The Inhabitants of the Philippines

by Frederic H. Sawyer

Vicols (33).

The Vicols inhabit the southern half of the province of Camarines Norte, the whole of Camarines Sur and Albay, the islands of Catanduanes, Burias, and Ticao, and the northern shores of Masbate. They are civilised, and have been Christians for centuries.

They speak a dialect of their own, which, according to Jagor, is midway between Tagal and Visay, which dialect is spoken in its greatest purity by the inhabitants of the Isarog volcano and its immediate neighbourhood, and that thence towards the west the dialect becomes more and more like the Tagal, and towards the east like the Visay until by degrees, before reaching the ethnographical boundary, it merges into those kindred languages.

In manners and customs they appear to be half-bred between these two races, yet, according to F. Blumentritt, they preceded the Tagals, and were in fact the first Malays to arrive in Luzon. They show signs of intermixture with Polynesian or Papuan stock.

They are physically inferior to the Tagals, nor do they possess the proud warlike spirit of the dwellers in north Luzon. They are less cleanly, and live in poorer houses.

The men dress like the Tagals, but the women wear the patadion instead of a saya, and a shirt of guinára.

Blumentritt says the men carry the Malay kris instead of the bolo, but I did not see a kris carried by any one when I visited the province.

In fact, the regulations enforced at that time by the Guardia Civil were against carrying such a weapon. The bolo, on the other hand, is a necessary tool.

I visited the province of Camarines Sur, going from Manila to Pasacao by sea, and from there travelled by road to an affluent of the River Vicol, and then by canoe on a moonlit night to Nueva Cáceres, the capital of the province.

Here I met a remarkable man, the late Bishop Gainza, and was much impressed by his keen intellect and great knowledge of the country.

He was said to be a man of great ambition, and I can quite believe it. Originally a Dominican monk, it was intended that he should have been made Archbishop of Manila, but, somehow, Father Pedro Paya, at that time Procurator of the Order in Madrid, got himself nominated instead, and Gainza had to content himself with the bishopric of Nueva Cáceres.

He was a model of self-denial, living most frugally on a small part of his revenue, contributing a thousand dollars a year to the funds of the Holy Father, and spending the remainder in building or repairing churches and schools in his diocese, or in assisting undertakings he thought likely to benefit the province.

Amongst other works, I remember that he had tried to cut a canal from the River Vicol to the Bay of Ragay. He had excavated a portion of it, but either on his death, or from the difficulties raised by the Public Works Department, the work was abandoned.

The Franciscan friars, who held the benefices in that province, opposed him, and annoyed him in every possible way.

The present bishop, Father Arsenio Ocampo, formerly an Augustinian monk, is a clever and enlightened man, with whom I had dealings when he was Procurator-General of his Order.

I have made this digression from my subject, because so much has been said against the clergy of the Philippines, that I feel impelled to bring before my readers this instance of a bishop who constantly endeavoured to promote the interests of his province.

Nueva Cáceres possessed several schools, a hospital, a lepers’ hospital, and a training-college for school-mistresses had just been established by Bishop Gainza’s initiative.

The shops were mostly in the hands of Chinese, who did a flourishing trade in Manchester goods, patadoins, and coloured handkerchiefs.

There were several Spanish and Mestizo merchants who dealt in hemp and rice.

From Nueva Cáceres I travelled by a good road to Iriga, a town near the volcano of that name, passing close to the Isarog on my way. From Iriga I visited the country round about, and Lake Bula.

Some years after I went from Manila by sea to Tabaco, on the Pacific coast of Albay, getting a fine night view of the Mayon volcano (8272 feet) in violent eruption.

From Tabaco I drove to Tivi and visited the celebrated boiling-well and hot-springs at that place, much frequented by the natives, and sometimes by Europeans, for the cure of rheumatism and other diseases.

Now that the Stars and Stripes float over the Philippines it is to be hoped that a regular sanatorium will be erected at this beautiful and health-restoring spot, the advantages of which might attract sufferers from all the Far East.

