ANCHORAGE IN MANILLA BAY
[Image of page 104]
ANCHORAGE IN MANILLA BAY.
DESCRIPTION OF PORT CAVITTE AND OF WHAT WE DID THERE.
Manilla Bay is almost quite round; it is about seven leagues across in every direction, and twenty leagues in circumference from point to point. It has a S. E. aspect. Marivelles Island is situated in the middle of the entrance, and is half a league broad by two long, and forms N. and S. passages. Both these passages are equally good. The passage on the S., which appears to be broadest, is somewhat contracted by two islets, or rocks, one of which, called Le Fraise, is on the Luzon side, and the other, called Monja, is close to Marivelles Island. On this island the Spaniards have established an Indian post to give notice of vessels in search of the entrance to the harbour. When they see a ship, they hoist a flag, discharge a mortar, and some of them immediately take a boat for Cavitte and Manilla, to give notice of what they have sighted. The distance from Marivelles to Cavitte is about seven leagues.
This port is situated in the S. E. corner of the bay; it is horseshoe in form, and will hold twelve ships, which are safe on a mud bottom. It is defended by a large battery and a small fort.
[Image of page 105]
STATE OF THE MASCARIN.
The Spaniards have established a staff of officers here, under the orders of a commandant, called a Castillano; they have a major, an adjutant, a sub-adjutant and a commander of artillery, and three hundred men in garrison. There is also an arsenal with all its workshops surrounded by walls, magazines and a dockyard. On the tongue of land on the W. side of the port there is a fairly big village, peopled by sailors and every description of Indian workmen employed in the repairing and careening of vessels. The village contains about a thousand souls and has three churches. The city of Manilla is situated three leagues and a half from Cavitte, and almost in the middle of the eastern portion of the bay.
After having paid the necessary visits at Cavitte, and having taken proper precautions in the port for the safety of our vessels, we went to Manilla, to the Governor-General, who received us extremely well and afforded us all the help we asked for to enable us to repair our vessels. From the palace of the Governor we went to that of the Archbishop, who received us with every possible mark of kindness. We then made the other customary visits to the members of the Royal Audience, to the principal officers of the place, and to the chief citizens.
A few days afterwards I took up my abode in a suburb which is called Saint Croix, where strangers generally lodge. Communication between the land and our ships by means of boats was so easy, that our work did not suffer in the slightest by our establishment in this Manilla suburb. In the meanwhile I did not lose a moment in stopping the Mascarin's leak, which had sprung during our journey from Guam.
Having dismantled this storeship, and having cleared away some of the sheathing in search of the leak, I found that the vessel required far greater repairs than I had at first thought necessary. Her examination being completed, it was decided to refit her, which I did at once, changing some rotten planks, some essential portions of her bows, and a large topmast, which were past service. But all these repairs took a long while to do, because our best sailors deserted day by day, and because the native Indian workmen do not work quickly.
[Image of page 106]
On the 15th February, 1773, the Castries, entirely remasted and careened, commanded by Chevalier Duclesmeur, weighed anchor in Manilla Bay in order to profit by the N. E. monsoon to return to the Isle of France, the deserters being replaced by twenty Indian sailors. I remained behind to complete the refitting and re-equipping of the Mascarin, which was done on the last day of February.
On the 1st of March I cleared Port Cavitte, and anchored at the mouth of the Manilla river in four and a half fathoms with a mud bottom. This anchorage is a mile away from the mouth of the river, and formed by two stone jetties which extend three cables' lengths from the shore. I approached close to the city, for at this season of the year no squalls are to be feared, so as to be able to ship my stores more promptly and at less cost. I made several attempts to get back my deserted sailors, but I perceived clearly that they had been seduced from their duties, they as well as those of the Castries, and even those of the Spanish frigate, which had been obliged to leave the bay on its return to Spain with fifty Indian sailors to replace the same number of Spanish sailors whom the Governor was suspected of having prevailed upon to desert, and who had all put in an appearance at Cavitte the morning after the departure of the frigate. I was obliged to give way to superior force, and engaged thirty Indian boatmen to replace my deserters. They demanded, as a condition of their engagement, that I should give them two months' pay in advance. I was forced to concede this demand, and some of them then deserted with their pay. They might perhaps all have deserted, had I not on my part, in engaging them, taken the precaution to retain them on board, and not allowing them to land again unless they left another man as substitute.
