Читать книгу Embassy to the Eastern Courts of Cochin-China, Siam, and Muscat - Edmund Roberts - Страница 9

Table of Contents

MANILA CONTINUED—CALZADA—SEA-CUCUMBER—CIGAR-FACTORY AT BINONDO—EXPORTS—DUTIES—WEIGHTS AND CURRENCY—EXCHANGE—IMPORTS—LUZON—CAVITÉ—HURRICANES—LAGO DE BRIA—PINA—INDIAN AND BUFFALO—VISITS TO THE ALCADE.

There is a fashionable drive in Manila, called the Calzada, encompassing, probably, two thirds of the circumference of Manila: it passes over a low, level piece of ground, bordering on the fosse or ditch of the city on one side, and on the open country and parade-ground fronting the bay, on the other. Along this drive, carriages may be seen rolling, filled with well-dressed ladies, but mostly of a dark complexion, (Mestizoes,) smoking cigars with most perfect nonchalance: some are puffing paper cigars—others, those which resemble, in size, Havanas; and again others, a ponderous article which would occupy an indefatigable smoker a week or ten days.

There are no public houses in the neighbourhood, and the only amusement is a dull drive at sunset, day after day, over the same grounds, in preference to others infinitely more pleasant, stopping occasionally to light a cigar from a slow match: this latter article is carried by boys, who infest the road, making loud and frequent vociferations, going upon the full run. The market is abundantly supplied with beef, fish, fowls, ducks, turkeys, geese, fruit, and vegetables. A large proportion of the labouring class take their meals in the street, from the innumerable venders which occupy the sidewalks, to the great annoyance of pedestrians. Among the strange articles exposed for sale in every street are fried locusts, made into a curry. That disgusting looking fish, called by some ichthyologists, Holothurial—sea-cucumber and sea-slug by the English—Bichos do Mar by the Portuguese—Tripango or Trippany by the Javanese—Swala by the Sumatrans—and Balaté by the Philippine islanders, is in common use among the Chinese and Europeans. I have eaten it made into a soup or stew: it has a taste between the green fat of a turtle and the soft gristle of boiled beef, and is said to be very nutritious, but not equal to the edible bird’s-nests, or nests of the sea-swallow of these seas. No less than five thousand, four hundred and eighty-six piculs of one hundred and thirty-seven pounds each, equal to seven hundred and sixty-eight thousand and forty pounds, were shipped from this port to Canton last year, as appears by the custom-house returns, besides a large quantity smuggled. By far the larger portion is brought here by American vessels from the Fejee islands. These fish resemble, when contracted, a cucumber, and it is difficult to discover the eyes and mouth: some are black, others white, gray, &c.: they are, at present, sold at fourteen dollars per picul, the cargo.

The land in the vicinity, for many miles, is low and marshy, but neatly cultivated with rice. It is surprising that health should be enjoyed at all in the midst of rice-swamps, in this sultry climate: thousands of huts are built in the midst of them, when it would prove fatal to the whole population in almost any other country. The healthiness of the climate, I think, must be attributed to the narrowness of that part of the island, and to the constant and refreshing breezes which dissipate its miasma. The bamboo is one of the most useful among the vegetable creation—houses, chairs, fences, settees, buckets, boxes, baskets, hats, drinking-cups, fans, mats for boats, spear-handles, sails, &c., are made of its wood; while the tender root is served up at the table, boiled and roasted, used as a pickle and as a sweetmeat. I visited the celebrated great cigar-factory at Binondo; about five thousand females are employed in it, and about six hundred men: it is a royal monopoly. Every person is searched twice a day to see if he pilfers any of his majesty’s tobacco—he being the sole owner and master of the factory.

MANILA—EXPORTS.

