Recollections of Manilla and the Philippines

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

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On Talim some deer and pigs may now and then be seen, although it
is too much frequented and disturbed to be at all a sure cover for
them; my companion shot a very beautiful variety of the hawk on the
island. After enjoying the hospitality of M. Vidie, an old French
planter at Jalajala, we set off in the direction of Tanay, whence we
had heard good reports of the game.

During a strong monsoon there is sometimes a heavy swell on the
water of the Laguna, and occasionally boats are swamped or upset,
so that frequently when we used to go out in our Pasig banca it was
against the will of our boatmen; but like true and stubborn Britons,
we always insisted upon having our own way, although the boatmen, who
certainly knew most about it, used to predict that we should all be
swamped to a certainty, but a well-trimmed and moderately well-handled
boat can go through any sea, and it is generally from want of care that
accidents occur. On one occasion in Manilla Bay, I have been swamped
solely from that cause, and the fright of a companion, whose alarm
induced the catastrophe by diverting the men's attention. However,
as an American whaler was luckily near and saw our situation, they
lowered a whale-boat and picked us up.

At the lake, in stormy weather, we used to go out with two men
steering the boat, each with a powerful paddle, and the remainder
of the crew managing the sail. Sometimes we got half full of water,
which it was the duty of the boy Fernando to bale out, but when he got
seasick and tired, we both set to to keep her free. On one occasion
of the sort, my chum Adam, taking pity on the forlorn condition of
the puking Fernando, recommended to him frequent sips from a bottle
of brandy, to keep away the retching; the hint was not thrown away,
and the lad lay down in the bottom of the boat, looking as miserable
as possible, and quite sick, utterly forgetful or unconscious of the
soiled condition of the splendid pina shirt which he wore at the time;
although in his hours of ease it commonly attracted a large proportion
of his regard and self-complacency. After many sips, apparently, the
brandy produced the desired effect, as my follower ceased to project
his mouth, every now and then, over the side of the banca, but had
sunk into a sound sleep, caused, we imagined, by the exhaustion and
lassitude subsequent to sea-sickness; and so he remained till our
approaching Tanay, when the sail was lowered, and he roused up and
left to bring our luggage up to the Casa Real, or townhouse, where
there is always a chamber and bedstead for strangers. For that place
we started, leaving him to follow.

After waiting some time impatiently, we were rather surprised to
see two of the boatmen marching up with Fernando, who gave tokens of
extreme lassitude and unsteadiness of gait, showing at times, when
he raised his drooping head, an attempt to shake off his conductors,
who were on these little manifestations reinforced by two of their
companions, who followed them, bearing our portmanteaus; and at length
the procession would move on again. After some difficulty they got
him into the Casa Real, where one of the men, spreading a mat upon
the floor, laid him down on it, staring wildly about him. After
contemplating him for a few seconds, he turned to me, and, inverting
the mouth of an empty bottle, to prove satisfactorily that it was
empty of the _vieux cognac_, which was marked on the label, laid it
down beside him, saying, "Es muy boracho, Senor, pero es valiente."

And so resulted the cure of sea-sickness by brandy, of which the lad
had taken such a dose as to shake him severely, although a strong
young fellow, for several days after it; in fact, we both became
afraid of him, and vowed never again to recommend the medicine,
except in quantities less than a bottle at a time.

CHAPTER XV.

Adam W---- having on a former shooting expedition been at Tanay,
had at the time made the acquaintance of some of the townspeople,
who had shown him all the attentions in their power; so that soon
after our arrival, having dressed and refreshed at the Casa Real,
we sallied out together to call on several of his old acquaintances,
hoping to obtain from some of them such information and assistance
as would help us discovering the whereabouts of a good huntsman and
guide, in order that we might avail ourselves of his local knowledge
in selecting the best district of the neighbourhood for sport.

On entering the house of the Fiel of Tobacco, we were most hospitably
received and warmly invited to take quarters there during our residence
in Tanay; and as the offer was much too good to be refused, even
had it been less warmly backed by the unequivocal demonstrations
of welcome than those which they evinced, it was at once accepted,
with not the less good-will because there was only the Casa Real
to sleep in had we chosen to refuse it, which assuredly no one who
had the fear of bugs, fleas, or musquitoes before his eyes would do,
these animals being of the utmost size and activity in every one of
the Casas Reales I have ever slept in.

