It is not my intention, even were it in my power, which it is not, to attempt an exact and complete description of all the productions of the group of islands composing the Philippines, to which nature has with no niggardly hand dispensed great territorial and maritime wealth. And as the limits of this work prevent much expansion, I will confine the following observations to an outline of the principal articles produced in the country, beginning the catalogue with the most important of them all, namely, rice.

The cultivation of paddy, or rice, here, as all over Asia, exercises by far the greatest amount of agricultural labour, being their most extensive article of cultivation, as it forms the usual food of the people, and is, as the Spaniards truly call it, El pau de los Indios; a good or bad crop of it, influencing them just as much as potatoes do the Irish, or as the wheat crops do in bread-consuming countries.

In September and October, when, in consequence of the heavy previous rains since the beginning of the wet season, the parched land is so buried as generally about that time to present the appearance of one vast marsh, it is ploughed lightly, after which the husbandman transplants the grain from the nurseries in which he had previously deposited it, in order to undergo there the first stages of vegetation.

In December, or in January, the grain is ready for the sickle, and in general repays his cares and labour by the most abundant harvest. There is no culture more easy and simple; nor any which gives such positive good results in less time, as only four months pass between the times of sowing and reaping the rice crop.

In some places the mode of reaping differs from the customs of others. At some places they merely cut the ears from off the stalks, which are allowed to remain on the fields to decay, and fertilize the soil as a manure; and in other provinces the straw is all reaped, and bound in the same way as wheat is at home, being then piled up in ricks and stacks to dry in the sun, after which the grain is separated by the treading of ponies, the horses of the country, upon it, or by other means, when the grain is again cleared of another outer husk, by being thrown into a mortar, generally formed out of the trunk of some large tree, where the men, women, and children of the farm are occupied in pounding it with a heavy wooden pestle, which removes the husk, but leaves the grain still covered by a delicate skin. When in this state it is known as pinagua; but after that is taken off, the rice is clean.

For blowing away the chaff from the grain, they employ an implement worked by a handle and a wheel in a box, which is very similar to the old-fashioned fanners used in Scotland by the smaller farmers for the same purpose.

In the neighbourhood of Manilla, there is a steam-mill for the purpose of cleaning rice; and there are several machines worked by horse-power throughout the country. But although there are many facilities for the employment of water-power for the same purpose, I am not acquainted with any mill moved on that principle.

The qualities of rice produced in the different provinces, varies a good deal in quality. That of Ylocos is the heaviest, a cavan of it weighing about 140 lbs. English, while Camarines rice weighs only about 132 lbs., and some of the other provinces not over 126 lbs. per cavan.

Although in all the provinces rice is grown to a considerable extent, yet those which produce it best, and in greatest abundance, and form what may be called granaries for the others, which are not so suitable for that cultivation, may be considered to be Ylocos, Pangasinan, Bulacan, Capiz, Camarines, and Antique.

It is best to ship rice in dry weather; and should it be destined for Europe, or any other distant market, it should leave by the fair monsoon, in order that the voyage may be as short as possible, to ensure which, all orders for rice purchases for the European markets should reach Manilla in December or January, as the new crop just begins to arrive about the end of that month. It takes about a month to clean a cargo at the steam-mill, and after March, the fair monsoon for homeward-bound ships cannot much be depended upon; and were the vessel to make a long passage, the cargo would probably be excessively damaged by weevils, by which it is very frequently attacked. Ylocos rice is considered to be the best for a long voyage, as it keeps better than that grown in other provinces.

The price of white rice is rarely below two dollars per pecul, or above two and a half dollars per pecul, bagged and ready for shipment.

A hundred cavans of ordinary province rice will usually produce 85 per cent. of clean white, and about 10 per cent. of broken rice, which can be sold at about half the price of the ordinary quality: the remaining 5 per cent. is wasted in cleaning.

