Great numbers of people are also employed as fishermen, artizans of all sorts, and as manufacturers of cloth fabrics of various descriptions. In addition to the people so gaining a livelihood by their industry, there are scattered throughout the islands many Indians, without any occupation, and apparently altogether dependent on the fruit of the plaintain-tree for subsistence, and indulging all their natural laziness and indolence of disposition by its aid, preferring to subsist on the fruit of this most productive plant, which they can do, from its being always procurable and at all times of the year in season, without an effort towards its cultivation, to undertaking the labour and attention necessary to grow rice.

Some of these people are hunters, occasionally going out to the wilds in pursuit of game, which must alternate beneficially with their vegetable diet.

As an article of food, however, the plantain does not appear to be so nutritive or strength-supporting as rice; at least, those persons who are principally dependent on it for food appear less robust looking than the rice-fed population. This, however, may not be entirely owing to that cause, but may be attributable in some degree to their lazy habits, which, by preventing them taking much exercise or bodily exertion, renders the muscles of their bodies less developed than those of the other Indians whose harder work keeps their frames in a proper state of health.

In person, the native Indians are a good deal slighter and shorter than Europeans, but are, on the average, taller and stouter than the Malays, many of them having that broad make of shoulders and lustiness of limb which indicate personal strength.

Their countenances are in general open and pleasing, and would be handsome, but for their smallness of nose, which is the worst feature in the native physiognomy; however, when that feature is well shaped, as it frequently is, their faces are decidedly handsome and good-looking.

These remarks apply to both sexes; a number of the women are very beautiful, for although their skin is dusky, the ruddiness of their blood shows through it on the cheek, producing a very beautiful colour, and their dark, lustrous eyes are in general more lit up with intelligence and vivacity of expression, than those of any Indians I have seen elsewhere.

A very pleasant trait, to my taste, is the nearly universal frankness and candid look that nature has stamped upon their features, which, when accompanied by the softness of manner common to all Asiatics, is particularly gratifying in the fairer part of creation.

Their figures are well shaped, being perfectly straight and graceful, and nearly all of them have the small foot and hand, which may be regarded as a symbol of unmixed blood when very small and well shaped; as although the Mestizas gain from their European progenitor a greater fairness of skin, they generally retain the marks of it in their larger bones, and their hands and feet are seldom so well shaped as those of the pure-bred Indian, even although the Spaniards are noted for possessing these points in equal or greater perfection than the people of other European countries.

The bath is a great luxury among the natives, and of all country-born people, who appear to be fully as fond of the water as ducks are, and never look so well pleased as when they are paddling about in it, for nearly all the women can swim.

It used to be a very favourite sport to make up a bathing party of ladies, who, dressed in their long gowns, bathed with their male friends equipped in parjamas, or in short bathing trousers, without hesitation, swimming about in a retired part of the river for a long time, generally stopping at least an hour in the water, on leaving which, and dressing, all reunited to breakfast, or amuse themselves in some way, with dancing or music. These parties, however, are now seldom heard of, as the late arrivals from Spain have been so many as to be able to take the lead, and give a tone to the society of Manilla, and are now in the midst of revolutionizing the old habits and customs of the place, certainly not at all for the better, as they have yet to learn that what is suitable in Europe is not so in the tropics.

Fondness for gay dress is universal, and the ninas take considerable pains to understand the subject, and to adorn their natural good looks to the most advantage by the selection of the most appropriate colours.

Their hair is one of the most remarkable beauties in the native and Mestiza women, being very much longer, and of a finer gloss, than that of any Europeans.

The staple and most favourite food of the people is rice seasoned by sun-dried or salted fish, if they should be unable to procure it fresh, which is, however, seldom the case, as the rivers in the country abound with many different sorts, and all of them appear to be very good and well tasted.

And not only do the rivers abound with fish, but great numbers of dalag are found in the flooded paddy fields during and subsequent to the rainy season, when they are soaked with water. How this fish, which is not very good to eat, being tasteless and insipid, comes there, is a curious problem, as it is often killed in paddy grounds at a great distance from any stream, out of which it could come during an overflow. I am not quite certain whether this fish is ever killed in a stream or not, or whether it is only found in the paddy fields.

I do not recollect of its once being caught in a river, although the natives kill the fish in the ditches and paddy fields in large quantities, either by shooting them with shot, as they flounder in the fields, or by pursuing and capturing them, and knocking them down with a stick.

In fact, I suspect the dalag to be an intermediary between the reptile and the fish, although not naturalist enough to investigate the subject in a proper manner.



CHAPTER XXII.

Many of my readers may chance to be aware that the whole group of Philippine islands was mortgaged to Great Britain for payment of the ransom agreed upon at the time of our conquest of them nearly a century ago; and as up till this time neither the money nor the interest on it has been obtainable, as it probably never will be, they are, at this, or any other time, virtually our property, should the British Government foreclose the mortgage and demand payment. This, even at present, when the kingdom is groaning under extreme pressure for the necessary funds annually squeezed out of it, would not be thought a prudent course, even by the ultra-economical politicians who are so lavish of displaying their crude projects of retrenchment on neatly ruled-off paper.

There is no doubt, however, that the cash is never likely to be forthcoming from the Spaniards, and, under these circumstances, it surely would be worth the attention of Her Majesty's Government, more especially as they profess free-trade ideas, to make this state of things the basis of a request, or even of a claim, on the Spanish Government, for obtaining some liberal concessions in favour of their countrymen, and the rest of the world, carrying on commercial intercourse with the Philippines, which is now limited to Manilla; all foreigners being prohibited from engaging in the country trade, or from owning property in lands, houses, or ships in the Philippines.

Of course, the Spaniards themselves suffer for the illiberality of this policy, as there can be no doubt that, were it more free, and less burdened with restrictions of all sorts than it now is, it would be attended with the best effects to their own treasury, as well as be for the general welfare of the islands.

This is what they cannot yet comprehend; but it would not be difficult to make them understand it, if the employe who undertook the task understood it himself, and possessed knowledge enough of the character of the people he had to deal with. Any request, if made in a proper tone, by our Government, would draw attention to the subject at Madrid, and some good might be done, even were it only of partial advantage, as for many years to come they are not likely to step boldly out into the subject.

At Zamboanga, opposite Zooloo, there already exists a custom-house and other government offices for the regulation of their own trade with these islands. But no foreigners are allowed to reside at Zamboanga. Surely the permission for them to do so is worthy the attention of a government which has established and is supporting, at considerable expense, the colony of Labuan for the object not only of extending our trade and the use of the products of our manufacturing population, but also with the more generous and noble idea of civilizing the people in its neighbourhood by their influence, and of teaching them the blessings that flow from industry and peace.

The appointment of Sir James Brooke as Governor of Labuan was in every respect a wise proceeding, as it affords a philanthropist a very wide field on which to exert his influence. Unfortunately, however, for him, a number of well-informed people, residing in the neighbourhood of the spot where his philanthropic exertions are said to have taken place, deny their having had any existence; but, on the contrary, accuse that gentleman, through the columns of a Singapore newspaper, of the worst motives and conduct: in short, he is accused in that newspaper of murdering innocent natives in great numbers by falsely representing them to be pirates, to serve his own purposes and gratify his Sarawak subjects' dislike of them; the naval officers, whose services had been placed at his disposal to put down piracy, being misled by him.

I am not sufficiently acquainted with all the facts of the case to say with what truth this accusation is made, although, I believe, so grave a charge has never been contradicted by him, or by his friends authorized to do so in his name, and to state the true facts of the case to the public. But, as far as Labuan is concerned, those people who are best qualified to judge appear to be of opinion that, although it should have a fair trial for some years longer, it will never become a place of much commercial importance.

