The generic name for Orchid in Tagalog is Dapo.

Some interesting facts relating to Philippine Botany

Sweet-smelling Flowers are very rare. Of the few, the most popular in Manila is the Sampaguita (probably a corruption of the Spanish name Santa Paquita), which is sold made up in necklet form on cotton.

Looking on to the Pasig River at Manila in the early morning, one often sees large masses of floating verdure of a small-cabbage appearance. This aquatic plant is the Pistia stratiotes, Linn., (Tagalog, Quiapo).

The firewood in common use as fuel, in great demand, and known as Raja de Tangal, is the Rhizophora longissima. It is also useful for fencing, roof-framing, etc. Another well-known firewood is the Rhizophora gynnorhiza (Tagalog, Bacauan). Langary is also used as firewood of an inferior quality. They are swamp-trees.

The species Pteclobyum gives the "Locust-bean," as sold at every little sweetmeat shop in London. This tree (when raised on or transplanted to highlands) may be called the friend of the coffee-plant, for it opens its leaves in the sunshine to shade it and closes them when rain is about to fall, so that the coffee-plant may be refreshed by the water. Also, at night, it closes its leaves to give the coffee-plant the benefit of the dew. Another peculiar feature is that the branches lopped off for household fuel can, when barked, be used at once, without needing to be dried or seasoned. Its natural habitat is the mangrove swamp, and the trunk and root give market fuel.

Colot-colotan, or Manquit, is the Tagalog name given to the Chrysopogon aciculatus, Trin. (Spanish, Amor seco)—the little particles like pointed grass-seeds which stick to one's trousers or skirt when crossing an uncultivated field and can only be removed by picking them out one by one.

The Tagalog affix aso, to the name of a botanical specimen, means pseudo, i.e. not the genuine species; v.g., Sincamas is the Decandria—Pachyrhizus angulatus (vide p. 321), whereas Sincamas-aso is the D.—Pachyrhizus montanus.

Many places take their names from trees and plants, v.g.:—

Antipolo (Rizal) a tree. Bauang (Batangas) garlic. Bulacan (Bulacan) a tree. Capas (Pangasinan) the cotton-tree (Igorrote dialect). Camagon Is. a tree. Cabuyao (Laguna) a tree. Calumpit (Bulacan) a tree. Culasi (Antique) a tree. Iba (Zambales) a plant. Lucbang (Tayabas) a small lime. Lipa (Batangas) nettle. Quiapo (Manila suburb) an aquatic plant. Sampaloc (Manila suburb) the tamarind-tree. Salomague (Ilocos) the tamarind-tree. (Igorrote dialect). Tabaco (Albay) the tobacco-plant. Taal (Batangas) a tree (same as Ipil). Talisay (Batangas) a tree.

Medicinal Herbs, Roots, Leaves, and Barks abound everywhere. Nature provides ample remedies for dysenteric, strumatic, scorbutic, and many other diseases. An extensive work on the subject was compiled by Ignacio de Mercado, the son of a Spanish Creole father and Tagalog mother, born in 1648 at Paranaque, seven miles from Manila. He was parish priest in Lipa in 1674, and subsequently held several other incumbencies up to his death, which took place in Bauang (Batangas) on March 29, 1698. His MS. passed from the pharmacy of one religious corporation to another to be copied, and for over a century after the British occupation of Manila (1762-63) it was supposed to be lost. Finally, in 1876, it was discovered by Don Domingo Vidal y Soler, who gave it to the Augustine friars for publication, but I am not aware that it was ever printed. According to Manuel Blanco, Ignacio de Mercado's MS. describes 483 medicinal specimens, and attached to the description are 171 coloured sketches of medicinal plants, leaves, woods, and barks, and also 35 coloured sketches of plants, etc., without any description of their medicinal properties. The only one of these remedies which I have had occasion to test on myself is Tagulauay Oil, extracted from the leaves of the plant called in Tagalog Tangantangan. It is an excellent styptic.

Ylang-Ylang (Anona odoratissima, Blanco; Cananga odorata, Hook) and Champaca (Michelia champaca, Linn.) yield odoriferous essential oils, and these fine perfumes are, especially the former, exported to foreign countries. The export of Ylang-Ylang in the years 1902 and 1903 amounted to 3,949 and 5,942 gallons respectively.



CHAPTER XIX

Mineral Products Coal—Gold—Iron—Copper—Sulphur, Etc.

Owing to the scarcity of manufacturing industries in this Colony, the consumption of Coal is very limited, and up to 1889 it hardly exceeded 25,000 tons per annum. In 1892 nearly double that quantity found a market. In 1896 the coal imported from Newcastle (New South Wales) alone amounted to 65,782 tons; in 1897 to 89,798 tons. A small proportion of this is employed in the forges, foundries, and a few steam-power factories, most of them situated around Manila, but by far the greater demand is for coaling steam-ships. Since the American occupation the increase of steam-shipping and the establishment of ice-plants all over the Colony have raised the consumption of coal. Wood fuel is still so abundant in rural districts that coal will probably not be in general request for the steam sugar-mills for many years to come.

Australia, Great Britain, and Japan supply coal to this Colony; in 1892 Borneo traders sent several cargoes of inferior product to Manila; nevertheless, local capital has been expended from time to time in endeavours to work up the home deposits.

Philippine coal is more correctly speaking highly carbonized lignite of the Tertiary age, and analogous to Japanese coal. Batan Island, off the south-east coast of Luzon Island, is said to have the finest lignite beds in the Archipelago.

The island of Cebu contains large deposits of lignite. The mines of Compostela are estimated to be very rich in quantity and of medium quality. The late owner, Isaac Conui, for want of capital, was unable to develop them fully. Transport by buffalo-carts from the mines to the coast was very deficient and costly, and Conui, who was frequently my guest in Manila in 1883, unsuccessfully sought to raise capital for constructing a line of railway from the collieries to Compostela village (east coast). They were then taken up by a Spaniard, with whom the Spanish Government made contracts for coaling the gunboats. A tram line was laid down to the pits, but there was a great lack of promptitude in deliveries, and I heard of ships lying off the coaling-wharf for several hours waiting to start coaling. The enterprise has by no means given an adequate return for the over P100,000 invested in it up to the year 1897. The coal-mine of Danao, on the same coast, has not been more prosperous. When I visited it in 1896 it had not yielded a cent of nett profit. In 1904 I made the acquaintance, in Cebu Island, of a holder of P47,000 interest in this enterprise. He told me that he had got no return for his money in it. He had spent P1,000 himself to have the mine inspected and reported on. He sent the report to his co-partners in Manila, and heard no more about it until he went to the capital, where he learnt that the Managing Director had resigned, and no one knew who was his successor, what had become of his report, or anything definite relating to the concern.

Anthracite has been found in Cebu, [155] and satisfactory trials have been made with it, mixed with British bituminous coal. Perhaps volcanic action may account for the volatile bituminous oils and gases having been driven off the original deposits. The first coal-pits were sunk in Cebu in the Valle de Masanga, but the poor commercial results led to their abandonment about the year 1860. There are also extensive unworked coal deposits a few miles from the west coast village of Asturias, which I visited in 1896 with a planter friend, Eugenio Alonso, who was endeavouring to form a coal-mining syndicate. The Revista Minera (a Madrid mining journal) referred in 1886 to the coal of the Alpaco Mountain, in the district of Naga (Cebu Is.) as being pure, dry, of easy combustion, carrying a strong flame, and almost free from sulphur pyrites. Cebu coal is said to be of better quality and cleaner than the Labuan and Australian products, but its heating powers being less, it is less serviceable for long sea voyages.

The coal-mines in the hills around the Cumansi Valley, about eight miles from the Cebu coast (Danao) have been worked for years without financial success. The quality is reported excellent. Indeed, in several of the larger islands of the Colony there are outcrop indications of workable coal, unobtainable for want of transport facilities.

In the Province of Albay, the Sugod Collieries were started by a company formed in the year 1874. There were some fifteen partners, each of whom subscribed a capital of P14,300. One of these partners, Ceferino de Aramburu, told me that for a while the result was so good that a Manila banking firm offered to take over the concern from the shareholders at a premium of 20 per cent. upon the original capital. About 4,000 tons of coal were extracted, most of which was given away as samples, in the hope of large contracts resulting from the trials, although it is said that the consumption was too rapid, and that it had to be mixed with Cardiff coal. Seven pits were sunk, and the concern lingered on until the year 1881, when its working was relinquished. The failure was attributed to the shallowness of the pits, which were only 30 metres deep, whilst it was supposed that if the excavation had been continued before these pits were flooded, shale and limestone strata could have been removed, exposing a still more valuable seam, in which case it might have been worth while providing pumping-machinery. The cost of extraction and delivery on the coast was estimated at 75 cents of a peso per ton, whilst Cardiff coal in Manila was worth, at the time, about eight pesos per ton, and the Australian product ranged usually at one to one and a half pesos below that figure, port tax unpaid.

