Recollections of Manilla and the Philippines

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

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These good men have penetrated, where soldiers dare not enter with
arms in their hands, and in their case, truly, the sword has given
place to the gown, with good effects to all concerned in the reduction
of these wild Indians to the Roman Catholic faith, and the arts of
civilized life; for many hundreds of them, nay, I believe thousands,
are now peaceful cultivators of the soil, which, these good fathers
have taught them how to till, instead of living, as they formerly did,
at warfare with mankind, and solely on the produce of the chase.

How these differences of race and language have arisen, it is probably
impossible now to discover, at least I have never heard any one of
the many theories on the subject, for they are nothing more than
speculations, which could sustain all the requirements necessary to
account for their existence in their present state.

In the character of the native Indians there are very many good points,
although they have long had a bad name, from their characters and
descriptions coming from the Spanish mouths, who are too indolent
to investigate it beyond their households, or at the most beyond
their city walls; as very few, indeed, of all the Spaniards I met
with have ever been in the country any distance from Manilla, except
those whose duty it has been to proceed to a distance, as an alcalde
of the province, or as an officer of the troops scattered through
the islands,--very many of whom remain at home in the residency or
in their quarters, smoking or drinking chocolate, and bewailing their
hard fates, which have condemned them to live so far away from Manilla,
from the theatre, and from society. They come and go without knowing,
or caring to know, anything about the people around them, except when
a feast-day comes, when they are always ready enough to visit their
houses, dance with the beauties, and consume their suppers.

The most noticeable traits in the Philippine Indians appear to be
their hospitality, good-nature, and _bonhommie_ which very many
of them have. Their tempers are quick; but, like all of that sort,
after effervescing, soon subside into quiet again.

Very frequently have I been invited to enter their houses in the
country, when loitering about during the heat of the sun, under
the protection of an immense and thick sombrero which prevented me
suffering much from the exposure; and on going into one of them,
after the host or hostess had accommodated me with a seat on the
_banco_ of bamboo, a cigarillo, or the _buyo_, which is universally
chewed by them, and composed of the betel nut and lime spread over an
envelope of leaf, such as nearly all Asiatics use, has been offered
by the handsome, though swarthy, hands of the hostess or of a grown-up
daughter: or, if their rice was cooking at the time, often have I been
invited to share it, and have sometimes so made a most excellent and
hearty meal, using the natural aid of the fingers in place of a spoon,
or other of the customary aids for eating. After eating they always
wash their hands and mouths, so cleanly are their habits.

So long as any white man behaves properly towards them, and treats
them as human beings should be treated, their character will evince
many good points; but should they be beaten or abused without a
cause, or for something that they do not understand, as they but too
frequently are when composing the crews of ships, the masters of which
are seldom able to speak to them in their own language or in Spanish:
who can blame them if the knife is drawn from its sheath, and their
own arm avenges the maltreatment of some brutal shipmaster or his
mates for the wrong they have suffered at their hands? In all I have
seen or had to do with them they have never appeared as aggressors,
and it has only been when the white men, despising their dark skins,
have ventured on unjustifiable conduct, that I have heard of their
hands being raised to revenge it.

When they know that they are in the wrong, however, should the
harshest measures be used towards them, I have never known or heard
of their having had recourse to the knife, and I have frequently seen
them suffer very severe bodily chastisement for very slight causes
of offence.

They are easily kept in order by gentleness, but have spirit enough to
resent ill-treatment if undeserved. Not long ago an instance of the
kind happened to a person who has the character of being a violent
and irascible man. He one day fell into a passion about something
or other, and fastened his ill-nature and passion on an inoffensive
servant who chanced to be near him at the time, and ended some abuse
by ordering the man to go into a room, where he followed him, and after
locking the door and putting the key into his pocket, took up a riding
switch and began to flog the servant, who bore it for a while, until,
losing his temper completely, he seized his master by the throat,
and, taking the whip from him, administered with it quite as much
castigation as he had himself received.