The principal articles exported, (except gold and silver,) were indigo, sugar, rice, hemp or abacia, cotton, cocoa-nut oil, sulphur, balaté, or bichos do mar, coffee, wax and hides, in the following proportions:—

Indigo, thirty-one thousand, one hundred and nineteen arrobas, of which twenty-five thousand were agua rose or liquid, in jars; sugar, six hundred and seventeen thousand, seven hundred and thirty-eight arrobas, excepting eighteen thousand arrobas of the first quality; rice, one million, seventy-four thousand, one hundred and seventy arrobas, including two hundred thousand, uncleaned; hemp, or abacia, one hundred and fifty-three thousand, four hundred and forty-seven arrobas—it is of two qualities, and is called, in the United States, Manila-grass or hemp; cotton, four thousand one hundred and ninety-five arrobas; cocoa-nut oil, six thousand, nine hundred and sixty-four arrobas; sulphur, two thousand, four hundred and eighty arrobas; balaté or bichos do mar, five thousand, four hundred and eighty-six arrobas; coffee, fourteen thousand, six hundred and twenty-five arrobas; hides, twenty-nine thousand, nine hundred and fifty-eight arrobas.

The minor articles of export are dried shark’s fins, oysters, muscles, shrimps and other dried fish, oil of sesamum, edible bird’s-nests, ploughs, hatchets, knives, cowries, rattans, canes, sail-cloth of yéacos, dammer or pitch, tortoise-shell, horns, mother-of-pearl, shells, tallow, shoes and boots, chocolate, soap, cigars, tobacco, saltpetre, lard, dried deer and ox sinews, birds of paradise, wheat, flour and bread, mats and palm hats, cigar-cases, rum, molasses, sugar-candy, sweetmeats, groundnuts, gomuti or sagwire, cabinet furniture, ebony and Japan woods, and Agal, a species of sea-weed, or rather dulse, dissoluble into a glutinous substance, and used in China as a valuable paste: also sinamaya, a fine cloth, made from the avacá; and piña, which is a narrow cloth, made from the fibres of the pineapple; it is, deservedly, considered as one of the most beautiful fabrics in the world—is transparent, of a great variety of beautiful patterns, and equal in the fineness of its texture to cobweb-muslin. A large portion of the rice is exported to Canton by Americans, to save the measurement duty, or to Lintin when they proceed elsewhere to purchase other than China goods. Occasionally the export is prohibited, either from scarcity or the caprice of the government.

The export of hemp, abacá or avacá, in the year 1829, was eight thousand, four hundred and one piculs: in 1832, it had increased to thirty-seven thousand, five hundred:—this article is the fibrous bark of a wild banana, (musa textilis,) which grows abundantly in all the Philippine islands. Gomuti or sagwire is exported in its natural state, or made into cables, &c.: it resembles very coarse black horse-hair—is the produce of the borassus gomuti or aren palm, which yields the sagwire for cordage, and is found lying between the trunk and the branches, on a soft gossamer-like texture, which is used in calking the seams of ships: it also makes a useful tinder for kindling fire—grows luxuriantly, away from the seacoast, but never produces more than two crops of the sagwire.

The cocoa-nut oil is mostly shipped to Singapore, and from thence to England, where it is manufactured into candles: it is of two qualities; the best is boiled from the green nut—the ordinary kind is ground from nuts, broken and exposed some days to the sun: the first quality, only, is bought for shipping; as casks cannot be obtained, it is sold in jars, and readily congeals when the thermometer is at 70°. Wheat is raised in abundance, and ship-bread, of a very superior quality, is generally sold at from four to five dollars the hundred pounds. As salted beef, pork, butter, and hams, are purchased only by foreign captains, they are of very slow and uncertain sale.

The Import Duty in foreign vessels is fourteen per centum, Spanish; the Export Duty, three per centum, excepting on hemp, which is free. The importations for the year 1831 amounted to one million, seven hundred and ninety-four thousand, three hundred and seventy-nine dollars; the exports for the same period, to one million, four hundred and fourteen thousand, seven hundred and ten dollars.