In January, 1898, "The Philippine Mining and Development Company, Limited," was formed in Hong-Kong with a capital of $1,600,000 (Mex.) in 160,000 $10 shares for the development of Philippine coal deposits and other industries, under the management of a Scotch merchant of long standing and good repute in Manila (since deceased). The Spanish-American conflict which arose four months later impeded active operations by the company.

In May, 1902, a company styled "Minas de Carbon de Batan" was constituted to purchase from and exploit the coal-mines of Messrs. Gil Hermanos, situated in the Island of Batan, Sorsogon Province. The purchase price was fixed at P500,000, and the company's capital at P1,000,000 divided into 5,000 equal shares. Hopeful reports were made on the property by an American, a Spanish, and a Japanese mining engineer respectively. When I interviewed the Managing Director of the company, in Manila, two years after its formation, no dividend had yet been paid to the shareholders.

Comparative Analyses of Coal

Source. Fixed Carbon. Volatile matter. Water. Ash. per cent. per cent. per cent. per cent. Cardiff 83.00 8.60 4.50 3.90 Australia 71.45 16.25 2.90 9.40 Cebu 57.94 31.75 9.23 1.08 Rock Spring, Wyo. 56.50 34.50 6.25 2.75 Cebu 51.96 37.56 7.80 2.68 Cebu 49.50 35.03 11.18 3.62



I do not know that any capitalist has ever received an adequate return for his investment in Philippine coal-mining.



From the earliest period of the Spanish occupation of these Islands, attention has been given to Gold-seeking.

It is recorded that in the year 1572 Captain Juan Salcedo (Legaspi's grandson) went to inspect the mines of Paracale, (Camarines); and in the same district the village of Mambulao has long enjoyed fame for the gold-washing in its vicinity.

In the time of Governor Pedro de Arandia (1754-59), a certain Francisco Estorgo obtained licence to work these Paracale mines, and five veins are said to have been struck. The first was in the Lipa Mountain, where the mine was called "San Nicolas de Tolentino"; the second, in the Dobojan Mountain, was called "Nuestra Senora de la Soledad de Puerta Vaga"; the third, in Lipara, was named "Mina de las Animas"; the fourth, in the territory of San Antonio, took the name of "San Francisco," and the fifth, in the Minapa Mountains, was named "Nuestra Senora de los Dolores," all in the district of Paracale, near the village of Mambulao. The conditions of Estorgo's licence were, that one-fifth (real quinto) of the output should belong to the King; that Estorgo was authorized to construct, arm, and garrison a fort for his own defence against anticipated attacks from Mahometans, and that he should have the title of Castellano, or guardian of the fort. It was found necessary to establish the smelting-works in Mambulao, so he obtained a licence to erect another fort there on the same conditions, and this fort was named "San Carlos." In a short time the whole enterprise came to grief. Estorgo's neighbours, instigated by native legal pettifoggers in Manila, raised endless lawsuits against him; his means were exhausted, and apparatus being wanted to work the mines, he had to abandon them.

About the same time, the gold-mines of Pangotcotan and Acupan (Benguet district) were worked to advantage by Mexicans, but how much metal was won cannot be ascertained. The extensive old workings show how eagerly the precious metal was sought in the past. The Spanish Government granted only concessions for gold-mining, the title remaining in the Crown. Morga relates (1609) that the Crown royalty of one-tenth (vide p. 53) of the gold extracted amounted to P10,000 annually. According to Centeno, the total production of gold in all the Islands in 1876 did not not exceed P3,600.

During the Government of Alonso Fajardo de Tua (1618-24) it came to the knowledge of the Spaniards that half-caste Igorrote-Chinese in the north of Luzon peacefully worked gold-deposits and traded in the product. Therefore Francisco Carreno de Valdes, a military officer commanding the Provinces of Pangasinan and Ilocos, obtained permission from the Governor to make a raid upon these Igorrote-Chinese and appropriate their treasure-yielding territory. After a seven days' march the Spanish gold-seekers and troops arrived at the deposits, where they took up their quarters without resistance. The natives held aloof whilst mutual offers of peace were made. When the Spaniards thought they were in secure possession of the neighbourhood, the natives attacked and slaughtered a number of them. The commander of the district and the leader of the native troops were among the slain. Then they removed the camp to a safer place; but provisions ran short and the wet season set in, so the survivors marched back to the coast with the resolution to renew their attempt to possess the spoil in the following year. In the ensuing dry season they returned and erected a fort, whence detachments of soldiers scoured the neighbourhood to disperse the Igorrote-Chinese, but the prospectors do not appear to have procured much gold.

Many years ago a Spanish company was formed to work a gold-mine near the mountain of Malaguit, in the Province of Camarines Norte, but it proved unsuccessful.

At the beginning of last century a company was founded, under the auspices of the late Queen Christina of Spain (great-grandmother of the present King Alfonso XIII.), which was also an utter failure. I was told that the company had spacious offices established in Manila, whence occasionally the employees went up to the mines, situated near the Caraballo Mountain, as if they were going to a picnic. When they arrived there, all denoted activity—for the feast; but the mining work they did was quite insignificant compared with the squandered funds, hence the disaster of the concern.

The coast of Surigao (north-east extremity of Mindanao Is.) has been known for centuries to have gold-deposits. A few years ago it was found in sufficiently large quantities near the surface to attract the attention of capitalists. A sample of the washings was given to me, but gold extraction was never taken up in an organized way in that district. A friend of mine, a French merchant in Manila, told me in 1886 that for a long time he received monthly remittances of 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 lbs. of alluvial gold from the Surigao coast, extracted by the natives on their own account. In the same district a Spaniard attempted to organize labour for systematic gold-washing, but the friars so influenced the natives against him that he could only have continued his project at the risk of his life, therefore he gave it up.

In an independent way, the natives obtain gold from earth-washings in many districts, particularly in the unsubdued regions of Luzon Island, where it is quite a common occupation. The product is bartered on the spot to the Chinese ambulant traders for other commodities. Several times, whilst deer-stalking near the river, a few miles past Montalban (Rizal), I have fallen in with natives washing the sand from the river bed in search of gold, and they have shown me some of their findings, which they preserve in quills.

In other places in Luzon Island gold is procured in very small quantities by washing the earth from the bottoms of pits dug from 20 to 25 feet deep and 3 feet wide. The extraction of gold from auriferous rock is also known to the natives. The rock is broken by a stone on an anvil of the same material. Then the broken pieces are crushed between roughly-hewn stone rollers put in motion by buffaloes, the pulverized ore being washed to separate the particles of the precious metal. I should hardly think the yield was of much account, as the people engaged in its extraction seemed to be miserably poor.

Gold probably exists in all the largest islands of the Archipelago, but in a dispersed form; for the fact is, that after centuries of search, large pockets or veins of it have never been traced to defined localities, and, so far as discoveries up to the present demonstrate, this Colony cannot be considered rich in auriferous deposits. Until the contrary has been proved, I venture to submit the theory that every gold-bearing reef in these Islands, accessible to man, has been disintegrated by volcanic action ages ago.

In 1887 a Belgian correspondent wrote to me inquiring about a company which, he stated, had been formed for working a Philippine mine of Argentiferous Lead. On investigation I learnt that the mines referred to were situated at Acsubing, near the village of Consolacion, and at Panoypoy, close to the village of Talamban in Cebu Island. They became the property of a Frenchman [156] about the beginning of 1885, and so far no shipment had been made, although the samples sent to Europe were said to have yielded an almost incredibly enormous amount of gold (!), besides being rich in galena (sulphide of lead) and silver. I went to Cebu Island in June, 1887, and called on the owner in Mandaue with the object of visiting these extraordinary mines; but they were not being worked for want of funds, and he left for Europe the same year, the enterprise being finally abandoned.

In 1893 "The Philippines Mineral Syndicate" was formed in London to work scientifically the historical Mambulao Gold Mines already referred to. One pound shares were offered in these Islands and subscribed to by all classes, from the British Consul at that time down to native commercial clerks. Mr. James Hilton, a mining engineer, had reported favourably on the prospects. After the usual gold-mining period of disappointment had passed away, an eccentric old gentleman was sent out as an expert to revive the whole concern and set it upon a prosperous basis. I had many conversations with him in Manila before he went to Mambulao, where he soon died. Heavy machinery came out from Europe, and a well-known Manila resident, not a mining engineer, but an all-round smart man, was sent to Mambulao, and, due to his ability, active operations commenced. This most recent earnest venture in Philippine gold-mining has not, however, so far proved to be a Golconda to the shareholders.

That there is gold in Mindoro Island is evident from the fact that the Minguianes, a wild tribe, wear gold jewellery made by themselves, and come down to the coast villages to barter with this metal, for they do not understand trading with the coin medium.

