It was not till a fifth expedition had s_Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara, Volume II (Commodore B. Von Wullerstorf-Urbair,) Undertaken by Order of the Imperial Government in the Years 1857, 1858, & 1859, Under the Immediate Auspices of His I. and R. Highness the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, Commander-In-Chief of the Austrian Navy.

after the first discovery of the Archipelago by Magelhaens, that the

conquest was finally completed. The leader of this was Miguel Lopez de

Legaspi, a man noways inferior to a Cortez or a Pizarro in venturesomeness

of spirit, inflexible perseverance, and brilliant courage, and in humanity

far exceeding either. His squadron consisted of five ships, and his entire

force, including soldiers and mariners, was but 400 men.

On 21st November, 1564, Legaspi sailed from Port Natividad in Spain, and

on 16th February, 1565, hove in sight of the Philippines. The hardy

navigator was accompanied by a number of Augustinian monks, who in the

subsequent subjugation of the islands proved far more serviceable than his

soldiers. The superior of these monks, Fray Andres de Urdaneta, a very

remarkable man, had commanded a ship in the first expedition, and had

afterwards been admitted into the order of St. Augustine.

Four years after their arrival at the Philippines, and after they had

subdued the native inhabitants of the fertile islands of Cebu and Panay,

Legaspi first discovered Luzon, and there in the year 1571 founded the

city of Manila. Since this first conquest the Spaniards have by no means

been permitted to retain undisturbed possession of this smiling cluster of

islands. Not alone the Portuguese and the Dutch bestirred themselves at

various intervals to drive the Spaniards out of the Archipelago, but the

English likewise, in 1762, towards the close of the Seven Years' War,

invaded these settlements.[73]

The area conquered, however, did not extend further inland than to a

distance of ten miles from the walls of the city, and after an occupation

of ten months, Manila was restored to the Crown of Spain by the Peace of

Paris, 1763. Since that memorable period, the Philippine group has

remained uninterruptedly under the dominion of the Spaniards, and has up

to the present day been a faithful dependent of the Royal House of

Castile. In fact, with the exception of Cuba and Porto Rico, the

Philippine and Marianne Archipelagoes are the sole colonies that Spain

still retains of her once so enormous possessions in the distant portions

of the globe, although in Manila even in our own day, as will be more

fully detailed presently, despite her honourable distinction of "_La

Siempre real ciudad_" (The Ever Loyal city), there is no lack of

discontent, and the generally prevailing "loyal tranquillity" is, none the

less, boding many serious perils for the Spanish supremacy.

The most striking peculiarity of the natural configuration of Luzon[74]

is its strongly-marked separation into two peninsulas, a northern, which

comprises the larger portion, and a southern, smaller island; the former

named Luzon by the Spanish, the latter Camarinas. The length of the entire

island, including its numerous curves, is about 550 miles, and its

greatest width about 135 miles, but in many places it is little more than

thirty miles in breadth. The chain of the Caraballos mountains traverse

Luzon from north to south, and sends off spurs in various directions,

which impart an exceeding hilly aspect to the entire island.

The Spaniards divide Luzon into three main divisions; Costa, Contra-Costa,

and Centro, corresponding pretty nearly with the western side, the eastern

side, and the interior of the island, and formerly indicating in what

order these different sections of the country had been subjected to the

Spanish dominion. The latest distribution is into 35 provinces and 12

districts.

Manila, the capital of Luzon, as also of the whole Archipelago, and the

oldest European settlement in this region of the globe, lies at the mouth

of a small but rather rapid river, the Pasig, which after a course of

about 30 miles, draws off to the sea the waters of the great Bay-Lake

(_Laguna de Bay_). In consequence of a not very conveniently situated

mole, the Pasig is forming a bar close to its own embouchure, which makes

it somewhat dangerous for boats to attempt an entrance in bad weather.

Ships, however, can anchor about 1-1/2 miles below the fortified walls of

the city, which, though impregnable to the attack of a native force, would

probably be found powerless to repel a European force attacking from

seaward.

The members of the Scientific Commission started from Cavite, where the

frigate lay at anchor, in the small steamer which plies daily to the

capital, which, when beheld from a distance, with its gloomy, lofty,

defiant fortifications, and its dense clusters of monastic buildings and

church towers, gives the impression rather of some great Catholic Mission

than a place of commerce. In the roads there were not above 16 ships lying

at anchor, whereas we counted 165 in Singapore, a disproportion which,

considering the favourable site of Manila and its wealth in all manner of

valuable produce, can only be accounted for by the pressure of political

and administrative regulations, which weigh like a mountain upon trade and

commerce.

On pulling up the river from its mouth, where it is about 300 feet wide,

we find ourselves in the vicinity of the light-house, in front of a dense

mass of the inevitable filthy bamboo huts, which being inhabited by the

very poorest section of the population, increase the dismal, gloomy

impression left by the first view of the city. We land in the

neighbourhood of the harbour-master's office, and have to pick our steps

through a dirty quarter of the town in order to reach the focus of public

activity.

The river Pasig divides Manila Proper from its sister city of Binondo. Two

handsome bridges, one an old-fashioned stone one, the other a modern

suspension bridge of imposing dimensions, form the communication between

the two cities. Manila, situate on the southern or left bank, and enclosed

on all sides with ditches and fortifications, has all the peculiar

features of a Spanish town of the ancient type. It consists of eight

straight, narrow streets, all running in one direction. Within these are

most of the public buildings; the Governor-general's Palace and that of

the Archbishop, the Municipality, the Supreme Courts, the Cathedral, the

Arsenal, the Barracks. Profound silence reigns in the grass-grown streets,

between the gloomy masses of stone, of which at least one-third are Church

property. There is no evidence anywhere of joyous life or social progress,

and the variegated, charming flower-garden, lately laid out in the square

in front of the Cathedral, stands out like a solitary gay picture, amid

austere, sombre, historical paintings of vanished might and faded

splendour. Within the walls of this melancholy old city only Spaniards and

their descendants may dwell, all other races being excluded from this

privilege. The number of inhabitants within the fortifications does not

probably exceed 10,000 souls.

On the other hand, Binondo, on the northern or right bank of the river, is

the true business city and head-quarters of trade. Here Europeans,

Chinese, Malays, and their endless intermixtures of blood, amounting in

all to more than 140,000 souls, reside in the most perfect harmony with

each other; here are all the warehouses, shops, and manufactories; here

prevails from morning till night a perpetual whirl of busy, cheerful

crowds circulating through the streets, of which that called the Escolta

is the most frequented, as it is the handsomest and most attractive. The

houses, on account of the frequency of earthquakes, are usually one storey

high, enclosing large courts (_patios_), and very frequently with a sort

of terrace on the roof. The interiors of the houses have an unusually

spacious appearance, owing to their almost universally having but little

furniture, in many cases simply a number of chairs ranged along the walls.

But the most singular aspect of these houses is to be found in the

windows, the panes of most of them being made, not of glass, but of the

shell of a species of oyster (_Placuna Placenta_), ground down to the

requisite thinness! The subdued light which is thus obtained is

exceedingly grateful, and these mussel-shells have been found to be

cheaper and more lasting than panes of glass, which, in a country so

frequently visited by earthquakes and hurricanes, could only be replaced

when injured at an immense expense. The streets are rather narrow, so much

so that linen awnings are stretched across the streets from one row of

shops to that opposite, thus securing to the foot-passenger the

inestimable boon of being able during the hottest hours of the day to

traverse almost every street in Binondo under shade.

That which the stranger understands by the emphatic word "comfort" is only

to be found in the houses of European residents, and is not obtainable by

money. The two hotels lately started to levy, unchallenged, Californian

prices for even the most moderate requirements, and so far as cleanliness

and orderliness are concerned, lag far behind the commonest country inn in

North America or the British colonies.[75]

Despite the various races that meet the stranger's gaze, Manila has,

beyond any other colony in the East, the appearance of a European town.

One remarks here, that the colonists are more completely amalgamated with

the natives, and that with the religion these latter have also adopted a

considerable proportion of the customs of Europeans.

Among the populace of Manila belonging to the coloured races, that most

prevalent in the capital is the Tagal, or Tagalag, on whose territory the

Spaniards founded their first settlement. The obscurity that envelopes

their origin has never been dispelled, although some of the older

religious writers thought they found on Borneo and other islands of the

Sunda Archipelago some traces of their stock. They were confirmed in this

impression by the fact, that in the most cultivated dialects and idioms

of the Tagal is to be found an unusually great number of Malay and

Javanese words. The majority of the plants cultivated here, such as rice,

sugar-cane, yam, indigo, cocoa-palm, as also all domestic animals, many of

the metals, and even the digits used in enumeration, are, although greatly

corrupted, directly traceable to the corresponding words or names in

Malay. Moreover, there is a tradition very prevalent throughout Luzon,

that the Spaniards, at their first arrival in this Archipelago, found

certain Bornese officials here, who were levying taxes and tithes for the

Rajahs resident in that island.

Next in number to the Tagals rank the Chinese with their descendants, and

to these succeed the Spaniards, with their offspring born in the country,

who amount together to barely 5000, or about a 28th of the whole

population of the capital; of Spaniards of pure descent, there are not

above 300 in Manila.[76]

Besides the Tagal there is in this Archipelago yet another race, the

_Negritos_, who only inhabit the mountain districts of the islands of

Luzon, Mindoro, Panay, Negros, and Mindanao, and are estimated at about

25,000 souls. These Negritos del Monte, or Negrillos, also called Aeta,

Aigta, Ite, Inapta, and Igorote, are small in physical conformation as

compared with their African congeners. The characteristic features of the

negro are less strongly marked, the colour of their skin and their

complexion are both less black. For this reason old Spanish authors speak

of them as "_menos negro y menos feo_" (less negro-like and less hideous).

Owing to their small stature, which does not average above 4 feet 8 inches

English, they have received the appellation of Negritos (diminutive

Negroes). By Spanish writers upon the Philippines they have been described

as a still existent branch of the lowest type of humanity, without fixed

dwellings, without regular employment, eking out a bare subsistence on

roots and wild fruits, and such animals as they could bring down with the

bow and arrow, their only weapon. Through the kind offices of Mr. Grahame,

we had an opportunity of gratifying our curiosity to see an individual of

this singular race of Negritos. This was a girl of about 12 or 14 years of

age, of dwarf-like figure, with woolly hair, broad nostrils, but without

the dark skin and wide everted lips which characterize the negro type.

This pleasing-looking, symmetrically formed girl had been brought up in

the house of a Spaniard, apparently with the pious object of rescuing her

soul from heathenism. The poor little Negrilla hardly understood her own

mother tongue, besides a very little Tagal, so that we had considerable

difficulty in understanding each other. The received opinion that the

Negrillos and the Igorotes are of a distinct race, but having some

affinity with the Papuans of New Guinea, seems to us for many reasons very

problematical. We are as yet far too little acquainted with the races

inhabiting the most inaccessible parts of the island, to be able to

pronounce a correct opinion upon such a point. The probabilities are not

less that the Negritos and Igorotes stand in the same relation to the

dwellers on the coast as the Bushmen to the Hottentots, the Weddahs to the

Cingalese, or the savages of Sambalong to the natives of the rest of the

Nicobars.

The Spanish language is only available in Manila and the vicinity;--a few

miles in the interior, even in places which hold almost daily

communication with Manila, Tagal is much more commonly used. At present

Tagal is written and printed exclusively in the Roman character. While in

Manila, we never once saw a book or MS. in which the ancient character had

been used. Even the oldest printed matter, such as, for instance, a Tagal

grammar, published in Manila in 1610, contains only a few samples of the

native alphabet, while as to its original arrangement, as also the form of

the numerals, the utmost uncertainty prevails. The entire alphabet, which,

including the three vowels, consists of but 17 letters, comprises the

following characters:

[Transcriber's Note: Each of the italicized character groups below

designate the Roman equivalent to a Tagal character. The Tagal character

can not be rendered here. It is available in the .html version of this

book.]

