Recollections of Manilla and the Philippines Part 5

The only other dog at Manilla besides the worthless street cur, is a sort of ladies' poodle, with long and silky white hairs; their fine coats only making them favorites, as they are good for nothing else than women's pets.

The smaller these are, when full grown, the more they are esteemed; their white hair should be entirely free from any spots of black or brown, these being generally the mark of a mongrel breed.

They are so delicate, that few of them can stand a sea-voyage, and all those I have ever sent away from Manilla, to any distance, have died before reaching their destination. A well-bred dog of this breed of middling size, is about as large as a full grown tom-cat, or a little bigger.

It has always appeared to me a most curious and inexplicable fact, that when good dogs are sent out from home to a hot climate such as this, they invariably are found to deteriorate to an uncommon extent, the heat causing them to lose their spirit, and also their scent. But, in fact, the animal in perfection, or, as he has been truly called at home, "the most intelligent of beasts, and the companion of man,"

is only found in some places of Europe to be such.

In all tropical countries he is no longer so, becoming, even should a good breed be introduced there from Europe, very much inferior in a few generations in all respects to what we have him in Great Britain, where they appear to be found in the greatest perfection.

In hot climates the dog has not the same strength or swiftness, nor is he of equal courage, sincerity, and gentleness of character which peculiarly distinguish him from all other animals at home. Among orientals he is no longer treated in the same manner as he is in Europe, nor in fact does his character, as it exists among them, deserve equal kindness to that usually shown this faithful animal in Britain; but in Asia he is driven from their households by the Mohammedans and Hindoos alike, being regarded by them all as useless, and a pest.

In China, he is fattened for the table, and the flesh of dogs is as much liked by them as mutton is by us, being exposed for sale by their butchers and in their cook-shops.

At Canton, I have seen the hind quarters of dogs hanging up in the most prominent parts of their shops exposed for sale.

They are considered in China as a most dainty food, and are consumed by both the rich and the poor.

The breeds common in that country are apparently peculiar to itself, and they are apparently objects of more attention to their owners than elsewhere in Asia, the Celestials perhaps having an eye to their tender haunches, which bad treatment would toughen and spoil. They do not appear to be of greater sagacity than the other tropical breeds, although more bulky and stronger-looking than most of the other sorts I have seen.

CHAPTER XIV.

All strangers coming to Manilla should endeavour to make an excursion to the great inland lake, or Laguna de Bay, as it is likely well to repay the inconvenience one has to stand in such an excursion from exposure to the sun, &c. The lake is of very considerable extent, measuring, I think, about twenty-eight miles at its greatest length, by about twenty-two at its extreme breadth; it is formed by an amphitheatre of mountains, the various streams from which feed it; and its opening or outlet forms the origin of the river Pasig, which, bathing the walls of the fortress of Santiago and the capital of the Philippines, flows into the arm of the sea called Manilla Bay.

About Christmastide there are many visitors to the lake, as from the then cooler season the necessary exposure to the heat of a midday sun in a slightly-covered boat is comparatively innocuous, and much less disagreeable than it would prove at any other time of the year.

Several foreigners are in the habit of making an annual excursion there from Manilla to spend these holidays, during which there is no other amus.e.m.e.nt in town than church-going and procession-staring.

Having made arrangements to visit the lake either by starting from Manilla in a large Pasig banca or prow, which although more tedious than driving to the village of Guadaloupe, near Pasig, and then taking the water, is, I think, the better plan of the two, as the river scenery is well worth seeing, and there are no inconveniences such as are inseparable from that of changing conveyances at Guadaloupe, &c. When I started, my companion, who luckily happened to be an experienced man in such affairs, having at different times of his life roamed through the backwoods of Canada, and over the plains of Australia, recommended the water conveyance for the whole distance, as we were not pushed for time; and the excursion turned out to be one of the pleasantest I have ever been engaged in, from the satisfactory nature of his arrangements and his own hilarity and good-natured usefulness; for of course he had not knocked about so much without acquiring some _savoir faire_, so desirable in a companion during such an excursion.

