
original footing ; and, while the amount so shipped 
has steadily, though very gradually, increased, prices 
have maintained a slight upward tendency. The 
maximum rates, however, which the local traders can 
afford to pay the native growers are not high enough 
to bring about a rapid extension of planting, or ip- 
duce these latter to give time and labour enough to 
improve the quality of a plant, the proper culture of 
which requires special attention, and the application 
of more capital and intelligence than they have it 



380 nilLIPPINE ISLANDS. 

in their power to bestow. The Iloilo shippers com- 
plain of the arbitrary manner in which the classifica- 
tion of qualities is made at Manila, and of the fact 
that, even after delivery of the tobacco at the govern- 
ment stores, it is held entirely at their risk until 
examined, repacked and ready for shipment to Spain. 
The qualities shipped at Iloilo are classed as 1st (of 
which a very small quantity is produced under the 
present system), 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th ; and any re- 
jected by the examiners at Manila as under the 5tli 
quality is retained and burnt, though no allowance on 
such portion is made to the vendor. The rates given 
by the factory for the above qualities are 7'75, 6*75, 
5-25, 4, and 3 dollars per quintal respectively. The 
seedlings are planted out in January, and the greater 
part of the crop comes forward in May and June., 
The soil of the greater part of the Bisayas is favour- 
able to the growth of tobacco. The island of Negros 
formerly produced about 8,000 quintals, of very 
good quality, which the Iloilo traders, through their 
agents, were in the habit of purchasing from the 
independent tribes inhabiting the interior ; but the 
measures taken by the present governor to bring 
the latter into subjection having resulted last year 
in the slaughter of several hundreds and the dis- 
persion of the rest, supplies from this source are 
at present stopped. Cebu produces about 15,000 
quintals, of rather inferior quality. At Leyte, par- 
ticularly in the district of Moasin, tobacco of very 
excellent quality and colour is grown, but it does 
not pay to produce in large quantity for export to 



ILOILO AND PANAY. 381 

Manila, and is consequently used almost exclusively 
in the Bisayas, where it is much appreciated, 
Samar also grows tobacco for local consumption. 
The manufacture of cigars is allowed throughout 
the Bisayas, but not for sale at Manila or else- 
where. 

For the present the export of tobacco from Fanay 
and the other islands possesses little direct interest 
for British or foreign merchants, the transactions 
with government, as at present conducted, not being 
of a satisfactory nature. It is, however, almost 
superfluous to say, that if the existing government 
monopoly of tobacco were abolished (substituted by a 
system of farming out lands, a direct territorial tax 
on the quantity under cultivation, or a duty on 
exports), and both the free manufacture for, and 
direct shipment to, a foreign market allowed, the 
export from Fanay would immediately become of 
great importance to the foreign trade. The soil 
of a very great portion of the island being well 
adapted for the cultivation of the plant, the export, 
under the stimulus of much higher prices and the 
consequent employment of more and better-directed 
capital, would be capable of great expansion, par- 
ticularly if, as would in all probability be the case, 
the culture were undertaken by Europeans, and 
the present system of small patches cultivated by 
natives gave place to estates on a large scale, as in 
Cuba. The benefits which would accrue to the 
native population by the opening up of larger sources 
of industry need not be pointed out. 



382 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

The subject bf the suppression of the existitig 
monopoly is a most important one for the Philip- 
pines ; and it is to be hoped that the government 
at Madrid, encouraged by the beneficial results of 
the abrogation, in 1819} of the monopoly in Cuba, 
will at no distant date resolve to overcome the 
difficulties which at present surround the question, 
particularly as its solution becomes yearly more 
urgent, and more called for on the part of both 
Europeans and natives. 

Sugar, as an article of export, may be said to be as 
yet comparatively in the germ. By an abstract taken 
from notes of province cargoes given daily by the 
Boletin Oficial of Manila, it is seen that nearly 
12,000 peculs ^ent forward last year from this 
province to Manila, of which it may be estimated 
that about 3,000 were brought over from the Isla 
de Negros, and sent on to the capital as Iloilo 
sugar. So great has been the stimulus given by 
the high prices for this article which have lately 
ruled, that the quantity exported from Iloilo alone 
will not fall short of 20,000, or say, with contribu- 
tions from Negros, about 25,000 peculs, or nearly 
1,600 tons ; and, were the present rapid extension 
of planting to continue in the same ratio for three 
years, the amount exportable would in that time, 
as there is no want of available land, reach about 
80,000 peculs, or 5,000 tons, subject to further aug- 
mentation from other sources, should foreign vessels 
commence loading at this port.* At the island of 

* In 1859 it is likely to amoxuit to from 8,000 to 3,500 tons. 



ILOILO AND PANAY. 383 

Negros, from whence the voyage occupies f5pom six 
to ten hours, the soil of which is eminently fertile, 
and which possesses immense tracts particularly 
adapted for the growth of sugar, a similar exten- 
sion of culture is in progress, in spite of the great 
drawback of the comparative sparseness of its popu- 
lation, which alone prevents it from yielding sugar 
and hemp in larger proportion than any other pro- 
vince in the Philippines, At present Negros pro- 
duces about 14,000 peculs, or nearly 900 tons, of 
sugar, of which more than two-thirds go to Manila 
direct, and the remainder by way of Iloilo. There 
is a further available source from whence sugar (in 
the event of foreign vessels loading at Iloilo) would 
be derivable at the contiguous island of Cebu, which 
produces upwards of 90,000 peculs, or 5,695 tons, for 
the Manila market, and is within easy distance of two 
to three days' sail from Iloilo. 

The effective nature of the stimulus given by the 
present prices will be comprehended when it is con- 
sidered that the value of Iloilo sugar, which in pre- 
vious years up to 1855 had generally ranged from 
2 to 2*10 dollars per pecul in the Manila market j 
is now 5*68f dollars per pecul at Manila, against 
3*2 to 3*3 dollars, with 25 per cent, for prem. on 
silver, or equal to 4'06 dollars to 4-21 J dollars here, 
and as long as the rate obtainable at Manila does 
not recede below 3 dollars per pecul of 140 lbs., the 
extension of planting will be continued. Of late 
years, owing to the disproportionally low prices paid 
at Manila, sugar planting had in many districts been 



384 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

abandoned as unremunerative, but during the past 
and present year it has rapidly increased, particularly 
since the introduction of a more economical kind of 
furnace, in which the refuse cane is used to some 
extent in place of the large amount of wood formerly- 
consumed. 

The very defective nature of the process employed 
by the native and mestizo planters does not allow of 
the production in Iloilo of a superior class of sugar, 
and all that leaves for Manila may be described as 
" ordinary unclayed ; " but the grain is usually very 
good, and on undergoing the ulterior processes in 
England and Australia, it yields a fine strong sugar, 
and has been much approved of for boiling purposes 
at the Glasgow refineries. Were a better system of 
crushing and boiling introduced here, sugar of an 
excellent quality would be produced, and it is greatly 
to be desired that a few Europeans with sufficient 
capital and experience would form estates in this 
neighbourhood. At present there is not a single 
iron-mill in the island. The unclayed sugars of 
the Philippines in ordinary times, even under the 
present defective and consequently expensive mode 
of production are held to be the cheapest in the 
world. The only Europeans now engaged in the 
cultivation of sugar in this quarter are a French 
planter, at Negros, who produces an excellent sugar 
(which always commands upwards of 1 dollar a pecul 
more than ordinary Iloilo), and a planter of the same 
nation, in this province, who has lately commenced on 
a limited scale. 



ILOELO AND PANAY. 385 

Taking the prices quoted above as a basis (4*21^ 
dollars here against 5*68f dollars at Manila), the 
difference in favour of this, the place of production, 
is now 1*47^ dollar per pecul ; but supposing the 
additional 47^ cents to be given here by the foreign 
exporter in order to secure such share of the crop 
as would be required to load a direct vessel, there 
would still remain an important saving of 1 dollar 
per pecul, or say 17^ per cent, less than the prime 
cost at Manila. The freight to Manila at present 
charged by the coasting vessels is 50 cents per 
pecul. The bulk of the sugar crop is delivered 
from February to March. 

Sapan-wood is exported in considerable quantity 
from the province of Hollo. It is chiefly produced 
in the vicinity of the southern coasting towns, Guim- 
bal, Miagao, and San Joaquin (the farthest within 
twenty miles of Iloilo), from whence the greater part 
is brought round by sea to Iloilo for exportation to 
Manila, and the rest shipped direct from Guimbal. 
Last year, as reported in the imperfect notes of the 
Boletin Oficial^ 32,723 peculs, or 2,045 tons, were 
shipped to Manila, and 789 peculs from Antique. 

The high prices lately obtained at Manila have 
led to the formation of new plantations, which will 
still further increase the exportable amount. A large 
quantity is sent on yearly to Singapore and Amoy, 
and forms the bulk of the cargoes of such vessels 
as load at Manila for the former port. 

The quality of the Iloilo sapan-wood would be 
much better were the natives to abstain from the 

cc 



386 FHnJFFINE ISLANDS. 

practice of cutting down a large portion before the 
trees are sufficiently grown. When allowed to ob- 
tain its proper development, it is said to be quite 
equal or superior to that of Misamis or Bolinao, 
at present the best qualities brought to the Manila 
market. As both sellers and brokers endeavour to 
deliver the wood as soon as possible after it is cut, 
the loss in weight on the voyage to Manila is said 
to be sometimes as much as 12 to 14 per cent. 
The present price of sapan-wood delivered at Iloilo 
isy with the addition of 25 per cent, for cost of silver, 
1*08 dollar per pecul against the Manila rate of 1*75 
to 1*875 dollar, leaving a considerable margin in 
favour of vessels loading here for a foreign market. 
The freight to Manila is 31*25 cents per pecul. 

Hemp (so called, though in reality the product 
of a variety of the plantain) produced in Iloilo is 
chiefly of a long, white fibre, equal to what is known 
in the London market as ^^ Lupiz," used in the 
manufacture of the native fabrics, and at present 
little attention is paid to it as an article of export. 
But though Iloilo produces little or no surplus hemp, 
the small coasting craft annually bring here some 
350 tons from the neighbouring islands and pro- 
vinces of Leyte, Samar, Negros, Camarines, and 
Albay, received at those places in exchange for the 
paddy and native goods of this province. 

Both Leyte and Samar now produce large quan- 
tities of excellent hemp for the Manila market, 
particularly the former island ; and the voyage hither 
throughout the greater part of the year is so short 



1 



ILOILO AND FANAY. 387 

(at present vessels take five to six days in going 
and two to return) that were the native traders to 
find a ready market at Iloilo, at prices relatively 
equivalent to those of Manila, it is more than pro- 
bable that a considerable additional quantity would 
be directed to Iloilo instead of. to the capital. 

At the island of Negros the production is in- 
creasing very rapidly, a large quantity having been 
planted during the past year, several pueblos and 
districts possessing tracts of upwards of 100,000 
and 200,000 plants, which will come into use during 
the next two years, and as the plant is remarkable 
fbr i., g«at p^pagafoe power. L obtainable ,„an. 
tity should increase in duplicative ratio every year. 
The export of hemp from the Isla de Negros amounts 
at present to 13,000 to 14,000 peculs, or about 850 
tons, per annum, chiefly from the port of Dumaguele, 
on the eastern side of the island. 

When it is recollected that in 1831 the whole 
export of hemp from the Philippines did not amount 
to more than 346 tons, and that in 1837 it had 
already reached 3,585 tons, and that during 1856. 
no less than 22,000 tons left Manila for the United 
States and Europe, some idea may be formed of the 
future of this valuable article at the fertile island of 
Negros, even with the drawback abready alluded to 
of a scanty population. 

I am the more inclined to dwell on the facts re- 
garding Negros, as from its close proximity it may 
almost be considered, in the event of direct exports 
from Iloilo, as an integral part of the island of 

cc 2 



388 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

Fanay. The amount of hemp shipped from Capiz 
last year was 6,458 peculs, or 400 tons, chiefly, how- 
ever, of an inferior description made from the fibres 
of the pdculf a wild variety of the plantain. As 
this inferior hemp, however, commands a remunera- 
tive price, I believe the plant producing the genuine 
article is now being more generally cultivated at 
Capiz. The rate for hemp here may be quoted at 
6"375 dollars, or, with 25 per cent, for cost of silver, 
6*715 dollars per pecul, against the Manila rate of 
7'75 to 8 dollars. Freight to Manila, 50 cents per 
pecul. 

Rice in the husk, or Faddy, is an important item 
in the agriculture of Fanay, though at present of 
little actual interest in relation to the foreign trade. 
The yearly production of the province of Qoilo, 
though nothing definite is ascertained regarding it, 
may be supposed to be 850,000 cavans, of which 
probably 40,000 are exported to the neighbouring 
islands and Manila. Capiz may produce about 
900,000 cavans, and export about 100,000 in the 
same way. Antique also contributes a considerable 
quantity for the consumption of the island, and ex- 
ports upwards of 15,000 cavans. These amounts, 
however, must be looked upon as guesses at the 
actual quantities consumed and shipped. 

The paddy exported is chiefly conveyed in small 
schooners (pancos and harotos) to the neighbouring 
islands of Le}rte and Samar, and also to Camarines 
and Albay, in exchange for hemp and cocoa-nut oil 
(the latter obtained at Leyte), which are either 



ILOILO AND PANAY. 389. 

brought to Iloilo for sale or taken on to Manila. 
When prices at Manila leave a sufficient margin 
(which they generally do throughout the year), some 
amount of paddy goes in that direction, forming a 
portion of the cargo of the vessels leaving for the 
capital. 

The paddy shipped from Iloilo is chiefly drawn 
from the vast plains of ■ Dumangas, Zarraga, Fototan, 
Santa Barbara and Barotac-viejo. Were a large 
portion of land brought under cultivation, the in- 
creased surplus of this grain would be available for 
an export to China, in which foreign vessels might 
be employed, as they frequently are at Sual, in 
Fangasinan ; and it may not unreasonably be sur- 
mised that, in the course of time, ships frequenting 
the port of Iloilo, and proceeding to China, will 
naturally take part of their cargoes in rice, and 
thus give a further impetus to its cultivation. At 
present, owing to the late scarcity of rice in Cama- 
rines and Leyte, the price of paddy at Iloilo has risen 
to 10 rials per province cavan, which is equal to one 
and a half of the measure {cavan del rey) used at 
Manila. The other articles shipped from Fanay 
. likely to be of importance to the direct export trade 
are: — 

Hides — Buffalo and cow, of which the last year's 
exports to Manila were 128 tons from Iloilo, 60 
tons from Capiz, and 24 tons from Antique. Frices 
here (very high at present) may be quoted at 5 
dollars to 8 dollars for buffalo, and 10 dollars to 14 
dollars for cow hides, per pecul. 



390 PHnjPPINB ISLANDS. 

Horns — A limited quantity from the three pro- 
vinces. Price, from 2 dollars to 3 dollars per pecul. 

Cowries— 430 cavans were shipped last year from 
Capiz, 42 from Antique, 33 from Iloilo. This 
article, formerly worth at Manila 2*50 dollars to 3 
dollars per cavan, has lately risen to 15 dollars. 

Gum Mastick — ^2,359 peculs, or 147 tons, were 
sent last year from Capiz to Manila, where its value 
is usually from 1*50 dollar to 3 dollars per pecul. 