Rice exported by a Spanish ship, goes free; but if exported by any foreign ship, even when it is sent to a Spanish colony, it pays 3½ per cent. export duty, and when sent to a foreign country by a foreign ship, it pays an export duty of 4½ per cent. In order to be more explicit, it may be well to give a pro form invoice of rice.

This is about equal to its price if purchased and cleaned in another manner; for instance:—

or equal to $2–27/100 per pecul for clean white rice, ready for shipment.

Sugar.—Although the cane is cultivated to a greater or less extent throughout all the islands, there are four descriptions of sugar well known in commerce, grown in the Philippines, and these come respectively from the districts of Pampanga, Pangasinan, Cebu, and Saal, after which districts they are named; and the growth of other places producing similar sugars to any of these descriptions, usually passes under one of these names in the market, although Yloylo is sometimes, though rarely, distinguished as a separate quality. The mills employed for expressing the juice from the cane are nearly all of stone; and firewood is usually employed to boil the sugar; for although they have for some years introduced the plan of employing the refuse of the cane for that purpose, it is not yet very general.

A large quantity of the Muscovado sugar made in the country, resembling the descriptions produced in the provinces of Pampanga and Pangasinan, is brought to Manilla for sale, in large conical earthern jars, called pilones, each of which weighs a pecul. The Chinese or Mestizos who are engaged in the purifying of sugar are the purchasers of these lots, and most of them are in the habit of sending an agent through the country, with orders to buy up as much of such sugar as they require to keep their establishments at work. They are in the habit of paying these travellers a rial, which at Manilla is the eighth part of a dollar, for every pilone he purchases on their account at the limits they give him. When enough has been collected in one neighbourhood to load a casco or other province boat, it is despatched to their camarine at Manilla, where after being taken from the original pilone, if it has come from Pampanga, it is mixed up together, and placed in another one, with an opening at the conical part, which is placed over a jar into which the molasses distilling from it gradually drop, when the colour of the sugar from being brown becomes of a greyish tinge.

At the top of the pilone, so placed with the cone turned down, a layer of clay is spread over the sugar, as it has the property of attracting all the impurities to itself; so that the parts of the sugar in the pilone next to the clay are certain to be of the whitest and best colour, whilst the sugar at the bottom, or next the opening of the cone, is the darkest and most valueless, until it has had its turn of the clay; for when the Chinamen perceive that the top part of the sugar in the pilone or earthen jar has attained a certain degree of whiteness, they separate the white from the darker coloured, and the greyish tinged sugar from the dark brown coloured portion at the foot of the jar; and after exposing the white and greyish coloured to the sun, they are packed up, while the dark brown portion, after being mixed with that of a similar colour, is again consigned to the pilone to be clayed.

Besides clay, some portions of the stem of the plantain-tree are said to have the power of extracting the impurities from sugar, and in some districts are said to be preferred to clay for that purpose, being chopped up in small pieces, and spread over it.

The unclayed descriptions of sugar are generally procurable at Manilla by the end of February, when the new crop commences to come in; and clayed, or the new crop, is seldom ready for delivery before the middle of March.

The entire crop is all ready for export by the end of April, although the market is seldom cleared of it till the January of the ensuing year, when the sugar clayers being anxious to close their accounts of the past crop, and wind up all that remains in their camarines, in order to be ready for the new season’s operations, are sometimes willing to make a reduction in the nominal price of the day, in order to effect that purpose. But as the grain of sugar does not improve by keeping, especially when it has to stand the moistness of the atmosphere during the preceding wet season, such sugar, if bought at that time, is seldom equal in grain to the produce of the new crop, although its colour may be preferable.Pangasinan sugar is of a beautiful white colour, but with a very inferior grain: it loses much in the sun-dryings, and is generally, I believe, mixed with the clayed Pampanga sugar, to give the latter a colour, although all the dealers deny doing it themselves, but are ready enough to believe, if told that their neighbours are in the habit of mixing both Cebu and it, in their pilones,—the first for the sake of cheapness, and the other for a colour. Pampanga sugar is of a brownish tinge, and when of good quality, of a strong grain. It possesses a very much greater quantity of saccharine matter than any other description of sugar I am acquainted with, and is consequently a favourite of the refiners at home and in Sweden. Taal and Cebu descriptions are never clayed separately, although, as before mentioned, the latter, on account of its cheapness, is occasionally mixed with Pampanga for claying.