On the 8th of March all my stores were on board. I had said good-bye to the Governor and to everybody in the place, and I only awaited a favourable wind to weigh anchor and return to the Isle of France. Before leaving this harbour I will here note down my observations on Manilla, and on the colony of which it is the capital.
[Image of page 107]
[Image of page 108]
OBSERVATIONS MADE AT MANILLA, THE CAPITAL OF THE PHILIPPINES.
The city of Manilla is one of the most beautiful that Europeans have built in the East Indies; its houses are all of stone, with tile roofs and they are big, comfortable and well ventilated. The streets of Manilla are broad and perfectly straight; there are five principal streets, which divide the city lengthwise, and about ten which divide it broadways. The form of the city is that of an oblong, surrounded by walls and ditches, and defended on the side of the river by a badly-planned citadel, which is about to be pulled down and rebuilt. The city walls are flanked by a bastion at every one of the four angles. There are at Manilla eight principal churches, with an open place in front of every one; they are all beautiful, large and very richly decorated. The Cathedral is a building which would grace any of our chief European cities, and has just been rebuilt by an Italian Theatin, 1 who is an able architect. The two rows of columns which support the vaults of the nave and of the aisles are of magnificent marble, so also are the columns of the portal, the altars, the steps and the pavement. These marbles are obtained from local quarries, are of great variety, and are of the greatest beauty. The space in front of the Cathedral is very large, and is the finest in the city.
On one side the Palace of the Governor is flanked by the Cathedral, on the other by the Town Hall. The Town Hall is very beautiful. At the extremity of the place in front of the Cathedral a large barracks is being constructed, and which is to be capable of lodging eight thousand troops.
Private houses, as well as public buildings, are all one story high. Spaniards never live on the ground floor, on account of the dampness, but they occupy the first floor instead. The heat of the climate has induced them to build very large apartments, with verandahs running right round the outside, so as to keep out the sun; the windows form part of the verandahs, and the
[Image of page 109]
MANILLA.
daylight only enters the rooms by means of the doors which open out on to these verandahs. The ground floor serves as a storehouse, and to prevent the rising of moisture from the soil its surface is raised a foot, by means of a bed of charcoal; then sand or gravel is placed on the top of this bed, which is finally paved with stone or brick laid with mortar.
As the country is very subject to earthquakes, the houses, although built of stone, are strengthened with large posts of wood or iron fixed perpendicularly in the ground, rising to the top of the wall-plates, and built within the walls, so that they cannot be seen, and then crossed on every floor by master girders, strongly bound together and bolted by wooden keys, and which so consolidate the whole building.
Manilla is built on the mouth of a beautiful river, which flows from a lake, called by the Spaniards Lagonne-de-bay, and which is situated five leagues inland. Forty streams flow into this lake, which is twenty leagues in circumference, and around which there are as many villages as streams. The Manilla river is the only one which flows out of the lake. It is covered with boats, bringing to the city every sort of provision from the forty agricultural tribes established on the lake shores.
The suburbs are bigger and more thickly populated than the city itself; they are separated from it by a river, across which a beautiful bridge has been thrown. The Minondo suburb is more especially inhabited by half-breeds, Chinese and Indians, who are for the most part gold and silversmiths, and all of them workpeople.
The Saint Croix suburb is inhabited by Spanish merchants, by foreigners of all nations, and by Chinese half-breeds. This quarter is the most agreeable one in the country, because the houses, which are quite as fine as those of the city, are built on the river bank, and thereby they enjoy all the conveniences and pleasantness due to such a position.