There is little doubt that were foreigners allowed to settle at Zamboango, where Zooloo, Mindanao, and the entire southern coasts of the Philippines would be open to their enterprise, it would be productive of the most beneficial effects, not merely to our merchants and manufacturers, but to the cause of civilization throughout all these barbarous countries, and would probably be found much more effective in putting an end to the existing state of piracy and kidnapping, which are now carried on to some extent, than any warlike means which have hitherto been employed to suppress them.

There are many other objects of a commercial nature worth the consideration of an enlightened government, such as the disproportionate protective duties in favour of their national shipping and the produce of Spain; and some degree of toleration to the religious opinions of foreigners residing at Manilla might also be obtained; so far, at least, as to permit their having a piece of consecrated ground for burying their dead, if no more should be granted; at present they are not permitted to place the remains of a Protestant within the limits of consecrated ground; but have to bury them in a field where Chinamen, who retained their country's faith till the end of their lives, are laid, and where swine are continually going about routing up the soil, at the imminent hazard of disturbing recently interred bodies.

Liberty for foreigners to settle in the country for the purposes of trade or agriculture, and to hold property, might be obtained without much difficulty, were it properly explained, and shown that their doing so would benefit the Spaniards as much as themselves.

Under the existing laws their inability to hold property prevents those foreigners who, after passing many years in the country, have become as it were almost native, and where they have contracted ties and formed connexions which few men would like to break, from settling down in it for the remainder of their lives. As they have no means of investing their gains with security, though they have probably reached an age when the cares of business press heavily on relaxed energies, and they are disposed to sit down quietly, and enjoy themselves in the country where they are naturalized in every thing but in the eye of the law—all the interest which good citizens, holding pecuniary investments, naturally take in the well-being of the country, is withdrawn from them. No wonder, then, that they are careless about the domestic improvement of the Philippines, or of their progress in those arts which fill the treasuries of rulers, and make subjects happy.



CHAPTER XXIII.

The laws do not appear to be bad in themselves, but the dilatoriness with which they are administered has the effect of rendering them as baneful to those living under them as if they were radically bad; the delays and accidents inseparable from the mode of conducting legal business are very vexatious, and frequently from its cost it is quite inefficient for its purposes of justice. However, Spain and its colonies are not singular in that respect, as there is one great and flourishing country which I could name, where the same defects exist, although, thank God, in a less degree than they do either in the colony of Spain, or in that country itself; so the less said about the mote in our brother's eye, the better for those who have at this moment a beam in the organ of their own judicial executive.

In conducting a pleito at Manilla, all is done by writing; first, the charge is made out and filed; then comes an answer to the charge; then a counter-answer is put in, and that again is replied to; and so on they go for any length of time, determined by the weight of the purses of the respective contending parties, till, if no more is to be said, or if one or both of them gets tired of the expense, and the case is decided, the other, if he be a rich man, can refer the whole affair to Spain, where the same pleadings have to be again gone through, and all the vexation and expense re-incurred, besides that the decision of the case may with a little management be protracted for any indefinite length of time. This is not worse than what happens at home, and is similar to some of our Scotch cases in former times, when for a century or more one case would be agitated to gratify family dislike or prejudice. That no one may think I exaggerate, it may be as well to mention a case which is still undecided at this moment, and which originated about 1731, between the lairds of Kilantringan and Miltonise in Galloway, although near kinsmen, namesakes, and neighbours.

There are few things more dreaded by the Spaniards themselves than a lawsuit with one another. Many of them, however, are glad of the chance it gives them to be revenged on people with whom they are not upon good terms. So vile is the whole law and practice relating to the testamentary disposal of property, and to such lengths have the abuses in this particular branch of it gone, that it has become a proverb among Spaniards to say that a wise man would prefer being a trustee on an estate, to being heir to it; and several people at Manilla are well known to be living on their gains from executorships, &c., having no other means of support. These persons, although their incomes are almost universally known to be so derived, are not in the least shunned as dishonest people, but are looked upon as being perfectly entitled to feather their own nests in place of performing their duty, as we should understand it to be in Britain.

The police laws and regulations are also badly administered, being very shameful to the Government which permits things to go on under the same loose system as before. Were there a more numerous and efficient police force scattered over the country, none of the Spaniards would be afraid, as many of them now actually are, to live out of town, or to make distant excursions to the country, from fear of the tulisanes, or robber-bands, which are scattered about in various places, and are found pursuing their avocations in the neighbourhood of the capital, although not so boldly as they did a few years since. These robbers plunder the country in bands perfectly organized, and bodies of them are generally existing within a few miles of Manilla,—the wilds and forests of the Laguna being favourite haunts, as well as the shores of the Bay of Manilla, from which they can come by night, without leaving a trace of the direction they have taken, in bodies of ten and twenty men at a time, in a large banca. They have apparently some friends in Manilla, who plan out their enterprises, send them intelligence, and direct their attacks; so that every now and then they are heard of as having gutted some rich native or Mestizo's house in the suburbs of Manilla, after which they generally manage to get away clear before the alguacils come up.

The houses of Europeans are also occasionally attacked, although much less boldly within the last year or two; yet it is the custom for people to retire to bed, even in the heart of the town without the walls, with pistols, a sword, or some other weapon within reach. That these people do immense damage there is no doubt, as they not only plunder the country people of buffaloes and horses, but rifle their houses, if no better prey is to be had, to such an extent, that the natives are afraid to live at any distance from each other in many parts of the country, solely through fear of them. From this cause, patches of fine paddy land in out-of-the-way districts are left uncultivated, or are hurriedly ploughed and sown by adventurous persons, who after doing so retire into the nearest village to live, till the time comes to reap as much of the paddy as the deer and numerous wild pigs have left untouched.

The punishments of these bad characters are severe enough when justice chances to get hold of them; and, should their crimes be atrocious, they occasionally suffer death. Sometimes they are garroted, which is done in this way. After being seated at the place of execution, with the back towards a high post of wood, the culprit's neck is encircled by an iron collar attached to the post, and capable of compression by a powerful screw passing through the post, which, on the signal being made, the executioner turns, and the victim is choked in a second. The practice is much less disgusting than hanging, as no effects are visible to an on-looker beyond the convulsive movement of a frame loaded with heavy irons to prevent a severe and disgusting struggle with departing life.

A good many of the tulisanes are soldiers who, after committing some peccadillo, feared its discovery and punishment, and flying to the wilds have joined or organised a troop from among the bad characters in the neighbourhood of their hiding-place.

These executions are not unfrequent at Manilla. One morning, when riding near the usual place of execution on the sea-beach, I saw six deserters, who had composed a band of atrocious robbers, suffer death from the muskets of their former comrades; those who were not killed at once, having an end put to their existence by the pistols of a serjeant, who stepped close up to them before discharging the piece.

Truly it was a sad sight to see their former comrades degraded into executioners. The number of women who had collected to witness the last act of this tragedy was very great, very much outnumbering the men present. But they were principally composed of the most worthless class of females; yet on many of them the example appeared to make a considerable impression.

I have no doubt, whatever the present popular mawkish sentimental-mongers may write to the contrary, that these exhibitions, when happening rarely, tend, in a great measure, to restrain the passions of the evil-disposed, although some of them may think it bold, among their hardened associates, to turn the spectacle into a farce. I firmly believe that no human being can in cold blood look upon another's death by violent means without being forced to think about it for some time, greater or less, according to his or her temperament.

For minor offences criminals are sometimes flogged through the town. They are mounted on horseback, with their legs manacled or bound under the horse's belly, and a portion of their punishment is administered at several of the most public places in the town, by an executioner dressed in red, and with a veil over his face. Thus, supposing a thief sentenced to receive a hundred lashes or blows, they would most probably be administered by twenty at a time, in five different places throughout the capital, proclamation being made at each place, previous to the punishment, of the offence and of the name of the offender, who is dressed in the ordinary mode, with a shirt and pair of trousers, and exposed to the full view of the attending crowd.

