The Governor, General Claveria, gained at the time a good deal of reputation from his soldierly management of the forces at his disposal; and when the news reached Spain, he was created the Conde of Manilla, &c.

On his return from this expedition, a great deal of absurd parade was, as is usual with the Spaniards, prepared to welcome him; and the General was forced to march under triumphal arches, &c., all of them bearing the most glowing inscriptions to the conqueror of the three bamboo forts from a race of barbarians, most of whom were unprovided with better arms than bows and arrows, spears, &c.; for although they had some small cannon, they could not make a proper use of them. Truly it was a pity to see the good deeds of the Balanguinguy expedition burlesqued by these ridiculous pageants.

The lesson then taught the Sooloo chiefs did not, however, linger long in their memories; for their old habits of piracy, and kidnapping people for slaves, were resumed almost so soon as the Spaniards returned to Manilla.

In 1850, Don Antonio de Urbistondo, Marques de la Solana, came out to Manilla as Governor of the Philippines. He was a man whose whole life had been passed in the camp, but his reputation had been gained during the civil wars in Spain, where he fought for legitimacy by the side of Don Carlos against the present queen. Nor did he give up the cause in which he had drawn his sword, until Don Carlos himself lost heart and forsook it, after which Don Antonio took advantage of the clemency of the queen, and swore allegiance to her as his sovereign. His talents as a soldier, although they had been displayed against herself, were rewarded by a marquisate, and afterwards by the government of the Philippines. A person of his character and military education was, of course, a most unlikely one tamely to permit an insult to be offered to the Spanish flag, or an outrage to be perpetrated in the Philippines by the Sooloomen; accordingly, when an instance occurred near the end of last year, prompt satisfaction was immediately demanded from the Sultan and Datos, who, as usual, accused some of their neighbours, with whom they were at variance at the time, of being the authors of it; and invited the Spaniards to seek reparation from them sword in hand. Accordingly an expedition was fitted out, and, with the Governor at its head, sailed for Sooloo in order to awe them, by the alacrity and force which the occasion at once called forth, and to establish a new treaty which would prevent the recurrence of such acts, and the necessity for such expeditions; and it was proposed to punish with no light hand those Tonquiles and others of the Samales whom the Sultan had accused as the perpetrators of the late aggression.

However, on reaching the principal fort of the Sultan Mahomet Pulalon, he found that the Sooloomen would have no communication with him, and that they even threatened the envoys sent among them; and at last, some guns were, I believe, fired on one of the ships. Immediately after this, measures of retaliation were arranged, and were acted upon at once; the place off which the fleet was, being attacked and taken, and all the forts and villages in the neighbourhood burnt within forty-eight hours after the Spanish flag had been insulted. After this severe lesson the Sultan and Datos fled, leaving in the hands of the Spaniards eight bamboo forts and one hundred and thirty pieces of artillery, besides several other warlike stores. All this took place very recently, no longer ago than on the last day of February of this year (1851). General Urbistondo published to his troops a general complimentary order, dated from the fortified residence of one of the most powerful Datos; and on the 1st of March the Spaniards were in possession of the principal fort of the Sultan. The particulars of this expedition I cannot give, having left Manilla shortly before the preparations for it began, although, I believe, it consisted of three war-steamers and some transports, who carried about 4000 men down to Sooloo.

The loss of the Spaniards in the whole affair was 34 men killed, with 84 wounded. A very unpleasant circumstance to the army was connected with this expedition. Two field-officers, both of them acting lieutenant-colonels of separate regiments, showed the white feather at the moment of danger; for which, I believe, they have since been cashiered, and not shot, as they might have been, had their chief not been as merciful as he is brave.

Although this chastisement to the Sooloo men has been severe, it is unlikely to restrain the chiefs from their predatory expeditions, at least for any length of time; as under the present state of things prevailing among them, they have no other objects to exhaust their idleness and energetic characters upon, than piratical adventure. But were commerce and its emoluments displayed before them, from some place in the vicinity of Zamboanga, or from that place itself, the civilizing influence which the arts of peace always engender would so pervade their minds in a very few years, that their habits would be changed, and the blessings of education, religion, and peace, might be expected to civilize and elevate their minds. Their energies and seamanship would then be in requisition as the navigators of all the Archipelago, and to carry in their native vessels the produce of the fertile inland districts of Mindanao, and of Northern Borneo, to the great mart which Zamboanga would become, should it fortunately be made an open port of trade for the people of all nations.



CHAPTER XXXI.

The coasting trade, which is a very important nursery for the marine of the Philippines, is carried on exclusively by the national vessels, no foreign ships being allowed to engage in it.

Manilla, being the only port open to the foreign merchants, is the grand emporium or centre to which nearly all the productions of the islands are brought, which regulation gives employment to an infinite number of colonial shipping, in carrying them to that market. Every day there are several arrivals from the various sea-ports of the different districts of the islands, of brigs, schooners, pontines, galeras, caracoas, and pancos, all of them being curious specimens of every variety of ship-building, from the black and low snake-like schooner, or handsome brig, to the most rude description of vessel built. Where iron nails are scarce and expensive, some of these are fastened together apparently in a manner the most unsatisfactory possible for their crews or passengers, should they have to encounter a gale of wind during their voyages.

Nearly the whole of the coasting trade is in the hands of the Indians, or Mestizos of Chinese descent, called Sangleys, although several Spaniards and European Mestizos at Manilla also own a better class of ships than those described, constantly engaged in going and returning from the provinces.

Still, from some cause or other, they do not appear to carry the on trade so successfully as the provincial shipowners, most of whom have only one or two small vessels, which they keep constantly running between their native place and Manilla, and whose sole business it is, after despatching either of them, to purchase up from the cultivators of the soil, such small lots of their produce as are cheap at the time, such as sugar, rice, &c., which they are able to do at greatly lower terms, when buying them by little at a time, than it would be possible for the agent of a merchant in Manilla to do, whose operations it would probably be necessary should be conducted upon a more extensive and quicker scale, and whose knowledge of the district and of the vendors could seldom be equal to that of a native Sangley, or Indian born among them.

In consequence of all the produce being originally purchased by small lots at a time, it is of very variable quality; and on a cargo of Muscovado sugar, for instance, being purchased from one of these traders by a foreign merchant of Manilla, for exportation, it is perfectly essential to open the whole of the bags in which it has come up to Manilla from the provinces, and to empty their contents into one great heap, which causes it to get well mingled together, and ensures the requisite regularity of sample, after which it has to be rebagged and shipped off to the foreign vessels that may be waiting to receive it in the bay.

Of course the expense of all this is very considerable, for not only is there all the labour and cost of bags, &c., incurred twice, but there is the freight and insurance by the province vessel, which has brought it up to Manilla, to be added to the natural cost of the sugar at the place of its growth and manufacture.

All these restrictions on trade affect the quantity of sugar sold by the native planters, and in a very material degree depress the agricultural activity of the people, who suffer from them. But probably there are no greater sufferers from such restrictive regulations than the Government which so ignorantly sustains or has imposed them. So little anxious have they been to encourage the trade, that formerly, at various times, they very nearly all but ruined it, by imposing import duties on all the produce of the provinces that came to Manilla from them, for sale. This, added to the export duties at the time of its shipment to foreign markets, so much increased the cost of those articles in Manilla, that the foreign merchants there, finding they could procure similar merchandise at other places for less money, of course would not buy it; and the native traders, finding their produce unsaleable except at losing prices, could not make any further purchases from the native agriculturists, which caused so much distress in the country, that the provinces got into a high state of disaffection on several occasions, from the same cause; upon seeing which the Government were wise enough to repeal their restrictive laws, and allow the free interchange of commodities between all the provinces of the Philippines.