Vowels.

_a_ _e_ and _i_ _o_ and _u_

Consonants.

_ba_ _ca_ _da_ a. _ra_ _ga_ _nga_

_ha_ _la_ _ma_ _na_ _pa_ a. _fa_

_sa_ _ta_ _va_ _ya_

A dot _above_ the character changes the vowel sound _a_ of the original

consonants into _e_ and _i_.

_be_ _ke_ _de_ a. _re_ _ge_ _nge_ _he_ _le_ _me_ _ne_

[Line of Tagal characters]

_bi_ _ki_ _di_ a. _ri_ _gi_ _ngi_ _hi_ _li_ _mi_ _ni_

_pe_ a. _fe_ _se_ _te_ _ve_ _ye_

[Line of Tagal characters]

_pi_ a. _fi_ _si_ _ti_ _vi_ _yi_

A dot _below_ the character changes the vowel sound _a_ of the original

consonant into _o_ and _u_.

_bo_ _co_ _do_ a. _ro_ _go_ _ngo_ _ho_ _lo_ _mo_ _no_

[Line of Tagal characters]

_bu_ _cu_ _du_ a. _ru_ _gu_ _ngu_ _hu_ _lu_ _mu_ _nu_

_po_ a. _fo_ _so_ _to_ _vo_ _yo_

[Line of Tagal characters]

_pu_ a. _fu_ _su_ _tu_ _vu_ _yu_

From the foregoing characters it would appear that _a_ and _o_, as also

_e_ and _i_, _da_ and _ra_, _pa_ and _fa_, had each but one and the same

character.[77]--Besides the Tagal, five other different idioms are used by

the civilized races of Luzon, namely, Bisaya, Pangasinana (the same as

Ilocano), Tbanac (same as Cagayana), Bicol, and Pampanya.

The Tagals are a small race, of a clear yellow complexion, and,

notwithstanding their broad flat noses and thick lips, are by no means of

unpleasing appearance. The hair of the head is rigid, bristly, and black;

the beard very sparse. They all wear European clothes more or less,

although the fashion in which they wear them is quite peculiar and

ludicrously odd. Not merely do the lower orders and servants wear the

shirt ironed perfectly smooth and unwrinkled, instead of a coat, above

their continuations, but the Tagal dandy prides himself on his

well-lacquered boots, his white stockings, his new Paris silk hat worn

with a jaunty cock to one side, and above all his carefully plaited

resplendent white shirt, as he struts through the streets of Manila,

cigaret in his mouth, and swinging an elegant little cane! The women wear,

like the Javanese women, the "Sarong," a parti-coloured striped cotton

dress, rolled round the loins, and a close-fitting very short jacket, so

short indeed that between it and the gown a space about an inch wide

intervenes through which the naked body is visible, while the fine

transparent gauze-like stuff of which the jacket is made is much better

calculated to show off than to conceal their attractions. This universal

fashion of dress is the more surprising, as the various orders of monks

exercise in all other respects an almost despotic control over the

natives, and as it is much more attributable to their influence than to

that of the secular authorities that the speech, manners, and customs of

old Castile have taken firm and extensive root in the Philippines. It

seems, however, unjust to compare this group of islands, as has been done

by modern writers, on account of the all-pervading influence of the

Spanish element, with a province of Spain, in contradistinction to the

colonies of other nations, where the Europeans have always been regarded

by the natives as the lords of a conquered country. The English in India,

Ceylon, and New Zealand, and the Dutch in Java, all appear to have a much

firmer and more secure footing than the Spaniards, despite their having

mingled with the people. How little can be effected by forced amalgamation

of speech and manners, is best illustrated by the late separation of

Central and Southern America from the Spanish rule, although in most of

these countries the majority of the people speak only Spanish, and are

governed entirely in accordance with Spanish customs. Much better founded

seems to us the observation that it was less the sword than the cross of

Spain which brought the Philippines under the throne of Castile, and that

the natives have become Spanish Christians, without being Spanish

subjects. The entire Archipelago is nothing but one rich church domain, a

safe retreat for the legion of Spanish monks, who are able to lord it here

with unrestrained power. There is a Governor-general of the Philippines

only so long as it pleases the Augustinian, Dominican, and Franciscan

friars; and if ever an insurrection breaks out in the Archipelago,

designed to shake off the Spanish yoke, there will be more than one monk

to head the movement.

In a country where the cloister and its denizens interfere so arbitrarily

in all the concerns of life, and impart to the capital itself, as indeed

to the entire Archipelago, a character entirely peculiar to itself,

religious establishments and their zealous occupants call for special

consideration, and the reader need assuredly feel no surprise that we

should begin the narrative of our visit to the capital of the Philippines

by a description of its monasteries. In Manila these unfortunately are

not, as they were in the middle ages, the nurseries of culture and

civilization, of science and art, but rather give the impression of being

simply huge establishments for the maintenance of zealous souls, weary of

life, who wish to close their days of labour in tranquil contemplation,

exempt from all anxiety.

The four orders of monks to whose hands are confided the entire spiritual

and very much of the secular well-being of the inhabitants of the

Philippines, are the Augustines (_Agustinos Calzados_--sandalled friars),

the Franciscans, the Dominicans, and the barefoot Augustinian mendicants

(_Agustinos descalzados_ or _Recoletos_).

The monastery of the Bare-Foot Friars, lying close to the wall of the

fortifications, consists of a number of spacious buildings, some of which

date from the 17th century. Everything here tells of former power and

splendour. From the billiard-room and parlour on the first storey, the eye

is charmed by a marvellous landscape commanding the Bay of Manila and the

mountains that surround it. How delightful must it be in the evening

twilight to pace these airy chambers in the society of congenial souls,

and, while the brow is fanned by the cool sea-breeze, to give free scope

to the reins of fancy, as it swept far away over the Bay of Manila! For

what privations must not such a source of pure exquisite enjoyment

indemnify the ascetic brethren of the cloister! That spiritual meditation

and converse however do not form the sole topics discussed in these

departments, was abundantly evidenced by the hints let fall by several of

the monks who conducted us through the various corridors and apartments,

and who were constantly indulging in visions of Carlist supremacy and a

return of the halcyon days of monasticism. On our remarking that so far as

worldly consideration was concerned, the cloister enjoyed far more cordial

support in Manila than either in Spain or Cuba, one of the Augustinians

who was accompanying us, a tall commanding figure, attired in the plain

garb of the order, replied: "The Government knows that it has need of us,

that it could not get on a day without us, therefore it leaves us in

peace, and places no impediments in our path as in Spain."[78] And he was

right. Whensoever the monks lift the finger, Spain has ceased to rule in

the Philippines. The spiritual reins have ever bridled the secular

authority, and such a state of things is the severest impediment to the

development of the country and its intellectual growth.

Of the various monastic orders resident in Manila the Augustinians are by

far the best educated. They have made the various dialects of the native

races their study far more deeply than the other orders. The "_Flora de

las Filipinas_," the _only_ botanical work which has ever been published

in the Spanish language, treating of this interesting Archipelago, was

compiled by an Augustinian monk, Fray Manuel Blanco.[79]

The number of monks resident in the monastery of Manila when we were there

was 48, but there was room enough for three times as many. Altogether

there were of the Augustinian order 58 monasteries and parishes in the

island of Luzon, extending from one end of the island to the other. In the

entire Archipelago there are, according to public documents, 145

Augustinian monks, whose authority extends over 14 provinces and 153

villages, numbering 1,615,051 souls.[80]

The monastery of the Dominicans is kept clean and comfortable, and its

wide spacious apartments leave a less vivid impression of decay and human

indifference than the majority of the monastic edifices. Here also the

lofty, light chambers in the upper storeys command a magnificent prospect.

The Prior, Padre Vellinchon, received the Austrian travellers with much

cordiality, and conducted them in person round all the apartments of the

very extensive building. He spoke Latin pretty fluently, and without the

peculiar Spanish accent, besides possessing a slight acquaintance with

French; and was somewhat better informed upon European matters than his

spiritual _confreres_. The library of the order is not kept in the

convent, but in one of the buildings of the University of St. Thomas also

used by the Dominicans, but it is quite unimportant, whether as regards

the number of works it contains or their scientific value.

The spiritual jurisdiction of the Dominicans extends over eight provinces

of the Archipelago, including 76 villages, with in all 427,593 souls,

whose eternal interests are watched over by 76 brethren of the order.[81]

A Dominican friar, Joaquin Fonseca, is president of the permanent

commission of Censorship of Books, consisting in all of nine members, five

of whom are nominated by Government and four by the Archbishop of

Manila.[82] We had the pleasure of being made acquainted with Fray

Joaquin Fonseca, who also holds the appointment of Professor of Theology

in the University of St. Thomas, and were presented by him with a copy of

an imperfect epic poem composed in Spanish, which had for subject the

history of the island of Luzon and its inhabitants.[83] Of this

interesting fragment we shall publish a translation in another place.

Just as we were leaving the Dominican monastery, its worthy Prior begged

our acceptance, by way of souvenir of our visit, of a copy of Dante's

Divina Commedia in the original text, and a dictionary of the Ybanac, one

of the idioms most extensively used throughout the Archipelago.

The monastery of the Franciscans presents no other feature of interest,

than in so far as it is an emblem of the melancholy spiritual decay in

which the members of this order at present find themselves in Manila. The

dirt and untidiness which were not merely apparent in the various

apartments, but which were even but too obvious in the external appearance

of the brothers of the order, make a most disagreeable impression; for

poverty and necessity, these two cardinal principles of the mendicant

orders, are by no means incompatible with cleanliness and neatness.

The Franciscans possess 16 missions in 14 of the provinces, comprising

159 villages and 749,804 inhabitants.[84] The spiritual instruction of

these is intrusted to 184 brethren of the order, 74 priests, and 43

_Clerigos Interinos_ (occasional preachers).

The monastery of the _Recoletos_, or Reformed Augustinians, offers a not

less impressive prospect than that of the Franciscans. Here, too, the

occupants permit to appear a careless indifference utterly destructive of

the value of their ghostly ministration. As we entered, the brethren of

the order had finished their mid-day repast. Some of the monks were still

sitting in a dirty, gloomy verandah round a table on which was spread a

table-cloth stained with food and drink, while in front of each stood a

half-empty wineglass. A lay brother announced us, upon which one of the

monks rose to bid us welcome. From his rather jovial appearance, and the

suspicious colour of his nose, we presumed he was the cellarer, and were

not a little surprised when, in the course of conversation, he announced

that it was the Prior himself who was speaking with us.

We had the utmost difficulty in making the brethren, whose information was

of a most limited extent, comprehend from what country we came. The

circumstance that the original German name _Oesterreich_ is pronounced

Austria in Spanish, puzzled still more hopelessly the comprehension of

the monks, whose geographical knowledge did not seem to extend much

beyond the sphere of their vision. At first they confounded Austria with

Australia, and fancied we must have come direct from the fifth quarter of

the globe, but when the _Novara_ voyagers, proud of their Fatherland,

refused to permit this opinion to pass current, and gave a more clear

explanation, one of the younger monks thought he had at last found out our

_habitat_, and evidently priding himself on having solved the riddle, gave

his less ingenious brethren to understand that we came, not from

Australia, but from Asturias, and were consequently fellow-countrymen! The

limited intelligence of the Franciscan mistook Austria for Asturias, and

made of the Austrian Empire a Spanish province! Lest the hypothesis should

suggest itself to the reader, that this confusion of foreign empires with

domestic provinces might possibly have originated in our not being

acquainted with the language of the country, it is necessary that we

should inform him that one member of the Expedition was thoroughly versed

in Spanish, so as to be able to maintain fluent conversation, and that he

was perfectly comprehended upon all other topics. Just as little must it

be supposed that the above anecdote is but an ill-natured imputation, or

the expression of a long-vanished national jealousy, or anything else than

a proof of the present state of education among the present occupants of

the monasteries of Manila.