The gold and silver imported, amounted to three hundred and thirty-seven thousand, two hundred and eighty-seven dollars, and the amount exported, on which duties were paid, was forty-nine thousand, two hundred and nineteen dollars. A large sum in gold, silver, and in the dust produced in the island, is smuggled out of the country, principally by the Chinese.

Weights.—The quintal is four Spanish arrobas of twenty-five pounds. The picul is here one hundred and thirty-seven pounds, Spanish, or one hundred and forty pounds, English.

The currency of the island is dollars and their parts, and doubloons; the latter being worth sixteen dollars. Exchange on London was four and a half prem.; on Canton, two per cent. discount: but it necessarily fluctuates very materially.

The imports are British, India, and China goods, wines, sheathing copper and nails, iron and steel, cocoa from Peru, &c. During the southwest or foul monsoon, the shipping lies at Cavité, and in the northeast or fair monsoon, (from October to April,) from three to five miles from the entrance to Pasig, below the bridge which unites Manila with Binondo.

POPULATION—TAXES.

The population of the archipelago of the Philippine islands, according to the returns made, in the year 1792, was one million, four hundred thousand, four hundred and sixty-five; in 1805, one million, seven hundred and thirty-nine thousand, two hundred and five; in 1812, one million, nine hundred and eleven thousand, five hundred and thirty-five; in 1815, one million, nine hundred and twenty-seven thousand, eight hundred and forty; in 1817, two millions, sixty-three thousand, three hundred and ninety-five; in 1818, two millions, two hundred and forty-nine thousand, eight hundred and fifty-two.

The increase in twenty-six years, from 1792 to 1818, was about sixty per cent.; if to this be added thirty-seven per cent. for the increase in sixteen years, from 1818 to 1834, the population at present amounts to three millions, one hundred and twelve thousand, two hundred and ninety-seven. The island of Luzon had a population of one hundred and forty-nine thousand, six hundred and ninety-five: if to this we add thirty-seven per cent. up to 1834, it will give two hundred and five thousand and eighty two. Of this number, nearly one half is within a circuit of twelve miles of the capital. The number of the negro race, called Aetes, Ygorzotes, or Papuas, was estimated at seventeen thousand, three hundred and fifty-five: this number does not include many thousands, probably, who live among the fastnesses of the mountains.

The principal object of the Spanish government in ascertaining the number of inhabitants, was to levy a capitation tax; in some cases as low as one rial per head—in others, twelve rials. The Chinese pay a much higher tax than any other foreigners; the traders, in 1832, paid six dollars per annum—the common labourers, half that amount. The latter tax forced many of the poorer class to emigrate: the Spanish government is afraid of them, and wishes also to employ the natives of the country; it therefore laid this heavy impost for the purpose of driving them away.

No foreigners have permission to remain there, even to this day, as permanent settlers: they are liable to be ordered out of the country by the governor at any moment, and this right is not unfrequently exercised.

The island of Luzon, which derives its name from Luzong, a large wooden mortar used by the natives for cleaning rice, was discovered in 1521, and in 1571, Manila was founded. The discoverers found the country about Manila thickly settled with an active people called Tagalor; at the north of this nation they met with and conquered the Pampangoes, Zambales, Pangasinanes, Yloeds, and Cagayanes: at the eastward of the Tagaloes were the Camarines. Each of these was a distinct people, having a particular language. None of them had a sovereign or chief magistrate; they were divided into a great number of small villages, containing from fifty to one hundred families, each governed by a chief, who was chosen for his wisdom and his deeds in arms. These petty states were continually at war with each other, making slaves of their unfortunate prisoners—the mountains were then, as now, inhabited by the negro race, common to many of the islands in the eastern archipelago. These different races of people, with the exception of about ten thousand, still form the population of the island.

CAVITÉ—PASIG.

