Embassy to the Eastern Courts of Cochin-China, Siam, and Muscat. Edmund Roberts
the soil naturally yields an abundance of the necessaries of life, but the seasons generate many fatal diseases.
PASIG.
On Manila Sunday, (our Monday,) a party of eight, one beautiful morning, before sunrise, proceeded in three veloches (carriages of a certain description) to the village of Santa Anna, distant about three miles over a fine road and highly-cultivated country, where we embarked on board two large bankas of about eight-and-thirty feet in length, dug out of a tree, having a light bamboo-roof which could be elevated or depressed at pleasure, and paddled by four Indians. Between eight and nine o’clock, we arrived at the town of Pasig, situated about three miles from the entrance of the lake; the passage up was delightful—the land bordering on the river was low but well cultivated with rice, sugar-cane, &c., and fruit; it was one continuous village on either bank. Being a holyday, the natives were well and gayly dressed; hundreds of canoes passed us, laden with fish from the lake; others with fruit, vegetables, eggs, areca-nut and betel-leaf, beef, pork, fowls, ducks, geese, turkeys, cocoa-nut oil, molasses and sugar, cloth, of various kinds, baskets, mats, hats, &c., made of bamboo, all under cover of the moveable roof; they were paddled by an equal number of men and women, all apparently, in good spirits, and having always at hand a joke, to bandy with our canoe-men, in the Taga language; they were hurrying on to the great markets at Manila and Binonda, to dispose of their various articles. On the shores, men, women, and children were fishing with every sort of contrivance that can be named, in the shape of nets, hooks, and lines; some men with nets scraping up the mud from the bottom to obtain shrimps, which they found in great abundance; others taking very large craw-fish. Hundreds were bathing in the river, near the banks; whole families were seen together, from the grand-mother to the grand-daughter, washing their long black hair with vegetable soap, called by the natives gogo, being the inner-rind of a tree growing here in great plenty. Many of the palm and bamboo cottages were erected on piles close to the bank of the river, and some canoes were made fast to the ladder ready for any of the family to take an excursion, when they wished to go to the village-church, or to gossip with a neighbour and partake of his hospitalities, which consist of Burgo and a cigar, a fishing-party, a main of fighting-cocks or a boat-race. The fronts of the houses being open, all the operations of the various families could be distinctly seen. We met with many hotels, alias eating-shops, placed on piles some distance from the shore, where our boatmen stopped to obtain their breakfast, which consisted of rice, shrimp and other fish, in abundance, for which they paid about two cents per head. Many loungers were reposing on the bamboo-flooring, smoking or chewing burgo, flirting with the young damsels, who were indulging themselves in the same luxury as their beaux; at the same time, perhaps, combing out and oiling their hair, which generally reaches to the waist, and occasionally adjusting their tapa or outer-cloth, which is either of striped silk or cotton, extending halfway below the knee; some wore a nicely-laced embroidered muslin handkerchief on their heads and shoulders; their feet, or rather toes, are covered with scant and showy slippers, having no heels nor any quarters, cut down within an inch and a half of the end; these were well bespangled, and some of them bound with a stripe of gold or silver lace; they are only worn on special occasions, by particular individuals; a large proportion of the people go barefooted, or wear a high wooden shoe, plain or ornamented with brocaded or spangled-velvet, or gilt-leather. Every man who is able, wears shirts of the truly beautiful piña, or cloth made of the fibres of the pine-apple, which is manufactured on the island. The shirts, made from this cloth, as fine as cobweb-muslin, beautifully embroidered about the bosom, collar, and wristbands, are worn by all the Indians and Mestizoes, on the outside of the trousers; the latter are made of piña, or fine grass-cloth, (called siramaya,) according to the ability of the owner. As for stockings, they are about as useful to a young Tagalo girl, as knee-breeches to a Scotch-highlander.
