Note 1 — Chapter XXV · ILOILO AND PANAY.

Of the three ports lately opened to foreign commerce, Iloilo is the most promising. The province of Iloilo is one of the most populous of the Philippines. It contains more than half a million of inhabitants, and though portions of the province are very thinly peopled, there is an average exceeding 2,000 inhabitants per square league. Independently of the pueblos which I visited, and of which some description will be given, Cabatuan has 23,000 inhabitants, Miagao 31,000, Dumangas 25,000, Janiuay 22,000, Pototan 34,600, and several others more than 10,000 souls. The province is not only one of the most numerously peopled, it is, perhaps, the most productive in agricultural, the most active in manufacturing, industry, and among the best instructed of the Philippines.1 It has extensive and cultivated plains and forest-covered mountains; its roads are among the best I have seen in the archipelago. At the entrance of the channel are a number of islands called the Seven (mortal) Sins—Los Siete Pecados. The large island of Guimaras limits the channel on the south; it was visited by some of our party, who returned delighted with the extensive stalactite caverns which they explored, reaching them with some difficulty over the rocks, through the woods and across the streams which arrested their progress. The forests are full of game and the river Cabatuan abounds with crocodiles. There are many rivulets and rivers which greatly assist the cultivator, and we found a good supply of cattle. The ponies of Iloilo are among the best in the archipelago, and some attention is paid to the breeding of sheep. A good deal of salt is made, and there is a considerable fishery of trepang (sea-slug) and tortoises for the sake of the shells. But the island is most renowned for the piña fabrics called nipas and sinamays, some of which are of exquisite fineness and beauty; they are largely exported, and their perfection has given them a vast reputation even in Europe.