Note 3 — Manila in 18191

Mixed blood.3“* * * A very considerable proportion of the population of Manila is composed of the mestizos; they are the offspring of the intermarriages of the Spaniards with the native women, and these again forming connexions with the whites, or with the native Indians (the latter, however, less frequent), combine in stamping upon their descendants a great variety of features and shades of color; a general resemblance is, however, to be traced, and waiving color and manners, a mestizo could not easily be mistaken for a native. This class of the inhabitants is held in nearly the same estimation as the whites. They are very cleanly in their persons, and neat in their dress, which, among the males, consists generally of a pair of cotton trousers of various colors, as fancy dictates, and shoes in the European manner, a frock, or tunic, of striped grass manufacture, worn outside the trousers, in the manner of the Asiatic Armenians (but without the sash, or girdle), the collars of which are tastefully embroidered, and thrown back on their shoulders; a European hat completes their costume, which is light, cool and airy, and after a stranger has been a short time accustomed to see what he at first would call a perversion of dress, his prejudices subside, and he has no hesitation in pronouncing it very proper and graceful. They are remarkably fine limbed, and well built, the females especially, who are really models of the most complete symmetry; their hair and eyes, which unlike their skins, seldom vary from the original jet black of their native parents, bestow upon them the primary characteristics of the brunette. This people, unlike the generality of mixed colors in the human race, have been improved by their intermixture, they are more industrious and cleanly than the Spaniards, possess more intelligence and polish than the Indians and are less malicious and revengeful than either. The men are employed mostly as writers, brokers, agents and overseers; many of them hold lucrative offices under government, and they not unfrequently arrive at wealth and consideration. The women are also industrious, and capable of great intellectual improvement; they have a natural grace and ease in their manner, and make excellent wives and mothers. This character must not, however, be taken in an unlimited sense, for we cannot expect this rule to be without its exceptions, and it is true that some of these females do degenerate, and copy after the manners of the creoles, or white natives; but this is only the case when, by their intercourse with the whites, their Indian blood is merged and lost in the European. That part of the population in which is blended the blood of the Chinese and Tagalogs is named the Chinese mestizos.