As a general rule, failure in most Philippine mining speculations was chiefly due to the unwillingness of the native to co-operate with European capitalists in search of quick fortunes for themselves. The native rustic did not seek and would not submit to constant organized and methodical labour at a daily wage, to be paid periodically when he had finished his work. The only class whom one could employ in the neighbourhood of the mines was migratory and half-subjected, whilst there was no legislation whatever in force regulating the relations between workers and capitalists. Some suggested the employment of Chinese, but the obstacles to this proposal have been pointed out in Chap. viii. It is very doubtful whether much profitable mining will ever be done in this Colony without Chinese labour. Again, the wretched state of the public highways obliged the few enterprising capitalists to spend their money on the construction of roads which had already been paid for in taxes.

It is calculated that in the working of mines in the Philippines, as much as P1,300,000 was spent from the beginning of the last century up to 1876, without the least satisfactory result.

A Spanish writer [157] asserts that on the coasts of Taal and Bauan, in the Province of Batangas, there were many traces of old gold-mines, and remarks: "We are already scared in this enlightened century at the number who have spent their silver and their health in excavating mines in the Philippines, only to undeceive themselves, and find their miserable greed punished."

Still Gold-seeking continues, and the hope of many an American to-day is centred in the possibility of finding the smile of fortune in the Benguet and other districts now being scoured by prospectors.



Iron-mines, situated a few miles from Manila, were worked about the middle of the 18th century by Government, but the result being disastrous, a concession of working rights was put up to public auction, and adjudicated to a certain Francisco Salgado, who engaged to pay annually to the State P20,500 in gold and 125 tons of iron. The concern was an entire failure, chiefly owing to the usual transport difficulty. Salgado afterwards discovered an iron mine in a place called Santa Ines, near Bosoboso, in the district of Morong, and obtained a concession to work it. The ore is said to have yielded 75 per cent. of pure metal. The greatest obstacle which Salgado had to contend with was the indolence of the natives, but eventually this was overcome by employing Chinese in their stead. All went well for a time, until the success which attended the undertaking awoke envy in the capital. Salgado found it desirable to erect his smelting-furnaces on the banks of the Bosoboso River to obtain a good water supply. For this a special permission had to be solicited of the Gov.-General, so the opportunity was taken to induce this authority to put a stop to the whole concern on the ground that the Chinese workmen were not Christians! Salgado was ordered to send these Chinese to the Alcayceria in Binondo (Manila), and ship them thence to China at his own expense. Moreover, on the pretext that the iron supplied to the Royal Stores had been worked by infidels, the Government refused to pay for the deliveries, and Salgado became a ruined victim of religious fanaticism.

The old parish priest of Angat, in Bulacan Province, once gave me the whole history of the rich iron-mines existing a few miles from that town. It appears that at about the beginning of last century, two Englishmen made vain efforts to work these mines. They erected expensive machinery (which has since disappeared piece by piece), and engaged all the headmen around, at fixed salaries, to perform the simple duty of guaranteeing a certain number of men each to work there daily. The headmen were very smart at receiving their pay, some of them having the audacity to ask for it in advance; yet the number of miners diminished, little by little, and no reasonable terms could induce them to resume work. The priest related that, after the Englishmen had spent a fortune of about L40,000, and seeing no result, in despair they hired a canoe, telling the native in charge to paddle out to sea, where they blew their brains out with pistols.

Afterwards a Spaniard, who had made money during years of office as Chief Judge and Governor of the Bulacan Province, thought he could, by virtue of the influence of his late position, command the services of all the labourers he might require to work the mine. It was a vain hope; he lost all his savings, and became so reduced in circumstances that for a long time he was a pauper, accepting charity in the parish convents of the province.

The Angat iron-mines undoubtedly yield a very rich ore—it is stated up to 85 per cent. of metal. Up to the Revolution they were still worked on a small scale. In 1885, at the foot of these ferruginous hills, I saw a rough kind of smelting-furnace and foundry in a dilapidated shed, where the points of ploughshares were being made. These were delivered at a fixed minimum price to a Chinaman who went to Binondo (Manila) to sell them to the Chinese ironmongers. In Malolos (Bulacan) I met one of the partners in this little business—a Spanish half-caste—who told me that it paid well in proportion to the trifling outlay of capital. If the natives chose to bring in mineral they were paid for it; when they did not come, the works and expenses were temporarily stopped.

In Baliuag, a few miles from Angat, where I have stayed a score of times, I observed, at the threshold of several houses, slabs of iron about 8 feet long by 2 feet wide and 5 inches thick. I inquired about the origin of this novelty, and several respectable natives, whom I had known for years, could only inform me that their elders had told them about the foreigners who worked the Angat mines, and that the iron in question came from there. Appearing to belong to no one in particular, the slabs had been appropriated.

Copper is extracted in small quantities by both the wild tribes of the North and the Mahometans of the South, who manufacture utensils of this metal for their own use. In the North, half-worked copper is obtained from the Igorrotes, but the attempt of a company—the Compania Cantabro-Filipina, established in the middle of last century—to exploit the copper deposits in Mancayan, in the district of Lepanto, has hardly been more successful than all other mining speculations undertaken on a large scale in this Colony.

Marble exists in large beds in the Province of Bataan, which is the west-coast boundary of Manila Bay, and also in the Island of Romblon, but, under the circumstances explained, no one cared to risk capital in opening quarries. In 1888 surface (boulder) marble was being cut near Montalban (Rizal) under contract with the Dominican friars to supply them with it for their church in Manila. It was of a motley whitish colour, polished well, and a sample of it sent by me to a marble-importer in London was reported on favourably.

Granite is not found in these Islands, and there is a general want of hard stone for building purposes. Some is procurable at Angono, up the Lake of Bay, and it is from here that the stone was brought by the Spaniards for the Manila Port Works. Granite is brought over from Hong-Kong when needed for works of any importance, such as the new Government House in Manila City, in course of construction when the Spaniards evacuated the Islands. For ordinary building operations there is a material—a kind of marl-stone called Adobe—so soft when quarried that it can be cut out in small blocks with a hand-saw, but it hardens considerably on exposure to the air.

Gypsum deposits occur in a small island opposite to the town of Culasi (Antique) on the west coast of Panay, called Marilisan. The superincumbent marl has been removed in several places where regular workings were carried on for years by natives, and shiploads of it were sent to Manila until the Spanish Government prohibited its free extraction and export.

Sulphur exists in many islands, sometimes pure, in unlimited quantities, and often mixed with copper, iron, and arsenic. The crater peak of the Taal Volcano in the Bombon Lake burst in 1749 (vide p. 18), and from that date, until the eruption of 1754, sulphur was extracted by the natives. These deposits were again worked in 1780, and during a few years following. Bowring states [158] that a well-known naturalist once offered a good sum of money for the monopoly of working the sulphur mines in the Taal district.

Mineral oil was discovered some 12 years ago in the mountains of Cebu Island, a few miles from the west-coast town of Toledo. A drill-boring was made, and I was shown a sample of the crude Oil. An Irishman was then conducting the experimental works. Subsequently a British engineer visited the place, and reported favourably on the prospects. In 1896 I was again at the borings. Some small machinery had been erected for working the drills. A Dutch mining engineer was in charge of the work, which was being financed by a small British syndicate; but so far a continuous flow had not been obtained, and it was still doubtful whether a well had been struck or not. The Dutchman was succeeded by an American, who, when the Spanish-American War was on the point of breaking out, had to quit the place, and the enterprise has since remained in suspense.

There is a tendency, in most new and unexplored countries, to see visionary wealth in unpenetrated regions—to cast the eye of imagination into the forest depths and the bowels of the earth, and become fascinated with the belief that Nature has laid vast treasures therein; and the veil of mystery constitutes a tradition until it is rent by scientific investigation.



CHAPTER XX

Domestic Live-stock—Ponies, Buffaloes, Etc.

The Phillipine pony is not an indigenous animal. It is said to have originated from the small Andalusian horse and the Chinese mare. I have ridden more than 500 Philippine ponies, and, in general, I have found them swift, strong, and elegant animals when well cared for. Geldings are rarely met with. Before the American occupation ponies ranged in value from P25 to P150 for a sound animal. Unfortunately, prices of everything have risen since 1898, and, moreover, a fatal horse-disease, called "surra," unknown in the Islands before that period, has considerably reduced the stock of ponies. Due to these causes, ponies cost to-day about three times the former prices.

The importation of Spanish and Australian horses resulted in failure, because green grass (zacate)—the fodder of Philippine ponies—was not the diet they had been accustomed to. Amateur enthusiasts constantly urged the Spanish authorities to take measures for the improvement of the breed, and in 1888 the acting Gov.-General Molto sent a commission to British India to purchase breeding-horses and mares. A number of fine animals was brought to Manila, but the succeeding Gov.-General, Weyler, disapproved of the transaction, and the stock was sold to the public. Two stallions and two mares fetched together P2,600, the prices of the others ranging about P700 each.

Pony-races took place at Santa Mesa (Manila) every spring. They were organized by "the Manila Jockey Club," usually patronized by the Gov.-General of the day, and the great meet lasted three days, when prizes were awarded to the winners. Ponies which had won races in Manila fetched from P300 to P1,000. The new racecourse is at Pasay.