After some conversation with our host, who was rather a fine-looking
Spanish Mestizo, as to our plans, &c., he most good-naturedly set
off to seek a huntsman whom he recommended as a guide, leaving us in
the meantime to the society of his wife--a strapping native beauty,
although somewhat swarthy, full of good nature and the gossip of the
place. From her, Adam soon learned all about his former acquaintances,
and among others of the Capitan Tomas, his buxom wife, and pretty
daughter, who we were told was considered the beauty of the town.

After their names had been mentioned with that addition, he got
rather impatient all of a sudden for a stroll about the town; so we
started together, after paying a visit to our portmanteaus and the
still insensible Fernando, at the town-house, where my friend armed
himself with a bottle of eau de Cologne, a box of which I found that
he carried about with him for distribution among such native beauties
as he was ambitious of standing well with, for they were sure to like
this perfume, which his experience of the country taught him was seldom
procurable in such out-of-the-way places, and to a dead certainty
always procured him favour in the eyes of the unsophisticated fair,
whom he taught how to use it.

For this it was that he had hinted something about thieves and the
state of Fernando, and proposed looking in to see if the portmanteaus
were still safe at the Casa Real, so I resolved to be revenged
for the double dealing of his proposal upon seeing the top of the
Cologne bottle peeping out from his shooting-jacket pocket. I watched
a chance, and snatched it away without being noticed, determined that
the half-caste beauty whose praises he was so eloquent in during our
promenade, should not have him to thank it for at all events.

We reached the house, and were well received by the Capitan, who
pressed us to stop with him, and when he found we were engaged, invited
us to pass next day with him, which, as the beauty was looking her very
best, there was great risk of our doing, in preference to prosecuting
our pig-shooting scheme, as had been originally intended. Poor Adam was
evidently smitten by her attractions. After talking with these good
people for some time, I observed that his attention was engrossed
in watching Rita's movements, when, as the Capitan, his wife, and
myself were all standing at an open window, looking at the flowers in
his garden, and talking away, and their daughter, occupied in some
household duty, was leaving the sala, Adam, who had been watching
like a lynx for such an opportunity, seized it on the moment, and
managed to slip away from us, and get out of the room after her, in
the hopes of being able to snatch a kiss or something of the sort,
and to present the scented water, which he had not missed from his
pocket, although as he slipped away in all the agitation of pursuit,
I saw first one hand and then the other slipped into the pockets of
the coat where it should have been; but he was so much engaged in
getting out of the room quickly and silently, that he did not miss
it. Reaching the open door just as she had gone out, when about two
paces beyond it, he popped his head over her shoulder unobserved, and
stole a kiss; I heard the smack, then a rustle, and then a titter,
during which Adam was searching his pockets for the missing bottle,
which of course he did not find there; and when he said something
or other about the kiss, he foolishly, in his search for it, told
her that he had lost so very desirable a present; upon which, as he
afterwards told me, the beauty looked saucy, and very plainly did
not believe a word about it, but fancied he had invented the story to
excuse the kiss, and pretended to get a little angry with the liberty
taken with her blooming cheek; so she walked off, and left him quite
at a loss to account for its disappearance.

Before leaving, I took an opportunity of presenting the missing bottle
at a time when the owner of it was not by, and fancied, from the blush
which gave additional beauty to her cheek as I did so, that with the
natural quickness of a woman and a beauty, she had read the stratagem
played off on poor Adam; so she frankly offered me the same reward,
by presenting her blooming lips to be kissed, even by so very recent
an acquaintance.

On making arrangements for a shooting party, it is quite necessary to
hire beaters to drive the game, which there would be little chance
otherwise of sighting, without undergoing more walking than most
people find pleasant under a tropical sun.

Having had the precaution to bring our own saddles with us, some
miserable-looking ponies were procured, and started with a guide at
an early hour in the morning, along a path formed for the most part,
up and down thickly wooded hills, the road being sometimes a dry
watercourse, or mountain stream.

