LUZON 228 LUZON
times as high as those of Java or continental India, in parts of these where a variable
land-tax prevails. The chief obstacle to cultivation in Luzon, as in all countries
similarly situated, consists in clearing and grubbing up the forest, and in forming the
dikes and trenches in the case of irrigated land. The most valuable wild lands are,
consequently, stated to be those without timber trees or underwood, but covered with
ferns, and these, from the increase of population, have become scarce. With lands of
this description, all that is necessary is to burn the fern in the dry season, and proceed
at once to form the dikes and trenches for water-field. From the high price of land in
Luzon, I imagine it must be concluded that the amount of fertile land easily available
to profitable cultivation must be much smaller than in Java, for even with the advantage
of freedom from land-tax, the price would not have been what it is, had the good ^
land been abundant in proportion to the area of the island. Next in value to irrigated
land, is the dry-field fit for the growth of sugar-cane, of maiz, cotton, the abaca banana,
and tobacco. The sugar-cane, coffee, cocoa, and indigo, are raised to a considerable
extent in Luson, but chiefly by small proprietors, as tea is in China, because the high
price of labour and the minute subdivision of landed estates is adverse to raising
these commodities in a large way. “ The whole of the productions of the islands,”
says Mr. Mackmieking, who had resided several years in Luzon, “ are raised by the
poor Indian cultivators, each from his own small patch of land, which they till with
very simple, though efficient, implements of agriculture.”
Besides agriculture, the inhabitants of Luzon have acquired considerable skill in
the manufacture of textile fabrics, the raw materials of which are cotton, the fibre of
the abaca banana, and that of the pine-apple, with silk chiefly brought from China.
That the manufacture of these is comparatively large, is attested by the fact that
besides a considerable exportation, between two and three millions of people at
home are principally clothed with them. They are carried on to a greater or less
extent in every part of the island, but most extensively in the provinces of Ilocas,
Camarines, and Tondo, Ilocas alone being reckoned to have no fewer than 20,000
looms. Matting, including hats, is also a considerable branch of industry, both for
home consumption and exportation, the principal raw materials being the ratan with
fibres the produce of the Buri palm (Gorypha gebanga). Very fine cordage from the
coarsest sorts of the abaca is largely manufactured, and so much esteemed in Europe and
America, as to fetch a higher price than that of the best Biga hemp. The art of dyeing
is but in a rude condition, the colours produced being neither brilliant nor durable.
The knowledge of the art is, indeed, confined to the use of a few native colouring
materials, and a few simple mordants; the first consisting chiefly of sapan-wood and
indigo, and the last of alum imported from China. In the art of dyeing, the natives
of Luzon are far below the Hindus; and of printing, immemorially practised by the
latter, they are entirely ignorant. Embroidery, chiefly on the pina cloth, is executed
by women with extraordinary skill and patience. “ Probably,” says Mr. Macmicking,
“ the pifia (pine-apple) cloth manufactured in the Philippines, is the best known
of all the native productions, and it is a very notable instance of their advance in
the manufacturing arts. There is, perhaps, no more curious, beautiful and delicate
specimen of manufactures produced in any country. It varies in price according to
texture and quality; ladies’ dresses of it costing as low as twenty dollars (88s. 4d.) for
a bastard sort of cloth, and as high as fifteen hundred dollars (3251.) for a finely
worked dress. The common coarse sort, used by the natives for making shirts, costs
them from four to ten dollars a shirt.”
Lime is generally obtained from shells fished up from the rivers, or procured by
excavation, and not by the burning of any kind of limestone. The art was probably
introduced by the Javanese, for I find the native name to be only a corruption of the
most usual one in the language of that people, apog for apu. Salt is obtained either by
solar evaporation or the boiling of sea-water. The principal place for the manufacture
in the first manner is the province of Pangasinan, on the western coast, and as this isaa
Javanese word signifying “place of brine,” it would seem likely that the art of making
salt by the process of solar evaporation was taught by the Javanese, the only people
of the Malay Archipelago who practise it. The necessity of having recourse to boiling,
and especially of making salt from burning vegetables containing that article would
seem to imply that either the soil or climate, or both, are generally ill-suited to the
manufacture of this necessary of life. I t is not taxed, or a subject of monopoly in
Luzon, or any other of the Philippine islands, its cost having probably saved its consumers
from this calamity. . . K a ,,
The manipulation of the metals is in general but imperfectly practised by the
inhabitants of Luzon. The iron used is, for the most part, English or Swedish.