Confinement in the jail at night, with labour in irons on the public roads during the day, is also a usual punishment; criminals being generally linked in pairs by a chain round the leg of each, and taken out, under a guard, to work on the streets or roads at Manilla, Cavite, or Zamboanga, at sunrise, and led back to jail at sunset. But as they are not forced by the soldiers to work much harder than they like, they take care not to injure themselves by overtasking their powers of labour, and are not apparently much discontented with their condition, from which I have seldom or never heard of their attempting to escape, although neither their food nor their lodgings in jail are very enticing; the former being bad black-looking rice and water, and the jail generally swarming with vermin.

They appear to prefer the partial liberty of getting out of jail, and of working in the streets in chains, to the monotony of a residence within the walls of the prison, and the sedentary labour they might be forced to pursue there.



CHAPTER XXIV.

Among the amusements of the Indians the greatest is cock-fighting, for which they have a passion; and nearly every native throughout the islands gratifies this taste by keeping a fighting cock, which may be seen carried about with him perched on an arm or a shoulder, in all the pride of a favourite of its master.

During Sundays and feast-days, when no work is allowed to be done, nearly the half of the native population, if able to muster a few rials, repair to the village cockpit, to arrange some match for their favorite fowl, on which they will sometimes stake large amounts, or to see the sport of their neighbours.

The privilege of opening a cockpit is an important source of revenue to the Government, which farms it out to the highest bidder, who, I believe, has the power to stop fighting for money at any place within the limits of his district other than the privileged arena, for an admission to which he exacts a small charge from each person, which is the mode of reimbursing himself for the amount paid to the Government.

This place is generally a large house, constructed of cana, wattled like a coarse basket, and surrounded by a high paling of the same description, which forms a sort of court-yard, where the cocks are kept waiting their turns to come upon the stage, should their owners have succeeded in arranging a satisfactory match. Passing across the yard, the door of the house, within which the matches come off, stands open: after entering and ascending the steps, the arena is before us, surrounded by seats sloping down from the wall towards it, so that every one may be able distinctly to witness the event.

After the owners of the contending cocks have walked into the ring and displayed them, each armed with a long and sharp steel spur, many critical opinions are expressed by the Indians; and the judgments of the old men, who are keen upon the sport, are worth hearing by a visitor.

The spectators having viewed the birds carefully, the bets are made, by calling one of the men who are constantly walking round the outside of the arena, for the purpose of arranging the amounts of bets ventured on either of the birds. Giving him the money with which you back your opinion, he generally quickly finds, or may at the moment hold in his hand, the money ventured by some one else on the other cock, and apprises you of the arrangement. But should your cock chance to be a favourite, and the broker be unable to arrange an equal bet against the other, he tells you so before the set-to begins, and returns your money if you are not disposed to give odds.

In general the conflict does not last long: in from about two to five minutes after the set-to, one or other of the birds is pretty sure to be either killed, or so badly wounded by the steel spur as to show he has had enough of it, and to give in. Until this happens, the utmost quietness is maintained by the people, and their intense interest is only shown by their outstretched necks and eager looks, as well as by their muttered exclamations at the various stages of the fight; at the end of which, of course, the gainers are noisy, and in high spirits at pocketing the money, which is heard clinking all round.

The amount of money staked on the issue is never very large; at least, I have not seen more than eighty or a hundred dollars staked in any cockpit, and the usual bet is an ounce of gold, or nearly four pounds.

Chance, in a great measure, appears to decide the event; as an early blow with the sharp spur is quite sufficient to cripple the bird which receives it so much as to determine the fate of the battle. Quickness and game no doubt tell to some extent, but not very much. Of course, the breeding of cocks engages a good deal of attention by those interested in the amusement; but with the details of it I am not acquainted.

Many of the Indians, however, appear to be more fond of a good cock, and to display more anxiety about it, than would be shown by them to their wives and children, who are not objects of nearly so much attention.

Although extravagantly fond of all games of chance, none of them appears to be so captivating as the cockpit, which ranks as their chief passion. Of games at cards, the principal one is monte, the playing of which is sometimes carried on to a great extent, which has caused such distress that the law has wisely endeavoured to stop the evil, by enacting severe fines and punishment against those caught playing at it. Houses suspected of carrying it on, are at all times subject to a visit from the alguacils, all the people found in them being carried off to jail.

But notwithstanding these measures, it is found impossible to put gambling down entirely, and some of the alcaldes, knowing the inutility of attempting to do so, habitually give private instructions to their policemen not to hunt for people playing monte, and not to molest them if found doing so. Tresilla, tresiete, &c., are names of other games at cards commonly played at Manilla.

Billiards is also a favourite game of the Indians, whose play differs in some particulars from ours, and from the usual Spanish game, which is also dissimilar to ours. Tables are scattered throughout the town, entirely for the use of the native population, some of whom show considerable dexterity.

Although bull-baiting used many years since to be an amusement here, it is never heard of now, having quite gone out of fashion. Neither are the bull-fights, as managed in Spain, practised here, probably from the effects of the climate on the men, who would not much relish a combat with one of the small, but spirited and powerfully shaped bulls of the country.

The considerable number of officers of the troops, and other government empleados, are acquisitions to the society of the place; for being principally half occupied people, they are almost obliged to have recourse to amusements to kill the time, which would otherwise hang very heavy on their hands; and principally to their exertions must we attribute the means of enjoyment, such as they are, which are now available here.

There is a subscription ball-room, where assemblies are held three times a-month; at one of which there is only dancing; at another, performances by the amateurs of vocal and instrumental music. Some of them, having a taste that way, do wonders for amateurs; and after the concert, there is dancing.

At the third monthly assembly, there is a farce or play of some sort acted by amateurs; and as the Spanish genius inclines to the buskin and the sock, they acquit themselves very well.

To this sociedad de recreo, or casino, there are many subscribers, including the Governor and his family, if he has any, and all the considerable people of the place, who for many years kept out those of lower caste than themselves by the ballot, which is the mode of electing candidates, who must be introduced by two members. However, at last the funds of the society got so low, that the admission of many new members was requisite to bolster up the concern with their entrance-money and monthly contributions, and, of course, a much more indiscriminate set were admitted, than formerly used to go there, which caused one or two people to absent themselves from the assemblies for some time, as no one, of course, chooses to introduce his daughters among people he does not wish to associate with. On the whole, however, the place has benefited by the new people; that is to say, it is more gay than before they came, which is the chief consideration to one careless of the precise social degree of any handsome and pleasant girl whom he may meet at the place.

All the ladies sit together; and the men, who dare not, apparently, trust themselves so close to their brilliant and beautiful eyes, as we fancy we can do with impunity in Britain, promenade up and down the ball-room, or in one of the large ante-rooms contiguous to it. No doubt their tindery and inflammable temperaments, whenever love-making is concerned, has something to do with this arrangement; as, if a young male acquaintance of any damsel took a seat beside her, it would be certain to attract the papa or chaperon, to the spot, to see what was going on, as their most likely subject of conversation would have a strong leaning towards a flirtation, or downright love-making, at which nearly all the Spaniards are great adepts; the flowery expressions of their language being peculiarly suitable for such sentimental recreations.

Besides the principal theatre, where Spaniards are the actors, there are two native theatres, where plays are represented in the Tagalog language, and written to suit their ideas of the drama; the subjects represented being principally tragedies connected with their historical traditions, and of their fathers' earliest connections with their European conquerors.

But their mode of representing these subjects is scarcely suitable to any one's taste but their own, as the amount of vociferation, and drawling singing of the women who take a part in the pieces, are very disagreeable, and the noise and quantity of fighting with which they are always interlarded, is tiresome. Yet, strange to say, they themselves are much interested while listening to these absurd recitatives.

The Spanish theatre is generally opened twice a-week, and one or two of the performers act very creditably. The national passion is for dramatic amusements; and the house, which is a large one, is usually well filled.



CHAPTER XXV.

