A great value is attached to some of the canes which are found on the island of Palawan, or Paragua, especially where they are of variegated colours, or pure white, and without the interruption of a knot, so as to serve for walking-sticks. I was informed that two hundred dollars had been given for a fine specimen.
A gold-headed sticky with a silk cord and tassels, is the emblem of authority in the Philippines.
[1] Buzeta may be consulted, especially under the head “Caraga,” on which he has a long article. [↑]
CHAPTER XXV.
ILOILO AND PANAY.
Of the three ports lately opened to foreign commerce, Iloilo is the most promising. The province of Iloilo is one of the most populous of the Philippines. It contains more than half a million of inhabitants, and though portions of the province are very thinly peopled, there is an average exceeding 2,000 inhabitants per square league. Independently of the pueblos which I visited, and of which some description will be given, Cabatuan has 23,000 inhabitants, Miagao 31,000, Dumangas 25,000, Janiuay 22,000, Pototan 34,600, and several others more than 10,000 souls. The province is not only one of the most numerously peopled, it is, perhaps, the most productive in agricultural, the most active in manufacturing, industry, and among the best instructed of the Philippines.[1] It has extensive and cultivated plains and forest-covered mountains; its roads are among the best I have seen in the archipelago. At the entrance of the channel are a number of islands called the Seven (mortal) Sins—Los Siete Pecados. The large island of Guimaras limits the channel on the south; it was visited by some of our party, who returned delighted with the extensive stalactite caverns which they explored, reaching them with some difficulty over the rocks, through the woods and across the streams which arrested their progress. The forests are full of game and the river Cabatuan abounds with crocodiles. There are many rivulets and rivers which greatly assist the cultivator, and we found a good supply of cattle. The ponies of Iloilo are among the best in the archipelago, and some attention is paid to the breeding of sheep. A good deal of salt is made, and there is a considerable fishery of trepang (sea-slug) and tortoises for the sake of the shells. But the island is most renowned for the piña fabrics called nipas and sinamays, some of which are of exquisite fineness and beauty; they are largely exported, and their perfection has given them a vast reputation even in Europe.
On the arrival of the Spaniards they found the district occupied by painted Indians, full of superstitions, which, notwithstanding the teachings of the Augustine friars, are still found to prevail, especially at the time of any public calamity. They are among the best formed of the Indians, speak a dialect of the Bisayan, which they called Hiligueyna, but in the remoter parts another idiom named the Halayo prevails. The Augustines boast of having converted fifty thousand families in 1566, but they were not able to induce them to cultivate their lands and to store their surplus produce, and the locusts having desolated the district, in the two following years more than half the population perished of hunger. But the missionaries made no progress among the Negritos who dwelt in the wilder parts of the mountainous regions, and who were joined by many desiring to escape from the authority of the invaders. These savages have not unfrequently attacked the villages of the converted Indians, but of late years have found it more prudent and profitable to bring down their wax and pitch, and exchange them for rice and garments. They have no general ruler, but each clan has its recognized head, and it is said that, when perplexed as to choice of a successor to a departed chief, they send deputations to the missionaries and ask their advice and assistance to regulate their choice. Formerly the district was frequently attacked by pirates, who committed great ravages and destroyed several towns. In 1716 the Dutch attacked the fortress of Iloilo, but were compelled to retire after a heavy loss both in killed and wounded. There has been a great increase in the population, which in 1736 numbered 67,708 souls; in 1799, 176,901; in 1845, 277,571; and by the last census, 527,970, of whom 174,874 pay tribute. There is a small number of Spaniards—of mestizos many, of whom the larger proportion are sangleys, the descendants of Chinese fathers and native mothers. The increase of the population must be great, the census in 1857 giving 17,675 births, and only 9,231 deaths.