On Christmas eve we went together to a large dancing party or ball, given by an old and rich Mestizo, at whose house we kept up dancing and enjoying ourselves till about midnight; shortly before which all the men started, in company with the ladies, to the parish church of San Sebastian, there to hear a midnight ma.s.s, and welcome in the sacred anniversary by saying our prayers. The spectacle was rather a fine one; and on looking at the devout up-turned features of my fair companion, when kneeling at her devotions, I could scarcely believe that she was the good-natured, lively Mestiza girl I had been flirting with not five minutes before; but after half an hour's wors.h.i.+p, which, to do them justice, was apparently of the most sincere and heartfelt kind, the fair penitents returned to the supper room with a number of the heretics, and afterwards, notwithstanding all their prayers, danced with us, being quite as lively and as full of flirting as before their visit to church. We stopped till about three o'clock in the morning, when, being thoroughly tired of the heated rooms, my companion and I resolved to enter the boat which had been engaged for the occasion, and in which clothes, provender, &c., had previously been embarked, and left under charge of a servant, Fernando, at a landing-place from the river, near the house where we had been invited to pa.s.s the evening. Taking the precaution to eat a hearty supper, to keep out the night air, on arriving at the boat, and wrapping ourselves up in our blankets, we both very speedily began to enjoy the rest necessary for next day's exertions; and having previously secured our crew of five picked men to pull, we were rapidly approaching the Laguna when we awoke, and daylight had just rested on their oars next morning; after breakfast, and a bath in the cool and delicious water of the river above Pasig, we quickly pa.s.sed by the pateros or villages for breeding ducks, situated among the swamps at the outlets of the lake, and the beginning of the river.

Several of these duck villages can scarcely be said to be situated on _terra firma_, as many of the _nipa_ or attap-houses are founded on the supporting trunks of trees growing out of the sedgy swamp. The houses have a small lower platform of bamboo on two sides, for a cooking-place and for landing from a boat, below and around being trees or bamboos growing out of the water. Many of these clumps of bamboo, some of which attain a great height, occasionally, perhaps, as much as 150 feet, are from their numbers a peculiar feature in the landscape of the Philippines, and form some of the most beautiful objects of luxuriant vegetation that can be imagined for a landscape. They are found growing wild, very grand and fresh-looking in all parts of the country, and are of many varieties, some of which any one may be acquainted with who takes the trouble to consult the good old Padre Blanco's book on the _flora de Filipinas_.

At the pateros, near the entrance to the Laguna, the people breed large flocks of ducks to supply the Manilla market, to the exclusion of all other employment except, perhaps, catching and drying enough fish to season their rice, which most of them purchase, and very few of them grow. These Indians, although few in number, are to a considerable extent isolated from the people of the country, from what cause I know not, but they very rarely a.s.sociate or intermarry except with each other. The ducks they breed for the market are well trained, being perfectly obedient to the call of their different masters, and on hearing his signal come quickly sailing back, should they have gone too far away. They get fat on the fish and tender sedgy gra.s.s, and when placed on the dinner-table are very good eating.

After entering the lake, which is studded with wooded islets, the largest of which is named Talim, the gun is called into requisition, as the immense flocks of wild duck breeding here afford a constant sport, and the advantages of their acquisition are not likely to be overlooked either by the _gourmand_ or the hungry tourist. They are, however, rather wild, and the best mode of shooting them appears to be to dress in a blue cotton s.h.i.+rt and trousers like an Indian, and paddle off as near the flock as they will permit; and then for a chance among them. If there is more than one person in the gra.s.s-boat, which is a very small and unhooded banca, which the natives use for carrying small quant.i.ties of gra.s.s for horses, &c., the ducks are apt to take the alarm, although I have sometimes been successful in getting near them with an Indian paddling the boat.

Besides the ducks there are several other kinds of wild fowl, and on coasting round the sh.o.r.es of Talim, an alligator basking in the sun, frequently offers a mark for a ball, which, however, seldom proves fatal. I struck one on the scales without producing any apparent damage, the distance being probably about thirty yards, and he merely shook himself a little and tumbled into the water from off the rock he had been sleeping on, without seeming much startled or to be in the least wounded. They are said to reach an immense age, and the most incredible stories are told, and apparently believed, by the natives themselves of their traditional longevity.