Three leagues from Manila is Cavité, called by the natives Caveit, because it is a crooked point of land extending into the sea. (Here is a small arsenal, and some small vessels are built, and occasionally a ship of war. It was formerly the resort of the Acapulco ships, before South America freed herself and commerce from the shackles which deprived her of all participation in a free trade.) The natives were found to have all the necessaries of life—rice, beans, millet, camote, a species of potato, pine-apples, oranges, mangoes, hogs, ducks, fowls, goats, and buffaloes, were in abundance. The island abounded in deer, wild pigeons, and other game; the gomuti-palm yielded them, when fresh, a pleasant beverage—when fermented, an intoxicating liquor: the pith furnished with sugar—when the liquor was properly boiled down, a farina, inferior to sago, and of the inside of its triangular-shaped fruit a sweetmeat was made. The cocoa-palm afforded a delicious beverage, and oil for cooking or burning: the areca-palm with its nut, and the betel-leaf, produced their favourite buyo. The lakes, rivers, bays, and ocean, swarmed with myriads of fish, which they ensnared in the most ingenious manner, with nets, lines, &c.

The island is traversed by a chain of mountains, extending from north to south, from which others branch out; some are found isolated, in the midst of plains, while others are surrounded by water. Volcanoes are found in various parts; between the provinces of Albay and Camorines is the Mayon, shaped like an obtuse peak; it forms a good landmark for navigators; there is also at Taal a similarly-shaped mountain in the midst of a lagoon; it is called Bombou. Hot springs are found in many places. The island suffers at times from the effects of tremendous earthquakes, which destroy massive buildings, rend asunder the solid walls of Manila, and shake the mountain in the ocean, to its centre. The volcanoes, also, overwhelm whole villages with ashes, stones, sand, and water; making steril, verdant fields; carrying ruin within its influence, and destroying the hopes of the poor husbandman. It is subject also to desolating typhoons or hurricanes, sweeping in their erratic course, hundreds of slight-built huts, prostrating the largest trees, dismasting or foundering at their anchor, numerous vessels, and driving on shore or wrecking others, for nothing moveable at times can withstand these mighty winds. The hopes of the planter are also, in a few hours, destroyed by devastating clouds of locusts, which infest the land, devouring in their course every green thing.

Possessing a humid and warm atmosphere, the soil naturally yields an abundance of the necessaries of life, but the seasons generate many fatal diseases.

PASIG.

On Manila Sunday, (our Monday,) a party of eight, one beautiful morning, before sunrise, proceeded in three veloches (carriages of a certain description) to the village of Santa Anna, distant about three miles over a fine road and highly-cultivated country, where we embarked on board two large bankas of about eight-and-thirty feet in length, dug out of a tree, having a light bamboo-roof which could be elevated or depressed at pleasure, and paddled by four Indians. Between eight and nine o’clock, we arrived at the town of Pasig, situated about three miles from the entrance of the lake; the passage up was delightful—the land bordering on the river was low but well cultivated with rice, sugar-cane, &c., and fruit; it was one continuous village on either bank. Being a holyday, the natives were well and gayly dressed; hundreds of canoes passed us, laden with fish from the lake; others with fruit, vegetables, eggs, areca-nut and betel-leaf, beef, pork, fowls, ducks, geese, turkeys, cocoa-nut oil, molasses and sugar, cloth, of various kinds, baskets, mats, hats, &c., made of bamboo, all under cover of the moveable roof; they were paddled by an equal number of men and women, all apparently, in good spirits, and having always at hand a joke, to bandy with our canoe-men, in the Taga language; they were hurrying on to the great markets at Manila and Binonda, to dispose of their various articles. On the shores, men, women, and children were fishing with every sort of contrivance that can be named, in the shape of nets, hooks, and lines; some men with nets scraping up the mud from the bottom to obtain shrimps, which they found in great abundance; others taking very large craw-fish. Hundreds were bathing in the river, near the banks; whole families were seen together, from the grand-mother to the grand-daughter, washing their long black hair with vegetable soap, called by the natives gogo, being the inner-rind of a tree growing here in great plenty. Many of the palm and bamboo cottages were erected on piles close to the bank of the river, and some canoes were made fast to the ladder ready for any of the family to take an excursion, when they wished to go to the village-church, or to gossip with a neighbour and partake of his hospitalities, which consist of Burgo and a cigar, a fishing-party, a main of fighting-cocks or a boat-race. The fronts of the houses being open, all the operations of the various families could be distinctly seen. We met with many hotels, alias eating-shops, placed on piles some distance from the shore, where our boatmen stopped to obtain their breakfast, which consisted of rice, shrimp and other fish, in abundance, for which they paid about two cents per head. Many loungers were reposing on the bamboo-flooring, smoking or chewing burgo, flirting with the young damsels, who were indulging themselves in the same luxury as their beaux; at the same time, perhaps, combing out and oiling their hair, which generally reaches to the waist, and occasionally adjusting their tapa or outer-cloth, which is either of striped silk or cotton, extending halfway below the knee; some wore a nicely-laced embroidered muslin handkerchief on their heads and shoulders; their feet, or rather toes, are covered with scant and showy slippers, having no heels nor any quarters, cut down within an inch and a half of the end; these were well bespangled, and some of them bound with a stripe of gold or silver lace; they are only worn on special occasions, by particular individuals; a large proportion of the people go barefooted, or wear a high wooden shoe, plain or ornamented with brocaded or spangled-velvet, or gilt-leather. Every man who is able, wears shirts of the truly beautiful piña, or cloth made of the fibres of the pine-apple, which is manufactured on the island. The shirts, made from this cloth, as fine as cobweb-muslin, beautifully embroidered about the bosom, collar, and wristbands, are worn by all the Indians and Mestizoes, on the outside of the trousers; the latter are made of piña, or fine grass-cloth, (called siramaya,) according to the ability of the owner. As for stockings, they are about as useful to a young Tagalo girl, as knee-breeches to a Scotch-highlander.