For instead, as was supposed, of its falling upon the exporting foreign merchants, and on those who bought their cargoes of Manilla produce from them at the port of discharge, the tax fell upon the native agriculturists, inasmuch as they had to reduce the former prices of all their produce which paid the tax, and to equalise them to the rates at which similar merchandise was procurable in other markets, where no tax of the sort existed;—and this, of course, compelled the cultivators of these articles in the Philippines to sell the produce of their farms for less money than they formerly obtained for the same goods. By so doing, it was equivalent to reducing the former wages of their labour, or of the produce of their land—the effects of which were speedily felt and comprehended by them, although some of the officials, who imposed it, might scoff at the causes they assigned, and reiterate their crude and erroneous notions of political economy, to prove that it could not affect them, but must be paid by the great merchants, or by the consumers of their produce in Europe. They quite forgot that these could be supplied with the same things from other places, where they were not subjected to the tax, and of course were procurable cheaper.

Owners of vessels suitable for the coasting trade, who reside in Manilla, have one advantage over the provincial ship-builders; namely, that when the government service gives employment to shipping, they are in a better position for offering for it, than persons at a distance from the capital can be.

The freight of tobacco, for instance, gives a good deal of employment to ships, and as government rates are in general rather better than any charters obtainable from private merchants, the procuring of a government contract for carrying any of the articles which they monopolize, of which the above-mentioned is one, is an object of some competition. These freights are usually settled by tenders, sealed and delivered to an officer appointed to receive them, by the Yntendente, or officer at the head of the Finance Department. I was acquainted with a gentleman, who, having several idle vessels suitable for this carrying trade, was of course most anxious to get the contract, to give employment to his ships; and having found out who the other contractors for it were, and all of them happening to be cautious men, not likely to offer for it at a losing price, he resolved to play a bold game, and made his tender for the conveyance of it out in some such words as these: "I offer freight for the tobacco, at one cuarto less than any body else will take it at," and signed his name; a cuarto being the very smallest copper coin current at Manilla. Of course he got the contract; which—as he anticipated from knowing the men who offered for it—turned out to be a very good one; and, as the Yntendente of the time was an intimate friend of his, he ran little risk of being taken advantage of, by a lower sum being named to him as the lowest tender than what was actually the case.

Nearly all the tobacco collected in Cagayan is yearly brought to Manilla during the north-east monsoon. The contracts for this purpose generally embrace a term of three or four years, during which the rate paid by Government to the person who engages to bring all the bales (or cases) of it which they may require at one fixed freight, never fluctuates, even although the amount shipped by them is very much in excess of the usual quantity, and he may be forced to charter vessels from his neighbours at a much higher rate than the Government pay him, in order to fulfil the conditions of his contract. Considerable care is requisite in loading this tobacco, as, should there be a mistake made even of one bale, the contractor is forced to account for it to Government at the price they sell it at, which is about three times as much as they pay for it; and this regulation is no doubt found to be very requisite, in order to prevent fraud.

After the tobacco has been manufactured into cigars, the contractor has to deliver it at various stations throughout the islands, these places being generally the head-quarters of the fiscal or estanco department of the different maritime provinces from which the other are supplied. Besides the coasting trade from the provinces to Manilla, and that in the government service, there is a trade carried on by various provinces between themselves, such as conveying rice or paddy from the grain-districts to other provinces where less of it is grown, from the attention of the natives being directed to some other agricultural produce more suitable than paddy to their soil and climate, as from Antique to Mindora or Zamboanga, or from the island of Samar to that of Negros, or to Mesamis. Thus in the hemp provinces, little paddy is planted, as it is more profitable for them to make hemp, or to weave Sinamais cloths, &c., than to do so. This commerce, however, is not of any great extent; the principal—indeed the only great—market of the country being Manilla, where traders from all parts of the Archipelago meet to buy and sell.

It has been mentioned elsewhere that foreign men, as well as foreign ships, are at present excluded from engaging in the provincial trade; which is about as illiberal and unwise an act as any country could be guilty of, and should be changed, not for the benefit of foreign traders, but for the good of the country.

In connexion with the province trade, the naval school ought to be mentioned, as it is a most useful institution, where arithmetic, geometry, and navigation are taught gratuitously, at an expense to Government of nearly 2,400 dollars a-year.

The President of the Chamber of Commerce is also President of the school, and the members of that body have the privilege of admitting the pupils—a right which I believe they exercise liberally. At this place, boys are very well trained up in the scientific and theoretical part of their profession; but unfortunately, from some cause or other, their education afterwards as practical seamen does not keep pace with it, and they generally are as much behind our British or American shipmasters in all relating to the sea, as can be well conceived, although they are not unfrequently superior to them, and at least are equal, in their theoretical attainments.

At this school, many of the Creoles and Mestizos of Manilla have shown to the world that they did not want the ability to learn, when they had good masters to instruct them; but good heads and hands are seldom found together. In fact, I rather think that the lads educated here are taught too much (if that be possible), and by being so, have their ideas raised above their stations; for many of them are, by a great deal, much more like gentlemen than a number of the merchant skippers or mates in our British ships, whose horny fists and tar-stained dress make few pretensions to outward gentility.

Among the province-trading vessels lying at anchor in Manilla river, there are at all times to be seen some curious specimens of ship-building, few of them being insurable.

Some of these coasters, although nearly all shaped in the European style, have almost the whole of their rigging constructed of ropes made from the bamboo, and are fitted with anchors made from ebony or some other heavy wood, having occasionally a large piece of stone fastened to them, to insure their sinking. The cables to which they are attached are generally of a black rush, like sedge, or of bamboo; but in the event of a gale, I should say that their crews had great need never to embark in these frail shells, except when well assured of being at peace with God and man.

In ordinary years these vessels are laid up for several months every season, as it would most probably be certain destruction for any of them to attempt proceeding to sea from October till December.

Although a large proportion of the colonial-built vessels are bad, still there are a few constructed in the country which would be considered fine ships in any part of the world.

When a good vessel is built there, the first voyage she makes is usually to Spain, if she can get a freight; and after discharging her cargo, her next voyage is to a British port, in order that she may be fitted with copper bolts and iron work, under the inspection of Lloyd's surveyor; after which her character is established, and she is classed A 1 ship for a term of years.

But notwithstanding these ships being placed in Lloyd's books, the insurance offices can seldom be persuaded to accept of risks even in first-class vessels, when their crews are Spaniards, on the same favourable terms at which risks are freely taken on good British ships. They almost invariably demand an increased premium, and occasionally decline risks by them altogether.

Now, although bad management sometimes occurs on board of Spanish ships, our own are not exempt from it; and I believe that prejudice causes them to refuse the insurance as much as anything else.

The Dons have got a bad name as seamen, and very true is the elegant proverb, "Give a dog a bad name, and hang him."



CHAPTER XXXII.

Nearly the whole of the produce of the Philippines is exported from Manilla by the foreign merchants resident there, none of the Spaniards being engaged in commerce to anything like the same extent as the foreigners are; the few British and the two American houses doing an immensely greater amount of business than the whole transactions of all the Spanish merchants, numerous though they be. The trade of my countrymen consists principally in selling cotton manufactured goods, and in purchasing the produce of the islands for export; while the business of the Americans, who sell few goods, consists almost entirely in purchasing produce for the markets of the United States, and elsewhere. The Chinese are also large importers of their country's manufactures, curiosities, and nick-knacks, and also very considerable exporters.

The statistical data embodied in the following tables will inform the reader pretty exactly of the amount of exports from the Philippines, with the exception of the single article of rice, immense quantities of which are carried over to China by Spanish ships, which load it at the districts where it is grown; for as the Government charge no export duty on its exportation in ships bearing the national flag, they are allowed to depart from the general rule of all vessels being obliged to load at Manilla while shipping cargo for foreign ports, if they are merely taking rice on board, and nothing else.