On Talim some deer and pigs may now and then be seen, although it is too much frequented and disturbed to be at all a sure cover for them; my companion shot a very beautiful variety of the hawk on the island. After enjoying the hospitality of M. Vidie, an old French planter at Jalajala, we set off in the direction of Tanay, whence we had heard good reports of the game.

During a strong monsoon there is sometimes a heavy swell on the water of the Laguna, and occasionally boats are swamped or upset, so that frequently when we used to go out in our Pasig banca it was against the will of our boatmen; but like true and stubborn Britons, we always insisted upon having our own way, although the boatmen, who certainly knew most about it, used to predict that we should all be swamped to a certainty, but a well-trimmed and moderately well-handled boat can go through any sea, and it is generally from want of care that accidents occur. On one occasion in Manilla Bay, I have been swamped solely from that cause, and the fright of a companion, whose alarm induced the catastrophe by diverting the men's attention. However, as an American whaler was luckily near and saw our situation, they lowered a whale-boat and picked us up.

At the lake, in stormy weather, we used to go out with two men steering the boat, each with a powerful paddle, and the remainder of the crew managing the sail. Sometimes we got half full of water, which it was the duty of the boy Fernando to bale out, but when he got seasick and tired, we both set to to keep her free. On one occasion of the sort, my chum Adam, taking pity on the forlorn condition of the puking Fernando, recommended to him frequent sips from a bottle of brandy, to keep away the retching; the hint was not thrown away, and the lad lay down in the bottom of the boat, looking as miserable as possible, and quite sick, utterly forgetful or unconscious of the soiled condition of the splendid pina s.h.i.+rt which he wore at the time; although in his hours of ease it commonly attracted a large proportion of his regard and self-complacency. After many sips, apparently, the brandy produced the desired effect, as my follower ceased to project his mouth, every now and then, over the side of the banca, but had sunk into a sound sleep, caused, we imagined, by the exhaustion and la.s.situde subsequent to sea-sickness; and so he remained till our approaching Tanay, when the sail was lowered, and he roused up and left to bring our luggage up to the Casa Real, or townhouse, where there is always a chamber and bedstead for strangers. For that place we started, leaving him to follow.

After waiting some time impatiently, we were rather surprised to see two of the boatmen marching up with Fernando, who gave tokens of extreme la.s.situde and unsteadiness of gait, showing at times, when he raised his drooping head, an attempt to shake off his conductors, who were on these little manifestations reinforced by two of their companions, who followed them, bearing our portmanteaus; and at length the procession would move on again. After some difficulty they got him into the Casa Real, where one of the men, spreading a mat upon the floor, laid him down on it, staring wildly about him. After contemplating him for a few seconds, he turned to me, and, inverting the mouth of an empty bottle, to prove satisfactorily that it was empty of the _vieux cognac_, which was marked on the label, laid it down beside him, saying, "Es muy boracho, Senor, pero es valiente."

And so resulted the cure of sea-sickness by brandy, of which the lad had taken such a dose as to shake him severely, although a strong young fellow, for several days after it; in fact, we both became afraid of him, and vowed never again to recommend the medicine, except in quant.i.ties less than a bottle at a time.

CHAPTER XV.

Adam W---- having on a former shooting expedition been at Tanay, had at the time made the acquaintance of some of the townspeople, who had shown him all the attentions in their power; so that soon after our arrival, having dressed and refreshed at the Casa Real, we sallied out together to call on several of his old acquaintances, hoping to obtain from some of them such information and a.s.sistance as would help us discovering the whereabouts of a good huntsman and guide, in order that we might avail ourselves of his local knowledge in selecting the best district of the neighbourhood for sport.

On entering the house of the Fiel of Tobacco, we were most hospitably received and warmly invited to take quarters there during our residence in Tanay; and as the offer was much too good to be refused, even had it been less warmly backed by the unequivocal demonstrations of welcome than those which they evinced, it was at once accepted, with not the less good-will because there was only the Casa Real to sleep in had we chosen to refuse it, which a.s.suredly no one who had the fear of bugs, fleas, or musquitoes before his eyes would do, these animals being of the utmost size and activity in every one of the Casas Reales I have ever slept in.