The Recoletos watch over the spiritual weal of 567,416[85] children

belonging to parishes in the various islands of the Archipelago, and

number 127 brethren.

In each monastery there is what is called a _Procuracion_, where the

various printed books published by the order (almost exclusively

dictionaries and grammars of the native languages and dialects) are sold

for the behoof of the funds of the monastery. The members of our

Expedition exerted themselves to form a very complete collection of all

such publications; and while thus engaged they also succeeded in getting

several MS. treatises on language.[86] Works and memoirs on the history of

the island and the state of its inhabitants are scarcely met with in the

wretchedly deficient libraries of the monasteries, which consist of not

more than 500 or 600 volumes, mostly works of theology and philosophy.

Whatever of valuable literary material may once have belonged to these

institutions has apparently been removed to Spain, whose libraries have

also gradually absorbed the literary treasures of the monasteries of

Central and Southern America.

Besides the monasteries, Government Square (Plaza de Gobierno), in the

inner portion of the city, possesses some little interest for strangers.

It has the shape of a large oblong, surrounded on each of its four sides

by the palace of the Governor-general, that of the archbishop, the

cathedral, and the law offices, with a well-kept garden-plot in the

centre, in which is a handsome statue of Charles IV., the whole strongly

recalling the principal square in the Havanna. The cathedral is equally as

remarkable for the clumsiness of its exterior as for the profusion of

perishable gold and silver within. The first edifice was erected by

Legaspi, the conqueror of Luzon, in 1571, and was composed of bamboo-cane

thatched with palm-leaves. The present temple was built in 1654 during the

papacy of Innocent X., after several previous buildings had been

destroyed, some by fire, others by earthquake. The palace of the

Captain-general is an extensive but very simple building, with long wide

corridors internally, but which can make no pretensions to architectural

magnificence externally. In one of its saloons our Commodore and his

companions were received by the Captain-general of the Philippines, Don

Fernando Narzagaray, who had held this elevated post since 1857. Formerly

Governor of the island of Porto Rico, in the West Indies, Don Fernando

was, in consequence of his openly avowed Carlist proclivities, sent into

honourable exile to the Philippines, and by a lucky chance is at present

once more invested with the dignity of one of the highest officials of

Queen Isabel II. of Spain. This gentleman received the voyagers of the

_Novara_ with the proverbial lofty courtesy of the Spaniards, yet not

without suffering to appear in his address a certain embarrassment and

hesitation, which however may have been due to his not being sufficiently

acquainted with any other tongue than the Spanish, to enable him to use it

in giving fluent expression to his thoughts. The conversation turned

chiefly upon the scene of our latest visit, Java. Notwithstanding the not

very formidable distance, and the constant communication existing between

the two islands, the Captain-general seemed to have but a very vague

conception of the political and social condition of Java, and framed his

questions as though they related to some remote island, in some entirely

different section of the globe, rather than an island in all but immediate

vicinity. As we prepared to return to our vehicles, Don Fernando made use

of the usual unmeaning compliment "_Usted[87] sabe que mi casa es a la

disposicion de Usted!_" (You know you may consider my house as entirely at

your disposal):[88] it would rather have astonished him though, had his

visitors taken him at his word!

Passports, which are absolutely necessary in Manila to make the very

shortest excursion into the interior, are given with the utmost alacrity

to strangers, without any one thenceforward paying the slightest attention

to enabling any expedition to carry out its objects. This cold, utterly

indifferent treatment was doubly felt by travellers fresh from Batavia,

where they had been overwhelmed with every sort of attention.

In the office of the Captain-general we saw several large sheets of

printed matter in columns, suspended on the walls, which we presumed were

the annual statistics of the commerce of the Archipelago, and accordingly

requested one of the officials to provide us with one. It was only when

unfolding a little later the documents which had been so readily given to

us that we discovered our error, and became aware that these tables

printed with such care and elegance did not in any way refer to what we

had supposed, but were the statistics of the various monasteries, and

their inhabitant brethren throughout the Philippines. We had far greater

trouble and difficulty ere we could get at the particulars of the natural

productions and state of trade of Manila.

When the visitor passes through the St. Domingo gate to the suburb of

Binondo, on the N.E. side of the inner city, we traverse what is called

the Isthmus, a narrow strip of meadow-land, surrounded by water on both

sides, on which has been erected within these few years a simple monument

in honour of Magelhaens, the discoverer of the Philippines, who, wounded

by a native with a poisoned arrow, breathed his last, 15th April, 1521, on

the small island of Mactan, lying opposite Cebu. A Doric column of black

marble, 76 feet high, with inscriptions engraven on the four sides of the

pedestal, lifts its head here since 1854,[89] and is altogether a more

appropriate monument than that which the Spaniards erected at Havanna to

the greatest navigator of any age, Christopher Columbus, to whom they owe

all their after power and greatness, on the spot where his ashes reposed

for many a long year in the cathedral before they were conveyed back to

Spain. A poor insignificant votive tablet, built into a recess near the

altar, is all that intimates that there once reposed there for a season

the mortal remains of the man who, to use the words of a German poet,

"bestowed on the world another world."[90]

On this isthmus are situated the most delightful pleasure grounds in

Manila; the esplanade, with its simple, shady walks, and benches on which

to repose, and further on, nearer the sea on the left bank of the river,

the "Calzada" dam (causeway). Hither every evening comes the gay world of

Manila, in long rows of carriages, to be fanned by the delicious cool

sea-breeze. Arrived at the farther extremity of the promenade, the

coachman, resplendent in gorgeous livery and large shining top-boots, for

he does not drive from the box but rides postilion, is usually ordered to

stop, and the gentlemen leave the carriage in order to chat with the

ladies in the surrounding vehicles, just as we accost our fair friends in

the theatre, and pay our visits in the boxes. For in Manila there are

neither theatres nor concert-rooms, and the public promenade is therefore

the only rendezvous of the "beau monde."

Unfortunately we reached Manila in the height of the rainy season, when

even the attractiveness of nature can only be guessed at by occasional

glimpses, and the delightful outdoor life which enlivens the streets and

the front porch of the private residences of the inhabitants, is utterly

arrested. Here, as in Batavia, the tropical rains fall with a violence of

which a native of the northern climates, who has never lived in the

tropics, and knows only the rainfall of his own country, can hardly form

any conception. In July, 1857, it rained here for fourteen days

uninterruptedly, so that the Pasig overflowed its banks, and people were

ferried about the streets of Manila, as in the city of Lagoons, by means

of small boats, called here _bancas_. This inundation was converted into a

merry-making, and visits were paid on all sides in elegant little boats.

The one sole amusement with which even the rainy season cannot interfere,

is cock-fighting. So soon as the bad weather has fairly set in, universal

recourse is had to this, the most popular of amusements, whose cruel,

murderous issue is strangely in contrast with the mild, soft, timid

character of the natives. These "_Gallos_," as they are called, are a

monopoly of Government, that is to say, they can only be held with their

permission, and upon payment of a fee for such license. The revenue which

Government derives from this anything but civilized amusement is very

considerable,[91] and the fee paid by the owners of the cocks and the

spectators is at any rate the least objectionable part of the spectacle,

for far larger sums are lost in the betting. What cards and hazard are for

_blasee_ Europe, cock-fighting is for the simple native of Manila. Such is

their passionate excitement, that several days elapse before their

ordinary apathy subsides into its state of chronic contentment. It is

singular that, with the exception of the Spaniards and the mixed race

founded by them in various distant parts of the world, there is not now

one single civilized nation that can find any pleasure in such brutal

amusements as cock-fights and bull-fights.

The scene of action is a small building, built of bamboo, and thatched

with palm-leaves, in the interior of which the benches for the spectators

rise behind each other in form of an amphitheatre, while the arena, or

pit, is filled with the owners of cocks and betting-men, until the signal

for the commencement of the combat is given. Each owner caresses or

incites once more his champion, or to prove his courage flings him against

one of the other cocks. At last the spectators have decided to back one or

the other of the cocks, red or white, the flat comb or the round comb; the

bets are "on," and the "spur," a sharp-pointed weapon above two inches in

length, and provided with a sheath, is firmly attached to the right foot.

Then the two cocks are simultaneously swung against each other, and a few

feathers are plucked from their necks to excite their fury. The bell in

the hand of the director gives the signal for the commencement of the

"main." The spectators retire from the "pit," the sheaths are taken off

the trenchant spurs, and the encounter commences. Most marvellous is the

eagerness for the fray, the dogged valour, which these two knightly

antagonists display to the very last gasp; how even wounded, bleeding, and

sorely fatigued, they will not give up the contest! Occasionally it

happens that neither of the combatants is hailed the victor. The

extraordinary keen, sharp "spur" sometimes wounds both warriors with

terrible severity, till with severed limbs, and bleeding from every pore,

both lie dead on the field of battle.[92]

Very comical is the method hit upon in those places of amusements to

supply the places of the return tickets in use amongst ourselves, and at

the same time render it impossible for any different person to make use of

them. When a native wishes to leave the apartment with the intention of

returning he has his naked fore arm, near the wrist, stamped as he goes

out with a black die, which secures his re-admission, and at the same time

obviates all anxiety as to his losing his return ticket! On his return

this mark is easily wiped out.

During our stay occurred the "_Fiestas Reales_," or royal fetes, which

were given by the Colonial Government in honour of the birth of an heir to

the Spanish throne, Don Alfonso, Prince of the Asturias. The little

heir-apparent had, in fact, seen the light in the month of November

preceding, at Madrid, but when the news reached the Philippines it was

Lent; respect for the tenets of the Catholic Church deferred the

festivities, and afterwards the various fire-works, triumphal arches,

illuminations, &c., took so long a preparation that the month of June and

the rainy season were again at hand before the fete could be held, which

owing to the latter circumstance fell through, and excited hardly any

interest. That intelligence should be so many months in arriving at the

Philippines is due less to their great distance, than to the little care

taken by Government to promote the public interests. Until 1857, all

letters to Europe were for the most part dispatched by sailing vessels, so

that letters remained four or five months on the way, and owing to the

uncertainties of the length of passage made by the various vessels, it was

constantly happening that the last letters sent came to hand before those

dispatched several weeks earlier. This irregularity and uncertainty

weighed so heavily upon commerce, that since March, 1858, there has been

established regular communication by steam between Manila and Europe, the

epistolary matter from Europe, for the residents throughout the

Archipelago, being conveyed by a Spanish steamer from Hong-kong, which is

distant only 600 miles, while all letters for Europe are conveyed to the

latter port in time for the mails of the 1st and 15th of each month,

whence they are forwarded together with the English correspondence via

Singapore and Suez.

On the other hand there is up to this moment no regular communication with

any of the adjacent islands in the Archipelago, even the Government only

availing itself of such sailing vessels as private adventurers may from

time to time charter. When any change of officials takes place, the new

appointment must often remain vacant for months till the occupant reach

his post; indeed, during our stay in Manila we witnessed a case in which

the consort of the Governor of the Marianne Archipelago had been vainly

waiting for months for an opportunity to return to her husband.[93] Some

foreign merchants settled at Manila had made an offer to the Government,

in consideration of a fixed subsidy, to establish regular communication

between the various islands of the Archipelago, and to keep it on foot by

means of five steam vessels. But the Colonial Government did not see its

way to giving the company a larger subsidy than 43,000 Spanish piasters

(L6763 at par), and thus the whole plan once more fell through, the

carrying out of which would so greatly tend to the development of these

islands.

