CHAPTER XXVII.Besides those already mentioned, there are several other branches of manufacture successfully pursued in different places throughout the country, although none of them are very extensive.Among others, that of hat-making may be mentioned. It is practised principally at a village called Balignat, in the province of Bulacan; and is also carried on to a smaller extent inPangasinan, Camarines, and Yloylo.The hats are made from the cane, the fibres of which, employed in their construction, very much resemble the materials of those made at Leghorn, of straw. They are made both black and white, and are used almost universally by the native population, at times when the heat of the sun does not require thesalacodas a protection to thehead. These are made of cane also, but are much thicker, heavier, and wider, and are shaped like a flat cone, so that the rays of the sunbeams are deflected from it, in place of being concentrated on the brain, as they are by the shape of the European hat.A large number of Balignat hats are exported to the Australian colonies, and to China and Singapore, as well as a few to the United States.Cigar cases, or covers, are made to a small extent in the neighbourhood of Manilla, and most of the patterns used for them are pretty, gay-looking affairs. The fineness of these pouches or cases varies to an almost infinite extent, and so does the price they sell at.The mats on which the natives all sleep are largely manufactured, and employ a great number of people, as everybody throughout the island uses one or more of them. Some of those made in Laguna province are finer and better finished than any others I have seen elsewhere. They are plain or coloured, and of all patterns, and could be manufactured to any degree of fineness, according to the price promised to the workmen.Ropemaking is extensively carried on; thebest cordage manufactured in the islands being made from the fibres of the plantain-tree, which is known in commerce by the name of Manilla hemp.At Santa Mesa, in the neighbourhood of Manilla, the rope is spun up by the aid of steam and good machinery, established there for the purpose, and still carried on by an old shipmaster, who produces by far the best rope of all that is made. It is also manufactured in several other places by the common hand-spun process, but from being unequally twisted when made by the hand, it is very much inferior to what has been subjected in its manufacture to the uniform steadiness of pull which the regularity of the steam machinery occasions, all of which is consequently much more suited to stand a heavy strain, from being twisted by it. The price of this rope is altogether dependent on the price of hemp, as the value of the labour employed seldom or never varies, although the raw material of which it is composed constantly does; the usual addition made to the current price of hemp being four dollars a pecul of 140 lbs. English, for the machine-made rope, generally known as “Keating’s patent cordage,” supposing the material sospun to be converted into an assorted lot of from one to six-inch cordage.The hemp employed in the manufacture of the patent cordage is generally selected for its length of fibre, and lightness or whiteness of colour; and when whale-lines are made, only the very finest lots of hemp procurable at the time are used; but the charge for spinning them is increased to six dollars a pecul, the extra labour being so considerable, that even with the additional charge, the maker, Mr. Keating, informed me that he was much better recompensed by the larger sizes of the rope he spun than by these.Bale or wool lashing is also made to a small extent for shipment to Sydney, &c.; the quality of the hemp used in making it being of an inferior description, and of a brownish colour. As it is very much more loosely twisted than any other descriptions of rope made here, the charge for spinning it is reduced to two dollars per pecul, and the cost of it will be that amount added to the price of hemp at the time of its manufacture.The hand-spun rope never sells so well as that made by machinery, and is usually obtainable at from one to two dollars per pecul less than the latter, according as it is well or ill spun.The export of rope varies from about 9,000 to 15,000 peculs annually; by much the largest quantity usually going to the United States, although there are considerable shipments to the Australian colonies, China, Singapore, and Europe. A large quantity of it is also taken by vessels visiting the port, for their own use.The manufacture is encouraged by its freedom from any export duty, to which hemp exported in an unmanufactured state is subject, to the extent of 2 per cent.Besides this cordage, there is another sort of rope made at the Islan de Negros, from a dark-coloured plant,—a description of rush,—which is found growing there in abundance; and as it is not damaged by exposure to the influence of water, it is very extensively used by the native coasting-vessels of small size for cables, for which it is found to answer very well.Soap is made to a small extent at Quiapo, in Manilla; and is, I understand, shipped to Sooloo and Singapore for sale. But it is not consumed to any great extent in the Philippines, except for washing clothes, &c., the natives preferring to employ a red-coloured root, calledgogo, for their own personal ablutions.This root may be said to be a sort of natural soap, as it serves the same purposes. After being steeped in water for a few minutes, if the water be violently agitated, or if thegogobe rubbed between the hands in the water, a white foam is produced, which exactly resembles soap bubbles, and assists the purification of the skin even better than soap does, being assisted by the fibres of the root, which are usually made to do the duty of a flesh-brush in the bath. When using it, however, it should not be allowed to get into the eyes, as any water impregnated with its bubbles, will inflame them very severely.So far as I recollect, those that I have quoted are the most important articles manufactured in the country, and they are more numerous and important, considering the state of society in Manilla, than might be looked for. They well exemplify the ingenuity of the people, which is very much more lively than that of any other Oriental nation within the limits of the Indian Archipelago.Although cigars may be considered as manufacture, I propose classing them with tobacco, which will be found in the list of the agricultural produce of the islands.CHAPTER XXVIII.The import trade of Manilla is almost entirely in the hands of the British merchants established there, so far as the great staple articles of manufactured goods are concerned; although a quantity is regularly furnished to supply the demands of the market by the Chinese, whose earthenware, iron cooking utensils, silks, cloths, and curiosities, are very plentiful at Manilla, and are indeed obtainable over all the country without much difficulty.Among the produce of our looms, especially those of Manchester and Glasgow, which are at all times saleable here, may be mentioned shirtings, both white and grey, long-cloths, domestics, drills, cambrics, jaconets, twills, white and printed,bobbinet, gimp lace, cotton velvet,sewing thread, cotton twist of certain colours, principally Turkey red, Turkey red cloth, prints of various sorts, chiefly Bengal stripes, furniture prints, and Turkey red chintz prints, kambayas, and ginghams, which being cheaper, are gradually taking the place of kambayas; indigo blue checks, imitationpiñacloth, blue and striped chambrays, grandrills, trouser stuffs of various sorts, chiefly of cotton, and mixed cotton and wool; handkerchiefs of many descriptions, known as Kambaya handkerchiefs, Turkey red bandanas, fancy printed, light ground checked handkerchiefs, Scotch cambric handkerchiefs, &c.; broad-cloth, cubicoes, lastings, orleans, gambroons, long ells, camlets, carriage lace, both broad and narrow, canvas, cordage, iron, lead, spelter, steel, cutlery, ironmongery, earthenware, glassware, umbrellas and parasols of cotton and silk, &c., as well as India beer, which, though last mentioned, is not the common sort of beer, nor the least profitable or pleasant of them all.It may be well to mention here, that the provincial traders generally arrive at Manilla in the month of November, soon after the rains have ceased, although they sometimes do not make their appearance till December, when they setabout making their purchases, and returning to their places of abode as quickly as possible, to sell the merchandize they take with them. If they are successful, and drive a prosperous trade, which is regulated by a variety of accidents, the principal features affecting it being probably the success of the rice crop, they then write to their agents in Manilla to continue purchases of the goods which they find to be of the most saleable descriptions in their different districts, so that it is not until they have ascertained the temper of the market, during the sale of their first lots, that their largest purchases begin to be made, through their agents at Manilla, who, from this circumstance, usually do their most extensive business during the months of February, March, and April; and, in consequence, these months may be considered as the best seasons of the year for the sale of piece goods in that market.The rainy season commencing in June, puts a stop to the activity of trade, which usually goes on until its near approach. For although there is a demand throughout the year for plain cottons, and similar articles of general use, the trade in coloured goods is almost suspended during the continuance of wet weather, and asthe traffic in kambayas, ginghams, handkerchiefs and all other coloured and fancy goods, is by very much the most important description of trade carried on at Manilla, the commerce of the place languishes considerably during the continuance of the rainy season.The goods imported from the Peninsula are of very small value, consisting principally of wines, olive oil, and eatables of various descriptions; for wherever a Spaniard lives, he would be quite unhappy without hisgarbanzosorfrijoles.From Germany and France also various descriptions of manufactures are sent, such as cutlery, toys, glass, furniture, pictures, &c., &c., in fine, an endless catalogue of small wares of that description. Having never seen any complete statement of the quantity, value, or proper description of the merchandise imported into the Manilla market, on which I should be inclined to place any reliance, owing to the absolute impossibility of collecting correct statistical information of the sort at that place, I do not presume to furnish such to the reader, even with that explanation.The goods imported from Liverpool or Glasgow, from which very large quantities of colouredgoods are sent here, are always shipped in Spanish vessels at a very high rate of freight, being generally about double what British ships would be glad to take them for, did not the differential duties in favour of the Spanish flag put all this carrying business beyond their reach. A very large—in fact, probably by much the greatest—quantity of goods, is in consequence of this navigation law, carried by British shipping from our seaports at home to Singapore and Hong Kong, where, after having to stand several charges for coolie hire, landing, storing, and warehouse rent, till such time as a disengaged Spanish vessel for Manilla makes her appearance, and the number of goods at either of these intermediate ports accumulates in sufficient quantity to form a cargo to load her, they have to remain of course at a considerable loss, not only of the interest of money locked up in them, but besides the new charges for freight, insurance, &c., which must be incurred upon them, when transhipped to the place of their destination.In order further to protect their own shipping against the competition of other countries, they hold out the inducement to merchants exporting manufactures to Manilla, to embark them in aSpanish ship in Europe, by making the duties less on the goods so imported, to those merely brought from a short distance from our settlements in the neighbourhood of Manilla. The following are the rates:—When coming in a Spanish vessel direct from Europe, they pay 7 per cent.When coming from Singapore, their voyages to that place and back again, occupying about three months, including the time the vessel is in that port,—as although the monsoon is fair one way, it is certain to be opposed to the ship on the other, except just at the time of its turning,—goods from it pay 8 per cent.When coming from Hong Kong, to and from which place the monsoons are equally favourable at all times of the year, and the usual average voyage of Spanish ships is about ten days either going or coming, they pay 9 per cent.These regulations are hard enough on our shipowners, whose vessels, going over to Manilla to load cargo there for all parts of the world, seldom or never can procure any freight to that place; or if they do, it is only to a very insignificant amount, only consisting of something which the owner is in a hurry for, and is willingto pay the large differential duty upon, to get it quickly, which of course is a case of very rare occurrence. But to prevent the frequent occurrence of this, any foreign ship bringing no more than even one small package of inward cargo, is required to pay heavier port charges than she would do if coming in without it.CHAPTER XXIX.Besides the sale of foreign manufactures and merchandise in the Philippines, there exists a great outlet for it in the islands of Sooloo and Mindanao, although in the present state of society in those islands, where the insecurity of life and property is very great, the natural advantages of these countries have not been at all adequately developed. In front of Zamboanga, the last town towards the south which recognizes the authority of the Government of Manilla, is situated the island of Sooloo, which, although not of great size, is the centre of an active trade during certain months of every year, as great numbers of the natives of the neighbouring islands frequent it at those seasons, in order to dispose of the produce of their fisheries or to sell the slaves whom they have kidnapped or captured during their piraticalcruizes and attacks on their neighbours, if at war with them, as some of them usually are with each other. From Manilla some small vessels are annually fitted out for the trade, which is nearly altogether in the hands of the Chinese dealers, as no persons except themselves would stand the bad treatment they are subjected to by the authorities of the place; the character of the Celestial people leading them to suffer any amount of bad usage provided they are paid for it, or can make money by it, which they somehow manage to do, even in Sooloo, although they are exposed to the almost unlimited plunder and extortion of the Sultan and Datos, or native chiefs, who, on the least occasion, or pretext for it, capture and enslave or confine them, only allowing these unfortunates to regain their very unstable liberty by presents or extortionate bribes.The vessels engaged in the trade, being brigs or schooners, commonly start from Manilla in March or April forAntique, Yloylo, or other places, where they can complete a Sooloo cargo, after doing which they steer for Zamboanga, to report their cargoes and provide themselves with passports at the custom-house there, should they not have done so at Manilla.It is, however, only within these few years that these facilities have been given to those engaged in the trade, as formerly the colonial ships were forbidden, under a heavy penalty, to touch at any place in the Philippines after clearing out for Sooloo from Manilla. In spite of this law, however, few of those engaged in the trade had virtue sufficient to obey it, and pass these places by, when it was so very much to their interest to complete their cargoes there, which they could not do elsewhere nearly so advantageously. And the only consequence of this absurd old prohibition against their doing so, was to involve many of them in long-pending and expensive lawsuits, which have often ruined prosperous men.Besides thosewiseregulations, there existed some other forms equally sensible. For instance, the traders of Bisayao province, who send several small craft to Sooloo, which they are close to, were compelled to make a tedious voyage to Manilla against the monsoon, in order that they might report their cargo for Sooloo and get out passes, after which they had to return all the way back again, and at length were at liberty to steer for Sooloo.However, these foolish restrictions were at length put a stop to, and the trade encouraged, by the Government establishing a custom-house at Zamboanga, where there is at all times a considerable military force.The Sultan appears to be the most powerful nobleman in the country, rather than the sovereign monarch of it. For although the chiefs of the islands, or Datos, usually acquiesce in appearance to his will, they do so more from fear of his power at the moment than with any idea of his legitimate authority, and in effect they very seldom comply with his decrees.The entire people are slaves owned by the Sultan and these Datos, who exercise over the unfortunate wretches the worst species of tyrannical power; for as these nobles orreguliare subject to no law but there own caprice, if any slave displeases his master, he can, without the slightest fear of having to give any account of the circumstance to a living soul, draw his kris, and murder the slave. Of course by so doing, however, he impoverishes himself, as he loses the market price of the day for a slave; or should he murder a slave belonging to some one else, a Dato is only expected to pay the amount he wasconsidered worth by his master, or to give another one of his own in exchange for him.But, notwithstanding all the insecurity of life and property, the Chinese annually resort to Sooloo in pursuit of gain, and occasionally as many as eight small vessels are seen there at a time, during the busy seasons, for trade, just after the changes of the monsoon.Some of these Chinamen marry and remain in the country, although every now and then some of them are obliged to flee from it to the Philippines, where the Spanish flag protects them against their tyrannical and barbarous pillagers; for as there is no law to appeal to as a protection against the chiefs, they are quite at their mercy. The Datos themselves decide their quarrels and disputes with each other, by arming and assembling all their slaves and those of their friends who are willing to help them, and fight it out; but should their disputes run very high, or the feud last for any length of time, some powerful Dato, or