A misconception appears to exist as to the state of society at Manilla, people at a distance for the most part labouring under the erroneous impression that it remains stationary, and is today as much behind the rest of the world as it was thirty years ago; and that it can support no newspaper or other publication. Now, during my residence at Manilla, there have been various periodicals published daily, bi-weekly, and weekly; but at the end of last year (1850), these had all given place to one daily newspaper, called the Diario de Manilla, which being more carefully conducted than any of its predecessors, still continues to enjoy its popularity.

It is under the direction of an editor, who being in his youth trained up to commercial pursuits, and having spent some years of his life in Great Britain in order to conduct the business of his Spanish friends, has insensibly acquired ideas during his residence there which are, no doubt, more exact and unprejudiced than those of the bulk of his countrymen, so that he understands the duties of a journalist, and manages his paper better than these things were formerly done. Of course, however, he must study not to trespass on the existing regulations of the censor, if he would avoid the scissors of that officer, whose duties are, to prevent any statement obnoxious to the powers that be from seeing the light. This, of course, is a great check to the spread of information, especially of a political character; and articles written and printed, have frequently to be suppressed in the succeeding impressions of the paper. The power is sometimes exercised when there is very little occasion for the interference of authority, and, of course, must very materially interfere with the mode of conducting an efficient newspaper.

To give the censor time to examine its contents, the Diario is printed the afternoon preceding its publication, and is issued every day except Monday, thus leaving the printers free from work and at liberty on Sunday.

The Diario has a large circulation in Manilla and the different provinces of the islands, besides having agents at Madrid, Cadiz, and Paris; it is also obtainable in the Havana, at Hongkong, and at Singapore.

The subscription is one dollar a month, which is moderate enough; and advertisements are inserted in its columns without charge.

Once a week it includes a list of the shipping in the harbour, and also of the arrivals and departures, and reports every morning the arrivals and cargoes of any vessels that have come in on the previous day from the provinces. It also publishes a weekly price-current of the produce of the country.

A well-conducted periodical of this nature is of great importance in a commercial point of view, not only from the advertisements circulated by its means throughout the Philippines, but from the variety of facts and information which the country alcaldes address to the Manilla Government, in which they are required to give a list of the prices-current for the various articles of produce grown in their different provinces; a regulation which, of course, tends to keep the trade on a sound footing, and to prevent reckless speculation, which the want of market information usually induces.

The Diario is delivered at the houses of Manilla subscribers at about daylight every morning, so that they may make themselves masters of its contents while sipping their chocolate, before engaging in the business of the day. This is no slight luxury, I assure the reader, and it is not at all diminished by the place being so remote from the sound of Bow-bells and the region of Cockaigne, although it is true that the contents of the paper are not composed of exciting parliamentary reports, or of leading articles equal in talent to those of the Times or Morning Chronicle.

The mail bags are carried to the provinces by mounted couriers, and the north post, arriving at Manilla every Friday morning, brings communications from the important provinces of Bulacan, Bataan, Zambales, Pampanga, Nueva Eciga, Pangasinan, Ilocos (North and South), Abra, and Cagayan; and is despatched from the capital to all these districts every Monday at noon.

The south post, embracing the provinces of Laguna, Batangas, Mindoro, the islands of Masbate and Ticao, Camarines (North and South), Albay, Samars, and Leyte, reaches Manilla every Tuesday morning, and is despatched from it in return every Wednesday at noon. To the arsenal of Cavite there is a daily post, excepting on Sundays; and to the islands of Visayas, the Marianas, and Batanes, the correspondence is forwarded by the first ships bound for any of those places, as they are obliged to give notice to the postmaster two days before starting for them.

It would be difficult to over-estimate the advantages of this line of postal communication, which affords the native traders in remote places the best facilities for the prosecution of their trade in the various articles of commerce produced in the districts where they live.

There are, of course, several things which might be improved in the administration of the post-office, as is the case in every country, without bringing Spain and her colonies in question; but, no doubt, these will be found out by-and-by, and an alteration for the better will take place.

The press of Manilla is much more active than is commonly supposed, as, besides the Diario, there are several other periodicals printed in the place. Among them may be mentioned the Guia de Forasteros, and an Almanac, which is printed at the College of Santo Tomas, being entirely got up and sold by the priests of that institution, the proceeds being devoted to charitable purposes.

Various religious and polemical works also emanate at different times from the press, all of them neatly and well printed, nay, highly creditable to the Indian compositors who execute them.

I have frequently seen it stated in books, the authors of which should have been better informed, that no periodical publications exist at Manilla. Certainly there is much less appetite there for such things, than is exhibited among my own countrymen, whose birthright it is to grumble at the conduct of authorities, and to show up delinquencies with the most unsparing zeal, neither of which would be quite safe to attempt at Manilla, although it is so in Great Britain, and all her colonies and dependencies.



CHAPTER XXVI.

Through ignorance and a misconception of the nature of the country, many people are in the habit of adducing the scantiness of manufactures among the Indians, as an evidence of their backwardness in civilization and the arts which it teaches.

But this is not so in reality, for if our readers reflect on the subject a short time, it can scarcely fail to occur to them, that the fertility of the soil, and the abundance of primary materials, even of those made use of in the manufactories, is the true reason why they neglect manufactures, and turn all their attention to growing the raw produce, from which spring the materials for conducting them.

It is this cause which makes the Americans send their cotton-wool to Manchester, to be there, at some thousands of miles from the place of its growth, made into cloth—and the shepherds of Australia to send their wool to Yorkshire for a like purpose.

This appears paradoxical, but it is true. A day's labour on a fertile tropical soil is better recompensed when it is directed to grow cotton, than it would be, were the same labour applied to weaving the wool into cloth; for although this climate is suitable for the growth of cotton in the fields, it does not at all follow that it is so for weaving cloth, as has been proved to be the case in the United States.

In that country, where manufacturing industry has so much energy of character in those carrying it on to back it up, and to secure a satisfactory result, it appears very strange that we should be able to beat them in the manufacture of their own produce.

But although many efforts have repeatedly been made by speculative and sanguine men to weave all the descriptions of cotton cloth made in Great Britain by the power-loom, they have never been able to do so in the United States. Even when they have actually carried machinery and men from Manchester to work it, across the Atlantic, the produce of the looms has been of a different quality of cloth to that which the same cotton yarn would have produced by the same machinery in Great Britain. This can only be accounted for, I believe, by estimating the effects of climate. The moisture of the atmosphere, the difference of water, and other causes, have been assigned as the cause of this very remarkable circumstance, and perhaps some, or all of them, have their share in producing it.

In the Philippines, the natural shrewdness of the people, who show considerable aptitude in the arts which experience has taught them will pay them best, is demonstrated by the neatness of execution which characterises many of their handiworks, demanding no small portion of skill, care, and perseverance; the elaborate execution of the gold ornaments worn by the women frequently exhibiting signs, in a very high degree, of skilful and neat workmanship.

I have seen chains, &c., of native make, quite as beautifully and as curiously worked as any I have seen in China, where those ornaments are made in more perfection than the European gold or silversmiths have as yet been able to attain.

But probably the pina cloth manufactured in the Philippines, is the best known of all the native productions, and it is a very notable instance of their advance in the manufacturing arts.

There is perhaps no more curious, beautiful, and delicate specimen of manufactures produced in any country. It varies in price according to texture and quality, ladies' dresses of it costing as low as twenty dollars for a bastard sort of cloth, and as high as fifteen hundred dollars for a finely-worked dress. The common coarse sort used by the natives for making shirts costs them from four to ten dollars a shirt.

The colour of the coarser sorts is not, however, good; and the high price of the finer descriptions prevents its becoming generally a lady's dress; and the inferior sorts are not much prized, chiefly because of the yellowish tinge of the white cloth. The fabric is exceedingly strong, and, I have been informed, rather improves in colour after every successive washing.

