ILOCOS-SUR INDIGO
The province is, however, sheltered from the severity of the north-eastern monsoon
by the high chain of the Caraballos, and therefore considered agreeable and salubrious.
Its communications both by land and water with Manilla are stated^ to
be convenient. In 1818 the population was 135,748, and in 1850, 157,558, paying
a poll-tax of 315,125 reals of plate. The relative population is 112 to the square
geographical mile.
ILOCOS-SUR. The area of this province, one of the most fertile and populous of
the Philippines, is 676 square geographical miles. Its surface is broken by spurs
proceeding from the chain of Caraballos, which forms its eastern boundary, dividing
it from Abra by glens, valleys, and rivers, the last being numerous, the principal
of them being the Abra, which disembogues on its coast. This province has several
harbours, the safest and the best of which are Salomaque and Currimao, which have
sufficient depth of water for frigates, and are the most commodious of Luzon, north
of the bay of Manilla. Its climate is temperate, less moist than that of the northern
province, and like it sheltered from the violence of the north-eastern monsoon by
the Caraballo mountains. There is one volcano within this province, but it is probable
that some part of its formation is Plutonic, as a considerable quantity of gold is washed
from the sands of its rivers by the wild tribe—the Igorrotes. The mountains are
covered with an almost impenetrable forest, containing a vast supply of useful building
timber and’ dye-woods, and in which the wild hog and buffalo, with several deer, are
found. The bulk of the inhabitants of this and the northern province are of the same
race with the other civilised inhabitants—men with lank hair, olive complexions, large
eyes, and flat faces. Their customs and manner of living are also generally the same, but
in one respect they differ from them and the other civilised inhabitants of the Philippines,
in living in agglomerations of huts or villages remote from the fields they
cultivate. Thus Laog, in the northern province, contains a population of above
20,000 inhabitants, while the lands they till are at a distance of two or more leagues.
The main people of Ilocos speak a peculiar language called after them, distinct from
the Tagala, although having many words in common with it. Besides this main
population Uocos-sur contains the wild races called the Igorrotes and Tinguianes, with
a few Negritos. In 1818 its population was said to be 135,743, and in 1850 it was
192 272, paying a poll-tax of 385,175 reals of plate. In this last enumeration was
included 4354 Igorrotes, 1898 Tinguianes, 144 Negritos, 15 Chinese, 2118 mestizo
Chinese, 100 Spaniards, and 471 mestizo Spaniards. The relative population rises to
the high figure, for the Philippines, of 284'4 to the square geographical mile.
ILOILO, called also OGTONG, one of the three provinces into which the large
and fine island of Panay is divided, and embracing the south-eastern angle of it. Its
coast is broken by many estuaries, from which ,at high tides the sea flows into its
rivers almost to their sources. The whole area of the province on the island of
Panay is 155 leagues, and including Guimaras and some other islands which form part
of it 185. Its population in 1849 was 321,049. The mass of its race belongs to the
Bisaya nation, so widely spread over the Philippines. But, besides, there were the
following inhabitants in 1849—15 Spaniards, 470 Spanish mestizos, 11 Chinese, 663
Chinese mestizos, 5000 mountaineers called Mundos, and 500 Negritos. A brisk
coasting trade is carried on between this province and most parts of the Philippines,
the principal export being rice, and the chief port, which bears the same name as
the province, being formed between the island of Guimaras and the main island.
See Panay.
INDIAN CORN. See MAIZ.
INDIGO. The plant generally cultivated for this dye in the Archipelago is the Indi-
gofera tinctoria, the same usually grown for the same purpose on the continent of India.
Itissaid to be indigenous, at least in several islands, and this wouldseem to be confirmed
by its having everywhere a native name. This name is generally the same in all the
languages, for there can be little doubt but that the tarum of the Malay, the tom of
the Javanese, the tayum and the tayung of the Tagala and Bisaya, are one and the
same word. But the case is different with the dye or drug, for this is^ always called
by a foreign name,-—the well-known Sanscrit one, nila, literally blue.”^ From these
two facts it may be at least conjectured that the Hindus taught the inhabitants of
the Archipelago the art of extracting the dye and using it, that the- plant is
indigenous, and that the culture of it, along with the art of manufacture, were
conveyed from the western nations of the Archipelago, those nearest to the Hindus
and most in communication with them, to the more remote tribes, as in the instance
IRON
of the people of the Philippines. All the indigo manufactured by thenatives of the
Philippines, and then always under European or Chmese superintendence.