Notwithstanding the fertility of the islands in all manner of natural

wealth, there are at present but three products of the soil which are

exported in anything like large quantities to the European and North

American markets, and which thus give this group any importance in the

eyes of the commercial world, viz. tobacco, Abaca, or Manila hemp, and

sugar. The amount of all other articles exported, such as coffee, indigo,

Sapan wood (_Caesalpinia sapan_), straw-plait,[94] hides and skins of

animals, &c., is proportionately but small. We visited the great

manufactories of Binondo, as also that of Arroceros, where _cigarillos_,

or paper-covered cigarettes, are exclusively manufactured. The former

gives employment to about 8000 work-people, mostly women. In the long

workshops, where it is common to see 800 females sitting at work on low

wooden benches in front of a narrow table, there prevails a most

disagreeable deafening hubbub. Some are busy moistening the leaves, and

cutting off the requisite lengths, or are sorting the fragments and

smaller pieces, of which inferior cigars will be made; others hold in

their right hand a flat smoothed stone, with which they keep continually

pounding each single leaf, in order to make these more susceptible of

being rolled up. This drumming noise, and the cries of several hundreds of

workwomen, who, on the appearance of foreign visitors, handle their

implements of stone with yet more energy, apparently out of sheer

wantonness, the strong odour of the tobacco, and the disagreeable

exhalations from the bodies of so many human beings shut up together in

one close apartment, in a tropical temperature, have such an unpleasant,

uncomfortable effect that one hastens to exchange the damp sultry vapours

of the workshops for the fresh air without.

In the _Cigarillo_ manufactory about 2000 workmen find employment. Here

also there is felt in the workshops the same clammy, sultry atmosphere. A

workman can make about 150 packages of 25 cigarettes, or 3750, per diem,

for which he is paid four reals[95] (1_s._ 7_d._ English). Most

extraordinary is the rapidity, bordering almost upon the magical, with

which the cigarillos are counted, divided into packages, bound up, and

stamped. The unpractised vision of the visitor is hardly able to follow

the celerity of motion of the workman's hands and fingers.

Besides the two factories already mentioned, there is yet a third

cigarillo manufactory in Cavite, which employs 4000, and a fourth in

Malabon, employing 5000, workwomen. The quantities annually produced by

these various manufactories amount to about 1,200,000,000 cigarillos. If

we deduct the numerous holidays of the Church, on which no work is done,

we shall find that about 5,000,000 must be made daily. Government buys up

each year from the planters the entire crop of tobacco at a fixed price,

and exports it partly in leaf, but for the most part in cigars, the right

to manufacture which no one possesses but the Government. The monopoly of

tobacco was, after great difficulties had been encountered, first

introduced into the Philippines in 1787 by Don Jose Basco, the then

Governor-general.

The greater part of the cigars are shipped to the East Indies, the islands

of the Malay Archipelago, and North America, only a small quantity in

proportion coming to Europe for sale.

The principal tobacco-growing districts of the island of Luzon are Cagayan

and Bisayx, in which on an average 180,000 cwt. of tobacco are grown

annually; of these about 80,000 cwt. are sent annually in the leaf to

Spain, while the surplus are worked up into cigars in Luzon itself, sold

at auction (_al martillo_) every month, and knocked down to the highest

bidder. The average price is 8 to 10 dollars per 1000 _Costados_. There is

but one species of tobacco grown in Manila, and the size of the leaf is

the sole element that regulates the value. The Manila tobacco is a very

strong narcotic; there is, notwithstanding the prevailing opinion in

Europe, no opium mingled with it; one end being simply dipped in rice

juice to glue it together. Indeed, the enormous cost of that liquid drug,

which plays so important a part in the history of the Chinese empire,

would alone prevent its being used. As cigars are greatly in request by

both sexes in Manila, and it is necessary first to provide for the supply

of the country itself, it occasionally happens that the stocks are not

sufficiently large at once to supply all demands for exportation. Except

during the public sales by auction, no one is permitted to buy of

Government more than 1000 cigars at once, a regulation most vicious in

principle and useless in practice, as persons who wish to possess larger

quantities of cigars have simply to send round to any number of persons in

the tobacco trade, in order to provide themselves with what they require.

We ourselves experienced how any one, who was desirous of buying 45,000

cigars, sent 45 different individuals to the bonded magazine, from which

each brought 1000 cigars without any further interference.

Although altogether more tobacco is raised on the island of Luzon than in

Cuba, yet the exportation from the former is far less in quantity, for the

reason already commented upon, that a large portion of the tobacco so

grown is consumed in the country itself. Luzon provides 1/10th, and Cuba

1/12th of the entire production of tobacco on the earth, which amounts to

4,000,000 cwt.[96] There are indeed two countries which produce a far

larger quantity of tobacco than either Luzon or Cuba,[97] but in no other

country does the tobacco leaf attain such superior quality, owing to

favourable climate and congenial soil, as in the Spanish possessions

already named.

Another chief product of the Philippines, which first found its way into

the markets of the world from these islands, is what is called Manila

hemp. This, however, is not the common hemp plant (_Cannabis sativa_), but

is procured from the fibres of the "_Musa textilis_," a species of

banana, and is called by the Tagals _abaca_. The plant comes in great

quantities from almost every one of the Philippines, from Luzon to

Mindanao, so that the area over which it extends stretches between the

equator and 20 deg. N. This seems, however, to be the most northerly limit of

vegetation of the _Musa textilis_, and consequently it is out of question

to attempt to introduce into Europe the cultivation of this most useful

plant, which, ere it can be profitably grown, requires a temperature of

77 deg. Fahr. The stem of this _musacea_ grows in the Philippines to a height

of from 9 to 12 feet, by about 6 inches in thickness, its leaves being of

an exceedingly dark green colour, 8 feet in length by 1-1/2 feet in width.

The fruit is smaller, and neither so yellow nor so palatable as that of

the common banana. To procure the hemp, the trunk, so soon as the fleshy

bulbous fruit makes its appearance, is stripped of its splendid leaves,

which serve as fodder for the oxen, and is left about three days to

ferment. It is then peeled off in pieces, which by the application of a

corresponding pressure are drawn between two knives, not too sharp, in

order to separate the hemp, which now begins to be visible, from the bast,

which, owing to the fermentation, has become rather brittle. This process

is continued until the hemp is sufficiently cleaned to admit of its being

spread out and dried in the sun. A skilful workman may make extract from 8

to 10 feet of hemp a day. There are 450,000 cwt. of hemp produced

annually, of the value of L520,000, the greater part of which is sent to

the United States of North America, while from 30,000 to 60,000 cwt. is

manufactured into rigging for ships in the country itself, at the splendid

factory of Messrs. Russell and Sturgis, an American firm, by whom it is

exported to Singapore, Australia, and China. This raw material, as well as

the various products manufactured from it, has a magnificent future

opening to it, and will ere long compete advantageously with English and

Russian hemp in the European markets. The principal objection as yet made

to the use of the Manila hemp for rigging, viz. its contracting in wet

weather, can easily be obviated by more careful treatment of the fibres in

the process of manufacture. On the other hand, in strength and elasticity

the abaca surpasses its rival, as has been proved by repeated experiments,

especially over common European, and even Russian, hemp.[98] Messrs.

Russell and Sturgis have, it is true, monopolized the hemp product of the

entire Archipelago, but under their fostering care it must sensibly

increase and become perceptibly improved. From the leaves of _Musa

textilis_, like those of all other species of the banana tribe, very

excellent paper can be made, and by the increasing cultivation of the

_musaceae_ in the tropics, two main objects could be attained, viz.

providing a plentiful subsistence for the natives, and extending and

cheapening the medium that mainly contributes to widen the circle of

knowledge of mankind.[99]

Next to _Musa textilis_, the Rame-shrub (_Boehmeria tenacissima_)

especially deserves the attention of business men. The fibre of this

member of the _urticaceae_, which unites extraordinary toughness with much

beauty and fineness, is stronger and more durable than that of Russian

hemp, and with careful preparation would make into finer thread than the

very expensive material which is used in Europe at the present day for

making the world-famous Brussels point-lace. The variety of purposes to

which this useful plant may be applied has hitherto been less fully

recognized than those of the Manila hemp. In Europe the _Boehmeria

tenacissima_ is but found in botanical gardens, or herbariums, and as yet

not the slightest use is made of it for industrial purposes. And yet the

introduction on a large scale of Manila hemp and Rame fibre into the

European markets in place of Russian hemp, would have more than merely a

commercial and industrial importance![100]

We may also notice in this connection another description of fabrics made

from fibrous material, which, though but little known beyond the limits of

the Archipelago, seems to us to deserve to be more extensively known, and,

it would seem, may be most profitably taken up. These are the delicate

almost transparent tissues prepared from the fibres of one of the

_Bromeliaceae_ (_ananassa sativa_), which are used by the natives for

ornamental shirts, _chemisettes_, and necklaces, and are known in commerce

by the names of _Pina_ or grass-cloths.[101] The threads of these textures

are so thin, that they can only be woven in apartments where there is not

the slightest breath of air. The natives contrive to weave them into the

most beautiful designs, and were they submitted to some chemical process

which should impart to the web a clearer colour, less of a dirty yellow,

the world of taste would be enriched by the addition of one of the most

exquisite materials that could be presented to adorn the graceful form of

woman, and while seeming to conceal her charms, would but render them more

conspicuously attractive.

Although the rainy season, during which we visited Manila, was but little

inviting for excursions, we yet could not resist the temptation to make an

excursion to the celebrated _Laguna de Bay_, a short distance in the

interior. Mr. J. Steffan, consul for Bremen, a Swiss by birth, and a

partner in one of the most eminent mercantile houses in Manila (Jenny and

Co.), who from the moment the Austrian expeditionaries set foot in the

Philippines manifested to them the most delightful hospitality, was on

this occasion also our companion and cicerone. Two other foreigners, an

English artist and a merchant from Amsterdam, joined our party. The

first-named had lived for long on the island, and had already visited all

its most accessible spots, whence he had returned with some very accurate

sketches; the latter had been sent out by his firm to Manila, in 1857,

when the price of sugar had fallen, for the purpose of purchasing, at the

price to which he was limited, a large quantity of that important article

of colonial produce. By the time, however, he had reached the capital of

the Philippines, the value of the sugar had already, in consequence of a

favourable crop, exceeded the limit assigned him, and has since then

advanced 300 per cent. Still the Amsterdam agent held on, awaiting a fall,

and meanwhile did his best to wile away his time of exile by feasting his

eyes with all the various beauties of the island.

On a grey, dreary morning we found ourselves pulling up the Pasig in small

covered boats, till we reached the Lagune, where a larger craft was

awaiting us, to take the entire company of pilgrims on board and transport

them to the opposite shore of this inland lake, as far as Los Banos. In

clear sunny weather a row in a _banca_ upon the river Pasig, the aorta of

Manila, which forms the communication between the city and the Lagune,

together with all the various settlements along the shores of that

internal sea, must be exceedingly pleasant. The banks of the river,

indeed, are flat and unsightly, but the vegetation rejoices in a

marvellous profusion of the most beautiful forms and colours. The

_Bambusaceae_ are the chief ornament of the shores, on which there are but

few palms to be seen, while the banana, the sugar-cane, or the rice-plant

are only exceptionally met with at certain points. The delicate-leaved

bamboo accordingly presents hereabouts an elegance and variety of form,

which at first sight seems to mark out its individual representatives as

belonging to so many different families of plants. Wherever the subjacent

rock is visible along the banks it presents beds of an ashen-grey

pumice-stone, which constitutes the chief building material of Manila. On

the shores of the river, near the city, are situate the various factories

and iron-foundries, above which are the residences of the wealthy

Mestizoes and foreign settlers, as also the country-seat of the

Governor-general, whence, still ascending the stream, are Tagal villages

of wretched cane huts, grouped round stately churches and parsonages,

which peep picturesquely through lovely groves of bamboo.