After some conversation with our host, who was rather a fine-looking Spanish Mestizo, as to our plans, &c., he most good-naturedly set off to seek a huntsman whom he recommended as a guide, leaving us in the meantime to the society of his wife--a strapping native beauty, although somewhat swarthy, full of good nature and the gossip of the place. From her, Adam soon learned all about his former acquaintances, and among others of the Capitan Tomas, his buxom wife, and pretty daughter, who we were told was considered the beauty of the town.

After their names had been mentioned with that addition, he got rather impatient all of a sudden for a stroll about the town; so we started together, after paying a visit to our portmanteaus and the still insensible Fernando, at the town-house, where my friend armed himself with a bottle of eau de Cologne, a box of which I found that he carried about with him for distribution among such native beauties as he was ambitious of standing well with, for they were sure to like this perfume, which his experience of the country taught him was seldom procurable in such out-of-the-way places, and to a dead certainty always procured him favour in the eyes of the unsophisticated fair, whom he taught how to use it.

For this it was that he had hinted something about thieves and the state of Fernando, and proposed looking in to see if the portmanteaus were still safe at the Casa Real, so I resolved to be revenged for the double dealing of his proposal upon seeing the top of the Cologne bottle peeping out from his shooting-jacket pocket. I watched a chance, and s.n.a.t.c.hed it away without being noticed, determined that the half-caste beauty whose praises he was so eloquent in during our promenade, should not have him to thank it for at all events.

We reached the house, and were well received by the Capitan, who pressed us to stop with him, and when he found we were engaged, invited us to pa.s.s next day with him, which, as the beauty was looking her very best, there was great risk of our doing, in preference to prosecuting our pig-shooting scheme, as had been originally intended. Poor Adam was evidently smitten by her attractions. After talking with these good people for some time, I observed that his attention was engrossed in watching Rita's movements, when, as the Capitan, his wife, and myself were all standing at an open window, looking at the flowers in his garden, and talking away, and their daughter, occupied in some household duty, was leaving the sala, Adam, who had been watching like a lynx for such an opportunity, seized it on the moment, and managed to slip away from us, and get out of the room after her, in the hopes of being able to s.n.a.t.c.h a kiss or something of the sort, and to present the scented water, which he had not missed from his pocket, although as he slipped away in all the agitation of pursuit, I saw first one hand and then the other slipped into the pockets of the coat where it should have been; but he was so much engaged in getting out of the room quickly and silently, that he did not miss it. Reaching the open door just as she had gone out, when about two paces beyond it, he popped his head over her shoulder un.o.bserved, and stole a kiss; I heard the smack, then a rustle, and then a t.i.tter, during which Adam was searching his pockets for the missing bottle, which of course he did not find there; and when he said something or other about the kiss, he foolishly, in his search for it, told her that he had lost so very desirable a present; upon which, as he afterwards told me, the beauty looked saucy, and very plainly did not believe a word about it, but fancied he had invented the story to excuse the kiss, and pretended to get a little angry with the liberty taken with her blooming cheek; so she walked off, and left him quite at a loss to account for its disappearance.

Before leaving, I took an opportunity of presenting the missing bottle at a time when the owner of it was not by, and fancied, from the blush which gave additional beauty to her cheek as I did so, that with the natural quickness of a woman and a beauty, she had read the stratagem played off on poor Adam; so she frankly offered me the same reward, by presenting her blooming lips to be kissed, even by so very recent an acquaintance.

On making arrangements for a shooting party, it is quite necessary to hire beaters to drive the game, which there would be little chance otherwise of sighting, without undergoing more walking than most people find pleasant under a tropical sun.

Having had the precaution to bring our own saddles with us, some miserable-looking ponies were procured, and started with a guide at an early hour in the morning, along a path formed for the most part, up and down thickly wooded hills, the road being sometimes a dry watercourse, or mountain stream.

However, we got over the ground, pa.s.sing through a beautiful country, and arrived at the meet after a four hours' ride, the place appointed being a hut belonging to the huntsman, and surrounded by three paddy fields, which he tilled, with his family, but did not live there, except at planting and reaping time, or for about six weeks of the year, from fear of the tulisanes, who, he said, frequented this wild and uninhabited neighbourhood. This is a frequent effect of the bad police of the Philippines, as much of the country that might be most advantageously cultivated, is abandoned to the jungle, solely from fear of these robbers, who sometimes add to their plundering propensities crimes of a more atrocious dye.