It is right, however, to inform the reader, that although the subjoined table may approach very nearly to the truth in most respects, as it has been gradually and very carefully collected by the largest British mercantile establishment at Manilla, the nature of whose business requires that they should be as well acquainted with all facts such as the table embraces, as from the nature of existing circumstances there it is possible to be, yet at that place there is at all times a greater or less degree of difficulty in obtaining correct statistical information of the trade; and this is considerably increased by the Government not choosing to communicate the particulars they collect at the Custom-house, erroneous though they be.

In an underhand way, however, these particulars can be obtained from some of the Indian copyists employed in that establishment, if they are paid for it; and, in fact, they are in the habit of communicating a note of the different cargoes of ships coming in, or going away loaded, to some of the merchants. Yet these notes are nearly always more or less erroneous, from various causes. To obviate these inconveniences, several of the principal export merchants are in the habit of mutually furnishing each other with a correct statement of the various cargoes they ship; but still, as there are many exporters besides themselves, some degree of error must pervade even their carefully-gleaned information. But there is one thing to be borne in mind, that the following table is most likely to be considerably under the truth, and certainly is not over it.

General Statement of Exports from Manilla during 1850.

- - - - - To To the To the To To To To Great Continent Australian China. Singapore California United Britain. of Colonies Batavia, and the States. Total Europe. & Bombay. Pacific. - - - - - Sugar 146,926 50,830 142,359 12,749 29,144 77,919 459,927 peculs. Hemp 16,073 5,568 544 102,184 124,367 " Cordage 96 476 3,753 1,732 680 2,137 210 9,084 " Cigars 10,319 11,867 12,561 9,262 26,859 1,707 914 73,439 mil. Leaf Tobacco 42,629 42,629 quintals Sapan-wood 37,068 14,436 18,942 17,337 9,015 96,798 arrobas. Coffee 165 9,670 1,481 100 250 1,072 2,063 14,801 peculs Indigo 259 213 uncertain 3,753 4,225 quintals Hides 3,340 213 1,069 4,622 peculs. Hide Cuttings 536 2,419 2,955 " Mother-of-pearl Shell 820 338 260 74 1,492 " Tortoise-shell 2,081 580 555 1,912 469 5,597 catties. Rice 6,576 uncertain 1,467 Uncertain. Beche de Mer 4,348 4,348 peculs. Gold Dust 5,068 5,068 taels. Camagon, or Ebony-wood 235 1,213 794 2,242 peculs. Grass-cloth 175 13,252 500 650 22,975 37,552 pieces. Hats 9,400 5,115 9,115 500 25,870 50,000 hats. - - - - -

The quantity of rice and paddy shipped to China from the provinces cannot be ascertained with any degree of exactness; what goes from Manilla is very small, because, before arriving there, it has, by its transport expenses, added to the price at which it is obtainable in the districts where it is produced, which, of course, prevents its being shipped from the capital. At a guess, however, I should suppose that about a million cavans, each of which, one with another, weighs about a China pecul, or 133 1/3 lbs, is an average yearly export, should the Government not prohibit the article from being exported for a longer period than usual, which is annually regulated by the scarcity or abundance of food in the country.

From the preceding table, the reader will observe that the exports of 1850, when compared with those of 1847, of which the following is a statement, have increased in some respects, and fallen off in others.

Statement of Exports from Manilla during 1850.

-+ + -+ -+ -+ + -+ + + To To the To the To the To the To To To Great Continent United Pacific Australian China. Singapore. Batavia. Britain. of States. and Colonies. Total Europe. California. -+ + -+ -+ -+ + -+ + + Sugar 104,246 18,755 92,149 4,150 174,777 394,077 peculs. Hemp 16,592 2,438 98,440 300 1,888 119,658 " Cordage 20 546 7,038 404 4,430 825 1,425 14,688 " Indigo 58 78 2,166 149 118 2,569 quintals Sapan-wood 12,055 11,960 28,891 160 5,210 18,814 1,817 78,907 peculs. Hides 1,366 183 1,821 2,389 5,759 " Hide Cuttings 1,893 1,893 " Gold Dust 3,970 3,970 taels. Coffee 9,244 395 4,267 13,906 peculs. Rice 23,760 4,520 300 772 uncertain 875 Uncertain. Paddy 1,870 13,978 uncertain Ditto. Cigars 16,010 11,176 548 787 9,674 6,706 19,169 5,943 70,013 mil. Leaf Tobacco 5,440 115,016 5,280 125,733 arrobas. Mother-of-Pearl Shell 708 92 16 816 peculs. Grass-cloth 56,171 56,171 pieces. Hats 1,600 10,932 5,560 18,092 hats. -+ + -+ -+ -+ + -+ + +

The quantity of hemp shipped during the years 1848 and 1849, was greater than the quantity indicated in either of these tables, but as the increased export was principally caused by speculation in the United States, the average annual export may probably not be greater than the amount set down in the table of 1850, although, in the previous year, about 30,000 peculs more were shipped.

Of the exports to the continent of Europe only a small proportion goes to Spain, probably not exceeding a third part of the quantities set down in the table for the continent.

Bremen, Hamburg, and Antwerp, are the three towns in the north with which most business is done, and Bordeaux and Havre de Grace, are nearly the only places to which the other exports are shipped for Europe, exclusive of the ports of Cadiz, Malaga, and Bilboa, in the Peninsula.

Having furnished the preceding tables of the amount of the exports from the only outlet for foreign trade with the islands, excepting in rice to China, as before mentioned, the reader may be able to form some opinion of their veracity and value. And as it may be of some service, I shall give a short sketch of each of the most important of the articles there set down, premising it with a memorandum of the weights and measures now in use through the islands. The pecul is equal to 140 lbs. English, or 137 1/2 lbs. Spanish; the Spanish lb. being two per cent. heavier than the standard British lb. The quintal is 102 lbs. English, and the arroba 25 1/2 lbs. English. The cavan is a measure of the capacity of 5,998 cubic inches, and is subdivided into 25 quintas. The Spanish yard, or vara, is eight per cent. shorter than the British yard, by which latter all the cotton and other manufactures are sold by the merchants importing them, although the shopkeepers who purchase them retail everything by the Spanish yard.



CHAPTER XXXIII.

It is not my intention, even were it in my power, which it is not, to attempt an exact and complete description of all the productions of the group of islands composing the Philippines, to which nature has with no niggardly hand dispensed great territorial and maritime wealth. And as the limits of this work prevent much expansion, I will confine the following observations to an outline of the principal articles produced in the country, beginning the catalogue with the most important of them all, namely, rice.

The cultivation of paddy, or rice, here, as all over Asia, exercises by far the greatest amount of agricultural labour, being their most extensive article of cultivation, as it forms the usual food of the people, and is, as the Spaniards truly call it, El pau de los Indios; a good or bad crop of it, influencing them just as much as potatoes do the Irish, or as the wheat crops do in bread-consuming countries.

In September and October, when, in consequence of the heavy previous rains since the beginning of the wet season, the parched land is so buried as generally about that time to present the appearance of one vast marsh, it is ploughed lightly, after which the husbandman transplants the grain from the nurseries in which he had previously deposited it, in order to undergo there the first stages of vegetation.

In December, or in January, the grain is ready for the sickle, and in general repays his cares and labour by the most abundant harvest. There is no culture more easy and simple; nor any which gives such positive good results in less time, as only four months pass between the times of sowing and reaping the rice crop.

In some places the mode of reaping differs from the customs of others. At some places they merely cut the ears from off the stalks, which are allowed to remain on the fields to decay, and fertilize the soil as a manure; and in other provinces the straw is all reaped, and bound in the same way as wheat is at home, being then piled up in ricks and stacks to dry in the sun, after which the grain is separated by the treading of ponies, the horses of the country, upon it, or by other means, when the grain is again cleared of another outer husk, by being thrown into a mortar, generally formed out of the trunk of some large tree, where the men, women, and children of the farm are occupied in pounding it with a heavy wooden pestle, which removes the husk, but leaves the grain still covered by a delicate skin. When in this state it is known as pinagua; but after that is taken off, the rice is clean.