Pina handkerchiefs and scarfs are in very general use by the Manilla ladies, although they are rather expensive; the price of the former, when of good quality, being from about five to ten pounds sterling each, while for a scarf of average quality and colour about thirty pounds is paid. The coarser descriptions can be had for much less money than the sums mentioned; and the finest qualities would cost from three to four times more than the amounts I have set down.

Besides the pina there is also a sort of cloth made by the natives called juse (pronounced huse), or siriamaio, which makes very beautiful dresses for ladies. It is manufactured from a thread obtained from the fibres of a particular sort of plantain tree, which is slightly mixed with pine-apple thread; and the fabric produced from both of these is very beautiful, being fine and transparent, and looking, to the unaccustomed eye, finer than the ordinary sort of pina cloth.

It can be made of any pattern, and is generally striped or checked with coloured threads of silk mingled with the other two descriptions.

The manufacture of both these articles is carried on to a small extent in the immediate neighbourhood of Manilla; but in the provinces of Yloylo and Camarines the best juse is produced, the price of which is very much lower than pina, as a lady's dress of it may be got at from seven to twenty dollars; and for the latter amount a very handsome one would be obtained.

In addition to these manufactures, which the natives have appropriated and made their own, from the greater facilities found in the Philippines than in other places less adapted by nature for their prosecution, the Government has been at some pains to force them to engage in the manufacture of cotton yarn and cloth by imposing high duties on those descriptions of foreign manufactured goods most suitable for the native dress, either from their partiality to particular colours, or from other causes.

And for this reason solely a number of kambayas of blue and white checks are made in the country by the native hand-loom, these colours being in general favourite ones of the Indians; the custom-house duty on such goods, and on other favourite colours, being 15 and 25 per cent., according to the flag of the vessel importing them; the Spaniards guarding their own shipping, and securing to it a monopoly of the carrying trade by that difference of the import duty. Should these goods come from Madras, which is their native country, the duty charged on them is 20 and even 30 per cent.

Although these rates of duty may be considered high enough, they are in reality very much more than that per-centage, because the duty is charged by the authorities on a very high fixed valuation, or on the ad valorem principle, which actually is equivalent to increasing the rates of duty, were that only charged upon the actual market price. Since the beginning of this year (1851), however, I understand some changes have been made in the tariff by altering the valuations of goods.

Kambayas are used as sayas, or outer petticoats, by the native or Mestiza girls, and are generally made of cotton cloth, although, of late, juse and silk sayas appear to be more generally worn than they used to be.

Tapiz of silk and cotton is also manufactured in the country. This piece of dress is used as a sort of shawl, and is wrapped tightly round the loins and waist, above the saya, being generally a black or dark blue ground, with narrow white stripes upon it, which, when the garment is worn, encircles the body.

The great advantage which the natives have over foreign manufacturers of these coloured cloths consists not so much in the duty, although that is an immense protection, as in the quickness with which they are able to meet the changes of taste in the patterns and designs of such fancy goods. For it is evident that before designs of new styles can reach Great Britain, and the goods be manufactured there, and shipped off to Manilla, many months must elapse, during which the native manufacturers have been supplying the market with these new and approved styles of goods, and of course reaping all the advantages of an active demand, exceeding the supply, by the high prices obtainable for the new designs. For the market of Manilla varies as much, and the tastes of the people are as inconstant and capricious with regard to their dress, as the natives of almost any country can be.

It will scarcely be believed, that in this remote quarter of Asia, many of the natives of the country are as much petits maitres in their own way, as a gallant of the Tuileries or of St. James's. It would astonish most people to see some of these poor-looking Indians, or Mestizos, wearing a jewel of the value of four or five hundred dollars in the breast of their shirts, or in a ring on their fingers.

No doubt some of them prefer keeping their money in this way, as it is easily transportable, and is always about their persons, to leaving their dollars or gold ounces concealed somewhere about their houses, from which they may frequently be obliged to be absent. Though, as it is a common custom for the natives to have a piece of bamboo in which to deposit their ready-money, and as there is so much bamboo work about the house, of course it is not very difficult for them to select one piece, which from its being out of the way, and rather unapproachable, renders it a secure deposit for their hoards.

Towels, napkins, and table-cloths, are also manufactured by them, from the cotton of the country, and Governor Enrile taught some of their weavers how to make canvas from cotton. It is now very extensively used by the native shipping, and bears the name of the distinguished and philanthropic individual who taught them how to make it, being known by the name of Lona de Enrile, which name may it long bear, and remain as the most honourable memento any governor could leave behind him, of his beneficent and wise interest in the affairs and administration of an important colony.

At several places in Luzon, and in Cebu, &c., the natives make a species of cloth from the plantain-tree, known by the names of Medrinaque and Guiara cloths. The former description is in the greatest consumption, being stouter and more valuable than the other sort, and is mostly all bought up by the natives themselves, although a small portion of it is also exported.

The bulk of all the Medrinaque exported goes to the United States, to the extent of about 30,000 pieces annually; and sometimes as much as double that quantity is sent, although last year there were only about 23,000 pieces purchased for that market, a large quantity having gone to Europe, which is a novel feature of the trade in the article.

Although the silkworm is bred to some small extent in the country, the silk manufacture is not extensively carried on, as the market can so easily and quickly be supplied from China with any description of goods in demand. Some articles of dress are, however, successfully made by the Indians, to oppose the China silks in the market, such as tapiz for the women, and panjamas for the men.

In various parts of the country, the manufacture of earthenware is pursued to a small extent. It is generally of a very coarse description for cooking purposes, water-jugs, &c., and does not interfere with the sale of the finer China ware, with which the natives are supplied for most of their household purposes by the Chinese dealers in the article, that of China make being very much finer than any they have as yet produced in the country.

In the colours and patterns of their dresses the natives are great dandies; the women, as usual, being more particular in those affairs than the men. Very seldom, indeed, does a native Indian or Mestiza beauty sport the same saya for two gala days consecutively. And a very large proportion of their earnings are spent in self-adornment, their tanpipes, or wardrobes, being very well supplied with clothes, all of them of different patterns. Blue and purple appear to be the colours most admired, because, although the tastes and caprices of the people may vary in an infinite degree as to the patterns or styles of their dresses, they do not differ much in their choice of the colours which compose them. A dark complexioned beauty is never improved by a yellow dress; and any woman at all old or ugly looks hideous indeed when dressed in that colour. Apparently the Government were not ignorant of this when they imposed a heavy duty on blue, purple, or white articles of dress, and allowed yellow and other colours disliked by the natives to come into the country on the payment of a less duty. They have even gone the length of allowing yellow cotton twist of foreign manufacture to be imported duty free.

Truly this was very cunning of them—this apparent liberality to a foreign nation, ignorant that the colour would scarcely ever be used. Its affected moderation would most certainly tend to stop any complaints which might be made about the high duties imposed on our manufactures imported into the colony.

But perhaps the authorities had some design on the native beauties, when they held out such an inducement for them to wear unbecoming dresses. Who can say if the official who drew the scheme up had not a wife, jealous of the influence of some dark Indian beauty, to whom she thus held out the inducement of cheap dress, to disarm the power of her charms! Or, it may be, as the priests are at the bottom of most things in Spain, who can tell but their influence was exerted to get this law passed in the pious hope of inducing those feelings of self-abasement and humility which the sense of being ugly, or even plain-looking, generally induces among the fair?



CHAPTER XXVII.

Besides those already mentioned, there are several other branches of manufacture successfully pursued in different places throughout the country, although none of them are very extensive.

Among others, that of hat-making may be mentioned. It is practised principally at a village called Balignat, in the province of Bulacan; and is also carried on to a smaller extent in Pangasinan, Camarines, and Yloylo.

The hats are made from the cane, the fibres of which, employed in their construction, very much resemble the materials of those made at Leghorn, of straw. They are made both black and white, and are used almost universally by the native population, at times when the heat of the sun does not require the salacod as a protection to the head. These are made of cane also, but are much thicker, heavier, and wider, and are shaped like a flat cone, so that the rays of the sunbeams are deflected from it, in place of being concentrated on the brain, as they are by the shape of the European hat.