the Sultan himself, interferes, and decides it finally by obliging both parties to keep the peace.The footing on which the trade is carried on with Sooloo is rather a strange one; althoughregulations have at various times been arranged between the Spanish government and that court, by which, although the Sultan has formally promised to give his guarantee that all goods sold by the traders from the Philippines to the Datos shall be paid for, yet there are very few of the traders at Manilla who consider the pledge of his Highness as of much importance, as it is usually only redeemed when his own particular interest requires it. He is, in truth, generally absolutely unable to make the nobles fulfil their contracts, they being as a body very much more powerful than he is. There being little or no money in Sooloo, the trade carried on by the Chinese supercargos of the ships frequenting the port is principally transacted by barter, they giving their manufactures for the produce of their fishery, &c., and for edible birds’-nests, tortoise-shell, beche de mer, mother-of-pearl shell, wax, gold-dust, pearls, &c.The profits of those engaged in this trade are very variable, for although their goods are all disposed of apparently at enormous prices, yet there are so many of them delivered to powerful chiefs, or to the Sultan, as presents, or sold to these dignitaries without the traders ever beingable to get paid for them, that in reality the profit of the voyage may he scanty enough, although, were the guarantee of the prince to the Manilla government fulfilled, they might he very large if the prices at which they had been sold were actually paid to them.If the debts of the Datos are not paid off at once they are allowed to stand over for another year, at which distance of time they are very seldom recoverable, good memories being very seldom met with there.When the result of an adventure is good, the traders look upon these presents and bad debts as necessary expenses incurred to conciliate the authorities of the place, without whose good-will they would be quite unable to prosecute the trade, and in this sort of commerce the Chinese are adepts, although no Europeans could manage it, or would carry it on while upon such a footing.The ships most suited for the trade are small vessels, of about 200 tons, and their cargoes consist of an infinite variety of goods, each lot being generally of small value. The invoices of a cargo usually cover many pages of paper, and it is no easy matter to make them up without the assistanceof intelligent Chinese, who have themselves been engaged in the traffic, and are well acquainted with the place and the people to be dealt with.Some of the principal cotton manufactures sent to that market from Manilla consist of chintz prints, jaconets and mulls, white shirtings, cambrics, bandana, kambaya, and other descriptions of handkerchiefs; also, iron and hardware, glassware, coarse China earthenware, silk, cloths, copper work, &c.Ships are in the habit of touching at some port of the Philippines, generally the Island of Panay, there to load and fill up with rice, sugar, tobacco, oil, and several other articles in small quantities. Rice is generally taken from its being always in demand by the Sooloomen, whose habits and feelings little suit them for its production, even when the nature of the country admits of its being grown. The Chinese usually take down a large quantity of a kind of cloth made in their own country, which habit has substituted for money, a piece of it of the usual size being always reckoned as a dollar.The Sooloomen pay for their purchases in various articles, of which the edible birds’-nests are the most valuable. They are classified bythe traders as of two sorts: white, and feathered; of which, the first sort is the most valuable, being generally worth about its weight in silver, or if very good, a little more; but should its colour tend to a red or darkish tinge, it is depreciated in value and is not worth so much.The feathered sort, called so because the edible substance, of which the Chinamen make soup, is covered by the birds’ down and feathers, is very much lower in price than the white kind, being worth nearly two dollars a pound, or I believe it is generally roughly taken as being only about one-tenth part as valuable as the white.Tortoise-shell they collect and sell at very high prices, the bulk of it going over to supply the China market with that article, a small quantity only being annually sent to Europe.Bêche de mer, or tripang, is a sort of fish or sea-slug, found on the coral reefs, &c., of the neighbourhood, which, when cured and dried, is generally shaped something like a cucumber.It is minced down into a sort of thick soup by the Chinese, who are extremely fond of it,—and indeed with some reason, as when well cooked by a Chinaman, who understands the culinary art, the tripang is a capital dish, and is rather afavourite among many of the Europeans at Manilla.There are thirty-three different varieties enumerated by the Chinese traders and others skilled in its classification; for being brought to Manilla in large quantities for that purpose, for the China market, it has become a peculiar business of itself by the dealers in it, and varies in price, according to quality, from fifteen to thirty dollars per pecul of 140 lbs. English.The slug, when dried, is an ugly looking, dirty brown-coloured substance, very hard and rigid until softened by water and a very lengthened process of cookery, after which it becomes soft and mucilaginous.Sometimes the slugs are found nearly two feet in length, but they are generally very much smaller, and perhaps about eight inches might be the usual size of those I have seen, their shape, as before mentioned, strongly resembling a cucumber. After being taken by the fisherman they are gutted, and then cured by exposure to the rays of the sun, after which they are smoked—over a fire, I believe—when the curing process is completed.Shark fins, and the muscles of deer, are also exposed for sale by the Sooloo people to theirChinese visitors, by whom they are eagerly purchased for their countrymen’s cookery, both of these articles being very favourite delicacies. The first I have never tasted, although the flesh of a shark, if cut from some particular parts of his body, is far from being bad or unsavoury, if dressed by a China cook. As for the sinews of deer, they are very good, and occasionally met with at Manilla on the tables of Europeans who enjoy the reputation of having good palates.Mother-of-pearl shell is so well known in Europe, that it is quite unnecessary to remark upon it, more than that those coming from Sooloo are by much the finest and largest shells of any hitherto known in commerce, being superior to those coming from the Persian Gulf.Pearls are also brought from Sooloo, but they are seldom of any great size or value.Gold is brought to Manilla from the same place, both in dust and in small bars, but not in any great quantity.The ships engaged in this trade are generally absent about six months from Manilla, which they leave in March or April, and return to, after coasting about and disposing of all their cargoes, in September or October; no newvoyages being undertaken by them until the following year.During June and July, the most active trade is said to be carried on, as the number of traders annually frequenting the island from those in the neighbourhood, is much greater than at other times.Besides the trade with Sooloo, a ship is absent nearly every year to Ternate, and other places of the Moluccas, where they usually manage to get their goods ashore, without paying the heavy duties which the Dutch have imposed upon them. The months of December or January being the usual time for starting for the Moluccas, these traders generally begin the busy season at Manilla by the purchase of grey shirtings and domestics, by adding which to goods very similar to those suited for Sooloo, they are enabled to have two strings to their bow, should the prices in the Moluccas be low; as they can, in that case, stand over to Sooloo in June, when they are usually able to dispose of their investments.CHAPTER XXX.The insolence of the Sooloo men has at various times drawn down on them the wrath of the Spanish authorities, who, in 1848, and also shortly after I left Manilla, towards the end of 1850, were making arrangements for punishing them, as they afterwards did, with some severity, about the beginning of this year.The Datos, and their families, are like the old Danes, or Norsemen, born to be seamen; and the barbarous state of their native country preventing the establishment of a mercantile marine, their energies have marked out a scheme of warlike adventure on the sea, to succeed in which their natural quickness and duplicity of character eminently qualify them.A young Sooloo chief, whose ambitious or restless temper will not permit him to remain an idle man at home, where his passions for cruelty and voluptuous excess could scarcely fail to ruin him in a few years—surrounded as he is there by slavish dependents, and fearless of any higher power, whose authority might act as a check on his temper, or force him to control his passions—finds that the activity of his mind and body demand more scope for excitement than exists at home; and having a bias for the sea, he becomes a pirate chief, and scours the neighbouring waters in search of honour as well as gain. Under proper influences these men might be taught to divert their roving propensities into more peaceful channels. Fitting out large and fast-sailing proas, manned by their slaves, and officered by kinsmen, their warlike excursions take a wide range, and on some occasions their audacity has led them up even to the Bay of Manilla, landing on the shores of which, they have plundered the people, and carried off some of them to increase the number of their slaves, who constitute their principal wealth and power—daring to do this when so near as to be almost under the verywalls of the capital, on which waves the banner of Castile.On the coasts of the provinces these predatory inroads were not uncommon, till General Claveria, in the beginning of 1848, determined to punish them severely, and to intimidate them so signally, as to prevent any repetition of these offences. Accordingly, having secretly fitted out an expedition from Manilla on the 13th February, 1848, the steamer on board of which the Governor himself was, anchored between the islands of Parol and Balanguinguy. Next day the transports arrived, and on that and the following day they reconnoitred the islands, and did all the damage they could, by way of reprisal, demolishing several piers, and destroying a large quantity of paddy which they discovered concealed in a cave in a retired place.At daybreak, on the 16th February, the troops were disembarked before Balanguinguy under cover of a fire from the ships, and after a little resistance from the Sooloo men—who were excessively frightened by the appearance of the steamers, whose facility of movement they were quite unprepared for—the fort, consisting of bamboo, was taken by escalade after a brave resistance.The attacking force, consisting of about 4000 men, behaved with great coolness and decision, when exposed to the enemy’s fire and missiles of all sorts, such as arrows, javelins, &c. About eighty of the defenders of the place were slain, many of them with the desperate bravery—or ferocity if you will—of men who neither would give or accept of quarter, having first stabbed their wives, children, and useless old men and women. On seeing the success of the Spaniards, they formed themselves into a band, nearly all of whom perished on the points of the soldiers’ bayonets, fighting bravely to the last; when the few survivors, seeing their companions dead and dying around them, with all the desperation of pirates, threw themselves from the walls, which were lofty, preferring certain death to the chance of falling into the hands of their enemies alive. Fourteen pieces of artillery were found within the place, which was destroyed, and preparations were made and acted upon for attacking the forts of Sipac and Sungap, both of which were successful.The Governor, General Claveria, gained at the time a good deal of reputation from his soldierly management of the forces at his disposal; andwhen the news reached Spain, he was created theCondeof Manilla, &c.On his return from this expedition, a great deal of absurd parade was, as is usual with the Spaniards, prepared to welcome him; and the General was forced to march under triumphal arches, &c., all of them bearing the most glowing inscriptions to the conqueror of the three bamboo forts from a race of barbarians, most of whom were unprovided with better arms than bows and arrows, spears, &c.; for although they had some small cannon, they could not make a proper use of them. Truly it was a pity to see the good deeds of the Balanguinguy expedition burlesqued by these ridiculous pageants.The lesson then taught the Sooloo chiefs did not, however,lingerlong in their memories; for their old habits of piracy, and kidnapping people for slaves, were resumed almost so soon as the Spaniards returned to Manilla.In 1850, Don Antonio de Urbistondo, Marques de la Solana, came out to Manilla as Governor of the Philippines. He was a man whose whole life had been passed in the camp, but his reputation had been gained during the civil wars in Spain, where he fought for legitimacy by the side of DonCarlos against the present queen. Nor did he give up the cause in which he had drawn his sword, until Don Carlos himself lost heart and forsook it, after which Don Antonio took advantage of the clemency of the queen, and swore allegiance to her as his sovereign. His talents as a soldier, although they had been displayed against herself, were rewarded by a marquisate, and afterwards by the government of the Philippines. A person of his character and military education was, of course, a most unlikely one tamely to permit an insult to be offered to the Spanish flag, or an outrage to be perpetrated in the Philippines by the Sooloomen; accordingly, when an instance occurred near the end of last year, prompt satisfaction was immediately demanded from the Sultan and Datos, who, as usual, accused some of their neighbours, with whom they were at variance at the time, of being the authors of it; and invited the Spaniards to seek reparation from them sword in hand. Accordingly an expedition was fitted out, and, with the Governor at its head, sailed for Sooloo in order to awe them, by the alacrity and force which the occasion at once called forth, and to establish a new treaty which would prevent the recurrence of such acts, andthe necessity for such expeditions; and it was proposed to punish with no light hand those Tonquiles and others of the Samales whom the Sultan had accused as the perpetrators of the late aggression.However, on reaching the principal fort of the Sultan Mahomet Pulalon, he found that the Sooloomen would have no communication with him, and that they even threatened the envoys sent among them; and at last, some guns were, I believe, fired on one of the ships. Immediately after this, measures of retaliation were arranged, and were acted upon at once; the place off which the fleet was, being attacked and taken, and all the forts and villages in the neighbourhood burnt within forty-eight hours after the Spanish flag had been insulted. After this severe lesson the Sultan and Datos fled, leaving in the hands of the Spaniards eight bamboo forts and one hundred and thirty pieces of artillery, besides several other warlike stores. All this took place very recently, no longer ago than on the last day of February of this year (1851). General Urbistondo published to his troops a general complimentary order, dated from the fortified residence of one of the most powerfulDatos; and on the 1st of March the Spaniards were in possession of the principal fort of the Sultan. The particulars of this expedition I cannot give, having left Manilla shortly before the preparations for it began, although, I believe, it consisted of three war-steamers and some transports, who carried about 4000 men down to Sooloo.The loss of the Spaniards in the whole affair was 34 men killed, with 84 wounded. A very unpleasant circumstance to the army was connected with this expedition. Two field-officers, both of them acting lieutenant-colonels of separate regiments, showed the white feather at the moment of danger; for which, I believe, they have since been cashiered, and not shot, as they might have been, had their chief not been as merciful as he is brave.Although this chastisement to the Sooloo men has been severe, it is unlikely to restrain the chiefs from their predatory expeditions, at least for any length of time; as under the present state of things prevailing among them, they have no other objects to exhaust their idleness and energetic characters upon, than piratical adventure. But were commerce and its emolumentsdisplayed before them, from some place in the vicinity of Zamboanga, or from that place itself, the civilizing influence which the arts of peace always engender would so pervade their minds in a very few years, that their habits would be changed, and the blessings of education, religion, and peace, might be expected to civilize and elevate their minds. Their energies and seamanship would then be in requisition as the navigators of all the Archipelago, and to carry in their native vessels the produce of the fertile inland districts of Mindanao, and of Northern Borneo, to the great mart which Zamboanga would become, should it fortunately be made an open port of trade for the people of all nations.CHAPTER XXXI.The coasting trade, which is a very important nursery for the marine of the Philippines, is carried on exclusively by the national vessels, no foreign ships being allowed to engage in it.Manilla, being the only port open to the foreign merchants, is the grand emporium or centre to which nearly all the productions of the islands are brought, which regulation gives employment to an infinite number of colonial shipping, in carrying them to that market. Every day there are several arrivals from the various sea-ports of the different districts of the islands, of brigs, schooners, pontines, galeras, caracoas, and pancos, all of them being curious specimens of every variety of ship-building, fromthe black and low snake-like schooner, or handsome brig, to the most rude description of vessel built. Where iron nails are scarce and expensive, some of these are fastened together apparently in a manner the most unsatisfactory possible for their crews or passengers, should they have to encounter a gale of wind during their voyages.Nearly the whole of the coasting trade is in the hands of the Indians, or Mestizos