The Former Philippines thru Foreign Eyes
by
Fedor Jagor; Tomas de Comyn; Chas. Wilkes; Rudolf Virchow.
Part 11 out of 11
an ancient example. It is confirmed by the circumstance that these
crania are found especially in caves, from the roofs of which mineral
waters have dripped, which have overlaid the bones partly with a thick
layer of calcareous matter. The bones themselves have an uncommonly
thick, almost ivory, fossil-like appearance. Only the outer surface
is in places corroded, and on these places saturated with a greenish
infiltration. It is to be assumed, therefore, that they are very old. I
have the impression that they must have been placed here before the
discovery of the islands and the introduction of Christianity. Their
peculiar appearance, especially their angular form and the thickness
of the bone, reminds one of crania from other parts of the South Sea,
especially those from Chatham and Sandwich Islands. I shall not here
go further into this question, but merely mention that I came to the
conclusion that these people must be looked upon as proto-Malayan.
[Hope of Filipino and American study.] The changes which will take
place in the political condition of the Philippines may be of little
service to scientific explorations at first; but the study of the
population will be surely taken up with renewed energy. Already
in America scholars have begun to occupy themselves therewith. A
brief article by Dr. Brinton is to be mentioned as the first sign of
this. But should the ardent desire of the Filipinos be realized, that
their islands *hould have political autonomy, it is to be hoped that,
out of the patriotic enthusiasm of the population and the scientific
spirit of many of their best men, new sources of information will be
opened for the history and the development of oriental peoples. To
this end it may be here mentioned, by the way, that the connecting
links of ancient Philippine history and the customs of these islands,
as well with the Melanesians as with the Polynesians of the south,
are yet to be discovered.
As representatives of these two groups, I present, in closing, two
especially well-formed crania from the Philippines. One of them,
which shows the marks of antiquity that I have set forth, belongs
to an "Indio." [Comparison of Indio and Negrito skulls.] It has
the high cranial capacity of 1,540 cubic centimeters, a horizontal
circumference of 525 millimeters, and a sagitta-circumference of
386 millimeters; its form is hypsidolicho, quite on the border of
mesocephaly: Index of width, 75.3; index of height, 76.3. Besides,
it has the appearance of a race capable of development; only, the
nose is platyrrhine (index, 52.3), as among so many Malay tribes, and
in the left temple it bears a Processus frontalis squamae temporalis
developed partly from an enlarged fontanelle. The other skull was one
taken from a Negrito grave of Zambales by Dr. A. B. Meyer. It makes,
at first glance, just as favorable an impression, but its capacity
is only 1,182 cubic centimeters; therefore 358 cubic centimeters less
than the other. Its form is orthobrachycephalic; breadth index, 80.2;
height index, 70.6. As in single traits of development, so in the
measurements, the difference and the debased character of this race
obtrude themselves. Only, the nasal index is somewhat smaller; on the
whole, the nose has in its separate parts a decidedly pithecoid form.
PART VI
People and Prospects of the Philippines
Blackwood's magazine for August, 1818, has an account of conditions
in Manila and the Philippines from data given by an English merchant
who left the Islands in 1798 after twenty years' residence in which
he accumulated a fortune.
"Your first question, with respect to the Spanish population, must
refer to native Spaniards only; as their numerous descendants, through
all the variety of half-castes, would include one third at least of
the whole population of Luconia (i.e., Luzon--A. C.)
"Of native Spaniards, accordingly, settled in the Philippine Islands,
the total number may be stated at 2,000 not military. The military,
including all descriptions, men and officers, are about 2,500,
out of which number the native regiments are officered These last,
in 1796-7, were almost entirely composed of South Americans and were
reckoned at 5,000 men, making a military force of about 7,500.
"The castes bearing a mixture of the Spanish blood are in Luconia
alone at least 200,000. The Sangleys, or Chinese descendants, are
upwards of 20,000, and Indians, who call themselves the original
Tagalas, about 340,000, making a total population in that island of
about 600,000 souls. What may be the respective numbers in the other
Philippine Islands I never had any opportunity of learning."
(This opinion, of a day when it was not desired to disparage the
people, gives an idea of the mixed blood of the Filipinos which, in the
opinion of the ethnologists, like Ratzel, is a source of strength. It
classes them with the English and Americans. One danger of the present
appears in over-emphasizing the Malay blood, just as in Spanish times
a real loss seems to have come from the contempt toward the Chinese
which led to minimizing and concealing a most creditable ancestry.
Prejudice in the past called all trouble makers mestizos, but today's
study is showing that trouble maker meant man who would stand up for
his rights; one must not forget that mestizo was used as a reproach,
that the leaders of the people were really typical of the people. By
the old injustice those who were mediocre were called natives and
whoever rose above his fellows was claimed as a Spaniard, but a
fairer way would seem to be to consider Filipinos all born in the
Philippines.--C.).
The Cornhill magazine in the late '70s had a contribution by the then
British Consul, Mr. Palgreave, on "Malay Life in the Philippines,"
that makes more understandable the reputation of the islands, which
before the opening of the Suez were a health resort for Japan,
the China coast and India. It also shows a fairness to the people
uncommon in the Spanish-inspired writings of his day.
"Dull indeed must be his soul, unsympathetic his nature who can see
the forests and mountains of Luzon, Queen of the Eastern Isles, fade
away into dim violet outlines on the fast receding horizon without
some pang of longing regret. Not the Aegean, not the West Indian,
not the Samoan, not any rival in manifold beauties of earth, sea and
sky the Philippine Archipelago. Pity that for the Philippines no word
limner of note exists. The chiefest, the almost exceptional spell of
the Philippines, is situated, not in the lake or volcano, forest or
plain, but in the races that form the bulk of the island population.
"I said 'almost exceptional' because rarely is an intra-tropical
people a satisfactory one to eye or mind. But this cannot be
said of the Philippine Malays who in bodily formation and mental
characteristics alike, may fairly claim a place, not among middling
ones merely, but among almost the higher names inscribed on the world's
national scale. A concentrated, never-absent self-respect, an habitual
self-restraint in word and deed, very rarely broken except when extreme
provocation induces the transitory but fatal frenzy known as 'amok,'
and an inbred courtesy, equally diffused through all classes, high or
low, unfailing decorum, prudence, caution, quiet cheerfulness, ready
hospitality and a correct, though not inventive taste. His family is
a pleasing sight, much subordination and little constraint, unison in
gradation, liberty--not license. Orderly children, respected parents,
women subject but not oppressed, men ruling but not despotic, reverence
with kindness, obedience in affection, these form lovable pictures,
not by any means rare in the villages of the eastern isles." (Here
again comes the necessity of combatting the popular impression that the
Philippines is a tropical land peopled by Malays. The modification of
climate from being an ocean archipelago suggests that these islands are
really subtropical, while mixture of blood joined with three centuries
of European civilization makes the term Malay misleading.--C.)
* * * * *
PART VII
Filipino Merchants of the Early 1890s
F. Karuth, F. R. G. S., (President of an English corporation interested
in Philippine mining) about 1894, wrote:
"Few outside the comparatively narrow circle who are directly
interested in the commerce and resources of the Philippine Islands
know anything about them. The Philippine merchants are a rather
close community which only in the last decade or so has expanded its
diameter a little. There are a number of very old established firms
amongst them, several of them being British.... Amongst them also
are firms--perhaps as far as wealth and local influence go, the most
important firms--whose chiefs are partly at least of native blood.
NOTES
[1] New York noon is Manilla 1:04 next morning.--C.
[2] Navarrete, IV, 97 Obs. 2a.
[3] According to Albo's ship journal, he perceived the difference at
the Cape de Verde Islands on July 9, 1522; "Y este dia fue miercoles,
y este dia tienen ellos pot jueves." (And this day was Wednesday and
this day they had as Thursday.)
[4] In a note on the 18th page of the masterly English (Hakluyt
Society) translation of Morga, I find the curious statement that
a similar rectification was made at the same time at Macao, where
the Portuguese, who reached it on an easterly course, had made the
mistake of a day the other way.
[5] Towards the close of the sixteenth century the duty upon the
exports to China amounted to $40,000 and their imports to at least
$1,330,000. In 1810, after more than two centuries of undisturbed
Spanish rule, the latter had sunk to $1,150,000. Since then they have
gradually increased; and in 1861 they reached $2,130,000.
[6] The Panama canal prevents this.--C.
[7] Navarrete, IV, 54 Obs. 1a.
[8] According to Gehler's Phys. Lex. VI, 450, the log was first
mentioned by Purchas in an account of a voyage to the East Indies in
1608. Pigafetta does not cite it in his treatise on navigation; but
in the forty-fifth page of his work it is said: "Secondo la misura
che facevamo del viaggio colla cadena a poppa, noi percorrevamo 60 a
70 leghe al giorno." This was as rapid a rate as that of our (1870)
fastest steamboats--ten knots an hour.
[9] The European mail reaches Manila through Singapore and
Hongkong. Singapore is about equidistant from the other two
places. Letters therefore could be received in the Philippines as soon
as in China, if they were sent direct from Singapore. In that case,
however, a steamer communication with that port must be established,
and the traffic is not yet sufficiently developed to bear the double
expense. According to the report of the English Consul (May, 1870),
there is, besides the Government steamer, a private packet running
between Hongkong and Manila. The number of passengers it conveyed
to China amounted, in 1868, to 441 Europeans and 3,048 Chinese;
total, 3,489. The numbers carried the other way were 330 Europeans
and 4,664 Chinese; in all, 4,994. The fare is $80 for Europeans and
$20 for Chinamen.
[10] Zuniga, Mavers, I, 225.
[11] Dr. Pedro Pelaez, in temporary charge of the diocese and dying
in the cathedral, was the foremost Filipino victim. Funds raised in
Spain for relief never reached the sufferers, but not till the end
of Spanish rule was it safe to comment on this in the Philippines.--C.
[12] Zuniga, XVIII, M. Velarde, p. 139.
[13] Captain Salmon, Goch., S. 33.
[14] The opening of this port proved so advantageous that I intended
to have given a few interesting details of its trade in a separate
chapter, chiefly gathered from the verbal and written remarks of the
English Vice-Consul, the late Mr. N. Loney, and from other consular
reports.
[15] In 1868, 112 foreign vessels, to the aggregate of 74,054 tons,
and Spanish ships to the aggregate of 26,762 tons, entered the
port of Manila. Nearly all the first came in ballast, but left with
cargoes. The latter both came and left in freight. (English Consul's
Report, 1869.)
[16] In 1868 the total exports amounted to $14,013,108; of this England
alone accounted for $4,857,000, and the whole of the rest of Europe for
only $102,477. The first amount does not include the tobacco duty paid
to Spain by the colony, $3,169,144. (English Consul's Report, 1869.)
[17] La Perouse said that Manila was perhaps the most fortunately
situated city in the world.