In Cebu also there were pony races every autumn on the racecourse facing the Cotta and the Government House.

Since 1898 the American authorities have imported thousands of horses from the United States for the public service, and American dealers have brought quantities of them from Australia and the United States for private sale. All their fodder, however, has to be procured from America in pressed bales, as they cannot thrive on the food of the country. It is thought, however, that a plant, called Teosinte, which is now being cultivated, will be suitable for horse-fodder when the animals become thoroughly acclimatized.

The ordinary native has no notion of the proper treatment of ponies, his idea being, generally, that this highly nervous animal can be managed by brute force and the infliction of heavy punishment. Sights, as painful as they are ridiculous, are often the result of this error. Unfortunately, the lower-class native feels little attachment to any animal but the Buffalo, or Carabao, as it is called here, and the family pig.

Buffaloes six years old are considered in the prime of life for beginning work, and will continue at hard labour, when well pastured and bathed, for another six years. At 12 years of age a carefully worked buffalo will still serve for light labour for about five years. It is an amphibious animal, and if left to itself it would pass quite one-third of its life in water or mud, whilst it is indispensable to allow it to bathe every day. When grazing near flooded land it will roam into the water up to its neck and immerse its head for two minutes at a time, searching for vegetable food below the surface. Whilst undisturbed in the field it is usually accompanied by five or six white herons, which follow in its trail in perfect security and feed on the worms and insects brought to the surface by its foot-prints. It seems also to enjoy the attentions of a small black bird, which hops about on its back and head to cleanse its skin and ears of vermin. It is curious to watch this bird flying towards the buffalo, which raises its head to receive it.

The rustic and the buffalo are familiar companions, and seem to understand each other perfectly well. There is a certain affinity between them in many ways. When a peasant is owner of the animal he works, he treats it almost like one of the family. It is very powerful, docile, slow in its movements, and easy to train. Many times I have seen a buffalo ridden and guided by a piece of split rattan attached to a rattan-ring in its nostril by a child three years of age. It knows the voices of the family to which it belongs, and will approach or stand still when called by any one of them. It is not of great endurance, and cannot support hard work in the sun for more than a couple of hours without rest and bathing if water be near. Europeans cannot manage this animal, and very few attempt it; it requires the patience, the voice, and the peculiar movement of the native.

Altogether the buffalo may be considered the most useful animal in the Philippines. It serves for carting, ploughing, carrying loads on its back, and almost all labour of the kind where great strength is required for a short time. A peasant possessed of a bowie-knife, a buffalo, and good health, need not seek far to make an independent living. I owe a certain gratitude to buffaloes, for more than once they have pulled my carriage out of the mud in the provinces, where horses could get along no farther. Finally, buffalo-meat is an acceptable article of food when nothing better can be got; by natives it is much relished. Its flesh, like that of deer and oxen, is sometimes cut into thin slices and sun-dried, to make what is called in the Philippines Tapa, in Cuba Tasajo, and in Spain Cecina.

In the Visayas Islands oxen are used as draught-animals as frequently as buffaloes,—sometimes even for carriages.

Wild buffaloes are met with, and, when young, they are easily tamed. Buffalo-hunting, as a sport, is a very dangerous diversion, and rarely indulged in, as death or victory must come to the infuriated beast or the chaser. A good hunting-ground is Nueva Ecija, near the Caraballo de Baler Mountain.

The domesticated buffalo is subject to a bronchial disease called garrotillo; it rarely recovers from a serious sprain, and more rarely still from a broken leg. In 1887-88, an epidemic disease, previously unknown, appeared among the cattle, and several thousands of them died. From the autopsy of some diseased buffaloes, it was seen that the inside had become converted into blood. Agriculturists suffered great losses. In the poor neighbourhood of Antipolo alone, 1,410 head of cattle died within four months, according to a report which the Governor of Morong showed to me. An old acquaintance of mine in Bulacan Province lost 85 per cent. of his live-stock in the season, whilst the remainder were more or less affected.

As a consequence of the Revolution (1896-98) and the War of Independence (1899-1901) the stock of buffaloes was considerably reduced, many thousands of these useful animals having been stolen from their owners by the belligerents, only to slay them or work them to death. When peace dawned again on the Colony, rinderpest commenced to make ravages in the buffalo herds, which are now reduced to a mere fraction of what they were in 1896. The consequences of these losses in live-stock are referred to in Chap. xxxi. Before the wars, a buffalo could be got for P10 in places, such as hemp districts, where ploughing is seldom necessary, whilst in the sugar-yielding Island of Negros P30 was about the lowest price for an average trained animal. The present value is from P125 to P250.

In all my travels in this Colony I have seen only five Donkeys, which were imported simply as curiosities.

Mules have been imported into the Islands by the American authorities for the public service. If sold they would fetch about P300 each. They are the most satisfactory draught-animals ever introduced and, but for the fear of the new disease "surra," might take the place of buffaloes in agriculture.

Sheep do not thrive in this climate. They are brought from Shanghai, and, as a rule, they languish and die in a few months. Oxen, goats, dogs, cats, pigs, monkeys, fowls, ducks, turkeys, and geese are among the ordinary domestic live-stock. Both the dogs and the cats are of very poor species, and the European breeds are eagerly sought for. The better class of natives have learned to appreciate the higher instincts of the European dog. Many Chinese dogs with long, straight hair, pointed nose, small eyes, and black tongues are brought over from Hong-Kong. All thoroughbred Philippine cats have a twist in their tails, and are not nearly so fine as the European race.

Natives do not particularly relish mutton or goat's flesh, which they say is heating to the blood. I have found stewed monkey very good food, but the natives only eat it on very rare occasions, solely as a cure for cutaneous diseases. No flesh, fish or poultry has the same flavour here as in Europe; sometimes, indeed, the meat of native oxen sold in Manila has a repulsive taste when the animal has been quickly fattened for the market on a particular herb, which it eats readily. Neither can it be procured so tender as in a cold climate. If kept in an ice-chest it loses flavour; if hung up in cool air it becomes flabby and decomposes. However, the cold-storage established by the American authorities and private firms, since 1898, has greatly contributed to improve the supply of tender meat, and meat shipments are regularly received from Australia and America.

The seas are teeming with fish, and there are swarms of sharks, whose victims are numerous, whilst crocodiles are found in most of the deep rivers and large swamps in uncultivated tracts. The Taclobo sea-shell is sometimes found weighing up to about 180 lbs. Fresh-water fish is almost flavourless and little appreciated.

In all the rice-paddy fields, small fish called Dalag (Ophiocephalus vagus), are caught by the natives, for food, with cane nets, or rod and line, when the fields are flooded. Where this piscatorial phenomenon exists in the dry season no one has been able satisfactorily to explain.

The only beast of prey known in the Philippines is the wild cat, and the only wild animal to be feared is the buffalo.

Both the jungles and the villages abound with insects and reptilia, such as lizards, snakes, iguanas, frogs, and other batrachian species, land-crabs, centipedes [159], tarantulas, scorpions, huge spiders, hornets, common beetles, queen-beetles (elator noctilucus) and others of the vaginopennous order, red ants (formica smaragdina), etc. Ants are the most common nuisance, and food cannot be left on the table a couple of hours without a hundred or so of them coming to feed. For this reason sideboards and food-cupboards are made with legs to stand in basins of water. There are many species of ants, from the size of a pin's head to half an inch long. On the forest-trees a bag of a thin whitish membrane, full of young ants, is sometimes seen hanging, and the traveller, for his own comfort, should be careful not to disturb it.

Boa-Constrictors are also found, but they are rare, and I have never seen one in freedom. They are the most harmless of all snakes in the Philippines. Sometimes the Visayos keep them in their houses, in cages, as pets. Small Pythons are common. The snakes most to be dreaded are called by the natives Alupong and Daghong-palay (Tagalog dialect). Their bite is fatal if not cauterized at once. The latter is met with in the deep mud of rice-fields and amongst the tall rice-blades, hence its name. Stagnant waters are nearly everywhere infested with Leeches. In the trees in dense forests there is also a diminutive species of leech which jumps into one's eyes.

In the houses and huts in Manila, and in most low-lying places, mosquitoes are troublesome, but thanks to an inoffensive kind of lizard with a disproportionately big ugly head called the chacon, and the small house-newt, one is tolerably free from crawling insects. Newts are quite harmless to persons, and are rather encouraged than otherwise. If one attempts to catch a newt by its tail it shakes it off and runs away, leaving it behind. Rats and mice are numerous. There are myriads of cockroaches; but happily fleas, house-flies, and bugs are scarce. In the wet-season evenings the croaking of frogs in the pools and swamps causes an incessant din.

In the dry-season evenings certain trees are illuminated by swarms of fire-flies, which assemble and flicker around the foliage as do moths around the flame of a candle. The effect of their darting in and out like so many bright sparks between the branches is very pretty.

