The Former Philippines thru Foreign Eyes Part 36

[193] A small river enters the sea 950 brazas south of the tower of Abuyog.

[194] Gobius giuris Buch. Ham.

[195] The lake at that time had but one outlet, but in the wet season it may be in connection with the Mayo, which, at its north-east side, is quite flat.

[196] Or some thirty-eight yards if the old Dutch ell is meant.--C.

[197] Pintados, or Bisayas, according to a native word denoting the same, must be the inhabitants of the islands between Luzon and Mindanao, and must have been so named by the Spaniards from their practice of tattooing themselves. Crawfurd ("Dict." 339) thinks these facts not firmly established, and they are certainly not mentioned by Pigafetta; who, however, writes, p. 80:--"He (the king of Zubut) was ... painted in various ways with fire." Purchas ("Pilgrimage,"

fo. i. 603)--"The king of Zubut has his skinne painted with a hot iron pensill;" and Morga, fo. 4--"Traen todo il cuerpo labrado con fuego." From this they appear to have tattooed themselves in the manner of the Papuas, by burning in spots and stripes into the skin. But Morga states in another place (f. 138)--"They are distinguished from the inhabitants of Luzon by their hair which the men cut into a pigtail after the old Spanish manner, and paint their bodies in many patterns, without touching the face." The custom of tattooing, which appears to have ceased with the introduction of Christianity, for the clergymen so often quoted (Thevenot, p. 4) describes it as unknown, cannot be regarded as a characteristic of the Bisayans; and the tribes of the northern part of Luzon tattoo at the present day.

[198] Mezzeria (Italian); metayer (French).

[199] In China an oil is procured from the seeds of vernicia montana, which, by the addition of alum, litharge, and steat.i.te, with a gentle heat, easily forms a valuable varnish which, when mixed with resin, is employed in rendering the bottoms of vessels watertight. P. Champion, Indust. Anc. et Mod. de l'Emp. Chinois." 114.

[200] Petzholdt ("Caucasus," i. 203) mentions that in Bosslewi the price of a clay vessel is determined by its capacity of maize.

[201] As usual these abuses spring from the non-enforcement of a statute pa.s.sed in 1848 (Leg. ult., i. 144), which prohibits usurious conracts with servants or a.s.sistants, and threatens with heavy penalties all those whom, under the pretext of having advanced money, or of having paid debts or the poll-tax or exemption from service, keep either individual natives or whole families in a continual state of dependence upon them, and always secure the increase of their obligations to them by not allowing them wages sufficient to enable them to satisfy the claims against them.

[202] Formerly it appears to have been different with them. "These Bisayans are a people little disposed to agriculture, but practised in navigation, and eager for war and expeditions by sea, on account of the pillage and prizes, which they call 'mangubas,' which is the same as taking to the field in order to steal."--Morga, f. 138.

[203] Ill-usage prevails to a great extent, although prohibited by a stringent law; the non-enforcement of which by the alcaldes is charged with a penalty of 100 dollars for every single case of neglect. In many provinces the bridegroom pays to the bride's mother, besides the dower, an indemnity for the rearing ("mother's milk") which the bride has enjoyed (bigay susu). According to Colin ("Labor Evangelico," p. 129) the penhimuyal, the present which the mother received for night-watching and care during the bringing up of the bride, amounted to one-fifth of the dowry.

[204] The Asuang is the ghoul of the Arabian Nights' tales.--C.

[205] Veritable cannibals are not mentioned by the older authors on the Philippines. Pigafetta (p. 127) heard that a people lived on a river at Cape Benuian (north of Mindanao) who ate only the hearts of their captured enemies, along with lemon-juice; and Dr. Semper ("Philippines,") in '62 found the same custom, with the exception of the lemon-juice, on the east coast of Mindanao.

[206] The Anito occurs amongst the tribes of the Malayan Archipelago as Antu, but the Anito of the Philippines is essentially a protecting spirit, while the Malayan Antu is rather of a demoniacal kind.

[207] These idol images have never come under my observation. Those figured in Bastian and Hartmann's Journal of Ethnology (b. i. pl. viii. Idols from the Philippines,) whose originals are in the Ethnographical Museum of Berlin, were certainly acquired in the Philippines, but, according to A. W. Franks, undoubtedly belong to the Solomon Islands. Sections ii. to viii., p. 46, in the catalogue of the Museum at Prague are ent.i.tled:--"Four heads of idols, made of wood, from the Philippines, contributed by the Bohemian naturalist Thaddaeus Haenke, who was commissioned by the King of Spain, in the year 1817, to travel in the islands of the South Sea." The photographs, which were obligingly sent here at my request by the direction of the museum, do not entirely correspond to the above description, pointing rather to the west coast of America, the princ.i.p.al field of Haenke's researches. The Reliquiae Botanicae, from his posthumous papers, likewise afford no information respecting the origin of these idols.

[208] On the Island of Panay.

[209] As an example, in antic.i.p.ation of an attack on Cogseng, all the available forces, including those of Zamboanga, were collected round Manila, and the Moros attacked the island with sixty ships, whereas formerly their armaments used not to exceed six or eight ships. Torrubia, p. 363.