They are principally in demand for the Australian colonies, where Taal is generally preferred to Cebu (or Zebu), from its possessing more saccharine matter than the latter. Taal is generally so moist that it always loses considerably in weight, sometimes to the extent of about 10 per cent., and even more;—it is a strong sweet sugar. Cebu seldom loses so much as Taal, generally not more than 3 per cent. on a voyage of about two months’ duration.

All sugar is sold to the export merchants by the pecul of 140 lbs. English, and it is either paid for at the time of its delivery, or if a contract is made for a large quantity with a clayer, or other dealer, it is often necessary to advance a portion of the price to enable him to execute the order, and the merchants often do this long before a pecul of sugar is received from him, or any security given in return. This system prevails not only in sugar, but in all other articles of the agricultural produce of the islands, in the sale of which no credit is given to the purchaser.

Sugar pays an export duty of 3 per cent. It should never be weighed except upon a hot dry day, as if there is the least moisture in the air it absorbs it, and adds considerably to its weight.

In connection with sugar, it may be stated, that some very good rum is made at Manilla, although very little is exported. It is a monopoly of the Government, who farm it out to one of the sugar clayers at Manilla. Molasses are never shipped, but are used in Manilla for mixing with the water given to the horses to drink, most of them refusing to taste it unless so sweetened.

Hemp is produced from the bark of a species of the plantain-tree, forests of which are found growing wild in some provinces of the Philippines. The operation of making it is simple enough, the most important of the process apparently being the separation of the fibres from each other by an iron instrument, resembling a comb for the hair. After drying in the sun, and undergoing several other processes, with the minutiÆ of which I am unacquainted, it is made up into bales, weighing 280 lbs. each, and in that state is shipped for Manilla, where, after being picked more or less white, which is dependent entirely upon the purposes it is intended to serve, and the markets it has to be sent to, it is again pressed into bales of the same weight as before, although of much less bulk, and is exported, the greater quantity of it going to the United States of America, as the export tables will show.

The best hemp is of a long and fine white fibre, very well dried, and of a silky gloss. The dark coloured is not so well liked, and if too bad for exportation, is generally made up into ropes for the colonial shipping, or sent down to Singapore for transhipment to Calcutta, where it is employed for the same purpose.

The best hemp comes from Sorsogon and Leyte, and some of the Cebu is also very good. Albay, Camarines, Samar, Bisayas, and some other districts, are those from which it principally comes.

The freight on hemp shipped by American vessels to the United States, is reckoned at the rate of 40 cubic feet, or four bales of 10 feet each, to the ton; but when shipped to Great Britain, the freight is generally calculated at the ton of 20 cwt., or 2,240 lbs. avoirdupois.

Annexed is a table of calculations of what it will cost if put on board a ship in Manilla Bay, including all charges, and 5 per cent. paid to an agent there for purchasing it, &c.

To understand this table, suppose an agent in Manilla purchases a quantity of hemp for a merchant in London, at 5 dollars per pecul, the cost of packing, shipping, and the 5 per cent. commission for buying, &c., will make it cost, when put on board ship in Manilla Bay, 20l. 19s. 4d. per ton, if drawn for at the exchange of 4s. 6d. to the dollar. On its arrival at London, the freight, insurance, &c., added to this, will be its actual cost laid down there.