[18] Sapan or Sibucao, Caesalpinia Sapan. Pernambuco or Brazil
wood, to which the empire of Brazil owes its name, comes from the
Caesalpinia echinat and the Caesalpinia Braziliensis. (The oldest
maps of America remark of Brazil: "Its only useful product is Brazil
(wood).") The sapan of the Philippines is richer in dye stuff than
all other eastern asiatic woods, but it ranks below the Brazilian
sapan. It has, nowadays, lost its reputation, owing to its being
often stupidly cut down too early. It is sent especially to China,
where it is used for dyeing or printing in red. The stuff is first
macerated with alum, and then for a finish dipped in a weak alcoholic
solution of alkali. The reddish brown tint so frequently met with in
the clothes of the poorer Chinese is produced from sapan.
[19] Large quantities of small mussel shells (Cypraea moneta) were
sent at this period to Siam, where they are still used as money.
[20] Berghaus' Geo. hydrogr. Memoir.
[21] Manila was first founded in 1571, but as early as 1565, Urdaneta,
Legaspi's pilot, had found the way back through the Pacific Ocean
while he was seeking in the higher northern latitudes for a favorable
north-west wind. Strictly speaking, however, Urdaneta was not the first
to make use of the return passage, for one of Legaspi's five vessels,
under the command of Don Alonso de Arellano, which had on board as
pilot Lope Martin, a mulatto, separated itself from the fleet after
they had reached the Islands, and returned to New Spain on a northern
course, in order to claim the promised reward for the discovery. Don
Alonso was disappointed, however, by the speedy return of Urdaneta.
[22] Kottenkamp I., 1594.
[23] At first the maximum value of the imports only was limited,
and the Manila merchants were not over scrupulous in making false
statements as to their worth; to put an end to these malpractices a
limit was placed to the amount of silver exported. According to Mas,
however, the silver illegally exported amounted to six or eight times
the prescribed limit.
[24] La Perouse mentions a French firm (Sebis), that, in 1787, had
been for many years established in Manila.
[25] R. Cocks to Thomas Wilson (Calendar of State Papers, India,
No. 823) .... "The English will obtain a trade in China, so they
bring not in any padres (as they term them), which the Chinese cannot
abide to hear of, because heretofore they came in such swarms, and
are always begging without shame."
[26] As late as 1857 some old decrees, passed against the establishment
of foreigners, were renewed. A royal ordinance of 1844 prohibits
the admission of strangers into the interior of the colony under any
pretext whatsoever.
[27] Vide Pinkerton.
[28] Each packet was 5 x 2 1/2 x 1 1/2 = 18.75 Spanish cubic
feet. St. Croix.
[29] Vide Comyn's comercio exterior.
[30] The obras pias were pious legacies which usually stipulated
that two-thirds of their value should be advanced at interest for the
furtherance of maritime commercial undertakings until the premiums,
which for a voyage to Acapulco amounted to 50, to China 25, and to
India 35 per cent., had increased the original capital to a certain
amount. The interest of the whole was then to be devoted to masses
for the founders, or to other pious and benevolent purposes. A third
was generally kept as a reserve fund to cover possible losses. The
government long since appropriated these reserve funds as compulsory
loans, "but they are still considered as existing."
When the trade with Acapulco came to an end, the principals could no
longer be laid out according to the intentions of the founders, and
they were lent out at interest in other ways. By a royal ordinance of
November 3, 1854, a junta was appointed to administer the property of
the . The total capital of the five endowments (in reality only four,
for one of them no longer possessed anything) amounted to nearly
a million of dollars. The profits from the loans were distributed
according to the amounts of the original capital, which, however,
no longer existed in cash, as the government had disposed of them.
[31] Vide Thevenot.
[32] According to Morga, between the fourteenth and fifteenth.
[33] Vide De Guignes, Pinkerton XI, and Anson X.
[34] Vide Anson.
[35] Randolph's History of California.
[36] In Morga's time, the galleons took seventy days to the Ladrone
Islands, from ten to twelve from thence to Cape Espiritu Santo,
and eight more to Manila.
[37] A very good description of these voyages may be found in the
10th chapter of Anson's work, which also contains a copy of a sea map,
captured in the Cavadonga, displaying the proper track of the galleons
to and from Acapulco.
[38] De Guignes.
[39] The officer in command of the expedition, to whom the title of
general was given, had always a captain under his orders, and his
share in the gain of each trip amounted to $40,000. The pilot was
content with $20,000. The first lieutenant (master) was entitled to 9
per cent on the sale of the cargo, and pocketed from this and from the
profits of his own private ventures upwards of $350,000. (Vide Arenas.)
[40] The value of the cargoes Anson captured amounted to $1,313,000,
besides 35,682 ounces of fine silver and cochineal. While England
and Spain were at peace, Drake plundered the latter to the extent of
at least one and a half million of dollars. Thomas Candish burnt the
rich cargo of the Santa Anna, as he had no room for it on board his
own vessel.
[41] For instance, in 1786 the San Andres, which had a cargo on board
valued at a couple of millions, found no market for it in Acapulco;
the same thing happened in 1787 to the San Jose, and a second time
in 1789 to the San Andres.
[42] In 1855 its population consisted of 586 European Spaniards,
1,378 Creoles, 6,323 Malay Filipinos and mestizos, 332 Chinamen,
2 Hamburgers, 1 Portuguese, and 1 Negro.
[43] The earthquake of 1863 destroyed the old bridge. It is intended,
however, to restore it; the supporting pillars are ready, and
the superincumbent iron structure is shortly expected from Europe
(April, 1872).--The central span, damaged in the high water of 1914,
was temporarily replaced with a wooden structure and plans have been
prepared for a new bridge, permitting ships to pass and to be used
also by the railway, nearer the river mouth.--C.
[44] Roescher's Colonies.
[45] A brief description of a nipa house, accompanying an illustration,
is here omitted.--C.
[46] The following figures will give an idea of the contents of
the newspapers. I do not allude to the Bulletin Official, which is
reserved for official announcements, and contains little else of
any importance. The number lying before me of the Comercio (Nov. 29,
1858), a paper that appears six times a week, consists of four pages,
the printed portion in each of which is 11 inches by 17; the whole,
therefore, contains 748 square inches of printed matter. They are
distributed as follows:--
Title, 27 1/2 sq. in.; an essay on the population of Spain, taken
from a book, 102 1/2 sq. in.; under the heading "News from Europe,"
an article, quoted from the Annals of La Caridad, upon the increase
of charity and Catholic instruction in France, 40 1/2 sq. in.;
Part I, of a treatise on Art and its Origin (a series of truisms),
70 sq. in.; extracts from the official sheet, 20 1/2 sq. in.; a few
ancient anecdotes, 59 sq. in. Religious portion (this is divided into
two parts--official and unofficial). The first contains the saints
for the different days of the year, etc., and the announcements of
religious festivals; the second advertises a forthcoming splendid
procession, and contains the first half of a sermon preached three
years before, on the anniversary of the same festival, 99 sq. in.,
besides an instalment of an old novel, 154, and advertisements, 175
sq. in.; total, 748 sq. in. In the last years, however, the newspapers
sometimes have contained serious essays, but of late these appear
extremely seldom.
[47] Vide Pigafetta.
[48] Cock-fighting is not alluded to in the "Ordinances of good
government," collected by Hurtado Corcuera in the middle of the
seventeenth century. In 1779 cock-fights were taxed for the first
time. In 1781 the government farmed the right of entrance to
the galleras (derived from gallo, rooster) for the yearly sum of
$14,798. In 1863 the receipts from the galleras figured in the budget
for $106,000.
A special decree of 100 clauses was issued in Madrid on the 21st of
March, 1861, for the regulation of cock-fights. The 1st clause declares
that since cock-fights are a source of revenue to the State, they
shall only take place in arenas licensed by the Government. The 6th
restricts them to Sundays and holidays; the 7th, from the conclusion
of high mass to sunset. The 12th forbids more than $50 to be staked
on one contest. The 38th decrees that each cock shall carry but one
weapon, and that on its left spur. By the 52nd the fight is to be
considered over when one or both cocks are dead, or when one shows
the white feather. In the London Daily News of the 30th June, 1869,
I find it reported that five men were sentenced at Leeds to two
months' hard labor for setting six cocks to fight one another with
iron spurs. From this it appears that this once favorite spectacle
is no longer permitted in England.
[49] The raw materials of these adventures were supplied by a French
planter, M. de la Gironiere, but their literary parent is avowedly
Alexander Dumas.
[50] Botanical gardens do not seem to prosper under Spanish
auspices. Chamisso complains that, in his day, there were no traces
left of the botanical gardens founded at Cavite by the learned
Cuellar. The gardens at Madrid, even, are in a sorry plight; its
hothouses are almost empty. The grounds which were laid out at great
expense by a wealthy and patriotic Spaniard at Orotava (Teneriffe),
a spot whose climate has been of the greatest service to invalids, are
rapidly going to decay. Every year a considerable sum is appropriated
to it in the national budget, but scarcely a fraction of it ever
reaches Orotava. When I was there in 1867, the gardener had received
no salary for twenty-two months, all the workmen were dismissed,
and even the indispensable water supply had been cut off.
[51] For a proof of this vide the Berlin Ethnographical Museum,
Nos. 294-295.
[52] Bertillon (Acclimatement et Acclimatation, Dict. Encycl. des
Science, Medicales) ascribes the capacity of the Spaniards for
acclimatization in tropical countries to the large admixture of
Syrian and African blood which flows in their veins. The ancient
Iberians appear to have reached Spain from Chaldea across Africa;
the Phoenicians and Carthaginians had flourishing colonies in the
peninsula, and, in later times, the Moors possessed a large portion
of the country for a century, and ruled with great splendor, a state
of things leading to a mixture of race. Thus Spanish blood has three
distinct times been abundantly crossed with that of Africa. The warm
climate of the peninsula must also largely contribute to render its
inhabitants fit for life in the tropics. The pure Indo-European race
has never succeeded in establishing itself on the southern shores of
the Mediterranean, much less in the arid soil of the tropics.
In Martinique, where from eight to nine thousand whites live on the
proceeds of the toil of 125,000 of the colored race, the population
is diminishing instead of increasing. The French creoles seem to
have lost the power of maintaining themselves, in proportion to the
existing means of subsistence, and of multiplying. Families which
do not from time to time fortify themselves with a strain of fresh
European blood, die out in from three to four generations. The same
thing happens in the English, but not in the Spanish Antilles, although
the climate and the natural surroundings are the same. According to
Ramon de la Sagra, the death-rate is smaller among the creoles, and
greater among the natives, than it is in Spain; the mortality among
the garrison, however, is considerable. The same writer states that
the real acclimatization of the Spanish race takes place by selection;
the unfit die, and the others thrive.
[53] An unnecessary line is here omitted.--C.
[54] Depons, speaking of the means employed in America to obtain the
same end, says, "I am convinced that it is impossible to engraft the
Christian religion on the Indian mind without mixing up their own
inclinations and customs with those of Christianity; this has been
even carried so far, that at one time theologians raised the question,
whether it was lawful to eat human flesh? But the most singular part
of the proceeding is, that the question was decided in favor of the
anthropophagi."
