Note 15 — Chapter VI

5. In their books the Chinese have mentioned the island of Manila, which they call Liu Sung.15 They say that it is a land where gold abounds, and in that they say truly and rightly. The provinces of Pangasinan and Ilocos are more remarkable in this regard than any other. Rice is abundant and good. There is the rice of forty days, so that it is sown, grows, and is dried, harvested, and eaten in forty days—a very remarkable thing. There is rice of two months, of three, and of five. There are also fine lands for wheat, if there were any system and method in sowing it. If any Indians sow it, it is levied upon in the king’s name; and consequently, the Indians do not devote themselves to that work. In my time, wheat was worth ninety pesos per fanega. If they would sow it in that country, it would be very cheap. The larger cattle are too cheap, so greatly have they multiplied. A large and strong bull is worth four pesos, according to the established price. Goats are not wanting, and there are innumerable deer and very many buffaloes. The males of the buffaloes have been crossed with cows, and the result has been a third and very strange-appearing species. There are ducks, chickens, sugar, wax, and wood that is called here Brazil-wood; there is so much of this that it costs only the cutting. Excellent rattan is found in the greatest abundance, and more than enough cotton to clothe the people of the country. Wines and brandy, made from nipa and other materials, are not wanting, nor people to drink them. There are many delicious fruits. The guayava,16 which has spread so fast that it is destroying the pasturage, is the finest [kind of fruit]—raw, cooked, prepared in preserves, and in jelly; it is good in all forms. The reason why it has multiplied to such an extent is that crows and birds eat of it and afterward drop the stones to the ground, and wherever the latter fall they take root. The Portuguese told me that the sandalwood of the island of Timor had increased in that way, without any other labor, as I have already written. That tree also bears a small fruit which the birds eat, and whose stones they reject which immediately take root without any other cultivation being necessary. There are macupas, bilimbins, pahos, santols, and papaws,17 any of which can compete with the best fruit here. There is also the nangca,18 which is the best fruit in the world. Some of them weigh over forty libras. They are delicious, and the nuts or seeds which each mouthful encloses in itself are very savory, raw or roasted. This fruit grows on the trunk of the tree, and on the large branches, but not on the small ones, as it would be impossible for their weight to be borne there. That tree has no flower. Father Kirquero19 greatly admired that fruit, and the fruit of the pineapple (or ananasses, as the Portuguese call them). He says that they have those fruits in China, but he was deceived in that regard; they grow in that part of the world, but not in China. The Portuguese praise the ananasses of Malaca highly. They are good, and without doubt there is but little difference between them and those of Manila; even those which I ate in Nueva España seemed just like them. The small sapota and black sapotas, which are numerous and good, grow there.20 There are found, above all, ates,21 which for odor and taste I consider superior to all the fruits that God has created. There are bananas, seven or eight varieties, some better than others; and the same [may be said] of oranges. The lemons of Manila are small. Flowers of innumerable varieties are found, and odoriferous herbs in the same way. Sweet basil and sage grow in the plain, so tall and wide-spreading that it is a wonder to see them. There are many palms—cocoa, areca, and other species. The cocoas are the most useful. Before the cocoanut sprouts from the flower-stalk, a precious liquor is extracted which is called tuba by the Indians, and in Eastern India sura. It is distilled at night, and is a delicious and most healthful beverage by morning. If it be boiled it lasts all day. A fine syrup and excellent honey are made from it, and I have made them. The distillations of the day are made into wine, and also into the finest of vinegar. A fine tow is made from the outside shell of the cocoanut, which is used for the calking of ships and other craft. Excellent ropes and fuses are made of it for all sorts of firearms, which are used by the musketeers and arquebusiers. From the inside shell are made elegant drinking-cups for water and chocolate. The water contained inside the cocoanut is drunk, and, if the cocoanut is tender, it is a very sweet and healthful beverage. The cocoanut is roasted for the sick, and after it settles the said water is drunk and produces excellent results. From the white flesh into which the water is gradually converted, a milk is extracted, with which they cook many of their eatables, among these their rice. An excellent conserve called buchayo by the Indians is made from it. Good oil is also extracted from this nut; and from the residue of that process the natives and creoles make a very savory dish with rice. There remain then the trunk and branches [of the tree], which have many other uses. The bamboos are also very useful. Some of them are as thick as the thigh. Chairs, tables, houses, very large churches, fences about the stockyards, scaffolds for buildings, and innumerable other things are made from them. There is an abundance of fish, fine shellfish, including oysters, iguanas,22 (which, although they have an infernal shape, are the finest kind of food), and the finest shads and pampanos. In the island of Manila and other islands dependent on it only a little coolness is needed, although there are parts somewhat temperate. For the rest, nothing else is needed than to take care of them. Other persons will secure rich harvests, but his Majesty gets nothing, although private persons gain from all of them. That country has temperatures for all products that are desired—for wheat, cloves, cinnamon, and pepper, and for mulberry trees from which the silkworms are fed. There is considerable excellent tobacco. Ebony in as great quantities as are desired, and sandalwood (although it is not fine) are also found in the mountains. Precious stones called bezoars are found in deer; I saw a very fine one, valued, it was said, at many ducados. A deer had been struck with a harpoon, which remained in the deer’s body while the animal still lived. After some time the deer was killed, and the harpoon was found in its proper shape all covered with bezoar. One point was broken off, and in that way the head was laid bare, to the wonder of all who saw it. As arrowheads are poisoned, it was said that that stone, as it had prevented the poison of the said harpoon, must be a marvelous antidote against all poisons. I forgot to consider the fertility of the land of Manila. It suffices to say that six short leguas from that city there are certain lands, called Tunacan,23 which yield one hundred and thirty fanegas of rice to one fanega sown in them.24 That appears to me to be as much as can be desired.