Reclining on our gay pillow, stretched at ease, full length, on a clean mat, laid on a raised bamboo-floor, discussing the merits of cold roast fowl, ham, and tongue; a bottle of claret, and a bottle of porter for our breakfast, I thought there were not many persons in the world more comfortably situated for the time being. We stayed for a short time at the house of the alcade of Pasig, a native gentleman of Tagola parentage, and were hospitably invited to dinner. Having walked through the town, visited the church and bazar, (which we found well stocked with rice and fish,) we returned to the lake. The late heavy rains had so swollen its waters that our canoes were paddled across extensive paddy fields, where we met with others, fishing; we passed close to several large craft, having two masts but no bowsprits, with large mat sails, cables, and wooden anchors of various shapes. They were clumsily constructed and badly rigged, but gayly painted on their high bow-boards and on each quarter; the high stern was also painted with flowers and a figure of the patron-saint after which the vessel was named, in the gayest colours. There was nothing to be seen, on this part of the excursion, excepting a wide expanse of water; mountains and hills, in the distance, and fishing-snares placed in every direction. Game of various kinds abounds among the hills, affording fine hunting. Boa-constrictors and other reptiles may be found in abundance, and in the creeks, alligators of an immense size. In the lake there are said to be one hundred different varieties of fish; but it requires a week’s leisure, a suitable banka, with many et ceteras, to enjoy the manifold beauties with which this sheet of water is reputed to be surrounded. We were much amused when on our passage to the lake, in discovering, at a distance, a man floating with the stream and seated upright in the water; we were unable immediately to discover what supported him in that position, but shortly after we descried the projecting nose of an enormous carabou or Indian buffalo. The Indian appeared to be quite at his ease, sitting astride the ponderous animal, smoking one of the immense-sized cigars I have before mentioned, and which would last out a reasonable cruise. With the left hand he grasped the animal’s tail, to support him in the current, and a rope passed through the nose (the usual custom here) served to direct the figure-head to any part to which he fancied to go. He was hailed by our Indians and asked where he was bound; he replied he was on his way to pay visits to some Señoritas down the river, and, subsequently, was going to Manila, to sell his carabou, (a distance of about ten miles.)

