Through ignorance and a misconception of the nature of the country, many people are in the habit of adducing the scantiness of manufactures among the Indians, as an evidence of their backwardness in civilization and the arts which it teaches.

But this is not so in reality, for if our readers reflect on the subject a short time, it can scarcely fail to occur to them, that the fertility of the soil, and the abundance of primary materials, even of those made use of in the manufactories, is the true reason why they neglect manufactures, and turn all their attention to growing the raw produce, from which spring the materials for conducting them.

It is this cause which makes the Americans send their cotton-wool to Manchester, to be there, at some thousands of miles from the place of its growth, made into cloth—and the shepherds of Australia to send their wool to Yorkshire for a like purpose.

This appears paradoxical, but it is true. A day’s labour on a fertile tropical soil is better recompensed when it is directed to grow cotton, than it would be, were the same labour applied to weaving the wool into cloth; for although this climate is suitable for the growth of cotton in the fields, it does not at all follow that it is so for weaving cloth, as has been proved to be the case in the United States.

In that country, where manufacturing industry has so much energy of character in those carrying it on to back it up, and to secure a satisfactory result, it appears very strange that we should be able to beat them in the manufacture of their own produce.

But although many efforts have repeatedly been made by speculative and sanguine men to weave all the descriptions of cotton cloth made in Great Britain by the power-loom, they have never been able to do so in the United States. Even when they have actually carried machinery and men from Manchester to work it, across the Atlantic, the produce of the looms has been of a different quality of cloth to that which the same cotton yarn would have produced by the same machinery in Great Britain. This can only be accounted for, I believe, by estimating the effects of climate. The moisture of the atmosphere, the difference of water, and other causes, have been assigned as the cause of this very remarkable circumstance, and perhaps some, or all of them, have their share in producing it.

In the Philippines, the natural shrewdness of the people, who show considerable aptitude in the arts which experience has taught them will pay them best, is demonstrated by the neatness of execution which characterises many of their handiworks, demanding no small portion of skill, care, and perseverance; the elaborate execution of the gold ornaments worn by the women frequently exhibiting signs, in a very high degree, of skilful and neat workmanship.

I have seen chains, &c., of native make, quite as beautifully and as curiously worked as any I have seen in China, where those ornaments are made in more perfection than the European gold or silversmiths have as yet been able to attain.

But probably the piÑa cloth manufactured in the Philippines, is the best known of all the native productions, and it is a very notable instance of their advance in the manufacturing arts.

There is perhaps no more curious, beautiful, and delicate specimen of manufactures produced in any country. It varies in price according to texture and quality, ladies’ dresses of it costing as low as twenty dollars for a bastard sort of cloth, and as high as fifteen hundred dollars for a finely-worked dress. The common coarse sort used by the natives for making shirts costs them from four to ten dollars a shirt.

The colour of the coarser sorts is not, however, good; and the high price of the finer descriptions prevents its becoming generally a lady’s dress; and the inferior sorts are not much prized, chiefly because of the yellowish tinge of the white cloth. The fabric is exceedingly strong, and, I have been informed, rather improves in colour after every successive washing.

PiÑa handkerchiefs and scarfs are in very general use by the Manilla ladies, although they are rather expensive; the price of the former, when of good quality, being from about five to ten pounds sterling each, while for a scarf of average quality and colour about thirty pounds is paid. The coarser descriptions can be had for much less money than the sums mentioned; and the finest qualities would cost from three to four times more than the amounts I have set down.

Besides the piÑa there is also a sort of cloth made by the natives called jusÈ (pronounced husÈ), or siriamaio, which makes very beautiful dresses for ladies. It is manufactured from a thread obtained from the fibres of a particular sort of plantain tree, which is slightly mixed with pine-apple thread; and the fabric produced from both of these is very beautiful, being fine and transparent, and looking, to the unaccustomed eye, finer than the ordinary sort of piÑa cloth.

It can be made of any pattern, and is generally striped or checked with coloured threads of silk mingled with the other two descriptions.

The manufacture of both these articles is carried on to a small extent in the immediate neighbourhood of Manilla; but in the provinces of Yloylo and Camarines the best jusÈ is produced, the price of which is very much lower than piÑa, as a lady’s dress of it may be got at from seven to twenty dollars; and for the latter amount a very handsome one would be obtained.

In addition to these manufactures, which the natives have appropriated and made their own, from the greater facilities found in the Philippines than in other places less adapted by nature for their prosecution, the Government has been at some pains to force them to engage in the manufacture of cotton yarn and cloth by imposing high duties on those descriptions of foreign manufactured goods most suitable for the native dress, either from their partiality to particular colours, or from other causes.

And for this reason solely a number of kambayas of blue and white checks are made in the country by the native hand-loom, these colours being in general favourite ones of the Indians; the custom-house duty on such goods, and on other favourite colours, being 15 and 25 per cent., according to the flag of the vessel importing them; the Spaniards guarding their own shipping, and securing to it a monopoly of the carrying trade by that difference of the import duty. Should these goods come from Madras, which is their native country, the duty charged on them is 20 and even 30 per cent.

Although these rates of duty may be considered high enough, they are in reality very much more than that per-centage, because the duty is charged by the authorities on a very high fixed valuation, or on the ad valorem principle, which actually is equivalent to increasing the rates of duty, were that only charged upon the actual market price. Since the beginning of this year (1851), however, I understand some changes have been made in the tariff by altering the valuations of goods.