There are many very beautiful Moths and Butterflies. In 1897 I brought home about 300 specimens of Philippine butterflies for the Hon. Walter Rothschild.

The White Ant (termes), known here as Anay, is by far the most formidable insect in its destructive powers. It is also common in China. Here it eats through most woods, but there are some rare exceptions, such as Molave, Ipil, Yacal, etc. If white ants earnestly take possession of the woodwork of a building not constructed of the finest timber, it is a hopeless case. I have seen deal-wood packing-cases, which have come from Europe, so eaten away that they could not be lifted without falling to pieces. Merchants' warehouses have had to be pulled down and rebuilt owing to the depredations of this insect, as, even if the building itself were not in danger, no one would care to risk the storage of goods inside. The destruction caused by anay is possibly exaggerated, but there is no doubt that many traders have lost considerable sums through having had to realize, at any price, wares into which this insect had penetrated.

Bats are to be seen in this Colony, measuring up to 5 feet from tip to tip of their wings. They are caught for the value of their beautiful soft skins, which generally find a sale to Europeans returning home. Bat-shooting is a good pastime, and a novelty to Europeans. Small Bats frequently fly into the houses in the evening.

Deer and Wild Boars are plentiful, and afford good sport to the huntsman. In Morong district—in Negros Island—and in Rizal Province, on and in the vicinity of the estate which I purchased—I have had some good runs. Monkeys, too, abound in many of the forests. In all the islands there is enjoyment awaiting the sportsman. Pheasants, snipe, a dozen varieties of wild pigeons, woodcock, jungle-fowl (gallus bankiva), wild ducks, water-fowl, etc. are common, whilst there are also turtle-doves, calaos (buceros hydrocorax), hawks, cranes, herons, crows, parrots, cockatoos, kingfishers, parroquets, and many others peculiar to the Archipelago which I will leave to ornithologists to describe. [160] One curious species of pigeon (calanas nicobarina) is called in Spanish Paloma de punalada because of the crimson feathers on its breast, which look exactly as if they were blood-stained from a dagger-stab. [161] In 1898 I saw some specimens of this pigeon in the Hamburg Zoological Gardens. There are several birds of gorgeous plumage, such as the oropendolo (Spanish name).

It is a curious fact that these Islands have no singing birds.

The Locust Plague is one of the great risks the planter has to run. In 1851 the Government imported some Martins from China with the hope of exterminating the locusts. When the birds arrived in the port of Manila they were right royally received by a body of troops. A band of music accompanied them with great ceremony to Santa Mesa, where they were set at liberty, and the public were forbidden to destroy them under severe penalties. At that date there were countless millions of locusts among the crops. These winged insects (Tagalog, balang) come in swarms of millions at a time, and how to exterminate them is a problem. I have seen a mass of locusts so dense that a row of large trees the other side of them could not be distinguished. Sailing along the Antique coast one evening, I observed, on the fertile shore, a large brown-coloured plateau. For the moment I thought it was a tract of land which had been cleared by fire, but on nearing it I noticed that myriads of locusts had settled on several fields. We put in quite close to them and I fired off a revolver, the noise of which caused them to move off slowly in a cloud. When locusts settle on cultivated lands, miles of crops are often ruined in a night by the foliage being consumed, and at daybreak only fields of stalks are to be seen. In the daytime, when the locusts are about to attack a planted field, the natives rush out with their tin cans, which serve as drums, bamboo clappers, red flags, etc., to scare them off, whilst others light fires in open spaces with damp fuel to raise smoke. Another effective method adopted to drive them away is to fire off small mortars, such as the natives use at provincial feasts, as these insects are sensitive to the least noise.

The body of a locust is similar in appearance to a large grasshopper. The females are of a dark brown colour, and the males of a light reddish-brown. The female extends the extremity of her body in the form of an augur, with which she pierces the earth to the depth of an inch, there to deposit her eggs. In two or three weeks the eggs hatch. Every few days the females lay eggs, if allowed to settle. The newly-born insects, having no wings until they are about ten days old, cannot be driven off, and in the meantime they make great havoc among the crops, where it is difficult to extinguish them. The method employed to get rid of them is to place a barrier, such as sheets of corrugated iron roofing, at one side of a field, dig a pit in front of the barrier, and send a number of men to beat round the three sides of the field until the young locusts jump in heaps into the pit. I have heard planters say that they have succeeded, in this way, in destroying as much as 20 tons of locusts in one season. I do not know the maximum distance that locusts can fly in one continuous journey, but they have been known to travel as much as 60 miles across the sea. Millions of unwinged locusts (called lucton) have been seen floating down river streams, whilst, however, the winged insect cannot resist the heavy rains which accompany a hurricane.

It is said that the food passes through the body of a locust as fast as it eats, and that its natural death is due either to want of nourishment, or to a small worm which forms in the body and consumes it. It is also supposed that the female dies after laying a certain number of eggs. Excepting the damage to vegetation, locusts are perfectly harmless insects, and native children catch them to play with; also, when fried, they serve as food for the poorest classes—in fact, I was assured, on good authority, that in a certain village in Tayabas Province, where the peasants considered locusts a dainty dish, payment was offered to the parish priest for him to say Mass and pray for the continuance of the luxury. In former times, before there were so many agriculturists interested in their destruction, these insects have been known to devastate the Colony during six consecutive years.

In the mud of stagnant waters, a kind of beetle, called in Visaya dialect Tanga, is found, and much relished as an article of food. In the dry season, as much as fifty cents a dozen is paid for them in Molo (Yloilo) by well-to-do natives. Many other insects, highly repugnant to the European, are a bonne bouche for the natives.



CHAPTER XXI

Manila Under Spanish Rule

Manila, the capital of the Philippines, is situated on the Island of Luzon at the mouth and on the left (south) bank of the Pasig River, at N. lat. 14 deg. 36' by E. long. 120 deg. 52'. It is a fortified city, being encircled by bastioned and battlemented walls, which were built in the time of Governor Gomez Perez Dasmarinas, about the year 1590. It is said that the labour employed was Chinese. These walls measure about two miles and a quarter long, and bore mounted old-fashioned cannon. The fortifications are of stone, and their solid construction may rank as a chef d'oeuvre of the 16th century. The earthquake of 1880 caused an arch of one of the entrances to fall in, and elsewhere cracks are perceptible. These defects were never made good. The city is surrounded by water—to the north the Pasig River, to the west the sea, and the moats all around. These moats are paved at the bottom, and sluices—perhaps not in good working order at the present day—are provided for filling them with water from the river.

The demolition of the walls and moats was frequently debated by commissions specially appointed from Spain—the last in October, 1887. It is said that a commission once recommended the cleansing of the moats, which were half full of mud, stagnant water, and vegetable putrid matter, but the authorities hesitated to disturb the deposit, for fear of fetid odours producing fever or other endemic disease.

These city defences, although quite useless in modern warfare with a foreign Power, as was proved in 1898, might any day have been serviceable as a refuge for Europeans in the event of a serious revolt of the natives or Chinese. The garrison consisted of one European and several native regiments.

There are eight drawbridge entrances to the Citadel [162] wherein were some Government Offices, branch Post and Telegraph Offices, the Custom-house (temporarily removed to Binondo since May 4, 1887, during the construction of the new harbour), Colleges, Convents, Monasteries, a Prison, numerous Barracks, a Mint, a Military Hospital, an Academy of Arts, a University, a statue of Charles IV. situated in a pretty square, a fine Town Hall, a Meteorological Observatory, of which the director was a Jesuit priest, an Artillery Depot, a Cathedral and 11 churches. [163] The little trade done in the city was exclusively retail. In the month of April or May, 1603, a great fire destroyed one-third of the city, the property consumed being valued at P1,000,000.

Manila City was a lifeless capital, with narrow streets all running at right angles with each other, of sombre, monastic aspect. It had no popular cafes, no opera-house or theatre; indeed absolutely no place of recreation. Only the numerous religious processions relieved the uniformity of city life. The whole (walled) city and its environments seem to have been built solely with a view to self-defence. Since 1887 it had been somewhat embellished by gardens in the public squares.

Besides the churches of the walled city, those of the suburbs are of great historical interest. In the Plaza de Santa Cruz is established the Monte de Piedad, or Public Pawnshop—a fine building—erected under the auspices of Archbishop Pedro Payo.

The great trading-centre is the Island of Binondo, on the right (north) bank of the Pasig River, where the foreign houses are established. On the city side of the river, where there was little commerce and no export or import trade whatever, a harbour was in course of construction, without the least hope of its ever being completed by the Spaniards. All the sea-wall visible of these works was carried away by a typhoon on September 29, 1890. To defray the cost of making this harbour, a special duty (not included in the Budget) of one per cent. on exports, two per cent. on imports, 10 cents per ton on vessels (besides the usual tonnage dues of eight cents per register ton), and a fishing-craft tax were collected since June, 1880. For eighteen years' dues-collection of several millions of pesos only a scrap of sea-wall was to be seen beyond the river in 1898, of no use to trade or to any one. In 1882 fourteen huge iron barges for the transport of stone from Angono for the harbour were constructed by an English engineer, Mr. W. S. Richardson, under contract with the Port Works, for P82,000.