[55] As a matter of fact, productive land is always appropriated,
and in many parts of the Islands is difficult and expensive to
purchase. Near Manila, and in Bulacan, land has for many years past
cost over $225 (silver) an acre.
[56] Ind. Arch. IV; 307.
[57] In Buitenzorger's garden, Java, the author observed, however,
some specimens growing in fresh water.
[58] Boyle, in his Adventures among the Dyaks, mentions that he
actually found pneumatic tinder-boxes, made of bamboo, in use among
the Dyaks; Bastian met with them in Burmah. Boyle saw a Dyak place
some tinder on a broken piece of earthenware, holding it steady with
his thumb while he struck it a sharp blow with a piece of bamboo. The
tinder took fire. Wallace observed the same method of striking a
light in Ternate.
[59] Centigrade is changed to Fahrenheit by multiplying by nine-fifths
and adding thirty-two.--C.
[60] Tylor (Anahuac 227) says that this word is derived from the
Mexican petlatl, a mat. The inhabitants of the Philippines call this
petate, and from the Mexican petla-calli, a mat "house," derive petaca,
a cigar case.
[61] Four lines, re an omitted sketch, left out.--C.
[62] Voyage en Chine, vol. II., page 33.
[63] According to the report of an engineer, the sand banks are caused
by the river San Mateo, which runs into the Pasig at right angles
shortly after the latter leaves the Lagoon; in the rainy season it
brings down a quantity of mud, which is heaped up and embanked by the
south-west winds that prevail at the time. It would, therefore, be of
little use to remove the sandbanks without giving the San Mateo, the
cause of their existence, a direct and separate outlet into the lake.
[64] They take baths for their maladies, and have hot springs for
this purpose, particularly along the shore of the king's lake (Estang
du Roy, instead of Estang de Bay by a printer's mistake apparently),
which is in the Island of Manila.--Thevenot.
[65] "One can scarcely walk thirty paces between Mount Makiling and
a place called Bacon, which lies to the east of Los Banos, without
meeting several kinds of natural springs, some very hot, some lukewarm,
some of the temperature of the atmosphere, and some very cold. In a
description of this place given in our archives for the year 1739, it
is recorded that a hill called Natognos lies a mile to the south-east
of the village, on the plateau of which there is a small plain 400
feet square, which is kept in constant motion by the volume of vapor
issuing from it. The soil from which this vapor issues is an extremely
white earth; it is sometimes thrown up to the height of a yard or a
yard and a half, and meeting the lower temperature of the atmosphere
falls to the ground in small pieces."--Estado geograph., 1865.
[66] Pigafetta says that the natives, in order to obtain palm-wine,
cut the top of the tree through to the pith, and then catch the sap
as it oozes out of the incision. According to Regnaud, Natural History
of the Coco-tree, the negroes of Saint Thomas pursue a similar method
in the present day, a method that considerably injures the trees and
produces a much smaller quantity of liquor. Hernandez describes an
indigenous process of obtaining wine, honey, and sago from the sacsao
palm, a tree which from its stunted growth would seem to correspond
with the acenga saccharifera. The trees are tapped near the top, the
soft part of the trunks is hollowed out, and the sap collects in this
empty space. When all the juice is extracted, the tree is allowed to
dry up, and is then cut into thin pieces which, after desiccation in
the sun, are ground into meal.
[67] Pigafetta mentions that the natives were in the habit of making
oil, vinegar, wine, and milk, from the coco-palm, and that they drank
a great deal of the wine. Their kings, he says, frequently intoxicated
themselves at their banquets.
[68] A number of the Illustrated London News, of December, 1857,
or January, 1858, contains a clever drawing, by an accomplished
artist, of the mode of travelling over this road, under the title,
"A macadamized road in Manila."
[69] Erd and Picketing, of the United States exploring expedition,
determined the height to be 6,500 English feet (7,143 Spanish),
not an unsatisfactory result, considering the imperfect means they
possessed for making a proper measurement. In the Manila Estado
geographico for 1865, the height is given, without any statement as
to the source whence the estimate is derived, as 7,030 feet. The same
authority says, "the large volcano is extinct since 1730, in which
year its last eruption took place. The mountain burst into flames on
the southern side, threw up streams of water, burning lava, and stones
of an enormous size; traces of the last can be observed as far as the
village of Sariaya. The crater is perhaps a league in circumference,
it is highest on the northern side, and its interior is shaped like
an egg-shell: the depth of the crater apparently extends half-way
down the height of the mountain."
[70] From ponte, deck; a two-masted vessel, with mat sails, of about
100 tons burden.
[71] Estado Geogr., p. 314.
[72] Officially called Cagsaua. The old town of Cagsaua, which was
built higher up the hill and was destroyed by the eruption of 1814,
was rebuilt on the spot where formerly stood a small hamlet of the
name of Daraga.
[73] I learnt from Mr. Paton that the undertaking had also been
represented as impracticable in Albay. "Not a single Spaniard, not
a single native had ever succeeded in reaching the summit; in spite
of all their precautions they would certainly be swallowed up in the
sand." However, one morning, about five o'clock, they set off, and soon
reached the foot of the cone of the crater. Accompanied by a couple of
natives, who soon left them, they began to make the ascent. Resting
half way up, they noticed frequent masses of shining lava, thrown
from the mouth of the crater, gliding down the mountain. With the
greatest exertions they succeeded, between two and three o'clock,
in reaching the summit, where, however, they were prevented by the
noxious gas from remaining more than two or three minutes. During
their descent, they restored their strength with some refreshments
Sr. Munoz had sent to meet them; and they reached Albay towards
evening, where during their short stay they were treated as heroes,
and presented with an official certificate of their achievement,
for which they had the pleasure of paying several dollars.
[74] From 36,000,000 to 40,000,000 lbs. of cacao are consumed in Europe
annually; of which quantity nearly a third goes to France, whose
consumption of it between 1853 and 1866 has more than doubled. In
the former year it amounted to 6,215,000 lbs., in the latter to
12,973,534 lbs. Venezuela sends the finest cacaos to the European
market, those of Porto Cabello and Caracas. That of Caracas is the
dearest and the best, and is of four kinds: Chuao, Ghoroni, O'Cumar,
and Rio Chico. England consumes the cacao grown in its own colonies,
although the duty (1d per lb.) is the same for all descriptions. Spain,
the principal consumer, imports its supplies from Cuba, Porto Rico,
Ecuador, Mexico, and Trinidad. Several large and important plantations
have recently been established by Frenchmen in Nicaragua. The cacao
beans of Soconusco (Central America) and Esmeralda (Ecuador) are more
highly esteemed than the finest of the Venezuela sorts; but they are
scarcely ever used in the Philippines, and cannot be said to form
part of their commerce. Germany contents itself with the inferior
kinds. Guayaquil cacao, which is only half the price of Caracas, is
more popular amongst the Germans than all the other varieties together.
[75] C. Scherzer, in his work on Central America, gives the cacao-tree
an existence of twenty years, and says that each tree annually produces
from 15 to 20 ounces of cacao. 1,000 plants will produce 1,250 lbs. of
cacao, worth $250; so that the annual produce of a single tree is worth
a quarter of a dollar. Mitscherlich says that from 4 to 6 lbs. of raw
beans is an average produce. A liter of dried cacao beans weighs 630
grains; of picked and roasted, 610 grains.
[76] In 1727 a hurricane destroyed at a single blast the important
cacao plantation of Martinique, which had been created by long years of
extraordinary care. The same thing happened at Trinidad.--Mitscherlich.
[77] F. Engel mentions a disease (mancha) which attacks the tree
in America, beginning by destroying its roots. The tree soon dies,
and the disease spreads so rapidly that whole groves of cacao-trees
utterly perish and are turned into pastures for cattle. Even in the
most favored localities, after a long season of prosperity, thousands
of trees are destroyed in a single night by this disease, just as the
harvest is about to take place. An almost equally dangerous foe to
cultivation is a moth whose larva entirely destroys the ripe cacao
beans; and which only cold and wind will kill. Humboldt mentions
that cacao beans which have been transported over the chilly passes
of the Cordilleras are never attacked by this pest.
[78] G. Bornoulli quotes altogether eighteen kinds; of which he
mentions only one as generally in use in the Philippines.
[79] Pili is very common in South Luzon, Samar, and Leyte; it is to be
found in almost every village. Its fruit, which is almost of the size
of an ordinary plum but not so round, contains a hard stone, the raw
kernel of which is steeped in syrup and candied in the same manner as
the kernel of the sweet pine, which it resembles in flavor. The large
trees with fruit on them, "about the size of almonds and looking like
sweet-pine kernels," which Pigafetta saw at Jomonjol were doubtless
pili-trees. An oil is expressed from the kernels much resembling
sweet almond oil. If incisions are made in the stems of the trees,
an abundant pleasant-smelling white resin flows from them, which
is largely used in the Philippines to calk ships with. It also has
a great reputation as an anti-rheumatic plaster. It is twenty years
since it was first exported to Europe; and the first consignees made
large profits, as the resin, which was worth scarcely anything in
the Philippines, became very popular and was much sought in Europe.
[80] The general name for the beverage was Cacahoa-atl (cacao
water). Chocolatl was the term given to a particular kind. F. Hernandez
found four kinds of cacao in use among the Axtecs, and he describes
four varieties of drinks that were prepared from them. The third
was called chocolatl, and apparently was prepared as follows:--Equal
quantities of the kernels of the pochotl (Bombaz ceiba) and cacahoatl
(cacao) trees were finely ground, and heated in an earthen vessel, and
all the grease removed as it rose to the surface. Maize, crushed and
soaked, was added to it, and a beverage prepared from the mixture; to
which the oily parts that had been skimmed off the top were restored,
and the whole was drunk hot.
[81] Berthold Seemann speaks of a tree with finger-shaped leaves
and small round berries, which the Indians sometimes offered for
sale. They made chocolate from them, which in flavor much surpassed
that usually made from cacao.
[82] Report of the French consul.
[83] Mysore and Mocha coffees fetch the highest prices. From $20 to
$22.50 per cwt. is paid for Mysore; and as much as $30, when it has
attained an age of five or six years, for Mocha.
[84] In 1865-66-67 California imported three and one-half, eight
and ten million lbs. of coffee, of which two, four and five millions
respectively came from Manila. In 1868 England was the best customer
of the Philippines.
[85] Report of the Belgian consul.
[86] Coffee is such an exquisite beverage, and is so seldom
properly prepared, that the following hints from a master in the
art (Report of the Jury, Internat. Exhib., Paris, 1868) will not be
unwelcome:--1st. Select good coffees. 2nd. Mix them in the proper
proportions. 3rd. Thoroughly dry the beans; otherwise in roasting them
a portion of the aroma escapes with the steam. 4th. Roast them in a dry
atmosphere, and roast each quality separately. 5th. Allow them to cool
rapidly. If it is impossible to roast the beans at home, then purchase
only sufficient for each day's consumption. With the exception of the
fourth, however, it is easy to follow all these directions at home;
and small roasting machines are purchasable, in which, with the aid
of a spirit lamp, small quantities can be prepared at a time. It is
best, when possible, to buy coffee in large quantities, and keep it
stored for two or three years in a dry place.