Their general character is that of a good-natured and merry people,
strongly disposed to enjoy the present, and caring little for the
future.

So far as regards personal strength and mental activity or power,
they are much superior to any of the Javanese or Malays I have seen
in Java, or at Batavia and Singapore. But, to our modes of thinking,
the greatest defect in their character is their indolence and dislike
to any bodily exertion, which are the effects of the sun under which
they live; but their native maxims and their habits, although we
may disapprove of them now-a-days, when everything goes by steam,
might be dignified by a great poet's verse into the truest and best
philosophy; for does he not sing,--

Otium bello furiosa Thrace,
Otium Medi pharetra decori
Grosphe, non gemmis, neque purpura venale, nec auro.

Vivitur parvo bene, cui paternum
Splendat in mensa tenui salinum;
Nec leves somnos timor aut Cupido
Sordidus aufert.

Laetus in praesens animus, quod ultra est
Oderit curare, et amara lento
Temperet risu, &c.----Hor. II. xvi.

CHAPTER XVIII.

At Manilla a labourer's pay is a quarter of a dollar a-day, or a little
more than a shilling, which is enough to keep him supplied with food
of as good quality and quantity as he needs to eat for about two or
three days, so that if a labourer or coolie, who has only himself to
support, work two days out of the seven, he has enough to supply all
his necessities, and can enjoy what is to him a high degree of pleasure
and amusement,--the training of a cock for the cockpit, sleeping
a long siesta, gossiping with his neighbour, and chewing _buyos_,
or smoking cigarillos, quite at his ease, during the rest of the time.

They have all a strong dislike to settling down to any employment
demanding the exercise of much bodily exertion, even when it is well
remunerated; and the consequence is, that the extreme difficulty of
procuring labour forms the greatest drawback there is to a planter
settling in the Philippines, and not unfrequently causes the one or two
people who have now got plantations there on a small scale, to suffer
the utmost inconvenience in the management of their estates; and this
operates to so great an extent, as virtually to prevent any one but a
very bold and speculative man investing money in sugar plantations,
or otherwise locking it up in agriculture. Government has long been
sensible of this, and the present Captain-General has issued an order,
containing a permission for persons engaging in plantations to import
Chinese labourers, to whom, if actually engaged in tilling the soil,
are conceded certain privileges which they have not hitherto enjoyed,
being subject to less tribute than what is paid by the rest of their
countrymen who are engaged in other avocations.

This decree had been lying ready for years in the desks of the
Government officials, no Governor till recently having had the courage
to publish an order so greatly in advance of their general policy. As
it is, this is one of the greatest steps they have ever taken in
the right direction; and I trust it may be attended with the best
effects, although some of the restrictions on the China labourers
may tell against it; and I fear that the large outlay necessary to
import labour from China, while they have a supply, although it is
a very uncertain one, at their doors, without incurring the expense
and risk of doing so, may hinder the success of the scheme.

There are very few people in the colony who are possessed of the
capital necessary to start a plantation on a large scale. And the
existing laws prevent or check foreigners doing so, unless they
get married to a Spanish or native woman, which, from their general
character, few British would like to do; or by abjuring their religion,
and getting naturalized, which is a measure equally or more repugnant
to the human breast, unless self-interest is the beacon which directs
the path, or is the motive for doing so.

However, should plantations on a large scale ever be carried on
in these islands with an equal degree of facility, science, care,
and attention, and with the improved machinery now employed in sugar
estates in Jamaica and elsewhere, there can be little doubt that the
productions of the islands will be greatly increased, and it will do
good so far; but whether it would tend to improve the condition, or
increase the comforts of the people, now so independent of care for
a livelihood, appears to be more than doubtful; in other respects,
it would do them good, by stimulating their energies.

At present there are no large plantations on the islands, although
two or three of small size exist, none of which are understood to be
sufficiently remunerating to offer any inducement to invest money in
a similar manner.