In spite of such advantages, the city is badly situated, being placed between two intercommunicating volcanoes, and of which the interiors, being always active, are evidently preparing its ruin. These two volcanoes are those of the Lagonne-ed-Taal and of Monte Albay. When one burns, the other smokes. I
[Image of page 110]
shall speak later on of the former of these volcanoes, which, to me at least, appeared a most singular one.
Until the shocks from the volcanoes shall decide its fate, Manilla remains the capital of the Spanish establishments in the Philippines. Here reside the Governor, who is called the Captain-General and President of the Royal Audience. Don Simon de Auda filled this office when I arrived at Manilla. This Governor had previously been a member of the Royal Audience, and when the English, at the end of the last war, took Manilla, 2 he escaped from the city before the surrender, placed himself at the head of the Indians of the province of Pampague, and, without regard to the capitulation of the city, he is said to have succeeded in confining the English within their conquest, starving equally the conquerors and the conquered. Noticing that the Chinese established outside the city walls were furnishing provisions to English and Spaniards alike, he butchered them, putting more than ten thousand to the sword. It seemed to me however that the Spaniards in general considered the efforts of this councillor to be more harmful than advantageous to the welfare of the Spanish colony. The English, harassed by the Indians under Don Simon de Auda, had on their part armed and raised other provinces of Luzon, so as to oppose Indian to Indian, and this sort of civil war did more harm to the colony than even the capture of Manilla by the English.
However this may be, Don Simon de Auda returned to Spain after the peace, was rewarded for his zeal by being made Privy Councillor of Castile, and was sent back to Manilla as Governor-General of the
[Image of page 111]
SPANISH INFLUENCES.
Philippines. Since his arrival in his province he has started a number of important projects, but difficult to be carried out at one and the same time. He has started considerable fortifications in various parts of the city, very large barracks, dykes at the mouth of the river, a powder mill, smelting furnaces and forges to work the iron mines, and a number of other useful works, which might have succeeded better had they been started in due succession.
The Philippine Archipelago contains fourteen principal islands, the government of which is divided into twenty-seven provinces, which are governed by alcades under the orders of the Governor-Captain-General. All these islands are thickly populated, the estimated population being about three million. These islands extend from the tenth to the twenty-third degree N. latitude, and vary in breadth from about forty leagues at the north head of Luzon up to two hundred leagues from the south of the S. E. point of Mindanao, to the S. W. point of Paragoa. They are all fertile and rich in natural products. But although the Spaniards have been established here for more than two hundred years, they have not yet succeeded in making themselves masters of the islands. They have no foothold on Paragoa, which is almost eighty leagues long, nor on the adjacent small islands; they only possess a few acres on the big island of Mindanao, which is two hundred leagues in circumference, nor are they yet fully acquainted with the interior of the Island of Luzon, where they have their chief settlement, namely, the city of Manilla. Luzon is the largest of these islands, being a hundred and forty leagues long from Cape Bojador to Bulusan Point, which is the most northerly point, and about forty leagues broad. In the northern part of Luzon, near the province of Ilocos, there are some aborigines with whom the Spaniards have
[Image of page 112]
never been able to establish communication. It is believed that these people are the descendants of Chinese, who, having been shipwrecked on these shores, have established themselves in the mountains of this part of the island. It is said that some Indians know the routes by which access is gained to this people, and that they have been well received by them; but it is in the interest of these Indians to withhold the knowledge from the Spaniards, on account of their great trade profits with these people, who lack many things and have only provisions and gold.