On these journeys I had a good opportunity of studying the people. The chief exports are Abacá (Manila hemp), and rice. In Camarines Sur the principal crop is rice, whilst in Albay the hemp predominates, and they import rice.

The cultivation of rice, which I have briefly described when writing of the Tagals, is not an occupation calculated to improve the minds or bodies of those engaged in it, and I have noticed that wherever this is the staple crop the peasantry are in a distinctly lower condition than where cane is planted and sugar manufactured. Their lives are passed in alternate periods of exhausting labour and of utter idleness, there is nothing to strive for, nothing to learn, nothing to improve. The same customs go on from generation to generation, the same rude implements are used, and the husbandman paid for his labour in kind lives destitute of comfort in the present, and without hope for the future.

Nor can the cultivation and preparation of hemp be considered as a much more improving occupation.

Little care, indeed, is required by the Musa textilis after the first planting, and the cleaning of the fibre is a simple matter, but very laborious.

Several Spaniards are settled in these provinces, also a few agents of British houses in Manila, and some Chinese and Mestizos. They usually complain bitterly of the difficulty they experience in getting hemp delivered to them owing to the laziness and unpunctuality of the natives.

Yet, notwithstanding this, most of them live in affluence and some have amassed fortunes by Vicol labour. There is, in fact, a good deal of money in Albay, Daraga, and other towns in the hemp districts, and they are the happy hunting-ground of the Jew pedlar who there finds a good market for yellow diamonds and off-colour gems unsaleable in London or Paris. Houndsditch and Broadway will do well to note.

The peasantry, however, either from improvidence or aversion to steady labour, seem to be rather worse off than the Tagals and Pampangos, more especially those amongst them who cultivate paddy.

The whole of the large amount of hemp exported from Manila and Cebú is cleaned by hand.

Several attempts have been made to employ machinery, but the inherent conditions of the industry are unfavourable to success in this line.

The plants are grown principally on the eastern slopes of the volcanic mountains of Southern Luzon, and the adjacent islands where the soil is soft and friable and roads are unknown.

The heavy stems of the plants cannot profitably be conveyed to fixed works for treatment, and no machine has yet been devised light enough to be carried up to the látes or plantations and able to compete with hand labour. In a recent report to the British North Borneo Company, Mr. W. C. Cowie mentions his hopes that Thompson’s Fibre Company are about to send out a trial decorticator, with engine and boiler to drive it, to the River Padas, in that company’s territories, for cleaning the fibre of the numerous plants of the Musa textilis growing in that region. It will be interesting to learn the result. Possibly the conditions of transport by rail or river are more favourable than in the Philippines, and in that case a measure of success is quite possible. But few errors are more expensive than to unwarrantably assume that machinery must necessarily be cheaper than hand labour.

Vicols Preparing Hemp.

Cutting the Plant.

Adjusting under the Knife.

Separating the Petioles.

To face p. 287.

Anyhow, as regards the Philippines here is a nice little problem. If the mechanics of Massachusetts and Connecticut cannot solve it, I do not know who can.

The Vicol labourers proceed to the látes in couples, carrying their simple and efficient apparatus, all of which, except the knife, they make themselves.

One man cuts down the plant, removes the outer covering, and separates the layers forming the stem, dividing them into strips about one and a half inches wide, and spreading them out to air.

The other man standing at his bench, takes a strip and places the middle of it across the convex block and under the knife, which is held up by the spring of a sapling overhead. Then, placing one foot on a treadle hanging from the handle of the knife, he firmly presses the latter down on the block. It should be explained that the knife is not sharp enough to cut the fibres. Firmly grasping the strip in both hands, and throwing his body backwards, he steadily draws the strip towards him till all the fibre has passed the knife; then, removing his foot from the treadle, the knife is lifted from the block by the spring, leaving the pulp and waste behind it. Sweeping this off, he reverses the half-cleaned strip, and twisting the cleaned fibre round one hand and wrist, and grasping it also with the other, he draws the part he formerly held, under the knife, pressing the treadle with the foot as before, and thus completes the cleaning of one strip. The fibre is often six feet long, and only requires drying in the sun to be marketable.