There are three modes of boating on the Pasig and through the Lagune,

namely, the _banca_, consisting of a large trunk of a tree hollowed out

and covered with an awning of bamboo; the _lorcha_ or _falua_ (corruption

of felucca), large, comfortable, but exceedingly clumsy row-boats, which,

particularly during the rainy season when there is a heavy sea running,

are those chiefly used in this navigation; and finally, the _casco_, which

is of equal breadth at either end, and has more the appearance of a raft.

The last-named is principally made use of for the transport of heavy

merchandise, and is in especial favour with the natives, for the reason

that it is practicable to hoist sail upon it as well as to row. On the

Lagune there is also found yet a fourth kind of boat, the Paraho, the

principle of which, as well as the name, has obviously been borrowed from

the Malay _Prahu_, which it closely resembles in form and mode of

steering.

On the Pasig there is a constant and amazing tide of human activity.

Numberless boats pass and repass, some bound for the city, to supply it

with provisions and other necessary articles, even to drinking-water,

which has to be shipped in casks at a considerable distance, others

returning with all sorts of purchases made in Manila, for the supply of

the various residents on the shores of the Lagune with the necessaries of

life. On this voyage we got a sight of numbers of grackles (_Pastor

Rosen_), the well-known grasshopper-destroyer, which, about five years

before, had been introduced from China at considerable expense, with the

view of extirpating this formidable locust. But since these birds, to kill

which is punishable by imprisonment, have become acclimatized, they seem

to have lost all relish for grasshoppers, sitting quiet and unmoved on the

trees and roofs of the houses, while swarms of locusts are disporting

under their very eyes. Apparently the number of these destructive insects

is less great in China than in Manila, where these voracious wanderers

often appear in dense swarms, which, in the shape of black clouds,

absolutely obscure the daylight! Probably, too, their means of sustenance

is much more limited in China than in the Philippines, where these birds,

being in fact treated as tame animals, and fairly domesticated, find

frequent opportunities of satisfying their hunger otherwise.

At the village of Patero (from _Pato_, duck), which is situated five miles

from the capital on the left bank, the inhabitants are mainly employed in

breeding ducks. In front of each hut, and near the river, there is a large

area fenced in, where these birds can bask in the sun or bathe at

pleasure. The floor of the little poultry house is carefully cleaned every

morning with river-water, and the ground dug up and plentifully filled

daily with shell-fish for the use of the ducks, which the natives bring in

their small canoes from the sea, where they thrive by millions in the mud.

The spectacle of the gently-sloping assembling-places of these cackling

denizens of the watery element, and the clamours with which we were

saluted, strongly recalled to us the penguins of the Island of St. Paul.

In Patero millions of ducks are annually reared as articles of trade, as

the Tagalese look upon the half-hatched eggs and the new-born chickens as

special dainties.

The natives whom we met on the way all wore large round hats, made of

plaited straw or bamboo, white hose, and above these the invariable shirt,

a custom so singular, that it is but very gradually the eye of the

foreigner becomes reconciled to it. The farther we got from the capital

the more the use of Spanish seemed to diminish, till at the Lagune the

natives only speak Tagal and Bisay.

Our original intention had been to row up in _bancas_ as far as the

entrance to the Lagune, where it had been arranged that the _lorcha_,

which had started from Manila a day or two before, was to await our

arrival. But when little more than half way beyond the village of Pasig we

overtook the great clumsy concern, and it was forthwith resolved to remove

into it bag and baggage, not forgetting the "provant," and endeavour to

make ourselves as comfortable as we could for a few days and nights.

As it was perfectly calm, and the _lorcha_ had to be poled along, we were

a considerable time before reaching the entrance to the Lagune, where the

industrious natives had erected a variety of nets and other fishing

apparatus of very peculiar nature. The banks of the Lagune are for some

distance from the shore thickly studded with thousands of what are called

_corals_, or fish-runs, and a special pilot is required to enable the

_lorcha_ to thread this labyrinth of fishing apparatus of every

conceivable form, so as to reach the open water. Singularly enough, it is

for the most part the Tagalese women who manipulate the fishing

instruments, while the men, as we were told, sit in the house and

embroider. Near the entrance is stationed a sort of guardship. A Tagalese

overseer overhauled our passports, turned them over in his hands two or

three times with much official importance, and then returned them to us.

The worthy officer of the law was obviously ignorant of the art of

reading, but for that very reason he looked doubly massy, for fear of

exposing his weak side to the Europeans.

The Lagune de Bay is a fresh-water lake of such dimensions, that even on

a clear day it is impossible, from the entrance, to see the coast on the

further side, much less, of course, in the wretched rainy weather which

stuck by us throughout our trip. Nevertheless, it is far inferior in size

to the great lakes of North America. Its greatest breadth is little more

than 30 miles.[102] All around the fertile shores of this charming lake

nestle little villages, and the daily intercourse with the capital is so

extensive that a steam-boat company would pay well. While on the one hand

the Colonial Government objects to the expense of entering upon an

undertaking so important for developing the general trade, engineers, on

the other hand, have for the last 14 years been busily engaged projecting

the immense work of connecting the Lagune with the ocean by means of a

canal, in such manner as would enable ships approaching Luzon from the

southwards to reach Manila easily, and with great saving in time, instead

of having to sail all round the island. This short cut through the tongue

of land would, it may well be supposed, be in other respects of

incalculable benefit for the country, for the shipping and for trade

generally, especially were the execution of this splendid project to be

carried out hand in hand with a liberal policy, that should shake off that

despotism which at present weighs like a mountain upon every sort of

intellectual and political activity. Let Manila be declared a free port,

let the ships of all mercantile nations visit unrestrictedly the various

harbours of the Archipelago, and Spain will under such relaxations reap

far more profit than from her present retrograde colonial policy, which

can only result in permanent discontent and impoverishment. A thoroughly

unprejudiced Spanish statesman might make most valuable observations by a

brief visit to the neighbouring colony of Singapore, that marvellous

British settlement, which, owing to a commercial policy conceived in the

free, liberal spirit that characterizes the 19th century, has sprung up

from a nest of pirates into the most flourishing and the wealthiest

emporium in the entire Malay Archipelago. The situation of Manila, as also

its numerous natural advantages and resources, would soon make it a rival

to Singapore. But of what avail are the choicest treasures of nature, if

the mind be wanting which can turn them to their proper use, and elicit

their real value?

The continued bad weather compelled us to pass the night most

uncomfortably on board the _lorcha_; however, the morning after our

departure from Manila we arrived at the village of Los Banos on the

southern shore of the Lagune, where we were most courteously received by

Padre Lorenzo, a Tagalese (only the monks being of Spanish blood, whereas

among the secular clergy there are numbers of coloured persons). The

parsonage, formerly an hospital, is an extensive edifice, with covered

terraces, from whence the visitor enjoys the most splendid views of the

neighbouring hills, as also over the village. Here we were rejoined by

those members of the Expedition who, there not being room for all on board

the _lorcha_, had made out the voyage to Los Banos in a small boat. The

Government officer of the village of Pasig was so kind as to provide for

our exploration of the lake a well-appointed, thoroughly armed and

equipped war-galley; by no means a superfluous precaution when making an

excursion upon the lake, as it has not unfrequently happened that

unprotected strangers have returned to Manila robbed of everything.

We had great difficulty in making our kind Father Lorenzo, whose

wanderings had been rather limited, comprehend from what country we came,

and to what nation we belonged. The natives of Luzon for the most part

believe that all mankind consists of but two nations, Spaniards and

English; the former they regard as their own masters, while the political

and commercial power of the latter impress them with more terror than

sympathy, and this feeling is still further deepened by that spiritual

teaching, which makes everything seem to their untutored minds of the most

terrible criminality, which does not strictly accord with Roman

Catholicism.

Los Banos (the baths), so named on account of the numerous hot springs,

whose source is close at hand at the foot of the now extinct volcanic cone

of Maquilui, thickly wooded to its very summit, was so far back as the end

of the 16th century a place of resort for invalids, who hoped here to find

a cure for their various maladies. In the interests of suffering

humanity, the Franciscans of those days, then in the height of their

influence, built over the baths a sort of hut, and a hospital dedicated to

"_Nuestra Senora de las Aguas santas de Maynit_" (our Lady of the Holy

waters of Maynit, the latter name expressing _hot_ in Tagal). Although at

present in a very forlorn and dilapidated condition, there is still in

existence, quite near to the edge of the Lake, an apartment enclosed

within a wall, within which there boils up from a considerable depth a

spring of hot water of a temperature of 186 deg.8 Fahr.; which is

occasionally used, both by natives and foreigners, as a vapour bath,

although these _Thermae_ are more used to scald poultry than for their

original purpose of curing disease. The entire neighbourhood is volcanic.

Behind Maquilui, which is about 3400 feet high, lies, surrounded by a deep

lake, the active crater of the renowned volcano of Taal, while to one side

of the first-named mountain rises in the blue distance, to a height of

from 6000 to 7000 feet, the gigantic mass of the Majayjay[103] range, a

volcanic system long since extinct. An oppressive sultriness in the

atmosphere, such as we had never before experienced, and a drenching

thunder-storm, put a complete stopper on our projected excursion to make a

closer acquaintance with the hills. Somewhat of the terrific heat

experienced here, may, with much justice, be attributed to the great

number of almost boiling springs which issue from the foot of the

Maquilui, so that even on entirely clear days, when the mountain-top is

quite free of clouds, the country about Los Banos seems enveloped in an

atmosphere of mist.

The main object and ever-memorable result of our excursion was the _Laguna

Encantada_ (or Enchanted Lake,--the _Socol_ of the Tagalese), distant not

much more than a mile from Los Banos. Volcanic agency and tropical beauty

have combined to prepare here one of the most singular and mysterious

phenomena that the eye of man may ever behold. Although this small lake is

only separated by a low hill from the larger basin, yet the approach to it

is extremely troublesome and arduous. It is necessary here and there to

use one's hands, in order to creep through the brushwood along the steep

wall of rock, till the shore of the lake is at last reached. Even the very

"dug-outs," in which the lake is to be navigated, have to be transported

over this lonely inhospitable hill. As the Lagune enjoys the unenviable

reputation of being the haunt of numbers of ravenous crocodiles, which

have on several occasions overturned the light canoes navigating it at the

time, and without further ceremony devoured their crews, the natives had

learned to take the precaution of binding two or three canoes close

together with bamboos and cords, in order to diminish the risk of being

overturned while boating on this dreary haunt of "caymano."

While the natives were getting ready this handsome specimen of a craft, we

stood on the shore, every one absorbed in gazing at this singular natural

picture. Calm and mysterious-looking the lake lay before us, a circular

basin, of a deep green from innumerable almost microscopic water plants,

unfathomable, if we may trust common report, and enclosed by a crater-like

wall of lava-blocks. All along the shore grew the tropical forest;

gigantic primeval trunks, wildly festooned with wondrously luxuriant

creepers, raised their towering crests, their splendid coronets of leaves

reflected in the calm mirror below, and casting the lake in every corner

into a dusky, shadowy obscurity of outline. From the topmost branches of

the trees were suspended huge brown, indistinct-looking fruits. There was

death-like silence all around. Only at fitful intervals might be

distinguished the note of a bird, or the muttered growl of distant

thunder. We now got into our canoes and rowed silently over the waters of

the lake. As though to add to the interest of the adventure, it came on to

rain pretty heavily. Some of the party followed the very practical custom

of the natives, who forthwith divested themselves of their clothing, and

left the rain to beat upon their naked bodies, while they put their

dresses under the seats of the boat to prevent their being soaked.

Fortunately the alligators at no time made their appearance in such

numbers as the tales of the natives had led us to anticipate. We saw but

one of these monsters, apparently about 15 feet long, who however speedily

dived out of our sight.[104] Our guides maintained it would be advisable

to take a dog with us, whose howl would have aroused the alligators and

brought them up to the surface in hope as of prey. Indeed people

frequently sacrifice dogs in order to entice these rapacious monsters from

their haunts for the purpose of hunting them.

