Besides the sale of foreign manufactures and merchandise in the
Philippines, there exists a great outlet for it in the islands of
Sooloo and Mindanao, although in the present state of society in
those islands, where the insecurity of life and property is very
great, the natural advantages of these countries have not been at all
adequately developed. In front of Zamboanga, the last town towards
the south which recognizes the authority of the Government of Manilla,
is situated the island of Sooloo, which, although not of great size,
is the centre of an active trade during certain months of every year,
as great numbers of the natives of the neighbouring islands frequent
it at those seasons, in order to dispose of the produce of their
fisheries or to sell the slaves whom they have kidnapped or captured
during their piratical cruizes and attacks on their neighbours, if
at war with them, as some of them usually are with each other. From
Manilla some small vessels are annually fitted out for the trade,
which is nearly altogether in the hands of the Chinese dealers,
as no persons except themselves would stand the bad treatment they
are subjected to by the authorities of the place; the character of
the Celestial people leading them to suffer any amount of bad usage
provided they are paid for it, or can make money by it, which they
somehow manage to do, even in Sooloo, although they are exposed to
the almost unlimited plunder and extortion of the Sultan and Datos, or
native chiefs, who, on the least occasion, or pretext for it, capture
and enslave or confine them, only allowing these unfortunates to
regain their very unstable liberty by presents or extortionate bribes.
The vessels engaged in the trade, being brigs or schooners, commonly
start from Manilla in March or April for Antique, Yloylo, or other
places, where they can complete a Sooloo cargo, after doing which they
steer for Zamboanga, to report their cargoes and provide themselves
with passports at the custom-house there, should they not have done
so at Manilla.
It is, however, only within these few years that these facilities have
been given to those engaged in the trade, as formerly the colonial
ships were forbidden, under a heavy penalty, to touch at any place
in the Philippines after clearing out for Sooloo from Manilla. In
spite of this law, however, few of those engaged in the trade had
virtue sufficient to obey it, and pass these places by, when it was
so very much to their interest to complete their cargoes there, which
they could not do elsewhere nearly so advantageously. And the only
consequence of this absurd old prohibition against their doing so,
was to involve many of them in long-pending and expensive lawsuits,
which have often ruined prosperous men.
Besides those _wise_ regulations, there existed some other forms
equally sensible. For instance, the traders of Bisayao province, who
send several small craft to Sooloo, which they are close to, were
compelled to make a tedious voyage to Manilla against the monsoon,
in order that they might report their cargo for Sooloo and get out
passes, after which they had to return all the way back again, and
at length were at liberty to steer for Sooloo.
However, these foolish restrictions were at length put a stop to, and
the trade encouraged, by the Government establishing a custom-house at
Zamboanga, where there is at all times a considerable military force.
The Sultan appears to be the most powerful nobleman in the country,
rather than the sovereign monarch of it. For although the chiefs of
the islands, or Datos, usually acquiesce in appearance to his will,
they do so more from fear of his power at the moment than with any
idea of his legitimate authority, and in effect they very seldom
comply with his decrees.
The entire people are slaves owned by the Sultan and these Datos,
who exercise over the unfortunate wretches the worst species of
tyrannical power; for as these nobles or _reguli_ are subject to
no law but there own caprice, if any slave displeases his master,
he can, without the slightest fear of having to give any account
of the circumstance to a living soul, draw his kris, and murder the
slave. Of course by so doing, however, he impoverishes himself, as he
loses the market price of the day for a slave; or should he murder a
slave belonging to some one else, a Dato is only expected to pay the
amount he was considered worth by his master, or to give another one
of his own in exchange for him.
But, notwithstanding all the insecurity of life and property, the
Chinese annually resort to Sooloo in pursuit of gain, and occasionally
as many as eight small vessels are seen there at a time, during the
busy seasons, for trade, just after the changes of the monsoon.
Some of these Chinamen marry and remain in the country, although
every now and then some of them are obliged to flee from it to
the Philippines, where the Spanish flag protects them against their
tyrannical and barbarous pillagers; for as there is no law to appeal to
as a protection against the chiefs, they are quite at their mercy. The
Datos themselves decide their quarrels and disputes with each other,
by arming and assembling all their slaves and those of their friends
who are willing to help them, and fight it out; but should their
disputes run very high, or the feud last for any length of time,
some powerful Dato, or the Sultan himself, interferes, and decides
it finally by obliging both parties to keep the peace.
The footing on which the trade is carried on with Sooloo is rather a
strange one; although regulations have at various times been arranged
between the Spanish government and that court, by which, although
the Sultan has formally promised to give his guarantee that all goods
sold by the traders from the Philippines to the Datos shall be paid
for, yet there are very few of the traders at Manilla who consider
the pledge of his Highness as of much importance, as it is usually
only redeemed when his own particular interest requires it. He is,
in truth, generally absolutely unable to make the nobles fulfil
their contracts, they being as a body very much more powerful than
he is. There being little or no money in Sooloo, the trade carried
on by the Chinese supercargos of the ships frequenting the port is
principally transacted by barter, they giving their manufactures
for the produce of their fishery, &c., and for edible birds'-nests,
tortoise-shell, beche de mer, mother-of-pearl shell, wax, gold-dust,
pearls, &c.
The profits of those engaged in this trade are very variable, for
although their goods are all disposed of apparently at enormous prices,
yet there are so many of them delivered to powerful chiefs, or to the
Sultan, as presents, or sold to these dignitaries without the traders
ever being able to get paid for them, that in reality the profit of
the voyage may he scanty enough, although, were the guarantee of the
prince to the Manilla government fulfilled, they might he very large
if the prices at which they had been sold were actually paid to them.
