The Huge Forests.
There are great forests of costly woods in the colony, mahogany,
sapan-wood, log-wood, iron-wood, ebony, and cedar; beside fifty
varieties not known to European markets, but eagerly sought for by
merchants from China. The cedar is almost exclusively used in making
cigar boxes; and I have seen beautiful knotted and polished war clubs
of iron-wood used by the remoter savages in their battles with other
tribes; they are as black as ebony, and nearly as hard as steel. These
various woods yield logs from eighteen to seventy feet in length. The
molave is especially valuable: the sea-worm cannot bore it, the white
ant eat it; nor is it affected by water or by climate. It is used for
the frames of vessels, and would be unsurpassed for railroad ties,
being practically invulnerable.
The palma brava is used in the making of bridges, piles, and
piers--wherever, in short, resistance to water is necessary.
Lanete-wood is useful in carving and in the making of musical
instruments, or elsewhere where delicacy is required, as well as
strength.
From sapan a rich crimson dye is extracted. This is obtained by
cutting the smaller branches into little pieces and soaking them in
boiling water. This dye is much esteemed, but is not so permanent as
that made from cochineal.
There are many hundreds of islands in the Philippines with thousands of
miles of virgin forests, with woods suitable for ship-building, houses,
cars, fittings, furniture, wharves, bolts, axe-handles, carriages,
wheels, and everything else that timber is used for; besides some
exquisite pink, red, yellow, and veined varieties, capable of high
polish, and suitable for veneering and for dye-woods. The saps of
many trees, also, give a hard, durable glaze.
Magnificent orchids abound in all parts of the Philippines. One
specimen was recently sold for $500. And there are rubber trees that
have hardly been worked, but have, nevertheless, a future of great
importance.
The Bamboo Plant and its Uses.
The most beautiful plant in the colony is bamboo. It grows everywhere
except in marshy places--on the hills, along the banks of rivers, in
open spaces, and in woods. Groups of bamboos are invariably cultivated
by the natives in the vicinity of their homes. It has a light,
feathery, tufted top, that waves in the slightest breeze and gives
a spirited look to the landscape. It frequently grows to the height
of fifty or sixty feet, is from five to eight inches in diameter,
and strongly jointed, every joint strengthened by an inside web.
There are also many smaller kinds.
The plant is constantly propagated by the natives from young shoots;
for bamboo-sticks always bring their price in Manila markets, according
to size and season. There are several varieties; and the uses to which
they are put are endless, the wood being tough, flexible, and elastic.
From bamboo-sticks huts, houses, and churches are made; and even roofed
and thatched. For the latter, however, nipa palm and cógon grass are
preferred. Bridges are constructed of them several hundred feet in
length, over which a drove of elephants could safely cross; they are
used in the making of furniture, walls, flooring, rafts, scaffolding,
carts, baskets, vessels to contain liquid, and measures for wheat,
organs, and small instruments, and every kind of household utensil
used by the natives. They are used, also, for weapons, for cordage,
for hats, for mats, for palings, for carrying poles, for blowers
to a furnace, and for condensing-pipes in making brandy,--and for a
hundred other articles of amusement or convenience.
Bamboo-leaves are eaten by horses and cattle, and its tender shoots by
man. In one variety of the cane a stone is occasionally found. This
the Indians believe will heal sickness. In another kind is a white
substance used to allay inflammation of the eye. This disease is very
common in the colony, owing to the intensity of the sun-rays.
The rattan, or calamus family, is very much like the bamboo, and
its varieties are only a little less useful. One kind, the bojo,
is used for much the same things that the lighter bamboo is.
The Bejuco Rope.
The bejuco, or bush rope, a rattan, is sometimes three hundred feet
long; indeed, it is said to have been found on one of the islands
three times that length. It is used for rope, cords, or cable; to bind
hemp-bags, sugar-bales, and bundles; to lash together whatever breaks
down or gives way, in house, harness, carriage, cart, machinery, or
package; in the city street, in the country, on the mountain, in the
wilderness. The thickest bejuco is used for rafts and cables, and,
in conjunction with bamboo, for the making of suspension bridges. And
the delicate fibres are woven into cloth, and even made into hats
and cigar cases.
The Useful Cocoanut Palm.
Cocoanut plantations are among the surest sources of revenue in
the Philippines. The fruit is in demand in every market in the
world--as much so as oranges and lemons; and every part of the tree
can be sold. It thrives best on sandy soil, near the sea-shore,
and cocoanut-groves are expected to produce a profit of $250 an
acre annually.
In many provinces this palm is cultivated for the oil only, which
is then used either at home or is shipped to Europe. In the European
climate it is solid and is made into soap and candles. In the islands
the heat reduces it to a liquid, which is used for oiling machinery,
for lighting, and for cooking purposes. The nightly terror of the
region is a possible impending earthquake, and so in every house
or hut a tiny light burns from dark to dawn: a glass is half-filled
with water; on top is poured a small quantity of cocoanut oil, and in
this floats a wick, protected by a strip of tin. This arrangement has
the illuminating qualities of a brilliant firefly, but in cases of
illness or fright other lamps can be lighted quickly, and the panic
of darkness averted.