A large number of Balignat hats are exported to the Australian colonies, and to China and Singapore, as well as a few to the United States.

Cigar cases, or covers, are made to a small extent in the neighbourhood of Manilla, and most of the patterns used for them are pretty, gay-looking affairs. The fineness of these pouches or cases varies to an almost infinite extent, and so does the price they sell at.

The mats on which the natives all sleep are largely manufactured, and employ a great number of people, as everybody throughout the island uses one or more of them. Some of those made in Laguna province are finer and better finished than any others I have seen elsewhere. They are plain or coloured, and of all patterns, and could be manufactured to any degree of fineness, according to the price promised to the workmen.

Ropemaking is extensively carried on; the best cordage manufactured in the islands being made from the fibres of the plantain-tree, which is known in commerce by the name of Manilla hemp.

At Santa Mesa, in the neighbourhood of Manilla, the rope is spun up by the aid of steam and good machinery, established there for the purpose, and still carried on by an old shipmaster, who produces by far the best rope of all that is made. It is also manufactured in several other places by the common hand-spun process, but from being unequally twisted when made by the hand, it is very much inferior to what has been subjected in its manufacture to the uniform steadiness of pull which the regularity of the steam machinery occasions, all of which is consequently much more suited to stand a heavy strain, from being twisted by it. The price of this rope is altogether dependent on the price of hemp, as the value of the labour employed seldom or never varies, although the raw material of which it is composed constantly does; the usual addition made to the current price of hemp being four dollars a pecul of 140 lbs. English, for the machine-made rope, generally known as "Keating's patent cordage," supposing the material so spun to be converted into an assorted lot of from one to six-inch cordage.

The hemp employed in the manufacture of the patent cordage is generally selected for its length of fibre, and lightness or whiteness of colour; and when whale-lines are made, only the very finest lots of hemp procurable at the time are used; but the charge for spinning them is increased to six dollars a pecul, the extra labour being so considerable, that even with the additional charge, the maker, Mr. Keating, informed me that he was much better recompensed by the larger sizes of the rope he spun than by these.

Bale or wool lashing is also made to a small extent for shipment to Sydney, &c.; the quality of the hemp used in making it being of an inferior description, and of a brownish colour. As it is very much more loosely twisted than any other descriptions of rope made here, the charge for spinning it is reduced to two dollars per pecul, and the cost of it will be that amount added to the price of hemp at the time of its manufacture.

The hand-spun rope never sells so well as that made by machinery, and is usually obtainable at from one to two dollars per pecul less than the latter, according as it is well or ill spun.

The export of rope varies from about 9,000 to 15,000 peculs annually; by much the largest quantity usually going to the United States, although there are considerable shipments to the Australian colonies, China, Singapore, and Europe. A large quantity of it is also taken by vessels visiting the port, for their own use.

The manufacture is encouraged by its freedom from any export duty, to which hemp exported in an unmanufactured state is subject, to the extent of 2 per cent.

Besides this cordage, there is another sort of rope made at the Islan de Negros, from a dark-coloured plant,—a description of rush,—which is found growing there in abundance; and as it is not damaged by exposure to the influence of water, it is very extensively used by the native coasting-vessels of small size for cables, for which it is found to answer very well.

Soap is made to a small extent at Quiapo, in Manilla; and is, I understand, shipped to Sooloo and Singapore for sale. But it is not consumed to any great extent in the Philippines, except for washing clothes, &c., the natives preferring to employ a red-coloured root, called gogo, for their own personal ablutions.

This root may be said to be a sort of natural soap, as it serves the same purposes. After being steeped in water for a few minutes, if the water be violently agitated, or if the gogo be rubbed between the hands in the water, a white foam is produced, which exactly resembles soap bubbles, and assists the purification of the skin even better than soap does, being assisted by the fibres of the root, which are usually made to do the duty of a flesh-brush in the bath. When using it, however, it should not be allowed to get into the eyes, as any water impregnated with its bubbles, will inflame them very severely.

So far as I recollect, those that I have quoted are the most important articles manufactured in the country, and they are more numerous and important, considering the state of society in Manilla, than might be looked for. They well exemplify the ingenuity of the people, which is very much more lively than that of any other Oriental nation within the limits of the Indian Archipelago.

Although cigars may be considered as manufacture, I propose classing them with tobacco, which will be found in the list of the agricultural produce of the islands.



CHAPTER XXVIII.

The import trade of Manilla is almost entirely in the hands of the British merchants established there, so far as the great staple articles of manufactured goods are concerned; although a quantity is regularly furnished to supply the demands of the market by the Chinese, whose earthenware, iron cooking utensils, silks, cloths, and curiosities, are very plentiful at Manilla, and are indeed obtainable over all the country without much difficulty.

Among the produce of our looms, especially those of Manchester and Glasgow, which are at all times saleable here, may be mentioned shirtings, both white and grey, long-cloths, domestics, drills, cambrics, jaconets, twills, white and printed, bobbinet, gimp lace, cotton velvet, sewing thread, cotton twist of certain colours, principally Turkey red, Turkey red cloth, prints of various sorts, chiefly Bengal stripes, furniture prints, and Turkey red chintz prints, kambayas, and ginghams, which being cheaper, are gradually taking the place of kambayas; indigo blue checks, imitation pina cloth, blue and striped chambrays, grandrills, trouser stuffs of various sorts, chiefly of cotton, and mixed cotton and wool; handkerchiefs of many descriptions, known as Kambaya handkerchiefs, Turkey red bandanas, fancy printed, light ground checked handkerchiefs, Scotch cambric handkerchiefs, &c.; broad-cloth, cubicoes, lastings, orleans, gambroons, long ells, camlets, carriage lace, both broad and narrow, canvas, cordage, iron, lead, spelter, steel, cutlery, ironmongery, earthenware, glassware, umbrellas and parasols of cotton and silk, &c., as well as India beer, which, though last mentioned, is not the common sort of beer, nor the least profitable or pleasant of them all.

It may be well to mention here, that the provincial traders generally arrive at Manilla in the month of November, soon after the rains have ceased, although they sometimes do not make their appearance till December, when they set about making their purchases, and returning to their places of abode as quickly as possible, to sell the merchandize they take with them. If they are successful, and drive a prosperous trade, which is regulated by a variety of accidents, the principal features affecting it being probably the success of the rice crop, they then write to their agents in Manilla to continue purchases of the goods which they find to be of the most saleable descriptions in their different districts, so that it is not until they have ascertained the temper of the market, during the sale of their first lots, that their largest purchases begin to be made, through their agents at Manilla, who, from this circumstance, usually do their most extensive business during the months of February, March, and April; and, in consequence, these months may be considered as the best seasons of the year for the sale of piece goods in that market.

The rainy season commencing in June, puts a stop to the activity of trade, which usually goes on until its near approach. For although there is a demand throughout the year for plain cottons, and similar articles of general use, the trade in coloured goods is almost suspended during the continuance of wet weather, and as the traffic in kambayas, ginghams, handkerchiefs and all other coloured and fancy goods, is by very much the most important description of trade carried on at Manilla, the commerce of the place languishes considerably during the continuance of the rainy season.

The goods imported from the Peninsula are of very small value, consisting principally of wines, olive oil, and eatables of various descriptions; for wherever a Spaniard lives, he would be quite unhappy without his garbanzos or frijoles.

From Germany and France also various descriptions of manufactures are sent, such as cutlery, toys, glass, furniture, pictures, &c., &c., in fine, an endless catalogue of small wares of that description. Having never seen any complete statement of the quantity, value, or proper description of the merchandise imported into the Manilla market, on which I should be inclined to place any reliance, owing to the absolute impossibility of collecting correct statistical information of the sort at that place, I do not presume to furnish such to the reader, even with that explanation.