[210] Hakluyt Morga, Append. 360.

[211] According to the Mineral Review, Madrid, 1866, xvii. 244, the coal from the mountain of Alpaco, in the district of Naga, in Cebu, is dry, pure, almost free of sulphur pyrites, burns easily, and with a strong flame. In the experiments made at the laboratory of the School of Mines in Madrid it yielded four per cent. of ashes, and a heating power of 4,825 caloria; i.e., by the burning of one part by weight 4,825 parts by weight of water were heated to 1 C. Good pit-coal gives 6,000 cal. The first coal pits in Cebu were excavated in the Ma.s.sanga valley; but the works were discontinued in 1859, after considerable outlay had been made on them. Four strata of considerable thickness were subsequently discovered in the valley of Alpaco and in the mountain of Oling, in Naga. * * "The coal of Cebu is acknowledged to be better than that of Australia and Labuan, but has not sufficient heating power to be used, unmixed with other coal, on long sea voyages."

According to the Catalogue of the Products of the Philippines (Manila, 1866), the coal strata of Cebu have, at many places in the mountain range which runs from north to south across the whole of the island, an average thickness of two miles. The coal is of middling quality, and is burnt in the Government steam works after being mixed with Cardiff coal. The price in Cebu is on the average six dollars per ton.

[212] English Consular Report, 217.

[213] The man credited with the development of the sugar industry through machinery. A monument has been erected to his memory.--T.

[214] In Jaro the leases have increased threefold in six years: and cattle which were worth $10 in 1860, fetched $25 in 1866. Plots of land on the "Ria," in Iloilo, have risen from $100 to $500, and even as high as $800. (Diario, February 1867). These results are to be ascribed to the sugar trade, which, through free exportation, has become extremely lucrative.

[215] In 1855 Iloilo took altogether from Negros 3,000 piculs out of 11,700; in 1860 as much as 90,000 piculs; in 1863, 176,000 piculs (in twenty-seven foreign ships); in 1866, 250,000 piculs; in 1871, 312,379 picula from both islands.

[216] The sugar intended for the English market cost in Manila, in the years 1868 and 1869, from 15 to 16 per ton, and fetched in London about 20 per ton. The best refined sugar prepared in Manila for Australia was, on account of the higher duty, worth only 3 per ton more in London; but, being 5 dearer than the inferior quality, it commanded a premium of 2. Manila exports the sugar chiefly from Pangasinan, Pampanga, and Laguna.--(From private information.)

[217] The Islands of the East Indian Archipelago, 1868, p. 340.

[218] Exhibition Catalogue; section, French Colonies, 1867, p. 80.

[219] Report of the Commissioners, Exhibition 1867, iv. 102. The South American Indians have for a long time past employed the banana fiber in the manufacture of clothing material;--(The Technologist, September, 1865, p. 89, from unauthenticated sources,) and in Loo Choo the banana fiber is the only kind in use (Faits Commerciaux, No. 1514. p. 36).

[220] Abaca not readily taking tar is, consequently, only used for running, and not standing, rigging.

[221] A plant in full growth produces annually 30 cwt. bandala to the acre, whereas from an acre of flax not more than from 2 to 4 cwt. of pure flax, and from 2 to 8 cwt. seed can be obtained.

[222] As Dr. Wittmack communicated to me, only fiber or seed can be obtained from hemp, as when the hemp is ripe, i.e. run to seed, the fiber becomes then both brittle and coa.r.s.e. When cultivating flax very often both seeds and fiber are used, but then they both are of inferior quality.

[223] Flora de Filipinas.

[224] In 1868, 100 per ton was paid for lupis, although only imported in small quant.i.ties--about five tons per annum--and princ.i.p.ally used at one time in France in the manufacture of a particular kind of underclothing. The fashion soon, however, died out. Quitol, a less valuable sort of lupis, could be sold at 75 per ton.

[225] Inflexibility is peculiar to all fibers of the Monocotyledons, because they consist of coa.r.s.ely rounded cells. On the other hand, the true bast fibers--the Dicotyledons (flax, for instance)--are the reverse.

[226] Through the agricultural system, also, the mestizos and natives secure the work of their countrymen by making these advances, and renewing them before the old ones are paid off. These thoughtless people consequently fall deeper and deeper into debt, and become virtually the peons of their creditors, it being impossible for them to escape in any way from their position. The "part-share contract" is much the same in its operative effects, the landlord having to supply the farmer with agricultural implements and draught-cattle, and often in addition supplying the whole family with clothing and provisions; and, on division of the earnings, the farmer is unable to cover his debt. It is true the Filipinos are responsible legally to the extent of five dollars only, a special enactment prohibiting these usurious bargains. As a matter of fact, however, they are generally practised.

[227] This feeling of jealousy had very nearly the effect of closing the new harbors immediately after they were opened.

[228] Rapport Consulaire Belge, XIV., 68.