For blowing away the chaff from the grain, they employ an implement worked by a handle and a wheel in a box, which is very similar to the old-fashioned fanners used in Scotland by the smaller farmers for the same purpose.

In the neighbourhood of Manilla, there is a steam-mill for the purpose of cleaning rice; and there are several machines worked by horse-power throughout the country. But although there are many facilities for the employment of water-power for the same purpose, I am not acquainted with any mill moved on that principle.

The qualities of rice produced in the different provinces, varies a good deal in quality. That of Ylocos is the heaviest, a cavan of it weighing about 140 lbs. English, while Camarines rice weighs only about 132 lbs., and some of the other provinces not over 126 lbs. per cavan.

Although in all the provinces rice is grown to a considerable extent, yet those which produce it best, and in greatest abundance, and form what may be called granaries for the others, which are not so suitable for that cultivation, may be considered to be Ylocos, Pangasinan, Bulacan, Capiz, Camarines, and Antique.

It is best to ship rice in dry weather; and should it be destined for Europe, or any other distant market, it should leave by the fair monsoon, in order that the voyage may be as short as possible, to ensure which, all orders for rice purchases for the European markets should reach Manilla in December or January, as the new crop just begins to arrive about the end of that month. It takes about a month to clean a cargo at the steam-mill, and after March, the fair monsoon for homeward-bound ships cannot much be depended upon; and were the vessel to make a long passage, the cargo would probably be excessively damaged by weevils, by which it is very frequently attacked. Ylocos rice is considered to be the best for a long voyage, as it keeps better than that grown in other provinces.

The price of white rice is rarely below two dollars per pecul, or above two and a half dollars per pecul, bagged and ready for shipment.

A hundred cavans of ordinary province rice will usually produce 85 per cent. of clean white, and about 10 per cent. of broken rice, which can be sold at about half the price of the ordinary quality: the remaining 5 per cent. is wasted in cleaning.

Rice exported by a Spanish ship, goes free; but if exported by any foreign ship, even when it is sent to a Spanish colony, it pays 3 1/2 per cent. export duty, and when sent to a foreign country by a foreign ship, it pays an export duty of 4 1/2 per cent. In order to be more explicit, it may be well to give a pro forma invoice of rice.



5,000 peculs of white rice, bought ready for shipment at the mill, at $2-1/4 per pecul $11,250 00

Charges :—

Export duty on valuation, which can generally be managed to be got at a good deal under the market price; say at $1-1/2 per pecul, at 4-1/2 per cent. $337 50 Boat and coolie hire, shipping 200 00 ——— 537 50 ————— $11,787 50

Commission for purchasing and shipping, &c., at 5 per cent. 589 37 ————— $12,376 87

This is about equal to its price if purchased and cleaned in another manner; for instance:—

1,000 cavans province rice, costing, say, 10-1/2 rials per cavan, = $1,312 50

will generally produce 85 per cent. clean white rice, fit for shipping, and 10 per cent. broken rice, which can be sold at about 5-1/4 rials per cavan, = 65 62

thus 150 cavans (equal to about 820 peculs) will ————- cost $1,246 88

Add the expenses of receiving on board the native boats, measuring there, landing, re=measuring, cleaning, bags and bagging, averaging from about 70 to 80 cents. per pecul of cleaned rice, say at 75 cents, = 615 00 ————- $1,861 88



or equal to $2-27/100 per pecul for clean white rice, ready for shipment.

Sugar.—Although the cane is cultivated to a greater or less extent throughout all the islands, there are four descriptions of sugar well known in commerce, grown in the Philippines, and these come respectively from the districts of Pampanga, Pangasinan, Cebu, and Saal, after which districts they are named; and the growth of other places producing similar sugars to any of these descriptions, usually passes under one of these names in the market, although Yloylo is sometimes, though rarely, distinguished as a separate quality. The mills employed for expressing the juice from the cane are nearly all of stone; and firewood is usually employed to boil the sugar; for although they have for some years introduced the plan of employing the refuse of the cane for that purpose, it is not yet very general.

A large quantity of the Muscovado sugar made in the country, resembling the descriptions produced in the provinces of Pampanga and Pangasinan, is brought to Manilla for sale, in large conical earthern jars, called pilones, each of which weighs a pecul. The Chinese or Mestizos who are engaged in the purifying of sugar are the purchasers of these lots, and most of them are in the habit of sending an agent through the country, with orders to buy up as much of such sugar as they require to keep their establishments at work. They are in the habit of paying these travellers a rial, which at Manilla is the eighth part of a dollar, for every pilone he purchases on their account at the limits they give him. When enough has been collected in one neighbourhood to load a casco or other province boat, it is despatched to their camarine at Manilla, where after being taken from the original pilone, if it has come from Pampanga, it is mixed up together, and placed in another one, with an opening at the conical part, which is placed over a jar into which the molasses distilling from it gradually drop, when the colour of the sugar from being brown becomes of a greyish tinge.

At the top of the pilone, so placed with the cone turned down, a layer of clay is spread over the sugar, as it has the property of attracting all the impurities to itself; so that the parts of the sugar in the pilone next to the clay are certain to be of the whitest and best colour, whilst the sugar at the bottom, or next the opening of the cone, is the darkest and most valueless, until it has had its turn of the clay; for when the Chinamen perceive that the top part of the sugar in the pilone or earthen jar has attained a certain degree of whiteness, they separate the white from the darker coloured, and the greyish tinged sugar from the dark brown coloured portion at the foot of the jar; and after exposing the white and greyish coloured to the sun, they are packed up, while the dark brown portion, after being mixed with that of a similar colour, is again consigned to the pilone to be clayed.

Besides clay, some portions of the stem of the plantain-tree are said to have the power of extracting the impurities from sugar, and in some districts are said to be preferred to clay for that purpose, being chopped up in small pieces, and spread over it.

The unclayed descriptions of sugar are generally procurable at Manilla by the end of February, when the new crop commences to come in; and clayed, or the new crop, is seldom ready for delivery before the middle of March.

The entire crop is all ready for export by the end of April, although the market is seldom cleared of it till the January of the ensuing year, when the sugar clayers being anxious to close their accounts of the past crop, and wind up all that remains in their camarines, in order to be ready for the new season's operations, are sometimes willing to make a reduction in the nominal price of the day, in order to effect that purpose. But as the grain of sugar does not improve by keeping, especially when it has to stand the moistness of the atmosphere during the preceding wet season, such sugar, if bought at that time, is seldom equal in grain to the produce of the new crop, although its colour may be preferable.

Pangasinan sugar is of a beautiful white colour, but with a very inferior grain: it loses much in the sun-dryings, and is generally, I believe, mixed with the clayed Pampanga sugar, to give the latter a colour, although all the dealers deny doing it themselves, but are ready enough to believe, if told that their neighbours are in the habit of mixing both Cebu and it, in their pilones,—the first for the sake of cheapness, and the other for a colour. Pampanga sugar is of a brownish tinge, and when of good quality, of a strong grain. It possesses a very much greater quantity of saccharine matter than any other description of sugar I am acquainted with, and is consequently a favourite of the refiners at home and in Sweden. Taal and Cebu descriptions are never clayed separately, although, as before mentioned, the latter, on account of its cheapness, is occasionally mixed with Pampanga for claying.

They are principally in demand for the Australian colonies, where Taal is generally preferred to Cebu (or Zebu), from its possessing more saccharine matter than the latter. Taal is generally so moist that it always loses considerably in weight, sometimes to the extent of about 10 per cent., and even more;—it is a strong sweet sugar. Cebu seldom loses so much as Taal, generally not more than 3 per cent. on a voyage of about two months' duration.