The goods imported from Liverpool or Glasgow, from which very large quantities of coloured goods are sent here, are always shipped in Spanish vessels at a very high rate of freight, being generally about double what British ships would be glad to take them for, did not the differential duties in favour of the Spanish flag put all this carrying business beyond their reach. A very large—in fact, probably by much the greatest—quantity of goods, is in consequence of this navigation law, carried by British shipping from our seaports at home to Singapore and Hong Kong, where, after having to stand several charges for coolie hire, landing, storing, and warehouse rent, till such time as a disengaged Spanish vessel for Manilla makes her appearance, and the number of goods at either of these intermediate ports accumulates in sufficient quantity to form a cargo to load her, they have to remain of course at a considerable loss, not only of the interest of money locked up in them, but besides the new charges for freight, insurance, &c., which must be incurred upon them, when transhipped to the place of their destination.

In order further to protect their own shipping against the competition of other countries, they hold out the inducement to merchants exporting manufactures to Manilla, to embark them in a Spanish ship in Europe, by making the duties less on the goods so imported, to those merely brought from a short distance from our settlements in the neighbourhood of Manilla. The following are the rates:—

When coming in a Spanish vessel direct from Europe, they pay 7 per cent.

When coming from Singapore, their voyages to that place and back again, occupying about three months, including the time the vessel is in that port,—as although the monsoon is fair one way, it is certain to be opposed to the ship on the other, except just at the time of its turning,—goods from it pay 8 per cent.

When coming from Hong Kong, to and from which place the monsoons are equally favourable at all times of the year, and the usual average voyage of Spanish ships is about ten days either going or coming, they pay 9 per cent.

These regulations are hard enough on our shipowners, whose vessels, going over to Manilla to load cargo there for all parts of the world, seldom or never can procure any freight to that place; or if they do, it is only to a very insignificant amount, only consisting of something which the owner is in a hurry for, and is willing to pay the large differential duty upon, to get it quickly, which of course is a case of very rare occurrence. But to prevent the frequent occurrence of this, any foreign ship bringing no more than even one small package of inward cargo, is required to pay heavier port charges than she would do if coming in without it.



CHAPTER XXIX.

Besides the sale of foreign manufactures and merchandise in the Philippines, there exists a great outlet for it in the islands of Sooloo and Mindanao, although in the present state of society in those islands, where the insecurity of life and property is very great, the natural advantages of these countries have not been at all adequately developed. In front of Zamboanga, the last town towards the south which recognizes the authority of the Government of Manilla, is situated the island of Sooloo, which, although not of great size, is the centre of an active trade during certain months of every year, as great numbers of the natives of the neighbouring islands frequent it at those seasons, in order to dispose of the produce of their fisheries or to sell the slaves whom they have kidnapped or captured during their piratical cruizes and attacks on their neighbours, if at war with them, as some of them usually are with each other. From Manilla some small vessels are annually fitted out for the trade, which is nearly altogether in the hands of the Chinese dealers, as no persons except themselves would stand the bad treatment they are subjected to by the authorities of the place; the character of the Celestial people leading them to suffer any amount of bad usage provided they are paid for it, or can make money by it, which they somehow manage to do, even in Sooloo, although they are exposed to the almost unlimited plunder and extortion of the Sultan and Datos, or native chiefs, who, on the least occasion, or pretext for it, capture and enslave or confine them, only allowing these unfortunates to regain their very unstable liberty by presents or extortionate bribes.

The vessels engaged in the trade, being brigs or schooners, commonly start from Manilla in March or April for Antique, Yloylo, or other places, where they can complete a Sooloo cargo, after doing which they steer for Zamboanga, to report their cargoes and provide themselves with passports at the custom-house there, should they not have done so at Manilla.

It is, however, only within these few years that these facilities have been given to those engaged in the trade, as formerly the colonial ships were forbidden, under a heavy penalty, to touch at any place in the Philippines after clearing out for Sooloo from Manilla. In spite of this law, however, few of those engaged in the trade had virtue sufficient to obey it, and pass these places by, when it was so very much to their interest to complete their cargoes there, which they could not do elsewhere nearly so advantageously. And the only consequence of this absurd old prohibition against their doing so, was to involve many of them in long-pending and expensive lawsuits, which have often ruined prosperous men.

Besides those wise regulations, there existed some other forms equally sensible. For instance, the traders of Bisayao province, who send several small craft to Sooloo, which they are close to, were compelled to make a tedious voyage to Manilla against the monsoon, in order that they might report their cargo for Sooloo and get out passes, after which they had to return all the way back again, and at length were at liberty to steer for Sooloo.

However, these foolish restrictions were at length put a stop to, and the trade encouraged, by the Government establishing a custom-house at Zamboanga, where there is at all times a considerable military force.

The Sultan appears to be the most powerful nobleman in the country, rather than the sovereign monarch of it. For although the chiefs of the islands, or Datos, usually acquiesce in appearance to his will, they do so more from fear of his power at the moment than with any idea of his legitimate authority, and in effect they very seldom comply with his decrees.

The entire people are slaves owned by the Sultan and these Datos, who exercise over the unfortunate wretches the worst species of tyrannical power; for as these nobles or reguli are subject to no law but there own caprice, if any slave displeases his master, he can, without the slightest fear of having to give any account of the circumstance to a living soul, draw his kris, and murder the slave. Of course by so doing, however, he impoverishes himself, as he loses the market price of the day for a slave; or should he murder a slave belonging to some one else, a Dato is only expected to pay the amount he was considered worth by his master, or to give another one of his own in exchange for him.

But, notwithstanding all the insecurity of life and property, the Chinese annually resort to Sooloo in pursuit of gain, and occasionally as many as eight small vessels are seen there at a time, during the busy seasons, for trade, just after the changes of the monsoon.

Some of these Chinamen marry and remain in the country, although every now and then some of them are obliged to flee from it to the Philippines, where the Spanish flag protects them against their tyrannical and barbarous pillagers; for as there is no law to appeal to as a protection against the chiefs, they are quite at their mercy. The Datos themselves decide their quarrels and disputes with each other, by arming and assembling all their slaves and those of their friends who are willing to help them, and fight it out; but should their disputes run very high, or the feud last for any length of time, some powerful Dato, or the Sultan himself, interferes, and decides it finally by obliging both parties to keep the peace.

The footing on which the trade is carried on with Sooloo is rather a strange one; although regulations have at various times been arranged between the Spanish government and that court, by which, although the Sultan has formally promised to give his guarantee that all goods sold by the traders from the Philippines to the Datos shall be paid for, yet there are very few of the traders at Manilla who consider the pledge of his Highness as of much importance, as it is usually only redeemed when his own particular interest requires it. He is, in truth, generally absolutely unable to make the nobles fulfil their contracts, they being as a body very much more powerful than he is. There being little or no money in Sooloo, the trade carried on by the Chinese supercargos of the ships frequenting the port is principally transacted by barter, they giving their manufactures for the produce of their fishery, &c., and for edible birds'-nests, tortoise-shell, beche de mer, mother-of-pearl shell, wax, gold-dust, pearls, &c.

The profits of those engaged in this trade are very variable, for although their goods are all disposed of apparently at enormous prices, yet there are so many of them delivered to powerful chiefs, or to the Sultan, as presents, or sold to these dignitaries without the traders ever being able to get paid for them, that in reality the profit of the voyage may he scanty enough, although, were the guarantee of the prince to the Manilla government fulfilled, they might he very large if the prices at which they had been sold were actually paid to them.

If the debts of the Datos are not paid off at once they are allowed to stand over for another year, at which distance of time they are very seldom recoverable, good memories being very seldom met with there.

When the result of an adventure is good, the traders look upon these presents and bad debts as necessary expenses incurred to conciliate the authorities of the place, without whose good-will they would be quite unable to prosecute the trade, and in this sort of commerce the Chinese are adepts, although no Europeans could manage it, or would carry it on while upon such a footing.