Kambayas are used as sayas, or outer petticoats, by the native or Mestiza girls, and are generally made of cotton cloth, although, of late, jusÈ and silk sayas appear to be more generally worn than they used to be.

Tapiz of silk and cotton is also manufactured in the country. This piece of dress is used as a sort of shawl, and is wrapped tightly round the loins and waist, above the saya, being generally a black or dark blue ground, with narrow white stripes upon it, which, when the garment is worn, encircles the body.

The great advantage which the natives have over foreign manufacturers of these coloured cloths consists not so much in the duty, although that is an immense protection, as in the quickness with which they are able to meet the changes of taste in the patterns and designs of such fancy goods. For it is evident that before designs of new styles can reach Great Britain, and the goods be manufactured there, and shipped off to Manilla, many months must elapse, during which the native manufacturers have been supplying the market with these new and approved styles of goods, and of course reaping all the advantages of an active demand, exceeding the supply, by the high prices obtainable for the new designs. For the market of Manilla varies as much, and the tastes of the people are as inconstant and capricious with regard to their dress, as the natives of almost any country can be.

It will scarcely be believed, that in this remote quarter of Asia, many of the natives of the country are as much petits maÎtres in their own way, as a gallant of the Tuileries or of St. James’s. It would astonish most people to see some of these poor-looking Indians, or Mestizos, wearing a jewel of the value of four or five hundred dollars in the breast of their shirts, or in a ring on their fingers.

No doubt some of them prefer keeping their money in this way, as it is easily transportable, and is always about their persons, to leaving their dollars or gold ounces concealed somewhere about their houses, from which they may frequently be obliged to be absent. Though, as it is a common custom for the natives to have a piece of bamboo in which to deposit their ready-money, and as there is so much bamboo work about the house, of course it is not very difficult for them to select one piece, which from its being out of the way, and rather unapproachable, renders it a secure deposit for their hoards.

Towels, napkins, and table-cloths, are also manufactured by them, from the cotton of the country, and Governor Enrile taught some of their weavers how to make canvas from cotton. It is now very extensively used by the native shipping, and bears the name of the distinguished and philanthropic individual who taught them how to make it, being known by the name of Lona de Enrile, which name may it long bear, and remain as the most honourable memento any governor could leave behind him, of his beneficent and wise interest in the affairs and administration of an important colony.

At several places in Luzon, and in Cebu, &c., the natives make a species of cloth from the plantain-tree, known by the names of Medrinaque and Guiara cloths. The former description is in the greatest consumption, being stouter and more valuable than the other sort, and is mostly all bought up by the natives themselves, although a small portion of it is also exported.

The bulk of all the Medrinaque exported goes to the United States, to the extent of about 30,000 pieces annually; and sometimes as much as double that quantity is sent, although last year there were only about 23,000 pieces purchased for that market, a large quantity having gone to Europe, which is a novel feature of the trade in the article.

Although the silkworm is bred to some small extent in the country, the silk manufacture is not extensively carried on, as the market can so easily and quickly be supplied from China with any description of goods in demand. Some articles of dress are, however, successfully made by the Indians, to oppose the China silks in the market, such as tapiz for the women, and panjamas for the men.

In various parts of the country, the manufacture of earthenware is pursued to a small extent. It is generally of a very coarse description for cooking purposes, water-jugs, &c., and does not interfere with the sale of the finer China ware, with which the natives are supplied for most of their household purposes by the Chinese dealers in the article, that of China make being very much finer than any they have as yet produced in the country.

In the colours and patterns of their dresses the natives are great dandies; the women, as usual, being more particular in those affairs than the men. Very seldom, indeed, does a native Indian or Mestiza beauty sport the same saya for two gala days consecutively. And a very large proportion of their earnings are spent in self-adornment, their tanpipes, or wardrobes, being very well supplied with clothes, all of them of different patterns. Blue and purple appear to be the colours most admired, because, although the tastes and caprices of the people may vary in an infinite degree as to the patterns or styles of their dresses, they do not differ much in their choice of the colours which compose them. A dark complexioned beauty is never improved by a yellow dress; and any woman at all old or ugly looks hideous indeed when dressed in that colour. Apparently the Government were not ignorant of this when they imposed a heavy duty on blue, purple, or white articles of dress, and allowed yellow and other colours disliked by the natives to come into the country on the payment of a less duty. They have even gone the length of allowing yellow cotton twist of foreign manufacture to be imported duty free.

Truly this was very cunning of them—this apparent liberality to a foreign nation, ignorant that the colour would scarcely ever be used. Its affected moderation would most certainly tend to stop any complaints which might be made about the high duties imposed on our manufactures imported into the colony.

But perhaps the authorities had some design on the native beauties, when they held out such an inducement for them to wear unbecoming dresses. Who can say if the official who drew the scheme up had not a wife, jealous of the influence of some dark Indian beauty, to whom she thus held out the inducement of cheap dress, to disarm the power of her charms! Or, it may be, as the priests are at the bottom of most things in Spain, who can tell but their influence was exerted to get this law passed in the pious hope of inducing those feelings of self-abasement and humility which the sense of being ugly, or even plain-looking, generally induces among the fair?