Tobacco.—The best tobacco produced in the Philippines is grown in the Island of Luzon or Luconia, where it is monopolized by the Government, to whom it furnishes an important revenue. From the province of Cagayan, where the greater part of it is grown, the best quality comes, and that leaf, being much stronger than any grown elsewhere, is generally used as the envelope to wrap round the inferior descriptions of tobacco employed in the manufacture of cheroots. Most of the other descriptions used for them come from the district of Gapan, in Pampanga province, and the two sorts combined are said to produce pleasanter cigars than either separately could do,—the Cagayan leaf being too strong to be used alone, and the Gapan leaf too mild for the ordinary taste.

In the mountains of Ylocos and Pangasinan, some of the native Indians inhabiting them grow quantities of tobacco, which they sell to the traders of the neighbourhood. In these mountains the Indians are still free, and retain their old pagan religion, unsubdued either by the Spanish soldiery, or by the more salutary and effective warfare waged against them by the priests, who labour assiduously to convert them to Christianity. Being mountaineers, and leading the unsettled and roving life of huntsmen, subsisting by the produce of the chase and the plaintain-tree, very little is known about them at Manilla beyond the fact of their existence, although the well-directed energies of several enthusiastic missionaries, who have as yet only found an entrance among them, are likely to civilize and ameliorate their condition somewhat, and to supply this information. Notwithstanding that the mounted police force, scattered over the country, are particularly attentive to hunt out all illicit growth of tobacco, and to put a stop to it by the severest punishments when it is discovered; they have not as yet been, nor in fact are likely to be, at all successful in doing so efficiently, so long as the Government continue to make the enormous profit they at present do from its sale, after it has been made by them into cheroots, or brought to Manilla and sold in the leaf for export. In Bisayas the quality of the leaf is so inferior in strength and appearance to that produced in Luzon, that the Government have not thought it worth while to appropriate the produce of the islands to themselves by a monopoly.

There are several extensive manufactories of cigars carried on by the Government at and near Manilla, the most extensive being in the capital, although those at Malabone and Cavite also employ a great number of people in rolling them up.

In making cheroots women only are employed, the number of those so engaged in the factory at Manilla being generally about 4000. Besides these, a large body of men are employed at another place in the composition of cigarillos, or small cigars, kept together by an envelope of white paper in place of tobacco; these being the description most smoked by the Indians.

The flavour of Manilla cheroots is peculiar to themselves, being quite different from that made of any other sort of tobacco; the greatest characteristic probably being its slightly soporific tendency, which has caused many persons, in the habit of using it, to imagine that opium is employed in the preparatory treatment of the tobacco, which, however, is not the case.

The cigars are made up by the hands of women in large rooms of the factory, each of them containing from 800 to 1000 souls. These are all seated, or squatted, Indian-like, on their haunches, upon the floor, round tables, at each of which there is an old woman presiding to keep the young ones in order, about a dozen of them being the complement of a table. All of them are supplied with a certain weight of tobacco, of the first, second, or third qualities used in composing a cigar, and are obliged to account for a proportionate number of cheroots, the weight and size of which are by these means kept equal.

As they use stones for beating out the leaf on the wooden tables, before which they are seated, the noise produced by them while making them up is deafening, and generally sufficient to make no one desirous of protracting a visit to the place. The workers are well recompensed by the Government, as very many of them earn from six to ten dollars a month for their labour, and as that amount is amply sufficient to provide them with all their comforts, and to leave a large balance for their expenses in dress, &c., they are seldom very constant labourers, and never enter the factory on Sundays, or, at least, on as great an annual number of feast-days as there are Sundays in a year.

During the years of 1848 and 49, the Government were not in the habit of selling leaf-tobacco for export, but they have again resumed the practice of 1847, which, however, is likely to be stopped soon again; how soon, it is impossible to say—probably just when the caprice of the director of tobacco inclines him, as he is an influential person, generally, in his own department.

The denominations of cheroots were changed in January, 1848; when the description formerly known as Thirds was and still is called Seconds, and the manufacture of a new sort known as Firsts was begun.