of Chinese descent, calledSangleys, although several Spaniards and European Mestizos at Manilla also own a better class of ships than those described, constantly engaged in going and returning from the provinces.Still, from some cause or other, they do not appear to carry the on trade so successfully as the provincial shipowners, most of whom have only one or two small vessels, which they keep constantly running between their native place and Manilla, and whose sole business it is, after despatching either of them, to purchase up from the cultivators of the soil, such small lots of their produce as are cheap at the time, such as sugar, rice, &c., which they are able to do at greatly lower terms, when buying them by little at a time, than it would be possible for the agent ofa merchant in Manilla to do, whose operations it would probably be necessary should be conducted upon a more extensive and quicker scale, and whose knowledge of the district and of the vendors could seldom be equal to that of a native Sangley, or Indian born among them.In consequence of all the produce being originally purchased by small lots at a time, it is of very variable quality; and on a cargo of Muscovado sugar, for instance, being purchased from one of these traders by a foreign merchant of Manilla, for exportation, it is perfectly essential to open the whole of the bags in which it has come up to Manilla from the provinces, and to empty their contents into one great heap, which causes it to get well mingled together, and ensures the requisite regularity of sample, after which it has to be rebagged and shipped off to the foreign vessels that may be waiting to receive it in the bay.Of course the expense of all this is very considerable, for not only is there all the labour and cost of bags, &c., incurred twice, but there is the freight and insurance by the province vessel, which has brought it up to Manilla, to be addedto the natural cost of the sugar at the place of its growth and manufacture.All these restrictions on trade affect the quantity of sugar sold by the native planters, and in a very material degree depress the agricultural activity of the people, who suffer from them. But probably there are no greater sufferers from such restrictive regulations than the Government which so ignorantly sustains or has imposed them. So little anxious have they been to encourage the trade, that formerly, at various times, they very nearly all but ruined it, by imposing import duties on all the produce of the provinces that came to Manilla from them, for sale. This, added to the export duties at the time of its shipment to foreign markets, so much increased the cost of those articles in Manilla, that the foreign merchants there, finding they could procure similar merchandise at other places for less money, of course would not buy it; and the native traders, finding their produce unsaleable except at losing prices, could not make any further purchases from the native agriculturists, which caused so much distress in the country, that the provinces got into a high state ofdisaffection on several occasions, from the same cause; upon seeing which the Government were wise enough to repeal their restrictive laws, and allow the free interchange of commodities between all the provinces of the Philippines.For instead, as was supposed, of its falling upon the exporting foreign merchants, and on those who bought their cargoes of Manilla produce from them at the port of discharge, the tax fell upon the native agriculturists, inasmuch as they had to reduce the former prices of all their produce which paid the tax, and to equalise them to the rates at which similar merchandise was procurable in other markets, where no tax of the sort existed;—and this, of course, compelled the cultivators of these articles in the Philippines to sell the produce of their farms for less money than they formerly obtained for the same goods. By so doing, it was equivalent to reducing the former wages of their labour, or of the produce of their land—the effects of which were speedily felt and comprehended by them, although some of the officials, who imposed it, might scoff at the causes they assigned, and reiterate their crude and erroneous notions of political economy, to prove that it could notaffect them, but must be paid by the great merchants, or by the consumers of their produce in Europe. They quite forgot that these could be supplied with the same things from other places, where they were not subjected to the tax, and of course were procurable cheaper.Owners of vessels suitable for the coasting trade, who reside in Manilla, have one advantage over the provincial ship-builders; namely, that when the government service gives employment to shipping, they are in a better position for offering for it, than persons at a distance from the capital can be.The freight of tobacco, for instance, gives a good deal of employment to ships, and as government rates are in general rather better than any charters obtainable from private merchants, the procuring of a government contract for carrying any of the articles which they monopolize, of which the above-mentioned is one, is an object of some competition. These freights are usually settled by tenders, sealed and delivered to an officer appointed to receive them, by the Yntendente, or officer at the head of the Finance Department. I was acquainted with a gentleman, who, having several idle vessels suitable for thiscarrying trade, was of course most anxious to get the contract, to give employment to his ships; and having found out who the other contractors for it were, and all of them happening to be cautious men, not likely to offer for it at a losing price, he resolved to play a bold game, and made his tender for the conveyance of it out in some such words as these: “I offer freight for the tobacco, at onecuartoless than any body else will take it at,” and signed his name; acuartobeing the very smallest copper coin current at Manilla. Of course he got the contract; which—as he anticipated from knowing the men who offered for it—turned out to be a very good one; and, as the Yntendente of the time was an intimate friend of his, he ran little risk of being taken advantage of, by a lower sum being named to him as the lowest tender than what was actually the case.Nearly all the tobacco collected in Cagayan is yearly brought to Manilla during the north-east monsoon. The contracts for this purpose generally embrace a term of three or four years, during which the rate paid by Government to the person who engages to bring all the bales (or cases) of it which they may require at one fixed freight, never fluctuates, even although the amountshipped by them is very much in excess of the usual quantity, and he may be forced to charter vessels from his neighbours at a much higher rate than the Government pay him, in order to fulfil the conditions of his contract. Considerable care is requisite in loading this tobacco, as, should there be a mistake made even of one bale, the contractor is forced to account for it to Government at the price they sell it at, which is about three times as much as they pay for it; and this regulation is no doubt found to be very requisite, in order to prevent fraud.After the tobacco has been manufactured into cigars, the contractor has to deliver it at various stations throughout the islands, these places being generally the head-quarters of the fiscal orestancodepartment of the different maritime provinces from which the other are supplied. Besides the coasting trade from the provinces to Manilla, and that in the government service, there is a trade carried on by various provinces between themselves, such as conveying rice or paddy from the grain-districts to other provinces where less of it is grown, from the attention of the natives being directed to some other agricultural produce more suitable than paddy to their soil and climate, asfromAntiqueto Mindora or Zamboanga, or from the island of Samar to that of Negros, or to Mesamis. Thus in the hemp provinces, little paddy is planted, as it is more profitable for them to make hemp, or to weave Sinamais cloths, &c., than to do so. This commerce, however, is not of any great extent; the principal—indeed the only great—market of the country being Manilla, where traders from all parts of the Archipelago meet to buy and sell.It has been mentioned elsewhere that foreign men, as well as foreign ships, are at present excluded from engaging in the provincial trade; which is about as illiberal and unwise an act as any country could be guilty of, and should be changed, not for the benefit of foreign traders, but for the good of the country.In connexion with the province trade, the naval school ought to be mentioned, as it is a most useful institution, where arithmetic, geometry, and navigation are taught gratuitously, at an expense to Government of nearly 2,400 dollars a-year.The President of the Chamber of Commerce is also President of the school, and the members of that body have the privilege of admitting thepupils—a right which I believe they exercise liberally. At this place, boys are very well trained up in the scientific and theoretical part of their profession; but unfortunately, from some cause or other, their education afterwards as practical seamen does not keep pace with it, and they generally are as much behind our British or American shipmasters in all relating to the sea, as can be well conceived, although they are not unfrequently superior to them, and at least are equal, in their theoretical attainments.At this school, many of the Creoles and Mestizos of Manilla have shown to the world that they did not want the ability to learn, when they had good masters to instruct them; but good heads and hands are seldom found together. In fact, I rather think that the lads educated here are taught too much (if that be possible), and by being so, have their ideas raised above their stations; for many of them are, by a great deal, much more like gentlemen than a number of the merchant skippers or mates in our British ships, whose horny fists and tar-stained dress make few pretensions to outward gentility.Among the province-trading vessels lying atanchor in Manilla river, there are at all times to be seen some curious specimens of ship-building, few of them being insurable.Some of these coasters, although nearly all shaped in the European style, have almost the whole of their rigging constructed of ropes made from the bamboo, and are fitted with anchors made from ebony or some other heavy wood, having occasionally a large piece of stone fastened to them, to insure their sinking. The cables to which they are attached are generally of a black rush, like sedge, or of bamboo; but in the event of a gale, I should say that their crews had great need never to embark in these frail shells, except when well assured of being at peace with God and man.In ordinary years these vessels are laid up for several months every season, as it would most probably be certain destruction for any of them to attempt proceeding to sea from October till December.Although a large proportion of the colonial-built vessels are bad, still there are a few constructed in the country which would be considered fine ships in any part of the world.When a good vessel is built there, the firstvoyage she makes is usually to Spain, if she can get a freight; and after discharging her cargo, her next voyage is to a British port, in order that she may be fitted with copper bolts and iron work, under the inspection of Lloyd’s surveyor; after which her character is established, and she is classed A 1 ship for a term of years.But notwithstanding these ships being placed in Lloyd’s books, the insurance offices can seldom be persuaded to accept of risks even in first-class vessels, when their crews are Spaniards, on the same favourable terms at which risks are freely taken on good British ships. They almost invariably demand an increased premium, and occasionally decline risks by them altogether.Now, although bad management sometimes occurs on board of Spanish ships, our own are not exempt from it; and I believe that prejudice causes them to refuse the insurance as much as anything else.The Dons have got a bad name as seamen, and very true is the elegant proverb, “Give a dog a bad name, and hang him.”
CHAPTER XXVII.Besides those already mentioned, there are several other branches of manufacture successfully pursued in different places throughout the country, although none of them are very extensive.Among others, that of hat-making may be mentioned. It is practised principally at a village called Balignat, in the province of Bulacan; and is also carried on to a smaller extent inPangasinan, Camarines, and Yloylo.The hats are made from the cane, the fibres of which, employed in their construction, very much resemble the materials of those made at Leghorn, of straw. They are made both black and white, and are used almost universally by the native population, at times when the heat of the sun does not require thesalacodas a protection to thehead. These are made of cane also, but are much thicker, heavier, and wider, and are shaped like a flat cone, so that the rays of the sunbeams are deflected from it, in place of being concentrated on the brain, as they are by the shape of the European hat.A large number of Balignat hats are exported to the Australian colonies, and to China and Singapore, as well as a few to the United States.Cigar cases, or covers, are made to a small extent in the neighbourhood of Manilla, and most of the patterns used for them are pretty, gay-looking affairs. The fineness of these pouches or cases varies to an almost infinite extent, and so does the price they sell at.The mats on which the natives all sleep are largely manufactured, and employ a great number of people, as everybody throughout the island uses one or more of them. Some of those made in Laguna province are finer and better finished than any others I have seen elsewhere. They are plain or coloured, and of all patterns, and could be manufactured to any degree of fineness, according to the price promised to the workmen.Ropemaking is extensively carried on; thebest cordage manufactured in the islands being made from the fibres of the plantain-tree, which is known in commerce by the name of Manilla hemp.At Santa Mesa, in the neighbourhood of Manilla, the rope is spun up by the aid of steam and good machinery, established there for the purpose, and still carried on by an old shipmaster, who produces by far the best rope of all that is made. It is also manufactured in several other places by the common hand-spun process, but from being unequally twisted when made by the hand, it is very much inferior to what has been subjected in its manufacture to the uniform steadiness of pull which the regularity of the steam machinery occasions, all of which is consequently much more suited to stand a heavy strain, from being twisted by it. The price of this rope is altogether dependent on the price of hemp, as the value of the labour employed seldom or never varies, although the raw material of which it is composed constantly does; the usual addition made to the current price of hemp being four dollars a pecul of 140 lbs. English, for the machine-made rope, generally known as “Keating’s patent cordage,” supposing the material sospun to be converted into an assorted lot of from one to six-inch cordage.The hemp employed in the manufacture of the patent cordage is generally selected for its length of fibre, and lightness or whiteness of colour; and when whale-lines are made, only the very finest lots of hemp procurable at the time are used; but the charge for spinning them is increased to six dollars a pecul, the extra labour being so considerable, that even with the additional charge, the maker, Mr. Keating, informed me that he was much better recompensed by the larger sizes of the rope he spun than by these.Bale or wool lashing is also made to a small extent for shipment to Sydney, &c.; the quality of the hemp used in making it being of an inferior description, and of a brownish colour. As it is very much more loosely twisted than any other descriptions of rope made here, the charge for spinning it is reduced to two dollars per pecul, and the cost of it will be that amount added to the price of hemp at the time of its manufacture.The hand-spun rope never sells so well as that made by machinery, and is usually obtainable at from one to two dollars per pecul less than the latter, according as it is well or ill spun.The export of rope varies from about 9,000 to 15,000 peculs annually; by much the largest quantity usually going to the United States, although there are considerable shipments to the Australian colonies, China, Singapore, and Europe. A large quantity of it is also taken by vessels visiting the port, for their own use.The manufacture is encouraged by its freedom from any export duty, to which hemp exported in an unmanufactured state is subject, to the extent of 2 per cent.Besides this cordage, there is another sort of rope made at the Islan de Negros, from a dark-coloured plant,—a description of rush,—which is found growing there in abundance; and as it is not damaged by exposure to the influence of water, it is very extensively used by the native coasting-vessels of small size for cables, for which it is found to answer very well.Soap is made to a small extent at Quiapo, in Manilla; and is, I understand, shipped to Sooloo and Singapore for sale. But it is not consumed to any great extent in the Philippines, except for washing clothes, &c., the natives preferring to employ a red-coloured root, calledgogo, for their own personal ablutions.This root may be said to be a sort of natural soap, as it serves the same purposes. After being steeped in water for a few minutes, if the water be violently agitated, or if thegogobe rubbed between the hands in the water, a white foam is produced, which exactly resembles soap bubbles, and assists the purification of the skin even better than soap does, being assisted by the fibres of the root, which are usually made to do the duty of a flesh-brush in the bath. When using it, however, it should not be allowed to get into the eyes, as any water impregnated with its bubbles, will inflame them very severely.So far as I recollect, those that I have quoted are the most important articles manufactured in the country, and they are more numerous and important, considering the state of society in Manilla, than might be looked for. They well exemplify the ingenuity of the people, which is very much more lively than that of any other Oriental nation within the limits of the Indian Archipelago.Although cigars may be considered as manufacture, I propose classing them with tobacco, which will be found in the list of the agricultural produce of the islands.