[87] A creeping, or rather a running fern, nearly the only one of
the kind in the whole species.
[88] The official accounts stated that they had kidnapped twenty-one
persons in a couple of weeks.
[89] Le Gentil, in his Travels in the Indian Seas, (1761) says:
"The monks are the real rulers of the provinces.... Their power is so
unlimited that no Spaniard cares to settle in the neighborhood.... The
monks would give him a great deal of trouble."
[90] St. Croix.
[91] St. Croix.
[92] There are three classes of alcaldeships, namely, entrada,
ascenso, and termino (vide Royal Ordinances of March, 1837); in
each of which an alcalde must serve for three years. No official is
allowed, under any pretence, to serve more than ten years in any of
the Asiatic magistracies.
[93] The law limiting the duration of appointments to this short
period dates from the earliest days of Spanish colonization in
America. There was also a variety of minor regulations, based on
suspicion, prohibiting the higher officials from mixing in friendly
intercourse with the colonists.
[94] A secular priest in the Philippines once related to me, quite of
his own accord, what had led him to the choice of his profession. One
day, when he was a non-commissioned officer in the army, he was playing
cards with some comrades in a shady balcony. "See," cried one of his
friends, observing a peasant occupied in tilling the fields in the
full heat of the sun, "how the donkey yonder is toiling and perspiring
while we are lolling in the shade." The happy conceit of letting the
donkeys work while the idle enjoyed life made such a deep impression on
him that he determined to turn priest; and it is the same felicitous
thought that has impelled so many impecunious gentlemen to become
colonial officials. The little opening for civil labor in Spain and
Portugal, and the prospect of comfortable perquisites in the colonies,
have sent many a starving caballero across the ocean.
[95] The exploitation of the State by party, and the exploitation of
party by individuals, are the real secrets of all revolutions in the
Peninsula. They are caused by a constant and universal struggle for
office. No one will work, and everybody wants to live luxuriously; and
this can only be done at the expense of the State, which all attempt
to turn and twist to their own ends. Shortly after the expulsion of
Isabella, an alcalde's appointment has been known to have been given
away three times in one day. (Prussian Year-Book, January, 1869.)
[96] According to Grunow, Cladophona arrisgona Kuetzing--Conferva
arrisgona Montague.
[97] A visita is a small hamlet or village with no priest of its
own, and dependent upon its largest neighbor for its religious
ministrations.
[98] Pigafetta mentions that the female musicians of the King of
Cebu were quite naked, or only covered with an apron of bark. The
ladies of the Court were content with a hat, a short cloak, and a
cloth around the waist.
[99] Perhaps the same reason induced the Chinese to purchase
crucifixes at the time of their first intercourse with the Portuguese;
for Pigafetta says: "The Chinese are white, wear clothes, and eat
from tables. They also possess crucifixes but it is difficult to say
why or where they got them."
[100] One line here omitted.--C.
[101] Apud Camarines quoque terrain eodem die quator decies
contremuisse, fide dignis testimoniis renuntiatum est: multa interim
aedificia diruta. Ingentem montem medium crepuisse immani hiatu, ex
immensa vi excussisse arbores per oras pelagi, ita ut leucam occuparent
aequoris, nec humor per illud intervallum appareret. Accidit hoc
anno 1628.--S. Eusebius Nieremberqius, Historia Naturae, lib. xvi.,
383. Antwerpiae, 1635.
[102] At Fort William, Calcutta, experiments have proved the
extraordinary endurance of the pine-apple fibre. A cable eight
centimeters in circumference was not torn asunder until a force
of 2,850 kilogrammes had been applied to it.--Report of the Jury,
London International Exhibition.
[103] Sapa means shallow.
[104] To the extraordinary abundance of these annulates in Sikkin,
Hooker (Himalayan Journal, i, 167) ascribes the death of many animals,
as also the murrain known as rinderpest, if it occurred after a very
wet season, when the leech appears in incredible numbers. It is a
known fact that these worms have existed for days together in the
nostrils, throat, and stomach of man, causing inexpressible pain and,
finally, death.
[105] Gemelli Careri has already mentioned them.
[106] I discovered similar formations, of extraordinary beauty and
extent, in the great silicious beds of Steamboat Springs in Nevada.
[107] Arenas thinks that the ancient annals of the Chinese probably
contain information relative to the settlement of the present
inhabitants of Manila, as that people had early intercourse with
the Archipelago.
[108] Probably the Anodonta Purpurea, according to V. Martens.
[109] 1 ganta = 3 liters. 1 quinon = 100 loanes = 2.79495 hectares =
6.89 acres. 1 caban = 25 gantas.
[110] Scherzer, Miscellaneous Information.
[111] More than one hundred years later, Father Taillandier
writes:--"The Spaniards have brought cows, horses, and sheep from
America; but these animals cannot live there on account of the dampness
and inundations."--(Letters from Father Taillandier to Father Willard.)
[112] At the present time the Chinese horses are plump, large-headed,
hairy, and with bushy tails and manes; and the Japanese, elegant and
enduring, similar to the Arabian. Good Manila horses are of the latter
type, and are much prized by the Europeans in Chinese seaport towns.
[113] Compare Hernandez, Opera Omnia; Torquemada, Monarchia Indica.
[114] Buyo is the name given in the Philippines to the preparation of
betel suitable for chewing. A leaf of betel pepper (Chavica betel),
of the form and size of a bean-leaf, is smeared over with a small
piece of burnt lime of the size of a pea, and rolled together from
both ends to the middle; when, one end of the roll being inserted
into the other, a ring is formed, into which a smooth piece of areca
nut of corresponding size is introduced.
[115] Twelve lines are omitted here.--C.
[116] 4 lines are omitted.--C.
[117] In the country it is believed that swine's flesh often causes
this malady. A friend, a physiologist, conjectures the cause to be
the free use of very fat pork; but the natives commonly eat but little
flesh, and the pigs are very seldom fat.
[118] Compare A. Erman, Journey Round the Earth Through Northern Asia,
vol. iii, sec i, p. 191.
[119] According to Semper, p. 69, in Zamboanga and Basilan.
[120] The fear of waking sleeping persons really refers to the
widely-spread superstition that during sleep the soul leaves the body;
numerous instances of which occur in Bastian's work. Amongst the
Tinguianes (North Luzon) the worst of all curses is to this effect:
"May'st thou die sleeping!"--Informe, i. 14.
[121] Lewin ("Chittagong Hill Tracks," 1869, p. 46) relates of
the mountain people at that place: "Their manner of kissing is
peculiar. Instead of pressing lip to lip, they place the mouth and
nose upon the cheek, and inhale the breath strongly. Their form of
speech is not 'Give me a kiss,' but 'Smell me.' "
[122] Probably pot-stone, which is employed in China in the manufacture
of cheap ornaments. Gypseous refers probably only to the degree
of hardness.
[123] In the Christy collection, in London, I saw a stone of this
kind from the Schiffer Islands, employed in a contrivance for the
purpose of protection against rats and mice. A string being drawn
through the stone, one end of it is suspended from the ceiling of the
room, and the objects to be preserved hang from the other. A knot
in the middle of the string prevents its sliding below that point,
and, every touch drawing it from its equilibrium, it is impossible
for rats to climb upon it. A similar contrivance used in the Viti
Islands, but of wood, is figured in the Atlas to Dumont D'Urville's
"Voyage to the South Pole," (i. 95).
[124] "Carletti's Voyages," ii. 11.
[125] "Life in the Forests of the Far East," i. 300.
[126] According to Father Camel ("Philisoph. Trans. London," vol. xxvi,
p. 246), hantu means black ants the size of a wasp; amtig, smaller
black; and hantic, red ants.
[127] According to Dr. Gerstaecker, probably Phrynus Grayi Walck
Gerv., bringing forth alive. "S. Sitzungsb. Ges. Naturf. Freunde,
Berl." March 18, 1862, and portrayed and described in G. H. Bronn,
"Ord. Class.," vol. v. 184.
[128] Calapnit, Tagal and Bicol, the bat; calapnitan, consequently,
lord of the bats.
[129] In only one out of several experiments made in the Berlin Mining
College did gold-sand contain 0.014 gold; and, in one experiment on
the heavy sand remaining on a mud-board, no gold was found.
[130] The Gogo is a climbing Mimosa (Entada purseta) with large pods,
very abundant in the Philippines; the pounded stem of which is employed
in washing, like the soap-bark of Chili (Quillaja saponaria); and
for many purposes, such as baths and washing the hair of the head,
is preferred to soap.
[131] A small gold nugget obtained in this manner, tested at the
Berlin Mining College, consisted of--
Gold 77.4
Silver 19.0
Iron 0.5
Flint earth 3.
Loss 0.1
100.
[132] The nest and bird are figured in Gray's "Genera of Birds";
but the nest does not correspond with those found here. These
are hemispherical in form, and consist for the most part of coir
(coco fibers); and, as if prepared by the hand of man, the whole
interior is covered with an irregular net-work of fine threads of
the glutinous edible substance, as well as the upper edge, which
swells gently outwards from the center towards the sides, and expands
into two wing-shaped prolongations, resting on one another, by which
the nest is fixed to the wall. Dr. v. Martens conjectures that the
designation salangane comes from langayah, bird, and the Malay prefix
sa, and signifies especially the nest as something coming from the
bird.--("Journal of Ornith.," Jan., 1866.)
[133] Spanish Catalogue of the Paris Exhibition, 1867.
[134] "Informe sobre las Minas de Cobre," Manila, 1862.
[135] According to the Catalogue, the following ores are
found:--Variegated copper ore (cobre gris abigarrado), arsenious copper
(c. gris arsenical), vitreous copper (c. vitreo), copper pyrites
(pirita de cobre), solid copper (mata cobriza), and black copper
(c. negro). The ores of most frequent occurrence have the following
composition--A, according to an analyzed specimen in the School of
Mines at Madrid; B, according to the analysis of Santos, the mean of
several specimens taken from different places:--
A B
Silicious Acid 25.800 47.06
Sulphur 31.715 44.44
Copper 24.640 16.64
Antimony 8.206 5.12
Arsenic 7.539 4.65
Iron 1.837 1.84
Lime in traces --
Loss 0.263 0.25
------- ------
100.000 100.00
[136] According to the prices current with us, the value would be
calculated at about $12; the value of the analyzed specimen, to which
we have before referred, $14.50.
[137] In Daet at that season six nuts cost one cuarto; and in Nags,
only fifteen leagues away by water, they expected to sell two nuts for
nine cuartos (twenty-sevenfold). The fact was that in Naga, at that
time, one nut fetched two cuartos--twelve times as much as in Daet.
[138] N. Loney asserts, in one of his excellent reports, that there
never is a deficiency of suitable laborers. As an example, at the
unloading of a ship in Iloilo, many were brought together at one
time, induced by the small rise of wages from one to one and one-half
reales; even more hands than could be employed. The Belgian consul,
too, reports that in the provinces where the abaca grows the whole
of the male population is engaged in its cultivation, in consequence
of a small rise of wages.