The Port of Manila was officially held to extend for 27 miles westward from the mouth of the Pasig River. This tortuous river, about 14 miles long, flows from the Laguna de Bay.

The anchorage of the port was in the bay, two to two and a half miles south-west from the red light at the river-entrance, in about six fathoms. There was no special locality reserved for warships.

Ships at the anchorage communicated with the shore by their own boats or steam-launch, and the loading and discharging of vessels was chiefly effected in the bay, one to three miles off the river mouth, by means of lighters called cascoes.

Manila Bay has a circumference of 120 nautical miles, and is far too large to afford adequate protection to ships. The country around it is flat in character and has really nothing attractive.

On October 20, 1882, a typhoon drove 11 ships and one steamer ashore from their anchorage, besides dismasting another and causing three more to collide. When a typhoon is approaching vessels have to run to Cavite for shelter.

The entrance to the bay is divided into two passages by the small Island of Corregidor, on which was a lighthouse showing a revolving bright light, visible 20 miles off. Here was also a signal-station, communicating by a semaphore with a telegraph station on the opposite Luzon coast, and thence by wire with Manila. North of Corregidor Island is situated the once important harbour of Mariveles. [164]

The entrance to the Pasig River is between two moles, which run out westward respectively from the citadel on the south bank and from the business suburb of Binondo on the north bank. At the outer extremity of the northern mole was a lighthouse, showing a fixed red light, visible eight miles.

Vessels drawing up to 13 feet could enter the river. In the middle of 1887 a few electric lights were established along the quays from the river mouth to the first bridge, and one light also on that bridge, so that steamers could enter the river after sunset if desired. The wharfage is wholly occupied by steamers and sailing-craft trading within the Archipelago. The tides are very irregular. The rise and fall at springs may be taken to be five feet.

Up to 1887 ships needing repairs had to go to Hong-Kong, but in that year a patent slip was established at Canacao Bay, near Cavite, seven miles southward from the Manila Bay anchorage. The working capacity of the hydraulic hauling power of the slip was 2,000 tons.

At Cavite, close by Canacao, there was a Government Arsenal and a small slip, having a hauling power of about 500 tons.

Up to the year 1893 the streets of Manila City and suburbs were badly lighted—petroleum lamps, and sometimes cocoanut oil, being used. (The paving was perhaps more defective than the lighting.) In 1892 an Electric Light Company was formed, with a share capital of P500,000 (P350,000 paid up) for illuminating the city and suburbs and private lighting. Under the contract with the Municipality the company received a grant of P60,000, and the concern was in full working order the following year. The poorest working class of Manila—fishermen, canoemen, day labourers, etc.—live principally in the ward of Tondo, where dwellings with thatched roofs were allowed to be constructed. In the wet season the part of this ward nearest to the city was simply a mass of pollution. The only drainage was a ditch cut around the mud-plots on which the huts were erected. Many of these huts had pools of stagnant water under them for months, hence it was there that the mortality from fever was at its maximum ratio in the dry season when evaporation commenced. Half the shore side of Tondo has been many times devastated by conflagrations and by hurricanes, locally termed baguios.

Binondo presents an aspect of great activity during the day. The import and export trade is still largely in the hands of British merchants, and the retail traffic is, to a great extent, monopolized by the Chinese. Their tiny shops, grouped together in rows, form bazaars. At each counter sits a Chinaman, casting up accounts, with the ancient abacus [165] still serving him for practical reckoning. Another is ready at the counter to strike the bargain, whilst a third crafty Celestial lounges about the entrance to tout for custom, with a margin on his prices for haggling which is high or low according to whether the intending purchaser be American, European, half-caste, or native.

There is hardly a street without Chinese dealers, but their principal centre is the Rosario, whilst the finest American and European shops are to be found in the Escolta. [166]

In 1881 a great fire occurred in the Escolta, and since then the class of property in that important thoroughfare has been much improved. In October, 1885, a second serious fire took place in this street, and on the site of the ruins there now stands a fine block of buildings formerly occupied by the Central Post Office and Telegraph Station, and a row of good shops in European style.

During the working hours were to be seen hundreds of smart Chinese coolies, half-naked, running in all directions with loads, or driving carts, whilst the natives dreamily sauntered along the streets, following their numerous occupations with enviable tranquillity. In the doorways here and there were native women squatting on the flag-stones, picking lice from each other's heads, and serving a purchaser between-times with cigars, betel-nut, and food, when occasion offered.

Certain small handicrafts are almost entirely taken up by the Chinese, such as boot-making, furniture-making, small smith's-work and casting, tin-working, tanning, dyeing, etc., whilst the natives are occupied as silversmiths, engravers, saddlers, water-colour painters, furniture-polishers, bookbinders, etc. A few years ago the apothecaries were almost exclusively Germans; now the profession is shared with natives, half-castes, and one British firm.

The thoroughfares were crowded with carriages during the whole day drawn by pretty native ponies. The public conveyance regulations in Spanish times were excellent. The rates for hiring were very moderate, and were calculated by the time engaged. Incivility of drivers was a thing almost unknown. Their patience was astonishing. They would, if required, wait for the fare for hours together in a drenching rain without a murmur. Having engaged a vehicle (in Manila or elsewhere) it is usual to guide the driver by calling out to him each turn he has to take. Thus, if he be required to go to the right—mano (hand) is the word used; if to the left—silla (saddle) is shouted. This custom originated in the days before natives were intrusted to drive, when a postilion rode the left (saddle) pony, and guided his right (hand) animal with a short rein.

Through the city and suburbs ran lines of tramway with cars drawn by ponies, and (from October 20, 1888 until 1905) a steam tramway operated as far as Malabon.

Fortunately, Easter week brought two days of rest every year for the ponies, namely, Holy Thursday and Good Friday. As in Spain also, with certain exceptions, such as doctors, urgent Government service, etc., vehicles were not permitted in the streets and highways on those days. Soldiers passing through the streets on service carried their guns with the muzzles pointing to the ground. The church bells were tolled with muffled hammers; hence, the vibration of the metal being checked, the peal sounded like the beating of so many tin cans. The shops were closed, and, so far as was practicable, every outward appearance of care for worldly concerns was extinguished, whilst it was customary for the large majority of the population—natives as well as Europeans—who went through the streets to be attired in black. On Good Friday afternoon there was an imposing religious procession through the city and suburbs. On the following Saturday morning (Sabado de Gloria), there was a lively scene after the celebration of Mass. In a hundred portals and alleys, public and private vehicles were awaiting the peal of the unmuffled church bells. The instant this was heard there was a rush in all directions—the clanking of a thousand ponies' feet; the rumbling sound of hundreds of carriages. The mingled shouts of the natives and the Chinese coolies showed with what bated anxiety and forced subjection material interest and the affairs of this life had been held in check and made subservient to higher thoughts.

An official computation in the year 1885 stated the average number of vehicles which passed through the main street of the city (Calle Real) per day to be 950; through the Escolta, the principal street of Binondo, 5,000; and across the bridge, connecting Binondo with Manila City (where the river is 350 feet wide), 6,000.

Sir John Bowring, in the account of his short visit to Manila in 1858, says he was informed on good authority that the average number of vehicles passing daily at that date through the Escolta amounted to 915; across the bridge, between Binondo and Manila, 1,256; so that apparently in 27 years the number of vehicles in use had increased by about five to one.

The Pasig River is navigable by steam-launches and specially-constructed steamers of light draught, which go up the whole distance into the Laguna de Bay. The river is crossed at Manila and suburbs by three bridges, the chief of which is the Puente de Espana. [167]

In the suburbs there were four Theatres, in none of which a dramatic company of any note would consent to perform. In one (the Teatro Filipino) the performance could be partly seen from the street; another (the Teatro de Tondo) was situated in a dirty thoroughfare in a low quarter; the third (the Teatro del Principe) usually gave an entertainment in dialect for the amusement of the natives; and the fourth (the Teatro Zorrilla), located in Tondo, was built to serve as theatre or circus without any regard to its acoustic properties; hence only one-third of the audience could hear the dialogue. There was a permanent Spanish Comedy Company (on tour at times in Yloilo and Cebu), and occasionally a troupe of foreign strolling players, a circus, a concert, or an Italian Opera Company came to Manila to entertain the public for a few weeks.