At Jalajala, M. Vidie, an hospitable old Frenchman, has an estate;
but I understand that the most unceasing efforts, and the greatest
economy, care, and attention, have been necessary to make it answer,
both on his part and on that of its former owner, an Anglo-American,
and a person of great ingenuity, who got so much disgusted with the
incessant battle he had to fight with the soil, and those who tilled
it, that after overcoming the greatest difficulties, he sold the
estate, and was glad to be quit of it.

The whole of the productions of the islands are raised by the poor
Indian cultivators, each from his own small patch of land, which they
till with very simple, though efficient implements of agriculture.

With the existing high prices of labour, there is, however, probably
nearly as much surplus produce available for exportation as there
would be for years to come, under the system of large plantations and
dear labour. Because the present occupiers of the land--employing
no hired labour, but only directing the industry of the farmer and
that of his family, to the small patch on which they were born, and,
of course, have some affection for--are certain to expend far more
labour on their own land, and to bring it to a much higher degree of
cultivation, than it would suit the purpose of a large planter to do;
who, like the Australian or Canadian colonist, would probably find it
most for his interest to cultivate a large surface of land imperfectly,
as under high wages of labour, and comparatively cheap land, it would
be likely to yield him a better return than if he cultivated only a
small surface of ground highly.

For this seems to be the only policy, where the elements to be combined
are dear labour and cheap land; just as when they are dear land and
cheap labour, the contrary would be the case, as it is in Britain.

Now, when I call a quarter of a dollar per diem a high rate of labour,
I may be misunderstood if it is not stated that this rate, when paid
to the slow and careless Indian labourer, is fully equivalent to
three times that sum to a white or British labourer working at home;
as an able-bodied man at home would do about three times as much work,
and would perform it in a highly superior manner.

These reasons make me loath to see the present system of small holdings
changed, which would sever old and respectable ties, and would force
the present independent Indian cottage-farmer to seek employment from
the extensive cultivator, and, without getting more work out of him
in the course of a year, would lower him in self-respect, and in the
many virtues which that teaches, without deriving any correspondent
advantage to society.

In a tropical climate the elements of society are varied, and
quite different from those of a country with a climate like that of
Great Britain. A native Indian, under a tropical sun, could scarcely
support a system of really _hard_ labour for six days of the week for
any length of time; and their indolent habits are, in some degree,
necessary to their existence, perhaps as much as his night's rest
is to the British labourer; for without days of relaxation to supply
the stamina which they have lost during exposure to the sun and hard
labour under it, it is my decided opinion that the men so exposed,
and exhausted, would, after a very few years, knock themselves up,
and become unfit to work, thereby rendering themselves an unproductive
class, and burdens on their friends and on society.

The present cultivators, who show a high degree of intelligence
in many of their operations, in cultivating their staple, rice,
for example, actually expend more labour on their land, and work
much more constantly than any hirelings would do; as at Jalajala,
out of upwards of a hundred labourers in the village who had no other
employment or source of revenue but their labour, not above a third
of the able-bodied men mustered in the fields when the labours of
the day began in the morning; and I understood from the owner of the
estate, that under no circumstances could he prevail on the whole
body of labourers to muster, nor, so long as their rice lasts, will
they work; it is only when that fails, and they will starve if they
do not exert themselves, that they will undergo hard labour in the
fields under the broiling sun.

CHAPTER XIX.

Very few of the native Indians or Mestizos are possessed of much
wealth, according to British ideas of the term, although there are some
of the latter class who are considered among themselves as very well
off, if their savings amount to from five to twenty thousand dollars;
and when they reach fifty thousand dollars, they are looked upon as
rich capitalists.

