Recollections of Manilla and the Philippines Part 14

--------------+-----------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+------------- | If bought | | | | | | | | at $5 per | | | | | | | | pecul | | | | | | | At the |would cost,| At | At | At | At | At | At | At exchange | free on | $5-1/4 | $5-1/2 | $5-3/4 | $6 | $6-1/4 | $6-1/2 | $7 of | board | | | | | | | --------------+-----------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+------------- s. d. | s. d. | s. d.| s. d.| s. d.| s. d.| s. d.| s. d.| s. d.

4 1 per $| 19 0 6 |19 17 8|20 11 5|21 12 1|22 10 5|23 6 3|24 5 4|26 0 3} 4 1-1/2 " | 19 4 5 |20 1 9|20 19 8|21 16 5|22 15 0|23 11 0|24 10 5|25 5 6}Per 4 2 " | 19 8 3 |20 5 10|21 3 11|22 0 9|22 19 6|23 15 9|24 15 3|26 10 0} 4 2-1/2 " | 19 12 2 |20 9 11|21 8 2|22 5 2|23 4 2|24 0 6|25 0 2|26 16 2}ton 4 3 " | 19 16 0 |20 13 11|21 12 4|22 9 7|23 8 9|24 5 4|25 5 1|27 1 6} 4 3-1/2 " | 19 19 11 |20 18 0|21 16 8|22 14 0|23 13 4|24 10 1|25 10 1|27 6 9}of 4 4 " | 20 3 10 |21 2 1|22 0 10|22 18 5|23 18 0|24 14 10|25 15 0|27 12 1} 4 4-1/2 " | 20 7 8 |21 6 1|22 5 1|23 2 10|24 2 6|24 19 7|26 0 0|27 17 5}20 4 5 " | 20 11 7 |21 10 2|22 9 4|23 7 3|24 7 2|25 4 4|26 5 0|28 2 9} 4 5-1/2 " | 20 15 6 |21 14 3|22 13 7|23 11 8|24 11 9|25 9 1|26 9 11|28 8 0}cwt.

4 6 " | 20 19 4 |21 18 3|22 17 10|23 16 0|24 16 4|25 13 10|26 14 10|28 13 4} --------------+-----------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+-------------

To understand this table, suppose an agent in Manilla purchases a quant.i.ty of hemp for a merchant in London, at 5 dollars per pecul, the cost of packing, s.h.i.+pping, and the 5 per cent. commission for buying, &c., will make it cost, when put on board s.h.i.+p in Manilla Bay, 20_l._ 19_s._ 4_d._ per ton, if drawn for at the exchange of 4_s._ 6_d._ to the dollar. On its arrival at London, the freight, insurance, &c., added to this, will be its actual cost laid down there.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pitch, or tar, is brought from Tayabas to Manilla, in boxes or baskets, and is employed, I believe, princ.i.p.ally by the s.h.i.+pwrights there, in the prosecution of their business. Some of the natives also use it for making torches, it being cheaper than oil.

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

_Hides._--The quant.i.ty of buffalo hides s.h.i.+pped to China and Europe is considerable. Those exported to China are sometimes s.h.i.+pped without being salted, although it is necessary that all those sent on so long a voyage as it is to Europe should undergo that process. Buffalo hide cuttings are generally prepared for s.h.i.+pment by being immersed in lime-water, from which they are withdrawn perfectly white and coated with lime.

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

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

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

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