The weights of new cigars when sent out of the factory are as follow:—Firsts 1500, Seconds 3000, Thirds 4000 to the arroba; the weight of the arroba when issued by Government from the factory being actually 1 pound 9 ounces over the current weight,—this allowance being made to meet the loss of weight which cigars always experience during a long sea-voyage, which, although it diminishes their bulk, is said materially to improve their flavour. All cigars for the use of the country-people are made in the Havana shape, and are prohibited being exported, probably from their desire to keep the name of Manilla cheroots up to its proper status, as the Havana-shaped cigars are seldom equal in flavour to those made for exportation.

A large quantity of the Havana-shaped are made and used in the country by smugglers, who sell them at one-half the price charged by the Government, and some of these are occasionally sent from Manilla by stealth. But they are seldom so good as those of the Government make, although that occasionally deteriorates to an alarming degree, so that every now and then very bad cheroots are exported. Of course, when they are smoked and disliked no one uses them, and they become unsaleable, so that when Government finds that there are few or no purchasers, and that their stock is accumulating, they are obliged to use a better class tobacco in their manufacture, upon which people begin to buy from them again. However, this uncertainty as to their at all times producing good cigars, has a most detrimental effect upon themselves, and this alone prevents their consumption from being very much greater than it now is, if one uniformly good quality of tobacco were always used and the bad descriptions sold.

The rates at which Government sell cigars are fixed, being 14 dollars per 1000 for Firsts, 8 dollars for Seconds, and 6¾ dollars for Thirds; although, if the purchasers will take off more than the stocks existing in their warehouses, the prices may be regulated by the eagerness of the buyers, from the cigars being sold at public auction, which, however, very seldom happens. Purchasers have no power to secure the good quality of the cigars they buy, as on an application being made to the director of the renta for a quantity, he merely fills up a printed order for their delivery, and after the money has been paid for them, but not till then, they are delivered by the warehouse-keepers at random, as it is not allowed to select for delivery any of the cigars under their charge, which are consequently never seen by the purchaser until after the completion of the bargain, when if the quality is bad he has no remedy for it, as they will not be received back again by the Government or the money for them returned.

Indigo.—The quantity produced is very small; that exported to the United States being the bulk of the crop, although large quantities of liquid indigo are also annually sent to China in casks; but I have not been able to ascertain its amount with any degree of precision. It is of an inferior quality to the solid dye, and sells for considerably less money.

The dye coming from the provinces of Laguna and Pangasinan is generally of superior quality to that produced in Ylocos and elsewhere, their relative prices being about forty-five dollars per quintal for the first two descriptions, and twenty-eight dollars for the other sorts of first, second, and third qualities in proportions.

The cultivation of the plant is very precarious, as it is liable to damage from a variety of causes; it will die if too much water collects round it, or if too little is given to it. It generally is grown on a dry soil, having a slight decline, to carry off the rain. To extract the dye from the plant, the usual process is to place it in large vessels containing lime and water, and then to bruise it with a wooden pestle; after which, when the water becomes still, the colouring matter will sink to the bottom of the vessel, when the water and the plants are drained off, and the matter, which by that time has acquired the consistency of paste, is exposed to the air to dry upon mats: as it becomes more dry it is divided by lines into small quadrangular pieces, and is broken up.

To secure a good quality of indigo, great attention must be paid to the clearness of the water, and the proper mixture and quantity of the lime, as too much or too little is equally pernicious; also the time during which the bruising takes place, which, it appears, is a matter of very nice judgment, as it is usual to explain or account for the cause of the bad quality of a lot by saying that the planter has beat it for too long or too short a time, and that he did not know exactly when to stop.

This article is very liable to adulteration, at which both native and Chinese dealers are so peculiarly expert, that purchasers trusting solely to their own knowledge are very liable to be deceived by them.