Mother-of-Pearl Shell — A small quantity is oh- 
tainahle at this port, and at Capiz, chiefly brought 
from Sooloo, vid Zamhoanga, and from the adjacent 
islands of the Silanga. Quotation here usually about 
18 dollars to 22 dollars per pecul. 

Battans or Canes — Used in packing produce at 
Manila ; 401,000 went forward from Capiz in 1856, 
104,000 from Iloilo, and 97,000 from Antique. 

Mat Bags — Made from the leaf of the sago palm, 
used also for packing ; 155,850 were shipped to 
Manila, from Capiz, in 1856. 

Beeswax — A few peculs are annually shipped from 
the three provinces to Manila. 

Gutta^Percha — Some quantity of this valuable 
substance has been sent from hence to Manila, but, 
either owing to adulteration, or ignorance of the 
proper mode of preparation, it has not obtained an 
encouraging price. The tree yielding it, called by 
the Bisayans natOj abounds in this province, and in 
Guimards, and if it prove to be the real Isonandra 
gutta of the Straits and Borneo, should hereafter 
become of considerable importance. The monopoly 



ILOILO AND PANAY. 391 

of shipment irom Manila, granted to Senor Elio, has 
an injurious effect on the production of this article. 

Timher — for huilding, and woods, of various de- 
scriptions, for furniture, ahound in Fanay, and the 
islands of the Silanga and Guimar^s are peculiarly 
rich in valuahle trees. From thence are obtained 
the supplies for Iloilo and the neighbouring towns, 
and for the construction of vessels, occasionally built 
at Guimaras, where one of 350 tons is now (1857) 
on the stocks ; but as yet little impression has been 
made on the immense quantity to be obtained. 

Of other articles, which are either not adapted for 
European markets, or as yet produced in insignifi- 
cant quantities, I will merely enumerate — cocoa, of 
excellent quality ; arrowroot ; vegetable pitch, of 
which a considerable quantity is sent to Manila; 
wheat, which grows freely in the elevated districts of 
the island, and of which 1,125 bags were sent from 
Iloilo and Antique in 1856; maize, beche-de-mer, 
dried vegetables (beans, &c., a large amount), sago, 
cotton, tortoise-shell, deer-skins, ginger and gold-dust. 

Gums, dyes and drugs, of various descriptions, 
abound in Fanay, and a scientific examination of the 
many products of this nature, of which little or no 
use is made, is a great desideratum. It should be 
borne in mind that most of the minor articles above- 
mentioned are also produced by the neighbouring 
islands, and may be therefore obtainable in increased 
quantities, should the anticipation of Iloilo becoming 
in a great measure the emporium of the trade of the 
Bisayas be realized in future. 



392 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

Of the mineral wealth of the island little or nothing^ 
definite is known. Gold is found in the hed of a 
river near Ahaca, in this province, and near Du- 
m^rao, in Capiz. Iron and quicksilver are said to 
have been discovered, the former at various places in 
the island ; and cosd is reported to exist in Antique ; 
but these are points which have hitherto received little 
attention. In a journey to the interior, made with the 
governor of Hollo, through the Silanga, along the 
whole north-eastern portion of the province, and as 
far as the Capiz boundary, near Dumarao, Mr. Loney 
was shown several specimens of ore, apparently con- 
taining a large percentage of iron. With reference 
to this expedition, Mr. Loney adds from personal 
experience, his testimony in confirmation of the ac- 
counts of the fertility of the island, and the prosperous 
commercial future which seems to await it. The roads 
in general are tolerably good until the setting in of 
the heavy rains from August to October ; but there 
is at present in many cases a want of efiScient bridges, 
which impedes the free transit of produce towards 
the coast. The island does not afford a superficies 
large enough for the formation of any considerable 
streams, and the principal and only important river 
in this province, the Jalaur, which meets the sea 
near Dumangas, and by which a large quantity of 
paddy is conveyed to the coast, and forwarded to 
Iloilo, is only capable in the dry season of bearing 
craft of very small burden. 

The system of purchases of produce at Iloilo is, 
as usual in nearly all the provinces, to employ brokers. 



ILOILO AND PANAY* 393 

or personerosj who buy the produce from the native 
and mestizo growers and dealers at the different 
pueblos in the interior and along the coast, and re- 
ceive a commission of five per cent, on the amount de- 
livered. It is generally necessary to make advances 
through these brokers against the incoming crop, in 
order to secure any quantity, and such payments in 
advance are always attended with a certain amount 
of risk. The price of the article to be received is 
commonly fixed at the time of paying over the ad- 
vance, and for any overplus of produce received from 
the grower the current rate at the time of delivery 
is generally accepted. In the event of a permanent 
direct trade being established, it is likely that the 
practice will in time become more assimilated to that 
which obtains at Manila, t. e.j shippers may be able 
to purchase or contract on the spot from mestizo, 
Chinese or Spanish holders of produce, either directly 
or at the expense of a trifling brokerage. 

Nearly all payments being made to the natives in 
silver — as they will seldom agree to receive gold — it 
is necessary to place funds here in the former coin. 

Besides the natural products above mentioned, 
Fanay produces a large quantity of manufactured 
goods, both for export and home consumption. Of 
these the greater and more valuable portions, in- 
cluded under the native term sinamat/j are made 
of the delicate fibres of the leaf of the pine-apple 
(pina)j either pure or mixed with silk imported 
from China, and a proportion of the finer sorts of 
British manufactured cotton thread. The process 



394 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

of separating the pina fibres and sorting them in 
hanks previous to manufacture, and the manufac- 
ture itself, requiring a great deal of time and care, 
the pure pina textures are proportionally dear. 
Some of the finest sorts are of exquisitely delicate 
texture. Those mixed with silk, though not so 
durable, are cheaper, and have of late years been 
gradually superseding the pure pina fabrics, although 
these latter are still much worn by the more wealthy 
natives and mestizos. To such an extent, indeed, 
is silk from China now imported into this province, 
that, according to the statement of the principal 
Chinese trader in this article at Manila, fully 
400,000 dollars worth is annually sent to Iloilo 
from the capital. Latterly the price of silk has 
risen from 40 to 45 dollars per chinanta of ten 
catties to 80 and 90 dollars, or say from 450 to 
900 dollars per pecul. 

The greater part of the pina and mixed pina, silk 
and cotton fabrics is used for shirts for the men, and 
short jackets or shirts for the women. The price 
varies considerably, according to the fineness or 
coarseness of the texture, and the greater or less 
amount of mixture, some pieces for the men's shirts 
costing as much as 7 dollars (the value of which, 
elaborately embroidered at Manila, is sometimes en- 
hanced to 50 or 100 dollars), and the inferior sorts 
50 cents to 2 dollars per piece of 4^ varas. The 
figured work of these fabrics is generally of European 
cotton sewing thread or coloured German and British 
yam, and the stripes of thread, yam or coloured and 



ILOILO AND PANAX- 395 

white* silk. Textures of a cheaper character are also 
extensively made of hemp and other fibres, costing 
two to four rials each. There is also an extensive 
manufacture of coloured silk and cotton goods for 
« sarongs " (similar to those, principally of Bugis 
manufacture, used throughout the Malayan Archi- 
P^l^o), cambayas, and silk and cotton kerchiefs 
for the head. The better class of silk fabrics are 
excellent both for solidity of texture and finisli. 
Those of cotton are principally made of German 
and British dyed twist, and of native yarn manu- 
factured from cotton grown in several districts in 
this province, and alsd imported from Luzon. The 
finer sorts are well and closely woven, and the ordi- 
nary kinds of a cheap description adapted for more 
common use. Trouserings, of cotton and mixed silk 
and cotton, are manufactured to some extent, but the 
Manchester and Glasgow printed drills and plain 
grandrills are fast displacing them as articles of 
general consumption. Among the other manufac- 
tures may be enumerated table-cloths, napkins, 
towels, coverlets, cotton rugs, &c. Of embroidery 
work, which enters so largely into the industry of 
the provinces of Bulacan and Manila, there is little 
done in Iloilo, with the exception of the working 
of sprigs of flowers on the lace and network man- 
tillas, which are much used by the female population 
in attendance at church. 

In addition to the goods above mentioned, a con- 
siderable amount of coarse fabrics is made of the 
leaf of the sago palm, of hemp, and of other fibres. 



396 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

These are known in the Manila market as Saguran^ 
Guindrcts and Medrinaquey and are shipped to the 
United States and Spain, and in lesser quantity to 
England. Saguran and guindras are largely used at 
the govemment factories in packing the leaf tobacco 
forwarded to Spain. Price, from 25 to 37^ dollars 
per pecul of 7^ to 8 varas. Medrihaque has for 
some years past been exported in increasing quantity 
to the United States and Europe, where it is chiefly 
used for stiffening dresses, linings, &c. This ajrticle 
is principally made at Samar, Leyte and Cebu, from 
whence, in case of direct export, it will be obtainable 
for shipment. Present prices in the Manila market 
for Cebu 20 dollars, Samar 18 dollars, per fifty 
pieces. 

Considering that the Philippines are essentially 
an agricultural rather than a manufacturing r^on, 
the textile productions of Iloilo may be said to have 
reached a remarkable degree of development. No- 
thing strikes the attention at the weekly fairs held 
at the different towns more than the abundance of 
native goods offered for sale; and the number of 
looms at work in most of the towns and villages 
also affords matter for surprise. Almost every family 
possesses one of these primitive-looking machines, 
with a single apparatus formed of pieces of bamboo, 
and, in the majority of the houses of the mestizos 
and the well-to-do Indians, from six to a dozen 
looms are kept at work. The total number in 
this province has been computed at 60,000; and 
though these figures may rather over-represent the 



ILOILO AND PANAY. 397 

actual quantitji they cannot be much beyond it. 
All the weaving is done by women, whose wages 
usually amount to from 1 to 1*50 dollar per month. 
In general — a practice unfortunately too prevalent 
among the natives in every branch of labour — ^these 
wages are received for many months in advance, and 
the operatives frequently spend years (become, in 
fact, virtually slaves for a long period) before paying 
off an originally trifling debt. There are other 
workwomen employed at intervals to "set up'* the 
pattern in the loom, who are able to earn from 1 to 
1*50 dollar per day in this manner. It should be 
added that Capiz and Antique also produce, in a 
lesser degree than Iloilo, a proportion of manu- 
factured goods. 

Notwithstanding the increasing introduction of 
European piece goods into Fanay, it is gratifying 
to observe that the quantity of mixed pina stuffs 
exported rather augments than otherwise with the 
gradual addition to the general population and the 
increased means derived by it from the rapidly 
progressive development of the resources of* the 
islands. Judging from the values of the quantities 
taken on in almost every vessel leaving for the 
port of Manila, the annual export in that direc- 
tion would not seem to be at all over-estimated if 
put down at 400,000 dollars. The goods repre- 
sented by this amount are not, it should be re- 
marked, used in the city and province of Manila 
alone, but enter also into the consumption of Fam- 
panga. La Laguna, Camarines and other provinces 



398 PHILIPPINE ISLAOT)S. 

of Lazon. In addition to the export of pina to 
the capital, aboat 30,000 dollars worth of cotton 
and silk sarongs and handkerchiefs are sent yearly 
to Camarines. Some quantity is also exported to 
Leyte and Samar, but anything like an approxi- 
mate value of the goods so shipped cannot be given. 
In fact the subject of statistics here has received so 
little attention, either from the authorities or from 
the local traders themselves, that on terminating 
his notice of the principal articles exported from 
Panay, Mr. Loney regrets to find himself unable 
to supply a reliable account of their united value. 
The Bstadistica de Filipinos ^ issued in 1855, and 
compiled at Manila by the Comision Central, nomi- 
nated for that purpose, gives^ from data probably 
obtained from the very imperfect custom-house 
entries, the following bs the value of the imports 
into Manila from Fanay in 1854 : — 

Iloilo — DoUan. Dollars. 

Iloilo 264,416 

Guimbal 39,850 

304,266 

Capiz — 

Capiz ..... 181,681 

Calwo . . . . . 114,124 

Jbajay 7,096 

Batan 15,147 

318,047 

Ahtique— 

Antique 18,866 

SanJo86 2,925 

Cagayancillo • • . . 8,061 

Culagi 1,199 

26,051 

648,364 



ILOILO AND PANAY. 399 

But the most cursory examination of what must be 
the probable value of the more important articles 
exported, even adopting the probably understated 
quantities given in the preceding remarks, leads to 
the conclusion that the export to Manila from the 
province of Iloilo alone must equal or exceed the 
amount given by the Estadistica as the total sum for 
the provinces. 

Presuming the quantities and values to be as 
undemotedi there will result of 



PiDa, silk, hempen and other manu&ctures 
Tobacco, 30,000 quintals, average Si dolls. 
Paddy, 30,000 cavans, „ 1 „ 
Sugar, 20,000 peculfl, „ 3 „ 

Sapanwood, 33,000 „ „ 1 „ 

Hemp, 5,000 „ „ 5^ „ 

Hides, 2,050 „ total value . 

All other articles roughly valued at 



Dollart. 
400,000 
105,000 
30,000 
60,000 
33,000 
27,500 
19,800 
45,000 

720,300 



To which sum if the exports to other islands and 
provinces be added, it may be fairly inferred that 
the total value of exports from Iloilo cannot fall 
short of 800,000 dollars; an amount which does 
not seem at all out of proportion to the number of 
its inhabitants. These figures, if Capiz be put down 
at 700,000 dollars, and the Antique exports be 
taken at 70,000 dollars, will give to the yearly ex- 
ports from Fanay an aggregate value of upwards of 
1,500,000 dollars. 

£ut' even the imperfect data of the Estadistica 
would afford some indication of the rapid rate of 



400 PHILIPPmB ISLANDS. 

increase in the exports from the three provinces. 
For example — 

1852 — rvalue of products from Iloilo, Capiz, and Antique 271,335 

1853 „ „ „ 302,605 

1854 „ „ „ 648,869 

Or an augmentation in 1854 of considerably more 
than double the amount given in 1852. While on 
this subject, it may be added that the local custom- 
house has unfortunately registered no complete details 
of the exports for 1856, though it has commenced 
doing so for 1857. These details are, however, 
relatively of much less importance than those of 
direct foreign shipments, which will demand future 
attention. 

