Recollections of Manilla and the Philippines

R >> Robert Mac Micking >> Recollections of Manilla and the Philippines

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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 by the
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.

Beche 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 a favourite 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 their Chinese 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 new voyages 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 very walls 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; and when the news reached Spain, he was created the _Conde_
of 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, linger long
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
Don Carlos 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, and the
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 powerful Datos; 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 emoluments displayed 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, from the 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, called _Sangleys_, 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 of a 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 added to 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 of
disaffection 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 not affect 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
this carrying 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
one _cuarto_ less than any body else will take it at," and signed
his name; a _cuarto_ being 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 amount shipped 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 or _estanco_
department 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, as from Antique to 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.

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