In Manilla, there are one or two of these Mestizo traders whose
fortunes amount to more than this; but such occurances are rare,
and are seldom heard of. Many of these amounts have been collected
together by their possessors by their engaging in a sort of usurious
money-lending or banking business with the poverty-struck cultivators
of the soil, by advancing seed to many of them for their paddy fields,
and making the hard condition of exacting in return about one half
of the produce of the ensuing crop. But perhaps these money-lenders
are, to a certain extent, necessary to supply the wants of an
improvident and careless race, these habits being besetting sins of
the Indian character; yet there can be little doubt that the money
acquired by such a usurious repayment of the sums advanced, does
an immense deal of harm, and lessens the natural independence of
the Indians who are so unfortunate as to fall into the clutches of
the money-lender. Should a poor Indian, the possessor of a patch of
paddy-land capable of producing very little more than is required to
feed his family, once run short of seed, he has a very hard battle to
fight with the soil before he is able to get that debt cleared off,
should his neighbours be too poor to assist him, as he must then have
recourse to the usurer. For although, through his greater efforts and
improved cultivation, he may produce much more paddy than his land
had done before, yet he is seldom able to save enough for seed from
the moiety of the produce which his appetite restricted to live upon,
as the other half must go to repay the usurer who advanced him seed,
or money to purchase it.

I have seldom heard of Europeans engaging in this business, for which
their nature and habits are much less suitable than those Mestizo
capitalists who devote themselves to the traffic.

These debts are frequently contracted by the Indians in emulating the
splendour of some richer neighbour on their patron saint's feast-day,
when, in proportion to their means, an immense deal of extravagant
expenditure usually takes place; but, with the exception of the
cockpit, all their other expenses are very slight and thrifty.

Their houses are mostly composed of attap, or nipa grass, on a bamboo
framework fixed on and supported by several strong wooden posts,
generally the trunks of trees, sunk deep enough in the ground to
render them capable of resisting the violent gales of wind common
over all the islands during particular months of the year. In the
villages some of the richer natives have wooden houses--that is to
say, the framework of the part of the house dwelt in is of wood,
being generally supported by a stone wall which composes the bodega,
&c., underneath.

Their furniture is generally made from the bamboo, and from this most
useful plant several of their household utensils are also formed;
all these are of the simplest description, but amply sufficient to
supply their wants.

A crucifix, and the portraits of several saints, are universally
found attached to the walls, and before these they are at all seasons
accustomed devoutly to repeat their morning and evening orisons--all
the family kneeling while the mother recites the prayer.

At nearly all houses in the country a large mortar scooped out of the
trunk of some tree is found, being the instrument employed to free
their paddy from the husk, and convert it into rice. This operation
appears to rank among those household duties which fall to the wife's
share to perform. The pestle is sometimes of considerable weight;
and when it is so, is worked by two women at once.

In their field operations the buffalo is the only animal employed,
and is probably the only one domesticated possessing the requisite
strength to perform the work, as the country oxen and horses are much
too small; and although more active, are too weak to drag the plough
through the flooded paddy fields in which they would get entangled and
sink, sometimes to their middles; but through land in this state the
bulky buffalo delights to wade, and, although slowly, creeps along,
and forces himself through.

In the towns the buffalo is still employed in carts and light work,
for which it is not so well suited as the active-paced horses or oxen
of the country would be, and they no doubt will in time be adopted
for these purposes.

In the country the horses are only used for the saddle, and for
conveying small packages of goods from one country shopkeeper to
another, as the roads they have to traverse are such as to preclude
any use of conveyances upon wheels.

CHAPTER XX.

Throughout the islands there is a part of every village set apart for
the market-place, where in the early morning, and after sunset in the
evening, the utmost activity in buying and selling prevails. At all of
these places rice, fish, and butcher meat (generally, but not always),
fruit, and merchandise of the most suitable sorts to supply the wants
of the people who are likely to purchase it, are exposed for sale. It
is a curious scene to walk through such a place for the first time,
especially after sunset, when the red glare of the torches or lamps
shows to perfection the sparkling eyes, swarthy features, and long
hair, which, waving about over the foreheads of the men, gives them a
wildness of look, which their sombre dress, consisting of a dark blue
shirt and trousers, having nothing to attract the attention from the
sparkle of their eyes, makes all the more striking.