The blues of the country are much brighter than any of the British or continental dyes, and are in consequence much preferred by the natives.Cotton.—Cotton is only grown in a very small quantity, principally in Ylocos and Batangas provinces. Some of it is sent to China, but the major part of the crop is used in the country. It is seldom or never well cleaned, the rude machines employed for doing so being usually worked by the hand or foot, very imperfectly and slowly, cleaning only a small quantity of the wool in a day.Cocoa-nut oil.—Cocoa-nut oil is made in the province of Laguna and in Bisayas. That coming from the Laguna is of the best quality, and generally sells for a good deal more than the Bisayas oil, which does not give so good a light, and has a worse smell than the other. The manufacturing processes employed in producing it are very rude in both of these districts, although that followed in Laguna is the better of the two; but both are bad. It has been proposed, however, to remedy this by establishing proper machinery at Manilla for carrying on its production on a large scale, as is done in Ceylon.

The chief difficulty of exporting the article appears to be the want of knowledge of the proper means of seasoning the tanks in which it is shipped. These have not as yet been well made at Manilla; and some merchants have been in the habit of getting their empty tanks from Batavia, as they are usually better made there than they are procurable in Manilla. The best mode of seasoning them appears to be, to fill them all with oil, and to place them in the sun, after being well coopered, above a large vat or other receptacle to catch all the oil which may leak out of them; and after they have stood for some time in this way, the pores of the wood get filled up by the oil, which prevents further leakage.

When filled with water, as has been the practice for some time past at Manilla, on the oil being shipped, the effect, as has been found, is to increase its leakage over what the casks lose when they have not been filled with water, but left altogether alone, as water expands the wood, while oil causes it to shrink. By attention to the preparation of the casks at Colombo in Ceylon in this manner, they are able to send home oil in old beer casks, &c., which, of course, enables them to avoid a great deal of unnecessary expense. Perhaps a small quantity of boiling hot oil poured into a cask, which should then be rolled about so that the oil might wet every part of it, would cause it to shrink more speedily than by exposing it to the sun for about six weeks. I am not aware, however, of this having ever been tried.

Cocoa is grown among plaintain-trees, which afford it some shade, and protect it from the excessive slow heat, which kills it.

Although the growth of cocoa is at present very small, did any one take the trouble to bestow the necessary care and attention it demands, the crop might be very greatly augmented. The best is now grown in Cebu, although, from Samar, Misamis, and Batangas, the Manilla market is also supplied, but it is only saleable at about twenty-three dollars per pecul, while the Cebu grown fetches about twenty-seven dollars per pecul.

Very little is exported, and the chocolate made in Manilla is nearly all consumed there. Supplies occasionally come from Guayaquil of a quality very similar to that of Cebu.

All the efforts hitherto made to send cocoa to Spain, without its deteriorating in quality, by getting spotted, &c., have been unsuccessful.

Coffee.—Although there have been efforts made at various times to promote this valuable branch of agricultural industry, by holding out to the natives rewards in money for a certain number of plants in a state of bearing, it has not as yet had the effect of greatly promoting its growth. Tayabas and Laguna are provinces from which most of it comes to Manilla, but this it does by very small lots at a time, and generally uncleaned, which the provincial traders have to do here. The quality of most of that grown at these places is fully equal to that of Java, from which, however, it differs a good deal in flavour. The French, who take off the bulk of the crop, are fonder of its peculiar taste than most other people, and prefer it to other descriptions.

Pepper is grown to a very limited extent in Tayabas, and is all consumed in the country, although in former years some has been exported from that province.

Opium could be grown in the greatest perfection in several places of the Philippines, where the white poppy abounds in the utmost luxuriance; but Government do not choose to permit its growth and manufacture, except in the immediate vicinity of Manilla, although I believe there is a permission to do so there, where, however, there is no soil suitable for the growth of the plant. There are many places, also, which would subject the planters of it to the nearly unlimited control of the police, whose interference alone would be so vexatious and unpleasant as to deter any one from attempting its growth, even did the stringent regulations laid down with reference to it not do so; such as exactly counting the number of plants, and being forced to deposit all the drug in the custom-house for export, for the permission to do which twenty-five per cent. would have to be paid to the Government. These regulations are a virtual prohibition to engage in its cultivation, as no prudent man is at all likely to embark his capital in such an enterprise while they exist.