Mr. Loney thus adverts to the present state of the 
Iloilo import trade : — 

"Although perhaps the greater part of the clothing 
for the population of Fanay is furnished by the native 
looms, still a large amount of European goods is 
annually imported from Manila. I estimate that on 
the average (as far as can be judged where anything 
like positive data are totally wanting) about 30,000 
dollars to 40,000 dollars per month are now brought 
in goods to the port of Iloilo by the mestizo and 
Chinese traders, and subsequently disposed of at the 
larger markets of Jaro, Molo, Oton, Mandurriao, &c., 
from whence a certain portion finds its way into the 
interior. This branch of the trade is as yet princi- 
pally conducted by the mestizo dealers of Molo and 
Jaro, who, on completing their purchases of native- 



ILOILO AND PANAY. 401 

made goods for the Manila market, embark with 
them (in numbers of from six to ten, fifteen, and 
sometimes twenty) in the coasting vessels leaving for 
the capital. The returns for these speculations they 
generally bring back in foreign (principally British) 
manufactures, purchased at cheap rates from the large 
Chinese shopkeepers at Manila. The sale of these 
goods by retail here is still conducted in the rather 
primitive way of conveying them from place to place 
on certain fixed days. In this way goods that appear 
to-day at the weekly fair or market of Jaro, are 
subsequently offered for sale at Molo, Mandurriao, 
Oton, or Arevalo. , They are carried to and from the 
different pueblos in cumbrous, solid-wheeled vehicles, 
drawn by buffaloes and oxen, a mode of conveyance 
which, during the wet season, is attended with a good 
deal of delay and risk. The Chinese dealers at 
Molo, and a few small traders at Hollo, have, how- 
ever, commenced opening permanent shops, and it is 
probable that the number of these will gradually in- 
crease throughout the province, though, as the fairs 
are also the central point of attraction for all the 
products within a certain radius of each pueblo, and 
thus bring together a large concourse of people, the 
weekly transfer of piece and other goods from one 
place to another must still continue to a great extent. 
There are about thirty Chinese permanently esta- 
blished at Molo (mostly connected with others at 
Manila, cithers as partners or agents), and two or 
three at Jaro. A certain number are also employed 
in voyaging to and from Manila with goods, after 

DD 



409 PHnJPFIKfl ISLANDd« 

realizing which here they return for a fresh parcel^ 
either taking the returns in money or produce. One 
of the Chinese traders at Molo, who is well suppHed 
from the capital, sells goods to the amount of some 
30,000 dollars or 40,000 dollars a-year. Owing, 
however, to too much competition among themselTes 
and the other traders, I do not, judging from the 
prices at which they usually sell, think that their 
profits are in general at all large. Tha fact that the 
mestizo dealers look for their principal profit to the 
pina goods which they take to Manila, and are com- 
paratively less solicitous to ohtain an advance on their 
return goods, has also a tendency to keep prices low, 
as compared with Manila rates. 

^^ As is the case in most of the provinces where the 
Chinese have penetrated, there exists a more or less 
suhdued feeling of hostility towards them on the part 
of the natives, and a tendency, hoth among the mes- 
tizos and Spanish, to regard them as interlopers. 
But though the government at Manila has heen 
repeatedly urged to withdraw them from the pro- 
vinces, and confine their trading operations to Manila 
alone, it does not seem inclined to adopt a measure 
which would prove injurious to the general trade of 
the colony. It is true that if a portion of the 
Chinese were induced to become agriculturists (for 
which purpose alone they were originally admitted to 
the provinces), great benefit would accrue in the 
shape of an increased outturn of produce ; but as yet 
their numbers in the interior are too few to enable 
them to cultivate the ground on a large scale, and in 



ttOILO AND PANAY. 40* 

small isolated bodies they would not have sufficient 
security from the ill-will of the natiyes. 
' ** The principal articles of foreign manufacture 
imported into this province are — handkerchiefs 
(printed) of bright attractive colours, wove and 
printed iTOuserings, ginghams, fancy cambayas, plain 
grandrills, white shirtings, gray shirtings and gray 
longcloths, gray twills (29 inches, both American 
and English), bleached twills, lawns, white jaco* 
nets, striped muslins, cotton sewing thread, cotton 
sarongs, cotton twist, or yam, and woollens (not 
in much demand). There is also sale for hard<- 
ware, glassware and earthenware, and for other 
minor articles. 

** Import duties are leviable at Iloilo on a valuation 
either by tariff, or according to the market rate at 
time of entry. They are the same as those charged 
at Manila, viz. : — 

By foreign By Spanifh 
ships. ships. 

On most descriptions of foreign goods 14 per cent. 7 per cent. 

With the following exceptions : — 

Cambayas, ginghams, handkerchiefs, 

&c,, entirely of black, purple, 

and blue, with or without white 

grounds 25 „ 15 „ 

Yam of same colour . . . 50 „ 40 „ 

Ditto, red, yellow, rose and green . 

Machinery, gold and silver, plants 

and seeds .... 

Made-up clothing, boots, &c. . . .^x^ „ -^y, „ 

Bottled ale or porter . . . 26 „ 20 „ 

Wine, liquors and vinegar • . 50 „ 40 „ 

Spirits 60 „ 80 „ 

^^ Tropical productions, similar to those of the Phi- 

DD 2 



25 


II 


15 


50 


II 


40 


free 


• 


free 


free 




free 


50 


11 


40 


26 


II 


20 


50 


II 


40 


60 


i« 


80 



404 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

lippines, are not admitted to consumptioiii nor fire- 
arms, without a special licence. 

^^ All goods may be bonded on payment of 1 per 
cent. 

* 

" Export duties on produce of every description to 
foreign ports are, 3 per cent, by foreign, and l^ per 
cent, by Spanish ships, with the following exceptions : 
— Hemp, 2 per cent, by foreign, and 1^ per cent, by 
Spanish ships ; tortoise-shell, mother-o'-pearl shell, 
1 per cent, by foreign, and 1 per cent, by Spanish 
ships ; rice, 4^ per cent, by foreign, and 1^ per cent, 
by Spanish ships. 

" No duties are charged on goods arriving or de- 
parting coastwise by coasting vessels. 

" Port dues. — No special charges are yet fixed for 
vessels arriving at Iloilo, but they may be stated as 
about equivalent to those levied at Manila, viz. : — 
On foreign vessels arriving and leaving in ballast, 
18fc. per ton; with cargo inwards or outwards, 
34| c. per ton ; with cargo both inward and outward, 
37^ c. per ton. 

" Wages are moderate at Iloilo: — ^Labourers, 12|^ c. 
to 18f c. per day; carpenters, 18f c. to 25 c. per day; 
caulkers, 25 c. per day. 

^^ Fresh provisions are obtainable at cheap rates. 

^' The weights and measures in use for produce are 
— the quintal, of 4 arrobas, or 100 lbs. Spanish, equal 
to lOlf lbs. English ; pecul of 100 catties, or 140 lbs. 
English. The cavan of rice (cavan de pravincia) 
is equal to one and a half of the Manila cavan, or 
cavan del rey; it weighs about 190 lbs. English, and 



ILOILO AND PANAY. 405 

measures 8,997 cubic inches. The pesada, by which 
sapan-wood is sold, weighs 13 arrobas 13 lbs., or 
nearly 2^ peculs. 

^* The currency is nominally the same as in Manila, 
but silver dollars have to be paid for. nearly all pur- 
chases, gold being of difficult circulation. ' 

^^ From the preceding outline of the trade of this 
port, you will gather that at present, with an annual 
export of about 1,600 tons of sugar, upwards of 
2,000 tons of sapan-wood, and 350 to 400 tons of 
hemp, it is (considering the quantity which the 
foreign shippers would be able to secure) capable of 
furnishing cargoes for two foreign vessels of moderate 
tonnage ; and next year, as regards sugar, which will 
form the bulk of the cargoes of foreign vessels load- 
ing here, the supply will probably be doubled. The 
more important question, however, as regards the 
foreign trade of Iloilo, is not as to the actual quan- 
tity of produce (still so very limited) which this 
island may furnish, but whether the concentration 
of produce from the neighbouring islands and pro- 
vinces will in reality be brought about. 

" A review of the facts regarding the southern Phi- 
lippines would seem to lead to a conclusion in the 
affirmative. With Leyte and Samar giving a com- 
bined annual export of 4,000 tons of hemp, Cebu 
upwards of 5,000 tons of sugar, Negros a (rapidly 
expanding) product of about 900 tons of sugar 
and 800 tons of hemp, and without taking into 
account the possible supply of hemp which may be 
drawn from South Camerines and from Albay (which 



rr. 



406 FnTTiTPPINE ISLANDS. 

produce by far the largest part of the existing export 
of hemp from the Philippines, and are, during the 
north-east monsoon, within a shorter distance oi 
Iloilo than Manila), it seems in no way hazardous to 
assume that, on relatively equal prices being obtain- 
able here, Iloilo will attract in the course of time a 
gradually augmenting proportion of the products 
which now go on to Manila. It may be further con> 
jectured that Misamis (which yields a considerable 
quantity of remarkably good hemp), Caraga, and the 
other provinces of Mindanao, may also in time con- 
tribute their share to the products obtainable at a 
port which their traders must pass on their way to 
Manila, though the full development of the inter- 
course of the neighbouring islands with Iloilo will 
greatly depend on the amount of European imports 
with which this latter port should gradually be able 
to supply its new customers. The opinion of the 
natives themselves, though not to be taken as a 
guide, may still serve in some measure as an index 
of what may be looked for. In talking on the sub- 
ject to the owners of the small craft whose cargoes 
of hemp have been brought to Iloilo, they have 
frequently said, ^ If foreign vessels come here and 
give higher prices, much more hemp from Leyte and 
Camarines will come to Iloilo/ 

^^ Gebu producing rice and manufactures for its own 
consumption, there is at present little communication 
between it and Iloilo ; but it is encouraging to learn 
that one of the partners of the most enterprising 
Spanish firm at this.place intends proceeding both to 



ILOILO AND PANAY- 407 

Gebu and Leyte, to establish, if practicablei a com-' 
mercial connection, with the ulterior view of geUisig 
both sugar and hemp sent to this quarter. 

'^ It is also a favourable symptom that the trade of 
the contiguous islands is more and more attracting 
the attention of some of the foreign firms in Manila. 
The American houses (generally the first in enter- 
prises of this kind) have ahready, through Spanish 
intermedia, established agencies at NegroB, Xeyte 
and Cebu, for the purchase of hemp and sugar, and 
it is stated from Manila, on apparently good Autho- 
rity, that one of them has lately advanced a sum of 
170,000 dollars for this purpose, the distribution of 
which should have a stimulating effect on production, 
and thus give a collateral aid to the future exports 
from Iloilo. 

^^ Considering the great advantages which would 
accrue from the establishment of lines of small mer- 
chant steamers between the islands, the fact that the 
government have lately given orders to commence 
working the extensive coal districts existing at Cebu 
is not without importance. The subject of steam 
communication for the archipelago is attracting 
attention at Manila, and it is not improbable that 
in a few years the islands will be connected in this 
way in a manner which will greatly tend to their 
advantage. 

^^ It should have been previously menticmed that the 
voyage frt)m Iloilo to Manila during the north- 
easterly monsoon (from November to March) .usually 
occupies the better class of square-rigged vessels in 



I 



408 PHTfiTPPINE ISLANDS. 

the trade from ten to fifteen days, and from four to 
six days on the return voyage. Owing to the pro- 
tection afibrded hy the group of islands forming the 
Silanga, and hy other harhours on the route, vessels 
do not (as is usually the case hetween the ports on 
the northern part of the more exposed coast of Luzon 
and the capital) lay up during the stormy months 
from September to November; and communication, 
though less frequent during these months, is seldom 
altogether suspended for any length of time with 
Manila. On the average, a vessel leaves for the 
capital every eight to twelve days.** 

I add a few further extracts from a report on the 
trade of 1858, with which Mr. Loney has favoured 
me, and which strongly exhibits the growing import- 
ance of Iloilo. 

"The import trade, in direct connection with 
British and foreign houses, has increased during the 
past year to a degree which could not have been 
anticipated. Formerly it did not exceed 7,000 dol- 
lars in amount ; but now, during a period of two 
years, it has reached fully 140,000 dollars, and is 
likely to increase much more in future as the capa- 
bilities of the market for taking off an important 
quantity of manufactures become more fully known. 

« Owing to the existence of a stock of foreign articles 
at Iloilo, obtainable by the native dealers as a general 
rule (and as a consequence of the more direct manner 
in which they reach their hands) at cheaper prices 
than from the Chinese shops at Manila, many of the 
native, and even some of the Chinese traders, find 



ILOILO AND PANAY. 409 

the advantage of making their purchases on the spot 
instead of in Manila, and some of the former have 
ceased altogether to undergo the expense and loss of 
time they formerly incurred in proceeding to Manila 
to lay in their stocks, while others make voyages to 
the capital less frequently than before, and send on 
their pina goods under the care of friends or agents ; 
consequently, the trade is beginning to be conducted 
in a less primitive manner than in previous years, 
when each small trader brought on his goods him- 
self, purchased at high rates from the Manila shop- 
keepers. Dealers from Antique, from the island of 
Negros and from Leyte now also find at Iloilo a 
stock of goods sufficient to supply their wants. 
Another beneficial effect is, that those who buy 
wholesale at Iloilo are enabled to dispose of their 
goods to the small dealers, or to their agents, who 
distribute them over the interior, at lower prices 
than formerly. Goods are thus saleable, owing to 
this greater cheapness, at places in the interior of the 
island, where they were formerly rarely bought, and 
the natural consequence is, a considerable increase 
of consumption. The concurrent testimony of all the 
older residents in the province is, that during the 
last few years a very marked change has taken place 
in the dress and general exterior appearance of the 
inhabitants of the larger pueblos, owing in great 
measure to the comparative facility with which they 
obtain articles which were formerly either not im- 
ported, or the price of which placed them beyond 
their reach. In the interior of the houses the same 



410 FHILIPPIKE ISLANDS. 

change is also obsenrable in the furniture and other 
arrangements, and the evident wish to add oma* 
mental to the more necessary articles of household 
uses; and those who are aware how desirable it is, 
from the peculiarly apathetic nature of the natives, 
to create in them an ambition for bettering the con-* 
dition of themselves and their families, or emulating 
that of others, by placing within their reach the more 
attractive and useful articles of European production, 
will at once recognize in these facts the beneficial 
tendency of increased and cheaper imports. 

" With regard to duties derivable from imports, we 
must consider the more or less remote probability of 
direct imports from Europe or China to Iloilo. It 
needs very little acquaintance with the gradual and 
hesitative processes of trade to be aware of the slow- 
ness with which they adapt themselves to new chan- 
nels of communication. Especially is this the case 
in reference to these southern islands, from the pre- 
vious commercial seclusion in which they had been 
kept — a seclusion so great that it may be safely as- 
serted that the island of Fanay, with its 750,000 
inhabitants, is scarcely known, by name even, in any 
of the commercial marts of Europe, America, or even 
of Asia. Consequently, it affords no ground for sur- 
prise that no direct transactions in imports have 
taken place. It must be recollected that the years 
1857-58 have been eminently unfavourable for new 
commercial enterprises of any kind, owing to the 
depressed state of trade in all the markets of the 
world. This state of depression, though still felt, is, 



ILOILO AND PANAY. 411 

however, drawing to a close, and the Hollo market, 
among others, will doubtless attract the attention of 
European manufacturers and capitalists, though some 
time must necessarily elapse before a sufficient num- 
ber of shippers can be found to send consignments of 
such a varied nature and assortment as would be 
required to make up a cargo to suit the wants of 
Panay and the neighbouring islands. Abeady con- 
signments have arrived by way of Manila, which were 
made up specially for the Boilo market ; and this 
circumstance, and the fact that the Manchester 
manufacturers are beginning to take an interest in 
the Boilo demand, fully warrant the belief that be- 
fore long consignments from Europe, by the way of 
Manila, will take place on an important scale, and 
pave the way to direct shipments to Iloilo. Though 
it is almost useless to prognosticate in cases of this 
kind, where so many circumstances may occur to 
retard or accelerate the development of a new mar- 
ket, still I have no hesitation in affirming it to be 
much more than probable, that in the course of two 
years from this time Spanish vessels will arrive from 
Liverpool direct, ot touching and discharging part 
of their cargoes at Manila, more particularly as by 
that time direct exports will have taken place, and 
the sugar crop be raised to a point which will render 
it easy* for the vessels arriving with piece goods to 
obtain return cargoes of sugar, sapan-wood and hides, 
ell of which products, it is unnecessary to say, cati 
b^ obtained at Iloilo much more cheaply than in 
'Manila. 