Some trinkets of gold, k ^ e v e r ,“ f^ u o h ^fught^fter by strangersJ All the
chains, are made of such beautyas t ^ which ia confined to the Philippine
goldsmiths are women, a smgul y^ arts of recent introduction the last
islands. Turnrng and The houses and public buildings of the natives
entirely in the hands of the onine • perishable materials as wood, canes,
of Luzon are wholly isîand of solid materials is of Spanish
palmetto, and ^ ¿ ^ OE j è t a r e of Luzon is wholly Spanish, the city of Manilla,
origin. In a word, the best arcnit . —greatly more so than
indeed, more resembling an t,w k of Singapore Boat-
Batavia, Calcutta, Bombay, practised by the inhabitants of Luzon, but shipbuilding
is an art long «“ ^ Y X o t c t io n Large ships have been built in the
b u i l d i n g is entirely one of Eu p quality, that they are estimated to last
ports of Luzon, of timber of i 0f those of teak itself.
forty years, which is Probably ^ considerable, although The inland commerce of Luzon is consiuera , & it has mha nylo dwif cfiocuunlttireys
to contend with. During the five miny months of theyear; much o fttie lo ^ ^ r y
is turned into lakes, so that all co ,, f „ yme guch. a deposit of mud, as
the waters draw off, they leave hehin > country for travelling, and the
makes it impossible to use the small homes l ^ o a d s ara besides, interacted by
slow heavy buffalo is had r e < ^ ^ r l e w stone bridges ; while the
frequent rivers and biooks, over Vwthe torrents of the periodical inundation,
wooden ones are frequently carried aw y Y ^ j going from either
so that the passage over them h a s himdréTIf these rafts
end of the island to Manilla, it is sard that no teww tùan one enhanced
b°yp , and
abaca cloths from the two Camarines. The trade m timber and canes is veiy con
siderable These are obtained in the mountains durmg the dry season, and floated
to the coast on rafts during the rams, by the nearest T O * » "X pM U p p ffie
by buffalos. The foreign trade of Luzon includes that of the whole Philippine group,
and will be adverted to under that head. i-„i, fU«» rall the Costa.
The Spaniards divide Luzon into three great sections, ^ ^
the Contra-Costa, and the Centro y
eastern and the centre or interior of the island,—a vague division of little practical
value and having reference chiefly to the times in which the different portions of the
Sarui were brought under the Spanish dominion, and to their relative importance.
The present civil divisions are into provinces, which, by^subdivision of the larger
been raised from twelve to twenty. Them names, with their P ^ h tioH f ¡mA850,.are
as follow: Tondo, 280,130; Bulacan, 290,455; Pampanga, 155,697, Nueva Ecija,
32 704- Lambales, 22,394; Batuan, 38,642; Cavité, 117,230 ; ^ tanga s, 217,594,
Laguna, 137,083; Ilocos sur, 189,477; Hocos norte, 136,868; Abra,28 971 ; Pangasinan,
228,418; Cagayan, 62,127; Nueva Viscaya, 22A9 2 ; Batanes l 0,433 ¡ Camannessur
102,527; Camarines norte, 10,382; Albay, 219,740; and Tayabas, 81,098. Some
account of all these will be found under their respective heads.
It is hardly necessary to say that Luzon was as unknown to the Europeans oi
antiquity or of the middle ages as Cuba or St. Domingo. Indeed, it was not actually
reached until three quarters of a century after these two islands had been V
Legaspi, its conqueror, had been five years in the Philippines before
landed in Luzon. The first of them that did so was Juan de Salcedo, the nephew of