Until 1852 the drawbridge, connecting the old city with the new, was raised at night and the city closed, presenting the curious fact of a feudal Spanish city in the heart of the tropics. In the citadel are the Government offices; also the Post, Telegraph, and Custom offices, various convents and colleges, an Artillery depot, the Cathedral, and eleven other churches. This part of the city presents a dilapidated and mediæval appearance. The dull, narrow streets have a sombre, monastic aspect; and one, therefore, is not surprised to find that the gloomy superstitions of the 15th century hold Cimmerian sway here, undisturbed by the dawn of Science. It seems the fit capital of a despotism, a suitable home for tyranny and priestcraft.
Manila Bay is thirty miles from north to south, and about twenty-five miles wide. On each side the entrance are steep volcanic mountains. Ten miles from Manila, near the entrance of the bay, lies Cavité, which contains about 5,000 people. Here also is the arsenal, a patent slip, and a garrison of 500 men. In the channel lies the island of Corregidor, 640 feet high, and just beyond, the island of Caballo, 420 feet high, both fortified. On each island stands a lighthouse. Other fortified points are San José and Tibonis.
Manila, however, is, like Batavia and Calcutta, a great trade-centre. But I must leave the old city to find any signs of life and progress.
Binondo and the Suburbs.
Binondo, on the northern shore of the Pasig, and opposite the old city, is the business quarter. Here are the large tobacco factories, which employ about 10,000 men, women, and children. One factory alone, indeed, employs 2,000. The Manila wrappers and Manila cheroots and cigars are famed the world over. The employees in these factories earn on an average about 15 cents a day. With this they are able to live very well; for food is cheap, and rent is even cheaper. Most of the boys and men in these factories wear only a thin pair of trousers, being naked from the waist up. The girls also have but a slight covering. In the midst of every group of girls sits an old woman, who acts as a kind of combined overseer and chaperon.
The Fashionable New Cathedral in Old Manila, and the Ruins of the Old Cathedral, Destroyed by Earthquake, 1863.
The main street of Binondo is the Escolta, and here are situated the commercial warehouses, the bazaars, and the European shops. In the Rosario are the Chinese shops. These are very small, and a dozen or more are usually grouped together. In each, on the little counter, sits a Chinaman, casting accounts with the ancient abacus. Another stands behind the counter and acts as salesman; a third is in front drumming up customers, very much after the manner of Moses Cohn, Baxter street, New York. These Chinese traders are exceedingly shrewd, and it is almost useless for the buyer to attempt to secure a reduction in price; they have a uniform scale, agreed upon by themselves. Many of these Chinese merchants are fabulously rich; and all are prosperous and progressive, the natives and the Europeans not being able to compete against them.
In the Escolta are many fine shops owned by Spaniards, mestizos, Germans, English, and Americans. The Escolta, in the daytime, presents an animated appearance: about ten thousand carriages pass here daily, and a great volume of business is transacted. The commerce is yearly increasing, too. The principal articles of export are honey, tobacco, cigars, sugar, coffee, and indigo.