Besides those already mentioned, there are several other branches of manufacture successfully pursued in different places throughout the country, although none of them are very extensive.
Among others, that of hat-making may be mentioned. It is practised principally at a village called Balignat, in the province of Bulacan; and is also carried on to a smaller extent inPangasinan, Camarines, and Yloylo.
The hats are made from the cane, the fibres of which, employed in their construction, very much resemble the materials of those made at Leghorn, of straw. They are made both black and white, and are used almost universally by the native population, at times when the heat of the sun does not require thesalacodas a protection to thehead. These are made of cane also, but are much thicker, heavier, and wider, and are shaped like a flat cone, so that the rays of the sunbeams are deflected from it, in place of being concentrated on the brain, as they are by the shape of the European hat.
A large number of Balignat hats are exported to the Australian colonies, and to China and Singapore, as well as a few to the United States.
Cigar cases, or covers, are made to a small extent in the neighbourhood of Manilla, and most of the patterns used for them are pretty, gay-looking affairs. The fineness of these pouches or cases varies to an almost infinite extent, and so does the price they sell at.
The mats on which the natives all sleep are largely manufactured, and employ a great number of people, as everybody throughout the island uses one or more of them. Some of those made in Laguna province are finer and better finished than any others I have seen elsewhere. They are plain or coloured, and of all patterns, and could be manufactured to any degree of fineness, according to the price promised to the workmen.
Ropemaking is extensively carried on; thebest cordage manufactured in the islands being made from the fibres of the plantain-tree, which is known in commerce by the name of Manilla hemp.
At Santa Mesa, in the neighbourhood of Manilla, the rope is spun up by the aid of steam and good machinery, established there for the purpose, and still carried on by an old shipmaster, who produces by far the best rope of all that is made. It is also manufactured in several other places by the common hand-spun process, but from being unequally twisted when made by the hand, it is very much inferior to what has been subjected in its manufacture to the uniform steadiness of pull which the regularity of the steam machinery occasions, all of which is consequently much more suited to stand a heavy strain, from being twisted by it. The price of this rope is altogether dependent on the price of hemp, as the value of the labour employed seldom or never varies, although the raw material of which it is composed constantly does; the usual addition made to the current price of hemp being four dollars a pecul of 140 lbs. English, for the machine-made rope, generally known as “Keating’s patent cordage,” supposing the material sospun to be converted into an assorted lot of from one to six-inch cordage.
The hemp employed in the manufacture of the patent cordage is generally selected for its length of fibre, and lightness or whiteness of colour; and when whale-lines are made, only the very finest lots of hemp procurable at the time are used; but the charge for spinning them is increased to six dollars a pecul, the extra labour being so considerable, that even with the additional charge, the maker, Mr. Keating, informed me that he was much better recompensed by the larger sizes of the rope he spun than by these.
Bale or wool lashing is also made to a small extent for shipment to Sydney, &c.; the quality of the hemp used in making it being of an inferior description, and of a brownish colour. As it is very much more loosely twisted than any other descriptions of rope made here, the charge for spinning it is reduced to two dollars per pecul, and the cost of it will be that amount added to the price of hemp at the time of its manufacture.
The hand-spun rope never sells so well as that made by machinery, and is usually obtainable at from one to two dollars per pecul less than the latter, according as it is well or ill spun.
The export of rope varies from about 9,000 to 15,000 peculs annually; by much the largest quantity usually going to the United States, although there are considerable shipments to the Australian colonies, China, Singapore, and Europe. A large quantity of it is also taken by vessels visiting the port, for their own use.
The manufacture is encouraged by its freedom from any export duty, to which hemp exported in an unmanufactured state is subject, to the extent of 2 per cent.
Besides this cordage, there is another sort of rope made at the Islan de Negros, from a dark-coloured plant,—a description of rush,—which is found growing there in abundance; and as it is not damaged by exposure to the influence of water, it is very extensively used by the native coasting-vessels of small size for cables, for which it is found to answer very well.
Soap is made to a small extent at Quiapo, in Manilla; and is, I understand, shipped to Sooloo and Singapore for sale. But it is not consumed to any great extent in the Philippines, except for washing clothes, &c., the natives preferring to employ a red-coloured root, calledgogo, for their own personal ablutions.
This root may be said to be a sort of natural soap, as it serves the same purposes. After being steeped in water for a few minutes, if the water be violently agitated, or if thegogobe rubbed between the hands in the water, a white foam is produced, which exactly resembles soap bubbles, and assists the purification of the skin even better than soap does, being assisted by the fibres of the root, which are usually made to do the duty of a flesh-brush in the bath. When using it, however, it should not be allowed to get into the eyes, as any water impregnated with its bubbles, will inflame them very severely.
So far as I recollect, those that I have quoted are the most important articles manufactured in the country, and they are more numerous and important, considering the state of society in Manilla, than might be looked for. They well exemplify the ingenuity of the people, which is very much more lively than that of any other Oriental nation within the limits of the Indian Archipelago.
Although cigars may be considered as manufacture, I propose classing them with tobacco, which will be found in the list of the agricultural produce of the islands.
CHAPTER XXVIII.The import trade of Manilla is almost entirely in the hands of the British merchants established there, so far as the great staple articles of manufactured goods are concerned; although a quantity is regularly furnished to supply the demands of the market by the Chinese, whose earthenware, iron cooking utensils, silks, cloths, and curiosities, are very plentiful at Manilla, and are indeed obtainable over all the country without much difficulty.Among the produce of our looms, especially those of Manchester and Glasgow, which are at all times saleable here, may be mentioned shirtings, both white and grey, long-cloths, domestics, drills, cambrics, jaconets, twills, white and printed,bobbinet, gimp lace, cotton velvet,sewing thread, cotton twist of certain colours, principally Turkey red, Turkey red cloth, prints of various sorts, chiefly Bengal stripes, furniture prints, and Turkey red chintz prints, kambayas, and ginghams, which being cheaper, are gradually taking the place of kambayas; indigo blue checks, imitationpiñacloth, blue and striped chambrays, grandrills, trouser stuffs of various sorts, chiefly of cotton, and mixed cotton and wool; handkerchiefs of many descriptions, known as Kambaya handkerchiefs, Turkey red bandanas, fancy printed, light ground checked handkerchiefs, Scotch cambric handkerchiefs, &c.; broad-cloth, cubicoes, lastings, orleans, gambroons, long ells, camlets, carriage lace, both broad and narrow, canvas, cordage, iron, lead, spelter, steel, cutlery, ironmongery, earthenware, glassware, umbrellas and parasols of cotton and silk, &c., as well as India beer, which, though last mentioned, is not the common sort of beer, nor the least profitable or pleasant of them all.It may be well to mention here, that the provincial traders generally arrive at Manilla in the month of November, soon after the rains have ceased, although they sometimes do not make their appearance till December, when they setabout making their purchases, and returning to their places of abode as quickly as possible, to sell the merchandize they take with them. If they are successful, and drive a prosperous trade, which is regulated by a variety of accidents, the principal features affecting it being probably the success of the rice crop, they then write to their agents in Manilla to continue purchases of the goods which they find to be of the most saleable descriptions in their different districts, so that it is not until they have ascertained the temper of the market, during the sale of their first lots, that their largest purchases begin to be made, through their agents at Manilla, who, from this circumstance, usually do their most extensive business during the months of February, March, and April; and, in consequence, these months may be considered as the best seasons of the year for the sale of piece goods in that market.The rainy season commencing in June, puts a stop to the activity of trade, which usually goes on until its near approach. For although there is a demand throughout the year for plain cottons, and similar articles of general use, the trade in coloured goods is almost suspended during the continuance of wet weather, and asthe traffic in kambayas, ginghams, handkerchiefs and all other coloured and fancy goods, is by very much the most important description of trade carried on at Manilla, the commerce of the place languishes considerably during the continuance of the rainy season.The goods imported from the Peninsula are of very small value, consisting principally of wines, olive oil, and eatables of various descriptions; for wherever a Spaniard lives, he would be quite unhappy without hisgarbanzosorfrijoles.From Germany and France also various descriptions of manufactures are sent, such as cutlery, toys, glass, furniture, pictures, &c., &c., in fine, an endless catalogue of small wares of that description. Having never seen any complete statement of the quantity, value, or proper description of the merchandise imported into the Manilla market, on which I should be inclined to place any reliance, owing to the absolute impossibility of collecting correct statistical information of the sort at that place, I do not presume to furnish such to the reader, even with that explanation.The goods imported from Liverpool or Glasgow, from which very large quantities of colouredgoods are sent here, are always shipped in Spanish vessels at a very high rate of freight, being generally about double what British ships would be glad to take them for, did not the differential duties in favour of the Spanish flag put all this carrying business beyond their reach. A very large—in fact, probably by much the greatest—quantity of goods, is in consequence of this navigation law, carried by British shipping from our seaports at home to Singapore and Hong Kong, where, after having to stand several charges for coolie hire, landing, storing, and warehouse rent, till such time as a disengaged Spanish vessel for Manilla makes her appearance, and the number of goods at either of these intermediate ports accumulates in sufficient quantity to form a cargo to load her, they have to remain of course at a considerable loss, not only of the interest of money locked up in them, but besides the new charges for freight, insurance, &c., which must be incurred upon them, when transhipped to the place of their destination.In order further to protect their own shipping against the competition of other countries, they hold out the inducement to merchants exporting manufactures to Manilla, to embark them in aSpanish ship in Europe, by making the duties less on the goods so imported, to those merely brought from a short distance from our settlements in the neighbourhood of Manilla. The following are the rates:—When coming in a Spanish vessel direct from Europe, they pay 7 per cent.When coming from Singapore, their voyages to that place and back again, occupying about three months, including the time the vessel is in that port,—as although the monsoon is fair one way, it is certain to be opposed to the ship on the other, except just at the time of its turning,—goods from it pay 8 per cent.When coming from Hong Kong, to and from which place the monsoons are equally favourable at all times of the year, and the usual average voyage of Spanish ships is about ten days either going or coming, they pay 9 per cent.These regulations are hard enough on our shipowners, whose vessels, going over to Manilla to load cargo there for all parts of the world, seldom or never can procure any freight to that place; or if they do, it is only to a very insignificant amount, only consisting of something which the owner is in a hurry for, and is willingto pay the large differential duty upon, to get it quickly, which of course is a case of very rare occurrence. But to prevent the frequent occurrence of this, any foreign ship bringing no more than even one small package of inward cargo, is required to pay heavier port charges than she would do if coming in without it.
The import trade of Manilla is almost entirely in the hands of the British merchants established there, so far as the great staple articles of manufactured goods are concerned; although a quantity is regularly furnished to supply the demands of the market by the Chinese, whose earthenware, iron cooking utensils, silks, cloths, and curiosities, are very plentiful at Manilla, and are indeed obtainable over all the country without much difficulty.
Among the produce of our looms, especially those of Manchester and Glasgow, which are at all times saleable here, may be mentioned shirtings, both white and grey, long-cloths, domestics, drills, cambrics, jaconets, twills, white and printed,bobbinet, gimp lace, cotton velvet,sewing thread, cotton twist of certain colours, principally Turkey red, Turkey red cloth, prints of various sorts, chiefly Bengal stripes, furniture prints, and Turkey red chintz prints, kambayas, and ginghams, which being cheaper, are gradually taking the place of kambayas; indigo blue checks, imitationpiñacloth, blue and striped chambrays, grandrills, trouser stuffs of various sorts, chiefly of cotton, and mixed cotton and wool; handkerchiefs of many descriptions, known as Kambaya handkerchiefs, Turkey red bandanas, fancy printed, light ground checked handkerchiefs, Scotch cambric handkerchiefs, &c.; broad-cloth, cubicoes, lastings, orleans, gambroons, long ells, camlets, carriage lace, both broad and narrow, canvas, cordage, iron, lead, spelter, steel, cutlery, ironmongery, earthenware, glassware, umbrellas and parasols of cotton and silk, &c., as well as India beer, which, though last mentioned, is not the common sort of beer, nor the least profitable or pleasant of them all.
It may be well to mention here, that the provincial traders generally arrive at Manilla in the month of November, soon after the rains have ceased, although they sometimes do not make their appearance till December, when they setabout making their purchases, and returning to their places of abode as quickly as possible, to sell the merchandize they take with them. If they are successful, and drive a prosperous trade, which is regulated by a variety of accidents, the principal features affecting it being probably the success of the rice crop, they then write to their agents in Manilla to continue purchases of the goods which they find to be of the most saleable descriptions in their different districts, so that it is not until they have ascertained the temper of the market, during the sale of their first lots, that their largest purchases begin to be made, through their agents at Manilla, who, from this circumstance, usually do their most extensive business during the months of February, March, and April; and, in consequence, these months may be considered as the best seasons of the year for the sale of piece goods in that market.
The rainy season commencing in June, puts a stop to the activity of trade, which usually goes on until its near approach. For although there is a demand throughout the year for plain cottons, and similar articles of general use, the trade in coloured goods is almost suspended during the continuance of wet weather, and asthe traffic in kambayas, ginghams, handkerchiefs and all other coloured and fancy goods, is by very much the most important description of trade carried on at Manilla, the commerce of the place languishes considerably during the continuance of the rainy season.
The goods imported from the Peninsula are of very small value, consisting principally of wines, olive oil, and eatables of various descriptions; for wherever a Spaniard lives, he would be quite unhappy without hisgarbanzosorfrijoles.
From Germany and France also various descriptions of manufactures are sent, such as cutlery, toys, glass, furniture, pictures, &c., &c., in fine, an endless catalogue of small wares of that description. Having never seen any complete statement of the quantity, value, or proper description of the merchandise imported into the Manilla market, on which I should be inclined to place any reliance, owing to the absolute impossibility of collecting correct statistical information of the sort at that place, I do not presume to furnish such to the reader, even with that explanation.