[229] In the Agricultural Report of 1869, p. 232, another fiber was highly mentioned, belonging to a plant very closely related to sisal (Bromelia Sylvestris), perhaps even a variety of the same. The Mexican name, jxtle, is possibly derived from the fact of their curiously flattened, spike-edged leaves, resembling the dentated knives formed from volcanic stone (obsidian) possessed by the Aztecs and termed by them iztli.

[230] The banana trees are well known to be among the most valuable of plants to mankind. In their unripe state they afford starch-flour; and when mature, they supply an agreeable and nutritious fruit, which, although partaken of freely, will produce neither unpleasantness nor any injurious after-effects. One of the best of the edible species bears fruit as early as five or six months after being planted, suckers in the meantime constantly sprouting from the roots, so that continual fruit-bearing is going on, the labor of the growers merely being confined to the occasional cutting down of the old plants and to gathering in the fruit. The broad leaves afford to other young plants the shade which is so requisite in tropical countries, and are employed in many useful ways about the house. Many a hut, too, has to thank the banana trees surrounding it from the conflagration, which, generally speaking, lays the village in ashes. I should here like to make an observation upon a mistake which has spread rather widely. In Bishop Pallegoix's excellent work, Description du Royaume Thai ou Siam, I*. 144, he says: "L'arbre a vernis qui est une espece de bananier, et que les Siamois appellent 'rak,' fournit ce beau vernis qu'on admire dans les pet.i.ts meubles qu'on apporte de Chine." When I was in Bangkok, I called the attention of the amiable white-haired, and at that time nearly nonogenarian, bishop to this curious statement. Shaking his head, he said he could not have written it. I showed him the very pa.s.sage. "Ma foi, j'ai dit une betise; j'en ai dit bien d'autres,"

whispered he in my ear, holding up his hand as if afraid somebody might overhear him.

[231] In 1862, English took from Spain 156 tons; 1863, 18,074 tons; 1866, 66,913 tons; 1868, 95,000 tons; and the import of rags fell from 24,000 tons in 1866 to 17,000 tons in 1668. In Algiers a large quant.i.ty of sparto (Alfa) grows but the cost of transport is too expensive to admit of sending it to France.

[232] The British Consul estimates the receipts from this monopoly for the year 1866-7 at $8,418,939, after an expenditure of $4,519,866; thus leaving a clear profit of $3,899,073. In the colonial budget for 1867 the profit on tobacco was estimated at $2,627,976, while the total expenditure of the colony, after deduction of the expenses occasioned by the tobacco management, was set down at $7,033,576.

According to the official tables of the chief of the Administration in Manila, 1871, the total annual revenue derived from the tobacco management between the years 1865 and 1869 amounted, on an average, to $5,367,262. By reason of proper accounts being wanting an accurate estimate of the expenditure cannot be delivered; but it would be at least $4,000,000, so that a profit of only $1,367,262 remains.

[233] Instruccion general para la Direccion, Administracion, y Intervencion de las Rentas Estancadas, 1849.

[234] Memoria sobre el Desestanco del Tabaco en las Islas Filipinas. Don J. S. Agius, Binondo (Manila), 1871.

[235] The tobacco in China appears to have come from the Philippines. "The memoranda discovered in w.a.n.g-tao leave no possible doubt that it was first introduced into South China from the Philippine Islands in the sixteenth and seventeenth century, most probably by way of j.a.pan."--(Notes and Queries, China and j.a.pan, May 31st, 1857.)

From Schlegel, in Batavia, it was brought by the Portuguese into j.a.pan somewhere between the years 1573 and 1591, and spread itself so rapidly in China that we find even as early as 1538, that the sale of it was forbidden under penalty of beheading.

According to Notes and Queries, China and j.a.pan, July 31, 1857, the use of tobacco was quite common in the "Manchu" army. In a Chinese work, Natural History Miscellany, it is written: "Yen t'sao (literally smoke plant) was introduced into f.u.kien about the end of the Wan-li Government, between 1573 and 1620, and was known as Tan-pa-ku (from Tombaku)."

[236] West Cuba produces the best tobacco, the famous Vuelta abajo, 400,000 cwt. at from $14.28 to $99,96 the cwt.; picked sorts being valued at from $571.20 to $714.00 per cwt. Cuba produces 640,000 cwt. The cigars exhibited in the Paris Exhibition of 1867 were worth from $24.99 to $405.98 per thousand. The number of cigars annually exported is estimated at about 5,000,000. (Jury Report, v., 375.) In Jenidje-Karasu (Salonica) 17,500 cwt. are obtained annually, of which 2,500 cwt. are of the first quality; the cost is $1.75 the oka (about .75 per lb.). Picked sorts are worth 15s. per lb., and even more.--Saladin Bey, La Turquie a l'Exposition, p. 91.

[237] In Cuba the tobacco industry is entirely free. The extraordinary increase of the trade and the improved quality of the tobacco are, in great measure, to be ascribed to the honest compet.i.tion existing between the factories, who receive no other protection from the Government than a recognition of their operations. --(Jury Report, 1867, v., 375.)