The ships most suited for the trade are small vessels, of about 200 tons, and their cargoes consist of an infinite variety of goods, each lot being generally of small value. The invoices of a cargo usually cover many pages of paper, and it is no easy matter to make them up without the assistance of intelligent Chinese, who have themselves been engaged in the traffic, and are well acquainted with the place and the people to be dealt with.

Some of the principal cotton manufactures sent to that market from Manilla consist of chintz prints, jaconets and mulls, white shirtings, cambrics, bandana, kambaya, and other descriptions of handkerchiefs; also, iron and hardware, glassware, coarse China earthenware, silk, cloths, copper work, &c.

Ships are in the habit of touching at some port of the Philippines, generally the Island of Panay, there to load and fill up with rice, sugar, tobacco, oil, and several other articles in small quantities. Rice is generally taken from its being always in demand by the Sooloomen, whose habits and feelings little suit them for its production, even when the nature of the country admits of its being grown. The Chinese usually take down a large quantity of a kind of cloth made in their own country, which habit has substituted for money, a piece of it of the usual size being always reckoned as a dollar.

The Sooloomen pay for their purchases in various articles, of which the edible birds'-nests are the most valuable. They are classified by the traders as of two sorts: white, and feathered; of which, the first sort is the most valuable, being generally worth about its weight in silver, or if very good, a little more; but should its colour tend to a red or darkish tinge, it is depreciated in value and is not worth so much.

The feathered sort, called so because the edible substance, of which the Chinamen make soup, is covered by the birds' down and feathers, is very much lower in price than the white kind, being worth nearly two dollars a pound, or I believe it is generally roughly taken as being only about one-tenth part as valuable as the white.

Tortoise-shell they collect and sell at very high prices, the bulk of it going over to supply the China market with that article, a small quantity only being annually sent to Europe.

Beche de mer, or tripang, is a sort of fish or sea-slug, found on the coral reefs, &c., of the neighbourhood, which, when cured and dried, is generally shaped something like a cucumber.

It is minced down into a sort of thick soup by the Chinese, who are extremely fond of it,—and indeed with some reason, as when well cooked by a Chinaman, who understands the culinary art, the tripang is a capital dish, and is rather a favourite among many of the Europeans at Manilla.

There are thirty-three different varieties enumerated by the Chinese traders and others skilled in its classification; for being brought to Manilla in large quantities for that purpose, for the China market, it has become a peculiar business of itself by the dealers in it, and varies in price, according to quality, from fifteen to thirty dollars per pecul of 140 lbs. English.

The slug, when dried, is an ugly looking, dirty brown-coloured substance, very hard and rigid until softened by water and a very lengthened process of cookery, after which it becomes soft and mucilaginous.

Sometimes the slugs are found nearly two feet in length, but they are generally very much smaller, and perhaps about eight inches might be the usual size of those I have seen, their shape, as before mentioned, strongly resembling a cucumber. After being taken by the fisherman they are gutted, and then cured by exposure to the rays of the sun, after which they are smoked—over a fire, I believe—when the curing process is completed.

Shark fins, and the muscles of deer, are also exposed for sale by the Sooloo people to their Chinese visitors, by whom they are eagerly purchased for their countrymen's cookery, both of these articles being very favourite delicacies. The first I have never tasted, although the flesh of a shark, if cut from some particular parts of his body, is far from being bad or unsavoury, if dressed by a China cook. As for the sinews of deer, they are very good, and occasionally met with at Manilla on the tables of Europeans who enjoy the reputation of having good palates.

Mother-of-pearl shell is so well known in Europe, that it is quite unnecessary to remark upon it, more than that those coming from Sooloo are by much the finest and largest shells of any hitherto known in commerce, being superior to those coming from the Persian Gulf.

Pearls are also brought from Sooloo, but they are seldom of any great size or value.

Gold is brought to Manilla from the same place, both in dust and in small bars, but not in any great quantity.

The ships engaged in this trade are generally absent about six months from Manilla, which they leave in March or April, and return to, after coasting about and disposing of all their cargoes, in September or October; no new voyages being undertaken by them until the following year.

During June and July, the most active trade is said to be carried on, as the number of traders annually frequenting the island from those in the neighbourhood, is much greater than at other times.

Besides the trade with Sooloo, a ship is absent nearly every year to Ternate, and other places of the Moluccas, where they usually manage to get their goods ashore, without paying the heavy duties which the Dutch have imposed upon them. The months of December or January being the usual time for starting for the Moluccas, these traders generally begin the busy season at Manilla by the purchase of grey shirtings and domestics, by adding which to goods very similar to those suited for Sooloo, they are enabled to have two strings to their bow, should the prices in the Moluccas be low; as they can, in that case, stand over to Sooloo in June, when they are usually able to dispose of their investments.



CHAPTER XXX.

The insolence of the Sooloo men has at various times drawn down on them the wrath of the Spanish authorities, who, in 1848, and also shortly after I left Manilla, towards the end of 1850, were making arrangements for punishing them, as they afterwards did, with some severity, about the beginning of this year.

The Datos, and their families, are like the old Danes, or Norsemen, born to be seamen; and the barbarous state of their native country preventing the establishment of a mercantile marine, their energies have marked out a scheme of warlike adventure on the sea, to succeed in which their natural quickness and duplicity of character eminently qualify them.

A young Sooloo chief, whose ambitious or restless temper will not permit him to remain an idle man at home, where his passions for cruelty and voluptuous excess could scarcely fail to ruin him in a few years—surrounded as he is there by slavish dependents, and fearless of any higher power, whose authority might act as a check on his temper, or force him to control his passions—finds that the activity of his mind and body demand more scope for excitement than exists at home; and having a bias for the sea, he becomes a pirate chief, and scours the neighbouring waters in search of honour as well as gain. Under proper influences these men might be taught to divert their roving propensities into more peaceful channels. Fitting out large and fast-sailing proas, manned by their slaves, and officered by kinsmen, their warlike excursions take a wide range, and on some occasions their audacity has led them up even to the Bay of Manilla, landing on the shores of which, they have plundered the people, and carried off some of them to increase the number of their slaves, who constitute their principal wealth and power—daring to do this when so near as to be almost under the very walls of the capital, on which waves the banner of Castile.

On the coasts of the provinces these predatory inroads were not uncommon, till General Claveria, in the beginning of 1848, determined to punish them severely, and to intimidate them so signally, as to prevent any repetition of these offences. Accordingly, having secretly fitted out an expedition from Manilla on the 13th February, 1848, the steamer on board of which the Governor himself was, anchored between the islands of Parol and Balanguinguy. Next day the transports arrived, and on that and the following day they reconnoitred the islands, and did all the damage they could, by way of reprisal, demolishing several piers, and destroying a large quantity of paddy which they discovered concealed in a cave in a retired place.

At daybreak, on the 16th February, the troops were disembarked before Balanguinguy under cover of a fire from the ships, and after a little resistance from the Sooloo men—who were excessively frightened by the appearance of the steamers, whose facility of movement they were quite unprepared for—the fort, consisting of bamboo, was taken by escalade after a brave resistance. The attacking force, consisting of about 4000 men, behaved with great coolness and decision, when exposed to the enemy's fire and missiles of all sorts, such as arrows, javelins, &c. About eighty of the defenders of the place were slain, many of them with the desperate bravery—or ferocity if you will—of men who neither would give or accept of quarter, having first stabbed their wives, children, and useless old men and women. On seeing the success of the Spaniards, they formed themselves into a band, nearly all of whom perished on the points of the soldiers' bayonets, fighting bravely to the last; when the few survivors, seeing their companions dead and dying around them, with all the desperation of pirates, threw themselves from the walls, which were lofty, preferring certain death to the chance of falling into the hands of their enemies alive. Fourteen pieces of artillery were found within the place, which was destroyed, and preparations were made and acted upon for attacking the forts of Sipac and Sungap, both of which were successful.