If however disappointed in this spectacle, we were recompensed by another

not less peculiar. For hardly had a shot been fired at one of the

water-fowls which were skimming to and fro over the lake, than at once

tree and thicket seemed filled with life. Birds of all kinds, screaming

and whirring, fluttered about or dashed wildly against each other on every

side. Thousands that had been sitting on the beach concealed in the deep

shade, wood-pigeons and legions of gigantic bats, which had been suddenly

frightened out of their listless repose, now flew about directly before

the murderous fowling-pieces. The singular-looking fruits which seemed to

be so strangely dependent from the trees, were transformed into Kalong

bats (_Pteropus edulis_), and flew about in immense flocks that obscured

the light of day, directly over our heads, hastily seeking a shelter in

the forest, which should hide them from the gaze of the sportsmen.

Probably we should have brought down some of these singular animals, had

not our fowling-pieces, owing to the incessant pour of rain, got so

thoroughly out of order that we had to content ourselves with getting a

very few specimens for our zoological collection.

On returning to the parsonage from this interesting excursion, we found

the _Alcalde Mayor_, who had come to Los Banos from the adjacent small

town of Santa Cruz, to welcome the foreigners, and be of service to them.

The _Alcalde Mayor_, or _Gobernador_, is the highest official, the chief

both of administration and justice in the province, a sort of prefect,

under whom are the _Gobernadorcillos_, or departmental administrators,

beneath whom again the Cabezas,[105] or parish justices, form yet a lower

grade. The chief duties of these native officials consist in seeing that

the proper amount of tribute or head-money is duly collected. This impost

is divided into three parts: the duty for defraying the State expenses

amounting to five reals, that for supporting the Church amounts to three

reals, and that for the wants of the community amounting to one real, so

that the whole taxation levied upon each individual liable is about nine

reals (4_s._ 9_d._ English). In addition to the natives, the Chinese

resident in Manila and the half-breed Chinese are subject to a poll-tax,

the pure Chinese being rated according to their social position and the

nature of their calling. They pay on the average about 17 dollars, or

about 15 times as much as the native. The poll-tax of the Chinese Mestizo

amounts to 18 reals, or about twice as much as that on the native. All

males are liable to be rated for the poll-tax, as also all females when

married, or when they have attained the age of 25. Those exempted from

the poll-tax are all Spaniards and their half-caste children, all foreign

residents except the Chinese, as also all natives above 60, and a few

native families, whose ancestors had performed certain services for the

Spaniards at the period of the conquest; and, lastly, all native

authorities during their tenure of office (usually six years).[106]

The morning after our excursion to the Enchanted Lake, a hunt of

water-fowl was organized among the swamps surrounding Calamba, which

furnished us with plenty of sport, as well as important scientific

results, in which it would have been yet more productive, had it not been

suddenly brought to a close by the acute illness of one of the canoe-men.

As some cases of cholera had occurred during the few days immediately

preceding, it seemed to be only a wise precaution to exercise some little

prudence on the present occasion. Strange to say, however, the man

attacked, despite his sickness, rowed resolutely till the party reached

Los Banos, during all which period he showed the most lively interest in

the hunt, constantly calling our attention to birds which his keen eye

detected at a distance, or which were moving softly over the water without

being observed.

Meanwhile one of the zoologists was busy at the parsonage, making

preparations of the most interesting specimens procured. Padre Lorenzo

could hardly believe his eyes when he beheld the naturalist engaged in

such a bloody business, apparently on precisely the most agreeable spot of

the whole terrace, and performing the various dissections requisite upon

the dead bodies of some couple of dozen of birds. In whatever direction

one turned in the apartment, the eye encountered nothing but birds of

variegated plumage, gigantic Kalong bats, monkeys, or else barrels filled

with spirits of wine, in which were preserved snakes, fish, and other

small inhabitants of the deep. The poor padre, accustomed to peaceful

meditation and full of simplicity, appeared quite convinced he must have

sinned grievously that such a visitation should have overtaken him, as

that this horde of foreigners should have disturbed the repose of his

peaceful asylum with such appalling practices. The youths of the village,

encouraged by the promise of remuneration, busied themselves with yet

further increasing our zoological collection, and made their appearance,

breathless with running, each with some still more curious and important

object to show to the strange gentleman, who found such interest in snakes

and insects, that he even paid money down for them!

Padre Lorenzo, however, was ere long rid of his singular guests, with whom

he could even not get upon an intelligible footing. On the same day on

which the hunt among the swamps of Calamba took place in the morning, the

Expeditionary party returned from Los Banos, and by way of recompense to

the obliging padre for the discomfort inflicted, they presented him with

some provisions and some bottles of claret, which filled the worthy

gentleman with delight, and seemed completely to reconcile him to the

"Estranjeros." Some of the members of our Expedition also visited the two

villages of Jalla-jalla and Binangonan, lying close to the shore of the

lake, places of great interest in a geographical sense, while the

remainder of the party returned to Manila in the same way they had come.

Unfortunately throughout the entire distance the rain fell worse than

ever. It never ceased pouring in deluges, so that for hours together we

could not get upon deck, but had to remain below in the small bleak,

comfortless cabin. Here there was nothing for it but to wile away the time

as best we might. We talked "_de omnibus rebus, et quibusdam aliis_," we

laughed, we sang, and we--SMOKED, a habit, be it remarked incidentally, so

constant and universal here, that the _Pebete_ with its glowing top is

constantly circulating from hand to hand. This is a sort of tinder in the

shape of small thin rods, a cubit long, which is prepared in China from a

mixture of fine dried sawdust, fir, and clay, and forms a by no means

insignificant article of commerce, the greater part coming from

Macao.[107] A chest of eight cubic feet, filled with _Pebete_ or

"joss-sticks," as the English call this tinder, the use of which pervades

the entire Malay Archipelago as far as Madras, costs from 10_s._ to 16_s._

6_d._ sterling.

By 11 P.M. we had got back to Manila. The weather had cleared up somewhat,

the rain had ceased, and the city and environs were gay with the gleam of

innumerable variegated lamps, intended to represent the illuminations

expressive of the joy of the people at the birth of a prince of the

Asturias. This did not however continue long; the enthusiasm that was

finding vent through the glitter of the lamps was drowned in another

deluge of rain, and as the exhibition had now lasted for several nights in

succession, people at last had got weary of the trouble of constantly

relighting them; the gaudy triumphal arches were decomposed into their

constituent atoms--rough boards, wooden pegs, nails, and filthy little

oil-lamps.

The continuance of the wet weather put more distant excursions out of the

question. We had to content ourselves with having seen all that was really

worth seeing in the city and environs during our limited stay.

Many additional visits were paid to the interior of the city, to the fort,

to the monasteries, and the various public institutions. Of these latter,

two call for a more particular notice: the "_Biblioteca Militar_," and the

immense hospital of San Juan de Dios, under the charge of the Charitable

Friars.

The attraction of the Military Library, which is situated in one portion

of the cloister of the Jesuits which had been almost entirely

destroyed[108] by a former earthquake, consisted far less in its

bibliographic treasures, than in a small collection of objects

illustrative of natural history, of which the first beginning had been

made but a few months before our arrival. It deserves the more notice that

it was not the project of a professed naturalist, but solely of an

"aficimado," or friend to scientific inquiry, Colonel Miguel Creus.

Although very deficient, still the bare experiment has paved the way to a

better and more complete collection, which at present comprises, besides

about 100 species of birds and a few mammalia, a number of objects

illustrative of ethnography, geological specimens, and the various

manufactures and natural products of the Archipelago (among which are 37

species of rice). Considering the natural resources of this Archipelago,

(some of which, especially the Conchylia,[109] far surpass in richness of

colour, beauty, and gracefulness of form anything that has yet been met

with in any part of the globe,) the inauguration of this small collection

may yet prove the foundation of one of the most magnificent and marvellous

museums of natural history, provided the laudable intention of the

founder receive adequate support; and the work, commenced as a labour of

love, be continued and promoted with energy and perseverance.[110]

The great Civil Hospital, to which Dr. Fullerton, a Scotchman settled in

Manila, was so kind as to accompany us, is a very extensive range of

buildings, with large airy rooms, but so unclean and ill-kept, that it is

no wonder if the report be true, that many natives in bad health prefer to

run the chance of death without, to being brought to this infirmary.

Indeed most of the rooms are empty and unoccupied, there being in the

whole building but 30 confined to their beds, which in a city of not less

than 130,000 souls, with but _one_ hospital, is at all events a remarkable

phenomenon. Every year on St. John's day the brethren of the order give a

fete, when all the different rooms are scoured, swept, and garnished, and

the sick in the hospital are present at the festivities, and, unrestricted

by considerations of diet, are regaled with food and wine to their heart's

content. This is likewise the period at which the hospital is most

extensively patronized, and not only by those actually sick, but far more

by those who qualify for a residence in the hospital by a too great

devotion to the plentiful viands provided on St. John's day. When the

English were in possession of Manila during the Seven Years' War, this

range of buildings was used as a barrack, for which reason the church was

considered as desecrated for 90 years, and only in 1857 consecrated once

more as a temple of God.

There is also in the _Calle de Hospicio_ a Military Hospital, somewhat

better kept, and not like the former under the charge of a brotherhood,

but of a medical staff. Unfortunately the arrangements here leave very

much to be desired. The rooms, insufficiently ventilated, are in the

immediate vicinity of the kitchen, the smoke and odours from which cannot

but be very prejudicial to the patients. In the various wards there were

about 150 to 200 sick, whose lot called for redoubled sympathy,

considering the little attention paid them.

Unfortunately no opportunity presented itself during our stay at Manila of

witnessing any of those processions of the Church, which are necessarily

so frequent in the course of the year. This was the more to be regretted,

as we were told of many peculiarities of these costly processions. Here

apparently, as in the earlier dependencies of Spain, in Central and

Southern America, the Roman Catholic ritual has become mingled in the most

extraordinary manner with ceremonies borrowed from paganism. The earliest

Spanish missionaries were especially prone to believe that by retaining

some of the former ceremonies they would facilitate the work of

conversion, and increase the number of neophytes. They saw no scandal in

the native, attired sometimes as a giant twelve feet high, sometimes as a

Malay warrior, sometimes as an aboriginal savage, fantastically painted,

and accoutred with bow and arrow, in a word, in all sorts of masquerading

costume, frolicking in the very midst of the sacred procession, and

performing all manner of buffoonery in front of the life-sized and

gaily-adorned images of saints; but appeared rather to contemplate with

pleasure that these wild beings, who had resisted the Spaniards on their

first arrival on the island, were now subjected to the Holy Church, and

rejoiced in her service! There are also numbers of natives dressed up as

animals, and girls gaily decorated with flowers and in robes of spotless

white, as also a fantastically-attired jester, who from time to time gives

national dances and sings national songs, to the best of his ability, all

in one long procession, accompanied by monks singing chorals and carrying

wax tapers, while a promiscuous crowd of the faithful bring up the rear.

The sight of such processions have anything but an edifying influence upon

a European, but on the mind of the masses they seem to make a deep

impression, and for weeks after, when smoking a cigarette in the privacy

of the family circle, they will talk of the splendour of such solemnities,

and the motley episodes that accompanied it. If it were admissible to

judge of the religious mind of a people by their outward observances, the

Tagalese would be the most devout race in the world. Wherever the natives

come in contact with the Church, they put on an extraordinary stern and

reverential deportment, and even in the most trivial matters the great

influence of the priesthood upon the masses becomes abundantly apparent.

