Note 25 — II. Industries at the Time of Discovery and Conquest

Chief among the industries connected with the various kinds of palms found in the Philippines was the distillation of the sap into alcohol, a process known to the Filipinos long before Spanish arrival. “They draw a great quantity of wine from the palm-trees; one Indian can in one forenoon obtain two arrobas of sap from the palm-trees that he cultivates. It is sweet and good, and is used in making great quantities of brandy, excellent vinegar, and delicious honey.”25 “Their drink is a wine made from the tops of coco and nipa palm, of which there is great abundance. They are grown and tended like vineyards, although without so much toil and labor. Drawing off the ‘tuba,’ they distilled it, using for alembics their own little furnaces and utensils, to a greater or less strength, and it becomes brandy. This is drunk throughout the islands.”26