Reclining on our gay pillow, stretched at ease, full length, on a clean mat, laid on a raised bamboo-floor, discussing the merits of cold roast fowl, ham, and tongue; a bottle of claret, and a bottle of porter for our breakfast, I thought there were not many persons in the world more comfortably situated for the time being. We stayed for a short time at the house of the alcade of Pasig, a native gentleman of Tagola parentage, and were hospitably invited to dinner. Having walked through the town, visited the church and bazar, (which we found well stocked with rice and fish,) we returned to the lake. The late heavy rains had so swollen its waters that our canoes were paddled across extensive paddy fields, where we met with others, fishing; we passed close to several large craft, having two masts but no bowsprits, with large mat sails, cables, and wooden anchors of various shapes. They were clumsily constructed and badly rigged, but gayly painted on their high bow-boards and on each quarter; the high stern was also painted with flowers and a figure of the patron-saint after which the vessel was named, in the gayest colours. There was nothing to be seen, on this part of the excursion, excepting a wide expanse of water; mountains and hills, in the distance, and fishing-snares placed in every direction. Game of various kinds abounds among the hills, affording fine hunting. Boa-constrictors and other reptiles may be found in abundance, and in the creeks, alligators of an immense size. In the lake there are said to be one hundred different varieties of fish; but it requires a week’s leisure, a suitable banka, with many et ceteras, to enjoy the manifold beauties with which this sheet of water is reputed to be surrounded. We were much amused when on our passage to the lake, in discovering, at a distance, a man floating with the stream and seated upright in the water; we were unable immediately to discover what supported him in that position, but shortly after we descried the projecting nose of an enormous carabou or Indian buffalo. The Indian appeared to be quite at his ease, sitting astride the ponderous animal, smoking one of the immense-sized cigars I have before mentioned, and which would last out a reasonable cruise. With the left hand he grasped the animal’s tail, to support him in the current, and a rope passed through the nose (the usual custom here) served to direct the figure-head to any part to which he fancied to go. He was hailed by our Indians and asked where he was bound; he replied he was on his way to pay visits to some Señoritas down the river, and, subsequently, was going to Manila, to sell his carabou, (a distance of about ten miles.)
PATERO.
The scene was occasionally enlivened by the sound of a guitar, proceeding from a canoe or a cottage on the shore. Rafts of cocoa-nuts, containing many thousands, guided by a single man standing in the centre of them, holding a long pole, with other rafts, of bamboo and timber, were constantly passing us. On our return from the lakes we visited several small streams on the left hand of the river, on which is situated an extensive village called Patero, alias Duck-town—a very appropriate name for the place, for I never before saw so many ducks together; the cottages were standing very near to each other, and thousands of these birds were feeding on the river, being secured by a slight fence made of bamboo. Raising ducks and fishing seemed to be the only employment. Every thing about the inhabitants wore a rustic appearance, which was heightened, in a certain degree, by the plantain and mango trees, overshadowing their picturesque habitations: some were washing clothes in the stream, others, cooking in the open air—many were stretched out at full length, asleep; children were hanging in cots under the shadowy branches of the trees, soothed by gentle breezes which rocked them to sleep—others, of a larger growth, in a state of nudity, were playing with the ducks, sailing mimic boats, or making dirt-puddings—not a few in number were diverting themselves with cock-fighting—others were endeavouring to make a little musick, and some were playing the game of draughts, with small stones. A portion of the young Indian girls (Tagalos) were decorating or anointing their pretty persons—others were paddling about in small canoes, which they would occasionally upset to create a hearty laugh and then, like dripping Naiads, again scrambling into them, would repeat the same frolic. This village, or a succession of villages, extends several miles along various outlets from the main river, from which no portion of it can be seen, being completely hidden by the trees on the banks; it contained, in 1818, three thousand, eight hundred and forty inhabitants, all Indians; at this period, 1834, it has, probably, four thousand, five hundred souls.
We returned to the hospitable alcade’s house about two, being only a couple of miles from Patero, where we found a sumptuous dinner, consisting of not less than twelve dishes of fish and meat, with a variety of sweetmeats, fruit and coffee, (but no wine or spirits,) and then cigars and buyo, for those who chose them. We did ample justice to this repast, although nearly burnt up with a hot sun. This town, or rather