In 1880 there used to be a kind of tent-theatre, called the Carrillo where performances were given without any pretence to histrionic art or stage regulations. The scenes were highly ridiculous, and the gravest spectator could not suppress laughter at the exaggerated attitudes and comic display of the native performers. The public had full licence to call to the actors and criticize them in loud voices seance tenante—often to join in the choruses and make themselves quite at home during the whole spectacle. About a year afterwards the Carrillo was suppressed. The first Spaniards who systematically taught the Filipinos European histrionics were Ramon Cubero and his wife, Elisea Raguer (both very popular in their day), whose daughter married the Philippine actor and dramatic author Jose Carvajal. The old-fashioned native play was the "Moro Moro," which continued in full vogue, in the provinces, up to the end of Spanish dominion. [168]

In the suburb of Paco there was a bull-ring, which did not generally attract the elite, as a bull-fight there was simply a burlesque upon this national sport as seen in Spain. I have witnessed a Manila espada hang on to the tail of his victim, and a banderillero meet the rush of the bull with a vault over his head, amidst hoots from the shady class of audience who formed the habitues of the Manila ring.

The Civil Governor of the Province had full arbitrary power to enforce the regulations relating to public performances, but it was seldom he imposed a fine. The programme had to be sanctioned by authority before it was published, and it could neither be added to nor any part of it omitted, without special licence. The performance was given under the censorship of the Corregidor or his delegate, whose duty it was to guard the interests of the public, and to see that the spectacle did not outrage morality.

The ostensible purpose of every annual feast all over the Colony was to render homage to the local patron Saint and give thanks for mercies received in the past year. Every town, village, and suburb was supposed to be specially cared for by its patron Saint, and when circumstances permitted it there was a religious procession, which was intended to impress on the minds of the faithful the virtue of the intercessors by ocular demonstration. Vast sums of money were expended from time to time in adornment of the images, the adoration of which seemed to be tinctured with pantheistic feeling, as if these symbols were part of the Divine essence.

Among the suburban feasts of Manila, that of Binondo was particularly striking. It took place in the month of October. An imposing illuminated procession, headed by the clergy, guarded by troops, and followed up by hundreds of native men, women and children carrying candles, promenaded the principal streets of the vicinity. But the religious feeling of the truly devoted was shocked by one ridiculous feature—the mob of native men, dressed in gowns and head-wreaths, in representation of the Jews who persecuted our Saviour, rushing about the streets in tawdry attire before and after the ceremony in such apparent ignorance of the real intention that it annulled the sublimity of the whole function.

All Saints' Day—November 1—brought a large income to the priests in the most frequented parish churches. This is one of the days on which souls can be got out of Purgatory. The faithful flocked in mobs to the popular shrines, where an effort was made to place a lighted wax candle at the foot of the altar, and on bended knee to invoke the Saints' aid on behalf of their departed relatives and friends. But the crowd was so great that the pious were not permitted this consolation for more than two or three minutes. Sacristans made them move on, to leave room for new-comers, and their candles were then extinguished and collected in heaps, Chinese infidel coolies being sometimes employed to carry away the spoil to the parish priest's store. The wax was afterwards sold to dealers. One church is said to have collected on November 1, 1887, as much as 40 cwts., valued at P37 per cwt. This day was a public holiday, and in the afternoon and evening it was the custom to visit the last resting-places, to leave a token of remembrance on the tombs of the lamented.

The Asylum for Lepers, at Dalumbayan, in the ward of Santa Cruz, was also visited the same day, and whilst many naturally went there to see their afflicted relations and friends, others, of morbid tastes, satisfied their curiosity. This Asylum, subsidized by Government to the extent of P500 per annum, was, in the time of the Spaniards, under the care of Franciscan friars.

In January or February the Chinese celebrate their New Year, and suspend work during a week or ten days. The authorities did not permit them to revel in fun to the extent they would have done in their own country; nevertheless, Chinese music, gongs, and crackers were indulged in, in the quarters most thickly populated by this race.

The natives generally have an unbounded passion for cock-fighting, and in the year 1779 it occurred to the Government that a profitable revenue might be derived from a tax on this sport. Thenceforth it was only permitted under a long code of regulations on Sundays and feast days, and in places officially designated for the "meet" of the combatants. In Manila alone the permission to meet was extended to Thursdays. The cock-pit is called the Gallera, and the tax was farmed out to the highest bidding contractor, who undertook to pay a fixed annual sum to the Government, making the best he could for himself out of the gross proceeds from entrance-fees and sub-letting rents in excess of that amount. In like manner the Government farmed out the taxes on horses, vehicles, sale of opium, slaughter of animals for consumption, bridge-tolls, etc., and, until 1888, the market dues. Gambling licences also brought a good revenue, but it would have been as impossible to suppress cock-fighting in the Islands as gambling in England. [169]

The Spanish laws relating to the cock-pit were very strict, and were specially decreed on March 21,1861. It was enacted that the maximum amount to be staked by one person on one contest should be 50 pesos. That each cock should wear only one metal spur. That the fight should be held to be terminated on the death of one or both cocks, or when one of them retreated. However, the decree contained in all a hundred clauses too tedious to enumerate. Cock-fighting is discussed among the natives with the same enthusiasm as horse-racing is in England. The majority of sportsmen rear cocks for several years, bestowing upon them as much tender care as a mother would on her infant. When the hope of the connoisseur has arrived at the age of discretion and valour, it is put forward in open combat, perhaps to perish in the first encounter. And the patient native goes on training others.

Within twenty minutes' drive from Manila, at Nagtajan, on the right bank of the Pasig River, there was a good European club (since removed to Ermita), of which the members were chiefly English-speaking merchants and employees. The entrance-fee was [Pesos]30; the monthly subscription was [Pesos]5, and [Pesos]1 per month extra for the use of a fairly good library.

The principal hotel—the "Hotel de Oriente"—was opened in Binondo in January, 1889, in a large two-storeyed building, with 83 rooms for the public service, and stabling for 25 horses. It was the first building specially erected in the Colony for an hotel. The accommodation and board were good. It ranked with the best hotels in the East. [In 1903 the building was purchased by the (American) Insular Government for public offices.] In Manila City and Binondo there were several other Spanish hotels where the board was tolerable, but the lodging and service abominable. There was a telephone system established throughout the city and its environs.

The press was represented by five dailies—El Diario de Manila, La Oceania Espanola, three evening papers, El Comercio, La Voz de Espana, and (from March 3, 1889) La Correspondencia de Manila—also a bi-weekly, La Opinion. Some good articles appeared at times in the three dailies first mentioned, but as newspapers strictly so-called, the information in all was remarkably scant, due to the strict censorship exercised jointly by a priest and a layman. There was also a purely official organ—the Gaceta de Manila.

The first news-sheet published in Manila appears to have been the Filantropo, in the year 1822, which existed only a few years. Others followed and failed in a short time. The first Manila daily paper was the Estrella, which started in 1846 and lasted three years. Since then several dailies have seen the light for a brief period. The Diario de Manila, started in 1848, was the oldest newspaper of those existing at the end of the Spanish regime.

In Spain journalism began in the 17th century by the publication, at irregular intervals, of sheets called "Relaciones." The first Spanish newspaper, correctly so called, was established in the 18th century. Seventy-eight years ago there was only one regular periodical journal in Madrid. After the Peninsula War, a step was made towards political journalism. This led to such an abuse of the pen that in 1824 all, except the Gaceta de Madrid, the Gaceta de Bayona, the Diario, and a few non-political papers were suppressed. Madrid has now scores of newspapers, of which half a dozen are very readable. The Correspondencia de Espana, founded by the late Marquis de Santa Ana as a Montpensier organ, used to afford me great amusement in Madrid. It contained columns of most extraordinary events in short paragraphs (gacetillas), and became highly popular, hundreds of persons eagerly waiting to secure a copy. In a subsequent issue, a few days later, many of the paragraphs in the same columns were merely corrections of the statements previously published, but so ingeniously interposed that the hoax took the public for a long time. Newspapers from Spain were not publicly exposed for sale in Manila; those which were seen came from friends or by private subscription, whilst many were proscribed as inculcating ideas dangerously liberal.

There was a botanical garden, rather neglected, although it cost the Colony about P8,600 per annum. The stock of specimens was scanty, and the grounds were deserted by the general public. It was at least useful in one sense—that bouquets were supplied at once to purchasers at cheap rates, from 25 cents and upwards.

In the environs of Manila there are several pleasant drives and promenades, the most popular one being the Luneta, where a military band frequently played after sunset. The Gov.-General's palace [170] and the residences of the foreign European population and well-to-do natives and Spaniards were in the suburbs of the city outside the commercial quarter. Some of these private villas were extremely attractive, and commodiously designed for the climate, but little attention was paid until quite the latter days to architectural beauty.

