A Visit to the Philippine Islands

ntries the painting the body, or covering it with furs and skins, or bark of trees, is the resource of a wild people; but the necessity for dress of any sort is so little

and domestic utensils followed; carriages for conveyance of commodities; but, above all, the friars boast of the application, and devotion, and success of the Indians in d

of the vessel, but European improvements have gradually been adopted, and the ships now built in the Philippines are not distinguishable from those of the mother country. We found many on the stocks on the banks of the river Agno, and the Indian constructors were desirous of looking into all the details of H. M.'s ship Magicien

made of bamboos, and of a thread so fine that it is necessary to protect it, by the use of a fine gauze, from even the agitation of the wind. The Bisayan provinces, and especially the neighbourhood of Iloilo, are most distinguished for the manufacture of this beautiful tissue, wh

hains of silver and gold of great fineness, for which formerly there was a great de

and silver patterns. As mattresses are never used for beds, everybody sleeps on a mat, which in some cases, but not generally, is p

he white, however, being the most costly and beautiful,

y the Indians in manufacture are all

palm, introducing a bamboo cane, and binding the tree over the receiving vessel. The sale of the nipa wine is a monopoly in the hands of the Government. The monopoly is much and reasonably complained of by the Indians. Excise duties leading to domiciliary visits, and interfering with the daily concerns of life, have been always and in all countries deemed one of the most vex