412 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS, 

'^ It is also probable that direct imports from 
China will take place sooner than from Europe. The 
employment of raw Shanghai silk is much greater at 
Hollo than in any of the other Philippine provinces, 
and the consumption amounts to fully 30 peculs per 
month, worth, on an average, 600 dollars, silver, per 
pecul, or say 18,000 dollars per month. 

"The export trade from Iloilo direct to foreign 
markets is, in fact, evidently the primary event on 
which the commercial fate, so to speak, of the Bisaya 
Islands depends. The chief obstacle, in addition to 
those mentioned above, which has retarded its com- 
mencement has been the extreme smallness of the 
yield of sugar. In 1855-56, the Iloilo crop, in- 
cluding some quantity received from the island of 
Negros, scarcely reached 12,000 peculs, and, instead 
of increasing, it had been declining in consequence 
of the discouraging eflPect of the miserable price of 
1*875 to 2 dollars per pecul of 140 lbs. ; all that 
could be obtained for it after incurring the expense 
of sending it to Manila. In 1856-579 under the 
stimulus of higher prices, the yield amounted to 
35,000 to 37,000 peculs. In 1857-58, these high 
prices had a still more stimulating effect on the 
planting of -cane, and it was calculated that the 
crop would yield at least 50,000 peculs; but an 
excess of rainy weather reduced the actual outturn 
to about 30,000. The present crop, however, of 
1858-59 has escaped the danger of rain, and it is 
computed that it will yield about 80,000 peculs from 
January to July next. Some estimates place it as 



ILOILO AND PANAY. 413 

high as 100)000 peculs, but in this I think there 
must be exaggeration. . 

. " The yield of sugar at Iloilo (leaving out of the 
question, the crop of Isla de Negros, which is now 
computed to produce 30,000 peculs, and that of 
Antique, 20,000, both available for the Iloilo mar- 
ket) having fortunately reached the above amount, 
direct sugar exports have now become possible, 
and preparations are made for shipments to Aus- 
tralia direct, during the first months of the ensuing 
year. 

^^ ^ To reach the consuming markets by the most 
direct line, to avoid transhipments and save double 
freights are objects, commercially, of the highest 
importance/* And there is an aspect of the matter 
which renders it stLQ more necessary, as regards the 
Philippine trade, that these objects should be kept in 
view. Australia is now, after Great Britain, the 
most important market for the Philippine sugars, 
and particularly for the reclayed Bisayan sugars of 
Iloilo and Cebu, which are there used for refining 
purposes, and it will most undoubtedly be before long 
the largest consumer of the sugar of these islands. 
In 1857 the exports of Doilo and Cebi& sugar from 
Manila to Australia were 18,178 and 51,519 peculs 
respectively, while to all the other markets, in- 
cluding Great Britain, they were only 11,519 and 
41,699 peculs; and the same year the total export 
of all kinds of sugar to Australia was even more 
than to Great Britain, being 17)847 tons, or 285,552 

* Quoted from Sir J. Bowring's letter to N. Loney of Aug. 3, 1858, 



414 FHIUFFmB ISLA]m& 

peculs, to the former, against 16,67^ tons, or 266^80d 
pecolsy to the latter market. . In the present year 
(1858), the total export from Manila to Australia, 
owing to a deficiency in the Fampanga crop, and the 
discouragement caused to the Australia^ importers 
by the high prices of 18579 l^a.ye only reached 99O38 
tons, or 145,028 peculs. 

*^ In the meantime Mauritius, Java and Bengal all 
supply large and increasing quantities of sugar to 
Australia, and Mauritius in particular, possessing 
the great advantages of greater proximity (as to 
time) and of machinery and other appliances far 
superior to those in use in the Philippines, fur*' 
nishes the Australian market with a large quantity 
of crystallized and yellow sugars, which are much 
sought for in Sydney and Melbourne, where the 
steady increase of population and general wealth 
augment the demand for high-classed sugars. In 
1857 the Australian colonies took 24,000 tons, or 
384,000 peculs, of sugar from Mauritius ; and the 
latest accounts anticipate that the shipments this 
year to the same quarter will be 30,000 tons, or 
480,000 peculs. To quote the words of the JPart 
Louis Commercial Gazette of August 10th, 1868 : — 
^ There is no doubt that the present crop will reach 
the figures of 240,000,000 lbs., say 120,000 tons' 
(nearly 2,000,000 peculs) ; ^ but as the Australian 
colonies took 24,000 of the last crop, we must expect 
they will take at least 30,000 of this, our crystallized 
and yeUow sugars gaining in estimation there.' The 
same journal, of the 27th of October, adds, ^This 



ILOILO AND PANAY. 415 

fecOity of realizing produce at fair prices has given 
animation to business and has improved the pror 
spects of the colony. There are now 150 vessels 
in our harbour, loading and discharging for and 
from different parts of the world. Our marine 
establishments are busily engaged in repairing vessels 
of different nations that have been happy to seek 
refuge here; our vast quays are too small for our 
commerce ; the capacious new stores lately erected, 
and which embellish our port, are filled with goods 
and produce; 25,000 immigrants have been added 
to our population this year, whilst only 6,500 have 
left. Our public revenue * has largely increased — 
companies are prosperous — cultivation has been ex* 
tended, sugar machinery and works improved and 
increased, and private buildings throughout the prin- 
cipal part of the town enlarged and improved in 
appearance.' 

'^Fortunately for the Philippines, with respect to 
their better-appointed rivals — Mauritius, Java and 
Bengal — the low-graded unclayed sugars of HoUo, 
Capias and Antique, Isla de Negros and Cebu, are, 
in ordinary times, cheaper than those of either of the 
latter colonies, and consequently more adapted for re- 
fining purposes ; but nothing can place in a stronger 
light than the above facts regarding the export from 
Mauritius the very great importance of keeping the 
way open for exporting the unclayed Philippine 
sugars to Australia at the cheapest possible cost to 
the importers. 

^^The much greater extent and more than equal 



416 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

fertility of the Philippines, as compared with Mau- 
ritius, must, in the end, if no artificial ohslaeles are 
again imposed on the production of the former, lead 
to the development of larger sugar crops than those 
of the latter colony. 

" The results of the opening of the ports of Soera- 
haya, Samarang, Cheribon, and others in the island 
of Java are encoura^ng circumstances, as showing, 
among other similar examples, of what importance 
Iloilo, as the central port of the Bisayan Islands, may 
become. Soerabaya and Samarang (and especiaUy 
the former), which enjoy a favourable proximity to the 
chief points of production, now export an immense 
quantity of produce, and orders for the direct shipment 
to Europe of rice, sugar, coflfee, tobacco and other 
Javan products are transmitted by electric t-elegraph 
by the Batavian houses to their agents at these ports 
over a distance exceeding 350 miles. I cannot at 
present do more than briefly allude to the approach- 
ing commencement of an export of timber and furni- 
ture woods from Iloilo and Antique to China. The 
Spanish ship Santa Justa loaded a large cargo of 
wood this year for Hong Kong, which has lately been 
sold at 63^ cents per foot. Since then, in anticipa- 
tion of the demand for the rebuilding of Canton, the 
price has risen in Hong Kong, and arrangements are 
being made for the charter of a large vessel, either 
Spanish or foreign, to convey other cargoes to China; 
and there is every prospect of there being, before 
long, an active traffic in this article, which, as before 
noticed, is of excellent quality, abundant, cheap, and 



■^ 



ILOILO AND PAN AY. 417 

easily accessible near Iloilo, and at the adjoining pro- 
vince of Antique. 

^^ It is recommended that vessels making the voyage 
to Iloilo from Australia, or any place to the south of the 
Philippines, should, during the S.W. monsoon, enter 
the archipelago between the islands of Basilan and 
Zamboanga, and, on passing Point Batalampon, keep 
well up to Point Gorda, and make the Murcielagos 
Island, so as to avoid being driven to the westward by 
the strong currents setting from off the Mindanao 
coast during both monsoons. 

^^ Pending the N.E. monsoon, the best course is 
to make a dStour to the east of the Philippines, 
and enter the archipelago by the Straits of San 
Bernardino. The straits should be entered by 
Samar and Masbate. Vessels bound from Manila 
or northern ports may proceed through the Min- 
doro passage, but they should consult Don Claudio 
Montero's charts. After passing Tablas and Bom- 
blon (an excellent harbour there), make for the 
Silanga Islands, a good mark for which is the high 
conical island called Sugar Loaf (Pan de Azucar). 
During the N.E. monsoon vessels should keep be- 
tween the islands of Jintotolo and the larger Zapato 
(Shoe Island), but during the S.W. pass between 
Oliuaya and the smaller Zapato. The best channel 
is between Sicogon and Calaguan, but the outer 
and broader passage between the groups of islands 
and that of Negros is preferable for large ships. 
There is safe anchorage through the inner route. 
At Bacuan and Apiton supplies are to be found. 

E E 



^ 



418 PHILIPPINB ISLANDS. 

^^ The tide through the Silanga Islands and Seven 
Sins flows at the rate of three to four miles an hour 
— from the Seven Sins to Iloilo often at six to seven 
miles an hour." 

Commercial prosperity is so intimately connected 
with general improvement and the increase of human 
happiness, that one cannot hut look with interest 
upon the results of any legislation which removes the 
trammels from trade and gives encouragement to 
industry, and the island of Panay may he considered 
a promising field for the future. The latest accounts 
report that the planting of cane has heen extended 
very rapidly in this province, owing to the continu- 
ance of high prices for sugar, and also to the fact 
of the direct export trade to Australia having com- 
menced. Planters now see that the arrival of foreign 
vessels will lead to a permanent demand for their 
sugars at prices which will pay them hetter than 
those formerly ohtainahle for the Manila market, 
from whence, hefore the opening of the port of Doilo 
to foreign trade, all the sugar of this and the neigh- 
houring provinces had to he shipped at a great 
additional expense in heavy coasting freight, landing 
and reshipping charges, sea risk, commission, bro- 
kerage, &c., all of which are now avoided by direct 
shipment at the place of production. 

'^ The stimulus given to planting has resulted this 
year in an increase in the yield to 60,000 peculs 
(3,750 tons), and, judging from the amount of cane 
planted for next season's crop, it is fully anticipated 
that in I860 about 140,000 peculs (7,500 tons) will be 



ILOILO AND PANAY, 419 

produced, without counting on the quantity yielded 
by the neighbouring provinces of Antique (30,000 
peculs) and the island of Negros (35,000 to 40,000 
peculs), from both of which places sugar is brought 
and exported. 

^^ The difference in the cost of sugar at Iloilo and 
at Manila is at present 21. I6s. bd. per ton, free on 
board ; as will be seen from the following : — 

CoMPAiiATivB Cost. 

At Manila, 2drd April, 1859. BollAfs. 

1 ton=16 peculs, at 3-87 J dollars .... C2-00 

Export duty, at 3 per cent 1'86 

Receiving, rebagging and shipping, 27 cents 1 

per pecul ...... J 

6-18 

C8'18 
Commission (if in Funds), 2i per cent. .. . .1-70 

Cost free on board at Manila C9'88 

„ „ Iloilo ..... 55*71 

Difference . 1417 

At Iloilo, 2nd May, 1859. 

1 ton=16 peculs, at 2-75 dollars • . . . 4400 

Export duty, 3 per cent 1'32 

Receiving, bagging and shipping, 20 cents') 

per pecul (no boat hire is incurred at Iloilo) J 

4-52 



I 



48-52 
Commission, 2J per cent. ....... 1*21 

49-73 
12 per cent., cost of silver . ...... 5-98 

Cost at Iloilo, free on board 65-71 

E E 2 



420 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

Difference, 14*17 dolls., equal at exchange is. id, to £3 1 5 
Less for additional freight payable per ton, in enO 
gaging a vesael at Manila to load at Iloilo, say . J 

Costs per ton, less at Iloilo . . . . £2 16 5 

*^ The island of Panay, of which Iloilo is the chief 
port, is divided into the three provinces of Iloilo, 
Capizy and Antique, which contain respectively 
527,970, 143,713, and 77,639 inhabitants, or a total 
of 749,322, according to the official returns of 1858. 

" British Vice-Consulate for Fanay, 

" Iloilo, 2nd May, 1859. " N. Loney.** 



Notwithstanding the favourable prospects for com- 
merce at Iloilo, little or nothing has been done for 
the improvement of the port or for facilitating the 
extension of its trade. There is no buoy, no light, 
no indication of dangerous places, though the Oton 
shoal is extending itself, and it is of the greatest 
importance that the safe channel should be pointed 
out to navigators. The latest Admiralty instructions 
( 1 859) are as follow : — 

"Port Iloilo, situated on the southern shore of Pa- 
nay Island, though well protected and naturally good, 
is not without certain inconveniences, capable, how- 
ever, of being easily obviated ; provided with a good 
chart, and if approaching from the northward with a 
pilot, large vessels may enter with safety. 

" The depth of water on the bar at the entrance to 
the creek or river Iloilo is about five fathoms at low 
water, but at a short distance within it decreases to 
fifteen feet, and then deepens again. The rise of tide 



ILOILO AND PANAY. 421 

being six feet, a vessel drawing sixteen to eighteen 
feet can easily enter or leave ; and when, as is pro- 
posed, a dredging-machine is employed to clear away 
the mud which has been allowed to accumulate at 
the shallower parts near the entrance, vessels of 
almost any burden will be able to complete their 
cargoes inside. A Spanish ship of 700 tons, in 1857, 
loaded part of a cargo of tobacco inside the creek, 
and finished the lading outside. 

*^ The banks of the creek being of soft mud, there 
is little or no risk to be apprehended from grounding. 
Proceeding about a mile and a half up the creek, 
which varies in breadth from one-half to three- 
quarters of a mile, the coasting craft bring up at 
the jetties of their respective owners, and have the 
great advantage of discharging and loading at the 
stores without employing boats. Beyond this point 
the creek reaches as far as Molo, to which place 
coasting vessels formerly could proceed by passing 
through a drawbridge. This got out of repair, and 
the present bridge affording no means of passage, 
they remain at Iloilo, where the Molo traders have 
had to transfer their storehouses. The works of a 
new moveable bridge, to allow vessels to pass, have, 
however, already been commenced. 

^* The island of Guimaras forms, in front of Iloilo, a 
sheltered passage, running nearly north and south, of 
a breadth varying from two miles and a half to six 
miles, with deep water and good anchorage. The 
southern entrance to this passage is much narrowed 
by the Oton Bank, which extends a considerable 



422 FHILIPFINE ISLANDS. 

distance from the Panay shore, and contracts for 
about a mile the available channel at this port to the 
breadth of about two miles. This shoal is fast be- 
coming an island. There is, however, no obstacle to 
large vessels during the north-west monsoon (espe- 
cially as the channel is to be buoyed), the passage 
being quite clear, and in the north-east monsoon they 
can work or drop through with the tide, keeping well 
over towards Guimaras (the coast of which is clear, 
with deep waters quite close in), anchoring, if neces- 
sary, on the edge of the shoal, which affords good 
holding-ground and may be safely approached. The 
whole of this part of the coast is, in fact, safe anchor- 
age during the north-east monsoon. 