[139] An unfinished canal, to run from the Bicol to the Pasacao River,
was once dug, as is thought, by the Chinese, who carried on commerce
in great numbers.--Arenas, p. 140.
[140] La Situation Economique de l'Espagne.
[141] Lesage, "Coup d'Oeil," in Journal des Economistes, September,
1868.
[142] From barometrical observations--
m.
Goa, on the northern slope of the Isarog 32
Uacloy, a settlement of Igorots 161
Ravine of Baira 1,134
Summit of the Isarog 1,966
[143] The skull of a slain Igorot, as shown by Professor Virchow's
investigation, has a certain similarity to Malay skulls of the
adjoining Islands of Sunda, especially to the skulls of the Dyaks.
[144] Pigafetta found Amboyna inhabited by Moors (Mohammedans) and
heathens; "but the first possessed the seashore, the latter the
interior." In the harbor of Brune (Borneo) he saw two towns; one
inhabited by Moors, and the other, larger than that, and standing
entirely in the salt-water, by heathen. The editor remarks that
Sonnerat ("Voyage aux Irides") subsequently found that the heathen
had been driven from the sea, and had retired into the mountains.
[145] On Coello's map these proportions are wrongly stated.
[146] "Java, seine Gestalt (its formation)" II. 125.
[147] An intelligent mestizo frequently visited me during my
sickness. According to his statements, besides the copper already
mentioned, coal is found in three places, and even gold and iron were
to be had. To the same man I am indebted for Professor Virchow's
skull of Caramuan, referred to before, which was said to have come
from a cavern in Umang, one league from Caramuan. Similar skulls are
also said to be found at the Visita Paniniman, and on a small island
close to the Visita Guialo.
[148] They are made of bamboo.
[149] The fruit of the wild pili is unfit for food.
[150] 17.375 Cent. or 63 Far.--C.
[151] 15.6 Cent. or 60 Far.--C.
[152] Sor Inspector por S. M.
Nosotros dos Capnes actuales de Rancherias de Lalud y Uacloy
comprension del pueblo de Goa prov. a de Camarines Sur. Ante los pies
de vmd postramos y decimos. Que por tan deplorable estado en que nos
hallabamos de la infedelidad recienpoblados esta visitas de Rancherias
ya nos Contentamos bastantemente en su felis llegada y suvida de este
eminente monte de Isarog loque havia con quiztado industriamente
de V. bajo mis consuelos, y alibios para poder con seguir a doce
ponos (i.e. arboles) de cocales de mananguiteria para Nuestro uso y
alogacion a los demas Igorotes, o montesinos q. no quieren vendirnos;
eta utilidad publica y reconocer a Dios y a la soberana Reyna y Sofa
Dona Isabel 2a (que Dios Gue) Y por intento.
A. V. pedimos, y suplicamos con humildad secirva proveer y mandar,
si es gracia segun lo q. imploramos, etc. Domingo Tales†. Jose
Laurenciano†.
[153] Dendrobium ceraula, Reichenbach.
[154] Rafflesia Cumingii R. Brown, according to Dr. Kuhn.
[155] According to E. Bernaldez ("Guerra al Sur") the number of
Spaniards and Filipinos kidnapped and killed within thirty years
amounted to twenty thousand.
[156] The richly laden Nao (Mexican galleon) acted in this way.
[157] Extract from a letter of the alcalde to the captain-general,
June 20, '60:--"For ten days past ten pirate vessels have been lying
undisturbed at the island of San Miguel, two leagues from Tabaco, and
interrupt the communication with the island of Catanduanes and the
eastern part of Albay. * * * They have committed several robberies,
and carried off six men. Nothing can be done to resist them as there
are no fire-arms in the villages, and the only two faluas have been
detained in the roads of San Bernardino by stress of weather."
Letter of June 25:--"Besides the above private ships four large pancos
and four small vintas have made their appearance in the straits of
San Bernardino. * * * Their force amounts from four hundred and fifty
to five hundred men. * * * Already they have killed sixteen men,
kidnapped ten, and captured one ship."
[158] In Chamisso's time it was even worse. "The expeditions
in armed vessels, which were sent from Manila to cruise against
the enemy (the pirates) * * * serve only to promote smuggling,
and Christians and Moros avoid one another with equal diligence
on such occasions." ("Observations and Views," p. 73.) * * * Mas
(i. iv. 43) reports to the same effect, according to notices from the
secretary-general's office at Manila, and adds that the cruisers sold
even the royal arms and ammunition, which had been entrusted to them,
whence much passed into the hands of the Moros. The alcaldes were
said to influence the commanders of the cruisers, and the latter
to overreach the alcaldes; but both usually made common cause. La
Perouse also relates (ii., p. 357), that the alcaldes bought a very
large number of persons who had been made slaves by the pirates
(in the Philippines); so that the latter were not usually brought to
Batavia where they were of much less value.
[159] According to the Diario de Manila, March 14, 1866, piracy on
the seas had diminished, but had not ceased. Paragua, Calamianes,
Mindoro, Mindanao, and the Bisayas still suffer from it. Robberies and
kidnapping are frequently carried on as opportunity favors; and such
casual pirates are to be extirpated only by extreme severity. According
to my latest accounts, piracy is again on the increase.
[160] The Spaniards attempted the conquest of the Sulu Islands in
1628, 1629, 1637, 1731, and 1746; and frequent expeditions have since
taken place by way of reprisals. A great expedition was likewise sent
out in October, 1871, against Sulu, in order to restrain the piracy
which recently was getting the upper hand; indeed, a year or two
ago, the pirates had ventured as far as the neighborhood of Manila;
but in April of this year (1872) the fleet returned to Manila without
having effected its object. The Spaniards employed in this expedition
almost the whole marine force of the colony, fourteen ships, mostly
steam gunboats; and they bombarded the chief town without inflicting
any particular damage, while the Moros withdrew into the interior,
and awaited the Spaniards (who, indeed, did not venture to land) in
a well-equipped body of five thousand men. After months of inactivity
the Spaniards burnt down an unarmed place on the coast, committing many
barbarities on the occasion, but drew back when the warriors advanced
to the combat. The ports of the Sulu archipelago are closed to trade
by a decree, although it is questionable whether all navigators
will pay any regard to it. Not long since the sovereignty of his
district was offered by the Sultan of Sulu to the King of Prussia;
but the offer was declined.
[161] The Diario de Manila of June 4, 1866, states:--"Yesterday the
military commission, established by ordinance of the 3rd August,
1865, discontinued its functions. The ordinary tribunals are again
in force. The numerous bands of thirty, forty, and more individuals,
armed to the teeth, which have left behind them their traces of
blood and fire at the doors of Manila and in so many other places,
are annihilated. * * * More than fifty robbers have expiated their
crimes on the gallows, and one hundred and forty have been condemned
to presidio (forced labor) or to other punishments."
[162] According to Arenas ("Memorias," 21) Albay was formerly called
Ibalon; Tayabas, Calilaya; Batangas, Comintan; Negros, Buglas; Cebu,
Sogbu; Mindoro, Mait; Samar, Ibabao; and Basilan, Taguima. Mindanao
is called Cesarea by B. de la Torre, and Samar, by R. Dudleo
"Arcano del Mare" (Florence, 1761), Camlaia. In Hondiv's map of the
Indian islands (Purchas, 605) Luzon is Luconia; Samar, Achan; Leyte,
Sabura; Camarines, Nebui. In Albo's "Journal," Cebu is called Suba;
and Leyte, Seilani. Pigafetta describes a city called Cingapola in
Zubu, and Leyte, on his map, is in the north called Baybay, and in
the south Ceylon.
[163] No mention is made of it in the Estado geografico of the
Franciscans, published at Manila in 1855.
[164] Small ships which have no cannon should be provided with pitchers
filled with water and the fruit of the sacchariferous arenga, for the
purpose of be sprinkling the pirates, in the event of an attack, with
the corrosive mixture, which causes a burning heat. Dumont d'Urville
mentions that the inhabitants of Solo had, during his visit, poisoned
the wells with the same fruit. The kernels preserved in sugar are an
agreeable confection.
[165] There were also elected a teniente mayor (deputy of the
gobernadorcillo, a juez mayor (superior judge) for the fields, who is
always an ex-captain; a second judge for the police; a third judge
for disputes relating to cattle; a second and third teniente; and
first and second policemen; and finally, in addition, a teniente,
a judge, and a policeman for each visita. All three of the judges
can be ex-capitanes, but no ex-capitan can be teniente. The first
teniente must be taken from the higher class, the others may belong
either to that or to the common people. The policemen (alguacils)
are always of the latter class.
[166] G. Squier ("States of Central America," 192) mentions a block
of mahogany, seventeen feet in length, which, at its lowest section,
measured five feet six, inches square, and contained altogether five
hundred fifty cubic feet.
[167] According to Dr. V. Martens, Modiola striatula, Hanley, who found
the same bivalve at Singapore, in brackish water, but considerably
larger. Reeve also delineates the species collected by Cumming in the
Philippines, without precise mention of the locality, as being larger
(38 mm.), that from Catarman being 17 mm.
[168] In Sumatra Wallace saw, in the twilight, a lemur run up the trunk
of a tree, and then glide obliquely through the air to another trunk,
by which he nearly reached the ground. The distance between the two
trees amounted to 210 feet, and the difference of height was not above
35 or 40 feet; consequently, less than l:5.--("Malay Archipelago,"
i. 211).
[169] According to W. Peters, Tropidolaenus Philippinensis, Gray.
[170] V. Martens identified amongst the tertiary mussels of the
banks of clay the following species, which still live in the Indian
Ocean:--Venus (Hemitapes) hiantina, Lam.; V. squamosa, L.; Arca
cecillei, Phil.; A. inaequivalvis, Brug.; A. chalcanthum, Rv., and
the genera Yoldia, Pleurotoma, Cuvieria, Dentalium, without being
able to assert their identity with living species.
[171] Tarsius spectrum, Tem.; in the language of the country--mago.
[172] Father Camel mentions that the little animal is said to live
only on coal, but that it was an error, for he ate the ficus Indica
(by which we here understand him to mean the banana) and other
fruits. (Camel de quadruped. Phil. Trans., 1706-7. London.) Camel
also gives (p. 194) an interesting account of the kaguang, which is
accurate at the present day.--Ibid., ii. S. 2197.
[173] The following communication appeared for the first time in
the reports of a session of the Anthropological Society of Berlin;
but my visitors were there denominated Palaos islanders. But,
as Prof. Semper, who spent a long time on the true Palaos (Pelew)
islands, correctly shows in the "Corresp.-Bl. f. Anthropol.," 1871,
No. 2, that Uliai belongs to the group of the Carolinas, I have here
retained the more common expression, Micronesian, although those men,
respecting whose arrival from Uliai no doubt existed, did not call
themselves Caroline islanders, but Palaos. As communicated to me by
Dr. Graeffe, who lived many years in Micronesia, Palaos is a loose
expression like Kanaka and many others, and does not, at all events,
apply exclusively to the inhabitants of the Pelew group.