Very few of the best private residences have more than one storey above the ground-floor. The ground-floor is either uninhabited or used for lodging the native servants, or as a coach-house, on account of the damp. From the vestibule main entrance (zaguan) one passes to the upper floor, which constitutes the house proper, where the family resides. It is usually divided into a spacious hall (caida), leading from the staircase to the dining and reception-rooms; on one or two sides of these apartments are the dormitories and other private rooms. The kitchen is often a separate building, connected with the house by a roofed passage; and by the side of the kitchen, on the same level, is a yard called the azotea—here the bath-room is erected. The most modern houses have corrugated-iron roofs. The ground-floor exterior walls are of stone or brick, and the whole of the upper storey is of wood, with sliding windows all around. Instead of glass, opaque oyster-shells (Tagalog, capis) are employed to admit the light whilst obstructing the sun's rays. Formerly the walls up to the roof were of stone, but since the last great earthquake of 1880 the use of wood from the first storey upwards has been rigorously enforced in the capital and suburbs for public safety. Iron roofs are very hot, and there are still some few comfortable, spacious, and cool suburban residences with tile roof or with the primitive cogon-grass or nipa palm-leaf thatching, very conducive to comfort although more liable to catch fire.

In Spanish times there were no white burglars, and the main entrance of a dwelling-house was invariably left open until the family retired for the night. Mosquitoes abound in Manila, coming from the numerous malarious creeks which traverse the wards, and few persons can sleep without a curtain. To be at one's ease, a daily bath is indispensable. The heat from 12 to 4 p.m. is oppressive from March to May, and most persons who have no afternoon occupation, sleep the siesta from 1 to 3 o'clock. The conventional lunch-hour all over the Colony is noon precisely, and dinner at about 8 o'clock. The visiting hours are from 5 to 7 in the evening, and reunions and musical soirees from 9. Society was far less divided here than in the British-Asiatic Colonies. There was not the same rigid line drawn as in British India between the official, non-official, and native. Spaniards of the best families in the capital endeavoured, with varying success, to europeanize the people of the country, and many of them exchanged visits with half-breeds, and at times with wealthy pure natives. Spanish hospitality in the Philippines was far more marked than in Europe, and educated foreigners were generally received with great courtesy.

Since the year 1884 the city and suburbs are well supplied with good drinking-water, which is one of the most praiseworthy modern improvements undertaken by the Spanish Government. To provide for this beneficial work, a Spanish philanthropist, named Carriedo—a late commander of an Acapulco galleon—left a sum of money in the 18th century, in order that the capital and accumulated interest might one day defray the expense. The water supply (brought from Santolan, near Mariquina), being more than sufficient for general requirements, the city and suburbs were, little by little, adorned with several public fountains. Although Manila lies low the climate is healthy, and during several years of personal observation I found the average maximum and minimum temperature at noon in the shade to be 98 deg. and 75 deg. Fahr. respectively. The climate of Manila may be generally summed up as follows, viz.:—December, January, and February, a delightful spring; March, April, and May, an oppressive heat; June, July, August, and September, heavy rains and more tolerable heat; October and November, doubtful—sometimes very wet, sometimes fairly dry. Briefly, as to climate, it is a pleasant place to reside in.

In 1593 Manila already had a coat-of-arms, with the title of "Muy Insigne y siempre leal Ciudad" and in the beginning of the 17th century King Philip III. conferred upon it the title of "La muy noble Ciudad "; hence it was lately styled "La muy noble y siempre leal Ciudad" (the very noble and always loyal city).

According to Gironniere, [171] the civilized population of this Colony in 1845 was as follows, namely:—

Europeans (including 500 Friars) 4,050 Spanish-native half-breeds 8,584 Spanish-native-Chinese half-breeds. 180,000 Chinese 9,901 Pure natives 3,304,742

Total civilized population 3,507,277

In the last Spanish census, taken in 1876, the total number of inhabitants, including Europeans and Chinese, was shown to be a little under 6,200,000, but a fixed figure cannot be relied upon because it was impossible to estimate exactly the number of unsubdued savages and mountaineers, who paid no taxes. The increase of native population was rated at about two per cent, per annum, except in the Negrito or Aeta tribes, which are known to be decreasing.

In Manila City and wards it is calculated there were in 1896 about 340,000 inhabitants, of which the ratio of classes was approximately the following, namely:—

Per cent. Pure natives 68.00 Chinese half-breeds 16.65 Chinese 12.25 Spaniards and Creoles 1.65 Spanish half-breeds 1.30 Foreigners (other than Chinese) 0.15

100.00

The walled city alone contained a population of about 16,000 souls.

Typhoons affect Manila more or less severely about once a year, nearly always between April and middle of December, and sometimes cause immense destruction to property. Roofs of houses are carried away; the wooden upper-storey frontages are blown out; ships are torn from their moorings; small craft laden with merchandise are wrecked, and the inhabitants flee from the streets to make fast their premises, and await in intense anxiety the conclusion of the tempest. A hurricane of this description desolated Manila in October, 1882, and, at the same time, the wind was accompanied by torrents of rain, which did great damage to the interiors of the residences, warehouses, and offices. A small house, entirely made of wood, was blown completely over, and the natives who had taken refuge on the ground-floor were left, without a moment's notice, with the sky for a roof. Two Chinamen, who thought to take advantage of the occasion and economically possess themselves of galvanized-iron roofing, had their heads nearly severed by sheets of this material flying through the air, and their dead bodies were picked up in the Rosario the next morning. I was busy with the servants all that day in my house, in the unsuccessful attempt to fasten the windows and doors. Part of the kitchen was carried away; water came in everywhere; and I had to wait patiently, with an umbrella over me, until the storm ceased. The last similarly destructive hurricane, affecting Manila, occurred on September 26, 1905.

Manila is also in constant danger of destruction from earthquakes. The most serious one within the last century occurred in June, 1863. The shock lasted half a minute, and the falling debris of the upheaved buildings caused 400 deaths, whilst 2,000 persons were wounded. The total loss of property on that occasion was estimated at P 8,000,000. Official returns show that 46 public edifices were thrown down; 28 were nearly destroyed; 570 private buildings were wrecked, and 528 were almost demolished. Simultaneously, an earthquake occurred in Cavite—the port and arsenal south-west of Manila—destroying several public buildings. In 1898 many of the ruins caused by this earthquake were still left undisturbed within the City of Manila. In 1863 the best buildings had heavy tiled roofs, and many continued so, in spite of the severe lesson, until after the shock of 1880, when galvanized corrugated iron came into general use for roofing, and, in fact, no one in Manila or Binondo now builds a house without it.

In 1880 no lives were lost, but the damage to house property was considerable. The only person who suffered physically from this calamity was an Englishman, Mr. Parker, whose arm was so severely injured that it was found necessary to amputate it.

Prior to 1863 the most serious earthquakes recorded happened in November, 1610; November, 1645; August, 1658; in 1675; in 1699; in 1796, and in 1852. Consequent on the shock of 1645, all the public buildings were destroyed excepting one monastery and two churches, some 600 persons were killed, and the Gov.-General was extricated from the ruins of his palace.

[172]According to the Jesuit Father Faura, Director of the Manila Observatory, the following slight quakes occurred in 1881, viz.:—3 in July, 7 in August, 10 in September, and 3 in October. Earth-tremors almost imperceptible are so frequent in these Islands that one hardly heeds them after a few months' residence.

In a cosmopolitan city like Manila—the temporary home of so many different races—it was interesting to observe the varied wearing-apparel in vogue. The majority of the Spaniards wore the European costume; the British generally dressed in white drill, with the coat buttoned up to the neck, and finished off with a narrow collar of the same material. The Chinese always preserved their own peculiar national dress—the most rational of all—with the pig-tail coiled into a chignon. The pure natives and many half-breeds wore the shirt outside the trousers. It was usually white, with a long stiff front, and cut European fashion; but often it was made of an extremely fine yellow-tinted expensive material, called pina (vide p. 283). Some few of the native jeunesse doree of Manila donned the European dress, much to their apparent discomfort. The official attire of the headman of a Manila ward and his subordinates was a shirt with the tail outside the trousers, like other natives or half-breeds, but over which was worn the official distinction of a short Eton jacket, reaching to the hips. All this is now changing, with a tendency to imitate the Americans.

A native woman wore, as she does now, a flowing skirt of gay colours—bright red, green, and white being the common choice. The length of train, and whether the garment be of cotton, silk, or satin, depends on her means. Corsets are not yet the fashion, but a chemisette, which just covers her breast, and a starched neckcloth (panuelo) of pina or husi stuff are in common use. The panuelo is square, and, being folded triangularly, it hangs in a point down the back and stands very high up at the neck, in the 17th century style, whilst the other two points are brooched where they meet at the top of the chemisette decolletee. To this chemisette are added immensely wide short sleeves. Her hair is brushed back from the forehead, without a parting, and coiled into a tight, flat chignon. In her hand she carries a fan, without which she would feel lost. Native women have an extravagant desire to possess jewellery—even if they never wear it. The head is covered with a white mantle of very thin material, sometimes figured, but more often this and the neckcloth are embroidered—a work in which they excel. Finally, her naked feet are partly enveloped in chinelas—a kind of slipper, flat, like a shoe-sole with no heel, but just enough upper in front to put four toes inside. Altogether, the appearance of a Philippine woman of well-to-do family dressed on a gala day is curious, sometimes pretty, but, in any case, admirably suited to the climate.