T11T„-r, . V 0 „A Hindu (rod of the air, and in Malay and Javanese th a t
i K <» “ “ »' <* « - “ “ «“ *—
subsequent examples :
TNDRAGIRI in Sanscrit, “ the hill of In d ra ; ” the name of a Malay state on the
north eaftern side of Sumatra, lying between that of Jambi and Kampar and withm
the alluvial^lain which extends from the eastern
the sea. The river, which has the same name is one of the iargest °f Suma,tra,
having its source in the mountains, and disemboguing m the Stra,its ot Malacca
opposL to the islands of Linga and Singkep. About the year 1252- sard
tn have been conauered by the Javanese, and to have been afterwards made
over by them to the kings of Malacca. Very little is known respecting t, e*mpt
that it is a vast forest, with a sprinkling of inhabitants along the banks of the
river and its affluents. ;
INDRAMATA, in Sansorit “ the illusion of In d ra ; ” the name of a district on
the northern side of Java, in the country of the Sundas, and J °*[
the modern province of Krawang. I t is low, alluvial, and scantily peopled and
cultivated. _ „ , r .
INDRAPURA, in Sanscrit “ the city of In d ra ; ” is the name of a Malay poim-
try on the western side of Sumatra, said to have been an offshoot from the inland
kingdom of Menangkabo, and to have been once a state of some consequence, ai-
though now, and for a long time, of none whatever.
-INDRAPURA. This is also the name given to a mountain in the same country.
This is in south latitude 1° 2', and rises to the height of 8500 feet above the level
of the sea. .
INTEREST OE MONEY: in Malay, bunga-mas, or shortly b u n g a ; and in
Javanese, kambang-mas, or in the polite dialect, s&kar-kan chana. These expressions
signify K flower of gold,” that is, profit of money. By the strict letter of Mahom-
medan law, interest and usury are one and the same, and are expressly prohibited,
so that the legitimate profits of capital in gold and silver are held to be sinful. Except
by a few rigid observers of the precepts of the Koran, this foolish law is disregarded
by the Mahommedan inhabitants of the Archipelago.
IRON. Most of the nations of the Archipelago,—even many of those in a very
rude state of society, have immemorially possessed the knowledge of malleable iron,
and. even of steel. How they came by it, it is impossible to imagine, but, judging
by language, the only evidence we have on the subject, the invention appears to have
been a native one, and not borrowed from any foreign people. All the names for
iron, and all those for steel, with the exception of one synonym, are native words.
The countries in which iron ore, fit for smelting, are most abundant, are the Peninsula,
Sumatra, and Borneo; and those in which it is least so, Java, and the other
islands within the great volcanic band. Even at present, when abundance of foreign
iron is cheaply imported, native iron is still made in Sumatra and Borneo ; but there
is none made in Java, with a more civilised population, nor is there any evidence of
its ever having been Tna.de in that or any other of the volcanic islands. I t is to be
inferred, therefore, that the process of smelting malleable iron and making steel,
must have been first discovered in the non-volcanic countries; and among these,
Sumatra, or at least the non-volcanic part of it, in which we find the most improved
nations, would, probably, be among the earliest in which the invention would be made.
In the language of the Malays, the leading nation of that island, the name for iron is
Msi, and it has extended to a great many of the languages of the Asiatic Archipelago,
including nearly all those within the volcanic band. Thus we have it in the Javanese
with one commutable consonant changed into another, as w&si. This is the only name
for it in this language, so frequently abounding in synonyms,excepting in the polite
dialect, where we have the factitious one, tosan, meaning the “ firm or hard object.”
The Malay name, however, although very prevalent over the Archipelago, is not
the only one. In the language of the Kayan, the most powerful and advanced
of the wild tribes of Borneo, and great manufacturers of iron, the name is titi. Iron
ore abounds in the Philippines, and the natives, on the first discovery by Europeans,