All sugar is sold to the export merchants by the pecul of 140 lbs. English, and it is either paid for at the time of its delivery, or if a contract is made for a large quantity with a clayer, or other dealer, it is often necessary to advance a portion of the price to enable him to execute the order, and the merchants often do this long before a pecul of sugar is received from him, or any security given in return. This system prevails not only in sugar, but in all other articles of the agricultural produce of the islands, in the sale of which no credit is given to the purchaser.

Sugar pays an export duty of 3 per cent. It should never be weighed except upon a hot dry day, as if there is the least moisture in the air it absorbs it, and adds considerably to its weight.

In connection with sugar, it may be stated, that some very good rum is made at Manilla, although very little is exported. It is a monopoly of the Government, who farm it out to one of the sugar clayers at Manilla. Molasses are never shipped, but are used in Manilla for mixing with the water given to the horses to drink, most of them refusing to taste it unless so sweetened.

Hemp is produced from the bark of a species of the plantain-tree, forests of which are found growing wild in some provinces of the Philippines. The operation of making it is simple enough, the most important of the process apparently being the separation of the fibres from each other by an iron instrument, resembling a comb for the hair. After drying in the sun, and undergoing several other processes, with the minutiae of which I am unacquainted, it is made up into bales, weighing 280 lbs. each, and in that state is shipped for Manilla, where, after being picked more or less white, which is dependent entirely upon the purposes it is intended to serve, and the markets it has to be sent to, it is again pressed into bales of the same weight as before, although of much less bulk, and is exported, the greater quantity of it going to the United States of America, as the export tables will show.

The best hemp is of a long and fine white fibre, very well dried, and of a silky gloss. The dark coloured is not so well liked, and if too bad for exportation, is generally made up into ropes for the colonial shipping, or sent down to Singapore for transhipment to Calcutta, where it is employed for the same purpose.

The best hemp comes from Sorsogon and Leyte, and some of the Cebu is also very good. Albay, Camarines, Samar, Bisayas, and some other districts, are those from which it principally comes.

The freight on hemp shipped by American vessels to the United States, is reckoned at the rate of 40 cubic feet, or four bales of 10 feet each, to the ton; but when shipped to Great Britain, the freight is generally calculated at the ton of 20 cwt., or 2,240 lbs. avoirdupois.

Annexed is a table of calculations of what it will cost if put on board a ship in Manilla Bay, including all charges, and 5 per cent. paid to an agent there for purchasing it, &c.

- - If bought at $5 per pecul At the would cost, At At At At At At At exchange free on $5-1/4 $5-1/2 $5-3/4 $6 $6-1/4 $6-1/2 $7 of board - - s. d. L s. d. L s. d. L s. d. L s. d. L s. d. L s. d. L s. d. L s. d. 4 1 per $ 19 0 6 19 17 8 20 11 5 21 12 1 22 10 5 23 6 3 24 5 4 26 0 3} 4 1-1/2 " 19 4 5 20 1 9 20 19 8 21 16 5 22 15 0 23 11 0 24 10 5 25 5 6}Per 4 2 " 19 8 3 20 5 10 21 3 11 22 0 9 22 19 6 23 15 9 24 15 3 26 10 0} 4 2-1/2 " 19 12 2 20 9 11 21 8 2 22 5 2 23 4 2 24 0 6 25 0 2 26 16 2}ton 4 3 " 19 16 0 20 13 11 21 12 4 22 9 7 23 8 9 24 5 4 25 5 1 27 1 6} 4 3-1/2 " 19 19 11 20 18 0 21 16 8 22 14 0 23 13 4 24 10 1 25 10 1 27 6 9}of 4 4 " 20 3 10 21 2 1 22 0 10 22 18 5 23 18 0 24 14 10 25 15 0 27 12 1} 4 4-1/2 " 20 7 8 21 6 1 22 5 1 23 2 10 24 2 6 24 19 7 26 0 0 27 17 5}20 4 5 " 20 11 7 21 10 2 22 9 4 23 7 3 24 7 2 25 4 4 26 5 0 28 2 9} 4 5-1/2 " 20 15 6 21 14 3 22 13 7 23 11 8 24 11 9 25 9 1 26 9 11 28 8 0}cwt. 4 6 " 20 19 4 21 18 3 22 17 10 23 16 0 24 16 4 25 13 10 26 14 10 28 13 4} - -

To understand this table, suppose an agent in Manilla purchases a quantity of hemp for a merchant in London, at 5 dollars per pecul, the cost of packing, shipping, and the 5 per cent. commission for buying, &c., will make it cost, when put on board ship in Manilla Bay, 20l. 19s. 4d. per ton, if drawn for at the exchange of 4s. 6d. to the dollar. On its arrival at London, the freight, insurance, &c., added to this, will be its actual cost laid down there.

Tobacco.—The best tobacco produced in the Philippines is grown in the Island of Luzon or Luconia, where it is monopolized by the Government, to whom it furnishes an important revenue. From the province of Cagayan, where the greater part of it is grown, the best quality comes, and that leaf, being much stronger than any grown elsewhere, is generally used as the envelope to wrap round the inferior descriptions of tobacco employed in the manufacture of cheroots. Most of the other descriptions used for them come from the district of Gapan, in Pampanga province, and the two sorts combined are said to produce pleasanter cigars than either separately could do,—the Cagayan leaf being too strong to be used alone, and the Gapan leaf too mild for the ordinary taste.

In the mountains of Ylocos and Pangasinan, some of the native Indians inhabiting them grow quantities of tobacco, which they sell to the traders of the neighbourhood. In these mountains the Indians are still free, and retain their old pagan religion, unsubdued either by the Spanish soldiery, or by the more salutary and effective warfare waged against them by the priests, who labour assiduously to convert them to Christianity. Being mountaineers, and leading the unsettled and roving life of huntsmen, subsisting by the produce of the chase and the plaintain-tree, very little is known about them at Manilla beyond the fact of their existence, although the well-directed energies of several enthusiastic missionaries, who have as yet only found an entrance among them, are likely to civilize and ameliorate their condition somewhat, and to supply this information. Notwithstanding that the mounted police force, scattered over the country, are particularly attentive to hunt out all illicit growth of tobacco, and to put a stop to it by the severest punishments when it is discovered; they have not as yet been, nor in fact are likely to be, at all successful in doing so efficiently, so long as the Government continue to make the enormous profit they at present do from its sale, after it has been made by them into cheroots, or brought to Manilla and sold in the leaf for export. In Bisayas the quality of the leaf is so inferior in strength and appearance to that produced in Luzon, that the Government have not thought it worth while to appropriate the produce of the islands to themselves by a monopoly.

There are several extensive manufactories of cigars carried on by the Government at and near Manilla, the most extensive being in the capital, although those at Malabone and Cavite also employ a great number of people in rolling them up.

In making cheroots women only are employed, the number of those so engaged in the factory at Manilla being generally about 4000. Besides these, a large body of men are employed at another place in the composition of cigarillos, or small cigars, kept together by an envelope of white paper in place of tobacco; these being the description most smoked by the Indians.

The flavour of Manilla cheroots is peculiar to themselves, being quite different from that made of any other sort of tobacco; the greatest characteristic probably being its slightly soporific tendency, which has caused many persons, in the habit of using it, to imagine that opium is employed in the preparatory treatment of the tobacco, which, however, is not the case.

The cigars are made up by the hands of women in large rooms of the factory, each of them containing from 800 to 1000 souls. These are all seated, or squatted, Indian-like, on their haunches, upon the floor, round tables, at each of which there is an old woman presiding to keep the young ones in order, about a dozen of them being the complement of a table. All of them are supplied with a certain weight of tobacco, of the first, second, or third qualities used in composing a cigar, and are obliged to account for a proportionate number of cheroots, the weight and size of which are by these means kept equal.