The goods imported from Liverpool or Glasgow, from which very large quantities of colouredgoods are sent here, are always shipped in Spanish vessels at a very high rate of freight, being generally about double what British ships would be glad to take them for, did not the differential duties in favour of the Spanish flag put all this carrying business beyond their reach. A very large—in fact, probably by much the greatest—quantity of goods, is in consequence of this navigation law, carried by British shipping from our seaports at home to Singapore and Hong Kong, where, after having to stand several charges for coolie hire, landing, storing, and warehouse rent, till such time as a disengaged Spanish vessel for Manilla makes her appearance, and the number of goods at either of these intermediate ports accumulates in sufficient quantity to form a cargo to load her, they have to remain of course at a considerable loss, not only of the interest of money locked up in them, but besides the new charges for freight, insurance, &c., which must be incurred upon them, when transhipped to the place of their destination.
In order further to protect their own shipping against the competition of other countries, they hold out the inducement to merchants exporting manufactures to Manilla, to embark them in aSpanish ship in Europe, by making the duties less on the goods so imported, to those merely brought from a short distance from our settlements in the neighbourhood of Manilla. The following are the rates:—
When coming in a Spanish vessel direct from Europe, they pay 7 per cent.
When coming from Singapore, their voyages to that place and back again, occupying about three months, including the time the vessel is in that port,—as although the monsoon is fair one way, it is certain to be opposed to the ship on the other, except just at the time of its turning,—goods from it pay 8 per cent.
When coming from Hong Kong, to and from which place the monsoons are equally favourable at all times of the year, and the usual average voyage of Spanish ships is about ten days either going or coming, they pay 9 per cent.
These regulations are hard enough on our shipowners, whose vessels, going over to Manilla to load cargo there for all parts of the world, seldom or never can procure any freight to that place; or if they do, it is only to a very insignificant amount, only consisting of something which the owner is in a hurry for, and is willingto pay the large differential duty upon, to get it quickly, which of course is a case of very rare occurrence. But to prevent the frequent occurrence of this, any foreign ship bringing no more than even one small package of inward cargo, is required to pay heavier port charges than she would do if coming in without it.
CHAPTER XXIX.Besides the sale of foreign manufactures and merchandise in the Philippines, there exists a great outlet for it in the islands of Sooloo and Mindanao, although in the present state of society in those islands, where the insecurity of life and property is very great, the natural advantages of these countries have not been at all adequately developed. In front of Zamboanga, the last town towards the south which recognizes the authority of the Government of Manilla, is situated the island of Sooloo, which, although not of great size, is the centre of an active trade during certain months of every year, as great numbers of the natives of the neighbouring islands frequent it at those seasons, in order to dispose of the produce of their fisheries or to sell the slaves whom they have kidnapped or captured during their piraticalcruizes and attacks on their neighbours, if at war with them, as some of them usually are with each other. From Manilla some small vessels are annually fitted out for the trade, which is nearly altogether in the hands of the Chinese dealers, as no persons except themselves would stand the bad treatment they are subjected to by the authorities of the place; the character of the Celestial people leading them to suffer any amount of bad usage provided they are paid for it, or can make money by it, which they somehow manage to do, even in Sooloo, although they are exposed to the almost unlimited plunder and extortion of the Sultan and Datos, or native chiefs, who, on the least occasion, or pretext for it, capture and enslave or confine them, only allowing these unfortunates to regain their very unstable liberty by presents or extortionate bribes.The vessels engaged in the trade, being brigs or schooners, commonly start from Manilla in March or April forAntique, Yloylo, or other places, where they can complete a Sooloo cargo, after doing which they steer for Zamboanga, to report their cargoes and provide themselves with passports at the custom-house there, should they not have done so at Manilla.It is, however, only within these few years that these facilities have been given to those engaged in the trade, as formerly the colonial ships were forbidden, under a heavy penalty, to touch at any place in the Philippines after clearing out for Sooloo from Manilla. In spite of this law, however, few of those engaged in the trade had virtue sufficient to obey it, and pass these places by, when it was so very much to their interest to complete their cargoes there, which they could not do elsewhere nearly so advantageously. And the only consequence of this absurd old prohibition against their doing so, was to involve many of them in long-pending and expensive lawsuits, which have often ruined prosperous men.Besides thosewiseregulations, there existed some other forms equally sensible. For instance, the traders of Bisayao province, who send several small craft to Sooloo, which they are close to, were compelled to make a tedious voyage to Manilla against the monsoon, in order that they might report their cargo for Sooloo and get out passes, after which they had to return all the way back again, and at length were at liberty to steer for Sooloo.However, these foolish restrictions were at length put a stop to, and the trade encouraged, by the Government establishing a custom-house at Zamboanga, where there is at all times a considerable military force.The Sultan appears to be the most powerful nobleman in the country, rather than the sovereign monarch of it. For although the chiefs of the islands, or Datos, usually acquiesce in appearance to his will, they do so more from fear of his power at the moment than with any idea of his legitimate authority, and in effect they very seldom comply with his decrees.The entire people are slaves owned by the Sultan and these Datos, who exercise over the unfortunate wretches the worst species of tyrannical power; for as these nobles orreguliare subject to no law but there own caprice, if any slave displeases his master, he can, without the slightest fear of having to give any account of the circumstance to a living soul, draw his kris, and murder the slave. Of course by so doing, however, he impoverishes himself, as he loses the market price of the day for a slave; or should he murder a slave belonging to some one else, a Dato is only expected to pay the amount he wasconsidered worth by his master, or to give another one of his own in exchange for him.But, notwithstanding all the insecurity of life and property, the Chinese annually resort to Sooloo in pursuit of gain, and occasionally as many as eight small vessels are seen there at a time, during the busy seasons, for trade, just after the changes of the monsoon.Some of these Chinamen marry and remain in the country, although every now and then some of them are obliged to flee from it to the Philippines, where the Spanish flag protects them against their tyrannical and barbarous pillagers; for as there is no law to appeal to as a protection against the chiefs, they are quite at their mercy. The Datos themselves decide their quarrels and disputes with each other, by arming and assembling all their slaves and those of their friends who are willing to help them, and fight it out; but should their disputes run very high, or the feud last for any length of time, some powerful Dato, or the Sultan himself, interferes, and decides it finally by obliging both parties to keep the peace.The footing on which the trade is carried on with Sooloo is rather a strange one; althoughregulations have at various times been arranged between the Spanish government and that court, by which, although the Sultan has formally promised to give his guarantee that all goods sold by the traders from the Philippines to the Datos shall be paid for, yet there are very few of the traders at Manilla who consider the pledge of his Highness as of much importance, as it is usually only redeemed when his own particular interest requires it. He is, in truth, generally absolutely unable to make the nobles fulfil their contracts, they being as a body very much more powerful than he is. There being little or no money in Sooloo, the trade carried on by the Chinese supercargos of the ships frequenting the port is principally transacted by barter, they giving their manufactures for the produce of their fishery, &c., and for edible birds’-nests, tortoise-shell, beche de mer, mother-of-pearl shell, wax, gold-dust, pearls, &c.The profits of those engaged in this trade are very variable, for although their goods are all disposed of apparently at enormous prices, yet there are so many of them delivered to powerful chiefs, or to the Sultan, as presents, or sold to these dignitaries without the traders ever beingable to get paid for them, that in reality the profit of the voyage may he scanty enough, although, were the guarantee of the prince to the Manilla government fulfilled, they might he very large if the prices at which they had been sold were actually paid to them.If the debts of the Datos are not paid off at once they are allowed to stand over for another year, at which distance of time they are very seldom recoverable, good memories being very seldom met with there.When the result of an adventure is good, the traders look upon these presents and bad debts as necessary expenses incurred to conciliate the authorities of the place, without whose good-will they would be quite unable to prosecute the trade, and in this sort of commerce the Chinese are adepts, although no Europeans could manage it, or would carry it on while upon such a footing.The ships most suited for the trade are small vessels, of about 200 tons, and their cargoes consist of an infinite variety of goods, each lot being generally of small value. The invoices of a cargo usually cover many pages of paper, and it is no easy matter to make them up without the assistanceof intelligent Chinese, who have themselves been engaged in the traffic, and are well acquainted with the place and the people to be dealt with.Some of the principal cotton manufactures sent to that market from Manilla consist of chintz prints, jaconets and mulls, white shirtings, cambrics, bandana, kambaya, and other descriptions of handkerchiefs; also, iron and hardware, glassware, coarse China earthenware, silk, cloths, copper work, &c.Ships are in the habit of touching at some port of the Philippines, generally the Island of Panay, there to load and fill up with rice, sugar, tobacco, oil, and several other articles in small quantities. Rice is generally taken from its being always in demand by the Sooloomen, whose habits and feelings little suit them for its production, even when the nature of the country admits of its being grown. The Chinese usually take down a large quantity of a kind of cloth made in their own country, which habit has substituted for money, a piece of it of the usual size being always reckoned as a dollar.The Sooloomen pay for their purchases in various articles, of which the edible birds’-nests are the most valuable. They are classified bythe traders as of two sorts: white, and feathered; of which, the first sort is the most valuable, being generally worth about its weight in silver, or if very good, a little more; but should its colour tend to a red or darkish tinge, it is depreciated in value and is not worth so much.The feathered sort, called so because the edible substance, of which the Chinamen make soup, is covered by the birds’ down and feathers, is very much lower in price than the white kind, being worth nearly two dollars a pound, or I believe it is generally roughly taken as being only about one-tenth part as valuable as the white.Tortoise-shell they collect and sell at very high prices, the bulk of it going over to supply the China market with that article, a small quantity only being annually sent to Europe.Bêche de mer, or tripang, is a sort of fish or sea-slug, found on the coral reefs, &c., of the neighbourhood, which, when cured and dried, is generally shaped something like a cucumber.It is minced down into a sort of thick soup by the Chinese, who are extremely fond of it,—and indeed with some reason, as when well cooked by a Chinaman, who understands the culinary art, the tripang is a capital dish, and is rather afavourite among many of the Europeans at Manilla.There are thirty-three different varieties enumerated by the Chinese traders and others skilled in its classification; for being brought to Manilla in large quantities for that purpose, for the China market, it has become a peculiar business of itself by the dealers in it, and varies in price, according to quality, from fifteen to thirty dollars per pecul of 140 lbs. English.The slug, when dried, is an ugly looking, dirty brown-coloured substance, very hard and rigid until softened by water and a very lengthened process of cookery, after which it becomes soft and mucilaginous.Sometimes the slugs are found nearly two feet in length, but they are generally very much smaller, and perhaps about eight inches might be the usual size of those I have seen, their shape, as before mentioned, strongly resembling a cucumber. After being taken by the fisherman they are gutted, and then cured by exposure to the rays of the sun, after which they are smoked—over a fire, I believe—when the curing process is completed.Shark fins, and the muscles of deer, are also exposed for sale by the Sooloo people to theirChinese visitors, by whom they are eagerly purchased for their countrymen’s cookery, both of these articles being very favourite delicacies. The first I have never tasted, although the flesh of a shark, if cut from some particular parts of his body, is far from being bad or unsavoury, if dressed by a China cook. As for the sinews of deer, they are very good, and occasionally met with at Manilla on the tables of Europeans who enjoy the reputation of having good palates.Mother-of-pearl shell is so well known in Europe, that it is quite unnecessary to remark upon it, more than that those coming from Sooloo are by much the finest and largest shells of any hitherto known in commerce, being superior to those coming from the Persian Gulf.Pearls are also brought from Sooloo, but they are seldom of any great size or value.Gold is brought to Manilla from the same place, both in dust and in small bars, but not in any great quantity.The ships engaged in this trade are generally absent about six months from Manilla, which they leave in March or April, and return to, after coasting about and disposing of all their cargoes, in September or October; no newvoyages being undertaken by them until the following year.During June and July, the most active trade is said to be carried on, as the number of traders annually frequenting the island from those in the neighbourhood, is much greater than at other times.Besides the trade with Sooloo, a ship is absent nearly every year to Ternate, and other places of the Moluccas, where they usually manage to get their goods ashore, without paying the heavy duties which the Dutch have imposed upon them. The months of December or January being the usual time for starting for the Moluccas, these traders generally begin the busy season at Manilla by the purchase of grey shirtings and domestics, by adding which to goods very similar to those suited for Sooloo, they are enabled to have two strings to their bow, should the prices in the Moluccas be low; as they can, in that case, stand over to Sooloo in June, when they are usually able to dispose of their investments.
Besides the sale of foreign manufactures and merchandise in the Philippines, there exists a great outlet for it in the islands of Sooloo and Mindanao, although in the present state of society in those islands, where the insecurity of life and property is very great, the natural advantages of these countries have not been at all adequately developed. In front of Zamboanga, the last town towards the south which recognizes the authority of the Government of Manilla, is situated the island of Sooloo, which, although not of great size, is the centre of an active trade during certain months of every year, as great numbers of the natives of the neighbouring islands frequent it at those seasons, in order to dispose of the produce of their fisheries or to sell the slaves whom they have kidnapped or captured during their piraticalcruizes and attacks on their neighbours, if at war with them, as some of them usually are with each other. From Manilla some small vessels are annually fitted out for the trade, which is nearly altogether in the hands of the Chinese dealers, as no persons except themselves would stand the bad treatment they are subjected to by the authorities of the place; the character of the Celestial people leading them to suffer any amount of bad usage provided they are paid for it, or can make money by it, which they somehow manage to do, even in Sooloo, although they are exposed to the almost unlimited plunder and extortion of the Sultan and Datos, or native chiefs, who, on the least occasion, or pretext for it, capture and enslave or confine them, only allowing these unfortunates to regain their very unstable liberty by presents or extortionate bribes.
The vessels engaged in the trade, being brigs or schooners, commonly start from Manilla in March or April forAntique, Yloylo, or other places, where they can complete a Sooloo cargo, after doing which they steer for Zamboanga, to report their cargoes and provide themselves with passports at the custom-house there, should they not have done so at Manilla.
It is, however, only within these few years that these facilities have been given to those engaged in the trade, as formerly the colonial ships were forbidden, under a heavy penalty, to touch at any place in the Philippines after clearing out for Sooloo from Manilla. In spite of this law, however, few of those engaged in the trade had virtue sufficient to obey it, and pass these places by, when it was so very much to their interest to complete their cargoes there, which they could not do elsewhere nearly so advantageously. And the only consequence of this absurd old prohibition against their doing so, was to involve many of them in long-pending and expensive lawsuits, which have often ruined prosperous men.
Besides thosewiseregulations, there existed some other forms equally sensible. For instance, the traders of Bisayao province, who send several small craft to Sooloo, which they are close to, were compelled to make a tedious voyage to Manilla against the monsoon, in order that they might report their cargo for Sooloo and get out passes, after which they had to return all the way back again, and at length were at liberty to steer for Sooloo.
