Fowls, turkeys, and ducks, both tame and wild, are at all times procurable, the supplies of the latter being from the Laguna. Geese are seldom or never exposed for sale, but are sometimes sent from China to private persons merely for their own consumption.
It is a curious thing that geese will not produce eggs, or sit upon them to hatch their young, at Manilla; and it is also a sufficiently odd circumstance, that turkeys die in a short time after reaching Singapore, where they are sometimes sent to private individuals for domestic use, although they thrive very well both in the Philippines and in Java. At Singapore, however, after being a few days ashore, some of them are attacked by a peculiar sickness, apparently giddiness of the head, which invariably ends in death in a few minutes after the commencement of the attack. All these birds are subject to it at that place, if allowed to go about too long before being seized upon by the cook.
The principal food of the Indians being rice, it is found exposed for sale, in large and small quantities, in the bazaars, where nearly all the kinds of fruits of the season may also be found. The catalogue of fruits grown in the islands is a long one, but among those most commonly seen may be reckoned plantains of all kinds, of which there are an immense variety; mangoes, which are remarkably good, and superior to any species grown in the East, excepting those of Bombay, to which they are equal; the custard-apple, the pine-apple, seldom equal to those of Batavia or Singapore; limes, and oranges, not very good, and greatly inferior to those of China, from whence some are imported by the trading Spanish vessels constantly running between the two places; melons of different kinds, of middling quality; cucumbers, pumpkins, jackfruit, lanzones, and many other sorts.
The best gardens, or those from which Manilla is chiefly supplied with fruit, are in the vicinity of Cavite, from which place the country people bring it every morning, the carriers being generally young women, who, from the steadiness requisite to balance the fruit-baskets on their heads, acquire a good walk, somewhat at the expense of their necks, however.
The most common sorts of vegetables exposed for sale appear to be the sweet potatoes, yams, and lettuce; and green pea-pods are sometimes to be had, but the latter are seldom good.
The temperature induces such a rapid vegetation as to injure their taste, as it prevents their ripening, for, after attaining a certain growth, the sun dries up the pod in a very few days, to prevent which they are pulled very early, when the pea is so small and delicate, being barely formed, that the cooks usually serve up both pods and peas together at table, after having minced them into small pieces with a knife, being unable to separate them properly.
The common potatoe is imported from China, and from the Australian colonies. Those from Van Diemen’s Land are the best; the sorts received from China are usually watery and small, being greatly inferior to those sent up from Australia.
In the fair monsoon, the Chinamen sometimes get supplies of apples, pears, cabbage, &c., from Shanghai, and these are considered as great delicacies.
There are many other fruits and vegetables procurable at Manilla, but those mentioned are the sorts usually met with.