In Santa Cruz market-place at Manilla, between the hours of six and
eight in the morning and evening, an immense crowd collect to supply
their household wants, and innumerable are the articles displayed
in the shops;--here the cochineal of Java, there the sago of Borneo,
or the earthenware of China. In the Bamboo Islands the more perishable
commodities are exposed for sale; and fish being the principal article
of the natives' food (and also a favourite one of the white men),
is found exposed for sale in large quantities. But all so offered
is dead, even when the vendor is a Chinaman, although in his native
country great quantities of it are hawked about the streets by the
sellers carrying them alive, in water, so that the purchaser is
certain always to have this food fresh and untainted by keeping;
for even a few hours is sufficient to spoil it in this climate.

The market is well supplied with all descriptions of fish caught in
the Pasig or the bay, most of which are well tasted; the fishermen of
the villages in the neighbourhood being the principal suppliers. A
small sort is found in the river very much resembling white-bait in
taste. Shrimps are also consumed in large quantities. After the rains
there may generally be procured, by those who like them, frogs, which
are taken from the ditch round the walls in great numbers, and are
then fat, and in good condition for eating, making a very favourite
curry of some of the Europeans, their flesh being very tender.

The natives principally eat fish, but there is besides a large quantity
of beef and pork consumed by them, which are always procurable,
except on Fridays, when some little difficulty may be experienced in
procuring flesh, as there is only enough killed on the morning of
that day to supply the wants of the invalids. The country-fed pork
is seldom or never seen at the tables of Europeans, these animals
being too frequently allowed to feed in a most disgusting manner;
and many pigs may at any time be seen in the suburbs of the town
where the Indians dwell roaming about the streets, and efficiently
performing the duties of scavengers, by removing the filth and garbage
from many of these remote streets.

But notwithstanding their knowing, and in fact daily seeing, this
gross and disgusting mode of feeding, it is the most universal and
favourite food of the Chinese at Manilla, and is also a favourite
with the Indians.

The continued use of pork so fed not unfrequently produces a skin
disease called sarnas, something resembling itch.

Fowls, turkeys, and ducks, both tame and wild, are at all times
procurable, the supplies of the latter being from the Laguna. Geese
are seldom or never exposed for sale, but are sometimes sent from
China to private persons merely for their own consumption.

It is a curious thing that geese will not produce eggs, or sit upon
them to hatch their young, at Manilla; and it is also a sufficiently
odd circumstance, that turkeys die in a short time after reaching
Singapore, where they are sometimes sent to private individuals for
domestic use, although they thrive very well both in the Philippines
and in Java. At Singapore, however, after being a few days ashore,
some of them are attacked by a peculiar sickness, apparently giddiness
of the head, which invariably ends in death in a few minutes after
the commencement of the attack. All these birds are subject to it at
that place, if allowed to go about too long before being seized upon
by the cook.

The principal food of the Indians being rice, it is found exposed for
sale, in large and small quantities, in the bazaars, where nearly all
the kinds of fruits of the season may also be found. The catalogue
of fruits grown in the islands is a long one, but among those most
commonly seen may be reckoned plantains of all kinds, of which
there are an immense variety; mangoes, which are remarkably good,
and superior to any species grown in the East, excepting those of
Bombay, to which they are equal; the custard-apple, the pine-apple,
seldom equal to those of Batavia or Singapore; limes, and oranges,
not very good, and greatly inferior to those of China, from whence
some are imported by the trading Spanish vessels constantly running
between the two places; melons of different kinds, of middling quality;
cucumbers, pumpkins, jackfruit, lanzones, and many other sorts.

The best gardens, or those from which Manilla is chiefly supplied with
fruit, are in the vicinity of Cavite, from which place the country
people bring it every morning, the carriers being generally young
women, who, from the steadiness requisite to balance the fruit-baskets
on their heads, acquire a good walk, somewhat at the expense of their
necks, however.

The most common sorts of vegetables exposed for sale appear to be the
sweet potatoes, yams, and lettuce; and green pea-pods are sometimes
to be had, but the latter are seldom good.

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