However, we got over the ground, passing through a beautiful country,
and arrived at the meet after a four hours' ride, the place appointed
being a hut belonging to the huntsman, and surrounded by three paddy
fields, which he tilled, with his family, but did not live there,
except at planting and reaping time, or for about six weeks of the
year, from fear of the tulisanes, who, he said, frequented this
wild and uninhabited neighbourhood. This is a frequent effect of the
bad police of the Philippines, as much of the country that might be
most advantageously cultivated, is abandoned to the jungle, solely
from fear of these robbers, who sometimes add to their plundering
propensities crimes of a more atrocious dye.

After some good sport with deer and pigs, which constituted the supper
of ourselves and all the beaters, night was very welcome, and seldom,
indeed, did either of us enjoy repose more than in this hut, although
through the holes in the grass walls of it the wind was whistling,
and near us the beaters were noisily carousing, miscellaneously,
upon sherry, cognac, and beer, it mattered not which to them, for we
had presented some bottles of each, in order to celebrate the good
day's sport.

Next morning we heard of a wild cimmarone (or buffalo) having been
seen in the neighbourhood some days previously, and endeavoured to
find out his whereabouts, but none of the scouts could get a trace of
him. Although these splendid animals are occasionally found in the
country, they are not very common, and their reputation for savage
ferocity is so great, that few of the Indians like to shoot them,
because, if merely wounded without being disabled, they are certain
to charge the hunter, which is more than Oriental nerves are fond of.

Monkeys chattering in the trees are very common; but I never shot
any of them, having, in truth, an antipathy to kill a brute with a
shape so nearly human.

Near this end of the lake few Europeans ever go, as it is quite out
of the beaten track, which leads them in an opposite direction, to
look down the crater of a volcano, generally simmering, but seldom
boiling over to such an extent as to spout lava to any distance.

Calamba and Calawan are also places they usually go to see; at
the latter of which, there is a cotton-spinning mill, the property
of a Mestizo, who dresses like a Spaniard, and no doubt wishes to
be considered such. The machinery employed is of Belgian or French
make, and of a very simple construction, and far from being equal to
the sort now used at home for the purpose; but is considered by its
owner to be the only sort that would answer well there, as it can be
kept in order, and even, I believe, put into repair on occasion by a
native blacksmith, who acts as engineer, which could not, of course,
be the case were machinery of a finer and more complex and elaborate
construction employed, as that would render a staff of good European
workmen essential to keep it in order and good repair, and their pay
in this climate, would run away with all the profits of the adventure.

The yarn produced is of the coarser descriptions, and is only saleable
to the native weavers of cotton cloth, by the excessive duty put on
grey cotton twist of British manufacture, which is 40 per cent. on a
high _ad valorem_ valuation if imported by a Spanish ship, and 50 per
cent. if by any foreign vessel, amounting virtually to a prohibition
on its importation.

At the village of Los Banos, on the shores of the laguna, there are
some hot springs, flowing into baths cut out of the natural rock.

The temperature of the water as it issues from the rock is sufficient
to boil an egg; but not having a thermometer, we were unable to
ascertain it more exactly. As it mixes with the cool water of the
laguna, however, the heat decreases, and at sunrise on a cool morning
forms just there a very pleasant bath. The baths, from which the place
is named, having for long been little frequented by invalids, are now
in a semi-ruinous state. In cases of debility they are said to be most
beneficial, and the old Manilla doctor, Don Lorenzo Negrao, whose long
experience of the country and of the diseases incidental to it is most
valuable, in such cases sometimes recommends his patients to try these
baths for some peculiar diseases, and once recommended them to me.

The great mistake of our doctors in India is dosing their patients
with calomel, which, although necessary in some cases, where it is the
only medicine powerful enough to arrest the rapid strides with which
disease advances in tropical countries, is too often had recourse to,
when simples would be just as effective. And this mistake of theirs is
equalled, in bad effects only, by the practice of the Spanish doctors,
who will never administer calomel at all, even in the most urgent
cases, as they prefer trusting altogether to simple remedies for a
cure, and if a patient dies who has had calomel administered to him,
do not hesitate to tell the practitioner who gave it that the medicine
killed him.