As they use stones for beating out the leaf on the wooden tables, before which they are seated, the noise produced by them while making them up is deafening, and generally sufficient to make no one desirous of protracting a visit to the place. The workers are well recompensed by the Government, as very many of them earn from six to ten dollars a month for their labour, and as that amount is amply sufficient to provide them with all their comforts, and to leave a large balance for their expenses in dress, &c., they are seldom very constant labourers, and never enter the factory on Sundays, or, at least, on as great an annual number of feast-days as there are Sundays in a year.

During the years of 1848 and 49, the Government were not in the habit of selling leaf-tobacco for export, but they have again resumed the practice of 1847, which, however, is likely to be stopped soon again; how soon, it is impossible to say—probably just when the caprice of the director of tobacco inclines him, as he is an influential person, generally, in his own department.

The denominations of cheroots were changed in January, 1848; when the description formerly known as Thirds was and still is called Seconds, and the manufacture of a new sort known as Firsts was begun.

The weights of new cigars when sent out of the factory are as follow:—Firsts 1500, Seconds 3000, Thirds 4000 to the arroba; the weight of the arroba when issued by Government from the factory being actually 1 pound 9 ounces over the current weight,—this allowance being made to meet the loss of weight which cigars always experience during a long sea-voyage, which, although it diminishes their bulk, is said materially to improve their flavour. All cigars for the use of the country-people are made in the Havana shape, and are prohibited being exported, probably from their desire to keep the name of Manilla cheroots up to its proper status, as the Havana-shaped cigars are seldom equal in flavour to those made for exportation.

A large quantity of the Havana-shaped are made and used in the country by smugglers, who sell them at one-half the price charged by the Government, and some of these are occasionally sent from Manilla by stealth. But they are seldom so good as those of the Government make, although that occasionally deteriorates to an alarming degree, so that every now and then very bad cheroots are exported. Of course, when they are smoked and disliked no one uses them, and they become unsaleable, so that when Government finds that there are few or no purchasers, and that their stock is accumulating, they are obliged to use a better class tobacco in their manufacture, upon which people begin to buy from them again. However, this uncertainty as to their at all times producing good cigars, has a most detrimental effect upon themselves, and this alone prevents their consumption from being very much greater than it now is, if one uniformly good quality of tobacco were always used and the bad descriptions sold.

The rates at which Government sell cigars are fixed, being 14 dollars per 1000 for Firsts, 8 dollars for Seconds, and 6 3/4 dollars for Thirds; although, if the purchasers will take off more than the stocks existing in their warehouses, the prices may be regulated by the eagerness of the buyers, from the cigars being sold at public auction, which, however, very seldom happens. Purchasers have no power to secure the good quality of the cigars they buy, as on an application being made to the director of the renta for a quantity, he merely fills up a printed order for their delivery, and after the money has been paid for them, but not till then, they are delivered by the warehouse-keepers at random, as it is not allowed to select for delivery any of the cigars under their charge, which are consequently never seen by the purchaser until after the completion of the bargain, when if the quality is bad he has no remedy for it, as they will not be received back again by the Government or the money for them returned.

Indigo.—The quantity produced is very small; that exported to the United States being the bulk of the crop, although large quantities of liquid indigo are also annually sent to China in casks; but I have not been able to ascertain its amount with any degree of precision. It is of an inferior quality to the solid dye, and sells for considerably less money.

The dye coming from the provinces of Laguna and Pangasinan is generally of superior quality to that produced in Ylocos and elsewhere, their relative prices being about forty-five dollars per quintal for the first two descriptions, and twenty-eight dollars for the other sorts of first, second, and third qualities in proportions.

The cultivation of the plant is very precarious, as it is liable to damage from a variety of causes; it will die if too much water collects round it, or if too little is given to it. It generally is grown on a dry soil, having a slight decline, to carry off the rain. To extract the dye from the plant, the usual process is to place it in large vessels containing lime and water, and then to bruise it with a wooden pestle; after which, when the water becomes still, the colouring matter will sink to the bottom of the vessel, when the water and the plants are drained off, and the matter, which by that time has acquired the consistency of paste, is exposed to the air to dry upon mats: as it becomes more dry it is divided by lines into small quadrangular pieces, and is broken up.

To secure a good quality of indigo, great attention must be paid to the clearness of the water, and the proper mixture and quantity of the lime, as too much or too little is equally pernicious; also the time during which the bruising takes place, which, it appears, is a matter of very nice judgment, as it is usual to explain or account for the cause of the bad quality of a lot by saying that the planter has beat it for too long or too short a time, and that he did not know exactly when to stop.

This article is very liable to adulteration, at which both native and Chinese dealers are so peculiarly expert, that purchasers trusting solely to their own knowledge are very liable to be deceived by them.

The blues of the country are much brighter than any of the British or continental dyes, and are in consequence much preferred by the natives.

Cotton.—Cotton is only grown in a very small quantity, principally in Ylocos and Batangas provinces. Some of it is sent to China, but the major part of the crop is used in the country. It is seldom or never well cleaned, the rude machines employed for doing so being usually worked by the hand or foot, very imperfectly and slowly, cleaning only a small quantity of the wool in a day.

Cocoa-nut oil.—Cocoa-nut oil is made in the province of Laguna and in Bisayas. That coming from the Laguna is of the best quality, and generally sells for a good deal more than the Bisayas oil, which does not give so good a light, and has a worse smell than the other. The manufacturing processes employed in producing it are very rude in both of these districts, although that followed in Laguna is the better of the two; but both are bad. It has been proposed, however, to remedy this by establishing proper machinery at Manilla for carrying on its production on a large scale, as is done in Ceylon.

The chief difficulty of exporting the article appears to be the want of knowledge of the proper means of seasoning the tanks in which it is shipped. These have not as yet been well made at Manilla; and some merchants have been in the habit of getting their empty tanks from Batavia, as they are usually better made there than they are procurable in Manilla. The best mode of seasoning them appears to be, to fill them all with oil, and to place them in the sun, after being well coopered, above a large vat or other receptacle to catch all the oil which may leak out of them; and after they have stood for some time in this way, the pores of the wood get filled up by the oil, which prevents further leakage.

When filled with water, as has been the practice for some time past at Manilla, on the oil being shipped, the effect, as has been found, is to increase its leakage over what the casks lose when they have not been filled with water, but left altogether alone, as water expands the wood, while oil causes it to shrink. By attention to the preparation of the casks at Colombo in Ceylon in this manner, they are able to send home oil in old beer casks, &c., which, of course, enables them to avoid a great deal of unnecessary expense. Perhaps a small quantity of boiling hot oil poured into a cask, which should then be rolled about so that the oil might wet every part of it, would cause it to shrink more speedily than by exposing it to the sun for about six weeks. I am not aware, however, of this having ever been tried.

Cocoa is grown among plaintain-trees, which afford it some shade, and protect it from the excessive slow heat, which kills it.

Although the growth of cocoa is at present very small, did any one take the trouble to bestow the necessary care and attention it demands, the crop might be very greatly augmented. The best is now grown in Cebu, although, from Samar, Misamis, and Batangas, the Manilla market is also supplied, but it is only saleable at about twenty-three dollars per pecul, while the Cebu grown fetches about twenty-seven dollars per pecul.

Very little is exported, and the chocolate made in Manilla is nearly all consumed there. Supplies occasionally come from Guayaquil of a quality very similar to that of Cebu.

All the efforts hitherto made to send cocoa to Spain, without its deteriorating in quality, by getting spotted, &c., have been unsuccessful.