After some good sport with deer and pigs, which const.i.tuted the supper of ourselves and all the beaters, night was very welcome, and seldom, indeed, did either of us enjoy repose more than in this hut, although through the holes in the gra.s.s walls of it the wind was whistling, and near us the beaters were noisily carousing, miscellaneously, upon sherry, cognac, and beer, it mattered not which to them, for we had presented some bottles of each, in order to celebrate the good day's sport.

Next morning we heard of a wild cimmarone (or buffalo) having been seen in the neighbourhood some days previously, and endeavoured to find out his whereabouts, but none of the scouts could get a trace of him. Although these splendid animals are occasionally found in the country, they are not very common, and their reputation for savage ferocity is so great, that few of the Indians like to shoot them, because, if merely wounded without being disabled, they are certain to charge the hunter, which is more than Oriental nerves are fond of.

Monkeys chattering in the trees are very common; but I never shot any of them, having, in truth, an antipathy to kill a brute with a shape so nearly human.

Near this end of the lake few Europeans ever go, as it is quite out of the beaten track, which leads them in an opposite direction, to look down the crater of a volcano, generally simmering, but seldom boiling over to such an extent as to spout lava to any distance.

Calamba and Calawan are also places they usually go to see; at the latter of which, there is a cotton-spinning mill, the property of a Mestizo, who dresses like a Spaniard, and no doubt wishes to be considered such. The machinery employed is of Belgian or French make, and of a very simple construction, and far from being equal to the sort now used at home for the purpose; but is considered by its owner to be the only sort that would answer well there, as it can be kept in order, and even, I believe, put into repair on occasion by a native blacksmith, who acts as engineer, which could not, of course, be the case were machinery of a finer and more complex and elaborate construction employed, as that would render a staff of good European workmen essential to keep it in order and good repair, and their pay in this climate, would run away with all the profits of the adventure.

The yarn produced is of the coa.r.s.er descriptions, and is only saleable to the native weavers of cotton cloth, by the excessive duty put on grey cotton twist of British manufacture, which is 40 per cent. on a high _ad valorem_ valuation if imported by a Spanish s.h.i.+p, and 50 per cent. if by any foreign vessel, amounting virtually to a prohibition on its importation.

At the village of Los Banos, on the sh.o.r.es of the laguna, there are some hot springs, flowing into baths cut out of the natural rock.

The temperature of the water as it issues from the rock is sufficient to boil an egg; but not having a thermometer, we were unable to ascertain it more exactly. As it mixes with the cool water of the laguna, however, the heat decreases, and at sunrise on a cool morning forms just there a very pleasant bath. The baths, from which the place is named, having for long been little frequented by invalids, are now in a semi-ruinous state. In cases of debility they are said to be most beneficial, and the old Manilla doctor, Don Lorenzo Negrao, whose long experience of the country and of the diseases incidental to it is most valuable, in such cases sometimes recommends his patients to try these baths for some peculiar diseases, and once recommended them to me.

The great mistake of our doctors in India is dosing their patients with calomel, which, although necessary in some cases, where it is the only medicine powerful enough to arrest the rapid strides with which disease advances in tropical countries, is too often had recourse to, when simples would be just as effective. And this mistake of theirs is equalled, in bad effects only, by the practice of the Spanish doctors, who will never administer calomel at all, even in the most urgent cases, as they prefer trusting altogether to simple remedies for a cure, and if a patient dies who has had calomel administered to him, do not hesitate to tell the pract.i.tioner who gave it that the medicine killed him.

Within the tropics lengthened residence is the most essential qualification in a medical attendant, as although old men may not be so well up to the latest improvements of the science as those fresh from college, yet they have from practice found out the best way of treating tropical diseases, to which the treatment applicable in a London, Edinburgh, or Paris hospital in similar cases, would be quite out of place when practised in so different a climate as the tropics, where the symptoms vary and succeed each other with ten times the rapidity they do in Europe.