'^ If blowing hard in the southern channel to Iloilo, 
a vessel may proceed to the port of Bulnagar, or 
Santa Ana, on the south-west side of Guimaras, 
which is of easy access, and capable of admitting 
vessels of the largest tonnage, and it affords good 
shelter under almost any circumstances. 

^^ The approach from the northward to the northern 
entrance to Iloilo is generally made by the coasting 
craft through the small, richly wooded islands Gi- 
gantes, Sicogon, Pan de Azucar, Apiton, &c., called 
collectively the Silanga, which lie off the north-east 
coast of Panay, and aflbrd an admirable refuge 
for a considerable distance to the vessels engaged 
in the trade with Manila and the southernmost 
Bisangas. Though, however, there is excellent an- 
chorage among these islands, particularly at Pan de 
Azucar and Tagal, it would be most prudent for 



ILOILO AND PANAY. 423 

large ships, in cases where there is no practical 
acquaintance with the set of the tides, currents, &c., 
to take the outside channel between the Silanga and 
the island of Negros. 

'^ After passing the Calabazos rocks and Fapitas 
shoal, and sighting the block-house of Banate" 
(erected, like many others along the Philippine coasts, 
for defence against the pirates of the Sulu Sea), ^^ the 
course is due south, until sighting a group of seven 
remarkable rocks, called the Seven Sins, which lie 
between the north end of Guimaras and the Fanay 
shore ; a direct course for them should then be made, 
taking care to keep the lead going to avoid the 
Iguana Bank. Vessels of proper draught may enter 
the creek, or, if too large, should bring up on the 
east side of the fort, where they are protected from 
the wind and strength of the tide. 

^^ A lighthouse, for exhibiting a fixed light, is to be 
erected on the Seven Sins, and another on Dumangas 
Point. Buoys are also to be laid down along the 
channel near the Iguana and Oton shoals.'' * 

The latest report on the navigation of the port of 
Iloilo is given in the note below.f 

* The track of the Spanish discovery ships Atrevida and DeS' 
cubierta passes over it See Admiralty chart of St. Bernardino 
Strait and parts adjacent, No. 2,577 ; scale, degree = 6 inches. 

f Vessels bound to Iloilo by the southern passage, if in tlie 
N.E. monsoon, should, when to the northward of Point Guinad, 
beat up along the coast of Guimaras. In April, 1859, in the barque 
Camilla, from Manila to Iloilo, I had soundings much farther to the 
S.W. than are laid down on the Spanish charts. With Point 
Guinad bearing south, and Point Balingasag bearing east, I had 



424 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

Iloilo has great facilities for the introduction of 
wharves, piers and landing-places, but none have 
been constructed. The entrance to the river, and, 
indeed, the whole of its course, might be easily 
dredged, but little or nothing is done for the removal 
of the accumulating mud. 

from seven to nine fathoms water, with sofb ground. Stood to tlie 
N.W., had regular soundings seven fathoms. 

When five or six miles off shore, had four fathoms, tacked inshore, 
and brought up for the night, Point Cabalig bearing N.£. two miles, 
eight ^thorns water ; good holding-ground, soundings deepening to 
twenty fathoms when one mile off shore. 

Point Cabalig and Point Bondulan, when bearing N.E., form two 
veiy prominent headlands, which are not shown on the Spanish 
charts I had. With common precaution there is no danger what* 
ever in approaching the port of Iloilo bj keeping the coast of 
Gnimaras close inboard from Point Cabalig imtil nearly abreast the 
fort, which will clear the Oton Bank. Even should a vessel ground, 
she will receive no damage, and can be easily got off, as the bottom 
is quite soft. When the fort bears S.W. by W. one mile, the 
channel to Iloilo is then open, and with a flood-tide keep the N.E. 
point close on board. When past it, keep more over to the other 
shore, where there are from three and a half to three fathoms water 
close to the shore, and two fathoms at low water. The port of Iloilo 
is a perfect dock formed by nature. Vessels lay alongside the 
wharf, where there are two and a half fathoms at high water, and 
two fathoms at low water, and every facility for discharging and 
loading. I discharged 200 tons of ballast and took in 300 tons of 
sugar within nine days. Labour and fresh provisions are very 
moderate. 

llailoj ith May^ 1859. (Signed) J. H. Pbitchabd. 

Barque Camilla, 




c-'-\ 







CHAPTER XXVI. 



The province of FangasinaD consistB principally of 
an extensive plain, or, ratber, of a very gradual 
descent iront the mountains where the Igorrote 
Indians dwell, and extending to those of Zambalee. 
The roads are generally good and have trees planted 
by their sides, and the lands are rich and fruitful. 
Many rivers descend from the hills and are used 
for the conveyance of timber, rattans, and other 
forest productions. The Igorrotes collect gold in 



1 



426 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

the mountain streams, especially in the noighbom*- 
hood of Asingan. Large herds of wild buffaloes, 
oxen, deer and pigs, are found on the hills, but 
little attended to by the natives. The fertility of 
the lands will give a crop of sugar and of rice in 
the same year. The coast and lakes abound with 
fish, of which, as of salt, cocoa-nut oil and sugar, 
there is a considerable exportation. Hides are 
tanned for the Manila market. Ship-building is 
an important branch of industry, especially on the* 
Agno Eiver. Multitudes of the women are employed 
in making straw hats, cigar-cases and other articles, 
of the fibres of various vegetables, some of great 
fineness and selling for high prices — a cigar-case is 
sometimes valued at an ounce of gold. Mats, plain 
and ornamented, are also manufactured for use and 
for sale. It is said that the Indian, with no other 
instrument than his knife for all his domestic needs, 
and his plough for his field labours, supplies himself 
with every object of desire. Women are proud of 
having woven and embroidered the garments worn 
by their husbands and their children, and they pre- 
sent a gay appearance on days of festivity. In the 
year 1755 there was a serious insurrection against 
Spanish rule, and again in the year 1762, when 
the English took Manila; but both were subdued, 
though the population was diminished to the extent 
of 20,000 by these outbreaks. Two diQtinct idioms 
are spoken in the province, the aboriginal Panga- 
sinan people being distinct from the races which 
penetrated from Ilocos. The Dominican friars exer- 



SUAL. 427 

cise the principal ecclesiastical authority in the pro- 
vince. 

On our leaving Iloilo, after three days' steamingi 
and sighting Nasog and the Isla Verde, which had 
heen recommended to us as a preferahle course to that 
of the outer passage by which we had come down, we 
returned to Manila again to enjoy the hospitalities of 
the palace of the -Governor and the attentions of my 
friend Colonel Trasierra, in whose hands I had been 
so kindly placed. We arrived on the Dia de los 
Reyes (day of the kings), one of formal reception 
at court. In the evening we took a long ride into 
the country as far as the province of Bulacan, which 
is divided from that of Tondo by a handsome stone 
bridge over a branch of the Fampanga River. The 
question of going by land to Lingayen, which can 
in favourable circumstances be accomplished in a 
day, the distance being thirty leagues, was discussed, 
but the state of the roads not being satisfactory, 
and the delay consequently uncertain, I determined 
again to take ship, and on the second day of our 
voyage we anchored at Sual. The captain of the 
port came out to pilot us into the harbour, in the 
middle of which is a dangerous rock not laid down 
in many of the charts. The narrowness of the pas- 
sage requires much precaution, but once anchored, 
it is a very safe and well-sheltered, though small 
harbour. The appearance of Sual disappointed us ; a 
few scattered dwellings, the church and the custom- 
house, did not look very promising. On landing, 
however, the musicians of the pueblo came to escort 



428 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

US with their band, and we learnt that all the autho- 
rities were at Lingayen, a few miles off; but a courier 
was immediately despatched to announce our arrival, 
and, as a specimen of the language, I give a copy of 
the receipt he brought back to show that his mission 
had been properly fulfilled : — 

"Recibido del Conductor de S. Idro (San Isi- 
dro) alioncio (a las once ? ) CastiUo so sagay 
agangan ck Sogenti amar som pal ed Seuor Aldi 
(Alcalde) maior sin mabidia pasodo a lacho (a 
las ocho) ed Labi Martes ed pitcha 11 de Eniro 
de 1859. 

"Juan Gabril." 

Meaning, that having started at eight o clock from 
San Isidro, the despatch was delivered at eleven 
o'clock to the alcalde. 

Carriages having been provided for our conveyance 
to the seat of government (Lingayen), we started at 
early day for the convent at San Isidro, which is on 
the left bank of the Agno, a fine river, affording 
great facilities for navigation, and presenting charm- 
ing points of scenery on its banks, with the beauties 
of which we amused ourselves until preparations for a 
procession were seen, and the sound of music was heard 
from the opposite shore ; upon which we embarked, 
and found our Indian escorts, with comfortable car- 
riages and sprightly horses, and their accustomed 
display, waiting to receive us, the roads and houses 
adorned as usual, and everything bearing marks of 
gaiety and good-will. Tropical fruit-trees are seen 



SUAL. 429 

all along the line of the road, through which the 
Indian cabanas prettily peep ; the women and children 
in their gay dress giving a picturesque and varied 
character to the scene. The windows and plat- 
forms before the houses were crowded with specta- 
tors, who seemed greatly delighted as from time to 
time we recognized their courtesies or admired some 
flag more demonstrative or more decorated than the 
rest. We entered one or two of the ship-building 
yards, and our naval officials expressed their satis- 
faction with the state of naval architecture among 
the natives. One vessel on the stocks was of 350 
tons. An Indian ship-builder, who was introduced 
to us as being remarkable for mechanical genius, 
came irom some distance to ask permission from 
Captain Yansittart to visit the Magiciennej and 
to instruct himself in matters connected with the 
application of steam-engines to navigation, and to 
discover any other improvements of which he ex- 
pected a British ship of war to bear about the evi- 
dence. The leave, which was very humbly asked, 
was very courteously given ; on obtaining which the 
Indian was trotted off in his carriage without losing 
a moment. The abundance, adjacency, excellence 
and cheapness of the materials on the banks of the 
Agno give it great advantages for the construction 
of vessels, but the bar is a great obstacle against 
their getting to sea. 

We were met on the road by the alcalde mayor, 
and I entered his carriage. The superior Spanish 
officials carry a cane with a gold head and a silk 



430 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

tassel as a mark of their authority ; and we galloped 
away to Lingayen, the cabazera of the province. 
It has a population of 23,000 souls. The roads 
were good, except in one part where the Agno 
had made itself a new channel, and there the horses 
had some diflBculty in dragging the carriage through 
the sand. We came upon the coast, and the waves 
were dashing with foaming impetuosity, as if tem- 
pest-vexed, upon the shore; but joining again the 
principal causeway, we pursued our journey without 
interruption. We had been accompanied by the 
excellent Vice-Consul Don Jose de Bosch and Friar 
Gabriel, who was everywhere our guardian and guide. 
The vice-consul was thoroughly cognizant of all 
commercial matters, and furnished me with the in- 
formation I sought. The friar was delighted to pour 
out his stores of local knowledge, and they were 
great, while the alcalde, Seiior Combas, was in all 
things kind, considerate and communicative. In 
fact, it was impossible not to feel at home when 
everybody was contributing to amuse, interest and 
instruct. We visited several of the pueblos in the 
neighbourhood, and at Calasiao, which has 18,000 
inhabitants, the gobernadorcillo brought us speci- 
mens of the manufactures of the place, and pressed 
a fine straw hat on my acceptance, while the good 
Friar Gabriel insisted on every one of our party 
carrying away a cigar-case. What we had seen 
elsewhere was repeated in the pueblos through which 
we passed, in each of which the friars and the prin- 
cipalia were on the qui vive^ not only for our com- 



SUAL. 431 

fort and accommodationi but to do us all honour. 
TVe returned to Lingayen at sunset, and the good 
father summoned us to dine with him the following 
day, on which occasion he said he would do his best 
to show us what his convent could produce. And 
certainly nothing was wanting. The tables were 
crowded with numerous guests, and covered with 
abundant supplies of substantial and decorative 
dishes. I imagine the father must have drawn on 
all the resources of the community, for the meats 
and drinks, the plate and the porcelain, decanters 
and glasses, and all the paraphernalia of a handsome 
public dinner, were there, and there was no small 
amount of fun and jollity, the padre taking the 
lead. 

Father Gabriel boasted of the immense capabilities 
of the river Agno. It flows through a large portion 
of the province of Pangasinan, and was navigable for 
a great distance in its wanderings. He sketched its 
course upon paper, and pointed out the many pueblos 
which it visited. The misfortune was, it had a 
terrible bar, and could not be navigated from or 
into the sea. The river is certainly one of consider- 
able depth, and of great beauty, having its source 
in the Cordillera of Caraballes in the province of 
Abra, amidst wild mountains, and receiving, in its 
flowing course, many confluent streams. Between 
San Isidro and Lingayen there was much ship-build- 
ing on its banks, and a busy Indian population. On 
the shores were fine forest trees ready for the hand 



I 



432 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

of the woodman, materials for cordage, bamboos and 
canes, which are brought down by the wild tribes 
of Igorrotes. It is said that much gold is foand 
in the sand and mud of the river. Many attempts 
have been made by the Spaniards, and especially 
by the friars, to conquer, civilize and christianize 
the wild tenants of the rough and craggy regions, 
but with little success. Their numbers are in- 
creased by criminals escaping from justice, and who 
seek and find refuge in the least accessible parts 
of Luzon. 

Father Gabriel, who has greatly interested himself 
in developing the commercial resources of Sual, 
which he called his '^port,** expressed a confident 
expectation that the establishment of foreign trade 
and the visits of shipping for cargoes, would induce 
the natives to bring down their produce and open 
the way to the influences of improvement. 

We found it necessary to prepare for our departure, 
but our good friends had determined, as we had come 
by land, we should return by water, and an aquatic 
procession, with flags and music, was put in motion. 
The sky lowered, the rain fell in tropical torrents, 
and the musicians and other actors and spectators 
dispersed; nothing discouraged, however, after a delay 
of two hours, sunshine brought them out again. The 
boats were put in requisition, the bands of music 
reassembled, and we embarked on the river Agno. 
All went on pleasantly and perfectly for an hour, 
when a drenching storm compelled me to leave the 



SUAL. 433 

open barge ill which I was, and to seek the shelter of 
one of the covered boats. Many of our companions 
were as thoroughly wetted as if they had been dragged 
through the water, and we reached San Isidro as if 
escaped from wreck. There we sought dry garments, 
and the friars' wardrobes were largely drawn on for 
our comforts. Grotesque, indeed, were the figures 
and drapery of many, and a humorous sketcher 
might have made excellent capital out of the laugh- 
ing groups. Some got ^ carriages, some horses, and 
some disappointment, to help us to Sual, where a 
handsome dinner was provided at the custom-house 
by the vice-consul. The harbour-master broke out 
into poetry in honour of the British flag, and gloria 
and Victoria rhymed in to the delectation of the 
guests, and to the echoes of the walls. Our captain 
.was inspired, and harangued our hospitable hosts in 
answer to the warm hrindia of the company. The 
Indians had been studying our national song, and 
for the first time the noble air of '* God save the 
Queen" was heard in the pueblo of Sual. It was 
late when we got on board the MaguAenne^ but be- 
fore Our departure on the following day, the autho- 
rities, the vice-consul and the friar, with many 
attendants, were on board to give us a despedida as 
kind as our welcome had been cordial. They brought 
various presents as souvenirs, and a lilliputian mid- 
shipman, who had excited the interest and admira- 
tion of the visitors, was specially summoned that he 
might receive a cigar-case from the hands of Fadre 
Gabriel. As soon as they left, our anchor was raised 

F F 



434 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 

and we steamed away from Pangasinan and the Phi- 
lippines. It would L stTange,^ndeed, if we took 
not with us a grateful memory of what we had 
seen. 