Within the tropics lengthened residence is the most essential
qualification in a medical attendant, as although old men may not be
so well up to the latest improvements of the science as those fresh
from college, yet they have from practice found out the best way of
treating tropical diseases, to which the treatment applicable in a
London, Edinburgh, or Paris hospital in similar cases, would be quite
out of place when practised in so different a climate as the tropics,
where the symptoms vary and succeed each other with ten times the
rapidity they do in Europe.

CHAPTER XVI.

Before leaving Manilla on a lengthened country excursion, it is always
desirable to procure introductions to the priests of the district you
are going to visit, which may be effected with very little difficulty
by almost any of your Spanish acquaintances. As although they are
in general a most hospitable class of men, and usually invite any
respectable looking European whom chance may throw in their way, to
sleep at the convento if he be passing the night at their village,
yet without an introduction one remains always a stranger to them,
and sees nothing of their usual habits or modes of life.

Sometimes their good-nature is put to a trial by the eccentricities
of their British guests, and some odd incidents happen. A good story
is told of one of the former British merchants of the place, who
having taken it into his head to make an excursion, before starting
provided himself with letters of recommendation from the Archbishop
of Manilla, to whom he paid court by loans of newspapers, addressed
to the parish priests, and set off with these in his pocket, finding
them of the greatest service in insuring a welcome wherever he went,
being described therein in the most favourable colours, by the high
church dignitary.

One day, after a long and fatiguing ride, he arrived, about two in the
afternoon, in a very ravenous state, at a convent or parsonage. On
ascending the stairs of the convento, the first thing which met the
eyes of the hungry traveller was a table neatly arranged for the
padre's dinner, who, he was informed by the servants, would be back
in about an hour to dine. An hour still--why it seemed to be a century
since he had broken his fast; however, he waited for what appeared to a
hungry man to be a long time, but in reality was probably ten minutes,
when, losing all patience at the non-appearance of the priest, whose
house he had so coolly taken possession of, he told the boys to put
something to eat on the table, and they, apparently mistaking his
meaning, in a trice served up the good priest's half-cooked dinner,
which, without the delay of asking any questions, he proceeded to
devour. In a very short space of time he had cleared away the best
part of it, and was beginning to relax in his exertions, as the good
effects of a hearty meal began to mollify his craving stomach, in
fact he was just beginning to attack the last relic of a fat capon,
which formed the main battle of the dishes set out before him, when
a heavy footstep was heard on the stairs, and in another instant the
gaunt figure of the priest himself stood before the empty plates on the
dinner table, and the unknown and unexpected guest, whose jaws were at
the moment occupied in masticating the last morsel of the fat fowl,
which the father had ordered for himself, and looking forward to it
had caused him to take a lengthened promenade, in order to promote
appetite. Imagine the scene--but whether the good padre's momentary
wrath, and then utter astonishment and indignation, or the guest's
embarrassment, were greatest--or the most ludicrous, it would be hard
to determine. For some time they merely looked at each other, without
speaking--the priest, probably, because he could not articulate--and
his guest, perhaps, because his mouth was full--till the absurdity of
the whole affair apparently striking them both at once, they mutually
broke out into laughter, the violence of which threatened to convulse
them. From this, however, the padre was the first to recover, when the
intruder, mastering his muscles, regained his countenance so far as
to be able to mutter something in the shape of an apology, in which,
probably, the word "starvation" was the only one intelligible; after
it had been good-humouredly received, and the priest had welcomed the
strange guest, the Archbishop's letter was produced as his credentials,
but not till then. And afterwards they passed the evening together in
the old convento, which, as the evening advanced, rang to many a merry
laugh and jest about the affair in which both had figured so awkwardly.

