_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 spa.r.s.e. 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 c.o.c.k 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 s.p.a.ce 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 ill.u.s.trated 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 a.s.suredly 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 s.p.a.cious 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 doc.u.ments, 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 s.p.a.cious 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 winegla.s.s. 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 circ.u.mstance that the original German name _Oesterreich_ is p.r.o.nounced 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 pa.s.s 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 inst.i.tutions 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 princ.i.p.al 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 embarra.s.sment 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!

Pa.s.sports, 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 doc.u.ments 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 pa.s.ses 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 amus.e.m.e.nt with which even the rainy season cannot interfere, is c.o.c.k-fighting. So soon as the bad weather has fairly set in, universal recourse is had to this, the most popular of amus.e.m.e.nts, 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 amus.e.m.e.nt is very considerable,[91] and the fee paid by the owners of the c.o.c.ks 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, c.o.c.k-fighting is for the simple native of Manila. Such is their pa.s.sionate 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 amus.e.m.e.nts as c.o.c.k-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 c.o.c.ks 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 c.o.c.ks. At last the spectators have decided to back one or the other of the c.o.c.ks, 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 c.o.c.ks 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 amus.e.m.e.nts 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 circ.u.mstance 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 pa.s.sage 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 (6763 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 quant.i.ties 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 quant.i.ties 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 quant.i.ty in proportion coming to Europe for sale.