History

Sense and Sensibility : Some notes on Manila

Bambi Harper
Inquirer News Service

THE EARLY Spanish colonizers and missionaries referred to the entire island of Luzon as Manila, according to Father Colin, who attributed that early baptism to the Chinese. The name referred in the language of the natives to the hammers or mortars that they used to de-husk the rice, the staple food in the entire archipelago. This instrument was carved from a great wooden trunk. In Isla de Manila, they dug into the very center of the wood creating a trough, well carved even on the outside almost like a chalice in shape. The trunk could measure up to five palms in height. The hammer was like a cylindrical walking cane also of wood but solid and heavy, a "vara" (1 vara = 0.84 meter) and a half in length.

With this, they de-husked the rice, grinding with the wooden hammer in that cavity in such a way that the grain came out cleared of its husk. It was then cleaned in closed sieves called "bilao" on which the rice was tossed and separated from the chaff.

In Isla de los Pintados, they opened two or more holes lengthwise on the trunk rather than vertically so that two or more persons could grind the rice together. Since it was the custom of the Luzones to keep these mortars under their houses or in front on the street may have been the reason strangers called the islands Luzon.

In the elbow of this island facing the southeast, a tumultuous river (would you believe the Pasig?) rushed to the sea and the earth opened into a beautiful bay (Manila's untreated waste wasn't disgorged into it nor did ships dump chemicals and plastic garbage overboard) measuring 30 leagues in its contours. The river descends from a lagoon that is quite large and is six leagues distant from the river bar. On the eastern part of this, the natives had their principal settlement, with up to 4,000 houses along both banks of the river and on the shores of the sea in its bend and where the land ended. At the back of the settlements were many swamps.

In general, it was said that even if the boundaries of its walls and the number of resident Spaniards were not so big, Manila could be considered one of the most important cities of the Indies as a colony and daughter of Mother Spain because of the numerous population composed of various nationalities "extra muros" (outside the walls). It had a silk market (alcaiceria) in San Fernando, Binondo, of 6,000 to 8,000 Chinese merchants with different officials and its own mayor. There was another municipality in Tondo with 14 or 15 settlements of Tagalogs as well as other nationalities with their own governor and justice ministers and captains of infantry who lived in the suburbs outside Manila.

Interlaced with these native villages and along the riverbanks up to the mouth of the lagoon were many pasturelands, vegetable gardens, farms and ranches of Spaniards with more than 2,000 Chinese laborers. A great number of boats traversed the river continually, and the neighborhoods, convents, fields and gardens made it such a pleasure to behold that those who had seen it said it had no equal in the Indies.

Visible from Manila at a distance of three leagues by sea and five or six by land on the southern part was the secluded port of Cavite, a land's end that jutted out to the sea. The natives called it Cauit, which means a hook or anchor, while the Spaniards called it Cavite. It was quite sheltered from the strong southeastern gales that formed the most dangerous storms of the bay. The port was shallow and the galleons could not enter well into it and needed many strong cables. Because of this, they risked being wrecked in port like the two galleons that were ready to leave for Mexico in 1589, which were lost on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul.

The population of Cavite consisted mainly of soldiers since the presidio with its bulwarks and redoubts was there as well as the arsenal, shipyard and the wharf that served the galleons. The important residents were ship pilots, foremen, crew heads and other galleon officials. There was a parish church and four convents; after Manila, Cavite had the largest Spanish contingent.

Ships could cast anchor anywhere on the bay that was clean, abundant with good fish and lined with thick tree groves.

Fronting Manila, some eight leagues distant toward the middle of the bay was Mariveles, considered a small but elevated isle that served as a lookout. There was a sentinel there who, upon sighting foreign ships, would go out to meet them and send alarm flares to Manila.

Leaving the bay and navigating to the left 14 leagues from Cavite was the cove of Balayan, once known as de Bombon because of the lagoon of the same name at its back. Leaving Balayan and turning toward the east where you entered the cove of Batangas was Punta de Azufre, so called because of the sulfur in its surroundings. In front of the isle of Azufre was another islet called Caza because of the abundance of game; it was uninhabited. Between this isle and the land's end was another port called Malacaban whose name used to conjure sad memories for the Spaniards because in those parts Governor Perez Dasmariñas and his officials were killed by the Chinese crew members on the expedition to recover the fort at Ternate.

(Data from P. Francisco Colin, "Labor Evangelica," 1660, edited by P. Pablo Pastells, 1904)