This is the most conspicuous every evening as the clock tolls for the Ave

Maria. The tones work like enchantment upon the people at whatever

distance they may be audible, and for a few moments a profound silence

succeeds to the noise and bustle. The labourer and the promenader, the

ladies and gentlemen of the upper ranks in their elegant carriages, as

well as the poor Tagale returning homeward from his hard day's work, and

driving his laden mule before him, are for the space of an instant awed by

the solemn sounds. All vehicles stop suddenly short, the gentlemen and

servants uncover their heads, the restless masses stand as though nailed

to the ground, and then sink gradually on their knees in prayer, their

heads bared and their cigars extinguished; no one would venture to break

in upon the universal stillness so long as the bell continues to toll. But

as soon as it is silent, each jumps to his feet, and proceeds on again,

believing he may now in safety give way to his frolicsomeness and pursue

his pleasures.

Life in Manila during the dry season was described to us as exceedingly

agreeable and gay. Then almost every evening joyous groups thread the city

singing and joking, while from every hut resounds some snatch of melody

accompanied by the guitar. We had a slight foretaste of the joviality

which must prevail in Manila during the delicious summer evenings from the

joyous disposition manifested by the various Tagal families, even during

the wet season, when the almost incessant rain, and the swampy state of

the streets, compelled the natives to remain crowded in the narrow rooms

of their poor little huts. In St. Miguel, a hamlet in the immediate

neighbourhood of Manila, with a number of country-seats of wealthy

foreigners and natives, we repeatedly heard the sweet plaintive notes of

the native women singing Tagal ditties, which for pathos and thrilling

tenderness surpassed all we had hitherto heard or read of the talents of

the coloured races for song and melody. We shall be able in the Appendix

to give the notes of a very characteristic melody, the words of which form

a very favourite popular song (Condiman), which we ultimately succeeded in

taking down through the kindness of Senor Balthasar Girandier of Manila.

It was at San Miguel that we had not alone the most agreeable, but also

the most melancholy, experience of our entire stay in the capital of the

Philippines. On an island opposite the handsome, beautifully situate

residence of our hospitable friend Mr. Steffan, the Bremen Consul, is the

Poorhouse, in which the insane as well as the sick are confined together,

the whole being, like all the other humane institutions of Manila, under

the superintendence of an ecclesiastic, in the present case a Mestizo. It

appeared there was no proper or regular medical attendance. Without

assistance, or any one responsible for their proper care, these miserable

beings, left in an indescribably desolate and neglected condition, cower

down upon the bare stone floor in the damp, filthy rooms, staring vacantly

before them, or slink about among the cool corridors, murmuring

unintelligibly to themselves. The padre, habituated to such a state of

matters, seems never to give it a moment's thought, but rather to make it

his amusement to conduct strangers through the dismal, horrible wards,

where at each step one encounters some fresh form of misery. We felt most

pity at the sight of a female, whose features and whole appearance spoke

of a happier lot in by-gone days. It seemed a mystery crying aloud for

reparation, that this unhappy being, an orphan, worthy of all compassion,

should for a slight attack of melancholy be liable to be sent to the

asylum for the insane by her unscrupulous relations, that they might with

the greater security possess themselves of her property. So deep and so

permanent was the impression made by this melancholy spectacle, that even

now, after the lapse of years of varied experience, since our visit to the

lunatic asylum of Manila, the ill-fated being, with her wan yet striking

features, her large, melancholy black eyes, and her wavy, shining black

hair, her dress neglected and half torn into pieces, stands out life-like

before us, as an embodiment of misery.

Early on the day on which we bade adieu to Manila we found an opportunity

of seeing a live boa-constrictor, said to be 48 feet long and seven

inches thick, at the house of a secular ecclesiastic in the suburb of

Santa Cruz. This gigantic reptile had been confined for 32 years in a

large wooden cage, where it had enjoyed such a carefully tended existence

that it had fairly outlived the good padre, and was now for sale by his

heirs. The indolent animal, constantly lying almost motionless among the

sand, is fed only once in every four weeks, when it is usually presented

with a young pig.

On the 24th of June the members of our Expedition went on board the small

steamer plying to Cavite, where lay the frigate, on board which all

necessary preparations had been made. Now, on the eve of departure, almost

every one of our number mourned the disappointment of cherished

expectations. The inclemency of the weather had not alone precluded our

undertaking the more distant excursions which would have repaid our

researches in the natural history of the islands, but had even interposed

serious obstacles to our wanderings in the immediate neighbourhood;

moreover, up to the very moment of our departure the Government manifested

the utmost indifference to the objects of the Expedition, while even the

educated portion of the Spanish residents never took the slightest notice.

The more reason therefore is it, under such circumstances, that we should

not be unmindful of the few, such as Messrs. Steffan, Schmidt, Wegener,

Wood, Fullerton, Fonseca, Girandier, and Creus, who, with warm interest in

our plans, furnished us with new material relating to the Philippines and

their inhabitants, and left us with the agreeable prospect of a permanent

exchange of literary and scientific labours.

At one A.M. of the 25th June we weighed anchor in the harbour of Cavite,

on our voyage to the Empire of China. The land breeze, which sets in

regularly every night, carried us clear out of the Bay of Manila, but in

the open sea outside we found, contrary to expectation, instead of the

S.W. monsoon, light variable winds and calms, which materially interfered

with our progress. At last, when we were about mid-way across the China

Sea, we fell in with the long-looked for S.W. wind, which speedily wafted

us to the next station we were to visit, the British colony of Hong-kong,

or Victoria. With favourable winds the voyage from Manila to Hong-kong, a

distance of about 700 nautical miles, is four or five days' sail; owing to

the constant contrary winds we were double that time.

Already, before we came in sight of land, a Chinese fishing vessel had put

a pilot on board in the shape of a long-tailed son of the Celestial

Empire, who jabbered English in a fashion to set the hair on end, and was

lost in wonder at our flag, which he had never before seen. We afterwards

found that the dialect used by our pilot was what is called

Canton-English, such as is spoken by all Chinese who have dealings with

the British, and consisting exclusively of a most ludicrous distortion of

the commonest English phrases.

About noon on the 4th July we sighted the Chinese coast; and before

sundown we had passed the Lemmas islands, and found ourselves in the

island-studded, many-bayed archipelago at the mouth of the Canton River,

where the English have selected Hong-kong, with its admirable harbour, for

the site of their colony. Thousands of fishing-boats covered the surface

of the ocean all around us, always sailing parallel with each other, in

fact, quite a fleet of fishermen, who, on a favourable opportunity, add a

little buccaneering, and have numerous secure retreats among the thousands

of coves all around, so that even up to the present day they can carry on

almost unpunished their piratical attempts upon their own

fellow-countrymen, as well as upon foreigners ignorant of their danger. It

was the first time we had seen in any numbers the Chinese Junk, with its

strange-looking rigging. On most of these small but clumsy vessels there

was cut or painted on either side of the forecastle a huge eye, as though

the crew were anxious to increase the power of vision of their vessel, so

that it might more readily pick its way through the numerous dangerous

reefs and coral banks. On the other hand the superstitious sea-faring

Chinese sometimes veil and cover up the eyes of their vessels, in order

that they should not behold certain strange things passing by, as, for

instance, a dead body, or an approaching thunder-storm, and not be

frightened by them.[111]

The nearer we approached the coast, the more was our gaze rivetted by a

landscape of the most imposing character, and now not owing to the

altitude of the hills (for the highest peak is only 3000 feet), but to the

grandeur of their form and their contour. Here are sharp, needle-shaped

pinnacles, their steep rocky cones reminding one of the Sugar Loaf at Rio,

and then round shoulders of hills, and far-extending ranges, penetrated by

deep defiles, all nearly perpendicular, and without any extent of level

land, and rising sheer out of the sea. These mountain ranges are almost

entirely naked, or covered only with a scanty grass or bush vegetation: no

tree, no forest hides the majestic groups of rocks and stones, and when

the setting sun picked out with dark, well-defined shadows the sharp

outline of the granite rock, it was as though there lay before us a "bit"

of the Swiss Alps, bathed in the sea as far as the limit of

forest-vegetation, and our sailors contemplated with redoubled enjoyment a

scene which reminded them of their native Dalmatia.

As the night was dark, with neither moonlight nor light-house (of which

latter there is unfortunately an utter lack here), we could not venture to

wind our way through the narrow channel into the harbour of Hong-kong, on

the north side of the island, and we anchored therefore about 9 P.M. on

the west side, in the Lemmas Channel; and with the first beams of the sun,

on the morning of the 5th July, we stood in to the enchanting harbour of

Hong-kong. Where the previous day we could descry from seaward hardly any

traces of human activity in the hills and rocks along the coast, so that

the land seemed desolate and deserted, there now smiled upon us, as we

doubled Green Island, the city of Victoria, rising amphitheatre-like; and,

lying invitingly before us, its harbour, all alive with numbers of stately

ships and steamers, looking like an inland lake,--in fact, entirely

land-locked. Several old ships of the line, which the English use as

hospitals and coal depots, filled the background, among which was the

Royal Charlotte, 130 guns, the first three-decker that has passed the

Equator.

At 10 A.M. we cast anchor directly opposite the town; and amid the flags

of England, America, France, Holland, and Russia, there now flaunted

proudly forth the flag of Austria!

FOOTNOTES:

[72] In Manila the minimum annual rainfall is 84 inches, the maximum 102

inches.

[73] The expedition sailed from Madras with about 2300 men; the squadron

consisted of 13 ships of war and transports. The English landed without

any opposition, laid siege to Manila, stormed and captured the city proper

within ten days after their arrival. The Citadel capitulated; the

Governor, an Archbishop, binding himself to pay a contribution of

4,000,000 dollars (L833,000), in order to save the city from being sacked.

This expedition was always looked on by the Spaniards of the Philippines

as a very rash adventure, which by no means tended to diminish the

national antipathy to the English race, although after such freebooting

expeditions as have within these last two years been witnessed on the part

of civilized states in law-abiding Europe, this invasion by an army of

declared enemies must be viewed in an entirely different light.

[74] Spanish writers, treating of the Philippines, derive this name from

"Losong," which in the native language means the wooden mortar in which

the rice, which forms the chief subsistence of the inhabitants, is shelled

and pounded. The first strangers who came to this island, and found in

every hut one of these very peculiar clumsy-looking implements, spoke of

the newly discovered island as "Isle de los Losenes" (island of wooden

mortars), whence in process of time it became transformed into Luzon.

[75] One of these hotels, the Hotel Francais, was, at the time of our

visit, kept by a Frenchman named Dubosse, a man of a most adventurous

disposition, who afterwards accompanied the French army to China as a

mess-man, and was one of the victims seized by Sang-ko-lin-sin's soldiers,

near Pekin, in September, 1860, who met with such a horrible fate. The

other inn, the Hotel Fernando, kept by a North American, is yet more

filthy and noisy than the first-named, since, being situated on the

harbour, it serves for a rendezvous for the various ships' captains. In

neither of these is the charge less than 4 to 5 Spanish dollars a day, or

about L1 sterling.

[76] The Stranger's Guide to the Philippines (_Guia de Forasteros_) for

the year 1859 gives the names of 61 commercial houses established by

Spaniards in Manila. Besides these, there are in the capital of the

Philippines, seven English, three North American, two French, one German,

and two Swiss trading firms.

[77] We borrow this alphabet from the valuable work of Baron von Huegel,

entitled the Pacific Ocean and the Spanish Colonies of the Indian

Archipelago (Vienna, printed at the Imperial Press, 1860), and believe the

reader will the more gratefully welcome it that only a small number of

copies of Baron von Huegel's interesting journal were printed in manuscript

for private circulation.

[78] This opinion of our Augustinian guide is not shared out there. An

Austrian traveller, as widely renowned as highly cultivated, Baron Von

Huegel, relates, in his Diary already alluded to, the following singular

revelations by a friar in Manila: "The Philippine Islands belong to the

Augustine monks; in Manila, Don Pasquale (the then Governor) or another

may ruffle it and talk large,--in the interior we are the true masters.