The caprices of all the visitors to the country are not, however,
so harmless; it is not long since a party of young men, headed by one
notorious for his love of fun, and what are called practical jokes,
chartered a _chatta_, or covered cargo boat, of from 25 to 30 tons,
and having put two carronades on board of her, set sail for the laguna,
and while there amused themselves by bearing down, after nightfall,
on the villages and towns on its banks, and bombarding them with the
guns, taking care, however, not to do harm or to kill any one, either
by not shooting the guns, or if there was a ball in one of them, by
aiming it a little over the houses, so as not to damage them. On the
noise made by the guns being heard, and the flash seen so close to them
in the dark nights, the whole male population of the place would turn
out in haste to repel the attack of this supposed band of tulisanes,
arming themselves with any sort of weapon, and getting the women and
children out of harm's way by sending them off--and probably an urgent
despatch would be forwarded by the gobernadorcillo of the village to
the governor of the province, if he lived within some few miles of
him, requesting assistance--or detailing the flight of the robbers,
who, on seeing the determination and force of the villagers prepared
to defend their hearths, had not ventured to attempt landing, but had
sailed away without having been able to do any damage to the pueblo.

These midnight bombardments were repeated so frequently as to lead the
local authorities to make great efforts to put down the daring troop
of robbers who bearded them at their very doors at the town of Santa
Cruz, near which the Governor lives, and kept the country people,
who had begun to talk about them, in a state of constant alarm.

Notwithstanding all their efforts to discover the hiding-place of the
band, nothing could be found out about them, no one ever imagining
that the party of gentlemen in the chatta could be at all mixed up
with them--in fact, the well-intentioned alcalde of the province,
hearing that such a party was visiting the lake, sent off a _ministro_
to give them information about the desperate band of tulisanes who
were lurking in the neighbourhood, and advised them to be upon their
guard against an attack; for which attention they of course thanked
him, and assured the envoy that it was for that reason only they had
provided themselves with the two formidable looking pieces of ordnance
which he saw in the boat.

They were not found out to have been representing the parts of the
supposed tulisanes, till, on their return to Manilla, where people
had heard of the disturbances in the province of the Laguna by these
robbers, and were talking about it, the story somehow got wind, and,
when it was known who had caused so much trouble, of course there
was a general laugh at the local authorities.

Lucky enough it was, however, that the affair rested there, as all
of the party might have suffered severely for their amusement and
fondness for carronading. It only caused the government to increase
their strictness in giving passports to the country, which now were
only conceded on the pleas of urgent business, or of ill health when
that was backed by a medical certificate; the alcalde also became
more strict in seeing that all travellers through the province were
provided with these documents.

CHAPTER XVII.

In the course of these excursions to the country, the native Indians,
with a stray half-breed, generally of the China Mestizo race, are
nearly the only people met with, as few Europeans are settled in the
provinces, except in the provincial capitals, or near the alcalde,
whose dependents they generally are. Should a stranger be able to
speak to the natives in their own language, he has a much better
opportunity of becoming acquainted with their character, habits,
and feelings, than if he is merely able to speak Spanish, a language
which only a very small proportion of them understand in the country,
although most of those in the neighbourhood of Manilla can speak
it after a fashion. For although the law makes it requisite for the
Capitan of every pueblo to be able to speak as well as to read and
write Spanish, yet this is not always the case, as I have frequently
met with these officials, more especially in out-of-the-way places,
who did not understand it.

Nearly the whole, certainly above three-fourths of the population, make
use of the Tagala or Tagaloc language, which, so far as I am aware,
is quite peculiar to these islands, having little or no similarity
to Malayee, so that it does not appear to have been derived from a
Malay root, although some few Malay words have been engrafted on it,
probably from the circumstance of that language being made use of
in the province of Bisayas, which is the only place in the islands
where it is spoken.

In Pampanga province, the natives speak a distinct language, differing
entirely from Tagaloc, quite as much as Welsh does from English,
although many of the Pampangans, on growing up, find it useful to know
how to speak the Tagaloc, which most of them understand a little of.

The _Negritos_, who are found in some parts of the islands, are a
peculiar race, with features exactly resembling the African negro,
although in general smaller made men, but formed with all the
characteristics of the African. They also use a distinct language,
and have very little intercourse with either of the other races--many
tribes of them living, even up to this day, independent of, and
unsubdued by, the Spaniards, whose active missionaries have however
of late years been making every effort to reduce them to allegiance
to the government of Manilla, as well as to the religion of the cross.

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