[174] Dumont d'Urville, Voyage to the South Pole, v. 206, remarks
that the natives call their island Gouap or Ouap, but never Yap;
and that the husbandry in that place was superior to anything he had
seen in the South Sea.
[175] The voyages of the Polynesians were also caused by the tyranny
of the victorious parties, which compelled the vanquished to emigrate.
[176] Pigafetta, p. 51.
[177] Morga, f. 127.
[178] "The Bisayans cover their teeth with a shining varnish, which
is either black, or of the color of fire, and thus their teeth become
either black, or red like cinnabar; and they make a small hole in
the upper row, which they fill with gold, the latter shining all the
more on the black or red ground."--(Thevenot, Religieux, 54.) Of a
king of Mindanao, visited by Magellan at Massana, it is written:--"In
every tooth he had three machie (spots?) of gold, so that they had
the appearance of being tied together with gold;" which Ramusio
interprets--"On each finger he had three rings of gold."--Pigafetta,
p. 66; and compare also Carletti, Voyages, i. 153.
[179] 42 and 30 Cent. or 108 and 86 Fahr.--C.
[180] In one of these cliffs, sixty feet above the sea, beds of mussels
were found: ostrea, pinna, chama; according to Dr. V. M.--O. denticula,
Bron.; O. cornucopiae, Chemn.; O. rosacea, Desh.; Chama sulfurea,
Reeve; Pinna Nigrina, Lam. (?).
[181] In the Athenaeum of January 7, 1871, Captain Ullmann describes
a funeral ceremony (tiwa) of the Dyaks, which corresponds in many
points with that of the ancient Bisayans. The coffin is cut out of
the branch of a tree by the nearest male kinsman, and it is so narrow
that the body has to be pressed down into it, lest another member
of the family should die immediately after to fill up the gap. As
many as possible of his effects must be heaped on the dead person,
in order to prove his wealth and to raise him in the estimation of
the spirit world; and under the coffin are placed two vessels, one
containing rice and the other water.
One of the principal ceremonies of the tiwa consisted formerly
(and does still in some places) in human sacrifices. Where the Dutch
Government extended these were not permitted; but sometimes carabaos
or pigs were killed in a cruel manner, with the blood of which the
high priest smeared the forehead, breast, and arms of the head of the
family. Similar sacrifices of slaves or pigs were practised amongst
the ancient Filipinos, with peculiar ceremonies by female priests
(Catalonas).
[182] In the chapter De monstris et quasi monstris * * * of Father
Camel, London Philos. Trans., p. 2259, it is stated that in the
mountains between Guiuan and Borongan, footsteps, three times as
large as those of ordinary men, have been found. Probably the skulls
of Lauang, which are pressed out in breadth, and covered with a thick
crust of calcareous sinter, the gigantic skulls (skulls of giants)
have given rise to the fable of the giants' footsteps.
[183] Hemiramphus viviparus, W. Peters (Berlin Monatsb., March 16,
1865).
[184] Lehrbuch der Pharmakognosie des Pflanzenreichs (Compendium of
the "Pharmacopoeia of the Vegetable Kingdom,") p. 698.
[185] Philos. Trans. 1699, No. 249, pages 44, 87.
[186] At Borongan the tinaja of 12 gantas cost six reals (one quart
about two pesetas), the pot two reals, the freight to Manila three
reals, or, if the product is carried as cargo (matrose), two and
one-half reals. The price at Manila refers to the tinaja of sixteen
gantas.
[187] Newly prepared coconut oil serves for cooking, but quickly
becomes rancid. It is very generally used for lighting. In Europe,
where it seldom appears in a fluid state, as it does not dissolve until
16 deg. R., (20 C. or 68 Fahr.) it is used in the manufacture of tapers,
but especially for soap, for which it is peculiarly adapted. Coconut
soap is very hard, and brilliantly white, and is dissolved in salt
water more easily than any other soap. The oily nut has lately been
imported from Brazil into England under the name of "copperah,"
(copra) and pressed after heating.
[188] On Pigafetta's map Leyte is divided into two parts, the north
being called Baibay, and the south Ceylon. When Magellan in Massana
(Limasana) inquired after the most considerable places of business,
Ceylon (i.e. Leyte), Calagan (Caraga), and Zubu (Cebu) were named to
him. Pigaf., 70.
[189] According to Dr. Gerstaecker: Oedipoda subfasciata, Haan,
Acridium Manilense, Meyen. The designation of Meyen which the
systemists must have overlooked, has the priority of Haan's; but it
requires to be altered to Oedipoda Manilensis, as the species does not
belong to the genus acridium in the modern sense. It occurs also in
Luzon and in Timor, and is closely allied to our European migratory
locusts Oedipoda migratoria.
[190] After the king had withdrawn * * * "sweetmeats and cakes in
abundance were brought, and also roasted locusts, which were pressed
upon the guests as great delicacies."--"Col. Fytche's Mission to
Mandalay Parliament," Papers, June, 1869.
[191] The names of these two localities, on Coello's map, are
confounded. Burauen lies south of Dagami.
[192] 62.5 Cent. or 144.5 Fahr.--C.
[193] A small river enters the sea 950 brazas south of the tower
of Abuyog.
[194] Gobius giuris Buch. Ham.
[195] The lake at that time had but one outlet, but in the wet season
it may be in connection with the Mayo, which, at its north-east side,
is quite flat.
[196] Or some thirty-eight yards if the old Dutch ell is meant.--C.
[197] Pintados, or Bisayas, according to a native word denoting
the same, must be the inhabitants of the islands between Luzon and
Mindanao, and must have been so named by the Spaniards from their
practice of tattooing themselves. Crawfurd ("Dict." 339) thinks these
facts not firmly established, and they are certainly not mentioned
by Pigafetta; who, however, writes, p. 80:--"He (the king of Zubut)
was ... painted in various ways with fire." Purchas ("Pilgrimage,"
fo. i. 603)--"The king of Zubut has his skinne painted with a hot
iron pensill;" and Morga, fo. 4--"Traen todo il cuerpo labrado con
fuego." From this they appear to have tattooed themselves in the manner
of the Papuas, by burning in spots and stripes into the skin. But
Morga states in another place (f. 138)--"They are distinguished
from the inhabitants of Luzon by their hair which the men cut into
a pigtail after the old Spanish manner, and paint their bodies in
many patterns, without touching the face." The custom of tattooing,
which appears to have ceased with the introduction of Christianity,
for the clergymen so often quoted (Thevenot, p. 4) describes it as
unknown, cannot be regarded as a characteristic of the Bisayans;
and the tribes of the northern part of Luzon tattoo at the present day.
[198] Mezzeria (Italian); metayer (French).
[199] In China an oil is procured from the seeds of vernicia montana,
which, by the addition of alum, litharge, and steatite, with a gentle
heat, easily forms a valuable varnish which, when mixed with resin, is
employed in rendering the bottoms of vessels watertight. P. Champion,
Indust. Anc. et Mod. de l'Emp. Chinois." 114.
[200] Petzholdt ("Caucasus," i. 203) mentions that in Bosslewi the
price of a clay vessel is determined by its capacity of maize.
[201] As usual these abuses spring from the non-enforcement of a
statute passed in 1848 (Leg. ult., i. 144), which prohibits usurious
conracts with servants or assistants, and threatens with heavy
penalties all those whom, under the pretext of having advanced money,
or of having paid debts or the poll-tax or exemption from service,
keep either individual natives or whole families in a continual
state of dependence upon them, and always secure the increase of
their obligations to them by not allowing them wages sufficient to
enable them to satisfy the claims against them.
[202] Formerly it appears to have been different with them. "These
Bisayans are a people little disposed to agriculture, but practised
in navigation, and eager for war and expeditions by sea, on account
of the pillage and prizes, which they call 'mangubas,' which is the
same as taking to the field in order to steal."--Morga, f. 138.
[203] Ill-usage prevails to a great extent, although prohibited
by a stringent law; the non-enforcement of which by the alcaldes
is charged with a penalty of 100 dollars for every single case of
neglect. In many provinces the bridegroom pays to the bride's mother,
besides the dower, an indemnity for the rearing ("mother's milk")
which the bride has enjoyed (bigay susu). According to Colin ("Labor
Evangelico," p. 129) the penhimuyal, the present which the mother
received for night-watching and care during the bringing up of the
bride, amounted to one-fifth of the dowry.
[204] The Asuang is the ghoul of the Arabian Nights' tales.--C.
[205] Veritable cannibals are not mentioned by the older authors on
the Philippines. Pigafetta (p. 127) heard that a people lived on a
river at Cape Benuian (north of Mindanao) who ate only the hearts
of their captured enemies, along with lemon-juice; and Dr. Semper
("Philippines,") in '62 found the same custom, with the exception of
the lemon-juice, on the east coast of Mindanao.
[206] The Anito occurs amongst the tribes of the Malayan Archipelago
as Antu, but the Anito of the Philippines is essentially a protecting
spirit, while the Malayan Antu is rather of a demoniacal kind.
[207] These idol images have never come under my observation. Those
figured in Bastian and Hartmann's Journal of Ethnology
(b. i. pl. viii. Idols from the Philippines,) whose originals are in
the Ethnographical Museum of Berlin, were certainly acquired in the
Philippines, but, according to A. W. Franks, undoubtedly belong to
the Solomon Islands. Sections ii. to viii., p. 46, in the catalogue
of the Museum at Prague are entitled:--"Four heads of idols, made of
wood, from the Philippines, contributed by the Bohemian naturalist
Thaddaeus Haenke, who was commissioned by the King of Spain, in the
year 1817, to travel in the islands of the South Sea." The photographs,
which were obligingly sent here at my request by the direction of the
museum, do not entirely correspond to the above description, pointing
rather to the west coast of America, the principal field of Haenke's
researches. The Reliquiae Botanicae, from his posthumous papers,
likewise afford no information respecting the origin of these idols.
[208] On the Island of Panay.
[209] As an example, in anticipation of an attack on Cogseng, all
the available forces, including those of Zamboanga, were collected
round Manila, and the Moros attacked the island with sixty ships,
whereas formerly their armaments used not to exceed six or eight
ships. Torrubia, p. 363.
[210] Hakluyt Morga, Append. 360.
[211] According to the Mineral Review, Madrid, 1866, xvii. 244,
the coal from the mountain of Alpaco, in the district of Naga, in
Cebu, is dry, pure, almost free of sulphur pyrites, burns easily,
and with a strong flame. In the experiments made at the laboratory
of the School of Mines in Madrid it yielded four per cent. of ashes,
and a heating power of 4,825 caloria; i.e., by the burning of one
part by weight 4,825 parts by weight of water were heated to 1 deg.