Coffee.—Although there have been efforts made at various times to promote this valuable branch of agricultural industry, by holding out to the natives rewards in money for a certain number of plants in a state of bearing, it has not as yet had the effect of greatly promoting its growth. Tayabas and Laguna are provinces from which most of it comes to Manilla, but this it does by very small lots at a time, and generally uncleaned, which the provincial traders have to do here. The quality of most of that grown at these places is fully equal to that of Java, from which, however, it differs a good deal in flavour. The French, who take off the bulk of the crop, are fonder of its peculiar taste than most other people, and prefer it to other descriptions.

Pepper is grown to a very limited extent in Tayabas, and is all consumed in the country, although in former years some has been exported from that province.

Opium could be grown in the greatest perfection in several places of the Philippines, where the white poppy abounds in the utmost luxuriance; but Government do not choose to permit its growth and manufacture, except in the immediate vicinity of Manilla, although I believe there is a permission to do so there, where, however, there is no soil suitable for the growth of the plant. There are many places, also, which would subject the planters of it to the nearly unlimited control of the police, whose interference alone would be so vexatious and unpleasant as to deter any one from attempting its growth, even did the stringent regulations laid down with reference to it not do so; such as exactly counting the number of plants, and being forced to deposit all the drug in the custom-house for export, for the permission to do which twenty-five per cent. would have to be paid to the Government. These regulations are a virtual prohibition to engage in its cultivation, as no prudent man is at all likely to embark his capital in such an enterprise while they exist.

In consequence of the heavy duty imposed upon opium, to discourage its importation, the greater portion of the drug consumed in the country is smuggled into it by the masters of the Spanish trading-vessels from China or Singapore.

Government farm out the privilege of supplying the market with opium to the highest bidder, who seldom, however, imports many chests for its consumption; but what he does sell is usually at a very large advance on the prices paid for it in another market.

How much better were it for the Government to attempt to regulate the trade of this article instead of doing all in their power to suppress it, in which they can never be successful, so long as Chinamen and their descendants remain with the tastes that now belong to them. Can there be any prohibition against the introduction of opium more strong than that of the Chinese Government? and are there any more useless, or any laws more openly evaded? It is impossible to extirpate the taste, but it would be easy to regulate and in some degree control it; and these are the proper and legitimate aims of a Government.

Under proper management and increased facilities for the planter to rear opium, the Philippines, merely from their situation, would rule the China market for the drug, which would employ multitudes of people in its growth and manufacture, and be a source of immense wealth to the country.

Some one will object that it is an immoral trade, which caters to the worst passions of the nature of the Chinese. Let it be proved so; let us see something more than mere prejudice; let it be shown to be worse than the conduct of the farmer, at home, who raises and sells barley to make whiskey; or of the distiller, who makes it; or of the West Indian, who produces rum from his estate, as both of these stimulants increase the evil passions in men while swayed by them, to a much greater extent than opium.

Smoking tobacco does no good to the person who practises it; it is a vice, although those addicted to it may call it one of the lesser sins. But would it be just or wise to prohibit the growth of tobacco, because smoking it may not be a virtue?

To attempt stopping the use of opium is no wiser, and just as futile, in China, as King Jamie's foolish decrees against tobacco proved to be in Britain.

Wheat is grown in the provinces of Ylocos, Tayabas, and the Laguna, but is seldom or never more than enough to supply the wants of the European population, none of it being exported; and the import of foreign wheat is prohibited, although it is frequently conceded to the bakers, on their memorialising the Governor, and showing that the prices at the time of their doing so are excessively high.

Although sulphur can scarcely be ranked in the same category with the preceding articles of commerce, I set it down here, as a considerable quantity is annually shipped to China. It is brought from the vicinity of the volcanoes in Bisayas: the best is said to come from Leyte, which is worth about one and a quarter dollar per pecul. Residents at Manilla usually immerse a large block, weighing about two peculs, in the wells from which their drinking water is taken, just as the rainy season commences, and it is found to have a most salutary effect upon the water impregnated with it, causing less liability to those who drink it, to suffer dysentery from its use.

Cowries, the shells of a small snail, are found on the shores of several islands, and are shipped as an article of commerce to Singapore, &c., where they are, I believe, purchased by the Siam and Calcutta traders, as they serve for money in several of the countries of Asia. Those found on Sibuyan island, in Capiz province, are considered the best, being the smallest and stoutest. They are sold by the cavan, weighing nearly a pecul, if of good quality, at about two dollars per cavan.

Pitch, or tar, is brought from Tayabas to Manilla, in boxes or baskets, and is employed, I believe, principally by the shipwrights there, in the prosecution of their business. Some of the natives also use it for making torches, it being cheaper than oil.

Betel-nut, or areca, is, as is well known, used nearly all over Asia, all the natives of which are excessively fond of the taste the mastication of it produces in their mouths. The prepared leaf is called a buyo in the Philippines, when it is spread over with lime, and a morsel of betel-nut enclosed in it. Immense quantities of it are consumed in the islands and in China, and in former times, I believe, it formed a branch of the excise revenue.

Hides.—The quantity of buffalo hides shipped to China and Europe is considerable. Those exported to China are sometimes shipped without being salted, although it is necessary that all those sent on so long a voyage as it is to Europe should undergo that process. Buffalo hide cuttings are generally prepared for shipment by being immersed in lime-water, from which they are withdrawn perfectly white and coated with lime.

Buffalo hides weigh about 21 lbs. a-piece, and cow, only about the half of that. Deer hides are also sometimes, though rarely, cured and exported.

The beef of the buffalo, cow, and deer, is cured for the China market, by being salted and allowed to dry in the sun: it is then called sapa.

Tamarinds, which are called sampaloc by the natives, are seldom exported for sale.

The woods of the country are various and valuable; but, perhaps, the best known for its useful properties, is the Sapan dye-wood, called sibocao. It comes from various provinces; but principally from Yloylo and Pangasinan.

Good wood is stout, straight, well-coloured, and with no appearance or trace of water having been used to heighten it, which may be easily detected on a careful inspection, although the unwary have on several occasions been known to have purchased, and shipped home to Britain, quantities of the common firewood in place of it, as after being wetted, it acquires the colour of Sapan-wood, sufficiently to deceive an ignorant or careless purchaser.

Nearly all of the straight wood is sent to Europe, and the roots to China and Calcutta, where they are said to be quite as well liked as straight wood, and beyond a doubt they produce more dye than the latter.

The mountains of the Philippines are clothed with numberless varieties of woods of almost every description of Oriental timber; but the markets of Europe being so distant, and the cost of freight to them so enormous, very few are sent there, except, perhaps, ebony and molave, although several beautiful descriptions of wood are employed by the cabinet-makers of the country and those of China, some of which are of superior beauty to anything I have ever seen at home when made up into furniture.

The ebony principally comes from Cagayan and Camarines, the wood from which is perfectly dark, and as good as any I know of. The Cagayan wood is very beautiful, being marked by broad black and white, or black and yellow stripes; it takes a polish very well, and forms a peculiarly fine timber for the cabinet-makers to exercise their skill upon, its rays producing magnificent tables, &c.

Molave is a wood of great solidity, and of incredibly lasting properties; and it resists, better than all others, exposure to the weather. It is said to become petrified when immersed for some time in water, and in fact it appears to be nearly as lasting and incorruptible as stone itself. It is employed for nearly all purposes, and large quantities of it are shipped to China.

Narra is a common description of red wood, somewhat resembling mahogany, which occasions it to be largely used in cabinet-making. From the lower parts of this tree I have seen a table exceeding two yards square, cut out, in one piece.

Tindal wood resembles narra, but has a higher colour than the latter, which, however, gets sobered, and becomes darker by age.

Alintatas is of a beautiful yellow colour.

Malatapay is also yellow, or rather coffee-coloured, and is well veined for ornament.