PATERO.

The scene was occasionally enlivened by the sound of a guitar, proceeding from a canoe or a cottage on the shore. Rafts of cocoa-nuts, containing many thousands, guided by a single man standing in the centre of them, holding a long pole, with other rafts, of bamboo and timber, were constantly passing us. On our return from the lakes we visited several small streams on the left hand of the river, on which is situated an extensive village called Patero, alias Duck-town—a very appropriate name for the place, for I never before saw so many ducks together; the cottages were standing very near to each other, and thousands of these birds were feeding on the river, being secured by a slight fence made of bamboo. Raising ducks and fishing seemed to be the only employment. Every thing about the inhabitants wore a rustic appearance, which was heightened, in a certain degree, by the plantain and mango trees, overshadowing their picturesque habitations: some were washing clothes in the stream, others, cooking in the open air—many were stretched out at full length, asleep; children were hanging in cots under the shadowy branches of the trees, soothed by gentle breezes which rocked them to sleep—others, of a larger growth, in a state of nudity, were playing with the ducks, sailing mimic boats, or making dirt-puddings—not a few in number were diverting themselves with cock-fighting—others were endeavouring to make a little musick, and some were playing the game of draughts, with small stones. A portion of the young Indian girls (Tagalos) were decorating or anointing their pretty persons—others were paddling about in small canoes, which they would occasionally upset to create a hearty laugh and then, like dripping Naiads, again scrambling into them, would repeat the same frolic. This village, or a succession of villages, extends several miles along various outlets from the main river, from which no portion of it can be seen, being completely hidden by the trees on the banks; it contained, in 1818, three thousand, eight hundred and forty inhabitants, all Indians; at this period, 1834, it has, probably, four thousand, five hundred souls.

We returned to the hospitable alcade’s house about two, being only a couple of miles from Patero, where we found a sumptuous dinner, consisting of not less than twelve dishes of fish and meat, with a variety of sweetmeats, fruit and coffee, (but no wine or spirits,) and then cigars and buyo, for those who chose them. We did ample justice to this repast, although nearly burnt up with a hot sun. This town, or rather cluster of villages, is inhabited wholly by Indians, principally Tagalos, and contained in 1818, twelve thousand, one hundred and forty souls; at the present period, it has probably a population of fifteen thousand; the houses are mostly built of bamboo and palm, and stand on piles. In violent typhoons it is found necessary to secure them with ropes, passed over the roofs, and fastened to strong posts. Their elevation on piles is found a necessary security against the lake, which occasionally, after violent rains, spreads its wide stream over all the lowlands bordering upon it. The inhabitants raise cane and rice in large quantities, with some wheat, Indian corn, fruits, &c. Fishing, more or less, is the occupation of every one; they, apparently, live in great simplicity and comfort, wanting nothing. A considerable quantity of sugar is made here, there being several extensive buildings for that purpose. Having taken leave of our kind host, we proceeded down the river to Manila, and again were much delighted with the richness, beauty and variety of the scenery. The mango with its umbrageous arms, affording a delightful shade to the weary traveller—the plantain and the banana, disputing every foot of ground, on the banks of the river, the tall and graceful bamboo overtopping every thing around it—extensive fields of cane, waving gently their green leaves to the passing breeze, with fields of paddy, exhibiting the green spiral leaf of the plant above the flooded meadows; numberless cottages were seen, deeply seated in the midst of luxuriant fruit-trees, and a massive church or convent was always in view, in some delightful spot. Again we met Indians, of both sexes, fishing or bathing, going upon a water-excursion, or to a ball, to chew buyo, to have a little chit-chat or scandal with a neighbour, or visit a holy friar of a neighbouring convent. These rapid and varied scenes, with our agreeable company, afforded us much pleasure as we lay in our bankas, enjoying the rapid passing views, which lapse of years cannot efface, exhibiting a rural picture of great simplicity and beauty; the principal actors being a race of Indians noted for the mildness of their tempers and for their great hospitality.