INDIAN SONG OF THE PHILIPPINES. 
(From Mauult). 



Andaniino. 



Guitar. 






m 




Canto. 




fe ^^j^jv J yl^ m 



p I J 




Si- nor a nn Cay -a sa san-da-ig di 



gon 



M 



f 




' i I j 





I 



^5q !V2»- 



»<= 






■p — n 




J: N^ 



•1 A-a» 



^ 



e 






1 ij ] J I 




pi na In llgai 



In 



ngtti pag sin to M - i yoDg t» 




n. 



Signos At planetas naHga Baan eayo 
Yoao oametoTan Sgaioy somaolodo 
Anhln eoi ang hohay sa pamahong ito 
Yalaring halaga oong ang sintoy lito. 



in. 



Mahintoi hintoica ih on maeamatai 
Itnn innatai mo oon pagbalioan 
Indi 00 namanica aooy pagluisan 
Ijelit mo laman totovina jneai. 



To know is to remember thee ; 

And yet in grief I rove, 
Becanae thou wilt not fathom me, 

Nor feel how mnch I lore. 



n. 



All traitors are the stars on high- 
For broken hopes I grieve : 

I csnnot live-— I fUn would die; 
Tis miseiy to live. 



m; 



Sweet bird ! yet flatter o*er my way, 
And chant thy victim's doom ; 

Be thine, be thine the funeral lay 
That consecrates my tomb. 



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"As the work of an honest able writer, these 
Snggestions are weU worthy of attention, and no 
doubt they will generally be duly i^preeiated."— 
Obterver. 

"Oenuine honeet utterances of a dear, sound 
understanding, neither obeeurednor enfBebled by 
party prq|udlee or personal selflshness. We cor- 
dially recommend aU who are in search of the 
truth to peruse and reperoae these pagee."— 
IkMglfetM, 

EIGHT MONTHS' CAMPAIGN 
AGAINST THE BENGAL SE- 
POYS, DURING THE MUTINY, 
1857. By Colond Gbobob Boub- 
OHiBB, C.R, Bengal Horse Ar- 
tillery. With plans. Post 8Ta 
Price 7», 6d, doUi. 

"Col. Bourchier has given a right manly, fklr, 
and forcible statement of events, and the reader 
will derive much pleasure and Instmotion flrom 
his pBtsn"—AtkeiUBum. 

"Ool. Bourchier dee e rlbee the various opera- 
tions with a modeet ft>rgetftilneea of seir aa 
pleasing and aa rare as the dear manly style in 
which they are narrated."— X4terarr CtatutU. 

"None who reaDy desire to be more than very 
superfiolaUy aeqnamted with the rise and pro- 
gress of the rebellion may consider their studies 
complete until thear have read Col. Bourchier. The 
nicely engraved plans Itom the Oolonel's own 
sketehes oonfbr aodittonal value npan his contri- 
bution to the literature of the Indian war."— 




NEW WORKS ON INDIA AND THE EAST— 

Contintied. 



PERSONAL ADVENTURES DURING 
THE INDIAN REBELLION, IN 
ROHILCUND. FUTTECHUR, AND 
OUDE. By W. Edwards, Esq., 
B.C.S. Fourth Edition, post 8vo. 
Price 68. doth. 

" For touching inoldentB, hair-breadtli *ae«M«, 
and the imthos of soffoiing almost Inoredfbl^ 
there haa appeared nothing like thia little book of 

Eersonal adfrontures. For the first tlnte we seem 
D realise the magnitude of the aflUotlone which 
have betaUen our unhappy countrymen In the 
East. The terrible drama comes before us, and we 
are by turns bewildered with horror, stung to 

fierce indignation, and melted to tears 

We hare here a tsie of sufllsring such as msy have 
been equalled, but never surpassed. These real 
adventures, which no eflPort of the Imagination 
ean surpass, will find a sympatiilsing puhlia*'— 

"Mr. Edwards's narrative is one of the most 
deeply Interesting episodee of a story of which 
the least striking portions cannot be read without 
emotion. He telle his story with simplicity and 
manliness, ^d it bears the Impress of that 
earnest and unaffected reverence to the wiU and 
hand of God, which was the stsy and comfort 
of many other brave heart:"— Ouardtan,- 

" The narrative of Mr. Edwards's sufflsring and 
escapes is (till of interest ; It tells many a pitlnfnl 
tale, out it also exhibits a man patient under ad- 
versity, and looking to the GKm and Father of us 
aU for guidance anosupport."— J?r2ec^ Beviev. 

"Among the stories of hair-breadth escapes in 
India this is one of the most Interesting and 
touching."— £!a;aiiiin«r. 

"A fiMcinatlnK little hoo'k."—yational Beviev. 

*' A very touching narrative."— 14^. Chuette. 

"No account of it can do It Justice."— 02o6«. 

A LADY'S ESCAPE FROM CWA- 
LIOR DURING THE MUTINIES 
OF 1857. By Mss. Coopulnd. 
Post 8vo. Price 10s. 6d 

** A plain, unvarnished tale, told In the simplest 
Baanner."— jy«««. 

" This book Is valuable as a contribution to the 
history of the groat Indian rebellion."— A£A«iust(M. 

" The merit of this book is Its truth. ... It 
contains some passages that never will be read 
by Englishmen without emotion."— fivamiiMr. 

THE CHAPLAIN'S NARRATIVE OF 
THE SIEGE OF DELHL By the 
Bev. J. E. W. RoTTON, Chaplain 
to the Delhi Field Force. Post 
8yo, with a plan of the City and 
Siege Works. Price \0s, 6<f. cloth. 

" A simple and touching statement, which bears 
the Impress of truth in every word. It has this 
advantage over the accounts which have yet been 
published, that it. supplies some of those personal 
anecdotes and minute details which bring the 
events borne to the understanding."— ^M«m«mii». 

"■ TtiC Chaplain's Narrative' is remarkable Ibr 
its pietures oimen In amorfU and religious aspect, 
during the nrogress of a harassing siege and 
when suddenly stricken down by the enemy or 
disease."— iSp«etotor. 

"A plain unvarnished record of what came 
under a Field Chaplain's dally observation. Our 
author is a sincere, hardworkiag, and generous 
minded man, and his work will be most acceptable 
to the fHends and relations of the many Ohnstian 
heroes whose IMe It telLs. and to whose later 
hours It alludes."— Leader. 

** A book which has value as a careful narrative 
hy an eye witness of one of the most stirring 
episodes of the Indian campaign, and interest as 
an earnest rec^ord by a Obristian minister of 
some of the most touching scenes which can come 
nnder observatioa."— Ltfterar^ Qagette, 

10 



THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF LUT- 
FULLAH. A MOHAMEDAN GEN- 
TLEMAhl, WITH AN Account op 
HIS Visit to England. Edited 
by E. B. Eastwick, Esq. Third 
Edition, small post 8vo. Price 5«. 
doth. 

"Thank you. Munshl LutAilIah Xlianl UTe 
have read your book with wonder and delight. 
Tour advencures are more curious than you are 
aware. . . . But your book is chiefly striking 
tbr its genuineness. . . . Tha story will aid, in 
its degree, to some sort <tf understanding of Mbh 
Indian Insurrection. Profiessor Eastwick has done 
a grateftU servlee In making known this valuable 
volume." — Athatoawm, 

** Bead fifty volumes of travel, and a thousand 
imitations of the Oriental novel, and you will not 
get the flavour of Eastern life and thought, or the 
test of Its romance, so perfaotly as in Lut ftxllah's 
hook."-Leatter. 

"This is a remarkable book. We have auto- 
biographies in abundance of Bnglishmen,Frencdi- 
men, and Germans ; but of AsliMlos and if ahome- 
tans. few or none. ... As the autobiography 
of a Mahometan muUa, it is in itself singularly 
intereetiug. As the observations of an are- 
witness of our Indian possessions and our poQcy 
and proceedings in the peninsula, it possesses a 
valueof its own. quite distlnot firom any European 
memor* iils on the same Mxit^eetn.*'— Standard, 

"This is the freshest and most original work 
that it has been our good fortune to meet with lor 
long. It bean every trace of being a most gennine 
account of the fb^ngs and doings of the author. 
The whole tone of the book, the turn of every 
thought, the association of ideas, the alluslona. 
are sll Itesh to the English reader; it opens up a 
new vein, and many will be astonishm to find 
how rich a vein It is. Lutftillah is by no means an 
ordinary specimen of his nM.'*—Beom>miat. 

"This veritable autobiography, reads like a mix- 
ture of the Lifa and Adventure of Gil Bias, with 
those of the Three Calendars."— O£o6«. 

" As an autobiography, the book is very enrioos. 
It bears the strongest resemblance to Gil Bias of 
anything we have ever read."— iffj^eetator. 

THE CRISIS IN THE PUNJAB. 

By Frederick H. Cooper, Esq., 
C, S., Umritsir. Post 8vo, with 
Map. Price Is, 6d, cloth. 

" The book Is foil of terrible interest. Hie nar- 
rative is written with vigour and eamestoesa, 
and is full of the most traglo interest."— 
BconomiH. 

" One of the most Interesting and spirited books 
which have sprung out of the eepoy mutiny."-^ 
Olcbe, 

THE DEFENCE OF LUCKNOW: 
A Staff -Officer's Diart. By 
Captain Thomas F. Wilson, I3tii 
Bengal N.I., Assistant Adjutant- 
General. Sixth Thousand. With 
plan of the Residency. Small post 

8to. Price 2s. 6d. 

** Unadorned and simple, the story is, neverthe- 
less, an eloquent one. Ttils is a narrative not to 
be laid down untQ the last line has been read."— 
Leader. 

"The Stafr-Offlcer's INaiy is simple and brief, 
and has a special interesti fnasmuoh as it gives a 
ftiller account than we have elsewhere seen of 
those operations which were the chief huonan 
means of salvation to our mends in Lncknow. 
The Staff-Offloer brings home to us, by his details, 
the nature of that underground contest, upon the 
result of which tlie fate ofthe belcsguered garrison 
ospe^ally depended.*'— £vaailii«r. 



SICITS, X:u>SB j^JXTD GO. 



NEW WORKS ON INDIA AND THE EAST— 



Continued, 



THE LIFE OF MAHOMET AND 
HISTORY OF ISLAM TO THE 
ERA OP THE HECIRA. By 
William Muib, Esq., Bengal Ciyil 
Serrioe. S voIb., 6yo. Price 32^. 
doth. 

**The most perfeet lift of XaSiomet In tba 
Vn^UBh Umgtuige, OT Dorlwpi in Aiiyothttr. . . • 
Th« work !■ %t onoe leanrad and InterMtlnjc, and 
It oumot flill to be WRerljr penued tar lUl paraons 
having any inretensiona to nlatorlcal Knowledge.*' 
— OftwrMT. 

VIEWS AND OPINIONS OF BRIGA- 
DIER-GENERAL JACOB, C.B. 

Edited by Capt. Lewis Fkllt. 
Demy 8 to. Price I2a, doth. 

"The itateunanlike viewi and broad oplnloni 
ennneiated Inthle work woold command attention 
under any dreamttiuioee. bat coming f^om one of 
■nch experlenee and aathoritr th«r are donbly 
Taloable, and merit the oonnderatlon of legU- 
latere and politielane."— Am. 

"The ftote in thli book are worth looking at. 
If the reader desirea tu take a peep Into the inte- 
rim* of the mind of a great man. let him make 
acquaintance with the 'Views and Optnlona ol 
Oeneral Jaoob."'-^/o6«. 

** This Is truly a gallant and soldierly book ; very 
Napierlsh in its self-oonfldenoe. in its capital 
sense, and In its devotedness to vroftssfonal 
honour and the public good. The book should be 
studied by all who are Interested in the choice of 
a new goremment for India."— Daily iysass. 

THE PARSEES i thbib History, 
Belioion, Makkbbs and Customs. 

By DOSABHOT PBAICJXE. PoSt 

8to. Price IQs. doth. 

"Onr anther's aoeount of the inner lift of the 
Parsees will be read with interest."— DoMv^mn. 

** A. very curious and well written book, by a 
jonng Farsee, on the manners and cnstoms of 
hjbi own race."- JVioMono/ Beview. 

"An aooeptable addition to onr literature. It 
gtres information whiOh many will be glad to 
have carefhlly gathered together, and formed into 
a shapely wa(M,*'—BconomUt, 

THE VITAL STATISTICS OF THE 
EUROPEAN AND NATIVE AR- 
MIES IN INDIA. By Joseph 
EwART, Bf. D., Bengal Medical 
Service. Demy Svo. Price 9s. 
doth. 

" A valuable work, in whieh Dr. Bwart, with 
equal industry and skill, has compressed the 
essence and import of an immense mass of de- 
tafla."— 6^ce(ator. 

** One main obleot of this most Talnable Tolnme 
la to point oat the causes which render the Indian 
climate so fMal to European troops."— CHMc. 

INDIAN SCENES AND CHARAC- 
TERS, Sketched tbox Life. 
By Prince Alexis Solttkoff. 
Sixteen Plates in Tinted Litho- 
graphy, with Descriptions. Edited 
by £. B. Eastwick, Esq., P.R.S. 
Colombier folio, half-bound in 
morocco, prints, 3/. St. ; proofs 
(only 50 copies printed), 4/. 4». 



NARRATIVE OF THE MISSION 
FROM THE GOVERNOR-GENE- 
RAL OF INDIA TO THE COURT 
OF AVA IN 1855. With Notices 
of the Countbt, Govbenmbitt, 
AND People. By Capt. Heiibt 
Yule, Bengal Engineers. Imperial 
8vo, with 24 plates (12 coloured), 
50 woodcuts, and 4 maps. Ele- 
gantly bound in doth, with gilt 
edges, price 2/. 12«. 6d. 

" A stately volame in gorgeous golden eorers. 
Such a book Is in our times a rarity. Large, 
masalTB. and beantlAiI in itseir. it is Ulustra&d 
by a sprinkUng of elegant woodcuts, and by » 

series of admirable tinted lithographs 

We have read it with curiosity and gratlfloation, 
as a fresh, foil, and luminous report upon the 
condition of one of the moat interesting UTisions 
ot Asia beyond the Ganges."— ^<A«ii<bimi». 

"Captain Yule has brought to his narrative a 
knowledge of many things, which is the main 
help to obserration. He has a taste in arehl* 
tectnre, art, and the cognate sciences, as well as 
much information on the history and religion of 
the Burmese. . . . His description or these 
things. ospociaUy of Uie anligulties, are not only 
curious in themselves, but for the speculations 
they open up as to origin of the Burmese style, 
and the splendour of the empire, centuries ago.'*— 
Spaetator. 