Lanete is a white wood, and is made use of for a variety of purposes.

All the preceding woods are capable of being made into furniture of a very handsome and valuable description, and were they better known in Europe, would be largely employed for that purpose, as people would be willing to purchase them for their beauty, even at the high prices which the distance and expense of transit would occasion.

Among the common useful woods for ship-building and other purposes, may be mentioned the banaba and mangachapuy: the latter does not stand water well, however.

Yacal, for beams and joists of houses, &c., and a tall, straight wood, called Palo Maria, is valuable for supplying spars, &c., to the shipping of the colony.

Baticulin, for cutting up into boards or deals.

Dungo unites strength and solidity to an immense size.

Teak is found in Zamboanga, and its value is too well known to require any remark upon it.

Ypil is brought to Manilla from Yloylo, and being a very lasting and hard timber, is of the greatest value, and is applied to a variety of uses.

These are some of the many species of woods abounding in the country, whose number and value are yearly increasing as they become better known to the foreign timber merchants of China and elsewhere. The China market alone would take off greatly increased supplies, were they allowed to ship the timber from the ports next to where the woodman's axe had felled the tree, in place of forcing it to bear all the heavy charges which its transport to Manilla in the first instance now subjects it to.

The investigations of Don Rafael Arenao have been of great service to me in forming a list of these; and for several other particulars scattered throughout the preceding pages I have to thank him.



CHAPTER XXXIV.

The money current in the Philippines consists of Spanish and South American dollar pieces principally, although no two of them have precisely the same weight in silver. Thus the Chilian dollar of 1833 had 456.24 grains of pure metal, while that of the Rio de la Plata has only 441.24 grains of silver.

Nearly all the Mexican dollars differ in their quantity of pure silver; for example, that of the coinage of 1832 had only 442.80, while that of 1833 had 451.20 grains of pure metal. The old Spanish dollar has 445.08 grains of pure silver, and the half dollar 222.48 grains; while the Bolivian half dollar has only 168.60 grains of pure silver; and the Bolivian quarter-dollar piece has only 84.84 grains of pure silver; while the standard Spanish quarter-piece contains 111.24 grains of unalloyed silver.

The golden doubloon, weighing an ounce, is worth sixteen dollars in Manilla, although it usually sells for considerably less in China.

Both of these coins are subdivided into halves and quarter-pieces, and the dollar is divided into eight reals, one of which is equal to two and a half reals of the vellon money current in the Peninsula; and the Manilla real is represented by a copper currency of seventeen cuartos. In calculations, however, the real is divided into twelve parts by an imaginary coin called grains; so that by $3. 2. 6. would be understood three dollars, two reals, and a half real, or three dollars and five-sixteenth parts of a dollar.

The copper money in circulation is so scanty, as to be perfectly inadequate for the purpose; and at the time of my leaving Manilla, the usual charge for exchanging a dollar for copper money was a quartillo, or the quarter of a real, worth about a penny halfpenny of English money.

In consequence of this scarcity, the natives are in the habit of employing cigars as money, to represent the smaller coins; and all over the Philippines a cigar is actually the most important circulating medium, each representing a cuarto.

At various times the scarcity of copper coins has given rise to extensive forgeries of them, and caused a considerable depreciation in their actual value, the false coinage being all of spurious metal.

The gold which is found at Pictas, in Misamis, and at Mambalao, Paracala, and Surigao, is consumed in the country in ornaments, &c., and some of it is sent also to China. The amount annually produced at these places is very uncertain; and the quantity exported to China is probably a good deal more than the amount set down in the tabular statement, it being a thing of so very easy export, that I should suppose at least an equal number of taels are sent there privately, to what appears in the table to have passed the Custom-house.

Its value in Manilla varies, according to quality, at from twenty dollars a tael down to fourteen for the inferior sorts.



CHAPTER XXXV.

After travelling so far together, the reader will permit me to direct his attention to the geographical position and natural advantages of the Philippines, which are unequalled by any other islands in the whole eastern Archipelago. Their vicinity to the immensely populous empire of China is in itself enough to render them a most flourishing colony.

The Spanish and local governments are alive to the importance of this, and appear desirous to encourage trade to a limited extent, but are apparently anxious to hold the reins of it, and to regulate it as they deem best for themselves, or at any time to put a stop to it entirely.

The evils arising from the changeable elements given birth to by their interference it is difficult to over-estimate, as from the ignorance, which prevails through all classes, of the first elements of a commonwealth, and from their capricious notions of government, and want of knowledge of the advantages of liberality and of the facilities given to the prosecution of commerce, few persons of prudence care to expose their capital very extensively to the chances of trade.

At present the Philippines want some infusion of foreign capital and energy into the veins and local arteries of the country, which, backed by the enlightened application of science, would cause these islands to emerge from the obscurity now surrounding them, and force them to assume the important position for which nature has apparently destined them.

This will not come to pass until the present opinions of the Government and people are considerably changed with reference to their commercial legislation, or until all government interference in affairs of that nature is left off, so far as the interests of the revenue will permit, when the people will be insensibly but wisely taught by experience to rely upon themselves alone.

The principles of commerce, and the wealth of nations, as laid down by Adam Smith in his great work, which is almost deserving of immortality for the truths it tells mankind, are as true and as sure in practice as they are in theory; and should the wisdom and truth of his investigations ever be applied to the commercial regulations of these islands, it is difficult to foretell the destiny that may ultimately await them.

It appears to me to be as unwise to attempt to restrain the course of nature and its fruits, aided by the energies of man to develop or to use them, as it would be to bind down the mind of a man of genius, or of a poet, in order to prevent their operation, or to hinder the great conceptions of their muse, or the scientific research which a bright genius renders serviceable to his fellow mortals, from ever seeing the light. No one will defend the justice or wisdom of the time which forbade Galileo to publish, or even himself to believe in, his great discoveries; but is that more unjust than the policy of rulers, who shut up from the beings whom God has created to use them, the fruits of our common mother, the earth?

It is equally absurd to prevent and to prohibit in either case; but notwithstanding this, the passions and prejudices of mankind are violent enough to permit of the one, although they would by no means suffer the other. Wisdom and passion can seldom or never accompany each other.

Philanthropy will ultimately banish from our codes all such regulations as tend to check the fruitfulness of the soil and its use by man, who has been endowed with reason in order that he may assist the operations of nature. The constant and unrestricted use of the bounties of nature does not lead to their abuse; the contrary is the fact, for it is only when our appetites are excited by the obstacles to their attainment that they become excessively indulged and depraved.

The illiberality of the Government places the existing position of foreigners in rather an equivocal position, for they are only there upon sufferance; and in the event of any disturbance, such as happened at Manilla in 1820, or of a war between the two nations, what would become of the foreigners or of their property?

It has already been shown to the world that our fellow-subjects at Manilla in 1820, might be murdered in the streets like dogs, and no retribution be demanded by their Government; and to this day their personal liberty and property can at any time be endangered by the caprice of the Governor or of his subordinates.

In 1848, an alcalde laid hold of a number of British subjects, and threw them suddenly into prison, because he happened one day to discover that the time for their permission to remain in the country had years ago expired, which all of them had been led to expect it was quite unnecessary to have renewed so long as they remained quiet and well-conducted members of the community. As the alcalde did not know very well what to do with them when he had got them into the jail, he kept them there for a few days till he had smoked a good deal, and thought a little about them, and then he told the jailor to let them out again.

Our trade with China would be materially improved by the attention of Her Majesty's Foreign Secretary being directed to the position of the Philippines in connection with our own interests with them, and with the great empire adjoining them. Besides, it is a shame to ourselves that such things should exist in the colony, not only of a friendly European power, but of one so much indebted, as Spain is, to the valour of our arms for her independence, and to our liberality for possessing this colony at all.



THE END.



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