C. Good pit-coal gives 6,000 cal. The first coal pits in Cebu were
excavated in the Massanga valley; but the works were discontinued in
1859, after considerable outlay had been made on them. Four strata of
considerable thickness were subsequently discovered in the valley of
Alpaco and in the mountain of Oling, in Naga. * * "The coal of Cebu
is acknowledged to be better than that of Australia and Labuan, but
has not sufficient heating power to be used, unmixed with other coal,
on long sea voyages."
According to the Catalogue of the Products of the Philippines (Manila,
1866), the coal strata of Cebu have, at many places in the mountain
range which runs from north to south across the whole of the island,
an average thickness of two miles. The coal is of middling quality,
and is burnt in the Government steam works after being mixed with
Cardiff coal. The price in Cebu is on the average six dollars per ton.
[212] English Consular Report, 217.
[213] The man credited with the development of the sugar industry
through machinery. A monument has been erected to his memory.--T.
[214] In Jaro the leases have increased threefold in six years:
and cattle which were worth $10 in 1860, fetched $25 in 1866. Plots
of land on the "Ria," in Iloilo, have risen from $100 to $500, and
even as high as $800. (Diario, February 1867). These results are
to be ascribed to the sugar trade, which, through free exportation,
has become extremely lucrative.
[215] In 1855 Iloilo took altogether from Negros 3,000 piculs out of
11,700; in 1860 as much as 90,000 piculs; in 1863, 176,000 piculs
(in twenty-seven foreign ships); in 1866, 250,000 piculs; in 1871,
312,379 picula from both islands.
[216] The sugar intended for the English market cost in Manila,
in the years 1868 and 1869, from L15 to L16 per ton, and fetched in
London about L20 per ton. The best refined sugar prepared in Manila
for Australia was, on account of the higher duty, worth only L3 per
ton more in London; but, being L5 dearer than the inferior quality,
it commanded a premium of L2. Manila exports the sugar chiefly from
Pangasinan, Pampanga, and Laguna.--(From private information.)
[217] The Islands of the East Indian Archipelago, 1868, p. 340.
[218] Exhibition Catalogue; section, French Colonies, 1867, p. 80.
[219] Report of the Commissioners, Exhibition 1867, iv. 102. The South
American Indians have for a long time past employed the banana fiber
in the manufacture of clothing material;--(The Technologist, September,
1865, p. 89, from unauthenticated sources,) and in Loo Choo the banana
fiber is the only kind in use (Faits Commerciaux, No. 1514. p. 36).
[220] Abaca not readily taking tar is, consequently, only used for
running, and not standing, rigging.
[221] A plant in full growth produces annually 30 cwt. bandala to the
acre, whereas from an acre of flax not more than from 2 to 4 cwt. of
pure flax, and from 2 to 8 cwt. seed can be obtained.
[222] As Dr. Wittmack communicated to me, only fiber or seed can
be obtained from hemp, as when the hemp is ripe, i.e. run to seed,
the fiber becomes then both brittle and coarse. When cultivating flax
very often both seeds and fiber are used, but then they both are of
inferior quality.
[223] Flora de Filipinas.
[224] In 1868, L100 per ton was paid for lupis, although only imported
in small quantities--about five tons per annum--and principally used
at one time in France in the manufacture of a particular kind of
underclothing. The fashion soon, however, died out. Quitol, a less
valuable sort of lupis, could be sold at L75 per ton.
[225] Inflexibility is peculiar to all fibers of the Monocotyledons,
because they consist of coarsely rounded cells. On the other hand,
the true bast fibers--the Dicotyledons (flax, for instance)--are
the reverse.
[226] Through the agricultural system, also, the mestizos and natives
secure the work of their countrymen by making these advances, and
renewing them before the old ones are paid off. These thoughtless
people consequently fall deeper and deeper into debt, and become
virtually the peons of their creditors, it being impossible for them
to escape in any way from their position. The "part-share contract" is
much the same in its operative effects, the landlord having to supply
the farmer with agricultural implements and draught-cattle, and often
in addition supplying the whole family with clothing and provisions;
and, on division of the earnings, the farmer is unable to cover his
debt. It is true the Filipinos are responsible legally to the extent
of five dollars only, a special enactment prohibiting these usurious
bargains. As a matter of fact, however, they are generally practised.
[227] This feeling of jealousy had very nearly the effect of closing
the new harbors immediately after they were opened.
[228] Rapport Consulaire Belge, XIV., 68.
[229] In the Agricultural Report of 1869, p. 232, another fiber was
highly mentioned, belonging to a plant very closely related to sisal
(Bromelia Sylvestris), perhaps even a variety of the same. The Mexican
name, jxtle, is possibly derived from the fact of their curiously
flattened, spike-edged leaves, resembling the dentated knives formed
from volcanic stone (obsidian) possessed by the Aztecs and termed by
them iztli.
[230] The banana trees are well known to be among the most valuable
of plants to mankind. In their unripe state they afford starch-flour;
and when mature, they supply an agreeable and nutritious fruit, which,
although partaken of freely, will produce neither unpleasantness nor
any injurious after-effects. One of the best of the edible species
bears fruit as early as five or six months after being planted,
suckers in the meantime constantly sprouting from the roots, so that
continual fruit-bearing is going on, the labor of the growers merely
being confined to the occasional cutting down of the old plants and
to gathering in the fruit. The broad leaves afford to other young
plants the shade which is so requisite in tropical countries, and are
employed in many useful ways about the house. Many a hut, too, has to
thank the banana trees surrounding it from the conflagration, which,
generally speaking, lays the village in ashes. I should here like to
make an observation upon a mistake which has spread rather widely. In
Bishop Pallegoix's excellent work, Description du Royaume Thai ou Siam,
I*. 144, he says: "L'arbre a vernis qui est une espece de bananier,
et que les Siamois appellent 'rak,' fournit ce beau vernis qu'on admire
dans les petits meubles qu'on apporte de Chine." When I was in Bangkok,
I called the attention of the amiable white-haired, and at that time
nearly nonogenarian, bishop to this curious statement. Shaking his
head, he said he could not have written it. I showed him the very
passage. "Ma foi, j'ai dit une betise; j'en ai dit bien d'autres,"
whispered he in my ear, holding up his hand as if afraid somebody
might overhear him.
[231] In 1862, English took from Spain 156 tons; 1863, 18,074 tons;
1866, 66,913 tons; 1868, 95,000 tons; and the import of rags fell
from 24,000 tons in 1866 to 17,000 tons in 1668. In Algiers a large
quantity of sparto (Alfa) grows but the cost of transport is too
expensive to admit of sending it to France.
[232] The British Consul estimates the receipts from this monopoly for
the year 1866-7 at $8,418,939, after an expenditure of $4,519,866;
thus leaving a clear profit of $3,899,073. In the colonial budget
for 1867 the profit on tobacco was estimated at $2,627,976, while
the total expenditure of the colony, after deduction of the expenses
occasioned by the tobacco management, was set down at $7,033,576.
According to the official tables of the chief of the Administration
in Manila, 1871, the total annual revenue derived from the tobacco
management between the years 1865 and 1869 amounted, on an average,
to $5,367,262. By reason of proper accounts being wanting an accurate
estimate of the expenditure cannot be delivered; but it would be at
least $4,000,000, so that a profit of only $1,367,262 remains.
[233] Instruccion general para la Direccion, Administracion, y
Intervencion de las Rentas Estancadas, 1849.
[234] Memoria sobre el Desestanco del Tabaco en las Islas
Filipinas. Don J. S. Agius, Binondo (Manila), 1871.
[235] The tobacco in China appears to have come from the
Philippines. "The memoranda discovered in Wang-tao leave no possible
doubt that it was first introduced into South China from the Philippine
Islands in the sixteenth and seventeenth century, most probably by
way of Japan."--(Notes and Queries, China and Japan, May 31st, 1857.)
From Schlegel, in Batavia, it was brought by the Portuguese into
Japan somewhere between the years 1573 and 1591, and spread itself
so rapidly in China that we find even as early as 1538, that the sale
of it was forbidden under penalty of beheading.
According to Notes and Queries, China and Japan, July 31, 1857,
the use of tobacco was quite common in the "Manchu" army. In a
Chinese work, Natural History Miscellany, it is written: "Yen t'sao
(literally smoke plant) was introduced into Fukien about the end of the
Wan-li Government, between 1573 and 1620, and was known as Tan-pa-ku
(from Tombaku)."
[236] West Cuba produces the best tobacco, the famous Vuelta abajo,
400,000 cwt. at from $14.28 to $99,96 the cwt.; picked sorts being
valued at from $571.20 to $714.00 per cwt. Cuba produces 640,000
cwt. The cigars exhibited in the Paris Exhibition of 1867 were worth
from $24.99 to $405.98 per thousand. The number of cigars annually
exported is estimated at about 5,000,000. (Jury Report, v., 375.) In
Jenidje-Karasu (Salonica) 17,500 cwt. are obtained annually, of
which 2,500 cwt. are of the first quality; the cost is $1.75 the oka
(about .75 per lb.). Picked sorts are worth 15s. per lb., and even
more.--Saladin Bey, La Turquie a l'Exposition, p. 91.
[237] In Cuba the tobacco industry is entirely free. The extraordinary
increase of the trade and the improved quality of the tobacco are,
in great measure, to be ascribed to the honest competition existing
between the factories, who receive no other protection from the
Government than a recognition of their operations. --(Jury Report,
1867, v., 375.)
[238] Basco also introduced the cultivation of silk, and had 4,500,000
mulberry trees planted in the Camarines. This industry, immediately
upon his retirement, was allowed to fall into decay.
[239] According to La Perouse, this measure occasioned a revolt
in all parts of the island, which had to be suppressed by force of
arms. In the same manner the monopoly introduced into America at the
same time brought about a dangerous insurrection, and was the means
of reducing Venezuela to a state of extreme poverty, and, in fact,
was the cause of the subsequent downfall of the colony.
[240] A fardo (pack) contains 40 manos (bundles); 1 mano=10 manojitos,
1 manojito =10 leaves. Regulations, Sec. 7.
[241] Regulations for the tobacco collection agencies in
Luzon.--1st. Four classes of Tobacco will be purchased. 2nd. These
classes are thus specified: the first to consist or leaves at
least 18 inches long (0m 418;) the second of leaves between 14 and
18 inches (0m 325); the third of leaves between 10 and 14 inches
(0m 232); and the fourth of leaves at least 7 inches in length (0m
163). Smaller leaves will not be accepted. This last limitation,
however, has recently been abandoned so that the quality of the
tobacco is continually deprecinting in the hands of the Government,
who have added two other classes.
A fardo, 1st class, weighs 60 lbs., and in 1867 the Government rate
of pay was as follows:--
1 Fardo, 1st class, 60 lbs $9.50
1 Fardo, 2nd class, 46 lbs 6.00
1 Fardo, 3rd class, 33 lbs 2.75
1 Fardo, 4th class, 18 lbs 1.00
--English Consular Report.
The following table gives the different brands of cigars manufactured
by the Government, and the prices at which they could be bought in
1867 in Estanco (i.e. a place privileged for the sale):--
Menas (Classes.) Corresponding Price Price Price Number
of
Havana Brands. Per arroba Per 1000. Per cigar. cigars
in
[33 lbs.]. an
arroba.