The majority of the inhabitants use cocoanut oil from reasons
of economy. The factories are small bamboo huts, and the process
primitive. The nuts are first dried, then halved and scraped,--an easy
process while the pulp is fresh. The mass is then pressed, to express
the oil, and the refuse boiled in order to obtain what is left of the
fatty substance. This is skimmed off. The whole is then packed into
kegs, and is ready for the markets of Manila or Madrid. The meat of
the nut is eaten as food by the natives, or made into sweets. The
milk, or water, is a refreshing and harmless drink, and makes good
vinegar also. The shell is carved into household utensils, and when
burnt makes a valuable dye. Every part of the tree is used. The native
dwells in a house made of the trunk and thatched with the leaves. From
it he obtains light, fire, rope, brushes, mats, furniture, clothing,
and, in fact, all the necessaries of life. In Europe and America the
coir, or outer covering of the cocoanut shell, is made into ropes
and cocoa-matting.
Besides all this, the sap of the tree forms a delightful beverage,
called tuba. Incisions are made high up in the flowering stalk,
and underneath these cuts, vessels are hung to the tree, in order to
catch the liquor as it falls. This is removed at sunrise and sunset,
and is served fresh at the different houses. For it there is a daily
demand. The dealer, too, has it for sale in the market-place.
A distilled wine is also made from this, called cocoa-wine. Tuba trees
are never used for fruit, as the loss of the sap deprives them of
their producing-power. And tuba-gathering is extremely dangerous. The
natives are obliged to climb to a great height to make the incisions
and gather the liquor, and a false step means certain death.
Oppressive Regulations of the Government.
The Government is very jealous of foreign growers. There is a
well-known case of a young Englishman that invested in a cocoanut
grove, a few years ago, not far from Manila. He was ruined in a short
time by taxes and exactions--on the score that he was not a native. The
real reason, however, was the fear that his success would draw round
him a British colony.
On the other hand, Spaniards and natives find no difficulty to obtain
concessions from the Government, under promise of cultivating the land
so taken. The regulations are so vague or so impossible, that they are
inevitably broken. The proprietor, too, is never sure of his land:
it can be forfeited by disobedience; and lawsuits are constantly
going on between the individual and the State.
This condition of affairs is of course annoying to everyone concerned,
yet no one ever thinks of changing the laws. To a Spaniard, what was
good enough for his grandfather is quite good enough for himself.
The Early Missionaries Beneficial to the Natives.
The early missionaries from Mexico were of the greatest benefit to
the Filipinos, both in the religious and in the practical affairs of
life. They introduced the use of wheat and maize, taught the natives
how to cultivate these articles of food, and, when ripe, how to make
them into bread. But there were many stubborn prejudices to overcome;
and for a long time wheat was eaten by the natives only in the holy
wafer used in the sacrament of the Church.
Now, wheat-patches are common, and in many districts maize is as much
a staple article of food as rice is in others, and roasted ears of
corn are sold as a delicacy in the markets. There are three crops of
maize grown in a year, but only for family use.
The missionaries also introduced the art of weaving, and all
through the islands a primitive bamboo-loom is one of the commoner
implements of the smallest hut. Here are woven fabrics of cotton,
silk, hemp, bamboo, and piña,--the fibre of the pineapple leaf. The
merely well-to-do and poorer classes wear clothes woven of cotton,
silk, and piña, or of piña and hemp, or of hemp or bamboo. But the
glory of the wealthy, Spaniard or Mestizo, man or woman, are their
garments of pure pineapple-leaf fibre, called jusi. This is durable
and almost priceless. A small jusi handkerchief is worth $50. So
delicate is the thread, that, in weaving, it is protected by gauze
from the gentlest breeze. The costliness of the material, therefore,
is due to the difficulties of the weaver and to the time and patience
necessary to produce even a single inch.
The missionaries, as well, taught the native the arts of living;
of being more comfortable in his house, and out of it; of making
bricks and tiles, and of building and adorning churches. And thus
they stood between an exacting Government and the helpless natives,
and were often the only Providence of which the latter were aware.
Herbs and medicinal plants abound in the islands. The bark of the ditá
tree greatly resembles that known as Peruvian Bark, and is used by
the natives to reduce fever. From it an alkaloid is extracted that
is called by Manila chemists, ditaïne. Its effects are like those
produced by swallowing quinine, only not so marked.
A perfume called Ylang-Ylang, is made from the flowers of a tree of
that name that grows in the Philippines.
Large quantities of wax are found there, and are used in the functions
of the Church. Indeed, the poor priests constantly gather candle-ends
at the close of each service, and sell them to be remoulded. The
small sums of money thus gained are deemed a part of their perquisites.