Tell me where you want to go and everything shall be laid open for you!...

Police in the interior? It is laughable to hear of such an idea! As if

such were possible! and I should be glad to make the acquaintance of that

official who would venture to ask even the simple question of who any man

is, who is under the protection of our order!... Should you like to ascend

the Majayjay, the highest hill in the interior? An Augustinian friar shall

accompany you thither. Should you care to make an excursion to the Lagoons

and thence proceed to the Pacific Ocean? An Augustinian friar shall be

your guide. Have you a hankering to visit the forests of Ilocos, northward

from Manila, or to sail down the great river Lanatin? An Augustinian shall

arrange all that for you. In one word, say what you wish to do!"

[79] Fray Manuel Blanco, whose portrait, the size of life, but by no means

artistically executed, adorns one of the corridors, was born 24th

November, 1778, at Navianos, in the province of Zamora in Spain, and died

in the convent of Manila 1st April, 1845.

[80] Of these there were in 1857, 373,569 liable to taxation. Within the

same year there were 85,629 persons baptized, 16,768 married, and 49,999

buried with the rites of the Church.

[81] In 1857 there were baptized in these 76 villages 21,604 children,

4512 couples were united in wedlock, and 12,002 were buried.

[82] In the entire Archipelago there is but _one_ newspaper, "El Boletin

Oficial," published under the auspices of Government, and which treats

much more of religious than of political topics. There are but two

printing and publishing houses in Manila, one of which is in the hands of

the Dominicans, and prints almost exclusively Prayer-books and religious

works.

[83] This historical poem is entitled "_Luzonia, o sea Los Genios del

Pasig_."

[84] Of this number of souls there were in 1857, 188,509 amenable to

taxation, while during the year there occurred 31,285 births, 21,029

deaths, and 5713 marriages.

[85] In 1857, the order baptized 23,227, joined in marriage 4830 couples,

and buried 15,627.

[86] The printed works obtained in the various monasteries of Manila

consist of dictionaries and small grammars of the Togala, Bisaya, Ilocana,

Tbanac, Bicol, and Pampangu dialects. The MSS. embrace vocabularies of the

Igorotes and Ilongotes languages of Luzon, as also the idiom used by the

natives of the Marianne Archipelago, together with a short treatise on the

Marianne group written in Spanish by a missionary. All these works will be

thoroughly and exhaustively treated of in the ethnological portion, where

also the manuscripts will be published.

[87] _Usted_--contraction for "_Vuestra Merced_" (your Grace).

[88] The fair speeches and amiable phrases of the Spaniards lose all their

value when one finds upon nearer acquaintance with this courteous nation,

that the heart and the feelings take no part therein. There is nothing

which a Spaniard will not offer to a stranger--but it is always on the

clear understanding that the latter will with equal politeness refuse the

proffer. We on one occasion, however, saw a Yankee take these professions

at their apparent value, and by so doing put his Spanish host to no small

confusion. The Spaniard wore a very costly diamond breast-pin, for which

the American could not find words sufficient to express his admiration. To

his exclamations of delight, the Spaniard kept repeating his nauseous "_a

la disposicion de Usted_," till at last the American fairly took the pin

out of the Spaniard's scarf and transferred it to his own. The latter felt

so ashamed and dumbfounded that he could not utter a word. The following

day the American, who had only taken it by way of joke, returned the

costly bauble to the agonized Spaniard, but took occasion in so doing to

remark that he now knew what was meant by Spanish courtesy.

[89] On the island of Mactan (10 deg. 20' N., 124 deg. 10' E.) there was also

erected on the promontory of Sugano, a monument to the memory of

Magelhaens, and the happy idea was entertained of making it also into a

light-house, to warn ships of the danger in approaching the immense

numbers of reefs that are found here.

[90] V. Heinrich Heine's "Romanzero."

[91] It was estimated, we were told, at from $35,000 to $40,000 annually.

[92] Cock-fighting has been so long disused in England, that to most

persons it only lingers as a grim tradition, mainly authenticated by

Hogarth's well-known painting. The degrading associations which a

cock-fight generated are sufficiently well illustrated by the prince of

pictorial satirists. The "betting-ring" still brings together in England

the same intermingling of grades of society, and consequent utter

disruption of all social respect, but with all its faults it never has,

nor can have, the same brutalizing effects of cock-fighting, which are

instanced by the following anecdote, extracted from the _Gentleman's

Magazine_ for April, 1789, and which may even now be found to repay

perusal:--"Died at Tottenham, John Ardesoif, Esq., a young man of large

fortune, ... who if he had his foibles, had also his merits (!) that far

outweighed them. Mr. Ardesoif was very fond of cock-fighting, and had a

favourite cock, upon which he won many very profitable matches. The last

bet he laid upon this cock, he lost; which so enraged him that he had the

bird tied to a spit, and roasted alive before a large fire. The screams of

the miserable animal were so affecting that some gentlemen who were

present attempted to interfere, at which Mr. Ardesoif was so enraged that

he seized a poker, and with the most furious vehemence declared that he

would kill the first man that interfered, but in the midst of his

asseveration he fell dead upon the spot! Such we are assured were the

circumstances attending the death of this great pillar of humanity!"

[93] This unhappy lady died a melancholy death, having, what rarely occurs

among Spanish women, committed suicide at her hotel by swallowing Prussic

acid. It was rumoured that an unhappy attachment led to this fatal

resolve.

[94] Of these straw-plait manufactories the cigar-holders are especially

noticeable for their fine texture and elegance. These are usually sold at

very high prices; some of the more elegant of these fetching from 40 to 50

dollars (L8 to L10). Straw mats and hats, not inferior in fineness of

texture to those of Panama, are made here of palm fibre, and form a not

unimportant article of exportation.

[95] 8 reals = 1 Spanish piastre = 3_s._ 1-3/4_d._ at par; hence 1 real =

4.71875_d._ English.

[96] Owing to the universal interest felt in tobacco, the use of which has

spread over the globe, till it has become a necessary of life to the

civilized man as well as the half-savage races of mankind, we subjoin by

way of completing the information above attained, the following remarks

upon the tobacco culture in other possessions of Spain, extracted from an

unpublished journal, kept by a member of the Expedition, during a visit

previously paid to the West Indies.

"The best sites for growing tobacco in Cuba lie to the westward of the

capital in what is called the _Vuelta abajo_, between Rio Hondo and San

Juan de Martinez, and is about ten English miles in circumference; the

tobacco grown on the _Vuelta arriba_ is usually of inferior quality. In

1856 there were in Cuba 10,000 plantations or _Vegas_, with a superficial

area of 8000 _Caballerias_, (about 414 square miles, 1 Caballeria being

equal to 160,371,041 English square yards, or 33,134 acres), cultivated by

from 14,000 to 16,000 negro slaves. The total value of the capital

employed in this branch of culture (including manual labour, building

utensils, draught animals, &c.) may be estimated at 13,000,000 piasters

(L2,730,000), and the average weight of tobacco produced at a million and

a half _arrobas_, or 37,500,000 lbs. annually. Of this quantity 400,000

_arrobas_, or 10,000,000 lbs., are consumed in Cuba itself, while the rest

is exported partly in the leaf, partly in the manufactured state. One

_Caballeria_ of ground can produce on the average about 360 _arrobas_, or

9000 lbs., of which however only 1/20th will be of superior quality.

"A '_vega_' usually consists of three _Caballerias_, which are in regular

succession devoted to the tobacco cultivation, so that while two are

devoted to maize and other vegetables for human subsistence, only the

remaining third is under tobacco. The season for sowing is in October or

November, and the crop is got in in January or February. On one

_Caballeria_ there are usually found under favourable circumstances

500,000 plants or _Matas_. Hence it results, that as the tobacco culture

of Cuba extends over 8000 _Caballerias_, there are throughout the island

4,000,000,000 plants. Each plant has from 8 to 10 suitable leaves. They

are collected together in bundles, called _manojos_ (handfuls), of from

120 to 130 leaves each, and 80 _manojos_ make one _tercio_, or 150 lbs. of

tobacco. One _manojo_ weighs about 1-1/4 lbs., and when prepared

makes into about 400 cigars. There are in Cuba altogether 600

cigar-manufactories, of which above 400 are in the capital alone. A

workman can make about 150 cigars a day; the rate of pay is about 10

Spanish piasters or _duros_ for 1000. The manufacture of cigars gives

employment to about 20,000 workmen, chiefly males. Under the designation

of _Tabagueros_, they constitute almost an exclusive class, and owing to

their improvidence are usually in wretched plight. In Cuba (as in Luzon)

there is but one species of tobacco raised, but more attention seems to be

paid to its cultivation in the former island. The leaves are sorted in

Cuba according to colour and 'vein' (_venas_), and their quality fixed

accordingly. In commerce there are three sorts, viz.--

No. I. 42 to 45 Spanish piasters (L6 15_s._ to L7 5_s._) per 1000.

II. 32 " " (L5) "

III. 28 " " (L4 10_s._) "

The number of cigars annually exported from the Havanna averages from

200,000,000 to 250,000,000, without including the _ramos_, or tobacco

exported in the leaf. The cedar-tree (_Cedrela odorata_), of which the

cigar-boxes are chiefly made, is occasionally prejudicial to the contents,

in consequence of the slight dampness still remaining in the wood bringing

out white spots of decay upon the tips of the cigars."

[97] The United States of North America produce above 200,000 cwt., or

more than one half the whole supply. The annual consumption of tobacco by

the individual is in the United States 3-1/2 lbs., in England 1 lb. and

1/2 oz., in France 1 lb. 1-1/2 oz., and in Germany 2 lbs.

[98] The experiments made at Fort St. George near Madras in July, 1850,

with lines and rigging made of abaca and European hemp, with the view of

testing their respective availability, gave the following interesting

results: a rope of Manila hemp, 12 feet long, 3-1/4 inches in

circumference, and weighing 28-11/16 oz., required a strain of 4460 lbs.

to break it: on the other hand a rope of English hemp of similar

dimensions, weighing 39 oz., broke with a strain of only 3885 lbs. A

second smaller rope of Manila hemp, 1-3/4 inches thick, and 9-1/2 oz.

weight, also 12 feet in length, required 1490 lbs. to break it, while an

exactly similar cord of English and Russian hemp, weighing 13 oz. per

fathom, broke with 1184 lbs., so that in the first instance the abaca line

was 13 per cent., and in the second nearly 22 per cent. stronger than

ropes of similar size of European hemp.

[99] Compare with Forbes Royle's valuable treatise upon Manila hemp,

entitled "The Fibrous Plants of India fitted for cordage, clothing, and

paper." London, 1855.

[100] The best Manila hemp is worth from 4-1/2 to 6 dollars per Spanish

_picul_=140 lbs. Cordage made by steam power of the various dimensions,

from half to one inch thick, sells at 25, and from one to five inches

thick, at 10, piasters per _picul_.

[101] The fabrics known by the name of _Sinamay_ are on the other hand

made of the fibres of the _Musa textilis_. They are of less gossamer

tissue, but almost transparent, and far more durable than the fabrics made

from the Pina.

[102] According to Buzeta the Lagoon is 36 Spanish leagues in

circumference, by an average depth of 15 to 16 _brazos_ (fathoms). While

thirteen rivers of various dimensions flow into the lake, the Pasig alone

issues from it, to carry off its waters to the sea.

[103] Pronounce Mahayhay.

Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara, Volume II (Commodore B. Von Wullerstorf-Urbair,) Undertaken by Order of the Imperial Government in the Years 1857, 1858, & 1859, Under the Immediate Auspices of His I. and R. Highness the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, Commander-In-Chief of the Austrian Navy. · 第 12 / 16 章

It was not till a fifth expedition had started in 1565, forty-one years