A man is able to clean about twenty-five pounds of hemp per day, and receives one half of it for his labour.

He usually sells his share to his employer for a trifle under the market price.

Chapter XXXI.

The Chinese in Luzon.

Mestizos or half-breeds.

When Legaspi founded the city of Manila, in 1571, he found that Chinese junks frequented the port, and carried on a trade with Tondo and the other native towns.

Three years later, the Chinese pirate, Li-ma-hon, made an attack on the new city with a force of 2000 men in ninety-five small vessels, but was repulsed.

In 1603, the Chinese in Manila, under Eng-cang, rose against the Spaniards, and entrenched themselves in the suburbs. The Spaniards failed in the first assault with heavy loss, but ultimately the Chinese were defeated, and 23,000 were massacred, the few remaining being made galley-slaves. In 1639, another insurrection of the Chinese occurred and again some 23,000 were massacred.

In 1662, in consequence of the Chinese pirate Cong-seng demanding tribute from the governor of the Philippines, a decree was made that all Chinese must leave. The Chinese, however, refused, and entrenched themselves in the Parian, or market-place, outside the walls. They were attacked, and many thousands were killed. A body of 2000 endeavoured to march north, but were massacred by the Pampangos.

In 1762, when Manila was taken by the forces of the Honourable East India Company, the Chinese eagerly joined in the plundering. It having been rumoured that the Chinese intended to join the British forces, Don Simon de Anda condemned them all to death, and most of them were hung, their property passing to their executioners.

In 1820, there occurred the fifth and last massacre of the Chinese. The mob of Manila took advantage of the abject cowardice of the acting-governor, General Folgueras, and of other authorities, and for hours vented their spite on the unhappy Chinamen, showing them no mercy, and carrying off their goods.

Since that time no general massacre has taken place, but such is the dislike of the natives to the Chinese, that these latter would have been quickly exterminated if the Spanish Government had failed at any time to protect them.

The Chinese are mostly herded together in Manila, and in some of the larger towns. Some few venture to keep stores in the villages, and others travel about at the risk of their lives in the sugar, hemp and tobacco districts, as purchasers and collectors of produce.

I consider that they should not be allowed to do this, for the invariable result of their interference is to reduce the quality of everything they handle. Their trade is based upon false weights and measures, and upon adulteration, or insufficient preparation of the produce. They are very patient with the natives, and this gives them a very great advantage over a European, even if the latter is used to Eastern ways. An American would probably have less patience than any European in negotiating a purchase of produce from an up-country native; the waste of time would exasperate him. I feel sure that most of those who know the Philippines will agree with me as to the evil results of the operations of the Chinese produce-brokers. Adulterated sugar, half-rotten hemp, half-cured tobacco, badly-prepared indigo—that is what the Chinaman brings in. He spoils every article he trades in, and discredits it in the world’s markets.

The Chinese nowhere cultivate the soil, except the gardens and market-gardens around Manila, and a few of the large towns.

This is, perhaps, not due to their unwillingness to do so, but because they dare not; the natives are too jealous of them, and their lives would not be safe away from the towns.

Their genius is commercial, and they are at home in shop, bazaar, or office. I think that the Chinese agriculturist does not leave his home for the Philippines. Most of those in the islands come from Amoy, and the district round that port. Some few are from Macao; they seem to be all townsmen, not countrymen. Each shopkeeper has several assistants, ranging in age from boys of ten or twelve upwards. On arrival, they are placed in a sort of school—a very practical one—to learn Spanish; for instance, numbers and coins, with such terms as Muy barato—very cheap. As a Chinaman cannot pronounce the letter R, but substitutes L, this becomes Muy balato. Thus, also, the Roo-Kiu Islands become the Loo-Chew Islands, in Chinese.

The Chinaman is an excellent shop-keeper or pedlar, and some years ago, the British importers of Manchester goods made it a practice to give credit for goods supplied to the Chinese; the banks also extended some facilities to them. In consequence, however, of heavy losses to several British firms, this custom has been abandoned, or considerably restricted.