However, these foolish restrictions were at length put a stop to, and the trade encouraged, by the Government establishing a custom-house at Zamboanga, where there is at all times a considerable military force.
The Sultan appears to be the most powerful nobleman in the country, rather than the sovereign monarch of it. For although the chiefs of the islands, or Datos, usually acquiesce in appearance to his will, they do so more from fear of his power at the moment than with any idea of his legitimate authority, and in effect they very seldom comply with his decrees.
The entire people are slaves owned by the Sultan and these Datos, who exercise over the unfortunate wretches the worst species of tyrannical power; for as these nobles orreguliare subject to no law but there own caprice, if any slave displeases his master, he can, without the slightest fear of having to give any account of the circumstance to a living soul, draw his kris, and murder the slave. Of course by so doing, however, he impoverishes himself, as he loses the market price of the day for a slave; or should he murder a slave belonging to some one else, a Dato is only expected to pay the amount he wasconsidered worth by his master, or to give another one of his own in exchange for him.
But, notwithstanding all the insecurity of life and property, the Chinese annually resort to Sooloo in pursuit of gain, and occasionally as many as eight small vessels are seen there at a time, during the busy seasons, for trade, just after the changes of the monsoon.
Some of these Chinamen marry and remain in the country, although every now and then some of them are obliged to flee from it to the Philippines, where the Spanish flag protects them against their tyrannical and barbarous pillagers; for as there is no law to appeal to as a protection against the chiefs, they are quite at their mercy. The Datos themselves decide their quarrels and disputes with each other, by arming and assembling all their slaves and those of their friends who are willing to help them, and fight it out; but should their disputes run very high, or the feud last for any length of time, some powerful Dato, or the Sultan himself, interferes, and decides it finally by obliging both parties to keep the peace.
The footing on which the trade is carried on with Sooloo is rather a strange one; althoughregulations have at various times been arranged between the Spanish government and that court, by which, although the Sultan has formally promised to give his guarantee that all goods sold by the traders from the Philippines to the Datos shall be paid for, yet there are very few of the traders at Manilla who consider the pledge of his Highness as of much importance, as it is usually only redeemed when his own particular interest requires it. He is, in truth, generally absolutely unable to make the nobles fulfil their contracts, they being as a body very much more powerful than he is. There being little or no money in Sooloo, the trade carried on by the Chinese supercargos of the ships frequenting the port is principally transacted by barter, they giving their manufactures for the produce of their fishery, &c., and for edible birds’-nests, tortoise-shell, beche de mer, mother-of-pearl shell, wax, gold-dust, pearls, &c.
The profits of those engaged in this trade are very variable, for although their goods are all disposed of apparently at enormous prices, yet there are so many of them delivered to powerful chiefs, or to the Sultan, as presents, or sold to these dignitaries without the traders ever beingable to get paid for them, that in reality the profit of the voyage may he scanty enough, although, were the guarantee of the prince to the Manilla government fulfilled, they might he very large if the prices at which they had been sold were actually paid to them.
If the debts of the Datos are not paid off at once they are allowed to stand over for another year, at which distance of time they are very seldom recoverable, good memories being very seldom met with there.
When the result of an adventure is good, the traders look upon these presents and bad debts as necessary expenses incurred to conciliate the authorities of the place, without whose good-will they would be quite unable to prosecute the trade, and in this sort of commerce the Chinese are adepts, although no Europeans could manage it, or would carry it on while upon such a footing.
The ships most suited for the trade are small vessels, of about 200 tons, and their cargoes consist of an infinite variety of goods, each lot being generally of small value. The invoices of a cargo usually cover many pages of paper, and it is no easy matter to make them up without the assistanceof intelligent Chinese, who have themselves been engaged in the traffic, and are well acquainted with the place and the people to be dealt with.
Some of the principal cotton manufactures sent to that market from Manilla consist of chintz prints, jaconets and mulls, white shirtings, cambrics, bandana, kambaya, and other descriptions of handkerchiefs; also, iron and hardware, glassware, coarse China earthenware, silk, cloths, copper work, &c.
Ships are in the habit of touching at some port of the Philippines, generally the Island of Panay, there to load and fill up with rice, sugar, tobacco, oil, and several other articles in small quantities. Rice is generally taken from its being always in demand by the Sooloomen, whose habits and feelings little suit them for its production, even when the nature of the country admits of its being grown. The Chinese usually take down a large quantity of a kind of cloth made in their own country, which habit has substituted for money, a piece of it of the usual size being always reckoned as a dollar.
The Sooloomen pay for their purchases in various articles, of which the edible birds’-nests are the most valuable. They are classified bythe traders as of two sorts: white, and feathered; of which, the first sort is the most valuable, being generally worth about its weight in silver, or if very good, a little more; but should its colour tend to a red or darkish tinge, it is depreciated in value and is not worth so much.
The feathered sort, called so because the edible substance, of which the Chinamen make soup, is covered by the birds’ down and feathers, is very much lower in price than the white kind, being worth nearly two dollars a pound, or I believe it is generally roughly taken as being only about one-tenth part as valuable as the white.
Tortoise-shell they collect and sell at very high prices, the bulk of it going over to supply the China market with that article, a small quantity only being annually sent to Europe.
Bêche de mer, or tripang, is a sort of fish or sea-slug, found on the coral reefs, &c., of the neighbourhood, which, when cured and dried, is generally shaped something like a cucumber.
It is minced down into a sort of thick soup by the Chinese, who are extremely fond of it,—and indeed with some reason, as when well cooked by a Chinaman, who understands the culinary art, the tripang is a capital dish, and is rather afavourite among many of the Europeans at Manilla.
There are thirty-three different varieties enumerated by the Chinese traders and others skilled in its classification; for being brought to Manilla in large quantities for that purpose, for the China market, it has become a peculiar business of itself by the dealers in it, and varies in price, according to quality, from fifteen to thirty dollars per pecul of 140 lbs. English.
The slug, when dried, is an ugly looking, dirty brown-coloured substance, very hard and rigid until softened by water and a very lengthened process of cookery, after which it becomes soft and mucilaginous.
Sometimes the slugs are found nearly two feet in length, but they are generally very much smaller, and perhaps about eight inches might be the usual size of those I have seen, their shape, as before mentioned, strongly resembling a cucumber. After being taken by the fisherman they are gutted, and then cured by exposure to the rays of the sun, after which they are smoked—over a fire, I believe—when the curing process is completed.
Shark fins, and the muscles of deer, are also exposed for sale by the Sooloo people to theirChinese visitors, by whom they are eagerly purchased for their countrymen’s cookery, both of these articles being very favourite delicacies. The first I have never tasted, although the flesh of a shark, if cut from some particular parts of his body, is far from being bad or unsavoury, if dressed by a China cook. As for the sinews of deer, they are very good, and occasionally met with at Manilla on the tables of Europeans who enjoy the reputation of having good palates.
Mother-of-pearl shell is so well known in Europe, that it is quite unnecessary to remark upon it, more than that those coming from Sooloo are by much the finest and largest shells of any hitherto known in commerce, being superior to those coming from the Persian Gulf.
Pearls are also brought from Sooloo, but they are seldom of any great size or value.
Gold is brought to Manilla from the same place, both in dust and in small bars, but not in any great quantity.
The ships engaged in this trade are generally absent about six months from Manilla, which they leave in March or April, and return to, after coasting about and disposing of all their cargoes, in September or October; no newvoyages being undertaken by them until the following year.
During June and July, the most active trade is said to be carried on, as the number of traders annually frequenting the island from those in the neighbourhood, is much greater than at other times.
Besides the trade with Sooloo, a ship is absent nearly every year to Ternate, and other places of the Moluccas, where they usually manage to get their goods ashore, without paying the heavy duties which the Dutch have imposed upon them. The months of December or January being the usual time for starting for the Moluccas, these traders generally begin the busy season at Manilla by the purchase of grey shirtings and domestics, by adding which to goods very similar to those suited for Sooloo, they are enabled to have two strings to their bow, should the prices in the Moluccas be low; as they can, in that case, stand over to Sooloo in June, when they are usually able to dispose of their investments.
CHAPTER XXX.The insolence of the Sooloo men has at various times drawn down on them the wrath of the Spanish authorities, who, in 1848, and also shortly after I left Manilla, towards the end of 1850, were making arrangements for punishing them, as they afterwards did, with some severity, about the beginning of this year.The Datos, and their families, are like the old Danes, or Norsemen, born to be seamen; and the barbarous state of their native country preventing the establishment of a mercantile marine, their energies have marked out a scheme of warlike adventure on the sea, to succeed in which their natural quickness and duplicity of character eminently qualify them.A young Sooloo chief, whose ambitious or restless temper will not permit him to remain an idle man at home, where his passions for cruelty and voluptuous excess could scarcely fail to ruin him in a few years—surrounded as he is there by slavish dependents, and fearless of any higher power, whose authority might act as a check on his temper, or force him to control his passions—finds that the activity of his mind and body demand more scope for excitement than exists at home; and having a bias for the sea, he becomes a pirate chief, and scours the neighbouring waters in search of honour as well as gain. Under proper influences these men might be taught to divert their roving propensities into more peaceful channels. Fitting out large and fast-sailing proas, manned by their slaves, and officered by kinsmen, their warlike excursions take a wide range, and on some occasions their audacity has led them up even to the Bay of Manilla, landing on the shores of which, they have plundered the people, and carried off some of them to increase the number of their slaves, who constitute their principal wealth and power—daring to do this when so near as to be almost under the verywalls of the capital, on which waves the banner of Castile.On the coasts of the provinces these predatory inroads were not uncommon, till General Claveria, in the beginning of 1848, determined to punish them severely, and to intimidate them so signally, as to prevent any repetition of these offences. Accordingly, having secretly fitted out an expedition from Manilla on the 13th February, 1848, the steamer on board of which the Governor himself was, anchored between the islands of Parol and Balanguinguy. Next day the transports arrived, and on that and the following day they reconnoitred the islands, and did all the damage they could, by way of reprisal, demolishing several piers, and destroying a large quantity of paddy which they discovered concealed in a cave in a retired place.At daybreak, on the 16th February, the troops were disembarked before Balanguinguy under cover of a fire from the ships, and after a little resistance from the Sooloo men—who were excessively frightened by the appearance of the steamers, whose facility of movement they were quite unprepared for—the fort, consisting of bamboo, was taken by escalade after a brave resistance.The attacking force, consisting of about 4000 men, behaved with great coolness and decision, when exposed to the enemy’s fire and missiles of all sorts, such as arrows, javelins, &c. About eighty of the defenders of the place were slain, many of them with the desperate bravery—or ferocity if you will—of men who neither would give or accept of quarter, having first stabbed their wives, children, and useless old men and women. On seeing the success of the Spaniards, they formed themselves into a band, nearly all of whom perished on the points of the soldiers’ bayonets, fighting bravely to the last; when the few survivors, seeing their companions dead and dying around them, with all the desperation of pirates, threw themselves from the walls, which were lofty, preferring certain death to the chance of falling into the hands of their enemies alive. Fourteen pieces of artillery were found within the place, which was destroyed, and preparations were made and acted upon for attacking the forts of Sipac and Sungap, both of which were successful.The Governor, General Claveria, gained at the time a good deal of reputation from his soldierly management of the forces at his disposal; andwhen the news reached Spain, he was created theCondeof Manilla, &c.On his return from this expedition, a great deal of absurd parade was, as is usual with the Spaniards, prepared to welcome him; and the General was forced to march under triumphal arches, &c., all of them bearing the most glowing inscriptions to the conqueror of the three bamboo forts from a race of barbarians, most of whom were unprovided with better arms than bows and arrows, spears, &c.; for although they had some small cannon, they could not make a proper use of them. Truly it was a pity to see the good deeds of the Balanguinguy expedition burlesqued by these ridiculous pageants.The lesson then taught the Sooloo chiefs did not, however,lingerlong in their memories; for their old habits of piracy, and kidnapping people for slaves, were resumed almost so soon as the Spaniards returned to Manilla.In 1850, Don Antonio de Urbistondo, Marques de la Solana, came out to Manilla as Governor of the Philippines. He was a man whose whole life had been passed in the camp, but his reputation had been gained during the civil wars in Spain, where he fought for legitimacy by the side of DonCarlos against the present queen. Nor did he give up the cause in which he had drawn his sword, until Don Carlos himself lost heart and forsook it, after which Don Antonio took advantage of the clemency of the queen, and swore allegiance to her as his sovereign. His talents as a soldier, although they had been displayed against herself, were rewarded by a marquisate, and afterwards by the government of the Philippines. A person of his character and military education was, of course, a most unlikely one tamely to permit an insult to be offered to the Spanish flag, or an outrage to be perpetrated in the Philippines by the Sooloomen; accordingly, when an instance occurred near the end of last year, prompt satisfaction was immediately demanded from the Sultan and Datos, who, as usual, accused some of their neighbours, with whom they were at variance at the time, of being the authors of it; and invited the Spaniards to seek reparation from them sword in hand. Accordingly an expedition was fitted out, and, with the Governor at its head, sailed for Sooloo in order to awe them, by the alacrity and force which the occasion at once called forth, and to establish a new treaty which would prevent the recurrence of such acts, andthe necessity for such expeditions; and it was proposed to punish with no light hand those Tonquiles and others of the Samales whom the Sultan had accused as the perpetrators of the late aggression.However, on reaching the principal fort of the Sultan Mahomet Pulalon, he found that the Sooloomen would have no communication with him, and that they even threatened the envoys sent among them; and at last, some guns were, I believe, fired on one of the ships. Immediately after this, measures of retaliation were arranged, and were acted upon at once; the place off which the fleet was, being attacked and taken, and all the forts and villages in the neighbourhood burnt within forty-eight hours after the Spanish flag had been insulted. After this severe lesson the Sultan and Datos fled, leaving in the hands of the Spaniards eight bamboo forts and one hundred and thirty pieces of artillery, besides several other warlike stores. All this took place very recently, no longer ago than on the last day of February of this year (1851). General Urbistondo published to his troops a general complimentary order, dated from the fortified residence of one of the most powerfulDatos; and on the 1st of March the Spaniards were in possession of the principal fort of the Sultan. The particulars of this expedition I cannot give, having left Manilla shortly before the preparations for it began, although, I believe, it consisted of three war-steamers and some transports, who carried about 4000 men down to Sooloo.The loss of the Spaniards in the whole affair was 34 men killed, with 84 wounded. A very unpleasant circumstance to the army was connected with this expedition. Two field-officers, both of them acting lieutenant-colonels of separate regiments, showed the white feather at the moment of danger; for which, I believe, they have since been cashiered, and not shot, as they might have been, had their chief not been as merciful as he is brave.Although this chastisement to the Sooloo men has been severe, it is unlikely to restrain the chiefs from their predatory expeditions, at least for any length of time; as under the present state of things prevailing among them, they have no other objects to exhaust their idleness and energetic characters upon, than piratical adventure. But were commerce and its emolumentsdisplayed before them, from some place in the vicinity of Zamboanga, or from that place itself, the civilizing influence which the arts of peace always engender would so pervade their minds in a very few years, that their habits would be changed, and the blessings of education, religion, and peace, might be expected to civilize and elevate their minds. Their energies and seamanship would then be in requisition as the navigators of all the Archipelago, and to carry in their native vessels the produce of the fertile inland districts of Mindanao, and of Northern Borneo, to the great mart which Zamboanga would become, should it fortunately be made an open port of trade for the people of all nations.