" Oaptain Tnle, in the preparation of the splendid 
Tolume before us, has availed himself of the labours 
ofthose who preceded him. Toallwhoaredeslruna 
of possesRlng the best and fullest account that 
has ever been given to the publiq, of a great, and 
hitherto little known region of the klobe, the 
intereitting. conscientious, and well- written work 
of Oaptain Yule will have a deep intereet, while 



to the political economist. gecMRvpher, and mer- 
indlspenaabie,'*--£xa«i^iMr. 



chant ft will be 1 



TIGER SHOOTING IN INDIA. By 

Lieutenant William Rice, 25th 
Bombay N. I. Super royal 8vo. 
With 12 plates in chromo-litho- 
graphy. Price 2U. cloth. 

"These adventures, told in handsome large 
print, with spirited ohromo-lithogrmphs to illua- 
tT»te them, make the volume before us as pleasant 
reading as any record of sporting achievements 
we have ever taken in hKaar—AOteiuBHm. 

**A remarkably pleasant book of adventnrea 
during several seasons of 'large game ' hunting 
in Biupootana. The twelve onromo-llthographs 
are very valuable accessories to the narrative; 
they have wonderful spirit and freshness."— 
Otobe. 

"A good Tohune of wild sport, abounding in 
adventure, and handsomely illustrated with 
coloured plates from spirited designs by the 
author."— .Bsofliiiwr. 

THE COMMERCE OF INDIA WITH 
EUROPE. AND ITS POLITICAL 
EFFECTS. By B. A. Ibvjno, 
Esq. PostSvo. Price 7«. 6<i. doth. 

" Mr. Irving's work is that of a man thoroughly 
versed in his snhJeet. It is a historical hand- 
book of the nrogress and vicissitudes of Buropean 
trade with laSEk."-Bc<momi$t. *^ 

11 



TVOKKB I>tTBi:-ISHED BY 



WOBES OK nmiA AND THE EAST. 



THE ENCLISH IN WESTERN INDIA i 

BBINO THB EaRLT HiSTOBT OF THB 

Factobt at Susat, of Bombay. 
By Philip Andebson, A.M. 2nd 
edition, 8 to, price I4s. cloth. 

"Quaint, oarious, and amusing, ihli TOlQine 
deaoribea, firom old mannaeripta and olMonre 
bpoki, the life of EngUah merchant! in an Indian 
raetoiy. It oontaine freah and amiuAns KoesiiL 
all bearing on events and chanMteva of hlslarical 
importanoe."— ^tJktf»0t»M. 

"^ A book of permanent Talne.**— GtuHHliaii. 

UFE IN ANCIENT INDIA. By Mrs. 
Spbib. With Sixty Illastrations 
by G. ScnoARV. 8vo, price 15«., 
elegantly bound in cloth, gilt edges. 

"Whoever desires to have the best, the oom- 
pletest, and the most popular view of what 
Oriental seholars have made known to ns resmot- 
fng Anoient India must peruse the work of Mrs. 
ftpelr; In which he will find the story told In 
dear, correct, and nnaffbeted English. The book 
is admirably got np."—Bxaminer. 

THE CAUVERY, KiSTNAH, AND 
C^DAVERYi BEuro a kbpobt 

ON THB WOBKS CON8TBUCTBD ON 
THOSE RlTEBS, FOB THB IbBIOATION 
OF PbOYINCBS in THB PBESIDBNOT 

OF Madbas. By R. Baibo Smith, 

F.6.S., Lt-GoL Bengal Engineers, 

&c., &c. In demy Syo, with 19 

Plans, price 28«. cloth. 

"A most murloos and interesting work.**— 
SeonomUt, 

THE BHIL8A TOPES j ob, Bubdhist 

Montmbnts of Central India. 

By Migor Cunningham. One yol., 

8yo, with Thirty-three Plates, 

price 309. cloth. 

"Of the Topes opened in various parts of India 
none have yielded so rich a harvest of important 
infbrmatlon as those of Bhllsa* opened by Major 
Cunningham and lient. Maisoy : and which are 
described, with an abundance of highly curious 
graphic luustratlons, in this most interesting 
noQk."—Bxamtner. 

THE CHINESE AND THEIR REBEL- 
LIONS. By Thomas Tatlob 
Meadows. One thick yolnine, 8yo, 
with Maps, price 18«. cloth. 

"Mr. Meadows' book is the work of a learned, 
eonseientlous, and observsat person, and really 
important In many respects."— Ttmsf. 

"^Mr. Meadows has produoed a work which 
deserves to be studied by aU who would gslu a true 
upredatlon of Chinese charaoter. Information 
is sown broad-oast through every page."— 
Atheiumm, 

ADDISON'S TRAITS AND STORIES 
OF ANGLO-INDIAN LIFE. With 
Eight Illiistrations, price 5^. doth. 

"An entertaining and Instmotlve volume of 
Indian aueodotes."^JfiManr Spectator, 

''Anecdotes and stories well calculated to 
ISastrate Anglo-Indian Ufb and the domestio 
manners and niMts of Hlndostan.'*—Oftf erver. 

**Apleasaat ooUeetton of amwslirig anecdotes.** 

11 



TRACTS ON THE NATIVE ARMY 
OF INDIA. By Brigadier-General 
Jacob, CJB. Syo, price 2s. 6(L 

ROYLE ON THE CULTURE AND 
COMMERCE OF COTTON IN 
INDIA. 8 TO, price 1 8s. doth. 

ROYLFS FIBROUS PLANTS OF 

INDIA FITTED FOB COBDAOB, 

Clothing, and Fapeb. 8to, price 
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ROYLPS PRODUCTIVE RE- 
SOURCES OF INDIA. Super 
royal 8to, price 14s. doth. 

ROYLFS REVIEW OF THE MEA- 
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THE IMPROVED CULTURE OF 
COTTON. 8vo, 2s. 6<2. doth. 

A SKETCH OF ASSAMi 
with bomb Aocoun^ of THE Hux 
Tbibes. Coloured Plates, Sto, 
price 14«. doth. 

BUTLER'S TRAVELS AND ADVEN- 
TURES IN ASSAM. One yoL 8to, 
with Plates, price 12s. cloth. 

DR. WILSON ON INFANTICIDE IN 
WESTERN INDM. Demy 8yo» 
price 12s. 

WARINQ ON ABSCESS IN THE 
UVER. 8to, price 3s. ed 

LAURirS SECOND BURMESE 
WAR — RANGOON. Post 8yo. 
with Plates, price 2s. Bd, doth. 

LAURIE'S PECU. Post 8to, price 
I4s. doth. 

IRVINC'S THEORY AND PRACTICE 
OF CASTE. 8vo, price 5s. doth. 

THE BOMBAY QUARTERLY 
REVIEW. Nofl. 1 to 9 at 5«., 10 to 

14, price 6s. each. 

BAILUPS LAND TAX OF INDIA. 

AGCOBDINO to THB MOOHUMMUDAN 

Law. 8vo, price 6s. cloth. 

BAILLIPS MOOHUMMUDAN LAW 
OF SALE. 8to, price 14s. doth. 

BAILLIE'S MOOHUMMUDAN LAW 
OF INHERITANCE. 8to. price 
99. doth. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



ANNALS OF BRITISH LECIS- 
LATION, A Classiubd Summabt 

OF PaBLIAMENTABT FAPESfl. Ed. 

by Professor Leone Levi. The 
yearly issue consists of 1,000 pages, 
super royal 8vo, and the Subscrip- 
tion is Two Guineas, payable in 
adTanoe. The Thirty-fourth Fart 
is just issued, commencing the 
Third Tear's Issua Volumes L to 
IV. may be had, price 4/. 4«. cloth. 

'* A MTlM that wUl, If it be Alwayi maniffed m 
It BOW la by ProftMaor Levi. Uat m long m there 
remalna » L^statnre id Oreftt Britain. Theee 
Annala are to give the eeeenoe of work done and 
Inlormation garnered for the State durlns each 
leglalatlTe year, a summanr deeorlptton or every 
Aet paased, a digest of the vital fkete oontained 
In every Blue Book lasaed. and of all dooumenta 
rdatlng to the publie bonnaea of the oonntir. 
The aeAea will live, while generationa of men die, 
tf it be maintained In ita old age aa ably and aa 
eonaeientionaly aa it ia now m ita youth."— 



**The idea waa admirable, nor doea the ezeoa- 
tlon ftdl abort of the plan. To aeeompUah thia 
eUtootivfldy. and at the aame time briefly, waa not 
an eaay taak ; but Proflsaaor Levi haa undertaken 
It with great aaooeaa. The worii la eaaentl^ a 
guide. It will aatiaiy thoae peraona who refbr to 
it mevely Amt general purpoaea, while It will dtoeet 
the researeh of others whoae Inveatlgatlona take 
a wider range.**— ^CAesMun. 

CAPTIVITY OF RUSSIAN 
PRINCESSES IN SHAMIL'S 
SERAGUO. Translated from the 
Russian, by H. S. Edwabdb. With 
an authentic Portrait of Shamil, a 
Flui of his House, and a Map. Post 
870, price lOg. 6d, cloth. 

"A book than which there an fbw novela more 
Intareatlng. It is a romanoe of tibe Oaueaaoa. 
nie aeeoant of Hfb in the house of ShamU ia ftall 
and very entertaining ; and of BhamU himself we 
■ee mnon."— JteoamMT. 

**The atory is certainly one of the moat eurious 
we have read; it oontains the best popular aotioe 
of the social polity of Shamil and the manners of 
his people.**— £e«Mr. 

'The narrattve ia wen wortb reading.'*— 



SHARPENS HISTORIC NOTES ON 
THE OLD AND NEW TESTA- 
MENT. Third and Beyised Edition. 
Post 8tq, price 7«. cloth. 



■* An inestfrnaUe aid to the cl< 



an, reader, 



dtr-miesionary. wd Sunday.-wEool teacher.*' 
— ibsffrcrfwl Jr«vt (tftkt World. 
** A learned and aenalble book.**— JToMoiial £f • 



ELLIS'S (WILLIAM; RELICION IN 
IMON UFE. 



COMI 

7g. 6d. doth. 



Post 8to, price 



**A book addreeaed to yoong people of the 
upper ten thousand upon aootal dutlea.*'— 



' Leaaooa In PoUtioal Boonomy for young people 
Ir ft •UtfU ftand.'*-JfeeiMN»M. 



THE OXFORD MUSEUM. By 

Hbkbt W. Aglano, M.D., and 
John Rubkut, A.M. Post 8to, 
with three Illustrations. Price 
28, 6d. cloth. 

'* Bveiyone who oarea fbr the advance of true 
IcMming, and dealrea to note an onward 8tep» 
ahonld buy and read thia little i dame."— Jfom- 
i$i0 Herald. 

" There ia aa much algniflcanoe in the occaaion 
of this little volume aa intereat in the book itaeU.** 
-iBpeetator. 

THE ENDOWED SCHOOLS OF 
IRELAND. By Hasbiet Mar- 
TXNBAU. 8to. Price St. 6d., cloth 
boards. 

**The firienda of education will do well to poa- 
aeaa themaelvea of thia book."'-iS^««<atof'. 

PARISH'S (CAPT. A.) SEA 
OFFICER'S MANUAL. Second 
Edition, Small Post 8yo, price 5«. 
doth. 

"A very ludd and oompendloaa manual. We 
would recommend youtha intent upon a aealhrlng 
111b to atudy IW—Aike n a mm . 

"AUttlebookthat ought to beta great rcQuaet 
among yoong aeamen."— ^xoariiMr. 

ANTIQUITIES OF KERTCH, 

AKD BbSBARCHSB IS THB CIM- 
MERIAN BOBPHORUB. Qy DUKCAN 

McPhersok, M.D., of the Madras 
Army, F.&G.8., M.A.L Imp. 4to, 
with Fourteen Plates and numerous 
Blustrations, including Eight 
Coloured Fac-Similes of Belies of 
Antique Art, price Two Guineas. 

"It ia a volume whicb deaervea the careftal 
attention of every atudent of claaijcal antiquity. 
No one can fhll to be pleaaed with a work whiea 
haa ao much to attract the eye and to gratlDr the 

love of beauty and elegance in deaign 

The book ia got up with great care and taata, 
and forma one of the handaomeatworka that have 
recently iaaued firam the Kngliah preaa."— 
attitrdatf MmrUm* 

WESTCARTH'S VICTORIA, 

AND THS AUBTRAUAN GOLD BilNBS 

IN 1857. Post Syo, with Maps, piioe 
lOs. ed. doth. 

"Mr. Weatgarth haa produced a reliable and 
readable book weU atocked with tafbrmatloii. and 
pleaaantly interaperaed with inddenta of travel 
and vlewa of eokmial life. It la dear, aeniibtet 
and auggeattve."— ^MafMeiMa. 

** A lively aocooat of the moat wonderftd bit of 
colonial enerience that tiia worid'a hlatoiy haa 
ftamlahed.*'--Bte«iiMr. 

"We think Mr. Weatgaith*a book much the 
beet which haa appeared on Auatralia alnce the 
great oriaia in ita blatory."'-Ait«rdajr JUvuw, 

" A rational, vigoroua, Oluatratlve report upon 
the progreaa of tfie greatest colony In Auatralia." 
—tMider. 

"The volume contains a large amount of 
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18 



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14 



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PREPARING FOR PUBLICATION. 
KATHIE BRANOE 1 tbb Tikuidb Hibtobt of a Qdht Lira. B7 Houia 

Lsi, Antbor of " Sjlnn Holt'i Dftoghter." 
BELOW THE SURFACE. Bj Sir Abthdk Halum Eltot, But., H.P. 
THE TENANT OF WILOPELL HALL. B7 Aotoh Bul. (Jartrwi^.) 



■WOKKS PUBr-ISHEZy BX 



KEW NOVELS. 



AQArNST WIND AND TIDE. By 
HoLHE Leb, Author of " Sylviin 
Holt's Daughter." (Noir ready.) 

EXTREMES. ByMiiiE. W. Araiw- 
BoN, Author of " Memoin of the 
Queen) of FmMia." 2 voli. 





COUSIN STELLA) ob. Conflict. 

By the Author of " Violet Bank." 



By the Author of 



TRUST FOR TRUST. By 
A. J. BARsovCLiFnc, Author of 

" AmberhilL" 3 vols. 



"Till ■toTT BTlncH Giaour or dncrlpboti Hid 

ELLEN RAYMOND) or, Ufb aitd 
DoWNB. By Mrt. ViDii., Author 
of "Tales for the Btuh," &c. 




LOST AND WON. By Gbokouva 
U. CKAiK,^uthor of " Riienton." 
1 vol. !nd Edition. 

■■ Hcitliliia mivrliir U Ihli nnnl hH tpffiM 
itnitnith* " ' — '— 






rtMUIjllllOTStl 



I UOKUkie ti food, tbe nAmllTfl iplriud, 

8U dhuACben ue WtIj jlellnaatBd. wid lAi 
lAjogne hu oouldflniUo dnnuUa tvnm,"— 






SMIITH. EI^IDEK j^^JSTD CO. 



NEW NOVELS— confinw^A 



AN OLD DEBT. By Flobbnce 
Dawson. 2 toIs. 

** A powerftilly written novel ; one of the be»t 
which haa recently proceeded from » ftm&te 
hand. . . . The dialogue la vlgoroua and 
•plrlted.**— Jfomm^r Post. 

