The loss of the Spaniards in the whole affair was 34 men killed, with 84 wounded. A very unpleasant circumstance to the army was connected with this expedition. Two field-officers, both of them acting lieutenant-colonels of separate regiments, showed the white feather at the moment of danger; for which, I believe, they have since been cashiered, and not shot, as they might have been, had their chief not been as merciful as he is brave.
Although this chastisement to the Sooloo men has been severe, it is unlikely to restrain the chiefs from their predatory expeditions, at least for any length of time; as under the present state of things prevailing among them, they have no other objects to exhaust their idleness and energetic characters upon, than piratical adventure. But were commerce and its emoluments displayed before them, from some place in the vicinity of Zamboanga, or from that place itself, the civilizing influence which the arts of peace always engender would so pervade their minds in a very few years, that their habits would be changed, and the blessings of education, religion, and peace, might be expected to civilize and elevate their minds. Their energies and seamanship would then be in requisition as the navigators of all the Archipelago, and to carry in their native vessels the produce of the fertile inland districts of Mindanao, and of Northern Borneo, to the great mart which Zamboanga would become, should it fortunately be made an open port of trade for the people of all nations.
CHAPTER XXXI.
The coasting trade, which is a very important nursery for the marine of the Philippines, is carried on exclusively by the national vessels, no foreign ships being allowed to engage in it.
Manilla, being the only port open to the foreign merchants, is the grand emporium or centre to which nearly all the productions of the islands are brought, which regulation gives employment to an infinite number of colonial shipping, in carrying them to that market. Every day there are several arrivals from the various sea-ports of the different districts of the islands, of brigs, schooners, pontines, galeras, caracoas, and pancos, all of them being curious specimens of every variety of ship-building, from the black and low snake-like schooner, or handsome brig, to the most rude description of vessel built. Where iron nails are scarce and expensive, some of these are fastened together apparently in a manner the most unsatisfactory possible for their crews or passengers, should they have to encounter a gale of wind during their voyages.
Nearly the whole of the coasting trade is in the hands of the Indians, or Mestizos of Chinese descent, called Sangleys, although several Spaniards and European Mestizos at Manilla also own a better class of ships than those described, constantly engaged in going and returning from the provinces.
Still, from some cause or other, they do not appear to carry the on trade so successfully as the provincial shipowners, most of whom have only one or two small vessels, which they keep constantly running between their native place and Manilla, and whose sole business it is, after despatching either of them, to purchase up from the cultivators of the soil, such small lots of their produce as are cheap at the time, such as sugar, rice, &c., which they are able to do at greatly lower terms, when buying them by little at a time, than it would be possible for the agent of a merchant in Manilla to do, whose operations it would probably be necessary should be conducted upon a more extensive and quicker scale, and whose knowledge of the district and of the vendors could seldom be equal to that of a native Sangley, or Indian born among them.
In consequence of all the produce being originally purchased by small lots at a time, it is of very variable quality; and on a cargo of Muscovado sugar, for instance, being purchased from one of these traders by a foreign merchant of Manilla, for exportation, it is perfectly essential to open the whole of the bags in which it has come up to Manilla from the provinces, and to empty their contents into one great heap, which causes it to get well mingled together, and ensures the requisite regularity of sample, after which it has to be rebagged and shipped off to the foreign vessels that may be waiting to receive it in the bay.
Of course the expense of all this is very considerable, for not only is there all the labour and cost of bags, &c., incurred twice, but there is the freight and insurance by the province vessel, which has brought it up to Manilla, to be added to the natural cost of the sugar at the place of its growth and manufacture.
All these restrictions on trade affect the quantity of sugar sold by the native planters, and in a very material degree depress the agricultural activity of the people, who suffer from them. But probably there are no greater sufferers from such restrictive regulations than the Government which so ignorantly sustains or has imposed them. So little anxious have they been to encourage the trade, that formerly, at various times, they very nearly all but ruined it, by imposing import duties on all the produce of the provinces that came to Manilla from them, for sale. This, added to the export duties at the time of its shipment to foreign markets, so much increased the cost of those articles in Manilla, that the foreign merchants there, finding they could procure similar merchandise at other places for less money, of course would not buy it; and the native traders, finding their produce unsaleable except at losing prices, could not make any further purchases from the native agriculturists, which caused so much distress in the country, that the provinces got into a high state of disaffection on several occasions, from the same cause; upon seeing which the Government were wise enough to repeal their restrictive laws, and allow the free interchange of commodities between all the provinces of the Philippines.