If the debts of the Datos are not paid off at once they are allowed to
stand over for another year, at which distance of time they are very
seldom recoverable, good memories being very seldom met with there.
When the result of an adventure is good, the traders look upon these
presents and bad debts as necessary expenses incurred to conciliate
the authorities of the place, without whose good-will they would be
quite unable to prosecute the trade, and in this sort of commerce the
Chinese are adepts, although no Europeans could manage it, or would
carry it on while upon such a footing.
The ships most suited for the trade are small vessels, of about 200
tons, and their cargoes consist of an infinite variety of goods, each
lot being generally of small value. The invoices of a cargo usually
cover many pages of paper, and it is no easy matter to make them up
without the assistance of intelligent Chinese, who have themselves
been engaged in the traffic, and are well acquainted with the place
and the people to be dealt with.
Some of the principal cotton manufactures sent to that market from
Manilla consist of chintz prints, jaconets and mulls, white shirtings,
cambrics, bandana, kambaya, and other descriptions of handkerchiefs;
also, iron and hardware, glassware, coarse China earthenware, silk,
cloths, copper work, &c.
Ships are in the habit of touching at some port of the Philippines,
generally the Island of Panay, there to load and fill up with
rice, sugar, tobacco, oil, and several other articles in small
quantities. Rice is generally taken from its being always in demand
by the Sooloomen, whose habits and feelings little suit them for its
production, even when the nature of the country admits of its being
grown. The Chinese usually take down a large quantity of a kind of
cloth made in their own country, which habit has substituted for money,
a piece of it of the usual size being always reckoned as a dollar.
The Sooloomen pay for their purchases in various articles, of which the
edible birds'-nests are the most valuable. They are classified by the
traders as of two sorts: white, and feathered; of which, the first sort
is the most valuable, being generally worth about its weight in silver,
or if very good, a little more; but should its colour tend to a red
or darkish tinge, it is depreciated in value and is not worth so much.
The feathered sort, called so because the edible substance, of which
the Chinamen make soup, is covered by the birds' down and feathers,
is very much lower in price than the white kind, being worth nearly
two dollars a pound, or I believe it is generally roughly taken as
being only about one-tenth part as valuable as the white.
Tortoise-shell they collect and sell at very high prices, the bulk of
it going over to supply the China market with that article, a small
quantity only being annually sent to Europe.
Bêche de mer, or tripang, is a sort of fish or sea-slug, found on the
coral reefs, &c., of the neighbourhood, which, when cured and dried,
is generally shaped something like a cucumber.
It is minced down into a sort of thick soup by the Chinese, who
are extremely fond of it,--and indeed with some reason, as when well
cooked by a Chinaman, who understands the culinary art, the tripang is
a capital dish, and is rather a favourite among many of the Europeans
at Manilla.
There are thirty-three different varieties enumerated by the Chinese
traders and others skilled in its classification; for being brought to
Manilla in large quantities for that purpose, for the China market,
it has become a peculiar business of itself by the dealers in it,
and varies in price, according to quality, from fifteen to thirty
dollars per pecul of 140 lbs. English.
The slug, when dried, is an ugly looking, dirty brown-coloured
substance, very hard and rigid until softened by water and a very
lengthened process of cookery, after which it becomes soft and
mucilaginous.
Sometimes the slugs are found nearly two feet in length, but they are
generally very much smaller, and perhaps about eight inches might be
the usual size of those I have seen, their shape, as before mentioned,
strongly resembling a cucumber. After being taken by the fisherman
they are gutted, and then cured by exposure to the rays of the sun,
after which they are smoked--over a fire, I believe--when the curing
process is completed.
Shark fins, and the muscles of deer, are also exposed for sale by
the Sooloo people to their Chinese visitors, by whom they are eagerly
purchased for their countrymen's cookery, both of these articles being
very favourite delicacies. The first I have never tasted, although
the flesh of a shark, if cut from some particular parts of his body,
is far from being bad or unsavoury, if dressed by a China cook. As
for the sinews of deer, they are very good, and occasionally met
with at Manilla on the tables of Europeans who enjoy the reputation
of having good palates.
Mother-of-pearl shell is so well known in Europe, that it is quite
unnecessary to remark upon it, more than that those coming from Sooloo
are by much the finest and largest shells of any hitherto known in
commerce, being superior to those coming from the Persian Gulf.
Pearls are also brought from Sooloo, but they are seldom of any great
size or value.
Gold is brought to Manilla from the same place, both in dust and in
small bars, but not in any great quantity.
The ships engaged in this trade are generally absent about six months
from Manilla, which they leave in March or April, and return to, after
coasting about and disposing of all their cargoes, in September or
October; no new voyages being undertaken by them until the following
year.
During June and July, the most active trade is said to be carried on,
as the number of traders annually frequenting the island from those
in the neighbourhood, is much greater than at other times.
Besides the trade with Sooloo, a ship is absent nearly every year
to Ternate, and other places of the Moluccas, where they usually
manage to get their goods ashore, without paying the heavy duties
which the Dutch have imposed upon them. The months of December or
January being the usual time for starting for the Moluccas, these
traders generally begin the busy season at Manilla by the purchase of
grey shirtings and domestics, by adding which to goods very similar
to those suited for Sooloo, they are enabled to have two strings to
their bow, should the prices in the Moluccas be low; as they can,
in that case, stand over to Sooloo in June, when they are usually
able to dispose of their investments.