Generally speaking, when the Spaniards established themselves in the Philippines, these islands were inhabited by two varieties of man, --by the aborigines, mostly black, and by the Malays, of reddish hue. The former inhabited, and still occupy the forests, the mountains, and the centre of the islands; they are still wild, and the Spaniards up to now have not been able to subdue nor to civilize them. The latter were established along the coasts, and were colonies formerly transplanted from Sumatra, Malacca, Borneo and other Malay islands. These latter, in taking the country, have driven the aborigines into the interior. It was these inhabitants of the shores that the Spaniards subdued on arrival, and whose missionaries have converted them to Christianity. These islanders possessed a government, a civilization, and some arts, and they had kings whose families the Spaniards destroyed one by one. They have preserved their old language, and there are only a few Indians in the neighbourhood of Manilla who speak Spanish. The missionaries on arriving in the country are first of all obliged to learn the Indian tongue, which varies according to the different islands. Two different languages are distinguished, the others being only dialects, the Tagale language, which is that spoken in Luzon and the adjacent islands, and the Bissau, which is the language of the northern islanders. There are many varieties among the inhabitants of these islands. 3 At the south of Luzon, Negro Island is so called
[Inserted unpaginated illustration]
[Image of page 113]
PHILIPPINE ISLANDERS.
on account of the nature of its inhabitants, whose hair is woolly, and who speak a language which is not met with outside their country. In the neighbouring islands the Spaniards met with men who tatued the body like nearly all the inhabitants of the South Seas as far as New Zealand. It seems that all these people were good navigators, and that various occurrences in the course of navigation have carried them from one island to another, and have mixed them up in a singular manner. It sometimes still happens that crafts are brought by storms to the southern portion of the Philippine Archipelago, containing men who are complete savages, whom it has been impossible to civilize, who speak a language which has no affinity with any language spoken in the Philippines, and whose habitat is not discoverable.
I had an opportunity of seeing some aboriginal savages of Luzon, whom some Spanish Indians had brought in of their own free will. 4 They were very black, with woolly hair, short in stature, but robust and sinewy, and very ugly. Their whole clothing consisted in a girdle of bark, feather bracelets on the forearm, a crown of feathers on the head, like all the savages of the South Seas, a quiver full of arrows on the back and a bow in the hand. They looked very wild, and were much astonished with all that they saw. Accustomed to the silence of the forest, the slightest noise seemed to alarm them, and they were continually looking about in the most uneasy manner. The Spaniards treated them well, but it seemed to me that they preferred their liberty to all the beautiful presents in silk and cotton clothing which the Governor-General gave them. The habits of these savages vary according to the different islands. In some every family lives together, and forms a small society separated from all the rest of humanity; in others every individual lives alone in the forests with his mate. Amongst the former there are some who construct huts in the centre of clumps of trees,
[Image of page 114]
where they retire at night time, and often change the site. The Spaniards thought for a long time that there lived on the island of Mindoro a tribe of savages who had tails like monkeys, but after many inquiries this belief was found to be false. 5 This old mistake proves, nevertheless, that in the early days of the discovery the Spaniards were struck with the varieties of the human race they met with in this Archipelago.
The Indians subdued by the Spaniards are very swarthy; they are generally short, with very glossy hair, flat face, eyes something like the Chinese, and the nose short and flattened. The mixture of Indians with Spaniards and Chinese has produced many mestizos, so that in the neighbourhood of Manilla the Indians no longer resemble those at a distance, being very much whiter, and one sees amongst the Indian female population young girls who are as white and as pretty as Spaniards, and others who have all the traits of the Chinese. There are very few European
[Image of page 115]
PHILIPPINE ISLANDERS.
women to be seen at Manilla. The Spaniards have taken Indian women to wife, and the children produced by these marriages have in the second generation turned out as white as Spaniards.
Through all these times the Indians have been well treated by their conquerors, who have not been allowed to make slaves of them. They have thus preserved their original Malay clothes, with a few changes in the cut of the sarong, which is slightly European in form. Their dress consists of a large pair of drawers, in blue or crimson silk, and a shirt, generally of Chinese linen very fine and very white. This shirt, which hangs over the drawers like a tunic, is very often embroidered. 6
THE END OF CROZET'S VOYAGE.
[Page 116 is blank]