The Chinese are good barbers, cooks and gardeners. As breeders of fish they are unrivalled. Besides this they compete successfully with the Tagal in the following trades: blacksmiths, boiler-makers, stokers, engine-drivers, ship and house carpenters, boat-builders, cabinet-makers and varnishers, iron and brass-founders, shoe-makers, tin-smiths. These artisans are very industrious, and labour constantly at their trades. Their great feast is at the Chinese New Year, which occurs in February, when they take about a week’s holiday, and regale themselves on roast pig, and other delicacies, making also presents of sweets, fruits, and Jocchiu hams, to their patrons and customers.

There are Chinese apothecaries in Manila, but they are mostly resorted to by their own countrymen, and their awful concoctions are nasty beyond belief. They deal largely in aphrodisiacs.

Some Chinese doctors practise in Manila, and are said to make wonderful cures, even on patients given up by the orthodox medicos. They feel the pulse at the temporal artery, or else above the bridge of the nose.

They used to suffer a good deal from the jealousy of the Spanish practitioners, and were persecuted for practising without a qualification.

Large numbers of Chinese coolies are employed in Manila handling coal, loading and unloading ships and lighters, pressing hemp, drying sugar, and in other work too hard and too constant for the natives.

The number of Chinese in Luzon has been variously estimated at from 30,000 to 60,000 men, and two or three hundred women. The anonymous author of ‘Filipinas—Problema Fundamental’ (Madrid, 1891), gives the number of Chinese in the whole Archipelago as 125,000, and he evidently had access to good information. The fact is nobody knows, and in all probability the Spanish authorities had an interest in understating the number.

The Chinese were organised quite separately from the natives. Wherever their numbers were considerable, they had their own tribunal, with a Gobernadorcillo and Principales, the former called the Capitan-China.

In Manila, this Capitan was a man of importance, or else the nominee of such a person. Certain governors-general received, nay, even extorted, large sums from the Capitan-China. Weyler is said to have been one of these offenders, but Jovellar caused the Capitan-China to be turned out of Malacañan for offering him a present. No one who knew them would ever believe that Moriones or Despujols would condescend to accept presents from the Chinamen. One favourite trick of the more corrupt governors-general was to have some very obnoxious law made in Spain; for instance, obliging the Chinese to become cabezas-de-barangay, or responsible tax-collectors of their own countrymen, and then extort a ransom for not putting the law in force. Weyler was said to have received $80,000 from the Chinese on this account, but some of this would have to go to Madrid.

At another time it was proposed that the Chinese should be obliged to keep their accounts in Spanish on books having every leaf stamped, and that every firm should employ a trained accountant who had passed an examination in book-keeping, and obtained a diploma as a commercial expert. What it cost the Celestials to avoid this infliction I do not know.

Amidst all this extortion from the Spaniard, and notwithstanding the ever-present hatred of the native, the Manila Chinaman is a sleek and prosperous-looking person, and seems cheerful and contented. If he becomes wealthy he may very likely become a Christian, less, perhaps, from any conviction or faith, but from motives of interest, and to facilitate his marriage to a native woman, or half-caste. He invariably selects an influential god-father, and dutifully takes him complimentary presents on his feast-day, wife’s feast-day, etc. Baptism used to cost him a substantial fee, but it brought him business, for the priests were good customers to him. Now, however, with freedom of religion, with civil marriage and the withdrawal of the friars, he may be able to marry without the trouble of changing his religion.

Whether Christian or heathen, he usually keeps a few sticks of incense burning before an image at the back of his shop, and contributes to any subscription the priest may be raising.

I look upon the Chinaman as a necessity in the Philippines, but consider that he must be governed by exceptional legislation, and not be allowed to enter indiscriminately, nor to engage, as a matter of course, in every calling.

If attempts are to be made to settle them on the land, great care must be shown in selecting the localities, and great precautions taken to prevent fighting between the Chinese and the natives. However, there should be plenty of room for tens of thousands of agricultural labourers in Palawan and Mindanao; but I consider women to be essential to the success of such colonies. The family is the base of any permanent settlement, and it ought to be made a condition that a considerable number of women should come over with the men.