Dols. Dols. Cents.
Imperiales. The same. 37.50 30.00 4 ..
Prima Veguero. Do. 37.50 30.00 4 ..
Segunda Veguero. Regalia. .. 26.00 .. ..
Prima superior
Filipino. Do. .. 26.00 .. ..
2.a Superior
Filipino. None. 38.00 19.00 3 ..
3.a Superior
Filipino. Londres .. 15.10 .. ..
Prima Filipino. Superior
Habano. 21.00 15.00 2 1400
Segunda Superior. Segunda
superior
Habano. 24.00 8.57 1/8 1 2800
Prima Cortado. The Same. 21.00 15.00 2 1400
Segunda Cortado. Do. 24.00 8.57 1/8 1 2800
Mista Segunda Batido. 20.50 .. .. ..
Prima Batido,
larga. None. 18.75 .. 1 1800
Segunda Batido,
largo. None. 18.75 .. 1/2 3750
[242] On an average 407,500,000 cigars and 1,041,000 lbs. raw tobacco
are exported annually, the weight of which together is about 56,000
cwt. after deducting what is given away in the form of gratuities.
[243] The poor peasant being brought into this situation finds it
very hard to maintain his family. He is compelled to borrow money at
an exorbitant rate of interest, and, consequently, sinks deeper and
deeper into debt and misery. The dread of fines or bodily punishment,
rather than the prospect of high prices, is the chief method by which
the supplies can be kept up.--(Report of the English Consul.)
[244] From December 1853 to November 1854 the colony possessed four
captains-general (two effective and two provisional). In 1850 a new
nominee, Oidor (member of the Supreme Court of Judicature) who with
his family voyaged to Manila by the Cape, found, upon his arrival,
his successor already in office, the latter having travelled by way
of Suez. Such circumstances need not occasion surprise when it is
remembered how such operations are repeated in Spain itself.
According to an essay in the Revue Nationale, April, 1867, Spain
has had, from 1834 to 1862, i.e. since the accession of Isabella,
4 Constitutions, 28 Parliaments, 47 Chief Ministers, 529 Cabinet
Ministers, and 68 Ministers of the Interior; of which last class of
officials each, on an average, was in power only six months. For ten
years past the Minister of Finance has not remained in office longer
than two months; and since that time, particularly since 1868, the
changes have followed one another with still greater rapidity.
[245] The reason of this premiun on silver was, that the Chinese bought
up all the Spanish and Mexican dollars, in order to send them to China,
where they are worth more than other dollars, being known from the
voyage of the galleon thither in olden times, and being current in
the inland provinces. (The highest price there can be obtained for
a Carlos III.)
A mint erected in Manila since that time, which at least supports
itself, if the goverment has derived no other advantage from it, has
removed this difficulty. The Chinese are accustomed to bring gold
and silver as currency, mixed also with foreign coinage, to Manila
for the purpose of buying the produce of the country; and all this the
native merchants had recoined. At first only silver ounces were usually
obtainable in Manila, gold ounces very rarely. This occasioned such a
steady importation that the conditions were completely reversed. In
the Insular Treasury the gold and silver dollar are always reckoned
at the same value.
[246] The Chinese were generally known in the Philippines as
"Sangleys"; according to Professor Schott, "sang-lui (in the south
szang-loi, also senng-loi) mercatorum ordo." "Sang" is more specially
applied to the travelling traders, in opposition to "ku," tabernarii.
[247] ...... "They are a wicked and vicious people, and, owing to
their numbers, and to their being such large eaters, they consume
the provisions and render them dear ......It is true the town cannot
exist without the Chinese, as they are the workers in all the trades
and business, and very industrious, and work for small wages; but
for that very reason a lesser number of them would be sufficient."--
Morga, p. 349.
[248] "Recopilacion," Lib. iv., Tit. xviii., ley. 1.
[249] "Informe," I., iii., 73.
[250] The Chinese were not permitted to live in the town, but in a
district specially set apart for them.
[251] Velarde, 274.
[252] See following chapter.
[253] Zuniga, xvi.
[254] No single people in Europe can in any way compare with the
inhabitants of California, which, in the early years of its existence,
was composed only of men in the prime of their strength and activity,
without aged people, without women, and without children. Their
activity, in a country where everything had to be provided (no
civilised neighbors living within some hundred miles or so), and
where all provisions were to be obtained only at a fabulous cost,
was stimulated to the highest pitch. Without here going into the
particulars of their history, it need only be remembered that they
founded, in twenty-five years, a powerful State, the fame of which has
spread all over the world, and around whose borders young territories
have sprung into existence and flourished vigorously; two of them
indeed having attained to the condition of independent States. After
the Californian gold-diggers had changed the configuration of the
ground of entire provinces by having, with Titanic might, deposited
masses of earth into the sea until they expanded into hilly districts,
so as to obtain therefrom, with the aid of ingenious machinery, the
smallest particle of gold which was contained therein, they have
astonished the world in their capacity of agriculturalists, whose
produce is sent even to the most distant markets, and everywhere takes
the first rank without dispute. Such mighty results have been achieved
by a people whose total number scarcely, indeed, exceeds 500,000; and
therefore, perhaps, they may not find it an easy matter to withstand
the competition of the Chinese.
[255] The rails, if laid in one continuous line, would measure about
103,000 feet, the weight of them being 20,000 cwt. Eight Chinamen were
engaged in the work, relieving one another by fours. These men were
chosen to perform this feat on account of their particular activity,
out of 10,000.
(The translator of the 1875 London edition notes: "This statement is
incorrect, so far as the fact of the feat being accomplished by Chinese
is concerned. Eight Europeans were engaged in this extraordinary
piece of work. During the rejoicings which took place in Sacramento
upon the opening of the line, these men were paraded in a van, with
the account of their splendid achievement painted in large letters
on the outside. Certainly not one of them was a Chinaman."--C.
[256] Magellan fell on April 27, struck by a poisoned arrow, on
the small island of Mactan, lying opposite the harbor of Cebu. His
lieutenant, Sebastian de Elcano, doubled the Cape of Good Hope,
and on September 6, 1522, brought back one of the five ships with
which Magellan set sail from St. Lucar in 1519, and eighteen men,
with Pigafetta, to the same harbor, and thus accomplished the first
voyage round the world in three years and fourteen days.
[257] 1565 is the date for what is now the Philippines.--C.
[258] Villalobos gave this name to one of the Southern islands and
Legaspi extended it to the entire archipelago.--C.
[259] "According to recent authors they were also named after
Villalobos in 1543.--Morga, p. 5.
[260] According to Morga (p. 140) there was neither king nor governor,
but in each island and province were numerous persons of rank, whose
dependants and subjects were divided into quarters (barrios) and
families. These petty rulers had to render homage by means of tributes
from the crops (buiz), also by socage or personal service: but their
relations were exempted from such services as were rendered by the
plebeians (timauas). The dignities of the chieftains were hereditary,
their honors descended also to their wives. If a chief particularly
distinguished himself, then the rest followed him; but the Government
retained to themselves the administration of the Barangays through
their own particular officials. Concerning the system of slavery
under the native rule, Morga says (p. 41, abbreviated),--"The natives
of these islands are divided into three classes--nobles, timauas or
plebeians, and the slaves of the former. There are different sorts
of slaves: some in complete slavery (Saguiguilires), who work in
the house, as also their children. Others live with their families
in their own houses and render service to their lords at sowing and
harvest-time, also as boatmen, or in the construction of houses,
etc. They must attend as often as they are required, and give their
services without pay or recompense of any kind. They are called
Namarnahayes; and their duties and obligations descend to their
children and successors. Of these Saguiguilires and Namamahayes a
few are full slaves, some half slaves, and others quarter slaves.
When, for instance, the mother or father was free, the only son
would be half free, half slave. Supposing there were several sons,
the first one inherits the father's position, the second that of the
mother. When the number is unequal the last one is half free and half
slave; and the descendants born of such half slayes and those who are
free are quarter slaves. The half slaves, whether or narnamahayes,
serve their lords equally every month in turns. Half and quarter slaves
can, by reason of their being partially free, compel their lord to
give them their freedom at a previously determined and unfluctuating
price: but full slaves do not possess this right. A namamahaye is
worth half as much as a saguiguilire. All slaves are natives."
Again, at p. 143, he writes:--"A slave who has children by her lord
is thereby freed together with her children. The latter, however,
are not considered well born, and cannot inherit property; nor do the
rights of nobility, supposing in such a case the father to possess any,
descend to them."
[261] He made the Filipinos of his encomienda of Vigan his heirs,
and has ever been held in grateful memory.--C.
[262] Grav. 30.
[263] Chamisso ("Observations and Views," p. 72), thanks to the
translator of Zuniga, knew that he was in duty bound to dwell at
some length over this excellent history; though Zuniga's narrative
is always, comparatively speaking, short and to the point. The
judiciously abbreviated English translation, however, contains many
miscomprehensions.
[264] Principally by hiring the assassination of the gifted native
leader, Silang.--C.
[265] Danger to Europeans, "Massacre of all white people," was a
frequent Spanish allegation in political disturbances, but the only
proof ever given (the 9th degree Masonic apron stupidly attributed
to the Katipunan in 1896) was absurd and irrelevant.--C.
[266] Professor Jagor here follows the report sent out by the
authorities. There seems better ground for believing the affair to
have been merely a military mutiny over restricting rights which
was made a pretext for getting rid of those whose liberal views were
objectionable to the government.--C.
[267] I take the liberty, here, of citing an instance of this. In 1861,
when I found myself on the West Coast of Mexico, a dozen backwoods
families determined upon settling in Sonora (forming an oasis in
the desert); a plan which was frustrated by the invasion at that
time of the European powers. Many native farmers awaited the arrival
of these immigrants in order to settle under their protection. The
value of land in consequence of the announcement of the project rose
very considerably.
[268] It is called so in consequence of the island being nearly
divided in the parallel of 14 deg. N., by two bays.
[269] Since my return home, at the desire of that distinguished
agriculturist, Colonel Austin, of South Carolina, I have sent for
some samples of the different kinds, and under his care it will no
doubt be well treated.
[270] On my arrival at Singapore, this circumstance was investigated by
a court of inquiry. The result showed that Mr. Knox had no knowledge
of the Vincennes having been seen; for the officer of the watch had
not reported to him the fact.
[271] Chewing the betelnut and pepper-leaf also produces this effect,
and is carried to a great extent among these islanders.
[272] The Sultan, on the visit of one of our merchant-vessels,
had informed the supercargo that he wished to encourage our trade,
and to see the vessels of the United States coming to his port.
[273] This name is derived from the large bay that makes in on
the south side of the island of Mindanao, and on which a set of
freebooters reside.
[274] From the History of a Voyage of the China Sea, by John White.
[275] P. 115.
[276] Pp. 116-119.
[277] P. 121.
[278] Pp. 125-128.
[279] Pp. 137-138.
[280] Pp. 143-144.
[281] Pp. 144-146.
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