I'There 1« an enericy and TitaHty ahout thia 
work which dlfltlnguish it rw>m the eommon 
head of u'tvels. It« terse vlaconr •ometimea reeals 
Miss Bront€, hut in some respeeU Miss Florence 
Dawson is decidedly su|)erior to the author oi 
'Jane Eyre.' "Saturdap Redone. 

"TMt novel la written wiih great care and 
painstaking : it evinces considerable powers of 
reflection. The style Is good, and the author 
possesses the power of depleting emotion."— 
AtkeHWum. 

"A very good seaionable noveL"— £«ad^. 

SYLVAN HOLTS DAUGHTER. 
By Holme Leb, Anther of *' Kathie 
Brande,*' &c. 2Dd edition. 3 vols. 

"The well-eatahUahed reputation of HoTme 
Lee, aa a novel writer, will reoelve an additional 
clory from the pablieatlon of 'Sylvan Holt's 
Bauvhter.' It la a charming tale of oountry tifs 
and character.*'— 0/o6e. 

" There is much that la attractive In * Sylvan 
Holt's Daughter,* much that is graoefUl and re- 
fined, much thai la firaab, healthy, and naturaL" 



"The conception of the story hns a mod deal of 
originality, and the eharaoters avoid oommon- 

tiaoe types, without heing annatnral or Impruha- 
le. The heroine herself is oharmlng. It is a 
novel in which there is much to interest and 
please."— iVinp Qiuirtorly Revi4W. 
"A novel that la well worth reading, and which 

Eiesesses the cardinal virtue of being extremely 
terestlng. "—AfA^Nivwm. 

"A reafly sound, good book, highly finished, 
true to nature, vigorous, passionate, honest, and 
%tne&n."—DubUnVnioerntw MoffOMime. 

MY LADY I A Tale ot Modssn 
Life. 2 vols. 

**'My Lady' is a fine specimen of an English 
matron, exliibitlng that union of strength and 
gentleness, of common sense and romanoe, of 
energy and grace, which nearly approaohea our 
ideal of womanhood."— iVeM. 

" ' M/ Lady ' evinces charming fbeling and dell- 
oaey of touen. It is a novel t hat will be read with 
Interest."— A<Jk«fl«aM. 

"The story Is told thronghont with great 
■trenxth of reeling. Is well written, and haa a 
plot whloh la by no meaus oommon-place."~ 
Mxaminer. 

*' There Is some force and a sood deal of ftresh- 
ness tn ' My Lady.' The characters are distlflotbr 
drawn, and often wear an appearance of Indf- 
viduanty. or almost peraonnlity. The execution 
It fresh and powerftil.^'— MptfCCuCor. 

"A tale of some power."— ^rational Review, 

'*It is not In every novel we can light upon a 
etyle so vigorously graceful— upon an mtelllgenoe 
■o refined without littleness, so tenderly truthful, 
which has sensibility rather than poetry; but 
which is also most stihtly and searchfngly power- 
tul."—JHMin Vnieereitp Moffatine. 

*'<?are haa been bestowed on the writing, which 
is pleasant and ftowinff . The descriptions of nature 
are truthful and delicately drawn."— jrooHoai4«<. 

GASTON BLICH. B7L.S.Lateivu, 
Author of ** Erlesmere." 2 vols. 

"'Oaaton Bllgh' Is a good story, admirably 
told, ftiU of stirring Incident, austainlng to the 
close the interest uf a very Ingenious plot, and 
abounding in clever sketches of oharncter. It 
sparkles with wit. and will reward perusaL"- 
OHtie. ^ ^ , 

"The story Is told with great power; the whole 
hook sparkles with etprtt: and the characters 
Ulk like gentlemen and ladies. It is very ei^uy- 
able reading."— Pr««t. 



THE PROFESSOR. By Cubbeb 
Bell. 2 vols. 

**We think the author's Mends have shown 
sound Judgment in publishing the ' Profsssor.' 
now that she is gone. ... It shows the first 
germs of conception, which afterwards expanded 
and ripened into the great creations of her imagl- 
nation. At the same time her advisers were 
equally right when they counselled her not to 

f»ubllsn it fu her lifetime. . . . But It abounds 
n merits."— «Ski tarday Review. 
'' The idea is original, and we every here and 
there detect germs of that power which took the 
world hy atorm in 'Jane Eyre.' The rejection of 
the 'Profeaaor' waa. In our opinion, no leaa ad' 
vantageoua to the young authoress than oredltabld 
to the discernment of the bookaellers."— iVets. 

" Any thins which throwa liglit upon the growth 
and composition of auoh a mind oannot be other- 
wiae than interesting. In the ' ProAssor ' we may 
discover the germs of many trains of thinking, 
whloh afterwards came to be enlarged and 
illustrated In subsequent and more perfect 
works."— CW«<J. 

"Hiere Is much new Insight in it, mneh ex- 
tremely oharacterlstic genius, and one character, 
moreover, of fisher, lighter, and mofe airy 
grace."— EiooaosiMf. 

"We have read it with the deepest interest; 
and confidently predict that this legacy of Char- 
lotte Bronte's genius will renew and confirm the 
general admiration of her extraordinary powna." 
—JBclectie. 

BELOW THE SURFACE. 3 toIs. 

'*The book is unquestionably olever and enter- 
taining. The writer develons from first to last 
his double view of human Iln. as oolonred hy the 
manners of our age. . . . It is a tale superior 
to ordinary novels, in its practical applioatlon to 
the phases of actual lite."—Athen€tum. 

" There is a great denl of cleverness in this story : 
a much greater knowledge of oounbry life ana 
character in its various aspects and conditions 
than Is possessed hy nine- tenths of the noveliste 
who undertake to describe it."— Spectator. 

" The novel U one that keeps the attention fixed, 
and It is written In a gonial, often playful tone. 
The temper Is throughout excel lent."— £jramjii«r. 
• "This IS a book which possesses the rare merit 
of being exactly what it claims to be. a story o( 
English enimtry life j and, moreover, a very well 
told story."-Z>a</y ATtfws. 

" ' Below the Surface ' merlU high pndae. It is 
fhll of good things; go^jd taste— good feeling- 
good wnUng— good notlona. and high morality." 
—aiobe, 

"Temperate, sensible, kindly, and pleaaant."— 
Saturdnjf Rewew. 



A more pleasant story we have not read for 
ny a day.^*— British Quarter Ijf. 



many 



THE THREE CHANCES. 

By the Author of ''The Fair 
Carew." 3 vols. 

" This novel Is of a more solid textnre than 
most of its eontf'mpcn^rlas. It is full of good 
sense, good thought, and good writing."— State*' 
man. 

" Some of the characters and romantic situa- 
tions are strongly marked and peculiarly original. 
. . . It is the Kvent merit of the authoress that 
the personages of her tale aie human and real."— 
Leader. 

THE CRUELEST WRONG OF ALL. 

By the Author of ** Margaret ; or. 
Prejudice at Home." 1 yol. 

" The author haa a pathetio vein, and there is a 
tender sweetness In the tone of her narration."— 
Leader. 

"It haa the first requisite of a work meant to 
amoae : It is amusing.' —<7to6«. 

21 



•WOKKS FTJBI.IHHED BY 



NEW NOVELS— eonftnued. 



KATHIE nUNDEt 



_ 1 FtuumsHiB- THE ROUA PA88. 
SORT or A Quisr Lira. Bj UAOKBirziB. 
BoufB Lbk. 3 Toll. 




S&^wl taiSgiUtt'SitiaiL'tnmi on l£g 

Mas. ni> UlIioTkH iDlHH* blBlSr«Uh UH 

raot udtlH ^iTwiutv luu pndudBd AhjOUM* 
■M golT or Dwt nfaw 1b * Uriorlaal poUt ol 



PERVERSION ) OB, Tn CAtmu aks 
Comi^UBKaBa ow Imviulitt. By 
UiB l&le Ker. W. J. CoviBBixfl. 

Itli Ui* nMLer liner IhC* s1oh4 uu 

b jE«Hl Kid haafttav j tfao i«ttglou 

ud bns, ■b4 w«U ■mtaluH."— 

Is lOU. TBfT long, ri 

THE WHITE HOUSE BY THE SEA ■ 
A Lots Stobt. Bj M. Bitoam- 
Bdwabdb. 2 vol*. 
"AUMofBiiclUbdiaiHtlollA. TkawitHB(l> 
T«nr 101^ BTUUUL kad uiuAeMd; it ^vhh 
w^AtArniDiriB tb( «la)omi|Mg^aBM 

"flS mmOlw u4 sHnM ubBt kmlntti* 
Milt ■iii«MM tnwEafSBuMtton. " i»m«»w. 

MAUD SKILUCORNrS PENANCE. 

Bt Hast C. Jackboh, Author of 
"The Storj of My Wardihip," 
3tdIi. 

-Th* itrlil* utnnO, ■»« U«« 

"It ii ■ mU navntad t^ut wlU ki 



s 

RrVERSTON. By 

CBjUK. 9 Toll. 



Ox<wouiu U. 



FARINA. By OaoBas HnntttB. 



FRIENDS OF BOHEMIA; 
OB, Phase* or Loin>ov Lira. By 
E. M. Whiitt, Aathor of " The 
Qoremiiig Cluiiea." 2 *oli. 

nrr nuhj>» (ha ^iiuiM« li lni?u4 Mpt In 
thoubt. fata nria tanUu, ufMi mS ol 

THE EVE OF ST. MARK. A 
KoiuMOK or VsncB. By Tromab 

DOUBLBDAT. S TOlt. 
*" Sha Bti o( St, Hark ■ ta ut «lT *d vrtua, 
tnt adnltlj DonMnHtad. and utaraatlu, Ita 
loaa Ij MT M Bi tap l oryooi j ItaBoramabilttoo 
mnab that « a DaaqnanHi tat a nuataiT ta 
oreatad. and « Tair loraaUa banina la pgur- 



irOVELS FOSTHOOMIKG. 



A NEW NOVEL 



NEW BOOKS FOB T0T7KO BEADEBS. 



THE PARENTS' CABINET ot AMtvatxn ahd iNSTBircnoN won Tovko 
Pbbsors. New edition, cfunefuUy reviaed, in 12 Shilling Yolumes, each, 
complete in itself^ and containing a tah page niustration In oil colonrsy 
with wood engravings, in ornamented boards. 

CONTENTS. 
AMUSING STORIBS, all tendhutto the davalopment of goodjraftlitlM, and tbe mnMaaob of flMilti. 
BIOOIUFHI0A.L AOOOUNTS OF BBMABVlA^LB OHABAOTBBS, IntorMtlng to Toons Ttaplflr^ 
SISiPLB NABBATIVBS OP HISTOBIOAL BYBNT8. •tiit«d to the oaoMitr ofohlldniiu 
BLUgiDATIONS OF NATVBAL HI8T0BT. adiipted to eneonrmM haUU of otwaratloii. 
FAMIUAB EXPLANATIONS OF NOTABliBSOIBNTIFIO mSOOYBBIBS ANJ> MBOHANIOAL 

INYBNTIONS. 
UTBLY AC»01TNTS OF THB GBOOBAPHT, INHABITANTS, AND FBOOXTOTIONS OF 

OlFFBBENT 00UNTBIB8. 

MiM B]>»iwoBni*s QpMoM ef tte Pjimrts* OAB^^R^^ 



"I almoat IM afirmid of pntelns It m mvuOi aa I think it deaarraa. . . . Thara ia ao mudh 
Taxlety in the book tliat It cannot ttra. It altem*tabr azoitaa and reUevaa attantlon, and doaa not lead 
to the Dad liabit of flittering awar the mind byreqatring no axart1<mfh>m the reader. . . . Whoerer 
year aolentifle aaaoelate la, he onderatanda hla baalneaa and ohildran'a eapaMlitlea rl^t weo. . . . 
wtthoat leoturlnc, or proalng. you keep the right and tlie wrong elearly niarke£ and haaee all 
the ajrmpathy of the young people ia alwaya enllated on the right aide." 



• • 



The work is now complete in 4 vols., extra doth, gilt edoes, at 3t. 6^. 
each; or in 6 volumes, extra cloth, gilt edges, price 2«. 63. each. 



By the Author of ** Bound the Fire," &c. 

I. 

UNICA 8 A StOBT FOB A SUNDAT 

Aftebnoon. With Four Illus- 
trations. Price 3s, cloth. 

** The eharaeter of Uniea ia ehanntngly eon- 
oatTad.and theatory pleaaant^ told."— ^pactxor. 

" An rxeallent and ezeeeditigly pretty atory for 
ehlMren."— Jte << a w a a . 

**Thia tale, like ita aathor*a fbrmer onea, WIU 
Sad Abvoor In the nnraaiy."— JLfitaiMwiai. 

OLD QINCERBREAD AND THE 
SCHOOL- BOYS. With Four 
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'*'01d Gingerbread and the Sdhool-boya' la 
dflU^tftal, and the dmwing and eolooring of tlie 
plotorlal part done wltha aplrit and eorreoau 



"Thia tale ia raiT good, the deaerlptlona being 
natoral. with a fMllng w eonntry neahneaa."— 

^The book la well 



are very pretty."— ^oft«. 

* An azoeUent boya* book ; ezedlentin ita moral, 
ehaata and aimslaln ita langiuiga.andluzuTloiialy 
lUnatrated."-Ataa<raeatf^0iM^Mtf WoHd. 



With vary- dHieaMy oolonred pleturea." — 



"A rexy lively and exoeUent'tiaa. Uluatrated 
dall 

■AdeUghtftal atory fbr little bqya, Ineoleatlng 
baaerolrai IMingatothapoor."-MfeMcBM<MP. 



m. 



WILLIE'S BIRTHDAY I showinohow 

A LiTTLB BOT DID WHAT HB LiKBD, 
AND HOW HB EnJOTBO IT. With 

Four lllttstrations. i^ce 2§, Bd, cL 

WILLIE'S REST T'a Sundat Stobt. 

With Four Illustrations. Price 

2s. 6d. cloth. 

"Graoaflil little talea, oontalning aome pretty 

Mrablea. ai^ a food deal of almple feeUng."— 

scononitt. 

**BztreaBdy wen written atory booka, amnaing 
and moral, and got np in a tary naodaoBie atyle." 
^Mondmg Bmrald^ 



UNCLE JACK. THE FAULT KILLER. 

With Four Illustrations. Price S#.cL 

** An ezcdlent Uttle book of moral improvement 
made pleaaant to ahlldren : it la fhr beyond the 
eommon-plaoanutfaltaleindeiAgnaadeacaentlOQ." 

ROUND THE FIRE : Six Stobies 
FOB Young Rbadbbs. Square 
16mo, with Four Illustrations. 
Price S#. doth. 

," Charmingly written talaa for the yoong."* 
Leader. ^^ 

''Six deUghtlU Uttle ator1aa."--G«ar<lfafi. 
^"Simple and Tery Intereetlng."— AToMoaol 

** Troie ohfldren'a Btorlea."-JM«fMnMi. 



THE KINO OF THE OOLDEN RIVER; 
OB, Thb Black Bbothbbs. By 
John Bvskin, M. A. Third edition, 
with 22 Illustrations by Bichabd 
DoTLB. Price 2s. 6</. 

"ThiaEttl^fhnaytalelabyamaater-haiid. The 
atory haa a oharming moraL"— JbraaiiiMr. 

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Fcap. doth, price Ss. 6d. 

23