In consequence of the heavy duty imposed upon opium, to discourage its importation, the greater portion of the drug consumed in the country is smuggled into it by the masters of the Spanish trading-vessels from China or Singapore.

Government farm out the privilege of supplying the market with opium to the highest bidder, who seldom, however, imports many chests for its consumption; but what he does sell is usually at a very large advance on the prices paid for it in another market.

How much better were it for the Government to attempt to regulate the trade of this article instead of doing all in their power to suppress it, in which they can never be successful, so long as Chinamen and their descendants remain with the tastes that now belong to them. Can there be any prohibition against the introduction of opium more strong than that of the Chinese Government? and are there any more useless, or any laws more openly evaded? It is impossible to extirpate the taste, but it would be easy to regulate and in some degree control it; and these are the proper and legitimate aims of a Government.

Under proper management and increased facilities for the planter to rear opium, the Philippines, merely from their situation, would rule the China market for the drug, which would employ multitudes of people in its growth and manufacture, and be a source of immense wealth to the country.

Some one will object that it is an immoral trade, which caters to the worst passions of the nature of the Chinese. Let it be proved so; let us see something more than mere prejudice; let it be shown to be worse than the conduct of the farmer, at home, who raises and sells barley to make whiskey; or of the distiller, who makes it; or of the West Indian, who produces rum from his estate, as both of these stimulants increase the evil passions in men while swayed by them, to a much greater extent than opium.

Smoking tobacco does no good to the person who practises it; it is a vice, although those addicted to it may call it one of the lesser sins. But would it be just or wise to prohibit the growth of tobacco, because smoking it may not be a virtue?

To attempt stopping the use of opium is no wiser, and just as futile, in China, as King Jamie’s foolish decrees against tobacco proved to be in Britain.

Wheat is grown in the provinces of Ylocos, Tayabas, and the Laguna, but is seldom or never more than enough to supply the wants of the European population, none of it being exported; and the import of foreign wheat is prohibited, although it is frequently conceded to the bakers, on their memorialising the Governor, and showing that the prices at the time of their doing so are excessively high.

Although sulphur can scarcely be ranked in the same category with the preceding articles of commerce, I set it down here, as a considerable quantity is annually shipped to China. It is brought from the vicinity of the volcanoes in Bisayas: the best is said to come from Leyte, which is worth about one and a quarter dollar per pecul. Residents at Manilla usually immerse a large block, weighing about two peculs, in the wells from which their drinking water is taken, just as the rainy season commences, and it is found to have a most salutary effect upon the water impregnated with it, causing less liability to those who drink it, to suffer dysentery from its use.

Cowries, the shells of a small snail, are found on the shores of several islands, and are shipped as an article of commerce to Singapore, &c., where they are, I believe, purchased by the Siam and Calcutta traders, as they serve for money in several of the countries of Asia. Those found on Sibuyan island, in Capiz province, are considered the best, being the smallest and stoutest. They are sold by the cavan, weighing nearly a pecul, if of good quality, at about two dollars per cavan.

Pitch, or tar, is brought from Tayabas to Manilla, in boxes or baskets, and is employed, I believe, principally by the shipwrights there, in the prosecution of their business. Some of the natives also use it for making torches, it being cheaper than oil.

Betel-nut, or areca, is, as is well known, used nearly all over Asia, all the natives of which are excessively fond of the taste the mastication of it produces in their mouths. The prepared leaf is called a buyo in the Philippines, when it is spread over with lime, and a morsel of betel-nut enclosed in it. Immense quantities of it are consumed in the islands and in China, and in former times, I believe, it formed a branch of the excise revenue.

Hides.—The quantity of buffalo hides shipped to China and Europe is considerable. Those exported to China are sometimes shipped without being salted, although it is necessary that all those sent on so long a voyage as it is to Europe should undergo that process. Buffalo hide cuttings are generally prepared for shipment by being immersed in lime-water, from which they are withdrawn perfectly white and coated with lime.

