Recollections of Manilla and the Philippines | Page 7

lieu of fixed wages, and the plan appears to suit their
temper well; for although they are in general most complete
eye-servants when working for a fixed wage, they are found to be most
industrious and useful ones when interested even for the smallest share.
The amount of business done by some of these Chinamen with the
principal importers of manufactured goods, who are the British
merchants, is very considerable, some of them frequently making
monthly purchases to the extent of ten or fifteen thousand dollars from
one person, nearly all of the goods being sold to them on credits of
three, four, or six months after the date of purchase and delivery of the
merchandise. Occasionally, however, some of them break down, and
those importers who have been trusting them for large amounts, of
course burn their fingers; Chinamen, as a general rule, being honest and
trustworthy only so long as it appears to be their own interest to remain
so. Most of them at Manilla are people who have made everything for
themselves, from nothing except their hands to begin with, as no rich
Chinamen, such as are met with in their native country, and
occasionally in Java and Singapore, are found at Manilla; for nearly all
those who come there have originally arrived as coolies, earning their
bread by manual labour, but very few of them indeed having inherited
anything from their fathers, except the arts of reading and writing,
which nearly the whole of them, however poor, understand and are able
to perform. Whenever they make money, they invariably return to
China, the Government holding out no inducements for them to remain
in the Philippines, as they do elsewhere in the Archipelago, where
greater freedom and protection are allowed them.
CHAPTER IV.

The streets of Manilla have at all times a dead and dull appearance,
with the exception of the two already mentioned as being in the
business part of the town. The basement-floor of the houses being
generally uninhabited, there are no windows opened in their walls,
which present a mass of whitewashed stone and lime, without an object
to divert the eye, except here and there, where small shops have been
opened in them, these being generally for selling rice, fruit, oil, &c.,
and entirely deficient in the glare or glittering colours of gay
merchandise, nearly all of which is confined to the shops of the Escolta,
Rosario, and Santo Christo.
The houses here, as elsewhere in hot climates, are arranged with great
regard to ventilation and coolness, and are mostly large edifices; but are
seldom well laid out, and are deficient in many respects. The entire
white population, which amounts to upwards of 5,000, resides either in
the city, by which is meant that portion of it within the walls, or in the
principal part of the town outside the walls, and on the other side of the
river from the city within the walls; and in this district is comprehended
the great bulk of the population, which amounts to upwards of 200,000
souls.
Those resident within the walls are principally government servants,
&c., induced, by the proximity of the public offices, regimental
cantonments, &c., as well as a lower house-rent, to brave the greater
heat usually felt there, from the confined space within the walls, and
the narrow streets, not permitting so free a circulation of air as is
enjoyed in the houses extra muros.
The largest description of houses, being the residences of Europeans,
are spacious, and in many cases built on one plan, most of them being
quadrangles inclosing a court-yard within their squares. Here the
stables, &c., are usually situated; and, as may be supposed, the smell
and view of them, should they happen to be in the least negligently kept,
as they frequently are, afford but very little gratification to persons
whose windows happen to be near.
The upper part of the house, or second story, as we would say in
Scotland, is in general the only portion of the house inhabited by its

residents. The rooms below, being considered unhealthy, are in general
converted into warehouses or shops, if they can be let as such from
happening to be conveniently situated, or serve as coach-houses,
lumber-rooms, &c. &c. The masonry of the lower walls is usually very
substantial and strong, being calculated to resist the shocks of
earthquakes, which occasionally happen. Those of the upper stories,
which rise from them, and form the habitable part of the house above,
are much slighter than the lower ones, and the joists and wooden-work
about the roof are adapted for security against such accidents, by their
being fastened with bolts on either side of the masonry, thus enabling it
to give a little play to the motion of the shock, without being