The insolence of the Sooloo men has at various times drawn down on them the wrath of the Spanish authorities, who, in 1848, and also shortly after I left Manilla, towards the end of 1850, were making arrangements for punishing them, as they afterwards did, with some severity, about the beginning of this year.
The Datos, and their families, are like the old Danes, or Norsemen, born to be seamen; and the barbarous state of their native country preventing the establishment of a mercantile marine, their energies have marked out a scheme of warlike adventure on the sea, to succeed in which their natural quickness and duplicity of character eminently qualify them.
A young Sooloo chief, whose ambitious or restless temper will not permit him to remain an idle man at home, where his passions for cruelty and voluptuous excess could scarcely fail to ruin him in a few years—surrounded as he is there by slavish dependents, and fearless of any higher power, whose authority might act as a check on his temper, or force him to control his passions—finds that the activity of his mind and body demand more scope for excitement than exists at home; and having a bias for the sea, he becomes a pirate chief, and scours the neighbouring waters in search of honour as well as gain. Under proper influences these men might be taught to divert their roving propensities into more peaceful channels. Fitting out large and fast-sailing proas, manned by their slaves, and officered by kinsmen, their warlike excursions take a wide range, and on some occasions their audacity has led them up even to the Bay of Manilla, landing on the shores of which, they have plundered the people, and carried off some of them to increase the number of their slaves, who constitute their principal wealth and power—daring to do this when so near as to be almost under the verywalls of the capital, on which waves the banner of Castile.
On the coasts of the provinces these predatory inroads were not uncommon, till General Claveria, in the beginning of 1848, determined to punish them severely, and to intimidate them so signally, as to prevent any repetition of these offences. Accordingly, having secretly fitted out an expedition from Manilla on the 13th February, 1848, the steamer on board of which the Governor himself was, anchored between the islands of Parol and Balanguinguy. Next day the transports arrived, and on that and the following day they reconnoitred the islands, and did all the damage they could, by way of reprisal, demolishing several piers, and destroying a large quantity of paddy which they discovered concealed in a cave in a retired place.
At daybreak, on the 16th February, the troops were disembarked before Balanguinguy under cover of a fire from the ships, and after a little resistance from the Sooloo men—who were excessively frightened by the appearance of the steamers, whose facility of movement they were quite unprepared for—the fort, consisting of bamboo, was taken by escalade after a brave resistance.The attacking force, consisting of about 4000 men, behaved with great coolness and decision, when exposed to the enemy’s fire and missiles of all sorts, such as arrows, javelins, &c. About eighty of the defenders of the place were slain, many of them with the desperate bravery—or ferocity if you will—of men who neither would give or accept of quarter, having first stabbed their wives, children, and useless old men and women. On seeing the success of the Spaniards, they formed themselves into a band, nearly all of whom perished on the points of the soldiers’ bayonets, fighting bravely to the last; when the few survivors, seeing their companions dead and dying around them, with all the desperation of pirates, threw themselves from the walls, which were lofty, preferring certain death to the chance of falling into the hands of their enemies alive. Fourteen pieces of artillery were found within the place, which was destroyed, and preparations were made and acted upon for attacking the forts of Sipac and Sungap, both of which were successful.
The Governor, General Claveria, gained at the time a good deal of reputation from his soldierly management of the forces at his disposal; andwhen the news reached Spain, he was created theCondeof Manilla, &c.
On his return from this expedition, a great deal of absurd parade was, as is usual with the Spaniards, prepared to welcome him; and the General was forced to march under triumphal arches, &c., all of them bearing the most glowing inscriptions to the conqueror of the three bamboo forts from a race of barbarians, most of whom were unprovided with better arms than bows and arrows, spears, &c.; for although they had some small cannon, they could not make a proper use of them. Truly it was a pity to see the good deeds of the Balanguinguy expedition burlesqued by these ridiculous pageants.
The lesson then taught the Sooloo chiefs did not, however,lingerlong in their memories; for their old habits of piracy, and kidnapping people for slaves, were resumed almost so soon as the Spaniards returned to Manilla.
In 1850, Don Antonio de Urbistondo, Marques de la Solana, came out to Manilla as Governor of the Philippines. He was a man whose whole life had been passed in the camp, but his reputation had been gained during the civil wars in Spain, where he fought for legitimacy by the side of DonCarlos against the present queen. Nor did he give up the cause in which he had drawn his sword, until Don Carlos himself lost heart and forsook it, after which Don Antonio took advantage of the clemency of the queen, and swore allegiance to her as his sovereign. His talents as a soldier, although they had been displayed against herself, were rewarded by a marquisate, and afterwards by the government of the Philippines. A person of his character and military education was, of course, a most unlikely one tamely to permit an insult to be offered to the Spanish flag, or an outrage to be perpetrated in the Philippines by the Sooloomen; accordingly, when an instance occurred near the end of last year, prompt satisfaction was immediately demanded from the Sultan and Datos, who, as usual, accused some of their neighbours, with whom they were at variance at the time, of being the authors of it; and invited the Spaniards to seek reparation from them sword in hand. Accordingly an expedition was fitted out, and, with the Governor at its head, sailed for Sooloo in order to awe them, by the alacrity and force which the occasion at once called forth, and to establish a new treaty which would prevent the recurrence of such acts, andthe necessity for such expeditions; and it was proposed to punish with no light hand those Tonquiles and others of the Samales whom the Sultan had accused as the perpetrators of the late aggression.
However, on reaching the principal fort of the Sultan Mahomet Pulalon, he found that the Sooloomen would have no communication with him, and that they even threatened the envoys sent among them; and at last, some guns were, I believe, fired on one of the ships. Immediately after this, measures of retaliation were arranged, and were acted upon at once; the place off which the fleet was, being attacked and taken, and all the forts and villages in the neighbourhood burnt within forty-eight hours after the Spanish flag had been insulted. After this severe lesson the Sultan and Datos fled, leaving in the hands of the Spaniards eight bamboo forts and one hundred and thirty pieces of artillery, besides several other warlike stores. All this took place very recently, no longer ago than on the last day of February of this year (1851). General Urbistondo published to his troops a general complimentary order, dated from the fortified residence of one of the most powerfulDatos; and on the 1st of March the Spaniards were in possession of the principal fort of the Sultan. The particulars of this expedition I cannot give, having left Manilla shortly before the preparations for it began, although, I believe, it consisted of three war-steamers and some transports, who carried about 4000 men down to Sooloo.
The loss of the Spaniards in the whole affair was 34 men killed, with 84 wounded. A very unpleasant circumstance to the army was connected with this expedition. Two field-officers, both of them acting lieutenant-colonels of separate regiments, showed the white feather at the moment of danger; for which, I believe, they have since been cashiered, and not shot, as they might have been, had their chief not been as merciful as he is brave.
Although this chastisement to the Sooloo men has been severe, it is unlikely to restrain the chiefs from their predatory expeditions, at least for any length of time; as under the present state of things prevailing among them, they have no other objects to exhaust their idleness and energetic characters upon, than piratical adventure. But were commerce and its emolumentsdisplayed before them, from some place in the vicinity of Zamboanga, or from that place itself, the civilizing influence which the arts of peace always engender would so pervade their minds in a very few years, that their habits would be changed, and the blessings of education, religion, and peace, might be expected to civilize and elevate their minds. Their energies and seamanship would then be in requisition as the navigators of all the Archipelago, and to carry in their native vessels the produce of the fertile inland districts of Mindanao, and of Northern Borneo, to the great mart which Zamboanga would become, should it fortunately be made an open port of trade for the people of all nations.
CHAPTER XXXI.The coasting trade, which is a very important nursery for the marine of the Philippines, is carried on exclusively by the national vessels, no foreign ships being allowed to engage in it.Manilla, being the only port open to the foreign merchants, is the grand emporium or centre to which nearly all the productions of the islands are brought, which regulation gives employment to an infinite number of colonial shipping, in carrying them to that market. Every day there are several arrivals from the various sea-ports of the different districts of the islands, of brigs, schooners, pontines, galeras, caracoas, and pancos, all of them being curious specimens of every variety of ship-building, fromthe black and low snake-like schooner, or handsome brig, to the most rude description of vessel built. Where iron nails are scarce and expensive, some of these are fastened together apparently in a manner the most unsatisfactory possible for their crews or passengers, should they have to encounter a gale of wind during their voyages.Nearly the whole of the coasting trade is in the hands of the Indians, or Mestizos of Chinese descent, calledSangleys, although several Spaniards and European Mestizos at Manilla also own a better class of ships than those described, constantly engaged in going and returning from the provinces.Still, from some cause or other, they do not appear to carry the on trade so successfully as the provincial shipowners, most of whom have only one or two small vessels, which they keep constantly running between their native place and Manilla, and whose sole business it is, after despatching either of them, to purchase up from the cultivators of the soil, such small lots of their produce as are cheap at the time, such as sugar, rice, &c., which they are able to do at greatly lower terms, when buying them by little at a time, than it would be possible for the agent ofa merchant in Manilla to do, whose operations it would probably be necessary should be conducted upon a more extensive and quicker scale, and whose knowledge of the district and of the vendors could seldom be equal to that of a native Sangley, or Indian born among them.In consequence of all the produce being originally purchased by small lots at a time, it is of very variable quality; and on a cargo of Muscovado sugar, for instance, being purchased from one of these traders by a foreign merchant of Manilla, for exportation, it is perfectly essential to open the whole of the bags in which it has come up to Manilla from the provinces, and to empty their contents into one great heap, which causes it to get well mingled together, and ensures the requisite regularity of sample, after which it has to be rebagged and shipped off to the foreign vessels that may be waiting to receive it in the bay.Of course the expense of all this is very considerable, for not only is there all the labour and cost of bags, &c., incurred twice, but there is the freight and insurance by the province vessel, which has brought it up to Manilla, to be addedto the natural cost of the sugar at the place of its growth and manufacture.All these restrictions on trade affect the quantity of sugar sold by the native planters, and in a very material degree depress the agricultural activity of the people, who suffer from them. But probably there are no greater sufferers from such restrictive regulations than the Government which so ignorantly sustains or has imposed them. So little anxious have they been to encourage the trade, that formerly, at various times, they very nearly all but ruined it, by imposing import duties on all the produce of the provinces that came to Manilla from them, for sale. This, added to the export duties at the time of its shipment to foreign markets, so much increased the cost of those articles in Manilla, that the foreign merchants there, finding they could procure similar merchandise at other places for less money, of course would not buy it; and the native traders, finding their produce unsaleable except at losing prices, could not make any further purchases from the native agriculturists, which caused so much distress in the country, that the provinces got into a high state ofdisaffection on several occasions, from the same cause; upon seeing which the Government were wise enough to repeal their restrictive laws, and allow the free interchange of commodities between all the provinces of the Philippines.For instead, as was supposed, of its falling upon the exporting foreign merchants, and on those who bought their cargoes of Manilla produce from them at the port of discharge, the tax fell upon the native agriculturists, inasmuch as they had to reduce the former prices of all their produce which paid the tax, and to equalise them to the rates at which similar merchandise was procurable in other markets, where no tax of the sort existed;—and this, of course, compelled the cultivators of these articles in the Philippines to sell the produce of their farms for less money than they formerly obtained for the same goods. By so doing, it was equivalent to reducing the former wages of their labour, or of the produce of their land—the effects of which were speedily felt and comprehended by them, although some of the officials, who imposed it, might scoff at the causes they assigned, and reiterate their crude and erroneous notions of political economy, to prove that it could notaffect them, but must be paid by the great merchants, or by the consumers of their produce in Europe. They quite forgot that these could be supplied with the same things from other places, where they were not subjected to the tax, and of course were procurable cheaper.Owners of vessels suitable for the coasting trade, who reside in Manilla, have one advantage over the provincial ship-builders; namely, that when the government service gives employment to shipping, they are in a better position for offering for it, than persons at a distance from the capital can be.The freight of tobacco, for instance, gives a good deal of employment to ships, and as government rates are in general rather better than any charters obtainable from private merchants, the procuring of a government contract for carrying any of the articles which they monopolize, of which the above-mentioned is one, is an object of some competition. These freights are usually settled by tenders, sealed and delivered to an officer appointed to receive them, by the Yntendente, or officer at the head of the Finance Department. I was acquainted with a gentleman, who, having several idle vessels suitable for thiscarrying trade, was of course most anxious to get the contract, to give employment to his ships; and having found out who the other contractors for it were, and all of them happening to be cautious men, not likely to offer for it at a losing price, he resolved to play a bold game, and made his tender for the conveyance of it out in some such words as these: “I offer freight for the tobacco, at onecuartoless than any body else will take it at,” and signed his name; acuartobeing the very smallest copper coin current at Manilla. Of course he got the contract; which—as he anticipated from knowing the men who offered for it—turned out to be a very good one; and, as the Yntendente of the time was an intimate friend of his, he ran little risk of being taken advantage of, by a lower sum being named to him as the lowest tender than what was actually the case.Nearly all the tobacco collected in Cagayan is yearly brought to Manilla during the north-east monsoon. The contracts for this purpose generally embrace a term of three or four years, during which the rate paid by Government to the person who engages to bring all the bales (or cases) of it which they may require at one fixed freight, never fluctuates, even although the amountshipped by them is very much in excess of the usual quantity, and he may be forced to charter vessels from his neighbours at a much higher rate than the Government pay him, in order to fulfil the conditions of his contract. Considerable care is requisite in loading this tobacco, as, should there be a mistake made even of one bale, the contractor is forced to account for it to Government at the price they sell it at, which is about three times as much as they pay for it; and this regulation is no doubt found to be very requisite, in order to prevent fraud.After the tobacco has been manufactured into cigars, the contractor has to deliver it at various stations throughout the islands, these places being generally the head-quarters of the fiscal orestancodepartment of the different maritime provinces from which the other are supplied. Besides the coasting trade from