Buffalo hides weigh about 21 lbs. a-piece, and cow, only about the half of that. Deer hides are also sometimes, though rarely, cured and exported.

The beef of the buffalo, cow, and deer, is cured for the China market, by being salted and allowed to dry in the sun: it is then called sapa.

Tamarinds, which are called sampaloc by the natives, are seldom exported for sale.

The woods of the country are various and valuable; but, perhaps, the best known for its useful properties, is the Sapan dye-wood, called sibocao. It comes from various provinces; but principally from Yloylo and Pangasinan.

Good wood is stout, straight, well-coloured, and with no appearance or trace of water having been used to heighten it, which may be easily detected on a careful inspection, although the unwary have on several occasions been known to have purchased, and shipped home to Britain, quantities of the common firewood in place of it, as after being wetted, it acquires the colour of Sapan-wood, sufficiently to deceive an ignorant or careless purchaser.

Nearly all of the straight wood is sent to Europe, and the roots to China and Calcutta, where they are said to be quite as well liked as straight wood, and beyond a doubt they produce more dye than the latter.

The mountains of the Philippines are clothed with numberless varieties of woods of almost every description of Oriental timber; but the markets of Europe being so distant, and the cost of freight to them so enormous, very few are sent there, except, perhaps, ebony and molave, although several beautiful descriptions of wood are employed by the cabinet-makers of the country and those of China, some of which are of superior beauty to anything I have ever seen at home when made up into furniture.

The ebony principally comes from Cagayan and Camarines, the wood from which is perfectly dark, and as good as any I know of. The Cagayan wood is very beautiful, being marked by broad black and white, or black and yellow stripes; it takes a polish very well, and forms a peculiarly fine timber for the cabinet-makers to exercise their skill upon, its rays producing magnificent tables, &c.

Molave is a wood of great solidity, and of incredibly lasting properties; and it resists, better than all others, exposure to the weather. It is said to become petrified when immersed for some time in water, and in fact it appears to be nearly as lasting and incorruptible as stone itself. It is employed for nearly all purposes, and large quantities of it are shipped to China.

Narra is a common description of red wood, somewhat resembling mahogany, which occasions it to be largely used in cabinet-making. From the lower parts of this tree I have seen a table exceeding two yards square, cut out, in one piece.

Tindal wood resembles narra, but has a higher colour than the latter, which, however, gets sobered, and becomes darker by age.

Alintatas is of a beautiful yellow colour.

Malatapay is also yellow, or rather coffee-coloured, and is well veined for ornament.

Lanete is a white wood, and is made use of for a variety of purposes.

All the preceding woods are capable of being made into furniture of a very handsome and valuable description, and were they better known in Europe, would be largely employed for that purpose, as people would be willing to purchase them for their beauty, even at the high prices which the distance and expense of transit would occasion.

Among the common useful woods for ship-building and other purposes, may be mentioned the banaba and mangachapuy: the latter does not stand water well, however.

Yacal, for beams and joists of houses, &c., and a tall, straight wood, called Palo Maria, is valuable for supplying spars, &c., to the shipping of the colony.

Baticulin, for cutting up into boards or deals.

Dungo unites strength and solidity to an immense size.

Teak is found in Zamboanga, and its value is too well known to require any remark upon it.

Ypil is brought to Manilla from Yloylo, and being a very lasting and hard timber, is of the greatest value, and is applied to a variety of uses.

These are some of the many species of woods abounding in the country, whose number and value are yearly increasing as they become better known to the foreign timber merchants of China and elsewhere. The China market alone would take off greatly increased supplies, were they allowed to ship the timber from the ports next to where the woodman’s axe had felled the tree, in place of forcing it to bear all the heavy charges which its transport to Manilla in the first instance now subjects it to.

The investigations of Don Rafael Arenao have been of great service to me in forming a list of these; and for several other particulars scattered throughout the preceding pages I have to thank him.