the provinces to Manilla, and that in the government service, there is a trade carried on by various provinces between themselves, such as conveying rice or paddy from the grain-districts to other provinces where less of it is grown, from the attention of the natives being directed to some other agricultural produce more suitable than paddy to their soil and climate, asfromAntiqueto Mindora or Zamboanga, or from the island of Samar to that of Negros, or to Mesamis. Thus in the hemp provinces, little paddy is planted, as it is more profitable for them to make hemp, or to weave Sinamais cloths, &c., than to do so. This commerce, however, is not of any great extent; the principal—indeed the only great—market of the country being Manilla, where traders from all parts of the Archipelago meet to buy and sell.It has been mentioned elsewhere that foreign men, as well as foreign ships, are at present excluded from engaging in the provincial trade; which is about as illiberal and unwise an act as any country could be guilty of, and should be changed, not for the benefit of foreign traders, but for the good of the country.In connexion with the province trade, the naval school ought to be mentioned, as it is a most useful institution, where arithmetic, geometry, and navigation are taught gratuitously, at an expense to Government of nearly 2,400 dollars a-year.The President of the Chamber of Commerce is also President of the school, and the members of that body have the privilege of admitting thepupils—a right which I believe they exercise liberally. At this place, boys are very well trained up in the scientific and theoretical part of their profession; but unfortunately, from some cause or other, their education afterwards as practical seamen does not keep pace with it, and they generally are as much behind our British or American shipmasters in all relating to the sea, as can be well conceived, although they are not unfrequently superior to them, and at least are equal, in their theoretical attainments.At this school, many of the Creoles and Mestizos of Manilla have shown to the world that they did not want the ability to learn, when they had good masters to instruct them; but good heads and hands are seldom found together. In fact, I rather think that the lads educated here are taught too much (if that be possible), and by being so, have their ideas raised above their stations; for many of them are, by a great deal, much more like gentlemen than a number of the merchant skippers or mates in our British ships, whose horny fists and tar-stained dress make few pretensions to outward gentility.Among the province-trading vessels lying atanchor in Manilla river, there are at all times to be seen some curious specimens of ship-building, few of them being insurable.Some of these coasters, although nearly all shaped in the European style, have almost the whole of their rigging constructed of ropes made from the bamboo, and are fitted with anchors made from ebony or some other heavy wood, having occasionally a large piece of stone fastened to them, to insure their sinking. The cables to which they are attached are generally of a black rush, like sedge, or of bamboo; but in the event of a gale, I should say that their crews had great need never to embark in these frail shells, except when well assured of being at peace with God and man.In ordinary years these vessels are laid up for several months every season, as it would most probably be certain destruction for any of them to attempt proceeding to sea from October till December.Although a large proportion of the colonial-built vessels are bad, still there are a few constructed in the country which would be considered fine ships in any part of the world.When a good vessel is built there, the firstvoyage she makes is usually to Spain, if she can get a freight; and after discharging her cargo, her next voyage is to a British port, in order that she may be fitted with copper bolts and iron work, under the inspection of Lloyd’s surveyor; after which her character is established, and she is classed A 1 ship for a term of years.But notwithstanding these ships being placed in Lloyd’s books, the insurance offices can seldom be persuaded to accept of risks even in first-class vessels, when their crews are Spaniards, on the same favourable terms at which risks are freely taken on good British ships. They almost invariably demand an increased premium, and occasionally decline risks by them altogether.Now, although bad management sometimes occurs on board of Spanish ships, our own are not exempt from it; and I believe that prejudice causes them to refuse the insurance as much as anything else.The Dons have got a bad name as seamen, and very true is the elegant proverb, “Give a dog a bad name, and hang him.”
The coasting trade, which is a very important nursery for the marine of the Philippines, is carried on exclusively by the national vessels, no foreign ships being allowed to engage in it.
Manilla, being the only port open to the foreign merchants, is the grand emporium or centre to which nearly all the productions of the islands are brought, which regulation gives employment to an infinite number of colonial shipping, in carrying them to that market. Every day there are several arrivals from the various sea-ports of the different districts of the islands, of brigs, schooners, pontines, galeras, caracoas, and pancos, all of them being curious specimens of every variety of ship-building, fromthe black and low snake-like schooner, or handsome brig, to the most rude description of vessel built. Where iron nails are scarce and expensive, some of these are fastened together apparently in a manner the most unsatisfactory possible for their crews or passengers, should they have to encounter a gale of wind during their voyages.
Nearly the whole of the coasting trade is in the hands of the Indians, or Mestizos of Chinese descent, calledSangleys, although several Spaniards and European Mestizos at Manilla also own a better class of ships than those described, constantly engaged in going and returning from the provinces.
Still, from some cause or other, they do not appear to carry the on trade so successfully as the provincial shipowners, most of whom have only one or two small vessels, which they keep constantly running between their native place and Manilla, and whose sole business it is, after despatching either of them, to purchase up from the cultivators of the soil, such small lots of their produce as are cheap at the time, such as sugar, rice, &c., which they are able to do at greatly lower terms, when buying them by little at a time, than it would be possible for the agent ofa merchant in Manilla to do, whose operations it would probably be necessary should be conducted upon a more extensive and quicker scale, and whose knowledge of the district and of the vendors could seldom be equal to that of a native Sangley, or Indian born among them.
In consequence of all the produce being originally purchased by small lots at a time, it is of very variable quality; and on a cargo of Muscovado sugar, for instance, being purchased from one of these traders by a foreign merchant of Manilla, for exportation, it is perfectly essential to open the whole of the bags in which it has come up to Manilla from the provinces, and to empty their contents into one great heap, which causes it to get well mingled together, and ensures the requisite regularity of sample, after which it has to be rebagged and shipped off to the foreign vessels that may be waiting to receive it in the bay.
Of course the expense of all this is very considerable, for not only is there all the labour and cost of bags, &c., incurred twice, but there is the freight and insurance by the province vessel, which has brought it up to Manilla, to be addedto the natural cost of the sugar at the place of its growth and manufacture.
All these restrictions on trade affect the quantity of sugar sold by the native planters, and in a very material degree depress the agricultural activity of the people, who suffer from them. But probably there are no greater sufferers from such restrictive regulations than the Government which so ignorantly sustains or has imposed them. So little anxious have they been to encourage the trade, that formerly, at various times, they very nearly all but ruined it, by imposing import duties on all the produce of the provinces that came to Manilla from them, for sale. This, added to the export duties at the time of its shipment to foreign markets, so much increased the cost of those articles in Manilla, that the foreign merchants there, finding they could procure similar merchandise at other places for less money, of course would not buy it; and the native traders, finding their produce unsaleable except at losing prices, could not make any further purchases from the native agriculturists, which caused so much distress in the country, that the provinces got into a high state ofdisaffection on several occasions, from the same cause; upon seeing which the Government were wise enough to repeal their restrictive laws, and allow the free interchange of commodities between all the provinces of the Philippines.
For instead, as was supposed, of its falling upon the exporting foreign merchants, and on those who bought their cargoes of Manilla produce from them at the port of discharge, the tax fell upon the native agriculturists, inasmuch as they had to reduce the former prices of all their produce which paid the tax, and to equalise them to the rates at which similar merchandise was procurable in other markets, where no tax of the sort existed;—and this, of course, compelled the cultivators of these articles in the Philippines to sell the produce of their farms for less money than they formerly obtained for the same goods. By so doing, it was equivalent to reducing the former wages of their labour, or of the produce of their land—the effects of which were speedily felt and comprehended by them, although some of the officials, who imposed it, might scoff at the causes they assigned, and reiterate their crude and erroneous notions of political economy, to prove that it could notaffect them, but must be paid by the great merchants, or by the consumers of their produce in Europe. They quite forgot that these could be supplied with the same things from other places, where they were not subjected to the tax, and of course were procurable cheaper.
Owners of vessels suitable for the coasting trade, who reside in Manilla, have one advantage over the provincial ship-builders; namely, that when the government service gives employment to shipping, they are in a better position for offering for it, than persons at a distance from the capital can be.
The freight of tobacco, for instance, gives a good deal of employment to ships, and as government rates are in general rather better than any charters obtainable from private merchants, the procuring of a government contract for carrying any of the articles which they monopolize, of which the above-mentioned is one, is an object of some competition. These freights are usually settled by tenders, sealed and delivered to an officer appointed to receive them, by the Yntendente, or officer at the head of the Finance Department. I was acquainted with a gentleman, who, having several idle vessels suitable for thiscarrying trade, was of course most anxious to get the contract, to give employment to his ships; and having found out who the other contractors for it were, and all of them happening to be cautious men, not likely to offer for it at a losing price, he resolved to play a bold game, and made his tender for the conveyance of it out in some such words as these: “I offer freight for the tobacco, at onecuartoless than any body else will take it at,” and signed his name; acuartobeing the very smallest copper coin current at Manilla. Of course he got the contract; which—as he anticipated from knowing the men who offered for it—turned out to be a very good one; and, as the Yntendente of the time was an intimate friend of his, he ran little risk of being taken advantage of, by a lower sum being named to him as the lowest tender than what was actually the case.
Nearly all the tobacco collected in Cagayan is yearly brought to Manilla during the north-east monsoon. The contracts for this purpose generally embrace a term of three or four years, during which the rate paid by Government to the person who engages to bring all the bales (or cases) of it which they may require at one fixed freight, never fluctuates, even although the amountshipped by them is very much in excess of the usual quantity, and he may be forced to charter vessels from his neighbours at a much higher rate than the Government pay him, in order to fulfil the conditions of his contract. Considerable care is requisite in loading this tobacco, as, should there be a mistake made even of one bale, the contractor is forced to account for it to Government at the price they sell it at, which is about three times as much as they pay for it; and this regulation is no doubt found to be very requisite, in order to prevent fraud.
After the tobacco has been manufactured into cigars, the contractor has to deliver it at various stations throughout the islands, these places being generally the head-quarters of the fiscal orestancodepartment of the different maritime provinces from which the other are supplied. Besides the coasting trade from the provinces to Manilla, and that in the government service, there is a trade carried on by various provinces between themselves, such as conveying rice or paddy from the grain-districts to other provinces where less of it is grown, from the attention of the natives being directed to some other agricultural produce more suitable than paddy to their soil and climate, asfromAntiqueto Mindora or Zamboanga, or from the island of Samar to that of Negros, or to Mesamis. Thus in the hemp provinces, little paddy is planted, as it is more profitable for them to make hemp, or to weave Sinamais cloths, &c., than to do so. This commerce, however, is not of any great extent; the principal—indeed the only great—market of the country being Manilla, where traders from all parts of the Archipelago meet to buy and sell.
It has been mentioned elsewhere that foreign men, as well as foreign ships, are at present excluded from engaging in the provincial trade; which is about as illiberal and unwise an act as any country could be guilty of, and should be changed, not for the benefit of foreign traders, but for the good of the country.
In connexion with the province trade, the naval school ought to be mentioned, as it is a most useful institution, where arithmetic, geometry, and navigation are taught gratuitously, at an expense to Government of nearly 2,400 dollars a-year.
The President of the Chamber of Commerce is also President of the school, and the members of that body have the privilege of admitting thepupils—a right which I believe they exercise liberally. At this place, boys are very well trained up in the scientific and theoretical part of their profession; but unfortunately, from some cause or other, their education afterwards as practical seamen does not keep pace with it, and they generally are as much behind our British or American shipmasters in all relating to the sea, as can be well conceived, although they are not unfrequently superior to them, and at least are equal, in their theoretical attainments.
At this school, many of the Creoles and Mestizos of Manilla have shown to the world that they did not want the ability to learn, when they had good masters to instruct them; but good heads and hands are seldom found together. In fact, I rather think that the lads educated here are taught too much (if that be possible), and by being so, have their ideas raised above their stations; for many of them are, by a great deal, much more like gentlemen than a number of the merchant skippers or mates in our British ships, whose horny fists and tar-stained dress make few pretensions to outward gentility.
Among the province-trading vessels lying atanchor in Manilla river, there are at all times to be seen some curious specimens of ship-building, few of them being insurable.
Some of these coasters, although nearly all shaped in the European style, have almost the whole of their rigging constructed of ropes made from the bamboo, and are fitted with anchors made from ebony or some other heavy wood, having occasionally a large piece of stone fastened to them, to insure their sinking. The cables to which they are attached are generally of a black rush, like sedge, or of bamboo; but in the event of a gale, I should say that their crews had great need never to embark in these frail shells, except when well assured of being at peace with God and man.
In ordinary years these vessels are laid up for several months every season, as it would most probably be certain destruction for any of them to attempt proceeding to sea from October till December.
Although a large proportion of the colonial-built vessels are bad, still there are a few constructed in the country which would be considered fine ships in any part of the world.
When a good vessel is built there, the firstvoyage she makes is usually to Spain, if she can get a freight; and after discharging her cargo, her next voyage is to a British port, in order that she may be fitted with copper bolts and iron work, under the inspection of Lloyd’s surveyor; after which her character is established, and she is classed A 1 ship for a term of years.
But notwithstanding these ships being placed in Lloyd’s books, the insurance offices can seldom be persuaded to accept of risks even in first-class vessels, when their crews are Spaniards, on the same favourable terms at which risks are freely taken on good British ships. They almost invariably demand an increased premium, and occasionally decline risks by them altogether.
Now, although bad management sometimes occurs on board of Spanish ships, our own are not exempt from it; and I believe that prejudice causes them to refuse the insurance as much as anything else.
The Dons have got a bad name as seamen, and very true is the elegant proverb, “Give a dog a bad name, and hang him.”